The cursed box that must never be opened
A mini-fiction series by Miyuki Miyabe about a secret that can never be told.

midnight.
A fire breaks out at Omiya, a traditional confectionery shop in Edo.
In the kitchen, where the family and employees had been thoroughly secured before going to bed, a flame suddenly broke out.
However, in the midst of this chaos, the owner of the confectionery shop Omiya did not avoid the flames and instead ran into the blazing fire, losing his life while trying to retrieve a black box.

When a fire kills or injures her family and forces her to save the place, the Omiya clan's granddaughter, at the age of fourteen, is forced to inherit the confectionery shop and take charge of its management.
Along with this, you will also receive a heirloom that has been passed down through generations since the time of the ancestors who founded Omiya.
It was the mysterious box that the owner had risked his life to protect.

It is said that the current head of the family is responsible for preserving this box, called the 'Patience Box', and passing it down to future generations.
However, it is a box that should never be opened.
There is a legend that if you open the lid of the patience box, disaster will strike.
What on earth could possibly be inside that would bring disaster and cost someone their life if opened?


A tightly shut black box, a child begging to be kidnapped, a dagger threatening the night road, a moon rising with skulls, the poignant lies of adoptive parents and an orphan, the secret of a dead caretaker, the weakness of a childhood friend, and a mysterious request left by a man wearing a genka knot.
A series of mini-fictions by Miyuki Miyabe that offer glimpses into countless untold and buried stories, sometimes with a sense of unease and longing, sometimes with a sense of dread and shock.

My father was on the verge of death.
On a hot day that looked like it might rain at any moment, Okoma was unable to go outside and was playing with a ball in the hallway.
I followed the rolling ball to the altar, and heard my father's voice muttering through the open space.

─Hold on, hold on
That's what he was saying.
Okoma peeked into the room.
Hikoichiro sat upright in front of the altar, placed a small black box on his lap, and looked down while muttering, “Hold on, hold on.”

---From "Patience Box"

“See, right? I’m Koichiro Tatsumiya.
My family is rich, so they'll give me about a hundred nyang right away.
“Mister, will you kidnap me?” Minokichi’s spirits dropped.
He really was Tatsumiya's son.
Someone is up to some evil.
What should I do?
---From "Kidnapping"

Gaske was stabbed to death three times before he finally decided to ask for protection.
All three times, it was a dream, but right before I woke up with a start, drenched in sweat, the feeling of blood on my palm pressing hard against the cut was so vivid that I couldn't believe it was a dream.
My appetite had completely disappeared, but I was shoving breakfast into my mouth, thinking I couldn't stand it if I didn't eat. Then, the feeling of holding chopsticks in my hand suddenly came back to me and I shuddered.

---From "Escape"

“They say the bugs in the warehouse have faces.”
“Your face?” Fuki stopped wiping the sweet potatoes.
“A human face?”
"okay.
“It looks like it has a skull-like face.”

---From "Sixteen Nights of the Skeleton"