Isshi's Tedium Diary
#25: Expanded Special
Good evening, how has everyone been? This is Isshi. Last month, our long-awaited maxi-single "Haru Urara" was finally released! It seems everyone has already heard about that, but the people who still don't have it should certainly buy it and listen to it at least once. And also, next month "Yotogi Banashi" will be released. Since these songs are so different from "Haru Urara" and full of grief, they'll be three tracks that really show the variation of Kagrra, so please take care to get this one too. Also, we've really kept you waiting. Kagrra's oneman live "Hisai" has been decided for this summer on August 27th, at Shinjuku Liquid Room! I'm truly looking forward to being able to meet everyone after this.
Well, my corner has been expanded this time, so I was able to talk more than usual. So when I was considering what to talk about, I thought I should display my true talent this time for sure, and realized it's gradually becoming the season for things like "ghost stories." I myself don't have much of an ability to sense the supernatural even though I have an unequalled fondness for ghost stories, but somehow there are many people around me who have strange experiences. A young man I was introduced to last month seems to have had experiences like that on many occasions. Ah, I guess I could say that due to his influence I'm in the mood for a ghost story today...
With these feelings, I thought that among the ghost stories I gathered, I'd want to tell an unforgettable story today. So please read it carefully to the end.
"Important Things..."
Do you have something you think is more important than life? I have so many of those things that I don't live enough. (laughs) Ah, but each and every one of us differs in the things we treasure, I think. What do people do when they lose those things? Now I'll tell a story, but it's not very scary, just a sad story.
In a certain prefecture, there was a young man named K-kun who was commuting back and forth to a prominent college. K's home was a fatherless household, and he was living together with only his mother, the two of them just scraping along. K's mother had her heart set on not allowing K his own wishes, and at every opportunity she'd be sourly saying, "Study. If you don't study we won't have a prosperous living! I have high hopes for you, so work hard!" K responded to his mother's expectations, so that while his friends were playing video games or baseball, he'd be alone at his desk, working frantically at his lessons with the hopes of becoming successful. As a result of his efforts, he was able to enroll in the number one college in the prefecture. His mother cried with joy over that. K had lived up to her hopes, so along with a great sense of relief he felt the pressure when his mother told him that he must struggle to be at the top of all his classes.
The incident happened when the results of K's college entry exam came out. K had even given up sleep so he could study, a point he had adopted since his first year. K was overwhelmed with delight that he had gotten the best grade and wasn't really thinking about anything else. As soon as school was over, he flew out of the classroom, straddled his bike at the school's bike parking area, left the school gate, and pedaled hard so he'd soon get home. And, just as he was turning a corner that would have him home, the sound of a terrible collision resounded. K had been impatient and rushed the corner without checking, and had been directly hit by a truck which was driven by a middle-aged man. Since there wasn't much traffic on the straight road, the man had been traveling above normal speed. The truck driver instantly jumped down and hastened to K's side, but even as he looked, K seemed brutally smashed up with his limbs scattered here and there, so that at a glance he knew it was instant death.
A policeman who heard the disturbance came running over, and couldn't believe the spectacle he saw. Somehow, though K was broken up, he was scraping together his own brain matter with all his might. The truck driver turned pale, and the policeman, who had never seen such a sight until now, couldn't find his voice nor could he even watch. In a little while, K spoke to the policeman who was standing dumbfounded.
"Mr. Policeman... please move your foot... something important to me is beneath it..."
Trembling with fear, the policeman and the driver fainted. According to those they asked later, of course K had died instantly and the policeman had come by afterward to clear up the brain tissue.
What in the world had the policeman and the driver seen? Perhaps what K cherished most in this world was his mother's expectations, or maybe the treasure was the "brain tissue" packed with his own efforts. Those thoughts seemed to show an impossible scene to the policeman and driver...
So what do you think? Let's read another "ghost story" when we have the chance to meet again...
Yours truly