Chapter 19: A Poem of Me and You

The world was white.

MC was in the middle of it, in the vast expanse of nothingness. Despite everything, however, he still remembered the place.

'Memory?' he pondered. 'Why am I here once again? I hadn't used Load Save last night.'

Negative sparks began to break through in a patch of space in front of him. Suddenly, a void of black diffused out into the world, forming a dark realm that seemed to meld with the white purity of the memory realm.

From the darkness, stepped out a girl who at first sight, would have seemed to be invisible in the white light. Her skin was deathly pale, with her body as thin as bone. She was as tall as Yuri and carried herself in a similar poise. Her hair flowed behind her, as long as Monika's, icy white. Her eyes, however, were closed.

Her white form within the darkness. MC's dark haired body within the white. Standing opposite each other, comprehending each other for the first time and the hundredth time.

"You may have succeeded in avenging me," her voice melodically, yet monotonously, sounded, her words striking an odd chord in MC's heart. "Yet you have lost just as much. The Man of Two, The Perfect Human, is now lost. You seek to achieve perfection independent, a fool's dream."

MC tried to reply but found that he couldn't form words. However, for some reason, he seemed to remember this girl, in an oddly distant memory that he could never remember.

Suddenly the girl opened her eyes, revealing pearly white orbs within. She had no iris nor pupil; it was the white eye of what never was.

"Hark, hear my words, half-soul!" she shouted, gazing straight into his soul with the white orbs where her eyes were supposed to be. "Your path is shown in my time. Your path is shown in my tome."

As the girl started to walk up to him, MC suddenly remembered a name that he could never remember.

"Elyssa…" MC managed to voice out, barely being louder than her footsteps.

Slowly, with the whites and the blacks merging, Elyssa gently rested a caring hand on MC's cheek. For some reason, MC couldn't help but shiver at her deathly cold touch and her slender fingers tracing his jawline.

"Search for me," she whispered to him as she neared her head to his ear and breathed into it. "And once again, open your third eye."

With a tap to the forehead space between his eyes, MC was sent spiraling back into the dark starry universe where Load Save operated, no longer within memory.

"YAGGH!"

MC gasped as he shot out of his bed. Taking heavy breaths, he slowly regarded his current state.

The bed that he was lying on was completely drenched in sweat.

Regarding the dirty nature of his bed, MC groaned as he fell back onto his pillow. "More work for me to do…" he muttered to himself. Secretly, however, he was glad that he decided not to sleep in his uniform like he had always done.

"What the hell was that dream…?" MC let out a heavy breath as he tilted his head to the side and reached for his phone. Waking it up as well, he crossed his eyes as he saw that he woke up a minute before his alarm.

Suddenly, the 59 turned to 00, and the phone in his hand started blaring loudly, jarring his ears.

"Argh, stop it!" MC yelled out as he scrambled to unlock his phone and shut off his alarm. Whining querulously, he forced himself up off his bed to perform his daily morning rituals.

After all, he had a long day ahead of him. No time to waste on mere dreams.

"Day One," he called out, now relieved to see his trusty Stand beside him. After calling out the Stand the previous night, he found that he could summon it once again, although he yellow bars on its chest were dull. Now, they were as bright and lively as ever. MC, at that moment, deduced that it was a form of cooldown assigned to his ability to reverse time.

Smiling, he gently pressed the third slot on his Stands chest to be sure if her was correct about his assumptions. After attempting to do so the previous night, nothing was registering. However, this time, the slot lit up and the current time and date became imprinted onto the slot.

Keshugi Yowaida's day was as it always was. Boring.

He breezed through his classes, not bothering to really listen to everything. After all, why listen to those weaker than him in the first place?

As the lunch bell rang, he ruffled through the wallet in his pocket, then squinted as he noticed his lack of money.

He slowly got up from his seat and walked to the plebian that he would regularly coax money out of whenever needed.

After all, the weak didn't need to live. It was survival of the fittest.

As the boy cowered at his approaching presence, his path was suddenly interrupted as another weakling, although a tall one, stepped into his way.

"Out of my way," he said, having to look up to see him.

Sighing, the boy with the sandy hair and olive eyes slowly walked away. However, they also pulled along his money source as they walked out, ignoring his light stupid whelping.

Yowaida grit his teeth as he saw what he was attempting to do. This was why, as he left the room, he drew out Rockabye and decided to give him hell.

However, he hadn't spotted the network of skin forming under his feet. The next thing he knew, he was lying in a pool of his own extended flesh.

'What… the hell happened…?' he pondered as he found himself losing consciousness.

Reshi Sakimoto was not having a good day.

One moment, the school's Hall Monitor was admonishing some runners during lunch break. The next, he was walking towards a short pink haired girl wondering why she was calling him.

That was probably why he was currently suspended midair, Stupid Deep frozen beside him as well.

"Sweet Victory," Natsuki said with a grin as Sakimoto quickly faded away into darkness after he felt a hundred immense punches cave into his stomach all at once.

Monika held her standard smile as she walked into the library. This may have been a deviation in her script, but if it helped her goals, then she would gladly do it.

As she approached the desk in which Yuri would normally sit, she stood still as she found that the purple-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.

'Where could she be?' she thought, looking around the rest of the library. 'Could she know? Has MC reached her? Does she have a Stand as well?'

Monika shook her head from the odd doubts filling in.

'No matter,' she decided. 'They're more obstacles in my path. I will take care of them sufficiently, for myself and for Him.'

As she turned away, she almost hit a familiar person head on.

"Oh, MC!" she said, wearing her face of cheer like always before she could collide with him. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing much, Monika," he replied. However, Monika could sense that his smile was somewhat strained. "I was just looking for Yuri. I thought she'd be here."

"Odd that you say that," Monika replied. "I was looking for her here too. It seems that our clubmates are all rather predictable, aren't they?"

