2: Master
It was when I moved out of a remote countryside and entered a midium-scale urban university. There was an extraordinary person in a circle I casually joined. Since I often had sleep paralysis caused by the stress from university entrance examinations, my interest in occultism was growing up more and more.
One day, when I was telling a spooky story to my friend, a guy who had entered this university earlier than I did, joined us curiously, saying, "You... You're interesting." He was a graduate student had been majoring Buddhist art.
We got along with each other soon and he even took me for a night drive the day. He suggested to have a midnight snack and took me to a family restaurant located so far from the town. It was GUST in the suburb area.
"Why here?"
" 'They' would appear. This place's my fave."
Gosh... Even being in a family restaurant got me nervous since it was the first time for this total country guy. And he just said they would appear?
"I'm gonna motion. You look down. You could see only its feet."
Being said that, who could really enjoy the food? As I ate, I suddenly had a ringing in my ears... My hand stopped and beads of cold sweat stood out on my forehead.
"Now. Look down."
I looked down quickly. Pale white feet passed by the table in the right side of my eyesight while I didn't... couldn't move for a while. Sudden sense of being patted on my shoulder made me come to myself.
"Did you see it?"
A famous horror film "The Ring" hadn't been released yet at the time but on another day, I noticed that the feet were exactly like the ones what Takayama saw in the city in the film.
As I nod, he said. "That was the source of the ghost rumor about this GUST, says there're extra feet of waiters. I can see whole though. You are lucky 'cause you can't see the face, you know." He's weird. "Finish your snack quickly. The waiters hate me."
Though I had relatively seen more ghosts than general people did, he had much greater sixth sense. I was certain of that.
After that, he took me to a mountain path to the airport to see mysterious smog or his favorite temples, then in the early morning, he finally released me. Since the day, I started calling him "Master".
It continued until his incomprehensible disappear.
1: Lock
My master of occultism had lived at an terrible apartment rented for 9,000 yen a month.
The entrance door had been often unlocked and sometimes locked with a cheap dial-type padlock.
There is this anecdote told about him.
Oneday in the morning, he woke up and noticed a strange guy sitting down next to his pillow. "Good morning," The guy said.
"Good morning," Master answered. Then, the stranger began an invitation speech for a cult-religion or something. Master didn't wait the strange guy to finish and said "Good bye,", leaving him alone behind in the apartment.
He never cared about crime prevention. Sure enough, the door was unlocked when I visited his apartment for the first time.
We drunk hard and zonked until we fell into asleep as if we passed out.
In the midnight, I had a ringing in my ears. I woke up and saw... a man shaped shadow looking into Master who was sleeping next to me.
I thought it was a burglar and panicked for a moment, but couldn't even lift a shout.
I kept my eyes slightly opened and gazed at the man, pretending that I was sleeping. The man began to walk toward the entrance dizzily.
―― Go away. There's nothing you want in this room, isn't there?
As I shouted urgently in my mind, the man opened the entrance door. When he turned around to me in the faint light, I saw an graze on his right cheek.
After he had left, I routed Master out. "PLEASE lock the door!" As I said, I was almost crying.
"Woo, it was scary." Master looked the other way. "But it's no use to lock the door for that." He said.
"What the hell are you saying? Are you fool? Oh, wait, were you awake?"
As I went on, he smirked and said, "You saw his face, didn't you?"
As I nodded, he told a gruesome thing, pointing his eyes with his fingers . "Glasses."
I understood everything by the word.
I'm weak-sighted. I can see almost nothing without the glasses. Even then, Master's face was so close to me but the outline was so dim.
"It was your first time seeing something without the glasses, yeah?"
I could do nothing but nod.
I became aware of that was what it should've been for the first time.
Anyway, Master told me that was only a passing. Although I've stayed at Master's apartment for several times after that, I've never met the man again.
About this blog
This blog is constituted of only English translated version of "Master series", which is one of the best horror novels everyone can read online, written by Uni and first introduced at 2channel.
Master series has been loved and supported by a lot of readers, then finally, this novel has been published and recently, it's being planned to be visualized as an animation.
There's no wonder. Because this is such a great work of Uni.
Although this novel is generally recognized as a horror novel, you'll find it's not only scary or creepy but also philosophical.
Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of this novel.
As a translator, I'd love to share this masterpiece with people all over the world.
You'll be fascinated by the storyline, the characters and the mysterious canvas once you begin to read.
The most remarkable point of this novel, in my point of view, is the way of storytelling.
The story is not told in a chronological order, making itself more mysterious and allowing readers to guess what really happened to Master.
Also, two main characters don't have any specific name. They are just "I" and "Master". This makes you feel some kind of sympathy towards them.
Well, I can't list all of the excellences of this novel.
Please do read ahead and find them.
Finally, I really appreciate the author, Uni, for giving me his permission to translate his works and to post online.
I hope everyone will enjoy this novel.
Kiki
Find more of his works written in Japanese at Pixiv.
I'll be continuing to translate the rest of Master series as many as I can.
Thank you for your kind support.
