Mashiro and the Eerie Puppet / The Girl and the House of Dolls

"Pfft! Hahahaha!!!" My older cousin, who was drinking beer nearby, slammed her fist on the table and burst into laughter, splashing beer everywhere.

"So it was you!" Shirou shouted in a fit of rage as he looked at his older cousin, whose morals had been completely shattered.

"It's alright! It's alright! I'll watch the house for you. Just remember to cook something delicious when you get back tonight." Sengoku Chihiro waved her hand and said with a smile. Anyway, it was her day off, and she had drunk enough, so she could sleep until evening.

"Go back here!!" Shirou shouted irritably.

He definitely didn't want to spend the day adventuring with a girl at dangerous, haunted locations, living on tenterhooks the whole way, only to come home and have to cook for an alcoholic!

An hour later, Shirou and Mashiro, who was clinging to his arm, appeared at the door of a strangely styled flat-roofed wooden house. This was the place that had been rumored to be the most haunted place recently—'The House of Dolls '!

It is said that no one has lived here for a long time, but you can still hear the sound of wooden shoes stepping on the wooden planks going up and down the stairs from time to time. Sometimes, you can even see a Black Shadow that looks like a child walking by through the window.

One day, a man witnessed this scene and, unable to resist his curiosity, walked towards the door. To his surprise, he heard the sound of the wooden door being turned open.

Is anyone there?

The man tried to strike up a conversation with the people inside.

A shrill sound came from inside.

"Please come in... please come in..."

He stepped forward and gently pushed the door open, and it swung open completely.

In the entryway stood a wooden puppet dressed as a butler, bowing to him. One of its fingers pointed inside, and its mouth moved up and down, emitting eerie chuckles, as if inviting the man to enter.

The man felt something was off, but he couldn't resist his curiosity.

'Since there are puppets, it means the person controlling them must be inside,' the man thought, and still took a step forward, following the puppets inside.

Once inside the house, you'll see puppets everywhere... wooden puppets with mechanical parts, Japanese-style black dolls with long black hair and watermelon heads in kimonos, Western-style blonde and blue-eyed dolls, babies in swaddling clothes, various animals, and strangely shaped puppets.

They were placed on shelves, cabinets, tables, and chairs; the whole house was piled up with them.

The man felt a strange gaze, as if he were being watched. However, when he looked around, he saw these puppets with open eyes, and the butler puppet from before was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 836 Mashiro and the Strange Wooden Puppet

In the dimly lit room, the puppets suddenly came to life. First, they stood up together, then they floated up, as if they were being manipulated by strings to perform various actions in a puppet show.

Adults, children, and pets enact the everyday life of a lively family on the first floor. All the puppets move with lifelike realism, their dexterity even comparable to that of the puppet shows of Jin Guang and Pili.

Then a woman, as tall as a person, brought over a cup of freshly brewed coffee. This doll was incredibly lifelike; if it weren't for the steel wires connecting her body, the man would almost have thought she was real.

"Ah, thank you," the man said, taking a sip of his coffee.

The puppet show continued all around, a little boy and a dog were chasing each other, a little girl was holding a kitten, a man sat silently flipping through a newspaper, a woman was doing housework, an old man was lying in a grand chair, and an old woman was knitting a sweater.

"Oh, friend, it was indeed a wonderful performance, but it's about time you came out and met me," the man said, looking at the scene.

"Stop joking! Where are you?" the man shouted.

"Hehehe." A high-pitched laugh could be heard coming from the crack in the ceiling.

The man looked closely and discovered that a mechanism had been set up in the ceiling of the room, with strings like piano strings hanging from above, freely controlling the puppets below.

The man went up to the second floor, intending to greet the person controlling the puppets. However, when he reached the stairs, he found them to be extremely small. Each step was low and narrow, barely allowing half of his foot to fit. He could easily climb ten steps in one stride; it was as if the stairs were designed for a kindergarten child.

"Is anyone there?" The man carefully climbed the stairs to the second floor, his toes barely touching the ground. It was pitch black up there, with only a few slivers of light coming through the windows covered by curtains. Using this light, the man walked toward the room in the hallway and could only vaguely make out a figure that seemed to be moving slightly in the middle.

"Stop playing tricks! I'm getting angry!" The man stepped forward and pulled back the curtains, but there was no one in the upper part of the hall. The Black Shadow were actually several puppets holding strings that controlled them.

He wanted to turn around and leave, but suddenly felt nauseous. There was something disgusting inside him that he couldn't hold back and was about to vomit. He vomited and found that the taste in his mouth was very strange. He had thought it was coffee, but the taste was very pungent. It turned out to be machine oil used to lubricate joints, and there were even screws from puppet parts in it.

The man tried to struggle and get out of this strange place, but he found that he couldn't move his body. His hands and feet were beyond his control, as if they were fixed in place by some force.

Crunch, crunch!

The gloomy wooden puppets in the second-floor room stopped moving, holding strings in their hands, and walked towards the man.

"Don't come any closer! Help!" The man desperately pressed himself against the window and shouted, but his mouth was only halfway open when it was secured by a string. He tried to pound on the window to call for help, but he couldn't use his arms, and even the joints in his fingers were gradually losing strength.

