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Tegami Bachi (テガミバチ, English: Letter Bee) is a Shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Asada and published by Shueisha in Japan. It was adapted into two anime seasons three years following the release of the manga.
The story of Tegami Bachi is set in the fictional land called "Amberground". The story follows Lag Seeing, a Letter Bee who has a special ability to see the memories of people and items, and his personal dingo Niche on their journeys around the country.
Amberground is locked in darkness, and the artificial sun only illuminates the capital and casts a dim light over the land. In the shadows lurk gaichuu creatures, which are colossal-sized insects with metal (impenetrable) exoskeletons. Since this makes traveling from place-to-place so dangerous, Letter Bees are commissioned to risk their lives delivering letters to citizens of different towns. Amberground is described as a land of shrouded in eternal night.
Series Information[]
The manga series of Tegami Bachi written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Asada was published from September 6, 2006 to January 4, 2016 in Japan, and from September 1, 2009 to March 7, 2017 for the English language. There are 20 volumes consisting of 100 total chapters. The series was first published in Monthly Shōnen Jump, and later moved to Jump Square.
An anime adaption of the series was released by Studio Pierrot under TV TOKYO, running from October 3, 2009 to March 26, 2011. The series consists of two anime seasons with 25 episodes each, as well as 25 three-minute special episodes included in each Japanese Region 2 DVD.
Overall Synopsis[]
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Watch out! This article contain spoilers from the Tegami Bachi anime and manga!
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The story begins with 18-year old Gauche Suede, a Letter Bee, arriving to pick up his latest package. However, he was surprised to find his letter to be a little boy named Lag Seeing. Lag has just lost his mother, who has been taken to Akatsuki, AmberGround's capital, and the boy is to be delivered to his aunt's residence in Campbell Litus. Along the way, the Letter Bee tells the boy briefly about his job and the Gaichuu he has to repel. After a mishap regarding Lag unwittingly firing Gauche's weapon, the Shindanjuu, Gauche takes the boy to a cave to rest for the night. After Lag has recurring dreams regarding Gauche's lifestyle and his sister Sylvette, the boy wakes up to discover Gauche and his Dingo Roda lying exhausted from a fight with numerous Gaichuu. Lag, Gauche and Roda continue their journey. Lag starts to warm up to Gauche and Roda, but he is still intent on finding his mother and asks Gauche to bring him along to Akatsuki if he becomes Head Bee. However Gauche sticks to his duty as Letter Bee and does not want to have any connections with the boy. Lag becomes upset and steals Gauche's Shindanjuu while he's asleep to head for the capital, but is lost and falls into a sand trap by a Gaichuu Bucker.
Gauche arrives in time to save Lag and shoots the Gaichuu, but he misses as it's too far. They prepare for another shot and Lag reveals a spirit amber in his left eye, which strengthens the Shindanjuu and destroy the Gaichuu. Later, Lag carries an injured Gauche all the way to town. Three days passed and Gauche has trouble getting supplies as the townspeople are wary of outsiders. Lag brings food and water before they leave. Lag and Gauche have a touching moment as Gauche finally treats him as a friend. As Lag bids farewell to Gauche, he shouts that he will be a Letter Bee like him someday. Five years later, Lag prepares to embark on his promise to be a Letter Bee.
During the five years, Lag lives with his aunt Sabrina, while studying hard to be a Letter Bee. Eventually he passes the preliminary exams and is granted an interview at the Yuusari region. After bidding goodbye to his aunt and the townspeople, Lag takes off with Connor, a regular Letter Bee at Campbell Litus, to the train station to head for Yuusari. Lag stumbles onto a little girl sitting inside a niche in the station and notices her mailing label, however the delivery details are unclear. Lag decides to part ways with Connor and deliver the girl to her destination himself before heading for the interview. When Lag tries to get her name, the girl tells him that she has many aliases. Lag decides to name her Niche from their first encounter, which she accepts. Lag and Niche reach the town they were looking for and find the address Niche is delivered to, a freak circus named "Love Someone Down". They discover that the animals used to perform in the circus have been mistreated. Niche is handed over to the circus ringleader and she bids farewell to Lag. Before leaving for Yuusari, Lag forgets to have the receiver sign the delivery receipt and heads back.
After obtaining information on the circus's newest exhibit, which is actually Niche, Lag rushes back just in time to see Niche destroying the circus and releasing all the animals. He goes after her into Bccoruoli Forest, which is Gaichuu territory. Lag finds Niche with a Gaichuu, but she handles herself easily and cuts the creature's head off. The Gaichuu continues its attack and injures Niche. This causes Lag to fire a Shindan into the Gaichuu, destroying it, while Niche sees Lag's memories. Niche decides to become Lag's Dingo, while an escaped animal from the circus, whom she calls Steak, goes with them.
