Rounding the corner, the group found a hall with a shocking number of hairdressers. Four different ones to be exact. Vivian paused and made her way to the side of the hall to get out of everyone way.
"Right well, this is new" said Vivian
"Um is there supposed to be four of them" said Lily
"Nope, there was only two before and I can't rightfully remember which one the bookstore is behind" said Vivian
"It's that one" said Sylvie pointing towards the hairdressers in the back right of the hall. It was past a few other shops and the furthest hairdresser from the group.
"Um, how do you know Sylvie" said Lily
"Vivian said this is new, but only two of them. The two on the left are much newer than the ones of the right and the other one on the left is stuck between two other shops. The one at the back has another hallway if you look closely" said Sylvie. Lily and Vivian looked at Sylvie surprised, while Kat simply nodded and focused on looking for the hallway she'd mentioned.
*Yup, I can see it there just past the hairdressers. It's actually pretty noticeable now that I'm looking.* Thought Kat as she patted Sylvie on the head for her hard work.
The hallway behind the hairdressers was a well-lit service entrance with a large fire door at the end and lights all across the ceiling. Despite this it still felt dingy, the wall was stacked stone bricks without a covering and the ceiling had a number of pipes running across it near the lights. Towards the back of the hallway right next to the door stood an open shop front with books that almost spilled into the hallway. It seemed that the owner had taken care to keep the fire doors unobstructed, but this resulted in a number of precarious stacks of books lining the stores edge
"Ah, yes just like I remember it" said Vivian beaming.
"Wait this is normal for this store?" said Kat
"Yup its been like this for years, at least a decade I think" said Vivian
"What were you looking for last time" said Kat
"Second-hand textbooks for my university degree" said Vivian
Walking into the store they found a young clerk manning the counter. He was reading an unmarked book and simply waved to acknowledge the groups presence in the store without removing his eyes from the page. Kat found herself a bit wary of the strange stacks of books, her newfound appendages threatened to topple many of them if she turned to quickly or in the wrong way.
*Even the tunnels under Minor's place weren't this bad. How do you expect self-respecting demons to fit in here. Plus, why are all the books in stacks? How do you tell half of these apart?* Lily however had other thoughts as she seemed to glide through the stacks of books like they weren't there at all. Vivian showed similar grace and while it was not to the same graceful extent as Lily, Vivian was more than able to hop from pile to pile as she inspected books. Sylvie was simply small enough that she had room to spare and wandered the store with ease.
*It's just me? Am I the one who's crazy? Surely normal people struggle with this right?* And Kat was right, the piles were stacked in such a way as to challenge people who enter, they were never intended to stand for long, a gimmick the owner had come up with after finding a number of compelling books by accident, but Kat didn't know this.
Kat let her eyes scan the store in order to limit the amount of movement she'd have to do. What she saw however further reinforced that she had no idea what she was doing. The books in any one pile didn't seem connected to each other and were just as likely to contain a school textbook as a fantasy novel. Despite this the stacks did seem to be group together somehow; adjacent stacks seemed to have the same types of mixed literature.
For example if one stack contained a few business textbooks spread throughout the stack it was almost certain that its neighbours had the same. This continued with fantasy or sci-fi books as well, sticking in their clusters despite the muddled piles. There were a few other books that Kat saw no connection between, but simply assumed there must be something connecting them, as she was no bookworm.
It was just after Kat had finally made some sense of the filing system the shop employed that she spotted Lily. Now this wasn't strange, but it was her hands Kat noticed. They trembled as she hovered between books. Without Kat's new eyes she might not have noticed the difference but there was no excitement in Lily's movements, only hesitation. Lily looked like if she chose the wrong book her arm would be taken instead.
Lily would be so close to placing her hand on a book a number of times before pulling back and shying away. Kat made her way over to her friend, being extremely careful not to topple any of the stacks. Kat stood right next to Lily, clearly within eyeline but she didn't react.
"Hey" said Kat softly. Lily jumped half a metre into the air and spun around, coming awfully close to toppling a few of the nearby books in the process before staring at Kat like a dear in headlights.
"Is everything alright" said Kat.
"Y-yes, everything… is fine" said Lily swallowing
"Lily, you can talk to me about anything you know that right?" said Kat. Lily nodded to Kat but kept her mouth closed.
"Really, I won't hold it against you, no matter what you say" said Kat
"I… I don't know what I'm doing" said Lily finding the dust on the floor fascinating all of a sudden.
