The days that followed after the first Neko club meeting remained uneventful, though everyone involved seemed on edge. Everyone appeared a little more jumpy, a little more cautious. Some might even call them paranoid. Even you felt a constant increasingly stronger sense of uncertainty and danger, as if someone was looming around the corner, ready to snatch you. The constant state of stress left you visibly agitated, tail puffed up as your ears were constantly shifting in an attempt to pick up as much information as possible.

You were currently in one of the various practice rooms, training yourself in the arts of magic. With practice and patience you slowly began to grasp the basics of magic and managed to manifest your knowledge in form of a small cube of condensed magic. There was still a long way to go before you could wield magic in a way most other humans do and it would probably take you a life time until you can use it the way the great mages did in the past. Not that, that would pose a problem. Time has no affect on you.

"Damn it," you cursed, frustrated by yet another failed attempt to summon anything more than a small cube of magic. If it wasn't for the fact that your magic would dissipate so quickly, you and everyone around you would probably be drowning in a sea of magic cubes right now.

Once again you focused until you felt a tingling sensation in your fingertips. The sensation grew stronger and stronger by the second, but you kept focusing, shaping the arcane energy in your head. You envisioned a small sphere and shot your arm forward. To your own surprised a small sphere lobbed forward, bouncing over the floor a few times before vanishing.

A strong feeling of success began to rush through you, boosting your motivation. You repeated the process a few more times, each and every time creating a sphere that jumped farther and farther. It was a small success but it showed you the almost endless possibilities on how magic could be applied.

"There you are," a voice from behind you nearly caused you to jump out of your skin. Just as you were ready to lunge at the person that nearly scared the living daylights out of you, you realized that it was just Asriel.

"Is everything alright? You've been acting quite different ever since you've been to that club," Asriel showed himself as concerned as always, probably in an attempt to gather more information on the Neko club.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping properly lately," you lied, hoping it would cause him to drop the topic. If possible, you want to keep him out of your business.

"I see you're making progress," he commented, probably about your magic practice.

"Yeah. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it," you responded as you focused once again. This time you began to envision something more dangerous, something you could use as an alternate way to defend yourself. As you once again shot your arm forward, you released a pointy, needle like object. It whizzed through the air in an almost perfectly straight line before hitting the target at the end of the room.

"Slowly? You're learning how to use magic quicker the rest of class," Asriel was quite impressed by your, in his opinion, quick progress.

"You think so?" you asked as you shot another needle forward.

"I do. Just a few weeks ago you were struggling to summon anything and now look at you go," he continued to praise you for you quick advancement in terms of magic. "Anyway, how about you take a break? You've been here for the last three hours."

You lowered your arms and sighed. "Yeah, I guess your right."

There were plenty of reasons against taking a break but collapsing from exhaustion wouldn't be helpful either.

"Great. How about we go eat out? I heard there's a new restaurant that opened in the city a few days ago," Of course Asriel had to blow everything out of proportion and suggest a fancy restaurant when a simple pizza would have done just as good of a job.

"Are you sure? I mean, a restaurant?" you questioned him, not really feeling up for the entire 'high society' life.

Asriel raised an eyebrow at your statement. Something about it seemed to have him confused. "What do you mean? It's a simple restaurant meant for students. Nothing too fancy. Just good, affordable food that isn't just pizza and instant-noodles."

"Sounds good, lead the way," you agreed to his proposal, seeing that he'd most likely continue to ask if you said no.

"Great!" Asriel happily exclaimed as he clapped his hands together. "Follow me."

So you once more departed for the city, leaving the gates to the college grounds behind. This time your journey led you to a completely different part of town, where the Victorian charm slowly transitioned to a more modern scenery. No longer were you walking on cobblestones, but rather a proper pavement. The vintage lanterns slowly turned into modern ones and even the surrounding buildings look more and more modern.

"... I mean, how can someone make so many puns in a so little time? It's like he has a chronic condition that will kill him if he doesn't make a stupid pun at least once every thirty minutes. It's probably all the ketchup that has been rotting away his brain, if he has one to begin with. Not only is he an idiot, he's also a ketchupaholic... Ketchupoholic? Ketchupic? You get what I mean, right?" Once again Asriel furiously ranted about all the stuff that was bothering him. Mainly a certain skeleton he doesn't seem to get along with at all.

