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.
Zaji gender issue going on still, I changed around her gender in chapter 1 and 2 a few times, but thankfully I had no readers then! Wow, first time I was ever glad I had no readers! Zaji is a she in my story!
Letter Bee Zaji.
I woke up suddenly, aware of being moved. I sat upright as fast as my stiff body would allow, and saw that I was in a small wagon tied to a horse, laying among some bags of rocks or something. Vashka slept beside me, snoring lightly. I glanced around and saw someone leading the horse along slowly, going through a valley.
"Who are you?" I asked grogilly.
"Oh hey you woke up!" The young man stopped and turned around to face me.
"You look like you been beat up badly, something the get the worse of the Bee?" He said and smiled, I glared at him.
"Yeah, two whole villages that hated me and a Gaichuu that was bigger than any I had ever seen or heard of." I said and tried to stand up, but my legs siezed up and I fell over in the cart.
"Was the last one called village of Small Waters?"
"What? I don't know, is it the one with all the tall people?"
"Yeah."
"Then yeah." I said and tried to stand up again, but slower. It nearly worked, but then my leg cramped up and I sat back, rubbing my leg. And glaring probably, since the guy looked at me and smiled.
"Hey how long was I out? And which way are we going?" I said, suddenly worried that he was taking me in the wrong direction. I grabbed my map out of my bag and looked at it. The young man jumped up onto the cart and looked over my shoulder at the map. He pointed at a long valley that was just beyond a little marker that must've been the village of Small Waters.
"Oh good we're going the right way."
"For what?" He looked at me quizzically.
"Thanks for the ride, but I need to get going!" I stood up, and this time my legs worked. I jumped out of the cart and stumbled, all my muscles screaming in pain and stiffness.
"Hey get back in!" He said. "I'm going to the end of the valley where Time Town is, it's the only way to go and you'll be going by it anyways, and you really need the rest it seems."
He jumped out of the cart and grabbed my arm and turned me to the cart, nudging me forward. I grumbled, but got back in without much argument, my body wasn't working right anyways.
"Okay let's go!" He said made the horse go onwards.
"I'm Ed Clockwerk by the way, whats your name Bee?"
"Zaji."
"Okay, Letter Bee Zaji, we'll be at Time Town withing an hour.
I didn't say anything and just fell back. If I weren't so battered, I'd be able to walk faster than the horse was going, but so far the best I could do was just enjoy the ride and get whatever rest I could.
"Oh, thanks for the ride." I said suddenly.
"No problem!"
"How long was I asleep anyways?"
"Well, it's been an hour since I found you collapsed in a pile of rocks I was suposed to take back to town. Your Dingo there greeted me just fine and kept nudgin' you but you wouldn't wake up."
"Hmph." I glared at Vashka, though she was still fast asleep.
"I was actually quite worried there was something realy wrong, but it just seems like pure exhaustion. You been travelling much?"
"Heh, I left the Bee Hive in Yuusari. . .two days ago."
"Holy that's far!" He looked at me with eyes wide. "You must have one hell of a story."
"I still have a while to go, and I need to be there in two days. Goldenheart Mine's village." I said, glancing at the letter in my bag.
"That's far." He said. I just grunted and we fell silent. I laid back down in the cart and fell asleep almost instantly, Vashka curled up next to me.
Next time I woke up, I was being moved again. This time I was being carried by someone, and when I opened my eyes I saw that it Ed Clockwerk. He looked down at me and smiled.
"Put me down." I said tiredly.
"Nope, your getting some rest for a bit." He said and continued to carry me. I looked down and saw Vashka walked beside us, and some people standing around and getting out of our way.
"Hey Ed, who's the kid?" Said a woman's voice, and she came into view. She had the same round, kind face that Ed did, and they both had light blonde hair and green eyes.
"Hey Mom, I found this Bee collapsed at the start of the valley." Ed said, but I barely heard it, about to pass out again.
"Well, take him in and put him in the spare room for now." I heard Ed mother say, and was oing to protest at being called a 'he', but everything faded into nothingness pretty quickly.
This time when I woke up, I was awake immediately and felt full of energy. Though that meant I must have slept for a long time, and I sat up quickly and looked around, worried at how late it could be. I was in a small room with a bed and tall shelf, and there was a clock on every wall. I guess they didn't call it Time Town for nothing. I got out of bed and noticed my jacket, hat and boots were missing, and found them on the shelf.
"Hey Zaji, you sure are moving around fast for being so beat up." Ed's voice emerged from the doorway and I paused in betting my boots on.
"I need to be somewhere fast." I said and proceeded to get my jacket and hat on as fast as I could, and grabbed my bag.
"How long was I asleep?"
"About three hours. Not much."
"Well, it's enough." I said and picked up my bag, making sure that the blasted letter to Goldenheart village was still there.
"Going so soon?" He said and stood in the doorway, not moving. "Your more concerned about time than the people of Time Town are!"
