ANIMA

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/47454616.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandom: Original Work
Character: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comedy, Mystery,
Fiction, Action/Adventure, Mexico, Pictures
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-05-26 Updated: 2024-01-30 Words: 36,591 Chapters: 17/?
 ANIMA
by IcyQuetzal

Summary

Jose maria, a young man is sent to move with his aunt with the purpose of continuing his high-
school studies, however he will be greeted shortly by supernatural events around the town, he'll be
faced with the task to eradicate these threats. fixing up his school and personal life while fighting
these paranormal threats in the surreal "subconscious world". Making new friends and allies along
the way, all of them helping each other to heal scars and learn how to manage their lives as they
grow together.

Notes

So, while that wasn't exactly the most original summary i could come up with, if you're here it
means it caught your attention regardless, and i am very grateful for that!.
This is a random project i thought of doing, i'm still not sure if i'll ever get to finish it but i hope i
do!
Btw, this story is heavily inspired from the persona series and i'm not sure if it'd be appropiate to
place the "Persona series" tag on it, so... if you'd like to give an opinion about this on the comments
please do so! (and maybe also give suggestions as to what other tags i should add to this story, pls)
So, that was a bit extensive but i am really really excited to see where this goes so... hope you like
it! :)
(Edit: Uhhhh things get more readable from chapter 6 onwards, however editing all previous
chapters will take a while and i'm not sure if i'll actually do it in the first place so... Keep that in
mind)
(Another Edit: If you want some action then you'll prolly have to read up to chapter 9... sorry for
that it's my first time actually writting a story so i'm still figuring stuff out)
 A new beginning...
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

…Midnight, there is a lone car driving across a silent street at midnight. The woman driving looks
tired, but so does the young man in the back, the blank look on his face accompanied by large eye
sockets being proof of this.
Eventually the car stops in front of a small house, the woman gets out of the car as she yells
“Chema! Go grab your stuff and-“. However, the moment she looks at the blank and dead stare in
the boy’s eyes as his head quietly faces to the ground, a sad and compassionate feeling takes over
the woman’s face and so she says now in calmer tone “You know what? You must be really tired so
you can just head straight to the house, I’ll open the door for you.” So, the young boy who was
already climbing out of the car did how he was told and walked up to the iron fence in front of the
house, the woman opened both the fence and the door behind it for Chema, he walked inside the
house and closed the door behind him.

Just after entering the first thing he heard were fantasy-sounding noises aswell as desperate button
mashing, he tried to open the mouth to ask what or who was making that sound but nothing came
out. Not too later on the woman from the car walked in while carrying a bunch of heavy-looking
bags. “Juana! Pause that chingadera and come help me with chema’s stuff!!” yelled the woman,
“WHADAYAMIN CHEMA’S-TUFF?? IT NOT EV-… SHIT!!” yelled back a voice from another
room, and a girl on a barely put together outfit came running outside of that room afterwards.

The girl only said a “Hi cheems” to chema before sprinting out of the house and into the car to
carry the bags still left. A sigh left the woman’s mouth as she commented “…Someday I’ll just
disconnect her that console games thing so she learns a lesson” then followed a small silence as
Juana carried in the bags left and closed the fence and door behind her. “So, here’s the thing: You’ll
be staying over here while you finish your studies, which should be like… 1 year, no a bit more
than a year! Anyways, that’s how things will be, you’ve been putting that up for like… 4 years?
You became an adult and all already!” said the woman on a progressively commanding voice until
she noticed Juana looking at her with a judging look on her eyes, which leads her to see the face of
chema now slightly in pain… “*sigh* Look, just make sure you keep up and finish your studies
alright? Me, your dad- my brother, we’re doing all this for you so… just let us know if you need
something or aint feeling well, alright?”.

Chema nods ankwardly, “Alright, Juana can you guide chema to the room he’ll be staying in?” said
juana’s mom on a tired tone, “will-ah hafta carry his stuff too?” replied juana, her complains were
only met with an angry look from her mother “Alrit, I getit” complained juana yet again before
grabbing all the heavy bags and leading chema to a room at the start of a hallway. “Welp, here is
where ya’ll be sleeping, tothe side is my room and in frontathat is the room of my mom “Teresa” so
ya can ask us if ya want anything… though ya might aswell just go directly to my mom” said juana
in a mostly reluctant tone as she opened the door to what would now be chema’s room, just as
chema entered juana continued with “So… nowif ya’ll excuse me I’ll be-beating a shark-dragon-
combat-plane thing, oh! Andathink we’ll be havin’ dinne’ soon just so y’know, alrit cheems?”
Chema nodded slightly as he closed the door behind him, knowing there would be dinner soon
 Chema tried to keep himself awake but in one second he fell flat onto his bed without even turning
off the lights.

He wasn’t asleep yet however, but his body felt so tired and weak he couldn’t move at all so
eventually he fell asleep on the spot… he would come back to school next day, and even as he was
falling asleep he was thinking of how much he dreaded the thought of it…

Chapter End Notes

I... gotta adress how short this first chapter was, it was just the first chapter and i didn't have
much to say(lol), i promise it'll get better later on! (so pls be patient w me)
 Just walking to school
Chapter Notes

So, another chapter so soon after the previous one. I'm just that excited over this... i hope i
manage to somehow keep the whole adding more chapters thing consistent. But anyways, just
saying yet again that if any of you reading this has any suggestions for tags pls tell them in the
comments, and now with that said... hope you enjoy! and thanks for reading this story!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Chema woke up as his face became aware of the light from the lightbulb, even though he was
awake his body felt too weak to even get out of bed, he was already used to this feeling but it was
still annoying to him, however the moment he heard Teresa’s voice yell: “GET UP ALREADY
CHAMACOS, YOU TWO’LL BE LATE!” some weird force took control of his body and made
him get out of bed and stand up before he could even notice. Chema sighed at this as he said “guess
I got no choice…”, after that he quickly scoured through his Luggage to find the uniform that was
bought for him beforehand, luckily it wasn’t too complicated, just a dress shirt and grey pants, all
topped off with a sweater on a weird shade of green.

Eventually with a long minute of hesitation, chema opened the door of his room and walked out of
it, he was worried about him looking like too much of a mess as he was closing the door behind
him, but then the door to Juana’s room opened and closed, revealing the girl on an even messier
state. Chema thought of asking her if she stayed up all night playing videogames, but he was unable
to say a word before walking over to the dinning room. Once on the table he and juana were
greeted by some pieces of bread which they quickly rushed to eat them even tho Chema couldn’t
finish his at all, as they were eating Teresa explained to them

“So, you’ll be guiding Chema to his new high-school these next weeks, remember?”

“Yehsure, but like… why can’t it be just today? Chema’s older than me, I’m sure I don’t have to
guide him around like a lilkid” Juana complained

“You realize the situation he’s in, he could get lost easily and that’s assuming he even remembers
how to cross a street!” replied Teresa in a commanding tone

Chema felt a bit insulted by this conversation as a whole but he knew he really wasn’t in a place to
complain over this so he just tried to ignore it as he stood up and walked through the living room
all the way to the door in a slow pace. “Cheems!” Juana yelled as he walked towards chema
holding 2 backpacks “I… shoulda toldya, we prepared-a backpack beforehand, it has a buncha
random notebooks on it since it not like they’ll ask us to bring notebooks of specific colors and all
in highschool yknow?” she continued as she handed one of the backpacks to him, after that they
both stepped outside.

As they were walking to chema’s new highschool his mind was stuck on how much he really would
rather to go anywhere else, he was almost hoping for a miracle that would somehow stop him from
going there… however his thoughts were interrupted by Juana’s voice “So… it’s been a while… I
 mean we’ve still had a bit of contact through memes and stuff yknow?” both of them left out a
small chuckle… even if a bit uninspired. “A LOT of Cheems memes, I wonder why that is…”
replied Chema on a somewhat playful voice “heh, what? Ya’d want me to stop? There are many
other funny animals I can send” “…nah, cheems is fine” after that there was a small ankward
silence between them as they stepped on a crossing waiting for the light to turn red. As they were
waiting other students stood around waiting for the traffic light to change, one of them being a
curly-haired student somehow shorter than chema who was already short. He stared at the boy for a
while before he noticed chema looking at him, to which his only reaction was to smile at him as he
said “Hi”, chema found his kindness a bit odd. However it was right at this moment that the traffic
light changed and they all hurried to the other side of the street, losing each other from sight.

“Ya gotta focus more, I straight up had to pull ya around so ya wouldn’t wander out of my sight. Or
did’cha just already fell for that guy?” said Juana on a half sarcastic tone to chema who just now
was noticing the pain around his arm “Shut up, I was just a bit distracted. Daydreaming or
whatever” replied chema with as much annoyance he could express… which wasn’t a lot however
he couldn't deny he was still fixated on the guy for some odd reason... “Yeahhh sure, I think you
just felt like in a TV novel! 'love at first sight' and all! Aint that right? Marichema?!” this kept on
for a while until suddenly they both found themselves in front of the school doors…

Just seeing the school in front of him, chema felt an instinct that told him to get away, to get away
as fast as possible, as far as possible, but at the same time something kept his feet stuck in the same
place. “…You’ll be fine, alright?” said Juana noticing chema was not feeling well and trying what
she could think of to help him out, however “No…” was the only answer Chema could give over
this, “…I’m not sure it gives a good impression if we just stay here staring at the school like
pendejos” said juana still trying to get chema to respond, but the only response she got was chema
walking a few steps back before she grabbed him firmly “Idiot, calm down! Nothing will happen!”
she yelled at chema, his face showed clearly how he was starting to panic over this “…What if?”
she asked and “What if…” was the answer she got. “…*sigh* you… just try to hold on for today,
ok? You’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. Got it? I’ll be waiting for you when classes end, we’ll go back
home, everything fine, alright?” She was saying to chema as she slowly walked backwards
discreetly pulling chema with her towards the school “Alright… i… heheh… I don’t know if I’ll be
able to do this everyday from now on…” said chema on a tired and nervous tone. But the answer he
got from Juana was “You already did it anyways” as she showed him they had already crossed the
gate without him realizing. Chema was… Surprised… didn’t really know what to feel… he was
satisfied for that part to be over, but he was worried that it was far from over… “Now, we really
gotta get moving, already drawn enough attention to us with that” This one comment, it made
chema panic again as he realized there were many other students around many of which would’ve
probably seen all of that, this caused him to get agitated as he tried to run and hide from the crowd,
drawing more attention to him… Juana only sighed at this as she tried to follow Chema.

Chapter End Notes

So, not as short as the previous one but still kinda short, however things should actually start
to get somewhere very soon, so stay tuned pls!
Also, i'll be dedicating this ending notes to explain some jokes that might not land because of
them being very proper from the mexican culture... if they appear on said chapter lol (i think
this is the first time i mention this whole thing happens in mexico... oops). so... here's today's
jokes explanation:
"Marichema": In a lot of latin-american romantic TV novels, there is usually a female main
character that's a hopeless romantic with a name that is usually just: "Mari-(something)" for
example: Marimar, Maripaz, Maricruz, Mariluz, etc. So when Juana calls Chema
"MariChema" she's just joking around by telling him he is like a TV novel female lead.
(if there's another part you feel has the need to be explained please say so in the comments and
i'll try to answer when i see it. ;p)
 The day passed by
Chapter Notes

So, took a bit long to update this one but i was busy with some stuff, however i'll be putting in
extra effort to make up for that! so... hope you enjoy this next chapter even if it drags on a
bit... (OMG can't wait for chapter uhhh 5 i think? yeah can't wait! that's when stuff really gets
going!)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

So, Chema finally entered the classroom after a long back and forth with Juana, she had already left
to her classroom and he was only left to walk inside his classroom with his classmates, but honestly
he didn’t want to look or talk to any of them… somehow it felt so scary to him to even meet
people.

However this didn’t stop a loud guy who looked way older than the rest of the class from walking
towards him and saying “Yo! You lil guy look over here for a second!” Chema only did as asked
seeing as he would be unable to avoid interaction from that point onward, as he looked directly at
the guy, he only pointed his phone on his direction as he said “GUEYYYYYY, HE LOOKS
IDENTICAL!!” and a voice on the distant replied “I told you!” then the guy asked chema “Hey, lil
guy what’s your name?” “Jose Maria” Chema found himself forced to reply. “Welp, buckle up
‘cause from now on you’ll be Paquito 2!”. Chema really would rather avoiding further interaction,
but then the teacher arrived and made everyone sit down on their seats, he felt lucky for a moment,
“So, as it is the usual, we have new classmates over here so we’ll be presenting ourselves and what
we did on the vacations for the first class” said the teacher, and suddenly Chema was feeling
unlucky instead.

All the other students presented themselves even though Chema just like the rest of the class wasn’t
really paying any attention to it, he was looking everywhere, to the birds over the window, to the
teacher that looked like a kind of grumpy old man, and suddenly when he turned back to his
classmates he saw the one student he saw on the way to school presenting himself, It was quite the
coincidence that they were both on the same class, specially given how Chema still felt… fixated
on the guy for some reason… “Yair Gabriel Rosas Guerrero.” That was the name the boy said when
presenting himself, However he also asked to be refered only as “Gabriel”, “Welp, whatever just
good to know I guess… not like I see myself actually getting to use it” thought Chema as Gabriel
kept going on his introduction and as eventually other classmates followed until eventually it was
his turn… nothing came out of his mouth, not even himself could tell if he was trying or not to say
something and everyone was getting desperate including the teacher as he was about to just skip
him instead, but then: “…Jose-Maria. Don’t… got much to say so…” it was all he said, after that
he felt silent once again and the teacher only said “…well, after that waste of time, let’s just rush
through the last ones.”

The class passed by very quickly, and so did the next ones since it was mostly more of the same so
Chema didn’t feel the need to actually pay attention to any of it, by the time it was lunch break all
he could take away was that: The guy who talked to him was named Franco, and apparently is well
known for having repeated year more than once… also sounding proud of it. Aswell as Gabriel’s
name and his strong taste for 2000’s rock. After that lunch break passed by… and so did the rest of
the classes, while he had to admit he found the quirky cast of teachers interesting to an extent, there
was a really buff science teacher, a quite extravagant history teacher and a philosophy teacher that
looked like the grumpiest old man to ever exist. However he still kept thinking there was not much
of a reason to try and care… he came here just to finish his studies and that’s really how he wants
to keep it…

He just sat on a corner near the entrance to wait for Juana to come by so they could head home.
However she was taking too long and soon as he was waiting a short girl approached him… “Oh,
hi! You’re that guy uhhhhh… JoseMaria!... right?” Chema responded to her greeting with
“Yeah…” however that response was in a distant kind of tones… he would really rather not getting
too close…

“So uhhhhh, question: why are you just sitting by yourself over here” the girl continued

“…I just wanted to” Chema responded getting more distant with his tone

“you’re uhhh new right? I guess you don’t have any friends on here yet… would you like being my
friend then? No need to be shy, It’ll be fun! I’m sure you’d like to hang around, right?” The girl’s
voice kept getting progressively more excited as she kept going… while chema was also getting
progressively more uncomfortable.

“Oh! ‘till you appear cheems!” Juana said as she quickly approached them from the classroom “Oh,
you’ve made a friend already?”

However Chema didn’t respond at all to this, he really just wanted to go back home by now.

“…right uhhhh well! We should probably get going so uhhh…” Said Juana ankwardly as she
started walking outside of the school, chema following her, but just before they left the girl
approached them again

“Oh! Just one more thing, i… forgot to say it in the excitement and all but like, my name is Daira
Cruz Ibarra! Wait… I think you already knew from the presentations this morning… Still! Just so
you don’t forget heheh!” After saying that, Daira started walking the other way. And Chema was
ready to do the same but just then… he saw Gabriel leave the school, he was leaving with other 2
people, a guy and a girl. He seemed ankward but he still waved at chema when he saw him. Chema
just made a small gesture with his eyebrows and walked away with Juana.

“…next time don’t just stay quiet cheems, damnit! You made it all so ankward!” Complained
Juana, but chema only responded with silence… “Just… let’s just go home, it’s not like the day is
over already anyways” And so they walked back home in almost total silence until they eventually
arrived to the house, “So, if you know how to use the broom that’s great, if you don’t then go fuck
yourself because you’ll be cleaning the house aswell.” Said juana in a loud voice as she closed the
door behind her. And so the next hours were spent on them both cleaning around the house and
doing the chores. Eventually by the end of it Juana claimed on an excited tone, wouldn’t you
know? I usually take like the whole day on this, but it is like what? 5pm? Oh wait no 6pm, eh still
better than usual in fact we might actually have time to eat today. that sounds neat, right?” Chema
almost immediately responded with the most excited “Yes!”.

“Woah, alright next time I won’t starve you so hard ‘Hospice Kid’, so… you fine with Chiles
Rellenos? ‘cause that’s all I can find in the fridge rn. If you want something else then that’s your
pedo(problem) ‘cause you’ll cook your stuff.” Replied Juana in a jokingly tone to which Chema
 just chuckled a bit, after that they both sat on the table to eat, however chema found himself
purposely moving away from Juana pretty much on instinct. “…Yeah old habits die hard, huh? Sure
sure sure… just an habit I assume, right? Just an habit…”. Chema found himself concerned over
such reaction, but regardless he just confirmed “Yeah… An habit…”. After that their meal became
a little ankward… once they were done both just left directly to their rooms, Juana went
immediately to play videogames as evidenced by the sounds coming from her room.

However chema could only think of finally being back into his room… He didn’t care if it was just
7pm… He just wanted to get on his bed, embrace his sheets and never leave them again… “Just a
nap…” he thought to himself over and over again as if to justify himself lying in bed motionless
regardless of how early it was… so he closed his eyes expecting to just wake up in a few minutes…
Eventually Chema woke up again, his body feeling about as weak as always and the darkness
outside his window telling him it was already late, but just how late…? However he got his answer
the moment he heard Teresa’s voice yell: “GET UP ALREADY CHAMACOS, YOU TWO’LL
BE LATE!”

“…Shit” is all he could think as he was trying to get out of his bed once again.

Chapter End Notes

So, as said before rn it'll be the time to clear out some jokes and this one is a very important
one to clear out from now on so we don't get into missunderstandings.
"Pedo" is a mexican slang that can mean basically anything in a sentence, from "fart" to
"vibes" and so on, so that one gets the special treatment of having a word between "()" after
everytime "pedo" is used so it is easier to understand what the character saying it is meaning
to say.
If anyone has a question about any other of the jokes (or just anything about the story) pls do
tell in the comments i'll try to read and answer them!
so... 'till the next chapter!
 Just a day like any other
Chapter Notes

So, it wasn't easy but i finally got through to writting chapter 4! So before starting: I recently
found out you can add images to the stories in here so i've been thinking of adding some quick
drawings to the story from time to time for the sake of explaining better some things that
might be hard to explain, show off some of the designs or to add impact to some important
moments! So pls tell in the comments if you'd like me to do that... or if you think this story is
better of just being text.
So, with that out of the way... I hope you enjoy this chapter!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

So, it was another day, more of the same as the last day, including the entire scene it was for chema
to even enter the building. But eventually he was just sitting through a really boring science class
with the most buff teacher he’s ever seen. However things were slightly shaken up once a ringing
phone was heard loudly echoing across the entire classroom, Almost immediately Franco took out
his phone and answered it in a desperate way, and even though he was supposedly whispering, the
ones sitting near him could hear what he was saying very clearly, including Chema.

“Pendejo! I told you not to call me at this hours since I’ll be at schoo-If you knew then why are you
calling me either way?! Because I’d be too busy to message? Then what makes you think calling
is-“ and just ask Franco was saying that, the teacher grabbed his phone from him and without any
hesitation flung it into the wall so hard it just shattered into several pieces.

“You disrespect my class. That will happen.” Said the teacher in a serious and visibly annoyed
voice. To which Franco only responding by whispering to himself “Welp, there goes another one.”

After that the classes went by like normal, some teachers actually giving a class today, some still
procrastinating the topics. And so classes were over once again, but suddenly Chema was
intercepted by… Franco. “So, Paquito-2 how you doing this fine day? I couldn’t find you yesterday
at all, however now that I’ve found you I wonder: do you know about this one game? it’s called
Mjolnir 20K. And like…” And just like that Franco started rambling around with no sign of
stopping anytime soon, Chema just walked to the same spot he sat at the previous day, and Franco
still followed while talking about a comically sized hammer… “And so… oh shit- i… should be
somewhere right now… actually, we can keep talking about it there, it’s just picking up something
and that’s it.” Said franco, however Chema wasn’t in the mood for hearing more of Franco’s
rambling.

“I… am waiting for someone…”

“Oh, it’ll be quick! You stay calm I stay nervous, Paquito-2”

And with no apparent option left, Chema followed Franco into the one unused classroom at the
school. An unexpected place indeed, Chema thought Franco was going to pick up something at the
teachers’ office or something, but he’s already came all the way here so it was a bit late to question
the location. “Alright so where were we… Right! So, you’ve never seen a purple goblin right? Well
that’s actually the very reason the Humans won the war against the celestials! Because their purple
d-“

“NICOLAS!” Sounded a rough and coarse voice which interrupted Franco’s rambling. Chema
quickly recognized the voice as the voice of his Philosophy teacher: The Grumpiest old-man alive.

“Oh! That’s me! But you surely already knew that from the introductions, right?” said Franco to
Chema before entering the classroom. “His name is Franco Nicolas… noted” thought Chema
before entering aswell into… what would be a normal abandoned classroom like any other except
for a desk in the middle of the classroom that had a bunch of weird notes and scientific-looking
equipment scattered around it. “So! I am here for the whole interdimensional paint thing, right? I
can just pick it up and then do the rest tomorrow? The folks back at the changarro have been pretty
annoying from this morning and I can’t imagine what a mess I’ll find if I’m not back as soon as I’m
over with this so, yknow. If I can just take this with me and come back tomorrow…” Said Franco
on a way too relaxed tone. To which the teacher responded “First of all. Why did you bring
someone with you in the first place?”. Franco quickly rushed to answer “We were just talking as I
was heading here. And in fact, we might have to continue the whole conversation tomorrow
Paquito-2, if that’s fine with you like I know you were enjoying the masterclass but-“ “NICOLAS!
There’s the second thing! Take this seriously! You’ve been studying and training for this for the last
year and now you’re just going to procrastinate it?!” Interrupted the teacher, continuing to lecture
Franco “I’m sorry but I’m not allowing you that one. You’re not going to take long hopefully
anyways, just some recognizing of the terrain for today, does that work for you?” What should have
just been over like that quickly became a back and forth between Franco and the teacher that went
on and on until Franco suddenly suggested “What about Paquito 2 helps you with the terrain
recognizement today? That’d work, right?!”

Chema wasn’t really up for helping with whatever this was, and then the teacher rushed to warn
Chema as he pointed to a large stain of multi-colored pain on the wall “So, before you listen to that
lazy moron. If you go walk right in there, you'll be most guaranteed to die! Not only that, but if you
do die then everything everyone knows about you is erased. You know what that means? It means it
would be pretty much as if you had never existed. So I’d advice you-“ Chema didn’t let the teacher
finish before he walked straight into the weird stain of paint that just glowed brighter as Chema
walked closer to it. “If Juana asks for me, just tell her I was kidnapped or something.” Was the only
thing Chema said before stepping in the large stain and disappearing into it.

“…what. The. Fuck.” Said the teacher still processing what just happened, after taking a few
seconds to comprehend the fact Chema just walked right in he started yelling at Franco.

