Agents Undercover
The Librarian arrives
The campus was crowded in the morning, students moving over to their first classes, while mixed among them a few of the teachers, running behind and rushing to make it to their classes. But all of that was as usual. There was a rustle, students looking in surprise as the man skillfully navigated his was through the crowds, nose firmly buried in a book. Longish brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, his clothes semi formal in dress shirt and pants. A bit overweight he still looked reasonably fit as he smoothly navigated onward. A woman stepped in front of him, so he dodged left. She echoed the move, and he tried to dodge right, but in vain.
Reluctantly he looked up from his novel, glasses gleaming, and he smiled suddenly as he said, "Yomiko."
"Shane-san," Yomiko beamed up at him cheerfully, "it's good to see you."
"How's the substitute teaching job?" Shane smiled as they fell into step, the dark haired woman holding a book in her hands, too.
"Going well," Yomiko smiled, "how's the library?"
"It needs some work," he pushed his glasses up, then Shane smiled slightly, "but it's slowly improving."
He hesitated, deciding that the crowd's noise was sufficiently loud to quietly ask, "Have you heard from Joker yet?"
"No," Yomiko answered softly, "I guess that means we keep looking."
"Guess so," Shane agreed. He gave Yomiko a look, a slight smile tugging at his lips, "So how's Nancy been?"
Little circles of red appeared on Yomiko's face as she said with as much dignity as she could muster, "She's fine, thank you."
The bell rang, and both bolted as Shane yelled, "See you later, Yomiko!"
Walking along campus Shane smiled, thinking of the events leading them here to this remote island campus. Investigating a Dokusensha base in Europe he, Yomiko and Nancy had discovered records of rare books, possibly several priceless works, spirited away by Dokusensha agents to a secret location. However, the records were frustratingly incomplete, and a advanced team of agents had been unable to acquire the books.
Joker, after some research, decided a more long range plan might be wise. Working with his various contacts he arranged for the librarian job at the college to come vacant, as well as a teaching position. Shane and Yomiko, it seemed, would fill the jobs while also persuing rumors of the lost books, as well as fielding any requests for their special skills from the Royal Library.
'Well, here we go,' Shane thought as he reached the multi story university library. He smiled slightly as he pushed the doors open, walking over to his new desk and setting his carry bag down. He savored the scent of books, looking around a moment to take in his new domain. The computer banks gleamed as he checked them over, moving on to where the book shelves were. He reluctantly accepted the necessity of the computers but still, there was nothing like holding a book in your own two hands.
"Mr Llewellyn," the assistant at the check out desk smiled shyly, "I unlocked as ordered, and the other staff are shelving last nights returns."
"Thank you, Nodoka," Shane nodded, seeing the first year blush red.
Walking towards the rear of the library Shane heard a sound, a frown appearing on his face. He reached into his pocked, drawing out a piece of paper. Between his fingers it stiffened oddly, a razor edge forming as he moved forward.
The student sat at a private table, her head bent down over a book, a fierce frown on her face. Obviously she wasn't finding what she was looking for. "Damn it," she scowled, slamming the book she was reading roughly closed.
Feeling a bit sheepish Shane slid the paper away before clearing his throat and asking, "Good morning, is there anything I can help you find?"
The girl frowned, waving around a slip with a Dewey decimal code on it, "The programming books are completely messed up."
"May I?" Shane took the sheet thoughtfully, "Let's take a look, Miss Miles."
"How did you know my name?" Kelly Miles looked at him in surprise as they walked to the appropriate section.
Shane knelt down beside the rows of books as he said absentmindedly, "I looked up the users who took the most books out and compared that to yearbook photos." He slid some books forward, reaching behind to search the gap between the front and back shelves, "Ah hah!"
Kelly blinked as he put the slightly dusty book in her hands. She looked up at him with an curious expression, "You're not the most normal librarian, are you?"
"Suppose not," Shane shrugged, giving her a wave as he left her to her work.
Yomiko's First Day
Yomiko bolted, her long coat flapping around her as she heard Shane call out, "See you later, Yomiko!"
Happily the brown haired teacher bounded through the campus and into the hallways of the English department, dragging her usual cart of books behind her. The second bell rang, and Yomiko blurted, "I'm going to be late!"
With a surprising burst of speed from such a avowed bibliophile she barreled down the hall, startling several latecomers and making a leather jacket clad woman swear at her softly. "Watch it," she snarled.
"Sorry!" Yomiko's voice came from farther down the hall.
Revy looked after her, a clearly irritable look on her face. "First time I've seen a teacher be that late," she muttered, wishing she had a smoke right about then. The reddish brown haired woman frowned, looking towards where the woman had bolted off to as she quietly she asked herself, "Now where have I seen her before?"
