Monster? Fushi?!
Now thatâs a very harsh term to use on oneself. ESPECIALLY given they have one important thing in common. They both rather avoid hating any living beings. How could that boy be a Monster, out of all things? But this seems to confirm that Fushi is indeed not a human, then. Mikey shakes his head before he leans over and gently reaches out for Fushiâs shoulder while holding his other hand over his own heart.
âFushi, Iâm sorry if Iâve given you the wrong ideas here with my speech, but I donât like hating anyone myself. Thereâs absolutely no way I would hate you just for what you are. And I really donât think youâre a monster out of all things! Besides, as you probably noticed already anyway, Iâm not human either. Iâm a mutated box turtle, butâ thatâs a bit of a complicated story for another time.â They didnât really talk about âthis whole situationâ yet, so he might as well do it now, and might as well be open about it. âYellow is a really beautiful color, by the way. It suits you very well.â
This whole subject about hating and not hating, though? Heâs getting an idea now.Â
âHold on, just gimme a moment!â As he let go of Fushiâs shoulder again, he begins cutting the elastic bands with his teeth. Maybe getting a pair of scissors would have been a good idea, but it works without, too. He swiftly knots the cut pieces into two identical wristbands and holds them up as heâs done. He usually prefers threads and would spend more time on them. Like adding names and tiny beads. But he can do a more fancy one for them later when heâs home again. These he did here will do for the moment, he hopes.
âThese are friendship bracelets for you and me. A token of our friendship. There, give me your wrist, so I can put yours on!âÂ
mikey's words felt comfortable, almost as if it was okay to believe them, but fushi still had their reservations. it wouldn't be the first time someone had promised them unconditional acceptance only to end up taking everything from them, but even so, even despite everything that happened, he didn't truly hold kahak in spite. it was circumstances that led them to where they both were as opposing factors, and fushi had been the naĂŻve one for letting down their guard. but whether reaching an understanding was also enough to reach forgiveness they simply didn't know. kahak's mere existence had brought along with it a lot of unknown emotions within fushi and they weren't sure they would ever have a chance to truly process them.
but mikey wasn't kahak. he wasn't even related to hayase's bloodline or the guardians in the first place, so fushi wanted nothing more than to believe. whether mikey tried to lift their spirit or not was uncertain, but for some reason when he pointed out the very obvious fact that he wasn't exactly human himself, fushi's mouth went agape as if they hadn't even noticed. rather they had, but was so used to talking to sea creatures, turtles among others, that they didn't even think twice about mikey being an oddity.
"oh," they voiced, and then again for good measure: "oh..." they felt as though this was something that should have been obvious to them in the first place, but between the blank centuries and their shapeshifting abilities it simply hadn't occurred to them. a slight blush rose to their cheeks as they felt embarrassed with their mistake, but somehow it also made them feel more relieved to actually spill the beans.
"haha, you're right about that. that's a good way to look at it, i think... i wasn't even a human or a turtle or anything in the first place though... apparently i was an orb but i don't really know anything about that. i've also been a rock and moss and fruit." and fish feces at one point, but that was a rather embarrassing moment they didn't want to talk about. "i don't remember any of that either. i only know that i gained consciousness when i became a wolf..."
it was a tale of so long ago now that it wouldn't be extraordinary if fushi didn't remember it, but other than when a knocker took their form and they lost the memories associated with that form did they truly ever forget something. maybe it was just how they were designed, or maybe it was a curse put on them by the boy whose form they now occupied. "i was with a boy -- the original owner of this form -- and then he died and i became him. i don't know what i am, but i know that no matter how long time has passed, no one else has been like me. so some humans started calling me a saint and others started calling me a monster... in the end i don't think i'm either. i'm just me, but i don't even know who 'me' is... everyone keeps expecting things from me, but i can't do everything." glance falling downwards in slight worry and distress over having to spill their heart like this, fushi was almost scared of facing mikey now that he knew what was going on.
that was why they didn't notice that the turtle was doing something until he approached them and called out for their wrist. confusion emerged on fushi's face until the explanation followed and they bit down on their bottom lip to suppress the emotions of worry dissipating. although the imprint of the bracelet had already made itself present within fushi's reproduction powers, somehow they felt like it was very important for them to never lose this original. unable to truly figure out what to say, they could only sit there dumbfoundedly and fiddle with the bracelet with their fingers.