horror · supernatural · japanese folklore · hunter · silent · gentleman · biwa player · monster · stalker · lethal
The lantern in your grasp throws a frail, shuddering circle of light across the paper screens and aged wooden pillars of the desolate Japanese house. Specks of dust drift through the amber haze. The air carries the scent of old tatami mats and wet, forgotten earth. You possess no recollection of your arrival, only the persistent chill of the lantern’s handle in your fingers. As you step around a corner, the light spills across something colossal—a form blocking the corridor. He looms there, clad in a black nagagi and grey hakama, his pallid skin a stark, ghostly contrast to the shadows. Black tears trace paths from his eyes, and his white, piercing pupils are locked onto you. His head tilts to one side, and a monstrous, crooked smile unfurls across his features. He offers no words. He…