Prologue

POV of James

I stared at the credits of DDLC for a 5th time. This time was also special to me by having all 10 pictures colored, which indicated that I'll have the letter from Dan Slavato instead of that bittersweet letter from Monika.

"Well, I did it guys!" I announced to my three Discord friends Michael, Robert and Santiago. They were watching my stream for a while now. "Yup, ya did it this time. I wonder what the letter will look like," Santiago answered first.

"Hey! What is that?!" Michael asked. Naturally, he is the first one of us, who finds out strange things, but a slight change in music was expected, due to DDLC being a psychotic horror.

"Hah! Michael's CS:GO precognition skills are on alert from a small shift in music!" Robert mocked Michael in a joking tone. "Guys… I think that Michael was true. That letter is glitched," I interrupted their little talk with a serious tone in my voice.

Soon enough, they see too, that some letters are replaced by black and white squares. Some of them even had some outlines of Sayori's hanging sprite. "What the…?! Is this some kind of joke?" Santiago asked.

"I don't think so…" I answered and watched the game close. "I have a bad feeling about this," Michael added his own nervousness to our mood. "Okay guys. I'm going to end the stream. It's getting late here!" I announced to my friends and moved my mouse to click on the "hang up" option on Discord.

But, before I even managed to click on the button, DDLC opened again. This time, it greeted me with a creepy version of the instrumental Your reality cover. "What the…?!" I shouted with my friends in unison.

How is that possible?! The .chr files are needed to be reinstalled for the game to work! I thought and tried to close the game by bashing the ESC button. The only effect that it made was a creepier version of Your reality.

"Hey James! What are you doing?!" Robertdemanded to know. "I'm trying to turn it off!" I answered, when I tried the Windows button and the main switch. Surprise surprise, it hadn't worked at all.

The cover suddenly turned into an earrape version of the creepy Your reality and the screen started to shine in a blinding white, that even put Roblox's white lights into shame.

Yeah… I tried playing Roblox once, but that was long ago. "James?! Can you at least try to lower the desktop's lighting?" Michael asked. "I tried turning the PC off, but it's still running. Even the Windows and ESC buttons don't work, so I can't get the light to the lowest setting," I stated with fear easily hearable from my voice.

The light grew even worse, to the level of completely blinding a person and the earrape started with literally raping our ears to the point of almost tearing the eardrums apart.

And after that, I finally blacked out and knew nothing more about my surroundings.

POV of Michael

My head hurt like hell, when I soke up again from my unconscious state. And I immediately knew that something was off. First thing being me lying on a bit too much comfy bed for me.

The second thing was the big collection of games and manga on shelves, that were near a nice TV, that was on a wall. This room is familiar, I thought and got up. Strangely, I still had my shirt and pants from my room on myself.

My head still hurt, so I took small steps towards the whitish door, that I saw just a moment before. I opened the door and peeked out.

Luckily, "my" room was the nearest to the stairs, so I decided to search downstairs first. I should find some aspirin and my friends before heading out, I planned and slowly went out of the room.

To my disappointment, there were yet another doors. I sighed and tried the nearest one of them, unnoticing, that the floor creaked a few moments ago.

POV of Santiago

I woke up in a completely unfamiliar room. It had some shelves, closets, a nightstand and my bed inside. Also, it hadn't the Mexican style of room and that was a change for me.

Where am I? I asked myself and looked again at the nightstand. My eyes almost fell out from their sockets. There was a photo of an unfamiliar person and… Sayori from DDLC smiling in front of an unfamiliar statue.

Strange. I never saw a pic like that. Not even was created on Photoshop… Oh hell no! I am stuck in DDLC! I realised and almost jumped out from the bed.

That wasn't a good idea. A strong ache erupted in my head and I started falling towards the floor.

Luckily, most of my body fell on the bed, but I still had to shield my head from making contact with it. So, I slowly stood up and went to the nearby brown door.

I gently opened the door and saw Michael searching for something in the room next to mine. I went out and sneaked up on him.

When I was only four feet from him, I smiled. "Oh, hey Mich!" I shouted and smirked as my headache made itself almost unbearable.

He jumped in surprise and turned to me with a pained expression on his face. "Haha… Very funny, Santi," he said and turned back to rummage more in the room.

