Blue Archive - Story of Joshua Sensei

Chapter 71 - A Request: The Sisterhood

"Hm? What is it?" I ask.

"The book hasn't been opened in so long that it's caked in dust." She points out. The thing IS rather dusty. "Let me just brush that off..."

"Wait, you probably shouldn-"

But my warning doesn't come quick enough as Hinata brushes off a part of the leather binding, causing some pages to fall out. It's so old the stuff literally turned to dust.

"Umm..." Hinata says, dumbly.

"That... ain't good." I add.

She stares at it for a few more moments, before, "Ahhhh!" She shouts, in a panic. "Wh-What just happened?! What have I done?!"

"It's so old it practically disintegrated." I explain. "Honestly, better it did it here than during Sakurako's sermon."

"I-It's okay, then!" The sister says. "I-It should still be okay! The papers separated and fell out, but that's all, right?!"

"That's what happened, yes." I say, reacting calmly as I can to her sudden panic.

"I-I'll just pick them up and put them back together!" She declares, before bending down and picking them up. "Now they go together like this, and...!"

But as she grips the papers, it begins to crumble into ash. "Th-The paper is crumbling apart! Why?! Why are these pages crumbling apart from me simply touching them?! What's WRONG with this paper?!"

"It's old, Hinata." I say. "Like I said, better here than at the sermon."

"No, that can't be it! This can't be happening!" She shrieks. "Ah, no! They're stuck to my hand! The sweat of my palms is causing the ink to smudge! No, no... calm down. First, I need to gather the pages together."

But as she continues to attempt to put the thing back together, the worse it gets.

After a few minutes, the two of us are staring at a pile of ash with bits of leather and stuff within.

"I really feel like I shouldn't curse in a cathedral, but... Fuck." I say, succinctly.

"Um..." Hinata, unlike me, has tears in her eyes. "Sensei?"

"Yeah?" I ask.

"What should I do?" The poor sister asks.

"I haven't the foggiest." I say, before sighing. "Gather up all the remains, there's someone we might be able to ask."

Oh, who am I kidding? This is ruined.

—————

I got Hinata to lead me to the Trinity Grand Library, box of dust and leather in hand.

Upon entering, I found Shimiko at the desk.

"Sensei?" The librarian asks, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Long story short, Hinata here has an important book that was found in an old wood box, but it's so old it kinda broke apart. No, not broke, it pretty much turned to ash." I explain. "I don't even know if it CAN be fixed, but it figured you might be able to do somethin' or know someone who can."

"I see. No wonder you came to me." Shimiko politely says. "May I see it?"

I nod and motion of Hinata to open the box. Shimiko looks inside and stills.

"Not a pretty sight, huh?" I ask.

"Auuu..." The sister whines. "I'm so sorry! This is all my fault!"

"Easy now, Hinata. I didn't mean to make you feel even worse." The orange haired girl apologizes. "Just calm down for now. You don't need to apologize to me. Although..." Her face suddenly becomes more serious. "This is still a library, and so you need to keep it down."