Book Girl and the Famished Spirit (4 page)

Hmmmmm.

“Why do you look so suspicious? Is there something wrong with me looking up to her?”

“Ha-ha-ha… I guess not.”

Sometimes it was better not knowing the truth. Tohko was lucky that anyone looked up to her, so why destroy Kotobuki’s image of her?

My fake smile seemed to rub Kotobuki the wrong way, and she snorted and looked away.

“
Anyway,
I just wanted to know why Amano would come to school with
you
.”

“We ran into each other on the way, so we came in together.”

It wasn’t actually that accidental, but I didn’t want to bother explaining all the details. I played it off nonchalantly instead.

Kotobuki threw me a glance.

“Hmph. Okay then.”

Then she turned her back on me and went back to her seat.

Maybe Kotobuki had such a huge grudge against me because she was jealous that I was always with Tohko?

I was in the middle of a lunch my mother had packed for me when Tohko dropped by.

“Hey! Konoha!”

Her clear voice rang out from the door at the back of the room, and she waved me over with a grin.

“What’s going on?”

Kotobuki was sitting with a group of friends. She had just taken a bite of her melon bread, but she froze and glowered at me, pinching her lips. I could feel her gaze stabbing into my back as I went out into the hallway. Tohko’s eyes were gleaming, and she grabbed my hand exuberantly.

“I found the girl from last night, Konoha.”

“You what?”

“I knew she wasn’t a ghost! Come on!”

Tohko dragged me with her down the hall.

“You mean, that Kayano Kujo girl? And could you please let go of my hand? It’s embarrassing.”

“Fine, fine.” Tohko snickered and released me. “But yes, I saw her coming out of the bathroom during a break, and I followed her.”

“You sound like a deviant.”

We stopped at a second-year classroom. Seijoh Academy was a big school, so even though the girl and I both were second-years, the room was pretty far away from mine.

“That’s her.”

I peeked in through the door at the back of the room with Tohko. The room was alive with activity during the lunch break, but a girl with midlength hair sat in the middle of it all alone.

The other girls had moved their desks together with their friends’ and were talking animatedly over their lunches. She was the only one who didn’t have a lunch on her desk, and she wasn’t even reading or studying. She sat with her head bent slightly down, not moving a muscle, not even blinking, like an object made of ashen glass. What I could see of her face and her morbidly thin limbs was identical to the girl we had seen in the school yard last night.

“Am I right?”

“But she seems totally different. Didn’t she seem more imposing yesterday?”

“She could be sleepy because she was out so late.”

“You think so?”

As we whispered back and forth, the girl silently stood up.

No one took any notice. She set off with a vacant expression and went through the door at the front of the classroom.

“Do you think she noticed us?”

“It didn’t look like it.”

“Let’s follow her.”

“What? Hey, Tohko—”

I can’t believe this
… I followed Tohko helplessly.

The girl moved down the hallway with unsteady steps and then descended the stairs. Her legs peeked out beneath her skirt like dainty stalks supporting a white flower. They looked like they would snap under the slightest pressure.

“Where do you think she’s going?”

“Maybe she’s going to go buy some food?”

“Then she’s going the wrong way.”

About halfway down the stairs, Tohko called out, “Can we talk to you?”

As the girl was descending the final step, her body pitched forward, and she crumpled to the ground.

The two of us ran down the stairs and bent over her.

The girl was curled up limply, her eyes closed. Up close her skin was so pale it seemed transparent, and her collarbone was visible at the neck of her uniform.

“Wake up! What’s wrong?”

Tohko shouted at her, but the girl didn’t open her eyes. She was like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“Konoha, you take that side. We’re taking her to the nurse’s office. Slowly now.”

“Got it.”

Supporting the girl on either side, we stood her up. When I picked up her arm, I was astounded by how frail and unresponsive it was. She was as light as Styrofoam.

When I had helped carry Tohko home the night before, I’d been glad that she was such a wisp, but this girl was way past slender or even delicate. I couldn’t feel any weight to her body, and it made me wonder if there was anything inside her at all.

When we reached the nurse’s office on the first floor, the nurse shouted, “Not again! I’ve told her again and again that she needs to eat right, but she’s still going on with her insane diet.”

We laid our cargo on a bed as the woman muttered.

The girl’s eyes fluttered open and the nurse lectured her furiously.

“Amemiya, this is the fourth time you’ve been brought to me because of your anemia. Didn’t I tell you to eat properly and
follow the menu I gave you? But your arms are thinner than ever! You weigh much less than you ought to. There is no need whatsoever for you to lose even one more ounce with this diet. You don’t have to do it all at once, but you must make an effort to eat.”

The girl—Amemiya—sat up silently in the bed, her eyes downcast.

“Did you hear me, Amemiya?”

“Yes… I’m sorry,” she whispered, her thin body drawing in on itself, feebly defenseless. It reminded me of a tiny, meek animal.

“I’ll give you some vitamins. I want you to take them with you.”

When the nurse went into the next room, Amemiya got out of bed and slipped her tiny, babylike feet into her white sandals.

She looked over at us and silently dipped her head.

“Thank you for bringing me here. I’m sorry to trouble you.”

She seemed on the verge of fading from reality. She was a completely different girl from the night before. I was bewildered. Tohko seemed troubled as well.

