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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/googlyeyes93 on 2024-09-06 21:13:36+00:00.

When you grow up in a military family, there’s a certain pressure to join up yourself when you come of age. My grandpa served in WWII, my dad in Vietnam, and we bled red, white, and blue in the name of freedom. I’ve since changed my views on things like that but, hey, can’t do much to change the past. I ended up signing up for service in my Junior year of high school, getting training out of the way in the summer between Junior and Senior year so I could get that out of the way.

This was back in the late 2000s/early 2010s, so the military was all about throwing people all over the world. My first was in Germany, then I got a little bit of time in Guam, but my last deployment before getting out was in Japan. Ended up in the Kanagawa Prefecture, super nice place, good access to the city and the mountains not too far away. It was amazing to get leave for a couple of days and go hiking with a couple of friends. The city was pretty nice too, and god, the FOOD. Everything was so fresh it made coming back to food in the States feel like I was eating field rations all the time. It was so cheap, too.

Except Japan had a little more of a sinister side to it, usually when the sunset. I learned from a few locals working on base when I got there that some weird shit happens on occasion, and just to roll with it and act as normal as possible. Hell, a couple of them recommended I visit a shrine and just make a prayer offering. I heeded their advice about two weeks later after my first couple of encounters.

Thank FUCK the first thing I ran into was one of the more harmless spirits. I was still in my mid-20s at the time, and not out of my partying days quite yet. Ever been to a karaoke room? They’re fun as hell, and the alcohol is usually included or super cheap. Get a few friends, have a few drinks, sing a few songs with the passion of Freddy Mercury while realizing you sound more like Yoko Ono, and have a good laugh.

Now, with the amount of alcohol included, it was very understandable that we got wasted. Don’t think we finished up until maybe half past one that morning, stumbling out in search of food before heading home. There are a ton of all-night places around, which helps a lot, but I was too tired to really care about food. Luckily it was SUPER easy to get anywhere in the city while you’re totally sloshed thanks to the rail system and everything.

I told the others I was going to head back home, making my way back to the little apartment I was set up in for housing. A couple of train rides and I was at the nearest station, just a few of blocks away, enough to walk in probably thirty minutes considering I was still hobbling a little.

Maybe halfway there, on a particularly dark street, I saw a figure standing about ten meters away. They were small, facing the same direction I was heading so I could only see the back of their bald head. The gown it was wearing looked like the robes a monk wears, so my drunk mind immediately went to “Oh, little monk. Wonder if he’s lost?”

Look, I know the US teaches us to be cautious of people on the streets, especially at night. But after living in other countries you learn that people aren’t nearly as violently out to get you as in America. It was pretty common here for young kids to travel alone on trains, walk the streets, and even run errands for their parents. Bad things still happen, obviously, but most people were a lot more respectful of other human beings at least.

So seeing a little kid alone on the street around two in the morning, I figured they might need some help finding home. There was a police station down the road, so I approached the kid. The nearest street light at the intersection flickered, casting us into darkness for a moment. In the absence of light, I saw a small blue light the kid was holding. As I got closer I finally spoke up.

”Hey there! Are you lost? Do you need help?” I said, louder than intended. The kid didn’t respond, and it took me a second to realize I was speaking English so they might not understand. Look, I’m not too smart when I’ve had a few drinks. So I decided to try again, even in my broken-ass Japanese. The southern accent I still couldn’t shake from being born and raised in South Georgia wasn’t a huge help. “Kon’nichiwa? Shit, what’s the word for lost… uh… ushinita? No that’s not it, shit. Oh! Ushinatta?”

The kid finally turned toward me after I got the words out. The little blue light it was holding grew brighter as it turned, illuminating their face. It looked normal for the most part, like a regular kid, but instead of eyes, there was one singular eye, massive in the middle of their face. That single eye was staring me down now, and I couldn’t move despite my brain screaming at me to get the hell out of there. My legs turned to jelly, giving out underneath me as I fell to the ground, barely catching myself before my head hit the concrete. I still couldn’t move while the thing shuffled toward me, blue light oppressing me even further as I sunk to the ground, trying to look up at the thing.

