Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“WHY DO YOU KEEP MESSING UP EVERY SINGLE TIME, SUNNY?!”

A frustrated Mari shouted as she slammed her hands on the keys of her piano while I was standing with my violin in both of my hands. I looked at her with fear as every time that she raised her voice whenever I accidentally or unintentionally missed a note or two…Or maybe three times when we practiced. 

I could never stop myself from flinching and feeling my own body just shake in unease. After just playing for hours and hours, the fingers on my left hand not only had nasty-looking blisters, but they also had multiple cuts all over which didn’t look too good. 

It was like each of my four fingers almost looked like shredded meat. 

Whenever they started to hurt, I tried to ask my parents if they could have a look at them or if there were any band-aids or anything to stop the pain.

My mom was busy on the phone all the time and didn’t seem to bother to look at me while my dad always tells me that it doesn’t look too serious and that it would affect my ability to play the violin if I had band-aids on. I did complain about it afterwards, but he yells at me whenever I do and tells me to stop being a baby and grow up. It would have been painful just from looking at them and playing my violin with them constantly, except I felt no pain whatsoever since then.

…Now I just couldn't feel anything except the constant fear and the stress that I had for my sister who kept screaming at me still.

“THAT’S THE UMPTEENTH TIME YOU SCREWED UP THIS FAR!”

I was afraid and also too tired to even want to continue since we have been going at it for a while, especially when today was the night of the recital…I still don’t understand how my sister went from being how she always was, the kind, patient, and caring sister to what she is now in a span of just a few months. She hasn’t even looked at my current injuries that were OBVIOUSLY showing. 

Just my eyes…My scared and tired eyes.

“I-I’m trying my best, M-Mari! I know I can g-get better if you could show me how it’s-”

Before I stuttered to finish my sentence, Mari stood up as she let out a frustrated sigh. 

“You’re NOT trying hard enough Sunny! Not ONCE have you even improved, are you even taking this seriously?!”

“I-I am taking this seriously! I-It’s just that-”

“Will you STOP lying to me already?! You’re not even trying at ALL! All you do is just complain and whine, and mess up over, and over, AND OVER, AND ASK FOR SO MANY BREAKS THAT I’VE LOST COUNT!”

I stood there as I watched her fuming from her nostrils, I’ve never seen her this mad in all of my life.

“UGH!!! I SWEAR YOU ARE JUST BEING A COMPLETE  NUISANCE RIGHT NOW! WHY CAN’T YOU GET ANYTHING RIGHT FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE?!”

I felt my own heart nearly stop just from listening to her, what she was saying to me right now…It hurts. 

Though I was afraid, I started to get angry too. Not wanting to be in here any longer, I stormed out of the music room with the violin in my bleeding-fingered hand.

I needed to get out of there, I was getting tired and sick of hearing her insults.

“Where are you going?! GET BACK HERE!” Mari screamed once again as I could now hear her following me out and continued to shout at me more.

Just stop…

Please, I really can’t take any more of this…

I just need to calm down...I need to get out of here…

As much as I would have said that to her…I didn’t. She probably won’t listen to a single plea that I try to make and think of it as an excuse.

Where did this all go wrong? Why is this even happening in the first place..? 

What happened to the kind Mari? 

The sweet and caring Mari? 

The Mari, who valued me as her brother?

The Mari that always will protect me?

Now that I think about it…I have always been living in her shadow for most of my life. Everyone valued her, including my parents, mostly my dad since he tends to push her to be the perfect daughter. 

When I first got the violin for Christmas, I thought things would be a lot better from there when I asked Mari if I could be in her recital. I didn’t tell her exactly why but just seeing her smile and excitement about the idea, it made me happy. 

Since then we practiced for hours and hours every day. As I said before, Mari was patient at the beginning when I was making my mistakes with a few notes. Only over a couple of months, all I could see was her forcing herself to try to stay being nice until she couldn’t do it anymore. 

When I wanted to hang out with my friends, I was not allowed most of the time. I kept getting yelled at to keep practicing and to stay at home by Dad while Mari got to hang out with them instead…Even when they came over, they usually are with Mari, and one day as they came over to listen to our practice performance for the recital, they all praised Mari while I was just left standing there to witness it…

I know that I wasn’t doing okay, but at least tell me I was doing good and that I can get better with some given time…It just wasn’t fair.

It was like…I wasn’t even there, just like I didn’t exist…

I felt like I was abandoned.

I just wanted to be good enough…Why couldn’t you or they see how much that I am trying?!

This violin…It was one of the reasons why I’m here in the first place…The first reason that Mari became this and the reason why I feel so alone…

Just looking at it was making me sick and angry...

I BECAME ENRAGED.

Not wanting to look at it any longer and out of blind rage, I threw it down the stairs. The first thing I heard was the satisfying sound of the wood and strings breaking on the impact of the floor. 

The next was…Well, my sister screaming at the top of her lungs brought me back to my senses.

“SUNNY!!! WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD WE ALL WORKED JUST TO GET YOU THAT VIOLIN?!  THE RECITAL IS IN A FEW HOURS!!! NOW IT’S RUINED BECAUSE OF YOUR SELFISHNESS-”

“JUST SHUT UP!”

Mari’s eyes widened as I cut her off, for the first time in a while I had raised my voice at her. This was also the first time I'd seen a shocked expression on her face.

At the moment…I didn’t care.

“Excuse me?!”

“H-How long are you going to keep doing this to me…? Every time that I mess up, all you do now is NOTHING but scream and yell insults at me! I’M REALLY TRYING MARI, but I’m not as perfect or as talented as you are! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT ALREADY?!”

As Mari took a second to get out of her shock, she went back to being angry once more.

“THEN WHY DID YOU BOTHER ASKING IF YOU WANT TO BE IN MY RECITAL IF YOU CAN’T GET IT RIGHT-”

“W-Wait a second…YOUR recital?!”

Mari was taken aback as I corrected her, but hearing that she started gritting her teeth a little. I was also surprised by the fact that she’s saying it was HER recital. So all of this was just about her?

Now I feel disgusted...

“...OUR recital! And why does that even matter to you now?! Unlike you, this actually matters a LOT to me since all I’m trying to do is make it PERFECT! Yet all you ever do is make everything worse! How could I be so stupid to let someone as incompetent as you join the recital?!”

I didn’t believe what I was hearing, all of this…The constant screaming, the insults, and just…Just degrading me to the degree that all I could do was be afraid of who she was becoming…This wasn’t the Mari that I can even rely on anymore. 

Her words were hurting me to the point I felt my cheeks getting wet. I knew that I was crying, though I could care less about it before I started to speak once more…This time I let out of everything that I bottled up until now, everything I couldn’t hold back anymore like I was pouring it down onto the floor.

“D-Do…Do you even want to know why I asked if I could be in the recital with you…?”

“MAYBE BECAUSE SINCE YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANT TO ME, ALL YOU PROBABLY WANTED TO DO IS SABOTAGE-”

“BECAUSE ALL I EVER WANTED TO DO WAS SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOU!”

“H-Huh-?” Mari looked confused as I let out an outburst that I didn’t know I could even muster.

“Every single TIME where I wanted to spend time with you, you were always busy! Not to mention that you are always busy with piano practice and studying for college, all I could do was wait for you to come home even if it means staying awake just for you…”

As I continued to speak, her expression became a lot more shocked than it originally was. I slowly my right hand balled into a fist

“I know that you’re preparing yourself for college…I know that getting older is much closer than we speak…I know that once you are away, I won’t even get to see you as much anymore…A-And now? NOW?! I DON’T KNOW WHY I FREAKING BOTHERED ANYMORE!”

Every time that I said a word, I wanted to stop, to shut up if possible. 

I just wanted this to end…I didn’t stop, I just continued to pour out everything that I had in my heart, all of my feelings that I bottled up over the years I let it flow like a river. I felt my voice getting hoarse as I kept shouting.

“I HATE PLAYING THE VIOLIN, I HATE BEING AFRAID TO MESS UP ALL THE TIME, I HATE GETTING YELLED AT BY BOTH YOU AND DAD, I HATE FEELING PAIN IN MY FINGERS, AND I EVEN HATE THAT MY FINGERS BLEED EVERY TIME THAT WE PLAY FOR HOURS ON END!”

I showed Mari my left hand that was bleeding, her eyes widened in horror as she let out a gasp once she looked at the state of my fingers.

“I-I HATE IT WHENEVER STOP PLAYING AND WHEN I GO TO ASK MOM AND DAD FOR THE PAIN TO STOP AND GETTING YELLED AT BY DAD TO KEEP PRACTICING, I HATE WHEN I HAVE TO KEEP FEELING THE CONSTANT PAIN AS WE CONTINUE! I BARELY COULD GET ANY SLEEP FROM HOW MUCH IT HURTS!”

Mari didn’t say a single word as I kept screaming at her, she looked at me as her eyes were starting to be filled with tears, she could cry at any given moment for all I knew.

Soon my shouting slowly began to die down before I gave her a pitiful expression.

“I-I’m so tired…I’m tired of crying every day after practice, whenever my hand was in pain…Whenever you got t-to hang out with our friends and I was told to s-stay behind or when they all had to go…Most of them b-barely look at me now…I-It’s like you all hate me! I hate feeling like I’m all alone, I hate being in your shadow or being a disappointment to you…I HATE IT ALL!”

I took a deep breath. I felt like every time I spoke right now, I could feel the air just escaping my lungs while I tried to control my breathing and calm myself down…It was getting hard to do just that.

“O-Oh my god…S-Sunny, I-I…” Her tears now escaping her eyes as she placed both hands over her mouth and nose made her stop right after. I could see she finally realized what she had done…Yet for some reason I just kept going, I didn’t give her the chance to even finish what she had to say.

“A-And above all else…I…”

“...I hate you…!”

…

Mari’s eyes widened once more, though as she was crying she was appalled by her own brother’s words…He didn’t mean that right? There was just no way, he’s just saying it out of anger right?

Right…?

“S-Sunny, you don’t mean that…Y-You don’t hate your big sister…R-Right? L-Little brother…?” Mari asked, her tone filled with disbelief as she was now the one barely holding it together.

As she reached a hand to grab Sunny’s wrist, seeing this he tried to pull away from her grip.

“Let go of me.” He said in a cold tone that Mari never knew he had.

MARI BECAME AFRAID

Mari couldn’t believe this, Sunny would never hate her. Especially knowing him, even though he was the quiet and shy type, he was always forgiving.

“S-Sun- S-Sunshine…I d-didn’t know how much you were suffering…I didn’t realize…I-I’m so sorr-

“Let. Go. Of. Me!”  Now saying though his teeth, Sunny was now trying to yank his wrist out of her grip. 

God why did he have to be weaker than her…

Mari didn’t want to let go, she wanted to fix her mistakes while all she could do was cry and beg for his forgiveness. 

Unfortunately Sunny didn’t want any of it as he continued to try and get his wrist out of her grip. Little did the younger sibling know what was behind him before he screamed once again…This time it would be something that would change everything.

"I HATE YOU SO MUCH THAT I WISH YOU WEREN'T MY SISTER ANYMORE!"

This hit the elder sibling hard once she heard the words from her little brother before she could even finish registering his words or say anything in response. He yanked his wrist out of her grip so hard that he was stumbling back. His foot didn't touch the floor behind him.

Feeling as if time had slowed down, the short, raven-haired boy was seen falling down every single step of the staircase until he reached the bottom and the only thing that broke the boy's fall…

…Was the broken Violin that had been part of all this.

"SUNNY!!!" Mari cried, horrified at what she had just witnessed as she quickly made her way down the steps, rushing to her brother's aid.

"OH MY GOD SUNNY! A-ARE YOU OKAY?!"

Sunny didn’t respond when she got to him, his eyes completely shut. He didn't move at all, she noticed two things, part of Sunny’'s violin stabbed into the right side of his waist which caused blood to start to leak out, and one of his fingers was gone…His index finger.

Mari got on her knees as they started to become weak with fear and placed a hand behind her brother's head, gently lifting him up while she placed another hand around the piece of Sunny’s violin that was stabbed into him to prevent any more blood from flowing out as she was shaking him awake.

“S-Sunny, wake up…P-Please wake up!”

Mari started to cry while she didn't know what to do until she heard someone open the door that made her freeze up.

"Mari? Sunny? I just came to see how you two are doing! Hero, Kel, and Aubrey will be over in a minute-" A boy with blonde hair that looked roughly about Sunny’s height entered the house.

It was Basil.

The boy’s eyes were looking at the state of the two siblings in front of him. He noticed Mari was cradling her brother who was bleeding.

Immediately the pupils in his eyes dilated in horror as he started to scream.

"M-MARI?! WHAT HAPPENED TO SUNNY?! WHY IS THE VIOLIN BROKEN?! WHY IS HE BLEEDING?!"

Much to Mari who was still in a state of shock and the terror she was still in as she was crying her eyes out, she became hesitant to speak at first until the only thing she could tell him was…

"...H-Help…P-Please call for h-help…CALL FOR HELP!!!"

Basil was shaking at the sight of a terrified Mari and an unconscious bleeding Sunny, she was begging for him to call for help.

Soon he quickly did as he was told and rushed out the door and was heard from the outside of the house calling for help.

When it was just the two of them again, MARI looked down at her brother before she started to break down into tears as she started to choke on her words.

"Y-You're going to b-be okay S-Sunny…! E-Everything is g-going to be o-okay…Your big s-sister isn't going anywhere!"

…

After minutes had passed by, Basil had returned with Hero, Kel, and Aubrey who were all terrified. He filled them in on what had happened which Hero called the ambulance immediately while he tried to calm Mari down and Kel went to both their parents to tell them what was going on with tears as they rushed over to help, Aubrey was shaking and even hyperventilating that Sunny was injured and even cried along with Mari who she looks up to. 

The ambulance arrived not too long after, Mari watches her brother being taken away into the vehicle much to her protesting that she wanted to go with them, but eventually gave in and was given a ride to the hospital by Hero and Kel’s parents along with Basil who was following behind them in his caretakers' car with Aubrey who was still crying not as much as before, she clutched onto her stuffed toy Mr. Plantegg and didn't dare to let go once they had all arrived at the hospital.

Hours passed by as the group of kids and the three adults waited outside of the operating room. Not too long after, Sunny and Mari's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki had come in. 

Mr. Suzuki walked with an irritated expression while Ms. Suzuki came running with tears in her eyes.

"W-Where's Sunny?! Where's my precious baby boy?! Mrs. Suzuki questioned as she looked at them with red puffy eyes.

“He’s going to be okay, he’s in the operating room at the moment.” Hero and Kel’s mother, Mrs. Rodriguez, reassured as she was consoling the poor Kel.

As Mrs.Suzuki wanted to feel relieved, she was worried sick before noticing Mari who was fidgeting with her fingers and even shaking one , Hero was rubbing her back just to calm her down while he had a sad expression. Soon she walked up to her daughter, Mari wouldn’t even look at her in the eyes while she knelt to her level.

“M-Mari…? Are you okay…?” She said in a soft tone yet her voice was shaky with unease. ”Are you hurt anywhere?”

Mari didn’t say a word but she did shake her head a little.

Mrs. Suzuki felt relieved that she was alright, though just looking at her…She knew something had happened which had traumatized  her and prevented her from speaking.

“Sweetie…What happened to Sunny?” She asked, Mari, looked at her mother with fear in her eyes as she was hesitant to speak and this started to concern Mrs. Suzuki.

“Yeah, what happened to the little brat that made us miss the damn recital?!” Mr. Suzuki said, anger in his tone that everyone looked at him. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez, Kel, Basil, and Aubrey were shocked by what he had said while Hero looked at him with anger and disbelief in his eyes.

“Dear! How can you say that right now?! OUR son is injured!!” Mrs Suzuki retorted as she got up and started to get annoyed by her husband's attitude while he rolled his eyes in response.

”Is that her husband?” Mrs Rodriguez asked, turning to her husband whom he nodded along with a sigh. Once she turned back to the Suzuki parents she had a thought. ’Oh my god...I am so sorry for what she and her children have to go through.’

Aubrey stared at the two parents in fear as this reminded her of her parents who always fought day and night whenever she’s home. Clutching onto both Mr. Plantegg and Mari’s arm, she closes her eyes as she hopes there won’t be another parent argument.

"Sunny…Please be okay…" Aubrey muttered as she was praying.

Before Mr. Suzuki could speak again, one of the doctors had come out of the doors of the operating room. Everyone perked their heads up to look at him while he looked at every single one of them. The doctor had a very tall and slender looking physique while his hair was silver gray and had fair but pale looking skin.

“Are you all here for the patient?” He asked while he noticed several head nods and a reluctant one from Mr. Suzuki. 

Mrs. Suzuki started to walk towards the elderly man.

“H-How is Sunny?! How is my boy?! I-Is he going to be okay?!” She asked while the doctor could see how much it was taking so much for her to not break down in front of him.

Letting out a sigh, the doctor gave her a nod.

"Well, he lost a lot of blood, maybe he will develop a nasty scar on the right side of his waist, but he's still alive." He answered, everyone almost felt relieved until he continued. "Though…It appears that whatever has happened to the boy, he is in…He’s in a coma.”

As the news struck those who were worried, Both Rodriguez parents didn’t say a word while Mrs. Suzuki started to wail. 

Both Kel and Basil had the look of disbelief in their eyes as tears flowed from their eyes. 

Hero felt his heart sink as he tried his best to keep himself together only to start tearing up seconds later. 

Aubrey was still crying though she was crying harder than before, she looked up at Mari who she could see her eyes looked empty but there were still tears coming out. Mari would be the one of all people besides her mother would be taking it the hardest out of all of them…Maybe this information about Sunny, her little brother that she adored so much being in a coma was the thing that affected her in a way that she didn’t know how to react.

“A-A coma…?” Mari muttered as this was the first time she had spoken in a while.

‘There’s just no way…’ Hero thought before looking at Mari who was just completely out of it. ‘Mari…Just what in the heck happened…?’

The Doctor looked at the mixture of reactions as he tried his best to console the mother, though he did notice some confusion in the air on why the boy that he was operating on was in a state of a coma.

"During our operation, we did some x-ray scans and we noticed that the boy severely injured his head, a fractured part in the back of his skull. He's very lucky to be alive."

"Oh my god..." Basil's caretaker gasped while she cringed on how painful it would have felt.

Everyone became silent after that, except for Mrs. Suzuki who was letting out loud cries for her son still and an unexpected grunt came from her husband.

...

“Oh give me a break.” Mr. Suzuki said, his annoyed expression remained unchanged until it became much more irritated than before.

“Excuse me?” The doctor asked before raising an eyebrow, he didn’t expect this kind of response coming from the father of all people.

“So what if he’s in a coma? Is that supposed to mean anything? I knew that brat of a son was a disappointment, but I never expected it to be this bad."

Almost everyone in the room stared up at the man who was the father of Mari Suzuki. There was a mixture of facial expressions of every single person in the room, some were looking at him with anger, others were disgusted and appalled by some of the children. The doctor wanted to ignore him, but seeing how such a man is talking like that about his own son, nearly made the older man blow a fuse.

"...Tell me sir, did you happen to notice his finger injuries?" He asked suddenly.

Everyone turned back to the doctor who was confused, Mari gulped while she remained silent.

"Finger injuries? Of course I did, he wouldn't stop complaining about them. I basically had to tell him to grow up, kids get hurt all the time. At least after that he stopped whining about it after all."

…

There was a moment of silence in the room, everyone kept their eyes on both Mr. Suzuki and the doctor.

"...Are you truly this boy's father?!"

Surprised as the doctor started shouting at Mr. Suzuki, all everyone could even do was just watch as everything started to unfold. They never in their lives have seen a nice looking doctor become so angry at a parent before, even the doctor wasn’t sure if he should think Mr. Suzuki could ever be called a parent.

“Your son not only was missing ONE of his fingers, All of his remaining fingers excluding his thumb on his left hand had not only blisters, but severe cuts and infections that we were forced to amputate! What kind of parent doesn’t bother to take their own damn kid to the hospital?!”

‘...Dad knew about his injury on his fingers? Why didn’t he say anything? Why didn't mom know about it?!’ Mari thought as she looked at her father with slight anger and even confusion towards her mother.

“Why didn’t you tell me Keith!?” Mrs. Suzuki exclaimed, now recovering from her teary outburst as she walked up to her husband. "MY BABY LOST ALL FOUR OF HIS FINGERS!"

“You were busy with your damn job all the time, even so much as being on the phone that you couldn’t even give a damn to talk!” He retorted, though his response made his wife a lot angrier. “Plus it really doesn’t matter anyway, now we know that he will just be a complete failure in the family-”

SMACK

Mr. Suzuki was sent flying towards the floor as his round framed glasses were knocked off his face  which hit the floor and caused one of the glass lenses to shatter. The man held onto his nose in pain as blood began to leak out from his nostrils, wondering what had happened he looked up to see someone who he didn’t expect to knock him to the ground.

Hero Rodriguez, Mari’s boyfriend that he didn’t approve of, in front of him with tears just pouring down his face and gritting teeth. 

The teenager was absolutely furious, if looks could kill, Mr. Suzuki would have been dead already since the look in the boy’s eyes were staring into the man’s soul…He actually felt some fear from the boy.

“Hero?!” Mrs. Rodriguez exclaimed,  stunned to witness her own child punching the man who was Mari’s father in front of all of them. Everyone else was surprised, especially Mari who had been dating him for a long time had never seen this side of Hero before.

“What the hell do you know about Sunny, huh…?” Hero asked as he kept his left hand balled up. “And what kind of parent gives you the right to talk about your own damn son like that?! Sunny is a nice and quiet kid who has done nothing wrong! Even if he always keeps a neutral expression most of the time, he cares about all of us! So don’t you DARE call him a failure YOU SAD EXCUSE OF A FATH-”

“HENRY EDUARDO RODRIGUEZ!”

Hero’s head immediately perked up and slowly turned to who had shouted his full name.

Once he fully turned around to the person who had shouted, his eyes went wide to see that it was his own father standing up with a serious expression, he never saw him look so serious in his life, he’s usually the one that laughs things off.

Soon his father’s expression started to soften and lowered his arms before talking in such a gentle tone.

“That’s enough son…”

His eyes would look around to see the stunned and scared looks in each and everyone’s eyes even looking at Mari was really scared of his actions. His anger just seemed to evaporate within a second before he started to let out a silent sob as his father pulled him into a hug along with both his mother and Kel who buried his face to his side.

‘Why is this happening to us…?’ Kel thought,  desperately wishing this was all a dream.

Mr. Suzuki slowly got up from the floor, still holding onto his nose. If he was angry before, he was definitely much angrier now.

“Y-You…You damn little shit! I could have you charged for assault!” He growled, there were some nervous glances and even glares from his wife and both the Rodriguez parents.

“That won’t be necessary.” Said an unfamiliar voice from a distance. 

They all turned to where the voice was coming from, only to see that a police officer was walking up to them.

“I’ve heard everything that I needed to hear, and it seems that you have been not only neglecting your own son, but the way that you’re just talking about him like he isn’t even your own child. You’re under arrest for child neglect and child endangerment.”

The still bleeding man’s eyes went wide and even his own skin went pale from the thought of being arrested.

“W-Wait a second! I’M getting arrested?! But HE was the one that assaulted me!”

As Mr. Suzuki was pointing at the silently crying Hero, the officer looked at the boy before turning back to the neglectful father.

“I didn’t see anything.” He said flatly, Mr. Suzuki was in disbelief before turning to his wife who was looking at him with the coldest gaze she could muster.

“H-Honey…?”

The woman stared at him, she was looking at the man that she thought she still loved…She no longer saw the same man anymore, just a monster who only cared about himself.

“...I want a divorce!” Was all that she had said before looking away.

Mr. Suzuki didn’t say anything as the officer got him on his feet and in handcuffs before taking him away.

Mari looked at her own father just being taken away. She didn't even know how to react when he looked at her, almost pleading for her to help him.

Now they were both gone for good, leaving the rest to just sit there and take in what had happened.

Aubrey was shaking violently after what had gone down.

Kel and Basil remained silent.

Hero was wiping his tears while he was next to his younger brother.

Both Rodriguez parents were comforting the soon-to-be divorced Mrs. Suzuki.

As for Mari…

She was watching everything that was crumbling right in front of her own eyes. 

This had to be a dream she thought…There was no way none of this was real right? Both her parents still loved each other and Sunny’s just taking a long tap, he didn’t mean what he said earlier…Right?

As much as she wanted to believe it wasn’t real…She couldn’t.

As much as she wanted to block everything out…She can’t

The only thing she could and ever could do…Was just silently weep to herself as she was facing the consequences of her actions that were selfish enough to almost take the life of her own brother…

...

“I-I’m s-sorry…L-Little brother…” She muttered to herself in between her own sobs while everyone else was trying to process everything they had heard.

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WELCOME TO WHITE SPACE. YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING HERE FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN REMEMBER.

…

I woke up to stare at the blank white ceiling that greeted me. Confused on how I got here, I slowly got up from the white carpet and was met with everything around me was a blank white room.

It would have been hard on the eyes at first, but eventually I started to get used to it until I noticed a few things on the floor where I was standing.

A laptop, my journal, a box of tissues, and…A black kitten?

No…I knew this kitten...Mewo.

“Mewo?” I said as she got up and started rubbing against my leg. Before I was about to pick her up, I noticed something strange about my left hand. 

One of my fingers looked weird, it was seemingly pitch black along with tiny black bubbles that seemed to evaporate as they detach from any part of the finger one by one. I didn’t know what was going on as I scratched her belly and her back with the abnormal finger since I did get a little curious and very cautious since I didn’t want to harm her. 

Nothing happened other than my finger was making contact, though I couldn’t seem to feel anything. She did start to purr as I continued, that was good.

Good thing I had her right now, it doesn’t seem like I’m in Faraway town anymore…

When I finished scratching her, I set her gently back down on the floor as I began to walk around a bit and looked around my surroundings.

“Hello?” I called out, “Is anyone here?”

“Kel?”

“Basil..?”

“Hero…?”

“A-Aubrey…?”

I continued to call out, my voice echoed around the white void until I started to feel scared and on the verge of tearing up.

“Mom…? D-Dad…?”

“...Mari…?”

“They can’t hear you.” A voice said from a distance. I tried to turn to where it was coming from, only to see nothing…No one.

“W-Who said that?! W-Where are you?!” I called out once more, my voice starting to shake as my fear was rising.

“Don’t be alarmed, I’m not here to hurt you…” It said again, this time it was directly in my ear.

“W-Who are you?!” I screamed, it was so close that I couldn’t help but try to smack it, only to smack the nothingness around me.

“I’m…Omori.” It answered, this time it sounded quieter. “And I’m what you can consider…A friend.”

Omori? The name of Mari's piano? 

“A friend…? B-But how come I can’t see you? Also where am I…?”

Before Omori had the chance to answer, a sudden realization came to my head.

“AM I DEAD?!”

“What? No…No you’re very much alive, you are just in a coma.”

“A-A coma…? H-How the heck did I get in-…” I stopped in mid sentence of what I was trying to say. How I ended up in the coma…I just can’t seem to remember what had happened.

“...I can’t remember…”

“Unfortunately, the cost of you being in a coma and instead of being actually dead…I had to suppress the cause in order for you to live…”

Suppress the cause? I didn’t understand. How does that work? But how or why did he do that? 

When I tried to think about it, it all came out as just a blank.

I tried to think about something before, still nothing.

…Just what the heck is going on?

“B-But why can’t I remember anything else before that? All I can remember is going to sleep after Christmas.”

“Given how emotionally and mentally unstable you were at the time before the coma and the days after Christmas, with your feelings that you had suppressed for so long to pour out as you were still conscious, it was too much for you to handle and I had to suppress those too…See this?”

I heard the voice coming from above me, looking up I noticed a black colored light bulb above me. The only thing that seemed different in the blank room, it’s almost like everything was just inverted that what it was in the real world.

“So what is this place…? W-Why am I here?”

“This place is called WHITE SPACE, basically in short it’s a personal safe haven in your mind to escape reality if it becomes too much for you to handle.”

A personal safe haven? I didn’t understand what he had meant by that as this place looked really lonely, if not just sad…But I do suddenly feel a bit of comfort from it.

“And for why you’re here, as I said before…You are in a coma, and I created this place to help keep you alive while you are busy…Recovering.”

“...How long will that take?” I asked, I had a sudden feeling of dread and regret wash over me once I did.

"It could take weeks, maybe months, or perhaps years. The back of your skull was fractured severely, it will take time to heal...Maybe a long time for all we know."

“…What…?” I choked out as I started to become afraid. 

“...N-No, no no no…I-I can’t stay in here for that long! I-I don’t want to be in here! I want out! I-I WANT OUT-”

Before I could say another word, I felt the most painful sensation coming from my fingers on my left hand. I gripped onto it tightly as I looked down to see each of my four fingers were starting to get enveloped by black flames while I screamed out in sheer agony.

“MY FINGERS!!! W-WHAT IS GOING ON?!”

I didn’t hear the voice say anything to answer, except I felt like I was being watched once as the burning sensation was slowly dying down a bit, but not enough to endure the pain.

“Tell me, Sunny. Would you do anything for the pain to go away and have things you once had that you adored to go back to how things were before?” Omori asked as I didn’t understand the question while I continued to clutch my hand.

“W-What do y-you mean by that?!” My jaw clenched so hard that I was speaking through my teeth right now, I had never felt this kind of pain in my life…

When will it stop…?

“Answer the question…DO. YOU. WANT. THE. PAIN. TO. STOP?” It repeated once again, this time the voice was loud that I was caught off guard of how terrifying it was.

“AGHHH…YES I WANT IT TO STOP! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!” I yelled out, I was on the verge of crying at this point.

“...Alright then.” It said as I heard a sigh coming after. The burning pain in my fingers began to stop and the black flames died down. Now all four of my fingers were pitch black and had dark tiny bubbles coming out of my fingers until they faded.

I felt relieved but…

…I also felt like I was missing something.

Like I forgot something important.

I blinked twice until I saw there was a mirror in front of me.

Looking at it I can see myself in the reflection.

Yet something was off about it.

I appeared to be all monochrome and I was wearing a black tank top and had white and black thin striped shorts along with black socks that reached up to my calves.

I was confused as I noticed that in the reflection there were no black fingers.

I looked at myself and back up at the mirror a few times until I noticed my "reflection" was getting closer.

"W-What the heck?!" I exclaimed as I backed up while at the same time my reflection walked right out of the mirror.

"So this is what it's like to have a body…Fascinating." My reflection said, though the way he was talking it was the same as the mysterious voice.

"O-Omori…?"

"Ah, it seems like you still remembered my name." He spoke again, slowly beginning to walk around the void as I just looked at him with confusion.

"Forget what I said, I thought my name didn't have any importance…And judging from your expression I can see you have questions regarding my appearance and why I chose it…I figured you needed a familiar friendly face since you are going to be here for a bit."

I just looked at him as I didn't know what to say, I couldn't even find anything to say but just stare at him as he finished walking around.

"...Anyway, I know you seem like you are going to get bored here so how about we get out?"

"But I thought you said I was in a coma and I will have to wait a long time to heal…"

What was even going on right now? I don't think I can handle much more of being this confused.

Omori didn't say anything as he started to walk in my direction and passed me, I turned to look at him and to a door that was behind me.

Has that always been there? I never saw it when I was looking around.

"It's better for you to see than just say it. You don't like to be spoiled when you are going to have fun right?"

"...Fun?"

Omori then opens the door and turns to me, slowly extending out a hand.

"Take my hand and I'll show you what I mean."

I tilted my head to look at his hand and at the door. I couldn't see much except it did look very colorful, for what felt like ages I see color that isn't black and white out there.

Even if I was skeptical about it, I didn't really have any other option than just be in here all day.

I  took his hand and we both exited the white void known as WHITE SPACE.

Chapter Text

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You are going to be okay…

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Everything is going to be okay…

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Promise me that we’ll always be there for each other…

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.̶̨̦̪̖͓̩̳̀͆̐.̴̢̛̲͈͚̠͔̳̲͈͔͇̪̥̄͆͐̓͑͠.̴͉̠̙̮͎͓̠͍̹͕͐̈́͑

.̶̨̦̪̖͓̩̳̀͆̐.̴̢̛̲͈͚̠͔̳̲͈͔͇̪̥̄͆͐̓͑͠.̴͉̠̙̮͎͓̠͍̹͕͐̈́͑

.̶̨̦̪̖͓̩̳̀͆̐.̴̢̛̲͈͚̠͔̳̲͈͔͇̪̥̄͆͐̓͑͠.̴͉̠̙̮͎͓̠͍̹͕͐̈́͑

.̶̨̦̪̖͓̩̳̀͆̐.̴̢̛̲͈͚̠͔̳̲͈͔͇̪̥̄͆͐̓͑͠.̴͉̠̙̮͎͓̠͍̹͕͐̈́͑

S̶̡̥̖̺̥͚̤̻̮͗̅͑̐͑̄̍̊͑̈͌̇̍͠Ṳ̷̰̫̹̓̓͒N̷͚͔̰͙͚͎̔͒͊̉́̈́͗͗̿̽͊̈́̅̓N̶͚̺̦̠͖͓̬͕̲͈̪̈́̑̃Y̶̧͍͔̳͉͉̠̓̊̓̊̄̎͂̍̅͋͌̐̈́!̴̛̝̰̦͗̇́̓́͜

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After stepping through the door that led out of the white void of a room known as WHITE SPACE, I looked around to see that we were…In another room? No, wait a second…

I slowly turned my head up to look at the ceiling, almost like I was staring at space yet it was purple. I can even see the stars and planets are pretty much a bunch of doodles floating around as I keep staring. Not only that, but I also see furniture and plants floating around as well.

Just what kind of place is this…?

As I looked down to see Omori, he was already walking ahead of me. I followed right after while I began to look around my surroundings. We were in a colorful room with the floor looking like a mess. I noticed there was a lot of miscellaneous stuff such as a watermelon, some plants, a TV on the ground turned on with four boys walking on railroad tracks, a table just big enough for five or maybe six people, a tree with lavender leaves, and a giant yellow cat that was staring at us…Almost menacingly.

Now looking back forward just to detach my connection from the giant cat only to see three kids sitting on the floor playing cards. One was a boy that was bickering with a taller and much older boy, and a girl who was watching them both. She then started to notice the two of us and ran towards Omori, knocking over the cards in the process.

“Hi OMORI!” The girl greeted, now in front of us I started to get a better look at her. She was wearing a light-blue dress and a pink bow in her long dark purple hair. Her skin was like a white-ish blue color unlike Omori who was all monochrome and his skin was pure white, she actually looks like she has a lot of life since she was giving a big smile and her eyes started to sparkle like stars.

“We were hoping that you’d come by soon, wanna play cards with us? We were just about to start another game!” The girl then turned around to notice that the cards were all knocked down earlier, the sparkle in her eyes fades away as she had a small sad expression. “Oh! Whoops…Nevermind…”

“Aww man…What the heck, ☐☐☐☐☐☐?!” The short boy said with an annoyed tone as he got up from the floor. His hair reached down to the back of his neck while it too was purple like the girl’s and wore a colorful tank top covered in multicolored squares with dark purple or (maybe black?) shorts.  “You messed up all the cards! I was winning, too.”

“Hey there, ☐☐☐. There’s no need to get angry. It’s just a game, after all.” The taller boy replied, also getting up from the floor as well. Seeing that he wears a set of blue-striped pajama’s and his purple hair was unkempt. 

I noticed that aside from Omori, they all don’t have socks and shoes, all three of their hairs were the same shade and color while also having the same white-ish blue color skin. It made me wonder if I was the only one who looked…

I looked down at my black fingers and looked back up at all of them...Guess we all aren’t normal.

“Don’t give me that, ☐☐☐☐! You only say that ‘cause you were losing!” The short boy shouted back as the taller boy went silent, clearly what he said was right since I noticed his eyes shift the other way.

Every time I heard them speak, most of the time I could hear them were speaking just fine yet when I heard them call out to one another like maybe their names, I squint my eyes as there was no sound coming from the short boy and the only sound that I heard from the taller boy was like a static sound you hear on a TV with no signal.

Finding it quite odd, was I just not hearing them right or something else? I looked at Omori who shrugged as the girl was now looking at me with a curious expression.

“Hey who’s that with you, Omori? And why does he look a little like you?” She asked while she started to get closer towards me.

“This is Sunny, he’s our friend.” Immediately after his response, the girl’s smile came back and even grew wider than before.

“Ooooh! A new friend? Hi there, I’m MIZUNO!” She introduces herself, finally hearing her name much more clearly. I guess I really didn’t pay attention, but either way I noticed just how close she really was towards me as I slowly started to feel my ears heating up. For some reason the more I looked at her the more I started to find her to be familiar.

Actually…Those two boys also looked familiar. Have I met them before?

“H-Hi Mizuno…” I muttered out a reply, slightly angling my head away from her once she moved back to the two boys.

Both me and Omori started walking towards the trio, the short kid was the second to walk towards me with a grin on his face.

“Hey how are ya! My name is JOE, or you can call me O.JOE!” He said as he sounded enthusiastic.

“Uh? What does the O mean?.

“Heheheh…Actually? I can’t remember! People say it could be Original, Outrageous, or maybe Orange! It could be anything really!”

“How come it doesn’t mean Obtuse? Mizuno muttered, it seemed like no one heard her except for me.

I then turned my head to look at the taller boy walking towards me, his messy hair looked a lot messier up close.

“My name is CHIP, and I’m Joe’s older brother.” Chip was the last one to introduce himself. “It’s nice to meet you Sunny! A friend of Omori’s is a friend of ours!”

Every one of them seemed really friendly, though I just can’t get the feeling that I somehow feel a sense of familiarity. 

“...It’s really nice meeting all of you, I hope I won’t be too much of a problem with you all…”

“Oh nonsense! You will be alright with us! Isn’t that right guys?” Chip grinned before turning to the two kids which they nodded in agreement.

“Heck yeah! It will be a lot more fun having you around!” O.Joe exclaimed with a fist pump.

“The more the merrier!” Mizuno giggled gleefully.

Once the three kids were going back to their own thing, I felt myself beginning to relax a bit until I looked to see Omori who was wandering around. I decided to walk over to him since I had some questions I wanted to ask.

“Hey…I have a question, how come they look familiar? I’ve never met them before but why do I feel like I do? It doesn’t make sense…”

Omori stopped to look at me, his face remained neutral from the beginning as it never changed once. I don’t think I’ve seen him change his expression at all before coming here. It was kind of creepy…

I watched him stare at me for a few more seconds until he spoke. “Just don’t think about it too much. Just think of it as more friendly faces you can be comfortable with.”

I didn’t really like his answer, for some reason it sounded a little…Vague if I’m being honest, and it made no sense at all. I tried to keep thinking if I did know them before going into a coma but again everything came out as blank.

“You should go talk to Mizuno, it seems like she isn’t looking too happy.” My eyes shifted to the left to see Mizuno who looked a little upset as mentioned, she crossed her arms while she looked like she was looking for something.

Walking back over to the girl, I could see the look in her eyes as if she was annoyed and even frustrated with something.

“Umm…You okay, Mizuno?” I asked with concern, she turned to my direction to meet my eyes while her expression did not change..

“Sunny, why is O.Joe always mean to me!?” She lets out a huff, I didn’t know how to even respond to such a question but thankfully she continued. “You know, the other day, that good-for-nothing stole my STUFFED TOY and hid it somewhere in this room.”

I can see she was letting out a growl while she balled up one of her fists in frustration. “Why would he do something like that? He’s so immature…I mean, what did I ever do to him!?”

I stared at her for a moment as she seemed to be in a deep thought, again I didn’t know how to answer such a question since I don’t know the both of them that well yet even IF they were familiar to me, I just don’t know the answer.

“…Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked anyway, wondering if there was at least something I can do.

Mizuno’s expression immediately changed back to her happy self as an idea came to mind. “Oh, I know! Can you help me find my stuffed toy for me, Sunny?”

“I-I don’t know if I can…I don’t even know where to look.” Does she really want someone like me to find it? I’m not sure if I can do it…I don’t want to disappoint her.

The girl started to get closer to me once again giving off one of the purest smiles that I’ve ever seen and even I can see she was giving me the puppy eyes. “Pretty pleaseee?”

“I-I…” I was stuttering, why does she look so cute…With a smile like that I just…

I just…!

“I-I’ll do it.” I declared, I placed a hand to my chest as I stood up straight like I was making a vow.  “I’ll help you find your s-stuffed toy, even i-if it means going t-to the ends of the earth.”

I stood there like a complete idiot while feeling embarrassed…Only for that to vanish once Mizuno giggled and she was skipping on her feet. “Alright! Let’s go find it!”

Now on the search for Mizuno’s stuffed toy, We both started to walk around the area. Starting it off first with going over to the cabinet drawers that was in between the lavender leaved tree and a glowing rainbow staircase I picked up a fluffy pillow shaped like the head of a girl that was on the counter.

“Is this it?” I asked Mizuno before showing it to her.

“Nope! The toy is purple and his head is all vegetable shaped!” She answered as she shook her head.

“Vegetable shaped…?” I asked as I was lacking the understanding of what she meant before slowly set the fluffy pillow back on the counter. I was going to say something, but I decided to keep it to myself. 

How the heck am I going to find a stuffed toy with a vegetable shaped head…?

The place we went to next was the table, on top it was almost empty except for a single plate. We tried checking under the table only to find…Nothing. Mizuno was also a little disappointed, but she didn’t give up hope yet. My eyes went from the table to see that both Chip and O.Joe were playing cards with Omori.

“Chip, you have the worst poker face when it comes to this game!” O.Joe teased while his brother sighed and scratched the back of his head.

“Just how does Omori keep on winning? I mean come on…” Chip wondered as he set down the cards he had in his hands. “He really is the master of poker faces.”

Omori hummed in response to the two brothers. I noticed that he started to glance at me and nudged his head as if he was telling me something. After a few more head nudges I turned to see that he was directing me to the large watermelon that was by a tentacle poking out of the ground.

I was a little cautious about the tentacle once I walked over to grab the watermelon, only to have my doubts relieved as it didn’t do anything to attack me as I brought the watermelon back to the table. After a few steps towards the table, I accidentally tripped on my feet causing me to drop the watermelon on the table and the bottom of it got smashed.

“You alright, Sunny?” Mizuno gasped as she ran over towards me, helping me up on my feet.

“Y-Yeah…I just tripped.” I rubbed the side of my leg while I looked at her.

“Just be careful next time, you’re lucky you didn’t trip down the stairs.” She then giggled once more until her eyes glanced at the watermelon. “Hey…What’s that in there?”

Turning my direction towards the watermelon, I saw a small purple hand underneath the large fruit. Now closing in on the table and grabbing the hand, I start pulling it out of the bottom which reveals a stuffed toy with an eggplant head covered in melon seeds.

“I-Is that…?” Mizuno’s eyes lit up as she walked over almost at a loss for words from seeing the toy. “...Could it be?”

I turned around to face her as I wiped the seeds off it before placing my arms forward to present the stuffed toy to her. I saw that her face was beaming with joy as she snatched the stuffed toy from my hands and twirled herself around, hugging the toy.

“ You found it! Thank you so much Sunny! I’ll never forget this!” Now with her toy in her hands, she runs back towards the trio playing cards as I follow behind walking. I can see that the game was over as I noticed all three of them had no cards in their hands along with O.Joe having a grumpy look and Chip was sighing.

“Hey, O.Joe! Look, it’s my stuffed toy!” She gestured the toy in her hands as she had a smug look.

“W-What the heck? Where did you get that?!” O.Joe’s grumpy face was replaced with shock at the sight of Mizuno having her toy in her hands, slowly becoming baffled.

“Sunny found it!” She answered, feeling a little smirk on her face. “Lucky for me, I’ve got some real friends!”

“Serves you right, Joe.” Chip added, “You should know better than to pick on others.”

“B-But Mizuno started it…” O.Joe pouted as he crossed his arms. “She was the one who was making fun of me for the mole on my…-”

Before he could finish, his face was turning a little blue while he had a look of embarrassment on his face. Mizuno’s smirk turned into a grin as I could see a mischievous look in her eyes.

“On your…What?” She said, seemingly waiting for him to finish what he was about to say only for him to become silent.

“Mizuno…” Chip sighed, Mizuno soon started to pout as she gave up.

“Fine…”

Soon the three went back to what they were doing while O.Joe muttered to himself.

“Maaaaaannnnnnn…Mizuno always gets what she wants.”

I stood there for a moment as I began to wonder what to do next. Are there any other places I could go besides WHITE SPACE or is this it? Though I am getting used to having these…Three around, I feel there should be more to this.

The more that I continued to think, I glanced at Chip who was getting up from the floor.

“Hey Sunny! I’m glad that’s settled.” He said with a smile of relief. “Those two always seem to be bumping heads.” I gave Chip a nod while I took a quick glance at the two kids and Omori cleaning up the cards from the floor until I looked back at him as he continued “☐☐☐☐ and ☐☐☐☐ invited us for a picnic at the playground!” 

Hearing Chip speaking out in a blur from saying something about inviting us to a picnic which I can already guess they were names. I couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed as to what was going on and why is every name that I try to hear is either silent or a random noise? Just what the heck?

“I’m sorry, who did you say invited us again? Just so I can get a clear…Pronunciation…?” I asked, hoping that would be a good excuse.

“Oh you mean HIKIKO and IRIS? Yeah those two are the ones that invited us! Do you want to go see them?”

Hikiko and Iris? Those two names are probably the strangest one’s I've ever heard of. Then again being introduced to everyone else had a strange yet unique name, but out of those two names that were strange, Hikiko’s name is really the strangest one…Yet somehow that name is giving me some sense of familiarity just like three kids.

“S-Sure…I’ve wanted to explore outside of here a bit.” I answered, giving him a thumbs up while Chip smiled again, this time with delight as he started to gather everyone.

“Alright everyone…Let’s go see Hikiko and Iris!”

When everyone had already gathered up, I stared at the rainbow staircase that was next to the giant yellow cat that locked eyes with me the moment I exited WHITE SPACE with Omori. Seeing that there was no other way out, all of us made our way over to the stairs. I noticed a snake slithered down the steps and looked and hissed at me. I couldn’t understand what it was saying but it dropped some c lams and there’s fifty of them too.

“Oh look! The snake gave Sunny some clams! You sure know what those are right?” Mizuno asked as she leaned forward to look at them.

“...Is it money?” I made an educated guess which the three kids nodded. I sighed to my relief.

“If you get enough of them, who knows what things we can buy with them!” O.Joe added.

Seeing that these were the currency of this place, I put them in my pocket just in case I needed them for later. Now looking up towards the top of the stairs and we all continued our walk up the steps and through a glowing door.

It was a little dark from the climb up but eventually I saw light coming from up ahead, climb through the exit, I started to walk forward a bit to look around to see we were in a forest and looking back at the thing I came out of was a large tree stump. O.Joe was the second to come out and was running a bit, Chip was the third and Omori was the fourth one.

“OH, YEAH!! FRESH AIR AT LAST!” O.Joe yelled with a grin, feeling the breeze blow through him as well it did with all of us. “Gotta love that nature. Well, let’s go!”

The three of them started to walk, while I stood there for a moment as if there was something we were forgetting.

“Uh…Weren’t there five of us?”

“Hey, wait a sec!” A voice was suddenly heard from behind us, we all turned to where it was coming from, even the three out of four of us stopped in our tracks to see what it was. A familiar face popped out the hole of the tree stump, it was Mizuno and it seemed like she was struggling to get out.

“Help me up, guys! I’m stuck.”

O.Joe seeing her struggle, he kept the same grin on his face as he got closer to her, almost letting out a giggle. “Only if you say please!”

Mizuno blinked twice as she didn’t look too amused by his antic’s. “O.Joe, stop messing around and get me out of here.”

O.Joe’s grin soon dropped immediately and was replaced with a small frown.

“Okay, okay…Fine.” He muttered as he walked over to her, grabbing onto both Mizuno’s hands and started to pull her out though he did struggle at first but once he got her out he started to yelp before rolling back towards me.

Mizuno gets up, dusting herself off until she puffed up her cheeks at O.joe while crossing her arms. “Hmph! Took you long enough!”

“Well sorry, princess…” O.Joe groaned, rolling his eyes as he got back up from the ground. Meanwhile I noticed Chip rubbing the bridge of his nose before giving a simple head shake and turning his attention to Omori who shrugged.

And after seconds of making sure everyone was present we all started to walk through the forest. I still couldn’t believe that just from exiting from a tree stump that had space underneath the ground I was standing on, and a white room…This was all too strange.

I suddenly felt some eyes on me and when I turned around I saw that both Omori and Mizuno were staring directly at me. Mizuno would give me a wave and a smile while Omori just stared at me with his usual blank expression…Do I always make that face? I mean he is ME after all right?

Giving a wave back I turned my head back forward to see that we had already reached the end of the forest. Now exiting the forest we found ourselves at the park. Just from seeing the swing set and the slide alone was enough to figure it out, I see that there were other people who didn’t look human but more like animals from how I’m looking at them.

“Looks like we’re here!” Chip said before I could even continue my thought when we got down the stairs.

