“It’s very important, so tell them exactly that without any mistakes.”
The lines Takamizawa had made me say. Could that have been—?
“What’s wrong, Konoha? You’re making a weird face.”
I revealed to Tohko what had happened when I’d come to the house and had actually tried saying the words.
“…I’m Konoha Inoue from Tokyo. I’m a second-year at Seijoh Academy…I heard there’s something I’m looking for here. Is the master of the house available?”
Tohko’s eyes went round.
“Those are the exact same words Akira said when he came here! They were written in the diary.
“Yuri was hiding in the shadow of a tree, listening to the exchange between Akira and the butler! And then she said, ‘I’m the master,’ and stepped out.”
I felt as if a cold hand had taken hold of my heart.
So there had been a deeper meaning to those words after all!
Tohko was completely wound up and walked briskly around, clutching the copy of Demon Pond.
“Argh, I wonder what this means. I mean, making you give your pedigree and the name of your school even.
“A student comes from Tokyo to stay at the mansion where a young Himekura lady is in residence looking for something important—it’s exactly like eighty years ago!
“And that’s not all!”
She came to an abrupt stop and brought her face within inches of mine, her jaw clenched in an intense expression.
“The name of the dog.”
“The dog? You mean Chiro?”
“No, not Chiro. Baron. They kept a black shepherd dog at the villa as a guard dog back then. Its name was Baron. There’s an entry where Baron bites Chiro and Yuri tends to her. That’s the same name as the dog they’re keeping here now! Do you think that’s a coincidence?”
“No.”
I answered instantly. The guard dog they’d kept eighty years ago was also named Baron—and it was a black shepherd. It couldn’t be chance.
“No, Maki has intentionally crafted a situation identical to eighty years ago. She made you say the same thing Akira said and named the dog Baron, and—!”
I got goose bumps and felt the core of my brain grow hotter. I recalled the people looking out at me with blanched faces from doors and the shadows of hallways.
Of course, they would be afraid! Because the same thing as eighty years ago was happening in a mansion that was rumored to be cursed.
“But in that case, wouldn’t Maki have to fall in love with me at first sight? Plus, that would mean you were Shirayuki and have to be a ghoul, you know.”
I got whapped on the head instantly.
“I am not a ghoul!”
“But if the young lady and student are Maki and I, the ghoul is the only one left.”
This time she flicked my forehead hard with one finger.
Tohko looked livid. Her face was bright red and she was trembling.
“This isn’t a joke!!!”
Uh-oh—she was in kind of a dangerous mood.
“So then, are you saying that I, the pure and lovely book girl, will slaughter everyone and turn the mansion into a sea of blood?”
“No, I…”
I cringed and backed up. Hugging Demon Pond to her chest in one arm, Tohko clenched the other fist tightly and waved it around.
“As if I could be a ghoul! I don’t eat people, I don’t show up dripping with blood and holding on to a dead arm I found in a pond, and I don’t relentlessly haunt or curse people for nearly eighty years! Is that how you see me, Konoha? You’re saying that the maidenly black hair that symbolizes the book girl looks white to you, aren’t you?”
“Whoa, whoa, I’m not the one who made you be the ghoul. That was Maki!”
She’d been batting at me, thwapping at my head, but then she froze.
“You’re right, everything is that black-hearted woman’s fault. Argggggggggh, I will neeeeeeever forgive her! I’ll expose Maki’s plot and get the dirt on her! And then I’m gonna clear all my debts and I’ll order her around! This is a battle that will decide the future of the book club!”
Argh, the same old rampage had begun. I didn’t even want to get involved in any more weird stuff.
As I sank into a funk, the book girl grabbed my collar and crisply said, “Top priority investigation! Come with me, Konoha!”
The middle-aged man at the souvenir shop remembered us.
“Well, now, it’s the little goblin girl and the student.”
He greeted us out of nowhere with a joking smile.
“The fact that there’s a young lady and a student staying at the Himekura estate is making the rounds, y’know. It seems there’s another girl, the friend of the young lady, and people’re talking about who it might be, and there’s a big hubbub to put the cherry on top and say it’s the ghoul,” he explained with a laugh.
Naturally Tohko got quite annoyed.
“That’s so mean! I’m not a ghoul! I’m an ordinary high school girl, a book girl, exactly as I seem to be.”
I wish you wouldn’t force it, especially in a place like this, I thought. Beside her, my cheeks turned pink.
The man quickly apologized and invited us to have some tea with the sweet mugwort dumplings he was selling, wrapped up in bamboo leaves.
Tohko wouldn’t know whether it was any good…but employing her imaginative powers, she gave her impressions convincingly and became friendly again.
“Ooh, yummy. It tastes like a haiku by Kobayashi Issa! The aroma of the bamboo is so airily refined, and the sweet bean filling is gentle and not too sugary.”
The man presented us with several of the stories about Shirayuki that were told in the village.
