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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/EclosionK2 on 2024-09-16 20:31:27+00:00.

The park was supposed to release a statement about the third kid going missing, but because there wasn’t quite enough evidence that it happened on company grounds, technically they didn’t have to.

So they didn’t.

Obviously, it would’ve been a PR nightmare if news spread that three kids in total had gone missing at the theme park.

I felt terrible for the missing kids; all the employees did. But no one wanted to cause a stir because the park employs about 70% of the people who live on this tiny island.

That’s right, the theme park is confined to a tiny Japanese island and has become the de facto economy here.

No tourism means no pay for anyone.

Being the only Westerner on staff, I really didn’t want to be the self-righteous white dude who thought he could solve everything.

But of course, Aiko (my girlfriend who got me the job in the first place) had other ideas.

Ideas that led me to uncover, well… a horrific conspiracy involving kidnapping, bodysnatching, and basically unexplainable shit that I think is probably aliens.

If you already don’t believe me, you can stop reading. 

I won’t judge you.

But regardless of what you think, I will lay out everything as it happened chronologically, as clearly as I can.

Perhaps after reading this, you might be willing to get involved. You could help me find Aiko.

I hope she’s still alive.

***

I was an English teacher in Tokyo between 2022 and 2023, and that’s where I met Aiko, who was the receptionist at my school.

She was a smart, hard-working girl, who always wore different eyeglasses with cartoons on the rims. Toward the end of my employment, I gathered enough courage to convince my pasty self to ask her out on a date. 

Somehow (to my very own welcome surprise) this first date turned into several more dates.

I don’t want to delve too deep into our relationship, but you should know that I liked her a lot. I probably would have told Aiko that I loved her if everything continued as normal.

If you can read this Aiko: I love you.

Aiko was the only person I had met who could speak English as well as me (and liked all the same anime as I did.) She was also the one who invited me to work at the summer job on her hometown island. 

A job at the theme park. For our purposes I will call it: ベーカリーパーク (Bakery Park). I’m not going to reveal the actual name or location of the park because I don’t want to disparage the island locals. 

It’s a very peculiar place. 

It started as just a tiny bake shop which sold delicious cakes made by hand, but after a news article in the 80s, the popularity blew up, and like all things in Japan, the bake shop created adorable cake characters to increase the appeal for children and families.

Soon, staff wore the cake characters as mascot costumes, and following that, they built the merry-go-round and pirate ship ride. One thing led to another, and now we have every Tokyo locals’ favorite little secret.

Aiko and I started working in May 2023 as general laborers. Which meant we were greeting people, cleaning areas, doing the recycling, that sort of thing.

I really enjoyed working there for the first two months because I was able to practice my Japanese in public, and the summer weather was amazing.

But then the third kid went missing. 

The third kid in like a span of six months apparently. There was a real concern that could be felt among the staff, people were worried that there was some kind of serious human trafficking, or serial kidnapping going on.

But we’d all been explicitly instructed to let the island authorities take care of it. We could not let word spread among the guests.

So I did as instructed and didn’t get involved. Why ruffle feathers when there were professionals to handle something right?

Well, Aiko saw things differently.

***

“I’m going to try and find him,” Aiko told me one fateful evening.

“What?” 

“I’m going to try and find the third kid.”

We were in the employee mess hall. One of the big perks of working here is that everyone ate together at the end of the day.

“They already searched for the boy,” I said. “They’re combing through the forest now.”

“I don’t think he’s in the forest,” Aiko whispered. “I think he’s stuck in the heap beneath the pirate ship”.

Beneath Bakery Park’s pirate ship ride was a ‘sea’ of blue tarps, which were actually covering tons of old props and discarded junk.

“Why would he go in there?”

“He’s a kid. I dunno. Maybe he thought that’s where he could find a rare flavor.”

I scoffed, but it could have been true. All the kids with their phones were constantly looking for cartoon nutmeg and vanilla sticks to complete their virtual cakes on Bakery Park Hunt™. (It was the park’s trendy AR app riding on the coattails of Pokémon Go.)

“We’re not supposed to look for the kid, Aiko. It’s going to make everyone uncomfortable.”

