I had never been through a class period since getting amnesia until that day, but it was strangely familiar. What I mean by that is I know what the common things are, just like you've noticed I do with everything else. I know a lot of things. I felt I knew what to expect. I also learned that I was... surprisingly knowledgeable about most subjects... not counting history. Though, that's to be expected. That fell into the category of personal memories, I guess. I half knew some other things, too. The certain way I wrote. The letters of our alphabet. The exact way I pinch my pencil,the style I use to write and my ability to twirl it through my fingers, kind of like with a coin trick. Muscle memory was perfectly intact...

Regardless, those few hours went by too fast. Susie and I eventually found ourselves trapped in the middle of lunch detention, writing "I will not skip class." for the entire time, fifty times.. for one of us. Susie had to redo hers when she tried to hand Mom actual chicken scratch during the first five minutes, then got given DOUBLE the amount to write. And Susie nearly exploded. It almost looked like we might actually be stuck in there for part of second period youths class, but the threat of such a thing made Susie write faster than I'd ever seen someone write, even to this day. ... I don't know how good it was, but apparently acceptable to Mom.

... Anyways, something notable about second period... Noelle was not able to focus whatsoever. And no, it wasn't like with Susie. This was different... It was like she was down. Anytime she was called upon, she didn't know what we were doing or didn't know the answer to a question. All three times, she was off staring into the book's crease, pretending to listen...

I couldn't help but feel responsible to understand why, so even after I had promised Susie I'd go with her to the Dark World after school, gotten the permission to stay after school and the keys TO said school from my mother, I told her to wait up near the closet instead while I went off to stop Noelle. Not exactly something that went over smoothly, but I got her to let me.

... The deer had been solemnly and slowly walking away from the school, backpack slung over a shoulder.

I sped on over to her in a jog, calling her name. "Noelle!"

Her head perked up before she turned to look at me, a frown on her face. "Oh. Kris?"

Slowing down, I stopped in front of her with concern all over my mug. "Noelle, hang on. What's the matter? You've... been pretty down ever since last period."

She looked away from me and started to wring her hands, trying to back away. "I-I don't... Th-there's nothing..."

I stepped forward and shook my head. "No. Something's definitely up. You aren't acting like yourself..." Yeah. I know I only had a day of knowing her, but it was still enough to know something about this was very wrong.

... She directed her attention to the ground and furrowed her brows, even as she made a slight smile. "W-well neither are..." Yet again, she mumbled too quiet to actually hear.

I furrowed my own brows and sigh. "Noelle... Did... someone hurt you...?" ... It's pretty awkward asking something along those lines when you aren't the parent.

She frowned desperately at me and shook her head. "N-no! ..." She grew more nervous and lowered her head. "I-I mean... not... n-not like.. that..."

That made me feel like I failed her father big time. With a sighed, I guessed. "Someone picked on you."

"... Yes..."

"Why?"

"... Because I'm... Uhm... I-I'm friends... with "the weird kids." Because now, they're telling me, I'm one of them..."

... I grit my teeth and glared off from her. "Oh, we're the weird ones, huh?" ... I shook my head and looked at the deer girl with a calmer expression, but my irritation was plain in my red eyes. "I'm not trying to say that we aren't weird... But if the difference between being weird and being normal is being open-minded, then I really don't want to be normal. It sounds like it sucks."

She perked an ear and looked up from the ground at me with her eyes only. "What's th-that supposed to mean...?"

I fold my arms and shook my head. "I kinda know what being weird is like to a capital W, I, E, R and D. I'm a human living in an all monsters town, who's mom and dad are monsters and who's hobbies recently involved pulling extreme pranks. And until today, I bet everyone could tell me I was the creepy kid they could barely get a word out of. Am I wrong on ANY of that?"

... She shook her head with a half smile. "N-not really..." Then she lost her smile. "But... W-what does that have to do with ME being weird...?"

"It means someone doesn't know what weird is. They're just lumping people together."

She blinked up at me and stared in blankness and surprise. "H-huh...?"

"You're weird... For WHAT? The nicest girl in town, possibly, and the smartest student in the Adolescent Class suddenly wants to be friends with two weird kids and suddenly she is just as weird... Because she wants to make new friends of her own choosing, she's WEIRD? When I put it that way, doesn't it sound like WEIRD reasoning? Possibly even STUPID reasoning?"

