Bog of the Living Dead, also titled Vengeful Spirit of the Lake, is the second chapter from volume 9 of the Horror World of Junji Ito Collection, Hallucinations. The main character is Oshikiri.
Plot[]
This story makes no reference to Hallucinations.
Oshikiri belongs to the school's "beautification committee" which is devoted to cleaning up and preserving local nature sites. His friend Kojima is absent from the latest meeting as he is practising soccer. Two other members, Yumiko Soga and Kozue Tate, are reprimanded for having previously been absent from the committee. The chairman has received a report that the local swamp is full of trash and needs their attention. Although the vice-chairman is anxious about the rumors that a woman's ghost appears there and lures young men to their deaths, the chairman mandates that the committee should clean up the swamp. They are unaware that it is Oshikiri who started the rumor and submitted an anonymous report to them about the swamp.
Oshikiri goes to watch Kojima at his soccer practice, where a crowd of his female admirers has gathered. Kojima is the most handsome guy in school and has attracted the attention of a large number of girls - including Yumiko and Kozue, who claim that they were his first fans. Oshikiri passes them a message from the chairman that as committee members they are obliged to attend on Saturday and clean up the swamp. Kojima is keen to go on the trip, but the girls worry that he will be targeted by the ghost. Kojima insists on going so his fans decide they will all come to the swamp with him.
At the swamp, the chairman becomes irritated that the girls aren't helping out. While clearing garbage, Kojima falls into the swamp and sinks below the mire. The students call for help and a rescue party is sent out, but they don't find his body. The search is eventually called off. Rumors begin to circulate around the school of people having seen Kojima's ghost at the swamp, of hearing a woman's voice there calling out to him, and of seeing spirits in the sky around the area. Oshikiri is pleased. It emerges that he helped Kojima fake his death because Kojima was so tired of being stalked by Yumiko and Kozue. He claimed that they were the main perpetrators and the other girls just follow them. He has been asking them to leave him alone ever since junior high but they don't listen. Oshikiri agreed to help him fake his death and run away even though Oshikiri thinks this is too extreme a measure.
Shortly after this, the chairman and vice-chairman of the beautification committee are found drowned in the swamp. The other committee members are terrified and believe that all the boys who attended the clean-up at the swamp are cursed by the ghost. Oshikiri just thinks it's a strange coincidence, but then Kozue calls him, asking him to meet her and Yumiko at the swamp. There, they tell him that Kojima was everything in the world to them and beg him to dive into the swamp to look for Kojima's body. They reveal themselves to be spirits and that they possessed the chairman and the vice-chairman to search for Kojima; but the two drowned.
Oshikiri desperately tells them that Kojima faked his death, but the girls don't believe him. They insist they have the power to instantly know wherever Kojima is. When Oshikiri says that Kojima was forced to run away because he hated the girls, they send their spirits out of their bodies to pursue him. Oshikiri spends the night wading through the swamp as they chase after him.
We are told that the girls tried to lure Oshikiri back to the swamp many times, but he never went. He also can't be sure whether Kojima really escaped or drowned. People continue to report having seen the spirits of Yumiko and Kozue at the swamp.