“HIKIKO! IRIS!” Mizuno shouted as she ran towards the right where there was a large blanket that had colors of red,pink, and white with two people standing on top of it. Soon I saw that everyone else was going over towards the two, making me follow behind.

Now getting closer to the picnic I could see the two new faces up close. One was a boy that was around my height with pale skin just like the others, teal eyes and green hair that I never would have expected to see in a while…It was nice to see something different for once. He was also wearing a crown that had purple and pink flowers on it, and his outfit was denim overalls that reached towards his knee and a yellow shirt. I also took notice that we weren't also wearing shoes…Am I the only one that isn’t wearing any type of pajamas?

I shook my head to ignore the thought before I stopped to see the other person who was another girl who seemed to be around Chip’s age and even the height difference of her being the second tallest compared to us was obvious. What was also different was her outfit, it wasn’t pajamas but more or less like a uniform…A white button up t-shirt, a black vest, a skirt, and shoes. Her hair was a bit longer than Mizuno's, it was also much thicker than hers too.

There was something off about her though…She was not only a lot different than the others, and it was not just by outfit but she was all monochrome just like Omori is. I suddenly felt a cold chill down my back that I can not even describe the more I stared at her. 

“Oh, hello Mizuno! Hello, everyone!” She greeted, giving a smile. “How are you all doing today?”

“O.JOE’S BEING MEAN TO ME AGAIN!” Mizuno yelled as she pointed at him while having an irritated expression. The monochrome girl lets out a fake gasp.

“Oh, no! Not again…How could he?”

“Pshh, I’m not being mean! Mizuno’s just being all whiny.” O.Joe retorts before they both start to glare at one another.

“Well, O.Joe! You’ve just made a very convincing point. Now I don’t know who to believe!” The girl would place a finger to her chin while she hummed.

“BELIEVE ME!” He shouted.

“NO, BELIEVE ME!” Mizuno shouted as well, the two beginning to glare at each other once more as they were both grinding their own teeth together.

Chip lets out yet another sigh before leaning back a little. “Settle down, you two…Why does it always have to be like this?”

“Chin up, Chip! Look at you, being all responsible.” The girl giggled, slowly having a smirk on her face. “I really like that about you…Hehe…”

“Come on, Hikiko! Not now…I saw that Chip’s face was beginning to blush a little.

“Oh Chip, you know I’m teasing. You’re so cute when you get all flustered!”

The older boy didn’t say anything as he looked away, by then the girl named Hikiko would begin to turn in my direction, her smile would change to one of a look of surprise. 

“Now who could this be? I’m sorry that I didn't notice you earlier!”

The two kids would then stop glaring at one another when I was mentioned, both O.Joe and Mizuno got up and pulled me in closer to the group.

“This is Sunny!” He answers, having his usual grin again as he had his arm around my back when he pulled me to the group earlier.

“He’s our new friend!” Mizuno added, hugging onto my left arm that she still didn’t let go of when she was also the second one to bring me over to the group. Both of them are now letting go of me as Hikiko gets up from the blanket and steps closer in front of me.

“Oh a new friend? Wonderful! Well since you’ve already met most of us, my name is Hikiko!” As she responded, I was suddenly pulled into a hug by her. I felt her arms wrapped around me while I felt a sudden warmth from the hug that almost feels like I haven’t felt in a long time.

Why did this feel so nice? Like I’m being protected?

I stood there in the hug as I almost started to tear up a little like I felt myself getting emotional. Slowly I wrapped my arms around Hikiko to reciprocate the hug. Though suddenly I felt her begin to flinch which caused both me and her to let go of one another.

“Burrr that felt really cold!” Hikiko said as she rubbed her arms together to get some warmth.

“A-Are you okay…?” I asked with concern, hoping I didn’t do anything wrong to hurt her…And what did she mean by it was cold?

“I’m okay, I just felt something touch my shoulder and it suddenly became a little cold! I knew I should have brought my sweater if it was going to be chilly today!

I was confused before I looked down at my left hand, still having my black colored fingers, I closed my hand while covering them up.

“S-Sorry…”

“No it’s okay! Don’t apologize! It just caught me by surprise after all, I should be sorry for suddenly hugging you!”

“Hehehe! That’s Hikiko alright, the one that always gives the best hugs that makes things better!” Mizuno giggled while everyone else nodded in agreement.

Hikiko started to turn towards the green haired boy who had been silent the entire time compared to Omori until one of us would speak to him for a question.

“While we were waiting for you guys, Iris and I were going through his PHOTO ALBUM! Did you wanna join us?”

“Of course!” Mizuno was the first one to speak. “After all…We’re the ones in the pictures, aren’t we?”

“IRIS, IRIS! GET A LOAD OF THIS!!” O.Joe shouts right as Hikiko was about to speak once again. We all looked at him who was getting into a pose with both his arms in the air like he was flexing and having his back turned to us.. “C’mon Iris! Take a picture of me!”

“Sorry, O.Joe. I only take photos of people when they least expect it!” Iris responds, his voice sounded soft compared to the others and even a little quieter too.

“You like to take photos of people acting naturally when they’re not in front of a camera, right Iris?” Chip asked, smiling as O.Joe’s arms deflated to his sides.

“Yeah…There’s something special about everyone living their own lives. Those are the moments I want to capture!”

“So like…We just have to pretend you’re not there?” O.Joe asked as he spun around, the green haired boy chuckled a bit.

“Haha…Yeah, I guess you can put it that way.” Iris started to look at me before walking over. “Nice to meet you Sunny, I’m Iris. But I guess you already knew that huh?”

I gave him a small nod as my answer. Somehow this made him smile more.

“Did you want to show us your photo album now, Iris?” Hikiko asked, Iris giving a small nod in return.

“Ah, Okay…But it’s nothing amazing.”

“Oh, Iris! Stop doubting yourself!” Mizuno Chimed in, her eyes sparkling with stars once again. “I’m sure they’ll be great.”

“You’re right, Mizuno. Sorry…I’ll try to believe in myself more.”

As all of us had gathered around, we witnessed the Flower Crowned Prince pull out his photo album from the picnic basket and gently set it down on the ground.

“Here! That way we can all see.”

Each and everyone of us stared at the photos in each page, I did read some of the words that were next to the photos and what they were about. I looked at one part of the photo album that had almost everyone making a flower crown down to the last photo. My favorite one had to be where everyone was together in one photo.

Somehow…Just from looking at all of these I felt a sense of nostalgia. Have I done something like these before? If so…Why can’t I even remember it?

Soon once we all finished looking, Chip was the first to speak. “These photos are all so charming, Iris. You really know how to capture the moment!”

“Thanks…I didn’t take all of them though.” Iris answered humbly. “Hikiko likes to steal my camera sometimes.”

“Only sometimes!” Hikiko giggled until they both started to laugh together. I noticed that Iris had a look on his face like he had an idea once he stopped laughing.

“Hey, I have an idea! Did you all want to come hang out at my house?” He asked while he tapped his two fingers together. “I just finished planting some little sprouts and wanted to show everyone. Come on! They’re really cute!”

“Yeah sure, that sounds fun!” O.Joe grinned before hopping around all of us. “Let's go!”

“You plant flowers, Iris?” I asked, my question catching the flower boy's attention as he nodded with a lot of avidity.

“Uh, huh! It’s my favorite hobby that I like to do everyday.” 

Soon everyone else got up from the picnic blanket and Iris picking up his photo album, Chip started to look around the park. “It’s south of the playground, right?”

“Yep! That’s the way!”

“Hmm…I think I’ll sit this one out.” Hikiko said, much to the sad looks on most of the group’s faces, even Chip was saddest of them all. “You all go on and enjoy yourselves! But if you’re ever feeling weary, you can always come find me! I’ll always have some refreshments ready.”

“Awww…Thanks, Hikiko!” Chip’s frown becomes replaced with a smile. “You’re always doing so much for us!”

“Bye, Hikiko! We’ll see you soon!” Mizuno waved her goodbye as everyone started to walk, except for me. I just couldn’t get over that chilling and warm feeling I had earlier…Like I should be afraid of her, but at the same time I find myself being comforted too.

Hikiko would take notice that I was still standing there while she gave me a gentle smile. “Go have some fun, Sunny. You all know where to find me!”

I didn’t know what to say, I wanted to say something…Yet I couldn’t. I just continued to stare before giving her a nod and started to catch up to the rest of the group, only to see that each and everyone was talking to each animal kid. So seeing that they were busy I started to walk around a bit, getting to know each kid that was in the area.

Now walking over to Omori who was talking to a girl that looked like a humanoid lizard, I decided to listen in on the conversation.

“I got some plans today…Big plans! Just stay put for a while.” The lizard girl said with so much enthusiasm in her voice. “You’ll see what I mean soon enough!”

Omori simply gives her a double thumbs up before the group gathers up once more.

“Okay everyone, we hung around long enough, let’s go to Iris’ house!” Chip said before he was stopped by the Lizard girl.

“Hey, wait just one second! Where do y’all think you’re going?!” She interrogated, and now all of us turned our attention towards her. “You can’t leave without joining us for a game of hide-and-seek!”

“Stay and play with us!” The large furry monster man added, who’s name was Van that Mizuno introduced me earlier to. “It will be fun with more people!”

“You want us to play hide-and-seek again?” Chip asked, starting to sweat a bit.

“But…You know how this turned out last time.” O.Joe cringes as he starts to feel uncomfortable.

“Y-Yeah…Sorry, Berly.” Mizuno looked the other way, I stood there looking confused and wondered what was going on. “I think we’re going to have to pass.”

“We’re going to Iris’ house now…So…We’ll catch up with you later!” O.Joe said as both him and Mizuno walked away at a good distance.

“Not so fast!” Berly was quick to speak out, having the two look at her again with fear. “You guys tryin’ to avoid me again?! What’s up with you two?” She then started to point at her face, “Is it my face? My rough-and-tough exterior?”

Placing her hands down and crossing arms, she started to sulk. “At least I’m not as bad as BOSS! It’s a good thing I banned him from the playground after what happened last time…”

‘Um…Who and what now?’ I thought as I looked at the group, Mizuno, O.Joe, and Chip had their eyes shifted away as if they knew something that I didn’t. I then turned to Omori who pointed at a poster that was next to the bench ahead of us. I stared at it which had a picture of a poorly drawn picture of what appeared to be a round rhinoceros before giving my attention back to Berly who was now looking around for something...Or someone.

“I wonder what that moron is up to now?” She continued and gave a shrug. “Eh…Good riddance!”

“So…You wanna play hide and seek Iris?” Chip turned to Iris, wondering what the flower boy thought.

“I can go either way. There’s no rush to get to my house after all. I think I’ll leave it up to Sunny.”

“Wait…Why me?” I cocked my head towards Iris who gave me a smile.

“Well you’re our new friend after all, so it’s fair to let you decide what we should do.” He answered while at the same time I felt hands being placed on my shoulders. 

I immediately turned to see that it was Berly who was looking at me with a grin. “Sunny, right? My best friend! Come on, you know how to play hide-and-seek, don’t you?”

“Uh…N-No?” I answered nervously, even though I should know what hide and seek is, I can’t seem to recall playing the game. I was starting to have that same feeling that I had before, like I’m missing something.  Before I could even delve deep into my thoughts, I saw that Berly was staring at me with a baffled look on her face, apparently my answer shocked the lizard girl.

“Eh?! You don’t know how to play hide-and-seek?! What kind of kid are you anyway?”

Now feeling embarrassed by my own answer, I rubbed my left arm and looked down in shame. “I’m sorry…”

“Heh, nah it’s all good! That means you have to play with us!” I then lifted up my head to her response as her toothy grin was now back on her face. “I’ll explain the rules after I round up everyone!”

Berly would reach into the pockets of her hoodie to pull out a whistle and started to blow on it, making a high pitched screech that caught everyone’s attention, immediately all of us, including me were in two rows of lines.

“TEN-HUT!” Berly shouted as she had her hands behind her back, looking at all of us with a serious gaze. “Alright, maggots! Here’s the rules! We’re gonna be entertaining ourselves with a little game of hide-and-seek!”

She would then pull out something from her pockets and waved it to all of us. I looked closely to see she was carrying straws that were enough for all of us.

“Here in my hands I got some straws, see? Everyone here’s gotta pick a straw. So the one with the shortest straw’s gonna be “it” and will have to find everyone else! Sounds easy enough right?”

I nodded, seeming to get the gist of who gets to be “it” so far. I looked at everyone else who seems to understand the rule of being picked.

One by one Berly started to hand each of us a straw that we picked. I looked at the straw and saw that mine was about the size of my index finger…Does that mean I’m “it”? I looked up to see that Berly was now back at the front to where she was originally standing, looking at all of us.

“We all got straws? Good!” She asked and answered her own question that really didn’t give us time to answer. “Now, let’s see who’s gonna be “it”!”

Just like before when she was giving straws to each person in order, she inspected every single one of us on who had the shortest straw.

After she stopped right in front of Omori, she grinned as she headed back to her original position. “Well, well, well! Looks like the one with the shortest straw is…OMORI!”

When Berly announced Omori was it, I turned to see his straw was shorter than a pinky…So I wasn’t “it”? Should I feel glad because I don’t know what to do as the person who is “it” or sad that I wasn’t?

“Oh, wait…Omori is “it”? O.Joe said, while he turned towards him.

“But Omori doesn’t like to be alone…” Mizuno muttered with a sad look on her face.

“Are you going to be okay, Omori?” Chip added as we all looked at him until we heard Iris speak last out of the group.

“I can take your place if you want. I don’t mind…Really!”

“Hey, I hear you plotting over there! The straws make the rules, not me!” Berly hissed before she adjusted her glasses. “...And since this IS the first time Sunny is playing hide-and-seek, I’ll make an exception.  He can also be “it” because his straw is the second shortest and it’s time he gets in some “it” experience!”

“Are you sure that’s fair?” I said as Berly nodded and gave a thumbs up.

“You betcha! I mean, when was the last time we played hide and seek with two people who are “it”?”

As the question was asked, everyone looked at each other without an answer.

“Anyway, when you’re ready to play, walk up to the tetherball pole behind me and close your eyes! And no peeking! Or else!”

We all heard Berly crack her knuckles together, making the loudest pops that made us shiver a little.

Both me and Omori went up to the tetherball pole, and Omori started to count back from five while I did the same. After we both said one, we opened our eyes to see that no one was around…Well except for O.Joe, he was the first one to give away his position by whispering to the both of us, thus leading him to be our first person that we “found”.

Three of us were searching around the area, we found some who were hiding in nearly obvious places, either just from their size or just being loud. I did find Mizuno who was hiding behind one of the bushes right after we found a boy named Mikal who was sleeping in the tree.

“Aww…You found me…Darn…Hehe…” Mizuno said with a small smile on her face, getting out of her hiding spot. “Let’s go find everyone else together, guys!”

Now with Mizuno in our group once again, we continued to search around some more. It didn’t take long to find Chip who was exercising with two kids named Shawn and Ren…His huffs and hard breathing kind of gave him away.

“Wow…You really don’t know how to say “no” to anyone, do you Chip?” O.Joe chuckled while his older brother was out of breath.

“Come on, Chip! We gotta help Omori and Sunny find everyone else!” Mizuno chimed in, feeling more pumped than before.

“Alright, alright…Huff…I’m coming!” Chip now regaining his breath, he turned to the children who were still exercising. “Bye, Shawn! Bye, Ren! This was fun!”

“Yeah! Let’s do this again sometime!” Ren said as she continued to do jumping jacks.

“See ya later, Chip!” Added Shawn who did the same.

Now that we have found O.Joe, Mizuno, and Chip. It was time that we go find the remaining hiders, though it was pretty tricky since this time they all had very creative hiding spots, like one of them hid inside a jack-in-the-box and the other was Berly…It almost felt like we were searching for hours until I noticed something familiar sticking out of a large pile of sand.

…Has that large pile of sand always been there or was I seeing things?

Getting closer to the item, it was a straw under the large suspicious pile of sand. I pulled out the straw from the straw and heard muffled noises coming inside from the sand. I backed away to witness the large pile was crumbling down to reveal none other than Berly who was now taking a large gasp of air.

“Took you guys long enough…” She before letting out a sigh. “I thought I was gonna suffocate in there!” After she dusted herself off from the sand that was on her clothes and hair, she gave all of us a grin. “How’d you like my hiding spot? Pretty good eh?”

“I guess…” O.Joe was the first to answer, along with both Mizuno and Chip giving a nod, both me and Omori gave her a thumbs up.

“I thought it was very creative!” Said Hikiko from the distance, clapping her hands together as she was cheering for us having found all of the hiders. “Way to go Sunny and Omori!”

Berly stared at everyone that had been found before rubbing her chin. “It looks like you pretty much found everyone else too! Unexpected…But I like it. Let's do a final roll call!”

Blowing the whistle once again, everyone got into their respective positions as for Berly to call out each of everyone’s name

Berly: “VAN!”

Van: “Here as always, buddy.”

Berly: “SHARLEEN!”

Sharleen: “H-Here…”

Berly: “MIKAL!”

Mikal: “Zzzzz….”

Walking over to the sleeping Mikal, Berly kicks him in the leg causing him to wake up. “OW WHAT GIVES?!”

Berly: “HAPPY!”

Happy: “Here, here!”

As the list goes on and on, I looked at everyone for a moment. Blinking twice as I felt like we were forgetting someone, I noticed an empty spot between me and Mizuno.

…Wait, did we forget someone? 

“IRIS!” Shouted Berly.

Everything was silent as there was no response. Everyone turned to look at where Iris would have been but they also noticed that he wasn’t around.

“Huh? Where’s Iris?” Berly asked, confused by the absence of the Flower Boy.

“That’s strange…I thought I saw him go hiding near that tree over there.” Chip spoke up as he pointed at the tree next to Omori.

“Iris! Where are you?” Mizuno called out, but was only met with another silence. “Can you hear us?”

“Iris! You can come out now!” O.Joe had the usual grin on his face like there was nothing he could be concerned about. “You already won!”

O.Joe running towards one of the tree’s he looks around it. Until he calls out as loud as he can.

“HELLOOOOOOOOO?! IRIS?!?!”

Suddenly there was a sound of rustling coming from one of the trees right next to the bench and a sign. All of us turned to where it was coming from.

“Hey, there’s Iris!” Chip said as all five of us went over to the tree.

“Iris? Are you okay?” O.Joe called out again, this time he was now really concerned. “Are…Are you stuck?”

We were all met with silence once again, this time the entire area was quiet. The only sound that was made was each of our own breaths, which made the tension not any better. The tree started to rustle around again as it started to peel very slowly from the top to the bottom to reveal a giant round purple rhino-like figure with two green horns on the front of his face, wearing blue overalls that extended to his toes.  His face was wearing an angry expression and he seemed to be the same size as Van and Sharleen. The giant rhinoceros was also carrying somebody in his arms while he started to laugh maniacally, a familiar green haired boy with a flower crown…OH MY GOSH THAT THING HAS IRIS!

“BOSS! I should’ve known it was you!” Berly shouted as she walked up next to us with a glare. “You good-for-nothing scoundrel…Let Iris go!”

“Yeah! What did Iris ever do to you?!” O.Joe added as Mizuno and Chip backed him up.

“Iris is our friend! Don’t you dare hurt him!”

“Let go of Iris, Boss! He didn’t do anything wrong!”

Despite the demands of the four children, the giant rhino named Boss only continued to laugh. “You stupidheads! You think this is about Iris? Don’t play dumb, you know why I’m here!”

Boss started to stomp his feet, causing miniature shakes on the ground that was enough to make all of us feel the vibrations. “How dare you not invite me to hide-and-seek! I’m the one who showed you all how to play in the first place, and you’re not even playing it right! How can you call it hide-and-seek without any body-slamming!?”

It took me a second to put two and two together, which I can feel a sudden chill just from imagining a giant round thing that might weigh a lot just jumping on top of me.

…Yeah, I think I’m starting to understand the situation now.

Boss grabbed Iris by the hair and threw the crown to the ground. Everyone started to let out gasps of terror.

“My FLOWER CROWN!” Iris exclaimed as he tried to reach for his crown only it was futile with just how strong Boss’s grip was..

“Hey! That’s the Flower crown we made for him!”

“How could you?!” Both Mizuno and O.Joe started to get angry at the sight that they had witnessed “Let go of him, you bully!”

“No! If I can’t play with everyone, then no one can!” Boss growled as he started to let out some fumes “This is a BOSS-ONLY zone now…AND YOU’RE NOT INVITED!!”

“Get ready for a fight, it seems like that talking isn’t going to save your skin.” Omori spoke as Boss started to rush towards us like a raging bull, we all quickly got out of the way just in time.

“We are going to FIGHT him?! I don’t even know how to fight!” I looked at Omori with a look of disbelief and fear before being confused as he handed me a stick that he picked up from the ground.

“It seems like it’s time we teach you a thing or two around here.” Chip said as he stood beside me, holding up a spatula that I didn’t even know he had.

LET THE FIGHT COMMENCE!

O.Joe picks up a rubber ball from the ground and throws it at Boss only for it to just bounce off his head like it was nothing, making the giant round Rhino laugh.

“You weaklings! You call that an attack!?”

Just as Boss spoke, Chip appeared behind him getting ready to attack.

“You can do it!” Mizuno cheered on, making Chip happy and he started to move faster. Hitting Boss on the back of the head which made contact until Boss hit him back with a strong swing that sent him flying to the ground.

“Hey, that kinda hurt!” Boss huffed with anger, Iris looked like he was going to be sick from being violently moved around a lot. “This isn’t fun anymore.”

Helping up Chip, and dusting him off, Sunny turned to see that Mizuno was starting to hit Boss with her stuffed toy. She quickly rolled away from an incoming attack, leading Omori to come in with a Shiny looking knife and attack Boss. Sunny wondered why Omori was carrying a Knife but he knew now wasn’t the time to question it.

“Sunny! Now it’s your turn to attack!” O.Joe shouted, Sunny looked at the stick in his hand and back at him.

“U-Uhh…Okay!” Sunny gulped, now looking at Boss with fear. Once he started to gather enough courage, Sunny rushed towards the giant bully before screaming and started to swing the stick at his face.

Just when the stick had made an impact towards his face, nothing happened. Not even a single sound was even made. 

‘Did I get him…?’ Sunny thought before slowly turning his head up to see a completely angry Boss who started to growl. Sunny gets knocked back by another strong swing, hitting him directly in the chest and hitting  the ground and holding onto his chest in pain…

Mizuno, Chip, and O.Joe looked at Sunny who groaned in pain with horror in their eyes and concerned if he was alright, the three of them became ANGRY and started to attack the Rhino all at once while avoiding hitting Iris. Omori helped Sunny up before joining in on the barrage of hits. The more they continued to fight, the more of the hits were now starting to become effective against the giant until he was beginning to grit his teeth.

“Now you’ve made me angry…” He muttered as the four moved back, for some distance, waiting to see what would happen next. “It’s time for my special move!”

“BODY SLAMMMM!!!”

Just as everyone continued to look, now as much to their horror the Rhino jumped really high in the air. Almost like you couldn’t even see him until he came back down so fast that he slammed directly towards the ground, causing everyone to get knocked back from the impact.

Chip was knocked against the tree, wincing in pain from the impact.

Mizuno was sent flying towards the swing set that broke her fall yet her landing wasn’t a soft cushion, she groaned in pain from how much that it had hurt.

O.Joe was unlucky that he was the first person to get slammed to the ground by the enemy.

Omori and Sunny were sent back a few feet from the powerful impact, both taking damage.

OMORI and SUNNY did not succumb. Both were getting up and Sunny quickly looked around for his friends, only to be met with three of them who were in pain from that sudden ultimate attack.

Seeing the two getting back up, Boss’s angry expression was replaced with one of a look of shock. “H-Huh?! HOW ARE YOU TWO STILL MOVING?!”

Sunny ignored him as his attention was on the three who were hurt, trying to get up but every time they did, they just fell back down, leading him to be overwhelmed by the emotions he was currently feeling at the moment.

Fear that he had because of Boss was beating all of them down and for the safety of his friends that were trying to free Iris from his grasp.

Guilt for not being able to do anything which led to the three getting hurt and feeling completely useless.

His blood started to boil from the anger he felt towards the bully that hurt them. Gripping onto the stick that he didn’t dare let go as he proceeded to sprint towards the still shocked boss. Even when the enemy was getting out of the shock it was already too late for him as Sunny slammed the stick vertically towards his head with all of his might. Not only did the stick break in half but it also made Boss stumble back and let go of Iris who was weak to his knees, feeling very dizzy.

As I began to calm myself down, I quickly ran towards Iris and quickly helped him up on his feet. He was trying very hard to stand on his feet which was understandable from being swung around, even when he went high in the air and suddenly dropped back down. As I was about to turn towards the trio, they were slowly walking towards us. I was glad that they could still move but I was also worried about their condition.

“Y-You did it Sunny!” Chip cheered with a grin despite rubbing the back of his head.

“You really beat him to a pulp! Heheh- Ouch…” O.Joe added though he was holding onto his chest from being squished earlier.

“Are you guys okay? Are you hurt anywhere?!” I asked as I was worried sick for them all.

“We’ll be alright, we are tough as nails so it’s nothing!” Mizuno answered, though she rubbed her shoulder.

I sighed a little out of relief that they weren’t harmed even though they were in pain. Suddenly we all turned towards Boss who started to scream out “IT’S NOT FAIR! REMATCH!! I WANT A REMATCH!!”

Everyone just looked at him as he had his tantrum, O.Joe slowly walked up to him with a neutral expression, giving him a kick to one of his shins before walking back to us. Mizuno noticed the flower crown that Iris had on before being tossed to the ground. She quickly picked up and walked towards us as she slowly placed it back on the boy’s head.

“Iris..Are you hurt?” Mizuno looked at the now recovering Iris with concern, Iris looked up at her while I made sure he kept his balance as he stood up fully.

“Ah, don’t worry about me.” He answered with a reassuring smile. “I’m fine.”

“Is everyone alright?!” We all looked to see Hikiko jogging towards us while she checked up on each and every one of us before giving a hug to all of us. I got hugged the longest while Omori and Chip were tied.

“We’re a lot better now since you’re the one giving us hugs, Hikiko.” Chip blushed while she felt relieved.

“I’m so glad…I honestly don’t like seeing you all hurt, but if you guys say so then I’ll believe it!”

After moments of us being fully recovered. We watched Iris walking to Boss who was sulking on the ground.

“Boss…It must hurt to see people have fun without you…” He spoke, Boss slowly shifting his eyes away from the Flower boy. “But that doesn’t mean you can ruin other people’s fun.”

Boss lets out a huff while he turns his attention away from him. “Hmph! I know that!”

Iris noticed a sign next to the bench that said BOSS IS BANNED written on it, made his way to the sign and ripped it off, much to the surprise on our faces and much to the horror of Berly and her gang.

“There…Does that feel better?”

“IRIS! Are you sure it’s okay to do that?” Mizuno asked, worried about the decision he just made.

“Boss is bad news!” O.Joe chimed as he seemed to disagree with the idea. “It’s a good thing Omori and Sunny held on during that final attack, or else we would’ve all been toast…”

Iris only turned to look at us with an innocent smile on his face as if he was telling us everything was going to be alright. “It’s okay! I trust him. When you were all fighting, he tried really hard to make sure I didn’t get hurt.”

Hearing this shocked everyone and even seeing a small blush on the big one’s face was in fact true. Turning around to look away from us and to hide his blush.

“That’s a load of baloney…I don’t need to hear these lies!” Boss would slowly put on his very convincing tree costume while everyone stared in silence.

I saw Hikiko give a smile as she seemed very happy with his decision, she didn’t need to say anything as she went to talk with Chip. 

Eventually things started to go back to normal, everyone started to play again and we even gathered a few sandwiches for the road. Hikiko was beginning to back some stuff and turned to all of us.

“Hey guys, I’ve decided that I’ll meet you near Iris’ house, I figured that way once you all make it you can all use a small pit stop!”

“That actually sounds like a good idea! We’ll see you soon Hikiko!” Chip said while Mizuno beamed.

“Just stay safe okay!”

Hikiko gave us a wave and started to walk down the forest right after we all got ready moments later. I noticed Omori was at the swing sets staring off into space which I should let him know it’s time to go. 

When I got close to him, I immediately stopped like I was frozen in place. Omori still had his neutral expression and seemed to be staring off into space before whipping his eye from a black tear streaming down his cheek.

“Is there something wrong?” I spoke as I now got close to him, he turned to look at me in silence before shrugging.

“I had something in my eye…So we're off to Iris’ house now?” He said with a flat tone, he stared at me without even blinking like there was nothing wrong.

“Ummm…Uh- Y-Yeah! Yeah I was just walking over to tell you that we were ready, we even got you some sandwiches for the trip if you’re hungry.” I tried to keep some enthusiasm after spending time with everyone while I was actually confused…If not concerned to wonder what was going on with him earlier.

“I’ll grab a sandwich, we better go then.” Omori then got up from the swing and started to walk towards the group. I followed right after and we started making our journey to Iris’ house along with making a pit stop from a suspicious mailbox that whispered to us. Turned out it was actually a small shop that Mizuno squealed from how cute it was, according to her.

Now leaving the park, we walked through the forest and stopped to read the directions that pointed to where we needed to go.

← TRAIN STATION

→ PINWHEEL FOREST

↓ IRIS’ HOUSE

‘So Iris’ house is just straight down?’ I thought as I scratched my head just how easy that was. Not that I mind, this is really helpful for us.

Now walking straight down, we had to make a few turns and stops just because whenever we see flowers, Iris would inspect to see their condition and even watered them just to keep them healthy as we moved on.

We did encounter some sprout moles which all had different emotions from what I heard from Chip as we battled and scared off all three. Chip pulled out a journal to show and explained to each and everyone of us how this whole “Battle Mechanic” works here, there were four emotions: Neutral, Sad, Angry, and Happy.

So if an enemy or one of us is sad it raises our Defense but lowers our speed, weak against those who are angry and strong against those who are happy.

If one was happy, their luck and speed increases, but the chance of hitting lowers and it’s strong against angry emotions while it’s not against sad emotions . That explains how fast Chip was when he got behind Boss.

And lastly if one was angry, their attack increases but defense does the opposite…No wonder why I landed that last blow. It’s strong against sadness and weak against happiness.

I keep the information in mind in case we had to face foes that had one of these emotions. The more that I listened, the more that this sounded like a video-game that I’m in!

I noticed that the emotion in the middle that is read neutral doesn’t do anything, maybe it’s just a balance between all of them?

After those three encounters we made sure to check on each flower that the sprout moles were stepping on, good thing they were all okay…I don’t know how much Iris could take from witnessing his flowers about to be destroyed.

We all continued to walk through the forest and we spotted a familiar face, it looked like Hikiko had already setted up base for all of us which we all joined in.

“Hi, everyone! You all came just in time for a lovely picnic!” Hikiko waved at all of us with a smile on her face. “Feel free to rest here! Everything is already all set up, and I even brought some fruit!”

All of us began to sit down at the picnic for yet another pit stop, only this time this was a lot more peaceful than it was before. Something about the change in scenery just made it a bit more perfect as we all got together and sat down once again.

I watched as everyone was having their own conversation, Mizuno and O.Joe were bickering with one another on which drink was better while Iris just sat and watched while he was talking to Omori before Chip was getting his attention and showing him how to peel an apple and even turn it into slices. It seemed everyone had never gotten tired of feeling lively the moment I got here, it was really nice too. 

I was also beginning to have fun the more that I spent time with all of them, it’s strange like I felt this before, as if it was a long time ago…Why can’t I just remember?!

Feeling frustrated, I saw there was an orange right in front of me. Looking at who had offered me the orange, Hikiko was staring at me with her smile that never left her face.

“Want an Orange?” She asked while gesturing to the orange in my view. I slowly took the orange and stared at it for a moment as I looked back at her.

“Thank you.” I nodded, turning back to the orange to figure out how to peel it open.

“Oh! Let me help you with that!” Hikiko took my hands and positioned my fingers on the orange to get a good way to peel them open. When she did, she took notice of my four fingers once I peeled the orange open. “So…What happened to your fingers?”

“I…” Looking at my four abnormal fingers, I closed my hand up into a fist for a second and relaxed my hand to continue peeling the skin off the orange. “I don’t remember…One day I just woke up with them, it’s kind of strange.” Even though I was lying, most of what I said seemed to be true.

“Hmm…I think they look cool! I even like how there's tiny bubbles just coming out and popping right after!” She giggled as she poked one of the bubbles which popped right after she touched it.

“Y-You think so?” I turned to ask which she gave me a nod in return. “...Thanks.”

I began to eat the orange that I peeled, tasting just how juicy it was while we both chatted a bit. I was actually learning a lot from her along with everyone else that had joined in. Laughing as they told me all of the adventures they had: Like going around the world, meeting new friends, and they said they had saved a princess by going through other castles to defeat a dragon? I wasn’t sure about that last part but remembering that we fought a giant Rhino bully earlier made me think otherwise.

“Hey Sunny, did you know that Hikiko and Omori are actually siblings?” Mizuno asked as she had finished laughing earlier, I looked at them both for a moment to see any resemblance. They were both Monochrome and they almost looked the same facial wise. I would be an idiot if I said they weren’t.

“Honestly, at first I thought they weren’t but now that you mention it I’m seeing the similarities.

“Do you have any siblings, Sunny?” This time this question came from Chip. I took a minute to think about the question, as I even wondered if I actually had a sibling myself.

…

Do I even have a sibling? Or maybe a family for that matter?

“I think I do, maybe it could be a sister, or a brother? Maybe both…I don’t really remember much…In fact it’s like I keep forgetting things and more and more things..”

“Hey it’s okay, sometimes it takes time to remember things. We all tend to forget about things, except for Omori though, he has a great memory. It's crazy how much he can remember!” Hikiko replied as she pulled Omori into a hug, his arms slowly reciprocated until they let go of each other’s embrace. 

“Well at least I know one thing, Hikiko makes things so easy!” Chip chuckled while Mizuno nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I agree! Hikiko is so effortlessly graceful…Don’t you think so, Omori?”

Omori looked at Mizuno, giving her a thumbs up while Hikiko started to laugh while I could see her blush a little.

“Awwww…I guess I have to believe it a little bit if all of you think so!”

Iris was the first to get up from the blanket and pointed in the direction straight ahead from us. “My house is right down this way…Are we all ready to go?”

“I’m ready when you are” Mizuno was the second one to get up along with everyone else excluding Hikiko.

“We’ll catch you later, Hikiko!” O.Joe grinned as we all started to walk.

“Let me know if you need anything!” Hikiko waved us goodbye with a gentle smile on her face. “See you soon!”

We all continued to venture through the forest once more, passing through a lot of trees and a few little woodland creatures that ran by. The further we went down the forest, we all began to hear some loud stomping sounds from the distance getting louder and even feeling the ground shake from the harsh vibrations.

“What’s that sound?!” O.Joe looked around as he was getting a little jumpy.

“Sounds like it’s coming straight ahead.” Chip readied his frying pan while we remained cautious from this point on as we continued ahead, looking around for the source of the sound. It could be in the trees, below us or perhaps behind us for all we knew.

Suddenly we all stopped in front of a large round tree that had a familiar shape. Slowly as it turned around it was a Sprout but it was a lot bigger than what we encountered, perhaps the same size as Boss and it had a mustache.

“Uhh…Could this be the father of the Little Sprouts that we encountered?” Mizuno asked before everyone of us got ready to fight, seeing that this one was not only blocking the way but it looked ready to fight as well.

YE OLD SPROUT HAS BLOCKED THE PATH!

One by one everyone would hit the giant sprout while trying to dodge out of the way from any incoming attacks, yet somehow every time it rolled it managed to get all of them. Knocking the party back a few feet and on the ground, though the damage may not have been much considering that the Sprout looks old, but its speed isn’t something to laugh about. The party gets back up one by one and continues to attack while Iris just watches the fight go down, cheering on for the team.

Each member would try using a skill that they had learned earlier which most of the time didn't seem to be any effective. The sprout would roll once again, this time a few of them had dodged out of the way just in time. The fight was starting to drag on just for a bit as the party was almost out of breath. 

“Oh man, this fight is pretty tough…” Chip looked at everyone as he tried to think of a plan. Eventually an idea popped in his head “But don’t worry we can do this, we work together! It looks like we are going to have to use some teamwork guys!”

Everyone looked at one another and nodded in agreement, after taking some damage they couldn’t help but feel energized as every single one of them charged at the Sprout for an all out special move. First it was Mizuno who came in with a flurry of hits with her stuffed toy next it was follow up with O.Joe who threw the ball at the enemy allowing the ball bounce off to allow others who have caught the ball throw it at the enemy. Chip came in next and slammed his Spatula with every strength he had while it was left with a barrage of slashes from Omori’s knife and some hits from Sunny’s stick.

(Hey author here, just to let you all know I suck at making fighting scenes.)

After the incoming attacks, the Giant sprout rolled away as it was defeated, the party was victorious!

…

“And there you have it…CHIP’S BATTLE TUTORIAL 101!” Chip said as he rubbed his nose.

“Wow, you guys! That was so amazing!” Iris cheered while applauding our performance.

“Ah, that was nothin’...Heh, heh.” O.Joe grinned. “I’ve taken down way bigger guys than that! I should teach you some of my skills one of these days!”

“Iris I know you’re not the type that likes to fight…But it’s good to know how to defend yourself too!” MIzuno added as she gave a small smile to him.

“Can we go to Iris’ house now? I’m starting to get bored…” O.Joe yawned a bit as everyone else nodded, continuing our journey to Iris’ house.

In just a short time, we had finally made our destination except at first I saw a giant shoe. With just a door and a single window. Do all houses look like that or is that just the only one?

Though as I was in the middle of my thoughts I saw a flash of light shined at me, causing me to blink and snap me out of my thoughts. I looked forward to seeing that Iris was pointing his camera at us and a small photo was printed out from it.

“Aww. it came out kind of Blurry…” Iris chuckles before letting out a sigh. “Well, that’s okay. That gives it character.” Now putting away his camera he looks at us with a small smile. “I hope you don’t mind the photo.”

“Of course we don’t mind! I wanna see it!” Mizuno said with glee.

“O-Oh! Sure thing.”

Mizuno walks over to him to see the picture that he took, her face beamed with a smile and her eyes sparkled like the stars. “We all look so cute!”

“How’s my hair?” Chip asked as he walked over to look at the photo.

“I WANNA SEE!! I WANNA SEE!!” O.Joe shouted as he ran towards the three.

Omori didn’t say anything, but he did walk over from behind to look. I was kind of curious how the photo turned out, leading me to walk towards them to have a look.

“Oh hey, Sunny! Did you want to look at the photo too?” Iris turned to look up at me.

“Y-Yes…I’m also interested in seeing it.” I nodded a little as Iris handed me the photo.

I stared at the photo for a bit, I almost felt myself wanting to smile yet I didn’t. Even though it was blurry I can see that everyone besides me and Omori looked really happy and even huddled into the photo. I looked at myself, seeing how much I was zoned out to even notice I had a picture taken of me.

Soon I handed the photo back to Iris who still had a smile on his face. “It’s too bad that it came out kind of blurry, but you all still looked so cute. I should add it to my collection!”

Taking out his photo album, Iris turns the book to a new page and places down the fresh new photo on a new page.

“Woo-hoo! Another shot for the photo album!” O.Joe cheers before shoving Mizuno out of the way. “Move over, Mizuno! I can’t see!”

“HEY, STOP PUSHING!” Mizuno exclaimed as she got irritated from the shove, she shoved him back to try to see the photo album.

“YOU ALREADY HAD YOUR TURN!” O.Joe shoved back, this time both were now fighting over who wants to see the photo album.

“GET OUT OF MY WAY, JOE!”

As the two were shoving one another, Iris was caught in the crossfire as he was desperately trying to stay on his feet while holding onto the photo album like his life depended on it.

“W-Wait, hold on! There’s no need to fight!” Iris tried to calm down, but his efforts were in vain as the two kids were locked in a shoving match.

“ME FIRST!” O.Joe growled.

“NO, ME!”

They continued to shove as hard as they could, the more that they did so was starting to make Iris lose his balance.

“Ahh, stop it! You guys are knocking me over!” Iris pleaded, only to be ignored and with one more shove from the two, Iris fell down the ground. His photo album hits the ground along with him and a few of the photos had already scattered around. Everyone was speechless of what had occurred, even I was also speechless.

“Uhh…Whoops…” O.Joe’s eyes began to shift left to right, almost beginning to get nervous a little.

“Oh my gosh…Iris I’m so sorry…” Mizuno whispered as she was regretting what she had done.

“Are you okay, Iris? ”Chip quickly helped Iris off the ground and dusted him off while being concerned, turning his attention towards the two completely frustrated. “You two are in big trouble now! This is why the both of you need to learn how to get along!”

“I’m sorry…We didn’t mean it, Chip!” O.Joe started to rub his head as he was starting to feel guilty while beginning to sweat in fear. “Please don’t tell Hikiko…”

Iris despite being the one knocked to the ground and his photos scattered, he still had a small smile on his face as he looked at the three of them, knowing that everything was fine. “I-It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Accidents happen.”

If I had to be impressed about one thing, it was that Iris is the type of person that easily forgives people despite the bad things they have done. Somehow he can see the good in others that most of us can’t see…Just how pure is he?

Iris soon walks over to pick up one of the photos that he dropped. I started to pick up three out of the four photos that were on the ground and handed them to him. “Here’s your photos…It doesn’t look like any of them got damaged.”

“Thank you Sunny, let’s go put them back together!” Iris smiled as he started walking to his house. “Let’s go inside my house first. Remember to wipe your feet before you come in!”

All of us started following Iris into his house, every single one of us wiped our feet on the green rug that was in front of the door and entered the place fully. My eyes looked around to see it was just one single room with a lot of potted plants on the floor. I turned to see a bookcase that was next to a fireplace which seemed very cozy if we wanted to read, a single bed with a lamp and one table and a chair with a small candle in the middle. This is what you call a house cozy enough for one person to look like, I don’t expect Iris to be the hermit type…

“Are you all ready to put back the photos, guys?” We all proceeded to gather around  Iris to help place the photo’s back in his album. We waited patiently as we stared at him trying to figure out where everything needed to go. This caused a small chuckle to come out of the boy as he was having a hard time trying to figure it out. “Darn…I don’t think I remember the order of all these photos…”

“Ah don’t worry about a thing, Iris.” Chip reassured, as he patted his back. “Omori has a really good memory just like Hikiko said, so I’m sure we’ll figure this out in no time!”

Iris nods and hands the photos to Omori, who looked at them for a moment before simply giving the photos to me. All of us looked at him with confused looks, even though I was the most confused.

“Why are you giving them to me? I thought you were going to be the one to put them back.” I questioned Omori who simply just gave a shrug as an answer.

“Huh…Well I suppose it’s fair that we should give our new friend a chance!” Iris smiled as the other three nodded in sync, waiting for me to put the photos back.

“You got this Sunny, we all believe in you.” Mizuno encourages me while Chip and O.Joe both give two thumbs up from both hands as I slowly look at the photos in my hands and the photo album. I gulped while I tried my best not to screw it up.

…

…

Minutes had gone by as I was placing the photos back in their correct place. At first it was a little tricky, but then I remembered that there were descriptions next to each photo which helped me figure it out a little better.

I guess I may not be good when it comes to memory like Omori is, but I know how to read…

I then handed the album to Iris who looked at each of the photos along with everyone else, Iris had a smile of content on his face as he picked up the album.

“There, good as new.” He said before he closed the album.

“I’m really sorry for pushing over Iris. Even though at least half of it was O.Joe’s fault… ” Mizuno apologized while muttering the last part about O.Joe.

“Yeah, I promise to never fight with Mizuno ever again! Unless she starts it first… ”

Iris looked at me, Chip, and Omori before looking back at Mizuno and O.Joe, his smile never leaving his face. “Don’t worry about it, I know you only wanted to see my photo album. Thank you for helping me put it back together!”

Iris gets up from the floor, and picks up his photo album right after. Once he leaned over, we all noticed something that fell out of his pocket. It appeared to be the same shape as one of the photos only for it to be faced down.

“Hm? That’s strange. A photo must have been loose.” Iris said, much to my confusion as I don’t remember there being another photo.

“Umm…Did you take one earlier without us knowing and forgot to put it in the album?” Chip asked as he slowly picked up the photo.

“I don’t think so, but whatever it is should be something imp-” Iris stopped in the middle of his sentence while he looked at the photo. “Huh? What is this?” He inspects the photo much more closely, almost squinting his eyes at it.

“Something about it seems…So familiar.”

Iris’ eyes started to widen as he was now beginning to shake in fear. The four of us stared at him, confused about what was happening.

“N-No…That can’t be…”

“Iris…? What’s going on?” I slowly got up to walk over to him, only to stop as I was beginning to see something starting to appear underneath him. It was like his own shadow was starting to become more visible…And it was starting to extend from all sides?

…What the heck is going on?

I felt my own body couldn’t even move an inch. All I could do was stare at the scared boy who was slowly starting to turn around, at the exact same moment his shadow started to fade. He looked at us, but not just all of us…

He was looking directly at me.

Looking at me with the most terrified expression he had. I stared at him as I saw his eyes were crimson red while his lips started to quiver.

“Sunny…YOU NEED T̶͎̝͙̲̎̒̄̃͜͠͠O̶͙͙̮̘̯̩͗́̚͠ ̶̛̝̮̜̓͗W̴̰̾̈́̊̇̊͘A̵̡̲̫̲̐̔̃̎͜ͅḰ̷̥͙̌E̵̖͒̓͐̓̾̇-̷̧̥̜̜͑ͅ ”

.̸̟͘.̵̲̽.̴̧̎̕

.̸̟͘.̵̲̽.̴̧̎̕

.̸̟͘.̵̲̽.̴̧̎̕

.̸̟͘.̵̲̽.̴̧̎̕

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Look at all of us…

…

…

…

…

…

…

These are all of our memories together…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

They’re a little sad now…But we should be happy that they happened at all…

…

…

…

…

Let’s make some new memories together, when you wake up okay?

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Darkness, just absolute darkness filled my vision, there were sounds of slow beeps that were eventually starting to get louder by the second. Slowly starting to open my eyes as the first thing I saw was how dark everything was that I could barely see a thing, except for what I was staring at was a ceiling above me. I felt something on my face as I could also feel air going in through my mouth and nose, slowly I began to pull it off to see it was a mask.

I wasn’t too sure where I was until I began to sit myself up on what appeared to be a bed, I started blinking twice for my vision to adjust to the darkness. Soon enough I was now able to see much more clearly, the area I’m in was a room with just a single chair and a plant. There was a TV in front of me but was a little too far away to even see.

Confused as to why I was here, I turned to my right to see I was attached to a heart monitor on my  right wrist. I was starting to get a little annoyed from the slow yet constant beeps the machine made. When I took off the band that was stuck to my wrist…Or at least tried to.

I slowly looked at my left hand, staring at it as it  was all bandaged up apart from my thumb that was exposed. I got a closer inspection to my hand compared to the right and noticed my left hand was a lot shorter than the other.

Carefully as I began to undo the wrapping of my bandages one after the other until I slowly took off the last wrapping. My eyes widened, confusion grew along with a speck of horror. All of my four fingers were gone…What was left was four stubs that I could still wiggle around, which was all that I could do. Placing my hand underneath the wire that connected my wrist to the machine, I pulled it off until the beeping sound stopped and got replaced with one long constant beep that never ended, well it was better than nothing.

After just looking around some more, I slowly slid out of the bed. Once I stood up only to fall straight down on the floor, letting out a soft groan from the small hard landing. I sat up to see that my legs were limp, I could still feel my legs and everything else but it seems they were a little weak. 

I proceeded to crawl towards the first wall that caught my attention to use as a crutch. Now close to the wall, I get on my knees and gently raise myself up from the cold floor at the same time my legs start to shake and wobble, I nearly fell down a couple of times before getting up fully until I made my way further down the room which it took me a few minutes to get to considering how careful I was trying to be to not fall down.

Now in the next part of the room, I noticed a counter and a mirror to my right. Making my way over to the mirror and using the wall as a guide, I knocked one of my legs into a plant I didn’t see, leading it to tip over and dirt spilling out in the process. Eventually I finally made it to the mirror  and was getting used to walking on my own without the use of the wall. I looked at myself in the mirror.

…

The sight of seeing his reflection didn’t seem to phase the boy, he stared at the bandages wrapped around his head before slowly taking them off to reveal how messy his hair was which its length reached down to his neck. His skin was a little pale but enough to be easily seen in the darkness. He even was wearing a white gown that reached down to his calves. He looked at his left hand once more to see what was left of it before looking back up. Once he did he saw something caught his eye that ran past the door behind him, it appeared to be four children that were laughing and playing.

Now turning around and becoming curious to where he was, he decided to leave the room and follow the direction the children went to. Just after exiting the room, he turned to see he was in a hallway with a few doors that were identical to the door he left. He continued to walk straight down the hall and heard the sound of laughter once more as it was coming from his right, which he immediately turned to see the same children running straight down some stairs.

