brigits_flame = Loop
Lost, Adrift Amidst the Sea of Trees
In Japan, there is a forest located at the base of Mount Fuji called Aokigahara. Roughly translated, the name means sea of trees. It's a popular tourist destination for hikers and thrill seekers, and if it's beautiful woodland scenery you're looking for, you can't really do much better in Japan than this forest. However, this isn't the place for beginning hikers. The woods are very thick. It's very easy to get disoriented. People get lost all the time. And despite its beauty, Aokigahara is...
A person doesn't have to go very far into the forest before the silence settles in around them. Maybe once in a while, a bird might flutter through or the voices of other hikers ring out a few feet ahead, but nature's silence reigns among the trees of Aokigahara. The forest is its own private world with its own rules.
I hate coming out here. As a general rule, I prefer avoiding any place with more trees than signs of civilization, but this particular forest... It terrifies me in ways I can't explain. It's not that I'm afraid of getting attacked by a bear or something; there aren't any in these woods. Matter of fact, there aren't any animals that make their home here. But what it lacks in wildlife, it makes up for in bodies.
That's right. Bodies.
Aokigahara is where many people come to die.
I hate coming out here. I know I've mentioned that already, but more than anything, I hate coming out here. I've been at a loss to clearly explain what it is. Death, I can handle. It feels weird to admit, but the sight of corpses hasn't bothered me in twenty years. The worst suicide scenes no longer really shake me. I've learned to tune the violence out, to focus on just collecting the newly departed, because that is my main function. That's my job. Once someone has killed themselves, there's nothing I can do for them apart from offer some kind of comfort that they weren't able to get while they were alive. That's what my job has been for the last thirty-three years.
But this forest...
Strange things can happen to a person when they die violently, murdered or otherwise. They lack the instinct to find their way over that those who die of natural death possess, and so they wind up...stuck, in a word. Trapped. Some of them eventually find their way to the land of the Dead, but most of the time, they become consumed by the same feelings that drove them to kill themselves in the first place. Left long enough on their own, they develop into what the Living call hauntings, and that's when things can get very dangerous.
Places like Aokigahara, where many people come to kill themselves over time... Take an average haunting and multiply it by a million. These places become prisons; there isn't any chance of getting out once you become trapped. And the only way to fix that is--
“Hello?”
What was that? It sounded like...like the sound rope makes when it's suddenly pulled tight.
“Who else is with me?”
There it is again! That sound, with the echo bouncing off the trees! But I can't see anyone; I haven't seen a single person, alive or dead, since I first started hiking around in these woods two hours ago. A news report brought me out here--a story of nooses found dangling in trees. Not so strange in and of itself, considering the place. However...
(“The trees in question all appear to border a circular clearance. The other curious thing is the absence of any corpses hanging from or near any of the nooses. There also appear to be no sign of bodies near the trees themselves.”
“Listen to this! Hey--guys--”
The girl raises the volume on the television. The two men in the bedroom with her turn their attention towards the screen, where a female reporter talks over footage of park rangers standing in a forest clearing intercut with closeups of the nooses. The younger-looking of the two, lying belly-down on the bed, narrows his dichotomous blue and green eyes.
“--officials suggest it to be the subject of a cruel prank, given that the area is infamous as a suicide location, but independent sources claim this isn't the first time the so-dubbed 'circle of nooses' has appeared in the forest.”
The footage cuts to an older Japanese man wearing glasses and a suit. The caption underneath him reads Takaheshi Kagami; his subtitle reads "Paranormal Investigator". The investigator begins to speak in Japanese. The English-speaking translator kicks in a moment later.
“This is nothing so alarming. I-in fact, the circle of nooses has been very well known among the local paranormal community for a long time, a-at least twenty years or so. Research has suggested--”
“Turn it off,” says the young man on the bed.
“--ties to a mystery cult--”
“Turn it off!” he says again, a bit more forcefully. “Turn the TV off or--or change the channel--”
“Hm? H-hey! Vincent--!”
The young man makes a rare show of his powers by stealing her remote. The television goes silent. The other two in the room stare at him, confused. They glance at each other, trading silent messages. It's the girl who talks to the man on the bed again.
“Vincent, what's wrong?”)