... She blinked into a slight blush, both ears perked... As they flopped back down, Noelle looked down beside me and held her chin in thought... Then, she looked at me as she dropped that hand, nodding. "Y-yeah... I-I guess it does."

I nodded right back curtly and gestured in a finger pistol at her with a smirk. "Then, it sounds like the person who told you that you were weird isn't worth listening to."

... At that, she frowned in guilt... "... Yeah, but... They're my friend, too..."

... I frowned and dropped my hand, sinking my head a bit. "... Oh..." It was easy to say any random student was just being dumb, but it gets complicated when it's a friend. You might not know what all that entails, so telling someone to stop being friends with the person that told them something hurtful is not exactly smart, especially when you've effectively just become friends with that someone, in a backwards kind of way...

She just hung her head and shook it after that. "... Sorry. This isn't really your problem. I know that, Kris..."

I shook my head. "No. It is my problem. I'm you friend, too. And I'm concerned." ... I grew uncertain about that claim when she went silent and ended up letting my insecurity about my memory form a frown on my face. "... R-right...? We... ARE friends... Aren't we?"

She suddenly gasped into looking up and nodded. "Y-yes! Of course!"

... I sighed into a smile and nodded... But then, I narrowed my eyes at the ground... I looked up and said, "Hey. Me and Susie are going to hang out here for a while. I got my mom's permission and keys to the building, so I'm kinda going out on a limb here... But do you wanna come hang out with us? I know it's sudden, but I just wanted to offer. It might be fun to just hang around us to clear the air. Get your head off things for a bit..."

She furrowed her brows, biting her lip. It almost looked like she wanted to say yes, but... She shook her head and smiled apologetically. "S-sorry. I... I need to do something first. It's friend related..."

I dropped the smile and nodded. I understood exactly what she was thinking. She needed to get things squared away. "Alright, but we'll probably be here for a while. Just look for us, if you change your mind. The school's gonna stay unlocked."

She nodded, "Alright. But I really should start looking for my friend."

"Alright." I waved her goodbye as I started to turn back to the school. "Then, I'll see you, Noelle. Take care!" And then, I turned and began to walk away toward the school doors.

"Y-you too, Kris!"

I raised a hand and waved it back at her, smiling back at her own smiling face before turning away once again...

... I had no idea I had just been led on...

... ... ...

I met back with Susie outside the school's closet. She was leaning against those big double doors of charcoal black. They had two lever knobs with one having a key hole in it's base.

... The purple-scaled monster girl turned her head up and looked at me. "Jeeze, Kris. Were you confessing your undying love to her?"

I rolled my eyes with a groan, but I still couldn't stop the blush from rising in my cheeks. "No. It's just that she wasn't acting like herself last period."

She shook her head and shrugged. "Why does that matter to you? She's a big girl, isn't she? She can take care of her own hide. (I think.)"

Sighing and shrugging my shoulders as she pulled herself off of the doors and came to stand beside me as I took the keys out of my pocket, looking through them as I spoke. "Yeah, well... I... made her dad a promise to look out for her."

She rolled her eyes, I think. "Pfft. What, he can't do that himself?"

I dropped my shoulders a bit and remained silent for a moment, deliberating if it was alright to tell. This truthfully wasn't my business to share.

"Come on, Seriously?" She smirked and chuckled hanging an arm around my neck as she looked me in the face. "What- is the guy a total push over? Her mom's the mayor, right? Her dad's gotta be pretty-"

"He's in the hospital."

She eyes faded into view as her voice froze in the middle of a stutter. She frowned a bit with a hard-to-read look on her face. "Oh..."

"..." I looked at her and blinked. "That was the promise... I watch out for her while he's in the hospital. He can't leave and he said it drives him crazy that while he's in there... he can't do anything. So..."

"... You're standing in for him."

I nodded somberly. "I'm not trying to stand in for him, but I'm trying to be a better friend than I was in the past."

... She leaned into my face as her eyes faded back under her bangs. "... So, is this more for your conscience or for him?"

I shrugged and shook my head. "... I don't know... Both?"

She gave me a pretty stern glare, devoid of her usual demeanor. We were close enough for me to see her eyes beneath her hair without the glow. "Don't try to be perfect. Being a good guy is great n' all, but you'll drive yourself crazy trying to be perfect for everyone. Plus, I hate Mary Sues."

