Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower Read online

  “I’m plannin’ on stayin’ with a nice lady I’m gonna meet later.”

  He left, waving the hand that held his cupcake.

  “Geez, he doesn’t regret any of it!”

  Tohko pouted and banged the tray down on the table.

  I said, “I’ll walk him out,” and chased after Ryuto.

  I called out to Ryuto in front of the gate and he turned around suspiciously. Baron had started barking at him, but Ryuto was distracting him with a cupcake.

  “Huh? Konoha? What’s up?”

  “Why not wait in town till things cool down, then come back? I’ll convince Maki to let you stay.”

  “Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m good at findin’ places to stay and it’s summer so I could just sleep outside anyway.”

  “I want you to stay, though. If Shirayuki appears again, I won’t be able to handle it by myself. And I have no idea what Tohko might go and do.”

  Ryuto’s face broke into a childlike grin. His lips curved up happily, and he looked me up and down.

  “Oh—you’re worryin’ about Tohko?”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “It’ll be okay. Tohko’s great to have during a crisis. I mean, she’s got a lot countin’ against her, but you should follow her lead on stuff like that.”

  “Ryuto, c’mon.”

  “Ahhh, I wish I could meet my one and only, too. I wanna see what it’s like to love one woman so much it drives me crazy.”

  He murmured brightly, then patted Baron on the head with a “See ya” and left.

  I watched his reliable-looking, muscular back grow more and more distant, feeling uneasy.

  Baron nudged at my butt as if to say, “hurry back,” and when I started walking, I saw Maki standing in front of the door, her arms crossed and a hard look on her face.

  “…He left, right?”

  “It’s not like Ryuto’s forgotten Amemiya. If she were still alive, he said she might have been the only one he ever loved.”

  The desolation Ryuto had shown earlier came into Maki’s eyes.

  “…That doesn’t change anything,” she muttered brusquely, then turned her back. She looked powerful and majestic from behind, and I thought she resembled Ryuto in that way, too.

  I sighed and went inside.

  Tohko was waiting in the room. I had to get back.

  As I was starting up the stairs, I heard voices talking.

  It sounded as if things were getting heated.

  Was it in that room in the corner? As I walked in the direction of the voices, I heard snatches of the conversation.

  “What are we gonna do? There’s even a boy who came to get him now. It’s just like eighty years ago.”

  “So if that student kid leaves, we’re all going to be killed?”

  “But we’ve kept the promise!”

  I felt a chill on the back of my neck and goose bumps on my skin.

  Were these the voices of the butler and other servants?

  Had they put Ryuto in the role of the friend who came after Akira and were now worrying that I was going to leave?

  But what did they mean about a promise? Who had they made a promise with?

  My breathing grew strained and my pulse quickened.

  Keeping my footsteps quiet, I moved away from the door and had just started climbing the stairs, still holding my breath, when—

  At a turn in the hall, Uotani stood wispily like a phantom, hugging her woven crimson ball to her chest.

  It was so sudden that I thought my heart was going to stop.

  “U-Uotani, how are you feeling? You still look a little pale.”

  Uotani reached an arm out and took a tight grip on the hem of my shirt, her look languishing, then said, “…Please don’t be alone if you can help it.”

  “Huh?”

  I was just about to ask her what she meant when she released her grip and ran down the stairs.

  What was that about…?

  My limbs grew even colder.

  It really would have been better if Ryuto had stayed.

  When I went back to the room, Tohko was sitting on a chair, her head drooping. I saw how sad her eyes looked and my heart skipped a beat.

  I recalled once again the look I’d seen at dawn.

  While I stood there frozen, my chest squeezing tight, Tohko raised her face and her eyes widened.

  “Oh no, when did you get here? You took your time, didn’t you?”

  Yuri’s diary was open in her lap.

  The thought that she’d been making such a sad face because of the diary gave me a moment of relief, but then it bugged me because I didn’t think she’d had Yuri’s diary open that time at dawn.

  What was it in that diary that made Tohko so melancholy? Obviously it told a heartrending story, but…

  “The tea is totally cold. What were you talking about with Ryuto?”

  Tohko closed the diary. Just before she did it, my eyes caught the red dianthus.

  “That bookmark—”

  “Hmm?”

  Tohko reopened the diary she had just closed.

  The bookmark with the pressed dianthus glued to it was stuck inside.

  “You mean this?”

  “Yes. Has that always been stuck in there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you think Maki put it there?”

  “I don’t think so. It’s not her style.”

  “Then who did?”

  Whatever else it was, I doubted an eighty-year-old pressed flower would have such a vibrant color.

  Which meant that someone had read this diary before Maki got her hands on it.

  I wondered if Tohko had considered that possibility, too. With a mild look on her face, she murmured, “It’s probably…someone who knows Shirayuki very well.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m…not sure yet myself. But I’m imagining something.”

  Tohko pressed her lips together.

  I wasn’t sure whether I should tell Tohko about the conversation I’d just heard between all the servants or about how Uotani had warned me.

  She looked so listless, I didn’t want to worry her.

