The following is the final edit Op-547 made to this file before it was sent in as a distress call.
My name is ____ _______ and I am the transcriber for this file. My employee I.D. is Op-547 and I was given leave to work on this project from home. This file was initially passed on to me due to my prior knowledge of Japanese mythology. Cutting to the chase, I believe there is something evil hiding in the footage. I’m going to explain everything clear cut and play this off like I’m sending a regular update on this file. Hopefully you’ll send help. Hopefully I’ll still be alive.
From the beginning of this project I’ve felt unnerved. I’ve seen some disturbing images and video in the past but something was raising red flags in my brain with this one. I passed it off as jitters and excitement for being able to work on a file where I actually had knowledge on the subject matter. This unease persisted though. I started to see someone out of the corner of my eye, almost constantly. I once again blamed this on the content of my occupation and tried to ignore what I was feeling.
The source of my unease was the young woman who showed up repeatedly in the background of the footage. She was the woman that hung herself and the other crew members could not seem to see. Every time I went back through the footage to catch what people were saying or when I wanted to check for additional details I always dreaded getting to any portion where I knew she would appear. The woman had done nothing overly malicious; clearly she’s just standing there staring at the cameraman. She is visually unnerving and creepy but harmless to me. Or so I thought.
It’s some things I didn’t notice at first and if I had, well, I might not be locked in my house with communication to the outside world mostly cut off. After reviewing the footage for the fifth or sixth time I noticed a few things. The first is that the hung woman does not appear in any of the footage after the long black screen preceding the alleyway conversation. I found this odd as she was clearly making an effort to get into shots. Why did she suddenly disappear from all further footage? My initial thoughts were that the hung woman was scared off due to the other supernatural beings the group was encountering.
The second thing I noticed was that she always follows the camera. She never once looks around at the other crew members. I thought she had a fascination with the cameraman but the person who holds the camera changes several times and she remains fixated on staring directly at the camera. In fact, I remember originally thinking that it almost felt like she was trying to stare at the viewer as opposed to the camera, like she was looking through the camera to me.
By my sixth viewing of the footage I couldn’t escape the thought that the hung woman was “moving”. I had no real reason to suspect her. She wasn’t suddenly jumping across the screen or anything but I ran through the beginning scene of her hanging several times and screen captured the footage at the same point. She was indeed in different positions however sleight they were. At the time I blamed it on the stress. Why? Why did I do that? Denial, perhaps. Maybe I just wanted to believe that the stress was getting to me. I’d like to think that if I had left at that point that I might have been safe. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
A chunk of time then passed with me pretending that everything was fine. It all happened in a blur while I buried myself in my work so I don’t really know how much time passed. What I do remember is that I got up and walked away from my computer. On the other side of the room from my computer I have a rather large wall mirror. I had wandered over to the mirror and begun to rub my eyes when I got the final piece of proof I needed to realize I was in danger. While I was staring into the mirror and lamenting my lack of sleep I happened to glance at the reflection of the computer screen. I had left the screen on pause while the hung woman was on the screen. Her head was turned towards me and she was staring in my direction. I walked a bit away from the mirror while keeping my eyes on her via the reflection. Sure enough her head followed me as I crossed the room. It wasn’t the cameraman that she was staring at, it was me. I broke eye contact with the mirror to confront the screen but it was devoid of her presence. She knew that I knew.
I fled my house and spent a few days on the road. I knew from my prior readings that the entity I encountered was an Onryō. These beings are essentially ghosts that remain due to a vengeance or grudge of some kind. They have been known to latch onto a conduit of some kind if there is no one in their immediate vicinity to haunt. I’m guessing that the hung woman decided to “possess” the footage from the cameras as a means to survive and carry out whatever revenge it is she seeks. The issue is that she had now marked me. She followed me no matter where I went. I saw her in every other reflective surface I passed staring me down. Eventually she got more bold and started making physical “feints” where she assaulted me. Bellhops, hotel workers, and maids ended up dead around me. Any phone I picked up would die and I wasn’t sure of the current Organization bases. That’s when I devised this plan to return home and send in a report. I’d have you come to me.
When I returned home I found the house mostly the way I left it. No crazy messes, no physical paranormal manifestations, nothing. The only thing that even denoted that something was off in my house was the fact that my computer started playing the footage I was supposed to be transcribing. The footage was at the point where it would switch to a blank screen following the alley scene. However the footage played something different this time.
Grainy footage of someone holding a camera and moving slowly through a forest began to play. It’s not long before I realize that the footage is of Aokigahara and moments later the cameraperson reaches the area where the hung couple was found. The camera is set on the ground in front of the tree where they hung and with it a sick realization. The husband from earlier slowly walks into frame dragging his wife behind him. He takes time to set up the noose and stump that will be used in their suicide. After picking up her presumably still unconscious body and leaning it beside him he steps off the stump with her. The screen begins to fade and cuts back to the regular footage of the crew in Japan.
This is what the Onryō wanted me to see: her death. She must have been against the suicide and her husband attacked her. He then murdered her while committing suicide himself. From what I know that would be sufficient to bring about her wrath. She lost a true target to haunt when her husband died so I believe she took residence in the footage to find a new target. That is apparently me now. So to whoever reads the updates that I send in, please send help. Please help me. I honestly think that the hung women will make a full attempt at my life in the near future.
This is the final update from Op-547. He was missing from his house when a team was sent to retrieve him. Further review of the footage shows that the “hung woman” he mentions is not in any of the footage at all. The man that they find is hung alone. We believe that the Onryō has either moved on or escaped the footage but the rest of the transcription was done under heavy surveillance and security.