When Tohko had finished changing and rebraided her hair, she came and pounded on Ryuto with a silver tray.

"But Tohko, you badgered me to do this super-urgent investigation and get my butt out here. But it's not like I got a license, and the trains don't run out here, either. And it looked pretty pointless to try hitchhikin' in the middle of the boonies. The only option I had left was to ask a favor of someone I know who has a ride."

"Y-you have a point-but you didn't have to smooch all over her, did you?! You can't do things like that in public. I've told you that millions of times since kindergarten. Why haven't you gotten any better?!"

Actually, you're the marvel to keep saying that millions of times since kindergarten, Tohko.

The woman who'd been kissing Ryuto got on her bike and went home. As she was leaving, she casually pressed her lips to Ryuto's with a "See ya," enraging Tohko even further.

"But you can't just be like, 'Okay, bye,' when someone gives you a ride. Nobody even thinks twice about somethin' like that in other countries."

"This is Japan and you're Japanese!"

She smuuuuuuuuushed a tray into Ryuto's face.

"T-Tohko...! Yer smashin' my nose! I can't breathe. Save me, Konoha..."

I believed he'd only brought this on himself, but I limply grabbed Tohko's arm from behind her.

"Let's leave it at that. He did come all this way for you."

"Mrr..."

Tohko looked from me to Ryuto's twitching form, pursed her lips a little, then lowered the tray.

"Whoo! That was rough. I owe ya, Konoha."

"The next time I catch you doing lewd things, even Konoha's pleas won't save you."

Tohko glared at Ryuto and sat in her chair. The breakfast the housekeeper had brought us a few moments ago was arranged on a round table. There was a cold ratatouille of boiled summer vegetables like eggplant and tomatoes and paprika seasoned with olive oil, plus freshly baked baguettes, herbed cheeses, and runny omelets. Hot tea in a pot. Cool Perrier in glass bottles.

Ryuto and I sat down, too, and served ourselves breakfast.

Tohko opened Fouque's Undine, tore in from the edge, and took a bite.

"Friedrich Fouque was a German author born in 1777. He came from an old line of nobility, and his grandfather had even been a Prussian general. Fouque changed careers, leaving behind the military life to become an author, and in 1811, his most famous work, Undine, came out.

"Undine the water spirit falls in love with the knight, Huldebrand, and becomes his wife, but Huldebrand breaks a prohibition and speaks badly of Undine on the water, and so unable to stay in the world of humans, she returns to the world of water.

"Having lost Undine, Huldebrand tries to marry another woman.

"But that was an unforgivable act in the world of water. Undine was bound by their laws to deliver death upon Huldebrand with her own hand.

"It's rustic and fondly familiar and a little bitter...a little tender...like biting into hard rye bread that's full of raisins. The more you chew, the more the sourness of the rye develops and melds with the natural sweetness of the raisins, leaving a poignant echo on your tongue..."

She munched on the shreds of the page with a slight rustling noise, and as she swallowed, Tohko let out a sigh.

"That's awesome. I'm crazy for things where the girl tries to kill the guy she fell for and make him hers," Ryuto said as he efficiently cleaned his own plate and then pulled Tohko's omelet over without a thought. Tohko frowned and glared at Ryuto.

"This is not a story about that kind of dirty vortex of emotion. It's the tale of the melancholy love of the water spirit who is bound by an inescapable law.

"On his wedding night with his new wife, Undine appears wearing a white veil and Huldebrand tells her, 'I want to die with my lips on yours.' The scene where Undine gives him a kiss and lets loose her tears is so poignant and beautiful, your heart just swells. It's totally different from your casual smooching."

"Yeah, yeah."

Looking blase, Ryuto loaded some omelet onto a buttered baguette and bit into it.

As I listened to their uninhibited conversation, it struck me again that these two had known each other since childhood and lived in the same house. So Ryuto had been the one Tohko meant when she said she'd made a phone call. And Ryuto had also investigated the things Tohko had asked of him and hurried here. Would most people go that far for a childhood acquaintance who was like a sister to them?

Deep in my heart, I felt something hazy.

