【Japanese Horror】The Hundred Horror Tales — Episode 7: What Awakes in the Bowl | Haunted Kaidan Tales
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The Hundred Horror Tales —Episode 7: What Awakes in the Bowl
The candle flickered softly.
Bathed in its light, Aoi slowly raised her hand.
“…This is something a friend of mine told me. Mind if I share it?”
Her voice was just a little more serious than usual.
“She’s in the class next door. She said something strange happened a while ago.”
A short pause. Then, Aoi began.
“There’s this fishbowl sitting in the corner of their classroom. It’s been there forever.
No one knows who brought it or when it first showed up.
There’s no water. No fish. Just… an empty bowl.
And it’s always been that way.”
“Why would they just leave it there if no one uses it?” Uncle Shuuji asked, puzzled.
“The teacher apparently said to ‘just leave it alone.’
And everyone kind of… avoided it.
They didn’t say it out loud, but it creeped them out.
It was just there.”
“…That’s unsettling,” Aunt Miwa murmured.
“Anyway, one day—right after the summer festival—
a classmate brought in a goldfish from the goldfish scoop game.
She couldn’t keep it at home, so the class decided to raise it together.”
“No way… They put it in that fishbowl?” Souma asked.
“Yeah. They filled it with water, and the goldfish seemed fine.
At first, it was totally normal—
they all gathered around to watch it during breaks.”
Aoi paused.
“But that same afternoon…
my friend peeked at the fishbowl alone after school.”
The room seemed to tense ever so slightly.
“And she saw something else in there—something she’d never seen before.
It was black, wiggly, kind of twisted…
a long, shadowy thing drifting in the water.
It moved like it belonged there—
gliding along the glass next to the goldfish, like it was… playing with it.”
“That thing… It wasn’t there in the morning, right?” Souma asked quietly.
“No. It was just the goldfish earlier.
But by the afternoon, it had appeared.
She said it felt weird, but she didn’t tell anyone. Just went home.”
“And the next day”
“…Everything was gone.
The water, the goldfish—completely vanished.
The bowl was bone dry. Not even a single drop left.
Like nothing had ever been there to begin with.”
“Maybe someone cleaned it up?” Shuuji asked, furrowing his brow.
“Nope. The teacher said they had no idea.
Everyone swore they hadn’t touched it.
But the whole class was on edge after that.”
A brief silence fell over the room.
“…And then my friend stopped coming to school the next week.”
“At first, we all thought she just had a cold,"
Aoi said softly.
She glanced at the flickering candle before continuing.
“That girl stopped coming to school the week after the goldfish disappeared. Everyone said it was just a cold, at first… but eventually, she transferred to another school. They said it was because of her dad’s job, but… the timing felt weird."
After that, strange rumors started to spread around the class.
They said: “Anyone who puts a living creature in the goldfish bowl disappears.”
“At first, I think it was meant as a joke," Aoi said. “But then, someone brought in a tiny rice fish—just like before, they added water, placed it in the bowl…"
The next day, the water and fish were gone. Completely.
“And just like the first time… that kid stopped coming to school a week later," Aoi said, her voice slightly strained.
“They said it was 'a family issue,’ but no one really knew the details."
“…Hey,” Souma murmured, “you think all that was just a coincidence?”
“I don’t know," Aoi said. “But they tried putting other things in. Paper, marbles… nothing happened."
Her voice lowered.
“But if it was alive—anything alive—it always disappeared.
The goldfish, the rice fish… even water fleas.
Some kids started experimenting, trying to see if the rumors were real.
But every time, the result was the same.
By the next day, the bowl was empty—bone dry."
“So it’s not like someone dumped the water or cleaned it up?” Shuji asked cautiously.
“No. Not even a drop of water left behind. And the bowl didn’t even have a lid," Aoi replied.
“Even the teachers were confused."
She took a breath.
“So eventually, everyone agreed—‘that bowl is not normal.’
Then things got weird.
Students started avoiding it. No one wanted to sit near it.
It even messed up seating arrangements and cleaning duties.
Nobody wanted to be responsible for the area around it.
Like, everyone started saying, ‘I’ll wipe desks instead,’ or ‘Can I take the windows?’
Anything to stay far from it."
“The teachers didn’t say anything?" Miwa asked.
“At first, they told us not to spread weird rumors. But later… their attitude changed.
They moved the bowl closer to the teacher’s desk and told us not to touch it at all."
“Must’ve scared them too," Shuji muttered.
Aoi nodded slightly.
“One day, I heard the teacher took it home.
Said something like, ‘If it’s scaring the class this much, I’ll just get rid of it myself.’
But no one actually saw them take it.
Maybe they did it secretly after school…"
“So? Did they get rid of it?" Souma asked.
Aoi looked into the candle flame.
“Well… that year, at the school’s annual bazaar… someone said they saw that goldfish bowl being sold.
A transparent bowl with a thin crack near the bottom—
It was the exact same one."
“But didn’t the teacher throw it away?"
“Exactly. That’s why it didn’t make sense.
Why would it end up for sale?
And the weirdest part is—no one knows who bought it."
Souma’s voice dropped.
“So that means… someone out there might be using it. Even now."
Aoi gave a silent nod.
“…If you ever see an empty goldfish bowl somewhere…
you should probably leave it alone.
Because if you pour in water, and place something living inside—"
None of them finished the sentence.
Only the gentle flicker of the candlelight remained, dancing in the silent room.
“In the end… no one ever figured out what it really was.
But when you put something into the fishbowl… it wakes up. Don’t you think?”
Aoi’s voice trembled slightly.
“Water and living creatures—that’s the switch that summons that black thing.
And the creatures put inside… I think they become sacrifices. That’s what it feels like.”
No one responded.
Only the faint flicker of candlelight stirred the silence.
“So… if that fishbowl still exists somewhere out there…”
Aoi whispered as she stared into the flame.
“Someone might find it again.
Not knowing anything, they might fill it with water… add a living creature…
And then something will start again—
From inside that bowl.”
“You must never add water to it.
Because something is inside that fishbowl.”
She said that softly, and fell silent.
The room grew still.
No one could find the next words.
“…That’s terrifying. Fishbowls are everywhere,”
Miwa murmured.
“That’s what makes it the scariest,”
Souma replied quietly.
“Because there’s no way to tell which one it is.”
Everyone glanced around,
toward the corners of the room,
the tops of the shelves…
— Plop…
Did someone hear a bubble rise?
Or was it just their imagination?
“…That’s the end of my story,”
Aoi said, gently blowing out her candle.
Ffff… One flame vanished.
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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?
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• Twitter: @KaidanTales
• YouTube: @HK_Tales
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