Friends in Low Places小野篁の伝説

This cannot be! I never dreamed I would meet such a dishonorable end...

I heard a scream next door, you see, so I went to investigate and found the manor strewn with corpses. When the authorities arrived, they mistook me for the culprit and came at me. I tried to resist, but in the struggle I fell and hit my head, and I must have hit it pretty hard, for when I came to, I found myself in the realm of the dead!

My only question is...did I die a murderer? And is this awful place hell?

So these are the gates of the netherworld—Hell's Maw, as it were. It is a more terrible place than I ever imagined. Ah, what is to become of me? Please, I beg you! Somebody wake me from this dreadful nightmare!

...Wait, that man standing over there. Is he...an Oni? He is certainly fearsome, but there is something about him that suggests he is no regular denizen of the deep. And am I mistaken, or have I seen him somewhere before? But where...?

Why, you-you're Ono no Takamura! My lord! My ancestor! We draw our lineage from the same noble blood!

But... But what are you doing at Hell's Maw? Oh, venerable ancestor, hear me! You must lend an ear to my sorry tale, I beg of you, please!

...What? You know all about it already? You say that the culprit has been apprehended, and that I may go home?

...What a relief! Then I suppose I should go back the way I came? Right. Um, er... Forgive me for intruding. And, uh, keep up the good work, kinsman!

Thanks be to Lord Takamura for allowing me to come back to life! Apparently, my heart had stopped and I'd been written off as dead, but then it suddenly started beating again!

But what was Lord Takamura doing down there in the first place? Was it all just a dream?