Project Kowai

Kategoria: Hitokowa

  • The Girlfriend’s Message

    This story is also known as ”Toilet Paper” in some sources.

    It’s been two weeks since my girlfriend found out I cheated on her.

    She didn’t contact me at all this whole time, but now she finally invited me over.

    But both of us were really awkward and just sitting there in silence.

    I couldn’t handle that kind of atmosphere so I ran away to hide in the bathroom.

    I happened to notice there was something written on the end of the toilet paper roll.

    What was it? Nervous, I unrolled the paper and found a message from my girlfriend written on the paper.

    The message went on, line after line.

    I unrolled the whole thing and carefully read and reflected on each word.

    /////////

    From Mami

    You betrayed me. That is the truth.

    Let’s undo it all from now on.

    The precious time I spent with you…

    I realized it’s important to me.

    To destroy everything over this

    is completely unforgivable.

    And your decision to cheat on me…

    We can forget about all that. Her

    Connection with you will be wiped clean

    I’ll give you that. We’ve both suffered. My

    suffering, all this suffering, has been enough.

    Let’s go out… Together, okay?

    To Takashi

    /////////

    Tears well in my eyes. I can hear Mami waiting outside the door. 

    I’ll go back out and give her a big hug.

    浮気をしたのが彼女にばれて2週間。

    ずっと連絡がなかった彼女がやっと部屋にあげてくれた。

    でもお互い気まずくて一言も口をきけないまま時間だけが過ぎていく。

    僕はその空気に耐えられなくなってトイレに逃げ込んだ。

    ふと脇を見るとトイレットペーパーの端にペンで何かを書いてあった。

    なんだろう。

    どきどきしながら紙を引き出すと、そこに彼女からのメッセージが書き込まれていた。

    メッセージは何行にもわたっていた。

    僕は紙を全部引っ張り出して噛みしめるように読んでいった。

    ////////////////////////

    真美より

    あなたは私を裏切った。それは事実

    でももうすべてリセットしていいと思うの

    あなたと過ごした宝物のような日々。

    それが私にとって大切だと気づいたから。

    なにもかもぶち壊してしまうこと。

    許されないことだもんね。

    あなたが浮気していたことは、

    全部忘れてしまえるわ。あの娘と

    あなたとの関係もこれで帳消しってこと

    にしてあげる。お互いつらかったよね。私と

    あなたは 十分に苦しんだから。これから楽

    しんじゃおうよ。一緒にね。

    隆史へ

    ////////////////////////

    涙があふれてきた。いま扉の外に真美が待っている気配がする。

    はやく出て行って彼女を抱きしめてあげよう。

    Source

    This is another story where the solution is to read things backwards, but only for a part of the story. The girlfriend’s message is written on toilet paper, but the narrator decides to unwind the piece completely before reading it rather than reading it in the order the girlfriend intended. The letter, as it is written here, also begins with a signature and ends with addressing the narrator. Usually, a letter would be structured in the opposite way, which is another hint the narrator misses that he is reading the letter wrong.

    Due to this misundestanding, the narrator deludes himself into believing he’s been forgiven. In reality, the girlfriend is directly stating that she will not forgive him and heavily implies she is about to commit murder-suicide. The story ends on the moment of tension where the reader knows exactly what’s about to happen while the narrator remains blissfully unaware.

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  • I’m Really Sorry

    A story that’s scary when you get it

    Friend: I’m really sorry about this

    Me: Hey, stop!

    Friend: My sis… My little sis is sick… I don’t have any money…

    Me: Are you okay? Hey, calm down!

    Friend: Thank you…..

    Me: I… um, well, if 100,000 yen is enough, I can lend you that much

    Friend: Truly, thank you… also, um, how should I say this…

    Me: Here, you can have leftovers from dinner if you’d like.

    Friend: Thank you…

    Me: What are you saying? You know we’re true friends.

    Friend: To be honest, I was thinking about killing myself… If it wasn’t for you, I’d already…

    Me: You really don’t have to worry about it

    Friend: I’m so sorry for bothering you this late at night

    Do you understand the meaning??

