Over the next few days, Dimentio spent most of his time reading. His room was a mess of different books about the Underwhere, Jaydes, and he even had an assortment of medical books on diseases. He would rotate between different readings throughout the day, setting somewhat of a schedule. He'd spend the mornings focusing on reading about Jaydes and the workings of the Underwhere, then spend his afternoons and nights studying the medical books. He told Mario to fetch him the books related to the medical field because he knew the man in red wouldn't look into it much, unlike Luigi, who would surely ask questions.

Polterpup was in his room a lot. At first, he tried kicking the dog out since he thought it would be more of a distraction, but the dog wouldn't let him, so he eventually quit wasting time. After a while, he actually grew to enjoy the little guy's company. It was nice to have someone to explain everything to, instead of just keeping it all organized in his mind.

First, he read up on Queen Jaydes and her power. Turned out that she was stronger than she looked and the only way her powers could be fought was by a power of equal force. A.K.A, Grambi's power, which was a dead-end because there was no way Dimentio could even get to Grambi, and if he could, there was no way Grambi would opt to help him.

Dimentio had the jacket Luigi gave him that night neatly folded by the door. I was far too warm to be wearing it now, but he didn't want to give it back yet either. It was soft on the inside, yet it wasn't suffocating. He wondered if Luigi would even notice if he just kept it.

He read on the workings of the Underwhere as well. It was clear that Jaydes had full control over all the souls. He partially wondered who wrote these books and how they knew this information.

"Okay, so it's clear I can't do anything magic-related to change this," Dimentio told Polterpup. "I mean, I don't have any power, and even if I was at my full potential, there would be nothing I could do to stop this. I essentially made a deal with the devil, and I can't escape."

Polterpup seemed to frown and trotted up to Dimentio, curling up on his lap. Dimentio lightly smiled, then set the book down, bookmarking his page and petting the ghost dog. "Don't get discouraged though. You see... we may be looking at this wrong. Jaydes didn't tell me that she'd directly kill me in three months. She told me that she'd give me a disease that would be my falling. So... if we approach this as more of a medical problem than a magic problem, we may be able to figure something out!" He chimed, almost sounding hopeful and determined.

He reached over for another book, which was on the identification of different life-threatening diseases.

"First step, we have to identify what disease she gave me," Dimentio muttered, briefly looking down at Polterpup. "What would you describe my symptoms as?"

The dog paused a minute as if it was thinking, then let out a small bark. Of course, Dimentio couldn't understand, but he didn't expect to. He lightly chuckled at the fact that he was talking to a ghost dog, then thought over everything he had been feeling.

"Let's see... I usually get full after eating small amounts of food now..." Dimentio muttered, flipping through the pages. "I also have been getting nauseous. Occasionally I have a hard time swallowing. I'm also losing weight and... there's the stomach pain. Does that fall into any categories?" He asked.

Turned out that it fell into a number of categories. There were a variety of diseases that led to those symptoms.

"Okay, this is gonna be a little harder than I thought..." Dimentio trailed off, quickly flipping through more pages when Polterpup suddenly barked, causing him to stop on an open page. "What is it?" He asked.

Polterpup nodded its head at the paper, so Dimentio looked down at the page.

It was titled 'Adenocarcinoma.'

"Adenocarcinoma?" Dimentio asked, squinting and holding the book closer, unsure if he even pronounced the word correctly. "What even is that?"

There were so many huge words that he didn't even recognize in those medical books. It almost made him feel stupid. He didn't have a particularly small vocabulary, but seeing all these large words was almost humbling.

He continued reading down the page, seeing that it just happened to be a fancy word for cancer, which he actually knew very little about. He continued reading down the page through the different types until he came across gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer. He read down the symptoms and found that they matched.

"Hmm..." he muttered, reading more into it.

Turns out there were a variety of treatments, but they all would have needed to be started long ago. There was nothing that could heal him within the span of a few weeks. Early on the symptoms are minimal, but as time goes on they'll get worse until the disease starts spreading to the liver and throughout. Dimentio felt his spirits slowly drop as he read more and more.

The disease usually takes years to form, but Queen Jaydes must have somehow sped the process up, which was frightening.

"Okay," Dimentio breathed in a slightly high-pitched squeaky voice. He closed the book, then looked around. The treatments mentioned were called chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but they were hardly ever successful and if he were to do those it would basically waste away his last three weeks.

"Are there any other solutions?" He muttered, flipping through the pages faster and faster. "Come on, any antidotes or miracle remedies?"

There was surgery and therapy, but everything would take too long and leave him in a hospital for the rest of his three weeks, plus none of the solutions were even 100% successful. There was nothing that could fix it now.

Dimentio nervously swallowed, then pet Polterpup, as if he was trying to reassure it. In reality, the dog seemed to be the one reassuring him.

"I... it's okay, we can still fix this. Somehow..." Dimentio muttered, putting the book down and hugging the dog, feeling that itch of worry begin to grow. "We can find a way."

