Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel (12 page)

These words that sounded so innocent cut into Raoul’s—into my—heart.

Perhaps the love, the hope, the dreams, everything that I had once believed in had been nothing more than illusions.

I wonder if Kotobuki was at this moment still worrying about her best friend, if she was praying that Mito would come home safe and they’d be able to go back to their quiet lives, exactly as they had been before.

The air prickled at my skin. Tohko would look over at me in concern every now and again.

As we were parting ways, Tohko suddenly said, “Hey, Konoha. Did you finish reading
Phantom of the Opera
?”

“Nope.”

My listless answer got me this from Tohko: “Oh…you should try reading it to the end. The story overlaps with Mito’s so it might be tough to read, but…even so, I think the truth of the story is at the end.”

She spoke quietly, then watched me with a slightly worried look again.

I hated myself for making her look like that, and deep in my chest I felt a fiery pain, as if it was being scraped.

“Tohko…”

“Hmm?”

“Please…study hard.”

I acted tough, pretending not to be hurt, and Tohko gave me a faint smile.

“I will.”

With a cowardly look, I watched Tohko, her loose hair swaying evanescently, as she disappeared into her neighborhood.

Left on my own, I continued walking, so tired that it felt as if I’d aged considerably. I closed down my heart and tried not to think about anything.

How much time passed while I did that?
I wondered.

Suddenly my cell phone vibrated in my coat pocket.

When I pulled it out and checked, it was an unknown number.

I recalled the message I’d been sent before and my body tensed a little. I pressed the talk button and put it to my ear.

“Inoue?”

A girl’s voice I didn’t recognize spoke my name.

A majestic, pretty voice that carried well.

Who was this? It seemed that she knew me.

“Nice to meet you, I suppose. I’m Yuka Mito.”

A cold gust of wind blew into my face.

It was Yuka Mito!

My heart was raging almost painfully, and my brain was burning. I told myself I had to calm down and tightened my grip on the phone with my sweating hand. Earnestly I asked, “You’re Kotobuki’s friend, Mito?”

“That’s right.”

“How do you know about me?”

“I know lots about you, Inoue. Nanase is always talking about you. Nothing but you for a long, long time on the phone or in e-mails.”

She didn’t seem to be mocking me; her tone was more placid and kind. In the same instant that the sound of her voice pierced my heart, I felt confused.

“What about my phone number? How’d you get that?”

“That’s a secret. But once I decide to get ahold of something, most things wind up mine. Besides people’s hearts, of course.”

“That’s creepy.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mito apologized offhandedly. She was so calm; she didn’t seem like someone who was missing. Tsutsumi’s voice, declaring
“Yuka is a demon,”
echoed in my ears.

“Are you the one who sent me that text before, too? The one that said, ‘He’s Lucifer’?”

“That’s right.”

“Why would you do something like that? Who is it?”

“He’s right beside you two. The fallen angel who was cast into Hell for the sin of pride and who became Satan. You shouldn’t get close to him.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying, don’t do anything stupid.”

Her voice turned suddenly frigid.

“You saw Tsutsumi today, right? That’s a problem.”

My skin prickled with terror. She knew that we’d met Tsutsumi in that hotel? Had she been watching? Where from? Or had Tsutsumi told her?

I listened as hard as I could and tried to discern the sounds of where she was.

The sound of a car’s engine.

The faint honking of a horn.

The melody of “Jingle Bells” playing…

“Don’t interfere with me. And don’t get Nanase involved, either.”

“If you came back, Kotobuki and I wouldn’t be looking for you. Where are you?!”

“I’m inside a Christmas tree. That’s my home.”

“Jingle Bells” shifted into the refrain. The voices sang brightly, joyfully of Christmas cheer.

“…I saw your profile on that website.”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Even the part where you said Miu Inoue was your favorite author?”

“That’s the truth.”

“Kotobuki didn’t tell me you were a fan of Miu Inoue.”

“That’s because Nanase seems to hate her for some reason. I love her. Miu Inoue…I’ve read her so many times I practically memorized it…But that doesn’t matter anymore,” Mito said coolly.

“Kotobuki’s worried about you. She’s waiting for you to come home. You made a promise to her, didn’t you? You said that you’d keep Christmas open for her.”

Her pretty voice, as clear as water, was tinged with a trace of sadness.

“Yes. I did make a promise…to Nanase…and to my boyfriend. That I would spend Christmas Eve with him and Christmas with her.”

“Then it’s not just Kotobuki who’s waiting for you. He must be, too.”

“No!”

Her voice grew the harshest it had been so far and became emotional. The sound of a car passing drowned out the Christmas songs.

“Christine is with the angel. She can’t see Raoul ever again. She’s already taken her ring off.”

