NOW

The knife dug deep into the flesh of her arm, and Yuri released a hiss through clenched teeth at the sensation. The cut had to be deep in order to make the desired impact, but not too deep. Too deep, and she would feel the tip of the knife scrape against the bone underneath the flesh, which she knew would be a deeply unpleasant experience, just aesthetically speaking. The sound of it alone was nauseating.

She looked through the small windows of the school front doors, seeing the moon glow brightly among the stars in the black sky, and leaned back against one of the metal lockers in the hallway, sighing in disappointment. The night was still young, and it would be a while before it was time.

Before he arrived.

If someone had told her a year before that she would leave the room of the Literature Club, containing her own Club President and one of her childhood heroines in order to go down to the entrance hallway and cut herself in the middle of the night, she'd... well, she wasn't sure how she would react. She'd been very shy back then, and the scenario in question made her wonder who, at that point in her life, would have even approached to tell her anything, outlandish or otherwise.

Wait, what was she thinking about again?

Wonder Woman! She reminded herself, and couldn't help releasing a highpitched giggle at her own forgetfulness. She was becoming so silly these days!

She'd had to leave the classroom early. The headache that had been building inside her for the past two weeks had seemed to reach new heights the longer she stayed in that room, making the pain in her head increase a thousand-fold. And this wasn't the good kind of pain, like the delicious feeling that came from cutting her arms open, but an actual, "painful" pain.

She attributed the unpleasant headaches to Monika's determined piano practice which she hadn't let up with since Yuri had first entered the room. There was definitely some audible skill at play in her music, and she was improving at every repeat but... she still had a long way to go, in her opinion. And even if it hadn't been giving her a migraine, it was pretty boring to witness. The superheroine who for some reason was keeping her company in the room hadn't really been that exciting either, with the way she just stood silent in the corner, unblinkingly staring at Yuri with those intense blue eyes, a perpetual scowl on her face so unlike the interviews Yuri had seen of the kind, brave and patient heroine.

Well, it didn't really matter that Wonder Woman had been so different from what Yuri had thought she was like. They said not to meet your heroes, right? And it wasn't like Yuri really cared anymore about her former childhood role model, or abandoning Monika with her alone, or mentally insulting her poor piano playing.

In fact, Yuri had found that for a while now, she'd been unable to care about anything that wasn't directly related to that so, so very special boy who had entered her life just the previous Monday.

Damian Wayne.

Even thinking his name made her heart flutter, pounding so hard against her chest that she began feeling lightheaded like she so often did these days, and started shaking all over. She felt a shortness of breath, and had to run the blade through her arm once more to calm herself for long enough to breathe properly again.

The relaxing effect it had on her was getting shorter these days, and it had nowhere near the same power as it once had.

Where every cut she'd made had once felt like lightning striking her, surging through her body, nowadays she would be lucky to feel even a small electrical current running through her veins. That was okay though, as she would repeatedly tell herself. It still worked, somewhat, she just had to do it more frequently. She needed whatever calming effect she could possibly get with Damian around, even if it was getting harder and harder to find the space on her arms for more marks.

She was sitting in almost complete darkness, with the only light source being a faint, ghostly stripe of the moon from the small door-windows, making it hard to make out any of her surroundings, which included the appearance of her arms. She supposed she should count herself lucky; whatever artistic value her scars once had was lost a little before she'd reached a hundred, and even she could admit her arms just looked like messy gore from a cheap horror movie now. At this point, it wasn't about making the scars look nice at all. She was making them purely out of necessity.

She didn't bother wearing bandages anymore. It was no use when she needed access to her arms as often as she did now. It was fine though, she just had to take some extra care to keep them clean now. Had she remembered to wash the knife today? She couldn't really remember. Surely she had. Probably.

It was funny to think about just how much Damian had affected her in such a short amount of time. It was hard to believe that she had made so many more cuts in these last two days than she had made in the entirety of those six months since that fateful encounter with Zsasz.

She wasn't sure what it was about Damian that just filled her with pure, undiluted desire, every time she saw or thought about the dark, spiky-haired boy. She couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly it was about him that made her lose her breath, needing to cut herself in order to get it back. Because while she had inititially been entranced when she'd heard he read the same kind of books as her, and had been impressed by how smart he was based on his first poems, she had to admit she'd thought him a bit too rude and... short, for her liking at first.

But thankfully everything had changed moving forward, and she'd quickly come to her senses in realizing he was truly the most perfect boy she'd ever met. Every aspect of him was absolutely flawless, from his looks, to the sound of his voice, to the musky, intoxicating scent of his sweat that she would breathe in whenever she got close enough to him, to his taste...

Yuri giggled once more, amused by her own sillyness. She hadn't tasted him, of course she hadn't. Not yet, anyway. It did sound like an appealing prospect, now that she thought about it though. Maybe he would let her try if she asked nicely?

