The night fell upon the land, as the summer sun settled down once again, behind that menacing green barrier. The human kept sleeping far into that night. Up to the point that Zippy slept on top of him. By the time the human recovered his senses, it was so far into the night that the morning birds began to sing. He woke up slowly, placing first the hand on top of Zippy by reaction, scratching and patting him by instinct. Then his face showed his utter confusion, waking up in a rush. He held the bunny with care even in this rushed movement but with way more energy than the previous day.
He yawned, and looked around the house, with his phone on lantern mode in one hand, and the bunny on the other arm “Morning…Strange…It wasn’t that a long dream, right?” He looked the hour, to see it was the next day, at [05:04]
“Holy shit!” As he turned on the light, waking the bunny up.
“Good morning Master~…” Zippy said, still a bit asleep as he woke up on his arm.
The eyes of the human went wide looking at the bunny before moving his head backward, exhaling everything he had, and fully waking up “Oh no, you are still talking…Okay…Okay, I didn’t recover well, I ju-” But Zippy interrupted him, frustrated.
“Master! Ugh, No!” The bunny stomped on his arm multiple times, with enough anger to make his telepathic voice a bit deeper “Look at yourself! Look at your arm! You did recover well! Our connection is real! Please stop it…you sound like you don’t want me…”As the telepathic voice of the bunny began to sob in pure sadness, his face tearing a bit, jumping off his arm.
“Hey, watch out, careful! My arm is healing! What are you talking about…No is not that is…ugh…” Shaking his head in his confusion, not knowing how to explain it, he took the time to take off the bandages and check his arm. In his mind, it needed changes any-
“Wait, what the fuck?!”
His surprise was sonorous, visible on his ever-increasing uncanny expression, as he stepped backward a couple of times, contemplating the scar that his arm had. To the amazement of the human, it seemed that the arm healed over weeks in that single night. The wound began to fade away, as the scar had already fully formed. Heck, if anyone paid extra attention to the wound, it was visible that slowly, but surely, the slow and active healing progressed. Like watching the plants grow in an accelerated video. While not instantaneous, it was clear that the rabbit knew what he was talking about. The man touched the arm, closed his eyes, and tried to shake off the feeling that he so firmly believed to be an illusion. But his senses didn’t lie. The human felt his scar fading, and his arm fully healed as no pain or muscle felt unusual.
His whole body was paralyzed in his amazement, his mind processing what just happened. The bunny which stood proud in its two little feet, with a smug attitude, responded “Seeee?! I told you our connection makes us better! Now do you believe me?… Master, are you okay? Why are you looking at me so weird?”
But the human ignored him. He slowly approached him, extending a hand in the direction of the bunny, as if he tried to catch something on him. His eyes slowly turned into pure dark blue, as he frowned slightly, trying to grasp that direction. The bunny stood quiet, as it didn’t feel any ill intention from the human, perhaps due to his connection or its animal instincts. “There’s something…around you…I can’t put my finger on it but…”
“Oh! That must be my aura! The thing we talked about yesterday!~ It seems that our connection strengthen a bit your connection to our goddess essence. It’s okay, you will get the hang soon.” Said nonchalantly “But do not worry about it, it isn’t harmful. What do you see? Lights? Sparks? Fire? Mountains…BLOOD?!”
“A light.” Those two words felt almost devoid of life, of tone, of purpose, as he kept reaching his hand for the animal’s aura. The bunny felt confused about that answer, swinging his head a couple of times, and crouching a bit as the arm slowly reached his space, but then….It stopped. The hand grasped something with all his fingers. His arm stretched out, veins popped out and his muscles tensed. His chest began to hurt as he kept pulling, groaning in pain as he kept trying with all his might, to the point that he moved the other hand and began to pull with all its strength, even if that pain became unbearable. The bunny stood still, looking at the situation, impatient until finally…he could see that light on his fingers as well. Between his hands, a blue substance began to form, a sky blue blaze, a strange figure, pulled out from thin air. “Hurts! Why it hurts???!” Chump expressed anger and pain, as his body shook and began to contract.
