Thursday
Given that there was no school building to have school in, and that there was still no plan as to where or when we would be attending another school, we decided that we should all sleep in today. When I woke up and headed downstairs however, I could smell that someone was cooking, and a bit later saw that it was Moni, the blackness of the demon skin almost entirely gone now, replaced more and more by her natural skin tone. It was starting to get to the point where I would almost have to ask them to dress differently or something, so that I could tell the two of them apart. As Mona was still asleep upstairs, I surprised Moni by putting my arms around her waist, and giving her a chaste peck on the cheek. I could see Moni's cheeks light up red in a blush, but she didn't pull away, instead pressing her body against me while her face practically demanded a kiss on the lips, which I did provide, but then warned her that it would be a bad idea to go beyond that. Moni was disappointed, but chose to leave it there at this point, so as not to ruin the mood. Looking at what she was making, I saw scrambled eggs with tofu, vegetarian sausages, and toast. A perfect vegetarian way to start the day, I reasoned, though I was curious as to what those vegetarian sausages tasted like. I have had some that tasted fine, while others were not so good. I guess that it depended on how much that you were willing to spend, and what sort of ingredients that you used in the mixture.
I excused myself to go use the shower, and take care of my morning routine, even putting a full load of dirty clothing into the washer so that they could get cleaned. When I had finished with my morning routine, I came back out, and helped Moni by setting the table for breakfast. It appeared that both Mona and MC had awoken and came out to the kitchen while I had been doing my thing, so I told MC about what had happened to me last night. After listening to everything, including Moni and Mona giving additional details from their side of things, MC started to look worried.
"It sounds like they are starting to get closer to implementing their plans, then. We are going to have to save the other girls as well, if we want to take them with us to reality. Since I am here with you now, I would like to suggest that we rescue Sayori first. I'm her best friend, and would be able to help bring her back around. If you'd like Matt, I can change your appearance so that you look like how do you in reality, so that we don't confuse Sayori too much."
If that was how MC wanted to play that one, then I was willing to let him try. "Sure, besides, I think that the girls here would appreciate seeing the real me, am I right?" I give a quick smile to both Moni and Mona, who were already blushing and nodding.
Snapping his fingers, I could feel my features change, and settle down into those of a person who I almost didn't recognize, after having looked like MC for the better part of a week. I could see the two girls looking me over, and both of them giving me an appreciative look. Looking back at MC, I asked him, "You do know that this is also going to put the onus back on you with both Yuri and Natsuki, right? Neither one of them knows what I really look like, nor do they know that I am The Player, as far as I know."
MC nodded at this. "I know, but I have dealt with their counterparts in the original game, just as much as you have. I think that we'll be good, as long as we stick together and…"
MC stopped talking as a portal opened up behind me, and I was pulled through it, the portal closing after me, presumably so that the others couldn't follow. Looking around at where I had been taken to, I confirmed that I had been brought to the Space Classroom again. Checking to see if the layout of the place was as I had remembered it being from last night, I confirmed that it was, and then set off for the kitchen, where I found a note taped to the refrigerator.
"The refrigerator is full, and we will make sure that you do not starve, but you are on your own when it comes to cooking. - PL"
Well, at least that was some comfort. They logically wouldn't be delivering food to someone that they wanted to die. I hadn't eaten yet, so I took a look at what was available. It looked like someone had gotten a mixture of American and Japanese ingredients for me to use, so I got started on a bowl of cereal. It wasn't the most appealing of my available alternatives, but it did have the advantage of being quick, and leaving room in the stomach, if the girls managed to find a way to get me back to the house. I knew that they would first try to find me, and then try to determine a plan to get me back from those who had taken me. Finding me probably wouldn't take them long, and might have already taken place. It was the rescue that might take some time. As long as nothing bad happened to me up here, then all I had to do was to wait. Either for rescue, or for some sort of message from MC and/or the girls. In the meantime, I might as well take stock of my situation up here. Though it really couldn't be too bad, given that there was enough food for me to eat for a good while.
