Chapter 15: "The Library and the Magic Thirty"-1

Riku F. couldn't sleep at all that night, having nightmares of the events that occurred whenever he tried. He had awoken once more from another vivid nightmare, groaning as he saw it was about 2 a.m. now. He decided to leave his room and take a walk around the building, hoping it would calm him down. He felt uncomfortable in his room knowing that Remi and Jira used to always hangout and sleep in there with him, all the while plotting to torture him just for being born a man. The memory of them made his eyes darken, and the memory of what they did made him shiver. He had several scars even though he had healed all of his wounds. His magic wasn't strong enough to stop scars from forming unfortunately. He imagined they might've broken his bones slowly the next day, one by one, or plucked his teeth and nails out, maybe slowly cut him up with a knife, and all the while he just continued to wander the building.

Before he knew it, he had wandered into a random room, the doors of said room being dead-bolted. He only noticed he had walked into the room because of how bright it was inside from the lights being on. It turned out he had walked into the library. The library was as massive as an actual public library, and it was always open, day and night, so he wasn't surprised that the lights would still be on.

He looked at all the books as he walked around. Romance, mystery, fantasy, and even some manga and comics. In his world, fantasy was considered a world without any magic or a world without any magnificent beasts, so these books confused him a bit, but not too much since he expected this. "These people would be amazed with what kind of stories are written in my world..." He muttered to himself as he traced some of the books with his fingers.

"Is that so..?" A young girl said behind him. He jumped back and turned, still anxious from the actions committed on him mere hours ago. "I won't hurt you... There's no need to be scared..." As he saw the girl, his eyes were still a bit wide, but he had calmed down. The girl had a petite body and looked a bit younger than him. She had long, messy, silver hair, and yellow eyes, as well as a uniform like the rest of the women, but her's looked a bit different. For one, her top looked like a sweater and a sailor uniform combined, a green hood attached to it as well, and instead of a skirt she wore black sweat pants.

"Who are you..?" Riku muttered, still somewhat defensive.

"My name is Eli. I'm the librarian..."

"But you...look so young..."

"Yes, I look young, but I'm actually 19 years old."

"19..?!" Riku's eyes widened a little from shock.

"Yeah, I usually get that reaction..." She put a book she was holding back in its place.

"Is that why your uniform is different from the rest?"

"Yes... I'm part of what President Nishida calls the Magic Thirty..."

Riku's paused, thinking back to what Nishida had said before he left her office. "Is this what she meant by interesting women..?"

"Riku...can I ask you something..?" Eli tilted her head.

He looked at her with suspicion, feeling a sense of dread, and he spoke internally once more. "I never told her my name..."

"Why is it that I remember you, but you don't remember me at all..?"

Riku gave her a confused gaze, not knowing how to answer. "I thought L. said he had no friends?!" He shouted in his mind.

"We used to see each other at the library all the time... We may never have spoken before...but I always caught you glancing my way... I was sure you'd remember me..." Her face was blank, but Riku could hear the faintest bit of sadness in her voice as she looked down.

"Ohhhh..." He realized internally. "I-I... I don't..." Riku averted his eyes, scratching the back of his head.

He heard a faint giggle from Eli, looking at her again and seeing a small smile on her face. "I was just testing you..."

Riku tilted his head. "Testing me..?"

The girl nodded and walked toward him, standing on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. "Why is it you have magic now...but didn't before..?" Riku's eyes slowly widened and he jumped back, taking a defensive stance. The girl held her hands up. "Calm down... There's nothing I can do to you with the magic I possess..."

Riku glared at her a bit. "And why the hell should I trust you..?"

She sighed. "Your reaction is expected considering what you just went through..."

He didn't take his eyes off of her. "Some kind of memory magic is it..?" He guessed.

The girl nodded. "I have the power to look into people's memories and alter them as I see fit, though if one possesses magic, I cannot alter their memory..."

Riku slowly began lowering his stance. "So you really can't do anything to me..."

The girl tilted her head. "You believe me..?"

"You haven't given me a reason not to, yet." He crossed his arms, keeping his guard up just in case. "Everyone deserves a chance..."

The girl paused before smiling faintly. "I wasn't lying before, you really did...or I should say your other self...used to come to the library in town a lot. Whenever I was there, I caught him stealing glances at me. I never considered myself to be beautiful or anything of the sort...so I confronted him one day about it to see what his deal was and he told me I was really cute, so he couldn't help but look at me." She blushed slightly at the memory. "I got so flustered I ended up completely erasing his memory of me though..." She looked down, her face even more flushed from the embarrassing memory.

Riku chuckled softly to himself. "Look here L... A girl that seems to have taken an interest in you and you never even noticed... Then again...you did lose your memory..." He thought before speaking aloud. "How could you end up doing something like that..? You're so silly..." He sighed, ruffling his hair. "Guess I'll just have to remind him of you."

"T-That won't be necessary..." The girl muttered. "I'd rather not have him find out..."

Riku tilted his head. "How come..?"

"I'm not really interested in relationships... I wanted to forget about him, and I started to, until you popped up that is..." She muttered.

"My bad..?" He scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously.

"It's fine... You don't have to worry though, I don't plan on doing anything to you."

"Why come up to me at all then..?" He glanced at her.

Eli paused before speaking. "Well...to give you someone to talk to about your world, and to explain some things to you. I don't plan on telling anyone else... Also..." She got a bit closer and whispered. "Let me know how Riku L. is doing from time to time..." She blushed faintly.

Riku blinked a few times before snickering. "Sure thing. Not interested in relationships, but you wanna know how he's doing, gotcha."

Eli blushed deeper and quickly changed the subject. "Would you like to get a book and talk for a little while..? I can explain a little more about this organization if you'd like... Specifically the Magic Thirty..."

Riku hesitantly grabbed one of the fantasy books and nodded. "That'd be...lovely..." He muttered.

The girl nodded, leading him to the area behind the checkout desk after checking out his book.