Short Short 15 (Fantasy Edition): The Night the Kamaitachi Lament

The Night the Kamaitachi Lament

—

There was a small cut on the tip of Sota's right index finger.
Hardly any blood was coming out, but it was a clean, sharp slice.
I wonder if I got this when I fell yesterday.

“Did you fall again?”
Mom said, looking worried as she hung out the laundry.
“I don't know. Maybe, but I just noticed it. It's not bleeding much, but it stings a little. Should I put a bandage on it?”

“Well, go wash your hands properly. I'll put a bandage on it for you. Honestly, you're such a rascal every day.”
Mom said with a laugh, but she had a slightly worried look on her face.

Just then, Grandma called out quietly from the kitchen.
“It must be the work of a kamaitachi.”

Mom laughed and said, “Come to think of it, Grandma, you used to tell me stories like that, too. I had completely forgotten.”

Grandma stared at Sota and began to speak in a slow, measured tone.

“A kamaitachi is a yokai that lives in the wind, always in a group of three. That cut of yours, perhaps a kamaitachi gave it to you.”

Sota listened with great interest.
“Three of them? What does that mean?”

Grandma began to explain gently.
“Kamaitachi are three brothers. One makes you fall. Another has the role of making the cut. And the last one has the role of applying medicine to the wound.”

Sota opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“Make me fall? Make a cut? And on top of that, apply medicine? If they're going to do that, they shouldn't make the cut in the first place. Why… why do they do that?”

Grandma thought for a moment before answering.
“I wonder. I don't know myself. I don't even know if they are good or bad. It's just a story that such things exist. But, there are hardly any people left who talk about kamaitachi anymore.”

“I've never heard of them either,” Sota said.

Grandma continued.
“I've heard that yokai disappear when their existence is forgotten. Perhaps many kamaitachi have already been mostly forgotten and have now just become ordinary wind.”

Sota listened intently to the story.
“If their names are forgotten, do they disappear?”

Grandma nodded slowly.
“That's right. When their names are no longer called, they become nothing more than wind. When no one remembers their existence, they turn into wind and vanish.”
Those words echoed in Sota's heart for a long time.

“Then, if I… if my name is forgotten, will I disappear too?”

Grandma was silent for a moment, staring intently at Sota.

“If you are forgotten, you disappear. There are yokai like that.
Even so, if you, Sota, decide that you don't want to forget about the kamaitachi, that feeling is very important. As long as that feeling exists, I believe the kamaitachi are still somewhere out there.”

And as for Sota, Grandma loves you very much and never wants to forget you. I want you to remember that feeling, too.

Sota felt a mix of ticklishness and happiness.

...That night, Sota lay in his futon, unable to sleep.
He could hear the sound of the wind outside.
"I wonder if Kamaitachi really exist."
Sota whispered in his heart.
The wind echoed as if answering him in a small voice.

Sota opened his eyes, got out of his futon, and opened the window a crack.
A cold breeze brushed against his cheeks.
"Sota."
He felt as if he heard someone calling his name in his heart. His feelings calmed down just a little.

The stinging in his finger where he had applied the bandage had already healed, but Sota was thinking about the three Kamaitachi brothers once again.

At that moment, he felt as if the wind had blown just a little stronger.

............

Within the flowing wind, the three Kamaitachi brothers were talking.

"It's been a while since a human remembered us."

"That's true. Our kind has dwindled quite a bit, but there are still humans who call our names like this once in a while."

"We might just be troublesome yokai to humans, but it's nice to have our names called like this occasionally."

"Hahaha, you're quite selfish, considering we hurt humans."

"Well, isn't that fine? We're just yokai, after all. That's how it is."

The wind swirled around and around.

(End)