“Master! Wait! It may hurt you for real if you go like that!” Zippy quickly reacted, jumping and kicking him on the torso. The human stumbled, letting go by reaction of whatever it was pulling out. The human eyes returned to normal, to their natural light brown. He held his head, while part of his body hung on the table behind him, barely holding on. It took several minutes to return to normal as the bunny tried to calm him down. “Master! That’s the goddess essence! Our mana! But I never saw it like that…it felt like water…and glass and light too! And you could pull it out from me? But…I don’t feel any different.”
“…I can see it…that….that aura you see but …I feel I could pull something off…Something weird…some kind of guiding light…How…How did you manage to use that goddess essence? I just felt like…I need to, you know? WAIT WAIT NO! This is insane!” He exclaimed as he stood up, recovering his senses as he shook his head “Why my brain is going so far as to believe that I suddenly have a connection to that other world?! I know I spent months going around, but this is Impossible! No human…Nobody could pull this off, why I?… This must be some sort of dream, I must still dreaming-“
“THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DREAM!” The bunny yelled at the human, expressing his anger and sparkling around, even aiming at his feet, tho luckily, it didn’t affect the human.
“Not swearing in my father’s house!” He yelled back as he slammed the table, but the bunny jumped on him and bit his leg. Chump shouted in pain and held his leg, raising his other arm, ready to strike the bunny down but stopped himself before anything. “FINE! ALRIGHT!” He groaned, aching in pain as he grabbed with force to a chair, trying to contain himself to not hit the animal who hurt him first. He calmed himself down a bit before looking at the bunny with determination. “How do I…Do this? How do I pull this “mana” from…your goddess or whatever the fuc-…Rules apply to me too. I shouldn’t swear. Just…teach me how you make your magic, okay?”
But the bunny pouted, “No.” Zippy’s humor was worse than an angry elephant. “You said I wasn’t real. That was your brain's wrongdoings! I am hurt and you just kept ignoring me! You almost hit me!!!!”
“I-“ The human tried to rectify himself.
“No! You still have that tone and voice! Don’t talk to me like that.” It turned its back on him. Silence took over the ambiance as the human slowly recomposed himself and looked at the bunny, then at his arm, actively recovering. Then focus on him as before, and took a while to see those strange figures before, before stepping back to reality and taking a moment to take a deep breath. Then slowly walked to Zippy and sat down on the floor, knees on the ground and feet under him. He calmed himself down, between the confusion and excitement of the moment, as he tried to open up more. It took them several minutes to be able to look at each other.
His voice sounded more serene and modest, honest with himself. Showing real guilt, he mumbled “Sorry…This is a bit too much and…I feel I am a bit disconnected from reality right now. You said you trust me with your life…And I feel…inside of me that you know I do not trust you.” The bunny turned around, with a bit of worry on his face, not letting go of his anger. Once the bunny looked into his eyes, the human continued. “Well, indeed, I do not trust you, nor do I trust myself that much…But you showed me the truth in your words up until now. Let me trust what you say at least. Is the least I can do. And I think is more honest than saying that I fully trust you yet or lying to you or appeal you. I-…I don’t know what…to do. Lately has been…I…Don’t have a reason to be bad to you. Darn it, I just-” As he raised his hands, looking at those shaky, sweaty, feeble hands of him, the pain it felt moments ago pulling that thing off, paralyzed by the fear. He tried to mumble anything, almost tearing up. He felt on the verge of going down, to break down into tears.
Yet Zippy could feel in his honesty. The bunny’s head nuzzled against the palm of his right hand, cuddling him with care, and with a smoother voice, he softly stated:
“It’s a start.”
The bunny voice felt happier than before, still with that pinch of smugness in his voice. Once the human calmed down enough, he jumped a bit backward and stood proud “Let’s start again! My name is Zippy. As the name you gave me. Zippy Lethner, I decided on that surname on my own! And I will be your partner from now on! What is my Master’s name?~”
He cleaned up his face with his other hand he nodded, and he thankfully explained “I know it’s not my name, but this is the nickname that all my friends use with me. Please, call me Chump.”
“As the insult? Ain’t that bit sad?” The bunny mumbled, with a cringe on his face.
