Chapter 23: In Our Hands
MC opened his eyes sharply, gasping as he came to.
Taking bearing of his surroundings, he realized that he was standing in his room. He felt a staleness in his mouth and his bedsheets were soaked with sweat behind him, so he knew that this was when he had just woken up from that old dream.
Noticing Day One fizzling back into him from his side for its cooldown, he looked back at his drenched bedsheets in trepidation. He groaned out loud, realizing that he had to replace them again.
Shaking his head in mild frustration, he unplugged his phone from the nearby charger. Checking once again to be sure, he confirmed that it was Wednesday morning once again. Quickly opening his messaging app, he opened up the Stand Literature Club's group chat and asked everyone to skip school and meet in his school. JoJo ended up asking why but was quickly shut up by the rest of the club members. Privately, he shot a message to Sayori, asking her to reach out to Monika and ask her to show up as well. He didn't have her contact himself, after all. Sayori ended up asking him what happened, but MC just told her that he'd share when everyone reached.
Sighing, he set down his phone and redid his morning rituals for that day. 'I'll work on the bedsheets later,' he thought. 'Right now, I gotta make something to eat. I guess I'll try my hand at cooking.'
"Renegades!"
Upon opening his door, MC found a red fist coming straight for his face. However, it stopped an inch away from him.
"Why do you keep saying that? Renegades? Seriously?" MC falsely groaned out while suppressing his flinch from the fist as he nonchalantly rubbed the back of his head.
JoJo chuckled and withdrew his Stand. "Damn," he commented as MC broke his façade and formed a smile. "You've gotten good. Clearly, you've been rewinding a lot."
"Yeah, I have, haven't I?" MC chuckled, now breaking his pretend inability to see Stands. "Also, about that. We rewound again. Today morning."
"Huh?!" JoJo gaped as he crossed his eyes. "What happened? How can you kill Monika if you reverse time?"
MC quickly switched to a grimace. "Y-Yeah, well, there's b-been a change in plans," he said. "Come on in, I'll explain once everyone's here."
Nodding, JoJo followed MC into the room. Looking around, he found Sayori lounging on the couch, somberly twiddling her thumbs while Natsuki was in the kitchen cooking toast, eggs and bacon.
"Just realized that I can't cook for the life of me," MC revealed. "Natsuki ended up taking over after I burned the toast. In the toaster."
JoJo chuckled. "Well, why didn't Sayori help?" he asked.
MC paled as he looked at his new friend. "Don't go there, please," MC groaned out, pursing his lips. "After Sayori burnt the stovetop trying to boil water, I've banned her from the kitchen for eternity. She may be my girlfriend, but I won't budge from this decision."
"Meanie!" Sayori yelled out from the couch nearby, earning a chuckle from MC.
JoJo let out a light laugh as well. "Alright, well, who else is coming?" he asked.
As if on cue, they heard another ring from the doorbell. Opening the door, MC invited Yuri into the room with a cursory greeting.
JoJo clapped his hands. "Alright, now that everyone's here, can you tell us what happened?" he asked. "What, did Monika delete herself or something? It would actually be great if she did."
The other four paled as they regarded JoJo's words.
"N-Not exactly," MC revealed. "She's still alive. Also, she's not the one deleting people."
"Huh? Okay then," JoJo replied. "Then who's the one doing all this? Let's try to kill Monika again and then go for them."
Sayori shook her head. "No," she said. "We had decided that we were going to stop once we saved Monika."
"Huh?!" JoJo crossed his eyes. "What the hell do you mean by 'save her'? And you're… stopping? Why do you-"
"She may be right about saving her, but we're going to have to keep going," MC interrupted, earning him a glare from JoJo. "After all, not everyone's here yet."
"What do you mean?" JoJo asked. "Everyone else is here. Who else is coming?"
And just like that, the doorbell rang yet again. Hearing a confused silence from the others, MC didn't say anything as he went to open the door. Upon opening it, he sighed out loud.
"Everyone," MC turned around to face them, still hiding the person behind the door with his body. "Meet the newest addition to our Stand Club."
Stepping to the side, he presented a brunette with emerald eyes, who tied up her hair into a ponytail with a large white bow and wore dark stockings with pink and white shoes on her legs, aside from the standard girl's school uniform.
"H-Hello, everyone," she nervously said, still not looking up at them. "It's me, Monika."
