7-9 (1)

by Mizukami Kyouka · 2026-03-31

As I progressed along the endless path, I made up my mind. There was no turning back now. In the place I had left, a missing corpse still lay. Despite my fear, I ran through the grass, but unable to endure the half-shadow pressing from behind, my feet tangled, I tripped on a stone, and fell. At that moment, it seemed I had injured my knee.

After that, walking became a bit difficult, but I thought that if I collapsed here, I would only be suffocated by the heat. So, I roused myself, lifted my head, and proceeded towards the mountain pass.

The scent of roadside grass was frightening. Something like large bird's eggs lay scattered at my feet. I continued for about two more ri, ascending a winding, snake-like slope, reaching the heart of the mountain, turning around a rock, and avoiding tree roots. The path was so steep that I unfolded the General Staff map.

Indeed, the path remained unchanged. As I had heard and seen, it was undoubtedly the old road. There was no point in worrying. The map merely showed a red line drawn over a chestnut burr. It did not indicate difficulties, snakes, caterpillars, bird eggs, or the smell of grass. I folded it up completely and put it in my pocket, then stood up while chanting a prayer. But before I could catch my breath, a pathetic long worm crossed the path.

At that point, I thought there was nothing more I could do. I believed this must be the work of the mountain spirit, so I discarded my staff, bent my knees, and placed both hands on the scorching ground.

“I am truly sorry, but I must pass through. I will pass as quietly as possible so as not to disturb your nap, so please forgive me,” I pleaded from the bottom of my heart. As I lifted my forehead, a tremendous sound suddenly echoed.

In my mind, I thought it was something like a giant snake. Three, four, five shaku square, over one jo in size, the movement of the grass spread out, and it swiftly swept straight towards the nearby valley. Eventually, the peaks and mountains all shook at once. As I stood trembling with fear, a coolness permeated my body, and I realized a mountain wind was blowing.

What began to be heard from that moment was an echo, a reverberation carried by the mountain's voice. It felt as if the wind swirled deep within the mountains, creating an opening from which it blew forth.

Perhaps due to the mountain spirit's influence, the snakes disappeared, and the heat subsided, which emboldened my spirit and lightened my steps. However, I soon understood why the wind suddenly turned cold.

This was because a vast forest had appeared before their eyes. There was a saying that it rained on Cheonsaeng Pass even on a clear day, and people spoke of a forest untouched since the age of the gods, but the path they had taken so far had too few trees.

This time, it felt as if crabs would walk instead of snakes, and my straw sandals felt cold. After a while, it grew dark, and I could distinguish cedar, pine, and hackberry trees. In places where faint sunlight pierced through from afar, the color of the soil was entirely black. Within it were beautiful patterns of blue and red, as if rays of light penetrated the forest.

Occasionally, what tangled around my toes was a thread-like stream of accumulated leaf dew, which would strike branches and run high above. Sometimes, evergreen trees shed their leaves, making a rustling sound, and falling onto my cypress hat with a sudden clatter, without me knowing what kind of tree it was. Or they would spill behind me as I passed, accumulated from branch to branch, and I didn't know how many decades it had been since they last fell to the ground.

My anxiety was undeniable, and it might seem cowardly, but for someone with insufficient training like myself, such dark places were actually more conducive to calming my mind. Since my body felt lighter, I forgot the weakness in my legs, and I made great progress along the path. Just as I thought I had crossed about seventy percent of the forest, something dropped with a thud onto my hat from a tree branch about five or six feet high.

It felt like a lead weight, and thinking it might be some kind of nut, I shook it two or three times, but it was stuck and wouldn't come off easily. I mindlessly reached out and grabbed it, and it felt smooth and cold.

When I looked, it was a creature with no eyes or mouth, like a split sea cucumber, but it was definitely an animal. It was eerie, and as I tried to throw it off, it slid down and clung to my fingertip, dangling. Beautiful, bright red blood dripped from that detached fingertip, and I was surprised. I put my finger under my eye and stared, and there, on my now bent elbow, was a sea cucumber of the same shape, about five bu wide and three sun long.

While I was dumbfounded, it began to shrink from below and swell up, which was due to it thoroughly sucking in fresh blood. It was a blood-sucking animal like a warty cucumber, with a murky black, smooth skin and brownish-red stripes—this was a leech.

No one would mistake it, but it was so extraordinarily large that I didn't notice it at first. I couldn't imagine such a large leech existing in any field or any ancient swamp.

I shook my elbow, but it seemed to be deeply embedded and wouldn't come off easily. Though it was eerie, I grabbed it with my hand and pulled it off, and it finally came off with a pop. Unable to bear it any longer, I suddenly tore it off and slammed it to the ground, thinking that tens of thousands of such creatures must have nested and claimed me. The soil in the sunless forest was soft and didn't seem to crush it.

Anyway, my neck started to itch. When I touched it with my hand, I felt a leech's back slide across it. Ah, one more under my breast, one between my belt, and when I looked carefully, turning pale, there was another streak on my shoulder.

I involuntarily jumped up, trembling all over, and ran through under this large branch at once, frantically tearing off only those I could feel as I ran.

I thought that the terrifying branch I was currently on must be infested with leeches, and overwhelmed, I looked back. I don't know which branch of the tree I looked back at, but there were indeed several leech skins on it.

Thinking this, to my right and left, and on the branches in front, there was nothing else; they were completely covered.

I involuntarily let out a cry of terror. And then, what? At that moment, visibly, a rain of pitch-black, thin, streaky drops began to fall on my body from above.

It fell on the insteps of my straw-sandal-clad feet, accumulated further, and also adhered to the sides of those lined up, making my toes indistinguishable. As I watched these things, which seemed to pulse and suck blood just by thinking they were alive, and which seemed to expand and contract one by one, I felt faint. At that moment, a strange thought came to mind.

Those terrifying mountain leeches had been living here since the age of the gods. How much blood had they sucked over the long years, patiently waiting for people to visit? When their desire was fulfilled, the mountain leeches would simultaneously vomit out human blood. Then, the earth would melt, and the entire mountain would transform into a great swamp covered in blood and mud.

At that moment, sunlight would be blocked, and even though it was daytime, darkness would envelop everything. It was as if the great trees that had grown there had each turned into mountain leeches. This was truly a terrifying reality.