You spot her.
If you were to judge her solely on her looks, you'd say she looked like any other high school girl.
Long hair, bright face, school uniform… Yup, nothing too special going on.
But for some reason, you know better.
As she stands there, a memory triggers inside of you.
A memory, thought to be long lost to time.
Unlike everyone else in the room, you've seen her before.
You recognize her from a few years ago.
She went to the same school as you right? Can't remember exactly how it was… Was she a grade above you? Below you? Or were you in the same grade?
Nevertheless, you distinctively remember not going to the same class as her.
Despite this, you definitely noticed her.
The way her hair flew in the spring breeze.
The way her smile always had an effect on everyone around her.
The way her singing, no matter how many other people were around, always found a way to creep into your ears and keep you locked in a trance, unable to hear anything else.
And you kinda liked her. Or did you really? I mean, there was no way she would ever notice you, so why did you even bother? You're a completely average person who couldn't find it in himself to man up and even approach her! Why would she ever care about you?
But still… you didn't give up.
You had a dream.
You would meet this person, talk to her, get to know her, and maybe even…
Nah, can't go off dreaming like that. Gotta keep things realistic. There's no way, right?
At the very least… You wanted to be able to call herself your friend.
And at this very moment, the opportunity presents itself.
Because in the middle of the crowd of people you have not ever met before…
You have met her.
Surprisingly, she comes to you first.
Introducing herself as Sayaka Maizono, she gives off a smile so radiant, you can't help but smile as well.
She asks if you remember her.
She is the one to ask.
Did she really remember you? For years, you have convinced yourself that the distance between you would be forever getting bigger, pushing you further and further apart…
And yet…
You introduce yourself as Makoto Naegi. The Ultimate Luckster… Heh… You still think that title is pretty dumb. In comparison to the Ultimate Pop Sensation, your title doesn't even matter in the slightest.
You aren't different from anyone.
You're completely and utterly average. There's no chance of anything happening between you two.
She waves goodbye and runs off to talk to the next person.
…
…
…nah…
… there's no chance…
It's a nightmare.
There's no other explanation.
On the screen in front of you, your parents are congratulating you on getting into Hope's Peak.
Your little sister is cheering your name. You can't recall many other times she's ever looked this happy on your behalf.
Then the very next moment…
They're gone.
Everything's completely wrecked.
Something has happened to them, but you have no idea what.
You feel the world around you turning darker.
Your knees are beginning to shake, and your stomach is hurting.
It must be a nightmare.
You pinch yourself in an effort to wake up, but nothing happens.
You blink. You blink again. And again. Nothing changes.
This is all too real.
A dark thought suddenly enters your mind.
You just remembered what Monokuma told you.
There's a way to escape this nightmare. There's a way to get out.
You just have to kill someone else.
That should be easy right? You don't even know these people! They don't matter in the slightest!
But… you're not a killer… You couldn't possibly… But… You have to get home. You have to see if they're okay. Your sister might be in danger. Y You need to-
Your thoughts are interrupted by a loud scream right next to you.
You instinctively turn your head in the direction of the sound.
It's Sayaka.
She stumbles away from her monitor, backing up into the wall behind her, and slowly sinks to her knees.
You look on in shock. You can't move. You can't speak.
All you do is remember.
You think back to the Sayaka you know and remember.
The Sayaka you know was optimistic. Cheerful. Amazing to be around.
The Sayaka in front of you is shivering. Arms wrapped around herself. At the verge of tears.
It feels wrong.
It looks wrong.
It's… wrong.
A contradiction, is what it is.
A contradiction of everything you remember about Sayaka.
You have to make it right again. You need to comfort her. You need to go over to her.
Your legs are shaking; your voice calling out her name is nearly inaudible…
But you know you have to get over there.
Using all of your strength, you're now standing right over her.
She looks up at you. You can't shake the lingering feeling that you won't see the smiling face you've always remembered about her.
You want to see her smile. You want her to be happy.
But nothing could prepare you for what you were about to see.
Tears. Burning cheeks. Eyes shaking uncontrollably. Heavy breaths.
You look her in the eyes. They're screaming for help. Begging for you to do something.
But…
Are you really the right person to do that? Are you the one who needs to comfort her? Can't it be someone else?
You look up and scan the entire room. It's full of people who are much more talented than you.
Almost everyone else here would be able to do a better job at comforting her… They all have ultimate talents…
You have nothing.
You look down at Sayaka.
Her eyes lock with yours once again.
…
No.
All these people might be more talented than you… but…
She's met you before. She knows who you are.
