Prologue
When the lights went off in the honeymoon suite of the Fleur de Lune hotel, Ina slid into the large bed together with Ame and Gura. The Atlantean wrestled with Ina to claim their spots on the large bed at first, but their long journey and their jam-packed schedule during the day soon took its toll on them. Thus, she and Gura both fell asleep in Ame's arms as the detective gently stroked their hair at the same time.
Ina snuggled closer to Ame and closed her eyes, basking in the tender aroma of the detective's lemon-scented soap. That smell of lemons soon guided the sleepy librarian to enter the eye of her mind once again.
Just as she expected, Ina started to transform and take after that sketch that she made on her favorite purple sketchpad. Small wings. A golden halo. A tiara of interlinked stars. Squishy side bangs that turned orange at the tips. Ear-like flaps of hair on the top of her head.
Unlike before, her purple pajamas were transformed too with flashes of purple light. It gave way to a thin, dark purple garment that revealed her shoulders and barely covered her modest chest. The garment bore designs that would have, in Ina's eyes, rivaled the latest fashions of Europe and fused with the aesthetics of her Far Eastern heritage.
At the same time, Ina couldn't help but feel like her garment would be scandalous in both places.
A myriad of new accessories also began appearing as part of her attire. They were bits and pieces of fashionable clothes that Ina sketched in her spare time: black, wrist-length gloves, a dark choker adorned with an eye of golden embroidery and trappings of white fur, a detached white sleeve held in place by a purple, flower-shaped ribbon and tall shoes that were surprisingly comfortable to wear.
It was the librarian's artistic fever dream coming to life before her very eyes - or at least in the eye of her mind. She felt like she was the priestess of some unknown power that peeked through the fabric of time and reality.
Ever since she moved to London, those whispers had been getting louder and louder. Her dreams at night became more and more vivid. Her transformations grew ever more detailed!
Perhaps she was getting closer to that mysterious power that called out to her, Ina pondered.
While she was thinking about this, the formless, depthless darkness around her started to shift again. It was just like what happened in her dream when she was aboard the RMS Teutonic.
This time, however, that darkness gave way to somewhere odd - to say the least.
Clad in her priestess garment, Ina found herself floating slowly down into some sort of hellish, otherworldly realm. There were walls of dark brimstone bricks around her, interspaced with tall, wrought iron fences that formed a hallway through the darkness. Torches burned from the walls while hanging braziers flickered overhead, crackling with unnatural flames.
Before Ina knew it, she had fallen down onto a smooth stone surface - an altar surrounded by a host of lit blood-red candles. The heat from the myriad of flames burning around her made the 'priestess' sweat and feel lightheaded. When Ina stirred from the altar to wipe her brow, a powerful, unearthly gust of wind blew through the hall.
The blood-red candles were all snuffed in an instant, but the flames of the torches and the braziers further away in the hallway remained. All the smoke rising from the snuffed candles rose and coalesced into yet another smoky figure.
That figure had its back turned to Ina and faced the end of the hallway beyond the horizon. Was it the same one that she saw in the Teutonic, perhaps?
No. This figure was shorter and walked with a different gait.
Moreover, that smoky figure smelled faintly of lemons.
Just as before, Ina watched this smoky figure walking toward glimmers of a faint light in the distance - but she wasn't quite sure what it was or how far away it could be.
Yet another mystery.
All that Ina knew was that the smoky figure was unfazed by the hellish landscape and walked steadfastly towards that distant light, spurred and possessed by some unknown force. Whenever the figure passed through a torch or a brazier, the flames were snuffed out by the wind at its back. Then, the lingering smoke added to the figure - turning it into something greater than what it once was.
Ina wanted to reach out to the smoky figure or call out to it, but she didn't get the chance. The bright light in the distance suddenly intensified. The 'priestess' was forced to shield her eyes from the blinding light.
By the time Ina opened her eyes, she was back in the honeymoon suite of the Fleur de Lune hotel and was drenched in sweat.
...
