Come Follow Me

## Come Follow Me by unknown author

During the first few weeks of the release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan, on February 27th, 1996, a peak of deaths appeared in the age group of 10 to 14.

The children were found dead through suicide, usually by hanging or jumping from heights. The few children who were safe before killing themselves showed sporadic behavior. When asked why they wanted to hurt themselves, they only responded in chaotic screams and scratched at their own eyes. Upon showing their Game Boy, this seemed to be the connection to this attitude. At first, they had no response, but when combined with either Pokémon Red or Green, the screams would continue, and they would do their best to leave the room.

There was evidence that many of these children, alive and dead, had prior mental issues such as moderate and severe autism, signs of mental retardation, and various other neurological issues. However, despite these problems, they never had previous outbreaks of suicidal actions, or the behavior seen in the investigations of the youths.

The authorities could not explain their sudden changes in behavior. There didn't appear to be domestic violence in the families, drug or sexual abuse either.

At that point, it was a far shot, but suspicions that the game somehow had a connection to these children and the deaths had begun to rise within the department.

It was a strange case, no doubt, since the vast majority of the children possessing the same games did not show this behavior. Since they had no other leads, the police had no choice but to pursue this one.

After collecting the cartridges these children had purchased, they kept them sealed away as strong evidence to look over later. They decided the first thing to do was talk to the programmers themselves. The first person they met was the director of the original games, Satoshi Tajiri. After being informed of the deaths surrounding his games, he seemed uneasy, but admitted nothing. He led them to the main programmers of the game, the people responsible for the actual content.

The detectives met Takenori Oota, one of the main programmers of the game. Unlike Satoshi, he did not seem uneasy but very kept. He explained that it was impossible to use a kids' game to cause such deaths while bringing up the point that not all children were affected. He brushed it off as some odd coincidence or mass hysteria. It was like he was hiding something but wasn't giving way. Finally, he did say something interesting.

Takenori had heard a rumor going around various Internet forums that the music for Lavender Town, one of the locations in the game, had caused some children to go ill. It was only a rumor and had no backup, but it was still something to look into.

He directed the detectives to Junichi Masuda, the music composer for the series. Masuda had also heard of the rumors. But again, he said they had no evidence that his music was the cause. To prove the point, he played the exact song from the game with no strange effects on anyone in the room. Although they still had their suspicions of Masuda and the music of Lavender Town, it seemed they had reached yet another dead end.

Returning to the cartridges they had seized from the affected children, they chose to take a more direct look at the games. They knew these games gave the children the ill effects, so they took extreme caution while inserting the cartridges and turning the consoles on. The game screen booted, the title screen appeared, and the option to continue or create a new game appeared.

When they chose to continue the game, the stats of that save file appeared. They saw the names of the children who had played, usually "Red" or other simple names. However, the most eye-catching things were the time played and the number of Pokémon they owned. In every game, the time was very low, and the players only had a single Pokémon in their inventory. Now they had confirmation that it could not have been the music from Lavender Town that had caused such ill effects in the children, since it was impossible to reach that part of the game in such a small amount of time and with only one Pokémon in their inventory. This made them conclude that something early on in the game had to be the cause.

If it was neither the music nor the title screen, it had to be something within the first few minutes of the game. They had no choice but to go back to the producers, asking for a list of all the programmers from Takenori. They found, surprisingly, that one of the programmers had committed suicide shortly after the game was released. His name was Chiro Miura. A very obscure programmer who had provided very little for the game. Even more interestingly, he had requested his name not appear in the game's credits, and so it was not.

Looking over the evidence found at Chiro's apartment, they found many notes written in bold marker. Most of it was crumbled or marked out, making it very difficult to read. The few words they could find in that mess were "Do not enter," "Watch out," and "COME FOLLOW ME," the last one being in bold. The detectives were unsure what these meant but knew they had to have a connection. Further searching, they discovered Chiro was good friends with one of the map designers, Kohji Nisino, and this was probably the only reason Chiro had been given a part in making the game.

Kohji Nisino, since the release of the game, had locked himself in his apartment, only leaving at night to fetch anything he might need. He told his friends and family he was mourning for his dear friend Chiro. But they didn't believe this since Nisino had locked himself up the day the game was put in stores, a few days before Chiro had killed himself.

It was troubling, but the authorities finally persuaded Nisino to sit down and speak with them. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days. He reeked, had dark rings under his eyes, his nails had grown black, and his hair was greasy, sticking to his forehead and neck. He spoke in stutters and murmurs, but at least he had something to say.

