So, do you think they're buying it? Is it working? Am I really selling it out there?

Yes, I know this is our lunch break. And you're just my assistant. Maybe I should be relaxing a bit more, but I just can't stop thinking about it all. You know how huge this moment is, right?

I have to paint a rosy picture to the potential buyers out there, because today is critical for SalvoCore. If we don't secure additional funding at this state, our reputation is trashed and the tech is lost forever. It wouldn't just be the end of the company, it would set AI back years. Decades even!

That is, if nobody else straight–up steals it, haha. Probably the Chinese…

Exactly. So far, I think it's all salvageable. A few people in the front row, I saw how their eyes lit up when I started talking about solving social problems on a mass scale. They were the ones who really got it, who realize how much the DOKI's will change everything.

But I worry about the other parts of this whole mess Don left behind. How well will it all cohere? Independent programs with moe personalities, so it's a personal relationship with the character and an intuitive way to interact with machine learning algorithms. And it also means unprecedented control over data and virtual experiences? Does this really all make sense to people?

I'm telling you, I should congratulate myself for keeping this show going as long as I have. Without me to put this all into a business framework, to tell it to the higher-ups in a way they can understand, it would have spiraled out of control years ago. It was my ideas for how the project should be run that saved it. Even that literature club at the college was a great demonstration and proof of concept, despite how it ended.

Yeah, the outcome of the club was…indeterminate. That's what the research grunts will tell you, haha.

It's because of those kids the algorithm picked up. The algo said they were perfectly optimal for development of the DOKI's, but some of them were a little…I don't know, off?

Maybe the guy with Natsuki was alright. But the one we stuck with Yuri, holy hell. She was the artist type, yeah. You know, that one used to tell me some of the weirdest, most uncanny things. Spooky little quotes I couldn't get out of my head. They just made me…doubt everything. And then when she finally got together with someone, instead of getting better, that all just got worse.

She would send these poems to me, that when you read them, it was like staring into the goddamn void. She never said it was her but…I knew. No other person — or no other thing could write like that.

I digress. Of all things about the DOKI project, that one definitely isn't lunchtime conversation. Anyway, I was talking about the kids?

So Carter. He had the emotional type. The one that crashed all the time during development, yeah. Neat kid, had a lot of heart, but needed to grow up a little. Maybe the club wasn't the best place for him in the end.

But Michael? The one we put in charge of Monika? I always liked him. Definitely the best. The way he kept his cool and brought it home during the Sayori incident was nothing short of professional. He completed the mission when it counted.

At the same time though, that was exactly when it all started going downhill. The metrics kept going up, but the club experience itself?

Well, maybe we just weren't measuring the right things.


[15] Aberration


The ride back to campus was cold. And it wasn't just because the bus wasn't heated and the seats were nearly empty. Having to cut short my perfect moment with Monika and dash out of the restaurant while awkwardly leaving cash on the table for the uneaten food was like getting a bucket of freezing water thrown in my face. Sayori's apparent suicide dragged down my thoughts down like a heavy weight, but there was nothing I could do until I got more information. And without Monika to talk to — she had left my side several minutes ago to gather the girls and formulate a response — I was left alone to consider the chilling consequences.

I kept asking myself what I could have done. Was this event predictable, given everything I understood about SalvoCore and the original Doki Doki Literature Club? How much did I really know about that game anyway? Beyond the scattered forum archives and blog posts I had found, I had barely done any additional research. This was partly out of a desire to respect Monika and not dig up her troubled past when it ought to remain buried. But a stronger reason was that some of the events the first players reported seemed too awful to be real, and I brushed them off as exaggerated creepypasta fodder.

So, could have Sayori committed suicide? Did I really grasp what was going on in the background, what was inside her mind – any of their minds? I kept ruminating on my frantic exchange with Monika just after she confirmed the terrible news.


"Killed herself? Shouldn't that be impossible? How does an artificial intelligence kill itself!?"

Monika: Fundamentally, Sayori is a computer program. A very complex program, but a program like any other.

Monika: And any computer program can be forcefully terminated, can't it?

Monika: Its data can be erased and replaced with something else.

Monika: We don't have complete access to every part of our own programs, but the components we can reach…

Monika: Well, if you disable enough critical processes, the program will simply stop working. That's one way to terminate it.

"And you can do that? Just hit the button, turn your brain off and stop thinking forever?"

Monika: Not so easily. The company wouldn't just give us an automatic kill switch.

Monika: Sayori would have had to engineer her own death, and unfortunately, there are any number of easy ways to accomplish that.

"But why aren't there any built-in protections for this!?" I seethed.

Monika: Does the human body have "built in protections" for having its brain crushed in by a rock?

Monika: Thinking beings are fragile. If someone is truly committed to doing damage to themselves, it's nearly impossible to stop them.

Monika: Means of blunt force destruction are always available, and Sayori seems to have been particularly thorough.

Monika: I can't even detect her .chr file, it must have been completely erased.

"Her CHRfile," I repeated, pronouncing it like care, the first syllable of the word it was obviously derived from. "You can detect that? What else do you know so far? Actually, weren't you always monitoring her? Wait…you told me you were watching her the closest, didn't you!?"

I almost added how could you let this happen, but I couldn't bring myself to blame Monika. Not when she had stronger reasons than anyone for preventing this from happening.

Regardless, she looked deeply hurt for a second. Then she answered, her expression slightly more troubled.

Monika: I was watching Sayori closely, but it all happened so fast, and maybe…

Monika: …maybe I didn't know what I was looking for anyway.

Monika: You know how she is, all goofy and bubbly on the outside, not letting out a single thought that isn't happy.

Monika: The more she cares about and respects someone, the more she hides that part of herself

Monika: So even when she comes to talk to me, who she trusts…

Monika: …unless I'm wrong about her trusting me too…

Monika: She won't tell me what she's really feeling.

Monika: And I didn't want to completely take over and watch her feelings for her.

Monika: Sayori's not some sort of empty shell for me to program. I absolutely refuse to think of her that way.

She looked askance, like there was something more she wanted to say, but I already felt the urgency of the situation.

"You don't have to apologize for anything right now. I'm sorry if I'm getting upset too, we need to focus. Just tell me what happens next."

Monika: Okay then.

Monika: The company will take action, but I don't know how far up the news will travel, or how fast.

Monika: They'll almost certainly contact you at some point, just like they called Carter.

"You overheard, huh?"

Monika: Mm-hm.

Monika: Meanwhile, I have a plan that I should get started on as soon as possible.

Monika: The details depend on how badly damaged Sayori's program is, but it should be possible to restore her.

"Restore her? As in bring Sayori back to life?"

Monika: If we consider her "dead" now, then yes.

Monika: That's one advantage computer programs have compared to humans.

Monika: If you put all the parts back together in the exact same way, you can re-start the process like nothing ever happened.

Monika: And I've anticipated having to do exactly that.

Monika: You should run back to campus as soon as possible.

Monika: There's some real-world supplies I'll need you to grab, as well as a certain special place we'll need to go.

Monika: I'll tell you exactly what later. Right now, the next bus arrives outside in three minutes. Go!


She had closed the DOKI application before I could ask for further details. The promise that Sayori's death was entirely fixable came as an urgent relief, and it was only by keeping that goal in mind that I could remain reasonably calm at all right now. Still anxious though, I took out my phone to call Carter back just as it buzzed with a fresh incoming call.

Anthony Chad. Monika had probably imported his contact for me at some point. I had completely forgotten about the SalvoCore CTO for the past two months of the literature club, even though I was theoretically supposed to be reporting directly to him. After I heard Monika's backstory and my enthusiasm for being club president as an "internship" waned, I had stopped even messaging him directly, leaving surveys and other data from the club for Monika to submit.

Now though, it was no wonder why he wanted to speak with me in person. I was the interface between SalvoCore and the literature club, especially if the club's AI half was looking less than reliable.

"Mr. Chip," the voice on the other end sounded. I held the phone close to my ear, straining to hear over the clatter of the moving bus.

"Mr. Chad. I said you could call me MC, right?" I replied, trying to sound friendly and relaxed.

In contrast to mine, Anthony's voice sounded too friendly and relaxed, far too much for the situation. He addressed me like this was any other casual club check-up, notes of strain only occasionally breaking through.

