I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.

After work in the evenings, Brown’s concern for “physical and mental culture” was expressed in organized “contests of skill” among the workers and young people, events ranging from debates to well-controlled sport and gymnastic competitions.

- Louis Decaro Jr., Fire From the Midst of You – A Religious Life of John Brown (2002)

Libraries, those that are properly run anyways, are isolated pods of peace and quiet in the booming metropolis. A font of wisdom preserved in physical form. An egalitarian institution where every citizen can access all of the world’s knowledge freely. Other vaguely positive and lofty things that could be said about libraries, so on and so forth.

Most importantly for one English teacher called Miss Watanabe, libraries were a place of respite where she could escape the infernal crowd of young adults that occupied her life. A place of order and quiet like the library was the polar opposite of a high school English class.

She had planned to go to the Tama Library like usual, pick some random thing to read and forget about the fact that she had wasted the last twenty years of life, stuck in a dead-end career. Her usual plan for respite was progressing as usual until she encountered the most unusual sight.

“Shooting one of these ‘drones’ with the old Sharps rifle doesn’t seem to be a credible way of dealing with them. Oh Lord, what hath ye wrought…”

She saw old Brown surrounded by a motley congregation of books. There were books on 19th-21st century history, modern military hardware, children’s books… While the sight of a foreigner in Tokyo wasn’t too unusual, seeing a foreigner in a library with an incongruous pile of books was.

Watanabe was quite curious as to what this strange foreigner was seeking. “Hello, sir. Sorry for the intrusion, but could I ask you what you are… uhm… researching?”

Brown was surprised to hear someone speaking in English to him. He replied to the woman in English as well “No need to apologize, miss. It is man’s nature to be curious. I’m trying to the best of my ability to bring myself in line with this new millennium.”

For old Brown, who had been well-read, it was of utmost importance to be well-read.

Brown had spent his first few weeks in the new millennium for this purpose of enlightening himself on contemporary circumstances. He had first begun with finding out whether slavery had been abolished in the US – it (mostly) was, which brought him great jubilee to see that great evil struck down. It was surreal to see himself be referred to in the past tense, as if he was among the dead, to see that his final sacrifice had worked out as he had thought. It was also surprising and disappointing how the Southerners had insisted on clinging to their old ways even to the new millennium. Brown would have flown (he really wanted to fly in an airplane after he learned about them) to the US immediately if he wasn’t currently a penniless, stateless illegal immigrant with two adopted daughters to take care of.

With Brown up-to-date on the United States, he had proceeded to update himself on the situation of the rest of the world. Many empires had fallen in his absence: the British, French, Russian, Habsburg, Qing, Ottoman… From their ashes, new states populated the world map. Millions had died in two World Wars (Brown was baffled as to how they decided to have a second go after experiencing the first round) that seemed no different than Armageddon. Finally, this was something that Brown still didn’t get no matter how much he read up on it, some odd network called an “internet” allowed one to contact anyone around the world at will.

One thing that surprised Brown, something that threw a thermonuclear-explosion-sized wrench in his works, was the development of military technology. He had left the world when the deadliest weapon in the world was a hand-cranked machine gun or a well-placed artillery blast. Humanity had advanced surprisingly fast in the art of killing itself since his death. Now death could rain more furiously than hellfire from jets up above, every man was a Gatling gun when wielding an assault rifle, human civilization could be wiped out within moments when it came to mad nuclear exchange.

It was clear to him that starting any sort of armed catgirl revolution would end in Brown being personally lacerated by a kinetic warhead. Brown would have to find another way to bring about the divinely-mandated liberation of the catfolk.

‘Bringing in line to a new millennium’ sounds like an advert for something… “Excuse me if I’m being rude, but what do children’s books have with it?”

“Oh, these?” Brown pointed at the children’s books. “These are for a different purpose. I’m looking for educational material for my daughters who cannot attend school. I am unable to borrow books, most unfortunately, so I’ve been memorizing them.”

Watanabe was a bit surprised; it was rare for children to be unable to attend at least a public school. So was someone being unable to borrow simple children’s books from a public library. Something fishy is going on here, I can feel it… “Good luck sir, on your endeavors.”

“Godspeed, miss.” Brown immediately went back to his study after Watanabe left the scene. “Now, where was I? Right, ‘The collapse of the Russian Federation was brought about by…’”

Brown wasn’t only spending his time reading, of course. Knowledge was important and nourishing, yes, but not in the same level of “important and nourishing” as food was. Three mouths were a lot to feed, especially as Brown couldn’t legally work (nor were employers willing to employ an old man such as him).

His source of food came to him from a place that was most unexpected, even to Brown.

It had surprised Brown to learn that there were churches in Tokyo (last he heard the Shogun wasn’t too keen on having them). They wildly differed in doctrine and practice compared to those of a doctrinally conservative 19th century evangelical Christian; Brown chose to attend anyways to stay close to a community of fellow Christians. Churchgoers had taken a liking to this odd old man with his passionate sermons, excellent knowledge of the Bible and his philanthropic outlook.