He shook his head while looking upwards, his lips stretching a bit on his face in a shy broken smile, trying to explain himself. “Well at first, but it is like every nick, you began to love it eventually. As well, the other name died with my old world.”
The bunny stood quiet before having a bothered face. “I feel you are a bit dramatic to not give me your name, “Master Chump.” We just met, the least you could do is tell me your name!”
“Sigh…Fine, I just considered it too boring compared with Zippy you know? You are the representation of the sound of electric sparks…Name is-“
[Author: Ooops something went wrong with the chapter~]
The bunny stood silent before sighing, his telepathic voice filled with disappointment, “It is the most boring name I heard, and I met tons of my kind! Yeah…Let me think of one while I explain to you! So,” He jumped and extended his arms upwards and shook those “You really reeaaallly have to focus on what you want to get out, believing in yourself and the magic!”
The human scratched his head with one hand as he looked at the other and the bunny back and forth. “But…I don’t know what I am looking at, or even what I am looking for, is just-“ But the bunny interrupted.
“Is something telling you that you have to do it, correct?” Tilting his head with curiosity dressing those words.
“Yeah!… How did you know that?”
“Well, dummy! I lived with hundreds of my kin! Is so beautiful to see a newborn learn their magic powers when they begin to grow up!~…However now I think about it, mostly were electric powers! Tho I remember a couple who could learn fire or water too!”
“I-I see…Alright, and…how did you pull this off then?” Chump hoped that the bunny went a bit more specific on details.
“Just believe in the magic and take it by your hand! Believe in our goddess and what you want to do!” Zippy blurted out.
He muttered, confused, adjusting his glasses “Oh…Okay sure…Just believe in magic? I mean, I know magic exists but-“
He made exaggerated thinking noises, his tone showing that he tried to find the words to explain it “Is more of believing in your self, in around you and…your family, friends…I…I don’t know how to explain it!~” As Zippy placed its paws on its head, closed his eyes in a smile, and took out its tiny tongue.
He couldn’t believe the vague explanations of the rabbit “…Are you kidding me? The power of friendship to make magic.” He mumbled some curses out before inhaling “Okay okay!” He slaps his face multiple times before shaking his whole body away and stepping backward. Focusing his senses on the bunny, he could feel that same surge of energy coming from him again. His whole being began to focus as before, his eyes changing to that bluish tone as before as he began to see that dim light.
However, this bunny wasn’t quiet and began to ponder around. “Maybe your power is to fly! Or super strength!~ Perhaps invisibility! Perhaps you have like a DOMAIN that you EXPAND AND CONTROL everything inside! Perhaps energy life or-” He began to jump around, excited “Maybe you have like infinite weapons that you can summon! Perhaps control time or space! Transform into creatures! Or- OR! MAYBE YOU CAN TAP INTO A SUPER FORM OF SORTS OR-!”
“Zippy! Stay put! I can’t fucking do it if you move around the place like crazy! I need you just a moment, staying still, there, without moving much! I am new doing this stuff okay?!”
“Sorry!!! And you swear too!” Exclaimed the impatient bunny, trying to be in the same spot without moving much, still excited and looking at what that human could pull off.
The human tried some breathing exercises, inhaling, keeping it inside, and exhaling the air of their surroundings to keep the focus. He grasped again that light from before and began pulling, resisting as much before as he kept trying. He tried harder and harder, pulling it with all its might but it barely moved, not understanding why. He stopped for a moment as the bunny looked sideways, confused. Still holding that light, that piece of another world he began to internalize. He stood motionless, thinking of the vague instruction that the animal gave, and placed his other hand on his chest. With determination in his being, he continued:
“I believe in myself.” The piece of light moved a bit, the arm could pull the light a bit.
“I believe in the words of my companion.” The arm could contract more without resistance.
“I believe in those who helped me until now. Even you, Zippy.” Remembering the tombs from yesterday and all of their voices, all the people who helped him to stay alive.
“I believe in a better future.” The arm began to pull that light from the aura of the bunny, remaining unaffected by this phenomenon and cheering to keep going, as “Go! Go! Go!” could be heard in the background.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
The energy began to condense in his right hand in a giant spiral of power.