The bright light that peeked through the slits of the closed window blinds told Ina that it was already morning in Bordeaux, France. That sunlight likewise quickly melted away Ina's groggy memory of the once vivid dream of the smoky figure in the unearthly realm.
Back to reality, Ina told herself.
The librarian wiped her brow with the back of her hand and peeled herself out of the bed. Her purple pajamas irritably stuck to her modest chest. A part of her wished that she still had the breezy 'priestess' garment since it probably breathed easier than her now sweaty pajamas.
"It truly is summer now, huh?" Ina mused, attempting to air out her pajamas again.
A futile attempt, of course.
Her eyes then wandered over to the sleeping Ame and Gura still on the bed. The both of them were drenched in sweat too but they were still wrapped up in sleep's embrace - albeit barely.
Ame grumbled from time to time but she had fallen asleep with her arms wide open to accommodate the needy Gura and Ina. Gura, on the other hand, slept facing Ame and her shark's tail swayed lazily behind her.
All the while, Gura groaned beneath her breath.
"Ame… Ina… don't leave me…"
Ina sauntered over to the sleeping shark-girl and sat down beside her on the bed. Then, she gently wiped away Gura's tears and whispered back.
"Only if you and Ame don't leave me either. Okay?" The librarian closed her eyes and spoke fondly, "If I can help it, I want all of us to stay together forever."
Ina's words seemed to have reached the sleeping Gura. A small smile formed on the shark-girl's lips and her swaying tail calmed down too - but not before it brushed affectionately against Ina's leg.
'Are all Atlanteans this cute?' Ina quietly thought.
The librarian got up from bed again and went over to their room's private washroom. A nice quick bath would be great, Ina thought. She wanted to claim the bathtub before her companions got the same idea too, after all.
So, Ina went into the washroom, flicked on the light switch and began filling the bathtub. She also fetched her change of clothes and set it down by the washroom sink.
When Ina was about to take a dip in the tub, however, she passed by the mirror hanging over the sink. There, she saw something rather unusual. Her right canine tooth was slightly sharper and more prominent than what she remembered.
Then, Ina's bathtub overflowed.
AlterMyth
The Summons
Thirty-First Scene - Smiles To Protect
There was a heat wave in Southern France.
That much was clear when the rest of the girls of the Watson Expedition woke up as hot and sweaty messes in the honeymoon suite. Perhaps cuddling together under the same blanket wasn't as romantic as the librarian and the shark-girl first thought.
At least, the morning after wasn't what she expected.
Just as Ina anticipated, Gura and Ame took turns taking baths to wash off their sweat - but the summer heat was already threatening to cook them all into soup.
So, when the girls called for a room service breakfast, they ordered anything cold they could find on the menu. Chilled fruit parfaits. Cold cuts. Refrigerated fig jam. Only the toasted slices of brioche bread and the coffee and tea were served hot on their tray. Ina also asked for an English-language morning newspaper too.
When their food arrived, Ame and Gura started stuffing themselves while Ina read through the paper. The librarian dutifully read through the front page before her serving chilled fruit parfait tempted her enough to stop.
Ina passed the paper to Ame who only glanced at the headlines before passing it on to Gura. The shark-girl, however, was too engrossed with making a ham-and-cheese brioche sandwich and fanning herself with her tail to bother reading the paper.
Thus, the paper returned to Ina's hands and became nothing more than a paper fan that she used to cool herself and her friends down a little bit. Ina heaved a sigh and fanned with one hand while eating parfait with a teaspoon with the other.
Ina had a strawberry in her mouth when the sliced fruit brushed against her slightly more prominent canine tooth. Her face went pale when she realized this and she promptly chewed up the strawberry in the other side of her mouth. Across the table, Ame was watching the librarian's unusual struggle and hummed.
"Is something wrong with your teeth, Ina?" Ame asked innocently.
"Eh…?" Ina gasped, "W-why do you ask?"
"That's how I ate stuff when Uncle Watson removed my wisdom teeth." Ame explained and munched on some sliced honeyed melon, "Do you have any tooth pain? I have some dental training, you know."
"H-how much is 'some'?" Ina hesitantly probed.
