Frisk tried to concentrate as they, along with Papyrus, attempted to find a suiting name for the new monster. They crossed another two suggestions and gave up for the moment. No matter how much Frisk tried to focus on picking one, they just couldn't stop thinking about the investigation that was going to take place a few hours later. Now they were just sitting at the skeletons' table, trying to kill time before Undyne arrived.

Frisk had been allowed to go because, even if the day before Asgore had seriously considered grounding them for their little unsupervised excursion to the basement, he had later called them, delighted to tell Frisk that the new monster was finally accepting the food he left for them. Asgore suspected it had something to do with Frisk talking to them, so he decided that he wouldn't tell Toriel after all. This automatically meant they would have permission to go investigate with their friends. They would be like a detective!

A lot of people didn't think a kid should be going to investigate a murder case, but as the monster ambassador, (and because monsters' rules on what their ambassadors could or couldn't do were to be respected by the humans) the only people who could really stop Frisk were their mom and dad. Not that they would do that, though. Toriel and Asgore knew from experience how capable Frisk was of taking care of themself. Besides, it's not like they were going alone.

Undyne and Sans were coming along too. The only reason Papyrus wasn't going was because he had already planned another of his talking sessions with the monster. Even if he was dying to go and help solve the 'puzzle' of what happened, he insisted that they should also work hard on making the monster open up to others. And Sans… well, Frisk wasn't sure why he was tagging along, but they suspected Toriel had something to do with it. He had been a lot easier to persuade into doing stuff since the barrier was destroyed.

After 5 very long minutes, Undyne finally arrived accompanied by Greater Dog. She was wearing a black jacket over a white button-up shirt and a pair of jeans. She had said she didn't understand why a lot of humans wore suits and stuff like that for investigations, if the job would be easier in clothes that allowed free movement. She would have liked to wear her armor for this kind of official business, but seeing how humans had much lighter equipment she had to admit it would probably be more of a handicap than an advantage.

As soon as she entered the living room, she dropped on the couch, looking exhausted. Sans, who was sitting on the other end of the couch with his feet on a small coffee table, waved his hand at her. Greater Dog simply jumped out of his armored body and ran to greet Frisk. The kid gladly agreed to pet him.

"bad morning?" asked Sans.

"Yeah." She huffed. "Why do humans like paperwork SO much. It sucks!"

"HELLO, UNDYNE! IS EVERYTHING READY FOR YOUR INVESTIGATION?" Papyrus asked while exiting the kitchen, "I HEARD SOME HUMAN POLITICS WERE TRYING TO INTERFERE WITH YOUR DUTY!"

"HA! Some of those guys don't trust monsters enough to let us manage this kind of situations yet." she grinned, "But, ooh boy, you should have seen the queen! I've never seen anyone making someone eat their words so politely. The rest was filling forms and signing a lot of documents. BORING! Long story short, we now can do whatever the heck we want to help solve the case."

Undyne then turned to face Frisk with a teasing smile.

"Hey, punk! Enough with the petting! I'M your bestie! Why haven't you come and greeted me?!"

Frisk just laughed before running to Undyne to hug her. She picked them up in response and returned the hug, squeezing the air out of them. Undyne gave the best crushing hugs.

"So that means we can prove they are innocent!" Frisk said happily after they could recover their breath.

Undyne stopped smiling, however, and she averted her eyes as she put Frisk back down.

"Sorry, Frisk." she said, "Not a chance."

"What…?" Frisk frowned.

"Apparently, the wounds on the men they found had some feathers stuck on them that match the ones our new 'guest' has." She sighed. "Besides, one of the times I tried interrogating them -and got attacked- I took a couple of feathers with me and had Alphys analyze them, since the humans weren't certain if their methods would be accurate enough with magical stuff. Turns out they do come from the same monster."

"So… so they really killed those men?" asked Frisk, crestfallen. They had wanted to believe the monster hadn't done it and would be declared innocent. But they knew what their punishment for murder would be. Especially because they were a monster in a world that didn't quite trust such creatures yet. "Then… then what do we do…"

"aww, c'mon pal." Sans said. He put his hand on Frisk's shoulder. "don't look so down. there's still hope. right, undyne?"

