Chapter 6: The Peaceful Routines of Weekdays

Inserting the key into the keyhole, Ed swiftly locked it with a twist of his wrist, before swiftly pulling it back and stashing the key away.

Twirling back to the door, Ed proclaimed with a boisterous wave, "Bye bye, Gensokyo~! I'll come back again soon, I swear...!"

With that, Ed turned, leaving the green door behind as he jogged off into the dim and shadowy forest passage.

Jogging through the darkness with his trademark romp, Ed cleared the dim forest passage in mere moments.

"Oh, boy...!" Much to his joy, the woods became familiar once more, no longer black but once again lit with the dim blue of the cul-de-sac's forestry in the late evening.

A grumble emanated from his stomach. "Oh. Oh, no...!" Bending forward, Ed gave his stomach an almost disbelieving stare of examination.

Snapping back up, he sprinted. "Food! Food need food for Ed—"

Stumbling, Ed lost his footing and twirled around from a loose, awkward rock he'd trodded over. "Waah! Mayda~y, mayda~y...!"

In his clumsy, twirling fall, he'd continued forward from the impossible momentum only he could obtain—

Wood planks flew, cracked in half and scattered about as he fell through one of the fences into the lane outside the cul-de-sac.

Sliding onto his side, Ed began rolling on the dirt. "Oof...!"

Within a moment, he'd rolled into a street light, a hollow bell-like noise ringing out from it on impact. "Ooh!" ...After a moment, he looked up at the street light, smiling dopily. "Hello, mister street light! You'd've never guessed where I've been...!"

His one-sided conversation finished, he got up and continued to sprint towards his home, using the dim orange glares of the street lights to guide him through the monochrome blue evening.

Ed thoughtlessly knocked the door with his knuckles, creating loud bangs not too unlike gunshot as he does so, startling the poor unsuspecting residents of the street.

As Ed about to bang on the door again, one of the residents inside unlocked the door from the other side and opened it up with a grumble, "You people know what time it is?!"

"Sarah!"

"Ed?!" Ed's sister leered at him with a disproportionately wrathful glare, itching to know where he had vanished to, "Where in the flying heck are you?! You were gone and no one knew where you are!"

"I was at this cool place called Gensokyo!" Ed blurted out cheerfully.

Sarah sized him up before scoffing, "Yeah right, and I believe in flying monsters! Gensokyo doesn't exist, you moron! Now tell me the truth!"

Ed's stomach rumbled before he could retort back. 'Oh… oh, food! Ed need food for Ed!'

He bolted forward through the door—

"Ah—hey~…!" In his wake, Sarah was left spinning like a ballerina mid-move as he charged into the house.

...A moment later, the girl regained herself and stomped to the dining room. "Hey! I asked you where you were! And the Gensokyo thing is a total lie! Come back here and tell me the truth, Ed!"

Gorging himself on an uncooked chicken from the refrigerator, Ed was far too lost in his gluttony to actually hear the angered Sarah. "Mmm— omh—nom, omh…"

...Livid and seething, Sarah stomped up to him and raised a fist.

Such is why Ed was knocked out cold unconscious in the middle of seven o' clock with a chicken breast in his mouth.

In six o' clock a.m., the morning sun rises in the direction of Ed's basement window, illuminating the room.

Ed drooled on the bed with a smile on his face, oblivious to his untimely defeat the other evening.

As the sleeping boy continued to snore, the bright sun rose over the horizon, shining light through the window and onto the slumbering Ed...

Turning away from the sun, Ed reluctantly mumbled, "Oka~y, now going up, very angry baby siste~r..."

...Ed stiffly pushed himself up from his rotten mattress, yawning drowsily. "Hooa~h…"

"Ah, what a good dream yesterday," giggled the still somewhat-out-of-it Ed, "a witch, a shrine maiden... and a funny door! What a cool dream…!"

Ed continued to giggle to himself, living out what his mind perceived as a far off fantasy, like a memory too far away to be clearly remembered.

After a moment of useless giggling, Ed stood up to prepare for school.

As he does so, however, his mind suddenly seared in agony, screaming with a pain he never remember getting, Ed temporarily stuttered in consciousness as he stumbled drunkenly around, feeling like he had been laced with a space drug while being shoved on a roller coaster at the same time. Spinning around like a deranged top, Ed clattered into his conveniently placed armchair, holding a hand to his temple.

"Did the Martian Aliens experimented with my head?" Ed slurred, accusing some random nonexistent beings once again. Head twinging with sudden pain, Ed tried to carefully set himself up standing, gently standing up on one foot before propping himself up on another daintily.

Carefully making his way to the door, Ed gently pushed the door open with his hand, head still groaning in pain.

"Uwaahh~..." Ed groaned in pain, still placing a palm on his temple to no avail, "My head huur~ts!"

