Book Girl Ascends the Stairway of the Gargoyles and Idiots Chapter 1

Book Girl and the Summoned Beast summoned by the girl

“—I want to battle you—”

The ‘Book Girl’ declared in such a poignant voice as she tossed the greenish-blue thread that was laid on her back.

Ahh…she finally said it out~

I couldn't help but clutch my head the as I stood beside Touko-sempai, who has completely lost it.

Everything began here.

“Hey, Konoha, I found a great library here!

It was a little far away, but soon, we found ourselves heading there to look. I was doing up a map of the library. As a member of the literature club, I had to know what kind of books there were in which libraries, what kind of facilities they had, and so on.

The books were stacked heavily like a graveyard in the clubroom without the air-conditioner, giving off a fragrance. It felt hard to breath during this hot weather as I loosened my uniform collar with one hand while fanning myself with a paper fan with the other.

She answered,

“How tiring. I don’t want to go. It’s your own interest anyway Touko-sempai. It has nothing to do with club activities, right?”

“Seriously~ you’re younger than me, Konoha, but you always act so lifeless~ This is sempai’s order. Go~”

Touko-sempai’s braids sway slightly as she starts pouting like a kid. I can only stare at her in a dumbstruck manner, and finally succumbed under her continuous persuading.

We took a long ride on the train, and finally reached that library. It was surrounded by many lush green trees, and had 3 storeys. It looked like a new building, and it was very spacious inside.

“Ahh, it’s a mountain of goodies! I can’t look away!”

Touko-sempai’s eyes were glittering.

“Please don’t eat them all.”

I reminded. Touko-sempai is a youkai who will rip books out and eat their pages.

However, she herself insisted, “I’m just an ordinary ‘Book Girl’! I am different from those Kitarous and Eyeball Father …”

“Really, I get it. Ahh, but but! This is the only library with the entire collection of Jean Anouilh books. There’s also the entire collection of Yoshiya Nobuko’s works here!”

Endou-sempai showed a slight blush on her face as she leapt through the rows of bookshelves with light steps. I didn’t dare to relax, fearing when she would fall for the temptation and read the book.

At this moment, Touko-sempai suddenly stopped.

“Oh my, Mizuki? Isn’t that Mizuki?”

A girl in uniform was sitting by the window that was letting the soft sunlight through, silently flipping through the books.

I suppose she would be a high school girl like us. The loose long hair lay on her back softly, and she was a petite and cute girl. She lowered her snowy white face, and her eyes that were staring at the pages were somewhat drenched with a seemingly tinge of loneliness.

“Touko…”

“It’s been a while, Mizuki.”

Touko-sempai went over happily, and the other party showed a gentle smile of an acquaintance. To think that such a tranquil girl would actually know Touko-sempai—

“Mizuki’s a friend I met in another library around here. We would often meet to share our reflections on some books we read.”

Touko-sempai smiled as she said.

“Mizuki, this is my kouhai at the Literature club, Inoue Konoha. He’s a second year like you too.”

Mizuki looked rather shy. Her face was red as she nodded at me. She was really someone who would give others the urge to protect her.

“Fumitzuki Gakuen. Is that the school that became hot news for the ‘test summoning system’?”

“Yes..”

“I heard that you can call out summoned beasts by obtaining points in exams.”

“Wow, it’s like magic.”

Touko-sempai always had interests in unique things as she asked with interest,

“In other words, the higher the points, the stronger the summoned beast?”

“Yes. Theoretically, that’s the case.”

“I wanna try too~ it sounds like an interesting school!”

“Eh? …It’s true that, it’s rather fun…whether it’s the school, or everyone in class…I like them all…”

Mizuki’s voice was rather stuttered.

Eh? Just when I felt that it was strange, a drop of clear liquid suddenly slid down her clear face. Wah!

“Mizuki, what’s wrong!?”

“So…sorry.”

She frantically apologized as tears rolled out of her large eyes.

Mizuki kept holding the book in her arms, saying sorry as she sobbed while her shoulders trembled.

At this moment, Touko-sempai and I didn’t know what to do.

“What happened, Mizuki? If there’s something wrong, you can tell us, alright?”

Touko-sempai brought the sobbing Mizuki out of the library to sit at a bench surrounded by trees, handed her a violet handkerchief, and asked.

Mizuki sobbed as she answered,

“Uu…A, Akihisa-kun…gave the cookies I made, uu…to Sakamoto-kun…”

“Akihisa is?”