She needs someone she's familiar with beside her right now.
She needs to be able to put her trust in someone.
That person… is you.
The realization strikes, and suddenly your body is in motion.
You have no control over what you're doing.
You're moving without thinking.
You lean forward and hug her. Tightly.
She lets out a gasp. Her body is frozen. She doesn't move.
You hold her even tighter. You never want to let go.
Finally, she leans into your embrace, and wraps her arms around you as well.
You let your previously tense body relax to make it more comfortable for her.
Your shoulders drop and you make it so your hug isn't as tight.
Her body is warm. Her tears are running down her face and onto your shirt.
The thought that you are embracing your middle school crush isn't even occurring to you.
Your mind is already filled with another thought.
The thought of protecting her.
You want to- no, you NEED to protect her.
No matter what happens, no matter how she feels, no matter what situation she's in…
You have to be there for her.
The embrace continues for hours… Or, that's what it feels like.
In reality, it probably didn't last longer than 15 seconds.
But… it felt longer. It felt significant. It felt… like you did something only you could have done.
You slowly and very carefully release the embrace.
Your hands are still on her shoulders as you ask her if she is okay.
That's all that matters to you.
Nothing is more important to you right now than her being okay.
She slowly looks up at you, wiping a few tears away.
With a weak and almost inaudible voice, she thanks you.
Relief.
That's about how you would describe your emotional state at that point in time.
Pure relief. She's okay.
She's okay, she's okay, she's okay…
You help her up on her legs, and you slowly guide her back to her room.
One step at a time, while she hangs with her arm around your shoulder.
With the exception of a few tears, she has mostly stopped crying.
You look forward with determination.
You have to get her somewhere safe.
Right now, that somewhere is her room.
Your hand pushed the handle, the door opens, and with your help, she lays herself down on the bed.
She is lying on her back.
She is safe in here.
She is safe from any harm.
Relief.
You sit on the edge of her bed.
You don't notice it, but your hands have unconsciously clasped together, almost like someone in the midst of praying.
It takes a few minutes, but she falls asleep.
You don't ever want to leave her side, but you know you have to get out of the room at some point.
It's probably best to give her some alone time.
It takes a while, but eventually, you get up from the bed.
You take one last long look at her.
She looks… at peace.
She isn't shivering.
Her breathing is normal.
And... she's smiling.
A thought quickly passes through your head.
Is she smiling because of you?
…
You like the idea, and it makes you quietly chuckle to yourself.
As you exit the room, you glance at Sayaka one last time.
You feel a lot calmer now.
She's going to be fine.
You will always be there.
It's almost nighttime.
You're laying in your room, doing nothing but staring up at the ceiling.
Your attention has been directed on Sayaka for so long, that you forgot about your own situation.
No matter how hard you try to remove it from your memory…
You can't.
Just like Sayaka, you too saw a video.
The video replays over and over in your head.
Your parents.
Your sister.
They're right there one moment.
Then they're not.
It's as simple as that.
However, simplicity is the opposite of what you need right now.
Details. Answers. Choices.
What happened? Are they okay? What should you do?
The words race through your mind faster and faster.
A headache slowly builds up, and your mind slowly wanderers to darker thoughts once again.
One person.
Only a single person needs to die for you to escape.
One life in exchange for the three that matters more than anyone to you.
The person who could be killed…
That person could be anyone.
Mondo, Celestia, Leon, all these people you know nothing about!
Hifumi, Junko, Sayak-
Your eyes suddenly shoot wide open.
You quickly sit up in your bed, gasping heavily, as if you just woke from a terrible nightmare.
Your thoughts start to become rational again. You curse yourself for what just entered your mind.
The thought… that Sayaka might die.
You hate it. You hate yourself for coming up with it.
You hate yourself for basically thinking about who you would be satisfied about being killed off first.
Your head is quickly buried in your hands.
You don't cry, you're just in shock.
For a second, you consider yourself a monster.
You don't recognize yourself.
Who are you? Are you really Makoto Naegi? 'The' Makoto Naegi that always gets complimented on his never-ending optimism?
You start to let out a small giggle.
Heh… heheh… You don't even… know what you are… do you?
Something akin to madness is taking over you. The situation is just too much.
Deep down inside, you want to stay happy. You want to have faith. You want to hope for the best possible outcome.
But that's impossible. You can't do it right now.
Heh… What do you call this feeling? This feeling of losing all hope?
Despair? Yeah, that seems like the perfect word.
