Welcome to Boxer & Rice

A pen gracefully stroked against the surface of a fine sheet of paper, crossing the ‘’T”s, dotting the “I”s, and finally ending the sentence with a period. The paper was gently slid to the side and added to a stack gathering at the side of a table. Dozens of papers in all were lifted as one and briskly straightened, carefully aligning all the edges together.

The room was large and filled with a hundred book shelves, each stacked with many books and articles. Only one person currently inhabited the room, a boy with unruly black hair who just seemed to finish up what he was working on. The boy sighed as he closed the book he was researching out of and walked over to the shelves to put it back where he got it.

The library had actually been closed for a few hours, but as the curator knew the boy on account of the amount of time he spent here studying at this place, the boy was allowed to stay until the last employee left. It was also the boy’s chance to get some peaceful time away from home as the curator was also more than aware of who the boy’s mother was and how hard she could be on him when it came to his studies.

“Gohan, I’m about finished here,” a voice called from up stairs.

“Alright Mr. Willard, I just finished my homework, and I’m packing up to go,” Gohan called back.

“No rush yet, just letting you know,” the curator turned to walk back up the stairs from the library basement. He almost wished his own son had been so attentive to his studies when he was fifteen, but knew it wasn’t really fair for a boy that age to dedicate so much time to research.

True Gohan had taken everything without complaint, aiming to do everything he could to please his mother and succeed at his scholastics. It was just that he wanted more… More from life… excitement and fun, but he felt it was selfish to ask for these things, and so he never did.

Gohan turned from where he had just deposited his book to go grab his things when he heard a dull thud sounds from behind him. Gohan turned to see the book he had just put up lying casually on the floor. A strange quizzical look crossed his face as he walked back over to the book to pick it back up and once again put it back on the shelf where it belonged.

Gohan looked over it carefully making sure there was nothing underneath it that might have made it slide off the shelf. It all looked alright and so he went back to finish packing up his things. He was almost finished when he heard a few more thuds. Startled he jumped and turned around looking down the hall of bookshelves. On the floor lied several fallen books.

Gohan had spent many a late night down in this same library basement, but never had this eerie feeling come across him before. He thought maybe it was one of the employees that might still be here who was just trying to prank him.

Gohan shook off the eerie feeling and called out to the room, “That’s not funny guys, and I’m not helping you clean this mess up, so you better cut it out.” There was no response, but Gohan was positive now that his suspicions were correct.

Gohan turned around again to close the flap of his bag when a low rattling noise echoed throughout the room. Gohan looked around trying to pinpoint the source. He noticed it was coming from some of the books; they were vibrating on the shelves.

Gohan’s curiosity drew him closer to the vibrating literature, leaning in more closely to examine it. The vibrations did not cease as he approached so he held out a hand to touch the book. As he touched the book it flew from the shelf and fell to the floor, making Gohan jump with a slight yell of surprise.

Gohan shook himself out of the surprise feeling stupid for being scared by something like that, but then noticed something on the floor. Gohan couldn’t believe his eyes as the book on the floor began to flounder like a fish out of water. To his horror, the rest of the books on all of the shelves began to shake. Entire shelves were shaking across the floor, many of the books falling from the shelves and acting similarly to the last book, just jumping around on the ground.

Gohan couldn’t piece together how any of this was possible, books couldn’t move of their own accord. Then the storm hit and hundreds of books flew from the shelves, becoming airborne. Gohan put up his arms in time to shield his face from the books pummeling him from all directions.

A deathly scream resonated from upstairs that only could have been Mr. Willard. Gohan tried backing away from it all, and ended up against a wall, still trying to shield himself from the onslaught. Gohan’s mind was frantic and still not able to pass rationale on how it was even possible for books to be attacking him like this.

There was a sudden gap in the attack and Gohan noticed a glow from the corner of his eye. A young man with purple hair and a blue trench coat was standing over him with a hand outstretched to help him up. Gohan accepted the offer and was pulled to his feet. The young man urged him in the direction of the staircase, “Run!” he said sternly. Gohan didn’t have to be told twice and the two bolted through the room. Gohan grabbed his backpack as they passed the table and headed straight for the stairs.

The purple haired man was carrying some kind of object in his hand emitting a soft blue light that seemed to be repelling the books away from them. As they ran through ground floor, Gohan made out the body of Mr. Willard; battered and bruised to death, “Oh my god…” he stalled as he saw the body.

“Keep running!” The young man warns. Gohan acknowledged and kept up with the man.

“What’s going on?!” Gohan almost demanded an answer.

“The books are being controlled by some kind of paper manipulator that’s on top of the building. I have to go destroy it.” The young man answered simply.

“Paper manipulator? What? None of this is making any sense…” Gohan shook his head as they kept running.

“Don’t worry about it, the important thing is to get you out of here,” The young man gave a reassuring smile to Gohan who suddenly felt a lot more comfortable, “I’m going to have to blow that thing up to destroy it.”

The two of them reached the door and burst outside. The young man put a hand on Gohan’s shoulder, “Are you hurt?”

Gohan felt himself before deducting he was fine, “No.”

“Good, then go home right away,” The man turned to rush back into the building.

“Wait!” Gohan called.

The man turned to look at him “Yes?”

“Who are you?” Gohan asked still feeling lost.