"Solid B-minus." Ame waved her hand dismissively and then insisted, "C'mon! Let me see!"
Ina thought about excuses to make, but she knew that she wouldn't exactly be a match for the inquisitive detective. So, Ina heaved a sigh and let Ame investigate her odd canine tooth. She opened her mouth wide and let Ame draw close to her with a magnifying glass.
That was when Ina realized just how close the detective was to her right there and then. Seeing Ame's freshly combed blond hair, bright blue eyes, her cute button nose and her absolutely adorable and kissable lips less than an inch away made Ina's cheeks flush bright red.
Her imagination ran wild!
Overwhelmed by her own thoughts, Ina fell backward onto the floor and crawled away from the detective. She was worried about what she might be tempted to do if she stayed that close to Ame any longer. The suspicious glare that Gura gave her from her side of the table also hung on Ina's mind.
Those few seconds, however, were enough for Ame to make an assessment.
"It's an unusual shape and size, but human canine teeth tend to be like that, Ina." The detective then snickered, "It's a different story if you had teeth like Gura, though!"
"Hey! I heard that!" Gura piped up, baring her sharp shark teeth at the detective. She waved her half-eaten sandwich at Ame and threatened to throw it at her, "I can hog tie you, you know!"
Ame laughed heartily at Gura's expense and turned back to Ina with a warm smile.
"In any case, as long as it doesn't get in the way or cause you pain, it should be fine." The detective firmly reassured, "There's no pain, though, is there?"
Ina shook her head sheepishly in response.
"Then that's good." Ame beamed, "Thanks for being honest with me. If you have anything else on your mind, I'd like you to let me or Gura know - okay? We'll figure something out."
Ina nodded this time and managed to smile back. Then, she took up Ame on her offer and aired out her honest thoughts.
"The three of us are playing a dangerous game with this Phoenix expedition. I thought it was a gut feeling of mine, but I'm starting to think that it's intuition. I can sense these dangers lurking in the shadows." Ina vented her thoughts as they came to her, "Despite that, I can't help but feel like i'm just a tourist... or a deadweight when things get rough. After the sea serpent fight, I can't help but tougher times are waiting for us ahead."
The librarian lowered her head bashfully and continued.
"If only I had the strength to stand my ground back at the college, we wouldn't have had to go on this Phoenix expedition in the first place. Something inside me is telling me that I'm just holding everyone back..."
When Ina said this, however, Ame shook her head and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't think like that Ina." Ame firmly insisted, "If I could go back in time, I would have done the same things that I did again. You're my friend and I'm going to do everything that I can to protect you, after all."
"Ame…"
"Aside from that, Ina, you've come a long way since then." Ame cheered with rising passion, "I've been watching you grow all this time, you know! You're becoming more and more confident in yourself and you're always cool under pressure! I mean, coming up with a battle plan while a freaking huge snake was headbutting our boat!? That's awesome stuff! Gura and I were confident because we knew we could rely on you!"
All of the sudden, Gura heaved a sigh and went over to Ina as well. The shark-girl then laid a hand on Ina's forehead but turned shyly away from her as she spoke.
"Ame and I fight the battles, but we rely on your plans. Not everything can be solved with brute strength, Ina." Gura lectured bashfully, "Make no mistake about it. We defeated the Sea Serpent with your help. We wouldn't have been able to slay it without you, okay? You're counting on us, but we're counting on you too - and don't you forget it!"
Ina's heart skipped a beat as she felt the warmth of Ame and Gura through their hands. Joyful tears formed at the sides of her eyes.
"You guys…!" Ina exclaimed, wiping the tears from the sides of her eyes. She then pulled both Ame and Gura over and hugged them tightly in her arms, "Thank you!"
Ame and Gura let Ina squeeze them to her heart's content. While they hugged, however, rays of sunlight slipped through the slits of the window blinds and reminded them of the unpleasant summer heat.
Ina's eyes soon wandered over to her heavy traveling jacket hanging alongside Ame's and Gura's in the closet.