I don't know when it started, but his joints were now bound with the same strings as other puppets. The steel wires had drilled into his tendons, piercing through his hand and foot tendons, and were being replaced with steel wires.

"No... uh..." the man cried out, only to find that he could no longer speak.

The man was lifted up by the strings and taken back to the lobby on the first floor. There, he discovered with despair that the puppets and pets he had seen earlier were all humans and pets bound by strings, just like him. Their hands and feet were suspended by the strings, their mouths unable to open or close, and they stared at the man with the same desperate expressions...

Later, other people entered this place, but none of them ever came out again, as if they had never existed. This is the urban legend about this house.

Some have speculated that this is actually an experiment conducted by some mad scientist, but so far no one has come forward to confirm this claim.

I really want to complain about how this urban legend spread if no one escaped. Shirou would normally just laugh off these stories for the thrill and novelty they offer, since Japan is a country brimming with imagination and is indeed very strong in originality, with many people creating all sorts of monsters.

However, in today's world, it's really not something to laugh about. Although it's unclear why, vengeful spirits and ghosts are everywhere. But Japan is indeed a country with a high suicide rate and a country known for bullying, so it's not impossible that after death, some people fail to enter the cycle of reincarnation and remain trapped in the gap between the human world and the underworld.

"What should we do? Do we really have to go inside?" Shirou looked at the information on his phone, then glanced at the strangely decorated wooden house, and turned to Mashiro to ask again.

"Yes, paranormal events involving dolls are particularly relevant." Mashiro nodded calmly.

"Alright then." Shirou could only nod resignedly.

The two walked into the courtyard of the wooden house, and with a creak, the door was turned open.

Shirou stopped the girl, stepped forward, and gently pushed the door open.

Then the wooden door was pushed open.

Sure enough, a strange wooden puppet stood at the door; it wasn't the British butler, but a maid.

"I'd like to interview the owners here. What form of life are you? What do you eat to replenish your energy?" Mashiro asked the puppet maid, pulling out her notebook.

The puppet maid tilted her head in surprise, then turned around and gestured for people to come inside.

Shirou and Mashiro exchanged a glance, then Shirou followed them inside.

The interior was very similar to the rumors. From the moment you entered the room, you could see puppets everywhere. However, there were some differences. In addition to the puppets, there were also some worn-out toys such as rag dolls.

What's even more special is that there are life-sized dolls, as if they've formed a family.

At that moment, thin threads were being lowered silently from the cracks in the ceiling, waiting for the right moment to wrap around Shirou and the girl.

Chapter 837 The Girl and the House of Dolls

"What is your name?"

"..."

"Where are you from? Is this beautiful lace made in Italy?"

"..."

"Meow~?"

"..."

Mashiro was interviewing each of the dolls in the room, but none of them answered. Even though they opened their mouths to cooperate, Mashiro couldn't understand them.

With a creak, the maid's puppet, carrying a tray with two cups of coffee, walked up to Shirou and Mashiro.

"Thank you, but no thanks." Shirou refused the coffee offered to him and Mashiro. The coffee was real, but it had been sitting out for who knows how long and had long since gone bad.

Shirou continued to survey the surrounding furnishings. There really were gaps in the ceiling, and wires were used to control the puppets below, allowing them to move freely.

Many of the dolls here are life-size, perhaps representing the controlled humans of legend. However, they don't actually have any physical bodies; the dolls' bodies seem to be pieced together from scrap wood and plastic, and are actually hollow inside.

Because the lighting was dim, it wasn't very noticeable, but these dolls weren't actually very well-made. Some of the parts were clearly made from broken items salvaged from a junkyard.

Something of this size couldn't possibly trap a human, not even a child, so most of the people who entered the room probably escaped.

It's basically a quirky themed restaurant in Japan, with a cheap feel like a haunted house set up for a school festival.

Upon entering, Shirou sensed an unusual aura. It wasn't a vengeful spirit! But there was some kind of soul present, seemingly lurking somewhere in the darkness.

In fact, Shirou had a question in his mind when he saw the puppets. He couldn't understand what gave these puppets their motivation. Even if it was the work of a yokai, there should at least be a reason.

However, these puppets are made by humans, so if they harbor any resentment, it can only be something bestowed upon them by humans. Otherwise, the puppets are merely puppets and would not possess any other emotions.

Above the sky, more than a dozen thin lines were lowered down and wrapped around Shirou's Mashiro.

"As expected! They've made their move after all!" Shirou was prepared. Projection his hands and threw several steel swords with multiple hooks upwards. They flew directly into the crack in the ceiling, spinning horizontally. When the blades touched the thin line, they spun around instead of cutting it off.

The people above tried to pull the line back, but it got tangled in the steel sword several times, pulling the sword upwards and getting it stuck in a gap in the ceiling.

"Mashiro, we're going upstairs now," Shirou said to the girl behind him.

"Mmm." Mashiro replied, cooperatively wrapping her arms around Shirou's neck and leaning against Shirou, no longer swaying, trying her best not to cause Shirou any trouble.