Lag and Niche arrive in the town of Kyrie, where it is the place that crosses over to Yuusari, and also a dead end town where few travelers visit. They meet a girl named Neri, who gets interested in them and offers to take them to the town's only inn. However, after checking in, Lag realizes that Neri has made off with his bag, intending to use his crossing pass to go to Yuusari. She attacks Lag and tells him that the reason for stealing his pass is to send a letter to a Letter Bee named Jiggy Pepper, whom she hates for abandoning her and her brother Nero, who died in his absence. After alerting the townspeople's attention, they attack Neri and take the pass for themselves.
Niche arrives in the nick of time and defeat the townspeople, but Neri recovers and snatches the pass, running all the way to the bridge to Yuusari, while Lag and Niche go after her. A mysterious man named Largo Lloyd becomes interested in Lag and Niche. Neri tries to cross the bridge to Bifrost but realizes the bridge is not there. Signal, the gatekeeper of the bridge, identifies her as a trespasser attempting to bluff her way in and summons a frog-like creature to dispose of her. Niche arrives to pin down the monster, while Lag risks his life to grab Neri's letter. He shoots a Shindan from his hand and obtains the letter, in the process revealing the heart of Nero. Neri witnesses Nero convincing Jiggy to go pursue his dreams and he promises to become stronger in order to protect his sister someday. The letter was meant for Nero to apologize to Jiggy for his unfulfilled promise, and asks Jiggy to take care of Neri. Largo Lloyd appears and explains his theory of Lag's ability with his spirit amber: to peer into one's heart. Using this information, Lag fires a Shindan at the church bell, revealing to Neri that Jiggy funded the building of the church in town in order to instill hope for his siblings and the townspeople. Her faith in Letter Bees restored, Neri decides to mail the letter to Jiggy herself, and bids goodbye to Lag's group.
Lag's group are allowed to pass over the bridge to Bifrost, and reunites with Connor, who has been waiting for them. He rides them to Central Yuusari, where Lag will take his exams in the Head Post Office. The sub-master, Aria Rink, whom Lag recognizes in Gauche's thoughts, brings him to see the master, who turns out to be Largo Lloyd. Lag is directed to do his suitability interview exam with another initiate, McCay G. They are to deliver letters to a town by going through a path where Gaichuu are frequently encountered. McCay gets there first and encounters a centipede Gaichuu, Glen Keith, but he has no prior experience with Gaichuu and firing the Shindanjuu. Lag's group arrives and defeats the Gaichuu successfully with team coordination, however Lag ends up dirtying the letter. Zazie, the exam proctor, arrives to evaluate their performance. Using Lag's Shindan on McCay's letter, it is revealed that McCay forged it when his was dirtied.
McCay fails the exam while Lag is given Zazie's approval. Lag is surprised to learn from Zazie that Gauche is no longer a Letter Bee. Lag is upset to learn that Gauche had a breakdown due to the stress of work, according to Zazie. Connor rides Lag to Sylvette Suede's house, where he has an awkward encounter with the girl when Sylvette mistakes Lag for a debt collector. Upon seeing Gauche's Shindanjuu with Sylvette, Lag initially thinks he is here but Sylvette tells him that her brother never came back home after he was continually absent from his duties in Akatsuki and later fired from his work. She remembers that day Aria personally sent his termination notice to inform her. Sylvette has decided to think her brother was dead, and tells Lag to never come back to her place. Later, when heading back, Lag asks Niche what she would do if he lost his heart, and Niche answers that she will do whatever it takes to drag him back, and she will never forget about him. Lag rushes back to Sylvette's place, promising to search for Gauche and restore Sylvette's hopes.
Lag heads back to Sylvette's house, where his spirit amber begins to glow. Touching Gauche's Shindanjuu, both Lag and Sylvette witness flashbacks of Gauche. He insisted on working more deliveries despite the risk of losing his heart for the sake of curing Sylvette's disability. The last memory of Gauche was the time before he headed for the capital and his first encounters with the group called Reverse. Lag promises to find Gauche and bring him back to Sylvette. Sylvette hands Lag Gauche's Shindanjuu for him to use, per her brother's wishes.
Back at the Beehive, Largo evaluates Lag's performance and makes him a full-fledged Letter Bee. However, Lag explains his dream is not to become just a Bee; he wants to become Head Bee someday, where no delivery of letters is impossible. Sylvette allows Lag to live in Gauche's room for rent. Aria arrives at Sylvette's house to take Lag out to ask about his background. Aria brings Lag and Niche to the Hill of Prayer, where the artificial sun at Akatsuki shines very brightly on there. She tells Lag about the Day of Flicker, when a government airship which was used to make adjustments to the sun crashed into the vicinity. Before the crash, the light from the sun went out briefly and flickered back on. This caused Gauche to lose part of his heart and forget about his mother, who just died from giving birth to Sylvette. He began to focus all his thoughts to taking care of his sister. Lag tells Aria that he was born on the Day of Flicker just like Sylvette. He and Niche leave Aria and go to help Zazie and Connor repel multiple Gaichuu attacks. After the battle, all three Letter Bees sit down for lunch and drink Sylvette's soup, which causes them to know how horrible the taste is.
