Case Number: 122004-0032
Statement of: Miwako Chiba – Former Senior Police Officer, Hokkaido Prefectural Police
Regarding: Her encounter in the Sapporo Entertainment District
Statement given: December 07, 2003
-STATEMENT BEGINS-
This is the one and only instance I have encountered anything like it, in my two years of career as an enforcer of the law, I have never believed in such things as the paranormal, otherworldly, nor the supernatural. Ever since I entered the police force, my everyday encounters in my patrols were always mundane, boring, and nothing but petty crimes, and I wish it remained as it is.
But after seeing… “that” thing, everything changed. At this point, I no longer care whether you will believe what I witnessed, or put me to jail under the reason that I am committing a crime of perjury. If you think that I am falsifying my accounts, that is entirely up to you.
It began back in March when my partner, Satoshi and I, were investigating a series of Missing Persons reports. We realized that we did not have much lead except that there was a pattern here: all missing persons filed were middle-aged salarymen.
Given our toxic work culture, it was not unusual for people of working age to purposely vanish and go missing from their established lives without any trace; quitting a company is often seen as dishonorable, if not shameful. After being treated like corporate zombies that they were, most people of working age would rather go missing on sight. But eight people gone in the span of two months? It was alarming.
We were driving throughout our usual night routine when our useless conversations to pass the time grew quiet as we ran out of things to talk about. After a great deal of silence, our radio comms received a call from the office, the top brass had ordered us to go back as we now had a good lead.
“Finally,” I thought to myself. For once, I heaved a sigh of relief and glanced at my left on Satoshi’s seat. I noticed that he had been staring at me, and the intensity of his eyes was giving me slight uneasiness.
“So, you think a sly, shape-shifting fox abducted our ninth guy this time?,” I focused my eyes on the road.
“I have a bad feeling that this time it’s real”.
There was a very unnerving tone in his voice, he was facing the road ahead of us, but I could feel that his eyes were beginning to darken. Satoshi and I were polar opposites in our beliefs: my partner, was a credulous believer of the supernatural. In my case, I am a skeptic…or was.
We never argued about these kinds of things as I had never taken him seriously; whenever he threw folk tales and mythological creatures on our nightly patrols, I just went along with it. It kills the boredom, after all.
It was different that time around, he was serious. But I dismissed it thinking that he was just stressed due to lack of sleep.
When we arrived at the police department, our superiors provided us with a briefing in the office, they told us to go undercover for the next night. We wore regular civilian outfits on the day of the deployment. The commissioner advised us not to bring any firearms as it would compromise our mission, so I left mine in the office.
The meeting point was an old shrine near the point of objective. I ascended on the paved staircase and saw Satoshi standing in front of the shrine.
“Smoke?”, I reached out on the pack of Marlboros he offered. We then proceeded with creating a plan on how to best approach the area of operations when a priest walked by.
“You are looking for the missing people, aren’t you?” The priest said, offering his prayers at the shrine.
“These people were taken by a malevolent being that is not of this world, a being dating back from the ancient days. Continue your perilous journey, and you might be next”.
I didn’t entirely know why, but I felt a sudden chill on my spine, as if insects crawled up on my skin. Looking over to my partner, I saw him taken aback by the priest’s declaration. The cigarette that he was sucking fell from his lips the moment fear struck him; he was frozen solid.
An eerie silence took over when I snapped at him.
“That’s enough, we’re moving”.
The city became darker as we walked. My partner, who was a ridiculous believer of what cannot be seen was breathing heavily after hearing what the priest said. And I admit, it was deeply disturbing.
Several minutes passed when we reached our destination. I did not know what to expect, as it was my first time in an inn that lies within the entertainment district. The women who worked there greeted us with a warm welcome when Satoshi opened the door. My eyes surveyed the place: it was of a traditional Japanese setting, with a big dining hall and a connecting bar, as well as several lodging rooms upstairs. It had a class of its own, even though it was starting to show a remarkable age. The dishes were wonderful, and the girls were accommodating, pretty, delicate, and unblemished.
As we were drinking, a woman wearing a very expensive-looking kimono walked by, accompanied by a wealthy-looking man wearing a brown suit. This woman was the most exceptional among the others: she was strikingly beautiful, graceful, and elegant. What I find unusual was the mole on her left cheek: it was perfectly placed as if God himself had painted it.
Obviously, Satoshi took interest in her, he waved one of the girls serving food and asked who that woman was, the girl said that that her name was Keiko, one of the senior members of the inn. Her accommodations were strictly for the wealthy, as they were pricey ones. She had no other interesting story to tell, apart from the fact that Keiko had lived and worked there for an awfully long time that she could remember.