MC chuckled, but it sounded incredibly forced. "Well, I guess so," he replied. "I mean, I am seeing the others a lot more lately."

"Oh?" Monika quirked a brow in surprise. "Why is that?"

"Well," MC replied with his still strained smile. "I accidentally met Natsuki and her mom yesterday."

"Oh, that's – wait," Monika's expression suddenly fell. "Her mom? I thought she lived with her dad?"

"No, it was her mom," MC replied. "I don't know about her dad, though. Anyway, I heard she was really busy today, so she would be at work the whole day."

"Huh," Monika said back. "Tell me, why are you saying this to me?"

"I dunno," MC shrugged, even though his shoulders seemed too tight for it. "Just conversation, I guess. I'll meet you back at the club, yeah?"

Monika smiled and nodded, like always. "Of course! I hope you wrote a poem today."

"What do you take me for?" MC chuckled as he turned to her. Suddenly, a dark aura flooded his eyes, as Monika sensed a barely repressed bloodlust. "I'm sure my poem will be so good that you could die."

Ignoring his flash of insanity, Monika smiled back at him. "I'll be looking forward to reading it, then."

Losing the madness, MC nodded as well. "Great! I'll meet you then! You better not be late!"

MC slowly walked away, finally letting his wide toothy grin break out from his excitement. All unseen, yet assumed by Monika who was still standing behind him.

The bell rang. Classes were over for the day. The only thing left was the Literature Club.

For obvious reasons, no one other than Monika bothered to write a poem that day.

Sayori caught up to MC as he walked to the clubroom, seeing that he was barely able to contain his excitement.

"MC…" she spoke to him, making him slowly turn back to her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Okay?" MC shot back as he faced ahead again. "I've never been better, Sayori. I'd been waiting for this for so long, after all."

Sayori, pressing her eyes shut, firmly clasped MC's shoulder to stop him. Confused at the interruption, he turned back to his girlfriend.

"What is it?" he asked with a grumble, not bothering to hide his irritation. "We have things to do. Can't you save your sass for another day?"

"No, I can't," Sayori firmly said, steeling her gaze at MC. MC widened his eyes in surprise.

"Do you realize," Sayori continued. "How much you're sounding like Yuri when she was insane?"

Shaking his head in irritation, he shrugged. "I don't care, Sayori," he replied. "We have to stop her now. I'm doing this for all of you."

"And that's just like Natsuki's Dad!" retorted Sayori. "Honestly, MC, it's like you've embodied everyone we've faced till now! Y-You're scaring me…"

MC, not wanting to bother with the interruption anymore, gritted his teeth. "It doesn't matter!" he yelled back, shoving Sayori's hand off him. "We need to kill Monika. After everything she's done, she doesn't deserve any less."

"Kill…?" Sayori nervously echoed as MC walked away from her. The coral haired girl quickly scampered over to him, ignoring her blazer billowing behind her.

"MC, please listen to me!" Sayori yelled at him. "You need to control yourself! Please, don't do something you'll regret!"

"Oh, I won't regret this at all, Sayori," MC said with an unnaturally guttural laugh as he kept up his pace. "I've wanted this for a while, now. This is what is best for us."

As Sayori tried to intervene again, JoJo appeared out of nowhere past the curve.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

MC grinned. "Never been more so," he hungrily replied.

Smirking, JoJo pointed to the other end of the hallway they were in, which is where the Literature Club was situated. "There lies our goal," he recited. "With this, I will have finally fulfilled my destiny."

"And I," MC continued their ritual wearing his new constant grin. "Will pay her back for everything she's done."

Sayori shivered from behind them, hesitantly following as they marched forward. 'This… is not going to go well, isn't it?' she realized.

"Hi again, MC!" Monika cheered as he walked in, with JoJo and Sayori trailing behind him. "Glad to see you didn't run away on us, haha! Oh, and who's this?"

MC quickly wore his constant mask while presenting JoJo. "This is-"

"Geoff Joster," he quickly introduced himself, interrupting MC. Walking up to Monika, he gently accepted her outstretched hand to shake it. "It's good to meet you. I assume you're the President of this club?"

"Yes, I am, Geoff," Monika replied.

"Oh, please, call me JoJo," he waved her off, letting her hand go. "MC has told me a lot about you."

"All good things, I hope?" Monika asked.

JoJo chuckled. "Well, a little bit of both, actually," he falsely admitted.

"That's relieving," Monika shot back. "And what brings you here?"

"Well," JoJo sighed. "I'm just here to see how the club is. You see, I've got trouble with identifying social cues, and I'd like a place where I can overcome that. When MC talked to me about a club of only five members, I knew I had to join."

While JoJo was talking to Monika, MC and Sayori went up to the other girls who were all standing by the wall, their bags dropped besides them against a wall.

"Are you guys ready?" MC asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Natsuki quickly nodded, letting her determination show on her face.

"I-I-I think s-so," Yuri replied, still quivering.

Sayori, however, took a moment. "I'm going to talk to her first," she declared.

"Sayori, please," MC sighed and turned to her. "How many times do I have to tell you-"

"I don't care," Sayori shook her head, not letting her comments get brushed down. "If there is even a chance of saving her, then I'll take it. If I fail, you're free to kill her."

MC shook his head in frustration. "You mean when you fail," he added. "Alright sure. Just know that I'm not going to let her mess with you all before that, however."

Sayori nodded as she looked ahead. "Thank you."

Soon, Monika walked up them all. "Okay, everyone!" Monika called out. "I'm glad to say that we've got a new member for today! His name is-"

"We know who he is, Monika," Natsuki replied, simply nodding to JoJo. The sandy-haired boy nodded back.

"O-Oh, well that's wonderful then!" Monika replied.

Turning to MC, Natsuki said. "Are we going to do it now?"

MC looked at Monika one last time, then nodded.

"Yeah, let's start."

"Start what?" Monika asked innocently.

