[video, before missions]

[ghost_bait]

[Miku keeps her eyes down. Behind her is her quarters, looking as inviting and comfortable (and ridiculously pink) as can be.] I wanted to ask a question. My older brother was a folklorist, and he used to tell me all sorts of old folktales while also writing about new, urban legends.

[She fiddles with the comb that keeps her bun in place.] A lot of the ones I know are... they're a bit messy. But, I thought there are so many other people here, I wouldn't mind hearing an urban legend or two from you? If you'd like to, of course.

I'll share mine, but... like I said a lot of them are, ah... a bit scary.


((TW For creepy things and stories that sometimes have gore and murder in them))

Comments

[thedreamisdead]

I'm not sure if this counts as an urban legend. People on the streets think it is. Some of us know better. Then again, it's best if people didn't really think that hard about the stuff they see in the Black Museum.

Satan is real. One day he came to Mega-City One, deciding to trick someone out of their soul or some such rubbish. He went after the purest he could find, Judge Dredd.

The venture ended poorly. The Prince of Lies was sent to the cubes for the crime of sin itself.

[And, if what she's heard is true, with more rhyme than was necessary.]

Enter Ernesto Morzel, the so-called god of gamblers. King of the underground gambling rings and master of every type of game you can imagine. Cut his teeth in Mega-City One, probably could have ruled Vegas if he'd bothered to go down there. He went from a broke child to the man who could afford to eat the last tiger prawn on the planet, just to prove he was that rich.

Problem was, creep got bored. Wanted one final game. That's when someone told him who we had locked up in Iso-Block 666.

So he broke in on the busiest night of the year, right after Nero Narcos' attempted war on the Judges had our forces spread in, killed the guards, walked into the deepest iso-cube in the place, and challenged old Scratch himself to a game of Sector Seven Slam. Poker variant. Played with multiple decks, ten cards to a hand, two to discard and eight to put in the hole. The Devil named the stakes. Their souls.

They didn't play for long. Even with our problems, we were in the Iso-Block within fifteen minutes. Found none of Mozel's men there. The cards on the table read a ten straight on Old Nick's side and eight-of-a-kind on Ernesto's. The God of Gamblers won. Too bad Lucifer didn't let him get away with his prize.

Can you imagine what happens to a normal man when a soul like that moves into his body?

[superscholar]

I don't know if this counts, but...

Back home, there's this story about seven magic balls. They're scattered all across the planet, and if you can get them all together, you'll be able to summon the eternal dragon, and he'll grant you a single wish.

If I remember correctly, the balls were made thousands of years ago, and the first person to make a wish on them became a king. I don't know how accurate that part is, but I can at least tell you that the dragon balls are real, and that we've used them before.

[thedreamisdead]

What did you use them for?

[superscholar]

... Mostly bringing our friends back from the dead. Although there are stipulations to that.

[tw: body mutilation]

[ghost_bait]

[Miku's expression is guarded, but she nods.] I can, yes.

Where I'm from, there's a legend about a woman, but she's sometimes just a schoolgirl, who was pushed off the train platform by an impatient man, but sometimes he's a bully schoolmate, into the path of an oncoming train.

[She winces at the thought.] The girl's body was ripped into two halves, because she couldn't get off the tracks in time. So we have what we call a Teke Teke. It's the sound of her hands and arms as they drag her upper torso along. Tektektektek.

She haunts train stations, but there's one who is on the Meishin line, and her name is supposedly Reiko. She haunts the restrooms, but the only way to escape her is to answer her questions correctly. She wants her full name, where her legs are, and who told you what her name is. Sometimes, she asks a trick question. If you answer "Kashima" she will kill you. The only way to answer that is "Kamen Shijin Ma" or "Masked Death Demon". If you answer even one of the questions wrong, you suffer the same fate she did... your body is cut into, legs and torso.

[Miku makes a face.] Strangely, this legend is very popular with children.

[gonebyebye]

...no offense, but as someone who's been to Hell and back and met Lucifer in the process? I don't think you had the real deal. It was most likely a minor demon who was pretending to be him for his own purposes.

[thedreamisdead]

From what I know, he's not the kind to accept substitutes. He did go rather traditional with Dredd, judging from the report. It's a little hard to ask him questions these days, though. Mozel doesn't stop screaming long enough for niceties like that.

