Work Text:
June 5th, 1995
Hiro had returned to service after 10 years of an overhaul, and he had returned to doing his long train service to the mainland and back. On this day, the Fat Controller had asked Hiro to collect some trucks of China Clay from Brenham. The ship they were meant to go on had been delay by 3 hours and the company located in Barrow needed them now. Hiro was happy to visit Edward’s branch line, he hadn’t seen him, Emily or Boco in a very long time.
Hiro blew his whistle loud and proud as he puffed into the docks, where Arthur had sorted his trucks for him.
“Here you go, Hiro,” Arthur said politely. Hiro smiled warmly.
“Thank you, Arthur,” he said, as he was backing down onto his train, Bill and Ben arrived, then were bored and wanted to have some fun.
“Oh! Hello there. Who might you two be,” asked Hiro. He had never met the twins before and never seen such small standard gauge engines like them before.
“I’m Ben,” said Bill
“And I’m Bill,” added Ben as they chuckled. Hiro chuckled as Arthur correct him on the twins.
“Jeez, Arthy, you can be a real buzz kill sometimes,” said Ben.
“He’s right, y’know? All we wanted to do was to see the Jap. That’s all,” added Bill. The twins didn’t realise that Hiro hated being called a Jap, it reminded him of his younger days on Sodor years ago, but the twins unfortunately didn’t know better.
“Can you really see out of those eyes?” asked Bill. “We’re just curious because we heard from others that Thai engines can’t see well because their eyes so small,”
“I think he can, Bill, his eyes aren’t that closed, so I’m guessing he isn’t a real Chinese engine after all,” added Ben, as the two laughed. Hiro felt rather hurt.
“Hey! That’s not nice!” scolded Arthur at the twins, but they didn’t care. Hiro wanted to argue back at them, but this gave him an idea.
“I see… you don’t like us Japanese people because we are scary, is that right?” asked Hiro. Bill and Ben stopped laughing and looked at him confused, so did Arthur.
“Eh?” asked the twins, then, Hiro went serious and put on his dark and mysterious voice.
“Tell me, Bill and Ben. Have you ever heard, of the Teke Teke?” asked Hiro. The twins both said no. Even Cranky was curious about this Teke Teke creature.
“A long time ago, in Japan, there was a young girl, who name was Kashima Reiko. She caught the train to school every day, but every day at school, she would be bullied by a group of girls in her grade. Every day after school, she would come home crying to her mother about the abuse she would face at school. Sometimes, the same group of girls would follow her to the train station and harass her, by poking and pinching her. One account said they would even threaten to cut off her beautiful long hair with scissors.” Hiro paused dramatically, looking down at the twins, who shockingly showed a bit of sympathy for the fictional girl. Hiro cleared his throat and continued telling the story.
“One late afternoon, Reiko had enough of the bullying. She walked to the station near the school, and walked over to the overpassed, that hanged over the tracks, what happened next, no one knows. One witness say she jumped from the bridge onto the tracks. Another says, the wind blew so violently, she lost her balance and fell over the bridge, but however happened, Reiko laid emotionless on the tracks, hitting her head badly, making her unconscious, then suddenly.” Hiro paused. Bill and Ben looked up at the engine was fear in their eyes, especially Arthur.
“What happened to Reiko?” asked Arthur.
“Witnesses yelled at her to get off the track, but it was too late. A train came thundering through the station…. Killing her…. Cutting off her legs from her torose,” replied Hiro, in a deep and scary voice. “However, staff and workmen working on the night of the institute will tell you they hear the tapping of her hands on the cold pavement or ballast. You may see her too, crawling on her hands decapitated body, looking for her other half, and if you are unlucky, to make eye contact with you, there is no point in run,” said Hiro. Everyone in Brenham was so frightened by the story, even Cranky found the story horrifying.
“I heard Salty’s wacky ghost stories, but that one was just brutal, Hiro,” he said, but he was slightly impressed too.
‘W-why can’t you run from her?” asked Bill, very scared.
“She can run very fast, faster than trains, and even if you puff or drive away, she will always find you, and when she does, she’ll grab you and cut you in half to mimic her own death,” said Hiro. The docks fell silent, only hearing the workmen shouting, the ship’s horns in the background and the seagulls squawking on Cranky’s arm.
“W-wow, Hiro. That’s one story,” said Bill, trying to act brave, but deep down, him and Ben were scared out of their minds.
“You’re welcome, but just remember to be careful tonight, otherwise you might see her, and puffing away will do, nothing to stop you,” reminded Hiro, looking coldly at Bill and Ben. Suddenly, the guard’s whistle from Hiro’s train blew, and Hiro blew his whistle loudly. The twins had an awful fright, but Hiro just laughed.