“NICOLAS LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE CAUSED!”

“OH YOU JUST SAID IT WOULDN’T BE MUCH OF A PROBLEM BUT NOW YOU’RE
TREATING IT LIKE A BIG DEAL!”

“HE’S NOT PREPARED LIKE YOU ARE! THIS WOULD BE ALREADY OVER IF YOU HAD
JUST GONE THROUGH, NOW GO GET HIM BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”

“IT’S NOT MY FAULT HE’S INTO DYING! BUT YEAH I WAS GONNA GET IN ANYWAYS I
CAN’T JUST LET HIM TEST FALL DAMAGE OVER THERE!”

After that small discussion Franco jumped right in the stain aswell and disappeared into it just like
Chema. After all of this the teacher could only say: “…What the hell is on with this youth…?”
 …

Chema opened his eyes, finding himself in a stranger place... a place like nothing he'd seen before.
A place that logic just could not explain...

Chapter End Notes

So... stuff will finally start to get going... and uhhh yeah maybe this kills off the whole
paranormal events thing i said in the beginning, i was so excited to get to this part that i kinda
forgot to lead up to it so i'll try to fix that up in the next chapters.
So... i didn't find any expressions or jokes that are too local in this chapter, but if i'm wrong
just pls ask in the comments about any expression or so that you think needs explaining!
And... i hope you enjoyed! and i'll try for the next chapter to come sometime soon!
 A stranger place
Chapter Notes

So! Chapter 5 is out! This one took a lot of time for me, and a part of that is on it being a bit
longer that the previous chapters, however there are quite some things that happen in this
chapter that i believe makes it worth it, so without further ado... I hope ya'll enjoy it! :)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Chema found himself on a stranger place… It looked as if he was underwater… under purple water
at that, however he could move just like if he was on land. This made a number on him as when he
tried to walk, he felt like he was floating even though he wasn’t which caused him to stumble a lot.
Another thing he noticed that messed up his brain aswell was that the shadows looked bright rather
than dark. The light from the… sky? Hit on various objects that looked like floating debris and
instead of casting a shadow of a darker color, the shadows were a brighter tone of the purple light
hitting it. Talking about that there definitely was light coming from somewhere at the very top but
Chema couldn’t seem to recognize where it could come from… Trully a surreal place.

However he didn’t have much more time to think about the weird place he was in as he suddenly
felt a hand grab him by his uniform and pull him with force back into the multicolored stain where
he came from, and while he was pulled back into the portal roughly the moment he crossed the
portal it felt like if he was being pulled with so much force his body would snap, however once he
was back in his world it was all back to normal… except for the fact he was still dizzy from the
surreal experience that was being in that world even if for a few minutes. However he didn’t have
any time to recover as immediately the teacher pushed him out of the classroom yelling “YOU
ABSOLUTE DUMBASS NEVER COME BACK!!” and then slammed the door behind him.

Chema was still trying to recover from the dizziness, It took him a while but he eventually was able
to walk away from whatever was going on inside that classroom, from there he clumsily made his
way back to his waiting spot on which Juana was coincidentally just arriving there as well. “Hey! It
seems we both arrived at the same time! Either I was outstandingly early, or you were
outstandingly late.” Said juana in a somewhat excited voice. “But oh of course, how could someone
such as I ever be late? ~” Juana chuckled a bit after saying that last part with the most overdramatic
voice she could get out of herself. However Chema barely had a reaction, he was still trying to
process all that happened. While Juana was concerned not knowing why Chema was reacting like
this she was too tired to try to get on that topic at the moment and assumed Chema was too. “So…
Are we going back now?” Chema only nodded at Juana’s question.

After a while they both had arrived to the house, “So, while mom usually wants me- well now ‘us’
to clean every day. I… honestly found it works perfectly fine if we skip a few days~ She doesn’t
notice really. So! I’ll be starting the quest to get some sentient plants to the pale forest! Or at least
whichever make it without dying…” Chema didn’t understand what she meant but could safely
assume she was talking about some videogame. After saying this she headed straight into the hall
and then inside her room but before closing the door she stopped to say out loud. “Oy, Cheems!
This is random A.F. but if you need something… you can tell me, I can just pause anyways. Well
most of the time… uh…” After saying this she ankwardly closed the door to her room.
Chema was so tired he headed straight to his room aswell, however it was only once he was there
laying in his bed that he realized they never really stopped to have something to eat before heading
to their rooms, sure he could just go to Juana’s room but… was It really worth it to interrupt her
like this…? Plus Chema didn’t feel like he had the strength to get out of bed anyways, he was
already accepting the idea that he would just sleep through an entire day yet again… it sucked but
he really didn’t feel like there was much of any other way around it…

Chema woke up, it seemed to be late since all of his room was dark around him. However even
though he waited for quite a while to hear Teresa yell like the past 2 days… he didn’t hear
anything, eventually he just accepted that it probably wasn’t still time for the next day of school,
however it was still terribly late, after a while Chema finally decided with the best of his efforts to
look at the hour through his phone… 1am… Well that sucks… Chema wasn’t sure what to do at a
time like this, he was sure he wouldn’t get asleep again so easily. But was it really worth it to get
outside of his room…? The headache and hunger he was just starting to notice said yes. However it
took whatever strength he had to get himself to stand out of his bed… he wasn’t any confident he
would make it to the kitchen but somehow he just managed to get there, he just went for a snack
but just as he was heading to the fridge he noticed a figure… it was Juana, she seemed to notice
him aswell and they just stared at each other for a while…

Eventually Juana whispered to Chema “I… am not even gonna ask, the same happens to me all the
time as you can see…” Just after saying this she put down one of the sausages she was picking on
the table. “You can have that one, we still got a lot of those anyways.” Continued Juana, Chema
just grabbed the sausage and started eating it without replying… “So… were you asleep this whole
time?” Said Juana trying to start a conversation. “What about that? I didn’t have any energy left in
me after what happened today at school…” Replied Chema on an annoyed tone “Oh? Did
something exciting happen at your class? Chisme! Chisme!” Said Juana back on a excited tone to
hear what misadventures might’ve happened on Chema’s class, however… “I personally didn’t
understand it myself all to well… So maybe another time…” Was Chema’s response, he looked
genuinely tired when he said that even after he had already finished his snack. “I see… Well, don’t
forget to tell me. I’ll make sure you remember to do so.” Said Juana in a somewhat disappointed
tone before heading back to her room, not before giving Chema half of the second sausage she
picked. Chema just ate it and went straight back to his room… After that he fell asleep just as
easily as before…

“GET UP ALREADY CHAMACOS, YOU TWO’LL BE LATE!”

So, Chema and Juana got themselves ready and started walking to school. Both with the best sleep
they could get but still managing. It was noticeable they weren’t holding up so well on the way but
they still arrived well and safely anyways. Classes were just as boring as expected, Chema had
already seen a bunch of it anyways, which gave him a lot of time to think exclusively about how
much he suffered every second he spent in there… And eventually it was lunch break, Chema was
ready to just sit down and eat in his own small secluded spot behind la tiendita, However he heard a
familiar voice approach to him… Daira. “Oh, hi Chema- Are you fine with being called Chema?
Just wanted to know if you didn’t like it but- ok I’m getting too distracted- So uhhhh you’re hard to
find, what are you doing so away from everyone else?- I mean that’s not a bad thing! I’m just
 wondering!” Daira started going on and on… Chema really wanted to stop her… but he also found
her rambling as a somewhat soothing background noise… So he decided to just let her ramble on
while he ate his lunch. Eventually he had already eating his lunch but was still hearing to daira’s
rambling on and on, he didn’t felt like telling her to stop at this point so he just tried to focus on
anything else.

And so he saw Gabriel again this time trying to sneak into the one path of dirt behind the school, it
is pretty much restricted and hard to access so it is weird to see anyone, specially someone such as
Gabriel try to sneak back there. However as Daira suddenly noticed Chema being distracted by this
she made a small coment “Oh, that delinquent’s at it again…”. “Delinquent?” replied Chema
genuinely surprised, “Yeah, he’s well known around the school for being part of this one group of
delinquents around. Stealing stuff, Blackmailing students, they even beat someone up so badly…
It’s so terrible.” However Chema found this odd, for some reason he just couldn’t believe Gabriel
out of anyone just doing all of that, there must be some misunderstanding… Without thinking he
began following Gabriel, while Daira immediately ran behind him… “Hey! I just said he’s done
some bad stuff but don’t just try to comfront him! We don’t know what he could do!” yelled Daira
as she tried to catch up with Chema, but he kept going regardless until he eventually stepped a foot
inside the path and suddenly…

A quick shock froze him in place, suddenly he was overcome by a strong feeling of loneliness and
dread… He felt cold and small, and as if his entire body was tied down in place, every single small
movement he made, the dread and the loneliness would overpower his entire body in such a way he
could feel as if it was hurting him… and just when he got used to it he realized… the sky was just
like the surface of water… and the shadows were bright colors… he was in that world yet again
somehow… and the place he was stepping in… there was no longer the concrete floor of the school
and instead he saw what seemed like a bright glowing crack in the… ground? It seemed as if this
crack was just there in mid-air, but it also seemed like the only possible place to stand on. And
further down that crack-shaped path… he saw Gabriel, probably the only other person he saw in
there, Gabriel… looked different, this wasn’t just a slight discomfort like last time, he looked as if
he was filled with pure dread… with sadness… and suddenly, he turned around to look directly at
Chema, his face… he was terrified, Chema scared of having been caught jumped back, which
snapped him back to the school, or rather back to his world.

“Chema! Are you ok?!” Yelled Daira scared as she ran towards him. Chema still a bit dazed
responded “Y-yeah…” as he turned to look at where Gabriel was… He was still looking at Chema
with a terrified look, but he quickly ran away down the dirt path, however Chema gave up on
following after what just… happened.

“Hey!.. you’re sure you’re ok? You jumped so hard… Were you scared of something…? To be
honest I also slightly felt some sort of… fear, when I stepped in there, I guess it’s one of those “Bad
vibes” stuff, hahah… but seriously are you really fine Chema? …Chema?” Daira was trying to
reach out a Chema that was deeply distracted by something… He saw in the distance, and he saw
not too far away, the same philosophy teacher from the other day, looking at him directly all the
way from the second floor of the school…

Chapter End Notes

So, that was something! I... don't remember if there's any joke i need to explain here, this
chapter being a bit longer than usual makes it hard to remember some things, so if there's
anything that requires explanation, just say so! I'll do my best to read it and reply as quick as i
can!
(also pls very please do comment if you'd like or not for me to add images to certain bits to
explain better some certain places or designs)
 An odd feeling...
Chapter Notes

So uhhhh, i took a long time getting this chapter out. Not because it was hard or too long to
make but rather because i was distracted with other stuff like going for 100% completion on a
videogame... on a time limit... yeah that was honestly a mistake but anyways! the new chapter
is out! This one is a bit on the shorter side but i just have to get it out soon before i leave this
unatended for too long.
So uhhhh yeah i hope you enjoy!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The rest of the day went by eventually, and once the classes were over Daira had gone to where
Chema usually is to meet with him, however she didn’t find him in his usual spot near the entrance,
but rather at the other side of the school behind the trees, he was standing directly in front of the
dirt path where they tried to follow Gabriel before. He was just staring there lost in thought, Daira
eventually approached him, “Hey, you still on what happened at lunchbreak?” She asked Chema, to
which he didn’t respond like usual… “Don’t stress yourself much about it, It probably wasn’t a
good idea in the first place”. However as she went on, Chema just stepped into the dirt path without
saying anything… first he stepped a foot… then the other one… Once he was standing in the dirt
path he just looked at the floor confused and kind of disappointed.

“Uhhhh… Chema…?” Daira started asking before being interrupted by Juana who was
approaching them “THERE YOU ARE CHEEMS! So, this is yer new hangin’ spot?” Asked Juana
as she approached the both of them, “…This is weird.” Said Chema and fell into total silence again
right after. Both of the girls were confused, but regardless Juana said “So… You tell me when
you’re ready to go home I guess? I don’t wanna pressure you but I’d specially like for us to hurry
today.” And Chema responded with “…Sure.” And so they both started heading towards the
entrance, however Daira stopped them “Actually, Can Chema stay a bit? It’s just something quick.”
However Juana’s response was “Well, either we both stay, or we both leave because it seems like I
can’t let Chema go anywhere by himself, he might get lost and stuff on the way back home and
yknow how mothers get at times, so I’d rather not deal with it specially today that I have a-“ As
Juana kept rambling on, she was suddenly interrupted by a loud yell “AGUAS!!” Before anyone
had time to react a football flew at high speeds straight into Juana, knocking her out immediately.
Chema and Daira both took a small moment to process what just happened. “…So, what are we
doing then?” Chema asked “Well, I suggest we sit her on one of the trees and… we can actually use
this chance to talk about what I was planning!” Chema agreed, not like there was much other
option.

After carrying and sitting an unconscious Juana on one of the trees, they sat on the other one as
Daira asked: “So uhhhh… I’m honestly not sure how to even start talking about this, I guess I knew
what I wanted to say but wasn’t sure of how I’d start talking about it. I can try to start with the
whole thing that happened earlier today since you still seem shook by it and…” Daira was just
starting to go on but she stopped herself when she saw Chema in a completely silent and indifferent
face. “You know… You could not leave me talking to myself for once…” Said Daira, starting to
sound annoyed.
“…Since we are talking about what happened earlier, did you… you really felt something too?”
Daira, not expecting Chema to actually start saying something was taken aback for a moment but
shortly she responded “Well… It’s something I’ve usually felt on places where people are
unhappy… A feeling of fear and loneliness… anger to an extent. It’s almost like if I could feel what
those people feel!” Chema then continued with another question “hmmmm… Did you ever feel
like if you were underwater? Like if what you saw didn’t match what your body told you?” Daira
was confused at such question, but she answered as honestly as she could “I… do remember feeling
out of air, but not exactly underwater or like what you describe…” Chema felt like this wasn’t
going to go anywhere, he didn’t even understand what happened too well himself. “So… while
we’re at this, what do you know about that guy Gabriel?” Chema asked, changing the topic as he
saw he wouldn’t get much from the previous one. “Oh, uhhhhh well, it’s just what everyone knows
about him: He’s part of the group of delinquents at the school, they usually go around stealing from
people… usually by threatening them. Though everyone has noticed that even though he’s part of
them he is way more… he looks more uhhhh… nice kid like? He doesn’t dress as loudly as the
others as in like he actually wears the uniform and he also seems to be more… reserved? It might
just be that he doesn’t like people, I seriously doubt someone who’s part of all that could be yknow
shy…” Chema was confused at this, Gabriel just didn’t look like someone to just be involved in
that kind of stuff, even though he had to admit he didn’t really knew him at all, regardless he still
asked “Well maybe… He isn’t the because he wants to?” Daira only sighed at this before
responding with “That… sounds too much like a bad TV novel. It would be nice to think he is in
fact a nice guy but… not taking the risk” Daira then stood up before continuing “And you’re oddly
interested in that guy but… I’d still advice you to not take the risk, yknow?”

Chema… for some unknown reason didn’t want to accept this, something about all of that,
something about the face of genuine fear he saw on Gabriel earlier that day as he walked down the
crack. Would he really feel that way if he wanted to do all that? Something about what he saw, what
he felt told him that maybe Gabriel needed help. “I… am sure I’m not in danger, in fact what if he
is in danger?” he said in the rush still not having collected his thoughts “You don’t even know him!
Why the heck are you so obsessed with a possibly dangerous stranger?!” Replied Daira starting to
get agitated “You are getting too worried for a stranger aswell” Said Chema, implying him and
Daira to be strangers.

In that they heard Juana’s voice “Geez, Mari-Chema is protecting her boyfriend I see!” Juana had
woken up as she started approaching the two and then kept going “I don’t know how much time I
lost being knocked down, but I don’t want to waste any more so… It’s time to get going Cheems.”
Chema started walking to the entrance of the school, before he left Daira stopped him once more.
“Chema, you’re not a stranger. I’ve known you for a few days but I just know you’re a good guy, I
just feel it yknow?” After that Chema’s only response was a silent glare at Daira, which quickly
made her realize she was using a similar reasoning. After that she just looked at him back for a few
seconds before letting out an upset sigh “…If you try to do anything, Just tell me. I’m not going to
stop you, I’ll just accompany you and defend you in case you ever run into danger so you don’t get
hurt. I might not be much help for that but… it’s better than nothing.” Daira said to Chema, He
nodded before leaving with Juana back home.

Once they arrived back home, Juana rushed to her room, Chema was taken by surprise because of
her rush “Uhhhh… Why are you in such a rush by the way?” he asked before having juana yell
back in excitement “ROLASINFONIA IS GOING TO REACT TO THE LATEST EPISODE OF
“LA VIDA MAS BELLA”! I KNOW IT’LL BE GREAT, WE’LL GET SOME CLOUSURE ON
THE KID WHO JUMPED OFF A WINDOW FOR HER PHONE! SO UHHHH YOU CAN JUST
CLEAN THE HOUSE FOR ME ON THE MEANWHILE!” Chema… was genuinely dissapointed.
Chapter End Notes

Ouch that was in fact reaaaaaaaaaally short... I'll make up for it next chapter i promise!
Anyways if there's any joke or expression i need to explain just ask in the comments! I'll do
my best to read them! And also say in the comments if you want anything to be added! (Still
wondering whether i should add images or not... hmmmmmm...)
(edit: I came back later to the chapter and i realized how terribly made it was so i made some
slight edits to make it more readable, i actually just realized how to make the chapters more
readable from now on so... If that was an issue before, just know that now it's fixed!)
 Chapter 7
Chapter Notes

So, Chapter 7 is out! Thigns are getting exciting! And i'm already running out of chapter name
ideas! but no worry i don't plan on giving up on this now! Soooo... I hope you enjoy!!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

It was the next day at school, Outside of the usual Chema was actually having a conversation with
Daira at lunchbreak, Something that surprised the two of them but they were both too fine with it to
actually question the whole thing.

“So, it turned out she was just going to watch a streamer react to La vida mas Bella! Yknow, that
one very bad novel.” Commented Chema in a cheerful tone… or at least as cheerful as he could
possibly convey.

“Hahah, yeah I know which one you’re talking about and like… If she was really hurrying us so
much just for that then, She could’ve just gone back herself! If she doesn’t want you to get lost then
I can do that, I would have shot you an ice cream on top of that!” Responded Daira further mocking
the absurdity of the situation “Did she at least enjoy it?”

“I-“ Chema took a deep breath before continuing “I’m sure I have never before seen anyone IN MY
LIFE be so disappointed about a fictional kid NOT dying!!” After hearing this Daira just began
Laughing histerically

“Uhhh Hey Guys!” Suddenly Franco’s voice was heard approaching the two “So… I’m not sure if
you had something to do with Paquito-2 but whatever that is I need him right now for something
I’m sure is infinitely more important! So… if you’ll excuse me” Continued Franco as he started
dragging Chema with him, However… “His name is Jose-Maria, and knowing you I’m confident
it’ll just be some dumb game, so I’d rather you didn’t make my Chema over here uncomfortable
and instead just let us relax over here!” Complained Daira as she wrapped her arms around
Chema’s trying to pull him to the other side. Franco was getting himself ready for the start of an
argument, but his expression changed entirely after looking behind Chema, “Well… I’d love to fix
this peacefully, but given how it is right now… I’ll just say I’m really sorry for what’s gon-“ Franco
couldn’t finish what he was saying before Chema felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and then
fell unconscious on the floor immediately after.

Chema woke up feeling very dizzy, he could feel himself tied up… definitely tied to up to a chair
like in a movie. His eyes took a while to adjust and get a good look at the three people in front of
him: Franco, The Grumpy Philosophy Teacher and a girl he barely remembered by looks but
couldn’t really recall her name. She had a deeply dark skin tone that contrasted her blonde hair and
blue eyes.
“I’m really just saying I could’ve handled it way better if you had just allowed me to talk. Now we
gotta worry about what the whole school will think of you knocking out the quiet kid!” Said franco
failing at dissimulating how annoyed he actually was

“Yeahhhh you didn’t look like you were succeeding on any way, and given who I am it seems
unlikely they’ll dare say bad stuff about it, just an average Thursday.” Said the girl on a somewhat
commanding voice.

“See! That’s the thing! You are so into the idea that you’re the dictator of this school you aint even
considering stuff like what the hell he has hiding inside his backpack! Let’s not forget he’s the quiet
guy- In fact I’ll tell you a clue as to what may be hiding in there! It starts with A and it ends with
FOURTY SE-“ Franco was about to go on, getting increasingly agitated before the teacher
interrupted him looking genuinely done with all this. “The guy’s been awake for I don’t know how
long and you two are still bickering at each other” The both turned at Chema immediately after
hearing this.

“Just for the record, there is no assault rifle in my backpack.” Commented Chema on a monotone
voice.

“SHUT UP! I am the one with the Authority here!” yelled the girl on a very upset tone as she
stomped her foot on the chair Chema was tied at.

“What authority?! Being the class president? That’s fucking lame! You’re just an event organizing
squad made out of one idiot!” replied Franco on an even angrier tone

“HUH?! SAY THAT TO MY FACE!” yelled the girl back at Franco

“can you two stop bickering already?...” said the teacher in an greatly annoyed tone

“huh- Teacher! He’s insulting the very important duties of the class president! Explain him why
he’s wrong!” Said the girl in a sassy tone

“Wh- uhh well I will have to agree that from personal experience… Being class president isn’t as
good as one would initially think…” he answered, trying to break down a painful truth to the poor
class president.

“Wha-YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!!” Yelled the girl, but before this bickering could go anywhere
further, Chema commented on a painfully monotone voice “Uhhhh, hey, since I’m here tied up to a
chair in a dark place and I assume you kidnapped me here to interrogate me or something…
Doesn’t that mean I’m the one you should be yelling at and not… at yourselves?”

“You actually just asked us to yell at you? I never thought you’d fall this low Paquito-2… Such
repugnant Kinks… Trully shameful” Said Franco on an entirely disappointed tone

“ack- What even was that?! I was just trying to follow the protocol! Where does that
aggressiveness come from? I thought you thought we were friends!” Said Chema visibly annoyed

“huh?! What do you mean you thought I thought we were friends?! You mean you didn’t think we
were friends aswell as I thought?” Replied Franco visibly offended

“I thought you thought we were friends! I never really thought I was your friend but I should’ve
guessed you’d think I thought we were friends because I thought you’d think we were friends!”
“Ok let’s stop this whole argument about who thought what, and focus on why he’s here in the first
place?” -Said the teacher, putting a stop to the whole argument- “Actually, I’m taking the lead on
this now since you two aint getting anywhere!

“Yesterday, I could see you got in contact with the subconscious world. The world behind the
portal, all on your own. Yes or not?”

Chema was genuinely confused with all this terms he hadn’t heard together on the same sentence.
“Uhhh before anything, i-“ However he was interrupted by the girl yelling at Chema.

“YES OR NOT, PENDEJO!”

“DO YOU WANT TO SHUT UP!? You’re not helping!” Yelled Franco from his spot before
everyone started to scream ‘yes or no’ and threatening Chema with a beat down because he just
knew it would devolve to that.

“OH I SURE AS HECK AM HELPING MORE THAN YOU!” yelled the girl

“YOU CAN’T HOLD THAT UP!!” yelled franco back, as these two started arguing with each
other again.

“…Just ignore those two” -Said the teacher before continuing- “Now answer my question, did you
go back there, all on your own, yes or not?”

