In the stone alley lined with falling snow, a young man walked quickly, and the hot breath from his mouth turned into white mist as soon as he exhaled.
The young man's name is Higashino Sa, he is 24 years old and a student.
He is a native of Sansan Town, Akita Prefecture.
"Come to think of it, it's already this time."
Yes.
In one week, it will be the Great Dark Day.
The so-called Dahui Day is actually New Year's Eve. The moon is missing as "Hui", and the last moonless night at the end of the year is called "Dahui".
Japan used to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but later changed to the Gregorian calendar "New Year's Day" as the Spring Festival and New Year. As a result, today's "Dahui Day" no longer corresponds to the moon phase, but the corresponding calling methods are still retained.
In Akita Prefecture, a grand celebration ceremony will be held on the night of the Great Dark Day.
That ceremony is called "The Raw Ghost Festival". As the name suggests, it is mainly for blessing gods and offering sacrifices to ghosts.
Nowadays, New Year decorations have been hung on the streets of Sansan-machi, like large picture boards and hako boards, red and green. In front of the shops along the street are dotted with red and white cocoon jade shaped like glutinous rice balls, coupled with the snow along the street,
It does have a very strong New Year's flavor.
Turning the corner ahead, Higashino stopped in front of an izakaya.
This is a small shop that is not too conspicuous, and the location is not very good, but the wooden building structure has a sense of age.
At this time, a long white curtain has been hung at the door of the izakaya, with the end of the curtain about twenty centimeters above the ground.
Hanging up the nori curtain means that the izakaya is in business. As for the scene inside, it is covered by the curtain. Standing outside, you can only see the yellowish light radiating through the cracks of the nori curtain and falling on the stone slabs.
On the road.
"Sorry, I'm late."
Higashino got under the curtain and said hello to the boss at the counter.
After going to college, Higashino would come to this izakaya to work part-time every time he returned to Akita Prefecture during holidays.
The owner of this store is very easy-going and easy to talk to. So he has been working this part-time job until now, and this time he went home for vacation is no exception.
Going to the workroom, Dongye took off his coat and started to change into work clothes.
During this period, he glanced at his phone.
Twitter pushed several messages to him——
[To be true, last night I saw a crying spirit wandering around Mount Osore...]
[Shocked! A human-faced dog appears on the streets of Nagoya!]
[I think I have found some clues to the truth about the disappearance of Kamishi Town in Tokushima Prefecture. It was definitely not caused by any geological disaster. That place was very evil.]
[Coordinates are in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo. When I approach a certain area here, I always feel my heart beating very fast and my face turning red very quickly. What kind of area can cause this reaction in me?
I can’t tell clearly. But it should be considered a supernatural event, right?]
"There are always push notifications like this on X recently."
Dongye locked the phone screen.
In fact, it is not recent. It seems that this trend has begun in the past year. Discussions on supernatural content have become very frequent on the Internet.
Logically speaking, the supernatural section is a niche content, and discussions are basically within the circles of relevant enthusiasts.
In recent years, especially this year, more and more supernatural-related news has appeared in the public eye on the Internet. The initiator of the topic and the discussants below are also serious and conclusive.
And even though Higashinosa himself is not a paranormal enthusiast, he can still see related content push from time to time. It seems that the relevant platforms and officials do not specifically prohibit the dissemination of related content.
In short, the current network environment feels like——
Japan is full of ghosts, and you can bump into ghosts wherever you go.
But Dongye knows that news on the Internet is always exaggerated.
Although the voices and discussants are loud, there is always a "silent majority" behind the noisy discussions.
Moreover, it is difficult to tell whether the information on the Internet is true or false.
Most of the so-called supernatural events have simple text descriptions, even if there are pictures and videos... Nowadays, both special effects and AI technology are so advanced, whether it is true or false, Higashino can't tell.
Moreover, Higashino himself had no real feelings about the so-called "frequent supernatural events" and his life continued as usual.
Even from the time he can remember until now, he himself has never had any supernatural experience.
"Speaking of which, those four push notifications just now..."
The first three titles are quite eye-catching, but what about the last one?
Rapid heartbeat and hot cheeks…
It's a bit funny, this is some kind of supernatural event.
…
After changing into work clothes, Higashino started announcing and passing the dishes as usual.
Maybe because of the snow, there were not many customers in the store today. About two hours after he went to work, only the last three sparse tables of customers were still drinking and eating.