"IS THAT TRUE, UNDYNE?" Papyrus asked, "IF THEY REALLY KILLED SOMEONE THEN THEY NEED ME TO TEACH THEM HOW TO BE A BETTER PERSON, BUT THEY HAVE TO BE ALIVE FOR THAT!"

"Well, yeah. But…"

"What is it? Tell me!" Frisk was practically jumping up and down waiting for the answer. "We have to save them!"

"The only hope we have right now," Undyne said, placing her hands on Frisk's shoulders to stop their bouncing, "is to try and prove that they did it solely in self-defense."

"And do you think that's what happened?" Frisk asked her. They wanted to save the monster, but it probably wasn't a good idea to try to lie about what happened.

Undyne made an unconvinced face.

"I mean, it could have been what happened, but according to the reports I was given, a lot of the attacks were from the back, which many of the human officers are using to assume it was an ambush. It's going to be hard to prove otherwise." She scratched her head in thought. "Ah, dang it! Why can't things be less complicated?!"

"WELL, THAT OBVIOUSLY IS WHAT HAPPENED!" Papyrus said, "NONE OF US HAVE BEEN BACK ATTACKED SINCE THEY ARRIVED! SO, IT'S ONLY LOGICAL TO ASSUME IT WAS AN ACTION COMMITED OUT OF DESPERATION! WHAT ELSE COULD HAVE DRIVEN THEM TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! AND EVEN IF I DON'T CONDONE WHAT THEY DID, I THINK THAT THEY DESERVE TO BE GIVEN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT! …AND LESSONS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESSFUL SITUATIONS!"

"Heh. You're right, Papyrus." Undyne gave him a big smile. "Well, what are we doing here still? We need to get going if we want a chance to save their life! That weakling better thanks us later for all the trouble we are going through for them!"

She stood up and stretched. Greater Dog barked twice excitedly, before jumping back (head first) into his armor. Undyne facepalmed and hurried to help him into a better position.

"aren't you forgetting a little something?" Sans asked, "you haven't even told us where we are going to."

"Oh. Right."

Undyne took out a map from one of the pockets of her jacket and placed it on the coffee table so that everyone could see it. She then pointed at the destined location.

"Right here. That's where the bodies were found, supposedly."

"In a forest?" Frisk asked her, "Wait. What do you mean by 'supposedly'?"

"The murder was two years ago. The humans had been looking for that monster for a long time now." she explained.

"But if it was so long ago, is there anything we can do?"

"hey, don't underestimate us, pal." Sans said, winking at Frisk, "humans have never been as perceptive with magic business as we monsters are. if they missed anything, we'll notice."

"TRUE! IT'S ONE OF THE MANY ADVANTAGES OF BEING A MONSTER! I WOULD EVEN DARE TO SAY THAT IT'S ONE OF THE BEST." Papyrus agreed. "WELL, THE BEST BESIDES BELONGING TO THE SAME SPECIES AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS, OF COURSE!"

"Ugh! You all really like to delay things too much!" Undyne said while she shoved the map back into her pocket. "We have to get going or we won't do any progress today!"

"GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR INVESTIGATION!" Papyrus told them all. Then he looked at Sans with a stern face. "BROTHER, I EXPECT YOU TO WORK HARD ON THIS MISSION! A LIFE IS AT STAKE!"

"sure." Sans gave him a thumbs-up and a lazy grin.

Papyrus immediately smiled, contented with the answer.

"GOOD!" And with that he left the house, probably going to his one-sided talking session with the new monster.

"Our transport should be here shortly." Undyne announced, "It's not that long of a ride, but-"

"oh, that won't be necessary." Sans said, finally getting up. Gosh. Frisk didn't know how someone could stay in the same position for so long without moving.