She wanted nothing more than to be with him forever and always, to make herself worthy of being looked at by his intense, unimpressed stare. Every moment she was apart from him felt like agony, hurting her far more than her knife ever could. It was pure torture, the way she longed for the feel of his touch on her skin!

She'd never felt this way about those other crushes in her past. She'd been obsessed those times too, but never to this level. Hell, now that she thought about it, she found that she couldn't even recall the name of the guy who'd been her last heartache, the guy she'd been devastated over back then, reduced to a vague memory of embarrassment and regret. It was like there wasn't room enough in her head to remember unimportant details like him when someone as superior as Damian was on her mind.

There was only one explanation to this: It had to be true love this time, not just a silly crush like with those other boys. She needn't have bothered trying to get attached to them, when it was so clearly her destiny to be soulmates with Damian. Her feelings were so strong, so overwhelming, it could be nothing except fate itself for them to be together. She had never been as sure about anything as she was about this, it was as cut and dried as a freshly sharpened knife: She belonged with Damian, and Damian belonged with her. And if anyone would come between them and their love, she would personally make sure they would come to regret it.

And then her faint smile darkened as Natsuki's smug face flashed before her eyes, and red hot anger flared inside of her.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Monika's voice from an hour before echoed in her mind. "Him and Natsuki already left for home, long before the Festival even started. Apparently they've become a bit of an item, isn't that fun?"

Yuri's relationship with Natsuki had always been what could generously be described as "strained" at best. Despite having known her for the longest time, she'd always been in doubt of whether the smaller girl's teasing came from a good place, or if it had always been with malicious intent when Natsuki made fun of her appearance, or her interests, or anything at all, really.

Well, she wasn't in doubt anymore. There was no way Natsuki didn't know exactly what she was doing, taking away her Damian the way she had. Hadn't Yuri made her feelings about the boy abundantly clear by now? Hadn't she warned her to back off in a way everyone would be able to understand?

Natsuki didn't love the boy the way Yuri did, how could she? It wasn't her predestined fate to be with him. Hell, it was pretty clear that she didn'teven like Damian, with the way she constantly insulted and mocked him just like she did to Yuri!

There was only one possible reason for Natsuki to be doing this. Only one explanation that made sense: she was doing it to hurt her. She was an evil, spiteful witch who reveled in the suffering she inflicted on everyone around her, with her favourite victim being Yuri. That was why she'd spent all these years cutting her down and belittling her, with this just being her latest sadistic scheme to make Yuri's life hell. She probably thought that by doing this she would make Yuri back down in fear like the scared bunny she usually was, too afraid of confrontations to fight back.

Yuri sneered. If that's what she thought was going to happen this time, she would be sorely mistaken.

Yuri wasn't the same kind of girl anymore, the kind who would just roll onto her back and take whatever abuse that would come her way, and she was done letting that little, pink-haired slut get away with mistreating her like this again. She'd crossed the line this time around, and if Natsuki wanted to keep going down this path, she wouldn't like what awaited her at the end of it.

She gripped the knife tighter in her hand, smiling in grim satisfaction.

She won't know what hit her before it's too late.

A bit extreme, she'd admit it, but what other choice did she have? If Natsuki was able to go this low in order to hurt her, then she had to respond in kind, and couldn't afford to hold back.

Batman would not approve of her decision, she knew that, and it did actually make her feel a bit apologetic to disappoint a man she respected so much. But he just didn't understand that this was the only working solution for dealing with truly evil people like The Joker, Victor Zsasz and Natsuki. If you didn't deal with them in a way that would permanently put them out of commision, they would just keep coming back to hurt you, and the people you loved. And if Batman wanted to keep going through that, keep following a system that obviously wasn't working, then fine. That was his decision, and she respected that. But he would have to respect too that she wasn't going to risk her future happiness just to gain a moral high ground. There was way too much at stake here for her to do that.

She didn't blame Damian for any of this, of course she didn't. Despite how intelligent and smart she knew he was, he was still a boy. He was the real victim in this, confused about his true feelings, probably didn't even realize that he was meant to be with Yuri, and if the rumors she had heard about Natsuki were true, then it came as no surprise that she would have quite the experience in seducing boys, being the little whore that she was.

Damian just needed Yuri's guidance to show him the right way, to help him understand that she was the only girl for him to be with. And once she'd dealt with Natsuki, surely it would break the spell she had him under, and he would realize how naive he'd been in thinking Natsuki could ever compete with her.

Yuri knew what it was boys looked for in a woman after all, and she was fortunate enough to have been blessed with all the right curves in all the right places, whereas Natsuki was flat as a board, just a tiny bit too feminine to be mistaken for a boy. For the first time in her life, Yuri wasn't ashamed of her body and how attention-grabbing it was, as it would be that aspect exactly that would grant her the ultimate price.

