[Ghost Story] Was I Called by the Gods? Or Something Else? —A Follow-up to the Old Coin I Found That Day—

Do you all remember the article I published on July 9th?

"I Received an Unexpected Souvenir While Visiting Shrines"

Do you remember that article?

On my way home from visiting the local Raiden Shrine and Dairokuten Shrine, when I got back to my house, an old coin I didn't recognize fell out of my pants pocket.

I have absolutely no idea where it could have come from.

I felt bad, thinking it might be something someone dropped at the shrine.

Thinking that, I decided to "return it the next time I visited the shrine" and put it away in my desk drawer.

…That was the story.

At the time, I thought that was the end of it.

However, it was not over.

A few weeks later.

I returned from work and opened my desk drawer as I always do.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular that day.

The moment I cast my gaze down, I felt something was off.

Two old coins were lying there side by side.

I couldn't take my eyes off those two coins for a while.

I only put one away.

I closed the drawer while thinking that.

After a few seconds, I opened it again.

Sure enough, there were two.

“Is it telling me to bring it back?”

That thought crossed my mind.

Of course, I immediately dismissed it.

That couldn't be it.

Even so, that night, my eyes kept turning toward the desk drawer.

The following Saturday.

Before going to return it to the shrine, there was one thing I wanted to verify.

Are there any old legends remaining in this area?

Thinking this, I visited the local history room at the library.

It was a quiet, air-conditioned room.

I called out to the staff member.

“I would like to look into old folktales or legends passed down in this area.”

The librarian thought for a moment,

“In that case...”

they said, and went into the archives.

After a while, they returned with an old booklet in their hand.

“Journal of the XX City Local History Research Society, 1998 Edition”

It was the final journal published by the now-defunct local history research society, and the feature was

“Preserving XX Legends Through Oral History”

it said.

I turn the page.

The paper is slightly yellowed.

I found the entry for Raiden Shrine.

It recorded two instances of mysterious disappearances.

One was in the late Edo period.

During a year of poor harvest, a ten-year-old farm boy, driven by hunger, walked near Raiden Shrine and never returned, becoming missing without a trace.

The villagers searched everywhere, but he was never found, and it is said that the story was passed down as a mysterious disappearance for years to come.

I stopped turning the pages.

I tried to picture the boy walking while hungry, but I couldn't quite imagine it.

The other was in 1942.

A woman who had married into a family in another prefecture had returned to her parents' home to recuperate from an illness.

"I'm going to pay my respects at Raiden Shrine."

She told her family this, left the house, and never returned.

The youth association and the fire brigade joined the search, but her whereabouts remained unknown.

Locally, this event is also said to have been passed down as a mysterious disappearance.

I closed the booklet.

Of course, these are just hearsay.

They are not necessarily historical facts.

It would not be strange if they were mixed with old tales and legends.

Even so, what came to my mind were not the two disappearances.

They were two old coins lined up in my desk drawer.

It was a coincidence.

That is the most natural way to think about it.

……I wanted to think so.

When I left the library, the evening sun had tilted just a little.

I made up my mind as I headed toward the parking lot.

After all, I should go and return them to that shrine once.

At that time, I had no idea that I would end up meeting that old man.

#note #LifeReignition #SmallExploration #ShrineVisiting #LocalHistory #StrangeTales #GhostStories #Folklore #Strolling #60s

【Another challenge started in my 60s】
As part of my life reignition, I am also working on writing novels.
Currently, I am publishing a legendary mystery novel on TALES.
It is a slightly different world from note, but this is also an important creative activity of mine.
If you are interested, please take a look.

▼ TALES Work Page
(Link)