Although I feel sorry for my boss when I think this way, as a part-time worker, Higashino is really happy to have some leisure time when he has little work to do.
Seeing that there was nothing left to do, Dongye returned behind the counter.
The heating in the store is fully turned on, and behind the counter is also the kitchen where the boss works. The heat from the oven also makes people feel comfortable in such a cold weather.
Higashinosa's face turned red from the heat.
Standing in this position, he looked towards the entrance hall.
Although there is a glass door at the outermost part of the izakaya, due to the existence of the nori in the middle, the situation on the street cannot be seen. The only area of sight that can be seen outside is the gap about 20 centimeters above the ground between the nori.
It could be seen that it seemed to be snowing again outside. The nearby snowflakes were smoked into golden yellow by the flowing lights, fluttering and falling, melting on the blue-black stone pavement.
Whenever he had free time, Dongye would habitually stand in this position and wait in a daze.
After all, you can't use your mobile phone while working.
Moreover, Dongye likes to observe others.
However, as a waiter, it would be somewhat impolite to look at the customers in the store while he was distracted, so he placed the objects of observation on the street outside. Those who could be seen through the gaps in the curtain——
Those coming and going, all kinds of feet.
For example, the shoes are shiny, the trousers are flat, and the feet are steady; another example is the feet wearing red high heels, the ankles are beautifully curved, and the calves are slender.
Higashino would look at the feet coming and going, imagining what the owner of each pair of feet looked like, and what the passers-by who were covered by the curtains looked like.
Higashino Saya doesn't know if his little habit of occasionally killing boring time is considered "foot control".
But actually this process of observing the part and then thinking about the whole is quite interesting.
He enjoys it.
Unfortunately, probably because the weather was too cold tonight, I didn't see any pedestrians passing by on the small streets outside the izakaya.
"Xiao Zuo, give this roasted bird to the guest at table number one."
While he was in a daze, Higashino heard his boss call him that.
"OK."
He quickly came to his senses and quickly picked up the food plate that was brought to him.
When he walked to table No. 1 near the entrance, Higashino glanced out of the corner of his eye and suddenly saw a pair of feet exposed from the gap under the entrance curtain.
Someone is standing outside.
Judging from the posture of those feet, people outside should be standing directly facing the izakaya.
However, there was obviously no one outside the curtain just now, right?
And I didn't hear the sound of the outermost glass door opening.
What's more, what makes Higashinosa feel even more strange is that the feet under the curtain are not wearing shoes and are naked.
Bare feet on a cold snowy night like tonight?
The feet looked very old, full of wrinkles, with curled blood vessels, and had a strange gray-purple color. There were some bright red rashes on the feet. And there was a string of red and white hanging on the ankle of his left foot.
of beads.
What a strange pair of feet this is.
Therefore, the little game that Dong Ye was passionate about before, the little association question used to kill time, naturally lingered in his mind——
The owner of these feet is outside now, hidden by the curtain... what kind of person is he?
If you open the curtain at this time, you can see it, right?
"Hey, what are you doing? Put down my snacks."
The slightly impatient urging from the customer at table 1 brought Higashino back to his senses.
"Sorry, I'm really sorry."
He quickly put down the food plate in his hand and turned back behind the counter.
You can see that those blue-purple feet with tiny red rashes are still standing straight outside the curtain.
"Mr. Gota, there is someone outside."
Dongye whispered to the boss who was busy at work.
The boss looked up. He obviously saw the pair of feet outside, but his reaction was not as big as Dongye's: "It's such a cold day, why don't you wear shoes? Did you want to stutter in the store? Xiao Zuo, go and see what happens.
thing."
"Me... me?"
To be honest, Dongye doesn't want to go near the entrance right now.
But at this time, the atmosphere in the store was as usual.
Others probably don't have Higashino's habit of carefully observing other people's feet. Like the boss, he seems to just regard the person outside the door as a poor wanderer who hesitates to enter the store to warm himself or ask for food.
"If it's just a homeless man whose skin is blue from the cold...and there are so many people in the store now."
Dongye thought like this, and walked towards the entrance again.
He stepped closer to the curtain, and a chill hit him. This was not the coldness brought by the cold air on the street, but a kind of fear that penetrated into the bone marrow.
No……
Something is very wrong.
Higashino lowered his head and looked at the gap under the curtain again. He finally noticed that something seemed to have changed in the street environment at this time.
