On the 19th day, a friend suggested that all of this occurrences were illusions perpetrated by a mischievous tanuki or kitsune. He suggested that Heitaro set up traps to capture the troublemaker.

However, the yokai saw right through his plan. They disabled all of the traps and threw them up onto Heitaro’s roof!

When the trapmaker heard what had happened, he grew afraid. If it had truly been a kitsune or tanuki, they would have been too afraid to even approach the traps. No, the real culprit must be something far more fearsome!

On day eighteen, Heitaro went into his room to discover that all of the tatami were missing…

On a second glance, however, he realized that they weren’t missing, but were actually all strung up and hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Classic prank!

That night, a jingling sound was heard from the store room. When the door was opened up, a bishop’s staff jumped out and began to fly around the house, jingling and jangling as it went.

Greetings yokai fans!

I will be heading to Kyoto’s yokai festival this weekend as a vendor. It’s the same group I posted about when I visited in the spring, but the October even is much bigger. As you can see from the photos, they do a real life hyakki yagyo!

I’ve scheduled posts for Saturday and Sunday, so you’ll still get your daily dose of Heitaro. But I won’t have time to post a recap of the festival until A-Yokai-A-Day is finished! So hang on tight for even more yokai once the month is over.

Now, on to today’s adventure:

The seventeeth day of Heitaro’s haunting had come, with no sign at all that things would be letting up.

A group of friends came to spend the night at Heitaro’s house. Whether they came to genuinely support Heitaro through this difficult time, or because they just wanted to see the strange events firsthand, records don’t say.

What records do say, though, is pretty impressive:

During the evening, everyone was gathered together under the mosquito net. They were having a good time drinking and chatting, when suddenly they felt a presence. An eerie shadow was seen against the wall of the kitchen. Then they heard voices and footsteps in the house…

Everyone was terrified and unable to move. Everyone except for Heitaro, of course. He went into the kitchen to see what was going on.

Nobody was there. However, a barrel of pickles had been left by the kitchen door!

“Look everyone! The ghosts left us a present!” said Heitaro. “Let’s eat them!”

Of course, nobody but Heitaro would even consider eating pickles that had been left by yokai.

Oh well, more for Heitaro I guess?

Upon returning to the bed room, everyone noticed that their swords had vanished. They began to panic. Where could they have gone? Could yokai even use swords?

They searched all over the room. Then, they looked up. All of their swords were on top of the mosquito net!

Everyone grew more and more afraid. They huddled together and piled the futons on top of themselves.

Next, the table and incense stand from the butsudan began to fly about the room.

Heitaro’s friends were absolutely terrified. They covered their ears with their hands and squeezed their eyes closed.

Some of them started to cry.

One of Heitaro’s friends felt sick. He threw up on another guest’s face.

Heitaro washed his two friends off. However, the whole group decided that they’d had enough. Everyone ran home, leaving Heitaro alone with the spirits once again.

Well, the spirits and his barrel of pickles.

By the sixteenth night, the glue in his room from the previous night was completely gone. Heitaro was once again able to lay out his futon. Finally he would be able to get a good night’s sleep!

…Or so he thought.

During the night, a dozen or so severed heads on stakes appeared in his room. They began to dance around on their sticks, around his bed and up to his pillow. All of this was accompanied by strange, ritualistic music which came from out of nowhere.

Heitaro was tired and not in the mood. He went to sleep anyway, and let the severed heads just do their thing.

 On the fifteenth day, Heitaro heard a funny noise in his living room. It sounded like a voice shouting “Tontokosa kokoni!”

The sound was so bizarre that Heitaro had to investigate. It seemed to be coming from a painting hanging on his wall. Heitaro lifted the painting and…

…the missing sheath from the other day fell out from behind it, covered in dust and grime!

That night, Heitaro went into his room to prepare for bed, only to discover that the floors, walls, and ceiling were all covered in sticky glue!

There was no place to lay out his futon. Heitaro had no choice but to sleep sitting up. He glued himself to a pillar to keep from falling over.

On day fourteen, Heitaro heard a strange noise coming from his shed. When he went to check, he saw that the grindstone was moving all on its own!

Heitaro thought this was awesome. He filled up the mill with unpolished rice, and decided he would let the ghosts do the hard work of removing the husks.

He went to bed happy.

Until, that is, something woke him from his sleep.

The enormous head of an old woman had materialized on Heitaro’s ceiling. Her tongue was long, and drooping out of her mouth. Before he could react, she began to lick Heitaro all over.

Heitaro wasn’t scared. More like inconvenienced. He rolled over and tried to fall back asleep.

The worst part: Upon waking up, Heitaro discovered that none of the rice he put in the mill had been polished! Even though the millstone was grinding noisily all night, it did not actually do any work.

Stupid ghosts…

On day thirteen, Heitaro’s cook suggested hanging a sacred painting of Yakushi Nyorai in the house for protection. He offered to travel to Saikoji to borrow the scroll. However, his legs seized up and he wasn’t able to walk. So instead, Heitaro and his friend Heigoro would journey to the temple to borrow the painting.

Along the way, there was a flash of bright light and a sound like thunder. A bright red stone hurtled through the sky, and struck Heigoro’s back!

Heigoro fell to the ground, badly hurt and unable to walk. Heitaro had to carry him all the way home.

In the end, nobody got the scroll.

Ouch!