“…No?” responded Chema

“WRONG!” yelled the teacher back

“…worth a try.”

“So you’re aware! that you got back there all on your own somehow!”

“Yes, but I honestly got no idea how it happened, I just know it looked exactly like that place that I
was in after going through that paint stain.” Chema just kept responding as his tone was becoming
ever so slightly more agitated, even rising his hands by his face in a defensive posture.

“Wait-“ The teacher, Franco, and the annoying girl said all in unison as they saw Chema just
randomly rise his hands even though they were meant to be tied up, and then they all just watched
as the jumping rope they used to tie him up fell off shortly after.

Everyone just stood in place for a second processing what happened, before Chema immediately
made a sprint away from his captors, however Franco quickly began chasing after him,
Successfully trapping him.

“Hey hey hey, why are you running?!” Asked franco before Chema answered bluntly

“You knocked out me and Daira, Then tried to kidnap us. I’d say it’s quite reasonable for me to run
away GIVEN YOU’RE ALL TOO STUPID TO TIE SOMEONE UP SUCCESFULLY!”

“Just for the record, I only knocked YOU out. Daira was actually knocked out by a stray basketball
that flew straight into her face. So we just left her over there.” Cleared out the girl, as that
DEFINETELY made things way better.
 “What do you even want to know from me? Aint you all capable to just go through a portal and get
there yourselves? What’s so groundbreaking about me just doing it?” Asked Chema

“It means you might have some capabilities beyond any normal person if you can just switch
between one world to the other, we’d rather keep close track of how and why you can do that. It
might be for the better of many people. So you are going to work with us from now on.”
Responded the teacher on a plain tone.

“See!? It was as easy as that! Didn’t need to kidnap the poor fucker!” yelled Franco letting go of
Chema, to which the girl only turned away as she turned the other way.

“He has a point, if you really only wanted to recruit me or anything you didn’t have to commit a
literal crime! Not like it’d make a diference, I refuse to work with you weirdos”

“You got no choice”

“I’m sure I have! YOU’RE LITERALLY CRIMINIALS! IT WOULDN’T BE HARD TO-“ Before
Chema could continue he felt a sharp pain on his head, it felt like something piercing through his
brain… But the moment he opened his eyes again he was in that other world yet again… He didn’t
have much time to think about how that worked before he saw the teacher right in front of him who
proceeded to speak “I am confident you’re not even entirely aware of how I’ve forced you to
switch worlds, but at least that confirms you do in fact have some outstanding potential… Either
way, what you need to know right now. Is that you have in fact, no choice.” As he finished saying
that, Many spears made out of light appeared floating around Chema, surrounding him…
Threatening him. However this didn’t last long as shortly after a mysterious storm with a bright
green glow coming out of it was seen approaching the both of them.

“…Hm, Seems I got too reckless” Said the teacher as he directed his eyes towards said storm.
Immediately afterwards Chema felt that exact same sharp pain going through his head, and when
he opened his eyes again, He was back in the normal world.

“You better keep in mind, It’s not just your life that’s on the line here.” Said the teacher, as he
looked directly at Chema. " for as cryptic as this could’ve been, Chema knew exactly what he
meant. That threat wasn’t only for him, but for those around him…

He couldn’t care any less about himself dying… But… He really couldn’t handle the idea of
causing pain to others.

Chapter End Notes

So uhhh yeah that happened, If there's any unexplained expressions in here i can't remember
so pls comment if there's any, aswell as if there's anything you think i should add, i'll do my
best to read your comments!!
(edit: I just remembered what joke i was meaning to explain, "La Vida Mas Bella" is meant to
be a fictional parody of "La rosa de guadalupe". So if there's any TV Novel irl with that
name... just know it was an unfortunate coincidence.)
 Just an accident
Chapter Notes

So! Chapter 8! uhhhhhhh was hard to start making this one, but eventually i just picked up
momentum and couldn't stop! I was genuinely worried this chapter would turn out too long but
it was actually pretty decent imo. Sooooooooooooooo I hope you enjoy!! (Also, any ideas for
how to... show this to more people? I'd really love for more people to see this!!)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Chema and Juana were finally arriving home after a long day of school, Juana was just tired, while
Chema was… Disturbed, Genuinely Disturbed. So much it was easy for Juana to notice Chema not
feeling all that well…

“Hey What’s wrong Cheems?” Asked Juana genuinely concerned

“I… I’m just…” Chema tried to voice even a bit of how he felt, but nothing came out… It’d very
hard to explain anyways…

“Hmmmmm… Tired? I don’t know what you saw in class but I assume it’s about the same shit as
my class since we’re on the same grade. Euhhhh alr let’s eat first and- actually snacks will work
about fine, The good ones shall follow me!” After saying this Juana started gracefully marching
towards her room.

Chema was… confused but mostly stunned still over what had just happened at the school.

“Cheems? I said, The good ones shall follow me!” Said Juana as she noticed Chema standing still.

“I… Actually for once we got homework today on my class and…”

“Yeah we got homework too but who cares really?!”

“It’s 50% of the grade.”

“I’ll do it for you if that makes you happy, alright? Now follow me” Said Juana as she was starting
to grow annoyed.

Chema with nothing else to say followed Juana into her room. Once there she turned on her
computer and browsed inside a folder in the desktop.

“Alright! Here’s the best thing to do when you’re tired or stressed and don’t feel like doing
anything at all!” Juana stepped up from the computer to show off what’s on the screen to Chema
“Retro games! I… Actually have more modern games but those are online and I’m not risking you
making me lose my ranks on them… There are years worth of all-nighters spent on those ranks.
But yeah you can play any of the games on my retro collection! I got Rush, Super Hermanos Jose,
Portabeasts, Punkman, and Blaze Goblet!”
Chema had… mixed feelings, while he liked those retro franchises he also felt like if Juana was
treating him as a kid. He felt so insulted over that though that he ignored Juana’s warning and
opened one of the online modern games… “The call of Gruty: Online” Was his pick, he had already
played that game a lot back at his home, he had a great chance to show off the results of 16 daily
hours of playing FPS games.

“Wh- I told you not to- Yknow what whatever, but If you lose this match I’m not letting you near
that my computer again!” Was Juana’s reaction, a very agitated reaction of course, However she’d
soon see Chema playing the whole match flawlessly, He just rushed through the entire match
smoothly, using strategies so complex they genuinely surprised Juana, Even though he was playing
against other players it still felt like he knew what they were going to do, just like if he knew every
possible play on the book, Eventually it didn’t take long until the match was over and he won 1st
place with no issue.

“…You son of a thousand bitches, HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU SO GOOD AT THIS?! Ok
What’s your username. I MUST add you to my squad! You’re so good at this! It’s almost
worrying!!” Said Juana on a tone that felt like a weird mix of saltyness and excitement. Chema
barely answered, and he mindlessly started another match, this surprised Juana, but she was just so
impressed by Chema’s skill she didn’t even try to stop him, which was a great mistake… Soon
enough Chema found himself entirely engulfed in the game, playing match after match after match.
3 hours in and Juana was already regretting her own choice.

“Hey… There’s other games on the computer too… We also got a console yknow? It’s not the
latest gen but that’s mostly by choice since this one just has so much more games, yknow?” Juana
commented trying to get Chema out of the game… but it was no use, Juana just left a tired sigh
before going back to watching videos on her phone “Just saying… It’s my computer so…
Whatever.”

This went on for some more hours until both Juana and Chema heard the door open.

“Oh, hey. Mom’s home, It would be fitting we went to greet her, right?”- Was Juana’s last attempt
to get Chema away from the game. However, Chema didn’t respond, He was still engulfed entirely
in the game. –“Once you let go of that shit, I’ll make sure you don’t touch my computer ever again.
It just isn’t a good idea to let you near that thing you dumbass.”

The only thing that got Chema out of the game was hearing Teresa’s voice say “It’s 8pm and you’re
playing those stupid little games.” Hearing this made Chema Jump out of his seat and close the
game even though he was in the middle of another match. “Can’t blame you.” Said Juana in a tired
voice while she was just looking at her phone.

“Juana Regina Gonzales Pérez, What was your idea showing Chema that stuff, I don’t need 2
brainless teenagers around, but of course you just go on and drag him down with you! You not only
trow your life down is stupid games but now you are bringing him down with you too! He came
here to finish his studies and instead you make him dumber with your pendejadas that I’m sure I
deleted so long ago.” Teresa went on and on getting progressively more angry at Juana. “And you
Chema, You go to your room already! I would tell you to wait for dinner but honestly I already
know you just don’t care enough to show up anyways, so why do I bother being nice to someone
who doesn’t think it’s worth it to show some respect back, right?”

Chema having just realized what was going on… Felt an extreme guilt that drove him to try and
say something, but before he could even make a sound Teresa said bluntly. “Just go to your room.”
Chema could only do as he was told… Once in his room he tried to just sleep… but it had just
gotten to him that he hadn’t eaten anything. So he waited until he was sure everyone was asleep
and he went to the kitchen to see if there was anything he could go get to eat… And there he found
Juana, she just looked at him with an annoyed look as she started walking back to her room… But
before she had left Chema made his best effort to speak to her.

“I’m… really sorry, I shouldn’t have played that much, and I just made her angry at you, it was all
my fault, you shouldn’t have gotten any of that, and I am-“

“Stop that already.” Said Juana, interrupting Chema. “…Just don’t feel too guilty about it, she’s
always like that, you usually don’t see it because you just somehow always go to sleep before she’s
home. I should probably do that too… Not like I can I guess. But yeah, You’re fine. I’m still not
letting you steal my computer from me for so long again, If you do that, I’m pulling you away from
it by the hair.”

Chema… didn’t know how to feel, to an extent it was relieving? To hear that… But at the same
time it still… Didn’t feel entirely correct. After that he just ate a cereal bar he found on the fridge
and left to sleep.

It was the next day at school… Classes were just starting and everyone was just arriving and
getting on their usual seats. Chema didn’t feel like he’d ever be fine being here… Specially after
what happened the previous day.

“Hey” -He heard Franco say as he sat behind Chema- “The teacher wants us all at the abandoned
classroom at lunchbreak, that includes you. I can trust you with showing up, alright?”

“Hey that’s my seat!” Yelled another guy way taller than everyone else in the class, As he arrived to
the classroom.

“And who says it’s YOURS?”

“I DO! Now get away from it before I shove a punch in your face!”

“Well, then you got no actual right over this seat, so fuck you~” Said franco on a mocking tone.

Chema was worried a fight would start right behind him, however as the discussion went on he
realized this was actually two friends just annoying each other

“Oh yeah? You’ll see then, You’ll see then huh?” responded the guy on a mocking tone aswell.

“Yeah yeah go suck some fat dick.”

Yep, definitely just a conversation between friends. Either way, Chema just sat through the classes
like usual… Not a lot for him to say, after all it was all relatively easy for him, he had already seen
most of this anyways.

Eventually it was lunch break, for once he was looking for Daira. Wondering if she was alright
from the hit she received the day before. Eventually they found each other, Daira only had a
massive bump where the basketball had hit her previously, They had a small talk between each
other before Chema saw Franco walking up to him… Chema knew what this was all about.
“Oh, hi again guys, so…” He said as he approached them

“I’m… needed at the classroom..?” Replied Chema

“Yeah, just exactly that.”

“Oh, is something up with Chema? Can I accompany him then?” Commented Daira getting in the
conversation.

“Uhhhh… No… sadly… But I’ll be back soon…” Replied Chema to Daira, He knew damn well he
couldn’t have her around any of… whatever that was.

“Are you sure…? I really wouldn’t trust these people after what they did to you…” said daira as
she looked at Franco with a surprisingly intimidating glare.

“I… will be fine, don’t worry…”

“But even if you say so…”

“Yeahhh… I know… you said that… you could trust me with showing up and all but…”Said
chema, this time directing himself at Franco, however he interrupted.

“Oh, it’s fine I get it perfectly.” He replied

“Oh… Then…” Reacted Chema as he began following Franco who was already heading towards
the one classroom.

Once at the classroom the scenery that met Chema was the one girl from the other time jumping at
Chema:

“You are late! What were you ploting? Any plot to get out of this?! Or where you actually trying to
snitch on us like you said?! I’ll let you know that-“

“Ale Ale Ale… Calm down he just wanted to eat something from the cafeteria before coming here.
Since when is that a crime?” -Interrupted Franco, before he directed back at Chema for a moment-
“Oh, right by the way she’s Alessandra. Just so you know.”

“Tardiness is undesirable and unacceptable, And given we don’t know anything about him other
than he’s able to get in and out of the subconscious world at will. AND that he’s planning on giving
us away to the authorities. We can’t be too cautious with this guy.” Replied Ale.

“It… is not actually at will.” Commented Chema, already tired of hearing her like this, it seems
that’s just her usual.

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!” Yelled the girl back before being interrupted by the teacher.

“Silence! We’re just going to discuss preparatives over here. So, whatever you did back there.
We’ll need to see you do it again. We were already planning to do an expedition soon anyways, so
this just comes in at the perfect time. If you can pull the others with you when you switch worlds
then that’ll be great.” Explained the teacher, however Chema decided to repeat himself.
“It’s not at will.”

Everyone looked confused at this commentary. Well not the teacher, he looked more mad than
confused.

“Don’t try to lie your way out of this, you’re already in. We’re not letting you get out of this just
like that. So, we will all meet at the dirt path once classes are over. It will be the exact same place
as when you got in, So you can just do the exact same thing you did back then.”

Chema wanted to just open his mouth and say “This isn’t going to work.”. However, he couldn’t.
Apparently he just… wasn’t willing to keep trying to talk back, whether it was because of tiredness
or because of fear… He didn’t care, he was just hoping it would end up soon.

“Now before you leave, I’ll have to give you a quick lesson on the things you’ll have to know
about the subconscious world before you get in.”

Without giving Chema a moment to say anything, The teacher started explaining a bunch of
complicated stuff. The subconscious world… Ruptures… Paranormal events… The power of the
souls… Chema could listen it all but it all sounded so… surreal, however given the place he had
seen that other time… It all seemed plausible for him, or maybe he didn’t care enough to question
it. Either way all of his lunchbreak was spent on these complex explanations he was sure wouldn’t
stick with him at all. Eventually he had to go back to class and oh wouldn’t you know? That same
teacher was going to have a class with him during the second block of classes.

“Greetings- Put away that cellphone! I’m Mr. Castillo your professor of "Social and Vocational
Orientation." As you may know we only have this class one hour a week, which is terrible since
this is the single most important subject you will all take on your student life. So I will be expecting
you all to do all of the assignments starting with this book right here. It’s only 248 pages long and I
will need you all to read it by next class, But you must upload an essay of the first 5 chapters by
tomo- Sit correctly Emiliano! Respect this class because it’s one of the most important things you’ll
learn in your life! So we’re not here to just be like orangutans who don’t know how to do the most
simplest actions like sitting on a proper manner- because that’s how you look like right now!
Understood? We are here to learn.” Said the teacher, as his class was the very last class of the week,
and nobody could care any less.

Either way, after staring into nowhere for an hour, the class was over and it was time to meet at the
dirth path. Chema, Franco and Ale all walked out of the classroom and towards the dirth path
together, on the way out of the classroom however chema noticed Gabriel just… staying on his
seat, looking straight down for a reason… Either way, once in front of the dirth path it was time for
Chema to walk in and prove… something?

“So, whatever you did that day, just do it right now.” Said the teacher Castillo. However... Once
Chema stepped on the dirt path just like he did before… Nothing happened. This was… Confusing
for everyone other than Chema who was already expecting this to not work.

“DON’T TRY TO BE SNEAKY HERE! WE KNOW YOU CAN GET IN!” Yelled Ale, who was
followed by the teacher.

“You know far too well by now I won’t tolerate your attempts to pretend your way out of this!”

But Franco then interrupted the both of them to state “Have neither of you thought that maybe he
just got In by accident?”
“You don’t just walk into the subconscious world by accident!” Yelled Mr. Castillo, his tone
showing how he was losing his patience.

“Mister Castillo. Since you are already present on the current place, Would you be so kind as to tell
these lowly sheeps to walk away from the current location? They’re being an annoyance.” Said a
someone who was clearly trying to pretend a deep voice.

“Just what is your deal this time, Michelle?” Complained Franco, clearly unhappy to hear that
voice.

“It’s the Bloody Doom for you. And you are standing in my way, For as much of a brainless sheep
as you are, you must be conscious enough to understand why trying to defy me would be a
mistake.” Replied a tall guy with red dyed hair, red-tainted shades, and red paper roses all across
his uniform, as he tilted down his glasses to reveal his bright red contacts. Behind him were a girl
clearly trying to look like a goth e-girl… and failing, aswell as… Gabriel?

“Geez, You’re really deep into that act huh? Michelle we’re busy with something right now, So if
you could wait on a bench in the meanwhile. I don’t want to begin a fight here.”

“You’re just trying to avoid conflict because you’re too scared of my dear’s power. You may want
to deny it, but my capabilities at reading the souls of my enemies are well beyond your
understanding!” Said the poor attempt at a goth girl.

“Dude, I could pretty much body all of you if I wanted!” replied franco. To which Ale quickly
commented: “But spare Gabriel, He’s adorbs.”. Franco only nodded in non-hesitant agreement.

“Hey! What are you all tryna do to Chema!”Said Daira as she approached the mob from the
distance.

“Uhhh… I don’t know.” Replied Chema in the most honest way he could.

“As long as he gets out of our way, he might run away with his life!” Roared Michelle

“CHEEMS! WHAT IS GOING ON!? YOU’RE IN TROUBLE??!” yelled Juana as she ran into this
mess. Soon enough everyone Chema knew was fighting and yelling and people were watching, and
the noise was too much, the stress was too much, “I just want to go home already”. Was all he
could think. Fear… Stress… Lonelyness… All of those feelings were coming back to him, but this
time they were his. And as he was trying to open his eyes, he could see all around him… the line
between his world and the subconscious one was becoming… blurry. And suddenly, he saw Gabriel
being pushed around and stumble into Chema, Daira noticed this aswell and tried to shield Chema
from it. However instead the both were pushed behind by Gabriel. Chema only felt a sharp yet brief
pain as he was falling with Daira wrapped around him…

When he opened his eyes again he saw… The sky was water… The shadows… Were bright… and
the floating shapes that resembled rubble… yes. This was in fact the subconscious world.

“Where… What… is this place…?” Said Daira genuinely scared. But the only thing Chema said
was…

“So you can just get in by accident…”

Chapter End Notes

Welp, that was something. After 8 chapters things will finally get going!! Hopefully... Either
way, if there's anything you'd like me to explain then pls say so in the comments!! (and do
share this with other people you know pretty pls!)
 Save Them.
Chapter Notes

Alright, this one may or may not look a bit short, but believe me that it took quite a while,
however... THE STORY IS FINALLY ON TRACK!.. kinda, but that's something for the next
chapters. Is this story going very slowly? yes but it's hopefully turning better as more chapters
keep coming in.
Anywayyyyysssss... I hope you enjoy!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Chema was… somehow in that world yet again, and somehow Daira was there too… who was in
fact freaking out.

“what… is this place….?”

“uhhh daira?-“ asked chema, concerned for his friend.

“what… THE FUCK IS THIS PLACE?!”

“uhh…”

“…sorry for that. I just… where are we… how did we get here? Is there a way back?”

“I’m honestly not sure about any of those, it’s apparently some… subconscious place?...”

“Is there at least a way out?”

“Not that I know, last time I was here I just… snapped back into our world. That doesn’t seem to be
happening though…”

“I-i… are we… are we stuck in here?! With no way out?!!”

“I don’t know, I know this place is apparently dangerous so I may aswell just lay down here and...“
said chema as he started laying down on the ground.

“N-no! If there’s a way in there must be a way out! We just need to find it together! We can’t lose
our hope!!” Interrupted Daira.

“Not like i wanted to either way” Said Chema as he stood up from his spot. “However we’ll need
something to… defend… if anything happens, you got anything?”

Daira just shook her head in response

“Well, just stay close by then” said Chema as he pulled out a knife from his backpack.

“WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A KNIFE WITH YOU?!- I mean… Is that a knife?!”
“Not a real one it’s a plastic one just to scare away anything that might- Wait I swear it was a
plastic one.” He responded as he realized the knife now looked shiny and metallic for some
reason… it didn’t look like that when he put it in… “…Whatever, we’ll just head… uhhhhh…
down the crack-shaped path I guess”

“The crack shaped…?” Asked daira before noticing they were standing on what did really look like
a crack. “Woah! This… is something”

After saying that, Both Chema and Daira started walking down the crack-shaped path, even though
it looked way smaller when chema was first here, the walk just felt like it went on forever down
that crack…

“How long have we been walking…?” asked Daira, as her legs were starting to grow tired.

“I… have no idea… I haven’t walked this long in way too long…” shortly after saying that, Chema
collapsed into the ground.

“Chema! Are you ok?!” asked Daira as she managed to catch Chema.

“I’m… fine, just a bit tired…”

“Maybe we can just rest for a while then…” after saying that, both of them sat on the ground to
rest. Chema eventually let himself fall, after laying down on that crack for a while, Chema broke
the ankward silence with a comment.

“This is a weird place… The sky looks like if we were underwater… but I can still see stars from
here…”

Daira confused by this, decided to lay down herself aswell. And yes in fact, she could see stars
from there… They were beautiful. They looked so bright, and had so many different colors… it
was hypnotic in a way… she just couldn’t stop looking at it…

“You’re nice, yknow?”

Daira was confused at this, she only made a surprised noise as she heard that without taking her
eyes away from the stars in the sky…

“You’re just… nice, I’d rather not having to talk with people really. But honestly you’re ok for an
exception I guess.” Continued Chema.

Daira was… taken aback by this, Chema was for once not only starting a conversation but also
talking from the heart… She was also… glad of hearing him say that of her.

“You… don’t think I’m annoying…?” she asked.

“You are, at times. But you’re also really nice, You’re around a bit too much, but honestly it’d be
lonely without that…”

“Well I guess that’s… good to hear… It’s better than being alone. Nobody likes being alone right?”

“…”

“Right?”
“I think we should keep going now.” Said chema on a cold and sharp tone as he stood up and
started walking ahead.

“Right.” She responded after a small silence.

Eventually after walking for even more, They reached the end of the path, or rather what seemed
like the origin of it, An even larger crack on which stood a large structure that could barely be seen
over the tall stone walls that covered it.

“A castle…?” said Chema and Daira on unison once they stood in front of the intimading structure,
but quickly a mysterious voice appeared to correct them: “A stronghold…”

Both teenagers were strongly confused by what they heard and their reactions confirmed they had
both heard the same thing, so they started looking around for wherever the voice could come from,
until eventually it spoke again: “You should walk away now.”

“Uhhhh well do you know where the way out is? We were just trying to find it…” asked daira in an
attempt to get out of this place however the voice’s response was: “There is no way out. There is no
escape. There is no choice, no other way. Trapped with no way to get out.”

“T-that can’t be… We must have come from somewhere! We should be able to get out somehow
then!!” yelled Daira as she was started to grow scared and desperate. But the voice didn’t answer
back. “Is there really… no way out…?”

