Welcome back to the Horror & Mystery Series once again. Today, we are finishing up the scary tales around Aokigahara, the Sea of Trees. Although there are more we wished to bring them to you, there are also many more in other area and topics. But not to worry, maybe one day we will come back to visit Aokigahara, but not so soon, hopefully…
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Malevolent Spirits of the Sea of Trees
Background: Every year, there is an annual “Searching for bodies” being held in Aokigahara by the local police department, firefighters and volunteers. There is even a custom of “sleeping” alongside the found dead bodies at the police precinct, hoping that they will not turn violent at the mid of the night or start moving objects while no one is around. This story involved one of the volunteers…
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I once joined the “search” to find bodies at Aokigahara through the invitation from an acquaintance.
The search… was just the name. In truth it is a combined effort of local firefighters and policemen to go into the sea of trees and recover the dead bodies, which is held every year.
There are trails at the sea of trees, and for summer it feels very nice. However, just one step off the trail and you will face so many dangers.
The soil are only a few centimeters deep above the layer of solidified lava, causing the trees herein to struggle and spread their roots far and wide. There are also many big holes in the lava plateau hidden underneath the fallen leaves.
If you step into one by accident, you are headed unto a lava cave which can be several meters long. For a human unfamiliar to this terrain, only that who wish for an end would take a step toward that.
Among the search party members, those who participated every year will be at the frontline, searching at the only one corner that have been marked. In the end, it is not a wide searching going through all the whole sea of trees.
In order not to get lost by any chance, the search party is divided into teams of few and go through with a lifeline. By tying the rope to the grove by the entrance of the trails and carry the other end of the rope along, one can simply follow the rope on the way back.
I asked to be put into the same team as my acquaintance. Along the way, I found a makeshift tent using the blue vinyl sheet as the roof. Around there were magazines, men’s wallet, and some eaten snacks littered all over the place. From the look of it, a considerable long time has passed since someone used the area.
Although we did not find the body inside the tent, just a few meters from there we found a body at the roots of trees. Probably the owner of the tent. We reported the situation through the transceiver and continued onward.
On that day there were 12 bodies found in total by 5 separate teams. As dusk drew close, it was time to finish up our search. As I followed the lifeline rope that was our way home, I saw a silhouette of a person a few meters away in the grove ahead. Apparently, he was not one of our search team.
But that figure was meddling with our lifeline rope.
My team member and I felt something uneasy in the sudden. We shouted at the silhouette. “Hey! Who’s there!!”
As we did so, the shadowy figure crawled through the sea of trees at demonic speed and disappeared. We all felt cryptic about the situation. “If we do not hurry now the sun will set soon” I thought, so we decided to follow the lifeline back to the established trails.
However…
As we reached the part of the rope where the shadow figure stood, the rope which was cut got caught up on the branches of trees behind that point.
Yes, the lifeline rope was cut.
Furthermore, I could not find the other part of the rope that could lead us back to the trails.
It was like we lost all the methods to go back.
The rope was not cut by anything sharp, but more like it was torn apart by something strong. We were taken aback and recalled the decomposed body we found earlier. Just the thought that we might end up just like that, I could not stay calm at all.
In the end, we used the transceivers to communicate with other teams and finally being able to rejoin with them.
As we were safe, a member of our team said that the shadowy figure we saw was a “dead spirit of the sea of trees” (樹海の死霊). It was said that the thing sought to add more friends to the rank, so it cut our lifeline.
I heard later that ever since, each member of the search party must carry for himself three lifelines, individually,
From Kowai-Hanashi Blog (怖い話=怖い話はすぐ隣り) on Cocolog-nifty
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Afterthought
Among the horror story, ghosts or apparitions appearing for people to see or hear is one thing, but to move or hide objects is yet a whole different level. Although the author’s team member said it might be dead spirit, the author descripted that it crawled away like a Kemono (獣 beast). Maybe his intuition was right…
How was the story today? I think we might be getting bored of Aokigahara for a while, so in the next installation, we will visit the Japanese Mythology figures: Izanagi and Izanami, the parents of many Japanese Gods!
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