“Librarian!” + 187
The Phantom of the Opera, p. 187- "The safety of the person dearest to me in the world is at stake."
The blast had happened so fast.
One minute he and his daughter were just watching the clear sky, and the next, there was a mushroom cloud of smoke eveloping the area not twenty feet fro where they were laying. It was a warning shot. Shikamaru had instinctively posed protectively over the body of his daughter, the oncoming enemy approaching like a leopard on the hunt. She had feral grace and a striking glance, two things of which Shikamaru dreaded the most in the world because usually, they were meaning business. His daughter was only four, so innocent and oh so frightened; she wasn’t supposed to end up on a battlefield this early in her life.
Shikamaru stared the woman down hard, gripping his child between his arms. “Listen. If it’s me you want, fight me alone. My daughter has no business being here.” The body beneath him was trembling, her voice in panicked whimpers with tiny fingers clinging to his shirt. He scooped the child behind him, the grubby fingers never leaving his sleeve. “Let her go so I can face you full on.”
