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Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 1.1 - Chapter SS2




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Unchanging Daily Life 

“Okay, Shuu. I’ll be here.” 

“Yeah. I’ll come getcha when it’s closing time. Don’t leave without me, alright?” 

“I don’t get to come to this library often, so believe me, I won’t waste time like that,” responded Urano, pushing up her glasses before spinning around and practically skipping into the library. 

Her hair was done up in braids on both sides. She didn’t do it herself, naturally. Her mom insisted that she should look nice on their trip and wouldn’t let her go until it was done. Don’t get why, really. Urano’s never gonna care about anything but books. 

Whether you did her hair or bought her new clothes, Urano would always do the same thing on her trips. She’d go to the nearest library, search for books she hadn’t read before, and then read them until I came to get her. It was that or I’d travel from bookstore to bookstore with her, working as both a guide and a pack mule. I’d been her friend long enough to know it’s one or the other. And I was actually interested in enjoying this trip, so I didn’t want to spend all day at bookstores. I was much happier throwing Urano into a library and having the day to myself. 

“This library closes at... 6:30PM on Saturdays, 5PM on weekends and holidays.” I set my alarm on my phone and walked away. 

Once outside the library, I looked around and saw a large park with a gigantic silver globe at the end. It was the roof of a planetarium that had continents drawn on it in the style of a globe. 

“...Been ten years now, huh?” Urano and I traveled here ten years ago as well. Or to be more accurate, Urano’s mom wouldn’t accept any gifts despite how much time I ended up spending at her house, which led to my mom organizing a trip under the pretense of it being something like an educational field trip. A gift in disguise. 

At this point I was more than old enough to stay at home alone, but I kept going along with the trips anyway out of respect for the both of them. “Urano’s mom just can’t get any rest when she’s around.” 

Anyway, time to figure out what to do ’til the library closes, I thought while heading to the planetarium, which had reasonably aged over the past ten years. I passed by a stone marker with “City Park” carved onto it and watched kids playing beneath the warm sun and families feeding birds in the pond as I walked. 

“I gotta be more careful this time...” I clenched my first, remembering my mistake from ten years ago. 

 

Ten years ago, I was an elementary schooler and I was absolutely pumped to be going on one of our bi-yearly field trips, both because it meant I got to spend time with my busy mom and because I got to go somewhere new. 

It was our fall field trip. Upon arriving at the station and checking into a hotel where we could unload our stuff, I stuffed napkins and candy and all sorts of things into a backpack, ready for adventure. But my mom was sleep deprived from paper work, and said, “Since it’s already past three, let me take a nap until suppertime,” before preparing for bed. Which meant I went straight to the neighboring room. 

“I’m here to play, Urano!” I went into the room, excited, and saw Urano’s mom slumped over in a chair, exhausted. Urano was sitting across from her and reading. 

“Shuu, Mom’s clocked out; she’s really tried. Let her sleep for a bit. We can play tomorrow.” That didn’t leave much room for arguing. I slumped over and went back to my room. 

“Mom, Urano’s mom is resting too...” 

“Mmm, okay. You can have this, Shuu.” Mom, yawning sleepily, took out a map from her bag. She spread it out and marked on it with a red pen. “The pedestrian deck here is really big and connects to all sorts of places. If you go out the exit by the receptionist’s desk on the second floor of the hotel, you’ll end up here. There’re no cars in this area, so you can explore all you want. Your final destination is here, the planetarium. Use this map and try to see if you can make it there. If you make it, bring back an entry ticket as proof. Good luck, hun.” 

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll give it a shot!” With the map, compass, and cash in hand, I felt like I had become a hero. I was in unfamiliar territory and I would be going all the way to a planetarium on my own. 

“Shuu, tell Urano’s mom where you’re going!” 

“Got it! Sleep tight.” I once again headed to the neighboring room. When I told Urano’s mom that I was going on an adventure to reach the planetarium, she asked me to bring Urano with me. I didn’t really want to. She was slow and would get in the way... 

“I don’t mind, I guess, but Urano probably wants to keep reading here.” All my experience led to me being certain that Urano would choose to keep reading, but after looking at the map for a bit, she started preparing to leave. 

“Okay, let’s go, Shuu.” 

With the unusually adventurous Urano at my side, I followed Mom’s instructions and left through the automatic door by the second floor’s receptionist desk. It was my first time seeing it since we walked straight into the hotel from the train station, but the pedestrian deck really was massive. It branched off in a thousand directions, and my job was to find the right way to go. 

I grinned with the map spread out in front of me. But my first obstacle appeared immediately in the form of a fearsome foe. 