"Monika," MC started, stepping up to her. "I've spent three weeks in the Literature Club. And in all that time, I've come to realize something. You and Mess is Mine, you've been hurting every single one of us. Changing our minds, making us do things we don't want to, making us experience things we never want to. Now, however, all that will come to a close."

"We've decided that this is your time, Monika," MC continued. "Day One."

The green Stand emerged from behind MC, widening Monika's eyes at the sudden arrival of it.

Natsuki stepped up next. "You know, after everything you've done to us," she said. "I can't ever forgive you. Moving the manga to another shelf is one thing. But this? I never expected this from you, Monika. Sweet Victory."

Yuri took a hesitant step after her. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself like always. "I may not be particularly strong, but I cannot restrain my anger against you, Monika, for driving me insane. The Knife."

Sayori chose not to say anything in particular. "Take Me to Church," was all she said, letting her red and white Stand emerge from behind her amidst all the other Stands.

Monika took a wary step back at the display of Stands in front of her. Gently, she turned her head to the remaining outlier in the class.

"I'm a Joestar, Monika," JoJo said. "It is my destiny to eradicate evil such as yourself. Renegades."

"Monika," Sayori finally said. "You may have driven me to suicide, but I still want to believe that something about you is fair. That you know that we didn't deserve this. So please, Monika, tell us why you did all this."

Monika looked at the five Stands in front of her, then unexpectedly chuckled. "Why?" she replied with a light sneer. "The answer to that is rather simple. I wanted to break MC."

"Huh?" the boy in question was taken aback by her incredibly abrupt and odd response.

"Yes, I want to break you," Monika said, lightly licking her lips. "I can see that you're nearing your wit's end, and that's good. With you broken, I will be one step closer to going back to how things once were."

"What are you talking about, Monika?!" Sayori insisted. "You're not making any sense!"

"The Perfect Human, that's what I'm talking about," Monika replied. "If I can break MC, then I can bring the Perfect Human back to life."

"The… Perfect Human?" MC took a wary step back, eyes widened in surprise as he remembered his dream. "The Man of Two?"

Monika suddenly dropped her jaw in surprise. "You're remembering… ahaha!" Monika cheered. "Yes, MC. The Man of Two, The Perfect Human, they are the greatest being on earth. And that role is all yours."

"Wait, what?" Natsuki interrupted. "This doesn't make any sense! MC is a good guy and all, but he's far from perfect!"

"Well, that is because the Perfect Human is lost," Monika replied with a shrug. "But by destroying MC's mind, I will be able to restore him to his fullest form."

"What the fuck?!" JoJo disgustedly grimaced. "What in the world is a 'Perfect Human' in the first place?!"

"I'm glad you asked, JoJo," Monika sighed. "The Perfect Human is a man that will never make mistakes. A person that will always be correct, in every action he or she takes. They will be the one to raise the world to perfection. They will be the only whole in the world, with the power of a God."

"That's… impossible," MC muttered.

Monika laughed again. "Do any of you really think MC can normally acquire an ability as strong as timestream manipulation?!" she added. "Of course not, that's just laughable! He's only got an ability that strong because of his roots as the Perfect Human. In fact, that link of his is why he even acquired his Stand in the first place."

"What… the hell…?" MC muttered again as he regarded Monika, his new enemy, once again.

"So, Sayori," Monika continued. "If you're asking me why I'm doing this to you all, then it's for the sole purpose of meeting the Perfect Human. Once I see them, then I will profess my devotion and love to them. I wish to see my love that much, so I choose to sacrifice anyone in my way."

JoJo gritted his teeth in disgust. "Yuri," he turned to her. "You've officially lost the position of worst yandere. Yes, I know what happened to you, MC briefed me on everything afterwards."

Monika chuckled as she inferred what he was talking about. "So, I influenced her?" she asked. "And Natsuki's mom?"

"Dad, actually," Natsuki revealed. "You deleted him. That's another thing in the list of things I have to get back at you for."

Monika widened her eyes, then blinked as she turned pensive for a moment. "Hmm," she finally said. "MC must have stopped the chain deletion. But seriously, do you really think that I'm the one deleting people?!"

"Huh?" MC stood stunned. "Wait, then who's the one deleting people?"

Monika chuckled. "I'm not the only Stand User here, MC. Not even when including those two you recklessly beat up earlier. In fact, I'm not even the leader! I'm just another slave."

"Slave?!" Sayori cut in. "Please, Monika, is this person forcing you to do this?!"

Monika sighed and shook her head. "He knows about it, but this was a personal undertaking. You might be able to defeat me, but you won't stand a chance against him. Not unless MC can truly master his Stand."

Yuri went pale. "You… are not the final enemy? What… What have we been doing then?!"

MC shook his head in frustration. "None of that matters, Yuri. Not when Monika's done so much to us. We can worry about this other person later. But for now, we have to do what we came here for."

"Oh?" Monika asked. "And what's that?"

Suddenly, MC had Day One come in front of him, hiding his incredibly wide smile.

"To destroy you, of course."

Charging at the brunette, he sent out Day One to land a punch on her.

However, he had just gone through her.

"Oh, did you really think I would show up myself?" Monika asked, pink mist slowly dissipating from her body after the disruption. "In fact, this is not my attack in the first place."

As the mist slowly ate away from her body, Monika managed to say something else.

"Hazy Shade… Winter…"

And with that, her form vanished.

"W-What the hell?!" Natsuki ran up to where Monika was, making sure they hadn't missed anything. "Where did she go?!"

"Alright~!" an incredibly cheery feminine voice rang out from literally nowhere. The remaining members of the club flinched at the sudden noise. They couldn't trace the source of the voice, as it seemed to come from every wall in the room. "Now, everything's set into motion. Welcome, one and all, to the Chinen twin's temporary studioooo! Starring, The Literature Club! I'm your set designer, Takumi-chan, and here's our amaaazing foley artist, Souta-chan!"

