On the day everyone realized that they truly had no way to escape this death game, other than by clearing it, most fell into despair. So deep and suffocating that they began to lose all hope. They stopped believing that they could escape, or get themselves out of this death game altogether. They even stopped believing that they could clear the game so much that the idea to end their very lives seemed appealing in their current state of mind. They were truly lost.

Sans fared no better, if not worse.

It had been a week now and he hadn't seen nor set out to search for Klein. The last time he saw him, he was left alone to cry so hard that he collapsed within that cold, dark alleyway.

He understood now. His vision was clearer; his hearing was sharper; and his senses were so sensitive that he could see, hear, and feel every single detail of the world around him. In fact, they were so sensitive that it started to hurt.

However, that was the least of his worries. Physical pain was something he could endure, for now. It was his mind that was hurting more than both his real and new body could ever feel.

Everybody was scared, lost, and confused. He could see the despair, sadness, longing, anxiety, and regret on every creases, every single detail, they had on the expressions of their faces. They gave up and Sans did too.

He headed toward a clearing a bit far outside of the Beginner Town, just a little near to the area where monsters spawns. He sat under a shady tree and looked up toward the clear blue sky then began to question his existence. Why didn't he do anything? Why was he still alive? If he truly had given up…

…Why shouldn't he just end it right there, right now?

He clenched his fist and bit his lips as he fought back the urge to breakdown… or he would have if not for the fact that he was already out of tears after crying himself to sleep on every single night since this death game began.

Besides, he knew why. He was afraid of death. He didn't want to find out what would happen should he die. He was a coward.

…A coward that was stuck with a single health point; a coward that was stuck with a single defense point; a coward that was stuck with a single attack point; a coward could die from a single poke from an enemy; a coward... that could die at any given moment; at any given time.

He couldn't farm and level up the way he was; he'd be dead before he could touch his first enemy; and even if he did, his glitch caused every weapon he held to only deal one point of damage. He was nothing but a burden to everyone and himself.

…Maybe ending his life right there, right now, was a great idea after all.

All he had to do was force himself to be brave for one second and let the blade of his sword sink into the flesh where his heart would be and everything, every pain, anxiety, and suffering, would disappear. He would disappear.

It seemed like a great idea or should he say…

He read the name of his username on the top of his HP bar and laughed in sheer hopelessness, "A punny idea, heh, heh, heh… heh… heh… punny… p-punny?"

Then he widened his eyes in realization.

How dare he… How dare he forget. How dare he sit idle by doing nothing but wallow in misery and despair when he was using the name of someone that knew exactly how he was feeling since the past week! How dare he forget what and who Sans really was.

Was this how Sans lived every single moment of his life? Being constantly reminded that he could die at any given moment should he not take enough care of himself? Being constantly reminded that he couldn't save anyone or anything he loved no matter how much he tried?

…Yet he smiled. Sans smiled. Despite knowing the cruel truth of the reality of their world, that it was nothing more than a simple game and he couldn't do anything about it since he was a part of it, he still smiled.

He trusted everyone, he trusted the protagonist of Undertale. Even after he chose to kill every living thing within the Underworld for his own sick amusement, Sans still trusted him. Hell, even until the very end he fought for the game's protagonist's sake even though he killed his brother, friends, and everything he ever knew and loved to protect him from the inevitable danger that was waiting for him at the end of his journey.

Sans felt sick, guilty and ashamed. How dare could he merely use his name like that? How dare he lived using Sans' name, a name of someonethat he admired so much, when he didn't even try to act or live like he did?

He felt a tear rolling down his cheek and he tried to smile. He tried to force himself to smile bigger, wider, happier, as more tears rolled down his cheeks. He realized that he had been thinking for so long that the sun had begun to set over the horizon.

He made his mind. It took him this long, but he made his mind. He stood up and put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he forced a smile on his face as tears overflowing from the corner of his eyes.

Wiping his tears away, he ran back toward the Town, heading for the edge of the Town that was right beside the edge of Aincrad's first floor; a place where most players decided to end their lives.

He might have given up. He might have thought that he would die sooner before everyone could advance to the next floor. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't try.

He might have given up, but if he could help it, he won't let anyone suffer despair anymore. He must be their guiding light within the darkness; he must be there to make them laugh when they thought that all hope was lost; he must be there to help them get back on the right tracks; he must be there as their conscience.

'Sans' was the only one that should suffer alone in the eternal prison of hopelessness as he put on a façade that would return happy smiles onto the faces everyone as he kept them determined to enjoy every single moments of their lives. After all, it was the greatest gift he had; to bear the pain of this cruel reality without breaking.