Lag and Niche begin their first delivery. On their way, they meet a fellow Bee named Moc Sullivan, who thinks that Lag is not fit for the job. He feels there's no need to concern themselves with the content inside the letters, all they do is just deliver them. Lag and Niche arrive at the sender's house, a down-and-out writer named Vincent Alcott. He writes fictional events of his day-to-day life in his letter to his mother. Lag objects this kind of behaviour but can't do anything about it. Crossing a perilous bridge to deliver the letter, Lag, Niche and an old woman encounter a Gaichuu which attempts to destroy the bridge. After Lag and Niche defeat it, the shindan hits the letter, revealing Vincent's memories to the woman Louise, who really is his mother. However, Louise knows that her son writes these kind of letters to her, and hopes that he will one day make his dreams a reality and come back home with pride. On their way back, Niche shows Lag a letter hidden inside one of Vincent's books that Steak ate. Realising this is the letter that contain Vincent's true feelings, Lag decides to return it to its owner.
"Sei-naru Yoru" (Holy Night), a Christmas-like holiday originating from the northern areas of AmberGround. Lag and Zazie, become "Holy Night Messengers", who dress in Santa Claus-like costumes, and whose job is "grant wishes" to those they deliver letters to. Lag and Zazie meet Sonja, a girl whose parents were killed by Gaichuu. Because of this, the other villagers fear her, thinking that she might attract other Gaichuu to her village. When a Gaichuu does attack, Zazie determines that it was because of all the presents for Holy Night. Before they return to the village, Sonja gives Lag and Zazie her red and green hair ribbons to remember her by. Zazie then gives his ribbon to a cat he had discovered earlier.
A man named Promessa Prometas returns to withdraw the delivery of his letter. A rich man named Galador constantly pursues a woman named Pistis for her hand in marriage, but his real motives is to take her land and rights. Lag and Niche encounter Galador after he is rejected once again by Pistis. Upon learning the letter is from Promessa to Pistis, Galador and his servant treats Lag and Niche to a dinner. Later, Galador is gone, while Promessa catches up to Lag. He explains that he doesn't want the letter to be delivered to his fiancée, Pistis. He made a promise to marry her once his dream to be a scholar has been fulfilled, however he was afraid that she won't accept him since five years have already passed. Lag finds the letter missing, stolen by Galador while he was asleep. Meanwhile, Galador threatens to destroy Promessa's letter if Pistis doesn't hand over her land rights to him. Lag, Niche and Promessa arrive to take back the letter, but the contents inside are spilled out over the field, creating a rapidly grown bed of flowers. Promessa explains that he bred these flowers to fulfil part of the promise with Pistis and asks her hand in marriage, which she accepts.
Dr. Thunderland Jr, a biologist in the Third Bioscience division as well as the head doctor in the Bee Hive, has a morbid interest in collecting and dissecting animal corpses, earning him the nickname of "Corpse Doctor". Exhausted from firing too many shindans, Lag returns to the post office and meets up with Connor and Zazie. Dr Thunderland recognizes Steak as a rare Kapellmeister, a creature that is able to form a symbiotic relationship with the spirit insects. He kidnaps Steak for "dissection", while Lag and the others chase after him. After the doctor is cornered at the front door of his lab, Zazie attempts to attack him for having taken the stray cats he befriended for his experiments. Lag knocks the cage holding Steak open and all of them witness Thunderland's flashbacks. It turns out that he is actually a kind doctor who comes up with cures from the corpses he collects. He took the stray cats in as there was a disease spreading around the neighborhood. Aria takes Lag to the lobby where she plays her violin to all the gathered staff, healing their spirits with her Heart Restoration shindan. Thunderland comments to Lag that Gauche Suede was one person who understood him, and wishes him luck in finding the missing man.
While traveling in a carriage, a couple named Moss and Bonnie strike up conversation with Lag. A gang of cowboys chase after the carriage. Lag is told by Bonnie that Frank, the leader of the gang, was madly in love with her and wanted to marry her, but she refused as she's in love with Moss. Niche helps the couple by beating up Frank and his gang, allowing the carriage to escape, but later falls into an ambush, sending Lag and the couple flying out of the carriage. Frank and his gang arrive and demands the spirit ambers that Bonnie and Moss stole. Revealing themselves to be black market spirit amber miners, Frank tells Lag that the couple are thieves and Bonnie is a con-woman, shocking Moss. However, Bonnie claims that she wanted the ambers so that she can start a new life with Moss. Niche returns to rescue Lag and the couple when Frank is about to execute Moss. With the spirit ambers in their hands, Moss and Bonnie wants to sell them in order to get funds to enter Akatsuki, but Lag has never heard of such a way. He snatches away the spirit ambers and tells the couple that it's wrong to steal things in order to attain happiness. His spirit amber reacts with Bonnie's gun and all witness her flashbacks, showing her to be cheating Moss of his love for her in order to meet up with her real lover in Akatsuki. Moss is angry and wants to kill her, but stops himself. Bonnie tries to kill Lag for ruining her plan but Niche stops her, causing her to run away. Moss thanks Lag for letting him know the truth than living out a lie, as he leaves with a broken heart.
