七人ミサキ

海外から来たポスドクさんと、昼飯食ってる時の会話。英語で怪談話をしてみようという試み。

「Do you mind my talking a horror tale?」
「Horror tale?」
「Yes, a horror story. About two or three hundred years ago..」
「Tokugawa Era?」
「Yah, Edo era. There were seven priests in Buddhism. They lost their way in a mountain. Finally, they found a small village. But the people in the village were very exclusive, and they denied to gave them food or place to rest.」
「Really? how did they survive?」
「They died ... with a curse, and they became seven ghosts.」
「Did they try to revenge?」
「Yes, but randomly.」
「Randomly!?」
「If you see the seven ghosts, you will die soon, become new ghosts, and join them. Instead, one of the seven ghosts can go to heaven.」
「Then the total number of ghosts are ...」
「Always seven. This story is called 七人ミサキ.」
「Oh...」
「By the way, suppose we have a project which can hire seven postdocs.」
「OK.」
「If one of them gets a post, then new postdoc will join the project. Then the total number of postdocs is always...」