“Shuu, let’s go to that department store over there. It definitely has a bookstore inside,” said Urano, pointing toward a building on the other side of the deck from the hotel. But I wouldn’t have any fun going there. This... This freakin’ Super Monster Bookworm! 

“No way! No! I’m going to the planetarium today.” 

“A new bookstore will definitely be way more fun than a planetarium!” 

“Not for me!” 

Urano mumbled unhappily under her breath and started reaching into her bag for a book, but I grabbed her hand to stop her and instead walked to the city park. The planetarium was at the back end of the park. I won’t let this Super Monster Bookworm get in my way! 

We walked along the pedestrian deck, and after crossing the big street, it sloped downwards and led to a path with big trees lined up on both sides. Once on the path, the sounds of cars on the street faded and were replaced with the cries of playing children and the rustling of leaves in the wind. 

“Shuu! It’s a library! There’s a library here!” 

“H-Hold on, Urano. We’re going to the planetari—” I was about to stop her, like normal, but suddenly realized something. If I let her go into the library, she definitely wouldn’t leave on her own. And thinking about it, Urano was just getting in the way of my adventure. If I came to get her at closing time, she could read like she wanted to and I could explore like I wanted to. It was perfect. 

“Okay, Urano. Don’t leave until I get back.” 

“Okay. I’ll read books and wait for you.” Urano waved goodbye with a broad smile while dashing into the library. 

Having vanquished the Super Monster Bookworm, I spread out my map, heart racing with excitement to begin my adventure as originally planned. I turned my back to the library Urano entered and ran toward the big silver globe I could see further inside the park.

“Aaah, that was fun.” 

The globe contained more than just a planetarium. There were tons of interactive science exhibits I could play with, so I just did that instead of seeing the show. I made friends with the kids there and competed to see who could move the most sand with magnets. We got stunned together over the weight of a meteor and fought to see who could generate the most electricity by pedaling. I kept playing until it was closing time at 5:30PM. 

When I left it was already pretty dark, since the sun fell early in autumn, and I felt the temperature drop immediately. It had been warm at noon, but not even a jacket was enough to stop me from feeling chilly. I jogged down the path lit by streetlights to the library with the shadows of swaying trees falling over me. 

“...Huh?” The library’s entrance was lit, but it was completely closed. The windows were covered with white curtains, and what I could see of the inside was pitch black. Nobody was there. I circled around the library, checking for lit up places where Urano might be reading and waiting for me. But I couldn’t find her. 

“She’s gotta have gone back to the hotel by now.” The hotel was close enough that it was just across the street. It just made more sense to go back to the hotel than to wait around for someone in an unfamiliar place. 

I ran toward the hotel. 


“Urano? No, she hasn’t come back.” The moment I went to her room and heard her mom say that, I felt the blood drain from my face. 

“Shuu, weren’t you supposed to be with her?” Mom glared at me, and I confessed that I had left Urano at the library to go to the planetarium alone. 

“’Cause I mean, I wanted to go to the planetarium, but the second we went outside Urano just kept talking about going to bookstores and going to the library. She was being selfish.” 

Urano’s mom looked up, as if she had realized something. I realized it too. “...A bookstore?!” Urano had been interested in going to a bookstore inside the department store. She always got active when it involved books. She definitely decided to go to the bookstore after the library closed. 

“I’m gonna go look for her!” 

“Hold on, Shuu. I’ll go with you.” Mom and I ran to the department store together, checked the map, and headed to the bookstore on the fifth floor. It was a big store, but it was just one of many. It didn’t take long for us to search every inch of the place. 

“She’s not here.” 

“...Maybe there’s another bookstore?” 

Mom asked a bookstore employee if there were any other bookstores nearby. She said, “I have a friend waiting at a bookstore, but I can’t figure out which one,” while spreading the map. The employee told her about two bookstores, both a short distance away from the pedestrian deck. 

“Let’s go, Shuu.” 

“...Mom, I don’t think Urano will be at either one of those.” 

“Why not?” 

“Urano only wanted to come here ’cause she thought for sure a huge department store would have a bookstore. She probably doesn’t know about those small bookstores, and I don’t think she’s proactive enough to ask around for directions to a bookstore and then walk all the way there in a place she’s never been before.” 

Urano would jump like an idiot into any bookstore she saw, but she wouldn’t walk around in the dark asking strangers for directions to nearby bookstores in a new place. 

“Oh? But didn’t you go on a bookstore pilgrimage as third graders on summer vacation? You surprised everyone by biking with Urano all the way to a bookstore miles and miles away, remember?” 