JoJo widened his eyes and immediately stepped up to her, bringing out Renegades as he did. "MC," he growled. "I need an incredibly good reason why you invited our enemy here. Didn't this girl torture the others? Why the hell is she on our side now?"
Monika paled as she took another wary step back. However, MC ended up shielding her from the incoming Stand.
"JoJo, stop," he said. "She had to do all that. Let's all go into the house, then we can talk about all this."
JoJo gritted his teeth in frustration but then withdrew his Stand. Turning to the cowering form of Monika, he scowled. "I'll be watching you," he said. "A single sign of a Stand being brought out, and you're dead."
"You won't be able to see it," Yuri stepped up to them, a purple shroud over her eyes. "But with The Knife Act 2, I will be able to. I will let you know if she brings it out while it's invisible."
"Act 2?" JoJo asked from nearby. "Neat. Haven't heard of another Act Stand."
Sayori walked up to them as well. "Hey, I think you're going a little too far, Yuri-"
"Sayori, she drove you to commit suicide," Yuri reminded, making Sayori falter in her steps. "She made me insane, she subjected Natsuki to her father's abuse. She's the reason why all this happened. I'm not going to forgive her that easily."
"Guys, please," MC finally spoke up, raising his hands in a show of peace. "Let's bring this conversation into the house."
Looking at each other, everyone collectively let out a breath and retreated, moving back to MC's couch. Nodding to Monika behind her, MC brought Monika into the room as well, locking the door behind him.
"Everyone," Monika started once everyone was seated on the couch, Natsuki having finished her cooking and Yuri keeping her Stand activated on her eyes. "I… I wish I could say sorry for everything I did. I truly wish I could. But it's as MC said, I had no choice. It may have been my decision to hurt you all, but it was the only way I could bring out the Perfect Human from within MC."
"Huh? Okay, back up, back up," JoJo broke in. "What in the world is a Perfect Human?"
Monika widened her eyes. "I… thought I told you in the last run?" she asked.
JoJo groaned. "Well, that's MC's fault, then," he revealed. "He hasn't included me into his time group thingy yet."
Monika looked back at MC, confused. "Why?" she asked.
"Never found the time," MC argued.
"But… your Stand has everything to do with time… Oh, nevermind, it doesn't matter," Monika sighed and turned back to the rest of the group. "I'll just have to explain this all over again," she said, taking a breath to steel herself. "The Perfect Human. The Man of Two. A person who's so perfect that they will never make a mistake. One whose every decision is correct regardless of the situation. It's a myth that Wallace told me about. He said that if a specific person could be brought into immense mental trauma, they might end up unlocking something within them that can bring forth the Perfect Human. He also told me that the key to this Perfect Human… is MC. Sadly, that's all I know. I don't know how to bring out the Perfect Human, or how any of these things tie together."
"Wait, hold the phone for a minute," Natsuki remarked, speaking up for the first time to Monika. "You're telling me that you put us through all that for some shitty reason… and you weren't even sure if it would work or not in the first place?!"
Monika let out a rattled sigh. "Y-Yes, t-that may have been the case," she revealed. "B-But I was desperate. I-I needed to meet them. The Perfect Human, I mean. They are the only ones who can help me out of my situation."
"Situation?" Sayori asked, leaning forward on the couch. "What situation?"
"The situation with my boyfriend, Wallace," she revealed. "He's… I can't believe I'm finally able to say this, but he's psychotic. He's never hurt me, or anything like that, but he makes threats. Far too many threats. And for someone who can erase a person from existence with a snap of his fingers, I couldn't just ignore those. I… I'm afraid of him. S-Severely. I-I needed the Perfect Human to help me through my situation with him. I-I had no other choice."
"Yeah, yeah, we know about you not having a choice," JoJo replied. "Why didn't you two have a… conversation or something? You're his girlfriend, right? Isn't communication key for couples like you and him? Why did you need this Perfect Human?"
"I-I can't," Monika confessed. "I can't talk to him when he's so… unnerving. Seriously, I'm pretty sure he started dating me just for the name of it instead of actual love. I… I don't think he can even feel any form of love in the first place."
"As for the Perfect Human," Monika continued. "Every decision of theirs is correct and valid. So, I thought that if I could let them meet Wallace, they could tell him what he's doing wrong and help him get better."
JoJo merely tsked and looked away. However, this time it was Natsuki who spoke up.
"Bad boyfriend, huh?" Natsuki asked. "That's… just like Mama."
