I own nothing of Tegami Bachi or its characters or original story, it all belong to Asada Hiroyuki. This is not for profit, or any gains for anything. . .Blahblahblah

NOTE: Whenever I say pants, I mean underpants. Thats how they say it, so underpants are pants and pants are trousers.

Amberground, the land of eternal dusk. Technology is at a minimum, the most advanced thing being the man-made sun that is positioned over the Capital city. The land is comprised of ring-shaped continents that are seperated by large ring-shaped rivers. The rich and highest class citizens of Amberground live in the innermost ring continent, closest to the mand-made sun; the capital is called the Anatsuki region. They get the most light, and are quite safe and well off. The middle-class citizens live on the middle ring continent, and they're a bit worse off. Towns are clustered near each other, and the sky is much darker. This region is called the Yuusari region. The outermost ring continent is the lowest class, who live on the darkest and coldest conditions, and in poverty. This poverty-stricken region is called Yadoka.

The only people able to cross the bridges from one region to another are ones that carry government issued papers giving them permission. To get a paper to cross the bridge, a person has to have enough "points". They gain theses points by how much they work and how much rin(money) they make (I think so, it's not exactly clear in the manga).
Between each town are unsafe, cold and dark regions. The land is quite unforgiving and harsh, and it is here that Gaichuu live. Gaichuu are like gigantic insects, except they are hollow. Their armor has no flesh or anything inside, and theses hollow monsters search out and eat the "Heart" of whatever they can. Gaichuu are huge, hard to kill, and deadly. Swords and guns can't do a thing to them, and the only thing that can kill them is Heart bullets.

A persons "Heart" is who they are, it is their memories and their thoughts. Without Heart, you are an empty shell, with no thoughts or emotions or memories. Gaichuu have no Heart, so they seek it out. Heart bullet guns are carried by Letter Bees, and they shoot small shards of their own Heart into a Gaichuus weak spot, and destroy it from the inside out.
Letter Bees are employed by the Amberground government and their purpose is to deliver letters from town to town. They usually have to travel long, harsh routes to reach the destination towns and cities, and therefore they can't be weak in mind or body. Letter Bees have a "Dingo" which is basically their partner. Dingos can be any animal that can be trained to help a Bee fight and kill Gaichuu, and watch out for the Bees when needed. It is around the Letter Bee's that my story revolves.

On with the story.

Thousands of stars shone brightly in the sky, but they could not illuminate the complete darkness where a figure lay on the ground. The ground was barren of any flora or fauna, gray dust snaked across the surface like whispy rivers. The wind was cold, colder than usual. A Letter Bee walked across the terrible terrain, towards the figure on the ground. The Bee was short, around the height of a child. Behind him wandered a huge sleek black cat that looked to each side constantly.

"What the. . .?" The Letter Bee said and trailed off once he got close enough to see the figure laying on the ground. He focused his odd cat-like eyes on it and saw that it was a man laying on the ground, and he wasn't wearing enough clothes to stay warm. The Bee ran towards him and skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees beside the man.

"Hey, wake up!" The boy said and grabbed the mans stiff shoulders. He was about to start shaking him, but then he felt how cold and stiff the man really was. He let go and looked at the strangers face closely and pulled back suddenly. The man was dead, his eyes unseeing and blank, lifeless. His face was gray, and coming from his eyes, nose and mouth was a pink-tinged fluid.

"Ugh, Vashuka, he must've died from the cold. . ." The Letter Bee said pulling off his floppy dark hat and running a hand though his short black hair. The black cat came up beside it's partner and made an odd growling noise. The Dingo bent its head down and sniffed the man and snorted and backed up quickly, growling and hissing.

"Hey girl, whats wrong?" The Bee said and backed away from the body as well. Vashuka circled the body and started sniffing the ground. She snorted at the mans footsteps that were being blown away by the wind. The Bee came around and examined them. There were little pools of of the same pink-tinged liquid. The Bee grabbed a rock an poked at it curiously. Whatever it was, it was extremely thick. It grossed him out a little.

"This stuff was coming out of him too. . .was he sick?" The boy said grimly. The cat 'rowred' at him and grabbed his jacket in her teeth and started trying to drag the Bee away.

"Okay we'll keep going, looks like he came from that way. Maybe someone will know him." The Bee said and continued on his way, thoughts troubled by the dead man and the thick pinkish fluid. Outwardly he looked completely unconcerned and even cold-hearted as he walked quickly across the gray dust and against the cold wind.