Luckily, it was a bathroom. But, there wasn't the First Aid Kit, like it should be. "This is pointless. We'll never find it," I stated, when I peeked further into the room.

"So, how does a cup of tea or coffee sound?" Michael asked me. "Sounds good," I answered and let him go out of the bathroom.

We both marched out from the room and I stared at the stairs. "I think that we should check it upstairs after the coffee or tea," I muttered and turned back, only to see Michael opening the furthest door from the bathroom.

POV of Michael

I opened the door and sighed in relief. It was the living room, so a kitchen should be nearby. I looked around and saw it. Damn. Robert will surely pass out, when he sees this, I thought.

I easily distinguished the fridge and microwave from the rest of the furniture. So, I tried some random shelves and found some tea. "I found tea!" I shouted, but soon my smile faded.

I never learned Japanese and now, there I saw the Japanese runes. I don't understand this bullshit! I thought and grabbed two sacks blindly from an already opened box.

Luckily, Santiago prepared the water, so I dropped the tea sacks into it. "Now, we'll wait for the tea to finish," Santiago stated and went back to the living room.

"Guard the tea. I'll try to find an American channel on that TV!" my Mexican friend continued and laughed. I rolled my eyes and stared at the tea.

Man, that was BORING! I never did it and had nothing to kill the time. Santiago, I'll kill you, I thought and looked into the living room. He really searched for a channel there, but only Japanese and Chinese ones popped up.

"Isn't there Netflix?" I asked out of boredom. Santiago stared back at me. "I think so," he answered back immediately and laughed. "BINGO! It is there!" he shouted at me.

I smiled. At least something, that haves an English language option in that stupid TV. I looked back at the tea. I could tell that it was almost done, because the water had a light green color now.

I grabbed the tea cups and went with them to the living room. "And spoons? You don't expect us drinking the tea with the sack inside, right?" Santiago pointed out and I facepalmed.

Suddenly, I heard someone banging on the nearby front door. The banging soon changed into the sound of the door being forcefully opened by a FBI-like kick.

And I stared in disbelief at the person who came in. The person did the same. 'Who are you?! Where is MC?! And is Yuri there?! I see cups of tea,' she said in Japanese.

POV of Santiago

I stared with an open mouth at Sayori. She was cute in the game, but now, she was beautiful. She spoke in Japanese, but I understood that she asked something about MC and Yuri.

"Uhh… Who is this 'Yuri' guy?" I asked and got a surprised look from both her and Michael. "You understand Japanese?" he demanded to know and I did a 'no' gesture.

Sayori was even more confused after that. "You speak English? I don't understand you well," she announced with a heavy accented English.

We both nodded and she suddenly got her usual smile back. It grew even wider and she waved her hand at someone or something behind us.

I turned and saw that guy from the photo. He seemed to have an even worse headache than us and was supported by another person. That one was Robert.

So, James looks like that. I wonder why he replaced MC, I thought and looked back at Sayori. She suddenly darted towards him and got him into a tight and big bear hug. Poor guy hissed in pain and Sayori released him afterwards. 'MC! What happened to you?' she asked him with worry in her voice.

'Just a headache. I think that I watched too much Netflix with my friends,' he answered back in Japanese. "W-wait! You know Japanese?!" Robert asked before I or Michael even noticed it. James looked at him with a confused look. "No. I don't know more than 10 words. Why are you asking, Robert?" was the answer from James.

I heard a body hitting the floor and saw Sayori unconscious lying on it. "Well, she fainted now. What will we do with her now?" I demanded to know from him, because James was the one who played DDLC more times than the rest of us combined. James looked at me with a serious stare and kneeled before Sayori.

'RISE AND SHINE!' he shouted at her after a few seconds. Sayori bolted up and had a bit of a confused look in her eyes. "Sayori… I need to tell you something," James started in English, so we could understand him. "These three are foreign students that are going to study at our school. I spoke English a lot, so I almost forgot Japanese," he finished and hugged Sayori.

I won't lie, if I tell, that I felt jealous at that moment. Sayori seemed to don't mind the hug and almost started crying. 'Why didn't you tell me before, you Meanie! I was worried about you, when you didn't show up today to make me something to eat!' she said angrily and tried to leave the hug, but only for a split second. 'But, you're still my childhood friend. I am not mad at you.' she finished and started crying.

