A Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee fanficton by Garrarg. And it's all about Zaji! She's the best character in the manga in my opinion.
Legal Jargon bit: I do not own Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee, Zaji, or any of the characters therein and am not making any profit from this blah blah blah. This story may not be reproduced without my permission, so PM me if you want to do anything with it.
Letter Bee Zaji.
Oh dear! IMPORTANT NOTE FROM GARRARG!! I always thought that Zaji was boy from reading manga scans at , and then it is revealed that Zaji is most likely a boy! Gah now what?!
.com/Tegami_Bachi/20/a-note/ Grrr, oh well. I can't realy imagine Zaji as a boy, so uhh. . .Zaji's a girl in this story .
It had been almost a day since I left the small town full of angry people, and my bruises were worse than before. I ignored it though, and walked as fast as I could with the absolute minimum amount of time spent resting. I even ate as I walked; cold un-cooked soup wasn't much but it kept me going. Vashka was even running out of energy, she had stopped running ahead and around me looking for trouble. It didn't stop her or I from being alert though, and being the second day of our travel we were getting further into Gaichuu territory.
"Ah, Vashka, why am I always so lucky to get the special deliveries?" I said sarcasticly to no one in particular, trudging along. I was tired from before this mission, and when I went back to the Bee Hive I was ready to turn down any other mission that came my way for some long-needed rest.
Eventually I had to stop and rest, my legs couldn't handle anymore relentless walking for now. Everywhere around me was wide open, there was no real sheltered area at all and the wind cut through like knives, cold and fierce. I slumped down and closed my eyes for a moment, then looked up at the stars. Vashka curled around me and fell asleep quickly; her faint snoring barely reaching my ears over the wind's whistle.
As tired as I was, I could not sleep. All I could think about was the people that wanted to hurt me because I was a 'dog' of the government. I was coming across more and more people that seemed resentful towards Bees, and it was getting annoying. I hoped that the town I needed to get to would be a little nicer. All my life people have either been praising me or stepping on me, shunning me or welcoming me, and it seemed I was in for another turn of being stepped on. I wish people would stop making snap judgements as well, it seemed realy easy for people to assume I was just being an irresponsible Bee that didn't want to take their letters. I wanted to shout at them that what I was doing was important, more so than their letters! I needed to get to that stupid town that was farther away than any of the people from last few towns had ever been, and I had to do it in four days at the maximum.
I let Vashka sleep for a bit, but I didn't remain sitting. My muscles were starting to sieze up from not moving, and the bruises felt swolen. I bent down and patted Vashka's shoulder, she woke up and stared at me while making odd little noises that she always did when she woke up. She stretched and stood by me, seemingly full of energy from barely fifteen minutes of a nap. I wish I could be that energetic, then we'd get done with this much faster.
Eventually, after hours and hours of relentless travel, the terrain started to change. Odd trees were dotted here and there, short little things with a realy wide trunk that was gray as stone, and short branches with wide, thick leaves. There were thumb-sized oval black nuts growing on them, and they smelled terrible.
"Ugh, those are gross!" I said to Vashka after stopping to look closely at the wierd little nuts on the weird little trees. I touched one and it left a grayish oil, which I wiped off quickly. Vashka sniffed the nuts closely, and back upped sneezing. I laughed, her expression was so bewildered and confused as her sneezing fit went on, she nearly crossed her eyes. She almost fell over, making odd growling noises and still sneezing. I did fall over though, laughing so hard I could stay standing.
"Oh Vashka! If only you could see your face!" I said between laughs, Vashka still sneezed. Finally her fit ended, and she sat there looking dizzy, blinking lots. I stood up and patted her on the head, still smiling.
"Shall we get going now?" I said to her and she grunted.
"Not so fast, thief!" A voice behind me made me whirl around, drawing my gun quickly to chest height. Well, chest height for me. The man that spoke from behind me was so tall, my head barely came over his waist. I looked up into his face, and he looked very very angry.
"I didn't steal anything." I said, raising my gun to his chest.
"I saw you touch the Yurrg bush!" He said and bent down over me. I stepped back a bit, and he stepped forward.