Lag Seeing walked into the Bee Hive in the Yuusari regions capital, and it was quite busy. It seems that most of the Bees were either coming back from a delivery or going to another one, and Lag hadn't seen so many Bees in one place ever before. Lag's eye that wasn't covered by his silver bangs was amber colored, and it scanned the crowd for someone he knew. Nearly all the Bees there were older than him by a couple years at least, since Lag was only twelve. The only Bees close to his age he saw was his friends Zaji and Connor. Zaji was a couple years older than Lag, and only a few inches taller, which never seemed to bother Zaji. Connor was a bit taller than Zaji, but the same age. Their features couldn't have been more oposite either, Zaji was thin and with a cold face, Connor was quite round with the kindest face and eyes you could find. Their Dingos trailing behind them were very different as well, Zaji's Vashuka was a large, powerful sleek black cat; Connor's Gazu was a lazy bloodhound that was smaller than normal.

Lag's own Dingo wasn't an animal, it was a girl. She wasn't exactly human either, but she resembled a small girl. Her hair was very very long and golden, her eyes ice-blue, and her arms were covered by large mitts. Under the mitts, her arms and hands were that of the legendary monster Maka. She wore a gold-colored dress, and very large pants. On her head was a strange creature that she named Steak. Steak was kind of flat, with extremely short little legs, large eyes and mouth, and a spade tail. She named it Steak because she claimed he was her "emergency food".

"Hey Lag, Niche, how's it going!" Zaji said once Lag and his Dingo reached the other two Bees.

"Good, why are there so many Bees here?" Lag asked and smiled at Zaji and Connor.

"Most of them have been recalled to give reports about anyhing unusuall they've seen." Connor said.

"Has something happened? Like with Reverse?" Lag asked with his voice lowered.

"Nothing to do with Reverse I think." Zaji said and looked around to make sure no one heard them. Lag nodded and sighed in relief. Connor opened his mouth to say something, but a couple men in very fancy suits walked up to them briskly, interupting their conversation.

"Is one of you the Letter Bee Zaji?" One of them asked roughly. He had a very emotionless, non-moving face.

"Yeah, me. Why?" Zaji said.

"We need to talk to you about something in your report, come with us." They said and turned to go.

"Like hell I am," Zaji said in annoyance, he hated getting bossed around, "who are you anyways?"

"Your superiors, come with us now or we'll take you to the supervisors office by force."

"Touch me and regret it." Zaji said but followed them anyways. He started grumbling very audibly about their stupid suits.

"See you later." He called over his shoulder to Lag and Connor.

"I wonder what was in his report?" Lag asked curiously.

"Dunno, he didn't say." Connor said.

Zaji followed the men in the fancy suits to the supervisors office, they knocked harshly and then entered without waiting for a response. Inside the office, Ralgo Lloyd sat at his desk with huge piles of papers that looked like Bee reports, and Zaji's report was in his hands currently.

"Ah, Zaji!" He said and motioned for Zaji to sit at the chair in front of his desk. Zaji stayed standing, still a bit irked by the men in suits.

"Whats up with these guys?" He said and pointed one of the men. The supervisor sighed and brushed some of his long brown hair out of his face.

"We're working with them right now, we just need to clarify a few things about your report." Ralgo Lloyd said. He gave Zaji an odd look that clearly said 'Don't do anything stupid' and very slightly nodded to the men in suits. Zaji got the hint, and he decided it was best to behave. . .for now.

"Okay, what do you need to know?" He asked. The supervisor smiled.

"About the dead man you found. Everything." He said. Zaji sighed and stayed silent for a moment.

"Well. . .He looked like he had died from the cold and exhaustion maybe. His eyes, nose and mouth were leaking this pinkish thick stuff-"

"What kind of 'stuff'?" One of the men asked suddenly and quite rudely. Zaji was going to snap at him, but a glance at the supervisor made him hold himself back.

"Fluid of some kind, just realy thick and gloopy." He said.

"Did you touch it?"

"With a rock, there were puddles of it by his footprints. It looked like he had been walking slowly and staggering."

"Your report says you asked people in the nearest town if they knew him, and that they responded oddly. How oddly?" The supervisor said, and Zaji focused on him, glad to have a reason to ignore the strange men.

"They were a bit jumpy and claimed to not know him, and after I mentioned him they stayed away from me. I left pretty quickly, I wasn't wanted there after I mentioned him." Zaji huffed at the memory. Indeed, pretty much everyone wanted to stay as far from him as possible, and he had no idea why.

