The Freaks of the Ring

Seven : Rayne

The little meet with Percikan leaves me more than a bit shaken up. If this is the person in charge of everyone here, saying that I'm scared would be an understatement. I'm positively terrified of this girl and everything she has to offer.

Doku has to drag me away from the training room, much to his disliking. I can feel that he's trying not to hold on too hard, even though he's just gripping my sleeve in an already-gloved hand. It's almost weird how cautious he is, seeing how reckless everyone back at my old safebase was. But I force myself not to question it; I already figure that it's because of is powers.

He leads me back to the mess hall, the conversation between Tierra and Ventus coming to a halt the second we walk in. Actually, it looked more like a kissing party from the doorway, but I can't exactly tell. Doku just sighs and shakes his head. "I'd recommend getting used to scenes like that. They happen at least...three times daily?" He lets go of my sleeve and turns his head back towards me, a smile forced to his lips. "Now where we go can be your choice. Would ya rather go to the library or tech room?"

Neither choice really appeals to me, but I choose the library anyhow. At least there seems to be less of a chance to run into that weird cyborg guy in a room full of outdated books. Doku just nods slightly and takes me through another doorway and down a hall. This place is a labyrinth at best, especially since half of the doors aren't marked. It's just by chance that the library has the cover of an old book attached to the doorway.

I've never even been to an actual library before, not since most of them were burned at the beginning of the war, but I have a feeling that none of them were as impressive as this one is. Giant shelves filled from edge to edge with salvaged books adorn the room. You can't walk more than a yard in any direction without running into another shelf plastered with the things. It gets to the point where no matter where you go, all you find is more and more filled shelves.

"Cool, isn't it?" Doku catches me in my reverie, breaking me out of the trance. "This has always been my favorite place in the entire Ring. It's practically the heart of the place, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger." He picks a book off a shelf and thumbs through, his fake smile slowly being replaced with the beginnings of a real one. "My goal when I got here was to read every single one of them, but it would take ten lifetimes to do that. Not even my lifetime, but maybe Levi's or Rem's." He sighs softly, gently slipping the book back into place. "The best part is, we haven't even found them all."

It takes me a moment to wrap my head around that. "So you're telling me that all of this," I gesture around the room, "isn't even close to being every book ever written?"

He grins and nods, motioning for me to follow his through the maze of shelves. "Yep. Tony's even found records from some of the places we got these from and we're nowhere near completing all the lists." He stops in front of one of the shelves. "We all get to claim whatever we find in a wreckage, and all I take are the books. This is all I've collected, but it's still better than nothing."

The shelf is as high as the ceiling and is almost completely filled. If he doesn't think this is many, then I'd hate to know what he thinks is a lot. Every one of the things on it is charred and almost destroyed, but that didn't seem to deter him from picking them all out of the horrible world outside and giving them a home. Doku might be a bit scary at first glance, but deep down I can tell he has a heart of platinum. It gives me a bit of hope that maybe everyone here has similar thoughts and desires to protect the things they love. But everyone else is their own person, after all, so I can't really hope all that much.

"I should probably quit basking in my weirdness, shouldn't I?" He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, a slight tinge of red creeping up his face. It's honestly funny seeing someone that looks so tough get worked up over a stack of books, but I don't even dare laugh. This means a lot to him, and I can respect that.

"No, it's fine, seriously. It's pretty cool, actually. Saving things from the past and keeping them safe and all." I run a hand over a particularly worn cover, ash rubbing off onto my fingers. "Do you guys always do stuff like this? Like salvaging stuff and things like that?"

"Naw, not really. Mostly we try to keep all the remaining people alive and safe until the fighting stops. If the fighting ever stops." He sighs, leading me back to the door. "But when we find remains of something that seems important, we try our best to keep it safe so maybe someone might find it useful one day. Does that make sense? I feel like I worded it kinda weird."

"Not at all. If anything, you just answered all my questions." I look back at the library as we walk out. The door is slipping shut, but I can still picture the labyrinth in my mind. I have a feeling there's a new place that I'll be hiding away in most of the time. Maybe Doku and I can even have some conversations about books one day. I have a feeling he'd like that. After I, you know, actually read one that isn't way over my head. At least I have something to take up my time now.