But just as you've reached what feels like the bottom, just as you've gone to a place you don't think you'll ever be able to recover from…
The doorbell rings.
You feel like you've suddenly been pulled back to the real world.
Shocked and confused, you glance over at the door.
The doorbell rings again.
You sigh heavily and for a second, you're grateful that something pulled you out of your mind.
Then a new question emerges.
Who rang the doorbell?
Who came specifically to ask for your time?
Could it be someone who wanted to know you better?
Or… could it be someone… planning a surprise attack on you.
You never before gave it much thought that you could be the first victim just as well as the others.
You considered yourself small and not very strong-looking, you didn't look like a threat that needed to be killed off.
But maybe, that's exactly why you could be the first one to die.
An easy target. A small and defenseless student. An almost guaranteed way outta here.
You body tenses up as you reach for the door, ready to jump back at a moments notice.
The handle goes down, the door swings open and…
It's Sayaka.
You stand in the doorway, completely shocked, and take a good look at her.
She looks as calm as when she was sleeping.
She looks like she's in good health, still.
And above all… She still looks pretty.
She's basically the Sayaka Maizono who first introduced herself to you a couple days ago, alongside 13 other students.
You can't help but smile.
Suddenly, everything is right with the world.
The dark thoughts have completely evaporated.
You exchange greetings with her, and ask her what she came for.
Her face turns towards the ground, almost as if she's embarrassed.
She tells you that she can't sleep.
Although that definitely concerns you, you're still very relieved that it wasn't something bigger than that.
You open your mouth to reply to her statement.
And then it suddenly hits you.
Sayaka came to you for comfort.
She couldn't sleep, and decided to go to you.
She wanted you to help her.
Your cheeks go slightly red.
You wonder; would they go red if a different girl asked you for help?
Or was it specifically because Sayaka asked?
Argh, your mind is wandering off. Focus! Get back to addressing the issue. You can think about those kinds of things later!
You try to shake the thoughts out of your head, and ask Sayaka what she wants to do. Better to hear what she wants before coming up with something yourself, right?
Her eyes still locked with the ground, she almost whispers to you what she had in mind.
She and you could swap rooms for the night.
You don't quite get her reasoning behind it, but at this point, you don't really have a choice.
If that's what she wants, you'll do it.
You'd do anything for her at this point.
She gives you a very quiet thanks, followed by your name.
Her near-complete silence raises your concern.
You open your mouth, but quickly shut it closed again.
No, she's tired. She needs to get back to sleep as quickly as possible.
That must be the reason behind it.
You don't press the issue, and instead trade keys with her.
Standing in front of her door, she waves at you.
You wave back, happy that she at least gave a smile as she looked at you.
She waits for you to grab a hold of the door handle, and you both enter your rooms at the same time.
You close your door, making sure to listen if she closed it as well.
The sound came about half a second after you shut your own door.
You let out a sigh of relief.
All right.
It's good now.
She's safe.
You almost crash into her bed.
Exhausted.
The whole situation has led to your body feeling heavy.
You don't think you'll ever manage to get off this bed unless you fall asleep.
Well, not unless Sayaka knocks on the door again…
The thought of her name makes you remember that you're sleeping in her bed.
Heh. Guess you were too tired to care earlier.
The scent of Sayaka is lingering all around the room.
It's really sweet.
You are a bit ashamed to admit to yourself that you like the smell of it.
Sayaka… she's okay, right?
She did look a little pale… and she was looking at the ground an awful lot…
Was there a reason behind that?
…
Nah. She looked visibly tired. She was probably just as exhausted as you were.
Still, that conclusion doesn't quite satisfy you.
Could you have done more?
Could you have comforted her better?
Was there… anything else you could have done?
The questions leave you awake for a couple minutes, until your eyelids begin to close, almost on their own.
You will be sure to check on her tomorrow.
You will give her some time to rest, and not wake her up yourself.
You will make sure to get to the cafeteria early, and wait for her to come.
You will swear to protect her.
You will make a promise to get both of you out of this nightmare.
And…
You feel your heart pumping slightly faster.
You will… probably have to tell her… that the crush you had on her years ago… might not have gone completely away…
Your cheeks turn a light shade of red as you let out a near-inaudible chuckle at that last remark.
All these promises… But for Sayaka, you'll make sure to keep all of them.
That's what they say about you, right? Ever the optimist.
As long as Sayaka is alongside you, and you alongside her, neither of you will ever lose hope.
Your eyes close, and you fall asleep with a smile on your face.
You can't wait to see her again tomorrow.