The Book of Heroes (26 page)

“Okay, I’m sorry,” U-ri said, more serious this time.

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s get going,” Aju grumbled, burying himself in the fold of U-ri’s vestments.

As luck would have it, Yuriko was already familiar with the local police station. It was right next to a yummy Italian restaurant her family frequented. The walls of the station were a faintly sooty gray, with old-fashioned-looking frames around old-fashioned-looking windows.

U-ri signed in at the reception desk on the first floor, and after announcing the reason for her visit, was made to wait for about fifteen minutes. Finally, a female officer in uniform arrived and leaned out over the reception counter. “Ms. Ito?”

The officer was about as old as U-ri’s mother. She had big cheeks and a soft smile.

“Hello, I’m Kashimura. I’ve been in charge of the Morisaki family’s affairs since last month. I hear you’ve come to do some research? I’m sorry, but the Morisaki family is refusing all interview requests.”

Maybe they hadn’t gotten the message she left when she called.

“Actually,” U-ri explained, “I didn’t want to speak to the Morisakis. I was more interested in hearing how the investigation is coming along.”

Officer Kashimura blinked her round eyes beneath long brows. “I’m afraid that we’re not releasing any updates to the press concerning the investigation at this time, as there’s nothing new to report.”

“Might I speak with a detective in charge of the case?”

“No, they’re all out on duty right now. We’re still searching for the boy, Hiroki.”

So it wasn’t an investigation. It was a search.

“Do you have any leads—”

“As I said, we don’t have any new information.”

Officer Kashimura reminded her again that she wasn’t to bother the Morisaki family, and then she left.

“She was pretty cold,” Aju complained when she had left. “Did you recognize her, U-ri?”

“I didn’t, no. Maybe my double knows her.”

Though it wasn’t very helpful to her now, at least it sounded like they were properly concerned about her family’s privacy. It sounded like her double and her parents were living in relative peace, at least.

Maybe it was a little optimistic of me to think that I would learn anything by going to the police. Maybe it was a little optimistic to think that being a reporter or writer would make this any easier
. She wondered what the real Shinako Ito would do in this situation.

“So what next? Go invis and sneak in? Maybe we can find something out about the case.”

It sounded like a good idea at first, but the reality of it was that U-ri had no idea where in the sizable police station something like case records might be located.

Next to her, Sky was looking around uneasily.

Some help he turned out to be.
“I guess we’ll have to think of another approach,” U-ri said.

Sky blinked.

“What is it?” U-ri asked, looking into his eyes. For the first time, she noticed that his eyes weren’t black like she had thought, but a very dark purple. Dark enough to be easily mistaken for black. It was only when light shone on his face just so that she could tell the difference.

He looked bewildered. “I’m sorry. My mind was elsewhere.”

“First time seeing a police officer?”

“No—the clothing and uniforms do not surprise me. They’re all part of the stories within this Circle, and as such, are familiar to me. It’s just…so quiet,” Sky added in a whisper.

U-ri looked around the station. There were people here and there, and the constant hum of conversations and ringing phones. It wasn’t exactly quiet, but it didn’t seem particularly busy, either.

“It is like there is nothing wrong,” he said.

“Well, things are different here than in the nameless land,” Aju said. “Most people in this region don’t know about the King in Yellow, after all.”

This was true enough, but U-ri didn’t think that was what Sky had meant—because she too had noticed something missing.

They’ve all forgotten about Hiroki. It’s just business as usual here. Time rolls on whether they find him or not.

“Why would it be any different?” U-ri whispered, when she felt a strange wrenching sensation in her heart. U-ri clapped one hand to her chest.

What was that?
It felt like her heart had skipped a beat entirely.

“Is something wrong, Lady U-ri?”

She was about to tell him what happened when her heart skipped a beat again. She caught her breath.
That’s strange.

Walking quickly, U-ri left the police station. The automatic doors slid open noisily. She looked out on the street. A man in a suit was walking away from her on the other side of the road—some office worker on his way back from lunch, she thought. No one else was nearby at all. U-ri uttered the magic word and disappeared.

“Wait, U-ri! What are you doing?”

