The Vanishing of Hasumi - Station Kisaragi

Categorisation: Creepypasta

Origin: 2channel (2004)

Crickets never chirped above a hush in the valleys and pine trees surrounding the desolate train station. The trees waved gently on the track of a cool breeze, their only company being the red train that was slowly rolling into the station. Horrid corroded screeches brought the train to a stop- and out stepped a lone woman. Though she was quite young, she appeared like almost everyone else that travelled- adorned in office-clothes and already exhausted before she’d arrived. Her heels clacked along the dirty tiles as she walked further off the platform. Darkness enshrouded the station, her only saving grace being the tiny phone screen tucked into her chest. Something akin to fear plastered her face. Where was she? The journey was only supposed to take five-to-eight minutes… but the train just kept going, and going, and going. Until she ended up here. The girl remembered running up and down the carriages looking for someone- hell, anyone to wake up and tell her what was going on. Every other passenger was unconscious. Even the conductor was more of a concept than a real human being at that point. The woman steeled herself, and turned back to her phone. Eventually, the corroded screeching grew quieter in the distance. The only people who could help her now were in this little device. There was no one left, no one around who could help;

She was alone in the mountains… which would be the last time anyone heard from her.

[A tale as old as 2004]

For many Japanese netizens, this legend has been their golden goose. Something so enthralling, so mysterious that they can’t turn their heads from it. So where did it come from? Why are people so captured by this supposed ghost-story? It all began in 2004, on an online message board called 2channel (a.k.a 2chan). In the thread ‘Post About Strange Ocurrences Around You: Thread 26’ an anonymous user began to account their experience, as it was happening in real time. While there doesn’t exist an official translation, many followers of the legend have tried their hand at it. For the purpose of this synopsis, I will be referencing the unofficial translations by mikanseijin(LiveJournal) and vgperson(tumblr).

#???

This may just be my imagination… can I post it anyway?

#2ch

Go ahead.

#2ch

What’s going on?

#???

I’ve been riding a certain train for a while, but something seems off.

#2ch

Hmm…

#???

I always take this train to work. But it hasn’t stopped at any stations for the past twenty minutes or so. It usually only takes five minutes, seven or eight at worst. Oh, and there’s five other passengers, but they’re all sleeping.

The anonymous user and the other netizens continued to discuss the predicament. Through their discussion, they found that the conductor was unreachable, the train had gone through a tunnel (which is wasn’t supposed to on the user’s route) and that the user might’ve gotten on the wrong train altogether. The train eventually comes to a stop inside a ‘Station Kisaragi’ which, shocker, none of the users in the thread can find any information about online. There was no Station Kisaragi along the Enshu Railway Line- nor anywhere in the Shizuoka prefecture, which the girl was travelling in. At this point, everyone is committed to getting this girl home, so some of them urge her to get off the train and seek help. Others argue that she should stay until the final stop. At this point, the user had started attaching her name to the messages; Her name was Hasumi. Hasumi decided to get off the train and onto the desolate platform. The girl’s guardian angels told her to look around, find a phone booth, a taxi station… just anything that would help. The station appeared without any signs of life, save for a phone booth hiding somewhere on the premises. Hasumi contacted her parents with it, but they couldn’t locate Kisaragi Station, as it didn’t appear on any maps. She then called emergency services…

#Hasumi

I called 110 and tried my absolute best to explain the situation, but they thought it was all a joke and got angry at me. So I got scared and apologised…

#2ch

Apologised for what? Should probably give up for today. Wait for the first train.

But Hasumi figured differently. There was nothing outside of the station save for fields and mountains. With this predicament ever looming, the only other course of action was to walk back down the train tracks until she found civilisation. She began to walk down the track into the dark, dreary tunnel. Some of the way down, a peculiar drumming sounded from the distance. The further she walked, the louder it became from behind her. The ground pulsated with every gong, trepidation poisoning her heart. This was beginning to look like a bad idea, but the idea of turning back was repulsive. Hasumi continued to consult her phone while her heart pounded a mile a minute.

According to Hasumi’s next messages in the forum, a stranger yelled from behind her not to walk on the tracks. She only caught a glimpse of the one-legged man before he vanished. Many suspect this to be a ghost of some sort given his momentary appearance, including the netizens communing with Hasumi. During her panicked trek down the tracks, she fell, causing a suspected-break and her leg to start bleeding quite badly. It was at this point her father (who she was on the phone to) called the police. The injury was enough to the point where she didn’t know whether she could walk any further. Nevertheless, she persevered and came out the other side of the tunnel, where a friendly looking man was waiting for her.