He continued to walk towards the stairs that the children went down, only to see how pitch black it was down as there was no nothing in sight. Something about these stairs didn’t sit right with him, almost like he shouldn’t go down. He decided to go down the steps anyway since this was the only option for him.

Gripping onto one of the railings as he started to descend down the steps, he wanted to make sure he didn’t fall again if his legs were to give out. So far the feeling in his legs were becoming normal for him the more he continued to step down each one of the steps. He descends further down, further down, further down.

He began to notice just how long the steps were getting the more he kept going down. He even started to hear faint whispers beginning to grow much louder too, making the boy stop to look around only to see hands beginning to get closer to him. He was now becoming afraid, he needed to keep walking or else the hands would get him.

Walking faster down the steps, his hand gripped onto the handle bar tightly each passing second. Once he got further down he noticed something flicker on one of the steps as he inched closer to see it was a small knife. He was confused as to why a knife was around, but he didn’t have time to think as the hands were now getting closer. Immediately picking up the knife, his breathing started to grow heavy as the whispers were now getting louder now being replaced with a scream that led to him now getting himself faster down the steps until eventually everything became black once more and the scream had stopped.

Slowly opening his eyes there was something in front of him, a face with so many teeth that it formed into a creepy smile and eyes that looked directly at him from the shadows. He could see there were multiple hands just pressing against the walls of the stairs.

He was so afraid that he tried to attack the thing, only for his attack to slash right through like it was just thin air which did nothing for him. The thing started to shove him, knocking him back on the steps. He was afraid, so afraid that his breath was getting much more heavy and harder. He points the knife at the shadow, trying to stab it yet his attacks were futile as it started to laugh at him. He wanted to run away, away from this monstrosity…Yet he couldn’t, his legs were frozen in place to the stairs which prevented him from running away. 

There was nothing he could do…Nothing.

Take a deep breath… 

A voice echoed through his ears, he tried to turn to see where it was coming from yet there was no source. 

Don’t be afraid…It’s not as scary as you think.

He was confused about where the voice was coming from, yet at the same time he found the voice to be gentle and very comforting.

Doing what the voice had said to him, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly as he was beginning to feel himself relax and calm down. He no longer feels afraid anymore.

Now opening his eyes which he quickly closed from how suddenly bright it had gotten. He shades his eyes with one of his arms until he slowly begins to open his eyes again. The boy found himself to be down stairs and in another hall that had lights on. Now his starting to get fully adjusted to the light, he lowered his arms and looked around until suddenly he heard a sound from the distance…Almost sounding like steps getting closer.

He turned to where it was coming from to see a man with a tall and slender looking physique while his hair was silver gray yet there were some white hairs poking out, he also had fair but pale looking skin similar to the boy. The man seemed to be looking at some papers before he looked up towards the boy with a sudden look of shock on his face while he dropped his papers.

“My god…It can’t be.” He said before he started to speed walk towards him, this did make the boy feel nervous which the man noticed before he stopped and slowly raised up two hands. “It’s okay little one, I’m not going to hurt you…You are probably confused right now, but I will let you know I am a doctor.”

The doctor then extended a hand out to him which he looked at for a moment before he slowly extended his own hand to take his, making the man smile.

“There we go…Now then, I’m glad to see that you are up and…Already on your two feet? I suppose even with a coma you still know how to walk like it is nothing…Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

The boy looked at him as he looked around, seeing that it was just the two of them and even still confused he slowly opened his mouth.

“...W-Where am I-I?” He asked him, his voice was shaky and a little hoarse.

“You’re in the hospital, you had an accident that occurred approximately…” The doctor stopped as he let out a sigh, wondering how the boy would take the news. “Four years ago which caused you to be in a coma...”

Staring at the man as he was told that he was in a coma, he became much more confused than before and even looked at his left hand at the same time.

“I know this might be a shock and overwhelming, knowing that you had lost four years of your life…But I assure you that you have all the time in the world to make up for it!”

As the doctor tried to reassure the confused boy and even called a nurse that was nearby, he looked at him as if there was something strange that he couldn’t put a finger on. Until the boy opened his mouth.

“...W-Who am I?”

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning, the sun was beginning to rise over the small suburban town of Faraway in the most graceful yet gentle way possible as the birds were already chirping a song for the town that was being bathed in the sun’s touch. Some of the trees would start to rustle from the wind blowing through them almost like they were dancing for another day. 

Just in the neighborhood lies a two story house, inside there was a boy who slammed his alarm clock just as it was about to go off. Letting out a yawn and getting up to stretch his arms and his back, hearing the satisfying pops they made. He looked around his room while having an energized smile on his face.

“Alright! It’s time to start another day for Kel Rodriguez!” He said as he got out of his bed to start changing into his casual clothes being his favorite orange basketball jersey with white strips that resembled a dog and orange shorts before putting on his socks and shoes that completely matched his attire.

Now completely ready for today, he heads downstairs towards the kitchen to see his mother was already making breakfast. Hearing the sounds of her own son’s footsteps she turns around and greets him with a smile. “Oh! Good morning Kel, breakfast is ready!”

“Sweet! I’ve always been waiting for this moment since dinner!” Kel grins before taking a seat near the counter while Mrs. Rodriguez places down a plate in front of him that had the finest standard breakfast being pancakes, bacon, and eggs. The boy’s nostrils started to take a whiff of the aroma until he started to eat.

“Mmhhnnn shooo guud!” Kel had his mouth full of food and  savored each bite that he took.

“Don’t talk with your mouthful young man!” She shouts while threateningly smacking a spatula in her hand which makes Kel afraid a bit before swallowing his food and letting out a nervous chuckle.

“S-Sorry, mom.”

“Honestly one of these days you’re going to choke…” The mother sighed before placing down her spatula and started to wash her hands. “You got any plans for the day?”

“Oh you know just the usual! Starting off with a jog, playing basketball, probably stopping by some of my favorite places to see if anything came out or something.”

“I see.” Mrs. Rodriguez would hum as she placed soap on her hands, speaking once more.“...So how are your friends doing?”

“Oh! They are doing great, we actually have another game coming up when school starts again so we really have to practice like we never did before!” Kel answered as he took another bite of his pancakes, getting pumped up already.

“That's good to hear, but I wasn’t talking about your basketball friends.” Her response confused the boy who was scarfing down his bacon.

“Huh? Then who else are you talking about?”

“Your childhood friends? The ones you used to hangout all the time with when you were little? It’s been a while since I saw you hanging out with them after…What happened long ago, but do you at least still talk to them? Like that Aubrey girl for example, are you still talking to her?”

The mention of Aubrey made the energetic boy’s skin crawl as he tried to think of an answer. Unfortunately he couldn’t think of a really good excuse which he slowly nibbled on his other piece of bacon before he answered. “...You can say that I guess.”

Nodding at his response, Mrs. Rodriguez would walk over to the counter her son was eating at once she finished washing her hands. “Have you been visiting your friend Sunny at the hospital at least?” 

Kel stared at her for a moment, unsure what he should say. The boy began to bounce one of his legs a little as he was feeling uncomfortable with the question yet he put a smile on his face. “Of course I have! Whenever I leave from basketball practice it’s straight to the hospital! I figured it could help boost his recovery a lot faster!”

Kel cringed underneath his smile as he really wished he didn’t have to lie, especially towards his own mother. After the incident, he would visit the hospital with his friends whenever he could before. Though he stopped coming as he couldn’t handle that his own best friend was placed under a coma for a reason he still didn’t have an answer to which pained the boy so much.

Mrs. Rodriguez would sigh like she was relieved, pulling her son by the cheek which made the boy groan until she lets go. “You’re such a great friend you know that? Even though sometimes you can be a bit of a handful, you always keep your friends together.”

Hearing his mothers words, the boy couldn’t help but feel guilty as he put on another smile right after he finished his breakfast. “Whew, I’m stuffed! Well I should get going, I don’t wanna miss my daily routine!” He said as he got up from the table and ran towards the door.

“Just wait right there young man-” Before she could stop him, Kel was already out the door. Leaving just an empty plate on the table and a mother who just sighed. “...That boy I swear.”

Now outside of the Rodriguez household, the energetic boy starts off his routine by taking a jog around the usual route of the neighborhood. He would jog around Faraway Park for a bit, passing by the basketball court and through the small stands that people were now beginning to set up shop in before leaving the park to continue his jog towards the stores. Passing by each store that had the names HOBBEEZ, GINO’S Pizza, OTHERMART, and FIX-IT before he stops to turn around and jog back. to the park and the way that he came from, this time slowing down his pace as he looks towards the left or straight down for where he wanted to go next. 

“Hmm…Maybe I should just take a left and swing back around.” He said to himself as he took a left just like he said. 

He continued to jog down the other part of the neighborhood for a moment as he wanted to top it off by making a sprint back around. Luckily for him that since it was early in the morning for Faraway, he didn’t have to worry about any cars which gave him all of the freedom to go on an all out sprint back to where he originally started.

Stopping back to the point he started on, the boy places both hands on his knees as he was exhausted from the sprint he made earlier, taking a minute to breath in and out slowly to get air back into his lungs. Slowly he looks up at his house and the house next to his on the left that two of the most important people that he knew lived. He stares at it as he is no longer feeling exhausted and has gained enough air in his lungs, now standing up straight the boy slowly walked over to the house. He continued to stare at it while having his hands now in his pockets and in the middle of a deep thought.

“...How long has it been Sunny? Maybe three or four years now? Gosh, time really does fly by doesn’t it…I wonder how you’re holding up?” Kel spoke as if he was really talking to the person in front of him, only though he never got a response back as he let out a sigh before walking away.

…Only to stop just a few feet away from the house.

“You know what? No, I can’t keep doing this to you!” Kel said, fists now clenched as he stared back at the house and placed a hand on the back of his head. He was feeling ashamed for being such a bad friend and practically abandoned Sunny who is in the hospital most likely unaware that he basically ran away on him.

“Why did I ever stop visiting you in the first place?! You’re my friend, dang it! One of my best best friends! I shouldn’t have stopped visiting you…You must be feeling really lonely aren’t you? What kind of friend am I for doing such a thing after all those times that all of us spent together?!”

Now proceeding to march forward, Kel made the decision to go to the hospital. “I’m going to visit you again Sunny, and I’ll do everything in my power to help wake you up! I’ll even learn some magic if I have to!”

Once he walked through the neighborhood, passing by the houses once more and heading down to another area that he hardly ever goes to. That being because once he took a turn to the left where the Church is, he made a sudden stop to stare at someone at a window who had pink hair in a house that was run-down. He recognized the person almost immediately and continued to walk.

“So that's where she lives? Now that i think if about it...I never did hung out at her house before. But good thing it’s still early in the morning, otherwise I’ll be having to deal with her again…Yet I really wish it wasn’t something that has to involve bullying Basil...Just what the heck happened between you and Basil, Aubrey?” Kel said to himself before shaking his head as he continued his walk to the hospital, passing by the church. 

It was a good thing that compared to getting to the hospital on foot it would take at least twenty-four minutes to arrive for Kel. He could have considered taking a bus but he didn’t have time to wait that long for it to arrive.

Finally arriving at the hospital, Kel looked up to see how tall it was compared to the other stores he had visited. “Now if I was a patient in one of these rooms…I probably could see my house from the roof!” He chuckled to himself once he stopped in front of the door. 

Having a hand on one of the door handles that leads inside the building, Kel would begin to feel nervous since it’s been so long since he had visited Sunny, he doesn’t know what would happen once he goes in and that’s what would terrify him the most.

“What if he’s still in a coma? What if he’s already awake and knew that I stopped visiting him? What if he will never wake up, or worse! What if-'' Immediately Kel slaps himself on his cheek, preventing him from thinking of any worse possibilities. 

“Stop it, Kel. DON’T think like that! He’s your friend…And you did promise to yourself that you were going to visit and help him wake up if he’s still in a coma. Remember what Mari said? Wait what did she say again about when it comes to calming down?”

The boy would place a finger on his forehead, trying to recall Mari’s words until his eyes widened as he started to remember what she said. “Take a deep breath…It’s not as scary as you think…YEAH! That’s it!”

Taking a deep breath, inhaling all of the oxygen through his nose before releasing it out with a long exhale. Kel feels himself now becoming much calmer than before and starts to enter the hospital.

Walking up to the reception there were only two people in line. One was a tall gentleman who looked to be in his late fifties and a woman who had fair skin along with short brown hair with an earring on each ear. She was also wearing a blue dress shirt that went perfectly with her gray blazer and skirt. The more that Kel looked at her, the more that he immediately recognized the woman.

“Mrs. Suzuki?!” Kel called out to the woman who turned around to who was calling and had a shocked look on her face.

“Kel?” She answered as she walked over to the boy, her shock was slowly getting replaced with a smile on her face. “Oh my god, it’s so nice to see you! You sure have grown up, you've gotten taller since the last time I saw you!”

Kel gives her a grin before he gets pulled into a hug, he wraps both arms around her to return the hug. “I sure have! I’ve probably gotten taller than Hero at this point! It’s good to see you too Mrs. Suzuki!”

They stayed in the hug for a few seconds before letting go of one another. “Oh please you, don’t have to call me that anymore since…Well I’m no longer married, so you can call me Elena.” She said, Kel rubbed his head to be reminded of what had happened those years ago. Soon enough he gives her another smile before nodding.

“It’s going to be hard to get used to it, but I’ll try my best, Elena!” Kel chuckles a little until he snapped back to why he was here, even having questions to what Sunny and Mari’s mother was doing here. “So what brings you here? Are you also here to visit Sunny? Cause I will assure you that I will do everything that it takes for him to wake up!”

Elena wouldn’t say anything as she placed her arms together while she was slightly tapping her foot a bit. She seemed to be trying to calm herself down without trying to make it obvious yet she had an expression on her face that Kel could tell something could be bothering her a little, though whatever the case is he needed to be prepared and hoped that it wasn’t any bad news…God he was hoping there was no bad news.

“I got a call from the hospital last night…The Doctor told me that Sunny is…” The mother of his friend was now trying to keep herself together, which by then even Kel could see that. This was now making the boy start to get nervous. 

She took a deep breath as she tried to speak without trying to shed a single tear, though to Kel it felt like he was waiting for hours. Long agonizing hours that could make him feel fifty at this point. Eventually the woman looked at him as her lips moved once more.

“...Sunny’s awake.”

…

The two were silent as they looked at one another, Kel’s face was in a shock that he couldn’t even believe what had to be true. ‘Sunny’s awake? There’s just no way…’

Just as the boy got out of his shock and was about to speak, they both heard the receptionist call out whoever was next in line. This led to the woman turning around to walk over towards the desk.

“I’m here to see my son, Sunny Suzuki?” She said to the receptionist who was now typing on the computer to check the information. Once her hands stopped typing and looked back, she gave her a smile.

“He’s on the third floor to the last door on your left ma’am, you may see him.”

Elena would turn to Kel who looked back at her, it was almost like they both had the same thought when they both started to walk towards the stairs. The two would walk at a normal pace at first, but as time went on and just after the second floor their pace increased drastically as they really wanted to see Sunny.

Now as they reached the third floor they both were met by a familiar face that had walked out of what appeared to be Sunny’s room. 

“Why hello you two. I assume you're both here to see him?” He asked as both Kel and Elena nodded while Elena was short on breath from walking up the steps.

“I-Is he really…I-Is my son really awake Dr. Wilson?” She asks before regaining her breath, her eyes looking at the older man who simply gives her a nod which made the mother cover her mouth as she could start crying any minute.

“...Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go see Sunny!” Kel said right as he was about to take a step, Dr. Wilson placed up a hand that stopped him.

“Before you go see him, I have good news and some bad news that I must tell you first...”

The two would stare at the Doctor, confused as to what could be good and bad about the boy waking up, the doctor would notice this but didn’t need to say anything as Kel was the first one to speak up.

“Sunny’s awake right? What could possibly be so bad that he woke up?”

“Indeed that he is awake…But unfortunately we had discovered something that after he woke up will upset both you and those who are close to the boy…” He answered as he stepped aside, allowing the both of them to enter the room. “You may want to see for yourselves.”

Unsure how to respond, they slowly walk towards the door as Kel was feeling nervous while Elena looked like she could get a heart attack. Soon enough Kel opens the door to see a large room that was bigger than Kel’s and Hero’s room. Was a lot cleaner too, well aside from seeing specks of dirt on the corner where a plant sits.

Now lastly they see a boy sitting in a bed, looking down at his hands while his long black hair covers parts of his upper face. It was almost the same length as Kel’s hair but a bit shorter and a lot messier too. This had made both of them speechless, they didn’t even know what to say as the person in front of him was awake right now after being asleep for four years.

“S-Sunny…?” His mother spoke, breaking the silence after she had blinked twice to make sure she wasn’t dreaming or even hallucinating for the matter.

Hearing his name being called, the boy slowly turned up to see the two of them, his eyes stared directly at the two and gave them a confused yet the most innocent expression. Staring at one another for just a few minutes to see who would speak next, the boy would suddenly develop and shed a tear down from his right eye before speaking.

“...W-Who are you?”

“S-Sunny? It’s Mommy! D-Don’t you remember me..?” Now much more confused to why her own son would ask who she was, it didn’t even make sense to her.

The boy would simply shake his head before looking back down once more. Kel watches this and starts to hear footsteps coming from behind, Doctor Wilson comes into the room with a sad expression on his face. “Doc? What’s going on…?”

The doctor let out a sigh as he held onto his clipboard. “I really didn’t want to tell you this, so it was best for you both to see for yourselves.”

The confused mother turned to look at him, nearly beginning to break down. “C-Can you please tell me what’s going on with him? Why doesn’t my son remember me?!”

“During the time that Sunny woke up, we ran some examinations immediately on his current condition after the coma.” He says before he took a minute to clear his throat as he tried to explain this as best as possible without having one of them break down.. “...Unfortunately what had happened to your son that placed him into a coma, has also given him amnesia.”

Hearing the news about her own son’s condition, she gasped before covering mouth as she started to cry. The Doctor does her best to console her as he placed a hand on her shoulder while Kel stood there, processing the fact that his own friend is not only awake from his coma but he has gotten amnesia. He didn’t know how to feel as there were a mixture of emotions going through him, yet he tried to remain calm for Sunny’s mother’s sake.

“Is there a possible way that he can get his memories back…?” Kel looks at the doctor as he hopes that Sunny’s condition isn’t permanent.

“It depends, it could be temporary and with time he may slowly begin to remember…Or there could be a possible chance he may never be able to regain his memories.”

This made Kel gulp as he turned to look at the boy who looked back at him, confused as to who everyone was. Kel slowly walked over and took a seat that was next to the bed. His eyes were looking at Sunny’s left hand, staring at his stubs that used to be his fingers for a moment before looking back up at him. 

“H-How…How are you feeling, Sunny?” Kel asked, seeing if he could make some small talk even though this felt very weird for him since it had been four years that he had spoken to Sunny when he was awake, and what seemed like a long time since he even saw him too.

“Ummm…” Sunny tilts his head down for a moment, closing both of his hands together as he was having a hard time trying to respond. “I-I don’t know…I’m very confused now, and I don’t even know who you all are or why I can’t even remember anything…”

“Oh! Well my name is Kel, and I’m your friend!” Kel slowly gets a grin on his face which the confused Sunny turns up to look at him again.

“My…Friend?” He asked as he was puzzled while Kel gave a nod in return.

“Yep! And don’t worry Sunny, I’ll make sure you’ll be able to get your memories back! Consider this a mission!”

The raven-haired boy didn’t know what to say but he slowly looked back down to touch at his stubby fingers once more. Kel glances at the Doctor and Elena walking towards the bed with him, the mother had slowly begun to stop crying while she placed a hand on her son’s cheek while she was caressing his hair that was covering his face.

“Your hair has gotten so long…Maybe once you get discharged, I think we should cut it. Would you like that Sunny?” Elena suggests as Sunny looks up at her, he didn’t know how to respond to such a question as he didn’t seem bothered by his hair at all.

“Hmm…I actually kinda like it!  I’ve never seen him with longer hair before, it’s always that same haircut everyday. Maybe a new look wouldn’t be so bad!” Kel added as he scratched the back of his own head, keeping up his smile while Elena looked at him for a moment, almost pondering the idea before letting out a sigh as she wiped off the tears from her cheeks.

“Well, it’s Sunny’s decision to make. He’s a big boy now so I think it’s better for him to decide on what he really wants.”

Soon the Doctor would begin to clear his throat once more, this time catching the three’s attention. “Now that you both know the bad news…I think it’s about time I gave you both the good news.”

“Wait, so Sunny waking up wasn’t the good news?” Kel asked, now puzzled as to what the Doctor meant.

“It’s part of the good news, actually. Aside from his memory loss, and his missing fingers have healed up, he will be discharged from the hospital today.”

“W-Wait what?!” Elena and Kel both exclaimed at the same time, Sunny flinched a little from how loud they both were.

“B-But Doctor! Doesn’t he have to do some sort of rehabilitation?” Elena asked, though she was joyful that her son was being discharged, there were some concerns that she had. “He’s been in a coma for a while, surely he needs some time to start moving his legs or something!”

“Funny that you mention that, when Sunny woke up. I found him walking down the stairs from his room to the second floor where I was dealing with another patient.” He answers while he can't help but smirk a bit. “He probably must have a faster recovery than most people that would take up from days to maybe months to walk properly again. “He was standing without any struggle, so I figured it’s time he should go home to the people that care about him. I hate to see him stay for another month or two away from his family...”

The two were speechless until the mother slowly covered her mouth as she was about to cry again, this time tears of joy when she turned to Sunny who looked at her with confusion once more and even was concerned that she was crying again. Suddenly he was pulled into a hug by her own mother who let out a few tears.

“D-Do you hear that, Sunny? Y-You get to finally go home today!” She said in between her sobs, Kel soon begins to grin with excitement and pats Sunny’s shoulder.

“It’s good to have you back Sunny!”

…

After moments of the news of having Sunny discharged from the hospital, Elena had to leave with the Doctor to fill out some paperwork before Sunny could be able to leave the hospital. Kel would stare at him as the room was quiet, too quiet for his liking as he felt like this was making the both of them awkward.

“Is there anything you can try to remember, Sunny? Like anything at all?” Kel asked, Sunny turned to stare at him for a moment. Kel could see that he was in a deep thought before shaking his head.

“...Sorry. I really don’t remember anything…” Sunny’s response would slowly make Kel frown until he noticed Sunny was looking down in shame.

“Hmm…Wait,  then how come you shed a tear earlier? Though I’ve never seen you cry before when you had your memories, maybe I could have been seeing things.”

Sunny didn’t respond to his question for another minute as Kel started to wonder if he said something that might have offended him yet as he was about to open his mouth to apologize, Sunny spoke once again. 

“I-I don’t know…I guess when you both showed up, I was starting to feel sad for some reason.” Sunny would try to explain his answer but Kel would be a little confused. “And I just…It was like I was feeling something familiar that I just don’t know how to explain…”

“Hey there's no need to sweat it, Sunny. Sometimes feeling something familiar could be a good sign of the first step!” Kel would reassure the amnesiac boy as he grinned. “If you want I can tell you some things in your past that we’ve done together as kids! Oh, even with all of our friends too!”

“R-Really?” Sunny perked his head up as he turned to look at him, his sad face replaced with a look of curiosity.

“Heck yeah, dude! There’s a lot of things I can tell you that I don’t even know where to start!”

Kel still couldn’t believe that his friend is awake, and is being discharged from the hospital today which made it even more exciting for him. This really has gotten the boy to think as he wondered how everyone would think. How would his former friend group react? How would Mari react? Last time that he spoke with Mari was when his friends and Hero went to visit Sunny with her. 

Just as he continues to think, he hears the door open which he looked to see who had entered. Sunny’s mother had finally returned after the paperwork and seemed to have been in a rush to come back up here with some clothing.

“S-Sorry that I took so long you two! After I finished the paperwork I quickly had to go back home to grab Sunny some of his clothes.” She apologized as she set down Sunny’s clothes on his bed.

The clothes that Sunny had on the bed was a white-collared shirt, a dark gray hoodie, a pair of jeans that looked to be a relaxed fit, some socks and some black shoes. He inspects them one at a time until he is finished before looking at his mother once again.

“I didn’t know if your other clothes would have fitted you but I took the time to find some clothes that were a bit big for you at the time.” Elena would have both of her hands together as she gave him a small smile which soon enough he gave her a nod.

“T-...Thank you…Mom.” He spoke, hearing him addressing Elena as his mother made the woman happy while she tries her best not to cry once again.

“You’re welcome sweety…Do you need some help getting changed?” She asked him while he stared at her for a moment before shaking his head, this gives her the idea that he can figure it out on his own. “Alright, son. Just come out when you’re ready, okay?”

“We’ll be waiting for you outside of the door, Sunny. Just let us know if you need any help!” Kel added before the two walked out of the room, leaving him by himself on the bed with his clothes.

Just after a few minutes of sitting in the bed, Sunny slowly gets off and stares at the clothes before taking off the white gown and proceeds to put on the clothes that he was offered one by one, starting with the pants  Once he pulled them up and having a bit of trouble, he managed to get the button in. Feeling a little victorious in his first attempt, he starts to grab the next piece of clothing being the white collared shirt. Before he put it on, he noticed from the corner of his eye that he saw a white patch placed on the right side of his waist.

How did he not notice this earlier never really crossed his mind, then again he did feel something was stuck on him and figured it could have been the gown he had on earlier. Curiosity got the better of Sunny as he slowly started to take off the patch, revealing a large scar. He stares at it for a minute which he then places a hand on his scar.

The moment he touched his scar, he felt his head beginning to ache in pain as his ears began to ring. He takes his hand off his scar and starts to rub both sides of his head to try and stop the pain.

W̸̳̦͍̘̓͗h̴͖̯̉y̷̘̐̎̄ ̴̪̭̀͘d̸̰͙͈̲̃̅͗͠ï̴̬̐͛d̴̡̙̆͛̀̋ ̶̦̆͝t̴͔͂̒̅̽h̵͙̻͗i̸͔̦̭̎͂̋̚s̶̺̈ ̶͉͎̹͌͆͒̋e̶͉̯͓͙͝v̸͍́͒͝e̶̠̋̈́̑n̵̩̊ ̴͖̘͑́h̴̥̟̚a̵̭̹̻͂̚̕v̷̢̝͍̫̌̓͝e̴̗̓̍͗͒ ̴͙͍̠̈ţ̵͓̻̩̅̉͂ỡ̶̧̥̱̈͌ ̴̠̩̝̄̊̇̾h̸̭͆̓̀a̸̦͋̉̿͗p̸̬̀p̷̡̼̻͐̍ē̶̬͕̈́̈́̄n̸̙̰͙͓̆̓͝?̶͍͈̖̂̇̈́͛!̷̘̖̄̈

̶̄P̵̡͍̪͇͂l̴͍͚̬̖̄͐͛͘e̸̟̰̭͒̋a̷͕̝͔͉͊̑s̵͓̳̈̾̈́̚ě̴̫̙̈́ ̶͖͒́̀w̶͈̜̠̆̎̄ḁ̶̟͈͍̀̚k̷͔̖̉̒ͅë̴͓̰̠̺ ̴̱̱̌ǔ̷̠p̴̞̫̆̚͜.̴͈̭̯͖̾̍́.̶̼̝̓.̷̡̥̩̠̀̇
Ḧ̶͇̱̞̕e̴̙̒͂'̷͚͌͒̕s̴̫̗̜̆ ̶̡͓͍̊n̴̛̮̫͍̆͆e̸̢͚̲̐v̸̙̣͑e̸̳̚ȑ̵̠ ̴̰̔̔̈g̸̘̋͘ó̷̬̣i̷̛̘͆n̶̟̕g̸̭͍̼̾ ̶̜̘̽t̴̖̻͙̏́̄o̸͕̚ ̵̘̓w̴̧̫̐͛̑ā̷̲̘k̵͚̯̹̊̔̿ë̴̟́ ̷̩̎̕ú̷̧͋̎p̸͕̱͌͝!̷̙̋͘ͅ

W̷͚̬̫̃e̴͕͉̠͊̔̎ ̵̯̥̖̾̓̍ṁ̶͇̝͘i̴̖͂̉̆s̷̺̤̃̄s̶͕̩̗͋͠ ̶̢͍̑͆y̴̢̹͒͘ȍ̷͖́͋ú̷̪̹̬.̷̠̜̐.̸̛̭̪̲̒.̶̯͍̎̆͠

Eventually the pain begins to stop and he looks around at some people standing around the bed. He didn’t get a good look at them because  they disappeared right after. He did see that there were six of them, and one was in the bed.

He blinked twice out of confusion and thinking he could be seeing things but what were those voices had he heard just now? It was hard to make out what they said as it sounded unclear… 

Slowly he continued to put on his shirt and one by one began to put in each button from top to button. It did take him a few minutes with just using one hand and the only thumb that wasn’t a stub, making him a bit irritated but eventually he managed to get all of the buttons in. With a sigh of relief and wishing he had all of his fingers instead of stubs would make things easier. Lastly he puts on his hoodie while trying to figure out which way he was supposed to put it on and puts on both his socks and shoes that were already tied.

Now finishing getting dressed, he slowly walked over towards the mirror to look at himself one more time. He looked terrible when he had on the gown, but now he seemed to be able to make due with what he had on.

Soon he begins to leave the room and to his surprise both his mother and Kel were outside of his room to his right, waiting for him. His mother looked at him as she wondered what his opinion on the clothes were. 

“S-So…Are they good, Sunny? Are they a bit tight? Too big still?”

Sunny slowly gives her a thumbs up, seemingly like he approves of the outfit, this little gesture made the mother let out a relieved sigh. Kel stares at Sunny for a bit until he has realized something.

“Is it just me or did Sunny get shorter than the last time I saw him?”

Both Sunny and Elena looked at him as she compares Sunny’s height to Kel’s and to herself. “That’s just because you're just tall, Kel. Though I think he did at least get a little bit taller back when he was twelve and has been in the hospital for four years. He just needs to get active and start doing things that he missed all those years ago!”

“Oh…Yeah! That’s probably why.” Kel scratches his chin a bit until an idea pops into his head. “Hey I know, why don’t I take Sunny around Faraway for a bit? Show him the places that we all used to go to back when we were little and that could maybe jog his memory!”

Elena turned to Kel for a moment, pondering on the idea. “You know…That’s actually a good idea, Kel! It would be so nice for my baby to be able to see the town again, maybe it would be nice for him to see his friends too!”

Hearing the last part about seeing Sunny’s friends again bugged Kel a little, though he didn’t show it on his face but only a forced smile. “Y-Yeah…That will be cool, wouldn’t you agree Sunny?”

Sunny stares at the both of them, unsure how to answer except to give the two another shrug. Elena couldn’t help but sigh before she giggled. 

“Even if you can’t remember, Sunny, you always know how to answer things in your own ways. Alright, I’ll allow it. But please make sure to bring Sunny home when it gets dark. I’ll give you both a ride to where you need to go.”

“Err…Okay, I’m going to be honest with you, both. I didn’t expect Sunny would wake up today so I don’t really have a game plan here, I don’t know exactly where we can go first…” Kel said before he started to go into a deep thought while mumbling to where he can take Sunny. “Oh! How about we go to HOBBEEZ! It’s the hobby shop in the Faraway Plaza.”

“I think I remember that place! You both used to go there all the time when you both were kids right? Okay, I’ll give you both a ride there!” Elena smiled as the three started to walk.

Not long after, they all made their way out of the hospital and out in the open air as wind started to blow a nice breeze around the woman and the two teenagers. Sunny’s hair would slightly get in his face until the wind stopped not long after. Eventually the trio got inside Elena’s car, Kel was sitting in the front because he called shotgun earlier which Sunny shrugged and got in the back seat.

…

During the ride over to HOBBEZ, Sunny notices his mother would sometimes look at him from the rear view mirror while Kel was moving his head a bit to the music that was playing on the radio, apparently the song was called “Good Morning” from what Kel was singing along with as well with the mother.  Sunny looks away from them both and stares out the window due to almost feeling weirded out by the behavior. He watched a lot of houses that they had passed by and even saw a few teenagers on some scooters too.

Just after a few more turns and stops, the three reach the plaza that had HOBBEEZ and all of the other stores that they can go to. Elena would get into the driveway and parked right in front of the store that they wanted to go to. “Looks like we made it, alright Kel you know what we talked about, make sure you bring Sunny back when it gets dark okay?”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Suzu-...Err…Elena!” Kel chuckled a little before he got out of the car, Sunny would do the same as they both turned to look at Sunny’s mother.

“Don’t get into any trouble you two!” Was all that she said before waving them a goodbye and started to drive off, leaving the two of them in front of the store.

“Come on Sunny, let’s go inside already!” Kel soon walks over to the store while Sunny follows behind, the two of them entering HOBBEEZ. Inside the store there was a lot of miscellaneous stuff that caught the two’s attention. 

“Well…Here we are at HOBBEEZ! It’s been awhile since you were here, but since you don’t remember, it’s a good thing that this place hasn’t really changed much!”

Sunny looks around from top to bottom and even from one side of the building to the other. Once he was finished he looked at the taller teen as he tilted his head like a curious puppy. “It’s all the same old stuff, like CAPT. SPACEBOY games, SWEETHEART movies, a few pet rocks…Except now they’re vintage.”

“...So you’re saying that we come to this place all the time? Well…It does seem pretty cool I guess.” Sunny would respond while Kel chuckles a bit before nodding.

“Yeah, it really is cool…Actually since we’re here, I should probably buy a gift for Hero.” As Kel mentioned Hero’s name, Sunny stared at him while Kel caught notice that he doesn’t know who Hero is. “Oh! Uhh, right. Sunny, Hero is my older brother and he’s another one of your friends! He’s in college right now, but he should be coming back sometime tomorrow along with your sister!”

Sunny raised an eyebrow about the mention of his sister, but he decided not to ask since he didn’t want to interrupt him. “He’s studying to be a doctor, so maybe I should buy him…Some medicine? No, that’s a horrible idea.”

As Kel was thinking of a gift, Sunny notices that he was struggling to find an idea which makes the boy look around the store. “...You wanna see what we can find around here that would be a good gift for your brother?” 

 Kel would grin from Sunny’s suggestion. “Sure! Let’s look around and see what we can find!”

The two teenagers started to look around the entire store, first stopping by some colorful CDS. Sunny stares at all of them from the green one all the way down to the red, he slowly picks up the pink colored one and shows it to him. “...Will he like this?”

“These CDS look pretty cool, but I think Hero would appreciate something more sentimental!” Kel said before Sunny puts the CD back down on the table. “Let’s keep looking.”

Now looking around some more, Kel would stop by to see a bunch of small figurines on the table which Sunny noticed he looked a bit embarrassed and walked over to see them. “I’ve always been fond of these little guys…Hero would get mad at me for spending my lunch money on them, though.”

“So…That will be a no then?”

“Definitely a no, let’s not remind him of that…”

With a nod from Sunny, they both continued to keep looking around, this time they were now at the table on their right which had a single video game cartridge on the table called SUPER ULTRA SPROUT MOLE EATER - REVENGE OF THE MOLES III. Kel would take a look at it and see the rating of the game.

“Rated M for mature, huh? That’s too violent for Hero!” Now setting the cartridge back down on the table he would shake his head a bit. “He definitely won’t appreciate something like this.”

Sunny stared at the cover of the game before slowly looking back up at him, his eyes would squint a bit as if it could really be violent just from seeing the picture on the game, Sunny found it to be a little cute.

Seeing what interesting things that they can find from the front of the store, they begin walking towards the back where Sunny’s eyes laid upon a game console that looked brand new since it was shiny and sleek. Sunny would poke Kel’s shoulder to get his attention. Once he turned around and saw that Sunny was pointing at the console, the boy immediately shuddered a little while shaking his head.

“This thing is WAAAAAYYYY too expensive, Sunny!” Kel nervously chuckled before patting his shoulder. “I love Hero and all, but not THAT much!”

The boy would frown as he was denied the suggestion, but soon began to shrug afterwards while he raised up both of his hands in defeat. Kel looked like he was about to give up until he noticed there was a bookshelf next to a shelf with figurines. This gave Kel a sudden thought before he started to look through each book from the top to bottom as each book was in alphabetical order. His finger would slide through each book until he stopped on a certain one, his eyes starting to light up with a smile.

“This…Yes! This is perfect!” Kel pulls the book from the shelf and shows it to Sunny. “PAPA CHIP’S CHIP-OFF-THE-OLD-BLOCK COOKBOOK!” Kel would clear his throat while he stared at the book. “Wow, that’s a mouthful. Hero had a copy of this when we were kids, but our dog, HECTOR, destroyed it.”

Kel would smile as he was getting excited with the gift in his hands. “He’s going to be so happy when he sees this…” He would start to check the book for the price. “But before that…We need to ask the most important question! How much…Does it cost?”

After checking the book, he stared at the price which Sunny leaned in to see how much the book cost while turning to see a shocked expression on Kel’s face. 

“TWENTY DOLLARS?! This is extortion!” Kel quickly begins to check each of his pockets until his eyes begin to widen a little. “Shoot! I left my wallet at home…”

The boy would look up at Sunny who simply stared at him without a word, “You know, it would be a miracle if we had enough money to buy this. I would go home to get it, but I don’t wanna be scolded by my mom.”

Sunny looked at Kel almost puzzled before slowly beginning to check both pockets like Kel did and even checked inside his hoodie pocket. Kel stared at him as he wondered what Sunny was doing until he saw his expression become surprised. Sunny was feeling something in his pocket as he pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill and something out from the other with his thumb.

“Is that a hundred dollar bill?! When did you carry cash like that dude?!” Kel asked, completely shocked as he didn’t expect Sunny had any cash on him. But his shock was replaced with curiosity as he noticed another thing that Sunny pulled out, it looked like some sort of contraption that had four fingers and a strap tied around.

“Hey…What’s that in your hand?” 

The fingers were made out of wood and there were some screws holding some joints inside them. Sunny would hand the dollar to Kel while he begins to read the note that was folded in his pocket. 

“Sunny, if you’re reading this I just want to let you know that this is a very late Birthday present and I don’t know how long it will take to wake up, but I asked Kel’s and Hero’s father if he could make a prosthetic that can help you in case you aren’t able to do things with one hand. Just know that, I love you very much and spend that money wisely! Love, Mom.”

As Sunny finishes reading, he looks at the prosthetic and begins to put it on his left hand that easily fits around his fingers and tightens the strap. Staring at his new fingers, he slowly moves his index finger down which causes one of the prosthetic fingers to begin to move and curl up. Sunny’s were staring at in fascination while Kel couldn’t help but smile from how cool it looked.

“Now THAT is cool! Can’t believe that my Dad made this for you, and he didn’t even tell us?! That’s a low blow, pops…But at least you got some fingers now and even a hundred dollar bill so we can pay for Hero’s gift!” 

Sunny continued to inspect each finger of his prosthetic, being able to move all of them before lowering his hand to look at him, even though Kel could see his eyes lighting up with some sort of happiness as he watched him begin to pick up one of the figurines and set it back down with no effort at all.

Kel marches right towards the counter with Sunny tagging along behind, now setting down the cookbook in front of the register with a grin. “Hey, SHOPKEEP! We’d like to buy this cookbook, please!”

“Kel, How’ve you been buddy?” The shopkeeper asked as he smirked at the teen. “It’s been a while since you’ve come around, hasn’t it?”

The shopkeep looks at the book before ringing it up on the register. “Ah, that’s PAPA CHIP’S CHIP-OFF-THE-OLD-BLOCK COOKBOOK! I see you have good taste!”

“Yeah, my brother used to follow his recipes all the time!” Kel smiled as his nose twitched from the nostalgia. “His cookies were my favorite.”

“It’s rare that I see another fan of PAPA CHIP’S work. That’ll be twenty dollars please!” Kel would hand The Shopkeep the hundred dollar bill that Sunny gave him, he places the dollar in the register before handing Kel back eighty-dollars and a bag that has Hero’s gift inside. “Thank you, kind sirs! Please enjoy!”

Kel turns to Sunny as he holds the bag with a smile. “Thanks a lot, Sunny! I bet Hero will love this!”

Sunny gave Kel a double thumbs up, soon the two would leave the store and out in the town once again. Kel would be having his hands to his waist while he looked around the town, wondering what to do next. Soon his attention turned to Sunny who was still playing with his prosthetic fingers.

“So…Where do you wanna go now, Sunny?” Kel asked as Sunny looked up at him and gave him a shrug. Seeing his answer, the teen started to rub his chin while he looked around a bit. “Guess there’s really not much to do around the suburbs, huh?”

Kel’s eyes would stare directly at the park, this took him a couple of seconds for another idea popped inside the mind of Kel Rodriguez before smacking his fist into his palm. “Oh, how about the Faraway park? Yeah, the park!” Slowly Kel walks over to the direction where the park is, he points a single finger at it. “We passed it by on the way here. That sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

“...Sure, I guess. You’re the one showing me around again, so you take the lead.” Sunny responded while he set his hands down to his sides while he walked up to him. Kel was happy that he was slowly making some progress. As long as he keeps this up, he is sure that he will get Sunny’s memories back.

The two started to walk over from HOBBEEZ down to Faraway park. Sunny would be listening to the trees rustling as the wind started to blow once more which made Sunny start to ask. “...Was it always this windy here?”

“Always, but don’t worry it’s pretty much the summer so we need the cool breeze as much as possible!” Kel answered with a laugh while he extended his arms as if he was embracing the wind. “Why is it bothering you?.”

“I don’t mind it, it’s just…I don’t know, it feels nice yet it makes it feel like everything will be alrig-”

“WAIT, DON’T GO PLEASE!!”

“Sorry dude, I can’t help you. You’re on your own!” 

Suddenly the two of them started to hear some voices which made Sunny cut off from finishing his sentence. The two teens turned to see where it was coming from as they had made it to the park entrance. 

“Uh-oh…There’s some commotion going on over there.” Kel started getting a little bit suspicious. “Let’s check it out.”

Now entering the park, the two would see a boy about their age with blonde hair and has a flower tucked in his ear while wearing a terrified expression as he was pleading to a girl who was also their age and on a scooter with a blue hoodie, red glasses, and even parts of her dark brown hair was shaved off on the left side side of her head.

“This ain’t none of my business.” The girl said as she turned her back on the blonde boy. “If you got beef with her, then talk to her yourself, you creep!”

Seeing the boy wasn’t going to give up, he walked up to her as he continued to plead. “I’m begging you. Just ask her to give it back…She won’t listen to me..”

“Wait…Is that…?” As both Kel and Sunny got a little closer to the two, Kel started to recognize the blonde boy almost immediately and turned his direction towards the girl with an angered look. “That’s Basil! Leave him alone, you bully!”

“Huh? Who’s there?!” The bully girl quickly turned in all directions to where it was coming from until she saw the two teens, quickly recognizing Kel as she scoffed in disgust while Basil turned to see Kel, his terrified expression remained unchanged. “Oh, it’s just Kel… Why don’t you mind your own business?”

“Well, why don’t YOU go bother someone else, KIM?” Kel retorts as he clenches the bag that had Hero’s gift.

“Psh, well aren’t you all high-and-mighty?” The girl named Kim rolled her eyes for a moment as she slammed her hands on her scooter handles. “You don’t make the rules around here!” 

The girl soon noticed Sunny next to Kel, causing the delinquent to slowly raise an eyebrow. ‘Who the heck is that with him? A friend? Sheesh, why does he look like he just came out of bed for the first time in years?’

“...You know her, Kel?” Sunny asked while Kel clicked his tongue in response.

“I know her alright, she’s one of the HOOLIGANS, a bun’cha bullies that always start trouble wherever they go. Hold on a minute…If Kim’s here then that means-”

‘WHAT’S GOIN’ ON OVER THERE!?”

The two teenagers along with Basil and Kim all began to look at where the sudden shout was coming from, much to Kel’s sudden groan they both saw a group of teenagers heading over towards them. Two boys had strange haircuts, one was a pompadour and the other was blonde but it didn’t seem like a natural blonde almost as if it was fake. A man that looked a little older than the teens, and a girl that was taller than the rest of them. 

Once they all stopped in front of Kim and Basil, a girl with pink hair and teal eyes drops her scooter. Sunny stared at her from head to toe as he saw that she was wearing a bright-blue handkerchief tied around her hair, a white and yellow varsity jacket, a black crop top plus a mini skirt, and some black socks and sneakers that had colors matching the girls' appearance.

Sunny also noticed that she had something in her hand that was also resting against her shoulder, a baseball bat that had nails stuck into it which he took note of.

“Oh, hey Aubrey…This nerd Kel just showed up and thinks he can boss me around!” Kim told the girl who stared directly at Kel. “Let’s show him what’s what!”

There was silence in the park, the teens from both sides stared at one another for a moment as the wind suddenly picked up once more, blowing through the teens as this made the confrontation much more intense for Kel.

“Kel…What do you want?” Aubrey said with a tone filled with annoyance and malice for the former friend.

“What I want is for you to stop messing with Basil!” Kel demanded as he glared at the pink haired delinquent. “How could you!?

“It’s none of your business Kel, how about you just screw off already? Shouldn’t you be playing with your basketball or something?” She smirked while she gripped her bat firmly as Kel growled at that remark.

“What is your problem Aubrey? We all used to be friends, don’t you remember? I’m pretty sure Sunny could vouch for me, right Sunny?” Kel paused for a moment before reminding himself that Sunny can’t remember and most likely doesn’t even know who she is, he even realized that he is the only person in the friend divided group that knows Sunny’s awake from a coma. 

“...Oh crap.”

Aubrey’s smirk was replaced with a look of shock. “Wait…Did you…Did you say Sunny…? Sunny’s here?!”  Slowly turning her attention towards the boy next to Kel, she immediately drops her nail bat as she covers her mouth.

Kel muttered to himself as he slowly facepalmed. “Nice going Kel…”

“S-Sunny…Is that really you?” The delinquent leader asked as she stared at Sunny, she would be stupid for not recognizing her friend earlier despite how much he changed in appearance compared to how he was when she last saw him. “Oh my god, you have changed a lot…” Now in a whispered tone, her voice started to crack while she was also beginning to tear up a little which caught the group of delinquent’s attention.

“Aubrey? What’s going on? Do you know this guy?” Kim spoke as she was walking up to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. 

“W-What sorcery is this?! Did this newcomer use a spell on the boss underneath THE MAVERICK’S nose-”

“SHUT UP MIKHAEL! NOBODY IS GOING TO CALL YOU THAT!” Kim shouts at the boy named Mikhael or known as The Maverick who lowers his head down to his shoulders.

“...S-Sunny?” Basil gasped as he looked at him, his eyes widened before tears already began to come out from his eyes. “I-It’s really you…”

Sunny squints his eyes at Aubrey, perplexed as to who this might be. He tries to recall who she is to him, but nothing really was popping into his mind except for some slight pain in his head whenever he tried to think. Though he did find her a bit familiar, he couldn’t understand why.

“...Who are you exactly?” 

His response seemed to have caught Aubrey off guard and even speechless to his question. Kel on the other hand slowly looked down as he was beginning to regret his words already but it was already too late now.’

“S-Sunny, it’s me, A-Aubrey…D–Don’t you recognize me?! I mean sure I had changed after  three…M-Maybe four years now? But i-it’s me!” Aubrey answered while Kim looked at Sunny then back at her with complete confusion to what was going on.

“Am I missing something here, Aubs?”

Everyone became silent once more, the confused boy kept his eyes on her before he slowly looked down as he rubbed his arm. “I’m sorry…But I don’t remember you at all.”

Aubrey’s eyes widened in disbelief, she looked at him before looking back at Kel. Soon she looked down for a moment as the girl would grit her teeth. “I see…So Kel must have told you everything huh? About all the things I have done? You probably hate me now don’t you so that’s why you are acting like you don’t remember me right?”

“WHAT?! Aubrey, no you don’t understand! Sunny doesn’t even re-”

“AND YOU! YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS KEL?!”  Aubrey screamed as she looked up at the two, her eyes glared at the both of them as she was pissed. “WELL FINE! IF THAT’S HOW IT IS THEN SO BE IT!”

“A-Aubrey, p-please listen to me! I-I’m sure there is some explanation for every-” Basil tried to plead to the leader until Kim ran towards Basil and punched him in the face.

“Will you shut up already?!” Kim shouts as the boy falls to the ground and proceeds to cry as Kel starts to get mad at her for attacking the flower boy.

“Hey stop that!” As Kel tries to rush over towards Basil only to quickly back away from an incoming punch from Aubrey just in time. 

“LEAVE IT ALONE, KEL! THIS ISN’T YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!”

“What the heck is wrong with you, Aubrey?!” Kel lets out an irritated sigh as he sets down his gift for Hero. “Ugh…Sunny! C’mon! We’ve got to do something!”

Sunny looked up at him as his eyes widened a bit until he stared at Aubrey who was looking directly at Kel.

“Are you seriously picking a fight?!” Aubrey would have a malicious grin on her face despite her eyes were now red after some tears came out, it was enough to make Kel afraid as she was cracking her knuckles. “Sure why not?! Come at me!”