Maybe the transformation is putting some strain on me. Maybe it’s the magic making my heart skip.
But even now that she was no longer Shinako Ito, her heartbeat was still ragged. It was getting harder to breathe. U-ri fell to her knees. She had to stick her hands out onto the ground in front of her to keep from sprawling.

“Lady U-ri!” Sky reached down and slid an arm around her waist for support. Aju scampered up to her shoulder.

Something was ringing in her head. She could hear her own pulse throbbing in her ears—and something else.
Screaming. So many voices, screaming. Screaming at me. That’s why my heart’s skipping like this.

The school.

Suddenly, it was as if a light had gone on in her head.
The school. Hiroki’s school. I have to go. They’re calling me. They’re calling—

The school library. The books there are calling to me. “Allcaste! Allcaste! Allcaste! Come quickly!”

“Aju, take us to Hiroki’s school, now!”

“What? Why now? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know why! Just hurry, or we won’t make it in time!”

“Make haste, Master Aju!” Sky shouted. “Do as the Lady U-ri says!”

Aju hurriedly began reciting the spell.

They cut across the sky, and U-ri found herself at Kibogaoka Middle School, standing in the school courtyard.

A line of students in gym clothes jogged past them, close enough to brush the hem of her vestments.

U-ri’s pulse still beat ragged and quick. Her head jerked upward, looking for the source of the noise—the screaming books.
There, that window. On the third floor.
The window glimmered in the sunlight.
The library!

“Run!”

U-ri took off. Sky followed close after her. Their robes fluttered in the wind. Aju clung to U-ri’s hair for dear life.

She ran inside and up the stairs, taking three steps at a time. The closer she got to the library, the louder the screams rang in her ears, and the clearer they became. She could make out the words now.
“Allcaste, help! Save her!”

U-ri bounded into the library. No one was sitting at the librarian’s desk on the right. She looked around. The library was an almost perfectly square room filled with rows of shelves. There was no study space with chairs. Just a stepladder here and there for reaching the higher shelves.

The library was empty. It was still the middle of the day, so all the students would be in their classrooms. It was bright in there.

The room was at the corner of the building, so two whole walls were filled with large windows through which the sunlight streamed, making the dust in the air sparkle where the rays hit.

The books were screaming.
“Allcaste, allcaste! You must help her!”

A light breeze brushed the side of U-ri’s face.
There’s a window open somewhere!

She heard a clunk. U-ri whipped around in the direction of the sound. She was looking at a window, mostly hidden by a large row of shelves. The window was half open. A stepladder was positioned beneath it, and a girl in her student uniform was climbing up, over the sill.

U-ri dashed for the window. Sky ran with her. He grabbed the girl by the shoulders. U-ri grabbed her around the waist.

“What are you doing? Stop!” U-ri shouted as loud as she could and pulled back. The girl came tumbling down from the window. The three of them landed on the floor, limbs tangled.

U-ri hit the ground hard. Her head smacked against the floor making sparks fly in her eyes.
Huh?
she thought dizzily.
I guess the vestments of protection don’t protect against this sort of thing.

“Ouch!” U-ri rolled to one side, clutching her head in her hands.

“Lady U-ri!” Sky shouted from beside her. His thin frame was pinned under the girl.

Then the girl pulled herself up to one side, hands on the floor. Her eyes looked like they might pop out of her head. Her face was pale, her lips blue.

“Wh-who’s there?” she stammered. At the sound of her voice, the books fell silent. “Who is it? I know you’re there.”

Did she hear me?
The girl stuck her hand out, groping through the air. Her fingers came within a few inches of touching U-ri.

Sky sat up and helped U-ri to her feet. The girl was kneeling now, waving her arms around her. “Who’s there? Someone grabbed me. Who is it?”

Of course—she can’t see us. She can’t even touch us. What do we do?

U-ri grabbed Sky’s arm. Sky was staring at the girl. She was short and thin. Her close-cropped hair stuck up in places, like she’d just gotten out of bed. She was wearing a typical white school blouse over the kind of pleated skirt that (her brother often said) had “never been fashionable.”

In other words, she was a typical middle school student—with one exception. She had a large scar over her right eye. It zigzagged like a centipede across half her forehead. The swelling was so bad that her right eye could only open halfway.

The girl looked frightened.
She’s scared
. But when she spoke there was the unmistakable sound of hope in her voice.

