While I always tried to keep my composure, my temper was an aspect of me I could rarely control when she was let loose.

A few years prior, my younger sister Lilith was in a phase where she was even more obnoxious than usual, and was prone to taking and/or breaking my things. In this case, I was too focused on Scamblo: Pduzzler, in which I moved a character in a suit through a surreal and dreamlike landscape tile by tile.

"Lillia, you're not paying attention to me!" Lilith screamed as she yanked the game cartridge out of the console, running out of my room with it. I practically growled chasing after her. Something churned in me, and in the back of my mind I wondered if my fangs were about to come in, I was mad enough to trigger some kind of Cani-related emotional response. I turned a corner too quickly, and bumped right into my older sister Lyla, knocking a mug out of her hands which fell to the floor, along with some papers she was holding.

"Wow," Lyla said. "Terrific."

The mug had coffee in it so at least none of us got burned, but the paper was soaked in it. I helped Lyla pick up the shattered mug bits, my anger still there but the embarrassment and shame also doing battle for the top spot of my feelings in that moment.

"That was a really important paper, Lillia. Only had one copy."

"I'm sorry..." I said.

I was scolded by Lyla, and later my parents for the behavior. I knew I had to find some way to control myself when I reached that point of no return anger, but I found that once again it had led me to an unfortunate spot.

This time, instead of being angered by my younger sister, it was by Syval Galatia, a boy from Falling Shards. He was involved in something with Kalei and Aira that may have been completely benign, but if that were the case, why did he come up with nonsense excuses? Why run away from me? I let my temper get the better of me when he fled, losing him when he flew into one of the strangely large vents in a long hallway. Now we were in a lockdown, and I was stuck with four of the devils; Sai, Anastasia, Charmaine, and Esther.

And not just any lockdown, the former principal Penteldtam had aligned with some bizarre void monster, or perhaps a powerful otherworldly being similar to one. The spindly being called Reed (I immediately noted that the void monster we battled while training with Caya declared himself a 'servant of Reed' and had a similar book and library gimmick) put a book down and addressed everyone on a video feed.

"Alright, reading break over! Time for our fun, deadly game to really begin," Reed said.

The strange character was infuriating to look at even if he hadn't locked us up in some bizarre plot. I forced myself to breathe, to calm myself even a little after Syval and now this.

"We're going to have some fun reading challenges, each room will have lots and lots of books delivered," Reed said. "But wait, that's not all! Each room is now a team, and each team is competing against each other..."

"This is really wordy," Esther said. "Are we supposed to remember any of this?"

"I hate looking at him so much I'm not really listening at all," Anastasia said.

Reed continued to yammer on about this game. "Thirteen points for every book read, and 7.5 points for every book that's partially read, and that's at least halfway, or fifty precent. And not only that, but the teams themselves will have my new and exciting Tension Betrayal System in place, where if you bludgeon your teammates with the book, you get twelve points."

"The hell?" Charmaine said.

It hit me that I was potentially alone with four enemies. While I had a cordial encounter with the devils when we all saw the same play together, they were still a group of incredibly powerful Cani who had also beaten up our former principal.

"We're not going to do that to you, don't worry," Sai said.

"That goes without saying! Nobody is bludgeoning anyone!" Esther said.

"And the Tension Betrayal System is activated across reading rooms. By that, I mean it's active across reading rooms." Reed said.

"Why did he say the same thing twice like that explained it?" Sai asked.

"Now following every room's completion, the teams will shift forward with my Tension Shift Move Forward Room System. There are three types of rooms. Reading rooms, puzzle rooms, and combat rooms. It's all part of my fun little game. Eight teams vying for a prize of not-dying."

"Are we in genuine danger here, or is this like stupid danger?" Sai asked.

"Stupid danger can be genuine," I said. I didn't feel as panicked as I maybe should have with how much this Reed character was pushing this as a killing game adjacent scenario. I had played a few killing game visual novels, and tried to remember their tropes and conventions, as it might aid us here.

"Reading room, then puzzle room then reading room. Or, I mean, Reading room, then puzzle room, then combat room. Ha, got it that time. Simple, yes?  And everyone watching better be reading along." Reed winked like he had just finished some brilliant villain speech.

"This guy suuuuuuuucks," Charmaine said. "Are we one of the eight teams, then?"

"Yes," I said, pointing at the monitor. One half of the screen was now boxes showing each team, with each  a live feed. Most of the teams were boys from Falling Shards, save for the room I was in, and the room Oka and Zeta were in. It was a relief to see they were OK, but I wished they hadn't ended up in this game. I could barely see any of the other teams on the monitor as one was much bigger than the rest, which had two boys in mat ball uniforms and a girl with them.

"Hey, everyone?" The seeming leader of the trio said. "It's me, Seth Kerres, and I just wanna say. Don't worry. Me, my best friend Lucian, and our other friend Gwen got this."

The entire school felt like it rumbled. I thought it was some new contraption or machination of Reed activating, but it was just the crowd cheering.

"Eugh," Something about it made me recoil. I didn't have time to analyze that, though, as a pile of books dropped from the large vent in the ceiling.

"Guess we're a reading room, then," Esther said.