"I'm afraid you are going to have to be a bit more specific than that" said Kat
"I, don't know what to do now" said Lily
"Well, right now you need to tell me what's wrong" said Kat firmly
"I just, I don't know what to do with myself now that I've finished school" said Lily
"I don't see how that could cause you to make such a face, surely that can't be all" said Kat
"It's complicated" said Lily
"I'm sure it is" said Kat
"I meant to tell you, I did" said Lily sighing "I'd been putting it off for weeks, I probably should have included this in the birthday note, but I just couldn't. I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do Kat"
"I don't see how that would offend me" said Kat
"Well, I just… I'd planned to go to university, I think. But I can't figure out what to do, and I felt like I had to go. I was hoping to use this as a chance to learn some new things and get away from my parents" said Lily stammering "And look I know that's horrible to say, I mean you didn't have that chance and I'm running away from it. Then all this demon stuff happened and I mean, this has just been so much more important, and like I came here…
"I came here to look for as many old textbooks as I could the cheap ones and just read them all so that I could find anything at all that I wanted to do, but I can't help but feel that I'm making a horrible mistake" said Lily
Kat brought Lily into a hug, careful not to automatically wrap her tail around Lily. *I can't be seen moving that, and I don't think I want to use my aura here. Lily needs to deal with this herself, or at least ask for help without prompting.*
"I think that's perfectly reasonable Lily. Your parents haven't been terribly nice, but I think going off to university is an admirable idea" said Kat
"But I don't really want to go" said Lily "Its an excuse. I wanted to be away from my parents, and I think for some reason I thought you'd be with me. I doubt that will be the case now" said Lily
"Hey, I can still come with you. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with myself. Apparently, I'm being payed every time I get summoned. Once I awakened, they said, but now look, still not a cent to my name" said Kat
"I know, I just… I think I'd lose something if I went. If I decided to commit myself to a course that I hated just to get away" said Lily crying into Kat's shoulder
"Why not take a year off? Maybe work at the library or something" said Kat
"Hahaha" laughed Lily between sniffles "I… I hadn't even considered that. My parents seemed to expect me to go, the guidance council didn't even recommend it. I certainly never thought of it" Lily tightened her grip on Kat "I shouldn't have needed to hear that from you. I should have figured it out myself. But thank you Kat. Really, thank you" said Lily as she tried to crush Kat's bones with a hug. Luckily for Kat, hers had been improved since and was able to comfortably embrace her wounded friend.
Vongrak's fun facts: If you see three black ??? I had nothing to do with that. They just show up after publishing sometimes. Originally I thought I'd used something I shouldn't but after further investigation I've got no idea. If you see them let me know, normally it's easy to fix them
Kat continued to hug Lily for a while. Reassuring her friend that it would work out. After calming down Lily slowly separated herself from Kat and said "Ok, thank you. I needed that, a lot. I think I'm still going to look through these books. I think I'll find the cheapest textbook for the subjects I'm interested in" said Lily.
"Ok, I'll come and look with you" said Kat patting her friend on the head.
The girls spent a bit of time examining the books around the store. It wasn't hard to find assorted textbooks on a wide range of topics but comparing the prices was a nightmare. Some books were marked on the corners, others had a slip on the front cover and no small number had no visible pricing just a sticker with a barcode on them, a few even seemed to be lacking anything at all to identify the price.
"Maybe you should get a job here, clearly they need someone to organise this mess" said Kat
"Um, er, they have that guy out the front, he seems unconcerned" said Lily
"Yes, because teenage boys are the best benchmark for if a room is cleaned or not. I've lived with quite a few of them, and outside a few specific instances the mess just accumulates somehow. Honestly it's pretty magical to watch week by week" said Kat
"Hey wait a minute" said Kat after a moment of thought "Isn't your room just as bad as the shop?"
"Well, no, most of my books on the floor are heavily damaged and can't be read anymore. Only a few specific stacks are still fine, and I keep them orderly" said Lily blushing.
Gathering together four books that Kat and Lily could only assume where the cheapest in the shop they headed to the counter. Lily had chosen to cover, science, design, teaching and computer science.
"So I get the design, and maybe even the science but why the teaching and computer science?" said Kat
"Ah, well, the science and the computer science are both for researching. Science you've figured out, but computer science also has some research areas like data science. The teaching is because if I want to be a teacher librarian I have to be a qualified teacher as well" said Lily
"And you want to teach? In front of people?" said Kat raising an eyebrow
"Well, I mean, not really… I'm just keeping my options open. These are the only things I'm even remotely interested in I think" said Lily
"Well I hope you think otherwise nobodies got any idea what you're doing" said Kat
Lily and Kat placed the books on the counter and the boy behind the counter stopped reading long enough to ring through the prices before turning back to his book. Lily was about to walk away when Kat jabbed her with an elbow lightly and whispered "Ask him if there is a chance you could get a job here" said Kat
Lily paled and returned with "I'm not prepared for this, and I mean the city is a long way away"
"If you're sure" said Kat as she swiped the four books and went to meet up with Vivian and Lily who were waiting out the front.
"Hey, I can help with that Kat" said Lily. Kat responded by lifting the books with just one hand.