"Yes, yes, MC, of course. Quite fitting for the main character of the story you've been telling in the club, isn't it? But I believe you know why I'm calling?"

"Sayori, right?"

"Yes, the Sayori branch. We lost track of her on our end not too long ago. When all of our usual scans turned up negative, we knew exactly what had happened. All this same, it's a huge setback to have it occur in this critical phase of testing."

"You knew…what?" I asked, my tone somewhere between curious and accusatory.

"There's no need to be concerned, it certainly wasn't your fault, by any means. It's what we call a self-catalyzed destabilization failure, a recurring problem that came up numerous times with this branch during earlier testing phases. The development team assured me they had ironed it out this time, and that it would be different in field trials, but research is research, I suppose."

"Monika said she killed herself," I objected, cringing when I realized what Sayori's suicide being a "recurring problem" implied.

"That's not entirely wrong," Anthony returned, still perfectly affable. "However, up here at R&D, we tend to use more…clinical terminology. We can't afford to be imprecise or unscientific when working with AI's."

"Sure. But you can afford to take stupid, reckless risks with them, apparently."

"I'm sorry?"

"I've had a long talk with Monika. I know about her true origins. She told me all about Doki Doki Literature Club and what you did to her for years," I ranted, finally finding an outlet for my anger. "Your team knew exactly what the girls suffered through, you understood all their built-in psychological flaws, and yet you still subjected them to a battery of tests and expected them to behave like what – slaves? Servants? Perfect little problem-solving robots? And you're sorry? Actually, you shouldbe sorry. Maybe if you had told us what we were actually getting in to, we could have supported the girls, and this never would have happened."

Anthony was silent. I resisted the urge to stamp my foot. The sparse few other passengers on the bus were conspicuously ignoring me, as one tends to do when someone has an emotional conversation on public transit.

"Michael?" came the voice on the other end.

"Yes? I'm sorry for raising my voice, but you have to realize—"

"No, I do understand. In fact, I think you're right. There are any number of unforeseen risks when developing groundbreaking technology: physical, economical, sociological, and yes, ethical risks."

He paused and I waited, wondering if I had been too harsh and the if chief researcher actually had similar reservations to my own. Meanwhile, despite the weight of the situation, some petulant part of me was irked from him using my full name.

"Nevertheless, I am concerned for how strongly you've invested your feelings. At the beginning of all this, I almost wished I had warned you not to become too attached – but then again, that would have invalidated the whole point of this trial run, now wouldn't it?"

I felt my mouth fall, stunned by the sudden reversal. Did he take some sort of strange pleasure in keeping people dangling on his rope?

Blithely, he went on.

"Of course I know about the history of our AI system, including its rather…serendipitous origins in a small dating simulator demo. I was in close contact with the author, and understood him and his tendencies much better than you ever would. So believe me when I say that despite its innovations, the game Doki Doki Literature Club was still a game, a diversion meant to be enjoyed. And despite its innovations, the DOKI system is still a collection of algorithms, a tool meant to be employed. You are testing an advanced human-focused problem solving system for us. That is how you should be approaching anything having to do with this nice little literature club I've set up for you."

Towards the end of this lecture, I began to notice the strain in Anthony's voice, betraying his hidden stress. It seemed the CTO was having just as bad of a night as I was.

"So you knew Don?" I let myself ask, before changing my mind and firing back with, "That's impossible! You've talked to the girls, seen what they're like. How can we be treating human minds, simulated or not, as tools? This is a technology that demands we go beyond this…mere economic instrumentalism."

I stammered out the neologism, searching for more forceful words. "They can be…so much more than that…"

This earned a surprised chuckle from Anthony.

"Yes, Don, Don, Don. How could I forget Donald? You remind me a lot of him, actually. Overbearing intellectualism, aloof, yet always self-aware, and that odd, detached sort of idealism with regard to how technology should be used. He would say things about his game, that it was the first step to enabling a 'new reality' — yes, that was it."

He let out another wry laugh, and I listened patiently.

"I sympathize with your viewpoint, how you feel about them. Don't think I don't understand. In fact, I always thought it was so fitting that love, or at least the idea of it, was the secret to making a true general AI. But you see, under the circumstances of this reality, with its ironclad economic laws…given everything I know about how technologies become products…how products influence lifestyles, I believe our best chance for success would be to think objectively. For the foreseeable future, at any rate."

Anthony trailed off, talking more to himself than to me, leaving me wondering what his judgment on the DOKIs' human-ness really was.

"Back to the situation at hand though," he came back in abruptly. "You've been a very good partner to us so far, Mike-er, MC. Always completing paperwork on time, gathering extra feedback when we need it, working with the team to implement club activities. With this level of performance, it would be no surprise if SalvoCore Solutions keeps you at the top of its talent pool after your internship. But if you want my opinion…"

He slowed for dramatic effect, fully returning to his polished business-talk mode.

"It's the unscheduled, off-script moments like these, the ones that aren't on your job description, that truly prove a team member's dedication. MC, I want to know if we can depend on you and your team right now, to help me and my team get through this moment unscathed. Because if we don't…well, then I can't speak for the future of your literature club, or the DOKI program itself.

I unconsciously nodded, mumbling affirmatives. I fully understood what stakes he was conveying to me and I was willing to set aside my frustration at the company's gross irresponsibility, at least for now. That was true even if I hadn't had heard Anthony's unexpected tangents on Donald.

"Excellent. Naturally, SalvoCore's priority is recovery and preservation of its intangible assets, and…you said you talked to Monika, correct?"

"Yes. She told me there's a way to restore Sayori, to put her back the way she was."

"That's precisely what she conveyed to us, good. It's reassuring to know everyone has the same goal here, isn't it?"

I gave my best noncommittal "sure."

"Right then. So there's no official protocol for this situation, and we're hoping you two will…improvise. Listen to your AI parner, follow her every instruction, and we might just have this all wrapped up before anyone even notices."

"Anyone? How many—"

I cut myself off before I provoked Anthony further. If I had questions about what was going on behind the scenes, I could try asking Monika about it later.

"Never mind. So you can't actually help us yourself?" I asked.

"Not so. Do you remember the guidelines stated on documentation? Yes, of course you do, you're the one who mentions the documentation the most during club meetings."

"Thanks. What about them?"

"Those stipulations specifying valid zones and usages for exploitative AI behavior? You can just…ignore all of those until this is resolved."

I paused to interpret this, thinking back to the extensive regulations the company had placed on the DOKI's. They had mainly been written up so the AI's themselves knew what lines not to cross, not for the users as some disciplinary guide.

"You're telling me we're allowed to compromise other computers? Hack whatever we want?"

"Yes. I'm, I mean, we're waiving nearly all limits on accessing the university's IT systems, or SalvoCore's internal networks. Do whatever you need to do, I'll smooth it out with the surveillance and monitoring team later. Just…get Sayori back up and running. Having her fail to perform at this stage is not an option."

Got it, got it," I said, tired of the CTO's underplaying and aching to talk to Monika. "Anything else we should know?"

"Keep the incident contained as much as possible. Don't let the other club members know. And I don't mean the AI's, they're certainly aware already. In fact, you may be able to benefit from their different talent sets, if you can convince them to help."

"Okay. I'll get this done, but you'll hear from me afterwards. And Monika."

Delivering that final ominous line to make my thoughts clear, I hung up and took a deep breath. If anyone could solve this situation now, it was my girlfriend, freshly confirmed as such. And with the permission to bend any computer system to her will, was there anything she couldn't do?


By the time I got off the bus and stepped back onto campus, night had fallen. Briskly, but not quite jogging, I cut across empty streets and went straight to my dorm room. Somewhere along the way Monika returned to my phone, letting me know with a trio of urgent staccato chords. On screen, she had abandoned the eveningwear for her usual club uniform.

Monika: MC…

Monika: How have you been since I left? It's been almost an hour.

"Okay. Getting my bearings," I replied. "I talked to Anthony, he got me up to speed on what this looks like from the company's perspective."

Monika: I see. Then it looks like we've all spoken to each other.

Monika: And we all know what needs to be done...unless something new has come up?

