Happy Valentines day sort of. I'm planning on making a late Valentine's story later this month, so I have that on the side. Sorry for the long update, I had to scrap like, three chapters before getting this one right. I thank you for the follows and favorites, and especially your reviews. It means a lot for you to read this, so thank you.
2/17/2016 EDIT: Changed the scene when Haise fights Juuzou.
After we had dinner, Asriel and Juuzou offered to help clean up. Toriel had me stay in the bedroom while she and Frisk went off to do some shopping. So there I patiently sat on Asriel's mattress, waiting for her return. Speaking for myself, I couldn't wait to explore what else the Underground had to offer; however, Chara had just kept to themselves since the two left for the marketplace. Laying on the floor beside the bed, Chara hummed to themselves with a box of crayons to their side as they drew on the sheet of paper in front of them. "Whatcha drawing?"
"A picture." Chara replied as they continued their attention on their artwork.
"Okay, so what's it a picture of?"
"I'll show you later." I found it odd that Chara was reluctant to show, let alone tell, me what they were working on. Perhaps they were embarrassed to show me the rough draft? And as much as I was tempted to take a peek, every time I tried slightly move, it would cause Chara to move the paper out of my view once more. Not wanting to bother them, I instead just laid down on the mattress as I stared up at the ceiling. "Haise, if there's anything you want to do in this house, I'd suggest you do it before we head out."
"Why's that?"
"Because once we leave, we're probably not going to be able to come back." Hearing that made me feel a sudden drop in my heart I felt my eyes widen. Sitting up on the mattress, Chara groaned in annoyance as they moved once more to avoid me being able to view their picture.
"I don't understand why we wouldn't be able to come back." Putting their crayons away, Chara picked up the picture to begin folding it into their pocket before turning to face me.
"Along with Toriel's motherly side, she's very protective, and… Ever since you arrived, I can't really be sure what will happen next… But, be prepared to fight her." My heart dropped, and even with telling me this, Chara seemed absolutely unfazed with this.
"Fight her?!"
"You're a hero now right?" Chara chuckled with a headshake. "And if you and her must fight, then you'll have to face her alone."
"... Why do you want me to fight her?" Holding on to their chin, Chara stared at the ground for a few seconds before shaking their head.
"I don't; I just need to make sure you can handle yourself is all." Chara replied. "As for Toriel… I don't think she wants either of us to leave, to be honest." I could see their point, and it wasn't very unreasonable for them to want to test my ability to handle myself, not at all; however, I found it ghoulish that my first battle would have to be against the very monster who saw me as her child. "Just think of it as uh… An emotional fortifying exercise as well; I mean, there's pretty much no one who you wouldn't be able to fight after beating your own mother now, is there? Besides, she won't actually be really trying to hurt you, so don't take it too serious."
"Sure…" I muttered. As if on cue, there came a knock at the bedroom door. Chara gave me a sly smile and wink as they leaned down to pick up the crayons to put them in their back pocket.
"Frisk and I have returned from the market!" Toriel announced as she opened the door. Running past her dress, Frisk quickly moved past her and leapt toward me with their arms stretched out. "Frisk was so excited to show you their new outfit!" After they were done hugging me, I looked down to see their new striped buttoned overalls and black turtleneck. Frisk did a quick twirl to show me the entirety of their outfit. "They picked it out themselves!"
"Do you like it, Haise? I wanted to change outfits like you did too!" I did my best to smile back at Frisk's face of delight. It was hard for me to smile, when the very motherly monster stood in the same room.
"It… It looks good on you, Frisk." I replied before giving them another hug. As I rested my head on their shoulder to see sadness in Toriel's smile as she stared back at me.
"... Frisk, go play with the others while Haise and I take a walk downstairs." My heart dropped as I shuddered. I could tell Frisk noticed this from the way they pulled back away from the hug to look at me. Not wanting to worry them, I tried my best to bring back my fake smile, but Frisk was able to see past it this time.
