“‘Advisable to stay on marked routes’,” Juri said in a mocking tone.
“Shut it,” Jesse muttered.
“‘Hiking after dark must be avoided’.”
“Shut up!”
“I won’t!” Juri’s voice was a bit louder than intended, and maybe tinged with slight panic.
“This is all your fault! Mr. yes-I-know-the-way-with-my-eyes-closed and trust-me-Juri-this-trail-is-a-short-cut. If we fumble in the dark and break our legs and die here, I swear…”
”Alright, alright!” Jesse huffed. ”I’m sorry. Lesson learned. Now let’s just get down in one piece and I’ll treat you yakiniku.”
”Yeah, you better.”
Juri had thought it would be a nice hiking day at Takao-san, a very rare (almost once in a lifetime) occasion for him. Jesse had coaxed Juri along with the promise of an abundant dinner afterwards. Juri had agreed, although reluctantly at first, since it had been a good while since they had hung out together properly. And he had supposed a day outdoors wouldn’t hurt his homebody-gamer self.
Hours later, he was ready to declare the day the biggest mistake ever. They had started the hike rather late, but Jesse had insisted that they would be able to come down from the mountain before dark. Then he had insisted on the “fool-proof shortcut” away from the actual, marked route. And Juri, a gullible fool himself, had just believed and followed.
And now they were stumbling down the mountain in complete darkness, no idea if they were still on the trail or going in the right direction. Jesse had become rather quiet, while Juri felt the need to complain with every stumbling step. They used their phones’ flashlights in turn to check the nonexistent trail ahead. The tiny beams of light felt somehow so small and weak against the huge, dark forest around them.
It was silent, save from occasional rustles and cracks created by their footsteps. It was almost eerie, the quiet, endless darkness of the forest closing in on them. Juri suddenly felt shivers run down his spine and he caught Jesse’s arm.
”What?” Jesse whispered.
”This forest is giving me the creeps,” Juri hissed back. ”Let’s check Maps and see how long we still have to go.”
Jesse opened the map application and they both stared at the tiny blue dot in the middle of grey emptiness.
”It’s not working?” Juri asked.
”No… I also don’t have a signal at all. That’s weird.”
Juri quickly fished his phone from his pocket, only to find that he had the same problem.
”We’re not that deep in the mountain to be out of reach, right?”
”We shouldn’t be,” Jesse said, but sounded uncertain.
”Is now a good time to panic?”
”Now’s a perfect time,” said a voice next to Juri.
”Wha— AAAH!”
There was no one next to him. Juri shouted and jumped against Jesse, grabbing and holding on for dear life like Jesse could save him from invisible voices. Juri’s shout and flailing caused Jesse to yell as well, and he squeezed his arms around Juri in turn. They heard a mischievous laughter ringing high up in the trees above them.
“What the hell was that?!” Juri whispered frantically.
“I don’t know!”
For a moment, they stood still, panting and trying to listen to the darkness around them. It was all silent. Until–
“Ow!” Jesse exclaimed when something small and hard hit him on the head.
“What is it?” Juri asked, when he, too, felt sharp pain on his forehead. “Ouch!”
They were pine cones, flying from somewhere above. While they were crouching under the flying cones, they heard the ominous (and somehow, obnoxious) laughter again.
“What the hell,” Jesse grumbled. “Is that some weird animal throwing them or what?”
“An animal? How dare you, human?”
There was the voice again, and Juri and Jesse spun around, just in time to see a young man emerging from the shadows. He was pale, with dark hair and dark kimono, and carrying an old-looking paper lantern. They had no time to react to the sudden stranger, before a loud thud behind them made both Juri and Jesse jump. They saw another young man stepping forward into the lantern light, but his appearance made them both yelp quietly. His hair and clothes were also black, but what made Juri’s stomach twist unpleasantly was the tail and the pointy, fluffy ears, like dog’s, on top of his head. The man looked from Juri to Jesse and grinned widely, sharp fangs showing in his mouth.
“Aww, are you scared?” the dog guy asked them sweetly. “We were just having a bit of fun, we don’t usually get any travelers around here after dark, right, Hokuto?”
The man carrying the lantern smiled. “We sure don’t.”
Juri thought he saw the man’s eyes gleaming yellow, and was ready to blame that on the lantern light, but then he saw something else gleaming behind the man’s back. Like multiple transparent tails… He had watched his share of anime to know what that could mean, but tried not to let his panic overflow. Not yet at least. Instead, he tried very hard to find his voice again.
