It was already sunset when we arrived at the entrance of Aokigahara Forest.

 

The darkness of the Aokigahara Forest was like a heavy cloak, pressing in upon us as we trudged further and further into its depths.

 

It seemed as if the very trees themselves were trying to absorb us, holding us in their embrace. The sense of dread was palpable, and a chill ran down the spine of each of us as we walked forward.

 

An hour into the hike and Ryuuga, the leader of the Occult Club, turned to us with a smirk and said, "Well, if we're gonna die in here, might as well have our last meal. Who's hungry?"

 

He was the leader of the Occult Club, Ryuuga Okabe, a 2nd-year senior high school student from the same school I attended.

 

Kana Hoshiko, the vice leader, rolled her eyes and said, "Ryu, please stop messing around. We have new members with us today."

 

I glared at Kana and said, "Just so we're clear, I'm not a member of your club, and I'm not interested in joining."

 

Kana smiled and replied, "No pressure, we're just here to uncover the truth behind the mysteries of this forest. And you happen to fit the requirements to join us."

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

Ryuuga nodded in agreement and said, "Yeah, you'll find out soon enough."

 

He then turned to the rest of the club and said, "Let's eat."

 

The members of the occult club began setting up a temporary camp with the nearby logs and created a fire where they reheated the canned tuna and rice.

 

We had just finished eating when Ryuuga got to his feet, stretched, and with an expressionless gaze, said, "Alright, now that we've fueled up, let's get to the real reason we're here."

 

Kana, noticing my confusion, took the lead. "We've come to Aokigahara Forest to uncover the truth behind certain mysterious events that have occurred here in the past year or so."

 

I raised an eyebrow. "What kind of mysterious events?"

 

"Several inexplicable disappearances have occurred at this forest." Ryuuga said with an indifferent expression.

 

"This is the suicide forest, it's not that unusual to have a dumb internet rumor attached to it"

 

Kana smiled and said, "No, it's not just a rumor. We have evidence."

 

She pulled out a thick book, its contents bulging with many plastic sheets. Half of the book was left barren and void, while the other half was loaded with a multitude of paper.

 

She ran her hands along the edges of the plastic covers and flicked the pages before.

 

She flicked the page and gave it to me. I read its contents and realized it was a police report.

 

She flicked the book to a specific page and handed it to me. I picked it up and read its contents. It was filled with police reports and photographs of mutilated bodies found in the forest.

 

The report stated that a dead body was found in the deep sea of trees of Aokigahara Forest. The body was so mutilated that it was unidentifiable.

 

I opened the next page and saw different pictures of the dead body. One was multiple angles of the dead body in the forest, along with the coroner's report at the bottom.

 

The conclusion of the report said that the cause of death was a mysterious infection that caused the body to decay rapidly, leaving only bones.

 

The cause of death was "mechanical asphyxia," a suicide by hanging...

 

"What the hell is this?" I asked, flipping through the pages.

 

I flicked the next page to see what other information Kana had gathered.

 

There it was, an closed case for a deceased body - and this time, the victim had been identified: Issei Satou, a 39-year-old disgraced gambler who had been hopelessly mired in millions of debt.

 

The cause of death was another mechanical asphyxia. Apparently, he was identified by the DNA sample match during the time he was arrested for assault-related charges.

 

But what was the connection between these victims and Aokigahara Forest? I continued to read and found twenty more victims.

 

Strangely however, the last victim was different. He was identified as Nguyen, Bình Tran, 28. An experienced night hiker and an IRL streamer from Vietnam. At 11:39 PM, his stream suddenly disconnected, and his body was found three days later.

 

I closed the book and handed it back to her. "I'll admit, this is some pretty convincing evidence. How the hell did you get this?"

 

"I stole it." She said nonchalantly.

 

"You WHAT?"

 

"I took it from my dad's computer. He usually stores work documents on his PC." She shrugged.

 

I stared at her in disbelief, one wrong move and it would've put an end to his father's career. But, I admired her courage.

 

"So, what do you make of all this?" I asked.

 

Kana tapped her chin, her eyes drifting away in a deep thought. "From what I can remember, I heard my dad and his co-worker discussing this yesterday. Apparently, a portion of the coroner's report was removed, and it mentioned that human saliva was found on the dead bodies. The teeth marks were too similar to a human's. I think it's some kind of a man-eating person."

 

My mind ran off with innumerable possibilities, each one igniting my curiosity, leaving me breathless and desperate to explore them.

 

"Baal, could this be the work of demons?"

 

 

"Was it feeding on dead bodies? But... why would it attack a hiker? Did it run out of food, so it decided to kill a hiker? No, in the first place, why would a demon need to eat people when all it has to do is feed its host?"

 

 

"So there are demons from born on this planet?"

 

 

 

I stood up and fixed my backpack before nodding. "We should go."

 

Our group stifled the roaring fire, smothering it with buckets of water until the charred remains sizzled and the air was thick with black smoke.

 

The tall trees blocked the moonlight, leaving us in the dark.

 

We hadn't seen or heard from another soul since we left the camp, and that was hours ago. There were no sounds of birds chirping or the hooting of owls. There were no sounds of crickets, and the air was still. There was no wind blowing through the trees. It was almost like the forest was frozen in time.

 

We carefully maneuvered through the dense brush. Each of us held our own flashlight. As we walked, I tilted my head upwards and saw something above us. I could only see it barely because the flashlights weren't focused on it.

 

"Baal, is that..."

 

I couldn't even finish my sentence in my head before Baal responded.

 

 

I grabbed the backpacks of Ryuuga and Kana, who were leading the group.

 

"What is it?" Ryuuga asked as he turned to look at me.

 

"There's a dead body hanging above us."