When we finished eating, Ryuto told us the results of his investigation.

After the mass murder at the Himekura estate, Akira Shikishima had gone to Germany to study abroad as planned. A Japanese student studying abroad around the same time had written about Akira in his letters home, and through his connections, Ryuto had been allowed to see them.

"At first, Akira threw up and stuff a bunch from stress, and he took awhile to recuperate apparently. It sounds like he had a lot of trouble 'cos he couldn't communicate.

"So there was that, and then the way he talked and carried himself was real classy and polite, and he was serious, but he wasn't good at interactin' with people. He didn't drink alcohol and went back to his boardinghouse before the sun set. The guy really whined in his letters, like 'Oh, it's such a shame 'cos I wanna get to know the other Japanese students,' or 'Oh, I think he hates me in particular,' or 'Oh, Akira Shikishima is like the moon floatin' high in the sky overhead.'"

Akira would often sit by himself, zoned out, and at those times he would always tug on his earlobe with a sad look in his eyes. The love he'd left behind in Japan had had the habit of touching her earlobes originally. Apparently he would talk about how she was gone now with a dark look on his face.

Yuri's habit of touching her earlobes- Maybe Akira thought back about what had happened in Japan while touching his soft ears.

He'd known about Yuri drowning herself. How had he felt about his love ending her life because of him...?

It coincided with my life and sent a jolt down my spine.

That was a torment more terrible than death!

Apparently Akira never once went home while he was studying abroad. It was almost certainly because of Yuri. He probably would have felt as if his heart were being ripped apart. Even after his period of study abroad passed, he stayed over there, and after a while, he disappeared.

Germany entered a dark period, and even after the student who'd written the letters returned to Japan, he worried about Akira. Then a letter reached him from a local friend there that told him about seeing Akira on the street holding the hand of a small child. Since the child looked like Akira, the friend supposed that he had married and started a family.

What had Akira's life been like after that?

Tohko put her index finger to her lips and listened intently.

Ryuto also told us about the fire that had occurred at the estate fifty years ago.

"I heard the police were investigatin' it as an arson, but in the end they never caught the person responsible and there was somethin' really off about the whole thing. The source of the fire wasn't a storage shed or a side building, it was right smack in the middle of the main house. And even though it was the middle of the night, they got word about it fast. The fact that the master of the house happened to be stayin' there by himself secretly was the weirdest thing of all. And he definitely didn't get his eye hurt from the fire. When he was carried into the hospital, some people said there was blood pourin' down his face..."

Ryuto drained his now-tepid cup of tea in one gulp and returned the cup to its saucer.

"There's definitely somethin' more to the fire fifty years ago. The Himekuras're involved, so the local cops probably couldn't interfere much. I mean, the possibility that there was direct pressure from the Himekuras is huge."

"The master fifty years ago would be Maki's grandfather, right?"

"Yup. The current head of the family, Mitsukuni Himekura. He had just taken over when it happened, still a young buck. Surprisingly, he was sickly when he was a kid, and he would go and recuperate in the countryside. After the thing with Shirayuki, people in the main branch of the family were droppin' left and right and the boy who was supposed to take over died, so Maki's grandpa was pulled out in a hurry. He was a sheltered rich kid, so at first everyone around him underestimated him, I guess. His true colors came out fast, though, and he crushed all of his enemies. He made the Himekura family, which had been headin' for oblivion after the thing with Shirayuki, even richer than before. He's still the reignin' head of the family. He's a monster."

"Grandpa has an unquestioned role within the family, like a god. Nobody opposes him, and no one is allowed to have an opinion."

Maki had said the same thing about her grandfather.

Mitsukuni Himekura was involved in the fire fifty years ago. What did it mean?

Tohko asked, "When the fire happened, who was the first one to start putting it out?"

Ryuto grinned as if he'd been waiting for that question.

"A woman who just happened to be walking by. Her name was Hiroko Uotani."

Tohko gasped and leaned forward.

I gasped, too.

Did he say Hiroko?! Uotani's grandmother was Hiroko, too! She'd been a maid at the estate eighty years ago- The smile still on his face, Ryuto told us, "Yeah, the only person who survived the incident eighty years ago."