Without understanding what those words meant, I shouted at her, only wanting to bring her back.

“Your angel’s true identity is the Phantom, though! You can’t stay with a guy like that!”

What I heard next was a frigid voice, like ice stabbing into my chest.

“You’re the same as Raoul. You fear what you don’t understand and try to shut it away. What on earth can that idiot Raoul do? Christine passed away listening to a hymn.”

“I haven’t understood a single thing you’ve said.”

“There’s nothing left to talk about. Just don’t get Nanase involved. She’s the only thing you need to keep your eyes on, Inoue.”

“Wait! Don’t hang up!”

There was a click, and my voice broke off. The warmth drained out of my body rapidly, and shaking with the cold that crawled up my legs, I played Mito’s words over again in my head.

“Christine passed away listening to a hymn.”

Was Mito Christine? What did it mean that she’d passed away listening to a hymn?!

This is a catastrophe! Raoul wasn’t in time.

The angel cut my hand off! I was obstinate and wouldn’t let go of the ring. I clung to it, so the angel flew into a rage like a pitch-black flame, and he sawed my left hand off, then carved off each of my fingers.

Warm blood dripped down my wrist like water, dyeing the earth, and a rank, awful smell filled the area. Then the angel picked up the blood-spattered ring and with his cold tongue licked off the blood that clung to it.

That was a ritual to link the angel and I deeply together.

I can never go back, neither to Nanase nor to my boyfriend. Dragged into the shadows of this night, imprisoned, I’ve become a phantom who cannot be allowed to bare her face and walk in the sunlight.

The angel destroyed me! He seduced me with a pure voice, spoke kind words, and stroked my hair to lower my guard, to make me trust him, to trick me! He sullied my body, my voice, my heart; remade me as a terrifying monster; turned me into his companion!

The angel was a disfigured phantom wearing a mask!

Why did I do such a thing as believe a terrifying abomination with that sullied name? Why did I open my heart to him, going to see him each night, mingling our voices beneath the moon and singing?

That was a cowardly trap!

The Phantom cut my wrist and stole the precious ring that was the proof of my love for my boyfriend. And he separated me from my normal life.

If I hadn’t met the Phantom, I might have been able to go back to the warm, gentle place where Nanase and my boyfriend were.

I might have been able to start over as a normal girl there.

What I got in exchange for my false prosperity was only a fearful destruction, a cold mask, and a pitch-dark castle like a mausoleum that the Phantom made.

Christine passed away!

Christine passed away!

Christine passed away!

The final hymn melted away like dew into the shadows. In my despair, I heard the sound of my heart come to a stop.

There is nothing left here now but the Phantom who crawls pathetically through the grass and who, with glinting eyes, grants revenge against the people of the daylight world.

How sad would Nanase be if she found out about this? How much would it hurt her? When I look at my phone, I’ve got a message from Nanase and a voice mail. She’s probably waiting for a reply and worrying.

I have to send Nanase a message. She’s the only one I want to protect. I need Nanase to be smiling.

But what’s this?! Christine’s skeleton is in the depths of the earth, and I’ve been transformed into a corrupted phantom—

At the start of the week, during a break on Monday, I went to the teacher’s office and found out that Mr. Mariya had quit the school. I was left gaping.

“No way! But the second term’s not over yet! How come?!”

The teacher who told me about it frowned and answered, “I heard that there was some tragedy in his family, but I don’t really know,” and he reminded me not to tell the other students yet.

A leaden anxiety sank into the depths of my heart.

While thinking over what Mito had said to me on the phone that weekend, I recalled the musician who had slashed his wrists while listening to hymns, which Mr. Mariya had told me about.

I was starting to wonder if there was a connection to Mito saying that Christine had passed away listening to a hymn and had intended to ask Mr. Mariya for more details, but now he had left the school!

Unable to accept this news, I went to Maki’s class during lunch. But Maki hadn’t been there all that morning, either.

What now…?

At a loss, I walked toward the music room. Because that was just about the only place I could think of that had a connection to Mr. Mariya.

Mr. Mariya had disappeared, too, not just Mito. The last time we’d talked, Mr. Mariya had raised his paper cup of cold chai in one hand and said with a faint smile.

“You know, Inoue, success is a fleeting thing for an artist. Personally, I choose to have this cup of chai instead.”

I couldn’t believe Mr. Mariya, who had loved the peace of everyday life more than anything, would throw it all away so easily. Not Mr. Mariya who had told me that he was here now so that he could like himself…

In the short time Kotobuki, Mr. Mariya, and I had spent together, he had given me important advice.

And when I’d told him I was going to help her, he had smiled and said, “I’ll be here.” But now he’d suddenly disappeared without a word to us. It was a huge shock. I felt as if a giant chasm was yawning open in my chest.