"But I couldn't hold out."

Hurriedly gulping down the last scrap, Tohko smiled sunnily.

"Maki's going out tomorrow so I get a break from modeling. She said the other side of the mountain is opening up and it's a tourist spot now. Do you wanna go, Konoha?"

The memory of Uotani's warning not to leave the grounds and her cold expression flitted through my mind.

But if I refused, Tohko would probably sulk.

Maybe it's okay as long as we don't go near the pond.

And so the next day we scouted out Baron's feeding schedule so we could slip through the gates of the estate, then walked along a mountain road until we reached a cozy little town.

There was a train station and a bus stop here, and souvenir stands were lined up along the street.

"Ooh! A bookstore!"

Tohko ran off as if she'd discovered a stand selling dumplings at the end of our journey.

She was wearing a pristine white dress and ribboned sandals. Her hair was in its usual braids. Tohko had pouted early on. "You're supposed to wear your uniform when you go out." Apparently Maki had made arrangements for all her clothes. "This was the simplest thing in the closet," she whined.

But the costume of a refined young lady at a summer resort suited Tohko, who was so thin and pale. The townspeople looked admiringly at the old-fashioned beauty walking with her thin fabric dress and long braids bouncing. Walking next to her, I felt pretty darn antsy, even though they were obviously not staring at me.

Tohko was totally insensible to the fact that she was being stared at by strangers, and she shot into the bookstore with a ravenous look on her face.

"Look, it's Thomas Mann's Tonio Kroger. Thomas Mann was a German author born on June 6, 1875. He's also famous for Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain. Tonio Kroger is one of his most famous works, and his conflict as an artist is its main motif.

"The main character, Tonio, admires his classmate Hans and the lovely blond girl Inge, but his feelings aren't reciprocated. It's like a heavy, baked cheesecake, its rich, acidic taste spreading sharply over your tongue and slowly melting away. There's a faint fragrance of lemons and whiskey, and it's philosophical but breezy. It can be tough to swallow even a little at a time."

She expounded as she flipped through the book, sounding as if she might rip it up and shove it in her mouth any second.

"Urk. They even have Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea and Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower. And Fouque's Undine and Hoffman's The Golden Pot! I wonder if the owner is a fan of German literature. The men who feature in German literature are so proud and totally inflexible, and because of that they're impressionable and wonderful. Ahhh, German...it looks so yummy... I wanna eat it."

"If you're gonna eat them, pay for them and take them home. Please."

She drooped instantly.

"I don't have any money. I only had 314 yen in my wallet."

"Oh yeah?"

"You still haven't given me a birthday present, Konoha."

"Was it your birthday?"

"It was! It's March 15."

"That's a loooooooong way off, isn't it?"

"I'm saying, I want my present for this year."

Tohko pleaded, hugging the books fiercely to her chest. I sighed.

"Only three books."

"Thank you! Then I'll take the Goethe treasury on the very top of that shelf and-"

"Three paperbacks!"

Tohko muttered, "Cheapskate," but she soon started picking out books, murmuring affirmatively to herself. When she was done, she held out the three paperbacks with a childlike smile.

"I want these."

I took Thomas Mann's Tonio Kroger, Wilhelm Meyer-Forster's Alt Heidelberg, and Fouque's Undine from her, and we went to the register.

Tohko stuck her head in from beside me.

"Can you gift wrap it, please?" she asked, her face beaming and her voice enthused.

The clerk took out some nice tea-brown wrapping paper and wrapped all three books up together, then tied a gold ribbon around the package, and put it into a paper bag with string handles.

When we moved outside, Tohko's face relaxed even more and a syrupy smile came over it.

"Thank you, Konoha. I'll cherish eating them."

"They're just going into your stomach anyway. What do you need a ribbon for?"

"No, I do! It's a present, after all."

Tohko was smiling brightly. Well...as long as the person getting the present was happy, I guess it didn't matter.

"Oh, let's go to a souvenir shop, Konoha. You're going to buy souvenirs for your family and friends, right?"

With that, she dragged me to a store.

"That's going to be tough with a budget of 314 yen, don't you think?"

"Urgggggh. Konoha, let me borrow some money!"

With the three thousand yen she got out of me by swearing she'd return it when school started, Tohko started meticulously selecting souvenirs for the family she was boarding with, for her friends at school, and so on.

Why do girls take so long shopping?

I picked out some plum-flavored crackers for my family and a stuffed rabbit for Maika and tried to move efficiently to the register, but Tohko looked at my hands and said, "Konoha, is that all? You don't need anything for your friends?"