They were slowly growing scared of that possibility, Daira didn’t want to suddenly be trapped in
such a weird place with no escape, While Chema didn’t want to have dragged someone else- Daira
of all people into a place with no way out. Would this mean he sent her to her death? It’s impossible
for them to survive for long like this. However before they fear could grow any larger, they heard a
voice approaching from the distance:

“AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHHHHAIAIAIAIAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” It was the voice of Franco, who was running as
fast as he possibly could towards Daira and Chema with a broom in hand. However it was improper
of him to look so freaked out, he usually doesn’t get too carried away. However they soon saw what
had him so scared:

From behind Franco they could see a slimy dragon with a snail shell on it’s back running towards
Franco at a high speed. Eventually Franco reached Chema and Daira, Failed to stop his own
momentum and tackled the door at top speed breaking it down. Seeing as the dragon was slowly
approaching Chema and Daira went inside the castle aswell, but since the door was already down
the dragon didn’t have much issue breaking in aswell. Eventually they were surrounded by it,
Franco stood in front of them both and pointed the broom at the dragon hoping to intimidate it, but
he wouldn’t be able to stand his ground much longer. Daira was just scared and curled up in the
ground while unable to take her eyes of the threat before her. Chema jumped in the front with
Franco to try and do something with it’s knife. Franco was concerned by the knife but decided to
think about it later.

Franco managed to hit it with the broom a few times, but could only damage the shell a bit before
the broom itself broke. Chema on the other hand attacked the rest of the body with his knife but it
was no use as the slimy body made it near impossible to get any actual damage on the creature.
Eventually he was knocked back with Daira and he watched in horror as the beast was surrounding
them ready to finally end their lives. Chema however… alongside the fear he also felt something
slowly becoming larger… He wanted for these people to live, He wanted for Daira to live… this
girl who he had just met one week ago, she somehow became the first real friend he’s had in a long
time, and he only saw her as someone so nice… she deserved to live, and then Franco… regardless
of the people he was dealing around with he was still trying to be the voice of reason and help him
out… listen him out… he wanted him to live aswell… He wanted to save them… He would put his
life on the line to save these people he just met. It’s dumb, but it’s the way he felt… so even when
all hope was lost he still jumped back in the front with a wild roar full of life and determination!
Even if he had no chance at stopping the threat currently in front of them he was still willing to
fight it in a world he didn’t even understand just for a chance of saving two people he just met!

And so he closed his eyes… he didn’t even know why but as he stepped in he closed his eyes
readying himself for whatever could come next. He didn’t know what that thing was. He didn’t
know what kind of place he was in. He didn’t know what he would do. He didn’t know if he could
do anything in the first place. But the one thing he knew…

“I want to save them. To save others, That is my resolve.”

Then for one second. There was nothing. Nothing in Chema’s mind. But then the moment he
opened his eyes, they weren’t like before. The white of his eyes was now pitch black and his green
eyes now had a mysterious glow to them. The look on his eyes was of pure determination and
focus. Then as if by his command a giant snake made out of water rose from the ground, the water
of it’s body was shining on all the colors of the rainbow, and its face was covered by a metal mask
that covered it’s eyes. Franco and Daira watched scared and amused as the snake opened its jaws
and dropped itself on the dragon in a ferocious manner, the snake itself being many times larger
than the dragon was able to fit it entirely on its jaws before aggressively closing its jaws in one
clean and fast move that caused slimy bits and fragments of its shell to scatter all around.

Franco and Daira were still trying to process what happened as Chema was slowly regaining
control of himself. He somehow was aware of what had just happened. However before any of
them could collect their thoughts the voice spoke again: “You not only ignored my warning, but
you also broke in by force. You have caused way too much harm onto this sacred place. Therefore
you shall be exterminated before you cause any more damage.” When they heard this all three of
them turned to the direction of the voice and saw… a short figure covered in shadows talking from
the balcony. The only discernible parts of their looks were their long curly hair and plain robes
aswell as some chains reaching out from their limbs and into the castle. Shortly after large amounts
of guards started appearing from thin air all around them even blocking the exit of it.

“…take cover.” Commanded Chema to Franco and Daira, even though they were confused by the
sudden order they agreed it was the best idea they had and did so. Immediatelly after the giant
water snake started moving again. Chema turned to look directly at the guards blocking the exit and
the snake immediately attacked and destroyed them all in one clean move, it was as if it was
following Chema’s orders somehow.

“NOW RUN!!” Yelled Chema as he started running towards the exit, Daira and Franco followed.

They ran past the broken entrance and back into the path with a large mob of faceless guards
following closely behind.

“PAQUITO! LET ME TAKE THE LEAD!” said Franco

“HE IS CHEMA!!” yelled Daira

 “DOESN’T MATTER! JUST SLOW DOWN SO I CAN BE FIRST!”

Chema didn’t knew what Franco had in mind, but given the lack of options he still acceded to this.
After being on the lead Franco took out what looked like a can of paint out of his bag and said.

“THIS’LL BE HOURS OF WORK LOST BUT WE’RE DESPERATE SO FUCK OFF!!!”

Screamed Franco on a desperate voice as he flung the can forwards, once it touched the ground it
broke and spread a large amount of it’s content all around it. Just then Chema could notice for a
split second that the stain come from the broken can was exactly like the multicolored stain that
brought him here the first time. However he didn’t have much time to react to this as he almost
immediately fell through the stain alongside Franco and Daira.

Next thing they knew they were flung into the air by a newly opened portal in the middle of the dirt
path, only to land close by it half knocked out.

“huff… So that happens when you open a portal on the ground, huh…?” Said Franco on an oddly
satisfied voice.

“You… didn’t kno-ack… didn’t know what was going to happen?!..” Said Daira, both mad and
exhausted.

“Well it was a 50/50 between us being flung into the air or being trapped a few milimeters
underground, we would’ve survived either… probably.”

Daira just sighed, she was too exhausted and hurt to even give a proper reaction. They all just laid
down there for a while, Chema wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened… but at least he knew
they were all safe. He had saved them.

Chapter End Notes

So... Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter having a bit more action and stuff going on than the
usual ones, i actually enjoyed writting that whole part so you'll of course see more of it in the
future, again if there's anything you'd like me to add or explain just say so in the comments
please!!
(Edit: This might be the last chapter ngl. Yes i'm genuinely contemplating quitting this, haha
so quick now that's hilarious, huh? But fr this aint all that good to justify i keep making more
chapters. Specially now that i'm going back to school and may not have enough time to keep
progressing. So uhhhh... i'd say was good while it lasted but it wasn't even lol)
(Edit 2: Maybe forget about that last edit, i just can't stop writting even if my plan was to, so
uhhh expect chapter 10 soon... if anyone is still reading by now.)
 A small adventure through the market(Part 1)
Chapter Notes

So, finally uploaded something again, i swear i was planning to update earlier but school has
been keeping me busy, however we're back on track!!(kinda). Also i realized this chapter was
getting a bit too long and it would probably delay the wait 'till this next chapter even longer if i
didn't do something about so uhhhh i just kinda split it in half, i'm working on the second half
already which will be out... Someday idk, in the meanwhile... I hope you enjoy!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Once everyone was sure Chema and Daira were ok, Mr. Castillo sent everyone home, except
Franco who was already expecting a long lecturing over the can he broke. After that Chema’s
exhaustment was so much he just slept all day like before.

The next day came, and Chema was getting ready to go to school until he realized… it was
Saturday already, didn’t notice when but it was already weekend, Chema knowing this jumped out
of his uniform and just slapped on some pants and a pink t-shirt before heading to the dinning room
to scour some breakfast. However he finds Juana already having breakfast herself.

“’sup, thought you’d never show up!” Said Juana while taking a bite of her improvised breakfast.
After this Chema just sat in front of her, where conveniently there was a plate with breakfast served
aswell.

“So… Where’s your mom?” asked chema as he began eating.

“Well, that’s the thing with having a business. She doesn’t have much time everyday, must be in
time every morning, be happy that she took some time off to cook you something aswell.” Replied
Juana as she kept eating oblivious to how Chema’s breakfast had already gone cold by then, not
like he cared he ate it either way.

“I… didn’t know she had a business.” He commented being surprised yet also apologetic.

“It’s overselling it to call it that, it’s just a food stand. I’ll admit it makes some good money
though…”

“So.” Chema stood up suddenly from his seat “I guess I’ll just go to my-“ However when he tried
to walk into the hallway he was stopped by Juana firmly grabbing his wrist.

“Oh no you’re not retreating to your cave just yet.” She said with a somewhat mischievous look in
her eyes. “I’m planning to go buy some stuff this weekend, and you coming!”

“…why?” Chema asked in an overwhelmingly tired voice.

“Because why not?, Because it’s boring to just sleep all the time?, Because there are more places to
go other than school? Because… yes?”

“…whatever.” Replied Chema as he just gave up.

“Great! Welp let us engage on an adventure!!” Announced Juana as she walked towards the living
room and then to the door.

“Did you really have to say it like that?” said Chema through his cringing. To which Juana just
replied “Oh come on, am I not allowed to fool around?”

After that they both walked out of the house closing the door and the bars behind them, Chema
flinching as the light his his eyes, he didn’t expect the sun to be brighter than usual in the mornings.
It took him a while to adjust himself, once he was done with it he noticed Juana trying her best to
not laugh histerically at this sight.

“hnnngh… What’s so funny?” He said

“snrrrrk it’s nothing~” said Juana trying to hold her laughter

“Yeah yeah sure, first you make me go out like this, now you laugh at me flinching with this
annoying sun! Ughh I should have fixed myself up before coming out now that I think…”

But then a stranger voice commented: “But you do not look bad at all, you are still a fine young
man”.

“Not your business bi-“ Chema started roaring until he noticed the one talking was an old woman
who also happened to be a good friend of his family. “oh- Sorry. Good morning.”

“Good morning young man! You have grown so much since last time I saw you, how long has it
been like 5 years…?” exclaimed the old woman with excitement in her voice.

“…More or less…” responded Chema visibly ankward

“Oh, but what happened? You used to come by all the time! And why do you have that long face?
You used to be such a cheerful boy!”

Chema was starting to get annoyed at the woman’s remarks, however he was thinking well what to
say before talking, he really didn’t want to offend a friend of the family. Juana noticed this and
started thinking what excuse to come up with to stop this line of conversation. However… The
woman just kept going regardless of chema’s visible discomfort:

“Why do you not visit anymore? Did something happen? You and your parents should know that
there’s no excuse to leave friends behind. I missed you so much you little boy. I was asking
everytime I saw your aunt when were you going to visit again… If something happened don’t
doubt on telling me I can hear, and don’t think anything is too much for me or anything. Nothing
that may have happened could be more than what I lived through my many many years so-“

At that point, Chema stopped caring.

“It’s not your business, Bitch.”

The woman was left shocked, out of breath at this reaction and so was Juana, she wasn’t sure how
to fix up this situation so she just did the best thing she could think up about in the moment. She
grabbed Chema’s wrist and without a word she ran on the direction to the town market, pulling
Chema with her as she refused to look back to even check on the reaction of the old woman. She
just ran until eventually the both of them were far enough.

Once they were far away enough, the stopped to catch a break, Chema almost falling onto the floor
at that moment as he said between deep breaths: “Sorry… I guess… I got carried away...”

“You’re fine, but let’s just try to stay out of her line of sight for… like forever now I guess??”
replied Juana “Welp, at least we’re not that far from the market now… Though…”

Juana looked at her phone and seemed to scroll through it for a while until she yelled out “Alright
we’re on track!” Chema was of course confused by this which Juana noticed. “Oh, there is this
game called ‘Pocket Chaos Beasts’ a spin-off from the ‘Rush saga’-“

“A spin-off… inspired on the- ‘Chaos Beasts’ game for… huff- pc, which was- huff… inspired by
a minigame on Ru-phew… ‘Rush: the Odyssey’?” Interrupted Chema while still recovering his
breath before Juana could explain the rest.

“Oh! So you know it?” responded Juana in excitement though still a bit mad about being
interrupted.

“Yes… I’ve been playing it since release… Alongside with ‘Rush: Hi-speed Combat’.” Chema
started taking out his phone while saying this. “In fact- huff… I can show you my Beast. Its name
is Flower Princess” Juana was just about to chuckle about this until she looked at the screen and
saw an eldritch monster of the apocalypse. All the stats maxed. Parts from about as many types of
beasts as possible. And of course, it was a guardian beast which means it had to have been
reincarnated several times. Juana had MANY questions at this very moment. But she was only able
to speak one of them: “…Why flower princess?”

“Because when I first got it, it had a flower pattern.”

This was definitely where the questioning should end for the good of her own sanity. Either way
she was here for a reason. “Anyways, the idea to come here is that there is a stray egg somewhere
in this market, and if my calculations are right, RNGesus might just bless me with a Super Rare
‘Cosmic’ Beast. The odds say my chances of this egg being the one are an outstanding 1 in 1024!
So… where is this egg again now…”

And so Juana and Chema Adventured into the wonders of the market! It was of course what you’d
expect of a market, a place where raw capitalism of legally questionable nature tribed! Full of many
wonders that make you wonder ‘How did that even get there?!’. As Chema followed Juana across
the crowded market he distracted himself by looking at the many things being sold around. Some
fruit stores, Some toys store, A candy store way bigger than most locals, Some offbrand action
figures being sold over here, Some pirated statues of anime girls over there, some fossils being sold
around there, exotic snakes being sold all the way in that corner, or some sorcery stuff every other
store. Chema’s eyes eventually landed on one food stand not so far from them, it being run by only
one woman, however he was quick to recognize the woman rushing and juggling around the entire
stand. It was Teresa.

However Chema’s didn’t have much time to process this as his thoughts were interrupted by a loud
yell: “IT’S A COSMIC ONE!!!!!!!!!” Of course, the source of said scream was an overly excited
 Juana, Jumping around with sheer joy from having found her so desired ‘cosmic beast’.

“So… Wanna go for some ice cream while we’re here?” She continued this time directing at
Chema

“uhh… Sure, I like ice cream” responded Chema in a somewhat monotone voice, not realizing how
long it’d take for them to arrive there. After walking half of the way place and practically being
carried by Juana the other half of the way, Chema finally found himself along with Juana on a place
with a very rustic aesthetic, probably intentional though as the minimalistic look of the place was
very soothing in it’s own way, best part of it all there were quite some empty chairs where he could
finally rest.

“You really can’t be that tired, we barely walked that much on the way here! Whatever you can sit
over here, what flavor do you want yours?” Said Juana, quite tired of dragging Chema half the way
there.

“Is there corn Ice cream? If not then I’m fine with a sausage ice cream.” Replied Chema honesty as
he was still regaining his energies.

“Just ask for a normal flavor. Please.”

Chapter End Notes

So... Yeah it ended a bit abruptly but uhm yeah i kinda split the thing in 2 parts because it was
getting too long and i needed to get something out already. Either way i hope you liked it, if
there's anything that needs explaining or anything you'd like me to add then please do tell in
the comments! i'll do my best to read them!! So... 'till next chapter whenever that happens!
 A small adventure through the market(Part 2)
Chapter Notes

So... i could've uploaded this one earlier but i was kind of nervous of certain parts not working
(specially by the end) so i needed some opinions before uploading. But now it's here and
uhhhhh... dunno what else to say so i hope you enjoy!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

It took a lengthy discussion then followed by an unreasonable long wait. But Chema and Juana
were finally able to sit and enjoy some ice cream inside the cozy stablishment, with some 80’s
music playing across the place.

“I really can’t believe they’d have such a niche flavor as ‘sausage ice cream’.” Said Juana still in
complete disbelief not only about her cousin’s odd flavor preferences but also about the idea that
there are enough people out there who share those likings.

“They just know what’s good.” Said Chema before turning back to enjoying his sausage ice cream,
he somehow found this tasty enough to be hyperfocused on enjoying it.

“So… Anything you wanna talk about meanwhile?” Asked Juana as she started eating her
completely normal energy drink flavored ice cream.

“Well… I think I saw your mom’s stablishment on the way here…” Chema commented with an off
and unsure tone.

“Oh, you did?” Juana paused for a moment before continuing “You wanna go see her or
something?”

“I don’t know…” he replied.

“Hm. Well whatever, we just need to pick up some stuff over here and we’ll probably go back
home then. You sure must be glad ‘bout that”. Juana saying that last part of the sentence with a hint
of annoyance in her voice.

“Yes.” Replied Chema, completely oblivious to Juana’s anger. However lucky for him a blind man
walked up to them asking for money before she could lash out at him.

“i- Sorry, I don’t have much with me right now.” Juana said to the blind man, as she started
scouring through her bag looking for any coins she could give him. However suddenly a phone
rang and before Chema and Juana could check if it was theirs. The blind man picked up a cellphone
from their pocket, and looked at it for a second before taking off his shades and squinting at the
screen.

“Tch, that bastard again. I’ll message him back late-“ The ‘blind’ man stopped himself once he
realized what he had just done. He looked at both teenagers for a second before rushing his way out
of the stablishment. They both sighed and stood up from their seats.
“Well whatever as I was saying, just need to buy a few things and we’ll be back home. Hmmm…”
Said Juana looking through a list she took with her. Just usual ingredients and so, just that in
slightly larger quantities than usual. After checking up what they were gonna buy, and the route
they were gonna take for it they headed to each one of the stablishments needed. The route went
mostly smoothly, at exception of Chema almost being ran over once or twice.

“Come on Cheems! You gotta pay more attention you’ll miss your head one of these days!”

“You… huff… r-really think I can just- agh… keep up like that?!” replied Chema already tired
again.

“HOW ARE YOU TIRED AGAIN ALREADY??!!” Juana asked in genuine concern. It appeared
surreal to her that someone could be that low on energies. “J-just… We’re already on the cheeses so
just sit over there and I’ll go get the cheese and ham.” (Small reminder to change this part to
something else)

However as Chema was about to go to a bench Juana pointed at, a familiar voice yelled:
“PAQUITO-2! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER HERE?!” It was Franco speaking from one of
the counters that was coincidentally empty. Chema decided to make one last effort to head over
there, and Juana followed as it was quite convenient.

“Hey aren’t you one of the guys from yesterday?” Juana asked.

“Yes I am!” Franco said proudly “We probably wouldn’t have found the little guy besides you if it
wasn’t for me!”

“You realize the ‘little guy’ is 20 years old. Right?” asked Juana, expecting to get a funny reaction
out of Franco.

“So am i!” Franco replied to Chema and Juana’s surprise… Though it wasn’t all that shocking.

“Well that makes sense. But you really don’t have anything to say about Cheems being-“

“Everyone’s got their story, I won’t judge!” interrupted Franco confidently.

“Well- Alright, so… we’re here to buy a few things- “Said Juana a bit tired of this all.

“It’s the usual, right?” Interrupted Franco yet again, already knowing by memory what she always
orders.

“R-right…” Replied Juana starting to grow annoyed at Franco’s attitude.

“So. What is he? Family? Friend? Something weird in-between?” Said Franco while sorting out
through the cheeses and hams.

“He’s my cousin, he’s here for his studies.”

“Your cousin, huh? That sounds like a long story- He isn’t northern, right?” He asked now cutting
some fine slices of all the ingredients he was juggling around.

“Nope, he’s chilango. So nothing’s happening between us… got it?” Juana replied, looking at
Chema as she asked that last part.
“Why would you look at me? I’m not THAT desperate!” Replied Chema, genuinely offended Juana
would think him capable of going after her.

“Anyways, I was quite lucky to find you two in here. My turn in here is almost over.!” Franco
changed the topic as he was already packaging it all on plastic foil and into transparent bags.

“You… your turn can’t be that short.” Said Juana very sceptical.

“It is! I just got a lot of important stuff to do myself. I still get another turn here in a few hours
either way.” As he said this last part he left the ingredients asked for in the counter. “With that said,
Once you pay I should head out.”

“Yeah alright.” Said Juana, looking like she already knew the exact quantity of money she’d need
for all of it. “Well, see you later uhhhh…”

“Franco! The name’s Franco Nicolas!” He replied as he was starting to head out.

“Well uhhh yeah see ya!”

“Goodbye Paquito-2’s cousin! Seeya later Paquito-2!” yelled Franco before sprinting his way out of
the counter.

After this they walked a few streets further and took a small detour to go buy some figures Juana
wanted to buy on the way. Even though Chema wasn’t up for it he still walked along. He followed
Juana as she scoured through many over convoluted designs made into figures the size to fit on a
board game. Juana seemed oddly excited about them, though it was mostly because of the price.
However once they reached the counter they were in shock by the face they saw standing behind
it…

“If I had known I’d see you two again this early I would have saved up my words!” Said Franco,
now standing just behind the counter of this completely different store.

“You… YOU WORK HERE TOO?!” Yelled Juana in total disbelief.

“Yes I do!” Replied Franco Proud of himself “I help in the counter and also help with the
fabrication of some of these… don’t tell anyone though that’s kind of illegal, But who really
cares?”

“…right… Well It’ll be this figures over here…” replied Juana still comprehending the odd
coincidence.

“Oh! I made these! The fact you picked them up must mean I made quite a good job! Of course I
always do a good job!” Stated Franco, as he was going by the products while still keeping his proud
smile.

“Wait for real?! They almost look like the real ones! Is there no way you can make some specific
models I’d like? Yknow since my cousin’s your friend?” Said Juana amazed at the fact one of her
classmates could make near identical replicas of her most expected figures. However Franco
replied with a blunt yet still proud “Sorry, unless you give a good enough pay. There is no way.”

“Well that’s fucked, how are you getting any business done like that? Come on what about helping
a friend?!” Juana said in a jokingly tone before shutting herself down. “Either way uhhhh how
much will it be?”

Once Juana paid the figures she wanted, Juana and Chema said goodbye to Franco as they walked
away and got back into their route. It didn’t take all that long for them to finally arrive home, which
Chema was really really grateful about. Once hey entered the house Chema didn’t even get into his
room as he had originally planned. He was just so done he let himself fall straight down into the
couch.

“Woah, you really are that tired huh?” Said Juana, still unable to believe Chema could be so low on
stamina.

“I… I’m not even gonna fight you… I just need to stop existing for a moment.” He said as he stood
up just to begin walking into his room again.

“Annnnnd you’ve back into your cave. What do you even do there? Just sleep?” Replied Juana
confused about what could be so appealing to Chema about staying in one room all day.

“Yes.”

“How can you even do that? Is all your day outside of school just sleeping??”

“If I’m honest with you… It’s all I ever look forwards to everyday.” Answered Chema. With an
honesty that just left Juana on disbelief and… very genuinely concerned.

“That… that’s just sad.” Is the only thing she could come up with as a reply. “Like, I at least play
videogames but you just… sleep? All day?”

“Hm, now that sounds like my parents. Though for real what is the problem with that?!” Asked
Chema as he started to grow annoyed.

“I just… Is there really nothing else you look forward to? Like today for example! Wasn’t it a nice
trip? You could barely keep up but it sure is more entertaining than laying down like a stump on
one single room all day. It just doesn’t make sense you’d be ok with that!”

At this point Chema was so tired of hearing anything he just started raising his voice “I really didn’t
want to go out today. I really didn’t feel like seeing that idiot who isn’t even my friend. I really
wasn’t up for going down an excruciating trip below the raging sun because of your stupid pirate
dolls. I’m tired, I can barely stand right now and my legs feel weaker the more I stand like this. I
really would rather sleep. And what should I do tomorrow? well, it’s been a while since I destroyed
some dipshits at shooters! Or I don’t know I could just grind my beasts all day! Or I could just
forget about doing any of that and just sleep… And yes the next day I’ll have school, but the good
part about that! Is that once I’m back I can just go back to bed and yknow, just stop existing until
the next day.”

“Is… sleeping really the best part of your day?...”