Polterpup stayed silent as if it wasn't agreeing or disagreeing. The fact that Polterpup seemed unsure deeply worried Dimentio. He wanted nothing more than someone to tell him that things would be okay. That things would work out.

He waited in silent terror for a moment, feeling the glimmer of hope he lit a few days ago slowly dwindle away when there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Dimentio? Are you okay?" Luigi asked, gently knocking with the back of his right hand as he held a plate of food in his left. "You haven't really eaten much these past few days."

Dimentio's breath hitched as he looked up at the door. He then cleared his throat and said a simple, "I'm fine," which was funny because he was quite literally the opposite.

Luigi paused for a moment, then gently cracked the door open, stepping inside, even though he wasn't invited, which bugged Dimentio, but it WAS Luigi's house, so who would Dimentio have been to kick him out.

"You're not fine," Luigi pointed out, setting the plate of foot down on the nightstand and sitting next to Dimentio, almost looking concerned. "You look like you're about to cry."

"I'm quite well," Dimentio claimed, setting Polterpup down and avoiding eye contact as he reminded himself that he currently felt fine. His stomach didn't hurt at the moment. He really WAS feeling better. He couldn't let what he just learned ruin that. He didn't even know if what he was reading about was the disease he had! Nothing was confirmed yet. "Thank you kindly for the concern, but it is not needed."

Luigi paused, then looked beside Dimentio, down at the book he was reading. The man in green frowned slightly, then reached over and picked it up, looking at the cover and furrowing his eyebrows.

"Dimentio? Why are you reading this?" He asked, almost sounding worried.

Dimentio inhaled sharply, still avoiding eye contact. He let out a short breath, briefly debating if he could tell Luigi or not.

No, he couldn't tell him. If he did, then Luigi would surely try to fix it and these next few weeks would be essentially wasted. He couldn't tell him.

"I just... I got bored," Dimentio lied. "It's quite interesting how many different ways to die there are don't you think," he added, trying his best not to sound spiteful.

"Uhh, I suppose," Luigi muttered. "But I focus on the different ways to live. Reading these books usually bums me out. If you want, I could go out and get you some happier books-"

"No, no. I'm quite alright, thank you." Dimentio interrupted, snatching the book back and putting it on his nightstand, next to the plate of food. "Thank you kindly for the meal. I'll be sure to clean up after I'm done."

Luigi paused, just looking at Dimentio as if he was trying to get a read on him and figure out what was going on. He then looked to Polterpup as if the dog would tell him the answers. Of course, it didn't.

"Okay..." Luigi trailed off, standing up. "You know you can talk to me, though. I know you're more of a reserved person, but you don't have to be. If you ever want to tell me what's bothering you, I'll be ready to listen."

Dimentio stayed silent as Luigi got up and headed for the door, noticing his jacket neatly folded next to it. He then kneeled down and picked it up. Dimentio tensed up slightly, wanting to speak up and ask Luigi to leave it. It wasn't HIS jacket, and he knew that. Even so, he still didn't want Luigi to take it away. He liked it.

"Wait!" Dimentio involuntarily exclaimed, causing Luigi to stop in the doorway and look back at him, raising an eyebrow.

Dimentio paused, immediately wishing he didn't say that. One voice was telling him to ask for the jacket back, but the other was yelling at him for wasting time and making a scene.

"Can..." Dimentio started, his voice slightly choppy and weak. He cleared his throat, then tried to put words together. He didn't care what he said at this point. It just had to be words to fill this awkward silence.

"...Have you told Daisy how you felt yet?" Dimentio ended up saying.

Why was he suddenly bringing this up? He had no idea.

Luigi stood there, almost appearing frozen for a moment, then softly smiled.

"No. Not yet," he said. "I'm still figuring stuff out."

Same answer as always. It was never even surprising at that point. Everyone knew that it was going to happen someday, but Luigi kept pushing it back. It was almost as if he was purposely making the world wait. Dimentio was about 90% sure that Luigi wouldn't even do it until after he was gone. If he were to fail to find a solution and save himself.

Which seemed likely at that moment...

Then, Luigi left, closing the door behind him and taking the jacket away.

Dimentio hoped that Luigi would someday give it back, but he knew then and there that he was never going to be brave enough to ask for it. He wished that he had the chance to at least wear it one more time. The fact that he was never going to get to again was heartbreaking.

"...I'm a coward, aren't I?" Dimentio asked, grabbing Polterpup again and placing the dog in his lap. The dog happily barked in response as if it was saying yes, which was a little insulting, but it made Dimentio lightly chuckle. "Thanks for that," Dimentio muttered with a small smile.

He was grateful he still had Polterpup there. "I have a secret for you..." Dimentio trailed off, scratching the dog behind where its ears would likely be if it had any. The dog barked again as if it was saying yes.

"You're my best friend," Dimentio told the dog.

It felt weird to say that out loud. Especially because he had never called anyone a best friend. He hardly called anyone his friend, so calling the dog his best friend felt like a big deal. Even if it wasn't, to him it really was.