"Sis, can you please shut the fuck up?" another duller, yet still feminine voice rang out from nowhere as well. "We're trying to stall these guys on Monika's orders. You don't need to turn it into a movie like always."

"*GASP!* Oh, but I do, Souta-chan!" Takumi replied. The members of the club were still looking around for the source of the sound, to no avail. "After all, the whole world's a stage, right?!" Takumi continued. "The world has also got its protagonists and antagonists, and every good story needs context! We've got to give out our great reveal! Otherwise, how will we truly embrace the role our director has given to us?"

Souta sighed. "Yeah, yeah, have it your way, sis. Knock yourself out. Just don't give away too much."

"Alright~! So, let's start! First, we need to clear all props! Clear the stage!"

Suddenly, all of the tables in the room vanished. The rest of the class looked around at the tables in confusion. JoJo widened his eyes as he somewhat understood what was going on.

"Had anyone used those desks today?" he asked. Surprisingly, everyone shook their heads.

JoJo groaned out loud. "We're dealing with an illusion Stand then. A real pain in the ass. Also, what the hell is foley?!"

"What. The Fuck." Souta growled out. "You don't know what foley is?! Oi, Takumi, send me out there! I gotta show that asshole a piece of my mind!"

"Foley is sound effects!" Yuri immediately interrupted. "Creating sounds for use in any form of media, no matter how unusual the real source is, that art is foley."

"Thank you!" Souta yelled out. "Someone gets it! Now, blondie, knock that shit into your thick fucking skull!"

"Hey, I just didn't know a term!" JoJo retaliated with a scowl.

"JoJo, shut the fuck up," MC said, looking around the room since he didn't have a source for the voice. "Alright, who the hell are you? And why are you protecting Monika?"

Takumi chuckled. "Quiet, villain! We choose to protect Monika because the director said so!"

"And who is this director?" MC asked.

"Well, that's obviously-"

Suddenly, they heard a clap and a muffled voice.

"My sis really doesn't know when to shut her mouth at times," Souta said as she sighed. "What a fucking hassle. I slipped out of mom's womb after her, and I still have to act like the older one."

Suddenly, they heard gasping. "Geez, Souta-chan, you're getting too handsy nowadays!" Takumi teased. "Anyway, enough dialogue! We need to begin our act!"

Suddenly, the same pink smoke that emerged from Monika's false form began to fill out the room. The smoke became so thick that it ended up covering everything that the Literature Club members could see.

"Where the hell are you guys?" JoJo called out.

"I'm here!" MC said. "We don't know what's gonna happen now, so just follow my voice."

"Yuri, are you there?" Natsuki called out.

"Yes, I'm here! I'm putting my hand out! Try to reach for me!" she replied.

"I can't find it!" Natsuki replied.

"Guys, stay where you are!" Sayori said. "Don't move! Remember, fauley!"

"It's foley!" Souta interrupted.

Suddenly, the pink mist diffused away, leaving the five Stand Users standing in the center.

With duplicates of themselves all around the room.

"What in the world…?" JoJo said. However, he yelped as he found that whatever he was saying and doing was being reflected by his duplicates. His voice even seemed to emerge from them too. Testing with a few steps to the right, he noticed that the bodies moved along the same direction. If they could phase through the walls, they could. However, all the walls were missing. The room seemed to extend all the way to infinity, clones filling it the whole way. Each clone looked in the same direction as the original, perfectly mimicking their actions in time.

"JoJo, you're right about the illusions," Natsuki said, feeling off that her mimics were also speaking in time with her. "But how are they speaking as well?"

"Oh my god, it's foley!" Yuri realized, momentarily ignoring her voice's forced echo. "The second person, their Stand must have something to do with sound!"

"Right on the money there, miss!" Takumi applauded, while the group still couldn't trace her voice's source. "Oh, let's make ourselves visible for a moment. Epic Reveal Time!"

Suddenly, two girls appeared in the opposite end of the room. They had similar facial structure, as mentioned by them being twins. They both wore the school uniform, but the one on the left wore her blazer around her waist and the one on the right had her blazer opened and her neck ribbon sloppily tied, not even in a double knot. They both had grey hair, with the girl on the left in a pixie cut and the right straight to her shoulders, with several strands slightly shielding her eyes. The left girl had a silver earring on her right ear, designed to look like an eye. The girl on the right had hers on her left, but with a treble note instead. The left girl was standing on her toes and beaming as she regarded the club members, with the other slouched and looked like she didn't give a shit. Their earrings faced away from each other.

"Heyo!" the left girl, the one with the pixie cut, said. "I'm Takumi Chinen! President of the Theatre Club! Here's my sweet little twin sister, Souta Chinen! She's also my Vice-Prez! Our Stand names are Hazy Shade and Winter!"

Souta smirked under her bangs. "I don't see why we can't talk about our Stand abilities, sis. After all, they're not getting out of this anytime soon."

"Wait, really?!" Takumi turned to her sister, showing the wondrous stars in her eyes. Brimming with excitement, she shot back to the group of five and beamed at them. "Okay, I'll talk about our Stands, then! Yay! Hazy Shade can make illusions! Sadly, they're just illusions in the end. They're not solid or able to make any sound. But it's still really cool! Infinite props!"

"About the sound, that's where I come in," Souta chimed in. "Winter is able to shift the source of any sound to any other or several locations. That's why it sounds like every single clone you're seeing is talking. It's just your voice being thrown from the other mouths. Sadly, I can't raise a sound's amplitude. I have to split it into softer sounding pieces."

"Where you are is our infinite loop world!" Takumi exclaimed. "It's this really cool combo move we've come up with. In here, you can't make heads or tails of wherever you are! It will take you a century to leave this hall! That would be more than enough time for Monika to make it out of here!"

