【Japanese Horror】The Hundred Horror Tales — Episode 31: Those Words Weren’t Mine | Haunted Kaidan Tales
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Episode 31 – “The 30 Minutes That Were Missing| Haunted Kaidan Tales” (Full Text)
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Episode 31 — Those Words Weren’t Mine
In the pitch-dark tatami room,
no one spoke right away.
After the fifth flame went out,
the only thing left
was the sound of breathing.
“…Shu-chan.”
Miwa’s voice
came from the darkness.
“Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?”
At that moment,
Sōma let out a small breath.
“Let’s light them again.”
Click.
The sound of a lighter.
The first candle
flickered back to life.
Miwa kept her eyes
on the flame
as she spoke.
“That night you came back.”
The second flame was lit.
“You took a bath like normal.
Ate dinner like normal.”
The third.
“We even had a conversation.”
The fourth.
“But then…”
The fifth.
The room softly filled
with light again.
Miwa looked straight at Shūji.
“It was only when you were watching TV
that something felt off.”
Shūji’s brow twitched slightly.
“The news was on,
but your eyes…
they were looking past the screen.”
“When I talked to you,
you answered normally.”
“But the pauses were strange.”
Miwa chose her words carefully.
“And then…”
“You started mumbling something.”
Aoi held her breath.
“Like a norito…
a kind of prayer.”
“But it wasn’t a Buddhist chant either.”
“I could hear it clearly…
but I couldn’t understand any of it.”
Shūji remained silent,
staring into the flame.
“It wasn’t all day.”
Miwa added quietly.
“Just sometimes.”
“Whenever you sat down in front of the TV…
it would suddenly start.”
At first,
I thought you were just tired.
Miwa began speaking quietly.
“You had just come back
from the mountain, after all.”
Shūji gave a small nod.
Someone else
was telling a story
about a night
he had no memory of.
That alone
made him look
slightly uncomfortable.
“You were completely normal.”
“You took a bath,
ate your dinner—
just like always.”
“You were even talking about it, like,
‘Today, up in the mountains…’”
Miwa paused for a moment.
“But then…”
“The way you spoke
started to change.”
Shūji frowned.
“What do you mean, change?”
“You stopped saying ‘I’
the way you usually do.”
The air in the room
grew just a little heavier.
“You started saying ‘I…’
like a different person would.”
Aoi instinctively glanced at Sōma.
Shūji let out
a faint, awkward laugh.
“Maybe I was just drunk or something.”
“You weren’t.”
Miwa cut him off immediately.
“You didn’t drink that day.”
A brief silence.
“And then…”
Her voice dropped slightly.
“Whenever you started watching TV,
you’d suddenly go quiet.”
“You’d just stare at the screen…”
“And then it would start again.
That muttering.”
The flame flickered.
“At first,
it was really quiet.”
“Too quiet to make out.”
“But little by little…
it got longer.”
Shūji lowered his gaze.
“I could catch fragments—
like individual words.”
“But they didn’t connect.”
“Some of them sounded
like names of gods.”
“But it wasn’t any proper prayer.”
“Not a Buddhist chant either.”
Miwa slowly shook her head.
“I’d never heard anything like it.”
“But it sounded…
like Japanese.”
Seikichi’s eyes
narrowed ever so slightly.
“When I called out to you,
it would stop.”
“When I said ‘Shu-chan,’
you’d just go, ‘Hm?’ like normal.”
“But…”
“You wouldn’t look at me.”
“Your focus was just…
slightly off.”
Shūji blinked
without thinking.
“Then you’d go back
to watching TV.”
“And after a while…
it would start again.”
That low, muttering voice.
It almost felt like
the sound itself
was returning to the room.
“That was just the first day.”
Miwa said quietly.
“Something you could still brush off as…
strange, but nothing more.”
But—
The flame suddenly
flickered harder.
“The second day…
that’s when it got strange.”
Miwa spoke
while staring at the flame.
“The first day,
it was still something
you could brush off
as just… odd.”
“But the second day
was clearly different.
It lasted much longer.”
Shūji remained silent.
He looked like someone
listening to a time
he had no memory of.
“You were normal in the morning.”
“You woke up,
got dressed…”
“And said,
‘I’m heading out,’
before you left.”
“That voice was the usual you.”
Sōma narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You came back in the afternoon.”
“Turned on the TV
and sat down on the sofa.”
The flame swayed softly.
“And that’s when it started.”
“It went on much longer
than the first day.”
“The muttering didn’t stop.”
Aoi hugged her knees tightly.
“It didn’t break.
Not even once.”
“People on TV
were laughing…”
“But you were making
completely different sounds.”
“That wasn’t all.”
Miwa lowered her voice slightly.
“When I looked more closely…”
“Your hands were moving.”
Shūji’s brow twitched.
