The Book Of Letters

His popularity and influence made everyone who knew him unable to believe that he fell into a raging river during the storm one and a half year ago. His lifeless body was found at the edge of the city. I was the witness of it all, and it was hard for me to accept it as well. But past is the past. I continued on moving forward to work hard to be like him, even though I never get to work with him in the post office headquarters. From time to time, I often wished he could see me now.

I stamped my letter of my reply to Kurai. As soon as it left a mark, it shimmered and disappeared. Then I joined Midori, Hibiki and Esuke downstairs. It was Hibiki"s turn to make breakfast, and since he had always wanted to use his specially made peanut b.u.t.ter, he decided to make chocolate chips pancakes topped with a scoop of peanut b.u.t.ter.

"What is that?" Esuke asked, pointing at the peanut b.u.t.ter. Even after Kurai got transferred, we still haven"t figured out why Esuke continued to forget, even the simplest things. It began one autumn during an accident at the streets when Esuke was doing the deliveries. When we found him at the hospital, he forgot what a hospital was. The healers did not find any damage to his brain. Kurai asked whether Esuke was a magic user or not, but none of us ever seen him using magic before. I wondered if Kurai actually knew about his case, considering he was like an all-in-one magic user. However, the last time Kurai was here, he told me that we just have to wait and see, and we lost the whole point of it after getting used to his forgetfulness.

However, Hibiki, the new housemate, wasn"t used to it. "Are you sure he doesn"t need a checkup?"

"We tried checking him up with all sorts of healers around the city, but none of them have a clue to what is going on with him," I told him.

"Don"t you think it is kind of strange?" Hibiki asked. "He forgets a lot of things that seems almost random, like peanut b.u.t.ter, sneeze and watermelons."

"At least he remembers us and his job," I said. "Besides, there is nothing we can do."

"My friend is coming to Lavender City later," said Hibiki. "He is a travelling healer, so I am sure he knows what is wrong with Esuke, and maybe find a medicine for it."

We all looked at Esuke. He was fine with the idea. "Today is our off day right? At least we can try to figure out what is wrong with me."

Midori did like the idea. Unfortunately for her, she had to go to work, so she left the task to me and Hibiki. After Midori left, we stayed behind for a while to do the house ch.o.r.es, and proceeded to go out with our broomsticks. Hibiki stopped by in front of the sweet shop to buy his friend"s favourite, mochi. I decided to buy Esuke some macarons and he questioned me what it was.

"Macarons are really sweet," I said, showing him the small round pink sandwich with smooth top and b.u.t.tercream in between. "Did you know that most people misspelled macaron with an extra letter "o"? Macaroons is another confectionery, quite unpopular though, but the distinction should be made clear. Try to remember that, Esuke."

Esuke nodded as he took a bite of the macaron. I even showed him what macaroons were, a soft coconut cookie and dipped in chocolate, looked like. As we continued on with our journey, Hibiki talked about his travelling friend, Mamoru. They have known each other since high school. Although their cla.s.ses were different (Hibiki was a familiar user), they became close friends after Hibiki saved Mamoru from a group of delinquents.

"He was a magic medical prodigy that many top medical universities from all around the world offered him scholarships," said Hibiki. "But he has this dream of going on an adventure. So after he got awarded with cash and trophy for finding cure to rare diseases, he bought a gigantic flying ram."

Esuke and I weren"t sure that we heard it right. A flying ram? Esuke didn"t know what a ram was but he could tell it was weird judging by the context. Hibiki nodded his head, trying to convince that it was true.

"You don"t believe in me?" Hibiki asked.

"It is not that we don"t believe in you," I said. "But with all that money, why a flying ram?"

Hibiki shrugged his shoulders. "There are things I don"t understand about Mamoru. He has always been a peculiar guy."

We traveled into Lavender Forest, and despite the name, there were few lavenders but a lot of shrubs and weeds growing in the forest. The place was brighter than my last visit, and Hibiki led us to a different path than the one I used to go for.

"Where are we going exactly?" I asked. I had a weird feeling in my stomach.

"Mamoru saves money by sleeping outdoors," Hibiki replied. "He has a family here but he doesn"t want them to know he has a flying ram, even though it"s magical and can shrink itself. So there is one place in Lavender City where he could hide it; his secret base in the forest. He used to bring me there because the ocean view is amazing."

A view of the ocean in the middle of the forest? It was hard to believe that, but Hibiki was being serious. He was focused to find the secret base that I realized the path was disappearing. We went deeper and deeper, and Esuke was getting jittery on his broomstick that it kept swinging side by side.

"Are you okay Esuke?" I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I am a little nervous," said Esuke. "I know I don"t remember being in a forest before, but seeing so many trees and thick bushes, I am afraid that anything could jump onto us. You and I can"t use magic, so it will be hard to defend ourselves."

