Disclaimer: I don't own Doki Doki Literature Club or Undertale, however I do own our Player.
It was a simple thing. Horribly so. Drawn in such a crude, quick, fashion that one might assume it had been done by a child. More than that, the shapes themselves were easily comprehended- little more than two lines quickly dashing downwards followed by a single curved line. Eyes and a smile.
And yet as she stared at that simple set, the girl felt her stomach drop. Like gravity had suddenly yanked her straight down, sending her tumbling end over end into a pitch black cavern where she might never crawl back out. It wasn't just her stomach, her whole body shuddered. Her spine felt like it had been covered in snow, her hands shook in spite of her tightly clenched fists trying to stop them. She wasn't sure, but she even thought she was starting to sweat.
And all it was, was so very simple.
=)
"Who..." Her throat was dry, she stopped and tried again, this time managing to speak a bit louder. "Who..." For perhaps the first time since she'd arrived here, the girl's heart thundered in her chest as shards of ice crept between her ribs. Turning, she faced the other four Club Members, her own eyes wide with one single unfettered emotion.
"Who drew this?"
The others didn't answer her immediately. Yuri looked the most concerned, but just as she reached out she retracted herself, pulling her hand back. Sayori seemed quieter than she should have been. Her eyes were dull, like a doll that didn't really understand where it was, but Frisk didn't press her on it. She'd been like that all day- her mind was preoccupied with something else. Likely the boy beside her who, for his part, seemed as freaked out as Frisk even if he didn't speak.
It was only Natsuki who had the strength to step forward, huffing angrily. She wasn't even bothered by it, not like the others. "It doesn't matter!" She snaps, storming up to the chalkboard and grabbing the eraser from its place on the wooden shelf beneath. With a flourish, she rubs away the red chalk drawing, digging her arm into the board with so much anger- too much anger- that it almost looked like her arm was shaking. Eventually the image faded completely, but Frisk's throat didn't loosen up. Even the tiny patches of red still on the board made her feel like retching. She swallowed again, desperate to keep herself from doing just that. "Its just someone's bad idea of a joke! I'm not letting them get away with messing us today! Can we please get to club activities now?" She barks at Frisk, who nearly jumps away from her.
Frisk could hardly breathe, her whole body was rigid- set on edge and more than ready to fall off of it at the slightest provocation. Something primal had bubbled up in her chest when she saw it. That expression- nothing more than an emoticon for most people but for her... It was familiar. So strikingly awfully familiar... She knew it from somewhere, and she didn't want to even think about what it might mean for it to be here.
Almost like they had been overridden, her eyes drifted back towards the chalkboard, planting themselves dead center- the place where those tiny symbols had been not a minute before. She couldn't help but to stare towards it, swallowing again. Her throat felt better, but her heart was still pounding in her ears. It was so loud that it drowned everything else out.
After a moment, her hands didn't stop shaking but her breathing managed to steady itself. "Y-Yeah... Go..." She trails off, unable to tear her eyes away. "Definitely start on reading... I'll call us up here when I'm ready to share... Poems..." Never before in her life had she felt so... Uncertain. Everything she'd ever done, she'd done with determination behind her, but this?
She licked her lips, swallowing one more time.
It scared her. It threw her off, and for the first time since she'd been born... Frisk wasn't sure what she would do about it.
At some point, the others filed away from her and set about Clubroom activities. Eventually, Frisk stepped away from the board too, turning her attention towards the rest of the room... And stopping, a pleasantly surprised look on her face. Instead of spending the day with Yuri, it seemed that MC had been pulled away by Sayori, and the pair of them were sitting on the left side of the room at a table big enough for two, reading and chatting and even giggling. It looked like Sayori's mood had definitely improved, and Frisk smiled softly at her, letting out a little bit of a relieved sigh. If Sayori was taken care of for the day, she could turn her attention onto other matters, like trying to figure out who left that mark on the-
"Would you two SHUT. UP!" A voice tore in from across the room, followed by the grinding of a chair against hard floor. "SOME PEOPLE are TRYING TO READ." Through grit teeth and a glare so furious Frisk could feel heat radiating off of it, Natsuki barked at MC and Sayori. The latter of which backed down a bit, almost hiding her face underneath her book.
