Chapter 1: Everyday

It was the day of the festival.

Monika was on the way to her club to make sure that her fellow club members were ready with their contributions for the club. She was walking across the courtyard, littered with blanched stalls stacked sequentially side-by-side, when she heard a voice from the center of the field.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?"

The brunette paused and turned back to face the source of the voice. The source was, obviously, the most important person in the world to her.

"Thank you very much, everyone!" said Wallace, Monika's boyfriend, amidst the chorus of cheers he got for standing up and speaking out. "Now I know it's early, and that not everyone is here yet, but I feel like I shouldn't take too much time with this anyway. So, I'll cut this short."

"From the power vested in me as the Student President of this prestigious High School, I hereby declare the Student End-Of-Year Festival… OPEN!"

Monika smiled as she saw the horde of masses applauding for their great president as he mentioned a few other simpler details about the festival. Wallace had done so much for their school in his short reign. Enough to send him down in time in the Hall of Fame of Alliance Private High School.

Monika unknowingly caught her boyfriend's amber eyes from the distance. The smirk he gave upon seeing her reminded the girl of the one last task she had to do.

Smiling back, she finally moved into the block to reach her clubroom.

Sure enough, she found herself in the standard third-year room that hosted the Literature Club. Pulling out the pamphlets made by herself and the corpse, she started laying them out onto the tables. As she did so, she started pondering how she would manage the club once they have only three members left.

Finishing the layout of placards, she stood back at the front of the class, admiring her work. She opened one of the spares in her hand, seeing the masterpieces in it. Masterpieces created by her dear club members.

Sayori's poem, she knew, was something that should never be read out loud. 'Well, not like anyone is ever going to read this. Other than the one that has to.'

The girl smirked upon seeing MC's poem. 'This is Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. Even a half-wit would be able to identify it.' The girl chuckled. 'Well, not like he's ever going to recite this anyway.'

Closing the pamphlet, the girl let out a soft sigh.

'Showtime.'

The door burst open, showing MC waltzing into the club balancing 4 stacked foiled trays in one hand while working the door with the other.

Monika's mouth watered a bit upon seeing the trays, only imagining the treats within. 'I'm glad he picked Natsuki. I'd like a quick snack before the reset, after all.'

"Hey, Monika. Is no one else here yet?" MC put down the trays onto the teacher's desk and scanned the room for its lack of decoration.

"Not yet." Monika smiled. "It's just us now. Say, I thought Sayori would come with you?"

MC chuckled a bit. "Yeah, that silly girl. She's probably still asleep." Monika smirked as she saw MC's expression fall a little.

"Oh? That's too bad." Monika shook her head. "It's a shame, though. You left her… hanging… this morning."

At this point, MC was paling a bit already. "I-I guess so? I-I think I should go b-back and wake her up."

Before MC could leave, Monika caught his attention one last time. "Hey, these pamphlets came out really well, you know? Do you want to see them?"

Turning back, MC hesitantly accepted the pamphlet Monika was handing over. The boy thumbed through the few pages, face masked by the cover of the highly decorated front cover and MC's dark brown hair.

Monika somehow managed to hold back her stupid laughter upon seeing MC's face drain in color as he reached the most important page of all. His pupils narrowed and his legs started to tremble. The amber-eyed boy suddenly dropped the pamphlet and dashed out of the clubroom like he had to urgently vomit.

Who knows, maybe he did have to.

Monika smiled as she sat back down in her chair. 'Now… to wait.'

'WHAT WAS I THINKING?!'

Mark Caulfield, commonly known as MC, was currently running back to his home. However, his destination wasn't his abode for video games, it was more a place were a certain coral-haired girl was fighting for her life.

'Maybe she- NO!' MC shook the negative thoughts out of his head.

However, even the dense MC couldn't be that blind. He could recognize a suicide note when he saw one.

Despite that, he was going to do everything he could to save Sayori.

