About a Place in the Kinki Region p.2: "True Story! New Information About the Missing Girl from Nara Prefecture!" - an article published in the March 14th 1989 issue of a weekly magazine
On the day the Kansai region saw its first snowfall in several years, a girl suddenly vanished...
In February 1984, A-chan, then 8 years old, went missing as she was walking home from school. Five years on, and she has yet to be found. Readers of this magazine should be familiar with this case as our editorial department has been closely investigating what happened to A-chan ever since. Due to the suspect nature of the case, we have looked into many different theories from kidnapping by a predator to alien abduction, but each one has resulted in little more than mere speculation.
But now, thanks to new discoveries made as a result of our own investigations, we are proposing a new possibility.
Our readers likely already know this, but this case is considered so mysterious due to the strange circumstances of A-chan's disappearance.
A-chan, a second-grader at the time, was on her way home from school with her classmates B-chan and C-chan. A-chan's home was located at the very end of a dead-end street—an alley in a busy residential district. She split off alone from B-chan and C-chan at the entrance to this alley, as their homes were further down the way. Her home was a mere 40 metres from the entrance to that alley, but she would never reach her front door. There were four other houses in that alley aside from A-chan's, but the police found that they all belonged to families or elderly couples and were therefore unlikely to have been involved. This would mean that A-chan simply disappeared somewhere along the few dozen metres between the alley entrance and her home. There were zero signs of trespassing in the homes or gardens of any of the surrounding houses, and no eyewitnesses came forward with information despite it being around 4PM, when the area was particularly busy. Due to this, the case quickly gained attention and was featured as a modern-day 'spiriting away' on variety shows. On top of this, the case became even more notorious when a relative of A-chan took their own life two months after she went missing, following intense media scrutiny that the abduction could have been the work of a family member.
The case has remained stagnant ever since, but some new information has recently been uncovered.
• The Psychic Experiment
On July 13th 1988, from 9PM to 10PM, Network 〇〇〇〇 aired 'The Power of TV ~ Missing Persons Special'. The programme looked into various missing persons cases and asked live viewers to offer their own input. It included a segment dedicated entirely to A-chan's disappearance. This segment, like usual, explained the incident and asked viewers to chime in, but also asked for the aid of an American psychic medium visiting Japan, 〇〇. They conducted an experiment using photographs of A-chan alongside maps of Japan and the surrounding Kinki region. After the experiment was over, 〇〇 had the following to say.
"Sadly, I don't believe A-chan is still alive. But normally, if the person I am looking for is deceased, they appear blurry to me in photographs—A-chan isn't blurry at all. This is a first for me, and it's quite shocking. I can only conclude that A-chan is neither dead nor alive."
A reporter asked 〇〇 where A-chan was located and they pointed to ●●●●●, ●●●●● in the Kinki region—this area is nowhere near her home. A-chan's mother had appeared on the programme and said that her family had never been to the area in question. The programme announced that their staff would investigate ●●●●● at a later date, but nothing significant was supposedly found. No further updates have been broadcast.
• A Strange Encounter
We have received many inquiries and reports from our readers ever since our last article on this case, and several have reported similar experiences. Let's look at the story of K-san, who is employed as a long haul truck driver.
"I'm often driving through the night for my job. I was near ●●●●● at about 3AM that night. It's a lonely place, y'know? There's a highway there, between the mountains and the dam, and there's a few houses around too. But at night you won't find anyone besides truck drivers like me who are on their way to and from the mountain pass, so it's really quiet. There also aren't many streetlights, so you can't see anything beyond your headlights. I was just about to reach the pass when I caught sight of a young girl. She had on a pink sweater, and was wearing a school backpack. She was standing still at the very edge of the road, facing away. Something was obviously wrong, so I pulled over and got out of my truck. She kept facing away as I approached, looking towards the mountains. You'd usually at least look over your shoulder if someone was approaching you like that, but she didn't turn an inch. I was starting to think that maybe she was a ghost or something. But still, I couldn't just leave a young girl alone out there, who knows what could happen? So I walked up to her and faced her, then asked something like 'are you okay? Is something wrong?' She was smiling. Like, grinning with her whole face. She had this huge smile and was looking upwards. It freaked me out so much my knees started to buckle. Still, I managed to ask her 'where do you live? What's your name?' and she spoke back with that big grin plastered on her face the whole while. She said 'A has become a bride.' I had no idea what to say to that, so I just told her 'how about you just come sit in my truck for now?' But as soon as I said that, she ran into the woods. Yeah. It was pitch black out there, too. But I was so scared I couldn't follow. Police? Yeah, of course I told the police. They took my statement and all, but they asked me stuff like 'have you been drinking tonight, sir?' It bugged me how indifferent they were acting, like they were used to it. Not long after that, I saw a sign about A-chan at the local police station. Same name, same outfit, everything. I didn't think anyone would believe me if I told them a story like this, so I decided to report it to you guys."
Alongside K-san's story, we have received a number similar reports like "my friend saw a girl who looked like A-chan near ●●●●●" and so on. They all have one thing in common: they all encountered A-chan at night around ●●●●●. In most cases they simply passed by without doing anything, or A-chan ran off before they could call out to her.
• The Relative's Death
As mentioned earlier in the article, a relative of A-chan committed suicide two months after she went missing. While some news outlets have made thoughtless claims that the suicide was due to mental illness, other sources would suggest this was not the case.
The media only referred to this person as a relative of A-chan, and only passingly as a part of the greater tragedy. In fact, this relative was A-chan's uncle on her father's side, M-san. M-san did not live with A-chan's family, instead he stayed at a dorm owned by the construction management company he worked for in Nara prefecture. M-san only met with A-chan's direct family every few months—most recently three weeks before A-chan went missing, where he was invited to their home for dinner. They weren't close otherwise.
Also of note regarding M-san is his employer: this company primarily manages dams, which includes the ●●●●● Dam in ●●●●●. M-san, who was employed as a construction manager, had been working at ●●●●● Dam since January.
There was no suicide note or any other relevant evidence discovered at the time M-san took his own life.
Due to this information, we theorise that M-san was involved in A-chan's disappearance. However, without any hard evidence to support this theory, it is currently nothing more than speculation. We will continue investigating so that we can bring the truth to light.
Translation Notes 1-8
The translation notes are organised by part. Please be careful of spoiling yourself by reading ahead.
This is an amateur translation of the web novel 近畿地方のある場所について as posted to kakuyomu.jp by the author 背筋. The web novel is freely accessible to the public, and this translation has no relation to any other adaptions. I claim no rights or ownership of the content presented.