"Right," Monika looked at the pink-haired girl. "Your mother also had – No, I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't talk about your situation when I made it so much worse."
"No, it's okay," Natsuki said, now visibly more at ease as she relaxed despite Monika's presence. "Mama dated the wrong guy as well, and that's why she was on the run. Thankfully, we took care of them all on what is supposed to be yesterday. And yeah, thanks, MC, for not putting me through that again. What I'm trying to say is… is that I understand your case, Monika. I know how hard it can be."
"But even then, you need to know something," Natsuki continued. "If I could have found this… Perfect Human. If this person managed to talk to my old Papa or Noboru… it won't make a difference."
"W-What do you mean?" Monika nervously asked. "W-Why wouldn't it help?"
"Because they won't listen to anyone," Natsuki revealed. "They just want whatever they want. It doesn't matter if someone argues with them or proves a point with them, no matter how right they are. They're still going to keep doing whatever they were doing. And… knowing that this could also happen to this Wallace guy, I… I feel like everything you did to us was just useless."
Monika fell back onto the couch, dismayed at Natsuki's words. "I… I know that what I did was wrong. B-But as I've been saying, I-I had no choice. T-This was the only way I could think of stopping this. The only way to help Wallace realize what he was doing wrong."
Yuri shook her head. "As Natsuki said, I don't think he will, not too easily, at least," Yuri added her two cents. "I've been at that level of insanity before, after all."
Monika briefly winced but kept listening.
"There's not much you can do for someone who's completely insane," she carried on. "However, if you can somehow entirely disprove their ideologies over time, only then will you be able to help them out of it."
"I-I know," Monika agreed. "Mess is Mine is stronger whenever it has more time to enforce its will. But even then… I still hoped that an actual discussion with the Perfect Human would be useful. They're like a god, after all. Shouldn't a visit from God be a life-changing miracle? I… I wanted something like that to happen to Wallace as well."
Sayori casually wiped the budding sweat from her forehead. "I don't know, it sounds like a good plan," she admitted. "But… did it have to involve any of us getting hurt? I mean, isn't there any way to do it?"
"No, there isn't. MC has to break for it to work," Monika admitted. "And now, even that idea isn't possible either."
"Huh?" JoJo asked. "Well, I'm not saying go for it, but why?"
Monika sighed. "For starters, it won't work as well while MC knows what's going on. I need him to break, emotionally and mentally. You can't break someone if they're prepared for it."
"Secondly," she continued. "I'm certain that I'm out of Wallace's good graces. If he were to reach me now, he will, without a doubt, delete me."
"Wait, why?" Yuri asked, leaning forward as well. "Why will Wallace delete you?"
Monika chuckled. "MC happened, that's what," she explained. "He freed me from his grasp with his Load Save and has possibly now incurred his wrath upon all of us."
"Isn't there a chance that he doesn't know?" MC asked. "I mean, how would he know what I did in the Breach?"
"Wallace named that place the Breach himself," Monika deadpanned at him. "Do you really think he wouldn't find out, after all of the knowledge he can randomly acquire?"
MC stayed silent at that. It was more that he didn't know how to respond, seeing that he didn't know what Wallace's Stand was capable of yet.
"There's another thing," Monika carried on. "You had already taken care of all of the other existing Stand Users in the previous runs, so they're all deleted. Well, all except the Chinen twins."
"Well, that's a slight relief," Sayori said with an exhale. "Those two were actually pretty nice. But I still feel bad for the others."
"Who else was there, again?" Yuri asked.
"Kenji Hoketsu, Keshugi Yowaida and Reshi Sakimoto," MC debriefed. "Their Stand names are Broken String, Rockabye and Stupid Deep respectively."
"Right, but it's actually 'were'," Monika explained with a small frown. "They're all deleted now."
MC paused for a second, considering Monika's words. Suddenly, his eyes widened as he turned to face JoJo.
"How did we meet?" he abruptly asked the sandy-haired boy.
"Huh? Why are you asking that of all things?" JoJo flinched into a reply, clenching his teeth in confusion. "Umm, well, I guess I'll explain if you need it. We were playing a dodgeball match and you accidentally brought out your Stand to deflect a ball that shot at the bleachers. I met you afterwards and almost beat you up, but then learned that you didn't know what it was or what it could do. Is something wrong with that?"
"Yeah, something's wrong," MC revealed, his visage turning paler. "We actually met because I was attacked by Hoketsu."
