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AFTER she’d finished arranging her belongings in her new room, Akari took a breather.
Mayoi had transported her things to the room for her, but Akari had taken charge of arranging them to her own preferences.
The room was very large, and Akari felt a little bit anxious having this much space. Mayoi had done a great job with it, though, and the view from the window was of the department stores in town. It felt very modern, and very cozy.
The house had been put to rights, but the garden and the rest of the grounds still needed a lot of work.
Akari was almost done with her break when she heard a knock on the door.
She opened it to find Tomohito standing there, his nice three-piece suit looking a little disheveled.
“Mistress Akari, I’ve finished tidying up downstairs.”
“Good job. But why do you look like such a mess?”
“Mayoi and I were negotiating the division of labor… I’m afraid I lost half of the cooking duties to her.”
Akari couldn’t imagine why that would have messed up his suit like that. But as she looked at Tomohito standing there vibrating with frustration, she decided she didn’t want to bother asking.
And Tomohito didn’t seem about to elaborate either.
“Mayoi has already prepared today’s lunch. Would you come down?”
“Sure. But before that, Tomohito…”
Akari was curious to see what Mayoi had whipped up for lunch, but she needed to talk to Tomohito about something important first.
“You chased all those other Narrators out for Mayoi’s sake, didn’t you?”
His light-brown eyes blinked several times. Akari couldn’t help being struck all over again by the handsomeness of his features, but she carried on.
“From what I read in the journals, those Narrators were extremely irritated. Talking about various…interferences…”
“…Many of the Kotogatari in our collection contain Kotogami with…idiosyncratic personalities…”
“Actually, I recall some choice journal passages: ‘Why won’t that Kotogami do what I tell him to?’ ‘Why did I get recalled from duty? I haven’t even had the chance to make my report yet.’ And so on. A lot of entries complaining about a certain Kotogami. You know what I think? All these Narrator reassignments, they were a result of you whispering tales in Munakata’s ear about their incompetence. Am I wrong?”
Tomohito’s eyes grew wider as Akari reeled off the sections of the journals she’d memorized. She’d guessed from their conversations that Tomohito and Munakata had that kind of setup going on, but his reaction just then confirmed her suspicions.
“You memorized the journals?”
“Just the complaints, of which there were a lot. And I’ve got a good idea now that this Bookhouse comes with some serious baggage attached.”
“It’s true, there’s a lot I’ve left out… But…didn’t you believe me when I said I did nothing to help Mayoi when those Narrators were here?”
“No, not for a second. Not after seeing how mad she was when she thought you were betraying her, bringing a stranger into the house. Mayoi’s smart. Smart enough to know how cute she is. And smart enough to get mad when she thinks the one person who always had her back has turned on her.”
“I see. So then, what is the problem? I seem to have done something to displease you, but I don’t know what it is.”
Tomohito hung his head miserably and Akari blinked, taken aback. He looked stricken, as if devastated to have angered her. His aura of mystery had cracked.
“I’m not saying you’ve done anything wrong, only…why purposefully make yourself look like the bad guy?”
“That wasn’t my intention…”
Tomohito looked bewildered, as if he’d been unaware of his own actions.
It was true: he’d hadn’t lied, except by omission. But he’d intentionally phrased things in ways that obfuscated the truth. For all his fawning over Akari, he’d been keeping her at a distance. At least, that was the impression she got.
As a result, she started deliberating over how much of a distance to keep from him as well.
“So when you got out Mayoi’s Kotogatari and recommended her to me, you weren’t doing it for her benefit?”
“No, I simply thought she might be of some use to you.”
He obviously doted on Mayoi, and Akari was starting to wonder if he was just using her to help heal the little girl’s loneliness. But Tomohito had brushed the question off lightly.
He was gazing into space, a faraway look in his eyes.
“Perhaps I wanted Mayoi to also experience the happiness that comes from having one’s Kotogatari truly read and appreciated… Such a thing brings great joy to us Kotogami.”
“So someone read you and appreciated you once?”
“Oh yes… I was given the most splendid, most unique reading… But then…”
Tomohito’s lips curled into a happy smile, but Akari thought she could detect a hint of pain in his features.
She sighed, though, deciding it would be better not to read too much into a look.
At any rate, further digging at this point would be nothing more than a waste of time and energy. It was clear Tomohito meant to serve her well. That would have to do for now.
She did want to ask him exactly what kind of Kotogami he was, but she decided to shelve that one. It was interesting how differently Mayoi’s Kotogatari seemed to be written compared with his, but it was none of her concern. She wasn’t going to get herself involved. No, she was done interrogating him.
As she walked past, she placed her hand on his shoulder for a moment.
“You did a good job against those Narrators, that’s all I’ll say. I think the way you handled them was pretty cool.”
“…!”
Those Narrators sounded like a stuck-up bunch of snobs to Akari, from what she’d read of their journals. In her opinion, Tomohito deserved a gold star for protecting Mayoi from them.
She headed into the corridor with a spring in her step, leaving Tomohito gawping behind her.
“Since the house is all done, I’ll be heading into town again after lunch. Accompany me.”
“…Certainly, Mistress Akari.”
Feeling half excited, half nervous to see what Mayoi had prepared for lunch, Akari headed downstairs.
Tomohito remained standing in the doorway.
“You truly do seem to have forgotten it all…and yet, you haven’t changed a bit.”
Akari didn’t hear Tomohito’s hushed murmuring, nor did she see the bittersweet look on his face.
Incidentally, she had to concede that the lunch Mayoi prepared was far more delicious than anything she could ever make…