    意味がわかると怖い話

    友「本当にごめんな」

    俺「おいやめろって！」

    友「妹が…妹が病気で…金がいるんだ…」

    俺「大丈夫か？気をしっかり持てよ」

    友「…ありがとう………」

    俺「に…いや、10万でよかったら貸してやるよ」

    友「本当にありがとう…あと、その…なんていうか…」

    俺「ほら、晩飯の残りで良かったら食ってけよ」

    友「ありがとう…」

    俺「…なに言ってんだよ。それに、俺たち親友だろ？」

    友「実は自殺しようと思ってて…お前がいなかったらもう…」

    俺「そんなに気にすんなよ」

    友「こんな夜中にごめんな」

    どういう意味かわかりますか??

    Source

    The main hints to the real meaning of the conversation here are in its awkward progression. The conversation just barely makes logical sense… until you reach the final line from the friend, which really makes more sense as the beginning of the conversation than the end. Taken as the beginning, the story can be read backward, and a much more alarming interaction is revealed. What is the friend really apologizing for…?

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  • I Think Ghosts Are Real

    115: anon open: ：2017/05/01(Mon)13:07:37 ID:Nqk

    242 The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2010/01/02(Sat) 20:45:44.68 ID:5e2tTJbD0

    I think ghosts are real.

    When I was little, I could see my big sister.

    She wore the same dirty clothes as me and we lived together.

    But one day I couldn’t see her anymore.

    Mommy and daddy won the lottery. They told me I had daydreams of a sister because we were so poor.

    But now we’re very happy!

    Although I heard that the lottery money is almost gone.

    123: anon open : 2017/05/01(月)14:42:53 ID:JDH

    By the way I don’t understand >>115 could someone explain it to me

    124: anon open : 2017/05/01(月)14:46:05 ID:Nqk

    >>123

    The big sis was sold (or killed for insurance money or organ trade)

    So, if the money is running out now, what happens next…

    115 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)13:07:37 ID:Nqk

    242 以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします 2010/01/02(土) 20:45:44.68 ID:5e2tTJbD01

    オバケって本当にいるとおもいます。

    小さいころ、わたしにはお姉ちゃんが見えていました。

    同じきたない服をきて、いっしょに住んでいました。

    でもある日お姉ちゃんは見えなくなりました。

    パパと、ママが宝くじをあてました。

    びんぼうだったから、そんなはくちゅうむを見たのだと言われました。

    今はとってもしあわせです。

    でもそろそろ宝くじのお金がなくなっちゃいそうです。

    123 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)14:42:53 ID:JDH2

    ところで>>115の意味が分からんのやけど誰か解説してクレメンス

    124 ：名無しさん＠おーぷん ：2017/05/01(月)14:46:05 ID:Nqk3

    >>123

    お姉ちゃんは売られた（もしくは保険金殺害か臓器売買）んやで

    で、そろそろお金が無くなりそうってことは次は

    Source

    1. The duplication of the user interface elements here isn’t a mistake, it is a transparent indication that the story is being copypasted from an earlier thread. ↩︎
    2. This reply is posted by a different person than the story itself, as indicated by the ID. ↩︎
    3. The ID here shows that this response is posted by the same person who copypasted the story into the thread. ↩︎

    This story relies on the readers’ recognition of trafficking and exploitation of children who come from poverty as an ongoing issue (in both Japan and elsewhere), or else some knowledge of a not-so-distant past in which girls were either tricked or sold by their families into prostitution. In this sense, the story directly challenges an image of Japan or the modern times as ”safe” or as having overcome issues of wealth disparity. Selling your child should be unthinkable in this day and age, and yet it still continues to happen. The bleak realization is enhanced by the naive and even childish writing style of the main character: she mostly writes in hiragana, using only kanji at an elementary school reading level. It is the contrast between the childlike innocence and the cynical realization of real-world evils that is at the core of what’s ”scary” in this story.

