(Author's note: Thank you for taking the time to read my story. First, as a word of warning, I may play a little fast and loose with the lore of the characters. Think of these as alternate universe versions of said characters. They will be familiar characters, but in a world that I'm going to slowly craft from the ground up. I've decided to write fanfic as a way of forcing myself to practice my writing more, so (constructive) feedback is appreciated.
Also, this will mostly focus on Hololive members, but don't be surprised if some cameos from others show up from time to time. I don't see a category for vtubers in general, so I had to put it in the Hololive category. Onto the story.)
The Magnus Archivium is the most extensive library ever created. It's said to contain every written word conceived of by every sentient being in the multiverse. Every clay tablet, scroll, every byte of digital media, and, of course, every standard-issue book was accounted for. It was so unbelievably massive that if you placed the entire Library of Congress building within it, it would be like tucking a tiny doll house into some dark, unused corner of the Library of Congress.
At the center of it all, in a mostly empty reading space surrounded by bookcases as tall as ten-story buildings, a young woman sat in an ornate wooden chair upholstered with red velvet. Rather than sitting in it normally, she lounged sideways in the chair so that her back rested on one of the plush armrests while her feet hung over the edge of the other arm. Shiori Novella was her name; this was not just any library but HER library.
A dozen open books hovered in the air, suspended by some unseen force. Among these were Gray's Anatomy, Of Mice and Men, Murder on the Orient Express, a book of ramen recipes, a couple of manga, a biography on Beethoven, The Hound of the Baskerville, and even a book that was burned at the Library of Alexandria. Shiori could read a page as fast as an ordinary person could read a sentence (and even faster if she exerted herself) so for her this was a bit of light reading before bed.
Shiori grew tired of the book in front of her and made a dismissive gesture. Obediently, that book moved aside, only to be replaced by the next book in the orbiting queue. She yawned and stretched like a cat, feeling her stiff joints pop.
How long had it been since she and her four friends escaped from The Cell? Months? Perhaps a year? Fewer than five years, she reckoned. Time had a way of getting away from her in this place that had neither a sun nor a moon to mark the passage of days. Though her stay in The Cell had been far from pleasant, never had she felt so alive since the jailbreak. Not long after that, she returned to her library and its tedious safety.
Just as Shiori was pondering going to bed, something unexpected happened. The Magnus Archivium is the repository for all that has ever been or will be, so the unexpected did not occur in it. Yet there it was, hovering a hundred feet before Shori, a small yellow orb of light looking not unlike a firefly with its butt light turned permanently on. Though tiny, in the twilight gloom of the library, it shone like a lighthouse on a moonless night.
"Well, well, it looks like we have a visitor. What are you then?" asked Shiori. She waved at the books encircling her. Understanding, they arranged themselves in a neat pile on the coffee table. She frowned, cleared her throat, and the books rearranged their order, this time in the proper Dewey Decimal order.
The luminous orb expanded, growing to the size of a bowling ball. Something about the enlargement made it unstable, flickering and shooting out arcs of yellow electrical discharges.
Two figures stepped into the light from the shadows of the cyclopean bookcases at opposing sides of Shiori. The duo was a pair of humanoid felines dressed in suits. They stood only an inch or two over two feet tall. The one to Shori's left pulled a gleaming Glock out of his jacket; the one to her right thumbed up an inch of steel of a katana from the sheath on his belt.
"No. Hold on. I want to see what happens." Shiori frowned at the pair and flicked a hand at them to shoo them off.
With a nod, the pair stepped back into the shadows.
As all of this happened, the ball continued to grow and change. No longer a sphere, it expanded into a golden hoop of light. One after another, Roman numerals appeared in ascending order, starting with "I." It didn't take Shori long to recognize it for what it was: a clock face! It had a diameter of twenty feet by the time its growth stopped. Right after the "XII" appeared at the top of the clock, the hour and minute hands formed. From their position, it was one minute until either noon or midnight.
Shiori hopped off her chair and approached the clock. A feline yowl of annoyance cut over the electrical buzz from the clock.
"I'll be fine. You worry too much," Shori said to her unseen feline bodyguard.
The urge to touch it struck Shori, and Ms. Novella was not one to ignore intrusive thoughts. With a shaking hand outstretched, she approached the phantom clock. But before she could, the clockface exploded toward her like a window that had a brick thrown through it. Shiori threw her hands before her face to guard herself from the glass-like shards that flew at her. But rather than cut her, they slid over her like vapor.
Looking up, Shori saw that it was not a brick that crashed through the clock but a young woman with blond hair. Her deerstalker hat and Inverness cape over a tweed suit gave her the look of a female Sherlock Holmes.
Shori could not hide the massive grin on her face nor stop the excited, happy bounces of excitement that she made, even as the woman patted out small flames on her clothing. When this lady Sherlock made eye contact with Shiori, Shiori saw a trickle of blood from a cut on the blond woman's forehead.
"She's coming. Run," the woman croaked.