Chapter 20: What Will it Take?

"Everyone," Yuri said the moment they all stepped into MC's living room. "I must apologize."

"Huh?" MC turned to the purple-haired girl. "Why?"

"I… was a coward," Yuri reminded them. "I-I couldn't stop Monika in time, I c-couldn't leave and-"

"None of us blame you for that, Yuri," MC interrupted with a smile, making the tall girl shoot her eyes back at him. "We should have listened to you yesterday and helped you with any issues you were feeling. I'm the one to blame for that."

"B-But I c-compromised our mission!" Yuri yelled back, firmly clasping her hands in front of her chest as she leaned forward in her intensity. "H-How can you say that when I let Monika go?!"

"It doesn't matter, Yuri," Sayori spoke instead, shooting a soft smile at MC as she did so which he reciprocated. "We can always get to her tomorrow as well. You weren't ready for the fight today, and it was our fault for not seeing it."

"No need to sugarcoat it, Sayori," MC shook his head. "I'm the one who didn't see it. You saw it, but I ignored you."

Sayori pouted at him, not willing to listen and put him down.

Ignoring her expression, MC gingerly placed an arm around Sayori's shoulders. "I guess… that's why I need you so much," MC said with a gentle smile. Sayori smiled back almost immediately and tucked her head into the crook of his arm, nuzzling him.

"Okay, okay, quit it with the cuteness," JoJo interrupted them with a wave, making MC shoot a light scowl at him.

"Well, I guess I should apologize too," Natsuki spoke up. "Even though I don't know why."

Sayori took her head out of MC's shoulder and looked at the short girl. "What is it, Natsuki?"

"Well," Natsuki looked away with folded arms. "MC stopped me from attacking those two today, right? But in the end, we still beat them up. Why did he stop us in the first place, then?"

MC withdrew his arm from Sayori, ignoring her light grumble, and regarded Natsuki in front of him. "The difference was intention," MC revealed, even though Natsuki just crossed her eyes. "You fought them to actually hurt them. We fought them to help them."

"Why the hell did you want to help those two?" Natsuki shot back, scowling. "They made us lose Monika, for fuck's sake! How would we have beat her up if we could just lose her because of them?!"

MC sighed and shook his head. "It's because they didn't deserve to be killed."

"What?!" Natsuki yelled. "They stalled us! She was right there! We could have easily killed her if it wasn't for those idiots-"

"Do you remember getting deleted?"

Suddenly, Natsuki faltered as she heard MC's question. The question forced her to remember what she had faced in the previous run. Seeing her father glitch out of existence and feeling the same happen to her. The feeling of every cell in her body splitting away and being shredded one by one. She had to hold back the sudden influx of bile into her throat upon thinking about that experience.

"That was what they would have faced, if they had actually lost."

Natsuki paled as she finally realized what MC was talking about. She suddenly remembered Monika's mention of knowing the one deleting people. And if that person was willing to hurt those two like that…

"Oh, shit," Natsuki groaned out. "I… I didn't think of that."

Grimly, MC nodded. "Whoever this person is, this boss of theirs or the person deleting people," MC said. "They're incredibly dangerous. Even more than Monika. I just hope that we can stay out of their way long enough to stop Monika. We'll stop fighting after that, so there's no need to worry too much."

"Wait, what?" JoJo interrupted, widening his eyes as he stepped up to them. "What the fuck did you just say?"

MC sighed as he turned to JoJo. "I said that we're going to stop after we defeat Monika. We've done too much already. We don't need to run the risk of getting deleted as well."

"… Huh?" JoJo softly said as he suddenly grasped MC by the collar. "What the hell?! We started this journey! Why aren't we seeing this all the way through?!"

"I started this to save the Literature Club," MC said, ignoring the tightening of JoJo's fists on his collar. "With Monika defeated, the club will be safe. We won't need to take part in this anymore."

