THE THIRTEENTH BULLET

THE THIRTEENTH BULLET  

The mountainous countryside of Owari enjoyed a peaceful existence. The villagers felled trees and burned charcoal, which they would carry over the narrow trails to the nearest towns. Hunters were successful here, for there was plenty of game. As the days passed by, nothing ever happened that was worth the telling.

Until suddenly everything changed, and not a single day went by without something happening to upset the whole village. At first, fowl began to go astray, then cattle began to disappear. Even worse the villagers themselves began to fear for their safety. Often those who were confident of knowing their way did not return home from the fields at nightfall. In the morning they were found with torn limbs and mauled faces.

The villagers knew that some unknown beast was terrorizing the forest, so they went many times to track it down. They spread traps, but the beast was unusually clever. It was as though it knew exactly what the villagers were doing and purposely attacked in a different spot.

A dark, dreadful fear spread over the whole area. No one dared to step out of his house after nightfall.

At that time, high in the mountains, there lived a lone hunter named Gompei. He was a courageous man who would stand alone against the wildest boar. He was also renowned for the accuracy of his bullets as they hit his target. When Gompei learned of the strange beast that terrorized the countryside he decided to hunt it down and free the villagers from this horror.

He wandered through the forest from morning till night but found nothing unusual. He read the tracks of deer and wild boar; he knew where a ox had run, and followed a badger’s trail.

Patiently he waited by the rivers where animals came to drink, but he found nothing. He no longer returned home, but spent his nights as chance would have it. Sometimes with friendly villagers, sometimes in the abandoned huts of woodcutters and charcoal burners.

He saw nothing suspicious. Once he thought he heard a terrifying laughter in a deserted countryside where he knew no one was living. Another time he thought that his endless searching must be turning him mad. Deep in the forest he saw a beautiful maiden sitting by a tree spinning on a spinning wheel. A lamp huge beside her, shining in full daylight. But as soon as he drew closer, she vanished.

Gompei decided that he would rest. At home his mother welcomed him and pointed to a small black cat.

‘I found her in the forest. The poor thing was starving and chilled to the bone. But look how pretty she is now!’

The cat purred contentedly and nestled against her. Gompei kept remembering what had taken place in the forest, ate to his heart’s content, and went to bed.

The next day he rose at day-break and prepared to set off again. He wrapped up some bread and put his bullets in his small bag. He was carefully counting them when he had the feeling that someone was watching him. ‘Who could be here,’ he thought to himself, ‘when mother is still sleeping.’ He looked around and noticed that his mother’s cat was watching him from her corner.

‘Ah, I am beginning to see danger everywhere,’ he said and smiled. But something would not give him peace, so secretly, he tucked away one bullet more.

Again Gompei spent the whole day searching the forest, but he found nothing. He wandered quite far, and decided to spend the night in a hut where he often slept when he was out hunting. He was so weary that he quickly ate the bread he had with him, and soon fell asleep.

Night fell. There were heavy clouds and the darkness was complete. Gompei tossed restlessly in his sleep. Suddenly he sat up with a start, wakened by a soft rustling. It sounded as though someone was creeping stealthily. Quietly he jumped up, prepared his gun and drew aside the straw mat over the door.

In the dead silence of the dark night, a pair of enormous fiery eyes was silently coming closer and closer to the hut. No animal that he had ever seen had eyes such as these! Determinedly he overcame the horror within him and raised his rifle. He aimed right between those terrible eyes and fired. A metallic clash rang out. The shot found its mark, but the eyes kept on shining.

They blazed but ever brighter and drew slowly nearer. Quickly Gompei fired a second bullet, and the same metallic sound rang out and again the eyes drew a little closer. Gompei fired one bullet after another and each time the same metallic sound was repeated, and after each shot the huge blazing eyes drew nearer and nearer. Otherwise, there was utter stillness and darkness around. In despair Gompei fired his twelfth bullet his last. And that too bounced off with the same metallic sound. At that moment he heard a terrible laughter ringing in the darkness of the night, and Gompei froze  in horror. The huge eyes were suddenly ablaze with fire and then Gompei remembered the bullet which he had put away secretly. Swiftly he aimed and fired. A horrible screaming rang out and the flaming eyes vanished. Utter silence set in again.

Gompei wiped away the perspiration from his face. In that darkness there was no point in looking to see what had occurred. He returned to the hut and stayed on guard all night. But all was now quiet in the forest.

Slowly the day broke. The voices of the songbirds came to life with the dawn and daylight was returning to the forest. As soon as there was light enough to see the path. Gompei left the hut and went to examine the spot where the eyes had shown during the night.

In the open clearing he found all twelve of his bullets, and a little distance away, an iron lid from a rice pot. The lid was dotted with small depressions, evidently caused by the bullets.

‘Aha, so this was what made the metallic sound,’ thought Gompei.

A bloody set of tracks led into the forest. Cautiously Gompei followed them and in a little while, he found a gigantic dead cat with three tails. It was Nekomata, the ghostly cat, who had been terrorizing the whole countryside, he said to himself, as he buried its dead body. Very few people had ever seen such a creature. Usually people saw only her huge flaming eyes, which meant death.

Suddenly Gompei started in fright, for he remembered the new cat that his mother had found in the forest. Nekomata liked to take the image of a dear, good little cat and find her way into a person’s home. Gompei hurried home at once, terrified of what might have happened to his mother.

But she welcomed him as always, and only complained that she had not been able to cook the rice properly.

The lid for the rice dish had disappeared. I have grown so old that I do not know where I put things anymore. And that dear little cat has disappeared too!’

 For Solved Exercises of this lesson, click on the link below:

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