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Chapter Text

Play: OMORI OST 001 - Title

Sunny didn’t want to go, but he had no choice. He was standing there outside of his mother’s car with a black suitcase at his side. His mother was leaving him in an old town for a few weeks as she had one last business trip to go to before they moved into their new home in the city, after they had moved from Faraway. Although, through his self-loathing, his mother had convinced him to take care of himself while she was away.

“Sweetie, be good for me, alright?”, his mother asked him through the car window.

After a moment of silence, Sunny spoke up with an emotionless tone.

“I will, mom…”, Sunny said, trailing off and looking down as he did so.

This was all too familiar for the boy, just the week before, he was left alone while she was preparing their new home in the city. And through that time, he reconciled with his former friends and finally overcame the burden on his shoulders that was there for four years. And yet…this was bringing back memories of the events that took place the last three days he had in his hometown.

After his response, his mother leaned to the passenger window and gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaning back and starting the car.

“Mommy loves you Sunny, and please, make some new friends, alright?”

And without giving him a chance to say or do anything, she drove off, Sunny watching the car drive down the road until he couldn’t see it anymore.

After Sunny grabbed his suitcase, he started walking to the entrance of the town, he wondered where he was going to stay, but hopefully there was a hotel or something in this town that he didn’t even know the name of that he could stay in. He read the name of the town from the sign in front of it and lightly chuckled to himself.

(“Hometown? Whoever named this town must be really bad with names”.), Sunny thought to himself.

After entering the town, he was greeted by a couple of men near the gates wearing large metal helmets with flannel shirts and trousers. Which Sunny thought was odd, since it did not match their headwear at all, but decided not to question it.

“Hey! Human! You’re like, not from around here, right?”, one of them asked as the other just stood there.

Sunny found it strange that the man seemed to have rabbit ears on his helmet, he also found it strange that the man referred to him as “human” but still tried to not make it obvious in his voice as he replied.

“Yes, I-I’m not, I’m from outside here”.

“Well if you’re not familiar with this place, like, go talk to Kris, they’re like, the only other human around here, right bro?”

“… …yes.” The other man nonchalantly responded.

After Sunny thanked them, they pointed down the road where Kris’ house was before Sunny walked off. He was wondering as he was walking what they were like and how those men said that they were the “only other human” in this town.

As Sunny walked up to the front porch and past the red car in the driveway, he rang the bell and heard a voice inside tell “Kris” to open the door. He was then greeted by a teenager with brown hair and a green and yellow sweater, their hair covering their eyes.

Chapter Text

Play: Undertale OST 012 - Home

After Kris opened the door, he and Kris stared at each other for a few moments to comprehend each other's presence, with Kris’ having a subtle but noticeable enough look of surprise on their face that there was another human in this town besides themselves. And after a staring contest that seemed to drag on longer than it should have, Sunny finally spoke up.

“So…are you Kris?”, Sunny asked, looking for answers.

The teenager didn’t say anything and instead gestured to him to reply. 

[“Do you understand sign language?”], Kris gestured to Sunny. 

Sunny processed this for a moment and then remembered that he studied sign language back when he was in school, so Sunny took a moment to remember his gestures and replied back the same way.

[“Yes I do, I’m Sunny, are you Kris?”].

Kris was about to respond when the voice from before told Kris to come back inside and bring whoever was outside with them so that they could talk more. So Kris invited Sunny in before shutting and locking the door behind them. 

As they walked into the house, Kris tapped on the woman whom the voice came from and the figure turned around to greet Sunny.

“Oh my! Another human? Well this is a surprise!”, the strange figure said.

Sunny took a look at the woman and realized that she was a weird goat lady. He immediately got frightened and hid behind Kris for coverage.

“Th-that’s your mom?”, Sunny said, shaking while hiding behind Kris.

Kris only nodded in response and turned around to console Sunny about the current situation.

[“Don’t worry dude, she’s not gonna hurt you, everyone here is like her.”], Kris signed to him.

After a moment, Sunny took a moment to compose himself and hesitantly walked up to the goat monster to introduce himself.

“H-Hello ma'am, I-I’m Sunny, w-what’s your name?”

“Please, do not fear me, I am Toriel. What brings you to this town?”, She said, holding her hand out to him.

After a moment, Sunny hesitantly put his arm out to hold Toriel’s hand, although all fear and hesitation instantly vanished the moment he did so. 

“See? I mean no harm to you.”, Toriel said in a nurturing tone while smiling at him.

Sunny couldn’t help but smile back as took in the fact that what he was seeing was real.

“Now, we can talk more over making a nice pie, would you like to join me and Kris?”, Toriel asked, still looking at Sunny.

“Yes, yes I would, I just need to get settled in first.”

“Now, Kris, would you please go to the store and get us the last of the things we need for the pie?”, Toriel said while handing Kris some money. 

As Sunny went back to the living room to put his things down, he thought he heard Toriel tell Kris something else about chocolate, although brushed it off after he spotted something familiar from inside his bag. It was Basil’s photo album and his camera. 

Sunny recalled the day before he moved from Faraway that he received many items from his friends and the townsfolk. One of which being Basil’s camera with his album and another being a few cans of Orange Joe from Kel, spotting those in his bag as well. 

After Sunny smiled at the recalled memory, he turned around to see Toriel and Kris still discussing the ingredients and other things Kris had to get from the store. He remembered how Basil used to take pictures of the friend group when they were least expecting it. So as Toriel held Kris’s hand while smiling at them, Sunny pulled out the camera and snapped a quick photo of the scene, putting the camera and photo away just as fast as he had pulled it out. 

Fortunately, both of them didn’t seem to notice that he took a photo of them as Toriel sent Kris out to get the things that they needed.

“Now, Sunny, are you ready to get started?”, Toriel asked him after Kris left.

“Yes, Ms. Toriel”.

“Wonderful! We can start by making the crust!”, Toriel remarked, grabbing a few ingredients from the pantry.

Halfway through kneading the dough, Toriel decided to try and get to know the new human that had come from nowhere, as far as she knew.

“So Sunny, where did you come from?”

“I’m from an old town, just like the one here.”, Sunny hesitantly replied, not expecting the sudden question.

“Do you remember the name of it?”

“It’s called Faraway Town”.

“That’s a good name, how was it there?”, Toriel asked, intrigued.

“It was amazing, I grew up there with my friends and big sister.”

“Well that’s nice! Kris has an older Sibling as well! He’s off to college right now, but he’ll be back soon.”

“Where is your sister?”

Oh No

Sunny stopped kneading the dough ball he was holding for a moment to take in the question, he didn’t think this through. Sunny told his friends about what really happened to her and was off the hook legally, but how was he going to tell new people that he killed his sister? He thought about what to say for a moment before he simply replied with the same thing Toriel said.

“U-uh, w-well, sh-she’s off to college too! I-I don’t know when she’ll be back, but hopefully very soon.”, Sunny forced out, silently praying that she would buy it through his stuttering. 

Fortunately for him, she seemed to not notice.

“That’s wonderful! Maybe if they both get back at the same time you and Kris can introduce them to one another! I’m sure they would enjoy each other’s company!”, Toriel said with glee. 

“Y-yeah! They definitely would!”, Sunny replied while letting out a big internal sigh of relief.

“Now, Sunny, what happened to your eye?”, Toriel asked, pointing at the eyepatch covering Sunny’s right eye.

“Oh, well…it’s a long story, nothing you would be interested in”.

“Oh but I am! Please tell me!”, Toriel insisted, being even more curious than before.

“W-well…you s-see-“, Sunny tried to say before being interrupted by Kris opening the front door with a bag of groceries in their hands.

“Ah! Kris! You’re back!”, Toriel said as she walked up to Kris, taking the bag from their hands.

“Actually Sunny, you and Kris didn’t have the time to get to know one another did you not?”, Toriel asked, both Kris and Sunny only nodding their heads in response. 

“Well then the two of you can go upstairs and get to know one another more! I’ll call the both of you down when the pie is ready.”

When both teenagers got up to Kris’s room, Kris locked the door behind them and pulled out a chocolate bar from their back pocket before sitting down next to Sunny on their bed. 

“Want some?”, Kris asked, leaving Sunny speechless at hearing their voice for the first time.

“So you can speak? I thought you were mute.”

“Sometimes I can. sometimes I can’t, simple as that”, Kris replied in a monotone manner.

“How does that work?” 

“I have no idea.”

“Well… okay, you do you.”

“So do you want some?”, Kris asked once more.

“Yes, that would be nice.” Sunny replied.

As Kris removed the wrapper from the bar and snapped it in half before handing it to Sunny, Kris wondered the same thing that Toriel was thinking of.

“So dude, where are you from? And what happened to your eye?” Kris asked while taking a bite off their chocolate.

“Well…I’m from this town called Faraway. I grew up there with my friends and sister. And as for my eye…”, Sunny paused once more before anxiously taking a bite off of his half of the chocolate.

Sunny then diverted his eyes away from Kris to the other side of the bedroom with trophies and awards all over the walls.

“H-hey! Your mom told me that you had a sibling, is that true?”, Sunny said, trying his best to avoid the question beforehand.

“Yeah, I do, his name is Asriel. He was always the perfectionist of our family, always getting praised and whatnot.”, Kris said, taking another bite of the chocolate.

(“Perfectionist…Perfectionist…”), Those words rang through Sunny’s mind, thinking about Mari and…

“Hey…Sunny? Are you alright?”, Kris asked, noticing the nervous look on his face.

“W-what? Oh yeah! I-I’m fine! Anyway, my sister was a perfectionist too! Getting as many awards and praise as your brother did!”

“Really? Well they would definitely get along. Where is your sister anyway?”

“She’s off to college but-“

“And why are you here anyway? Where are your parents?”, Kris interrupted.

“Well…we’re moving to the city…but she had one last business trip to go to, so she dropped me off here and said she would be back in a couple weeks. As for my dad, well…he left”, Sunny said with sadness in his voice.

“What kind of mother do you have? She just left her child in a random town to go on a business trip?”, Kris asked in a slightly angry tone.

“Yeah, but don’t get me wrong! She’s only trying her best. It’s not like she could bring me even if she wanted to”, Sunny said, hoping to distinguish the situation. 

“But here? Did she even know anything about it before leaving you in this place? And where did she expect you to stay?”, Kris asked, trying to get more information out of Sunny.

“Y-yes! She did! She heard about it once and decided that it was safe enough to leave me here, and from what she heard, there was a nice hotel here that I could stay in”, Sunny lied, not wanting to answer any more questions.

Fortunately for Sunny, Kris seemed to buy into this as they shook their head and said that a hotel is nowhere near the town, to which Sunny just lied again saying that his mother didn’t know the claims were false. 

“Anyway, what are your friends’ and sisters' names?”, Kris asked, initiating the questions once more while biting a piece off their chocolate.

Sunny responded by taking out a photo from his pocket that also came from the photo album showing both himself and the rest of the friend group with Mari snapping the picture.

“That’s my sister Mari, she’s taking the photo, and behind her is Hero, Kel, Aubrey, and Basil and I”, Sunny explained while pointing to the friends whose appropriate names belonged to while doing so. 

“You guys look like you got along really well.”

“We certainly did”, Sunny confirmed. 

“They all look nice, especially your sister”, Kris added.

“Yeah…she definitely was…”, Sunny muttered under his breath. 

“What was that?”.

“N-Nothing! Besides that, you said that everyone in this town is like your mom, right?”

“Yes, she belongs to a species known as “monsters”.

Sunny internally questioned the name choice for the species but didn’t mention it, knowing that Kris wouldn’t have any answers to his question either.

“And just as a heads up, monsters do not look exactly like her, they all come in different shapes and sizes, every monster is unique”.

Sunny, intrigued by the information, wanted to ask more questions but was interrupted by Toriel calling both of them to come down for the pie. With both teenagers in response putting the wrappers back on their chocolates and putting them under Kris’s bed before washing their hands and heading down. 

“Ah! Welcome you two! Here, a Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie fresh out of the oven to share!”, Toriel said, happily greeting the duo. 

After cutting the pie into even slices, they all sat down in the living room with one slice each on a plate for them. 

“So Sunny, how’s the pie?”, Toriel asked.

“The best pie I’ve ever eaten.”, Sunny admitted while smiling and taking another bite of his slice.

“Well if you want seconds, just ask me and I’ll be happy to give you another slice!”

“Thank you! I’ll let you know!”

As Sunny shoved another piece of pie into his mouth, Kris asked and whispered to Sunny if he wanted them to tour him around town to get to know monsters a little more, to which Sunny said yes.

“Mom, I told Sunny about monsters, and I was wondering if I could tour him around town so that he can get to know this place more. Is that alright with you?”, Kris asked their mother.

“Oh but of course! But it must wait until tomorrow, it is far too late.”

As Kris nodded their head at Toriel, they eventually finished up the pie before Toriel handed Sunny a blanket so that he could sleep on the couch.

“… …actually mom, do you think Sunny could sleep in Asriel’s bed?”, Kris asked Toriel, not wanting Sunny to sleep on the couch.

“Oh! Well…I suppose it is alright, although only until Asriel arrives home.”

As both teenagers headed up to Kris’s room and both of them tucked themselves in, they lied there for a few minutes before Sunny asked Kris something he was wondering.

“Why?”

“What?” 

“Why did you let me sleep here?”

“I couldn’t just leave you down there, it’s pretty dark, I’m sure you wouldn’t have liked it.”, Kris admitted.

Sunny couldn’t argue with that, he was always afraid of being alone. Besides, Asriel’s bed felt like he was lying on a cloud. And after thanking Kris for the favor, both of them closed their eyes before they eventually drifted off to sleep.

…

…

…

Sunny suddenly found himself surrounded by pitch black darkness. 

“Š̷̻̱̏͝Ū̸̡̡̬̱͉̪̗̳̽̉̃̋̇̏͛̀͛̑̾͑̋̎̕̚ͅŃ̴̘̖͔͔̗̭̼̜͇̻͈̓̀͑̐͂Ñ̵̪͚̭̔̔͆͘͝Ÿ̴̭̝͍̺̩̟̪̤̠͍̮̼̒̽̇̓̀̈́̍͗̄͊̕̕…̴̝̺̝̏́́̇̀̅́͌͘̕”

“Wh-what? Wh-who’s there?”

“Ś̶̢̨̪̰̞̝̘̰͉̦͐̌͌̔́͒͆̋̓͠͝Ü̵̹̯̰̩͚̃͘Ñ̴̙̗͓̯͖͊̐́̽̌͆̑́̃̅̑̚͝ͅŃ̷̳̮̰̠̟̥̗̖̞̂́́͜͝Ÿ̶̡̭͚̭͙̥̲͉͍̥̺̏̉̿̂́̿̏͆̍̿͛̈́̕͘͝…̵͓̞̘̙̘̜̱̉ͅͅW̵̢̧̛̪͉̲͉̻͈̖̬͍̠͕̦̏̀͂̋͑̂̍̑͂͘H̵̡͎̭̹̰̣̙̣̙̪͈̾͐̏̿̾̆̒͑̒̋̒̓̓͜͠͠Ÿ̵͚̭̌̇…̸̛͕͎̖̊̄̾̎͆͛̓͒̋̀̇͘?̷̨̛̛͙̼̼̞̖̫̹͈͔̐̍̔͋͑̿͘̚͜͝͠͠ͅ”

As Sunny got up and looked around, a figure emerged from the shadows in the shape of Ṧ̷̡̱̻͚̖̻͎͚̍̚Œ̷̢̡̝̟̝̞̘̯̲̏̂̕͜ͅM̶͎̠̹̤͍̍̓ͅĘ̷̡͎͍̥̹̮̕͜ͅṮ̵̪̘̻̦̘̯̍́̔͌̏̈̒̕͝Ḧ̴̢̨̱̭̙̙̘̳̳́̇̃̉͊͌̄̽͘͘͘Į̴͚̠̟̇͌̓̽̄̔̃͠͝Ņ̴̡͉̳͇̲̃͗̆̈̆ͅG̷̨̛̖̬̝̼̳̻͖̻̀̈́́ .

“B-but…I thought you were…”, Sunny tried to ask before being paralyzed with fear.

“Š̷͎̈́̾̏̎̓̔̀̒͘Ü̸̺̟̞̜̩̟̱̏̔̈̒̚͠Ñ̷̨̫̹̬̯̱̳̊̓Ņ̵̧̢̭̣̣̳̤̻͕̯́̊ͅŸ̸̢̻̫̈́͋…̵̫̬̣̟̬͎͗Ÿ̷̜͓̰̼͗̌̓͗̂̀͘Ø̶͈̺͔̙̹̈́̌̐̈́̉́̓̾́̈́́̅̕͜͠Ü̸̗͇̜͚͍̾͗͆̅̆̋͒̕̕…̶̡̛̻̗̝̐̄̋̌͛̐͠L̴͔͕̜̹͙̰̇̀̎͛̇̓Į̵̨̟̘̹̤̟͓̮̫̠̩̤͕͇̭̔͐͋̄̽Ë̸̬̃̅̊̇̈́̉̓̏͂͌̿̈̚͠͝D̵̢̧̧̢̟̖̜͎͚̜̜́̋̔͆̓̍̉…̸̧̆̿̒̓”, The figure said before vanishing back into the shadows once more.

As Sunny closed his eyes and reopened them, he found himself awake in Asriel’s bed. With nothing more to be seen…

Chapter Text

Play: OMORI OST 014 - Acrophobia

As Sunny sat up from the bed, he made sure that he was still where he was when he went to sleep, and that nothing happened to Kris or himself during the nightmare. After making sure everything was alright, he took a moment to comprehend what had just transpired.

“W-why is it b-back? I-I thought I…”, Sunny said to himself as he was sweating profusely.

At that moment, Sunny had questioned everything that he had done ever since he left Faraway. He didn’t understand why that…thing was back to haunt him. He swore he saw it disappear after he shared the truth of what truly happened to Mari, so why was it back? He could only sit in silence as he processed a million thoughts at once. He just couldn’t understand…

…

…

…

“Huh? Wh-what is this feeling?”, Basil asked himself as he got a chill down his spine, waking up because of it.

He begrudgingly arose from his bed and headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat, thinking that it was just hunger pains. Making sure to walk quietly past Polly’s room and his friends sleeping in the living room, making sure not to wake them.

(“Hmm…now what should I eat…”), Basil thought to himself, his eyes jolting all over the fridge as he was thinking.

After a few more moments of standing in front of the fridge, he eventually settled for a fresh box of tofu sitting in the back.

“Here we ar-“, Basil tried to say to himself before looking down and seeing black sludge with eyes on the floor beneath him, disappearing the second he saw it.

“AH!”, Basil exclaimed, dropping the box of tofu and letting it spill on the floor in the process.

“Mmh, w-what? B-Basil? W-What the hell are you doing?”

Basil turned to his side to see that the voice came from Aubrey, who was awoken because of his outburst.

“A-Aubrey! Wh-what are you doing up so early?”

“Y-you should be a-asking yourself the same q-question…”, Aubrey responded, slurring on her words due to being awoken so suddenly.

“U-uhh, I-I um-“

“Y-You know what? Forget it, j-just clean this up and go b-back to sleep, i-it’s too early for me to deal with t-this”, Aubrey said while tucking herself back into the blanket on the couch.

“Y-Yes! Right away!”

After Basil cleaned up the mess, he went to the bathroom to reflect on what he had just seen a few moments ago.

“W-what was that? D-did I really…?”, Basil said while staring at himself in the mirror.

Just then, the black sludge appeared again all around him, with its eyes staring at him from all angles. And unfortunately, confirming Basil’s suspicions.

“W-what?! Why?! How?!”, Basil shouted.

“̸̡̆͑Ĥ̶̺̬̹̩̭̩̲̱̺̋̈́̃̽̈͜Ę̶̩̙̻̉̕ ̶͕̲̌͊Ł̵̙̯̼͍̥̰̮̘̗͓̿̀̒̽̚̚Į̵̞̠̳͕͍̗͚̯̮̕͜͠͝Ḙ̵̢̨̹̦̬͇̼͍̼̂̈́̅͒D̸̡̪̳̮̫̳͍͘͜”̸̧̹̺̣͓͈̪̜̲̭̂͌͛͑͂̆̍͌̎͜͝, The voice of Ś̷̢̥̜̯̗͓̩̘̺̗̱͓̬̑̇̔͊͂̃̕͜͠Œ̵͖̳̹̙́M̸͇̞̟͚͕̣̖̠͈͙͔̀̍͘͝Ę̷̨̭̰͓̭͛́͛͛̄̔͜͠͝T̵̛͍͍̩͆̃̈́͊̓̂͌͠Ĥ̵̨̭͍͎͚̱͙̠̝̮̭͛͑̍̋̀̈́̓͐͘Į̴̖͔̰̐͋̂͂̀̓̂͐̎̓̈́͠Ñ̴̥̹̮̘̜̭͇͈͓̔̾̈̅͋̀̍͌͆͂̄̀̾̚Ģ̸̤͕̹̜̰͕͉̩͉͇̬͎̠̆ said in response to his questions. Repeating it over and over again as if it was to mock him.

Basil could only stare at his reflection in the mirror in despair as the voices got louder and louder with each passing second, while he could only repeat those six words again and again to himself.

“E-Everything is okay…everything is okay…everything…is going to be okay…”

…

…

…

After ten minutes of Sunny sitting on the bed, he couldn’t hold it together anymore before letting out an ear-piercing shriek that echoed through the room. This caused Kris to wake up with a jolt and scan the room to see what was happening. Although they quickly rushed to aid Sunny after seeing him curled up on the floor and crying his eyes out.

When Kris lifted up Sunny’s tear-stained face, they asked him if he was okay as Toriel barged into the room to see what was going on.

“What has happened?! Is everything alright?!”

After Toriel looked past Kris to see Sunny in a pool of his own tears, she also rushed to his side to comfort and ask about what happened to him. Once she asked, Sunny could only repeat a single word over and over again in response to her question.

“S-something…something…s-something…”

Once Kris and Toriel finally managed to calm Sunny down, they tucked him back into bed before Toriel left, asking Kris to watch over him and to call her in case anything happens again.

After a few minutes of lying in their bed, Kris got up and walked to Sunny’s side of the room.

“What exactly…happened back there?”

“I’m…not even sure myself, honestly”.

After the two were just there in awkward silence for a bit, Kris excused themselves back to their bed and told Sunny to just wake them up if he needed anything. Sunny said “alright” and both of them once again fell asleep.

…

…

…

Sunny again awoke in pitch black darkness. But he could somehow still see perfectly fine, and this time, something was different…

“W-wait, again?”, Sunny asked himself after he arose from the cold and hard floor.

As Sunny looked around the pitch black void with a mind filled with paranoia, he spotted a face he had never seen before that didn’t look like one of his nightmares, but rather, a humanoid figure.

In response to seeing the strange figure, he ran towards it, he didn’t care what it was, he was just relieved that he wasn’t alone here.

Whoever it was turned around after hearing the loud footsteps behind them before running in the opposite direction from Sunny. Sunny was faster, however, and caught up to the person before grabbing them by the shoulder and whirling them around to face him. It was only then he could see who the figure actually was.

The figure was a girl that was slightly shorter than him, she had long brown hair that was tied into two braids. She was also wearing a pink shirt with a few black and white squares for the design on the front. She also wore a skirt with red shoes.

Upon being caught up to, the girl put her hands up over her face and had a scared expression while trembling.

“Hey, I’m sorry I scared you, but why are you here?”, Sunny asked the girl.

The girl stopped trembling, but didn’t say anything and just nodded her head from side to side at him with her closed eyes and a worried expression on her face.

“Oh, I see, you don’t speak?”

The girl responded by nodding her head up and down.

Suddenly, they heard a loud noise that sounded like groaning coming from in the distance. Which caused the girl to run and hide behind Sunny.

“Don’t worry, just follow my lead.”, Sunny reassured her.

As they went closer towards where the noise came from, small patches of white grass began to appear along the inky black floor.

And that’s when they came across something that they weren’t expecting to see.

They saw an Orange cat lying in the grass, sleeping peacefully without a care in the world.

Upon seeing this, Sunny immediately walked towards the cat to pet it, but was stopped by his thoughts.

(“Wait, what if this is another trap? What if it transforms into another one of those monsters? Is it-“)

Suddenly, the cat awoke, and after spotting the two, it circled them with curiosity while sniffing them. Sunny hesitantly held his hand out to it after it circled them a few times. And the cat put its head in his hands while purring affectionately after sniffing them one last time.

(“Hm, maybe this dream isn’t so bad after all.”), Sunny thought to himself as the girl also joined in on petting it.

Sunny was initially planning on just leaving the cat be after him and the girl was done petting it. But instead, the cat followed them from behind when they tried to walk off. Sunny didn’t mind though, he liked the little cat even if he just met it less than five minutes ago.

The trio continued forward to where they heard the groaning after it began to ring in their ears once again. Although as they continued moving closer to it, the cat began hissing at nothing while putting on a defensive stance near Sunny and the girl, about every two-hundred steps. Sunny had to repeatedly persuade the cat to keep going, but he also could have sworn he saw a few eyes staring back at him from the darkness when he looked in the direction where the cat was also looking.

They moved ahead before reaching a picnic basket that was on the floor. Sunny and the girl decided that it would be better to rest for a bit before continuing, in order to prepare themselves for what was to come soon.

As the cat curled up in between them, Sunny scavenged through the picnic basket and found some cat treats, which he promptly gave to the cat. He also found a diary with a pencil and some loose paper inside. The girl signaled to Sunny after seeing the diary with her fingers, gesturing for him to give it to her.

“Is this yours?”, Sunny asked, with the girl nodding her head up and down again in response.

Sunny gave the diary to her and she took it before hugging it. Then she also took the pencil and began writing an entry into it. After she was finished writing, Sunny remembered something he forgot to ask her.

“And by the way…who are you exactly?”

She looked up at him and took a piece of loose paper from the picnic basket, she only wrote one word on the paper.

Madotsuki

“That’s a nice name, I’m Sunny.”, he said, and while he didn’t show it, he was happy that they finally got the chance to introduce themselves to each other. Also noticing a small smile on Madotsuki’s face.

After their introductions, the cat got up from its spot and meowed at them to get going again. Although before Sunny arose from where he was sitting, he saw a couple of things at the bottom of the basket that he didn’t notice beforehand. It was a shiny knife and a roll of bandages. Sunny, of course, took the items and tucked them in his back pockets for easy access if he ever needed to use them.

A short while after they had continued walking, Sunny saw that Madotsuki decided it would be safer to simply carry the cat instead of letting it walk. As it began repeatedly stopping and showing signs of hesitation to keep going the further they walked on as the noises became more frequent. Sunny knew she also felt afraid, but she didn’t want to leave the cat behind, and he knew she didn’t want to either, so it was the best thing she could do at the moment.

Sunny also began to notice that there was an increase in the number of butterflies and flowers along the white grass. He also realized that he was unusually calm during this entire ordeal after noticing the scared expressions on his friend’s faces. He normally would have been just as terrified as they were, but he somehow didn’t feel the same.

All of a sudden, he saw the silhouette of another strange figure in the distance. Although the figure didn’t look humanoid this time, rather…one that was green with a horn…? Regardless of what it looked like though, he gradually began making his way towards the strange creature while Madotsuki followed behind at a short distance. Besides, at the very least, now he had something to defend all of them with if it turned out to be another one of his nightmares.

When Sunny was less than a few feet away from the silhouette, the figure suddenly turned around, and upon seeing them, they pointed their horn at them and took on a fighting stance.

“Stop right there you foul beasts!”, The strange figure exclaimed with a deep masculine voice.

This gave Sunny the chance to briefly examine what was in front of him. The stranger appeared to be a large, emerald green beetle that was almost as tall as Madotsuki, he also had white pincers and green wings, and of course, that large green horn atop his head. But before Sunny could finish fully examining this new figure, he suddenly charged at them. Just barely managing to get out of the way in time.

“W-wait! H-hold on!”, Sunny pleaded before the stranger charged at him again. This time though, Sunny was able to react quickly enough and pull out his knife, catching the horn in the blade.

“Who are you?! And what have you done with my friends?!”, The beetle demanded while both him and Sunny struggled against each other.

“W-we haven’t done a-anything with them! W-we don’t know who they are!”, Sunny responded, trying to explain himself as he began to feel his strength weaken, while Madotsuki could only stand on the side and watch in disbelief.

Suddenly, the cat sprung from Madotsuki’s arms and jumped onto the stranger’s head while hissing and scratching him. He backed off and shouted in pain as he tried to pull the cat off of him while struggling to keep balance. Sunny took this opportunity to attack while he was vulnerable, rushing forward and slashing him. Which caused the beetle to stumble as the cat jumped off of him.

“A-are you guys okay?”, Sunny worriedly asked, checking them for any injuries.

Madotsuki gave a thumbs up and nodded before picking up the cat again, Sunny proceeded to pet it on the head while it got comfortable in her arms.

“U-ugh…”

All of them turned around to see the stranger on the floor, writhing in agony as he bled yellow blood while holding his stomach. Sunny walked over to him as he tried to crawl away from them.

“I…I’m sorry that I hurt you. W-we never wanted to fight, but…will you let us help you now? Please?” Sunny asked while holding his hand out to him.

The beetle looked at him up and down before reluctantly taking Sunny’s hand and sitting upright. And Sunny took out the bandages from his back pocket and began wrapping them around the wound. After he finished doing so, he helped him stand up before asking one more thing.

“And by the way…what is your name?”, Sunny asked.

“Oh…right, I’m Kabbu. Who might you be?”, He awkwardly said.

“It’s nice to meet you Kabbu. My name is Sunny.”, He said while nodding to Kabbu.

As they all continued towards their unknown goal with yet another new ally, as Sunny liked to put it, he realized that Kabbu was keeping his distance from him and Madotsuki. He also couldn’t help but think about how weird this dream was beginning to become. It started off somewhat normally with waking up in this strange place once again, before meeting Madotsuki and the cat. But now a large walking and talking bug? These thoughts were cut short by a question from Kabbu entering his ears.

“What…are you?”

“What?”, Sunny replied, caught off guard.

“You and your friends don’t look like any bugs I’ve seen before…”

“Because we aren’t bugs, we’re humans.”

“And…what is a human?”, Kabbu asked with a curious expression on his face.

Oh boy…did Sunny have some explaining to do. He honestly couldn’t believe he was about to do this.

He let Madotsuki take the lead before moving to the back of the line with Kabbu. As Sunny explained more and more about human history, and what humans were, Kabbu just kept getting more and more curious with each passing moment.

“Fascinating! So if I’m correct, humans are not bugs, but an entirely new species created thousands of years ago?”, Kabbu asked with curious excitement.

“Well, not exactly new, and we’ve definitely been around longer than a few thousand years”, Sunny replied with an exhausted tone.

Sunny actually didn’t mind the questions Kabbu was asking, the problem was that he was asking one every second and immediately demanding an answer to said questions. He was also unsure of the knowledge he was providing Kabbu, considering he hadn’t set foot in a school for four years straight. With his only source of education being a program on his computer during that time period.

“Wait until the Explorers’ Association hears about this!”, Kabbu exclaimed once he was done with the questions.

“Explorers’ Association? What’s that?”, Sunny asked, confused once more.

“Oh, yeah, allow me to tell you a bit about myself,'' Kabbu replied.

While Kabbu was telling Sunny where he came from and what he and his friends did, Madotsuki overheard the information that was being said and stopped to listen to Kabbu’s rambing. Since she and the cat were also intrigued by what he was telling Sunny.

The amount of information that was flooding Sunny’s ears was almost overwhelming. It had been a while since he had heard somebody ramble on and on about…anything really. But still, he put his great listening abilities to good use, paying attention to both the important details and the ones he didn’t think were that necessary.

“Wow! So you and your friends are adventurers searching for something called “The Everlasting Sapling?”, Sunny asked for reassurance, once Kabbu was done talking. Being just as fascinated as Kabbu when he told him about humans.

“That’s right! Exciting! Is it not?”, Kabbu said in a happy tone.

“It definitely is!”, Sunny replied back in the same tone. While Madotsuki nodded up and down.

“One more thing though.”, Sunny mentioned.

“Yes, what is it?”, Kabbu responded.

“What happened to your master and best friend? You never brought them up again after mentioning that they traveled to Bugaria with you.”, Sunny asked.

Kabbu’s happy demeanor suddenly changed entirely. His arms slowly fell to his sides, and his expression changed to one of sadness. Sunny, realizing this, immediately regretted asking about them and tried to apologize for doing so.

“I-I’m sorry for asking! I-.”

“No, it’s alright Sunny…but…could we please keep walking?”, Kabbu requested while still looking down.

Sunny felt horrible for the way Kabbu was acting because of him, but the only thing he could do was listen to Kabbu’s wish and continue walking. He also received some silent reassurance from Madotsuki, her giving him a look that told him it wasn’t his fault.

The cat was also comforting Kabbu by rubbing itself against his legs and meowing. Kabbu didn’t even seem to have the energy to react, only silently acknowledging the fluffy creature at his feet and muttering a small “thank you”.

As Sunny took the lead of the party once again, he still felt a bit bad. But at the same time, why should he? This was all a dream anyway, why should he feel bad for something that doesn’t even exist? Although for some reason, it all felt…real? Somehow?

After some time, Kabbu exited his position at the back of the line and took the lead with Sunny. He didn’t say anything or even look at Sunny, at first, but after there was an abundance of the flowers and grass, he finally said something, which put a temporary end to the sounds of their footsteps and the noises up ahead.

“Um…Sunny?”

“Yes? What is it?”, Sunny asked in response.

“I…apologize for attacking you and your friend earlier”, Kabbu said while looking down at the ground.

Sunny knew that he was still feeling bad, the apology was clearly forced, but Sunny could tell Kabbu was trying to be as genuine as he could.

“It’s alright, you didn’t know what we were, I would’ve done the same if I wasn’t thinking, honestly.”, Sunny said with a small smile, trying to cheer Kabbu up.

“Thank you, Sunny.”, Kabbu said, returning the smile.

This moment was cut short, however, when the group heard loud footsteps approaching them at a fast rate. Getting louder every second.

“Halt! Whoever you a-”, Kabbu tried to shout while pointing his horn in the direction of the footsteps. But immediately fell to the ground in pain due to his injury.

“Kabbu! There’s no time! We have to go!”, Sunny shouted while throwing him on his back and making a run for it with Madotsuki.

As they were running Sunny thought he heard a voice from behind them with the footsteps. It shouted for them to stop and that they weren’t going to hurt them. Although of course, Sunny didn’t stop and continued running.

But to his dismay, he could feel himself slowing down, and his legs kept getting weaker every minute. Due to carrying Kabbu the entire time. Sunny wasn’t even sure how he even ran with the beetle on his back in the first place, but that didn’t matter now.

Eventually though, Sunny couldn’t run anymore, he collapsed onto Madotsuki who was running in front of him, which caused her to also fall to the ground. Fortunately, Kabbu’s horn didn’t stab them as they fell, and she managed to let go of the cat in time before it got crushed with the weight of all their bodies.

As Sunny got out from under Kabbu, still feeling a bit dizzy, he looked behind them to see the unknown runner getting closer and becoming more visible. Sunny didn’t bother to examine them though, he just closed his eyes in fear and prepared himself for whatever was to come next.

“Woo! G-golly! You guys really gave me a workout!.”

Sunny slowly opened his eyes to what was possibly the weirdest thing this dream had to offer. It was a humanoid figure that had a mug for a head and a large blue nose. With a blue and white striped straw in his head.

Okay, Sunny thought he had seen some weird things, but this was on another level. But then again, he did create a dream world that had strange creatures like him, and he did meet a goat lady in reality in a town with inhabitants just like her. So really, what was he expecting?

“Oh, I’m sorry if I gave y’all a scare! I’m just trying to figure out what this strange place is.”, The mug-headed figure said while holding his hand out to Sunny, as if to help him up.

Sunny was hesitant at first, but eventually took his hand before helping everyone else get up.

“But before we do anything else, my name is Mugman! What about yours?”, he asked with a friendly smirk on his face.

“Well, I’m Sunny, this is Kabbu, and this is Madotsuki.”, Sunny replied, introducing everyone else for them.

