The Hundred Tales
Lise's appearance was the same as always. Exactly as she looked at school every day. The sailor uniform the school had assigned her, her brown hair, her slightly drooping eyes, even the corners of her mouth that always seemed to hang a little low—everything was unchanged.
"You shouldn't skip lunch. If you do, you won't grow taller, and your chest won't grow either." As she spoke, Airi placed her hands on her own disproportionately large breasts and gave them a casual shake. The gesture was clearly meant as a provocation to Lise, whose small chest had always been a complex, yet Lise's mind felt strangely foggy, as though shrouded in mist, and she could only stare blankly.
"Oh? Are you really that sleepy? Normally you'd jump up and fight back if I did this."
Airi grinned widely at Lise's dazed expression, flashing her black teeth. Then she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sat down beside her.
"What were you doing last night? Huh? Got a boyfriend?"
Airi laughed as she watched Lise, who could barely move her head while slumped over the desk. She poked Lise's side with her short index finger, her expression mischievous. With only her head able to move, Lise had no choice but to endure the tickling assault. Airi, clearly enjoying herself, moved behind her and mercilessly tickled her sides and underarms with fingers that seemed to swim in every direction.
"Yah! Tickle attack!"
Ahaha! Stop! Stop it!
Airi's eyes curved into crescents as she laughed, her fox-like face never losing its delighted expression while she continued the torment. Only after Lise's body began to tremble intermittently from exhaustion, her breath coming in ragged gasps, did Airi finally seem satisfied and return to her seat behind her.
Scrape. The sound of the chair sliding across the floor accompanied Airi as she rested her chin on her hand and asked, "Still not moving? Are you having sleep paralysis?"
Airi had stopped her playful antics, now looking genuinely concerned as she addressed Lise, whose head remained pinned to the desk. Only then did Lise realize what was happening.
Ah… sleep paralysis. I'm having sleep paralysis right now.
Her body wouldn't move. Not her fingers, not her toes, not her waist. Her mouth wouldn't open, so she couldn't speak, and her neck felt as though someone had driven a steel rod through her spine—she couldn't even twitch it. With her face pressed flat against the desk, only her eyes could move. If this wasn't sleep paralysis, what was it?
My eyes?
At that moment, Lise felt something strange. She thought she had moved her head earlier… but now that she recognized the paralysis, her head was firmly planted on the desk. Her arms were folded neatly beneath her forehead like a pillow. There was no way she could have turned her head. So how had she seen to the side?
No… more importantly—
How did I see Airi's face behind me?
Airi. The same Airi as always. Her clothes, her hair, her eyes… and that mouth with its corners stretched long… long enough to reach her ears.
"You noticed, didn't you?"
The moment the thought formed, Airi's mouth split wide open, revealing her teeth. Teeth blackened and rotted over time. Below those teeth yawned a bottomless abyss, and a tongue severed at the root twitched desperately.
"Now, it's time to go back in!"
Airi placed her hands on either side of her mouth and tore upward with all her strength, as if ripping fabric. Her mouth stretched beyond its limits until it resembled the maw of a lamprey. Her entire face had become a gaping orifice, the blackened teeth arranged like countless suckers in a grotesque formation. With her mouth stretched impossibly wide, Airi lunged forward and engulfed Lise's head.
No! Nooo!
She could feel the breath. Rotten breath. Cold, foul, nauseating breath. It slithered across her face like a serpent, raising goosebumps across her entire body. The sensation made her pray desperately for this moment to end, for the chilling nausea to disappear.
As if her prayer had been answered, the rotten breath vanished. But it wasn't because its source had disappeared—it was because her head had entered a place where breath could no longer be felt. Then came a sensation that her body instinctively rejected. A sticky, viscerally repulsive liquid covered her head, matting her once-smooth hair. Airi's maw, now covering her head, pulsed like exposed entrails, exerting a sickening pressure while the rotted teeth tried to sink into her skull, threatening to crush her temples.
And then—
Crunch.
A sickening sound echoed.
* * *
"Eek!"
