The Myth of Cow Head Man
Tamaki Hattori was working as a teacher at an all-boys school, the day had started out stressfully for him because he had been tasked with chaperoning a school trip to a remote village that had historical significance.
Tamaki eventually gave up trying to discipline the students and instead looked out the window at the passing scenery and the small villages that passed by, which he found to be quite beautiful and peaceful.
The boys continued to cause a commotion, and he caught a glimpse of some of them teasing a quiet little boy named Ichiro out of the corner of his eye.
He watched as Ichiro was bullied and felt bad that he didn't defend himself in the same way he had when he was younger and in school, but he knew that intervening would only encourage the boys to pick on Ichiro even more.
The students looked at each other and Tamaki realized he would have to be more persuasive "it's a scary story" he said "a story you have never heard before would you like me to tell you" the students looked at each other and Tamaki realized he would have to be more persuasive "it's a story that's forbidden to tell but I will" the students looked at each other and Tamaki realized he would have to be more persuasive "it's a scary story" he said
As the students took their positions, each of them was intrigued by the teacher's promise to tell a scary story; much to Tamaki's relief, ichiro's bully stopped peeking around the corner and joined them in their seats. "Tell us the story then," one of the students said, and Tamaki smiled to himself.
Akio, who lived in a village with his wife and son, told them about a man named akio who, after the floods destroyed his home, decided to travel to the next village in search of food and shelter. However, the journey was long and perilous, and the winter was harsh, and he realized he couldn't take his wife and son along the dangerous path ahead and would have to venture alone and return for them with assistance.
As he passed by a dead cow by the side of the path, he used his knife to slice open its belly, telling his wife and son to take shelter inside it. He also advised them to look for shelter elsewhere in the event he did not return by summertime. He bid his family goodbye and continued on his way to the next village, braving the bitter cold and treacherous paths.
The villagers were kind enough to take care of him when he collapsed due to hunger and exhaustion. When he finally woke up, he was still suffering from a fever and delirium had taken over. The villagers tried to prevent him from venturing out and urged he rest, but the man insisted with an axe in hand that he had to find his family. He was eventually successful in finding his family.
Then, in his delirious state, he imagined that the cow his wife and son were taking shelter in was actually alive and attacking them. He hacked the cow into pieces, killing his wife in the process, and then returned to the spot where he had left them.
The sun had set before the axe could be brought down to its final resting place. Akio had gone completely insane by this point, and he ripped off the cow's head and wore it for several days while chasing after his son, believing him to be a monster who had murdered his family, until he came upon a village.
As soon as the villagers saw the man with the cow's head, they charged at him and killed him. The son was taken into hiding in the village where he grew up, and years later he wrote about his father in his diary before deciding that this was not a story he wanted his children to know. He tore the pages out and scattered them when he traveled to another town.
"That's not what really happened," ichiro said, cocking his head to one side and a mysterious smile on his face. His classmates began to make fun of him once more, and tamaki stood up and raised his hands in the air to silence them. "why do you think that?" tamaki asked ichiro. "I don't know." ichiro said. "I don't know." tamaki said. "I don't know." ichiro said, Ichiro gave a friendly smile.
He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and held it up, saying, "because I discovered the piece of paper on which the story of Gozu was written." His eyes suddenly turned white and he began to tell the tale of Gozu, which was so horrifying that his classmates begged him to stop, but ichiro wouldn't listen, insisting that he was a boy possessed by the story.
When the children didn't show up for school the next day, the parents organized a search party to look for them. They eventually discovered the bus in a ditch just a few kilometers away from the village where tamaki had seen the dead cow the day before.
As a result of the 911 call, the police arrived on the scene to find the school teacher and the children all in a catatonic state with foam coming from their mouths, with the exception of one, ichira, who was sitting alone in his seat smiling.
Asked about what had happened on the bus later, ichiro stated that he had informed his classmates of the story of Gozu, and that when the driver couldn't take it anymore, he crashed the bus. When the police asked him to repeat the story, he replied, "sure, I'll gladly tell you the true tale of Gozu."
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