The dawn of the brand new day came through the classrooms windows illuminating everything and everyone in the brightest lights. Students rare to appear before classes began but there were a handful of achievers or the punctual of whom were excited to settle into their corners. One outlier student had a different reason for his appearance before the first bells, before even the teachers appearance to begin to scribe chalk upon board.

It was a special day today, the second Tuesday of each month meant something to the student whom sat upon his desk in the 3rd to last row of the classroom. Tomaki Warumachi held in his mouth a letter addressed.

From Namida Warumachi To Tomaki Warumachi

Tomaki's eyes gleamed with excitement. It had only been around a year since he had bid her fairwell into the world. He still had his arms then. The thought lingered before a smile replaced it and he ripped the letters edge with his teeth. If the pain remained it hadn't mattered to the boy, he had other scars on his body from the bouts, the fights, the training since he and his sister were a duo in the streets of Kageoka. She had been there for so much of it that he hadn't told her of what had happened to him with the fear of her returning home was something he wouldn't allow for her. She deserved to be free. To him it was simple; Just another loss that he would regail to her one day she came home of her own choices.

Namida would send him letters frequently of her travels. It was the way that they kept in touch no matter how far away she was and also a way to quell Tomaki's endless worry for her wellbeing. He kept them all in his room back home, which was now moved into a shabby room near the gym in his family's dojo in the city. Every one ornately pressed with a flower she would find interesting on her treks and hikes. His return letters were rare, given she hardly stayed in one place to receive any of them. That was fine, the few he sent before the loss of his hands were immaculate works of art in their own way.

His eyes finally focused on the words as his boisterous smile softened.

'*Dearest Tomaki,'

Wow! Europe is so very pretty this time of year, so much fair colder than our home. I sit atop a mountains peak after a long expedition with some of the kind men and women of whom I used their ship to cross the Atlantic waters. I think I've decided, my brother. No more plane rides for me! Skipping ahead so much of the world was perhaps our only true compromise with Mother. But I am making way soon for the depths of Asia, I have a tip that a group of archeologists are going to diving in some caves and it sounds so cool!*

The Boarish Brawler's eyes glinted as he continued to read. Holding the paper oddly in the way's he had become accustomed to holding things in his current state. A medical exemption for his coniditon hadn't made it any less odd how he sat, how he acted.

'But enough about the future, Brother. I want to tell you about an encounter I had while hiking through the ice and snow! We saw a Yeti! It was massive and hairy, and the expeditioners I traveled with did fight with it. How garish, I admit. It was when they abandoned me, Brother, as I tend to the Yeti's wounds and told them off at the coldest peaks about letting such a creature thrive. Perhaps I am taking my newfound freedom so daring.'

Tomaki chuckled. Wanting to read more but becoming concerned at the idea of her stranded in the mountains of Norway, or wherever she was, with no way back but her own grit. Hairs on his neck tingled in envy as he envisioned himself baring such brutal environments as well! Of course, he would have fought the yeti too.

"What are you reading there, Warumachi-san?" A voice cut through his thoughts. Unnoticing that the bell had rung it was instead someone else who ripped him away from the letter of which he sat back down against the table. Approaching him was a tall and earnest beacon of good will, Shu Jinkō. Tomaki hadn't noticed anybody come in, he looks around clueless to notice the entire room packed. No longer in his own little world he hails the classmate.

"Letter." He nodded. "Tuesday, after all. I always get letter from Sister."

Shu's eyebrow raised. "Oh yeah? What's been going on with her then?" There wasn't too much of an inquisitive effort on Shu's part but more-so sliding right into familiarity as if he had already known. His gleaming grin complimented their shared energy.

"Land safely in America." Tomaki always spoke somewhat slowly and careful. If he didn't, his words slurred accounting the problems with his mouth. A thick mountain accent shouldn't combine with overgrown teeth. "Travel across sea. Hike in Europe. Meet a Yeti!" Tomaki started to explain.

"A yeti?! Those are real? Huh. You sure that it wasn't some super hairy mountain man?"