"Huh?"
"Yep," MC nodded, gulping. "Hoketsu used his Stand in that dodgeball match and found out that I could see it. He brought me onto the field and tried to make me bring out Day One but failed. JoJo, you were there on my team as well. After the class, he tried to kill me, but you saved me from him. And to protect you as well, I used Rollback for the first time."
"But… that's not what happened!" JoJo emphasized. "I don't remember any of that!"
"That just proves Monika's point," MC said, now turning back to her. "Hoketsu was deleted, so there was no way that he could have made us meet."
JoJo groaned as he rubbed his forehead, collapsing his body onto the backrest of the couch. "So… my memories were changed as well," JoJo realized. "Deletion is probably one of the strongest abilities I've heard of. The ability to make it so that a person never existed in the first place while forcing the world to forget you and pretend like you never existed… deletion not only kills you but even gets rid of the legacy you leave behind, turning everything you've lived for into naught. Holy shit, that's fucked."
"Yeah," MC nodded. "And for some reason, we're the only ones not forgetting these deleted people. Me and everyone else I'm able to bring back in time."
JoJo groaned yet again. "Seriously, why don't you let me into your gang, man?"
"Day One."
As his green Stand emerged from him, it displayed its dim yellow bars on its chest.
"Load Save has a cooldown. I'll be unable to summon it as a whole for about half an hour after using it. On top of that, I won't be able to use Load Save again for about a whole night. I've never timed it, so I don't know for sure."
"Damn," JoJo chuckled. "I guess that weakens you a bit, huh?"
MC nodded in agreement, now turning back to everyone else.
"So, Monika," MC said. "We're going to have to fight Wallace now, huh?"
Monika gulped in fear but nodded as well. "Sadly, yes. Wallace is… one of the most frightful Stand Users I've ever encountered."
"Wait, weren't we supposed to be done?" Sayori interrupted. "I thought everything would be fine once we saved Monika."
MC sighed out loud. "I was hoping for that too," he revealed.
"Wait, what's this about being done again?" JoJo asked from the corner.
"But as I said before," MC continued, ignoring JoJo. "Monika isn't safe yet. The only way to save her is to go all the way with this. And that means stopping Wallace from whatever he's doing. About that, what is his goal, Monika?"
"I… don't know if he has one," Monika revealed, making all the other members of her club gape at her. "We've talked occasionally. All he's talked is him wanting his own freedom to do whatever he wants to do. As far as I know, that's his goal."
Yuri pressed her fingers to her chin. "What could he be seeking freedom from…?"
JoJo leaned forward once again. "What about his Stand?"
Monika sighed but shook her head. "I don't know much about it," she confessed. "He's never explained his ability to me before. However, saying that he can do a lot would be an understatement. He seems to… know things before they happen. Things that he shouldn't as well, like everything MC doesn't know about his own Stand. This also includes stuff about a lost member of the Literature Club and the Perfect Human. Aside from that he can teleport, change things about people that he touches and even delete them. He's also able to suddenly create injuries on people and even acquire things that he has no right to by just simply standing at a spot. Despite all this, he's mentioned that he hasn't reached his limit in potential yet, either."
"What… the hell?" JoJo paled. "That's gotto be at least six different abilities! How the hell can he do all that?!"
"I'm so sorry, I don't know," Monika remorsefully let them down. "He's not mentioned any of this to me before. I've tried asking, but he'd immediately shut me down. But there's one thing that I know for certain."
Monika turned to MC. "For some reason, he speaks fondly of you, MC," she explained. "This is from a person who's prone to killing those that works with him. He's told me that the only one who can truly entertain him is you, especially if you've acquired a Stand. That is also why I think you're the only one who can defeat him."
"Huh?" MC remarked. "I've never met this guy in my life. His name's Wallace, right?"
"Yes, he's the Student Body President of our school."
Natsuki widened her eyes. "Wait, you're talking about him?!"
MC ignored her and shook his head. "I've heard of the guy, of course, but I've never actually met him."
"He looks almost exactly like you," Monika continued. "Do you think he could be a brother or something?"
"I'm an only child," MC revealed. "Also, shouldn't this guy be about my age, but shorter? I don't know about lost twin brothers or whatever, but maybe? It still doesn't explain anything about him, however, or how he knows so much about me without me knowing about him."
Monika slowly nodded. "I can see that," she relented with a frown. "I'm sorry, all of you, but that's all I have. I… I hope you understand why I had to do what I did before now."