Akiyoshi Mizuki, now 'sans_the_skeleton', had truly made up his mind.

On the edge of this world, on the edge of Aincrad's Town of Beginners, stood a man and a girl. The man stood on the edge of the world's ledge as she merely looked down in silence, knowing full well what the man was going to do.

"It's nice to meet you… but I'll be going home first." He looked back and smiled.

The girl noticed it, his smile. It wasn't a smile of happiness nor was it a smile of malicious intent. No… it was the smile of someone that truly had given up; the smile… of pure despair and desperation.

She smiled back in the same manner as the man jumped and exploded into pixels that soon vanish into nothingness. Her legs were trembling, fear gripped at her heart as she was on the verge of collapsing from the mere thought of what she was going to do.

However, a flash of memory of her real life family made her gulp down her fear as she took her steps forward. She stood at the edge of the ledge and could see how beautiful the sunset was.

The wind was blowing ever so gently as she simply stared at what she thought was going to be her last view of sunset in this world.

That's right. This was just a game. There's no way that she'd actually die, right? Right? She'd jump and end everything right there then she'd wake up back on her bed, surrounded by the worried faces of her family where she would tell them not to worry because she was back, before she know it!

As her life flashed before her eyes, she closed her eyes as she was about to let herself fall and—

"huff... puff... Hey, girl. huff... puff... Don't you know how to greet a new pal?"Panted a voice creepily from behind her.

She froze in silence as the person continued.

"Turn… huff… puff… Turn around and shake my hand."

She turned around slowly and was met with a chubby, blue-hoodie wearing, boy who was offering her a hand. She didn't know how to react. After all, it's not everyday someone came and told you to shake their hand when you were about to commit suicide.

Nevertheless, she obeyed with a confused look and shook his hand—then a loud farting noise was heard.

"Pfft! The old whoopee-cushion on the hand trick! It's ALWAYS funny!"

She merely stood there dumbfounded at the absurdity of the situation. How could this boy joke around someone that was clearly about to end their life? No, better question, how did he get his hands on a whoopee-cushion?

"Heh, heh… heh… That's, uh, your cue to laugh… or emote at all? Welp, guess everybody has their own sense of humor… Anyway. I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. And you are?"

"L-Li…" She murmured inaudibly.

"Li?"

"Li… Lis… beth." She reluctantly replied.

"Lisbeth, huh? Cool name. So…" He closed his eyes and suddenly pulled her over the ledge to safety.

"W-What do you think you're doing?"

"…Oh? Am I wrong? Figured you're not the type to do a… jump start." He winked at her, his seemingly happy smile never leaving his face.

She wanted to protest about the fact that his joke wasn't in anyway funny, but stopped herself when he cut her off with eyes that seemed to see right through her.

"Besides… if you truly wanted to jump, you wouldn't tremble as you did."

She widened her eyes in realization; the realization of how naïve she was when she was about to jump to end her very life in hope that she could escape this death game that caged her.

Tears began to fall, sobs began to echo, the girl known as Lisbeth put her hands to her face as she began to cry and scream in mixed feelings between, fear, anxiety, sadness, and, most of all, regret.

Sans stayed there and hugged the crying girl, his dimple smile never leaving his face. He was angry at himself. He was too late. If only he made up his mind earlier, none of this would've happened; he would've been able to save that man.

Alas, reality disagreed.

Sans shook the guilt off of his conscience for he must save the person in front of him first before he could blame himself for being too late in saving that man. He realized that the girl had cried herself to sleep.

Sans could see the worry etched on her sleeping face and smiled in sadness as he picked her up on his back and gave her a piggy back ride toward the Town's inn. He bought a room for the night for 100 Cor and dropped her off in the room before leaving.

However, before he left her, he wrote a note for Lisbeth. With that, he left the inn to go back and watch over the places where most players committed suicides to prevent them from doing so.

He saved a person today and he'd do it again for he had already made up his mind, he would start saving much more people. With a clear purpose on his mind, he left the inn in search for those in need.

As he did, he was filled with…

DETERMINATION.

Somewhere, deep within the Cardinal System, within the matrix which controlled and maintained this virtual reality, someone smiled.

Author's Note:

Eh, just wanna add this one up too. Too short by my standard, but… eh. Oh well, thanx for the review! Really motivated me to continue :)

By the way, no, he won't be paired with Lisbeth... yet(?) meh, not sure about pairings yet. Oh, and please do excuse the grammar errors or typos if you see 'em. :')

Welp, don't know what else to say sooo…

See ya next chapt, Capt!

:v /