Two strange incidents occur in the life of Yuji Kuki, who resides in Shinshu. The name of his great-uncle, Teiichi—who died during the final stages of World War II—has been mysteriously scraped off the Kuki family gravestone. Around the same time, Teiichi’s wartime diary arrives, sent from the place where he supposedly died. As Yuji reads the diary, filled with Teiichi’s desperate will to live, supernatural phenomena begin to unfold around him. His grandfather vanishes, and the final page of the diary now bears a mysterious phrase: “Hikuidōri wo kuu bimi nari” (“It is the taste of eating the cassowary”). Are these eerie events the doing of the dead? Winner of the 40th Yokomizo Seishi Mystery and Horror Award—a chilling tale of war, legacy, and lingering spirits.