The Letter

   Fighting could be heard throughout the neighborhood. The smashing of plates and the screaming of anger caught the eyes of all who passed. People whispered as they tried to get away. It wasn’t a small place, but it was small enough that the neighbors would surely talk to each other about what was happening.

Before coming to the new school, and before she moved across the sea, Hao Hao lived in a suburban house inside a small tract of homes. It was surrounded by houses. Stores were just ten minutes away on foot, and tall buildings could be seen just outside the windows. It was small. Not ideal for a family of three, but they made it work. Or in Hao Hao’s mind, they did before this fight.

Her room was small with thin walls. She could hear every word, and it felt like there was no escape from it. She wanted to leave, but she didn’t dare walk outside her room and past her arguing parents to try to get anywhere else, and everyone outside might ask her questions of she did. With no other option but to stay, she could only comfort herself as much as possible during it. No matter how much it frightened her, all she could do was shore up in the storm. Hiding in the closet in the back of the room. She hoped it would drown out the noise. It didn’t.

“You’re lazy!” Her mother screamed.

“You’re being too loud.”

“You do nothing around the house. You expect me to do the chores, to raise Hao Hao, everything! And without complaint.”

“Well, look around. You’re clearly not doing a very good job. With all the glass everywhere.”

“How dare you!”

Glass shattered. More fears that Hao Hao could only try and fail to cover her ears from. She didn’t know it then, but these words would still be with her well beyond now. Proceeding forward, she would do everything in her power to avoid conflict. Even if it meant disappearing forever.

“Look at Hao Hao!” He cried, “Her grades are poor! She has no friends! She has no life.”

“And that is my fault? Blame yourself for sticking us here in this no-good town. She is bullied here. Who would you have her befriend?”

“At this rate, anyone.”

“I do not want her falling in the wrong crowd.”

“All you want is a bigger garden!”

More glass. Eventually she heard sirens from outside. Cops knocked on the door, and she didn’t make out the words over her own tears, but the results were that someone was arrested, and the two remaining made plans to move across the sea.

“We will have a fresh start.” Her mother told her.

Hao Hao didn’t want that. More than anything, she was terrified it would happen all over again. The bullying, the fighting, and the departure. She got no say in the matter though, and so she learned to just go along. Follow everyone else until she was nothing in the obscurity.

The only solace she had was that rain fell from the sky and hid her tears.

Back at the school in the present day, when the three of them returned, Alice was the first to the gate to hug Hao Hao tightly. She said, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“And me?” Joy asked.

“You too!”

Alice pulled away to hug Joy as well, but she stepped back and away from the embrace. While Alice was left still as she wondered what she did wrong, the others came out. Daichi took the lead over them. His expression was one of anger.

“What were you both thinking?” He asked. “You for jogging so long, and I don’t even know how to start with you.” He looked Hao Hao in the eyes, and she felt overwhelmed. She dropped her gaze to the floor. “You should have never left on your own. That was reckless.”

“Hey, Daichi, I already talked to them. Please. It’s okay now.”

Daichi looked unconvinced. Something right on the tip of his tongue as he opened his mouth to speak, but Joy beat him to it. She pointed a hand at Jim and said, “I haven’t learned a thing except that we can’t leave.”

“Joy…”

“No,” Joy said. “I’m tired of you skirting around the issue. Tell me now, what were those deer? Why did they talk to you like they knew you?”

Everyone was there. All ten students, and most of them looked absolutely confused at Joy’s statement. It occurred to Hao Hao that most of them didn’t know what a shika was, just as she hadn’t before all this. They hadn’t had a run in with them while they were out either. It was really lucky that Jim found them all first. Alice was probably able to tell him which way they all went.

Jim said, “Don’t worry about it.”

“After what happened today, I can’t.”

Taeyang and Mae tried to approach. To talk her down from her anger, but she didn’t. She said to them all, “I need to find out why we can’t leave. If that makes you uncomfortable, well… guess what, you can’t leave, so just give me a minute.”

“Joy, I can’t answer your questions anyway, so… just leave it.” Jim said.