“Those are some s’well names!”, Mugman said with a spring in his arms.

“Thank you. But, anyway, you said you woke up here too?”, Sunny asked, wanting to get straight to the point this time.

“Yes, I did, one moment I was just playing with my brother, the next, I went to take a nap and woke up here.”, Mugman said.

“Actually, I came here the same way, me and my friends were going to rest at an inn, but when I fell asleep, I awoke in this strange place.”, Kabbu commented, overhearing the conversation between the two.

At this moment, everything was starting to click into place for Sunny. Mugman, Kabbu, and himself, woke up in what was allegedly his dream. How did they get here though if it’s HIS dream? Were they just figments of his imagination? Did Madotsuki and the Cat get here the same way? Thoughts cluttered Sunny’s mind once more, being left with more questions than answers.

“Anyway, do you know what this strange place is? Or how can I get out?”, Mugman said, crashing Sunny’s train of thoughts again.

“We’re just as confused as you, we have absolutely no idea.”, Sunny lied again, he fully knew what this dream was, but he didn’t want to be reminded of the things that transpired during dreams like this.

The moment he said that though, they all heard a scream coming from ahead. Sunny also heard the word “Ḻ̵̡̡̯͎̗̲̯͍͙̹͇̐͂i̷̯͉̳̔̿̏͋̐͘a̴̢̢̹͔͚͎͍̩̽r̷̖̮̹̪̺̙̙̭̰̓̀͊͂̋́̇̇̈́̀͛͜͝” ringing in his ears. Although he was unsure if everyone else could hear it too.

Although everyone else, upon hearing the screaming, immediately recoiled in fear.

“Oh…g-ee I-I’ve experienced t-things w-worse than t-this…b-but I can’t stop s-shaking…”, Mugman commented, clearly frightened.

“V-Venus…h-help us…”, Kabbu whispered to himself.

“D-don’t worry guys. I-I’ll lead the way…”, Sunny tried to reassure everyone with a shaky voice.

Sunny honestly didn’t know what he was trying to do, attempting to be brave. He wasn’t even afraid himself, for some reason. He was only trying to calm everyone down, but it came out as if he was just as scared as them.

“Well…I-I guess I will t-too”, Mugman said, as the tip of his finger glowed a bright orange, while standing next to Sunny.

Sunny was surprised and impressed at Mugman’s extraordinary abilities. But he kept these thoughts to himself, knowing that this is all just a dream, and because all of them had more important things to worry about, as of the moment. Find the source of that noise, and leave this hellish place.

Not wanting to waste any more time any longer, they all decided to run in the direction of the screaming that was progressively getting louder and louder. The screaming was almost deafening, Sunny could barely hear the sounds of his own breath and footsteps over it. With his new friends looking as if they were getting more and more afraid by the minute. By this point, everyone forgot about running in a straight line and just began running as fast as they could, desperately wanting to leave this nightmare.

All of a sudden, the screaming stopped, and so did everyone else. Sunny quickly caught up with them and looked in the direction they were looking in to see the biggest surprise that this nightmare had to offer.

“B-Ba…sil…?”, Sunny said in utter shock and fear.

Basil shakily turned around to see them and immediately shrieked upon seeing Sunny.

“S-SUNNY! W-WHAT DID YOU DO?!”, Basil yelled before being consumed by the darkness behind him.

“EVERYONE! RUN!!!”, Kabbu shouted at everyone, seeing the darkness coming closer to them.

Although this warning was too late, the darkness first consumed Kabbu, then Mugman. Who fired a charge shot at it that proved to be useless. Sunny had already begun running, but the darkness was catching up to him at an alarming rate, as it had also devoured Madotsuki and the Cat. Sunny reached out to them in despair as he witnessed them perish to his nightmares. And as it caught up to him, he could only close his eyes as it consumed him too.

And then, he woke up.

Sunny sat up from the bed and looked around the room to realize that he was in Kris’s room once again. He examined himself to make sure he was okay. Before letting out the biggest sigh of relief he had let out in a long while.

Sunny got up from the bed and walked to Kris’s side of the room to realize that they weren’t in their bed anymore. He walked down the stairs to see Toriel preparing breakfast, and seeing Kris sitting at the table, waiting for their meal.

“Oh! Sunny! You’re awake, and just in time for breakfast as well!”, Toriel exclaimed once she noticed him.

Once she alerted Kris that Sunny was downstairs, they patted the chair next to them, as if telling him to take a seat next to them. Sunny followed along, and sat next to Kris.

[“Are you alright Sunny? You look a bit nervous.”], Kris gestured to him, with a hint of concern in their facial features.

“Back to signing, huh? I-I’m fine, d-don’t worry about me”, Sunny commented before replying to their question.

[“Are you sure? You really made us worried last night”]

“I-I can-”

“Alright you two! Breakfast is ready!”, Toriel remarked as she brought two plates of food to them.

Kris immediately dug into the food, while Sunny was just sitting there, staring at his ham, cheese, and egg sandwich.

[“Are you gonna eat that?”], Kris gestured to Sunny, with their mouth still stuffed with food.

“Oh yeah, right, thanks.”, Sunny replied, before picking up the sandwich and taking a bite out of it.

They finished their meals before saying goodbye to Toriel and leaving the house for the tour Kris promised Sunny yesterday.

“So where are-“, Sunny tried to ask, before he was interrupted by Kris’s phone ringing.

They gave Sunny a finger, telling him to wait a moment, before they picked up the phone.

“Uhh…K-Kris? A-are you free today? Because I need you to come over r-right away. I-it’s very important…”, A voice on the phone said.

Sunny thought he heard Kris mutter a small, “mm-hmm”, before they hung up.

Kris gestured to Sunny afterwards, apologizing for the tour being interrupted. Sunny simply told Kris that it was alright, and whatever they needed to do now was more important than the tour.

As they were nearing the outskirts of the town, Sunny was thinking about the really weird dream he had last night. He somehow felt a genuine connection to the friends he made during it. Even if they were fake, it felt real to him. He couldn’t exaggerate that enough. But more importantly…why was Basil there? And what did he mean by what he said?

They made it to the stone steps of a cozy little cabin. With Sunny almost tripping over one on the way up. Kris knocked on the door, and whoever opened it, she was clearly surprised to see Sunny.

“W-wait! A-another human?!”, She shouted.

Sunny immediately recognized the girl as some sort of deer monster. She had the distinct facial features of a deer, she also had short antlers protruding out of her head, with shoulder-length yellow hair.

“W-whatever! J-Just come in!”, The deer monster said with an anxious and slightly frustrated tone.

As Sunny closed the door behind them, Kris stopped the monster, and Sunny watched them ask her a few questions before she could take them anywhere else.

[“Woah, Noelle, calm down. What’s the problem?], Kris signed to her. With Sunny also learning the monster’s name.

Noelle took a few deep breaths and told herself to calm down before replying.

“I-it’s just that…I called you over for this exact reason.”, She said with a sigh.

[“Huh?”], Kris asked.

“I-I mean…there’s more of you”, Noelle said, with Kris showing that they were obviously surprised.

[“Wait, so you mean-”], Kris tried to respond back, but couldn’t finish their sentence due to being so shocked.

“Yes…there are more humans here”, Noelle said, now looking directly at the ground.

Sunny wasn’t sure how to feel, but as of now, that was the least of his worries. Noelle guided them past the kitchen and to the living room. There were two girls sitting on the couch, one was a long-haired woman, whose hair was burnt orange…along with a brown-haired girl that looked too familiar…

“G-guys…they’re here”, Noelle said to the two on the couch.

Both of them perked up when they heard this, and they got up from the couch and walked towards them. The orange-haired woman walked up to Kris, and the brown-haired girl walked towards Sunny.

“Hey, so I heard that you were the only other human in this place, is that true?”, the orange-haired girl said to Kris.

[“Well, I was”], Kris signed to her while pointing to Sunny, but she didn’t seem to understand them.

“I…what?”, the woman said with confusion.

“Alright, let me explain”, Noelle said.

As they were going back and forth on Kris’s way of communicating, Sunny turned back to face the brown-haired girl.

“Hi…you look familiar. Have we met before?”, Sunny asked.

The girl responded by placing her hand horizontally in front of her while moving it from side to side without moving her arm. Sunny took that as a “maybe”.

“What is your name?”, Sunny asked, knowing that this would confirm whether or not he was just imagining things.

She took a piece of paper from the coffee table near the couch and only wrote her name, and two questions on it.

Madotsuki. Is your name Sunny? By any chance?

It was at this moment, Sunny realized that his suspicions turned out to be true. This was the same girl he saw in his dreams. And she was standing right in front of him in the real world. And she recognized him as well. How was this possible? He had so many questions, yet, none of them had answers.

Madotsuki tapped his shoulder with a slightly worried look on her face. Wondering why he suddenly went silent. Sunny almost immediately shook himself out of his daze, before confirming that his name was in fact “Sunny”. She also seemed a bit surprised at this.

“So you’re telling me that this is a town full of creatures in the middle of nowhere. And you don’t know where I can go to get back to the mountain?”, the orange-haired woman said with a tone of disappointment.

“Yeah…unfortunately”, Noelle responded in the same tone.

“Great…”, the woman said with a sigh.

Without saying anything else, she sat back down on the couch and stared down at the coffee table in front of her. Which caused something to move from underneath the sheets. An orange cat emerged from underneath the blanket, and made its way towards the others. Sunny didn’t think anything of it though. All cats of the same breed looked the same anyway. To his surprise, the cat’s eyes dilated when it saw him, before immediately walking towards him and it began purring while rubbing itself against his leg.

(“Huh? This is the same thing the cat in my dreams did with-...no…it can’t be! There’s no way this is the same cat too!”), Sunny thought to himself as he was speechless.

But he figured he’d deal with these thoughts later. Sunny bent down and petted the cat a few times before approaching the woman with the orange hair sitting on the couch.

“Hello…I’m the other human in this town. My name is Sunny. What’s yours?”, he asked with a twinge of nervousness in his voice.

“Oh, right. My name is Madeline.”, she said, still clearly frustrated at her current situation.

“Y’know…you’re not the only one that’s new to this place.”, Sunny said, awkwardly trying to lighten the mood.

“Wait…really?”, Madeline said with a surprised expression.

“Yeah…I kinda just got dumped here by my mom. She had to go on a business trip. How did you get here?”, Sunny asked out of curiosity.

“Well…I don’t really know how to say this, but…I was climbing a mountain called Celeste Mountain. And after moving past an abandoned city, I came across this memorial dedicated to the other climbers that had died. I decided to rest before continuing. I started a fire and fell asleep, before I woke up in the forest near this town.”, Madeline explained while glancing towards Noelle.

‘And…Noelle brought you back here?”, Sunny said, noticing Madeline glancing towards her.

“Yeah, I also found that girl in the woods with her cat, before Noelle found us and brought us here.”, she said while pointing towards Madotsuki, who was playing with the cat during their conversation.

“Her name is Madotsuki by the way. In case you didn’t know.”, Sunny said, showing Madeline the paper Madotsuki wrote on.

“Oh, is it? That’s a nice name.”, Madeline commented while looking up at him.

“But besides that, your story sounds really confusing.”, Sunny also commented.

“It is, I really don’t know how to explain it”, she said, looking back down.

“Also…why were you climbing the mountain in the first place? Knowing that it was dangerous?”, Sunny asked once more.

“I…I made a promise to myself that I would succeed in climbing it, no matter what it took. But apparently I can’t even do that…”, Madeline said, trailing off.

Sunny could tell that this conversation was only worsening her bad mood. He decided that it would be better to let her have some time to herself. And without saying anything else, he was suddenly pulled away by Kris. They didn’t sign anything as they dragged Sunny out of the house by his wrist.

“H-hey! What’s going on?!”, Sunny demanded as he ripped his hand out of Kris’s grasp.

[“I’m sorry, but Noelle told us that her mom would be home in a couple of hours, and she forgot to do the groceries. I figured I’d bring you with me to show you around town, even just a little. I already introduced you to her.”], Kris gestured while sweating a little.

From what Sunny could tell by the way Kris was acting, he assumed that Noelle’s mother wasn’t the nicest person. He understood that they didn’t want her to get in trouble. So he agreed to go with Kris to the store.

As they exited the forest, and got back to the main part of town, Sunny wondered if his time here would get any crazier…

Chapter Text

Play: Yandere Simulator OST - Buraza Town (Day)

As Sunny and Kris walked into the grocery store, Sunny immediately felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. Hearing the calming music playing over the speakers made him remember the times he spent in Faraway shopping around Othermart.

“So, what do we need?”, Sunny asked Kris.

[“Well, we need some eggs, milk…”], Kris signed to Sunny as they continued to list more and more items.

After Kris gave Sunny a copy of the grocery list, they both split up around the grocery store to look for what they needed.

(“I wonder who I’ll meet here…”), Sunny thought to himself as he picked out the eggs. The store was currently empty, but he had his eye on the monster that looked an awful lot like a skeleton with a large toothy smile running the cashier at the front.

After Sunny and Kris got everything that they needed, the two walked over to the counter at the front to pay for them.

“Ah, nice to see you again kid.”, the skeleton man said to Kris as he watched them come up. Somehow not noticing Sunny at first.

The skeleton man’s glowing pupils then wandered to where Sunny was standing. Although, the skeleton man didn’t seem all too shocked. Simply turning his head towards him.

“Woah, where did the pirate come from?”, the skeleton monster said while letting out a small chuckle.

Sunny was mildly annoyed by the bad joke, and was about to say something, before stopping at Kris gesturing something to the skeleton man.

[“Anyway…Sunny, this is Sans. Sans, this is Sunny.”], Kris gestured to both of them. Doing their introductions for them.

“Sunny, huh? I like that name.”, Sans said, this slightly improved Sunny’s mood. Enough to show a small smile on his face.

“Heh, guess I really turned your mood…Sunny side up.”, Sans said, cracking a pun while snickering. This actually made Sunny laugh a bit this time.

Sunny thought he heard Kris chuckle a bit as well, but it was barely loud enough for him to hear.

“Heh, I knew you guys had it in yourselves.”, Sans commented after seeing the both of them laugh.

“Besides that, it’s nice to meet you, Sans. I’m new here, in case you couldn’t already tell.”, Sunny said after he was done laughing.

“Oh, are ya? Same here.”, Sans replied, Sunny was caught off guard, but happy. At least he wasn’t alone in being new to this place.

Kris then stepped into the middle of their conversation and cleared their throat. Sunny almost completely forgot that they came here for the groceries. After the two paid for the items, they turned to leave, before they were stopped by Sans.

“Actually kid, since you and I are new here, how about we relax for a bit outside? My shift for the day is almost over, anyway”.

Sunny turned to Kris, they initially shook their head to say “no”. But after some discussion, he managed to convince Kris into dropping off the groceries at Noelle’s house first before they hung out with Sans.

“Yeah! Sure! Just let us drop these groceries off first!”, Sunny said to Sans after him and Kris were done talking.

“Alright, just hurry back. I ain’t got all day.”, Sans replied before they walked out.

…

…

…

Sunny and Kris reached Noelle’s cabin once again. Kris knocked on the door and Noelle answered. She let out a huge sigh of relief and expressed her gratitude for them and Sunny helping. Saying “thank you” at least three times over.

[“Anyway, Noelle, we’re going to go hang out with that new guy at the grocery store for a while. So we’ll see you later”], Kris gestured to Noelle after she was done thanking the pair.

“Are you? Well…maybe you can bring Madotsuki and Madeline with you guys! It would be a great opportunity to introduce them to someone new, with Sunny!”, Noelle suggested after they were already heading for the door.

Kris stopped right where they were standing and put their hand under their chin to think about whether or not to bring the two. After a few moments of silence, they eventually decided to take the pair with Sunny and themself. And gestured to Sunny to get them.

Sunny made his way over to the living room, he saw them sitting right where he last saw them. Madeline was sitting on one side, still staring down at the coffee table. And Madotsuki was snuggled up in a blanket on the other side, holding the orange cat in her arms while gently petting it.

“Hey…would you guys like to come with us? We’re gonna hang out with someone, a-and we thought you guys would like to come too.”, he awkwardly said.

Madotsuki nodded her head up and down before getting up from the couch. Putting the cat down while doing so. Madeline however, ignored Sunny’s question and continued to stare down at the table. Sunny, noticing this, walked over to Madeline and sat down next to her to give her some consolation.

“Hey, Madeline, I know what you’re going through right now, and I fully understand that.”, he began, grabbing her attention.

“I understand how much you just wanna be left alone right now, but…you can’t just close yourself off from the people who are concerned for you.”, Madeline looked directly at Sunny before looking away again.

“You’re…concerned for me?”, Madeline said with a hint of anxiety.

“Yeah, we’re friends…aren’t we?”, Sunny replied, turning his head towards her.

Madeline remained silent for a few seconds before replying to him.

“Alright…you got me there…let’s go”, she said, giving in to his words, as she stood up.

Sunny was pleasantly surprised that his comforting had worked on her, but he wasn’t complaining. He stood up from the couch and joined the rest of the group as they headed out the door, waving goodbye to Noelle as he did so.

While they were walking back to town, Madeline turned to Sunny, and whispered a small “thank you” into his ear, shooting him a quick smile. He smiled back, as they approached Sans. Waiting outside of the store.

“Ah, kid. You’re back. I see you brought a few more of your friends with ya, too.”, Sans said, as he walked towards the group.

Madeline and Madotsuki approached Sans before the other two could. Madeline began to talk with him as Madotsuki listened. They introduced themselves to each other before Madeline began asking him a plethora of questions. In order to get more acquainted with Monsters. While that was happening, Kris and Sunny sat down on a nearby bench. Enjoying the sounds of the forest nearby, and took turns petting the orange cat that had curled up in-between them.

Sunny felt a sense of peace overcome him. He couldn’t really describe the feeling, but all those memories of him and his friends in the park back in Faraway put his mind at ease. Almost completely forgetting what happened last night in his dreams, but not forgetting about the faces he encountered.

Out of nowhere, the cat lifted its head up and got off the bench. Its ears were perked up and it was staring deep into the forest while sniffing. Before Sunny and Kris could properly react, it gave them a brief stare before it took off into the trees. The two jumped up from the bench and began running after the cat. Although, the three just a few meters away didn’t seem to notice.

As they kept running deeper into the forest, Sunny wondered what had gotten into the cat. Why it suddenly ran away for no reason. Did him and Kris do something wrong? It seemed pretty comfortable with them before. So why was it only running now? Or maybe…it was leading them somewhere?

As it turns out, Sunny was right. The cat eventually took them into a dark cave deep into the forest. And finally, after three minutes of nonstop running, the cat stopped in front of an entrance to a small room in the cave. With said entrance being covered with long vines and plant life.

“Wh-what? W-why…would you…t-take us h-here?”, Sunny asked the cat, exhausted and out of breath. He wasn’t even sure why he was talking to an animal in the first place.

The cat then looked directly at Sunny, like it fully understood what he had just said. And then, as if responding to his question, it went into the room, and slowly made its way down the rocky and dark corridor.

Kris and Sunny looked at each other before they followed behind. The three eventually reached the end of the small tunnel, to where they saw a few metallic frames lying on the ground at the end of the tunnel.

“What? You really just dragged us all the way here for some scrap metal?”, Sunny asked the cat.

Although, something about them seemed…off to Sunny. Their body structures looked way too similar to that of a human, they also appeared to have screens for faces. Not to mention that they were all wearing clothing of different varieties, for some reason.

Sunny noticed that the cat seemed a bit sad. Its ears were held back and its tail was tucked in-between its legs. Sunny bent down and petted it before picking it up, they were just about to leave, when unexpectedly, one of the screens among the pile of bodies lit up. It flashed a bright blue before the body stood up. When it clumsily did so, the blue was replaced with that of a rainbow background and two closed eyes and a mouth. Kris and Sunny backed up slightly at the sight of this.

Sunny took note that whatever this was seemed to be a robot. And despite the darkness, he could tell what it was wearing, specifically. It was wearing a very long shirt that had a tropical pattern on it. It also donned a straw hat atop its head.

It shook its head back and forth repeatedly before the robot looked up to witness the two standing there with the cat in one of their arms. When it saw them, it jumped back in surprise slightly, with the blank face replaced with a shocked expression. The two teens standing there also recoiled slightly while letting out a small yelp.

The cat however, didn’t seem to be phased. It jumped out of Sunny’s arms before it walked over towards the robot. It meowed at it before walking back to him and doing the same.

Both of them shook themselves out of their daze before they both stared at each other intently, while the cat watched. Sunny, staring into its rainbow screen, while they did the same with the ring circles it had for eyes. As Kris just stood there and watched.

The robot eventually raised its hand slowly before it waved back and forth at him. Sunny did the same, not even realizing that his hand was moving. It then tried to say something to him that was an incoherent mess of noises. Sunny also attempted to say something to the taller figure, but it just tilted their head in confusion.

All of a sudden, the screens of the other three robots lit up, before the colors changed. They all looked around in confusion before looking up to the robot standing, and asked in the same incoherent noises that Sunny could only assume was, “What’s going on?”. Although they seemed to ignore them.

The robot in what appeared to be a lab coat with goggles on its head then looked past the one standing, to see Sunny and Kris standing there just beyond. It let out a quick gasp, as Sunny would like to call it. The other robots turned their heads in the same direction before doing the same and staring.

Sunny slowly made his way past the robot in front of him to the ones still lying on the ground. He looked down at two of the robots, one who wasn’t wearing clothing at all, and one of them who was dressed like a newsboy. He offered his hands to both of them and smiled. In an attempt to show that he was friendly.

They both looked up to him and gazed at him for a few seconds before they slowly grabbed Sunny’s hands. Pulling them up once they did. He also did the same with the robot dressed in the lab coat.

As Sunny took a step back, the four looked at Sunny and Kris. They continued observing the both of them with their glowing digital eyes. This made Sunny a bit uncomfortable, but he could also understand what they were feeling. Not to mention that the design of their bodies and heads were all the same. Only being able to tell them apart from their clothing.

Thankfully, the cat meowed at all of them, ending the awkward silence. It made its way past the robots before picking up a small drone behind them that Sunny somehow didn’t notice.

The cat made its way back to Sunny and placed the drone at his feet. He picked it up and studied it for a moment. He could only make out the phrase, “B-12”, on it before the cat tugged at his socks and began walking towards the exit of the room.

Kris and Sunny followed the cat behind, but before Sunny went any further, he looked back at the robots behind him.

“Are you guys just gonna stand there?”, Sunny asked while making a gesture with his hand. He figured that even if they couldn’t understand a word he was saying, they could at least get an idea of what he was trying to tell them.

As he turned back and ran to catch up with the other two, he could hear the sounds of metal a few feet behind him. Eventually reaching the exit of the cave leading back into the forest.

Sunny was still catching his breath after running, when he turned to the robots to see them looking up at the trees and directly at the sunlight peeking through the branches in complete awe. He could tell just from the way they were acting that this was probably their first time seeing natural sunlight. He too found himself looking up at the trees with them.

The cat and Kris witnessed them staring up at the trees, and the sun. Kris was exhausted from what just happened, so they lied down in the grass to also enjoy the view. Sunny and everyone else eventually lied down as well. Forming a circle, with the cat curling up right in the middle of it.

They all lied there for a good five minutes, before Sunny had to snap all of them out of their daze. Reminding Kris that the rest of the group is looking for them.

When they all got back to the main part of town, they were greeted by the faces of their friends. Who immediately ran towards them upon spotting them.

“Where did you guys go?! We have been looking for you two for almost an hour!”, Madeline said, clearly concerned.

Sunny looked her directly in the eyes before pointing to the new people behind him and Kris. Looking down to see the cat meowing at her. And then looking back up to see their digital faces staring directly back at her. Madeline jumped back in surprise slightly, before quickly composing herself and greeting them with a small, “Hi”.

The robot in the newsboy outfit slowly waved back at her, and then looked up to see Sans and Madotsuki observing them, not too far from where they were standing. Reacting to them, especially Sans, by changing its expression to that of surprise.

“Here, come with us. We know someone that will help you guys get adjusted to this place.”, Sunny reassured them. While pulling on one of their hands.

Kris and Sunny told everyone to wait at the grocery store. Assuring them that they would be back soon. When they got back to Kris’s house, Kris opened the door with their key to find Toriel washing the dishes.

“Ah! Kris! Sunny! Back so soon? How was the tour?”, Toriel asked with a mixture of surprise and curiosity. Without looking away from the plate she was washing.

“Well…actually…”, Sunny trailed off as he gestured to the new guests to come in.

When Toriel saw them, her eyes widened in shock. Although she quickly put herself back together.

“Oh my! Who are these?”, Toriel asked as she shut off the sink.

The robot in the straw hat awkwardly waved to her with that same blank expression still on its face.

“Alright, let me get you caught up.”, Sunny said as he walked up to Toriel.

Sunny proceeded to explain that they found the new people in the forest in a cave deep within it. He also explained that they are also new here and have nowhere else to go. They also cannot understand anything that they try to tell him or Kris. When he finished explaining, he made one request.

“So…ma’am. Is it okay if they can stay here?”, Sunny asked. He knew that this wasn’t his house, or his mother, but he figured that it was worth a shot.

“Well…I’m not sure…”, Toriel replied with a thoughtful look on her face.

Kris overheard this favor and quickly rushed to pull Sunny aside.

[“Sunny! Are you serious?! We can’t just let everyone live in our home!”], Kris complained. Clearly angry.

Sunny thought about it for a moment before suggesting something different.

“What if I…try and come up with another solution?”

[“What? Another solution?”], Kris gestured.

“I promise I’ll figure it out.”, Sunny replied. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He mostly proposed it in the spur of the moment.

[“If it was up to me, I would be open to it. But really, we’ll have to see if my mom feels the same way.”], Kris signed to him as they walked up to Toriel to explain Sunny’s idea to her.

As Sunny watched intently, he could feel the pressure in the atmosphere rising. Even more so when he saw the faces of the new people behind him with digital sweat marks on their screens.

When Kris was finally done explaining Sunny’s idea to Toriel, she walked over to Sunny to explain her thoughts on the matter.

“Sunny, listen. I understand that the new people you meet here are your friends. And you care about them.”, she began.

“Although Kris and I are unable to provide for each and every one of them,'' she said.

“But…if they really mean that much to you, I cannot stop you from feeling that way about them. So I am open to any idea you may have to support them.”, Toriel said in an encouraging tone. This lifted Sunny’s spirits as he cracked a small smile.

“Although remember this. We have already done our parts. So now it’s your turn to do yours. That means we cannot help you with anything that involves supplying for them. Do you understand?”, Toriel warned. Making sure he knew that this was his choice.

“I understand. And don’t worry, I will find something for them!”, Sunny replied. Solidifying his decision.

“So it’s settled then.”, Toriel confirmed.

“Now…they may live in our home as of now. But you must find a solution as soon as you can. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Good.”, Toriel said while smiling. Before she went back to washing the dishes.

“If you and Kris have any other matters to attend to, I suggest you both go do them now.”, she mentioned.

Both Sunny and Kris looked at each other and nodded. As they were heading for the door, Sunny gave his new robot friends a thumbs up. Letting them know that they were allowed to stay. Their blank expressions turned to smiles when they saw this, putting a smile on his own face, and surprisingly, a very brief one on Kris’s as well.

Before they exited, however, Sunny noticed that the cat was no longer following them. Instead, it was near the robots. Sunny was a bit sad to see it go, but he understood. Since it was the reason why he discovered them in the first place. But still, he waved goodbye to all of them before heading out with Kris.

On the way back, Sunny was desperately trying to brainstorm ideas on what he could do to keep his new friends. He decided to put these thoughts aside for now, as he remembered the weird drone the cat gave him earlier. Sunny took out the small drone from his pocket and examined it while they were walking.

(“Why did it take this…?”), Sunny thought to himself, staring into the lifeless eyes of the drone as he thought so.

…

…

…

“OW!”

The shout came from Sunny himself as he fell to the ground. Having walked directly into a street lamp head first. Guess that’s what he gets for not paying attention.

[“Are you okay?”], Kris gestured after helping him up.

“I-I’m fine…”, Sunny replied, rubbing his head from the impact.

[“You dropped this”.], Kris signed, handing Sunny the drone.

“T-thanks…”, he said, putting the drone back into his pocket. He was sure as hell never doing that again while walking.

When they both got back to the grocery store, Sunny immediately sat down on the bench he and Kris were sitting on not too long ago. His head was still throbbing from walking into the pole earlier. Although, he looked away to the right for what was apparently only one second, before looking back beside him to find Sans sitting where the empty space once was.

“So…kid. Quick Question. Who were those guys earlier?”. Sans casually asked.

“They were…new.”, Sunny answered while turning away from Sans in the opposite direction. Trying to ignore the fact that he seemingly teleported right next to him.

“Ah. I see.”, Sans replied.

“Where are you from?”, the skeleton continued.

“A small town just like this. I grew up with my friends there.”, Sunny replied.

“That’s nice. How’d you get that eyepatch, anyway?”

Sunny didn’t bother replying this time, and instead just remained silent while continuing to look away.

“Hey, it’s fine if you don’t wanna tell me. Just tryin’ to get to know you a little more is all.”

“U-uhh…sure…”

The vibe soon became a little awkward. As neither of them asked or said anything more. The only sounds being made were the ones of the forest, and the scribbling of a pencil being caused by Kris. Who was explaining everything that happened to both Madeline and Madotsuki on a few pieces of loose paper the latter had on herself.

…

…

…

“...Hey kid. You don’t look too good. Is something wrong?”, Sans asked. Noticing that Sunny was rubbing his head the entire time.

“Ugh, yeah. I just…hit my head pretty bad earlier.”, Sunny answered with a grunt.

“I get that. You wanna walk it off with me? I ain’t got much else to do.”

“I would like that. T-thank you…”, Sunny replied, trying to stand up from the bench, only to fall back down.

After helping him stand, Sans let the other three know that he and Sunny were about to go on a quick walk through the forest. He also asked them if they wanted to tag along, although Kris signed that they had enough of the forest for one day. Madotsuki nodded her head from side to side, and Madeline said she was still trying to comprehend what Sunny and Kris just went through. Saying that she found their story confusing.

Sans took Sunny to a different route along the side of one of the apartment buildings. There was a trail hidden behind some bushes. Sunny decided to go behind Sans and let him lead him down the trail, not wanting to walk into a tree, or whatever object for that matter again.

Sans walked slowly down the trail, presumably to enjoy the gorgeous view, but also possibly to let Sunny catch up with him. Sunny was also enjoying it as much as Sans was, as far as he could tell, but his face and body language didn’t show that. Even if his headache had mostly gone away by then.

“...Kid, you still look down. Are you sure you’re fine?”, Sans asked, noticing his strange behavior.

“Y-yeah! I-I’m fine…”, Sunny forced out.

“Kid, it doesn’t take a genius to tell you’re clearly upset about something else. You can tell me what’s up, y’know.”, Sans reassured, his tone being more serious now. Stopping in his tracks.

“Well…I do have a problem.”, Sunny admitted.

“It’s about my new friends, the ones we found in the forest, remember?”, he reminded.

“Yeah, what about em’?”

“They…they’re new here, and I really want them to stay. But…Kris’s mom doesn’t want them to live in the house, unless I find a solution.”, Sunny replied.

“This is really stressing me out, because they have nowhere else to go. And I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can’t think of anything to help them.”, he finished with a tone of sadness.

Sans remained silent for a few moments, and then replied with a calm voice.

“What if…they could live outside?”, Sans suggested.

“Huh? Outside? But they have no backyard.”, Sunny questioned.

“Y’all can make one, then. It shouldn’t be that hard for kids such as yourself.”, Sans suggested.

The idea of letting them live outside hadn’t crossed Sunny’s mind up until now, but thinking about it, it didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. He and his friends built a treehouse in his backyard, after all. So how hard could it be to make a simple outdoor area with the help of a lot of people? There was just one issue however…

“But how would we even get the tools to make it?”, Sunny asked.

“Well, it would normally cost ya a lot, but since you and I are more of the same, I can make an exception this time around. I am the janitor, after all.”

Sunny was confused when he said, “janitor”. As he never saw anyone else working in the store, besides Sans. But he quickly brushed that thought off.

“You mean…”

“Yep, I can give em to you. Free of charge. Just tell their mom I said hi. Deal?”, as Sans finished his sentence, he held his hand out to Sunny. He winked at him with that perpetual smile still on his face, and the color of his left eye socket changed to a bright teal for a split second.

Sunny was caught off guard by this, but he didn’t care. He was just extremely happy and grateful that Sans just helped him solve his current problem.

“Yes! Thank you so much!”, Sunny remarked, while shaking the other’s hand repeatedly.

“No problem, kid. You can take whatever you need when we get back.”, Sans added.

Sunny stood there for a moment to calm down from the excitement, before asking Sans if they could continue walking for a bit longer before they went back down the trail. Sans obliged, and they continued walking. Watching the leaves fall and cover the ground, and enjoying the soft breeze blowing past them.

Out of nowhere, though, Sunny heard voices he didn’t know the source of where they were coming from. He stopped, and began to panic, thinking that those hallucinations were starting again. But after listening closely, he realized that the voices were coming from the trees, somewhere off the trail. Curiosity got the better of him, and so he began to walk off the main path, before he could even get to the opening in the trees, however, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by a bony hand that belonged to Sans.

“Woah, kid, where are you going? The path is right here.”, he said as he lightly tugged on Sunny’s wrist.

“I know…but I heard voices. I want to see where they’re coming from.”, Sunny responded, resisting Sans’s grip.

“Alright. If you say so. But I’m coming with ya though. You wouldn’t wanna get hurt, would you?”, Sans replied, unhanding Sunny.

Sunny nodded and walked into the trees. He could hear that the voices were ones of anger as he and Sans got closer to them. He could vaguely hear an altercation going on between two people.

“Ugh! Why do we have to wait on this idiot?! He belongs to you guys! Not us!”, Sunny heard one of the voices say.

“It would certainly be better if we all stuck together. Considering we don’t know where we are. Although we’ve been through this enough times to know that bugs such as yourself are incapable of coming to such logic.”, he heard a voice say back in a calm, yet obviously angry tone. He was also thrown off when he heard the voice refer to the other person as a “bug”.

Finally, they reached the source of the voices. And Sunny experienced yet another shock that hit him as hard as one of Aubrey’s headbutts.

He was greeted with the sight of four, human-sized bugs. Sunny was quickly able to identify them after only a few seconds of examining them. He identified one of them as a honey bee. And they had the color scheme to prove it. Sunny managed to instantly identify another one as a wasp. They had the recognizable jagged mouth of one. They were also taller than all of them. As for the last two, he recognized them as moths, one having white patches of fur, and a cream-colored body with fluffy wings. And the other one, having a cyan-colored body with blue wings, gold tones, and a golden fluffy collar.

Sans, Sunny, and the bugs stared at each other. Making unbroken eye contact until all four got into a fighting stance. Ready to battle.

“Who are you?! What are you?!”, the wasp yelled out, pulling a few needles out from seemingly nowhere.

“Why have you brought us here?!”, the cyan moth shouted. Somehow forming an icicle in his hand.

Sunny walked backwards with his hands up and shaking. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t want to find out anymore. He just wanted to get out of there as quickly as he could. He shouted Sans’ name a few times, telling him that they had to run. Although he didn’t seem to be phased. He was still standing there with his perpetual smile and his hands in his pockets as if nothing was wrong.

“Enough games! You both will regret ever doing this to someone like me!”, the cream moth yelled.

With that, the wasp threw his needles directly at them. Sunny flinched and covered his face, waiting for them to strike the two of them.

…

…

…

…it suddenly went silent.

Sunny opened his eyes to find the needles on the ground. Somehow stopped. He saw that this was caused by none other than Sans. Who held a couple of bones in an x-pattern with what looked like magic.

“Heh, you really thought I was just going to stand there and take it?”, Sans said, moving the bones to his sides.

“Now…let's get this party started, shall we?”