"Could you mark on a map exactly where this mans body was?" One of the men asked. Without looking at him, Zaji pulled out his map and pointed to a spot on it. One of the men started making notes on a paper.

"Anything else about the man or that pinkish fluid?" The supervisor asked. Zaji shook his head.

"We need to take this boy with us for our. . .purposes." One of the men said, Zaji bristled at how he said 'boy' like he was only a child. And what the hell kind of purposes did they need him for?

"No." The supervisor said before Zaji could respond. "He is a Bee that we need, and there seems to be nothing wrong with him and he isn't part of your investigation anymore. You may leave Zaji." Ralgo Lloyd dismissed Zaji, and the Bee left without hesitation. Right before he could close the door though, one of the men wrenched it open and stuck his blunt face out.

"Did your Dinog touch the stuff? We may need to take him for investigation." He asked.

"No, SHE stayed as far from it as she could." Zaji said and walked away quickly before he could be pestered anymore. Obviously the supervisor didn't completely trust or like them, and Zaji realy didn't trust or like them at all. He wondered what was so interesting about the dead man, and tried to shove it out of mind. He didn't like the man's cold vacant eyes, it reminded him of too many things.

"Vashuka, keep an eye out for them." He muttered to the big cat, and she 'mrowed' in response and flicked her ears around. Zaji wound his way through the Hive past all the Bees. There were a lot more Bees than he thought, but then again he had never seen them all in one place. He noticed that other men in the same fancy suits were talking to a few other Bees, and that those Bees were just as annoyed. Zaji saw something he didn't notice before, the mens suits had a large logo on the back. He squinted at the nearest one and could just make it out. It was an embroidered snake curling around an upside down sword, and the words "Biological Investigations Team" emblazoned across the symbol in yellow letters.

"Hell no!" He heard a Bee say loudly over the noise in the Hive and Zaji looked around. There was a Bee he knew only by acquaintance. It was the harsh and very detached Mokka, and he was looking furious at the men talking to him.

"We need to take your Dingo in for investigation!" One of the men said, his voice nasaly and a bit squeaky. Mokkas Dingo was a cobra that usually stayed in a pouch he carried at his side. Mokka swore at them profoundly. Zaji was impressed at his large vocabulary.

"Either give it to us or we take it by force!" The nasaly man said loudly. The Bees surounding them stopped talking and started to watch the confrontation. Zaji strolled over and drew his Heart shotgun.

"You people and wanting to take our Dingos away, don't you know how stupid that is?" Zaji said loudly and pointed his gun at the nasaly man.

"Stay out of this, boy." He said and turned back to Mokka.

"Hell no." Zaji said. "I'm getting really anoyed with you people. First you want to take me away for your. . .purposes, then you want my Dingo, and now his? I'm itching to show you how much I realy care about you."

He stood there, aiming his shotgun at the nasally man. Mokka laughed and pulled out his gun too, though he kept it pointed at the ground. Every single Bee around them either put their hands on their guns or just stood there looking menacing, and all kinds of Dingos either growled, hissed, roared, cawed, or extended claws. The men with the suits looked around fearfully at all the angry Bees and Dingos.

One thing that all Bees agreed upon was how much their Dingos meant to them, and at the thought that these men might try to take their Dingos as well got them quite angry.

"STOP!" The loud, commanding voice of Ralgo Lloyd rang out over the whole group and everyones head turned to see the Supervisor walked through the crowd towards the men in suits.

"Bees, put your weapons away." The supervisor came to stand between Zaji and the men in suits.

"Behave and treat our guests nicely, cooperate with them." A bunch of Bees started to protest, but he held his hand up and everyone instantly quieted down.

"But, you people of the Biological Investigations Team, or BIT as you call yourselves, you have no right to take ANY Bee or Dingo by force, unless there is complete certainty that there is something catastrophically wrong with them. Now, is there anyting terribly wrong with Mokka's Dingo that you need to take it away for?"

"No, sir." The nasaly man said and Zaji smirked. He was just a powertripper, trying to shove he Bees around because he thought he could.

"Continue on then." The supervisor gave a last look over the assembled Bees and walked away, back to his office. The men from BIT sulked off and stopped questioning Mokka. Mokka smirked and put a hand in the bag that held his cobra Dingo. He looked at Zaji.

"So they wanted to take YOU away?" He asked. Zaji nodded.