“I believe in…I …That WE can change the fate of this world.” He said determined of those words as he began to pull off with ease that light and complete the “spell” at hand. It split it off from whatever the source was, as Chump spun a couple of times of the sheer force he pulled just to get out that light. Once he stopped, he could see the magic. There it was, in the palm of his hand, the strange blue light, that moved around with him, that could squeeze it, mold it with its fingers, and could feel that strange sensation. Neither cold nor hot, neither light nor heavy, but a sensation, a presence inside of it. He kept looking at it with fascination as he placed the other hand and began to touch that sci-phi sphere.
“You got it, Master! Great job! For your first time, you are doing excellent! Now you have to just…PULL IT OFF!!!!”
Chump nodded, extending his arm and opening his hands to show!!…
[To show…Is the script correct? Yeah?…Okay…]
To show this:
(Inside spoiler so people can close the sheet character when they are done)
Public sheet Name: Zippy Lethner Age: ~0.5 "Earth" years. (185.12 days) Titles: -Pet of ??????
-Citizen of "The Harvest War" Gender: Male Race: Electric fur-ball (Electrofluffle Inductolus) Remenant Attributes Thunder Creation 1/10 ★ (100) Thunder Control 1/10 ★ (100) Wind Control 1,5/10 ★ (1.000) Amplified senses ~2,32/10 ★ (45.000) “???”: (Due to a classifying error, this information was not found until further looking. Please gather more data.) 1/10 ★ (100) True Companionship: 1/10 ★ (100) Physical Statistics Remenant capacity ~1,85/10 ★ (5.000) Remenant control 1/10 ★ (100) Constitution 1/10 ★ (100) Intelligence ~0,95/10 ★ (80) Wisdom ~1,15/10 ★ (200) Agility ~2,32 ★ (45.000) Physical Strength 0,5/10 ★ (10) Physical Defense 0,5/10 ★ (10) Remenant Resistance ~1,65/10 ★ (2.000) Will Power ~3/10 ★ (1.000.530). Total level: ~14/100
Both stood silent reading all of this. The sun dawned above the horizon, as they finished reading.
“What is this?” The bunny stood expectant, as both could see that floating sheet in front of them, looking back and forth between that power and his master.
“It seems like…a sheet of characteristics…stats and stuff. Your sheet to be specific. It is telling us what you are, what you could do, the limits, heck, there's even a {“Total Level”} here…I guess this-” He looked around and behind the floating rectangle. Almost opaque, with barely any decorations on the squares or letters, almost like seeing a digital screen.
“Stats?… What are “stats”…what it can do?” The bunny's excitement began to slowly fade away, wanting to hear the human.
“You know…Statistics can tell you what are you capable of. I guess this is normal back in your world right? With the aura, seeing others, feeling your powers growing or out of fuel…”
The bunny shook his head, looking at him strangely, uncomfortable due to the artificial nature of it, and looked back at the human. “No…Not at all. I saw tons of powers, heck even once someone messing with time but…nothing like this…I didn’t see any of the Giants pull that off either…That’s weird…Your power is to summon…Numbers of people?” His illusion fading away “That’s a bit boring Master…”
The human scratched his head looking around and seeing the characteristics of the detail. “I am as well as astonished as you little one…I can put you into maths and numbers what you are capable of….Hm, let me check a thing.” He took the time, a notebook, and a pencil and began to make equations.
“Your power is lame! But you are my master! So since your power is math! I will call you “Mistath”! A combination of Mister and Math! So make sure to use…that and be as awesome as yesterday!… What are you doing math for then? I see you writing more numbers.” He said a bit disappointed.
“Oh, just checking a thing.” He said as he tapped out his paper. “Yep, it is. You know that your {“Total Level”} is around 14 right? It seems that is the combination of all your levels in the other characteristics. It is indeed the total of your levels.” As he kept doing algebra to figure things out, still with the sheet floating in front of him
“Well, it seems kinda obvious, Mistath.” The bunny replied, curious about where this was going.
