48. A ‘Good’ Corrupted?

48. A ‘Good’ Corrupted?

The little spider was never going to be found again. No matter how many eyes Frost had there was no possible way she could track the little critter. After briefly scouring the entire bathhouse, she had reason to believe that it was gone.

Then again, it could be hiding somewhere amongst the sea of clothes in the changing room. For now, Frost ordered them to change back and return to the hall until they had a better understanding of the situation.

She wrangled the group to the best of her abilities.

“Do you think this Corrupted is the reason why all the Screaming Galleries are dead?” Jury asked quietly to not alarm the others as they hurriedly dried themselves off before slipping on their attires.

“I don’t think so. It’s incapable of damage. The only thing we know it can do is capture photos. For... some reason. Nav.”

Nav, sensing Frost’s question, promptly answered.

“Cameras exist but they operate differently from your world. The internals are quite simplistic and consists of only a light-capturing crystal and a lens. Though I will say that they are obnoxiously large for what they do.”

From what she gathered, there wasn’t much thought in the ‘process’ part of how the camera operated. Not that it mattered when they had materials dedicated to doing things that took humans on Earth centuries to figure out. How convenient.

“Is the Corrupted deadly!? Dangerous!? Should we warn the others!?” Anna bombarded her with an array of questions.

“I want to say that it’s not, but I’m not so sure. Just stick close. And... you, can I show you something?” Frost held out the polaroid towards the cat-girl as they all followed her lead.

“Y-yes. What’s this?” She asked, catching up as they burst through the doors, following a winding corridor that eventually met with the lobby that split the men’s side from the women’s.

It was here where Calfasio and Furio waited, also having heard the commotion from the other side.

“A paper? H-Huh? Do you want me to write something for you?”

The girl was crying. The tears fell spontaneously without any warning. Her silent sob instantly became a fit of sniffles as Frost quickly embraced the young girl, trying to calm her down.

“... is it a painful memory? I’m sorry for making you remember.” She said motherly as the others shuffled in to help ease her poor soul. But to her surprise – these tears were not of sadness. Rather...

They were of happiness.

“No... that... is...” She sniffled, clutching the polaroid close to her chest. “One of my... happiest moments....” The warm memory caused her eyes to twinkle as a surge of emotion burst forth from the girl’s heart and gushed from her emerald eyes.

It was unreal.

A Corrupted capable of picking out people’s fondest memories hardly fell in line with their sinister nature. This confirmed that perhaps good Corrupted did exist out there.

“Frost... I also have one too. What – what is shown on this one?” Calfasio pulled out a similar-looking object deep within his pocket and presented it to her.

The very first time the creature took the photo was not of her and Jury; but was of this man. How and when he received the polaroid was unknown and did not matter the slightest to her. He already had it, and he must have felt that it was important in without even realizing why.

Just like how the girl described it as being nostalgic.

Frost’s eyes mellowed as she uttered what was depicted in the photo.

“A girl with red hair and cat-ears. She’s waving at someone at the front door of a large house by the sea. It looks like the person in question just returned from a long trip.” She ended up warmly smiling, knowing well just who that person was to Calfasio.

“Ignis!?”

Frost realized that this Corrupted was as friendly as the Jury she first met back in the Black Forest.