The Book Of Letters

Once, he asked me this question; "Aoko, how come I never seen you hang out with other postwomen other than Midori?"

"I... don"t think I have an answer for that," I said. "It is not like I hate them, I just lack interactions."

"I see," he said. "I just thought you hate them or something."

"Ibara, one word out of your mouth and I"m taking that fried chicken," said Hibiki, pointing his chopsticks towards Ibara"s lunch box. Ibara remained silent throughout that lunch.

Of course, it got me thinking about my entire career life. I have been a postwoman for five years. To be exact, I was a standard postwoman for three years before being promoted to the Special Task position. On my first year as a Rank 2, which was last year, two major things happened. First was my father"s accidental death, and second was my meeting with Kurai. Thinking back, I spent most of my lunch breaks cooking at Kurai"s house. When I tried to recall any moments of interacting with a postwoman, only Midori was the only one that came to my mind.

"Maybe I do need make more girl friends," I said to myself during breakfast.

"Are you still bothered by Ibara"s words?" Esuke asked. "You shouldn"t take it to the heart. He doesn"t mean it."

"That"s not the case. The fact that I noticed this by now just surprises me. I mean, I have female acquaintances and colleagues, but we"re not close enough to hang out on our off-days, or share secrets or anything."

"Basically, you don"t have any girl friends that you can relate to," Midori said before she sipped her tea. "Though, don"t you have friends outside work?"

"Would I consider Uta as a friend?" I asked. "We don"t really keep in touch after that. I didn"t feel like invading their personal time together. Besides, we"re talking about being friends with postwomen here."

"What"s wrong with having Midori as your only girl friend?" Esuke questioned.

"Nothing, though meeting new people means broadening your perspectives," said Midori. "And by that, I mean broadening your feminine perspectives. You"ve been hanging around with men for too long that some might think of you as more than a friend. You should learn how to take a hint."

Midori shifted her attention to Hibiki, the only one who haven"t made a comment. Hibiki drank his tea and placed it back on its saucer. "I can recommend a postwoman to be friends with. Her name is Sachi."

"She is also one of the short-listed candidates for the upcoming Special Task Postman Exams," Midori added, although she looked like she wasn"t satisfied by Hibiki"s response. "You could give her pointers as well."

Something was going on between Midori and Hibiki that I don"t know of, but I rather not to try to engage something personal between them unless it becomes a serious matter. After all, Esuke"s teleportation incident was recent, so it would be better to wait when the time comes.

When we got to the HQ, Hibiki and I met up with Sachi; a cute girl with brown hair and pink eyes, wearing the standard postwoman uniform and she had a belt full of pouches.

"Good morning, Special Task Postwoman, Ms. Aoko Ito!" Sachi saluted. "I"m Sachi Tomodachi, standard postwoman and an alchemist. I heard so much about you."

"You told her about me beforehand?" I asked Hibiki.

"She was looking for a mentor, so I told her about you," Hibiki replied. "You"ve gone through more adventures than anyone I know, which makes you qualified and experienced. Also, I heard that you"re ranked first during the exams with the best results in post office history."

"You got the last part right," I patted him on the back. "Anyway, nice to meet you Sachi. Would you like to accompany me throughout the day? I got some packages to deliver to."

"Wait, Sachi," Hibiki stopped us. "Promise me you won"t say anything weird to Aoko."

"When was the last time I said anything weird?" Sachi gave him a perky wink and smile, and it didn"t rea.s.sure Hibiki at all.

We got Mr. Okabe to give us the letters that needed to be delivered to the areas where I have to send the packages to, just so Sachi could do her standard postwoman job. I told her that I had to go to Hana Botanical Garden first, then the city library, and lastly, hop on the train to Lavender Ministry Area to deliver the last package to Ministry of Culture and Sports.

"Wow, I have never been to Lavender Ministry Area before!" Sachi grew excited as we flew on our broomsticks. "Special Task Post Officers get the best delivery. They get to deliver to government places, companies and even celebrities, while we send stuffs to the general public all the time."

"Standard post officers still carry precious things as well," I reminded her. "We vowed to be entrusted with this task, and therefore we must treat them with great value, regardless of content."

"I don"t know about that, Aoko," said Sachi. "Sometimes people complain about getting spam mails or one of those enchanted chain mails that you have to send the same thing to ten different people or you will get cursed."

"Well, that is always an issue, but the problem is that we don"t know the contents of the letter until it is delivered," I said. "But to solve the chain mail problem is to break the chain."

We managed to deliver letters to the area close to Hana Botanical Garden. Hana Botanical Garden is a gigantic greenhouse facility, where plants alchemists, or what they referred to themselves as "botalchemists", and healers gathered to study. We met Tanka as soon as we entered the facility, whose face covered with less bandages now, was working there. Initially I didn"t know it was him until I saw his nametag. He looked more gleeful than the last time I met him.