A nearly silent nervous laugh from Sayori popped up from over the hardcover, then came a tiny- "S-Sorry Natsuki. I guess we got carried away."
Usually this would be the end of it, but today the pinkette seemed unusually terse. "I'm not in the mood today, Sayori! Keep it quiet." She warns her before turning and settling back into her seat. Almost immediately, Frisk sees how easily Sayori deflates at being told off. The pair chat quietly now, only to resume reading a moment later- now completely silent.
Frisk purses her lips, then sighs while shaking her head. So much for focusing on that symbol, it looks like she needs to be a Club President today... She doesn't mind helping out, in fact the idea brings a gentle smile to her lips, but the memory of the symbol carved into the chalkboard hangs in her mind like a noose. She swallows one more time, touching her neck. That was some dark imagery, almost like something she'd find in one of Yuri's poems. She had to put her mind off of the face, at least for now.
And so, she cleared her throat loudly enough to catch people's attention, though half-deflated when only Yuri perked up. Thinking quickly, Frisk clapped her hands. That made them all look up at her, including one very annoyed Natsuki. "Sayori, MC, you guys weren't doing anything wrong. You were being really quiet, to be honest. You don't have to not talk." In as best an authoritative tone as Frisk can muster- drawing on A$g0r3 for inspiration- she addresses them first. "Natsuki, you're on the other side of the room. They couldn't have been that disruptive and even if they were being loud-"
But the girl slams her manga book down before Frisk can finish, bolting from her chair as she does. "Fine!" She snaps at her. "If you're going to let them screw around, I'll be reading somewhere else!" She snaps up her book, clutching it tightly to her chest and moves towards the doors of the classroom, storming out before Frisk could even utter a "hey" or move to stop her. The others were similarly frozen, even more surprised than Frisk if that were possible.
Eventually, Yuri spoke up. "That... Is a bit much... Even for Natsuki." She swallows nervously, looking towards Frisk now as if for guidance. Her face had turned pale and the girl was reminded of how inept Yuri really was when it came to expressing her true feelings on a subject.
So if she was being this open...
Something had gone wrong for Natsuki. Frisk shut her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in. "I'll try to bring her back. In the meantime, you guys share poems and get back to reading. Don't let this get in the way of club activities for you." Despite still being rattled by the erased image behind her, Frisk managed to project an authoritative tone. Spending all that time around 11n6yn3 and A$g0r3 and even her mother was paying dividends- she could fake being confident pretty well. Not that she wasn't confident on her own but after earlier... That symbol had burned into her head, and if she focused on it for too much longer, Frisk felt like she might have an anxiety attack.
And so, she stepped out of the room completely prepared to search up and down the hallway for Natsuki, almost happy at the thought of being out of that room at least for the time being.
There was always something terrifying about being in an empty school. Frisk had gone to school when she was a kid, before she fell into the Underground for that matter, and she knew how bad they could be when you were completely alone in one. When she was a child- before her vocabulary had expanded to match her teenage mind- Frisk didn't really have the word to describe what was wrong with an empty school building. It just... felt different. Like something was slightly off center. An empty school was like being stuck in the uncanny valley, between something that felt real and something that felt like a dream. As though there should have been people, but there weren't.
As a teenager, she finally understood it.
It was unearthly.
Echoes of shoes against vinyl floors filled the empty space, accompanied by an undercurrent of distant humming from cheap fluorescent lights- their sound barely audible under the surface, hardly able to be perceived. Somewhere even further away, a boiler shook, its rumble unable to be heard- but felt in every step. In the space where once had been the clamoring of students, the steps of a hundred teenagers and teachers as they moved from class to class, a new silent cacophony had taken shape. An ecosystem of silence intruded on by only the ambience of manmade things, as if to remind the world that this place once housed men.
