The Book Of Letters 6 Aoko And The Phantom Thief

Our house has a back garden where Midori tended her flowers, and where Hibiki did his familiar training. Before sunrise, Hibiki would be up early in the morning to go down with his big fox familiar, Muragitsune. He would do workout first, then train Muragitsune with commands and transformation. Hibiki have been doing it since he first arrived, and though I didn't think much about it, I didn't know it was a necessity for familiar users until today.

I have to use a bicycle for a couple of days since I sent my broomstick to a workshop for maintenance. I was cycling through the one particular area in Lavender City, known for street gangs and the surrounding's bad maintenance. You could see plants growing through the walls and windows, broken gla.s.s scattered on the pavement and rubbish bins being raided by dogs. Standard Post Officers are afraid to go through this place due to mugging and accidentally involved in gang fights, so it was up to us Rank 2 Special Task Post Officers to do the job.

There was only one package that I had to deliver, and it concerned me when I reached the designated place. You could tell beyond its tall gates and bricked wall, there was a white elegant mansion, contrasting the shady houses around it. There was no mailbox outside except for a bell. I pulled the string, waiting for someone to open. Instantly, a blast of magic pierce through the gates, missing me by an inch. I froze for a few seconds before a man, donning a wolf mask that covered half of his face and a white coat, jumped out of the hole, dropping what appeared to be a tiny red gem.

"Hey, you dropped this!" I picked up the red gem, but the masked man disappeared. I didn't see which direction he ran to, as if he disappeared into thin air.

As I peered through the hole, I saw a group of well-suited men running towards me. Not wanting to be part of the 'involved in street fights' statistics, I immediately left the package inside the gate, and grabbed my bicycle and rode off into the narrow alleyways, hoping to lose track of them. I never looked back, and as soon as I got off the slum territory, I let out a huge relief.

I told the story to Esuke and Hibiki during lunch, and the moment I mentioned the wolf-masked man, Esuke dropped the food he chewed, and Hibiki choked on his. Esuke handed a flask of water to Hibiki and turned to me.

"I can't believe you saw the Phantom Wolf!" Esuke exclaimed. "He's a legendary! I may forget a lot of stuffs in the past but I couldn't forget the awesome thief! I didn't know he's still around."

"Okay, who is he exactly?" I asked.

"He shook the nation! He would steal rare antique magical items from the rich, and exposing their corrupted activities afterwards. Phantom Wolf is also known for his flashy escape from the police. He was a vigilante icon until three months ago, he disappeared," Esuke explained. "The thing is, he prowls at night, and never morning."

"How come I never heard of this?" I questioned.

"Maybe because you always train in the back garden with Kurai every night," Esuke pointed out, bringing back the memories of Kurai's strenuous training.

"It was a necessary thing for a Special Task Postman," I said, covering up the fact that the training was for him to regain the half of the strength he lost from the incident.

"Did the gangsters see your face, Aoko?" Hibiki asked.

I shook my head. "I ran away before they stepped out of the gates. I still wonder why there was a mansion in the middle of gangster's territory."

"Some say it's a mafia hideout," said Hibiki. "Others mentioned seeing a little girl through the windows."

"I'm convinced it's the first one," I said, though I wondered why a mafia would be ordering things like a normal person.

Soon after, we continued our afternoon s.h.i.+ft. After I finished my deliveries, I got on my bicycle and cycled my way back to the headquarters. When I took a shortcut through a back alley, my bicycle tripped over something that I didn't see and I flew from my seat. My right arm took damage from the impact and though it wasn't broken, I could feel the numb.

"Are you alright?" a man in a business suit came towards me, offering his hand. Before I could answer, a bright light flashed from his ring, and all of the sudden, everything turned to black.

When I finally regained my consciousness, I found myself sitting in a middle of a child's playroom, with my jacket over my shoulders and my right arm have been bandaged. My ankles were shackled onto the chair. A little girl with long black hair, wearing a red frilly dress. She was playing with her dolls, and one of it looked like the Phantom Wolf, and the other looked like the girl.

"Ah, you're awake!" the little girl cheered. "Hey, do you want to play with me?"

"Where am I?" I asked, confused.

"My big brothers brought you back to my home, of course!" she said. "I'm Miki. What's yours?"

"Aoko," I answered. Miki then handed me the Phantom Wolf doll.

"This is me," said Miki, showing off her doll in her hand. "I just got this today. And that doll is you, because my big brothers said that you're Phantom Wolf."