"Say, about our trip to the library today..." Ina pointed towards their heavy jackets, "We're not going in those, are we?"
"Probably not." Ame chuckled and agreed, "But first, let's finish our breakfast before it gets warm~!"
With that, Ame, Ina and Gura returned to the table and finished off the rest of their chilled breakfast. All three of them had carefree smiles on their faces.
Smiles that Ina now wholeheartedly wanted to protect.
Thirty-Second Scene - Summer Catalogue
Once the girls finished their quaint breakfast, they started bringing their suitcases out of the closet. One by one, the girls popped open their suitcases and slipped into their lighter, breezier set of summer clothes. While Ina dressed herself, she watched her companions getting changed in the corner of her eyes.
She saw Gura slip into a cute white blouse with a collar reminiscent of shark's teeth - followed by blue denim shortalls that Gura managed to hide her shark tail behind with a little bit of effort. The shark-girl also tied her white hair into a sidetail and topped it off with her favorite white, wide-brimmed hat for good measure.
Ina's eyes then turned to Ame who took a little bit more time to get ready.
The detective put on a shoulderless blouse adorned with a brown ribbon and matching straps that gave Ina a good view of her attractive collarbone. Most of the blouse was covered up by a waist-high skirt closed up by a fancy zipper and a light, brown-and-yellow plaid cardigan. Then, Ame mimicked Gura's sidetail and crowned herself with a quaint, brown newsboy cap as well.
If Ina didn't know any better, she would have thought that Ame and Gura were a young couple with matching hairstyles on a date in Southern France. However, the Single Action Army revolver holstered at Gura's hip, the Webley revolver stowed by Ame's breast and the long Krag rifle that Ame wore behind her back reminded Ina of their true purpose there in France.
As much as she wanted it to be a leisurely summer vacation in Bordeaux, they were there to search for the mighty Phoenix - and to shed light on all of the mysteries that were entangled with their expedition.
While she was stewing in her sobering thoughts, she suddenly noticed that Ame's and Gura's eyes were on her. Ina was troubled at first and was worried that she looked strange.
Were her clothes ugly?
Were her hat funny?
Was her forehead too big?
Instead of getting roasted, however, the detective and the shark-girl smiled with approval.
"Cute!" Ame and Gura praised in perfect sync.
Her two companions then drew closer and began commenting fondly on Ina's summer clothes. They admired her dark purple pinstripe shirt with a white collar and a neatly-tied ribbon, her black dress with custom embroidery sewn over her heart, her smart glasses, her large beret hat and just about everything else that Ina had prepared for the trip!
Ina blushed, overjoyed to hear such high praise from Ame and Gura. The librarian felt like she was on cloud nine!
"Let's get going, Ame. Gura." Ina cheered, brimming now with motivation, "We've got a Phoenix to catalogue!"
With that, the girls of the Watson Expedition left the honeymoon suite wearing their lighter, breezier summer attires. They were greeted by the concierge staff when they entered the lobby who praised the girls and their dashing clothes. All the while, the staff helped them arrange for a horse carriage to take them to the Bordeaux Municipal Library downhill, north of the Port de Lune.
When the girls boarded the carriage, though, Ina's eyes scanned through the concierge staff. Ame then folded her arms.
"You're looking for the blond manager who greeted us yesterday, huh?" The detective deduced.
"Yeah." Ina confirmed with a nod, "She wasn't here this morning at the lobby."
"You mean the candy lady?" Gura chimed in, "That's a shame. She seemed nice."
The chauffeur closed the door of their carriage and the girls were on their way to the library. Ina promptly crossed her legs and fanned herself with the morning newspaper again to change the subject.
"So, Ame." Ina started, "There's a lot of libraries in Bordeaux - why are we going to the municipal library, specifically?"
"Uncle Watson told me about it." Ame explained with a smile, "He said that this library is in a monastery that protected a lot of important books during the French Revolution. Apparently, the curator was a friend of his and telegraphed Uncle Watson about some manuscripts related to the Phoenix in the private collection. Plus~!"
The detective then brought out her broken pocket watch and showed it to Ina.
