The Book Of Letters

My day started out pretty normal. At times when Special Task Postman doesn"t get any deliveries to do, they would help out in administration or mailroom tasks. I wasn"t given any delivery duties the entire morning and afternoon so I helped out in sorting the mails. Then, before my shift ended at 5pm, Mr. Okabe, the mailroom manager, gave me a number of letters and parcels. All of them were black, and the writings were in white ink.

"Ms. Aoko, I hate to say this but could you deliver these tonight?" Mr. Okabe asked. "They are all for the people in the same street, by the way. The two night-shift postmen aren"t available to deliver and you are the only Special Task Postwoman around here."

"I didn"t know we do night shift deliveries," I was puzzled by his request. "And I"m surprised that they"re all black too."

"Well, this particular street I am referring to is Kyuuketsuki Street, typical known for their vampire residents," Mr. Okabe fl.u.s.tered. "Kyuuketsuki Street only appears at night, which is why we do night shift deliveries, and the colour black is used to indicate that the person is nocturnal. The vampires like to tease human pa.s.sersby by the way, but they have their own rule of not to drink the blood of others without consent."

"You don"t look very rea.s.sured," I pointed out.

"Well, one of these packages belongs to the notorious, rule-breaking vampire," Mr. Okabe slowly tearing up. "Ms. Aoko, I pray you don"t get a cut, even the tiniest, on your way there. I will tell Midori that you will be back home late."

I understood that Mr. Okabe just didn"t want to admit that he had a fear of vampires, even though he was well-informed of their nature. I took the job because I was interested to find the street I have never been to before. Although, I wasn"t sure which of the package recipients he was referring to, but I had no fear for danger at all. I put them in the satchel of my bicycle and started following the map he had given me. When the sun began to set, I reached to the street he was referring, only to find that it was just a large yet empty alley. There was no sign pointing into that alley, but I trusted that Mr. Okabe was telling the truth.

While waiting outside the alley, I reminiscence the time I hung out with Kurai, reading one of his many books. He had once talked about a vampire street in Lavender City where his mother, a healer, would go to do check-ups. He said that he would like to visit it someday, but we never got to find it. Kurai also mentioned about the research of how they came to be. Pure vampires weren"t considered to be humans as their powers differed in human"s magic cla.s.ses, and they couldn"t learn human magic as well. Half-vampires, on the other hand, created multiple categories of what made them half-human and half-vampire. Kurai"s mother would do check-ups on unstable half-vampires, in exchange to let her study them so she could figure out the right healing methods. Although vampires and hybrid vampires were thought to be a separate species, they still wanted to live among humans, so an entire street was dedicated to their nocturnal lifestyle.

It didn"t cross our minds that an entire street could only appear at night. I watched the alley slowly rippled into a street as the sun went down. Buildings began to appear, with lights shining out of their windows and as the vampires went out of their homes, finally able to meet each other again. I noticed that the street sign to Kyuuketsuki Street appeared as well. I was about to get on the bicycle when a man in police uniform greeted me. He has a youthful face and about the same height as me. What caught my attention was his pair of golden eyes and curly dark hair tucked under his hat. I also noticed that he had a small scar across his nose.

"Good evening, ma"am," he said. "I see that you"re doing deliveries tonight. This is my patrol route so I thought I should accompany you. My name is Nikkou Himawari, by the way."

"I"m Aoko Ito," I said, getting off my bicycle again. "So I"m guessing you know this street a lot."

"Indeed I do," Nikkou said with pride. "I know every vampire in this street, and it is my job to try to introduce the people here to everyone new here. Well, not really but I like everyone."

I never thought someone could be this excited to meet a stranger and introduce them to a hundred of vampires in one night. Nikkou helped me in finding the recipients, and at the same time talked about their jobs, hobbies and dreams. Some of them did try to tease me by pretending to bite my neck, so I played along by acting really scared. Nikkou told them off, making them apologized to me. All the vampires told me that Nikkou just loved everyone on the street, even though they hadn"t done much for him.

Then we were down to the very last recipient. After meeting all the nice vampires, I had a feeling that this package belonged to the notorious vampire Okabe was talking about.

"Let me see," said Nikkou, checking the recipient"s name on the package. "Oh! It"s for Tsukishiro!"

"Nikkou, you know this vampire?" I asked.

"Of course!" Nikkou said with excitement. "Tsukishiro is my little brother, and he is really an introverted person. He wouldn"t open the door unless he expects a package. It"s been a long time since I moved out and I am not sure I am really to show myself but I really do miss him."

Then I got confused. "Nikkou, are you telling me that you are also a vampire?"

