Izzy sighed and fell back onto his bed, throwing several papers in the air. The files that had been given to them were practically useless. There was hardly any information in them that could lead the paper masters to the creator of the paper humans nor could it lead them to a reason to the attacks, well, other than the possibility that there were being controlled by the creator. As he lay on his bed a familiar feeling came over him. The feeling was frustration. Generally Izzy was a happy go lucky kind of person, always joking around and having fun, even in battle. These last few hours, however, had seriously changed his attitude and he didn't like it.
"Izzy," Asami said, pulling him from the trance he laid in with just the sound of her voice. "Izzy, what if they're hunters? I mean, you said yourself that you hadn't even noticed it until all of the people were off of the train. And then there was the accidental killing. He was aiming for you, the paper master…all of the paper masters."
Izzy thought about it though there wasn't much to think about, it was simple. They had been created and trained to kill the paper masters. But why? Maybe Dokusensha was back, they had been pretty sneaky in the past, teaming up with the British library and all. Maybe they had hoped that they could do it again and realized that this time it wasn't happening. What if the reason they were hunting the paper masters was to drop the defenses of the British library, to weaken it…
"no," Izzy said under his breath. He now might have an idea of what was going on, and maybe if they were to research further into Dokusensha then they might find something. "Asami. I need to go back to the library. I'll be back in about an hour or so. Just some things I need to discuss with the librarian…"
Asami sighed. She knew he was up to something but didn't argue. Usually when he was serious, if he ever was, it meant to stay out of his way. Now he would never hurt Asami and she knew this as well, but she had the feeling that it was something deep.
When Izzy had reached the library for the second time that day he felt suspicion rise up inside of him. He had the feeling once again that he was being watched but quickly brushed it aside. He had to get to the librarian with his thought before any of the other hot headed paper masters could. As he entered the library he noticed that all of the lights were out. This wasn't very odd because it was late and the library closed around eight in the evening. What was weird was that even though it seemed that the library was closed Izzy entered with no problem.
"Sir?" Izzy called. A chill ran down his spine as he looked around through the darkness. "Sir, are you here? I have something I need to share with you…"
"Please quiet down, I have a head ache." The old man said from one of the aisles. "Over here Izzy. What is it?"
Izzy looked around for any sign of him but found nothing. Then suddenly a light became visible in the non fiction area of the library. Unfortunately for Izzy, that section had been placed near the back of the library which meant a lot of walking. As he walked back he hadn't noticed but all of the books seemed to be moving. Little paper spiders and roaches crawled all through the darkness silently, following him towards the light. A thought ran through his head, this isn't the librarian. He never gets head aches…he gives them though.
Izzy was just about to turn the corner into the aisle where the light had been coming from when he noticed a pool of some thick substance. Now in the yellow light he couldn't see very well but he had the faint idea that there might be something around the corner that he didn't want to see. As he bent down to touch the substance and put it under his nose, just to verify what it was, he noticed the paper insects that had been following him, and they were everywhere. They all slowly moved towards him as he stood and backed away into the aisle where the light had been coming from when suddenly something caught his leg and he fell to the floor, nearly yelling in surprise with what lay next to him.
It was the body of the librarian, but it wasn't all there. Instead he had maybe half a head, what was left of his brain seeping out like thick soup, his eyes had been torn from their sockets, his lower jaw ripped right off half of each limb torn from him. There was a hole in the center of his chest where his heart had been and his stomach and intestines had been taken, the content laying all over him. There were also a series of scratches and claw marks on him, the marks reminding Izzy of talons…or the fingers of the paper man he had met on the train.
He stood as quickly as he could without vomiting but just as he did the books right in front of him erupted into a thick cloud then compacting into a hideous face which reminded Izzy of a dragon, without the long jaws and what not. The eyes looked around from Izzy then to the body and then back to the body.
"Holy hell!" Izzy yelled as arms stretched out from the book case, reaching for him.
The giant paper structure roared, a horrible nails on chalk board sound following and then pulled itself from the book case. Izzy hadn't planned to stick around for this and was already off for the door. The creature was too fast, however, and met him there, ready to attack. It balled it's fist up tightly and then launched the mass of paper towards Izzy. He jumped out of the way to avoid being pulverized by the very material that he had been manipulating for years. When the fist impacted with the floor the tile shattered and flew up into the air, shredding parts of the arm and cutting Izzy's face and other bare skin. The creature screamed in agony as if it could feel the pain and Izzy took this time to attack.
