11: The Fish-man

Uh, I'd like to finish all of the episodes before the end of summer.
Though I think  I've said I wouldn't write anymore, I wanna end this by writing them all.

I've done various dengerous things and visited heaps of dengerous spots. But fortunately I've never been possessed by spirits so far. All except only once.

In autumn when I was a first year undergraduate, I played 'Kokkuri-san', Japanese table turning, with my fellow circle members. At my boarding house. In a genuine way. 
I had a master of occultism who was a senior in the circle. He learned about the genuin way of Kokkuri-san.
 ― The 50 letters of Japanese alphabets were written on a piece of Japanese writing paper called 'hanshi' with black india ink using a Japanise brush. The ink contains saliva of all the participants.
― Japanese sake which is placed beside the torii - a type of gate often seen at Japanese shinto shrine - is sanctified in a taboo-space fenced by a sacred straw festoon.

Usually we played Kokkuri-san just casually but once Master joined, the atmosphere was quite different to make everyone seriouse and behave.

Around 10 minutes later, a guy with white cloth came out of a wall of the room in a sudden manner.
His face was pale, blank and … had a face looked like a 'fish', hard to explain though.
No one but me, frozen, noticed the guy.

"Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san," as they went on, he soon disappeared into the wall after staring at us.

Before he completely disappered, I slided my glasses down to check if his outline would grow blur. But it didn't. I don't know why or how but I can clearly see ones not alive no mattter if I don't wear glasses or contact lenses.

We finished playing Kokkuri-san while I had butterflies in my stomach, then the meeting broke up.

"What was that?" I asked Master when we were about to go home. He must've seen it because even I saw. However,

"I don't know," He simply said.

From the next day, freaky things began to happen in my room. 
I could put up with the rapping sound. What scared me out was a man shaped bulge in the bed sheets. I often saw it when I unintentionally turned around to my bed while playing video games in the midnight. As I winced at it, the sheets were back to the original position, sagging.

What else was that fish-face guy. As I heard the ringing in my ears and looked at the window, he'd just passed by.
I was okay with just seeing them though, seeing a blanket actually wriggle was mentally tough.

Being unable to stand it anymore, I begged Master for a help. However, he said it wasn't a ghost or spirit of a human. If it was, he could've felt what the ghost thought about. But he couldn't.

It was also different from a simple animal ghost. He had no idea about what it really was. He also said that sometimes there were those kind of ghosts or spirits he never wanted to be close to. 

Master, who was one I rely on, said so. The fact made me feel like I was dying.

Because the spirit must've been summoned by Kokkuri-san, my idea was to play Kokkuri-san once again to exorcise it. But Master didn't agree with the idea.

Eventually, it suffered me for half a month.
The fish-man sometimes appered, not showing any rueful look but only malice out of curiousity, I don't know. 
Although that man shaped blanket was certainly creepy, I also hated that the door I locked before going to bed was unlocked in the morning.
One midnight, when I woke up, I was clasping the doorknob in the darkness. Apparently, the door was unlocked by no one but myself.

When I started considering to move out as I became sure that I got a neurosis, Master aimlessly visited my place, asking me to let him stay for three days or so.

While he was staying, neither the fish-man nor any hauntings appeared.
"Probably," said Master when he went home, profusely giving sighs. "He's not coming here again," He looked like feeling sluggish.

"Care to tell what was going on here, at least?" As I asked, he told me reluctantly.

"Do you know that hidden travelers' guardian statue? Of the Mt. What its name?"
It was quite a famous haunted spot. I'd ever heard the place was pretty dangerous. "I went there to break down the statue," said Master as I nodded.

It got me speechless.
He told me that much more dangerous one came with him and chased the fish-man away. And solving my fish-man problem was just an opportunity for him. But he didn't tell me what his true purpose to break such a dangerous statue was .

"Well, I'll take care of myself," Master said, giggling feebly.