【Japanese Horror】The Hundred Horror Tales — Episode 26: The Stone We Shouldn’t Have Moved | Haunted Kaidan Tales
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Episode 26 – “The Stone We Shouldn’t Have Moved| Haunted Kaidan Tales” (Full Text)
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Episode 26 — The Stone We Shouldn’t Have Moved
The darkness did not disappear right away.
After the last candle went out,
complete darkness fell over the room.
There was no light anywhere.
Only the feeling of tatami beneath our feet,
and someone’s breathing close by.
The afterimage of the flames that had been swaying moments ago
still lingered behind our eyelids.
—Kon.
A sound.
In the darkness, someone quietly swallowed.
Then the faint sound of striking.
—Shh.
A match flared to life.
First candle.
Second.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
The flames returned.
Then, once more—
—Kon.
“The entrance.”
Sōma stood up.
His footsteps disappeared down the hallway.
A door opened.
Cool night air flowed in.
A moment later, a figure stood at the end of the corridor.
Beyond the flames, the shape of an old man appeared.
Seikichi raised his eyes.
“…Sakichi?”
The figure snorted.
“Who else would it be?”
Still wearing his striped jacket over his shoulders,
Sakichi stepped into the room.
The five flames flickered across his face.
He looked over the candles.
“…What’s this? Telling ghost stories or something?”
No one answered immediately.
Only the flames moved.
Seikichi slowly looked at Sakichi.
Across the firelight, his face wavered.
“Seeing you…”
Seikichi said quietly.
“Reminded me of something.”
Sakichi shrugged.
“That doesn’t sound like a good story.”
Seikichi turned his gaze back to the flames.
“That was…”
“When I was still young.”
There was a time I went up into the mountain with Sakichi.
It was around this season—just before the air began to cool like it does now.
The mountain path, where the sun began setting earlier each day, smelled thick and damp.
We didn’t have any particular reason to go.
Just… wandering.
When you’re young, sometimes you walk deeper into the mountains without any reason at all.
“Let’s head back before it gets dark,”
Sakichi said.
He was wearing that striped jacket of his.
He must have liked it.
Whenever he went into the mountains, he usually wore it.
We found the shrine where the path began to narrow.
It was collapsing.
One side of the roof had fallen,
and the wood had darkened with age.
But it didn’t feel completely ruined.
Strangely enough, its shape still remained.
Small stones were scattered around our feet.
Round. Smooth.
They shimmered faintly in the evening light.
For mountain stones, they looked strangely well-shaped.
“What are these?”
Sakichi crouched down.
I sat beside him.
I picked one up.
Cold.
No—
not simply cold.
It felt as if it was pulling the warmth out of my hand.
I leaned forward and looked inside the shrine.
Dark.
Empty.
But the air inside felt thick.
As if sounds would be swallowed the moment they entered.
“Should we take one home?”
Sakichi laughed.
I laughed too.
“You’ll get cursed.”
I said it half as a joke.
Sakichi shrugged.
“No one’s been praying here anyway.
A bit late for that, don’t you think?”
He slipped one stone into his pocket.
I picked up two as well.
I don’t remember how many in the end.
On the way back, Sakichi turned around several times.
“What’s wrong?”
I asked.
“…Nothing.”
That was all he said.
By the time we came down from the mountain,
the sky had already turned completely dark.
That day, that was all.
We found the shrine.
Picked up the stones.
And went home.
Nothing happened.
…At least, that’s what I thought.
It was the night we brought the stones home.
Clack.
A sound.
The stone I had placed on the desk
was now rolling across the tatami floor.
I picked it up
and put it back.
After a while, the sound came again.
This time, it moved right in front of me.
Just a little.
But it moved.
The cold slid quietly into my chest.
The next morning, before I could go see Sakichi,
he came to me first.
His face looked pale.
“Do you still have the stone?”
That was all he said.
His hand was cold, too.
We didn’t need to say anything else.
Both of us
had experienced the same thing.
