Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower

by Mizuki Nomura

  “I don’t get it. Why would drawing a picture mean she would stay?”

  “Not drawing a picture, drawing a picture of her smiling among books.

  “I felt like that was Yuri’s declaration that she would watch him go and go on living in that room with a smile.

  “Like maybe that was the promise Yuri had made to herself…”

  Her warm voice flowed into the quiet night.

  Her black eyes were fixed on the distant moon.

  “I think Yuri knew quite well that the Himekuras wouldn’t stay quiet if she left the estate and that it would cause problems for Akira. It was so unbearably sad to separate herself from Akira that Yuri’s heart nearly ripped in two.

  “But she wanted to protect him. She truly was happy that Akira proposed to her and that was a life’s worth of happiness.

  “That’s why she was going to watch Akira leave on his distant journey.

  “To go on from that point smiling and thinking of Akira. That’s…how I pictured it…”

  As she whispered, Tohko’s lips curved in a gentle smile.

  “Something wonderful happened. I won’t ever grieve again. I’m the happiest person in the world.”

  “I made a promise with Akira.

  “An important promise.

  “I nodded, ‘all right.’”

  “When I asked if I could grow lemon trees and myrtle, he laughed at me. Akira’s dear laugh that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”

  After that, I retreated to my room and painted a picture with watercolors.

  “A solid wall of books. Right in the middle of it, there’s me, smiling happily, radiant, more contented than anyone.”

  “I made a promise to myself, too.

  “This one is different from the others. It’s a promise that will never be broken.

  “Since I was able to meet Akira, I know that I’ll be smiling for the rest of my life.”

  Yuri’s words resurfaced in my mind in Tohko’s voice.

  I remembered Tohko with her sad eyes looking down at the diary at dawn, and my chest tightened.

  The image of Yuri smiling in the center of the book room overlapped with the way Tohko was smiling chastely, looking up at the moon that floated in the sky.

  The image of Tohko overlapped with Yuri, who had chosen to live her life alone for Akira’s sake.

  Yuri was smiling.

  Tohko was smiling.

  I didn’t know what it was about Yuri’s life that Tohko had found so sympathetic that she’d made such a sad face. Only that washed in the wan moonlight, Tohko was incredibly pretty, and—

  The smile resting on her white face was so kind it made my heart tremble, and she was like a resident of a fantasy world, and—

  It seemed that if I reached out my hand, it would pass through her slender body, and—

  A trembling sort of anxiety was welling up in me, and I stood frozen when—

  Tohko abruptly looked at me, winked cutely, and took my hand.

  Like a mother holding a small child’s hand.

  She squeezed it naturally.

  As if to tell me, “See? I’m here. It’s all right. I’ll be at your side whenever you need me.”

  At the moist warmth I felt on my palm, a black, heavy mist that hung in my heart lifted and I was filled with ease.

  Our hands still joined, Tohko began to walk.

  Slowly, slowly, the braided book girl walked down the moonlit road.

  “I’m sure Yuri was glad she could meet him. There were a lot of painful, sad events, but I’m sure of that.”

  “I’m glad I was able to meet him.”

  I’m glad I was able to share this dream with you.

  Even if it was a dream as ephemeral as a flower reflected in a mirror, as the moon floating in the water.

  Even though I know the time will come to wake eventually.

  I’m glad.

  I’m glad I was able to meet you.

  I was happy.

  Yuri’s feelings channeled through Tohko’s words tinged my heart.

  The southern land Yuri reached after she lost Akira was definitely not a land of joyful dreams. The war was starting, and there were probably many difficult, painful things that happened there.

  Even so, just by remembering those beautiful days, she could smile.

  I suppose there can be encounters like that.

  Though I still didn’t really understand.

  Even if they parted ways, even if they couldn’t see each other. As if it had all transformed into a gentle story of but one line.

  Surely the flower and the moon would rest forever in her heart.

  “We got scared a little, too, but it was a good summer vacation,” Tohko said.

  “Maki said the same thing. You two are on the same wavelength.”

  “What?! We are not. Forget I said that.”

  Tohko pouted intensely.

  After complaining for quite a while, her eyes turned suddenly gentle and she murmured, “But…I won’t forget it,” and smiled. “After all, you were here with me, Konoha.”

  Her words, her look, both made my chest squeeze tight.

  “I won’t forget it, either. You getting me here with a telegram, getting kicked in the head all those times, being forced to buy you presents for your birthday that was almost six months ago, lending you money to buy souvenirs…”

  “I’ll pay you back,” Tohko whined again.

  We walked in that mood toward the pond.

  When I’d been in peril yesterday, it had been pitch-dark, but tonight the moonlight streamed between the trees and created a fantastical atmosphere.

  “We might run into Yuri and Akira’s ghosts here.”

  “Geez, Konoha, I can’t believe you’re trying to scare me. I’m not going to fall for it.”