“Yep, but! You would think that having 10 points in statistics gives you half a level in there, like your {“Physical strength”}, for that continuity, having 20 points, should give you a whole level…But it doesn’t. Instead it gives you a whole level when you reach a 100 points in that stat. For example in your {“constitution”}, you have a whole level because you reach those points there. While your {“wisdom”}, you have 200 points, but your level is around 1,15. This is not a constant escalation, but a logarithmic escalation. You have to be a HUNDRED times better in one statistic to be better than the last level. In fact, it says your other attributes, like for example, you can do {“Thunder Control”} and {“Wind Control”}!”
The bunny rose his whole body hearing that last part “I can control wind?!!! Awesome! I didn’t know that! I…I can try it but I can't make wind…That’s unfair! I need wind! I want to tryyyy!” The bunny tried to kick the air to generate a bit of wind but without much success. He also showed that he didn't read everything.
The human stood silent and face-palmed, irritated, “I gave a whole explanation of how the system works and you just hear the last part…Why do you remind me of my old friends?” He cracked a bit after everything that happened today and went to his room. He came back with a fan he tends to use on the worst days of summer and turns it on at maximum power. Then the bunny focused on that wind, extending its paws to the currents and trying to move it around in circles.
Its fur turned gray as it energized with his Remenant. In a matter of a couple of minutes, a tiny tornado, the size of a table, stood on top of the table the bunny stood most of that morning, in the middle of the room, as it made the light objects float and swing around. The human caught the laptop in time so it wouldn’t crash against anything. Luckily nothing important happened.
The bunny roared as the tornado finally formed. On top of Chump’s left arm, another sign popped out above its left hand.
Wind Control has been activated Remenant depleted by 100 points. Remenant capacity : 4560/5000.
“Oh shit! I can see too how much you used as well!” He exclaimed, surprised, but the bunny ignored him as it floated in the middle of the small hurricane, floating in there until it calmed down and the tornado faded away after some time. After everyone cooled off, Chump cleaned the sweat off his face as he tried to see what more the human could get of this surprising yet simple power. The bunny sparked away in happiness.
Thunder Creation has been activated Remenant depleted by 10 points. Remenant capacity : 4550/5000.
It took some seconds for the pop-up to fade away, taking notes of how it worked, as he pats the happy bunny with his other hand. “Mistath! You gave me the power of the wind! It’s amazing! I wonder how much I can evolve it.”
“I didn’t do anything. Look, how about we eat breakfast as I keep investigating my power?” The human proposed, as the bunny agreed and waited on the table, for once in that whole day, patiently.
After some time, the bunny had a whole buffet for him, as he brought all kinds of food. Since Chump didn’t know the diet of the little one, he let the bunny decide to eat. He considered the animal conscious enough to not poison himself. In the meantime, he opened the laptop and kept investigating this newfound power, surfing through the files the traitors of the military gave him and practicing the same arm movement he did to the bunny’s aura, taking the same character sheet with more ease each time. He put on the screen of the laptop a video of one of the war zones, letting it play while taking a mug of coffee, warm water, and cacao. Or what was more known as a try of a “Cappuccino”. The lack of milk annoyed him deeply.
All records took place on the human side and how they were most of the time obliterated by blasts of energy, elements, or simply strange invisible powers. He let the video play as he took a sip and commented to the bunny who mostly ate away his mass on food. “I couldn’t get a description for anything on your character sheet, as most of them said:”
“Error. Please gather more data."
“Except for two things:”
“True Companionship”: Connection that two or more individuals share that symbolizes true companionship. It allows individuals to share their emotions without any physical means. This attribute nullifies the possibility of treason between all individuals involved. The stronger this attribute gets, the more skills and attributes will be shared. True companionship shares the next skill with all users: Users: Zippy and "?????" “??????” Zippy and ?????
“Will Power”: The control exerted that individual possesses to do something or resist any type of restrain or impulse.
“I don’t quite get why I can’t access the rest even tho they seem a bit obvious, however, I remember you explained to me the first, connection we had. Perhaps that’s why it unlocks the information as I gather that data from you. Perhaps if I recollect more data I can unlock more descriptions as well as further developing this “system” or…” He theorized, losing himself in his thoughts.