Lag is sent on a delivery request by Joey, the president of a cotton mill. The letter the president wants delivered is a fan letter to a famous pianist named Matilda Rein. Lag sends the letter to Matilda, who happily reads its contents. It turns out that she is motivated by the encouragements of this particular fan named Joey, who writes poems that vitalize her spirits. Matilda and Joey send letters to each other, culminating in a planned meeting. After asking Lag and Niche to accompany her to meet Joey, she tells of how she met her manager Belushi and their unstable relationship. After some time has passed since Matilda's meeting with Joey, Lag bumps into Belushi outside the Bee Hive and notices that the handwriting on one of the fan letters he dropped looks the same as Joey's. Belushi explains that he and Joey are childhood friends and Joey fell in love with Matilda at first sight, so he helped him write letters of encouragement to her. As Joey and Matilda are going out, he feels best not to tell Matilda the truth about the letters. Later, Belushi tells Matilda that he's quitting as her manager and will be leaving the city and sends her latest music record to her. Lag fires a shindan at the record and it reveals the truth to Matilda. Outside, they run into Belushi who has decided to come back. Matilda tells Belushi not to leave her, and they both go off together. Joey appears and tells Lag and Niche that he planned for Belushi to write the fan letters as that was the only way to push his old friend into admitting his feelings for Matilda. Lag Seeing just finish a delivery and went back to the bee hive, to receive the next assignment that it's a personal delivery.
The chief explains that it's a small package, to Elena Blanc, who once worked as a bee, and a letter to Wald Blanc, her younger brother in Yodaka. The letter is from Largo Lloyd, the chief. Miss Aria tells Lag Seeing that there will be a guide around Lake Olympia known as Darwin. Lag Seeing asks for Darwin everywhere, and all he manages to find out is that Darwin is a veteran. Lag Seeing and others follow Darwin to Bifrost. When Miss Aria and the chief are in a conversation, Miss Aria ask the chief why he hide from Lag that Darwin was Elena Blanc's Dingo when she's on duty and the real package to Elena is Darwin. Darwin fainted in the journey to Giorgo. Lag send him to man's house. The man told Lag to be careful of the Dacquiose Cliff, because Elena Blanc was killed by a Gaichuu 10 years ago there. Lag decided to left Darwin there because he's still weak. But Darwin was awake and force himself to go with them when he heard about Elena Blanc. At the Dacquoise Cliff near Silencio, Niche finds no path because there's a landslide. Gaichuu Absinthe attacks, and when Lag shoots a Shindan, he sees Darwin's heart. Elena had gone for a delivery and left Darwin at the Olympia Lake because he was hurt, and called him to wait for her but she died. Largo Lloyd (when the chief was young and still only a bee) told Darwin not to wait, but Darwin didn't care about his word and kept on waiting.
After Lag followed Darwin past the cave to Silencio, he saw Elena's grave. Darwin lay beside Elena's grave and dead. Lag saw Elena's heart. Largo Lloyd and Elena were good friends before she died, and she asked about his charm because it's nice. He tell her that it's a rare item and there're another matching pair and now the chief found the matching pair and delivered to Elena. Lag gave the small package (a pair of pendants) to Largo Lloyd. A match between the Letter Bees and a relatively unknown delivery service called the Letter Pigeons is underway in Yuusari. Lag is earlier given a challenge by Rose, the leader of the Pigeons, to determine who's the fastest postmen in the region. Rose wants to find out if people other than Letter Bees can do the job, if not better. Largo sets the rules of the match, with both teams picking up their letter and delivering at the finishing point in the Bee Hive. However, Letter Bees are not allowed to bring their dingoes. When the match begins, The Pigeons keep using dirty tricks to force the Bees off their path. Arriving to the pickup point after the Pigeons have gone, the Letter Bees receive their letter from the orphanage matron and learns that the area they are in are never visited by Bees.
Although the Pigeons have a big lead, they are soon attacked by a Gaichuu, which destroys their transport. While the Pigeons run for their lives, Zazie destroys the Gaichuu. However, the Pigeons persist in delivering their letter, with Rose as their only chance. Lag is sent off to the finish line while the rest deal with more Gaichuu. After Rose is attacked by another Gaichuu, Lag defeats it and witness her flashbacks. It turns out she is friends with the orphanage, and decides to start up a delivery service for poor people when they don't have enough money to hire Letter Bees. Lag supports Rose all the way to the finish line. In the aftermath, Rose tells Lag that even though the Pigeons lost, they won't give up delivering letters. Lag falls sick from an earlier delivery in the rain. Niche tries to help Sylvette nurse Lag back to health, but her attempts only made him feel worse. Niche helps Sylvette send Lag's sick leave letter to the Bee Hive but loses it on her way. Two thugs pick up the letter and attempt to blackmail Niche for money, however Sylvette arrives to stop them. While buying medicine, Sylvette has to drag Niche from distractions along the way. Niche goes into a tantrum and tells Sylvette that she always forces her to do things she doesn't like, and goes off to look for something to make Lag better. After finding that the particular medicine is sold out, Sylvette receives directions from the pharmacy to look for herbs. However, her wheelchair is stuck in the soft mud and begins to sink. Steak runs off to get Niche for help and Niche manages to rescue Sylvette just in time. Niche admits that Sylvette is the only one who can nurse Lag. Sylvette realizes that Niche is really concerned for Lag's well-being.