Something I will NEVER forget. God typing it out makes it come back. I can still feel it, the thing leaning down toward me on the ground, looking me right in the eye, and licking my cheek up to my temple. The tongue was scaly, with little points coming off of it that scraped roughly against my skin. I had just shaved that morning, making it feel even worse, closer to me. It was like a cat licking but more slimy, while still being rough against every small patch of flesh it could reach. This little shit licked me, stood up, looked me in the eye, and walked away like nothing fucking happened.

I couldn’t move, heart racing trying to figure out if I was just sloshed and assaulted by some weirdo on the street, or thinking that what I saw was some kind of ghost. After a few minutes, my strength returned, finally able to stand up and make my way back to the barracks. I couldn’t fall asleep the entire night. Almost took a scouring pad to my cheek to try and get rid of the feeling it left on my skin. It was driving me fucking insane.

I must have looked like a wreck the next day, not too surprised. A couple of the guys from karaoke the night before must have noticed, too. I was sitting with a few of them in the mess hall, stirring spirals into my soup absent-mindedly.

“You alright?” Matt, another soldier asked. “Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

”Uh.” I said, taking a minute to shake the fog out of my brain. You ever sobered up from being absolutely ripped without a nap? It sucks. Like, SUCKS. “Might have, to be honest.”

”Oh? Who did you run into?” Ryu, a local working with us on base, asked. He was dozing off just moments before, but suddenly he was fully awake, a look of concern on his face.

”I uh… I don’t really know. I thought it was a kid at first, like I could only see them from behind. Bald, wearing monk robes. I asked them if they were lost then it’s like… I don’t know like I just suddenly collapsed? I couldn’t stay on my feet. Then it looked at me. Thing had one eye.” I said, babbling on and still stirring my soup. “When I was on the ground though it… it licked me? I don’t know man, I feel kind of violated.”

Ryu snorted, Matt and I both unsure of what was happening as it began to turn into full-throated laughter.

”You got lucky. Hitotsume-kozo. Cyclops children.” He said, still laughing. “They’re harmless, though they can be… well, weird, as you experienced. Could have been worse.”

”Sorry, worse? It gets worse than being licked by a dwarf cyclops?” Matt asked, “Gonna need the lowdown here, boss.”

”Oh, yeah. Yokai can be very dangerous if you come across the right ones. You heard of the Kuchisake-onna?” Ryu asked, leaning forward. “There was an airman a while back, maybe two or three years ago. They covered his death as a suicide for his family. It was the Kuchisake-onna though. The Slit-Mouthed Woman.”

”Nope. Don’t like the sound of that.” Matt said, turning away.

”You should take warning.” Ryu said again. “If you run into a woman hiding the lower half of her face, you’ve found the Kuchisaka-onna. She’ll ask you if you think she’s pretty.”

”Should I also ask her on a date?” Matt asked, snorting at his own joke. Ryu only gave him a tired side-eye, used to his shitty jokes by now.

“You can’t run away immediately. She’ll take that as calling her ugly. Tell her she’s pretty, then she’ll show you the lower half of her face, mouth cut-“ He made a motion from one ear, down across his mouth, all the way back up to the other side. “Into a huge grin. She’ll ask you the question again. Tell her she’s not pretty, she kills you with huge scissors. Tell her she is pretty, she’ll slice you just like her. They found that airman with his mouth slit.”

”So you’re just screwed either way? That’s shitty.” I said, thinking back to last night. That was already awful enough, I didn’t want to run into more. I just felt gross, my skin tingling again with the feeling of being licked.

“The best method for getting away from a yokai is to confuse it. This goes for a lot of them, from Kuchisaka-onna to Aka-mondo. Ask them a question in return and you’ll have time to run.” Ryu looked us both in the eyes now, like a command to take him seriously. “There are others to just avoid entirely. Run into some of the more vile ones, and you’ll be… well, as Americans say, fucked.”

”Cool. Never leaving the base again, I guess.” I said, practically sl…

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