What was worse than the building being empty, however, was the idea that it was not. As Frisk stalked through the hallways, her head snapped towards sounds almost certainly made from human hands. A wet splash from a janitor's mop, hallways away. A voice stemming from one of the other clubrooms in some far off secluded portion of the school. A door slamming shut as someone left for the bathroom. Noises. Noises which reminded her of the fact that this place was not so devoid of life. That somewhere here, others still existed. That she wasn't alone. Somehow, that felt worse.
After all, how could one be certain that this place was inhabited solely by man?
Perhaps there was more to this place. Perhaps there were things stalking these hallways, hunting for those foolish enough to leave their classroom and step into the setting sun's fiery gaze. Primordial things, from when this school was young. From before.
Things with red eyes.
Things she knew.
Things with knives.
Thud
Her head snaps left, tracking the noise down an empty hallway. Thunder beats in rhythm with her heart as Frisk takes a step forward, towards the sound. Surely it was just one of the janitors, right? She was getting herself all worked up over nothing... Wasn't she? But even as she walked forward, she felt it. A prickle against her back, something which made all of the hairs on her arms stand up.
The sensation that she was being watched.
As she made her way towards the noise, that feeling wouldn't abandon her, no matter how much she tried to shake it off. She could envision it; two small slits made from crimson, tearing apart the darkness in one of the shadowed classrooms, staring at her from an angle, just barely out of view if she turned to face it. A smile as it burned a hole in her back.
"Damn it!" Frisk jumped as she rounded the corner, hearing Natsuki's hiss. "Come on, there's gotta be a little left, right?" She mutters, sweeping her hand beneath the vending machine, hunting for something Frisk didn't quite know. Still, the sight of the pinkette nearly brought a sigh of relief out of the Club President, one that was only stifled by her confusion.
Staying silent, Frisk cocked her head while her brows knitted together in confusion. 'What is she doing?' After a moment, an idea struck her but Frisk shook it off. Surely she had some money, right? She must have just dropped it down there! With that in mind, the girl knew immediately how to help and stepped to Natsuki's side, crouching down and offering her a kind smile as she did. "Did you lose something down here?" She asks, sweeping her own hand underneath the vending machine as well. "I can hel-"
"What are you doing here?! Did you follow me?!" Her voice raised but it wasn't because she was angry, more that she was... Scared. Natsuki bolted from her position immediately, taking several steps backwards from Frisk, who stood up in her confusion.
"I-"
"Is anyone else with you?" Natsuki's voice dropped from a near-shout to a frantic whisper almost immediately as she got up onto her tiptoes, looking over Frisk's shoulder as if searching for one of the other girls.
"No." Frisk shook her head, approaching the smaller girl, setting her hands on her shoulders. As soon as she did, the girl winced... But Frisk didn't know why. "Natsuki, its just me. I'm worried about you, what's going on? When you shouted earlier... That's not how you usually are." While it was true that the girl was angry, it was usually more like the anger of a small dog. Loud and mean, but ultimately harmless. Today had been different.
Because Natsuki didn't usually bark at Sayori.
The girl didn't answer at first, and moved to brush Frisk's hands off of her as she did speak- "I'm fine." She turns away from Frisk. Now facing the vending machine again, she looks wistfully at the food stocked inside and this time Frisk hears something...
Her stomach growled.
She was that hungry?
"Natsuki..." Frisk took a step forward while reaching into her vest pocket. Her parents had left her with plenty of pocket money- whoever they were- so she always made sure to save some up to use on the vending machines when she felt hungry or during lunch. She hadn't spent any today, but even if she had she was certain that she would have had more than enough to offer the girl now. "You... Were looking for change under the machine, weren't you?" Frisk had heard of the process before. Mu7737 searched under plenty of places for money- she could never get enough- but this wasn't like that. Frisk also knew how it felt to be without parents.