"Haise?"
"Come on Frisk, let's go play!" Chara interrupted as they wrapped their arm around their shoulder. Clearly still unsettled, Frisk simply stared at Chara's smiling face wordlessly for a moment before sighing. "Let's go, and uh, Haise." Turning to look at them, Chara patted me on shoulder. "Meet up with us after you and mom are done talking, okay?" It took a me moment for me to be able to respond to them, even though my response was simply just a nod. "Good. Well, see you two later." With that said, Chara led Frisk out of the room, leaving only Toriel and I in the room together. We stood in silence as the time painfully passed in seemingly slower pace than usual. Finally, a sigh broke the tension between us as Toriel moved closer to me before kneeling down to face me.
"My child, I know that you're wanting to break the barrier, but… How do you expect to do that exactly?" I wanted to answer her with a response that would make the most sense, but the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I begun to realize how I really didn't have a plan; even if I did have a plan, it would probably go along the lines of wandering around until I found something. "And even more so, how do you expect your mother to stay home while her son is wandering around, lost, in the Underground?" Perhaps it was selfish of me, but I moved away from her sternly.
"I'm sorry but… But I refuse to accept my fate being trapped here." I regretted saying that in such a bitter tone, but I meant every word of it. The two of us remained silently still as time passed, and eventually ending when Toriel stood back up to opened the door.
"I suppose you're set on it… Meet me in the basement."
Inside the living room, I felt my throat tighten as the sounds of heavy footsteps echoed through the hallway and down the stairs before being followed by much lighter and quicker steps. Sitting in the chair, the sounds of fire crackingly in the fireplace relaxed me the best they could as I looked down to see the three pairs of eyes staring back at me from my new siblings sitting down on the wooden floor below. "Chara, why'd you stop?" Asriel questioned with an eager smile spread across his face. Not wanting to worry him, I played it off with a head shake as I turned my focus toward the blazing embers that casted up into smoke.
"I'm sorry about that… Where was I?"
"You were telling us about how Kaneki and Hide met again." Frisk replied.
"Right… So assumed that Hide's soul or whatever still existed somehow, and was able to give Kaneki's his soul while Kaneki gave his soul to me."
"What about those white flowers? They're very pretty, but why did they bloom where Haise landed?" Juuzou asked in a slightly excited voice, which made me laugh a little. Honestly, he reminded me of little kid, despite still being children. Juuzou quickly got up to place a white flower on my lap before sitting back down.
"Oh, this?" I mused aloud as I picked up the white floor to inspect it. Holding the unwilted flower, it still felt cool to the touch as I caught whiff of its sugary fragrance. "I honestly don't really know… I think it might represent life or some junk like that." Asriel raised an eyebrow at me after hearing that.
"Or some junk? That's a bit rude to say, don't you think?" I blinked at him, not knowing what he meant.
"I don't see how that's at all rude Asriel, care to explain?" Standing up, Asriel held out his hands, to which I placed the flower on top of his palms. Inhaling its sweet scent, Asriel's smile returned as he kept his focus on the flower.
"I didn't mean to say that you were being rude, Chara, I just meant that it seems impolite to understate what this flower really is." It was my turn to give him a skeptical look.
"Please, do go on."
"Gladly!" Clearing his voice, Asriel prepared himself for one of his little speeches as I prepared myself by getting comfortable in the chair. "First off, this is a white carnation flower, which is said to symbolize innocence."
"Wow Asriel, how did you know that?" Frisk asked in an awe stricken voice.
"Oh, my dad and I used to garden a lot, and he used to tell me about all sorts of flowers; plus, we still have a book about yeah, I think that the flowers that bloomed with Haise might symbolize Kaneki's wish to be innocent and carefree, because let's face it, Kaneki wasn't very happy."
"I think you're looking too far deep into it." I replied as I glared at Asriel. "And also, just as a little side note, you don't know what Kaneki went through, so I'd appreciate if you refrained from speaking ill of him."
