Book Girl and the Famished Spirit

by Mizuki Nomura

  “Any older ladies, then? You must have at least one saintly aunt who teaches piano.”

  Tohko looked up at me desperately.

  “I don’t. Oh—but if you need a reliable, though sinister upperclassman with all kinds of connections who has pull with the police, who paints with one hand and conducts an orchestra with the other, I think I know someone like that.”

  Tohko looked as if she was about to cry.

  So it took us an hour.

  Maki talked to the police and Tohko was released without incident.

  “Konoha was the one who called you, Maki. Got that? It wasn’t me, okay? This was Konoha’s decision without my consent. If you’re going to demand something in return, ask Konoha, not me.”

  Tohko emphasized this again and again to Maki in the car on the way home.

  “Got it. Then maybe I’ll have Konoha strip for me,” Maki offered casually. She’d come in a limousine with a chauffeur.

  “I don’t think so.”

  For crying out loud, wasn’t Tohko the one who had called me, blubbering to please come get her because she’d gotten arrested? Why did I have to get naked?

  But Maki had been the one leading her on in the first place, and if Maki hadn’t forged those notes or sent her black lilies, Tohko would never have gone so overboard.

  Maki was looking at the red flush of humiliation on Tohko’s face with an exultant grin.

  Why was everyone around me so selfish?

  “So? What were you doing with Kotobuki? Why were you wandering around some shady neighborhood where the police would pick you up?”

  “W-well…”

  Tohko seemed to find it difficult to speak, and her voice cracked.

  Maki smugly offered, “Why not come to my workroom? I’d like to hear the truth about this ghost that’s been troubling Tohko, too.”

  “Ohhh, you have Jane Austen!”

  The moment we set foot in the familiar workroom, Tohko walked toward the bookshelves ranged along the walls and let out a deliberate cry of admiration.

  “Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, Mansfield, Somerset Maugham—it’s a smorgasbord of English literature! Spectacular… I recommend this one.”

  She took down Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

  “Austen was an English writer born in 1775. Her style is light and cheerful. It’s like sitting in a Victorian garden under a pure blue sky eating ham or salmon sandwiches and petit fours adorned with nuts or fruit while you gossip with your friends. And she’s the ancestor of all romantic comedies. Elizabeth and Darcy’s love is so thrilling. A simple rundown of the plot would be—”

  Just as Tohko was about to launch into her diatribe, I cut her off coldly.

  “Don’t try to distract us, Tohko. We didn’t come here for a lecture on English literature.”

  “Hmph.”

  Tohko frowned and looked at me sulkily.

  It seemed that she still held a grudge against me for blowing off the ghost investigation and that she didn’t want to tell me quite so easily what she’d gone to such trouble to find out.

  But after Maki coaxed her—“He’s right, Detective. Lay out the results of your investigation for us, and please, don’t rush it”—Tohko got into the mood soon enough. Returning the Austen volume to the shelf, she puffed out her scant chest and said, “Heh-heh… If you’re going to twist my arm, I suppose I have no choice. Konoha, while you were skipping out on the club to go have fun with those girls, I continued my investigation into the recent ghost incidents on the sly and zeroed in on the truth.”

  I had a feeling it hadn’t been very “sly” at all, but…

  In fact, I had a feeling she had come to my class and caused a stir every day, but… In any case, I simply said, “Oh really?” to keep her talking.

  “First I looked up the name Kayano Kujo in the student registers and discovered that she’d been enrolled here as a student seventeen years ago. I delved a little deeper, and it became clear that she had quit school in her second year to get married and soon after had a little girl. The name of the man she married was Amemiya. Do you know what this means, Konoha?”

  “… Hotaru Amemiya is Kayano Kujo’s daughter.”

  I already knew that, so I said it without any real emotion. In contrast, Tohko’s voice grew even more high-pitched.

  “That’s right! Hotaru’s mom died when Hotaru was in elementary school. The ghost is actually Hotaru’s mom. Her mom, Kayano, is possessing her!”