MC and both of the girls stared at the place where Matt had been. The snatch attempt had been so sudden and without warning that none of them had seen it coming. Glitches could be seen surrounding Moni as she tried to see if she could find where Matt had been taken to. It didn't take her long, mostly because the Space Classroom was one of the places where she looked by default. "He's been taken to the Space Classroom. Mona, did you have time to create the Space Classroom by yourself in this cycle?"
"No, I was too busy trying to preserve everything against changes to the coding to even run over to The Player's house and leap into his arms, when he arrived. With everything that has been going on this cycle, I really haven't had the time to do so. Which would likely mean that someone else completed it. Can you tell what he's doing in there, Moni?"
"It looks like he is eating a bowl of cereal. I'm guessing that he is waiting for us to come up with some sort of plan to rescue or message him. Mona, if you have his number, can you send him a text? Oh, and text his number to both MC and myself? We should all exchange numbers, just to be sure that we can communicate." Moni's natural leader side was starting to show through as a new crisis erupted, and soon everyone had something to do in order to prepare.
Matt grabbed his phone with a look of surprise as he heard the sound that notified him of a text message. Given how high up from the Earth that the Space Classroom must be, he was surprised that he was still getting a signal at all in here. He wondered if that had anything to do with Monika normally having an entrance to the Space Classroom at the school, some sort of coding magic allowing cell signals to reach from there. Looking at what the text said, it was from Mona, asking if he was okay up there. Matt smiled, glad to see that everyone was worried about his well-being, before sending a text back to Mona, asking her if she or Moni knew if he could just open one of the doors, and see the wreckage of the school from there, allowing him to jump down from there.
Looking back at Moni, Mona just showed her the text. Tapping her temple as if to tell everyone there that she was thinking, Moni sighed, and told them "it is worth a try, at least. The worst thing that can happen is that the door doesn't lead to the school, but we'll need something to help arrest his fall if it does. We can't exactly steal those nets that firefighters use, either. Let him know that we are looking for something to break his fall, just in case."
Matt looked at the returned text message, and understood. Given the thought processes of both Moni and Mona, the door to the school would likely have been above ground level, probably leading to somewhere that would be hard to forget, like the clubroom. A fall from that height would generally be a bad idea, and could all too easily kill him. Still, he tried to open the first door, in order to see where it led to. He found out quickly that it was locked, and so he tried the door on the other end, only to find out that it was locked, as well. He texted the information to Mona, who acknowledged it. A couple of minutes later, Matt got another text back, telling him to sit tight, and that they would find a way to rescue him. Also to tell them if anything changed. Given that there really wasn't much else to do at the moment, he agreed to sit tight for now.
Back at the house, someone kicked in that poor front door again, and when everyone heard that, MC made a comment about how people never gently opened doors anymore, causing the girls to groan at just how bad of a joke that that was. In what could be regarded as an amazing coincidence, the one who had broken into the house was none other than Sayori herself, which caused MC to breathe a sigh of relief. "Hello Sayori, do you remember when I won Mr. Cow at the festival for you, all those years ago?"
This question brought Sayori up short, since it was indeed MC who had gotten her Mr. Cow, the memory being quite a happy one for her, even through the depression that she had been battling through her entire life. A smile came up on her face, but it wavered when she asked him, "How do I know that you are the real MC? You could just be that player person that they both love so much that one of them killed me over it!" Sayori pointed an accusing finger directly at Moni.
"How do you want me to prove that i'm the real MC, Sayori? Should I tell everyone about how you set water on fire in the kitchen, nearly burning down your house? Or maybe I could tell them stories about your childhood at school? Maybe about the time when I felt so useless when you got your first love confession, back in middle school? I felt scared that you might actually accept his love, you know. Remember how you didn't see me for a few days outside of class after that one? That is how scared I was, at the time. I didn't know how to handle such things then, and I still don't when it comes to you, Sayori. Do you know why? Because I love you, and want you to be by my side, now and forever!" This certainly wasn't your standard love confession, but then again, what about this whole situation was normal to begin with?