When asked if he knew anything about the children who had died after exposure to the game and if it had any connection to the game, he answered them carefully, it seemed, choosing his words thoughtfully before answering. He told them that his friend Chiro had an interesting idea involving the game, something he wished to try since he heard the project was starting. Nisino knew Takenori, the director and main programmer, for a long time. So, he could get a mediocre programmer in on the project with little persuasion. Apparently, Chiro had convinced Nisino to get him in on the project, and it worked.

The detectives knew they were onto something. This unknown, obscure programmer, Chiro, had to have something to do with it. They asked what Chiro's idea was and why he wanted so badly to have a part in making this children's game. Nisino said that Chiro never told him much about it other than a few details from time to time. He wanted to insert a special Pokémon in the game, one completely different from all the others. It would serve as an extra, like an out-of-place thrill for the player. It wasn't, however, MissingNo. It couldn't be. With the gameplay time recorded on the cartridges, it was impossible for the children to have time to meet that Pokémon.

Nisino, throughout the entire conversation, seemed to break down worse with every question. The detectives pushed him more and more, searching through his mind for every scrap of knowledge this man had on the game and Chiro... and Chiro's intentions.

Inevitably, when they asked about the notes found in Chiro's home, he snapped. From under the couch he was sitting on, Nisino whipped out a pistol, pointing it straight at the police while backing away a few steps. Then, just as quickly, he brought the gun to his face.

"Don't follow me..." muttered Nisino as he stuck the pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He was too quick for the police to react.

It was done. Nisino had killed himself, repeating slightly differently what was written on one of Chiro's papers...

At that point, all the leads had died.

Months later, the team who had created this original game split up, becoming harder to find. It was as if they were keeping a secret. When the police finally managed to talk with anyone who had parts in the game, even the obscure character designers or monster designers, it seemed they had nothing of interest to say. Most of them didn't even know Chiro, and the few who did had only seen him once or twice while working on the game. Throughout all of this, the only confirmation they had was that Chiro was indeed the one who had worked on the very early parts of the game.

Since the original child suicides and the death rate had dropped dramatically, it seemed that the game was no longer giving any ill effects to children. The planned call back of the games was canceled, since it seemed the game was no longer causing harm. They began to think that maybe Takenori was right, and it was all just a very odd coincidence or mass hysteria... until they received the letter.

It was given to one of the detectives himself, quite directly out on the street. It was given to him by a woman. A very frail, thin, sick-looking thing. She gave him the letter quickly, telling him it was something he needed to see. She then disappeared into the crowd without waiting for a response or another word. The detective brought it to his office and called the others in.

It was a letter written by Chiro himself, but it wasn't one found in his apartment. They had thoroughly searched and cleared out the place, so wherever this letter had come from, it wasn't kept at his home. It was signed to be given to Nisino. It started off quite formal, a hello, how are you, regards the family and such. After one or two of these normal paragraphs, they reached a section that requested Nisino to get him into the game, a programming position in Pokémon Red & Green.

As the letter continued, the handwriting seemed to grow more jittery. Chiro talked about a glorious idea, a way to program something unseen in any game before. He said it would revolutionize not only the gaming industry, but everyone. He went on to say that it was a simple procedure to program said idea into the game. He didn't even have to add foreign programming but could use what was already given in the game itself. The detectives agreed that this would make it impossible to notice any obscurities in the programming. It was a perfect way to hide whatever this was.

The letter ended abruptly. There was no goodbye, no say hi to the family, no write back or thank you, nothing like that. It was just his name, "Chiro Miura," written hard in the letter where the paper almost broke through.

That was the nail in the coffin for the detectives. They had no more suspicions about the cause. Chiro had programmed something maddening into the early parts of the game. To further increase the streak of success, they discovered that the programming team had worked in pairs, even Chiro himself. He had worked with another programmer, Sousuke Tamada.

If anyone knew what the secret in this game was, Sousuke Tamada would be the man. It was their final hope of unraveling this mystery and closing it.

They learned Sousuke had provided a lot of programming to the game and seemed to be an average, good guy and worker. The detective assigned to question Sousuke was easily allowed into his home. They entered the living room, and the detective sat. Sousuke did not sit, however. He stood by the window of the second-story floor, looking out onto the busy street. He was smiling weakly.

There are no longer any direct witnesses to the events that followed. The only remaining evidence of the conversation between the detective and Sousuke is a voice recorder placed on the table between them.

...

