Here are scans of the book jacket and title page. Translating the map of the Kantou Library Base (I know, right!?) is taking a while and will have to wait until morning.

( Pretty pictures this way! )

Hi guys! Just wanted to let you know, the fourth book, Toshokan Kakumei, will begin on Monday! And to get you excited, tomorrow I'll be posting some extras from the book, like the cover art and the title page!

Looking forward to starting up again! - melithiel

Get it here!

So what did everyone think of the book?

Kasahara, rumored to be second to none when it came to the simple and straightforward, looked like she was ready to make some objection; Shibasaki poked her in the side and she subsided sullenly. For people like her, the Library Force was probably about to become a slightly more tense place.

That prediction was why he had hastened Genda's promotion--but what would the Library Force actually be like after he was gone?

Hikoe continued, "But I don't think that the principlists and the governmentalists disagree over the fundamental ideals of the Library Force. In a world where an incident like the one at Mito can happen, I think that we'll be able to find compromises that fit the situation, whatever the differences in our beliefs. I think your wisdom and experience will be a great help. I look forward to continuing to work with you."

Hikoe bowed so low that the thinning hair on the top of his head was visible, and then shut the car door. The driver said, "Here we go," as he had every day, and started the car in time with his scrupulous warning, as he had every day.

Inamine continued to lovingly stroke the pot of camomille on his lap.

I may be beyond redemption, but at least I've always had plenty of people who understood what I was working for.

It had been over twenty years since the Nightmare at Hino.

Today was the day that the old man who had created the Library Force and lead it into the present day retired from the front lines.


...To be continued.

--
Aaaaand we're done with Toshokan Kiki!

Hopping on a plane to Boston in three hours. I'll try to put together a quick-and-dirty PDF of this book over the weekend for people to read!

(How's this for freaky--I just realized that I posted the first page of Toshokan Kiki the day I started my job, and now I'm posting the last page the day after my last day! Totally didn't do it on purpose.) - melithiel

They exited the building, and Inamine's eyes grew wide.

"Did you arrange this?" he asked Shibasaki.

Shibasaki grinned. "No, sir. Everyone who was free came of their own volition. That's why they aren't lined up in any kind of order."

Library Force members stood in two long rows, lining both sides of the road that led up to the main entrance of the base. Though the road curved out of sight at some point, the rows continued along it.

First in line were every single member of the Library Task Force.

Assistant Commander Ogata shouted from deep in his belly.

"WE SALUTE COMMANDER INAMINE OF THE KANTOU LIBRARY BASE!"

Members of the Defense Force, Administrative Division, and Logistical Support Division were all jumbled together in the lines, but they all saluted in unison. It charmed Inamine that even the Administrative Division and Logistical Support Division members, who weren't used to saluting, executed them well.

Inamine saluted back, and Kasahara began to push his wheelchair. Shibasaki set out alongside them.

He saluted again every time they turned a corner, until at last they reached the car parked in front of the main entrance. It was the same car that had picked up Inamine almost every day since he became base commander.

In front of the car stood Hikoe, who would become base commander tomorrow.

Silently, he opened the back door, and Inamine moved his body into the back seat in a practiced maneuver. Kasahara folded the wheelchair, and Inamine took it and placed it at the foot of the seat next to him.

Hikoe saluted and gazed down at Inamine in the car for a long moment, then began to speak.

"I must beg your pardon; though I'm keeping you on as a special advisor, I won't be following your doctrine. I have my own beliefs, and I'll simply be managing the Library Force according to those beliefs."

So, my dear.

Looking down at the simple clay pot, he spoke silently.

What would you think of what I've done?

If his wife had lived. It was a question he had always dismissed as pointless, but he was asking it now.

If you had lived, what would you have said about the things I've done? About the way I had the Library Force arm itself so it could oppose censorship? About the organization I created that spills blood to fight censorship?

Inamine didn't know how his wife would answer. No voice of comfort or encouragement would reach his ears. One could not ask for aid from the dead. Even from one's wife. He would not justify himself by putting words in his wife's mouth, when she couldn't speak for herself anymore.

He knew it would be wrong, even without being told by his detractors, who used his dead wife to denounce him.

But the Library Force had been created, and would continue to exist even after Inamine left, and would continue to battle censorship. And even after Inamine left, the blood that was shed would still be on his hands. And after he died, as the architect of the Library Force, that blood would continue to stain his hands even in the grave.

And though his own body was frail, he had ordered young men and women to carry out that bloodshed for him.

I may be beyond redemption.

There was a soft knock, and the door of his office opened. On the other side were Shibasaki, his direct subordinate--and Chief Librarian Kasahara, who had once called Inamine "sir" as if he were a patron.

"It's time," Shibasaki said. "Are you ready to go?"

"I am."

"Then we will see you to your car."

Kasahara approached his wheelchair.

"Thank you. I'm indebted to your for your help during the kidnapping as well."

Kasahara pulled the wheelchair away from the desk and began to push it. "No," she cried, "it was an honor to be by your side. I wish I could have done more for you--" Her voice grew choked with tears. "I wish I could still work under you. Is there really no way--"

"Kasahara," Shibasaki said warningly. Behind him, Iku's sobs continued for a long time. It was a little unsettling to Inamine, to hear himself mourned by this young Defense Force woman.

~

Oof, I've been busy lately, you guys. Looking for a new job, finishing up at my old job, taking a quick trip to my hometown last weekend, preparing for a two-week trip to Boston on Friday...and fiendishly translating so that I can post the last page of this book (p. 339) this week.

