The Legend of the Yurei

Do you know what a Yurei is? Yurei means ghost in japanese and it is the spirit of a dead person, usually depicted as a woman. Although there are different types of Yureis I am going to tell you about an Onryo, a powerful vengeful ghost. This type if Yurei may haunt it's targets even after it has gotten what it wants. This story has not been told to many people, I don't it's on the internet. The reason being that an elder in a japanese village in the prefecture Kochi shared it with me after I had visited and stayed in the village for a long time. He didn't know english but one of his grand children who was also my guide translated everything to me. The story is rather long, so only read this if you really want to get the creeps and if you aren't lazy enough.

Harumi
The man was very old, he was about 92 years old at the time and he is propably dead now since it was a long time I visited Japan. He said it happened right here in the village, it started with a girl named Harumi, she was in her fourteens, she belonged to a very wealthy and respected family in the village, her father worked as a salesman, he traveled all around southern Japan and sometimes even went to Tokyo to sell his merchandise, her mother worked as an actress and she had a brother who worked out in village fields. She had her one servant who used a cart to take her to school every day. The servant was named Katsuo who belonged to a very poor family in another village, Katsuo was about sixteen years old. Katsuo fancied Harumi, but he didn't dare to tell her since it could lead to torture and even speaking to the server was not accepted, but he took the risk. Katsuo asked her

-Did you know you have beautiful eyes?

-How flattering but I prefer that you don't speak, Harumi replied

And of course he obeyed, not obeying servers could result into death. But every day he would say something nice to her, and Harumi got tired of it. One day she said

-I will not be your girl!

Death
But that was not the answer Katsuo what expecting, he stopped the cart and said

-Yes, you will...

-You cannot force me, you are my servant and you must obey me! Harumi replied

-But what happens when the servant doesn't want to obey? I am tired of you rejecting me, I am dragging you from your village to your school every day with my bare hands and you don't even say thank you. You will be my girl, it doesn't matter if you want to or not. He replied

Katsuo turned around and looked her in the eyes, he had an evil smile. He started walking towards her, Harumi got scared of course and when Katsuo grabbed her she fought back. But she was no match to Katsuos strong hands.

-Nobody will hear your screams, we are in the middle of nowhere, so far away from the village, and so far away from the school, he said.

Harumi screamed for help, but Katsuo was right, nobody could help her now, he grabbed her and dragged her to the forest wich was to the side of the road. In the forest Katsuo started assaulting her, he slapped her and she cried, she cried but it was to no use. Eventually he raped her, they stayed in the forest, and used the cart as shelter. Over and over Katsuo used Harumi as a sex slave for one day. Eventually he said

-I cannot let you live, nor can I return to the village

No, no, no Katsuo please, I beg for mercy! Harumi replied

He grabbed her by the neck and started to strangle her, she fought back but there was no point, Katsuo was to strong.

-None of this would have happened if you only became my girl, but you are so eager, so naive, so stupid. Now you your stupidity has lead to your death. He said

Harumis eyes closed, as her brain shut off, as her heart stopped beating, as the last spark of life in her got lit out.

He put the body inside the cart with tears in his eyes, then he dragged up the cart to the road and he fled.

Onryo
Of course the school noticed how Harumi wasn't there, it was easily noticed since she was always asking questions and was very smart in class, and the day she had been gone was rather quiet. They contacted the village through a courier. Her family was very sad, they were worried. One night the whole village were awoken by a very loud screech, a young boy said he had seen a white figure. He told his grand father and as an elder he had no doubt about it, he knew Harumi was back as a Yurei. He let the whole village know, and her family now knew she was dead. But that was what Harumi wanted everyone to know, she wanted them to know she was dead, and she was looking for vengeance. Katsuo had fled to a nearby village where he had relatives and told them he was attacked by bandits. But the lies only made Harumi more angry and more eager for vengeance. He started haunting Katsuo, first she screeched, but the screeches could only be heard by him, so that when he told about it he would look insane. Then Harumi haunted him in his dreams, with the most foul nightmares you could imagine. She sabotaged for Katsuo, she broke his relatives family heirloom and placed the shatters in his room. She did these things for three months, and slowly Katsuo went mad, but he knew who did all these things. But it was nothing compared to what she was going to do next, she murdered those closest to Katsuo in his village, and then placed a knife in his bed. When the villagers found Katsuo with the knife it was obvious that he got the blame. He was going to be executed, but she wanted to kill him. In his cage Harumi haunted Katsuo so much he went mad in a couple of hours, she even did physical damage to him. Breaking his bones, cutting him, but she did not show herself to her. Katsuo was terrified, he stood in a dark corner of the cage, and he heard a loud screech. He became deaf, and she showed herself to him. She had a smile, and said

-Hello Katsuo, do you remember me? Do you remember MY BEAUTIFUL EYES! She screamed and even tho Katsuo was deaf he could still hear her, he started bleeding from his ears.

He begged for mercy, but he never showed Harumi mercy so why should she? Her smile changed to an aggressive expression, and she disappeared. Katsuo thought she showed him mercy, but he was so wrong. He rose up and smiled, he put his head to the cage bars, and he felt something grabbing his face. His smile turned to a terrified look. He said

-Pleas...(crack)

Harumi cracked his neck, he dropped to the floor, dead. Harumi got vengeance, but to this day she haunts the forest she was killed in, she haunts the village her family resides in, she haunts the road she took to go to school, she haunts the relatives of Katsuo. Even tho Katsuo is dead she can never gain peace, every night, at the date of her death you can hear a loud screech every half hour.

Final Words
After the man finished the story we heard a loud screech, might have been a bird, or it might have been Harumis spirit. The man was Harumis brother, I love ghost stories, and there is something about japanese ones that really gives me chills down my spine. I hope this one does too since it is true.