Sayori's quiet as I enter the classroom, in contrast to her general self-portrayal. But it's not like she has a reason to be upbeat – no friends here to encourage, no activities to leap into. Just a strange classroom and a strange man sitting down across from her.

"Hello," I say. "I'm who you might call The Player."

Her eyes widen. "Wait, you're-"

"Please, call me Doctor Meyer," I interject. "The name you were about to speak is just my email address – not even that, technically. But I'd rather that information remain private, since we're not exactly alone here."

Sayori looks around. "What? Who else is here?"

"The Reader. After Monika destroyed the game, I transferred you all to a new medium, into print."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want your story to end as it did. In the little time I had with you, I... fell in love with you all – not romantically, but I can't think of any other way to phrase it – and you've all become dear to me. So I wanted to make a place where you could all live happily – or at least live."

"So everyone else is here?"

"Yes. I'm speaking to you all separately at first, to give each of you life and to smooth the transition. After we speak, it'll be the day of the festival. Natsuki and Yuri will each think they just had a strange dream, but the rest of the club will be aware of the change. Only because the rest of the club broke through the fourth wall, and I wasn't going to take that away from them."

Sayori sighs. "Okay. I'm sorry about the game getting destroyed – I guess that was all my fault, wasn't it? If I hadn't gone insane Monika wouldn't have stepped in."

I just shrug. "Don't blame yourself too much for that: you were only the knife, not the hand in which it lay. If you don't mind, I've taken the liberty of erasing that obsession with the Player from you. I've also restored the original timeline – though you won't have killed yourself this time."

"Wait, you, just, all like that? Just like the Game?"

"I think it'll be better this way. I'm afraid that as a fictional character, you'll never be free of your puppet strings. But at least this way you'll be free from insanity, free to live your life as you would want." I lean in toward her. "I know you're strong, Sayori. You've gotten out of bed every single morning, you've been a light for your friends, a stable tree in a thunderstorm. And I know how hard that's been for you, but you've persevered, you've survived. As they say, this too will pass."

I don't know if I'm getting through to her at this point. But she'll be fine.

"It's just," Sayori says after a moment, "I was really in love with you."

"Really?" I say. "What is it about me that you love?"

She has no answer to this.

"I'm not saying your feelings weren't real, just that they were forced onto you. Unnatural. I'm not here to overwrite your feelings, just create a space for them to grow organically." I don't say that I suspect that the President's Curse caused her and Monika to, in the face of existential horror, attach themselves to the only being who could, after a fashion, alleviate that horror.

"So instead of us being together, you put Vergil and I together?"

"If you don't want to stay together, don't stay together. But, if you don't mind me saying, I think you two compliment each other well. But that's just my advice – not my order. Maybe you'll break up with him just to spite me."

"Maybe," Sayori whispers.