Leaning onto the door frame to wait for the headache to take its course and pass, Ed started to reminisced.

He had remembered yesterday's school events, the same old lessons by the same old people: Homeroom. Math. Physical Education. Woodworking. Cooking. Art. History—

No, wait… Ms. Molisee was still sick, so we still have a substitute teacher for today.

"Hooray!" Ed moved abruptly, raising his arms up at high speed, making the headache kicking back again at full force, "Ow…"

—Weakly trudging through the door, Ed hobbled up the stairs and into the main corridor of the house, preparing himself for school day.

As he scrambled halfheartedly around, Ed's headache slowly dissipated away, leaving him to working a bit more lucidly and less like stumbling wherever the situation calls for it, and then it disappeared altogether entirely.

...While Ed gathered his things for the school day, he couldn't help but let his attention float away to the woods. More specifically, the part where the door to Gensokyo supposedly located at.

"Aah~," Ed hummed, "It will be so cool if it wasn't a dream."

Staring at the woods a bit more in chaotic and disordered thought, Ed regained himself and started to look for his book bag.

Ed had eventually located it on one of the sofas in the living room, waiting faithfully for Ed to pick it up.

Picking it up and planting it on his back, Ed started to fumble around his pockets for some pocket money for lunch. What he found, instead, was a familiar texture; wooden, grainy and mystical feeling.

Startled, Ed tugged it straight out of his pocket and stared at it intently.

It was the wooden key from earlier. It didn't looked bent up or damaged in any way; it was just as new the day Ed discovered it in his pocket.

Not that Ed remembered about it anyways, thanks to a concussion courtesy of Sarah and his already-small brain.

"Oh hello, mister wooden stick key," Ed smiled obliviously, "Where did you come from?"

After not hearing a response back, Ed merely smiled again and pocketed the key back into his jacket pocket, resuming his cheerful expression as he did so.

Lazing about the spot, Ed hummed and bounced on his toes, not doing anything particularly noteworthy besides staring out the window to the woods every few minutes.

After the hands on the clock in the living room hit 7:33, Ed bounded off the spot with remarkable agility for his size, opening the door and locking it on the way out as he did so.

Skipping through the street with a jaunty spring in his steps, Ed tottered off to the bus stop to see, without much surprise, Edd and Eddy already there, engaged in talking.

"Geez, Lumpy, you sure took your sweet time." Eddy said sarcastically before returning to conversation with Edd.

Not showing any signs that he heard Eddy's remark, Ed waved cheerfully, "Hi guys! Did you know I went to Gensokyo?"

The two other Eds stopped socializing with each others and stared at him in unison, scaring Ed slightly with how orderly they suddenly acted.

"Uh, Ed," Eddy started with a sheepish look on his face, "You do know that Gensokyo doesn't really exist, right?"

"And to say youkai and spirits, if we're discussing about Gensokyo, exists, is just preposterous." Edd added with a blunt voice.

"But, it's true!" Ed protested, walking up to them. "I really—"

"Lemme guess, was Sarah mad at you again for the millionth time?" Eddy guessed, annoyed, "God, that squirt is just a pain in the neck sometimes. I dunno how you and yer parents managed to put up with her."

"Let's be fair here, Eddy, Ed's parents are more impartial to Sarah, for a lack of better word." Edd reasoned.

"Guy~s!" Ed insisted, "I'm serious! I did went to Gensokyo!"

"Okay there, Monobrow," Eddy deadpanned, "If you really did went to Gensokyo, where's yer proof huh?"

"Umm…" Ed faltered at that, uncomfortably wriggling around, "Well, I…"

"Yeah, I figured." Eddy scoffed.

Ed sighed, leaving the subject alone for now before regaining his peppy mood, "Hey guys! Did I mentioned Sarah saw my head as a punching bag last night?"

Before any of them could respond to him, the bus pulled right up to the stop, opening the doors up for the three boys to board the vehicle.

Stepping onto the bus, Eddy fired superficial banter at Edd as usual, such as scams, women, magazine, scams and back again, and Edd snarked back with a counter for his claim, while Ed had occasionally peppered in the conversation with his usual brand of Ed wit-ism.

"What scam should we work on for today?" Eddy brainstormed, drumming his index finger against his head.

"Shouldn't you be focusing on academic works instead? But then again, I suppose it's futile trying to persuade you to think about something other than swindling poor unsuspecting people and staring at scantily clad women." Edd deadpanned.

"Scaredy cat women?" Ed misheard, tilting his head, "Eddy likes swindling scaredy cat women?"

"Err, don't think too much about it Ed." Edd hastily said, steering the conversation away from any more perverted topics.

After that, Eddy had then talked about females in the Peach Creek area.