Aubrey began to rush towards Kel as she started to punch him in the face, the teen letting out a grunt before he quickly dodged out of the way from another punch. Immediately Kel would shove Aubrey back to get her away from him. “Aubrey, I seriously don’t wanna fight you! Just let me explain!” He pleads but she didn’t listen as her eyes looked like she was now out for blood. 

The hooligans would cheer for Aubrey while Sunny just stared in horror as he was unsure what to even do. The two started to trade hits with one another until they started tackling each other to the ground where Aubrey was on top of Kel, throwing punch after punch at him as he tried to block with his hands.

“KICK HIS BUTT, AUBREY!” The boy with the pompadour shouts as both him and the rest of the gang cheers Aubrey on.

“Ugh…S-Sunny! A little- WOAH!” Kel tries to call out while he quickly blocks an incoming headbutt as he tries to block a few more punches, but some of them that he couldn’t block would hit him in the face.. “O-Ough! A little help here Sunny?!”

Seeing Kel asking for help, Sunny quickly rushes over to his aid and grabs Aubrey off of Kel in hopes of trying to de-escalate the fight. “H-Hey, stop it! We can talk about this-” 

Sunny was struck in the face by a sudden back hand from Aubrey as this was enough to knock the recently discharged boy to ground. The boy groaned as he rubbed his cheek before looking up at her in the eyes. All that the boy could see was burning rage in her eyes that nearly made Sunny’s soul leave his body.

Aubrey’s anger was replaced with horror when her eyes would be met with his filled with fear and slowly her attention would be directed towards Sunny’s left hand as his prosthetic fell off, revealing Sunny’s fingers that were amputated long ago. Aubrey would slowly walk over to him, Sunny started to quickly back up from her.

“S-Sunny…I-I’m…I’m so so-”

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Kel shouts as he gets up from the ground, Aubrey quickly turns around to be met with a punch that had enough force to make her stumble back to the ground. Aubrey would let out a grunt as she placed a hand over her face.

“Nghhh…Kel you ass! Of course you would pull such a sleazy move!” Aubrey glared while she slowly took a hand off her face, her nose would start to drip blood which not only did she take notice of, but the rest of the teens that watched the fight did.

Kel now calmed down, he looked at his fist then back at Aubrey as he was surprised and appalled that he managed to land a punch on Aubrey that was enough to make her bleed.

“Oh, shoot…” Kim mutters as she and the rest of the hooligans rushed to her aid. “Aubrey, are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine…” Aubrey groaned as Kim helped her up while she checked her bloody nose.

“No, you’re not! You’re bleeding! C’mon, we gotta get you out of here!” Aubrey would shrug herself off Kim before glaring at Kel. 

“...I’ll get you back for this!” She growled at the boy while she turned to look at Sunny for a moment before she grabbed her bat, her gang grabbed their scooters and rolled away from the park.

Now it was only two teens and a Basil who was holding onto his cheek in pain from being shocked by Kim earlier, Kel would let out a sigh as he shook the hand that he punched Aubrey with.

“Well, that didn’t go as planned…Are you alright Sunny?” Kel would walk over to extend his hand, Sunny recovering from that back hand smack earlier he slowly takes the hand and gets up.

“...I-I’m okay.” Sunny nods as he was dusting himself off before noticing his prosthetic fingers, slowly picking it up and puts it back on. “How about you? You took a lot more hits.”

“Eh, it’s nothin that I can’t handle!” Kel grinned while he wiped the blood from his nose and lip. “I’ll admit, she really knows how to throw a punch…Actually more than just a punch actually, she was going ape on me! Good thing you got her off of me or she might have done something worse.”

Sunny didn’t say anything as he looked at him with a bit of concern before getting confused about what had happened earlier during that confrontation. “About that girl…She knows me, yet I don’t know who she is. Who was she?”

Kel lets out a sigh before placing a hand through his hair. “Aubrey, she’s a friend- Well actually, she used to be our friend until you were in that coma…”

Sunny remained silent as Kel lowered both of his hands, staring back at him as he gave him a sad look. 

“Aubrey’s really changed since you last saw her. Her and her new friends have been nothing but trouble.

Two of the teens would turn to look at Basil who was still on the ground while he slowly started to get up, rubbing his nose as his eyes were dripping out tears. Kel looked at him with pity. 

“Poor Basil…Let’s check if he’s okay.” Walking over to the blonde flower boy, Kel looks at him with concern. “Hey, Basil. How are you doin’?”

Basil looks at Kel as he finishes wiping the tears from his face while speaking in a soft and quiet tone. “...I-I’m fine…Thank you, Kel…”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but Sunny’s here too!” Kel pointed out as the two turned to Sunny. Basil's eyes would meet with the boy as he seemed astounded.

“I-It’s really you…Been a while hasn’t it?” Basil asked as he chuckled a little until it was replaced with full blown sobs. Both Sunny and Kel would look at him in surprise before Sunny let out a yelp as he got pulled into a hug by the flower boy. 

“Y-You’re awake…! I-I’m so g-glad you’re awake!”

Sunny’s eyes quickly turned to Kel, wondering what he should do, Kel shrugged and gestured to him to hug Basil back. Taking Kel’s advice, Sunny would slowly wrap his arms around the crying boy to reciprocate the hug.

“WOO-HOO! WHAT A HAPPY REUNION!!” Kel grinned as he watched the two hug while he couldn’t help but pat both of their backs.

After moments as they remained in each other's arms, Basil would slowly let go of Sunny while Sunny did the same and backed up a little.  Basil would see Sunny was full of befuddlement, which made the blonde boy also seem confused in his reaction. “S-Sunny? W-What’s the matter?”

Kel would look at them both before placing a hand on Basil’s shoulder. “About that Basil…You see, you remember that time where he was put into that coma? He kind of…” Kel would pause for a moment as he was trying to figure out how to put what he was going to say in a term that isn’t going to result in having the boy break down in tears again. 

“...He has a bit of a memory loss. He can’t really remember anything right now.”

Basil’s eyes widened, taken aback by the news, the boy let out a small gasp. “O-Oh no! He doesn’t remember everything?! Not even before the coma?”

“Nothing, not a single one…He didn’t even recognize his own mother.” As Kel answered, Basil would look down at the ground as he was about to tear up once again. Though the taller teen was quick to notice this and began to clear his throat. “B-But don’t worry! He will get his memory back in no time, we just gotta keep faith right?”

Basil sniffled in silence for a moment before calming himself down and gave a small smile to him. “R-Right…Of course, we will…We have Sunny awake and already moving about, so everything should be fine.”

“So, did you wanna hang out with us today?” Kel asked as Basil’s smile would slowly fade.

“O-Oh…I’m sorry, I’d love to but…I-I should probably head home.” Basil answered as this was a complete shock to Kel.

“Huh? Really? Are you sure?”

“My, um…My grandma hasn’t been feeling too well lately.”

Sunny looked at Basil as he tilted his head, Kel would feel bad for him as he frowned. “Oh I’m sorry to hear that…”

Wanting to keep up the positivity, Kel turns his frown upside down. “Let us at least walk you home, it’s been so long since we’ve all hung out! I’m sure Sunny would enjoy that as much as I do...Right Sunny?”

Sunny at this point, decided to just go with the flow and gave him a small nod.

“O-Oh…A-Alright, thank you.” Basil said before he had a small smile once more as the two began to walk out of the park with Basil while Kel picked up his gift for Hero before catching up.

On the walk to Basil’s house, Kel would be taking the lead while both Sunny and Basil followed behind. Sunny would remain silent as he would notice that Basil would be taking a couple glances at him until their eyes would meet which he gave him a smile before Sunny slowly turned away. 

This somehow feels like he was still in his mother’s car and stared at him but this time he was staring straight forward as he didn’t want to suddenly bump into anything.

“S-So…I-I can’t help but notice that you got some new fingers?” Basil said as his attention was  met with Sunny’s wooden prosthetics. 

Sunny slowly looked at his fingers while giving a nod back, remaining silent which Basil would have been fine with, yet for some reason this would make the boy feel a little bothered.. 

“H-Hey, when did you get discharged?”

Sunny would look at Basil as he asked him, which he started to tap one of his wooden fingers against his own right hand. 

“...Just today, I was told that I had a fast recovery and didn’t need any rehabilitation because I managed to walk and moved around without any issues.”

“T-That’s good! It must be nice being a-able to move around after s-sleeping for so long, right? I’m s-sure you must have been r-really confused about a lot of things right now…”

“Oh you have no idea, Basil! You should see how many times he was confused today.” Kel added as he turned to look at them.  “That’s why we are going to help him get his memories back!”

“O-Of course…Though it must be nice in some way, not being able to remember certain things. L-Like maybe being able to start a new chapter, being able to forget the most embarrassing thing you have done that you can’t unforget…O-Or forgetting something that pained you so much…Y-You would be free.”

Kel would hum in response before chuckling. “Yeah, I think it would be nice now that you mention it. I still wish I could forget the time that I caught Hero and Mari making out in the treehouse…Eugh gross, now I can’t get that out of my head.”

As Kel tried to fake vomit while Basil would smile and even giggled from watching him, Sunny started to feel bothered by what Basil had said earlier about wishing to forget. He didn’t understand where he was getting this unsettling feeling from and before he could even think more about it, he stopped walking at the same time both Kel and Basil did.

“There’s Basil’s house! It’s that one with the green roof!” Kel pointed out as Sunny stared at the house, his eyes would be glancing at all of the plants around the house that seemed to be watered recently.

Basil would walk towards the door to his house which he turned around to look at them, unsure what to even say to them. “Ummm…Thanks for walking me home.”

“No problem-o!” Kel gives Basil his usual grin. “ If you ever need anything from me, just ask okay?”

“O-Okay…” Basil would look to the side while hunched over a little.

“Alright we’ll catch you later Basil!” Kel and Sunny both looked at one another, giving each other a nod as they started to walk. The blonde boy would begin to get nervous until his body was shaking with anxiety until he wasn’t able to hold himself back anymore.

“WAIT!! PLEASE DON’T GO!!” Basil shouted as it was loud enough that it not only would make both Kel and Sunny flinch but catch their attention, slowly both turned to look at him.

Basil realizing what he done would quickly begin to fumble with his arm a little and stuttered out his words. “Ah…I-I mean…I’m so sorry…I actually have a favor to ask.”

Kel stared at him with a puzzled expression before he walked over to him. “Anything, Basil. What do you need?”

The flower boy sighs as he tries to gather his courage to speak.. “Well…You see, something important was taken from me. When…W-We…Used to b-be friends…Do you remember how I used to take p-pictures of everyone?”

“Of course I remember!” Kel nodded. “Those photos meant everything to you!”

“Ah…R-Right…Well…A-Aubrey…” Basil stared down at the ground for a moment as this time Kel raised an eyebrow. “She took m-my photo a-album and…-

“AUBREY STOLE YOUR PHOTO ALBUM!?” This time Kel was the one who shouted, feeling outraged by the sudden news. Basil flinched in return and quickly turned his gaze away from the two.

“W-Well…She…She won’t give it back…”

The angry Kel closed his eyes as he began to pace back and forth a bit until he was clenching one of his fists together as he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“WHAT A SCUMBAG!!”

Both Basil and Sunny would stare at Kel who was now crouching down for a moment as he was slowly trying to calm himself down, Sunny could see Kel was taking in a deep breath before letting out an exhale while he got up from the ground. 

“Don’t you worry about a thing, Basil. Me and Sunny got you covered.” Kel would turn to Basil as he gave him a smile and a thumbs up. The two both blinked from how fast Kel went from being angry back to smiling.

Basil’s eyes started litting up a bit before slowly giving a nod as he looked down. “O-Okay…T-Thank you…”

Kel seeing that Basil was still bothered by something, he walks over to the boy and places a hand on his shoulder. “By the way…About what you said before…We’re still friends. I want you to know that, okay?”

“O..Okay.” Basil continued to look down still before he slowly walked towards his door, opening it and walking inside only to turn around and give both teens  smile. “Well…I’ll see you later.”

Kel would give him a wave while Sunny simply stared at the boy as  he closed the door, leaving both kids outside in the neighborhood. Sunny could hear Kel beginning to sigh as he turned to him. 

“C’mon, Sunny! There’s no time to lose! We got a photo album to find.”

“...Where do we even start looking? I mean, he did say Aubrey has it right? But how are we going to find her?” Sunny asked, Kel would place a finger on his own chin as he started to think.

“Huh…You’re right, she could be anywhere right now and it will probably take us all day too…” Kel would tap his foot for a bit until a sudden idea came to him. “Let’s check Faraway Park for clues!”

Kel and Sunny started to walk back up the neighborhood and back to the park they encountered Basil and the hooligans earlier, this time they both were on the search for Basil’s Photo Album. Kel started to look around for anything suspicious while Sunny had both his hands in his hoodie pockets as he stared at him.

“...Hey Kel? Can I ask you something?” Sunny said as Kel turned to look at him.

“What’s up?”

“...Was Basil always like that? As Sunny said this, he saw that Kel had an expression like he didn’t understand which made Sunny start to elaborate. “Was he always so…I don’t know, like a nervous wreck?”

“Ohhh! No, no of course not! Back then Basil was very cheery even though he can be shy and really humble.” Kel answered as he was starting to see where Sunny was coming from with the question. “Though…You’re right about him being a nervous-wreck, this is the first time I’ve seen him like that.”

“...Do you think it has something to do with Aubrey? Speaking of which…What happened between the three of you while I was…You know, in a coma for that long?”

“Sunny, as much as I would like to answer that question for you, I actually have no clue what happened!” 

Kel would sit down at one of the benches that was close by while Sunny followed and sat down next to him. 

“During your coma, things hadn’t been the same. I remembered Basil suddenly shutting himself out from everyone when I came over to his house at one point, he didn’t answer the door and Aubrey came to school the next day at one point looking angry, I thought it was an Aubrey thing but the next thing I knew was seeing her picking on Basil and even calling him names like creep.” 

“Then what happened next?” Sunny asked, Kel would shift his gaze to see three kids playing on the slide.

“I tried to calm her down and she kinda socked me in the face while starting to shout at me.”

“...Do you know what she was shouting at you for?”

“I can’t really remember word for word, but it was like ‘Why am I defending Basil? I have no idea what he did.’ Other than that I was angry and we both got into a fight…After that we stopped being friends, soon she had new friends which you can already guess who they are at this point.”

Sunny wanted to respond, yet he didn't because he was starting to feel so confused and was getting a bit suspicious from Kel, he didn’t know why but he felt like there were more things that were leading on. Before he got to ask, his eyes start to wander around for a bit until he spots a familiar looking person just east of them in the park, a tall girl sitting next to some scooters.

“...Isn’t that girl part of the hooligans over there?” Sunny points at the girl who Kel turns to see, which he quickly got up from the bench.

“Let’s go see if she knows anything about Aubrey and her whereabouts.”Now getting up from the bench, both walked over to the girl as she noticed them walking up to her. “Hey, you’re CHARLIE, right? I see you hanging around Aubrey sometimes. You know where she is?”

The girl named Charlie didn’t say anything, yet she would only stare at him for a moment before she looked away.

“You know, Charlie…I can tell you’re not really the mean type of person.” He continued, not wanting to give up. “Aubrey took something important from Basil and we need to get it back. Is there any way you can help us?”

Charlie continued to remain silent and keep her head turned, though the teens did see she was in some deep thought for a moment…Like she was pondering until she turned to stare at Kel for a bit then looked at Sunny who was keeping eye contact with her this entire time and not even daring to blink.

Kel watches the two stare at each other, almost like they were talking with just their stares alone…Or they could be having a staring contest just to see who loses and it looks like Charlie was struggling to keep her eyes open until eventually she closes them for a moment. Once she reopened her eyes, she walked over to a tree that was just behind the two teens before shaking it really hard.

Suddenly as Charlie stopped shaking the tree, someone fell down from it and hit the ground which he got up to look around. Kel and Sunny recognized this to be another member of the hooligans, who else would have a pompadour? 

“WHO, WHAT, AND WHERE NOW?!” He screamed before quickly looking at Charlie and began to question her. “What’d you do that for!?!?”

Charlie continues to remain silent, but she did point at both Kel and Sunny who were behind him. Quickly turning around, he gets a smirk on his face while styling his hair. “Ah! If it isn't Kel and that weird magic guy! Worthy adversaries for the great and mighty ANGEL!

“Weird magic guy?” Sunny squints his eyes at Angel who he pointed a finger at him.

“How dare you use a forbidden spell to weaken Aubrey?! Doesn’t matter because finally, it is time for you to meet your doom!”

“Angel, we don’t have time for this…” Kel groaned as he tried not to cringe at Angel’s behavior. “We just want to find Aubrey, do you know where she is?”

“You seek Aubrey, do you?” Angel’s head would perk up at the name. “Interesting! I will tell you what I know…But first, you must best me in battle!”

“B-Battle!?” Kel became extremely flabbergasted at Angel’s request. “But…I don’t…Wanna punch a kid…”

Angel would soon get into a fighting stance, though it looks like he was doing a really strange pose that was making him seem menacing. “You won’t be able to lay a finger on me! C’MON LET’S SICK ‘EM, CHARLIE!!”

Kel and Sunny turned to stare at Charlie who stood there for a moment before slowly walking up next to Angel and getting in a fighting stance.

“Looks like we’re really doing this…Alright, you’re pretty much asking for it.” Kel would sigh as he raises up his fists while Sunny was hesitant at first but he also did the same.

Angel would quickly stare at both targets seeing who would be the weakest link to take care of first. His eyes meeting with Sunny since compared to Kel, he looked scrawny. He grins before rushing towards the boy and throwing a punch. Luckily Sunny moved out of the way just in time for his fist to move past him. This gave Kel the opportunity to kick Angel on his back side, sending him further away from the both as he hits the bench and lets out a grunt on impact.

“Heh, you surprise me, Kel!” Angel chuckled as he slowly got up from the bench. “You will make a worthy rival for my master!”

Kel didn’t say anything except roll his eyes once Angel rushed towards the two, this time aiming a swift chop at Kel who quickly ducked, making the pompadour kid hit the tree behind him instead. His hand would recoil from the impact, letting out a loud scream until Kel gets up to uppercut him straight in the jaw. During this, Sunny would notice that Charlie was just standing there doing nothing. Taking it as a sign that she doesn’t wanna fight and decided that it’s best to only fight Angel.

The fight would end as Angel would rub his jaw in pain while he laid on the ground. “How could this be?! My training was all for nothing!”  

Soon the pompadour boy gets up off of the ground and rubs the hand that he chopped the tree earlier. “Owww, my hand hurts…”

“You’re the one who started it.” Kel replied before seeing Angel was fuming with anger.

“YOU BULLIES!”

“...How are we the bullies exactly?” Sunny asked while Kel sighed.

“Okay, Angel, it’s time to be serious now. We beat you, you tell us where Aubrey is.”

Angel’s anger dissipates slowly before he lets out a huff after admitting defeat. “Fine, a promise is a promise, I suppose. I will honor my word and tell you what I know.”

Angel would begin to turn his back on the two who were getting ready for some information about Aubrey’s whereabouts.

“The truth is…Aubrey is…Somewhere…Around in Faraway town…Probably.”

Udder silence had filled the area around them as if on cue the wind started to blow through the teens once again. Kel started to groan out in irritation. “Dang it, Angel! You better not be messing around or else-”

Angel quickly pointed a finger at him. “I told you I’d tell you what I know! And the truth is…I don’t know anything!”

“...Oh great, we basically fought him all for nothing.” Sunny flaps his arms a bit as he felt like his time had been a waste for something pointless.

“Angel…You better tell us where she is right now…” Kel stopped to think for a moment before raising up a finger. “Or else I’ll tell everyone about that time you wet your bed at summer camp.”

As Kel threatened the boy, Angel’s eyes widened in fear to the point he was backing away. 

“H-Huh?! W-W-W-What?! You can’t do that! That’s cheating!” Angel’s face would become pink out of embarrassment. Seeing this, Kel grinned that he had the upper hand now. “A-Anyway, I really don’t know! Maybe you can ask my master, THE MAVERICK. He’s the keeper of all knowledge! He told me that himself!”

“T-The Maverick?” Kel questioned while he felt as if he had an idea on who Angel was talking about. “Oh, no…You mean that weird kid, MIKHAEL?”

Angel would gasp and look offended as he started to ball up his fists. “Don’t you dare call him by that name! He would take great offense to that.”

“I see…so…It is him…” Kel gets a deadpan expression before rubbing the bridges of his nose. “Where can we find this Mikhae-, I mean, uh, The Maverick?”

“I’ll tell you what I know…But…You’ll have to fight me first!” Angel said as he was about to initiate another fight.

Kel was quick with his words as he really didn’t want to fight the one that was wasting his and Sunny’s time. “Or…I can tell everyone about that time you-”

“GAH!!” He screamed as he covered Kel’s mouth, preventing him from finishing spilling out another secret of his. “Okay fine I’ll talk! Master went to the fountain at the Faraway Plaza! He said he was going to meet some girls there for…A date or something.”

Kel quickly takes Angel's hand off of his mouth while he becomes grossed out by the word date. “Ugh…Disgusting…Come on, Sunny. Let’s go to Faraway Plaza, I think we’re done here.”

Sunny gave Kel a nod while he waved a goodbye at Charlie before the two walked off from the Park to the Plaza.

“So what was that all about with you and Charlie earlier? You two said nothing but stared at each other like you two were having some sort of telepathy or something!”

“...I just stared at her, that's all, I wanted to see what would happen and well…We found out what happened.” Sunny said, looking at him with just a blank expression.

“So basically a staring contest…Got it.” Kel started to chuckle a bit until he heard some giggling from the distance.. Once they turned the corner to their left they saw a blonde boy with a girl on both sides, wrapping an arm around them.”

“And then I told him…It’s not Maverick. It’s The Maverick!” He said as the two girls started to laugh. 

“Oh, The Maverick, you’re so funny!” One girl said.

“Haha! Wow, what an amazing story, The Maverick!” Another girl said.

“Girls, girls…Please! There’s enough of me to go around…” The playboy smiled at the two girls while giving them both a wink.

Both teens soon walked up to ho, and the two girls, Kel being confused to what was going on while Sunny remained silent while his hands were in his pockets.

“ Uh, Mikhael?…What are you doing?”

The Maverick would glance at both Kel and Sunny walking up to him while he immediately takes both hands off of both girls and stood in front of them. “If it isn’t Kel! My…Arch-nemesis and his sidekick! Finally here to admit defeat, are you?”

Kel and Sunny both watch The Maverick get in a pose, similar to one that Angel was in but this time he had a hand right in front of his face. Kel would feel like he was trying to reference something before closing his eyes while he starts to mutter under his breath until he sighs once more before reopening his eyes.

“I don’t have time for this, Mikhael. We’re looking for Aubrey. Have you seen her around?” 

Hearing The Maverick being called by his real name, he was starting to lose his composure before looking around and even looking at the girls before looking back. “S-Stop calling me that! I cast away that name a long time ago!” 

Kel ignores Mikhael as he could care less about the nickname because he wanted some answers. “Mikhael, do you know where she is or not?”

“Again with that godforsaken name!” Mikhael cried out as he gritted his teeth out of embarrassment. “H-How dare you make a fool out of me!? I, The Maverick, will not stand for this! PREPARE TO FACE YOUR DOOM!”

The Maverick turns to the girls who stared at him, giving them both a wink in return. “WATCH THIS, LADIES! I’ll wipe the floor with this loser!” 

“Please, Mikhael…Don’t do this to yourself.” Kel pleaded, wanting to give him one more chance. But unfortunately once The Maverick turned back to face them, getting back in his fighting pose. 

“FIGHT ME, YOU WAD! DON’T BE A CHICKEN!” 

Having yet another deadpan look on his face, Ke turned to Sunny who already had his hands out of his pocket getting ready to fight while he reluctantly did the same. “Okay, then…C’mon, Sunny let’s take him down.”

The Maverick would be taking a step towards the both of them, moving his arms around in a slow rhythm while he moved one of his feet forwards. He begins to stare at both of them as he moves his arms at a fast speed where he proceeds hit both Kel’s and Sunny’s chests with his two fingers 

“Maverick Style: Two finger obliteration!!” He said while he got back in his stance.

Kel and Sunny didn’t do anything, yet they stared at The Maverick who had a smirk on his face. A few seconds went by as nothing had happened to the both of them.

“Is…Is that it?” Kel asked as he tilted his head, Sunny just squinted his eyes while he rubbed his chest from how hard his fingers hit his chest.

The Maverick’s eyes widened as he was in utter disbelief. “T-There’s no way…That was only ten percent of my power! That should be enough to defeat you both instantly!”

Both teens didn’t need to say anything, having blank expressions on their faces and almost in sync with one another, they both punched The Maverick straight in the face. Knocking him down to the ground while his wig falls off of his head to reveal his black hair.

“Are you finished yet?” Kel asked, hoping he would finally give up.

“N-No…It can’t be over for me. I-I must use my full power for this attack…” The Maverick would quickly put his wig back on while he got back up on his feet. He then places both hands up in the air. “People of Earth…LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!”

“HIIIIIIIIYYYYAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

…

…

…?

Everyone was quiet as they wondered what would happen next. Kel slowly shook his head while Sunny couldn’t help but cringe as he was looking around to see some people stare at the boy. Some were laughing while others looked away thinking he was crazy, the two girls that witnessed all of it stared at the playboy as they were now weirded out by his behavior.

“Ew, what is with this guy? He’s so lame.” One of the girls said as she sounded disgusted

“This isn’t worth ten dollars. Let’s get out of here…” the other girl added before they walked away from The Maverick.

“L-Ladies! Come back!” The playboy pleaded as he watched them walk away. “I have more money!”

“You really need to chill with the anime dude…” Kel said before he thought about what one of the girls said earlier. ‘…Was he actually paying those two to be around him? That’s just sad…’

Soon the two girls would disappear from sight, leaving the three teens together. Kel and Sunny see The Maverick sigh before looking away in shame. Kel would just look at him in pity.. 

“Mikhael…”

“THERE IS NO ONE HERE BY THAT NAME!!” He shouted as he was visibly upset..

“Please…I’ll never ask you for anything again in my life.” Kel sighed as he got straight to the point. “Just tell us where Aubrey is and we’ll go!”

The Maverick didn’t say anything for a bit until he started to think. Eventually he groaned to himself as he straightened his untidy cyan dress-shirt. “Okay, fine. I do happen to know where she is, and I’ll tell you…On one condition…”

The Maverick would get back in a pose as he gave a grin to the both of them. 

“You must call me by my true name, THE MAVERI-”

“Oh, forget it!” Kel grumbled before turning to Sunny. “Let’s go find Kim, she probably knows where Aubrey is.”

Sunny already knowing the drill, they both started to walk away from The Maverick who remained in his pose.

“...Well that was…Interesting.” Sunny shakes his head a little, continuing to follow Kel. “So how do we find Kim? It’s not like we can ask…That Mikhael weirdo earlier for a lead.”

“That may be true, if I didn’t know that her and VANCE are major sugarheads, so…I have a hunch that they’re probably somewhere near candy.” Kel answered as he stopped in front of a store, Sunny looked up to see that they were in front of OTHER MART. 

“And what’s the only place that sells candy? OTHER MART, of course!”

Seeing a grin on Kel's face as he entered the store, Sunny shrugged before he followed him inside through automatic doors. 

The interior of the store was a lot bigger compared to HOBBEEZ they went to earlier, in fact it didn’t even sell anything that had figurines CDs, it was just a typical grocery store with a lot of food and drinks to sell.

Sunny’s eyes would be met with a lot of fruits and vegetables and even some canned soup while he walks by. Soon he would stop to see that there was a sale for some steak that was for three dollars.

“Hey Sunny! The Candy shop is just on our right! Hopefully we can find them there!” Kel pointed out as they both turned to their right. Now entering a pink room that has shelves full of every type of candy you can think of starting with gum, all the way down to candy bars. Sunny could feel his teeth would go rotten any second the more he stared at the candy.

“Hmmm…Knowing Kim and Vance, they’re probably somewhere around here.” Kel begins to look around each aisle for the two siblings from starting at the top all the way down to the third aisle before seeing two familiar faces that they were searching for. “Oh hey, There she is!”

Sunny hearing Kel had found the two that they were looking for, he walked over to him to see both Kim and Vance were shoving candy into their pockets while the girl whispers to her brother. 

“Hurry, Vance…Let’s shove it all in our pockets before someone sees us!”

“Hey, Kim! Have you seen Aubrey anywh-” Kel spoke out as Kim quickly cocked her head towards the teen, her eyes widening as they were busted.

“SHOOT!! IT’S THAT NERD, KEL AND HIS WEIRD FRIEND!” She screamed as she shoved some of the candy into her hoodie pocket while Vance placed some in his pockets. “C’mon, Vance! We gotta go!”

The two siblings start to sprint towards the exit, only for Kel to cut in front of her to prevent her path while Sunny gets in front of Vance as he does the same.

“Woah, hold on there! I don’t think you paid for those!”

“GET OUT OF THE WAY, NERD! Kim screamed  as she tried to find some way to get past Kel and escape the store. “YOU DON’T KNOW ME!!!”

“Hey, hey! Hold on…I’m not here to snitch!” Kel said as he continued to keep her from leaving while Sunny was staring at Vance who looked at him. Both of them didn’t move while Kel continued to speak. “We just need to find Aubrey. You know where she is?”

Kim would stop herself as she looked at him with a puzzled expression before she started to sweat in nervousness. “H-Huh? Aubrey? I-I don’t know anything about that…And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you!”

“I’ve had enough of this for today…” Kel starts to sigh as he was getting tired of having to deal with each of the hooligan’s trying to make this job hard for him. “Alright, Kim let’s make a deal. You tell me where Aubrey is, and we won’t turn you in for stealing all that candy.”

Kim’s face would be a look of shock before proceeding to glare at him. “I thought you said you weren’t a snitch!”

“And I don’t need to be if you just tell me where Aubrey is!”

The four of them would suddenly heard footsteps getting close towards them, Sunny and Kel would notice a woman who is wearing a bright colored dress with mainly green and pink accents. Her hair was red and tied into two pigtails and green rounded-shaped earrings to match. She would have an unhappy expression as she saw the two candy thieves. YOU TWO AGAIN?!  I thought I told you to never come back in here! Smiley, smiley!”

The siblings would quickly turn around to see the woman as they were caught by the girl who is the owner of the  Candy store. “Uh oh…We’ve been busted. Vance was the first to say as the owner extended her hand like she wanted the candy back..

“Hand over the stolen candy! Don’t make me call the cops on you kids! Smiley, smiley!”

Kim’s face would begin to turn red with rage as she throws the candy to the floor. “FINE! HERE’S YOUR STUPID CANDY!”

Soon the angry girl would shove past Kel. “C’mon, Vance…Let’s get out of this dump.”

Vance wouldn’t say anything as he drops the candy on the floor and moves past Sunny to follow her leading to both of the siblings exiting the store.

“HAHA! SERVES YOU RIGHT!” Kel laughs at their defeat before he goes quiet for a second, remembering that they needed to find out where Aubrey is. “Wait…How will we find out where Aubrey is now?”

Now beginning to groan in frustration, Kel begins to drag his feet out of the candy store. “C’mon Sunny. Let’s follow them…”

Sunny now followed behind Kel once again as they exited the candy shop. The taller teen would stop for a moment as he tries to think of some way to get Kim to talk since now that she’s mad, this will be much of a difficult task. Sunny noticed that Kel had stopped which he gets a little confused.

“Hold up one sec, Sunny. I think I have an idea!” Kel said before running back into the candy store. Sunny wouldn’t say anything as he was wondering why he went back into the store and not even two minutes later he comes back outside with a bag full of candy inside it. “Sorry for the hold up…Let’s go catch up to Kim and Vance!”

“What’s up with the bag of candy?” Sunny asked as the two proceeded to leave the store.

“Oh we are gonna bribe her into telling us where Aubrey is!” Kel answered as he had a big grin on his face as they exited the door to see the two siblings were just a few feet away from the store.

“Sorry, Vance. No candy today…” Kim grumbled while Vance let out a big sigh as he got on his knees.

“No…Not again…I don't know how much longer I can last.” Vance said as he looked like he could vanish away in Kim’s perspective. “...We’re going to die.”

“Let’s just go home...” Kim huffed as she put her hands in her pockets.

“Wait, Kim! I have something for you!” Kel called out as both Kim and Vance looked at him, the girl with the glasses gave him a piercing glare.

“You again, Kel? What the heck do you want you, bully!?” KIm questioned before her annoyed expression dropped as both her’s and Vance’s eyes stared at Kel as he was waving a big bag of candy in front of them.

“Tell us where Aubrey is and I will give you this whole big bag of candy!”

“R-Really, the whole bag?” Kim asked with a smile as she got close to him before her smile quickly dropped. “I mean, wait- You can’t buy us off with candy! Who do you take us for?!”

“I don’t know, Kim.” Vance spoke up, his eyes were completely locked onto the bag. “We haven’t had candy for an entire week…And there’s a whole bag right in front of us and we don’t even have to pay for it!”

Vance whispers into his sister’s ear. “Can you at least ask if he has any taffy in there?”

Kim turns around while smacking both sides of his cheeks. “Stop it, Vance! We have to stay strong! When we go to Dad’s house, we’ll be able to have all the candy we want.”

Vance’s expression would change into a sad frown as he reluctantly nodded. “Okay…I’ll do it for you, sis.”

“Kim…Vance…I’m waiting!” Kel continued to wave the bag in front of them as he was waiting for them to decide.

The girl would turn to face Kel as she had a smirk on her face while she crossed her arms. “Heh! Like we’d accept candy from a bunch of nerds.”

Kel would be baffled by the response as he lowers his arm. “Aww, man…Really? I was sure that would work.”

“This is a waste of time…Let’s get outta here!” Kim then started to turn her back on Kel as both her and Vance started to walk.

“W-Wait! Please, Kim…You’re the only lead we’ve got.” Kel at this point was starting to get desperate, he really needed Kim’s cooperation if he was going to find out where Aubrey’s whereabouts are. Please take the big bag of candy. We…We even…Have taffy in here.”

The two would stop dead in their tracks, not even bothering to turn around as they kept their heads forward.

“Did someone…Say taffy?” Vance said as Kim adjusted her glasses.

“I see…That changes everything.” Both Kim and Vance turned around and started to walk back towards the two teens as a smirk came across her face. “Fine. You really wanna know that badly, huh?”

Kim proceeds to lift up her sleeves as Vance cracks his knuckles and she pops her neck. “LET’S SETTLE THIS WITH OUR FISTS! If you win, I’ll tell you where Aubrey is…but if we win, you give us that bag of taffy and never talk to us ever again.”

“Wait a sec, there’s no need to fight” Kel reasoned, Sunny could see that Kel was really getting tired from just having to fight for answers while gesturing the bag. “If you just tell me where she is, I’ll give you this whole bag!”

Kim was quiet for a bit as she seemed to ponder. Her eyes glanced at the bag while she glanced at her fists. “But…I wanna fight…C’mon! Put ‘em up, you two! It’s time to duke it out!””

“What is with you guys and fighting?” Kel deadpans at the two who were ready to fight. “Well…I guess we have no choice. Come on, Sunny. You know the drill…”

Sunny, who was silent the entire time, stared at Kel for a moment before looking back at Kim and Vance while he started to get an idea from watching Kel trying to bribe the two earlier, seeing that they really love candy so much.

“Actually, Kel…Can I borrow that bag for just a second?” Sunny asked, to Kel's surprise before handing the bag to him.

“Uhh…Sure thing, but what is that gonna do to help us fight?”

“You’ll find out.” Sunny gives a thumbs up before he stands right in front of Kel and Kim.

“And what are you gonna do pipsqueak? Don’t think I have forgotten what you have done to Aubrey earlier, how dare you?!” Kim glared at the boy who stared at her..

“Look, I understand you don’t like us and I honestly don’t mind at all.” Sunny answered as though he was a little shaken, he steadied his breathing. “But we really need to find Aubrey, and my friend here and I don’t really want to deal with another fight which might actually be a waste of time just like your other members. So let me ask you this, and answer me truthfully. Do you really love candy that much?”

“Well duh, who doesn’t like candy?!” Kim answered as she raised an eyebrow. “But what is that gonna do for you both?”

“I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You tell us where Aubrey is right now or…I will eat this entire bag of candy in front of you.”

Both Kim and Vance stared at him in shock before Kim smirked once more as she crossed her arms once again. “You think we are gonna buy a bluff such as that? You must be more stupid than you look!”

Sunny didn’t say anything as he started to open the bag right in front of them, he would take out a piece of taffy and point it to his mouth. “Do you really want to find out?”

Kim would remain silent as she locked her eyes on the piece of taffy, her smirk turning into a small frown. 

“You wouldn’t dare…”

Placing the taffy into his mouth, Sunny proceeds to chew the piece of candy as Kim and Vance were both clenching their fists with a wince on their faces. “Mmm…Huh, this actually tastes good. Now, you know that I’m not the one to be playing around…Tell us where she is.”

“T-That’s just one piece of taffy, there’s more in there. We ain’t gonna budge pal so give it up!” Kim growled as she stood her ground, not wanting to be defeated.

Sunny sighed as he really can tell that these two weren’t gonna give up, his eyes looking around for a moment until he spots a mailbox which another idea sparked in his head. “Hmm, alright then it seems I am forced to take this to extra measures.”

The raven-haired boy started to walk towards the mailbox, Kim and Vance looked at him as they didn’t dare to even blink. Watching him stand near the mailbox Kim’s face proceeds to sweat a little. “H-Hey…What do you think you’re doing with that candy?”

“I’m gonna give you one last chance, tell us now or I will dump this whole candy into this…It would really be a shame if all this candy was wasted, right?”

“N-No…Don’t please, Kim don’t let him do this!” Vance said as he was pleading to his sister who was gritting her teeth. “We need that taffy!”

“Shut it Vance…I-I’m trying to think! Look, let's not be very hasty now, we can talk about this...”

Kel seeing the reactions on both their faces as they try to act like they have the upper hand, he proceeds to chuckle. “Then you better tell us now, or it’s goodbye for the candy.”

Sunny starts to open the mailbox and has the bag of candy in front of it. Slowly he begins to turn the candy to the mailbox. The candy in the bag was slowly but surely beginning to move inches towards the end of the bag. His eyes remained on the two who seemed like they wouldn't be able to last very long. Just as one of the pieces of candy begins to fall out, Kim couldn’t take it anymore.

“NOOOO!!! OKAY WE’LL TELL YOU WHERE AUBREY IS JUST PLEASE DON’T DUMP THE CANDY!” Kim screamed as Sunny quickly grabbed the piece that was about the fall in before putting it back in the bag.

Kim and Vance both sigh in relief before Kim starts to groan as she gives Sunny a scowl. 

“...Aubrey’s at the Church. The one near her house.”

“Huh? Aubrey’s at…Church?” Kel was now confused by the answer, Kim would give him a glare while she flapped her arms to her sides.

“Hey, don’t look at me! You’re the one who wanted to know!” She hissed as Sunny seemed to be satisfied with the answer, he tosses the candy to Vance who immediately catches it and holds the bag like he was protecting it. “Also if she asks who told you, tell her it wasn’t me! Say it was…Mikhael or something.

“Come on. Kim…We gotta scoot…” Vance said as he pats the bag of candy. You know how mom gets when we’re late.”

“Yeah, Yeah…I hear ya…Let’s go.” Kim sighed as she turned to look at both Kel and Sunny one last time. “Smell ya later…NEEEEERDS!!!”

As both Kim and Vance walked away with the bag of candy, Kel walked up to Sunny as he had a look of awe on his face. 

“That was really amazing Sunny! You literally got them shaking when you threatened them you were gonna drop the candy! Guess you can really make a great interrogator after all!”

Sunny didn’t respond but he did have a look on his face like he seemed proud of himself.

“Oh well…At least, we know where Aubrey is now! Or at least I think we do.” Kel would rub his chin a bit as he was having a hard time believing in the information they got. “I can’t really imagine Aubrey at church…But I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The two of them start to leave the plaza, passing The Maverick who still remained in his pose while shouting at the two to call him by his ‘true name’. Kel and Sunny simply just ran away from him as they didn’t have time to waste. After just minutes of walking through the park and the  neighborhood, Kel and Sunny spots the church just a few feet away from them before closing the distance.

“Well, here we are.” He said as he stared at the church in front of them. “This really is the last place I would expect her…”

Kel would begin to think how this was too good to be true, making him squint his eyes. “I’m kind of skeptical, actually. It might be a trap...I’ll open the door a little to take a peek.”

Kel places a hand on the door handle, slowly opening the door just a crack for both him and Sunny to peek inside, Kel taking the right side of the door while Sunny takes the left.

“Hmmm…Looks normal to me.” Sunny whispered as Kel looked around some more, noticing a priest at the end of the church was talking. 

“I think they’re in the middle of a sermon.” Kel whispered back until he spotted a familiar pink-haired girl sitting by herself. “Oh! There she is on the right…Hmmm…She’s just sitting there…All normal…So weird!”

Kel would back away from the door as he stares at Sunny. “Yeah I’d feel pretty bad about interrupting this. We should probably wait until the sermon is over or something.”

Sunny would look at him for a moment before shaking his head and opening the door to walk in, Kel being surprised by this followed after.

“Woah! I didn’t expect you to just walk in like that, Sunny. Well…There’s no turning back now.” The two would slowly and quietly walk towards where Aubrey is, pulling up a seat from behind her while Sunny listens to the Priest begin to preach. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

The boy didn’t understand what the priest was saying, though he didn’t really have any time nor interest to think about it right now as Kel leaned a little forward towards Aubrey. “...I really have no idea what he is talking about and I don’t know if I ever will…I’ll admit that does sound deep.”

“Aubrey…Pst…Aubrey!”

Kel whispered as Aubrey quickly turned around while her face would be full of shock to see him. Sunny saw that there was a band-aid around her nose where Kel punched earlier.  

“What the-?! W-What the heck are you doing here?!” She exclaimed in a whisper as she was confused about how they found her.

Now having her attention, Kel would stare at her as he placed both of his hands on her seat, “We want you to give back Basil’s Photo Album!”

“You’re still on about that?” Aubrey sighed as she was annoyed. “That’s none of your business.”

“Really? None of my business? We all used to be best friends, but this is none of my business?”

“Yeah, Kel…Exactly.” “We used to be friends.”

Hearing her say this Kel started to frown while he looked at Sunny for a moment. “You know, Mari and Hero would be really sad to hear that.”

“Heh…Really? You really wanna bring them into this?” Aubrey would start to laugh a bit before giving a smirk. “Who cares what they think? It doesn’t matter, they are now in college anyway so why would they even care.”

“Aubrey, seriously?! What is wrong with you?!” Kel said, angered by Aubrey’s words before taking a deep sigh. “I get that you have new friends now, but you can’t just forget your old friends like that!”

“My old friends?” Aubrey raised an eyebrow before she shook her head. “My old friends weren’t there for me when I needed them.”

“So that’s what this is all about…” Kel’s eyes widened as he realized the reason for her former friend’s change. “When…Sunny…Was in a coma…We were all dealing with our own stuff.”

“You think it’s all so simple. You’ve always been simple, Kel.” Aubrey’s neutral expression wouldn’t change once Kel started to figure things out.

“So what if I am? I’d rather be simple than be like you!” Kel growled as he started to clench his fist. “How could you do that to Basil? You know how important his Photo Album is to him?”

“It’s important to all of us…And why does that matter to you? You pretty much stopped visiting him like everyone else did.”

Sunny would tilt his head as he was confused. Kel stopped visiting him? That didn’t make sense as he came to see Sunny as he woke up. He turned to see Kel as he was bothered by what she said as he thought it was true, though Sunny didn’t have to worry about it right now.

“But…That doesn’t mean you can’t just steal it, even if it is important...” Sunny spoke up which apparently once he did Aubrey would get enraged.

“Is that what Basil told you?!” Aubrey hissed as she clutched a hold of her bat. “I’m the one keeping it safe!” 

“What are you talking about? That Photo album belongs to Basil and we’re not leaving until you agree to give it back!”

“Ugh…You’re so persistent!”

“When Sunny got into the coma, you moved on so fast…You know why I come here every week?” Both Sunny and Kel tilt their heads. “Even after all this time, I’m still trying to find some peace…But it doesn’t look like that’s happening today.”

Aubrey glared at Kel before turning to Sunny. “And you, how come you aren’t bothered by all of this? The fact that you say you don’t remember is really screwed up.”

“That’s because he really DOESN’T remember Aubrey! After he woke up he couldn't remember anything!”

Aubrey slowly looked away as she didn’t want to hear his excuse. “Say what you want Kel, you were always known to be a liar anyway…We haven’t talked in four years, Kel. A lot has changed in four years.

And you think you can just barge back into my life and tell me what to do? Even after all this time Sunny is out of the coma and following you around while feeding him random bullshit?!”

“But I’m NOT lying dang it! Why can’t you get that through your thick skull? You might look and act different, but you’re still the same person.”

The girl closed her eyes, this made both of them feel completely uncomfortable just how silent she is. “The Aubrey you knew is long gone. And the Aubrey , who was your friend, she’s long gone too.”

“Okay, fine. I get that you’re angry. Look, if it’s an apology you want, here. I’m sorry, okay? I should have been there for you when Sunny was in a coma.”

Aubrey stared at him for a moment, her expression remained unchanged once again as she started to get up from her chair, about to leave the Church. “No. I won’t accept this.”

“Wait! Where are you going!?” Kel gets up from the chair along with Sunny, both now blocking her path. “I can’t let you go until you promise me you’ll give Basil his photo album back, you thief!”

Due to Kel’s outburst, everyone and every SINGLE ONE was looking directly at the three teenagers. Soon they were all beginning to overhear some whispers coming from the people in the church.

“What’s happening?...Basil?...Isn’t that the boy who…I’ve seen Aubrey and her friends bully…? Now she’s stealing as well…”

“Oops…” Kel cringed as his outburst caught everyone’s attention. Sunny wanted to say something but he saw Aubrey was getting bothered by the whispering. Soon enough Aubrey started to sigh before she forced a smirk on her face.

“You think you’re the good guy, don’t you Kel? And I’m the big, bad bully…Here to terrorize poor, defenseless Basil.” Soon her smirk would fade as she started to growl. “YOU’RE THE ONE DEFENDING A CREEP WHO DESTROYED WHAT EVERYTHING MEANT TO ME!” 

“Aubrey, just calm down…I think it should be better if we took this outside.” Sunny gulped before he could see Aubrey was starting to develop tears.

“YOU DON’T GET TO SAY THAT! AND YOU NEVER TALKED THIS MUCH BEFORE YOUR COMA!” Aubrey screams at the top of her lungs as both teens flinch from how loud she was being. “IT’S ANNOYING!”

Sunny’s eyes widened before becoming speechless. He turned to Kel who simply stared at her as if he was preparing for a fight only to hear more whispers beginning to continue.

“Look at her clothing…It is completely inappropriate for church…”

“I can’t believe she would bring a weapon in here…How uncivilized.”

As more whispers continued to grow, Aubrey started to shake as she was beginning to ready her bat, Sunny was unsure if he was about to get into a fight or not, but Kel placed a hand in front of him and shook his head.

“Why…WHY ARE YOU HERE?! WHY NOW SUNNY?!” Aubrey screamed as she demanded an answer, tears starting to stream down her face as she clutched onto her bat. “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME BACK NOW OF ALL TIMES?!”

“W-What…?” Sunny started to feel a little hurt by her words. “...Did you not want me to come back?”

Aubrey’s eyes started to widen from Sunny’s question as slowly she was beginning to regret what she said. She was about to say something until she overheard more whispers, some actually getting to her skin.

“He woke up from a coma?... And she’s picking a fight with him? That’s just terrible…”

“Ah, ever since her father left…She’s so uncontrollable…Disrespectful…I feel bad for her mother…”

Not being able to take it much longer as she had heard enough of the whispers coming from everyone in the church, Aubrey started to run past both Sunny and Kel so fast that it was almost like a blur to them. As she left the church, Kel couldn’t help but sigh while Sunny stared at him.

“Shoot…I know she’s been kind of messed up lately…But I still feel sorry for her.” Kel was now starting to regret what he had done, even from hearing the whispers that the both of them heard, they both started to feel a little bothered. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

Sunny gave him a gentle nod, thus leading the two to leave the Church. Once they did, they both noticed that it had already become evening. Kel sighed for a moment as Sunny began to speak.

“...So what do we do now? I don’t think we can get Basil the album back after all that has happened.”

“Beats me, I’m just glad we didn’t have to fight her…But man, I really wish Aubrey didn’t have to be so…So stubborn.” Kel placed his hands in his pockets as they started to walk down the neighborhood. “I think it’s best to tell him that we couldn’t get it back, he’ll understand…”

Sunny remained silent for a moment as he couldn’t help but remember every single word that Aubrey had said back at the church, this bothered him and even though he wanted to understand he just couldn't. He even felt like Aubrey and Kel weren’t telling him something, something that was very important that might be one of the reasons why Aubrey could be like the way she is now. 

“Is it true?”

“Is what true?” Kel asked as he glanced at the shorter teen.