"Don"t doubt my abilities," I a.s.sured him. "I am physically stronger than you think, or remember. I am sure that Hibiki and I can handle whatever comes to us."

"Then you better be prepared," said Hibiki. "I can sense something is hiding."

Kurai once told me about familiar users; like animals, they had animal instincts. This made them well-prepared to summon their familiar, an animal spirit they were born with. I had never seen Hibiki"s familiar before, nor is anyone else that I ever encountered. Kurai never used his in front of me, saying that it would be dangerous to unleash it due to his current state.

Hibiki released a dark purple aura, showing that he was ready to unleash his familiar. Esuke couldn"t calm himself down because he was the type to get scared easily. I tried to comfort him, but it seemed to make it worse because he got a headache and almost lost control of his broomstick. I locked my arm around his so he won"t fall off.

"C-coming from... t-the l-lavenders," he muttered as he held back the pain. I couldn"t understand what was going on, but there was a sound of rustling. I looked around and saw the lavenders moving. Before Hibiki could release his familiar, a large dark beast leapt toward us and in split second, I pushed myself and Esuke out of our broomsticks and fell on the bushes. Hibiki summoned his familiar and pushed the beast out of our way.

Hibiki"s familiar was a large white fox with dark purple legs and three tails. I was amazed to see such magnificent creature. Too bad Esuke fainted from his headache, but he was still mumbling something that I couldn"t grasp the words.

"Murasagitsune, see what it is," Hibiki commanded. The fox cautiously approached the beast hiding inside the long gra.s.s. Then, the beast pounced on Muragitsune and I saw its appearance clearly; a monster with thick black fur with glowing blue stripes, head of a lion, body of a bull and a long tail with burning tip. I instantly recognized the beast. Hibiki hissed in pain when the beast dug its nails onto the fox. The fox suddenly turned into smoke and returned to Hibiki, only to transform into a fur cloak and a lance. Dark purple aura enveloped his hands and created stripes on his face. Hibiki stood in front of us in his defensive stance.

"I didn"t know you can do that," I said.

"You"ve never seen a familiar user in action right?" Hibiki asked. The monster ran back to attack and Hibiki blocked its claws with his lance. With great force he pushed the monster and tried to attack back. The monster dodged and the blade only scratched its face. The monster roared with anger.

I grabbed Hibiki"s wrist. "Don"t kill it. That"s Bakemono, the Ak.u.mu family"s guardian animal. Since they no longer live in this area, Bakemono searches for something else to protect."

"Then is it protecting something within this area?" Hibiki asked. "If so, then what is–"

Hibiki stopped talking to use his lance again to block Bakemono"s attack and asked again what we should do to stop it. I tried to remember what I actually did when I first met Bakemono. It shouldn"t be something that could be easily forgotten at the time of crisis. While I was trying hard, Esuke held my hand.

"I see sweets," he said half-consciously. "Offering... Friend... Ugh."

Then he fainted again. Esuke sounded like he was trying to tell us something. Then, I remembered the last time Bakemono acted this way. Kurai used to throw treats at him, so I took out the bag of macarons we bought from the sweet shop and raised it above my head. "Hey Bakemono! Come and get it!"

The macarons finally caught its attention. It pushed Hibiki away and chased for the colourful treats. I told Hibiki not to worry as I picked up my broomstick and started flying away, shaking the bag of macarons to keep Bakemono"s attention. Bakemono chased me with its tongue out and drooling. When we were finally out of Hibiki"s sight, I stopped my broomstick and swung the bag above my head.

"I haven"t seen you in a while, Kuki," I talked to the monster. Kuki was the nickname I gave to Bakemono when I first met it. I took one macaron out and threw it into Kuki"s mouth. I pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the blood out of its face. Kuki wasn"t a dangerous monster, but after I saw it trying attack us, there must have been something it been protecting in that area. I poured the rest of the macarons into its mouth and waited Kuki to run away before I returned to Hibiki and Esuke.

Esuke woke up, rubbed his eyes and looked around. He looked at the gra.s.s and touched it. "What happened?"

"A monster attacked us, but we managed to chase it away," I told him. "Do you still remember us?"

He nodded. We helped him to stand up. I gave Esuke his broomstick and he leaned against it. He still had a headache so Hibiki transformed his cloak and lance back to Murasagitsune to let him lie on it. The journey to Mamoru continued and Esuke looked comfortable lying on Murasagitsune. Hibiki told me about familiar users not only could summon their animal spirits, but also transform into the owner"s weapons. The only drawback was their familiar represents their owner, so if the familiar becomes injured, the owner will also become injured as well. I still think it was cool to own a familiar and I would be really interested to see Kurai"s.

