Book Girl and the Famished Spirit (6 page)

“What does that mean?”

I was appalled, but Ryuto’s eyes gleamed lustily.

“She’s seriously dangerous, and I like that.”

“You like dangerous people?”

I understood him even less.

But just like when Tohko was expounding on books, a fire had been lit under Ryuto.

“I don’t like ordinary girls. But a girl who would kill a guy to make him hers and then kiss his still-warm lips… a girl like Oscar Wilde’s Salomé? They drive me crazy. Like Kiyohime turning into
a snake to chase her man or the grocery girl Oshichi who set fire to a building just to see hers one more time. I want to be loved like that, be obsessed over, be hated.

“Psychologically speaking, I’m a masochist. It gives me a huge thrill for a girl to insult me when there’s both love and hatred in her eyes. After all, hatred is the strongest emotion people have, right? Love weakens and changes over time, but
true
hatred can’t be forgotten that easily. It only gets stronger as time goes by. Don’t you agree? I feel like being hated makes love last way longer. You can keep hating someone because you love them, and you can keep loving them because you hate them.”

I was utterly overwhelmed by this philosophy of love. It was so unusual for a first-year high school boy. I heard him out, wide-eyed, telling myself that the guy was trouble. But when he declared that hatred was the strongest of all human emotions, I felt as if cold fingers had caressed my heart.

Ryuto continued talking across the table from me, but he grew fuzzy and in his place a girl appeared, looking at me with piercing eyes.

Miu—!

It was the same look Miu had given me that day when she’d gone home by herself and I’d called out to stop her.

A cold gaze like a knife carved out of ice.

Until then, we had been best friends, and Miu had always teased me and told me how much she liked me in a bouncing voice and smiled happily.

But that day, there was such hatred in Miu’s eyes as she looked at me that it instantly eradicated everything that had come before.

Why had Miu looked at me that way? Did she hate me?

Whenever I remembered Miu, my heart always clamped tight, and the pain made it hard to breathe.

I couldn’t think about Miu right now. I couldn’t remember those eyes.

Desperately, I banished Miu’s phantom. I could almost hear her breathing in my ears. I tried to focus on what Ryuto was saying.

“You date a bunch of girls at once because you want them to hate you?” I asked in a voice that threatened to crack if I wasn’t careful, and I knit my numb fingers together tightly.

Ryuto murmured, “Yeah. I love it when they’re jealous or possessive. But Hotaru is different. We’re dating, but she’s not even a tiny bit obsessed with me. She’s kind of vacant, like her mind is somewhere else. She’s always been like that.”

“How did you meet her?”

“It was about a month ago in a park. It was raining and superwindy, and she was riding on the swings in the middle of the night. She was wearing an old-style sailor suit, and even though lightning was cracking overhead and her hair and clothes were totally soaked, she was swinging fanatically, standing up on the swing. When I saw that, I thought she was amazing.”

Swinging in the middle of a storm, Amemiya slipped and was thrown to the ground. Ryuto had run over to her and lifted her up, and that was how the two of them started going out.

Ryuto leaned forward and grinned like a little kid.

“I guess I was inspired? I had this feeling that I had finally met the ideal woman, or like she would be someone important to me. Hotaru is definitely the kind of girl who doesn’t worry about what she has to do in order to get what she wants or how it looks. If a guy gets jumpy, she’ll chase him and chase him and then devour him in order to be together. I always felt like if I could meet a girl like that, she’s all I would ever need.”

His story was all over the place, but Ryuto looked innocently happy as he spoke of her.

For the first time, he looked like a high school boy, just like me.

When I was in middle school, I had thought that Miu was special and different from all the other girls.

Miu was the epitome of what a girl should be for me.

There was Miu, and there was me. I thought things would go on that way forever.

“I asked if she would go out with me, and she said yeah, so I’m pretty sure she realizes we’re dating. But she’s not into me at all. She doesn’t see me, but she’s still going out with me. We go on dates even. And she doesn’t run away when I kiss her even. Weird, right? Like, why is she with me? I started thinking maybe she had some kind of problem she was dealing with, and it started to bug me. And ever since Hotaru and I started going out, strange stuff keeps happening.”

