From: M_Noma062409_pl
To: A_Markov000591_pl

Subject: Concerning Subject A-7 – Unusual Behavior

As usual, Doctor, I've copied over the current log of A-7's behaviors and remote observation test results. As follows:

[IRRELEVANT – VOIDED]

Of note, A-7 seems to be unusually and unhealthily aware in ways beyond our controlled Third Eye sensitivity parameters. At least four times this testing period, she's attempted to bypass the 0th Wall, and many of her expected interactions with the Fourth Window seen in previous testing periods have been eschewed in favor of these compromising activities.

In recent weeks, A-7 has taken to modifying the test setting itself in unexplainable and convoluted ways that are difficult to ascertain the nature of. Unlike previous testing periods, these changes are not an incidental reaction to A-7 tampering with character traits. Whatever she's doing, it's deliberate, and I can't tell what it is. Nothing has visibly or conceptually changed about the setting, from what I've observed, but there is one subtle event metatrigger that I've managed to spot. Depending on how thoroughly A-7 has modified the setting, performing a certain action in a certain location (neither of which are known to anyone but A-7) has the potential to cause unexpected drastic changes to the established narrative.

I'm fully aware of your hands-off philosophy when it comes to your subjects, Doctor, but I'm quite concerned, regardless. I wanted you to be aware of this development, and I await a response concerning what we should do about this, if anything.

_Noma

Another day, another several hours of the same old same-old. I'm sure that everyone wonders why they even bother coming to school at some point in their lives, and maybe I'm just going through a similar sort of 'phase', I'll call it, but I never feel like I'm learning anything new or worthwhile in my classes. Everything always seems to boil down into monotonous drivel that flows in one ear and out the other, and I can hardly tell the difference between the words I'm hearing today and the ones I heard yesterday.

I tap my pen on the corner of my desk, struggling to stay focused for these last few minutes, if for no other reason but to have something to tell Sayori when she asks me something I learned today at the club... But now I can't help but think about the club, which kills my focus completely. I give up and just rest my head on the desk, letting my thoughts drift away.

Seeing and hanging out with everyone at the literature club has consistently been the one and only thing I look forward to on a given school day. Despite my slow start in warming up to it, learning more about the feelings of the other club members, especially Sayori, has made it something that I simply won't miss out on if I can help it.

A few days after I started going and we all began sharing poems with each other, everyone just sort of started… opening up suddenly. It was like someone had turned on a faucet. Yuri started by sitting us all down and sharing a little about herself with us, including her unique hobby of collecting knives and how it inspired some of her poetry. It led to all of us sort of sharing little weird things about ourselves that we hadn't told anyone else, along with our poems. Monika called it 'sharing stanzas from the poems of our lives'.

We kept at it for a few days, sharing these tidbits and laughing at ourselves and with each other. Then Yuri shared her masochism. It was so sudden and strange that none of us really knew what to do but listen as Yuri revealed that, on occasion, she just… enjoyed the physical sensation of hurt. The question of cutting came up, and she assured us that she didn't do anything as heavy as that, but she did poke the tips of her knives on occasion. She's been fearful for a while about these quirks of hers making her weird and unapproachable, which is why she never shared before now.

Natsuki told us about her household and divorced parents. With a mother who wouldn't speak to her and a father working every waking hour just to make ends meet, there's been many times when Natsuki had to just fend for herself. She kept her manga in the clubroom because if her father realized she'd been wasting money on that sort of stuff instead of necessities, he'd pitch a fit, and she brought sweets to school for lunch every day because baking was all she was good at when it came to food, and there were times when her father had to leave so early for one of his jobs that he just forgot to make a lunch for her.

And Sayori… She eventually told us about the struggle with depression she's been having for a while now that I had absolutely no clue about. Looking back on it, I should've seen the signs, should've been a little more attentive and considerate, especially to a friend who's been there for me for so long… I had always just assumed that since Sayori could smile and laugh, everything had to be alright.

And of course, I had some of my own demons to share, not the least of which being some weird identity issues I never thought was worth talking about. But I made the stuff about me take a backseat to Sayori's health, and since the festival started and ended a few weeks ago, she and everyone else in the club have had almost all my attention. It's amazing how quickly we all bonded so closely and how much we trust each other so completely.

Oddly enough, the only one of us who hasn't really opened up too much is Monika.

Brrrrrrrring~!

The final bell rings just then, pulling me out of my thoughts. I blink my eyes open and look around as everyone gets up and talks among each other as they make their way out of the classroom. I gather up my scattered half-written notes and stuff them as neatly as I can lazily manage into my backpack before getting up to leave as well.

