ATTACHED LETTER TO THE EMAIL
575 Words
Good day,
I am writing to formally request the assistance of your organization. I have chosen to remain anonymous for my own safety and peace of mind. What I am about to describe is something I can no longer explain on my own.
On October 11 of last year, during the Tachikawa Yokai Bon Odori in Tokyo, my younger sister disappeared.
The festival was crowded, as expected. Lanterns lined the streets, drums echoed through the night, and many attendees wore yokai masks—oni, spirits, and figures meant to resemble beings from folklore. My sister was beside me the entire time. She did not wander off. She did not panic. She did not leave my sight willingly.
She vanished within moments.
There were no cries for help, no disturbance in the crowd, and no witnesses who could explain when or how it happened. The incident was dismissed by the authorities as a common disappearance during a large public event.
What followed is what truly frightened me.
Within months, I realized that I was the only one who still remembered her.
My mother insist she never had a daughter. Relatives and neighbors have no recollection of her existence. When I speak her name, they react as though I am describing someone who was never real.
Even the records of her have begun to disappear.
Photographs that once included her now appear altered, damaged, or empty. Some images no longer exist at all. I cannot explain how or when this happened. I only know that the world is slowly adjusting itself as if she was never meant to be here.
What unsettles me the most is that even I cannot fully understand how I still remember her.
I remember her presence, her voice, and the feeling of standing beside her—but when I try to recall specific details, my thoughts become fragmented, incomplete, as if something is actively resisting my memory. It feels as though I am not meant to remember her, and yet I do.
That night, before she disappeared, my sister mentioned that the masks felt "wrong"—especially the oni masks, which she said looked as though something was wearing them rather than the other way around. She also said she felt watched by something "standing between places," not fully part of the crowd.
Since then, I have learned of the kakureyo—the hidden world that exists alongside our own. I fear that the Yokai Bon Odori is not merely a cultural celebration, but a moment when the boundary between worlds weakens.
Recently, I was informed that your team will be working with an informant based in Hyogo Prefecture, someone familiar with local folklore and similar cases. I believe this individual may hold information crucial to understanding what happened—not only to my sister, but to others who may have vanished in the same way.
I am afraid that what took her does not simply take people—it erases them.
If this phenomenon continues, then my sister was not the first, and she will not be the last.
I am asking for your help to investigate what truly occurs during the Tachikawa Yokai Bon Odori, and to determine whether these disappearances are connected to forces beyond human understanding.
More than answers, I need confirmation—that my sister existed, and that my memory of her is not a mistake.
I hope you will accept this request.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Sibling
- Writer