"Looks like you just goat to deal with his jokes, it's not like he's your stepdad," you responded, sneaking in a pun so bad that it's probably illegal in at least one country.

"You have to be kitten me," Asriel sighed in what seemed to be displeasure, even though he tried to sneak in an equally bad pun himself. "But I guess you're right, I hardly ever see him. But please don't make think about him being my stepdad, that'd be a living nightmare."

By the time you arrived at the restaurant, the scenery has completely changed. Everything looked new and modern, like a wealthy neighborhood. The lovely charm of the district you came from was gone and replaced with a cold and sterile aura.

"Are you sure this is the place?" the complete change of scenery left you wondering whether you were still on track or ended up somewhere entirely else. Even the supposed restaurant looked lackluster, as if it had no personality at all.

"Yep, this is the place," Asriel chirped as he confirmed your assumption. "Let's get inside."

You entered the restaurant and you're already low expectations were disappointed even further. The interior was much like the exterior. Bleak, boring and with so little personality you'd probably forget about this place the moment you would leave it. The inside of the restaurant look so generic and run of the mill you could probably find a similar looking place in every city on the planet. The only thing that created a semblance of atmosphere was the guy that was brutally assaulting his violin and called the resulting acoustic assault music. If the food is as bland as this place you might as well eat cardboard.

"So, what do you think about this place?" Asriel looked at you in curiosity. He seemed almost impressed by this place, which you simply could not understand.

"I've met rocks with more personality than this place," you blatant answer made it very clear that you were thoroughly unimpressed, disappointed even.

"The food's supposed to be good," Asriel tried to sound enthusiastic, hoping it would rub off on you, even if only slightly.

"We'll see about that, won't we," you remained underwhelmed and began looking for a table to sit by.

Once you found a place and sat down you were quickly handed the menu. It wasn't much different from the one over by the arcade's diner. The prices were a little cheaper but the only real indicator whether this place is cheaper or not will be the size of the portions.

"So, already have an idea what you're going to take?" Asriel inquired once he finished reading through the menu.

"Chicken with fries doesn't sound that bad," you replied as you put the menu down.

"Sounds great," Asriel seemed as cheerful as always, at least whenever he was around you. "I guess I'll take the spaghetti with cream sauce."

Once you orders were placed, you continued to chat about whatever topic came up.

"Hey, I totally forgot to tell you. While you were busy practicing magic, Mom send me a message. We're getting a new professor at our college. He'll be focusing on stuff like biology, chemistry and math," Asriel seemed almost excited while you were thoroughly unimpressed, maybe even a little worried. Perhaps you should tell Leo about it.

"That sounds cool. Did she tell you his name?" you presented yourself as excited in hopes of getting more information out of Asriel.

He took a moment to carefully think whether his mother gave a name or not, only to come to the realization that he can just check his phone. After a quick look, he spoke up again. "Yeah, she did. Eckhart Liogan, that's his name."

You fell completely silent once you heard that name. It was completely different from what you expected. Maybe you're simply too paranoid. A new professor doesn't have to mean anything, especially not the return of von Kaiser. You were still going to remain cautious.

"Say, that skeleton you mention earlier. Is he really that bad?" you tried to change the topic and took the conversation back to a previous point.

"Ugh, don't get me started. I hate that guy and he hates me. He still thinks I'm dangerous after all that crap that happened. The fact that I'm not on speaking terms with Frisk doesn't make things any easier," Asriel let out a long sight, clearly tired of all the stuff that he seems to be going through. "What's even worse, Frisk is the one he should be hating. They reset everything over and over again, even after everyone had their happy end. What I did was different, I just... Everything I did was because of the circumstances I was in. I didn't want to do what I did and it still haunts me every single day. Sans still treats me like I'm a psychopath ready to wipe out all life on earth. And Frisk, they reset over and over again with no regrets and everyone still loves them. I'm so sick of it..."

