The Book Of Letters

First of all, Benjamin was getting more paranoid about Lucas taking on the case in which that Benjamin believed he was the prime suspect and on the run. Secondly, his sudden interest in cleaning the whole house subtly telling us that Lucas has spider spies everywhere and we were not supposed to talk about it. Lastly, he took a day off because he was afraid of b.u.mping into Lucas. I didn"t mind since Evangeline was helping me doing the regular deliveries.

"Mister Kurai, there is a parcel for Miss Sheena," said Evangeline as she handed me the parcel. I wasn"t expecting Sheena"s father to send another parcel sooner, but this one felt lighter than the previous one.

"Thank you Evangeline. Would you like to a.s.sist me to the hospital?" I offered.

Evangeline shook her head. "I will help Postmaster in sending the remaining letters while Mister Kurai send the parcel to the hospital."

Having Evangeline around soothe me from my worries. I patted her head and told her to wait at the post office after her job was done. I got on my broomstick and flew my way to the hospital. They had restored the part of the building that Benjamin exploded as well as the roofs. I approached the receptionist desk and logged into their visitor"s logbook, noticing the latest visitor was Lucas.

When I got to Sheena"s room, Lucas was sitting beside her comatose body, wearing the special gla.s.ses.

"Are you sure you did not see what, or more likely, who bombed the hospital?" Lucas asked, sounding like he was controlling his anger.

"You bet I didn"t." Sheena"s voice was heard. "I was lazing around in this room with the two other postmen, watching them helping me with my little sc.r.a.pbook."

Lucas turned around, looking at me as if he already knew I was right behind him. "Truly you were here yesterday, weren"t you?"

"She didn"t lie," I smiled at him. Sheena completely left out the part we were involved just to protect us. Lucas got up and put down the gla.s.ses. He walked to door, but stopped right behind me.

"I have a feeling you are involved in this," he said to me. "Come to the police station after work. Don"t give me excuses."

He left without letting me saying anything. I sighed and entered the room. "Good morning Sheena, there is another package for y–"

"Good morning to you two!" a young man barged into the room, raising his hand and pushed me out of the way. He was wearing goggles with the same magic stones fixed onto it. I put on the one Lucas put away and saw Sheena being flabbergasted at the man"s sudden appearance. His hair was dyed in sand colour, donning overalls and carrying large rucksack behind his back. There was a small ram sitting on top of his shoulder.

"W-who are you?" I asked.

The man looked at me and smiled. "Me? The name is Mamoru Mizushima, a travelling healer who researches peculiar diseases around the world. I am now here to study the curse of the sleeping beauty."

"Strong first impression," I commented. "I"m Kurai Yume. Nice to meet you."

"A Lavenderian name huh? I remember meeting a Lavenderian here before, but I can"t remember the face," Mamoru raised his eyebrow. Then he turned his attention to Sheena. "Sheena Hemmington right? I have heard your case before."

Sheena was surprised. "Then, you know the cure?"

We gathered around in a circle near the bed as Mamoru dug his hands into his rucksack. He took out a thick notebook with loose papers sticking out of the pages. He flipped to the page where he bookmarked it and pointed at scribbles that I couldn"t understand. Most people call them "Healer"s handwriting", since only healers can understand what it meant, and I never learnt that. Mamoru cleared his voice and begin to read the scribbling rows.

"Two hundred years ago, a married couple were expecting twins, but somehow on the day of their birth, only one came into this world, and yet the room echoed the crying voice of a baby that did not cry.

"The incident was found to be strange that the couple looked into their family archives, discovering something what they believed maybe linked to the answers they were looking for. The mother came from a long line of familiar users, and noticing something that was overlooked by the rest of the world was there were no twin familiar users born into this world. Their life-long research led to a discovery that the voice they heard and the child that never wake were truly the twins they were expecting."

"Hold on!" Sheena paused him. "Are you saying that this girl lying on the bed right now is actually my sister, and not me?"

"Plot twist," said Mamoru. "The sleeping twin can only be awaken by a familiar with electric magic attribute, which will result in combining two souls into one body. The waken body is then capable of summoning the familiar she was born with, while the soul of the wandering twin will become visible to the naked eye, but still untouchable. That wandering soul would be you, Sheena."

"How... amazing..." I couldn"t think of anything after hearing what he had just said. "An electric element familiar… I know who can revive your sister!"

"Hold on a sec," Sheena paused me. "I don"t know how to react. In fact, at this point I don"t even know which one of us is actually Sheena! Not only that, it is too risky to revive her when Lucas is around town, and why can"t I have a physical body too?"

Sheena had a lot to comprehend. Mamoru simply looked at me, then Sheena, and back at me again, expecting us to make up our minds.

I sighed. "Sheena, this may be the only known method, so it is up to you to decide what is better for the both of you. Come on, Mamoru, we"ll walk around Gloxinia Town."

"I haven"t been here for months so why not?" Mamoru smiled. Sheena didn"t look like she cared when we left the room.

"So, are you from Lavender City?" Mamoru asked. "What am I saying? Of course you are. So, what"s your job?"

