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# 泉のミステリーのスマホ
- URL: https://keithhayden.net/izumi-and-the-mystery-caller-flash-fiction-jp/
- Published: 2026-10-26T04:41:44.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T04:41:44.000Z
- Description: “She thought she’d called her father. Who was on the other end?”
- Author: Keith Hayden
- Tags: #japanese, shortstory

「もしもし? もしもし?」そのように奇妙な事態になった。泉がため息をつき、なんで誰も答えなってるの、と思った。空を見上げて、黙って首を振った。彼女に電話させてもらったのだが、そんな事態のままだった。沖縄はほとんど夕方になり、赤味がかった雲が空に広がっていた。

一日中電話してたのに、疲れてしまった。この任務で不合格していた。

待ち時間が長く感じられる。何分経ったろう。

ついに電話が繋がった。

「もしもし?」泉と言った。

変な音がするのが聞こえた。色々なガサガサと音。少なくとも何秒か経った。

「何だ？もしもし？」

あの時歌いはじめた。多くの軽い声が歌をかけた。

急に泉が電話を切って、腕を伸ばし、じっと見た。

「そんなこと…ないわよ」

彼女は震えていた。それに誰かが彼女の名を呼んだ。ハッとした。

「へー、泉、僕たちはトロイ先生とチックインするため帰らなくちゃいけません。待て、泉大丈夫ですか？青白くにそうです」

ハドソンでした。アメリカ人の黒人だ。

「もうお父さんに電話する方法を見つけたよね」

彼女は首を振った。

「いや、まだ。彼がちょっと忙しくになってしまったから」

もしかしたら、番号を変えたのかもしれない。でもどうやってさ。

## Part 2 

もう一度、誰かがノックしている。泉は一人でヴンにいた。ノックは彼女を驚かせた。

「泉？僕だ。ハドソン」

泉がドアを開けた。彼はスマホを持っていた。

「ハドソン、そんなものどうして持っているのわ」

「あんたへのまのだよ」

「あたし？」

泉がスマホを取ってきた。

前の時電話に答えてはいけなかったのだと思った。突然、泉が恐ろしいという顔をした。

前のようにバラバラする音がした。誰かが荒い息をついていた。

「…もしもし？」と泉は言った。

今度こそ、あの声に反応した。

「泉さん、もうあなたにそのことを言ったことを思い出した。大事です。おぼえていた？」

「あのぉ、すみませんが、誰でございますか？」

声は年寄りの女の人のようだった。

「ハドソンだ。すぐに消えます」

急に泉が怖くなった。

「でも、そんなことはできない！ハドソンはここに…」

彼はいなかった。

「ハドソン？ハドソン！？どこ？もしもし？」

それに電話が切れてしまった。

## Story background

I'm a native English speaker and writer. This short story is for a Kakuyomu short story contest 2026, and it's the first ever short story that I've ever written fully in Japanese on my own. 

No AI generation. 

The way I put it together was unusual. But let me go back to how I even got the confidence to even attempt this in Japanese.

I took my first Japanese class in college over twenty years ago. A few years after graduation, I purchased a Japanese translation of *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* from Borders. That was in 2010\. For years, I vowed to return to it when my Japanese got good enough. Well another near decade and a half passed until I made my first serious attempt to read it.

Early attempts were painfully slow. To read the first page took me a month and a half. Even with AI making translation and comprehension easier, each time I opened the book was a slog. But I persisted.

By mid-2026, I was over halfway done with the book. How did I get through it?

My method involved a mix of intensive and extensive reading. I analyzed sentences in depth during certain reading sessions, and read for fluency and flow during others. While I didn't understand every word of text I encountered, this approach turned out to be a good balance between improving my understanding of Japanese and the ability to read native text smoothly. 

In July 2025, I started the book over again. Over a year later, I decided I was ready to test my skills by writing my first piece of flash fiction in Japanese on my own. 

I chose Kakuyomu 12 because the entry didn't have to be long, plus I was already familiar with their platform, having already posted a few chapters of my first military sci-fi novel *Cereus & Limnic* ther.

If you're not familiar, Kakuyomu is a Japanese web novel platform. Think like the Wattpad or Royal Road but in Japanese.

Since, I'd read so much Harry Potter, I was able to repurpose many of the sentence structures I learned to craft this short.

But then a lot of it I just wrote it off of my own memory. It's amazing how much of the language you absorb after reading a novel (and not rushing through it just for completion.)

Reading was how I ultimately learned how to write in English. The same technique worked for Japanese. But it did take a very long time. 

## Story Origin

This story is a spinoff of a kids horror mystery series that I’m writing in English called the Department of Otherworldly Affairs Kids Squad (DOARKS).

Since I wanted to write in Japanese I chose the student with Japanese heritage, an 11-year-old girl named Izumi, as the main protagonist.

Her teammate, the analytical Hudson Harper, also appears briefly here.

This story was inspired by a recent phonecall I made to talk to my Mom. Here’s the story based on a voice note I made right after it happened:

Just wanted to make a quick note about something I can use for a horror thing. I called my mom, and all I heard was, you know, the shuffling of the phone and faint church music in the background, and it was just, like, barely audible voices. And I knew it. My mom is at her church, and she's at choir practice. So I knew eventually, but she didn't respond. All I did was heard was, like, faint singing, and I thought, man, this is— it's not terrifying, but it was definitely like, oh, this is kind of unsettling. Like, why doesn't she just answer or hang up and then, you know, text, like, I'm busy. Turns out she was texting as she was on the phone, which is so weird. I don't know why she's doing this. But she didn't hang up. She just kept the call going. I was like, well, if you're fucking busy, then just be busy. Anyway, I thought it was a—I was sitting there just waiting for something to happen, and finally I see she's texting me. And I thought it was an interesting, potentially good horror scenario. If I didn't, say you didn't know who was on the— like you had a strange phone number, you know, you were told to call this number, and then that's what you hear, you're gonna be freaked out. I think that's pretty good material.

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