“We did that because she used a map and phone book to mark all the bookstores before we left. You didn’t tell us we were coming here until today, so it’s different. It’s more likely that she got kidnapped waiting for me at the library.” 

“I see... I suppose we should return to the hotel and call the police, then.” 

“Uh huh...” 

It was very likely that she had just been kidnapped while waiting in front of the library. She’d probably get tricked in a second by any kidnapper saying “Get in the van, I’ve got books.” 

This never would have happened if I checked when the library closed first...! 

“She wasn’t there, then? I’ll call the police,” Urano’s mom sighed, her brows furrowed. She first contacted the local city hall and told them a girl might be closed inside the library, but they replied that an employee had confirmed that nobody was still inside. 

“We should still go to the library and check, just to be sure. Urano has a history.” Urano had a habit of sitting in the oddest places to read, so back at home, she had once before been shut inside the library without realizing that it had closed. Ever since then, Urano ended up as a “person of interest” in the library and the employees there would always make absolutely certain that she didn’t stay inside past closing time. 

Urano’s mom called the police with shaking hands. She told them that Urano hadn’t returned, and asked if they could start their search in the library. “Although she would keep reading even if the library closed, she definitely would never leave the library on her own. If she’s not in the library, she has been kidnapped.” 

She informed them of Urano’s past history of being closed in libraries, and at the police’s request, the library opened for us immediately. I had called the insides of the library pitch-black, but in one corner the large lined-up windows drew in a lot of light from the outside, making the curtain seem kind of bright. 

“I do think that your daughter was most likely kidnapped. I checked the library before closing, and even if someone was left, an elementary schooler would know to use the desk phone to call for help, no? They could call for help through the window, open the curtains, try to attract the attention of passerbys...” A library employee, unfortunately forced into working past his normal hours, turned on the light switch. 

I ran through the now well-lit library, looking for the windows that had looked bright from the outside. As expected, Urano sat at the windowsill, reading books spread out across the short bookcase beneath it. 

“Urano!” 

Upon hearing my voice, she looked up from her book, shut it, and turned toward me. Despite how desperately we had been searching for her, to the point of calling the police, she looked completely calm and unbothered. 

“There you are, Shuu. You sure took a while. It’s pitch black outside.” 

“It’s pitch black inside the library, too! How could you not notice that, you idiot?!” I reflexively let out a scream. 

Urano glared at me, cheeks puffed into a pout. “Don’t be mean. I noticed that it was dark and hard to read.” 

“You’re an idiot for noticing that and not getting out of here! You Super Monster Bookwoooorm!” 

 

This time, after seeing the show in the planetarium, I went shopping and made sure to get back to the library before closing time. Urano’s favorite spot was whichever chair was placed closest to a bookshelf. No matter what library it was, she always sat in the chair closest to a bookshelf, so it wasn’t ever that hard to find her. 

I looked around the library that I hadn’t really taken the time to examine ten years ago. The underside of the staircase had a plastic chain with a “no entry” sign on it, which was fitting because Urano had avoided the light from the setting sun ten years ago by moving to the underside of the staircase. Really, it was probably there because of her. 

As those thoughts crossed my mind, I soon found Urano. She was reading books, like always. Despite her newly bought clothes and her dressed-up hair, she was doing the same thing she always did. Her eyes ran across the page as she consumed word after word with a slight smile on her face. 

“Urano, it’s almost closing time.” 

“Oh, Shuu. Looks like you managed to get here before dark this time.” Urano shut her book and stood up, smiling. 

“...You remember that?” 

“Of course. Mom got mad at me and said she’d never buy me a new book again if I kept reading after dark. Ever since then, I kinda snap out of my trance whenever it gets dark while I’m reading.” Urano sighed, which reminded me that ever since then, she would also say “I’m still here!” if the library she was in started to close while she was in it, rather than just keep reading without really caring or noticing. 

“Looks like even the Super Monster Bookworm has grown up a little...” As I thought about how she had matured a bit over the past ten years, I saw her standing in front of a bookshelf and reading a new book instead of cleaning up like she was supposed to. 

“You haven’t grown at all!” 

“Huh? What’re you talking about?” 

I took the book out of Urano’s hand and put it back in the bookshelf, then took her arm and left the library while listening to her grumbling. She pointed at the department store and said, “Let’s at least go to the bookstore there while we’re here,” but I just kept dragging her to the hotel where our parents were waiting. 

She had grown so little, it honestly hurt me on an emotional level. Urano, I hope that someday you get stuck in a world without books and suffer! 



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