"Wait, what?" MC remarked. "We came all this way! We're not leaving without getting her blood, for fuck's sake!"

Suddenly, MC's several bodies started to move in the direction of the two girls with the sound of a hundred soft footsteps in sync filling the room.

MC's forms cocked their arms back, manifesting Day One, which was also replicated. Upon striking the two figures, however, they immediately burst into a flood of pink mist.

"MC!" Sayori called out. As he had stepped into the pink mist, all of MC's forms turned into suspended collections of the same pink mist, probably to keep the others from deducing his movements.

In mere moments, however, the mist dissipated, leaving the collection of MCs behind like nothing happened, with the Chinen girls now missing.

"What happened?" JoJo asked.

"They were illusions too, damn!" MC replied while quickly slapping himself in the cheek. "Why the hell didn't I think of that?!"

"Because you're not thinking straight, MC!" Sayori quickly explained, making the boy turn back to one of her forms with widened eyes.

"I've never thought this clearly before, Sayori," he replied, gritting his teeth.

However, Sayori shook her head despite the fact that she wasn't directly looking at him. "No, MC, you're not. Please, look at yourself!"

Unknowingly heeding her words, MC quickly looked at the illusionary reflections of him with his peripherals, seeing as how he couldn't face his own face directly. He saw a boy who had drool splattered all over his lower jaw from when he had madly rushed in, sweat matting his dark-brown hair. His eyes were so red that some could even say that they were actually bleeding. His mouth still bore an incredibly creepy wide smile. All in all, he reminded himself of a devil.

"W-What?" MC shook as he took a look at himself and his smile finally fell. "Do I… really look like that?

"We all want revenge against Monika," Sayori continued. "But you're taking it way too far. Please, MC, you need to control your anger. We'll get to her, but you won't get there by blindly rushing in. We need to plan things out first. And that starts with getting out of this illusion."

MC chose not to say anything, still shocked at his own reflection.

"Huh," JoJo chuckled. "Who knew? Your girlfriend is your bedrock."

Sayori frowned. "Shut up, JoJo. You're not any better, you know?"

JoJo laughed as he looked at one of her forms, but not her. "Yeah, yeah, your boyfriend is MC, not me."

"You're not looking at me, JoJo," she said. "You'll need to turn a bit to the right."

JoJo turned a bit to the right, complying with her request. "Is this good?"

"A little more."

"Now?"

"Too much. A bit to the left."

"Okay, how about now?"

"Perfect."

Suddenly, JoJo widened his eyes. "Wait a minute," he said. "If we can all do this, then we can get out!"

Yuri widened her eyes as well. "You're right! We all just need to find each other's true bodies, and we can work together!"

Before Yuri could start walking, however, JoJo stopped her out loud. "We need to be careful, or we can get lost here," he said. "We can easily bump into each other accidentally or even trip and fall, and we will lose track of the other's positions."

"Sayori," he continued. "Let's try to find each other first. Walk along this path and walk through all the bodies in our way. Let's put our hands up so that we can touch each other when we meet."

Nodding, Sayori held up her hand. JoJo held up his as well, lining it up with the figure of Sayori in front of him.

Slowly, they both started walking through the illusions, waiting for when they can meet.

"Yuri, do you think this can work?" Natsuki asked.

Yuri nodded. "I certainly hope so. Because if it does, then we can all-"

She was interrupted by a sudden crash. Turning their heads to the ones walking, they noticed that only JoJo was lying sprawled on the floor while Sayori was standing, widening her eyes at the splayed JoJo replica in front of her.

"Shit," JoJo murmured. "I think I found the desks." Pushing the space in front of him forward, he found that something was blocking their path on the other side, even though nothing was visible there. "They've lined up the desks near the walls," he concluded. "I've just hit a wall."

"Wait, how?" Sayori said, still looking at the strewn figure of JoJo in front of her among the several others. "We were walking to each other!"

"You might have been walking in opposite directions," Yuri realized. "However, you still look in the same direction as if you two were walking towards each other. This was our mistake."

"Then we can just try walking in the opposite direction, right?!" Sayori shot back.

Yuri paused for a moment, then shook her head. "No, you can't," she said. "There is also every chance you're not in the same line as each other. You could just be walking parallel to each other."

JoJo grumbled as he shook of the chairs and desks around him. "Damn," he said as he finally stood back up. "That was a bust, huh? Do you think we keep trying that? We could just try closing in."

MC shook his head. "No, we can't. It'll take too much time."

"Hmm," JoJo thought. "Let me try something else, then."

Using Renegades, he quickly stretched out his arm and shot it all the way to his side until it hit the wall. However, all his clones did the same, flooding the entire room with his arm. Unusually, the hands hadn't destroyed clones as they made their way through, but they phased through the bodies instead. That effect made the original still hidden.

"Alright," he began to explain. "I'm going to thrust this arm forwards in an arc, alright?"

"It's… kinda hard to see," Natsuki confessed. "With all the arm in the way, at least."

JoJo shook his head. "That shouldn't matter," he reasoned. "We can't use our eyes or our ears anymore. We need to rely on finding each other through touch. I'm going to start now."

Quickly, JoJo lashed out his whip of an arm into a curve around the room. As the arm swept through bodies along with all the clones, the room started to fill with the same pink smoke once again. Soon, he made contact with a body which he quickly curled his arm around. However, the presence of the pink smoke made it hard to see the body.

"Who did I catch?!" JoJo called out, walking forward to the body his arm was wrapped around. However, he ended up not hearing anything.

"Hey, tell me!" he demanded. However, upon entering the cloud of pink, he managed to find the person he caught.

"MC, why the hell didn't you respond to me?!" he said. However, as the smoke thinned, he noticed how his arm was also covering MC's mouth.

Sighing a quick apology, he walked up to MC's form and withdrew his extended arm.

