As the two of us steeled ourselves to enter the Library of a Thousand Passages, a somewhat random thought occurred to me. Wasn't this my only goal at the beginning? To enroll in here so that I may gain access to the Library? That was so that I could hopefully find concrete evidence of my ancestry. Well, I'd still like to continue looking for that, but I think Lemmy will get way too annoyed at me all of a sudden doing side quests that he didn't sign up for. Eh, I guess I'll just have to go look for it on my own at a later time.

"So, you told me we're looking for a brown book with no inscriptions on it?" He glanced at me, "Alright, this place is literally a dozen or so floors tall, so let's alternate between floors as we slowly go one by one."

"I like it." I nodded, "You take the even numbers, and I'll take the odd ones."

"Sure, just make sure to stay quiet. We could easily get banned from this place if either one of us is too noisy."

"You do not have to tell me twice." I chuckled.

"Shh!" He warned, "Even quieter than that! Whisper at max, okay? And even if you do find the book, don't yell out to me. Instead, find me and then tell me, okay?"

"Alright." I chuckled as I realized his Eyes were glowing Yellow the entire time, "A-Ah, was that just now?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah." He chuckled deviously, "That was a Command. I know you're not the rowdy type and all, but I just wanted to be on the safe side. Just in case, y'know?"

"R-Right..."

That guys dangerous, maybe even moreso than Chant. He seems standoffish at the start, making you feel like his calm and friendly demeanor is some kind of great achievement. After that, he quickly takes the lead in every conversation, and before you know it, you're left as nothing but a mindless yes man that only agrees to his orders. That might be the moment he pulls out the Iro Ability, or hell, it could've been sooner even. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to have any bad motives, though I should still be on guard around him, lest he Commands me to do something worse next time...

Back to the topic at hand, the Library is quite the amazing place, even compared to the giant pyramid in Havana where the Mobius Awards took place. It's a giant spiral that stands out as the central focal point of the University. The circle is about a football field wide, and the floors above the first one are all hollow at the center, leaving you to have to go in a circle if on each floor if you want to look for a specific book. Lucky us...

"Oh hey, are you the librarian here?" I noticed a guy walking around in a similar uniform to the people at the booth, "Could I ask if you have a certain book in here I am looking for?"

"Sure, no problem." He smiled back, "What's the name of the book?"

"Ah." I suddenly realized, "I-It does not really have a name..."

"...Right." He continued walking away, "Sir, please do not waste our time with your riddles if you don't have anything better to do. We take our jobs here really seriously."

"R-Right. Sorry." I whispered back.

Crap, I completely forgot the book we were searching for didn't have a name! What the hell, my memory's really been betraying me these past few weeks. Still, the person working here was just a tad older than me, so I can assume that only the older staff know of the book's existence. Or well, who knows? Maybe even they know nothing about it. Jethro did say it was pretty well tucked away, after all.

Thus, I had braced myself for a stupidly long montage wherein Lemmy and I spent the entire day looking for the book in each and every floor, each of us racing to overtake one another just so we could find a desperate way to make this grueling task just that bit less boring. We had reached around a tenth of the way up as the workers announced it was time to close in a few minutes, indicating we should wrap it up for today.

"Hey, don't tell me...!" I went to reach for a brown unlabeled book as I was heading back to Lemmy's side.

"And what do YOU think you're doing?" A guy with a pretty mean mohawk snatched the book away from me at the last second.

"Hey, sorry monsieur, but could you just lend me that book for a momen-!"

"Nope." He flicked open a pocket knife, "I don't intend on stirring up trouble, so before I decide if I'll let you free or not, you're gonna need to tell me what business you have with our book exactly."

"Wait - our?" I tilted my head as I saw a group of people steadily surrounding me on both sides of the circle's outer ring, "Damn you...!"

"Sorry bro, like Aguilar said: We'll let you free if you answer correctly." One of the guys behind me spoke.

"Dammit, I told you to not call me by my name!" The first dude started yelling.

"Shh!" A strong shush could be heard echoing up to us from the first floor before loudly whispering, "No yelling!"

"Nice job, boss. Now the staff is coming up here in a minute..." This Aguilar dude's people slow clapped sarcastically.

"Grr...! No matter, all the more reason for our bro here to answer as soon as possible!"

Oh right! I'm not alone in here! I may be outnumbered on this floor, but there are countless surrounding floors with the staff leaving all around us. Hell, even Lemmy should be on the floor below me, so if I can just yell for help...!

***

"Help..." I noticed my voice wasn't at all reaching anyone, "Huh? I-I said help. Why? Why can I not yell?"

Just then, as every one of the guys threatening me began to quietly mock me for "being so scared I can't even call for help", I recalled the Command that Lemmy ordered me to follow. Dammit, of all the times to have my yelling forcefully disabled...! I'll just need to play along, I guess.