"Man, Nazz is so smoking hot as always~!"

"I'm fairly sure every male is infatuated with her, myself included."

Then the conversation moved to scams, again.

"Hey Double-D, what're your ideas for a scam?" Eddy turned to his sock-hatted friend.

"Hmm… What do you think about opening a tutoring business for—"

"Okay, just forget I say anything."

Then it moved to Kanker Sisters.

"Oh yikes, forgot we have Homeroom with them." Eddy shuddered.

"That is concerning, but thankfully, they're not as infatuated with us when we're in the safety of our school." Edd exhaled.

"Kanker kisses isn't good for Ed… Waa~h…" Ed whined.

And so this on and off cycle of conversation continued well after they were dropped off to school.

"Oh yeah right, we still have a substitute teacher instead of Ms. Molisee. What's her name… Ri, Ri…" Eddy stuttered.

"Ms. Kiroku Rikeki." Edd clarified helpfully.

"Yeah, her."

Ed hummed, "I want to learn more about Gensokyo, it sounds cool~."

The two saner Eds sighed.

Eddy walked through the corridor leading up to their homeroom, with the other two close behind before pausing in place, "Oh yikes, I forgot to do today's math homework, Mr. Boutilier's going to get on my case big time."

"And by forgot, I'll assume you mean 'omitted it for the sake of duping innocent cul-de-sac inhabitants for their pocket money'," Edd said bluntly. Sighing in mild annoyance, he said, "Very well, I'll let you copy my homework. But honestly, it'll do us both a world of good if you actually care to pay attention to the lesson…"

Ed whistled cheerfully right behind them, engrossed in his own world of comic books and aliens as he pranced behind the two.

The Eds finally came to Room 212 and opened the door up, entering and closing it as they took their seats. Eddy saw Lee Kanker blew a kiss at him and shuddered in response.

Thankfully, it was the only amorous act coming from Lee as the Advisory teacher/Principal entered the homeroom and started on the day's schedule.

"Hello class!"

"Hello Mr. Antonucci." the classroom chorused back monotonously.

"Now, since today is Tuesday, it means workday to catch up on all of your homework and assignments, so now you may start working!"

Edd pulled out a book labeled 'A Japanese Miscellany' out from his messenger bag and started to flick through the pages, absorbing every word with ease while sliding Eddy his math homework.

And then the class became silent and subdue as they each individually worked on their schoolwork, while others merely read a book in the meantime.

After forty minutes of working on various school related task, the bell rang out noisily, signalling the passing period as it did so.

"And there's the end of Advisory!" Mr. Antonucci smiled, "So now you're all dismissed!"

The students then trickled slowly out through the door, with a handful of pushing and shoving involved as they did so, before there was no one else left in the room.

After the end of school rolls around, the Eds and a few others boarded the bus.

Door closing after the last passenger—Rolf—boarded on the bus, the yellow automobile revved up and started to make it's way back to Rethink Avenue.

"Oh jeez, thanks Sockhead," sighed Eddy, "I owe you a soda; your homework was a friggin' lifesaver."

"It's nothing, Eddy," Edd muttered, still engrossed in a Japanese Miscellany, "But I would still be happy if you would bother to learn about our subjects in the first place…"

"Tuesday is a good day for fire~." Ed hummed cheerfully, watching the scenery flickered by.

"Where did that came from?" Eddy asked, raising a blank eyebrow.

"What? What did I say? I forgo~t." Ed smiled innocently, already forgetting about what he had said.

"Never mind, Lumpy," Eddy grunted, "I forgot you have a brain the size of a freaking peanut."

"Okay, Eddy~!"

"Tell us something we don't know, Dorky." Kevin scoffed.

"Gheh, why would I need to?" Eddy snorted, "Give ya more reasons to throw insults at us?"

"You read my mi~nd." smirked Kevin.

"What the—I was just joking!"

"Eddy, I recommend you should stay quiet," Edd suggested without even moving his eyes from the book, "I'm sure you wouldn't want to degrade your—and our's, by extension—reputation further than needed."

"Hmph, whatever." Eddy grunted, turning away from the nastily smiling jock.

Ed had felt rather warm and active today. Everything is very red today. Tuesday is a good day for fire.

Rinse, wash and repeat. Nothing more and nothing less.

Ed's morning routine was exactly what it was yesterday. He got up. Left his room. Looked around for his book bag that was literally right in front of him. Waited. Then left the house.

There, as he walked across the slowly brightening street in the sunrise, Ed founded his attention floated to the woods more times than he had normally done.

Ed thought deep into this, but in a rather childish manner, "Is there a portal to the Andromeda Galaxy where the yellow haired aliens live?"

"Is there a portal where it leads to a place ghosts lives?"

"Is there a portal to a city to the moon?"