He jumped to his feet and grabbed several books all of which exploded into one big cloud of paper. It circled him for a moment and then maybe half of the mass folded up into kunai knives and embedded themselves into the arm, torso and face of the giant creature. In reaction the creature screamed and launched another fist at Izzy who quickly jumped out of the way. This time the fist landed itself right onto a bookshelf, the paper exploding from the books and becoming part of the creature's giant arm. The arm soon formed into a rather large sword which it used to sliced right through the now empty bookshelf and then.
Izzy's eyes widened with terror as the sword came flying towards him with nowhere to go. No, he thought to himself, I will not go out here! And with that he brought up all of the paper around him into a giant cloud which blocked the sword until suddenly from the cloud came a wingless dragon. It was about the same size as the creature that Izzy had been fighting, maybe larger, and had the head of a unicorn. Its main flowed gracefully in a breeze that wasn't there and its long reptilian body wrapped around the arm and torso of the creature that was trying to kill him. The dragon that Izzy had created opened its mouth wide revealing thousands of large sharp teeth and was just about to bite down on the head when Izzy's humanity got the better of him.
He noticed that the paper creature was bleeding from all of the wounds that Izzy had given him with all of the knives he created only moments ago. Izzy couldn't let the creature go just yet but he couldn't kill it either. Instead he had the dragon throw it out through the wall of the library and into the street. People walking along to sidewalks screamed and ran around in confusion. Only a few sat around to see what was happening. As the creature struck the ground it turned back into a person, the excess papers slowly falling form its body. It stood quickly as Izzy jumped from the building and into the streets.
"Who the hell are you?" the paper man cried as the dragon Izzy had created followed up behind him. "How can you manipulate the paper so well, the sword on the shuttle and the dragon here? You are no ordinary paper master I know; I have fought many before you!"
Izzy smiled. "Thanks," he said in a cocky tone. "I must admit I am pretty skilled but I need to know before I kill you, who created you?"
The paper man was now smiling too and instead of backing away as if frightened he now moved closer to Izzy, almost within arms length. He leaned in so that Izzy could hear the whispering voice say "My name is Kano the water, and that is all you need to know." And with that he picked up the excess paper and turned into a giant bird resembling a phoenix, flying into the night sky and disappearing.
When Izzy returned home Asami nearly had a heart attack as she scanned over him seeing the blood and scratches. He had been so tired from the fight and over use of his powers that he had completely forgotten to let go of the dragon which had followed him home. People in the halls whispered in suspicion at the sight of the dragon and even squeaked with fear. Only one was not afraid and that one happened to be a little girl. She walked up to the dragon and rest her hand on the structure, squealing with delight and Izzy had it turn around and nuzzle her, tickling her with the flowing main. The dragon looking down upon her comfortingly as if she were its own child and for a moment Izzy had thought that it was real. But her knew better and it turned back and followed him into the apartment where it fell into nothing but a pile of papers.
Asami ran to the bathroom for the med kit when Izzy fell upon the papers and nearly became unconscious. As he lay there he thought about what he had seen in the library and how he would tell Asami and the others. How could he tell them that the leader of the Tokyo branch was dead and that their assignments would be postponed even though they had worked on them all night?
"Here you go," Asami said and then began dabbing his wounds with hydrogen peroxide. "What happened Izzy? Is everything ok? Was it that paper human again?"
"mm," he groaned as a reply. The cuts and gashes stung as she dabbed but it wasn't like the pain he had felt when he got them, it was more of a relieving sensation. "His name is Kano. That's what he called himself anyway. Man, I hope that there are only the three spotted 'cause his powers were extraordinary. Mph…"
Asami sighed as Izzy fell into a deep sleep and she continued to dress his wounds. She thought to herself, what kind of creatures are these? If they can take on one of the most powerful paper masters in the world then they have to be well trained…This was true. Izzy had been named as one of the most powerful paper masters aside from Yomiko Readman, Michelle Chang, Maggie Mui, Anita King, and various others trained under those who had just been named. What made him even stronger, as it did most paper masters, was that he loved to read. Aside from his job at the club in town and in the library, reading was his life.
"Please be ok…" Asami said as she finished dressing his wounds and stared longingly into his closed eyes. "We need you, Izzy…we need you…"
With that she turned out the lights in the living room and went to bed, not wanting to disturb Izzy as he slept.