Chapter 23 – Kid Pro Quo

Death the Kid

Sunday

Sunday left me too much time free on my hands; and I suddenly did not have enough class work to keep me legitimately busy.

This gave me time to think about what I didn't know about Sai. This is probably a dangerous occupation for someone like me, because I tend to lament on the unknown aspects – the things she wasn't readily apt to discuss with me.

As a result of my need-to-know-ness, I ended up at Shibusen's library by mid-morning. My curiosity had gotten the better of me. I pulled whatever I could easily ascertain on the Level One shelves involving Weapons' abilities involving staffs, Iceland's cities and its landscape.

There was nothing on Level 1 about Independent Weapons, so I ended up at the circulation desk. The clerk was an odd, mustached man name John, who had been working for my father for only a short time. I had never spoken with him personally, and he didn't recognize me. It was a nice change.

I coughed politely. "Hello, I'm looking for anything the library has on Independent Weapons."

The afro-hair-styled man gave me a quick nod and disappeared into the halls behind the desk. Remaining at the desk, I scanned the library while he prattled about in the back looking for a list of books related to the subject matter. I was lucky to have not run into anyone I knew at the moment; though I did garner a few looks from students I didn't recognize off-hand.

John returned after a few minutes with a piece of white scrap paper in his hand. "I have three books on Level 2, a book on Level 3, and a 'set of unbound documents' on Level 4."

Level 4 sounded interesting. "What's a 'set of unbound documents'?" I asked, trying to be casual about my interest in the least accessible documentation.

John scratched his chin. "Hmm. Could be scrolls, archaeological remains, paintings." He paused in apparent thought. "Or something as mundane as a collection of notes from a book that was never published. It completely depends on the material."

I had my answer. "I want everything you've mentioned, including whatever is on Level 4."

John blinked. "Alright, can I see your student id?"

I dug in my right jacket pocket and pulled out my id, housed in a light brown leather case. I held it up for him, and he eyed it.

"Hmm. I'm sorry, you're only a 1 Star Meister, I can only allow you access to what's on the main floor."

I flipped it over in my hand and his eyes widened.

John gave a slight bow and looked embarrassed. "Oh, I do apologize Shinigami-kun! I'm afraid I didn't recognize you. I haven't been here that long."

I tried to play the situation down. "It's not a problem. Any idea how long it will take to get the materials?"

He seemed to calculate it in his head. "At least ten minutes I'd say because I have to go to Level 4. If you'd like, I can bring the materials out to the table you're working at."

"That's fine. I'm in that corner." I gestured to the back left corner of the library's main floor.

John bobbed his head and disappeared into the back, while I returned to my table.

It took John nearly twenty minutes to bring me what he had found in the other Levels, but the wait was worth it. The three books from Level 2 were essentially doctorial texts. One was called The Mechanics of Independent Weapons's Weapons; the second was titled Psychology in Independent Weapons; unfortunately, the third text for the level ended up being useless for my search – it was related to finding independence as a Weapon.

The book from Level 3 was eccentric, and the subject matter was somewhat over my head at the moment. The text was split into two books: the first half was A Physiological Study of Independent Weapons' Weapons and Bodies, and How They Differ from the Physiology of Standard Weapons. The second half was dedicated to theories on how biological differences in vitro created Independent Weapons. I set the Level 3 book aside. It wouldn't be of any use without having understood the other texts first.

I was disappointed in the Level 4 item at first. It was a loose collection of handwritten notes on yellowed-white paper – but they were un-translated, and I didn't recognize the language. I took the papers back to John at the desk.

He looked concerned. "Is something wrong, Shinigami-kun? Did I bring the wrong item?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Well, I actually can't tell. I can't read the language. Do you recognize it?" I handed the stack of loose papers to him.

John reached under the circulation desk and pulled out a pair of what I assumed to be reading glasses. He unfolded the dark purple frames and slipped them on his face. He adjusted them, and held up the papers I had handed him, in apparently examination.

"Well, I can tell you one thing right away. This isn't a Latin-based language, there's non-Latin and non-Greco-Roman characters. "

I tried to keep up with his reasoning. "Ah."

"It could be a Germanic language, but there are more than fifty modern languages in that group. And if the original notes are old, it could be something only a few are versed in. At that point we'd need to find someone who recognized the characters in this context. Somewhat of a lucky shot, I suppose." John's head bobbed side to side on his neck as he looked over the pages.