"Hey, Monika," Sayori got up and sat next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her gasp. She slowly wiped away tears from her face that she didn't know she was making. "I will admit, a part of me still remembers everything you've done to us in the previous runs. You are definitely the reason why I ended up killing myself."
But then, to Monika's surprise, Sayori beamed at her, tears forming in her eyes as well. "But… I've always wanted to give people second chances. I don't see why I can't give you one either."
Monika scrunched up her face from her tears forming and quickly wrapped her arms around Sayori to bawl into her shoulder. Smiling at the scene, the others slowly stood up from the couch to move to the kitchen for breakfast.
"Hey, Yuri," Natsuki called out as she plated a couple of the now cold strips of bacon, making the purple-haired girl stop fiddling with the ends of her hair and turn to her. "I wanna know what happened in the last run. How did your Stand evolve? Also, since when were you okay with fighting against Monika?"
Yuri shuddered for a moment, but then walked back to the doorway and took out a book from a bag she brought along. "I expected to be asked this, so I brought this along," she said as she presented the book to them.
"The Portrait of Markov?" MC asked, looking at the ominous eye on the book's cover. "How did that help you?"
"I… ended up connecting my experiences to the protagonist's," she revealed. "I had faced trouble fighting back against those that hurt me. Elyssa, however, was more focused on the rage she felt making her bring out her – oh sorry, spoilers."
MC paused in his gait as he heard Yuri's words. 'Elyssa…' he repeated to himself in his head, remembering the dream that he should have had that very morning.
"Yuri," he turned back to her. "Is this thing she brought out… her Third Eye?"
Yuri lightly groaned. "I guess none of you worries about spoilers for this story," she said, holding up the book to them again. "Yes, Elyssa brought out her Third Eye."
"Wait, wait!" Monika rushed up to them, wiping away her stray tears with Sayori following closely behind. "Elyssa?! How do you know that name?"
Yuri jolted back at Monika's sudden approach. "M-M-Monika, what are you doing?!" she yelled at her, bringing out Act 2 to cover her eyes once again.
"Yuri, please tell me, how do you know that name?"
"S-She's the protagonist of The Portrait of Markov!"
Monika finally took a step back, making Yuri breathe a sigh in relief and retreat her Stand.
"I'm sorry, Yuri," Monika shook her head. "But I need to be sure about something. Elyssa's name, is it Elyssa Libitina?"
Yuri widened her eyes. "Y-Yes, it is," she revealed.
"Wait, what's going on here?" MC cut in between the two, standing between them and facing Monika.
"Elyssa Libitina…" Monika slowly recited the name out loud. "She was a member of our club."
Her statement forced everyone in the room mute. Looking around, Monika noticed that everyone in the club was gaping at her, especially Yuri.
"Wait, how does that make sense?" Natsuki argued. "I'd certainly remember if some other girl was in our club as well."
"JoJo doesn't remember our first encounter because Hoketsu got deleted," MC revealed. "Also, since none of us remembers her other than Monika-"
"I don't remember her," Monika interrupted. "Wallace just told me about her. She's the first person he'd deleted."
"Okay, that answers it then," MC replied. "Elyssa was deleted before I manifested Day One." Turning back to Yuri, he pointed to the book. "Yuri, can I have that for a moment?" he asked.
Nodding, Yuri handed to book to him without a word, still thinking about that entire discussion.
Flipping through the pages, MC recited what Elyssa told him in his dream. "She said, 'Your path is shown in my time. Your path is shown in my tome.' A tome is basically a book, right?"
Monika nodded. "Yes, that's true. And I've never heard that line before, who said it?"
MC looked back down at the book, a pensive frown marring his features. "I had a dream in the past run," he revealed. "I was in Memory for the first time. Monika, it's the place where we talked when I was rewinding you. Over there, I met a tall skinny girl with white hair, and for some reason, I knew that her name was Elyssa. She told me some things about the Perfect Human and about how I should check out her tome and open my Third Eye. None of it made sense at the time, but most of it's coming together now."
Monika widened her eyes. "I… don't know how that's possible," she revealed. "In fact, I don't even know how there's a book about her in the first place."
MC finally flipped back to the first page. "Yuri, this story also includes the Third Eye, right?"
"Y-Yes," she admitted. "Elyssa had a strong Third Eye but couldn't control it very well."
"What did she need to do to activate it?"