Frisk knew how to search places for even the slightest hint of change. It had been a skill she had gotten good at when she lived at the orphanage. After all, unlike this place, she didn't have parents to give her money.
Natsuki's full attention was on Frisk now. Her eyes were a mixture of desperation and disdain as she glared daggers into the money. Half of her wanted to take it, but Frisk knew the other half- the stronger half- wouldn't let her. She was right. "What's it to you if I was, Frisk?" The smaller girl turned her head away, crossing her arms tightly around her chest and clenching her jaw. "Going to mock me for it? Or worse, treat me like a kicked puppy and give me free handouts?" Her tone shifted, the disdain winning out over the desperation. "Well save it." She commanded. "I don't want any of it. And no." She turned her head back to stare knives into Frisk's eyes. "This doesn't have anything to do with earlier. They were annoying me."
Frisk didn't believe her, but her gaze softened as she looked deeper into Natsuki's soft pink eyes. "I'm not going to treat you like that." She promises. "You're my friend, if something's wrong, I want to support you. If you don't want to take this from me, I won't force it on you but..." She set her eyes on the machine itself. "It would certainly be a shame if I bought the wrong item."
She had been wrong. Natsuki did have a problem, just not one that was visible to her when she looked. Maybe it was just a fluke, maybe today- she just forgot her money at home- and yet... Frisk couldn't shake away this heaviness in her chest. She couldn't shake this awful feeling that something was... Different about Natsuki. It wasn't like her to explode on people. Get angry, be frustrated and not-very nice to others? Sure, that much was par for the course from what little interaction Frisk had with her.
And she had a feeling that it wasn't just because she was hungrier than usual. The way she winced when Frisk reached out to touch her shoulder... Frisk wasn't going to jump to conclusions yet, especially since Natsuki didn't have visible damage on her, but she did want to check things out. Maybe she was reading into things too much. Maybe Natsuki's problem was simply that she was poor, and while Frisk couldn't solve that in a day... She knew she could do something about it in Natsuki's day-to-day. She just had to know first.
And Natsuki wasn't interested in opening up about her problems. Frisk considered following her home- something she would have done without question as a child- but realized that if she did that, Natsuki might not take well to it. Even if she had the best of intentions behind it, it still might come off as creepy. And while she could always RESET, she doesn't like abusing that power in that way. Now, Frisk sits at the windowsill at home, staring out at the quiet street outside, watching the occasional car pass by as she rolls ideas around in her mind. Things that could be done better, ways to get Natsuki to admit her problems on her own- anything.
Her arms were pulled over her chest, crossed tightly to keep herself warm. Her house was especially chilly, but she almost preferred it that way. It reminded her of the Underground, of... Home.
She missed it. She pretended like she didn't- pretended like none of this had bothered her- but the truth was... It had. She missed her mom, she missed her friends, she missed the monsters! She closed her eyes, shutting them tightly as she tried to hold back tears, but all she did was make it all the easier for them to squeeze out. She missed her home, and as nice as the girls were, as nice as her teachers were, as nice as this place was, this wasn't her home! She might not have hated it here, but she would give everything to go back to where she belonged.
Her hands slid up the length of her legs as she tucked them in, her arms coming to rest on her knees, leaving a spot for Frisk to bury her face in. Through the gap between her legs, she peered outside through tear-streaked vision. She watched a car roll into the driveway and a man step out. He took a moment to breathe, taking in the cool fall air before he stepped towards the door of his home. It opened and a woman stepped out to embrace him. He was home, with the people who loved him. The people he loved, who missed him when he was gone.
Her eyes closed, her breath coming out shakily as she sighed out. The worst part... The worst part was that none of them were missing her now. When it happened, the switch, Frisk had been about to RESET. She had made it to 0nd7n3. She had been so... So curious to know what would happen if she...