“That you stopped visiting me at the hospital while I was still in a coma?”

Kel felt himself getting nervous that Sunny would ask him that, though he expected him to ask that question soon, but he definitely wasn’t prepared despite it. “...Yeah, I-I did…Because at that point in time. I just didn’t know if you were going to wake up or not…I just didn’t know what I was thinking..’”

“Ah…I see.” Sunny hummed as he stared straight forward.

“Are you mad?” Kel couldn’t help but frown as he looked down at the ground that he was walking on.

“That depends, how was I like before?”

Kel would look up and look at Sunny, unsure  what to even say as he begins to think. “Well, you hardly talked back then just like Aubrey said. And I’ve never seen you smile before…Other than that I’ve never seen you angry either.”

“Is me talking a lot also annoying you?” Hearing this from Sunny, Kel would get in front of him and shake his head.

“What?! No! Actually I’m happy you’re talking a lot. I don’t know what Aubrey’s deal with that was but don’t listen to her on that. You can talk as much as you please.”

“Then…I’m not mad.” Sunny said much to the shock of Kel, but that shock soon faded once he continued. “Honestly I don’t know what to feel, I’m very confused, I’m feeling guilty for some reason and…I feel like I’m responsible for this.”

“Sunny, this isn’t your fault. For anything I’m the one who should be at fault…I wasn’t there for you or for others when you were asleep for so long.”

“But…You were there for me now when I woke up right? And did you say you were going to help me remember?”

Kel’s eyes began to light up before gets a smile on his face. “Heck yeah! That was still my goal all along man!”

As Kel chuckled, they both stopped to hear the sound of a door opening, a familiar pink haired delinquent exited her house while they both stood behind a tree to stay out of her sight. Aubrey would walk up to her trash-can and throw away something that caught Kel’s attention. Soon the girl would walk back up into her house and stare at the trash-can one last time before closing the door behind her.

“Did you see that? Aubrey dumped something into her trash can!” Kel quickly walks over to the trash and opens it up. Looking around he began to dig through the trash and grabbed whatever she threw in there right out. Sunny would look at whatever in his hands to see it was a book but what it said made the boy surprised.

“Whoa! I don’t believe it! It’s Basil’s Photo Album! I can’t believe she would just throw it out like that…Good thing we looked through this trash can. But hey it took us half a day so talk about teamwork!”

Kel would put up his left hand while he had a grin on his face. “How about a high five, Sunny?”

“A high…Five?” Sunny asked as he tilted his head while Kel started to laugh.

“Just lift up your hand and I’ll slap it! It’s how friends celebrate!”

Sunny seemed to be puzzled by such a tradition between friends but he lifts up his right hand and does so anyway while Kel slaps his hand. Sunny felt his hand get fuzzy and tingling from the slap.

“Let’s give this back to Basil before it gets dark. He’ll be so happy when he sees it!”

The teens immediately started to run through the neighborhood this time it didn’t take too long since surprisingly for Sunny, Basil’s house was close to Aubrey’s house on just the other side. Reaching the house, Kel knocks on his door with much enthusiasm. “KNOCK, KNOCK!! BASIL! It’s your friend, Kel and Sunnyyyy!”

As Kel backed up from the door, they watched the door open to reveal a pretty looking woman who stepped out of the house. “Oh, hello there! Who are you?”

“Oh! Uh, I’m Kel, and this is Sunny…Are you Basil’s mom?” He asked, looking at her curiously as he had recognized her before but he wasn’t quite sure where.

“Ah, I’m sorry! My name is POLLY!” The woman answered while giving Kel a humble bow. “I’m Basil’s caretaker.”

Behind the woman, a familiar blonde-haired boy with a flower in his hair shyly emerges from the door. “O-Oh, Hey guys…W-What is it?”

“Hi, Basil! We got your photo album back!” Kel said as he enthusiastically showed it to him, this giving a surprise to Basil.

“H-Huh? You did?” Seeing the Album much more clearly, the boy would give a small smile to them. “Wow…Thank you.”

Kel would give Basil back his album as Polly looked at her caree. “Basil! You didn’t tell me you had friends coming over.” 

Polly then turned back to look at the two teens with a gentle smile. “Would you like to join us for dinner? I always seem to cook a little too much.”

“Dinner? Sure, sounds delicious!” Kel turned to smile at Sunny while he nudged his shoulder “C’mon, Sunny! Free Dinner!”

Sunny’s stomach started to rumble, loud enough for everyone to hear as his face slowly turned pink as he patted his stomach.

“Well…I-I guess I can eat.”

Chapter Text

Now inside the Flower boy’s house, Kel smiled once he looked around while Sunny just stared at how clean and tidy it was. Sunny turned his attention to his right towards a couple of shelves that carried a variety of different colored flowers. If he could guess on how much Basil really loved flowers, then he wouldn't need a direct answer.

"Please make yourselves at home!" Polly said with a gentle smile, "I'll go and finish up the food."

The caretaker walks away from the three boys to the kitchen on the left from the living room. "It's been a while since I've been here." Kel spoke, feeling the nostalgia wash over him. "You definitely have a lot more plants than you used to!"

"Ahh…I like them a lot." Basil replied with a soft chuckle. "Actually, there's some that are still alive from when you guys came here often."

And…Sunny's thoughts were proved right as he spoke right after. "Wow, you sure are dedicated."

"Yup, that's Basil for you…Flowers and photos…Oh, that reminds me!" Kel gets a sudden thought as he makes his way over to the living room and sits down in front of the couch. "Now that we all got your photo album back, we can all go through the photos together."

Hearing this from Kel, Sunny turned his eyes away from the flowers to Basil who to his confusion seemed very disturbed, if not almost like he could panic. "Ah! That's- Uh…I don't know…"

"It's been a while since you've looked through them, hasn't it?" Kel asked with a smile still. "Come on! It'll be fun!"

"Umm…" Basil felt uncomfortable, a little unsure as he took a few seconds to think before he sighed and eventually gave in. "...S-Sure…Okay."

Both Sunny and Basil walked over to the taller teen and sat down on the floor, the flower boy slowly and hesitantly took out his Photo Album and placed it down in the center where they could all look at it.

"Here it is." Basil gently opens the album, showing photos that seemed to be untouched and some sentences next to each photo. Sunny looks at one photo after another, he glances up at Kel and Basil to see their reaction to the photos. 

Their expressions were not what he expected, he thought they would be happy about looking at the photos. But the looks on their faces were a bit…Confusing to him, Basil seemed to be slightly relieved but at the same time saddened while Kel looked bothered and raised an eyebrow. 

Not really wanting to say anything, he slowly turned the page and to another.

Sunny's eyes were met with a few photos to see a younger version of Kel and Basil, they didn't look too different except for a girl with brown hair and a pink bow. She looked very familiar until he realized who this was.

'Is this supposed to be Aubrey…?' Sunny thought as he stared at a photo of the girl who was smiling innocently in a pink raincoat. 'Wow…I gotta say, she looks a lot more friendlier in this compared to the one that I met not too long ago…Cute.'

Sunny felt his ears heating up underneath his shaggy hair which he rubbed them a bit before moving on. The next few photos he saw were two older children seemingly being the same age as he was now, a boy and a girl. He examined the features of the boy as he did with the girl. The boy seemed to resemble a lot like Kel, perhaps this was Hero he mentioned before, the one coming over to visit Kel tomorrow? And the girl, he stared at her a bit longer as he scratched his head. The long thick black hair, the gentle smile and fair skin. 

"Is…This Mari?" Sunny muttered but it was loud enough that it caught the attention of both Basil and Kel.

"Oh! Yeah, that's your older sister, Mari." Kel answered along with a small nod. "Does this make you remember something?"

Sunny looked up at Kel for a moment before looking back at the photo. "...I don't think so, but for what it's worth she does look kind of familiar."

Kel seemed satisfied with the answer, a smile formed on his face while Basil had a smaller smile on his face. "Well at least that sounds promising." Basil commented, soon Kel's smile flipped over into a frown during the time they all stared at each photo, this made Sunny begin to wonder.

‘ How come there aren’t any photos of me?’

"Oh man…It looks like a lot of the photos are still missing." Kel spoke once the album was closed by the flower boy. "Maybe Aubrey kept them to herself...We'll have to get those back later…On the bright side, look how short I was!"

Kel started to chuckle as the three got up from the floor. "I know I've grown at least a foot since Hero left for college...I can't wait until he comes back."

Sunny stared at Kel and at Basil, realizing that he himself wasn't the only short person. Compared to Basil and himself, the Flower boy was actually a bit shorter than Sunny. Though he felt glad he wasn’t the shortest, yet at the same time once Kel boasted about his height he couldn’t help but feel jealous.

"Anyway, don't sweat it about the missing photos, Basil." Kel said to him, stopping his speech about height as he was almost getting carried away on the main important topic at hand. "Me and Sunny will take care of things for you so you can just focus on going back to your happy, carefree self!"

Basil would smile a bit once more. "Okay. Thank you…I'll try."

"Hey uh…I know things are moving fast ever since I’ve gotten out of the hospital but…Where is the bathroom?" Sunny spoke as the two turned to look at him.

"Ah…T-The bathroom is just in the next room, on the first door to your right!" Basil answered as he perked up. "I-If you want, I can show you where it is!"

Sunny shook his head. "No need, I think I'll be able to find it on my own."

"O-Oh…” Having been rejected by his offer to help Sunny, he lowered his head for a moment before smiling once more. “Well I hope you find it just fine!"

Sunny gives Basil a nod and a thumbs up before leaving the living room to find the bathroom.

"Sorry for the wait…Dinner is taking longer than I thought." Polly said, coming back to the living room to where Kel and Basil are. "Would any of you boys like to help?"

"Yeah, sure! I'll help!" Kel answered. "I got some experience helping my brother cook and stuff."

"Oh, that would be lovely." Polly stared at the both of them and noticed something wasn't right. "Huh? Where did Sunny go?"

"Sunny had to use the bathroom, so there's no need to worry…" Basil answered while his caretaker smiled a bit in relief.

"I see, I was afraid he had left for a moment, I'm relieved. But please, follow me to the kitchen."

Kel and Polly walked over to the kitchen to finish preparing for the meal, leaving Basil to grab his photo album and stare at it for a moment before letting out a sigh.

…

Moments later Sunny walks right out of the bathroom, feeling relieved as he heads down the hall. Before he went back to where the rest were, he noticed a door straight down from him was cracked open. 

Curiosity filled his mind and before he knew it he was already walking over to the door. He opens it up to see a small room, inside was a elderly woman resting peacefully on a bed. It seemed like she had seen better days. 

He gets closer to her and looks at her, this woman had to be Basil's grandmother.

Next to her, Sunny's eyes laid upon a unique looking flower. A white egret orchid, there was a tag on the pot. Reading it the tag says: "My thoughts will follow you into your dreams."

Now staring at the top of the flower, he can see the white petals resembling a bird which he saw how beautiful it looked.

"I think I should get back with the others…" Sunny muttered as he turned for the door, when he did he was met with a familiar  blonde boy entering the room.

"Oh, Sunny…I didn't expect to see you in here…" Basil said, having the same small smile on his face. Sunny noticed that Basil flinched earlier upon seeing him in the room.

"Uh…S-Sorry, I didn't mean to come in here, the door was opened a bit and it made me really curious." Sunny explained himself, thinking he would be in trouble for entering the room without any permission.

"N-No, no…It's alright, I'm not mad really. So don't worry…" Basil reassured, this led to him relaxing a little but he saw Basil's eyes shift to the side. "H-How Are you doing right now, Sunny?"

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, puzzled by the question.

"You know…After waking up and seeing everything again, w-well everything that wasn't how it used to be long ago."

"Oh, I uh…" Sunny paused. There were a lot of things going through his mind that he doesn’t even know how to process. "I've been very confused despite everything, seeing you all…Again? I just can't recall anything. Even when we had to get your album back by either asking or fighting the hooligans, I've been leaning more towards feeling guilty."

Basil tilts his head; this time he was the one confused. "What makes you say that?"

"I…I don't know, ever since I was asleep, I felt like I had caused all of this to happen. The divergence between you, Aubrey, and Kel…It has to have been my fault, right?"

"...What? N-No!" Basil exclaimed, shaking his head as he walked over to him. "Sunny, no it's not your fault. NONE of this is your fault, you didn't do anything wrong! Whatever happened between me and Aubrey…And Kel, wasn't because of you!"

Sunny didn’t know how to respond to Basil until he realized that he was being a bit too loud, causing the Flower boy to simmer down from the small outburst. “O-Oh sorry…I didn’t mean to be that loud…But I know that e-everything isn’t your fault, it just...Happens.”

Sunny looked over to Basil’s grandmother who was surprised that she was still asleep. “...No it’s fine, I’m more surprised that she hasn’t woken up from that.”

Basil glanced over at his grandmother and inches towards her bed, placing his hand over hers. “Grandma can’t hear us. She hasn’t been feeling very well lately…It’s already been four years and her sickness isn’t getting better.”

“Oh…I’m sorry to hear that, I hope…I hope that she gets better.” Sunny felt bad for Basil, seeing that his grandmother was in such a terrible state that he just couldn’t help but pity him.

“Thanks Sunny…That means a lot from you, and it’s nice to see that you’re okay as well.

Basil takes his hand away from his grandma. “Here I want you to have this.” 

The raven-haired would be confused as Basil handed him a book until he recognized it as Basil’s Photo Album. “You’re giving me your photo album? Why?”

“Because I’m trusting you with it more, I just think…You can probably use it more than me.” Basil smiled before a sigh came out of him along with a sad look in his eyes. “A lot has happened since these pictures were taken. Sometimes, it feels like it was all a bad dream. It’s hard to remember now, but…I think…At the time I took photos of what I was most afraid to lose.”

Sunny stared at the album that was in front of him, it took him half a day on one heck of a journey in doing so. He wonders if there was another reason the Flower-boy was giving it to him, maybe it would be better if in any case Aubrey decided to take it back from Basil then the whole journey of retrieving it would happen again. And with that he took the album off Basil’s hands and stared at it. “...Thanks Basil. I’ll be sure to take good care of it.”

“I know you will Sunny, you’re my best friend.” Basil started to smile once again. “Flipping through this album, you can still see the good times…Maybe one day once you can remember, things can go back to the way they were before.”

“Yeah…I really hope so too-”

“SUNNY! BASIL!! DINNERS READY!!” Kel shouted as it echoed from the kitchen all the way to Basil's Grandmother’s room, cutting the raven-haired boy off.

“Okay, coming!” Basil responds as he walks over to the door, turning to look at Sunny once more before giving a smile. “Are you coming, Sunny?”

Sunny gave Basil a nod to which he followed behind and out of the bedroom, holding the photo album in his hands as the two made their way over to the living room where Kel and Polly were already sitting down. Basil took a seat next to Polly while Sunny sat next to Kel who was already stuffing his face with their homemade dinner, setting down the photo album next to him which Kel would notice. 

“Oh, hey! What’cha doin’ with Basil’s Photo Album there, Sunny?” Kel asked while still stuffing his face.

“O-Oh…I…I gave it to him.” Basil answered, Sunny nodded in confirmation.

“He said he thought I should have it.” Sunny added.

“Woah, really?  That’s so cool of you.” Kel would begin to grin as he was delighted by how good the food was. “Everything tastes so good! You’re the best, Polly!”

“Oh, it’s nothing…I’m just following Grandma’s recipes.” She replied with a giggle as she took a bite of the food that was made. “Thanks for your help, Kel.”

Sunny looked at his food for a moment before he slowly grabbed a fork and began to take small bites until he was starting to enjoy the flavors that hit his tongue. He had no doubt that this was really good.

“So…As I was saying before, Polly.” Kel spoke again this time through each bite. “Tomorrow…My older brother Hero’s finally coming back from college.”

“Oh really? That’s good to hear, I haven’t heard from Hero in a while…I hope he’s doing well in college.” Basil replied as he was taking the same amount of bites as Sunny.

“My mom’s crazy right now preparing the house and everything. Don’t want to be anywhere near that mess…I’m pretty excited to see him, every time he comes back, the first thing we do is compare heights.”

Basil snorted out a chuckle as he shook his head a little. ”Oh Kel, I see you really haven’t changed when it comes to height. You really are obsessed with being the tallest aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, I am! This year is the year…That I’m finally gonna be taller than him…I can feel it in my bones!” Kel was clenching a fist while shaking it in the air with a lot of confidence in his eyes; this was enough to cause Polly to giggle in response.

“Hehe…You and your brother seem close...That’s good, family is important!”

“We’re very close, just like how Sunny is with his older sister, Mari.” Kel placed a hand on his head as if he reminded himself of something. “Ah! Hero also said that Mari is also coming back from college to visit as well!”

“W-What?” Basil’s eyes started to widen while it started to feel oddly quiet except for Kel who was still eating. 

“Mari’s…Also coming…To visit…?”

“Yep! I thought I already mentioned it…Sorry…I thought you already knew.” Kel replied

“O-Oh…Uh…No, I guess I must have missed it…” Basil was beginning to get nervous; it was actually taking everything he had to remain calm. “Sorry…Um, m-may I be excused? I…I have to go to the bathroom.”

The Flower-boy gets up from the chair and walks away from the table before bolting straight towards the other room, the three of them hearing the door slamming shut. This left the three confused.

“What’s up with him?” Kel asked, continuing to eat again not a second later. “Well, that’s just how it is…When you gotta go, you gotta go!”

The three didn’t say anything else afterwards as they were finishing up their meals a moment later. Kel was already the first one finished and leaned back against the chair, rubbing his already stuffed stomach and even letting out a burp.

“Whew, that was good! Maybe I should come back again for your cooking Polly!” Kel said as he relaxed in the chair, Polly got up and grabbed every plate except for Basil’s whose plate still had food left.

“You’re welcome here anytime Kel, and that goes for you too, Sunny.” Polly replied as she stared at Basil’s plate. “I wonder if he’s okay…He’s been in there for a while now, and his food will get cold.”

“I’ll go check on him.” Sunny suggested which Polly smiled.

“Thank you, Sunny, I appreciate it very much.” 

“I’ll help you clean the dishes!” Kel gets up from the chair and walks over to the kitchen with Polly, leaving Sunny at the table which he too got up but walked out of the living room to the hallway with the three doors.

Sunny walked over to the bathroom door, almost preparing to knock on it only to hear something behind the door. It was muffled but it was like he was hearing voices which started to confuse him even more as he lightly knocked on the door.

“Basil? Are you okay in there?” Sunny spoke and waited for a moment before knocking again as he wasn’t getting a response. “...Basil?”

Sunny waited a bit longer, still he didn’t get any response once again this was beginning to concern him as something wasn’t right. This led to the boy gripping on the doorknob and to his surprise it actually was turning, and the door opened a little. Sunny gripped on the door tightly, freezing in place due to this being an invasion of privacy and had no idea what was really going on.

Eventually he opened the door just a little bit more, he noticed that there was no light inside the bathroom that was turned on, just complete darkness. This made things more confusing and if not much more concerning to Sunny since now that the muffled voices that he heard were much clearer he can hear that Basil was talking to himself.

“Everything is going to be okay…Everything is going to be okay…” Basil said repeatedly to himself, his voice was shaky and cracking like he was holding back the urge to cry. Sunny opens the door all the way to see Basil kneeling on the ground and holding onto his hair.

“...Basil…?” Sunny called out, this time this caught the Flower-boy’s attention whose head perked up and slowly turned to look at him. The first thing that he noticed was the boy’s eyes illuminating in the darkness.

“O-Oh…It’s you…Sunny…” Basil spoke, his voice still shaky but Sunny can see he was trying to put up a smile on his face. “You’re here…I’m so glad…”

“Are…Are you okay? Why do you look like you have seen a ghost?” Sunny asked until his eyes drifted from the scared boy to his shadow. This made Sunny squint his eyes as there was no possible way that he could even see his shadow despite it being dark in the bathroom.

"I-I'm okay…I'm just feeling under the weather is all… T-Today really just got to me a little."

Before he could even question the boy further on his strange behavior, his eyes remained on his shadow. Slowly it was getting bigger and spreading out more like black tendrils stuck out to all sides of the area that it could latch itself onto while it was fading in and out every second, leaving the raven-haired boy frozen in place just from what he was witnessing. Sunny who was stunned to even speak…Just what in the world IS that thing?

Noticing his expression of fear, Basil was getting a little nervous. “Sunny…W-Why…Why do you look so scared?” Sunny could not even move an inch of himself, he was completely terrified of the thing underneath Basil like it could just draw him in any second.

Suddenly Sunny felt a painful burning sensation from his left hand that broke him out of his fear, gripping onto it for a moment as he winced from how much it hurt. If he was either going mad it was like he could see some black bubbles just popping out of his prosthetic fingers.

Not knowing what else to do, Sunny slowly started to back up from the door. He needed to get away from him, he doesn’t know why but something within him was screaming to do so. Basil’s face contorts into a look of panic once he notices his friend backing away.

“W…Wait…P-Please, Sunny…Don’t leave me… Not again …” Basil said as his voice was now cracking into a whisper. 

Without a word, Sunny exited the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He could hear Basil sobbing behind the door as he walked away from it, not daring to keep his eyes off of it in case that whatever he saw was real won’t bust out and start attacking.

‘Just…What in heck was that?!’ Sunny thought as there was a literal of a million questions just going through his mind the more he backed away from the door. The burning sensation that he once felt from his fingers started to die out, letting the boy let go of his hand and resting it by his sides.

Sunny would feel something brushing against his back, leading him to turn around to see Kel was behind him which made the boy flinch.

“Woah Sunny! What were ya going, you trying to practice walking backwards on our way out? I think it’s about time we went home. It’s way past my curfew!” Kel asked as Sunny looked around, failing to realize that he was back into the living room.

“O-Oh…Sorry, I was…” Sunny went silent for a moment.

`How am I going to explain this to them? Basil’s shadow came alive and started moving, will they even actually believe something like this?` Sunny was brought out of his thoughts the moment he saw Kel waving a hand in front of his face.

“Hey Sunny, you alright? You look really pale…Well, not pale skinned but you look like you have seen something from a scary movie!”

“H-Huh? Y-Yeah, I’m okay…I just…Uhh…Saw something unnatural…Like it had many things like it had legs and it was big!” Sunny said as he tried to explain what he saw though there was a bit of confusion in Kel’s eyes as he raised an eyebrow.

“It was big and had so many legs…And you say unnatural?” Kel would begin to ponder before he smacked his fist to his own hand. “Ah you saw a spider didn’cha? I guess even if you don’t remember anything, your fear of spiders is still intact!”

“A... A spider? Is that what it was?” Sunny would go silent again before he sighed. The boy wasn’t even sure if what he saw was a spider even when he lost his memory, he didn't even know what a spider looks like. But something tells him that it wasn’t actually a spider that Kel was talking about, he wasn’t sure if what he saw could be real. He saw it with his own eyes and yet he can’t even seem to bring himself to explain it any further unless they don’t believe him. 

“Yes Kel…You’re right about it being a spider.” Sunny finished, deciding to drop the topic for now but the questions will remain in his mind whenever he has the chance to ask.

“Goodness, I should get the broom again…We’ve been having a spider issue for the past week.” Polly said, placing a hand over her mouth. “I could have sworn that it was the last spider…”

Kel would turn his attention to Polly once more before giving a smile and giving her a piece of paper. “So yeah anyway Polly, if you need me here's my address. I just live down the block!”

“Thanks, Kel.” Polly nodded, taking the paper of his address. “You’re sweet.”

“Heh, heh…Oh, it’s nothing.” Kel’s cheeks would blush as he started rubbing the back of his head. “Say goodbye to Basil for us!”

“I will. Have a good night, both of you!”

“C’mon Sunny, I’ll take you home. Luckily for you we both live next to each other.” Kel walked over to the door while Sunny followed, only to stop as he realized he forgot to grab the photo album. Walking over to the table he grabs it and walks over to Kel. “Yeah, don’t forget to take that with you! I still can’t believe he just gave you it despite the trouble we went through to get it.”

“...I mean if you think about it, wouldn’t it be better if I kept it with me in case…Y’know Aubrey would come back to take it?” Sunny asked as the two teenagers exited the house of the Flower-boy.

“Eh you’re probably right, Aubrey wouldn’t think about checking your house if she decided to dig through her trash for the album. Not that she would do that anyways.” Kel answered, the two beginning their walk back to their houses.

During the walk, Sunny couldn’t believe it was already nighttime. It was like moments before it was still day out from the time that he left the hospital all the way over to Basil’s home. Maybe he really had been busy or in Kel’s case having fun. Speaking of Kel, during the walk he had been really quiet…Quieter than usual for his liking.

“You’re really quiet, Kel.” Sunny spoke, breaking the silence between them. “Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh! I’m okay…I’m just thinking.” Kel responded, not looking at him.

“Thinking about what exactly?”

“I’ve been thinking about us…I mean all of us. We all used to be together during our lives…We were practically an inseparable family. I remember the first time that we met, your family would move into the house next to ours and see you for the first time and around my age, I’ve always been the type to want to make new friends. And I was right, we became friends right off the bat regardless that you were the quiet one…You were still able to tolerate me. Heck even Hero seemed to hit it off with Mari without a hitch…Well despite that we snuck over to HOBBEZ late at night one time and BOY was Hero fuming!”

“We did something like that? Wow, I’m wondering if my parents thought you were a bad influence.” Sunny said, during the time he spent with Kel he learned a bit on how to make a joke.

Kel took a few minutes before picking up on the joke, his eyes would light up until he gave him a fake gasp as he decided to play along. “A bad influence? Me?! Hardly, I’m the greatest influence you can ever get!”

Soon the taller teen would start to laugh and lightly smack Sunny on the back. The shorter teen seemed very pleased that his joke actually made him laugh.

When Kel’s laughter died down, he would sigh afterwards. “It’s really nice to be able to laugh with you again, even if you were not the type to laugh at my antics unlike the others. You really have been a great friend…If only.”

Sunny noticed Kel went silent once again during the walk, he didn’t know if he should speak to break the silence again or just leave him to his own thoughts. Though he didn’t have to as he spoke once more. “...Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. You’re here with us again, among the people who are awake and can sleep decent hours again!”

Kel gives Sunny a grin and a double thumbs up, the raven-haired boy left speechless as the remainder of the walk went by. Eventually enough they both made it back to Sunny’s house, judging from the size of it…He can tell it was a lot bigger on the inside as well.

“Well, here we are! Welcome home Sunny.” Kel said, a whistle escaped his lips as his eyes scanned for Sunny’s mothers car only to see it wasn’t around. “That’s weird…Your mom isn’t home yet, wonder where she can be?”

The shorter teen wondered the same thing as Kel was, his eyes were brought to the attention of something yellow in front of the door. Leading the boy to walk over to see it was a sticky note on the door.

Hi Sunny, I’m at the store right now buying some things for you! I will be home soon. Also the door is unlocked just for you sweety!

Love, mom.

After reading the note, Sunny placed the sticky note inside his pocket and turned to Kel. “The door is unlocked. Mom said she went to the store to buy some things for me.”

“Ah, gotcha. I guess that’s how your mom is!” Kel grinned “Anyway, thanks for hanging out with me today.”

The grin on Kel’s face started to die down into a frown while he rubbed the side of his arm. “Sorry for all the trouble. That was a pretty crazy adventure, huh? Especially after getting out of the hospital.”

“It’s fine, I’m still all in one piece.” Sunny replied before taking a second to look at his prosthetic fingers. “Er…Well, mostly in one piece I guess you can say…But it really was a crazy adventure.”

“Heh, it really was…So as I said before, Hero and Mari’s coming back from college tomorrow, so I’m sure that they will be very happy to see that you are awake and kicking. Well Mari will probably be the happiest that she has been since the last time I saw her.”

“I…I can’t wait to meet them again.” Sunny said, unsure what he should feel at the moment.

“So…If you don’t mind, I’ll be coming back for you again in the morning so we can start helping you remember everything!”

“Yes…I actually would like that.” Sunny saw Kel grin once more before chuckling.

“Alright, well see you in the morning. Goodnight Sunny.”

“Goodnight, Kel.”

Sunny turned around to be met with the door in front of him, his hand reached the doorknob and began to turn it.

…

“...Hey…S-Sunny?” Kel said, Sunny heard a crack in his voice and even a small sniffle coming from behind him.

“Yes Kel?” Sunny shifted himself to look at Kel, only for him to be pulled into a hug by the taller teen. His arms wrapped around him tightly while he buried his face into his shoulder. 

The boy would be confused by this sudden action until he heard some muffled sobs coming out of the taller teen. Sunny knew that Kel was crying on his shoulder, the boy had a feeling something was bothering him ever since they left Basil’s house. 

Now starting to feel bad for his friend and with what he did with the Flower-boy who hugged him, he wrapped both arms around Kel to reciprocate the hug in return and stayed in the same spot for a while until Kel eventually started to let go of him which he did the same in return. 

“Thanks Sunny…I really appreciated it.” Kel wiped a tear from his eye, Sunny gave him a nod. “I didn’t mean to do that…But I’m really…REALLY glad that you’re back. I’ll say it a million times if I have to.”

Kel then walked a few steps back before giving him a wave and ran off back to his house. “Have a good night Sunny, I'll see you tomorrow!”

Now just left alone by himself after watching Kel close the door behind him to his house, Sunny turned back towards the door and opened it and walked right into his own home. Inside the house was completely dark, devoid of any light that was around the boy. After some time from hanging out in Basil’s house on his way to the bathroom, he figured out how to turn on the lights in the room and it was clear he needed to find a light switch.

Placing both hands on the walls, he carefully inches deeper into the home he was raised in trying to get a feel of any abnormal things on the flat wall. He then stopped to feel something much smoother, and it was sliding past his hand a little until he felt the switch.

‘Ah, I think this must be the switch.’ He thought as he carefully flicked the switch up and the room was illuminated almost immediately, making Sunny close his eyes as it was a little too bright which caught him off guard. “Ugh, bright light!”

His eyes slowly started to open up a little, trying to adjust to the brightness in the room before opening them all the way to be met with a huge living room that puts Basil’s to shame. 

Everything was completely furnished from the walls down to the floor with a giant carpet in the center of the room. Sunny saw some stains on the carpet that looked very old, almost as if it wasn’t washed for years.

He started to walk around the living room, taking a view of everything around him. Passing by a big green couch that had seen its years of being used just by noticing the cushions had little wrinkles on them, a coffee table that was in the middle between the couch and the TV that had a window above it while next to it on the left was a fireplace that seemed to give the boy a sense of comfort. Inspecting the area, a bit more, Sunny noticed to his right there was a giant portrait that was encased in a golden frame.

Interested in the portrait, Sunny stared at the picture that had his mother next to a man in glasses, a little girl and a baby boy. It didn’t take him long for him to piece it together that these two children were his older sister Mari, and himself as a baby.

Sunny found the picture to be very calming and saw how happy every one of them, except for himself, looked. ‘This is a really nice picture…But I wonder who the man is? Could he be someone that I know too? Maybe a friend of my mom perhaps?’

While in deep thought, he heard a door close from a distance behind him. This made the boy quickly turn around to see it was his mother who had entered the house, the older woman took notice of her own son and flinched a little in surprise before placing a hand on her chest. 

“Oh, Sunny! You startled me!” She said, laughing softly. “I almost forgot I left the note on the door.”

“I’m…Sorry?” Sunny replied, an eyebrow was raised by his mother's reaction until she saw his puzzled expression.

“No, it’s fine, it’s just…It’s been a while since anyone other than me has been home.” She would walk closer to her son, placing a few bags of groceries down on the table to stand next to him, her eyes glancing at the portrait for a moment before looking back at her son. “Do you know who they are?”

“...I know that the two little ones are me and Mari, the woman is you, and the man…Who is he? A friend?” Sunny answers her question, Elena had a smile on her face for a second before her smile began to falter.

“That’s your dad, sweety.” She sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “And I wouldn’t say he’s a friend…Not anymore really.”

“Has…Something happened between you both?” Sunny asked, seeing the bothered look in his mother’s eyes.

“Your father and I had a bad moment in our relationship to where we had to…Split up. To the point that we never want to see each other anymore.”

“Oh…I see.” Sunny stared at her blankly after she explained to him. ‘Did it have something to do with me?’

Sunny’s eyes would have been met with the portrait again, staring at the younger Mari who still had an innocent smile on her face. 

Mari…His elder sister who he has no recollection of, he doesn’t know the story about her other than the fact that she was coming home from college tomorrow. He may have gotten some information from Kel, but he doesn’t really know what she is like.

A sudden thought came to the boy once he turned to look at his mother again. “Mom? Can you tell me about Mari?”

“Mari?” Elena’s head perked up for a moment, a small smile appeared on her face. “Your sister is very kind and gentle, she practically was your best friend. You two had a great bond that nothing could ever break.”

“Just like how Kel is with his brother, Hero?”

“Just exactly like that. Well…If I’d say who had the better sibling bond it would be yours and hers, but I’m just being biased since you’re both my kids.” Elena giggled until she let out a sigh, her expression was replaced with a look of gloom. “But she’s never been the same the past four years after that…She doesn’t talk to anybody anymore, she can’t even look at me or anyone else in the eyes. She was always in her room until the day she moved out to go to college…I still don’t hear anything back from her.”

“What happened to her?" Sunny was now even filled with more curiosity of what his sister had been doing over these past four years. 

“I wish I could tell you…But as I said, Mari hasn’t talked to anybody anymore ever since that day. When me and your father arrived at the hospital, Mari was stained with blood…Your blood. I was told not only by the doctor that you lost your fingers and have a scar.” Elena said, just when Sunny was about to lose the hope of trying to figure out what had happened his mother would notice this and clear her throat. “B-But…From what your friends told me, Mari was holding you and trying to stop the bleeding. A part of your violin was stabbed into you…You both were near the stairs when it happened…”

Sunny remained silent, he was pretty much urging her to continue her side of the story, much like how he listened to Kel’s story, Basil’s and lastly…Aubrey’s. He had no doubt that hers would be any different other than the fact it was new information he was going to get whether he liked it or not.

“After we got home from the hospital, while in the process of being separated from your father. Mari hasn’t spoken a word since…Even when your friends came over, she would never leave her room. If I remember correctly, Hero actually managed to get her to come out of her room, but that was the day when they both went to college…She looked better. But she still hasn’t said one word.”

When she finished, Sunny didn’t even know what to make with the new information that he had required about her sister. Though now he knows that her story got Mari feeling messed up to where she had shut herself in, the rest of the end of her story didn’t seem to make sense. Though he was glad that Kel’s brother got her out and into college, he shouldn’t feel worried and decided to accept it. The Raven-haired boy noticed throughout the story that she explained to him, she tried her best not to break down in front of him. The same guilt feeling started to come back to him once more.

“I think I can understand where she is coming from…Heck I probably do the same if I were in her position. That must have been so awful to have to deal with all that, Mom…”

Elena would sigh for a moment before giving her son a small smile. “It’s alright now sweetie…You’re here, that’s all that matters. I know that things were tough and even scary, but everything will get better.”

His mother would pat Sunny on the head and give him a hug that was strong enough that he could feel him getting squished.

“C-Can’t…Breathe!” He choked out before quickly being released from the bear hug.

“I’m sorry, Sunny, I forgot that you have gotten skinny in your sleep!” She giggled as she dusted him off. “Are you hungry? I bought your favorite meal, steak!”

“Steak…?” He asked until he remembered he saw an offer that the OTHERMART was selling steak for a really cheap price. The thought nearly made him drool but he quickly shook his head. “Sorry, not right now. I actually got to eat at Basil’s house.”

“Basil? Oh! It's wonderful that you three are seeing each other again! If that’s the case, then I’ll make you dinner tomorrow night…Sound good?”

Sunny gave her a nod, making the older woman smile. “Well alright, I’m going to put these in the fridge. If you need anything, just let me know.”

Elena would leave for the kitchen, leaving Sunny to himself as he began to wander around the living room a bit more. He walked over to the screen door that was next to the portrait to his right. On the outside it was completely dark and the only thing he could see clearly was a lot of trees leading down into the darkness.

“Maybe I’ll check it out when it’s daytime…It’s so dark that I can’t see anything.” Sunny muttered to himself, looking around some more until eventually he was satisfied with what he could look at in the living room until he started to walk towards an entryway that was close to the fireplace with a clock above it. He doesn’t know where this leads, but he knows that it’s not the way to the kitchen since looking to his left as he got in, the first hall to the left had a giant table, assuming it was the dining table, and the kitchen was the second hall on the top left. 

Almost taking a step through the room, he felt a sudden chill crawling down his back. Something was telling him to not enter yet he couldn’t bring himself to even turn around, he took a deep breath and slowly entered the room. 

Upon entering the room, it was dark but light coming from the living room allowed him to see that he was in a room that had two doors and a staircase in front of him. The very same staircase to where he had fallen and ended up in a coma. He didn’t know how to feel about it other than the fact that something told him to go upstairs.

Placing a foot on the first step he slowly begins to ascend up the stairs. Each step that he took, the light from the living room started to dim and when he got a few steps up the light had already faded away. Leaving him in the darkness as he continued to move upwards. The more that he takes a step up, the more confused and nervous he is starting to get. 

‘Just how long are these stairs? I thought I would be making it to the top by now, but these stairs just don’t seem to have an end! What’s going on?!’ He thought as stopped, turning around he saw nothing at the bottom. Not even the stairs were there anymore. The only thing there was was just a void of darkness.

Seeing no other option, he continued to walk up. The unsettling feeling increased much more as he began to hear voices from all around him. They seemed to be muffled when he tried to make out what they were saying, but the more that he tried to listen he could have sworn that they sounded just like him and someone else's. 

Sunny gave up on trying to figure out what the voices were saying, in front of him he saw something shiny two steps above him. He picked it up to see it was a Shiny Knife, the very same knife that he saw back when he was in the hospital. Sunny thought this could be a coincidence since any knife can look the same, but yet the handle of the knife felt warm like it had been used before.

Now with a knife in his possession, he pressed on up the stairs even more. The two voices became multiple voices, similar to the ones that he heard back in the church upon his confrontation with Aubrey. Though it did annoy him a bit, but he ignored the voices until he was stopped due to something blocking his path.

In front of him was a giant spider web which he cut down out of reflex, as if his body had a mind of its own. Sunny, now becoming a little afraid of what will lie beyond the web gate, pressed forward once more until he finally reached the top of the staircase.

“I finally made it…” Sunny sighed with relief, though it was short lived once he saw something appear in front of him like a small light. In front of him was a girl with long dark black hair and monochrome colored skin, a white collared shirt with a black vest and a skirt. This girl was around his height and looked really familiar.

“Sunny…” She spoke before suddenly the Raven-haired boy’s ears began to start ringing and his left hand started to hurt, feeling the same burning sensation once more like it happened back in Basil’s house. The mysterious girl was enveloped by the darkness, changing her to something that looked similar to him in appearance. Its face had a terrifying grin while it reached out to him with its boney fingered hand.

"D̸̹͈̝̎̚O̷̱̓ͅ ̶͖́̍̂Y̶̲̲̞̊̎̂Ỏ̷̙̒̎U̴͚͌̑͐ ̷̮̱͙̋͗R̷̤̗͍͑̽̚Ḛ̴̊̏M̸̢̰̄͛E̵͙̰͕̓̀M̶̺̦͔̉B̸̘̎̾E̸̬̟̾̀͋R̴̼̹͙̃̌ ̴̡̺̟͆̅͊M̶͔̾̑̕E̵͇̥̍̌?̸̬̏!̷̹̅̒"

Before Sunny could even react, the figure in front of him disappeared. Revealing something on the wall that descended down, its appearance was a lot more monstrous than the figure’s. Having eight legs and the same smile on its abdomen. Paralyzed with the extreme fear of this arachnid monster, this was pretty much the second time that he had become afraid from a sort of unnatural entity today.

“This isn’t real…This Isn’t real…This is just in my head…Just in my head.” Sunny said to himself, his voice trembled every time he said a word. He couldn’t look away as it was getting closer, the only thing that he tried to do to even prevent it from getting near him was swinging the shiny knife around only for it to do absolutely knowing. Every swing phased through the monster like it was just the air.

‘Why can’t I hit it?! My attacks are just doing nothing!’ 

Swing after swing, the monster was laughing at the boy’s futile attempts to slay it. This was making him lose hope and he even thinks he might die if he doesn’t do something fast.

“This is getting nowhere fast…Huh Sunny?” A voice spoke into Sunny’s ears, drowning the monster’s laugh out.

“Huh?! Who’s there?!” Sunny asked while he looked around to find where the source of the voice was, finally breaking free from the monster’s sight.

“It seems like there’s a lot going on…You need to block out the little things…And figure out what’s important!”

“Block out the little things…? T-That THING is anything BUT little!” Sunny yelled in disbelief, gripping on the knife handle tightly. “Listen, voice in my head, if you got anything…And I mean ANYTHING that can help me, then I’m all ears!”

“You clear your mind…And remember how to FOCUS.” The voice answers before it fades away from his ears. Hearing the monsters laugh once again.

Having a perplexed look on his face, wondering what the voice had meant. The monster inched closer to him, not really giving him enough time to even think but just do at this point. Sunny would close his eyes, firstly just to calm himself down and clear his mind of any fear left inside him. His jagged breathing becomes much more relaxed and his fast heartbeat slows down with a mellow rhythm.

Now calmed down, Sunny began to focus. Breathing in and out, again and again, no longer did he hear the sound of laughter…Instead it was only his own relaxed breathing.

Cautiously he opened his eyes, he was still at the top of the staircase, and looking around he saw no giant arachnid monster. In front of him and on the floor was a tiny spider just standing. Sunny, just now only disgusted by the sight, walked over and stomped on it.

“Stupid spider…” He whispered before feeling oddly satisfied with what he had done. He let out a yawn as he now felt tired. Today really had him beat, and it probably will be the same tomorrow, hopefully he doesn’t get into another fight.

Walking around some more, he found three doors. The door on the left was locked so he decided to give up on that, the first door on the right only led to the bathroom. Luckily he didn’t need to go since he did use the one at Basil’s house. On the second door on the right, and the last door that was upstairs, led to a room with two beds, two wardrobes and a computer with a phone next to it.

The beds were a lot different from the one’s back in the hospital, they didn’t have the heart rate monitors or any medical equipment. He walked over to the first bed, placing a hand on it and laid down on it later. Though even if it was comfortable, there was something bothering him, and he couldn’t put a finger on it.

Sunny’s ears would begin to ring as he turned his head towards the door.  If his eyes were playing tricks on him again, he could have sworn he saw three people looking at him and even giving him smiles. The boy got up from the bed and blinked a couple of times to be greeted with nothing.

“Maybe I really am tired…And I don’t think I want to sleep on this bed.” Sunny muttered, walking away from the bed that he was on to the one on the far right. He sat down on it to test it’s comfortability, it was pretty much the same as the other bed once he laid down on it but this time, he didn’t feel anything was wrong from it. Only he felt like he was able to be at peace for once and his body relaxed like it had never relaxed before.

His eyes felt heavy, really heavy to the point that he could not keep them open any longer and with that the boy had fallen into a deep sleep.

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Three days ago before Sunny woke up.

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…Tired…

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…I’m so tired…

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…Most of them barely look at me now…

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…It’s like you all hate me…!

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…I…I hate you…!

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…It should have been you instead!

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…You should have been the one that fell!

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Y̷̨̢̨̨̧̛͓̤͉͇̬̟̓̂̏̌̿͂̈́̍͝͠ͅṐ̸̭̠͎̬̠̱̻̮͚̲̻̺̗̩͊͐́̓̄͗̒̅̊́̚̕͝ͅŬ̶̡̘̹̞͈̯͖̱̰̣̥͚̹͓̹͎̲ ̵̨̧̨̦̙͎̯͕̻̭̞̞̻̭̒͋͆̑͗̓̔̆̊̑̔̏͘̕͠K̴̺͕̘̜͍̻͆̐̾̍̉̿͛̆̊͗̾̍̋͛͒͝Ǐ̴̢̜͓̫̂͑̏̽́̓̔͒̓̍͌̌͘L̴̨͙̾̏͑̽̀͋̎͋̄̋̍͐L̶̡̨̛͍̘̮̬̜̞̞̫̰̘͓̟̣̰͐͒̀͋̇͑̿̒̒̐͠͝Ę̶̩͔̖͊̓̽̄̋̈́̀́͌̌̿̑́̏͝D̵̡͇̠̩̹̙̰̣̦̰̰͍̍̉͆̉͋͌́̓̈́̐̾̓̎̈́̃ ̷̡̢͙̰̞̦̤̣͕̪̱̙̻̬̎̈̀̚̕M̴̞͈̩͓͔̫͙̩̯̥͒̈́̈́͗̋̅́̈́͑͋̈́͒̚ͅĔ̵̼̘̰͈̪̤̰͕̰̳̩̟̝̭͋̈́̌͜ ̷͖̦̽̄̎̉͆̌͋̄̅͘͘Ý̸̙͕̠͔̫̭͈̲̣͉̖̖̖̞̂͒̊́͛̾̓̋̊̔͛Ơ̸̱͙̠͖̩̩͚͍͑̽͂͊̌̓͆̊̔̊̈́́Ṵ̷̩̘͈̘̖͉̰̱̲̿̔̀̋͐͐́̈́ ̵̨͔̩̫̞̹̰̜́̊̇̽̇̑̃͑̑̓͌͌͜M̸̧̤̖͈̪̬͔̱̦̗̯͇̒̅̈̐̏̈͗̐̋̓͘͝ͅͅU̵̹̰͕̦̪̜͕͒́̑̔͐̓͠Ṙ̷̨͈̻̥̟̠͇̣͓̩̗̜̹͘D̶͉̽̉̿Ę̴̧̹͔͎̳̬̗̖̲̓̈́͐̈́̀̀̈̿̈́̽̉͘͝͠ͅͅͅR̷̡̜͖̱̗̣̳͙̩͎̞͎͇̗̃̑̊̊͜ͅȨ̵̰̖͔̟͇̜͖͎̱͚̗͙̔̐̀͌̊͝ͅŖ̶̪̺̉̍̂͛̇̔̈́͋̏̚!̶̜̮͗̒̈́̂͊̒͑́͑̀

Letting out a gasp as eyes were now shot open, a woman quickly sat up and looked around while she started to breath heavily from the nightmare she had.

Slowly but surely as her eyes were met with the familiar area, realizing she was in her dorm room in CLOSECITY college. This was enough for her to let out a sigh, one of relief and one of gloom.

'That dream again…Every single day it's always the same dream again…' She thought while she rubbed her forehead. She noticed that she had slept on her desk in the middle of a book report she had been working on. This was not the first time she had slept on anything other than a bed, more than once actually. Wondering what the time was, she slowly grabbed her phone that was on her right on the desk all by itself, grabbing it and she flipped it open to read the time. 

'Huh, 3:26 A.M. Probably the earliest I have ever been woken up…I really need to start drinking more coffee. Well…Actually anything to keep me awake really, ever since…'

She stopped her thought process as she saw some things on her phone, it was a bunch of text messages. Some were from her mother and most of the text messages were from…Hero. This didn't make her feel any better and she set down her phone, placing it in her pocket while something caught her eye. 

A liquid substance next to the book she was reading. It didn’t take her long enough to realize due to the position she was sleeping on her desk. She had a cup beside her and just saw how completely empty it was. The only possible thing she could think of was her own drool.

'Dang it…' She groaned, gently wiping her desk off the drool that had been uninvited to the party before getting up from her chair to stretch. Sleeping on a desk wasn't really comfortable compared to the bed or maybe perhaps a couch, but she still manages to somehow sleep despite fighting it over the years.

Sounds of pops were let out through her joints the more she kept stretching, releasing those bubbles that are just nesting around inside of her bones. Right after she had finished stretching, she made her way to the bathroom in need to wash away the drowsiness.

The room was small and had only one bed. You would expect it would just be a room of two people, but there weren't enough people for the college she was attending, so she got handed the short straw. Not that she minded it, It was rather peaceful to have a room to herself. And the bathroom was only a few feet away just like the one back home, it saves her a lot of time.

Once inside the bathroom, it was just your standard bathroom. Nothing really too special about it, nonetheless it's better than nothing.

Walking over towards the sink, she turns the faucet on and douses her hands in water. Getting just enough, she splashed her face a couple of times before placing both hands over her eyes, rubbing them to get rid of the tiredness until she stopped and opened her eyes that were met with the mirror right in front of her.

She stared directly at the reflection of herself, just one good long look at what she had become. Her black hair was still the same length it has always been, except it was very unkempt and the strands of her hair were almost all over the place. Her skin was pale and she looked really thin too, her eyes were dead almost like there had been no life in them for a long time. Her appearance made her think she was some sort of zombie.

Already knowing she looked terrible, she didn't even need to say nor think it. Just one long look was enough to cause the woman to let out another sigh.

When she was about to look away, her body froze at the sight of the mirror. There was a something next to her, the entirety of it was black head to toe as if it was a complete shadow. The figure was half her height and what she can make out of it, it almost resembled a child that seemed too familiar.