It all happened so quickly for Sunny the second after Sans said that. The bugs attacked him with everything they had. Needles, icicles, music notes, boomerangs, and bones were flying across the entire area the battle was taking place in. Sans seemingly dodged all the attacks with little to no effort. Teleporting to avoid them. The bugs on the other hand were getting struck with almost every single bone Sans was sending towards them.

“Ah! Leif! Can I get some help over here?!”, The honey bee shouted at the cyan moth. Who’s name was apparently “Leif”.

“Can’t you see we’re also in the same position, Vi?!”, The cyan moth yelled back at the honey bee. Throwing another ice shard at Sans.

“Woah! Watch out kid!”, Sans yelled to Sunny. Blocking the shard with a couple of bones. He hadn’t even realized that the ice shard Leif threw was headed right towards him after Sans dodged it.

“Agh! Zasp! Get yourself over here and help me you moron!”, Sunny heard the cream moth yell to the tall wasp.

“Yes! Mothiva-”, “Zasp” yelled out before getting smacked in the face with another bone.

Sunny chuckled at the sight of this before diverting his eyes back to the main battle. It was all intense, but at the same time…fascinating.

Amidst all the chaos, though, he spotted a body lying on the ground across the battlefield, just from where Sunny was sitting. He quickly retreated back into the trees to get to the other side, without getting himself hit. When he got to the other side, he took a closer look at the figure lying on the ground. He noticed that the figure looked to be a beetle, it had a horn, white pincers, and was emerald gre-

…

…

…wait…no…

Sunny took a step back from the unconscious bug in disbelief. He wasn’t sure how to react to this. He could come up with a logical explanation for Madotsuki and the cat showing up, but for this…a logical reason just wasn’t possible.

“This…isn’t…real…”, Sunny muttered to himself over and over again.

“Hmm?”, the beetle muttered as he sat up from where he was sitting.

He then stretched his arms out to reveal some gauze bandages with a few blood stains on them, that were wrapped around the entirety of his stomach.

When he saw Sunny though, he leaned back in surprise and shouted before taking a closer look at him.

“Wait a minute…you look like someone I’ve seen somewhere…”, the beetle said to himself. Continuing to stare at him.

And then, it all clicked together.

“Great Venus! Y-you’re Sunny!”, he shouted, finally realizing who was in front of him. He somehow ignored the fact that there was a heated battle going on right behind him.

“K-Kabbu?!”, Sunny yelled back. Confirming his own name.

“Why…yes! B-but how!? A-and what happened to your eye?!”, Kabbu questioned. Before his injury made him recoil. He bent over and held his stomach, almost stabbing Sunny in the face with his horn.

“I’m sor-”, Kabbu tried to apologize before being cut off by his own injury once more.

Sunny rushed to his side and patted him on the back. He asked Kabbu to remove his hands from his stomach to take a better look at the slash he made. After he removed the bandages, Sunny realized how deep the cut actually was. The outer part of the wound was covered in dry blood and the wound itself was colored red. It was only now Sunny realized Kabbu’s wound was infected.

“K-Kabbu, I’m so sorry for slashing you when we were there!”, Sunny apologized. He felt even more guilty now.

“D-don’t worry about me, Sunny. I-I’ve felt worse. T-trust me.”, Kabbu said, trying to make him feel better.

With no warning, the sounds of battle right behind them came to a halt. They both turned around to see everyone, including Sans, staring at them. Realizing that they were talking with each other.

“What are you doing?! Get your hands off him!”, Vi screamed at Sunny. Throwing what looked like a boomerang at him. Which was abruptly stopped by Sans.

“Not so fast. You wanna get him? You gotta get through me first.”, he casually said. Preparing another bone attack.

“E-everyone! Stop this right now!”, Kabbu shouted at all of them, falling to the ground immediately after.

Vi and Leif immediately rushed to his side as Sunny backed away. Zasp seemed to almost run too, but stopped himself before he did anything else.

“Kabbu! Are you alright? Did this strange bug harm you?”, Leif said in an angry voice while pointing to Sunny.

“N-no…he helped me. Actually. H-he’s one of them. The ones I encountered in my dreams. Remember?”, Kabbu said, shocking everyone. Including Sans. Even then, it was very brief.

“So you’re telling me that this freak of nature was someone you met in your mind?”, “Mothiva” asked.

Sunny ignored the rude comment. Only rolling his one remaining eye in response, before looking back down at Kabbu for confirmation.

“Y-yes. H-he’s my friend.”

“Is this true, kid?”, Sans questioned.

“Y-yeah…”, Sunny confirmed. Trailing off.

“Ugggggh…”

The long groan came from Kabbu. Realizing that his infected wound was getting worse. Sunny reacted by picking him up and helping him stand. He explained to everyone else that the injury was from when Kabbu was asleep. When asked about this, he said that he didn’t know how an injury from his dreams could carry over into the real world. He also said that he didn’t know how he got injured in the dream in the first place. That was yet another lie.

Sans said that Sunny should take him back to town immediately if he didn’t want his wound to get even worse. Although, as they were heading back the way they came-

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going with him!?”, Vi shouted.

“We’re taking him somewhere to get better.”, Sunny responded. Without saying anything else, he continued walking to catch up with Sans.

When the two got back to the main trail, Sunny realized that the sun was beginning to set.

“Sans, what time is it?”

“Well, the last time I checked, it was about three. Now, it is…five-thirty.”, he replied. Pulling his phone out to check the current time.

(“Dang. That long?”), Sunny thought to himself, as he heard footsteps behind him.

As it turned out, it was the four bugs that attacked them earlier. Looking both mentally, and physically beaten up. He could tell that they were still untrusting of him, but he still smiled at them, trying to cheer them up. He saw Leif and Vi shoot him a very brief smile before going back to their tired expressions. Zasp also smiled back, but was given an unfriendly glare by Mothiva. He quickly looked back down at the ground.

They got back to town and quickly headed back to the grocery store where Kris and the other two were.

[“You’re back. What took you guys so long?”], Kris gestured to Sunny. Before they noticed him carrying a human sized beetle and equally large bugs standing behind him.

The three of them didn’t seem to be that surprised though. Madeline and Madotsuki simply looked them up and down with intrigued looks on their faces. While Kris just looked at the bugs, and then back to Sunny and Sans.

[“Let me guess, new guys?”], Kris signed.

“Yep. You guessed it. They got into a little…”fight” with Sans. Anywhere they can go to get better?”

[“There’s a hospital a few blocks away. You want me to take them there?”]

“Sure, why not?”

Sunny handed Kabbu to Kris. And they began walking to where the hospital was. With them initiating the other bugs to follow them. Madeline and Madotsuki followed close behind as well. But as Madeline was passing Sunny, she whispered something into his ear.

“There are more waiting back at home.”

This left Sunny extremely confused. He was in the middle of deciding what she meant by that, and then was prompted by Sans to come with him into the grocery store. Reminding him of the solution he helped him with.

Sans took Sunny to the back and grabbed everything he thought was necessary to build the outdoor area. He grabbed nails, wood planks, shovels, a few fences, hammers, tents, and so much more.

Pretty soon, everything he grabbed was organized into neat, individual piles. Near the entrance of the store.

“Sans, I can’t thank you enough for this.”, Sunny said with happiness.

“No problem kid. It was nice chattin’ with ya. What did you say your name was, again?”

“Sunny. It’s Sunny.”

“Thanks. Say, you want me to help you carry those? You’d be here till morning if you did it all by yourself.”

“Please.”, The moment after Sunny said that. Sans summoned a few bones and slid them under the supplies to carry them.

When they got back to Kris’s property, Sunny noticed a few unfamiliar faces sitting on the sidewalk near the house. One of them noticed him and Sans, and began walking towards them. The first thing Sunny noticed was how short they were.

“You there! Start talking!”, The small creature yelled. Catching Sunny off guard.

The small being had two uneven horns sticking out of his head. His eyes were nothing but black holes in an angry position. With a mouth fixated into a frown. He was wearing a cloak that acted as a cape, it did not cover the front of his body. His head was colored white and it also seemed to have the texture of a hard shell. There were also no distinguishable features on his body. Nothing but darkness from his head to the nubs he had for feet.

“Well don’t just stand there, you goam! I, Zote The Mighty, will be forced to-”, he said before he was pulled away by a similar, but much taller being.

“My apologies for such a rude introduction.”, the taller being said. While shooting Zote a death glare. He was still yelling while being restrained by two figures, big and small.

“I am Hornet. It is a pleasure getting to know you. May I know your name?”, she said. Holding her hand out to Sunny. Which was also a nub. Her tone was stern and serious.

He shook her hand to be polite, but she sent a chill down his spine once he noticed the giant needle she was holding with her other hand. She was also wearing a long cloak that resembled a dress. There were also two long horns on her head with those same black circle eyes.

“Please, do not be afraid. I only draw my needle when in battle.”, Hornet reassured.

“Th-thank you. My name is Sunny.”, he said, still shaky.

“Sunny? You must be the one who she mentioned to us.”

“...Madeline?”

“Yes. She had mentioned that you were absent when we were found by her and your other friends.”, Hornet confirmed.

“Where were you guys found?”, Sunny asked.

Hornet paused for a moment, she looked like she was thinking deeply for an answer, but it just wasn’t coming to light.

“Excuse me. I don’t mean to interrupt, but would you like me to take it from here?”, a voice from behind asked.

Sunny realized that the voice came from a person that reminded Sunny of a pillbug, who was also one of the people restraining Zote. He had the similar features of one, something that Sunny could only assume was a sword was somehow holstered onto the side of his body. He also had what seemed to be a hat on his head that shaded the upper half of his face. He whispered something to Hornet before walking up to greet Sunny.

“Hello! It’s wonderful finally getting to know you! I’m Quirrel. You must be Sunny, I assume.”, he said in a friendly tone while holding his hand out.

Sunny wasn’t expecting a greeting like that. He expected him to be either stern or rude like the last two. So finally getting to hear someone friendly was refreshing.

“Yes! It’s nice getting to know you too!”, Sunny replied while gladly shaking Quirrel’s hand.

“Thank you! We’ve been-”, Quirrel tried to say before stopping at Hornet clearing her throat.

“I mean…I’m sorry for getting off topic there. We were found near a strange bunker just beyond this town”, Quirrel said, answering Sunny’s question from before.

“A bunker? What was inside it?”

“We aren’t sure. It wouldn’t open, no matter how hard we tried. We did meet some new friends while attempting to open it though! So that’s a start!”. Quirrel proclaimed.

“Really? Where are they?”, Sunny asked. His interest now piqued.

“Well, they’re just inside Kris’s home! Would you like to meet them?”, Quirrel asked.

“Sure! Why not?”, Sunny agreed as they began walking.

“Eh. What the heck. I might as well come in too.”, Sans said. Putting the supplies down near the red car in the driveway before he followed behind them.

However, Sunny noticed a much smaller figure among them that looked similar to Zote. Except their horns were even, their eye holes were bigger, and they had no mouth. They also donned the same cloak as Zote with a dangerous-looking sword behind their back. Sunny thought it was odd that they didn’t so much as walk up to him, but he couldn’t think much of it now.

As Toriel opened the door and greeted them, the cat moved past her and immediately walked up to Sunny. It looked up to him and meowed before he pet it. Afterwards, Sunny walked past Toriel to go see who Quirrel was referring to. While the new group was talking to Sans and Toriel.

The first thing Sunny noticed was that there looked to be a pink gas behind one of the couches. Although there was no fire around it. Sunny moved past his suitcase right behind the sofa to see what it was. He certainly wasn’t expecting what was sitting on the couch.

The person sitting on the couch had a body similar to that of a human, but they had a head similar to that of a pink gas with a singular eye in the middle. The skin on their body was also a light shade of blue. They had kicked their feet up on the table in front of them with their arms crossed.

When they noticed Sunny standing there, they gave him a look before fully turning to him and giving him a look that was a mix of surprise and curiosity. Sunny soon realized that they were looking at his right eye that was covered by his eyepatch.

“Umm…hi. My name is Sunny. Yours?”, Sunny awkwardly said. Feeling slightly uncomfortable.

They didn’t reply and instead shrugged their shoulders at the question.

(“Oh, so they can’t speak either.”), Sunny thought.

As he came to this conclusion, they pointed to Sunny’s right eye. As if trying to ask him what happened to it.

“S-sorry, it’s a long story. I don’t know how to explain it.”, Sunny replied. Very uncomfortable now.

The expression in their eye changed to one of annoyance upon hearing this. They gave Sunny a middle finger before sitting back down on the couch while rolling their eye.

(“Scumbag.”), Sunny said to himself internally before Hornet whispered something into his ear.

“Let’s just say we got into a little…“altercation” with them earlier at the bunker before we were discovered.”, she said. Sunny understood the implications of her words before moving past her to speak to Toriel again.

“Hi Ms.Toriel! How are you?”, Sunny asked.

“I’m doing great, Sunny! I was just teaching your new friends here a bit of our words!”, she replied. Referring to the robot friends he made earlier that day that were sitting on the bigger couch and conversing among each other in their own language.

“That’s great! Can I see?”

“Why yes! Of course! I need to check up on them in the kitchen, anyway!”, Toriel replied before getting up and heading to the kitchen right behind them.

Sunny was confused when she said “them” since his robotic friends were sitting right there on the couch. But he pushed this confusion aside and sat in the middle of the four.

(“Hi. I’m Sunny. Nice to see you guys again. What are your names?”), Sunny wrote on a piece of paper. Growing tired of saying his name and introducing himself over and over again in the same day. At least he didn’t have to say it this time.

After passing the paper to the robot in the straw hat, they wrote down their name on the paper before passing it back to Sunny.

The name “Momo” was written on the paper. One of the letters was instead written in a strange symbol that Sunny didn’t recognize, but he came to the conclusion that it was a sample of their own language.

Sunny nodded at him and passed it to the robot wearing the newsboy hat on his right. They also wrote their name on the paper under the words on top. Instead of passing it back to Sunny, though, they instead passed it to the robot on their left that wasn’t wearing any clothes. They passed the paper back to Momo before he handed it to the robot wearing the lab coat and goggles on his left. Before it was finally handed back to Sunny.

The three names written on the paper were, Clementine, Zbaltazar, and Doc. In the order of who wrote on it.

Sunny pointed to the robots whose names he thought belonged to while showing the paper. They all shook their heads to confirm that those were their names.

“It’s nice finally getting to know who you guys are. I like your names, by the way!”, Sunny wrote while showing a small smile. They all smiled back at him before Momo took the paper from Sunny’s hands and wrote a small phrase on the remaining space.

Thank You.

“You’re welcome.”, Sunny replied, writing on the paper. The cat also meowed at him as he wrote that.

“Sunny, my apologies, but some of the guests want to see you.”, Toriel said. Somehow appearing right behind them.

“Yeah, sure.”, Sunny replied. He gave the four sitting on the couch a gesture saying that he needed to go somewhere. Doc gave him a thumbs up before Toriel led him to the kitchen.

“Alright…who wants to see me-”, Sunny asked before being cut off by arms wrapping him into a tight hug.

“Ah-ha! There you are Sunny! We’ve been waitin’ for ya!”, one voice exclaimed.

“Yeah! We were startin’ to get impatient!”, another one said.

Sunny got himself together after almost being knocked to the floor to see two humanoid bodies half his height hugging him, although one seemed to have a cup for a head, he had a small red nose, and a red and white bendy-straw in his head. The other humanoid frame hugging him had a head similar to the cup, but she had what looked to be a light-yellow chalice for a head, with a gold and yellow straw in it. He also wondered how they knew his name. And how they looked almost just like-

“Cups! Chalice! I told you two not to do that! Doing that with Kris was already enough!”, Sunny looked up to see a humanoid frame that had a mug for a head, a blue nose, and a straight, blue and white straw in his head.

“I’m sorry for that! I don’t know what got into them. Anyway, it’s great to see you again Sunny!”, the mug told him while offering his hand out to shake Sunny’s.

“M…Mug…man?”, Sunny asked with a shaky voice.

“Yep! That’s me! Good ol’ Mugman!”

Sunny didn’t say anything and just stood there in complete awe of who was right in front of him. He stared at him with his one eye wide open as Mugman and the two other anthropomorphic dishes gave him a confused look.

“R-right, I forgot you weren’t exactly expecting me to be here with you. I couldn’t believe it myself, personally! Ha Ha!”, Mugman said, trying to diffuse the awkwardness in the room with that statement and a nervous laugh. If anything though, it just made it even more awkward. But out of nowhere, Sunny smelt burning.

“Wait! Mugs! The pie!”, the red-nosed cup shouted.

“Oh gosh! Right!”, the chalice said, rushing to the oven and opening it.

The room was suddenly enveloped with a black haze that obstructed Sunny’s vision. When the smoke cleared, he was greeted with the sight of the chalice holding a burnt pie in her hands, and Mugman leaning on the counter, having opened the window.

“Aw no! Ms. Toriel is gonna be popping her lid!”, the chalice said just as Toriel walked in the kitchen.

“Is everything alright in he-”, Toriel said, noticing the burnt pie in the chalice’s hands before she hid it behind her back.

“Heh heh…uhh…well…you see…”, the cup began before Toriel stopped him.

“No, listen you three, it’s okay, it was my mistake to let you three handle it by yourselves. It was also careless of me to escort Sunny in here at a bad time.”, Toriel reassured the four in a forgiving tone.

“But now, me and Sunny are here. It would be delightful if we could all make more pies together! Would all of you like to do that, instead?”

They all looked at each other before nodding and giving her a thumbs up.

“Wonderful! Let us begin!”

And so, they all got to work. Sunny and the three dishes mixed the appropriate ingredients together and formed it into dough, while Toriel buttered a few pie tins. They all began lining the tins with the dough, but Sunny decided to try and get to know the new people as he was doing that.

“Hi…uh…oh right, I assume you two already know my name. What are yours?”, Sunny asked with a hint of nervousness.

“Right! Sorry bout’ that! I’m Cuphead! And this here is Ms. Chalice!”, Cuphead said. Happily introducing himself to Sunny.

“But you can just call me Chalice!”, she added.

“Huh. Fitting.”, Sunny commented.

“And in-case you’re wonderin’ how we know your name, my brother Mugman told us!”, Cuphead said, pointing out the obvious.

“Well, at least not until after the huge brawl we had with those folks in the woods. We barely made it outta there without a scratch!”, Chalice said.

“Hmm, I see. So he’s your brother, Cuphead?”

“Yep! That’s him!”, he replied while pointing to Mugman, who gave an awkward wave and an equally awkward smile in response.

Sunny was happy to know that they were all friends. He was going to continue asking questions, but he moved over to Toriel to ask her something that was floating in his mind for a while before he forgot.

“Ms. Toriel?”, he began.

“Yes? What is it that you need, Sunny?”

“I was thinking…you have something like a last name I can use to refer to you by?”, Sunny finished.

“Oh my! Why yes of course! My apologies, I completely forgot. You may call me Ms. Dreemurr.”, she replied.

“Thanks, Ms. Dreemurr.”, Sunny responded.

“Pardon the interruption, but what you five seem to be doing looks like fun. May we join?”, they all turned around to see that the voice came from Quirrel, who was standing with Hornet and Zote.

“Why of course! You three can help with the filling. Come! I’ll teach all of you how to make it.”, Toriel responded.

While Quirrel and Hornet stood by Toriel to figure out the recipe, Zote instead just stood there with that same angry expression.

“Aren’t you gonna join in?”, Sunny asked the small frame.

“Nonsense! I, Zote the Mighty, am a knight of great renown! I have no time to waste on paltry activities!”, he proclaimed in a voice loud enough for the entire house to hear.

“Okay then, suit yourself. We’ll just have fun without you, then. Go yell some more, or whatever.”, Sunny responded, turning away from him.

“E-excuse me?! How dare you speak to me in such a manner?!”, Zote screamed.

“Yeah, we’ll just be here making delicious pies. Besides, we never asked you to join. Yell all you want, it’s not going to change anything.”, Sunny finished.

“W-well I never! F-fine then! If you insist on one such as I engaging in your affairs, so be it!”, Zote said as he jumped onto the counter and grabbed a spoon.

Sunny smirked at the sight of Zote giving in to his taunts. Hero and Mari always used those types of tricks on him to get him to help them when he decided to be lazy. So Sunny was glad it worked on Zote as well.

Through a good thirty minutes of the cups getting into a dough fight, Zote giving Quirrel and Hornet issues, and Toriel restarting a few of the pies from scratch, they eventually landed eight fresh cinnamon-butterscotch pies in the oven and baking.

“Why’d we bake so many?”, Sunny asked Toriel as he rubbed his face with a wet paper towel.

“For the guests of course! You have a lot of people coming in, don’t you?”, she replied.

Just as she finished her sentence, the front door was opened by Kris. They came back with Kabbu, his other bug friends, and Madeline and Madotsuki from the hospital. Although the three humans looked visibly scuffed up while the bugs were all bandaged.

[“Never. Again.”], Kris gestured to Sunny while passing by him.

“Hey, what smells so good?”, Madeline commented.

“Why that’s the pie, of course! And you all are just in time!”, Toriel remarked as the timer for the oven went off.

After she took the pies out of the oven and let them cool off, they all dug into the carefully baked dishes. Everyone seemed to enjoy the pies while conversing with each other, slowly bonding over it. And positive comments coming from almost everyone every few minutes.

“I will admit, this food is certainly better than what I’ve had to eat in a while. Thank you.”, Hornet commented.

“For a type of dish we aren’t familiar with, this is quite delectable.”, another comment that came from Leif.

“Heh, y’know Ms. Dreemurr, this ain’t half bad.”, Sans said to Toriel.

Madotsuki also seemed to enjoy the pie, almost a little too much. She ate her piece in less than three minutes and pointed for seconds immediately after. Sunny found it a bit strange as to why she was eating so fast, but he didn’t give it much thought at the moment.

But Sunny noticed that there were a few of the guests who hadn’t moved since they came in. Those being the robots, the one with the pink gas for a head, Mothiva, and the small one that had come in with Hornet, Quirrel, and Zote, but had neglected to even walk up to him. Sunny felt as if they were just in denial of where they were, since they definitely came from anywhere else but here. He asked for seven extra slices before carrying the plates on a tray to the living room.

“Um…excuse me?”, Sunny began after sitting down on a spare cushion.

“I was wondering…would you guys like to have some pie? We have a lot, and I noticed that you all haven’t moved since everyone else came in.”, he spoke, despite knowing that the robots probably couldn’t understand most of what he was saying.

After a moment of silence, Sunny let out a sigh before setting the tray down on the coffee table. He was about to walk back before he realized the robots all took a plate from the tray and were about to eat it. Sunny wondered how they were going to eat it, remembering that they had screens for faces.

Right as he remembered that, Momo cut a piece of the pie off with the fork. The small piece glowed a bright blue before dissolving into thin air. He sat still for a moment before a heart appeared on his screen, showing that he loved it. Guess that answered Sunny’s question.

Doc, Clementine, and Zbaltazar also tried it when they saw Momo’s reaction to it. They also seemed to love it.

Sunny was glad that they loved the baked goods despite not physically showing it. But before he did anything else, he handed the small drone from earlier to Doc and said, “Maybe you know what to do with this”. His eyes diverted to the smaller frame in the cloak, and sat down next to them.

He didn’t say anything to them, but instead, he picked up a plate and gently nudged it into their hands, while saying, “Please, have some”.

They looked at him with their unblinking eyes before taking the plate from Sunny’s hands. However, instead of using the fork, they used their tiny hands to take a bit of the pie off and putting it under a small opening under their head, as they had no visible mouth.

They went from slouching to sitting up straight when they tasted it. Then they put another bite into their mouth. Then another. And another.

“And…your name?”, Sunny asked, slightly regretting disrupting them from their meal.

They looked at him and they pointed to the paper and pencil sitting across from them. Sunny handed them the paper before they only wrote four words on the paper.

Ghost. Food is good.

Sunny told them his name and thanked them, before they went back to eating the pie. He then sat next to Mothiva.

“What do you want, freak?”, she said, turning away from him.

“I just want you to try some of this.”, Sunny said, pointing to the pie.

“No way! Get your gross food out of my face!”, Mothiva said while pouting.

Normally, Sunny would have given up by that point and would have just smashed the pie in her face in anger. But he made a promise to both his mother and himself that he would try to be as patient as he could when it came to these types of people, and to be a better person as a whole.

“Please, you have to be starving right now. Besides, Zasp seems to like it!”, he said while pointing to Zasp in the kitchen, who was happily conversing with a few of his new friends.

As if to confirm his statement, her stomach growled after looking down at the pie.

“Ugh! Fine! Give it here!”, she said while snatching the plate out of his hands and shoving a huge chunk into her mouth.

Her brows suddenly changed from a look of anger to one of surprise.

“You like it, don’t you?”, Sunny asked while smirking.

“S-shut up! No I don’t! In fact, this might be one of the worst meals I’ve ever had the displeasure of eating!”, Mothiva said while pushing the plate back onto the table.

“Okay, whatever you say”, Sunny said. As he got up and pretended to be focused on something else, he saw Mothiva “sneakily” taking another bite.

Now came the last one.

Sunny was standing a few meters away from the one with the pink gas for a head sitting on the couch. The one who had flipped him off earlier. He wasn’t even that angry about it anymore, just a bit hesitant to try and be nice to them. He let out a long sigh before walking up to them with a plate in his hands.

They noticed him almost immediately and gave him a look that said, “The hell do you want?”.

Sunny looked down at the plate, and then back to them, and extended the plate out to them. Giving an, “Eat it”, as he did so.

They didn’t bother grabbing the plate though, and instead grabbed the entire slice and tossed it into their head, which burned almost instantly. They sat there for a few moments before Sunny asked them their thoughts on it.

“So…how is it?”

From what Sunny could make out from the gestures they made, they said, “It’s not bad. I guess”. At least they didn’t flip him off again.

Soon, all the pie was finished and everyone seemed happy, except for one thing…

“So Sunny, what idea will you present to us?”, Toriel asked.

He stood there for a moment while stuttering before Sans stepped in to speak for him.

“What he’s trying to say is he’s gonna build a backyard for you guys…”, Sunny panicked for a moment before Sans continued.

“...with all of you helping, of course. Don’t worry though, your old pal Sans has all of the supplies waiting for y’all outside.”, he finished while winking at Sunny.

They all began discussing amongst each other in separate groups before Madeline stepped up to confirm all of their thoughts.

“Sunny, after what you’ve done for us, we’ll help you in any way we can.”, she said.

“Yeah, even if we still kinda don’t trust you. We’ll help, I suppose.”, Vi added with a grunt.

“Would like it if you could come up with your own idea next time”, Toriel whispered into Sunny’s ear in a judgemental tone. He only nodded in response.

With that settled, they all headed out to the back of the house to begin construction.

“So where do we be-”, Sunny asked before stopping at a strange noise.

It turns out, the sound was coming from Ghost, who was channeling some sort of energy in the form of a white glow. They then ran into the trees before they were suddenly cut down in an instant. They were spinning rapidly in a circle holding their sword. This continued before they eventually came to a halt when a very large amount of the trees had been cleared. Leaving only their stumps.

The one with pink gas for a head also pulled out a shovel from seemingly nowhere, and began uprooting the stumps at an extremely fast rate. Eventually leaving many holes in the ground in a matter of seconds.

The two of them didn’t bother helping anymore though, they instead went back to the front porch of the house and sat there, not doing anything else.

“O…kay…”, Sunny commented.

“Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s begin!”, Kabbu remarked.

And so, they got to work, Vi, Cuphead, Madeline, and Clementine helped fill the empty holes back up with dirt, while Kabbu, Leif, Quirrel, and Hornet made use of the trees that were cut down. Crafting them into different items and decorations to be used in the backyard.

Meanwhile, Mugman, Chalice, Kris, and Sans were placing the wooden floorboards over the places where the holes no longer were. Although really, Mugman did most of the work on his behalf.

Once the preparations were completed, that’s when everything began to come together.

The ones working on the trees had carved them into poles to be placed around the area. The poles had been hollowed out for some sort of lighting to be placed into it. Doc and Momo quickly got to work on the lighting using the electrical cables and solar panels. Eventually securing the fully functional lights into the ground near the floorboards.

As they did that Zasp and Zbaltazar were making fences with the extra wood scraps, and were placing them in-between each of the lights. Zasp had to kick down a few extra small trees for the wood though.

Madotsuki and Sunny, on the other hand, were finishing up the decorations and furniture within the area. Placing a few tables and chairs near the center, as well as many tents surrounding said area. Including a campfire with a few benches. Madotsuki gave Sunny the idea of placing lanterns in the tents, to make them a little more hospitable. Which he did. While Toriel was walking around and encouraging everyone to keep going, despite their attempts to stop.

Finally, after more than a few hours of constructing, crafting, and water breaks, the area was finally completed. From Sunny’s perspective it looked like the outdoor area in one of those expensive resorts.

“Great job everyone!”, Sunny shouted at everybody, except for Zote and Mothiva, who didn’t help at all.

They also didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it either. Looking more angry than anything. Well…all except for a few.

Toriel then promptly instructed everyone to go into their tents to get some rest for the night. Since it was well past eleven-thirty by that point. They all crawled into their tents in groups of three, groaning as they did so. Kris was too tired and worn out by the end of it too, and immediately went upstairs without going to the bathroom. Toriel doing the same as well after saying goodbye to Sans.

Before Sunny could do the same, however, he heard some voices behind him.

“Sunny? Can we talk to you for a second?”, Sunny turned around to see that the voice came from Kabbu. Who was also standing there with Quirrel and Madeline.

“Yeah, sure, what do you need?”

“I just wanted to apologize for my teammates' behavior earlier.”, Kabbu said.

“No, it’s fine, I get it.”, Sunny replied.

“I want to tell you that…they can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but they have good intentions, believe me.”, Kabbu said while looking to the side.

“Yes, and nearly everyone here appears to feel the same way, they don’t quite trust you yet, and it may be a while before they do…”, Quirrel added.

“But in the meantime, we trust you, Sunny, and we’ll be here if you need anything.”, Madeline said.

“Thanks guys”, Sunny said.

“Well, we’ll let you go now, we have a long day ahead of us, after all…”, Quirrel said, walking off.

Sunny nodded at him and headed upstairs where Kris was.

He stepped into the room quietly, making sure not to wake Kris, who was out cold on their bed. Although the moonlight shining through the window highlighted something else that caught Sunny’s eye.

(“Oh, she must’ve moved it up here…”), he thought, walking over to his suitcase.

He opened it to find a few extra pairs of clothing, some socks, and…his phone.

Sunny turned it on to see two missed messages and calls from his mother.

Missed Call From: Mom, 5:05 PM, Yesterday

Message: Sunny sweetie, how are you? How’s that new town going for you? - Mom, 5:15 PM, Yesterday

Missed Call From: Mom, 8:00 PM, Today

Message: Sunny…please answer my calls. Mommy’s starting to get worried…- Mom, 8:20 PM, Today

Sunny couldn’t believe he completely forgot about his mother since he got here. Feeling like garbage about it, he sent her back a message as he was tucking himself into bed.

I’m fine, mom. It’s really nice over here. I’ve already made some new friends, actually…- Message to: Mom, 11:59 PM, Yesterday

He sighed as he realized it was already twelve and hitting the “send” button. Maybe that would make his mother feel a bit better? Regardless, he wasn’t going to dwell on it now.

(“Tomorrow will be better…I hope…”), Sunny thought to himself as he floated off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Play: Our house - Emamouse

…

…

…

(“What?”), Kris thought to themself after being awoken due to strange noises coming from downstairs.

As they got up and rubbed their eyes, they walked to the other side of the room to see Sunny in the bed on the other side. Sleeping deeply. Just like how they were a few moments ago.

(“Good job, Sunny.”), Kris thought to themselves after remembering the new friends they both made a few hours ago. 

As they thought that, their thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash coming from the kitchen.

(“Damn cat…”), Kris thought. Begrudgingly moving to the door of the bedroom.

As they exited the room, they tried to turn on the lights in the hallway, although for some odd reason, they just weren’t working. 

(“I gotta tell mom to get these lights fixed.”), they thought. Giving up on attempting to turn them on.

When they reached the stairs though, that’s when things began to feel…off.

Their peripherals began to go dark. Even if their eyes had already adjusted to the darkness by now. The sounds coming from downstairs also began to grow louder, eventually getting to the point where Kris couldn’t even hear their own footsteps anymore. Kris felt as if they were walking down an endless flight of creaky steps, wondering when it was going to end. Their eyes tightly shut and their movement became slower and slower. 

Eventually though, when Kris reopened their eyes, they saw that they were already at the bottom of the stairs. The noises stopped, and their vision returned to normal. 

(“What the hell just happened?”), Kris said to themselves mentally. Quickly walking to the kitchen to not ponder it any longer.

Needless to say, when they got there, Kris was definitely not expecting to see what they saw. 

“V-Vi! Leif! What do you guys think you’re doing?! Stop!”, Kabbu half-shouted at his teammates who were violently digging through the fridge.

“Simple, we’re hungry. We’re looking to see if there’s any more of that pie.”, Leif casually replied, before going back to raiding the fridge. 

Kris chuckled under their breath for a moment before crouching behind a wall to see where this would go.

As they watched for a few moments, Ghost peeked their head through the kitchen window without their sword, and gave all of them a look of confusion as they pointed to the fridge. 

“We’re searching the fridge for more pie! Are you gonna join us? Or what?”, Vi replied to their nonverbal question. 

Ghost put a small hand to the bottom of their head and thought for a moment. They then nodded at Vi before crawling through the window and jumping into the top level of the fridge. Accidentally knocking a frying pan directly into Kabbu’s face in the process.

“Ugh! No!”, Kabbu shouted before rubbing his face and trying to pull all of them out of the fridge. 

Kris felt like they were watching a comedy. They were desperately trying to hold in their laughter as Ghost accidentally pelted Kabbu with tons of ice cream. 

Suddenly, the front door creaked open. It was Quirrel standing in the doorway. Only now, he didn’t have his sword or his hat. 

“Wha-what is the meaning of this noise? It’s rude to-”, Quirrel tiredly said before seeing the three scavenging through the fridge.

“C-could I please get some help here?!”, Kabbu asked while wiping the ice cream off of his face. 

Quirrel didn’t seem to be interested in helping, due to how tired he was, until he realized that Ghost was a part of the noise that was going on. His eyes widened as he rushed to help.

“M-my friend! Please! We must not disturb everyone else who is sleeping!”, Quirrel shouted while pulling at Ghost’s tiny legs. 

Kabbu joined in not long after, and also began struggling to pull his teammates away from the fridge. 

Meanwhile, Kris was still watching this entire ordeal as they were holding back tears. Although the tipping point was when Leif used some ice magic to encase Kabbu and Quirrel’s heads into blocks of ice. Kris burst into laughter while rolling on the floor. 

Everyone in the kitchen almost immediately stopped what they were doing to stare at Kris just completely losing themselves on the floor, before Vi spoke up.

“How long have you been behind that wall?”, she asked with confusion.

“Haah…ahhh. You don’t need to know…”, Kris replied after calming themselves down.

“W-wait a minute, you can talk?!”, Kabbu asked once he freed his head from the block of ice.

“Yeah, I can. Why?”, They replied.

“Then why didn’t you say anything back at the hospital?”, Kabbu asked once more.

"You wouldn’t get it. Trust me. Anyway, you guys were looking for the pie?”, Kris said, before they walked over to the oven, but it was locked.

“Heh, she thought…”, Kris whispered, and then took out a paper clip and a hairpin from their back pocket. They proceeded to work at the lock for a few moments before a click was heard, and the oven was opened. They then pulled out three extra pies from out of the oven. 

“How? I thought all of the pie was done last night.”, Quirrel asked in a curious voice. 

“My mom just can’t resist making extras whenever there’s people over. Anyway, if you guys let me have some, I won’t rat you all out to everyone else. Deal?”, Kris asked.

“Well…I suppose balance is always a good thing…”, Quirrel commented. Indirectly accepting the deal.

“Good! Then let’s eat!”, Kris remarked, before grabbing a knife from the counter. 

“B-but-!”, Kabbu tried to complain before being stopped by Vi.

“Oh come on Kabbu! Lighten up a little!”, she said, as Kris cut her a slice.