That first night was fun, but nothing special really happened.
This routine continued until the sixth day of our trip to that inn. This time, I noticed that something was indeed unsettling in that place. We were drinking bottles of beer after beer until my vision turned hazy. The last thing I can recall was that I saw a person in the figure of a lady. She approached us and lured Satoshi to go upstairs with her; I saw them both drifting away before I could no longer resist the temptations of passing out.
My alarm clock went full blast. When I opened my eyes to look at the time, I noticed that it was already four in the morning. I had no memories of when, and how did I come back to my apartment. The outfit that I wore was neatly folded and placed by my study table, while here I was, wearing my sleepwear as if nothing happened.
I went to report back to the office in my usual police uniform. The morning news showed our chief being bombarded by interviewers about how awful the disappearances were getting, and how awful we were at handling them. While helping myself with bread and coffee at my table, I noticed that Satoshi’s desk was empty.
He never showed up.
Well, at this point I thought he went overnight to that place and had not made it back yet. Maybe, just maybe I was worrying too much.
I finished my daily report as well as other clerical duties requested by the office. My partner still had not shown up. By the time I was about to start my afternoon patrol, I decided to discuss this with my superintendent. He checked the log book to see whether he was in for a day or at least called in for sick leave.
Neither of these were the case.
Numerous phone calls and messages were sent to Satoshi’s phone, but no answer. The chief then decided that I should keep my undercover duties alone, and find Satoshi if possible. To my surprise, no search warrants have been issued up to this point, as our chief thought that if the inn had been proven clean, it may further tarnish our name.
Before going to that place, I figured that going to the usual meeting point was a clever idea. It may be possible that Satoshi was waiting at the shrine.
I was standing in front of the shrine, watching the sun go down and burning my lungs with my third stick of cigarette when I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stood up on ends. The feeling of being watched was unnerving so I started looking around.
When I was about to turn back and continue my mission after smoking, I saw a shadow casting beside the shrine just few blocks away: it was the priest that Satoshi and I met before.
We made eye contact, but he just stood there silently, and motioned me to follow him.
He opened the door to the shrine’s guest room. When we were inside, he gestured for me to sit while he walked away. The priest came back carrying a bottle of rice wine and a pair of drinking cups with him. I was not certain why, but his frail stature gives me an assurance that he was not there to cause any trouble. While at the same time, the look in his eyes gave me a feeling that he had already seen horrors beyond telling and was implying that what awaits me will leave me in a mess.
“You have been going to that inn, aren’t you?” I was staggered by the fact that he knew what Satoshi and I were doing for days. I gave him a truthful response: my partner and I have been there a few times; we enjoyed the company of other people as well as the food, if anything else.
The priest poured a rice wine in my cup and sighed in deep thought. I was deeply disturbed about this and thought of leaving when he broke his silence.
“And your friend, had he gone missing as well?”
I immediately drank the rice wine in my cup to blow off my steam. That question made me think of Satoshi. But since I have not been to that place yet to confirm his whereabouts, I put my cup down while shaking my head.
Still, I admit that I was scared shitless that he asked such a question.
The priest stood up, and reached out for a wooden box stashed on the farthest corner of the room. He put the box between us and opened it.
The priest trembled, “Look closer and tell me what do you see”
Inside the box was a very old tattered, and beaten scroll. The priest unrolled it with great care until it revealed a painting of a woman in ancient kimono. Her hair was free flowing, and so long it reached her feet. The painting was so old I figured it was made dating back to the 12th century, or perhaps older even.
I stared at the portrait and almost jumped after seeing what was before me: the woman on the portrait was wearing a bright red kimono with multiple layers, just like how they wore it back in the ancient days. She is accompanied by a man from a nobility embracing her.
And this woman happened to have a mole perfectly placed on her left cheek.
I could feel my lips tremble as I closed my eyes in disbelief at the reality slowing unfolding before me.
“Yes, the one that you have seen there is an ancient creature. Nobody knew its true form, for only the dead have seen the true face of the entity residing there. Long ago, there was a group of wandering Shinto priests who took an oath to find and cleanse this land from that demon. However, it was not an easy task, as finding this creature proved to be difficult.”
“Time has passed and the priests who took the oath of looking for it died of old age, one after the other. Unfortunately, they passed down the information about this demon only through words, the words became stories and stories turned into legends long forgotten. Now, the only clue that we have is the sole surviving portrait left by this unnamed artist. Who, unfortunately, fell victim to her after completing the portrait.”
An ancient creature? A malevolent beast? On this day and age of technology, there are still those who believe in such creatures. It was time for me to go, so I bowed down to the priest, and thanked him for his help.