She couldn't beat her, no matter how hard she tried, and she... She didn't want to do it anymore either. She was about to RESET and then... That symbol. Those eyes.
And then she was in that room.
It didn't matter if she had managed RESET or not. Her mother was either... Gone, or she never knew she existed at all.
No one missed her.
It was what she deserved for... For what she did to P p7ru$ and her mother, and what she would have done to M3t7 t0n and $g0r3 and probably 7p4y$ too if 0nd7n3 hadn't stopped her...
But this place... Frisk knew it wasn't a punishment. Being sent to wherever this was, being made to assume this girl's life, being asked to help all of her friends...
This was atonement.
A second chance to make up for what she'd done at home. And she wasn't going to waste it.
Heavy storm clouds were rolling in by the time Frisk stood up, a new resolve in her eyes. It would thunder tonight. She didn't mind one bit. It was just like $ n$ had said to her all that time ago. If it was raining here...
Then it wasn't somewhere else.
The next day, Frisk had set her plan to assist Natsuki into motion. In the morning, she had made sure to pass her some money before school, setting her up for breakfast and lunch. The girl had been resistant to the idea, but Frisk refused to let that deter her.
"Natsuki... No one else has to know about this. Its why I came to you before school started." Frisk said softly, pressing the money into the girl's hand. The Pinkette looked conflicted for a moment, but Frisk gave the tiny girl a big smile, taking her other hand and pressing it over Natsuki's to make her close her hand into a fist. "Please?"
"..." The girl fell silent for a moment, her expression changing from conflicted... To sorrowful. At last, she managed to find her voice, clearing her throat and looking up at Frisk with genuine eyes. "Promise me you won't tell anyone about this. I..." She fell silent again, turning her face away from Frisk as she struggled for the words. "It's just really embarrassing for me."
"I promise. I won't tell a soul." Frisk affirms with a nod, then quickly pulled the girl in for a hug, wrapping both arms around Natsuki tightly. "I just want to help you. You're my friend too, Natsuki."
The girl grunted irritably, but didn't try to pry herself free from the hug immediately. "You are way too much like Sayori!" She complained, but still didn't try to fight to free herself from Frisk's grip. "At least you don't steal food, so I can forgive it I guess."
Frisk chuckled and let her go, but even as she did she could see the onset of longing in the girl's eyes. Still, she couldn't stand and hug her all morning. "Sorry, I just get carried away sometimes with my affection."
"Dummy." Natsuki rolls her eyes before sparing one more glance down towards the money in her hands. Quietly, she speaks one more time. "...Thanks, Frisk."
And from then on, the day had passed without much worry. Frisk wasn't entirely certain that she had handled every issue associated with her, but for the time being... This would have to do. After all, she had plenty of time to figure out what that look was for the other day, but her Sayori problem was likely time-sensitive. She needed to act fast on that, or else there could be consequences- Especially since MC and Yuri were growing closer by the day.
So she resolved herself to, after checking Yuri's arms for anymore marks after Club ended, try to put the pair together somehow. As for Club, it passed by equally as uneventfully as the rest of the day had. Aside from a bit of awkwardness thanks to Natsuki's outburst from the previous day- something easily remedied by Frisk getting an apology out of the girl- things went on as she expected. More importantly than that though... There hadn't been another chalk drawing waiting for her when she arrived, and that was more than enough for her to drop the matter. Maybe it really had been just someone's idea of a prank, it wasn't like the room they used for Club was empty for the whole day- plenty of classes were held in it.