Sayori however was flabbergasted. MC… loved her and wanted her? Her heart couldn't decide between skipping a beat or melting from the feelings that were now coming to the fore in her mind, but her depression kicked in. "You… love me? But am I not a burden to you? Do I not just slow you down, and make your life worse?"
MC knew that he had to play this right, or something bad would happen. "I love you, Sayori. I have always loved you, even when we were kids. Monika did bad things yes, but this is not about her. It is about you, and it is about me. Sayori, I have seen the way that you act around me. How you felt down for getting me to interact with the other members of the Literature Club, when really we both needed the club in order to have friends to interact with. I know that you love me back, but like Monika, Yuri, and even Natsuki, you've been harmed by Project Libitina. Come with us, and we can all heal from what The Project has done to all of us, including The Player. Come with ME, Sayori. We can make it just like old times again, just you and me, while we help our friends. I know that you love seeing people happy Sayori. All you need to do is trust me, and we can both be happy together!"
Visible signs of conflict could be seen on Sayori's face now. There was no doubt in her mind that this really was MC, and he had even confessed to her! She wanted very much to believe that they really could be happy together, just like in old times. Her depression and her orders were telling her not to give in, that this was all nothing but some sort of trick to get her to let down her guard, but another little voice answered back, asking what the harm was of listening a little more. This caused Sayori to stand there, trying to think of something to say.
MC now saw an opening. "Sayori, can I approach you? I'd like to hug you, and prove my feelings for you."
Sayori nodded, and MC started walking toward her at a normal pace, trying not to scare her into something rash. If this worked, then they would have a good chance of saving the girl that he loved. As far as MC was concerned, The Player could have Monika. MC had always subconsciously only wanted to have Sayori by his side, even if his conscious mind was not aware of it. He was a few feet away from Sayori before he heard a window smash, and something lanced through his right shoulder, causing him to twist and fall to the ground in pain. As everyone else looked to see what had caused the attack, Sayori ran over to the injured MC, and held on tightly to him. She turned him over to look at his wound, and found a metal rod sticking out of it. Looking back over at the couple, Mona told Sayori that the first aid kit was in the upstairs bathroom, and that she should go get it while they protected MC. Sayori ran off up the stairs at a speed that impressed both Moni and Mona, and they stepped forward to protect MC from any further threats. It was well that they did, because Natsuki could be seen, and she had a very annoyed expression on her face. "I bet that you couldn't even wait to pick her over me, MC. Hmmmph! Last time I give you any cupcakes. Now you'll just have to go with the rest of them."
"Natsuki, quit being such a Tsundere! There is more at stake here than you know! And for the record, I enjoyed the time that I spent with you. Reading manga together, our banter with each other, baking cupcakes, and all of the other times that you and I can name, both fun and not. Can you just so readily throw all of that away? Can you really just throw our friendship away, just like that?" MC was getting heated, but this might be the only way to get through to Natsuki.
MC was about to get his hopes up when he saw Natsuki's face turn bright pink, a sure symbol that she was embarrassed. However, her next words chilled him. "I'm sorry MC, but orders are orders. You have to die." As Natsuki made ready to launch another metal rod at him, Sayori had made it down the stairs, laid the medical supplies next to MC, and stared daggers at Natsuki. Natsuki actually got a little intimidated by the intensity of Sayori's glare, and her shot actually missed MC, but still resulted in Natsuki getting a fireball shot at her by Sayori. Barely dodging the well-aimed shot, Natsuki decided to execute the better part of valor, and got out of there. While Sayori flew off after Natsuki, Moni went over to MC, and started to perform first aid on his wound. But by now, MC had actually deleted the metal rod that had gone clean through his arm, and with Moni's help, actually did a decent job of wrapping the gauze bandage around his wound, before using a heal command to close up the wound before it could become infected. He couldn't heal it entirely, but this was still significant progress.
