It was about two summers ago. My company was on summer break, and I was spending my days lounging in bed, reading manga and taking afternoon naps.
That day, I fell asleep while reading as usual. When I suddenly woke up, I saw a few small, brown, demon-like creatures moving around right in front of me. They were about ten centimeters tall. Well, rather than demons, it’s probably more accurate to describe them like the grotesque spirits from the Hyakki Yakko (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons).
Anyway, they scurrying past my face and headed toward my dog, who was napping right beside me.
Still half-asleep at the time, I felt fiercely protective—thinking, "What do you think you're doing to my dog?"—so I grabbed one of those spirit-things, tossed it right into my mouth, and went back to sleep.
A few minutes or maybe tens of minutes later, I woke up with an intense, raging stomachache and made a mad dash for the toilet.
I writhed on the toilet in the worst agony of my life, feeling like I was about to pass out. But if I fassed out there, my mom would find me with my pants down and have to call an ambulance. Besides, I hadn't even wiped! Even unmarried, I was still a young woman, and I refused to suffer that kind of humiliation!
Clinging solely to that thought, I endured thirty minutes of agonizing pain. When the pain finally subsided and I crawled out of the toilet, the T-shirt I was wearing was completely drenched in sweat. It was soaked to the point that if I took it off and wrung it out, sweat would literally pour out in streams.
To this day, whenever I remember it, I still wonder what on earth that was—whether I was just out of my mind with sleep or something else. My dog, who was sickly and had to make frequent trips to the vet back then, is now healthy and waiting at home for me to get back from work.
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