The young man came to rejoin Akari, who simply watched the beast as it grew smaller the farther away it went.
While the young man had faced off against the creature, his face had been fierce, but now he looked at Akari with a kindly smile.
“You can close the book now. Thank you for the assistance.”
“Oh, right.”
Akari closed the book with a clap, and the young man’s golden hair turned black once more. He held his hand out for the book, and as Akari passed it to him, she took note of the title, which read, Kotogami: Tomohito Yagyou.
A Kotogami: a word spirit, a divine soul enshrined within the pages of a sacred book.
“You’re a Kotogami?”
Akari looked up at his beautiful face, and the young man smiled, narrowing his eyes gently and nodding.
“I am. My name is Tomohito Yagyou.”
The young man introduced himself, pronouncing each word slowly as if relishing the opportunity. His figure was backlit by the brightness of the nearby flames. It was like he’d stepped right out of one of those stories Akari despised.
In this country, the Yamato Empire, yokai coexisted with humans.
Since time immemorial, the yokai had been here, in every town and village, every river and tree. Some fell in love with humans. Some sought to destroy them. To tame the unruly yokai spirits and quell their pandemonium, humans created Kotogatari, spirit tomes, in which a spirit’s soul could be captured and enshrined.
To define these book-enshrined spirits with a name, humans referred to them as Kotogami, word spirits, and treated them with reverence and curiosity.
At least, the ones who liked stories did. Akari was not among their number.
Luckily, the flames were extinguished before they could spread to the surrounding area. But Akari’s lodgings were burned to cinders. So perhaps it wasn’t so lucky for her.
Akari went over to a nearby public telephone and dialed the office of her company, which owned the lodging house.
“Yes, it’s a shame about the lodging house. But there isn’t anything we can do about it at this moment. We’ll have to consult with the people in charge of these things.”
“Yes, but…”
“Yes, yes, I know. The lodging house was very convenient. But you’re of marriageable age. Maybe this is a good time to think about finding a husband. We’ll arrange some compensatory funds next week. Until then, you’re on your own. Good day to you.”
“Thank you for placing a call today.”
As the other party hung up and the operator’s smooth voice came down the line, Akari heaved a sigh and replaced the telephone receiver.
As a working woman, Akari was confronted with the marriage suggestion on a daily basis. There was no point arguing back. And she knew her boss had only brought it up now because he genuinely believed it would be the easiest way to deal with her predicament.
“I always knew my company was stingy.”
Akari stepped away from the public telephone and returned to the site of the fire. She was hungry and didn’t know what else to do, so she sat down on a piece of rubble and bit into a grilled chicken skewer. Miraculously, her dinner had made it through the incident unscathed.
The chicken was completely cold now, but the meat was juicy, and the sauce was sweet and tangy. Akari was starting to feel a lot better, despite her shock.
“So I have to fend for myself while they sort out all the red tape, do I? And here I am, alone in the capital without a single relative. Find myself a husband. Are they insane? That’s their suggestion? In today’s day and age, financial security is a far better option than marriage.”
Despite the Imperial Capital being awash with Westernization and modernization, people still thought a woman belonged in the home. And even working women were expected to quit once they reached marrying age. Female company employees were looked down upon all the time. Forget marriage, Akari wanted to be self-sufficient. And she was sick of people’s attitudes. Nobody understood her at all.
“I wonder when they’re going to get around to providing me with alternative living arrangements…”
Maybe never? That terrible possibility suddenly occurred to her.
Her company paid below the average, but Akari had chosen it because they offered free lodgings for employees. Even if she could find a new, reasonably priced accommodation, her current wages would barely cover her expenses.
“And the cheapest places to rent are always the scary places. Oh no, where am I going to sleep tonight? The bank is closed, so I can’t withdraw any money until tomorrow. Am I going to have to sleep under the stars? Oh, but hold on… It’s Sunday tomorrow, so the bank will be closed then too…”
A cold gust of wind buffeted her, causing her to shrink in on herself.
