Her face tense, Tohko asked, "There's a little girl named Sayo at the estate. Is she a descendant, too?"

"Yes, she is. Her grandmother Hiroko worked at the Himekura estate. She's been teased at school for being possessed by the goblin, and she basically never attends. Her mother had her at a rather late age and died when Sayo was a baby. Sayo was raised by her grandmother Hiroko after that, but then Hiroko passed away too, and she grew more withdrawn than ever. She pretty much stopped talking to anybody..."

Tohko returned hastily, "Hold on, if Sayo's grandmother worked at the mansion, then shouldn't she have died eighty years ago?"

Of course! Weren't all of the servants supposed to have been killed?!

"I heard there were six deaths, including the young lady's."

"Lessee, there's the young lady, the butler, the gardener, the housekeeper, the cook-" The man counted off on his fingers and then smiled. "Ah, the last one was the dog. They say there was foam coming out of his mouth."

The dog? Then the maid- "The night of the incident, Hiroko had gone back to her family. And when she returned the next day, it was a sea of blood."

"So Sayo's grandmother was the first on the scene?"

"Yup. She was still eight or thereabouts, so it must have been a shock to her."

The shop owner shook his head, looking pained.

I pictured a hellish scene spreading before the eyes of an eight-year-old girl, and I felt another chill.

Dark red bloodstains spattered on the floor and walls.

A rancid smell. Five dead bodies slashed, shot, and stabbed.

How had the little girl felt looking at it? The impact of it could have easily destroyed her mind. Tohko was pale, too.

"But the worst was the man who tossed the young lady aside and left. If it hadn't been for him, the young lady probably wouldn't have died. Saying she was convalescing or that she was an oracle, that was just to keep up appearances; but actually she'd pretty much been expelled from her family, so they ought to've gotten married."

"What do you mean she was expelled?" I asked, and the man looked away as if he'd said something he shouldn't have.

"Oh, you know... I just thought there must have been a good reason she couldn't be at home, for a young girl in that time to live in a mansion deep in the mountains, away from her family."

While we were talking, Tohko put her index finger to her lips and sank into thought.

When we left the shop, Tohko grabbed the hem of my shirt again.

"Hey, Konoha, let's go to the pond."

She looked straight up at me with brooding eyes.

I remembered Uotani telling me the pond was dangerous, and a warning bell went off inside my head.

But considering I'd already come this far, there was no way I wasn't going to go. Plus, Tohko would probably just go by herself.

I nodded and said okay in resignation.

The pond was located close to the mansion.

In the choking fragrance of dirt and greenery, we pushed ahead through the undergrowth, when suddenly the view opened up.

Hedged in by the knobby trees and overhanging ivy, the water lay deep and tranquil.

It was bigger than I'd thought, more like a lake than a pond. The far bank was a low precipice, but on this side the water's edge was like a beach with soft grass growing on it.

I stood beside Tohko and gazed at the water's surface.

"So this is the home of a ghoul."

"Don't say that."

"So this is where Yuri drowned herself."

"Th-that either...don't remind me of that stuff, if you don't mind."

"Why not?"

Tohko's cheeks flushed, she turned her eyes downward, and she fidgeted.

"Well, I mean...you know how they say that if you talk about the dead, they'll come back as a ghost. Oh, of course, I don't believe in such superstitions."

Her eyes were swimming with the proof that she believed it completely, and she looked as if she was on the verge of crying just a little bit. Would this still turn into an investigation with her like this?

And well, I did wish Tohko would settle down, but...

Washed in the sunlight pouring down around us, the pond sparkled brilliantly.

A bird was singing cutely in the branches of a tree near us. Insects were hopping around in the grass. The air was cool and clear, and the scene was so tranquil it was impossible to believe there could be a ghoul living here.

Did Shirayuki really exist?

A woman with long white hair, drenched in blood-what was she and where did she come from? Was it true that even now she roamed the village calling Akira's name?

In her diary, Yuri had sounded afraid of Shirayuki.

"Tohko, would you tell me more from the diary? What happened to the two of them after Akira came?"

With her eyes still trained on the pond, Tohko whispered quietly, as if relating a tale from the distant past.

"Yuri tells him that the book is very important to her and that it has her father's message in it, so she's sorry, but she can't give it to him. Akira starts staying at the mansion as a guest so that he can persuade her."

"And then?"

"They spend a fairy-tale time together. No, it was a fairy tale...Like how Akira Hagiwara tells his friend in Demon Pond..."

With that, she recited the lines from Demon Pond.

"'Just by coming here, you've probably become a character in the story, too. I'm beyond that. I've become the story itself'-like that."

Melancholy and tenderness filled her eyes like light, and her warm voice spoke the words Yuri had written in the diary.

As if Yuri herself were speaking. Gently, softly, her voice slight.

"I've come to care for someone for the first time.

"No, that word doesn't express it. This has got to be love.

"I love Akira.

"Oh, I never would have believed something like this would happen to me.

"Now I'm living in the world of the stories I've only read about and dreamed of before."

"Akira has just lost his mother, and he was very empty and sad and hurt. Something bad happened at his university, too, and he could no longer believe people, and he wanted to simply cast everything aside. He revealed that to me, looking morose.

"Poor Akira.

"I wish I could hug you in my arms like your mother did."

"Akira is dearer to me than anything.

"I love his silky hair falling across his forehead.

"I love his deep voice reading Goethe and Schiller in the original.

"I love the mournful fold of his eye.

"I love his slender eyebrows.

"I love his thin lips.

"More than all of it, I love his face when it breaks into an innocent, childlike grin.

"Away! Away! Oh, how wonderful it would be if I could go with you."

"When I'm thinking or embarrassed beyond belief, I touch my earlobes.

"'Is that a habit of yours?'

"Akira pointed it out gently with a profound look, as if it was more adorable than he could bear; then he touched my ear, and my cheeks started burning."

"I wish this fairy tale could go on forever.

"I will keep my promise.

"So I pray that I might be with Akira for the rest of my life."

Yuri's words and feelings were brought quietly back to life through Tohko's voice.

Tohko closed her eyes and smiled.

Their love had been so innocent.

Had been so happy.

Like out of a story-what could only happen in a dream-that kind of beautiful, kind, tender love.

The breeze rustled Tohko's long braids and the skirt of her white dress. The pure light spilling through the gaps in the trees poured over Tohko's willowy body.

She looked as if Yuri's soul had inhabited her body, and my heartbeat quickened. I had a strange feeling that I had become Akira and was looking at Yuri, who had taken on Tohko's shape.

My chest hurt.

Yuri was my love.

Tohko continued to relate Yuri's emotions.

Her expression grew sadder and sadder, her face fell, and her eyes, which she had kept shut as if in a dream, softly opened.

"I went to the pond with Akira.

"It was the first time I had ever gone out at night. I've always gone to the pond in the afternoon before. I mean, at night Shirayuki might appear.

"Akira told me, 'I'm here, so there's nothing at all to be afraid of,' and he held my hand the entire time.

"It occurred to me that Shirayuki might be secretly watching me as my face turned red on the bank of the pond in the moonlight; my heart almost stopped and I started to feel afraid, but I couldn't release his hand. In fact, I squeezed his fingers tighter, and it made him ask, 'Is something the matter?'

"I was frightened despite my joy, and after we got home, I hugged Chiro and cried."

Silence fell.

Tohko pursed her lips and gazed at her feet with a distant expression.

I recalled again the sad face I'd seen in the pale light of dawn, unable to tell whether it was dream or reality.

Tohko was making the same face now.

The old diary resting on her lap.

The red dianthus.

My breathing grew strained and my throat squeezed tight.

"...After that, Akira's friend came from Tokyo to get him. They were going to study abroad in Germany on public funds thanks to a professor's recommendation, so it says his friend told him to hurry back to Tokyo."

My body chilled slightly to hear the sad words she uttered with her head still hanging.

Akira had gone.