"It turns out that this curator lady was the one who made my pocket watch in the first place! I can have it repaired while we search through the archives."
Ina heaved a sigh of relief.
"If she's an acquaintance of Dr. Watson, then we can probably rest easy." The librarian determined, "Lately, it's been tough to know who we can trust on this journey."
"There's been some pleasant surprises, though." Gura happily reminded, "Lowry's guards somehow turned out to be chumbuds, hehe. But you're right we can't rely on luck all the time."
Ina smiled back at Gura and was about to comment again when she suddenly felt a faint spell of dizziness. It was as if her senses sharpened - or rather, as if her very being was reacting to something that was drawing closer.
Ame's sharp eye promptly turned to Ina when the librarian grunted.
"Your intuition again?" Ame asked.
"Yeah…" Ina confirmed. She looked out the window and turned to the facade of the Bordeaux Municipal Library, "There's something ominous in there. I can sense it."
"I wonder if that has anything to do with this place closing down yesterday." Gura hummed.
The shark-girl then gasped when both Ame and Ina nodded their heads in agreement. She wasn't used to being that sharp, after all.
Before long, they arrived at the front doors of the Bordeaux Municipal Library.
The carriage came to a stop and the chauffeur opened the door for the girls. When Ina and her companions disembarked, the pretty, dark-haired lady with a beautiful posture and a fashionable dark purple dress greeted them with a low, polite curtsy.
" Bienvenue à la bibliothèque municipale de Bordeaux. " The lady welcomed them in French with a strong, stern voice. When she rose up from her curtsy, she continued in English, "I am the curator of the Bordeaux Municipal Library. I have been expecting the three of you, brave young ladies of the Watson Expedition."
"Well met, madam curator." Ame spoke with rare formality and returned the lady's curtsy with one of her own, "I am Amelia Watson and these are my companions - Ina'nis Ninomae and Gawr Gura."
When Ame said this, Ina and Gura mimicked the detective's polite gesture.
"The great Dr. Watson has already informed me about your purpose here today by telegraph." The dark-haired lady gestured to the front doors and invited, "Please, come on inside. We can discuss the matter further there."
A bead of sweat formed on Ina's brow when she rose up from her curtsy. Something wasn't right and Ina felt it in the depths of her very soul. So, she dared to speak.
" Excusez-moi, madame ." Ina started curiously, "May we please know your name?"
"Ah, of course. Where are my manners?" The lady apologized briefly. She then bowed towards the girls and introduced herself, "My name is Ennis-Marie Miyamoto, but please do call me Enma."
Thirty-Third Scene - Bibliotheque Blues
Ina, Ame and Gura followed the library curator named 'Enma' into the monastery building that housed the Bordeaux Municipal Library. Inside the main hall, they were surrounded by catholic religious icons that mingled with the French tricolor flag, suits of armor and reproductions of medieval-age tomes displayed in secure glass containers. The curator gave the girls a spiel about the place and its history - about how the monastery took in the library in revolutionary times, matching Ame's story well enough.
Ina's curiosity was then caught by an oil painting of Tsunenaga Hasekura, a forgotten Japanese samurai warrior who visited the Vatican in the 17th century. The librarian knew much about the fabled Hasekura de Japon and was hoping that the curator would say something about the painting. However, the curator passed the painting by and moved the tour along - much to Ina's disappointment.
Moreover, a handful of well-dressed attendants tailed their group as they went through the main hall and its corridors. Many of the attendants pointed to the paintings and relics with surprise etched on their faces.
It was almost as if it was the first time that they were seeing these historical artifacts. At the same time, Ina spotted a particularly large fellow who was standing guard at a small stairwell that seemed to lead downstairs. The large man looked at the Hasekura de Japon painting in front of him and just yawned.
While Ina kept her frustrations and curiosity to herself, the curator led them into a small, marble-tiled waiting room. At the heart of the room was a pew that Ina recognized from old pictures collected by her consul father. It was a pew that was once housed in the great Notre Dame cathedral of Paris - but once again, the curator was mum about its storied history.
