Monika should've trusted her instinct and intervened.

"Cute?" A loud voice replied, completely overwhelming the opposition "Did you completely miss the symbolism or something?"

Yep, she should've intervened before the fire even started.

"It's clearly about the feeling of giving up, how can that be cute?" The short girl barraged the taller with questions, her preferred way of winning an argument.

"I-I know that!" The purple-hair girl answered, her voice raising in volume. "I just meant… The language, I guess…" To which immediately dropped down to an almost whisper. "I was trying to say something nice…"

"Eh?" Natsuki's left eye twitched. "You mean you have to try that hard to come up with something nice to say?" Her nostril flared. "Thanks, but it really didn't come out nice at all!"

At this point, both Monika and Sayori glanced at the pair, then she turned towards Monika.

"Should we stop them? I-I don't want them to fight" Monika shook her head.

"I think that if we go in now, we would only be pushed aside" Sayori nodded "However, if things start to get out of hand, we will have to"

"If you say so" As she turned back to both of them, she saw Natsuki pointed her finger at her.

"-right, Sayori?" Sayori jumped, not expecting to be dragged into their arguments

"W-W-What?"

"You liked my poem, right Sayori?" Sayori quickly nodded, causing Natsuki to cross her arm with a grin

"So based on that, I'll gladly give you some suggestions of my own" She raised her index finger. "First of all-"

Yuri raised her hand, pausing Natsuki.

"Excuse me…" Yuri stood up from her seat, now towering over Natsuki. "I appreciate the offer, but I've spent a long time establishing my writing style. I don't expect it to change anytime soon, unless of course I come across something particularly inspiring. Which I haven't yet" Her unconfident demeanor is now all gone, replaced with a cold stare.

"Nnnghh…!" Natsuki grabbed her hair, her beautiful pink bangs now ruffled. Her knuckles turned white due to anger.

"Perhaps you are simply jealous that they-" Yuri whipped her head towards the other girls. "-like my sophisticated writing style more than you"

Natsuki stood up, not having any more of this.

"Huh! And how do you know that they didn't like my writing style more? Are you that full of yourself?" If she wasn't yelling before, then she is now.

"Oh dear" Monika sighed before walking towards both of them, Sayori followed behind.

"Oh please," Yuri puts her hand over her chest in a mocking manner. "If I was full of myself, I would deliberately go out of my way to make everything I do overly cutesy!"

As soon as those words left her mouth, her mind was flooding with images in rapid succession of Natsuki frowning and mouthing something. Then, she saw something bizarre. Suddenly, her body was engulfed in a bright, pink flame. Then, she saw a tall figure with black and gold armor manifest out of nowhere and punch her stomach. Her eyes widened.

"Wh-What is this? What am I seeing?"

Natsuki growled before her brow furrowed. She stepped toward Yuri, to which she stepped back.

"Why you…!" Her eyes are full of anger and determination. And like what Yuri saw, her body was now engulfed in a bright, pink flame. But it doesn't seem that Natsuki noticed this. She turned towards Monika and Sayori, both now stopped dead in their tracks. Could they see this as well?

For Monika, even though outside she kept her calm demeanor, inside her mind was racing a million miles per hour.

"How did Natsuki-? There's no way that she can do that. Can they also see that?"

Her train of thoughts were interrupted when she felt Sayori tugging at her sleeve.

"Monika, w-what is that?" Monika turned towards her; mouth slightly agape.

"Sayori as well?"

They all stood there, waiting for something. Yuri's breathing started to pick up. Then, it happened. As the outline of some sort of tall humanoid with a powerful build quickly appeared in front of her, she froze. Within seconds, that thing became opaque enough for her to see. Its inky black skin would've blended itself to the shadow, if it weren't for golden plates covered throughout its body, reflecting the afternoon sunlight that shone from outside. With a face that only showed an angry expression.

Natsuki gasped, not understanding of what she just done, her eyes widened in fear.

"W-What-" She didn't finish her sentence as that thing rushed towards Yuri, who just snapped out of her frozen state.

"Shit! I'm too late!"

