The gargantuan towering glass windows leave barely anything to the imagination of the first three floors of LEBA Tower. The eyesore and grand attraction of Silver Salt City. Tall, and wide, and likely an affront to God, in Matthews opinion. A shame the tower almost seems to run the city, drawing in tourists and businessmen alike.
Towering far above, reaching the skies, made of metal and concrete. Windows reflect the grandness of the sky, the landscape of other towers with barely any red peeking through them of the rocky desert. As the doors open, the cold air inside washes the dry heat of the city away.
The automatic king-sized doors open, glass the same as the windows, showing the picture of the three. All in uniform sync, in a line, they look down from trying to catch the height of the immovable titanic tower disappearing between the clouds.
Matthew, in the middle in his basic collared t-shirt and jeans with the same shoes as yesterday, hair just barely moving from the gust of wintery air and standing confidently beneath the blazing sun. He’s thinking of the quickest way to the computers, lacking any worry for Ninum’s possible bad influence.
Ninum, on Matthews left, wearing her majority black outfit with black diamond earrings hanging on gold chains, sunglasses still shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun against the windows. She’s thinking about whether Bernadette will be willing to share any.
Bernadette, on Matthews right, in her jean shorts and pink shirt reading ‘Good Vibes’ in hippie print, she holds a box of Beignets with green calligraphy reading ‘Monde Du!’ She’s thinking about the last time she’s been here with Matthew, wondering if any of the mangas have new chapters out while she bounces the tip of her shoe behind her in tandem with the drum blaring through her red headphones.
Straight through the foyer, the same empty echoing like the apartments, right towards the large oval shaped desk. The only difference here is that, accompanying the echo, is the quickly shifting of songs over the loudspeakers, barely audible and switching between goth, rock, indie, and more Matthew doesn’t even know of. Sitting behind the long curved white desk sits an Indian woman, typing at her computer quicker than Matthew can make out the words she’s writing.
Barely looking up from the screen for a second, “Hello! How can I help you today?” She asks with a smile, eyebrows slightly creased as she tries to cram in the last of what she’s typing before turning towards them.
With a kind smile she looks them up and down, noticing how they both seem underdressed for the air conditioning of the library. Set at a direct 55 degrees, it’s a wonder the woman in sunglasses isn’t shivering from the length of her shorts, as she's the last to reach the desk from walking so leisurely. At the same moment the thought crosses Chetana’s mind, name as seen from her silver name tag, the AC tower behind her kicks into high gear and whips her hair almost entirely in front of her face, causing her to wrap her black jacket around her, over white pressed dress shirt.
“I’d like to get a library pass, as well as a computer tag please,” Matthew asks after she brushes her almost black hair behind her, revealing gold bell-like earrings with pearls hanging to them.
“Sure thing! That’ll be fifteen dollars please,” Chetana pulls two of the hidden drawers out from the desk and grabs white plastic passes, one with a gray bottom edge to it and engraved with motherboard etchings. The other a basic white, both with rounded edges.
Matthew, reaching in his back left pocket of his jeans, only feels his phone. In his back right pocket, nothing is in there. Questions for a moment, the edge of a black leather square pokes into view on his left.
Ninum holds out the wallet to him, and once he grabs it she takes her white ticket and walks away. Bernadette quickly follows after her as Matthew takes out a ten and five dollar bill, slamming them down and picking up his own card with the silver bottom. As he’s about to begin to walk away, the desk librarian stands up just slightly from her chair, gaze drifting after the two ladies.
“Oh, um,” all three of them turn to look at her, “I-, you know what, never mind,” she waves her hand as they all turn back to walking their own ways.
She didn’t even see the young girl until the top of her red headphones went bouncing away over the lip of the desk.
Matthew makes his way to the glass stairway behind the white oval desk, climbing up two flights of stairs. Ninum, however, with Bernadette following at her heels, has made her way on the ground floor to the right towards the comic book section. Looking around, the wide area is devoid of people, even on the other side of the building. With the exception of Chetana at the library desk, and what can be seen to be a small cafe area on the second floor with a single barista, the library seems to be devoid of people.
