【Japanese Horror】The Hundred Horror Tales — Episode 17: The Teddy Bear That Said “Welcome Home” | Haunted Kaidan Tales
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Episode 17 – “The Teddy Bear That Said “Welcome Home”| Haunted Kaidan Tales” (Full Text)
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Episode 17: The Teddy Bear That Said “Welcome Home”
After Sōma blew out the flame,
no one spoke for a while.
A breath-holding silence
spread through the tatami room.
It was Aoi, unexpectedly,
who broke it.
“Hey… I’ve been thinking,”
Aoi said, staring at the bag of cookies on the table,
frowning slightly.
“Isn’t it kind of a waste?
We’re telling scary stories,
but no one’s eating the snacks.”
At that, Aunt Miwa let out a small laugh.
“Now that you mention it…
the cookies and juice haven’t gone down at all.”
“Yeah,” Uncle Shūji said with a light chuckle, shrugging his shoulders.
“She went through the trouble of preparing them, too.”
Even Sōma relaxed his expression just a little.
The heavy atmosphere softened,
if only slightly.
“You always want something sweet after scary stories,”
Aoi said as she picked up a cookie.
Crunch.
The small sound
eased everyone’s tension.
“…Oh, but—”
She stopped her hand,
as if something had just come back to her.
“Eating cookies made me remember.
The other night,
I was doing my homework while snacking.”
“Snacks while studying?”
Aunt Miwa gave a wry smile.
“That’s not very good.”
“I know, but… then,” Aoi continued,
“the teddy bear I had next to me—
started talking.”
The air froze again.
“Talking?”
Uncle Shūji raised an eyebrow.
“Like a recorded toy or something?”
“No,” Aoi said, spreading her hands seriously.
“It doesn’t have batteries or anything.
It’s my usual bear—the pink one with the ribbon around its neck.
That one said, ‘Welcome home.’”
“…‘Welcome home?’”
Sōma repeated quietly.
Aoi nodded.
“At first I thought I misheard it.
But it said it again.
‘Welcome home, Aoi.’”
Aunt Miwa’s hand slowly came to a stop.
The flickering firelight cast a shadow shaped like a stuffed animal across the tatami.
Aoi smiled faintly.
“But you know… at that moment,
I was alone.
There was no one who had just come home—
no one at all.”
That night, I lay in my futon, eyes closed, unable to fall asleep.
The teddy bear’s “welcome home” echoed over and over in the back of my mind.
“…There’s no way it talked,”
I murmured quietly, glancing up at the wall clock.
The hands had just passed eleven.
The house was completely still—
the only sound was my own heartbeat.
—Clatter.
A small noise came from the shelf.
I clenched my futon tightly and opened my eyes.
The pencil holder I had left on my desk was tilted slightly to one side.
Wind?
…No. The window was closed.
Then I heard it.
“…Aoi.”
A voice so faint it barely stirred the air.
But I heard it.
Clearly.
It came from the direction where the teddy bear sat.
My heart thudded hard in my chest.
Gathering my courage, I slowly pulled the futon aside.
On the desk, the bear’s head was tilted—
just a little.
As if it were looking at me.
“…S-stop it…”
My voice shaking, I grabbed the teddy bear and shoved it deep into the closet.
I piled a futon on top of it and slid the sliding door shut.
That should be enough.
Now it would be fine.
—Or so I thought.
The next night, the sound came again.
This time, from outside my room.
Slow footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Creak… creak…
Heavy footsteps—
like someone walking carefully.
Pretending to be asleep, I listened closely.
The footsteps stopped right in front of my door.
Then—
the doorknob moved.
Just slightly.
“…!”
I held my breath and curled into myself beneath the futon.
But the door never opened.
After a while, the footsteps faded away,
and the silence returned.
In the morning, I cautiously opened the closet.
The teddy bear—
was back on my desk.
Impossible.
I had put it deep inside.
Staring at it, my face drained of color.
And a thought crossed my mind.