They return home to find Lag recovered from his fever by Zazie's medicine when he and Connor come to visit. Lag and Niche return to the Bee Hive and find Zazie recovering from injuries sustained by a Gaichuu attack. Aria questions Zazie on the letters he lost during the attack, citing the Bee's responsibility to find and deliver them. After some probing, Zazie reveals he went through the Hart Desert to directly deliver his letters, despite there being a safer route to do so. Lag takes up the responsibility to find the letters. After Lag's group heads for the spot Zazie last encountered the Gaichuu Absynt, they find the letters tied to Absynt's horn. Lag fires at the Gaichuu to no effect as it esily dispels his shot from an opening in its body. Steak manages to retrieve the letters but the group end up in danger. Zazie arrives to fight the Gaichuu but does not care about the delivery of the letters. Lag attacks the Gaichuu and it reveals Zazie's flashbacks, showing the Bee to have lost the letters while unable to defeat the creature with his shindan. Lag, Niche and Zazie work together to destroy the Gaichuu. Afterwards, Lag offers to deliver the letters for him but Zazie insists on going with him, saying it was his original responsibility to do so in the first place. He tells Lag he didn't explain to Aria about his own inability to defeat the Gaichuu as he wanted to do it himself.
Lag, Zazie, Connor and their dingoes pay a visit to a new relaxation lounge set up by Dr. Thunderland Jr. Inside, they are greeted by the lounge's caretaker, Mana Jones, who tells Lag how Gauche and the doctor helped her in her potpourri research. One night, Mana fell asleep causing a fire, which left her blind. Thunderland learns from the Bioscience Advisory Panel that she voluntarily resigned after the incident. In frustration, he threatens to have her dissected. Gauche learns of the doctor's outburst and discovers that Thunderland is aware of Mana's potential and concerned about her future. Thunderland looks for rare helenseed that will help in her research, and has a bottle delivered by Gauche, which touches her. During the panel's decision to terminate Mana's contract, Mana appears with Gauche with her request to continue. However the panel still decides to terminate her services. Seeing Mana's determination, the panel chairman challenges her and Thunderland to complete her research within a week to prove her results, otherwise she will have to leave.
Thunderland tells Gauche about Dr. Whitman, an expert in plants and vegetation and once an honored member of the Bioscience Division. If Whitman recognizes Mana's research as viable, he can put in a recommendation for her. Unfortunately, Whitman's home is located at the southernmost end of Yuusari, which will take 10 days to travel there and back, and they only have one week before the deadline. Despite this, Gauche volunteers to deliver Thunderland's request and Mana's research notebook to Whitman. Traveling through harsh environments, Gauche reaches the doctor's house but collapses from exhaustion. Whitman finally agrees to recommend Mana and Gauche heads back with his letter to Thunderland and Mana. With Whitman's recommendation, the panel has no choice but to let Mana continue her research. With Gauche's help, Mana is able to complete her research and build the lounge.
Thunderland comes in with news from Jiggy Pepper about Honey Waters, a town rumored of having anti-government activists. Gauche once delivered a letter to that town and met a man known as "one who is unable to become Spirit", before he went missing. Lag and Connor are sent to Honey Waters to find out what Gauche discovered and find a strange couple, Hunt and Sarah, who escaped from Akatsuki. Sarah claims that Akatsuki is experimenting on artificial spirits and made her husband what he is, gaining the support of the townspeople. Sarah shows a black spirit amber to the crowd, which Lag recognizes as Gauche's. Sarah uses Gauche's spirit amber to perform heart restoration on the townspeople. Lag asks Sarah how she got Gauche's spirit amber, but the woman claims ignorance and sends the townspeople after Lag's group.
In the fight, Lag is secretly saved by Hunt who tells him to escape, while Connor and an incapacitated Niche and Steak (both drank the town's paralytic waters earlier) are captured by the townspeople. Lag encounters a girl named Ann Grado, who helps him escape only if he delivers the town's letters for them. Ann tells Lag that the "ones unable to become Spirit" came to the town five years ago and drew followers to their cause. Lag learns that gaichuu are attracted to the hearts contained in the letters. Meanwhile, Sarah and Hunt discover that Niche is a true "one unable to become Spirit", with Sarah planning to offer her to the anti-government organization Reverse. Hunt desires a normal life with Sarah, but Sarah is not satisfied with their lives. Connor finds out from Hunt that he and Sarah are just frauds. While Lag and Ann bring the bag of letters underground, they are thrown aboveground by a Gaichuu Cidre. Connor, who is freed by his dingo Gus, arrives to help Lag.