“Yes, do not ruin this for us. Will you?”, Leif added while already taking a bite of his first slice.

“You guys weren’t showing this attitude earlier…”, Kabbu said, giving up on trying to talk them out of it.

They all dug into the pie for the second time, Kabbu repeatedly had to stop Vi and Leif from taking too many. Ghost on the other hand, sneakily took three extra slices from the other pies while they were all distracted, after Kris gave them the thumbs-up to do so. They also tossed Kris a couple of extras while they were at it. Meanwhile, Quirrel was snoozing on the couch after his first slice, since he was far from hungry. Soon though, all the pie was gone for good, and everyone was relaxing, trying to calm down before going back to sleep.

“You guys couldn’t have saved me any…?”, Kabbu asked with a sad tone to no one. He was so caught up in making sure no one took too many, that he forgot to take any for himself. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”, Kris whispered, as they walked up to Kabbu and secretly pushed a plate of pie into his hands. 

“Thank you…”, Kabbu said. Thanking Kris for the gesture, as he sat on the staircase and ate his slice.

Not long after Kabbu was done with his slice, everyone decided to finally go back to their beds and go back to sleep for the night.

“Thank you for giving us extras, Kris.”, Leif said in his usual monotone voice, while beginning to head for the door.

“No-”, Kris began before they were all stopped by loud knocking at the front door. They were surprised that no one woke up due to how loud it was. 

They all jumped slightly at the knocking, it was as if someone was trying to break down the door. Vi and Leif already began preparing to fight, while Kris gripped the knife they were holding slightly harder. 

“Worry not, friends. I shall see who is at the door.”, Quirrel said in a calm manner. Trying to de-escalate the situation.

“Hello? Who’s there?”, Quirrel asked the person on the other side of the door.

“Oh! Yes! Sorry about that! I heard that my son, Sunny, is here? I dropped him off in this town, and I wanted to pick him up.”, a feminine voice said on the other side of the door. Who was apparently Sunny’s mother. This realization causes everyone behind him to start letting their guards down.

“Why yes! He is here, actually!”, Quirrel replied in a joyful voice. 

“Great! Now, could you please open the door, so that I can go get him?”, Sunny’s mom asked on the other side of the door. 

Kris was at ease until they heard those words. It was at that moment, they realized that something was very, very wrong about whoever this was on the other side of the door. 

“Why not? Come on-”

“No! Wait!”, Kris almost yelled. Grabbing Quirrel’s wrist, cutting him off.

“Kris, what is the matter? It’s only Sunny’s mother.”, Quirrel asked with confusion.

“I-I know. But there’s something…off about her”, Kris said, placing their hand on the door handle, slowly unlocking it.

Before Kris did the same with the deadbolt however, they put the chain of the door through its slot. So that the door couldn't open all the way.

Kris hesitantly unlocked the deadbolt and slowly opened the door.

"Slowly…", they whispered to themselves.

As it turned out though, Kris's suspicions ended up being correct. Because after they only cracked the door open to where a hand could barely go through, a long and bony arm jolted through the crack, and tried to slash at Kris.

Everyone backed away from the door in fear. Even Leif, who had his eyes wide open.

"Ẁ̴̨̠̫͉ḧ̵͙́͑̿a̷̟͚͆̒́̃t̷͔͇͐̀̒ ̴̛͕̮ḁ̶̧̈͑͝ŗ̴̬̟͉͋ė̷̱͇ ̷̘̱̍y̵̨̻͎͒̋o̶͔͋͆͠ǔ̷̪̯̂͊͘ ̴͚̘͒d̶͈̞͕̐͜ǒ̴̡̻͉͠i̷̥̐̇̎̒n̴̝̉g̶̢͒̓̇̚?̵̝͊̐͂͠!̸͕̙̽͝ ̷̨̗̙̅͌͘͝I̴͍͊̂ ̴̳̬̻̻̿̕j̸̘̤̟̅û̵͔͖͠ś̶̨̧̧̟t̸̨̞͈͆ ̵̠̠̦͓͘ẅ̵̺̬́͆̉à̴̼͂̌n̴̦̰̳̚t̸͇̑̆̑̿ ̴̡̘̱̱͊ț̸̉̕o̸̗̎ ̸̱̽̑̓͋s̴̹̜̑͆́͝e̷͚̿ẹ̴̡͍̿̈̔̓ ̶͙̿̌̀m̴̧̲̟̾y̷̨̮͇̎̃͊̒ ̸͙̬̋͐͜͠ș̶͎̠͒̒ò̸̩̼ņ̴͕̣̤̂͂̅!̷͚͕̑ͅ", the kind and feminine voice was now replaced with that of a monster. Demanding to be let in.

The monster screamed in anger. Scratching at the edges of the door with its sharp nails. While pounding on it with enough force that could snap the chain at any moment, as everyone just stood there, not moving a muscle.

Fortunately however, Kris finally gathered enough courage to put an end to this. They ran towards the door at full speed and slashed the arm with their knife. This caused the monster to scream in pain while Kris continued to slash and stab at it.

Vi and Leif weren't far behind in fighting back either. Vi threw her weapon through the crack in the door repeatedly, while Leif also sent a barrage of icicles through as well. As Quirrel, Ghost, and Kabbu assisted in pushing the door back.

After struggling for control of the door for what seemed like forever, the monster retracted its arm back, which allowed them to close the door and lock it. But that wasn't the end of it. Instead, the monster continued to pound at the door with all its might. Threatening to break it down. 

As they were all pushing their weights on the door, Kris, out of curiosity, looked through the peephole to get a good look at whatever this thing was.

From what they could make out, the creature had the body of a human with shoulder-length hair, but its limbs were contorted to be that of a beast. It's face was possibly the worst thing Kris had seen in a while. Its mouth was twisted into a large ear-to-ear grin with sharp teeth. And one of its eyes was a hollow black hole similar to Ghost’s, but the other was a singular human eye staring directly back at them.

Kris quickly bent back down. Not wanting to stare back at it any longer. They looked at the ground as the banging got louder and heavier every second.

("When will it end…?"), Kris thought to themselves.

But then, it came to a halt.

Kris heard the banging stop. When they looked up, everyone had already stopped leaning against the door and had looks mixed with relief and confusion on their faces.

While the others were still trying to compose themselves, Kris looked through the peephole once again to find that there was nothing there anymore. They opened the door, this time all the way, and the results were the same. Nothing in sight.

Kris sat on the floor, not sure what to do next. Until a certain voice entered their ears.

"Kris! What on earth is going on here?!", the voice came from Toriel. Who was holding a candle in her right hand with an angry expression plastered on her face.

"Th-there was knocking at the door…", Kris said in a slightly shaky voice, as everyone else just stared at them.

"Ugh, please, do not wake anyone next time.", Toriel replied with a groan, walking up to everyone else and giving each of them an individual apology.

Soon, they were all told to leave and go back to their tents for the night. Only leaving Kris still on the floor from what had transpired a few moments ago.

"As for you, Kris. Maybe you can make this behavior up in the morning by continuing that tour from yesterday with Sunny’s new friends.", Toriel said in a stern voice as she headed back up the stairs.

Kris sat there for a few more minutes before finally getting themselves together and heading back upstairs to bed.

When Kris got back to their room, they walked over to Sunny and thought to themselves while looming over his sleeping body.

("Did you have something to do with this…?"), Kris said to themselves in their head. They weren't sure why, but they had a feeling that Sunny was somehow involved with the monster at the door.

Although Kris figured that they would just ask Sunny about it in the morning instead of pestering him about it now. It was a long day yesterday, after all.

Kris lied down in their bed still thinking to themselves. But one thing was for sure. They were definitely not getting any sleep that night.

PROLOGUE - END

Chapter Text

Play: Deltarune OST: 38 - You Can Always Come Home

Sunny woke up feeling extremely refreshed, despite what happened the night prior, he managed to get through an entire night without experiencing any nightmares. It was extremely rare for him to wake up feeling like this, but Sunny didn't give it much thought. 

"Sunny! Come down! Breakfast is ready!", he heard the voice of Toriel say. Realizing that Kris was already downstairs.

Sunny's mood was brighter than normal. Being excited to see his friends. Nowhere near as bright as Kel's mood normally was, though. But he walked down the stairs with a very noticeable smile on his face.

"Good morning everyone!", he said as he entered the kitchen. 

Only a few of his friends were downstairs with Kris and Toriel, though. That being Madotsuki, Clementine, Quirrel, and Mugman. They all didn't hesitate to return the phrase in their own ways, however. Madotsuki waved, Clementine greeted him in her own language, and Quirrel also waved to him while returning the greeting.

"Mornin'! Fine day today! Ain't it Sunny?", Mugman asked from the couch with a smile on his face.

"It sure is!", Sunny replied. Looking out of the kitchen window as he did so.

While Sunny was taking his seat at the dinner table next to Kris, he noticed something a little…off about them. They weren't sitting up straight like they usually were, instead, their head was down on the table, appearing to be sleeping.

"Uhh…Kris? Are you alright?", he asked with concern in his voice. 

Kris then looked up at him slowly, before letting their head drop back down on the table.

("Oh, they didn't get enough sleep last night."), Sunny concluded in his mind.

But Sunny knew that something was very off when Kris didn't even look at their own breakfast sandwich when Toriel served both of them their food. From what Sunny observed, they usually dug into it right away.

"Kris, are you sure you're okay?", Sunny asked once more.

After a moment of silence, Kris finally spoke up in a slightly fearful tone while looking up directly at him.

"D-Did you h-hear…the b-banging last night?", Kris asked while stuttering on their words.

"Huh? I didn't hear anything…", Sunny said. Very confused. 

"Oh…about that…you may want to see the door, Sunny…", a sentence that came from Quirrel in the same tone as Kris.

Sunny, feeling both very concerned and curious now, slowly walked over to the door with all eyes in both the living room and kitchen watching him.

When Sunny reached the door, he examined it for a few moments before realizing the first thing he should've noticed. There were many scratch marks near the edges of the door. He also noticed that the chain on the door was very loose. Loose enough to where it could be yanked from the frame with little to no effort.

"There was something at the door last night. It was knocking quite loudly. Me and Kris were just wondering if you may know what it might have been.", Quirrel added onto his statement from earlier.

Sunny felt sick to his stomach after hearing Quirrel’s words. His legs became shaky, and he began to breathe heavily. Remembering what happened the first night he spent in Faraway.

"Sunny? Is something troubling you?", Quirrel asked.

"O-oh, no. I-I'm fine! Y-yeah, I don't know! M-maybe it was just an animal or something!", Sunny replied. Being dishonest again.

"Sunny, please sit down and eat your food.", Toriel said. Patting the seat where Sunny was sitting before.

"Y-yes Ms. Dreemurr…", Sunny replied. Walking back to the table with visibly shaky legs.

Sunny began eating the sandwich which was now lukewarm, and also at the pace of a snail. His joyful mood that morning was soured down into something similar to Kris’s current mood. Tired, and a bit scared, except he was very well awake, and definitely more than a "bit" scared.

Once Sunny was done with the sandwich though, he looked to his side to see Kris still out cold on the table and snoring loudly.

"Uhh…Kris? Are you gonna eat that?", Sunny asked while tapping on their shoulder. 

Kris raised their head to look at him for a few seconds before they put it back down and groaned out a long and tired, "noooo…".

("Guess that means I can have it…"), Sunny thought to himself before taking Kris’s sandwich, which was now very cold.

Before he could toss the cold sandwich out, Madotsuki grabbed his sleeve while pointing to the sandwich.

"You want this?", Sunny asked.

Madotsuki replied by shaking her head up and down repeatedly while continuing to point at it.

"O…kay…but give me a sec.", Sunny said before walking up to Toriel and asking if she could reheat it for him.

"Why yes! Of course you can reheat it Sunny! Let me just take the pies out of the-", Toriel said while opening the oven. Only to find that nothing was left of the extra pies she had baked yesterday.

"Kris! So this is what you were doing last night?!", Toriel shouted. Which caused them, including everyone in the living room to jump.

While Sunny was heating up the sandwich in the oven. He had to sit through ten minutes straight of Toriel yelling at and scolding Kris for eating all of the pies last night. Everyone in the living room also had very concerned looks on their faces. Which was only making Kris seem even more uncomfortable than they already were.

Once she was done though, Sunny walked up to Kris to quickly apologize to them.

"I'm so sorry…", Sunny said while looking to his side.

"D-don't worry about it. It's not your fault…", Kris said before they left the table to go sit on the couch to calm down, and to wait for when it was time to inevitably start the tour around Hometown.

That was when Sunny realized that he left the sandwich in the oven for three minutes longer than what he was supposed to leave it in for. He quickly shut off the oven and pulled out the sandwich. 

"Oh no…", Sunny said to himself, while staring at the burnt bread on the sandwich.

Before he could toss it out though, Madotsuki walked up to him again and pointed to it. 

"Wait, are you sure you still want it? It's a little burnt.", Sunny asked her.

Madotsuki replied by shaking her head up and down.

Sunny opened up the sandwich to see the condition of the ingredients. They were too burnt, but only around the edges, still edible.

Sunny hesitantly handed it to Madotsuki, to which she immediately grabbed it and took a bite out of it. Leaving many bread crumbs on the floor due to how crispy it was.

"I'll clean it up…please go to the table next time.", Toriel said with a sigh. Putting down the book she was reading and lightly pushing Madotsuki to the table.

Sunny was about to sit down next to her when he heard the sounds of people arguing as the front door was opened.

"Ugh! How many times do I have to tell you dimwits?! I. Didn't. Do it!", The voice was from Mothiva. Who was yelling at Vi while walking to the table.

"Yeah yeah. Admit it already! You just couldn't resist playing a prank on us last night!", Vi shouted back while butting heads with Mothiva.

What Sunny didn't notice initially was that Leif was standing there on the side the entire time, watching the argument while munching on a leaf with a smug look on his face.

Just then, Zasp and Kabbu walked in as well, looking very exhausted. 

"We've been trying to get them to stop for  hours…", Zasp said to Sunny while sighing and wiping his forehead.

"You two…please. Can we just-,"

"Not now big guy!", Vi shouted while shoving Kabbu away from her and Mothiva.

"Excuse me, but do you require assistance?", Toriel asked Kabbu after he was shoved to the ground. 

"Please.", he replied.

That's when Toriel looked towards the two before summoning a couple of fire balls in her hands.

"W-Wait! No! That's not what I-"

Unfortunately for Kabbu though, his protests were too late. Toriel had already launched a couple of her fiery projectiles at Vi and Mothiva.

Sunny stared in shock which quickly turned to amusement as he watched both bugs begin screaming and running around the living room with their heads and backs on fire. All the while, Kabbu was trying to instruct them and get them to stop. He began to laugh before Leif walked over and stood next to him while still munching on his leaf.

"Would you like a bite?", Leif asked, not diverting his eyes away from the scene in front of them.

Without thinking, Sunny took the leaf from his hand and bit into it. It had a very earthy taste to it. A mix of dirt and tree leaves were present. Sunny didn't think it was that bad though.

As he was handing the snack back to Leif, almost everyone else who was sitting in the living room at the time also gathered around to watch the show. Although everyone burst out into laughter once Kabbu, Zasp, and Quirrel began chasing them in circles, trying to catch the bugs on fire.

Through the laughter and chaos, Sunny realized that he hadn't laughed this hard since he was a little kid. Usually, the only one who made him laugh at all besides Mari was Kel. Albeit, in the form of always being silly and energetic, and constantly tripping himself up. Was it the influence of the people around him? He didn't know.

Suddenly, as if Sunny's body had moved on its own, he found himself sprinting up the stairs into Kris’s room and quickly ripping open his suitcase to find Basil's camera. Inserting it into its strap-on case.

When running back to get downstairs however, Sunny accidentally skipped a step and was almost sent tumbling down.

Sunny stood there halfway down the stairs for a few seconds while gripping the handrail of the stairs tightly. His heart was beating fast. Not just from the running, but also from remembering what happened the day of the incident. And what could've happened if he hadn't caught himself.

Not wanting to think about it any longer though, he took a deep breath before continuing down the stairs. Albeit, slower than how he was eating his sandwich earlier. And with shaky legs and sweaty hands that didn’t help in the slightest. 

When Sunny reached the bottom of the stairs, the sounds of laughing grew even more intense. As Cuphead, Chalice, Zote, and the rest of his robotic friends also heard the screaming from the living room and decided to check it out.

Sunny was beginning to chuckle himself before quickly getting himself back together and snapping a photo of the comedic scene before running behind a wall out of sight.

The photo took a few moments to develop before Sunny checked it out to see something straight out of a cartoon.

The photo was taken at an angle where both the kitchen and living room were visible. The picture was just as hilarious as it was in person. His friends were losing it in the kitchen while two bugs were being chased by three other bugs in circles while on fire. In Sunny's opinion though, the funniest part of it was when he spotted Kris out cold on the sofa while his gas-headed acquaintance was spying through the kitchen window with an amused expression on their face.

Sunny continued to giggle and laugh at the photo before placing the photo in his pocket and the camera back in its case, and walking back to the kitchen. 

"You two just had to make this harder than it needed to be.", Kabbu said while putting out the last of the flames out on Vi's head as Quirrel restrained her. Zasp doing the same with Mothiva as the laughter died down.

"Now that this nonsense is out of the way, Kris, it is time for you to start the tour.", said a voice that came from Toriel. Who came from outside and was shaking Kris awake.

They begrudgingly lifted up their head before throwing themselves off of the sofa and letting out a groan. Once Kris picked themself off of the ground, they made a gesture to everyone while pointing to the door.

Pretty soon, Kris with the help of Madeline and Sunny, gathered everyone from the campsite to the front of the house while Toriel waved them goodbye from the front porch.

"So…where exactly do we start?", Hornet asked Kris.

Kris turned around to face everyone behind them and stared for a few moments before pulling out their phone and inputting a number into it. 

"I didn't wanna have to do this…", Kris muttered under their breath.

"Hey, Noelle, I need help with something. Can you get everyone else on the call?", Kris said while letting out a heavy sigh.

For the next thirty minutes, everyone went back to doing their own things while Kris and Noelle quarreled with a few people on the phone. Seemingly trying to convince whoever they were to help them out with touring.

Eventually, Noelle came along with a couple of new faces, whom Sunny could only assume was her and Kris's friends.

The first monster Noelle brought along was a large blue bird. He had the legs and beak of a bird, and his hands resembled that of wings. He also wore black glasses and a white button up shirt with no pants.

The second monster Noelle brought along with her seemed to be some sort of reptile. Her skin was purple, and she had long aubergine hair covering her eyes. Also wearing torn jeans and a purple jacket to go with her intimidating appearance.

"Hey Kris! I came over with Susie and Berdly, just like you asked!", Noelle said, Kris giving her a thumbs up in response.

"Oh! Hey Noelle!", Madeline said as Madotsuki waved.

Noelle waved back at them before the blue bird spoke up.

"Greetings, Kris! Blank-faced as usual, I see! Anyway, who is it you need help touring today?", Berdly said to Kris. 

Kris replied to his question by pointing behind them to the very large group of strange creatures behind them.

"O-oh. I see…", Berdly said while going behind Susie. Intimidated. 

"Psst! Susan! Do something!", Sunny heard Berdly whisper.

The purple monster responded by shoving him off her back and stepping forward to Kris. 

"Heh. Kris, I gotta say. These guys look pretty impressive.", Susie said while giving them a small grin. Revealing her sharp teeth.

She then looked over to where Sunny was standing and began walking towards him.

The thing that stood out the most to Sunny was how tall she was. She easily towered over him and a few of his friends. Including Kris’s. Once she reached him, he shifted uneasily. Intimidated by her appearance. 

Unexpectedly though, she simply stared at Sunny while looking down directly at him in his one eye.

"Uhh, hey. You must be Sunny, the guy Kris was talking about? I'm Susie.", she said while still looking down. 

…

…

…

"Well?! Are you just gonna stand there, or what?!", Susie shouted, making Sunny jump.

"Er, I mean- aren't you gonna shake my hand?", Susie said. Correcting herself. Also making Sunny realize that she was holding her hand out to him the entire time.

"R-right. Sorry…", Sunny said while awkwardly shaking her hand.

"Uh, cool eyepatch, by the way.", Susie said. Trying to make him less scared of her.

"T-thank you…", Sunny said. Not sounding any less intimidated.

"Are you both done yet?! We're all going to be standing around here all day because of you morons!", Mothiva said. Rudely interrupting the conversation.

Susie balled her hand up into a fist and looked as though she was using all of her willpower to not sock Mothiva in the face. Luckily though, Noelle came in-between them to stop the situation.

"Y-you two! Please stop! L-let's just focus on the tour, alright?", Noelle said while looking towards Kris.

Kris nodded at her, before they began instructing everyone into groups with who would be leading them. 

However, this didn't stop the two that were butting heads with each other. Looking as though they were about to fight any second now. While Noelle just stood on the side and looked more and more nervous by the minute. As Sunny just watched.

"I shall handle this…", Hornet said while walking up to both of them. 

With that, Hornet did a quick motion with her hand, and suspended a spike ball in between the two. Which caused both to quickly jump back in surprise.

Mothiva almost tripped and fell before Zasp caught her. Grunting as she laid there in his arms.

"...damn, she's good.", Susie said, before kicking the spike ball out of midair.

Eventually though, Kris got everyone into groups. But something was off. Almost everyone didn't seem too happy about who they got grouped with. Seeming dissatisfied at which group they were in. 

"Hmm…oh! Kris! I have an idea! How about we sort everyone based on ourselves!", Noelle suggested to them 

Kris only tilted their head at her in response.

"I-I mean, we should group everyone based on who we think we would get along with…?", Noelle replied. Although it sounded more  like a question rather than an answer.

Kris thought for a moment, before nodding their head, and letting their friends pick the people for their groups.

Sunny sat down on the sidewalk while that was happening to simply enjoy the weather. It was a breezy day with the birds chirping and the flowers blooming. He also thought it was funny seeing Kris and their friends try and quickly get to know everyone to see who they would take. All except for Berdly. Who was standing alongside Noelle in choosing. Assuming that he would just go with her as a secondary leader, rather than just choosing his own group.

Before he could start daydreaming again, however, he noticed Madotsuki and the cat walking towards him before the cat got comfy in his lap, and Madotsuki sat down on the sidewalk as well.

"Did you both want to enjoy the weather too?", Sunny asked.

Madotsuki turned to him and nodded before going back to enjoying the weather. The cat also let out a small meow as she did this.

As Sunny gently stroked the cat's orange fur, he felt a bit of pressure on his left shoulder a few moments later. He looked to the side to see Madotsuki leaning on his shoulder.

("Did she fall asleep?"), Sunny thought as he noticed her breathing softly.

Sunny noticed the cat had fallen asleep as well to the gentle petting he had been doing without even realizing it. It was purring affectionately as he continued to stroke his hand through its fur.

("Maybe…a little nap wouldn't hurt…"), Sunny thought while carefully taking the strap containing Basil's camera off his shoulders.

As Sunny closed his eyes and put his head down on Madotsuki’s, he could hear the voices of everyone else start to tune out. Being replaced with the cat’s mesmerizing purrs. Putting all thoughts and worries aside while feeling the wind softly blow through his hair…

…

…

…

"Sunny? Madotsuki! Wake up! We're all ready to go!"

…

"Up! You vagabonds!", that was that last thing Sunny heard before getting a small, but hard slap in the face.

"Augh! Geez! What is your problem?!", Sunny yelled. Opening his eye to see Zote standing in front of him with Noelle too.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!", Noelle exclaimed.

"No- Noelle, it's fine…let's just get on with the tour already…", Sunny said while rubbing his face and strapping the camera back around his shoulder.

"Alright. Sunny, you're coming with us!", Noelle said. With Mugman, Doc, Zasp, Zbaltazar, Madeline, and Ghost right behind her before joining them. As Noelle persuaded Madotsuki and the cat into Kris’s group.

Sunny looked past them to see everyone else patiently waiting for them to finish talking. Based on what he quickly observed, he could only assume that Susie was leading the more outgoing and adventurous part of everyone, while Kris was leading the more calm group. Which surprisingly, Leif wasn't a part of.

"So, are you all ready to-"

"Halt! I, Zote the Mighty, will be going with you! I do not know what schemes you may have awaiting us! So it is I who shall strike you down in case of such a situation!", Zote yelled. 

It was at that moment that everyone in Noelle's group quickly shot Sunny looks that screamed, "help".

Sunny also noticed Noelle adjusting something in the pocket of her skirt. Almost as if she was trying to prevent him from seeing something, but he didn't have the time to think about it. 

Not long after, they all split up. Once Noelle’s group passed the neighbors, who had pulled Kris's group into a conversation, she took a right, and walked to the left. Past where Sans's grocery store was.

"So, this is the grocery store! I-If any of you need anything, you guys can just come over here! This is also the place where you can-", Noelle continued. Although Sunny was tuning out most of the information. Since he had already been here many times beforehand.

Sunny was beginning to zone out, when he was yanked to the back of the group.

"Hey, you remember my name, right? Zasp? It's nice to meet you.", he said. Holding his hand out.

"...you too. I'm Sunny.", Sunny replied. Shaking it. He was surprised at how polite Zasp was.

"Sorry, for…trying to kill you? I didn't want to.", Zasp said in an awkward tone and scratching the back of his head.

"Then…why did you in the first place?", Sunny asked while raising a brow.

"I knew that it would make my Mothiva happy…wait, I mean-", Zasp said while covering his face in embarrassment.

"Hey! Zasp! Sunny! Aren'tcha guys coming?", Mugman yelled. The rest of the group already moving down the road. Also saving Zasp from further embarrassment.

"It's okay…", Sunny whispered to Zasp before he grabbed his wrist and began running to catch up with them.

When they both caught up with the group, they were met with the sight of a couple apartment buildings. The ones where Sans accessed the secret path in the woods the day prior.

"And here…well, there's nothing really interesting about these apartment buildings, but they do belong to some of my other friends from school!", Noelle said.

("I haven't been there in a long time…"), Sunny  thought. 

When the group turned to leave however, Sunny looked down the dark alleyway in-between the buildings. Somehow feeling…compelled to go down and investigate by some mysterious force.

Sunny was beginning to walk down the alley before feeling a small tug on his shorts.

Sunny looked down to see that the source of the tugging was Ghost. They were using their tiny fingers to point to where the rest of the group was heading once they got his attention.

"Just wait a sec…alright? You can go ahead.", Sunny said with a sigh before continuing to walk down the alleyway.

The alleyway was  dark. It became even darker once the faint sunlight was covered by tarps on the roof of the buildings. Having only one eye didn’t help either. Not long after though, he was able to see the floor when there was a sudden flash of light. 

Sunny looked down and saw Ghost walking alongside him with a lantern in their hands. Illuminated by a small bug inside.

"Mind if I…?", Sunny asked. Holding his hand out to take the lantern.

Ghost looked down at it before they handed the lantern to him.

"Thanks.", he replied. Holding the light up to his eye level.

They continued walking down for about a minute and stopped at the end of the alley. Which was lit by the sunlight peeking through once again.

Sunny sighed in disappointment. Did he really just drag himself and Ghost down here all for nothing? Oh well. It was time to-

Once Sunny turned around to leave, however, he noticed that Ghost hadn't moved an inch.

"Are you…okay?", Sunny asked with concern.

Suddenly, Ghost drew their sword and charged forward. Swinging the weapon at nothing but the wall and a few trash bins.

"Hey! What are you-", Sunny asked when Ghost spun around in circles with their sword.

Sunny quickly took a step back. Not paying attention to where he was going and tripping over a rock. He fell to the ground and let go of the lantern. Releasing the small bug inside once it shattered.

After checking to make sure he was okay, Sunny quickly got up and rushed over to Ghost to stop them while they were exhausted.

"Please! There's n-nothing there!", Sunny yelled. Grabbing Ghost’s hand that was holding the sword.

They turned their head around and stared at him for a brief period of time and looked back at the empty alleyway to make sure. After which, they put the sword back in its scabbard.

"L-let's just get back with everyone…", Sunny said. Prompting them to walk back the way they came when Ghost still wouldn't move.

After walking through the darkness for what seemed like an hour, with both Ghost and Sunny tripping on rocks and walking into trash cans, they were finally met with the warm sun beating on them again. Sunny stood there for a few moments to catch his breath before they both walked a block down to catch up with the group. Catching Madeline's attention.

"Hey. Are you two alright? We've been looking for you guys again.", Madeline said while raising a brow.

"S-sorry…we were just…admiring the apartment buildings…?", Sunny said. Internally punching himself in the face for telling such a dumb lie. Even more so when Ghost followed along and gave a thumbs up.

"Uh…okay then…", Madeline said. Turning to Noelle and giving her the okay to continue the tour. 

"Anyway…if you look to your right, you'll see the police station and the hospital! Past that road is where I live!", Noelle exclaimed. Pointing to the road blocked off by police tape.

"So…you just…ignore the police tape over there?", Mugman asked while tilting his head slightly.

"Oh, well, don't tell officer Undyne I said this, but I just sneak around to get home when she isn't looking…", Noelle said with an awkward chuckle.

"Bah! Coward! Precept Five: 'Strength beats strength'. Is your opponent strong? Simply…", Zote exclaimed as he began to recite some kind of speech.

"Here we go again…", Mugman said with a sigh as he grabbed Zote by the collar of his cape and dragged him along with the rest of the group. The latter not bothering to stop talking. Even when they walked up to the next location.

"Now-"

"I shall take it from here, Noelle!", Berdly said. Noelle only sighing in response.

"Here, is the library! You may think that its just like any other ordinary library. But oh no! That is where you are mistaken! Me and Noelle here had the most extraordinary dream when we came here no less than a month ago! You see, it all started when…", Berdly continued to ramble on and on while everyone just did their own thing behind his back.

Sunny looked up at the name of the library and began to lose it again. The word, "library", was misspelled. Reading, "Librarby" instead of the typical spelling for the word.

Zbaltazar and Doc walked next to him and said something in their own languages. To which Sunny could only assume was them asking what he was laughing at.

Through tears, Sunny pointed up at the sign. Both robots looked up and let out a bit of raspy laughter while showing a couple of smiles.

Unfortunately however, this moment was soon ruined by Berdly and Zote's rambling, who were somehow drawing out the trio's laughter with their loud voices and non-stop talking.

The rest of the group gathered around and silently agreed that they would just leave them and continue on. As they clearly were not paying attention to anyone specifically.

…and to no one's surprise, they didn't move an inch when the group already moved ten feet away down the road.

"So, moving past them, this is my- well…our school! I come here with Kris, Susie, and Berdly! Ms. Dreemurr is a teacher here too!", Noelle exclaimed. Pointing up to the large building in front of them with the sign, "School", placed on it.

Sunny couldn't help but feel nostalgic once again because of this town. The building looked awfully similar to Sunny's old middle school. He remembered all the times that Kel and Hero would invite him, Aubrey, and Basil over after school to gorge on snacks and drinks until Mari and Basil’s grandma came to pick them up. Sunny was beginning to get lost in his own world of nostalgia, but Noelle quickly snapped him out of it.

"Well, of course, there's nothing else interesting to see here! Maybe you and Madotsuki can even come here with us, Sunny!", Noelle said half-jokingly. 

"Heh, sure…", Sunny said while looking away.

"Anyway, let's move on!", Noelle exclaimed. Leading the group back where they came.

When they were passing the library again though, Zote was instead mumbling to himself on the sidewalk while Berdly was finishing up the last of his story.

"...such an unforgettable experience! It's a shame it didn't actually happen. Right, Noelle?", Berdly asked.

"Huh? Oh, right! Yeah!", Noelle replied. 

"Now, let us continue forward!", Berdly said.

"About time…", Sunny heard Zote mumble to himself.

"I won't lie, I'm kinda curious now of what he was talking about.", Madeline whispered into Sunny’s ear. 

"Same here!", Zasp said.

"Me three!", Mugman said as well.

("I kinda am too now…"), Sunny thought before they all continued walking down the street in silence to their next destination.

"To your r-right, you'll see the town hall! T-that's where my mom works!", Noelle exclaimed. Although unusually, her voice was a bit more stuttery when she spoke about it.

Noelle then quickly pulled the group away from the building and continued moving down the road without giving them a chance to ask or say anything. 

Out of concern, Sunny moved past everyone to walk alongside Noelle and check on her.

"Noelle? Are you okay? You look a bit on edge…", Sunny asked. Clearly worried.

"Y-yeah! I'm fine! The town hall is just stuff I know all of you wouldn't be into!", Noelle replied. 

Sunny learned a few psychological things back when he was isolated, so he could tell that Noelle was obviously lying judging by the tone in her voice alone. But he just couldn't put his finger on it. Still, he wasn't the type of person to be confrontational when it came to this type of stuff. So he simply left it alone for the time being.

"So here…well…there's nothing interesting here. Except for the church and the cemetery just to your left. There's also a bunker just behind you guys. Nothing interesting…", Noelle said. Seemingly drained of energy.

Ghost seemed to react slightly when she mentioned the bunker. Looking back at it before they turned back to her.

Noelle stared ahead for a moment in silence before looking down at the ground. 

…

…

…

"No…elle? Are you alright?", Berdly asked.

"I'm…sorry. I just…don't feel so good all of a sudden…I hope you guys enjoyed the tour…", and with that, Noelle walked off without another word.

Everyone apart from Zote looked at each other to confirm that they were all concerned for her. They then followed behind her in silence. 

Although, as Sunny was trying to follow, Kris's extremely small group passed Noelle’s, and pulled Sunny aside to question him about it. Taking note of her strange behavior.

"Is she okay? What happened?", Kris asked.

"She just said she wasn't feeling good all of a sudden, and didn't say anything else.", Sunny replied in the same tone Noelle spoke in earlier. 

"Hm…well, I believe it's best that you check on her. Hornet suggested to him.

"Yes. You never know. She may just need a bit of comfort, is all.", Quirrel added.

"Agreed! Everyone should feel better after some comfort from those closest to them!", Kabbu said. Momo and Madotsuki backing him up on this claim by giving two thumbs up.

("We barely know each other though."), Sunny thought.

"I'll do my best!", Sunny said out loud as confidently as he could in the moment.

"Excellent! It's best that you run along now to catch up with everyone else.", Quirrel said. Pointing to where the rest of Noelle's group went.

He only got an "mhmm", from Sunny in response.

But before he could run to catch up with them again, Sunny felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Have you seen Susie and her group? We haven't seen them anywhere around town", Kris whispered.

"I can't say I have.", Sunny whispered back.

"Just let me know if you see them. Alright? I wanna know what they're up to.", Kris said.

Sunny nodded his head before running back to catch up with them. He continued running forward before he spotted Noelle sitting down on the sidewalk right outside a building with her head to her knees. Zbaltazar, Madeline, and Berdly were comforting her. Sunny assumed everyone else had already gone back to the house by then.

"Uhh, hey.", Sunny said while waving awkwardly. 

"Noelle, are you okay?", Sunny asked once he got her attention.

"What does it look like?!", Berdly shouted at him.  Catching the latter off guard.

"Berdly, it's okay.", Noelle said. Sounding very tired.

After a few moments of silence, Sunny spoke up once again. 

"I apologize for asking, but, do you want to talk about it more right here? I'm sure it's a nice place!", he said. Pointing to the diner building the four were sitting next to.

Noelle sat there for a few seconds, before she stood up from the sidewalk and walked into the diner without a word.

("I take that as a yes."), Sunny thought.

Once they all followed Noelle into the diner, they sat with her at a booth. The diner was mostly empty by then. Apart from the purple bunny monster working at the counter. Since it was already six by now. Leaving the four free to talk to Noelle without having many people listen to it.

Before they could though, they needed to take care of the obvious.

"Hello. What can I get started for you five?", the bunny monster asked with a sigh while holding a notepad.

"Oh! Uhh, I'll get the Strawberry Turnovers, please!", Madeline said. It was clear she simply took one look at the menu and ordered the first thing she saw.

"Okay, and for you?", the waitress said. Pointing her pencil at Zbaltazar.

Zbaltazar took a full minute to examine the menu before eventually deciding on a black coffee.