“Um, Amemiya? My name is Tohko Amano. I’m a third-year. This is Konoha Inoue, and he’s a second-year student. I think we met you last night in the school yard.”

Amemiya responded to the inquiry with a blank look. “No.”

“Well, we talked to a girl who looks exactly like you yesterday. Her name was Kayano Kujo.”

Amemiya flinched.

“You recognize that name, don’t you?”

Tohko leaned forward.

Amemiya’s face lost all of its color and her lips trembled. She didn’t try to speak.

The nurse came back with the pills.

“All right, now you must take these. And eat your meals, too.”

Amemiya accepted the pills with a small, bony hand and started to leave the room.

“Wait! Are you really not the girl we met?”

The girl’s thin shoulders were trembling again. Without looking up, Amemiya murmured, “I think… you must have met my ghost.”

Tohko’s breath caught. I felt as if in that moment the air had frozen solid.

I’m already dead, after all.

Kayano’s words echoed through my mind once more.

Did that mean that Amemiya and Kayano were the same person and that Kayano was a ghost who possessed her? The word
ghost
was on the notes she’d left for us, too. That and
hate you
and
it hurts
…

Had the ghost possessing Amemiya written those mysterious numbers, too?

Amemiya told us nothing more. She bit her lip painfully and bowed her head; then she left the nurse’s office.

He swung a pickax down on the grave where she rested.

A pale flash of lightning illuminated his wet form in the darkness, and rain pelted against his skin like shrapnel. His hair tossed about in the gusting wind, and with bloodshot eyes he cried out.

“Kayano! Kayano! Come back to me!

“I would reverse the flow of time if it meant I could see you once more! I would bring the dead back to life!”

The graveyard was an endless forest of crosses planted over the dead, but there was only one soul he sought.

Sweat and rain dripped from his hair and over his brow, and his eyes grew ravenous. As he continued to dig into her grave, he was a man possessed.

Yes. It was not over. She had betrayed him, had crushed their beautiful dollhouse underfoot, had trod it into dust. She had cruelly ridiculed his hopes. She had never paid for it. Half of his soul had been torn out and shredded. She would never understand the true depths of his despair and hatred.

I will never forgive you for leaving me behind.
Until his revenge was complete, she would have no peace.

“Wake up, Kayano!

“The other half of your soul calls to you from atop your grave!

“Open your casket and crawl out of the dark, damp earth!

“You will atone for it! With your body, your voice, your hair, your lips, your entire existence!”

“Hmm. Hotaru Amemiya, eh?”

Classes were over for the day. Maki had come to the school yard to see how Tohko was feeling (or rather, to tease her about seeing ghosts), and after Tohko had told her the entire story of the night before, her lips curled into an unexpected smile of pleasure.

“My, my, this is certainly getting eerie, Tohko.”

“What does that mean?”

Tohko looked up at Maki, clearly wishing she would leave. Tohko was carrying on the stakeout undaunted, and I was with her, a physics book open in my lap. But all I could think was,
The exams are next week
…

“Do you know her, Maki?”

“She was a year below me in middle school. We were in the art club together. She’s very reserved, so I barely ever talked to her. There’s a rumor about Hotaru Amemiya, though.”

“More rumors?” Tohko glowered.

“You haven’t heard? Anyone who gets close to her is cursed.”

“C-cursed—?” Tohko’s voice was choked, and even I looked up without meaning to.

Maki gazed sadistically at the tense rictus of Tohko’s face and then continued. “That’s right. Hotaru Amemiya tends to find herself at the center of supernatural events. Horrible things happen to the people who get involved with her, things that put their lives in danger. You two should be careful. Although maybe you’ve already been cursed?”

Tohko shook her head firmly and stood up.

“Are you serious? Maybe you could scare an elementary school kid with ghosts and curses and all this unscientific nonsense. Obviously Amemiya knows something about Kayano Kujo. When I asked her about it in the nurse’s office, she told me it was her ghost, but if I let that scare me and gave up, I would lose the respect of the book club’s alumni. Yeah! So what if she’s cursed? I’m a book girl, and I’ve read the legendary folklorist Kunio Yanagita’s
Legends of Tono
cover to cover!”

“How valiant,” Maki joked, applauding.

I had reached the conclusion that I couldn’t be involved in this anymore, so I closed my book and stood up.

“Ready, Konoha? We’re going to keep watch tonight and catch Kayano Kujo and expose this conspiracy… Hey, where are you going? Konoha?”

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

“With your bag?”

“I want to make sure my eyebrows are on straight and fix my blush.”

As I walked away, Tohko shouted after me, “No way! You don’t wear makeup, do you? Hey, what are you laughing at, Maki? N-no! He’s not abandoning me. Right, Konoha? You’re coming back, right? Promise! Hey, are you listening? Konoha! Konohaaa!”

Of course, I didn’t have the slightest intention of going back.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t wonder about the link between Kayano Kujo and Hotaru Amemiya. The events of the night before had carved an unforgettable impression into my heart, and Amemiya’s words were deep with meaning. I had as much curiosity as anyone else.

But I wasn’t about to get wrapped up in this hassle more than I already had been. Most important of all, the midterms were coming up fast. Club activities should have been suspended before the exams. Tohko would probably give up and go home soon enough.