Two attendants accompanied the curator inside while the others remained in the main hall. The curator gestured to the girls to sit down on the pew and they eventually obliged. From where they sat, they had a good view of an oil painting of Mr. Emile Loubet, the current President of the French Republic. At this point, Ina didn't bother to hope for commentary from the curator.
The seeds of doubt had already been sown in her heart and mind. One sidelong glance at Ame told her that the detective was starting to feel the same way about the suspicious curator.
Once the girls had settled down on the pew, the curator finally explained their situation.
"As you are aware, the library had to close down yesterday. We had to do this to protect the many valuable, ancient tomes we house here in this building." The curator revealed calmly, "Some of these tomes were at risk of disintegrating yesterday, so I had the library closed off as a precaution. My staff is doing restoration work as we speak."
"That was a good decision." Ina agreed, quietly testing the curator's mettle yet again, "Older books need to be treated with the utmost care or else they might fall apart. Especially when rapid temperature changes like today occur overnight."
"Is that so?" The curator noted without much of a reaction, "In any case, the tomes regarding the Phoenix are among the books that we are treating carefully now. I had them moved to the private collection upstairs."
Ina furrowed her brow. She knew all too well that heat rose upwards. Any respect that she might have held for this so-called curator evaporated in an instant.
Either this 'Enma' lady wasn't truly the curator of the historical Bordeaux Municipal Library - or she was an imposter of some sort, just like Captain Morrison and Jacqueline Chadwick. It took her every ounce of her willpower to not bark at the 'curator' for her utter foolishness and lecture her about basic thermodynamics, but she managed to hold her tongue somehow.
While Ina stewed in her bottled up rage, the curator continued her spiel.
"Given the risk of damage to the books, I ask that only one person goes upstairs to the private collection with me. May I ask which one of you shall go?"
The three girls looked at each other for a moment. Then Ame decided to speak for them all.
"In that case, please give us a moment to discuss this." Ame spoke with her forced formality. Her eyes zipped towards the two attendants and then back to the custodian to add, "We'd like to talk about this privately. Thank you."
The curator paused for a moment but kept her thin veil of patience.
"Very well, Miss Watson." She nodded to the detective, "Once you have decided who will go upstairs, tell my attendants. They will accompany you to my office on the third floor. We shall settle the matter there."
The curator excused herself and left along with her attendants. That left the girls alone in the posh waiting room by themselves.
Ina turned to face Ame and Gura and saw that suspicion was also etched on their faces.
"I don't like this at all. Something's definitely up." The detective grumbled, "Uncle Watson didn't know that Gura joined the Expedition yet, but this 'Enma' lady knew there were three of us."
"That lady speaks like a snake oil salesman, y'know! Slimy! Absolutely slimy!" Gura furrowed her brow too, "And what's with all the guards? She had eight of them following us around in the hall… and I saw another six lurking around outside! I know a lot of the stuff here is old and such, but this place ain't the Federal Reserve, is it?"
"I'm glad we're on the same page." Ina knocked on the wood of the old cathedral pew they were sitting on, "This curator lady doesn't know culture if it hit her on the face like a hockey puck! I don't trust her - not one bit!"
"What about your intuition, Ina?" Ame asked, "You felt a strong presence in this building, right?"
"I did, Ame." Ina nodded, "But now that we got to walk inside, I can tell that it's not coming from upstairs. It's coming from downstairs!"
"They had that tall fella standing guard at the stairwell earlier." Ame recalled, "I think this curator lady's trying to split us up… but we don't really have a choice here. How do you want to play this, Ina?"
Ina rubbed her chin and racked her brains for a strategy. Then, she turned to Ame to speak.
"Think you can handle the curator and her guards upstairs, Ame?" Ina asked.
"What do you think?" Ame answered with a confident smirk, "As long as I don't have to speak French, I'll be fine."
"Foolish of me to ask." Ina snickered. She turned to the shark-girl and proposed, "In that case, Gura and I will find a way to go downstairs. We'll sneak in nice and easy and then we'll be back here before they know it."