  Wait… Hadn’t Tohko huffed that there was no such thing as ghosts and that this was some kind of conspiracy? Tohko raced on with her story, despite my amazement at the 180-degree flip in her position. Plus, she was suddenly talking about Hotaru as if they were friends.

  “I was convinced that Kayano must have some kind of unfinished business, and I spread the wings of my imagination. So I intensified my investigation. Then, via certain channels, I received a tip that a housekeeper who had worked at the Kujo family home and who had known Kayano since she was little was running a costume pub. So I went to pay her a visit.”

  Certain channels? She was being pretty cocky about this, considering Maki was standing right there. And there was a second housekeeper? Ms. Wada had worked at Amemiya’s house, but apparently there had been someone similar at Kayano’s house, too.

  But all of these questions vanished from my mind when the words costume pub passed Tohko’s lips.

  “A costume pub?! How could you go somewhere like that?”

  I recalled the packet of tissues I’d seen in the club room with the name of a shady-looking business on it… But why would a housekeeper suddenly open up a costume pub? There must have been some serious drama in her life to inspire that!

  “Even I was a little scared. The street it’s on isn’t the sort of place a serious young woman should be walking alone, and since the bar isn’t open during the day, I had to go at night.”

  Tohko looked at me reproachfully.

  I knew she was thinking, If you had been there, you could have gone for me. But I didn’t want to make my costume pub debut at such an impressionable age. I wasn’t interested in that kind of thing anyway.

  “But Nanase said she would come with me.” Tohko’s face glowed. “Nanase is such a wonderful girl. I was at the library, griping about how awful you are, and she nodded with such conviction and told me she understood. Bad-mouthing you really brought us together.”

  How was I the awful one again? Please don’t get carried away bad-mouthing your friend and become kindred spirits with Kotobuki over it. I seriously considered quitting the book club just then.

  Anyway, so Tohko and her new best friend Kotobuki had gone to the costume pub together.

  “Why did you go in your uniforms?”

  Of course they’d attract the detectives’ attention walking around a place like that in school uniforms.

  “Because visiting someone else’s home is a formal occasion, so of course, we wore our uniforms. Everyone does that, Konoha—it even says to in the student handbook.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that…

  “Besides, if we went in our regular clothes, then we’d look like customers, wouldn’t we?”

  “That seems better than being mistaken for someone who works there dressed up as a high school student.”

  “Oh no, how did you know? Some weird old guy wearing cat ears started talking to me. ‘Hey, are you new? What’s your name? You wanna come sit at my table?’ Blech.”

  Maki spluttered with laughter.

  Tohko threw a glare at her; then she turned her face curtly away and resumed her story.

  “Anyway, despite experiencing such ordeals, we were able to hear what the former housekeeper had to say about Kayano.”

  “That’s great. Did you find out what Kayano’s unfinished business was?”

  “Yeah. In childhood, she had promised herself to a boy.”

  My heart skipped.

  The image of Kayano sitting
on a black heat-resistant desk, smiling in the moonlight, floated into my mind.

  … I’ll tell you about him.

  He was closer to me than anyone. He was a part of my soul and my other half.

  Could that boy be…?

  “She said his name was Aoi Kunieda and that he had lived in Kayano’s house ever since they were small. Kayano’s father went abroad for work, and once he brought back a little boy who spoke almost no Japanese. He was an orphan and apparently his father was Japanese, but he had been working in an awful place. Kayano’s father couldn’t stand by while that happened, and so he took custody of the boy and brought him into his family.

  “The name Kunieda was taken from the butler who worked for the family at the time, and the housekeeper said that Kayano named him Aoi after he arrived.

  “Aoi was one year older, and the two of them grew up together as if they truly were brother and sister. They were glued to each other inside the house and out. The housekeeper also told me that they shared a diary, which they wrote in using a number code. When she asked them what the numbers meant, Kayano giggled and told her, ‘It’s our secret.’ ”

  That’s a secret only he and I know.