“Yes. And I don’t get why that should be a problem. I’m not sick. I’m not a freak. I’m not
possessed or something…” Chema started closing down his door, before he fully closed it though,
he muttered one last thing “…I’m just… tired.”

Once he said this, he just closed his door…

Chapter End Notes

Welp, that was quite a ride. And btw i finally can remember jokes in this chapter that i should
probably explain!
In the exchange between Juana and Franco when buying food there was this whole deal about
being northern and all. basically a common joke in mexico is saying that the people from the
north tend to date their own cousins a lot so that was the what Juana meant with when saying
that "So nothing’s happening between us".
In that same exchange Juana calls Chema a "Chilango". Chilango is basically a mocking term
used to refer to people who come from Mexico City.
If there's anything else i should explain or something i could add to the story pls do say so in
the comments. 'till next chapter!
 This feels familiar
Chapter Notes

New chapter! I don't even remember how much it has been since the last chapter. School has
really messed up my perception of time. Anyways i apologize in advance for this chapter
having a lot of exposition. But don't worry next one will have a lot of action and adventure!
So... i hope you enjoy this chapter!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The rest of the weekend went quickly for Chema, it was mostly just sleeping and playing
videogames for him, though at difference from any other day, he kept hearing Juana knocking on
his door through the whole duration of those days. He tried to only give the most basic answer he
could just to confirm he was alive like usual. Eventually Monday came once again and he had to
begrudgingly step out of his room to go to school. He just walked out of home like usual, however
during the way through the dark morning he was hearing over and over Juana’s stuttering as she
kept trying to say something about that Saturday but just didn’t seem to find the right way to do
so…

“So… Cheems…” She said to Chema as she was trying to improvise how to follow it, but he
immediately answered.

“We’re here.”

And to Juana’s surprise they were in fact already at the school, she sighed in defeat. “…See you
after school, maybe we can go for an sausage Ice Cream again back on the way home?”

However he only walked up to the stairs that led to his classroom, without answering.

“Well, I tried…” Juana said to herself before heading to her classroom.”

Now as the second week, classes were starting to take some track, Chema still was confident
enough, he had recognized many of the topics back on the first week. He knew he wouldn’t need to
try too hard for the first periods at least. He had a hard time concentrating given what happened last
Friday… He wasn’t sure what the teacher would do this time given he not only entered the place
unintentionally for the 2nd time in a row, but now he seemed to have brought Daira with him.
However not like the teachers would give him much time to think, he was being called out
constantly whenever he drifted off. Which while making him annoyed it also made him surprised
because whenever he looked behind him, he saw Franco definitely distracted, his mind totally
somewhere else yet the teachers didn’t ever seem to notice. Either way, the first half of the classes
was done and so it was time for lunchbreak, Chema went to the usual spot to meet up with Daira.
They sat down and talked for a while, it looked like regardless of what happened back then this day
might aswell go on normally… But then Chema felt a sharp pain on the back of his head, falling
unconscious immediately after.

…
Chema was woken up suddenly by a desperate scream right besides him, once he was awake he
looked to his side and it was Daira tied up to a chair with a jumping rope, And immediately after he
saw that he was in fact tied aswell just like last time. He had already an idea of what might’ve
happened but his suspicions were immediately confirmed by a loud voice yelling.

“YOU DIDN’T EVEN GIVE ME A CHANCE?! IS KIDNAPPING JUST YOUR GO TO

PLAN??!!” Of course, this voice belonged to Franco who was yelling at Alessandra in frustration.

“WE CAN’T TAKE ANY CHANCES!! WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY COULD DO IF WE
GIVE THEM TIME TO REACT!!” She yelled back at Franco.

“Great to see you two again. Now what THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS ON THIS TIME??!”
Yelled Chema mad to think that they’d resort to this again.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE YET!! PLEASE I’LL DO ANYTHING LET ME GO!!” Screamed
Daira unable to handle the stress of the situation.

“Uhhhh… my friend we’re not gonna kill you.” Said Franco trying to calm down Daira. However
Alessandra then added “Yet.”.

Chema immediately yelled out loud “WHAT?!” needless to say this just made Daira freak out more
while Chema just screamed in anger to the two of their captors “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU
MEAN YET!?!”

“BITCH THE FUCK WAS THAT?!” yelled Franco in both frustration and disbelief.

“Sun tsu Once said: Ultimate victory is when battle has been thwarterd through intelligence or
intimidate-“ Majo attempted to argument before being interrupted.

“YOU ARE JUST FREAKING HER OUT RIGHT NOW!!” Franco interrupted.

“Good.” Was the only thing she replied, this led to more yelling and for a long while the whole
place was covered in pure chaos until mr.castillo stepped in. 4 Blackboard erasers flew across the
room and nailed each on of the presents. This somehow was the one thing that managed to make
them all shut up.

“Just like in my times.” Said mr.castillo once everyone had successfully stopped yelling. “Now, to
the reason you two were brough here. You seemed to have entered the subconscious world behind
our backs. We’re you trying to escape us by any chance?”

“It wasn’t-“ Chema tried to defend himself but he was quickly interrupted by Alessandra’s Yelling.

“WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS PENDEJO?! YOU GOT NOWHERE TO RUN SO YOU
BETTER SPIT IT OUT-“ She started yelling at Chema and Daira before her yelling being
interrupted by Franco this time.

“Stop that! Instead of yelling at anything that’s slightly off from what we planned, let’s think about
this: What if he’s saying the truth?” he asked.

“You seem to be quite ignorant then, because mr.castillo stated himself that you don’t just walk into
the subconscious world by accident!” she replied on an arrogant tone.

“Well what if it can happen and we just didn’t know about it?”
“Are you implying our mentor just didn’t know something about the one thing he has been studying
for so many years?!”

“Well you can’t just know everything! Maybe even then there’s something he could have missed.”
As Franco kept pushing in this point he could notice the teacher growing more annoyed at the
implication. Seeing this Franco tried to change the topic desperately. “Plus I think there’s
something more important to discuss about what happened that day. Like what we saw right there.”

This last part managed to catch mr. castillo’s attention. He was suddenly looking directly at Franco
with an intrigued look on his face. “Why’s that? Did you see something special?”

“Our friends over here can tell you about it, right?” he replied as he looked at Chema and Daira still
desperate to get the whole situation under control.

Chema nodded still having an angry expression on his face, but regardless he didn’t have much of a
choice: “A castle, We saw a large castle just standing at the end of a crack shaped path. There were
also knight armors that moved by themselves and a giant snail-dragon thing. Anything else you
want me to explain about what we saw?”

“It seems you ran into a rupture, Right in school grounds of course there would be one there..” Mr.
Castillo Whispered to himself before asking Chema “However how did you three even make it out
safely then?”

“Well! It was all because of my flawless rescue! It was my gut and-“ Before Franco could continue
flexing Daira stopped him and said out loud “A… giant snake appeared.”. Franco’s immediate
reaction was to say under his breath “Now you grow some backbone.” In an annoyed tone.

“A giant snake made out of water appeared and… killed the dragon. Then it cleared out the guards
which led us escape…” She said, her tone still filled with fear.

"kaano' ja' ” Said Chema almost immediately in an almost instinctive way. Everyone was deeply
confused at this comment, seeing this he elaborated: “kaano' ja'… That’s it’s name. I’m not sure
how it really happened but all of a sudden I felt like… this weird connection with… something, a
voice… Right after that the snake was there and… it was as if it was following my thoughts… It
killed the dragon just when I was thinking of doing that, it started attacking the guards when I was
thinking of doing so… so whatever that snake is… I think I might be able to control it.”

The teacher was taken aback for a moment after hearing this, he was in total silence for a moment
until he said “You… Well who could have known you do have it in you.” This confused Chema
aswell as everyone in the room. After a brief pause he continued. “I had planned to make some
more tests on this. But it seems that at least you are able to use the power of your soul, and
apparently you are already capable of controlling it. That would… That would actually explain it!”

“Explain… what exactly?” asked Chema

“It would actually explain why you can just walked into those worlds by accident but… Then you
must be REALLY sensitive!” he replied his tone expressing the genuine surprise and disbelief he
was in.

“Oh, so now you believe me it was an accident?!” Chema responded to the comment in a visibly
annoyed tone.
“W-what is even going on…” Daira asked still freaking out.

“Alright, let’s calm down over here. Just… let mr.castillo explain himself and it’ll surely all make
sense.” Franco said as he placed his hand of Daira’s head trying to calm her and Chema.

“Yeah! You two better keep silence because otherwise we’ll-“ Alessandra started saying out loud
before Franco stoped her abruptly.

“SHUT!” once Ale had abruptly gone quiet Franco took a deep breath and continued “Now. If you
may please explain what you just found out, Mr. Castillo. We are all listening.”

After a brief pause. He started explaining. “Well, I have already explained to you all what the
subconscious world is. A mirror of the world we normally perceive, or more accurately explained
as the other half of it.” He pauses for a moment and sees Daira’s clear confusion, aswell as
Chema’s. “Right. That girl is here too… I guess we can’t back down on having her here too now do
we?” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “So, you remember the weird world you just were
in last Friday don’t you? Well, that’s what we call “The subconscious World” The other half of the
world we normally perceive. The reality we live in just like a DNA chain is composed of two
halves. Both are necessary for the chain itself to exist and if you disturb one half it will have
repercussions on the other. You follow?”

Chema and Daira only nodded at the explanation.

“Good ‘cause I’m not saying it again. So moving on, as the name implies the subconscious world is
a manifestation of the collective subconscious of all living beings, anything we do here will change
things there. Likewise if you’re somehow able to change something in the subconscious world, it
would have very noticeable effects on the conscious world we perceive everyday. Now you may
wonder what’s all of this explanation leading to… Well, usually an issue with travelling to that
world is that the beings that live in there can be beyond what a human can reasonable survive
against. However there is a way to work around that. Someone with a strong enough resolve might
be able to connect with their soul and subconscious self, therefore being able to summon it and its
abilities if needed a great chance to even the odds if one ever gets in a battle.”

“So Paquito-2’s ‘subconscious self’ is a giant snake? People identify themselves with anything
nowadays!” Franco commented on a jokingly tone.

“So that’s what that place was… But what about the castle?” Daira Asked.

“That might just be a rupture you ran into. As I said if you disturb the conscious world it’ll be
reflected on the subconscious world. Too many strong feelings caught in one area and you’ll get
giant locations like that one in the subconscious world, let it grow too much and It’ll start affecting
the conscious world back. That’s what we call a rupture.” Mr.castillo continued.

“And! That’s what we’ve been training to fight against: Ruptures!” The Franco continues.

“We believe that if we fight these ruptures and demolish them directly from the inside. It would
erase the effects it has on the conscious world on a quick and efficient way, It’s a great chance to
help others.” Said Alessandra continuing on what Franco was saying.

“However, there’s a catch. We can’t just demolish the whole thing ourselves, It would take ages and
we’re not that strong. So our approach is to instead find and destroy the “core” of said ruptures
 since doing so would immediately get rid of the rupture as a whole.” He continued from
Alessandra’s words.

“But of course, that would imply engaging in a battle, that is why these two have been training to
be able to harness the power of their soul. However you seem to already be able to do it.”
Continued mr.castillo.

“So… is that why I have been entering that place by accident?” Chema asked.

“It is related to that. In theory anyone who has a strong enough connection with their subconscious
self can switch freely between one world and the other. However for you to enter so easily as by
accident, into a rupture you were not even familiar to begin with? You must be really sensitive to
the ruptures…” Responded mr.castillo.

After all of that, a bell rang. It was the bell that signified the end of lunch break.

“Hm… we may have taken too long…” He said to himself before turning to Daira and Chema in a
loud commanding voice. “You two! You’ll be showing up after classes at the same place where you
both found that rupture. That is an order. Now, Nicolas! Alessandra! Untie those two.”

Chema stopped them both as he said “Wait, I think that won’t be needed.”. After saying that in a
monotone voice. He just stood up from the chair and the rope fell down from him.

Daira was surprised at this and tried it herself, getting the exact same result. Seeing this Franco and
Ale started yelling at each other just like last time.

“Chema… What is going on…?” Daira asks Chema, however when she turns to look at him she
notices him deeply lost in thought with a worried look. He seemed to be just as scared as she was.

Chapter End Notes

I... don't think there are any jokes or sum requiring an explanation on this chapter... but if there
is please do say so in the comments! I'd also really appreciate if you could comment about
what you'd like me to add or change about the story going forward!
With that said... see you next chapter!!
 Experimenting on the subconscious world
Chapter Notes

(OMG DID I REALLY FORGOT TO WRITE NOTES??)

So, here's the latest chapter, not sure if i took too long to release it or not but i do know it took
me a bit more than usual to get this chapter done mostly since for some reason it was just...
complicated to make this one. It was really fun! more fun than ever before! but it was indeed
complicated. In part because of a new thing i decided to finally add this chapter~ I hope you
like it!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Back in classes Chema and Daira were both strongly scared, however they were both still pushing
their best effort to focus on class, looking at the front of the class Alessandra was doing the same.
And looking at the very back of the class Franco was… straight up sleeping somehow. This
genuinely surprised Chema as every time he started to dooze off the teachers would immediately
notice and call him out, “What’s his trick?” Chema asked to himself as he looked directly at Franco
with amusement. However then he heard the teacher’s voice:

“MARIAJOSE! PAY ATTENTION! YOU TOO FRANCO THIS ISN’T NAPTIME!” However
even Franco kept sleeping through the yelling. The teacher seeing this just sighed and kept going
with the class.

A small comment was heard from some student after seeing this though: “Teacher please
understand him, He’s a grandpa he needs his nap time!”. Many of the other students alongside with
the teacher laughed at this comment. However both Chema and Majo were visibly annoyed about
it. While Chema and Daira just seemed indifferent to the whole situation.

Once the classes were over it was time to… gather by the dirt path. By the time Chema and Daira
arrived both Franco and Alessandra were waiting for them alongside with Mr. Castillo with yet
another paint-portal besides him.

“Well, now everyone is here. So, the plan right now will be simple. First only Jose-Maria will enter
the portal, he will test his control over his own power to see if he can handle it correctly. If he gives
us a positive signal then the rest of you will follow inside. What we want to see is if you all can
also harness the power come from the manifestation of each one of your souls and to which degree
you can do so.” Mr. Castillo started lecturing.

“Just one thing… talking in lengthy terms about the ‘soul’ all the time gets so tiring after a while,
what about we just give these ‘manifestations’ a name?” Commented Franco once Mr. Castillo’s
explanation was done.

After letting out a deep sigh he responded “Well, what are your suggestions Nicolas?”. To this
Franco responded with:
“Fylgja! Animal-Like Guardian Spirits on the Nordic mythology that are shaped according to the
person’s lifestyle and are considered their soul! BOOM! Now that’s a cool name if I’ve heard one!”

However this was met with a “How the fuck do you even pronounce that?!” from Alessandra.

“You’ll get used to it!” Franco replied proudly.

“No. We definitely won’t.” Said Chema bluntly in response.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be around here?” Said Franco starting to get annoyed at the rejection
of his clearly perfect idea.

“What about something simple… Like… ‘Guardians’? Since yknow, they protect us…?”

“Not really, Too simple-“ Started saying Franco before Chema interrupted.

“It works.”

“Paquito-2, We must talk about your simping issues…”

Before Chema could even get mad Alessandra commented: “He’s a guy, not like he can’t help it.”

At this both Chema and Franco immediately turned their heads towards Alessandra and raised their
voice “ok, Now that was too low!”

“We’re staying with guardians. I’m too old to try and remember whatever Nicolas’ suggestion
was.”

“Oh come on! None of you have actual taste! How disappointing!” Said Franco in a mockingly
offended tone.

To this Daira replied shyly “W-well you don’t need to go with it I was just suggesting…”

However Franco’s answer was very calm as he said “There’s no problem, really. I’m just a bit salty
that’s all.”

However Alessandra commented to this with “Wow, a man admitting to be a slave to his own
fragile emotions. Now that’s surprising to see-“

Before Alessandra could finish what she was saying Franco just silently stared at her with a
murderous glare, which instinctively made her stop herself while ankwardly looking away.

“Well… We should just begin this mission before you kids start killing each other. So, you know
what to do Jose-Maria.” Said Mr. Castillo seeing the situation. To this Chema just nodded before
jumping straight up into the portal.

Chema was suddenly laying down on the floor at the subconscious world, he could tell by the pain
he was feeling that he probably just fell on his face when he went through. After a small break he
stood up and said out loud.
“Welp, I’m back…” He stopped for a moment before he started quietly singing “Hello
subconscious world my old friend… I’ve come to talk with you again…” Immediatelly after
Chema chuckled at himself, though he wanted to keep going he didn’t want to make the other ones
wait any longer. So he pretended to crack his knuckles and got to testing out his ‘Guardian’.

“ O uhhh… kaano' ja'… Awaken from the abyss of the ascended and find thy way to I, for I require
of thou-“ Unable to finish his own sentence Chema started chuckling again as he said to himself
“What am I even saying?”

However, the giant snake from back then did appear again, Chema was a bit surprised but not too
much. Hee looked at it directly as it stood right in front of him.

Just then Chema was trully aware of how large it actually was… He however thought there wasn’t
much to it, just a water snake. However the steel mask it wore was still genuinely intriguing to him,
specially the weird eyes painted on it. But thinking to much about it would probably waste the
others’ time.

Chema shoved his hand through the portal to make a quick signal for the rest to come in. Quickly
enough all of them entered one by one.
“Took you long enough- OH MY GOSH!!” Alessandra Yelled as she saw the giant water snake
standing just besides her.

“O-oh wow it… it’s so big now up close… it’s almost scary…” Said Daira, intimidated by the giant
beast before her.

“That’s what she said.” Franco said on instinct before continuing. “So, this is the big guy from the
other time… Trully something impressive. Either way, I bet mine’s gonna be some even bigger
wolf or something!”

“Why a wolf?” Alessandra asked.

“Y’see, Many see me as just a man… But really I’m a wolf disguised as a man!!” Franco answered
with such an excitement you could tell he waited for long to say that joke.

Alessandra just sighed before saying “Whatever, Let’s just get this over with shall we?”

“Alright alright… So we just need to think of summoning it and it will appear?” Franco asked to
which Alessandra Replied “It can’t be that easy”

“Let me try…” Said Daira timidly before closing her eyes and focused on summoning whatever it
was her Guardian would be… However nothing appeared.

“Welp that confirms it, Now what is it we missed? There must be some extra step we didn’t hear or
something…” Said Alessandra

“I didn’t hear any instruction other than thinking of summoning the thing. But if you want some
help our friend Paquito-2 seems to have already summoned his.” Said Franco pointing at Chema
and the giant snake in front of him.

“I literally just thought about it and it happened.” Was the only answer he gave though.

“Well that doesn’t give us much options, huh?” Replied Alessandra, confused about why nothing
was happening then.

Right after Franco commented “Well, Mr.castillo said that if nothing happens is because you just
don’t have it. So I guess at least our friend Daira over here doesn’t have a ‘Guardian’ or
whatever… No offense Dairita!”

“It’s fine…” Replied Daira a little disappointed.

“So… do we just try that again?” Asked Alessandra “This better work out…”

After she said that she closed her eyes and focused, she asked once or twice whether there really
was no other step, but regardless she just kept doing it, she thought of summoning whatever power
those ‘guardians’ were… Whatever power she must’ve rightfully had, She did this wishing of
course that her power would be the best out of all of them… “The best… The best one of them
all…” She just got lost in that sentence the more she tried to focus on summoning that power,
almost as if both thoughts were connected.

“…I give up, I guess I don’t have it either or more likely the steps are just wrong I don’t even
know-“ However as Alessandra started rambling she noticed everyone was looking directly at her
in amusement, Or rather… they were looking right behind her. When she turned around to see what
they were seeing…

Alessandra looked at it in awe for a long time, in disbelief of whatever she was seeing…

“Ale… you there…? That thing just appeared while you were uhhh doing that so I guess it’s your-“
Before Franco could finish his sentence Ale spoke

“Tecciztecatl”

“What?” Everyone asked.

“His name is Tecciztecatl” She answered.

“And you said Fylgja was too complicated of a name.” joked Franco.

Alessandra completely ignored Franco’s mocking comment, she just couldn’t stop looking at the
being before her…
“Well… I guess it’s my turn. Get ready to contemplate the most epic wolf you’ve ever seen!”
Franco said and immediately started immitatin what Alessandra did just a moment ago. However
this time even after several seconds, even after many and many minutes nothing appeared, Franco
focused more and more each time but every time he looked around and saw nothing. Only the
others and nothing that could be considered his ‘guardian’. He kept trying for even longer but
nothing appeared, eventually everyone could notice that he just… stopped trying after a while and
right then everyone saw Franco be completely silent for once, he just stared with a blank face to the
ground in complete silence. Everyone was deeply concerned. However the moment Franco noticed
this his face shifted in an instant into his usual carefree smile.

“Guess school just drained me too much, or the wolf is just shy. YOU’RE JUST
EMBARRASSING YOURSELF POWERFUL WOLF GUARDIAN THING! Whatever I can’t
allow myself to lose too much time with this, the changarro needs me in short either way so maybe
some other time!”

After he said this he grabbed a can of portal-paint from his pocket and started painting a portal back
to the conscious world. At the same time both Chema and Daira were looking at the horizon in the
direction where they found the castle last time. After a while Alessandra decided to ask “What are
you two looking at?” to which Chema responded

“So, when are we going to get rid of that ‘rupture’?”

“probably not anytime soon, given only two of us can use our ‘guardians’” she responded, however
to Alessandra’s surprise Daira immediately replied with

“If you need it, I’m willing to get there even without a guardian.”

Alessandra was surprised by this sudden resolve, she took a moment to think her words before
eventually replying with “That choice isn’t mine either ways, so we’ll just have to trust whatever
Mr. Castillo says” Even though she was saying this she still felt… moved by Daira’s strong resolve,
even if it wasn’t the best idea she still was on their side on this.

Once everyone had walked out of the portal they all explained the results to Mr. Castillo and
weirdly enough he didn’t seem surprised by it.

“Well I wasn’t expecting results any better, Franco and Daira will probably stay on the back once
you guys go into a rupture.” He said seeming genuinely unamused.

“So, this means we’re going to the castle soon?” Chema asked genuinely wondering about this.

“No, not in a while probably. You guys will need some training before you can actually go into a
rupture.”

Chema was clearly annoyed by this even though not even himself could figure why, however he
really had nothing to defend his plan to go directly into the rupture. However he was still willing to
get there and do something about that castle somehow, there was just something there calling for
him… Something that made him feel like he couldn’t just leave it be… He will definitely look
more into it.
Chapter End Notes

So... what do ya think? I finally decided to start adding images to the story, hopefully this will
help the feeling of some moments, plus i really like drawing either way! So... i'll be looking
forward to the following chapters and i hope you do too! 'till next chapter!
(Also idk if i explained this in any previous chapter but in this chapter one of the characters
mentions the word "Changarro" it's basically a slang for saying "Business")
 Subconscious World expedition
Chapter Notes

Heyyy it was a long time since i last update, lotta stuff been happening on my end... mostly of
it all i got sick and didn't have the energies to progress more on this chapter. And the images
added a bit more of complexity to the chapter since i'm not sure where to put them. And this
chapter ended up also being longer than usual...
A lot of stuff but it finally is out! So uhhhh... i hope you like it!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The next day at school, it was the first class so they were in the middle of math. However Chema
remembered very well today’s lesson so in boredom he started looking around to see what the
others were doing… Franco was leaning on his chair with a thoughtful face probably still thinking
about what happened the previous day. Alessandra was focused on taking notes though her face
couldn’t hide her frustration at not actually understanding the exercises. Daira was looking directly
at the whiteboard but her head was clearly in an entirely different world by now. Gabriel was
multitasking between taking notes and doing the homework from the other classes.