  “Anyway, Konoha, you haven’t managed to avoid the question.”

  “Huh?”

  “What did you talk about with Ryuto? It wasn’t something lewd that you can’t tell me about, was it?”

  Tohko pouted and glowered up at me through her eyelashes.

  It completely backfired on me. Tohko pried into every little thing, even stuff I didn’t have a clue about, and she got me sweating good.

  When afternoon came around, Tohko went to the book room and walked around it, looking intently at the ceiling and walls and window, apparently thinking about something.

  I left the room partway through Tohko’s inspection to go to the bathroom.

  I finished my business, washed my hands at the sink, and when I opened the door, a piece of white paper that had been folded in half dropped to the floor.

  That wasn’t there when I went in, I thought suspiciously as I picked it up and looked inside. There was something written on it in ballpoint pen.

  Konoha Inoue

  I’ll be waiting at the mountain pond at three.

  I have something important to tell you, so please come in secret, so that no one sees you.

  Sayo

  It was from Uotani!

  My heart constricted with nerves.

  What could it be? If she was calling me out to the pond, was it something she couldn’t talk about in the house?

  But hadn’t Uotani told me I mustn’t go to the pond? Plus, she’d told me not to be alone if I could help it—

  Hmm. Something wasn’t making sense.

  When I looked at my watch, I saw there were only twenty minutes left before three.

  I went to the kitchen, just to see.

  “Excuse me, is Uotani here?”

  The housekeeper told me she’d left a few moments ago to buy groceries.

 
; Had she gone to the pond? So was this note really from Uotani? If so, maybe I ought to go, too.

  There was no time to hesitate, so I left the house and headed toward the pond in resignation. Strangely, Baron didn’t appear, even though he always barked whenever I went outside.

  I walked along a sunlit path, and when I reached the pond, there was no sign of anyone.

  The expanse of the water’s surface was glistening quietly, sucking in the light from the sky, just like when I’d come here before with Tohko. The cool breeze that smelled of greenery rustled the leaves on the trees and the grass at my feet, and small bugs were flying around me.

  Maybe Uotani wasn’t here yet…

  And just then—

  A hand reached out behind me and pressed something cold against my face.

  There was some kind of drug soaked into it!

  A sour smell assaulted my nostrils and my spine trembled, sensing physical danger.

  I tried to turn around but was restrained by sturdy arms and couldn’t budge. The body against my back was large and hard. Just as I was conjecturing that it was an adult man, I lost consciousness.

  Chapter 6—A Crimson World

  I wonder what Shirayuki was.

  That’s what I thought about in the pitch-blackness.

  My image of Shirayuki was a woman with long white hair, standing in the center of a pond illuminated by cold moonlight on a silent night.

  “Cast a bell for the temple, set it at the foot of the mountain, and toll this bell thrice daily, startle me, and so force me to recall our promise.”

  A commanding voice spilling from sensual red lips.

  It resembled Maki’s voice. My voice and Tohko’s as we read Demon Pond aloud played over that and made the voice multilayered.

  The darkness of the night shivered with cold.

  “…My sex dreams of liberty. It desires free will. It yearns to be selfish.”

  “If you were, you would forget the promise and attempt to fill the seven highways of the Northwest with the waters of your little pond.”

  Sealed within the bell, which her gaze never left, the desire for revenge, felt by a creature whose freedom had been stolen, burned in a pale fire like demon’s breath.

  “In the name of my freedom, the lives of the human cattle of the world count as nothing. But I will not shirk the promise, I will not break the vow. I will not allow them to forget our vow, however. Neglect not to ring the temple bell that you may attempt to remind me of it.”

  “Ring the bell, ring the bell forever,” Shirayuki repeated. That was proof of the vow. Don’t forget. Ring the bell. Ring the bell. Ring the bell.

  When I woke up, I felt a stabbing pain at my temples.

  Where was I?!

  I leaped to my feet in a panic.

  A wooden ceiling, mat flooring, sliding paper doors—a clean, elegant room in a traditional inn? I had been put to bed in a futon on the floor made up with white sheets that smelled of sunlight.

  “So you’re awake.”

  The door opened and a tall adult man wearing a suit entered. It was Takamizawa from Maki’s house. He’d brought me to the villa. What was he doing here?!

  Perhaps the effects of the drug I’d inhaled before passing out were still lingering, because my thoughts refused to come together. I felt as if I were still dreaming. The sound of trees rustling rang in my ears.

  “I apologize for using such aggressive methods. Everything will be over quite soon.”

  His gentle tone didn’t suit this bizarre situation at all. My heart thrummed even harder and I grew disoriented.

  “What’s going to be over? What’s going to happen to me?”

  Outside, I heard rain.

  Takamizawa smiled placidly to calm me down.

  “I will send you to your home in Tokyo, perhaps as early as tomorrow, so there’s no need to be concerned. I will guarantee the safety of Tohko Amano as well, of course. Actually, I meant to go up to the house to get you, but…the plan changed slightly and I suppose I caught you off guard. I’m truly sorry for that.”

