"Don't you dare take a step closer!" Natsuki brandishes her cleaver wildly, pressing Yuri against the wall, who puts two feeble arms up to cover her face as she cowers behind. Natsuki takes a couple of swings with it before feeling Yuri behind her. I'm hiding around the corner to their left, watching and hoping for the best.
"I SAID STAY BACK!" Natsuki screams as Monika takes a step. Monika thinks and then forgets about coming any closer, instead choosing to walk backwards and sit once again on the couch. Natsuki lowers the cleaver a bit, and Yuri peeks out of her fingers. I speak up a bit from where I am.
"I-I'll admit, I wasn't expecting anything like that..." Monika seems pleased at my efforts to calm them (and myself!) down. She shoots me a grateful look. Natsuki and Yuri both calm down just a bit. I sneak out and give them both reassurance by patting them on the shoulders as I gently slip my cleaver out of Natsuki's terrified iron grasp. I slide it quickly into the nearby knife rack from where it was swiped and go back to trying to pull them out of their frozen state. Monika just sits and waits patiently, looking a little sad that she scared her friends.
"Guys, understand her, okay?" I'm virtually hugging them from holding them to calm them down at this point. "She warned us, after all..."
"Yeah, but you saw it too! That is not okay!" Natsuki is still shakily shouting. Yuri nods furiously to agree.
"But! But... now we know what we're dealing with, right? Plus, if Monika wanted to hurt you, she clearly could have done it by now. She needs our help!" Both of them hesitate for a moment before Yuri is the first to slip out from behind Natsuki and carefully creep over as we both watch in anticipation. Monika doesn't move either. The room is oddly still as she edges along. Finally, Yuri sticks out a shivering hand halfway. Monika shakes it kindly from her seat. Natsuki and I both exchange a glance before making our own ways. We all soon sit back down on the couch, I myself being sure to sit between my girls to comfort them. Monika continues her silence for a while.
"Well," Natsuki breaks the news, "looks like we have no choice but to help you."
"You don't have to..." Monika explains, "but it would be in your best interests."
"... What do you mean?" Her eyes narrow a bit. Yuri seems unsettled at that comment, too.
"Let me explain this in a little more detail. See, you've seen firsthand that what I'm saying is true." They both shiver a bit along with me. "So, you'll believe what I say. Sayori is just like me. She has the power to change things in this world and know things you characters never could."
"What kind of things...?" Yuri squeaks.
"I can't reveal it to you all right now. I know one of you already knows, though..." We all deny knowing it, but she doesn't expand on what she just said. "Just know that I'm on your side, and that I need your help."
She meditates for a second, just like I saw Sayori doing a bit ago. "Right now, Sayori is nowhere to be found. She must be hiding in the void so she can spy on us and find an opportunity to strike. I'll be her main target, but I don't know if she'll take you guys out, too. See, you both- Yuri and Natsuki I mean- aren't as important as you." she points to me.
"What does she want with me?" I think about what it is she could want.
"Not you you, but... just stay away from her, okay? If she finds you alone, it's game over... for everyone. Sayori will take what she wants and destroy everything else."
"Hey, wait," Natsuki thinks, "How do you know all this, anyway?"
Monika looks down shamefully. "Because... I used to be just like her. I would take whatever I wanted because nobody could stop me. Sayori just recently got my powers, and it's clear she's in way over her head. Some things weren't meant to be discovered, but she's discovered more than enough. Now that I'm here, her plan is falling apart and she's desperate."
"Looks like we have no choice..." I guess. "Even if you won't tell us-"
"I can't tell you," she interjects.
"Even if you can't tell us, and I don't know what is going on, I know you're innocent and deserve better!" I try to encourage her by saying that, but she looks hurt and depressed by it.
"Right, yeah... Thanks, anyway," she whispers.
Nobody knows what to do next. We sit in silence for a while, just waiting. Monika is waiting for me to do something, but what I'm waiting for is Sayori. If whatever Monika is saying is the truth, then she might have heard every word of this little talk of ours. I'm staying still, maybe just in hope, that she would appear and we could take care of this peacefully. The silence hangs. I hope to myself that she can hear my plea. I wait just a moment longer.
I sigh. "Well, if you can- wait a minute! You can change things, right?" She nods. "Can you do something about this?" I lift my shirt to reveal my cast.
