Author's Notes: Hey everybody! This is just an idea that I had for a while for a new story. I really wanted to do a crossover between DDLC and another media, and I've been binge-watching Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (highly recommend!) and I just had to type this out. For those wondering, Love and Literature is still a work in progress, but check the latest chapter for a full update and some backstory. Enjoy!
...
Tickatacktickatacktickakakatickaka.
"Make sure you fax that TPS report over to Kataguiri! Don't want her breathing down my neck about-"
"Where's Kazuma with the status report on the 209 modules? His ass should've-"
"Does anyone have a copy of last week's bulletin spread? I think I-"
This is what the 100-cubicle, barely-functioning air-conditioned office floor sounded like, day after day. About sixty office workers (mostly Japanese) were all stuffed in the low-ceiling, cramped office floor. Commonly referred to as 'the beehive', this was where the IT workers driving the Jigokumeguri System Engineering Corporation (est. 1982) spent their 8-5 workdays, hacking away at their consoles. Revising, duplicating and recreating endless lines and lines of coding to be sent upstairs for review and later implementation. Many big-league American corporations (primarily banking and world trade corps, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Frost Bank) commissioned Jigokumeguri to manage their bank systems for public and private use, because when it came to that sort of thing, Jigokumeguri only hired the best.
And Miss Nishi Kobayashi was considered among the best of the best.
She was young, only twenty-six years old, a native of Kyoto. Coral red hair tied up in a bun, hazel brown eyes with rounded glasses to go with them. She was hired right out of Kyoto University with a degree in computer sciences and engineering, and immediately got to work for Jigokumeguri. Often her higher ups would commend her for her tendency to work longer hours, to stay overtime and assist with other's projects when she didn't really need to. Many of her peers just assumed she was a workaholic-type person, but that was quite far from the truth. She had next to no social life, no family living with her (hell, not even a pet of some kind). There really was nothing for her to do other than let her work swallow her up and spit her out on a daily basis. Plus, working so many hours meant just a little more yen in her paycheck.
That sort of mentality led to one hell of an office worker.
The constant sounds of the office droned on, endless. In the four years she's spent working with the company, Kobayashi had learned how to drown it all out. She didn't need earmuffs or plugs like some of the workers. She had slowly learned how to shut off her ears, keeping them open only for the passing supervisor or upper management were they to pass by. She rarely stopped to type, only taking brief moments to sip at her brewed tea beverage.
Coding was arduous work, especially when Kobayashi had to meet an impossible deadline (which, despite all odds, she managed to have a better-than-average file done for review). And the workplace was always competitive; everyone was eager to rank up, to get that promotion or to get that long-desired raise.
Kobayashi glanced at her colleague and really the one person she could consider a friend, Makoto Takiya. Tall, sort of handsome, and secretly an 'otaku' (or someone with a deep interest in anime and such). Not that Kobayashi had an issue with that (she was raised to be mindful of other people's interests), but having those kinds of likings is generally something you want to keep out of the workplace, unless you wanted to be outcasted by your peers (and, depending on how involved you were, fired).
"Hey. Takiya." Kobayashi said, quietly. Her eyes flickered over to his workstation.
"Hm?" Takiya said, not looking away from his computer screen.
"Care for drinks after work? I'll pay." She responded.
Takiya shrugged. "If you want to. I was just going to go home after work and sleep."
Kobayashi's word's stuck in her mouth.
"Ah, well, I-I wouldn't want to put you out there or…"
Takiya nodded. "No worries. I usually go to bed late anyway, haha. Same place as always?" He said, referring to their little hole-in-the-wall pub they always frequented, so much so the barkeep knew them by name.
Kobayashi nodded. "Yeah." She said nothing more, ending the conversation.
A notification popped up in the corner of Kobayashi's screen. An email from Miss Haruko Tamura.
Haruko Tamura was the new head manager for the Osaka branch of the company. Around forty years old, with gray streaks in her pitch black hair. She usually had a sort of scowl on her face (who wouldn't? Being the manager of any big company comes with its grievances), but she always treated her workers with an air of respect and kindness.
A stark difference from her old boss, Mr. Nakajima. That rotten misogynist bastard. He had constantly put the brunt of the companies workload onto her, even when it could easily be redistributed to other workers. Given her place in the company and his status as the manager, she was forced to bite her tongue.
Thankfully, his treatment of his workers (it wasn't just Kobayashi he was a dickhead too), was documented and he was given the boot. There was sort of a mini-celebration when that happened, as well. A little bit of weight was taken off everyone's shoulders. Nobody bothered to check what happened to him after (because nobody cared).
Kobayashi glossed through the email.
Hello Miss Kobayashi. Hope you are well. If it is not too much trouble would you mind taking some of our spare computer towers home with you tonight to deep-clean? I would have one of our tech people do it but I've assigned them to other tasks.
It would be an extra 5,500 yen (about 50 USD) added to your next paycheck per console, which there are nine of. I'll arrange for someone to deliver them to your listed address. You can bring them back in when you return on Tuesday.
