Reprimand in the Silent Stacks
A fitting payback had come up. The moment she returned to the library from the dim warehouse, she felt it. And for good reason—the stacks were eerily quiet. It was always a quiet space, but this silence felt profoundly out of place. The books should have been bickering away, free to play their little war games as she pleased. But now, there was just... silence.
Clunk.
"...Wait, why am I being so cautious?"
Like a middle school girl sneaking home past curfew. There was no reason to creep in so tensely. Straightening her shoulders with resolve, she strode confidently toward the stacks.
And as she drew closer, she sensed an aura she'd never noticed before.
"..."
A prickling sensation. Touching the stack door's handle felt like it might spark with static—wholly unnatural.
Clunk.
Creeeak...
The stacks inside, which always maintained a perfect glow, were shrouded in deep shadow. And silent. No—now she saw it: all the light in the stacks seemed to be getting sucked toward one spot.
The books, mid-war games, lay scattered on the floor and shelves, toppled or slumped. For a split second, she thought they were all dead, but their pages fluttered faintly, proving they still lived.
...And in the midst of it, one book radiated an ominous aura.
It devoured the stacks' light, emitting its own hazy green glow. A dreamlike light, as if some nebula had devoured every color but green.
Swamp Zone smoldered with faint green fury. A rage so immense it seemed ready to shake the entire library, already seeping into the surrounding books.
The only ones holding out were Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness, among a few others.
Swamp Zone's spreading wrath shifted direction the moment she opened the door.
Flap...
Descending slowly from midair, Swamp Zone approached her with deliberate steps—unlike its usual rolling gait. Then it initiated a wordless conversation.
"Huh? Oh, I just got back. No injuries."
"No big deal. See? Not a scratch. And I had those pages from that kid before. I don't think it's worth getting that mad about..."
But Swamp Zone had a different story from what she'd expected.
"...What? My existence just... vanished?"
That didn't match her thinking at all. Vanished from existence? ...From what Swamp Zone said, it was more like she'd slipped out of this world for a bit.
'Is it because the Deep Warehouse is a space separate from Earth?'
That seemed most likely. Neither the white girl in the warehouse nor the Anomaly Management Bureau seemed to have done anything shady. And above all, she'd come back normally through the observation platform.
"But I made it back safe and sound, right? So calm down. I didn't exactly want to go there either—it was sudden, my body just moved."
But that was the wrong call.
Swamp Zone's gaze shifted from her to the Physical Education Textbook clutched in her arms.
Flap! Flap! Flap!
Thump.
Patter.
In an instant, an inexplicable force yanked the textbook from her grasp. It began bleeding into the air. It thrashed in agony, but Swamp Zone ignored it, staring it down.
"Hey, wait—!"
Sure, it had tried to attack her, but now it was going to be family. She'd planned a light warning, then integration. But Swamp Zone went too far.
...As if it meant to kill the book.
And then there was the reaction from the others.
Swamp Zone raged the loudest, but Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness were right there with it. These were the ones who'd vied for her favor, checking each other—yet now they just watched Swamp Zone's rampage.
Drip. Plop.
A flood of blood rained down beneath the textbook in seconds.
...She couldn't take it anymore.
"Stop it! Swamp Zone, stop!!"
Stern-faced, she marched up and hoisted Swamp Zone in both hands. Before it could react, she shook it up and down to calm it.
"I'm fine! Stop! What are you doing?!"
Flap, flutter.
Fluuutter.
"You're not a kid anymore! One of the library's three greats, right?! Act like it!"
She scolded it like a teen who'd screwed up big-time during puberty.
Flap!
"Eek, but this thing! It's a pest!"
Smack!
Flap!
She smacked the back page of Swamp Zone, which was building more vicious energy toward the textbook. Painless but baffled, it gradually quelled its aura.
Ting. Tiiing...
As Swamp Zone calmed, the stacks' lights returned. Seeing it get smacked, Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness flinched, careful not to draw attention.
"Listen up, all of you. This is overprotectiveness. I'm perfectly capable as this library's librarian."
Seizing the moment, she declared it to every book: she was the manager, top of the hierarchy.
She should have done it sooner, but timing had eluded her.
"For now, Swamp Zone, thanks for worrying about me. But you went too far this time."
Setting it down, she pulled out her ancient tome and quill. Already, feedback from its rage flooded her mind as information.
"Earth's Anomaly Management Bureau, the Multidimensional Observatory, IA Stellar Civilizations, the Anurektsha Civilization—they all detected your true form. You went too wild."
Scritch. Scritch.
"Universe Door Darkness, Earth Religion Studies 1. Help me. Swamp Zone, you too. You caused this—you clean it up. Others, pitch in if you can."
At her words, two books stuck close, sharing their energy. Swamp Zone belatedly joined in front.
The ancient tome's influence, which had blanketed Earth, now stretched across the universe.
"That was too violent a ripple in the cosmic flow."
Scritch. Scritch.
And they had much to do. Information on Swamp Zone would fade from memory into trivia, then total oblivion as nearer issues took priority.
Scritch. Scritch.
Reality began to shift. Earth and select alien civilizations forgot Swamp Zone's true form.
The natural outcome.
'More than that, Swamp Zone has a true body.'
She learned this now, using the tome. Before, she'd thought it just a quirky book with an author...
But most books here had greater entities behind them. Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness too...
Swamp Zone's true form dwelled in a black hole, vast beyond imagining, predating the universe's birth...
Then what was Grandmother, who managed them all?
"...Anyway, no more overreactions next time. Got it?"
...Flap.
Swamp Zone nodded weakly. It had raged for her sake—she felt a twinge of guilt.
"...Still, since you did it for me, here's your payback."
Flap!
Shraaash?! Fluutter!!
Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness, who'd been quiet, protested. They'd have raged in its place if they'd known.
Ridiculous.
Flap! Flap!
"Ow, come on—even so, ignore those two. Anyway, my payback to you is..."
Flap?! Fluutter?!
Swamp Zone bounced excitedly, guessing: solo management rights, lounge access—lavish perks.
But her reward came with a dash of cheekiness.
"...Feedback on my novel for a week... Hey! Where are you going...!"
Fluutter!
Before she finished, Swamp Zone fled to the far stacks. Earth Religion Studies 1 and Universe Door Darkness collapsed in laughter, mocking it.
"Wait..."
Was her novel that awful...?
It bummed her out.
"...Next time the bureau folks come, I'll have them read it for feedback."
Humans would give better notes than these unruly books.
And so, a peaceful day passed.