"Yeah, I touched that stinkin' plant, but I didn't take anything." I said and back up again, this time he didn't follow. Vashka growled at him and stepped in front of me, and I rested a hand on her back.
"Liar!" The tall man shouted and lunged forward. Vashka yowled and jumped on his chest, latching on with her long claws. But that barely fazed him, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck with his large hand and threw her aside as if she were just a stuffed toy. I heard herd yelp in pain and anger filled.
"No one hurts my Dingo!" I shouted and held my gun steady, ready to shoot, but he was too close. He grabbed the barrel and wrenched it out of my grasp and with his other hand grabbed onto my neck and picked me up. Pain screamed down my spine and I gasped for breath, I struggled but his grip was too tight. He raised me up to face-level with him, and he glared at me. I glared back.
"Useless!" He said and threw me like he threw Vashka, I hit the ground ten feet away and skidded on my back. The impact put stars in my sight, and knocked the air out of me. I got up as fast as I could anyways, but he was coming at me with arms raised already. I barely had time to raise my arms above my head when he hit me, sending me to the ground again. Once I was one my back, he stepped over me and raised his hand.
Right when he hit me, and everything went dark and quiet, all I could think off was my bad luck, and hope that Vashka was okay.
I woke up slowly, highly confused. I was on my back, with something hard under me, and there was a ceiling above me. I looked to my sides and saw gray stone walls, just like the ceiling. I was on the floor it seemed. Where the hell was I? I sat up quickly, and regretted it. My head span and dots obscured my vision, but I stayed upright. Then I remembered that tall man that had attacked me, and I got to my feet as fast as I could, heart racing. I almost fell over I was so dizzy, so I staggered over to a wall and leaned against it. The room I was in had no windos except for one on a thick wooden door, which was barred. As I turned, I saw that in a corner was a metal cage, with the sleek black form of Vashka! I ran to her, forgetting my dizziness. I reached through the bars and pet her head, she was breathing and stirred a bit. After a minute of petting, she woke up, blinking at me slowly.
"You took quite a hit." I said to her quietly. She mewled at me.
"Your awake!" I heard a woman's voice from the door and looked over my shoulder. There was a woman standing on the other side of the door, and I noticed how tall the walls and the door really were. It's like they were made for giants, and the woman was almost as tall as the man I came across. She smiled at me with a evil smile, and threw some crusty-looking bread husks threw the bars and onto the floor.
"Enjoy your meal." She said and left my view. I sat against Vashka's cage and left my hand on her head. I had never run into so many problems on a single delivery, and especially not such serious problems. How the hell was I supposed to get out of here? Well, at least they left my bag with the letter, though they took my canned soup and all my money. I felt around my pockets, and the money there was gone as well. I cringed at the thought of someone going through my pockets while I was unaware of it.
"Hey, your a Letter Bee ain't you?" It was the same woman from earlier, and I could see behind her the same man that attacked me. I didn't answer, and the door opened after a moment. The man stepped in and walked towards me.
"We got a job for you, if you do it, we'll let you live." He said and bent down, shoving his face at me and glaring at me.
"And that job is?" I said, and tried not to breath as his breath blew in my face. His breath smelled revolting, and I noticed his teeth were all gray and his tongue was black. He must have had some kind of mouth-rot or something gross.
"Killing a Gaichuu." He said and I just stared at him. They wanted me to kill a Gaichuu? Surely if they live out here- wherever here was- they'd some kind of anti-Gaichuu force or weapon.
"If I kill it for you, would you let me go?"
"Yeah, but only you."
"What?"
"Your cat would stay, she'd make a nice meal!" He said and laughed. My heart felt like it stopped and my hand clenched into a fist on Vashka's head. Anger boiled inside me so strongly, I wanted to rip this man to pieces.
"You bastard!" I shouted and lunged forward at him. I caught him off guard and knocked him over, and started attacking him with my fists as fast and hard as I could. Vashka growled in the cage and hissed. I had the upper hand, but only for a second. The man grabbed my fist's and rolled over, so he was on top of me, crushing me.
