"The old man died, and in order to protect Yuri, who lived in the village, Akira stayed in Kotohiki Valley as the new belfry keeper and became Yuri's husband. But there was an ongoing drought, and the villagers decided to make Yuri a living sacrifice. Yuri died and Akira stopped ringing the temple bell. Instantly there was a flood and the village was swallowed up."

"The diary mentioned the name Shirayuki, right? It said it was a ghoul, I thought."

Tohko replied, "Shirayuki was the daughter of the dragon god who was sealed in Demon Pond, a princess. She wanted more than anything to visit her lover who lived in another pond, but she was bound by the vow inherited from her ancestors and couldn't leave the lake.

"This angered her, and in order to break the vow, she ordered the goblins that were her minions to knock the bell down. But when she heard Yuri singing as she waited for Akira, she held herself back. Yuri was something like an oracle."

"That's the same situation as Yuri Himekura, then. There's a ghoul, there's an oracle, and there's a man who comes from another place."

"Yes...that's probably why our Yuri identified with this story so much. And there was another major element that made Demon Pond a special book for Yuri. The fact that Yuri and the student who came to her estate would fall in love had been inevitable ever since Demon Pond was written-ever since Yuri came into possession of it."

Her voice was painfully gentle, echoing through the room where time had stopped.

Yuri Himekura was overlaid on top of Tohko.

"What do you mean?"

Her clear gaze quietly turned on me. In the distance, Baron was barking. Dust danced in the feeble light shining through the window.

"The student who came to this villa was looking for a book that was a keepsake of his mother. It was this book. One book that Kyka wrote brought the two of them together."

Had the diary mentioned that, too?

Tohko lowered her eyelashes, then looked back at me and declared in a strained voice, "The student who came looking for this book was named Akira."

I gasped at the strange symbols that were so reminiscent of a story.

Yuri was the girl in the villa.

Akira had come to visit.

It could never happen in real life. But it was an inevitability called chance that had happened.

If the two of them met, they would be bound to fall in love; they were destined to meet and they had met. When they learned each other's names, how had Akira looked in Yuri's eyes and Yuri in Akira's?

Yuri at least wouldn't have been able to help falling for Akira.

A young man with the important name of Akira had appeared before Yuri, who idolized love, and who idolized the heroines of Kyka's stories. It was as though Yuri had cherished the idea of him even before they'd met.

"There are a lot of couples in Kyka's stories who fall in love at first sight. Their eyes make contact for only a moment and everything around them is different, the meaning of their life changes, and their souls get deeply bound to one another. Yuri and Akira probably fell in love the same way."

A deep gloom showed in Tohko's eyes, though she spoke matter-of-factly.

Of course, this story didn't have a happy ending. Akira had cast Yuri off, and Yuri had drowned herself in the pond.

"You know, Konoha, their story resembles Demon Pond, but there are parts that take after The Grass Labyrinth, too."

I dropped my eyes to the book in my hands.

"With this?"

"For one thing, the protagonists' names. Demon Pond has Akira Hagiwara, and The Grass Labyrinth has Akira Hagoshi. Their names are slightly different, but they're both Akira.

"Akira Hagiwara comes to Kotohiki Valley while collecting stories passed down in various regions, but...Akira Hagoshi goes on a journey because he wants to hear once more the rhyme his mother used to sing for him before she died, and he stays at the cursed Akiya mansion, where a lot of supernatural things happen to him."

That definitely resembled the Akira who appeared at the villa looking for a book that was a keepsake of his mother's.

Wait- I felt a tug and remembered something about when I'd come here.

"It's very important, so tell them exactly that without any mistakes."

The lines Takamizawa had made me say. Could that have been-?

"What's wrong, Konoha? You're making a weird face."

I revealed to Tohko what had happened when I'd come to the house and had actually tried saying the words.

"...I'm Konoha Inoue from Tokyo. I'm a second-year at Seijoh Academy...I heard there's something I'm looking for here. Is the master of the house available?"

Tohko's eyes went round.

"Those are the exact same words Akira said when he came here! They were written in the diary.

"Yuri was hiding in the shadow of a tree, listening to the exchange between Akira and the butler! And then she said, 'I'm the master,' and stepped out."

I felt as if a cold hand had taken hold of my heart.

So there had been a deeper meaning to those words after all!

Tohko was completely wound up and walked briskly around, clutching the copy of Demon Pond.

"Argh, I wonder what this means. I mean, making you give your pedigree and the name of your school even.

"A student comes from Tokyo to stay at the mansion where a young Himekura lady is in residence looking for something important-it's exactly like eighty years ago!

"And that's not all!"

She came to an abrupt stop and brought her face within inches of mine, her jaw clenched in an intense expression.

"The name of the dog."

"The dog? You mean Chiro?"

"No, not Chiro. Baron. They kept a black shepherd dog at the villa as a guard dog back then. Its name was Baron. There's an entry where Baron bites Chiro and Yuri tends to her. That's the same name as the dog they're keeping here now! Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"No."

I answered instantly. The guard dog they'd kept eighty years ago was also named Baron-and it was a black shepherd. It couldn't be chance.

"No, Maki has intentionally crafted a situation identical to eighty years ago. She made you say the same thing Akira said and named the dog Baron, and-!"

I got goose bumps and felt the core of my brain grow hotter. I recalled the people looking out at me with blanched faces from doors and the shadows of hallways.

Of course, they would be afraid! Because the same thing as eighty years ago was happening in a mansion that was rumored to be cursed.