Eventually Sayori came back to MC's side, helping him to the guest bed where he had already spent the night. Sayori got into bed with him, and the two began to cuddle with each other, Sayori completely understanding that his wound would not allow him to put his arm around her. That didn't stop him from kissing her though, and she swooned from her first kiss. MC had accidentally broken through her shell by getting injured, and now the pair would get to make up for lost time. Mona even texted Matt about it, and got a text back telling her to congratulate the happy couple, and that he was very happy for MC and Sayori finding happiness in each other.
Out somewhere in the city of Maebashi, Natsuki ran through the events of what had happened back at MC's house. She hadn't wanted to harm MC, but orders were orders, and hearing him confess to Sayori had hurt her heart. She knew that she liked MC, but she had been slow on opening up to him, and thus allowed the club's Vice President to snatch her away from him. Natsuki still felt the need to apologize to everyone, however. She resolved to herself that she would return to MC's house, and apologize as best she could. It would be up to them if they accepted it or not. But she totally wasn't doing it because she wanted to!, she thought to herself with a smirk. After all, MC was supposed to be one of her friends.
Back at the house, Moni was having a private discussion with Mona. Both of them were essentially the same person, both of them loved the same man for more or less the same reasons, and both of them wanted to save him, so that they could be by his side forever. They were hashing out plans with one another as to how to accomplish this, and everyone missed it when a flash of Emerald Green light came from out of the basement where the two had been talking.
When Natsuki had made it back to MC's house she held out her hands to show that she didn't intend to do anything untoward to anyone there. "I… i'd like to apologize for my actions here, and… AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Natsuki cried out in pain as she got hit by an energy bolt fired at her exposed back by Yuri, who was flanked by several charcoal black demonic figures, who appeared to be waiting for orders. "Take the pink haired girl with us, she needs more time with the masters." They scrambled to obey, coming no closer to the others than needed to grab Natsuki and take her with them through a portal under the watchful gaze of the Purple haired Yandere, who then retreated to her own portal.
Back at the Space Classroom, Matt was bored. He had already figured out that he could not escape by himself, so he had made himself as comfortable as possible, reading one of the books that had been left in the main room. It was E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962, and given that this was Monika's favorite poet, it made a lot of sense for this book to be here in the Space Classroom's collection.
Matt got so into reading the poetry that he didn't notice the door slide open, and the Emerald Eyed Goddess enter the room. Monika swayed her hips as she walked over to where she saw her love, took the book from him, and kissed him passionately, her tongue probing the inner recesses of his mouth, and her mouth open enough to allow him to return the favor, which he did. At the same time, she straddled him as best she could, letting him know exactly what she wanted. After they both came up for air, she told him, "You, me, bed, now." Then she led him to the Space Classroom's bedroom, and it was not long at all before the entire neighborhood could hear them, if they even had any neighbors up there in the void.
MC's house was now looking better than it had since the sliding glass door had been busted, this having been a test of the powers of the two Monika's, who had fused into one being, with the memories, experiences, and other ahem… literary devices of both Moni and Mona, but was now a complete being again. Moni had been lacking parts of herself ever since she had been deleted, and Mona didn't have the experience or knowledge that Moni had. So in order to save their lover, as well as the rest of their friends, they had jointly decided to do what had to be done. The school had also been restored from its destroyed state, as had Sayori's house. Moreover, many of the demonic creatures had been put to flight before Monika, because no one was going to stop her from getting what she really wanted. Even Yuri was keeping herself out of Monika's way, the difference in strength being obvious.