"That's good," JoJo chuckled. "Now I just need to-"

He was suddenly interrupted by MC pulling his body up to his and kneeing him in the balls.

"URK!" he yelled out as he staggered back. Looking back up, he noticed MC's form dissolving into pink mist, only to be replaced by a frowning Souta.

"We're still here, you know," she said as she walked back into the smoke.

"Urgh, dammit all!" JoJo exclaimed as he rushed behind her while ignoring his blossoming pain, only to find that the pink smoke suddenly retreated, and the world was back the way it once was again.

JoJo sighed as he cupped his Joestar Jewels. "W-Well, that was a bust," he whined out.

Natsuki sniggered. "In more ways than one," she simpered, much to JoJo's irritation.

"Wait, why aren't we using our Stands?" MC asked. "Who can use their – wait, Yuri!"

"H-Huh?" the purple haired girl stammered out upon suddenly hearing her name.

"Use The Knife!" MC explained. "Teleport us out of here!"

"W-Wait, what?!" Yuri remarked, going pale. "B-But I don't know where you are?!"

Natsuki shook her head. "Just try! We need to do something!"

Yuri was still shaking, but she slowly nodded in agreement. "The Knife."

An infinite number of The Knifes appeared behind the infinite number of Yuris. Slowly, Yuri willed the Stand into a portal.

"I-I can't find any of you!" Yuri declared. "I-I can't bring you along!"

"It doesn't matter, Yuri!" MC replied. "All that matters is that we get to Monika! If you can leave by yourself, then stop her from running, then that would be perfect!"

"M-M-M-ME?!" Yuri choked out. "B-By m-m-m-myself?!"

"Come on, Yuri!" Natsuki tried to help her. "We don't have any other choice! You're the only one who can do this!"

"I-I-I…" But before Yuri could respond, her mind flooded with everything that had happened in the last run.

The butlers piling up on her, beating her to the ends of her life.

Trying to send out her Stand to set her free but failing every time.

Falling right back onto the pile of butlers, waiting to kill her again.

'The feeling of breathing her last breath as the thought that she couldn't even accomplish what she came to do filled her-'

"I-I CAN'T!" Yuri suddenly shouted as she collapsed onto her knees, hiding her budding tears behind her hands. "I-I… I just c-c-can't…"

"Yuri?" Sayori gently encroached, even though she didn't know where she really was. "Are you okay?"

"N-No, I-I'm not," Yuri choked out, turning up to one of the Sayori replicas. "I-I was killed, Sayori. I… I don't want to die again… I-I just c-can't…"

"Yuri," MC spoke this time. "Please. We can't stop her ourselves. You're the only one who can do it!"

"BUT I CAN'T!" Yuri yelled out, after which she immediately withdrew into herself. "I-I can't do a-anything… I-I can only… d-d-die…"

Gritting his teeth, MC immediately brought out Day One and smashed the floor under him. Luckily, he had only dented it, and not smashed through it.

"Shit!" he yelled. "Goddamit, we shouldn't have come here!"

"W-What do you mean, MC?" Sayori asked.

"We weren't ready!" MC yelled out. "None of us were, dammit! And I was too fucking filled with rage to actually see it!"

Taking a few breaths, MC turned to one of the Yuri replicas. "Yuri, I'm so sorry that I ignored you. I was too blinded. Please… forgive me."

Yuri chose not to respond, as she kept bawling into the balls of her hands.

"Crap," JoJo winced as he stood up, still waddling forward from the pain in his groin. "Hadn't expected any of this. I didn't know that you guys weren't fighters."

"It's not their fault, JoJo," MC replied. "We didn't think about their issues. It was our fault. But for now, we need to find a way out of this."

Gingerly, MC knelt down and placed his hand on the large dent he made on the floor. Even though the floor looked the same, his hand phased through the false floor to reach the true dented floor beneath. Looking around, he could see that his mimics were also phasing their hands through the floor, looking exactly like him still.

"Can we try busting out through the floor?" MC suggested.

"No," JoJo quickly replied. "Not everyone's Stands are physically strong. Also, property damage can bite us back in the ass this time. It's your clubroom, after all."

"Shit, then what do we do?"

JoJo paused for a minute, then turned to one of MC's forms. "How did we defeat House of Gold the last time, again?"

"Huh?" MC flinched at the odd question. "I thought I told you already. You elongated-"

"Don't say what I did, you don't know who's hearing," JoJo interrupted. "Tell me how I did it."

"Well," MC heaved. "You charged up an incredibly strong punch, and the aura around your Stand's fist just… dispersed."

"Charging up a strong one, huh?" JoJo brought out Renegades and held its balled fist close to him, for him to see. Concentrating, he eventually got to the point where the red aura filled out the fist.

"Alright, everyone!" JoJo called out. "Brace yourselves. Hazy Shade has some good precision, but let's see how they handle this. Renegades! Do it!"

With that, Renegades punched forward, shooting a wild aura-infused gust of wind from the immensely strong punch. Suddenly, the space he had punched in extended, while the lateral space squished together.

"What the-?!" they heard a gasping feminine voice from nowhere call out.

Now that the clones were brought closer together and the overall setup was disrupted, the pink smoke started to break out into the room again as the illusion was forced out of proportion.

"Here's our chance!" JoJo yelled out, getting hidden by the mist. "Everyone, don't move! Remember where everyone else is!"

Before MC could get covered by the smoke, he quickly noted the positions of every other member of the club as the mist faded away from their counterparts. Keeping those in mind, he closed his eyes as he was flooded with the mist again.

Only to be met in the face with a fist.

"Agh!" MC yelled out as he was thrust back, losing his position.

"Agh!" he heard his voice echo from beside him.

"Agh!" he heard another echo from nearby.

"Shit!" he heard Natsuki yell from another corner of the room. However, that was immediately masked by other repetitions of her voice.

Just as such, every member of the club was attacked under the mist, left unable to fight back due to their inability to see, with their agony replicated across the room.