"You can't win, you can't escape, and you will kill a Gaichuu for us!" He said and stood up, picking me up off the ground. He threw me over his shoulder and I pounded at his back. I saw the woman walk towards Vashka's cage with a rifle in her hands.
"Wait!" I said quickly. The man carrying me stopped, and so did the woman.
"If I'm to kill that damn Gaichuu," I said, thinking quickly, "I need my Dingo! That's why Bee's have Dingos, we can't kill Gaichuu's without them!"
After a few heart-stopping moments, the woman with the rifle nodded and stepped away from Vashkas cage. She called out to some men that were standing outside my cell door and they came in. They held two long bars which slid into slots on the side of Vashkas cage, and two men picked it up and carried her behind me and my captor. I stopped struggling, since it was useless anyways. I looked around as we passed by other people, and buildings. The people were all tall, it seemed the man that carried me was average height for them. Their buildings were made of stone slabs worn smooth from years of wear, and everything looked oversize. The streets were made of dirt, and everything looked dirty in general. And everyone stank terribly! Their mouths were all also black and gray, and many had fingers stained gray. Some people walked around the squallid town with empty eyes and vacant looks about them. They didn't have stained fingers, and they wore different clothes than everyone else, thicker leather clothes.
And they had Heart bullet guns! The ones with the vacant eyes all carried differet heart guns, and they all looked battered and old too. This confused me even more. If they had heart guns, why did they need me to kill a Gaichuu for them?
After a minute of walking, we arrived in the town center or something like that. There was a circle of stones that stood as tall as me, and in that wide circle was an extremely old man who sat on a wooden chair. He was just as tall as the other men, but he had so many wrinkles and no hair at all, it was hard to tell how old he was. The man carrying me threw me to the ground without notice, and I refrained from swearing at him. The two carrying Vashka's cage set her down and one of them came foreward with a key and unlocked her cage. She leaped out at once, and ran to my side. I sat up and put my arms around her neck, and she growled protectivly at anyone near us.
The woman that threw the bread through the cell door stopped near me and threw something on the ground. My Heary bullet gun! I hadn't even noticed it was gone. I scooped it up quickly, and held it on my lap. Then something odd happened.
Everyone standing around the circle of rocks all bowed and murmured something I couldn't hear. The old man in the chair waved his hand and they all stood up again. After a few moments of silence, the old man spoke in a very raspy and tired voice.
"Since many many generations ago, we have lived here. We cultivate the Yurrg plants, which you saw earlier," and he gestured at me, "the nuts they produce make us grow tall and strong, and hardy enough to survive without the aid of anyone else in the world." He said it like no one else in the world was worthy, and they were better than everyone else. I disliked him already.
"And we lived in peace for many years, but then the Gaichuu came. We sent some strong young men and woman to get rid of them, but they failed. After a year of losing people to the terrible Gaichuu, we saw something amazing. A letter Bee, who went by and fought off a Gaichuu! He killed it quickly, and we saw how. He wielded a gun, which had some strange magical powers! One of our woman attacked him and took his gun, and killed the Letter Bee and his Dingo! We then had the power to kill the Gaichuu, but not enough. We needed more magic guns, so we sent out a group of our strongest to find more Letter Bees that had these guns.
After a long time, we had a large amount of guns, from killing the Bees and stealing some. We had enough for a fighting force to get rid of the Gaichuu, and we lived in peace again for some years. Though, stronger and stronger Gaichuu came, and we were not a match for some. Somehow, twenty of us could not do what one Bee does and kill a strong Gaichuu. The same Gaichuu has been haunting us for a few years now, and it is that one you must kill for us, Bee."
The old man finished his story and fell silent. I just stared at him, horrorstruck. They killed however many Bees, just to take their heart bullet guns and kill the Gaichuu? That explained the empty-eyed men though, they must've used the stolen guns too much and lost their "Heart". Thoughts and plans raced through my mind, and eventually I nodded.
"So, where is this Gaichuu?" I said and stood up. The old man smiled and waved. Five men, each with their own guns stepped forward and gestured for me to follow. I followed the men, and some other people followed as well, surrounding me. We walked in silence through the streets, and eventually we left the buildings behind. The little Yurrg trees were thick at this end of the town, and I realized why everyone stunk so much hand had stained mouths and hands. The Yurrg's nuts stank worse than they did, and a life-time of eating them would stain you pretty good as well. I wrinkled my nose at the thought of eating one of them, and was glad they seemed greedy with them and didn't give me any.