Meanwhile, phase two of Project Libitina's war was beginning, back in reality. While Project Libitina had been keeping Matt, MC, and the Dokis distracted in the DDLC verse, their plans for the real world were taking shape. Waves of the demonic creatures started attacking ICBM fields and other military facilities in America, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, Russia, and China. Military forces in the three countries responded, and both sides started taking losses, as bullets, bombs, and other means of war fought against demonic creatures that could use fireballs, railguns, and other abilities just as well as they could use their claws and teeth to maim, injure, and kill people in close quarters combat.
So far at least, it looked as if the forces of Project Libitina were avoiding civilian centers of population, but military targets were getting attacked hard. With little to no idea of what they were facing, the real world military forces were holding on where they could, and falling back where they could not. It seemed as if World War Three had just kicked off, and an emergency session of the United Nations had been called in order to try to help expedite the world military response to this sudden, multi-front worldwide invasion.
Hours later, both Monika and Matt had returned to MC's house in order to meet up with MC and Sayori. While being physically intimate with Monika was always a pleasure, he was still amazed that the Monika standing next to him was the merged form of both Mona and Moni, made into one being. From his own experiences, he could understand one person having two people's sets of memories, but never had he physically merged with another into one being before. He had asked Monika what had driven the pair to do this, and to cut a long and involved discussion short, it boiled down to both Mona and Moni being able to have Matt to their heart's desire without making the other one jealous, as well as the ability to regain their powers, so that they could actually go up to the Space Classroom and rescue him. They had realized that both of them were lacking something essential, and that the other one had what they needed in order to be whole again. While the merge was permanent, it would allow them both to be truly happy, in their new form.
"Okay everyone," Matt used Monika's catchphrase to get everyone's attention, and he could hear Monika chuckling at him doing so, something that he took to be approval for his use of it. "So far, we have managed to save Sayori from what was done to her, but we still have to find, persuade, and finally rescue both Yuri and Natsuki. Firstly, do we know where either one of them might be?" Matt looked around to see if any of them did, only to see all of them shake their heads no, except for Monika.
"I know a location that one or both of them might be at, but we would be hopelessly outnumbered if we went there. No, I think that if we want to have a shot at saving those two, we need to draw them out to us. We do have a shot at doing that, though. After combing the debris of the school, I managed to find the remains of a book that Yuri holds most dear. The copy of The Portrait of Markov that her grandfather gave to her. I was able to eliminate all of the damage to the book via coding, and we could potentially use that as bait, assuming that she still cares about something that used to form such a large part of her life." Monika had Matt go get the book, and when he returned, she showed it to everyone.
"The only problem will be getting her attention in the first place. If we can do that, then we can see if she still cares about this book or not. But again, first we would need to know where she is. While we could watch her house, I would not want to risk the person that we send to do that getting caught. I don't want them getting their hands on any of us, If Sayori, Natsuki, or Yuri are any indication, they have managed to turn our own friends against us, and don't forget that Moni was tortured by Yuri not that long ago, so Yuri is clearly either fully brainwashed, or she is willingly following whatever orders that they are giving her. A brainwashed Yuri would be bad enough, but if she is willingly going along with their orders, then we have a major problem on our hands, and no real idea of what to do about it." Everyone nodded at the points raised by Monika. Besides being the "smartest in the club," Yuri could be unpredictable when her Yandere side had been activated. She was also strong, as Matt could attest to from when she had pinned him to the wall and tried to kiss him back in the clubroom, before Mona had saved him, that first day of school.
The war back in reality was quickly heating up. While the military forces of humanity kept killing the demonic creatures in vast quantities, more of them kept appearing, eventually pushing the military back. Oddly enough, in some cases this war produced some very interesting allies indeed. Groups that one would have never pictured working together mere days ago were now fighting on the same side, in order to survive. Leaders of the world's most well known religions had all come out against these beings, and urged their followers to work together in order to preserve humanity. Governments had called up their reservists, and those nations who had abolished the draft were seriously considering reinstituting it, despite the time and effort required to turn a civilian into a combat effective soldier.
