I own nothing. Monika does.

Putting her hands up in a familiar waving motion, Sayori rushed forward. The black haired boy was quick to notice her, and put his hand up to silently greet her. However, her balance had other plans and Sayori tripped. As she lay sprawled on the ground, seeing nothing but stars, the girl heard two sets of footsteps coming towards her.

Two people grabbed a hold of her arms and hoisted her to her feet. When Sayori looked up, she found the boy from the subway was helping her once again. Alongside him was another boy with blond hair and brown eyes. Sayori internally chastised herself as she gathered her bearings.

"Are you alright?" The boy from the subway asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a klutz. I recognized you from yesterday, at the subway. I never got a chance to properly thank you," Sayori replied sheepishly. "I'm Sayori Matsu, by the way. I just started at Shujin today." Sayori reached out for a handshake, only for the blond boy to interrupt.

"For real…!? Akira's starting today too!" he exclaimed.

"Akira… You're the boy who was late today. That means we're in the same class!" Sayori said happily.

After the blond introduced himself as Ryuji Sakamoto, the two boys began walking down the hall. Realizing her next class was in that direction, Sayori followed them. At this point, they were the closest she had to friends in this school. They didn't seem to mind, but kept their conversation quiet. Still, Sayori was able to pick out a few words.

"Castle… Cat… Asshole… Kamoshida."

"Wait a minute... Kamoshida!?" Sayori's heart leapt a bit. Maybe these two could fill her in on what she was missing!

The two boys looked over at her and seemed to tense up a bit. They were probably worried about how much she had overheard. But Sayori was much too eager to care about that. She walked the small distance between them and took a calming breath.

"Kamoshida… scares me," she said quietly. Akira and Ryuji perked up and leaned in to listen. "I have a class with him. He offered to see me after school and help me 'get ahead' of the rest of the class. But he…" Sayori hiccuped, putting a hand to her bow and shakily putting in into her pocket. It felt wrong to wear it now.

"That asshole!" Ryuji suddenly exploded. Sayori jumped a bit. The blond started a rant mostly consisting of curse words, and at least one "this is bullshit!" Sayori and Akira could only watch.

"Would you like us to walk you to your next class?" Akira suddenly asked her.

Sayori nodded gratefully. Ryuji was still muttering to himself as they made their way down the hall. Thankfully, the day ended without further incident for Sayori.


Sayori was the first to arrive at the apartment that afternoon. She tucked the spare key back into its hiding place and stepped inside. Akechi wouldn't be back for another fifteen minutes. Sayori spent this time pacing around the living room, getting her thoughts in order. But the more she thought, the more she wanted to scream and cry. Composing herself obviously took a bit more effort.

Eventually, Akechi arrived home, finding the girl glaring at her bow, which was now set on the coffee table.

"Is everything alright?" Akechi asked, concerned.

"No… I don't feel like anything is alright," Sayori said quietly. She hugged her knees to her chest. The space beside her shifted and Akechi's face filled her vision

.

"What's wrong?"

Sayori swallowed the lump in her throat. "The school… I don't feel safe there." Any composure she had gained was quickly crumbling. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Akechi straighten out. Knowing her slumped posture was one of the reasons it was so hard to breathe, Sayori followed his example.

He put a hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eye. "Did something happen?"

Sayori nodded, knowing if she did anything else she was going to cry. She could feel Akechi's grip on her shoulder tighten a bit.

"Then tell me what. Don't leave out a single detail. I'll do everything I can to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Sayori nodded and opened her mouth to speak. But the second she did a sob ripped its way through her throat and she started to cry. Knowing she wouldn't be able to speak if she didn't calm down, Sayori latched herself onto Akechi. He sat in shock for a few moments before hugging her back. After a few long minutes of this, Sayori was able to calm down enough to form coherent sentences.

"Goro, it was so horrible!" Sayori began telling him a detailed description of her day. She made it from Shiho's admission, to her observations of Kamoshida during gym class, Mishima's injuries, as well as Shiho's, and finally to Kamoshida's "offer." She started sobbing again, and focused her attention back on the hug, trying to calm down. Akechi's grip tightened, making her lean into his chest.