"I understand how you feel Chara, but that brings me to my next point." He wasn't wrong, but still, he didn't know what Kaneki and I went through, and I hoped he never will. "Haise is way more confident and expresses more joy than any of us have seen in Kaneki."
"... What are you implying?" He was starting to get me mad, and I could tell that Frisk was noticing this too from the way they kept looking at me rather than Asriel.
"I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but since we're a family, I think we should keep an eye on Haise."
Down in the corridors of the basement, I hadn't expected the hallways to be so long. Though I wasn't growing tired of running, after a while of running in the dark, I soon found myself walking slowly down through the pitch blackness of the hallway. "Toriel?!" I called out, but with no response. In fact, I didn't even hear an echo of any kind as I called out for her. It wasn't long until the sounds of my own footsteps were muffled from what felt like plants underneath me; however, I only realized this moments before slipping and falling down into a warm liquid puddle. It smelt metallic, and it didn't take me long to realize that what I had fallen into was most likely blood. I became concerned. "Hello?! Are you okay?!" I continued to call out in the dark as I carefully got up.
"Mama… Mama's fine." I felt myself tense up as the nearby voice called back. What unnerved me about this voice was that it was very reminiscent of how Chara once spoke through Kaneki. I did, however, quickly recognize one of the voices to belonging to Toriel, but as the other voice, I couldn't exactly make out who it belonged to. Before I knew it, I found myself enveloped in a bright white light- forcing me to protect my eyes with my bloodied sleeves. After a moment, I slowly lowered my arms back to my side as I took a peek of the surrounding room that I was in.
Below me, I could see a bed of those white flowers from before surrounding me. Something was different though, something far different. Contradicting to what I had first thought before, it wasn't a puddle of blood that I had slipped in, but rather two heavy trails that traversed across the once pure white flowers, gray carpet, and all the way down to where a kitchen was. It soon became apparent to me that I was in some sort of apartment, but everything around me was monochrome, all except for the blood that spread over the table counters where I saw a tall woman turned away from me in front of what I was guessing to be a sink. As I cautiously made my way closer to her, I begun to notice that scattered across the kitchen tiles was an array of broken plates and glasses. "Sweety… Be a dear and grab Mama a flower,"
"I think you have me mistaken for someone else." I corrected as I continued to keep my distance away from the woman. She wore a black dress that looked a lot like Toriel's, which as soon I realized, made me worry even more. "Ma'am, are you hurt?"
"Dear… Mama just got a little cut is all; so just please… Bring Mama a flower like a good child." Perhaps the woman, or whoever she actually was, suffered from some sort of mental illness of some kind, or was simply just confused. Getting closer to her, it was then that I noticed a heavy scent of alcohol emitting from her, which prompt me to take a closer looked down at shattered pieces of large glass across the floor. A heavy feeling of sympathy washed over me as I came to the conclusion that most of the glass, if not all, were once used to contain heavy liquor.
"Ma'am, please come sit down so I can wrapped your cuts." After saying that, she turnt off the faucet before continuing to stay glued to that one spot. As soon as I made one step toward her, she quickly threw a knife down toward me feet, to which I was able to move out of the way from, before slamming down her hands on the sides of the sink. Frozen to my place, I watched anxiously as she turned to face me.
"Juuzou…" Now facing me completely, she lifted up her arms before turning them to exhibit the numerous deep cuts slashed up and across her mangled pale skin. The wounds were deep, and from the looks of it, they had been self inflicted. "You already bled mama dry, and no amount of stitches or apologies will ever fix that." Her black mouth suddenly shot open as they stared at me with wide empty stare. I stood frozen as she collapsed on the ground covered with thousands of pieces of shattered glass with a hard thud. The woman slowly pushed herself up as she reached a disgusting outstretched arm toward me, to which I quickly backed away from. I picked up the knife from the ground as I held it out in front me toward her. Seeing the knife caused her body to rapidly begin to convulse on the ground in an almost seizure state before going still. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, I took a step back away from the woman. Big mistake. The moment my foot landed behind me, a sickening cracking of bones filled the room for a split second before the woman suddenly stood a foot away from me to clamp down her bloodied hands on my shoulders. Now that she was in my face, I could see her facing melting into some kind of contortion as she screamed an ungodly wail at me. What happened next seemed more of like I had no control of my body. Without hesitation, I raised the knife and in one swift motion I jabbed the blade deep into her stomach.