Behind them, almost out of ear shot, the sound of clacking can be heard on a telephone. The gray one on the white desk. The fast switching music seems to slow, before stopping on ‘Maneater’ by Hall and Oates. Once the music lands, the one on the other end of the line likely picks up.
Looking around the area she’s in, Bernadette has set her box of beignets down at one of the tables, the window showing the outside hustle and bustle of everyday life. The library books all seem to be held in some kind of light wash oak shelves. How odd, Ninum thinks, for such a technologically advanced place to still use wooden shelving. Maybe it was cheap, or the aesthetic just looked better. The flooring might be doing good on the aesthetic front, with its pearlescent white marble more mirror than floor.
Sneaking past Bernadette, who’s lingering at the edge of the manga section, Ninum sneaks a beignet out with a napkin. Chewing on it, with her back turned to the girl, she takes in the collection of comics and, on the left edge before it leads into a walkway to the rest of the shelves, light novels on the wooden wall. Stand alone comics like; ‘Hellboy’ and Marvel; ‘Ghost Rider,’ ‘NightCrawler’ and DC; ‘Constantine,’ ‘Batman,’ ‘Superman’ and light novels; ‘Heaven Officials Blessing’ and many others.
Before the other side of the phone gets a word in, Chetana beats them to it, “Sir, please, stop messing with the music-, I know I can listen to my own music, but there are customers and it's not allowed,” she pauses as the other end says whatever they are saying, “Ca-, ok fine, sorry, whatever,” she hangs up on them, and then hangs up on them again as it begins to ring for less than a second.
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Turning back around, almost done with the sugared bread, Bernadette is only barely searching around the edge of the manga section. More so playing with the edges of her pink shirt rather than taking any books away from the shelves. Striding over to her, and wiping her hands while pocketing the napkin, Ninum comes up behind the girl to see her looking at the shonen section. Good taste, Ninum agrees with her on the appeal of the genre, the fights are generally quite good. The constant reiteration of ideals can get a bit annoying though when repeated too often in the stories.
Leaning over the little girl's shoulder, Ninum lifts up the left headphone just barely and whispers, “Boo.”
The girl jumps, hands coming up so fast and knocking her headphones off so quick they slam into the empty crevice to the right of the copies of ‘Tokyo Ghoul.’ Sending a dull and empty mechanic sound against the wood, the both of them freeze as ‘Swan Lake’ by Tchaikovsky plays quietly against the empty quiet of the library, echoing in its hole.
The first to speak, “Whoops, sorry kid. Didn’t expect you to react that fast,” Ninum apologizes, long straight black hair being pushed back by her sunglasses while she crouches down, eyebrows furrowing, “They didn’t break, did they?”
The red headphones continue to play music after being pulled out by Bernadette. Turning them over in her hands, everything seems to be alright in her opinion so she nods back at the woman now at her height. She taps the right headpiece twice and the music stops, putting it back around her neck she looks up at the woman before turning back to the volumes in front of her.
Staring straight at the books, “Do you, um, like manga?” Bernadette asks, eyes flickering back to Ninum before barely pointing to the shelf beneath where the headphones fell.
With a slight smile, she turns her head to look at the shelves, looking them over, “I sure do kid, especially this type,” Ninum picks up a chapter of ‘Chainsaw Man,’ chapter 54.
Bernadette, with curious eyes, reaches for the book she’s holding. Ninum, however, pulls it back, racking her mind for a second. Pink lips pursed as the girl in front of her inches barely closer.
“How old did you say you were again?”
Bringing her hand down, a small pout on her lips, “Twelve?” Bernadette pulls down the edges of her tan jacket that slid up.
At the number, Ninum's head tilts away with a small bow to it. Pushing the chapter back into its place, she looks over what else there may be on the shelf. Trying to find a new topic, the thought crosses her mind of the music.
“Say, for a twelve year old, you sure got old man taste in music.”
With a rear of her head away from sneakily trying to pull out the manga chapter Ninum put back, short hair barely swishing from the action, “So?” Bernadette says more than asks, almost sounding insulted.
With a sly grin, Ninum responds to the change in pace gladly, “I’m just wondering why you’re listening to it, that's all kid,” with a nod of her head to show she's curious, Ninum turns back to analyzing the spines of the books.
