This was a bad idea, Yuuta thinks as he paces around his living room and curses under his breath. He pauses. His shoulders drop as he glances down to the magnificent, dark sapphire quill he spent his entire allowance on. He sighs. “I doubt this will be of any use to him without the ink that’s supposed to come with it…” And yet, as he says this, Yuuta wants nothing more than to fulfil Xander’s fleeting dream of writing like the Gaians used to back when their planet was still called Earth. It started with a mobile phone dated from 2018 on the day of Christmas eve five years ago. And then he found an old computer he managed to buy from an old man, who sold it to him for a price that makes his head spin just by remembering it—one that was still high despite his countless haggling to lower it by a quarter if not more, and Yuuta informing the man that he was only but a high school student with limited funds at his disposition.

Yuuta had done it all, from the pens, to the pencils, to the markers—there was rarely something Xander had never got to try in the domain of what he likes to call fine writing thanks to his divine intervention. It was a bad idea, maybe… Yuuta tells himself again as he furrows his brows and switches on his watch. “But the universe is dreaming if it thinks I’m going to give up now.” A screen blinks with a search page before his eyes. I haven’t skipped a year since then, Yuuta thinks, and I don’t plan to; Xander’s going to get his ink—he will write something with this quill—and that’s final.

As he types in a few searches, something finally catches his eye. “…Inksgiving?” Yuuta cocks his head to the side and glances at the link with a sparkle of curiosity flashing through his gaze. He opens the page, reads the instructions out loud.

“From the 20th to the 21st November support your favorite creators with ink!”

Yuuta freezes. How did these people find so much ink in one place? And it seems like their resources are unlimited too… are the thoughts that run through his rather confused mind in this moment.

He shuts his eyes and nods. As he brings a hand to his chin, Yuuta comes to the conclusion that this Inksgiving—as they call it—must be run by magicians. He continues to scroll through the rules that are meticulously laid out across the page with adorable little drawings of a mascot he finds to be quite endearing. “Buy Ink from the Ink Shop or watch videos to earn free Ink… there’s even a special offer called the Inksgiving Pack…” His eyes widen. Yuuta feels like he is getting close to the answer he’s been seeking, especially when the mascot points to a support button on the upper right corner of the series with his tiny hand. He doesn’t quite understand the concept, for he does not know why he should be giving ink to these people he has never heard of, even if he would also receive some Ink in return according to the online pamphlet.

The decision in his mind to further investigate—before investing in these people they call creators—is, without a doubt, the best thing Yuuta could do in his mind.

He scrolls through a few comics, a few novels, until his eyes stop on a certain cover. There, he sees two familiar faces. Granted, he thinks, those two guys look way older than Xander and me currently are but… he frowns, the resemblance is uncanny…

The thought of being this close to Xander, and with his shirt off at that, makes him blush up to his ears. He shakes the idea away and closes the page.

“I think that’s enough Internet for today… I guess I’ll check back on the 20th to see if I can get him some Ink…”