"Alll…right. You? Human?", the monster said as she pointed her pencil to Sunny. She eyed him with surprise for a moment, but quickly diverted her eyes back to her notepad.

"Well…I'll try the Vanilla Latte, please.", Sunny said. He actually never had coffee before, but he figured, why not?

"And…Noelle, I assume you and your friend want the usual?", the waitress asked her.

"Yes! Yes we would!", Berdly exclaimed. Answering for her.

"Will that be all?", the waitress asked.

No one said anything else in response.

"Okay, please wait here. Your orders will be out shortly.", the monster said before walking off into the back.

The atmosphere was then turned into a quiet one. There was no noise apart from the ticking of the clock on the wall and the very faint buzzing of the lights above them.

…

…

…

"Noelle, do you wanna talk now?", Berdly asked.

"...okay.", Noelle said after a pause.

"After we passed the town hall, I thought I heard my sister's voice call out to me.", she began in a sad tone as everyone listened closely.

"And…after I mentioned the cemetery, church, and the bunker…I saw her standing there right in front of me.", Noelle continued.

"She only said two things…"You're doing great, sis.", and, "I love you.", she finished. Going back to looking down at the table.

Noelle's mood seemed to strike everyone else as well once she was done. Everyone looked away with a sad expression on their faces and fidgeting with whatever they had access to.

As it turns out though, the waitress heard the entire thing too. Hesitantly walking over to them with their items. Handing everyone their food and drinks except for Sunny's.

"I…apologize. Human. Our espresso machine is having issues. Your Latte may take a while…", the waitress said to him. Giving Noelle a sympathetic look once she was done, and walking off.

…

After everyone sat there either staring or playing with their food, Sunny got up from his booth and moved next to Noelle in her booth.

"Noelle, what was your sister's name?", Sunny asked.

"Dess. Her name was Dess.", Noelle replied. Looking up at him without lifting her head. 

"What happened to her?", Sunny asked.

Noelle didn't reply this time. Instead just staring at her reflection in the glass of Eggnog in front of her.

Sunny sat there as well. Not knowing what to say.

"Well…whatever happened to her, just know that she's always with you. She might even be here right now, for all we know!", Madeline said, trying to make Noelle feel better.

Zbaltazar, who was sitting next to Noelle, also comforted her by patting her on the back while smiling and explaining something. Even if Noelle couldn't understand a word he was saying, she got an idea of the message he was trying to send. Judging based on how she looked up at him.

"Don't forget, I'm still here for you too, Noelle.", Berdly said.

"We. Are still here for you.", Sunny added.

"Aww…thanks guys! I think I still need some time to think about this…but thanks for cheering me up!, Noelle said. Looking up and giving a big smile. Which also made everyone else do the same.

"...well? What are we waiting for? These dishes aren't gonna consume themselves!", Noelle exclaimed. Surprising everyone.

"Uh, alright then!", Berdly said. Grabbing his grilled cheese sandwich and dipping it into his tomato soup.

Once everyone began eating though, Sunny excused himself from the table and temporarily left the diner to go search for Susie's group. Since that is what Kris requested of him.

("Where could they be…?"), Sunny wondered as he walked through the evening streets.

All of a sudden, Sunny heard a loud explosion come from the building just next to the diner. He quickly ran over and entered the building to see what the cause of the explosion was.

Lo and behold, it was his daily dose of unexpectedness.

The restaurant within was a mess. There was pizza dough and other food items scattered around. 

While this was happening though, Sunny's gas acquaintance was sitting at a booth with Clementine and both casually waved to him as if nothing was wrong. 

"What the-", Sunny said. Hearing loud yelling from the kitchen jumping over the counter past the exhausted workers and running towards the yelling.

"We'll admit, you were more fun than we thought, Susie.", Leif said. Casually admiring the large fire coming out of the brick oven.

"Really! Elder Kettle would've never let us do this back home!", Cuphead yelled. 

"Guess that's just how the flow goes!", Chalice exclaimed. 

"I told you guys! If only Kris was here to see this!", Susie shouted.

Sunny then let out a cough from all the smoke in the air, which caused everyone to turn around.

"Oh. It's just you Sunny. We thought you were Kabbu for a second there! Anyway, you wanna join?", Vi asked.

Instead of responding, Sunny just turned himself around, and walked out of the kitchen without another word.

When he exited the restaurant, he began walking back to the diner before Kris’s group came by.

"So, how's Noelle?", Quirrel asked.

"She's doing great! I'm surprised she got over it so quickly, though.", Sunny replied.

"Anyway, where's Susie?", Kris asked.

"Well…let's just say…they all blew up the kitchen in that restaurant over there…?", Sunny responded. Awkwardly pointing to the restaurant by the diner. In which there was now thick, black smoke coming out of the chimney.

"They…what?!", Kabbu yelled as he quickly ran into the restaurant.

"Wait, really?!", Kris exclaimed with excitement as they ran in as well.

Quirrel and Hornet in response, simply sighed in annoyance as they walked over to the entrance and drew their weapons. Prompting Momo, Madotsuki, and the cat to go back to the house.

Before Sunny could escort himself back to the diner, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see his pink gas associate towering over him while making a gesture with their flame to lead the way.

Once they both got into the diner though, Sunny was then pulled by the collar of his shirt to an empty booth by the one behind him. Sunny assuming they wanted to talk to him.

"Guys, I'll be right back, they want to talk to me for a moment.", Sunny said. Everyone just nodding at him.

The two sat down at the booth and stared at each other for a moment before Sunny spoke up. 

"Are you just gonna sit there?", Sunny asked with a twinge of annoyance in his voice. He wasn't too excited about talking to them.

They simply kicked their legs up onto the table and gave a sarcastic look at him with their eye.

Sunny was about to reply before the waitress walked over to him with his cup of Latte.

"Apologies for the wait, human. Oh, and, those items are on the house, by the way.", the waitress said before walking over to Noelle's booth and telling them the same.

Sunny stared at the Latte art for a moment to admire it before having a small pebble thrown at his head.

"Ow! What the heck!?", Sunny exclaimed.

The gas head sitting across from him gave him a look that said, "are you done yet?".

"Just get it over with already!", Sunny yelled.

Through five straight minutes of back and forth in the form of random gestures with the person in front of him. Sunny could compose that they simply wanted to say, "thank you", for the pie yesterday. Albeit, in the most unenthusiastic manner possible.

By the end of it, Sunny was tired out from their confusing gestures, and frustrated from not getting to try his Latte. Which was fortunately, not cold yet.

Sunny picked up the cup and took a sip of the Latte. It tasted…bitter. Yet, he liked it. The perfect combination of both bitter and sweet instantly took away all of the frustration and tiredness out of Sunny. He continued to drink it until the entire cup was gone.

He looked back up at the one in front of him. Forgetting that they were still there. Despite what had happened just moments before, he wanted to try to get to know a bit more about them.  They did have pink gas for a head, after all.

"Where did you come from?", Sunny asked. Catching their attention.

They simply made more gestures at him describing the ocean and a piece of land. 

"What are you?", Sunny asked without responding to the last question.

They gave him a chill look as they simply shrugged their shoulders.

"What's…your name?", Sunny asked.

They put their feet down from the table as they put a finger to their non-existent chin, and shrugged.

"...Bobby?"

They looked up at him with their one eye in confusion.

"What do you think of the name, Bobby?", Sunny asked. He wasn’t sure why he picked that name. "They just gave him Bobby vibes", is the best way he could describe it.

"Hey! Sunny! We have to go now!", Madeline yelled as she and the rest of the group were heading out of the door already. He didn't realize that it was long past closing time by then.

Sunny quickly got up from his booth and rushed out the door with them. His pink gas acquaintance not too far behind.

"Vi! Leif! What have I told you two about acting like this?!", Kabbu said. Scolding his teammates for nearly burning the building down. As he carried the exhausted workers out of the restaurant and profusely apologized to them.

"Susie was just introducing us to a new form of fun, is all.", Leif replied.

"Yeah! Don't be such a bore!", Chalice exclaimed.

Hornet and Quirrel exited the building not long after. Both were covered in black dust when the latter let out a sneeze, and the former put a small flame out on her dress. Both visibly burnt out.

"Kris, honestly, these guys are pretty cool! We should hang out with em' again sometime!", Susie said. Leaning on Clementine as the robot smiled.

"What happened to Mothiva, anyway?", Sunny asked.

"Oh. Yeah. She just left when she saw her boyfriend walking back to Ms. Dreemurr's house. That's on her!", Susie replied.

Once everyone was back together, and Kris said goodbye to Susie and Noelle, they all began heading back to Kris’s house for the night. Sunny stopped in his tracks, however, once his gas-headed associate from earlier gave him a thumbs up as they walked off.

("See you, Bobby."), Sunny said internally. Waving back at him.

Before he could follow behind though, he felt a ruffle on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Berdly in front of him.

"Hey, Sunny, right?", he began. 

"I just wanted to tell you, Noelle really appreciated what you said earlier. About how we're all still there for her.", Berdly said while looking away.

"No problem!", Sunny replied.

"...oh, and, before I forget. She wanted me to give you this.", Berdly said as he took something out of his shirt pocket, and handed it to him.

It was a photo of him and Madotsuki napping together with the cat. It was also taken at just the right time a butterfly landed on the cat's head.

"It was something she took while you guys were sleeping. I hope you like it. Until we meet again!", Berdly said before he walked past him.

Sunny took one more look at photo and smiled.

("Thank you, Noelle."), Sunny thought. 

He put the photo in his pocket and began walking north to get back to the house. 

As Sunny was about to make a left, though. He looked to his right to see a road that Noelle neglected to take them down. 

Out of curiosity, he took a quick look at his phone to check the time; eight-thirty. Despite it being nighttime, he could still see somewhat fine because of the moonlight. So he figured that he could check this road out before he headed back for the night.

As he walked down the road, there was nothing but houses until he reached the end of the road. To which there was a store at the end of it. Sunny couldn't make out the name of the store, but one look through the windows immediately told him that it was a flower shop.

("Basil would have liked it here…"), Sunny thought before he continued forward.

He passed a pickup truck and some picnic tables, and reaching the end of the road. To which Sunny was greeted with the sight of a lake.

"Woah…", Sunny said to himself. Completely in awe from the crystal-clear water and the reflection of the moon in it.

Sunny sat down on the small area of grass at his feet to admire the beautiful sight of the lake. Eventually becoming lost in all thoughts alone.

…

…

…

It was then Sunny heard the sounds of metal as it stopped right beside him.

He opened his eyes to see Doc sitting there. Who had followed him all the way over here. He was looking out at the lake as well.

Doc looked beside him to see Sunny looking right back at him. He gave him a laugh and a smile before going back to admiring the lake. 

Sunny looked back towards the lake too. The experience was now even better for him. Everything is always better with a friend after all. Right?

…

About two minutes later, Doc called out to Sunny in the form of a yelp. As he fumbled around in the pockets of his lab coat.

Once Doc found what he was looking for, though, he gave Sunny an awkward smile while scratching the back of his head. He then put something in-between the both of them.

Sunny examined what was in front of him for a few moments. He realized that it was a photo. He took the photo from Doc's hand to get a closer look at it. As it was hard to see because of his eye and the quality of the photo. He eventually realized that the photo was of Doc, and another robot in a bucket hat and puffer vest right beside him.

"Who's this?", Sunny asked while pointing to the other robot.

Since Doc was not able to speak to him due to the language barrier, he made a hugging motion with his arms while a heart appeared on his screen.

"Is that…your son?", Sunny asked.

Doc responded by giving a thumbs up and nodding his head up and down. 

The expression on his screen was then changed to a sad one as he let out a sigh and looked down at the lake.

"You miss him. Don't you?", Sunny asked.

Without saying anything, Doc nodded his head.

Sunny began to feel the same as well. It had only been three days, but he was already missing Aubrey, Kel, and everyone back in Faraway. 

"Well…hopefully you can see him again soon.", Sunny said. Handing the photo back to Doc.

Doc then stood up, and stared down at Sunny for ten seconds before saying something in his own language, and walking back down the road. The latter could only assume he was trying to say, "thank you".

Sunny stood up as well not long after. Taking one last glance at the lake before he walked back too.

As he walked back, Sunny could only wonder…how were his friends back in Faraway? And…did they miss him?

Chapter Text

Play: OMORI OST 003 - Lost At A Sleepover

Polly was in the bathroom alone, having just cooked dinner for Basil and currently brushing her teeth, needless to say, she was looking forward to going to bed.

“Uhh…mom?”, Basil asked while walking into the bathroom.

“Yes, Basil?”, Polly asked after spitting out her toothpaste.

“I-I’m sorry to ask this, but…can I sleep in your room tonight…?”, Basil said while blushing slightly from embarrassment.

“Of course you can, dear. Is something wrong?”, Polly asked while putting her hands on Basil’s shoulders.

“Well…do you remember Sunny?”, Basil asked.

“Yes. I do, why?”, Polly responded.

“I’ve…been worrying about him…what he’s doing now.”, Basil said.

“Hm, I need to ask, why are you only like this now? You’ve been fine the past couple of weeks since he moved away.”, Polly asked, fully concerned now.

“Uhh…i-it’s just because of…you know?”, Basil said while uncomfortably moving one of his hands over his right eye.

“Oh…right. I completely understand now. You can sleep in my room as much as you’d like.”, Polly said while giving Basil a smile and moving past him to get changed.

Basil let out a huge sigh of relief once Polly left and shut the door behind her; surprised that his ploy had worked. In reality, this stress was caused by his…”visions” the night prior. As he would like to put it.

“What are you up to, Sunny? Why is this happening again?”, Basil said while feeling a sense of anger beginning to rise within him.

But Basil was trying to calm himself down as quickly as he had gotten angry. Despite how badly he wanted to lash out at Sunny right now, that just wasn’t possible. There was no point in getting angry. Instead, he got on his knees and put his head down on the bathroom counter while running his hands back and forth through his hair in frustration.

“I-I thought we could move on! Everything was settled! You promised that we were gonna forgive ourselves! You promised that…everything would be okay…”, Basil said to himself; his anger quickly turning into sadness as he felt himself tearing up.

As Basil sobbed into his arms for a few moments, he put his head up…and felt his heart stop.

Basil looked at his reflection in the now dark bathroom mirror to see Mari there. Only…her face was contorted with her mouth agape, her eyes were replaced with empty black sockets, along with pale skin and a white gown as she watched over him.

He quickly shot up from the counter while letting out a scream. After turning around, Mari was now standing three feet away from him while watching him with her unblinking sockets.

“M-Ma-ari…?”, Basil asked while shaking profusely. He could barely speak or stand up with what was happening right now.

“̶̨̣͉̟̂̔̋̐̄͐̎̈́͆̾̾̀̚͝Y̷̨̦̝̥͖͙̟̲̽͗̅̎̓̀̾̈́͒̓̈́̔̈́̋̓̕͜͠õ̶̮̟̗͉̮̩̥͔͎͛̋̓̏͛̒̓͝ͅu̵̡̢̖͈͉̥͚͍̥̮͒ ̵̙̜̖̯̙̮̥͌̾́̃̄̉̀̋͆̐͋̐͒͊͜͝͝a̸̩̯̣̺̳͔͔̮͈͇̠̍͋̑̔͜͝ŕ̵̺̭̼͆̀͂̔͑͑͘͘͝ę̵̢̮̍̍̈͂͆͐͛͝ǹ̷͚̳̌̓͑͜'̵̡̬̮͉̭̖̩̘̯͈̳̰̠̤̫͕͂̑̍̌̑̕͝ͅṯ̴̛̯͍̲̰̗̭̗̙͔͖̗̮̟̄͊̉̔͌ͅ ̵͚̖̲͆͐́̿̃͌̂̍͐́̋͝f̶̡͖̱̝̳͎̦̩̳͕̺̹̈́̒͋͆̈́̾͛̿͘͘͝͝͝ơ̵̢̢̦̰̬̲̠͉͉͔͍̪̫̝͇͕͂͋͆̃̇̌̀̈́̚r̶̗̺̤̲̪͙̭͈̥̜̟̱̝͌̽́̉g̷͕̱̺̜̬̙̘̳͚̻̲͈͔͛͜i̷̡̧̨̳̰͎̗̗̤̜͕̟͈̗̊̽̾̽̒̃͊̌͝v̵̡̧̰͖̠̖̝͕̻̥̇͆̿̋͊͑͌͠͝ͅĕ̵̩̩̟̌̿̒͑̐̎͑̂̀̔̌͆͘ͅn̵̡̠̱͉͇̬̪̝̩̮̩̓̎̈́̾…̵̨̧̫̰͙̰͚̠͓̤̯͑̃͌̄͊̿̆̂̉̚͘͘͜͠͝, the monster said quietly while loud knocking at the bathroom door occurred; causing Basil to jump.

“Wh-what?”, Basil asked.

“̴͎̘̍̓̌̂Y̶̲͉̱͂́̾͋̈ỏ̷̡̳ù̶̫̀ ̸̭̯̭̘́ā̵̘̪͉͘r̶͈͆̀̈́̌͗e̶̙̣͈̊̄͘ņ̶͋͆͒̅'̶̨̩̀̌̕ť̵͋͜ ̴̝͍̥̑͆̉̂f̶̨̩̗͌̋̓̎̕ő̷̠͔̰͍͂r̸͔̹̺̖̪̈g̸̹͔͉͍̏ǐ̶̮̫̗͔̼̀͠v̵͔̜͋̅͐͝ę̶̡̫͋̏͆͜n̴̙̍̚.̴̢͕͕̿̒͝ ̷̦̻̝̗̖̑͝Y̸̢̨̦̹̎̽ô̸͔̟͔̳͐u̴̟̫͔̻͗́͐͘ ̷̮̊͘a̴̲̻̽r̶̢̬̟̪͛̓e̸̤͗ǹ̵̹͂͊͋ͅ'̴͓̪̱̗̦̐͐̈́̒t̶̡̰̣̱̰̀̆̐̂ ̸̬̤͂͒͆̋̚f̶̪͉͇́͝o̴͉̰͆̓̇̒̚r̴͉͎̖̓g̶̨̦̅̂͠i̴͖͔͓͍͚͆̀̀̕v̶̬̺̈ͅę̶̼̱͚̇n̷̰̳̍̓.̴̧̱̹̯͚̌̐̓͘ ̸̛̹̥̔Y̵͈̬̎͌̈o̴̢͚̊̄̚̚ͅu̴̟̽ ̷̡̥̙̩̐̈̈́͊͜ä̸̦̏ṙ̸̘͖̘͝ͅé̴̛̖̻̦͖͑͋ņ̷̧̛͇̣̦̄̌'̷̡̣̓̐̌t̴̙͈̿̃̈̾͠ ̶͕̈́͂̾̀͋f̷̱̣̈́̀̽̀͠o̴̖͂̔͠r̴̝̈̕͠g̸̳̬͕͇̔͛̌ḭ̷̧̾̇̒͐͘ͅͅv̴̡͕̭͈̐e̷̼͋̔n̶̨̥̙͉̼͊͛̾…̵̤͉̤́”̴͍̪͜͝, the monster repeated while getting louder each time with the banging at the door.

“P-please…s-stop…I-I’m s-sorry…”, Basil said as he fell to the ground while crying uncontrollably.

“Basil? Basil! BASIL! Please! I’m here now!”, a voice yelled at him.

Basil looked up to see Polly on the floor sitting next to him now. She had an extremely worried expression on her face while holding the key to the bathroom in one hand and the other on his shoulder.

“P-please! Don’t scare me like that! You know how worried I get!”, Polly yelled while pulling Basil into a tight hug.

Basil, in response, was sobbing hard into her shirt while apologizing.

…

A few minutes later, Basil was snuggled tightly into a sleeping bag in Polly’s room while contemplating what just happened. 

“...are you okay, Basil?”, Polly asked while looking up from her book.

“N-not really…”, Basil said with hesitation.

“I’m sorry to hear that…would you like me to invite your friends over tomorrow to get your mind off of it?”, Polly asked, trying to make him feel better.

“I’d like that a lot…”, Basil replied while giving her a small but forced smile.

“Okay! I’ll make sure to have them over first thing in the morning! How’s that sound to you?”, Polly asked.

“That would be great…thanks mom…”, Basil said.

“You’re welcome. Do you want to go to sleep now?”, Polly asked.

“Yeah…I love you, mom.”, Basil said.

“I love you too, Basil. Sweet dreams!”, Polly said while giving Basil a kiss on the forehead and turning off the lamp next to her bed.

After Polly tucked herself in, Basil threw the blanket over his head while sighing to himself.

“Mari…”, Basil said in a worried tone.

After dwelling on the subject for what felt like forever, Basil eventually fell asleep with the hope that he’ll have the courage to be able to tell the rest of his friends what he saw that night.

...

…

…

As Madotsuki lay down on her stomach in her sleeping bag, she had a lot of thoughts running through her head as she wrote in her diary of the events that happened that night.

Madotsuki was still somewhat confused and scared at ending up somewhere outside of her apartment; especially in a strange town full of non-human creatures outside of her dreams. But she was slowly beginning to come around to liking all of them; even if she didn’t get to know most of them on a personal level. Plus, she genuinely liked the only other three humans in this town. It was nice being able to interact with kids her age; disregarding Madeline, of course.

“Mado…can you please turn that lantern off…?”, Madeline said while groaning.

Clementine also let out a raspy groan; adding on to Madeline’s protests.

Realizing that she was disturbing her tentmates’ sleep, she quickly wrote in the last of her diary entry and shut off the lantern.

Usually being fast at falling asleep, Madotsuki could feel herself beginning to get drowsy almost instantly. But as much as she missed her dream world, she really wanted to see her new friends for just a little longer…guess that something that can still happen in her dreams, right?

...

...

…

Madotsuki woke up to a flash of bright light.

She looked everywhere as Madotsuki’s eyes adjusted to the brightness. Where was she? What was going on?

Madotsuki tried going back to sleep again only to see static. But as she persisted in keeping her eyes shut, the static eventually cleared before she saw a string of words appear before her.

“Welcome to WHITE SPACE. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.”

When she reopened her eyes to see again, Madotsuki found that she was lying down under a black light bulb. Looking to her right, she saw that she was also lying down next to a box of tissues and a black laptop. Despite the lightbulb, the rest of the room was white as far as she could see. 

Madotsuki got up and rubbed her eyes and her head. When the white room no longer hurt her eyes, she noticed an ominous white door just beyond the square she was in. She walked up and tried to open it, but it was locked. 

Suddenly Madotsuki heard many loud groans come from behind her. It came from her tentmates, as well as Leif, Quirrel, and that flame-head man that Sunny had named “Bobby”.

“Gods…why is it so…bright?”, Quirrel asked as he stood up.

“How would we know?”, Leif said, standing up as well.

Madotsuki, seeing that Madeline and Clementine weren’t awake yet, rushed over to shake them awake. 

“Mmm…h-huh? Madotsuki? W-what are you doing? Its-”, Madeline said while rubbing her eyes. But her tiredness quickly faded away when she realized where she was.

“H-huh?! Wait! Where are we?!”, Madeline shouted. Her voice echoed in the distance.

As Clementine stood up with Madotsuki’s help, she reacted the same way and presumably added onto Madeline’s statement.

“That’s a good question…”, Quirrel said.

Bobby responded by looking everywhere around him and shrugged his shoulders.

As they examined their surroundings, the rest of them noticed the white door, and tried hard to open it to no avail. Bobby tried using brute force to open it by landing a few kicks and punches on the door, but that didn’t work either. He also found that he had absolutely no weapons or proper armor on him either.

“Wait! I also do not have my nail with me!”, Quirrel exclaimed.

“Gah! Fools! Stand back! We shall handle this!”, Leif exclaimed as he swiped his arm to try and cast an ice spell.

But to his dismay, absolutely nothing happened when he swiped his arm. Leif did it again and again, only to be met with the same result.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this…?”, Leif asked. Clearly confused as he looked down at his hands.

“Great…is there anything else we can do to get out?”, Madeline asked.

“How about we ask this creature right here? We’re sure it’ll know the answer.”, Leif said in a sarcastic manner while pointing to the black cat in the corner of the square they all somehow didn’t notice.

“Excuse me, but do you know how we can leave?”, Leif asked the cat.

Unexpectedly, a small textbox appeared in front of the cat after it meowed to answer his question.

MEWO

       Meow? (Are you looking for a way out?)

This left Leif wide-eyed as everyone else gathered sound to read what the cat had to say.

“Yes. We are…do you know how?”, Quirrel asked in a curious manner.

MEWO

       Meow… (There is always one…but…)

After the textbox closed, Bobby walked up to it and began asking the cat the same thing, except in the form of random gestures.

MEWO

       Meow? (When is my owner coming back?)

After that statement, they all backed away from the cat in silence as they gathered around to discuss how to escape.

“At least we know there’s a way out. Any ideas?”, Madeline asked

Madotsuki responded by waving her arms and pinching her cheek and pulling on it. Trying to say that maybe this was just a dream. But after pinching them over and over again, she began to panic upon realizing that this wasn’t a dream.

Everyone else gave somewhat annoyed looks while Quirrel and Madeline rushed to comfort her. 

“Hey- hey. Please, calm down. Fear will not make this situation any better. Please, do not be afraid…”, Quirrel said as he comforted Madotsuki and patted her on the back. 

Madotsuki took a few deep breaths to calm down. When she gave a thumbs up to say that she was calm, Clementine pointed in different directions to suggest where they should all go.

“Okay, so, me and Madotsuki go right, you and Leif go left, and Clementine and Bobby go down?”, Madeline asked Quirrel as they all stood in their respective pairs and directions.

“Correct. Are you all ready?”, Quirrel asked everyone. 

Once everyone else clarified that they were good to go, they all split up from the square to go off into the endless void.

Madotsuki was still stressing out on the inside while walking as she wondered why she wasn’t waking up. It worked every time with her other dreams, so why not this one? Unless…

All of a sudden, Madotsuki heard a scream behind her. When she turned around, she found that Madeline was nowhere to be seen. Panicking, she began looking around frantically for her while running forward.

Madotsuki was mostly used to this kind of stuff by now, but losing a friend in a place that likely isn’t a dream made this all the more terrifying. It got even worse when she saw floating red arms trying to grab her. 

Barely avoiding the hands, Madotsuki began running as fast as she could go now. Unfortunately, she was getting tired and began slowing down within the first minute. Just as she was about to collapse, though, she saw a shiny object in the distance, feeling determined to get it, Madotsuki forced herself to keep going with the hands right behind her. 

Right when the hands were about to grab her, Madotsuki dove forward to the shiny object and grabbed it just before a flash of white light filled her vision.

Just then, she felt herself sitting on something, when Madotsuki looked up, she saw herself sitting on the floor of the square in the beginning of this dream, and her other friends looking down at her while giving her concerned looks.

“Are you okay, Madotsuki?”, Quirrel asked as he helped her up.

Madotsuki responded by rubbing her hands together and looking down. To which Clementine knelt down to her with a happy expression to make her feel better.

“Anyway, Mado, did you find anything? We didn’t before we got grabbed.”, Madeline said.

Checking the pockets of her skirt, Madotsuki found a knife in her pocket. But as she held the knife up to show it to everyone, a textbox message popped up right by the knife. 

“What does it say now?”, Quirrel asked.

Madeline ended up reading the message out loud to everyone. What it said was a brief description of what the weapon was, as well as the “stats” it provided…whatever that meant.

Despite the persistence of everyone else suggesting Madotsuki give the knife to them, as they were more skilled with weapons, she was very stubborn when it came to knives. So, with the inclusion of Madeline backing her up on it, everyone reluctantly agreed to let her equip it.

“So does that mean we can leave now?”, Quirrel asked.

“...it appears not.”, Leif replied. Jiggling the door handle a few times to be met with a locked door.

Clementine, out of frustration, put her hands up into the air with an angry expression in her eyes. As if asking what they were doing wrong.

When Madotsuki went to put the knife back in her skirt, however, she felt something else in her pocket. Pulling it out, she saw that the second thing she had somehow grabbed when diving was some kind of jewelry. Specifically, a ring with a snowflake emblem on it.

“...? May we see that?”, Leif said. Madotsuki handed it to him just as the stats for the ring popped up. 

As it turned out, the ring was known as the Snow Ring. Which would allow whoever wore it to cast Ice Magic.

“Hm, we like it.”, Leif said while putting the ring on his finger.

But when he tried to cast an ice move, instead of what everyone expected, which was some actual ice magic, it instead just spawned a large snowflake in front of Leif that instantly fell to the ground and shattered.

“...we can assure you that we’re typically better than this.”, Leif said nervously while rubbing the back of his head.

That’s when a textbox popped up above Leif’s head.

"LEIF learned SNOWBLADE…sort of."

“Interesting…”, Leif said.

But now was the moment of truth. It was time to find out if the door would open this time. Assuming that they had found the “keys”.

As Madotsuki walked up to the door with the knife in hand, she grabbed the door knob, twisted the handle, and slowly pulled the door open.

…it unlocked.

As Madotsuki pulled the door open all the way, they were all met with the sight of a bright and vibrant room. There was much to be said about it, but the most notable feature was a big yellow cat that was watching over them as they entered. 

Just as Madotsuki was about to wave to the cat, Clementine pointed to the multicolored staircase in the corner of the room while exclaiming.

“Wait just a moment. It may be of use to us to search around this room in-case of anything that may help us. We do not know what is out there, after all.”, Quirrel said.

However, Bobby clearly disagreed. As he tried to immediately bolt out of the room regardless.

Just then, Leif reacted seemingly out of instinct by throwing a much smaller snowflake at Bobby’s feet that acted as a throwing star. It ended up cutting Bobby’s leg. Which caused a strange red bar to appear in front of him. Leif ended up having that same bar in front of him too, only this time, it was green.

When Bobby got up to confront Leif, a textbox appeared in front of him as a red aura surrounded him as well.

"BOBBY became ANGRY!"

“Oh please, it’s not our fault you can’t listen to instructions you one-eyed beast.”, Leif said as he became angry too. His insult only angered Bobby even more.

"BOBBY became ENRAGED!"

As the two were about to go at each other, everyone held the both of them back while yelling at them to calm down.

But while that was happening, Madotsuki was simply too tired to deal with any of this. So she looked around the room to see if there was anything she could do to get her mind off of things. Eventually spotting a scattered pile of playing cards.

The increasingly loud arguing between her friends continued on for presumably a long period of time while Madotsuki was playing Solitaire just behind them.

“B-both of you! Stop this…Madotsuki? What in the name of gods are you doing?”, Quirrel asked. Causing everyone to turn and stare at her.

She replied by giving everyone a quick nod before going back to what she was doing.

…

…

“...um, actually, could we play too?”, Madeline said. Trying to end the awkwardness in the room due to ending the argument in the most confusing way possible.

After thinking about it for a bit, Madotsuki gave Madeline a nod before splitting the card deck.

While Madeline, Quirrel, and Clementine sighed in relief and immediately sat down to play, Leif and Bobby briefly stared at each other before they both raced each other to their spots; which knocked all of the cards into the air. After re-shuffling the deck, they all decided on a casual game of Crazy Eights after Madeline went over the rules for it.

Needless to say, the rounds were far from "casual".

“H-hey! Stop peeking at my deck!”, Quirrel said as he pushed Leif’s head away.

“No. You have thirty-two points. Not twenty-four.”, Madeline said to Bobby in another round.

One round, Clementine accidentally sent the deck of cards in the middle flying into the air after she lost. Which forced everyone to clean them up if they wanted to continue playing.

Although once everyone’s competitive spirits calmed down, it was time to proceed up the stairs leading out of this strange place.

“Hey, so…are we just not gonna talk about the messages that appeared over Leif and Bobby’s heads earlier?”, Madeline asked as they got up.

“It was very strange indeed. But I believe we shouldn’t dwell on it.”, Quirrel said.  

“Well…if you say so…”, Madeline said. Not wanting to get confrontational.

As they went up the staircase into the bright light, instead of actually leaving, they all walked into each other.

“W-what the-! What’s going on?!”, Madeline yelled.

“Fear not, friends! There is a small opening right here! So if we just-!”, Quirrel said while trying to squeeze himself through a small gap in the wall.

In the process, Quirrel was kicking his friends in the face while only making it even more difficult for himself to get through the gap. Out of frustration, Clementine and Bobby shoved everyone else out of the way and proceeded to push Quirrel as hard as they could until he eventually popped through the gap.

“Okay! Thanks, friends! Now, you all come through!”, Quirrel said while giving a thumbs up through the gap.

Everyone got through the gap relatively easily compared to Quirrel, and when it was Madotsuki’s turn, she made sure to throw the knife through the gap first so as to not accidentally cut herself.

When Madotsuki pushed herself through the gap and looked back, she realized that the gap was small because the exit was a tree stump. Looking around her, she noticed that they were in a forest surrounded by trees, as well as four paths that they could potentially go down. But when everyone tried to go down the east, west, and northern paths, they were blocked off by mysterious force fields that did not match at all with the natural aesthetic this place had. They had tried attacking the force fields directly, jumping over them, going around them, but nothing worked.

That’s when Clementine made a tired expression at everyone while exclaiming and pointing down the southern path that was not blocked off.

Madotsuki drew her knife and Leif prepared a couple of those snowflakes while they walked through the entrance.

“...is this…a playground?”, Madeline asked as she observed her surroundings.

“No. It’s an area with swings and slides meant for children to use. Why do you ask?”, Leif sarcastically replied.

“...anyway, let’s explore this place for a little. We might find something here.”, Madeline said while rolling her eyes.

But as they all split up, Madotsuki swung on the swings and began to get lost in thought while looking up at the mesmerizing purple sky with various shapes and stars floating through it. Meanwhile, Quirrel and Madeline were looking for something by going on the monkey bars and slide. Eventually going from serious to silly by going onto them repeatedly. Their other friends however, were simply chilling on a picnic blanket in the corner of the playground while munching on the candy and drinks that were conveniently there for whatever reason. 

“Haha! This is actually- w-wait, what are we doing?! We’re supposed to be looking for ways we can leave this place! Not act childish!”, Quirrel yelled while grabbing both Madotsuki and Madeline.

As Quirrel grabbed the three at the picnic blanket, though, he accidentally knocked Clementine into the picnic basket. Which caused a strange textbox to appear above it.

"A picnic basket. CLEMENTINE feels oddly comforted by it. Would she like to SAVE?."

Out of curiosity, Clementine pressed "Yes" and six boxes that looked like punch cards appeared out of the basket with the options "SAVE" and "LOAD".

"Curious…very curious…", Quirrel said just as everyone gathered around Clementine.

Clementine tapped on one of the files and asked her if she would like to "Save" her progress. She pressed yes, and a drawn portrait of herself appeared in the once empty box. It also told her how much time she had spent here, where they all were, including Clementine's "Level" and "LV". Both of which were at one.

"What exactly does LV and Level mean…?", Madeline asked while examining the file.

"As is with the strange messages from earlier, I suggest we not think about it too much.", Quirrel said before gesturing to her and everyone else to follow him; everyone reluctantly agreed.

Continuing down past two other paths blocked by force fields, they all came across different kinds of flowers in their own areas based on the type.

Clementine seemed to have an odd interest in the flowers. Examining every single one until they reached the end of the trail. She gave them all a nod to confirm that the flowers were somehow in good condition.

Going down past another picnic blanket, Leif stopped everyone to ask a pointed question.

"Come to think of it, we think it's a bit odd that those flowers seem to be in flawless condition despite no one else being around to care for them. Is it not?", he asked.

"It's weird, yeah. I think we should all keep that in-mind in case we end up coming back here somehow.", Madeline said before they all continued down the grassy path.

The group ended up reaching the entrance to a tunnel that led underground. Hesitantly walking through it with the weapons they had, they saw a house that took the shape of an old shoe. Only realizing that part after getting a closer look at it.

Madotsuki was the first one to continue walking through the dark forest to the shoe house. In which everyone followed behind her.

Getting to the front door, Madotsuki hesitantly knocked on it while retracting her hand quickly.

…

No response.

"We shall handle this.", Leif said while pushing Madotsuki to the side.

"Excuse us, is anyone home? We are looking for a way to exit this strange place.", Leif shouted.

After waiting for a few moments with still no response, Leif got annoyed and tried to open the door. Which surprisingly was unlocked.