Following her gaze, Bernadette lands on the first chapter of ‘Jujutsu Kaisen,’ and snatches it away before Ninum can grab it, “I dance.”
Looking up from the manga in the girls arms with a raised eyebrow, “You dance?”
“Sandie lets me take dance classes,” Bernadette turns back to the book in her arms, opening to a random page, “Ballet.”
Ninum, nodding as she says the words, watches as Bernadette spoils herself to a kid jumping through a window and kicking a monster. Her face barely changes, but her eyes light up just slightly, her hands clenching around the edges of the book a miniscule bit tighter. She almost seems immediately drawn in by the story, especially by the dogs on the next couple of pages.
“You read a lot of manga?”
Looking up for a moment from her story, Ninum is looking right at her, obviously curious as her eyes attempt to meet her brown ones, “Yeah. Mostly online, but the wifi sucks,” Bernadette immediately responds and averts her eyes back to the story even quicker.
Taking in the information, Ninum looks back to the volumes of stories on her left. Rather than continuing where she left off, Ninum turns to her right to the other volumes. Even more shonen litters the shelves, this time with ‘Berserk’ and all its hefty volumes taking its hold in the bottom wooden tier. Likely not any higher due to it being able to be eye level with kids.
‘She likes dancing’ Ninum notes, looking between the various stories about fighting and battling ideals. Bernadette, looking over the edge of her manga, watches as Ninum’s golden orange eyes search the titles. Whether or not she notices her staring, she begins to grin, finding what she was looking for.
“How about fight choreography? It's not much unlike dancing,” Ninum says with a tilt of her head towards Bernadette, black hair falling around her, fingers lingering towards a copy of ‘Sakamoto Days.’
The words about dancing brings the short haired out of her hiding spot behind the book about sorcery. Inching closer to Ninum, the woman brings the first five chapters out of the open case, laying them on her lap. Balancing on her heels, and balancing the books on her thighs, she opens the fifth chapter.
“You see the girl here,” Bernadette nods, brown eyes following as Ninum points to a girl with a braid, “She can do Tai Chi. Its a type of martial art, the type of which you have to hone your body and skills to use, kind of like dancing,” then pointing to the guy dodging knife strikes, “And this guy, while the drawing might not show it too much, is being nimble enough to dodge lightning quick attacks. Almost like having to do pirouettes and keep yourself steady by spotting,” Ninum explains to the girl as Bernadette's eyes light up even more at the equation between fighting and dancing.
Closing the book as Bernadette came even closer, big doe eyes attempting another look, Ninum stands up and sets the books on top of the wood. Confused, red converse steps back a pace as the woman leans down, grabbing the next five chapters. Carrying all ten she steps out of the wood and book alley, before stopping as Bernadette doesn’t follow her.
“Well, come on little Odette, Matthews coming down,” and true to her words, Matthew is, somehow, racing down the glass stairs, ignoring the metal rails.
Quickly picking up the box of beignets, Bernadette follows behind the woman as the sound of ‘Wild Child’ by The Black Keys plays dully over the soundsystem. The two meet Matthew, obviously agitated as he runs his hands through his hair, at the white desk. About to speak, the automatic doors open behind them with an almost inaudible sound, only noticed by Ninum, causing the other three to look as well.
The sound of polished shoes comes first as a bunch of men in pressed and tailor suits pass through the foyer. Most are quiet and holding briefcases, but some are silently joking with their friends as they pass by. Leering and jeering at the obvious target, but quietly enough that none of the humans at the desk are able to hear. All of them pass by, marching up the stairs and to the round and cylindrical elevator on the third floor. Taking turns going in, their faint chatter is at the same dull volume as the ceiling speakers.
Dropping the ten chapters of manga, Ninum steps back from the desk. Both Matthew and Chetana look confusedly at the tower of books. Gesturing with her hand towards the surprisingly stable thing, Matthew looks at it before catching Bernadette right beside Ninum, looking at him with genuine sparkles in her eyes, filled with hope.
How unfortunate that he can bring himself to deny her. He can hear his wallet crying now.