episode_0057

“Sera.”

I brought up the story of the trip to Sarah, who was watching a movie in the living room.

“Let’s go on a trip to Incheon this weekend.”

“Incheon? Is there anything to see there?”

“A report was posted on the mystery site. There are people who have been to a mysterious street in Chinatown in Incheon.”

I opened the mystery site on my phone and showed Sarah the post. It was an article I had just read titled . This is an article in which the informant and his friend say that they visited a mysterious street in Chinatown where no one exists.

“I’ll read it.”

Sarah took my cell phone and read the article. Sarah, who had been scrolling down, stopped at the last part of the article.

“So, there’s a street in Chinatown that doesn’t exist?”

“Okay. Isn’t it amazing? If you just walk, you can reach a strange space where there are no people at all. Isn’t it like a different world?”

When it comes to ghost stories related to this world, I also know something.

It was a famous ghost story called ‘How to Go to Another World’.

If you are in an elevator and press the buttons repeatedly for a specific floor, there will be a time when a young woman enters the elevator on the 5th floor. When a woman boards, press the first floor.

Then the elevator does not go to the 1st floor, but goes up to the 10th floor. There was a ghost story that when the door to the 10th floor opened, it was a different world.

I experienced this ghost story firsthand in my apartment when I was in elementary school. I tried following what was written in the ghost story in the elevator. But the ghost story was just a rumor. No suspicious woman ever appeared. When I pressed the 1st floor button, the elevator did not go up to the 10th floor.

At that time, I failed to go to another world, but another opportunity came. It was a mysterious street somewhere in Chinatown. It was said that the way to get there was simple, so if you just walk aimlessly and get lost, you can get there.

“How about it? Let’s go once.”

“Well… .”

That was when I suggested that we go on a trip.

Sarah thought for a moment and then opened her mouth.

“I think I know what kind of place this is.”

“Really? Have you ever been to Chinatown?”

“That’s not it… I also heard a story about ‘a space that doesn’t exist’ from my mom. Somewhere in this world, there is a space where ghosts and monsters come and go.”

Have you heard a similar story from your mother? The story told by Hwayeon Bodhisattva, Sarah’s mother, was trustworthy. Hwayeon Bodhisattva was a person who traveled around the world solving spiritual phenomena.

“A space where ghosts or monsters come and go?”

“Yes. It is a land on the border between this world and the afterlife. It is a place that cannot be called either this world or the afterlife. Mom called that place ‘ghost road.’ It is said that sometimes a doorway leading to a ghost road appears somewhere in this world.”

Ghost Road.

It was a space where ghosts and monsters frequented. Sarah said that the mysterious street that the informant and his friend went to was a ghost road.

“If there is an entrance, you can go in, right?”

“Ghosts and monsters can use the entrance freely. But not people. Most people can’t find the ghost road. It’s a place where a living person can find the entrance and enter by pure coincidence. In short, the informant was lucky enough to be able to see the Ghost Road.”

“Roughly, how lucky do you have to be?”

“You need to be lucky enough to win first place in the lottery.”

You’re lucky enough to win first place in the lottery.

The informant and his friend seemed to have used their life’s luck to discover the mysterious street. It was a place you couldn’t even see unless you were crazy lucky. I wondered if we would be able to find the entrance to the ghost road if we went to Chinatown.

“If you need that much luck, going on a trip would be a waste of money.”

“There is a high probability that it will be a waste of money. Still, if you want to go on a trip, come with me. I want to see Chinatown.”

The purpose of traveling to Chinatown became ambiguous. It would be no different from an ordinary trip if you couldn’t find the mysterious street that is presumed to be a ghost road. There was no way to waste a golden weekend.

“Is there any other way to get to the Ghost Road?”

“My mother hasn’t even researched how to get there. The entrance to the ghost road is not easy to find, so it is difficult to study.”

Even Hwayeon Bodhisattva could not research how to enter the path of ghosts. I only taught Sarah that there was a space called Ghost Road.

“Um… .”

I haven’t given up on traveling yet. I thought about the countless stories I heard from my father long ago. I felt like I had heard a story about a father finding missing children in a mysterious place.

Missing children.

Mysterious space.

What was the story?

It was a Japanese story.

Suddenly, a word flashed through my head.

“Ah, Kamikakushi!”

“What?”

Sarah looked at me with a puzzled expression. I wasn’t sure yet, so I opened the notebook where my father’s story was written. When I looked through the thick notebook, I found a story related to a mysterious space.