Connor manages to knock the gaichuu down, but Lag is restrained by the townspeople from finishing it off. Hunt knocks the townspeople away while Zazie and his dingo arrive and knock the gaichuu back. Zazie arrives and threatens the townspeople holding Lag away. The three Bees formulate a plan with Connor forcing Gaichuu Cidre above ground, while Zazie keeps it from moving, and Lag to shoot its weak point at its bottom. Lag is forced to retrieve the bag of letters which falls underground. While this happens, Ann, Hunt and Zazie are subsequently caught in Cidre's grasp, which attempts to devour their hearts and memories. All three of their tragic flashbacks are shown during the attack. Zazie lost his parents to a gaichuu, Ann lost her father when he tried delivering letters outside town, Hunt willingly had his arms amputated and replaced with a creature's and become the circus' newest exhibit in order to pay off his and Sarah's debts. Lag returns and destroys Cidre, freeing its victims' hearts in the process. Lag spots Gauche's memories freed from the gaichuu and is overwhelmed with emotion. Hunt's flashback is further shown, with he and Sarah leaving the circus once people loses interest in his monster hands.
They wandered into the outskirts of Honey Waters and are attacked by a gaichuu, but Gauche and Roda appeared and rescued them. Gauche encountered a man named "the One Unable to Become Spirit", the leader of Reverse, an anti-government group. He asked Gauche to join his group and appeared to tell him the truth about Sylvette's condition. However, Gauche refused to join and left. The townspeople of Honey Waters discovered Hunt and Sarah and are frightened by Hunt's monster hands. Sarah saved Hunt from being attacked by lying that they were "the Ones Unable to Become Spirits" and were responsible for the killing of the gaichuu. After witnessing Hunt's flashbacks, the townspeople throw rocks at the couple, but Lag defends them, in turn prompting Sarah to defend him instead. Most of the townspeople remain anti-government, while Hunt and Sarah leave the town in Connor's carriage to go to the Bee Hive, where Dr. Thunderland Jr. will hopefully remedy a way to do something about Hunt's hands. While heading back on foot themselves, Niche is confronted by a girl named Roda, and Lag finally encounters Gauche. But the former Letter Bee no longer remembers him and steals his letter. Lag runs after Gauche to jog his memories, but the man claims to be a Marauder named Noir, and shoots him with a shindanjuu. Lag is wounded and lays sprawled on the ground, watching tearfully as Gauche and Roda leave. Lag then falls unconscious.
Lag Seeing finishes a delivery and returns to the bee hive to receive his next assignment. The chief explains that it's a small package for Elena Blanc, who once worked as a bee, and a letter to Wald Blanc, her younger brother in Yodaka. The letter is from Largo Lloyd, the chief. Miss Aria tells Lag that there will be a guide around Lake Olympia known as Darwin. He finds out that Darwin is a veteran. Lag Seeing and the others follow Darwin to Bifrost. When Miss Aria and the chief are in a conversation, Miss Aria ask the chief why he hid from Lag that Darwin was Elena Blanc's Dingo when she's on duty and the real package to Elena is Darwin. Darwin fainted in the journey to Giorgo. Lag sent him to a man's house. When Lag looked at Gauche Suede's shindanju, he started thinking about the past with Gauche Suede. The man called Lag to be careful of the Dacquiose Cliff, because Elena Blanc was killed by a Gaichuu 10 years ago there. Lag decided to leave Darwin there because he's still weak. But Darwin was awake and forced himself to go with them when he heard about Elena Blanc.
At the Dacquoise Cliff near Silencio, Niche finds no path because there was a landslide. Gaichuu Absinthe attacks, and when Lag shoots a Shindan, he sees Darwin's heart. Elena had gone for a delivery and left Darwin at the Olympia Lake because he was hurt, and called him to wait for her but she died. Largo Lloyd (when the chief was young and still only a bee) told Darwin not to wait, but Darwin didn't care about his word and kept on waiting. After Lag followed Darwin who passed through the cave to Silencio, he saw Elena's grave. Darwin laid beside Elena's grave and died. Lag saw Elena's heart. Largo Lloyd and Elena were good friends before she died, and she asked about his charm because it's nice. He told her that it's a rare item and there are another matching pair and now the chief found the matching pair and delivered to Elena. Lag sent the small package (a pair of pendants) and the letter to Wald Blanc, Elena's brother. And after that Wald Blanc made a grave for Darwin beside Elena's grave and placed the charms on both of the graves of Elena and Darwin.
The unconscious Lag is carried by Niche until Jiggy Pepper happens to pass by and offers them a ride back to the Bee Hive. Lag dreams of an injured Gauche waking up with amnesia. The leader of Reverse, Lawrence, who also calls himself the "One who was not Able to Become Spirit", gives him a new identity, Noir, and makes him a Marauder. After recovering, Lag reports to Largo, Aria and Dr. Thunderland Jr. on Gauche's amnesia and defection. Largo explains that Marauders steal letters from Bees working directly under Reverse, an organization intent on finding information to topple the Amberground government. Lag is instructed not to mention Gauche's defection to anyone. Niche tries to cheer Lag up but he remains despondent, wondering how he is going to explain to Sylvette about Gauche. However, Sylvette throws a "Thank You" party, with Aria's help, for Lag for finding her brother's whereabouts. Sylvette is glad Lag managed to find Gauche, and tells Lag she will await her brother's return once Lag brings him back. Lag is comforted by Sylvette's understanding and encouragement and both break down in tears.