**Detective:** Sousuke Tamada. What part did you have in the games Pokémon Red & Green?

**Sousuke:** I was a programmer. That's all.

**Detective:** Am I right in knowing that the programmers working on the game worked in teams?

**Sousuke:** *(Faint sound of feet moving on the floor can slightly be heard. Sousuke speaks after a moment of silence.)* You would be right.

**Detective:** And your partner, his name was--

**Sousuke:** Chiro Miura... That was his name. Chiro Miura.

*(Another moment of silence passes. The detective seems a little uneasy.)*

**Detective:** Could you tell us if Miura ever acted strange at all? Any particular behaviors you observed while working with him?

**Sousuke:** I didn't know him that well, really. We didn't see each other frequently, only every once in a while, to trade data or when the entire group got called up for a meeting. Those were the only times I ever really saw him. He acted normal, as far as I could tell. He was a short man, and I think this affected his consciousness. He was willing to do a lot of work to gain recognition, this I do know. I think...

*(Silence.)*

**Detective:** Yes? You think what?

**Sousuke:** I think he was a very weak man. He wanted to prove himself regardless of this point... I believe he wished to make himself known for something special. Something that would make people pay attention to the powerful mind inside his skull... Unfortunately for him, however. Heh... He didn't have much of a mind to back up that reasoning.

**Detective:** Why do you say that?

**Sousuke:** Well, it's the simple truth. He was nothing special, even if he wanted to believe so. You can't become greatness, even if you believe it. It's impossible... Somehow, I think Chiro knew this himself. Somewhere deep in there, he knew it.

*(The detective goes silent again.)*

**Detective:** Can you tell me what Chiro's part of the game was? What did he work on exactly?

**Sousuke:** *(More quickly than before.)* Nothing... I mean, nothing important. He worked on some obscure parts of the beginning of the game. *(Pauses)* It was Oak's part, to be exact. He worked on some of Oak's parts... When he's seen first, you see.

**Detective:** What else? I know you're aware of the children and the deaths. I know it was Chiro who did it. He programmed something in the game.

**Sousuke:** *(Getting defensive.)* What are you implying?

**Detective:** I'm implying that since you worked with him, if you're hiding something from me, anything at all, then you could be just as responsible as Chiro is. Hell, you were close enough to him; I could bring you in right now if I wanted to!

**Sousuke:** *(Shouting.)* You can't prove anything!! You have nothing!!!

**Detective:** Tell me what Chiro did to the game!!!

**Sousuke:** WHAT I TOLD HIM TO!

*(There is a long silence between Sousuke and the detective.)*

**Sousuke:** You want to know, huh? You really want to know what this is all about? Alright... Chiro was an idiot. He'd do anything for a bit of attention, anything at all. He couldn't program worth a shit, either. The one thing he could do, however, was being manipulated. You could tell him what to do, and he'd do it. He wouldn't even question it; he'd just do it. Just to hear that "thank you" when you receive the finished product. That was his reason. That's all he wanted.

*(A click from the detective's gun can be heard.)*

**Sousuke:** I could control him flawlessly. He's a lot like Takenori... Of course, none of you knew this, but I was the one who brought up the idea of the game, the idea of the entire operation! I just told the man what to do, and he followed me without a doubt. He knows nothing, just like Chiro.

*(A sound of a window opening could be heard, followed by the detective shouting.)*

**Detective:** Don't take another step!

**Sousuke:** *(His voice is more rushed but still holds the slyness.)* Let me tell you about a mechanic in the game. Consider it a hint, alright? If you walk around in grassy areas enough, a Pokémon will appear, and you'll have the chance to go into battle with it. It's a necessary part of the game overall, you see?

**Detective:** Step away from the window! I won't warn you again!

**Sousuke:** At the start of the game, you have to walk into the grassy area before Oak appears and you receive your first Pokémon, understand me? Under normal circumstances, it was programmed that even though you're in a grassy area, no Pokémon will spawn... I made it different. I manipulated Chiro, told him what to put in the program, gave him all the instructions on how to do it, and he did it flawlessly. It's rare, but it can happen. Stepping into that grass, one can spawn...

**Detective:** Sousuke, I don't want to shoot!

**Sousuke:** Shoot me? *(Laughs.)* Shoot ME? You're as dumb as Chiro was! Once he found out the truth, he had to end it! It was his fault, after all! He shot himself because of it! If you're so determined to finish that case of yours, if you want to know, play the damn game! Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you'll learn the secret for yourself!