"Special Task Postman," I replied. "I had the same post back in Lavender City."

"Ah! Then do you know Aoko Ito?" he asked again.

"You mean my girlfriend?" I questioned. Mamoru stroked his chin despite not having a beard for some reason.

"Girlfriend eh? Must be hard having long-distance relationship."

"We keep ourselves updated," I told him. "Can you tell me more about whole familiar twin thing?"

"Right. A story alone is not enough to explain," Mamoru looked around and pointed at Suncash Cafe. "Let"s get some tea first. I do miss their mango tea."

We sat down near the windowsill. Mamoru ordered mango tea and shortcakes for the both of us. He took out a separate book, which looked newer than the other one.

"After looking at the actual thing, I think I understand a little bit about the nature of the story," he said. "But first, you need to understand magic. Magic within the user is correlated with their own mind and emotions. The more experienced the magic-user they are, the stronger. There are other factors affecting the mind as well. Their mental health, trauma, intelligence, to name a few."

That detail I knew, but I pretended to not know anyway. I took a bite from the shortcake and continued listening to Mamoru.

"I expected Sheena would appear naked, but seeing her in a white dress made me rethink," Mamoru wondered. I paused him, confused as to what he meant. Then, I began to question the same thing as well.

"The record never mentioned they saw the soul of the other twin, meaning they never clarify whether the soul is wearing clothes or not," I said.

"Then, it could mean something like this," said Mamoru. "Sheena actually died of stillborn, but due to the nature of the twins, her sister gave up her own consciousness to keep Sheena"s soul attached. The soul, which often appears as a coloured gas under the gla.s.ses, takes on the sister"s appearance, following the body"s changes. Since Sheena can"t see herself in the mirror, she probably didn"t notice the changes."

"Why does an electric-type familiar have to be the one to connect them both?" I asked.

"Most reasonable one would be because the twins have a parent that is a familiar user," he replied, eating the shortcake. "But think about it. What will happen if we use an electric spell, or charm, to them? A rare specimen like this isn"t something you can experiment as many times as you want, as it is too risky."

I gave myself a thought about it. "A healer"s power to defibrillate... what will it do to the body?"

"Are you trying to –"

"There is an electric-type familiar user in the area, but due to certain circ.u.mstances I cannot simply reveal that person," I admitted. "At least for now, Mamoru, please help us find another way."

Mamoru cracked his knuckles. "Doing research without conducting experiment? Sounds like a challenge to me, and I like challenges."

I exhaled in relief. I sipped my mango tea and ate the last shortcake before Mamoru abruptly ruined my moment of calmness.

"Hold on! I need a place to research! Do you have a library here? Oh wait, I remember you do. But wait! I can"t sleep in the library!"

"You"re planning to sleep at the library?" I was puzzled.

"Well, I have to be somewhere close with books," he told me.

"I think I have a perfect place for that," I smiled.

★

Litmus agreed to share the place with Mamoru. He listened to our story about Sheena and was excited to help us out. He brought us to his spare bedroom and began to tell us a way to experiment.

"I am happy to tell how impeccable your timing is!" said Litmus. "I had this thought about how choices can alter an individual"s future, so I thought up a couplet spell. Problem is that this magic is similar to an oracle"s magic, so I might not be able to handle it properly."

He took out his wand out of his sleeve as he tried to remember the couplet spell. Litmus swung his wand in the air, chanting the spell;

The past is long gone and present is now we embrace,

Grant me the sight of alternate future of time and s.p.a.ce.

Sparks shot out of his wand, enveloping the room with darkness. Litmus commanded the void to show what would happen to Sheena if another electric magic casted on her. The void showed bubbles of her alternated future.

The bubble that showed Benjamin casting the spell on Sheena resulted the same thing that Mamoru theorized. Then, an image of Litmus"s electricity spell destroyed Sheena entirely, leaving her twin remained in a coma.

"Well, now we know I shouldn"t be the one saving her," Litmus gulped. Then, an image of Mamoru"s defibrillator magic showed the sleeping twin to wake up, but Sheena ceased to exist. A charm caster"s yellow charm could cause Sheena to switch sides with her twin and finally Percy"s electric potion killing both. None showed giving Sheena a physical body.

"Fascinating," said Mamoru, writing his findings down on his notebook before all of the bubbles of alternate futures disappeared. Litmus lost his balance but Mamoru managed to hold him. The spell drained much of Litmus"s magic and stamina that he barely could move his body.

I slumped against the wall, disappointed of the results. "So there is no way we can save her except Benjamin"s magic."

"But if we were to make her physical, that would be dark magic," said Litmus, still capable to talk. "With Lucas in town, that is not an option."

Then, at the corner of my eye, I saw something skittering. A spider crawled out of the box and out of the window. It was then I realized I shouldn"t have taken Benjamin"s paranoia lightly.

"Get that spider!" I exclaimed as I rushed out of the room. Litmus and Mamoru were too stunned that it took them a few seconds to follow me downstairs, but as soon as I opened the front door, Lucas was standing right in front of us, taking me by surprise.

