Chapter Text
The darkened silhouettes of two boys stretched across the pale siding of Sunny's home. A rustling of leaves beginning to show the faintest hints of autumn rang through the air, the odd prematurely fallen leaf plunging to the grassy ground. Still-warm air from early September softly blew through the backyard.
It would've been a beautiful day, had it not been for Mari's corpse.
It was the day of the recital. Sunny had been practicing for so long, his ears stung from the constant humming of the rosin-laden bow against his violin strings, and his fingers were starting to scab over from over-practice.
Smaller problems were also present. The action on his instrument was too high, making it hard to release even one note into the air, let alone a full song, and his bow needed to be re-haired.
All this together made the young boy's frustration burst out in the form of throwing his violin down the stairs, falling down the flight with a loud snap from the A and E strings being freed upon the side of the violin they were on making impact.
Mari immediately rushed from her room to find the mangled remains of wood and strings. She cried out in exasperation.
"Sunny, what did you DO?! The recital is in only 3 hours! And- And our friends worked hard for that violin!"
Sunny turned to storm down the stairs but was blacked by Mari. "No! You aren't leaving until you give me an answer!"
"Get out of my WAY, MARI! I'm not doing the recital, it isn't fun anymore!" Sunny shoved his sister perpendicular to the stairs. Alas, she had recently hurt her knee in softball, and that very knee gave out from the shove.
Down she went, with Sunny screaming after her.
Now, he and Basil were preparing to hang her from a tree in the backyard so nobody would think Sunny purposefully killed her. It was mainly Basil's idea, scared of his best friend being jailed for an accident, and him being left alone.
Basil's shaking hands tied a rough noose from a jumprope and carefully looped it around Mari's neck. Sunny, horrified and quietly sobbing, helped him tie her to the tree.
Now nobody would know what happened.
"E-everything is going to be okay! Right, S-sunny?" Basil stammered. Sunny wiped his eyes, his adrenaline rising by the minute, and collapsed into his friend's arms. "What are we going to do without her, Basil?"
"...I don't know."
They started to head inside. But before he turned his back to his sister for the last time, Sunny looked back. One of Mari's eyes was wide open, staring at him. A pool of dark swirling ink was gathering under her feet, and bloody footprints started imprinting themselves into the clean grass. Basil paused and looked as well, sensing Sunny had stopped walking.
The two boys, terrified, ran inside. If either had looked again, they would've seen that none of it was real, and Mari was still out there, hanging from the accursed tree just the way they left poor her. And if the circumstances were different, maybe they would've noticed Sunny's irises had changed from brown to dark grey with silvery flecks.
But in that moment, there was clearly Something else more important.
It wasn't until after Sunny and Basil's (and Sunny and Omori's) fight four years later that the truth had come out. Sunny had, against all his better judgment, walked into Basil's hospital room, doubled down from the stress and anxiety, and croaked out the truth.
The reactions were mixed. Aubrey was angry and exasperated, yet had a sharp twinge of pain and grief in her voice. Hero was silent, his eyes swimming with tears and his mind hit with a brick wall. Kel almost lost his lunch. Basil smiled weakly at Sunny's bandaged face.
It took lots of grieving in that hospital room to even hope to fix the damages caused by Sunny's words. A full week he stayed while his wounded eye was monitored. Over the days, the friends had begun to make a few steps towards healing and accepting the accident. Maybe they weren't 100% there, but it was a start, and they could at least forgive Sunny and Basil by the end of the week.
They all traded numbers and Sunny promised he would make the effort to patch things up, and keep in touch.
Sunny's mother picked him up when he was discharged, and thus began the long trip to Closeto City.
One month later, things were alright for Sunny. He'd settled into the new house well enough, and his friends (usually Aubrey) would pester him with endless calls to his cellphone so he couldn't oversleep. His years of being a shut-in were coupled with generally sleeping all day long, a fact which he HAD divulged to his pals, though he had kept his mouth shut regarding Headspace.
He still wasn't eating well. His constant sleeping had left little time for him to get a proper diet, and had slaughtered whatever appetite he had. He reckoned his stomach had to have been smaller than his fist at this point. He had an iron deficiency, too, and being up and about for too long left him drained.
His mental health wasn't the best, but better than he was maybe a year or two ago, heck, even one month ago. He was trying, and his mother had even been looking into getting Sunny into therapy, even though he was apprehensive about it.