  Tohko giggled.

  “Ah, on a perfect moonlit night like this, Yuri and Akira’s souls might want to come down to earth and go on a date!” she said excitedly, swinging our clasped hands slightly.

  Soon the pond opened up beyond the trees.

  The surface of the water drank in the moonlight and glittered silver. It was as if there were a moon on the surface of the earth, too.

  Tohko was probably so moved she couldn’t put it into words. She opened her mouth slightly beside me.

  Just then—

  Splash!

  The sound of water clapped against our ears.

  That was too big to be a fish…The thought was just crossing my mind when waves rippled on the water’s surface and a silver spray rose into the air. Through the sparkling drops, I could see a coupled shadow embracing.

  A girl with long, wet hair had her arms around a man’s neck, and the man was pulling the woman’s body against his. They were entangled, kissing.

  Neither of them were wearing clothes!

  It was just the briefest moment that I was able to make out that bizarre scene.

  That was because a cloud obscured the moon and in a moment the two were hidden behind a veil of darkness.

  “Eeeeeeeeeeeee! It’s theeeeeeeeem!!”

  Tohko shouted and jerked her hand out of mine and ran from the scene.

  “It’s a ghost, a ghost, I saw Yuri and Akira’s ghosts! Noooo! If you’re gonna possess someone, take Konoha, not meeee!”

  After Tohko abandoned me and fled, she went back to the house, buried her head under the blankets, and spent the whole night shuddering.

  “Now what? I saw a ghost. No, no, no, what if they come here?”

  When the sky began to lighten finally after all this, she said, “Get up, Konoha, get uuuup.”

  She shook me the way she had the day before.

  “Hurry up and pack. I can’t stay in a place like this another night. Let’s go home.”

  “What? Right now?! I mean, dressed like that?”

  Tohko was dressed in her school uniform.

  “This is how I was dressed when I was brought here. Hurry, Konoha. The ghosts might cooooooome.
”

  Tohko hurried me along, half sobbing, and I was stuffing my things into my bag when Maki came in.

  She looked as if she’d had a morning bath with a towel wound around her hair and wearing a robe. She had alluring red marks around her collarbone and chest—maybe they were bug bites?—and I didn’t know where to look.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?”

  “We’re going home now, good-bye.”

  At that, Maki grinned.

  “My, my, you’re that scared? Did you see a ghost, perchance?”

  Tohko jumped in shock.

  “N-n-n-n-no, I didn’t. There’s no such thing as ghosts. I just remembered there’s an alumni meeting for the book club today! Everything ready, Konoha? Okay, let’s go.”

  “Are you taking the train back? I’ll have someone drive you.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “Do you have money?”

  “Ryuto brought me some.”

  “Ah. I’ll see you next semester, then.”

  Maki watched us go with a crafty smile, her arms still crossed.

  “Tohko, if you have money, then could you give me back what I loaned you at the souvenir shop?”

  “After we get back to safety.”

  As we started out the front door, Tohko hurrying me along, a voice called out behind us.

  “Hey, Tohko, Konoha, ya leavin’ already? And what’s with the uniform, Tohko?”

  Ryuto appeared wearing jeans and a raggedy tank top, his hair wet.

  “Ryuto? Did you stay the night here? Didn’t you go into town?”

  “Y’know, there was all this stuff goin’ on.”

  An ambiguous smile came over Ryuto’s face.

  “I’m going home a little early, but you’re coming back, too, before the second semester starts. Not dillydallying with girls.”

  “You’re the one who called me out here and everythin’.”

  I deeeeefinitely understood the feeling behind his wry smile.

  Taking him aside, I complained, “Ryuto, you knew what would happen to Tohko if I wrote those words.”

  A playful glint came into his eyes.

  “So ya tried it? It was worth me teachin’ ya. She’s had a weakness for lush, kinda old-fashioned words since forever. When she ate Bed of Dead Leaves or whatever by Mori Mari, she danced around all happily and sang ‘The Raccoons of Shojoji Temple.’ So I didn’t lie to ya.”

  She definitely had danced around singing the drumbeats from that song, but…

  “Ryuto! What are you saying to Konoha?!”

  Tohko must have sensed that it wasn’t anything good and raised her voice.

  Ryuto shrugged, a mischievous look on his face.

  “Well, look after Tohko for me, will ya, Konoha?”

  With that he gave my back a push toward Tohko, then waved and watched us go.

  Geez, why can’t you take her home? You live in the same house.

  As Ryuto grinned, I noticed that he had the same bug bites on his neck as Maki, but—

  “Konoha, come on! The train’s gonna leave…”

  Tohko called to me, and I ran off.

  “Okay, okay, I’m coming.”

  In the immaculate morning light, the book girl was waiting for me, pouting, her hands on her hips.

  Summer vacation was over and we went back to our lukewarm, placid, cozy everyday lives.

