"This is... way too crazy..." The girl stepped out of a dark gateway that was leading to somewhere that looked like an entirely different place. The only things visible to Aiko were a stone path that was decorated with torii gates and a thick forest that covered everything outside the path's way.

"How is this even possible? You're seeing this too, right, Isamu?" She looked back over her shoulder to the boy that slowly stepped out of the same dark gateway that she just came through.

Isamu looked up to the torii. More precisely, to the lanterns that illuminated the spaces between them. "This looks like a way to a shrine... but this isn't anywhere near our town. The sky looks like it's night, but there isn't a single star."

"Welcome, to the library of Noguchi Miyoko. Master Chiba, mistress Shina, let me guide you to the terrace." As they both concentrated on the surroundings and decorations, a man surprisingly appeared in front of them. The man slightly bowed before them before he stood straight up again. He had a long grey beard and short grey hair. His arms were hidden in the sleeves of his yukata, and a shadow covered his eyes.

"Master? Mistress...?... Oh! You must be Mrs. Miyoko's esper!" Aiko stepped further towards him with an exciting sparkling in her eyes as she looked up to the man, who responded with short laughter.

"Indeed I am, and so is everything else you see here. My mistress gave me the name Kane. Though, I assume she'd like to tell you the rest herself, so please follow me while we wait for her arrival. Master Enatsu is also waiting for you two." Kane turned around, facing towards the up-leading stairs at the end of their path.

The two slowly followed the man while still inspecting their surroundings. Isamu still focused on the torii and forest, but Aiko looked like she couldn't wait to finally get to wherever the stairs lead. "Fufu is up there, right? Will we be able to look over the forest when we're there?"

"That's... something I'd like to ask too. Is there anything besides the forest and the... terrace? I mean, this is supposed to be a library, correct? " Isamu looked up the stair, onto the slightly bigger torii and a pair of stone lanterns that ornamented the beginning of the terrace.

"To both, you will get your answers when you're on top. You will see that all your questions end up in the same answer." The man turned around and moved out the way to the side of the staircase, gesturing that they should go up.

The two nodded silently and went up the stairs while Kane took a step back and made his way to the gateway again. Aiko stopped halfway on the stairs and watched Kane for a short moment before then looking down at Isamu, who was a few steps behind her. "It didn't look like it'd take that long from down there..."

"Well, it's still not really long. I mean, it's just a few steps more, or should I carry you?" He walked past Aiko with a smug smirk on his lips. "Aren't you pretty small as well? Compared to Fufu, we're probably the same... but we can both still grow! Maybe you're as tall as him when you're the same age." Aiko said with a genuine smile before she ran up the stairs to pass Isamu again.

"What?! I'm 16! What do you mean "when you're the same age"?! how old do you think I was?" He yelled up at the girl that ran the stairs up and away from him. He couldn't see her face, but he could see the grin on her face as he yelled up at her. "Wait... you knew that I'm 16, right?! Are you making fun of me?!"

"Maybe I am, maybe I am not...who knows?" The girl held her hand in front of her mouth while snickering as she glanced over her shoulder and down at Isamu. That was until she finally stood under the torii at the end of the staircase and was able to oversee the place Kane called the terrace.

"Aha! I knew that was your voice! Why didn't you follow me directly after that monster woman threw me in here?! You took way too long!" As Isamu also stepped up the staircase to finally see the terrace, the first thing he, of course, concentrated on was Fudo, who yelled out to them from the other side of the plateau.

Aiko slowly stepped forward with wide eyes. The terrace was just a great rectangular stone floor that was on every edge ornamented with a torii in the middle and a pair of stone lanterns on each side of them. In the middle of the floor were four wide wooden tables that were illuminated by an old-looking Japanese lamp.

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But none of these things was what made Aiko have the reaction that she had. On her left and her right, behind the torii gates, were staircases that led downwards again, though these staircases weren't nearly as long as the one they came from.

"What... is this?!" As she stepped further to the left side of the terrace, she saw something that she couldn't believe, even when it was right before her eyes. Giant bookshelves were standing at the sides of the path at the end of the staircase that she looked down. On each side, there was one bookshelf, but both shelves didn't seem to end. The shelves were long enough to reach all the way that she could see from up there and even further.

"Aishi? You ok there?" Fudo slowly stood up and walked over to Aiko, who still stared down at the bookshelves, and thus didn't seem to recognize him even being there. "Are these bookshelves really that special...? There are some on the other side too." "He's right! Here are some super long shelves as well" Fudo pointed over to the opposite side where Isamu already looked over.

"Actually, they are the same! Just a little trick of my amazing little esper." As they all turned around to the entrance staircase, they saw Miyo, Kaiyo, and Kane coming up the stairs. While Miyo ran straight over to Fudo and Aiko, Kaiyo immediately took a chair and sat down on the table nearest to her.

"The same...? How?" Aiko looked up from the shelves and over to Miyo, who ran straight into her. As Miyo threw her arms around the girl and hugged her, the unbelieving look on Aiko's face did not change. "How can those be the same bookshelves?"

"Ah~ you're so soft, Aishi~." Miyo seemed to ignore her at first, as she pushed her own cheek against Aiko's, but then slowly pointed to the horizon. "You see, this is not just a small area. This is a small planet, and it's entirely a library! This is the start of the bookshelves, and that over there is the end of them."

"An entire planet?!" Isamu yelled as he looked over to the woman that still pressed herself against Aiko while she only looked at Miyo with widened eyes. "Yeah, that's pretty big, ain't it?" He didn't seem nearly as shocked as the other two as he sat down at the same table that Kaiyo took a seat on.

"How can you stay so calm?! She just told us that she created an entire planet out of nothing!" Isamu ran over to Fudo and slapped his hand on the table in front of them. Fudo just grinned as he put his shoes on the table. "No, she told us that this is a planet. She didn't say she created it! That Kane guy already told me as much as you took your precious time outside without me."

"We came in twenty seconds after you. That's not too long as that you should complain because of it." Aiko slowly walked up to the same table they all were at, while Miyo let loose of her and instead ran towards Kaiyo. "Twenty seconds?! I came in like, 5 minutes before you! I thought you all just walked away without me!"

Isamu and Aiko looked at each other confused, as they also slowly sat down next to Fudo. Without saying a word, Aiko put her hand on her chin as she tried thinking what exactly is going on, and Isamu looked over to the women across them. "Is that a part of your esper too, Miyoko?"

"First, please call me Miyo as everyone else does because I'll come up with a nickname for you as well, and second, yes, that is my esper too!" Miyo said before she took a seat on Kaiyo's lap, who took it as casually as if that would happen every day.

"So I'm going to use this all here to explain the history of espers to you, but before, let me introduce you to my esper: Omoikane's library." She quickly threw her arms into the air as she presented the name, nearly giving Kaiyo an uppercut in the act.

"You mean... like the god of wisdom, Omoikane?" Aiko asked with an unbelieving but excited glow in her eyes. "Exactly that one. This is the esper passed down from the god of wisdom and intelligence himself!" Miyo expressed with a prideful smirk.