Chapter 7: The Battle of the Library

Mid-terms week.

Hijiridono Academy, which is usually just a pit of hormonal noise, transforms.

It becomes a pressure cooker of silent, vibrating panic.

People walk around like zombies, muttering formulas.

Even Toujo is carrying a textbook. (He's using it as a pillow, but still. It's an attempt).

My "Bloody Twilight" aura is a blessing this week.

I walk into the school library-my fortress of solitude-and the effect is immediate.

Students see me, squeak, and find other tables.

I get an entire 8-person study table all to myself, right in the quietest corner.

Perfection.

I set up my fortress.

Textbook for Advanced Physics. Notebook for Modern History. Binder for Classical Japanese.

I am in the zone.

I am here for one reason, and one reason only: to create a gap.

A huge, massive, uncrossable chasm between my #1 rank and Fuji Kenji's #2.

I want to demolish him.

I want him to see the results and feel crushing despair.

I want...

Screeeech.

A chair pulls out.

At my table.

I don't look up.

"Go away," I say, my voice a low growl.

Whoever it is-it must be a new student. Or someone with a death wish.

"I would," a smooth, calm, infuriatingly familiar voice replies. "But every other table is full."

My pen stops.

I slowly, slowly, lift my head.

Fuji Kenji is sitting directly across from me.

He has his own stack of books. It’s just as big as mine.

He gives me a polite, charming smile. The one that makes the girls on the soccer field faint.

"Isuzu-san," he nods, as if this is totally normal.

My eye twitches.

I can feel the entire library staring.

It's like a nature documentary. The two alpha predators have just found each other at the same watering hole.

Even Toujo and Rika, who are (badly) hidden in the stacks, are watching.

"This table," I hiss, my voice low, "is taken."

"Really?" He glances at the six empty chairs. "By who? Your imaginary friends?"

My blood pressure. It's rising.

"By my aura," I snap.

"Your aura doesn't need to study for the calculus final," he says, opening his textbook. "I, on the other hand, do. I'm aiming for a perfect score this time."

That... that...!

He's referencing the one point he missed last time.

He's taunting me.

"You're in my spot," I say.

"I'm in a spot," he counters.

"You're... breathing too loud."

"Isuzu-san, are you trying to 'Bloody Twilight' me into leaving?" he whispers, leaning forward with that stupid, amused smirk.

"It... doesn't work on me."

I want to flip the table.

I really want to flip the table.

But... the librarian, Mrs. Kageyama, is a 60-year-old woman who I am convinced is an ex-assassin.

She would end me.

So I do the only thing I can.

I glare at him.

And I open my textbook.

And so, the war begins.

It is the quietest, most violent study session in the history of mankind.

He turns a page.

I turn a page faster.

He starts scribbling notes.

I start scribbling faster.

He pulls out a calculator.

I'm already done with the equation. In my head.

We are a blur of frantic, silent motion.

The tension at the table is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

After an hour, I realize I need "A Comprehensive History of the Meiji Restoration: Volume 4."

I stand up.

He stands up at the exact same time.

We both need the same book.

We walk-fast-to the "History" section.

We both turn the corner of the same aisle.

We spot it.

The last copy.

We both reach.

Our hands move like snakes.

Thwack.

His hand lands on the spine. My hand lands on top of his hand.

We freeze.

Oh, no.

We are standing in the middle of the aisle, hands on the same book, staring into each other's souls.

His eyes are so blue. And so annoying.

"I was here first," I hiss.

"My hand touched it first," he hisses back.

"My need is greater."

"My ambition is stronger."

"I'm #1."

"You're about to be #2."

"You-!"

"Mr. Fuji! Ms. Isuzu!"

Mrs. Kageyama, the librarian, is standing at the end of the aisle. Her glasses are glinting.

"Is there a problem?"

We both snatch our hands back.

"No, Kageyama-sensei," Fuji says, his "Prince" smile instantly back.

"We were just... deciding," I grumble.

Mrs. Kageyama glares. "Good. Then you can share."

"Share?!" we both snap.

"Or," she says, holding out her hand, "I can confiscate it."

The horror.

We look at each other.

We look at the book.

We look at her.

"We'll share," Fuji says, his smile looking painful.

I just snatch the book off the shelf. "Fine."

We stalk back to the table.

We slam the book down, right in the middle.

And for the next two hours, Aoi Isuzu and Fuji Kenji, the #1 and #2 rivals of Hijiridono Academy, are forced to sit shoulder-to-shoulder, literally, reading the same book, turning the pages together, and trying very hard to murder each other with their minds.

From the stacks, Toujo is just... vibrating.

"He's got his phone out," Rika whispers. "He's taking so many pictures..."