Lise screamed and jerked her head up at the horrific, repulsive sensation. But instead of finding herself inside a monster's stomach as she had feared, she was in a small room with tatami mats. Lise frantically looked around. Dozens of candles flickered throughout the room, and her friends sat in seiza around them, staring at her with startled eyes. They all wore white clothing, with books and stacks of paper beside them, as though preparing to tell stories. Among them was Airi.
"Ah, Airi?"
Airi looked exactly as she always did. A white dress, large breasts, slightly drooping eyes, and a small mouth with thin lips. She stared at Lise with a puzzled expression, as if wondering why she had been called. Lise shook her head vigorously and reached for the back of her neck.
It's damp.
Cold sweat? The back of her neck was soaked. Not just that—her white clothes, her hair, her face—everything was drenched, as though she had just climbed out of a river.
"She dozed off during the Hyakumonogatari…"
"Did you have a nightmare?"
"Lise~! A shrine maiden's daughter shouldn't be so easily frightened!"
Her friends each threw in a remark.
Hyakumonogatari? I was doing the Hyakumonogatari?
Only then did Lise understand the situation. Hyakumonogatari—the ritual of preparing one hundred candles and having participants take turns telling one hundred terrifying stories. After each story, one candle would be extinguished, and when the final candle went out, it was said to summon a ghost connected to the participants.
I must have fallen asleep during the Hyakumonogatari and had a nightmare…
She understood it that way—that she had dozed off while listening to scary stories and dreamed a nightmare.
"Since Lise is awake now, let's move on to something really terrifying! Alright, here we go!"
Mahiro, sitting beside Lise, glanced at her still-racing heart and deliberately acted cheerful. Lise offered a small smile of gratitude for the consideration, and Mahiro responded with a thumbs-up and a wink. Clearing her throat, Mahiro lowered her voice and began her story.
"This happened when I was in middle school, third year…"
As the story began, the friends sitting in seiza all turned to look at her. Though no wind stirred in the sealed room, the candle flames flickered as if moved by something, casting strange shadows on the walls. Mahiro's face, illuminated only from below by the candles, gave her an almost ghostly appearance. For some reason, the way she covered her mouth with one hand while speaking felt chilling.
"I was in the drama club back then, remember? We were practicing late for the cultural festival, and on my way home, something felt off. The streets were strangely empty and eerie. I was already exhausted from my role, which required a lot of physical exertion, and the empty streets made me nervous…"
Mahiro leaned closer to the flickering candles, building the atmosphere.
"Fortunately, nothing happened until I could see my house. The mood was just unsettling, and there were no sounds of people, but no evil spirits or suspicious figures appeared. Still, I must have been pretty scared. The moment I saw the gate, my nerves focused on it, and somehow I found strength I didn't know I had. I ran with everything I had."
Gulp. Someone swallowed.
"But strangely, the lights in the house were off. The entire house was pitch black. I thought maybe my mom hadn't come home yet. But when I walked down the hallway, I saw a small light on in the kitchen. She was cooking. I felt relieved but also thought it was strange, so I called out to her. 'Mom? What are you doing there?' Like that…"
Lise listened intently to Mahiro's story.
"But my mom didn't move at all. She just kept cooking. It was around the time my parents were fighting a lot, so I figured she was in a bad mood from arguing with Dad again. I went to my room and changed clothes. Since I was covered in sweat, I took a shower too. But even after I came out, the house was still dark. So I went to the kitchen to check… and my mom was still cooking."
Was it because her voice was low, or because of the atmosphere? Mahiro's story carried a different tone from the usual ghost stories Lise had heard.
"I thought she must be really angry, so I decided to act cute and approached her quietly. But whether I came closer or not, she just kept chopping vegetables on the cutting board. Thud, thud, thud, thud."
Thud, thud, thud. Mahiro tapped her fingers against the tatami, mimicking the sound.
"The vegetables on the cutting board were practically reduced to powder, but she kept moving the knife. Thud, thud, thud. That's when I felt something was wrong. I grabbed her shoulder and said, 'Mom! What are you doing?' And then…"
"I could see her face… and it was exactly like mine."