Let me know ASAP. Thank you. -Miss Tamura
Kobayashi stared at the email, rereading it back in her head. That was almost fifty thousand yen for just a little bit of overtime work. Plus, she could do it all in the comfort of her home, instead of the sterile, lifeless 'work station' kept downstairs, where most of the electrical parts and supplies were kept (along with unassigned computer towers). She'd be crazy not to take up Tamura's offer.
Kobayashi started to type out her reply.
'So much for after-work drinks…' she thought as she hit 'send'.
…
Night's overcast loomed across the city of Osaka, giving the city an almost mysterious feel. The harsh glare of skyscrapers glowed across the night sky, joined by the thousands of vehicles zooming up and down the streets. Down below, Kobayashi could hear the hustle and bustle of the city's nightlife, people heading out to bars and restaurants, wrapped up in their social lives.
And here Kobayashi was, cooped up above it all.
In her tiny, one-bedroom apartment, Kobayashi had lined up the nine black, thin computer towers against the wall, plugged up to a single power connector. Identical monitors sat beside them each, their screens faintly glowing across the carpet in square patterns. A slightly cheap keyboard and mouse joined it. The monitors glowed faintly, kept on the home screen.
Kobayashi sighed, sitting down at her little oak dining table (a gift from her parents back when she moved in). A few cups of coffee sat idly, drained to their last dredgings. Kobayashi picked up the half-empty pot of creamed coffee and poured up the the brim of her cup. She drank slowly.
It had taken almost five hours, but she managed through it. The consoles were deep-cleaned and re-installed with all of the programs (thirteen in total) that Jigokumeguri had installed in all of their other licenced consoles. Mostly photo and file editors, along with some command programs for coding and such. An arduous process to do alone, but Kobayashi gritted her teeth and perservered.
Only one more was left. Kobayashi glanced at the console farthest to the right of the others. Unusually, it looked slightly more beat up than the other consoles, and the power input seemed slightly...wilted. Like it had suffered. Kobayashi wasn't worried about a fire, in any case. She just had to remember to leave a message for the repair crew to take a look at it later, when she brought the consoles back to work the day after.
She audibly groaned.
A wallpaper of two chibi-style schoolgirls (Poptepic was the name, according to the logo in the corner). A pink motif menubar with about a dozen icons pinned to it. It took a few seconds to open up the start menu, indication very little disk space.
'Who the hell owned this console?', Kobayashi thought as she started to go through her usual deep-clean setup. The consoles weren't primarily meant for personal use (activity was monitored on a bi-monthly basis to ensure this), but it wasn't that uncommon for workers to change the wallpaper or install a few games or something. Even then, it never went to this level of customization.
She grabbed the USB wire dangling off one of the nearby towers, and started to plug it into the tower. A file explorer icon popped up, and Kobayashi scrolled to her standard reformatting program the process started immediately, starting at 1%. Kobayashi got up to reach for her drink, and took a moment to take a sip from her drink, and sat back down at the console to monitor the progress.
Kobayashi took a final glance at the desktop, looking at the jumbled rows of icons, arranged in a mishmash order. Lots of PDF files with official-sounding names, .exe programs and file editors. Sorted among them was a lot of video games. Katawa Shoujo, Love Live School Idol! and Little Witch Academia were a couple of the names she saw. Visual novels and RPG's, mostly
One caught her eye.
Kobayashi squinted at the name.
Doki Doki Literature Club. A pink heart with colorful lettering as the icon. File size 223mb. She quickly looked it up in the computer's file explorer. Lots of renpy files, word documents and undecipherable images and garbled text.
Kobayashi paused.
Doki Doki Literature Club? Wasn't that one of those visual novel games Takiya was always talking about? She remembered one of their conversations where he had brought it up, over drinks at their usual booth at the bar. Her mind struggled to recall...
"People are going just nuts over it." Takiya said, pausing from his beer. "Nuts over how it breaks the stereotypes of dating simulators. It's been taking a lot of people by surprise, considering this Dan Salvato guy had only worked on Super Smash Brothers mods before this. He became a internet celebrity overnight because of that game. It's crazy."
He spoke with a fevered, excited quality. Kobayashi had only nodded and made some off-hand comment about never really liking visual novels that much, focusing more on her beer than Takia's babbling.
When she got home, she did some light research on the game. Created by an American company named Team Salvato, it features four Japanese schoolgirls; Sayori, aloof and kooky, Natsuki, sweet and cutesy, Yuri, deep and brooding and Monika, brains and beauty. She was surprised to find that the game was listed on Wikipedia as 'psychological horror', but didn't bother to look further as to why. She closed the tab, and never thought of the game again after that. Takiya never brought it up again.
Out of curiosity, she double-clicked the icon.
A cheerful, slightly cheesy musical cue played, rich with flutes and piano.
"This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed."