Asriel began delving into a more personal topic but the food arrived before he could go even deeper, and it looked mediocre at best. The portions were about the same size they were over at the arcade, which made this place slightly cheaper.

While your chicken looked good on the outside, Asriel's spaghetti looked disastrous. The spaghetti were lovelessly thrown on the plate and the sauce looked like someone had a little too much 'me time'. Asriel didn't seem to be happy with the food at all, if one can call that food. Nonetheless, he tried it and regretted it immediately.

"Is it really that bad?" you asked in a rather worried tone, though your question was more rhetorical in nature. Just by looking at his face you knew that the spaghetti were so bad that no even pigs would eat them.

"These are the worst spaghetti I've ever eaten. Just calling them spaghetti is an insult to every pasta dish that was, is and will be. It's way overcooked to a point is just mush. Even the sauce is overcooked," Asriel began ranting at the seemingly terribly food.

"Mind if I have a taste?" you hesitantly asked, hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as Asriel made it out to be. The cook wouldn't allow the food to be that bad... hopefully.

"Sure, go ahead," Asriel happily obliged, which worried you. Was he trying to pull off something again? Just to make sure, you used your own fork and tried the spaghetti.

You initial response was bored since there was absolutely no taste whatsoever, the fact that the sauce didn't stick to the noodles didn't help either. Whoever cooked them clearly though it would be a good idea to douse the spaghetti with water after they were done overcooking. Then the sauce, or rather what little was present, kicked in and you nearly gagged. Even the food during the entire experiment was better that whatever this repulsive stuff was.

"You're right. It's simply disgusting and to add insult to injury, they demand money for it. Whoever idiot cooked this would have to pay me for eating it, though I doubt they have that much money judging by the poor job they're doing," you sounded immensely dissatisfied and upset.

"How's your food?" Asriel asked with curiosity. He clearly hoped that yours wasn't as bad as his.

"Only one way to find out," you responded and grabbed your knife and fork, keeping your expectations slightly below 'potentially poisonous".

As you began cutting your chicken filet, you noticed something weird. Just pushing the fork into the meat gave you a very weird resistance chicken shouldn't have but you still began cutting away. Once you cut off a small piece, you witnessed what could've ended up as a murder scene. The chicken was still raw inside.

Your expression shifted into sheer anger and disgust as you dropped the fork on the plate. "That's it. I'm going to talk to whoever is responsible for this."

"____! WAIT!" Asriel shouted after you, worried that you might fillet one of the cooks, but you were already storming towards the kitchen with your plate in hand. He had no other choice but to follow you.

"Excuse me sir, but you are not allowed to enter the kitchen," An employee politely requested.

"Zip it. I'm not just going to accept this insult you're serving here," you simply pushed past the waiter and kicked the kitchen doors open, drawing in everyone's attention. "Alright, who is the incompetent buffoon responsible for this!"

"Hello human, are you here to compliment me on my cooking?" a skeleton approached you, and it seemed quite sure of itself.

"Yes, I'm here to compliment you. I'm here to compliment you for not having killed someone yet! Did you cook this disgusting mess?" you immediately began tearing into the so called cook in front of you.

"Yes, I did. Medium-rare, just the way it's supposed to be," the skeletal figure proudly exclaimed, almost as if it accomplished something noteworthy.

You were slowly starting to see red. How can someone this be this dense?

"There are two things wrong with that. First off, this steak is not medium-rare, it's blue, so blue I can hear it sing. Second, YOU COOK CHICKEN ALL THE WAY THROUGH! Have you never heard of salmonella? You could have killed someone," you began to mercilessly chew the skeleton out.

Just as you were about to continue verbally ripping the so called cook apart, Asriel entered the kitchen with a terrified expression.

"Hey. Uhm, please excuse ____ behavior. He can be a little rash when he gets angry," He tried to make up excuses for you hoping it would deescalate the situation, but only ended up making things worse.

"Angry? I'm not angry. I'm goddamn LIVID! Serving raw chicken, just what were you thinking? And the spaghetti? The poor, pitiful insult you dare call food? You should be in jail for demanding money for this," your verbal assault continued and you completely disregarded the stares of others as well as the approaching manager.