"Do… Do you really hate me that much...?"
"Asriel, calm down!" I shouted as I grab hold of Asriel's flailing wrist. "Frisk, come and help me!"
"I can't!" Frisk sobbed as they continued to hide their head inside their arms. If having to hide themselves away from seeing the red flower tossed in its own puddle of blood was already stressful enough for Frisk, then Asriel's screams did neither one of us any favors. "Help! Haise! Mom! Juuzou! Somebody help!" Of course, that little creep Juuzou wouldn't have been there when I needed him; he probably left to God-knows-where after leaving that damn flower on my lap. The blood that ran down Asriel's sleeves before he tossed the flower to the ground was now getting on my hands.
"Asriel! It's just blood, okay?! It's not going to hurt you!" Although that was able to calm him down, it wasn't long until his screams transformed into sobbing as rushed past me toward the kitchen. "Frisk, get up!"
"No!" Not wanting nor having the time to deal with Frisk's childish behavior, I grab hold of their arm before jerking them up to their feet. As soon as they stood up, they hid their head into my shoulder as they wrapped their arms tightly around me while they continued to sob. Frustrated, I made my way to the kitchen with Frisk huddled against me to see Asriel frantically scrubbing his hands and arms shirtless. Looking down to the ground near the right wall, I assumed that the first thing Asriel did was toss his soiled sweater aside before scrubbing away. However, in his panicked state, he wasn't doing a very good job. Making my way next to him, I grab hold of his hands with one hand and with the other I turned up the water's heat.
"Calm down, I'll help you, okay?" Gulping down, Asriel nodded meekly as he turned away from the sink. "That's good, just look at me, not the sink, okay?"
"... O-Okay." He murmured. With Frisk on my back, it took me a bit to reach into the sink's cabinet to pull out a bottle of dish soap. Squirting a good amount on Asriel's blood matted fur, I begun to rub deep into the fur as I watched the blood diluting away into the drain of the sink.
"You can look now." Asriel reluctantly turned away from me to looked down at his arms, and let out a sigh of relief as he stepped away from the sink. "Frisk, let go."
"... Frisk, you can hold onto me for now if you want." Asriel offered, to which thankfully Frisk accepted. With his arms still wet, Asriel outstretched his arms away from Frisk as they hugged Asriel. From what I could tell, I think Frisk was beginning to calm down, now that Asriel had stopped screaming and crying. Taking off my sweater so that all I had on top was my buttoned up black dress shirt, I begun to dry off Asriel's soaked arms. "Thank you, Chara… I'm sorry I freaked out so badly."
"Don't mention it." I smiled back as I let out my own sigh of relief. Pressing myself against the wall, I slid down into a sitting position as I ran a hand down my face. "Okay… So I don't know what the heck just happened, but… I don't know…"
"... Chara, maybe mom will know?"
"Damn it…" I whispered under my breath as I stared up at the ceiling. With the white flower transforming into a striped carnation into a bleeding red spider lily transpiring, I had forgotten to check up on Haise and Toriel. I could feel myself becoming overwhelmed with dread as the sickening feeling in my stomach intensified. "I'll… I'll go get them, you two just stay here for now, okay?"
"Okay, just be careful around that… that evil flower, okay?" I let out a fake chuckle as I got up to my feet.
"Duly noted."
