Chapter 5: Toroko's Plight

Author's Note: This chapter is a bit short, but to make up for that the next one will be posted in just a few days. A brief warning: this story may not be updated as quickly as my Undertale novelization.

Quote soon came across what he suspected was the source of the sweet smell permeating the air. Not far from the reservoir, another Mimiga was tending to a large flower patch. He approached curiously, wondering why the farm (as that section was labeled) only grew one thing.

"Excuse me? Have you seen someone named Toroko?"

The farmer turned to look at him. Like the other Mimiga he'd met, he was taken aback by Quote's height and noticeably shifted his gaze upwards.

"I think I heard her running past here a minute ago… she can't have gotten too far. Why do you need to know?"

"I'm helping King look for her," he said simply. Not exactly a lie, but he rather wanted to get to her first so he could ask Sue some questions before King had a chance to interfere.

Satisfied with that answer, the farmer went back to tinkering with a sprinkler system on the ground.

"Cross through here if you wanna find her. Just don't step on any flowers; we need those for food."

He paused as he was about to leave.

"You eat these flowers?"

"Sure do. Fish too on occasion, but these sustain us better. We just have to be careful not to eat any red flowers."

Looking back over the patch, Quote couldn't see so much as a single red petal among all the yellow and white.

"Eat one of those, and our blood pressure supposedly goes through the roof. After a minute we keel over dead. So… if you happen to find any red flowers, keep 'em away from us."

Quote nodded in agreement and walked around the flower patch. His eyes settled on a nearby shack. There wasn't any other building in the immediate vicinity, and that one looked like a suitable hiding spot. Maybe he would find Toroko there.

Briskly stepping up to the door, he cracked it open and peeked inside. There wasn't much to see in the desolate room. Broken metal sheets lay strewn across the floor, light from the village's torches shone in through a few holes in the decaying walls, and various boxes were stacked haphazardly throughout. It was clear that nobody had lived there for some time.

As Quote cautiously stepped inside, he shut the door behind him to close off a method of escape. If Toroko was in here, she would try to flee again, and he needed to talk to her. The issue now was finding-

"You jerk!" a small voice cried.

"What the- OW!"

He staggered and gripped at the back of his head as something hard collided with it. His vision blurry, he turned on the spot and reached for the Polar Star to defend himself, but paused upon seeing his attacker. It was Toroko herself, a petite Mimiga wearing a green sweater and brandishing a large stick. Despite having just struck Quote from behind, the terrified look on her face showed that she wasn't much of a fighter.

"L-leave us alone!" she yelled, running at him again. Before he could react, however, she had stumbled on the messy floor and fallen onto her face.

"Help me, help me, help me…" Toroko whimpered, curling up into a ball with her head down.

Still rubbing the back of his head, Quote kneeled beside her and did his best to be comforting.

"Hey, calm down. I'm not here to hurt you."

The frightened girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"H-huh? You aren't with the Doctor?"

Truthfully, he didn't even know the answer to that question. He'd woken up alone in a cave with no memory, and he'd denied any involvement when speaking to that fishing Mimiga, but for all he knew he could have once been this enigmatic Doctor's right-hand man. Still, there was only one answer he could give that would help in this situation.

"No, I'm not."

"Oh… I'm sorry for hitting you. It's just… t-the Doctor's such a mean guy. He pops in whenever he wants and kidnaps one of us. Sometimes he'll just kill Mimiga outright if they resist him. Like… like my brother… Arthur…"

She wiped her eyes and stood back up, not even half as tall as Quote. How she'd managed to hit him on the head with that short stick was admittedly impressive.

"I'm looking for Sue. What can you tell me about her?"

"She's my friend. When we found her, she didn't get along with the other Mimiga very well… I'm the only one who was nice to her. King gets all bent out of shape whenever he sees us getting along, though. Now he wants to- wait, who are you anyway? What do you want with Sue?"

Before he had a chance to say anything in response, an enormous bang struck the metal door to the shack. Toroko let out a frightened squeak and backed away as a second bang was heard. Apprehensive, Quote drew the Polar Star from its holster. He hadn't even locked the door behind him, so whoever was trying to get in really wanted to do so. The entrance finally gave as the door and a good chunk of the surrounding wall were blown apart by something bursting into the room.