But the bunny ignored, as he kept eating with ferocity those sweet vegetables he gave them but more often drinking than not. He sighed as take another sip of his breakfast, just when he thought that he wouldn’t get anything out of the video, he heard:
“Ground!”
As somebody in the other world yelled through the recordings. It made Chump stop all the thinking he did. He quickly rewound the recording up to that point by reflex. He didn’t notice, but in his chest to the bunny that connection appeared again. His heart pounded with enough force to make him shake, sweat began to cover the skin of that young man as his hand trembled to approach the space bar. But yet still, something inside made him press again, hearing:
“Ephiron, -left! I am- ground! TITANIC SHAKE!”
“Grunnhildr!”
[Noise of warzone] “Metal-“
The human stopped the recording, his face and being not believing anything he witnessed, choking on his mediocre coffee. He rewound one more time. He focused on the video as the bunny stood his head up and looked at him with curiosity. He began to hyperventilate as his face filled with excitement, and his mouth couldn’t express how happy it felt. The bunny didn’t understand well what that machine did but understood that it was of no peril to either of them. He felt the same happiness his master did. Chump's movements became anxious, clearing his eyes and his ear before playing again that fragment of video.
A giant woman wearing a helmet shouted “Ephiron, cover my left side! I am gonna dunk their ground! {TITANIC SHAKE}!”
“On it Grunnhildr! Watch out!” A slick man with horns responded, both of them being twice as tall as any human there.
Some flying creature roared in the sky passing near those two “Rangers at your up, northeast. Flying metallic beasts coming through!”
The human stood paralyzed, confused, astonished, no words coming from him. He replayed those records, focusing on everything that happened as he took a notebook. The more he played it, the more he understood. The tiny drawings and letters became furious writings and messy paragraphs to whole pages of dialect and everything he could decode. Their letters on their guns, the code names, everything they said in those little minutes he had, he understood every single mannerism up to the last detail. A couple of hours passed until he saw every single second of the footage and translated it down. Once done, he rests his arms, as tears flow through his face. His soul regained a bit of hope in that moment as he yelled with excitment.
“I UNDERSTAND THEIR LANGUAGE! I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THEY ARE SAYING! WHAT THEY ARE WRITING! AFTER A WHOLE YEAR! I UNDERSTAND IIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!” He jumped off the chair, grabbed Zippy, and hugged him with all the care of the world.
He shouted to the eight winds, at a point that it scared off all the wild fauna around his building, his prideful roars could be heard through half of the forsaken city. The excitement and the happiness he felt made him forget the exhaustion he carried over the last months, not even the pumps of adrenaline or the drugs gave him so much energy in that beautiful moment when he cuddled that puffball of sparks. Both felt excitement and happiness as the human opened his heart to him, heck, to the point that he kissed his adorable face until he felt calm enough to place the bunny back on the table, yelling towards the balcony.
“EAT THAT YOU STUPID BARRIER! I FINALLY DECODED EVERYTHING! THANKS TO THIS LITTLE GUY AND HOW AWESOME HE IS!!!!”
That energy that the human felt radiated to the bunny, as the tiny being saw that hero again who saved him without much thought on his head, that willful spirit who didn’t give up. Chump's celebration slowly cooled down as he realized, “I can’t contact my people anymore…Like I wanted but...And I am the only human nearby.” He said drily, half thinking of it, yet that flare didn’t fade in his mind.
The bunny stood a bit worried, almost ready to say anything, but then the human looked back, filled with enough energy to overpower the sun and close his hands.
“Zippy, get ready. We are going to gather more information.”
He took the time to look through his things in that room until he got a piece of paper, which contained the map of the city, and his pencil. Still with the bunny on his left arm.
“We are going back to your camp and stealing from them! What do you say…partner?” Said with a wide grin, filled with bravery and energy.
The bunny stood silent, as he saw that finally his companion began to trust him back, with the same heart Zippy does to Chump.
“Yes, Master! Let’s do this, Mistath!”
“True Companionship”: ~1/10 ★ (180) → 2/10 ★ (10.000)