"I have far to go, and then I have to get back to the Bee Hive as fast as possible."
"But you can't leave yet, father wont let you!" Ed said, then closed his eyes and cursed, as if he wasn't supposed to say anything.
"What?" I paused in my getting ready. Vashka came to my side, it appeared she was under the bed until now.
"Ahh, he says since we let you sleep here, and I took you for a ride in my cart, you gotta either pay or work." Ed said slowly, not looking at me.
"I didn't want to get picked up, and I didn't want to stay here." I said coldly and glared at him with all my might, he looked up at me and back down again quickly.
"I'm sorry, but he owns the town."
"Well, I'm on government business that cannot be delayed, and the people of Small Waters took all my money."
"Sorry but he wont let you leave, and he ordered me to make sure you don't get away."
"And your going through with that?"
"Yeah, sorry."
"What floor are we on?"
"What? Uh, second. . .why?" Ed said and looked up at me again, worried.
"I'm out of here." I said and pulled out my gun and pointed it at him. His eyes went wide.
"I meant it when I said I couldn't be delayed." I walked backwards to the window that was above the bed and opened it with one hand. I nodded to Vashka and she 'rowr'-ed in agreement and jumped onto the bed and then onto the window sill. She paused for only a second before jumping out of the window.
"Thanks for the help, Ed." I said somewhat sarcraticly, and jumped onto the window sill and leaped out before he could do anything. I landed two stories below and rolled to the side so as not to hurt my legs any further.
"Father he's getting away!" I heard Ed shout and I ran.
"I'm a SHE!" I shouted towards the open window. Vashka ran ahead of me, and people got out of her way quickly. I followed, hoping she was heading the right way out of town. Some people behind us started shouting and I looked back to see Ed leading a group of people, all running for me. One of them got on a horse.
"Shit!" I said and stopped running, turning around long enough to take aim and fire my heart bullet gun. I only fired a weak heart bullet, and it hit the ground in front of the horse, making it rear up in fear and throw it's rider off with a sickening thud. I smiled and set off again, with one pursuer less. We got to the end of town without being stopped, and I saw that Time Town was really at the end of the valley. There were two large gates ahead, where the valley narrowed off, then it opened wide to barren ground. I put out an extra burst of speed towards the gates, but some of the townsfolk started to closed them slowly.
"Get them, Vashka!" I said to my Dingo, and she quickly outran me and went for one side of the gate, the people closing it all scattered in fear and I passed through it with lots of room to spare. Vahska ran through behind me and then took the lead again. We emerged onto a barren flat surface devoid of any trees or shrubs, and there were a few rocks strewn about.
"Zaji! Come back!" I heard Ed shout. I did not reply, just kept running. That is, until Vashka skidded to a stop and started growling. I stopped by her and looked in the direction she was looking. Off in the distance, there was a long shape making it's way to us.
"Giachuu!" I breathed out barely louder than a whisper. "This one's simple Vashka!"
Vashka mewled in response. Then she growled and hissed at something on my side, and I turned just in time to get mauled over by Ed running full speed. We hit the ground quickly, and I threw him off with all my might.
"Idiot, get away!" I said to him and got to my feet and aimed my gun at him.
"No!"
"You'll be in the way if you stay here!"
"What?" He looked bewildered.
"Gaichuu!" I said and at that point Vashka yowled and ran forward. The Gaichuu was upon us. I ran ahead of Ed, and he got up quickly.
"Killing this Gaichuu will free me of any debt I somehow got here, and you will all leave me alone." I looked over my shoulder at Ed and he nodded.
"No one will follow you." He said.
"Now run!" I nearly shouted at him and he did, running back to the town where the rest of my purseurs were standing. He paused at the gate though, and I turned my back.
"Let's get this in one shot Vashka!" I shouted to my Dingo. This Gaichuu looked like a giant centipede basically, and it was easy to take down as long as it faced the right way. I went right for Vashka, who was running back and forth twenty feet in front of me, distracting it from me. I saw it's weak point quickly, and took aim.
"Heart bullet, make its heart cry out! AOTOGE!" I shouted the last word and fired a shard of my malice and hatred for Gaichuu's, and it hit exactly where it was supposed to. Vashka jumped out of the way of it's falling corpse, and ran to my side, purring.
"Good work Vashka." I said and patted her on the head and started walking. I went around the Gaichuu's shell that remained, and like Ed promised, no one followed me.
I walked quickly, over barrens and through sparse Forrest's, through small valleys and over hills and across rivers, taking every shortcut I could. I came across hardly any people, and whenever I saw them in the distance I just avoided them, I had too much bad luck with people on this journey. And after a day of almost constant travel, I reached my destination a whole day earlier than I needed to.
I stopped with Vashka at the top of a hill, and down in a man-made pit was the Goldenheart mining village, my goal.
"Finally, we made it, Vashka!" I said, and Vashka purred.