Gakkou no Kaiden

To Curse Someone Visit the Shrine at the Hour of the Ox

Not too long ago there were two friends, their names were Ichika Nakamura and Sakura Suzuki both attended Satoyama High School. Now Ichika Nakamura and Sakura Sakura Suzuki had been friends since childhood. By all accounts the two should have been very close, almost best friends. Because the Nakamura family lived right across the road from the Suzuki Family and both families had served Oda Nobunaga when he had taken control of Mino Province during the Sengoku period.

But despite the closeness in age, and family ties the two were rivals, though most thought their rivalry was of the friendly short. Since Kindergarten they had challenged each in various fields, from seeing who could run the fastest to who could get a higher grade on an exam. Ichika Nakamura always seemed to have the stronger hand, she was the fastest runner of the pair, she got better grades, she developed sooner than Sakura Suzuki and was the first one to get a boyfriend.

Jealous flames burned in  Sakura 's eyes as she watched Ichika prosper. And though Sakura outpaced many of her classmates she was always ranked toward the top of her class and was well ahead of her peers. She always seemed miles behind Ichika who seemed to excel at  every sport and be very proficient when it came to her academic studies. Her social life too seemed to bloom as she was always surrounded by a group of loyal followers.

Late one  night, during the summer holidays, Ichika Nakamura was returning home late one night from a party. It was a moonless night, and even the twinkling stars above were hidden behind dark, iron gray clouds. An unseasonably cold wind blew down from the snow capped peaks of the mountains and caused the pine and oak trees to shiver. Since the hour was late, Ichika thought she might save some time by taking a shortcut home, so she decided to follow a road that would  lead her  past an old shrine.

Carefully, she started to climb the stone steps that lead to the shrine. She was halfway up when she heard something, it sounded like something or somebody was hammering something into one of the trees. While Ichika's first thought was to keep going, she felt her curiosity piqued and so she decided to step off the stone path onto the ground and look for the source of the noise. The cold wind bit at her as she made her way through the trees. The darkness made it hard for her to see anything beside the shape of the trees and the outline of a few buildings, till at last she saw something. The flickering of yellow and orange light.

Taking a deep breath Ichika peered out from trees and in a clearing she noticed something that made her blood run cold.  Because standing in the clearing was a girl who appeared to be around her age. Only the girl was wearing a strange costume. The costume was the most frightening thing about the whole thing. The girl wore a white kimono and obi and had covered her face with thick white face powder, an upturned trivet was placed on her head. Candles had been attached to her legs of the trivet and were burning bright. Her feet were bare, she noticed, and she also carried a small mirror between her breasts, a fearsome looking dagger was tucked behind the obi and a comb was held between her teeth.

Ichika blinked and leaned in a little closer to get a better look, she noticed the girl was holding a doll that had been made of straw with her left hand and was pressing the doll down, she was also hammering a long iron nail into the center of the doll. Each time she brought a small hand held hammer down upon the head of the nail, the sound would echo. The echo seemed to fill the forest.

Ichika became frightened and she started to back up. But as she started to back up, she stepped on a twig, the twig snapped under her weight. The girl stopped her hammering and turned toward the source of the noise, her eyes quickly caught sight of Ichika. The girl quickly dropped the hammer, and reached down and pulled out her dagger. Once her dagger was in her hand she started to charge Ichika.

Ichika of course took off running, she ran as quick as she could down the hill. The girl followed, Thankfully was a fast runner and thankfully she soon fell into a steady stride. But the girl was right behind her; she was mere feet behind her, just out of striking range. Ichika prayed and started to run faster and soon she felt her feet leaving the ground and landing on the black tarmac of the road. Gathering her wits about her she started to run toward town.

Thirty minutes late and a very out of breath Ichika burst through the doors of a nearby police box. Staffing the police box was a policewoman and a policeman. Both were about to settle down for an evening snack of donuts and coffee.

“I saw something!” Ichika said in a hurried tone of voice. “I saw somebody dressed like a monster at the shrine and now they're chasing me!” She added as she rushed into the waiting area. “Also they had a knife or something! Somebody please help me! I'm scared!” She yelled at the top of her lungs as she rushed into

“Calm down!” The policeman said as he stood up. “Please calm down Miss and tell us everything!” He added as he got up from his chair and hurried toward the door. Drawing his side arm he peered out into the darkness. After a few moments of looking around he noticed nobody was chasing the girl. So he returned to the side of Ichika and in a calm, comforting tone of voice said.

“Miss, nobody is chasing you. It's late, you must have just dreamed it up. Please return to your home.” He said as he stood up and walked over to the coffee pot. But Ichika was too afraid to leave the police box. And after much pleading begged the policewoman and man to follow her back to the shrine. They agreed and so they phoned ahead. Informing the head monk at the shrine of their pending visit. They also told the monk the story Ichika told them, of the horrible  woman.

The monk seemed very concerned and told the policewoman that he would meet them there. And so Collecting their things, the policeman and policewoman asked Ichika if she could guide them toward the spot where she saw the ghoulish  woman. Ichika agreed and bravely set off, it took about thirty minutes for them to reach the spot and for the old monk to hobble down the concrete steps but once he reached the tree his old brown face became pale and his eyebrows started to knit up in concern.

“Somebody.” He said reaching up and removing the long nail from the tree. The nail had not been driven deep into the tree and was easily removed. “Was trying to cast a curse upon you.” He said in a solemn tone of voice. “Somebody wished you great harm.”

The policewoman and man blinked. And Ichika blinked and blinked again as she reached out and took hold of the straw doll. “Does this mean I'm going to die of a curse?” She asked as she turned around and peered into the aged face of the monk.

“No, if you saw the person who tried to curse you. Then the curse must rebound on them.” And with that the monk left the group and returned to his quarters. That morning Sakura Suzuki died of a massive heart attack. She was found by her mother.