Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel (24 page)

“No snow fell, but look how pretty the moon is, Konoha. There’s a sentence about this in Chekhov’s ‘In the Ravine.’”

In the pale moonlight, her clear voice flowed like a hymn that purified the soul.

“‘However great the evil, still the night is calm and beautiful and, still there is and will be in this world a truth as calm and beautiful. And everything on earth is eagerly awaiting its union with that truth, as the moonlight unites with the night’…Ahhh, now I want to eat some Chekhov,” Tohko said rapturously.

The truth wasn’t necessarily totally beautiful.

There existed ugly and painful truths that made you want to look away from them.

But the night enveloped everything, and the moon shone down on us unchanging.

There were things that didn’t change and beautiful things.

The gentleness, the warmth of Tohko’s hand had taught me that.

I knew the reason I didn’t become a Phantom is because I met Tohko.

Because she held my hand like this.

Because she said important things to me.

I hoped that somewhere on his long journey, the other version of me who had decided to never sing again and had gone away would meet a person with a kind touch.

Please, please, God.

As I prayed, Tohko murmured kindly to me, “Konoha…even if I’m not around anymore, don’t stop writing okay?”

And without understanding why Tohko would say something like that right now, my heart squeezed tighter than I could stand at the sadness and intensity in her voice.

Are you saying I have to send you snacks even after you graduate?
I wanted to snipe back, but the words stuck in my throat.

“Do you think Miu Inoue will write another book?”

A question I’d been unable to answer.

But if Miu Inoue were to write another book—if he were to read it under some other sky—it was unlikely, but—

If that happened, maybe he would sing again, too.

In the spring, Tohko would be gone.

I couldn’t keep sniffling and crying forever. I had to become strong.

But for now, I was happy to feel the warmth of Tohko’s hand; I was relieved, and while I let my tears spill quietly out, I continued my prayers to the moon.

On the holy night the child of God came down to earth, I prayed for the happiness of Omi, of Kotobuki, and of Miu.

Nanase sent Yuka a Christmas card over e-mail.

There was a message that said she would always be best friends with Yuka; then she said that she’d replied to the e-mail from Inoue’s old girlfriend.

Saying that no matter how badly she talked about Inoue, no matter how mean she was, she wouldn’t lose faith.

That she would only believe what Inoue told her.

That tomorrow she was going to see Miu Asakura—

Hello, Mizuki Nomura here! The fourth story in the
Book Girl
series has arrived!

I’m
SO
sorry to everyone who expected Miu to show up!! I’m definitely not just messing with you. I always planned for Kotobuki to star in this one.

After all, if we went straight into the Miu story with Konoha still playing everything off, I would just feel so sorry for Kotobuki… This time, Konoha’s classmate finally took a step forward.

And so, the fourth story is
The Phantom of the Opera
. The Phantom is just so heartrending. I’m always moved, no matter how often I read it. There are a lot of interpretations of the Phantom in plays, movies, and novels, so it’s really interesting to compare them all! They each have their own flavor.

Speaking of flavor…the sugar tart that Tohko talks about in the opening scene is a dessert that I’m personally attached to. I only tasted it once more than ten years ago, but when I went looking for it again, I got an intense craving for it. It appears that using vergeoise made from sugar beets is the most common way of making it. And it looks really good, too!

When I’m writing Tohko’s meal scenes, I remember a flavor and think back on it, so I get hungry. It’s kind of a problem. But actually, in all the books up until now, I’ve only mixed in
one
thing that I absolutely hate and would never eat!

On to the thank-yous: Yuka wanting to live inside a Christmas tree is taken from the words of the performer Ms. Atsuko Enomoto, whom I heard as a guest on the radio. It was right at the time I was creating the plot for the fourth story, so I
begged
her to let me use it, and she did.

Ms. Enomoto, thank you for your gracious consideration.

Also Ms. Miho Takeoka, thank you sooooo much for your great pictures this time around!

I’m always running right up to the page limit, and it’s always hectic—I’m sorry!—but in the next volume it will, at last, be a story about “her” and Konoha, so please read it! See you then!

Mizuki Nomura

April 1, 2007