Chema kept looking around to see what those he didn’t know were doing aswell. He noticed a guy
with glasses who for some reason had a small copy of the bible and a printed image of Jesus Christ
on his desk… Chema only thought he was a weirdo and moved on. Immediatelly though, the
teacher called out Chema:

“Josemaria! What’s the result of factorizing: 25a^2 + 10a + 1?”

“(5a+1)^2” Chema answered with no hesitation before going back to looking around at his fellow
classmates.

The teacher paused for a moment before replying “Technically it’s ‘(5a+1)*(5a+1)’. You should
pay more attention in class!”

Chema felt tempted to say that it was pretty much the same thing, however he didn’t actually care
enough to actually do it so he just let it pass and kept looking around, however there wasn’t that
much of something interesting anymore…

Once it was finally lunchbreak Chema and Daira went to hang out at the usual spot, however after a
while Alessandra Joined them and even though Chema and Daira found it a bit uncomfortable they
all managed to get a conversation going on until Ale eventually said:

“So… I noticed you didn’t like the idea of not going to the castle either.”

“Oh, what about it?” asked Chema in response.

“Well, This… This will be stupid but I really want to at least check it out, maybe as long as the
professor doesn’t find out we shouldn’t get in troubke. And since you look like you want to go
there aswell… wanna come along?” Answered Alessandra, her voice shaky as she was saying this.
“Wait! Only him…? Can I tag along too?” Asked Daira immediately after hearing Ale’s request to
Chema.

Alessandra was hesitant to give an answer to Daira’s question but after a brief silent she said “The
thing is, both me and Chema are the ones with Guardians. Bringing you or Franco along would
definitely add more risk than necessary.”

“Oh…” Reacted Daira before saying in a agitated tone “I can uhm… give support from behind if
necessary! I’ll find a way to defend myself so you don’t have to worry for me!”

However Alessandra only replied with one blunt “no.” After which she turned her look towards
Chema as if silently asking him if he would tag along or not.

“Hm… Yeah, I should be fine with following along.” Chema answered after thinking it for a
moment.

“Great! Uh- So… it will be today right after class ends. Make sure to bring something to defend
yourself with and we’ll meet right here.” Stated Alessandra while attempting to disguise the
excitement in her voice “And Daira… You really shouldn’t come with us, It’ll just make things
harder for all of us.”

Daira only looked down in resignment. Shortly after lunchbreak was finally over and everyone
went back to class.

After four boring classes Chema went to the spot he and Alessandra agreed on, finding her already
waiting there for him.

“So, I’m all ready myself. What about you?” She asked.

“I’m good to go.” Replied Chema as he discreetly showed her the toy knife he was carrying in his
backpack.

“YOU BROUGH A- Oh wait it’s a toy. Good idea there.” After said reaction Ale stopped to look at
a large bag she was carrying with her “I brough something for myself too but… I’ll show you once
inside.”

After saying this, Alessandra pulled out a can of paint out of her backpack and started painting a
circle in a somewhat hidden wall. Once she completed the circle it turned into a multicolored portal
just like those he saw many times already.

“A perfect circle! Now that’s some outstanding skill wouldn’t you agree?!” Said Alessandra,
expecting a compliment from Chema, however he only nodded indifferently. “You really got
nothing to say? Whatever let’s just get through before anyone sees us.”

With that, they both went into the portal…

Both Chema and Alessandra found themselves in the subconscious world. While Chema was pretty
indifferent to it having seen it over and over again, Alessandra had to take a moment to admire it…
even though she had just seen it once before, she was completely lost at the spectacle.
“This place is just… surreal. I can’t get enough of it.” She paused for a moment before saying “Just
seeing that castle wont be enough…”

However her admiring was abruptly interrupted by a familiar voice:

“So you’re a pair of rulebrakers? De los mios!”

After saying that, Franco and Daira walked up to Chema and Alessandra, it looked just as If they
had appeared out of thin air.

“W-w-where did you two even come fro-WHAT ARE YOU TWO EVEN DOING HERE??!!”
Alessandra yelled in panic.

“Well, Our little friend here told me that you two were planning on sneaking in here without the
mr.castillo’s permission. And you already know I’m a rebel, I like to break rules, I am a full-on
antisystem who pushes the door with it says pull. So… I decided we’re joining you guys since
you’re truly as much antisystem as I am! And of course Dairita really wanted to be a part of it.”
Franco said all of this with a smile on his face, he was clearly joking around about all this.

“I-i… You guys weren’t meant to be here and on top of that I’m sure you weren’t there just now! I-
You- You guys just appeared out of nowhere!” Rambled Ale still panicking.

“Oh, that’s thanks to our friend’s neat new ability!” Franco replied as he looked at Daira.

“O-oh! Yeah! You said I couldn’t join because I didn’t have a guardian. Well…” After saying this
Daira closed her eyes for a moment and suddenly a large yellow bush full of flowers rose from the
ground. However Chema and Daira quickly realized it was not a bush…
“So… What do you think now? His name’s Baldr by the way.”
They were taken aback, taking a moment to process whatever was standing before them, it looked
like the most unrealistically buff man they’d seen… except with long hair covered in flowers. More
importantly than that, against what they had expected Daira managed to somehow summon her
guardian… when?

“So, before ask it. Yes that is her guardian. We arrived a bit before you guys so we trained a bit and
voila! Turns out it wasn’t that hard after all!” Said Franco in a confident manner after noticing the
surprise in Chema and Ale’s faces.

“You… I would have never expected you two to just… wait so YOU have one now?!” responded
Ale.

“Well of course! But I’m planning to keep it for the right moment, what’s the point on just
revealing it like that? You gotta be patient, Ale.”

“Alright I’m calling it you don’t have a guardian.”

“I do! I’d just rather save it for when necessary! And even then…” With a smug face, franco pulled
out an improvised wooden sword. “I don’t need it to beat the crap out of anything that approaches.”

“Yeah, with a toy. Couldn’t you bring anything that could actually do something?” replied
Alessandra as she chuckled at Franco’s weapon of choice.

“Look, they wouldn’t allow me to bring the bat with me, and even then this is pretty much the same
thing. Just the good old BONK!!” Franco swinged his sword as a bat while saying this.

Chema decided to talk to Daira as Franco and Ale kept going back and forth. “So, Daira how strong
is your guardian?”

“Well if you mean as in if he hits hard… he really doesn’t.” replied Daira, Chema was confused by
this given its muscles. However Daira continued. “But he can do something way better!”

After saying this Baldr’s hair closed creating a perfectly closed bush which Daira proceeded to
jump into. Shortly after the bush had completely disappeared with Daira. Chema while very
confused was pretty confident that this was something Daira planned so he tried not to freak out…
until suddenly he heard her voice behind him: “Chema!” After which he jumped in place as he
turned back, she was right behind him… or rather what looked like her floating head.

“very cool isn’t it? Baldr can just go fully invisible! AND SO CAN I!” Daira said before sinking
her head back into Baldr’s hair, disappearing yet again.

“Well that’s… actually really cool.” Replied Chema unsure of what words to use.

“I know!” Said Daira as she jumped out of Baldr’s hair. “So… we should start going now, right?
It’s a long walk after all.”

Chema nodded in agreement, and so did Franco and Ale once they both stopped going back and
forth at each other. And so they began calmly making their way down the arrow-like path ahead. As
they did they all started to slowly notice how the surroundings were full of floating… islands?
Some had paths leading to them, some didn’t… Some were smaller like those they could see when
looking to the left, or some were really large, like the enormous island they could notice when
looking to their right. They were all different colors, and it was hard to make out what was in them
from the distance, but one could tell they were all like a world of its own.

“This place… is so wonderful…” Kept saying Alessandra every now and then as she contemplated
every small detail of the surreal world surrounding them and for a while that was all they heard
outside of… plain silence.

“Welp… What did you guys do this weekend? Did you guys hear of the accident yesterday?” Said
Franco trying to break the silence as the walk just kept feeling longer and longer.

“It was… a bus right? It just slid down the street and crashed on a nearby business.” Replied Daira

“No idea, didn’t leave my room this weekend.” Said Chema plainly though heavy breaths

“That’s a lieeeee! I saw you with your cousin yesterday at the changarro!” Stated Franco out loud
in a mocking tone.

“No, if you want me to say it as it is. Then I didn’t leave my room this weekend AFTER that.”
Chema cleared out.

“Alright sure sure… that sounds boring though, what do you do? Just sleep for 48 hours straight?”
said Franco slightly disappointed

“If only… But since I couldn’t I just played some shooters, talked with some dudes online- Which
actually-“ As he said that last part, Chema hurried to check his phone giving it a disappointed look
after looking at it for a while “Of course… No signal at all. Mobile data doesn’t cover for you
going to another world? Now that’s a terrible service.”

Everyone let out a quick laugh at Chema’s comment as he just grinned slightly about it. The
exchanges kept on in that route of joking for a while as they walked down the long path until they
eventually had to take a breath because of Chema quickly running out of breath.

“Geez, I’d say you don’t last at all but to be honest… why is this road so damn long? In the school
this dirt path is no longer than a few steps.” Complained Franco as they all took a moment to rest.

“It might just be that everything’s bigger over here. Like, that giant island blocking our look on this
side of the road, it’s on the side where the school would be so I can only assume it’s our school.”
Said Alessandra as she turned to look directly at said floating island.

“What does that mean then? Is our school a rupture- To be honest that might be why I always feel
so drained during classes.” Replied Franco, but Alessandra raised her voice as she spoke back:
“Oh, that’s just because you’re a slacker!”

“Oh come on! Whatever, uhhhh Paquit- Chemita, are you all better now?” Asked Franco. Chema
nodded slightly.

However as he was getting up he stood completely in place with a thoughtful look on his face. He
stayed like this for a while until he finally spoke “Hey guys, may I try something?”

“What do you have in mind?” reacted Ale

“Well, if Daira can get inside her Guardian… then maybe…” As he said this, Kanoo’ Ja’ appeared
besides him Chema looked at him directly before covering his nose, closing his eyes and jumping
inside. He was perfectly suspended inside the water of the snake, everyone was amused at this,
though really confused at it’s usefulness. However shortly after Chema opened his eyes, he looked
at the others and made a gesture signaling them to get in too. While Franco and Ale were skeptical,
Daira didn’t doubt on trying it out and… surprisingly enough she could get in too. After seeing it
was safe Franco gave it a try and jumped inside. However Ale still wasn’t sure even after Chema’s
progressively more desperate attempts at getting her to get in. After a few seconds of trying Chema
just gave up and made Kanoo’ Ja’ Eat her. Once everyone was suspended inside Kanoo’ Ja’. The
snake sped through the path in an instant, of course the snake could move at high speeds so being
inside the snake while it moved would work as some fast travel. But just before they could get to
the castle, the snake vanquished out of existance and everyone fell straight onto the path and rolled
through it. Everyone took a moment to recover their breath before Ale started yelling at Chema
“WOW! THAT WAS A VERY CAREFUL AND POLITE WAY TO DELIVER US IN THE
PLACE, HUH??” However Chema was too busy gasping desperately for air to hear her, he looked
on the verge of passing out…

“Alright alright calm down, I guess that works for fast travel. Though given we need to hold our
breaths through it… I say it’s better to give Chemita a break between uses.”

“Well I was a bit out of breath but I’m definitely not like him!.. in fact… I’m feeling even better
than before entering that… snake thing, what’s on with that?” commented Ale

“Yeah, not gonna lie. I also feel like new after that! Not gonna question it though.” Franco said on a
satisfied tone

Daira was about to say so too, however suddenly everyone heard a voice speak, a voice only
familiar to Chema and Daira

“So you are back…” It said.

“Hey, it’s the voice from the other time, are you like the voice of the castle?” Daira asked.

“That… is an interesting way to see it, however I’m not one with the stronghold. I’m only a part of
it.” It responded.

“Well, I’m sorry but we are going to destroy this castle! So you better not resist! We know exactly
how to do it!” Yelled Alessandra out loud before Franco called her out “Hey! Don’t just tell them
that! Are you trying to ruin the whole plan?!”

The voice, reacted to this in it’s usual tone apparently unfazed “It’s a stronghold. And you can’t do
that.”

“See?! Now they’re on the defensive! Did you expect them to be fine with us getting rid of the
castle or something?!” Franco yelled at Ale. Sure the mission would be near impossible now.

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind the stronghold gone.” Reacted the voice.

This surprised everyone, it just didn’t seem to make sense to any of them.

“So… you don’t like this place? Isn’t it like- Where you come from?” Asked Franco.

“It’s torture. I don’t like it. I’d rather have it gone. I’d rather be free.” The voice replied.
“Alright! Then let us get help you out with that! We’ll be done in no time!” Daira proposed with a
hint of excitement.

“I can’t let you do that.” The voice said.

“But… didn’t you just say you want this place gone?” Daira asked in response, confused out of her
mind about the contradiction.

“I don’t control what happens with this place. If you want someone who does, then I can bring the
masters here for you to talk it out.” The voice said, still with a monotone voice.

“I- Yeah, whatever bring them here please. Chemita stand up.” Said Franco, fed up with how little
sense the voice was making.

After this, the gates of the stronghold opened, revealing two figures behind them. A king and a
queen, however they did look oddly familiar…

“what?! Michelle?! Raphaelle?! What are you guys doing here?!” Said Franco freaking out.

“If I remember correctly, those might be this rupture’s recreations of them… I’m sure it’s
impossible for the real ones to be here at all.” Explained Ale while still a bit in the shock of seeing
these two at all.”

“I see… Well uhhhh Greetings.” Said franco awkwardly.

“Greetings, poor bastards.” Said the king-like variant of michelle. “Now what is it you called my
allmighty presence for?”

“Oh great, it’s even cringier than the real one.” Franco said to himself before continuing. “Well…
we’d like to discuss about the castle.”

“Oh, what are your whinings about this great palace of mine?” It replied.

“We want to destroy it.” Said Alessandra bluntly.

“You really can’t do things subtly, can you?!” Yelled Franco.

“I’m just going straight to the point.” Said back Ale, totally not having it with the idea of taking it
slowly.

“Well now that’s funny. You thinking you can do something at all to this castle.” Said the king
before laughing hysterically, The Queen-like Raphaelle following immediately.

“What even Is the point of this castle? Why is it here?” Asked ale starting to lose her patience.

“Well you may not know it but this castle is a really important place. It serves to hold a dangerous
prisoner called Gabriel. He shouldn’t be let free at any cost. So he’s being kept as a prisoner in this
castle of mine.” Explained the ‘King’.

“What?!” Everyone yelled out loud once hearing this. Before Franco said

“We’re talking about the same Gabriel that is always around you guys?”
“To be fair… he is a delinquent. It shouldn’t be that surprising to imagine he’s committed a crime
now and then…” Said Daira quietly, however Franco immediately reacted in a loud and angry
voice

“You better SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH RIGHT NOW! And don’t dare talk of Gabriel as just
‘A delinquent’. Got it?” Everyone was a bit surprised at Franco’s sudden explosive reaction, once
he noticed he apologized “I- Sorry… It’s just the guy’s been through some stuff. Many know that,
even if he did end up around… untrustworthy people after it. I won’t blame him.”

“Whatever can happen to someone, it will never justify hurting others and doing bad things!” Said
Daira out loud. She looked at Chema expecting him to back her up but he didn’t seem to be fully
convinced. He looked at Alessandra but… She looked at the other side with a sad expression on her
face. She seemed to for once agree with Franco on something and even more than that… she
looked like she knew something. After seeing this Franco just said.

“Look, again he’s been through some stuff. And knowing him he probably isn’t like the people he’s
around.”

“Well, you seem to be quite fond of the prisoner.” The ‘king’ said “Don’t feel too bad for him, you
should know we’re being merciful with him. After all who else would want to deal with such a
dangerous being? Well i do. Because I care so much about poor Gabriel… That’s why i’m giving
him the privilege to stay at this castle as a prisoner and not only that! But I’m also giving him the
greatest privilege of them all… the possibility to redeem himself. You can’t really complain!
Neither can he.”

“Redeem himself…? How…?” Chema asked.

“It’s easy.” Said the ‘Queen’ “He just needs to stay here. To do things right. To do as he’s told. That
way he will someday be redeemed. He may have lost his way but If he simply does this then he will
be fixed someday. He is deeply grateful we are giving him this chance. That is why you can’t
destroy this castle. You don’t want to take away this chance from him do you?”

“That’s nonsense.” Said Chema. His face starting to grow mad.

“No. It’s the truth.” The mysterious voice from earlier spoke again, now walking into scene… It
was Gabriel, however his clothes were ragged and his limbs were wrapped in chains. “This is
torture. But I can’t reject it. I must atone for my sins. I must stay and make sure I do things right.
And even if I never succeed… There is nowhere to go, is there?”

Without giving them a chance to answer. The doors began closing before Chema and the rest.
However he still tried to keep the doors open, and Franco tried helping with this, but they could
only do so much. The doors kept closing regardless no matter how hard they tried to keep them
open and reach out to Gabriel. However Chema had another idea too “Take cover!” he said as
Kanoo’ Ja’ emerged from the ground, everyone got down as the giant snake rushed into the door,
breaking it into pieces.

“Gabriel! This is nonsense! What this people are saying is just… wrong! I barely know much about
what is happening! But I know this is fucked up!” Franco yelled at Gabriel through the broken
door. Chema looked conflicted as he looked directly at Gabriel through the hole he made.

“No… It’s what the masters say. The masters are always right. And you can’t seem to understand
that. So you… are not welcome here.” Gabriel rose an arm, and as he did Chema, Franco, Daira,
and Alessandra were all ejected away violently. They tried to use their abilities to prevent
themselves from flying away but it was useless. Chema managed to catch them all with Kanoo’ Ja’.
From which everyone jumped out once sure they were safe.

“Ugh… So… do we go back?” Franco asked to the rest.

“You must be goddamn crazy to even think that!” Ale said out loud.

“Of course it was a joke! Calm down… However we must do something about this…”

“Yeah, no doubt.”

“So… how do we go about this…?”

“We… should try to organize properly for next time…”

“I know, let’s get out and ya’ll give me your contacts once there. That way I’ll make a group with
you four in it and we’ll figure out a plan!” Claimed Franco confidently, and everyone agreed to it.

After coming out of the portal, the four of them exchanged contacts and tried their best to sneak
past the main gate, thought they still noticed Mr.Castillo’s glare from across the school. They all
knew a lecture was to be expected the next day.

Once Chema and Juana were back home, Chema went immediately to his room and checked out his
phone. There was now a new group called “Team Dynamite” added to his contacts, he opened it
immediately after seeing it.

Alessandra: Team dynamite? Really??

SadKongPNG: Wdym??

It’s brilliant!

✨☀SUNNYDAY 💖✨:i’ll… assume thats franco…

SadKongPNG: Correct!

Alessandra: And just to be sure, who are you?

✨☀SUNNYDAY 💖✨:Daira!
Alessandra: Right. You all just got such “Quirky” usernames…

SadKongPNG: And you got a boring one.

Alessandra: Yeah, sure.

Is Josemaria here by the way?

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: Yes.

Alessandra: …

✨☀SUNNYDAY 💖✨:Did your username glitch or…?

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: No.

Alessandra: You can’t be serious.

SadKongPNG: LMAO

Alessandra: Whatever. Let’s just discuss the matter at hand. How are we gonna go about the
castle?

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: We need to be careful.

✨☀SUNNYDAY 💖✨:yeah, if he catches us…

we wont see the end of it…

SadKongPNG: So we gotta do it at a time he’s distracted!

Alessandra: But also at a time we’re free. I don’t know about you but I take classes seriously!

SadKongPNG: That last part unnecessary

But you’re right, it’s not a good idea to skip classes for it. So… when?

Alessandra: Well, unlike you all. I do keep track of school events! And there will be a event during
lunchbreak this January 13th. That’ll keep the teachers busy, including mr.castillo!

SadKongPNG: That’s ‘cause you’re the event organizing squad lol

✨☀SUNNYDAY 💖✨:So we’re going to the castle this thursday?

SadKongPNG: That means… we got 2 days of prep time

Excellent

What even happens on Thursday?

Alessandra: International day of the fight against depression. They plan on giving everyone a talk
about it.

SadKongPNG: I see. I bet nobody will actually hear it.

Alessandra: That’s… a messed up way to see it.

SadKongPNG: You’re the one who suggested taking advantage of this day, now cope.

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: So, we got that figured out?

 Alessandra: Yes, Mostly.

SadKongPNG: We got 2 days, make sure to prepare yourselves for that day!

This Thursday… WE DINE IN HELL!!

Alessandra: Stop that!

After that the group became a chaos, Chema was ready to go to sleep after that… but there was one
more thing he needed to do before…

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: Hey

Null_voided: Hi!! You’re back home?? Wanna play some COG???

↸∷ᔑ ⊣𝙹リ∷╎⨅⨅ᒷ∷: Sorry, but I’m too tired today…

Maybe tomorrow…?

Null_voided: Oh… It’s alright.

Make sure to rest pls!

I’ll be here if you need me!

Chapter End Notes

Ok so that was a lot, either way uhmmm if there are any questions or things you'd like me to
change or sum, pls do say so in the comments! See you next chapter!!
 Preparing to storm the castle
Chapter Notes

ALMOST FORGOT TO ADD NOTES!!

So, it's been a very loooong time, i apologize for that but basically there's been a lot going on
recently, in fact chapters might take a bit longer to come out from now on it all depends on my
luck, HOWEVER! I've put a lot of effort into this one chapter and the illustrations for it. So...
Hope you like it!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

One day to go.

Everyone was taking these 2 days to prepare and mentalize for the operation they had come up
with… but in the meanwhile they still had to get through classes, Chema was just heading to his
usual hanging spot with Daira, however Franco intercepted the two of them nervously:

“Hey guys, there is uhhhh something I wanted to tell you about… I want you to come with me
somewhere, It’s nothing dangerous, just getting you to meet some guys. It’s worth it I swear!”

“Oh, are they nice people?” Daira asked

“They’re… the round table.” Franco responded

“What’s the round table?” asked Chema, wondering about the not too creative name.

“It’s… honestly something you don’t wanna get caught on, Chemita.” Responded Daira.

“You make it sound like it’s something criminal, it’s just a bunch of dudes plotting to cheat on
exams.” Replied Franco offended.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea to go around those people. What do you even want us to go for?”
Asked Daira, annoyed at the possibility of Franco trying to involve them in something.

“Trust me, it’ll be worth it. You’ll be able to not join at all as long as you don’t say a word about
it.” Replied Franco, starting to sound desperate to get her to agree.

Daira sighed and replied “Well I do owe you one for letting me in the sub-world… Just make sure
it’s quick.”

“The sub-world? Is that what you call the subconscious world now?” Chema asked

“Yeah, it’s just shorter.” Daira replied, still a bit grumpy about going along with Franco’s idea.

After that the three of them headed to another somewhat hidden area of the school, this time on
section C. Also known as “The chaos kingdom” by students and teachers alike. And of course
making honor to its name the moment the three of them got into the area, a ball flew straight into
Daira’s face, knocking her out so Chema and Franco had to carry her to the place and wait for her
to wake up, once she had somewhat recovered they went into the area behind the classrooms on the
section C where rather than a roundtable there were many square tables scattered around aswell as a
bunch of students scattered around, and amongst all of them there was… Gabriel himself, sitting on
one of the plastic tables.