"A… significant amount of mental trauma," Yuri confessed, making MC and Monika widen their eyes at the same time.
"MC, that's why I had to break you!" Monika realized.
"You're right!" MC said. "I don't know how, but this Third Eye is the key to turning me into the Perfect Human. Can I try activating it somehow?"
"A-Absolutely not!" Yuri suddenly yelled out, making the two turn back to look at her. "I-I've read the book, and if the Third Eye is real, then you must never activate it!"
"Huh?" Monika asked, faltering back. "But why? Didn't Elyssa ask MC to open his?"
"Monika, i-in t-the end of the book, Elyssa almost d-destroyed the world with the power of her unleashed Third Eye," Yuri revealed. "I-If that power is exposed to our world… then we're all going to die, regardless of whatever you had planned."
Monika paled upon hearing her words, her knees going weak as she slumped to the floor.
"Y-You're telling me," Monika choked out. "That everything I did… could have destroyed the world instead?"
"W-Wait, hold on a minute," MC cut in, gently resting a hand on Monika's shoulder to comfort her while hiding his uneasiness at Yuri's words. "If Elyssa was truly alive once, then shouldn't she have already destroyed the world? Why are we all still alive then?"
"I… I don't know," Yuri explained. "The very last words of the book mentioned a Third Eye being turned on her, destroying her as well. I'd theorized that she had turned her own eye on herself to stop herself."
"That might actually be Wallace," Monika added. "He said that he deleted her. Could he tie into the story somehow?"
"I… don't think so," Yuri hummed. "I'll have to look through it once again."
"Holy shit, this is getting confusing," Natsuki muttered, slightly rubbing her temples. "Look, breakfast is already cold as ice, and none of you ate anything yet. Get some shit on your plate, alright?"
Monika slowly wiped away her tears and nodded. Getting up, she walked to the table at took a cold slice of toast and attempted to spread some stiff butter on it.
"Oh yeah, I forgot you're vegetarian," Natsuki muttered.
Monika chuckled. "Well, I can eat eggs, so that's good," she said as she gingerly plated some of the scrambled eggs alongside her torn buttered toast.
As everyone slowly got their food, they all sat down by MC's dining table.
"Alright, let's set the Third Eye stuff aside for now," MC said as he took a bite of his bacon, wincing at how bad it had gotten from turning cold. "We need a plan for Wallace. Any ideas?"
"He knows that I've been freed," Monika said, setting aside the fork she used to poke through her eggs. Opening her phone, she showed a text message to all of them. "He sent me this a moment ago. He's asking all of us to meet in the club."
"But aren't we skipping school today?" Natsuki said, putting her cleaned plate away. "How are we going to back to the clubroom?"
"We can sneak in at club time," JoJo said. "As the other students leave, we can pretend like we forgot something and run back into the school."
"Sounds good," MC said. "We're going to have to be careful, though. We still don't know what Wallace is capable of, or if he's going to sic any other Stand Users on us."
"That is true," Monika said. "We definitely need to be wary. Also, JoJo, there's something I need to do."
Ignoring her food for a moment, Monika walked up to JoJo, who was looking at her with a brow quirked in confusion.
"Geoff Joster," Monika declared. "This is quite a bit late, but I feel like this has to be done. I hereby invite you to join the Literature Club."
JoJo chuckled. "I guess I have no choice but to accept," he replied with a wave. "Thanks for having me."
Monika smiled and nodded, then walked back to her seat.
"Alright, what are we going to do in the meantime?" Natsuki spoke up from nearby. "We're only going to the club to meet this Wallace guy, right? We've got the rest of the day to ourselves."
Yuri quickly finished up her meagre portions and picked up her book. "I'm going to read through this once again," she said. "I've read it before, yes, but I'm going to look through it a little further to glean more available information."
"That's a great idea, Yuri!" Monika cheered. "Why don't we all come up with something else to do?"
"I'm going to bake some cupcakes," Natsuki declared. "We've got another new member. Also, we never managed to eat the batch we made the last time, right?"
"Oh no, we forgot!" Sayori bemoaned, between mouthfuls of her food. "My cupcakes…"
"Hey, they're my cupcakes!" Natsuki yelled at her. "Keep that up and you're not getting another one!"
"No! I'll stop!" Sayori yelped in reply as she quickly covered her mouth with her hands.
Natsuki harrumphed as she looked at the rest of the club. She paused as she noticed Monika's full plate.