However, in all honesty, he was smacking himself for not remembering her newly established girlfriend's condition. She had opened her heart to him, and he had just forgot about it like one would forget to take out the garbage.

MC made it back home but skipped ahead a block to reach his childhood friend's house. He charged into the foyer and rapidly knocked on the front door.

"Sayori! Open up, it's me!" he yelled from outside, praying that Sayori would just walk out of the house half-groggy from sleep and put a rest to his worries.

Hearing silence, the boy hesitantly tried the door handle. It was unlocked.

"I'm coming in!" he announced as he stepped into Sayori's dark hallway. Something about the silence felt… ominous.

He crept up the stairs to find Sayori's bedroom door, light shining from the space underneath.

"Sayori?" the boy knocked on the bedroom door, only to be met with a louder silence. The boy took a breath and announced again, "I'm opening the door! You better not be changing in there!"

He gently opened the door.

…

…

…

… No.

No.

No.

No.

NO.

NO.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

MC froze upon seeing the lifeless body of his girlfriend dangling from the ceiling fan by a noose tied around her neck.

'Wh-What? Why? Why did she...'

MC collapsed onto his knees, eyes blank and mouth agape.

He didn't know what to do.

This was a dream, right? A nightmare, right?

That had to be it. There's no way Sayori could go this far. She wouldn't have ever thought of leaving MC behind, all alone.

'Not alone… the Literature Club.'

MC looked up at Sayori's blood-crusted fingers as he saw everything that Sayori had done till then. She made him join the club so he wouldn't miss her. She talked about her depression earlier to let him know it wasn't his fault; it was just her thoughts being mean to her.

If only that were true.

'This is my fault after all, isn't it?' MC realized. If he were there for her a little bit more, if he hadn't wasted so much time with Natsuki in the Literature Club, maybe she would have had enough conviction to stay alive. If he had enough concern to remember Sayori's issues that morning, maybe she would have only been on the brink of death, and she could have been saved.

But now, as the useless legs swayed in front of him, MC couldn't hold his tears back. He failed her.

'No.' An estranged voice called from his mind. 'You can still save her.'

'Please!' he yelled in his head. 'I'll do anything...'

MC felt himself get up and wrap his arms around his friend's body and hoist her out of the rope holding her. As he held her body in his hands, he could feel something in his mind snap.

He screamed out, letting the anguish he was feeling through it completely.

And the world broke apart.

MC's breath hitched upon seeing the space that Sayori's room had dissipated into. A vast pool of absolute nothingness had come out of the once cheerful one that hosted Sayori.

Mc looked back down at his friend, only to see her body giving a white translucent sheen, slowly fading away.

'No.' MC thought as he wrapped his arms tighter around her. 'I don't want you to go…'

'I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO!'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a hand grabbing Sayori's shoulder, the one he wasn't resting his head on. An odd hand at that. It was gloved white with yellow studs on each knuckle. MC could see some of the figure's arm beyond that, which was a solid dark green with multicolored spots across the body of its arm that twinkled like night-sky stars.

The white glove gave off a dark green aura that spread into the figure that was once Sayori. MC released her to see what was going on.

He gasped as he saw Sayori's entire body in her hands, but now shining green. The arm that was grabbing her was coming from behind him. Turning around, he found no one standing there, much to his surprise.

Only as he turned his head back forward did he see the apparition of the arm coming out of his own shoulder. He jolted a bit as he saw the unnatural occurrence, but he didn't take it too badly. He did see his closest friend die that day, after all.

Turning back to Sayori's body, he could now see that the green light enveloping her was refilling her. As opposed to how she was fading out of existence earlier, now the green light was filling the space in her, giving her substance.

She looked alive now.

As the green hand withdrew from Sayori's spirit and withdrew back into MC, the boy felt a tug on his body. Suddenly, he was sent hurtling back into the void, with Sayori moving in away from her. A thread remained between them, however, and MC held on to that thread for dear life. He knew that Sayori was on the other end, so he didn't want to lose his last connection to her.