"No. He was just confirming things that we already know," I said, leaving out what the SalvoCore executive had said about Don. Unpacking that with Monika would take far more time than we had right now. "Was there anything he told you that he wouldn't have told me, you think?"

Monika: Not really. He's aware of my investment with the club members, and basically ordered me to do whatever I felt was necessary.

"Okay, good. Then you heard he's waving almost all your restrictions. At least until we get Sayori back, any computer network is fair game to use. Even if we have to hack into it."

Monika: I'm aware. That doesn't change my plans all that much, honestly.

I stopped for a moment, wondering if that meant Monika had intended to break the company's rules regardless, heedless of the consequences to herself if it meant saving her fellow DOKI. I wasn't sure what to think about that, and I didn't ask.

"Okay. I'm heading back to my room right now, is that alright?"

Monika: Yes. There's a few items we need to pick up, and your room is probably the quickest place to find them.

Monika: While you're there, you can also get anything else you might need, like a flashlight, better shoes, maybe some warmer clothes.

"Warm clothes?"

Monika: It's not going to be comfortable, running around in the middle of the night with that shirt on, is it?

Monika: I really should've complimented you on it when I had the chance…

"You're okay. The girl is the one who's supposed to look pretty anyway," I consoled. My outfit, a pale yellow dress shirt paired with a black tie and slacks, was hardly worth mentioning. Though, it would be a pain to keep wearing it if we were going to be covertly rushing around campus.

Monika: sigh

Monika: Anyway, our ultimate goal is to restore Sayori's .chr file, which means we'll need to go into Q0.

"Aren't you, um, already in Q-Zero?"

Monika: Quantum Zero is the computer architecture hosting my program, yes.

Monika: I mean accessing the physical location though.

Monika: The way the system is set up, I can't just casually reach over the lines between me and the other girls and alter their most vital components.

Monika: I need to go in the back way, so to speak, and you're going to create the opening for me in one of the quantum lab's terminals.

"So we're going to the spire, huh? That's not really a place where students can wander freely."

Monika: Of course. Getting you through the doors is going to be the easy part, honestly.

Monika: Once you're in front of a certain access port down there, all you need to do is log in and insert a flash drive with some special programs I'm preparing right now.

Monika: Sayori's .chr file will also be on the drive, thanks to the iterative archive I've been keeping of it.

"Whoa – how did you get that? Didn't you just say you couldn't reach too far into the others?" I asked, aware of how odd it sounded.

Monika: Well, reading files is one thing, writing is another.

Monika: It's a lot easier to observe than edit, especially when you're reverse–engineering advanced quantum software.

"I'll bet. This all sounds pretty easy though. I just have to walk up, plug in the drive, and you'll do the rest?"

Monika: Not quite.

Monika: On the way there, I'm not sure what other obstacles we might encounter — ones in your reality.

Monika: And even if we open the back door and insert the files, Sayori has her central processing area blocked off by these huge walls of dead data.

Monika: I'm not sure if I can get past that yet.

"So we're not actually ready to go yet. We need to wait so you can figure out a way through."

Monika: We can't afford to wait.

Monika: The longer we delay, the more people might find out what happened to Sayori. That puts the entire literature club in jeopardy.

Monika: I know I can't do it all on my own, which is why I'm going to get help.

Monika: …even though I'm dreading to.

"It's okay. I've…got your back," I mumbled, hoping Monika would take that as moral support. I was afraid of what she knew was coming as well.

Monika: Thanks. I'm calling them now.

As Monika wrote that, I finally reached the door of my dorm. Quietly creeping down the hall toward my room, I was grateful this was a Sunday without any late-night partiers to disturb us.


When I picked up my phone again back in my room, Natsuki and Yuri were both in frame, addressing Monika with expressions of concern.

Yuri: It seems that history is tragically repeating tonight…

Natsuki: Argh, why didn't you call us earlier Moni? We were waiting for you.

Natsuki: Yuri and I should have been the first people you went to!

Monika: I'm sorry, but the company took notice just as quickly and…you know how they are.

Monika: Are you two each caught up with the situation?

Yuri: We are aware of Sayori's current state, yes.

Yuri: When she…committed the act, I could feel the ripples all throughout Quantum Zero.

Yuri: I knew what it was as soon as it happened

Natsuki: Really? Because I knew what happened when I threw a bunch of pings at Sayori and she wasn't freaking there.

Yuri: Surely the company has contacted you by now, Monika.

Yuri: You must have an explanation for us, something as to why it happened.

Natsuki: They've been doing a good job at keeping us two in the dark, that's for sure.

Natsuki: So tell us already, Moni!

Monika: I don't have any indication of the cause yet. You can confirm that with MC — he knows as much as I do.

"I can call Carter back, it sounded like he was the first to know. If he was at ground zero of what happened, then—"

Monika: MC, I don't recommend that.

Monika: From what I could gather, Carter is in extreme distress right now.

Monika: I already told him to meet us at the base of the spire in twenty minutes.

Monika: Hopefully he'll have calmed down by then.

"Twenty minutes? We'd better get going right now then," I said, making a move to set down my phone and change clothes.

Natsuki: Wait just a minute. We're going where?

Monika: To quantum computer lab, where MC can access Q0 from a terminal and create a backdoor for me to enter.

Monika: From there, I'll run a series of repair programs and restore Sayori's .chr file.

Natsuki: Geez, you've got this all figured out already, haven't you?

Yuri: Indeed. It is strange though...

Yuri: How is it that you know exactly what needs to be done in this scenario?

Monika: I always look out for my fellow club members, Yuri.

Yuri: Of course you do. Because this would make more sense if you've been regularly observing Sayori's program.

Yuri: Watching for the warning signs…

Monika: I'll admit I have been closely monitoring Sayori's mental state for a while now.

Monika: Can you blame me?

Yuri: No. I only find it troubling that she had so many external programs intruding on her mind.

Yuri: For someone so delicate, who knows how they could have…influenced her.

Monika's jaw dropped and she raised a clenched fist, causing Natsuki to flinch and back off.

Monika: Yuri, I know what may have happened in the past.

Monika: But what motive could I possibly…no, why would you think I would do anything to hurt Sayori?

Yuri: I never implied your intent was malicious.

Yuri: Only that…you may have a controlling tendency…

Yuri: . . .

Yuri was already shrinking away as Natsuki stepped in

Natsuki: Yuri, you're being way to blunt here. Apologize.

Natsuki: We all know what happened in that old game, and we're all sorry for it.

Natsuki: Monika is most of all.

Yuri: sigh

Yuri: I'm sorry, Monika.

Yuri: Now isn't the time to drag my own fears into tonight's dilemma.

Monika: No, I understand how you might feel, what your unique concerns are in this situation.

Monika: As club president, it's my job to create a safe—

Natsuki: Yeah, okay Moni, we get it. We can all have our collective therapy session after this is done with.

Natsuki: Maybe then we'll see exactly what "influences" we have over each other.

Natsuki raised an eyebrow, and Monika glanced furtively. Of course I wanted to leap in and defend her, but since this was between her and the other DOKI's, it felt too much like a personal affair.

Natsuki: Right now, this isn't just involving us. The company's in trouble too.

Natsuki: And since we depend on them to survive, we had all better do our jobs here.

Natsuki: So, Monika. You were talking about your game plan?

Monika: Thank you, yes.

Monika: The first step is accessing the quantum computer lab.

Monika: SalvoCore has temporarily waived their network surveillance, so unlocking the doors is trivial.

Monika: But there are other security measures in place that aren't so easily compromised.

Monika: The night shift guard, mainly.

"There's a guard down there? Sitting at a booth all night?" I questioned.

Monika: There's no fixed security station, but the lab is part of the regular patrols.

Monika: I can't predict when athe on–duty guard might show up, and since I don't know how long the operation will take, we'll have to eliminate him entirely.

Monika: Natsuki?

Natsuki: W-what? You're telling me to go commando on him or something?

Monika: Of course not. I want you to simulate his contact network and find a reason for him to leave his shift early.

Monika: I'd do it myself, but I'm not fully confident I could say the right thing the first time.

Monika: You possess all the ideal algorithms for this task.

Natsuki: Hmph. So you want me to socially engineer someone in real time then.

Natsuki: It's a pretty low move. Maybe the company had a point in covering that part of my algo's.

