RE:WRITTEN

020: Sparks

"We'll be right back."

Amai, Allisa, and Soveliss leave to enter another room. I look at the others, crossing my arms.

"Be honest," I whisper. "Do you think we'll actually bring Violet home?"

Ikimono frowns. She looks at me, both her eyes narrowing a little. "With how she acted in school? I don't think... it'll be immediate. Or easy."

"Was bullying really that bad of a problem in your world?" Naomi asks. "I mean, there's times where people are relentless towards each other here. But I've never seen it get to the point where the victim lashes out like this."

I notice Nova, Saisho, and Ikimono all exchange glances.

"There may not be many Written individuals in the Normal... but people can become quite violent with each other." Saisho says. "You don't need powers to become filled with hatred..."

"All it takes sometimes is a push." Nova whispers as she looks down. "My younger sister... Koira gets bullied a lot too. It breaks my heart to see her cry when she comes home. I hope she never becomes Violet..."

Ikimono purses her lips. "I tried to talk to Violet... once. To see if she needed help, or if I could try to get her sister to intervene. She yelled at me and told me to go away."

"Wait, you spoke to her?" I ask.

"Tried to." She restates. "She was adamant on being left alone. Maybe she wanted to deal with this herself."

"Seems like that didn't get her very far." Naomi would whisper.

I furrow my eyebrows. As I look at the fox on my shoulder, I give a sigh.

"You've probably never dealt with any of this, have you?" I ask.

The fox just blinks. "Dealt with what?"

"Bullying."

"Oh. That." Snowie jumps off my shoulder. "Nope." Her two tails twitch. "I've seen Naomi and Allisa be mistreated. I know what it is... but no one's ever mean to me! I mean, why would they? I'm a cute little familiar who just wants chicken and belly rubs! Why, I'm sure there's an entire group of people who would die to scoop me up and give me those things. Maybe they'd even die for me!"

A few of the others snicker as Snowie sits on the table. She tilts her head, one of her ears flattening as her eyes widen.

"What? All I'm saying is that every person here is in love with me. Who wouldn't love this face?!" She says. "I'm adorable!"

I put a hand out to her, rubbing just behind her ear. "That you are, Snowie." I laugh. "That you are."

The minute I put my hand behind her ear, Snowie's eyes widened again, and she sticks her tongue out. "Oooooh! I like that." She whines. "More scritches! I demand more!" Snowie looks at me as her back leg starts thumping. "Please Sakasu!"

"Alright," I laugh, continuing to scratch her ear.

Naomi grins at me.

"I've never seen her do that before."

Nova nods. "Yeah, I only see that with dogs in our world. Must mean that Snowie really likes ear scritches!" She giggles.

Ikimono grins and puts a hand on her hip. "I gotta admit... that's kinda cute."

Snowie gives the tiniest little 'awoo' as she looks over at the others. "I just like it when people scratch behind my ear!" She wags her tails as she speaks and continues to thump her leg. "It just feels good!"

I laugh. I love this fox.

Just then, my vision is blinded by a silver light. I yelp as I move to shield my eyes. I hear the others gasping as well, but I don't see them. After a few moments, the light dims down to a gentle glow around Snowie. She spins around a few times, looking at her tails.

A third tail has formed.

"Whoa! This is so cool! Is this normal? Did something really important happen to me for this?" I hear Snowie speaking in my head as she continues to spin. "No, get back here! I wanna catch my tails!"

"I... is that normal?" I look at Naomi.

She tilts her head. Her blue eyes glimmer with curiosity. "What do you mean, is that normal?"

"You mean you didn't just hear what Snowie said? She just asked if that was normal after growing a third tail!"

Naomi grins. "I think you might have bonded with our familiar here. If that's the case, then that's really special. Treasure that, Sakasu."

"I... what?" I ask. I look around. "Bonded?"

"Familiars can bond with humans if they really trust them. It allows the human they bond with to communicate with them telepathically, as well as sense where the other bonded member is in Destiny or the Normal." Naomi explains. She grins at me. "Consider yourself lucky. That doesn't happen usually."

Yeah, well I don't often get lost in people's eyes either, but that's been happening since I met you.

"Is that what happened?" I look at Snowie. "Did we bond?"

The fox sits down as she stops spinning. Her ears flatten as she tilts her head. All three of her tails wag.

"Maybe I did. I dunno. But I think that whatever just happened is super important." Snowie yips.

I laugh for a moment. "Yeah. Probably."

Nova clears her throat.

"Okay. So, what now?" She asks. "Violet is still out there, and we need to figure out how to help her. Amai's really set on bringing her back home."

Ikimono grunts. "I feel like we also need to have a plan in case we can't bring Violet home. It's still a real chance."

"But should we bring that up to Amai?" Saisho asks.

"She needs to face the music at some point."

"Maybe we should just... sit her down and talk to her about it." Nova mentions. "This is already hard enough on her."

"She's almost an adult," Ikimono rolls her eyes. "She should be able to take the truth- whether she likes it or not."

I look at the trio.

"As her best friend, I know how Amai takes information like that. It won't be as easy as you think it's going to be. She'll understand you, but the question stands on whether or not she'll be in the right mindset to take it in." I speak up. I put my hands on my hips, feeling the velvet of my red jacket.

"Sakasu's right." Saisho says. "This is hard on Amai too. We need to be there for her."

Ikimono inhales before speaking.

"I'm here for her, just like all of you. But there is a point where we have to be blunt with her. Destiny isn't just some fairytale. And there will come a time where all of us, including her, need to realize that this world, and its problems, are more than real."

Naomi tries to offer a smile. "You're right, Iki. But we really should also focus on trying to keep people mentally healthy. It won't do any of us any good to put anyone here into a bad mindset."

Ikimono sighs yet again. "Well, I can't argue with that." She crosses her arms and sits in a chair. "We don't want anyone else to be Corrupted."

We all nod to one another with that statement. I think all of us can silently agree that we don't want to see more Corruption. I certainly don't. My energy flared when I was near it earlier. I'm scared as to what could happen if I'm near it again.

I don't want to know what else the Corruption does.