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English
Series:
Part 1 of The Communion Route
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Published:
2025-07-27
Completed:
2025-08-23
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30,851
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11/11
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Say What's On Your Mind ♥

Chapter 2: Heartbreak

Summary:

The Soul forces Kris' hand, and certain truths come to light. Susie's first real friendship is tested. Kris makes some assumptions, and they doubt it all.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Kris’ body does not accurately reflect the panic they feel - it always has a blank expression, and Kris struggles as hard as they can to try and show her something, but it has full control in this moment . Susie’s face is far from blank, however. Her face contorts quickly from confusion, to fear. This isn’t what you wanted, if Kris could help it they would never see Susie afraid again, but they can’t help it, can they? 

 

All too quickly, though, Kris watches as the fear fades from her expression, replaced by steel and… a fierce and unwavering something, a protective instinct they’ve very rarely had cause to see out of anyone. Kris’ hands grip hers still, and Kris gathers the will to hold even tighter.

 

“Kris… what is this? What…”

 

In this moment, Kris realizes that they have a choice - though in the end it’s hardly even a choice. Kris isn’t thinking of The Plan and what the soul might know, as they act - though they certainly consider such things in the following moments.

 

Kris thinks of Susie - how she deserves to hear this from them, not from it - as they gather every ounce of determination within themselves, as they plunge their hand into their chest.

 

“Kris! What the hell…” Susie’s expression shifts back to confusion and concern as she watches them rip out their own soul. She watches as their hand phases through their chest, and emerges with a large, familiar, heart shaped object. They grasp it firmly around the bottom, and it seemingly wiggles a bit in their grasp before settling. Kris is breathing hard, and they look twice as tired as they seemed only a few minutes ago. 

 

They feel twice as tired as they were only a few moments ago. They can go without a soul, but the sudden collapse of energy allows exhaustion to hit them like a truck. They haven’t had a full night’s sleep in days, and they feel every bit of it at this moment. Kris falls to their knees, dropping the soul and letting it float beside them as they catch themselves, but thankfully, it doesn’t immediately ram itself back into them. If anything, it almost seems to give them space. As it does so, it’s as if the world releases a breath it was holding - the wind settles down, and the strange light fades in intensity. Sound does not return, other than what Kris can hear from Susie.

 

Susie stands, before pulling Kris up with her. The two of them stare at Kris’ heart-shaped parasite, before Susie quickly turns between Kris and the Soul. “That’s… your soul right? It came out of you when you, uh, did the thing that got rid of the Titan.”

Kris looks to Susie, and they mumble - quiet, but it’s quieter than quiet around them - “It’s… not mine.” 

 

Susie looks with concern at Kris, then the two of them turn to the soul - which is also floating side to side, like it was…

“You’re also trying to say no, right?” Susie asks. Kris frowns - what were they thinking? Now it’s free, and it can do… who knows what. They check their pockets in the vain hope that they might have some way to trap it, but to no avail. They should still be ready to give chase if it runs - hitting it earlier seemed to stun it.  Hopefully, none of that will be necessary, given that it goes out of its way to be kind to everyone it meets except you . 

 

The soul, seemingly in response to Susie, bops up and down - like a nod. It’s trying to communicate now? Why now? Kris has tried to talk to it, during the time when they’ve removed it from their body, but it never acknowledged any of Kris’ attempts. 

 

Susie’s expression falters a bit, but the steel never leaves her eyes. “Okay. You-” she points at the soul - “can hear us, right?”

 

The little shit shakes itself side to side in a no.

Susie holds her hands up, fingers curled into claws as her face contorts into an incredulous growl. Kris, however, manages to find their voice, as they say, with as much force as they can muster, “Stop this. No Jokes. Answers, now. You can respond with a yes or no? Then, you’ll answer our questions.”

 

Kris keeps a hand ready to draw the Black Shard taken from the Knight’s blade. Kris is willing to feel some pain themselves if needed. When they hit the soul with a chocolate syrup bottle, back in Noelle’s kitchen, it felt like that one time Dess accidentally beamed them in the head with a baseball. Kris is just hoping that it feels the pain more than they do.

 

The soul does nothing. Susie has an inquisitive look on her face. “Wait… you heard me, right?”

 

The soul bobs up and down again, a yes.

 

“Did you hear Kris speak, just then?”

 

Kris’ stomach plummets as the soul shakes itself side to side. Ah. This entire time, it couldn’t even hear them. Well, at least that explains why it wasn’t responding to Kris. They’re weirdly relieved by this - whatever entity it is hasn’t judged Kris to be the one person in this angel-forsaken town to be unworthy of kindness - the soul just can’t hear them. For some reason.

 

Susie turns to them, and says “Kris, this is really goddamn weird.”

Kris can only nod. They didn’t want to throw this wrench into their friendship, especially after the heartwarming conversation they had earlier… but, Kris supposes, this was inevitable. She’s seen the soul a few times by this point - she was going to ask questions eventually. Kris doesn’t want to, but knows that they have to face the music here.

 

Kris gathers themselves, before saying what they needed to say. “It was… controlling me. Ever since Thursday. Not entirely, but…”

 

Susie looks at them, and Kris can feel their friendship, their bond being tested. “It was… controlling you? That’s why you… felt that I didn’t know the real you. Because, I didn’t.” 

 

Kris’ absent heart seized, and they avert their gaze. That was what they told her, right? That’s what they were expecting, in the deepest pits of their pessimistic mind. They should be ready to be… rejected. So… why does it hurt so much?

 

They look back towards Susie, but she’s looking at the soul again. It… it’s shaking itself side to side. No? It’s telling her…

 

“No?” Why does she sound so relieved? She turns back to you, and it hurts how relieved she looks, how she looks like she’s putting herself back together too. Her voice is sad and hesitant in a way that sounds wrong on her. Kris heard it earlier when she was fighting that statue of the old man, and they’d give anything to ensure they didn’t have to hear it again.

 

“Kris… you’re still my friend, right?”

Kris nods as hard as they can, over and over, closing their eyes to banish the hint of tears coming forth. They sniffle, before saying “Of course.” They let out a breathy sigh, before opening their arms in invitation.

 

Susie seizes the opportunity, and hugs Kris. They grip each other tight, and for just a moment, Kris lets go of all their worries. Kris doesn’t like physical touch from most people, but Susie isn’t most people. She rubs her hand into the back of their sweater as she swears, “I want to know the real you, too. I’m not going anywhere, Kris.”

Notes:

As far as I know, no matter what we do in Deltarune, we cannot impair Kris and Susie's friendship. Their bond is immutable by our hands - and, thus, unsurprisingly, she mostly handles this well. While Susie can be oblivious about certain things, she's probably the most empathetic out of the fun gang. The outcome would not have changed if the soul was cruel instead of kind - but kindness opens doors to understanding.

Let me know what you think! ♥