Legends Of Ochi-musha

First to explain, Ochi-musha are ancient Japanese legends or some real stories on ancient Japanese soldiers whom have ran away during a battle. Musha, the word itself is very old, means an armed person. You can imagine a samurai guy wearing a suit of traditional Japanese armor, dirty looking, with a broken spear or holding a Japanese sword with no sheath, those are usually how people will describe an Ochi-musha, they are not traditionally considered as heroes or cool people like some unprofessional novels or cartoons will describe.　Also, I am not talking about the famous Hei-ke Legend because it is still considered very complicated because it will link to the Japanese Emperor Families, don't want to be too political.

So my friend and I were together again, planning to go out of Hokkaido to feel the summer heat around Honshu or even Kyushu (southern island where famous cities like Fukuoka and Nagasaki are at). "Hey Ryujin, are you sure you want to go to Arashi-yama at Kyoto?" asked my friend. "Why not? There is a very beautiful temple there that I was to visit and we can dress like ancient people in Kimono nearby the Kyomizu Temple, don't you like such things, Aya?" I asked my friend. She shook her head and made a we-are-not-talking-about-that face. "So, not Kyoto?" I asked again.

"Well I cam from a family which ran away from Kyoto because of some political problem, see my ancestors belongs to A FAMOUS SHOGUN (I blurred for some privacy for my friend) and we have a similar family name" she says in a tone like it is normal that anyone would notice about the background.

"Hmm? Your ancestors right? How will it link to you?" I asked in away that I was expecting something superstitious.

Yes, Aya my friend's family background is from one of the Ochi-musha legend, not as great as the Emperor's Family but they belong to some high class samurai later ran away because they did not want to battle anymore. Legend says that their ancestors were chased by the Shogun's soldiers, the old capital used to be Kyoto, so from the capital city, they had ran all over to the north and to the south, most people who ran to the south died because there were already some soldiers waiting for them, others who ran to the north either was caught later or settled around which is now Akita. Back to the story.

"In the legend the family of the shogun still hates our family, they will still find us in spiritual way, like I may meet an accident, etc..." says my friend very very superstitiously.

"No one even remember where MY ancestors lived, we do not even have records back so many centuries ago?" I was dumbfounded as I was saying this to my friend. But studying again about ochi-musha I kind of start to change my mind a bit and respected my friend's believes. "Aya, so you never been to Kyoto in your life?" I asked again could not give up wanting to go to Kyoto with her.

"Well, I wanted to go but somehow it will always be postponed or canceled by strange reasons, last time when you went camping with Bryan, I met my friend too and planned to go to Kyoto next month, weeks later, her aunt died and we need to cancel the trip... I don't want any thing to happen between us" my friend said.

I went off to get some drinks because we have been talking nonstop for awhile. My friend knew that I will be fed-up with her fusses, somehow she manages to book 2 tickets to Shiga with quite a good Ryokan (but no meals... We needed to go to a local super market to buy bento boxes to eat... Oh well).

So I did not noticed until the day before when the Ryokan called us to check if we are coming. "Aya? I thought we are not going to Kansai!?" I called my friend.

"No, we are not going to Kyoto, but we can go to Shiga, right? See nothing bad happened so far" my friend replied as if I can even feel her big smile over the phone than the next day came.

We are at the Kansai International Airport trying to find a train to go to our destination. It went smooth just some "getting lost moments" when you are in a new place, you know what I mean. We arrived mid-evening time, around...17:00-ish? And checked-in.

"Aya, you feel any thing odd?" I asked incase she was just holding on to something (I don't know but I was thinking too much at the time). "Are you feeling things again like you always suddenly will?" she asked me jokingly.

"Never mind" I replied.

That night after our dinner (bento-boxes...) we went to the roof space of the Ryokan. In summer time I heard that they will serve beer, but now they serve only ice cream and soft drinks. We had a cup of vanilla ice cream each and a bottle of soda they call Ramune, I quite like those. Suddenly, my friend fainted and I had to carry her to the closest bench. She woke in my arm and I thought that it was the lightheadedness after a hot bath. My friend pushed me away for no reason and walked off as if nothing happened, I thought she was playing a joke, so I just seated there and drank my drink. (Ramune is a soft drink and she did not drink any medicines)

"Oi, sokono mono (hey, the person there) " my friend pointed at me and spoke demandingly. I looked at her and made a What-the-... Face. "kikenu noka (can't you hear) " she spoke demandingly again. "tobioritemo iinoka? (should I jump down) " she said demandingly again.

I rushed to her covered her mouth because she was shouting and speaking loudly and quickly got to the elevator. "What is wrong with?" I said, my friend pushed me off again this time she was rubbing her hand on her waist as if she was searching for something, she fainted again when the elevator stopped at our floor. I carried her to our room and never spoke about what happened. We stayed 3 nights but nothing else special happened.

Do you think that this is really a possession of some sort of ghost or do you think that my friend was playing a quite hard joke on me?