"Im here for the part-time assistant position," Rei said,keeping his voice low out of habit.
Tanaka adjusted his spectacles, looking Rei up and down. He saw the sharp jaw, the faded scar near his temple, and the massive frame that didn't quite fit into a standard school blazer. Most people in town would have called the police; Tanaka just leaned forward.
"Can you climb a twelve-foot ladder without shaking?" Tanaka asked.
"Yes."
"Can you carry four crates of encyclopedias at once?"
"Yes."
Tanaka pointed toward a group of rowdy middle schoolers in the back who were tossing erasers at each other. "And can you make those kids stop being loud without actually hitting them?"
Rei turned his head.He adjusted his gaze into the "Ghost" stare,the look that usually meant a fight was three seconds away.The middle schoolers caught his eye,turned pale,and immediately opened their books.One of them actually started reading upside down out of pure panic.
Tanaka chuckled,"Effective.You start now. There's a shipment of historical archives in the basement that needs to be moved to the third floor.The elevator is broken,"
"Understood," Reizen replied.
The clock on the library wall ticked towards 8 o'clock.The other assistant,a quiet university student with tired eyes,arrived to take over the night shift.Rei finished logging the last returned archives,his muscles aching with familiar fatigue.
As he began to lock the staff cabinets,he noticed a soft light flickering in the back of the "Local History" section.
Rei walked over his footsteps silent on the floor.There,tucked behind a pillar,was Hiyori.She was crouching down on the floor,her eye pressed to the viewfinder of her camera.She was trying to capture the way the moonlight hit the dust motes in the dim aisle.
Click.
"The library has a no-photography policy" Rei said which immediately startled Hiyori.
"Uh.. Koga! I-I wasn't– I didn't mean to but.. the lighting! It was just… high-contrast!" She scrambled to hide the camera behind her back,her face flushing even in the dark.
"Mr Tanaka is strict about the rules"Rei muttered,nodding toward the exit. "You should go before he sees you."
"Right.Sorry about that.Im going," she whispered.
Rei followed her out,nodding to the night assistant before stepping outside.The world outside had changed while he was buried in the books.The peaceful Inuyama evening had turned into a storm.The rain hit the pavement with a heavy sound that made Rei's chest tighten– it was the same sound he had heard through the car accident.
Hiyori stood at the edge of the porch,looking out at the dark street.She didn't have a jacket nor an umbrella. She clutched her expensive camera bag to her chest,shielding the lens from the rain.
"I forgot to check the forecast," she murmured,looking defeated. "The walk home is twenty minutes."
Rei looked at her,then down at the single black umbrella he had brought from the Sato Household. He remembered his mother talking about his future in the car before the blinding flash of light.He couldn't change the past,but he could change the "future" of this moment.
Without a word,Rei stepped forward and shoved the umbrella into Hiyori's hands.
"Wait- what?" Hiyori dumbfounded,looking at the heavy handle. "But what about you?"
"I'm used to the rain," Rei said,his voice dropping an octave.He stepped outside the porch,letting the cold rain soak his school uniform instantly but he didn't flinch."The camera is expensive.Don't let it wet."
"Koga,wait!You'll get sick!"
Rei didn't look back.He started walking down the street,his hands in his pockets.He felt the water sticking to his shirt but the "humming" in his nerve was gone.For the first time,he wasn't the monster survived by luck,he was just another person who made a good choice.
Behind him,Hiyori popped the umbrella open.It was large,large enough for two person and she felt a bit tiny underneath it.She watched his figure disappear into the storm.
She lifted her camera,but then slowly lowered it.Some images were better kept in the mind than on a memory card.