BEASTARS - Night of the Lepus

Scattered Pieces of the Puzzle

    After about a 15-minute drive through downtown and passing construction sites, the trio arrived at the humongous library. It wasn't busy at all. Understandable, since it was Sunday and people would be either coming back home from church or just lazing around. Sameer, Legosi and Louis entered and were greeted by a beautiful site. There were thousands of books and two walkways on higher levels. Various ages, various genres, subgenres, paperback, hardback, graphic novels, mangas, and even comics. It was a dream come true! Sameer made a note to visit later on, just to check out the various books. Right now, they were on a mission.

   Despite how large it was, the capybara librarian and a single reading ostrich in the lounge area were the only occupants. Sameer, Legosi and Louis approached the counter. The middle-aged capybara, who was reading something on her desktop computer, greeted them with a smile. 

   "Good afternoon, gentlemen. What can I do for you?" she asked softly. "Yes, madam. We're here to look at some newspaper articles from the past....20 years or so. My name's Sameer and these are my two friends, Legosi and Louis. I'm interested in learning about Zebuth's....not-so-happy history. To be honest, a tutor of mine asked me to study about certain things that might've happened in this city and assigned me....or rather US....to write a report on it." Sameer said confidently. It was a watered-down version of the truth, but it was true nevertheless. Melon wanted to hear from Sameer the next day after all. 

   The librarian nodded knowingly. "Yes, sir. I get it. If you'll please follow me?" She stood up and lead them behind the desk and to the backroom. It was basically a parlor for employee downtime. The librarian opened a door, which revealed steps leading into a basement. She flipped a light switch and led the way down.

   "This is our newspaper room. Our policies on record-keeping go all the way back to the First War. Any reports on notable stories of tragedies, heists, or political scandals were mandated by the state to keep a tally on. It's just how it goes. Of course, that doesn't mean every major story on the TV news, since not every newspaper writer reports what the news does. The ones that do write those? Well.....yeah. We're required to keep them." the librarian added. The basement was a 30 X 40 feet room with shelves of various binders labeled by the decade. There were also rolls of film and a Kodak 35mm film viewer on a small desk. In the center of the room was a long table with six chairs around it. 

   "How long are you open til?" Louis asked. "5 PM on Sundays, 7 PM every other day. If you need more time, I can make an arrangement with you boys." the librarian replied with a smile. Sameer turned to her. "It shouldn't take us but an hour or two." he replied with a chuckle. The librarian laughed a bit as well and nodded.

   "Okay. Again, if you change your mind, we can make arrangements. My only requests are that you handle the newspapers with extreme care. Some of them are over a hundred years old. Also, please don't remove them from the binders. We have them organized by the dates of publishing. If you find an article that really catches your eye, you can bring it upstairs and we'll print out copies for you. If you need to take notes, there's some notepads and pens on the table there." the librarian pointed out. The three nodded their heads. 

   "We really appreciate this, madam. You have no idea how much you're helping us." Sameer thanked her with an excited tone of voice. She smiled. "Anytime, love! Anytime! Glad I could help you out. Enjoy your studies." the librarian replied, heading back up the stairs and out the basement door.

   "Okay. So, where do we start?" Legosi asked. Sameer browsed the shelves of binders. The sections were labeled per decade with a distinct colored dot to match the decade. There were 10 binders per decade, each binder labeled per year. Sameer made calculations in his head.