  I heard an echo of Kayano’s sweet voice from the night in the school yard.

  So the numbers were secret words that Kayano and her childhood friend had used to talk to each other!

  But wait—how had Amemiya known that?

  I couldn’t believe as Tohko did that the spirit of Amemiya’s mother was actually possessing her.

  Even if Amemiya didn’t have access to those memories when she wasn’t Kayano, they were still the same person, so anything Kayano said should have been data stored inside Amemiya.

  In which case, when and where had Amemiya found out about Aoi Kunieda and the number code?

  Maybe she’d heard about it while her mother was still alive?

  “The event that altered their destinies happened when Kayano was in her fifth year of elementary school and Aoi was in his sixth. Kayano’s father passed away after a sudden illness. Since her mother had already passed on, there was no longer anyone in her family to take care of her. Kayano was a minor, and she needed a guardian to manage her fortune. So her father’s cousin came to the estate to be her guardian.”

  I had heard this story before, and my heart filled with foreboding.

  A girl who had lost her parents.

  A man who came to her estate to serve as her guardian.

  It was exactly what had happened to Amemiya.

  What did that mean? Could a mother and daughter so deeply linked share even their destinies?

  According to Tohko, Kayano’s guardian was named Hironobu Goto. He ruled tyrannically over the household and chased Aoi, Kayano’s only ally, into a room in the basement. Apparently, the man tormented him ceaselessly in an attempt to drive him out of the house. Kayano went on a hunger strike to try to stop him.

  “I won’t eat anything unless Aoi makes it. If he’s not here, then I’ll starve to death. You’d get in trouble if that happened, wouldn’t you, Uncle Hironobu?”

  Aoi had already started helping out in the kitchen by that point. Even when her father was still alive, no sooner had Kayano childishly whined “I’m hungry” than Aoi would make her an omelet or pancakes, and she would eat them with a big smile on her face.

  Kayano haughtily informed the adults that she wouldn’t eat any other way, and true to her word, she refused everything but what Aoi brought her.

  No matter how famished she was—even if she collapsed from hunger—she would stubbornly refuse the food that anyone else gave her.

  “I’ll only eat what Aoi makes. Where is he? Go and get him. Have him bring me my food.”

  Tearing at the sheets of her bed, Kayano would call out for Aoi, only half-conscious, and the adults were forced to bend before her. Aoi remained in Kayano’s house as a servant.

  Tohko continued. “The housekeeper said you could see their intimacy grow less sure of itself, and in middle school, Kayano met Takashi Amemiya, who was in college at the time. The story goes that when they were staying at their villa in the country, Kayano got hurt while she was out on a walk, and Takashi saw her when he was driving past and stopped to help.

  “That was how they met, and soon after Takashi started inviting Kayano out on dates.

  “Kayano was still in middle school, so at first they went out together like brother and sister, but as Kayano grew up, Takashi fell in love with her.

  “And Kayano must have found Takashi charming. He was rich and kind and listened to everything she told him and escorted her everywhere. He was like a prince. Aoi, a servant, couldn’t give Kayano dresses or jewels or take her to parties or country estates…

  “Aoi must have felt Kayano growing ever more distant. He must have felt so alone.”

  Tohko lowered her eyes sadly, imagining how Aoi must have felt.

  “Kayano got engaged to Takashi in her second year of high school. The next year she quit school to marry him, took the name Kayano Amemiya, and had Hotaru.”

  It must have tormented Aoi to see Kayano wed to another man.

  “The night before the wedding, he left the house and never came back. Kayano only found out about it after the wedding was over.

  “She became half-crazed and called for a search.

  “But Kayano was laid low by illness without ever finding him. Even the birth was dangerous.”

  He got angry at me and went away. We never saw each other again.

  She had whispered, knitting her eyebrows together sadly. She had cared for him so much, yet she had married someone else. Why? Perhaps her love for Aoi was not romantic, but instead the love of a sister for her brother.

