Curiosity
The Incarnation of Curiosity (好奇心の権化, Kōkishin no Gonge) is the main antagonist of the short story "Blood-Stained Bookmark", part of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: Short Story Collection.
Appearing as a female librarian secretly lurking at S City's library, the Incarnation of Curiosity is a seemingly immortal being who lures in people capable of answering questions she has.
Appearance
Curiosity appears as a young woman with unkempt hair spread out wildly. She wears thick glasses that are tilted as if the frame is too loose. Her clothing consists of a sweater with a shirt underneath. The collar of her shirt peeks out from her sweater, described to be as stretched out as over-chewed dried squid.
Her true identity and whether she is actually human is unknown, as Rohan feels as if some other being slipped into her skin. Her body seems to be composed of completely red bookmarks which have a rough, grainy texture like dried blood. The bookmarks also seem to be alive, having a faint pulse like a long-dead heart starting to pump blood again.[1]
Personality
The Incarnation of Curiosity is a mysterious librarian who appears to work at S City's library. Similar to her disorganized appearance, her attitude is just as careless. She speaks bluntly, often sighing or complaining about having to do anything outside of sitting at the reception desk. She frequently avoids having to do work, trying to make Rohan Kishibe retrieve the book he wanted from the library's restricted archives himself, or grumbling about other staff taking time off. Despite this, she possesses an extensive amount of knowledge. She quickly recognizes Rohan without an introduction, recalling details about his career and personal history, including biographical details such as his blood type. However, her interest in topics is highly selective, showing no enthusiasm for rare books or historical events unless they contain some element that is unknown to her. She doesn't hide her blatant disinterest, rudely folding a scrap paper that Rohan gives her with the book's title into an origami frog, playing with it while Rohan discusses the history of fugu poisoning. She playfully teases people when they're wrong, such as crossing her arms in an "X", booing, or making a loud buzzer noise. In addition to her mocking and sarcastic attitude, her personality is the kind of person that Rohan dislikes.[1]
Curiosity shows little regard for other people and has no morals, prioritizing her own convenience and interests over basic concern for others. She dislikes dealing with children, calling them troublesome for how they mistreat books and make her job more difficult. She demonstrates her indifference about humans when she shows more concern over the library's property than Rohan himself. She outright states that she's more worried about whether the library's computer is broken when it falls on Rohan's back, and is more bothered about the library's floor getting stained when Rohan's blood spills onto it. She is desensitized to violence and has exhibited psychopathic tendencies, as well as pica, ever since living through the Kan'ei Great Famine. Her curiosity causes her to eat random items like wooden planks and even human flesh like her childhood friend's ear. Her obsession with the unknown and gaining knowledge develops into a fascination with understanding human anatomy, committing crimes like robbing graves and dissecting people alive.[1]
She has a photographic memory, remembering Rohan's details after seeing a photo of him years ago. Although she claims to have learned everything there is to know, her behavior suggests she is still searching for something, considering she doesn't know the answer to whether Rohan would abandon his curiosity if he is on the verge of death. Despite her lack of empathy toward other beings, she still warns Rohan about the dangers of curiosity. She is self-aware, mentioning that curiosity didn't lead to anything good for her. She also suggests that curiosity is a fatal flaw, referencing stories of people who died because they could not resist pursuing the unknown. However, her warnings are stated in a way that seems designed to provoke Rohan further. She invokes Rohan's curiosity by telling him about the rumor of the cursed red bookmarks and is amused when he ends up finding one, attempting to convince him that there is no way out of his predicament.[1]
Abilities
Spatial Distortion
The Incarnation of Curiosity demonstrates an ability to subtly manipulate reality based on the state of her curiosity. When Rohan enters the library, it is nearly empty and she is the only staff member present, seemingly trapping Rohan in this isolated environment. Once Rohan satisfies her curiosity by providing her with an answer to her question, she vanishes and the library suddenly returns to normal, full of patrons and another librarian who Rohan is familiar with. This could mean she is capable of temporarily altering the environment around her, creating a space where only she and her targets exist until her curiosity is satiated. Alternatively, she may have drawn Rohan into a separate reality or dimension, where only those relevant to her current interest are present, which is implied when she remarks that Rohan would not be able to "escape" his situation.[1]
Misfortune Manipulation
Curiosity can induce misfortune in a way that appears to be a series of natural accidents. This effect is primarily tied to her completely red bookmarks, which seems to act as a conduit for her power. Those who possess one of her bookmarks begin to experience an escalating series of mishaps, starting as minor inconveniences and growing into dangerous, potentially fatal situations. Rohan observes that the misfortunes are not random but appear deliberate and precise. When a library sign breaks off its chain and nearly hits Rohan when it swings, he notes that the sign didn't fall due to negligence, but rather the links of the chain unfurled one by one, as if intentionally waiting for the right moment. Similarly, the desktop computer that crushes his back had its cables securely taped down, yet the tape peels away just as Rohan's body hits the desk, as if the object itself had been manipulated to ensure maximum damage. This suggests that Curiosity alters reality to orchestrate events in a way that ensures harm befalls her target.[1]
Damage Redirection
Curiosity has the ability to redirect harm intended for its bookmark back onto the person interacting with it. When Rohan attempts to tear the completely red bookmark, it remains completely intact. However, the fingernail from Rohan's thumb tears off instead, as if the damage had bounced back onto him.[1]
History
Background
The Incarnation of Curiosity's earliest memory is during the Kan'ei Great Famine in the 1640s, where she ate a cat in order to survive. After that, she ate a dog, and all sorts of things out of hunger. Her food included the planks of a wooden boat which tasted like salt to her, the glue from a paper umbrella which was sweet, and the frame of a sliding door which had the fragrant scent of bamboo. Soon, she stopped eating out of hunger but out of curiosity, going as far as eating a baby's behind, her childhood friend's ear after tearing it off, and an old man's thigh. After the famine ended, her curiosity worsened and she began dissecting strangers alive, robbing graves, and finding corpses under bridges to understand human anatomy. At some point, she became interested in wanting to see deep sea creatures.[1]
Blood-Stained Bookmark
Curiosity takes the form of a librarian at S City's library when Rohan Kishibe arrives. When he asks her if she ever saw someone nearly die from eating fugu, she mocks manga artists for having weird interests. Rohan is surprised she knew his occupation since he didn't introduce himself. She then recites his personal details offhandedly, including his birth city and blood type, claiming she saw his photo on the cover of Shonen Jump's New Year special issue a long time ago. When Rohan mentions wanting to take a different approach rather than dying from fugu poisoning himself, Curiosity mocks him by asking if he wants to see people suffering from snake venom or scorpion stings instead, sarcastically calling him "twisted". Rohan ignores her remarks and hands her a scrap paper with the title of a book, An Introduction to Eating Fugu, a rare Meiji-era book containing firsthand accounts of fugu poisoning. Curiosity responds with disinterest, treating his request as a hassle, and folds the paper into an origami frog.