JoJo gritted his teeth and sent out Renegades to punch him in the face. After all the training MC had done, he hadn't bothered to react to the Stand and let himself be attacked, bearing the pain.

"MC!" Sayori yelled out, running up to him and quickly shooting rope from Take Me to Church onto his face to heal him.

"I didn't think you were so damn selfish, Caulfield," JoJo said as MC stood back up, ignoring Sayori who was still fretting over him. "Seriously, your entire school could be in danger because of these guys. They're just deleting people left and right, and you're not willing to help them out?! Where's your sense of justice, man?"

MC chuckled as he wiped off the blood from his now healed crushed nose. "Maybe if we knew about this during my first run, I would have joined you," MC said. "But now? No. We've faced so much after all these runs. We've brushed past death far too many times. I'm pretty sure we're all going crazy because of this, too. None of us can handle this anymore, JoJo. I'm sorry, but I'm sticking firm to this. We stop Monika, then we're done."

JoJo, however, spitefully snorted. "Didn't expect you to be a coward." MC chose not to say anything, just standing up.

JoJo shook his head. "I hate your guts, but I'll stick with you till Monika's down," he said. "We've come this far, right? I'll help you here, then I'll carry on by myself."

"Yourself?" Natsuki interrupted. "Wait, why?! Why can't we just leave them be?!"

"If you didn't know, shortie, I'm a Joestar," JoJo turned to her. "It's my destiny to defeat monsters like this. And I will stop at nothing to ensure that this task is finished."

MC nodded. "I understand that, JoJo," he said. "And I can help you in small ways as well. But I don't want to participate too closely to this anymore. I won't take part in this anymore. Seriously, I was thinking about killing Monika today. This is starting to affect me too much, and I need to stay out if I want to keep even a little bit of my sanity safe."

"Kill Monika, huh?" JoJo turned to him. "Okay, everything aside, how are you going to stop Monika without killing her?"

MC proceeded to open his mouth, but then froze as he realized that he had nothing to say.

"That's what I thought," JoJo scowled. "You have no plan. No direction. We're actually worse off right now than we were today morning. If you're not willing to kill Monika, then we stand no chance against her."

MC grimaced and looked down, knowing that JoJo had a point. "I'll… come up with something," he managed to choke out. "This can't end with us just killing her."

"Do you think I want to kill people?!" JoJo finally exploded in MC's face. "Of course, I don't! I've never killed someone before, and I'd like to keep it that way as well! But I can't! I know that I'll have to kill at some point, and I've accepted that! You need to get your head out of your ass and do what's necessary for your club's survival!"

"No, we don't need to go that far!" Sayori stepped in between them, directing her words to JoJo as well. "There has to be some other way!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, woman," JoJo rolled his eyes. "The world isn't sunshine and daisies. It's not as you think. Vile shit always happens under the shadows. All we can do is be prepared for the shitshow that is this world. Add Stand's on top of that, and we get a world-breaking shitshow!"

"That's not always true!" Sayori screeched out. "There are good things, too! Yes, I know better than anyone that the world just doesn't care. I've got depression, remember?! But I still know that we can find good things if we actually look for them?"

JoJo took a frustrated breath. "Every good thing has a negative flipside," he soon declared somberly. "That the case for everything that ever exists. In the end, all that's left is for you to take care of the repercussions. In this case, it's killing Monika."

Sayori was forced to stay silent, knowing that JoJo had a point.

"Seriously, I can't believe you guys made it through four whole runs of this week," JoJo chuckled. "If you're this naïve, then you're just hopeless."

MC shook his head. "Just give me some time," he pleaded. "I'll find some way-"

"How many times do I have to get it into your skull, there is no other way?!" JoJo insisted, making MC freeze again. "Monika's a lunatic. I mean, a Perfect Human?! She sounds like a fanatical bastard. You can't help people like that, MC."

