【Japanese Horror】The Digital Priestess — Episode 12: Where He Should’ve Been | Haunted Kaidan Tales
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Episode 12 – “Where He Should’ve Been” (Full Text)
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The Digital Priestess — Episode 12: Where He Should’ve Been
After class, Kenichi didn’t go to the cafeteria.
Instead, he headed for a deserted stairwell landing.
He felt like his phone was radiating heat from inside his pocket.
(…Let’s find out.)
Proof that Tanaka existed.
If no one else remembered him, he’d prove it with records.
Kenichi opened his photo gallery.
First, the seminar trip from last year.
A group photo in the inn’s lobby.
Tanaka had always stood to Kenichi’s right—
grinning, game in hand.
He looked at the screen—
and forgot to breathe.
He was alone.
Where Tanaka should have been, there was only Kenichi’s backpack.
He checked other pictures:
a classroom group shot, a party, karaoke night.
Tanaka wasn’t in any of them.
—No, it was like he’d never been there to begin with.
No signs of editing, no odd shadows.
Everything looked perfectly normal.
Kenichi was just… alone. Naturally so.
(This isn’t right… No way this is right.)
He gripped his phone tightly.
LINE. SNS. School rosters. Now even photos.
Everything insisted Tanaka had never existed in the first place.
(But I remember. I talked to Tanaka. I know I did.)
His mind throbbed like it was being crushed.
What was real?
What was memory?
What was a lie?
(…Am I the one losing it?)
He stood up and braced himself against the wall.
His vision blurred.
His heartbeat pounded in his ears.
(…Was it all just in my head?)
Maybe that would’ve been better.
If it was just a dream, he wouldn’t be this scared.
But Tanaka’s voice, his face, his way of speaking—
they were still clear. Too clear.
(…I’m the only one who remembers. No one else does.)
What scared him wasn’t that the world was broken.
It was that no one else noticed.
Everyone else was fine. Happy.
Living their lives, never having heard of “Tanaka.”
Kenichi sank down to the floor.
He held his head and bit down on his lip.
(…Why… Why is it just me…?)
Just then, his phone buzzed.
His shoulders jolted.
He looked at the screen.
Maybe it was just a LINE message. Or a news alert.
He wanted to believe that.
But the name on the notification was too familiar:
Miko Weather
And the message beneath it—
“Something you hold dear has disappeared.”
Kenichi’s breath caught.
The worry that had been stabbing at his heart all this time—
had finally turned into a blade named certainty.
(…It really happened…)
His hands trembled as he gripped the phone.
But the app remained still, quietly waiting.
Kenichi muttered under his breath, barely above a whisper.
“…Don’t mess with me…”
No one replied.
His words vanished silently into the air.
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New episode drops on Tuesday May 27.
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The Digital Priestess is an original Japanese horror story about a mysterious app that starts off as a weather forecast — but soon, things go very wrong.
What would you choose?
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