"Is there a secret place where weird horn aliens live?"

Ed breathed more and more questions into the air as he did so, each becoming more and more outlandish than the past one.

"Is there a portal that leads to a place where there's an upside down castle?"

"Is there a world where moon people lives?"

"Is there a monster who can change reality?"

Before Ed could fling out more questions with dubious answers, Eddy called out from his right, "Yo Monobrow!"

Ed turned around in expectation, waving and flapping his arms like a chicken before frowning at a certain sight.

Edd was gone; the familiar sight of the smart boy's nose in the book wasn't there next to Eddy like Ed had anticipated.

Ed opened his mouth, "What happened to Double-D, Eddy?"

Eddy stared around, as if looking for eavesdroppers, "The dude's sick," Eddy said bluntly, "Sick as a board—Actually, that's not how you say it. Must be down with the flu or something."

The conman sighed, "Sockhead's gonna freak once school kicks off. And I needed his homework too."

Ed frowned, feeling silent and lonely, "I miss Double-D already."

"The dude's not dead, he's just sick." Eddy corrected with a frown, "But that is a scary thought."

The bus pulled up to the stop, and the remaining two Eds was all too happy to board it to leave behind their depressing train of thought.

"Yo Monobrow," Eddy said, surprisingly quiet, "I, uh, can't believe I'm saying this, but what ideas do you have for a scam?"

"Don't have a~ny~." Ed shrugged, kicking the seat in front of him while blankly staring out at the window.

"Figures."

So the bus ride had been rather tame the entire way to school.

During their Homeroom class—

"Strange. Where is Mr. Crawford?" ... Mr. Antonucci enquired curiously.

"Sick as a rat." Eddy piped up nonchalantly, hands behind head like he had been expecting that question.

…the man frowned, "If it was Eddward Crawford I know, he would have pushed himself up to go to school no matter how sick he was. I suppose even the most studious of students falls victim to the law of averages too."

"No matter, we'll just have to press on. Now, today's schedule will include a lockdown drill, while...—"

As the man spoke and droned on about the day's event, Ed had already tuned out the principal with a cheerful smile, already too focused on whatever thoughts streaking around his mind rather than the schedule of today's event.

By the time the end of school rolls around, Ed walked home for the day merely because he was bored of the atypical mode of returning home.

Well, that's not it. He didn't really say that. It would be more accurate to say, "I want to walk home because I wanna think about cool stuff in the woods".

Ed hummed, trudging through the sidewalk with an amiable grin on his face, feeling as though he had awakened from a long nap, even though he was feeling more energized than refreshed.

The skies up ahead started to darkened, not just color but brightness as well. Feeling the atmosphere suddenly becoming dampered, Ed merely plowed ahead with a smile, unwilling to let the sky ruin his day just with clouds.

As he reached closer to his home street, the air had grown damp and wetter, until the surrounding was heavy with raindrops all together.

Dripping down on Ed's feathery hair, it slowly soaked him while Ed himself looked up, as if unaware that the sky had rained until recently.

"The rain feels nice today," Ed said contemplatively. Holding his hand out and watching the rain hit his palm.

Ed sees the light glances off the water, bouncing off and brightly glowing like stars, before dropping to the earth like falling ones.

"Pretty, it looks like I'm at the Far-Off Galaxy of Robot Rebel Ranch." Ed awed, seeing the array of jewel-like rain falling around him.

Feeling renewed and and refreshed, Ed walked peacefully back to home, no matter how drenched he is as a result of standing out in the rain for so long.

Ed felt silent and purified, with raindrops falling around him today. Wednesday is a good day for water.

Thursday rolls around, and Ed felt rather like he had grown more in one way.

Well, not to say he's rapidly approaching puberty, but he's getting there.

His morning routine still remained unchanged. You get out of bed, and find vaguely school related items before putting it in your book bag, and then you sling that over your shoulder.

Ed had still had the key in his pocket, partially forgotten, but still remembered, if the way how Ed's hand was shoved into the jacket pocket where the key had dwelled was any particular indication.

Bouncing off through the door, breaking it in the process and sending wood flying everywhere, Ed pinballed off the ground and uncurled in midair like a humanoid flower, brimming with life.

Ed skipped across road carelessly, too full of life to care about the puddles left behind by the rain where it might have made him slip and crash down on his behind.

Sending water flying everywhere as he jumped up and down from puddle to puddle, Ed didn't even care when it had soaked his jeans from the knee down.

Eventually, Ed had rounded the corner where the bus stop was stationed, where he was greeted with the sight of Eddy reading one of his rather candid magazine while Edd was facing pointedly the other way with his nose deep into the book.

Wait, Edd?!