"Eh? Why not? You aren't actually planning on walking all the way there, are you?" Undyne said, looking at him with a skeptical expression on her face.

Frisk already knew the answer before Sans could even say it out loud. And by the grin they were getting from the skeleton, he knew they knew.

"Been to that forest before. I know a shortcut."

What would have probably been an hour by car, turned into a five minute walk. Undyne seemed like she wanted to question it, but she reconsidered it after reasoning that it wasn't likely she would get a serious answer. Besides, there was no time for that. As soon as they arrived to the place, they got down to work.

According to what had been said to Undyne, the crime was committed in that clearing, which had a radius of about four meters. It wasn't a very dense forest, so nothing really menacing was in sight. The place actually seemed rather peaceful. Any trace of something bad happening there had been utterly erased a long time ago, either by the elements or the humans that first took the case. Frisk wasn't a hundred percent sure they would find anything at all that could help them, but they trusted their friends. Undyne hadn't been the head of the Royal Guard only because of her strength. Frisk actually knew by experience she was highly capable of tracking and predicting opponents and they looked up to her because of that.

Greater Dog, eager to please his leader, didn't waste any time to begin sniffing every inch of the area the team had delimited. Undyne followed him closely, occasionally planting a spear on certain spots. Frisk, meanwhile, just stood there frowning, not knowing how to help nor what was happening at that moment.

"heh. confused?" came Sans voice behind Frisk.

"Yeah. What are they doing?"

Sans shrugged and joined them by their side.

"eh. it's kind of complicated if you haven't studied monster biology."

He took his left hand out of his pocket and extended it in front of him with his palm up. A tiny leaf on the ground was suddenly enveloped in a blue aura before floating up and landing on Sans open hand. He closed his fingers around it and then kept talking without letting the blue aura disappear.

"you know monsters are made of magic, right? well, so are our attacks. thing is, without a steady flow of magic, they tend to dissipate quickly if the monster they originated from isn't close enough or didn't specifically intended for them to last."

"You mean like Papyrus' bone attacks?"

"yup. since he doesn't get to fight often, he likes to keep those as little memories. dissipated attacks become invisible and inoffensive, but they stay in the general vicinity, floatin' around and stuff. things like rain and wind can't touch them."

"But… didn't they say that the feathers were what killed those men? Do you think the monster left them on purpose?"

"seems like the only answer, but does that make sense to you?"

Frisk shook their head.

"thought so. for some reason, every feather that has come from that fella has stayed solid enough for humans to pick it up. that also means we aren't getting any of those around here, since the human officers probably took off with all of them already."

"Then…" Frisk said impatiently.

"Then we take out our trick under our sleeves." He motioned to Undyne and Greater Dog's work. "even if there are no feathers, magic energy from when the attack was released lingers as well as the attack itself. and because dissipated magic is attracted to constant magic flows, for example the spears, we should be able to tell from where exactly the attacks came from and how they moved. g' dog there should be able to tell us if it's the same magic as the one of our new buddy."

Sans finally let the leaf fall to the ground, blue aura gone. Frisk stared at it as it fell. They guessed he too had been trying to search for magic traces on it. They wondered if it was an ability only certain monsters had. Undyne at least seemed like she needed Greater Dog for it…

"This can't be right! Extend the radius of search by ten meters!"

Frisk and Sans turned to face Undyne at her sudden outburst. Her canine underling hurried to do as she said and sprinted into the vegetation.

"what's up?" Sans asked her.

"Greater Dog can't find a strong track, and he's our best magic sniffer! It should be here. I mean, there is something, but it's so insignificant we can't do anything about it!" she explained.

"Is it theirs?" Frisk asked.

"Well, yes." Undyne admitted "But it's not enough! NGAHHH! This SUCKS!"

Greater Dog returned with his ears lowered. He whimpered while shaking his head. So he hadn't found anything.

"I don't get it. I'm sure we didn't do anything wrong." Undyne said with a sigh.

"and this place is kind of remote for some monster to just have passed and accidentally pulled the magic to them." Sans shrugged.

