Before long, the three of us were completely immersed in this game.
As soon as school was over, we would run down the street, competing to see who was faster and head for the Tanuki Shrine.
“….This is Agent Snake speaking. Two armed soldiers are heading this way….. and one armored vehicle! They are moving fast!”
“This is Agent Fox, roger that! Pause the mission and take cover, hurry!”
For us three, the term armed soldiers was a slang we used to indicate middle-aged women on their way home from shopping.
It was a good game to have fun. Before we knew it, we were enjoying this game in all seriousness.
“There they go. Back to work!”
“Left and right, all routes clear. Out!”
The locksmith, who was in charge of opening the lock and had been hiding at the back of the shrine poked his head out, peering around. In all honesty, there was no need to hide. We could just move away from the offering box and sit in a circle, pretending we had no interest in the shrine and were just hanging out. However, it would have been boring if we were to do that and not as thrilling as we wanted. Therefore, from some time ago, we added a new rule to this lock-picking game: the one who would be in charge of opening the lock couldn’t be seen by anyone.
From the day onward, the simple game of lock-picking had become more interesting and thrilling to us. We also divided the role of watchmen, guard, and locksmith among us which would be changed every day. The role of the locksmith was the most exciting, and because of that, we all wanted to have that role. I used to think the roles were too silly for such a game, but once I got into the role, I found it surprisingly interesting. We weren’t worried about being discovered. We were just pretending this way because it was thrilling to us who were hungry for stimulation.
With this pace day in and day out, we thought it wouldn’t be long when the day would arrive when we could open the lock. However, if we really did successfully open the lock, this game would be over.
Therefore, while we were enjoying the act of trying to break the lock, at the same time, we also didn’t want the game to end.
And yet, day by day, the number steadily progressed, shrinking the fun time itself. The irony that we should have been happy gripped us. However, the day that was meant to come eventually arrived.
“….Ah…”
As an unusual response left my mouth, the lock easily slipped out.
Although I had worked so hard until today to open the lock, my first response when I was able to open it was rather bland. As if I had accidentally broken a toy I was having fun playing with.
Hiroyuki and Toru should have been guarding the perimeter, however, as soon as the lock slipped out, the two of them hurried to me and gathered around.
“It opened…!”
“I can’t believe it really opened…!”
“I never thought we could really open it…. What is the pin?”
“393, thank you….. it means thank you, I think?”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s an inappropriate pin for an offering box.”
[T/N: 393 (サンキューさん) can also mean thank you.]
“The pin is very easy to remember. That means we can open it anytime we want…”
“So, does that mean that the money offered in this offering box will be our allowance from now on?”
“We’ll have to split it into three parts, okay?”
“Just hurry up and open it! How much do you think is in there? How much?”
Although we haven’t had any intention to splurge up the money inside the offering box, and it wasn’t for this purpose that we opened it either. However, it was a different story now since we succeeded in opening it.
We had no expectations of what was inside, but even so, we were excited to open it as if some expensive treasure was hidden inside.
Before opening the lock, our modest expectation was that at most 500 yen would be inside. Now our expectations had soared to the point where we hoped a generous old man might have put a 10,000 yen bill in it.
With big smiles on our faces, we finally pulled open the drawer.
“I hope there’s only money inside…. What are we going to do if a dead cat jumps out of it? Are we going to be cursed….?”
“Who the hell stuffs a dead cat inside an offering box?”
While the two of them were laughing heartily, I couldn’t help the rising guilt for opening the offering box. There was also the fear that some kind of ‘curse’ would be cast on us for our mischief.
“Open up…”
“Quickly….”
When I pulled out the drawer, it slid out smoothly with much less resistance than I had expected. Inside, it was filled with dust that flew out as soon as the drawer was opened.
When the dust settled down, we peered inside and saw only a few coins were lying there. After counting, it was only one hundred and twenty-five yen in total.
“125 yen.”
“I didn’t know there were pious people who would put 100 yen coin in a place as inadequate as Tanuki Shrine…”
Bitter chuckles escaped our lips at the thought.
Even though we were witnessing the natural result, for some reason, we still felt a little disappointed.
From the beginning, we had not expected much from the contents. However, at the moment of opening it, everyone was imagining wonderful treasures or terrible creatures hiding inside. But the disappointment of finding something inside which was far from what you expected hovered above us.
…Perhaps we were finally becoming bad boys.
“So, what should we do now? Should we split it up? We will only be getting 40 yen each, right?”
“But what’s the point of splitting it up, we can’t even play one game. Maybe we should buy some cheap snacks with the money and that’s it…?”
“…It’s ridiculous. I don’t see any point in splitting up if there’s not at least 1,000 yen in it.”
