Don't play with matches

"It's my dream... You're my dream..."

In the Floor of History, Malkuth sings a song as she arranges books. Her pet is alongside her, helping her by collecting books and putting them in a cart for her. She also has another helper in the form of Roland and some assistant librarians he brought.

"Man, we've been getting quite a lot of books, huh Malkuth?"

"Yep. Although these are just from regular guys of the City, any contribution helps! Speaking of help, thanks for offering yours and your librarians Roland."

"No problem. I'd feel bad just leaving you to do all of this, and that sentiment is shared with everyone."

The two easily got along thanks to their personalities. They've grown close enough for daily meet ups to talk to each other. It also helps that Roland's assistants are familiar with Malkuth too.

'Still need to know about that Elijah thing.'

*snap*

Suddenly, Angela appears before them, announced only by that snap.

"Malkuth."

"Angela..."

Sensing the tension, the assistant librarians quickly leave the nearby area, leaving only the two women's pets to deal with them.

"... What do you want?"

"The books we've gathered is enough for us to unlock another Abnormality."

"Another? Nice. The ones we got from Bloodbath have been real helpful."

Roland cuts in to try and remind the two that this is public, hoping they might be more restrained due to this.

"Indeed. This next Abnormality is from your floor, so you shall be dealing with it."

"Fine. Rola-"

"Alone."

"What?" Asked Roland.

"This is her floor, so just like you she will deal with this alone. Is that a problem?"

The undertone of that question was not subtle.

"No ma'am! I just...want to know the reason why."

Roland stares nervously at Angela's blank face. Every second fills with anxiety that maybe he pushed her buttons too much.

"*sigh*, sure. I'll tell you."

'Oh thank the Wings.'

"The reason I'm making her do this alone goes back to how the Abnormality gifts work. To enforce fairness, the gifts and blessings an Abnormality gives will only be available for the floor it was on. This means Malkuth can't even use Bloodbath's gifts as it came from yours. Not only that, Abnormalities are quite territorial, and even formed cliques. You've gained Bloodbath's blessings, this gives off a unique scent only other Abnormalities can smell. Due to that, they can immediately tell you have nothing to do with their floor, and will see it as another floor's intrusion..."

"Which will make them more aggressive and volatile. Meaning they might not give us gifts even if we pass their trial." Finished Roland.

"Correct. As such, she will be doing it alone. Understand now?"

"Get the gist."

Roland turns to Malkuth apologetically.

"Sorry I can't help you with this."

"It's fine Roland. While I'm not primarily a fighter, unlike you I have plenty of experience with the Abnormalities. And besides..."

Malkuth conjures a sword in her hands.

"Thanks to the books, I'm no slouch when it comes to fighting. I also got Bammy with me. Isn't that right my sweet little Bammy?"

The pet Bammy responds to Mallkuth and jumps up to her shoulder so she can pet it affectionately.

"Okay Malkuth. Good luck."

"Thanks!"

"Oh Malkuth. One more thing."

Angela's words causes Malkuth to immediately lose her friendliness.

"What?"

Angela gets closer to Malkuth and whispers something in her ear.

"Oh... I understand."

"That's good. We can begin."

Angela pulls out a book and opens it.

******

In the Book of the Scorched Girl

Malkuth looks around, she us now transported into a Victorian era style town. The place is empty with no one in  sight.

"Looking at how this place looks, the one living in this book is her."

She looks around the town and tries to spot the Abnormality. It didn't take long.

"There she is."

In an alleyway is a figure whose shape resembles a little girl. Her most prominent feature is that she has none, her entire body is so burnt that even her eyes have lost thier pupils and irises. Said girl is playing hopscotch, jumping around and leaving ashes as she does. This is the Abnormality, the Scorched Girl

"Hi Scorch!"

Malkith greets the girl happily, getting her attention. The girl turns and spots Malkuth, and a smile appears on her face, or at least what's left of it.

"Sis Malkuth!"

The two run up and hug each other.

"It's been a while little girl. How's the book?"

"Great! Way better than that cramped facility. I can do whatever I want here, no breaches, no bullies, just my fun!"

"That's great, do you know why I cam here?"

