"Toshio's mother… is she Kayako?" Corey's heart was filled with doubt. He still remembered that this particular scene was supposed to be about Kayako. According to how things should unfold, this part should have depicted Kayako's death.
Corey hurried forward and soon saw Toshio sitting quietly, sketching something. Yet strangely enough, he did not see Kayako anywhere. This absence made Corey even more uneasy.
After stepping out of the room, the door behind him suddenly creaked open. Only then did Corey notice the study room. Driven by curiosity, he stepped inside.
The most eye-catching thing in the study was a diary placed neatly on the desk.
"In this day and age, who even writes a diary anymore?" Corey muttered with a trace of sarcasm. Still, he reached out, picked up the diary, and began to read.
A few pages in, his entire body stiffened in shock. Written within were Kayako's disturbing thoughts and actions.
The bizarre ideas recorded there made Corey shiver uncontrollably. Kayako had even written about her later encounters with him, filled with strange symbols and words. When he flipped another page, he was startled by the grotesque illustration of an eye staring out from under the page, as if gouged out and hidden within.
"This is…" Corey instinctively wanted to leave. But just as he turned to go, a cluster of flies suddenly buzzed out from the nearby closet.
"The hell—" Corey's face went pale. The closet? That closet?
Instantly, the chilling image of the woman being dragged inside earlier flashed through his mind. The identical layout of the room told him the truth: this very closet might be hiding the terrifying female ghost—most likely Kayako herself!
But the story did not pause for Corey's realization. Just as in the original events, Shunsuke's curiosity drove him to crawl inside the closet. The moment he raised his head, his eyes locked with Kayako's corpse.
Kayako, her eyes wide open in death, stared directly at him. Shunsuke's gaze reflected bottomless fear and dread.
Here, Edward deliberately buried a hidden thread.
In the original Ju-On novel, there was a description of this moment that never made it into the film: Kayako, in that instant, longed for Shunsuke to save her—or at least to express affection or compassion. If he had done so, perhaps her resentment might have eased.
But Shunsuke did not. He recoiled in terror, desperate to escape. His fear and rejection completely enraged Kayako, cementing her curse into something that could never be appeased.
Since that novel version could not be published in the Pokémon world beforehand, Edward left it here as a foreshadowing.
Shunsuke's body went rigid. Panicking, he scrambled out of the study, scooped up Toshio, and rushed down the stairs. At that moment, the camera lingered on Kayako. Her eyes, still wide open in death, turned crimson, tears of blood streaming down.
Meanwhile, Shunsuke heard the shrill ringing of the telephone. Confused, he answered it—only to hear the voice of Takeo Saeki. From him, Shunsuke learned the horrifying truth: Takeo had already gone to his home, murdered his wife Manami, and ripped the unborn baby girl from her womb.
Upon hearing this, Shunsuke collapsed to the ground in despair.
Just then, he noticed Toshio staring fixedly at the upstairs landing, making strange sounds. Puzzled, Corey raised his head. From where he sat, he could only see the staircase railing.
Then came the thud of something heavy dropping to the floor above.
This was followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor—plastic scraping along the ground. The peculiar noise made Corey's blood run cold. Combined with the scene he had just witnessed upstairs, he could only suspect one thing: Kayako. But wasn't she already dead? How could a corpse move?
Yet the stairwell echoed with noises of movement. Corey sat upright, dread gnawing at his chest. He knew something terrifying was about to happen.
Sure enough—
From the top of the stairs, two pale hands smeared with blood gripped the floorboards. Kayako appeared, her throat emitting that sickening croaking, bubbling sound as she crawled down. Her face was twisted with venomous hatred, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on Shunsuke.
Shunsuke trembled violently. He tried to stand, but his legs had gone weak, refusing to support him.
All he could do was watch helplessly as Kayako twisted her body into unnatural, contorted shapes, crawling step by step closer. The steady, inevitable rhythm of her approach made him feel as though his heart had stopped beating entirely.
He struggled desperately, glancing back and forth between the meowing Toshio and the crawling Kayako. By now, he had pieced together the sequence of events. In all likelihood, the entire Tokunaga family had been slaughtered by Kayako, their story unfolding after the Saeki family's tragedy.
But in this moment, none of that mattered. All that filled Shunsuke's heart was despair. How could he possibly escape this house consumed by curses?
Pressing against the door, he reached shakily for the knob.
The door creaked open—
Only for another Kayako's head to drop suddenly from above, dangling directly in front of him.
Her face slammed into his view. Shunsuke's entire body jolted violently. Terror seized his chest, his breath turned ragged… and then ceased altogether.
In his fading vision, the Kayako crawling down from upstairs continued her advance. In the corner of his eye, he could still see her twisted body clamber onto him, her venomous face drawing ever closer… closer…
…
"Boss, the rating for Ju-On just came back. The officials have classified it as adults-only." Zoroark walked into the office and reported to Edward.
Edward merely nodded. "As expected."
He had already predicted this outcome when he sent Zoroark to submit Ju-On.