*(A shot can be heard, loud enough to distort the audio. Sounds of screaming and murmuring can be heard. The table the recorder was on crashed. There are ear-shattering distortions followed by several more shots. Silence. Then Sousuke is laughing.)*

**Sousuke:** Come follow me... Come follow me...

*(The recorder continues until the tape runs out. There is nothing else on it.)*

...

The police arrived on the scene quickly, and to their horror, they discovered Sousuke and the detective dead. They'd both been shot, but not after struggling. The detective had been shot multiple times, with at least ten entry wounds before dying after being shot between his eyes. Sousuke had a round in his shoulder, but he died of two more shots straight through his heart.

This game was causing a massacre. Several dozen children were dead. Nisino, the unsuspecting friend. Chiro, the manipulated toy. The detective, and now even the creator, the cause of this atrocity, Sousuke. All of them dead. This game was stretching far over its original intentions. It was killing anyone and everyone who got involved.

During the investigation of Tamada's apartment, the police found a small room. It was a mess of books, out of most of the standard mathematical text. A few select ones contained handwritten notes alongside the officially printed text. The language within the notes made almost no sense. What wasn't an unintelligible language was in broken Kanji. However, there were strings of numbers written together. One analyst stated, "some of it was programming algorithm. Most of it looked like a madman's version of algebraic arithmetic."

The police employed the help of multiple programmers to scrub through the game files in an attempt to find anything that matched what was in Sousuke's notes. They worked with unaffected cartridges, since the confiscated ones were considered too dangerous to operate on. After several weeks of no discoveries, the police finally determined it was a dead end.

With no more information able to be derived from their findings, the department chief decided to put this case away. The man who committed the crime had died, so there was no longer any reason to continue the case. All the affected cartridges, all the notes, all the letters, every piece of evidence was locked away; kept in the darkness where they belonged.

There were talks about the entire thing. Small occasional conversations, but over the years, even those began to fade. Eventually, the case was only a memory in the minds of those who experienced it firsthand.

...

Ten years passed. September 28th, 2006. The department chief, the man who locked away the original evidence ten years previous, was reminded of the horrible event that occurred. Although he was no longer in the force, he still had access to files and helped in cases when he could. With the release of the new Pokémon game, it served as a reminder of the events those years prior. It made him look back to open the sealed container that held all the evidence.

He read through the letters and the notes. He remembered the woman who appeared to the detective on the street that one day and handed him that letter that led to the change of the entire case and to the death of one of the finest men on the force. He wondered who she was and where she had come from. Perhaps she was Chiro's mother, or maybe Sousuke's. It was too late to pursue any of this now. Far too late...

He remembered the books they found in Tamada's apartment. The lead detective had helped him go through many of them. Unfortunately, he was no mathematician, and the text was less insightful. Many of the books were still in the container. He rummaged through it to find the book that held the strange notes. It stood out within the pile, being the only one with its hard cover riddled with damage from so much use. The text and numbers still made no sense to him.

The detective could only make out a few words, which led to no greater understanding of the notes. As he closed the book for the last time and put it back, his fingers met the texture of something leathery, unlike the material of all the other textbooks. It was a thin but wide leather-bound notebook. The detective had no memory of this book. It had no title, no brands, and no identifiers. It should have stuck out in the sea of numerical text.

As he flipped through it, it became apparent why no one had brought it to his attention. It had the same unreadable language found in the math book but a lot more of it. While scrolling through the book, the chief noticed a page that was thicker than the others. As minute as it was, his finger still noticed the difference. There were two pages stuck together. He took a small knife and carefully separated the pages. As the two pages fell to the book, the detective finally could read it in full.

*"In the ancient world, we used to commune with the dead, even worship the act of passing on. As we lost our gods and faith, death became something to fear, to abstain from. We've lost our way. But I have found hope again in my goal to return to such a time. As the world will no doubt learn in the next coming weeks, I found a way to offer an invitation to my renewing of the old world! Come follow me in this journey!"*

Sousuke was madder than the chief had thought. It had all the signs of a death cult, and whatever he had Chiro put in the game, it made those susceptible to these paranoia and delusions finally snap.

Sealing the container again, he saw a second one directly behind it. Pulling it out, he read the note on top of it. "Evidence #2032D". He opened it and looked inside. Filling the container were 104 Pokémon Red & Green cartridges. Each one was in perfect condition. Untouched since the day they last checked them ten years ago.

He reached in and pulled one out, Pokémon Red. He hadn't seen one in a long time. He didn't know what to think next, but he reached into his desk and pulled out an old Game Boy. He received it a long time ago. There were some spare batteries nearby, and surprisingly, it still worked. It was his son's, but he had died a few years ago. His wife was gone too. That was then, though.