Mahiro smiled faintly as she continued.
"She stared at me with my own face, completely expressionless, while her hands kept tapping the cutting board. It was so creepy…"
Thud, thud, thud.
"So I backed away in fear. Then the thing with my face finally opened its mouth. With that blank, mask-like expression, it spoke. Do you know what it said?"
"W-what did it say?"
Mahiro grinned at her friend's question.
"'Mom! What are you doing?'"
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Kyaaah!"
Screams erupted from all around, and Mahiro, satisfied with the reaction, continued with a laugh.
"That face kept staring at me and repeating it. 'Mom! What are you doing! Mom! What are you doing!'"
"H-hiik!"
"So I was so scared I turned around and ran outside. I shut the gate behind me and sat down, but I could still hear the voice coming from inside the house. 'Mom! What are you doing!'"
"S-scary…"
"And the voice kept getting closer. Then I heard the front door creak open. I ran straight to the police station and spent the night there before going home. But…"
Gulp.
"…the vegetables that had been finely chopped were still there in the house. What I saw hadn't been a dream."
Fwoooosh.
Having finished her story, Mahiro removed her hand from her mouth and blew out a candle. Then she glanced at Lise and suddenly half-rose, shouting, "Waaah!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
Lise, startled like a frightened cat, fell backward.
"Ahahaha!"
"Lise, what was that?!"
"You looked like a cat!"
"Lise! What are you doing?! Hahat!"
Her friends burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs, while Lise shouted, her heart still pounding.
"Mahiroooo!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry! Ahahaha!"
But no matter how much Lise protested, her friends' laughter didn't stop.
"Ahahaha! That's hilarious! So funny!"
"Lise! What are you doing?! Hahat!"
"Ahahaha! Lise, what was that?!"
"You looked like a cat!"
"Ah, ahahaha!"
Her friends rolled on the floor, laughing with abandon. The force of their laughter was so intense that they didn't even notice when the candles they had set up were knocked over and rolled across the floor.
"Ahaha! Ah, Lise! What are you doing?!"
"Lise, what was that?! Hahat!"
"You looked like a cat!"
"Ahahaha!"
Her friends pointed at Lise, holding their stomachs as their mouths stretched wide with laughter.
"Ahahaha!"
"Ahahaha!"
"Hahat!"
"You looked like a cat!"
And then Lise felt something was wrong.
"…What are you all doing?"
But the laughter didn't stop.
"Ahahaha!"
"Hahat!"
"Ahahaha!"
"Hahat!"
"You looked like a cat!"
Her friends continued laughing with their mouths stretched impossibly wide.
"Hahahat!"
The corners of their mouths rose so high they nearly reached their ears.
"Ha"
"Ahaha!"
As they rolled on the floor, the candles tumbled and went out one by one, and the sealed room grew darker. Each extinguished flame made the space that much darker. Ten flames gone meant ten times darker.
"Ahahaha!"
Only laughter could be heard. The faint light sources continued to die out until only a single, tiny flame remained—barely enough to illuminate a small portion of the room, too weak even to cast proper shadows.
"You looked like a cat!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Ahaha!"
"Hahat!"
With only one candle left, her friends stopped rolling on the floor and began to rise one by one. Yet strangely, laughter continued to pour from their mouths.
"Ahaha! Lise! What was that?!"
Still laughing, they slowly approached her. Then—
They thrust their faces forward all at once, right in front of her eyes.
"H-hiik!"
Their faces were identical to Lise's. And those things wearing Lise's face all opened their mouths with blank expressions. Slowly parting their enormous mouths that took up half their heads…
"Lise, what are you doing!"
"Lise, what are you doing!"
"Lise, what are you doing!"
"Lise, what are you doing!"
Then they charged at her with their mouths stretched wide, as if to devour her—
Crunch!
A sickening sound rang out.
* * *
"Kyaaaaaaaaah!"
"Ah, you've awakened."
Lise screamed as she bolted upright. In front of her stood a doctor.