That evening, we returned to the mountain.
The shrine hadn’t changed.
Still half-collapsed.
Without exchanging a word,
we placed the stones back where they had been.
The moment the stone touched the ground,
the air inside the shrine
suddenly felt lighter.
There was no sound.
But the heaviness that had been there
was gone.
Sakichi muttered quietly.
“…Let’s go.”
We walked down the mountain
without looking back.
And that was the end of it.
After we returned from the mountain,
we stopped using that path.
It wasn’t something we decided.
Our feet simply stopped going that way.
When we met in the village,
we spoke as usual.
About water for the fields.
About the harvest.
About preparations for the festival.
We never spoke of the shrine.
There was no need.
That had been settled there.
Seikichi finished his story,
still looking into the flames.
Five candles burned in the room.
For a while, no one spoke.
Then—
Sakichi slowly opened his mouth.
“Seikichi.”
His voice was low.
“You’ve been saying my name this whole time.”
The flames swayed.
Seikichi raised his head.
Sakichi continued,
still looking at the fire.
“I never went to any shrine with you.”
The air in the room stopped.
Seikichi’s brow moved.
“What are you talking about?”
“I listened.”
Sakichi’s voice stayed calm.
“The striped jacket.
The stones.
The shrine.”
A pause.
“But I don’t know any of it.”
Seikichi’s eyes narrowed.
“Stop joking.”
“I’m not joking.”
Sakichi finally raised his face.
His eyes did not waver.
“I don’t remember going into the mountain with you.”
The flames flickered faintly.
No one interrupted.
Seikichi’s voice dropped lower.
“It was you.”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
“I didn’t go.”
Sakichi tilted his head slightly.
“Then who did you go into the mountain with?”
The words fell into the room.
All five flames swayed at once.
Seikichi did not laugh.
“It was you.”
Sakichi shook his head.
“I didn’t go.”
Their eyes met.
Neither of them looked away.
But then—
Seikichi felt something
slightly wrong.
The striped jacket.
He had definitely seen it.
But those stripes—
They were a little different
from the one Sakichi was wearing now
beyond the fire.
He thought they had been thinner.
And the color…
a little paler.
Seikichi narrowed his eyes.
The face.
The profile he had seen that day.
When he tried to remember it,
the outline blurred.
He should have remembered it clearly.
Yet the eyes—
only the eyes—
remained vague.
“…It was you.”
He said it again.
But this time
there was the slightest delay in his voice.
Sakichi spoke quietly.
“Seikichi.”
A pause.
“When did you go into the mountain?”
Seikichi tried to answer—
but the words would not come.
The season.
The date.
The weather.
None of it would settle.
Memories that should have been there
crumbled like sand.
The candles in the room flickered.
In that wavering light,
Seikichi realized something.
Back then.
In front of the shrine.
The shadow standing beside him—
was it really
Sakichi?
Seikichi stared at the flames for a while.
Sakichi said nothing.
Five candles flickered.
“…I thought it was you.”
“I didn’t go.”
A short reply.
Seikichi did not argue.
In front of the shrine.
A shadow standing beside him.
Someone had been there.
That much was certain.
But now, he could no longer remember the face.
“Maybe… I was the one being called.”
He said it quietly.
No one laughed.
Silence fell.
Seikichi slowly reached toward
the candle at the edge.
His fingers moved closer to the flame.
“Well… it’s fine.”
He took a breath.
—Fuu.
Only one flame went out.
The darkness spread a little.
The remaining four candles swayed.
From the extinguished wick,
a thin thread of smoke rose.
No one followed it with their eyes.
The room remained silent.
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The Hundred Horror Tales is an original Japanese horror anthology inspired by the tradition of Hyaku Monogatari.
Five storytellers gather around flickering candles to share chilling tales—urban legends, ghost stories, folklore, daily fears, and real encounters.
Can you endure until the last flame goes out?
Follow for more:
• Twitter: @KaidanTales
• YouTube: @HK_Tales
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