Chapter 3: Swamp House
After finishing their somen noodles, Houzuki left the house with Towako, and Yuiru.
They weren’t going to the western forest, but to meet the owner of the shop where she works part-time, who might know some information about the place.
The man is an elderly man who has lived in Tsukinashi Town for a long time and runs a bookstore in front of the station. He’s usually a very nice old man, but when the elementary school boy from earlier bought a magazine titled “Tsukinashi Town Ghost Stories,” he frowned.
He called the feature on the western forest “a bad taste.” He clearly knows something about it.
“Oh, Kasugadani-san. Haven’t you gotten promoted in your part-time job?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
When she went to the backyard of the bookstore she was working as a part-timer, she found the old store owner reading a newspaper. Perhaps because he didn’t want the employee waiting room to be too cold, the air conditioning inside the room wasn’t set very low.
Having traveled in the heat, Houzuki’s whole body was covered in sweat. With sweat still running down her forehead, she said, “There’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“Is something the matter?”
“Do you know something about the western forest?”
“………”
The old man’s gentle expression suddenly clouded over.
The red eyes of Yuiru, who is standing behind Houzuki, sparkle as he thinks, “There’s something there, as I expect.”
An exquisite meal awaits him. Now that he’s become a ghost that eats ghosts, the strange phenomenon that the adults all tried to hide won’t bother him at all.
The old man turns his gaze away from Houzuki and says,
“You shouldn’t talk about that.”
“Why not?”
“That forest is dangerous. It’s not something you should stick your nose into lightly.”
“I understand.”
Houzuki looked straight at the old man,
“But I want you to tell me why that place became so dangerous.”
“……What are you planning to do by asking?”
“………”
It was Houzuki’s turn to stay quiet this time.
If she was to be honest then, “It’s to provide food for the ghost-eating spirit that’s haunting me.” If she stupidly answered honestly, she will surely get a weird look from the old man.
But there’s no other plausible reason. If she can, Houzuki also doesn’t want uncover the truth that the adults are trying so hard to hide, and she wants avoid sticking her neck into dangerous situations too.
However,
“My family has the ability to exorcise spirits.”
“Exorcism?”
“Yes. We can exorcise any ghost, no matter how powerful.”
Houzuki told a blatant lie with a serious expression. “Bwahahahaha!!” Yuiru laughed behind her so she decided to hit him later.
This should convince the old man.
If it’s possible, he’d probably want to get rid of the swamp house in the western forest. If he’s scared and frightened, she can just tell him that she exorcise it.
However, the old man didn’t nod his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Kasugadani-san, it’s impossible even if your family belongs to a clan of exorcists. That place is where many people who boasted they could exorcise spirits have given up, and worse, been cursed to death.”
Houzuki was surprised that it was such a dangerous place.
Since it was called swamp house, she had assumed it would be something like a secret base for children, but was it really as dangerous as Oshira-sama’s shrine, which was on the verge of collapse?
The old man shrugged.
“I can’t destroy a young person’s life here. Please give up.”
“No.”
Houzuki firmly refuses,
“Manager, I’m okay. I will be fine no matter what happens.”
“Why are you so confident?”
“Because that’s how it’s been until now.”
Starting with the female teacher she met in the old school building, Houzuki has been caught up in a number of strange happenings up until now. Even if they start telling her about curses and such, the fear has already worn off.
Plus, Houzuki has a ghost called Yuiru Enen. If he eats something that lurks in the Swamp House, the Swamp House will become nothing more than a run-down shack.
Realizing that Houzuki won’t back down no matter what, the old man quietly began to speak.
“There’s something in that house.”
“What is it?”
“A doll.”
The old man speaks slowly.
“It was a checkered doll that belonged to the girl who lived in that house, but it was a very bad thing. The girl died of an illness while holding the checkered doll in her arms, and her parents put it in her coffin and cremated her so that she could play with the doll in the afterlife.”
As if remembering that time,
“But it came back.”
The old man’s expression clouds over.
“The doll came back to the house with all its limbs intact. Even if we throw it away or sink it, it keeps coming back. In fact, adults die trying to throw it away. We decided not to let children touch it, so we moved the doll to an empty house and sealed it away.”
The old man let out a tense breath and said,
“There’s a swamp around that house, and it’s meant to stop the Ichimatsu doll1 from crossing over. We thought that even the doll would hate being dirty, after all.”
“So, does that mean no one lives in that house?”
“No?”
“The swamp mansion has been around for several decades, but recently people have been spotted there. I don’t know who it is, but I think it’s something bad.”
The old man shook his head and sighed.
“It was no use trying to get mediums, priests, and shrine maidens to challenge it. They were all cursed to death. The power of the seal had weakened, so I tried to get them to strengthen it, but it didn’t work. I think something that lived in the swamp mansion is blocking it.”
TN: An Ichimatsu doll:
