Book Girl and the Captive Fool Read Free

having a girlfriend. I knew lots of girls liked him, and just recently there had been acute, light blue envelope stuck into one of his textbooks. I’d asked him if it was a love letter, but he mumbled something and seemed uncomfortable.
    Since Akutagawa and I were the kind of acquaintances who didn’t even know much about each other’s families, it wasn’t that strange to find out that he had a girlfriend.
    “Er… I’m sorry. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.”
    Suddenly Sarashina’s face clouded over.
Oops—maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
    “… So Kazushi hasn’t mentioned me to you.”
    “Well, I mean, Akutagawa and I aren’t really that close…”
    I tried to correct myself quickly, but Sarashina didn’t seem to hear me.
    “Kazushi has been acting strangely lately. It seems like he’s avoiding me… I wonder if there’s another girl that he likes.”
    I saw tears gathering in her black eyes and didn’t know what to do. I was terrible at stuff like this. I tried to say something nice, though.
    “Are you sure it’s not a misunderstanding? I don’t think Akutagawa’s the type to cheat on a girl. If it’s bothering you, maybe you should ask him about it?”
    Sarashina’s eyes teared up even more when I said that, and she fixed her gaze on at me.
    “Could you ask him for me, Inoue?”
    “What?”
    “I’m too scared to ask him myself. And you’re his friend, so he’ll probably tell you the truth. Please, Inoue? You’d be doing me a huge favor.”
    I caved. How did I always get dragged into things?
    After classes ended, I was struggling with how to broach the subject with Akutagawa.
    “Bye, Inoue.”
    Akutagawa was leaving the room. Oh no! I rushed after him.
    What else could I do? Better to get bad stuff over with quickly. I would just ask casually, so things didn’t get all serious.
    Akutagawa, are you dating anyone right now? A girl I know wanted me to ask you, so…
    But as he strode ahead, I couldn’t close the distance between us at all. Akutagawa belonged to the archery team and had been first-string at the practices since his first year. I thought he was going to the practice hall, but then he turned into the library.
    He went past the front desk until coming to a stop in the dimly lit corner at the very back, where they kept the Japanese literature, and began rummaging through the books. He would take a book off the shelf, riffle through the pages, then put it back.
    He seemed intent on choosing the right book, but maybe he was looking for something?
    Maybe it was my stress that made the area seem oddly quiet to the point that I was sure Akutagawa would hear me gulping. I hesitated to call out to him, squelching my breath and standing behind a shelf. Just then, Akutagawa took a fold-up box cutter out of the book bag slung over his shoulder.
    Wait, what?
    He pulled the blade open with his fingertips. My eyes caught the gleaming edge.
    What was he doing?
    I realized he was acting strangely, and my palms started to sweat. I held my breath and didn’t even dare blink as I watched him. His expression grim, Akutagawa rested the tip of the blade on the book’s center fold.
    He wasn’t—
    My heart skipped a beat.
    He drew the blade down the page with a practiced motion, and I flinched, as if the blade had pierced my own skin.
    The image of Tohko pouting and holding
Tomb of the Wild Chrysanthemum
out in front of me yesterday came vividly to mind.
    The pages that weren’t where they were supposed to be and the mark of a knife…
    Was Akutagawa the one who’d damaged the book?!
    I grabbed hold of a shelf. My fingers brushed a book and knocked it into the book beside it, making a slight sound.
    Akutagawa turned around, his eyes wide, and he stared at me blankly.
    I stared back at him in disbelief.
    Akutagawa’s brow furrowed in pain.
    My head was numb with heat, my thoughts utterly mired.
    “Akutagawa, why are you…”
    I managed to get the words out somehow.
    Just then, the sleeve