When this series is in development, there have been (perhaps expectedly) strange experiences. Zero ~Shinku no Chou~ was no exception, and there were indeed inexplicable phenomena witnessed. Here we will introduce a selected few of those stories.
It was cold, December.
I got into my futon and went to sleep, and then the impact of someone climbing on top of the futon woke me up.
I opened my eyes, and before them was a hand. The skin on the thin, bony hand seemed dry. It grabbed tightly onto the edge of the futon around my shoulder.
Someone was right on top of me, holding onto the futon with their hand. But though I could see the hand, I couldn't see their face. Their face seemed like it was right on my chest.
Perhaps I had sleep paralysis, because I couldn't move an inch.
I was worrying about what to do in this unbelievable situation, when the hand began to tremble and shake, and the body on top of me began to move slowly.
The hand holding onto the futon pulled back above its head, like it was doing a pull-up...
It only moved a few centimetres a minute, but it was definitely slowly moving upwards.
Right before my eyes I saw long, dry, rustling hair. The hair seemed slightly kinked, like a natural perm.
This confirmed to me that it was a woman.
I could also see her frightfully white forehead, and eyebrows... At this rate, our eyes were going to meet. I wanted to do whatever I could to avoid that, anything! As I prayed for that, the woman's movement momentarily quickened, and our eyes met.
For some reason, at that moment I lose consciousness, and I have no memories after that. When I regained consciousness it was already the middle of the night, and the woman had vanished.
In the end, I remembered our eyes having met, but as for what kind of eyes they were - I have no memory of that moment. I'd really like to remember, though...
The moment I touched the keyboard to write this, the fluorescent lights right in the centre of the room began to flicker, and one went out. Maybe it would've been better not to say anything...
When I was writing that story, I remembered something.
It's the story of the woman's ghost lying on top of me as I slept, which was published on the web during the development of Akai Chou.
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(Excerpt)
That day, a certain day/month (Friday) in 2002, I think I went to bed at around 2 AM.
That night, I had watched a film I rented called "Magnolia", and perhaps since I had just watched it I lay awake in my futon for quite some time, contemplating this and that.
Even snuggled deep within the futon with my eyes closed, I wasn't sleepy at all.
Since it was really cold that day, my face was stinging from the cold.
I couldn't sleep at all, and when I suddenly opened my eyes, a faintly-glowing white light, something like a stick, was floating in front of my face.
I didn't realise it at first, but it was slowly getting close, and finally I could see its shape clearly.
Its right hand extended from its side. The palm of its hand was turned towards me, and looked like it was going to cover my eyes with it when it got closer.
My hands are both totally covered by the futon. Which means...
"Uaaaaah!" (Though it was like I was laughing, the voice was impatient)
To escape from the hand, I suddenly sprang up from my futon and ran from my room in the direction of the sink. (An amazing reaction speed, though it was me!)
I took shelter by the sink, peeking timidly into the room, and where I had been sleeping I could see a faint, white light.
Straining my eyes, I saw a slender woman with shoulder-length hair, lying with her head on my pillow close to where my body had been.
Maybe because I had taken my glasses off and was looking with my naked eyes, and maybe because the woman was kind of faint, it looked like she might have been wearing white Japanese clothes or a white dress.
What the hell was it?
My nose began to hurt, and I was moist with sweat.
The woman was lying prostrate in the futon, not moving an inch.
Someday, when I wake up, she might be looking over my shoulder... I thought whilst staring fixedly at her.
10 seconds, 20 seconds... maybe for a full minute, I held my own.
My mind suddenly went blank, but I went back.
Right, I thought I should turn on the lights.
I reached out to switch the lights on... but there was no reaction.
The click, click of the switch echoed around the room, but the woman on my pillow still didn't move.
(This, I have no explanation for. If the woman was, for example, a phantom, it wouldn't explain this. Though it's a bit of a digression, the lights in the entrance hall and my room wouldn't work, but for some reason the lights on the bathroom were on.)
Since people are unsure what to do when cornered, in fierce, misplaced anger I shouted "What the hell is this!? Don't scare me like that!", and the woman in white vanished into the surroundings.
When she did so, for some reason, the lights in my room came on, and of course no one was there.
The silence was almost painful.
This time I noticed it when I suddenly opened my eyes, but what if I hadn't? The hand would've slowly come closer, and then... Thinking about that made me afraid to sleep in this room.
Some time ago, a woman's hair was scattered all over my room, and the phenomenon when it appeared in my bag, but was it that woman?
I hadn't thought about it until now, but maybe the woman was always beside me...
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This time I actually interacted with the ghost, but if I had kept sleeping, unaware, perhaps things would have gone differently after she climbed on top of me?