Sighing, I nodded. She was right, after all. No one is perfect. And I was trying to be... Why? I didn't want to be like me before I got Amnesia...

She took her arm away and backed off, hands behind her head as she spoke again, a smirk on her face. "Not that it matters to me if you go crazy or not. If that's your thing go for it."

I rolled my eyes and bunched a cheek. "Uh-huh. Because you're toooo cool for that."

"Damn right."

With a shaking head, I just smiled and resumed my search for the key... By which I mean trying every key until something worked. Fortunately, it was the seventh key I tried. The lock clicked and allowed us to go inside.

Opening the door, we were greeted by darkness... but it wasn't the same sort of darkness that emanated passed the door itself and into the halls. It wasn't even uncutable darkness. It was just the dark of the room. I could clearly see exactly what was MEANT to be in a supply closet. And it was much smaller than when we saw as far as we could see with the outside light...

I cocked a brow, as did Susie. Thinking ahead, I walked inside and looked around for the light switch... immediately finding it on the wall next to one of the doors.

-click!-

A soft click as I flipped the switch and the lights instantly came on, a very, very soft buzz emanating from their circuits as they lit the room. Both of us looking around, all we found waiting for us was what we expected yesterday, not what we expected today... a few shelves filled to the brim with ... stuff meant for school. Paper stacks, binders, chalk (I pocketed a pack for Alphys, just in case), a folding chair or two, staple packets, staplers, unused name plaques and other bits and junk that I couldn't really discern a purpose or function for.

Both of us stared at the room in disbelief. "What the hell...?" Susie had said that as she started walking further into the closet. She kept walking until she hit the back wall, a bare black thing with a circuit board in the back. That's all there was. And she shook her head. "H-hey, what the hell is this?! Shouldn't this thing be bigger than this on the inside?! Where's the endless hall?!"

I was equally as lost... I walked inside with her and did the only thing I could think off. I closed the doors behind us. "Okay then..."

She turned around to me, staring in confusion. "What?"

I reached for the light switch as I said, "L-lets try this, then." And then, I flipped it back off.

-click!-

... It was almost completely dark, except for the cracks of light I could see in the door corners... But...

Susie's eyes were the only light in the room, which was funny since they were so wide. "Is... anything happening?"

... "No."

I flipped the lights back on and threw the doors back open and, lo and behold... nothing had changed. It was just the school hallway.

... We stood there for a little while, not sure what to think... before Susie let out a groan and went storming out of the closet. I blinked and followed close behind as she said, "Whatever! Maybe the abandoned classroom! W-we came back out there for some reason, so... maybe the way in moves!"

It was worth a shot. That was my thought, too. I nodded and continued along with her. "Y-yeah." Truthfully, if that WERE the case, then that meant that the exit also moved. Either way, there was only one way in and one way out. I was starting to doubt that they were still in the school when I started to think about that.

Regardless, we went to and unlocked that classroom... It was exactly as we left it after I found the light switch. We were just both standing in the same mess. Cards and and half-played game of checkers out on the floor with some letter blocks. Few stuffed animals. A scrap paper art posted to one of the lockers in the corner. It all seemed ... exactly as we left it.

Susie growled in utter frustration as she kicked a block into the wall, making it ricochet off and around the room destructively. "What the HELL?!"

I watched in concern as she stormed around the room and started to seriously strip search the place. I dared not interrupt her, but I was just as frustrated, inwardly. Could we never go back? Had it been closed off from us when we banished that Dark Fountain...?

"K-Kris!" Susie's surprisingly distressed tone of voice snapped me back out of my thought as she came storming up to me. She took me by the shoulders, a desperate furrow in her brows. "That was all real, right?! It had to be! I have bruises everywhere from that freak clown..." She frowned and shook her head. "D... did someone drug us...?!

I shook my head vehemently and shouted. "No. Susie, you and I BOTH know that was WAY too real to be a dream. Both of us nearly DIED! Twice! And no way we shared the same fever dream."

... The facts supplied seemed to slowly bring her back to her senses as she let go of me and backed off, nodding slowly, even if she was still a bit frazzled. "Y-yeah. That was real. Lancer and Ralsei were real..." ... She thought for a minute with a critical, thoughtful narrow in her eyes... She looked at me again and gave me a stern stare. "Hey. What did Ralsei look like in the end? I know you know- just tell me we saw him the same way..."

