Abstract

Company employee Shimamoto gets on the wrong train and disembarks at an unfamiliar station. His subordinate, Yazaki, utters a strange warning: “Better leave as soon as you can. This is the haunted city of Baku.” But trying to get to his business appointment as quickly as possible, Shimamoto walks straight through the town. En route he encounters a strange little girl, and from that time on he enjoys a streak of good luck. Returning home in high spirits, he finds his ex-girlfriend Nozomi sitting on the doorstep. Hoping for a reconciliation, Shimamoto lets her stay the night, but Nozomi doesn’t utter a word. She is still there when he departs the next morning for his office, where he encounters the real Nozomi. So who—or what—is the woman he left at home? He makes the silent “Nozomi” leave his house, only to find that his good luck has turned bad . . . One of a series of five eerie and absurd horror stories about the mysterious city of Baku.

Author’s Information

Kyu Inoue (1961–) was born in Aichi Prefecture. Her debut collection of linked short stories, Zozo no muko (Groom of Zozo), won the Tenth Shosetsu Hoseki New Writer Award for 2016.