“Morisaki,” she said. “Is that you?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Knight and the Princess

The girl stood up and began to shuffle forward,
her arms out in front and waving. Her left eye was opened wide and shining with excitement. “Is that you, Morisaki? Did you come back?”

U-ri wasn’t the only one taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. Sky, still holding her, was stiff as a board, his shoulders rigid with tension. Confusion filled his dark purple eyes.

“You okay, Sky?”

She had to whisper to him several times before Sky blinked and finally looked at her, his mouth hanging half open.

“Lady U-ri. Are you injured?”

“No, not at all.”

They stood. Waving her arms in front of her, the girl walked up to a shelf against the wall, then turned and called out to the empty library. “If you are here, Morisaki, you better answer me. I-I’ve been so worried!” she cried, clearly holding back tears.

She’s calling for my brother!

“I can’t do this by myself. I can’t make it. I’m so lonely.”

There was something in the way she spoke—maybe it was her complete lack of restraint or the tone of utter familiarity—that made U-ri realize this girl was in love with Hiroki. She extended her hands and searched through the empty air, fingertips trembling. A girl reaching out for her…
for her boyfriend.

“Do you think she can see properly with that eye?” Sky wondered aloud, his voice uneven. He seemed to be in shock.

“I don’t think so—” U-ri started to say when the girl stopped. Her eyes opened wide.

“Hey!”

Aju was sitting curled up into a ball on the carpeted floor a few feet in front of where the girl stood. He must have been thrown from U-ri when she fell and missed his chance to duck back under the vestments of protection. The tiny field mouse’s entire body was quivering as if to say,
Now I’ve done it!

Luckily, the girl didn’t seem to be afraid of mice. She stood there for a moment, one eyebrow raised, and examined him from a distance. Then she knelt down and reached out a hand as though she were going to pick Aju up.

U-ri made a split-second decision. She threw off the hood of the vestments of protection and raised her voice. “I’m sorry if I’ve startled you.”

The girl whirled around with the agility of a young deer. U-ri spread her robes apart, allowing the girl to see as much of her as possible. She shook out her hair that had been matted down by the hood and faced the girl. “It was I who stopped you from jumping out that window just now.”

For the first time, a look of fear came over the girl’s face. She stepped back without looking and hit her head with a loud
crack
on the shelf behind her.

Aju quickly scampered across the carpet, jumped onto U-ri’s proffered arm and then climbed up to sit on her shoulder. The girl followed his movement with her good eye. She was hugging herself with both arms and trembling.

“Please don’t be frightened. I do not intend to harm you,” U-ri said, trying to make her voice sound as authoritative as possible. She had decided that this would get through to the girl better than gentleness or empathy. She was right.

The girl took a deep breath. “Who are you?”

U-ri raised her chin, straightened her back, and stared directly at the girl before replying. “I am a book-spirit,” she said, consciously trying to mimic how the Sage talked.

Sky stared at U-ri dumbfounded, while Aju clung to U-ri’s ear lobe with both paws.

“I am a book-spirit that resides in this library. You might call me an avatar of the books here.” U-ri took a slow step forward. The girl was still glued to the shelf behind her. “I have appeared in this form because I learned you thought to throw away your life, and I would not have you do that.”

U-ri brought her feet together and bowed—this time imitating the devout in the nameless land. “The white mouse on my shoulder is my familiar. But do not worry, I’m not a witch,” U-ri explained, surprised at how confident she sounded. “He is merely a magical being that does my bidding. It is one of the powers we book-spirits possess.”

The girl’s shoulders slumped, and she sat down, her back still against the shelves. Her skirt lifted, revealing two round kneecaps. U-ri walked over to her and extended a hand.

“Please stand.” Her eyes went to two chairs stacked at the end of the shelf behind her. “We can sit over there and rest a moment.” U-ri tried smiling at the girl.

The girl reached out without hesitation and took her hand.
Now I’ve got her,
U-ri thought.

Even though it was a warm early summer day, the girl’s hand was ice cold. U-ri took her by the arm and led her slowly to the chairs like a medic leading an injured person. She put one of the chairs on the floor and motioned for the girl to sit. The other she placed a short distance away and sat down herself.

