Credits
Author: ©︎
Year Created: 2019
Translator's Content Warning: This article contains references to child death and gore. Reader discretion is advised.
The affected area of an SCP-1494-JP instance.
Item #: SCP-1494-JP
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: All affected areas of SCP-1494-JP instances, as well as their adjacent zone, are to remain under unmanned surveillance primarily through the use of automated exploratory drones and the installation of additional small surveillance cameras and microphones. Efforts must continue to conceal details of belief in SCP-1494-JP from local authorities in the affected areas and adjacent zone, with particular importance placed on destroying traces of SCP-1494-JP-A, B, and C.
All staffed Foundation facilities must be evacuated from the adjacent zone of the current SCP-1494-JP affected area. Isolation and amnesticization of the affected area residents, or de-population of the affected areas, is to be conducted at the overall discretion of the Containment Command, taking into consideration concealment, cost of implementation, and impact on the surrounding environment.
In the event that a new SCP-1494-JP instance manifests in the adjacent zone, the Foundation is to immediately blockade the area in question to prevent the local population from intervening. The personnel involved in the blockade are to be rotated every three days in shifts; no personnel must stay in the same affected area for a total of more than thirty days.
The proposal to remove the entire asphalt from the roadway on which SCP-1494-JP manifested is currently being discussed.
Description: SCP-1494-JP is a large amount of uncleanable blood stains with mind-affecting properties that manifests on roadways in Japan without any prior signs. The forms of SCP-1494-JP instances can vary and have been observed to include simple blood stains, traces suggesting that the victim was dragged some distance, hand or shoe prints, or vehicle tire tracks. SCP-1494-JP instances bearing traces of the victim's physique suggest that it was a child before secondary sexual characteristics; the amount of blood in all SCP-1494-JP instances is nearly lethal at the relevant age.
SCP-1494-JP has collective mind-affecting properties on the local population. The area affected by each instance is typically 2.0~3.5 km2, and no more than one instance manifests in this sphere of influence. So far, new SCP-1494-JP instances have manifested so as to adjacent their sphere of influence to that of existing instances. The time cycle to manifestation has not been identified.
Following the manifestation of SCP-1494-JP, a new indigenous belief in worshiping SCP-1494-JP as a shintai1 arises in the affected area. This belief spreads rapidly, especially among senior citizens, and is expected to be fully established in the local community within a month. Residents who frequently travel in and out of the affected area during this time, or who have moved out completely, are unaffected.
During the establishment process, the local residents gradually become less safety-conscious about driving as well as accident avoidance on the roadways, neglecting safety behaviors such as signaling and checking their surroundings. In parallel, the residents develop an extremely exclusive and secretive nature, and begin to be unusually resistant to outside intruders, investigative attempts, and interventions. Since they exhibit a certain resistance even to pharmaceutical interrogation, the Foundation have relied primarily on unmanned investigations, such as the use of exploratory drones, the interception of surveillance camera footage, and the installation of microphones.
After the establishment of faith, the local residents isolate the roadway where SCP-1494-JP is located with tapes, ropes, or new structures to prohibit the entry of people coming from outside the area. Although the residents use all solidary means in this process, most attempts fail due to the intervention of outside influences unless the affected area includes the municipality's center. If the isolation fails, no further change in the anomaly occurs; the residents repeatedly continue to try to isolate it. Isolation by outside parties is not considered completion of the process.
Once the isolation and concealment of SCP-1494-JP is completed, three different rituals spontaneously establish themselves in the affected area. These are respectively designated as SCP-1494-JP-A, B, and C, and their details are generally consistent in all SCP-1494-JP-affected areas.
- SCP-1494-JP-A
This ritual is assumed to have a significance equivalent to that of Genpuku2. It must be performed by all children before their respective twelfth birthdays, and the exact timing is left to the free will of each child. SCP-1494-JP-A is completed when a participating child recognizes a vehicle traveling at high speed, runs out into its path without warning, and successfully crosses the road. The vehicle must not slow in the process.
This ritual is easily accomplished as local residents have minimal safety awareness of driving. If a child is struck and killed by a vehicle, SCP-1494-JP-A is considered a failure and their corpse is used for SCP-1494-JP-B. The roadway is cleaned by the residents.
- SCP-1494-JP-B
This ritual is presumed to serve as a combination of purification, funeral/farewell ceremony, and execution. When a resident dies, the corpse is tied to the rear of a large vehicle in a manner that makes it in contact with the roadway, and the vehicle is driven at high speed through the area. A blood relative of the deceased must be present in the vehicle in the process.
When a new resident is born, a blood relative of the newborn is similarly tied to the rear of a large vehicle, and dragged around the area. The mother of the newborn must be present in the vehicle in the process.
SCP-1494-JP-B completes when the corpse/relative is destroyed and more than half of it falls onto the roadways or the vehicle travels over approximately 80% of the local roadways; the corpse is disposed of in the same way as ordinary garbage. In rare cases, this ritual may be performed by forcing those who have moved in from outside the community to be tied to a vehicle, in which case no passengers other than the driver are required. The roadways are cleaned by the residents.
- SCP-1494-JP-C
Its religious significance is undetermined. On the morning of a specific date each year, which varies in each affected area, all residents offer flowers they have prepared to SCP-1494-JP. All residents then return to their homes and are not allowed to enter the roadways until the following day. No residents are permitted to touch SCP-1494-JP except during this ritual, and violators of this rule are immediately targeted for SCP-1494-JP-B. Flowers are not removed even after the ritual.
The eradication of faith through amnestic treatment of residents after isolating them from the community has been successful in the short term at a rate of 70%. As SCP-1494-JP was only discovered recently, sufficient data has not been collected to date on the long-term effects.
By the time the Foundation discovered it in 2017, SCP-1494-JP had manifested in ██████ Village (Nara Prefecture), ██████ City (Oita Prefecture) and ██████ Town (Ibaraki Prefecture), and has since expanded its affected areas through its encroachment into █████████. The Foundation is currently aware of ██ instances, ██ of which have been neutralized by complete relocation of all residents followed by Class C or higher amnestic treatment, or by complete de-population of the affected area.