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I hopped up the library stairs two at a time, and still my feet barely made a sound on the smooth floor. In the background, Saki was announcing to the patrons that the library was about to close, and the buzz of the public was gradually diminishing.
"Nen-san," Hitaro greeted abruptly when I almost bumped into him. I grinned and muttered my apologies. Hitaro, trying--and failing--to hide his amusement by shaking his head, just motioned back down the hall. "As long as you're here, would you check the reference room? I want to get home."
"Hai." I knew why Hitaro was in a hurry. He'd gotten married three weeks before, and now he was always in a hurry to get home. "You go on, I'll take care of it."
"Arigatou, Akane." Hitaro grinned back at me, bowed briefly, and departed down the stairs.
I found the door to the reference room open. Normally that would have surprised me, but I'd seen those two silly schoolgirls playing around in there all afternoon.
"What were they looking at in here?" I wondered aloud. The room of cold walls and ancient books deigned not to answer.
I loved this room. The scent of old pages, the air of mystique each of the aged books held. I ran a finger lovingly across one of the shelves, and noticed I could tell where the girls had been playing around. They'd left scuff marks all over the floor.
"Ow!" At first I thought the book had bitten me. But books don't bite people--that's silly! It must have caught my finger on the binding.... My eyes strayed to the title of the tome that had caught my attention so violently. The Universe of the Four Gods. I'd never seen this one before--had I? I started to pull it off the shelf, and it almost jumped into my hands.
The library was closed now. It didn't matter--I worked here, the security guards all new me, and besides, I had a key. So I took the book, nudged the Reference Room door shut, and settled down to read.
"This is the story of a girl who gained the power of Suzaku and made all her dreams come true...." It read more like an adventure story than an ancient text. "The story itself is a spell, and it begins and becomes real as soon as the first page is turned--"
Even had I known everything that would happen because of it, I would have turned the page.
Red light blazed out from the pages, engulfind me, swathing the entire room in a haze too rich for fire, too deep to be some natural effect of the lights of the city outside. And then suddenly, neither the room nor the city were there.
I lay on the ground--dirt ground, shaded by a single tree that dropped a leaf carelessly onto my hand as I sat up. "What--where--?" I didn't even realise the words were spoken aloud. I still don't know if the gutteral laughter that came from the men near me was intended as an answer.
They were ragged and rough, hard-eyed and thick-handed, and advancing with an intent that was only too clear.
"We'll get a good price for that one, boss," the scraggly-beared one growled.
The burly one in the centre, who I imagine was the leader, nodded. "It's our lucky day, fellas...girls are fallin' outta the sky at us," he crowed.
I waited, sizing them up, fumbling in the dirt for a rock. I didn't bother wondering if I could take them. There was no other available option. When that scraggly fellow came a little closer, I was going to beat his skull in.
It never came to that. I had pulled back to ready my rock for the throw, and taken careful aim at the leader's forehead. Then I heard a calm voice say, "Stop that," and the ruffians went flying, landing in a screaming, bawling heap that finally subsided to unconsciousness.
"Are you all right?" my mysterious rescuer asked. He was tall, muscular, and even in these unconventional circumstances I had to admit handsome. And even though 'all right' was a purely subjective term and still meant I was crouched on the dirt in an entirely new world, I nodded.
"Yes." My voice had apparently decided to function properly again. "Thank you."
The boy rocked back on his heels, looked me over as if to verify my words, and said bluntly, "I'm glad. Though I'd really prefer money to any thanks."
Stunned, I blinked. I appreciate the value of a reward as much as anyone else, but what sort of world had I just fallen into? Was this normal, or was my particular mercenary just rude? The boy took my silence for refusal, and stood up, making exasperated noises as he walked away.
"See if I help you out again...good luck on your own!"
The only coherent human contact I'd found in this world, however unpleasant he might be, was leaving.
"Hey--wait!" I called, but he only turned around, shot me a ridiculously self-important look, and kept going.
I sat there under the tree and went over the options. They were looking frighteningly slim: wait til the bandits woke up again, or pick a direction and strike out on my own. And since I figured the boy must have had a destination in mind, I chose the way he'd gone. Civilisation, here I come.
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