The sun began to set as Frisk walked through the nearly empty classroom. She'd told Yuri to wait outside for her, that she'd be out soon enough to perform their promised routine, while Natsuki had stayed behind of her own accord, helping Frisk clean the Clubroom up from today's activities. Scraps of paper littered the floor, but were easily swept up thanks to the efforts of both girls. Once the floor was clean, Frisk turned and set Natsuki's manga box back into the closet at the top shelf, carefully hidden from view of any inquiring teachers, before turning once more and approaching a hanging streamer. Today, Sayori had the idea to throw something of a party to celebrate MC's induction into the Club. Frisk had been accommodating to the girl's idea and let her set everything up, but had allowed Sayori to leave with MC instead of helping her clean up so that the pair might have a chance to walk together.
Plus that meant that Yuri would be away from the boy, allowing two birds to be taken out by one stone. Frisk was proud of herself for that, the smile that came over her face whenever she envisioned the girl and her childhood friend happily skipping home together- alone- for the first time in a bit was more than enough to prove that. As she moved to pull the streamer down, her foot slipped on the floor and she fell forward over a desk-
"Uff!" She gasped as the air was pushed out of her, taking a step back and holding her stomach a bit as she did. "Oww..." She seethed. "That hurt..." She muttered, but sighed. It wasn't painful enough to dwell on...
'Wait...' The girl surveyed the area, a single thought in her head as she clenched her empty hand. Where had the party streamer gone? The tiny pink thing had been between her fingers before she fell... But then, she spotted it, sitting just underneath the chalkboard. She stepped around the desk and bent over to pick it up. Once she had it, she stood back up and looked down at it wistfully, then taking a moment to glance back up at the chalkboard, still smiling. As much as she missed what she had, she did still love everyone here, and she'd do everything she could to make their lives better.
"...Frisk..." A tiny voice came from behind her, causing the girl to turn back to look at Natsuki, who seemed... Off. Instead of her usual angry, guarded look, she had an expression that read... Something else.
"Yeah? What's wrong, Nats?" She faced the girl fully now, fidgeting with the streamer in her hands as she did. "You look like something's up."
"Its just..." She starts, then stops herself, looking down as if not fully sure what to say. She takes a deep breath, then takes a seat at the edge of one of the student desks, crossing her arms as she does. She seems more comfortable that way, closing her body off. "No one else has ever... Really done for me what you're doing for me right now. Even my dad-" She winces just a bit at mentioning him- "This is really hard to say..." She sighs, turning away. "Nevermind."
"No! Wait..." Frisk reaches out as Natsuki moves to stand, managing to grab her shoulder before the girl can go. Natsuki looks back at her in shock at being touched again, but doesn't jolt this time. "You can talk to me about anything. I promise, Natsuki."
Natsuki's face twitches like she was about to cry, but she swallows and manages to speak. "Even... My dad doesn't care as much as you do. He loves me, I know he does, but... Things have been really hard so... Even if I don't like saying it, even though I'll deny it in front of others..." She half glares at her, but can't muster anything more than the look of a small dog before she drops the expression and continues. "I really appreciate what you do for me. Letting me keep my manga in the classroom, giving me all this extra money... Giving me a space like this at all..." She swallows again, managing to remain stoic as she finishes her statement. "Thanks, Frisk. I mean it this time." Then... Then she glances back up at her. "Do you... Want to walk home with me?"
Frisk's face turned conflicted. On one hand, she knew she wouldn't be allowed to interact with Yuri if that happened, but on the other... This was maybe the first time she'd ever seen Natsuki open up to anyone.
She sighed. "I... Might have made plans with Yuri already. She's waiting outside, but we can all walk together!" She offers, hoping for a compromise... But already knowing the outcome. Instantaneously, Natsuki's face falls like she had just smelled rotten milk. Frisk didn't get why, but whatever the reason, those girls got along like oil and fire. One just sets the other off, and vice versa. But this time... It was different. She seemed less disgusted and more... Angry.