“Before you go, take this with you”
The priest handed over a piece of paper. He advised me to always keep it with me as this will protect me from harm. As an enforcer of the law, I thought that what we have here was a serial killer on the loose, and it is my duty to put him into justice. This piece of paper is the last thing that I needed. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t do any harm so I kept it in my wallet as a keepsake.
I went back to my apartment and figured that it would be best to do this work alone without informing anyone. I opened the drawer of my study table and reached out for my unissued revolver, a combat knife, handcuffs, a pair of lockpicks and my lighter. I had no idea if the pistol would help, but after having a talk with the priest, it felt a lot safer bringing it.
The night was bright with the full moon illuminating the place. Surprisingly, the area was a bit less crowded than usual. I glanced around for a spot where I could get a better view of the place, hoping that Satoshi would show up.
My partner was not anywhere. The girl that he previously asked about Keiko happened to be nearby, when I asked, she replied that she had not seen him either. The more I spent my time here, the more I was getting anxious about doing this alone as my cover might get discovered.
Luckily, a drunk salaryman suddenly joined me without my consent. I kept him talking while I thought of how I would begin my investigation. After an hour or so, and there she was. I was happy when I saw Keiko walking by the door.
As pretty as ever. If Satoshi gets lured by someone, no doubt it would be her. She was accompanied by another man this time. Both went upstairs to one of the lodging rooms. After half an hour of waiting, I figured it was safe to go upstairs without drawing attention.
I checked the rooms one by one, and they were all empty except for the third one on the right, I eavesdropped on the room and made sure both of them were asleep. I picked the locks and breezed my way inside of the room. Seeing both Keiko and the man fast asleep, I grabbed her belongings, sneaked to the bathroom, and closed the door.
I checked her belongings, for anything suspicious or clues about Satoshi: no poison, no drugs for spiking drinks.
Nothing.
I brought her belongings back to where I stole them and snuck back out of the room, then to the end of the hallway leading back downstairs. Seeing the satisfaction of my intrusion, I nodded to the girl who was serving us drinks and made my way out of the place.
But I couldn’t shake off my uneasiness with what was going on, so I decided to turn back. I was at the corner of the street no more than a few blocks from the place, when I caught a glimpse of what happened to be a silhouette from one of the female employees hurriedly striding to the back door.
I peered through the corner of the building and saw that there was a cellar door leaning against the wall. Which is suspicious, as Japanese households do not have basements nor cellars to begin with.
The door was unlocked, so I opened it slightly and peaked through what was before me: it was descending into a series of incredibly old, ancient wooden steps towards a cold, and dark passageway.
I felt afraid as hell, but I knew my curiosity won me over when I saw my legs dragging myself towards that dark entryway. I scanned the tunnel after flicking my lighter: It was damp, wet, and the smell of cold earth was running through my nose. I was listening carefully for the sound of that person that may have been with me at that moment. The passageway was not that long, but it felt like I did the longest walk of my life.
When I was about to reach the end of the passageway, I was met with a dreaded feeling. I stepped over something soft, yet sticky at the bottom of my boots. I looked over at the ground and the earth was covered with white silk, they were sticking on my boots so bad that I had to pull out my foot.
These lumps of white thread reach over the wall like cocoons, except that their sizes were big enough to be considered as body bags. I checked them over and after careful examination, saw that these white silks were in fact like spider webs. I reached out for my knife and tried to cut one of the cocoons that were stuck on the wall.
You will not believe what I saw there, agent. It was a face of a man in one of those webs. I could barely see his face or what was left of it. Aside from his mutilated face, there were two punctured marks visible on his neck. The skin remained intact, yet… the body lay there like a lifeless carcass, as if all the insides were sucked dry by a surgeon’s aspirator.
And that was when I heard something.
It wasn’t anyone, but I heard fast clicking sounds followed by a guttural snarl that was not from this world, and it was coming down from below.
I checked the ground covered with web, and found a damp trap door leading further down below, then I heard a sound again. This time, it was a muffled cry for help.
I was standing beside the trap door thinking whether I should go back and call for backup, but sheer stupidity again won me over. I opened the door, shot off my lighter, and jumped over the ground. The fall was no more than four meters in height, the smell of the earth became damper and heavier from there. The white webs covering the passageway made it harder to go through. Then there was that scream of agony again, and it was clearer this time around.
My breath became heavy, the feeling was unnerving as I walked through the passageway. As I was slowly making my way up to the end of the tunnel, I saw another entryway to my right, not more than a few blocks away.
This, officer, was the scariest part of my life.
I snuck up to the side of the entrance and pulled my pistol. I peered through the corner and I saw that the man crying in agony inside of that room was no one but Satoshi, plastered over the wall with fibers of white and silver. He was mutilated, and his missing limbs decorated the room.