"DORA!" It cried as its fist collided with Yuri, who due to her vision, used both of her arms to block the area that it would punch. The force of it was stronger than anything she'd ever felt in her life. She coughed up blood before being launched back by the force.

"Yuri!" She heard Natsuki yell and saw tears form in her eyes. She would've collided at the back of the class any second now, and she feared that it would be fatal. As she braced herself from the impact, she heard Monika yelled.

"Dark Tower!" Her eyes widened.

"You too, Monika?!"

She saw Monika, body wreathed in green flame, then she felt a ghostly hand swiped through her body. And she saw everything around her slowly crumbled, consumed by a black void. Before she herself stop moving; still horizontal. She felt her body was weightless, when she tried moving her legs, it only resulted in her spinning herself in a circle. She felt nauseated, and the endless void that she found herself doesn't help her either.

===๐===

Back in the classroom, Natsuki started to sob after seeing her friend disappear out of thin air. She looked at Sayori, who had her hands covering her mouth. She then turned to Monika, whose eyes shifted from Sayori, to her, and to that thing, she also had the ghost with her. Finally, she took a look at the ghost that appeared. Its eyes swept from side to side, looking for a battle, yet made no attempt to move. She can felt its sheer power radiating from it, and when she turned to the girls, it seemed that she wasn't the only one.

"M-Monika," Natsuki stuttered, trying to control her sobbing. "What is happening? W-Where is Yuri?" She questioned, to which Monika looked at her and gently spoke.

"Alright, Natsuki, I will explain everything" Monika put her hand on her shoulder, trying to calm the now frightened girl. "But first, please call your stand back first. So that I can bring back Yuri"

"My what?

"Your stand," she pointed towards the ghost. "You were the one that summoned it, so you are the only one that can call it back" She looked at Monika, disbelieving.

"Bu-But, how am I supposed to do that when I-I didn't even know how?" She asked. Monika crouched down to meet Natsuki at eye level.

"Listen to me, alright? All you need to do is calm yourself down, and think that the threats are gone" Natsuki nodded, she then remembered what Yuri had said to her.

When I panicked or needed to recollect my thoughts, I closed my eyes, breathed in and out rhythmically, and counted from one to ten. You should try it.

So that's what she did. She closed her eyes, breathed in and out, but instead of counting, she repeated "there is no threat" in mind. After a full minute of concentrating, she opened her eyes to see the ghost slowly turning transparent before completely disappearing. She sighed in relief.

"Great job, Natsuki" Monika reassured her. "Dark Tower, released" She ordered. The ghost, which Natsuki didn't know why it needed a name, picked up a black rook from the ground where Yuri used to be and threw it in the air.

"ORA!" Dark Tower cried before raising its fist and breaking the chess piece. As it cracked and dissolved, Yuri popped back into existence mid-air before falling to the floor with a thud.

"Ow…" She rubbed her head, before putting her hand over her mouth. The effects of sudden gravity made her want to puke. But before she had the chance to puke, Natsuki dove in and hugged her, sniffing.

"Y-Yuri! I-I'm so sorry it was my fault!" She wailed. "I-I didn't mean to punch you, I l-lost control of myself. Please forgive me!" Yuri blinked; did she get back to the right reality? That question aside, she hugged Natsuki back before combing her hair, trying to calm the poor girl down.

"Shh… shh… It wasn't your fault. I-It was partially my fault as well for causing you to lose your temper like that… I-I know how much you don't like being called 'cute' so my apologies for that" Yuri cooed with a soothing voice. She could feel Natsuki slowly calm down her breathing and sniffling.

"So…" Sayori clapped her hands together "Can someone explain what's going on?" Sayori sheepishly asked.

"Yeah, I can" Monika answered, both Yuri and Natsuki now turned to her. "And be prepared, it'll be quite… bizarre"

Author's Note:

Hey, it's been… almost 3 months since I wrote a story. Because to be honest, I was burnt out, I just didn't want to write anymore. Then I stumbled upon DDLC and I love it. And the idea of this slightly-crack-but-not-so-crack fic came from totally random thoughts, and I can't get it out of my mind. Since it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, don't expect a constant update. Anyways, please enjoy.

Cheers

- Hector