"Yep! That blue lady said I'm suppose to give you a test or something. I don't really know what she was saying, but I'm just going to play with you!"

"Well, what game?"

"A fun one!"

The girl snaps her fingers, and the town clears away. What replaces it is a field with unlit torches. The two then have bows and flaming arrows. There's also a big electric clock on a board and below it is a scoreboard.

"A simple archery game. We need to light as many torches under a time limit. The one who lit the most torches before time runs out wins!"

"What got you into archery?"

"I got interested about it from watching sis Red. Seeing her in action is so cool! She's like a hero straight from those stories!"

"Hehe. I don't think she considers herself one though."

"Doesn't matter. After everything she's done for me and the others, she's a hero in my book. Let's play!"

The game starts and the two aimed and let loose their arrows.

Despite being the one to suggest this game, the Scorched Girl is at a disadvantage. As her looks suggest, she's just a kid. She has no experience using bows. Her power comes from mindlesely throwing flames everywhere, nothing to do with actual skill. While Malkuth is not a fighter herself, the events she experienced in the past alongside the power of the books giver her an advantage.

Of course, the Scorched Girl is just fine with losing. It's just a game after all. She would've given Malkuth her powers even if she won, she just wanted to spend time.

As they continue, the two decide to talk to pass the time.

"So Scorch, how have you been before this?"

"Fine, this place is way better than the lab, and especially better than my old home. I can do whatever I want here. Although, I want to be with the others again."

"Don't worry, you can meet Latetia and the others again soon."

"Big sis, how have you been holding up since.... you know...."

Malkuth's mood dropped at Scorch's words. Tears begin to form in her eyes. Seeing her state, the Scorched Girl immediately felt bad.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"No.... It's alright...."

Malkuth wipes her tears away and turns to the girl.

"As much as I don't like it.... That doesn't change the fact that it happened.... It's hard, but I need to keep moving forward.... Although I don't know how...."

The Scorched girl went and hugged Malkuth.

"You will..... You, the others, and him all helped me and my friends get past our pain. I believe you can do it too."

Hearing her words, Malkuth's smile returns and returns the hug.

"Thanks for that."

The two looked at the scoreboard. Naturally, Malkuth won.

"Thanks for playing with me big sis. Here, as I promised."

A ball of light appears in the Scorched girl's hand. She then pushes it to Malkuth. As it enters her chest, Malkuth can feel as if something is ignited within her. She can also sense her former employees exiting the book and.

"Thanks Scorch. Me and the others will visit you. Bye."

"Bye!"

******

At the Floor of History

"Is she fine?" Asked Roland.

"Have faith. She may not look or act like it, but she is a tough girl." Replied Angela

Soon, Malkuth reappears in front of them again. Alongside her are other assistant librarians freed from the book.

"See."

Malkuth dusts herself off. Her pet runs up to her, so she picks it up and hugs it.

"Hey there buddy. I know you miss Scorch, but you need to let her rest a bit, okay?"

"So Malkuth, got their gifts?" Asked Roland curiously

"Yep! I've seen what Bloodbath has done for you, so I'm curious how what I got works."

"Me too. By the way, how was the fight against it?"

"Fight?"

"Yeah. Y'know. The trial to gain their approval."

"Roland, there was no fight for me at least."

"Wait, what?"

Roland is naturally confused. The last Abnormality tried to kill him the first chance it got. Plus, he saw whose book Malkuth went into. It was home to an Abnormality called the Scorched Girl. That title isn't very comforting.

"Like I said, I have plenty of experience. Me and Scorch are on friendly terms, plus she's just a kid. The trial was just a friendly game to play."

"Wait, but what about Bloodbath?"

"Quite simple." Cuts in Angela. "Scorched Girl-"

"Scorch. That's her name, you of all people should know that Angela."

Angela glares at Malkuth for that last bit, before continuing with her explanation.

"Scorch is significantly more intelligent than Bloodbath, being an actual sentient being. What you fought wasn't Bloodbath itself, but a creature it made to act as its medium. Bloodbath itself is the bath tub the creature spawned from, essentially an inanimate object carrying out preset functions."

"Wait, how did you know about what I fought looked like and how it spawned? I never told you."