"We can at least try," MC said. "Maybe we can just rewind her, see if something's wrong with her-"

"Do you even realize the definition of rewinding time?" JoJo interrupted harshly. "You just send them back in time. Nothing else. You can't save someone by sending them back in time."

MC took a moment to look at JoJo. "Then how can I give people Stands?" he asked.

JoJo opened his mouth to say something, but then paused with his mouth agape as he realized what MC was talking about.

"There's still a lot we don't understand about Day One," MC continued. "If its ability is rewinding time, then how am I able to give people Stands? It's a long shot, but maybe we can save Monika with some… magic from my Stand?"

The room was filled with a silence, that was only interrupted by the audible zooming of cars outside the house.

Natsuki decided to be the one to break it. "MC," she turned to him. "Do you have baking equipment? And ingredients?"

MC widened his eyes. "No, I need to restock. But why?"

Hearing that, Natsuki started to walk out of the house. "I need to get my mind off things. Baking is the best way to do that for me."

Nodding, MC pulled out his wallet and handed a few bills over to her.

"I don't know what your budget's like," he said. "So, you can use my money. We'll probably reset at some point, so it doesn't matter."

Natsuki slowly accepted the money with a smile and walked out.

MC looked back at the rest of the club. "Yuri," he turned to her. "Are you sure you're alright now?"

Slowly, Yuri nodded. "I… still feel like I can't handle things myself," she confessed. "But I should be fine with some help."

Sighing, MC nodded, turning back to the other two members. "What about you two? Are you guys ready for tomorrow?"

Even though Sayori swiftly nodded, JoJo stepped up to him.

"We still don't have a plan," he said. "Other than you possibly reaching her for a rewind."

MC gulped and looked away.

"I don't think we need one."

"Huh?" JoJo reacted. "Why? We need one to beat her!"

"There's literally only one thing I can think of right now," MC said. "That is to approach her head on and fight her until she's weak enough. Or just run up to her and activate Load Save. Her Stand doesn't seem strong if it can't delete people, so we should be fine."

"Do you realize how much of a risk that is?!" JoJo yelled back, looking down on him.

"Yes, I do," MC confessed. "But it's all we've got right now. We don't know anything about her Stand, after all. We should be prepared for anything."

Taking a heavy breath, JoJo finally stepped away from him and walked to the bathroom.

MC took another deep breath as well as he looked out the window, watching the cars outside drive by. He wondered what it would take for him to return to how things once were, before Stands destroyed their lives.

Monika walked into the principal's office.

"Sir!" she announced her entry, ignoring the light shivering in her legs and the sweat building up on her skin. "I'm… I'm back."

Upon looking, she saw someone on the swivel chair behind the cluttered desk. The boy was casually tossing a ball to the wall and catching it in time. Upon seeing his beige sleeves, one could make out that it wasn't a teacher sitting there, but a student.

Spinning back to face the brunette with a whir, the Student Body President stood up to reveal his short stature, amber eyes and dark brown hair, surrounding a round face with the exception of his pointed chin. Monika blinked, and suddenly he was standing mere inches from her, ball bouncing off the floor next to the chair from when he didn't catch it. Monika managed to suppress her reflex flinch.

"What happened?" Wallace Grieves asked.

"I… managed to run away, sir," she managed to speak.

"What about the Chinen twins?"

"I… don't know, sir," she warily revealed. "I wasn't around to watch."

Wallace closed his eyes and sighed.

"They're only there to stall them," Wallace finally spoke, making Monika mentally sigh in relief. She wouldn't dare to do it out loud, after all. "I don't expect them to win in a slugfest. That's why they won't be facing the same fate as these two."

Suddenly, he popped over without a step to the closet door nearby with the door open, letting two tied up and gagged boys spill out onto the floor.

"Reshi Sakimoto… Keshugi Yowaida…" he regarded the two beneath him. "You've both failed. Several times, in fact. That should be obvious from the Literature Club defeating you so easily, with a clear understanding of how your Stands work."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of the door opening.