"I'm investigating something." I tried to imitate Lune in his lying, "Though that something is definitely not the Glitch OR the System!"

"...Pfft." One guy burst out laughing, as the others soon followed, "What the hell kind of lie is that!?"

"Dude! Bro missed Rule 3 of Lying 101!" Another guy replied.

"Hey! Quiet down back there!" A librarian could be heard warning them again, "That's it! I'm coming up there!"

"Shit, just answer the damned question kid!" Aguilar held the book in one hand and the knife in the other, "You can't run from this!"

"Damn, you're right..." I couldn't help but agree, "Hold on, that's wrong though?"

Going Solipsistic to weave through the guys blocking my path in slowed time, I had thought about the brown book's chemical structure as I Materialized it away from Aguilar. Just as time had begun to speed up to its normal rate, I had successfully made my way out of their trap. Running down the stairs, I had noticed certain death was looming just behind me. Ducking by pure instinct, I had just barely dodged the knife slicing my nape wide across. Now that I knew Aguilar was right behind me, wildly swinging his balisong, I checked my Sinus Wave and jumped down the center of the ring.

"Huh?! The hell are you doing!?" He yelled.

"Boss, leave him!" The others stopping him from jumping after me, "No one can survive such a fall! He's done for!"

As I fell from a ten story tall drop, I noticed that my heart rate hadn't at all jumped. In fact, the only emotion I could feel was the happiness of not getting cut up by this mysterious villain Aguilar. Accepting whichever path the Sinus Wave takes me down, I had spread my arms and legs as I skydived down the Library, the brown book in hand. As luck would have it, someone was looking just out the edge of the ring on one of the lower floors, so he grabbed me by the leg, leaving me to dangle there, a bit sick from the inertia, but alive nonetheless. Heh, this is all because of you, kid, so stop acting so high and mighty...!

"Lemmy!" I smiled up at the youth that held my leg by the ankle, "Look what I got!"

"Thank fuck!" He rolled his Eyes, "I was starting to think we were in for a month of searching after we came up empty handed today. What was all that commotion up there?"

"Crap, I totally forgot to tell you!" I said as he dragged me up over the edge, "Some guys are after us, we need to...!"

"Shhhh!" The two of us suddenly got handcuffed by a librarian, "So it was you two who were causing all the commotion on the upper levels! You're coming with me!"

"What? No! That is false!" I pleaded, "Well, partially, as I was kind of guilty of causing a ruckus, but...!"

"So you even admit it, huh guy? Well, at least you're honest." He then tried reaching for the book, "I'll also be taking this, then!"

"No!"

"Kid!" Lee's voice could be heard shouting from down below us, "Toss the book over the edge! I'll catch it!"

"Dad!?" Lemmy was just as surprised as I was.

Without even hesitating, I had chucked the book towards where I had expected Lee's voice to be coming from. The librarian punched me in the face for doing so, and Lee could be heard victoriously announcing that he caught it successfully.

"Haha! Got it, boys!" He laughed hard, "Now what do I do with it?"

"Take it and run!" I shouted, "Run as far away as you can and hide the book! Hide it somewhere where no one will find it except for you!"

"Sir, if you do that, you will be considered a national criminal!" The librarians down there with him explained, "Just peacefully hand the book to us and nothing bad will happen."

"Eh, not like it'd be my first time." Lee probably shrugged as he said that, "Besides, this book is apparently super important for my son and our friend, so I'd rather I fulfill their wishes instead!"

"Sir!" The librarians pleaded, "Do you not understand the ramifications of your actions!? If you do that, we will be forced to hunt you down until you give us back the book! But that's not all - Even if, no, WHEN we get the book back, you'll still face the death sentence no matter what! We're trying to save you, your friend and your son by doing this, so would you PLEASE hand the book to us?!"

"Nuh-uh~!" He jeered, "Make me!"

Some more commotion could be heard from the ground floor as he ran out of the Library with the book in his possession, and Lemmy and I simply stood to look over the edge, handcuffed to the librarian's wrists. Just then, Lemmy seemed to have gotten an idea.

"Hey guy, you didn't really think this one through, did ya'?" He said.

"Huh? Why is that?" The librarian replied.

Winking at me, Lemmy started to run full sprint towards the stairs leading down to the ground floor. "Meil, follow my lead!"

"Ah, I get it!" I replied as I followed close to him, the two of us dragging the poor librarian away with us, "So you are saying that this librarian did not catch us, but the opposite! After all, it is easier for the two of us to drag him around than him us!"

"O-Oi! Where are you taking me!? Someone, help! They're taking me with them!" The librarian called out to his coworkers.

Well, I guess you could add "kidnapping" to my list of felonies I've commited in my life. Though it beats having to sit around all day and help Kevin with his studies and love life. Yeah, I'd rather be doing this instead any day.