The moment they saw Franco arrive alongside Chema and Daira, everyone ensembled the tables
together into an attempt of a roundtable and gathered around, making room for the three of them.

“Well we weren’t expecting his tomboy friend to come aswell, but you managed to bring us the
new guy to the roundtable which is the important part. Now… We should start thinking of our
positions already.” Said one of the guys who looked near identical to Chema.

“So, here’s the thing dude. We were told you were smart dude. So we are thinking of adding you to
the smart sides of our formation dude.” Said a 2meter tall student with a baby face to chema.

“Hey! You really should drag Chema into this, this is wrong and we don’t want to get involv-“
Daira started complaining when Franco suddenly covered her mouth while saying, “Cut it out! It’s
not that big of a deal.” While saying this Franco also signaled to Gabriel subtly.
Franco was expecting Daira to catch up on this and stop making a ruckus, however while Daira did
catch up on what Franco was thinking, she had a very different plan herself.

“Plus, we can’t be sure we’re safe with people like Gabriel arou-“ Before she could finish the
sentence one of the students grabbed her by the neck of her hoodie, the look in his eyes filled with
murderous intent. Daira was confident she had made it now, this was it for her. However she was
still saved by Franco delivering a precise chop to the guy’s throat.

“Alright let’s calm down over here, it’s not my fault she doesn’t appreciate our little friend over
here, you guys already know how it is for him. Let’s just discuss the positions today and leave it at
that for today, so we can make this quick and all.” He said right after doing so.

“Well, we first need to know if he agrees.” One guy with glasses commented at this.

“Yeah, sure.” Replied Chema without any hesitation which surprised everyone present, specially
Daira.

“Well… that’s a fast response but it works, So… you being one of the smart guys of the group we’ll
want you to sit on a centric place… uhhhh… Gappy, Do you mind if we make him sit by your
side?” said the guy with glasses.

“huh? Oh- Oh, not at all that- that’s fine by me. A-actually he already does that… I think” Replied
Gabriel shyly.

“Great! So, you sit over there, to the other side should be Aquiles…”

“Aquiles Castro or Aquiles Baeza?”

“Baeza of course! Castro can’t even count his own fingers!”

“Right, what about Lazo?”

The conversation kept like that for a while, it did look like there was a lot of planning on every
single thing about positioning, actions and even timing. However it didn’t last long as a loud
familiar voice barged in

“Gabriel should be here right…? Gabby! Daddy is here! So is good ol’ raph!” yelled Michelle
while pointing at the attempt of a goth girl walking in by his side on that last sentence.

Gabriel only frowned ankwardly at this comment, looking away while clearly uncomfortable

“Oh come on you don’t gotta be like that Gabby! I’m very aware of the effect someone as imposing
as I has on women and twinks alike~ Be proud that you get to be around someone of my caliber,
many femboys like you don’t get the chance. Either way, Me and Raph will be skipping class later
today, of course we’ll need you there as usual.”

“You going on another date…?” Gabriel asked with a bit of anger in his tone.

“You know it! That’s just how love works, it can’t wait! Actually… This love Is burning so deep
and powerful I can’t allow myself to delay any further! We shall depart immediately to this place
engulfed by the sins of greed and vanity known as… “The mall”! Now let us depart now dear
Gabby!” Immediatelly after Michelle said this, Gabriel stood up and walked towards him and
‘Raph’, he of course looked really uncomfortable by this moment, in fact everyone except from
Michelle and ‘Raph’ did.

Once the three of them were out of everyone’s sight, one of the students in the place commented
“Ankward”, From there the planification kept going until lunch break was over. Though there was
this odd feeling that through all of that conversation between Michelle and Gabriel… someone was
watching…

The day of the mission

Chema and Juana arrived to class like usual, however Chema decided to head straight to the dirt
path to check the place of the mission, Juana following him seeing how odd this was.

“Hey, what is it? Shouldn’t you head straight to class- I mean we still got some time left before the
first class but like, what’s so interestin’ about that either way- “Juana started saying until she
stopped herself suddenly when she saw the gate leading to the dirth path and noticed ice crystals
forming arund it, it wasn’t too much but it did feel unnatural. “Wow, I always heard this place was
chilly but never to this extent…”

Chema looked at her as if about to ask her about what she just said, Catching up on this Juana
continued

“You see, there are always people talking about how that dirth path is usually colder than the rest of
the school. Not like anyone’s able to actually confirm that since Michelle and his gang usually
don’t let anyone to get anywhere close to this place, however seeing it’s cold enough to start
freezing on winter… It might be true after all, would you look at that! I wonder why that is
though… do they keep some AC in there or something? Or maybe a fridge would do the trick…”

Chema felt like something was odd about this, however Juana told him to head straight to class,
hopefully he’d be able to tell the others about it. Once in class things went like normal, though this
time he was waiting for the time of the mission… the first hour passed by… the second hour passed
by… then the third then the fourth and of course, the talk would happen at lunchbreak. Either way
all students were sent to the patio for the talk, it was hard to move around with such a large mass of
students crampled in such a tiny space however it made it really easy to disappear without being
noticed in such a large crowd. Though while they were trying to sneak out of the crowd they were
still able to get small parts of the whole speech the students were given.

“You should never lie about things like this, And even if you think you feel like this you should still
be careful, after all we can lie without knowing it.”

“If you think you feel depressed, you should make sure to keep in mind how others would feel
about this. How much it would break their heart.”

“Sometimes depressed kids don’t realize their own selfishness in their acts and that’s when…”

Chema’s only thought about each and every word they said was only “What a load of bullshit.”.
And his annoyance just kept growing the more he heard.

Eventually though they were all at the gate that led to the dirt path. Franco and Ale being the first
ones to arrive were examining the weird state of the door.
“Oh, There you are. It looks like there’s something odd about this gate but… we’ll talk about it
once we’re there and- Dude, you alright?” Said Franco when he saw Chema and Daira arrive,
quickly noticing Chema failing to hide how annoyed he felt.

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” As he said this however he made an unintentional gesture towards the ones
giving the speech.

“…It’s quite some bullshit aint it?” repled Franco as a quick jab at the talk the school was giving
out, though with a bit of heaviness on the way he said it…

“Well, either way. We should hurry before anyone notices us.” Said Ale as she opened the frozen
door. However once they got in they noticed two people standing in the middle of the path, one of
them being a very injured student, blood staining her uniform. And the other one being Gabriel
who seemed to be tending to the student’s wounds. However it seemed like neither of them had
noticed the group yet.

Gabriel sighed as he wispered to the student. “Kim… Why won’t you tell me what happened? I
know it’s not rare for you to get into fights but this time just… You’re just way more injured than
usual… Whatever happened to you isn’t normal!”

The girl only remained silent.

“…Does this have anything to do with Michelle?” Gabriel asked, struggling to get those words out.

“If you already know what’s happening, why aint you just listening to me and bailing out?! I’ll take
care of everything, you really just need to tell me you’re leaving and it’s all fixed! It would
definitely be easier than enduring all of this everytime more often.” She replied on a progressively
angrier tone.

“I- I’m sorry… I just… I just really can’t leave. It wouldn’t… it just wouldn’t be right… B-but if it
means things are like this for you then… I-I could try to see if I can do something about it. You
really don’t have to go through this, yknow?”

“Ughhhh. Don’t feel so guilty alright? I ain’t doing this anything against my will, you know I’m
not the kinda dude to let that happen. And you also know that I could go through way worse if it’s
for you.”

Gabriel remained silent this time, the look on his face seeming… convinced of what he was hearing
but not satisfied.

“…And you? What do you idiots want?!” The girl asked to Chema and the rest of the team as she
noticed them. However even though it was scary to see her getting on guard, way scarier was
Gabriel’s reaction, not because of him being intimidating on any way but because the moment his
gaze noticed the intruders, the entirety of the dirt path became way colder in the matter of seconds,
they could all see layers of thin ice on the walls as they were forming, and their breaths suddenly
start freezing the moment they tried to speak.

“W-who are you? W-what are you doing here…?” Gabriel asked with a shaky voice.

“They’re the guys who got in a fight with your… ‘Friends’ the other day.” The girl replied.

“Oh… yeah… What are you doing here?”

“W-we… uhhhhh…”

“We were just helping our little friend Daira here with… uhhhh…” Franco started trying to come
up with anything to explain themselves, luckily Daira had the perfect idea.

“Yeah t-they’re moral support because… uhmm… there’s… something very VERY important I
need to tell you! A-and… It actually would be better to tell you without… others around so…
uhm… m-maybe some other time yknow?!” Daira Said in a nervous voice her face red from the
stress of the situation.

“huh? What is it? I’m sure it’s fine to have Kim around… She’s good at keeping secrets.” Gabriel
responded with a confused yet very plain look on his face, meanwhile Kim looked more interested
in what Daira was saying than Gabriel for some reason.

“Uhhhh… T-the thing is it’s a very… a very important AND VERY PERSONAL Thing! Sooo… I-
I’m not sure if it would feel right if she’s… uhhhh…” Daira tried to keep going with whatever bluff
she was trying to pull off, however she found herself unable to keep focused as Kim was looking at
Daira with murderous eyes. “I… Uhhmm…”

“I see… I’m kind of busy with Kim right now so if you want to talk with me on private that-“

“That will have to wait!” Gabriel was interrupted by Michelle who was walking into the place
alongside raph. “Now, what is it you were talking about? Gabby? Kim? I’m just curious y’see?”

Immediatelly Gabriel seemed to be overcome by fear and the path became even colder, however
Michelle and Raph seemed unfazed at the placed suddenly turning into an icy landscape.

“Tch, It’s not your business bitch!” Roared Kim at Michelle in response. Michelle seemed visibly
mad at this comment but before he could talk back Gabriel asked “Hey… Michelle… Did you… do
this to Kim?” To which Kim just quickly turned to look at Gabriel in surprise.

“You worry too much Gabby, The raging conflict of ideals between me and her is something
beyond yourself and what you could possibly understand. It’s better you just leave it be.” He
responded.

“I-I see…” Even though Gabriel would appear to be giving up, his face seemed conflicted and
genuinely angry.

“Gabby, You should know you out of everyone have no place to speak up to us like that. If you
wanted respect, you should have given it in the first place.” After saying this Raph turned to look at
Kim “And if you didn’t want to end up like that, you shouldn’t side with someone like him.
Specially since you know what he did.”

Immediatelly Kim lashed out at this comment “BUT HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!! STOP
ACTING LIKE HE’S SOME KINDA SICKO!”

“YOU KNOW HE ISN’T INNOCENT! IT’S ALL HIS FAULT AND YOU KNOW IT!!” Raph
yelled back.

“I CALL BULLSHIT!” Franco yelled. For once seeming to be entirely out of his cool. Everyone
suddenly got silent at his reaction. “Gabriel could have never been at fault for that. I’m even sure
Gabriel was the greatest victim of what happened! AND YOU’RE JUST GONNA USE THAT
ANYWAYS TO TOY AROUND WITH HIM?! THAT’S BULLSHIT!”

The place felt colder… Freezing cold… And Gabriel was scared… curled up in place…

“THE GREATEST VICTIM?! HE IS THE CULPRIT YOU MORON!! WE’RE DOING HIM A
FAVOR OVER HERE YKNOW?! HE COULD PERFECTLY BE BEHIND BARDS WITHOUT
US!” Raph yelled back, however yells could also be heard from the other side of the wall

“Hey! What’s going on with the wall!”

“Ow! It burns! Since were is the so much ice in there??”

“H-hey this isn’t normal… ice doesn’t spread that fast!!”

“You guys seeing this?!”

Then suddenly amongst all the yelling and the confusion, someone rushed in to punch Raph in the
face… It was Gabriel himself. However Kim rushed in and landed the hit before Gabriel could. The
punch made Raph fall back onto the dirt, causing her to start crying. Without giving her time to
react Kim was met with a kick to her face. Gabriel looked at her in fear, however as he was
distracted Michelle delivered a punch to his gut then took advantage of him flinching to hit him
with the knee on the middle of his face, making him fall on his back. Once on the floor Michelle
began kicking Gabriel as he yelled “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE FOR TRYING TO HIT
MY PRECIOUS RAPHAELLE?! WHAT’S ON WITH SHOWING RESPECT TO THOSE
OLDER THAN YOU?! DO YOU NO LONGER LOVE YOUR FAMILY?! WOULDN’T
SURPRISE ME! YOU’VE NEVER LOVED- NO! YOU’VE NEVER CARED FOR ANYONE
HAVE YOU?! YOU ARROGANT PIECE OF SHIT!!” Michelle stepped away trying to catch his
breath. As he did so he heard the commotion outside, people would start trying to get in the path
anytime now. “…hmph, You got lucky this time. However, I’ve said it over and over again. I really
don’t care for whatever happens to you, I’m just doing you a favor by not giving you out to the
police. So please just know your place, and don’t do anything stupid next time.

Oh, and about you idiots-“ Before finishing his sentence, he noticed Chema and the others were
already gone, nowhere to be seen. “…Must’ve sneaked out in the commotion… Maybe we should
do the same. Raph, you alright my dear?~ We’re parting from here for now, let’s get you away from
these pitiful people~”

Before finally leaving Michelle gave one last glance at Gabriel. “See you after class, Gabby~”

Once they were leaving, Kim reached out to Gabriel “Brie! We should get going too...”

“Get going, Kim… I’ll catch up with you later…” Gabriel replied, somewhat entranced.

“…You better do.” Kim replied, unsure but trusting whatever Gabriel had in mind. After that she
stumbled her wait out from the other side and somehow crawled the wall to the outside.”

Once she was gone, Gabriel directed his sight back to the weird multicolored stain of pain in the
wall.

“That wasn’t there before… was it?” He thought to himself as he started getting up.
 …

“…I do feel bad for just leaving them over there like that.” Said Daira.

“We couldn’t do much there. But hopefully we can do something over here…” Replied Franco.

“So, are we all ready?” Asked Ale, everyone nodded in response.

“Alright. Let’s do this.” Said Chema, as him, Daira, Franco and Ale stood in front of the castle.

It’s time.

Chapter End Notes

Welp, that was quite a ride! In fact it was by far the longest chapter so far!! (though the next
one might naturally be even longer... we'll see about that!)
Can't remember if there's local jokes i need to explain here so sorry that section won't be
appearing this time.
also OMG I'M SO EXCITED TO FINALLY BE BACK!! I'll try to see how can i get chapters
out more consistently because there's so much i got planned out for this story and like... it's
good to be back!
Sooooooo seeya next chapter!!
 Storming the castle! Pt1
Chapter Notes

I'M ALIVE! It's been a long time hasn't it? Welp i'm back finally! A lot of stuff has been going
on but the new chapter is finally here after all.
Also the end may seem a big abrupt, that's because i was writting it as part of a bigger chapter
untill i realized it was turning out to be too long and taking way too much time to finish
because of that. Anyways here it is now so... I hope you enjoy!!

The team stepped in front of the door, already confident in how they would get in.

“So, Everyone’s ready? Once the lil guy breaks the door we’ll have to blast through to a safe place
as fast as possible since it’ll surely call out attention.”

Everyone agreed quickly, once they all said yes, Chema summoned Kanoo’ Ja’, ready to break
down the door to the stronghold. However right before he could even try it, the door started
opening.

“Oh crap! We need to hide!” Franco yelled.

“Where?!” Ale asked

“Everyone! Jump into Baldr!” Daira commanded to the rest of the team, everyone quickly made
their way to Baldr and hid inside his hair. Luckily everyone was somehow able to fit in. After that
Daira just used Baldr’s ability to turn invisible and they all watched as from the door came two
guards grabbing… Gabriel? Though this version of Gabriel seemed to be dressed like a king even
though his clothes did look pretty dirty.

“HEY LET ME GO YOU DIPSHITS!! I AM THE GODDAMN KING!!! I’LL GET BACK TO
BEAT YOUR STUPIDS ASSES!” After he said that, the guards just threw him onto the floor and
entered back into the castle without saying a word. “YOU ASSHOLES CAN’T TREAT ME LIKE
THIS!! I’LL BE BACK TO FUCKING KILL YOU! I’LL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU
GODDAMNIT!!” After that the doors closed, Ignoring his desperate screaming.

The king Gabriel let out a tired sigh and just stood there for a short while before turning around
towards the team and pointing at them apparently about to shoot a beam out of his hand.

“And who are you four idiots over there? Show yourselves!”

Without a second of hesitation Franco stuck his head out of baldr’s hair and tried to calm down the
king Gabriel.

“Hey! It’s just us alright? No need to be scared, so just calm down. Alright?”

The king Gabriel immediately started shooting at the four, causing baldr’s hair to eject them all.
“I JUST SAID THERE WAS NO NEED TO BE SCARED!!” Franco yelled as he tried to dodge
the beams.

“IS HE INSANE?!” Ale asked while doing the same “AND WHAT’S ON WITH YOU?!”

Chema didn’t seem to be all too scared of these beams, as he was barely moving at all, almost as if
he was trying to be a target.

“DON’T GET KILLED ON US NOW!! DO SOMETHING!!”

Chema just sighed at Ale’s request, he then proceeded to… take a stance? After staying in place for
a while Chema himself seemed confused as he started trying to dodge the beams coming his way.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” ale yelled at Chema

“I THOUGHT THAT WOULD SUMMON MY GUARDIAN!! BUT DIDN’T WORK IT

SEEMS!! Chema yelled back

“CAN YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING?! WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO-“ before Franco could
finish Kanoo’ ja’ emerged from the ground and engulfed king Gabriel, keeping him from doing
anything.

“Oh. There it is. Must’ve spawned too far away.” Chema said, sounding impressed.

“What do you mean spawn- whatever, we neutralized the guy. That is a success for me.” Ale
responded

“Now… what do we do with this guy? We can’t leave him trapped in there for too long or he will
drown.” Said Franco

“Does he even need to breathe?” Ale asked.

“I don’t want to take the risk.”

“Well… hmmmmmmm… We could get in the castle and then release him once we’re inside!”
Replied Daira

“Do we even know how we will get in now? The guards are probably right on the front door now,
which will make it harder for us to just run away to safety the moment we broke down the door.”
Asked Ale.

“We really should have made a plan B, huh…?” Said Franco

Suddenly the King-Looking Gabriel jumped out of Kanoo’ja’ as he said “You fuckers going inside
that shithole? I’m in.”

“OH MY-“

“MOTHERFU-“ Chema yelled as he made Kanoo’Ja’ to engulf him once again, however the King-
like Gabriel poked his head out of Kanoo’Ja’s Body with ease.

“Uhm actually, you’re not gonna get too much out of doing that you dumbass. In fact you fuckers
aint going anywhere at all! You’re trying to infiltrate a castle full of armed crackheads and your
best excuse of a plan is to just crash in through the front door? You fucking stupid?” He said as he
finished walking out of the water body.

“Uhhhhh… Who is this guy meant to be? Because Gabriel definitely doesn’t talk like that.”
Alessandra said, very annoyed at the King-like Gabriel’s tone.

“Oh please, I’m Gabriel! King Motherfucking Gabriel! AND THAT IS MY GODDAMN
CASTLE! But those twink ass shitheads just took it for themselves and kicked me out of it! THEY
KICKED ME OUT OF MY GODDAMN CASTLE?! HOW FUCKED UP IS THAT?!”

“I… We’ll ask the questions later…” Franco said before turning to King Gabriel “So… If this is
your castle, do you know a safe way to get inside then?” Franco asked.

“OF COURSE I DO!! WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO GET IN THEIR
OWN CASTLE?! IS YOUR BRAIN TOO SMOOTH TO FIGURE THAT OUT?!”

Franco left out a long sigh before saying “No, I just wanted to make sure. Now what about you
guide us there? You said you wanted to get in too.”

“Hmph, do I even get anything for it? If so then why freaking bother?”

“Well, what is it you want?”

“Hm… If you believe you are somewhat useful at beating someone’s ass then go ahead and fight
those assholes that took my castle! Maybe even whichever guard we find on the way there. After
that you can go do whatever the fuck you want!”

“Seems like a deal!” As Franco said this he stretched out his hand to King Gabriel.

“Tch, Just follow me to the basement, you freaks.” He walked away as he said this. The team
exchanged glares at each other before choosing to follow King Gabriel, it was a long walk, and
they had to take several breaks because of Chema but eventually they all arrived to what seemed
like a back entrance to the castle… which led down to what would be its basement.

“Now Listen here you dipshits! This is the castle’s basement, I carved this entrance a long time ago
when I first arrived to this castle. Those fucking idiots are too dumb to just cover it up! Can you
believe that?! I’m not complaining though~”.

“Wait… the first time you arrived to this castle? So you came into this castle after it was already
there?” Asked Ale. Starting to doubt how trustworthy this… being might be.

Franco followed quickly on Ale’s questioning. “Actually, he said he carved that entrance so he first
arrived by sneaking out. Are you sure it is your castle, dude?”

Suddenly King Gabriel transformed into the slave-like version of Gabriel. “[The stronghold is my
creation]” After it said this he immediately morphed back into King Gabriel. “So it’s fucking
mine!”.

Everyone was… concerned at the very least about this event. However they just shrugged it off to
the shenanigans of being in another world. After this they carefully went inside the secret entrance
one by one. Making sure to NEVER take their eyes out of King Gabriel.
Once at the basement… it would normally look like a dungeon but all the cells actually looked
actually comfortable to be in, The colors were bright yet not in an overwhelming manner and so it
was ccomfortable to look at. All the walls were covered in very fluffy and soft materials. And there
were cozy wooden furniture in every cell. However breaking the comfortable look of the place
there were some odd cracks in the floor from which a blue ominous glow. Daira tried to get close to
one of these but King Gabriel immediately Jumped at her and violently pulled her away from it.

“DON’T EVER TOUCH THE CRACKS!” he roared.

“HEY STOP THAT!” Daira yelled as she struggled.

“Yo! Don’t hurt the little girl!” Franco said as he readied the longsword replica he brought with
him, Which looked more real than when he bought it.

“YOU DON’T CALL ME LITTLE GIRL!”

“…Just don’t touch the cracks. Ever.” Said King Gariel as he started walking down, the rest of the
team following him. It was like a maze inside, they took many turns through many paths and it only
made it feel more uncanny to see a place like a dungeon, a place meant to be unsettling at least to
be morphed into something that attempts to be a comfortable place to be for some reason.

“Huh? What is that doing here?” Said Franco while looking directly at one of the cells.

“What is it now?” Alessandra said.

Franco entered the cell, it was different from all the others. Not only was the furniture arranged
differently, but the cell itself was more decorated than all the others. It had comic and movie
posters taped in the walls, few blankets scattered around and a few boxes of model planes and guns
stacked in one corner of the room, while in top of the furniture were many already ensembled
models aswell as bright pink dollhouses which made a large contrast.

“I borrowed this one eraser to Gab months ago, I for real thought I’d never see it again. What’s it
doing here now that’s the real question…” Franco said looking around the room.

“Well, if what I have heard about him is true… this looks like a place he would be around often…
kind off. What is the deal with all this dolls?” Replied Alessandra.

However while they were looking around the room, they heard loud steps coming their way. After
stepping out of the cell to look at the source of the noise… they found a guard making its way
towards them.

