Free Book Girl and the Famished Spirit by Mizuki Nomura Page B

the things that
he
brings me.”
    Her tone kept me at a distance, starkly different from a moment ago when she had embraced me, and she left.

    “I wonder if it’s possible to turn back time,” she whispered.
    It is utterly impossible. It is the act of a demon rebelling against God, but he tried to achieve it. He made a pact with the devil and took her back from the grave. He made the impossible possible, and now she was with him.
    She danced madly through the world of darkness, illuminated by the moon.
    “She is me and I am her.” She said this as if singing a song, every day becoming more like that other girl. With each day, the presence of the other girl grew stronger inside her and the original girl disappeared. The girl who was not her laughed and sang—and loved—with her body and her voice.
    The girl who reached her arms out to him, the girl who whispered to him.
    She appealed to the girl inside her in heartbreaking tones.
    “Please, don’t touch him again. Don’t smile at him. Don’t pursue him.
    “Because I hate him so much I want to kill him.”

    When the week began on Monday, Tohko stormed into my classroom first thing in the morning.
    “Konoha! How could you stand me up like that on Friday after I reminded you!”
    I’d been expecting her visit, but I hadn’t thought she wouldlaunch her attack so early in the morning, so I completely missed my chance to get away.
    “Umm… my chronic hiccups suddenly came back, so I had to go to the hospital.”
    “I never heard of you having this condition before! I made three trips to the library while I was waiting for you! I finished a collection of O. Henry short stories, Ryunosuke Akutagawa short stories, and a collection of Shin’ichi Hoshi’s ultrashort stories.”
    “Why did you only read short stories?”
    “I picked them on purpose, so I could stop as soon as you got there. But you never came, and 1-800-FL—WERS brought me a huge bouquet of black lilies, and when I got back from the library, there was a big piece of paper taped to the wall of our room that said ‘I’m back’ in red letters, and look—”
    Tohko shoved a note at me. She must have taken it out of the mailbox that morning.
    “Today’s note is more stepped up than before. It even has splatters of blood on it!”
    Red splotches were strewn vividly across the yellowed paper, and the brushstrokes read, “a bird of bad omen,” “painting the walls with his blood,” “its nest in the winter, full of little skeletons.” I felt a little dizzy.
    “And then there’s this, look.”
    There was a string of numbers on the torn strips of ruled paper.
    9-10-17-15-28-17-13-17-15
    23-5-28-17-13-17-15
    25-28-20-5-4-27-10-28-4-21-21-20-28-24-21-17-12-21-4
    I wondered what those numbers really meant. She’d said her name was the clue, but…
    Looking down at the note, I thought back to what had happened over the weekend, and I felt someone’s eyes on my face.
    When I looked up, Kotobuki was glaring at me, her bag still slung over her shoulder.
    Our eyes met accidentally, so I had to try and smile. Her eyes went wide, and she curtly turned her face away in a fluster.
    Geez, why does she hate me so much?
    “Hey, Konoha, what are you smiling and sighing about? What are you looking at?”
    Tohko pinched my nose between her thumb and forefinger.
    Luckily the bell saved me by ringing right then.
    “Arggggh. I’ll be back at lunch! You can’t run away, okay?”
    She turned around several times to remind me and then left.
    “I’m sorry, Tohko.”
    Apologizing under my breath, I quickly retreated to the library when lunch started.
    She had once told me, “It’s so awful going to the library when I’m hungry. I see all those treats lined up in front of me, and all I can do is look at them.” So I had actually expected to be safe there, but then I saw Kotobuki sitting behind the counter and wished I could escape.
    How unlucky can I get today?
    She noticed me, too; then she frowned deeply