lycoris ➥ [ tbhk ]

chapter 4 : black and white

I stare at the familiar pink and blond-haired juniors.

"Miyahara-senpai, w-what brings you here?" Kou looks at me in astonishment.

"Ah... Kou... It's been a while, hasn't it?" I replied.

But before anyone could dive further into the conversation, the butterfly landed on a book that was behind the girl.

Hm... So it was the right call to follow the butterfly after all.

And unexpectedly, smoke begins to blind our vision with a poof.

"What was that?" I clench my eyes to attempt to find the other two through the smoke. I feel relieved as I hear coughing, confirming that I am not alone.

Huh... do I feel that bad if I'm alone?

As the smoke dies down, in front of us appears a huge, metallic door with a kaleidoscope of a stained glass butterfly looking down at us.

"This door appeared where the butterfly landed...do you think it's..." Kou utters in awe.

"There's no doubt... It's the 4 PM book stacks." I answer.

---

"Another boundary." Kou exclaims, "This is a border between this life and the next, be careful, Yashiro-senpai."

Yashiro. That must be her surname.

What I see in front of me right now is not something I would have expected. When I take my first step in, I feel a murky and wet sensation on my feet. I grunt in disgust as I realise that the floor is covered in water.

"According to the rumours, as long as we don't read the red ones, we won't be in any danger," Yashiro explains, trading some candy for a lamp from a small pink rabbit creature. I'm not even surprised at anything at this point, well knowing what I have already seen.

I trace my fingers along the long and endless bookshelves, starting from the books beginning with the letter 'A'.

"There's a lot of white ones and a few black ones, but I can't seem to find any red books here," I say, stealing a lamp from one of the shelves.

"Hanako's book would be black right? So are you ready to get looking?!" Kou stares at Yashiro hoping for an energetic response. Sweating, the girl stares at the infinite number of black books. Instead of waiting for her to answer, I interfere.

"Hanako's book?" I question.

"Oh, right! Kou and I are looking for Hanako's book because we wanted to know more about him..." She attempts to answer in the least creepiest and stalkerish way she could, "If you don't mind...can you help us look for the book as well?"

I open my mouth to say the first thought that enters my head. Helping them would be useless to me.

I close my mouth immediately. Unless...

The corners of my lips begin to curl mischievously. "Sure thing! I can help to keep an eye out for his name. Anything for you guys!" My smile immediately fades away, "But under one condition, you need to help me find my book. My full name is Miyahara Kiku. It's a promise.'" I beam, still on lookout for my book.

The children both nod and we verbally create a contract.

Everyone was focused on finding the two names, "Hanako" and "Miyahara Kiku". It has been around 3 hours since we have started rummaging through the shelves and sadly there's been no progress. We're still at where we started off.