Entrapped Soul Chapter 4

Frisk

Early the next morning, Toriel and Frisk both left for school, Toriel guiding her by the hand. Sirus caught up with the both of them, waving hello. Frisk managed a slight smile, and waved back.

“Hello, you two. Good day so far, I hope?”, Sirus said in greeting. Toriel nodded. “Yes. So far. I imagine today finds you well, Sirus?”, Toriel responded. Sirus nodded. “Oh yes, all things considered. What about you, Frisk?”

“Alright….I….I guess.”, Frisk answered, looking away. “You don’t sound so cheerful. Is something wrong? Anything I could help with?”, Sirus responded, his eye-light glowing. Frisk opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind, staying as close to Toriel as possible. “I’m sorry. I think Frisk might be having trouble at school. Bullying.”, Toriel told Sirus. He sighed. “Is that the problem, buddy?”, Sirus asked. Frisk mumbled something and nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that, kid….hey. Frisk, what if I told you that I might be able to help you out with that. I think I could get them to stop treating you so badly. How does that sound?”

Frisk looked at Sirus. “If you think you can…..nothing i’ve tried ever works..”, she replied quietly. “My child, are you certain this is a good idea?”, Toriel asked. “Toriel, don’t worry. Nobody’s going to get hurt. My programming expressly forbids me from harming a human without an extremely good reason. Especially children. You don’t have anything to worry about. Why don’t you go ahead and prepare your lessons for the day? I’ll stick with Frisk and look after her.”, Sirus replied.

Toriel thought it over for a few moments before quietly nodding. “Alright. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, alright?”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, Toriel.”, Sirus replied, as Toriel headed to the schoolhouse. Frisk walked over to Sirus, curious. “Why are you doing this, really?”, she asked. “I...what? Well...I feel….I feel obligated. I mean, you did save my life. The life of a robomage is expensive. I gotta do everything I can to help pay it off….heh.”, Sirus answered.

“You hardly even know me, though…...”, Frisk replied meagerly.

“It’s alright. When the day’s over, you’ll be the talk of the school, for a good reason. You get a rare, all-powerful relic as a friend and protector.”, Sirus said in a joking tone. Frisk couldn’t help but giggle just a little bit at it.

“Thanks…”

“Not a problem.”, Sirus replied.

When they got to school, the other children took notice of Sirus, some of their comments showing genuine surprise, others mocking his rounded-off shape. Frisk stuck close to Sirus, keeping her distance from the other students, some of them still flinging the occasional insult at her.

“Hey, mumbles. I didn’t know it was show and tell today.”

“Hahaha! What a loser! Is she gonna have a robot speak for her now?”

Frisk grabbed Sirus by the hand, catching him off guard. “..H...hey..w...what…...ah jeez….don’t worry, Frisk. I’m right here. It’s gonna be alright.”, Sirus replied. She wasn’t going to let go, however.

Eventually, they got to the classroom. It was a fairly tidy place, with plenty of seats, a picturesque view outside, and plenty of books on the walls. Frisk picked her usual seat, somewhat towards the back. Sirus floated over to the window, looking outside, content. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for someone in the absolute back of the room to throw a paper airplane into the back of her head. She cringed. It was happening again. Three students walked over to Frisk. Sirus watched out of the corner of his eye.

“Well, well. Looks like Silent Susie did show up to class today after all!”

“Hey, she is the teacher’s favorite little mumbling student. She has to eventually, huh?”

One of the students roughly elbowed Frisk in the shoulder. “..Please stop…”, Frisk said in her usual hushed tone. The three bullies found this rather funny. “Sorry, what was that, Mumbly? Didn’t quite catch that.”

“She said, cut it out.”, Sirus answered, floating over to them.

“Oh, that’s a good one. The floating espresso machine’s gonna talk for her now?”

“Who said we were talking to you, anyhow?”

“Alright, that’s quite enough out of you three.”, Sirus replied, trying to hide a growing anger. “Now, look here. I know you three have been picking on Frisk for quite a while. Now, i’m going to ask you real politely. Please, stop picking on her. She’s been through enough for a whole lifetime. Trust me when I say, that you have absolutely zero idea.”

“Ohhh noo! I’m sooo scared of the floating green volleyball! Why don’t you go bother someone who actually cares what you think?!”

“Alright….I tried being nice. Looks like it’s time for drastic measures.”, Sirus thought to himself, his eye-light turning red. “Hahaha….alright. Ya got me.”, Sirus replied. Frisk looked at Sirus, confused. “Hey. To make up for my intrusion, how about a little magic trick?”, he continued. The three students nodded.

Sirus cracked his robotic knuckles, electricity flowing. He then struck the ground near their feet with bolts of lightning, causing them to yell in fear and run to the far wall, shivering. Everyone’s eyes went wide in shock, including Frisk’s.

“NOW. Now that I have everyone’s attention….let me try this again!”, Sirus spoke in a far more violent, irritated tone. “I know what you’ve all been pulling! You three, you’re picking on Frisk every day, aren’t you?! You’re turning the kid into a weeping wreck! I tried being nice with you, but NOOOO! You don’t want to play it like that!....i’m gonna try this just ONE more time. Leave Frisk alone. Don’t even look her in the eyes. I’ll be talking with Frisk every day. And if I find that you’re STILL bullying her...well….you’ll have to contend with me, again. Understand?!”, he shouted. The bullies cringed and shook with fear, but managed to nod.