“Most people call me The Doctor, but you can call me Trunks!” The man said with another smile, “Now run as fast as you can,” he said before disappearing back into the building.

“Trun…ks…?” Gohan said to himself as he watched the said man run inside, and more books enveloped his view of the lobby. Gohan took a few steps back looking toward the top of the building. He also noticed the aftermath of carnage all around him as it seemed paper and books seemed to have been attacking people all around.

A large explosion of green flame drew his attention back to the roof of the library, and all of the books fell to the ground lifeless as they were supposed to be.

This was a lot to take in within but a single night. Gohan turned and ran home, not noticing the out of place Capsule Call Booth across the street.



Gohan made it home to a panicking mother who immediately jumped on him and hugged him already on the verge of tears, “Oh my goodness, you’re okay! I was thinking the worst when I saw the report on television! They’re saying all the people who were around the library this evening are dead!”

“Mom…”

“Something about them all being beaten to death!”

“Mom.”

“And then there was some kind of explosion at that same library and I knew it was the one you always go to at night even though I tell you not to be staying out late…”

“MOM!” Chichi finally stopped her banter and looked at her son intently, “It’s okay… you can calm down, I’m alright, not even hurt, see?”

Chichi hugged her son again, still relieved that he was alright, “I know then, let’s have dinner, I’ll make meat buns!” she marched off into the kitchen to prepare the food. Gohan sighed and tossed his backpack by the couch and joined his mother in the kitchen.

The meal was finished and the two sat down to eat. Chichi didn’t eat much, just watched from across the table as Gohan stuffed his face the meat buns. She chuckled to herself causing Gohan to look at her with “what?” written all over his face.

“It’s just that you remind me so much of your father… especially when you eat like that. You look more like him every day,” Chichi clasped her hands and a glazed look washed over her eyes.

Gohan nodded, and looked over at the picture his mom still had of his dad on the wall, “I suppose I do look a little like him…”

Chichi patted her son’s hands, “Keep eating, I have to go phone everyone and let them know you’re alright,” she rose from the table to go use the phone in the other room.

‘Just like her’ Gohan thought. She always has to share his accomplishments with the world and make sure everyone knows when he’s done well as well as when there’s a problem. It was annoying sometimes.

Gohan had finished up his supper and cleared off his dishes. He was about to go up to his room when there was a knock at the door. He could still hear his mom on the phone in the other room and figured she probably hadn’t heard the knock.

Gohan unlocked and opened the front door, a smile crossed his face, “Hi Piccolo,” he said to greet his long time friend and mentor.

“Gohan,” Piccolo acknowledged.

Gohan stepped outside, closing the door behind him before putting his arms around Piccolo’s neck and leaning his head on the tall man’s shoulder.

Piccolo cradled the boy comfortingly before asking, “Are you okay?”

Gohan nodded into Piccolo’s neck, “Yeah it was just frightening is all… Piccolo I swear I’d never seen anything like it… it was like all of the books in the library just suddenly came to life and started attacking everyone!”

Piccolo squinted, trying to ascertain what Gohan was saying. Piccolo had heard about the deaths in the area around the library on the television also, but not anything about rabid books, “Gohan, you were scared, it’s alright. You’re okay now, so don’t worry.”

Gohan lowered himself from where he was holding on to Piccolo, “You don’t believe me,” he simply stated, “That’s okay, I can’t believe it myself… I guess… I’m just not sure what happened tonight.”

Piccolo tried to get around the living books scenario to maybe get a better idea of what happened this night, “Did anything else happen that you can think of?”

Gohan subtly averted his eyes looking toward the ground, “No… I somehow managed to get out of the library and make it home… but that’s all that happened…”

Piccolo noticed something wasn’t quite right, “Gohan, are you sure you’re alright?”

Gohan nodded fervently; looking back up at Piccolo he said “Yes Piccolo, I’m really just fine.”

Piccolo nodded, “The important thing is you’re safe. You should rest and take a little more time to recollect what happened tonight. Trying to put it together so soon would probably only jumble things up more.”

Gohan looked down at his feet, “I guess you’re right, I’m pretty tired anyway…”

“Rest up then, and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Piccolo leaned down and kissed the boy’s head through his hair before stepping back and flying off.

Gohan sighed again and walked back inside; locking the door behind him he trotted up to his room after shouting a good night to his mother. He stripped his day clothes off and fell onto his bed. He lied there staring at the ceiling thinking tomorrow would go back to being just a regular day. He rolled over and fell asleep.



The next day…

Gohan had just gotten up a short time earlier, had dressed in a plain white tee and blue jeans. He passed his mother on his way down the hall.

“Good morning Gohan, feeling good enough to hit those books hard today?”

Gohan’s eyes widened at first thinking back on the incident yesterday with the actual attacking books, and then he realized she meant scholastic work. He was actually a little miffed that she would want him back on his studies so quick after his close encounter last night. “I guess…” he said reluctantly.

“That’s the spirit, go get your backpack and get to work, and I’ll let you know when it’s time to break for breakfast!” she said cheerily as she headed for the bathroom.

Gohan groaned as he walked to the living room remembering he left his things there the night before. Before he grabbed his backpack there was a knock at the door. He knew it was way too early for Piccolo to be coming by. He took a look through the peep hole and saw the man from yesterday… Trunks was standing right outside his door…



To be continued…