"Excuse me, is there a problem?" the manager, a seemingly polite young woman, asked, while more dished began to return to the kitchen.

"Yes, there is. A lot to be exact," you turned towards her with a furious gleam in your eyes. "This bonehead of a cook though it was a good idea to serve what is basically raw chicken."

The manager took a very close look at the chicken, which was ridiculous. Even the old lady from a few weeks ago should be able so see just how under cooked that chicken is. After a careful investigation, the manager spoke up again. "I'm very sorry for this inconvenience. We'll of course provide you with a new, correctly cooked filet."

"That's not all. Asriel, get the spaghetti they served you," you spoke in a demanding, almost commanding tone, causing Asriel to rush back to the table and grab his plate.

Once Asriel returned you took the plate from him and nearly shoved it into the managers face with an angry expression. The manager looked shocked but you were just getting started and promptly began ranting. "Look at this! Look at this sad pile of brutally abused food. Calling this spaghetti is an insult to every half decent pasta dish out there. How dare you, as the manger, allow this crap to leave the kitchen?"

"I sorry that the pasta isn't to your liking. I can assure you that our cooks try their hardest too..." the manager began to make up excuses but she fell silent the moment she noticed the drastic shift in your expression. You looked like you were about to turn her into minced meat and serve her for lunch.

"Taste it," you growled at her in a menacing tone.

She hesitantly grabbed a fork and taste tested the dish you and Asriel were presented. Her reaction was predictable and her face shifted into disgust.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" you spoke in an almost mocking voice. "Just what is in that sauce?"

"Only the best ingredients, prepared by a master chef," the way too overconfident skeleton cook from earlier decided to jump in on the conversation, boasting on his professionally unprofessional skills.

You didn't pay him any more attention that he deserved, which was none, and began to carefully scan the kitchen. The entire place looked like multiple tornadoes ravaged everything and just for good measure, someone decided to nuke it afterwards. Organization was just a myth people were whispering about in the darkest corner the kitchen, while mass-produced food was simply thrown microwave.

Among the entire madness, you managed to spot the cream sauce Asriel was served. A close look at the ingredients revealed that the entire thing was completely made out of chemicals, with the closest thing to a biological ingredient being milk powder. The sauce was chugged full with preservatives, anti oxidants, and flavor enhancers. There were maybe one or two ingredients that didn't contain chemical additives.

"Artificial food coloring, guar gum, monosodium glutamate. This is a kitchen and not some chemistry lab in your trailer. Even I'm less artificial than this food" You were utterly disgusted by pretty much everything in the kitchen and the drastic shift in your expression made that quite obvious. This might be supposed to be a restaurant for students, but that doesn't excuse the utter lack of quality.

"I sincerely apologize that our food doesn't meet your quality standards," the manager remained remarkably calm and once again tried to apologize for the incompetence of her team.

"MY standards?" you were shocked by the managers audacity to imply they had any standards to begin with. "This restaurant, if you can call it like that, doesn't meet anyone's standards! I could go to a generic fast food chain that drowns everything in frying oil and still get better food out of it." despite the manager's best efforts to calm you down, you remained furious and stomped out of the restaurant.

"____, wait!" Asriel began running after you, wanting to fix the mess you ended up in. By the time he finally caught up with you, you were already outside. "I'm so sorry that things turned out the way they did. I never expected things to be this bad."

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault. You didn't know just how terrible this place is," you more or less calmly responded. While you were definitely upset about what happened, you knew that it wasn't Asriel's fault. "Let's just go back to the college and forget this ever happened."

"Good idea," Asriel nodded in agreement and so you returned to your dorm.

As you were walking back to the college, not a single word was spoken. The air around you felt heavy from all the silence and it seemed as if Asriel felt deeply ashamed for inviting you to that cheapskate restaurant.

And so the scenery began to slowly change again. The lovely charm of a Victorian city returned, and while the ground did become more and more uneven, you didn't mind it one bit.