The woman's eyes widened in terror from its face, those big glowing eyes and the abnormally big smile on its face that showed nothing but its teeth. Looking down at the figure, it placed both hands on the counter though one of its hands was completely different from the other. Its left hand has four boney fingers tapping against the counter as if it was impatiently waiting. Looking closer at the hand there was a small eye on the back of it just staring directly at her through the mirror. The eye was crying, not just normal tears…Tears of blood.

"MARI…I'M SORRY…" A voice spoke, coming from the hand in a weak tone she could barely hear well but knew exactly what it said.

Mari looked away from the hand and back up at the smiling figure, this time she caught a glimpse of its mouth moving.

"M̷A̴R̶I̸.̶.̴.̴I̴ ̶H̴A̶T̶E̵ ̵Y̴O̶U̴.̷.̷.̴" It said, its monstrous voice filled with malice made the woman shake with fear and even caused her to gasp as the figure smacked its non-boney hand on the mirror, sliding it down as a trail of red liquid was left behind.

Her eyes looked away from the mirror to her hands, the same hands that were still wet from the water she used to wash her face. She slowly moved her hands back under the running faucet and gently washed and caressed them.

'...It won't come off.' She thought once again, continuing to wash her hands as she tried to clean them to the best of her abilities. Even if there wasn't a speck of dirt or a stain on them, there was indeed something on her hands. She would get a brief flash of her hands from being clean to being covered in blood.

Seeing her hands all red only further caused the woman to wash her hands more, even her own breath was getting louder and harder as if she were hyperventilating. The blood continued to ooze right out from her hands along with the laughter that had filled the entire bathroom.

"I-Ig…Wog't come ouf…" She spoke through her tears that were let out immediately. Her voice was hoarse and her pronunciation was like that of a toddler trying to speak for the first time as she desperately tried her best to cleanse her hands from the blood.

The laughter from the figure was so loud that not even her own screams could cancel it out. She just wanted it to end, the laughter was as if it was taunting her perhaps it was also making fun of her for the sin she had committed. Not wanting to bear the sight of the blood any longer, Mari closed her eyes and focused only on her hard and heavy breathing.

‘It’s not real…It’s not real…Everything you are seeing is not real…What you are seeing and hearing isn’t real…’ She thought as she repeated herself over and over while she kept her eyes shut, her breathing soon started to go from heavy to a much more gentle and relaxed pace.

What almost felt like an eternity, she started to open her eyes to see that the blood that was on her hands had vanished along with the laughter that had died down as well. Taking a deep breath while sniffling a little, she began to slowly turn off the sink and rested her head against the wall, leaning against it as she hugs her arms together tightly and looks at herself in the mirror once more.

Her cheeks were stained with the tears that finished pouring down her face, her eyes wandered from her face to her arms only to see some scars on her forearms which she pulled down her sleeves to no longer wanting to look at them anymore. 

She didn't want to move from the very spot she was in, fearing that she would experience the same horror again. But sadly with what remains of the strength she still had in her, she exited the bathroom and walked back over to her desk, sitting back down and resting her head on her arms that were still gripped together.

Mari had a lot going through her mind that she could not even begin to process. The same nightmare replaying over and over every time she would have a normal dream, which almost felt rare for her now. And something that appeared behind her in the bathroom…Just what was that thing?

Her spine started to feel like it was beginning to chill down from top to bottom the more she thought about it. Mari took a glance at her book for a moment, wanting to keep going with her work still in progress but eventually she pulled out her phone and sat it on the desk right next to her and searched through every single voice-mail that was left unplayed. She started to play the first voice mail from the top so it can work down to the bottom.

At the very first voice-mail that played , Mari heard a voice coming from her phone, it was a mature yet feminine voice that spoke through the phone and recognized it to be her own mothers.

“Hi sweety! How are you and how is college?” Said her mother in a much cheerful tone, this made Mari feel a little bit of comfort as she hadn’t heard from her in quite a while. Drowning herself in her studies and other things to keep her mind off of…What had happened that she rather not remind herself about.

“Well I hope things are going great over there! Everything is so quiet here back home since you’re in college now, how I missed hearing the sound of the piano and the chatter you and your friends always have. Ah it feels like yesterday…How’s Hero doing? Are you both still seeing each other? Anyway, I hope you are doing well, I gotta go! Love you!” She said as the voice-mail ended, now starting to move to another one. 

When the next voice-mail started to play, through it another voice was heard from the phone. This time it was a male’s voice this time since it sounded a little more deeper, Mari also recognized it to be Hero’s.

“Hey Mari…How are you?” He said through the phone, he sounded like he was trying to be enthusiastic but she could tell he sounded tired. This was putting a little strain on the poor girl’s heart as she couldn’t do anything but listen. “ It’s really been…A while huh? I bet you’re really busy right now. Honestly I’m on the same boat right now since I’m pursuing to become a doctor…Anyway I hope you're okay and we can get to hangout, maybe we can talk about somethings…Well if you’re up to it I mean!”

Hearing the boy nervously let out a half chuckle, Mari rubbed her eyes as she slowly sat up from her desk to lean against her hand and had her whole elbow resting on the surface. How long had it been since they both talked she wondered. Weeks? Months? Perhaps a whole year or two had passed by. This caused her to sigh once more as she continued to listen to Hero talk through the voice-mail.

“Well…I gotta go, studying isn’t gonna finish itself! Y-Yeah…Bye!” And with that the voice-mail had finished, leaving the room silent once more for yet another one to play. 

This went on for about a few more minutes going from both her mother to Hero back and forth, she even received a voice-mail from her father which surprised her. The moment she heard his voice, was the moment she instantly deleted the voice-mail right after. The relationship that she once had with her father was strained to the point that she didn’t even want to acknowledge his existence anymore, not after everything that happened.

Mari grabs her phone to see how many voice-mails she had left, fortunately for her she only had one more. This was the last voice-mail she had from Hero, and seeing it was the most recent, she plays it and sets her phone back down to listen.

“Hey Mari…It’s Hero again, hope you’re doing okay in college!” Hero said, hearing a bit of nervousness even if he was sounding a little happy. “So…It’s already summer, man time sure does fly by!” 

`Summer huh…? That explains why the book is so long and the professor told us to have it done in at least two months…’ Mari thought as she took another glance at the book for a second. Lately despite being in college, she hardly pays much attention to what the professors were talking about, but she still gets her work done perfectly.

“I’m actually planning on going back to Faraway Town to see my family, and was wondering if you wanted to come with me. I’m pretty sure the gang and everyone else would love to see you again…” Mari noticed Hero took a pause for a moment, like he was hesitating to speak further but once she heard a sigh coming from the boy he spoke again. 

“...And maybe we can go see Sunny?”

Sunny…Mari’s sweet and quiet little brother that she adored so much. He was pretty much her world. Without her sunshine, she wouldn’t be able to get through the darkness.

Just hearing the name ringing inside her mind brought back some memories she tried to lock away and throw the key to where she herself couldn’t even find it…Those memories of her yelling at her own brother over something that she thought was too important than her own brother’s well-being. She can never forget the fear and anger he had in her eyes, the tears that he let out due to what she caused and the words that replayed over and over until it was just burned deep within her brain.

What made things even worse for her was the day during her argument…What you can say is almost the last thing she could have remembered of him if he hadn’t survived the fall down the stairs.

The memories were so strong that Mari almost almost wanted to cry once again but this time she had to be a little stronger and hold it all back as she kept listening.

“...Well I mean that’s all up to you if you want, I’m not gonna push you into something you don’t want to! It’s just…Things haven’t been the same ever since Sunny was placed into a coma and I’m worried for everyone, I just want to make things better for all of us.” Hero continued to speak, his words made Mari feel almost like she wanted to be on the same boat yet she cannot seem to bring herself to do it since she blames herself for everything and not even having the guts to speak. “...I gotta go, if you’re still interested then just give me a call or something whenever you have the chance!”

The last of the voice-mails from top to bottom were now finished, Mari had already been slumped against her chair from how much she had received. Staring at the ceiling as she remained in the same spot just to take it all in one step at a time. It was nice to see her mother was doing well, even Hero was too despite how she could tell what he was feeling if he was putting up a facade.

If she hadn’t felt like crap from the beginning she was feeling like crap now, since she hadn’t visited Faraway town in four years even on the holidays she does not visit. This made her feel like something was eating her up from the inside before she slammed both palms on her knees to let out a frustrated sigh.

Aubrey…

Kel…

Basil…

She wonders how much they had grown since the last time she saw them. Are they the same now as they were back then? Are they still friends? Do they still visit…Sunny?  

All the questions she had thought of were filling up her head to the point it almost wanted to just flood out from her ears.

‘Maybe…Maybe I should take him up on his offer and go to Faraway Town...’  

She grabs her phone, taking a few seconds to get Hero’s contact and send him a text message through her flip-phone. She had a hard time pressing the right keys since she really wasn’t much of a tech savvy compared to her friends, heck the only thing that her brother was better than her for was video games.

But Mari didn't care, deep down she had a feeling that she needed to do this. She needed to see him.

Hey Hero, it’s been a while. I got your voicemail and I’m interested in going, I hope it’s not too late.

After sending the text message, there was nothing else better to do other than finish her book report. Fortunately being completely busy and managed to regain the top of her classes she was almost finished, she just had to go through a few more pages until then.

Grabbing the book, her eyes began to scan each word from the pages all the way to the top and to the bottom, writing down things she had found in the book that were important for her class. Suddenly as she was reading the book her eyes were getting heavy and her pencil movement was getting slower and slower until eventually she fell asleep, her consciousness drifting into her dreams.

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WELCOME TO WHITE SPACE. YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING HERE FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN REMEMBER.

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My eyes started to open as I was greeted by a familiar white ceiling just above me, slowly I would get up from the ground and look around to find myself in the white void known as WHITESPACE again. 

“Welcome back.” A voice said, leading me to turn around to see Omori sitting down with his legs crossed, he had a notebook in his hand and a pencil. It looks like he was in the middle of drawing.

“Omori? What happened? Why am I here again?” I asked, feeling a little confused about what just happened. Last time I remembered I was at Iris’ house putting some photos back into his photo album, and everything went black.

“It seems you had fallen asleep, we had to take you back home.” He answered me, placing down his notebook that had an odd looking stick figure with four fingers on one hand and one thumb on another.

“Is…That actually what happened? I don’t remember falling asleep.” I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or not but I waited for him to make some sort of confirmation from my monochrome look alike. 

Omori stared at me for a moment as he got up from the floor. I noticed that he seemed a lot shorter than before until I looked down at myself. No, in fact I was a lot taller than before…Now how did that happen?

“We should go visit our friends. ” He said as he walked past me, dodging the question which I turned around to see a white door that casts a faint shadow in the middle of the void. “They are waiting for us outside.”

I watched as Omori opened the door, leading out to HEADSPACE where Mizuno, O.Joe, Chip and Iris were. He turned to look at me once more with a curious look in his eyes despite his emotionless expression. “You coming?”

I looked at him with a moment of silence since I was annoyed from not getting an answer. Eventually I sighed, practically giving up on questioning further before nodding. I headed out to HEADSPACE and was greeted by a familiar sight along with my black and white doppelganger.

Just a few feet away from us was the trio of Chip, O,Joe, and Mizuno who were sitting on the floor and playing cards. O.Joe looked frustrated, Mizuno was bored and lastly Chip was concentrating. Upon our arrival, the little girl looked up at us and smiled along with the two brothers who became confused for a second until they saw us and greeted us with smiles of their own.

Though as I was looking at the three of them, I saw that something was…Off.

Is it just me or did O.Joe look a lot more orange than before? His skin was a pasty white like Omori’s but his hair and his pajamas were orange unlike both Mizuno and Chip who still had the same color pattern from the last time I saw them.

“Omori! Sunny! Welcome back!” Mizuno welcomed us with a wave as O.Joe would turn to Chip.

“See, Chip? I told you not to worry.” He said while Chip rubbed the back of his neck. “Omori always shows up when we need him! He even brought Sunny with him!”

When the shorter brother was talking to the older brother, Mizuno’s smile turned into a sad frown as she walked over to us. “Is everything okay? We were worried about you…”

“Worried about us? Did something happen?” I asked Mizuno who stopped right in front of us, I noticed that I had to look down at her due to my sudden growth. She was practically tall enough to reach my chin.

Just as Mizuno was about to open her mouth, O.Joe beat her to the punch when he ran over to the rainbow stairs. “Now that you’re here, let’s go out and look for Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐!”

Wait…☐☐☐☐☐? Who is ☐☐☐☐☐? Are they also friends? How come I’ve never met them? Unless I did and I’ve never interacted with them at all…Ugh this is so confusing.

But not only that…Iris is also missing? That’s strange, didn’t we see him at his house when we were placing the photos back together? How come I can’t remember what happened afterwards?

Now looking at Omori to see what he would think of this, but there was something strange about him. For the first time that I’ve seen him, I saw that he looked like he was confused…If not like he was bothered about something and he doesn’t look like he knows why.

“Come on! They are counting on us!” O.Joe shouts as he was trying to get us to move, Mizuno rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Be patient, O.Joe! We have to make sure that Omori and Sunny are okay first!” Mizuno’s annoyed expression was replaced with a smile and a blush. “Or maybe…You and Chip can take Omori yourselves.”

Mizuno turned back to look at us and inched closer, taking my hand and looking straight up at me. “Come on, Sunny! Let’s go exploring together…Just the two of us!”

I didn’t say anything when I stared into the girl’s starry eyes and her innocent smile. I felt my ears beginning to heat up while my brain was overrun with my own random thoughts.

“...Huh?”

‘Wakemeupwakemeupinsideicantwakeupwakemeupinside!’

Getting out of my thoughts due to hearing O.Joe shouting, I looked up to see the orange boy run over towards us. “Hey, you can’t leave us out like this!”

Chip, the one that was quiet just before, stepped forward. “He’s right, Mizuno. We have to do this together as a team.”

A cheerful grin spread across the older brother’s face as he continued to speak. “You never know when you’ll need someone’s help. We’re stronger when we work together!”

“Hmph! Sunny and I will be fine on our own!” She frowned before turning her attention back up to me with a smile while she hugged my arm. “You’ll protect me, won’t you, Sunny?”

I…I don’t even know what to say. Should I even say no? I really don’t know what to think in this situation. The only thing I did was look up at Omori, begging for some kind of help.

Omori looked at me with the same neutral expression and he only gave me a thumbs up.

‘...That’s not helping…’ I internally groaned in my mind while my eyes turned to look at the brothers.

“Eww…Gross…Get a room.” O.Joe cringed while acting like he was going to barf.

“Come on, Mizuno. It’s time to get serious now.” Chip told her. “Let’s go tell Hikiko that Omori is okay…You know how she’s always worried about him.

“Okay, okay…Fine…I was just trying to have a little fun…” Mizuno pouted, finally letting go of me while she crossed her arms. I looked at Chip and gave him a nod to say I was thankful for the save.

Now gathering up, we all went over to the rainbow stairs. The same snake that gave me the fifty clams before slithered up to me, it would hiss at me before dropping some more clams, this time it was seven hundred and fifty clams.

I had a feeling I might be able to buy something good with this many clams, so I placed them in my pocket before all of us left and into the open world of HEADSPACE.

…

Being welcomed by the familiar plain of the forest we all headed down south to the playground, to see it was still as lively as before. I watched all of the monster kids playing around doing the same thing as last time…I mean what else are you supposed to do in a playground?

All of us were now walking down the steps, my eyes wandered around before looking over to see a familiar monochrome girl walking back and forth on a picnic blanket that was already set up like before.

“Hi, Hikiko! Look! Omori is here!” Mizuno cheered, running over to the older girl whose face went from a concerned look to a cheerful smile when we got closer.

“Omori!” Hikiko called out and as if in a blink of an eye, she ran over to Omori and placed him in a tight hug.

I watched on as the two monochromed siblings embraced each other for a few seconds until she released him from her grasp, her once cheerful expression changed as she had a worried look on her face. “Don’t disappear like that.”

Hikiko turned to look at each and everyone of us until she looked at me. “Oh! You guys found Sunny!”

“Yeah, apparently Omori found him while we were in the NEIGHBORS room trying to search for the others.” Chip said as he nudged my shoulder.

“Hmm…So there’s still no sign of Iris or ☐☐☐☐☐?” Hikiko asked, Chip gave her a sigh and shook his head.

“We’re not sure…We’ve been looking for him everywhere, and still…Nothing.”

“...I hope they are okay…I miss them so much.” Mizuno had a sad look in her eyes when she spoke. O.Joe had the same sad look before staring at the ground.

“Yeah! I miss hearing Iris talk about all the stuff he’s into…Like all the flower stuff and the photo stuff…And the art stuff...And the reading stuff… Even when ☐☐☐☐☐ listened to us talk about other stuff...”

“My hair is so tangly. I miss when Iris used to brush my hair and when ☐☐☐☐☐ used to listen to my problems.” As if Mizuno’s expression was a switch, she went from sad to happy in the next second when she looked at me. “Sunny, will you brush it for me?”

“I uh…” When I was about to say something, O.Joe interrupted me.

“Well, I miss when Iris used to remind me to wash my hands. And I miss when ☐☐☐☐☐ and I went bug hunting. Look! They’re so dirty, and I found a beetle!”

“Eww! O.Joe!” Mizuno was disgusted until she faced away. Chip cleared his throat as he spoke.

“O.Joe…You should probably wash your hands anyway…And put that beetle down.”

Everyone was silent, even more silent to my liking as I didn’t know if I should break the silence or not. Fortunately I didn’t have to once I saw Hikiko give a warm smile.

“Everyone…I know it’s tough right now, but we have to stay positive! We should all try to be like Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐!” Hikiko started to encourage us. “Even when Iris is upset, he always manages to smile.”

As if her words were just enough, the once sad looks that they all had, except for Omori had vanished away. Now having a smile on their faces once more.

“So…is there anywhere we haven’t checked yet?” I asked the group, feeling a sudden urge to want to help.

“Well…There is his house and a forest west of the stump, but…” Chip spoke but he went silent as there was something bothering him. Luckily O.Joe saw his brother’s behavior and spoke up for him.

“It’s gross and full of spiders!”

Just the mention of the word, Chip flinched while he shaked like had a chill run down his back. “Ugh… SPIDERS …”

“Well...You know what that means.” A sudden giggle came out from Hikiko as she patted Omori’s head. “It’s time to face your fears, little brother!”

Hikiko walked over to the shaken up Chip, placing a hand on his shoulder. “And that means you too, Chip!”

“Come on, big bro! You can’t back out now!” O.Joe grinned, joining in with Hikiko. “It’s just like how it is with Omori, we’re here to support you all the way!”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Chip gave out a nervous laugh as he looked away. “I’m just being silly…”

“Don’t worry, guys! If anyone or anything tries to hurt you, I’ll smash it out of the way! You can count on it!” Mizuno said, picking up a wooden baseball bat that she found on the ground.

“And don't forget about me! I’ll always be there to help too.” Hikiko chimed in.

“Yeah…Yeah! We can do this together!” Chip said as he was starting to become confident. “L-Let’s go to Iris’ house first to see if he’s there. Then we can go to the forest west of the s-stump. Lead the way, Sunny!”

I looked at Chip who was trying his best to stay together despite the fear of spiders. I wouldn’t blame him, I’d be terrified too. But now we have an adventure on our hands, and that is to find Iris and this ☐☐☐☐☐.

“Alright, let’s go find Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐. If the last place that I saw him was at his house, then hopefully we don’t have to go to the forest west of the stump just to save Chip from a heart attack.” I say with a nod, I normally didn’t want to be the one to lead but somehow this made me feel like I can do this.

Don’t worry Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐…We will find you.

Chapter Text

The moment that we had left the playground, was the moment that our journey for the search of Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐ had began. It was just the five of us going down the same path to Iris’ house that we took before, and unlike last time there were no Sprout moles to even ruin his flowers. I was kind of glad about that since I saw that the stick that I had did not seem to be in the best shape, so if I had to attack one more thing then it would break. I probably should see if I can buy anything that might be useful whenever I see a shop.

…Does HEADSPACE even sell weapons?

“Hey Sunny, you alright? You seem like something is bothering you.” Chip said, placing a hand on my shoulder which led me out of my thoughts.

“Oh! Well…Uhhh, I’m just worried…” I would pause my answer as my eyes looked around to think of an excuse. Luckily I was quick enough to come up with one. “About a sudden surprise sprout attack! Who knows when they can pop out and attack?”

Chip looked at me, an eyebrow raised from his forehead as he looked confused until a smile came across his face. “Seems like you have been reading my tutorial, you never know when an enemy will appear so expect the unexpected.”

Seeing that he bought my excuse, I let out a sigh of relief and looked ahead. Though he was right about me looking a little bothered, it’s just that ever since we exited the stump and left the playground…The person named ☐☐☐☐☐ wouldn’t leave my mind.

It’s funny, I’ve met everyone that I know in this world and this person that they think I know when I don’t know who they are just bugs the heck out of me.

But have I actually met this person? I don’t know, just like I don’t know how I ended back in WHITESPACE and all of a sudden one out of the two people that I know is missing or why O.Joe is literally white and orange compared to everyone else except for Omori and Hikiko.

Ugh…I REALLY should not think about it anymore, my brain is already confused from my first meeting here and I don’t want to get it any more confusing now…I think I should just get back on the topic of finding them and then things will be much more clearer.

After getting out of my thoughts on my own this time, we took a few turns and even a few shortcuts to get to Iris’ house faster. I never knew that Iris lived so far away until now, maybe it’s because I haven’t really paid any attention…

When we stopped in front of some stairs, both Mizuno and O.Joe ran past me and ran up into a miniature forest on the hill, Chip and Omori ran after them which made me the last person to enter the forest that shined a little bit of light in some areas.

“Hey don’t go too far ahead! We should stay together as a group.” Chip called out to the two children who stopped in front of the shoe shaped house that Iris lived in.

“Well stop being such slowpokes! We have to make sure that they are still there!” O.Joe said with a frown while Mizuno nodded in agreement.

“Honestly I just can’t with you two…” Chip muttered to himself once we caught up with the two of them, all of us now were in front of the door. 

I turned the doorknob to open the door and if my eyes played a trick on me, I could have sworn that something just moved when I opened the door completely.

All of us entered the little home, we all looked around but the only thing that we could  see was how it was completely empty. 

No Iris or ☐☐☐☐☐ were present, just a quiet room that made three people feel uneasy.

“The place is completely empty…” Chip said, his eyes looking around the interior. “Well…There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.”

“Where could they have gone? Do you think they just left somewhere without telling us?” O.Joe’s expression was full of worry when he asked his question.

“I don’t know…That doesn’t sound like them. Iris is usually so considerate about these things and he would tell us if ☐☐☐☐☐ is with him.” Mizuno would answer as her eyes were beginning to tear up. “...Guys, I’m really worried. Is there nothing we can do?”

“What if we can’t find them? What if they are in danger?”

Noticing that Mizuno was about to cry, Chip placed a hand on her shoulder to give her some comfort. “Stay calm, Mizuno…I’m worried too, but that won’t solve anything. Let’s go look around the forest. Maybe that’s where they could be.”

“Yeah! Cheer up, Mizuno! We’ll find them!” O.Joe added, his once worried expression was replaced with a cheerful grin.

I saw Chip was shaking a little while he gave Mizuno comfort, I suspected he was thinking about the spiders in the forest that are getting him all jumpy. Mizuno sniffles a bit before whipping her eyes.

“Sniff…You guys are right…” And just like O.Joe, the once sad Mizuno became happy and cheerful again. “Okay! We gotta keep our hopes up!”

Wow, if it was really easy to switch moods so fast then it wouldn’t be so hard to make them happy just buy either giving them a four leaf clover.

Well jokes aside, I looked around the house a bit more before looking down to see a photograph was laying on the floor. Curious as I was, I walked over to pick it up.

“Hey, did you find something Sunny?” Chip and everyone else walked over to see what I was looking at.

The photo showed all of us, it was the photo that Iris took outside of his house before his disappearance.

“Ohhh! It’s the photo that Iris took earlier!” Mizuno said with awe as stars appeared in her eyes.

I stared at the photo a little bit longer, scanning every detail of it until I found out something wasn’t right.

It showed all of us but I saw that there was someone standing between me and Omori. What I can make out from the photo since in the middle the face was blurred out it showed what I thought at first was a black smudge but it had clothing similar to mine, except more so inverted.

“Yeah but it doesn’t seem to be showing ‘all’ of us though.” Chip looked at the photo a little more closely.

“Sunny’s right, Iris’ camera blurred out ☐☐☐☐☐’s face…Though I must admit, I don’t think it was like that before.”

Great, that just means that I sort of know what ☐☐☐☐☐ looks like yet apparently fate wants to hate me and just blur out the face.

I sighed and placed the photo inside my hoodie pocket to keep it safe so we can put it back in Iris’ photo album. I looked down at the floor again to see a small crack in the middle…Wait that has been there before, right?

Eventually we all left the house and walked out of the forest that was on the small hill. We had no success in finding them in the house so that leaves us with our only option, the forest west of the stump. I can already tell Chip isn’t going to be happy about it, but there really isn’t another way.

…

We walked all the way back to the playground, by taking the same way that we took before… Nothing much had changed so we didn’t stay for too long except hang out with Hikiko at the picnic. She had given us some candy for our trip, and when I ate one piece I felt like I gained a lot more energy than I had before.

Later when we finished our picnic, we exited the park and headed over back to the stump. As we were about to head west from the stump, I stopped when I heard a voice from the opposite direction.

“Oh boy, oh boy! I’ve been waiting so long for this event!” The voice said, we all turned around to see it was five sprout moles talking to one another.  “It is a delightful day indeed!”

I didn’t even know that they were talking, well I guess anything is possible here so I shouldn’t say I am surprised by now.

“Oh yes, oh yes! At last our glorious princess SWEETHEART will finally make her appearance!” Another sprout mole spoke, it looked like it was moving around like it was dancing. “I can hardly contain my excitement. This show is sure to be the most electrifying of them all!”

“Oh dear, oh dear! We must hurry! Our five front row SHOW TICKETS are right here! We are in for the time of our lives, and must not be late!”

There was a silent moment between the five sprouts, each of them looked at one another as they seemed to grow confused. “Now…Which way do we go again?”

The five sprouts walked over to us, not really paying any attention to our presence which resulted in them colliding with us, knocking themselves to the ground until they scrambled around out of confusion before looking up to see all of us towering over them. I saw the fear in their tiny bitty eyes and all of them screamed in unison, getting up and running away. The only thing that the sprouts left behind were the five tickets that they had on them, though I did feel bad for scaring them like that just by doing nothing but at the same time…They did mess up Iris’ flowers so I would say this was karma with a pinch of salt.

O.Joe walked over to the tickets and picked them up, returning to us with a huge grin on his face. “Hey, cool! These sprout moles dropped some tickets!”

“Let me see!” Mizuno walked over to O.Joe as he gave her a ticket, she read it with a smile. “Oh, they’re front row tickets for some kind of show…”

Mizuno reads the ticket a little more until she tilts her head. “Featuring…SWEETHEART?”

“Isn’t that CAPT. SPACEBOY’s girlfriend?” Chip asked, before the orange brother gave him a ticket.

“Yeah! It looks like some sort of contest or something!” Mizuno’s eyes started to twinkle like the stars, almost getting excited. “If we happen to pass by, we should stop and watch! I mean we do have front-row SHOW TICKETS after all!”

“Well alright. Maybe we can drop by if we happen to come across it.” Chip said while O.Joe handed the rest of the party each ticket.

“I don’t know…Aren’t we still looking going to look for Iris and  ☐☐☐☐☐?” I asked while they all looked at me.

“Of course! Our friends are our first priority!” O.Joe answered before everyone else did. “Who knows? Maybe if we find them, we can go see the show!”

When I was given the answer, I felt relaxed. I nodded and we all started to continue our search, we walked through the forest to our left.

The walk was quiet yet felt very peaceful due to the lights guiding us through in case it ever got dark. Moving past each colorful tree I had come across, and I must say…I’m surprised at how colorful the trees are, I wasn't feeling sick to my stomach.

We walked around a bit more until we took a sudden stop, I was behind my friends as I looked around them to see why they had stopped. “Why did you all stop all of the sudden?”

“Ugh…A spider-web…It’s so big that we can’t get through!” Chip answered, his body fidgeting until he looked at Omori. “But since Omori has his signature weapon, we will be able to get through it easily!”

Omori walked towards the spider-web, he stared at it for a moment as if attempting to slice through the webbing but he couldn’t make the blade budge.

“Huh? What’s wrong, Omori? Can’t you cut it?” O.Joe asked while he walked over to help Omori get his knife out of the webbing, and succeeded in doing so.

The party took a closer look at the webbing while I did the same, Chip stares at the webbing with a raised eyebrow. “Huh…This webbing looks off don’t you think? It’s like it had changed into a darker shade…”

I stared at the webbing, seeing that it was all black and bubbles started to tear off repeatedly. I took a glance at my left hand that produced the same bubbles. “It’s just like my hand…” I muttered until I got an idea which involved me slowly inching my hand towards the black webs. I grabbed onto the webs and a black flame emits from my fingers, burning the webbing down into nothingness. This caused me to back away in surprise while everyone else seemed to be in awe from what I did.

“Wow, Sunny! I didn’t know you could do that!” Mizuno shouted as she ran over to me, staring at my fingers that were still stretched out. “That’s so COOOLLLL!”

“I-I didn’t know I could do that either…Huh, I guess I am useful for something after all.” I say, slowly lowering my hand but Mizuno would grab onto it.

“What?! No, don’t say that Sunny! You are a much bigger help than anything! You can do cool things that we don’t! You are our most cherished friend to our team!”

“I  agree with Mizuno! That just means if we run into something like that again, you can just- POOF make it go away in an instant!” O.Joe budged in while patting me on the back.

“You know, it’s rather fascinating that you’re able to do something like that…Maybe you have your own set of skills that you are able to grow and become stronger?” Chip asked while I turned to look at him while glancing at Mizuno playing with each one of my black fingers.

“My…What exactly?” What did he mean by skills? What kind of skills is he talking about? Something basic like cooking or anything that requires doing well in life?

“Let me put this down in a way that could help understand better. SKILLS can be used in-battle and each of us starts out with basic skills. But I believe within time we can learn something new by reaching a certain requirement.”

As Chip tried to explain to me what skills are, I just blinked while I stared at him.

“Okay…You completely lost me there…But um…Do you have a book about it by any chance…?” And when I finished my question, Chip had already pulled out a notebook that was titled CHIP’S SKILLS 101. “Well…Now this makes understanding much better…”

We continued to walk through the forest, though I was being dragged along by Omori as a guide while my eyes were locked in on the notebook. I read every single page from the book as my interest continued to grow…This really is an interesting read, maybe Chip should become a writer.

Now after I had finished reading the notebook, I looked up to see everything was covered in a faint fog. How long did we walk for? Are we still in the forest? Why is it so foggy here?

“Ugh…On second thought, let’s go look for them somewhere else.” O.Joe said with a groan, he could feel himself feeling uncomfortable from the environment that was around us. “This place gives me the heebie-jeebies…”

“Don’t be such a baby, Joe.” Mizuno puffed her cheeks a bit from irritation. “There are just some spider webs here and there!”

O.Joe stared at the girl for a moment, until he started to scream. “AHHHHHHHH!!! THERE’S A SPIDER IN YOUR HAIR!!!”

“W-What?” Mizuno’s eyes widened as she started to panic. wiping her hair in all directions while spinning around. “WHERE?! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”

The orange boy began to laugh while Mizuno stopped herself to look at him with a questionable look. “Just kidding! Look who’s the scared one now!”

Mizuno gave O.Joe a death glare which she crossed her arms. “Hmph! That’s not very funny, O.Joe…!”

If O.Joe wasn’t already pale enough, he would be even more due to how much Mizuno’s glare made his skin crawl.

“Right…Hope we can still see where we’re going, I don’t want us to run into any sort of trouble along the way there.” I say to which everyone else agreed. I noticed Omori was now taking the lead and gestured us to follow him, we all did as we walked close with him. I wonder where he is trying to take us, maybe he knows more about the forest than we do?

We walked through the forest almost covered with the slight fog that felt a little unnerving despite a few spiderwebs around that made Chip a bit jumpy whenever we walked past them. I saw there was a cart on some tracks that looked to be abandoned but we left it alone and moved on, but we did follow the tracks to see where they could lead.

The further we followed the tracks, we all stopped to see Hikkio with a picnic already set up. “What the- Oh Hikkio! What a surprise to run into you here.” I say while Chip was fast on his feet to run straight towards the Monochrome girl, wrapping his arms around her.

“AHHHHHH HIKKIO SAVE MEEEEEEE THERE ARE SO MANY SPIDER-WEBS! IT’S SO SCARRYYY–YYYY!!” He said into her arms, this honestly made O.Joe facepalm and a sigh right after.

“Hey, hey now…It’s alright, just breathe! In…And out…In…And out.” She whispered while rubbing his back, the elder brother slowly took a deep breath and let out slowly, feeling a lot better. “Do you feel better now, Chip?”

“Hahhh…A lot better, thank you Hikkio!” He said, now letting go of her as everything was now alright.

I’m still wondering how the heck she can just pop out of nowhere whenever we need her the most…Then again this is my dream, so anything can happen…I think?

We decided to hang out with Hikkio for a bit longer and even felt ourselves feeling a lot better and even having the courage to continue our journey through this foggy forest, we continued to follow the tracks until we were met with a dead end…And I mean there was something that was in the way, preventing us to go any further.

“What the heck is this thing?!” O.Joe asked as he placed a hand on it. “It’s…Kind of slimy…And smells like bad apples. But there’s more forest on the other side of this lump!”

O.Joe turned his attention to Mizuno who looked at him, he could already feel a sense of dread and a slight groan before placing his pride to the side. “Come on, Mizuno! Smash this thing to smithereens!”

“Oh? What’s this? You’re asking for my help, Joe? How rare!” A small yet sly smile was on the girl’s face until she readied herself with her bat. O.Joe quickly stepped out of the way to not get in the collateral damage she would inflict. “Step aside! I’ll show you all how it’s done! I’m gonna give this strange lump all I’ve got!”

We took a few steps back away from the girl, she steadied her ground and stared at the lump before pulling her arms back. She takes a deep breath until eventually she swings her bat at the lump with all that she got, hitting it with full force.

…

…

…

It’s not very effective…

Mizuno was silent along with having a deadpan look on her face, O.Joe who had been very expectant towards the girl who was the tank in our party, was also silent but only for a moment. 

“Well…This is embarrassing. I guess we should find another way past this thing.”

“Yes…Let’s do that…” Mizuno agreed while she still had a deadpan look.

“You…You did your best Mizuno.” I said, trying to cheer her up while thinking of a way to get past the lump blocking our path. “You know…There is that cart that we walked past earlier. Maybe that could help us get through this?”

“Wait! Sunny you’re a genius, maybe if we use the cart that could create enough momentum powerful enough to get past the large lump!” Chip said as I for once felt very useful, this made me happy. “Alright everyone, we’re going back to the cart!”

“LAST ONE THERE IS A ROTTEN EGG! AND I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU MIZUNO!” O.Joe shouted as he was the first one to start running.

“Why you little-! I’M GOING TO BURY YOU ALIVE O.JOE!!!” Mizuno screamed as she followed behind, leaving me, Chip and Omori behind before we all ran together.

As we ran, it didn’t take long for us to catch up with the two bickering children…But MAN they have so much energy that I could barely keep up with them. Luckily since I noticed that Chip and I were nearly the same height we used our long legs to our advantage, but now this made me notice another thing.

When did I get near Chip’s height?

Now back at the cart O.Joe was running around it with a laugh while Mizuno did the same, but she wasn’t laughing but instead she looked like she wanted to murder the boy. “Hehehe! I won! I won!”

“Alright guys, that’s enough- whew…That really took a lot out of me…You kids these days.” Chip said, slowly catching his breath.

“Now…You’re sounding like a grandpa, Chip…But I shouldn’t- hahh…Be talking.” I replied, also catching my breath until we stood near the cart.

“Hahhh…I guess so…But we’re here aren’t we? I just hope this cart will be enough to get through.”

After minutes of recovery, the two children had already stopped running around. We all got into the cart, well except for both me and Chip who had our hands placed on the cart. We looked at each other and at the same time gave a nod, we both pushed the cart with all our might until it started to move.

As the cart was able to move on its own and seeing it was picking up speed, we got on the cart and rode down the tracks. The faster that the cart was moving, the joy that it was bringing to both Mizuno and O.Joe who along with Omori simply had their hands in the air like they were on a roller coaster.

The cart was getting so fast, and literally too fast that I was gripping onto the handles with all my strength to not fall off.

“W-Woah…It’s getting really fast huh? I-It’s getting too fast! Woah! WOAH! WOAHHHHHH!”

As we rode past through the forest, straight ahead the same lump was in the way. I braced for impact until the lump that was there was seconds to no more. It did slow down the momentum of the cart but it still moved on its own. I took a sigh of relief as I leaned back against the cart, Mizuno and O.Joe were laughing and having the best time of their lives. Now staring at the tracks that were now on a bridge, I looked up to see a large castle that was getting bigger by the second.

Eventually we had made it to our destination, there were no more tracks and the cart had stopped. We all got off of it and Chip was the first one to nearly fall out but Omori was quick enough to catch the poor teen who felt dizzy.

“Y-You alright bro?” O.Joe said with concern as he walked over to his brother, placing his arm over his shoulder.

“I-I’m okay…I’m just not a big fan of these rides…I’ll be fine.” Chip replied, nearly about to puke but he kept himself steady to the point that he was able to stand up on his own.

“ ☐☐☐☐☐! Are you here?!” Mizuno shouted, now looking around for the mysterious boy.

O.Joe looked around while he placed his hands close to his mouth. “IRRRRRRISSSS!! WHERE ARE YOU!?”

“Hmm…It doesn’t look like they’re here either.” I commented, I was starting to feel a little disappointed.

“...You know I really wish Iris was here. He probably would tell Chip about how spiders are harmless and good for nature or something. Maybe then he wouldn’t find them so creepy.” O.Joe said, Chip felt his body fidget to where his face nearly became stoic.

“I’m not sure if that would help him right now.” Mizuno muttered, shaking her head as well. 

“He’s going to have to deal with it eventually…Things will only get worse over time.” I say, slightly patting the teen’s back. 

“Heh, you’re starting to sound like Hikkio, Sunny!” Chip laughed, his worries now starting to go away like nothing had ever happened. “But maybe I’ll naturally outgrow it! You never know what the future brings!”

“Well I don’t know about all of you, but can we move already? We need to find them!” O.Joe said, as we looked at him.

“Yeah you’re right…Let’s keep moving guys!” Chip announced while we now moved further into the forest, the fog still had not faded one bit but it was manageable to keep going through.

On our walk, we followed the lights that lit up the path to get through. This unsettling feeling still lingered within me as I felt something was off, what made it worse was the fact that when we kept walking we spotted a few sprout moles lying on the ground. Their once brown base was now a complete gray with wide open white eyes, it was like their lives had been sucked away. But luckily they weren’t dead but so terrified they became petrified to move.

“Sheesh…So many sprout moles on the ground…What happened?” O.Joe said as we made it to an area that had so many dead trees and petrified sprout moles on the ground. 

We stopped as we heard the sound of twig snap, this caused all of us to be on high alert to the point we quickly got out of the way to an incoming sprout that was thrown at us. Now with our weapons ready-except for me we stared straight ahead to encounter a large like centipede that was made with all of the petrified sprout moles rushed towards us.

LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE!

KING CRAWLER rushed towards Sunny’s party, but they all got out of the way. This was now their turn to attack.

O.Joe was the first to start throwing a curveball at the beast, doing a very good amount of damage to the beast, the ball bounced towards Chip and he used his frying pan to swing at the ball like he was playing baseball. The ball along with the force from Chip’s frying pan did another good amount of damage to the beast.

Omori ran towards the beast, dodging each attack that the beast had made until he started to slash wildly. His blade left cuts on the beast, until this was followed up by Mizuno who was whacking her bat at the beast’s head.

Sunny took his distance as he didn’t have a weapon but O.Joe would toss him his ball to throw at the beast. Everytime that he would catch the ball, he saw the ball would flare up in black flames once he got a hold of it and threw the ball seconds later.

The beast lets out an ear-piercing screech, making Sunny’s party cover their ears as it feels ANGRY!

A Sprout mole would appear from the beast's mouth, about ready to fire its attack.

“EWWWW THAT’S SO GROSS!” Mizuno winced as she was feeling disgusted by the monster. But everyone started to run around trying to confuse the beast to make it miss its attack, unfortunately for them it didn’t seem as dumb as it looked and started to fire the sprout mole at Sunny, much to their horror.

“LOOK OUT SUNNY!” Chip, O.Joe and Mizuno shouted at the same time but Sunny is still captivated by what O.Joe’s ball was doing when he grabbed a hold of it. 

He gets a small idea that he wondered what he could actually do. Placing his left hand forward he closes his eyes and slowly imagines himself summoning a fireball, using all of his concentration he opens one of his eyes to see he had created a fireball which he immediately shoots at the incoming sprout mole the second his name was heard.

The black fire that came on impact with the Sprout mole made the small creature bounce away, though slightly burnt it was still fine.

“Did he just..” Chip said, nearly speechless but the two children’s eyes widened with excitement.

“He sure did…HE THREW A FIREBALL!” O.Joe exclaimed.

“You’re amazing Sunny!” Mizuno jumped with joy.

SUNNY has learned FIREBALL!  An attack that will inflict burn damage to a foe. The attack will also be stronger if Sunny is ANGRY. Costs 13 JUICE.

“Wow…I didn’t even know I could do something like this! Now I feel like I can help much more now.” Sunny mutters to himself, feeling himself becoming proud while he stares at the beast.

The beast took notice of the boy staring at him. Now taking it as a taunt and when it sees the burnt sprout mole, the beast slithers over to eat it. Feeling itself healing up and even becoming happy.

“WHAT?! IT CAN HEAL?! Ughhh mannnn this is SO unfair!” O.Joe groaned as he readied his ball.

Since it was O.Joes turn again, he throws the ball at the beast. The beast takes damage once again and Mizuno catches the ball and throws it back at the beast with her bat. She looks at Sunny but he wasn’t noticing her so this prompted her to attack the beast harder, doing significant damage to the beast.

Omori slashes at the beast wildly, IT HITS RIGHT IN THE HEART! This caused the beast to take critical damage.

The beast, now taking heavy damage, spits out another sprout mole from its mouth as it was getting ready to eat it, but Chip throws his frying pan at the sprout mole, knocking it out of its pincers. This made the beast get angry from being denied its food, rushing towards the teen who had no weapon to defend himself, he placed up his arms to shield himself.

Sunny ran towards Chip and was in front of him. Moments away where the beast was getting close to the two teenagers. Sunny holds up his hand once more, he charges up a fire ball and throws it at the beast. Since the beast was angry the fireball did a lot more damage than before, this time the beast was now being burned alive in black flames, squirming around and letting out ear piercing screeches until it laid there now lifeless.

Sunny’s party was victorious! Receiving 499 CLAMS, Sunny found SPROUT MOLE MASKS!

The team felt stronger now.

…

“We did it…We really did it!” O.Joe said, nearly lying on his back from exhaustment. “Hahhh…I thought the battle was going to go on forever!”

“That may be true…But we defeated it with no problem.” Chip leans down to pick up his frying pan. “And Sunny can throw fireballs now! I didn’t even know that was possible!”

“He’s a wizard guys!” Mizuno giggled as she hugged my arm.

“I-I’m a what?” I asked as I looked at her, who was still hugging my arm.

“A wizard? Well I don’t know Mizuno, I’m not really much of a nerd when it comes to these things…But what is it that most people play aside from rocks? Dungeons and Dragons?” Chip thought with a hand on his chin.

“Oh! I know that game! I’ve seen people play it all the time in the playground! Now let’s see…So if I can recall the classes, I’d say Chip is a healer because of his amazing cooking skills…”

“Why thank you Mizuno.” Chip flips his hair with a smile.

“O.Joe is an archer because he can attack from a distance since he’s a coward.”

“HEY!” O.Joe growled. “Who are you callin’ a coward?!

“Omori is a rogue because he’s got a knife and he is often very sneaky!”

Omori didn’t say a word but gave her a thumbs up.

“And we got me, who is a cute warrior!” Mizuno smiled now with her hands on her hips.

“More like an ugly barbarian…” O.Joe muttered, still feeling irritated from being called a coward earlier.

“And now we have Sunny! A wizard that can shoot fireballs!” Mizuno ignored O.Joe’s muttering and pointed at me. “Now we have a good team of amazing people!”

“That’s honestly a good way to put it…I never realized that until now. Huh Guess we are an amazing team right guys?” Chip asked while everyone nodded.

“Well I hope I can do more than throw fireballs…It takes a bit of time to concentrate and I don’t want to make myself a weak link to you all.”

“Oh not at all Sunny! We’ll protect you so you can do your attacks!” Mizuno smiled.

I gave her a thumbs up and I looked at the rest who were now getting themselves dusted off and getting ready to move. I would do the same and hold on to the sprout mole mask…Why were we given these again?

We all make it past the area and down the ladder to where it leads underground, we are now in sprout mole territory. Though it looked really fancy with everything all neat and having some decorations underground. We were approached by a sprout mole who looked up at us. “Ah! Hello, strange-looking SPROUT MOLES. Are you here to see SWEETHEART’S QUEST FOR HEARTS? If so, you’ve come to the right place! This sold-out extravaganza spectacular will be starting very shortly!”

“Wait a second! I know this show!” Mizuno chirped in. “We have front row SHOW TICKETS for it! Ah…I can see it now! A dazzling, epic tale about the hardships of romance!”

“Huh…So we came across it. Didn’t expect it would be this easy.” I muttered while Mizuno kept speaking.

“Heartbreak…Betrayal…Desperation…Loneliness…Oh, the drama! Oh this is going to be fun! I can’t wait to be swept off my feet!”

“I don’t know…I guess it looks…Interesting?” Chip commented. “But now doesn’t seem like the right time.”

“But you promised we could earlier!” Mizuno’s smile slowly turned upside down to a frown. “Please, Chip! We should at least check it out.”

The girl walked up to the teen, placing her hands on his pajama top while jumping up and down. “Please, please, please, please, please!”

Chip slowly sighed as he knew he couldn’t say no to the girl who was pretty much excited to go. “Well…Alright. Hopefully this won’t take too long.”

“Ahem…If I may.” The sprout mole cleared its throat. “Have your SHOW TICKETS please.”

“Yes yes, of course MR. SPROUT MOLE, sir!” Mizuno said along with everyone holding each of our tickets. “We have our tickets right here!”

Mizuno takes all of our tickets and hands them to the mole. “Here you go, MR. SPROUT MOLE.”

“Oh…Oh my! I can’t believe my eyes…” The sprout mole said, its small black eyes widened at the sight of the tickets. “These really are front row tickets! You…You all must have made some great sacrifices to be here today…I applaud you.”

‘Yes…Some very guilt giving sacrifices. I wonder if the five sprouts that had the tickets earlier are sad right now…I hope if I see them again we can make it up to them.’ I thought as I felt bad.

“Forgive me for calling you strange-looking earlier.” The sprout mole apologized and bowed to us. “At a second glance, you five are the most normal-looking sprout moles I have ever seen.”

Should we be glad or feel insulted…?

“Please enjoy your front row seats, fellow normal-looking SPROUT MOLES!” The sprout mole waddled away to the side, letting us through as we walked past it and climbed up a ladder that led to a large pink door. 

We opened up the door to see a lot of pink with rows of seats that were filled by sprout moles And a stage with different shades of pink with hearts placed on them. Making our way down towards the aisle we had found five empty seats, they almost felt like they had our names on them.

“Wow, look at this huge stage! It’s just as amazing as I imagined!” Mizuno’s eyes were beaming with stars when she started to feel excited for the show. “Let’s take our seats. It looks like the show is about to start!”

The five of us sat down on the seats, and as if on cue the lights had dimmed down along with the constant chatter from the sprout moles. Soon two lights moved around on the stage’s curtains until they went away, a sprout mole with glasses appeared from the curtains and got a hold of the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemoles…Welcome to a special episode of…SWEETHEART’S QUEST FOR HEARTS!”

Everyone in the room started to clap and cheer which started filling the room up with excitement. The sprout waited for everyone to quiet down before he spoke once again. “Before our show, we wanted to take a moment to honor the life of someone who has been an inspiration to us all. Our beloved leader, YE OLD SPROUT.”

‘Wait what?’

The stage's curtains would rise to where it revealed a large portrait of an elderly looking sprout with a leaf-stache on its face…This was the same one that we fought earlier.

“He was truly the father that none of us deserved. Let us have a moment of silence in memory of him.” The sprout with the sunglasses said as everyone went silent, the sprouts had bowed their heads in silence while the five of us looked at each other, slowly realizing what we had done. “May he rest in peace.”

‘Oh my god…What have we done?!’ I thought the feeling of guilt was lingering over my head as the curtains dropped back down. ‘We had killed the father of all sprout moles…We’re murderers!’