  “In any case, thanks to Takashi’s devoted care, Kayano avoided a miscarriage and gave birth to a lovely baby girl. Takashi named her Hotaru, and in her, a new star shone in his sky.

  “Kayano was strong-minded and occasionally raged, but the two loved each other. Takashi gently embraced his younger, self-absorbed wife.

  “But Kayano never forgot about Aoi after he disappeared. She often returned to her family home and lost herself in thoughts of the past. She may have felt guilty about Aoi because of how happy she had become…”

  Tohko’s words pierced my heart.

  Had Kayano felt the anguish and sorrow of her heart being burned to cold ashes, as I did about Miu whenever I started to feel like my life was calm and peaceful?

  Just before her death, Kayano received a letter informing her that Aoi had died abroad.

  “She had already struggled with her illness, but news of Aoi’s death must have been such a shock that it took away her will to live. Kayano stopped eating anything at all, and before the week was out, she drew her last breath.”

  A somber mood filled the room.

  Tohko and Maki were both gazing at the wall or the floor, their eyes drooping morosely.

  I was struck bodily by the reminder that Kayano no longer belonged in the world of the living.

  When Kayano prayed to go back and fix the past, she must have been thinking of her childhood friend.

  Tohko looked up and her voice was energized again. “And then I figured it out. The ghost was in fact the spirit of Kayano inhabiting her daughter, Hotaru, because she still pined for her lost Aoi.”

  I was floored. Maki had been gazing at the wall in a subdued mood, and she too gaped at Tohko’s buoyancy.

  Tohko balled up a fist and told us, in the full grip of her delusion, “Inside Hotaru’s body, it was Kayano dating all those boys, searching for some vestige of Aoi. And she haunted the school each night, then left love letters for Aoi in the book club’s mailbox. This truly is a grand passion that crosses the boundaries of time.”

  Ummm…

  The story jumped all at once from horror to fantasy, sapping my energy.

  Hotaru Amemiya’s personal history and the troubles she faced were much deeper and more complex than Tohko imagined. But what those
might be… I didn’t know the true reason why Hotaru Amemiya transformed into her mother, either. There wasn’t a good point to interrupt Tohko anyway.

  “So you see, Konoha, in order to appease Kayano’s lost soul, I think you should write a love story starring her and Aoi and give it a happy ending. We can offer it at Kayano’s grave. It’s in your hands, Konoha.”

  “Wait—why am I writing it?!” I howled, but Tohko planted her hands on her hips and glowered at me.

  “It’s your punishment for skipping out on club activities for so long, obviously. I found out all of that stuff, so I think you can stand to help out a little, too.”

  Then her expression suddenly relaxed, and she broke into a sunny smile. Her face looked like a field of wildflowers in spring.

  “Write a suuuper sweet story and send Kayano back to heaven. Then I’ll pretend none of this eeever happened.”

  “I see…”

  Maki exploded with laughter, apparently unable to contain herself any longer.

  “Oh, what’s so funny, Maki?”

  “Heh-heh. Nothing at all. I hope you can help the ghost find peace.”

  Tohko stuck her tongue out at Maki; then she grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the workroom.

  Maki looked deeply satisfied that Tohko had granted her the funny face she’d craved.

  “So, Konoha… when you were skipping out on the club, did you really go on dates with girls?”

  As soon as we were outside the music building, Tohko glanced up at me worriedly.

  “No, I didn’t. I was meeting Ryuto.”

  “Ryuto?!” Tohko jerked her hand away from me and her eyes widened.

  “I ran into him near the school, and I guess that really brought us together…”

  Oh man, harsh.

  Tohko’s mouth opened and then shut, as if something were bothering her more than her mistrust for me.

  “Y-you did? I mean, um… Ryuto didn’t say anything funny to you, I hope!”

  “Like the fact that you eat kids’ books for breakfast and tell everyone how great they are?”

  “Th-that’s fine! No, I meant…”

  I could see how flushed Tohko was even in the moonlight. She muttered, “If he didn’t say anything, then never mind,” and strode off ahead of me.