"They really aren't that heavy" said Kat
"Still, I shouldn't make you carry them" said Lily. Kat then lifted the books up onto two fingers. Kat was struggling a bit to balance them, but the weight was no issue.
"Fine" said Lily pouting.
As the group started walking Kat noticed that Vivian was holding a book "What did you buy Vivian?"
"Actually, Sylvie suggested it, we are going to make our way through it together" said Vivian. Turning the book around it read 'Shogi for dummies'
*I feel like I should have questions, but I can't figure out what they are.*
"So where to now?" said Kat as they left the store
"Wherever you girls want" said Vivian
"Why are you leading the way then" said Kat
"Would you like to lead the way?" said Vivian. Silenced followed, as no one replied
"I thought so" said Vivian "I'm just planning to go through the hall mall. Just stop me if you find anything interesting" said Vivian
And so the group continued to wander around the shops. Occasionally Vivian would lead them into a store for them to look around for a moment but nothing of note was purchased. Things were relatively normal until two girls around Kat's age tapped her on the shoulder from behind. Turning around to face the pair Kat saw that they were both wearing matching outfits of jeans and split sleeve shirts.
*These girls have to be twins, or at least sisters. Actually, they remind me of Annie and Amanda. Could it be the same girls?*
"Do you think we could get a picture with you" said Twin 1
"We'd be quite grateful" said Twin 2
"Sure, if you'd like" said Kat, and before she even finished her sentence Vivian had appeared beside the twins.
"I'll take the picture" said Vivian bringing out her phone
"Thanks" said the Twins
"So how do you want to do this" said Kat as they moved out of the central walkway into a bit of a corner.
"If you don't mind" said Twin 1
"We'd like to stand either side of you" said Twin 2. Kat nodded and took position along the wall. The twins took up positions either side of Kat posing slightly with there arms crossed, leaning away from Kat slightly.
*Should I be posing as well* Kat decided on crossing her arms to match the twins and leaning backwards slightly.
"Everyone ready" said Vivian lining up the shot with exaggerated hand movements "Say demons"
Kat flashed a grin, and while the twins responded faithfully with "Demons" The camera flash went off and Kat was pleasantly surprised to note that she wasn't blinded by it at all. The twins however both had to blink there eyes a few times before they headed over to Vivian to check out the photos.
"Huh, I didn't think Kat had purple eyes, strange photo" said Twin 2. The world slowed as Kat's mind went into overdrive. *Why are my eyes showing purple? I didn't use any powers, did I? Shit, the flash, could it have caused this? I used a bit of demonic energy to counteract the flash and they showed up purple?* As the twins turned to face Kat she put the barest hint of energy just behind her eyes hoping that it would replicate the purple tint shown in the photograph.
"Huh, I guess you're wrong sis, she's got purple eyes right now" said Twin 2
"I thought for sure they were blue just before" said Twin 1
"Might have been the lighting" said Twin 2
Vivian paled slightly while this conversation was going on connecting the dots same as Kat had done with only a little more time in between.
"Hey girls, how did you want me to send you this photo? Email? Text?" said Vivian calmly trying to redirect the conversation. The twins both shared a look with each other before nodding to some unspoken agreement.
"Send it to 'doubleAtwins@moonriver.com'" said the twins in perfect sync.
"Sounds great dears, just one moment and…" said Vivian fiddling with her phone "Sent"
It was at this point Kat noticed a line forming around her. *Oh great. I say yes to one picture and now I have a crowd. Normally I wouldn't mind but Vivian said we have to leave in time to visit her friend. Plus I don't really want to be taking pictures on my day off when I could be hanging out with everyone.*
"Ok, I apologise but I have things to do. I'll do five extra pictures. You provide the device to my friend" said Kat pointing to Vivian who waved and smiled "and we can take one picture. I don't mind if you want to partner up or have a few groups at once. Just been mindful of each other, no fighting and don't take too long" Turning back to face the twins who were beginning to walk away to avoid the crowd "See you both next time Annie, Amanda"
The twins waved back not really thinking about it and continuing for a moment before turning and realising what Kat had just said, though when they turned Kat already had quite the crowd. So they left to continue their day out.
While this was happening Kat heard a shutter go off from the crowd. *Should I be mean about this? Yeah I think I will.*
"Ok, that's one photo" said Kat. The crowd made displeased grumbles but couldn't identify the person. Because of this the crowd started to ramble and had the voices mix into indistinct sounds before the seemed to reach a census. The groups surrounding Kat split roughly into four groups. *Well, I guess this is how we are doing this now, school choir style.*
As everyone was getting into position Kat carefully released her calming aura to surround everyone. *Better off using this now to prevent an issue. Hopefully we can just calming get a few group photos and I can be on my way…*
Vongrak's Fun Fact: The @moonriver extension for the twins email was created in tribute to the best song in Beyonetta 2, Moon river, you should check it out
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