"Well... I really wanted to..." Something changed, the girl's eyes darkened... Almost literally, as she bowed her head, obscuring herself in shadow. "I really thought we could spend time together. Just us, as friends. You know, some more attention for me, but I guess that's not in the cards, huh? Its not really fair, since MC already spends so much time with Yuri, and now you are too. What is it about that stupid, fat, ugly bit-"
Frisk grabbed Natsuki's shoulder, shocked at her behavior. "Natsuki! That's way too far!"
And as soon as she did, the girl snapped back to attention, as if she was pulled out of being asleep. Her eyes widened as the weight of her words seemed to hit her, but as soon as they did, they narrowed again as she doubled down. "I- Well... I just wanted to spend more time with you as my friend! Its not like we ever hang out outside of Club, unlike you and Yuri..."
Frisk stared at the girl for a moment, the worry in her eyes slowly disappearing and being replaced with understanding. "Tomorrow, alright? I promise, we'll see each other tomorrow and I'll walk home with you. It'd be mean if I canceled plans with Yuri after making her wait." Not to mention their other arrangement.
Natsuki still looked upset, but she pouted as she nodded, accepting Frisk's terms.
And as the pair left the room together, Frisk couldn't help but to glance down at Natsuki every few minutes, watching and waiting for the moment when her eyes would darken again. They never did. Not as they passed the classrooms, not as they waved goodbye to remaining faculty, and not even as Frisk departed from Natsuki to meet up with Yuri.
Not once.
Yuri had been good today, it seemed. No new marks had marred her flesh, and the pair had gone home while chatting about the latest chapter of her book. Personally, Frisk hated horror. She wasn't averse to being in scary situations- the True Lab would have been more than enough to give most grown adults nightmares, but she hadn't even been the slightest bit perturbed- but that had been when she had grown accustomed to dying. The ability to cheat death without any real consequence to herself had numbed the fear response to being harmed by the creatures, and they had ultimately been harmless anyway. No, she didn't mind being in scary situations, though... Some things definitely pushed that boundary for her. Rather, she minded seeing them. Horror books, horror movies, anything with blood or gore was a no-go for her.
Still, it made Yuri happy, so she abided her and gave the girl ample time to discuss her interest in the novel. Portrait of Markov was some kind of psychological horror with Sci-Fi elements, or so it seemed. Frisk was more than happy to end the conversation when the girls came to a break in the road and spotted a familiar face.
MC stood along the sidewalk, standing in what seemed like confusion. The girls approached him, and Frisk moved first to tap his shoulder. "MC? You alright?" She asked, and the boy turned, looking a bit off-put.
"Oh... Hey! Yeah I'm... Fine, I just..." He trailed off, looking at Yuri for a moment as he tried to navigate the minefield he'd been thrown in. "Something really weird happened just now with Sayori." He shook his head. "We were chatting about..." He glanced at Yuri again. "...Some stuff, and then we hugged and then... She ran off." Brow furrowed, the boy shook his head again. "I don't know why but... She seemed really upset about it."
Frisk wrapped her arm around the boy's shoulder and led him a bit away from the purple haired girl, leaning in close and lowering her voice. "What happened?" She whispered as quietly as she could.
MC explained himself again, this time with a whisper and all of the details. "She confessed to me! I... I didn't know what to do but I told her we could try to make it work! Was that the wrong thing to say?"
Frisk shook her head, about to respond when suddenly she felt... Unsafe. A prickle against her back, just like the one she had felt last night, came over the girl. She glanced behind her, smelling the faint scent of lavender. Without either of them knowing, Yuri had suddenly managed to get only inches behind them.
She was shaking when they turned around. Her head was ever-so-slightly cocked to the right and her eyes were dangerously wide, like some kind of rabid dog. For a moment, they almost looked different. No longer purple and detailed, but grey and blank. A smile had come over her lips, but it was wrong. Too wide, as if some unseen force had gripped the sides of her mouth and yanked her cheeks open. Her teeth were held so tightly that Frisk felt they might crack. "A confession?" She said, her voice hardly above a manic whisper as well.
But before anyone could do anything more, Yuri stopped entirely.