“That’s what you told the deer too. What are you hiding? How do you know them? Why do they care why any of us are here?” With every question she grew more exasperated. Jim turned away from her then. Hao Hao didn’t blame him. She was having a hard time, and she wasn’t even the target of the questions.

“And who is Shinigami?”

Jim stopped. He turned to her and said, “I just need a little more time.”

“That’s what you said the last few times. Isn’t everyone else tired of hearing that?”

Joy looked to the rest of the class. Mae was the first to raise her hand in agreement, followed by Taeyang, Kirai, Sumi, Emily and Daichi. Even Alice did, and she was the least combative of them all. Was Hao Hao really the only person that didn’t ask about leaving? She felt out of place more than ever now.

She turned back to Jim. Asking, begging, “So, what is it, Jim? We need to know. I don’t care if it’s hard to hear; I just want the truth.”

Jim stared at them. The hood felt more like a barrier than ever as he continued to just look at them, his expression completely unreadable. If he planned on speaking he didn’t get to. Gasps from the others told Hao Hao to look up. She saw it. The shika had returned. She couldn’t be sure if it was the same one, but it looked like it.

Jim followed their eyes and took out his stick again, but the shika said, “Put that down. I merely bring a message.”

The shika walked forward. Jim didn’t let his guard down, and the others stared intently as he left a letter by the gate. He galloped off right after. Jim picked it up, read the front, and pocketed it. He sighed deeply. Like he could already guess what it said, and it wasn’t good.

“There’s no reason to hide it now. Ask me anything. I’ll answer it the best I can.”

“Who’s that letter from?” Emily asked.

“Shinigami.”

“And who is that?” Joy asked.

“My mother. It’s a long story, but me and her aren’t really on talking terms.”

He asked them to follow him, gesturing them through the school gate. Hao Hao trailed behind as she often did, but she was especially slow. This whole ordeal with Jim, Joy, and the letter felt… definitive. Like things weren’t going to go back to normal after this. She looked at the garden her and the class didn’t get a chance to water today. The class hadn’t done any tending, it hadn’t received any love (a sunlight equivalent) and it showed. The flowers and their leaves were already drooping.

They sat down in the courtyard. The stillness of the air felt stale on them as they waited for Jim to speak again. He laid back on the bench and sighed for the hundredth time that day. He wore a hood that made it hard to tell, but they could still see his hands. They looked especially bony now. Did they look that way earlier, or did they change based on him, his mood?

“So, here’s the deal,” Jim said, “This place is called the border of Shigo. People come through here to get to Shigo. No one’s actually supposed to live here. It’s meant as a crossroads. And in-between.”

“Where are we supposed to be?” Joy asked.

“According to the report I got, Shigo.”

The room stilled further. Broken momentarily by Taeyang raising his hand and asking, ‘What does Shigo mean?”

“It’s the afterlife,” Joy answered. “And it’s where Jim was supposed to bring us.”

After that, Taeyang was still as well. Jim nodded and continued, “The border is my home. You see, I’m not quite a human. Close enough to one in my opinion, but the ethics of my kind mingling or coexisting with humans has been debated for centuries. I’m on the pro human coexistence side. My mother opposes it vehemently.”

“So, put simply, she hates this school,” Emily said.

“Simply, yeah. She owns the Grim Association. That’s also a long story, but what you need to know is that she believes that all humans must pass through here with as little fuss as possible. No explanations, no second chances or send offs, just off the other side of the river and into Shigo. I didn’t do that, so she plans to come here and put a stop to this.”

“What’s in Shigo? Maybe we could stop a fight by just going,” Alice suggested.

He shook his head, “I don’t know, to be honest with you. People that go in have never come back to tell. I don’t want to put any of you through it. You’re too young. There are too many of you, and you have such long lives ahead of you. I don’t know what tragedy happened for this to be how it’s supposed to go, but I refuse it.”

“So that’s why you went against the order to begin with,” Joy said.

“What about Shadow Town?” Mae asked. “Are they also people that were supposed to go to Shigo?”

“Yes.”

“So, your mother is coming to make sure we’re sent to Shigo and destroy the school,” Daichi summarized, “You don’t want to comply, so what is your plan?”

“You’re going to go to Shadow Town. I’m fairly certain my mom doesn’t know about it, so you’ll be able to hide out there a while longer. You’ll be safe.”