“Well, I think the idea of ghouls in this day and age is laughable, too. But there are actually quite a few people who’ve seen Shirayuki. Have you heard the story of how she appeared from the pond where the young lady drowned herself, covered in blood and holding an arm between her teeth? There are also stories about a woman with white hair dressed in a kimono standing on the bank of the pond or of seeing a woman with white hair disappear at the estate. At night, there’ll be a tapping at the windows of those involved in the construction, and when they look over, a woman whose face is hidden behind white hair is peeking in through the curtains…she whispers, ‘Akira, Akira,’ bitterly…”
Tohko had grabbed my sleeve, probably out of fright.
“They say that even at the main house of the Himekuras, there was bad luck after the young lady died. There’s that little shrine at the estate as you know. The young lady is apparently laid to rest beneath it, but the reason they did that instead of interring her in a graveyard was because they wanted to contain the curse, they say.”
So Uotani had been praying at Yuri’s grave.
“The topic of development has come up several times, starting fifty years ago, and each time Shirayuki appears and there’s a big flap over it. Especially with that fire fifty years ago.”
The guy shuddered.
“The flames broke out at the mansion suddenly, and the master was dangerously close to death. He happened to be in residence at exactly that time. They never learned the cause of the fire, and everyone thought it must be Shirayuki’s curse.”
I remembered the mansion’s facade being somehow out of balance. That must have been due to repairs done on portions damaged after the fire. Fifty years before would mean the master who’d been close to death would have been Maki’s grandfather or great-grandfather.
“After all, it’s been nearly eighty years since that first incident, and we’re not so afraid as all that of the curse. But the descendants of the people killed in the mansion; now…it must’ve been very tough for them.”
The man frowned and lowered his voice slightly.
“The village is so small. After the incident, they were said to be connected to that evil house, and they became the target of gossip everywhere they went. It probably caused them some unpleas
ant feelings. Maybe because of that there’s still a gulf between them and the other residents. I wouldn’t say they’re ostracized, but they’re in a tricky position.”
But the families of those who died should have been considered victims… I felt bad for them. But maybe it was because the area was so closed off from the world that Shirayuki stayed alive.
“Could we talk to those descendants?” Tohko asked.
Then the man said something surprising.
“That’s the bunch working at the mansion where you all are staying, Miss. The butler, the gardener, the housekeeper, the cook, and the maid—exactly like it was eighty years ago.”
Tohko’s eyes widened and she gulped. I thought my heart might stop.
It hadn’t been only the young lady, the student, the ghoul, and the dog that Maki deployed! How could even the servants be the same as eighty years ago?! And they were the descendants of the victims?!
It was as if an icicle had been pressed to my neck. My skin prickled.
What on earth was Maki trying to do?!
Her face tense, Tohko asked, “There’s a little girl named Sayo at the estate. Is she a descendant, too?”
“Yes, she is. Her grandmother Hiroko worked at the Himekura estate. She’s been teased at school for being possessed by the goblin, and she basically never attends. Her mother had her at a rather late age and died when Sayo was a baby. Sayo was raised by her grandmother Hiroko after that, but then Hiroko passed away too, and she grew more withdrawn than ever. She pretty much stopped talking to anybody…”
Tohko returned hastily, “Hold on, if Sayo’s grandmother worked at the mansion, then shouldn’t she have died eighty years ago?”
Of course! Weren’t all of the servants supposed to have been killed?!
“I heard there were six deaths, including the young lady’s.”
“Lessee, there’s the young lady, the butler, the gardener, the housekeeper, the cook—” The man counted off on his fingers and then smiled. “Ah, the last one was the dog. They say there was foam coming out of his mouth.”
The dog? Then the maid—
“The night of the incident, Hiroko had gone back to her family. And when she returned the next day, it was a sea of blood.”
“So Sayo’s grandmother was the first on the scene?”
“Yup. She was still eight or thereabouts, so it must have been a shock to her.”
The shop owner shook his head, looking pained.
I pictured a hellish scene spreading before the eyes of an eight-year-old girl, and I felt another chill.
Dark red bloodstains spattered on the floor and walls.
A rancid smell. Five dead bodies slashed, shot, and stabbed.
How had the little girl felt looking at it? The impact of it could have easily destroyed her mind. Tohko was pale, too.
“But the worst was the man who tossed the young lady aside and left. If it hadn’t been for him, the young lady probably wouldn’t have died. Saying she was convalescing or that she was an oracle, that was just to keep up appearances; but actually she’d pretty much been expelled from her family, so they ought to’ve gotten married.”
“What do you mean she was expelled?” I asked, and the man looked away as if he’d said something he shouldn’t have.
“Oh, you know… I just thought there must have been a good reason she couldn’t be at home, for a young girl in that time to live in a mansion deep in the mountains, away from her family.”
While we were talking, Tohko put her index finger to her lips and sank into thought.
When we left the shop, Tohko grabbed the hem of my shirt again.
“Hey, Konoha, let’s go to the pond.”
She looked straight up at me with brooding eyes.
I remembered Uotani telling me the pond was dangerous, and a warning bell went off inside my head.
But considering I’d already come this far, there was no way I wasn’t going to go. Plus, Tohko would probably just go by herself.