"So hey, how long was in that cell?" I said, not realy expecting an answer.
"A quarter of the day." A man said behind me gruffly. I just nodded. Well, I didn't lose too much time, and they seemed to have taken me farther in the direction I needed to go anyways.
Eventually the Yurrg field ended, and we were on flat ground. The tall people all walked slowly it seemed to them, but I nearly had to jog to keep up with their freakishly long legs. (Garrargs note: No offense to tall people! I just think that's would Zaji would say!) Eventually, we all stopped. The ground in front of us was flat and nondescript. The men that had the guns stepped forward and shot at the ground. Their heart bullets were weak, but it seemed to do the job. The ground started to rumble. They all stepped back and one nudged me forward. I glared at him and walked on a bit and stopped when I saw the ground crack where they shot it,
Suddenly the ground ripped apart, and a massive armored leg emerged, and a little ways off another leg. More massive legs came out of the ground and eventually the body of the Gaichuu emerged. I was frozen for a moment, this was the biggest Gaichuu I had ever seen! It dwarfed the biggest one I had every faught, and now I saw why twenty men with heart guns couldn't kill it. It turned to me and lunged forward. I ran as fast as I could to the side, and it's giant head missed. It had long curved pincers on it's face that opened and closed, slicing the air.
"Distract it Vashka!" I shouted at my Dingo, and she ran away from me and dangerously close to the Gaichuu. It turned for her and lunged forward agian, diving it's large head at her with its pincers wide open. Vahska barely got out of the way, and the Gaichuu's head got embedded partially into the ground. It was then I saw it's weak point, it's gap was between its head and body which only got exposed when it lunged it's head down.
"Keep it up Vahska!" I shouted again and ran in front of my Dingo. She growled and hissed at the Gaichuu, as if she were trying to scare it. It turned towards her and dove for her again. I stopped and took aim. It lunged downwards and its head was once again embedded into the ground.
"Heart bullet load! Make its heart cry out, AOTOGE!" I shouted the last word loud enough that the tall men with the guns stared at me, and I fired the most powerful bullet I could muster, filling it with all the hatred and malice I could, the hate I had for Gaichuu, for the people that caught me and wanted to eat Vashka, for this stupid mission I was on. It hit the Gaichuu right at it's weak spot, and the sky was filled with and extraordinary amount of light. The Gaichuu was exploding, the light from my bullet filled it completely and it fell to the ground. The men that escorted me here watched it fall in a blaze with awe. While they were distracted I signaled to Vashka and ran as fast as I could away, with Vashak close beside me.
I had gotten quite far away when they finally noticed I was gone, I could hear shouting and looked back. The Gaichuus remains were still lit up slightly, and it silhouetted the men chasing after me. I ran so fast, it felt like I was flying. I ignored the bruises and the pain, and I ran like my life depended on it. Vashka's life did depend on it, and that was enough motivation for me. I ran without stopping or slowing, but the men were catching up with their long legs. I saw ahead a forest of tall dense trees, and that was my next goal. The trees seemed to grow close together, and as long as I could reach them I could lose the large men. If my size was working against me, I'd have to make it work for me too.
I reached the forest quickly and easily fit between the strong trunks, with Vashka ahead of me. I was careful of the root,s but I did not slow. A glance back proved that the men chasing me could not fit through the trees, and they quickly dropped out of view. I could hear them shouting and swearing.
I ran through the forest for a long time and out the other side, still running as fast as my body would let me. After a while I slowed to a more normal run, then a jog, then a fast walk, and slower until I finally stopped. Well, collapsed more like. I had reached the opening of a valley, and I crawled to a little grouping of rocks and fell to the ground there, gasping for breath.
Before I passed out from exhaustion and pain, I reflected on the fact that I had killed the biggest, strongest Gaichuu, with my most biggest strongest attack I had ever done, in a short amount of time.
Ralgo Lloyd owed me for this, he owed me big time!