The thread was bustling with anxieties, those morbidly curious or excited- both kinds of people urged Hasumi not to trust the man waiting for her. She argued that he was concerned for her safety, and called a train to come get them. When she asked the man where they were, he replied ‘Hina’. For reference, Hina Station (which they were presumably heading towards) is along the Gakunan Railway Line in the city of Fuji. If this information is believable, then the girl was still inside of Shizuoka prefecture at the time… but what happens next calls into question the validity of this stranger.

#Hasumi

We've been headed toward the mountains for some time. It really doesn't strike me as a place where trains would go. And he's stopped talking to me entirely.

#2ch

Probably because you're constantly messing with your phone?

#2ch

Hasumi, oh no, oh no...
Did you contact your parents after you got out of the tunnel and received aid (?) from this guy?

#2ch

Hasumi.
Please call 110.
This might be your last chance.

#Hasumi

My battery's almost run out. Things are getting strange, so I think I'm going to make a run for it. He's been talking to himself about bizarre things for a while now. To prepare for just the right time, I'm going to make this my last post for now.

[Where is Station Kisaragi?]

That was the last that anyone ever heard from Hasumi. Wild speculation has been thrown around concerning this case - from it’s validity to Hasumi’s mere existence, nobody knows the truth. Over the years there have been Station Kisaragi sightings, but most of which were proven to be hoaxes. People likened the tale of Kisaragi to Saginomiya Station, specifically it’s state as of 2004. Over the years the area has been populated by traffic and many buildings, as well as being regularly staffed… but this wasn’t always the case according to many people. What further supports this theory is that Saginomiya Station is in the Shizuoka prefecture, along the Enshu Railway Line, which is where Hasumi was presumably travelling through at the time of the incident.

All of this begs the question: assuming we are on the right track, where did the name ‘Kisaragi’ come from? The idea that the events take place in Saginomiya Station only works if we declare the story fictional- that someone used the location as a basis for their spooky-internet story. It would be very difficult to misread ‘Kisaragi’ for ‘Saginomiya’. It’s safe to say that Hasumi is literate, considering all of her messages and holding down an office job.

Kisaragi: きさらぎ駅

Saginomiya: さぎの宮駅

One detail the girl mentioned is that Kisaragi is written with the kanji for ‘devil’. While it doesn’t mean anything on it’s own, train stations are often used to represent purgatory in a lot of Japanese media. One could argue that Hasumi was somehow a spirit that was stuck, waiting to get to the other side. Purgatory sounds like it’s own kind of hell, hence ‘Devil Station’.

[Hasumi’s existence, or lack thereof]

All things considered, the character of Hasumi is decently fleshed out. In a small message thread, the character was able to establish a name, a job she regularly attends in the evening, a good relationship with both of her parents, her literacy standing and a meek, trusting personality. It almost seems too good to be true. Aside from all of that, nobody has been able to find any trace of the girl. No relatives, no body, no one who has reported the girl missing. With how much of a fuss the thread stirred up, it’s doubtful that Hasumi wouldn’t want to step forward to clear up the aftermath of what happened.

Hasumi is a perfect protagonist when you think about it. She’s a young girl with scary ‘paranormal’ things happening around her who’s been whisked away to an unknown place. This brings to mind the genre ‘Isekai’. The entire premise of these stories is that a character gets taken to a different world. Liminal spaces like trains or tunnels are perfect devices for these transformations to happen in. Stories in the Isekai genre are often viewed through a romantic lens, having their roots in Japanese folktales. One notable example is the story of Urashima Taro, in which the a fisherman saves a turtle and is granted entry to an underwater kingdom. There are of course western stories in the same likeness, but they have no influence here.

A traditional Japanese term used for people vanishing under abnormal circumstances is being ‘spirited away’.

[Defining the event]

For better or worse, there’s magic in this story… which is precisely why people tend to overlook the boring truth. The event took place in 2004, during the rise of the creepypasta trend. While the term ‘creepypasta’ was first-coined on 4chan in 2007, creepypastas have been circulating the online ecosystem since 2001, the first infamous one being the story ‘Ted The Caver’. With all the facts considered, I believe we can call Station Kisaragi a creepypasta.

If someone can prove otherwise, I’d love to hear it!