The air grew suddenly heavier.

With a perplexed expression, Tohko whispered, "Hiroko was the first person to discover the mass murder, and thirty years later she was the first to discover the fire that had broken out at the same house."

A tiny shudder ran through my spine and cold sweat trailed down my back. It was too perfect to be chance.

"Hiroko alerted the fire department and then ran into the fire herself and even managed to rescue the master. Mitsukuni Himekura owes her his life. Last year, when Hiroko died, they say he came to see her in secret before her funeral."

The old, phantasmal story that had happened eighty years ago had a sudden feeling of immediacy, as if it had drawn closer to our reality.

Tohko wore a tense expression.

Ryuto laughed offhandedly.

"That's all I can tell ya for now. If anythin' else develops, I'll hear through my cell. And now, my throat's all dried out so could I bug you for a refill on my tea, Tohko?"

The mood eased at his carefree cheerfulness, and Tohko's face, too, curved into a smile.

"Okay. As thanks for all the hard work you've done, I'll bring you something sweet with your tea, too."

"Cool. You can take your time, don't worry."

Tohko left the room and her footsteps grew gradually quieter.

Suddenly Ryuto leaned in toward me.

"Konoha! You and Tohko were in the same room this morning, weren'cha? You were both in pj's, and Tohko was all mussed up from bein' asleep. What was that? Were you together all last night? You made any progress?"

I leaned away from him. Had he asked Tohko for tea just so he could ask me this? The skin around my ears burned with embarrassment.

"Tohko said she was afraid of ghosts and forced her way into my room, that's all. I swear, it's nothing."

"Whaaat? You serious?"

Ryuto's face turned openly disappointed and his voice rose in criticism.

"Argh. I woulda been way cooler with it if you and Tohko had just done it. I thought maybe that's what you were gonna tell me, but that's just sad. What're you doin'?"

"Why are you attacking me when nothing happened?"

"Gah. You coulda been a little bolder since Tohko's upset an' all."

I warily asked, "Tohko's upset?"

Ryuto looked at me with incredibly sexy, mysterious eyes.

"Course she's upset. Despite the way she acts, she's a sensitive high school girl. She gets upset about everything, from little stuff to big stuff. Can't you figure it out, Konoha?"

The sad look I'd seen at dawn came abruptly into my mind and my chest ached, as if it was being squeezed tightly.

Seeing me rendered speechless, Ryuto smiled even more meaningfully.

"I mean, when she's like that, if you could just write her supersweet stories, I'd appreciate it. Ever since her summer cram courses ended, she's been at home whining that she wants to eat your snacks."

Was that true?

The world was full of sweet stories Tohko would love without me having to write them.

"Oh yeah! I'll teach you the words that cheer Tohko up when she's depressed."

I hesitated, but he brought his lips close to my ear and whispered three words as if they were a magic spell.

"Hey! I can't write something with those prompts. That's so embarrassing. Does that really cheer Tohko up?"

"It's more effective than an energy drink. The ingredients work. So I guess the rest is up to the skill of the cook," he said smugly, and then his eyes turned suddenly sedate. "You'll be fine, Konoha. You're Tohko's author."

A dark shadow fell over my heart. He'd told me that I was Tohko's author again.

But I had zero desire to be that. It wasn't anything about Tohko, it was just the author part that I never, ever wanted to...

My fingers became as cold as ice and my mood slumped further and further. Just as I felt as if I was sinking into a swamp of memories, the door opened.

But it wasn't Tohko standing there, it was Maki. And she didn't look happy.

"So it was you," she said in a hard voice, turning a sharp, prickly look on Ryuto.

"I'd heard a moron trying to look like a big man was all over some blonde like a rutting dog in front of my house at the crack of dawn and that he wanted to stay here, and it looks like my foreboding was right."

I was surprised by her sudden harsh words.

I had picked up on the fact that Maki didn't think fondly of Ryuto from the distaste in her voice and the way she looked when she spoke his name. She hadn't cared for Ryuto ever since Amemiya was still alive and dating him.