It was only when you where halfway back at the college when Asriel spoke up again. "Do you have any plans later? I think it's about time I tell you something. I already mentioned it earlier today but then the food came and you know what happened after that," he sounded like he was having serious stomachache, though it could come from the food you were served earlier.

"Don't we have practice later today?" you responded, unsure whether you actually had practice today. "Doesn't matter. Even if we do, you can still tell me what you want to talk about after that."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," just knowing that you'd listen to him seems to have eased the burden Asriel is carrying.

The remaining walk felt much easier. The air was no longer heavy but it still held a certain sense of anger. Whatever it is that Asriel want's to talk about, it must be something that has him bothered for lord knows how long.

By the time you arrived back at your dorm, the sun was already beginning to slowly disappear behind the horizon, igniting the sky in fiery colors. But there was no time to admire the scene.

Asriel unlocked the door to your dorm and walked inside, closing the door once you were inside the room. After he locked the door he moved over to his bed, shoulders hanging low and ears falling forward.

"So, what I wanted to talk to you about," he began, only to take a deep breath before starting. "I decided that I should tell you a little more about my past."

You were surprised by Asriel's sudden decision but decided not to say anything and simply nodded instead. As terrible as it sounds, what he's about to tell you might give you some insight on your past.

"Where do I begin... You see, I used to be a very lonely child back when I grew up in the underground. There weren't that many children my age that lived around the area, so I spent most of my time by myself, drawing pictures, daydreaming and such. One day, when I was talking a walk around the underground, I heard someone crying. I rushed over there and found a human lying in the flowers. That's when I met Chara and if I had known all the trouble they would have brought me, I would have left them there to die," Asriel began telling you about his past and his expression seemed almost pained. It was clear that all those memories cause a lot of conflict inside of him.

Asriel took another deep breath and continued. "Me, being that stupid, lonely child that I was, decided to take them home. Mom nursed them back to health and we took them in. Everything looked great at first. I finally was no longer alone. I had someone to talk to and to play with. Back then I didn't realize just how much of a bad person Chara was. They were almost abusive, constantly calling me a crybaby, blaming me for stuff they did, making me doubt myself. They made me think the only way for me to be happy would be by making them happy."

He paused again and his head began sinking even lower, his gaze fixed to the floor. Those memories he's sharing with you must be quite painful to him.

"Then, one day, we almost killed dad. While mom and dad were out for royal business, Chara and I decided to surprise them with a cake when they come back. Neither of us could really decipher the recipe since it was that old and instead of cups of butter we ended up using buttercups. Those flowers might look innocent but their really poisonous. We poisoned my father and while I was bawling my eyes out, Chara simply laughed it off, calling me crybaby in the process. Things got even worse from here," Asriel began sobbing and tears started to fall from his eyes.

"I was so caught in their web of lies and deception that I felt like I couldn't live without them. One day they proposed a plan and promised it would free all monsters if it's successful. A few months before all that they told me that they hated humanity. I should have made the connection, I should have seen that I was nothing but a means to an end to them. But I didn't and so we proceeded with their plan. They would eat buttercups, I would take their soul and carry their body to the flowerbed in the village they used to live in. Once we arrived, they urged me to kill every single villager I encountered, but I didn't. They began calling me a coward, a traitor. I simply returned to the underground, with their body still in my arms," you could see how Asriel's body began shaking slightly.

"I died. Their stupid plan got me killed. Not that they cared, I was just a pawn to them. Everything that happened after that, I... I can't. I'll tell you another time," Asriel seemed immensely distraught by simply retelling part of his story. Is that what he has to go through every time the timeline is reset?

You felt terrible just from listening to his story. What he had to go through seemed a billion times worse than what you have been through, and it seemed as if he only told you the beginning.

The remaining day felt weird. Asriel remained unresponsive for the rest of the day, which made you feel even worse. Maybe it's the way you've been conditioned that make you feel like that or maybe you actually starting to see Asriel as a real friend. Either way, you wanted to help him, you wanted to cheer him up but seeing him like that made you feel helpless. You could only hope that he would be back to normal tomorrow, or at least feel slightly better.