Real (リアル), A Record of Something Better Left Undone in Front of a Mirror

Real. In Japanese, リアル. Judging by the title alone, it does not seem like much. That is why it becomes frightening even later. Type it into a search bar and other results appear before ghost stories, but if you follow the 洒落怖 line, meaning “scary stories that are no joke, almost to the point of death,” this title keeps lingering.

I will note this first. The original source is difficult to verify now. Still, several materials overlap in describing it as a mirror ghost story that spread widely through 2ch-related reposts. The core of this story is not a simple forbidden action. Its structure is that after performing an action that is far too easy, a white figure with its face covered by talismans appears in the room, and daily life begins to tilt afterward.

It begins ordinarily. The narrator is a young man who likes the occult but does not believe in it too deeply. He has visited haunted spots and is closer to the type who half-laughs off ghost stories. Then he remembers something he once heard. If you change your posture in front of a mirror and turn your direction, something will come.

The problem is that this is too easy. There is no complicated incantation, no abandoned house, no mo