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“Kid, you’ve been holding out on me!”
Aforementioned reaper flailed at the sudden voice breaking through the comforting silence. The book he’d been shelving slipped free of his fingers, and he hastily snatched it out of the air to place it atop the stack he’d balanced on a rung above him. Inwardly, he cursed himself for his negligence in paying attention to his Soul Perception.
The book properly taken care of—it was over a hundred years old and irreplaceable after all—Kid turned around on the rolling ladder, facing the rest of the massive room. “Hello, Maka. Can I help you?”
Maka almost literally sparkled: her eyes wide and mouth slack-jawed with the same sort of joy the young reaper had seen on the faces of many a Death worshipper meeting him or his father for the first time. The high-pitched noise she made sounded like a cross between a squeal and a sigh.
Soul, who stood just behind her, looked mortified. “Secret’s out, Kid. I hope you enjoy your new roommate because she’s never going to leave.”
It was tempting to just leap down to meet his unexpected guests, but he didn’t want to risk disturbing the books. Instead he stepped lightly down the ladder to walk over to them, sliding his hands into his pockets. “It’s not much all things considered.” He looked back over the library. “Really, the DWMA’s library is far larger.”
“Dude, our apartment building could probably fit in here with room to spare and it has nothing but books.” Soul paused, tilting his body to better take in the view. “Okay, and some places to sit and read or study, I guess, but mostly books.” He squinted. “Is that an electric fireplace insert?”
“Have you ever tried taking care of a wood fireplace? It’s a nightmare,” Kid said unhappily. “Soot and smoke everywhere if you’re not careful and the risk of a chimney fire if you don’t keep it properly cleaned. This collection is priceless; I’m not going to put it at more risk than I have to.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” The scythe looked unhappily to his Meister who still stood frozen in her place. “Can you check with your Soul Perception to make sure she’s still alive? I’m pretty sure she died.”
Kid chuckled as Maka suddenly started walking like a stiff-legged zombie towards a massive volume that took up its own table: the collection’s catalog. “It’s going to take her a while to look through that.” He looked back to Soul. “Well, since you’re going to be stuck here, you might as well sit down and read something yourself. Or you can help me.”
“Please tell me you’re not re-organizing this place,” Soul begged but he fell into step behind Kid as the reaper started walking back to the ladder he’d been originally perched on.
The reaper looked back at the scythe with a baffled stare.
“Y’know, like arranging them by size or whatever,” Soul said awkwardly.
“Why would I—Oh. I, um, I see why you’d think I’d do that.” Kid gave a polite cough in an attempt to hide his embarrassment about his…eccentricities. “No, I was working on the new catalog. That old one is useful but highly inefficient for searching since new books were hastily scratched into the margins or on pages stuck into relatively the right places. It’s driven Father crazy for years, but he obviously hasn’t had time to sit down and redo the catalog himself.”
“He’s got the money to hire someone to do it.”
“True, but there are some books here that humans probably shouldn’t be left alone with.”
Red eyes slid over to the Meister now most certainly squealing over the massive catalog.
“The catalog’s harmless,” the reaper told him with some amusement.
“So you think. She’s probably making a list of things she’s going to beg you to loan her.” Soul then looked back to Kid. “So why are you doing this anyway? You live here and probably know the entire thing like the back of your hand.”
“I do,” Kid admitted without even a hint of embarrassment, “but I have to go out on missions for Father sometimes, so he can’t always ask me to bring him what he’s looking for. I thought modernizing the catalog along with digitally scanning the older, more delicate parts of our collection might be useful as well since it would make them more searchable without risk of further damage.” He pointed to the desk where a laptop and a book scanner stood.
“Okay, so why now?”
“Father’s Day present.”
Soul smirked. “It’s August. A little early, don’t you think?”
Kid gave him a bland stare before spreading his arms to each side, gesturing to the entire library which took up three floors.
“…Touché. So what do you need me to do?”
The young death god walked the Weapon over to the desk with the machine that looked more like a desk lamp than a scanner and the laptop, reaching into the drawer for a spare set of archival gloves to give Soul. “Just lay the book flat under the scanner, hold it open on a page, and then press this button.” He indicated a large button connected to the book scanner. “Make sure the image looks clear on the screen. If it doesn’t, re-take the scan until you get a clean shot, turn the page, and repeat.”
“What about the basic info about it? Like the author and stuff?” Soul asked, sliding on the gloves without prompting.
“I’ll handle that.”
“And those books humans shouldn’t be left alone with?” One eyebrow lifted with amusement.
“I’ll set those aside for me to do personally later.”
“Good. I don’t want to get a glimpse of the Necronomicron.”
Kid gave an amused smirk, heading back to the ladder. “That one isn’t here. It’s safely locked up in the Academy.”
Soul laughed. “Come on, man. We both know it isn’t real.”
The reaper stopped and looked back over his shoulder, his most enigmatic smile on his lips.
“…Right?” the scythe asked, suddenly starting to sweat.
Kid raised an eyebrow of his own.
Soul stared in silence before looking to the laptop screen. “You know what? I don’t wanna know. I really, really don’t wanna know.”