After saying the words "ghosts," the man seemed to let out a breath, his shoulders visibly relaxing.
His solemn expression didn't change, and he continued at once. "Ghosts are what we usually call spirits. The things in horror movies, horror novels, and the ghost stories people hear through the grapevine when they're students... They're real. I don't know when they first came into existence... According to my grandmother and my friend's parents—his uncle and aunt—there probably weren't any ghosts in the world at first. After people died, they went to a waystation and waited to be reincarnated. They either entered the cycle of reincarnation or waited there indefinitely... Those were the only two possibilities. There's a legend at that waystation, a bit like one of those love stories you hear all the time. One of a couple dies, then waits in the world of the dead for the other to arrive so they can enter the cycle of reincarnation together. But the legend at the waystation is a tragedy, and it has never ended. My grandmother and the others heard the story after they arrived there. That person may still be waiting at the waystation." The man shifted in his seat. "I'm not telling this story to share it with everyone. I've heard plenty of stories about the waystation. I bring it up because that person really did wait there for a long time. Legend has it that he was the first to encounter a ghost. Well, the first person at the waystation to learn about ghosts and see one. He saw people who'd been killed by ghosts, and he saw the ghosts themselves. They all entered the cycle of reincarnation soon after. He stayed behind and told the others about ghosts. That's how the story was passed down, proving