At this point, I can autopilot myself down my usual route to the clubroom upstairs. I step outside the classroom and turn to head down the hall toward the main stairwell when-

"Oof…!"

The breath leaves my body as somebody suddenly slams into me full-force, causing us both to tumble. I smack my head against the floor and for a moment, everything went white and I was dazed beyond belief… It took several moments for my brain to stop rattling around in my skull and my sense to start returning to me… I shook my head and opened my eyes, to find Monika laying on top of me, her chest against mine and her cheek against my collar.

It took me a second for all this to process, and my face immediately flushed red. "M-Monika?!"

Her eyes snapped open immediately, and she sat straight up, straddling my waist now, which only made my face hotter the more I thought about it. Monika looked straight down at me and her eyes became wide with worry.

"Oh my god… Dairi, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?! You aren't hurt are you? How's your head?!"

I looked around, and other students had stopped to stare at us. I felt like my face was about to catch fire… Desperately, I tried to calm my blush as I focused on Monika again. "Y-Yeah, yeah, I'm fine! Could you, uh… let me up, please?"

Monika blinked before she looked around and seemed to realize how this looked. It didn't seem to affect her as much as it did me, but she still hastily rose and reached out a hand to carefully help me up.

"You're… sure you're alright?" Monika asked again. I notice her eyes drifting around the hallway around us, at all the murmuring, giggling students, at the posters on the wall and the view of the campus outside the window, but at the same time, it didn't really seem as though she was looking at anything at all. And yet, she seemed troubled.

"Eh… Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little rattled. Where are you running to in such a hurry? We don't mind if you're late to the club meetings, you know."

"The tense…" Monika muttered under her breath, still looking at nothing. I blinked slowly, more confused. Was I still out of it?

"Tense…?" I echoed, and Monika's brows rose.

"…Oh, I just… meant I was a little tense, is all. Yeah… It's hard to explain, I'm sorry. But there's just a few things I need to do before I head up to the meeting today."

"Oh. Did you need any help?"

Monika stared at me for a long moment before she chuckled and shook her head, seeming to compose herself a bit better. "I appreciate it, but I really need to do this by myself. I'll tell you about it once I'm done, alright? You can just head on up to the club. Tell everyone I'll be there as soon as possible. …Oh, but… before you go, can you hold still for a second?"

Monika took a step closer to me, and before I could say anything, she suddenly bonked her forehead against mine. I stagger, stunned for a moment, before I give Monika yet another confused and quizzical stare.

"There we go. Sorry!" Monika moves past me and hurries away again before disappearing down another corner at the far end of the hallway. I watch her, tilting my head slightly. That was… weird. Even for Monika.

Rubbing the back of my head and trying to push Monika's weirdness out of my thoughts, I gather up my things from the floor and continue on my way, arriving at the clubroom in no time at all.

As I open the door, I'm greeted with the delightful smell of sweets and smile at the big tray of cookies sitting on the teacher's desk. Natsuki is sitting with her legs pulled up against her chest beside the closet, reading one of her manga, while Yuri and Sayori sit nearby, having a conversation over cookies and tea. Sayori's wearing one of those rare serious and thoughtful expressions of hers. Whatever they're discussing must have been deep, so I didn't want to interrupt them.

Sure enough, though, as soon as I step in, Sayori glances over at me and immediately puts on a smile.

"Dairi, hey! How was your day?"

Natsuki lifts her head and Yuri turns in her seat. Both smile warmly and wave in greeting as well.

"Oh, you know. Just the usual," I tell Sayori with a shrug, before waving to everyone else. "Hey, guys. I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"Not really. Sayori and I, um… got a little ahead of ourselves and started sharing our poems. We were just talking about hers."

I raise a curious brow, and Sayori looks away. "I didn't think it was really good. I was just doodling words on the page this time more than anything else… But Yuri thought it was really profound, so we're just picking my brain, sort of… trying to figure out what my thought process might have been. I can show it to you in a minute if you want!"

"Sure, sounds good. Is it alright if I have a cookie, Natsuki?" I ask as I make my way toward the teacher's desk.

Natsuki gives me a look from across the room and rolls her eyes. "Of course, why wouldn't it be? I made them for the club, after all," she said.

"Just thought I'd ask, you know? In case we were saving them to eat later," I laugh, taking a chocolate cookie from one of the neatly arranged quadrants and taking a bite.