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  • My Mother Loved Sciences

    123: The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2009/06/14(日) 23:45:50.57 ID:d64VugDc0

    I’m at my parents’ house for the first time in a while and I’m reminded of my departed mother

    Mom loved sciences even though it was rare for a girl in her day. Now that I’m thinking about it, she even memorized the whole periodic table…

    Mom developed dementia

    The image of her unaware of her surroundings, always bothering my dad is still lingering in my mind

    Going into my late mom’s study, for the first time I felt uncomfortable

    I can’t find the calendar I gave my mom as a present

    I was rummaging through her desk for nothing in particular when I found pieces of the calendar, cut apart with scissors, organized neatly on the table

    No matter how bad her mental state was, she always treasured my presents… this was a shock

    It made me emotional so I looked through the carefully organized dates:

    1/18 4/9 2/8 4/1 3/16 6/16 5/17 7/15 6/8 2/7 6/12 7/15

    Just one date, 6/8, was flipped over for some reason, and as I was turning it over to match the others my dad called me from downstairs.

    Today, for the first time in 5 years, I get to eat my dad’s home cooking. I push sentimentality to the back of my mind and leave mom’s study.

    123 名前：以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします 投稿日：2009/06/14(日) 23:45:50.57 ID:d64VugDc0

    久しぶりに実家に帰ると、亡くなった母を思い出す

    女性には珍しく科学が好きだった母

    そういえば元素記号表を丸暗記していたっけ・・・

    母は認知症だった

    身の回りの世話をつきっきりでしていた父を困らせてばかりいた姿が目に浮かぶ

    そして今は亡き母の書斎に入った時、私は初めて違和感を覚えた

    母にプレゼントしたカレンダーが見つからない

    何の気無しにテーブルを漁ると、ハサミでバラバラにされた幾つかのカレンダーの切れ端が順序良く並んでいる事に気が付いた

    母はどんなに呆けていても、私のプレゼントは大切にしてくれていたのにと…私はショックを受けた

    私は感傷とともに並べられた日付を整理した

    4/4 4/4 4/10 6/11 3/1 6/12 5/6 7/2 6/7 6/17 4/10 4/14 5/16

    私は一枚だけ向きが逆になっている6/17に気づき、他の日付と同じ向きに変えていると、一階の父が私を呼んだ。

    今日から五年振りの父の手料理が食べられる。

    感傷を胸に押し込み、私は母の書斎を後にした

    Source

    This twist hinges on a puzzle, effectively a cipher that can be decoded through context clues, some of which are more apparent than others. The first and most important clue is that the narrator’s mother loved sciences enough to learn the periodic table by heart. The second is that it was unusual for her to treat a gift with disrespect, and yet she had completely ruined the narrator’s gift by cutting it. The dates arranged on the desk are not incidental, but vital to decoding the story. With these hints, you may want to take an additional moment to see if you can decipher the story.

    The twist is a message hidden within the cut-up dates arranged on the table. Matching each date to an element on the periodic table gives each date a corresponding syllable, which then form a message left by the mother for her son.

    In Japanese, the dates-as-elements read:

    Ti　Ti　Ni　Au　Na　Hg　Mo　Ra　Re　tA　Ni　Ge　Te

    The message translates roughly to ”Don’t meet with your dad, he has been giving me Hg (mercury), run away.” The mother’s dementia, then, wasn’t dementia at all, but the slowly building symptoms of mercury poisoning, which as now killed her. The mother has left behind a message for the son to let him know, fearing that the father may now begin poisoning the son.

    In English, the message here reads: He Co O K S Po I sO N Hg Ru N.

    If you found this story a bit too involved to figure out without the explanation, you’re not alone. This story is still brought up in 2channel threads as being way too complicated and involved for an Imikowa story, since it requires some detective work to ”solve.”

    This story was an interesting one to translate, since the Japanese sequence of syllables wouldn’t make any sense in English, nor could it be directly translated using syllables from the periodic table. In addition, the set-up requires the message to only use elements that could correspond to dates, which cuts out most of the periodic table. Even so, I found it important to construct some kind of coherent English message to preserve the puzzle style of the story and allow English-language readers a chance to decipher the message without relying on the Japanese for the scare factor.