A girl enthusiastically says "Doki doki!" before the main menu for the game appeared, a simple five-option taskbar on a polka-dot background. Four anime girls popped up into frame, locked in animated poses. The music theme played, continuing the upbeat tune.
Kobayashi stared at the menu, taking in the imagery. There they were; Monika, Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki. All four girls stared forward, almost staring at Kobayashi. Kobayashi couldn't help but notice how cliche they looked, their skirt flirtatiously flared up and their attires almost skin-wrapped, making their breasts more prominent.
Kobayashi sat, and listened to the theme play on. A piano joined in. 'Credit to whoever composed the music for this', Kobayashi thought. 'This is quite catchy.'
Kobayashi hovered her clicker over the "Continue Game" option, and clicked it.
A pink textbox appeared, with a 'yes' or 'no' feature.
"run justdrahon?"
Kobayashi clicked yes, thinking it was probably related to the gameplay. Graphics quality or whatever.
The window closed out. Kobayashi frowned, wondering what had just happened. She double clicked it over and over, but the game refused to open.
Kobayashi shook her head. 'Whatever. No sense in finding a cause. Focus on your job.'
Adjusting in her spot, Kobayashi started to furiously type away at the computer.
…
Morning sunlight streamed in through her bedroom window, shining down on her slightly frayed blanket. Kobayashi stirred, shielding her eyes from the blinding light. She groggily propped herself up and took a moment to stretch. It was a Sunday, so she had the day off from work (as well as the next Monday because she had cashed in on one of her vacation days). She laid in her bed, fighting off the urge to just go back to sleep. Even if it was her day off, she couldn't just spend all day…
An acrid, toxic smell wafted into her nose, bringing her to full attention. Kobayashi's eyes squinted at her door-frame, and saw a thin wave of inky black smoke seeping up through the gap in the door near the floor.
A...fire?
Kobayashi leaped out of her bed and swung open her door. She immediately started coughing on the smoke, her eyes burning.
The last computer tower was in flames, waves of orange-blue fire seeping out of the console tower. Black, melted plastic gooped onto her carpet, stinging onto the other nearby consoles. Flames licked against the wall, singeing the pale yellow paint. It was a miracle other appliances (and the rest of her apartment, for that matter) wasn't already up in flames, and Kobayashi wasn't a grilled meat sandwich by now.
"Shitshitshiohmygod." Kobayashi growled as she raced into her tiny kitchen, ripping open the cupboards in search of...aha! Her hands locked around the small red fire extinguished. She yanked it out, knocking over a few pesticides she kept there. She ran back into the living room, and pointed the funnel of the fire extinguisher at the tower. She squeezed the trigger, and heavy waves of pale white extinguisher fired at the mini-inferno. Waves of white smoke poured from the tower, the flames reducing in size. She sprayed it all over the place,
Kobayashi heard a loud electric sizzle, and the smell of rotten eggs filled the room. From her experience with office fires, she knew that meant the battery had been ruptured.
She dove into her bedroom just as an explosion rocked the living room. The other computer towers fell over, tipping over in a domino-style effect. The few paintings Kobayashi had up on the wall rattled, as the windows shook just a bit from the aftershock. Kobayashi slammed the door shut behind her, and fell back onto her bed.
'What the fuck is happening?'
"Um, hellooooo?" A female, slightly young voice said. It sounded mature, like a third-year in high school or something. Kobayashi felt her blood go cold.
Someone had broken in? Good Lord, she didn't have anything to protect herself wi-
"Miss Kobayashi? Nishi Kobayashi?" the voice called.
Kobayashi darted her eyes around her bedroom, desperately searching for a weapon. Propped up against the wall was a spare umbrella, dusty from lack of use. A pathetic weapon, but its not like she had any other options. Kobayashi grabbed the umbrella by the handle and held it up in a defensive posture, like a knight would King Arthur's sword.
A knock at her door shot waves of fear through Kobayashi's body.
"Hello? Miss Kobayashi? Sorry to make such an entrance like this, but there really wasn't any other way…" the voice said, muffled through the door.
The doorknob turned.
Kobayashi only had a moment to take in her appearance. A schoolgirl, slightly taller than herself. Flowing brown hair with a luxurious white ribbon tying up her thick ponytail. Sparkling green emerald eyes with lavish eyebrows and a dash of makeup to boot. A brown-gray suit blazer, with a pale white undershirt and orange sweater underneath. A flowing blue dress skirt. White thigh-high socks with matching white-blue school shoes.
With all her strength, Kobayashi took a swiping swing at the mystery girl with her umbrella sword.
Only gently flickering her hand up, the woman stopped the umbrella sword in mid motion. A green, almost magical aura glowed around the umbrella, frozen in the air. The aura danced around Kobayashi's arm, holding it in place with the umbrella. Kobayashi felt a tingling, almost tickling sensation crawling up her arm.
Kobayashi blinked, frozen with a combination of fear and amazement.
The mystery woman cleared her throat.
"Well, that's one way to say hello!"