"I thought I heard something going down here." Juuzou mused amusingly. "Although, to be honest, I was expecting someone else Haise, but… Lucky for Mama that I came when I did, right?" He snickered. There on the floor, I cletched my teeth as I tried to cover the large slash through my chest that bled out a black mist into the air. Being how he was about five yards away from me, it would be understatement to say that he got a lucky hit on me. Leaning up, I caught a glimpse of Juuzou standing protectively in front of Toriel wielding a large cyan silhouette of a bulky scythe with the roman numerals 'XIII' etched into the blade. Toriel stood speechlessly behind him as she held her hands to her mouth. Gone were Juuzou's innocent pink eyes, and instead he glared at me through blacken eyes with glowing cyan irises focusing intently on me. Above those eyes, his hair had become white, and on his face and body, I could see red-crossed stitching slithering through his skin slowly like a snake.
"J-Juuzou?!" I managed to speak out as the pain begun to fade along with the bleeding mist. "What's the matter with you?! You could have killed me!" I shouted angrily at him, who in turn, seemed amused at this.
"That was what I was hoping for!" Although his laughter was meant to be jeering toward me, it wasn't without emotion however; in fact, something seemed off putting about him, despite his obvious features and giant weapon he held. In a split second, all joy from his face vanished as he stared deeper toward me. "It wasn't like you had any problem with killing Mama either... Monster."
"... Monster?" I found myself muttering aloud. I suddenly caught a glimmer of black mist evaporating on my left, and when I turned my head to look, there I saw was half of what looked like one of the three other red tendrils protruding from my lower back. Even to that point, I had no idea what was going on, and seeing such a sight of abnormality coming from me only made matters worse. "Juuzou... Get back."
"What… What did you just say?" Juuzou, although had no anger in his words, asked me in an almost demanding voice. Taking a step forward from Toriel, Juuzou made his way closer to me as he rested the scythe over his shoulder.
"Juuzou, calm down. There's no need for this, you're scaring Toriel." I tried to reason, but the next step he took closer toward me suggested that he although he heard me, he disregarded what I had just told me as he came to a complete halt. With him closer to me, I could make out a few tears running down his cheeks briefly before he wiped them using his forearm. "Extending out his right hand, a long red thread shot out from his open palm and wrapped itself around my leg. Juuzou brought his right arm in with a tug as the thread begun to drag me toward him. Seeing the scythe held up above him, ready to pierce through me, I watched as two remaining tendrils extended out: one tore away at the red thread while the other aimed toward Juuzou. Leaping back, Juuzou swung down his scythe- tearing through the tendrils with ease. Having rolled away from his attack at the last second, I got up to feet. "Juuzou! You don't have to be burden with that guilt longer!" Juuzou's eyes widened upon hearing that, and he gave me an genuine look of disgust as he glared hatefully at me. "I... I saw how you killed your mother."
"You… You really are sick!" Juuzou shouted at me, for what the first time sounded like anger. "How dare you!? You know nothing about me! You don't know what I saw! You don't know..." Swiping his right hand across in front of him, six cyan knives appeared floating in front of him, and when he swiped his right hand back over the knives, they all shot out toward me. I managed to duck in time to avoid the oncoming projectiles, but only to look up to see more knifes coming toward me. I knew that I couldn't dodge forever, and it was only a matter of time before I would get stabbed. "You don't know what it's like to lose your mother!" Juuzou cried out. I had finished hopping over a knife, and had just landed on the ground, so all I had time to see when I looked up was the scythe's blade coming down inches away from my face. I closed my eyes as I prepared myself for what was to come next, but nothing happened. Slowly peeking an eye open, I looked up to see Juuzou with a confused and frustrated look on his face. "... What?!" Raising the scythe, he tried slashing through my head again, but I watched as it fazed right through me once again. "Just… LET ME HAVE THIS!" He screeched as he furiously swung the scythe through me, with only the same results. Giving up on his large weapon, he tossed it aside before having two knifes appearing before him. Wielding both, he sliced repeatedly through my still body once more. At this point, he was just tiring himself out. That's when I figured it out: his cyan attacks couldn't hurt me if I stood still. The more and more he tired himself out, the more his features began to return to normal. It wasn't long until he fell to his knees with his black bangs hiding his tear-ridden rosey eyes as he banged his closed fist weakly against my pants in an act of desperation. Ironically, his small hands were the only attack that I had actually felt. "I… I don't wanna lose another Mama…" He sobbed quietly. "I… I have to protect her… Protect Asriel… Frisk… Chara... and even you..." Seeing him in this state was saddening… In fact, I would even go as far as saying it was… Pathetic. This brat was ruining my slacks, and more importantly, he was in my way. Placing my foot on top of his forehead, I kicked him back on the ground where he belonged.
