Day after day, the papers are alive with accounts of an apparition at Ryouunkaku. Rokurou, a man who sees to the running of Asakusa, commissions Takuboku to find the truth of the matter. On his way to the scene, Takuboku reunites with an old friend, former newspaper reporter Yamaoka. Takuboku soon sees that Yamaoka is somehow connected to the ghost, but Yamaoka walks away, leaving behind only the words "throat moon." Then, magic lantern projectionist Matsukichi is killed. Two months earlier, Matsukichi had come across a woman who had been sexually assaulted. Takuboku starts looking to see if the two cases might be related.
If Matsukichi was out by the haunted 
jizo statue playing tag with you,
إذا كان ماتسوكيتشي في الخارج عند تمثال جيزو
،المسكون يلعب المُطاردة واللّمس معكم
Wenn Matsukichi vor einer gespenstischen
Jizō-Statue mit euch Fangen spielte,
Si Matsukichi los perseguía
delante de la estatua fantasma,
Si Matsukichi os perseguía
delante de la estatua fantasma,
Jamais je n’aurais pu tuer Matsukichi
durant sa petite course-poursuite
Non è proprio possibile
Se o Matsukichi estava ao lado
da estátua Jizo amaldiçoada
Раз Мацукити играл с вами в салочки
у статуи одержимого Дзидзо,