It was an exorcism record from when my father went to Japan.

I told Sarah.

“Have you ever heard of Kamikakushi?”

“That’s the word used in Japan when someone goes missing. Aren’t you saying that a ghost or a monster hid the missing person?”

“That’s right. When my father went to Japan a long time ago, he found someone who had suffered kamikakushi… .”

Kamikakushi (神隠し).

Translated from Japanese, it means ‘God hid it’. Since ancient times, people in Japan have been thought to be hidden by ghosts or monsters who have mysteriously disappeared.

When my father went to Japan, he found someone who had been subjected to kamikakushi.

I opened my notebook and read the account of the incident with Sarah.

“This happened when I went on a trip to Japan when I was in my 20s. A disappearance occurred in a rural village in Hokkaido. It was a case where a young woman suddenly disappeared in the middle of the village. Villagers and police searched everywhere, but could not find the missing woman. The villagers called this phenomenon ‘Kamikakushi.’”

“It was said that a divine being had kidnapped a person. Villagers and police found no traces and gave up the search. I did some research on my own. In the end, we were able to find the real culprit who kidnapped the woman.”

“The one who kidnapped the woman was not a divine being, but a monster called a tengu. A tengu had kidnapped a woman. I wondered how a tengu could secretly kidnap a person without leaving a trace. “I secretly chased a tengu.”

“While I was following him, the tengu entered a certain space. It turns out that there is a mysterious space where only the monsters can freely travel. “If you kidnap someone and then go into a mysterious space, no trace will be left behind.”

“I found a way to enter the mysterious space in Chinese customs. After that, I went directly into the mysterious space, slaughtered the tengu, and rescued the woman.”

This was my father’s story recorded in the notebook.

On the back page were instructions on how to enter the mysterious space.

A space where monsters can come and go freely.

Although it was simply written as ‘mysterious space’, it could be thought of as the same space as the ‘ghost road’ mentioned by Hwayeon Bodhisattva. It was similar in that people could not easily enter, but monsters could come and go freely.

“I think the mysterious space written here is the same as Ghost Road.”

“There are definitely a lot of similarities.”

“There is also a way to enter the mysterious space in the next chapter.”

Sarah asked me, unable to take her eyes off her notebook.

“But Jinwoo.”

“Huh?”

“How did your father slaughter the tengu? The last part ended in one line without any explanation of the exorcism method.”

“What there is no explanation for is that it was physically exorcised.”

“Ah… .”

Physical exorcism.

This meant that the tengu was struck by force rather than magic. When my father performed a physical exorcism, he never explained the process at length. Because it was such a simple and clear method that no explanation was needed.

“Your father beat the tengu to death?”

“I guess so.”

I turned to the next chapter.

The note included instructions from my father on how to enter the mysterious space.

“In China, there is a custom of hanging a mirror on the front door, called Joyo-gyeong. This is because mirrors have the power to reflect hidden things. In particular, bronze mirrors have a stronger power to reflect hidden things. The bronze mirror not only reflects the true appearance of the monster, but can also reflect hidden, mysterious spaces. “I used a bronze mirror to find a doorway to a mysterious space.”

He said that all you need to do is look at the suspicious area with a bronze mirror. We too would be able to discover the mysterious streets of Chinatown if we carried a bronze mirror. Sarah clicked her tongue as she looked at the method written on the back page.

“There really was a way to enter the ghost road.”

“Anyway, since we know the way, let’s go. I’ll order the bronze mirror online.”

“Good.”

Sarah nodded.

We decided to take a trip to Incheon’s Chinatown on the weekend.

Before the weekend, I ordered two bronze mirrors and received them by courier.

They were hand mirror-shaped items that were easy to carry.

Time passed and Saturday morning arrived.

Sarah and I left Hyehwadang with bags containing various equipment. Military knives, bronze mirrors, and various other survival equipment. Of course, I didn’t forget to take care of the Geumgangjeo that I received from Princess Hongryeon.

We took subway line 1 in Seoul and got off at Incheon Station.

When I got out of the station, there was a Chinatown right nearby.

“Oh… .”

“It’s gorgeous from the entrance.”

The entrance to Chinatown was Paeru, which could be called a Chinese-style gate. Tourists and Chinese people were crowded beyond the huge and colorful paeru.

We passed through Paero and entered Chinatown.