Works Referenced

This work uses many preexisting true ghost stories and pieces of net lore as its motif. In particular, this section will note those which have been used directly. This will touch on the content of the main book, so if you are concerned about spoilers, please tread careful.

■File 5: The Operation to Rescue US Forces at Kisaragi Station

Kankandara first appeared in the story “Kankandara” (3/26/2009) which was posted to the website “Kowai Hanashi Toukou: Horaa Teraa” [Scary Story Submissions: Horror Teller]. This post vanished soon after for some reason, but was reposted with the comment, “Reposting this because it was scary.” (4/14/2009). I was unable to verify the reason for the inital post disappearing because the Horror Teller site no longer exists. Furthermore, more than two years later, it was also posted on the 2channel message board’s Occult/Paranormal Phenomena Board in “Shinu Hodo Share ni Naranai Kowai Hanashi wo Atsumete Minai?” [Do You Want to Gather Ridiculously Scary Stories?] thread 271 (6/26/2011).

The most defining trait of this story is probably the intense presentation of the creature. Kankandara’s appearance as six-armed woman with the lower body of a snake is reminiscent of the Marilith monster from the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game.

■File 6: Resort Night at the Beach of the End

The portrayal of the boarding house uses a post to “Kowai Hanashi Toukou: Horaa Teraa” [Scary Story Submissions: Horror Teller] titled “Resort Baito” [Part-timer at a Resort] (8/4/2009) as its motif.

The developments of the later half partially reference “Shinu Hodo Share ni Naranai Kowai Hanashi wo Atsumete Minai?” [Do You Want to Gather Ridiculously Scary Stories?] thread 78 (there are two threads with this number), posts 797 through 850, “Suma Kaigan Nite” [At Suma Coast] (7/14/2004). (This is mixed with elements of Resort Baito.) That range includes posts like “I know this one!” and “This is a famous incident in my area,” which (probably) came from posters other than the narrator, but the veracity of these claims is unclear.

■File 7: Attack of the Ninja Cats

As touched on in the story itself, the famous “Lately, I’ve been targeted by ninja cats” copypasta is in fact the prologue to a horror story. It started on the 2channel message board’s Occult/Paranormal Phenomena Board with “Mi no Mawari de Hen na Koto ga Okottara Jikkyou Suru Sure” [The If Something Weird Happens Around You Report it Live Here Thread] thread 151, post 121 (3/21/2008) and live reporting continued from there with the denizens of the board getting involved, too. After that thread went down, independent threads titled “Nekonin” [Ninja Cat] (3/23/2008) and “Nekonin — Ni no Maki” [Ninja Cat — The Second Scroll] (3/26/2008) were opened, but the story faded out over a period of about a month. At the time, the reporter uploaded a number of images, but due to the image hosting site shutting down they can no longer be seen.

For another similar preexisting story, there is also “Kanshisha Neko” [Observer Cats] (10/10/2006) which was posted in “Shinu Hodo Share ni Naranai Kowai Hanashi wo Atsumete Minai?” [Do You Want to Gather Ridiculously Scary Stories?] thread 145. This is a story about someone who wanders across a gathering of cats and later finds themselves being watched by them, but has no ninja elements.

■File 8: Little Bird in a Box

“Kotoribako” [Child-taking Box] was first told in “Shinu Hodo Share ni Naranai Kowai Hanashi wo Atsumete Minai?” [Do You Want to Gather Ridiculously Scary Stories?] thread 99, post 912 (6/6/2005). Because the reporter said, “Please, tell me any information that might be connected to this,” a large number of horror stories involving cursed boxes were written on the internet by multiple authors.

One story acting as a catalyst for people to say, “I had a similar experience,” or “I know a similar story,” and tell similar stories (or dig up preexisting ones) is one of the major defining traits of internet ghost stories. This trend, visible also with “Kunekune” and “The Spacetime Man,” was in play with “Kotoribako,” too, and discussion of it continued in its own dedicated thread up until around 2008.

In regards to this chapter’s civilian discussion of government and civilian research into the occult in the ‘90s, I have referenced Takao Saitou’s Karuto Shihon Shugi [Cult Capitalism] (Bunshun Bunko, 2000).

Also, though this was not explained in the first volume, there are two inspirations for the blue of the Otherside, too.

The first is Toshiki Agatsuma’s story “Himitsu” [The Secret] included in FKB Kaiyuuroku Kikimimizoushi [FKB Record of Ghosts and Apparitions: Strange Tales] (Takeshobo, 2015) This is a story where the other side of the peep hole on the front door was blue.

The other is a ghost story I read online. If I recall, it went like this: the storyteller’s female friend is lost in a residential area and can’t get home, and calls on the phone asking for help. The storyteller goes to pick the female friend up accompanied by a roommate with powerful psychic abilities, but despite being able to talk on the phone, and supposedly being in the same place, they cannot seem to meet. It’s almost like she’s wandered into another world. Eventually, the woman says she sees a man in blue clothes, and says she will go and ask him for directions. Immediately, the roommate looks panicked, saying, “The blue man is dangerous, you must stay away from him.” Ultimately, the woman is saved, but strange happenings continue...