Zazie finds Niche's underpants outside Sylvette's house but she herself is nowhere to be found. Niche feels guilty on failing to protect Lag and has run away. Lag and Connor split up in searching for Niche around town. Niche gets hungry and decides to finally eat Steak but has to cook him. She stumbles into a bakery and attempts to cook Steak, but is mistaken by the owners of the bakery for a burglar. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Niche is offered food by the owners, Jacob and Sandra Gobeni, and she reveals her problems to them. Sandra offers Niche a place to stay, but they are interrupted when a drunken street performer attempts a tightrope walk across rooftops. Lag tries to persuade him but to no avail. The rope snaps and the performer falls and Lag manages to grab him, but both are hanging dangerously from a great height. After hearing Sandra criticizing Lag's missing dingo, Niche comes to her senses and rescues Lag and the performer. Lag scolds Niche briefly and warmly and tells her to go back home with him. Jacob reveals to Lag that Gauche used to come to his maintenance shop often to repair his gun, and gives him a letter bullet. Lag will need to write a letter and roll it up inside the bullet, which he will use to fire it on Gauche to hopefully restore his memories. As Niche leaves with Lag and the others, she thanks Sandra for her bread as it made her feel happier.
Sylvette welcomes Lag and Niche home. Lag ponders over what to write in the letter bullet for Gauche, and confesses to Sylvette that he doesn't have much experience writing letters.
Lag's job takes him to a mansion in the countryside where he delivers a letter to Ray Attlee. He is welcomed by a exceptionally tall maid, Kimidori. Ray wants Lag to find out who sent her picture letters of hydrangea-colored mountains, and explains the pictures remind her of her childhood while living in a village. Ray's parents received governmental positions in Central and had her moved to a location close by to receive care as she is sickly. However, she is cheered up by the letters, which she feels they tell her to keep on fighting her illness. Lag searches through town for information on the origin of the letters and finds out that the hydrangea colors came from Blue Romeo flower dyes. While searching for Niche at the mansion's garden, Lag finds Kimidori picking Blue Romeo flowers and concludes she is the sender, which she readily admits. Kimidori is glad that Ray is encouraged by her letters, but refuses to tell Lag further and makes him promise not to reveal this.
However, when Lag wonders how to tell Ray, he discovers Colbasso has claimed credit for the letters for her own selfish reasons. Although Lag promised not to tell, he shoots a shindan into the letter, which reveals a flashback of Ray's childhood. It turns out Ray met and befriended Kimidori when she was young. Before she moved, Ray gives her a matching hairpin as proof of their friendship. When Kimidori grew older, her family owed debts and she is forced to sell the hairpin. Feeling guilty for having sold the hairpin, Kimidori leaves home to search for Ray's current residence and eventually finds it. She then plants the Blue Romeo in the garden to remind Ray of her childhood. Ray reunites with Kimidori and thanks her for the happy memories. Inspired, Lag decides to draw a picture for his letter to Gauche but is disappointed as his drawings are awful. Lag is shown working on repairs for an imagery lighthouse situated in the desert. An old man addresses him as Lugh, his grandson who was born and raised in the lighthouse. Lag tells his grandfather of hearing odd voices and his grandfather dismisses them as his own imaginations.
He explains to Lag that he is all that he has left and not to think of leaving the lighthouse like his parents did. While alone, Lag keeps seeing a strange four-eyed apparition telling him to leave and sees marks all over his body. Suddenly his grandfather appears and points a gun while muttering the word "hate". Lag realizes that the old man is not his grandfather and he is not his grandson. A flashback shows Zazie telling Lag about Jiggy Pepper who delivers express letters. Lag learns that Jiggy is heading to Liquid Sand River and goes to look for him there. Lag remembers who he is and realizes that the four-eyed apparition is actually Niche and Steak. While they face the old man who blames them for taking away his grandson, Jiggy confronts Gaichuu Korona who has taken over the dilapidated lighthouse. After Jiggy destroys Korona, the old man disappears and Lag and the others escape from the crumbling lighthouse. Lag remembers going to look for Jiggy and finds Gaichuu Korona instead.
Upon entering the lighthouse to defeat it, he is overwhelmed and starts to hallucinate himself as the old man's grandson. Lag fires a shindan into the old man's journal to find out his heart. It turns out the old man was left all alone when his son refused to become the lighthouse keeper and left with his family. He began to weave fictional tales of his grandson still living with him and becoming successor to the lighthouse. The old man eventually died and the lighthouse is left deserted. Jiggy explains that the journals the old man wrote were actually filled with hatred, and Korona consumed the heart within them which overwhelmed Lag. However, thanks to Niche, who is immune to the hallucinations, Jiggy was able to easily defeat Korona. Jiggy warns Lag not to be taken in by emotions within letters and to be strong. After paying his last respects to the old man, Lag and the others ride home with Jiggy. Jiggy tells Lag that he received a letter from Neri, his sister, and thanks him for his help.