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  • Living with my Parents

    437: The following is an anonymous message posted on behalf of a VIP : 2011/01/16(Sun) 15:20:06.90 ID:MyhMF80b0

    Ok so I live with my parents, right

    earlier I tried to text my gf to ask if we could meet up tonight, but I accidentally sent the text to my mom instead lmao

    this is her reply:

    “My apologies, Mr. [my name]. Tonight will not be possible.” like what?? lmaoooo

    so then I respond: “mom what the heck lol” and she replies IMMEDIATELY with “where are you?”

    so I tell her I’m just home and for some reason she tries to call right away?? lmao and like when I answered she just hung up but she keeps calling like what kind of turbo harassment is this lmaoooo

    I wonder if she’s having an affair or something lol

    437 ：以下、名無しにかわりましてVIPがお送りします：2011/01/16(日) 15:20:06.90 ID:MyhMF80b0

    俺、実家暮らしなんだけどさ。

    さっき彼女に『今夜会える？』ってメールしようとして、

    間違って家にいるカーチャンに送っちまったわけｗｗｗ

    そしたら返信が、

    『ごめん。○○（俺の名前）さん。今夜は会えないの』だってｗｗｗ

    『ちょ、お袋なにふざけてんの（笑）』って送ったらすぐに返信がきて、『今どこ？』。

    『家だよ』ってメールしたら、なぜか電話かけてきやがんのｗｗｗ

    出てもすぐ切るし、かと思うとまた鳴るし、テラいやがらせｗｗｗ

    もしやカーチャン浮気してたのかｗｗｗ

    Source

    This story requires a bit more paranoia and perhaps some knowledge of true crime content to drive the reader to the twist. The narrator’s carefree nonchalance in narrating the story works as a contrast to the more paranoid meaning hidden underneath. Why would the mother of such a casual person respond with this level of formality? It seems more likely that the person in possession of the mother’s phone is someone else. Furthermore, this person, whomever it is, seems very insistent on finding the narrator. The implied story here is that something bad has happened to the mother, and the culprit is communicating with the narrator to get rid of a person who might go looking for her. Repeatedly calling him and hanging up as soon as he picks up the call? Well, that seems like a great way to find out where the narrator is by following the sound of the ringing phone…

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  • Girl: I heard a super scary story

    333 名前：Trader＠Live![sage] Manuscript day：2007/04/05(Thu) 09:19:09.94 ID:QqLyVeXR

    Encounter with a group of high school girls on a train I don’t usually take. This is what I heard:

    Girl: “I heard a super scary story”

    Other girls: “Really?”

    Girl: “My grandma lives by herself and one time her phone rang. When she answered it she heard someone say ‘Mom? It’s me…’ So she goes, ‘Yoshikazu? Is that you?’ and he replies ‘yeah’…

    … But here’s the thing!

    Uncle Yoshikazu died last year in an accident!”

    Other girls: “Whaaat? Omg that’s so scary? What happened next?”

    Girl: “So he says, ‘I’ve caused an accident…’ and like my grandma just bursts into tears. She tells him, ‘don’t worry about the accident anymore. It’s ok, just pass on peacefully…’”

    333 名前：Trader＠Live![sage] 投稿日：2007/04/05(木) 09:19:09.94 ID:QqLyVeXR

    めったに乗らない電車で女子高生の一群と遭遇そこで聞いた話 

    女学生「めっちゃ怖い話し聞いた」

    その他「何？」

    女学生「一人暮らしのうちのおばあちゃんに 電話がかかてってきて出てみたら『お母さん？俺やけど････』って言っておばあちゃんが『ヨシカズか？』って聞いたら『うん』って･･･

    ・・・・でもな・・・・

    ヨシカズおじさんって去年、交通事故でﾀﾋんでるねん」

    その他「えぇ～！！怖いーーー！！！　それで？」

    女学生「『･･･俺、事故起こして････』って言うから、おばあちゃん泣いてしもて『もう、事故の事は気にせんでいいから、成仏して････』言ったんやて」

    Source

    In this story-within-a-story, the narrative twist relies on two completely different registers of ”scary.” Within the story, the girls are sharing what seems to be a fairly common ghost story of a passed relative contacting surviving family members. However, the phone call the grandmother received ultimately isn’t supernaturally tragic: the caller’s script is a clear example of the ore-ore phone scam commonly used to target the elderly. The scam is by no means unique to Japan, but the distinctive use of the informal first-person pronoun ”ore” makes the Japanese version of the scam especially suitable for this kind of reference. The scary twist here, then, is not the uncle’s ghost calling back from the beyond, but the all-too common scam that grandma might have fallen victim to had uncle Yoshikazu been alive.

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