Golem × Garota

# Golem × Girl

## Illustrations

              

## Complete in One Volume

Chapter 0: The Stick Insect's Secret Crush Today was the same as always. After school I went up to the library on the second floor, sat in my usual seat—the third desk from the back beside the window—took off my glasses, and let out a long breath, easing the tension wound tight inside me. It was early June. The sports clubs were in full swing preparing for the regional tournament, so lately few students came to the library, and that was a relief. Here the tall shelves rose in row after row, and partitions stood beside the desks, so I didn't have to worry about anyone's eyes on me. For me, this was the only place I could breathe. I didn't stay here after school to study, to rest, or to kill time. I wasn't in any club, and I wouldn't linger on purpose at a school I hated just to do something like that. The real reason I sat here was to watch the girl I had a crush on. From the library window I could see the plaza in front of the building clearly. Waiting here to catch sight of her heading home after club had become a habit. Her name was Hoshi Kotoko. We met in our third year of middle school, and even now she was the only student at this school who knew me. Seeing her once a day was the one pleasure of my school life. When she was absent and I couldn't see her, the exhaustion of the day felt twice as heavy. I knew perfectly well how risky this was, and how close it came to stalking. Girls are sensitive to being looked at. Where a boy's eyes are resting—they're always aware of that. Even quiet Kotoko would be no exception. If Kotoko… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Illustrations

                

## Chapter 0: Hime's Report

1 The Story of Chiba Miku, Part 1 It was summer vacation, and yet the track club's manager work kept me busy until evening. At the apartment entrance my whole body felt flushed with heat. I wanted a shower as soon as I could get one. I set my palm on the smooth vein scanner. With a beep the display turned green, and the lock clicked open. I knew why the professor used a device like this as a research monitor. It meant that nothing without a body was living in this apartment. "I'm home," I said as I opened the door, and only afterward remembered. "—Oh. The professor's away on a trip." What answered in his place was the metallic sound of the door closing behind me. I noticed a large envelope in the mailbox and took it out. It was quite heavy. Something thick seemed to be inside. In the last light of the sunset I checked the sender's name: Katakura Hime—the girl who had contacted us the other day saying she wanted to meet the professor. —This couldn't be…! I kicked off my shoes and headed for the living room—then, bothered by the mess I'd left, went back and lined them up neatly before hurrying toward the living room again. —It couldn't be, it couldn't be… the report she mentioned? On the phone she had said the experiment succeeded: transferring a certain golem's mind onto an "Egg." An experiment like that was probably something even the professor had never done. Besides, I had thought no one but the professor studied formcraft, so when I heard it I couldn't bring myself to believe it. But she had sent something this thick. No matter how I looked at it, it couldn't be a lie, could it? "Ah!" —I opened it… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Chapter 1: Fireworks High Overhead

1 The Story of Chiba Miku, Part 2 —Mmm! Another beautiful day! I threw every window open, breathed in a lungful of morning air, and stretched long and lazy. Far off, the Pacific glittered, and I could make out a large ferry. I was in a wonderful mood, and not only because the weather was clear. Shumi had come over first thing in the morning to help me clean. "Sorry, Shumi. It's summer break and I'm still putting you to work." "It's fine… I didn't want to stay home anyway." He turned on the television and listened to the live baseball broadcast. "Huh—there's a game this early?" "First pitch is at eight." "I'm about to run the vacuum, though." "Mm…" A holiday morning, sitting in the living room watching baseball and answering vaguely—he looked exactly like an old man. Of course Shumi wasn't an old man. He was only half-listening because he was reading the report. "Is that hard even for you?" "…It looks like she's broken new ground in a lot of places. Concepts like these aren't even in the professor's books." "That girl Hime really is amazing." "The content is genuinely excellent… but…" He set the report on the table and looked at me. "All I know is this report. I don't know what kind of person wrote it, or why she studies formcraft. Are we really going to ask her?" "Don't call her 'that person' like that… I know you're uneasy, so we're inviting her over today to find out. And on the phone, she didn't seem like a bad person." "Mm." His eyes went back to the report… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Chapter 2: Memories of Diamond

1 Barbecue, fireworks, a mountain with no sleep… every welcome Miku had prepared was over. I had worried whether we would be able to talk properly, but in the end it had gone well enough. After that we took turns in the bath, and sat in the living room eating ice cream and talking easily. At the end the boys carried futons into the living room, and the girls took the Japanese-style room at the far end of the hall. We slept apart. Now and then laughter came from the Japanese-style room. —Why was Yamagata staying the night here too? Only now did the question occur to me. Even with just the two of us boys, I couldn't ask it. I hate being pried into, and I figured he probably did too. …Still, I also thought: if he was like me, was there something he wanted to ask me and couldn't get out? Compared with the girls, we had almost no conversation. Unable to stand the silence, he switched off half the lights in the room, pulled a game console out from under the television, and started playing. It was an otherworld tactics game I had played myself. "This…" Yamagata said, watching the screen. "Have you played it?" "Ah, yeah. I was pretty into it." "The golems in this game aren't very useful." "…Yeah. Not very useful." "I can only get this far. Can you change a golem's level?" "No. You could in the last one, but not this time. They only show up in the dungeon as enemies." "I see… I still want to use one, though." "From the middle of the game to the end, you get something that lets you… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Chapter 3: The Mirror and the Rainbow