As he held onto the string, MC roughly tumbled through space as color slowly started to seep back into his perception.

MC jolted as the world reformed around him.

He was standing upright in his school uniform, only now he magically had his bag on his shoulders which he was sure he had left behind in the clubroom to run back to Sayori.

Taking a bearing of his surroundings, he realized he wasn't in Sayori's room anymore. He was outside his home, only a few blocks away, standing on the rough pavement of his standard path to school.

'What just happened back there?' the boy pondered.

"MC?!"

MC's heart skipped a beat as he heard the confused, yet signatured cheerful voice of his old friend. His new girlfriend if things would have gone correctly.

The boy turned around to see the coral-haired girl running up to him.

"MC?" Sayori asked with a blanched face. "What happened? What did you just do? … How am I alive?"

MC stayed silent. Here was the person he once thought was dead, now completely alive and kicking.

"MC, you're crying!" Sayori shouted, not noticing the few tears streaming out of her own eyes as well.

Before Sayori could say anything further, MC shut her up by wrapping his arms her like it was the last thing he would ever do.

"M-MC! C-Can't… breathe…" Sayori choked as he tried pushing the boy away.

MC let out a loose chuckle as she left Sayori her breathing room, letting her collect her breath in front of him. He brushed away the tears from his eyes.

"Sayori…" he finally said, "I t-thought I lost you…"

Sayori paused as well. She stood up straight and looked at MC in the eyes. "I… thought so too. I don't know how I'm alive."

"Me neither." MC admitted, gripping Sayori by her shoulders. "But Sayori… how could you even think about… doing that? Didn't you know how much you would have hurt me if you did that?"

Sayori let sorrow overtake her as MC said those words. "I couldn't stand it anymore, MC. The rainclouds, they were too loud."

"Sayori," MC reassured. "If your rainclouds ever give you trouble anymore, just let me know. I will do everything I can to chase them away. I can't see you go away again, so please accept my help."

"I k-know." Sayori nodded. "F-Funny enough, they're not so bad now, for some reason."

MC nodded as well. "I'm glad, then."

The two stayed silent as they gazed at each other.

"So, should we skip the festival?" MC finally spoke. "I mean, you did just… die… today. I think that warrants a free day."

Sayori bit her lip as she shook her head. "We put too much work into the festival. I don't want it to fail because I was too selfish."

"Are you sure?"

"Very. I can't skip out on that now that I'm alive."

MC sighed as he looked down at his watch.

"Oh shit!" MC exclaimed. "We're gonna be late!"

MC immediately grasped Sayori's hand and ran to school, a blushing Sayori in tow behind him.

Soon enough, they managed to reach the school before the gate would shut away on any normal day. They let out a breath of relief upon making it in time, as they walked to the courtyard to briefly see the festival in swing before they go to the club.

To their shock, there was nothing there.

"H-Huh?" MC asked no one in particular. He was sure he had seen stalls everywhere around here when he was coming in at first. 'When I had ignored Sayor- STOP!'

"You two!" a voice yelled out. Sayori and MC turned around to see their Hall Monitor, Reshi Sakimoto. "Why aren't you two in class?"

"S-Sorry!" MC yelped. 'Maybe something happened to the festival to push it back, and now we have classes?' MC thought. "We'll be there!"

"Good. Make it quick. You're lucky the first bell hasn't rung yet, or I would be writing you two up right now." Sakimoto pushed his metal glasses up on his angular face, slightly covering his blue hair and dark eyes. "As a reminder, Tuesday's timetable, both of you."

'Tuesday? But isn't today Monday?' MC pondered as he walked into school block and waved goodbye to Sayori. 'Guess that's another change for the festival.'

Math class. The biggest hell in existence. Lucky for him, according to Tuesday's timetable, Math was right before lunch, so he would have a modicum of relief after this.