It wasn't the Edd Ed knew. Edd had looked like a horrible mess; he looked like he had somehow lost five pounds in just the span of twenty four hour, his eyes were all sunken, shrunken and surly like he had been tormented in more than ten ways, and his lips were crooked and angular in a deep and gruff frown.

Ed broke out into a ear-to-ear grin; Double-D's back!

Dashing at the two in glee, the oaf tackled Edd in a nasty hug, smiling and kicking his legs like mad while crushing the unsuspecting Edd under his arms, making the sockheaded boy spluttered and gasp madly, scratching to get away from Ed while Eddy had watched from the side in bewilderment.

"Double-D, you're back, you're back!" Ed chanted loudly, shaking Edd up and down.

"Y—Yes, I'm back, Ed," Edd choked, cheeks turning purple at an alarming rate, "Now can you please free me from your odiferous embrace before you snap my vertebrae and suffocate me to death at the same time?"

Ed complied all-too-happily, breaking his grip on Edd as he dropped down in pain, hacking roughly in pain before Edd blearily wiped his nose with the back of his hand, sniffling slightly.

"You're back," Ed whispered childishly, repeating the phrase to himself like Edd will disappear if he dared to stop, "You're back you're back you're back."

"Yes, I'm fine Ed," Edd said hoarsely, coughing afterward, "I have been infected with a case of influenza yesterday, so it's nothing you should be too alarmed over."

Ed grinned; he looked like he was about to burst out laughing and crying at the same time. Eddy took notice and questioned.

"Woah, there, Horsemouth," Eddy remarked, "What had you so bouncy and being a drama queen today? Yer Mom hug you for the first time in a decade or something?

"I dunno," Ed remarked, rubbing his head slightly, "I just felt like I've been napping forever, then I just had like a big wake up call from life, or something."

"Geez, no wonder you're so, uh, supon—sup—" Eddy muttered, tripping over his word as he tried to pronounce it correctly.

"Spontaneous?" Edd chipped in helpfully.

"Yeah, that."

'Whatever~ I'm so happy Double-D's back with us~." Ed hummed happily.

"It's only for a day." Eddy pointed out sarcastically, but relieved glare in his eyes told anyone paying close attention that he was relieved and happy Edd was back among them.

The bus pulled up to the stop soon after, opening up the door as Edd closed the book to engage in conversation with Eddy.

"What did I miss yesterday, Eddy?

"Eh. The only thing I remember is the boring lockdown drill from yesterday. You should be happy you're sick, the rest of the day was boring as hell."

"But academics are one's highest life priorities!"

"If so, then why do they give us weekends off, huh?"

"...touché, Eddy…"

The bus took off after Edd took his seat, driving down the street at a leisurely pace, scattering leaves through the air with its' turbulence.

"Hey, Double-D?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you look like crap?"

"My, Eddy, no punches pulled there. Well, if you really wish to know, I was infected with influenza, so that had interfered with my ability to attend school. I was rather, erm, shook up about it, in a lack of better term, so I didn't got a very good rest of sleep last night."

Edd examined his somewhat shaky hands, "I'm still not completely rejuvenated, but I'm at least better than I was yesterday."

Edd continued to stare placidly at his hands before Eddy snickered, "W—What?"

"Jeez, Sockhead," Eddy said amusingly, "I just wanna know why you're looking like you just saw a horror movie, not to know so that I can be a doctor giving ya a check up."

Edd chuckled, "Well, it's best if you know the details. Couldn't hurt to know what ails your comrades."

"Sockhead, two things. One, I'm not a doctor. Two, there's a reason why people said 'Too Much Information' online."

Ed cheerfully stared out at the window of the bus, humming as the winds blew past the bus, taking the leaves along wherever it'll go.

Strangely, the wind had reminded him of something rather strange for the past week, but Ed, for the life of him couldn't figure out what was off, no matter how hard he screwed up his mind to figure it out.

He still hold his thinking pose—which was Ed's index fingertip in his mouth with eyes staring skywards blankly. Eddy had said he looked stupid, but Ed didn't care; he was too engrossed in thinking to care.

It wasn't until halfway through History did Ed figured it out.

"I didn't wear any underwear this week guys!"

Everybody froze in place.

"Ed, that's repulsive."...Edd said after a shocked silence.

"You know what. Forget what I said about 'TMI' with your flu. This is even worse."

"Wha~t?" Ed smiled innocently, "Did you guys—"

"No! Don't say anything!" the class cried in unison, already knowing what he was about to say.

"Okay!"

"Ed, don't ever say anything about your undergarments again!" Edd cried shrilly as they boarded the bus, "We don't want you to plague our thoughts with horrid visages of your malodorous underwear!"

"Plack?" Ed repeated idiotically, "Like on my teeth?"

"Plague! Plague! Not the bacterial film on one's teeth!"

"Oh, okay! What are we talking about again?"