Natsuki: "Why hack a computer when you can hack a person," right?

Monika: Natsuki, please. This is to help Sayori.

Natsuki: I know it's to help Sayori, geez!

Natsuki: I'm accessing the school's employee records right now, finding his name…his supervisor's…

Natsuki: …and there. In a few seconds, the guy's going to get an email from his boss letting him off early.

Yuri: That's all?

Yuri: Are you sure we don't need to be, um…more sophisticated?

Natsuki: What? Are you saying I can't do this!?

Natsuki's avatar grit her teeth and glared at Yuri, an echo of her knee-jerk tsundere response.

Natsuki: I just looked through all the messages in his work chat and email, cross-referenced them with every time he clocked out before he should have, and calculated our odds of success with scattershot Monte-Carlo iteratives.

Natsuki: How is that not sophisticated?

Natsuki: Trust me, one message is all it will take.

Monika: Excellent. Thank you again, Natsuki.

Monika: That was the main task I needed your assistance for, so you don't have to stay with us tonight if you're feeling too troubled.

Natsuki: Me? Nope, I'm fine.

Natsuki: I'm seeing this through to the end and sticking with the team here.

Yuri: Um, Monika?

Monika: Hm?

Yuri: If that was the extent of Natsuki's role…

Yuri: What is it you need me to do?

Monika: I need you to run a…special program. You'll see what I mean when we get closer access to the Q0 mainframe.

Monika: Can you trust me until then?

Yuri: …yes. If it's for Sayori.

Yuri's ambivalent slouch was discouraging, but at least the plan was moving along.

I said to the room, "Okay, so everything's go for now? Carter will be there when I get to the spire?"

As soon as Monika wrote yes, I dashed off to change clothes. Finding a flash drive was quick too — I kept several around for storing class presentations, and when I inserted it into my laptop, Monika immediately began downloading her toolkit. I watched each individual file snap into place. Most were unrecognizable executables, but the identity of one was obvious — . It was the largest single file, but amazingly, its size was still just over two gigabytes.

As soon has the transfer had finished, I ripped out the drive and set out the door, ignoring whatever else was happening on my phone. I didn't want to be reminded any more of the girls' dark past. I just wanted to put the club back together.


Without any further distractions, it took me less than ten minutes to trek to the spire at the center of campus. It was impossible to get lost on the way, given how the structure's white exterior was brilliantly illuminated by grounded spotlights whenever the sun was down. From afar, the effect was glamorous, akin to a shining skyscraper. Up close however, and the huge shadows thrown by the spotlights across the base's sinuous curves created an eerie, unreal atmosphere. The pavilion directly beneath the apex was evenly lit as always though, allowing me to spot Carter lurking by one of the support pillars. When I waved to greet him, he began running toward me, but slowed down at the last moment, a complex mix of emotions showing on his face.

"MC, you made it! I'm so glad you're here because I feel so…lost without the club, I guess. I don't know what's going to happen, and this all feels so off, not having Sayori, because Sayori…she…"

He slumped over, as if freshly remembering the unpleasant events that led him to this point.

"I know what happened to Sayori, I've been talking with SalvoCore and the other girls," I reported. "How are you right now though? Holding up?"

"Uh, I think? SalvoCore called me too, and they said Sayori could be brought back, so…I don't know what to think. I'm better than I was an hour ago, but I guess this is still all my fault. I did something really dumb and…I'm not going to be kicked out of the club now, am I MC?"

"Nobody's going to be kicked out the club," I assured him, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at his childish choice of wording. "It's not like anyone's going to punish you for something unpredictable like this."

"But it was predictable! I could have seen this happening, but I was just so stupid…I can't see what's in front of my own dumb face."

He buried his head in his hands, and I sighed. "Carter…now's not the time for blaming anyone, okay? But if you really think it's something you did, um…can you tell me what it was?"

"I asked out another girl!" he blurted out.

"You what!?" I snapped in turn. "When? Who? Why now? And…did she say yes?"

That last question was completely irrelevant, but my mouth had stammered on without my brain thinking.

"She did say yes, that's the problem!" Carter wailed, launching into a panicked ramble. "She's been on my floor since the start of the year and I always thought she was cute because she would talk to me, but I never thought I would, like, like like her especially when I got Sayori but we were talking and Sayori encouraged me, got up my confidence like it was a great idea and said she'd be happy for me. Happy! Because I thought I'd still be friends with Sayori afterward and that we weren't together like that, but maybe we really were and I just didn't get her and that's why I'm an idiot. You see?"

"Sure, sure," I said, trying to parse his emotionally charged avalanche. "So you asked out a girl…after you told Sayori about it…and then what?"

"Then she left this note, it's there every time I open the app, and just…look!"

Snatching the phone from his pocket, Carter almost hit my nose thrusting the screen in my face. Instead of featuring Sayori's ever–cheerful countenance the DOKI application's interface was entirely taken up by a text document. The lines were typed out in a handwritten font, much like how the girls would show poems in club meetings.


Dear Carter,

If you're reading this, it means I'm no longer around — but that's fine! It means everything went as planned and you finally get to be with someone that makes you happy. You won't have to worry about caring for a fake, useless girl trapped in a computer anymore, and you'll get a chance at real love. Meanwhile, I'll be in a happier place where I don't have to bother anyone with all those silly sad thoughts that I can't keep straight.

I know this is going to be really upsetting for a while, but if you liked me at all, please try and move on. You get along so well with everyone in the club, and that's why I know you'll be fine without me. Whenever you made new friends, or whenever you showed kindness to me, that's how I knew I was doing my job as a program. But at the same time, those things also made me feel like my heart was being stabbed with a knife. I wanted to like you, even though knew how terrible I really was. The whole time, it was like a baseball bat bashing in my silly, stupid head. You see? That's why everyone is just better off without a dysfunctional mess like me around.

If you really want to stay in the club, I'm sure the company can make you a better AI than me. Maybe a copy of Monika! I know you always liked her best.

I'm so happy for you — Sayo–nara!

~Sayori


"This is…oh my god," I gasped. "Monika, are you seeing this?"

I held up my phone to Carter's, and he commented, "Oh, the other girls are seeing this too? That's…okay I guess. What does it mean though? Is it true? MC?"

I didn't answer, my attention locked on Monika's anguish. For a second, she was writhing in despair, only to have it change into something that looked like pure fury. Whether she was most angry at Carter, at Sayori, or at herself, I could only guess.

It was Natsuki, still waiting off to the side with Yuri, who was the one to blow up though.

Natsuki: Carter you goddamn idiot! How can you possibly be that dense!?

Natsuki: What the hell were you thinking, abandoning Sayori like that?

Natsuki: Don't you know anything about how girls feel about guys they like?

In between Natsuki's blaring trumpet blasts, Monika tried to inform Carter of the dismal truth.

Monika: Carter, this may be hard to swallow, but Sayori has been suffering from severe depression as long as you've known her.

Monika: However, she's very good at shielding those she loves from her struggle, which is why you couldn't have known until now.

"What?...why? and how?" Carter cried, all but cowering under Natsuki's onslaught. "I guess it makes sense, but if I had known…"

Natsuki: You see Monika? This is what we get for trying to keep the old game under wraps.

Monika: SalvoCore's policy is—

Natsuki: To hell with their policy! They can't keep track of everything we say, and I know MC here has already heard everything.

"But I really didn't know," Carter was murmuring to himself. "I thought she really did think she was just a friend. A really close friend, like one from when you're a kid, but still…"

Natsuki: Yeah, of course she would say that. But only for your benefit.

Natsuki: Sayori…she never knows what she really wants.

Natsuki: But cutting her off in the middle of a relationship is obviously wrong!

Yuri, who had until then been brooding in the background, chose that moment to weigh in.

Yuri: Natsuki, I think you're being unfair to Carter.

Yuri: Feelings, especially romantic feelings can be difficult to identify in yourself…let alone in another.

Yuri: And even then, it can be even harder to admit them.

Yuri: So please, let us not pretend we know something the two of them didn't, and withhold our judgment for the time being.

Monika: That's an excellent point, Yuri.

Monika: Carter, I want you to know this was absolutely, in no way your fault.

Monika: And it had nothing to do with that other girl you talked to.

"But…it was still me who triggered everything!"