Also, we got kittens. - melithiel
--
"You know what?" Iku said that evening.

Shibasaki was staring blankly at the television and didn't even notice Iku talking to her.

"Earth to Shibasaki!"

"What? Oh, um, what is it?"

Seeing the normally impervious Shibasaki flustered, Iku folded her arms and frowned. "So you really did have a fight!"

"What do you mean!? With whom?"

"Tedzuka," she said baldly. Shibasaki winced. I guess you could call that a fight, if you wanted to.

"He kinda apologized. Said to tell you 'sorry,'" Iku continued.

How am I supposed to respond to that? "...'No, I'm sorry'? Does that work?"

"Well, it's not wrong--" Iku raised her eyebrows and began peeling one of the oranges that sat on her desk. "--But it's a little trite, don't you think?"

"Well, I don't know what would be right." She pretended nonchalance, but she was actually serious.

"What about something more reconciliatory, like 'I'm sorry too' or 'don't worry about it'?"

"Okay, could you tell him something like that?"

"...I am not your voice-mail service," Iku grumbled, stuffing orange sections into her mouth. "So, you two can fight with each other now?"

Shibasaki grew flustered again at this second surmise of Iku's. "I probably shouldn't fight with people. You know, as an intelligence cadet."

"No, it's good. It means you're friends, right?"

Oh. We've gotten to be friends? Used to thinking of him as a peer and collaborator, Tedzuka's position shifted a little in her mind.

*

If one counted the transitional period, December 14th was Inamine's last day at work.

The only thing he took from his desk was a small pot of camomille, which he put in his bag and placed on his lap. Without two legs, even superficial gardening was strenuous work, but he planted camomille in the summer and the fall, and every year when it started to bloom he culled a few of the plants and put them in a pot on his desk.

"There--" Shibasaki's breath caught. "There was nothing I could do but ask you to get through the battle and come home safe!"

Shibasaki shook off Tedzuka's hand, and Tedzuka released her wrist reflexively. Her wrist was so slender, it seemed like it might break if he grabbed it too roughly.

Shibasaki immediately turned on her heel and walked away. Her footsteps were heavy, as if she were resisting the impulse to run, and they retreated into the distance.

When Tedzuka looked down at the place where she had been standing, he saw several drops of water scattered over the linoleum floor.

He was stunned by the realization that he had somehow made this woman cry, when she never cried in front of other people. He stood, uncertain, for a very long time, until he finally decided against chasing after Shibasaki or calling Satoshi.

From Satoshi's perspective, it was self-evident that as long as Inamine was in the Library Force, his charisma would be an impediment to Satoshi's plans. Of course he wouldn't have told Tedzuka that Inamine was in danger of defeat until it was too late. Tedzuka had been shown over and over that Satoshi wasn't that kind of brother.

But still, Shibasaki had feared that Tedzuka might get hurt and taken the time to warn him.

He knelt down on the floor and scrubbed at the droplets with his fist. Shibasaki surely hadn't wanted to leave them here.

"I'm such an asshole..."

He had taken out his frustration at his own powerlessness on an equally powerless but more delicate girl.

So taking out his frustration on his brother probably wasn't a good idea either.

After all, the only reason he talked to Satoshi was for the smattering of useful information he was able to squeeze out of him.

*

He was talking about the phone call he and Shibasaki had had after his arrival at Mito.

"That Commander Inamine would have to take responsibility for the situation at Mito, and that my brother knew the secret behind the Society for Nonresistance and kept quiet about it."

"...Remember not to rely on him too much. These days he's the spiritual leader of the Library of Tomorrow Project first, and your brother second."

Shibasaki's uncharacteristically personal warning served as proof that she had known.

"Calm down. Your brother knew what was happening, but all he did was stay silent. We don't know his reasons, and it's not like he directly forced Commander Inamine to resign."

"But..." Except for that strange warning, she had sounded completely normal over the phone. Tedzuka had gone over the conversation in his mind a hundred times. It was maddening. "Why didn't you say anything to me!?"

"Because by the time I could have told you, there was nothing you could do!" Shibasaki shouted, and then looked down at her feet. Her voice grew low. "No matter what, the circumstances that would force Commander Inamine to take responsibility were already in place. What would have been the point of giving you all information that would only distress you? The Library Force at Mito had been eaten away by the Society for Nonresistance until it was falling apart and they were far from prepared for the coming battle. Didn't you have enough worries without me adding to them?"

She hadn't imagined that Hikoe would put forth such an offer.

Iku had been subdued, but next to her Tedzuka wasn't ready to give up. "I wonder if my brother--"

"You do an injustice to your brother," Komaki said. "I can't think that these are the methods that he prefers. He likes to be seen above all as an ideological leader crusading to eradicate censorship. Though it's possible that he realized what was happening and didn't warn the rest of the Force. A certain weakening of the Library Force would be very convenient for the Library of Tomorrow Project."

Perhaps even Komaki was feeling prickly, for it was a harsh way to speak about someone else's family. Though to be fair, Tedzuka didn't protest--he was always rather harsh about his brother himself.

~
During his lunch break, Tedzuka headed over to the Musashino First Library.

He quickly found Shibasaki on her feet working and stepped up to her briskly.

"Come with me for a second."

"What if I said no?"

"Just come here!" Tedzuka grabbed Shibasaki's wrist and started walking. He faltered for a moment as he felt how thin it was, but he didn't let go as he led her out of the reference room.

"You knew, didn't you?"