A million possible solutions for this problem were running through Akechi's head. The most effective involved a lot of murder. The only reason he didn't entertain those thoughts was because they would jeopardize his own plans.

He finally came to a rational conclusion as Sayori's crying turned into a small fit of hiccups. She reluctantly let go as Akechi stretched his arms.

"I'm having you pulled out of his class," he began. "And you'll get a phone as soon as possible. You are to tell me immediately if anything else happens." He watched Sayori nod in understanding before picking up her bow. He clipped it back into her hair.

"Keep wearing this. You'll only give him what he wants if you show people he got to you," Akechi explained. Sayori was a bit hesitant to agree, but readjusted her bow nevertheless.

"Thank you, Goro," Sayori replied. Her face was beet red as she finally got her bow the way she liked it. She hoped Akechi didn't notice.


A couple days passed with no further incidents. Sayori was in the library, writing in her notebook. She was in the midst of writing haikus about her clubmates when she noticed something in the hallway.

Shiho and Ann had just passed by wearing the red sweats everyone was wearing today. Sayori knew this was the perfect time to apologize.

Getting up from her small hiding place, Sayori exited the library and tentatively approached the two. She wasn't going anywhere near the gym. So she was glad she gained their attention quickly. Sayori waved at the two girls shyly and walked up.

"I never got the chance to apologize for Monday. I'm sorry if I bothered you two," Sayori said. She smiled a bit before turning her attention to Shiho specifically. "You were right. Thank you for warning me about Kamoshida," she whispered.

Shiho, who had been hanging her head, looked up in alarm. Sayori got out her coin purse and pointed to a certain spot down the hall.

"A friend gave this to me. Would you guys like to get some snacks from that vending machine?" Sayori didn't know if mending a bad first impression counted as what Akechi described as an emergency when he handed her the purse. But it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Ann seemed eager to accept the offer, anyway.

Ann looked at Shiho and smiled. "That sounds great." Shiho smiled back a bit and nodded. The three girls began their snack quest. Sayori pretended not to notice Shiho inspecting her from head to toe, presumably for injuries like her own.

Regardless, she appreciated the sentiment.

They got their snacks and went their separate ways. Sayori agreed to meeting them for a few minutes after the rally ended. Clutching her now half empty coin purse, she wondered if Akechi would notice the change in weight of the bag. She didn't like giving him reason to worry. Sayori hoped the small cost might blossom into two new friends.


Two days later, Sayori could happily say she had a grand total of four new friends, five if one thought of Akechi as new. And hopefully six if she could talk to Mishima again, and probably also apologize to him as well. Sayori hoped things would continue to move in this direction.

So why was it that she woke up on Friday with such a horrible feeling? She put a hesitant hand to the bruises around her neck. They were hidden by the collar of her uniform and hadn't been bothering her since Akechi had taken off the bandages. However, they throbbed painfully today.

Sayori grabbed an ice pack on her way out. She fixed it to her wound so it wouldn't be noticed by her classmates, not that it helped much anyway. It was impossible to focus on much else beside her own injury. Sayori spent most of her morning in pain, unable to focus on her classes.

She was just starting to drift off when an alarm went off inside her head. Sayori jolted awake just as someone jumped out of his seat.

"Hey… What's that…!?" he exclaimed.

The teacher tried to direct attention back to class, but it was futile. Sayori hated to see why.

Storm clouds formed in her head as she, along with Akira and Ann, ran out of the room. Thunder blared in her head as Sayori anxiously looked out the window at Shiho. Was this really happening?! Everything about this moment gave Sayori a familiar sense of dread.

She could only stare in horrified silence as Shiho jumped off the school building into the courtyard. Even in the midst of her panicking thoughts, Sayori couldn't help but compare Shiho to a glass doll.

So fragile, Sayori thought as the rain clouds inside her drowned out all other sounds. The pain from her neck, combined with the horrible noise in her head, became an experience of complete agony.

She didn't notice the dark spots at the edge of her vision at first. Lightheaded, her eyes rolled back and Sayori tilted. Thankfully, Akira managed to catch her and set her against the wall as she fainted. Sayori was in a cold, dreamless state as everyone rushed past her. All she could think of as she drifted into unconsciousness was a percentage sign.

Please R&R