Whatever did this to him was not an animal.
At the corner of my eye, I figured that the woman standing there in the room fully naked was no one but Keiko. She started making clicking and chirping sounds as her limbs began twitching and twisting, her whole body was contorting and shaking uncontrollably as if she was possessed.
A hole suddenly opened stretching from her neck to her tailbone. From that hole sprung what I thought looked like to be a large bulging stomach of a caterpillar. What followed were long limbs coming out one by one, all eight of them. That was the time it became clear: it was a spider molting out of her human flesh.
My legs were frozen stiff in fear, that thing was standing about two and a half meters tall. The relentless clicking sound she was making made me shake uncontrollably. The creature raised its mandibles, revealing two dagger-like fangs and plunged it on Satoshi’s neck; at this point he was staring blankly at the open space and no longer making any noise. The bite was bitter and cold.
Seeing my friend dying, I took a deep breath, and raised my pistol. Without having second thoughts, I swung from the corner and unloaded all six chambers of my revolver from that monster’s back. Out of the six bullets, only two scored on the monster’s abdomen.
Keiko… or should I say, that monster, unleashed a loud, high-pitched noise. While I was reloading my pistol, it leapt and charged towards me. I was able to reload a bullet in my pistol and managed to shoot it in its mandibles before one of its limbs knocked me down flat to the ground.
The creature wailed in pain as it attempted to bind me in its webs. But as soon as I saw the webs coming out of its wounded abdomen, I kicked the part where I shot it as hard as I could. It wallowed to the ground in agony as I jumped to pick up my gun. Unfortunately, not only was the creature strong, it was also quick; it had escaped before I could fix my aim.
I attempted to pursue the devil for a short while, but the sight of Satoshi made me stop. Seeing that he could not bear the pain any longer, I cut him free from the webs using my knife. His limbs were very soft and he lost considerable weight. I provided basic first aid and brought him out of that hell.
When I opened the cellar door and could finally busy lights of the district, I found myself screaming for help like a raving maniac. The bystanders who saw us called for the police, and our patrolling officers on duty came about, together being followed by an ambulance.
My fellow police officers dragged me into the interrogating room of the police department, I kept my mouth shut instead of making a statement. Even I struggle to make sense of what I just saw. If I told them the truth without proof, I would be shut tight in a crazy house by the next minute.
The senior superintendent threw me a spare uniform and told me to change after seeing me in a hell of a mess. She pointed at my groin with her head, and that was when I found out that I peed in my pants in fear.
When I was done changing, the superintendent and I talked in one of the empty office rooms. She did not flinch when I told her every detail that I can remember, but instead informed me that this incident will be forwarded to someone who can be of help, and they will contact me the soonest. The case was never officially closed by then. That day, everyone had their own theories about what had happened to us, ranging from hidden drug dens, serial killers, yakuzas and what have you.
And that was that. After two days I resigned immediately. I went back to the shrine before I took off to Tokyo to start a clean slate. When I arrived there, the shrine was untidy and empty, with the wooden walls rotting and all that stuff… as if it has been abandoned for a long time.
Never heard from Satoshi again either. I tried contacting his bereaved relatives one time but they all blamed me for what happened to him, which is understandable.
The case had never reached the public under the orders of the higher ups, it was not my decision. But until then, I decided to stay out of it, and that was the smartest decision I have taken ever since.
-END OF STATEMENT-
After the incident, search and seizure operations in the area immediately followed suit. The trapdoor underneath the said cellar was found by one of the operatives investigating the site. However, upon opening the said trapdoor, the tunnel was found clean: there were no traces of any alleged webs nor any blood on the floor. Unfortunately, this event damaged the image of the inn and they were forced to shut down their business six months following the incident.
Ms. Chiba’s fellow officer, Satoshi Umehara passed away due to unsustainable wounds caused in the line of duty. The family requested that his passing remain private. No further information has been heard from them ever since.
Like other particular cases documented by the Unit, the paranormal elements and lack of information surrounding the case made it more difficult to reach a sound conclusion. The Unit almost considered this as a cold case, until a relevant one surfaced back on June 22, 2004: A missing persons report was filed in Shimane prefecture, and days later the victim was found hanging from a tree with a rope around his neck. Forensics show that the man died of asphyxiation, and they hurriedly ruled it as a suicide. The Forensics Specialists assigned to the case were baffled at the origins of the rope, however. For the rope used to bind the victim revealed to be made of…
…Spider webs.
-END REPORT-
Saori Imagawa, Crime Scene Investigator I
Special Investigations Unit, Hokkaido Bureau
Hokkaido