"I don't know anyone I would bring back a souvenir for," I informed her flatly, and she leaned in toward me.

"What about Nanase? What about Akutagawa? You've been spending a lot of time with him lately. And there's little Chia, too."

"You're getting something for Takeda. Akutagawa and I aren't that kind of friends, and I think Kotobuki hates me."

Tohko's eyes went wide with surprise.

"What? But Konoha, didn't you get a postcard from Nanase over the summer?"

"Nope."

Why would I get a postcard?

Tohko folded her arms over her chest and hemmed, then soon lifted her head with a grin.

"Let's buy something for Nanase anyway. And for Akutagawa and Chia! It's important to build up a lot of little things for the people you talk to every day. There are romances and friendships that begin with souvenirs. Look, doesn't that dried persimmon look yummy?"

"What kind of romance starts with a dried persimmon?"

Even though I told her that all I needed was stuff for my family, she wasn't the type to back down. In the end, she burst out with her usual line, "It's an order from your president," and I was forced to buy a ballpoint pen with a weird crab character on top of it for Akutagawa, a paperweight shaped like a baby bird for Takeda, and a traditional-looking phone strap with a small peach-colored woven ball on it for Kotobuki.

Akutagawa and Takeda were one thing, but when would I ever get the chance to give Kotobuki her souvenir?

The round-faced older man at the register had his lips curved in amusement, as if he'd overheard our discussion. I thought my face would catch fire while he was totaling everything up.

Tohko didn't even notice and struck up a conversation with the man.

"Excuse me, are there any sightseeing spots you would recommend around here?"

"In this area, there's nothing to see but the scenery. Though the leaves are wonderful in the fall. Where are you two kids staying?"

"We know someone who has a villa on the mountain. We're staying there."

The man reeled back suddenly and shouted, "A villa?! You don't mean the Himekura place!"

"Uh, th-that's right," Tohko answered with some confusion.

Instantly, eyes in the shop and on the street turned toward us and a fearful murmur began.

"She said she's staying at the Himekura villa!"

"What?! That evil house?! Isn't that where the oracle fought a ghoul and got devoured long ago?"

An oracle? A ghoul? What in the world?!

As I stood dumbfounded, even more unsettling words came crashing in on me.

"The Himekura estate where all those murders happened and turned it into a sea of blood?!"

"The place is still crawling with goblins and ghosts and whatever else, no? How terrifying! Those kids are gonna get cursed."

Tohko couldn't handle ghosts, and she started to look as if she might faint.

People were gathering on the street, and the sound of them talking grew louder and louder, and the reserve in their looks eroded until we were being treated exactly as if we were exotic animals in a freak show.

Gripping the plastic bag with our souvenirs inside and cutting through the crowd of people, we fled the scene.

Running beside me, Tohko was shaking her head weakly, half in tears, and shouting, "No! I hate ghooooooosts!"

Chapter 2-The Oracle Who Read from Books.

"What did they mean about ghosts?! Tell me!"

Late that night, the moment Maki got home, Tohko chased after her, her braids flying.

"Okay, okay. I know perfectly well that you're afraid of ghosts, but don't be so cute when you're afraid. It makes me want to sweep you up in my arms."

"I-I'm not afraid! Only little kids get scared of ghosts."

Wearing a cardigan over her nightgown, Tohko planted her trembling feet and put on a show of bravery.

Of course, she was transparent to Maki, who sat down and crossed her legs on the sofa. She plucked up the sandwich and olives that Uotani had brought for her dinner, grinning.

"It's nothing at all to worry about. The rumors simply got blown out of proportion and passed on with exaggerations as a cursed mansion or an evil house. The part about the deaths happened almost eighty years ago. The rituals and renovations have all been done."

Tohko sucked in her breath with a squeak. And even though I had turned away because I'd said I didn't want to get involved, I leaned in closer.

"Is it true there were deaths?!"

Maki said simply, "Yes, six in all."

Six deaths!

Tohko's face stiffened and went rigid. I started to feel sick, too.

Maki was the only one enjoying herself. She took another bite of her roast beef sandwich.

"Well, that wasn't unusual before the war. It happened all the time."

"I don't think that's true! It wasn't the warring states, period-the democratic reforms at the turn of the century had already happened."

"Y-yeah. Konoha's right. Six deaths is incredible. What would someone have to do to get that many deaths?"

Maki sipped her tea elegantly, and after assuming an air of importance, she told us what had happened.