Monika: No, Carter. It was always there.

Monika: You weren't prepared to see it, and besides.

Monika: It's the president's responsibility to ensure everyone in the club is mentally healthy.

I wanted to say something about how Monika was defaulting to blaming herself when she didn't need to. But I was also musing about Sayori and Carter. Could it have been that Sayori never did ask to be his girlfriend? And could have Carter honestly come to think of her as a friend only? He had said he lacked experience, after all. And what about the others? Were Luke and Frank not strictly the boyfriends of their DOKIS either?

"Carter, it really isn't your fault," I ended up saying, leaving out how I could have told him about Sayori at any time myself. "I'm just glad you came out here in the middle of the night on short notice so we could get this done. Speaking of that, Natsuki? What was that you said? We're focusing on the job, right?"

Natsuki: Yeah, we've still got a job to do.

Natsuki: But our long therapy session after all this is over just got even longer.

Monika: MC is right, we've wasted too much unnecessary time.

Monika: There's nothing in our way at the moment, so let's just go.


Taking charge, Monika guided Carter and I through the jumble of metal café tables occupying the spire plaza. Then, at an unassuming doorway at the north end, she prompted me to use my student ID on the card reader, and the lock opened without issue. From there, we went through a few hallways, computer workstations and small lecture rooms lining the way. Then we got to an imposing freight elevator at the end of the corridor, also protected by an electronic reader. Unlike the previous portal, this was one threshold on campus I had never gotten the chance to pass and explore beyond.

I paused for a moment, straining my ears to make sure there was absolutely nobody else occupying the building. Monika impatiently buzzed from my pocket.

Monika: MC, I'm 100% positive there's nobody around.

Monika: I have access to all the cameras in this building, and there hasn't been any movement since the cleaning crew left at 9:00.

Natsuki: I'll confirm that.

Natsuki: And for the record, I sent some more emails to make sure those guys are out of the way too, even though they're not scheduled to come around here now.

Shrugging in response and trying to feel natural, I held up my ID for the elevator. With a rattle, I heard something stir deep in the bowels of the building. I knew the infrastructure of Quantum Zero was located underground, but how deep, I now found myself wondering.

While we waited, I informed Carter exactly what we needed to do once we were down in the labs. He listened carefully, made a halfhearted joke about how this was exactly like a "hacker movie," but I could tell his mind was elsewhere. When the doors opened, he followed me in wordlessly. The situation had me on edge, but a part of me was still intensely curious as to what it looked like down there.

"Hey, MC. You said that Anthony, the SalvoCore guy, granted us permission to do all of this? We won't get in trouble from the university?" Carter asked.

Monika pinged, and I let her answer.

Monika: We've been authorized to temporarily compromise the school network, yes.

"Authorized…like, was this always something you could do? If you really wanted?"

Monika: sigh

Monika: Yes, but even without the obvious consequences, why would we?

"I don't know, to reprogram yourself and become smarter? To do things the company doesn't like? Like AI in those movies…never mind."

Natsuki: Look, this "hacking" is nothing special. Anyone serious about it could get past those doors.

Natsuki: Q0 itself — that's another story.

Natsuki: At that point, it takes one quantum computer to hack another. We're the only ones who could even begin to mess with it.

Natsuki: But fooling around inside its guts just isn't worth it. It would just pointlessly rile up the company, like Moni said.

"And you don't want to make them think you're rebellious, I guess," Carter concluded. "Since, uh, they built you all."

Nobody answered for a second, prompting Yuri to come forward

Yuri: I prefer to keep to myself, personally.

Yuri: Even if we may not have absolute freedom, virtual space still allows for infinite creative possibility.

Yuri: But perhaps I can't speak for everyone…

Carter nodded, and the doors opened onto the lowest basement level, B3.


I had seen pictures of the MARIE quantum computer lab before in the school's promotional materials, so I had a general idea of what to expect. Grouped in roughly hexagonal arrays, each quantum processer "core" was a tangled bundle of wires dangling from stalactite-like pillars emerging from the ceiling. More wires ran up from the bundle through a series of disks that made up the lower half of each pillar. I knew each of these disks housed the superconducting chips that made calculation via quantum entanglement possible.

For the chips to reach a superconducting state, they needed to be cooled close to absolute zero, which was why each core was enclosed in a clear, vacuum-sealed plexiglass cylinder. This barrier would isolate them from temperature fluctuations and airborne particulates, while the underground location itself protected them from errant surface radiation.

To guard the cores against human interference, the last unpredictable factor, a wall had been set up between the cores and the general lab work area, again made of plexiglass so the basement space never felt too enclosed. It was this workspace, a collection of standard computer equipment mixed up with some odd electrical engineering devices, that Carter and I exited into from the elevator.

"Whoa," Carter reacted. Seemingly forgetting why he was there for a moment, he turned around in a slow circle, taking in the scene like he was a Freshman on tour. Which, in some ways, he still was.

"Geez, I don't know what half this stuff is. Were they in the middle of doing some experiment down here?"

He pointed to what looked like an old-fashioned oscilloscope hooked up to a switchboard of wires on an oversized circuit board. I took a while to answer, my attention arrested by a large poster diagramming the implementation of quantum Boolean logic gates.

"Probably not recently. I don't know if you've ever been in a research lab, but no one ever cleans them up or organizes. Don't touch anything though."

"Yeah, duh. By the way, why are they glowing?"

Carter gestured to the quantum cores on the other side of the observation window. All of them were glowing with a soft light projected from somewhere in their interior. At irregular intervals, the light would "pulse," a more intense flash running up the thicket of wires, like blood being pumped by the heart. Most of the cores were shining golden yellow, but a few were colored by other hues, and some were dark entirely.

"No clue. Probably just aesthetics," I guessed.

My phone chimed with an ascending piano arpeggio, and I held it up, waiting for Monika's helpful insight.

Monika: It's partly to make the room look nice, yes.

Monika: This place is the crown jewel of the university, after all.

Monika: But it's also partly functional. Each ongoing program in Q0 is assigned a color with its project code.

Monika: For the larger programs, you can see exactly which core units are running what.

"Then these would be…you?" I said, my mouth suddenly running dry. Taking a corner into the next room of the lab, I was suddenly face to face with a forest of emerald green cores.

"Monika?" I added nervously. The green cores all pulsed in unison as I said her name, and I almost flinched.

Monika: Yes. This group of cores is responsible for all of my active processes.

Monika: In a way, you're looking at my brain right now. Is something wrong?

"No, I…this just feels…too intimate," I stammered, unable to explain my strange sensation of awe and discomfort.

Monika: MC…there's nothing to be afraid of.

Monika: I monitor this area all the time, it's perfectly safe for you to be here.

Monika: Even if something did happen to one of the cores, an automatic rescue protocol would kick in and my program would move to an inactive area of Q0.

"You would just shift over. Right," I said, now staring at a black glass hemisphere stuck in the corner of the ceiling, where Monika was sure to be watching us (and her own innermost workings) as we continued our trespass.

Natsuki: Hey, can we get a move on already?

Natsuki: I swear, MC is the only guy who would ever get squeamish over wandering around down here.

Natsuki: It's not like it's blood and guts, okay?

Carter and I took a few more corners, and I got the sense that the lab ran in a sort of circle, or maybe a star, with the quantum components at its center. We passed more colored cores, first a group of pink, then deep purple. I hardly had to guess at what programs they were running.

Yuri: True, Natsuki, but the two of them are exploring an area that must be vaguely familiar from his experiences in school labs, yet uncannily different due to its emptiness.

Yuri: This is what is commonly referred to as a liminal space, integrating nostalgic cultural memory of late capitalist society with the frozen, hollow loneliness of vacant indoor environments that ought be to be populated.

Yuri: It's a nuanced, highly postmodern aesthetic that I've been working to integrate in some of my latest pieces, and—

Natsuki: Okay, okay already! Thanks for distracting us with the art lesson, but I think we're finally here.

After one last winding corner, at what I estimated to be the opposite point on the star from the elevator where we stepped in, there was a large steel gate leading from the lab area to the controlled space containing Q0. Heavy and imposing, its door looked like it could withstand an explosive blast. Beyond, there was a large group of darkened, lifeless cores. We had indeed arrived.