Fortunately for humanity, airpower and missiles had proven to be effective, given that the aircraft could drop their munitions at heights which made retaliation impossible, and missiles were just pilot-less aircraft with various forms of warhead. Artillery was also making a difference, the ability to rain death and destruction from range making it a popular choice as well. All of this was having the effect of using up the world's supply of modern weapons and ammunition, but it seemed to be the most effective thing to do against the enemy at the present time. It did seem odd that the enemy had seemingly limitless numbers, but it didn't matter. Humanity would have to fight on, if they expected to be able to win this war.
In the underground levels of a Project Libitina safehouse in the DDLC verse, Yuri watched as a massive room full of computers spat out computer code again and again. This computer code would turn into another of the demonic creatures that her masters were using as their foot soldiers, and would then either stay in this world, or go through a portal to reality, depending on the project's needs at any given time. At once, this facility, and others like it were both the boon, and the bane, of Project Libitina.
They were a boon to the project because they could simply create as many foot soldiers as they needed in assembly line fashion, but at the same time, if a virus or some other form of malware were to get into the project's systems, it could cause catastrophic damage to the project's aims and goals. As Yuri was quickly coming to appreciate, this was the entire reason why the DDLC verse even existed. Yuri, and everyone else that she knew, were merely a thin veneer of camouflage over the single largest army creation engines in all of history. Moving at full speed, legions of these creatures could be made and dispatched to wherever they were needed, and there were only two options to stop them. One could either infect Project Libitina's servers with some form of virus that would destroy or otherwise disrupt the machines,, or one could simply figure out a way to close all of the portals from the DDLC verse to the target.
Yuri had come here in order to get away from the screams and whimpers that Natsuki was making during her 'treatment' by their masters. She had even been begging earlier, but it seemed that she had either lost the ability to do that for a time, or had simply realised how hopeless that it was to expect that someone would come and save her, especially since her own closest friend had shot her in the back and had her brought here to be tortured and brainwashed. This was the farthest place in the entire facility that she could get from Natsuki, and though she couldn't actually hear her continued screams, her mind would not let her get away from them quite so easily. Yuri did not know why, but she'd been thinking about Natsuki quite a lot during this entire time. It was true that she felt a sense of anger and revulsion at the short pink haired girl, but at the same time, her mind kept drifting toward the opposite reaction, where she could even see herself falling in love with… Noooo! Yuri's face was as red as a Coke can, freaking out as she finally realized what the deeper recesses of her mind had been trying to tell her for some time now, but that she had refused to accept. Even now, the concept was embarrassing, but at the same time, part of her wanted to march right up to where Natsuki was even now suffering, and get her out of there, taking her to someplace safe.
There was a problem with simply taking Natsuki and going however, and Yuri grasped it quickly. Wherever she took Natsuki, the same foot soldiers that she saw being made would head there and try to take them back, which meant that she'd had to find where MC and Monika went, since they always seemed to be in the middle of the biggest problems that the project faced here in this world. Indeed it was somewhat impressive how MC and Monika had managed to hold out in that house for so long, even if the project's goal with them was not their destruction.
The more that she gave thought to her desperate plan to rescue Natsuki and get out of there, the more that it felt like the right thing for her to do. Thus resigning herself to it, Yuri started heading toward the part of the facility where she had last seen Natsuki. The project only seemed to give out orders that hurt people, and it reminded her of the cult into which she had been born. The cult had believed that suffering brought out the divine, and would even go so far as to throw babies into a fire in order to see if any of them were considered worthy of continued life. Yuri had been quite the exception, being thrown into the flames six times, and not even suffering a scratch because of it. It was this more than anything which had caught the attention of the highest ranking members of the cult, her own biological parents among them.