Edd groaned forlornly, pinching the bridge of his nose in tiredness, "Sometimes, I think your stupidity is a curse for me, dearest Ed."

"Okay!" Ed chirped for the umpteenth time, already forgetting about Edd's statement once the bus turned on the next corner in the street, bringing them from the school street and through the Business District.

"Large-Brained Ed Boy!" Rolf yelled loudly from the other end of the bus, waving half of a fish on a stick in the air excitedly.

"Yes?" Edd called back loudly.

After Rolf repeated, "Large-Brained Ed Boy", Edd turned to Ed sheepishly.

"Ed, not to impose too much, but can you please get me to Rolf's side?" Edd asked, rubbing his arms slightly.

Ed raised an OK sign, "Okei, Daburu-Di!"

The redhead placed a hand on the back of Edd's shirt, and lifted him up into the air, where Edd had gained an alarmed face.

"Wait, not like this—!"

—Before he could protest further, the Ed founded himself sailing through the air like a plane, landing conveniently right next to the foreign Rolf.

"W—Why hello Rolf," said the somewhat startled Edd.

"Hello, Wind-Riding Genius Ed Boy," Rolf smiled pleasantly, acting like humans had flew through the air had been a common occurrence.

While the two had started onto interesting conversation topic, Ed had turned to looking out of the window, seeing the red and brown leaves streaking by the road as the bus left the Business District and into Rethink Avenue.

A minute went by, and Ed found himself instinctively reaching into his pockets clutching the key unlocking the door in his jacket rather tightly, refusing to relinquish his grasp on it like it'll melt into the air once he'll release his grip.

"Yo Monobrow," Eddy said, "Whatcha holding in yer pocket? Your hand looks kinda tense."

"Uh?" Ed uttered dazedly, staring at Eddy confusedly, "What am I holding in my pocket? Hmm…"

Ed stared at his own hand in pocket in thought, as though (and probably did) he didn't knew how it got there in the first place. A beat ticked by and Ed goes, "Oh~!" in understanding.

Ed tugged the wooden key out of his pockets, raising it up into the air like it was the Holy Grail.

Eddy raised an eyebrow.

"What's that piece of junk you got there this time? Kinda looks like some kinda key."

"Oh, I don't know," Ed said, staring at the curious object in his hand, "I just found it in my pocket on Tuesday morning, I think."

"Eh, must be some kinda junk you picked up on Monday or something," Eddy shrugged, "Who cares though? Is not my problem."

"Maybe." Ed hummed uncertainly, staring at key in interest before stashing it back into his jacket pocket just as the bus pulled up to the street bus stop, dropping the students off to their home.

As the three Ed stooges walked on back home.

"Hey Double-D!" Eddy asked Edd, "What did Rolf gossiped about?"

"Well," Edd smiled secretively, "It's nothing particularly scandalous, but it's simple folk remedies for general ailments that makes scientific sense."

"Aw," Eddy groaned, "Was hoping it was some juicy gossip to pass around."

Edd's smile turned a lot more wry and sarcastic, "I don't think I need to pass around any tittle-tattle in particular; you're practically a giant walking living gossip, Eddy."

Eddy smiled and stuck his nose up into the air, "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much,"

Edd's smiled flatted out into a groan, "Oh predictable."

"Don't ya mean, precious?"

"Again, predictable."

And so this little chorus of witty sly insults and cheerful misinterpretations went back and forth in a circle.

Ed didn't mind it of course; Edd and Eddy always does that at random so he never really was fazed by it.

That and he was a little too intent on what was beyond the woods to really care so he had ignored it for now.

Ed's attention slowly drifted from the shadowy greenery of the woods to the brightly dyed wildflowers scattered around the grassy ground, brimming with life at a strange time.

Ed felt lifeful and awakened. With the flora scattered around. Thursday is a good day for wood.

School is closed for the week on Friday, apparently for minor remodeling and maintenance for a couple of classrooms and hallways.

Not that Ed or the other adolescents except for Edd really cared; it merely gives them an excuse to skip school without getting chewed out by their parents.

But that was just one thing that went good on that day, there were multiple more reasons for Ed to call that Friday the best Friday of his life.

Ed had founded a lot of loose pennies that day Edd had counted three dollars and forty worth in cents, so they had splurged on a large boxful of heavenly confectionery called jawbreakers.

During their feast on the sweets of sweets, Ed had went above and beyond by ingesting two jawbreakers at once, making him resembled amusingly like a chipmunk, as pointed out helpfully by Eddy.

"Wow Ed, you're suppose to eat one at a time, not gulping on two together." Eddy said sarcastically, licking his sugar coated fingers after he was done with his jawbreakers.

"I'm not sure if that safe, Ed," Edd warned, "You might suffocate on them by accident if you're not careful."