'Modicum? Looks like the literature club is rubbing off on me.'

He had basically dozed through the previous classes, along with this one. He couldn't focus, after all, not after everything that happened that day.

"Mr. Caulfield? Can I ask you to pay attention, please?"

MC perked up to the sound of students giggling around him.

"Thank you. Now, could you please step up and answer this question for us?"

MC was about to relent and say that he didn't know how, but he then saw the question on the board.

'Find the roots of the polynomial… wait, I was asked this exact same question last week!'

MC found himself standing up and walking to the board for once, much to his teacher's confusion. Accepting the marker from his teacher's hand, he looked back up at the question.

'He gave this thing's answer back then, right? What was it again…?'

Upon remembering, MC quickly wrote the numbers 4 and 6 on the board.

"W-What?" the teacher asked. "Aren't you going to do the working?"

MC turned to his teacher. "I did it all in my head," he bullshitted. In reality, he hadn't remembered the technique, which was some massive formula. All he remembered was the final answer.

His teacher beamed. "Well, color me impressed, Mr. Caulfield! It's good to know that you are finally catching up. Hopefully, you will be able to do better in my next pop quiz." The teacher briefly ruffled the boy's dark brown hair and he took the marker back. MC jerked his head out of his teacher's touch and walked back to his desk, ignoring the surprised looks the rest of the class was giving him.

As he sat back down on his desk with his teacher explaining the working for him, he could only think of one thing.

'What the hell was that?'

Lunch came quickly after that incident, and not soon after he made it out of his class did he see Sayori running up to him.

"MC, come with me!"

The coral-haired girl grabbed MC's hand and pulled him into one of the empty classrooms.

"What is it, Sayori?" MC asked.

Sayori turned back to him. "Seriously, what did you do to us? None of this makes sense! One minute I'm dead and the next I'm propelled back here? This is all so bizarre!"

MC started pushing his hands out, trying to calm the girl in front of him. "Sayori, what are you talking about?"

"Didn't you notice?"

MC shook his head, to which Sayori pointed at the board behind him.

"Look at the date."

Surely enough, MC turned back and noticed that this was one of those classes that regularly updated the date on their whiteboards.

'February 20th, Tuesday? But the festival is on Monday, the 26th…'

MC blanched as it finally hit him. Why the question earlier had been so similar.

It was because it was the exact same question as he had answered a week ago. There was nothing different about it. But for his teacher, however, it was the first time he had ever asked that question to anyone.

"Sayori…" MC finally spoke, "did we seriously travel back in time?"

Sayori nodded once again. "MC, seriously, what did you do?"

A/N: I don't care what you say. DDLC isn't dead so long as the modding community thrives.

And here I am writing fanfiction about it instead because I am too socially inadept to make connections and too broke to find artists for CG for an actual mod.

To those of you who've read my other story Ascension, I know I said that I had a lot of classwork in this period of time. However, this ieda was stumbling around in my brain so much that I haven't even started a major coding assignment due in three days. I had to get this out of my head somehow, which is why this story was born so soon.

I haven't confirmed all the details of this story in my head yet, so know that there can be major edits to this story in the future.

MC's real name in this story, Mark Caulfield, is an homage to Life is Strange's Max Caulfield. Some of you might have noticed that little tidbit already. As for why? You'll see about that next chapter when MC's newly awoken stand is fully introduced.

Also, I know I've uploaded this in crossovers, but I'm pretty sure I won't get much of an audience here. So I'm actually wondering if I should crosspost this as a purely DDLC fic as well. Don't get me wrong, I don't really care much about audience, what was important to me was that I get this idea out of my head. But I'd still like a little recognition every now and then. If you think I should post this in DDLC, please let me know. The only detail taken from JoJo's in this is Stands and nothing else. Maybe I'd introduce Hamon at some point as well, who knows?

Anyway, that's all for this. Don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts. I'll see you all next chapter.