—This thing is calling something here.
For several days after that, strange things continued to happen in my room.
At night, I would hear small footsteps coming from nowhere.
By morning, pencils would be rolling across my desk,
or the teddy bear would be in a different place than before.
Even when I said something was wrong, no one believed me.
Aunt Miwa laughed and said,
“Maybe you’re moving things around in your sleep.”
Uncle Shūji just ruffled my hair and said,
“You’ve been watching too much horror.”
But I knew.
When night fell, the bear was always watching me.
Sitting on the desk, its eyes reflecting the light
as if they were gently narrowing.
“…I can’t take this anymore.”
I whispered, and made up my mind.
After school that day, I put the bear into a bag and went outside.
Near a trash bin in a nearby park, I let go of it.
My chest tightened painfully, but
when I remembered the voices and sounds from that night,
I didn’t have the courage to bring it back.
When I returned home, I felt a small sense of relief.
But even then, I couldn’t sleep that night.
The far end of the hallway looked darker than usual.
The ceiling felt lower, pressing down on me.
—Thud.
Something had fallen onto the floor.
I turned my head without thinking.
The bag was on my desk.
The same bag I had thrown away earlier that day.
And inside it was the teddy bear.
“…Why…?”
My body began to tremble.
I reached for the door, trying to escape,
but the doorknob wouldn’t turn.
As I moved toward the window, a flash of lightning split the sky outside.
A roaring gust of wind followed.
Rain began to slam against the house.
The curtains billowed outward, caught by the wind.
“…No… please… stop…”
Just as I was about to cry—
“Aoi. Don’t.”
I heard the bear’s voice.
Clearly.
The next instant, the window exploded, glass shattering outward.
I squeezed my eyes shut and dropped to the floor.
Something fell onto my shoulder.
Heavy.
Soft.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
The teddy bear was there.
Its chest was torn open, stuffing spilling out slightly.
Fragments of shattered glass were caught in its hands.
The next morning, I found myself lying in my bed.
Soft light streamed in from the direction of the main house,
gently illuminating the shattered window.
Tiny shards of glass were scattered across the floor,
and the curtains swayed quietly in the breeze.
Was what happened last night just a dream?
Thinking that, I started to get out of bed—
and then I saw it.
At my feet, the teddy bear lay on the floor.
Its chest was torn open, the stitching coming undone.
Inside, something small caught the light—
a single shard of glass.
I gasped.
That position.
That angle.
If the bear hadn’t been there,
the glass might have struck my face.
“…Did you protect me…?”
The moment I spoke the words, tears spilled from my eyes.
The shard of glass in the bear’s hand glimmered in the morning light.
For just an instant,
it looked as if the bear had nodded—
as if to say, yes.
“…So that’s why,”
Aoi said with a shy little smile.
“I don’t think the bear was scary at all.
I think it was protecting me the whole time.”
No one spoke right away.
Then Aunt Miwa smiled softly.
“What a kind bear you had, Aoi.”
Uncle Shūji crossed his arms and nodded.
“Stuffed animals soak up a child’s feelings,” he said.
“You cared about it, so it became your ally.”
Staring quietly into the flame,
Grandpa Seikichi spoke.
“They say that anything cherished gains a soul.
That’s true for people and for objects alike.
Fear and love—
both are bonds that breathe life into things.”
Aoi nodded firmly.
She brought her hands together
in front of her chest.
“Thank you, Mr. Bear.”
—Fff…
One candle went out gently.
The shadows of the remaining three flickered,
and in that wavering light,
Aoi thought she could see
the faint outline of the bear’s smile.
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The Hundred Horror Tales is an original Japanese horror anthology inspired by the tradition of Hyaku Monogatari.
Five storytellers gather around flickering candles to share chilling tales—urban legends, ghost stories, folklore, daily fears, and real encounters.
Can you endure until the last flame goes out?
Follow for more:
• Twitter: @KaidanTales
• YouTube: @HK_Tales
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