I may have mistaken some of the minor details, but that’s roughly how it went. If you wonder why this is somewhat vague, that is because I can no longer reread it. This story was uploaded not as text, but as an image summarizing a larger text. The images have long since vanished from the net, and cannot be searched for. You might call it a variation of the Spacetime Man story, but the creepy blue man who even a powerful psychic couldn’t identify, and the nonsensical story that comes afterward provided such a bizarre and detailed account that a summary couldn’t hope to portray it all. It’s a real shame that it’s been lost.

For another similar story, there is also “Shinu Hodo Share ni Naranai Kowai Hanashi wo Atsumete Minai?” [Do You Want to Gather Ridiculously Scary Stories?] thread 129, post 361 “Aoi Hito ga Kuru!” [The Blue Person is Coming!] (15/5/2006). It is a story where the storyteller’s missing elder sister returns, now afraid of a “blue person,” then vanishes once again. It is interesting that it is a disappearance story, just like the aforementioned encounter with the blue man.

There are many other true ghost stories and net lore from which I have taken indirect influence. Thank you for always enjoying and being frightened.

Special Column: Sorawo and Toriko Chit-Chat About the Original Ghost Stories

■ Kankandara (From File 5)

Toriko: How do you read 姦姦蛇螺?

Sorawo: Kankandara.

Toriko: That’s tough. What kind of ghost story is it again?

Sorawo: There’s a middle-school boy who’s been violent towards his mother. His father, who has snapped, tells him that if he’s going to be so violent, he should go do it in the forbidden forest. The boy falls for the provocation and goes to the forest where he is attacked by a six-armed woman with the lower body of a snake. Oh. Her lower half doesn’t come out at first. Later, someone familiar with the situation says, “That was close. If her lower half had come out, you’d have died instantly,” but—

Toriko: Whoa, whoa. I don’t get it. First, isn’t his Dad kind of acting weird? Isn’t this middle-school kid a little too obedient given how violent he is?

Sorawo: Well, there’s all sorts of families.

Toriko: Yeah, sure. But still.

Sorawo: The way it’s written is kind of indecent, huh? Six women... a snake... and ra.

Toriko: Ra.

■ Resort Part-timer/At Suma Coast (From File 6)

Sorawo: “Resort Part-timer” is the story of a male university student who takes up part time work at a resort boarding house and has a scary time. “At Suma Coast” is a story about scary things happening on the Suma Coast.

Toriko: Yeah. I kind of got that.

Sorawo: Really? You really have good instincts, huh, Toriko.

Toriko: Aww, you’re making me blush. And?

Sorawo: Right. In “Resort Part-timer,” the mistress of the boarding house takes a tray of food up to the supposedly unused second floor every day, so the suspicious protagonist sneaks upstairs and is possessed by something creepy.

Toriko: Well, that’s no good. Sneaking upstairs like that. Maybe bad things happen to him because he does things like that.

Sorawo: The thing is, maybe the call for part timers was a set up to lure in young men from the beginning... is one suspicion.

Toriko: Eww.

Sorawo: There’s an epidemic of bad part-time jobs, you know?

Toriko: So, tell me about the other one.

Sorawo: It’s a middle-school boy talking about being attacked by bikers at Kobe’s Suma Coast, but things get stranger and stranger. Like green children, and aliens. He starts talking about nonsense, and the way he speaks is all over the place. Anyway, it’s a creepy story.

Toriko: You think... the blow to the head might have had lasting effects? Is it okay to treat this as a ghost story?

Sorawo: Though some posters say “it’s a famous story in the area,” others point out his dialect isn’t the local one, so the story’s kind of in a weird spot. Even though it feels so real. Honestly, I think it’s fair to call it a ghost story.

Toriko: Well, if you say so.

■ Ninja Cats (From File 7)

Sorawo: This story’s about being attacked by ninja cats.

Toriko: ...

Sorawo: Don’t look at me like that.

Toriko: Well, hey.

Sorawo: If I start from the beginning, it all begins with a post on the net that says the poster was attacked by ninja cats in their neighborhood park.

Toriko: Is this a scary story? Or a cute story?

Sorawo: Given they’re coming at him with jagged blades, I’m gonna say it’s not so cute.

Toriko: I hear there’s incidents like this in the U.S. occasionally. Someone who’s a little too into it goes nuts in the streets with a ninja sword.

Sorawo: Getting attacked by human ninjas? Man, the U.S. is scary.

Toriko: In the news report I saw, he was subdued with a water hose.

Sorawo: A water hose, huh? That’d probably work on the cats, too. They hate water.

Toriko: I can imagine them all wet and disappointed now.

Sorawo: That’s cute!

■ Kotoribako (From File 8)

Sorawo: This thing we found in the shed is actually a super dangerous cursed item! That’s the sort of story it is... It’s pretty atrocious.

Toriko: What comes out? Is it like a jack-in-the-box?

Sorawo: No, just being near it triggers the curse.

Toriko: What does the curse do exactly?

Sorawo: It makes women and children suffer and die.

Toriko: Scary. It’s like a mass of murderous intentions.

Sorawo: That’s right. It’s said that these things were created to be sent to a person’s house, killing the women and children with the curse, in order to exterminate their family line, so there’s real murderous intent here.

Toriko: So, it doesn’t hurt men?

Sorawo: Yeah. But just holding it may cause the curse to affect your whole family.

Toriko: Nasty stuff.

Sorawo: Even though the name sounds cute.

Toriko: Hmm?