1 The Story of Chiba Miku, Part 4 "Ah—ah! There you are! I've been looking forever—" "Yo." Yui answered without expression and lifted a hand. …After I finished my manager work I searched all over the huge campus, and at last found her in the lounge. It sat in a recess off the corridor, with a table, benches, foliage plants, a vending machine for foil-pack drinks, and the rest. On any day that wasn't a holiday, students were always there chatting and laughing. But we were still in summer break, so Yui was alone, leisurely drinking foil-pack milk through a straw. I sighed, a little at my limit, washed my hands at the faucet on the wall, and bought apple juice. It was overcast, so even though it was daytime the vending machine's light was harshly bright. I sat across from her and put in my straw. "Work done?" "Yeah. You?" "I've pretty much looked through every place that wasn't locked." "Well? The school I go to is a nice place, right?" "…It's all right," Yui said, looking into the distance. She thought a moment. "Pretty modern. It doesn't feel like a high school. More like a general hospital, or a university I toured once. Smooth and shiny. None of that lived-in feeling high schoolers have. Still, better than filthy." "Does the school you went to have that lived-in feeling?" "I don't go there anymore, though." "Ah, sorry…" The vending machine hummed. "Lived-in is a nice way to put it. It's an old school, so everyone's too slack. There's no tension, and the moment you ease up a little… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Chapter 4: Sen-N Club

1 The Story of Chiba Miku, Part 5 Hime's school would start again in three days. Summer vacation up north seemed shorter, and winter vacation longer. The experiment had already failed twice. Each time the "curse-glyphs" had to be heavily revised. If it failed again today, Hime would probably take the day off from school. I didn't want to keep her tied up this long. …I hoped today would work. Past noon, with the sun high, the third experiment was about to begin. When I got back from club, the Japanese-style room was already prepared with thirty-two sheets of craft paper densely covered in curse-glyphs. I heard they were using fewer than they had for Kotoko. —I couldn't see Yui anywhere. Shumi and Hime seemed busy with preparations, so I went looking for her. Soon I found her on the balcony, talking on her phone in a spot that was hot under the dazzling sun. …She could have used the house phone. "…Mm… right, we'll do it today. I'm counting on you over there too. Okay, bye—" She had just finished. "Yui, come here a second—wait—" "I know. I'm going, I'm going." "You could use the phone in the house." "Miku, were you eavesdropping?" "I was not. …Oh. You didn't want anyone to hear. Sorry. I didn't think of that." "That's not it. It's noisy. I thought it would be bad if I bothered Hime and the others. Physiologically, they probably don't like people talking on the phone for a long time." Now that she mentioned it, Yui had been going out to the balcony alone a lot lately. She must have been making calls… Who was on the other end? The ones I could think of were her parents, Yuji, Kotoko. From the way she had just spoken… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)

## Chapter 5: Twin Crystals

1 The Story of Chiba Miku, Part 6 On the last night of summer vacation, I had a dream. —Inside the dream I didn't feel that it was a dream. Usually the moment you notice, you wake up, but I didn't wake. It was a place blazing with light. It didn't feel like sunlight merely coming in. The whole space was full of light. "…" After I let my eyes adjust to the brightness for a moment… I found a vast meadow at my feet. "…It's the school grounds." I murmured it. When I saw the school building and the track we used for club, I realized it was the school I went to every day. I was standing on the grass of the campus. A little way ahead—about where the center circle would be on a soccer field, the very middle of the grounds—I saw someone, and I ran over. "…! Misato? Isn't that you, Misato?" "…Miku?" A white headband, the middle-school gym uniform—a white T-shirt with red stripes and red gym shorts. Misato lay sprawled like the character for "big," staring expressionlessly at the sky while a strong wind tugged at her shirt. A reunion after so long… I thought how glad I was, and then remembered I had seen her many times in dreams, so it wasn't really after so long, and the disappointment came right after. …If only this weren't a dream. "From this angle I can see your underwear." "Eek!" I dropped to my knees at once. "What is that? Don't say something like that with a straight face." I was in my uniform. "What are you doing here?" "…" Misato didn't answer. She looked… (Content failed to load! Please refresh or switch browsers)