Inserting the cartridge into the back of the Game Boy, he turned on the system. The title screen appeared, followed by the option to continue or start a new game. "Tanaka." That was the child's name. The one who played this cartridge first. He was probably dead, along with many others.

He pressed New Game and began the process. Everything seemed normal. He walked around, talked to the character's mother, and went outside. He started walking towards the grass.

In his head, he could still hear Sousuke's words from that recorder. Even though he was not there, even though he had never seen the man in his life, he could still imagine him. Hear him.

"Come follow me... Come follow me..."

He was getting closer and closer, only a step or two away.

"Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you'll learn the secret for yourself!"

He entered the grass. The screen did nothing at all at first. The character remained still, just like the chief, as if time had stopped just for them.

The screen went black and then lit up again. The iconic green background with black text appeared. The chief's weary eyes grew wide. He couldn't help but read the text before him. Tears formed in his eyes, falling down his cheeks. Screens and screens of text appeared, and he rapidly continued through them.

It was his wife and son. He could hear their voices all around him, speaking to him, calling to him... Crying with him.

"Come follow me, come follow me, come follow me. I miss you, Dad. I miss you, my husband. I miss you so much."

They wanted to see him. They loved him...and he loved them. They beckoned him to them again and again.

"I love you too," the man muttered in a hoarse, scratching voice.

"Come follow us. Become new again. We want to see you, hold you, and be with you forever and ever. Don't stay away. You can see us too. We miss you. Come follow us. We love you..."

The screen suddenly went black. The detective's eyes grew wide, and his jaw dropped. The screen lit back up, and Oak led him out of the grass.

"Come follow me," said Oak.

"NO!" the old detective shouted before quickly bringing the screen to his face and yelling his demands. "Bring them back, bring them back to me!" The game continued as usual, not responding to the detective at all. "Listen to me! Come back to me!"

Suddenly, like his family speaking to him, more voices became apparent. Dozens of them. He slowly turned around from his seat. Looking behind him and standing in a small room were dozens of children. Some had no eyes, some had rings around their throats, and others were burned all over their body. They were screaming as they reached towards him and begged.

"Bring back my mommy! Bring back my daddy! Bring back my pet! Bring back my friends! Bring back my family!" they all screamed out, reaching for the game, their mouths agape with horror and pain. "I don't want them to go away! Bring them back to me, bring them back to me!"

"No!" shouted the detective. "It's mine! My family is in there! Don't touch it!"

The detective fended them off, keeping the Game Boy from them. He slowly became tired and heard another familiar voice... different from the rest.

"Come follow me..."

The chief looked over, and in the corner of the room, next to an old desk, was Sousuke. He stood there, tall, handsome, and clean, with a smile stretching across his face.

The chief rose out of his chair and stepped back. Now against his old desk, he tried to force away the children crawling towards him and reach out for the game held tightly within his hands.

"Wh-what's happening!?" he sputtered out. Sousuke approached him with a generous smile.

"I'll show you. I'll help you get away from them. Just follow me."

Sousuke reached down and opened a drawer on the old desk. The chief, nearly swallowed by a crowd of children, looked inside. Sitting there, covered with dust, was his old gun from when he was on the force. He had not used that gun in many years and had put it away, not wanting to remember the unpleasant things he had to do with it. But at that moment, he didn't see it as something that caused pain or death. It was a shining light; it was something that could set him free.

"Just follow me," Sousuke said, picking up the gun and putting it in the chief's hand. He grabbed the hand, bringing the barrel to the chief's temple. "It's easy. Just pull the trigger. That's all."

The chief turned around. The children were surrounding him, grabbing his legs and pulling at him. They reached for the game. He turned back towards Sousuke, who was smiling at him. The chief then looked away and smiled as well.

"My family... I'll follow you..." he said before pulling the trigger.

...

It was a few days before the body was discovered. It lay on the floor underneath a pool of blood. The chief held an empty gun in one hand, and in the other was a classic Game Boy with Pokémon Red on the back. The battery had long died. Only an empty, black screen was left.

This was the final death that the remaining authorities would allow. The last remaining detective involved in that case had personally carried all 104 cartridges away and burned them all. He made sure not a single one survived. They wouldn't harm anyone anymore.

However, this is not the end. The code was said to have survived and got passed on to other language versions of the games. If you have an old Pokémon game, you can place the cartridge in the back of the classic Game Boy, turn on the system, and roll the wheel. Who knows? Maybe you'll learn the secret for yourself.