Benjiro

The walls gave off a cool, icy feeling as my hands pressed against them, saving my fall. If only they would fix that stupid step.

The library was a big thing. About 60,000 books were stored safely in here, while the rest in the world was digital. Can't blame them, though. Books were hard to keep, especially since they got dusty fast and easily. And it was also perfect that my school wants us to use physical books since they felt that it was more "authentic." I only wondered what they meant by authenticity.

I walk into the library as I fixed myself to a standing position, rather than leaning onto the wall and grasping it for dear life. Looking around, I noticed that there were a great number of hallways; probably too many to count. It was probably going to be days upon days before I was to find the book I needed. Just a book. That's all. This was why I hated the library. With digital books, you could just find about the person you need to know through the search engine. "Benjiro Hayama." Boom! Done.

I decided that all my complaining will get me nowhere, and it would be better to at least try to get a decent grade in the class. I pick up my foot from the floor and begin to take my first step on the cold stone floor. I did have to compliment the structure. it was nice. The stone structure kind of brought a nice medieval appearance to the building. They also did nicely with the synthetically generated torches that lit up the hallways.

As I admired the beautiful structure, I happened to notice to my right that I reached a door with a sign to the left of the door that said "Office."

I turned the doorknob that opened to a room completely different from the style of the building. It looked like a normal office waiting room where you would usually sit when waiting for your name to be called.

"Um..." I uttered before being scared by an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) who showed up out of nowhere, sitting behind the counter.

"How may I help you?" The A.I. asked, tilting its head, wondering why I was holding my chest.

"Oh, um...yes. I was wondering where I could find the 'be' character (be in hiragana)." I brought myself together and asked.

"May I see your ID (Identification card)?" The A.I. aligned her head and extender her hand out to me.

"Oh, yes." I opened my purse and scavenged for it. "Here it is." I pull it out and walk up to the counter.

The A.I. then took the card from me and swallowed it as it slid into her mouth. I would never get used to seeing that.

"Kyoko Sato; Age 16; Gender, female." The A.I. started to spew-out the information that was written on my ID card. Her eyes then turned a shade of green and then the card exited the mouth. She then took it out of her mouth and handed it back to me. "You look different in your photo than you do right now."

"Yes. I lost a bit of weight." I explained.

"Very well then. Follow me." The A.I. walked to the door that led out to the room I was in. She then walked up to me and nodded her head.

I then followed her as she guided me through the hallways. Since the name I was looking for started with "be," we walked down the hallways for an elongated amount of time. We passed through the different characters. My legs started to hurt, which caused me to sigh in anger. However, when I started to see "ba" and "bi," my face lightened up with joy. It was a matter of time before we reached "be."

"Well..." The A.I. stopped abruptly, causing me to hit my nose on her head.

"Ow..." I rubbed my nose, in pain.

"We are at 'be.'" She gave a cold smile that sent a shiver from my head to toes. "You should be able to find Benjiro Hayama in aisle 30, shelf 7."

"Wait, how did you--"

"Your school informed me." She interrupted me. It would have been easier if she just showed me from the beginning without having to perform that weird voodoo thing with my ID card. But I also suppose it's to do with security issues.

"Alright." I bowed. "Thank you."

After she left my side, I turned towards the door and opened it. It was huge. There were thousands upon thousands of books in that room. Or so it seemed from my perspective.

When I walked into the room, I notice something strange. There were multiple me. One on my left and one on my right.

"Ah, smart." I mumbled to myself, noticing that they used the mirror effect by putting mirrors on the side, causing an extended room effect. These mirrors were specially given to us by the prime minister of India who first came up with a way to forbids the "multiple reflection" effect you usually see in your normal everyday mirrors. These only reflect to a certain point. You can disappear from the mirror if you pass that point, which is why you don't see the reflection of the other mirror.

I decided to snap myself back into reality, trying not to stay in awe of these expensive mirrors that only the rich could afford.

"Ben..." I looked down aisle 80. "Benji...aha! Benjiro Hayama." I took the book from the shelf.

I opened up the book, which caused a gust of dust to exit the paper as I flipped through it. I coughed, closing the book.

"Alright." I found a seat at one of the empty tables. I then opened up the book again, bracing myself for any extra dust that wanted to make me cough again, but the coast was clear.

"Benjiro Hayama. One of Japan's greatest heroes." I began to read. This was my first time hearing about him because my school wasn't really into talking about...male heroes, per se. They did enjoy discussing about the amazing women who saved this country, especially Erika Yamashita. However, this time around, we were all assigned to write history essays about important men of this country. It was the first time in my lifetime a thing was ever assigned. Therefore, the topic of Benjiro Hayama came up.

"At the time he saved Japan, Hayama was 19-years-old. A college student, in fact." I continued reading. "Huh, interesting. He was older than me by...3 years." I used my fingers to count.

I then continued to read. What did he do for Japan?