Just 100 yen couldn’t even help us buy some proper snacks. In the end, we just left the contents in its place, put the drawer back and locked it.
“Haaah, all our efforts turned out to be a waste!”
“I told you before. I knew that from the beginning. I just hoped maybe there would be 10,000 yen in it, but—”
“Finding a bag of a million yen in a bush is nothing in this day and age. I thought we could at least have a thousand yen bill in the offering box!”
“As hell if you knew!”
With our favorite game over, we felt a great sense of accomplishment for having finally achieved such a great feat. However, a great sense of sadness also lingered around us at the thought of what we would play the next day.
So, we started suggesting what we should play next.
Playing the game of lock-picking was very exciting and thrilling to us. We had so much fun that we couldn’t help but expect the next game to be just as fun, or even more so.
However, it was quite difficult to come up with a fun game.
“Do you guys have any interesting ideas?”
“If we could think of such a fun idea, we would have thought of it a long time ago.”
“…Ahahaha, that’s true.”
In the end, not being able to think of anything, we reluctantly returned to the topic of lock-picking.
How fun it was. How the sense of danger felt. Etc., etc….
We also agreed that the most interesting and thrilling part was the process of trying to open the offering box.
“No, I was very nervous at first. I even had a nightmare. I thought I was cursed!”
“I don’t think a curse from Tanuki Shrine can harm us much!”
Although we were aware that there wasn’t any curse, we all were creeped out thinking that we could be cursed.
“The part where we thought we would be cursed or punished by gods was scary. And we also thought there was a lot of money inside it. It was really hilarious.”
“What if there was really 100 million yen inside while we were trying to open it? If we split it up, each of us could get at least 30 million yen.”
As the topic tilted to that, we got excited discussing what we would have done with that money.
In the end, we all agreed that it was a shame to open the offering box. The mystery of what could be inside, and our imagination of expensive treasure might be inside was what had made us so engrossed in the game.
“No matter what we thought, it was truly thrilling as well as mysterious.”
“But what should we do now? Should we start digging a tunnel and attempt to rob a bank vault?”
“Hahahaha, that sounds good.”
In the middle of such trivial chatter, Hiroyuki suddenly clapped his hands in excitement.
“Oh, that’s right. I suddenly remembered something! Tomohiro, weren’t you afraid of being cursed by the god of Tanuki Shrine?”
“Hub? Did I say anything regarding that?”
“I think you told us before. But the god of Tanuki Shrine is nothing special.”
“What’s that, is there any interesting story behind it?”
“Do we know about it?”
Toru and I looked at each other in confusion.
“… Stories are nothing interesting. Like the Seven Mysteries of School.”
“Yeah, I know. Like the piano in the Music Room that starts playing in the middle of the night, or the dancing skeleton in the Science Lab!”
“Also, there was one where the statue of the First Principal moved and talked. It was pretty stupid.”
“Honestly, ghost stories aren’t that scary, right?”
The Seven Mysteries of the School were supposed to be scary stories made for teenagers who were hungry for thrills. However, they existed in almost every school, and were more hilarious than scary. The content was also monotonous and similar in every school. It was like a book recommended by the Ministry of Education which could be seen in every school’s library.
So the Seven Mysteries were just made for our entertainment and no one thought they were scary.
“So, how about we create a new ghost story?”
Creating a ghost story?
I always thought that creating something means making it with your own hand. Like making a plastic model or a clay sculpture. The act of ‘creating’ meant making something that you could touch and see.
Therefore, I had never thought in my life that I could ‘create’ a ‘ghost story’ that I could neither see nor touch. To me, such a thing could only be created by a being greater than human.
So I was a bit surprised at the proposal.
“… Creating a new ghost story…”
“Why? Are you trying to make the eighth mystery of school?”
“Yes! Not one of the old Seven Mysteries are scary or mysterious. So we will make a new ghost story that will become a new standard and terror for young people!”
Deep down, the three of us were slightly afraid of curses and ghost stories. So the feeling of fear, that made us afraid to go to the toilet, where the dreaded ghost stories lingered, felt very noble to us.
However, creating one didn’t sound fun to us.
Sure, it would be thrilling to do so since it was new to us, but… there would be nothing mysterious in it. Mystery is something that we couldn’t create. So according to Hiroyuki’s proposal, we brainstormed various ideas, trying to think of a way to create a new ghost story.
As Toru and I added the element of mystery to the ghost story made by Hiroyuki, it became a unique story that no one had expected. It seems the saying, three heads are better than one, is true.
“Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?”
“If it works, maybe we can make a lot of money from this.”
“Haha, I don’t think it works that way, does it?”
“I’m just looking forward to the mystery~”
The three of us had a feeling that this new game we came up with might be even more interesting than lock-picking.