“Uu…my classmate. He’s very kind…cheery, optimistic…treats others well…ever since a long time ago, I’d…but Akihisa-kun seemed to think that I bothered him…he said thanks when I handed him the cookies I made during cooking class and took it…but maybe it’s because he didn’t want to hurt me…uu…after that, I saw him bring it to Sakamoto-kun…and even…made him open his mouth and force-fed him”

“THAT’S SERIOUSLY TOO MUCH!!”

Touko-sempai shouted, causing me to feel a chill.

Not good. Looks like this will end up like before…

“Mizuki, maybe Akihisa simply doesn’t like cookies? Maybe you can confirm it again?”

“No need for that. Even so, he made this cute Mizuki cry, and I won’t forgive him for this! This kind of person who tramples on a maiden’s heart is the worst!”

“Uu, Akihisa-kun, isn’t the worst. He’s…a ver, very nice guy…”

Touko-sempai couldn’t help but give the sobbing Mizuki a hug while Mizuki continued to defend that Akihisa.

“Ahh, such a strong girl you are, Mizuki! Okay, leave it to us! We, as the literature club members who are well-versed in romance stories of all eras will definitely help you fulfill your love!”

“You’re saying ‘us’? This has nothing to do with me! Please don’t drag me down!”

“You see? Konoha here is still very enthusiastic, so he’ll definitely give you a happy end. If you can have a successful relationship with Akihisa, please allow us to write the sweet relationship between both of you. That will be very deli—no no, we’ll ensure your everlasting happiness, so please allow all copyrights to our universal after-sales services, okay?”

Mizuki couldn’t help but widen her eyes after seeing Touko-sempai bring her smiling face over.

“O…okay.”

She answered.

Ahh—when stimulated by thirst and a sense of mission, Touko-sempai can’t be stopped when she’s burning up like this.

The next day, after school, I was forcefully dragged to Fumitzuki Gakuen.

“First, we have to carefully~ observe the target, and then create a plan.”

This high school girl with long braids was holding a pair of binoculars, crouched at the side of the school gates, sure looked very suspicious. The students entering and leaving Fumitzuki Gakeun gave us suspicious looks.

“…Please, let’s go back before we shame ourselves.”

“Really, you’re so cruel, Konoha. This is for Mizuki’s sake.”

“It’s for your own snack.”

“Of course not! I don’t live entirely for food! Ah, they’re here! Those two!”

I looked over in the direction Touko-sempai pointed.

The two people were walking slowly to the gates, and they were the two people we saw on Mizuki’s handphone before, Yoshii Akihisa and Sakamoto Yuuji.

The tall and muscular guy was Sakamoto, and the other one who looked like a bishounen was Yoshii.

At this moment, Sakamoto was grabbing Yoshii’s hand with both hands, and Yoshii, with his elbows tucked onto his body, was groaning while looking like he was clamped.

“It, it hurts, Yuuji!”

“Oh~ really? Now you understand the pain I suffered when I was stuffed with those killer cookies?”

“Wasn’t this yesterday’s incident? How long are you going to remember this grudge? Also, I thought you would have some resistance to Himeji-san’s cooking so…OWOWOWOW…I’m sorry, please let me go.”

“Nope, this punishment isn’t enough! You have to know that my soul floated into the Sanzu River and nearly lost my life there!”

CRAK CRAK CRAK??? I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed they were arguing. Also, I seemed to hear them mention about cookies. Were they referring to Mizuki’s cookies?

At this moment, Touko-sempai, who was being quiet beside me, suddenly showed a stern expression.

“My worst premonition has become true…those two are lovers.”

“EHH?”

I couldn’t help but exclaim, and hurriedly covered my mouth.

“I definitely can’t be mistaken here. Those people who could ignore the goodwill of a girl as cute as Mizuki and a nice girl like her would either be a forsaken idiot or someone without interest in the opposite gender.”

“That’s true…”

It didn’t seem logical to hand over a gift from a cute girl like Mizuki to someone else.

“Right? Look at this now! Such a passionate exchange of stares! Such direct body contact! Such a rude and unreasonable attitude is basically declaring fully this ‘Sakamoto belongs only to me!’ Listen to that Yoshii’s sweet fawning voice! You can already here it! It’s basically like <<Vita Sexualis>> , or <<The Confession of the Mask>> or Oscar Wilde! Ah, speaking of which, it’ll be really interesting to read <<The Happy Prince>> in a homoerotic subtext!”

“This is just what you want to say, right! The way I see it, Sakamoto and Yoshii are just arguing with each other!”

“Yes, this pain is also love! Sakamoto is definitely the seme, and Yoshii’s definitely the uke!”