TEKETEKE

Lore

Teketeke is a modern urban specter, born in the age when railroads first appeared. Her nickname is onomatopoeic—“tek-tek,” the click-click you hear as the spirit scrambles along the tracks on her hands. People say that if you ever hear that “tek-tek,” it’s already too late to run.

In the classic version of the legend, a girl named Kashima Reiko was brutally beaten and then tossed onto the rails. Half-conscious, she tried to crawl to safety but failed, and a train cut her in two just below the waist. The tale highlights the cruelty of the moment: the winter cold clamped her blood vessels shut, prolonging her agony. Passers-by who witnessed the tragedy simply turned away and hurried off, not wanting to get involved. Such a horrific death—and the icy indifference of those around her—gave birth to an immensely vengeful onryo whose anger is aimed not only at the train, but at anyone who lingers near the tracks.