"Just what do you think you're doing trespassing on someone's property?!", Quirrel angrily shouted at Leif while grabbing his wrist.

QUIRREL became ANGRY!

"Ngh…please, we want nothing more than to get out of here. Don't you feel the same?", Leif said.

Realizing he was right, Quirrel sighed and let go of Leif’s wrist.

QUIRREL became NEUTRAL.

"...and please, do not do that again.", Leif said while rubbing his wrist.

("I didn't mean to grab it that hard…"), Quirrel muttered to himself.

Entering the house, there was no one there, and it surprisingly wasn't that large; only a bed, a table, a fireplace, a bookcase, and many flower pots and lit candles were present.

After they all searched the house for something that could help them leave, only to turn up with nothing, everyone gathered in a group near the front door.

"...well that was a waste of time.", Madeline said.

"Tell us about it.", Leif replied.

"At least we tried. It's best we leave now. The owner of this house could come back any moment now.", Quirrel said.

"Agreed, let's bounce.", Madeline said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement to that statement.

But as they all began to leave the house, Madotsuki accidentally stepped on a photo that was facing down on the ground.

"Huh? Madotsuki, what's that you have there?", Madeline asked as everyone gathered around her to look at it.

The photo was very gray and grainy. The only thing visible within the frame was a shattered violin with strands of what appeared to be black hair stuck in it.

"...wait…does anyone feel…off?", Leif asked nervously before Madotsuki blacked out.

…

Madotsuki woke up back in White Space. Except she was all alone now. Everything was the exact same as she had left it, except now there was a lonely sketchbook sitting at the edge of the square she was in.

She flipped through the pages; being confronted with disturbing sketches. But as she looked closely at the final drawing, which was a very unnerving sketch of a strange figure with one eye, Madotsuki saw a message.

"̴̣̩͕̆̎̕͘U̶̲̩̜̟̬̾̒͑͝S̴̳̘̺̭̣͑̋̓́͘E̶̹̲͗͗̽́͜ ̴̡̨̠̀͌̕T̴̛͉̊̐͛͝H̵͕̬͕̳͍̓̂̓Ẻ̴̼ ̷̢̈́̀̄̃B̷̧̹̙̗̓̀L̸̩͚̈̽̆͝A̵̬̮̖͊̽D̷̗̫̭̈̈͐̈́͜E̶̩̭̱̊̉…̴̘̺̭̻̃ͅL̷̛͕͜͠Ȩ̶̢͇̀A̷̭̭̽̽̑́V̶̠͕̄͗̓̑̕Ȇ̸̠͓̹̲͌̑̃͝.̷̧̯̆"̷͈̘̮̇̓̄͘, the sentence read.

After pondering what it meant for a moment, it clicked in Madotsuki's head exactly what the message meant.

Madotsuki took out the knife from her skirt, pressed the cold blade up against her neck…and just moved it as fast as she could.

When she fell to the ground and fainted…the next thing she knew, Madotsuki woke up in her tent next to her tentmates as if nothing had happened.

Chapter Text

Play: Yume Nikki OST - Dream Room

Madotsuki sat up in a cold sweat and her breathing was heavy as she frantically felt her throat. After taking a moment to relax, she sat there in silence until her tentmates sat up too with the same worrisome behavior.

“A-are you guys okay?”, Madeline asked the two.

Both Clementine and Madotsuki sat there while heavily breathing and not saying a word.

“I guess that’s a no…”, Madeline said before she stood up and exited the tent.

Reluctantly, both of them got up as well and followed Madeline out.

It was very dark outside, the only light source was the moon shining down on them. Despite this, Madotsuki could clearly see that Madeline had opened the entrance to the tent where Leif was sleeping in.

Clementine called out to Madeline; presumably asking what she was doing.

“Shhhhh!”, Madeline exclaimed.

“I’m just going to grab Leif. I need to know if he-”

“Don’t bother. We’re already awake.”, Leif interrupted while poking his head out of the tent. Additionally, the tone he spoke in sounded somewhat fearful when he said that.

Once the four had gotten Quirrel and Bobby out of their tents, they all gathered around the unlit campfire to talk about what had just transpired. Instead of that happening, however, they all sat on the benches in awkward silence.

…

“...alright then.”, Quirrel began with a sharp inhale.

“Since we aren’t getting anywhere sitting around like this, I may as well start. How is everyone feeling?”, Quirrel asked the group.

“We’ve been better.”, Leif replied.

“Same here.”, Madeline said.

Bobby “replied” by looking away while Clementine and Madotsuki stayed silent.

“As anticipated…I cannot say I feel any different.”, Quirrel said.

In an attempt to avoid further discomfort and push this discussion further, Madotsuki stood up and began acting out what happened to her at the end of the dream.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”, Madeline said.

Everyone around the campfire seemed to share the same thoughts as they stared at Madotsuki with looks of confusion.

"Are you trying to imitate a Midge? Because you're doing an excellent job at making yourself look like one.", Leif said.

Right after he said that, Madotsuki looked directly at Leif while making a slitting throat gesture; surprising everyone.

“Madotsuki, please do not take such offense to small acts of rudeness.", Quirrel said, concerned.

Madotsuki ignored him and kept making that same gesture to everyone repeatedly.

“Hold on…are you trying to tell us something?”, Madeline asked.

“Yeah. That she wants to cut our throats open.”, Leif said.

“No, I believe it’s the exact opposite of that. Is that right, Madotsuki?”, Quirrel asked.

She replied by nodding her head up and down.

Clementine called out to draw everyone’s attention to her. Once everyone looked, she clasped her hands together and pushed them against her throat.

Bobby followed along with her and raised a fist, putting it up to his eye.

“Are you three saying…that you all...ended yourselves to escape?”, Quirrel asked.

“If we are being honest, we had to do the same as well.”, Leif admitted.

Madeline stayed silent. Giving a simple nod as a confirmation that the same thing happened to her.

“So…I suppose that means we all truly did experience the same thing at the end of that dream.”, Quirrel said, sighing.

“At least we’re not the only ones.”, Leif said.

“Pardon the interruption, but what are you five doing out here in the middle of the night?”

Everyone jumped before they looked into the trees to see Hornet exiting them with her needle in-hand.

“W-well that depends. What are YOU doing out here in the middle of the night?”, Madeline asked.

“Simple. Patrolling the surrounding forest for any intruders. For what reason are you all doing the same?”, Hornet asked.

“W-we were just talking about what we were gonna do tomorrow! That’s all!”, Madeline said with a shaky voice.

“You must be a fool to think that I would fall for such an obvious lie. Tell me the truth. Now.”, Hornet said sternly.

…

“Alright…let’s start from the beginning, shall we?”, Quirrel said while standing.

As asked, Quirrel and everyone else explained everything to Hornet in full detail with Bobby, Clementine, and Madotsuki acting out their parts of the story.

“...and now you know the truth.”, Leif said, finishing up the last of it.

“I have one question for all of you. Did any of you sense anything unusual outside of all that happened near the end?”, Hornet asked.

After a quick moment of discussion amongst each other, they all said “no” to her question.

“Then I believe that such a pointless dream is not worth reminiscing on. All of you go back to sleep.”, Hornet said as she turned around.

“But-”

“I don’t want to hear it.”, Hornet said before taking off into the trees.

…

“I suppose that is all we can do now. What is there left to talk about?”, Leif said; turning around to head back to his tent.

In silence, Bobby and Clementine took a glance at the three behind them before heading back to their tents.

“Well…hopefully we will not experience such a dream again. I will see you both tomorrow morning.”, Quirrel said to Madeline and Madotsuki.

“...come on. It’s late.”, Madeline said to Madotsuki, grabbing her hand after a moment of silence.

Once Madotsuki was tucked into her sleeping bag with her tentmates asleep, what remained in her stomach was a nagging feeling of discomfort that wouldn’t allow her to do the same so easily. She began thinking about her own dream world, how terrifying it was, yet, it was the type of terrifying she had gotten used to. The type she loved. Just thinking about it put her mind at ease as she felt herself getting sleepy.

Silently, Madotsuki hoped she would be able to go where she wanted to be.

…

…

…

“Okay, that should be enough for tonight.”, Aubrey said, putting her pencil down and getting up from the chair at her desk.

Amongst her were many concept sketches of how she would organize her new room in Basil’s house. When Basil’s grandma passed away, Polly had offered her to move in with her and Basil in his grandma’s old room after finding out about her situation at home. With no hesitation, Aubrey said yes, and was excitedly waiting for the next three days to pass by so that she could finally go somewhere better; away from her “mother”.

(“I’m just gonna go in and out…”), Aubrey thought to herself while taking a deep breath.

Climbing down the ladder leading downstairs and walking into the kitchen, Aubrey plugged her nose and walked past the countless amounts of beer bottles and cigarette butts scattered across the floor to acquire a bottle of water from the pantry.

Once she had a bottle of water in-hand, Aubrey took a glance at her mother with her eyes fixated on the TV.

“Um…mom, I’m going to sleep. Goodnight.”, Aubrey said. There goes the promise she made to herself one minute ago.

As per usual, her mother remained as still as a statue.

Aubrey continued into the hallway in silence up until she had reached the ladder; letting out a sigh of sadness before going up. Reaching her room, Aubrey sipped on her water whilst walking to her bed.

Before she could lay down, though, Bun-Bun began stomping in his pen and facing the ladder leading out of the attic. She walked over to the pen, picked him up, and began softly petting him.

“Don’t worry, Bun-Bun. We’ll be out of here soon.”, Aubrey said. Continuing to pet him for a few more minutes until he calmed down.

“Okay, I’m tired. I’m gonna go to sleep now.”, Aubrey said, putting down Bun-Bun and walking over to her bed.

“Goodnight, Bun-Bun.”, she said as she tucked herself in.

…

…

“Hm? Bun-Bun?”, Aubrey asked while rubbing her eyes. She had barely even slept for five minutes before he began stomping again.

“What are you-”

Bun-Bun then jumped out of his pen and down the attic hatch.

“BUN-BUN!”, Aubrey shouted; running to the ladder.

Just when her feet had touched the ground, Bun-Bun was squeezing himself through the front door and popped through it.

“Wait! Where are you going?!”, Aubrey yelled, rushing to get her shoes on.

Running past her mother out cold on the couch and busting through the door, Bun-Bun was nowhere in sight. Aubrey ran to her left and saw a small ball of white running up the street and taking a left.

“Come back!”, Aubrey called out as she took chase.

When she turned the corner, Bun-Bun was out of her sight. Aubrey frantically ran down the street as fast as she could; hoping that he hadn’t gone far. She had reached near the end of the street to see Bun-Bun pouncing on the door of Kel and Hero’s house; trying to get in.

“Bun-Bun! What has gotten into you?! We shouldn’t be bothering them at this time of the night!”, Aubrey said while picking him up.

Suddenly, the front door opened.

“Oh hello, Aubrey! What are you doing out here at this hour?”, Kel’s mom asked her.

“I’m so sorry, this little rascal got out and ran all the way over here for whatever reason!”, Aubrey said whilst petting Bun-Bun and backing away a little out of awkwardness.

“Oh no, you’re fine! It happens all the time with Hector!”, Kel’s mom replied.

“Haha! Well, anyways, you have a goodnight!”, Aubrey said, then turned around to leave.

“Well, actually, could you…help us with something?”, Kel’s mom asked.

“Well, what is it?”, Aubrey said.

“The thing is, something happened in the bathroom when the boys were getting ready for bed, and now Hero won’t stop crying. We’ve tried everything, but he’s been this way for hours.”, she replied.

Aubrey’s tiredness had instantly gone away when she heard that Hero needed help. Especially if it was this bad.

“Okay, I’ll help.”, Aubrey said.

“You’re such a good friend, Aubrey. Thank you so much.”, Kel’s mom said while stepping aside.

Not even five seconds into the house, Aubrey heard screaming coming from upstairs.

“Hero, please calm down! We’re just trying to-”

“I don’t want to hear it! Please! Just leave me the hell alone!”, Hero shouted at his father.

“Actually, you may want to hear from Kel for now instead. I don’t want you getting shouted at too.”, his mom said.

“I was thinking the same thing.”, Aubrey said.

“I’ll watch Bun-Bun for you. Kel is in the kitchen.”, she replied.

“Thank you.”, Aubrey said; handing Bun-Bun to her.

Aubrey walked into the kitchen to see Kel standing in front of the microwave whilst looking down at his slippers.

…

“Kel.”, Aubrey said.

“W-woah! Oh, Aubrey! I didn’t know you were coming for a sleepover!”, Kel said, forcing a smile.

“Because I didn’t come here for that. I came because Bun-Bun led me here and I heard that Hero wasn’t feeling good.”, Aubrey replied.

“...who’s Bun-Bun?”, Kel asked while taking a mug of water out from the microwave.

“My pet bunny?”, Aubrey said.

“Oh, right…”, Kel said as he poured a packet of hot cocoa mix into the mug and began stirring it.

…

…

“Anyway, what’s going on with Hero?”, she asked.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t know…”, Kel said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean- I was in the bathroom with him, and all of a sudden he dropped his toothbrush and fell to the floor. I tried to ask him what was wrong, but he just kept repeating the word “no”, Kel said.

“Me and my mom and dad have been trying to comfort him, but he hasn’t calmed down…”, Kel said.

“Then what are you down here for?”, Aubrey asked.

“I’m just making him some hot cocoa! You want some?”, Kel said.

“I’m good…and you can calm down. I’m here to help you comfort him.”, Aubrey said.

“W-what? What do y-you mean calm down? Of c-course I’m calmed down!”, Kel said.

“Hmm?”, Aubrey said while pointing to the cup of cocoa.

Kel looked down to see over half of the cocoa on the floor and he had been stirring it with a fork.

“Wha-?!”

“Really? You’ve been stirring it like a whirlpool for two minutes and you didn’t even notice?”, Aubrey said while crossing her arms.

“I uh-”

Suddenly, the screaming upstairs stopped, and a door was heard closing.

“Whatever. We’ll go upstairs after you clean yourself up.”, Aubrey said.

“O-on it!”

After Kel wiped off what he could of the cocoa with a damp paper towel, the two slowly walked up the stairs to Kel and Hero’s room.

(“What do you think happened?”), Kel whispered; shakily holding a second cup of cocoa.

(“I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.”), Aubrey replied.

They both reached the top of the stairs and walked over to Hero’s bedroom. Right before Aubrey entered the room behind Kel, she could faintly hear his parents talking about him in their bedroom.

“I don’t understand what happened to him. He was doing just fine a few hours ago!”, his father said.

“Well, I just hope he feels better enough in a few days for when he goes back to college.”, his mother replied.

“Aubrey! Get over here!”, Kel yelled from inside the room.

“R-right, sorry.”

“A-Aubrey? S-she’s here?”, Hero quietly asked. In which he was curled up into a ball on his bed.

“Yeah, I bet you weren’t expecting her to be here!”, Kel said.

“W-why are y-you here?”, Hero asked her.

“Meh…it was just something with my pet bunny, and…”

…

“Anyway, how are you feeling now?”, Aubrey continued.

“Well, if I’m being honest, not too good…but a lot better now that you’re here with Kel. Thank you.”, Hero said before taking a sip of his hot cocoa and sitting upright.

“Hey, no problem.”, Aubrey said while giving him a pat on the back.

“Now…you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but why are you acting like this?”, she asked Hero.

…

“...I saw her.”

“...what?”

“Mari…I saw her, except it wasn’t the Mari I knew…it sounded like her, but she looked like a monster…”, Hero said, curling back up into a ball.

Both Aubrey and Kel looked at each other with massive concern in each other’s eyes, now realizing how serious the situation was.

“What did she look like?”, Kel asked.

“S-she- she had no eyes…a-and her mouth was wide open with sharp teeth…t-the movement of her body, i-it was unnatural…”, Hero said while beginning to cry.

“H-Hero, please calm down, it’s gonna be alright…”, Kel said, giving him a hug.

“Shh…it’s okay, it’s okay. Everything is going to be okay…”, Aubrey said, hugging him as well.

Aubrey tried to take a moment to reflect on how she ended up in this situation, and what else she could say to Hero, but what composure she had left began to diminish when she heard Kel beginning to cry too. She quickly decided that the first thing she would do tomorrow was to give Sunny a call and see what was happening on his end of things. Certainly they can’t be the only ones experiencing these events. Right?

(“Hopefully he knows what’s going on…”), Aubrey said to herself internally before breaking down with Kel and Hero.

…

…

…

Madotsuki felt herself lying down on a cold, hard ground.

She stood up slowly, her head was dizzy as she tried to focus her vision. When it finally did, Madotsuki looked ahead and around her to see that she was on a balcony. The same balcony she would wake up on when entering her own dream world.

Madotsuki was silently celebrating whilst enjoying the cold air flowing through her hair. Finally, she was somewhere familiar; a place she had missed dearly.

She reached into her skirt pocket to find out that none of her effects were on her. Including her knife. At least she had something to do here instead of just wandering around the place and enjoying the scenery.

When Madotsuki decided to leave the balcony and go out of her room, however, she was met with a surprise. Many of her new friends had followed her into her dream and were on the floor sleeping. She almost immediately recognized Kris and Sunny amongst them.

“Where am I?”, Sunny asked, looking around the room with his eyes half closed.

“Sunny…? Why are we in a different bedroom?”, Kris asked, standing up as well.

“...huh? Madotsuki? What are you doing here?”, Sunny asked.

Madotsuki instead pointed behind the both of them to their friends on the floor and unconscious.

“Wait, guys? Why are you all here too?”, Sunny asked as he and Kris went to help them up.

“Mmm…five more minutes…”, Chalice said when he felt Sunny pulling on his arm.

“Elder Kettle…Mugs…I don’t wanna go to school today…”, Cuphead muttered right after.

When Kris went to go and wake up Momo and Zbaltazar; who were snoring loudly, Kris instead got their hands smacked away by the both of them. They sighed and went to wake up Ghost and Hornet instead.

“Kris…? What is the meaning of this? Why are you standing over me?”, Hornet asked them when Kris had grabbed her hand.

Ghost on the other hand, got up by themselves before Kris could help them too.

“Madotsuki, can you help us out here?”, Sunny asked, pointing to Momo and Zbaltazar.

Madotsuki nodded her head and walked over to them, but rather than trying to wake them up the normal way, she instead put her hand into a fist and pounded it down hard onto both of their chests; to which they both woke up with loud yelps.

“Wait! Woah! What didja do that for?!”, Cuphead exclaimed.

Madotsuki looked down at the two in front of her with a worrisome expression and shrugged her shoulders in response.

Rather than taking Madotsuki’s hands to help them up, Momo and Zbaltazar had angry expressions on their faces as they stood up by themselves.

“Is everyone feelin’ alright?”, Chalice asked.

Everyone gave her confirmation to say that they were.

“Good! Good!”

…

“Where are we, anyways?”, she continued.

“No idea. But there’s nothing outside, so that can’t be good.”, Kris said, pointing outside to the pitch black darkness just beyond the balcony.

“How unusual…little Ghost, have you anything to do with this?”, Hornet asked them.

Ghost responded by looking down at the ground and revealing that they didn’t have their “sword” on them anymore.

“It’s apparent you're being honest…”, Hornet said, sighing at the realization that she no longer had her needle on her anymore.

“Hang on a sec! Does that mean-”, Cuphead said, trying to take a shot from his finger.

Alas, nothing happened.

Just then, Madotsuki tapped her pencil on her desk to get everyone's attention. When everyone's eyes were on her, she handed her diary to Sunny so that he could read it out loud to everyone.

“I know where we are. This is my dream world, and I know what happened to your powers.”, Sunny began.

“I consider this world somewhere special, so I know everything about it.”, he continued reading.

“Why have you brought us here?”, Hornet asked in a hostile tone.

Madotsuki shook her shoulders at her question, saying that they just so happened to end up here with her.

“If you want to find your powers, we need to explore the worlds here to get them back. I lost mine too.”, Sunny continued reading.

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”, Cuphead said, immediately walking over to the bedroom door.

“Wait.”, Hornet said, grabbing him by the collar of his sweater.

“We should all stick together. It’s easy to get lost here.”, she said, reading the last sentence.

When she finished reading, Madotsuki took the diary from Sunny’s hands, placed it back on the desk…and walked over to her Famicom to play a quick game of NASU.

“Madots! What’s that thing you’ve got there?”, Chalice asked her when she had picked up the controller.

Madotsuki turned on the TV to the title screen which made Ghost and Hornet gaze at it in curiosity.

“What sort of strange device is this?”, Hornet said while Ghost went up to the screen and began tapping on it.

“That’s…a TV?”, Sunny said.

“Do you guys seriously not know what a TV is?”, Kris said.

“Hmm…so that’s what these are called? Interesting…”, Hornet said, continuing to stare at it in curiosity.

While Ghost, Hornet, and Chalice were still examining the simple device, Sunny could hear Momo and Zbaltazar chuckling behind him. His response was to look behind him and give them a death stare, which almost immediately shut them up.

Eventually, Madotsuki got bored of staring at them in confusion and pressed the button on the controller to start the game.

“Woah! Are you controlling the little guy inside of the TV?!”, Cuphead asked in amazement, watching her play.

“I’ve seen some things, but none of that comes close to this! Well…almost.”, Chalice commented.

Ghost got a bit too curious, however, and tried to grab the controller from Madotsuki, which caused her to miss an eggplant and cause a game over; she stared at them in annoyance when the game over theme was done playing.

They stared back at her for a second and then backed away in embarrassment. Madotsuki then pressed the A button to get back to the title screen to start a new game.

“Oh! Oh! Can I have a go?”, Cuphead asked excitedly.

“Huh? No way! I wanna go first!”, Chalice said.

“No, let me!”, Cuphead replied.

“No, let me!”, Chalice said with both of them turning to face her.

Madotsuki quickly reached onto the side of the console and revealed the second controller.

“Wait, you’re able to do that? How much more do we not know about this strange contraption?”, Hornet asked.

“Yeah yeah, who cares! Let’s play already!”, Cuphead said, almost pushing Madotsuki out of the way and grabbing the controller.

“Um…how do you play this doohickey again?”, Chalice said as she held the controller by the cord.

Sunny could hear Kris and Madotsuki sigh in annoyance before they walked over to them to explain how a video game controller works to the two.

Not even two minutes later, the questions began.

“How much experience do you need to operate this? I assume quite a lot.”, a question that came from Hornet.

“You jump usin’ this button? Why can’t I use any of the other ones? They’re all the same, right?”, Cuphead asked.

If Sunny was being honest, he actually did find the situation funny and began laughing quietly to himself. Momo and Zbaltazar overheard this and began laughing once more with him. All three stood next to each other next to the bed and enjoyed watching Kris and Madotsuki slowly go insane over answering questions with obvious answers.

Eventually, Sunny calmed down and walked over to them to see what game console Madotsuki was playing in the first place; he began chuckling again when he was walking back to the two robots by the bed.

“Haha. Really? A Famicom? Even Kel figured out how to use one faster than how they’re doing right now!”, Sunny said, putting a hand on Momo’s shoulder.

Both of them weren’t laughing, however, and instead stared at him with intense confusion.

After staring at Sunny for a good moment, Zbaltazar attempted to speak English, which Sunny roughly translated to, “Famicom?”

Momo followed up on that statement by raising an eyebrow on his screen. Clearly asking, “What is that?”

“Oh gosh…”, Sunny said, mentally preparing himself.

Sunny, after trying and failing to properly explain to them what a Famicom was, let out a loud sigh of relief when he saw that his friends near the TV were finally done playing with the game console. They all let Madotsuki go in front of them as they all gathered around the door going into her dream world.

Once she made sure that everyone was ready, she opened the door into the Nexus.

Everyone followed through in silence while she enjoyed seeing the place again after a long while.

As Madotsuki continued to remain still whilst looking around, her friends walked past her to take in their surroundings and to find out if there was anything beyond the twelve doors in a circle and the surrounding darkness.

“These patterns…how strange.”, Hornet commented, taking note of the creepy pattern on the floor.

In silence, Madotsuki walked over to one of the bottom doors and opened it to go in. Signaling to everyone to follow her.

“H-hey! Madotsuki! Wait!”, Sunny said, calling out to her right when she had entered the door and closed it.

This caused Sunny to rush to the door and sprint into it to catch up.

When he entered, Sunny immediately felt dizzy and disoriented due to the nature of this place. He fell to the ground and raised his head to see nothing but tiles on the floor that looked like graffiti, as well as a strange colorful creature floating all behind them. Sunny was physically resisting the urge to vomit because of the bright and ugly colors hurting his eye, and due to the hum in his ears getting louder every second.

“Sunny!”, Kris said, rushing to his side.

“What happened? Are you okay?”, Hornet asked him with concern in her voice.

“There’s too many colors…”, Sunny muttered while rubbing his eye.

“You must remain strong. Simply keep your head straight and don’t look at the floor. Do you understand?”, Hornet asked.

“T-thanks…that really helps…”, Sunny said, rolling his eye as Kris helped him up.

Unexpectedly, Hornet’s advice actually helped. Sunny could feel himself getting less dizzy when he tried it out, eventually getting better to where he could walk again.

“I-I think I saw her go this way.”, Sunny said, pointing to his right.

The group let Sunny take the lead. He was doing his best to not look down at the graffiti again, but it was getting progressively harder when he heard his friends complaining about getting headaches.

“Oh geez…I think I’m about to tip over!”, Cuphead said.

“Keep your head up! You will feel better then!”, Hornet said. Although considering she was right behind Sunny, he overheard her mumbling to herself about feeling nauseous.

Overtime, the colors on the ground were getting extremely bright to where they were impossible to ignore. To stop himself from collapsing to the ground again, Sunny stopped walking and closed his eye tightly.

(“Madotsuki, where are you?”), Sunny thought to himself.

Suddenly, he heard the bell of a bicycle ring behind him.

The group turned around to see Madotsuki approaching them on a bicycle at a casual speed, stopping right in front of them, and strangely dimming the tiles.

“W-where did you come from?”, Kris asked.

Madotsuki got off of the bike and helped everyone up.

“Thanks for coming to the rescue! I was about to become a chipped chalice there for a second!”, Chalice said.

“Yes, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t wait for us to come through with you.”, Hornet said.

Awkwardly, Madotsuki got in front of everyone again and summoned a bicycle out of thin air, causing Zbaltazar to yelp out of surprise.

“Huh? How did you do that?”, Kris asked.

Madotsuki, however, ignored the question and sped off on the bicycle at full speed.

“You-...both of you! Get back here right now!”, Hornet shouted at her.

(“Both?”), Sunny thought.

It was only then he noticed that Ghost had grabbed onto the end of the bicycle seat and was riding away with her. Even if he couldn’t see it, Sunny could sense that they had a smug look underneath that shell of theirs.

As Madotsuki led them deeper and deeper into this world, the graffiti tiles disappeared altogether, and were instead replaced by many pipes and telephone poles sticking out of the ground. Madotsuki stopped pedaling when these poles and pipes began to appear.

Zbaltazar called out to Madotsuki, asking where they were.

Madotsuki got off of the bike and looked around for a moment. Instead of her calmingly signaling for everyone to follow her, she awkwardly shook her head from side to side.

“Haha…t-that’s a good one! T-that’s a real good one!”, Cuphead said, fake laughing.

Everyone turned their heads back to Madotsuki, she stood still.

“Oh no…does that mean we’re…we’re lost?!”, Chalice exclaimed.

Madotsuki shook her head again and grabbed her cheek with two fingers and pulled on it.

…

…but nothing happened.

Out of desperation, Madotsuki tried it again and again. Surely it works here. Surely it wasn’t the same as White Space where it didn’t work. This was how she always exited her dream world.

As it turned out, it was the same case here. After many fruitless attempts later, and everyone else doing the same, they all realized how serious the situation had become.

“Oh stars…what are we going to do?!”, Chalice said, panicked.

“Calm down. There must be a way out. Why don’t we simply try going back from where we had come from?”, Hornet suggested.

Without hesitation, Madotsuki got on the bike again and everyone followed her back the way they came. But after a seemingly countless amount of time had passed, nothing was coming up, and they were now even more lost than how they were before.

"...does anyone else hear that music?", Kris asked, stopping.

"Yeah…it's kinda creepy.", Sunny replied.

Right when he had said that, the group turned around to stare at Momo, who was now tapping his foot along to the beat of the music with his eyes closed.

Ultimately, he finally noticed the group staring at him and scratched the back of his head before persuading the group to keep going.

…

“Wait, where did everyone else go?”, Sunny asked, noticing that only Kris, Momo, and Ghost were with him now.

“Great. What do we do now?”, Kris said.

Momo sighed and continued walking forward, suggesting that the only thing that they can do now is to keep going.

Continuing past many telephone poles and pipes, Sunny slowly started to regret not asking Madotsuki if they could go back the way they came through that first door. It felt as if they were going in circles.

Suddenly, he and Kris were stopped by Momo and Ghost putting their arms out in front of the two to stop them.

"What's going on?", Sunny asked.

Momo and Ghost looked at each other with a competitive spark before they both sprinted to get to a long pipe sticking out of the ground.

Ghost got to it first, but Momo wasn't going to give up. He took hold of the pipe as well and both played tug of war together; fighting over who gets to claim it. While all of this was happening, Kris and Sunny stared in amusement.

"Momo! Don't let up! Lift them into the air!", Kris blurted out.

"Wait, what are you doing?", Sunny questioned.

"Well? What else are we supposed to do? Stand around like one of those telephone poles?", Kris replied.

"...I guess this is what we're doing now."

"Ghost! Come on! Use your horns! Headbutt him or something!", Sunny shouted.

This one sentence gave Ghost the idea to do just that, and they headbutted Momo in the stomach, successfully knocking the latter to the ground, and thus, crowning Ghost as the winner.

"Called it.", Sunny said.

Kris let out a groan of disappointment just when Ghost had walked up to the two to give them a closer look at what they and Momo were fighting over.

Sunny took it from their hands and realized that it was a pipe with many blood stains on it.

"I'm not sure why you wanted this so badly, but…congratulations? I guess?", Sunny said, putting the pipe over his shoulder.

Instead, Sunny accidentally dropped it, and it disappeared into thin air with a sound effect.

"Huh?! Where did it go?!", Sunny asked, looking around everywhere for it.

Meanwhile, Momo stood up, stretched, and then flicked his hat back up straight with an audible snap. Which somehow caused three windows to pop up right in front of him.

"Momo? What happened?", Kris asked as the rest of the group gathered around him to see what the windows said.

There were two smaller windows and one larger one. The larger one was showcasing Momo’s portrait, a heart next to it that they all could only assume was his HP, and two smaller statuses that were both at zero. The second window had an option titled "Effects", and the third one only said "¥". Which was at zero too.

“Hang on…does that mean-”, Sunny said, snapping his fingers, in which the same windows popped up.

“What is “Effects?”, he said, pressing the option.

The large window changed displays and instead showed a menu that only had one thing in it, an item called, “Iron Pipe”.

“Can be used to attack and access some hidden areas.”, the description next to the pipe said.

There were two options to either drop or equip the effect. Sunny chose to equip it, and the menu disappeared with the pipe magically appearing in his hands. When he did, however, Ghost waved at him with their tiny hands, asking him to give it to them. But when he tried, it disappeared again.

“Maybe you can try dropping it?”, Kris suggested.

Sunny did just that, and reopened the menu again to try dropping it. When it was selected, it was automatically dropped from his back pocket in the form of a small white spark on the ground. Ghost then picked it up, and a window appeared in front of them stating what they got.

“I think you might wanna hold onto that for now…”, Sunny suggested; they listened and equipped the pipe.

When the three looked up, Momo was already ten feet ahead of them and waved for them to follow him and keep going.

“H-hold on! Maybe we should try going this way?”, Sunny suggested, pointing to his right.

“Why?”, Kris asked.

“Well- we could go and see if there’s s-something else that could help us get out of here?”, and before Kris could get another word out, Sunny was already power walking away from them in that direction, and they ran to catch up with him.

Sunny honestly didn’t know what he was doing anymore. He was just in-denial of the fact that they might be trapped in this world of pipes for who knows how long. During the five minutes that he was walking, Sunny was silently hoping for something helpful to show up.

“Huh? What is that?”

He stopped walking at the sight of a weird purple honeycomb. The four got closer to it to get a better look at it, but once they concluded that it was nothing of interest, they began to back away to get going again.

Instead of Ghost following them, they walked up to the honeycomb and put an arm out to touch it.

“Wait! Don’t!”, Sunny shouted last second.

But it was too late. Ghost had already touched it, and the world somehow morphed into an entirely different one. This new world they were now in was covered in a light purple fog with a purple rocky ground and strange pink and green plants sticking out of said ground. There were also three paths that they could potentially go down.

“Where are we? Where’s the honeycomb?”, Kris asked, examining their surroundings.

“More importantly, which way do we go?”, Sunny said.

Momo walked up to the three of them and did his best to suggest that maybe what they could try doing is staying together and exploring each area of this new place one at a time. Kris and Sunny didn’t understand at first, but it eventually got through to them with the help of Ghost unequipping the pipe and explaining it through hand gestures.

From where they were standing, the four decided to start with the path they were facing. It was one that was going upwards.

(“I actually kinda like this place…”), Sunny thought, enjoying the soft breeze and listening to the sound of his feet stepping on the rubble below him.

When they reached the end of the walkway, there was nothing there except for a red oil drum sitting on the top.

“Mmm?”, Momo muttered.

He was the first one to walk up to the drum to see what was inside of it, but after a few seconds had passed, he flashed white, and a window popped up in front of him to notify everyone that he had picked up something.

“Drum.”, the window read.

Momo opened his menu to see that it was an effect that he could equip. The only thing the description for the effect said was, “Become a Steel Drum.”

“You “become” a steel drum?”, Kris asked.

Hesitantly, Momo selected to equip it just to see what it was about. Instantly, his torso was transformed into a steel drum, subverting everyone’s expectations.

“Doesn’t that hurt? Are you okay?”, Sunny asked.

Surprisingly, Momo gave a thumbs up and smiled to signify that he was okay, and even saw the positive side of it; he played a quick tune by slapping the drum.

Sunny and Kris chuckled slightly, and for a brief moment, they both saw a jagged mouth underneath Ghost’s shell smiling.

After a quick laugh, Momo unequipped the effect, and the group went back down the way they came.

When they did get back to the three way junction they started out from, however, they stopped twenty feet away due to a strange humanoid figure standing in the middle of it. Ghost immediately equipped the pipe and slowly began walking over to the figure with everyone else not too far behind.

When they got close enough, Sunny took note of what they looked like. The humanoid figure was wearing a white shirt with black pants, brown shoes, and white hair in a side bangs hairstyle . The outfit reminded Sunny of a school uniform.

When Ghost was in attacking range, the person turned around to reveal that they had a blood-stained face, causing Ghost to instantly swing the pipe; smacking them directly in the face with it.

The rest of the group immediately ran over and stood by Ghost as they unequipped the pipe, they all stood there for a good minute staring at the person on the floor that wasn’t moving.

“Um…are you alright?”, Sunny asked, bending down and shaking them.

A small giggle was heard.

“What?”

Multiple giggles came from the person and eventually turned into laughter.

Sunny and his friends backed away in discomfort as the laughter was getting louder and louder every second.

Suddenly, the person stood up and lunged at Ghost at a speed so fast that Sunny didn’t have time to comprehend what was going on. Once he did, an instantaneous wave of panic washed over him when he realized that the person was beating Ghost to death with another pipe.

He, Kris, and Momo stared in horror, completely paralyzed with fear. Then, the person turned to face them and the only thing left of Ghost was a puddle of black sludge and pieces of their shell. The person’s face was now just a mess of ragged flesh with their eyes dangling out of their sockets; black sludge now staining their white button-up and the end of the pipe.

The three took the chance to run away. They ran as fast as they could but when Sunny looked back, he realized that Kris and Momo didn’t get very far. He saw both of them lying on the floor unmoving; presumably hit in the back of the head by the monster running to claim Sunny as its next victim.