  “Did Maki order you to kidnap me? What is she trying to do?”

  Though I glared at him, the smile stayed on Takamizawa’s face.

  “I can’t answer that,” he replied in a kind, placid voice, though there was force to it.

  Several minute tremors ran down my spine and an uncomfortable sweat covered my palms. Beyond the white paper walls, the rain picked out a subdued melody.

  “Excuse me. A guest has arrived.”

  “A guest?”

  Takamizawa’s face looked just a touch suspicious at the message a waitress brought him. He gave me another calm look and said, “I’ll bring your dinner later,” then closed the sliding door and left with the waitress.

  I was left by myself.

  What should I do?

  I knew I wasn’t in any physical danger. If I just waited here obediently, I would be taken home safe and sound.

  Wasn’t that best?

  I didn’t need to get involved in this ridiculous situation any further. I wasn’t suited for suspense or for adventure.

  And he’d even told me he would guarantee Tohko’s safety.

  Ah, but Tohko would go out and stick her nose into danger. If she were to run wild the way she always did and something were to happen—

  There was a flash of heat in my brain and a sharp pain coursed through it, as if I had been pierced.

  I just couldn’t do it!

  I had to get back to the mansion!

  I got out of the bed and opened the door. Takamizawa wasn’t in the next room. I didn’t see my shoes so I gave up and went out into the hall in my slippers.

  A waitress walked up to me and my heart somersaulted.

  “Is something the matter?”

  “Uh, umm…where are your baths?”

  “Oh, you mean the hot springs? They’re…”

  The waitress showed me the way.

  Outside, a fine rain was falling. At the entrance to the covered walkway, I told her, “I can find it from here,” and she left me on my own.

  When I was sure that I could no longer see her, I went down the walkway in my slippers, then lost myself among the trees and murkiness in the garden before I ran off.

  Luckily for me, the town was a narrow strip, so when I reached a major road, I could pretty much guess how to get back to the mansion.

  The road was dark, but it was still only drizzling so I thought I could work with this.

  I hurried forward in my slippers, although they made it harder to walk.

  As it turned out, things started to get bad after I left the town for the mountain itself. The fact that there were no lights to illuminate my path utterly crushed me for some reason. I had been raised in the city, where having light even at night was taken for granted.

  The absolute blackness that fell overhead obliterated my vision in the darkness and the outlines of objects were indistinct—even with my arms stretched out I was engulfed in the eerie blackness. The total darkness reminded me of primeval nights, thriving even now in the mountain.

  It was inky black whichever way I turned. The rain-slicked faces of the leaves would glint every now and then, but other than that I couldn’t see anything. It was as though I was groping my way forward with my eyes closed.

  I would get smacked suddenly on the cheek by a tree branch, or ivy would dangle in front of my face and I would think it was a snake and jump back, or my foot would catch on a root poking out of the ground—the fundamental fear of the unseen made me choke and threatened to crush my chest.

  Unfortunately for me, the rain intensified, the ground turned to mud, and my vision blurred. Even my sense of hearing was frustrated by the sound of the pounding rain. My soaked body grew colder and colder, and though it was summer, I was shuddering with cold as if I had gone out into the middle of winter in only a T-shirt. My fingers and toes were even getting numb.

  My throat tightened, my breathing intensified, and I tho
ught my heart would tear in half.

  The cold rain stabbed at my skin. From time to time, the water that had collected on the leaves cascaded down like waterfalls.

  I had gotten small cuts on my arms and face, the only spots where warmth gathered. The bottoms of my slippers got soaked by the rain and started slipping off. There were plenty of times I thought I would fall over.

  Light flashed over my head and a rumble rolled across the sky.

  Lightning!

  Terror coursed down my spine.

  I’d be in danger if I was under a tree. Plus I’d heard that being wet made it easier for lightning to strike you. But with the rain falling on the mountain at night, where could I go?

  There was nowhere to run—

  Lightning cracked explosively and I flinched. I’d left my despair behind for surging anger.

  What in the world was I doing? I didn’t know the way back. This was an utter disaster. I was out of my mind. Crazy!

  Wouldn’t it be best to stay put until it got lighter at dawn? I was tired. I didn’t want to walk anymore.

  Even so, when I recalled the sad look that I had seen Tohko wearing that day at dawn, my feet moved forward of their own accord.

  Tohko didn’t know that I’d gone out. She’d suddenly lost track of me, so I knew she would be worried. She could be making that heart-wrenching face again. She could be sad somewhere.

  She could be terrified, frightened by a ghost. Because even though she put on a brave face and acted tough, she was actually so unbearably scared of ghosts that she forced her way into my room and snuggled into my bed every night.

  She’d been the same during the Amemiya thing, too. She would declare that there’s no such thing as ghosts, but when we were shut into that basement room together, she’d crouched on the floor and buried her face in her knees and said, “I’m afraid of ghosts,” and wept like a child.

  I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you, Tohko. I mean, you fly off the handle so quickly and do crazy things, so…I was worried.