Chapter 1

Hello. My name is Kazuhito and I’m the heroic cashier of the local mini mart. Okay. Maybe I’m not some great hero and maybe the mini mart is kind of small and dusty.

Alriiiiiiiight. I lead a pretty dull life. I work at the local mini mart. I left home when I was 18 and took my little sister with me because of our abusive step father. I go to work almost everyday at the dusty little mini mart to support us so we don’t have to beg for bread crusts on the corner. After work I head home to spend time with my sister and peruse the urban legend forum. Did I mention that I seek out urban legends? Well, now you know.

So let me re-introduce myself. I’m Kazuhito, the protagonist of this story. I lead a dull life where I go to work and then go home to take care of my sister. But by night I’m a master urban legend seeker, looking to bring these old stories some life Or in most cases, just find that they’re overexaggerated ghost stories. Why do I feel like you’re looking at me funny? Anyway, let me tell you the story of the summer I actually met one of those urban legends. Hachishakusama.

There I am, standing behind the counter at work while I watch the minutes on the clock tick away.

“3...2...1…shift is over! Time to fly!”

I jumped over the counter and screamed “See you tomorrow! I’m out!” to the others, as I ran out of the store to head home. It was adventure time, I didn’t have time to stay and chat with the side characters.

Now, I only lived a few short blocks from the store so I pretty much ran home most days to get in some exercise. When I got home I usually just busted through the door kind of like the Kool Aid man. Do people still know who he is? Well whatever. But this is an everyday thing so you would think my sister would be used to it by now.

SLAM!

We never locked the door since it was a pretty safe neighborhood. Since it was never locked, sometimes I would slam the door as I came into the house. I really should invest in some door stops. And of course my little sister tried to scold me every time.

“KAZUHITO!!!!”

I kind of ignored her screams at this point. She’s been with me long enough that she should just get used to it. I just kept going on my way upstairs to my room.

“I’ll be in my room sis!”

With that, I headed to my bedroom to jump on my computer and scan the urban legend forum that I check every so often. Okay, I checked it every night to make sure no one came close to site visit count. So I took another look at my next target. Hachishakusama, who it seems is locked in a bank vault in the woods not too far from the house. So if she was a spirit or whatever, how can she be locked in a vault? I just had to know. The forum I frequented had a few others who claimed they want to seek out these urban legends but I actually got out there and did it. I was the only one on the site with more than 10 registered site visits with pictures and notes. I was kind of a legend to those people. Maybe I was more like their god. Yes, their god. I like the sound of that.

“So this vault creature might be Hachishakusama? That’s one of those stories they told me as a kid to scare me. There’s no way that can be real, right? A super tall woman in all white who snatches kids? Sounds crazy. But it looks like the last claimed sighting was over 150 years ago. Would it even be alive at this point? Probably just an empty bank vault in the middle of nowhere that no one bothered to knock down. At least I could get a bunch of pics I guess. I do have an image to maintain with the forum geeks, I am their god afterall.”

I double checked my bag to see if I had what I thought I would need. My backpack was full of food, water, lights, a crowbar and a mini sledge hammer in case I can’t find a way into the vault if it even existed.

“Locked and loaded. Bag is packed. Should be good to go.”

I headed downstairs and at the bottom of the steps was my little brat of a sister Maki. I love her but she really is a brat. She had a concerned look on her face so I figured I was probably about to get scolded. She’s a kid and she’s been through a lot so I let her have her way most of the time. Even let her act like she’s the adult once in a while.

“Kazu, where are you going? It’s getting late.”

“I told you I’m on a mission. I’m going to go try and find all these urban legends. I want to see if all those old stories are true. Don’t you have something in life that you really want to do? Something to leave a mark on this world?”

Maki gave me a head tilt, sort of like a dog when you call it’s name before she gave me her response. “I don’t think so Kazu. I just want to play with my friends and take care of my idiot brother who’s leaving me all alone in this house at night.”

She flashed a snarky smirk at me after saying that and then started to pout since she realized I was going to be home late, if I even came home at all before I went to work. There were a few times I went straight to work from my adventures.

“Hopefully she’s not thinking I won’t come back. That would kill me.”

“Kazu...if you’re not back by midnight you’re buying me ice cream.”

“Don’t I always have to buy you ice cream? Is there ever a time you don’t get ice cream?”

“Hey! Don’t try to make sense!”

I did the only thing I could think of doing. I bowed to the mini princess.

“Yes princess. I shall obey.”