“That’s why I’m going at midnight,” she said. “Are you coming or not?”

***

Of course I had to join. 

On top of everything else, it was Aiko who was allowing me to stay at her aunt’s cottage on the island. 

The last thing I wanted to do was to return to Aiko’s aunt and give some excuse of where Aiko was supposed to be.

I was a bad liar in English. And in Japanese, I was truly god-awful.

***

Somewhere around 11:30 PM we snuck our way past the front gates, skirting around all of the security cameras. All of the animatronics looked creepy. 

The normally cheery Chef Choco-Ducky, who would blow bubbles at the entrance, was now this dead, scary statue, leaking soap water from its mouth.

And the pastry-pig guy (I always forgot his name) who would usually give friendly waves to everyone, instead had his arms frozen in a pleading prayer, as if to say: Help me. Please. Don’t leave me here.

We stuck to the shadowy rear of the attractions until we came across the pirate ship in question. It was a massive boat, attached only by a single swinging joint above the blue tarp ocean. 

Aiko lifted one of the tarp flaps and directed me inside. It was a massive crawl space, about the height of a child. I could see why she thought this was where the kids would go hunting for ‘flavors’ on their phones.

My flashlight illuminated many rows of support beams, the kind you would find under bleachers. I could see old food carts laying on their side, and wooden signs that said たこ焼き (Takoyaki) and 唐揚げ (fried chicken). 

“Okay, let’s stick together and cover the whole area.” Aiko said. “We’ll go row by row.”

“Let’s do it.” I gave my standard Western thumbs up.

We checked under every shadowy nook.

There were tons of cut outs of smiling mascots, and old cardboard stands of desserts to peek under, but all we found were cobwebs.

The kid’s name was Kaito, so we went by each row calling: “Kaito-kun, kikoemasu ka?” Kaito-kun, can you hear me?

“Kaito-kun, minna sagashiteimasu!” Kaito-kun, everyone is looking for you!

We searched most of the place and didn’t find anything.

 That is until Aiko pointed out a hole in the tarp. It was child-sized and led outside towards the entrance of the Confection Showroom.

“Could the kid have wandered in there?” I asked.

“We have to check.”

The Confection Showroom was slated to open a while ago, but Covid delayed it. And now the park’s been struggling to compete with inflation, so it put the Confection Showroom and other future attractions are on hiatus, even if they were partially built.

Aiko tried her keycard at the door, but it wouldn’t work. We circled the hexagonal building and found a side entrance— it was also closed.

“Guess not,” I shrugged.

“Wait. Let’s check for flavors.”

Aiko took out her phone and opened Bakery Park Hunt™. 

On her screen appeared a crappily animated candy cane. It was dancing on the moonlit gravel by Aiko’s feet.

“Peppermint!” 

She proceeded to tap her screen, collecting bits and pieces of the candy.

“So is that … a rare flavor?”

“Yes! Usually only obtainable on Christmas.” She followed the cane as it bounced behind weeds and circled the building. “It shouldn’t even be here right now.”

I followed skeptically. “So the app is glitching?”

She tapped her screen, chipping away at the flavor. The biggest reason Aiko liked to work here was for the novelty of course. Sure the pay was mediocre, and sure the park was run down, but the board still released new interactive desserts each season, as well as new characters. If you could get past the sun-bleached décor and occasional graffiti, you could see there was a lot of passion in creating a world that kids could enjoy.

“Look! He’s climbing the door!” Aiko showed me her phone, and I could see the virtual candy cane skitter up the front entrance door. It phased through solid metal.

I went up and tried pushing on the handle. This time the door opened. Woosh. 

“Woah. Did you know that was going to happen?”

Aiko checked her phone. “No idea. I had heard the app used to interact with the park. But this is the first time I’ve seen it.”

Before going inside, I grabbed a big stick to wedge in the door, to make sure we didn’t get locked in.

We both entered side by side, painting the darkness with our yellowy flashlights. In the middle was a lowered floor composed of LED panels arranged into a circle, all facing upwards. Guard rails surrounded this floor, leading you around the circumference.

Aiko aimed her phone along the perimeter. There were little plastic displays of cakes, quiches and statues of Chef Choco-Ducky.

“That pe…

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