Let's Dance with Ghost Stories, and You Dance on the Stairs Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Let's Play with Curses

TLed by: TanoshiKara

We have come to be immersed in this game. Running off to the Tanuki Shrine immediately after school.

"......This is Snake. Two armed soldiers approaching. ......There's also one armored car! This one's fast!"

"Fox here, understood! Halt the operation, hide, quickly!"

Armed soldier is our code word for an aunt heading back after buying groceries. It is the game we went out of our way to play after all. Before we had even realized it, we were seriously enjoying this game.

"They're gone. Restart the operation!"

"No problems to our left and right. Time to come out!"

The person in charge of standing in front of the lock examined his surroundings before he stealthily emerged from the back of the shrine.

There is actually no need to hide. We only need to move away from the offering box and sit in a circle. However, doing this does not provide any thrill whatsoever. That is why, since who knows when, a new rule—we cannot be seen—had been added to the lock cracking, making this even more of a realistic roleplay.

We each took turns with the roles: lookout, bodyguard, and lock cracker. This is because the lock cracker is the most thrilling and everyone wants that role.

We did think that it was a ridiculous game but the roleplaying made it unexpectedly interesting. The risk of getting reprimanded if we were found out was pleasant for us as we were starving for stimulation.

We will probably crack the lock if we go at it at this pace, day after day. However, this game will be over once we crack it. That is why there is no doubt that no one wants to crack the lock, even though we enjoyed the act of cracking it. Even so, the numbers kept increasing at a steady pace day after day; We were shortening this enjoyable time of ours with our very own hands. An intriguing irony.

That is why, the day came, as it should.

"......Ah."

A different sensation from the usual. The number lock unlocked with ease. Even though we tried our hardest to this day, our very first words sounded like we accidentally broke a toy; That was the sort of voice we let out.

Now was the time when we really needed a lookout but the three of us rushed over 

"It opened..."

"Seriously, is this for real...!"

"Things like these can really be unlocked huh... What's the number?"

"Three, nine, three. Three-Nine-Three...thanks a lot1, I guess?"

"Ahahahahaha! Suree is a ridiculous number for an offering box's lock."

"It's nice that it's easy to remember. This means that we can open this offering box whenever..."

"Doesn't this mean that the money in this offering box is our pocket money from now on?"

"Split three ways right, we agreed okay!"

"Enough with that already, let's open it! How much is inside!?"

The objective is to open it, or so we said pompously, but the objective changed now that we managed to open it. We had such low expectations for its contents before, but we now had expectations as if there were highly valuable treasures hidden inside of it. Our once modest wish that there would be five hundred yen at most, had now grown to the point where we were thinking that a generous old man might have donated a ten thousand yen bill.

While we were putting on airs......the time finally came to open the drawer.

One of us gulped.

"It would be nice if there was money inside but......won't we get cursed if something like a dead cat was inside...?"

"How'd that fit in an offering box?"

We tried to fool one another by laughing it off, but it seemed like the uneasiness that a 'Curse' might pop out when we opened the drawer was not just in mine, but in everyone's hearts as well.

"................................."

"............Open it already."

"Alrighttt......!"

When we pulled the drawer, there was, unexpectedly, not much of a resistance, allowing us to open it with a single pull. In it were.........clouds of dust and several coins.

"........................... Hundred and twenty-five yen."

"I guess there really is a person who had so much faith in a half-assed shrine like the Tanuki Shrine that they put in a hundred yen coin..."

We let out a bitter laugh one after the other. There is disappointment in the air for some reason, even though what we saw was merely the obvious outcome.

We had such low expectations for its contents but every one of us had imagined, at the time of opening it, that there would be magnificent treasures or terrifying curses stored in it. It was because of this that we were disappointed when its contents did not betray our initial expectations.

"What should we do? Split it forty yen each?"

"We can't even start a game at the arcade. Won't it just end with us buying snacks from the candy store...?"

"...Sounds kinda stupid. There should at least be a thousand yen in it or I won't even be in the mood for an even split."

It is not worth stealing slightly over a hundred yen only to be labeled a Donation Thief. In the end, we pushed the drawer back without taking any of its contents and put the lock back on.

"Ahahaha, it sureee ended up being boring!"

"Didn't you know that from the start? Wellll, I did fantasize that there might be a thousand yen bill in it thoughhh!"

"I saw that, I saw that, I saw that!! It was during the age when there were bags, containing hundreds of millions in notes, in bamboo groves. It wouldn't even be weird for an offering box to have a million yen I tell you!"

" "Ahahahahahahaha!" "

We had finished playing our favorite game; There was the satisfaction of accomplishing an incredible feat, but also the melancholy of thinking about what we would be playing tomorrow.

That is why one of us asked a question about what we would be playing from now on.