"Let's go!" Shirou scooped up Mashiro, shook off the puppets on the first floor, and leaped up the stairs.

Shirou emitted a ball of light from his hand, illuminating the entire second floor.

Above the hall on the second floor, there stood several puppets, including the Maid Outfit puppets we had seen before, as well as puppets dressed as butlers, a little boy and a little girl, pulling on the strings wrapped around the sword Projection by Shirou.

When they saw Shirou and Mashiro about to go into the inner room, the puppets suddenly became anxious, creaking and groaning as if they were angrily jumping up and down, raising their legs high and stomping on the ground.

"Gah!!!!!"

Several puppets, some holding strings and others holding spikes, lunged at Shirou.

These aren't vengeful spirits, but rather monsters—and they're genuinely attacking. It seems the resentment of abandoned dolls has given them freedom of movement, and these puppets have begun to treat the humans who have been invited in the same way that humans have treated them.

A puppet Maid Outfit turned its attention to Mashiro, leaping high into the air with its knife and fork raised, and lunged at her.

Shirou darted forward, grabbed the puppet, slammed it to the ground, and crushed it under his foot.

However, the spirit residing inside the puppet floated out again, crawled into the other puppets, and stood up once more.

"Mashiro, come with me!" Shirou used his sword to shoo away the puppets and pulled Mashiro towards the inner room.

In a room on the second floor, there was a figure covered with a blanket on the bed against the wall at the far end. It looked like a room that had been occupied by a young girl, with pink decorations all around and dolls of all sizes scattered on the bed and in the closet.

However, that must have been several years ago, and the area around the table was covered with a thick layer of dust...

Shirou looked at the small, human-shaped bulge on the bed, walked over, and lifted the covers. He saw that the figure lying on the bed was not a girl, but a thin, humanoid doll. It lay there quietly, motionless.

"Shirou, that's..." Mashiro pointed to the doll girl's pillow, where a diary was placed.

"Hmm." Shirou reached out and pulled out the diary. He opened it and saw that it was written in the handwriting of a young girl, with drawings by an elementary school student.

This diary records the experiences of the girl who once lived here. Although the wording is simple, it's still possible to guess what that girl went through.

Once upon a time, in this room lived a little girl who was too sick to attend school and felt very lonely every day. To cheer her up, her family bought her many puppets and put on various interesting puppet shows for her. However, her family was very busy with work and often had to travel for business, so they had to leave the girl in the care of a maid and a doctor who came regularly.

Gradually, the girl's condition worsened, and she became unable to even leave the building, confined to the second floor. Her parents were not around, and an elderly caregiver was responsible for cooking and laundry for her. However, the maid and doctor could not replace the girl's parents, nor could they become the friends she longed for.

The girl could only lie alone in her room, playing with her beloved puppets, talking to them, and expressing her wish to have many friends.

Until one day, the girl left the house, leaving behind only an empty house and a room full of puppets.

Shirou deduced what would happen later by looking at the diary.

Chapter 838 Mashiro's Longing for the Doll

After the girl left, some of the puppets developed a spirit-like quality, gaining the ability to act independently. However, the puppets refused to accept reality and pretended not to realize that the girl had left.

The puppets left in the room made a puppet that resembled the girl's figure, placed it on her bed, treated it as their master, and tried their best to please her.

They looked at the little girl who was sullen, silent, and motionless, and began to think of ways to find her a companion to alleviate her loneliness.

Since the master had no companions, the puppet decided to find new ones. So the puppet began collecting nearby toys and brought them to the girl's bedside, hoping to cheer her up.

However, humans cannot communicate with puppets, and soulless puppets cannot communicate with spirits.

So the puppets just kept doing their thing, constantly adding more puppets to their repertoire, but they never received a response from the girl.

"Shirou, I feel so sad... So that's how it is." Mashiro looked at the diary and said, lowering her head.

"Ah, so let them quiet down." Shirou said, patting the girl's head.

Shirou walked to the door and deactivated the reinforcements. To keep the puppets out, he had previously transformed the wooden door into a steel door that could withstand an explosion.

"It's over. You should have noticed by now, your master is no longer here," Shirou said to the puppets blocking the doorway.

"It's a pity, but it's enough. You've all worked so hard, so you can rest now," Mashiro said, stepping forward with the diary in her hands.

Crunch!

The puppets outside the door looked at the girl's puppet on the bedside table, exchanging glances, shaking their heads, and finally lowered their arms that were holding weapons, as if they had been shocked.

Shirou and Mashiro unfolded the girl's diary to the puppets outside. Inside, there were crayon drawings of a little girl and the puppets surrounding her, all holding hands and showing joyful smiles.

The puppets finally understood the truth. Looking at the drawings in the diary, the spirit born from the puppets recalled the times they had spent with the little girl.

The puppet dressed as a butler and the puppet Maid Outfit trembled, and a faint, crystalline liquid seemed to flow from the corner of their eyes, leaving a trace in the darkness.

Shirou wondered if it was just his imagination, although humans didn't know whether the spirits of puppets could shed tears.