  In later years, Maki bore a child and even got married.

  Her fiancé was not someone her grandfather chose, but rather someone that we all knew and thought, No way!

  But Maki chose him as her partner of her own free will.

  I will rest my hand from my work and look back upon that summer.

  To the fact that she was always there, in the cool billows of the breeze, in the brilliant light, on the path illuminated by the moon.

  To the way she smiled cheerfully, her long black hair hanging loose, her delicate body clothed in a white dress.

  And then her white profile, her eyes lowered sadly, as she held a secret in her heart that she couldn’t tell me…

  When I imagine the secret conflict and sadness that jolted inside her heart that summer, my chest tightens with warmth and melancholy.

  The final promise I shared with her as she went to graduation, the shred of hatred she left me with, the pain—they all reawaken sweetly.

  The transformation had already begun that summer.

  Like a flower, like the moon, like a dream—that summer truly was special.

  I look at a clock and see that it’s already three in the afternoon.

  She’s probably getting tea ready in the kitchen. From time to time, I can hear the sound of pattering footsteps or the sound of drawers opening and closing.

  She was fired up, telling me, “Today I’ll make lemon pie. It’s sour and delicious.”

  I gave her a copy of my key, so almost every day she comes to this apartment that’s my office-slash-home and looks after me.

  She’s tried to convince me before that it was a lot of trouble for her and maybe she would just move in. Our friends often needled us, “You oughta just marry her.”

  Soon the door will open and she’ll call me over.

  I put the manuscript I’m working on aside, close the word processor, and stand up.

  “You will not know me.”

  The summer that one line from “The Surgery Room” fell from her lips with poignancy has passed into distant history.

  But I can still remember the surprise and pain I felt when she bit the back of my hand.

  And the many stories she gave me.

  So in my heart I whisper.

  Filled with all the gratitude and affection in the world for my dear book girl.

  I won’t forget you—

  AFTERWORD

  Hello, Mizuki Nomura here. The sixth volume of the Book Girl series is its first side story!

  In terms of the time line, it falls after the second book, but the subject matter is a forecast of the seventh book, so I’m perfectly happy if you read it in the order it was published.

  The inspiration this time for Tohko and Konoha’s memorable summer plus the Maki file is Kyōka Izumi’s Demon Pond. I also made use of The Grass Labyrinth and “The Surgery Room.” Kyōka’s vocabulary and plotting are powerfully beautiful. His writing is unique and parts of it are hard to read, but the beauty of the words and scenarios flying into your mind will make your head spin. The plots and settings are often truuuuuly wonderful, so it might be better to get an idea of the story before the difficult parts and then experience the flavor of the prose.

  I quoted an Emily Brontë poem in the opening illustrations again. I love this poem and it suited Maki perfectly, so I really wanted to use it in the story this time and in the second book! Just as I was surrendering in tears, my editor unexpectedly suggested, “Why not use it in the opening illustration?” and I begged to do it. They use it in the main theme for a TV drama called Hagetaka, too. I’ve been a fan of the writers for a while now, and whenever the song played in a scene, I was sooooooo moved.

  Once again, I’m running out of room in the afterword. Ms. Takeoka—our illustrator—the “curry restaurant” Tohko from your afterword in the fifth book was SO cute! That hairstyle, just oh, my gosh. I finally offered you Tohko out of uniform, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the drawings turn out!

  I have an announcement for the readers. This year, Book Girl was once again third overall in Takarajima Publishing’s This Light Novel Is Amazing! Tohko won second place in the female character category! Kotobuki was eighth, Konoha was seventh for male characters, and Ms. Takeoka was second in the illustrators’ category!

  Thank you so much to everyone who voted! I’m going to turn my attention to the graduation volume now and do my best, so I hope you’ll stay with us to the end. I’d like to put out a few short-story collections, which a lot of people asked about. I’m currently accepting requests for stories you’d like to see. Okay, see you!<
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  Mizuki Nomura

  November 27, 2007

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  Contents

  Welcome

  Color Insert

  Epigraph

  Prologue—Maki—Firefly Nightfall/The Princess Speaks

  Chapter 1—A Bad Person Abducted Me

  Chapter 2—The Oracle Who Read from Books

  Chapter 3—Shirayuki Appears

  Chapter 4—The Princess’s Situation

  Chapter 5—The Guest Who Was Too Early/The Lover Who Disappeared

  Chapter 6—A Crimson World

  Epilogue—I Know That I’ll Be Smiling

  Afterword

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower

  Story: MIZUKI NOMURA

  Illustration: MIHO TAKEOKA

  Translation by Karen McGillicuddy

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Bungakushoujo to gekka wo daku undine ©2008 Mizuki Nomura. All rights reserved.

  First published in Japan in 2008 by ENTERBRAIN, INC., Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with ENTERBRAIN, INC. through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.