Two Birds, No Stones

The school bell rang. Another day finally completed, well at least for people not named Arata. For him, that just meant it was time to head to the library and work on saving it once more. Maybe they'd be able to make some headway this time.

"Arata." A girl called out to him as he was walking. It was Misao, calling him over to her.

"Hey, did you want to walk together to the library?"

"It's not that, I have another job for you to work on." That wasn't what he wanted to hear when he saw her. He started to regret coming to her, even though he'd have to handle this one way or another.

"Another one? But I barely started on the first one."

"I'd put this on the minor side of effort." She didn't really care about his complaints. "I have a request from the news club. They didn't want to be specific, but they have something they said shouldn't take too long to work on."

"You should've made them clarify before just taking that at face value!" He yelled at her, but the lack of detail wasn't his problem. Rather, it was hearing of that club again. It reminded him of what had happened between him and another one of its members. More accurately, ex-member.

"Even if it's harder than I think it'll be. Just know that it takes a lower priority than the library situation." She explained to him. "Here's the paperwork to let you know the details of this club. Go ahead and talk to them first, we'll all meet you in the library later." With that she left, and he headed towards his new destination.

"Hello?" Arata slowly walked into the news room. The last time he was here, things weren't so great. Hopefully this would go better than that. "Is anyone here? I'm the secretary here to help with your problem."

"Finally." what greeted him was a lone girl sitting at the table. "Hey, Susa! The person you ran to for help is here!" She yelled out, without having to wait. A boy came out of a door into this room. Given the nature of this place, Arata assumed that was a dark room for developing photos.

"Great, it's nice to… Um I was under the impression that you were going to be-"

"The old secretary is actually about to move away. So I'm the new one that's replacing him."

"Oh okay." It was clear how disappointed this boy was in hearing this. "Well anyway, I'm sure you need to hear what exactly our problem is, right?" Arata nodded, and this prompted explanation. After they had properly introduced themselves.

Things weren't so peachy keen anymore, not after the sudden departure of their leader and best reporter, Yurime. For starters, they no longer had the four members required for existence, so they would lose their budget if they didn't find a new member first.

Even though the person explaining it to him would've liked to believe that everything would be okay if they found someone to fill out the roster once more. It was clear to Arata that there was more under the surface.

The girl that sat at the table, her name being Horin Koga, always had some snide remark to make about the kid telling Arata everything.

The person standing before him, his name was Susa Kaminaga, and from his demeanor. There was something clearly wrong with him. Not in any mean way, but more like he was really sad in telling this to Arata. Especially whenever he mentioned Yurime.

Finally, there was the lack of their third member, Hansu Kuwano, who apparently already went home. Without even mentioning it, this group was clearly hanging on by a thread.

"So that's it." Susa finished his story. "I hope you don't think it'll be too challenging." It didn't' sound too bad, but there was other matters for him at hand.

"It doesn't, but I do have my responsibilities at the library." Arata informed him. "Since school's over, we can handle this over lunch." With that, it was time for him to meet the others at the library.

"It's nice to see you again." Hifumi greeted him.

"Yeah, we're definitely seeing each other again." Arata responded to her sarcastically. He said hello to everyone. "So have you guys come up with anything?"

"Sorry, but ideas are still lacking at the moment." Misei admitted. "I hope the meeting went well with the news club."

"It was fine." He told them. "But don't worry, I'll make sure my focus is on this right now." He sat down, unfortunately besides Hifumi.

"Two jobs at once? Sounds like they're really working you hard." She commented to him.

"I'm fine, it might not be easy. But I'm sure that I can handle all of them at once."

"By what? Working harder?" She chuckled at him. "If only you could find a way for it all to work together, then it'd be easier." Arata would've loved nothing more than to fix everything at once. That would be killing two birds with one stone. But right now, it was more like he had no stones to throw. "Would you like a sweet?"

"Don't even bother trying." He knew what she was getting at. Not that he was going to reject the treats though. "I know what you're trying, so don't think it'll change my mind."

"You don't seem to reject the treats." She said. "But isn't it fun, it's just like-"

"Just like that light novel, 'The One That Loves Me, is You'?" He had hit the target right on the mark.

"Yes." She was jubilant at hearing they had the same tastes. "I'm assuming that you've gotten a chance to watch the anime as well?"

"What are you talking about?" Misei had a puzzled look to her.

"We're otakus." He responded. "So it's just related to that."

"Yes, I'm sure normies like you wouldn't understand." Hifumi had her usual smug smile at them.

"I wouldn't put it like that." Arata said with irritation in his voice. "Either way, this isn't really the time to be talking about stuff like that."

"Really? There's no problem with having some fun with this." Hifumi countered. "Being all stressed out isn't really good for you." She leaned in uncomfortably close to him.

"Okay look, I know you probably feel like your that librarian girl from the books. But this isn't the time to be living out a story time fantasy…" He trailed off towards the end. Something about those words were giving him an idea. "A fantasy…"

"What's wrong Arata?" Misao asked.

"I've got it!" He stood up and slammed the table.

"I swear, it's like you people forget we're in a library." Hifumi pushed up her glasses in disappointment.

"You have an idea? Then go on and say it." Misei encouraged him.

"What if we hold an event. Something like a play." He started his explanation. "You see, books are stories. And when we read those stories, we can envision what's happening. Then what if we show people that imagination brought to life. Maybe that might encourage more people to want to read and visit the library.

"I see, kind of like how they make anime adaptations to get people to buy the manga or light novels they're based on." Hifumi understood what he was saying.

"I'm not sure, that sounds like it could be expensive." Misao showed her skepticism, but Arata had his bases covered this time.

"It doesn't have to be." He told her. "We can get our friends to help out. Plus, since I'm helping the news club right now. They can help spread the word."

"But can you even set up an event like that in time?" Misei showed concern. "The faculty said we have until the end of Friday to show them that the library should still remain open." That wasn't a lot of time. Given that it's the end of Tuesday, that only gave him a couple of days at best to work this through.

"I'll do it." He said with determination. "I promise I won't let any of you down." With that, they were done for the day. As he explained to them, he wouldn't be able to properly start his plan until lunch the next day. He had an idea for the first person that could help them.

"Arata." Before they were about to leave. Hifumi stopped him. "Do you mind if we talk privately for a moment?"

"If you're just going to harass-" Misei was about to intervene, when she was stopped by Arata.

"It's fine." He told her. "I'm sure it's important." There was no way to confirm that until they talked, but he wasn't going to let something that might matter slip away.

"Thanks for taking the time to talk with me." She said, once they were alone.

"So then what do you need?"

"I'm just telling you, that I don't know if what you're doing is a good idea." She told him directly.

"If you didn't think what I suggested was a good idea-"

"I thought it was a wonderful idea." She cut him off. "I mean, don't you think you're biting off more than you can chew?"

"More than I can chew? You're the one that said I should be making my problems work together."

"That's not working together, it's just trying to solve them with one solution." She told him. "I'm aware of the news club's issues." As a librarian, she was used to people making what they thought were private conversations in the library. Even though they never seemed to noticed her, as if she was invisible.

She could see right though what he wanted to do with them. Hoping as if this will somehow bring that group back together.

"Whatever." He ignored her advice. "I'm sure I can handle it. Things will work out just fine." The truth was, he was using this opportunity to do plenty of things. Such as reconnecting with Yuki and convincing Yurime to return back to the news club.

"You don't understand the situations between people, so don't just think you can fix everyone's problems so easily." Arata's face made it clear that he didn't agree with what she had to say. So there was only one thing left to mention. "Just remember, if you try to carry too much, then you're the one that breaks."