"You think that I need YOUR protection?" I muttered. He let out a small whimper, to which annoyed me; however, all it took was me stabbing him with a tendril through his stomach to shut him up. Toriel, who had been shell shocked from what had just happened, snapped out of her trance as she held out her arm toward Juuzou. The moment she took a step closer to us, I aimed the last tendril I had left toward her direction, which caused her to stop dead in her tracks. "You." I spoke toward her as I begun to walk over toward her. "Open the door." I thought it was a simple demand, but I suppose she was too busy wanting to play hero to abide. Firey orbs appeared above her hands as she took a step closer to me.
"You… I don't know who you are, but I won't allow-"
"-Took too long." To show her that I wasn't playing around, I sliced off a good portion of Juuzou's right leg, which caused him to scream in agony. Just as I had planned, this immediately discouraged Toriel from further trying to play hero. "Open it now, or I'll cut off his head." I couldn't lie, I didn't want to hurt him. Looking down, all that was left was just a few white particles pathetically flowing out along with his blood from his stump. I was glad to see that I was able to persuade Toriel into taking things into my perspective. In a matter of seconds, Toriel unlocked the large purple gate. "Thank you, mom... I don't want any of you to follow me, okay?... Take care of Juuzou." Taking one last step over Juuzou's chest, I shoved past the grieving mother as she rushed toward Juuzou's aid. As I assumed, the moment I took a step out of the gate, Toriel had quickly rushed to lock me out of the Ruins. In the midst of the dark room, a light shed from above to expose a long grey flower with an all too familiar disfigured face staring at me with absolute disappointment.
"YoU mOnStEr! hOw DaRe YoU bRiNg HaRm On UpOn ThAt SwEeT cHiLd?!" WD Gaster asked in an appauld voice.
"I don't get it, you said you wanted the children to stay here, right? I don't think that brat will be walking anywhere anytime soon." I chuckled. Despite it being funny, WD Gaster didn't seemed amused at all.
"YoU'rE fAr MoRe SaDiStIc ThAn ChArA eVeR wAs… KaNeKi… HiDe... I kNoW yOu'Re In ThErE..." He sighed. "hAiSe Is NoT yOuR's To CoNtRoL, AkAnEki!" How cute.
"Don't compare me to anyone... Especially Kaneki or Hide... Hey Gaster… Don't your children live in Snowdin? What are their names again?" I mused aloud, to see him staring back at me with a look of horror. "Stay out of my way, or else I'll have to pay them a visit... But first tell me this: What does that make you then? A coward? A failure as a father and a scientist? You're not a hero, so don't act like one." Taking a step over him, I looked down to see that a grey vine had tried pathetically to wrap itself around my ankle. "You're really DETERMINED, aren't you?"
"... Ah YeS... HiDe, YoU'rE DETERMINED, jUsT aS cHaRa AnD fRiSk ArE."
"... What are you doing?"
"cOmE nOw, KaNeKi! I kNoW yOu HaVe ThE PATIENCE tO dIsCuSs ThIs OvEr, LeT's SaY… a NiCe CuP oF cOfFeE?" I just realized, inside that cave, it was so cold. And honestly… That sounded nice.
