Chapter 2: Western Forest
With summer approaching, it was unusually hot.
“So hot…”
Fanning herself with her hand, Houzuki unlocked the door to her home.
She usually worked part-time at a bookstore near the station. Although she was set to inherit her parents’ estate once she came of age, the amount of money was quite modest.
To make ends meet as a high school girl, she had to work part-time jobs. Not fond of noisy places, she chose to work at a quiet bookstore and a café.
As she opened the door, a cool breeze flowed in. It wasn’t because she had left the air conditioning on; rather, two ghosts had taken up residence in her home.
“Welcome back, Houzuki-chan.”
“You’re home, Houzuki.”
Greeting her were a silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy and a black-haired elementary school girl. The latter, a ghost named Aoyagi Towako, clung to Houzuki. Her touch was cool and chilly.
“I’m home, Towako.”
Houzuki patted Towako’s head. The girl responded with a satisfied snort.
“Houzuki, I’m hungry. Got any interesting stories?”
“I don’t have any convenient stories just lying around.”
During the day, like a lazy father lounging around, the silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy—Yuiru Enen—complained of hunger. It’s not like scary stories were conveniently lying around.
True, in the town where Houzuki lived, Tsukinashi Town, ghostly incidents were said to outnumber those caused by humans. Yet, scary stories didn’t just fall into one’s lap.
As Houzuki packed the groceries she had bought into the fridge, she remembered something.
“Oh, now that you mention it…”
She recalled an elementary school boy who had come into the bookstore during her shift today.
He had purchased a scary storybook. Not a children’s book, but a thin magazine-like gossip rag. The title was “Tsukinashi Town Ghost Stories,” with a special feature on the legends of the Western Forest.
“Hey, Yuiru.”
“What is it, Houzuki?”
“Oshira-sama was in the Southern Forest, right?”
The Tsukinashi Forest is at the end of the Southern part of Tsukinashi Town. There lived Oshira-sama, the evil god forgotten by the people.
Yuiru ate it for dinner but she still remembers that unpleasant scene. In fact, she hates the fact that she remembers it so vividly.
Yuiru said, “That’s right.” and nodded.
“What about it?”
“What’s in the Western Forest?”
“Hm?”
Yuiru tilts his head and asks,
“Why are you asking that?”
“Today at my part-time job, there was an elementary school student who bought a magazine with scary stories. The feature in that magazine was about the Western Forest.”
“I see, I see.”
Yuiru’s eyes lit up at Houzuki’s words.
“In the Western Forest, there is a rundown hut called the ‘Swamp House’ that looks like it could fly away if the wind blew.”
“Swamp House?”
It was Houzuki’s turn to tilt her head at the name of the house she had never heard before.
“The Swamp House is a house in the center of the swamp, and the swamp itself is designed as if it is sealing something away. All that’s around the swamp are the shimenawa ropes1 and paper streamers2 you often see at shrines, and it’s clearly suspicious.” (TN: 1&2- A combination of rope and white paper you see in Japanese shrines.)
Yuiru approached Houzuki with large strides,
“It’s said that there’s definitely something in that house, but the adults back then wouldn’t even let the children go near the western forest. I tried to go there a few times, but my dad hit me.”
“So, Yuiru has parents too?”
“Yeah, I did, but I’m a ghost now. I used to be human, you know. Well, my folks died young, so it doesn’t really matter.”
Yuiru then grins as if he’s plotting something.
“Houzuki, doesn’t it make you curious?”
“About what?”
“About the swamp house. I’m greatly curious about it, curious enough that it’s affecting my appetite.”
“In that case, you can just skip this meal.”
“Do you not understand what I mean, Houzuki? I’ll have my usual meal, so hey, stop putting away my somen noodles!”
Houzuki reluctantly agreed to cook somen noodles for Yuiru, who was desperately pleading not to put them away.
However, Houzuki had never heard of a place called Swamp House before. It seemed like an unspoken rule to avoid the western forest, and the existence of such a place was entirely new to her. Had the adults thoroughly hidden it away, or had it simply been forgotten over time?
“Alright then.”
“Huh?”
Yuiru, relieved that his noodles were secured, tilted his head at Houzuki’s sudden and cryptic approval.
“You’re going to the Swamp House, aren’t you?”
“Well, this is rare.”
“Because Yuiru’s going to eat them anyway.”
“But,” Houzuki continues as she spreads out the noodles and places them in the boiling water.
“I don’t know anything about the Swamp House, so I’d like at least some information.”
“That’s for sure. It’ll be seasoning for me too.”
Yuiru gracefully demonstrated a crawl in the air and asked,
“But who are you going to ask for information? Do you know anyone close to you who knows about the western forest?”
“At my part-time job.”
The timer beeped loudly, signaling that the somen noodles were done cooking. Houzuki transferred the cooked noodles to a colander, thinking about someone at her workplace who might know about the western forest.
“The bookstore owner where I work has been running the bookstore in the shopping district near the station for a long time.”