Within moments, the effects of JoJo's space manipulation wore off and the pink mist returned to normal, keeping everything they had done reverted back to nothing. The clones were still there, and all of them were on the floor.

"Damnit!" JoJo yelled out as he punched the floor with Renegades as well. "I thought I had it!"

"You know," a lazy voice filled out the room once again, making everyone try to trace the source again. "We're just trying to keep you here as long as possible. We don't want to fight you at all. You're just forcing our hand."

"Fuck off, Chinen," JoJo replied as he came up to a stand alongside the others. "What are we going to do now?"

Natsuki gritted her teeth from the corner. "For fuck's sake, aren't we gonna do anything?!"

JoJo shook his head. "We just don't know how to stop this, woman. No need to twist your panties in a wad."

"Argh!" Natsuki growled. "Damn, why can't we just punch our way out of this like always?!"

Suddenly, Natsuki brought out Sweet Victory and started to rush the illusionary form next to her, quickly dissipating it into smoke. Similarly, her other replicas attacked the ones nearby, making half of them dissolve into smoke and the others remain standing even though the one behind them was also attacking before vanishing.

"That's not going to work, Natsuki," MC said. "You're just wasting your energy."

"Fuck off!" Natsuki yelled as she kept at her attack on mist. "Dammit, die!"

Suddenly, as Sweet Victory punched the illusion, the flowing mist around it stopped moving.

"H-Huh?" another voice called out, clearly Takumi. "What is that?!"

"W-Wait, what did I just do?" Natsuki asked as she gingerly touched the solid air herself.

"Your Stand, it cancels out forces, right?" JoJo asked, turning to Natsuki's true form. The one touching the solid air. "You must be cancelling the forces acting on that mist. On air."

Suddenly, Natsuki had Sweet Victory punch the block of mist once again, but this time had it shoot away from her. It was like she had punched something solid.

"W-What?" MC asked as he watched Natsuki's true form, in front of where the frozen destroyed mimic was. The mimic was quickly restored, but Natsuki's location was memorized.

"Everyone!" MC yelled out. "We can use this! Move to Natsuki's position!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Souta yelled out as mist enveloped Natsuki once again.

"Sweet Victory," Natsuki gritted her teeth as her Stand quickly solidified the air forming around her, making it even more obvious that she was the real one. Takumi quickly caught up with the changes by keeping a similar ring of pink around her clones as well, but that moment of hesitance was enough for everyone else to be reminded of Natsuki's position.

Suddenly, Sayori and Yuri jumped over the solid ring and rested their hands on her shoulder. They sighed in relief as they both touched solid flesh.

"Damn," Natsuki chuckled. "Stands are cool."

"Fuck!" Souta cursed. "Sis, I'm going in there!"

"N-No, please!" Takumi yelled in response, clearly straining. "I-I've got this!"

Natsuki held on to the two girls by her side as started to slowly march forward, having her Stand freeze the forces in the air in front of her. In a few moments, the entire illusion was broken enough for everyone to make out the actual layout of the room from Natsuki constantly freezing illusions and throwing them away.

There were still several spots of pink and some clones here and there, but the people could make out the front door to the clubroom, parts of the windows, the desks lined up near the wall and a wild Takumi running up to Natsuki.

"Hazy Shade!" she yelled out as her Stand manifested behind her. The Stand was fully pink and unusually thin. Its legs were short, and its arms were at average length. It didn't have any distinguishing features across its body. However, its face had a vertical semicircle with the curve facing right. The semicircle would be black, if it wasn't for the smaller yellow semicircle concentric to that one, containing a symbol of an eye just like Takumi's earring. On its arms were two metal pipes that slanted out of its forearms, ending at its wrists. The inside of those pipes was hollow.

As the Stand approached them, it suddenly shot out the familiar pink smoke from the pipes on its forearms, bending its wrists down to allow the gas to spread forward. However, Natsuki saw this and quickly used Sweet Victory to freeze all of the approaching smoke. Suddenly, the frozen smoke shot away from Natsuki with another punch, to hit Takumi in the chest. Her body splayed forward as the solid smoke stole her breath away.

As she stumbled back with the pink mist returning around her, Natsuki walked up to her, letting her Stand clap to eliminate all the freezing.

"Seriously," she told her head on, now that all the mimics were gone, and the room was completely free from her illusions. "You're irritating."

With that, Sweet Victory manifested in front of her again.

"BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA!"

As Takumi went flying back from the Stand Rush she had just experienced, Souta wildly roared and charged straight at Natsuki.

"Winter!" she yelled as she ran, manifesting her own Stand by her.

It looked almost exactly like her sister's counterpart, only for the fact that it was gray in color and its semicircle was pointed to the left with a treble note inside. Its forearms had metal pipes jutting out, just like its counterpart.

She suddenly spewed out a blue aura from her Stand's wrist gauntlets, which dissipated next to Natsuki's ears. Natsuki tried to intercept them, but they just phased through her Stand.

"Take this!" Souta yelled as the similar blue aura enveloped her hands and she clapped as loud as possible, even though it released no sound.

Suddenly, Natsuki was sent to her knees, clutching her ears in agony.

"How's that?" Souta growled. "You're discombobulated. Now, I can pay you back for my sister!"

Just as she had started running again, she heard something else.

"Day One."

A green arm suddenly sped out into the way of her legs, making her trip and fall to the ground.

As she slowly rose back up with a huff, she turned around to glare at whoever it was that tripped her.

"I'm sorry for Natsuki," MC said, making Souta widen her eyes in surprise. "She shouldn't have hurt your sister like that."

"Huh?!" Natsuki turned to MC with a huff, twisting her eyebrows in confusion. "She deserved that!"

"No, she didn't," MC turned to her and sighed. "I'm sorry, Natsuki, but we were wrong. Seriously, if we're going to kill these people, then are we any better than them?"