I nodded and said okay in resignation.
The pond was located close to the mansion.
In the choking fragrance of dirt and greenery, we pushed ahead through the undergrowth, when suddenly the view opened up.
Hedged in by the knobby trees and overhanging ivy, the water lay deep and tranquil.
It was bigger than I’d thought, more like a lake than a pond. The far bank was a low precipice, but on this side the water’s edge was like a beach with soft grass growing on it.
I stood beside Tohko and gazed at the water’s surface.
“So this is the home of a ghoul.”
“Don’t say that.”
“So this is where Yuri drowned herself.”
“Th-that either…don’t remind me of that stuff, if you don’t mind.”
“Why not?”
Tohko’s cheeks flushed, she turned her eyes downward, and she fidgeted.
“Well, I mean…you know how they say that if you talk about the dead, they’ll come back as a ghost. Oh, of course, I don’t believe in such superstitions.”
Her eyes were swimming with the proof that she believed it completely, and she looked as if she was on the verge of crying just a little bit. Would this still turn into an investigation with her like this?
And well, I did wish Tohko would settle down, but…
Washed in the sunlight pouring down around us, the pond sparkled brilliantly.
A bird was singing cutely in the branches of a tree near us. Insects were hopping around in the grass. The air was cool and clear, and the scene was so tranquil it was impossible to believe there could be a ghoul living here.
Did Shirayuki really exist?
A woman with long white hair, drenched in blood—what was she and where did she come from? Was it true that even now she roamed the village calling Akira’s name?
In her diary, Yuri had sounded afraid of Shirayuki.
“Tohko, would you tell me more from the diary? What happened to the two of them after Akira came?”
With her eyes still trained on the pond, Tohko whispered quietly, as if relating a tale from the distant past.
“Yuri tells him that the book is very important to her and that it has her father’s message in it, so she’s sorry, but she can’t give it to him. Akira starts staying at the mansion as a guest so that he can persuade her.”
“And then?”
“They spend a fairy-tale time together. No, it was a fairy tale…Like how Akira Hagiwara tells his friend in Demon Pond…”
With that, she recited the lines from Demon Pond.
“‘Just by coming here, you’ve probably become a character in the story, too. I’m beyond that. I’ve become the story itself’—like that.”
Melancholy and tenderness filled her eyes like light, and her warm voice spoke the words Yuri had written in the diary.
As if Yuri herself were speaking. Gently, softly, her voice slight.
“I’ve come to care for someone for the first time.
“No, that word doesn’t express it. This has got to be love.
“I love Akira.
“Oh, I never would have believed something like this would happen to me.
“Now I’m living in the world of the stories I’ve only read about and dreamed of before.”
“Akira has just lost his mother, and he was very empty and sad and hurt. Something bad happened at his university, too, and he could no longer believe people, and he wanted to simply cast everything aside. He revealed that to me, looking morose.
“Poor Akira.
“I wish I could hug you in my arms like your mother did.”
“Akira is dearer to me than anything.
“I love his silky hair falling across his forehead.
“I love his deep voice reading Goethe and Schiller in the original.
“I love the mournful fold of his eye.
“I love his slender eyebrows.
“I love his thin lips.
“More than all of it, I lov
e his face when it breaks into an innocent, childlike grin.
“Away! Away! Oh, how wonderful it would be if I could go with you.”
“When I’m thinking or embarrassed beyond belief, I touch my earlobes.
“‘Is that a habit of yours?’
“Akira pointed it out gently with a profound look, as if it was more adorable than he could bear; then he touched my ear, and my cheeks started burning.”
“I wish this fairy tale could go on forever.
“I will keep my promise.
“So I pray that I might be with Akira for the rest of my life.”
Yuri’s words and feelings were brought quietly back to life through Tohko’s voice.
Tohko closed her eyes and smiled.
Their love had been so innocent.
Had been so happy.
Like out of a story—what could only happen in a dream—that kind of beautiful, kind, tender love.
The breeze rustled Tohko’s long braids and the skirt of her white dress. The pure light spilling through the gaps in the trees poured over Tohko’s willowy body.
She looked as if Yuri’s soul had inhabited her body, and my heartbeat quickened. I had a strange feeling that I had become Akira and was looking at Yuri, who had taken on Tohko’s shape.
My chest hurt.
Yuri was my love.
Tohko continued to relate Yuri’s emotions.
Her expression grew sadder and sadder, her face fell, and her eyes, which she had kept shut as if in a dream, softly opened.
“I went to the pond with Akira.
“It was the first time I had ever gone out at night. I’ve always gone to the pond in the afternoon before. I mean, at night Shirayuki might appear.
“Akira told me, ‘I’m here, so there’s nothing at all to be afraid of,’ and he held my hand the entire time.
“It occurred to me that Shirayuki might be secretly watching me as my face turned red on the bank of the pond in the moonlight; my heart almost stopped and I started to feel afraid, but I couldn’t release his hand. In fact, I squeezed his fingers tighter, and it made him ask, ‘Is something the matter?’
Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower Page 6