Thirty-Fourth Scene - The Librarian and the Shark
When Ame went up to the third floor together with the curator's attendants, Ina and Gura were mostly left to their own devices on the ground floor. They were given access to the general circulation section of the library, but neither of them were really interested in the books that were stored there. Even an original copy of Noli Me Tangere from the batch printed in Berlin that was available there didn't hold Ina's attention.
Still, the two of them picked up random books and pretended to read them. All the while, their eyes constantly stole glances of the stairwell in the main hallway and the tall guard that remained standing watch there. Ina's eyes then turned to the monastery library's windows and remarked.
"Most of the attendants are patrolling the outside now." Her gaze turned up to the high ceilings and added, "The rest are keeping an eye on Ame upstairs. We should be fine as long as we stay inside… and that leaves that one guard at the stairwell."
Gura rubbed her chin, pretending to be amused by a treatise on Napoleon Bonaparte that she was holding upside down. She then turned to Ina with a grin.
"You need to distract the feller, right? I can do that!" Gura offered, "Let me know when you're ready to roll, Ina!"
Ina nodded to Gura and went over their plan whispering behind their books. Once they agreed, Gura set down her upside down book and approached the tall attendant with a honeyed smile.
"Hewwo~!" Gura beamed at the attendant and skillfully feigned innocence, "I'm kinda lost and I really gotta pee. Could ya show me where the washroom is?"
The tall attendant seemed amused by Gura's appearance but stoically just pointed down the hall without saying a word. Gura, however, swayed left and right and pleaded with puppy eyes and an absolutely sweet voice.
"Pwease~ show me the way, mister! Pwetty pwease! This place is soooo beeg and I don't wanna get lost again!"
This time, the attendant scratched the back of his head and tried arguing with Gura - insisting that he can't leave his post. Still, this was enough to get the guard to turn away from the stairwell.
It was as much of an opening as they were going to get!
With this, Ina took her chances and set down the historical book that she was pretending to read.
She made an effort to keep her footsteps light and then held her breath as she sneaked behind the distracted guard.
Once she managed to do so, she descended down a circular stairwell that led into a short, dimly lit basement hallway. Only a handful of tiny windows brought sunlight into the otherwise bleak corridor.
Not far from the landing, Ina came face to face with a large double door with heavy iron ring handles. Under the scarce sunlight from the basement windows, however, she saw marks of damage on the double doors too.
Were these people trying to break into this room?
While Ina was examining the door, her shoes struck a crowbar that had been hidden in the shadows. The crowbar grated against the cobblestone floor and made a loud noise that echoed in the stairwell.
The librarian's face then went pale.
"Oy! What's going on down there!?" The tall attendant snapped from upstairs, "Is someone there!?"
All of the sudden, Ina heard the rustle of clothes and found the tall attendant falling backwards down the circular stairwell. The attendant tumbled down and caused a ruckus, drawing the attention of some of the guards who were posted outside.
Some of those guards peered in through the basement windows and saw Ina at the basement landing with the crowbar at her feet, standing where she shouldn't be. Those guards began alerting their fellows and were rushing to make their way back into the Bordeaux Municipal Library.
Meanwhile, the fallen attendant was already picking himself up from the floor. A normal human being would have broken his back from that sort of a fall!
"Gura!" Ina shouted in a panic, "This guy's still getting up! He's not human!"
As soon as Ina called, Gura hopped over the stairwell railings and tore off her fishbone-shaped pendant. The pendant shone with powder blue light and took the form of the Atlantean's aquamarine trident in her hands. Gura's shark tail also slipped out from behind her denim shortalls and whipped back into shape.
Gura mustered her strength and drove her trident into the tall attendant's back, pinning him down to the floor. Despite this, the attendant still managed to struggle against Gura's trident. The powerful strike wasn't enough to take him out!
"What the hell are these guys!?" Gura gasped.
Ina didn't know the answer to Gura's question. Instead, spurred by her adrenaline, she picked up the crowbar at her feet and raised it up as high as she could. Then, she proceeded to beat down the trapped attendant over and over with brutal strikes while Gura held him down.