“AND NOW…ON TO THE SHOW!” And just with that, the lights have turned back on and the crowd started to cheer once more, the moment of sadness that was there was already gone within seconds. “Last time on “SWEETHEART’S QUEST FOR HEARTS”...Our favorite princes…Once again…Failed to fall in love with any of our eligible bachelors!”

“Failed to fall in love with any of her bachelors…? I thought she had CAPT’ SPACE BOYFRIEND?” I turned to look at my friends who looked at me who were also just as confused.

Before any of them could even speak their minds on the situation, the sprout mole continued to speak. “This time…We’ve rounded up three new very attractive contestants! Will one of them be able to capture Sweetheart’s heart? Let’s reveal them now!”

Soon one of the contestants had walked to the stage, it was just a regular looking sprout mole. “CONTESTANT #1 is a local of SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE! He’s coming in a three-feet tall! His favorite food is TOFU. He has a huge collection of plastic flamingos…And enjoys long walks through narrow tunnels! GIVE IT UP FOR CONTESTANT #1!”

The crowd started to cheer for the sprout mole, even I was cheering for the mole. I sure hope he will win the princess’s heart. 

After the cheering had finished, the next contestant was…Another sprout mole…Let me guess this is gonna be just sprout moles isn’t it? But this one was spinning around with much elegance. “CONTESTANT #2 IS…Yup, you guessed it! Also a local of SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE! Careful! He’s coming in hot at a three-feet-and-one-whole inch! His hobbies include walking, running and crawling! His favorite color combination is brown and green, and he spends his weekends rolling around in dirty laundry! Hmm…Spicy.” 

‘...Okay now that’s just gross…BOOOOOOO!’ I thought as I had a look of disgustment in my eyes. 

“GIVE IT UP FOR CONTESTANT #2!” The crowd once again started to cheer, but it quieted down moments later.

“And now for something completely different!” The sprout announcer said.

“What could be any different? A sprout mole that is three-feet and two inches? Is it’s hobbies reading and cooking? Does it also roll in dirty laundry?” I muttered while O.Joe chuckles at my muttering.

The third contestant walked across the stage, this time it wasn’t a sprout mole, but a different looking creature that was all white, having a cube shaped head and two legs. “CONTESTANT #3 comes all the way from OTHERWORLD! It’s like he just fell out of the sky…Literally! According to him and us, that makes him a catch. GIVE IT UP FOR SNALEY! 

The crowd didn’t cheer but I was giving the otherword-ling some claps.

‘Alright I vote on Snaley to win this…Sorry Contestant #1. And Contestant #2?  ☐☐☐☐ you, I hope you lose so badly.’

“And now…It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…DIM THE LIGHTS, PLEASE!!” Just as a command, the lights would be dimmed down but enough for us to still see the stage and the three contestants. “She emits…Beauty…She exudes…Grace…She truly has…The most pulchritudinous face…Yes! You know who we’re talking about! She’s all that is amazing and wonderful, and she is just about to set foot on this very stage! Please…Give a big, warm welcome to…The one…The only…The magnificent…SWEETHEA-” 

Suddenly lighting had struck the stage, everything went completely dark. This had caught me by surprise and even a yelp from both Mizuno and O.Joe who were holding on to me. Everything went silent, and it was still dark too…

“Oh, no! There’s a blackout!” Mizuno gasped. Now what do we do? I have to know what happens next!”

“Let’s wait it out…I’m sure the sprout moles will get the power back on in no time!” Chip said, reassuring the girl.

When the lights had turned back on everything seemed to be alright, until I looked towards the third contestant…Snaley was all black and started to wither away seconds later.

“NOOOOO SNALEYYYYYYYYY!” I screamed out in pure horror for the third contestant, what did he do to deserve this?!

After seconds of grieving for the poor soul, a sprout mole with a top had run down towards the aisle. “Someone! Please, help me! I am in need of a handsome young gentleman!”

The fancy sprout mole took notice of us and ran over towards Chip. “You…Yes! You there, in the striped pants. You magnificent BEAST! Yes…Ohohoho…Yes, you look like you’ll do just fine!”

“H-Huh? Wow…Uh…W-Why thank you! I-I don’t know what to say…” Chip said, feeling a little flustered.

“Please, kind sir. Will you help out a poor, lowly mole? I am desperately in need of your service.” 

“Well, since you asked so nicely…How can I refuse?”

‘Wow, he really can’t say no can he…?’

“Thank you! Thank you, young lad! You are too generous. Please, come this way now. Chop-chop!” The fancy sprout moved the tall teen, he was starting to sweat a little.

“W-Wait, hold on! Can my friends come too?” He asked, looking up at us. 

“Ah, yes! Your friends!” The sprout mole stopped pushing Chip’s leg to move and looked at all of us. “You are all here to see ”SWEETHEART’S QUEST”, yes? If so, we will all meet again soon enough. Now come, sir! We must make haste. Time is short!”

Chip had left the party as he was now being taken by the sprout mole, all that was left for us to do was take our seats and watch the show continue. The lights had dimmed down once more and the sprout mole with the sunglasses took the spotlight once again, holding onto the microphone.

“Greetings, Sweetheart fans. We apologize for the short intermission.” It said while adjusting its glasses. “Welcome back to our regularly scheduled program! During the short break, we regret to inform you that a tragic has occurred right here on this very stage.”

The stage’s curtains opened up once again, this time revealing a portrait of snaley’s face on it. “It is at this time we announce the sudden loss of contestant #3…We will remember him fondly for the few seconds that we got to know him…He was truly a unique and irreplaceable soul.” 

The curtains were descended once again as the sprout mole cleared its throat. “BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!”

The lights had turned on once more as all of us heard the sound of a drum roll being made. “Please give a warm welcome to our new contestant #3…Hailing all the way from the VAST FOREST…”

The crowd would cheer while we all spotted Chip hiding behind the curtains, slowly making his way over to the stage. He was slightly shaking a bit…He has stage fright?”

“Get this, guys. Chip’s a real hunk, standing at a whopping 5’7”! His passions include baking, cooking, and cleaning…And if that doesn’t sound like a perfect man, check out his killer smile and mild personality!” 

Chip didn’t know what to say, he was really glad he was given a compliment from the announcer but his stage fright won the battle. 

“And now, once again…It’s time to introduce the star of the show! DIM THE LIGHTS, PLEASE!!” 

Once again, the lights dimmed down once more, the sprout mole cleared its throat before speaking. “She emits…Beauty…She exudes…Grace…She truly has…The most pulchritudinous face…Yes! You know who we’re talking about!”

‘Oh my god hurry up please! We heard this before…!’ I started to groan for the life of me as I can’t stand the suspense of waiting.

“She’s all that is amazing and wonderful, and she is just about to set foot on this very stage! Please…Give a big, warm welcome to…The one…The only…The magnificent…”

Before the announcer could finish his spiel about who was about to appear on the stage, all of us heard the sounds of a woman who was laughing. “OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!”

The curtains had lifted up once more, revealing a red heart carpet and a throne to match the aesthetic and a woman sitting on it, already having her red fan out to blow some breeze to her she would laugh once again. “OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!” 

“An excellent entrance, my liege!” The sprout announcer said, giving her a formal bow along with cheering coming from the crowd.

This woman right here was the princess…Princess SWEETHEART.

“AHHHH YES!” She exclaimed, hopping off her throne. “IT IS ME!!  Hello, my stupid, adoring fans!”

“...Now I hate her already.” I muttered while the crowd continued to give the woman praise.

“WE LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!” One of the adoring fans screamed. “Yeah, you’re the best!” 

The princess just laughed as she was being praised. The announcer walked up to her while turning towards the three contestants. “Sweetheart…We have brought three of the best bachelors in the world onto this stage. Will today be the day that one of them steals your heart? Let’s start with some questions…One thing that Sweetheart values most in a companion is complete and absolute obedience!” 

The announcer turns to the first contestant. “Do you, contestant #1, agree…To pledge your allegiance to Sweetheart for the rest of your life? Contestant #1! What is your answer?”

“Uh…Sure. I don’t know…I guess.” Contestant #1 said, sounding very unsure with itself.

“Ah, playing hard to get, I see!” The sprout announcer raised an eyebrow before turning its attention towards the egotistical princess. “What do you think about that response, Sweetheart?”

“Hmmm…Just three feet tall?” Sweetheart stared at the first contestant, tapping her fan until it closed shut. Her eyes glared at the Sprout mole with piercing red eyes. “My, that is much too short! Send him off…to THE DUNGEON!” 

“Wait what?” Myself, Mizuno, and O.Joe said at the same time, looking at the princess with different puzzled expressions.

“Hey…W-What did you say?” Contestant #1 asked, there was a shake in his voice. “THE D-DUNGEON?”

Before we had any time to process what was going on, two Sprout moles wearing armor appeared on the stage next to the first contestant. They picked it up and led him out of the stage while it was screaming. “HEELLLPPPPP ME!!!”

“Now onto Contestant #2.” The sprout announcer said, acting as if nothing happened in order to carry on with the show. “We ask you the same question. There’s no right or wrong answer. Just answer truthfully!”

The second contestant looked at both the announcer and the princess one after the other. It gulped before it slowly began to speak. “Well, uh…Sure! If that means I won’t get sent to THE DUNGEON…”

The princess walked over to the second contestant, staring at it from top to bottom. She ponders for a moment before letting out a gasp. “My word! This one…His very being offends me. Take him away, boys!”

‘Guess me and her have something in common.’ I thought as I kept my eyes on the show.

The second contestant looked around and fear, quickly trying to run away with its little legs as fast as he could but the armored sprouts were too fast for him and caught him, taking him off the stage.

“Contestant #3! It looks like you're the last one standing!” The announcer said, now looking at Chip. “I’ll ask the same question one more time. Again, no pressure at all. Do you, Chip, agree to pledge your allegiance to Sweetheart for the rest of your life?”

Chip was silent once he was asked by the announcer, now he was the one pondering the thought. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I can already guess what it could be. If he says yes then that or Sweetheart will judge him based on his appearance and have him thrown either way.

“Well…No, that doesn’t seem fair at all.” Chip said, much to my surprise that he can actually refuse an offer for once. “Why would I do that?”

When the announcer was about to speak, Sweetheart walked over to him. Eyeing him from head to toe. “My…This one. He’s absolutely immaculate! Could it be? Is Sweetheart…”

The princess would be silent as she placed a hand on her chest, her red eyes now forming into shaped hearts while she started to smile.

“...In love?”

“What.” I said.

“The.” Mizuno said right after.

“Heck?!” O.Joe finished both of our words into one sentence as our jaws dropped.

“WHAT AN EXCITING TURN OF EVENTS!” The announcer exclaimed as it had a small grin on its face. “This must be fate! A match made in heaven!”

 “W-Wait, but I just said-” Chip spoke, but was easily cut off by the princess.

“AH, YES, YES! YOU’LL DO JUST FINE! Now, what’s your name again?”

“H-Huh? I-It’s uh…It’s Chip, ma’am…”

“Chip! My Chip! We must go to my chambers at once!” Sweetheart said with glee. “Guards! I have chosen my suitor. TAKE HIM AWAY!”

Just like they were there all along, two armored sprout moles appeared on the stage, Chip slowly backed away from them while they were inching towards him. He would look back at us as he was sweating bullets. “GUYS! PLEASE…DO SOMETHING!”

“Whoa! Chip’s gonna marry Sweetheart?!” O.Joe said with surprise and disbelief. “I didn’t see that one coming at all!”

“O.Joe, what are you saying?! We have to help him!” Mizuno smacked the back of his head as we got up from our seats. 

“What do you want me to do about it? I don’t want to go to the dungeon!”

“Ugh…O.Joe. You’re so useless..”

“You really think that these sprout moles have the strength to pick the four of us up?” I asked, staring at the boy with a tilted head.

“Chip! You have to reject Sweetheart!” Mizuno called out as the two armored sprouts were getting closer.

“It’s time, Chip! Your princess awaits~!” Sweetheart said, sitting back on her throne with a laugh. “OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!”

Chip lets out a sigh and even shakes his head in shame. “Uh…I don’t think she is going to listen to me.”

“JUST DO IT ALREADY!!” She shouted, it was so loud that it even echoed the entire room.

Chip’s eyes darted away from the girl before slowly getting the courage as he took a breath. 

“Okay, I’ll try.” He said, now turning around to face the princess. “Excuse me….Sweetheart…Ma’am?”

“Ah, yes…My lovely Chip!” She answered, almost seemingly having her breath taken away by him. “How I yearn for the sound of your sweet voice! Say my name again!”

“Wow, haha…That’s so nice of you…I mean-” He lets out a nervous chuckle, feeling very uncomfortable by the minute before sighing. “...Why do I have to do this?”

The teen clears his throat as he tries to make peace with the action he is going to commit. “I’m sorry, Sweetheart, but…I’m…Not…Interested…”

“Why…Whatever do you mean, my prince?” She asked, her smile turned into a look of confusion, her heart shaped eyes remaining the same.

“I uh…This is all really flattering and all, but you know…We only just met like…A few moments ago, and…Don’t you have a boyfriend? So I’m going to have to reject…Your offer.”

The only response he got in return was a laugh from the princess, this laugh was becoming more annoying the more I heard it…God someone shut this person up!

“Oh, pish-posh! Oh, don’t be silly, Chip! I’ve never heard of anything sillier! Though it may be true that I DID have a boyfriend but I broke up with him because he wasn’t exactly boyfriend material!”

“She broke up with Capt’ space-boyfriend?” I said, feeling very dumbfounded by the news.

“It…It’s true. I’m sorry, Sweetheart, but…” Chip felt himself shaking as he was trying to force himself to keep speaking. “I…Don’t…Want…To marry you.”

The light that had filled the room was now dim once again, there was a hint of silence coming from the crowd and the princess as well who stared at him. Her heart-shaped eyes now returned to a normal red until they were now glowing crimson.

“This…This is preposterous…” She whispered, her tone turning into a hint of malice. “No…This…This is blasphemy!”

The now enraged princess jumps from her throne and stomps her foot in anger. “YOU DARE REJECT SWEETHEART!?!? EVERYONE LOVES SWEETHEART!! YOU HEAR ME!? EVERYONE!! SEND HIM OFF TO THE DUNGEON!!”

The guards now getting closer, Chip continued to back away from them. Mizuno up on stage and in front of him. “Hey! Stop right there! You can’t take Chip! He belongs to us!”

“What’s this now?” She said, an eyebrow raised up as she got close to the girl who was half the princess’s height. “What is a non-SWEETHEART fan doing in the audience?”

The princess stared at her before staring at us. Not the audience but the ones that didn’t look like normal-looking sprout moles. “Ah, I see…You must be Chip’s fans! The nerve of you lot…First, you make a fool out of me…then, you interrupt me during my own show!? I’m the one who makes the rules around here! GUARDS! TAKE THEM AWAY!”

“Oh boy…This isn’t good.” I muttered until the last second as many more armored sprout moles appeared out of the props one by one.

...This REALLY isn’t good!

“Now you’ve done it, Mizuno!” O.Joe groaned as he was now feeling tense by the sudden appearance of the guards.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

“Wow…They actually managed to pick all of us up and put us in the dungeon…Did not see that coming.” I said, sitting against the wall. 

All of us were now inside the cell of the dungeon. It was dark and awfully dirty, and there were loose chains hanging from the walls. I don’t remember the faintest idea how we managed to end up here since it all happened so fast.

“Aww man…Now we’re all stuck in the dungeon…” O.Joe frowned as he was sitting down with his knees to his chest.

“Sorry, guys. It’s my fault that we’re in this mess.” Chip said, hanging his head down to his shoulders.

“No, it’s not Chip…No one could have predicted that would happen.” Mizuno said, patting the back of Chip.

“OHOHOHOHOHOHO~!” A laugh was heard coming from behind the cell door.

“I swear I’m going to punch somebody who laughs like that so help me go-” Before I could say anything else the laugh was heard once more. “GOD DANG IT!”

Behind the cell door was a sprout mole with a top hat and a mustache around its face. “YOU FOOLS! Don’t you recognize me!?” 

The sprout mole would take off the top hat and the mustache, revealing a pink bow underneath the hat. “IT’S ME! ROSA!! The #1 Sweetheart fan in the world! I told you that you’d pay for crossing me!”

“Curses we’ve been bamboozled!” O.Joe groaned before banging his fist against the ground. “I should’ve known you were behind this, Rosa!”

“W…Who is she exactly?” I asked, I can not take any more of this confusion anymore as this was starting to give me a headache.

“Rosa, a sprout mole who is the number 1 fan of Sweet-heart. Let’s just say she is an obnoxious little brat that will do anything for Sweet-heart I guess…” Mizuno answered,

“Ah, makes sense…So basically an unhealthy obsessive fan. Got it.”

“It’s true what they say…REVENGE IS SWEET!!” Rosa exclaimed before laughing again, the same annoying laugh that Sweetheart makes. “Now rot, you peons! Rot in the dungeon forever!”

Once the obnoxious sprout mole left the cell, Chip returned with a glum look. “Dangit…How are we ever going to get out of here?”

“We’ll find a way!” Mizuno shouts “Come on, guys…Let’s think about this.”

“Where do we even start?” I asked. “It’s not like they’d just leave the gate unlocked…Or would they?”

The four of them would look at me, then at the cell door. I walked over to it and lifted the gate up. Much to my surprise that it was indeed unlocked…

“So it is…Alright that makes things easier. Let’s get the heck outta here!”

After leaving the gate we all noticed that there were sprout moles patrolling the dungeon. Though we managed to take them down easily, we also had to avoid getting hit since they had very sharp weapons on them that no cute little beings should have…That would be a bad combo.

We walked around the dungeon for a bit, opening some cell doors that weren’t locked and tried to open some that were locked much to our efforts. Luckily there were heart-shaped buttons on some areas in the dungeon that we had O.Joe manage to get for us with his ball. Upon going through cell doors that were leading us to nowhere I accidentally stumbled upon a trap door.

“Wonder will this lead us.” I commented as we all descended down the trap door, we didn’t see much as the walls were close enough to feel claustrophobic. I could tell this was like an underground maze, we walked around through the maze unable to get by due to spikes blocking our path. When we were just about to walk away, I saw O.Joe stopped at an area that had spikes.

“Hey, it’s Hikiko!” He shouts, now waving his arms to get her attention. “HIKIKO! HIKIKO! Help us, we’re stuck in the dungeon!”

The monochrome girl turned to look at us, letting out a gasp as she got off the blanket. “Oh no!”

Now off the picnic blanket, she walks over to press the button, the spikes descending down to the ground and free for us to pass. 

“There you go!” She said with a smile. “Now come here and enjoy a nice picnic with me. I promise you’ll feel better right away!”

We walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug. “Oh thank you so much for getting us out, you are always there for us whenever we get in trouble!” Mizuno said.

“How do you always manage to be there when we least suspect you for help?” I asked, the group looked at me with slight confusion. “N-Not saying it in a bad way, I am thankful for the help…But just how?”

“Well…Since we all love her so much, it’s like her love connects us all and we will be there for each other no matter the situation!” Chip answered as we all let go of her.

“Yep! Sounds about right! And I have my ways!”

We all sat down at the picnic, relaxing our nerves to put them at ease. I laid down on the blanket as I nearly felt exhausted from the adventure that we had been on. I nearly felt like sleeping but I knew there was a mission to be done.

“So I know a nice fact during my trip here, apparently there was said that a sword in stone is somewhere in this castle, no one has ever managed to get the sword out of the stone. Because it is said that one has to be worthy enough to be the sword’s owner.”

“Oh really? Somewhere in the castle…That is nice and all but we really just need to get out of here.” Chip said while being pushed away by O.Joe who was trying to feed his little brother pickles.

“I wonder if I am worthy!” O.Joe exclaimed while having a disgusted look on his face.

We all talked some more until eventually we had to leave, Hikiko gave us a wave and wished us good luck. Now back to business of trying to leave the dungeon, we walked through in and out of the trap doors that lead us to different parts of the dungeon, pressing button after button until we got an exit. I did hear an explosion coming from one part of the cave where a sprout mole prisoner was at, but it wasn’t there anymore.

Now exiting the dungeon a huge sigh of relief washed over all of us. “We made it out!” Mizuno having stars in her eyes once more.

“WOO-HOO!! FREEDOM AT LAST!!” O.Joe exclaimed with a grin.

“Let’s get out of here…I never want to see another sprout mole again in my life.” Chip muttered as we all walked towards our right. We opened the gate to reveal that we were still in the castle.

All of us walking forward, one of the sprout moles that was on patrol looked at us and readied its weapon. “HALT, PRISONERS!! Did you really think that you could escape that easily?! It’s back to the dungeon for you five!”

“Darn…And we were so close too!” Mizuno pouted.

“Uh-oh…What do we do now?” O.Joe whispered while Chip was now trying to think of what to do.

“Think, Chip, think! Come on…How do we get out of this?” Chip looks through his pockets in hopes of trying to get out of the situation, I on the other hand was close to summoning a fireball in case no one had a plan. Eventually I turned to look back at Chip who pulled something out of his pocket. “Oh, I got it!”

 Chip placed something over his face, it appeared to be a mask but the mask looked similar…Oh wait, Chip placed on a sprout mole mask that we got from the sprout centipede earlier!’

“Ahem…On the contrary, sir knight, I think you have mistaken us for someone else! Hm, hm, yes.”

All of us looked at one another for a moment until we all got the idea. One by one each of us put our own sprout mask on our faces.

“Hem, hem. Don’t be so quick to judge!” O.Joe said, grinning through his mask. We are sprout moles, indubitably.”

“Hoo, hoo, indeed! Ah, yes quite!” Mizuno giggles through her mask. “I am also a lover of TOFU and Sweetheart! Mmm…Delicious Sweethea- I mean, Tofu.”

“Hmm oh yes, we are NOT in fact prisoners. We are just very normal looking sprout moles if I say so myself! Uhh...Je suis un sprout mole oui!” I say, the last part I had no idea what I was saying, they were all being fancy and I tried to do the same by speaking some random gibberish that could be a language for all I know…

“Egad! My eyes must have deceived me. I apologize, brethren.” The sprout mole guard said, lowering its guard with a sigh of relief as to have bought our bluff. “It is rather hard to see through this helmet. Very well, carry on then. I will resume my patrol. You lot ought to return to your stations as well, lest our dear Sweetheart notices… ”

“Heh..How’s that for some quick thinking?” Chip said, sighing through his mask with his own relief.

“That was so smooth, Chip!” Mizuno smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “With these SPROUT MOLE MASKS, we’ll be able to make it out of here in a cinch!”

“Do we really have to keep wearing these, Chip?” O.Joe asked while trying not to scratch his face. “Mine is getting kind of itchy…”

“Yes, O.Joe…We should keep them on until we get out of here.”

“Is it just my mask or does everyone else’s mask smell like burnt cinnamon?” I asked to which they shook their heads. “Alright then…C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“We all walked through the castle to where the exit would have been but it seemed to be crowded by a bunch of sprout moles who look like they are fans of Sweetheart…That this point who isn’t a sprout mole that is a fan?

“Aww geez, look at the size of that crowd!” O.Joe said through his teeth while Mizuno on the other hand placed a hand on her side.

“We’ll never get through at this rate! Let’s look around for another exit…”

 “Maybe the crowd will die down eventually…We should check back here later.” Chip commented while we looked around for another way out.

“If the crowd dies down eventually…” I say under my breath.

All of us went through each part of the castle, no sign of an exit. But we did stumble upon a choir of sprout moles that were rehearsing something for Sweetheart, though I didn’t pay attention to it due to just wanting to leave this forsaken place. Each statue of Sweetheart that I looked at, I was getting sick to my stomach…How can a princess look so cute be so frickin cruel?!

The more we walked, the more that we felt lost. Soon enough we stumbled upon an area that we had not explored, when we went through the door it was an elevator with one singular sprout mole inside it.

“Well, this is awkward.” I muttered before looking at the buttons, there was a button that can go up and go down. When I pressed down it didn’t lead to an outside but a garden that looked very nice.

My curiosity peaked at this point and we went through the garden, it was filled with many different flowers that I bet Iris would tell us about. Maybe if he was here he would probably take some for himself to make for his garden.

Through the garden I saw something from a distance. Upon closer inspection there was a sword stabbed into a stone with the text saying. Whoever lifts this sacred sword from the stone, will be the most worthy to the kingdom!

“Ohhh let me see if I can take it out!” O.Joe said as he got on top of the stone, Chip was going to stop him but he saw that O.Joe was struggling to get the sword out. Eventually he was so exhausted that he fell on his back.

“Seems like you aren’t worthy. My turn~!” Mizuno said, stepping on the boy who lets out a small OOF and up on the stone. She pops her knuckles and placed her hands on the handle, trying to lift it up with all her might but failed as well.

“Looks like you also aren't worthy…” O.Joe wheezed out while he rubbed his stomach.

“Honestly you two…” Chip rolled his eyes while he got on the stone, he tried to lift the sword out but just as the rest he also failed.

Omori was next, but too had failed and he didn’t even try at all.

I looked at all of them as I stared at the sword. “I’m not gonna even try, I don’t think I am worthy to lift the sword out either.”

“Oh come on, Sunny! At least give it a try! You know you gotta be curious too!” O.Joe looked at me with a grin.

“Try it! Try it! This should be fun!” Mizuno added, looking at me through her mask.

“If we all tried it, you should too. It’s only fair after all.” Chip commented while Omori stared and gave him a thumbs up.

“Alright fine…But honestly I don’t even know if I can.” I say, internally groaning at the thought as I make my legs go to the rock.

Now on top of the rock, the four of them looked at me with curiosity and excitement once I had my hands on the handle.

I took a deep and slow breath before pulling up the handle, when I did I expected the sword to not move but…It did. And it didn’t take any effort out of me at all. The sword was in my hands, the handle was made out of wood with branches sticking out of it and the blade was clean with no scratches or rust on it.

“You did it, Sunny! You pulled the sword out!” Mizuno cheered while everyone else looked at me with a smile, O.Joe sighed and wished that he was the one that pulled the sword out but he smiled nonetheless.

I have acquired the SPROUTCALIBUR! Attack- +9 other stats are 0.

“Guess I am worthy…Though this makes it easier for me to use since I don’t want to cast or even spam fireballs every time…Concentrating gets tiring most of the time.” I say while holding the blade in my hands. “So uh…Does this make me a warrior or a mage still?”

“Hmmm…How about warrior-mage? Since you can use magic and have a sword at the same time? Kinda fitting so that if Mizuno can’t fight anymore you can fill in for her spot until she recovers.” O.Joe suggested while Mizuno took that as offensive.

“Hey! I can fight all day long! Nothing's gonna bring me down!” Mizuno interjected, ready to start another argument with the orange boy.

“Let’s not start another argument please…We really need to get out of here.” Chip said as he de-escalates the two of them, they looked at each other and stuck out their tongues. 

Shaking my head, we all walked back towards the elevator. Now having myself a weapon to boot. I can probably kick some major butt with this now, I just hope that it doesn’t break as easily as the stick that I had before…I would be really sad that this nice piece of weaponry would be destroyed.

I stared at the buttons when we got back into the elevator, the sprout that was looking at us was filled with fear at the weapon that I was wielding. It probably looked like we were going to kill it but we ignored it and pressed the button to go up to as far as it could take us. I leaned back against the wall to stare at the giant image of Sweetheart looking at us. It’s red eyes staring at me, like it was staring into my soul when we rose up to the top. I gulped once we reached the top and that was then it closed its eyes like it was laughing as if nothing happened at all.

The doors of the elevator opened up, revealing a large room with a big bed, multiple chairs and tables around the room. I have all rights to believe we were in the chambers of Sweetheart. My eyes laid across two statues, one with the annoying princess and another with a statue that I think was Capt’ space-boy.

“Yeah…No…This is the chambers. We went up too high. Let’s go back down…Please?” I was begging and repeatedly I pressed the down button to where we were now back in the halls of the castle.

“We could have found something good in there.” Mizuno said to me, looking at me with slight concern for my well-being.

“Or I could have lost my sanity. I’m really starting to detest this witch…” I said to her as we walked down the halls.

We continued walking until we made it back to the area that we exited the dungeon from but there was a sprout mole in the way. It looked at us with suspicion but it readied its weapon nonetheless.

“Stop imposters!” It said, our cover was now blown. “I know what you are…And you are NOT sprout moles! Hmhm! You must be wondering how I am able to tell…”

We didn’t say anything, I assumed that if he was bluffing then we could come up with an excuse later. “You see…I am above those feeble and inexperienced HAROLDS AND MARSHAs! I am SIR MAXIMUS…And with my impressive lineage, I will be victorious and bring honor to my family!”

The sprout named Sir Maximus rushed towards us, but I placed my foot on the knight, preventing it from reaching us. I simply kicked him away from us, watching him lay on his back. “No…I cannot fail now…My son needs me!”

The knight would get back up and charge at us once more it readied his blade, getting ready to stab us. But since I had my own sword with me, I stabbed it towards the floor and watched him try to impale through the blade but he failed to even make it budge.

“Sorry, sir…But we really need to leave…So tell your son that you did a good job.” I say as I grabbed the sword from the floor and knocked him out with the back of the handle through his open face mask.

“Hmm…If he could tell that we were not sprout moles, then we should be careful from this point on.” Chip said while adjusting his mask.

I nodded and we all continued to walk, O.Joe was whistling to himself as if he wasn’t a suspect to what had happened.

So far, we continued to walk around the castle. The crowd had not left one bit so that left us to explore more and more of the castle. We even had to do some errands for some troubled sprouts that almost felt exhausting. First the dress code, then the food, then the whole entire choir that keeps falling asleep whenever they perform. I too wanted to fall asleep at this point…

During each job encounter we did, there were two sprout moles that shared the name of Sir Maximus, Sir Maximus the second, and the third…Both of them, just like the first, were easily defeated by us. I did feel bad for the Sir Maximus lineage but we can’t have every single sprout mole figure us out otherwise it is back to the dungeon…And the door will be locked for good.

“Hey is it just me or does it seem quieter all of a sudden?” Chip asked, all of us stopped to look around. Indeed it was silent, and there was no sprout mole in sight.

“Wasn’t there a crowd of sprout moles at the entrance earlier? I don’t see them around anywhere!” O.Joe said as we all walked down the castle to see nobody was around, not even a crowd that blocked the exit.

“They must have finally pushed their way outside! Let’s follow them. Maybe they can lead us out of here!” Mizuno said, feeling very chirpy at the moment. 

With that, we exited the castle through the halls of what appeared to be fruit juice until we saw light on the other side. Now exiting from the castle, we were now in another garden but it was very different from the one with the sword in the stone. We followed the sprout moles that were exiting the castle, not walking very close but at a good distance. 

“We’re finally out of Sweetheart’s castle! I wonder what’s up with that big event everyone is preparing for..” O.Joe said as we all continued to follow the moles.

“Strange, they are all gathered around that statue right there…” Mizuno commented as we all inched closer to what they were saying.

“eet…Je…Iled…Ut.” Was all that we could make out when the statue moved out of the way afterwards. The sprout paparazzi went underneath the statue until it closed seconds later. We all looked at one another and walked up to the statue. We stared at it for a moment, till its eyes opened with the same glowing red stare back at us.

“WHAT’S THE PASSWORD?!” It said in a deep yet loud voice that startled us.

“P-Password? Oh man…Do we need to find a password?” O.Joe said as he put his hands in his hair. “I don’t want to deal with another puzzle to get out of here!!!!”

“Calm down, I’m sure we can figure this one out…Maybe.” Chip said with an unassured tone that didn’t make the situation better.

We stood around for a moment trying to think of a password. I sat down and stared at the statue, who was still looking at us. Not even closing its eyes which made it more creepy.

…

Another moment had passed by which felt like hours, I got up to look around for a bit to scout the area. There were guards all over the place and I didn’t feel like fighting. Or humiliating them for the matter, I saw O.Joe walking back towards us eating a donut.

“What are you eating, O.Joe?” I asked.

“A SWEET JELLY FILLED DONUT. You want one?” He offered as he had two in his hands.

When I was about to take a donut, the statue started to shake. “You said, SWEET JELLY FILLED DONUT.” 

We all turned to stare at the statue in shock, forgetting the fact that it could speak. We waited for something bad to happen only for…Nothing to happen.

“Hmph…FINE!!!!” It said until it began to shake once more, closing its eyes as it moved out of the way, revealing a trap door.

“O.Joe…I take back what I said about you being useless.” Mizuno said with shock along with the rest of us.

We all opened up the trap door and climbed down the ladder. Underground we were in a hall filled with gifts and letters that were littered on the ground that filled the hallways. Does this lady even bother to read and open them all?

Now walking through the gift vault of the underground we eventually found another ladder that could lead us and I mean hopefully out of the castle. My eyes darted towards O.Joe who was stuffing his pockets with CLAMS. I wanted to say something, but hey…It was well deserved for our troubles.

Climbing up the ladder, even though the trapdoor was barely budging we pushed with all of our might to open it and exited through an area that was way too familiar…We were back at the stage where Sweetheart hosted a show about finding hearts.

“We finally made it out!” O.Joe grinned but only to look around to see decorations. “What’s up with all these decorations?”

“It looks like someone is about to get married!” Mizuno chimed in.

“...But who exactly? If it’s a sprout mole marriage, then we can leave just right now.” I asked, really wanting to leave this place for good. 

The room became silent as a loud screech of a microphone was turned on. “Uh-oh! The show is about to start! Let’s hide!” Chip said as we all hid behind a few chairs, making sure not to block the sprouts' sight.

My eyes laid upon the stage as the sprout announcer from before walked up on stage, now in the spotlight as it clears its throat. “Welcome all! Welcome all! Today is a most momentous occasion. After forty-two seasons of “SWEETHEART’S QUEST FOR HEARTS”...It is now time to air our final episode.”

‘A final episode…Oh brother give me a break…But it’s good that the show is ending and all, but this is just heinous.’ I internally groaned while I continued to watch but only to see the sprout mole was shedding a tear from its sunglasses.

“It…Sniff…Has been a splendiferous run…Sniff…Thank you all for your viewership. For as long as we have been on air…We have rigorously looked for a perfect suitor for our beloved Sweetheart…And each time…Regretfully…Sweetheart was unable to find her one true love. But this time! We believe…That we have truly outdone ourselves! This is…The moment to end all moments…History…Begins here. Dim the lights, please…”

As if on cue, the lights dimmed down once again. All of us were intrigued about what was going to happen next. Has Sweetheart actually got someone to fit her crazy and obnoxious personality? I sure hope so…But I also fear for that person too. 

“THE FINAL EPISODE BEGINS NOW!” It announced, his voice filled with excitement and pride. “LET US COMMENCE THE WEDDING!!”

The curtains began to lift up, revealing a group of sprout moles in the center of a heart-shaped pink carpet. Are those the same ones from the choir? Guess that explains why they were performing.

“Please, welcome to the aisle…SWEETHEART’S PERFECT SUITOR!!”

All of us turned around to see two sprout moles holding a cake on their heads, walking down the aisle before dropping the cake to the floor. The lights got bright again and the drum roll started to play as the cake started to shake. When the drums end the cake explodes from the top to reveal…Princess Sweetheart?!

Now jumping out of the cake, I got a better look at her. She was wearing a wedding dress while she wiped her face off from the cake remains.

“Yes! It’s true!” The sprout announcer said. “Now you’ve seen everything! The answer has been obvious all along! The only suitor magnificent enough for Sweetheart…IS SWEETHEART HERSELF!”

‘You have got to be kidding me…Well good thing there isn’t a victim that fell for her.’ I looked at the woman with a deadpan expression while she started to laugh along with the cheers from the crowd.

She continued to laugh at the same time the crowd started to cheer, over and over until she was beginning to look annoyed. “SILENCE!!”

The crowd was now silent from the woman’s outburst. Everyone was silent until she let out a cough. “Ahem…Let us begin the ceremony.”

Sweetheart takes a step forward at the same time the sprout choir starts to sing. She walked as slow as she could, her smile never leaving her face. I was feeling weirded out while Chip felt very…Very uncomfortable.

“Dearly beloved…We are gathered here today…” The sprout announcer spoke as the princess stopped in front of it. O.Joe was starting to laugh hysterically at the princess who was indeed planning to marry herself. “Sweetheart’s marrying herself! That’s so lame!”

“Don’t laugh, O.Joe!” Mizuno nudged the boy while having a sad look on her face. “I…Actually…Feel kind of bad for her.”

We all noticed the choir had stopped, the room filled with silence yet again. It appeared that the sprout mole was still talking and we didn’t get to hear what he had to say earlier. “Now…Does anyone object to this holy matrimony? Speak now, or forever hold your peace!”

No one really had said anything, no one had objected. Either it was because they were afraid to get sent to the dungeon or they just really wanted the princess to be happy. It really didn’t matter since the announcer kept speaking.

“In that case…By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you…SWEETHEART AND SWEETHEART! You may now kiss the-”

“I OBJECT! STOP THIS WEDDING IMMEDIATELY!!!” Said a voice that bombed the entire room, all of us turned to stare at who it was and to our surprise and fear it was Mizuno who had spoken. The lights dimmed down and now she was in the spotlight, the girl took off her mask and by the look on her face she was angry…No she was furious!

 “Don’t do this, Sweetheart! This wedding is a sham…” She said, all of our eyes locked onto her, even Sweetheart looked shocked at the sudden appearance of the little girl. “Loving yourself is one thing, but…This is taking it way too far!”

Now getting out of her shock, Sweetheart’s face was now contorted with rage. She stomps her foot on the ground in a fit of anger.

“NOT YOU AGAIN!! How dare you step foot back here! GUARDS!? GUARDS!?!?”

“Sweetheart…You’re making a mistake.” Mizuno continued to speak. “You can’t just marry yourself…There’s someone out there for you…I know it!”

“Mizuno, what are you doing…?” O.Joe whispered, he was in fear now that we had gotten busted once again and even fearing for his life that he was going to be captured. “She’s going to send us to the dungeon again…”

“Hmph…You understand nothing, random Chip fan.” Sweetheart glared at the girl, now her two guards were right next to her. “I was a young princess once. I, too, once thought there was someone for me out there in the universe…But that’s all in the past now. I no longer believe in true love! I’ll never love anyone else ever again! The only person I’m going to love from now on is myself! Now, guards…SEIZE HER!!”

The guards slowly walked towards the girl, but she stood her ground. At this point I had about enough of the princess’ craziness. I stood up and got in front of Mizuno while Chip was right next to me.

“SWEETHEART, LISTEN TO ME!! You don’t have to do this!” He shouted as I held my arms to the side. The princess looked at us with a mix of shock and happiness.

“W-What’s this? C-Could it be?” The princess’ eyes were now hearts once again as she slowly walked over. “Chip! My Chip has come for me! Oh, my sweet Chip…I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone like this! How you sway me with your words! Although it may be over between us, my heart has not yet forgotten you…I will give you one last chance. MARRY ME, CHIP…HERE AND NOW!! Do so, and I will let you and your fans live!”

“W-WAIT, WHAT?!?!” Chip was completely dumbfounded by the request from the now crazy…No INSANE princess in front of us. “I can’t do that…That’s crazy!”

The princess had her mouth closed as she turned away from us. “What’s this? You reject me…Again?” She said, her voice beginning to shake. “But…How could this be?”

“I…Don’t…Understand…”

…

…

…

“ohohoOHOHOHOHOHO!!” The princess starts to laugh, instead of it being annoying and obnoxious this one was filled with straight insanity.

“Uh-oh…Now you’ve done it…” O.Joe gulped.

“Ah…Yes…I see everything clearly now.” She said, now turning to face us. Her expression was unreadable, but her eyes…Oh by the lord her eyes were glaring into our souls. “I’ll admit it…I was wrong about you, Chip. I thought you were a worthy companion…But…It seems you are jealous of me, just like everyone else! Yes! That must be it! My dazzling looks…My charming smile…My gregarious personality…It must be so difficult for you to even stand in my presence…Well there is no need to despair anymore. ”

Alright...I’ve had enough of this lady.

“Lady, you are everything but the OPPOSITE of those things! You are nothing but a self centered witch who only wants attention by those who are nothing but BLIND to see the truth!” I said, everyone turned to look at me with eyes widened from my words. I didn’t even know I had all the attention on me. But it was already too late as the princess stared at me, her daggered eyes met my own.

“H-How dare you…YOU INSOLENT LITTLE PEST! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!”

I slowly take off my mask and drop it to the floor. Meeting her glare with one of my own.

“I am the friend of Chip, I am the protector of my friends who answer to all that need our help. I am the one who is searching for two people who hold dear to us, I am the light that shines and pierces through any storm of sorrow…I am their ally! Sunny Suzuki…And if you are going to hurt them then you will have to go through me first!

Everyone’s jaw dropped at my speech once I raised up my blade to her. O.Joe looked at me with a look of cringe. “Dude…That was terrible, couldn’t you have said something better like “I am the light in the darkness. I am truth. ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU!”?”

“Hey I had to come up with something on the spot…And besides, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you all. Even if I have to give my life for it…”

“O-Oh Sunny…That was beautiful, I think I’m going to cry…” Mizuno’s eyes started to tear up while Chip had a smile on his face.

“Well Sunny…You will be the first that I will end your suffering...Personally.” Sweetheart said her wedding dress changed to her normal dress while summoning her weapon which was a chain mace that was shaped into a classic heart filled with spikes.

“FAREWELL MISERABLE PEONS! I’LL LOCK YOU UP IN THE DUNGEON FOREVER!!”

…

What will Sunny and friends do?

Everyone had gotten their weapons ready for the fight against the crazy princess who was twirling around and skipping with each step she took over to the group. Her smile never had left her face, she twirling the ball that was chained to the handle of her weapon she moved it around with such speed and force that she was like a literal ballerina with a rhythmic dance ribbon.

Sunny was betting that if he were to get hit by such a deadly weapon, he would get himself clocked short. But remaining with a guard up, Sweetheart just as she said hopped towards the raven-haired boy, swinging her ball down to the boy who managed to deflect with ease until another incoming attack from her was made. Sunny backs up to only block and defend while Omori and O.Joe were behind her. O.Joe throws the ball towards Omori who simply kicks it at the back of her head, not willing to use his knife due to how sharp it was…He didn’t want O..Joe to be defenseless.

The damage to the back of her head wasn’t much but it caught the woman’s attention away from Sunny. “How dare you strike me! You little vermin!” She said with pure malice in her tone as she shipped towards the two of them, getting ready to defend themselves. Mizuno appeared from the left side of her view, the only thing that the princess was met with was the full force of the girl's bat hitting her directly in the face.

The princess was very dazed from the attack and even shook her head to drown out the impact but during that her speed had fallen down. “It’s pointless, you fools! You cannot dampen my positive energy!”

“You are so delusional!” Mizuno quipped while reading her bat once more.

Sweetheart was quick enough to slap Mizuno in the face, causing the girl to hold her cheek in pain. Even though the weapon was menacing and deadly, her strength was a force to be reckoned with.

The slap that was given to Mizuno, easily made the girl ENRAGED. She started to swing her bat violently, trying to swing at the princess who was dodging every single one of her swings. “OHOHOHOHO! Oh my! Such passion! Yes! Show me your determination, keep on striking! I sure hope you don’t tire yourself out!”

Due to paying attention to the now pissed off little girl, Sweetheart failed to realize that behind her was Chip who had his frying pan ready. When the princess ducked from an incoming horizontal swing Chip strikes his pan down on her head. 

A comedic gasp came out of the princess while two birds were circling around her head for a split second until she got on her hands to kick her legs around in a tornado like fashion, kicking both Mizuno and Chip away from her from the impact that connected. The two of them flew across the room, but their fall was broken by Sunny and O.Joe who nearly fell down to their knees from how much force they were collided with.

The princess gets on her feet while doing a spin to keep up her style, now spinning her mace once again she looks around to see who wants to tango with her next. When she looked down, she quickly moved her head away from an incoming slash from Omori who snuck below her for a sneak attack. “Oh boo! Now that is sharp! You nearly messed up my hair you little imp!”

Omori as usual had nothing to say to her and started to slash wildly at the woman who only managed to block some of his attacks but the fifth yet final slash managed to gash her in the arm from his knife. The pain singes through her arm while she lets out a harsh yelp.

“Ngh…Tis but a scratch! Nothing more than that!” She growled while she spun her mace with extra speed, sending it to the monochrome boy who only blocked but was sent back by the impact.

Omori looked up to be met with the princess closing in on him, about to brace for another impact to come Sunny gets in front of him to parry her attack with his sword. Now this was Sunny’s turn, he runs towards the girl swinging his sword while she blocks and deflects so she could attack him but her attacks were also blocked and deflected. The two were so engaged in the battle that it was like they were trying to read each other’s movements. Sunny wasn’t a fighter but he was thinking of this as a rhythm game, block and attack…Block and attack, block dodge and attack was the only thing that Sunny could think of.

“You dare raise your sword at me?! Fool! You should be groveling on your knees!” She taunts as she slams the mace down to his head. Sunny places the blade over his head to defend, but due to how hard the strength from the ball that had a lot of momentum she was building up, Sunny crouches down while having his teeth clenched. “Oho! My beauty and grace is boundless and everlasting…It’s a shame that you won’t be able to enjoy it for much longer!”

Sweetheart becomes ECSTATIC! Her luck and speed increased, but her hit rate was now -20%

“Hnghh…J-Just stop talking already! And I thought your fake laugh was annoying enough!” Sunny said while he felt himself getting ANGRY. His attack increased but his defense had decreased

He places up a hand to summon a black fireball, once the ball is fully charged he fires it at the woman who was now knocked back, some of the black flames get on her dress while the woman becomes horrified and quickly puts on the flames but the damage to her dress was left with burns and holes on them.

“M-My dress! You ruined my dress! N-NOOOO THIS COSTS SO MUCHHH!!!”

Sweetheart was no longer ECSTATIC, she was now DEPRESSED! Her Defense increased but her seed decreased along with her luck going back to normal. Sunny now had the advantage due to being angry.

The now sad woman defends herself while Sunny is now attacking her relentlessly. Sweetheart didn’t have any chance to attack, the more that she tried to throw her mace, the quick speed of the blade immediately makes the princess switch to blocking. But fortunately for her while Sunny had finished a swing, she kicked him away to create some distance. The princess was getting tired, so tired that she was beginning to sweat.

Sunny was on the same boat, he wasn’t used to swinging the sword and it felt a bit heavy whenever he tried to swing or even pick it up, that’s how tired the boy had become.

Both opponents were back to NEUTRAL! Their stats were now balanced once more.

“I must commend you, Sunny Suzuki. You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet! Not much like Chip but I suppose I will make you an exception! HOW ABOUT YOU MARRY ME?!”

“W-What?! AS IF!” Sunny was shocked but his eyes glared at Sweetheart who started to laugh, now she had become a MANIAC! Her speed and luck increased drastically while her hit rate was greatly reduced.

The princess darted towards him with insane speeds, but when she swung her mace it missed greatly causing her to nearly trip. But she bounced on her toes to keep herself balanced while she twirled herself around to kick Sunny in the arm, knocking him down on his back.

Sweetheart was now standing above him, she was getting ready to swing her hammer down to his face. Sunny closes his eyes to brace for impact while he weakly raises his sword to his face. Now about to strike him down, the princess looks up to see an incoming Mizuno who was launched by both O.Joe and Chip. She looked like she was flying but to Sunny’s case she was like a speeding bullet.

“Take…THISSSSS!” Mizuno screamed as she used her head to headbutt the woman in the face, sending the woman flying to the ground. The damage from her attack made her drop her mace to the floor while she was now seen sliding back to the stage. The girl was so dazed that she was now seeing stars and spoke incoherent sentences…But there was one sentence that was spoken that made it clear.

“No…is this…What they call defeat…? I cannot accept this…” She said now getting herself up slowly while she was still dazed, she was slightly getting more conscious. “I will not accept this! You’re all nothing but a bunch of lowly peasants! ”

Sunny’s party was victorious! The party was now feeling stronger than before.

…

I slowly get myself up from the ground, placing the tip of the sword to the floor as I use it as a crutch of some kind. Mizuno also got up but she held her head in pain from the headbutt she had used. We all grouped up together to check if anyone had gotten hurt, though thankfully none of us had any bruises but Mizuno had a large bump on her head that O.Joe started to laugh hysterically at.

After some time, all of us had gathered around the now defeated princess who looked at us with anger burning from her eyes. “How could this be? Y-You…You’re all nothing! How dare you defy me…Throw them in the dungeon! Guards…Guards!?!?”

But…The guards were slowly backing away from us, not even daring to attempt to arrest us. They simply ran away from her, afraid for their very lives. Mizuno walked over to the princess, rubbing the bump that was still on her head while looking at her with pity. “It’s over, Sweetheart…The wedding is canceled!”

Sweetheart slowly backs away from her but she bumps into Omori who stopped her from leaving or could even try to escape if she wanted to, but she had no energy left to fight. “N-No! I cannot accept this. Just leave me alone!”

Just suddenly, the room had started to shake. We all looked around with caution until we saw a large ship had crashed down into the room. We all readied our weapons but as soon as someone had come out, everyone except for me had lowered their weapons.