“Like what?”

I remembered what Maki had told us in the school yard: Anyone who got close to Hotaru Amemiya was cursed.

“A menacing guy in sunglasses follows us all the time. He might’ve been about forty? He was wearing a suit, and his hair was dyed a light color. He wasn’t dressed bad or anything, but there was something sinister about him, like he was dead even though he was alive or something… He was like an angel of death.

“Whenever I meet up with Hotaru, eventually I notice him staring at us from a little ways off. I think Hotaru notices, too, and whenever he’s there, she holds on to my arm and shakes and begs me not to look back and not to leave her. It sounds like she’s going to cry. But even after I ask her who he is, she won’t answer.

“And that’s not all. When I’m walking at night, Long John Silver and his gang—or at least some meathead guys who look like that—show up and start pounding on me and telling me to stay away from Hotaru, or they chase me through the streets or almost run me over with a car. All kinds of dangerous stuff kept happening to me for a whole month.”

I gulped.

“I’m impressed you didn’t stop seeing Amemiya after all that.”

Ryuto waved it off. “I love having thrills like that in my life. It only makes me fight harder.”

I cherished peace and quiet too much to ever hope to understand a person like him.

Ryuto frowned. “I don’t care about me. Doesn’t matter if they stalk me or beat me up. I feel like Hotaru has serious problems, though.”

“You mean her personality?”

“No, I wouldn’t mind that, either. But she doesn’t eat at all. I brought her here a couple times and recommended all sorts of stuff, but she just said she wasn’t hungry. Even when I tried to order something for her and make her eat, she wouldn’t even try it, and she never drank any water.

“Once she collapsed from hunger in the middle of one of our dates. When I took her home, I found out she lives in a huge mansion, but I never saw a sign that anyone else actually lives there. I asked her where everyone was, but she didn’t say anything.

“That and sometimes she becomes a different person. When night falls or we go somewhere dark, she’ll cheer up or get grumpy real suddenly and start calling herself Kayano Kujo.”

I leaned in closer. “Really? She said Kayano Kujo? So Amemiya and Kayano Kujo are the same person?”

“Konoha, have you ever met Kayano?”

I explained to Ryuto what had been going on, but he seemed skeptical.

I told him that mysterious notes had been left in the relationship advice box that Tohko had set up. I told him that when Tohko and I had staked out the box, there had been some supernatural phenomena and a girl wearing an old sailor suit had appeared and that she had written things down in a notebook, then torn
the paper up and put it in the mailbox. I told him that the girl had called herself Kayano.

Ryuto’s forehead wrinkled.

“Maybe she heard about it from me. I asked Hotaru if she knew about the mailbox the book club had put up in the school yard, and I told her she could get romantic advice from it.”

Without quite realizing it, Ryuto and I had become very intent in our discussion of the mysteries surrounding Amemiya.

“It would be a huge pain if you told Tohko about all this violent stuff that’s been happening to me, so could you keep that a secret? And could you find out about Hotaru? Just whatever you can manage is fine.”

I knew the request would turn out to be a pain and cursed myself, but I told Ryuto, “I don’t think I’ll be much help, but I can try asking her classmates.”

“My motto is
supposed
to be ‘A wise man courts no danger’…”

I sighed as I walked down the hallway during lunch.

I’d already stopped a boy named Morishita who had been in my class the year before and was in Amemiya’s class this year. According to what he told me, the rumor was true that anyone who got close to Amemiya was cursed, and all the boys who had ever gone out with her had been hit by cars or had fallen down the stairs at train stations or had been sent to the hospital in similar ways.

“Amemiya seems so subdued. She’s been out with that many boys?”

“I know, right? She’s obviously pretty, but her reactions are dulled or something and she doesn’t get excited about anything and she’s just gloomy. She doesn’t have any friends and doesn’t fit in at all. She just zones out all through lunch and doesn’t eat. I
don’t think anyone’s ever seen her bring a lunch from home or buy anything to eat at school. That’s anorexic, right?”

