Book Girl and the Famished Spirit by Mizuki Nomura Read Free Book Online

dip his hands in blood or to commit sacrilege against God.
    There was no God in this world, anyway. The devil was already laughing at his side, and that was the most reliable ally of all.
    No, he had made no mistakes. But when he had come here, everything had been headed toward ruin.
    There was no time.
    He had to go back.
    He needed to go back in time to the day that he met her.
    If it would grant his wish, he would give the devil his soul or anything else.
    There was no time.
    He felt light-headed, and a strangled cry escaped his throat. His stomach twisted painfully and nausea rose up in him.
    Would she be taken again? Would she betray him again? Would she mock his dreams and run from him?
    He would not allow it!
    He would reach his hands out to her small face, wavering like a mirage, and he would crush it like a tomato.
    He would not allow it! He would not allow it! He would not allow it! He would not allow it! He would not allow it!

    The next day after first period ended, Tohko came to my classroom with a deep frown on her face.
    “Why did you leave yesterday, Konoha? I waited soooo long for you. I’d checked
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler out of the library, so I started reading it, and I actually finished the whole thing.”
    “Um, well… I’m glad you could have a nice, relaxing read outside.”
    I tried to smile when I said it, but Tohko slapped her hand down on my desk and leaned in toward me.
    Oh god—everyone was looking at me. Kotobuki was glaring.
    “That’s not all! Do you have any idea the kind of fear I experienced after you left yesterday?”
    “N-no, I don’t. Did something happen?”
    As soon as I asked, Tohko looked like she was about to cry. Her lip was trembling feebly.
    “S-since you never came back, I went to the club room to look for you, and there was a bouquet of black lilies on the table.”
    “Are you sure it wasn’t a birthday present from one of your fans?”
    “My birthday is a long ways away. And don’t black lilies make you think of anything, Konoha?”
    “Not really.”
    “Black lilies mean ‘cursed.’ ”
    “So you’re saying you were cursed?”
    Tohko covered her ears with both hands and shook her head desperately. Her long braids danced through the air together.
    “No! Don’t say it! I refuse to accept it! But… you know…” She looked at me, her eyes timid once again. “I would be even more cursed if I threw them out, so I got a beaker from the chem lab to put them in, and I heard a girl crying outside. But when I opened the door, no one was there. I was sure I was just imagining things, so I closed the door. But then I heard her sobbing again. This time I walked really quietly and tried to open the door slooowly… but there was still no one there. I thought I must be so tired that I was hearing things, so I decided to go home. And on my way—”
    I gulped, and Tohko looked at me forlornly. “
Three
black cats crossed my path!”
    I nearly buried my head on my desk.
    “There’s more. A flock of crows flew by overhead, too!”
    “Because it was nighttime and the crows were going home, too.”
    “And then this morning, this was in my locker.”
    Tohko showed me a white envelope.
    “A love letter?”
    “No.”
    She pulled a letter out and unfolded it; then she held it out to me. It was a chain letter. One of those things that said you had tosend the same thing to five different people in a week or you would have bad luck.
    “I’ve never seen a real chain letter before.”
    “I haven’t, either, not since elementary school when they were trendy for a little while. L-look at who it’s from, Konoha.”
    Tohko trembled as she pointed at the signature. It read, “Sincerely, The Ghost.”
    This looked more like a prank than an actual curse…
    “And then? This morning there was another note inside the mailbox. And that’s stepped way up, toooooo!”
    Tohko showed me the stepped-up note.
    “Hmm.”
    It certainly had been stepped up: The note