Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, Vol. 4: The Demon Horde’s Night Train by Yoru Michio

Author:Yoru Michio
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On

* * *

He was dreaming. Actually, it might have been a memory.

“…Uhn. Huh? Shiroshi?”

“Oh, you’re awake? You were sleeping quite soundly.”

When he opened his eyes, Shiroshi was sitting across from him in his usual Queen Anne chair, reading a book that lay open on the table.

They were in the study, as always; an autumn breeze was blowing through the window Seiji had opened for ventilation. He’d been planning to smoke, but it seemed he’d drifted off instead. He blinked a few times, then sat up.

“Huh? Where did my cigarettes—? Gah!”

For some reason, the pack had been on top of his head, and it slipped off and hit the table with a light thump. He’d been pranked. Now, who could have done that? When he looked at Shiroshi, the kid was innocently turning a page in his book, but his shoulders were quivering. He seemed to be trying not to laugh.

Registering Seiji’s cold look, Shiroshi cleared his throat and closed his book. “Perhaps you’ve had an encounter with a makuragaeshi.”

That was a total bald-faced lie… But what was a makuragaeshi?

“It’s a yokai who appears while people sleep and moves their pillows. Have you ever gone to bed with your pillow under your head, only to find it down by your feet when you awakened? That was the work of a makuragaeshi.”

“Huh. I figured it was just me being a restless sleeper.”

“Heh-heh. And you were right. However, ‘makura-gaeshi,’ the act of turning a pillow, has an unexpected significance.”

…Hm. If nothing else, Seiji understood that the kid was trying to weasel out of trouble by changing the subject.

“The term originally referred to turning the pillow of the dead to face north, as has been done at funerals since antiquity. By treating the pillow as a magical implement and turning it, you switch the natural order of things from life to death.”

“Come on, a magical implement? That seems kind of overdramatic.” I mean, it’s just a pillow…

“Long ago, people considered the pillow to be a device that linked dreams and reality. In other words, by turning it, you cut off the path by which the soul could return to its body. It was equivalent to taking a life, a malicious act.”

“Th-that’s surprisingly dark.” The idea sent a shiver down Seiji’s spine.

“Heh-heh-heh. In some versions of the legend, the makuragaeshi’s true form is the ghost of a traveler who was killed at an inn,” Shiroshi said, sounding a little entertained. Yes, those were the eyes of a pet owner watching his dog get spooked by lightning.

“So we might run into a sinner who looks like that someday?”

“It’s entirely possible. However, it would be better if there were no sinners at all.”

Shiroshi had murmured the remark casually, but Seiji felt as if he’d caught a glimpse of what he really thought.

The light streaming in through the window had long ago lost the brightness of summer. It was a perfectly ordinary September afternoon, the sort you might forget right away if you blinked.

“Um, how did this ‘sending

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.