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KuronbōAuthor: Okamoto Kidō
| Original Title | くろん坊 |
|---|---|
| Author | 岡本 綺堂 |
| Genre | Fantasy & Sci-Fi |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the waning years of Edo-era Japan, a government agent flees suspicion in Ōgaki Domain, abandoning main roads for perilous mountain paths. Exhausted and lost in deepening twilight, he stumbles upon a solitary hut where a young monk offers shelter. The monk’s gentle demeanor belies a haunting sorrow, and as night falls, an unsettling laughter echoes from the abyss beyond—dry, mocking, and inhuman. Though warned to ignore it, the traveler lies awake, tormented by whispers of a curse binding his host to this desolate place. \nVillagers later recount a tragic tale: years prior, a beast-like creature named Kuronbō, scorned after a failed abduction, met a grisly end. Its vengeful skull, lodged in a ravine, now cackles nightly, blamed for destroying the monk’s family. The agent departs under dawn’s light, leaving the monk chanting sutras into storms, forever tethered to atone for sins not his own. Shadows cling to these mountains—of guilt, spectral laughter, and a resolve as unyielding as the bones rattling in the dark. |
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