Now fully panicking, Sunny ran until he stopped to catch his breath and saw the purple honeycomb again in the distance. He was about to run over to it, but was knocked over by the monster hitting him in the ankle with its pipe. Sunny flipped himself over on his back, and the last thing he saw was the grotesque creature looking down at him before it ended him with a direct hit to the face with the pipe.

…

Sunny awakened in a dark room. Where was he? All of a sudden, a flash of bright white light filled the room. He closed his eyes and reopened them to see nothing but blurs and static that were gradually clearing up. When it completely cleared up, Sunny saw Ghost, Momo, and Kris standing over him with concerned looks.

“Oh my god! You guys are alright!”, Sunny said, jolting up from his bed.

“Barely…”, Kris said.

Sunny took a moment to enjoy the morning sun, and then continued.

“You guys…”, he said, making a swinging motion with his hand. Not wanting to finish that sentence.

Momo looked down at the ground, Ghost looked away, and Kris scratched the back of their head. All of which were looking uncomfortable.

“...are they back?”

Ghost gave him a single nod.

Sunny sighed, and then got up from the bed.

“Where are you going?”, Kris asked.

“We should talk to them about what happened to us. We should also ask about what happened to them when we were separated. Come on.”

Chapter Text

Play: Good Time - Owl City

Sunny awoke in Asriel’s bed and stretched himself out while yawning. It was just another morning in the Dreemurr household, some of his friends outside were just waking up, and others had already gone into Hometown to commit to their daily activities. It had been quite a while since Sunny had gotten dropped off here, and by this point, he had gotten used to seeing this sight and the morning routine itself.

(“I wonder how they’re all doing right now…”), Sunny wondered. He thought about his friends in Faraway while staring out of the bedroom window into the forest and enjoying the sun.

Suddenly, he heard his phone ringing.

Sunny picked up his phone off of the nightstand and saw that it was a video call request from Kel. 

“Why is he calling me this early?”, he wondered. Regardless, he picked it up anyway to see what he wanted.

Immediately, he covered his ears because of Kel screaming at the top of his lungs.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNNY!!!”, Kel said, his voice booming through the entire room.

“Hm? It’s my birthday?”, Sunny asked as he rubbed his ears.

“Don’t be silly, Sunny! Nobody forgets their birthday!”, Kel said.

To Sunny, that statement was completely false. The last time he had gotten a proper birthday celebration was four years ago, so his birthday had almost completely left his mind.

Suddenly, Hero, Basil, and Aubrey popped into the frame.

“Hey Sunny! It’s your seventeenth birthday already? Man, time flies, doesn’t it?”, Hero said.

(“Wait, I’m seventeen?”), Sunny asked himself, counting on his fingers to make sure it was correct.

“Happy birthday! W-we bought you a cake, but then forgot you weren’t here.”, Basil said, holding up a Neapolitan cake with the words “Happy Birthday Sunny!” on it.

“If only you could be here with us right now. We’d throw you the best party ever if you were here!”, Aubrey said as she smacked Kel’s hand away from the cake.

“Even if we can’t do it, hopefully your friends over there can!”, Hero said.

“Ugh…Sunny, why are you up this early?”, Kris groaned as they sat up on their bed.

“Oh, hey Kris! Did you know? It’s Sunny’s birthday today!”, Kel said as Sunny tried to cover the speaker of his phone.

“Wait, seriously?”, Kris asked as they rubbed their eyes.

“Yeah! Didn’t he tell you?”, Kel asked.

“No. But still!”, Kris said as they patted him on the back and wrapped one of their arms around him.

“What are you planning t-to do today, Sunny?”, Basil asked.

“Well-”

“Kris! Sunny! Madotsuki! Come down! Breakfast is ready!”, Toriel called from downstairs.

“I-I’ll tell you guys later. Ms. Dreemurr is calling us.”, Sunny said.

“Alright! Tell her we said hi!”, Kel said.

They all said their goodbyes while waving before Sunny hung up the phone.

“Dude, happy birthday! What do you wanna do today?”, Kris asked. But instead of getting a response, Sunny instead ignored their question and exited the room to go wash his hands.

(“What?”), Kris asked themself, confused.

They went downstairs and patiently waited outside of the bathroom for Sunny to come out. But as they were, Madotsuki patted him on the shoulder.

“Oh, hey Mado.”, Kris greeted.

Madotsuki pointed at him to ask what they were doing.

“I’m just waiting for Sunny to come out of the bathroom. It’s his birthday today, but he doesn’t seem all too excited about it.”, Kris said.

Madotsuki seemed to be surprised and put her hands out to ask why.

“I dunno, let’s ask him when we go eat.”, Kris said.

Two minutes later, Sunny came out of the bathroom and didn’t even bother greeting Madotsuki before going to the table to eat his breakfast sandwich.

(“Okay, now he’s acting weird. He’s not excited about his birthday, and now he’s ignoring us?”), Kris whispered to her. She nodded her head in agreement.

Kris went into the bathroom and washed their hands. When they came out, they and Madotsuki sat right next to Sunny in awkward silence while taking nibbles out of their sandwiches.

“Are you three alright? You usually aren’t this quiet.”, Toriel asked, concerned.

“We’re alright mom. But Sunny, I need to ask you something.”, Kris said, getting his attention.

“I’m sorry if this sounds weird, but why aren’t you excited? It’s your birthday!”, Kris asked.

“Well…this is gonna sound even weirder, but…I just don’t feel like celebrating it.”, Sunny said,

Madotsuki shrugged her shoulders; asking him to elaborate.

“I mean- I-I just don’t feel that spark anymore when it comes to my birthday. I realize that there’s nothing special about it, so what’s the point of celebrating it?”, Sunny asked.

“Nothing special? Why of course it’s special! It’s the day you were born, after all!”, Toriel said.

“Yeah…but apart from that, what else?”, Sunny asked.

Nobody said anything in response.

“L-look, I’m sorry if I came off as a jerk. I do appreciate your wishes, but can we just forget that it’s my birthday?”, Sunny said as he excused himself from the dinner table.

“I’m gonna go for a walk…I’ll see you guys later.”, Sunny said before walking out the front door.

A few seconds after he had exited, Kabbu and Mugman appeared in the doorway with concern on their faces.

“Is he alright? He looked like he’d just spilt his milk!”, Mugman said.

“Yes, he typically isn’t like this. Did something happen?”, Kabbu asked.

“Well, it’s his birthday today, but he said that it’s nothing special to him. His friends back in his hometown called him this morning, but I noticed that he looked uncomfortable the entire time.”, Kris said, elaborating on the situation.

“What? But that can’t be the only reason! Especially if he’s uncomfortable around his friends!”, Kabbu said.

“Calm down y’all! It’s nothing to start freaking out over! Maybe he just hasn’t had a good birthday party in a while!”, Mugman said.

“That might be the case…but we will probably never know for sure.”, Toriel said.

“Then what are you suggesting we do?”, Kabbu asked.

“We…try out Mugman’s idea. Maybe a good celebration is all he needs to get back in good spirits about his birthday.”, Toriel said awkwardly.

“Sounds like a solid plan, but how do we go about it?”, Kris asked.

Just then, Madotsuki’s face lit up, and she ran to the bottom of the stairs, telling everyone to follow her.

…

…

…

Sunny walked down the streets of hometown feeling the soft breeze through his hair. He was still dwelling on birthdays and remembering what he and his friends used to do on those days. He remembered how the group would get all excited about whoever’s birthday it was and shower that friend with gifts and birthday wishes. 

But it had been four years since then, and Sunny wasn’t expecting any more of that.

While the reason he gave earlier to his friends was true, Sunny actually had two other reasons for not wanting to celebrate his birthday. The first reason was because of his former pet cat, Mewo. He had gotten her as a birthday gift, and Sunny had grown attached to that cat just as much as he had to the rest of the group. But just a year later, on that same day, she would leave and never return. Even if he knew it wasn’t his fault, the sadness of seeing Mewo leave wouldn’t go away no matter how hard he tried.

The second reason was because he had gotten used to not celebrating it because of his mom. She was always busy with work, so they never had time to celebrate it together…or spend much time with him at all. And his birthday was a reminder of that.

(“She didn’t even call me…”), Sunny thought, his mood growing even more sour.

He was about to pull out his phone to call her instead, but didn’t feel his phone in his pocket.

(“Dang it…”), Sunny thought.

As he reached the end of the road, Sunny sat down at one of the picnic tables and gazed upon the lake, alone with his thoughts.

…

…

…

“Madotsuki, are you sure this is a good idea?”, Kris asked her.

The page they were on was Hometown’s official website with an unposted block of text on Kris’s unused blog announcing Sunny’s birthday. Additionally, Madotsuki suggested paying for the feature to push the message to the very front of the website for everyone in town to see.

“Actually, I’ve changed my views. Aren’t we disrespecting his wishes for us to ignore his birthday by doing this?”, Kabbu pointed out.

“I agree, we shouldn’t be violating his requests like this. Especially if it means the town will be pestering him about it the entire day.”, Toriel said.

Madotsuki slouched down in the chair, and slowly moved the mouse over to the top right of the screen to close out of the browser before Mugman stopped her.

“Hold on now, think about it. Even if we are disrespecting him, wouldn’t we also be making him happy by doing this?”, Mugman said.

“Well…you’re right, but what if he doesn’t like it? What if we just make him angry at us?”, Kris asked.

“I’m sure he won’t! I know Sunny is a kind and understanding fella! I’m positive he’ll appreciate the effort even if the party is a disaster!”, Mugman said.

Madotsuki diverted everyone’s attention back to her and nodded her head to show she agreed with him.

Toriel, Kris, and Kabbu conversed amongst each other for a moment, and Toriel looked up to give Madotsuki and Mugman their answers.

“You two, we trust that what you are saying is true. We have faith in this plan of yours. Don’t disappoint us.”, Toriel said before exiting the room to go get her credit card.

Once she returned with it, Madotsuki posted the birthday message, and Toriel paid for the additional features.

“So, what now?”, Kabbu asked.

Madotsuki looked past him and saw Sunny’s phone still on his nightstand. She walked over to it, picked it up, and brought it to Kris to input the password.

…

…

…

When Sunny was done staring at the lake, he sighed, and got up from the picnic table to head back to the house.

“Ah, howdy there Sunny!”, a voice beside him said.

Sunny looked to his right to see Asgore standing in the doorway of his shop with a smile and waving.

“Oh, hello Mr. Dreemurr! How are you doing?”, Sunny asked.

“I’m doing fantastic! How about yourself?”, Asgore asked.

“I’m doing alright. I was just about to head back to Ms. Dreemurr’s home.”, Sunny replied.

“Before you do, come inside! I want to show you something!”, Asgore said as he went inside.

Curious, Sunny followed him inside to see what Asgore wanted to show him.

“So, what did you wanna-”

Sunny stopped talking when he saw a vase full of White Egret Orchids and Sunflowers on top of the table in front of him.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”, Asgore asked.

“Yeah…”, Sunny replied, continuing to stare at them.

“But- why did you want to show them to me?”

“The answer is simple, is it not? I’m giving them to you!”, Asgore said, patting Sunny on the back.

“Wait, really? What’s the occasion?”

“Oh ho! There is no occasion, Sunny! You probably know by now that I love to give out flowers to all the residents of this town! I just thought that you’d love these flowers in particular! So, do you want ‘em?”

Sunny was still somewhat skeptical, but he didn’t mind all that much; the kind gesture was all that mattered to him.

“Of course! Why not?”

As such, Asgore wrapped the flowers into a bouquet and gave them to Sunny.

“Thank you, Mr. Dreemurr. You’ve really made my day better.”, Sunny said, hugging the bouquet.

“Anytime! Before you go, I’d like to give you something else.”, Asgore said, walking over to Sunny and placing a large thermos in his free hand.

“What’s this?”

“Well that’s just some of my special tea! Freshly made! I know you have places to be right now, but that shouldn’t stop you from having some on the go!”

Sunny opened the thermos and smelt the tea inside. 

“Mmm…that smells amazing! What’s in it?

“Well, I can’t tell you that, but what I can tell you is to enjoy that tea when you have the chance!”

“I will! I hope you have a nice day!”, Sunny said as he pushed the door of the shop open.

“You too! Say hi to Kris and their mother for me!”, Asgore said, waving goodbye to him.

Sunny exited the shop and sat down at the picnic table once again. He set the bouquet down on the table and opened the thermos and tried to take a sip of the tea…immediately burning his tongue when the tea touched it.

“Ah- ow H-hot!”, Sunny said, fanning his tongue.

“He wasn’t lying when he said it was freshly made…”, Sunny said, putting the lid back on the thermos.

Out of nowhere, Sunny saw something in his peripherals walking towards him. He looked to his left to see the orange cat walking towards him.

“Hello. What are you doing here?”, Sunny asked the cat.

The cat jumped up and curled in his lap.

“You came all the way out here just for this?”, Sunny said, petting the cat.

The cat purred as Sunny stroked his head, but right when he was about to feel relaxed again, the cat stood up and grabbed the bouquet of flowers with his teeth before taking off.

“H-hey! What are you doing?!”, Sunny called out to him as he grabbed the thermos and took chase.

The cat ran down the street and took a left at the first turn. When Sunny got to the turn, he barely got a glimpse of an orange tail taking a right. He quickly followed and ran into the first building; QC’s Diner.

He burst through the door, slamming it against one of the booths; the glass windows somehow not shattering. Surprisingly, the cat had put the flowers down on the next booth over and was calmly sitting down at it, as if he was waiting for him.

"T-there you a-are! W-why did you take my flowers?", Sunny asked, grabbing the bouquet and catching his breath.

He checked them for any damages, but once he concluded they were in perfect condition, he let out a huge sigh of relief.

"W-whatever. Let's just get out of here.", Sunny said as he went to pick up the cat.

But as he turned around to leave, a waitress standing near the entrance looked up from her phone at him.

"Human. Where are you going?", the waitress asked. Sunny saw that she was a cat just like his own furry companion, except she had pink dye in her hair, and was wearing a lot of black makeup with white fur. Additionally, she also had piercings in both of her ears.

"I'm gonna go home, why?", Sunny asked.

"Okay. Okay.", she said, going back to typing something on her phone.

An awkward silence filled the empty diner.

…

"So, can we-"

The waitress put a finger up at him, telling him to wait.

…

…

"Okay. So…my manager is out right now, so I was thinking…do you wanna stay here for some food, or whatever?", the waitress said, looking up from her phone again.

"Umm…I dunno, I don't have any money.", Sunny said.

The waitress rolled her eyes at his response.

"...it's on the house. Anything you want.", she said.

"Huh?"

"You heard me.", she said, going back to looking at her phone.

Sunny thought that this was really unusual. Why would she just give out free food like this? Sunny didn’t know the answer. But still, it was an offer he couldn't refuse, so he sat back down at the booth the cat was sitting at.

"Okay, so are you ready to order?", the waitress said with a sigh as she pulled out a notepad.

"I'll get the Vanilla Latte and some fish for him.", Sunny said, petting the orange cat.

"Anything else?"

"Nope! That'll be it!"

"Okay, so we have the Vanilla Latte, a quadruple stack of pancakes, two plates of bacon, and three scrambled eggs for you. And we have the red meat, salmon, steamed broccoli, a large jug of water, and bowl of fruit for him."

"Wait, but I didn’t-"

"It's free food, you want it or not?", she said with a stern voice and an equally stern look in her eyes.

"O-okay then."

"That's what I thought.", she said, turning around to walk to the kitchen.

"A-and, could you please add another steak onto there?", he called out to her.

"...how do you want it?", she asked, stopping with a sigh.

"M-medium rare!"

With that, she walked back into the kitchen. Afterwards, the cat meowed at Sunny and put his head out, asking for more pets.

Sunny gave the cat more petting, patiently waiting for their meals to come out. But as he petted and petted, he looked up at the clock and realized an hour had already passed.

("Dang…it's been that long already?"), Sunny thought to himself. But he understood, considering that he had ordered a medium rare steak.

…

Another hour later, the cat was fast asleep in his lap, and Sunny himself was passed out on the table.

"Human, your food is ready.", the waitress said, coming out with a large tray and tossing the meals onto the table, waking up both of them.

"H-huh? O-oh, thank you!", Sunny said, but she already went back into the kitchen.

With that, he and the cat dug into the meals. Sunny had only eaten that small sandwich this morning, so he was pretty hungry. After only around another hour, everything on the table was finished.

"That was good…", Sunny said as he finished the last of his Latte.

He and the cat took a few minutes to relax, but as they stood up to leave, Sunny heard the bell on the door ring.

"Oh! Hello there Sunny! We didn't expect you to be here!"

The voice came from Noelle who had Berdly and Susie by her side.

"Hey Noelle! What brings you here?"

"We were just gonna come here to hang out like we usually do!"

"Where’s Kris?"

"They said they were busy. So we had to come without them. You wanna hang out with us?"

"Well…it is getting pretty late, but…I can spare some time!"

"Great! Have a seat!", Noelle said as she patted the space next to her at another booth.

"So, whatcha been up to?", Susie asked, leaning into Berdly.

"It's been okay.", Sunny replied.

"Oh come on, Sunny! Don't be like that! Tell us more! Go into detail!", Berdly said.

"Alright, so, this morning…", Sunny began. But what he didn't notice was Noelle gesturing to the waitress in the kitchen window, and the cat walking out of the diner with his flowers and thermos.

…

…

…

Catti: Plan C has been initiated. Better hurry it up.

Kris looked down at their phone at the text message and began getting a bit anxious. They, along with everyone else in the entire town had been preparing a surprise party for Sunny and had been trying to keep him away from the house as long as possible. Yet, the preparations were somehow still not complete.

"I'm telling you! I'm gonna blow him away with my amazing singing!", Mothiva said from behind them.

"You mean you're gonna blow his ears out! A fireworks show is way better than your overrated voice!", Vi contradicted.

"No way! Singing performance!"

"Fireworks show!"

"Singing performance!"

"Fireworks show!"

Suddenly, Kris somehow heard the sound of balloons popping outside through the extremely noisy house and ran out to see what was causing it.

"Zote! I will have your head on my needle if you do not stop popping those balloons!", Hornet yelled at him.

"Nonsense! This is the perfect opportunity to train my agility! Striking the enemy with the upmost precision!", Zote said, popping another balloon with his nail.

"Zote! Please! I am not sure how much longer we can keep this up!", Quirrel said as he tossed another empty packet of balloons aside into the growing pile of them.

Kris sat down at a nearby table and put their head in their hands. The party hadn't even started yet, and it was already turning out to be a train wreck.

"Kris! I have wonderful news!", Kabbu said. 

"This better be important."

"Sunny's friends from his hometown have arrived!", Kabbu said.

"Are you serious? Where are they?"

"They are parked outside of Hometown!"

Immediately after they heard that, Kris jumped up from the table and ran to the entrance of the town. Kabbu was right. Hero, along with Kel, Aubrey, and Basil were getting the last of the things they needed out of a blue car.

"H-hey, Kris! What's up, Kabbu?", Kel said as he lifted a heavy box of decorations out of the trunk. 

"Sorry we're late. Someone kept making Hero stop at gas stations for snacks and bathroom breaks.", Aubrey said, side-eyeing Kel.

"It's okay, Aubrey! I think the real issue was that this town is so far away from ours.", Hero said.

"H-has Sunny come back yet?", Basil asked Kris.

"Not yet. Noelle, Susie, and Berdly are keeping him busy at QC's right now."

"You're telling me that the party still isn't fully prepared yet?", Aubrey asked.

"Erm…it's still a work-in-progress.", Kabbu said.

"Come on. If we can have Vi and Mothiva come to an agreement and make Zote stop ruining the decorations we can wrap this up.", Kris said as they ran back into town, everyone following behind them.

Through many more disagreements, burnt food, and poorly displayed decorations later, the party preparations were finally complete, and everyone was silently waiting for Sunny to arrive back at the house.

After a few minutes of waiting had passed, Kris pulled out their phone to text Noelle.

Kris: Where is he?

…

Noelle: Catti is getting ready to close up. We'll be there soon.

As Noelle sent the message, Sunny burst out laughing next to her with Susie and Berdly.

"Ha ha! You know, it's funny because-"

"Guys, we're closing. You need to leave.", Catti said as she walked up to their booth.

"Oh, okay! Well then, it was nice hanging out with you three, but it's been a long day, and I need some rest. See ya!", Sunny said.

"Hold up! We have one more thing we gotta show you!", Susie said.

"What is it?", Sunny asked.

"Since you were so kind as to hand out with us today, we wanted to give you a little thank you!", Berdly said.

"Just make it quick.", Sunny said.

"Sounds good! B-but we need to cover your other eye first!", Noelle said.

"Uh…okay then.", Sunny said, turning around.

Noelle put another eyepatch over his other eye and she took his hand to guide him back to the house.

"Guys, why do I need to have my other eye covered again?", Sunny asked, trusting Noelle to guide him.

"It's special…something we almost never do. Something so special, your head is gonna explode!", Berdly said.

"Why the hell would we want his head to explode?", Susie asked.

"U-um- hehe! It'll be okay, Sunny! J-just wait! You're gonna love it!", Noelle reassured him.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, Sunny was placed on the front porch of the Dreemurr home.

("Are you guys ready?"), Noelle whispered to Susie and Berdly.

They both nodded their heads in approval and ran behind the house.

"Okay! We're almost there! Just you wait!", Noelle said to Sunny.

Inside Sunny thought he heard many footsteps and a lot of shuffling from inside the home before Noelle covered his ears.

"Alright! Here it is! I'm gonna remove your eyepatch in three…two…one!", Noelle said as she swung the front door open.

Sunny saw nothing but darkness.

"Noelle, I don't see what's so special about-"

He was cut off by the lights turning on and the entire town jumping out at him from nowhere.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNNY!!!", they all shouted.

Confetti and ribbons flew everywhere as Sunny was still trying to comprehend what was happening, but he was shot in the face twice with confetti before he could finish.

"Oh- I am so sorry Sunny! Are you okay?", Quirrel said.

"Zasp! Quirrel! I said fire the cannons above him! Not at him!", Vi yelled at them.

"Well, it adds to the excitement, right?", Zasp said.

...

"We should've just gone with your idea.", Vi said to Mothiva.

"Told you so!", she replied, crossing her arms and pouting.

Once Sunny brushed the confetti out of his face, he realized how much effort was actually put into this surprise party. There was a large table with food and drinks at the center of the living room, the decorations looked very elaborate, and most importantly…his old friends had come to see him.

"Happy birthday Sunny! I betcha weren't expecting to see us!", Kel said putting an arm around him.

"W-what? H-how did you-", Sunny stuttered out. He was still in shock of all of this.

"Yeah…it only took us eight hours of driving and many bathroom breaks for us to get here, but hey! We're here now, and that's all that matters, right?", Hero asked.

"We're happy to see you again, and it's all thanks to them.", Aubrey said, pointing behind her to the five that were present that morning.

"We're sorry for disobeying your requests, it's just that-"

"No, it's fine. You all have done so much for me, going through the trouble of getting everyone here, to setting all of this up for me." Sunny said.

"Y-you ready to party?", Basil asked.

Sunny turned to him and smiled.

"Let's get this party started!", Sunny yelled. Everyone cheered in unison in response.

Throughout the night, everyone played party games together, relished in the food and drinks, and had a great time overall. All of these things happening around Sunny and experiencing them made him realize how much he had missed his birthday parties. He loved the company of his friends, new and old, but there was still something missing…

"Sunny, I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, but your mom sent you a voice-mail.", Kris said, handing his phone to him before they walked off.

"Guys, wait here.", Sunny said, excusing himself from his Faraway friends.

He entered the password to his phone and listened to the voice message.

"Hello, Sunny! It's mommy! I know that it's your birthday today, and I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday! My little man is growing up so fast! I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you all those other times on your birthday, and I'm sorry that couldn't change today. I promise that I'll never leave your side again once this business trip is over and I come pick you up. Speaking of which, are your friends doing well? Anyway, mommy needs to go. I love you and wish you a happy birthday!"

When the message finished, Sunny felt an overwhelming sense of both relief and happiness wash over him. He still wasn't willing to forgive his mother that easily, but…just hearing her voice say those words made this birthday feel complete.

Finally, after an entire night of partying, it was time for the grand finale; singing happy birthday and cutting the cake. Sunny was sat down at a picnic table with five extremely large cakes sitting in front of him with everyone huddling around him.

"Are you ready?", Kris asked.

Sunny gave him a thumbs up.

"Okay, everyone! One, two, three-!"

And so, everyone sang happy birthday to Sunny. It sounded amazing to him, everyone's voices coming together as one to celebrate his special day.

As the song finished, he closed his eyes tightly, and blew out all of his candles. 

When he reopened them, there was only one thing he had to say…

"Thanks guys…this was the best birthday ever."

Chapter Text

Play: Yume 2kki OST - Library

Sunny walked down the stairs of the house with Momo, Kris and Ghost not far behind as he led them out the front door to the back area of the house.

When Sunny turned the corner, Hornet, Madotsuki, and all the others that were in that dream last night were already looking at him and sitting around the unlit campfire; as if they were expecting them.

Uneasily, Sunny moved towards an empty bench around the campfire with the three following sitting down around him. As he took a closer look at the people sitting across from them, he was quick to notice that all of them also looked uneasy; especially Cuphead and Chalice.

Sunny was at a loss of words of how to start the discussion, but fortunately for him, Hornet started it first by asking the question that both groups were wondering.

“D-did you four experience any…odd events whilst we were separated?”, she said. Sunny could tell she was also shaken up, but was trying to remain calm as best she could.

Silently, Sunny’s group looked at each other with concerned looks before turning back to Hornet and nodding their heads all at once.

“Little Ghost?”, she asked them to be sure.

Ghost slowly lowered their head to confirm.

“...just as I had expected. Would you four care to elaborate on your experiences?”, she asked.

…

No response was given from them.

“Well, I suppose it’s understandable. Us five have been awake longer than all of you, after all; having given more time to reflect and calm down.”, she added.

“As such, we will tell you our side of things. Then, all of you must share with us, how does that sound?”, Hornet said, her tone was a mix of both serious and sympathetic.

“Yes…”, Sunny silently muttered out.

“Alright. Let’s go back to when we were separated, shall we?”, she said as the rest of the group came forth to help her explain.

...

…

…

“W-woah! M-Madots! Hold your horses, will ya? These legs feel like they’re about to collapse under me any minute now!”, Chalice yelled out to Madotsuki who was still speeding away on the bike.

“Yep! Look at Zbaltazar! His rusty ol’ legs can barely keep up!”, Cuphead added as he pointed to Zbaltazar; he was stopping every five seconds or so before he kept running and then stopping again.

Madotsuki wasn’t listening, however. While she did feel bad for forcing her friends to keep up with her, she was so keen on finding a way out of the dream that she refused to stop or slow down.

That mindset changed, however, when she took a quick look behind her and noticed that there were four people missing from the group. As she felt her heart drop into her stomach, she hard-braked the bike; almost flipping it forward and causing Cuphead to stop as well.

“Why did-”

He was interrupted by Chalice and Zbaltazar slamming into him from behind at full speed.

“Oww…”, Cuphead groaned, with Chalice and Zbaltazar doing the same.

“Madotsuki, what is the meaning of this?! You, who was going so fast, decided to stop so suddenly and cause this? Why?”, Hornet asked as she helped all three up.

Unsure of what else to do, Madotsuki knocked the bike over and despawned it before pointing behind Hornet.

“What?”, Hornet said as she and everyone else looked behind and around them.

“There is no one there. What are you so worried about?”, she asked, turning back to Madotsuki.

“I think that is what she’s worried about! Sunny and our other pals are nowhere in sight!”, Chalice pointed out.

“Sunny? Kris? C-come out wherever you guys are! T-this isn’t funny!”, Cuphead shouted into the endless void of pipes and telephone poles.

Zbaltazar called out as well in his own language, but still no response was given.

Hornet looked back at Madotsuki in disappointment before she silently moved to the front of the line.

“I believe it’s best if I lead from now on. Now we have two matters to worry about.”, Hornet said. She said the last part of that sentence as if it was directed towards Madotsuki and her only.

Hornet led the group forward in silence with Madotsuki at the very back of it; feeling ashamed of herself that her other friends would still be here with them if she hadn’t gone so fast. All of sudden though, she felt a cold metal hand on her shoulder. She looked up, and saw Zbaltazar looking down at her with a sympathetic look in his eyes.

He attempted to speak to her, but remembered that she wouldn’t be able to understand a word he was saying. As such, Zbaltazar instead explained what he was trying to say through pictures on his screen and through hand gestures. From what Madotsuki could interpret them to be, she inferred he was trying to tell her that he understood what she was feeling in the moment of her speeding on the bike, but to also be considerate of those who are with her. Otherwise, consequences will occur for them like what happened with Sunny.

Once he was done explaining himself to her, Zbaltazar patted her on the back and stayed by her side. This made Madotsuki feel a little better, but she still felt guilty deep down.

Unexpectedly, Hornet stopped in her tracks as well.

“Wait a moment, what is that?”, Hornet said as she pointed to her left.

Madotsuki looked in the direction she was pointing in and saw a massive book that was open and upside down; forming a pyramid shape with an opening in the middle.

“Curious…very curious. Why would there be something so out of place amongst all of these pipes?”, Hornet asked as she put her fingers under her chin.

“I dunno, but look! It’s kinda like a fort! Let’s go!”, Cuphead said excitedly with Chalice following behind her.

“W-wait! You two stop this instant! We do not know if-”

“Haha, you’re right! It’s kinda like a blanket fort with pages instead!”, Chalice said as she and Cuphead squeezed themselves in-between the large pages of the book.

“Hmm…how strange. So it isn’t a trick?”, Hornet asked.

“Course’ it’s not! You think something woulda’ happened by now if it was!”, Cuphead said as he laughed.

Madotsuki began to feel relieved that everything was okay, but she was immediately proven wrong when the world around them began to break apart and reshape, eventually forming a whole new world entirely.

“Ugh, now look at what you two have done! We’ve been transported to somewhere unknown, and our only way of leaving has disappeared!”, Hornet shouted at them, clearly angry.

“Ohhhh…that’s why there are bookshelves everywhere!”, Chalice said as she and Cuphead looked around.

Sure enough, Madotsuki looked around, and there were bookshelves everywhere with a city at night design all over the room with stars on the upper parts of the walls and a sleeping moon just above a doorway to the south. Additionally, the group appeared to be in the center of the room, as there were two couches in between them.

“Aw man…books?!”, Cuphead groaned.

“Well possibly we wouldn’t be here right now if you two had not acted so childish and stayed behind me!”, Hornet snapped at him.

Both Chalice and Cuphead lowered their heads and they both muttered, “Sorry”, very quietly and repeatedly. Hornet glared at them for a moment and then took a deep breath to regain her composure.

“Well…this outcome may be for the better. After all, there is no way to get lost in such a confined space, and finding an exit may be easier.”, Hornet said, trying to reinstall a calm atmosphere.

The group then heard Zbaltazar call out from the other room past the doorway; Madotsuki somehow not noticing that he had left her side. They went into the room he was in and were met with the exact same sight as the other room. Only this time, there was no doorway ahead of them.

“Perhaps…there is something hidden in these rooms that will allow us to leave.”, Hornet proposed. The group understood what she was implying and scattered.

As Madotsuki searched around the current room while the other four retreated back into the previous room, she began picking books off the shelves and opening every single one of them.

The first thing Madotsuki noticed about them was that all of the books she opened were written in Japanese. It had been a while since she had read any Japanese text whatsoever, but she could still read both the Kana and Kanji perfectly fine. 

Eventually, she stumbled across a book that she found strange enough for her to pause. While she was supposed to be helping her friends look for an exit, she walked over to one of the couches and sat down to get a closer look at what it said.

Everything about the book made Madotsuki confused. To her, it felt as though this was more of a diary than it was a book; the book had dates above each paragraph, and the “story” told of a student that is confused about why they’re being bullied. Madotsuki felt a bit uneasy throughout the whole thing, but it was only until the final sentence that Madotsuki felt a massive wave of discomfort and anxiety wash over her.

「何で俺だけ」

「何で」

「何で」

「何で」

「何で」

「なぜ」

When Madotsuki turned the page, she was met with the last phrase littered all over both pages. She turned the page again and was met with the same sight. Eventually, she ended up ripping some of the pages out of the book and realized that every single one of the pages had the phrase, “Why”, written all over them.

Madotsuki threw the book against the wall; littering the torn pages everywhere as she began to breathe heavily. She lay down on the couch and let out a sigh, all with that same phrase repeating itself over and over again in her head as she stared up at the ceiling with painted stars.

“Madotsuki! We gotta show you something!”, Cuphead’s voice echoed throughout the room as he appeared in her vison.

Hesitantly, she sat up and realized that everyone was surrounding the couch she was lying down on with a book in each of their hands.

“We-”, Cuphead began before he was cut off by Zbaltazar’s hand being slapped over his mouth.

“Thank you. First things first, Madotsuki, are you alright? We heard a noise and came to check on you.”, Hornet asked while putting a hand on her shoulder.

Madotsuki took a look around at the torn pages scattered around her. Afterwards, she remained still for a moment and then looked at everyone around her; all of them had concerned looks. When she took a moment to relax, she nodded her head.

“Very well. Secondly, have you discovered anything of worth that can assist us?”, Hornet continued.

Madotsuki shook her head from side to side.

“Mmm…”, Hornet mumbled in disappointment.

“Well, we’ve been meaning to ask you for your help. Cuphead?”

Zbaltazar removed his hand from Cuphead’s mouth.

“Bleh, finally! I was gettin’ sick tasting steel and rust!”

“Anyway, we wanted to ask if you know what these weird symbols mean! All of 'em’ are written like this and none of us have an idea of what they mean!”, Cuphead said.

Madotsuki was confused and tilted her head to the side, unsure of what he was talking about.

Zbaltazar handed her a book he was holding to show her and she understood now that Cuphead was talking about all of the books being written in Japanese.

“I know what those mean though! Those two right there mean to smile, right?”, Chalice asked as she pointed to the characters シ and ツ on the book.

Even if Madotsuki was not in the mood for it, Madotsuki concluded from the library books that she had to teach her friends a little bit of Japanese if they wanted to get around these worlds, especially since she wasn’t sure if they’d return here without her and wouldn’t be able to translate for them. With a sigh, she gestured for some paper and a pencil. At least doing this was a way for her to get her mind off of what had just happened to her.

“We appreciate you for taking the time to teach us, Madotsuki. Surely this information will be of use to us in the future.”, Hornet said as Zbaltazar went to search the library for some paper and pencil.

“Aw…but this looks like it’ll take a spirit’s lifetime to learn!”, Chalice said, whining.

“Lighten up, will ya? I’m sure it won’t be that hard if Madotsuki is teachin’ us!”, Cuphead said, bumping her with his shoulder. 

When Zbaltazar came back with the pencil and paper she asked for that he got from under one of the couches, they all sat on the floor in front of Madotsuki waiting to begin.

Madotsuki planned to be straightforward with the lesson she was going to give; a quick lesson on Hiragana and Katakana with their functions and a little bit of Kanji to close the lesson. It was a basic reading lesson that was easy to teach.

…well, a lesson that would’ve been easy to teach if she was an actual teacher.

“So, if I’m right on this, those little circle thingies are added to the H line to change it to a P line? Why does H get that and the little lines? Why can’t they be used on any of the other characters? They must feel left out at H getting an extra symbol!”, Cuphead bombarded her with questions when she tried to teach diacritic symbols.

“Madotsuki, I’m not quite sure I understand. Why does it seem as though there are five characters missing from both these charts?”, Hornet asked, clearly puzzled.

At one point, Zbaltazar kept getting the tsu, chi, and shi characters mixed up. When Madotsuki tried to teach them to him, she also kept getting the characters mixed up due to repeating it so many times.

Teaching Kana was already difficult for herself and her friends; the former not even sure if they had picked it up or not. The only thing she could do was prepare herself and have as much patience as she could manage when it came to teaching Kanji; at least the ones she believed were important. It couldn’t get any worse, right?

Turns out there’s nothing fun about learning just a hundred Kanji for both the teacher and the students.