Sky quietly walked over to stand behind U-ri’s chair.

“How do you feel? I hope I did not frighten you too much.”

The girl put a hand over her heart, as though checking her pulse. “No…I’m fine. I think I’m fine.”

“That is good.”

“Thank you.”

Now that they were sitting closer, U-ri noticed the girl’s fine features. Though the scar above her eyes looked painful, it did little to diminish her beauty. It was strange—like looking at the vandalized statue of an angel.

“You should not do such things,” U-ri began. She was so flushed with the success of her newfound persona that she thought this might be a good time to offer some advice. “Your life is precious. There is only one of you in this world. And your life is not yours alone.”

The girl looked up. “How can you say that? My life is my own, just mine. Nobody cares if I die.”

The color drained from U-ri’s cheeks. “What?” she said without thinking, all pretense of authority lost. “B-but what about your parents?”

“Mom and Dad don’t care what happens to me. My dad wouldn’t even come to the funeral.”

Apparently, all was not well at the girl’s home. U-ri hurriedly straightened her back again and thought as hard as she could.
Okay, what do I say now?
Hiroki!
She had been calling for him, like a girl calling for her boyfriend—searching for him.

“Hiroki Morisaki would be sad.”

The words had a bigger effect than U-ri could have imagined. The girl clutched at the neck of her blouse and slumped over in her chair. Her thin shoulders began to shake again.

“And we book-spirits would be greatly saddened were you to throw away your life,” U-ri quickly added. “You loved us well, and because of that we love you.” She was grasping for some kind of hold on the girl—any hold. If she wouldn’t come to her, U-ri might as well go out and get her. “You came here to visit us often.”

The girl nodded.
Score!
U-ri thought. For a second, she considered whether to add “with Hiroki Morisaki” when the girl saved her the trouble.

“Morisaki and I came here a lot to talk about books and stuff. We were both on the library committee.”

U-ri smiled broadly. “Yes, I know.”

Aju squeaked lightly in her ear.
I know, don’t get carried away.

It turned out to be a well-timed squeak. The girl smiled faintly, looking at the mouse. “He’s cute. Does he have a name?”

“His name is Aju. He may appear to be a little mouse, but in fact he’s quite ancient.”

“No I’m not, U-ri!” Aju objected in his regular voice. He looked at the girl. “I’m a book-spirit too, actually. And, yeah, while we might live a lot longer than humans, I’m not old as my kind go. I’m just a youngling.”

The girl’s good eye went wide—even her right eye twitched under the scar.

So much for being the wise book-spirits.

“Couldn’t keep it to yourself, could you, Aju?”

“Hey, I can’t be a mouse all the time. Howdy, little miss,” he said to the girl with a wave of his tail and a twitch of his light pink nose. “What’s your name?”

No, wait,
U-ri realized,
on second thought he
is
playing along. Good for you, Aju!

“Michiru Inui,” she said immediately.

“You a classmate of Hiroki’s?”

The girl began to nod happily, and then gasped. “Mr.…Aju? Do you know Morisaki?”

“Yeah. And believe me, I’m just as worried about him as you are. Not just me. U-ri here is too. All the book-spirits are. Oh,” Aju added, “and you don’t have to call me ‘Mister.’ Just Aju is fine.”

“And my name is U-ri,” U-ri bowed again lightly. “That is, it is like my name—but to explain it would take too long. Think of it as a nickname.”

Michiru frowned. U-ri looked at her, worried she’d said something wrong.

“I…never had a nickname,” the girl said, pressing fingers to her mouth. “Everyone just calls me Inui. No one even calls me by my first name.”

“Michiru. It is a pretty name,” U-ri offered.

U-ri understood how lonely it must feel for a young girl not to have a nickname. It also helped explain why Michiru was often in the library alone like this while the other students were in class.

And why she had tried to commit suicide.

U-ri decided to ask, all the same. “Don’t you have class now? Won’t you get in trouble if someone finds you here in the library?”

“No—I snuck in. I’m…still not coming to school. But you knew that, didn’t you?”

U-ri met the girl’s gaze and nodded slowly.

“I’ve been out since Morisaki disappeared,” Michiru explained, chewing at her lip. “But I still want to come to the library sometimes—I have to come sometimes—so I sneak in. The teachers don’t mind. They know I’m here.”

