"I have plenty more," he says with a nod. "I am glad to keep giving you as much as you want while we have the room."
"How about this..." he says, lifting his sleeve and showing a scar on his right bicep that looks like something went in one side and out the other. "A possessed doll wielding a knife. Not anecdotal at all."
He lowers the sleeve once more and begins strumming at the shamisen to build that eerie ambiance.
The tune that he played was lilting and sad as he started the story.
"Makiko, he daughter of a farmer in the heart of Lion lands passed away from illness when she was only 4 years old. In their home, they kept a shrine to honor her and bring peace to her spirit. Within that shrine they kept a doll in the likeness of young Makiko, that they cared for. It was peaceful for a few years, but when they finally felt they had mourned and their daughter had moved on in peace they took down the shrine. The next day, the doll had returned to the same spot. They initially thought one of their other children must have moved the doll there because they were still grieving.
He then picked up the pace of the music, giving a sense of urgency.
"It wasn't until a few days later that they began realizing the doll's hair had been growing over the few days. And that it had grown actual fingernails as well. This revelation led to them contacting the nearest monk they could find. The monk went to look at Makiko's doll and immediately fell ill. In an effort to exorcise the spirit, the monk performed purification rituals and went through all of the proper processes for cleansing the home. But the doll continued moving back to the spot.
Murato's shamisen returned to a discordant and tense rhythm.
"Soon, while observing the Makiko doll, the monk started seeing it move. He still felt he had control of the situation. So he performed more rites to rituals to send the spirit to rest. Unfortunately he had grown too used to it, so he didn't feel threatened by it. Around a week into trying to help the family he was found dead by the father, a knife wound in his chest and a knife he had never seen made of inky blackness, held by the Makiko doll.
The mention of the death of the monk is met by a power chord, representing that extreme danger
"It was after this that a priest and myself were called in to help clear it for the family. I immediately saw the danger when I entered the room, as a tormented spindly looking spirit that might have once been a young girl hovered near the doll. I stepped forward and the knife that was in the doll's hand flung itself across the room. I put my hands up to defend and caught the knife with my arm. For almost 24 hours I helped with new rites and rituals to ward off the ghost, despite having a knife in my arm. Upon completing the rituals, the creature was banished from it's place in the family home. Even getting rid of the spirit did not change the doll back to normal. The doll still remains there growing hair and fingernails, returning every time it is moved... though it no longer throws knives."
Slowly the music calms back down to something more sinister but not dangerous.
"Makiko's spirit, I believe, was never in the doll. I think it was an opportunist spirit that wished to harm the family. Nobody has been able to determine why the doll continues to do the things it does."
He finishes of the second story with a small flourish on the shamisen.