Book Girl and the Captive Fool Read Free Page B

rejection of naturalism. So it came to me: This is the reckless act of youth and love by a person who supports naturalism from the very bottom of his heart.”
    Tohko’s imagination was what was reckless.
    I slumped, but Akutagawa spoke up calmly beside me.
    “You’re mistaken, actually.”
    “What? I… I am?” Tohko blinked in wonder.
    “Yes…”
    An awkward silence filled the cramped room.
    “So then, why did you cut up those books?”
    She tilted her head in timid curiosity, and her long, thin braids spilled over her frail shoulders.
    Apparently Tohko’s confusion set him at ease, because Akutagawa sat up straighter and began to tell his story with an honorable set to his face.
    “My midterm grades weren’t what I was hoping for, and I was annoyed. I’ve had this desire to hurt something—to cut something up for a while… I thought that maybe cutting up a book would satisfy that urge, and so I tried it.”
    His grades weren’t what he was hoping for? Hadn’t he been fifth-highest ranked in our grade? And if you were participating in club activities at this school, wasn’t that good enough? But maybe for Akutagawa, fifth was a failure that made him cringe in pain?
    Tohko, who regularly bragged (?) that she had never gotten more than a thirty in math, also looked like she was having trouble believing him.
    “You cut up a book because you got a bad grade?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s it?”
    “Yes.”
    “It really has nothing to do with naturalism?”
    “Absolutely nothing.”
    Tohko’s face drooped in disappointment, and she fiddled with the ends of her braids.
    Akutagawa stood up, back still straight, and bowed his head deeply to us both.
    “I’m sorry for causing you all this trouble. I’ll go to the library to apologize and pay for the books I cut up.”
    He moved to leave the room, but Tohko called out to him, “Wait! If you regret what you did, there’s no need to tell anyone it was you.”
    She smiled easily at Akutagawa as he turned back around, trying to break the tension.
    “You’ll still make it up, of course. Luckily, I have some pull with the library staff. I’ll say some bugs chewed them up and the book club’s alums donated new books, and they’ll switch them out. It’ll make the book club look good, too, so we both win.”
    I quickly nodded my agreement.
    “Yeah, that’s good. Let’s do that, Akutagawa,” I said.
    Tohko could come in handy sometimes after all. I was just thinking about writing her a super-sweet story later when she continued.
    “But! That isn’t going to solve the problems you’re facing. You need something more in order to free you from all your troubles, so you can savor your time in school with sunshiny feelings. And what you need is to throw yourself body and soul into a project with your friends. The vigor of youth will banish your stress to another world!”
    There were some ominous signs developing. Akutagawa also frowned suspiciously.
    Tohko flashed a grin at him.
    “So, Akutagawa, why don’t you participate in our play for the culture fair?”
    After Akutagawa asked for time to think about this, looking utterly dumbfounded, and left the room, I rounded on Tohko.
    “What are you talking about?! You never said anything about putting on a play for the culture fair!”
    Tohko hugged the back of the fold-up chair and looked up at me joyously.
    “But I already filed a request with the event board and got hold of a stage.”
    “You what?!”
    “Well, Maki made a crack about how the orchestra is putting on a concert in their personal music hall, but the book club isn’t doing anything again this year. And it hurt my feelings. Last year we didn’t put out a single newsletter, and all we did was an exhibit of classical literature… And then nobody came, and all you did was goof off and do crossword puzzles.”
    Somewhere in there she started glaring and pouting at me. I was fed up.
    “The reason we didn’t have a single newsletter was because