Kazuma wasn't entirely sure what had happened. He was vaguely aware of there being a malfunction with the teleporter as he prepared to leave the Island.

What happened next was… fuzzy. He remembered feeling like he was tumbling through some kind of hole, being unable to breathe, and then blacking out. It didn't take long for him to realize that he still couldn't see, hear, or feel anything.

Just where was he right now?

Kazuma tried to open his eyes, only to find them entirely unresponsive. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even move a single part of himself. He remained semi-conscious, yet his body and all of his senses were clouded in numbness. The end result was disorienting in a way that he couldn't quite describe, like he was desperately fumbling in the dark, hoping to grasp reality.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed in the interim, but he eventually began to regain some form of sensation. All around him, his skin was enveloped in something cold and… wet? Damp? Moist? Whatever it was, it was far from dry.

Then, more quickly than the last sensation had appeared, he began to feel something else, too. Something pressing strongly against his mouth. It felt coarse and rigid, like something covered in sandpaper. As it continued pressing against him, he felt something filling his chest cavity. At first, he thought that it was air, but it was… different, somehow. More soothing and fluid than the air he normally breathed. Just having it within him brought a newfound feeling of vitality, which quickly seeped into every crevasse of his body.

His eyes soon fluttered open. Right in front his face was Undyne's, pressing her lips firmly against his own.

Kazuma let out an ear-piercing shriek, and violently pushed her away as he sprang to his feet. "Undyne! What the hell!?" His voice was carried with perfect clarity, far from the burbled gibberish that would normally result from talking underwater.

Wait… underwater?

Kazuma took a moment to rub his eyes. A cursory glance showed that both he and Undyne were standing at the bottom of a large reservoir.

"I shared some of my oxygen with you," Undyne replied. "It should be enough to last you for the next hour or so. Let me know when it starts getting hard to breathe, I don't want you drowning on me."

Kazuma let out a sigh, trying not to wince at the feeling of water passing through his lungs. "That's a relief. You almost gave me the wrong idea for a moment there."

Undyne's eye suddenly went wide. "W-what? No way, that's gross! You honestly think I was gonna go out and kiss someone like you?"

"What, you mean a human?" said Kazuma.

"Well, I was thinking more that you're a guy. But that too!" said Undyne. "Anyway, that's not important right now! What's important is that we need to find the others before something happens to them!"

"What?" said Kazuma. "W-wait a minute Undyne, hold on! How the hell are we supposed to go about doing that? We don't even know where they could have ended up!"

"Easy!" Undyne replied. "We search the Island from top to bottom, and we don't stop until everyone is accounted for!"

"But that's ridiculous!" Kazuma shouted back "There's no way we'd be able to search the entire Island by ourselves, that could take days! It'd be impossible to rescue them in that time, and we don't even know if everyone is still on the Island to begin with!"

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" Undyne shot back. "Are we supposed to just turn our backs on everyone we care about!?"

Kazuma winced as though he had been physically struck. "No, I… I'm just saying we have to be smart about this, that's all. There has to be a better way to save everyone."

"Like what?" said Undyne.

"Like, um…" Kazuma paused, his mind struggling to reach out for any possible solutions as Undyne's intense gaze pressed down hard on him. "Ah, I've got it! The teleporter!"

"You mean the thing that got us in this trouble to begin with?" said Undyne.

"No, you don't get it," said Kazuma. "Teleporters are required by law to keep logs of their activity. If we can make it back to the village, we'll probably be able to find out where everyone was sent."

"Probably?" said Undyne. "Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Um… well, there's still some uncertainty involved," Kazuma replied. "There's really no way of guaranteeing we'll find anyone, even if we find out where they went."

"What, are you kidding me!?" said Undyne, "We can't just leave them behind! We have to find them before they get hurt!"

"Yes, I know! Please, just bear with me!"

"They could already be dying, Kazuma!"

"I KNOW THAT, DAMMIT!"

The sudden shout came as just as much a shock to himself as it did to Undyne. The two stared at each other in silence, save for the sound of Kazuma's heavy, water-filled breaths.

Undyne's body slowly relaxed, and the tension in her eye slowly dwindled to nothing. She hesitantly raised an arm towards Kazuma, only to lower it, averting her gaze from Kazuma's eyes.

"…Hey," she finally spoke up. "You alright?"

"Do I look alright to you?" Kazuma said.

Undyne shook her head. "Sorry, that was a dumb question. I guess what I'm trying to say is… I can tell you're worried. About your family, I mean."

"That easy to tell, huh?" said Kazuma.

"Yeah. And I'm sorry for getting upset with you earlier," said Undyne. "It's just… I'm worried too, you know? About everyone, Alphys especially."

"Your girlfriend?"

Undyne nodded solemnly. "It's just… don't get me wrong, I'm scared of what could happen to everyone. But in her case… I just often get the feeling she doesn't have a whole lot of self-confidence. Like she couldn't really handle a life-threatening situation. A part of me is terrified she'd just give up."

"I understand the feeling," said Kazuma. He didn't specify whose feeling he understood.

"And that's not even getting into Papyrus," Undyne continued. "Sure, I've taught him how to defend himself. But even then, I still don't think he'd have it in him to get involved in a serious fight. I don't even know if he'd be able to face any real danger on his own."

"No, I get it," said Kazuma. "It's perfectly natural to worry in a situation like this. I shouldn't have yelled at you for that."

"What? Why are you apologizing to me?" said Undyne. "You're the one who was trying to figure out the best way to save as many people as we could! If anything, I should be apologizing to you for the way I treated you!"

"Look, there's no time to argue about that now," said Kazuma. "If we want the best chance of saving everyone, we should try to head to the Village as soon as we can. If I'm not mistaken, we're in the Waterways right now. They connect to every area of the Island, so we should eventually find the village if we head upwards. There's um… just one teensy problem."

"And what's that?"

Kazuma's cheeks began to flush red. "Uh, well… I can't swim."

Undyne rolled her eye. "Come here."

Kazuma let out a startled yelp as he was suddenly grabbed by the arm. Before he could complain, the two of them were already moving up through the reservoir and, hopefully, to their next destination.