Somehow, that worse than when she was shaking. It wasn't as if she had merely stopped moving. Nor had she simply stopped talking, no. She had completely frozen solid, her whole body trapped in that stock position like she was a robot waiting to be switched on. That wrong smile, her not-quite-right eyes, they both hung on her face like they had been stapled there. MC glanced at Frisk, and begrudgingly, she took a step forward. "Yur-"
She snapped alive, suddenly pulling her hand up to her chest and gripping her arm with her other hand, as if she was embarrassed. Her breathing, which had earlier been hitched and heavy, was still coming rapidly, only now she had the wherewithal to realize it. Her face flushed red as she stammered out an explanation. "I-I-I-I-I don't know w-what came over me! I-I'm sorry! I sh-should go!"
Frisk reached for her again, but the girl had gone by the time she moved. "Yuri! Wait, come back!" She shouted after her, but the girl had broken into a sprint by now, and had gone around the corner in seconds. Frisk and MC stood there for a minute, staring with wide eyes and dry mouths as the girl left. Eventually, the boy spoke.
"What the hell is happening to all the girls?"
"I don't know..." She admitted, looking back at the boy. "Try giving Sayori a call tonight. We'll check on her tomorrow at school. As for Yuri and Natsuki..." She frowned deeply. "I'll have a chat with them tomorrow on my own." Then, trying to salvage the situation, she offered the boy a smile of her own. "Have a good night, MC."
Author's note: And so it begins. We're in the endgame now, I estimate only between 9 and 10 chapters remain of this story. Its been a long and wild ride, but as we get closer to the finish line, the time for cute girls doing cute things is over with. These FFLC chapters are about to become extremely...
Doki Doki.
So if you're not ready for that, I'd suggest skipping the next FFLC chapter I produce.
Have I ever told you that I want to be a horror writer? This next part will make for great practice, =)
Review time~
setokayba2n: Well I for one could imagine that if in the Sans battle in Genocide they give the option you should be able to do a Mercy, something like 'Redemption' as Sans managed to let you see the light, but I guess then it could become complicated
Me: See, what people don't get is that by killing you, Sans technically is sparing you. The point of his last words, "If you're really my friend you won't come back" (paraphrased) is to try to tell the Player or Frisk to RESET. By RESETing here, you are effectively pressing "undo" on all of your kills, which would be the Redemption Path if you actually then went on to do a full Pacifist Run.
ZombieSlayers: Excellent chapter as always.
Me: Always happy to provide! Thank you for the compliment!
DEFCON: So I'd like to mention that it's very likely that Gaster did not fall into the core but instead another invention. This is because of entry number 17 which mentions photons having a negative value or something(basically they emit darkness instead of light) which is a good description of the dark worlds of delta rune. There's a YouTube theory video on this that explains it WAY better than me , it's called "The Device Theory" anyway just a lore tidbit. But it's just a theory so not confirmed
Me: For the purposes of this story, I am ignoring Deltarune (as well as any possible Project Libitina stuff we get, though I have extreme doubts that its coming anymore at this point) lore and will be running with the idea that Gaster fell into the CORE and was shattered across reality. Still, you're probably right in that he fell into a "Dark World" thanks to his machine, though the implications for that are still uncertain.
Toolazytologin: I really love this fanfic. So please don't let it die.
Me: Don't worry my friend, I'm not going anywhere. MoniTale just has a specific... Lack of an upload schedule compared to Defrost (which everyone here should go check out). Its been that way ever since I started it when I was sixteen. Honestly, an upload in July from March is relatively quick compared to most of the time differences between the other chapters... Which is actually kind of unfortunate, but oh well. In any case, I hope to finish this story within the next ~year, so don't worry too much about me letting this story die. We're going all the way to the end, and I can't wait to show all of you what I have in mind.
And with that all said, there's only one thing left to say.
Until Next Time, True Readers.