Meanwhile, in one of the English classes the natives were getting restless. Koyomi Kishro sighed, her head resting on her desk as the copper haired woman complained, "I could be working on something right now, not sitting here waiting." The members of the class seemed oddly unconcerned that she was a cyborg, her arm gleaming metallic on the table.
"Yeah, well," Dan Wisner shrugged sympathetically as he said, "English is one of the required courses to graduate, so we're stuck with it."
Suddenly the door to the classroom slammed open and a woman leapt inside, "Hello, everyone, sorry I'm.." Wham! She tripped over her long coat and crashed face first to the floor.
"I'd give that entrance an eight point five out of ten," Koyomi said dryly, actually looking mildly interested.
Dan got up out of his desk as he worriedly peered at her, "Do you think she's all right?"
With her cheerful grin still intact the woman got to her feet, straightening out her crooked classes. She beamed at them, "My name is Yomiko, Yomiko Readman, and I'm your new English teacher."
"I'm just glad she isn't the coach," someone muttered.
"Your first assignment," Yomiko continued on with a bounce to her step, "is to write a book report on your favorite novel. Ten pages, and it will be due in a week."
With that Yomiko took a seat behind her desk, produced a paperback novel from her shirt pocket, and began to read. There was a long moment of silence as the students sat there and gazed at the intently reading teacher, wondering if there were more instructions coming.
"Guess we start now," Dan said as he got a paperback out of his bag and began reading.
"You know," Koyomi dug around her bag for a book, "I think this is going to be an interesting class after all."
The woman paused in the hallway, looking inside at the intently reading woman, then she continued on. "I really need a smoke," Revy muttered. She had remembered where, exactly, she had seen Yomiko's face before, and it meant her job here as a covert operative might have just gotten harder.
The photo had been part of a briefing file on a semi-covert operations group originally based out of Britain. The Great British Library Special Missions group, silly name, but it's agents had a reputation for being eccentric but effective. And Yomiko Readman was an agent for them, with the unlikely codename of The Paper.
'So what the hell do they want here?' Revy thought to herself grimly.
To be continued...
Mad Science 101
"Robots?" Shane echoed her statement thoughtfully as they walked together through the busy library, the brown haired librarian walking towards the reference stacks determinedly.
The librarian looked over at the young woman oddly, though that wasn't an unusual occurence, but in this case it was more due to her question than her strange appearance. Oddly, she found that kind of refreshing. "Robots," Koyomi agreed, her short coppery hair falling around her face.
Shane frowned in consideration, "Unless we narrow it down a bit, you're going to be hauling a mountain of books away." He looked at her thoughtfully and asked, "Humanoid robots?"
"Sounds good," Koyomi said agreeably, her t-shirt revealing the metallic arm she had, a mass produced 'armitage' model.
"Fiction or non-fiction?" he asked as he lead her deeper into the shelves past other students and volunteer staff, looking almost like a hound chasing after his prey.
"Bit of both," Koyomi shrugged as she coolly explained, "I'm looking for some inspiration."
"Inspiration?" Shane smiled suddenly as he realized, "You're trying to build one!"
"You got it," Koyomi nodded.
"Then you'll need some Asimov," Shane retraced his steps to the fiction aisles and began to pull several books down as he asked, "you've read his three laws or robotics?"
"Hey, I'm building the hardware along with Chao and Hikase, not doing the programing," Koyomi protested mildly.
Shane looked over the top of his glasses at her as he pointed out, "Programing is dictated by the design and manufacture, you know. You've got to keep that sort of thing in mind."
"And how do you know that?" Koyomi gave him a look.
"I read it in a book somewhere," Shane shrugged with a slight smile.
Koyomi scowled as she muttered, "Guess I should have known a librarian would say that."
"We should also get you the information on Japan's Asimo series of robots," Shane moved back to the nonfiction shelves, "and you should really read through the Jane's guides."
"Jane's Guides?" Koyomi followed him with a frown as she asked, "Aren't those on military vehicles and equipment?"
"There's been some remarkable advances in military power suit technology in the past few years," Shane explained as he pulled the guide down eagerly, "none of the 'Black Project' stuff will be in there, but some of the tech is gradually being revealed for public consumption."
Loaded down with a pile of books to begin her research Koyomi gave him a thoughtful look. "How do you know about that stuff?" she asked. "It doesn't seem the sort of thing a usual librarian would know."
Shane shrugged, pushing his glasses back up as he said, "I used to get around a bit."
"Shane, I was looking for..." Kelly trailed off as she saw her partner in crime standing there. "Hey, Koyomi."
"Miles," Koyomi nodded to her slightly, "you know this guy?"
"I wouldn't go that far," Kelly smiled slightly.
Shane made a face, "I'm hurt." He smiled slightly, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Another mess in the programing section," Kelly shrugged.