“That’s better. Now I give you permission to go. But you better come home tonight!”

I walked over to Maki and kissed her on the forehead as I was leaving.

“Ewwwwww! I don’t want Kazu germs!”

And then I was off. I ran out the door on the way to my next adventure.

“Take care of the house sis!”

You would think I’d be excited to be off on my next adventure. And you’d be right. The few times I was out, I didn't find anything but I was ready for anything if it ever came up. This time I was headed to an empty bank building that’s off the beaten path so I didn’t think that I’d find anything. I thought maybe I would take a few pictures and just post them on the forum and make fun of the others since I would be adding to my lead on site visits.

I was about 3 miles from the house. Trekking through the woods where the vault was supposed to be. “When they said this building was way out towards the woods, they weren’t kidding. It’s actually IN the woods. I feel like my legs are going to fall off. Guess I need to do more running than just from the store to my house.”

My determination is what kept me going, on my mission to find these urban legends, even though at this point I didn’t find anything of substance.

“I need to get in better shape.”

“I swear, with every step it doesn’t seem like I’m getting any closer to where the vault building is supposed to be. I’m not even sure how far I walked but I’’m truly in the middle of nowhere. Maybe I should rest at the next tree stump.”

As I looked out into the woods I saw what looked like a dome on top of a tall building. I thought to myself that this may be it. I may have actually found the building that contains the creature known as Hachishakusama. Was I going to see the creature I came to find or will it be another bust? I put my right foot up on this massive stump that was along the path and took a victorious pose.

“I’m about to become legendary! This will be the 12th site conquered by the great Kazuhito. Wait ‘til those nerds on that urban legend site see this!” Yes I shouted this. Kind of embarrassing. And I think I got the number wrong too. I think I had 10 visits, not 11.

At this point, you could say I was really feelin’ myself. I felt like a god since I found another one of the sites and it seemed to be intact. I busted out a crazy laugh like some kind of super villain about to take over the world.

“Hahahhahaahahaahahahha!!! I am king of the urban legend seekers!!”

Following that I continued my trek through the woods surrounding the bank building. And when I got to the top of the hill and cleared away some brush, I could see the building that was described online. A giant bank building with a golden dome on top.

“Looks like the only thing in this clearing out here is the vault. It was completely covered by wild brush and backed by this mini forest. I better watch my step since there might still be bear traps out here, according to the site. Though no one has records of actually coming here so how would they know if there’s bear traps?”

The vault building had a massive door. So I had to psych myself up before opening the door.

“Can’t imagine anything is still alive in there judging by how old everything looks.” is what I thought to myself before my cockiness kicked back in.

“Come on Kazuhito, time to open this door and become a legend. A legend among legends. Legendary!”

Bracing myself, I grabbed the handles on the vault. Now I expected the doors to be locked or at least hard to move but it wasn’t. When I pulled on the doors, they kind of flew open and I almost tumbled backwards because it was easier to open than I expected.

“That was almost too easy, it’s as if this door has been opened recently…”

So I began my descent into the dank bank building. Probably not the smartest thing I ever did. Who really just walks right into a building that might contain an 8 foot tall woman who eats people? Well I did...

“As the legendary Kazuhito enters the bank vault...”

Before I entered the vault, I put on my headlamp, pulled out my flashlight and a crowbar for protection since I didn’t know what was in there. I looked around the first room of the vault and the only thing I saw was crates and rice sacks. They look like they’ve been there for years, maybe decades. Everything in the room is covered in cobwebs.

“Looks like there’s nothing here. Didn’t think I’d find much but all these rice sacks and crates? It definitely looks more like a storehouse than a bank vault. Which is part of the story I never understood. Why a bank vault to keep this creature if it really existed?”

As I finished looking through the first room, I began to move towards the second room. In there, I noticed what looked like an actual bank vault door, the kind of door you would see in a bank where they store the money and safe deposit boxes. I never actually saw one up close before. It was massive.

“Nothing out of the ordinary here so far but if they were keeping a creature in here then why not have the lock for the vault door on the outside so it can never leave? But then I guess it would die in here right? It doesn’t smell like dead animal in here though. What is the real story of this building...”

I tried to turn the handle on the door but it didn't even budge. Not an inch, not a centimeter, not even a millimeter.

“I guess it was a longshot to think this thing would still work after all this time. Let me see what’s in this next room.”

Moving onto the next room I noticed that there is a passageway behind the vault room so I could circle back around when I was done exploring the other room. But there is one thing I didn’t notice at the time. In the first room I didn’t look behind the crates.