"Oh, I haven"t told you that?" Nikkou asked, pulling his mouth with his finger just to show his non-existent fangs. "Wait, I forgot my fangs look like human"s canines. Well, I may not look like it, but I"ll explain about it once we reach there."

The house where Tsukishiro lived didn"t look like what I imagined it to be. I imagined it to be run-down and have a "Keep Out" signs all over at first, but in reality, it was a normal two-storey bricked house with their rooms lit up and there was a faint piano music being played. Nikkou insisted me to knock on the door rather than himself doing it. After I knocked the door, I heard a record scratched.

"Who is it?" a voice asked from behind the door.

"Special delivery!" I replied. As soon as the door open, Nikkou pushed the door wider and hugged the person inside the house. The recipient was a teenager with his long front hair covering one part of the eye and was wearing black long-sleeved shirt and trousers, but interestingly enough was his socks were rainbow patterned. Nikkou rubbed his cheek against the boy"s hair.

"Big brother, why are you here?" the teenager asked, annoyed and embarra.s.sed of what he did. I noticed that Tsukishiro had more obvious fangs than Nikkou"s.

"I haven"t been home for a while, Tsukishiro," said Nikkou. "I have my own house and all but nothing beats mother"s homemade food. Is she at work now?"

"She left before you came," said Tsukishiro. "We still have leftover breakfast, or in human terms, "dinner". Seriously, why did you bring a human here?"

"Hi, I"m Aoko Ito," I greeted the boy and offered my hand to shake. He didn"t shake my hand at all, but he took his package from my other hand, signed and took the copy of the signed sheet and proceed walking away from us. I felt so heartbroken by the fact that I wasn"t welcomed by the boy.

"Come in, Aoko," Nikkou invited me in with his ever glowing smile. It was almost impossible to turn down such a pure smile, so I sat in their dining room while Nikkou poured tea for me. Tsukishiro peeked from the kitchen, keeping a watchful eye on Nikkou instead of me, which I realized that he didn"t suspect anything from me at all.

"Forgive my little brother," said the policeman. "As you can see, I am a whole different category of human vampire. Our parents were half-vampires, so as a result I can pretty much blend in with the other humans and work in the daylight. What makes me a vampire is that I can be tireless no matter the time, and also possess vampire strength."

Nikkou placed his hand under the table and slowly lifted it up. I immediately took my teacup and teapot away, afraid that he might drop and spill. He rea.s.sured me that he was being careful, despite the table was already above his head. Nikkou then gently placed it back down, keeping his words. I looked at Tsukishiro. The boy did not react at all, but his eyes still fixated at Nikkou, which I didn"t understand why.

"Should we ask your brother to come here?" I whispered to Nikkou. Nikkou looked at his younger brother and beckoned him to come, but Tsukishiro shook his head and stayed on the same spot.

"So what was in the package?" Nikkou asked Tsukishiro from where he sat. "Was it another pair of socks?"

Tsukishiro nodded his head. I was surprised that he ordered just a pair of socks, so I asked him. "Why do you like socks so much?"

The teen went into the kitchen, and came out to show his blue socks with black cat paws pattern. I guessed he was trying to tell us that he simply like patterned socks, and honestly, it was an unexpected cute side of him.

"Anyway, I should be getting home," I told him. "Thank you for the tea. It was nice meeting you, Nikkou and Tsukishiro."

"Leaving so soon? Oh wait, humans sleep at this time of the day. Then, let me accompany you out of the street," said Nikkou. Nikkou was gentleman enough to open up the front door and gate for me, while Tsukishiro closed them for his big brother. I got the feeling that Tsukishiro wanted to follow us from behind, but every time I turned around, he hid behind anything he could find, trying to fool me that he wasn"t there.

"I thought your brother hated going out," I said to Nikkou.

"Well, he just keep a watchful eye on me," Nikkou replied. "I should tell you that brawls tend to happen here, so it is my job to interfere, and Tsukishiro just makes sure I don"t spill blood or something."

"Brawl?" I asked. "What brawl?"

Not too far away from us, there was a crowd gathering, cheering very loudly. Nikkou and I squeezed into the crowd to see what was going on. As it turned out, two buff vampires were playing chess and the crowd were yelling strategies at them.

"As you can see, these people are chess experts, while the two players are new to the game," Nikkou explained. "It is kind of a street thing where hundred years old experts decided to teach novices and then make them challenge themselves into a brawl. The real brawl starts when one of them decided to get physical."

Indeed, I was confused at first, but I found their customs quite interesting. When the vampire in green shirt checkmated the one in red, the red shirt vampire flipped the table and started the physical brawl. Nikkou rolled up his sleeves and confronted them with a smile on his face. He did look like he knew what he was doing until the vampire in green shirt accidentally punched Nikkou in the face. The crowd went silent and took a step back. Nikkou put his finger on the corner of his lips, seeing a stain of blood.