Everything was just awful. Why was this happening to her?
“Excuse me?”
It was getting close to sundown. If she was going to act, she’d need to get a move on.
Akari was gobbling down the last of her grilled chicken, planning to rummage in the wreckage to see if there was anything left of her furniture and other possessions, when…
“Excuse me!”
Akari was sure the voice wasn’t addressing her. But she looked up anyway and saw the Kotogami who’d rescued her earlier, Tomohito Yagyou, standing there.
After he’d saved her from all the ruckus, she’d been so desperate to call her company she’d dashed off without even saying goodbye, let alone a thank-you. By the time her call was done, he was nowhere in sight, so there was nothing she could do about it. Still, she felt guilty for not properly thanking him when she had the chance.
Now that she was able to get a good, calm look at him, she could see he was a fine figure of a young man indeed.
He was tall and well proportioned, and his crisp white shirt and brown tailored three-piece suit hung perfectly on his frame.
She hadn’t noticed it before, but now she spotted a bag slung over his shoulder, just the right size to hold a book.
He could be an actor with those looks, thought Akari distractedly, standing up and bowing her head politely.
“Uh…Mr. Yagyou? Allow me to apologize for not saying thank you for your assistance earlier.”
“Tomohito’s just fine. At any rate, never mind about that! What are you going to do now?”
Feeling her cheeks grow hot under the Kotogami’s—Tomohito’s—concerned gaze, Akari averted her eyes.
He’d come from the pages of a book—a Kotogatari, the representation of everything Akari disliked. And yet he seemed so genuinely concerned for her well-being. She couldn’t dislike him just for being what he was. She wasn’t that immature. After all, she’d been working to support herself for two years now.
She was more concerned about the fact that he’d caught her sitting on the roadside uncouthly scarfing down cold grilled chicken skewers.
Akari quickly hid the empty skewers back in the oiled paper before she answered him.
“Oh, I’ll manage somehow. Things tend to work themselves out, don’t they?”
Akari knew she couldn’t rely on anyone’s help. She always had to put on a strong front to survive, but it was strange how saying it out loud made her feel better. And she had some delicious grilled chicken in her belly now. She was ready to take on the world again. But then her eyes opened wide as she saw what Tomohito was doing.
With a fluid motion, he dropped to one knee in front of her.
For a supposedly divine being, he could show a little more concern for his nice suit.
As Akari stared in shock at his straight-backed kneeling form, his perfect skin blushed a deep red as he spoke.
“Please become my mistress!”
Akari shot him a look of disgust, as if he were a cockroach.
His eyebrows leaped up in surprise as Akari recomposed her features.
Then she turned on her heel and started heading for the rubble.
If you spent enough time in the Imperial Capital, you were bound to run into one of them—the big-city perverts and the panhandlers. But right here, right now? Ugh.
It seemed as if these days, even Kotogami were running honey traps. Or maybe this young man was planning to use his good looks to leech off a rich older woman? Spirit or not, she didn’t have time for this tomfoolery.
“P-Please, hold on just a minute!”
“I don’t even have the funds to support myself, much less a boy toy, so please look elsewhere!”
Tomohito sprang to his feet to stop her. Even though Akari shot him a glare that was several degrees below freezing, he was undeterred.
“Please don’t run away. I really do want to help you.”
“So that ‘be my mistress’ bit, that was just a joke?”
“I was a hundred percent serious!”
“…The finest of days to you, sir.”
Cutting him down with the polite parting words she’d learned at her all-girls school, Akari hurried over to a police officer who was sifting through the burned remains of the building. The police were known for being heavy-handed. If the young spirit kept following her, the officer would surely intervene on her behalf.
Akari had always thought a Narrator was needed to call forth a Kotogami from a Kotogatari book. Maybe this officer would know more about how it all worked.
“Please, just hear me out! I’m only a Kotogami—I assure you I’m not dangerous!”
“Officer! Can I get some help here?”
“Ah, wait! Please wait!”