I didn't have time to get half way down the stairs before Toriel rushed past me. "Mom?" I asked aloud as I watched her frantically make her way to the living room. What served as the harbinger for me was the screams of both Asriel and Frisk that came from the living room. "Oh God…" I muttered. Following the bloody trail, I entered the living room to see Juuzou sprawled out on the table with his leg missing. In an almost trance like state, I stood froze the spot as I watched Toriel cauterizing the wound.
"Asriel! Get the bandages from my room!" What was once a gentle voice of a mother was replaced by the voice of a queen. Asriel, seeing how serious the situation was, wasted no time in sprinting past me down the hallway toward his mother's room. "Frisk, deary, go to the kitchen and bring me a wet towel!" Just as they were before, Frisk was far too disturb to abide by any orders.
"Oh God…"
"Frisk! Do you want him to die?! Go!" Reluctantly, Frisk sobbed as they sprinted toward the kitchen. Brushing past me again, Asriel came rushing in to hand his mother a white box. "Good my child, now place it on the table." Of course, it wasn't long until Frisk returned, and from there, Toriel lead the two of them in saving Juuzou. They made have called for me to help, but at the point, I couldn't make out anything. All that went through my head, was the thought of how Haise could have done something like that. Kaneki never would have hurt anyone like that, and Hide didn't seem like the type either… Had I… Had I just presumed that Haise and Kaneki were the same still the same person? Reaching into my pocket, I unfolded the picture I had drew earlier… Although it wasn't the greatest picture of him, it was the only thing I had of him now.
"Mom… Did Haise do this?" I must have either been too focused on the picture I drew or lost track of time, because by the time I came back from my trance like state, I found myself sitting down on Toriel's chair underneath a blanket as the embers danced quietly in the fireplace.
"... Chara." Looking down on the floor, it became apparent to me that while I was lost in my own thoughts, Asriel and Frisk had decided to lay blankets and pillows on the ground. Next to Asriel, Frisk snored lightly as they were wrapped in their blanket, which was most likely the reason Asriel was whispering. "Mom's asleep with Juuzou in her room."
"Oh…"
"... I don't get it." Asriel muttered as he leaned up from his covers. "I thought… I thought Haise was supposed to be a good guy, I mean, he wanted to free us all from the barrier, right?"
"... I don't know, Asriel. I… I…"
"Chara… are you crying?" Hiding my face in my hand, I turned to face away from Asriel as I wept silently.
"... Excuse me?" A voice, an all too familiar voice politely called out. My eyes shot open as I leaned up off the armrest to search for who I had thought I'd never hear again.
"Kaneki?!" I shouted out. I knew it couldn't have been Haise, he never sounded as intimidated and shy as Kaneki was. "Kaneki?! Where are you?! It's me, Chara!"
"Chara! What's gotten into you?!" Asriel exclaimed in a hushed voice as he tried to cover my mouth.
"It's Kaneki! I-"
"Kaneki…? Do you mean me?"
"Of course I mean you! Who else would I be talking to?"
"Chara, you're going to wake up-"
"Kaneki?" Frisk muttered as they woke up from their slumber.
"Yeah, I can… I can hear Kaneki in my head!" Although Frisk was tired, they seemed mystified from my statement. Meanwhile, Asriel appeared to be frowning, but I didn't care. It must had been from me being too loud. "Kaneki, I thought you were Haise now!"
"Haise? Who's that?" At first, I thought he was joking, but… He seemed genuinely puzzled at the name.
"What do you mean? Haha, didn't you… You made up the name, don't you remember?"
"I appologize but, no, I don't remember ever doing such a thing."
"What's he saying?" Frisk yawned as they climbed out of their covers to sit next to me on the chair. "Asriel, isn't that great? Kaneki's back!"
"... Sure."
"Kaneki… Do you… Do you know who any of us are?"
"... Let me take a look."
"Oh my God… Chara, y-your left eye is grey!"
"Who's that?" I felt my heart beginning to sink as I stared blankly ahead at Asriel.