“W-we’re just on our way down… Leaving…”
“Oh, so soon? I don’t think so. You haven’t even met Kyomo yet.”
“W-who’s K–aaaaah!” This time both Juri and Jesse fell over screaming, for right in front of them from the ground appeared an eerily glowing human figure. It had light hair and white kimono, and dreadfully hollow, dark eyes.
“It’s a fucking ghost!” Jesse screamed. “I can’t believe this, I’m done!”
Juri wanted to scream as well. He couldn’t believe that instead of a broken leg, he’d die at the mountain by demons and ghosts.
“Oh, they are amusing indeed,” the ghost, who was now hovering half a meter from the ground, said in a pleased voice. He looked over at the other two creatures. “Can we keep them here for a while?”
“I’d love to,” the dog guy said eagerly, rubbing his palms together.
“You know you cannot.”
That was another invisible voice, but different from the one before. It rang around them, like an echo.
“Ah, damn,” the lantern guy sighed.
“How did he get here so quickly?” the dog guy complained.
At first, Juri didn’t even notice anything. But then, he saw something small jump through the lantern light and climb up on the lantern guy’s shoulder. It was a small, weasel-like animal, with a split tail.
“What have we agreed on?” the animal asked, and the creatures around them suddenly looked like kids in the middle of a mischief caught by their parent.
“Yes, yes, but we just wanted to have a bit of fun–”
“It’s so boring here–”
“We would’ve let me go eventually–”
“Silence.” the weasel said sternly. “Enough of this.”
“What, so you’re just gonna escort them down the mountain like that?” the dog guy sounded incredulous.
“Not for free, obviously.” The weasel turned its tiny head towards Juri and Jesse, who were still lying on the ground, too scared and dumbfounded to move.
“Wait, w-what’s going on?” Juri managed to splutter. “Who–I mean, what are you?” He looked from the weasel to each of the creatures in turn.
“What? This is a sacred mountain. It’s full of kami, of course. Kami… and other creatures.”
“Of course!” Jesse squealed beside Juri.
“B-but you can show us the way down?” Juri asked the weasel.
“On one condition,” it said. “Hand over the red bean sweets you’re carrying with you and I’ll show you the way.”
The other creatures groaned at that.
“C’mon, Kochi, you can’t be that easy,” the ghost said, clearly disapproving.
“It is not often that I get to have these treats, so of course I’ll take my chance!”
“Red bean sweets…?” Jesse asked weakly.
Juri suddenly remembered. “The onigiris! You have red bean onigiris in your bag! Get them!”
And so, as absurd as it felt, in exchange for two red bean onigiris bought from the station store, the little weasel promised to show them the way down the mountain. Juri was fearing that the other creatures would accompany them along the way, but apparently they were disapproving of the weasel’s decision, so they held back, watching after them. Juri was hurrying along the path after Jesse, but glanced quickly over his shoulder and saw the trees and the darkness swallow the three creatures.
The weasel was jumping on the path before them, in and out of the phone’s flashlight. Quite soon they noticed that the forest around them grew less dense and the trees thinner. And when they finally saw a lighted and marked actual road below them on the slope (Juri could’ve cried of happiness), the small animal stopped.
“I won’t go farther than this,” it said. “But now you’ll manage. Just follow the road left and you’ll be down in minutes.”
“Oh shit, I can’t believe it!” Jesse exclaimed and started running towards the road immediately.
“Thank you!” Juri quickly said to the small animal and turned to follow Jesse.
They ran through the dark trees and the lighted, paved road felt like home after the endless forest. And when he stepped into the bright streetlight, Juri almost felt like he passed through an invisible vail at the same time.
“See! I told you I could get us out there!” Jesse said happily to Juri.
“Um, I think it was me and my navigation skills that got us through,” Juri pointed out.
“It so was not!”
“Well, you got us lost in the first place. I’m never going hiking with you again.”
“We’ll see about that!”
They bickered good-heartedly while starting down the road, both relieved about having found their way out of the forest – and all by themselves in the end.
From the shadows of the forest, the small weasel-like creature watched the two receding human figures. The other three creatures appeared from the shadows beside it.
“If they ever happen to come back, can we play with them then?” the dog-eared guy asked hopefully.
“Would they be that stupid?” the ghost wondered.
“They’re humans, you’d be surprised,” the guy with the lantern said.
“That is true,” the weasel mused. “So I suppose it’s alright.”