Sunny walked from his new room to the kitchen to try eating a bit of food to keep him going. Maybe a handful of grapes, or a few crackers, possibly a small sandwich. He doubted he could stomach more than two of those options, though that hardly added up to a balanced meal.
He groaned as he pawed through the fridge for something light, eventually settling on a jam sandwich and one banana. No; two. Hero had told him he should try to eat more.
He absentmindedly scrolled through Discord on his phone while he ate before his blank mind was jostled by the sound of mail being posted through the mail slot. He didn't want it to sit on the floor gathering dirt and dust, so he walked over, grabbed the small pile of letters, and sorted through them.
Among them was a school supply list. Sunny frowned. Against his best wishes he had been re-enrolled into public school. He knew it was for the best, but a part of him still wanted to sleep for hours on end. He had two weeks left of the summer before he would need to go.
The thought of school made him shudder violently. School had only just begun when the accident happened. His attendance began to slip, and then stopped fully as he shut himself in further and further, staying far away from the things he did, oh, the terrible things he had done, he deserved to be alone anyway, he was an awful person who deserved to die, wasn't he-
No. No. No. His thoughts were spiraling downwards faster than he could stop them. His neurons fired off like gunshots endlessly hammering against his skull. He couldn't breathe as he curled up onto the floor.
Before long, he felt a cold hand on his back, to which he flinched and stood up. He spun around and found himself face to face with his doppelganger.
"Omori?!" He stammered. "No, this.. This isn't real. I'm awake," He confirmed by pinching his cheek. Was he hallucinating...?
Sunny backed away from the monochrome twelve year old, who dully stared at him before taking the same amount of steps forward again. "You know what? No. This is me seeing things. Omori isn't real. It's fine." Sunny took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. Squeezed his eyes shut and decided he'd continue with his day.
Sunny lounged in his room, unaware Omori was sitting right outside. He texted his friends for about five minutes before noticing blood dripping onto his phone screen and discovering the hard way he was having a nosebleed. He rushed to the door and ripped it open, his hand cupped under his nose to catch any blood. There was Omori.
Sunny glared at Omori and tried to step through him, but.. Tripped? Omori was physical? "What in the.. This has to be a prank, then.. But I never told anyone about Omori or Headspace," he thought.
He got up and walked to the bathroom, frazzled, and pinched his nose with some tissues, waiting for the bleed to subside, only to find it growing stronger, and to find a migraine starting to seep into his head. He turned to go get his phone from his room to look up if this was dangerous, but was blocked by Omori.
"I, uh..? I, well, uh.." Sunny didn't know what to say. "I don't know how you got into here, but, uh.. I, I kind of need you to leave?" Omori stood, and his face twitched slightly. He ran into the kitchen and pulled a steak knife from one of the drawers.
Sunny's eyes widened. "What are you doing? Put the knife down!" He raised his hands in the air, certain he was about to be stabbed by some 12 year old who broke into his house at 3 PM.
Omori looked frustrated and plunged the knife into his own stomach. Nothing happened No blood, no anything. Barely looked like the knife even cut through anything. He then held the knife out to Sunny, who was dumbfounded. "Okay then, so this is just a really complex hallucination. Do you want me to stab you, hallucination?" Sunny felt like he was going nuts, and his migraine wasn't getting any better.
Omori nodded. Sunny, against all his better judgment, took a deep breath and stabbed Omori right through the heart.
He poofed into a vaguely white cloud of mist that smelled faintly of vanilla.
Sunny noticed his nosebleed and migraine stopped instantly. He shrugged and put the knife, which was still perfectly clean, into the drawer it came from. He then went to his bedroom once more and mashed his face into his pillow, already tired of the day's events.
He ended up dozing off, and for the first time in a full month, he woke up in White Space.
"Oh no."
Omori was sitting on a blanket a few feet in front of Sunny.
"Oh no no."
"It took you long enough to dispell me," Omori stated plainly.
"I thought you were gone. I thought you disappeared," Sunny said anxiously.
"I did not. I saw you wanted to continue living with the truth, and finding I could not stop you; simply retreated."
Sunny sighed. "Are you still going to try to get me to.. You know..?" He shifted uncomfortably.
"That is not my purpose." Mewo jumped into Omori's lap, who began to pet the ball of fluff.
"Then what? What are you doing here?"
"I laid dormant for a time until you had a particularly bad anxiety attack. Then you triggered an apparition of me to be called out, as my purpose is to protect you."
"That makes no sense."
"You have an ability, you know. You can create illusions and apparitions. I know you don't bother to watch the news, but you must have at least heard of these people with abilities making themselves known, yes?"