"Hey," said Nikkou in a harsh tone, making everyone shivered, even the buff vampires. "Could any of you offer your blood to me?"

"Nikkou!" I called out, but Tsukishiro managed to squeeze into the crowd to pull my jacket from behind.

"Don"t," Tsukishiro warned me. I turned to Nikkou, finding out he was bleeding from his mouth. His terrifying expression made me shivered down my spine as well. Nikkou looked at me with blood red eyes, and his canine teeth sharpened. He pounced towards me, but Tsukishiro took a step forward, with his arms exposed and let his big brother bite his arm instead.

"Nothing to see here," Tsukishiro announced. "Just someone who needs to replenish their thirst."

The crowd dispersed, but the buff vampires waited to apologize to Nikkou properly. I noticed a lot of bite marks on Tsukishiro"s arm, and gradually, Nikkou"s eyes turned back to gold.

"Phew," Nikkou exhaled, turning back to his cheery self. "I am so sorry Tsukishiro, and Aoko."

"Uh... we"re sorry too," said one of the buff vampires.

"Apology accepted!" Nikkou hugged both of them. "If you were brawling during my teens, you would have died on the spot! It"s okay to accept defeat. It encourages you to grow and improve."

The two buff vampires nodded and Nikkou let them go. He turned back to us and decided to explain one thing about himself; he gets very hungry at the sight of blood that if he didn"t get a sip once he sees it, he would eventually resort in attacking people. I get the feeling that the notorious vampire that Okabe was referring to was actually Nikkou himself.

"This is why you shouldn"t be with humans at all," Tsukishiro rolled his eyes. I handed a handkerchief to Tsukishiro so he could cover the b.l.o.o.d.y bite marks. He looked like he was used to being Nikkou"s first aid kit.

"But, this is exactly why I have to leave you," said Nikkou, dabbing the handkerchief for Tsukishiro. "You see, your big brother wants to be a better person, and so being around humans make me feel more cautious, so I don"t cause any trouble for them."

"But you don"t have to move out!" Tsukishiro exclaimed. "I still don"t get why you decided to leave us."

Nikkou patted Tsukishiro"s head. "I am always thankful to you, mother and father, and also people here. For as long as I could remember, I have been reliant of them, which is why I want to show my appreciation by becoming a policeman! You always saved me, Tsukishiro, and I want to be the brother that can protect you from any danger. That is... I still have a long way to go as you might have noticed it. "

Tsukishiro looked away from him, so Nikkou wouldn"t notice he was pouting and crying a little. I couldn"t help but to chuckle, and Tsukishiro turned red when he saw me holding my laugh.

"When I come back here, I"ll show you that I have become a hero," Nikkou ruffled his little brother"s hair. "Though I still need to control my vampire side of me."

"But don"t you ever get blood attacks in the day, while you"re working?" I asked.

"I used to, and I had a human mentor who helped me," Nikkou replied. "There were times I thought twice after moving out, but he was the one who rea.s.sured me that I made the right decision to live on my own. This way, I can learn more about humans. Their lives are maybe shorter than us vampires, but the moments they experienced, the people they have met in their life, their burning pa.s.sion are all etched in my memories. These human customs are so precious that I want to protect them, and of course our vampiric customs but things hardly change in this street."

Nikkou and I waved goodbye to Tsukishiro as we got out of the street. The policeman decided to accompany me till I reach home, and along the way, he asked me a personal question.

"You"re Akashi Ito"s adoptive daughter, right?"

I jolted. "How did you know? Was it by my surname?"

The policeman nodded his head. "He is my human mentor, after all. He sometimes talk about you and I always thought to myself "how lucky would it be to be his child?" but despite he being my mentor, he is actually younger than me."

I stopped, and asked. "Nikkou, how old are you?"

"Seventy-nine."

★

「Apparently, vampires have slow age rate, meaning Tsukishiro is probably older than he looks. Nikkou mentioned that vampires" legal drinking and driving ages differed by how convincing they would look to humans. I might have an interest in doing night shifts again in the future.

Anyway, Nikkou sent the last message he got from my father, which was addressed to me.

"I will be waiting for you to take my t.i.tle."

I wasn"t sure how to react to it. Nikkou made it sound like Akashi Ito planned our meeting or he is still alive and watching over, or he is playing a joke on me in his afterlife, which the latter is something that he would actually do. I already saw him during his funeral, and yet everything, even the people connected to him, are now bound to me, like the string of fate he always talked about. Maybe in future, I would find someone who knows everything.

I hope your friends are doing alright.

With love,

Aoko」