A thought suddenly struck her. All this time she had been thinking about how all would be well if she just confessed her love to Damian, not giving a second thought if he shared the same feelings about her. As the other member of their future relationship, his opinion about this subject was at least as important as hers after all, and she had never even considered the possibility that he might not like her the same way.

Yuri gazed ahead of herself into the darkness of the hallway, a puzzled look on her face as she thought the scenario over.

Then, she laughed.

Oh, she was really getting so very, very silly now. She hadn't considered it, because it wasn't even worth considering! Of course he shared her feelings. He had to! They were meant for each other, as she'd already established! The idea of him not wanting to spend the rest of his life with her? Laughable!

And even if she was to entertain the ludicrous suggestion of him rejecting her love, it would still be no problem. Because if he did that, which he wouldn't, but if he did, well, then her purpose in life would be gone, and there would be nothing left for her in this world! And without a purpose, there would be no reason for her to keep living! All she'd have to do then would be killing herself, and bam, problem solved! Either she'd live happily ever after tomorrow, or she'd die trying. Her future was set either way, and there was no reason to worry about anything!

Yuri cast a silent blessing to the knife in her hand, the very same she'd picked up in the alleyway all those months ago, brought with purpose by her today, on this special occasion. How amazing was it that it had been the one to put a stop to her anxiety problems back then, and in a few hours would put a swift end to the lingering issue of Natsuki, too? And, if worst came to worst, and Damian rejected her, it would be the solution to her continued existence afterwards, she decided. It would be fitting, having the blade that cut her first be the one to put an end to her with one last cut.

Not that the scenario would happen, of course. It was purely hypothetical, a fun thing to think about, that was all.

Yuri had always felt like an outcast, feeling as if everyone knew their role in life, except for her. It was so assuring to have finally found what her true purpose in life was: being by Damian's side.

She would be a great girlfriend for Damian. She wouldn't be needy, or bossy, or bitchy at all. She wouldn't talk back to him, or be annoying, and they'd never have any fights. She would let him do whatever he wanted to do to her, she'd be his perfect little housewife who stayed at home and cooked him meals, if that's what he wanted her to be, and all she'd need in return would be his love. And then, when they grew up a bit more, she would happily carry his babies with the deepest pride, raising and loving their children with all her heart.

In fact, why wait? There was no reason they couldn't get started right now! The sooner the better, right? Teen pregnancies were all the rage nowadays!

Some of her long, purple hair had fallen in front of her face, and she brushed it aside with her hand, feeling the contact of something wet on her forehead when her fingers made brief contact with it in the movement. Puzzled for a quick second, she chuckled quietly as she realized her hand had to be covered in her blood from the multitude of open wounds bleeding down her arm.

And now she had mixed it into her hair!

She laughed, and raised both her hands, driving her fingers through her hair in long, slow movements, as if she was washing it in the shower, getting it positively soaked in the thick liquid of her body, felt as it slowly began dripping down her head. Might as well go all the way, now that she had already stained a small portion in it, right? And red went well together with purple.

Maybe Damian would find it pretty.

She was finding it hard to breathe again, and lowered the knife to her arm again in order to release some of the pressure, hoping vaguely she'd memorized where all her veins were located on her arm, and avoided cutting them up too much in the darkness. She'd already passed out once today in the bathroom, and for far longer than she would have liked, causing her to miss the festival. If she cut open too much of a vein, it was possible she would pass out for even longer and miss Damian's arrival, never getting the chance to proclaim her love for him!

Oh, and she could die, too. That wouldn't be good either.

She wondered how Damian would react to seeing her arms. Keeping with her promise to be a good girlfriend to him, she would of course be completely open, honest and transparent with him, not that she thought it possible to even keep something of this magnitude a secret from him. Would he be horrified? Disgusted? Afraid of her?

Or maybe he was the same as her. Maybe he had marks of his own.

Maybe they could cut each other.

In a fit of inspiration, she bent her head down, opening her mouth to run her tongue along her arm, feeling the jagged, uneven surface, tasting metal as she imagined herself doing this to Damian after a loving cutting session between them.

I'd like that... she thought, and continued waiting patiently for his arrival, staring dreamily out at the pale moon, wondering if Damian's blood would taste the same as hers.

She smiled.

Tomorrow would be a good day.

When I got the idea to write a crossover between Doki Doki and DC, this was the very first chapter that came to mind. The chance to get Zsasz and Yuri together was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Then, as I started weaving the other plot threads together, I soon realized that this Interlude, the part of the story I was most excited to write, only fit in as... a flashback, separate from the main plot.

And now that it's finally written, I just had to go and make it just SLIGHTLY longer than the Prologue. If I didn't like splitting up main Chapters, then I absolutely LOATHE splitting up Interludes, especially this one, but oh well. I just hope I succeeded in making it as non-filler as possible.

Inadequate Author Complaining Time over.

Thank you Finwee Lord of Long Winds for your continued support. It means the world to me, and I'm happy you find it exciting.