"But in that case, wouldn't Maki have to fall in love with me at first sight? Plus, that would mean you were Shirayuki and have to be a ghoul, you know."

I got whapped on the head instantly.

"I am not a ghoul!"

"But if the young lady and student are Maki and I, the ghoul is the only one left."

This time she flicked my forehead hard with one finger.

Tohko looked livid. Her face was bright red and she was trembling.

"This isn't a joke!!!"

Uh-oh-she was in kind of a dangerous mood.

"So then, are you saying that I, the pure and lovely book girl, will slaughter everyone and turn the mansion into a sea of blood?"

"No, I..."

I cringed and backed up. Hugging Demon Pond to her chest in one arm, Tohko clenched the other fist tightly and waved it around.

"As if I could be a ghoul! I don't eat people, I don't show up dripping with blood and holding on to a dead arm I found in a pond, and I don't relentlessly haunt or curse people for nearly eighty years! Is that how you see me, Konoha? You're saying that the maidenly black hair that symbolizes the book girl looks white to you, aren't you?"

"Whoa, whoa, I'm not the one who made you be the ghoul. That was Maki!"

She'd been batting at me, thwapping at my head, but then she froze.

"You're right, everything is that black-hearted woman's fault. Argggggggggh, I will neeeeeeever forgive her! I'll expose Maki's plot and get the dirt on her! And then I'm gonna clear all my debts and I'll order her around! This is a battle that will decide the future of the book club!"

Argh, the same old rampage had begun. I didn't even want to get involved in any more weird stuff.

As I sank into a funk, the book girl grabbed my collar and crisply said, "Top priority investigation! Come with me, Konoha!"

The middle-aged man at the souvenir shop remembered us.

"Well, now, it's the little goblin girl and the student."

He greeted us out of nowhere with a joking smile.

"The fact that there's a young lady and a student staying at the Himekura estate is making the rounds, y'know. It seems there's another girl, the friend of the young lady, and people're talking about who it might be, and there's a big hubbub to put the cherry on top and say it's the ghoul," he explained with a laugh.

Naturally Tohko got quite annoyed.

"That's so mean! I'm not a ghoul! I'm an ordinary high school girl, a book girl, exactly as I seem to be."

I wish you wouldn't force it, especially in a place like this, I thought. Beside her, my cheeks turned pink.

The man quickly apologized and invited us to have some tea with the sweet mugwort dumplings he was selling, wrapped up in bamboo leaves.

Tohko wouldn't know whether it was any good...but employing her imaginative powers, she gave her impressions convincingly and became friendly again.

"Ooh, yummy. It tastes like a haiku by Kobayashi Issa! The aroma of the bamboo is so airily refined, and the sweet bean filling is gentle and not too sugary."

The man presented us with several of the stories about Shirayuki that were told in the village.

"Well, I think the idea of ghouls in this day and age is laughable, too. But there are actually quite a few people who've seen Shirayuki. Have you heard the story of how she appeared from the pond where the young lady drowned herself, covered in blood and holding an arm between her teeth? There are also stories about a woman with white hair dressed in a kimono standing on the bank of the pond or of seeing a woman with white hair disappear at the estate. At night, there'll be a tapping at the windows of those involved in the construction, and when they look over, a woman whose face is hidden behind white hair is peeking in through the curtains...she whispers, 'Akira, Akira,' bitterly..."

Tohko had grabbed my sleeve, probably out of fright.

"They say that even at the main house of the Himekuras, there was bad luck after the young lady died. There's that little shrine at the estate as you know. The young lady is apparently laid to rest beneath it, but the reason they did that instead of interring her in a graveyard was because they wanted to contain the curse, they say."

So Uotani had been praying at Yuri's grave.

"The topic of development has come up several times, starting fifty years ago, and each time Shirayuki appears and there's a big flap over it. Especially with that fire fifty years ago."

The guy shuddered.

"The flames broke out at the mansion suddenly, and the master was dangerously close to death. He happened to be in residence at exactly that time. They never learned the cause of the fire, and everyone thought it must be Shirayuki's curse."

I remembered the mansion's facade being somehow out of balance. That must have been due to repairs done on portions damaged after the fire. Fifty years before would mean the master who'd been close to death would have been Maki's grandfather or great-grandfather.

"After all, it's been nearly eighty years since that first incident, and we're not so afraid as all that of the curse. But the descendants of the people killed in the mansion; now...it must've been very tough for them."

The man frowned and lowered his voice slightly.

"The village is so small. After the incident, they were said to be connected to that evil house, and they became the target of gossip everywhere they went. It probably caused them some unpleasant feelings. Maybe because of that there's still a gulf between them and the other residents. I wouldn't say they're ostracized, but they're in a tricky position."

But the families of those who died should have been considered victims... I felt bad for them. But maybe it was because the area was so closed off from the world that Shirayuki stayed alive.

"Could we talk to those descendants?" Tohko asked.

Then the man said something surprising.

"That's the bunch working at the mansion where you all are staying, Miss. The butler, the gardener, the housekeeper, the cook, and the maid-exactly like it was eighty years ago."

Tohko's eyes widened and she gulped. I thought my heart might stop.

It hadn't been only the young lady, the student, the ghoul, and the dog that Maki deployed! How could even the servants be the same as eighty years ago?! And they were the descendants of the victims?!

It was as if an icicle had been pressed to my neck. My skin prickled.

What on earth was Maki trying to do?!