What's wrong is that I have to be out here to perform a dangerous ritual, all thanks to the last guy who had my job. But I didn't want to have to explain that to her. There are just certain things the Living shouldn't know, even those with a bit more knowledge than most. I also had no idea how to explain it to her when I barely understand it myself.
The myth itself is very straightforward. Basically, it goes something like this:
In the days of old, the Prince of Sacrifice worked in the service of the last King of Hell in order to pay off his own debt. No one quite remembers what the debt involved, but over time that's become less important anyway. It was the Prince's primary duty to collect the spirits who fell by their own hand and ferry them to their place in the Land of the Dead. However, at some point the King of Hell deemed it the Prince's secondary duty to collect upon those debts which mortals blindly or desperately made with the King, a thing that occasionally involved killing mortals--something the Prince had been trained by Death to believe was against the rules.
Over time, the strain of his guilt drove the Prince to decide paying off his debt wasn't worth killing otherwise innocent people. So with a polite “fuck you”, the Prince jumped the Coil--which is to say, he came to hide amongst the Living. Naturally, the King of Hell didn't like that. His response was to draft five hundred of his most vicious subjects into a personal army, and then send them after the Prince.
Now, the Prince had help, too--in the form of five of his most loyal attendants--and the guy was pretty damn powerful on his own, but fleeing and hiding from your pissed-off boss is a lot of work. Actually, there's some argument over whether he was running or if he was trying to lure him out to this place on purpose. Considering the guy was a samurai in his living years...
At some point, the two sides faced off in this forest. Tradition marks it as the day of the first full moon of the fall, but no one really knows for sure. The only other person still around who can confirm it--
“Bingo.”
The clearing is still closed off with tape from the park rangers, along with one of their well-known anti-suicide signs written in both Japanese and English jammed in the clearing's center. Last night I read that the rangers had taken all the nooses down, but with the orange light of sunset, I can already spot three hanging in the limbs that seem to point towards the center of the clearing..
It's only a matter of time before all five are replaced. They'll probably get removed again, but those putting them up won't get angry. Not yet. There's still a ways to go before the first full moon of fall. This is just practice.
In Japan, there is a forest located at the base of Mount Fuji called Aokigahara. Roughly translated, the name means sea of trees. It's a popular tourist destination for hikers and thrill seekers, and if it's beautiful woodland scenery you're looking for, you can't really do much better in Japan than this forest. However, this isn't the place for beginning hikers. The woods are very thick. It's very easy to get disoriented. People get lost all the time. And despite its beauty, Aokigahara is...
A person doesn't have to go very far into the forest before the silence settles in around them. Maybe once in a while, a bird might flutter through or the voices of other hikers ring out a few feet ahead, but nature's silence reigns among the trees of Aokigahara. The forest is its own private world with its own rules.
I hate coming out here. As a general rule, I prefer avoiding any place with more trees than signs of civilization, but this particular forest... It terrifies me in ways I can't explain. It's not that I'm afraid of getting attacked by a bear or something; there aren't any in these woods. Matter of fact, there aren't any animals that make their home here. But what it lacks in wildlife, it makes up for in bodies.
That's right. Bodies.
Aokigahara is where many people come to die.
I hate coming out here. I know I've mentioned that already, but more than anything, I hate coming out here. I've been at a loss to clearly explain what it is. Death, I can handle. It feels weird to admit, but the sight of corpses hasn't bothered me in twenty years. The worst suicide scenes no longer really shake me. I've learned to tune the violence out, to focus on just collecting the newly departed, because that is my main function. That's my job. Once someone has killed themselves, there's nothing I can do for them apart from offer some kind of comfort that they weren't able to get while they were alive. That's what my job has been for the last thirty-three years.
But this forest...
Strange things can happen to a person when they die violently, murdered or otherwise. They lack the instinct to find their way over that those who die of natural death possess, and so they wind up...stuck, in a word. Trapped. Some of them eventually find their way to the land of the Dead, but most of the time, they become consumed by the same feelings that drove them to kill themselves in the first place. Left long enough on their own, they develop into what the Living call hauntings, and that's when things can get very dangerous.