Throughout the remainder of the lesson, Madotsuki was getting attacked with even more questions than with Kana and complaints, most of both coming from Chalice and Cuphead. Furthermore, Madotsuki’s very limited teaching skills weren’t helping either, she kept getting the meanings and pronunciation mixed up, as well as the stroke orders and sentence structure. It wasn’t any fun for anyone.

By the time the lesson was over, Madotsuki was completely burnt out to where she collapsed on the couch when everyone had left to search for more library books with their new knowledge.

After lying there for what felt like forever, Madotsuki sat up from the couch and immediately had a piece of paper shoved in her face.

“Surprise Madotsuki! Well? What do ya think?”, Cuphead said.

“We wanted to show you we actually learned something! So? How did we do?”, Chalice asked.

Madotsuki peeled the paper off her face and saw her name written out in Japanese. The characters were a bit confusing for her to read as they were poorly written, not to mention that they combined both Hiragana and Katakana, but she didn’t mind. She was just glad that they had at least picked up some of the material. With a sigh of exhaustion and relief, she gave both of them a thumbs-up.

“Really?!”, Chalice shouted.

“Oh boy! We’re masters at this!”, Cuphead said as he and Chalice high-fived each other.

However, as they ran off into the other room while celebrating, Cuphead accidentally knocked a book off of one of the shelves.

“Hah?”, Zbaltazar muttered as he picked up the book and flipped it to a random page with Hornet and Madotsuki going behind him to look too.

“Wait, why is that Kanji at the bottom in red as opposed to everything else?”, Hornet asked.

The Kanji read, 「病院」, and while Madotsuki didn’t go over speaking as much as reading and writing during the lesson, Zbaltazar attempted to read it out loud regardless.

“B-bee yoo u ee n…”, Zbaltazar said with much effort.

Suddenly, the room went dark, and a beeping sound repeated in their ears as it got faster and faster until it eventually produced a high pitched ringing sound. Madotsuki closed her eyes tight, and when she reopened them, she found herself surrounded by white walls and hospital beds with Zbaltazar and Hornet nowhere to be found.

The ringing continued in her ears and she turned around to see that the ringing was caused by a heart-rate monitor that had been knocked over. As she crouched down to unplug it, she noticed something strange about the beds in the room; they all had torn leather straps hanging off of the sides and their white sheets were stained with red.

When Madotsuki stood back up, she noticed that some of the dried blood from the bed she was next to had gotten onto the sleeve of her sweater. Annoyed, she grabbed a tissue from the nightstand to wipe it off.

“Tissue”

She was caught off guard by the text box appearing so suddenly, but at least she finally got an effect, one that was not hers, but still.

As Madotsuki opened her menu and stared at the effect in her inventory, as well as the bloody beds once again, she couldn’t help but feel…nostalgic, somehow. Almost as if…something she had forgotten a long time ago was slowly making its way back into the front of her mind, but at the same time, was so far back into the deepest depths of it.

…

…

“Madotsuki! There you are! We’ve been looking for you for ages!”

The voice of Hornet boomed through the room as she jolted back and accidentally dropped the effect. It took the form of a small white sparkle on the floor rather than an egg like she had expected.

“Apologies if I frightened you, but what was that odd screen you were looking at just now?”, Hornet asked.

Zbaltazar was behind her and noticed the white sparkle that was on the floor. He picked it up, and he flashed white as well with the text box appearing in front of him.

“What? Madotsuki, care to explain what has just happened?”, Hornet asked her in a stern voice.

Madotsuki moved past her and instructed Zbaltazar to snap his fingers. He did just that, and the menu opened. Once Madotsuki directed him to the effect tab, she instructed him to drop it so that he could give it to her. Instead of doing that, however, he decided to equip it just to see what was the big deal about it.

“B-by the spirits! W-what has your head turned into?!”, Hornet exclaimed, shocked at Zbaltazar’s head transforming into a tissue box.

To Madotsuki, she was surprised that Zbaltazar wasn’t panicking more like she had expected. Despite the fact that he could no longer speak and had very limited vision, he was calmly walking around the room with both of his arms held out. When he accidentally walked out into the hallway and hit a wall, he took a tissue out of his head and placed it on the ground in front of him to mark it before walking back into the room.

“Madotsuki! How do we change his head back?!”, Hornet demanded.

Madotsuki knew one way to do it, but Zbaltazar didn’t know how. So she had to improvise the best she could. She walked up to him, jumped, and slapped him as hard as she could. It worked, and the effect deactivated with his head turning back to normal.

He was disoriented for a moment before he looked down at her and understood what happened. Madotsuki was looking down at the ground, clearly feeling bad about slapping him. But rather than being angry about it, Zbaltazar instead smiled at her.

“D-daa ii joe bu!”, Zbaltazar stuttered out while patting her on the head. Madotsuki had taught him better than she had thought.

Still, Madotsuki didn’t ask for the effect back and let him keep it as an apology. But not without quickly going over how he can unequip them himself.

“Now, let us leave this place. Hopefully Cuphead and Chalice are able to get back to us…wherever they may be.”, Hornet said before the three left the room.

The three went through the door leading into the lobby and then out the front entrance. However, they were confronted with the rusty floor and walls of the outside that were dimly lit by an unknown light source.

“Hmm…how strange…”, Hornet said, looking left and right as she put her guard up.

“I sense that it is safest to go in this direction and in there.”, she said, pointing to her left to the alleyway just ahead with rusty pipes surrounding it.

Silently, Madotsuki and Zbaltazar followed her into the alleyway.

When they entered, they were met with many street lights illuminating the walkway and brick walls. When they began walking, Madotsuki moved to be next to Hornet when she noticed the walls and walkway were splattered with blood.

“Stay calm. I may not have my needle, but I am still capable of defending us if need be.”, Hornet said when she sensed Madotsuki’s concern.

She nodded her head at her.

After continuing to walk for some time and taking a few turns, Madotsuki tugged on Hornet’s dress to get her attention.

“What is it you need?”

Madotsuki pointed behind them and imitated finding something on the ground before shrugging her shoulders.

“Are you asking if me and Zbaltazar found anything in that building when it was just the two of us?”

Madotsuki nodded her head up and down.

“Well, if you must know, we encountered some…interesting foes whilst we were searching for you.”, Hornet said.

Intrigued, Madotsuki gestured for her to elaborate.

“By interesting, I mean that there were many of them that felt out of place for our environment. I can only describe one as a tall being wearing a black dress and one that…is beyond what I can comprehend at the moment.”

Madotsuki swiped at the air in front of her and shrugged her shoulders again.

“How did I avoid them? Well, I myself was easily able to evade them with my agility alone. Those foes were in luck that I did not have my needle on my person, as I would have not hesitated to use it on them if it was.”

“As for Zbaltazar, admittedly I was shocked at how well he was able to handle himself. The only reason why we were able to search for you without a worry is because he caught them off guard, allowing me to force them into a room and lock it. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any more from then on.”

Madotsuki was amazed to hear that, but then that’s when a thought came to mind; where was Zbaltazar?

She pointed this out and when the two looked back, they saw that Zbaltazar had somehow re-equipped the Tissue effect without them noticing and had left a trail of tissues behind him.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”, Hornet asked, more confused than anything.

Zbaltazar unequipped the effect with his menu and held up three fingers.

He began counting down presumably from three in his own language and when he put down the last finger, Chalice and Cuphead suddenly emerged from the corner and were running to catch up with them.

“G-good golly! T-there you guys are!”, Cuphead said, stopping in front of them to catch his breath with his hands on his knees.

“Where have you two been?”, Hornet asked.

“W-we…w-we looked everywhere for your faces! Looked up, down, left, right, three-sixty, one-eighty! But still nuthin’!”, Chalice said.

“We dunno where we would’ve ended up if Zbaltazar hadn’t come in at the last second to guide us!”, Cuphead added, a little bit of the liquid in his head spilling out onto the floor.

“Well, Zbaltazar! Did you not think that-”

“Mmm?”, he said, cutting her off as he pointed a thumb behind him to the tissues slowly disappearing into thin air.

“Ah, I see."

“Did you two find any points of interest during your wandering?”, Hornet asked the two cups.

“Nuthin’ much! Say, did y’all encounter any of those weird guys in the hospital? Y’know, like they were tryin’ to catch you?”, Cuphead asked.

“Yes, why?"

“Wellll…Ms. Chalice over there ended up kickin’ one of em’ so hard that he fell back into one of those beds and hit his head on the frame!”, Cuphead said.

“You managed to kill one of them? Did you find anything on them?”, Hornet asked.

“Not much! But at least I got myself a shiny coin as a reward!”, Chalice said, taking a silver coin out of her pocket.

“Make that two! It’s our lucky day! I wonder what we can spend 'em on!”, Cuphead said, taking another out.

Madotsuki walked up to the two and asked to see the coins. They handed them to her, and upon further inspection realized that- as much as she didn’t believe it, were two five-hundred yen coins. She placed the coins back in their hands and closed them, trying to tell them to save them.

“Madotsuki, is there something we may be able to use that currency for?”, Hornet asked.

She nodded and continued walking forward, taking another turn in the alleyway.

As the group kept walking, the group took a turn into a dead end with nothing but a steel fence and a dumpster.

“Hmm…turn back.”, Hornet said.

“Hold on now!”, Cuphead said before diving into the dumpster.

“What is it now? I’m certain there is nothing useful in that garbage disposal.”, she said.

“Nah! I always find tons of neat little nick-nacks in here! Just lemme…”

Cuphead then flashed white with a sound effect and a text box appearing above his head.

“Handgun”

“See? What did I tell ya? Not only did I find something useful, but this even has a full magazine pre-loaded into it!”, Cuphead said, brandishing the gun.

“...I stand corrected once again.”, Hornet said as she went to help Cuphead out of the dumpster.

“Just for clarification, I trust that you know what you’re doing, right?”, Hornet asked.

“Course’ I do! Me and my pals have run n’ gunned hundreds of times before! This ain’t as good as what we usually use, but it’s something at least!”, Cuphead said as he put the gun up into the air.

“You may be accustomed to firing as many of those as you wish, but that is not the case here, so use this weapon sparingly.”, she advised.

“Pssh…I know that! Of course I’ll use it spa-”

Cuphead accidentally fired the gun into the air with a loud bang. The bullet came back down to the ground and hit Zbaltazar, but fortunately, the bullet could do nothing to pierce his metal exterior.

Him and Hornet stared at him in disappointment.

“Umm…hehe- well at least no one got hurt, right fe-”

“Put that away. Now.”

“Y-yeah I think I should do that…”, Cuphead said, dropping the gun and letting it despawn back into his inventory.

As the group turned back and made a left to go down another path they all suddenly heard the sound of metal beating against something…squishy?

“What could be making that noise?”, Chalice asked.

The group proceeded down and took a peek around the corner. Just ahead, there appeared to be someone wearing a school uniform facing away from them with white hair tied into twintails, all while they were repeatedly bashing the corpse of one of those chasers with an iron pipe.

“See?! What did I tell ya?”, Cuphead said as he snapped his fingers and equipped the handgun.

Just as he was about to fire it at the figure, though, Hornet grabbed his wrist.

“Wait just a moment, those are the remains of one of our foes. We cannot assume anything just yet.”, she said.

“Have that weapon at the ready. If they charge at me, use it. Do you understand?”, she asked him.

He silently nodded at her.

With that, she emerged from the corner and slowly approached the figure as her four other teammates watched. When she got close enough but was also far enough for safety, she cleared her throat to speak.

“You there, greetings.”

The figure stopped beating the corpse and turned around to look at them. Now that they were facing the group, it was now they saw fresh blood staining both their face and uniform.

“I have one question for you…ally or enemy?”, Hornet asked them.

They looked down at the ground and began to laugh. Their laugh was one that was childish and started off soft, but quickly grew into maniacal laughter.

“What is amusing to you?”, Hornet asked them while she got into a fighting stance.

Without warning, they charged at her.

“Hup!”, she exclaimed as she quickly leaped out of the way.

However, the creature was quick to react to this movement and dashed at an incomprehensible speed to where she was about to land and prepared to strike her with their pipe. Hornet barely managed to dodge this and got hit in the ankle as a result.

“C-Cuphead!”, Hornet said before she had to dodge another attack from the creature.

Cuphead emerged from the corner and fired shots at the creature. However, they were so fast that his eyes couldn’t keep up with their movements and kept missing. After he almost shot Hornet at one point, he ran out into the battle to get a better accuracy.

“W-wait! Don’t! Go back!”, Hornet shouted at him.

However, it was too late for either of them. The creature pulled out what appeared to be a yo-yo from one of their pockets and threw the end of it towards Hornet. The yo-yo wrapped itself tightly around her waist mid-air before it looped around and also wrapped itself around Cuphead’s waist. Then, the creature pulled the end of the string to pull the two on opposite sides towards them.

Hornet came towards them first and they hit her with a very hard strike to the face with their pipe; breaking off one of her horns and sending her flying before she slid across the concrete floor.

Once Hornet was out of the battle, Cuphead wasn’t too far behind; the creature pulled him towards them and hit him in the face with the pipe too.

The other three around the corner watched in horror as his head instantly broke into hundreds of tiny pieces with the liquid in his head spilling everywhere. His hand let go of the gun and it went flying in the air before Chalice caught it. When she did, the creature turned around and spotted them.

“A-alright! I guess it’s time for lil ol’ me to step in!”, Chalice shouted as she cocked the gun. Her voice sounded confident but fearful at the same time.

While Madotsuki expected Zbaltazar to stay with her, he instead charged towards the creature as well while equipping the tissue effect. She could only watch helplessly as they charged at each other.

Chalice jumped over the creature’s head and Zbaltazar pulled out a couple of tissues from his head and then shoved them into the face of the creature; temporarily blinding them. While vulnerable, Chalice landed behind them and charged towards the creature, ready to fire. When they finally got the tissues off of their face, Zbaltazar gave them a hard shove and Chalice fired the gun point–blank in the back of the head.

Madotsuki watched in astonishment as she watched this impressive feat.

If only the foe actually died.

Instead of what she expected to happen, Madotsuki’s mood quickly shifted from relief back into panic as she watched the creature turn around unscathed and hit Chalice in the stomach, causing her to hit a wall with her head shattering too. Zbaltazar slowly backed away from the creature in fear, but they weren’t going to give him any mercy either; they hit him in the ankle, causing him to bend down before brutally bashing him in the face.

As his body flew and landed next to Madotsuki, she took off running in the opposite direction, not thinking to use her bike, but she didn’t get far before she was hit in the back of the head with the pipe too.

Madotsuki tried to crawl away from the foe at the same time she hit the ground. However, when she looked up, through her blurred vision, she saw…two people standing there, just watching her pathetically attempt to escape.

Why weren’t they helping her? Why didn’t her attacker go for them either? Madotsuki didn’t know the answer to these questions, but what caused her to stop crawling was what they looked like. As she faded in and out of consciousness, she could vaguely make out a taller and shorter  figure and that both were wearing purple tops. But before she could make out any more details, the monster hit her on the head once again, taking her out for good.

…

…

…

Madotsuki finished sketching the last of what she saw to close the explanation.

Sunny picked up the drawing and stared at it for a moment; it was a crude drawing of two stick figures with purple shirts.

“...you saw these two people as you…”, Sunny asked her.

She nodded her head.

“Now…since we are finished sharing, it’s time for you four to tell us about your findings.”, Hornet said with a sigh.

“Right…”

Sunny and his group explained what happened to them when they got separated.

“So, not too far off from what we experienced, is it?”

“Wait, do you guys still not have your powers?”, Sunny asked.

Cuphead and Chalice tried to shoot their finger guns with nothing happening and Hornet and Ghost made it clear that they did not have their weapons either.

Sunny noticed that everyone aside from him and Madotsuki were shaking slightly; likely over having to watch your friends die violently and having the same happen to you. Even if it was just a dream; a dream that felt almost too real.

Madotsuki grabbed what she drew and began writing something on the back of it before she passed it around to her teammates and then to Sunny’s group.

Ghost tugged on Sunny’s sleeve and handed him the note so that he could translate it.

He took the note from their hands, and on it was written, 「ごめんなさい」.

Momo called out to him, presumably asking what it meant.

“It says…sorry.”, Sunny said.

Once he read that out loud, everyone looked at her and then away. From what Sunny could tell, they seemed to understand that Madotsuki did not intend to drag them into her world, but were still not completely forgiving of her for misleading them and causing them to experience what happened along with losing their abilities. And frankly, Sunny couldn’t blame them.

“...hold on a moment, Quirrel told me that he and others had a dream the night before akin to what we went through…”, Hornet said.

“Wait, what?”

Sunny didn’t get answers though. Hornet instead got up and began to walk out of the backyard whilst gesturing for Ghost to follow her. They listened and ran to catch up with her down the street.

The two parties sat there across from each other in awkward silence before Cuphead, Chalice, and Zbaltazar stood up.

“Where are you guys going?”, Sunny asked.

“Me and Cuphead are gonna go back to our tents. We…need some time to ourselves for a little while.”, Chalice said. With that, she and Cuphead went back into their tents and zipped the entrances shut.

“What about you, Zal?”, he asked.

Zbaltazar silently walked over to his and Momo’s tent and seemingly asked Momo if he was going to come in too before he went in himself.

Momo stood up and turned around to face the two teens as he put his index fingers and thumbs together; which Sunny interpreted as meditating. Afterwards, Momo put his hands on both of their shoulders and said something while turning his head to the street. He also entered the tent Zbaltazar was in too after.

Both Kris and Sunny looked at each other and then back to the street. They figured they may as well check on everyone else to try and forget about the dream. Not like they had much else to do, anyway.

As they got up to leave though, they realized that Madotsuki was still sitting down on the bench across from them and looking down at the ground. Sunny walked over to her, which caused her to look up at him.

“Do you…wanna come with us? I-It’s fine if you don’t want to though…”, Sunny asked while offering her his hand.

Madotsuki reached for it, about to say yes, but stopped right when her fingers touched his palm. She retracted her hand and got up from the bench and walked to her tent slowly while looking down at the ground.

“W-wait, Madotsuki, we-”, Sunny said, but Madotsuki had already zipped the entrance shut.

“...forgive you.”, he whispered.

Sunny stared down at the ground too before Kris put their hand on his shoulder and pointed behind them with their thumb.

All they really could do was go now and let her come out when she was ready.

Not long after Sunny and Kris were a few feet down the street, the Orange Cat walked up to them and began nuzzling itself between their legs and meowing.

“Aww…you wanna come with us?”, Sunny asked as he picked it up.

The cat meowed as a response.

“Okay then…”, he said as he petted it on the head.

The cat meowed again.

“Huh?”

Sunny looked up and he saw Zasp and Kabbu dragging Vi and Mothiva with Mugman not far behind.

“K-Kabbu! S-seriously?! I was up for hanging out until you mentioned that we’d be bringing  Mothiva along!”, Vi shouted, fruitlessly struggling against Kabbu’s grip.

“Uh-uh, I have had it with you and Mothiva’s endless quarreling. It’s about time you both learned to respect each other. It may have happened in Bugaria but it certainly isn’t happening here.”, Kabbu said, continuing to hold her with no effort.

“Forgive me, Mothiva, but we should learn to get to know new people and get along, you know? It’ll be better for the both of us!”, Zasp said, trying to make this offer as appealing as he could at the moment.

“Z-Zasp, h-how dare you?! L-let me go! Don’t make me go along with this annoying little twerp!”, Mothiva shouted as he continued to drag her.

“What did you just call me?! Say that again!”, Vi said, taunting her.

“Annoying. Little. Twerp!”, Mothiva said as she spat in her face.

“You wanna go?! We can do it right here right now!”, Vi said, enraged.

“Bring it on!”

The two then tried to lunge at each other, but Kabbu and Zasp held them back with as much strength as possible.

“M-Mugman!”, Kabbu shouted.

“On it! Here's two crackshots comin’ in hot!”, Mugman shouted as he fired two red shots from one of his finger guns which went flying towards Mothiva and Vi.

The shots hit both of them with a loud crack.

“Oww…”, both groaned.

“We’re sorry for that but this is the third time this morning this has happened! We didn’t have a choice!”, Zasp said.

“Now will you two behave? We don’t want to have to do that again.”, Kabbu said.

Both bugs looked at them and then at each other.

“Fine…”, they said with a sigh.

“Wait, Mugman, where’s Zote?”, Kabbu asked.

“What? Aw man! I must’ve put him down by accident again! Hold on a second fellas.”, Mugman said before he ran into the nearby trees.

He came out of the trees seconds later while holding Zote by the collar of his cape like how one would hold a cat.

“How dare you do this to a renowned knight?! I order you to unhand me this instant!”, Zote shouted at him as he helplessly waved his arms and legs around.

“Sorry Zote, but we just can’t have you runnin’ away from us anymore! We’re only tryin’ to do something nice for you by letting you hang out with us!”, Mugman explained to him as he caught up to Kabbu and Zasp.

“N-nice?! This is your definition of something “nice?!” To cruelly drag an unwilling warrior into your schemes?!”, Zote said.

Kabbu then noticed Kris and Sunny up ahead and walked up to greet them.

“Hello Sunny! Hello Kris! Both of you are up late today! How are you two?”, Kabbu asked while walking up to them with his usual smile.

“Uhh…good?”, Sunny said as Kris uncomfortably looked to the side.

“Is something wrong guys? Neither of you look- how do I say this…okay.”, Zasp commented.

Both opened their mouths to try and say something about the shared dream they and many others had shared, but not a single word came out.

“We…we’re fine…just- got up on the wrong side of the bed I guess…”, Sunny said.

“Well…if you both say so, we'll leave it be.”, Kabbu said.

“Anyways, we were just about to go see how everyone is doing around here now! Do you guys wanna walk with us? I think it'd be more enjoyable if you two came along!”, Mugman asked them.

“More enjoyable than it is now, that's for su- ow!”, Vi commented before she was hit over the head by Mothiva.

Sunny and Kris shrugged their shoulders at each other.

“Sure. We were gonna do the same anyway.”, Sunny said as he put the cat down before he and Kris walked next to them.

“Great! We'll lead the way this time around!”, Zasp said.

With that, they began walking.

“Where are we going first?”

“Well, I was thinking we could pay a visit to the restaurant to check on the workers that- erm…and then we could go see Sans to see if there are any opportunities for a job.”, Kabbu said.

“A job?”

“Yes! Toriel has already done so much for us by essentially letting us live in her home and providing us with food! It's only fair that I and those who live there pay her back in some manner!”, Kabbu said. Sunny noticed him quickly looking at Vi, Zote, and Mothiva when he said the latter.

He looked over to Kris and saw a very faint smile on their face; Sunny couldn’t help but smile too at Kabbu’s appreciation and desire to help out.

“Hey guys!”, Mugman said to them from behind.

“Oh, hey Mugman. What's up?”, Sunny said, he and Kris moving to the back.

“Aagh! Release me you imbecile! You cannot just continue to neglect me like this!”, Zote shouted at him.

Mugman sighed and got close to Sunny and Kris's ears.

(“I'm sorry to ask fellas, but can you guys please watch him for a little bit and make sure Vi and Mothiva get along? I'm gettin’ tired of babysitting back here!”), Mugman asked them with an exhausted look.

Sunny and Kris looked past him to see Vi and Mothiva side-eyeing each other angrily and looking like they were about to attack each other at any given moment.

[“Sunny, don't you dare say yes.”], Kris signed to him; their gestures were firm and serious.

“N-n…okay. W-we'll do what we can.”, Sunny said, feeling guilty about saying no to Mugman.

“Really?! Thanks fellas! I can always count on you two to lend me a hand!”, Mugman said as he handed the struggling Zote over to Sunny and walked to the front where Kabbu and Zasp were.

“Uhh…hi Zote.”, Sunny awkwardly muttered to him.

“Oh how wonderful. Just as I thought that mug would let me go, he passed me to you, and now I have another pest to deal with!”, Zote said, continuing to struggle.

“Zote. Can you please calm down? You can't keep this up all day.”, Sunny said, trying to reason with him.

“Ha! You dare underestimate the wits of a renowned knight?! So long as I am confined to you, I certainly can keep this up all day! Just look at your friend! They don't seem to be happy with this situation either!”, Zote said, pointing to Kris.

Sunny looked over and saw Kris with a grumpy expression plastered on their face with Vi and Mothiva arguing with each other and getting louder every second behind them.

“Uhh…”

[“I'm not happy.”], Kris gestured to him.

“Yeah…I just- well-! Come on! At least try to help!”, Sunny mumbled to them.

[“Fine…”]

Kris walked over to the two and walked beside them for a few moments before they finally noticed them.

“What do you want?”, Vi asked.

Kris held up a bag of chips and a can of peanuts and offered them to the duo.

“You…want to give us snacks?”, Vi asked.

“Hm! At least someone here cares enough to think about an idol’s hunger!”, Mothiva said, snatching the peanut container from their hands.

When she opened them however, a toy snake shot out of the can, causing Mothiva to let out a high pitched scream.

“Ahahaha! Ah…man, that was a good one! Thanks for that, Kris!”, Vi said, taking the bag of chips as she wiped a tear from her eye.

“Why you little-”

When Vi opened the bag though, several toy spiders shot out of the bag, causing Vi to do the same thing Mothiva had done.

Kris then burst out into laughter and then walked ahead to go back to Sunny.

“Hey! Get back here! You can't just prank us like that and pretend nothing happened!”, Vi protested.

When Kris was beside Sunny again, Zote was laughing as hard as they were.

“Kr-Kris! Wh-what was t-that?! Y-you were supposed to stop them from arguing-!”, Sunny said, trying to hold back his own laughter.

[“I did. Look.”]

Sunny looked behind him and saw the two chuckling to each other for a few seconds and then going back to walking in silence with content expressions.

“Wha-? But how did you-”

[“When you've been pranking your friends for as long as I have, you can kinda expect their reactions.”], Kris signed to him while chuckling.

After that, they tried to sign something to Zote.

“What is the meaning of these absurd gestures you are making?”, Zote asked.

“They were trying to say that it's only fair you behave if I put you down since they gave you a good laugh.”, Sunny said, translating for him.

“Hm. Very well. Your offer seems fair enough. You! Release me!”, Zote said.

Sunny put him down and to his surprise, Zote actually followed through with his part of the deal and didn't try to run away the moment his feet touched the ground; he calmly walked beside him while mumbling to himself.

“Huh. I don't know what to say except…good job Kris.”, Sunny said, offering Kris a fist bump. They obliged and gave it to him.

“Alright team! We're here!”, Kabbu announced as he pushed open the entrance to the restaurant.

They stepped in and inside was just as bad as they had left it the night before. Even though the dining area was left mostly untouched, there was still leftover pizza dough all over the floor and walls and the tables were knocked over. Considering the dining area was already in a bad state, Sunny didn’t even think about going into the kitchen.

Suddenly, Bobby and Clementine emerged from behind one of the booths with a washcloth in each of their hands.

“Ah! Clementine! Bobby! It’s nice to see that the two of you have chosen to make up for your actions!”, Kabbu said, congratulating them.

The two exchanged looks for a second before Clementine gave him a thumbs up.

“Anyways, you two keep at it! Me and Zasp will go see how the cleanup in the kitchen is going! In the meantime, all of you can talk with each other and help clean up too!”, Kabbu said as he, Zasp, and the cat walked past the front counter and into the kitchen.

Sunny listened to his suggestion and walked over to the two to start a conversation with them.

“Hey guys! What’s up?”, Sunny asked.

Both of them paused for a moment before Bobby did a, “fine”, gesture with his hand and Clementine gave another thumbs up and a small but noticeable sweat drop appeared on her screen.

Sunny took note of their strange behavior. Bobby’s body language was typically over-exaggerated and Clementine hadn’t answered him as confidently as she usually did. Not to mention that it seemed out of the ordinary for them to help clean up the mess they made, considering they were so calm about trashing the place before.

“Are you guys okay? You two are acting kinda weird.”, he asked.

Both appeared to panic for a moment before Vi stepped in to speak for them.

“Sunny, don’t make them uncomfortable! They’re just tired because they’ve been at this for a while. Isn’t that right guys?”, she asked.

Both hesitated for a moment and then nodded their heads uncomfortably, seemingly just going along with whatever she was coming up for them.

“See? You don’t have to make people uncomfortable to ask questions, Sunny!”, Vi said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Then why don’t you help them?”, Sunny said as he rolled his eye.

“What?”

“They’ve been at this for a while, right? So why don’t you help them to make it easier for them?”, Sunny asked, smirking.

“N-no way! I-I was just identifying their problem! That’s all! I never said I wanted to help them out!”, she protested.

(“Pfft. Lazybug.”), Mothiva said to herself. Unfortunately, Vi overheard this comment.

“Says you! You’re so lazy that you can’t even help Zasp carry the lightest of things when he’s doing all the lifting for you!”, Vi said.

Mothiva gasped and her expression became angry.

“You take that back!”

“No! Cause’ it’s true!”

“Haha! Neither of you know what it’s like to truly put effort into a task! I can already tell both of you are lazier than the Mosscreeps I’ve killed so easily on my journeys!”, Zote said, butting into the conversation.

“Haha. Oh yeah? Prove it if you’re so confident, Fruity Bug.”, Vi said as she and Mothiva crossed their arms.

“You will regret such words very soon, Bee! For I shall clean this establishment faster than your eyes can comprehend!”, Zote said before he tried to reach for a washcloth hung on one of the booths, but he was struggling to reach it.

Kris walked over and calmly handed him the washcloth.

“Hah! First try as well!”

With that, Zote rushed over to one of the spots where the pizza dough was and began scrubbing it furiously.

“Isn’t this the most efficient cleaning you’ve ever seen, lesser bugs?”, Zote said.

All of them seemed to notice that Zote was just smearing the pizza dough into the floor and not getting anything clean. Mothiva and Vi were starting to laugh behind Sunny as they all watched the awkward attempt at cleaning up.

Still, they decided to indulge him.

“You’re doing great, Zote! Keep it up! You’re really making this easier for us!”, Sunny said in the least sarcastic tone he could.

Clementine egged him on by shouting while Kris and Bobby silently cheered for him by raising their fists up into the air.

“Haha! Why thank you, lesser bugs! Be grateful that you have a knight assisting you with such a simple task!”, Zote said, continuing to “clean”.

Both Mothiva and Vi were standing in silence with stunned looks on their faces before they looked back at each other once more. Competitive spirit flashed in their eyes and they too grabbed washcloths and began aggressively cleaning.

[“You’re welcome.”], Sunny signed to them with a wink as he and Kris grabbed a mop and a broom.

They gave him an, “ok”, sign before they all got back to cleaning.

After a while Sunny mopping the floors, he noticed in the corner of his eye that Bobby and Clementine were trying to communicate with each other through subtle gestures. Wanting to know what they were talking about,  he walked behind where they were cleaning and mopped the floors very slowly to watch as best he could.

Neither of them seemed to understand what the other was trying to say until Clementine put her head against her hands and imitated snoring; something that Bobby seemed to understand.

(“Sleep?”)

Sunny was corrected when he saw her winding around her wrist with a finger pointed to her head.

(“Dream?”)

After she did that, Bobby pointed to his one eye and put his hands in front of him; seemingly to ask a question.

(“Ask…me? What do they want to ask me?”)

Clementine put her arms into an X shape and repeatedly shook her head from side to side before they finally noticed Sunny standing behind them.

They quickly went back to cleaning and refused to look at him again.

“Ah! Vi! Mothiva! I never thought I’d see you two helping out-”

“D-don’t mention it!”, Vi said, cutting Kabbu off.

“Anyway, cleaning is going well in the back, but we need more of this…”Bleach” substance. Whatever the world that is. Do you think you and Kris can pay a visit to Sans in his store across the street?”, he asked.

Before Sunny could answer, Kris got next to him and turned their pockets inside-out and did the same to Sunny, showing that neither of them had any money.

“Ah, well it’s a good thing I decided to save this! Here! You can take the money I got from Ms. Dreemurr and her neighbors this morning!”, Kabbu said, happily handing twenty-five Gold to each of them.

With no other way out, both of them sighed and turned around to leave.

“Don’t spend that on anything we don’t need now! And please say hi to Sans for me!”, Kabbu shouted at them as they exited the restaurant.

The entire time Kris and Sunny were walking to the store, Sunny couldn’t help but start pondering again.

(“Dream? Ask me? No?”)

These were among the thoughts racing through Sunny’s mind as he could feel his heart rate rise due to the possibilities as to why his friends could be acting strange. Not to mention that the thought of Madotsuki’s dream was beginning to creep back into his head.

Suddenly, he was pulled back by the collar of his shirt as he approached the door to the store.

He was let go and he turned around to see that Kris was the one who had pulled him back.

[“You almost hit your head on the door. Seriously, can you stop doing this while we’re walking? I can’t save you from getting a concussion every time.”], Kris gestured. Even if they weren’t showing it, Sunny could tell that these gestures were made in disappointment.

“Sorry…”, Sunny muttered as he pulled open the door and walked in with Kris following him behind.

“Ah, how’s it goin’ kid? I see you brought your other friend with ya too?”, Sans said, greeting his pals as they walked up to the counter.

“Hey Sans. I was wondering, do you have any bleach? We kinda made a mess in the restaurant across the street and have to help clean up.”, Sunny asked, getting straight to the point.

“ICE-E’s P”e”zza? Oh boy, my lil’ bro isn’t gonna be happy to hear that. Better clean the place up before he has a meltdown. Haha.”, Sans said, laughing at his own pun.

Neither of the teens laughed this time around.

“Geez, talk about a rough crowd. Anyways, here’s that bleach. Don’t spill it, they’re the last ones we got in-stock.”, Sans said, using a couple of his bones to put two jugs of bleach on the counter.

“Thanks Sans.”, Sunny said.

Just as he and Kris were about to hand Sans the money though, they suddenly heard someone talking from behind the counter out of sight.

“Doc! Just listen to us for a second! We’re telling you what we saw!”

“Madeline?”

“Yes. Please hear us out. You’re the first one we’re trying to talk to about our dream, and we’re hoping you will do so.”

“Leif? Dream?”, Sunny said, his eyes widening at Leif’s second remark.

“Hey uh…Sans? Is it okay if I can check the back? I promise it’ll be quick.”, Sunny asked.

“I’ve already got enough company back here, but eh, who am I to tell you no? Go ahead. Just don’t turn the place upside down again like that robot wearin’ goggles did.”, Sans said.

“Thanks a lot.”, Sunny said, giving him a thumbs up as he pushed the door to the back open.

[“Wait Sunny don’t leave me here with-”]

As Sunny walked around the poorly lit room past some boxes and some tools and bolts scattered across the floor, he eventually saw Doc working away at the small drone the cat had handed him from a couple days ago at a workbench.

“Doc, can you just-”

Madeline and Leif looked to see Sunny standing there.

“Oh, Sunny, thank god you’re here now.”, Madeline said as she and Leif walked up to him.

“Yes, we’ve been trying to tell Doc about this dream we had last night since he said he would listen, but he appears to be busy with other matters.”, Leif said, snarkily looking at Doc.

“Yeah…I kinda just came back here to hear you guys talk about that.”, Sunny said, nervously pulling on the collar of his shirt.

Leif and Madeline’s eyes went wide when they heard him say that.

“Wait, did you…also have a weird dream last night?”, Madeline asked.

After a moment of stalling, Sunny took a big gulp and silently nodded his head.

…

“Do you- wanna go first?”, Madeline asked, both she and Leif looking just as anxious as Sunny was.

…

“Alright…so…we woke up in t-this room, a-and K-Kris and M-Madotsuki and M-Momo a-and- they were there too…”,  Sunny began.

“Well…w-we also woke up in a room with Bobby, Clementine, a-and Quirrel too…”

(“Is that the reason why they were acting so strange?”), Sunny thought.

“W-what did you see?”

“T-the room was white with-”

“E-eureka!”, Doc shouted while throwing his arms up into the air in celebration, scaring everyone with him.

“Doc, what is wrong with you?!”, Madeline shouted, snapping at him.

Doc ignored this complaint and waved for them to come see what he had just done. They walked over to the workbench and saw the small drone’s eyes light up with a sound, indicating that it was turning on.

As they watched the drone starting its systems, Sunny felt his phone ring in his pocket.