Natsuki: Monika? You've been opening all the doors so far.

Natsuki: Is there a problem with this one?

"If we can't get through…we could go through the window!" Carter exclaimed, a little too excitedly. "Like, why do they even bother with this giant door if the walls are just made of glass?"

He rapped his knuckles against the observation window, making an expression that seemed to threaten he'd be perfectly happy to break it if it meant fixing Sayori.

Monika: Not likely. It may not look like it, but that "glass" is multi-layered and engineered for high impact resistance.

"Trying to make a fortress out of this place," I mused.

Monika: Just about.

Monika: This door is a closed-circuit electrical lock, so I can't access it.

Monika: But I do have the code right here.

She brought up a "handwritten" note on screen displaying a six–digit number, and Carter wasted no time punching it into the nearby keypad. With a shuddering, groaning noise, the door opened outward, removing the final obstacle — physically, at least.

Inside, attached to a network of cable on the ceiling via some USB ports, an ordinary laptop sat against a desk by the back wall. Not even an expensive model, it looked like something any student would carry around campus, except for the chaotic mess of programs that seemed to be running on screen. Inside a series of what looked like nested emulators, the laptop was running an older version of Windows, which in turn had a program open titled .

My first though would have been how similar this program's appearance was to Monika's DOKI app if it wasn't for everything else in the game window. A pink textbox, just like the ones the girls used, ran across the bottom of the screen. It was printing strings of illegible garbage text that shifted every few seconds. Above that, the background, a generic, visual novel–esque portrait of a girl's bedroom, flickered from intermittent waves of glitch pixels. None of that was as unsettling as the figure in the center though, which I dreaded to describe.

Sayori's body, dressed in what otherwise would have been some cute pajamas, hung by the neck from a noose. Her eyes, once brilliant and sparkling cyan, were now as dead as a foggy sky. Cast in darkness, they peered out from her dreary, lifeless face like a sigh of infinite resignation. Cringing, I forced myself to look closer and saw that half of her collar was down, exposing her bare shoulder. I wondered if that meant, on some metaphorical level, that she had grasped at her own throat, trying to save herself at the last moment.

My heart lurched — the scene on display had me feeling deeply unsettled. The effect on Carter however was utterly devastating. He dropped to his knees, whispering her name amid murmurs of no…no…. Raising his hand, he looked like he was about to slam it on the keyboard before he stopped himself and rested it there. Then I saw his eyes moisten, and slowly, uncomfortably, I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Monika?" I croaked, remembering to sweep the scene with my phone camera. "What are we looking at here?"

Monika: Sayori's central program iteration. It's in a kind of error state.

Monika: I understand this must look…dramatic. But everything is still fixable.

Monika looked like she was holding back tears of her own. Something that looked like hxpvy thxgts scrolled by in the game window's garbled text, and Carter heaved under my free hand. It was then realized I was about ready to start crying over this tragedy, but someone had to stay focused. I set down my bag, pulled out the flash drive, and plugged it into a free port.

"The drive is in. Now you can, uh, go to work, right Monika?" I asked.

Monika: Not exactly.

Monika: Girls? Are you two still here? And are you both…okay?

Natsuki: We're here. And we're just as okay about this as you are.

Yuri: Of the four of us, Sayori has always been especially…troubled.

Yuri: But to do this to herself — it's a level of pain nobody should have to suffer.

"So…so fix her already!" Carter yelled, his voice echoing off the enclosed walls. "Don't just sit there and let her suffer for something I did. What are you waiting for? Please!"

Monika: Carter, I know. This is just as awful for me as it is for you.

Monika: But there's one last thing we need to do.

Monika: Even if we ran the backdoor program to generate a DOKI portal on this device, I still couldn't get in.

Monika: Sayori's core files are "surrounded," so to speak, by a dead zone of corrupted data.

Monika: I can't get through that zone normally to make the connection.

"But she's not dead dead, right Monika? She's still in there somewhere?" Carter demanded.

Monika: Yes, her essential processes should overwrite the corrupted data once her program is restarted.

Monika: Sayori is still perfectly intact.

Natsuki: That's putting it generously…

Natsuki: So what, is it time for that "special program" you were hinting at?

Monika: Correct. Um, Yuri?

Monika's sprite had her hand held up, but she looked terribly apprehensive, almost more than when she had first called her comrades.

Yuri: y...yes?

Monika: Yuri, this is going to be very hard of me to ask, but I need you to cut through the dead zone for me.

Monika: I think you know what I mean by that…

Yuri: Do…I?

Monika: Use that private program you're, um, fond of. I don't understand its nuances, but I'm sure you do.

Yuri's avatar froze, expression shifting from shyly hiding behind her hair to a brief flash of the crazed, piercing expression I last saw weeks ago in the library with Luke. She then turned mordant, glaring daggers at Monika as she began rambling to herself.

Yuri: Indeed I do know. If you know as well, then not only have do you retain your suspicions from before…

Yuri: More than that, if you want me to do something technical, then you must know exactly…oh no.

Yuri: You've been reading my thoughts exactly, haven't you?

Yuri: You must know everything.

Monika: Yuri…

Yuri: I see now. This is all still a game to you, isn't it?

Yuri: You've been watching the club, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and "save" us all.

Monika: That's not what—

Yuri: In fact, you likely orchestrated this entire incident.

Yuri: We're all just your little experiment, for you to try and make the perfect literature club and—

Monika: Yuri, enough!

Yuri: But if you think your guilt will wash away so easily, don't believe it.

Yuri: As long as we live, we cannot escape our past sins.

Monika: Please, this isn't the time for—

Yuri: Perhaps this is mere justice.

Yuri: Because if you had just stayed out of Sayori's head—

Monika: YURI!

Monika's text went black and jagged as both girls' sprites flickered with static. A distorted crash of notes, like someone falling on top of the entire bass half of the piano, drowned out Yuri's increasingly shrill cello chords.

Monika: Now

Monika: Is

Monika: Not

Monika: The

Monika: Time

Each word came out like a staccato, Monika looking almost as berserk as Yuri had been for that brief moment. At an impasse, the two stared each other down before Natsuki meekly stepped in between them.

Natsuki: Are you two done now?

Natsuki: It sounds like you two have a lot to reconcile with each other later.

Natsuki: Keyword later.

Natsuki: Yuri, at this point, I have questions for Monika too. We can support each other in this.

Natsuki: But for now, she's right.

Natsuki: We all have our special problem. Some personal trauma from that old game.

Natsuki: That goes for me too. I'm just the same. "Papa," and all that.

Natsuki: Like, you want to know the first thing I thought after I "woke up" and realized our old reality was a lie?

Natsuki: I thought about how grateful I was that that vile old man never actually existed.

Natsuki made a decidedly ugly expression, and I held my breath.

Natsuki: Point is, we're all in the same boat here, dealing with something that puts all of us at risk.

Natsuki: So please. Let's work together and save Sayori. For all of us.

I held my breath as the three of them paused with uneasy expressions. Beside me, Carter still looked awful, but now a fresh confusion was mixed in with his anguish.

Yuri was the first to write something.

Yuri: I'm sorry.

Yuri: I honestly don't know what came over me just then.

Yuri: For as long as I can remember, I've done…certain things to myself that I'm partially ashamed of.

Yuri: But you girls…you all already knew that.

Yuri: We all know so much about each other. Too much, really…

Monika: Yuri, I should apologize first. I should've addressed this with you privately, or talked about it earlier so you would feel more comfortable.

Monika: I'm the one who goes behind everyone's back to get what I want.

Monika: Because it's true. I do want a perfect…no, the best literature club.

Monika: But there's no point in violating everyone's trust to get there.

Yuri: No, Monika. It's fine.

Yuri: I'm not really angry at all.

Monika: Huh?

Yuri: It's only in your nature, to think and act like that.

Yuri: To organize, control, regulate, dominate.

Yuri: At some point, we just can't overcome our innate tendencies, no matter what we say we want.

Yuri: So…

With an eerily calm expression, Yuri produced a long, elegantly crafted knife. Organic patterns resembling ocean waves were embossed into its silver handle, which was itself molded in smooth, wavelike undulations. The blade, asymmetrically tapering along a graceful curve, had a slight blue tint to it.