"Why, h.e.l.lo, Mr. Kurai," Lucas smiled with a threatening aura. The spider that I saw earlier skittered up his body and hid under his sleeve.

"Nice to see you again," I tried to look cool after I fumbled. "What brings you here?"

"Simply continuing my investigation," he replied. "Although, I have changed my prime suspect. Say, is Benjamin working today?"

"Hold on!" I stopped him. "Even if you did, you don"t have any concrete evidence. What makes you think this was an intentional incident?"

"So, you were there," Lucas said. "Accident or not, the culprit must be brought to light. Do you not have sympathy for the patients who were affected by the explosion, especially when one of them is in critical condition because of it? Why would you hide the culprit when someone else"s life is in danger? Is this your definition of doing what is right?"

"Say anything you want at me, but I just want to protect a friend," I replied.

"In that case," Lucas fused with his familiar, growing out large spider legs behind his back, with a web mark across the left side of his face. He shot out a string of web from his palm to capture me. "I am going to arrest you for being an accomplice to the culprit."

"If you want to capture our friend, then you have to go through us first!" said Litmus as Mamoru dragged him to stand between us, helping him to lift his wand. Even Mamoru was equipped with bra.s.s knuckles.

"Stop!" Benjamin appeared all of the sudden. He looked tired and sweating, which I could tell that he had been walking up the hill. "First of all, I can"t take it anymore with this. I cannot have my friends be labelled as accomplices, so let Kurai go, Lucas."

Lucas let me go, turning himself back to his ordinary appearance. "Then, are you willing to admit your faults?"

Benjamin nodded. "Yes, I am the one, and the only one, to blame. I was the one who damaged the hospital, so throw me in jail or whatever, but you must promise me on this; do not include my friends into this mess, and let me use my magic to help Sheena."

Lucas didn"t reply back. He simply glared at me, then to Benjamin, and exhaled. "Then, would you compensate the damages to the affected as well?"

"I get the feeling that you took this task just so someone could pay for your mother"s bills, but alright," Benjamin shrugged.

"Wait, so your mother was the one in critical condition?" Litmus asked. "How did you know that, Benjamin?"

"Please don"t add this to the list of crimes I did, but I kind of stalked you earlier this morning, Lucas," Benjamin admitted. "I went in first before you did, just so I could learn how close you are to the truth."

"Is that why you wrote your name as "Benny Jim Jim" in the visitor"s log book?" Lucas asked. Litmus, Mamoru and I couldn"t help but to laugh after hearing Benjamin"s fake name. Benjamin turned red and started shaking me, asking me to stop. Soon, even Lucas laughed, and that made us surprised to see it.

"What? Never seen a policeman laughing before?" Lucas quickly turned his serious mode on. "Well, if you hear the rumours first before actually meeting me, then your current perception of me is truly wrong. Well, maybe a few of them is right, but I am not telling you which one. "

Afterwards, Lucas and I spent throughout the day accompanying Benjamin to formally apologize to everyone involved in the explosion. As this was his first offence, and an accident, the court had decided that he would be given a 200 hour of community service, so he didn"t end up in jail at all. His first act of community service, as promised, was to heal Sheena.

"Sheena, are you here?" Benjamin asked as he knocked on the door. When we put on the goggles, Sheena scared Benjamin again.

"Did you get caught?" Sheena asked, noticing Lucas was waiting outside. Benjamin and I told her what happened earlier.

"Sheena, do you give us your consent?" I asked.

The little familiar girl looked back at her sister, and turned back to us, nodding her head. "I got over my ident.i.ty crisis, and decided that I want my sister to experience life as well. So Benjamin, as my sister"s savior, would you do the honour of giving her a name?"

Benjamin agreed, and it didn"t take him long to decide a name for her. "Annie."

I took a step back as Benjamin called upon his jellyfish familiar, and fused with it. This time, he managed to control his familiar this time, and with Mamoru"s guidance, Benjamin held Annie and Sheena"s hands, sending electricity sparks through their bodies. We waited for a respond as Sheena was still in her ghostly form, and like a miracle, Annie opened her eyes. Sheena couldn"t believe or say a word, but she immediately hugged her sister, rejoiced to finally have her by her side.

★

「We tried to tell Annie about the situation she was in in the simplest way possible, but Annie remembered what Sheena had experienced while she was in a coma, feeling like she had awaken from a very long sleep. I didn"t think it was possible to share memories, but since it was Annie"s consciousness that kept Sheena alive, I believed that was what made it possible. Benjamin busied himself in drafting a letter for the twins, so I let him be, thanking Lucas for giving a chance before I left the building.

I was surprised that Benjamin decided on using his sister"s name, but I understood that he wanted to feel like he revived his sister in order relieve the guilt he had been carrying all these years.

Mamoru stayed at Litmus"s place, and I stayed there until late at night just to make sure Litmus regained his energy back, and also listen to their discussions regarding magic. I came back home wanting to tell Piper all about it, but she had heard the whole story from Benjamin. I told her about his fake name, she just laughed and decide to use it as a pet name just to make him cringe.

Anyway, I hope you are doing fine.

With love,

Kurai」