Shane nodded, "Right." He turned back to Koyomi, "When you actually finish the robot.."
"Yes?" Koyomi asked.
Shane grinned. "I'd like to see it." With that, he moved off to help Kelly, leaving Koyomi looking at him thoughtfully.
The writer assignment
The students waited there patiently, as always. A few minutes after the class was officially supposed to have begun Yomiko Readman wandered inside, her face buried in a book as usual, dragging her suitcase cart behind her. She bumped into her desk, looked up, and noticed that she was in class.
"Good morning," Yomiko beamed at them, carefully putting her book away. Walking over to the board she wrote in bold script, Creative Writing.
"Uh oh," Dan murmured softly.
"I'll be honest," Yomiko smiled cheerfully, "I can't write myself. But, as you all know by now, I certainly enjoy reading."
Soft chuckles from the crowd at that. The woman was obsessed with reading, clearly, and the variety of what she read was astonishing. Watching her in class they saw detective novels, romance, science fiction, horror and many more categories ended up on her desk at one time or another.
"One of my favorite authors, Sumiregawa Nenene," Yomiko hesitated as she spoke her name, the teacher's face becoming oddly sorrowful, "spoke of a passion for writing." A bit more cheerfully, "I don't know if any of you have that passion, but I look forward to finding out."
"Wonder if she knew this Nenene?" Koyomi said softly to Dan.
"Good question," he softly answered.
"The assignment," Yomiko smiled, "is two pages of writing for the next class. It can be a piece of fiction, an essay, poetry, or even free verse, it's all your choice. I just want to get a feel for your writing style."
Dan raised a hand, "If we're not sure what to write, are there certain topics you'd prefer?"
"Did you have a novel or television program that ended in a way you didn't like?" Yomiko asked with a happy smile. "Write the ending you would have wanted to see."
Another student looked surprised, "Isn't that fanfiction? I thought teachers disapproved of it."
Yomiko beamed at them, "I won't tell if you won't" There was a bit of laughter from the class as the students set down to work.
Most of the students were just taking Yomiko's class to fulfill an English requirement at the academy, but it was surprisingly enjoyable. The teacher herself was pretty entertaining, and the course work she assigned was surprisingly interesting. Now as Dan and Koyomi walked away from the class, they fell into discussion of their teacher.
"So what do you think?" Koyomi asked him curiously.
Dan blinked, "About what?"
Koyomi said impatiently, "Did Yomiko know this Nenene?"
"Probably," Dan frowned thoughtfully, "but I wonder if they're friends now? She didn't sound as perky as she usually does when she mentioned her."
"Well," Siobhan said thoughtfully, "let's look into this lady."
Detouring from their trip back to the dorms Siobhan led them over to the school's library. Entering through the simple security gate they went on in, noting a man sitting at the check out desk reading a book.
"Met the librarian yet?" Koyomi asked Dan curiously as they walked up to his desk..
Dan blinked, "No, not yet. Is he the one who helped you with that robotics research?"
"Yep, that's him," Koyomi walked over and cleared her throat, causing him to look up in surprise.
"Ah, Koyomi," Shane smiled, pushing up his glasses, "how's the robot coming along?"
"Progressing nicely," Koyomi smiled. "I'd like you to meet my friend Dan, " she nodded towards Dan.
"Ah, yes." Shane smiled wryly to Dan, "nice to meet you."
"You too," Dan nodded..
Koyomi smiled as she said, . "We're looking for information on an certain author."
"No problem," Shane got up out of his seat, leading them over to the database computers as he asked, "Which one?"
"Sumiregawa Nenene," Dan offered.
Shane nearly stumbled and fell on hearing that name, but recovered fairly quickly. "Sorry, sorry," he straightened out his glasses nervously.
"Recognize the name?" Koyomi asked him dryly.
"Something like that," Shane said, calling up a file on the computer about Sumiregawa Nenene, "here's her catalog information and..." The man hesitated a moment. "She also has a personal webpage, there's a link attached." With that, he excused himself to attend to another student.
"That was odd," Dan blinked.
"Got that right," Koyomi agreed as she ran through the page, frowning at how little
personal information the catalog actually gave. The link to Nenene's webpage popped up easily, showing a well designed layout and a bit more personal information.
"What's that?" Dan noticed a link on the upper corner of the page.
'Have you seen me?' was the tag line. Koyomi clicked on it, and a moment later an image appeared on the screen. Both Dan and Koyomi gaped at it in surprise, until Koyomi recovered enough to say, "Yeah, I think Yomiko knows Nenene."
The picture was of a younger Yomiko Readman, holding a book in her hands and beaming happily, little circles of red on her cheeks. Books lined the background of the scene, clearly the woman was standing in a bookstore or an library. Just below the large picture was a response form, waiting to be filled out.
"So what do we do now?" Dan mused.
To be continued...