by Yasutaka Tsutsui

    Now it became dark.
    Fortunately, the moon was up in the sky, and they would not miss the way in the
mountain...both of them knew it pretty well.
    Kazuhiko and Goro was hurrying back to the villege they lived. They were playing
with Michio at his house in town, and the sun had been set before they noticed it.
    The woods looked black at each roadside.
    Sometimes cold wind blew, and the leaves of the grass whispered around them.
    "You know, I heard you can see a fox around here." Kazuhiko said.
    Goro felt his heart pounded so hard. He glanced at him. Kazuhiko was staring at him
to examine how he would respond.
    Goro imagined Kazuhiko was trying to scare him. So he acted like he was not scared
of anything and said, "oh, year, I've heard of that. My grandpa told me it would appear
as a beautiful lady".
    They kept walking.
    Kazuhiko felt unpleasant because Goro was not afraid of the fox at all. Added that,
Kazuhiko himself began to be scared at it. He was sure he would be pleased and feel
much better if Goro felt scary.
    Kazuhiko said, "But, when two people are walking, the fox will possess one of them."
    And he stopped, then stared at Goro on the face.
    "Listen, as a matter of fact, I am the fox".
    Goro shuddered. But instead, he grinned at Kazuhiko to try to frighten him, because
he thought Kazuhiko would tell the same thing to him again and again if he showed he was
scared of what Kazuhiko had said.
    "Hey, Kazuhiko. You really are scared of it, huh? You are trying to frighten me because
you ARE frightened. I can see everything you think, because I AM the fox". And he grinned
again.
    Kazuhiko's heart began to beat like a drum. But he still pretended not to be afraid of
anything. "Yeah? So you mean I'm not the fox, aren't you?" Then he cackled. "OK, now I'm
gonna fade away right now, you dig it?"
    Goro was trembled on his knees but he laughed loudly. "Ke-ke-ke. now I'm gonna be a
Karakasa ghost, all right?"
    They looked at each other. And crossed their fingers like a ninja, grinning.
    They heard a temple-bell struck.
    They kept staring at each other.
    And cried.