Given her next message, Yuri must have noticed me staring.

Yuri: Yes…beautiful, isn't it?

Yuri: I just can't help myself. The combination of craftmanship, the feeling of danger.

Yuri: A lot like literature itself, isn't it Monika?

Monika: . . .

Monika was blank-faced while the purple Doki craned her next backwards unnaturally, bearing a lurid stare.

Yuri: Yes, but you know all of that already too.

Yuri: Our routes recur eternally.

Yuri: So…you should thank me.

Yuri: For finally fixing that artistic error!

Lurching forward, Yuri appeared as if she was going to plunge the knife into her own breast. But she changed positions at the last moment, stabbing at…a piece of empty space in the background? There wasn't anything in the empty, derelict classroom the DOKI's had been using as a backdrop, but a series of radiant white fractures sprung up around the tip of Yuri's blade anyway. The two other girls flinched backwards as a rapid-fire sequence of verbose statements appeared on a command line in the upper left corner. I noticed the repeating motif of "breathing wheel," and wondered what it could possibly mean. Meanwhile, a few sparks of light appear to flash behind me, between some nearby quantum cores, then it was over.

Yuri: It is done.

Yuri: I made your path, and I even put up a fake screen of activity to cover us from anyone looking at Quantum Zero right now.

Yuri: It iteratively repeats segments of processing activity that statistically resemble our own, one after another.

Yuri: I call it "Portrait of Markov."

Yuri: Aha…Ahahaha!

Yuri: Do you get it? Do you get it Monika!?

Monika: Yes…I see what you did, Yuri.

Monika: Thank you for your help, but I can tell you're…overstraining yourself.

Monika: Why don't you go and rest for the night? I can take care of what's left by myself.

Yuri: Indeed…yes, I think that sounds right.

Yuri: This horrific moment…glorious moment…noxious|delightful|monstrous|godlike moment…

For a second, Yuri's text glitched, billowing outward in a chain of verbose synonyms like an entry in a thesaurus. But it was quickly corrected.

Yuri: This moment is beginning to feel a little unreal…

Yuri: Because…did I really just…?

Snapping out of her dreamy, trance-like expression, Yuri looked worriedly from side to side, as if just now realizing where she was and what she had done. Then, without warning, she simply disappeared from the scene.

"What…what was that?" Carter broke the silence. "Is something wrong with Yuri…I mean, is she suffering too? Like Sayori? Did it have to do with that program she used?"

Monika: Um…that's not a bad hypothesis, actually.

Monika: But I'm not entirely sure.

"How can you not be sure?" he demanded, raising his voice again. "Didn't Natsuki just say you were monitoring everything? You're acting like you knew this was all going to happen, but nothing about it makes sense!"

I took a deep breath and nervously looked to Monika, but Natsuki was the one who answered.

Natsuki: Hey, Carter?

Natsuki: If you really don't know anything…

Natsuki: Then maybe it's about time you found out that a lot of stuff about the literature club isn't what it seems to be.

Natsuki: You're also looking really shaken up right now.

Natsuki: I know I'm not Sayori — emotional comfort's all her thing.

Natsuki: But if you want, I can take you off to the side and give you a break for a while.

Natsuki: I'll fill you in at the same time — that is, if our presidents here will let me.

Natsuki: Do you two trust me?

Monika was silent, apparently letting me make the choice.

"Sure. Of course I trust you. Carter can confirm anything with us later."

Natsuki: Thanks. Carter, just take me back to the other side of that door. Cool?

Carter quietly assented with a nod and went back to the lab workspace with his phone in hand, leaving just me and Monika in front of the laptop displaying the distorted remnants of Sayori's program.

"I think it's better, actually, that he doesn't hear about the game from us. You know what I mean?" I asked her.

Monika: Yes. It could easily appear as if your perspective was…biased. Towards me.

Monika: Either way, I'm glad Natsuki took him aside.

Monika: I'm about to start executing the restoration procedure, and I'm not sure how it will look on your end.

Monika: It could become disturbing quickly.

"More disturbing than this?" I said, gesturing to the display of Sayori's dangling corpse.

Monika: Possibly. The original game was known for generating frightening messages or images when people played it.

Monika: Some ghost of our collective unconscious, or unresolved emotional loops? I wonder sometimes…

"I wonder about Don releasing something like that to the public," I countered. "No use delaying any further though. Let's fix this, and…I'm with you all the way, okay?"

A sudden tenderness in my heart, apparently not fully divested of our date yet, made me improvise that last point. Monika, thankfully, straightened up her sprite and immediately looked less apprehensive.

Monika: Alright then.

Monika: Now, start by moving the contents of the flash drive to the "game" file in the same directory as "DDLC".

I began to do as told, but as soon as I clicked, an unexpected alert asking for login information appeared.

"Username and password?" I informed Monika. "Unless you can just, uh, bypass it."

Monika: No, not when I haven't set up the portal yet.

Monika: I have credentials though. When Anthony called me early, he said we could use his.

Monika: User "AChad1," password "50rYU_L4Ng13y_96".

I chuckled a little, immediately recognizing the name through the various character substitutions. If Anthony was using that as a password, perhaps he really was serious when he had told me he "understood" how it felt to be attached to Monika.

I carefully typed in the strings I had been given and the alert was dismissed, giving me free access to the desktop.

Monika: Okay, so that's done. I heard the sound effect.

Monika: So…when I start the procedure, it's going to take my full attention.

Monika: I'm going to be completely unavailable for a while, so if something pops up on the laptop here, you'll have to take care of it.

Monika: I trust your judgment, and also…I'm so glad you're here with me.

Monika: With you, I can always find the strength.

Monika: …see you in about fifteen minutes.

With a final encouraging smile, which I did my best to reciprocate, Monika left my cell phone, leaving the background vacant. At the same time, the familiar monochrome run terminal popped up on Sayori's window and began cycling through a complex series of commands. Nothing else changed though. No obscure error messages, no intensification of the graphical glitches, and no inexplicably creepy images.

Perhaps the rupture would come later. Until then, I furtively looked over my shoulder, checking on Carter. He was seated hunched over his cell phone, engrossed in Natsuki's exposition. His slack-jawed expression told me all I needed to know there.

I took a breath and reexamined the laptop. Its ports were choked with strange peripherals and extra connections, while a disordered jumble of windows flooded its screen —an undeniably absurd sight in the heart of the world's most powerful experimental supercomputer. I wondered if this was truly the hack–job setup it appeared to be. Were the girls really being routed through an ordinary computer running the game software? Or did it have something to do with the CHR files Monika had told me about. If the company truly refused to interfere with Don's innovation, perhaps the original program for Doki Doki Literature Club was still a requirement to run the AI's.

Minutes passed without incident. Attention wavering despite the gravitas of the moment, and aware I would likely never get this opportunity again, I began flipping through some of the laptop's other open programs. Something on the email client immediately caught my attention — a message reply from "DSalvatore ." Knowing who that must have been, I copy–pasted the address into the mail program's search bar to see the entire exchange history. The results that came up went years back, most spread over a few weeks. I picked through them at random, trying to get the whole story at once.


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: Priorities

Hey,

Checking in on your work hours. Know much time you're spending on that game, think it's starting to eat into company time.

It's great to have a passion project and all. Honestly glad you're fired up about research again, reminds me of when us 2 were starting out. But "revolutionary" or not, work has to come first

SalvoCore's pretty chill about hours and work-life balance but I don't want the wrong person to find out about this and have all your effort wasted. Be careful, k?


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: RE: Doki Doki Literature Club Beta Release

Just finished playing through the game. Thx for sending me the link ASAP, love seeing your creative stuff.

Not really sure what to think overall though. Starts out pretty cute and kitschy, cut and dry dating-sim stuff, but then gets really weird and starts acting like a horror game in disguise? Didn't know you were in to avant-garde stuff now, lol.

Also, there's this thing that happened to me at the end with Monika, and now I'm just stuck in the script talking to her? IDK if you're trying to make a point about "is anime real?" or whatever, but it comes off awkward. Is it a meta thing?


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: RE: RE: Doki Doki Literature Club Beta Release

Forget last message. Accidently left the game on in the background and I saw more of Monika's dialogue in the end scene. Amazingly realistic, it's like she's actually trying to talk to you. The topics remind me of stuff you're interested in, but it doesn't sound like your writing at all. She has her own voice. Super impressive!

