A new book for those late nights

Taizai enters the library and looks around for a book to read.

"Hmm...what should I read? Ayn Rand? No...Stephen King? I want to go to sleep not stay up more..."

He sighs and looks around some more before approaching a fellow student.

"Excuse me...I was wondering if you could help me find a book to read."

Nayumi is sitting on one of the beanbag chairs in the library. She has her sketchbook open and placed on her knees. Her hand, mostly covered by her fingerless glove, is making gentle, yet precise movements across the sheet of paper. Just an hour ago, the girl got an idea about a drawing, and quickly made a rough sketch during class. When lunch break was over, she immediately rushed towards the quietest place she could think of (the library) and continued drawing, using the silence to fully immerse herself within her inner world. Fully focused on the picture, Nayumi continued to draw on the sheet of paper, not letting anything break her concentration. Until...

Excuse me..., she hears a voice next to her. With a sigh, the girl averts her big eyes away from the picture and looks at the one who had spoken to her. It was a boy, with brown hair and green eyes. I was wondering if you could help me find a book to read, he speaks to her again.

Nayumi looks back at her sketch again. How was she supposed to know what kind of book he would enjoy? Was he just trying to make small talk or something? Well, either way, she couldn't care less. "Try asking the librarian" she responds coldly before grabbing her pencil again, wondering where to continue from.

He shrugs.

"Okay...sorry for wasting your time."

He walks off and looks for the librarian who's is nowhere in sight.

Nayumi stares at the boy for a few seconds before turning her eyes back to her sketch. She pulls up the bandana over her mouth to adjust it a bit, more out of instinct than out of necessity, then presses the pencil against the paper once more.

"Geez...she didn't seem too happy. But then again I did interrupt her drawing."

He sighs softly as he continues his search.

"This is way more difficult than I thought. And with few friends it doesn't really help."

Izumi's keen hearing catches wind of the last thing said, being in the same aisle of the library, keeping quiet while those two were speaking. He turns to speak to the unknown boy after the girl went back to her sketching.

"Oh hey, it seems like we are in the same boat. Don't know anyone here either eh?" Izumi then extends his hand out for a handshake, the boy looking at Izumi strangely.

"Name's Izumi, Izumi Inaba. Need help finding anything you need? You've been in the same aisle for almost 40 minutes now."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Taizai. I've been looking for something to read but can't think of anything."

He shakes his hand and continues to look.

Izumi ponders this for a while, as he scans through the books himself before coming to a conclusion


"Well, the most important thing, is remembering what you like. This would at least help narrow down what you'd want to read, unless... don't tell me, you don't know what you like."

"That's the thing...I am open to reading all sorts of things."

He pulls out a book entitled Fifty Shades of Grey, reads an excerpt, and quickly puts it back on the shelf.

"Oh my...why is that book here?"

"Steady on old lad, don't go down that road." Izumi stifles his laughter. "I don't know why that would be there, but I sure as hell would steer clear of that piece of hot garbage"

"Anyways, let's just travel through these aisles and try to work together to find you one, I am already done with my own search" *Izumi takes out a pair of books he already chose for his own use, "An Enemy of the People " by Henrik Ibsen and "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami.


"As you can see, I myself pick what I feel like reading, without prejudice or preference. I guess the best bet is to keep searching and change sections, you've been on this side for a little too long, you must have looked at every book here on this side already."

"I know...I just couldn't find the Librarian so I thought I'd wait until they asked me."

He chuckles softly.

"Looks like that wasn't the best idea after all..."

He pulls out another book and smiles as he reads the back cover.

"I think I found it."

Izumi walks over to see what it is.

"So you finally found something, well... spit it out man, what's the book you got there?" Izumi eyes him curiously, with an expectant look.

"It's called A Game of Thrones. It looks pretty interesting."

He shows him the book and smiles.

"Thanks for the help Inaba-san."

"You're welcome.... er... I never quite got your last name. Sorry" Izumi looks back at him a bit sheepishly.

"Oh my bad...it's Hikari. Taizai Hikari."

He chuckles softly.

"I apologize for not informing you."

"Well you're welcome Hikari-San."

Izumi takes a gander back at the main desk, librarian still missing in action.


He sighs. "I suppose we'll have to check these out ourselves, going about that might be a bit difficult however."

"I'll check it out later...I have to go talk to someone else. I'll see ya later Inaba-san!"

He waves politely and walks over to the girl who is still sketching.

"I ended up finding something."

He smiles and shows it to her.

Finally, her drawing had started to take shape, and she was most certainly liking what she was seeing. The creature drawn on the piece of paper was truly beautiful, in every way. Yes, indeed, all it needed was a little more polish and--

"I ended up finding something."

Nayumi turns her head back at the boy. Why did he try to speak to her again? Didn't she make it clear that she wasn't interested in small talk? The girl wondered whether she should acknowledge him with a response or not, but ultimately decided to do so. "Good for you" she speaks out and nods, not really sure what else she could say. She didn't want to sound rude, but she sincerely didn't care about his books.

"I'm Taizai Hikari, I feel like we started on a bad note. I didn't mean to interrupt your drawings."

"It's okay..." she responds and looks back at him. Hmm, so he was trying to be nice after all? Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt if she responded politely as well. "I'm Nayumi Tachibana, a freshman" she introduced herself. The voicebox she had installed wasn't particularly good at pronouncing names, not even her own. For a minute, she wondered if her speech sounded way too artificial and off-putting, but in any case, there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Well it is nice to meet you Tachibana-san."

He smiles warmly and extends his hand to her.

Reluctantly, Nayumi extended her hand as well. She didn't normally like it when people touched her, but she felt it would have been incredibly rude not to shake hands with him. Slowly and carefully, she reaches forward and takes his hand, then squeezes gently, hoping that Taizai wouldn't find her metal hand too unusual... or if he does, that he'll at least keep quiet about it. Getting more attention on her because of her body was really the last thing she needed.

He feels her hard hand as he shakes it.

Does she have a prosthetic? I had better not ask, don't want to hurt her feelings.

"You mind if I sit next to you Tachibana-San?"

He smiles warmly as he bows his head politely.

Nayumi blinks a few times in confusion. Why did he want to sit next to her? She was so rude to him, after all... Slowly, she nods her head down. As long as he didn't get too close to her, there was no reason to reject him. Besides, he already felt her artificial hand and didn't say anything about it... So maybe the girl could trust him after all. "Uhm... Sure... If you want..." she speaks out quietly, then looks back down at her half-finished drawing, wondering what else she needs to add.

"Thanks."

He smiles as he sits next to her but not too close to make her feel creeped out. As he adjusts himself he catches a glimpse of her drawing.

"So what are you drawing Ms. Tachibana?"