Either way, even without the charge of sin, he's still in for attempted bribery of a Mega-City Judge, assault, attempted murder of a Mega-City Judge, attempted robbery, resisting arrest, demonic possession, attempted escape from an Iso-Cube, and gambling. If he's not Satan, we've got him for an extra twenty years for impersonating a known criminal with intent to commit a crime, identity theft, and attempting to defraud the Justice Department.

[thedreamisdead]

Find me a juve that doesn't love a horror story. Especially if it might creep a girl out.

Where are her legs, out of curiosity?

[You never know when you'll wind up in a Hondo Cit public facility. Or maybe she's an immigrant.]

[thedreamisdead]

Sounds like you could've done well with insurance agencies.

[superscholar]

I think Krillin made a joke about that once.

[TW: Dead Moms]

[ghost_bait]

There's an especially sad story about a woman, a shopkeeper who lived on the edge of a village, and a newborn. Every evening, she would come with her child, and buy it a little amezuke, giving the shopkeeper one coin. She did it again, and again, never saying anything, just taking the cup and leaving.

On the sixth night, he pinned a little string to her kimono. She left and did not notice, trailing the string along behind her. After he'd closed the shop, he followed the string to the graveyard. There at a freshly dug grave, he heard the faint sound of a baby crying. Alarmed, the man ran to the family whose name was inscribed on the stone.

They unearthed the grave and opened it, and found that the woman, who had died before she could give birth, had birthed the infant, now weak and crying in the grave. And five of the six coins they buried with her for passage to the underworld were gone.

[ghost_bait]

The Meishin line is in Hokkaido. But that story is very, very old, so who knows if any of the answers are right?

[Miku pauses, and worries her lip, before adding,] Actually... now that I think about it, it's nineteen years old, too.

[thedreamisdead]

Sounds unsanitary.

[Okay, she might be pulling Miku's leg a little there.]

Unless you've got a nasty scar running across your midsection, I think we're all safe from uncomfortable encounters while washing our hands.

[ghost_bait]

Take that up with Kashima-san.

[She smiles a little.]

No, I am more or less scar-free, somehow.

[touchmydragon]

Older brothers can be quite the resource...

[Considering how much he relied on his older brother back in the day, he can certainly get behind that.]

Unfortunately, I only have stories from my youth, like inexpertly attempting to call on Kokkuri-san. Urban legends had lost most of their color in my era so I cannot say anything exciting ever happened. But all superstitions have a danger to them that should not be fooled with or treated lightly.

[ghost_bait]

He was, yes.

[Miku brightens up.]

Kokkuri-san? I was always too afraid I'd get spirited away playing that game.

[touchmydragon]

The thrill caused by the fear of having that happen was what drove me. Not exactly the best of motivations, I admit.

[superscholar]

That's...

[ Messed up, even for Gohan. Then again, he'd never really had to deal with things like that, and he sure wasn't prepared for it. ]

Sorry, that's a first for me. I'm not used to something that... [ What's a good word for this? ] ... grim.

Are those kinds of stories common where you're from?

[ghost_bait]

They are. All over Japan, they're common. Some are, of course, older than others, and others are even only common in very specific regions. The one I told is popular across the country.

[bachido]

What sort of story is an urban legend?

[ghost_bait]

You're an adventurous person!

[ghost_bait]

They grew up out of cities, as people began living closer and closer together. Scarier folktales, Kubo-kun.

[She pauses and looks down at her lap.]


Should I tell you one, I wonder?

[touchmydragon]

I was that type of person, at least. In my younger days, I was quite a fool and risked a lot either to get a thrill or impress others.

[superscholar]

[ That's concerning. ]

I'm not used to stories like that. [ A pause. ] Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't grow up with a lot of stories in the first place. I was... too busy studying all the time, among other things.

The one about the dragon balls is the only one I know. And it wasn't until after years of wearing one on my head that I realized there's an actual myth about it.

[ghost_bait]

You wore it... on your head? [Of all the things to get stuck on. Miku tilts her head from side to side, as if trying to figure out where he kept it]

I ended up used to a lot of stories like that. They're... necessary, I think. I could probably tell you another one, but you look a little pale.