"Oh, sure. That's easy... I think. Do you have a keyboard around here?"
"Uh, yeah... follow me up to my room." I stand and lead the way. The other girls follow suit after Monika. I lead her to my room- thankfully it's clean- and let her sit at my computer desk. Carefully and deliberately, she tacks away at the black, empty screen in front of her.
"Do you maybe... want me to turn the computer on?" I offer.
"Oh, no thanks. Just the keyboard is enough." She continues hunting and pecking for the right keys in order, sticking her tongue out just a bit in concentration. She nods happily and hits two keys at the same time. "Try it now!" she chuckles.
I feel my chest. No cast. "That's amazing!" I pull up my uniform vest and dress shirt to show them my bare front. They each glower and inspect. Yuri pokes my chest to make sure. "I'm all better now!" I laugh. Natsuki pokes me next. "How did you do it? I remember seeing Sayori doing this, too. She'd type really really fast and I always wondered what she was doing."
"Oh, I just restored a few values in you. Nothing too big! And yes, I said Sayori and I have the same powers: void ripping and file manipulation, not mutually exclusive."
My head shoots up excitedly. "I've got an idea!" They all look to me. "Type in to Sayori that we need to see her!"
Monika shakes her head. "No telling what that'll do. She's not reasonable right now. Remember, I've gone through this, so I know she can't talk about it right now. I mean, when I killed you all-" She clamps a hand across her mouth. All three of our expressions change to horror as Monika stands and backs away.
"I-I shouldn't have said that! It was an accident!"
"What do you mean, 'killed us all'?" I demand. We all start to close in on her slowly. "You said before that everyone around you died horribly. Was it... your fault?"
Monika sighs, defeated. "I-I'm sorry. That shouldn't have slipped out-"
"Explanation. Now." I point.
"Wh-When I was in Sayori's shoes for the first time, again, I was just like her. I wanted to get as close as I could to... The One Behind. He's the controller of the universe. A lot to take in, I know, but bear with me. He's here right now, seeing through your eyes." She points to me. "H-Hello." she blushingly squeaks, apparently to him. She waves nervously to him.
"And then what?" I put my hands on my hips.
"Um, well, I... may or may not have accidentally destroyed said universe in an attempt to meet with him."
"How'd it go?" I ask sarcastically.
"It went okay. I mean, it worked, is what I'm saying. Apparently, he doesn't like it when I mess with his universe, so since then I've always tried to do very little, even going so far as to take myself out of the picture... after he did, of course."
She pauses.
"Anyway, I'm back now. And I see you there, too. I want to say how sorry I am for doing what I did. I should have let you have what you wanted. I guess I let my obsession come over me and acted out of desperation. I'll never abuse my powers like that again, and I promise to be better than I was. For you. Anything for you..." She stares longingly into my eyes. I feel a twinge of sadness from somewhere.
"Alright. So, let me get this straight. You and... 'Him' know each other?" Monika nods. "And, before you knew Him, you couldn't get to Him, so you..."
"Destroyed everything except me and Him, that's right. Including you guys. I made Yuri go insane and kill herself with her knives, I hung Sayori while she was sleeping, and I made Natsuki's dad into a deadbeat alcoholic. And everyone, eventually, was... out of the way." She wallows in her own shame as she remembers how horribly she acted to us all... except me.
We all sit for a bit, soaking in a lifetime of mind-bending information. Suddenly, Natsuki take a few quick and very imposing steps.
"So... all this time I've suffered has been because of you? Everything about me is fake? You mean... my entire life has been a lie? I've been held captive, treated like a Hebrew slave, beaten to near-death on an almost weekly basis and it was all just part of your little game?" Although she is short, she towers over Monika.
"Gimme one good reason not to make it up to you!" She grabs Monika's collar and pulls her much too close for comfort.
Monika only gives another defeated sigh, craning her neck a bit to expect a beat down. "I don't have one..." she peeps out. "I forgot to reset him when I changed the world back...! "
Natsuki turns back to us, eyes flared and screaming death. "Any objections?" she shouts. I can't think of any, and Yuri is more concerned with the concept of stabbing herself and ending her life to respond.