"I'm able to peek inside the books. I did so on the off chance you died against it and I needed to bring you back."

"Huh."

"Anyways, another reason is that you are a stranger. You've mingled with your assistant librarians, so you know that they're all employees of the same branch. Everyone at the branch they worked at had plenty of experience with the Abnormalities, like Malkuth. You are new here, a complete stranger to them, so they're less likely to give you a warm welcome."

"You mean like you?"

"Yes." His quick retort made Angela stare blankly at him, waiting for anything else to come out of his mouth.

Seeing that he may have pushed too far, Roland quickly shut himself up before he puts his foot into his mouth. Granted, Angela will probably make that literal.

"That will be it for today. Organize your librarians and continue your work."

*snap*

With that, Angela left, leaving the two Patron Librarians.

'Well, I guess now's the chance.'

"So..... Malkuth.... Remember our first meeting?"

"Yeah.... Sorry you had to hear me argue with Angela."

"Eh, it's fine. It's just that I remembered something."

"Hm, what is it?"

"When you were arguing with her, Angela said something along the lines of you " earning a fleshy body". Were you, like, not human before?"

"Oh... That.... No, I was human. She was referring to my previous replacement body, like the ones those guys Mo, Consta and Arnold had. This body you see before is 100% as my original one"

"Oh? That's really impressive that the Library can rebuild your body and give it back to you. (Especially since I haven't seen any technology in this place). Do you... not like it since Angela gave it?"

"Well, yes and no.... I do like this body, and I enjoy the sensation of having flesh again.... But it is true that I don't like it due to it being from Angela."

"Why is that?"

"Well, this is actually my third life. As you know from your assistant librarians and Angela, the Library and those within it, whether they are the Abnormalities or the Librarians, have lots of history behind them."

'Third life!?'

"Hold that thought, third life? I thought that your old body was simply too damaged and you had no choice but to move to another one. Did you actually come back from the dead?"

Malkuth noticed that despite his normal tone, there was clearly something up with Roland when he heard about this being her third life.

'It's only natural that people will be curious about my experience.' Thought Malkuth to herself.

"To be precise, it's not really that. What you guessed is correct. My old human body was too damaged, so they salvaged my brain and put it into a replacement body for my survival."

"Oh."

'Should've figured.'

Hearing her answer, dissapointment grew in Roland's heart. However, he quickly cheered himself up.

'This Library is full of mysteries. I just need to see all of it.'

Not noticing Roland's inner thoughts, Malkuth began to remember things.... things she wish to forget. She frowns as she reminisces.

"Looking back on my previous lives, I'm just an irresponsible person who let down everyone's efforts...."

Malkuth face starts to darken. Her pet notices this and nudges Roland about the situation.

'Huh? What's this thing want? Wait, Malkuth.... I've seen that expression before.'

"..... I constantly get into a cycle where I try to prove that I'm not useless and can help, only to mess up and make things worse. I'm just a deadweight who drags everyone down with her...."

"Whoa, whoa, hold your horses! Let's not get too dark here."

"Huh?"

As Malkuth starts tearing up, Roland grabs ahold of her shoulder and brings her back to reality. Bammy climbs onto her other shoulder and uses its paws to wipe her tears.

"Oh.... Sorry about that. *sob* It's embarrassing for me to act like this in front of my junior, right?"

Malkuth tries to joke to cheer herself up, but it fails.

"It's fine to cry. Let's just calm down for a moment. You're not alone, okay Malkuth?"

Roland smiles to her as a gesture of kindness. It works as Malkuth starts to smile in return.

"Now follow me. Take a deep breath~"

"Huuf~"

"And let it out~"

"Pah~"

"Iiiin~"

"Huuuuf~"

"And out~!"

"Pah~!"

"Feeling better now?"

"Yeah.... Thanks Roland."

She puts Bammy in her arms, a smile now on her face. Roland's method helped.

"Malkuth, listen. There are just some things out of your control. You can't get upset and blame yourself over every thing in life. If you do that, you'll drown in your own sorrow."

"You're right. I should know better than anyone about being upset over things I can't do anything about. Thanks for the advice Roland!"

"No problem!"

As Roland turns to leave and continue arranging the books, the smile he had quickly left.

'I know from experience.'