She was pointing at the Phantom Wolf doll, and I got confused. "I'm not the Phantom Wolf."

"Yes, you are. Big brothers found the red gem in your pocket. It helps us find you."

Miki held the red gem in her hand that she took from my pocket. I realized that I had been carrying a tracker this whole time. "Look, Miki. Phantom Wolf dropped that gem and I, who so happened to be delivering, picked it up. This is all a mistake."

Miki pouted. "I don't like liars. If you don't tell me the truth, my big brothers are going to hurt you."

The little girl snapped her fingers, calling her seven men in black suits inside. They surrounded me and Miki, ready to follow her orders.

"Where is the Haraka Staff?" Miki demanded. "The staff my daddy gave to me. Tell me where it is."

"I don't know," I insisted. "I'm just a postwoman. I'm not the Phantom Wolf and I never stole that staff."

Miki folded her arms. She took a step back, allowing the men to surround me closer. They restrained my arms, held down the chair as the man in front of me cracked their knuckles. I struggled to pull the ankle shackles, hoping they could break the chair's legs.

"I'm telling the truth!" I exclaimed. "You can't just jump to conclusions!"

"If Lady Miki says it's the truth, then it is the truth," said the man in front of me. Right before his fist hit my face, the lights conveniently turned off. With the moonlight as the only light source, the men were on guard. They surrounded me and Miki, with their backs facing us. Every second of silence made us more antic.i.p.ated of what was going to happen next.

"This is going to be child's play."

The male voice, that I was sure it didn't belong to any of Miki's men, sent s.h.i.+vers down my spine. Now, I was expecting for Phantom Wolf to smash through one of the six windows, but n.o.body saw what truly came for us. All six windows simultaneously broke, and through the gaps between the walls of men, I saw not one, but two Phantom Wolves, and the way the men were reacting, I counted that there were six Phantom Wolves had surrounded us.

Miki pulled one of the men's suit, demanding to be lifted up. The man lifted Miki as she commanded the others to attack. As Miki and her carrier escaped, the other men charged forward to fight the Phantom Wolves. There were a lot of grunting, punching and body throwing that in the midst of the fight, a seventh Phantom Wolf appeared from behind.

"This is no place for a lady," he said, breaking the shackles with his bare hands.

"You're stronger than I thought," I complimented.

"Why, thanks," said the Phantom Wolf. "We must hurry before-"

All of the sudden, the entire room changed into a bas.e.m.e.nt, with one possible exit being blocked by Miki. She had a scarlet lioness beside her, showing that she's a familiar user.

"Hey, who is Miki exactly and what did you do to her?" I whispered to Phantom Wolf.

"She's the current boss of Haraka clan," said Phantom Wolf. "Big mafia group. Her familiar gives her the power to switch the rooms her targets are in. As long as we're in the mansion, it's not going to be easy."

"Hey, let's make a deal," said Miki. "I'll let you go if you give me back my staff."

"As if I'm going to give you that disintegration stick," Phantom Wolf scoffed. "It's not a toy for kids like you. Besides, I didn't even bring it."

Miki jumped around in anger, frustrated that things weren't going as she planned. "Fine! If you don't bring it back, I'll be keeping her!"

She commanded her lioness to pounce on me, but was quickly intercepted by Phantom Wolf's dark purple wolf, who managed to strike the lioness with ease.

"d.a.m.n, I thought she's the boss because she's strong," I said.

"She is for her age," said Phantom Wolf. "But if you don't train often with your familiar, the difference in strength can be seen, and sometimes..."

"What are you doing? Attack!" Miki commanded her lioness again. The red lioness's strength could not match with the dark purple wolf. Miki grew frustrated, and order the lioness again, only this time, the lioness turned to Miki, growling at her owner.

"The bond of the familiar and its user is strengthen over time. Command it too much at early age, and this is what you get," said Phantom Wolf. Suddenly, the entire room s.h.i.+fted into the outside garden, and Miki and her lioness was gone.

I panicked. "Oh no! We have to save her!"

"It's alright," Phantom Wolf rea.s.sured, despite we could hear the girl's m.u.f.fled screaming. "Children's familiar don't retain their form very long."

"She's still a little girl!" I snapped. "I'm going in!"

"No!" Phantom Wolf shouted grabbed my wrist. "It's too dangerous. Let her men save her."

Miki and her lioness reappeared in front of us. Miki was crouching in fear, holding a beat up saucepan lid. I released his grip and quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed Miki away before the lioness strike her claws again.