"How are you, Tanka?" I asked.

"I am doing fine, thank you," he said. "You see, we finally got engaged, I have to a dermahealer to get my face fixed. I still have a few sessions left until my skin fully recovers. It"s a little expensive, so I decided to work here to earn a little money."

"How about your painting business?"

"Going well, but you know you can"t put all of your eggs in one basket," he replied. "It"s not an in-demand kind of business, but I still get commissions from time to time. Speaking of painting, here"s my card."

Tanka then handed me his artist business card. On one side he had his contact information, but on the other, was a small print of his flower painting. He also handed one to Sachi.

"Oh, by the way, this package is for you," I said, handing the parcel to him.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed, taking the parcel. "These are the magic seeds for our magical float for the Natsu Festival opening parade," Tanka replied. "The people here are working out the perfect design, so I hope you would be coming."

Natsu Festival is a summer-long festivity, but the event that Tanka was referring to was the opening ceremony to initiate the events that are in conjunction with. I never get to bring Kurai to see the opening parade, but we managed to watch the closing ceremony with fireworks.

While we were heading outside, Sachi asked what happened to Tanka"s face. I never stayed to hear the entire story of it, so I told Sachi that I never knew what happened, and it would be insensitive for me to ask. I was only there to drop off his lover, which I left out Uta"s name for sake of privacy. Uta"s disappearance was a huge and ongoing controversy as there were a lot of theories, many far-fetched, but I wouldn"t like to tell anyone that she was staying at Tanka"s home.

"Ah, speaking of lover, did you know that if you write a love letter, sealed in an envelope with a heart-shaped wax and present it to someone you love under the first summer full moon, they"ll return the feelings to you?" Sachi spoke really fast that I almost couldn"t caught up with what she was saying.

"Uh… no, I didn"t know," I replied.

"It"s a popular superst.i.tion among postwomen, since you know, we always deliver other people"s love letters but hardly get one for ourselves."

I never heard of this before. "Sachi, does this mean you"re expecting one this upcoming Natsu Festival?"

"Who doesn"t?" Sachi said excitingly as she did a somersault with her broomstick. "What I am most interested is to see girls lining up to give their letters to Hibiki, and who Hibiki will choose."

"Hibiki has a crush on someone?" I asked, as I never thought he would have one.

"He did ask me for a girl"s opinion, but he wouldn"t mention who he liked," Sachi answered. "I just a.s.sume he is considering to give one since I told him about the love letter thing."

Hibiki never mentioned it to us, his housemates. It was probably because he was too awkward to say it to any of us, or he was simply afraid we would make fun of it. I rather not ask him about it just to respect his decision.

We delivered the letters and finally reached the city library. The librarian greeted us at the counter and signed the package. She thanked me for delivering Ak.u.mu family"s books, because ever since then, the library was packed to study the family"s magic. I kept a secret that Kurai had held onto more confidential books that he brought to Gloxinia Town.

When the librarian opened the package, it was full of shrunken books. "These are copies of Helios"s storybooks. His collection is so vast that an entire aisle dedicated to his tales is not enough, so the publishers decided to have them delivered in smaller sizes."

"I"d like to borrow his idle books after you have check them in," I told the librarian. Helios from Hydrangea City was historically a best-selling author and I say "historical" because he had an entire library dedicated to his tales at his home city. It is rumoured that Helios Library kept adding new works every year, raising a lot of theories whether Helios is an immortal or he"s still writing in his grave. I wasn"t keen to read Helios"s serial works, so I preferred to read his idle books instead; books that have no continuing volume. The librarian agreed to give a list of his new works to me after she checked them.

After completing Sachi"s delivery, it was time for us to board Shiki Kotoba"s train. This time, we sat at the economy cla.s.s. Train attendant Hiroki arrived to our car to punch our tickets. He was happy to see me again.

"Trainmaster Shiki is at the locomotive. Would you like for me to tell him you"re here?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I wouldn"t want to make him think that I am carrying something that would bring danger to this train. I"ll greet him once we return from our delivery."

Hiroki bowed and understood. Sachi then asked me if I ever get Special Task Post Officer privileges, and give her pointers on how to become one.

"Well, I can"t quite think of privileges, except that sometimes you"ll get to meet celebrities, or get a special delivery request from them," I answered. "However, your life becomes more likely to be at risk and you are expected to be agile. There are series of tests you have to go through but most of it depends on your experience and thinking skills."

Kurai skipped the standard postman position and jumped straight to Special Task Postman because this particular job was open to anyone who was capable enough to do so. It was common to have ex-police officers or those who completed their military service to be one, and most of them held the Rank 1 position. Kurai barely pa.s.sed his physical agility test but he scored well on the rest. Just remembering it back made me wonder how he was doing in Gloxinia Town.

