Last Chapter: A Day Before The Future

The sun shines brightly on the beautiful blue ocean. No clouds to be seen, but clear blue. The fresh air, so natural. If anyone was to see this, there would be a poem about it. Michael stands near the docks staring at the sea. Hearing the soothing waves.

Sayori: "There he is! Hey MC!"

Michael looks to his left and sees an annoying girl and her friends running up to him with no care in the world. As they get closer to him, he couldn't help, but to smile at his friends. When the girls reached him they noticed something is wrong, but Michael kept his smile.

*Earlier*

A new world open to them. The pods finally open up revealing reality. When everyone got up they looked at themselves. So many question to ask, so little time. The girls looked at their outfits and to each other. Some wonder why they would wear this while others got embarrassed.

Natsuki: "The hell is this?" She looked at her red and black chef uniform with what looks like bloodstains on her apron. "Gross get this off of me!" She quickly took off the bloody apron and threw it as far away from her as she could. She then notices something about her head. She felt a bun on her head and took off the bun letting her hair loose.

"Woah I have long hair?" She played with it similar to how Yuri plays with hers when she gets nervous. After playing with her long pink hair, she decided to tie it up into a pony tail, so it wouldn't get into her face. "Hey Sayori do you want my apron to cover yourself up some more?" She smirks.

Sayori: "I don't want no messy apron thank you very much." The outfit Sayori is wearing is nothing, but a black crop top with a red lightning design on it, torn shorts, and running shoes. She looked more like a boxer with those bandages she has wrapped around her hands.

"Hey is it me or is it a bit drafty?" She scratched her head only to find out that the sides of her head was almost shaved off, leaving behind only the top part of her hair. "Where did the rest of my hair go!?" She messes around with her hair. The way it looked she looked like one of those punk girls.

Natsuki: "I know you had short hair before, but for you to have it shorter." She fights to urge to laugh.

Sayori: "Oh well, I'm sure it will grow back eventually." She flips her hair side to side and looks at Yuri. "Hey Yuri why are you all the way at the corner?"

Yuri: "Please don't come any closer." Natsuki grabbed her from behind and forced her to face everyone. With her face turning bright red as Sayori looks at her outfit. Yuri was wearing a leather jacket and pants with knee high combat boots.

It didn't seem wrong until Sayori looked past her arms to see that she's wearing nothing, but a black and red bra. Both Natsuki and Sayori kept teasing her about the way she dressed even though she was a completely different person when she was an Ultimate. While that's occurring Monika wonders what the hell she's wearing.

Monika: "Why the hell do I have a dog collar on my neck and a chain attached to it? Wait?" Her face started to turn red when she started to remember her time as an Ultimate. "Just going to take this off of me." She removes the collar then Sayori bumped into her.

Sayori: "Hey Monika could you lend me your sweater?" She points at Monika's red and black horizontal stripped sweater.

Monika: "No"

Sayori: "Why?" She tries to give her the puppy dog eyes.

Monika: "Because I need it or else I'll be exposed like Yuri." She looks at the rest of her attire. She had black pants with rips and tears on it and military boots on. "Can't believe I went out in public wearing this."

Yuri: "Says you." She started wearing her jacket all zipped up.

All four girls gathered together talking about how dumb they all look. Meanwhile Jason came into the room.

Jason: "Hello everyone glad that your all back to your old selves."

Monika: "Oh hello uh Jason right?"

Jason: "Yeah"

Monika: "Thank you so much for helping us."

Jason: "It wasn't just me, as a matter in fact, all of you kept running away from me when I tried to get you into the pods."

Monika: "We still appreciate your hard work, we're sorry for causing you so much pain."

Jason: "It's all right, you were all brainwashed."

Sayori: "Oh speaking of which, I now remember who you are now. Thank you for your help back in high school."

Jason: "Oh you remember now?"

Sayori: "Yup. If it wasn't for you MC wouldn't be here."

Jason: "You don't need to thank me. I didn't really do much. Now then let me check your eyes." He pulled out a small flash light and looked at each of girls eyes. "Hmm, perfect your eyes are back to their natural colors."

Natsuki: "Natural?"

Jason: "All of your eyes were red when you were Ultimate's. However after being in the Virtual World and overcoming your demons. The brainwashing is undone."

Sayori: "Great! Wait, where's MC?"

Jason: "Oh he went to the shower room to wash up. There's another shower room for you girls. I'll get you some new clothes to wear. Follow me."

He guided them to the women's shower room and picked up their new clothes. "I'll leave them here so go on ahead and come out when you're ready. I'm going to check on Michael." He waved at them before leaving and walked all the way to the men's shower room. There Michael was waiting at the locker.

Michael: "Are they alright?"

Jason: "Yeah they're just washing up."

Michael: "Good cause they smell like blood."

Jason: "So what was it that you wanted to show me? I thought you would want to see your friends?" Michael turns to look at him. "Oh I see why?" Jason turns away from him and gives Michael his new clothes. A black and white suit different from his red and black mafia attire. "First take a shower then we'll talk." He leaves the locker allowing Michael privacy to shower.

*Now*

Yuri: "What happened to you?"

Michael: "It's nothing to worry about."

Monika: "But your eyes?"

Yuri: "What happened?" She places her hand on his cheek."

Michael: "It's a side effect from my brainwashing and entering The Anti-Despair Program." The girls look at his two different colored eyes. His right eye was still red while his left is his natural gold.

Natsuki: "Can't Jason fix it or knows someone who can?"

Michael: "He offered to fix my eye, but I declined."

Natsuki: "What why!?"

Yuri: "I agree with Natsuki. Why declined the offer?" He steps back from Yuri and looks out into the ocean.

Michael: "I like to consider this my punishment. After everything that happened. I could at least suffer one punishment. It's my fault that all of this happened." He looks back at everyone and smiled. "Everything will be okay. I'm still me, Michael Conner."

Monika: "Are you okay with this?"

Michael: "Yeah, I also consider this poetic."

Sayori: "What do you mean?"

Michael: "My gold eye can represent Hope, while my right eye can represent Despair. If I learned anything from all this, it would be about balance. People need Despair to set obstacles and they need Hope to overcome those obstacles. That's what life is, balance."

Yuri: "I think I understand what you mean?" She walks up to him and holds onto his arm.

Natsuki: "Not me, but it's your choice."

Sayori: "Neither do I, but that's ok."

Monika: "I think I could understand a bit."

Natsuki, Sayori, and Monika walk up to Michael and Yuri to stand next to them. Yuri holds onto Michael's arm while he uses his other hand to pat Sayori's head. They all stood at the docks, looking out at the clear ocean.

Michael: "No matter what happens, there will always be Hope and Despair. If there is no Hope to be found, then as human beings, we have the power to create our own. Despair will knock you down, but you can stand right back up and keep on going. Don't let the past hold you back, because the you of today and the future you is what really matters.

The Virtual World may sound like a safer place, but compared to the real world. There are an infinite amount of choices and routes to take. There's no save option or reload files in the real world, but there's never a game over for you.

Just Move Forward."

All five of them continue to stare out not on the ocean or the sky, but to their futures. The future they want. A future filled with happiness.

End of Story

Me: "I like to thank the fanbase such as the fan artists. I like to thank them for giving me inspiration to write this. I also like to thank Game Theory for giving an idea about what if they were supposed to be in a different game. Which helped give me an idea. But most importantly I like to thank all of you for taking the time reading this. Thank you and I hope you have a great day."