"Aoko!" Phantom Wolf called again, but the scenery s.h.i.+fted back to the playroom, where her men were unconscious on the floor. I ran out of the room with Miki in my arms, but the lioness gave a chase.

"Miki, tell her to stop!" I said.

"I can't!" Miki cried. "She wouldn't listen to me!"

Phantom Wolf appeared from the staircase, blocking the lioness. This time, he donned a dark purple mane and wielded a sword. "I didn't want to traumatize the kid but..."

He slashed the lioness right before she pounced on him, sending the scarlet aura back to Miki. Miki started to cry louder, wiping her tears and sinuses on my jacket.

"She's not dead," said Phantom Wolf. "She just goes back to your body. Children's familiars are easy to slice than adults', but that doesn't excuse the pain their familiars felt."

"It's okay, Miki," I a.s.sured her with a soft voice and hugged the little girl. I figured it was that painful when she felt her familiar getting sliced. I gestured Phantom Wolf to try to calm her down. He sighed and commanded his wolf to bring Miki's stash of candies from the kitchen. It took half an hour for Miki to calm down. We sat on the patio as Miki munched on her sugar drops.

"Thank you for saving me," said Miki, sniffled her sinus in.

"You should say 'sorry' first to Miss Aoko," said Phantom Wolf.

"Sorry, Miss Aoko," said Miki, wiping her tears with her sleeve.

"I forgive you, Miki," I ruffled her hair. "Next time, try not to kidnap people."

"Is there any way I could make up to you?"

"Just be a good girl," I said as I stood up. "We better get going. Brush your teeth before bed."

"I'll repay you one day!" she shouted as we went out of the gate. Phantom Wolf offered to bring me home but I insisted to go alone.

"Fine, but I'll walk you out of this area first," he said.

I took that offer. "By the way, it bugs me that you knew where I was, and also my name. Who exactly are you?"

"Why, a friend of yours called for my help," he answered. "Of course, I couldn't leave a damsel in distress."

"Was it Hibiki?" I asked. "I told my experience to two people, and one of them is an enthusiastic fan, so I'm sure it's the latter. How did you two meet?"

"You're sharp," he complimented. "Let's just say we go way back."

"Your familiar has similar build as his fox," I pointed out. "Are you two twins?"

"We are sort of alike," he said. "But Miss Aoko, can you keep my connection with Hibiki a secret? We don't want anyone to know that Hibiki knows me, and you shouldn't tell anyone about me either."

"Then why did you disappear three months ago? Why do you steal things?" I began to ask the real questions.

Phantom Wolf sighed, and began to speak in low voice. "This is between you and me. I am actually an undercover agent hired by the king himself."

"No way."

"Yes way. This is the tip of the dark side of Lavender City. The treasures I steal are actually rare and forbidden magical items. Some are from the rich, royal family members and even government officers. I was tasked to retrieve and expose them. The flamboyant performance wasn't just for fun, but also a thing I do to mock the corrupted police officials. We exposed them three months ago, and that was the end of it. I didn't get any new tasks until today."

"That's a big responsibility that the king shouldered you on. Is it okay for me to know all of this?"

"You look like a woman who knows how to keep a secret, but if you speak one word about me, I have the authority to dispose you without question."

"That's harsh," I commented. "Although you do have a kind side. I'm glad that you didn't expose Miki. I wonder why."

"The Haraka Clan is known for covering up their tracks. We only had speculations of the staff as evidence, and though proven true, we couldn't expose her due to the fact that she's just a little girl. What we were looking for is her parents, who apparently died recently. I guess they had a quiet funeral."

It got me pitied the little girl more. "That was certainly a bad timing for you to barge in."

"I admit I was guilty of that, but in my defense, I was expected to beat up a married couple, not a little girl."

❤︎

「I got back home safely, and Midori and Esuke bombarded me with questions why I didn't return to the headquarters. I cooked up an entire story of having to help a lost child (to explain the sinus stains on my jacket), reuniting her with her 'parents', who were actually kidnappers and I had to fight back (so I could explain the bandaged arm part) to save the child and return her to her actual parents.

The two were already used to hearing my absurd adventures that this story was a downer for them, but Hibiki was glad that I kept my word.

I asked Hibiki more about being a familiar user, and he further explained that his physical training isn't the only thing that helps in controlling his familiar, but also the user's psychological state must be in balance. If the familiar cooped up inside the user for a very long time, the familiar will take over the user instead. That part got me worried about your familiar.

I have a feeling that this won't be the last meeting with Phantom Wolf.

Love,

Aoko」