He had just seen the situation outside the street, and the cocoon jade as New Year decorations on the street should have been lit up.
So just now I could see the lights outside and the falling snow.
But now, in the twenty-centimeter gap in the warm curtain, there is only a deep darkness behind the naked feet.
I don’t know if it was because I had read some weird supernatural topics on the Internet before. At this moment, Dongye started to think wildly, as if with the appearance of these feet, the familiar streets and alleys behind the curtain suddenly became unfamiliar...
…Or should I say, it no longer exists?
If you lift this thin warm curtain, what exactly is waiting for you outside?
"Boy, don't block the way."
The urging sound behind him brought Dongye back to his senses, who had started to feel frightened.
Behind him is the guest who was originally sitting at table 6.
A seemingly ordinary office worker has been drinking alone tonight. He is probably drinking so much now that he has even tied his tie on his head. He smells of alcohol and has a red face.
"Guest, I don't think you should go out now..." Dongye, realizing something was wrong, tried to stop him.
"Hey, I've already paid."
"But, outside, outside..."
"Huh?" The guest at table 6 glanced outside the curtain, let out a smelly wine burp, and didn't take it seriously, "Isn't he just a pretender? He's really sick, even though he's not here yet
To Dahui. You too, go away, go away, I want to go out, I want to go home."
Pretending to be a ghost.
This sentence awakened Higashinozuo.
Yes, the Great Dark Day celebration here in Akita Prefecture, the Amahaki Festival.
The so-called uncooked ghost is a traditional monster in Japan.
It is said that whenever the Great Dark Day approaches, the ghost will appear, go from house to house asking for food and drink, and scare the residents in the house.
The true meaning of the word "raw skin" means peeling off red skin. In the old Japanese concept, red rash on the skin means laziness. Because if you put your legs in a warm kotatsu and sit idle all day long, your skin will become damaged.
A rash appears.
The ghost will peel off the reddened skin to punish lazy people.
Here in Akita Prefecture, every time during the Namahaki Festival, young people are organized to wear Namahaki masks, raincoats and grass skirts, hold wooden knives and barrels, and dress up as Namahaki while shouting loudly.
Roaring and dancing, they walked through the streets and visited every house.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The head of the household dressed in formal attire, greeted him solemnly, and entertained him with good wine and rice cakes. After that, the young man playing the role of "raw ghost" will
Say some blessings and wish the family good health, plenty of food and clothing in the new year, and then get up and go to another home.
This is roughly the ritual process.
Generally speaking, those with red decorations on their bodies are male ghosts, and those with blue decorations are female ghosts.
The man outside the door has red beads on his feet, so he must be pretending to be a man.
I have to say that if the guest at table 6 was drunk, it felt like he explained the current situation.
Wow.
The guest at table 6 blushed and opened the curtain.
Then there was the sound of the outer glass door opening.
The cold wind flowed into the entrance hall, allowing Toye to wake up from his sleepiness caused by the warmth in the store.
What?
Scare yourself.
The street outside is still the same street, a black stone road, paved with white fine snow, and the cocoon jade hanging on the roadside is swaying in the wind, emitting a red and white light.
Everything is business as usual.
Nothing.
Nothing...nothing...
Including the person who was supposed to be standing behind the curtain, and the guest who just walked out, they all... do not exist...
call--
The wind blew down the raised curtain, and Higashinosa, who was so frightened that he could no longer make a sound, lowered his head again.
He saw that under the warm curtain, behind the gap of about twenty centimeters, it turned into a thick darkness again, without any light.
The only thing clearly visible is the feet.
The feet are still old, wrinkled, with curled blood vessels, grey-purple and rashy.
Two pairs, this time there are two pairs.
Facing the store, he stood quietly.
The things behind the curtain have been added.
Higashino wanted to scream and retreat, but his body no longer obeyed his control. He raised his right hand stiffly and pulled the corner of the curtain.
And just when the thin curtain was about to be opened from the inside again, a strong wind carrying water vapor blew in from outside the entrance.
A straw hat burst into Higashinosa's sight.
The one wearing a straw hat is a short girl.
It must be a girl. The other person rushed in from outside so fast that Dongye couldn't see clearly. But he seemed to have caught a glimpse of the smooth skin of the girl wearing a straw hat with a watery green light, and... her slender webbed feet?
Before Dongye could react, he heard the girl who rushed to him from outside shout:
"Uppercut!"
After that, an irresistible strange force hit us head on.