The Dark Side of the Light

The battle against the monstrous gaichuu Cabernet continues in Tegami Bachi volume 13!

Cabernet has lost all it’s wings and is literally falling apart at the seams, but it’s not ready to bite the dust just yet. Despite its ramshackle appearance, Cabernet is determined to shoulder on and devour the man-made light in the capital city of Akatsuki—with an evil grin on its face, no less!

There’s definitely something strange going on with Cabernet’s transformation and sudden ability to express emotion, but the Letter Bees can’t afford to figure out what or why at the moment. With Connor and Niche unable to find Cabernet’s weak core, and Lag heavily injured and passed out, the best they can do is retreat and watch helplessly as Cabernet lumbers on to Yuusari Central.

Meanwhile, happening far away from the battlefield is Largo Lloyd’s surprise meeting with Lawrence, the head of Reverse. Largo has been more than a little suspicious since Lag ran into him many volumes ago, and now we finally get to see his true colors as he reveals several surprises of his own. We learn about Largo’s dark past, and it looks like Largo and Lawrence have more in common than we thought.

With Largo and Lawrence seemingly bonding over their shared experiences, what will that mean for the Beehive and the Letter Bees that Largo used to protect? Is this the beginning of a terrible new partnership?

It just might be, but with Cabernet on the rampage, no one is paying any attention to Largo’s mysterious disappearance. In Yuusari, with the young Letter Bees currently down and out for the count, it’s up to the inhabitants of Central to defend their own town from the horrendous gaichuu. The Sinners Bakery and Weapon Shop owners find their own ways to contribute to the fight, and even the two Inspectors Garrard and Hazel find themselves picking up the mantles of Letter Bee and Dingo—positions that we find out they gave up many years ago.

For the first time we delve into Inspector Garrand’s memories, and surprisingly, he wasn’t so different from Lag when he was young: bright-eyed, full of smiles, and determined to enter Akatsuki and become Head Bee. And he gets darn close to fulfilling that role too…but unfortunately it looks like there’s more to Akatsuki than meets the eye.

It turns out that Akatsuki houses some very dark secrets, and it makes you question what kind of people live there—if any at all. The things that Garrand and Hazel are exposed to as they get closer to the Capital are disturbing…let’s just say there’s a definite reason for why Garrand gives up being a Letter Bee and becomes an Inspector instead.

With so much deceit going around, it’s starting to become more unclear who the actual bad guys are: Reverse, the group trying to destroy the man-made sun and level the class-based system, or the Amberground government, who keep the system in place but have used some terribly underhanded and twisted ways to do it.

With Cabernet ready to lay waste to Yuusari before heading to Akatsuki, Garrand and Hazel are determined to take it down. But is that the right thing to do? Or is the Beehive manipulating them into defeating the one creature that could prove to be their liberation?

Tegami Bachi volume 13 is available from VIZ.com!

 by Gretchen Smail