Morishita also told me about Amemiya’s former boyfriends.

“I heard there were about five or six of them. At the end of first year, she suddenly started dating a bunch of guys. They were all known cheaters or gang kids or some other worthless kind of loser, and Amemiya even came to school with bruises on her face a couple times. The guys were probably hitting her.”

Why would Amemiya go out with such awful boys and only briefly each time? Why did they all end up having some kind of accident?

Ryuto had mentioned being followed by a man like an angel of death wearing sunglasses and being badgered to break up with Amemiya by some guys who looked like the pirates in
Treasure Island.
Had that happened to all the boys Amemiya had dated? But why?

Argh, it just keeps getting more complicated. I’m no detective, though… Too bad.
I would at least tell Ryuto what I’d found out.

As for Tohko…

“I bet you’re angry at me for blowing you off two days in a row.”

I remembered how she had made me promise to meet her and pouted on her way out. I leaned my hand against the wall and groaned.

The pranks Tohko had told me about, half-sobbing, still nagged at me. But I suspected I would get better results and solve the mystery faster by helping Ryuto.

Besides, I had a hunch about the paranormal phenomena and who had sent the black lilies. If my suspicion was right, Tohko wasn’t in any real danger. And in fact, it would be a big help for me if Tohko’s attention was focused on the ghost.

My decision made, I went to the place where I had agreed to meet Ryuto after school.

When I got to the restaurant we’d visited the day before, I saw a girl extend a hand and suddenly slap Ryuto in the face.

“You… are…
awful!
”

The girl was older—she looked like a college student. She threw her glass of water on Ryuto and stormed out of the restaurant, shoulders thrown back.

“A-are you okay?”

“Oh, that happens all the time. She slapped me pretty hard. It was nice.”

He was totally unfazed and calmly accepted the towel the waitress brought him.

“Sorry about that, Harumi.”

“I’m used to it.” The girl shrugged, smiling ruefully.

I was astounded. How often did this happen?

There was a hamburger, chili beans, and a soda on the table in front of him.

“You got here quick. Has your school started its midterms already?”

“No, I left early today.”

“You cut class?!”

“You could call it that.”

I could feel a headache coming on, but I told him what I’d heard at school.

“Hmph. So she dated a bunch of scumbags.”

You know, most people would say you’re not such a stand-up guy yourself
…

“I also tried to find out about Kayano Kujo. Her name was on the student rolls seventeen years ago. She was enrolled at our school for her first and second years it looks like, but her name wasn’t on the graduation list, so I guess she left partway through her second year.”

“I see…”

Just then, as we were talking, two women called out to Ryuto simultaneously.

“Ryu! We’re here!”

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ryu!”

One was a short-haired girl dressed in another school’s uniform, and the other was an older girl who looked like an office worker with her hair tied up. She wore a miniskirt.

A second glance revealed another girl behind the one with short hair. She wore the same uniform and fidgeted shyly.

“Are you three-timing
again
?!” I cried without thinking.

Ryuto smirked. “That’s not a very nice thing to say, Konoha.”

Then he turned to the girls brightly.

“Hey, Misaki, thanks. Er, you’re Sonoko Segawa, right? Hi, I’m Ryuto Sakurai. Thanks for comin’.”

“Uh, sure.”

The shy-looking girl turned bright red and shook her head.

“Hey now, Sonoko’s too serious for you. No seducing her. I only got her to come because you were so pushy about it.”

“Whoa, whoa. Oh, and Saeko’s here, too. Sorry to make you take off work early.”

“Oh, it’s fine! I had the day off anyway. This seemed like much more fun.”

The lady who looked like an office worker winked and then sat down in the chair Ryuto had pulled out for her.

“This is Konoha Inoue. He’s a second-year at Seijoh Academy.”

“Hey there. I’m Misaki Kaga, second-year at Takara Girls’ School.”

“Um, I’m her classmate, Sonoko Segawa.”

