The Late Bird's Tale: A Tale of the Floating World

Part 2 || 3 | Judy | Anime Jump Scares, A Chance Encounter I

Written on 2/7/23. Winter Season, February 2023 edition (1st scene).
Written on 2/11/23. Winter Season, February 2023 edition (2nd scene).
Judy Windermere (picture reference).

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Part 2 || 3 | Judy

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A Tale of Anime Jump Scares

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After the noonday sun declined through a lingering afternoon, Judy and Grace and Sakura joined the four Jacks for several hands of poker till the game got stale around 1:30 p.m. By then, Grace pointed her guests to her flat-screen TV atop the media console in front of two sofas and suggested watching some anime, to which Judy agreed. When Sakura and the four Jacks asked them what show they liked best, Judy and Grace suggested Ghost Hunt, which got them asking what that was. And so, while they all occupied both sofas in the family room, the four Jacks on the larger one and the three girls on the smaller one, Judy told them that it's one of the more unique anime that has a lot of jump scares and intense moments.

While Grace was fishing out the DVD case from the console shelf and popping it open and placing the disc in the DVD player and handling the remote, Judy asked Sakura and the Jacks what anime they liked to watch. The Jacks said they have no preferences and watched whatever anime was on MeTube when they weren't playing card games, while Sakura said she's more of a console gamer than an anime otaku. Still, Sakura added, her favorite anime were the gun-toting ones like Gunsmith Cats, Mezzo Forte, and Kino's Journey.

"I've watched Kino's Journey," Judy said, "but not Gunsmith Cats or Mezzo Forte."

"They're old OVAs, that's why," Sakura said. "Mezzo Forte is really sexy, so it's a bit obscure."

"Is that one a hentai?"

"Yep," Sakura said.

"You watch hentai?" Judy said.

Sakura winced, saying, "Only when I feel like it."

Judy wanted to ask her if she could recommend any GL titles but stayed her tongue, eyeing Grace as the TV screen came on with the Ghost Hunt background and the remote control selection options. When Grace selected PLAY, the first episode of the anime started playing on screen.

The first three episodes formed the first case, in which a girl named Mai Taniyama accidentally injured Naru's assistant and had to fill in for him on a case involving a haunting at the old school building next to her school. Of course, the four Jacks wanted ghosts and jump scares and said it was boring, but Sakura said she liked it a lot. So Grace said that these first episodes showcased more detective work than any actual ghost-hunting, but Judy added that the cases become supernatural and scarier with each new case.

As such, the next three episodes formed the second case, in which Mai Taniyama and those returning from the last case visited a house haunted by a spirit possessing a girl's doll. Throughout the escalation of poltergeist activity and two failed exorcisms culminating in a third, Judy peered at Sakura next to her and the four Jacks on the other sofa. Sakura and the four Jacks had their eyes glued to the TV screen, their mouths parted open at the growing jump scares. And when a well appeared in the living room and the spirit arose from it on the screen, the four Jacks stood up as if they were about to make a break for it before fainting onto the sofa.

As for Sakura, she had her hands clapped over her mouth, her wide-eyed gaze fixed on the spirit's appearance. Yet before long, when Naru successfully exorcized the spirit by using a hitogata doll to reunite the spirit with her lost child, she said, "Oh, my God!"