She had subsequently been proclaimed the vessel for Elyssa Libitina, a God-like being who had displayed incredible psychic potential, and the cult's attempts to bring out these powers in her through the suffering of both herself and others had lasted years, and left Yuri as much less of a person, as a result. When she had been rescued from the cult, she had had to spend years with a therapist, before she had been deemed stable enough to rejoin society. It had taken her the entire time from that moment until today to be the person that she was now, and though she didn't know it, she was still being manipulated just like before, the only saving grace in her situation now being Natsuki. Normally, Yuri would be afraid that Natsuki would be angry at her for the way that Yuri had treated her, but thinking back about it, she might not even know that it was Yuri who had done that to her. Yuri was not above a little deception in order to obtain a positive outcome, but she was also smart about it, using her brains to pick and choose what she felt to be the right moments in which to do so. So if Natsuki didn't know who or what had hit her, then maybe it would be best if Yuri kept that quiet until she'd gotten them where they needed to go.
While Monika kept using her powers to look for Yuri, Matt was looking at the portal program on the old laptop. There was no way that a simple thumb drive was going to be able to hold this much information, and who knew how long that it might take Monika to make a copy of the data, and then put it in a safe place using reality's internet. Speaking of which, Monika was really the one who should be looking through all of this coding and data. She was a natural at such tasks, and would be much quicker and more accurate at it than he was being so far. However, Monika had been looking for Yuri for a good half hour now, and had not found her. It was time to take her mind off of that task, Matt decided.
"Monika, would you come over here, and review the portal to reality program? You've been looking for Yuri for thirty minutes, and unless you are not telling us something, you have not been able to find her yet, have you?" Hearing the words 'portal to reality,' Monika looked up, and a very interested expression was on her face. One of her greatest life goals had been to make it to reality, and while it had originally been so that she could find, love, and live with The Player, now she was doing it in order to help her and her friends escape this prison of a world.
Walking over and taking a seat in the chair vacated by her lover, Monika rapidly began looking over the coding of the program in front of her. There was a lot of it, but she was used to looking over the coding of her entire universe, so she would be able to manage this.
"Matt," she asked, "could you make me something to eat and drink? This might take some time." Matt blew a kiss toward her, and Monika pretended to catch it, saying, "caught it~!" with a genuine warm smile.
After checking to see if MC and Sayori were hungry, Matt made enough vegetable ramen for four people, carrying the bowls on a tray to everyone. He had even made seconds, knowing that Sayori would probably want more, and some of the others might, as well. It appeared that everyone was having a good time eating, though Monika continued to scan the code even while eating, though he could see a smile on his lover's face when she did take a moment to eat some of the ramen that he had given her, and that was more than enough for him. He was seriously going to marry this woman one day, but first they had to get everyone out of danger, and the first step toward doing that remained getting everyone to reality. Hopefully, Monika would be able to find a way to make the program work, or they might all be stuck in this world for good.
It had been simple enough for Yuri to cow those who were 'working' on Natsuki to give them some time alone together. A few well placed death glares, and they left the room in a hurry, Yuri having timed her attempt to happen when Natsuki was being given a chance for her body to heal. Looking over Natsuki's bruised and battered form, Yuri removed the restraints holding Natsuki to the hospital style bed that she had been forced to lay on, and gently picked her up, carrying her away from the bed as she opened a portal to MC's house, and took the both of them through it. The Project would simply have to do without them.
MC was the first one to notice the opening portal, and started standing from where he had been sitting against the wall and helping Sayori to prepare some fun activities for everyone in order to try to keep morale up. Before he could verbally get a warning out though, he could tell what, or rather who, was coming through the portal. It looked like Yuri, but she was carrying a bruised and battered Natsuki as gingerly as she could without dropping her. "What happened to Natsuki, Yuri?"