Places like Aokigahara, where many people come to kill themselves over time... Take an average haunting and multiply it by a million. These places become prisons; there isn't any chance of getting out once you become trapped. And the only way to fix that is--
“Hello?”
What was that? It sounded like...like the sound rope makes when it's suddenly pulled tight.
“Who else is with me?”
There it is again! That sound, with the echo bouncing off the trees! But I can't see anyone; I haven't seen a single person, alive or dead, since I first started hiking around in these woods two hours ago. A news report brought me out here--a story of nooses found dangling in trees. Not so strange in and of itself, considering the place. However...
(“The trees in question all appear to border a circular clearance. The other curious thing is the absence of any corpses hanging from or near any of the nooses. There also appear to be no sign of bodies near the trees themselves.”
“Listen to this! Hey--guys--”
The girl raises the volume on the television. The two men in the bedroom with her turn their attention towards the screen, where a female reporter talks over footage of park rangers standing in a forest clearing intercut with closeups of the nooses. The younger-looking of the two, lying belly-down on the bed, narrows his dichotomous blue and green eyes.
“--officials suggest it to be the subject of a cruel prank, given that the area is infamous as a suicide location, but independent sources claim this isn't the first time the so-dubbed 'circle of nooses' has appeared in the forest.”
The footage cuts to an older Japanese man wearing glasses and a suit. The caption underneath him reads Takaheshi Kagami; his subtitle reads "Paranormal Investigator". The investigator begins to speak in Japanese. The English-speaking translator kicks in a moment later.
“This is nothing so alarming. I-in fact, the circle of nooses has been very well known among the local paranormal community for a long time, a-at least twenty years or so. Research has suggested--”
“Turn it off,” says the young man on the bed.
“--ties to a mystery cult--”
“Turn it off!” he says again, a bit more forcefully. “Turn the TV off or--or change the channel--”
“Hm? H-hey! Vincent--!”
The young man makes a rare show of his powers by stealing her remote. The television goes silent. The other two in the room stare at him, confused. They glance at each other, trading silent messages. It's the girl who talks to the man on the bed again.
“Vincent, what's wrong?”)
What's wrong is that I have to be out here to perform a dangerous ritual, all thanks to the last guy who had my job. But I didn't want to have to explain that to her. There are just certain things the Living shouldn't know, even those with a bit more knowledge than most. I also had no idea how to explain it to her when I barely understand it myself.
The myth itself is very straightforward. Basically, it goes something like this:
In the days of old, the Prince of Sacrifice worked in the service of the last King of Hell in order to pay off his own debt. No one quite remembers what the debt involved, but over time that's become less important anyway. It was the Prince's primary duty to collect the spirits who fell by their own hand and ferry them to their place in the Land of the Dead. However, at some point the King of Hell deemed it the Prince's secondary duty to collect upon those debts which mortals blindly or desperately made with the King, a thing that occasionally involved killing mortals--something the Prince had been trained by Death to believe was against the rules.
Over time, the strain of his guilt drove the Prince to decide paying off his debt wasn't worth killing otherwise innocent people. So with a polite “fuck you”, the Prince jumped the Coil--which is to say, he came to hide amongst the Living. Naturally, the King of Hell didn't like that. His response was to draft five hundred of his most vicious subjects into a personal army, and then send them after the Prince.
Now, the Prince had help, too--in the form of five of his most loyal attendants--and the guy was pretty damn powerful on his own, but fleeing and hiding from your pissed-off boss is a lot of work. Actually, there's some argument over whether he was running or if he was trying to lure him out to this place on purpose. Considering the guy was a samurai in his living years...
At some point, the two sides faced off in this forest. Tradition marks it as the day of the first full moon of the fall, but no one really knows for sure. The only other person still around who can confirm it--
“Bingo.”
The clearing is still closed off with tape from the park rangers, along with one of their well-known anti-suicide signs written in both Japanese and English jammed in the clearing's center. Last night I read that the rangers had taken all the nooses down, but with the orange light of sunset, I can already spot three hanging in the limbs that seem to point towards the center of the clearing..
It's only a matter of time before all five are replaced. They'll probably get removed again, but those putting them up won't get angry. Not yet. There's still a ways to go before the first full moon of fall. This is just practice.