Chara sat on a rock by the river valley, unwrapping the cloth strips around her body.
The wound had already scabbed over.
The newly grown skin was pink.
It’s so itchy.
She pressed it.
It didn’t hurt.
Then she opened the panel and selected [Load].
● Health Revert.
A very small wave passed through her body.
Her skin returned to its original color.
Her [HP] jumped from 357 to 1360.
She stood up and moved her arms.
Her waist didn’t hurt, and her legs weren’t stiff anymore.
Flowey poked his head out from her shoulder, looked at her wound to confirm it had healed, and then pulled his head back in.
Chara lowered her head, preparing to pick up the cloth strips on the ground.
Then she saw that thing.
A small cluster of red light, shaped like a heart, glowing faintly, a red heart slowly rotating in midair.
!
● You encountered…
???
Chara stared at the red heart, her hand pressing on her knife hilt.
She didn’t recognize this thing.
Red, glowing, and spinning?
Is it a monster?
Flowey’s petals parted.
He was just about to say something…
but Chara had already drawn her knife.
● Attack: DETERMINATION
“Wait!
That’s your—”
Before he could finish, Chara’s knife chopped down on the red heart.
-99999
The moment the knife fell, she felt as if someone were ripping her heart and lungs out.
She fell forward, hitting the ground headfirst.
Snap (DETERMINATION shatters)
GAME OVER
Black.
A dead, silent black.
She didn’t know where she was, nor if she was still alive.
Then white words floated out from the darkness.
● Your DETERMINATION shattered into pieces.
● Load?
● Yes | No
● Yes
…
Chara lay on the ground.
Gravel and cracked dirt were right next to her face.
Flowey’s face appeared above her.
“Awake?”
She propped herself up and sat.
Her body wasn’t injured.
Her [HP] was full.
Everything was completely normal.
Flowey was silent for two seconds before saying, “Your SOUL.”
“SOUL?”
“Yeah.
Your SOUL.
The thing you just chopped to pieces with one strike.”
Chara could tell he was holding something back.
“So just now…”
“A SOUL isn’t necessarily DETERMINATION,” Flowey said.
“DETERMINATION can take many forms.
Everyone has a SOUL, but not everyone can extract DETERMINATION from their SOUL and turn it into a physical entity.
You did.
And then you chopped it to pieces.”
Chara lowered her head, looking at her chest.
“So that red heart just now was my DETERMINATION, or my SOUL?”
“Let’s put it this way.
It’s what your SOUL looks like after materializing your DETERMINATION.” Flowey paused.
“When you chopped it, it was the same as chopping yourself.
So you got a GAME OVER.”
Chara didn’t speak.
Her fingers lightly tapped against her knee in guilt.
I didn’t know.
“How would I know you didn’t know?” Flowey’s voice softened a bit.
“But next time, can you wait for me to finish talking before you chop?”
Chara stared at her chest, right where her heart was beating.
Then, a small cluster of red light slowly pierced through her clothes and skin, inch by inch, floating in front of her.
A red heart.
Chara’s hand trembled a bit as she reached out, but she reached for it anyway.
The moment her fingers touched the red heart, she felt a warm sensation.
The red heart trembled slightly in her palm, as if afraid of something.
Holding the red heart, she looked at it for a few seconds, then pressed it into her chest.
She pushed hard.
The red heart sank into her skin and disappeared into her body.
But no one noticed that a small yellow flower had grown in the corner of Chara’s hair…
…
Then she immediately turned to look at Flowey.
“Now, I have some questions for you.”
“How do you know the relationship between DETERMINATION and a SOUL?
And why did you make me stay sane and distinguish between good and evil this past year?
How do you identify monster species?
And how do you know why I’ve been getting more and more numb and emotionally cold this past year?”
He went silent.
It was the first time Chara had seen him this quiet.
Finally, Flowey spoke.
“Ha…
ha…
I thought I had let it go after decades, but it’s still…
oh my gosh.”
“Sorry…
I lied to you…
I wasn’t born on that hillside a year ago.
I was born in a small laboratory…
Those monsters extracted an energy from human SOULs called DETERMINATION.”
“A monster scientist named Gaster injected DETERMINATION into a flower…
It had DETERMINATION, but no SOUL…
It couldn’t feel love…”
“After that, I met many types of monsters.
Evil, good, neutral…
though the good ones were the minority.
Besides, I could use [Save] and [Load] just like you…
I was also a third category between human and monster.
Except…”
“Except what…?”
“After they saw the experiment was a success…
they used a DETERMINATION extraction machine to drain all the DETERMINATION out of me, and threw me away in the wild…
which meant I lost my ability to [Save] and [Load]…”
“But later, I heard from the monsters that Alphys went missing…
no one knew where she went.”
“Later, I secretly discovered that another monster scientist, Alphys, injected DETERMINATION into those monsters.
Then all their bodies melted and fused into one…
Yes, monsters couldn’t handle the high energy of DETERMINATION from a human SOUL.
In the end, they could only turn into liquid…”
“And that scientist couldn’t face the questioning from the monsters’ families.
She could only hide it deep in her heart, deeper and deeper…
until she finally committed suicide…”
“As for what you said about getting more numb…
feeling cold.
It’s because of [LV], short for [LOVE], Level of Violence…
The higher your [LV], the more numb you feel, unable to empathize, cold…
and eventually, you might even turn into a mindless killer who slaughters without distinguishing between friend or foe, human or monster…”
“So back when I was a little flower with DETERMINATION, I absolutely couldn’t allow you to become a true monster who only knows how to kill…
That’s why a year ago, when I saw you had DETERMINATION, I asked to follow you…”
Flowey blurted out everything he knew in one breath.
After finishing, he let out a sigh of relief in his heart.
It was as if he had gained a real SOUL???
Chara didn’t know the little flower had such a past.
If she hadn’t listened to him a year ago…
She started to feel scared.
She didn’t know how much time had passed before Chara stood up from the ground.
“Let’s go.”
“You’re not mad at me…?
Chara?”
“Why would I be mad?
We’re best friends.”
She stood up and patted the dirt off her body.
The dark green coat was still draped over the rock.
She picked it up and put it on.
Flowey wrapped around her right hand again, his flower head resting next to hers.
She turned and walked out of the river valley, following the dried riverbed back the way they came.
The sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and the light returned to normal.
Her shadow dragged behind her, casting a long, black, human-shaped silhouette on the gravel.
● What do you feel?
Fear?
Numbness?
Neither.
You just need to maintain your DETERMINATION.