The Tales of Kazehikoe

The prefecture of Kazehikoe is an isolated one. In fact, most people forget it even exists. There isn’t a shinkansen stop along the way, so the majority of travelers and tourists have no idea this little prefecture exists. Sure, each village has a train station and most of the villages also have a government official that turns in government reports to the national authority, but unless you actually try to take the time to visit these places, you won’t even know they are there.

Those that do know of the prefecture, mostly people in the neighboring prefectures, call it “Ishukohai” because the place is so isolated that most of the families that live in the area can trace their family trees all the way back to the same 20 settlers who moved out to this side of the country to establish a lighthouse and the many small settlements that make up the villages. Because of that, there are only twenty or so surnames and everyone is some kind of distant relative to everyone else. It’s an insult to be sure, but it’s also an apt description of the people.

However, the last couple generations have begun trying to break free from the hold that Kazehikoe has over them, and many have opted to go to university in one of the major cities or try to get accepted in one of the better secondary schools in the neighboring prefectures. This allows them some control over the path of their live and perhaps intermix their family trees with more diversity.

But this change has caused something to happen and there have begun to be a series of very strange occurrences in Kazehikoe; occurrences that can only be described as the land punishing those trying to leave. I am seemingly the only one unaffected by these strange things and because of that, many of those effected have come to tell me their stories so that I can document the incidents and perhaps determine why I am unaffected and therefore the solution to the problem.

The following are the stories of those people who have been affected by the strange things happening in Kazehikoe and it is my honest hope that you might be able to help me see what I’m not seeing and find the solution that I cannot.

Humbly,

Saori Marsh, Psychiatrist