Sirus’s eye-light turned back to the normal color of green. “Good, good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

Frisk looked away, ashamed. Sirus had made her the center of attention. Not what she had hoped for. Toriel barged in. “Sirus, just what is going on here?!”, she asked, a sharp tone in her voice. “Just finishing up some business.”, he replied. Toriel saw the scorch marks on the floor.

“Sirus, you could have hurt somebody, doing what you did! You should have talked it over with me first.”, Toriel continued, somewhat upset. Sirus chuckled. “C’mon, Toriel. It wasn’t that dangerous. I’m a master of this stuff. I knew what I was doing.”

Toriel didn’t seem amused by this at all.

“....Uh, okay. I can tell when i’m not wanted. Frisk, if you need anything else, i’ll be outside.”, Sirus said, quickly heading out into the hallway. Toriel sighed and headed to her desk, getting ready to begin class, the three kids heading back to their seats, their skin pale as a ghost.

The class-time itself progressed uneventfully, although everyone seemed to be going out of their way to not say anything to Frisk, in the off-chance Sirus would find out and get angry. Once class was over, everyone seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Before Frisk left however, Toriel spoke up.

“Frisk, my child...could you bring Sirus back inside? I need to speak with the both of you.”

Frisk nodded, and opened the classroom door, waving to Sirus. He nodded and came inside.

“Sirus, I know you were just trying to help, but i’m worried that you might be doing more harm than good.”, Toriel said, resting her arms on the desk. “I know that those kids mocking and bullying Frisk isn’t good at all, but is making all the other children afraid of her, through you, any better?”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Toriel. But i’m not going to just stand by and let Frisk take it. And we both tried being polite. They wouldn’t listen. I had to put some fear into them, to make them back off.”, Sirus explained. “If you have other ideas, i’d like to hear them, Toriel.”

Toriel closed her eyes, deep in thought. She let out a dejected sigh. “Mom…”, Frisk retorted, trying to raise her voice a bit. “H-he was just trying to do the right thing…..nobody else there would stand up for me, but Sirus did….he did try to convince them to stop by asking nicely first. I swear…”

“Alright…..I don’t like what happened here, but it seems to be working….and nobody was hurt. Sirus, promise me you’ll do good. Promise me you won’t hurt anyone unless there’s no choice in the matter.”, Toriel replied.

“Of course. The endless depth of Frisk’s mercy has taught me that it’s better to strive for a non-violent solution. I promise, Toriel. I won’t hurt anyone unless I have to.”, Sirus replied merrily.

Frisk blushed just a little bit upon hearing that. Toriel smiled and nodded. “Alright. I guess I shouldn’t keep you any longer. I’ll see you after lunch, my child.”

Frisk nodded and left. “I uh….I guess I should go with her, huh?”, Sirus added. Toriel sighed and silently nodded. Sirus nodded back and caught up with Frisk.

“You aren’t….angry with me, are you?”, he asked. Frisk shook her head. “No...it’s okay. I-I know you were just doing the only thing you could…you did kind of make a scene, though..”

“Sorry. I promised I was gonna get them to stop bullying you. To me, promises are sacred, and it’s awful to have to break one. I guess I sorta had to do it.”, Sirus replied, as they headed to the cafeteria together. Frisk seemed a bit happier now, at the very least.

When they got to the cafeteria, Sirus let her get her food and pick a table. The other students mumbled and muttered a bit, but none of them started picking on her, at the very least. Sirus didn’t get in line, due to not needing or being able to ingest food. However, what he noticed was that somehow, Frisk had ended up at a table all by herself. Whether it was due to the other students not thinking well of her, or because of quickly spreading word about what Sirus had done, it wasn’t clear.

Sirus sighed and floated over to Frisk, positioning himself on the seat to at least appear to be sitting. “Is it always like this?”, he asked. Frisk nodded. “Oh….I see. That’s too bad. You shouldn’t have to be alone like this. Not exactly fair for a kid like yourself.”, Sirus continued.

“It’s alright...i’ve...gotten used to it. Thanks for sticking around, though. I really appreciate it.”, Frisk replied, smiling a wide, beaming smile. “Aw, it’s nothing…..really. My pleasure.”, Sirus replied bashfully.

Sirus stayed relatively quiet through most of lunch, deep in thought. “Why was Sans so worried? I don’t get it…..she seems happy. Why would she want to even consider a Reset?..”, he thought to himself.

After Frisk had finished, she reached over and grabbed Sirus by the hand to get his attention. “You’ve been really quiet….is something..?”, Frisk started. “Oh….sorry. Just thinking. Actually, I gotta ask you something.”, Sirus said softly. “What do you know about that talking flower?”

Frisk got quiet now, speaking in a lower voice than usual. “he made a mistake, and now we can’t be together…”

“Mistake? Like what? Something violent?.....i’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you. But….you miss him, don’t you?”, Sirus replied. Frisk made a slight noise of agreement and nodded. Sirus sighed. “I’ve talked to him. He wants out….I mean…..if Flowey’s that important to you, you could try and help me get him out of Alphys’s lab. If you two are friends, I suppose it’s not entirely fair to leave him cooped up in there.”, he continued. Frisk smiled weakly.

“thank you…..really. you must really like helping people out, too…”, she spoke. Sirus chuckled and rubbed the back of his carapace.

“Oh, come on….it’s nothing, really. I always did find a certain joy in bringing light into other people’s lives.”, Sirus replied. Frisk smiled a bit more, letting out a relieved sigh.