The Eleventh Night: Tsumakari ~ Nanakodou (Seven Children)

Author: [I would like to update the next chapter as soon as possible. I am looking forward to your feedback, as it will serve as motivation for my writing and help me determine the direction of the future story.]

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The feeling of unease remains in my chest, ever since my wife let slip a man's name that I didn't know. Judging by the familiarity in the way she called him, he must be someone she's quite close to, and likely they have known each other for much longer than me.

Thinking about it now, I realize that I hardly know anything about my wife's past. Sure, I was her first partner, but considering her bright personality, her appearance, and her breast size, it wouldn't be strange if there were one or two men who admired her.

And then I start to wonder, if an outsider like me hadn't appeared, would my wife have naturally ended up with that man? When I think of that possibility, a burning sensation arises somewhere in my chest.

At the same time, I can't help but imagine: if circumstances were different, would my wife have been embraced by that man just as she was in the dream brought by Kurotama? Once my imagination starts running wild, it's not just jealousy toward the unknown man that I feel, but a strange desire to watch my wife be taken by him.

It's because that sexual encounter we had, with its complex mix of guilt and pleasure, was so incredibly alluring. If only I could see the man's face...

...No no. My delusions are getting even more twisted now. Just imagining my wife being embraced by a yokai is already too much; Adding any more weight on top of it would be unbearable.

Now then. Speaking of Kurotama...

When my wife reached her climax, he disappeared just like he did when he appeared, woop out of existence. And my wife, she hasn't said anything about what happened. I casually asked her about Kurotama but she hardly remembers anything.

Is that really true?

Or does she remember everything about the dream but just hiding it from me?

I don't know.

I don't have enough courage to bring up the man's name and ask my wife about it, so the feeling of unease remains.

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In the meantime, the next tsumakari was decided - a being known as "Nanakodou". (七童-Seven Child)

Once again, it seemed to be a yokai unique to this world. Immediately, I began researching Nanakodou in ancient documents.

As the name suggests, Nanakodou takes on the form of seven children (The naming sense of yokai in this world is simple and straightforward), and in folklore, there is a story where "during the witching hour, when a child is playing alone, unfamiliar children appear out of nowhere and invite them to play. The child obediently plays with them and before they know it, they are taken away to somewhere else."

(TL/N: In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight, and the time between 3:00 am and 4:00 am.)

Although this tale serves as a warning not to play alone or stay out late, Nanakodou occasionally appears in other stories of this world. - "When the protagonist visits an unknown town, in the crimson landscape of dusk, they see seven children playing on the street. It seems like an innocent scene, but there is something strange about it. And this is a symbol that the protagonist has arrived at the entrance of another world, and it is the prelude to the beginning of a terrible supernatural event."

This is roughly how it goes.

Thus, Nanakodou is considered a fearsome yokai. However, there have been no reports of children being taken by Nanakodou in this town, thanks to the presence of Tsumakari... according to the notes in the ancient document.

I don't know if that's true or not, but Tsumakari is believed to be essential protector of people's lives here.

Still, it's strange that a yokai taking the form of a child would want to have sex with a human woman.

While I can understand that yokai gain information through sexual intercourse with Tsumakari's miko, isn't there quite a gap between sex and children?

It feels strange for a yokai taking on child forms to embrace humans.

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And then, the night of Tsumakari arrives.

The seven children who appeared at the back entrance of the mansion were exactly like a group of mischievous kids who came to invite someone to play. They looked like retro-style "children from the Showa era" that you would see in a picture.

They wore shorts and running shirts, sweaters covered in lint, baseball caps (wait, did baseball even exist in this world?), pants with patches on them, cheap thin dresses, bald heads with a dime-sized bald spot, runny noses, and always that one kid with an excessively flaky face holding a slingshot, or in this case, a pachinko machine. (which are now called slingshots for fashion purposes?) and Y-shaped wooden tools with rubber bands attached - something you'd only see in old anime or manga. It was my first time seeing these things up close.

Their appearance was so textbook-like that it felt forced and dirty - typical of mischievous kids from the Showa era.

Huh? There's also a girl among them?

If that's the case, then maybe I should just go talk to her...I thought to myself, and then I remembered a note in an ancient document:

"The Nanakodou are not seven separate yokai; they are one yokai made up of seven bodies."

So is it like a colony where each individual has its own function like some kind of jellyfish?

Well, if that's the case, then I suppose that any interaction between the seven of them might be no different from masturbation...

But still there's something strange about all this. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was exactly, but there was something off about it.

Firstly their expressions: they're not acting childishly nor do they seem excited; instead they remain silent without any expression whatsoever.

No wait...it's more than just being expressionless; it feels as if they're lifeless wax figures!

And it wasn't just their faces; there was a sense of unease that I couldn't quite comprehend, despite feeling it.

Individually, there was nothing particularly strange about each child, but when viewed as part of the overall scene, there was something odd about it. It was like watching an anime character moving around in a live-action background, as if it were slightly detached from reality...

My instincts are telling me that these beings may have taken on the form of children, but they're completely different from anything I've ever encountered before.

Meanwhile, my wife, ignoring my contemplation, bowed deeply with three fingers touching the ground in proper etiquette and says:

"Thank you for coming tonight. We offer our humble hospitality; please enjoy yourselves."

As for the seven children, they remained expressionless, gazing down at my wife without saying a word.

And then, as the greetings came to an end, my wife changes her attitude to act more like an older sister.

"Come this way," she said, leading the seven children by their hand.

Although the yokais (or rather, one single yokai) didn't show much emotion, they obediently followed behind her like elementary school students on a field trip.

My wife had always loved children.

Once they arrived at their destination, just like she did with the neighborhood kids, she straightened out their collars and tucked in any shirttails that were sticking out of their pants, she even helped them blow their noses.

When she noticed one of the children struggling to take off his pants, she understood his intention and, with an expression of resignation, helped him remove them.

Although my wife had been behaving like an older sister, her eyes widened in surprise as she removed the child's underwear.

Something appeared there, which did not resemble a child at all.

It was too magnificent.