"... Good." She turns back with a glare from hell. Monika doesn't bother defending herself, so she must be considering this as a proper retribution for her past crimes. If it weren't for Yuri and her pacifier coming in at the last second, we might have seen Natsuki beat more than just the crap out of Monika... in my room. It still happened, I mean, but Yuri and I both hurried together to another part of my house before she started doing it. I was at least grateful that I didn't have to see it. Hearing it was just as bad though.
I don't know how long it's been. I turn the volume up just a little bit more on the TV, blasting the speakers out. Yuri is plugging her ears. I lean over and hug her a bit to find she's shivering pretty hard. We both can't help but remember the night Natsuki appeared for the sleepover and broke me in too many places, and imagine the same- worse, actually I bet- happening to our new friend.
I say friend, sure, but maybe Monika should be held accountable for what she did. I mean, this probably is not the best way to go about it, but the point still stands. She's proven that whatever she told us is true, so should we demand retribution for being killed? After all, we are standing right here, so she at least must have realized her mistake and fixed it...
"I'm going to talk to them." I stand up. Yuri meekly holds onto the back of my shirt.
"N-No, don't get hurt again... please..."
"I can't let this go on much longer. We have to help Monika, not hurt her. She hasn't done anything to us- yet. Sayori is the one we should be worrying about..." I shake her off and she scrunches up a bit on the couch. Stepping into my back room around and then up the stairs, I cringe at the sight when I enter the room.
Natsuki had taken off everything except her skirt and dress shirt, and even it was drenched with sweat. The hardness of her breathing made it look like she was about to pass out. Monika, still being held up but her uniform's collar, which was by now stretched out, was a limp ragdoll in her white-knuckled grip. Her head was bent back so that I couldn't see it, but I was grateful for that. Natsuki finds me trying not to vomit at the sight. I see her, too, but it shows me that Natsuki's actually not angry. She's sad. Crying, even. With only the same hand, she picks Monika up to bring her face level. Using the other, she yanks Monika's hair one way, forcing her to look my way.
"Apologize!" Natsuki demands, letting loose a harrowing scream at her unresponsive victim.
She looks awful. Without even an hour to pass, bruises cover her face beyond belief; you might think it was painted that color. Both brows have swollen over her eyes and parts of the skull had torn the skin where the punches had connected. The lip was just as bad and spilling drool, as an unconscious half-corpse usually does. I might have held the contents of my stomach down if it weren't for all the blood mixed in with all of that. The top half of Monika's uniform's dress shirt has now gone from white to a deep pink. I notice Natsuki's uniform's arms are the same way.
After seeing me vomit, Natsuki's weak stomach starts to do the same. Mine lands on the floor, and hers over Monika's legs as she is dropped in the commotion. She falls back onto her butt, still hyperventilating. I'm the first to recover after about two minutes of both of us sitting and trying some deep breathing.
"Okay..." I sigh. "Natsuki..."
"I know." she whispers, sounding as sickly as she looked. I stand shakily and shuffle over to help her pick herself up too. I offer my hand and she wipes her tears away with her sleeve, only serving to paint the blood onto her face.
"I'm sorry..." she sobs. I don't wait anymore for her to take my hand, instead taking hers and pulling her up into a hug.
"So sorry..." I don't say anything, just letting her cry against me. "How did it ever end up like this? I'm so selfish. I couldn't control myself."
"Hey." I comfort. She peeks up off my shoulder. "It'll be alright. She fixed my cast, so she can probably fix herself too. We'll let this slide for now, and you're not in trouble."
"Oh, but... That's not right..."
"Shhh... We'll deal with your punishment later. And remember: Sayori also could have fixed your papa."
Natsuki's eyes widen. "She... could have... All this time!" They quickly turn back into anger. "Ooh, I hope Monika's hurt really bad, because I'm going to hand out double to Sayori what she got! I'll bash her face in! I'll rip out all her hair! I'm gonna-!"
She shrinks back at my grip. "S-Sorry..." she whispers.
"We can cross that bridge when we get to it." I whisper back. "For now, will you help me lift her onto the couch?"
After she agrees, I take a second to step back into the living room before we put Monika in there to see Yuri with her head between her knees. I walk over and tap the back of her head so she'll look up. I help her stand and slowly lead her upstairs and into her room and onto her bed. She looks like she needs to rest, so I give her a quick kiss on the forehead and take the stairs back down. The TV was already off, and Natsuki was waiting by the broken body of our new friend.