A story I heard from my mother. Before I was born, she met a samurai in a dream, who told her, "Your child will be stillborn. Its soul is tainted, so it will become our food." Troubled by this, my mother told a relative who was a Shugendo ascetic about the dream, and somehow managed to obtain a spiritually powerful sacred rope. She wrapped this rope around her belly and lived with it until childbirth. After a while, the samurai appeared in her dreams again. He told her, "If you don't take off that rope right now, your life will be forfeit." But my mother did not take off the rope. Why? Because the ascetic had told her, "As long as you keep this rope wrapped around you, the samurai cannot harm the baby inside your womb." That night ended with just that, but ever since then, she started having frequent dreams of the samurai. And right around the time of childbirth, the samurai finally drew his sword. "If you don't remove that cursed rope, I will cut you down right here and now." He said that to her, but my mother refused because she had to protect her baby. She dreamed of being slashed from behind while sleeping on her side, and woke up. She gave birth to the child safely, but to this day, my mother still has a scar on her back that looks like an old sword wound.
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