"... That's your brother, Asriel Dreeumurr." I whispered softly. Hearing his name, Asriel backed away a little as he continued to stare deep into my left eye with a concerned look.
"Hi Kaneki!"
"And who is that sitting next to us?" Reaching my hand out, I ran my fingers through their hair as I patted them on the head.
"That's Frisk Dreemurr, they're your sibling as well."
"... I'm sorry, I don't remember anything…" Kaneki admitted shyly, in an almost shameful tone. "I don't even know who I am, let alone who you or anyone else."
"It's fine, you just… You know what, that's fine. Wait a moment." Hopping of the chair, I took the picture I drew from Asriel's hands before making my way to the entrance of the hallway to turn the lights on. "I want to introduce myself to you, Kaneki Dreemurr." I declared as I turned to face the mirror, to see that infact my left eye was grey, just like Kaneki's. "I'm Chara Dreemurr, I'm your sibling as well and um… I have an offer for you." I tried smiling in the reflection to show Kaneki that I only had the best intentions in mind, but it was then that I had realized what a mess I looked. My hair was frayed and my black collar was out of place.
"An offer?"
"Yes, well, more like… more like a partnership between the two of us."
"A partnership? What kind of partnership, Miss. Dreemurr?"
"Please, just call me Chara." I requested as I popped my collar back into place.
"Of course, Chara." God, it felt good to hear his voice again.
"Okay, so… I would like to bring you back to life, as in, we need to find you a soul of your own." With my drawing in my hand, I look down to show Kaneki it. "I drew this earlier today… This is you, how you used to look like." I explained as I hovered my finger of my drawing's black hair and smiling face. "I can't draw that well, but if you can use a little imagination, then yes, this is how you used to look like…"
"Is that you next to me in the picture? Holding my hand?"
"... I know, it's a dumb drawing-"
"I don't think that, Chara. I think it's lovely." Kaneki said. Although I couldn't see him yet, I knew that he was smiling. "If this is what you're offering to me, a chance to be alive, then I'll gladly accept your offer. What do you want in return? I don't have anything, but… I'll give you anything in return, Chara." I opened my mouth to talk, but found myself unable to speak. It wasn't that I didn't know what I wanted to say, it was just that I had a hard time saying it. "Chara? Are you… Oh no, did I… Did I make you cry? I'm sorry… I'll leave you alone, sorry I was-"
"NO!" I screamed as I slammed my hand against the mirror. "Don't go! I can't… I can't lose you again, okay?!" In an instant, my legs gave a quick buckle as I felt myself fall to my knees. Holding the drawing deep into my chest, I sobbed. "Please, don't go…"
"... Chara." Kaneki spoke softly to me. "I don't know who I was, or what kind of person I was before… But that doesn't matter, I'm here now, and if you want me to stay with you, then I won't go anywhere. So please…" Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I wiped my nose and eyes on my black sleeve to look next to me to see him crouched down beside me. He wore a white collared dress shirt, much like the one I was wearing, with a pair of black slacks and dress shoes as he smiled at me. Rather than his having white hair, his hair was well kempt and black. I could feel my heart thumping fast against my chest as I found myself staring into those grey eyes of his. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I pulled him to embrace him. "Don't cry anymore."
"Just hold me." I whispered as I rested my head on his shoulder. There, every worry I had seemed to fade away as I relaxed to the sound of Kaneki's breathing. There's no doubt about it, I would save Kaneki, just like how he saved me. But for now, all I wanted to do was fall asleep with him in my arms; everything and everyone would have to wait.
We did it, we finally escaped the ruins. Also, I wanted to make this edit due to the sword coming out of no where, where as I should have just given him his Kagune. The reason why I make it a tendril rather than a Kagune is because without ghouls, there's no reason to call them that... yet. And to clarify some confusion, in the last paragraph, that Kaneki is Kaneki Dreemurr, not Haise Sasaki, Akaneki, or the first Kaneki: Kaneki Ken.