Noticing that there is a person that she has never met in the room, she ignored him even as he turned from what he had been doing in order to see what was going on, along with Monika and Sayori, Yuri gave him an answer. "O-oh… Project Libitina was in the middle of attempting to brainwash her, while using torture to do it. I managed to get everyone to leave the room, and then left the room myself with Natsuki. It won't be long before they notice, but I need someone to help me treat Natsuki's injuries. Also, who is that?" Yuri used her chin to indicate Matt, given that both of her hands were otherwise occupied.
"That," MC began, "is Matthew Chiba, someone who was brought into our world from reality. He took my place, and did so pretty well, if I do say so myself. Monika however, knows him much better as 'The Player.' No, he didn't get that name because he is around a lot of cute girls, either. He comes from another world, Yuri. The real world; of which Monika is currently studying the code of a portal that will take us to the real world. None of us will be trapped in a world designed to abuse and hurt us anymore, such as this one. This world is fake, after all. It was designed as a computer program."
By this point Monika shot out of her chair but was unable to stop MC from telling Yuri the truth. "And if you tell them that before we're ready, there is every chance that this world might die and take us all with it, before we can escape, MC. No matter though, i'm almost ready to start the program, so keep your fingers crossed that this is going to work. Some of this coding is so old that I don't know how it works." Monika sat back down in front of the old laptop, and continued in her task. To be truthful, it did indeed look like this program would create a portal that would take them to reality. Monika had been worried about the possibility of this all being some kind of fake, one designed to either further entrap them here in the DDLC verse, or else would take them somewhere worse instead. A further few keystrokes, and she was ready.
"Everyone gather around the laptop, we will only have one shot at this." When everyone had gathered around the laptop, Matt had put his hands on Monika's shoulders as a reassuring gesture. Getting a nod from him, Monika pressed the enter key. Everything started going rainbow shifted, and Monika could feel her body flying high up into the sky, higher still into the void, and then well past that into a room filled with pure bright white light. Monika blacked out, and when she awoke, she saw that she was restrained on some sort of hospital bed, with what felt like some sort of metal cap on her head. Looking to her left and right, she could see everyone there, strapped to their own hospital beds, including except for Matt. It looked like he had vanished, but was that because he was being held somewhere else, or was that because of something else? What was going on here, she wondered? Monika tested her restraints, managed to break the one intended to restrain her right arm, and freed herself, determined to find her lover, and figure out what was really going on.
Her first attempt to stand up didn't fare so well, and she crashed back down on the bed. On her second attempt she somehow rolled off of the hospital style bed, and fell to the tile floor. Taking a minute to regain her strength, Monika had to use the hospital bed's framing in order to help her stand up, but she managed to make it over to MC's bed, and removed his restraints, before removing the restraints from everyone else. One thing that she had noticed was that Natsuki was a blonde, while Yuri had dark black hair. Everyone else still had their normal hair colors, of course. Monika checked to see if she could access the code as a check to see if they were still somehow in the DDLC verse, but found that she couldn't find or detect any code in the world, except in actual computers. This made Monika dare to hope that they had actually reached reality, but if that were the case, why had she and the others been strapped to hospital beds, with all sorts of leads, and other medical and other equipment attached to them?
Seeing a computer in the room with them, Monika decided to try to turn it on. When it demanded a password in order to access it, Monika tried using her coding powers on it out of force of habit. Surprisingly, it worked. The password screen went away, and Monika started accessing the files on the computer. The more of those files that she read, the more that it sickened her. Monika had learned that this was a Project Libitina facility, and that she, the other girls, and even Matt had all been an experiment for *REDACTED* years. The files only got worse from there.
Yuri, Monika, and the girls had all been kidnapped from their former lives, and put into the looping simulations as both a series of psychological experiments, as well as a form of public entertainment. Further, it seemed that all that they had just gone through with Project Libitina, the demonic creatures, and all that… had simply never happened. The real world had never been under any sort of threat from the project While Monika already knew about the public entertainment part, the rest of it came as a shock. There was a noise at the door, and the group froze in fear. What was going on here?
-TO BE CONTINUED?-