Every object has a story. This object is no exception, especially as it’s a cursed fetish. - P34
It is forbidden to make a cursed fetish for personal use. Also according to family tradition, it is forbidden to curse any handmade item. These unwritten rules have been passed down for generations in our family’s line of work: the creation of cursed fetishes. - P34
Every profession referred to by the polite, contemporary term "occultist"—shamans, fortune-tellers, and morticians— was treated like dirt back then. Such discrimination was far from fair, but that’s the way it was. - P34
The traditional method—of pouring water into a mixture of hard-steamed and malted rice and letting it ferment—was replaced by ethanol, an industrial alcohol, which flooded the market. To make this revolting solution palatable, beverage companies mixed the ethanol with water and artificial flavoring. - P36
He researched production methods that could restore the old taste by imitating the traditional by-hand methods—the proportion of ingredients, alcohol level, fermentation temperature, and distillation methods—as much as possible within compliance of national policy. - P36
Grandfather’s friend cared only about developing delicious, healthy spirits; he had no idea that in the new, post-war age, connections with government higher-ups, networking, entertaining, and the occasional bribe and backdoor dealing were more important than product quality or technology. - P36
And there was no internet in those days, nowhere for him to turn to once he was shunned by the newspapers and television. He had no legal recourse because you couldn’t record phone conversations or screenshot texts back then—it was impossible to determine how rumors were spread. - P36
But such things are indeed allowed, and such people who allow it are everywhere. Which is exactly why my grandfather, my father, and I could make a living out of cursed fetishes. - P37
Grandfather summoned all his connections, high and low, to get in touch with someone who knew someone who knew yet another someone who worked for a subcontractor for the company that killed his friend. - P38
The target of the curse has to touch the cursed fetish with their own hands. That’s the most important aspect of any cursed fetish and the trickiest part in getting it to work. - P37
The bunny nibbled away. - P44
The bunny flicks the tip of its ears. - P47
There’s a Japanese saying that goes, "Cursing others leads to two graves." Anyone who curses another person is sure to end up in a grave themselves. - P45
Perhaps that’s Grandfather’s curse. Or, his blessing. - P45
If I keep doing the work that I’m doing now, I’ll end up like Grandfather. Dead but not dead, sitting in the dark of some living room on a moonless night in front of an object that keeps me anchored to the world of the living. But by the time I sit at that armchair by the window, there will be no child or grandchild to listen to my story. And in this twisted, wretched life of mine, that single fact remains my sole consolation. - P46
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