The figure steps out of the ship and puts the ship on park. It was a young man with blue skin, light-blue fingernails and pinkish-red hair. He was wearing an outfit that looked so…Futuristically. Now looking at him with a much closer detail, this was Capt. Spaceboy.

“My Sweetheart!” He exclaimed, running over to us. “Ah, I am so relieved that I made it in time. You must stop this madness at once!”

“C-Capt. Spaceboy?!” O.Joe said with a mixture of shock and confusion.

Sweetheart, whose eyes widened from the sudden appearance of her ex-boyfriend, stared at him with a glare and pushed past Omori.

“You…YOU IDIOT!! I thought I told you…To never show your face in front of me again!”

“Oh, Sweetheart! My Sweetheart! My sweet jelly-filled donut!” He said, ignoring the glare that was given to him by her. “Please, look into your heart and give me another chance. I should not have kept you waiting all those days…”

All of us immediately backed away from the two of them while we heard music coming from behind the stage. It was the sprout moles who were singing a very harmonic tune that seemed to go well with what was about to happen.

“You…W-What are you doing?” She asked, now eyeing the boy with surprise.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do this sooner…” Captain spaceboy slowly gets down on one knee and pulls out a case from his pocket, he opens up the case containing a very shiny ring. “MARRY ME, SWEETHEART!! Right here on this very stage!”

“Oh…My! This…This is all so sudden!” Her cheeks lit up into a crimson rose that had matched her eyes, she was getting flustered by the sudden gesture that the spaceboy was making. “How…How…How…HOW ROMANTIC!”

She walks over to him, she grabs the ring and places it on her finger, she looks at the ring while she is smiling ear to ear. “SPROUT MOLE MIKE…I order you to marry us immediately!”

“Yes! At once, my liege!” The sprout mole with sunglasses appeared from the stage, I looked at the sprout with eyes widening.

‘Wait…That Sprout had a name all this time?!’ I thought before staring at those who were on the stage while the five of us took our seats. ‘Huh…Not a bad name.’

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here tod-”

“Oh, forget the formalities, Mike!” Sweetheart interjects the sprout while she had her eyes locked in with Captain Spaceboys. “True love cannot wait!”

“Y-Yes, my princess!” Sprout mole Mike takes a second to adjust himself while clearing his throat to skip to the part that Sweetheart so desperately was waiting for.

“Ahem…By the power vested in me…I pronounce you…SWEETHEART AND SPACE HUSBAND! You may now kiss the bride!”

Once the sprout was finished, Sweetheart ran up to Captain spaceboyfr- Space HUSBAND and started to wrap her arms around him, placing her lips onto his. This made O.Joe gag while Mizuno was covering her mouth to hold back tears of joy for the two. I was sitting there feeling uncomfortable while Chip smiled at the sight, Omori offered Mizuno a box of tissues which she gladly accepted.

“Oh Sweetheart…Let us travel the universe together…And leave all this behind!” Space Husband said after the two had finished kissing, he took her by the hand.

“Yes! Yes, my husband! I will go anywhere as long as it is with you!” She said as she was feeling ecstatic by the idea.

“Let us take leave, my Sweetheart! We have been apart for much too long!” The space boy brings her close to him, and picks her up as they start to walk off stage. “Come, my ship awaits!”

“Yes! Of course, my dear! But first…There is one last thing I must do.” Space husband would stop walking as she turned her attention to look at Sprout mole Mike. “Sprout mole Mike, hand be the button!”

At once, my queen!” The sprout walks off the stage for a moment before returning with a button, the princess takes the button.

“We don't need all this anymore!” She said, now pressing the button while she started to laugh once again. After the button was pressed, the stage started to explode…Leaving a large hole in the center, the entire floor was destroyed. Now feeling satisfied, she tosses the button away. “I’m ready now dear.”

“At long last, we can be together…” Space husband whispered to her. “Comen my queen! Our chariot awaits!”

The now married couple of Space Husband and Sweetheart made their way to the ship along with Sprout mole Mike who was now following them just to see them off. The two get inside the ship and we all watch the ship slowly begin to start and ascend out of the room…Never to be seen again.

“So much for a happy ending…” I say, placing a hand over my head. “I don’t think that’s going to end well at all.”

“Yeah…I guess this was a complete waste of time.” O.Joe agreed.

After some time to process what had transpired…I felt the bond of my friends become stronger.

“Alright, I’m beat…Let’s get out of here, we still got Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐ to find. And sadly as much as I wanted to believe they could have been in the castle or perhaps the dungeon for that matter…We had no luck.” Chip spoke while we all agreed despite having gloomy looks on our faces.

“Do you think we will ever be able to find them…?” Mizuno said while looking down.

“We will, right now we just don’t have any leads…But I’m sure we will find some answers and where they are eventually. We just gotta have faith.”

This didn’t make Mizuno happy but she sucked in a breath and gave Chip a look of determination.

We all began to start walking but I suddenly stopped as I placed a hand on my head, it was starting to burn. “Nghh…What the heck…?”

“What’s the matter Sunny?”

“What’s the matter Sunny? Is there something wrong?” Mizuno asked, all of them looked at me with concern. 

“Did Sweetheart get a nick off you or something?” O.Joe wondered while he looked at me if I had taken any damage.

“N-No…I’m fine it’s just that…” My eyes turned to look at the massive hole on the stage that Sweetheart created after her departure with her husband. For a moment, I could swear that I saw a silhouette of somebody enter the hole. “That giant hole…There’s something telling me to go to it…”

They all looked up to stare at the hole, Chip was a bit skeptical as to the reason why I wanted to see it, even though I too had no idea but we all went over to the hole anyways just to see what was going on.

Now in front of the hole I stared down at it. All there was was nothing but a black void that seemed endless.

“It looks like a long way down…I’m actually surprised that this was underneath the stage.” Chip commented. “Wonder what’s down there.”

“Do you think this could lead us to them?” I asked Chip who turned to me with a shrug.

“I don’t know…But this looks a little dangerous…I’m not sure if we should go down there.”

We all became silent at this point, I stared down into the black void while I couldn’t help but wanting to know more to where this could lie. I took a deep breath as I was now thinking of my options. Go down and risk the chance of death.

…Or leave the hole and never have a chance to figure out where this could lead and possibly won’t find both Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐.

“Hey…As long as we are together we can get through this no problem…I’m voting on we should go down.”

They all looked at me for a second as they too were now thinking about their options, each one of them took a longer time to think than I did. Soon they placed their votes on the matter.

“I will go wherever Sunny goes!” Mizuno said with a smile.

“Yeah, if this could lead us to find Iris and ☐☐☐☐☐ then I’m all in!” O.Joe was next to speak as he grinned.

Omori gave a thumbs up as he made his vote now this was left with Chip…

“Alright, alright…We will all go down together. I just hope that the fall has a nice cushion at the end…” Chip said with hesitance but eventually he complied as we all took each other by the hand.

This was going to be a long fall, but we all began to jump down towards the hole anyway. Holding each other close we descended down into the black void, light from the stage was no longer seen and I felt my grip being loosened by my friends who had their hands with mine. One by one I saw them drifting away, nearly fading from the dark but I did see each and every one of them begin to change, their skin was now monochrome but there were different colors coming from both Mizuno and Chip who were pink and blue. O.Joe remained the same until all three of them shifted their forms into something else…It was like I was seeing them grow taller and having much more normal clothing, but my eyes slowly closed as I continued to fall.

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*THUD*

My eyes opened as I was laying in a pool of water that broke my fall, I turned to look at where I was…It was a room with multiple shelves with every single book filled on them and around as were flowers. No these were White Egret Orchids Just…Where am I exactly?

“It seems that we are not dead.” A voice spoke, to my surprise I turned to stare at Omori who was sitting next to me.

“Omori? What is this place? Actually, where are the others?” I asked him as we both got up.

“Safe…They are safe Sunny, it’s just you and me.” He answered as he started to look at me, his neutral expression not changing a bit.

“Safe…What do you mean…?”

“Sunny, do you know where we are?” He looked at me, tilting his head as he was awaiting my response…He didn’t even answer my question.

“I’m…Guessing we are in some sort of library?” I answered, unsure if that was correct or not.

Omori didn’t say anything but he did gesture to me to follow him. Without any say on the matter I did follow him, while I followed him while he was cutting away spiderwebs I looked at the area a bit more. 

This place looked old…Very old, like no one had been here in a long time. The place was dimly lit but I was able to see just fine..

After Omori was done cutting away the webs he turned to look at me for a second before going to sit down at a table to read a book that was on the table already opened.

I was a little confused but at the same time I decided to wander around the library for a bit to see if there was anything of interest. And to my luck there was a book of interest that caught my eye.

I grabbed the book and started to read the first page: 

“One by one, they fell asleep on the car ride home. It was a long day at the beach, after all, and everyone was exhausted... ☐☐☐ was the first to nod off, then the rest. As the sun sets over the freeway, ☐’s head accidentally drops onto ☐☐☐☐☐☐’s shoulder. The sudden jolt wakes him, but doesn’t dare open his eyes. He pretends to be asleep and steadies his breathing…He listens to the sound of the road. He feels the soft sun resting on his skin, and the slight tinge of pain on his nose from tomorrow’s sunburn. He is happy…Very, very happy…And he makes a vow to himself that no matter what, he will remember this moment forever.” 

And that was the end of the first page. The page felt so sweet and nice that it made me feel happy, but what bugged me was the names that were blacked out. I wonder who these people were exactly…But I guess the story that doesn’t need a name for characters was just good enough to be what everyone will have as a metaphor of some kind.

After reading the first page, I turned to the next one to see what would happen next. I don’t know about O.Joe, but I think reading is something that is very good to express the scene of what everyone’s imagination will take them. 

“A puddle of juice sinks into the carpet. Hovering above it is none other than ☐☐☐, holding an open juice box. He looks around at his friends, who are all wearing the same face of disappointment. He lets out a guilty chuckle. In what seems like less than a second, ☐☐☐ disappears out of the front door. A tiny black kitten makes her way through the stain, leaving  sloppy, wet tracks all over the carpet. ☐☐☐☐’s face turns red and yells for ☐☐☐, but ☐☐☐ is already long gone. ☐☐☐☐ hands ☐☐☐☐ some wet paper towels. It looks like they’re the only adults here…And if they don’t clean this up soon, the carpet is going to stain. They’ll have to deal with ☐☐☐ later…”

Now done reading the second page, I was now giving my thoughts on the page. Why did this person run away after spilling juice on the carpet? Was he afraid of facing the person’s wrath or what? And a black kitten messing up the carpet even more was a salt to the injury…I hope that the carpet was clean.

I let out a snort as the story was funny to me. I can imagine O.Joe doing something like that one day. But then again that’s just a story…Nothing more and nothing less.

I continued to read page after page, the stories were actually pretty good. I was imagining my friends as the characters in each of the scenarios as they are the only people that I think of that might fit them well. I was enjoying this book a lot as it was making me feel like this could have happened to me since this was feeling a lot more relatable by the moment.

After finishing up the last few pages, I found a page that had caught my interest the most.

“Everyone is over again today. The special occasion is Saturday morning. From 7:00AM to 11:00AM, a group of six friends eat a delicious homemade breakfast and watch T.V. together. It’s the most enjoyable part of every week. ☐ looks at the clock. 8:00AM. Two hours left. He would be able to watch with everyone else until 10:Am, when his tutor leaves. ☐ grimaces…What he thought would be a rewarding hobby has been nothing more than a nuisance.” 

“Instead of watching shows with the rest of his friends, he’ll be the only one to miss out. If only he could watch the last hour with everyone else…” 

“If only he didn’t have to play the violin…”

I was…Speechless, I have no words to even say on the matter…This poor person right here, feeling left out because he wanted to spend time with his friends but the violin had prevented him from doing so…Does this person perhaps hate the violin that much? I mean, sure it’s a nice hobby to play a violin, but to this extent that he was only going to miss out on things that he wanted to enjoy the most? I feel bad for him…

This was the last page of the book, there were no pages after that since the rest was all blank. I placed the book back into the shelf while I walked over to Omori who was staring at the book. He seemed…Angry with it, was there a part of a story that he didn’t like? I honestly never seen Omori make an angry look before and that is saying something.

“Hey Omori? What are you reading?” I asked, the monochrome version of me looked up at me. His eyes glared deep into my own to which I nearly took a step back before his face relaxed back to a neutral expression.

“Just…A terrible book.” He said as he closed it up and even slammed it on the table…What’s with him?

“O-Oh? I see…Yeah I understand, I was reading a nice one but the last page was a little sad…” I said while Omori gave me a nod.

“Can I ask you something, Sunny?” He spoke while he got up from the chair.

“What is it?”

“Do you think that everyone deserves forgiveness?”

I looked at him with a puzzled look as I tried to ponder the question. Forgiveness? What did he mean by that? And why ask me that question…? What book did he read?

“Well…I mean, everyone can deserve forgiveness…I don’t see why they shouldn’t deserve it.” I answered.

Omori stared at me, his eyes didn’t even blink once I answered, he slowly shook his head like I had said something wrong.

“Even if they had hurt you so much to the point that you feel your sanity beginning to wane and you are hurt so badly that it could be beyond recovery, wishing that it all could end…Do you still believe that?”

Okay, now I am getting really scared. Why was Omori saying something like that? Where did he even get that idea from? Doesn't everyone deserve some kind of forgiveness? What did he mean when he said hurt so badly that it could be beyond recovery…? Now this was something I can’t even give an answer to. It doesn’t mean I do have an answer but refused to say it…I just don’t even know.

“I…I don’t know…Maybe? Maybe not, but only if I knew a reason why before forgiving them…” I said, my voice was lowered down to a whisper while I looked away from the boy.

Omori closes his eyes, taking a second to think about the response I had given him until he opened his eyes. “Sunny…I think it’s time you should wake up.”

“Wake up? What do you mean-”

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DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY!

Chapter Text

Sunny’s eyes shot open almost immediately before sitting up on the bed, gasping out for a breath. It didn’t take him long to realize that he was in the bedroom of his own house. A sigh escaped his lips once he calmed down while placing a hand over his head.

“Ugh…A dream…Just a dream.” Sunny muttered to himself, taking his hand away from his head to see it was wet. Has he been sweating in his sleep? Either he didn’t realize how intense his dream became or maybe it was the fact he was wearing a hoodie in the middle of summer. 

Now getting out of bed, he looked around the room and since the sun was now up and shining through the window he was able to see the room much more clearly. Though much hasn’t changed, he looked at the digital clock that was sitting on the lamp just from the bed he slept on.

“12:46 P.M.?” The boy hummed to himself, thinking nothing about it as he left the bedroom, to meet the rest of his house once more. Only this time there was light and he could see everything that wasn't pitch black and involved an insanely long staircase that was all in his mind.

Speaking of which…He really needed to talk to someone about what is going on with him, he knows that he has amnesia but he was not sure if seeing hallucinations of scary looking monsters and hearing a voice telling himself to calm down were also part of his diagnosis. He probably should have told the doctor when he first woke up, but he was too confused and scared of what was going on at the time of how he got there.

Slowly but steadily the boy made his way down the stairs, gripping onto the handrails tightly so he didn’t accidentally trip and fall. The stairs were giving off a feeling of deja vu which he couldn’t seem to place his finger on. 

Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, Sunny was about to continue exploring the rest of the house until his nose started to twitch as he was smelling an odd aroma that was making his stomach rumble. He starts to walk into the living room to see there was nothing but the sound of frizzling coming from the kitchen. With a sudden curiosity, he walked over to the kitchen.

Now finding himself in the kitchen, the raven hair saw his mother standing in front of an oven. He didn’t know what she was doing before seeing smoke coming from the stove. Getting a little closer to where he can see from a distance, the boy saw some meat was cooking.  The meat looked a lot like the steak he saw in OTHERMART yesterday.

The woman turned around to see her son was in the kitchen, a smile formed on her face which he saw was welcoming. “Good morning- I mean…Well it’s afternoon now, Sunny. How’d you sleep?”

“I…” Sunny noticed he  was drooling, man did that steak look so good. Quickly wiping away the drool, taking a second to speak after.

“I slept alright, though I think I slept a little longer than I hoped…Yesterday was something.”

Sunny heard his mother giggle before grabbing a plate and placing the cooked steak on it, along with some vegetables as well. She walked over to her son and gave him the plate. “Honestly you and I both slept longer than what we had hoped for. I missed my alarm and I’m almost late for work.”

Soon his mother would guide him over to the dining area, pulling a seat for him and seeing him sit down with the plate now on the table, she placed down a small knife and a fork on the table next to his plate.

“...Thanks, uh…Mom.” He said, though hearing himself addressing her as his mom was going to take a bit of time getting used to again but he saw how happy she was made him relieved.

“You’re welcome sweetie, um…Do you need help cutting your steak?” She asked, concerned for her son as she was afraid that he could cut himself even if she gave the boy a knife that wasn’t that sharp.

“I’ll be alright, I think I can figure it out by myself.” Upon hearing his answer, she gave a nod and watched him grab the two utensils and started to cut the steak. She didn’t take her eyes off the boy as he slowly took a bite of the cut piece of steak into his mouth, seeing his mouth chewing and even seeing the light in his eyes shined from the taste which she took as a sign on how much he loved it.

Despite not seeing her son smile in years, she was glad to see him in a better mood.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Eventually the moment would shift as the two would hear a knock on the door. “I wonder who that could be? You stay here and continue eating while I go check.” Elena leaves the kitchen while Sunny does what he was told and continues to eat.

Elena walked into the living room and over to the door, she opened it to find a tall familiar looking teen that was wearing orange with a smile on his face. “Oh! Hello Kel, I didn’t expect you to be here!

“Top of the Morning- Err…Well Good afternoon Miss, Elena. I was wondering if Sunny wants to come hangout today?”

“Why of course! He’s awake and in the dining room to the left, you are allowed to come in if you want. He’s eating brunch right now.”

His smile grew into a grin and without any hesitation, he walked inside and took a left to the dining room. He popped his head through the corner to see that Sunny was still eating and having his eyes closed, enjoying the food that his mother made that he was basically humming a pump beat tune.

“Hey Sunny!” Kel greeted, bringing the boy back to reality as he turned to look at Kel.

“Ahm..Hey, Kel.” Sunny replied with a mouthful, causing the taller boy to chuckle a bit.

“Sunny please don’t talk with your mouthful…I don’t want you to choke.” Elena said as she entered the room, worried for her son.

The boy was quick to swallow his food once he realized that it was dangerous and if not rude he slightly lowered his head.” Sorry…”

Sunny’s mother only smiled before she sighed, she knew that her son was a good kid and due to his amnesia she had no intention to scold him. Not like she really did back when he did have his memories, she knew how Sunny would behave and isn’t much of a trouble maker.

“That’s alright sweety, just remember to not talk with a mouth full of food next time okay?” Sunny looked at her and gave her a nod. The woman would check her watch to see that it was almost close to 1 o’clock. “Oh shit- Errmm…Boys, I’m going to go now. I’m going to be late for work! Just make sure to bring Sunny back by the time it starts getting dark!”

“No problem! I’ll make sure he gets home soon! Oh wait I also need to tell you-” Before Kel could even finish his sentence, the woman walked out of the house in a hurry. Leaving the boy feeling deflated while Sunny slowly went back to eating. “And she’s gone…”

Now turning back to his friend, Kel grabbed a chair and sat next to him. “Soooo how are we feeling today, Sunny?”

After taking another bite of his food, Sunny sets down his fork and knife and looks at him.

“I’m feeling okay. A little better than yesterday anyway, but other than that I’m okay.” Sunny answered him, his eyes were scanning Kel from his facial expression and to his posture. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling great now that you’re up and around! I actually had a great dream last night, though it was a weird one but it was a great one!”

“What did you dream about?” Sunny was starting to get interested in what kind of dream Kel was talking about, though he didn’t show it he was enjoying hearing Kel talk. Maybe that’s a memory that he had before.

“Umm…I actually don’t remember, but I assure you it was a great dream!” Kel answered, this led to Sunny no longer having an interest and finished the remainder of his food.

“But we are not gonna make it about me today! So it turns out Hero and Mari’s not coming back until around evening today, so I thought that today will be the day that I help you get your memories back!”

The part about Sunny getting his memories back made the boy perk his head up. He found it odd that he was interested in getting back his memories but in the back of his mind, he wanted to know what he was like before and what everyone else was like…Maybe, just maybe if he had his memory back would he be able to fix things and have things go back to how they were before?

“So…What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Sunny got up from his chair while Kel did the same, he was really liking the behavior the raven hair was giving, though maybe this could be an opportunity for him to make new memories as well.

“Actually while we do that, my mom is having me buy some stuff at FARAWAY PLAZA before they come back, and…So I thought it might be funner if we went together.”

Sunny didn’t say a word, instead he gave Kel a nod which he also gave a thumbs up much to Kel's happiness.

“ALRIGHT LET’S GO!”

The two teenagers exited the house, Sunny squinted his eyes a little due to how bright the sun was but his eyes quickly adjusted along with feeling the fresh summer breeze blew through him once they began to walk. Sunny looked around the neighborhood that he was in, taking a quick mental note in case he had to go back home on his own.

Kel would suddenly stop while Sunny who was behind him did the same, he looked up at Kel with a puzzled expression.

“What the heck?! What happened here?!” Kel would say, his expression was on that made him feel irked once he walked over to where he was looking at. Sunny noticed something on the ground, leading him to get a closer inspection to see something was written in what appeared to be colored chalk.

KEL SMELLS!

The shorter teen would hear Kel let out an annoyed groan and even hear him click his tongue.

“Dangit…It must have been Aubrey and the stupid scooter gang…”

His eyes shifted around for a second until he turned to look at Sunny with a deadpan.

“...Sunny, be honest! Do I smell?”

Leaning in to smell the taller teen, Sunny would take a step back a second later, his neutral expression changed to one that had him squinting his eyes and covering his nose.

“Y-Yeah…Badly.”

As if Kel felt something plunge into his chest, he got on his knees and let out a comedic sigh before he slowly got back up and grabbed a hose from his house. Turning it on he washes away the chalk off his driveway, washing it until it is completely gone from view and walks back to his house to turn off the hose.

“...Anyway, let’s get goin.”

The two continued their walk throughout the neighborhood, eventually they were now at the FARAWAY park which was next to the plaza. Before they continued to walk, Sunny would be the one who would stop this time. Kel turned around to see Sunny’s eyes were drifting to the park, Kel turned to see who Sunny could be looking at which to his surprise he saw a blonde haired boy at the corner of the park.

“Oh hey, it’s Basil! I wonder if he wants to join us.” Kel walked into the park to where the Flower-boy was, Sunny followed soon after but he walked really slow so as to not being able to forget what had happened last night when he found him in the bathroom.

‘Breathe…Just breathe…’ Sunny thought to himself as he was getting afraid, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths. His heartbeat moved back in a regular rhythm now that he was now a lot calmer, eventually he opened his eyes and was next to Kel who he looked to Basil.

“Hey Basil!” Kel called out, the blonde flower flinched as he quickly turned to who was talking to him. Seeing that it was both Kel and Sunny he calmed down a little.

“H-Hey…Kel…Hey…Sunny…”

“‘Sup, Basil? Nice to see you out and about! Are you feeling better after yesterday?”

“Huh? Y-Yesterday?” Basil would look confused, if not seemed a lot more fidgety than he was yesterday. “W-What do you mean?”

“You had a big stomach ache, didn’t you?” Kel’s smile would fade into a frown. “That’s why you had to go to the bathroom…”

Realizing what he had meant, the boy relaxes himself. “A-Ah…Oh, right…Yes, I feel much better now.”

“Did you want to hang out with us today? We are going to help Sunny get his memories back.”

“I-I don’t know…” Basil’s eyes drifted away from Kel to Sunny who had a much calmer expression than he had himself. “M-Maybe tomorrow…” 

Basil gives them both a small smile before having a sad look.

“Sorry…”

“Aww…Don’t worry. You don’t have to force yourself.” Kel said with reassurance for him. “We can always catch up later!”

Now silent, Basil looked away as if he was in a deep thought for what almost seemed like it was a while before he gave them both a nod. “Yeah, you’re right…O-Okay then… See you later then, I guess.”

“Alright let’s get going Sunny, we’ll probably be back later if he’s still up to it.” Kel said before the two teens left the park and headed over to the plaza.

During the walk, Sunny took a few glances to the park to see Basil walking through some bushes and was never seen again. Sunny didn't think much of it but he could tell that something was bugging him, he would ask him later if they would go back.

“Let’s see…I’m pretty sure we gotta stop at GINO’S pizza and the bakery in OTHERMART…” Kel announced to the smaller teen, he pointed at the store that was just in the middle between HOBBEZ and OTHERMART. “Lead the way Sunny!”

Knowing where to go, Sunny was the one who took the lead. Both of them walked over to the store, Sunny opened the door and Kel was the first to head inside while he was the second to last to enter. Upon entering, an aroma had entered the boy’s nose which nearly made his mouth water again.

‘Why am I smelling food again? And why do I always drool from even smelling it?! I just had food not too long ago!’

Getting out of his thoughts, his eyes looked around the inside of the pizza place, from the floor to the decorations on the walls his eyes would land on a certain group of teens just a few feet away from them at a table.

Sunny identified the group to be the HOOLIGANS and in front of him was Aubrey, he could tell because of the bright pink hair. It seemed they hadn't spotted the two of them as they were only paying attention to the pizza in front of them.

“Hey uh…Kel? Whatever we are getting in here, we gotta do it fast.” Kel would look at the smaller teen with a puzzled look.

“How come?”

Sunny pointed at the table with the HOOLIGANS, Kel looked at the direction he was pointing. Seeing the pink haired leader and her squad he immediately lets out a quiet groan.

“...Good point. It makes sense since we were kids this was our favorite place…Let’s just be quiet about this.”

Both Kel and Sunny walked around the tables to get to the counter, Sunny would have his hood up to not be recognized by the HOOLIGANS while Kel on the other hand stood next to him while he hoped he didn’t get noticed.

During the walk over to the counter, Sunny overhears the delinquent group's conversation.

“GINO’S Pizza is the bomb!” Said Kim as she took a slice in her mouth. “This is one disgusting, dirty, greasy-lookin’ cheeze pizza…Just the way I like it!”

“So…We’re still on to go to our secret hangout spot today, right?” Angel asked while he was munching on his own slice of pizza. “I’m gonna bring my fishing pole! Made it myself out of a cool stick and a jump rope yesterday.”

“Heh. So we’re going to our secret hangout spot? That’s a perfect date spot.” Said The Maverick, flipping his “hair”. “I’ll be sure to bring one of my special ladies.”

“Swimming…Sounds…Pretty fun.” Vance spoke each time he chewed his pizza, taking long to even speak.

“Well! While you’re all foolin’ around being babies, I’m gonna be busy skipping rocks!” Kim added, grabbing another slice of pizza. “I’ve been looking for the perfect rocks all week!”

“You can try all you want, Kim, but you’ll never beat Aubrey’s record!”

“Shut up, Mikhael! Like any girl would actually wanna go to the lake with you without you paying them!”

“I told you to call me The Maver-” The Maverick winced, dropping his pizza on the table to quickly hold his mouth “ACK I BIH’ MA’ TONGUE!!”

Kim bursts out laughing as she smacks the table, watching the fake blonde in pain. “What a loser!”

“FWAAAAA!! Master, are you hurt?!” Angel called as he was worried for his mentor.

Though he was in pain, The Maverick glared at the girl with red glasses. “YEW PEH’ FO’ DIS’, KIM!”

Kim only laughs in response this time she was laughing harder to the point she was sorting and holding onto her stomach in pain for how much she was laughing. 

Sunny continued to watch the group, he noticed that Aubrey hadn’t said a word, she was quiet and eating her pizza. The more that he looked at her, he could almost picture the innocent Aubrey that was in the photo Album. How on earth did she go from what seemed to be an innocent girl to the current yet angry Aubrey that he sees today?

Quickly he turned his head away once he reached the register with Kel, not wanting to be recognized he kept his direction forward and watched the taller teen begin to order.

“Hello and welcome to GINO’S Pizza!” Said the Pizza man who gave them a smile. “What can I get for you?”

“Hiya! I’m here to pick up an order!”

“I see! What would you like?” Before Kel could even answer, he was cut off by the Pizza man as he tried to predict his order. “Oh…I know…Would you like…Pizza?” 

Kel shook his head and gave the Pizza man a receipt paper that had an order on it from where Sunny was looking at. “I think my mom phoned in an order for a HERO SANDWICH this morning! I’m just here to pick it up.”

“Oh…I see…” The Pizza man’s smile would change into one that didn’t look happy but he wasn’t angry either, he seemed to be tired. “You’re the family that keeps ordering sandwiches…Instead of pizza.”

The response to Kel by surprise as he wasn’t sure what to say. “But…It’s…On the menu, isn’t it?”

Silence came between the two, the pizza man looked at the menu from the corner of his eyes. “Hmm… yeah, you’re right...I guess so.” The pizza man’s tired expression instantly changed to a smile once more. “Okay I’ll go get it!

The pizza man leaves the register to go get the order that Kel’s mother made, leaving them both by the register. “You know…I don’t know if I ever told you this when you had your memory, but that’s why my brother’s nickname is HERO…”

Sunny looked up at Kel like a curious cat. He wondered where the older brother of Kel got the nickname from, he even thought that was his real name. “You’d think it’s because of some really cool reason like he saved a puppy when he was a kid or something…”

“He just really likes sandwiches?” Sunny asked, fully understanding the picture to which Kel would nod, almost feeling embarrassed by the answer. “Ah, makes sense…But hey I’m not gonna judge, if I had a nickname after something then I’d cherish it.”

“Well your sister does call you ‘sunshine’ and my full name is Kelsey…But I’d rather you NOT call me that.” Sunny cocked his head to Kel, looking at him like wanted to say something but he kept his mouth shut.

“Sunshine? If she wants to call me that then…I don’t mind I guess.”

The two teens continued to wait for the order, eventually the pizza man came back with the order. “Okay, here is your HERO SANDWICH. Please enjoy.”

“Cool, thanks!” Kel grabs his order and turns back to Sunny. “Alright, we’re good to go now, Sunny! I’m ready when you are!”

The boy didn’t hesitate as he left for the door, Kel noticed that the delinquent group were getting up from the table. Thus was his cue to leave the scene and hide himself from getting spotted.

Now outside of the restaurant, the teens started walking away from Gino’s. “Now we just need to get the cookies from the bakery in OTHERMART!”

“You got your wallet with you this time?” Sunny raised an eyebrow, Kel winked as he pulled out his walled that had the same pattern of a basketball. “Oh…Cool.”

“Heheh! Trust me, Sunny. This time I’m doing all the paying, well even though mom ordered here.'' Kel puts his wallet away in his short pockets and the two headed inside OTHERMART.

The raven hair was still surprised how huge the store was even if he had been here yesterday, this time he had a chance to explore the rest of the building. “Let’s go to the bakery!”

The two walked through the store, this time Sunny had a chance to look around. Kel noticed the smaller teen spinned around and looked through each aisle. This made him smile and allowed him to do as he pleased. 

'Heh…He’s acting like a curious child who has seen Christmas lights for the first time.’

Getting down to the last aisle, he saw two people looking at the bottled drink section. When he got closer. The two had vanished, leading him to blink twice as he was perplexed. “Umm…Did you see that?”

“See what?” Kel asked, Sunny looked at him like he was about to say something but he lowered his hand.

“Nevermind…Let’s head to the bakery already.”

Kel stared at Sunny, raising an eyebrow but he shrugs it off and he leads him to the bakery.

Inside the bakery, Kel walked over to the register whom he knew as Mr. Baker “Welcome to our family bakery! What would you like?”

“Hiya! I’m here to pick up an order!”

“Hmm…” Mr. Baker stares at Kel for a moment before giving a smile. “Ah, yes! Your mother said you’d be coming…Though I expected you to be here a bit earlier, I’ll go grab your order!”

Having to wait for Kel’s order yet again, Kel snaps his fingers as he had thought up a fact to tell Sunny. “Did you know? This bakery belongs to Mikhael’s family.”

“Mikhael? “The Maverick” Mikhael? There’s no way…” Sunny was in disbelief when Kel nodded, though if he remembered yesterday when they had to fight the playboy and knocking his wig off, he did notice something familiar about Mr. Baker when he walked in, the skin tone, the hair and the facial features.

“Yeah I guess you can’t really tell, because he wears that horrible yellow wig all the time…” Sunny nods, still feeling shocked about the fact. “Seems like he’s making a pretty big effort to stand out and be different!”

“If he wanted to stand out…Shouldn’t he just make his hair color look different? Like how Aubrey’s is?”

“Sounds pretty expensive, but I don’t think his family would do something like that though.”

When they finished talking, Mr. Baker walked back out with a bag in his arms and set it on the counter. “Here’s your order, sir! Please enjoy your baked goods and hope to see you soon!”

“Cool thanks!” Kel gives Sunny the Hero Sandwiches while he grabs the baked goods in the bag. “Alright, we’re good to go now, Sunny!”

With a nod, the two headed out of the bakery, and out of the entire OTHERMART itself. When they were walking out of the plaza and away from the park, Sunny saw Kel checking the bags over and over. “Baked goods…Check! Sandwiches…Check! Well that’s everything, and just in time, too.”

Kel would take the sandwiches from Sunny, now having possession of both orders in his hands. They walked back into the neighborhood where the two lived. “Let’s take these back to my house. Hero and Mari should be coming back home soon so we have some time to kill.”

Sunny gave a thumbs up to the taller teen, both now walking towards Kel’s house. Kel would stop in front of the door and look at Sunny. “Before we go in…I should probably mention that my mom is going to be a little mad about me taking so long with the groceries.”

“Why would she be mad?”

“...I was supposed to bring everything back around noon, but I got carried away doing other stuff and…Well, you know how it goes.”

The Raven hair slowly nodded as he understood, at this point he could almost read Kel like a book now. His insight was getting really better to the point that this was beginning to scare him a bit.

“But anyway, I thought of a solution for this!” Sunny, interested to hear what Kel’s idea was, leaned in closer. “So…I think…You should walk in first.”

…

“...Are you trying to kill me?”

The sudden response from Sunny, causes Kel to back up and raises his arms in defense.

“What?! No, no! It’s just so that way, she’ll see you first and get all excited! And most importantly…She’ll forget to yell at me!”

…

“So you’re using me as leverage for your own self gain.”

“WHAT?!” Kel gasped before quickly looking around, making sure he wasn’t heard by his mother until he looked back at Sunny. “Sunny please I beg, I’ll pay you back I swear!”

“Calm down Kel, I was…Just kidding around.” Sunny snorted, this made Kel sigh in relief.

“Ahh…You got me, you actually got me good.” Kel would chuckle, opening the door and Sunny was the first to enter the home of the Rodriguez’s.

The house was a lot like his own, but except it seemed to have more things and a screen door was absent...Though the house smelled a lot nicer too.

“MOM, SUNNY’S HERE!!” Kel yelled at the top of his lungs. Soon they both heard footsteps getting louder and closer, and a mature and irritated woman entered the living room.

“What took you so long, Kel? I sent you off hours ago!” Mrs. Rodriguez shouted her eyes glaring at her son. “How long does it take to get a bunch of sandwiches-”

The woman would cut herself off as she looked away from Kel to see Sunny standing next to him. This left the woman in shock before she walked over to the boy. “Oh my, is that Sunny? It must be!”

Sunny was brought into yet another hug by the mother of Kel and Hero, yet he felt another sense of comfort which awkwardly pats her on the back a bit before letting go of him.

“It’s so good to see you again! And my you've gotten taller, and much more handsome too. You probably might be close to Hero when it comes to charms.”

Hearing the compliments Sunny’s ears would head up before averting his eyes. “T-Thank you…Mrs. uh…”

“Psst…Rodriguez!” Kel whispered to Sunny.

“Ah, thank you Mrs. Rodriguez.” Sunny corrected himself, feeling a little more embarrassed than before.

“So when did you get out of the hospital?” The mother asked, her eyes filled with curiosity.

“Just yesterday, Kel stopped by my house to hangout and help him get the groceries that you needed for Hero’s arrival.”

“Well I’m sure he will be excited to see you! I was told that Mari was also coming back from college…She will be even more excited to see you.”

“I…Can’t wait to see them again.” Sunny said, not wanting to bring the mood down, he looked up at Kel in hopes he could help.

Kel looking at Sunny, seemingly getting the idea of what was going on he walked over to his mother and handed him the orders that she had given him.

“Here’s the stuff you asked for, Mom!”

Mrs. Rodriguez takes the bags of the sandwiches from her son, Kel grabbed Sunny and started to walk him towards the other room. “Hurry, Sunny! Let’s go upstairs to my bedroom!”

“Now you wait just a minute young man-” Mrs. Rodriguez called out only to be interrupted by her son. 

“Bye, Mom! See you when dinner is ready!”

Both teens left the living room, Kel ran up the stairs while Sunny followed behind staring at the chairs at the top of the stairs and how many books there were in each shelf, the taller teen took him over to the door on the far right and walked right in.

“Well, here it is…Make yourself at home!” Sunny looked at the room, he saw how big it was compared to his room which was a lot smaller.

It was the size of his house's kitchen, his eyes wandered from the left side of the room to the right. He saw so many differences in just one room, like the many trophies and degrees were on the right.

“Look! I got a basketball hoop and a boombox just like I always wanted, here I’ll play a song for you!”

The athletic teen walked over to the left side of the room, assuming that it was his half. He turned on the boombox and it started to play some upbeat music that got Kel fired up.

“Yup, it’s pretty sweet, though mom won’t let me play it too loud though, because she says it’s bad for Sally.”

“Huh? Who’s Sally?” Sunny looked at Kel while he looked at him with a head tilt.

“Oh wait! You haven’t met Sally yet!” He rubbed his nose along with having a grin. “Guess what, Sunny! I’m a big brother now! Sally’s my baby sister. My mom will probably bring her downstairs around dinner-time.”

“Wow…Uh, congratulations. I guess I can’t wait to meet her.” Sunny would be surprised by the news that he had received, a light shown in his eyes. Though there was no smile, he was in fact happy for the boy.

“You will love her, she’s really small and really cute!”

“KEL! There’s a girl at the door!” The two boys heard Mrs. Rodriguez’s voice, flinching and even having Kel turn off the Boombox “She says she’s here to see you!”

The two would look at each other and even shrug at the same time. “Huh? I wonder who that could be?”

“Let’s go check it out.” Sunny said as both the boys left the bedroom and headed downstairs, once they popped into the living room, they saw Polly standing inside the room who was talking to Mrs. Rodriguez earlier until they saw them.

“Kel, who is this beautiful young lady? Why didn’t you tell me we’d be having so many guests coming over!?”

Kel raised his hands in defense once more, this time he was hiding behind Sunny. “I-I didn’t know she was coming over, I swear!”

Sunny looked at Polly, she had a worried look on her face as he walked closer to her along with Kel who was still behind him. “Hey, Kel…Hey, Sunny…S-Sorry for intruding.”

“It’s no problem, what brings you here, Polly?” Kel would ask the young and beautiful woman, seeing her in such a worried state had gotten him concerned as well. 

“I was just wondering if you know where Basil is…I thought he might be with you.”

“Basil?” Kel would place a hand on his chin while he thought for a moment. “Hmm…We did see him at the park earlier, but that was a while ago.”

“If you see him, can you tell him to come home? I’m really worried about him…”

Kel gave the young woman a nod and even a smile while Sunny nodded as well. “Of course, Polly! We’ll be on the lookout!”

Seeing the two boys willing to help search for the flower boy, Polly gave them both a smile in return. “Thanks…I knew I could count on you guys!”

Soon enough, Polly gave them a wave and a nod to Kel’s mother before leaving the house. Kel’s smile left his face as he was starting to become worried. “Basil’s missing today? I have a bad feeling about this…Especially with Aubrey and the scooter gang around.”

“Aubrey? The little girl that you are friends with? Is something wrong Kel?” His mother would ask before Kel was quick enough to give an excuse.

“N-No, Mom! Actually there IS a girl with a similar name, but trust me it’s not the Aubrey that we know!”

His mother stared at Kel for a moment, raising an eyebrow in suspicion before dismissing it soon after. “Well I suggest you better find him before it starts getting dark…That girl did look awfully worried.”

“We can?!” Kel was surprised that his mother is even allowing him to go out despite the fact of how his mother is.

“Yes, just make sure to be home by dinner.” Kel would smile before hugging his mother.

“Thanks mom, you're the best!” Now letting go of his mother, he runs out of the door gesturing to Sunny to follow. “Come on. Sunny!”

When Sunny was about to leave he turned to look at Mrs. Rodriguez. “It was nice seeing you again Ma’am.”

“And it’s nice to see too! I hope you make sure Kel doesn’t get into any trouble now young man.” She would smile at the young boy who would nod in return before giving a wave and leaving the household.

The two now walking through the neighborhood, Kel would be in deep thought as to wonder where Basil’s whereabouts might be. “Now…Where could Basil be? Surely he still has to be at the FARAWAY park right?”

“If that was the last time that we saw him in the past…Maybe an hour or two? I did see him go inside some bushes and into the woods. I don’t know why but I assume that he probably got lost.”

“Why on earth would he go into the woods? That doesn’t make sense, unless he is running out of space for some planting.”

“Won’t know until we find out, right?”

Giving the smaller teen a nod, Kel was starting to like the fact that Sunny was becoming more of the lead. “Right! We better hurry before we run into any trouble!”

And thus the two teens started to run, well Sunny was running and Kel was only jogging due to him being taller and much more athletic than the shorter teen. He made sure that he was able to keep up when they ran through the neighborhood.

…

Now at the park, they both stopped to look around. Sunny was short on breath and had his hands on his knees while Kel looked normal while having his hand out in front of his eyes, trying to see as far as he could.

“Man…Where could Basil be?” He muttered, proceeding to walk around to the park while Sunny followed, still regaining his breath until they both went back to the same location that they met Basil in and Sunny seeing him go into the trees.

“Hahh…I…I don’t see him anywhere.” Sunny pants before he fully regained his breath. “I was sure that he went into the woods.”

Both teens looked at one another for a moment until they both heard a scream coming within the forest.

“SOMEBODY…HELP!!”

“Sunny…Did you hear that?” Kel asked as both of them became confused. Sunny gave him a nod until he recognized the scream.

“I think that was Basil!” Sunny exclaimed, worried about what was going on behind the forest.

“HELP ME!! PLEASE!!” The voice screamed again, now this caught both to be worried for the boy.

“Where is his voice coming from?!” Kel searched around the area to try and locate the source of Basil’s voice.

“I think…I think it’s coming from over there. Remember where Basil was standing? I think it’s coming straight in there!” Sunny would point at where he could possibly think Basil’s exact location was. Kel staring at the direction he was pointing at, there was something that clicked into Kel’s brain as the area he was familiar with.

“Hold on a sec…I know this area!” Kel placed the pieces together as his eyes widened in shock. “Basil’s voice is coming from our old hangout spot!”

“Old hangout spot? Wait a second I think I overheard the HOOLIGAN’S conversation about a hangout spot…” Before Sunny could finish, he heard Basil scream once more. This prompted him to make haste. “Actually, I think we better go save him now!”

“You’re right Sunny. The entrance should still be somewhere around here!” Both Kel and Sunny searched for an entrance behind the bushes until they both spotted a familiar path behind the bushes. Not wasting any time, Kel and Sunny ran through the path.

In the path, Sunny saw a lot of traffic cones and signs that said ROAD CLOSED that almost blocked the pathway. Fortunately enough they were spaced out enough to where they were actually able to cross through. 

When they got past, Sunny took a look around the area that he and Kel were both in. It was a lot more spacious compared to the park and there was a lake surrounding a statue in the middle. Just in front of him, he saw a group surrounding a boy with a flower on his head who was protecting himself while he was screaming for help.

“What the hell are you yelling for, Basil?!” Shouted Kim who sounded panicked. “You’re making a scene!”

“This place is our secret hangout spot!” Angel added while he looked annoyed. “You can’t be here, because you weren’t invited!”

“Dangit Basil…Be quiet! Someone’s gonna find this place.” The Maverick spoke, this time he actually sounded serious to the two teens who were witnessing what was going on.

“Yeah, we’re not trying to hurt you!” Angel would begin to plead. “We just want you to get out of here!”

“HEY STOP IT!!” Kel screamed, not bearing to let this go for any longer and walked towards the group while Sunny followed behind. “What are you doing to Basil!?”

“What the?!” Upon hearing Kel’s voice, they all turned to look at the two teens. Kim groaned with annoyance. “Oh my god…It’s Kel and Sunny again! Why do you always show up?!”

Kim furrowed her brow as she was now getting annoyed by the two which she gritted her teeth. “How did you even find this place?!”

The girl with the red glasses turned to her pink haired leader. “C’mon Aubrey, we gotta defend our turf!”

Aubrey looked on at her former friends as slowly lowering her head before she turned around with her back facing them, not saying a single word.

“Aubrey…” Whispered Kim who’s expression was one of concern though it didn’t last long as she slowly looked back at both Kel and Sunny with a growl.

“Go away, Kel! You’re not welcome here! This is OUR spot!”

“Oh, this is YOUR spot now?” Kel questioned the bully, “Well, this used to be OUR old hangout spot…Wasn’t it, AUBREY!?”

Aubrey flinched at the moment Kel had called her out, she was slowly sinking her head down to her shoulders. If Sunny could see the strains of her pink hair spreading apart a little, he can already tell she was slowly steaming with anger.

“WATCH IT OR WE’LL MESS YOU UP!” Angel shouted as the rest of the HOOLIGANS were getting closer to the two teens.

Kel kept his eyes on Aubrey when the rest of her gang got closer. He slowly closed his eyes and shook his head. He didn’t know what was going inside her mind at the moment and when he looked at Sunny who had his neutral expression…He heard a small gulp coming out of the boy.

“...Fine…If that’s how it’s going to be, then at least stop bullying Basil.”

Kim turned to Basil, seeing that he was still on the ground holding onto himself while he was crying. Her attention immediately went back to Kel soon after.

“We weren’t doing anything to him…He just started screaming for no reason!”

“Yeah, sure you weren’t!” Kel scoffed, not buying what Kim is saying.  “Why should I believe you?”

“We’re telling the truth!” Gripping her fist, Kim’s teeth were grinding against each other. “Stop being such a self righteous prick!”

“Come on, guys! Let’s make sure this is the last time these two mess with us!” The Maverick smacked both his fists together as his sidekick Angel gets into his fighting stance.

“That sounds good to me! I’m right behind you, The Maverick!”

Each single member of the group was raising up their fists, some of them had smirks on their faces that were just ready for a fight while the least of them weren’t. Both Kel and Sunny felt like this was the ultimate standoff, only two of them against the HOOLIGANS. Sunny wasn’t sure if he could take them on all of them alongside Kel.

“Stop.” A voice was heard behind the delinquents, Aubrey turned around and started walking in front of them. Her eyes were glaring at the two teens for a second until they were completely locked onto Kel. “This isn’t your fight, it is mine and mine alone…”

Hearing what Aubrey had said, the delinquents were in complete shock along with Kel and Sunny. Kel was suspicious of what she was planning until she lightly tapped her bat against her palm. 

“B-But Aubrey! We can take them on together! There is no way they will be able to stand a chance against all of us!” Kim disagreed as the rest of the group stared in confusion.

“You may be right…But I’ve got a score to settle with Kel. If he’s gonna pick a fight with me and you guys then he’s got one!” Aubrey would smirk as she grips her bat. “So don’t interfere!”

Unable to respond, Kim sighed before she gave a smirk of her own. “Fine then, we’ll just make sure that the small fry doesn’t get in the way!”

‘Small fry?’ Sunny thought once he noticed the group were looking at him, he knew this was not going to be good at all for him when Aubrey started to run towards the both of them. They quickly got out of the way when Aubrey was about to swing the bat but she stops midway, faking that she was going to hit them which caused the two to separate

“JEEZ WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US- WOAH!” Kel dodged an incoming punch from Aubrey, only to get hit in the chest from the bottom part of her bat.

Witnessing that Kel was getting hurt, Sunny tried to run towards the two which he was stopped by the group. The Maverick had grabbed him by both of his arms and held him in place as Kim would snicker from watching Sunny who was struggling to free himself.

“Nuh uh uh! You ain’t gonna help him this time, little man!”

Sunny grunts as he struggles helplessly  watching the two teenagers fight. Aubrey was throwing some jabs and hooks, Kel could only dodge and block the hits but he keeps forgetting how Aubrey can actually throw good and strong punches.

“Ugh…! D-Dang it Aubrey, I’m not going to fight you- OW! Will you quit it?!” Kel spoke as he tried to defuse the situation he was in, only for his attempt to fail when he saw the anger on her face.

“I’ll stop when you pay for what you all have done! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?!” Aubrey screamed, continuing to throw more punches at Kel. She even kicked him right in the stomach when he tried to cover his face. The force of the kick was so powerful it nearly brought him to the ground, but Kel didn’t give in once he got back up.

“I said I was sorry, okay?! What more do you want from me?! Do you just want me to get on my knees and beg for forgiveness?!” The taller and hurting teen took a second to imagine, only beginning to shudder at the last moment.