"Any idea who at least wrote out these notes? I presume them to be recent copies of some other documents." I was trying to be practical – anything I could get from them might help, even if I couldn't read them myself.

"Yeah, I don't suspect these notes are more than twenty-five or thirty years old." He paused and turned over the sheets again. "I can pull some of the records on the notes' acceptance into the library's codex, and that might tell us something about who submitted them."

I shifted on my heels; I was feeling impatient. "How long would that take?"

John pursed his lips. "I'd say you'd have to give me at least a few days, maybe a week to find the information. It would have been archived by now."

It was longer than I had expected. "Can you contact me when you have something?" I asked.

He nodded graciously. "Of course. Not a problem at all."

"Thank you." I gave him a wave and returned to the books and texts I could actually read.

I knew I could get some answers, but the questions plagued me: where was the original text that was used as reference for those notes? What language were those notes in? And If only the notes were in the library – and those being located on the top level – who had access to a text that was so important it wasn't even in the library at this point?

***

The rest of the day went quickly. I was barely aware of the noise around me, and only noticed it had gotten dark when I could no longer read without turning on a desk lamp.

Later in the evening, I head footfalls directly behind me. I had been lucky to have not been disturbed as of yet today, and this was a disappointment. I looked up briefly.

It was Stein. He circled around from behind me and ended across from me on the other side of the table. He pulls out the wooden chair sitting there, which then scraped cross the marble floor. Stein flipped it around, and proceeded to sit in it in reverse. I eyed him as he put his elbows on the back of the chair and crossed his arms across his chest and held shoulders. "You look busy, Kid-kun."

I wasn't prepared for him as a distraction to my work. "I am." I concurred with Stein with a flat tone of voice.

He cocked his head to the right. "Work for my lecture?"

I was starting to want him away from me. "No."

Stein lowered her head. "Does she know you're doing this?" He asked quietly.

I absentmindedly flipped through a text I had found on Level 1 called Standard Weapons Versus Independent Weapons' Abilities, trying to ignore him. "No, and I hope it'll stay that way."

Stein didn't appear to enjoy my indifference. "It's my responsibility to do this, you realize."

"I'm trying to find anything that might alleviate her problems. I can't see any reason I shouldn't assist in that." I told him, feeling on edge.

He pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Am I correct in assuming you're not just interested in fixing her or the mechanics of her abilities?"

"In fixing her, I have no interest. Her abilities are fascinating though. I've learned quite a bit today." I paused, realizing how the previous statement sounded. "And how is it wrong for me to want her to not have the problems she has?"

His eyes narrowed in on me. "She hasn't made any motion at trying to change your behavior, right?"

I eyed him in suspicion. "No. Your point being?"

"Just checking." He paused. "Maybe it's because I tend to find that most people only go out of their way to do such things in exchange for something else."

"She likes me, isn't that enough of a reason?" I asked him venomously.

Stein held onto the back of the chair and rocked in his seat. "So she gives you attention, and you try and fix her? I'm not sure that's a fair moral exchange."

I slammed the book I was reading shut. "That's absurd! I'm not trying to fix her, I just don't want her to suffer needlessly. If I can do something, I will."

Stein leaned forward in his seat. "If you didn't want her to suffer then you'd be supporting her emotionally, instead of intrinsically."

I could feel myself being angry. "You're the one treating her like a science project."

He smacked the top of the chair's back. "Because in this instance, it's my job. Last time I checked it was your job to be her boyfriend. And…"

"And what?" I eyed him in suspicion.

"Forget it. We'll just leave it at that." He nodded, which appeared to be more at himself than me.

Something was bothering me, though. "I thought Sai was meeting you today. She said she was busy and that's one of the reasons I'm here."

Stein blinked. "It's 10:30 pm. We trained, and I sent her home hours ago."

I looked up at the clock shaped like my father's mask on the wall. I vaguely remembered turning on the lamp at the desk I had been sitting at, but it didn't seem to have been that long ago. "I guess I've been at this a lot longer than I expected to be." I rubbed my eyes from the strain of reading for so many hours.

"By the way." He whispered. "If you are going to treat her as an experiment eventually, you should probably tell me now. I might let it go if you were upfront about it."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "I'm not; and that's severely ironic coming from you."

Stein chuckled, and looked surprised at his own words. "Yes, I suppose it is."