Instead of retrieving the book from the restricted archives herself, she tosses Rohan a key and tells him to find it himself. Her attitude irritates Rohan, but she points out how she is the only staff member available so she needs to stay at the counter. Rohan notices that the library is eerily empty, with no other librarians present and only a handful of patrons scattered throughout the building. She casually explains that a rumor about a cursed red bookmark has driven most people away, and the other staff have taken leave because they are too unsettled to continue working. After Rohan expresses interest in wanting to find the red bookmark himself, the librarian reluctantly agrees to go upstairs to check the restricted archives for his book, sighing dramatically as if the mere effort annoys her. She takes her time walking upstairs to the third floor.
After failing to locate the book, she returns downstairs, only to find that Rohan already found An Introduction to Eating Fugu on a shelf in the children's section. This genuinely surprises her, as she had searched thoroughly in the restricted archives for it. She carelessly grabs the fragile book, showing no regard for its condition, and dismisses Rohan's concerns about handling it carefully. When Rohan notices pages stuck together inside, she shrugs off his interest, suggesting that it could be a printing error or someone just glued the pages together. Rohan doesn't accept her theories, so she warns him that some things are better left unseen. Rohan convinces her to go back to the counter by suggesting some kids may want to check out their books, leading her to mutter that she hates kids before leaving.
Rohan secretly peels the pages apart after she leaves and retrieves a red bookmark. When he starts suffering from misfortune and a heavy desktop computer topples onto his back, the librarian returns and responds with amusement rather than concern. Seeing him pinned under it, she mockingly asks if the computer is broken. Rather than apologizing to Rohan or checking if the computer works, she shrugs it off as being maintenance's job. As she puts the computer's cables away, Rohan tears the bookmark but the damage is redirected to his thumbnail, causing him to bleed all over the floor. She complains about the floor getting dirty, grabbing a mop and bucket with clear reluctance, calling out for maintenance to come do their job. Rohan asks her if there are any rumors about what to do once a red bookmark is found. She then becomes more direct in her warnings, telling Rohan that some things should not be pursued. She shares a grim story about a child who caught a fugu fish, whose curiosity led to his death when he ate it without knowing the danger. She pointedly states that curiosity does not just kill cats, it kills kids as well.
The librarian then reveals her true nature, producing a second red bookmark from her fingers. She approaches Rohan with an eerie presence, pressuring him to answer a final question—whether a manga artist can abandon their curiosity to survive. Rohan summons Heaven's Door, causing her body to collapse as her true history is revealed. He is horrified reading everything she devoured for over 400 years. After reading that she wanted to see deep sea creatures, Rohan finds a third red bookmark tucked inside her page, as if it is warning him not to read further. Rohan ignores the warning and continues reading, causing countless completely red bookmarks to spill out from her, flooding the floor. He assumes that is his final warning to not continue reading, but refuses to obey, flipping her pages once more.
Suddenly, the librarian and bookmarks vanish. The library is full of people and staff as if nothing had happened, but Rohan's thumb still has his injury, proving the experience was real. The Incarnation of Curiosity is gone, but the experience leaves Rohan shaken. He wonders if she left after being satisfied that her question was answered, or if she became content learning that her curiosity still had more room to expand. Rohan regrets not being able to learn her true identity, but believes one day he will have to confront her again, when she returns to find out the question of what would cause Rohan to abandon his curiosity if he couldn't even abandon it in the face of death.[1]
Chapters
Novel Appearances- Blood-Stained Bookmark Chapter 1
- Blood-Stained Bookmark Chapter 2
Trivia
- Though not explicitly stated, it is implied that she ate a mermaid or ningyo (human-fish) based on Rohan reading in her book that she became interested in deep sea creatures. There are Japanese folk tales involving a woman who accidentally ate the flesh of a ningyo and was granted eternal life.
