Halloween is Bewitched by You [Afterword for the Short Story]

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I'm really glad I was able to post this on the actual day...
I had almost given up on it, so I'm happy I managed to see it through.

Origin of the title

The title is based on
the idiom (or proverb?) "A tanuki is bewitched by a human."

The meaning is
"I thought I could easily trick this guy, but I ended up being the one tricked instead!"
Something like that.
It is said that tanuki often use transformation magic to trick people.
From the phrase where such a tanuki is tricked (bewitched) by a human, it means that you underestimated someone and tried to trick them, only to be tricked yourself.

I used this as a reference↓

Meaning, usage, and examples (synonyms) of [A tanuki is bewitched by a human] – Encyclopedia of Proverbs and Idioms

I adapted "A tanuki is bewitched by a human" into "Halloween is bewitched by you."

Actually, I didn't base it on "A tanuki is bewitched by a human" from the very beginning.

The initial draft title was "You, bewitched by Halloween."
The exact opposite.
The inspiration for that was just, "Hey, that sounds cool."
I just thought of a title that sounded like Halloween.

However, from there,
"Am I 'Halloween' (?)"
the setting was created.
It was a question mark at that point, though.

Then, suddenly, "A tanuki is bewitched by a human" was imported,
and it became "Halloween is bewitched by you."

Speaking of Halloween, there's mischief,
and tanuki trick people.
From this commonality, I thought I could replace the tanuki part with Halloween.

The human part was replaced with 'you' from the original draft.
That's how the foundation was built.

Looking at it this way, I really do think of the content from the title.
My friend says they think of the title last, but I always come up with the title first.
Sometimes that leads to me spinning my wheels, though.

I'm glad it seems to have come together nicely this time.