“At first,
I thought it was just a habit.”
“But it wasn’t.”
The flame flickered.
“You were forming shapes
with your fingers.”
“Like you were tying
something together.”
“Slowly…
in a certain order.”
Aoi held her breath.
“And in sync
with those movements…
that voice kept going.”
A brief pause.
“You were repeating
the same shapes
over and over.”
Miwa spoke carefully.
“It was like—”
She searched
for the right words.
“Like you were doing something.”
“Sealing something…”
“Calling something…”
“Or…”
She shook her head slightly.
“I don’t know.”
“But it wasn’t just
muttering to yourself.”
Shūji lowered his gaze.
“When I called out to you,
it would stop.”
“When I said ‘Shu-chan,’
you’d go, ‘Hm?’ like normal.”
“In your usual voice.”
“But after a little while…
it would start again.”
That same muttering.
Over and over.
“The second night
was the longest.”
Miwa’s voice dropped slightly.
“It didn’t stop,
even in the middle of the night.”
“Even after I turned off the TV…
it continued in the dark.”
The air in the room
slowly grew heavier.
“That’s when I really thought…”
“Maybe we should have
someone take a look at you.”
Aoi gave a small nod.
“But…”
“You weren’t violent.”
“You didn’t get angry.
You could still talk normally.”
“So I couldn’t bring myself
to do it.”
A brief silence.
“Even after morning came…
it was still going.”
The flame flickered quietly.
“The voice finally stopped—”
Miwa looked straight at Shūji.
“On the afternoon
of the third day.”
A complete silence
fell over the room.
“You were watching TV…
and suddenly—”
“it just cut off.”
“Like something snapped.”
“You stopped completely.”
Shūji’s fingers
trembled slightly.
“And then,
with a normal face…”
“You said, ‘…Huh?’”
“‘What was I doing?’”
“That wasn’t all.”
Miwa lowered her voice slightly.
Shūji looked up.
“What do you mean?”
“…You know—”
The flame flickered.
“You were talking about
what happened in the mountains…
the part after.”
The room froze.
Sōma’s gaze
shifted quietly.
“After?”
“Yeah.”
Miwa nodded slowly.
“You know…
that thing
that was standing
in front of the shrine.”
“You said you ran away, right?”
“But…”
“You said
you couldn’t escape.”
Shūji swallowed.
“There’s no way…”
“You did say it.”
Miwa’s voice
was calm.
“You said,
‘There’s still a sound
inside the shrine.’”
“And…
‘It hasn’t been sealed.’”
Seikichi’s eyes
narrowed slightly.
“That’s not something
I would say.”
“Yeah.”
Miwa answered immediately.
“It was your voice…”
“But those weren’t your words.”
The flame
stretched upward.
“After it stopped
on the third day…”
“You went back to normal.”
“You didn’t remember anything.”
A brief pause.
“So I didn’t really tell you.”
“I thought it might shock you.”
Shūji kept his eyes
on the flame, silent.
“But…”
Miwa’s voice
dropped just a little more.
“That thing from the shrine…”
She chose her words carefully.
“I think it might have
come back with you.”
Silence fell.
“I don’t know
what it was trying to do…”
“Using your body.”
The flame flickered quietly.
For a while,
no one spoke.
Only the faint sound
of the flames
wavered in the quiet.
Shūji let out
a small, dismissive laugh.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not exactly
the kind of guy
something like that
would choose.”
He shrugged.
“If something from a shrine
was going to latch onto someone,
it’d pick someone better than me.”
Aoi let out
a small laugh.
The tension in the room
loosened just a little.
“Well, anyway…”
Shūji said,
still staring at the flame.
“Even if I was out
for two days,
it didn’t cause any trouble.”
“No one got hurt,
and I’m fine,
just like you see.”
He spoke lightly,
on purpose.
“Maybe I was just
going about things normally.”
“Some version of me
I don’t remember,
doing just fine.”
No one laughed
right away.
Only Miwa
kept her eyes on him.
“…Normal, huh.”
Her voice was low.
“Well, I hope so.”
The flame flickered.
Miwa gazed
at the candle
in front of her.
“I wonder
what it was trying to do.”
“Using your body.”
Shūji looked away.
“Who knows.”
“Some things are better
left unknown.”
It was meant
as a joke.
But he spoke
just a little too quickly.
Miwa took a small breath.
“…Well, whatever.”
She leaned closer
to the flame.
“If you’re back to normal,
that’s enough.”
She blew gently.
The flame wavered,
thinning—
and went out.
The room grew
slightly darker
once more.
The smoke curled upward,
swaying softly.
And in that moment—
from somewhere deep
in someone’s throat,
a faint, unfamiliar sound
seemed to slip out.
But—
no one mentioned it.
The remaining flames
flickered quietly.
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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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