"We"re almost here," said Hibiki. We were almost out of the forest, with the sunshine calling for us. We covered our eyes from the bright light as we went out, and when we opened them again, Esuke and I were flabbergasted. Close to the edge of the cliff, was a young man wearing goggles resting against a gigantic wooly ram. Our mouths were opened wide just by looking at the size of it. You could set up four large tents on its flat saddle, but the young man chose to set it up on the ground.

Mamoru"s secret base was windy and the view of the ocean was fantastic. It would have been the best place to watch the sunset, that is, if the ram didn"t block our view. The healer also had a foldable table to make his medicines and placed them inside his small jars.

"Hibiki!" Mamoru called, waving his hand.

"I haven"t seen you in a while, Mamoru," said Hibiki, getting off his broomstick and hugged his friend. I helped Esuke to stand on the ground as Murasagitsune returned back to Hibiki.

"Likewise," said Mamoru. "Are those your friends?"

Hibiki introduced me and Esuke as Mamoru set up his picnic blanket for us to sit down. I told him about Esuke"s memory problem that happened after he was caught in an accident. Mamoru took out his notebook and asked us to list down everything he forgot.

"How often does he encounter these objects?" he asked. "Like the recent one; gra.s.s."

I thought about Lavender City"s roads and places. "Lavender City is all bricks and cement. The only places that has gra.s.s is the park."

"We don"t usually pa.s.s by the park," said Hibiki. He was usually the one to accompany Esuke.

"What about peanut b.u.t.ter and macarons?" Mamoru asked again.

"It is not every day we buy peanut b.u.t.ter," I answered. "Same goes to macarons."

"And yet he is able to retain some memories, like you two, his job and his home, isn"t he?" Mamoru checked the list. He sounded like he finally knew the answer.

"Can it be cured?" Esuke asked.

Mamoru shook his head. "It isn"t something that can be cured, but can be controlled."

Esuke was confused. "Controlled? As in?"

"Congratulations, Esuke! You"re an oracle!"

The healer shook Esuke"s hands but none of us cheered. We were flabbergasted by his answer. Mamoru cleared his throat and explained it properly.

"Most oracles find out they have such powers at very young age. At that time, they haven"t make a lot of memories. Esuke"s case, however, is a case of a late bloomer, which is something you don"t usually find in a healer"s medical books, but rather in oracle"s basics. The accident may have traumatized him so much his powers came out so he could see what happened to him. He probably didn"t realize it because he fainted and forgotten all about it. Because of his power came in late, his memories are being erased randomly to make room for past and future predictions but it leaves his important memories behind so he could continue living normally."

I remembered the time he half-consciously said sweets when we encountered Kuki. He could have seen my past with Kuki, or the future of me using the sweets, but he seemed to forget all about it. Esuke then asked him a question. "How do I control this magic?"

"Being an oracle means tackling the past and future sights," said Mamoru. "Since he is still losing his memories, I could tell you a few things; train yourself to control your power by seeing the past of an object, remember what you don"t want to forget, like your fond childhood memories by looking through your old belongings, and repeat yourself doing the same thing so you won"t forget, like pa.s.sing by the park so you won"t forget what gra.s.s is, or eat peanut b.u.t.ter sandwiches every day. If you follow my advice I can guarantee you"ll be alright. You may lose memories as you train but overtime, memory loss will lessen and lessen till you will no longer forget the simplest things. In short, keep on seeing past of things, take a trip down the memory lane every day and when your progressive amnesia is gone, you can start trying to see the future."

We thanked Mamoru and gave him the mochi we bought. He was happy to see sight of mochi again that he threw a small jar of fern to Esuke, as an exchange. He said that the fern was often used for forgetful people to improve their memories, and he thought it would be useful for Esuke. All Esuke needed to do was chew one leaf per day. The fern was growing inside a tiny pile of dirt and Mamoru advised to water a drop once a day.

❤︎

「Esuke began practicing his powers and jokingly took everyone"s hands to see their pasts after dinner. I never seen Midori sweating nervously when Esuke said he saw her past, and she pinched his hand after he lied about Midori having five different boyfriends during high school. I offered mine, and this time he was being serious.

I shouldn"t have done that. Even though he saw a glimpse of it, he asked who the man using dark magic was. They all looked at me with suspicions so I told them that I couldn"t recall a thing. I had to be careful when it comes to Esuke touching my stuffs. I never wanted to be reminded of that past again.

On another note, I"m curious as to what Kuki is protecting right now. I guessed the forest doesn"t only holds your family secrets.

And as per requested, I"m attaching your cousin"s letters to this one. I"m sure he is having tons of fun at Peony Town.

From the cutest girl you"ve ever seen,

Aoko」