Still, the name itself—Ju-On—made his expression grow faintly strange.
During filming, Edward hadn't thought it was too frightening. But during editing, the post-production staff were so terrified that several ended up hospitalized. The company even had to hire professional psychologists to keep the trend under control. Many crew members had developed insomnia and recurring nightmares.
Edward could only laugh helplessly. The skill Nightmare Possession was indeed powerful—almost too powerful. Once applied, Takako had transformed completely into Kayako. Most of her performances needed no retakes at all. Only occasionally did Edward need to remind her to restrain herself a little, to not act so naturally.
Other directors always begged their actors to act more realistically. Edward, however, had to ask Kayako not to act too real—to consciously let the audience see her as "acting." The crew found this bizarre, but when they looked at Takako's hauntingly perfect portrayal, no one dared speak against it. She wasn't just playing Kayako—she had become Kayako.
"For now, let's hold it back. As for the teaser trailer, change it up—make it like the parody campaign we did for Dead Silence." Edward decided not to reveal too much. He wanted Kayako's grand debut to hit with full force—to scare audiences into tears at minimum.
If she appeared too early, the staircase crawling scene would lose much of its impact. Thus, for now, the teasers would stick to simple props and jump scares, leaving the ghost hidden.
"Understood, Boss. By the way, Mr. Yanister asked if you plan to submit any new short films?" Zoroark quickly noted everything down and asked.
Edward hesitated. It had indeed been a long time since he produced any horror shorts.
Short films had once been his main method of harvesting fear points. But after obtaining Master-level Cinematography, his full-length films now generated far more fear points than shorts ever could. Since fear points currently served only to create Fear Candies, Edward had largely ignored shorts.
Still, after some thought, he decided to make a few again. After all, he had three Pokémon to care for. Though Fortune was still in university, busy writing papers every day, Edward cared deeply for him. Every time Fortune came home, Edward stuffed him with Fear Candies. Void too had become a heavy consumer of Fear Candies. For their sake, Edward resolved to prepare some new shorts.
He also had a new curiosity: could Master-level Cinematography apply to short films as well? If so, the fear points harvested might multiply dramatically.
"I'll film them later. Right now, I just finished Ju-On. I need some rest." Edward pinched the bridge of his nose.
He was, after all, a rich second-generation heir—yet his daily schedule was busier than a dog's. It didn't feel right. And after wrapping Ju-On, he truly needed to recover, to relax body and mind, and wait for the timing to ripen.
Alien had only just left theaters. Audiences were still suffering from horror fatigue. Giving them a break would let him later reap fear points more effectively.
"Got it, Boss." Zoroark recorded everything before leaving quickly.
Left alone, Edward checked the business reports for Ghost Films. The numbers looked excellent. The company's expenses were relatively low, but profits extremely high. Just the Youth-Edition Extraordinary lens alone had already made him a fortune, not to mention the numerous IPs in his hands.
"No wonder some movie companies sits on such massive IPs yet slacks off every day. Earning money while lying down really is this comfortable." Edward stretched, finally experiencing the joy of effortless income.
So long as he released works of decent quality, fans would pour money into his pockets. Even if something mediocre came out, he could always push the blame onto an outsourced team while continuing to lie down and profit.
Not that Edward planned to slack completely. Looking at his hefty finances, he promptly allocated large sums to expand Ghost Films and donated another portion to his charity foundation.
Glancing at the Foundation's report, he saw that many people had been helped, yet the number of new applicants was equally high. The ratio of resignations to new volunteers was nearly one to one. This made Edward frown.
The Foundation's growing reputation and the searchable case archives online had brought in more donations and attention. Naturally, many kindhearted people eager to help had signed on as volunteers.
But charity work placed heavy emotional pressure on them. Some couldn't bear it and left, which was understandable.
This odd trend would likely continue until enough veteran staff stabilized the system.
"Kode is really working hard," Edward sighed.
All he had to do was donate money. Kode, however, had to actually run the Foundation. As its leader, desperate families constantly sought him out, begging for aid. Concerned, Edward summoned Zoroark again and instructed it to ask Kode to form a security team for the Foundation.
Though he sympathized with the families, he knew desperate people could act rashly and dangerously. He would not allow tragedies to occur inside the Foundation, hurting innocent staff.
Even if it seemed overly cautious, it was necessary.
Zoroark quickly went to Kode, who was surrounded by floating documents, his eyes glowing deep purple as he worked tirelessly.
"Zoroark?" Kode asked, startled—he had been too focused on paperwork to notice its arrival.
"Kode, the boss wants you to establish a security team to ensure staff safety," Zoroark relayed. Kode nodded, lifted a phone telekinetically, tapped a few commands, then set it down.
"It's done," Kode said curtly, then shut his eyes again.
Understanding how busy he was, Zoroark left without disturbing him further. Kode indeed had already anticipated such a measure.
Meanwhile, outside the Charity Foundation building, a woman with red-rimmed eyes and a heavy backpack stood silently. She stared blankly at the office building before her.
"…Baby… don't be afraid…"
(End of Chapter)