“And I’m Saeko Tachibana. I work in an office.”

After they each introduced themselves, I ducked my head, flustered. “Nice to meet you.”

What in the world was Ryuto thinking? Was he planning to start a dating service, getting this many girls together?

I looked at him suspiciously. Ryuto responded with that predatory glint again and smiled slyly.

“Segawa here was in Hotaru’s class in elementary school. She was friends with her.”

Surprised, I turned to look at Segawa, and she nodded quickly.

“My house was near Hotaru’s, too, so we were always in the same classes.”

I caught my breath, and Ryuto went on.

“Saeko works in Hotaru’s uncle’s company. I picked her up in a restaurant today at lunch, and she agreed to come.”

Picked her up?!
Today?

“Heh, he sure did! You’re so forceful, Ryu. It’s so refreshing for a younger man to take the lead.”

“Geez, Ryu.”

Misaki must have kicked Ryuto’s leg under the table because he shouted in pain.

I saw him in a new light. This was not someone to be trifled with. Not just anyone could have brought all these people with connections to Amemiya together in one day.

Misaki pursed her lips and declared, “You’re going to make that up to me.”

“Okay, okay.” Ryuto nodded offhandedly. He turned back to us and amiably proclaimed, “All right, then. Let’s start with Segawa’s story. Has Hotaru always been like this, not eating anything?”

Segawa, who had once been Amemiya’s friend, shook her head.

“No, when we were little, she ate school lunches like everybody else, and twice a week when we brought lunch from home, she brought an extravagant lunch that the housekeeper had packed for her. She would let me have some.”

Segawa told us that Amemiya’s mother had gotten sick and died when they were in their first year of elementary school and a housekeeper had looked after the house.

Amemiya lived with her father and his younger sister in a huge mansion.

When she was in her first year of middle school, her aunt got married and left home. Very soon after that, Amemiya’s father died from a sudden heart attack, and two weeks later it was her aunt’s turn to die in an accident.

After she lost her family, her uncle by marriage—the man her aunt had married—became Amemiya’s guardian.

Segawa continued her story glumly.

“He forced the housekeeper and the driver to leave and sold the house. That was when Hotaru started acting strange.”

After she started living with her uncle, Amemiya gradually stopped eating. At first, she would eat a little of the school lunches and leave the rest, but she soon stopped eating altogether.

“It was like Hotaru was scared of eating. When it was time for lunch, she would start shaking, like she was terrified of something, then she would spin around and stare out the window… As soon as she took a bite of bread, her face would go pale, and she would jump up and run to the bathroom. I think she was throwing up, because when she came back she was so pallid. It hurt me to see her.

“I thought maybe things weren’t going well with her uncle, so I asked her about it, but her face tensed up and she didn’t answer. Then she started avoiding me and staying by herself. After that, she became disinterested in everything around her, like a doll, and her face was always a total blank. It was like her spirit had floated off to another world.”

Segawa seemed to think that Amemiya’s uncle was the cause for her strange behavior, and she fell silent, her face troubled.

On the other hand, Saeko, the office worker, was intensely interested. She murmured, “Hmmm. So the rumor that our boss killed his wife and brother-in-law in order to steal the company may not be so baseless after all, eh?”

I gaped at the viciousness of what she was saying.

Amemiya’s uncle was Tamotsu Kurosaki, and the company had originally belonged to Amemiya’s father. After her father’s death, Kurosaki owned the majority share and took over as company president.

“The official story is that he lived abroad for a long time, and he busted his tail over there. There’s no question he’s a capable man, and ever since he took over, the company has been doing better and better. And he’s very popular with the female employees. I mean, he’s still young; he’s single; he looks all right; and he has this aura that strangely titillates a girl’s heart. His hair is dyed, and he wears lightly tinted sunglasses because his eyes are sensitive or something, but they look good on him and it works for him, believe me. The older board members can’t stand his hair, but the rest of us really like it. When the last president was still alive, Mr. Kurosaki had black hair, but the day he took over as president, he showed up with his hair like that. It stunned the board members.