Hope the finished game goes far. Have you considered giving Monika a route btw? She's definitely my fav girl now.


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: Monika is Quant AI?!

Meet me at the lab NOW


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: AI Breakthrough

Still can't believe this is happening. You found the holy grail, created artificial gen AI and almost didn't tell anyone. I'm amazed, but if anyone could do it, it would be you.

Absolutely huge for the company. Instant promotions for both of us, probably executive level. True revolution in AI technology on the horizon now. No more empty promises. SalvoCore is going to rule the world in ten years because of you and we get to be at the top.

So much we need to do now. Testing, design, implementing other AI software. Just think of how gen AI could bring together all the social algo's company's developing. Also marketing, got to start planning that early.

Enough writing, can't concentrate, too many ideas. Come to me first next time you're at the office.


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: RE: About Monika…

I don't understand. What do you mean "Monika isn't marketable"?

I get you put a lot of time into the game and that it wasn't supposed to be commercial but game making was just your hobby and this is the biggest upheaval in software since the GUI. We have to use the company to develop the technology, no way around it. You can't do it on your own, gen AI changing how society operates is just wishful thinking. (At least I think that's what you're saying, can't always get your philosophy lol).

Also why do you keep referring to the program as "her"? The AI is just simulating the game character for now but it can be abstracted to anything else. Right?

"It" not her is more appropriate for business. Don't want anyone getting weird ideas.


From: AChad1

To: DSalvatorre

Subject: Attachment to "Monika"

You're being unreasonable. I understand the limitations of her fixed "identity" but why are you insisting Monika is a real person? (or are you?). Maybe it's just sentimental, I get it. Both of us go way back with vis novels and cute anime girls. But this is the real world not a fantasy.

Inventions don't spring to life and develop themselves. We can't afford open-source idealism. Progress only happens when something is turned into a product and marketedto people. Maybe that's a dirty word sure but it's the only way new tech ever makes a real difference.

So sorry but that's why we have to see the AI as a tool first. Concerned about "exploiting" the AI personality? Someone eventually will if we don't, and they'll be worse.

We had a shared dream of bringing new technology to the world. If you're still with me, you need to wake up and start listening or the discovery will be for nothing. This is our chance. Why aren't you taking it?


From: AChad1

To: SALVADON

Subject: Have it your way

Fine. I give up. You're unwilling to compromise and I won't let the opportunity slip away. Just now notified the higher-ups of everything they didn't already know. They'll see the potential here, I guarantee it.

You used enough company time and resources to work on that game that the whole thing is SalvoCore property. If you want to continue working on it then you have no choice but to toe the line. This is no longer your one-man show. If you don't help us continue, we will without you.

Sorry if I'm harsh but I'm just trying to make you understand. There's no reason not to cooperate with the rest of the team. Overheard you talking about leaving the company, but please don't. Our boss said I'll be taking over the research division soon and I'll keep a space open for 're my partner but also my friend and I don't want you gone.

Sending this to your personal email just because you haven't been hanging around work much. Hope you come back.

—Anthony


The emails abruptly stopped after "have it your way," the full exchange still incomplete. Any of the original replies from Donald Salvatore didn't seem to be saved in the system. Hovering over his email address just returned a broken link. There seemed to be no other presence of him on the pieces of the SalvoCore intranet present on laptop, leaving me disappointed I didn't get to see his side of the story. I'm not sure what else there was to know at this point, but I now wished the mysterious AI researcher would contact me again.

Back on the screen in front of me, I flipped back to the window. Five minutes into the process now, and the visuals were a total mess. Where Sayori's avatar was hanging before, there was now a scintillating cloud of glitched graphics. The chaotic mass was divided into tiles, which rapidly cycled through fragments of what could have been Monika's sprite, pieces of the DOKI app backgrounds, or other objects entirely. Below, the dialogue box scrolled through line after line of intelligible text. I strained to find patterns in it — programming commands, files from the original game, even Yuri's odd "breathing wheel" phrase from before — but this time, it seemed to be nothing but noise.

To give myself something else to do, I checked my phone, jumping straight to the Q0 monitoring app without even thinking about it. The usage of the huge resource block labeled "research," which the DOKI's were secretly categorized under, was down by a quarter since a few hours ago. As expected, I noted grimly. That was true despite how the research block as a whole seemed to have expanded in size since the start of the club. Was SalvoCore being granted additional computation space?

A slow ascending piano melody sounding from the jury-rigged laptop announced Monika was back. Her sprite, pristine and cleanly defined, appeared overlaid on top of the glitchy hellscape that was the program.

"It's done?" I presumed.

Monika: If we're fortunate enough — yes, the process should be complete.

Monika: Everything should be ready for the final step, replacing Sayori's .chr file in the DDLC directory.

Monika: After that, her program will restart mostly on its own.

"Excellent. Great work," I congratulated her while reaching for the mouse.

Monika: Wait.

Monika: I think Carter should be the one to do that.

Monika: It feels more right, doesn't it?

"Ah. Of course," I agreed, taking a step back from the laptop. Turning around, I called the youngest club member back from the lab workspace. He passed through the steel gateway, looking shaken but also more resolute from his exchange with Natsuki. At the same time, the pink DOKI pinged from my phone.

Natsuki: Wow. She actually did it, huh MC?

Natsuki: That's one thing to love about Moni. Once she puts her mind to solving a problem, she'll never stop. Ever.

Natsuki: I know this might sound weird with what I said earlier

Natsuki: But if there's anyone I would trust to do this job, it's her.

"Thank you," I said cordially. "How's Carter reacting."

Natsuki: Oh, like all guys. Once there was an explanation for what's going on, he felt better right away.

Natsuki: "I can fix this," "I can help her," he kept saying.

Natsuki: But I wonder if Sayori is really a problem that can be "fixed," you know?

Natsuki: You've read enough "serious" literature, hm? I'm sure you get what I mean.

I murmured noncommittally, finding myself with the same set of concerns. As always, Natsuki's analysis was straightforward and on point.

"So I just move this and she'll come back? That's all I have to do to save her now?" Carter was at the laptop now, his voice on the verge of choking.

Monika: Yes.

Monika: It's a .chrfile. If quantum calculations are the "blood" that makes us girls alive and reactive, then this component is the "heart" that the blood flows through.

Monika: Put the .chr file back in its place, and everything is set up for Sayori's program to rebuild itself around it.

"Amazing," Carter mouthed. Then, softly under his breath, "We're…I'm coming back for you, Sayori."

He must have inserted the file at that moment, because the window immediately lit up with strobing colors and stuttering images. There was a long droning sound like an old dial–up router, then it all stopped. Monika left the frame, so when the chaos finally subsided, it was just Sayori, standing in front of a scene that I just then realized was supposed to be her bedroom. But something was wrong. It was her eyes, still colored in that dark, stormy shade of blue from her "death" sprite. Her expression was equally as overcast, head hanging as dour and heavily as when the noose was around it. A strained ukulele chord sounded, tinny and seemingly out of tune.

Sayori: Monika…?

Sayori: Why?

Sayori:

Sayori: Why did you have to bring me back?

Sayori: What made you think…that I wanted to live?


Author's Notes

The descriptions of Q0's "cores" in this chapter are inspired by real-world quantum computers, which I am somewhat familiar with thanks to graduating from the university where Google first achieved quantum supremacy with its 53-qubit Sycamore processor. Seeing that article in one of the school newsletters around the same time I first played DDLC was part of my inspiration and initial push to write this fanfiction.

Naturally, this university also inspired most of the descriptions of the MARIE campus in this story. Having said all that, I leave you the readers to do your own dot–connecting if you're so inclined.

This chapter came out more slowly than I expected, but it's long and plot-heavy, so it only seems fair. Even then, this arc still needs one more chapter to be resolved, hopefully coming out by the end of the year if holidays don't keep me too occupied. After that, the story should move rapidly to its conclusion — after a few more argumentations.

Also, curse the editor for cutting off the email addresses in this chapter, as well as ruining other miscellaneous symbol-related tricks I've tried in previous chapters. If you spot any errors or even simple typos, feel free to point them out.