"Do you know whats going on?" Zaji asked coldly. He didn't like Mokka, but if he knew something it'd come in handy.

"No idea, but I saw that Bee-" Mokka pointed to an adult Bee that was talking to his Dingo, which was a large lizard. "Getting questioned for hours, and he seems to know more about what those BIT guys want." Mokka then walked away, to the exit of the Bee Hive. Zaji muttered for Vashuka to stay close behind him, and he went over to the older Bee. He was quite tall, with light brown hair and brown eyes and a prematurely lined face. He looked up from his Dingo and said hi to Zaji in a very cheerful manner.

"Hey, do you know what this is all about?" Zaji asked, not one to beat around the bush. The older Bee sighed.

"I think theres some kind of illness spreading, and they don't know what it is yet. Did you come across anyone that was coughing up pink-like stuff too?" He asked, still sounding very cheery. It was almost sickening to Zaji, his cheeriness, but he didn't show it. He shudered inwardly at the tohught of the dead man.

"No, the one I found was dead. Thanks for the info." Zaji said and walked away, leavig the overly happy Bee taken aback and a bit confused. He went back to talking to his Dingo, and Zaji tried to find Connor and Lag. He spotted them near the door and headed over, shoving some BIT people out of the way and going around the Bees.

"Hey Zaji, what was that all about?" Connor asked and smiled at Zaji.

"They didn't tell me, but asking around there seems to be some illness they want to know more about." Zaji said and Connor and Lag both looked worried quickly.

"Is it fatal?" Lag asked, looking a bit scared.

"I don't know." Zaji said. It wasn't relay a lie, since he didn't know if the man he found was dead from the illness or dead from the cold. He got an uneasy feeling though. It this weren't fatal, then the BIT people wouldn't be on it so fast.

"Either of you ever heard of BIT before?" Zaji asked.

"Nope." Lag said.

"No. But Dr. Thunderland might." Connor said. Zaji nodded and sighed.

"Well, I'm not gonna bother thinking about it anymore for my day off, I'll ask him before I go on my next delivery. See you two around!" Zaji smiled an almost mischevious smile and walked away. Once he was out of the Hive, Connor turned to Lag.

"I can't belive that he just dismiss this. . .oh well, thats Zaji for you." Connor said and smiled.

"I'd go ask Dr. Thunderland, but I have to go right now or I'll be late." Lag said.

"Lare for what?" Connor asked curiously.

"A date!" Niche suddenly piped up, sounding angry.

"It is NOT a date Niche!" Lag said angrily. Connor smiled as he watched the two of them bicker.

"Your going to see that wierd old lady alone-" Niche started, but Lag tried to cut her off.

"You and Steak will be there!"

"It IS a date!"

"No!" Lag sighed after that and said more quietly to Connor, who was a bit confused. "Some lady wants me to take a lot of fragile little things to her family in different towns, so we're meeting about it."

"She's creepy." Niche said and crossed her arms and did her equivalent of pouting--looking angry.

"Don't worry Niche." Lag said and tried to smile encouragingly.

"If she does anything weird I'll bite her! And then push her down!" Niche said and sounded happy at the prospect. Lag put a hand to his forehead.

"Yeah, okay you can push her down if she does something weird, but NO biting!" Lag then turned and smiled at Connor with his huge grin.

"See you later, Connor!"

"Bye Lag, and Niche!" Connor waved. Niche stuck her tongue out at him and hurried after Lag. Connor sighed. Lag realy did have the most unique Dingo he had ever seen. Connor noticed that many Bees started leaving the Hive, bags full and ready for their deliveries. It seems that the BIT people didn't need to question them anymore, and the Bees were leaving as soon as they could, some calling out goodbyes to their friends, some leaving silently. Connor was really glad he was Bee, he got to do so many things that no one else could, travel and deliver the all important letters. It was delivering Heart really.

Letters contained Heart, and Lag had told him once that someone would be so happy to see a letter from a loved one, even if it were one word they would cry with joy. Not all Bees shared this view, and saw letters as just letters to be delivered, nothing more; but Connor, Lag, and maybe Zaji as well thought of letters as Hearts, and felt their job gave them a huge privilege despite the danger.

Hopefully the illness was nothing more than just a minore thing, though Connor doubted that it was just minor if these BIT people were involved. No one seemed to realy like or trust them, and anyone hardly seemed to have heard of them before. Connor sighed and left the Hive, with his bloodhound following.

"Just as long as they don't bother Zaji much more, no one will get hurt." He muttered.