I clasped both of Kotobuki"s hands in my own, catching her by surprise, and with a smile that came straight from my heart, I said, "Thank you for getting into a fight with Miu for my sake, Kotobuki."

Her face bright red, Kotobuki looked bewildered.

Tohko stood at a slight distance from us, talking to Ryuto and the girls.

But just then- She turned back slightly in our direction.

Her lips curved a little, her eyes softened.

And a pretty smile came over her face. I could feel it.

Several days went by.

I heard that Akutagawa was going to the hospital every day. When I was eating lunch, he would tell me how Miu was doing unselfconsciously. He said she was dedicated to her physical therapy.

Takeda was back at school, too, and when I ran into her in the halls or the library, she would run up to me with a bright, puppy-like smile and a "Konohaaa!"

Takeda was going out with Ryuto experimentally.

"Ryu is the kind of person who doesn"t pick a step in order to get to his goal, so he"s like me that way, and I was scared, but...while I was out of school, he came to see me every day, and he talked to me. Even though I never said a word back, he talked in a cheerful voice for a really long time. Plus, the day that I asked Asakura"s mother to go to the hospital, it was Ryu who fixed it so that Tohko went to the hospital."

So when Tohko had said, "It also wasn"t chance that I ran into Konoha at the hospital," that"s what she"d meant.

Tohko, who had noticed Ryuto"s involvement with Miu, had probably deduced Takeda"s connection to Miu from there.

"I"m glad Ryu got her to go there. I"m glad that you didn"t totally break, Konoha," Takeda said with a clear smile, looking up at me.

I wonder if Takeda will start to love Ryuto. Although apparently he was still seeing other girls, just like always.

When I"d seen Ryuto before and thanked him for his help, he"d said with a slightly bitter expression, "I wanted you to cast off your past, the sooner the better."

On Sunday, Kotobuki and I went to our long-delayed movie.

"After we see the movie, could we...get something to eat or something?"

"Sure. To celebrate your recovery, I"ll treat you to whatever you want."

"Y-you don"t have to do that! It"s okay...but, um...after we eat, would you go shopping with me?"

"I"ll go wherever you want," I agreed with a smile. Kotobuki"s cheeks flushed, and she smiled happily. Both of us had been looking forward to Sunday a lot.

And as for Tohko- "Groooooossssss!"

At the book club"s room after school, she was clinging to the back of her chair, whimpering after eating one of my improv stories.

"It was so wonderful until the "Aegean Sea" appeared from inside the "suitcase!" Why did the seawater turn into "wood gluuuuuuuue"? It"s like putting grated yam that tastes like pudding on top of a paellaaaa! My mouth is so sticky!

"You"re so mean! Awful! How could you make me lower my guard and then write a story like that! You"re so negligent in rewarding your president for doing battle with the National Center Test."

"You got rejected for Tokyo University"s third-level science in the first round, didn"t you?"

"Urk."

"There are limits to showing off. I don"t know how a dunce in science and math was going for third-level science of all things."

"But I never wanted to go there ever since the anniversary test...in which case, I wanted to challenge myself with something I wouldn"t normally do."

"Then you got rejected in the first round and couldn"t even challenge yourself."

"I-I still have my first choice! I didn"t get rejected there!" Tohko declared tearfully.

I asked, "Then how about I write a supersweet story to cleanse your palate?"

"Mmmph, you mean it?"

Still clinging to the chair, crestfallen, Tohko looked up at me cautiously.

I looked straight back into her eyes.

Yeah, I"ll write something. If you come clean about how you found out what I wrote in my first draft.

That"s what I tried to say, but my voice wouldn"t work.

I"d asked the same question any number of times before, but Tohko wouldn"t answer and just joked, "It"s a secret. Use your imagination."

When I hesitated, Tohko grinned.

"I"m good for today actually. I"ll take it as a reward for pa.s.sing. If I pa.s.s, you have to write me an unbelievably yummy, sweet story."

She sat back down in her chair with an amiable smile, pulled her knees up to her chest to sit cra.s.sly with her stocking feet up on the chair, and started flipping through Hesse"s Youth, Beautiful Youth.

The western sunlight streamed through the windows, enfolding her cla.s.sical profile, which was framed by her braids, in waves of a golden color like gooey honey.

"What kind of person do you want to be, Tohko?"

When I asked, her thin fingers ripped off the edge of a page as she answered, "...When I"m more sad than I know how to handle, a person who can laugh beautifully."

I remembered how, after Miu had left the planetarium, Tohko had watched Kotobuki and me from a short distance away and smiled, and my heart skipped a beat.

Tohko had looked like she had a pure, kind smile that day...

"Mmmm, yum! Youth, Beautiful Youth tastes like coffee-flavored mousse. It"s robust and gentle, bittersweet...melancholy..."

She put the torn page in her mouth, chewed it up and swallowed, then started tearing off another page.

A treacly smile was spreading over Tohko"s lips.

The same scene as always.

The instant I thought about how I wouldn"t be able to see this gentle scene from this chair anymore after only a little bit longer, my chest squeezed tight.

Right now, we were in a moment of warm twilight.

Inside the happy, golden haze heading toward night.

Our separation was imminent.

But even when the night came and wrapped us up in darkness, we could look up, and stars would be twinkling in the sky above us.

Their pure light would lodge in our hearts and give us the courage to keep moving toward the places we sought.

Will Konoha write a story about Nanase Kotobuki next?

Or a story about Tohko Amano instead?

But Konoha...

Tohko Amano has a secret.

The person named Tohko Amano shouldn"t exist in our world.

h.e.l.lo, this is Mizuki Nomura.

Just as announced, the fifth story in the Book Girl series is Miu"s story. The book at the root of the story is Kenji Miyazawa"s Night of the Milky Way Railroad, which I had picked out ever since the series started. It"s a cla.s.sic among cla.s.sics! I felt new emotion in the course of rereading it. Giovanni"s perspective is melancholic, but just as Tohko said, if you follow the story from Campanella"s perspective, your heart will squeeze tighter than you can believe. It"s a book that can really be enjoyed in a lot of different ways, so even those of you who"ve already read it should take this opportunity to read it again.

Miyazawa is good at poetry, too, huh? Someone set music to "Song of the Defeated Youth," which is referenced in the story, and I heard it on the Internet. I broke down weeping at her clear voice in the song. It let me feel hope. And when I was writing the final scene, the song was playing in my head the whole time. And that is why Miu is reciting it at the end.

Ahhhh, Tohko"s food at the beginning was pretty exaggerated, but I hope you understand.

The truth is, I"m no good with scary stories, either, and I summoned all my courage to read it in order to make Tohko"s meal this time around. But it was fine! Even people who don"t like being scared can do it! It"s fun! (Oh, but...anyone who scares easier than me should maybe not try it...Please be responsible.) Argh, there"s no more room for my afterword (tear). This time I felt even worse for Akutagawa than I did for Kotobuki. This series will end with the graduation books, starting with the next one, but before that, we"re planning to insert a side story. So I"m hoping I can follow up with the people I didn"t write much about in this book. Thank you so much to everyone who"s read this far. And also Ms. Miho Takeoka! Your ill.u.s.trations were amazing again! Okay, see you guys.

Mizuki Nomura.

August 3, 2007.

end.