Numerous incidents of Reverse marauders attacking Bees and stealing their letters come to a head, with Largo writing reports to the inspectors from the capital, Hazle Valentine and Caribs Garrard, who has arrived in Yuusari. Moc Sullivan comes in with news of being ambushed and losing his letters in a ravine. When Lag offers to help retrieve the letters, Hazle and Carib stop the Bees as they have no qualification to deal with Reverse, and they also suspect a leak within the Bee Hive. However, Lag, Niche and Steak stow themselves away on the inspectors' carriage. Upon discovering Lag has followed them, the inspectors decide to let him and the others follow them to the ravine. Finding the letters scattered around, Lag offers to help collect the letters when Carib tells him he will reveal what he knows about Gauche. After Lag and Niche are distracted by Carib and Hazle respectively, Carib uses a catalysing agent that resonates with the hearts in the letters to attract a gaichuu.
After Lag and Niche destroy the gaichuu, Lag inadvertently finds a letter regarding the leader of Reverse, Lawrence. He reveals he is a failed man-made spirit created by an experiment sanctioned by the government and stirs up support from the populace. Gauche/Noir is confirmed to be working for Reverse. Although disappointed, Lag remains firm in delivering letters for the people. Later, Lawrence listens to the results of the experiment to attract gaichuu from the inspectors, who are revealed to be working for Reverse. Lawrence decides the time has come for Reverse to make their next move and sends Noir and Roda to the north. Lag gets a day off from work and decides to ask Sylvette for advice on how to write the letter bullet. Lag delivers a letter to her as well, from a 10-year-old girl named M. Croce.
Croce likes the dolls Sylvette makes and requests to have a doll of her likeness made by tomorrow for her brother who is away. Sylvette decides to use a doll of her own likeness to rework it into Croce's image. In the morning, Sylvette goes to Dogra to deliver the doll and Lag insists on accompanying her. Sylvette wants to board a carriage but Lag warns her that letters get stolen frequently in that direction. While Lag and Sylvette sleep inside the carriage while on the way to Dogra, Autobahn, a thief disguised as an old woman steals Sylvette's package. Lag and Sylvette awaken from the commotion and try to stop Autobahn from escaping, however Lag and Autobahn fall off the carriage and the doll is thrown and left hanging over a precarious cliff. While Lag goes to retrieve the doll, Sylvette goes after Autobahn who has hijacked the carriage to make his escape. Niche arrives with Lag's gun and Lag uses it to shoot the doll back to her. The shindan resonates with the doll and reveals Gauche's thoughts before he entered Akatsuki. Sylvette decided to make a doll of her likeness to give to Gauche, but he leaves for the capital before she completes it. She wanted to help Croce as the girl's situation resembles her and Gauche's relationship.
Meanwhile, Sylvette manages to stop the carriage and defeat the thief. She presents the doll to a grateful Croce upon reaching the town. Back at the Hive, Largo and Aria receive an eyewitness report of Gauche in the north. Eyewitness reports show that Gauche/Noir and Roda were seen heading to North Yodoka, towards the town of Blue Notes Blues. Lag and Niche are sent to the town to investigate and seek out Noir. Dr. Thunderland Jr. tells them that the Maka originated from that place as well, with hopes that Niche will be able to awaken the blood of the Maka within her. While trying to keep up with Niche when nearing the outskirts of the town, Lag discovers a strange gaichuu not encountered before. Lag finds Noir's empty cartridges and attempts to fire a shindan to reveal Noir's heart, but is thrown down a crevasse and buried underneath. Meanwhile, Zazie and Wasiolka try to locate missing letters elsewhere and encounter Noir and Roda who knock them out. While trapped below the ravine, Lag watches Gauche's flashbacks and sees Lawrence asking him to join Reverse and gave a girl to assist him. Gauche had the girl take him to visit places that his former self once lived. They both watched the Bee Hive and later Sylvette from a distance. The girl shows Gauche a failed experiment from Akatsuki who is washed ashore, and explains that the government was trying to recreate ancient spirits. She reveals that she is one of the experiments that managed to live and escaped.
Later, Gauche threw away his former identity and took on the name of Noir, Lawrence's personal marauder. In the present, Zazie wakes up and attacks Noir, telling him that he won't allow such a dangerous man like him to go near Lag. However, he is knocked down once again and manages to see Noir's memories of dealing with the gaichuu Lag saw earlier. Lag sees Gauche's flashback of naming the girl Roda. He realizes that Gauche still remembers his former dingo's name and so there is a chance to help him regain more memories. Niche arrives to rescue Lag and they head for the town. Niche has Lag follow her through a shortcut, telling him that she knew because she was born in Blue Notes Blues 200 years ago.