“What do we do there?” Daichi asked with an eyebrow raised, “We can’t hide forever.”

“I have friends that will take over in my absence. We’ve been working on establishing this place as a haven for people that aren’t ready to move on yet, to build Shadow Town into something better. This school was supposed to be a part of that, but it’s been a big undertaking, and a political nightmare. My hope for you all is that you’ll get to experience life before you go. Do the things you wanted to do, say some last goodbyes, etcetera.”

“Is that why the school is so big even though there’s only ten students?” Taeyang asked.

“Yes. It’s supposed to be an actual school later. This was a way of hitting two birds with one stone; you guys have a place to stay that’s kind of your own, but it’s also to test the system on a whole.”

Even in this state, Hao Hao found this bit of the conversation interesting. She had originally dreaded the thought that there would be more kids here, but hearing it stated like this, she liked the idea. She was too shy to ask, but she wondered if he considered it a success or a failure. She hoped they would stop fighting now, that this was the end to the tension.

“What about you?” Sumi asked. “Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You always say that.”

“And that’s because I will, so don’t worry.”

The others looked to him. They relied on him for so long that they wanted to believe him, but it was hard to. He wasn’t himself. They could tell from the way he was. His shoulders were slung low, he sat his back slouched instead of straight, and even the tone of his voice, though it was the Jim they all knew, sounded strained.

“What if we refuse?” Kirai asked.

“Hm?”

“I don’t want to stay and hide in Shadow Town. I want to fight with you.”

Jim shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“I did not save a bunch of kids from the fate of Shigo just to have you fight in a war. If that’s what it came to, I’d have to agree with my mom and send you through.”

“But hiding is worse!” Kirai insisted, “I’m tired of waiting around for someone or something else to happen. I want to be part of the change.”

Daichi stood and nodded, “He has a point, Jim. You just said you wanted us to be able to live. To do the things we wanted to do, and if that happens to be fight to see your reality happen, wouldn’t that be worth it?”

“You can’t be serious.” Emily looked up at him with desperation in her eyes, “We’re just kids. We can’t fight reapers.”

“Emily is right.” Jim said, “None of you have combat skills anyway, so…”

Joy got up, “But we’re young.” Followed by Mae, “And there are ten of us!” and even Cleo joined in, “And I have cat claws.”

“There aren’t ten of you if not everyone wants to fight. Like me and Hao Hao.” Alice said.

Hao Hao stared at the ground. Tears in her eyes. She attempted to whisper an agreement but it didn’t make it to anyone’s ears. She was just as helpless as back at her old home when her parents were arguing. The only thing worse than bullying was arguing. It scared her that they were fighting. Last time the people she trusted fought, they separated. Would the same thing happen now? She wished with all her heart it wouldn’t.

“I will not have this. Either you will leave or I will make you leave.” Jim said.

“Oh, we’ll leave,” Joy said, gesturing for the others to follow her as she explained, “We’ll be right back. With weapons!”

“Yeah!” Kirai said, and he, Joy, Mae, and Daichi all followed.

“You will not!” Jim said, summoning the most parental tone they’d ever heard him use. Even so, the others just kept walking.

“Wait, what do we do?” Taeyang said, “We can’t really just let them go, can we? What do we do?”

They looked to Emily, as it was her and Daichi that usually led the way for the students, but she was distraught. She said, “I don’t know.”

Jim said, “I need you all to get ready to leave. Pack your belongings and get moving. I’ll send the pixies to keep an eye on the others. With any luck, they’ll be kept away long enough that things here will already be settled. Now, I need to get ready.”

He got up and walked away, leaving the others to talk amongst themselves. That made just five people in all. Hao Hao usually preferred a smaller crowd like this, but after the months of going to school here, she found she preferred them all together. That and with the fighting she could hardly appreciate the quieter space.

“So…. We go pack?” Sumi asked.

“I can’t imagine what else we’d do,” Emily said, and with that, the rest of them departed the space.

Alice turned back momentarily. Looking to Hao Hao, she said, “Come on. Let’s pack.”

Hao Hao shook her head. With no other ideas, Alice rushed to catch up with the others, leaving her all alone.