This day was slightly better than normal; I had managed to escape most of the usual teasing, and I didn't have as much homework as I usually did. I decided to reward myself with an hour or two (or three or four or five…) at the library.
I always went to the library on calm days. It helped me clear my head of all the criticisms and schoolwork, and I just love the smell of books, especially old and used ones. There's just something about it…Well, like I said, I love the library. I had been to both the nonfiction and fiction sections recently, so I decided to try the manga/anime section.
This section was my baby. I usually volunteered at the library at least once a month, sometimes more, and since I've been going there for years, the community board members permitted me to add anything to the library that I wanted, if I raised enough money to supply it. I had already had a ton of money (like, a couple thousand dollars) saved up to fund a paint job on the exterior of the building (no need to use the money on buying a car, and my college tuition had been paid months ago, as it always was, a fact that I was extremely suspicious about, and yet thankful for), so I just split the stash right down the middle; half went towards paints, the other half went to my project.
I decided to try and collect as many mangas and animes as possible, so that the teenagers in the community would have a reason to go to the library every once in a while. It worked perfectly, and soon a lot of the teenagers were coming in for other books, as well.
There were a couple of girls in this section of the library, but they were just leaving as I arrived. They were going to check out a pile of mangas, and, from the look of one of the shelves, they were all from the same series. I just shrugged. They must be fast readers, like me.
I went over to the empty shelf, looking to see if any of the other series had been disturbed, but everything seemed perfectly in order. However, on the bottom shelf, I noticed that the hack. series was out of order, which made no sense. I was here just last month, and everything was perfect. Some teens must have come in while I was gone and not known the order.
I sat down on the floor and took the contents of the shelf out, laying them all out in front of me. I had put half of them back in their correct order before realizing that some of them were not going as far back as the others. I figured there was a board or something blocking the way, so I took them all back out again. When I pulled the last one out, another book fell out after it.
Well, this is odd, I thought. I flipped the book over to read the cover, and was surprised to find that it was a copy of the first Hetalia manga. Axis Powers was written clearly on the book, the cover of which was very weathered. I was a bit confused. I had tried to find the series many times, but as far as I knew, no one sold hard copies; it was all digital. I flipped to the cover page, thinking perhaps there was a name in it, so that I could return it to the person if they came looking for it. Upon looking at the inside cover, I found the words, "If found, return to H.K.".
"H.K.? Who on earth is H.K.?" I asked myself quietly, so as not to disturb the rest of the library. Suddenly, there was a strange light coming from the book, blinding me.
I know, I know; it's totally and completely cheesy. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out another way to segue into the next part. I'm so sorry. Please review! The next chapter is going to be huge, I promise.