“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?” A yell was heard not too far behind them, they’d
been spotted. Everyone got into battle positions as the guard ran closer to them. “SO YOU’RE
HELPING THE INTRUDER?! WE’LL HAVE TO KICK YOU OUT AGAIN!” As the guard said
this it pulled out a big horn. However Alessandra quickly readied her bow.

“Sorry but we can’t have you alerting your friends so… hasta la vista.” Once she said this, she shot
an arrow directly at the guard’s head…
however it didn’t last even a second in the air before it fell flat to the ground. A long awkward
silence filled the room for a few seconds before the guard finally sounded the horn, alerting every
other guard around.

“Well fucking done, Dumbass.” Said King Gabriel while clapping his hands sarcastingly. “Now we
should run away while we can before the-“

Not letting him finish, Franco rushed towards the guard with his sword ready and then he slashed at
it with all his force in one powerful attack that knocked down the guard… aswell as Franco who
was carried away by the sword’s motion making him trip.

“And so there goes the donkey and the sheep…” King Gabriel sighed as he started making his way
down the Hallway.

Daira and Chema helped Franco stand up, immediately after hearing a crowd of guards roaring and
loudly running down the hall. Everyone immediately started running as fast as they could.
They all ran together through several turns and sometimes even in circles expecting to lose them,
however the guards didn’t seem to be losing sight of them anytime soon, and chema was already
becoming unable to keep up the pace. However that’s when they passed below a Portcullis which
both Chema and Daira noticed could be closed from the side they were at.

“Hey! Check this out!” Daira said out loud as she trew the boomerang at the portcullis’ lever.

at first it looked as if she overshot it. However on it’s way back the boomerang hit the lever making
the portcullis close shut in front of the guards, keeping them safe for now. “Ha! Trick shot!
WOOOOOH!” she celebrated seeing how her idea worked out. King Gabriel seemed satisfied with
this. Ale and Franco on the other side where both surprised yet also looked mad that Daira did get
to showoff. Meanwhile Chema Was just glad to finally get a break.

After a few minutes of resting, King Gabriel said out loud: “So! With that we got the first floor out
of the way. We… got a whole lot to go holy shit you really couldn’t be any slower couldn’t you?!”
“We are safe right now! And we didn’t take THAT long! I’m sure we can climb the rest way more
easily once Chemita is recovered!” Said Daira.

“Yeah, specially since those guys still haven’t figured out the idea of just going around.” Franco
said this as he looked directly at the crowd of guards still running straight into the portcullis. Trying
to reach out to them through it. “Kinda creepy not gonna lie.”

“Well, it was a miracle your asses got away from that one! Why did you bring that shit with you if
you can’t even use them!?” Yelled King Gabriel, pointing at the bow and sword Ale and Franco
brought with them.

“I swear something just happened to the bow! I pulled it as hard as I can and yet it didn’t shoot
correctly! Something is wrong with it I’m calling it!!” exclaimed Ale. Hearing this Franco grabbed
Ale’s bow and aimed it to one of the walls, pulling it with all his strength and immediately nailing
the shot.

“Huh. I think you just have weak arms.” He said as he put down the bow. Offended, Ale forcefully
took the bow out of his hands.

Growing tired of this argument, Chema stood up and started walking to the stairs close to them,
even though he was still a bit tired.

“Oh, you wanna get movin’?” Asked Daira.

“Good iniciative. BUT I’M IN THE LEAD YOU TROGLODYTE!!” Yelled king Gabriel.

After this everyone walked up to the stairs and went to the next floor arriving directly at the garden
of the castle. Immediatelly they saw the main tower in the middle of an artificial lake and
connected to the rest of the castle through 4 roads. and Daira started rushing towards it. Regardless
of Franco’s protests everyone followed after her, however when they arrived there they only found
it locked with 3 keys.

“As I thought. Those assholes did it again! And in so little time?! Fucking Cheaters!!” Yelled King
Gabriel.

While he was raging and screaming at the door Franco and Chema started noticing guards
approaching them from all roads leading to the tower.

“Well we didn’t think this through didn’t this through did we?” Daira said as she started noticing
the guards surrounding them.

“AUUUGHHHH LET ME INNNNN!! IT’S MY GODDAMN CASTLE!!” King Gabriel said as he

jumped at the door and grabbed onto it, violently pulling it in an attempt to force it open.

Seeing themselves surrounded everyone started getting into battle positions though without many
hopes of actually winning. That’s where Chema noticed a trapdoor door on at the end of one of the
roads that connected to the main tower. And without saying a word he made a gesture with his hand
at said path, shortly after Kanoo’ ja’ appeared at the end of said path, rose to the sky, and let itself
fall down on the ground and crushing all the guards in it. After that it just disappeared leaving all
the wreckage behind. Everyone watched in silence at the aftermath of this trying to fully
understand what happened in so little time.
“THE FUCK YOU DOING?! RUN FOR IT!!” Yelled King Gabriel and immediately everyone
rushed down the now open path, the team noticed the trapdoor and Daira reacting quickly trew her
boomerang at the lock on the trapdoor successfully breaking it.

“TRICK SHO-“ Before Daira could finish her own boomerang hit her in the face while she was
distracted.

Once the trapdoor was unlocked Franco ran ahead and opened it for everyone to get in before
entering himself aswell. Once inside King Gabriel suddenly seemed really agitated. “Oh shit- This
was not our best idea.”

“Oh whatever, we’ll get nothing good from just standing here, we gotta get going before they figure
out they can open doors.” Said Franco as he signaled everyone to go downstairs.

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEAN SHITHEAD! WE SHOULD NOT HAVE ENTERED HERE-“

Everyone stopped in their places once they got downstairs and saw that themselves in a room filled
with all kinds of large wild animals ready to attack them.

“…WHO THE FUCK KEEPS WILD ANIMALS IN-“ Before Franco could finish every single
animal in the room charged in their direction.

Outside the trapdoor the guards were… unable to figure out how to open a trapdoor so they just
kept running in circles around it. Not for long though as suddenly the crowd of wild animals broke
through the trapdoor and started attacking all the guards at once. Complete chaos ensued and in the
middle of that chaos was a small bush sneaking through. The entire team quickly peeked their
heads out of the bush which was in fact Baldr.

“Well that was some quick thinking. Not bad.” Said Franco in surprise of their little trick working
“Now we probably should go… over there!” The entire team sank back inside Baldr’s hair and
began moving.

However only to make things even weirder, suddenly the sound of the door opening. Echoed
through the entire castle. At that moment every guard in the castle stopped completely while all the
wild animals stopped their attack and were instead looking directly at the doors from which
someone was arriving… It was Gabriel. The real Gabriel.

(Place image here)

And the weirdest part of it all. King Gabriel immediately ran towards him in pure joy. “GAPPY!
GAPPY!” He cheered in a childish manner “PLEASE HELP ME!! THEY HAVE LOCKED ME
OUT AGAIIIINNNN! IT’S SO UNFAIR!!”

“O-oh! Again? Now what did you do this time, King?” Gabriel said on an oddly playful manner
“Actually… were you the one who let out the animals…?”

“Nooo! It was them!! I told them not to get there but they didn’t listen!!” Replied King while
pointing at the team.

“The… bush?” Gabriel asked “Is… there someone inside it actually? That’s no place for a bush.”

The team not feeling a bad intention in Gabriel all climbed out of Baldr’s hair.
“OH! It’s you guys! Don’t worry about it you couldn’t have known! Haha!” After saying this
Gabriel snapped his fingers “Hey guards! Get the beasts back in their room please~ Oh, and give
them some snacks too!”

After he said this the guards who were struggling with holding back the beasts before… now just
led them back into the underground room with no issue at all. Quickly enough all the animals were
gone from the main garden.

“So uhhhh… what are you guys doing here…? Actually, how did you guys get here?” Gabriel
asked them, sounding a bit nervous while doing so.

“What are YOU doing here?! How are you able to just enter the subconscious world?!” Ale
Replied… with another question.

“Oh… I’m honestly not sure, but I’ve just been… coming here every now and then. The first time I
came here was like… somewhere in the middle of last year I think? Though I can’t remember how
exactly I found this place to begin with. I just now that if I really put my mind to it I can just switch
from being in the hideout to being here in an instant! However it only happens in there so I think
this must be like some other world inside the hideout…?”

While everyone agreed he was mostly wrong, they were all distracted by how natural Gabriel
seems to be about such an odd place. “S-so… you don’t find this place… weird?” Asked Ale.

“I did at the start… but now I have grown very accustomed to it! It’s a really nice place!! There’s
so much around to see everytime!”

“I see… So this is like your place, then? If that’s so then I’m sorry for breaking in” Said Franco
while slightly ashamed.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s actually quite exciting to know that I’m not the only one who can get
here!! If you don’t mind maybe we could like uhhh… try to see when everyone is available and I
can show you guys around!! I promise you every day here is an adventure!!”

“Actually… we were trying to help that guy over there get to the top of the tower.” Daira Said.

“Oh! Right, King! Uhhhh… I think the door is locked though, right?”

“Yep. Can you unlock it?” Asked Franco.

“Well… let me explain you something funny about this place! In here time passes
veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeryyyyyyyyyy slowly. You can be here for what could be hours and a few
minutes will have passed in reality!” Gabriel said this in a very excited manner, nobody else in the
room had seen him so excited before.

“What are you getting at here…?” Ale asked Gabriel already expecting him to be onto something.

“Well…” Gabriel looked at the others with puppy eyes before saying “I’m just saying that we’ve
got more than enough time to go look for the keys ourselves!”

“Uhhhh… Can you really not opening or are you just wasting time?” Franco sounded more serious
than usual.
“I- I mean I can but… it’s just so fun to explore around here! We’ve got the time for one small
adventure so yknow if you guys want I’ll make sure it’s as great as you can ever imagine just
please.”

Before giving anyone else a chance to respond, Ale jumped in front of everyone and said “Alright,
I’m sure it will be fun!”

“Are you sure about this…?” Franco whispered to Ale.

“Look at how adorable he is! I just can’t say no to that!” She whispered back.

“Great! Now where to begin… Actually, let’s just go in order! Over here!” As he said that Gabriel
started walking to down the left path, King followed closely behind.
“Welp. Not much we can do now…” Said Franco as he followed them, with Alessandra already
ahead of him.

“Are we really just going to…? Whatever. Hey Chemita! Let’s go!” Daira said to Chema, noticing
he had already sat down sometime during the conversation. Seeing this she just helped him get up
before following the rest aswell.
 Storming the castle! pt2
Chapter Notes

So, this chapter will be a bit shorter than usual but is just felt right like that. Also there aint
any images on this chapter because i genuinely didn't know where to put them so... I'll see
what i can do for the next chapters. So... Hope you enjoy it!
(Edit: HAHAHAHAHA OOOOOOPS, OK SO I MAY HAVE UPLOADED THIS CHAPTER
WITHOUT EVEN REMEMBERING I LEFT A PART OF IT INCOMPLETE... IT'S FIXED
NOW BUT UHHHHH PLS READ IT AGAIN, I WON'T TELL YOU WHAT BUT THERE
A CERTAIN PLOT POINT WHICH IS LESS LAME NOW, OK THAT'S IT. NOW TO
ACTUALLY WORK ON THE NEXT CHAPTER.)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

They entered all entered the castle and then followed Gabriel through several halls and stairs.
Gabriel was humming happily all the way, while Chema kept complaining and groaning since he
had grown really tired of walking for so long.

Eventually they all arrived to what seemed like a giant library, However it looked a bit old and
dusty showing that it probably wasn’t frequented. This library was made out several isolated
platforms high above the floor and only connected with it through some tall metallic pillars making
it so the platforms were standing in a giant pit. Most of said platforms were massive and dedicated
entirely to bookshelves over bookshelves. Two of them were dedicated to small living rooms with
several lights on them and cushions that didn’t look all that comfortable to sit at. One platform was
dedicated entirely to a tree. And another one had a pool for some reason. There was also a platform
far off in the distance with nothing but a giant worn off door.

“Wow! This place is soo pretty!!” Exclaimed Daira completely amused.

“Not only that! It’s huge!!” Said Franco.

Alessandra didn’t say anything, she was too caught up admiring this place which was like a dream
to her. Chema didn’t say anything either, but he was also surprised by the surreal and breathtaking
place he was in. King Only left out a small chuckle while Gabriel looked attentively at everyone
else, smiling warmly at their reactions.

“So… I’m sure the first key must be somewhere in here.”

“Wait… Do we have to look through all this place?!” Franco yelled just realizing the kind of task
they were in for.

“SIGN ME UP!!” Yelled Alessandra as she rushed into one of the main platforms. “I’M TAKING
THE LIBRARIES!!”

“Well she sure is excited. So… since she’ll be over there we still have the pool, the tree, and the
that big ass door at the bottom to explore. And I’m taking the pool thank you.” Said Franco, already
on his way to the pool platform.

“So uhhhh… that leaves Chemita, Gabriel, Gab- I mean… King, and Me with the door and tree…
so we can split in two teams!” Said Daira.

“So uhhhh who should go with who?” Asked Gabriel.

“I don’t really care.” Replied Chema.

“Welp, I’m going with Lord Gabriel!” Said King as he stood besides Gabriel.

“Alright, then I’ll be teaming up with Chemita!”

After this both teams split up to search their respective areas, Chema and Daira would look around
the tree, while Gabriel and King would look around the giant worn door.

…At the Library…

Ale was looking through the books on the highest row in a desperate manner, as her excitement to
look through the library quickly vanished when she saw that all the books were in blank.

“Well my disappointment is unmeasurable. I don’t even know what I was expecting! They’re books
inside a rupture of course they’re not even real books!” After she says this she sees Chema, Daira,
Gabriel and King pass by below her, heading to their respective areas “…I guess I could’ve at least
learnt something about him… Or maybe the people who hang out here but no! It’s Empty!”
Alessandra said to herself. After that she quickly got down from the stairs and tried with another
bookshelf, so mad she placed the stairs incorrectly hitting one of the books, though to her surprise
the book seemed to squeak in pain when it was hit. “Just what is that about…?” She whispered to
herself as she climbed up the stairs to said book.

…At the pool…

Franco admired the pool for a long time before eventually saying the greatest wisdom of them all…

“Hah! It’s a pool in a library!!”

…At the tree platform…

Daira and Chema stand silently in front of the tree, it is just a normal tree, and doesn’t have
anything remarkable or special about it on plain sight. So the both of them start looking around it to
see if there is something hidden somewhere else in the platform, however it’s all empty aside from
that tree. As they walk closer to inspect it they notice a sign in front of it saying: “Yuyu. The
world’s largest bonzai.”

“That… that’s just a normal tree!” Said Daira both annoyed and confused.

“It’s the world’s largest bonzai.” Said Chema in a plain and serious voice. Him and Daira looking at
each other with dead serious expressions.

“Tch, Well there’s nothing else around this platform so Imma climb up the tree, maybe there’s
something hidden on the leaves.” She was already halfway through climbing the tree by the time
she finished saying this “…I bet he’s the one at fault for this. And now he’s just making us play his
little game!”
“I don’t see how he would be-“ Before Chema could finish Daira interrupted.

“I DON’T SEE HOW HE COULD BE IN SUCH A BAD PLACE AS THEY SAY! They say he’s
oh such a victim but I’m not buying it! Whatever happened with him doesn’t take back the fact he’s
a delinquent and a dangerous one!” Her agitated voice was mixing with the noise of loudly rustling
leaves.

“He’s not bad, I know that… somehow.” Chema started to walk around the tree while talking.

“HE IS! Him and his stupid people! And his stupid smile! And-“ As Daira’s voice got more and
more agitated, a loud rustling could be heard before she fell out of the leaves of the tree, luckily
Chema managed to catch her. Or rather attempted at catching her but fell on his back as he did so.

“I-I’M SO SORRY!! I’M SORRY I-I-I-I-I-” Daira started yelling and freaking out, however
Chema still laying on the ground responded with a tired and broken stare “It’s fine…”

“I-i… I just… I really… Sorry, I just really…”

“It’s fine. Just… let me rest here for a while.”

Without saying anything Daira just nodded and sat besides Chema.

“I just can’t stand him… I know you want to believe in him but… You can try to do that if you
want, But I just cant!” Daira let out a deep sigh before continuing “…I don’t know if I told you but
I only arrived to this school last semester. I haven’t been here much longer than you, really.
However that last semester has just been… horrible. Plain horrible. And it’s because of them!
Because of those people! BECAUSE OF GABRIEL!! HE-“ Noticing herself starting to yell again
she stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. “…He was my first friend in here. Even
though he was part of a gang and all we got along pretty well and I even met some good friends
through him and it was great! It was… But then he started getting more and more distant and
then… then he just-“ As if by reflex, Daira suddenly curled up and grabbed her hair desperately. “I
COULD TRUST HIM! I THOUGHT I COULD TRUST HIM! TO THINK… To think he would
just…”

Chema looked at Daira with both confusion and fear, noticing this she elaborated. “I just… I trusted
him... as my friend, we were both naturally outcasts, and we both even made a group of friends
briefly and it was great! And then suddenly he had pulled everyone against me, suddenly i as being
attacked by my own best friend and i just... I can't stand him, Just hanging around with his friends
like nothing happened. When he smiles i just hate it! He doesn't deserve to smile while i can't see
any of the friends i've made anymore without... shaking...” Daira just sat there in silence for several
minutes, looking upwards and thinking about that time. However she felt comforted to have Chema
right there listening. Even if he wasn’t saying anything.

…At the great worn door…

Gabriel and King stood in front of the worn door in complete silence for several minutes.

“Yknow… I’ve never really known what’s behind this door…” Gabriel said.

“There is no need to know, Lord Gabriel!” King replied with a cheerful tone. To which Gabriel
only hummed thoughtfully while looking at the floor. King followed. “Lord Gabriel, I’m sure the
key isn’t behind that door. There is no need to look over here any longer. Maybe we should go back
and check what the others are doing!”

“I… I think I am curious though… It’s been there for so long yet…” Gabriel uttered shyly.

“Lord Gabriel, There aint no shit worth out time there, I’m sure of it! In fact I’m sure the other ones
may have found the key already!”

“Are you…”

Before Gabriel could finish, they both heard a violent scream coming from the center of the library.
“AAAAARRRGHHHHH!! GET AWAY FROM MEEEEEE!!” Immediatelly after hearing it they
rushed towards the place where it came from. It was the library, once there they found Alessandra
being attacked by a swarm of flying sentient books with teeth.

“THE HECK DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!” Franco yelled as he was trying to get the books away
from Ale.

“NOTHING!! I SWEAR!! THEY JUST STARTED ATTACKING MEEEE!!” Ale Yelled, trying to
fight off the swarm.

“Oh no… I think you’ve drawn the attention of the mimics!” King exclaimed with very little
concern in his voice.

“THE WHAT?! What even is that!?” Daira yelled as she and Chema rushed into the platform.

“The mimics. Small bugs that take the form of any common object they find. It seems we somehow
let them spread a bit too much over here…” Replied GabrielQuietly.

“WELL HOW DO WE DEAL WITH THEM NOW!?” Alessandra Yelled as the swarm circled
around her.

“I… I-I’ve never dealt with so many of those before… I usually just try to scare them away but-“

“YOU! MAEDA!!” Ale screamed in a commanding voice.

“WHO’S MAED-“ Franco yelled.

“What is it?” Chema replied.

“Oh, the lil guy is Maeda… What?!”

“USE YOUR GUARDIAN SNAKE THING AND GET THOSE THIGNS OFF ME!!”

“WAIT- DUDE IF HE DOES THAT THE WHOLE SHIT FALLS DOWN, AND WE ALL DIE!!”
Franco complained at Ale’s suggestion.

“WELL WHAT’S YOUR IDEA THEN?!”

“DON’T YOU GOT A GUARDIAN YOURSELF?!”

“Oh, right.” Said Ale suddenly realizing she had never gotten to use her guardian’s ability.
“HEY! HOW DID YOU TWO KNOW WHAT YOUR GUARDIANS COULD DO?!” Alessandra
Yelled.

“JUST… FOCUSING ON IT?! TRY IT OUT!” Daira yelled answering Ale’s question.

“what a great help…” After saying this Alessandra closed her eyes and tried to focus on whatever
her guardian’s ability could be. Without realizing she suddenly started moving forwards while
reaching out her hand in front of herself, getting her fingers into position and then… snap. She just
snapped her fingers, and when she did a large spark came out of it and flew towards one of the
mimics, exploding like a firework when it did. “I… I’ll just assume I did that!”

“Ok that’s actually very useful! KEEP ON GOING!!” Franco yelled, Alessandra only rolled her
eyes before doing as told and kept snapping her fingers, more sparks shooting out of them, at the
start it seemed like was starting to keep the mimics at bay, yet quickly enough they began swarming
her yet again...

“Guys!.. All wrong…” Alessandra said as she suddenly found both herself and her allies
surrounded and walking back further and further into the platforms until eventually they reached
the limit. The worn door at the end of the room. “Are we… Are we really done for…?”

“Hey, what about this? I’ll summon Kanoo’ja’ and you guys make a run for it.” Said Chema.

“NO! We’re not just gonna leave you behind!” Daira complained.

“I’m not even sure if that plan is gonna work…” Franco said as he began looking around. “What
other options do we have… Hey! What’s behind that door?!”

“Something dangerous.” Said King. “If there’s something on that head of yours then you’ll know
it’s a stupid idea to try and open it!”

“Can we survive it?”

“Yes, but that’s not the problem-“

“SOUNDS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!” As franco screaming this, he rushed to try and open the
door. However it was locked tight and no matter how hard he pushed or pulled it wouldn’t open.
“OH COME ON!!”

Alessandra seemed to be trying to say something, however she was to afraid to get anthing out.
Meanwhile Daira was looking directly at Gabriel with rage in her eyes while Gabriel was slowly
curling up in his place, visibly shacking.

Chema’s eyes looked tired, yet he seemed to be standing his ground somehow, almost as if he was
planning something… and of course he was. After a while of that despairing scene playing out,
Kanoo’Ja’ came crashing out of the wall, turned around and with a fierce roar launched itself
directly at the door, breaking it. Nobody had time to even try to run away from the rubble before a
violent gust of air launched them all out of the platform. Shortly after, the platform they were in
broke apart and fell, then the platform beside it, and then the next. Quickly enough all the platforms
were gone, and luckily so were the mimics which had been blown far away by then…

…
 Gabriel opened his eyes, and he felt cold. He found himself outside a familiar house and it was
already night. Police sirens were blaring loudly as bright lights painted the whole street with blue
and red. He couldn’t stand the noise, it was deafening, and the lights made it hard to look around.
Yet when he did, he could see lights coming from all windows, with silhouettes stalking from
behind them. He turned another way and saw Michelle and Raphaelle talking several steps away,
Michelle seems to be comforting a heartbroken Raph, as she does nothing but stare at Gabriel with
murderous yet tearful eyes. He tried to walk towards them but no matter how many steps he took he
didn’t seem to move at all. He could only recall… “I’m cold… I’m scared… I need someone but…
Who was it?... Why can’t I move…? Why can’t I move…? Why can’t i-“ His thoughts were
interrupted by the feeling of a hand touching his shoulder.

Everyone was forcefully ejected out of the library’s door. Once everyone was out the doors shut
close and many small rock creatures with roses all over them appeared and placed tape all over it.
Everyone looked around to see if everyone had made it out. They were all there and they seemed to
be perfectly fine. Except for the fact that for some unknown reason, they were all crying.

Chapter End Notes

So yeah, that was was that... See you next chapter!

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