"Oi, Monika," she chided her. "You're not eating."
"A-Ah, about that," Monika appeared flustered as she spoke. "I'm… not really hungry."
Natsuki, however, growled as she walked up to her side, her height just keeping her a head taller than the seated Monika. "Eat," she ordered with a daring tone. "You may have messed us all up before, but we need you and your Stand now. So, you'd better eat."
Monika flinched back at Natsuki tone but curtly nodded. "A-Alright, I'll do it!" she replied as she quickly forked some of the eggs into her mouth with a lopsided smile. Natsuki, now sighing in satisfaction, walked away from Monika who was now hungrily devouring the cold food.
MC chuckled at their antics. Finishing off his food, he quickly went up to his room and picked up his wallet from his desk, still ignoring his sheets. Taking out some bills like before, he went back down and handed them over to Natsuki.
"For the ingredients for the cupcakes," MC replied Natsuki's unasked question. "Just like last time, remember?"
"Geez, you don't need to give me this every time," Natsuki breathed out. "But… thanks,"
MC chuckled. "Don't mention it," he said. "This is technically the first time I'm giving you that money, right?"
"Y-Yeah!" Natsuki yelled and nodded. "I-I'm gonna pay you back for this, alright?"
Slowly, MC nodded. "I don't really need it, but I guess you can do that if you really want to."
Nodding back, Natsuki beamed at him. "Alright, I'll be back!" she said as she ran out of the house.
JoJo smiled as she left. "She really acts like a kid at times, huh?" he said.
MC frowned. "It's more her being excited about things she enjoys."
"Right, sorry," JoJo replied, reserving his smile.
MC looked away from them as he put his plate into the sink to wash later. 'Wallace,' he thought. 'Who are you, and how do you know me?'
Wallace looked out of his class window, barely keeping himself from tapping the floor with his feet in excitement. Some of his teachers ended up calling him out on it, but he had just ignored them.
'Looking forward to meeting you again, Markie,' he thought with a smile, as he clenched his fist. 'I swear that I'll free myself of you this time.'
A/N: Alright, look, I know that this chapter is a bit of a mess, alright? New topics coming in left and right, forcing you to leave one thing behind and focus on the new one. I'm actually doing that for three reasons. One: It's a natural discussion between people. Every time I've discussed stuff this important with others, we always manage to drift to different topics as we talk. The only thing I wish I could improve is to make it more lighthearted at times. Two: This style can fester confusion in a reader's mind. I heavily rely on foreshadowing for that final impact of a secret reveal, so I mask all of it with this scattered way of discussing things, not giving the reader enough time to think. Finally, it's the only way I can write this stuff. Sorry.
Now, onto the good news. I'm finally ready to release the name of this arc. This arc will be aptly named...
The MC Arc.
Is it pretty underwhelming? I guess so. Anyway, Sayori's not getting an arc of her own. Her struggles are portrayed throughout the story, and not specific to a single arc. This is also the very last arc of this story, so I'm going to try to elongate it as much as possible. Add a whole bunch of Stand battles and whatnot. I've still got some ideas in the backburner, anyway.
Next chapter, the united Literature Club is going to fight Wallace for the first time. I hope that description of his Stand unnerved you quite a bit. And yes, it is that overpowered for a very good reason. You'll see when I talk about it in the next chapter. It's really gonna be an eye opener. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if any of you guessed his ability, either.
Review!
IzuOchaShipper99: Okay, woah, that is high praise. I can assure you, I'm not Araki. Hell, I'm not even Japanese, I'm Indian. I just get a little too enthusiastic about these stories.
And about Monika's Redemption. I'm not gonna lie, I also felt like I should have delayed it a bit. I've wanted to redeem her from the start because I wanted to unite the entire club, but I agree that it was a bit abrupt. Even then, I hope that this chapter set a good baseline for what's going on with Monika, and how she can grow from here on out.
Also, side note, The Knife Act 1 was never weak. I've always seen it as one of the most versatile Stands in the club, after Sweet Victory. Portals can be used pretty well for combat as well as support. Act 1 is fast, allowing it to create those portals pretty quickly. The issue with it was Yuri, who was too nervous to push past the limits of her own Stand. The dead body Emerald Splash was just one of the few applications that I thought of.
Anyway, that's all for now! I'm pretty hyped for the next chapter, but I'm going to force myself to rest for a day or two. I'll see you all in the next chapter!