Moments later, the inhumanly durable creature finally stopped moving.
The creature's body dissolved into ash, leaving a lifeless skeleton and the tattered remains of the attendant's clothes. Gura retrieved her trident from the skeleton's ribcage while Ina wiped the ash from her face.
Neither of them had a chance to examine the body, however, as a myriad of footsteps reached their ears from upstairs. They didn't exactly have the luxury of time.
"Help me open the door, Gura." Ina showed Gura the crowbar and urged, "The presence I felt a while ago is right behind it!"
Gura nodded and they proceeded to open the double doors. With Ina's crowbar and Gura's exceptional strength, the two of them soon overpowered the doors and pried them open slowly but surely.
By the time that they opened the door enough, however, a handful of guards were already scrambling down the stairwell to avenge their comrade. Gura looked up to her army of new opponents descending upon her and saw the clubs and pistols that they wielded.
The Atlantean then heaved a heavy sigh.
"Get inside, Ina." Gura commanded and faced the approaching guards. The Atlantan whirled her trident around and also drew her Single Action Army revolver while her tail flicked eagerly, "I'll keep these varmints busy. Go do what you have to do."
"Thank you, Gura." Ina nodded, "I'll come back as soon as I can!"
And so, Ina slipped between the slightly ajar doors and stepped through the dark threshold.
Epilogue
The locked basement room was incredibly dark and lacked any windows whatsoever. Only the lights that peeked through the barely open door illuminated the place, creating an oppressive darkness. All the while, the ominous presence that Ina had felt intensified.
It was calling out to her, beckoning her to come closer towards it.
Ina carefully obliged and stepped forward through the darkness. When she did,a myriad of snow white candles scattered about the room were suddenly lit. With every step that she took, more and more candles were illuminated and formed a path of light through what turned out to be a cobblestone hall. All the while, she heard the sounds of struggle behind her.
She heard aquamarine clashing against steel and pistol shots whizzing back and forth as Gura valiantly fought back the horde of inhuman guards. Meanwhile, Ina's mind wondered how the lone Ame was faring upstairs in the library.
Ina shook her head. She didn't have any time to hesitate now.
The librarian steeled her heart, gripped her crowbar tightly and then ran at full sprint through the dark, candlelit path.
Thick cobwebs that hung from the walls and the ceiling threatened to slow the librarian down, but she swung her crowbar and tore her own path through them. Those webs weren't going to stop her, Ina told herself.
Ame and Gura were counting on her, now more than ever.
She wasn't going to let them down.
Before long, Ina reached the end of the hallway where a lone, wooden pedestal was waiting for her.
On that pedestal, she found an ominous, purple hard-bound book that emanated with the energy that Ina had been sensing. This was the first time that she saw this book with her own eyes, but the whispers that she had been hearing in her dreams made it feel like it was her destiny to take that book.
So, when the librarian dared to lay a hand on the book, it acknowledged her.
A disembodied voice from the shadows of the candles and cobwebs then spoke straight into her mind.
"Ina'nis Ninomae, fair maiden of the Far East. You answered my call and sought out my voice. Now, we finally meet. Open your eyes and behold my knowledge!"
Suddenly, the book opened up on its own. It was as if a gust of wind blew through the underground hallway!
Ina's heart beat hard against her chest as she regarded the pages of the ominous book. Dozens of pages flashed by her in split seconds and yet Ina somehow managed to learn the contents of every single one of them.
All the information hidden inside of it made Ina's mind spin, testing her sanity and her grip on reality. The crowbar that she held in her hand soon slipped and fell down onto the cobblestone floor with a dull, metallic thud.
Once the myriads of pages had flown by Ina's eyes, the book closed itself on the back end with a heavy thump that echoed throughout the hall.
Ina lost strength in her legs and fell down to her knees with tears in her unfocused eyes. The entire pathway of candlelight was snuffed out by an unearthly wind, leaving Ina in absolute darkness.
Then, for a brief moment, light from a small golden halo pierced through the darkness before it disappeared.
To Be Continued