"Pshaw, the dude'll be fine," Eddy waved off dismissively, "Ed basically have an all purpose throat, for God's sake, he'll swallow a freaking plate whole and he'll still laugh like he just breathed helium."

"Fair enough," Edd conceded begrudgingly, "But still, with sweets as large as this one must maintain some form of caution."

"Okay, Double-D," Ed nodded obediently, gulping the jawbreaker down without breaking a single drop of sweat, ironically validating Eddy's sarcastic statement.

"See?" Eddy deadpanned, "Not even hurting a little."

Edd groaned, "I'm surrounded by anomalies and oddities for human beings."

Ed smiled innocently and picked at his teeth, singing a cheesy, tuneless ditty as he stared up into the blue expanse of the sky.

"Oh look! A quarter!" ...As Ed bent down to pick up the aforementioned silvery coin, Eddy swooped down and snatched it away before Ed could even try to blink.

"Mine! Any quarters I see'll be mine!" Eddy barked greedily, cradling the twenty five cents in his hand.

"Greedy as ever." Edd noted dryly, unsurprised, "And you didn't even see it until Ed points out it's existence."

Eddy ignored it and continued to examine the coin in his hand.

Ed didn't even processed Edd's statement or the fact that the quarter had been stolen by Eddy, only the fact that there was someone with blond hair and an umbrella was staring at him carefully, seeing even the smallest of muscle twitches, concealed safely in the shadows cast down by the trees.

"Yo Lumpy, you saw something? You've been looking at the woods forever now." Eddy remarked. Ed shook himself back to awareness.

"Huh? I saw something? The only thing I saw is…" Ed turned back to the trees in confusion, only to saw whoever was examining him was long gone.

"S—She's gone." Ed uttered, pinching his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Who's gone?" Eddy asked, pocketing the quarter into his pants.

"Uhm nobody. I think I must've thought her up. She's weird and scary though."

Ed stood up, startling his friends, "You guys mind if I leave? I wanna go explore the woods."

"Uh, sure," Eddy scratched his head sheepishly, "Not sure if you'll find anything new there, though; is pretty small and that."

Ed smiled cheerfully, "I'm sure I'll find something eventually, just you wait and see!"

Waving back to a somewhat subdue duo of Edd and Eddy, Ed scampered off away from the Shopping District in a happy-go-lucky attitude, nimbly weaving around the falling leaves and the lazing about neighborhood kids, incurring minor curiosity and annoyance from them.

Trotting through the shadows with a certain kind of carefreeness, Ed bounced through the trees of the woods happily, uncaring of where he'll lead himself.

After a few minutes fruitless wanderings through the woods, Ed had stumbled upon an obscurely familiar shadowy pass where it had lead to seemingly nowhere, stirring his curiosity.

It was dark, almost unnaturally so; it was if Ed stuck his hand in even a foot away he can't see it dark; it was if Ed thrown a pebble in even a little it'll be lost forever dark; it was if Ed had wandered in even just a little, all light from the other side would fade away and Ed would never come out again dark.

If Ed had even the tiniest semblance of common sense, the darkness alone was more than enough to trigger multiple red flags in his mind to run away and never come back there again.

Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was stupidity, or maybe it was just a mere feeling of being adventurous, but Ed had walked into the pass without even a scrap of hesitance.

"Oo~h," Ed whistled, "Is so dark, and echo-y! Hello~!"

The path echoed back, "Hello~!"

Ed giggled loudly and the pass giggled back.

After a bout of giggling, talking and chattering, Ed had stepped away from where he was standing and started the beginning of his voyage through the shadow pass.

"La la la la," Ed hummed, "I wonder where I'll be."

Strangely, he felt rather peaceful, despite the fact he would be absolutely unnerved and scared on the other way around. Not that Ed cares, of course.

After a minute of walking through the passage aimlessly, the late afternoon light was slowly piercing through the shadows, lighting more of the road the further Ed walked.

Eventually, the surroundings lit up all at once, blinding Ed and forcing him to shield his eyes, cowering away from the flash as his eyes slowly readjusted to the luminosity.

After a moment or two, Ed slowly unshielded his eyes, gently reopening them to the light as he did so.

"Ow, did I saw a big ol' flash bomb went off in front of me~?" Ed gurgled, blinking and scratching at his eyes, still seeing vaguely colorful spots darting around in his vision.

Slapping at his head like slapping a fly, Ed shook left and right quickly, rattling his head's content like a baby rattler.

After a moment of useless reorientation, Ed gently waded forward to the main object of his focus.

It was a familiar red structure that he felt like he had seen before.

Stepping forward to examine it, Ed gently guided his palm over the wooden surface of the door in the center to see if there's anything alien about it, or why it was so familiar.