He had begun receiving donations of food and other essential items, such as clothes, charcoal, one generous soul had even donated three sets of futons. Brown had even received help from charitable folk outside of the small Christian community as word-of-mouth spread itself, allowing the patisserie to achieve a standard of level that was above the usual “one can of tuna for three people”.

It seemed to Brown that the positive side of humanity persevered in the new millennium. This gave him hope for his fight with its negative side.

“Maya, Misha, I’m home!” declared Brown with his return home from the library. What was called “home” was still a run-down patisserie in the middle of nowhere, sure. It had gotten slightly better though, especially with the addition of proper bedding and plenty of charcoal for heat.

The sisters had a lot more free time thanks to not having to scavenge for food every day. They were currently busy with their writing exercises, in Latin script for now as it was quicker to learn (and Brown had no idea how to write Japanese despite being able to perfectly speak it thanks to isekai shenanigans). Brown had gotten a small blackboard as a donation from a former teacher that the sisters used to write with chalk; they were too engrossed to notice Brown’s arrival.

“Yo... Yo-me-ru. Ma-ya. Maya. Ken. Reed. Wait no… Gah, this is so stupid!” declared Maya as she shook her fist in anger. “I’ve been doing fine without reading n’ writing for all my life!”

“No… re… read, er, important...” replied Misha. “…Book. Ehm… read, fun.” She had been able to comprehend reading faster than her rowdy sister. “Watch.” said Misha before she wrote the longest word she memorized, “Incomprehensibility.” Misha had the smuggest smile as she completed the writing the word. “See? Uhm… this… this, how… write. Proper.”

“Such a showoff.” said Maya as she heaved a sigh. She turned her head around to encounter Brown. “Oh, ‘ello gramps and…” she noticed someone standing outside the house, failing to hide behind some bushes. “Gramps, someone’s behind you.”

Brown quickly turned around, ready to brawl, only to see Miss Watanabe. He recognized her from the library. “Miss, would you happen to have any business with us? If you do, I’d prefer if you were to state it openly instead of doing… that.”

Watanabe stopped her cartoonish attempt at stealth and stood up to defend herself in speech. “No, Mr. Brown, it wasn’t anything malicious I- I swear!” she pointed to the sisters. “I just thought that something unsavory might be going on. I’m just doing my duty as a responsible citizen!”

“By the Lord, did I look like an unsavory man to you?” Yes, you did, replied Watanabe silently. “I hope you’ve cleared up any fantastical misunderstandings, Miss… May I have your name, miss?”

“I’m Watanabe. Watanabe Haruhi.” replied Watanabe, finally officially introducing herself to Brown. “I didn’t expect that you’d actually have two daughters, let alone them being from the catfolk!”

Wait, we’re his daughters? thought the sisters when they heard Watanabe.

“I actually have had twenty children, Miss Watanabe, though they are all with our Heavenly Father now.” replied Brown. He awaited the day that he’d get to join them in Heaven when his mission was done.

Watanabe didn’t exactly know how to respond to someone having twenty children. She thought that Brown must have cracked an American joke that she didn’t get. “Right… Since there isn’t anything suspicious going on…” she took out a stack of printed papers from her bag and presented it to Brown “…I printed some of the material you were having to memorize. I hope this is of use to you.”

Brown smiled as he received them. “Thank you very much, Miss Watanabe.”

“One last thing, Mr. Brown…” Watanabe had thought long and hard during her voyage; she had gotten sick of only educating the bunch of snobby kids in private school. She couldn’t quit her job; she still needed money, but she could use her spare time for something more beneficial. “…do you need a teacher for your daughters?”

It was always a busy day for the Governor of Tokyo. This was no surprise: they held responsibility for 14 million citizens, 160,000 government employees and a 13 trillion-yen budget.

Being governor wasn’t an easy job, nor was it supposed to be a profitable one. To someone keen though, such a position afforded many… “unexpected opportunities”, to put it politely. Such opportunities meant keeping close ties with the fat-cats of the city. One such keeping of ties was currently happening in the Governor’s Mansion between two people.

After a lengthy bout of formalities, involving many bows, flowery words, and other banalities, the two sides were seated face-to-face. One was the Governor, of course, and the other was a representative from a major construction company (who had donated greatly to the election campaign of the Governor) operating in the city.

“We hope that you understand that time is of the essence, Governor, and that you’ll excuse us when we’re direct in our request.”

“Of course, I understand that time is money. Please, do continue.”

“Soon Tamana Corporation will come into possession of land in the outskirts of the city, near the Tama River. We intend to launch a renovation of an abandoned patisserie nearby and expand it into a nearby shopping mall that shall provide for the nearby suburban area.”

“Please, I have no need for the details. Your company should have all the required permits for construction in that area. You’ll receive my utmost support if any unexpected problems do arise.”

“Of course, governor. Our trust in you is absolute, we are here for an unexpected problem has arisen. Simply put, there are many vagrants in the area we intend to build on. Our company lacks the means to clear these… problematic elements blocking construction. We hope that we can get your help when we begin construction.”

“Then I shall send our boys in when that time comes. Pleasure doing business with you.”