I nodded, emphasizing with my hands as I described his face. "He was a white goat boy. Pinkish horns with green glasses. A tuft of white fur on his head sticking up like cowlick. He was generally pretty fluffy. And he was blushing."

She nodded as her expression grew more relaxed again. "Y-yeah... And he kinda looked girly, right?"

I cocked my brow with a blink... I shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, I guess? But why does that matter?"

She smirked and sighed. "Just needed to make sure he wasn't some masculine hunk of goat in your head. You kinda liked him, so I can't say you wouldn't make him out to be a hunk."

My cheeks were burning and my eyes were saucers. I glared and blurted out, "W-WHAT?! I did NOT like him like that!"

She only grinned wider and pointed at my face. "Yer' blushing an awful lot for someone who ain't into fluffy boys."

This was getting incredibly uncomfortable. I slapped my hands to my face and groaned loudly into them... And the, I just shook my head and sighed out, folding my arms. "L-look... That doesn't matter. If we can't find another way inside the Dark World, we'll never see ANYONE from there again. That should be our biggest worry here."

She nodded and lost the grin. "Yeah. I know... But like... What do we do, then? Search the school top to bottom for a room that leads there? It ain't a massive place. We COULD do it."

... I had stopped paying attention to her when my eyes spied the chalk board...

She cocked her brow. "Uh, dude. You even listening?"

I pointed her toward the board, much to her confusion. She turned to look at it and instantly, her eyes bulged.

On it, the DELTA RUNE was drawn in the corner of the board, a bit misshapen but before recognizable. I and she both walked over to it and found that there were small words written in a neat and tidy print lining the entire bottom of the board. It was just big enough to comfortably read. I walked over to the other side of the board and told Susie, "I-I think it's a message for us!"

She nodded, but as she could see the end of the message, she snapped her head toward me with wide eyes and shouted, "It's signed from Ralsei!"

I gasped over to her, equally as shocked. I instantly turned back to the message and did my best to read it as I walked the length of the board, slowly.

"Susie. Kris. Do not be alarmed. The Dark World and all of us Darkners are safe for the time being, but this will not last. THIS IS NOT OVER. The prophecy. I misunderstood it and I don't have a lot of time, so I'll be fast. Remember what I said about there being "FOUNTAINS?" Not just a single one. Fountains. And it felt like we were able to close it too early. It was only A Fountain. A pinprick of a problem. A second fountain opened outside the Kingdom of Aces, far to the west. The King of Spades was telling the truth. While we fought against him, The KNIGHT was getting a head-start attempting to bring about the prophecy! I don't know how he's doing this and I don't know where he's going. I don't know WHY he's doing it and I don't even know who he is! I don't even actually know it's a he! If we don't do something about the next fountain- if we let multiple fountains spring forth, I'm not entirely sure what could happen. It could be the prophecy or it could be a comparably small-scale disaster. After all, a person is doing this and the prophecy doesn't describe such a person being capable! All I know is that it WILL affect the Light World! I can't tell you everything I've figured out in this message. I'm running out of time to be in this world. Darkners don't die in the Light World or anything. The portals between just constantly shift. You won't be able to get back in from here. But I can tell you one thing. The distance won't be as massive for you, but you NEED to head due WEST of here and look for unnatural darkness. That is the telltale sign of a portal ... Please come. I can't bring Lancer with me and I can't close the Fountains the KNIGHT opens. PLEASE come. I'll meet you in Autumn Vale. - Ralsei PS: Be forewarned: I hear the people there have strange ways. They-... " I turned to look at Susie with a visibly disturbed grimace."... And then he runs out of room to write, I think..."

... Our expression matched, despite our different mugs. "... I feel like I was supposed to feel better about hearing from Ralsei..."

She nodded in agreement. Then, she took a few steps away from the board with a nervous, troubled expression. "Okay, so... What do we do? Where do we even go?"

I took a lean with an arm on the chalk board and re-read the part that mattered myself and then said, "West. It's general, but apparently we just need to keep an eye out for unnatural darkness. And I have to guess..." I turned to face her. "... that that means we look for darkness like what we saw in the closet yesterday...? Or maybe darkness where it couldn't be?" I shook my head and took a sigh, letting myself calm down. "Never mind. Let's just look for suspicious shadows in general, alright?"

She nodded. "Fair enough, I guess."

After that, we both left the classroom and began our search...