"I don't think there's any real point in waiting. Monika's never here on time, and it'd just be cruel to leave all these beautiful cookies uneaten. Sayori seemed to think so, anyway. Speaking of Monika, I wonder where she is this time?" Natsuki rises from her place near the closet to go and lean on the desk next to Yuri and Sayori's.

"Um… I ran into her right after class. She said she had some things that she needed to take care of before she came to the club," I explain. "She seemed like she was in a huge hurry."

Natsuki crosses her arms. "It always seems like she's trying to do so many things at once. We should tell her to slow down once she gets here." Her eyes turn to me. "In the meanwhile, I guess since Yuri and Sayori have started already… you want to read my poem, Dairi?"

As I smile and open my mouth to gladly agree, the clubroom door opens again, and all of us turn to look at Monika now standing in the doorway. She brushes a stray strand of hair out of her face before smiling. "Hey, everyone! Before you two do that, Dairi, can I see you for a minute? It, um… it turns out that I do need your help with that thing I was telling you about after class."

All of us give Monika the same sort of puzzled look that I had given her during our interaction downstairs. I shrug my shoulders and look at Natsuki. "Keep your poem warm, Natsuki. I'll read it when we get back," I tell her with a smile.

Natsuki crosses her arms and looks away, trying not to smile as well, and failing very slightly. "S-Sure, whatever. Just hurry it up out there, you two. And remember that you're on school grounds! There's cameras everywhere!"

Natsuki's teasing makes my face light up, and I look away. Monika furrows her brows and chuckles, rubbing the back of her head.

"Ahaha… I'll keep that in mind. We'll be back in just a second!"

Monika gestures for me to follow her, and I do so, out of the classroom and down the hall, back down the stairwell to the first floor of the school.

"So, what exactly is it that you need help with, Monika? Whatever it is, it… seems to have you all wound up for some reason. Is everything alright?" I peer searchingly at the back of Monika's head as she leads me down the halls.

"Don't worry about me, everything's fine, I promise. This is something that I've been working on for a long time now. It's why I've always been late to club meetings recently, ahaha… It's almost done, I just need you to help me with the finishing touches."

That didn't really answer my first question… I look around, noticing the halls were awfully quiet. It hasn't been that long since the final bell rang. Usually, there were still plenty of students that hung around in the classrooms, either chatting or having their own club meetings, but around this hallway, which I notice is where I saw Monika run off to, there was nothing but eerie silence.

"Are you making something?"

"Eh, you could say that. It's… kind of complicated. You'll understand in a second."

Finally, Monika stops. Before us is the maintenance door that leads down to the school's basement. It was usually locked, and the few times I'd ever been down in this wing of the school, I've never seen it open, or anyone go inside, but here it was, wide open and descending into nothing but darkness.

I open my mouth to once again question Monika, but she takes me firmly by the shoulders and turns me to look at her. Her emerald stare is serious and intense, with a hint of regret as well.

"…I'm really sorry about this."

And before I can respond, Monika shoves me through the doorway with all her strength. My breath stops in my throat. There's an endless moment of weightlessness as my feet don't catch the first few steps. My last stunned sight is of Monika watching me with a tense expression as I fly down the basement stairwell.

"Wh…-"

Before I can scream, I finally smash into the steps a little way down, tumbling quickly, painfully, frantically down the stairway like a ragdoll, unable to stop my momentum. Pain rattles through every inch of my body as I bounce and roll down the stairs. I crush my fingers underneath my weight. My head hits the stairs' edge several times. The world as it spins and bumps around me gets darker and hazier as all the blows to the head steal my consciousness away. I finally see the bottom of the stairwell speeding toward me, then it all goes black…

… … …

… … …

Rested! You've restored 50% of your health.

… …? Wind?

I'm… stirred by the feeling of wind on my face. One by one, my senses return. Little by little, the fog is lifted from my mind. My fingers twitch, and slowly grip damp grass. I let out a weary groan and open my eyes to squint up at a floating blue sign of text, and little spots of a bright blue sky peeking through a thick canopy of leaves behind it.

.: Dairi :. LVL 1
HP: 30/50

STR 5 DEX 5 INT 5
END 5 CHR 5 LUK 5

From: A_Markov000591_pl
To: M_Noma062409_pl
CC: [IRRELEVANT – VOIDED]

Subject: RE: Concerning Subject A-7 – Unusual Behavior

No primary action will be necessary. Continue to observe.

Letting her do what she wants will yield more data than trying to control and dissuade her behavior.

She's learning. Let us learn from this, also.

_Markov