To say that Tetsu was still steamed about his failed boat trek up to the pass was an understatement. Being unreliable and incompetent was something he could more or less expect from other people, and so he’d just do it on his own, he’d tell himself, only to find himself blocked at every turn by bureaucracy, by people who had nothing better to do with their time than be more obstructive than useless. The boy, with this in mind, started shutting books every few seconds as loudly as he could, peeking through the bookshelves to see those studying slowly tense up their shoulders, which would eventually escalate to disgruntled head shaking, or muttering. ”NO, THIS ISN’T IT.” The boy would obnoxiously announce to himself after loudly slamming another book shut, or he’d suddenly snort with laughter, carefully timing it so as not to be so annoying that a librarian would be justified in coming over. If everyone in the village was destined to be little more than living obstacles, well, he’d have to learn to fit in sooner or later, wouldn’t he?
He would nonetheless, however, eventually make his way back over to his desk with another text on some of the folklore of ancient beasts in and around Water Country. When he arrived, however, he was confronted by a fat, old homeless man with a curly grey beard and shocks of white and grey hair, sleeping in his chair. Tetsu could have obviously found any one of the other empty tables to sit at. In the grand scheme of things, he’d probably regret very much choosing the path that was most in line with his nature in this moment, but he just couldn’t help himself. ”Hey old man,” he said, poking him with the corner of one of his books. When the man turned over, wiping the drool from his beard, Tetsu almost opted then and there to simply find another spot, but now he was goaded on by a deepening feeling of annoyance. ”Does this place look like the back alley of a bar to you? Go find somewhere else to sleep.”
”Tetsu, I’m glad I found you.” The man said, sleepily
”Oh. So you knew you were taking my chair then?”
”Is that really the kind of hospitality you’re going to greet your old man with?”
At this, Tetsu couldn’t help but grit his teeth silently. The truth was he took a certain amount of pride in being the one man in the room most capable of making others lose their patience. Was this his penance for trying to do something as responsible as studying? If he were in, say, a bar instead, he very probably could’ve gotten away with simply glassing the man. His own self-absorption in the throes of boiling rage ironically had the effect of making him momentarily lose track of the old man, and when he came back to the subject, noticed him mumbling something to himself. Great, one of these. Now, Tetsu wasn’t really above beating up a crazy, homeless old man, but a split second before he decided to lay hands on the man, he had turned around, knocking his chair over, and grabbed Tetsu by his shirt collar. He was surprisingly spry for his... general appearance. Also, he wasn’t wearing any pants or underwear. ”Don’t believe me, right?” He said in a raspy voice, before pushing the shocked boy away from him and climbing up on the table.
”I am the God of plausibility!” He announced to the rest of the library, and Tetsu had to at least relieve himself of a little stress, knowing that it was now being spread out among the whole room. ”If anyone were capable of seeing me in my true form, your eyes would start bleeding, do you understand me?!” It wasn’t long after this that a few librarians managed to wrestle the man off of his stage, but not before he could break away one final time and grab hold of Tetsu once more, struggling to lean in so that he could whisper something into the boy’s ear. ”Today, somebody is going to be punished for breaking the rules”
And that was the end of that. The man was hauled out as he yelled back into the room ”You understand me, don’t you boy? You understand, right Tetsu?!” Tetsu did indeed understand. He looked down at his chair, the one that was so recently being warmed by the homeless man’s bottom, and scooped up some of the books he had left in the spot. Frankly, he wondered if he still even wanted to touch any of those.
He sat and stared at one of the pages of the newest book he had taken, but none of the words were jumping out at him. For some reason, he seemed to be getting even more pissed off now that the man had left.