A perfect blend of mystery solving and ghost stories.
The first installment in a new series by master Miyuki Miyabe!

A man who has been single since his wife passed away in an accident with their baby meets a new love and promises to marry her.
But on the wedding day.
A strange woman appears in front of the bride and groom as they are about to enter the wedding hall, receiving blessings from many people, and starts causing a ruckus.
The woman claims that she is his ex-wife who died with the baby and has returned from the afterlife to be reborn as a couple.


Meanwhile, Kitaichi, a young man of small stature who wanders the streets selling books, is asked by the groom's family to give out gifts to the guests and ends up attending the wedding. He becomes suspicious of the woman's claims of being reincarnated from the afterlife and jumps into the middle of a case to solve it.
Did my wife really come back from the afterlife?


Solve bizarre mysteries, chase ghost stories, and resolve trouble in this lighthearted action-packed story! The first story in author Miyuki Miyabe's new Edo period novel series, the "Kita Kita Series."

But if you take out this cursed Fukuwarai mask and play with it, disaster will inevitably strike.
The family members are said to have suffered serious facial injuries, burns, or eye infections.
So, they kept it hidden deep inside, but this New Year, the children in that family, without knowing anything, took it out and played with the children in the neighborhood.
--- p.49, from "Pufferfish and Fukuwarai"

That's why I ended up like this.
He couldn't even go out as a peddler, he had to rely on his wife's house for food, he was covered in dirt mixed with human remains, his whole body smelled of dirt, he shivered in the mud and rain, and every day he made friends with his bones.
──You worked so hard!
But it was strange that I laughed.
--- p.176, from “The Silent Guardian”

“Mr. Mantaro!”
The cries of the young woman who called herself Okiku were split by a desperate wish.
“I was reincarnated.”
To live with you once again.
“I came back from the afterlife.
Please, I beg you.
“Please be my husband and I again!”

--- p.296, from “The Bride Returning from the Underworld”