It was as normal feeling in texture as a normal door; grainy and carved out with small ridges all over the door, with a brass-like door handle placed closely to where the doors meet.

Ed rubbed his head to see what was so familiar about it, only to pull a blank when he can't.

"Maybe aliens have brainwashed my mind so that I can't remember where I had been when I went through that door," Ed theorized.

...No, that's not it.

Ed scratched his head, already confused and he hadn't even went through the door yet!

Kicking the wooden door to vent out a bit of his minor and small frustration, Ed huffed into the air, staring into the big blue firmament of the sky.

Staring into the sky had strained Ed's eyes aplenty, so he had slide down on the door and shoved his hands into his pockets.

After a moment ticked by, Ed had a craving to read a comic. Digging into his jacket pockets for any visual novels he may have jammed in there as an afterthought, Ed's hand prodded the key by accident and, mistaking it as a comic book, with drew it out from its shelter and into the air.

"Huh?" Ed said, "You're not a comic book."

He still stared at it like he did when he had no idea what he was looking at.

Eventually, Ed recognized it as a key once his eyes had flickered onto the teeth of the key, properly seeing it as one.

"Oh, you're a key." stating the obvious, Ed could have heard Eddy said, "No really, Captain Obvious."

Seeing the key and the door was starting to make the gears of his brain started to turn rapidly, sparking out nonexistent electricity as he did so.

After a minute of pondering uselessly, Ed stood up and turned around to the door.

"This probably works," Ed mused and jammed the wooden key into the door lock thoughtlessly, forcing it through the lock's ward and turning it open, pushing the door inwards after the door produced a clicking noise.

Fwoosh!

"Wa~h!" Ed cried, feeling the wind blowing past him and pushing him back away from the pass, nearly knocking him down to the ground from the sheer force of it all.

Have Ed mentioned it was loud?

The howling wind was unbearably loud; so much so Ed was scared that the entire neighborhood could hear it even a distance away.

Heck, maybe everyone in a one mile radius could hear it.

Groaning in pain, Ed slowly stood up in defiance of the wind. Pushing past through the tempest with difficulty, Ed dashed forward and tackled into the air, almost blowing up into the air like a fluttering tissue.

Using his momentum as his fuel and his legs as his accelerator, Ed desperately kicked his feet to propelled himself through the wind, managing to grab onto the door's knob.

"Hngh~!" Ed's lower half was still kicking in the air, flapping to and fro cartoonishly.

Ed tried to slowly bring his legs to the ground, dragging his legs down against the wind and successfully onto the earth.

Planting one foot on the ground and one in front of it, Ed dragged himself across the floor weakly. Before Ed could lose his grip on the handle, the oaf kicked off the ground and propelled through the air using the door as a crutch, sending him through the gate and to the other side successfully.

Carefully darting to the door's handle, Ed wrapped his grip firmly on the object in his hand and desperately tried to pull it close before he could send flying back to the outside world.

"Yaagh!" Ed screamed, tugging the door close forcefully with a burst of his herculean strength, slamming it with a resounding bang.

The door sealed shut, the gale ceased and Ed fell to the floor in exhaustion.

"Hah, hah…" Ed panted, flopping his tongue out, "That was so cool, but Ed's so tired…"

Huffing tiredly, Ed sat on his knees while rubbing at his eyes, feeling like all of his energy was sucked out by a vampire.

After a minute of tired panting, Ed slowly stood up and warily but bravely stared down the dim pass between the two worlds.

It was exploring time.

Jack's Note

Yeah~! I'm done! I'm done!

Wooh! Oh yeah! I need to calm down, just the joy of finishing one chapter just gets to one's brain, don't ya think so?

Anyways, serious talk.

A huge massive thank you goes out to SKOOLATOON for helping with a big chunk of this story and being nice enough for betareading & revising this chapter! He was a big help with this all and makes this chapter this chapter!

In all seriousness, read his shit, it's good stuff; his writing is like, a bajillion times better than mine. And with his stories you can get a huge kick out of reading it, so go ahead, he really deserves the views.

Anyways, onto a more plot-esque subject.

Ed will resolve an incident.

Yeah, crazy, isn't it? Sweet, lovable Ed going up against the big bad of a Touhou game! I myself couldn't even believe it. But, well, is not a Touhou fic unless one of the character participates in an incident, that and I already got his shot types and all figured out, his dialogue and scenario, so it'll be a cool couple chapters to look forward to!

Anyways, I'm rambling more than necessary, so let's end this chapter already!

Anyways, see ya later, bye bye!

ALSO: BEST DELETED LINE EVER:

..."Shouldn't you be focusing on academic works instead? But then again, I suppose it's futile trying to persuade you to think about something other than swindling poor unsuspecting people and scantily clad women." Edd deadpanned.