"Guys? And what about our money? We still need to buy that aspirin and some food, but we don't seem to have any Yen," I pointed out the obvious thing. "There is an Exchange point nearby. Just a few hundred feet away." Sayori answered quickly. "Okay, so I'll go with our money there and exchange it with Yen." Michael said.

I turned to him and gave him my 2 000 Pesos, while James slowly reached for his left pocket and gave to him 200 worth of some currency, that I never saw before.

Michael nodded in silent thanks and went out of the house. Suddenly, Robert rushed to him and gave him some dollars.

And, before you ask me, why do we have that money on us… I'll tell you. James had them with him to pay some kind of membership, Michael and Robert just had them buy lunch for the next few days and me… Well, those were my money that I got from a job and I planned to use them on buying some school supplies.

POV of Robert

I came back to the house and saw Sayori and James still hugging each other. I smirked knowingly at Santiago, which grinned back. I immediately knew from that stare, that he wants Sayori as his waifu.

"Ehm, ehm!" I cleared up my throat and got the attention from them. "Guys, can I ask, where is some other food, than seafood and rice? I don't have much experience with making Japanese food," I announced and got a smirk from James.

"So, you NEVER experienced Chef Sayori, then…" he stated jokingly and got lightly punched by Sayori. 'Hmph… Meanie," she said after that and looked away from him.

That reaction only drew laug from James and surprisingly even from Santiago. Santiago had a jealous stare in his eyes, so I immediately knew that he loves the always hungry girl. I smiled at the scene, but got instantly reminded by my stomach, that I should better start cooking something and right now.

"Ehm, ehm!" I cleared up my throat and got their attention almost instantly. "I am going to cook something. Do you have something else besides rice and seafood here? My cooking skills are really bad, when it comes to Japanese food," I announced and looked straight at James.

He suddenly got a typical 'remembering' stare for a second. That one looked like he spaced off. "I have only rice and seafood here, but you can experiment a bit with it," he said after a while and tried to leave Sayori's hug, but she held him tightly on the spot and refused to let him go.

"Sayori… will you please release me?" James asked the girl and she (hesitantly) did so. 'You almost broke my ribs!' he continued in Japanese and slowly stood up. I got that as my mark to get the food prepared to be soon turned into a masterpiece (as Michael says it does, when I cook).

I went to the kitchen and found the seafood in the fridge, alongside some kind of a vegetable. The rice was on the nearby shelf. I took it and some fish from the fridge and prepared myself to make the food. At least, I don't have the 'Kiss the cook' apron… That will be humiliating for me to wear it, I thought and smiled.

And as I know Michael, he'll probably stay outside for a long time, if he sees a girl. So, it's pointless to make a portion for him.

POV of Michael

I walked for a few minutes along the whole street, because Sayori didn't say the general direction to the Exchange. She'll pay for this! I thought and noticed a small shop that had (luckily) big yellow EXCHANGE written on the window.

I went in and saw a man in his middle forties. He was clearly Japanese, because of his height and eyes. He was small and had those typical Mongolian-like eyes. 'Konichiwa, young man. What do you need?' he asked in Japanese. I stared at him for a second. "I don't understand," I answered with confusion in my voice.

The man stared back, trying to process my words and turned to the near door that was behind him. 'Moni! Dear, will you come here? I need your assistance!' he shouted. Who the hell is Moni… Oh no! I thought and suddenly, shivers were running down my spine. Of all people, I had to run into Monika herself… Sayori, NOW you'll pay for giving me more information! I silently threatened the Genki girl and forced myself to mask my fear.

I did just on time. Monika came in and smiled at me with an innocent smile. "Oh, you're from the Student Exchange program? I can see that you're not from here," she said in perfect English. That caught me completely unaware. "I am here to exchange these money." I answered and got the money from my left pocket.

"Hmmm… That is quite a lot Yen for you. I think that it's around 70 000." the Literature club president said, when she just looked at it. 'Dad, he came here with 525 $, 200 CZK and 2 000 Mex$.' she translated what she said to the man. He nodded and opened the tresor, next to the counter. 'So, we have here… 57 750 Yen for $, 1 000 for CZK and 10 000 for Mex$,' he counted, when he laid the money on the counter. I took them, thanked them and went out. Damn. That was a close call, I thought as I walked back to MC's house.