“Ho ho! Goodbye you two, and thank you, Arthur and Cranky,” he said, as the grand engine puffed away, and out of the dockside. Arthur looked over to the twins, who were still shaken from the story.
“Are you to alright?” asked Arthur.
“Yes,” snapped Bill. “Perfectly fine!”
“Yes, after all, it’s just the stupid ghost story to scared people and engines,” then, the two puffed away very quickly to found something to do, mainly to describe themselves from Hiro’s horrifying story. But little did the twins know, Hiro was thinking about scaring them even more, just in case they didn’t fully believe him.
The grand Japanese engine puffed away, while Bill and Ben retread back to the Clay Pits to find some work to do. The rest of the day went as normal, but Hiro’s story was still lingering at the back of the twins’ minds all day. When night came, the twins were in the sheds, and just as they were about to settle down for the nice, the Quarry manager came up to them.
“Some of the workmen need someone them to the station at Wellsworth, so they can catch the night express. You two will have to take them,” he said. But the twins didn’t want to.
“Please, sir, can’t Timothy take them?” asked Bill, but the Manager thought the two were being lazy.
“No, Bill. I’m sure you and Ben can to it. Plus, Timothy has been doing the work very well, so he deserves a rest, now off you do,” said the Manager. Bill and Ben nervously puffed away to fetch the workmen’s coach. The two were double heading it with Ben in front, and the workmen climbed inside.
As the two puffed down the line, Ben started thinking about Hiro’s story.
“It’s…. It’s just a story. Stupid Hiro, thinking he can scary me,”
“Are you talking to yourself, Ben?” asked Bill as they travelled up the line.
“N-no,” he replied. Bill rolled his eyes.
“Oh really? Are you scared of Hiro’s story?” he asked.
“Won’t you?” his twin asked, shaking. “It was so scary. Think about it. Half a girl, crawling on her hands, is fasting than us, maybe even Spencer too,” Ben rolled is eyes, believing his twin was going a little too soft. The pair continued, until they got to Wellsworth, where Molly’s stopping passenger service would come through, but the twins were early. Bill started to get worried, and Ben’s patience was running thin.
“Can we go back now?” asked Ben to the driver, just as he said that the twins swore, they had the sound of the slippers from the rails being tapped on by bare skin, and the sound of ballast rumpling together was drawing closer towards them.
“D-d-d-d-did you h-h-h-hear that, Ben?” asked Bill shaking in fear.
“Yes,” replied Ben. “I-i-i-it’s isn’t?” but before Ben could finish this sentence, he froze. There on the opposite side of the platform, was a girl. She had long jet-black hair draped over her face, wearing a plain white t-shirt, with blood stains covering every inch of it, even her hands. She was pale as white walls in the station, but almost zombie like in appearance. But most importantly, she lifted herself over the ground with her arms and hands, revealing she was legless. The twins gasped in horror.
“IT’S THE TEKE TEKE!!!” They screamed, as the girl started crawling off the platform, and started making her way to the engines, speaking in some sort of weird untranslatable tongue that they thought was gibberish. Bill and Ben started off so quickly, they nearly left their guard behind at the station. The pair raced there way all the way back to the clay pits, not stopping once.
The station master, Mr Roy was most confused, as to why the twins left in a hurry, then he looked down to see the girl, she climbed up to the platform and moved her hair away from the face and smiled at him.
“It’s only me, Mr Roy,” said the girl smiling at him. Mr Roy couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ho, Ho! Seems like your father has been influencing his pranks on to you, Ivy?” he asked, as Hiro pulled along side the platform, as his driver, Terry jumped from out of his cab.
“It was Hiro’s idea. Honest Rob,” Terry giggled. Hiro smiled and explained the idea behind the prank.
“In my country, we love telling ghost stories, it’s sort of a way we show love and entertainment to one another,” Hiro concluded, as Mr Roy stared in amazement.
“Well, I’m sure that will get them to behave well. I think you did I better job than Edward does sometimes,” he laughed. The others had a laugh and a good old chat, before it was time for the workers to leave with Molly, who sped off to make up for some lost time. Ivy’s father helped her into the guard’s van that Hiro bought along, as Mr Roy went up to him.
“Is the Teke Teke really real, Hiro?” he asked, as the wise engine smiled.
“Fortunately, no. It’s a legend,” replied Hiro. “I have tried founding her myself when I was very young, but couldn’t,” as the guard’s whistle blew. Terry jumped back into Hiro’s cab, eased the regulator open and the engine set off, whistling goodbye. As for the twins, they were in their sheds, terrified by what they had witnessed tonight.
And I’m save to say, the behaved must nicer towards Hiro after that.