"Mr. Principal, sir!" a red-haired boy ran into the room, flipping over the papers in his hands. "I'm glad to say that-"

Upon looking up, he froze to see that the principal was nowhere around. The President was there instead, but with two heavily injured boys tied up beneath him.

"What… Wallace?!" the boy dropped his papers and took a frightful step back. "Are t-those.. what are you doing-!"

As Wallace muttered something under his breath, the two wrapped up boys beneath him were suddenly surrounded by glitches that slowly ate away at their beings. In a few moments, they completely vanished leaving no trace behind.

"Wait, what… Oh!" the boy suddenly smiled, forgetting the crime he had just witnessed. "Wallace! Where's the principal? I was looking to show him this report I made." Looking down at his hands, he finally noticed that his report was currently on the floor instead. "Ah, sorry, silly me."

Wallace smirked and walked up to the boy. "You're a real teacher's pet, aren't you?"

The redhead visibly suppressed a frown. "N-No, I just love them all, that's all!"

Chuckling, Wallace gently rested a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should have one of those two's responsibilities then."

Suddenly, a badge formed on the boy's chest as the papers on the ground faded away.

"Now get going, Hall Monitor," Wallace pushed him out of the room. "Class is over and all the students are gone. You have no business here."

"A-Ah! Right, sir!" the boy rushed out of the room, not giving a second thought about the responsibility thrust upon him.

Turning back to Monika, Wallace sighed. "It really is a pity that he remembers the people I've deleted," Wallace walked back to the principal's chair and sat back down on it. "He remembers Natsuki's dad, and even Oyanagi. Even those that he's time-bound remember."

"Umm, sir?" Monika slowly turned back to him, not willing to earn his ire, lest she ended up like the two deleted in front of her. "Could I get some other Stand Users for tomorrow as well? I'm expecting them to attack then as well."

Wallace leaned forward on the table in front of him, shooting a pointed gaze at his girlfriend. "And why should I?"

"A-Ah, well…" Monika stammered out, not daring to turn away from his glare.

"You will get no one," Wallace interrupted as he leaned back into his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. "Tomorrow, you will face them yourselves. Or are you saying that you're weak?"

"N-No, sir! Of course, not!" Monika yelled out, shaking as she stood in attention.

"Seriously, I've been telling you that the hunt for the Perfect Human is useless," Wallace groaned. "But I guess you're getting rid of old ties in the end, so that's fair. I will give you the whole day tomorrow."

"T-Thank you, sir!" Monika yelled out with a swift bow as she ran out of the office. As she stepped out, she felt a tear trickle down her face, but quickly wiped it away before anyone could see it.

"Heh," Wallace kicked his feet up onto the desk and pulled out one of the lollipop's from within the principal's sugar stash. Ripping out the wrapper, he placed the sweet candy into his mouth.

"This should be fun. I wonder what your next move is… Markie."

A/N: Short chapter, yes, but kinda substantial. We're getting a bit of a sneak peek into the future arcs now. I've also finally revealed the antagonist! I know that a lot of you already saw this coming, but here you have it! Wallace Grieves is the final baddie!

I've already mentioned that this arc was gonna be pretty short. I'll be finishing it within the next chapter or the one after that.

Next chapter: Final showdown between the Literature Club and Monika! Will they, somehow, save her too?!

I'm actually in the middle of writing the next chapter while uploading this one, that's why I'm so sure of what's happening. Sadly, I'm not finding the standoff that up to the mark. I've also started Black Clover, so 160 and counting episodes are gonna eat away at me too. Safe to say, the next chapter will take a while. I hope not, though. I'll just have to get out of this rough spot that I'm in. Fun.

Review!

IzuOchaShipper99: The Third Eye has a bit more significance than that, but it does serve that purpose too. And that analogy of Monika's odd, but I guess it makes sense. Thanks for the love!

Short chapter, short A/N. I'll see you all next chapter!