This lock cracking was extremely thrilling. It is because it was so enjoyable that we cannot help but expect the next game to be as, or, even more enjoyable.

However, interesting games are not easy to think of.

"Anyone have any interesting ideas?"

"I would've thought of one long ago if there were any left."

"...Ahahahaha, that's true."

In the end, with us being unable to think of anything, we went back to the topic of lock cracking as if we were reluctant to move on. That was really interesting. That was risky. Et Cetera, Et Cetera... The one opinion that everyone had—the process of opening it was the most interesting.

"You know, I was so excited during the first night, I could hardly sleep. Thinking that there might be a curse in it or something!"

"Divine retribution from the likes of the Tanuki Shrine's nothing I tell you!"

Everyone agreed despite what I said, leaving me with a slight sense of creepiness.

"Stuff like divine Retribution and curses were interesting and fantasizing about how much was inside was fun too."

What will we do if there is a hundred million yen inside?, It's over thirty million yen even if we split it evenly, What in the world will we use it on!?, or so we had fired ourselves up with such a conversation while cracking the lock. In the end, it was the thrill of the guilty conscience of opening it and the romanticism of fantasizing about its potential contents that made us so passionate.

"That means it'll be nice if there is both the thrill and the romanticism."

"What's up with that? You want us to work together, dig a hole, and break into a bank's underground safe?"

" "Ahahahahaha, that's good, that's good~." "

Amidst such silly banter, Hiroyuki suddenly used the bottom of his fist to tap his other palm.

"Ah............that's right. Say! Someone said that something like divine retribution's nothing right? Tomohiro, was it?"

"Hm? Did I say something like that?"

"You said it. Didn't you say 'Divine retribution from the likes of the Tanuki Shrine's nothing.'"

"What about it? Something interesting?"

"What are the curses we know about?"

Tooru and I looked at each other.

"...If we’re talking about curses, then it's that one. The School's Seven Mysteries or something"

"Yeah, that, that. Like the piano that plays at night or the cooking room's dancing skeleton model!"

"And I think there's one about the First Principal's statue moving around and talking. They all sound idiotic huh."

"Be honest, do you all think these are scary?"

The school's Seven Mysteries are originally ghost stories so I do think they are scary. However, every school has them but they feel insignificant and boring as they are almost identical. Come to think of it, they feel like MEXT2's recommended books that every school library has for certain. That is why a school's Seven Mysteries is like a cliche which is the reason no one is afraid of them.

"That's why I'm telling you all......why don't we make one? A new curse."

Make a new curse from scratch? Us?

When make was mentioned, making an object came to my mind; Like building plastic models or clay work. I always thought that the act of 'Making' involved creating something that one's hand could touch. That is why, ever since I was born, I had never thought that we could 'Make' a 'Curse'; One that cannot be seen nor touched; One that can only be thought of as something created by existences above mankind. That is why this was kind of a culture shock for me.

"......Make......a new curse......"

"What's up with that? We gonna make the eighth of the school's Seven Mysteries or something?"

"That sounds about right! But nothing as dated as the Seven Mysteries. A new standard, a New Curse!"

"...Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...! Sure sounds kinda interesting...!"

It is extremely novel for the three of us, who are, from the bottom of our hearts, even just the slightest bit afraid of curses and divine retribution, to play a game where we are on the side who makes curses, the very thing we should be afraid of.

However, just making it is not interesting at all. It may be thrilling to make a curse, but...it lacks romanticism. Romanticism is something that needs to be attained.

Using Hiroyuki's idea of making a new curse as a base, we started throwing out various ideas. By the time Tooru and I added the 'Romanticism' element, it became an eccentric idea that no one could have ever foreseen. The idiom that is something about two heads really is apt.

"Ain't this amazing?"

"We can earn quite a lot if this goes well huh."

"Ahahaha, things will not go that smoothly no?"

"Ain't it Romanticism to have those kinds of expectationsss!!"

I had the premonition that the new game the three of us thought up would be way more interesting than cracking the lock.

1 - tldr; 393 (San|Kyuu|San) splits into 39 and 3 here; Sankyuu in Japanese can be 'thank you' = Arigatou, add San behind it and it becomes a friendly way of saying thank you = 'thanks a lot'. Three is 三 (Sa|n) and Nine is 九 (Kyu|u)[sounds like queue]. Join them together and you get 393 (Sa|n|Kyu|u|Sa|n). The Three and Nine sounds like サンキュー (Sa|n|Kyu|u) which means thank you, which is also ありがとう (A|ri|ga|to|u) in Japanese. The last Three (San) behind thank you (Arigatou) turns it into an informal but friendly thank you (A|ri|ga|to|u|sa|n). Hence, I went with thanks a lot.

2 - Short for Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.

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