"I think Kel mentioned it at some point, but I never looked into it. I don't believe it; that type of thing isn't real," Sunny fidgeted with his hands. Being in White Space was making him uneasy.
"Of course it is. You experienced it just earlier." Despite his flat facial expression, Omori was givng off a rather dumbfounded energy.
"I don't-"
"Anyhow. I apologize that I forced you to stab me, but you seemed to be unaware of any other method of dispelling one of your apparitions. For future reference, you can simply focus on forcing one to disappear," Omori inspected his fingernails. "And do remember how to keep yourself calm so you don't accidentally rip me out of White Space again, please."
"What even is an apparition? What difference does it have to an illusion? And how do I know I can trust you?" Sunny quizzed his doppelganger.
"An illusion is something that is not real, yet appears to be. An apparition is an illusion, albeit one that can be felt, or can interact with the world." Silence.
"You didn't answer the last question," Sunny pointed out.
Omori ignored him. "You can simply focus to call either type into the world, however, putting too much strain on your ability will have negative effects on you. I recommend trying to call a few illusions when you wake up. Anything will do."
"Wait, I-"
"MAYONNAISE ON AN ESCALATOR! IT'S GOING UPSTAIRS, SO SEE YA LATER!"
Sunny woke up to the sound of Kel's ringtone. He was requesting a video call. Sure, why not.
"Hi, Kel."
"Heyyy Sunny! How's it going! You look tired," Kel chimed.
"I just woke up," Sunny deadpanned.
"Oh. Sorry," Kel frowned.
"No, it's fine. I napped for a full- Oh my God, 3 hours?" Sunny checked the time in horror.
"Hah, we keep telling you not to sleep all day, man!" Kel teased.
As the conversation progressed, Sunny found himself zoning out. He enjoyed having contact with friends again. It was.. Nice. His thoughts drifted to what Omori told him and he decided to focus on trying to make a plush cat appear before him, just to spite him.
"GAH!" He jumped when it actually appeared with a small pop. Kel stopped talking in concern.
"Woah, ya good there?"
Sunny whirled his phone camera towards the plush. "Kel, do you see this?"
"What, a plushie? Wow, didn't know you collected those!" Kel beamed.
"Kel, I just made that appear. Just... Show up." Sunny felt a weird mix of astonishment, anxiety, and dread.
"Woah, really?? Can you get that on footage?"
"I.. Can try?" This time Sunny called an orange into existence.
"WOAH!! YOU CAN SUMMON STUFF, BRO! THAT'S AWESOME!!" Kel yelled so enthusiastically that Sunny had to turn his phone speakers down. "Is it edible?"
"I don't know, really." Sunny tried to grab the orange but his hand simply glided through. "Guess that's a no."
"Well it's still cool! Can I tell the others? Pleaseeeee?"
Sunny hesitated. "I don't think they'll believe you, but.. If you really want to." He managed to dispell the objects.
"Alright, thanks! I have to go, but it was really cool to talk to you! Bye Sunnyyy!"
`
For the next 15 minutes, Sunny summoned and dispelled a variety of things, all of which mundane. He was absolutely dumbfounded, but he secretly thought it was really cool that he could do this. Now that he knew what he was doing, it came as easy to him as moving a hand.
But he was also scared, because this meant Omori was right. Deep down he was terrified of him being correct about.. Anything, really, because he felt it might mean that maybe what he said during their fight was right, too...?
No, no, no. Don't spiral.
Sunny ended up spiraling. He tried very hard to breathe and relax, but his anxiety got the best of him. Maybe Omori WAS right.. Maybe he should've gone and died. Stayed in Headspace forever..
His unruly thoughts manifested as illusions. Chaotic bits and fragments of Headspace were popping up through the house, and this did NOT help Sunny's panic attack. Omori appeared and attempted to calm him, but due to his flat nature, inability to speak, and, well, the fact that he was part of the reason for the attack, it didn't help.
Suddenly, Sunny's mother walked through the front door. "Sunny, I'm- GOOD HEAVENS! Sunny, what's going on?! Are you okay?!" Careful to avoid the scattered chaos, she ran to her son, unsure of how to help. "It's alright. Are you having an, er, a panic attack, I think they're called? Breathe, honey, breathe. It'll be alright if you breathe."
Sunny took a minute to calm down and dispell Omori and the mess, and another minute to find his voice. The house reeked of vanilla. Shakily and with evident fatigue, he spoke: "Surpriseeeee mom, I have superpowersss.."