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White MothAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio
| Original Title | 白蛾 |
|---|---|
| Author | 豊島 与志雄 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the ashes of postwar Tokyo, where scorched fields blur into makeshift villages, Kishimoto Shohei drifts through days of idle routine. A repatriate in his forties, he navigates a city stripped of its former self—wheat sprouts where buildings once stood, dew clings to weeds like memories of lost rivers. His leisurely walks to a hollow office lead him through this liminal landscape until he encounters Michie, a woman whose unsettling beauty echoes a half-forgotten figure from his youth. Her vacant gaze and enigmatic presence haunt him, drawing him into a dance of tentative advances and cryptic exchanges. Amid ruins where steel skeletons of bombed structures loom like specters, their fragile connection culminates in a surreal encounter with a ghostly white moth—an omen that lingers long after Michie vanishes without trace. As Kishimoto grapples with obsession and guilt, Tokyo’s transformed terrain mirrors his unraveling certainty: is she a remnant of war’s chaos, a figment of longing, or something more uncanny? The answer flutters just beyond reach, leaving only the echo of wings in charred silence. |
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