Chuckling, Tomaki shook his head. "Sister would not fib. Take too much trea-sure in seeing world."

"True true. It's really cool that she's traveling, though! That's what I call 100% following your dreams."

"It al-ways Namida dream see world. See what hidden, exper-expeience-" Tomaki fumbled with his tongue.

"Experience everything out there?" Shu ended for him. Tomaki would nod in approval. "Sounds real freeing, pal. I admit, makes me a little jealous. What I would've done to face off against a Yeti myself! She's too lucky!"

Tomaki paused and looked up at the Council President before slamming his knee against the table and cocking his head back in raucous laughter.

"Eshactly! Thatsh just what I thinking moment ago!" The armless boy slushed.

Him and Shu Jinkō shared a laugh together before Shu looked elsewhere. "Hey hey okay pal, look. You finish that up and tell me later of anything else cool she saw. I have some stuff to do."

Standing up, Tomaki and Shu wordlessly tap their knee's together in an impromptu handshake. Ending up with Tomaki slamming their foreheads together which leave them both a bit dazed afterwards. A few giggles made their way out from onlooked before Shu made his way towards the windows of the room. This was the first moment that Tomaki took stock of everyone else around him.

All he did was give them all a smile before stepping back up to his desk. Picking up the letter again to finish reading before class would eventually formally begin. Especially if he were to share it with others.

'The lead I was writing about earlier. Whilst I sat at a barstead in Skardu, after trekking all across Europe I might add!! I overheard some archeologists saying they were going to scale down the mountains into India and go looking for some ancient caverns and religious relics! People's views of the world and their faith as so different than home, Shalt-Zoi! Apparently, the Yeti that I had defended wasn't really a Mountain Spirit. That'd be so different if I hadn't left! I still helped some locals put up a small shrine in veneration of the mountain's inhabitant in perhaps more people would respect its home!'

Shalt-Zoi. Tomaki loved the nicknames that he and his sister had for eachother. Each had meant something, though his was such a crude bastardization of what his name meant in a foreign language she had learned, hers was different. Namida Warumachi chose a name for herself that cast away her entire allegiance to their family. Given the circumstances of her exodus, he had never blamed her a single day.

In the loose translation of their names, Warumachi means 'The Demons Path.' A long line of religious warriors who defended or attacked the wilds of its spiritual dwellers.

Tomaki means 'To Halt Joy'. His mother's investment in his name was quite simple. He had been born to bring misery to spirits and demons alike.

Namida meant simply 'Their Tears'. Whilst their mother exalted Tomaki as the first born son, the plans that she had for the first daughter were far more ambitious. 'The tears of demons ways'. Namida always hated that meaning. Her love of life, of what comes after, her fierce determination for the religious ways that their family had obscured through time. She had rejected all of it. She chose herself a new name and ran off into the world to find what she couldn't at home.

'Perhaps I could stop by as I travel through Asia, or maybe you could come out here and see me! Either way, dear brother. I hope you can get through this year of school and finally graduate! I'm sorry I'm not there to help you with your schoolwork, but I know you can do it! I miss you a lot. But I know if you were here, you'd just try to fight all the cool creatures I keep meeting. Maybe some of them deserve it though. Hehehehehehehehehehehe! That's me giggling, Shalt-Zoi! I'll try to keep sending letters whenever I'm near cities or outposts with working mail services. But this next trek is through some wasteland so how this dig goes might have to wait until after! If I find any cool weapons or armor I'll send them to you I promise.

While you're back living in the city, check up Sun and Moon in the Twilight! I need you to send me any new treats they make I miss them so much!!!!! Hehe I know that you probably can't but I still think about them. Plus, you have to make sure that they don't fall back into the grasp of those would-be yakuza!'

He felt his eyes getting a tad bit wet in memory, especially as his heart swelled reading the final line.

Don't get into too many fights now!

Esther

'Ps. The flower I pressed into the envelope (If it survived...) is a Golden Wildflower! Isn't that cool?? I found it at the summit of the mountain village!'