Since I didn’t check behind the crates, I didn’t notice that someone, or in this case, something else was in the vault with me. The creature that inhabits the vault had just awakened and this is where things got a little interesting.

“I swear I just heard something but I’m alone in here, ri---”

I kept moving towards the third room, while the creature started to stir. She started moving towards the wall behind the first and second room where she could see my back as I moved into the next room.

Since I thought I heard something, I turned around and noticed something red peeking around the corner. It was the creature’s eyes. She came from around the corner and started chasing after me.

“Wha-wha-wha-wha-what the hell is that?!!?”

I ran into the third room and noticed that the vault pathway looped around. I headed towards the back wall with the intention of circling back. I reached for one of the rice sacks to try to throw it but it was way too heavy to pick up and toss, so I kept running along the back wall to that area I saw behind the vault room.

“This is nuts! There’s no way that creature is in here. It’s been like 200 years since that story started circulating.”

Then I looked back again to see if the creature was still chasing me. It was but now I have a better view of it and it looked like a very very very tall woman with red eyes. As I passed behind the vault room, I noticed an opening in the wall which looked like I might be able to fit through. Since the creature chasing me took wide turns I assumed I should be able to get some distance between us and get away. Or so I thought anyway.

“I’m back in the first room and there’s that hole that I saw before. Just need to get that creature off my tail.”

When I turned back to see where she was, she was right behind me.

“Holy crap, she caught up!”

“Huuuuuuuuuman!!!!”

“It can talk!?!??!”

“Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuman!!!!”

Luckily she didn’t have much stamina and she made really wide turns. I was hoping I might be able to make a quick turn once I got past the front of the vault room. I pushed over one of the crates as I ran by, trying to trip up the creature. Then when I got behind the vault room, I knocked over another crate. This gave me enough time to make the quick turn at the back corner of the vault to try to slip into the hole in the wall that I saw the first time I went around the vault.

With very limited space and a creature after me, I couldn’t waste any extra movements. Once I hit the corner, I leaped into the hole in the wall. I’m lucky I didn’t miss because that would have hurt and then I would have fallen prey to the beast. My bag got caught on the jump, so I had to stop and try to pull it in. As soon as I got it through the hole, the creature was there staring at me with these deep crimson eyes.

“Huuuuuuuuman!!!!!”

The creature started trying to grab at me through the hole as I backed away from the wall.

“How do I get out of here? Do I have to wait this thing out?”

“HUUUUUUUUMAN!!!!!! HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMAN!!!!!!”

The creature kept trying to reach me through the hole since she didn’t fit through the opening. Since she wore herself out from chasing after me before, she gave up and she called out one more time but sounded defeated.

“Huuuuuman….”

I was huddled in the back corner of the vault, hugging my bag like it was the only thing keeping me alive or like it was some kind of protection from the creature sitting outside that wall.

“Crap. What is that? It’s like 10 feet tall. Is it really her? Can’t believe something was alive in here.”

Then I fumbled through my bag to pull out my phone to see if there was any way I could call for backup or maybe the police. I guess it would have been the police since I don’t have anyone to call for backup anyway. Who was I going to call? My sister? So she could cute the monster to death?

“No signal. Am I going to die in here? At least that thing can’t get in here. Guess I better try to sleep or something for now until I can find a way out or that thing leaves.”

It took a little while but I was able to fall asleep. What I didn’t know was the creature decided she was going to try again. Except this time she was quieter than before.

“Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuman…”

The creature was peering inside the hole and saw me fast asleep with my bag laying to my left. She started to pull some of the bricks around the hole, one by one. With the years of decay and her strength she was able to pull some of the bricks with ease. She kept pulling bricks out until she could fit through the enlarged hole.

Now that the hole was much bigger, she climbed through the wall and crawled right up to me, trying to make sure she didn’t wake me up. I’m glad I was asleep at this point because she was looking me up and down like she was preparing to eat me. Imagine waking up and seeing someone in front of you who was much larger and had a mouth full of fangs. Scary right? So yeah, good thing I was asleep.

But being that she had been locked in this bank vault for who knows how long, she decided she wanted to talk to the first human stupid enough to invade her space. That would be me, the stupid human. I’m glad she wasn’t hungry at the moment or I have a feeling I would have been on the menu. Instead of taking a bite out of me, the creature laid next to me and put her head in my lap gently so as to not wake me up.