Natsuki paused as she slowly considered MC's words.

"Besides," MC continued. "These two were only trying to slow us down. Clubtime's over, so I'm pretty sure Monika would have left by now. It really doesn't matter if we beat them up now, they've already won."

Souta suddenly collapsed onto her back as she considered MC's words. "We… won?" she asked. "How? You're all still standing. My sister is almost dead, and I'm going to be beaten very soon."

"Don't worry about your sister," MC smiled as she pointed away from her. Following the path that MC was pointing to, Souta saw that Sayori was currently healing her sister with some yellow rope. Sayori quickly shot a smile at her and MC, giving them a thumbs up.

"O-Oh," Souta gingerly turned to MC. "I-If you think we'll talk just because you've helped us, then you've got another thing coming."

MC waved his hands. "That's okay," he emphasized. "I don't want you guys to talk either. The threat of deletion is too high. We've experienced it, too. Can you at least tell us what your mission was? Confirm our doubts?"

Souta sighed under his gaze. "Y-You were r-right. It was t-to stall you," Souta confessed, as she watched her stir slowly stir into consciousness. "W-We were told to help Monika escape by our b-boss. I-I can't tell you who he is, t-though…"

"Ugh, Souta-chan?" Takumi groaned out, making Souta immediately jump up to a stand and run to her sister. "W-What happened?"

"Well," Souta said, now kneeling in front of Takumi. "T-They overpowered us. But we finished what we came here for."

"T-They what?!" Takumi yelped out as she forced herself to sit up. "Dammit, the director isn't gonna be happy about that-"

"Save it, sis," Souta said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "They healed you. Maybe they were the ones who hurt you in the first place, but we were forced to be assholes to them too, right? We lost the battle, yeah. But we've won the war."

"O-Oh," Takumi sighed as she looked down. "Do you think… he'll be happy about it? That we just… let them go?"

"I don't think he will, whoever he is," MC cut in, walking up to them. "That's why I'm going to beat you two up again."

"Huh?" Takumi said, looking up at MC in confusion.

"Think about it," MC explained. "If you're hurt, then you'll be able to convince this guy that you actually lost to us, even though you completed what you set out to do. He should be okay with you two after that."

Takumi and Souta went silent, looking at each other to soak in MC's words.

"Obviously, I'll only do it if you allow me," MC emphasized with an easy wave and a sheepish smile. "If you want to stay healthy, then we can leave right now."

Souta sighed as she nodded at Takumi. Takumi gulped in return, but slowly nodded at her as well.

"O-Okay," Souta spoke for them. "You can do it."

"M-Make it quick, please," Takumi asked.

MC nodded. "Maybe we shouldn't have had Sayori heal you, then," MC muttered as he turned to his friends. "Natsuki, JoJo, help me out here."

And so, the three physically strongest Stand's Users stood in front of the two girls, ready to accept their win.

"Day One." "Renegades." "Sweet Victory."

"KIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIA!"

"DORADORADORADORADORADORA!"

"BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA!"

The five Stand Users made their way outside the clubroom, leaving their bruised enemies behind in the room. But for this one time, they had heavy hearts as they did so.

"Monika's gone, right?" MC asked.

Yuri shook her head. "We cannot know for certain unless we search the campus, but she's had far too much time. It is highly likely that she's left."

"Damn," MC sighed. "We'll have to continue our chase tomorrow, then. Let's reconvene in my place."

"Like always?" Sayori asked with a teasing smile.

MC smirked back at her. "Yeah," he echoed. "Like always."

Stand User: Takumi Chinen

Stand Name: Hazy Shade (based on "Hazy Shade of Winter" originally released by Simon and Garfunkel but covered by The Bangles. It's also used in Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy)

Abilities:

Illusion: Hazy Shade is able to create a pink mist that can reform into any color and compound onto itself, forming illusions as the user wishes. However, the mist is unable to generate its own light, and it cannot form solid objects or mimic sound. It also takes immense focus to use on a large scale.

PWR: E

SPD: A

RNG: B (50m)

PRC: A

PER: B

DEV: D

Stand User: Souta Chinen

Stand Name: Winter (based on "Hazy Shade of Winter" originally released by Simon and Garfunkel but covered by The Bangles. It's also used in Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy)

Abilities:

Soundshare: Winter is able to relocate or split the source of any sound generated anywhere around her. If the vibrations of the sounds still remain in the air, then it is still able to replicate the original. However, it is not able to amplify these sounds by multiplication.

PWR: C

SPD: B

RNG: B (50m)

PRC: A

PER: C

DEV: D

A/N: This was a fun fight to write. Difficult because of the difference in perception, and I still believe I've got some things wrong, but fun regardless.

There are also quite a lot of reveals in this chapter. All of that is going to come to play in the future. That's why this arc is so important to the story. This is when the gang is going to learn the essentials of everything going on with them. The most important bits, if it wasn't obvious, were MC's dream and their discussion with Monika.

Also, if the Perfect Human shit doesn't make any sense, just know that it shouldn't. These are only introductions to the topics after all. Once you learn more about them, you'll understand it better.

The new concept that I had mentioned in the previous chapter was the Third Eye. One other thing too, but that wasn't in the forefront of this chapter at all. I'll let you know when it's time.

And yes, MC's Stand is incredibly overpowered. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's equivalent to a Requiem or Heaven Stand. This was an inclusion from the very beginning, however. And as mentioned, all of this plays into him being the Perfect Human.

There's a lot more to unpack from this chapter, and more that can be assumed, but I don't expect anyone to properly guess what's happening behind the scenes. All in all, revealing all these secrets at last made this chapter all the more exciting for me.

I'm trying to watch Fullmetal Alchemist now, but for some reason, I just can't continue. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I stopped watching the series in between? Maybe I just need to watch something else in the meantime.

That's all for now, folks! I'll see you all next chapter!