“They know?”

“Yes. They said I could come just to use the library even if I don’t go to class. Of course,” she added, “I can’t stay for very long each time. I don’t want to be here during break and have any of the students see me.”

A look of fear quickly crossed the girl’s delicate features.
She didn’t want anyone to see her. She didn’t want to see anyone.

“Don’t worry about that,” U-ri said. “If anyone should come, I will hide you until they leave.”

U-ri had barely finished talking when the bell rang to mark the end of the period. Michiru began to shake visibly.

“How long is the break?”

“F-five minutes.”

Moments later, they heard the sound of students dashing out of their classrooms. Doors opened and closed, and laughter echoed down the halls. There was the sound of running feet.

U-ri quickly stood, walked over to Michiru, and wrapped the vestments of protection around them both. She lifted her index finger to her mouth. “You’ll be safe here. Just close your eyes.”

Michiru’s entire body was tense and she was sweating.
She’s breathing so fast. She must be really scared. Scared of her classmates, of everything outside these library walls.

U-ri glanced at Sky, who still stood rigidly behind the empty chair. His eyes were fixed on Michiru, as if he were seeing something for the first time in his life and couldn’t look away.

The bells rang again, and silence returned to the school. As luck would have it, no one had wanted to use the library during the short recess.

“There, now we can relax a bit,” U-ri said, letting the vestments fall away from her again as she returned to her chair.

“You’re shorter than I would have imagined,” Michiru said. “You look like you’re in grade school. Or…maybe you just made yourself look like that so you wouldn’t frighten me?”

For a moment, part of U-ri wanted to tell her the truth—
I really am a grade school student. I’m Hiroki’s little sister. Aju used to call me “little miss” too.
But the thought was gone as quickly as it had come.

“I like this form,” she replied quietly. “And I fit well with Aju like this.”

“That’s true. Like a little girl with her pet mouse,” Michiru said, smiling more broadly than she had before.

“You know,” Michiru said, “Morisaki had a younger sister in grade school. He talked about her all the time. Yuriko was her name. ‘My little Yuri,’ he always called her. Yuri…kind of like your name.”

U-ri gritted her teeth.
I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.

“I can’t imagine how Yuriko feels,” Michiru went on. “Losing a brother like that.”

Then Michiru began to talk more rapidly. It seemed her smile a moment before had upset some delicate balance inside her, and now the floodgates were open and everything came spilling out. “I have to go apologize. It was my fault Morisaki did what he did. It’s all my fault. I wanted to go apologize to her. But I couldn’t, I couldn’t…”

The sudden outpouring of emotion took U-ri by surprise, and she looked around for something to cling to so she wouldn’t faint. She could feel the color draining from her face.

Then Aju batted at her ear with one paw. His long tail snaked down off her shoulder and tickled her neck. Behind her, Sky grabbed her shoulders, propping her up so she wouldn’t sway.

U-ri looked up at Sky. He was still entranced by Michiru. She could see the girl’s white school-uniform blouse reflected in his dark eyes.

Aju stuck his nose into U-ri’s ear and whispered, “Stay with us, kid.” It tickled so much, U-ri almost laughed despite the seriousness of the situation.

Across from her, Michiru’s face twisted and she began to cry. She held her head in her hands and doubled over so fast she almost fell out of her chair. U-ri stood up, sweeping the vestments behind her, and knelt by her side.

“You bear a great burden. Is this why you wanted to end your life?”

Michiru nodded her head up and down, trembling uncontrollably. U-ri gently rubbed her back. Curiously, it felt like she was comforting herself at the same time. “Your burden is heavy,” she repeated. “It must be very hard for you.”

Michiru was sobbing out loud now. The tears she had kept dammed up inside came out in a great torrent. U-ri stood off to one side, watching it flow by.

“You have to put your burden down, Michiru. Talk to me. Tell me what it is you’re suffering, why Morisaki did what he did. I—” U-ri shook her head. “Gah! Enough with the stuffy talk. Look, Michiru, I’m a book-spirit. I know a lot of things, but it’s hard for me to see what’s going on outside—in your world. I can’t just walk off by myself and talk to people and look into things.”