We made it safely to Lavender Ministry Area and flew our way to Ministry of Culture and Sports. I was glad that nothing dangerous happened to us throughout the journey and when we finally handed the receptionist the package. We hadn"t have our lunch yet so we went to the ministry"s cafeteria and thankfully, there weren"t a lot of people lining up. We ordered ourselves lunch boxes and sat by the window.

"Tell me about yourself, Sachi," I said as I split my chopsticks. "Since you always talk about other things."

Sachi thought for a while. "Well, I don"t think I have interesting points about myself. I like gossips and rumours, I am an alchemist and I have a brother who is friends with Hibiki and Esuke."

When she mentioned the last part, I had a feeling who her brother was. "It"s Ibara, isn"t it?"

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, you know him? He"s the best brother I ever have. Even though the alchemist magic skipped him, he sometimes help me in getting the measurements right. He is also extremely talented with crocheting."

"What do you mean "alchemist magic skipped him"?" I asked.

"Well, magic can skip a generation, like you can have siblings born without magic even though both parents are magical users," Sachi explained. "It can happen if there is a non-magic user in the family tree, which so happens that my great-great-grandfather was one."

I may have shifted my interest from knowing more about Sachi to learning more about magic-users. It was probably because I felt a sense of familiarity in listening a talk about magic. Yes, I thrown back to the time when Kurai got me engaged into listening his long lecture, presenting theories and such. Back then, he was a different person.

We were halfway through our lunch boxes when suddenly, the alarm blared. Everybody in the cafeteria quickly got up and ran to the emergency exit. Sachi and I looked outside the window to see paper monsters multiplying as securities tried to fend them off.

"Ah, I know those monsters!" Sachi exclaimed, grabbing her broomstick. "They"re Washiyurei. Chain-mail monsters that if you don"t send the same mail to five people within two hours, Washiyurei will haunt you."

"Then why are their attacks not working?" I questioned.

"Well, to defeat man-made ghosts, exorcism is the only way," said Sachi. "I like gossips and rumours, but to be more specific, supernatural tales is what I love the most. Anyway, I know how to defeat one."

Sachi and I opened the window and flew down to where the magic-users decided to contain Washiyurei in a magical barrier until an expert arrives. They explained that the package that we delivered contained a chain mail and somebody must had opened it unknowingly. Sachi pulled out a number of small bottles of potions out of her belt, and mixed them in an empty bottle. The alchemist then poured her concoction to the ground, creating a glowing magical circle beneath her feet.

"One of you spellcasters join me in my circle," Sachi called for the magic users. A spellcaster stepped in and a surge of magic tangled around his wand. Sachi told him to repeat an incantation; they who bear no soul and no purpose, return thou magic back to earth. The other magic user broke the barrier to allow Sachi and the spellcaster"s repeating incantation to capture all of the Washiyureis, taking away their powers until they faded into nothing. The magic circle then disappeared as well.

"Wow, what alchemy was that?" the spellcaster asked, waving his wand around. "It feels much different than usual magic, like chills-down-my-spine kind of magic."

"Paralchemy, my original alchemy to handle these sort of mischief," said Sachi. "Paranormal places exposes a different magical energy, making ghosts stronger but more vulnerable to attacks, as the energy gives a paranormal buff to magic users too. However, man-made ghosts can exist without paranormal places, which kind of make them less vulnerable to normal magic. So the circle I made is a recreation that paranormal magical energy, which could temporary buff other people"s magic."

"Now we know who to call when we get another chain-mail," the spellcaster commented. The two officers thanked Sachi for helping them, giving her a bronze lavender pin as sign of grat.i.tude. Sachi was really happy that she got a pin similar to mine, feeling that she was one step closer to becoming a Special Task Postwoman.

On our way to the train station, I asked her why she wanted to become a Special Task Postwoman. She then answered, "I wanted to be like you, honestly. You may not know this, but your delivery adventures are like legends to us standard post officers. You inspired us that even without magic, you can still accomplish the impossible."

I never thought I had an influence to them. However, I was like them when I started working as standard postwoman. My father, Akashi Ito"s hard work and ideals influenced me greatly that it motivated me in to be just like him. Now, knowing that I inspire others, made me felt like the mantle of Akashi Ito"s guidance was rested on my shoulders.

★

「I didn"t know there were many types of alchemists. Sachi said she wanted to be the kind of Special Task Postwoman that investigates on paranormal areas and handle chain letter mischiefs, which means she will continue to learn more supernatural potions.

Midori, Hibiki and Esuke asked whether or not I had a girl talk with Sachi, which I disappointed them by telling them that I know more on alchemists now. Sachi is still under my wing until the apt.i.tude test this next few days, so who knows if we would have a proper girl talk.

I would have liked Midori to try to converse with me but she hardly talk about anything personal. I, on the other hand, actually have no idea what to share.

By the way, do Gloxinia Town have summer festivals as well?

Love from Lavender City,

Aoko」