An idea occurred to Frisk. Whenever they didn't know what to do in the underground, the answer or a hint used to be somewhere else. They frowned while considering it, but shook their head dismissingly. That couldn't be possible, could it? However, they didn't get the opportunity to just let it go, because Sans didn't miss their expression.

"something on your mind, kiddo?"

"W-well, it's just…" They didn't know how to say it. It would probably sound rude. "What if… they were wrong?"

"What do you mean, punk?" Undyne said.

"Well, uh, maybe they only thought the m-murder" They made a little pause at that word. "was here. Maybe it was somewhere else…"

An absolute silence suddenly settled around them as what the kid said started to sink in. Well, Frisk hadn't expected for them to take it that bad. They fidgeted with their hands before trying to correct themself.

"I didn't mean-!"

"THOSE BASTARDS!" Undyne yelled at the top of her lungs, making Frisk startle.

"ooh, undyne. i'm telling paps." Sans smirked.

"Shut up!" Undyne shot him a glare. "And Frisk, you too! Don't tell the queen or Papyrus that I said that in front of you!"

Frisk assured her that they wouldn't say a thing about it, but quickly turned their attention to the skeleton, who was now staring at the glowing spears.

"i guess that's what we get for trusting in humans, huh?" he said.

Now Frisk was even more confused. Normally their friends didn't act like that for just a mistake.

"I don't get it." they said, "They probably just overlooked-"

"nope."

"Huh?"

"No surprise the only photos I got were from the time that the bodies had already been moved out of here." Undyne said under her breath, although her voice clearly revealed how upset she was.

"kid, you're right about something." Sans told them, "the attack didn't happen here, but there is a good chance that someone didn't want us to know that."

"And I know humans have a ton of methods to determine if a body has been moved or not. They couldn't possibly miss that, especially because that monster's aim is awful! The place would be enough of a mess for them to figure that out." Undyne continued, "So either the humans are just plain lying to us, or they decided to ignore that 'little' fact for their convenience."

"seems to me that we got enough not-evidence for now to buy us some time." Sans said, "should we head back? all this standing around is making me tired."

Frisk guessed they could do nothing more in that place, but they still felt like they hadn't accomplished much in terms of helping the new monster. They let out a sad sigh that earned them a pat on the back from Sans. Greater Dog, on the other hand, perked up at Sans suggestion and ran to join him and Frisk.

"You didn't do anything! Why are you tired!" Undyne scowled at Sans.

"hey. If you wanted to get back the long way, you should've just said so." His mischievous smile could only be compared with the one he wore when he was about to make a pun.

"You wouldn't-" Undyne started just to be interrupted.

"c'mon, kid, g' dog. i think she wants us to spear her the shortcut." And in the blink of an eye, he teleported the three of them out of the forest, leaving a very mad Undyne behind.

They reappeared at the skeleton's house without a problem. Greater Dog immediately hopped out from his armor and climbed onto the couch for a quick nap. Sans sat beside him and stretched his legs over the coffee table once more. Frisk, meanwhile, just stood there looking dumbfounded. Sans had just left Undyne in a forest that was hours away from the town. Alone. Without any means of transportation whatsoever. They could only imagine her swearing she would get her revenge on him, rage all over her face. Honestly, they should have felt bad, and they did, but the wink Sans sent in their direction, made them burst in laughter. His smile only widened.

After five minutes, he gave in to Frisk's pouting at him and he got up to bring her back.

Hi! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Man. You won't know how difficult Sans is to write until you try it. Also sorry for the lack of puns, but I don't think it was the best environment for that kind of jokes. I know Papyrus for now isn't getting as much spotlight as he deserves, but I'm planning something for him, so don't worry!

Also, I didn't expect this to turn into a case of CSI! XP I'll try focusing more on what's currently happening with the new monster (whose name might be revealed next time), but it was necessary for this chapter.

Well, that's it for today! If you liked the chapter, please leave a review and tell me what you think! Constructive criticism is always appreciated! Have a nice day!