Do You Even Read?

A light dusting of snow had settled over the streets and Shio pulled her scarf closer to her face as she made her way back to the church. This wasn't how she had expected to be spending her weekend—the number of times she had chosen to spend her day reading were few and far between and the books she did read had certainly never been to research anything. As boring as she thought this endeavor would be, she couldn't deny that she was curious though. Who would've expected a night out drinking with Jackal could've been derailed by a mysterious succubun with no horns and no memory and an inexplicable feather? 

Shio entered the church and shook off the snow from her fur as she pulled off her scarf. Jackal was already waiting for her. The other bun looked about as excited to be there as Shio was, but ever since meeting Misty there had been a spark of determination in Jackal that Shio wasn't used to. It was endearing to see the way she became protective and doting.

“Ready to do some reading?” Shio asked with a crooked smile. 

“As I'll ever be,” Jackal said dryly. 

They went into the library together and approached the librarian who bestowed upon them a daunting stack of books: everything that might be of interest to their investigation, just as Mercy had said. 

Shio groaned, but helped carry them over to a table where they could start sorting through them. “This is gonna take forever,” she grumbled. 

“That slow of a reader?” Jackal teased. 

Shio flicked her tail over to smack Jackal. “Shut up, it's not like you spend your time reading either.”

“How do you know?”

Shio's eyes narrowed as she looked over Jackal and thought of all the times she'd seen her lingering in alleys smoking or hanging out at home blasting punk music. Did she like to read…? It didn't matter, but the playful jab was enough to have Shio feeling motivated. “Fine, let's see who can make it through the most books. Loser owes the winner a drink.” 

Jackal laughed at her indignation and said, “Game on.”

Shio pulled the first book off the stack and almost immediately regretted the challenge, her eyes glazing over as the book detailed various stories a demon had shared with their small fluffy charges. There were stories of hell and other demons as well as mundane facets of life in places Shio had trouble envisioning. When she got to a part that started to describe a feathered creature called an eagle, she perked up and paid closer attention. 

It was… kind of horrifying in a fascinating way. The creature was part of a larger story of a man who stole from the gods, so the god punished him by nailing him to a mountain and sending this eagle to eat his liver for eternity while his liver constantly regenerated itself. As interesting as it was though, Shio was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the small delicate feather they had found. 

The book was set aside after skimming through the rest of it and she picked up the next one. Again there were mentions of feathered creatures, this time collectively just called birds, but the story wasn't nearly as interesting as the last one. The birds it described were smaller and cuter sounding, so it was likely more helpful than the last book at least. Some of these seemed like they could match the feather that they found. Shio set that book aside in a separate pile of things that were worth looking at again. 

Shio looked over at Jackal and saw she already had three books set aside and was reading a fourth, Shio bristling as she realized she was falling behind. “Shit,” she muttered as she pulled over the next book and tried reading faster this time. Over the next hour or so they continued on like that, occasionally pausing to show the other bun what they had found. Shio's dismay only grew as Jackal continued to go through the books faster than she could, and after closing the last book, Shio flopped face first onto the table. 

“Would you look at that,” Jackal said, her smile clear in her voice. “Looks like you owe me a drink.”

“I should've kept my damn mouth shut,” Shio mumbled. 

Jackal laughed and patted Shio on the back as she got up from the table. “Come on, let's return these. We can talk about everything we found at the bar.”

Shio sighed dramatically but got up as well to help carry everything back to the librarian. As they walked out of the church, Shio wrapped her scarf back around her neck and gave Jackal a smirk as she said, 

 “I won't lose at a drinking competition.” 

Jackal gave her a wicked grin and said, “Bring it on.”