Chapter 1: New Game+

Something didn't feel right. No, that's not it. Nothing felt right. I hadn't even opened my eyes yet, but I could just tell.

There was a loud beeping from an alarm clock, but not my alarm clock. My alarm clock was lower pitched and played in intervals of four. This one was much higher, and played one beep per tick.

Without even opening my eyes I tried to reach for the snooze button, only to find my hand touching a bedpost. 'What the hell?' I thought 'My bed doesn't have posts.'

Thoroughly confused, I opened my eyes to barely a squint. The room I was met with was not my room, but seemed somehow familiar. Glancing off to my right, I found the alarm clock on a wooden bedside table. After slamming my fist down on the power button, I began to take in my surroundings.

I was lying in a double bed covered with a grayish-tan blanket. To my immediate left was a large window decorated with lightless curtains. Looking straight ahead, I could see a desktop sitting on a wooden desk with an office chair pushed up against it. On the far corner of the right wall, I could see a wooden door leading outside. Directly to my right was a television stand housing many storage shelves. Looking closer, I noticed that all of them were taken up by video games that I owned back at home. Finally, on the wall behind me to the right was a closet filled with miscellaneous clothes, including what looked like a Japanese school uniform.

Looking back at the bedside table, I was able to locate my glasses. After putting them on, I discovered a piece of paper on that same table. I reached for it and brought it closer to my face. It read:

Dear Alex,

If you are reading this, it means my experiment worked. There's no real easy way to explain this, but I'll try my best to make it simple. To put it short, I have pulled you into the world of the video game that you know as "Doki Doki Literature Club." You may be wondering why I've done this, or how. I would prefer to tell you that information in person, so please be patient. I've modified the memories of Mc and Sayori, so they already know you. They remember you as a childhood friend that they met while temporarily going to school in Canada. You are a recent transfer student to their school, and you are staying with Mc for the time being. They know nothing more. Good Luck!

-Monika

No sooner than I finished reading that letter, I began to hear footsteps from the other side of the door. I immediately hid the letter under the covers and faced the door as the knob started to turn.

When it opened, I was met with a Japanese boy who looked to be about eighteen with light-brown hair and yellow eyes. He had a mostly average build with a slight bit of lankiness to him, and was wearing a school uniform identical to the one that I saw in the closet next to me. He had an expression of minor annoyance on his face.

"Hey, Alex? If you hit that alarm clock any harder, I'm pretty sure you'll break it." he pointed out.

I was stunned silent for a few seconds, but I was eventually able to find my voice.

"Uh... S-Sorry, Mc. It's a habit." I responded sheepishly.

The annoyed expression faded from his face and was replaced by a mellow smile.

"Jeez, Alex. I knew you'd be nervous since it's your first time going to a Japanese school, but I didn't think you'd be stuttering like this!" He said, laughing.

I nervously laughed with him, which gave me about four seconds to ponder over what was going on. So, I was sucked into the world of DDLC, Mc and Sayori already knew who I was, and I was going to be staying with Mc for the time being. Honestly, this raised more questions than it solved, but at least I understood the basic situation I was in.

"Yeah. Um, that's the uniform for the school, right?" I pointed to the uniform in my closet.

"Yup. That's it. Sayori and I already bought all the things you'll need for school. Now get out of bed! If you don't hurry up, we'll be late!" He left the room, shutting the door behind him.

I fell out of bed and made my way to the closet. As I reached for my uniform, I noticed something strange about the other clothes. Opening the closet up a little more, I was able to get a good glimpse of the rest of the clothes. They were normal clothes that no one would really take note of, but what shocked me was the fact that all of them were mine from home! So not only was I brought here, but all of my stuff was too!

Looking even closer, I was able to spot the safe where I stored all of the money that I'd inherited from my parents. Just looking at it caused my eyes to well up with tears, so I quickly grabbed my uniform and closed the closet door.

After putting on my school uniform (which was a bit stiff), I walked over to the door out of my bedroom. Grabbing the doorknob, I thought about that letter Monika wrote me. If I wanted to know about why I was here, I needed to talk to her. That meant I needed to find her. Since Sayori will be bringing Mc to the Literature Club, I should go along with them.

So, I had a game plan, and all I needed to do was execute it. Knowing what I needed to do, I slowly turned the knob and opened the door.

Despite the fact that I'd never been in this house before, I somehow already knew the floorplan perfectly. I made my way to the kitchen, where Mc was sitting down at a table eating a bowl of cereal. There was a second bowl on the other side of the table. He watched me as I walked into the kitchen.

"So how have you been these past years, Alex?" He asked.

"Not bad. There were some rocky parts, but nothing too serious." I responded. I wasn't sure if that would be considered a lie or not, since the events of my past technically never occurred in this world.

"Yeah, same here. Sayori's been trying to get me to join her club recently, but I'm not really sure about it." Mc said.

I kind of found this funny, considering he promised her that he'd check it out today. I sat down in front of my bowl of cereal and started eating. After a few seconds of eating with nothing said, I decided to break the silence.

"So how has Sayori been holding up? I'm excited to see her again after all these years."

"Oh, she's been doing pretty well. She literally hasn't changed a bit. She's still the carefree, childish, happy little girl she was ten years ago."

'Ten years? Okay, so I "met" Mc and Sayori when we were all eight. Got it.'

I stopped at this thought and mentally chuckled. Despite not knowing me in real life, Mc and Sayori remember me as a childhood friend. On top of this, I knew everything about them, despite not ever meeting them in real life. It struck me as ironic.

"Uh, Alex? Are you okay? You've kind of been staring off into space for a bit." Mc pointed out.

Mc's voice instantly jolted me out of my thoughts, and made me realize that I'd been staring at my bowl of cereal for a full twenty seconds.

"Oh, um, I'm fine. Just thinking about what you said about Sayori's club. What's it about?" I inquired.

"I'm not sure what it's about, actually. All Sayori told me is that it's a new club and that she wants me to join. Why do you want to know?" He responded.

"Well, since it's a new school for me, I was thinking I could join a club to get to know a few more people there. When you said that Sayori was in it, I thought that it would be a good opportunity. Considering it's a small club as well, it would be perfect for me to join." That was only partially a lie. I wanted to meet all the members of the Literature Club, but I also needed to see Monika so she could tell me why she brought me here.

"Interesting. Well, you can ask Sayori about it later. I told her to make sure to get up earlier today so we don't have to wait for her. She's been having some problems waking up. I'm pretty sure it's because she stays up really late for some reason."

'No, Mc. It's because she has depression!' I frustratingly thought.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll wait till then."

We continued to eat our breakfast in complete silence. Back at home, I always wanted to move to Japan when I grew up. I knew that I'd get there eventually, but I didn't think that it'd be quite like this. As we ate, my thoughts drifted to the possibilities of this world.

Out of all the girls at the Literature Club, my favourite was always Natsuki. I've always thought that I had more in common with Natsuki than any of the other girls. That, and with the amount of shit that she's had to go through (with her father abusing and starving her), she deserved a happy life. If I had the chance to stay here and help her, I would take it.

By the time we were done eating, it was already almost time to go. Since I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom in the middle of a class, I decided it would be best if I went before we left.

"Hey, Mc. Before we leave, I just need to go to the bathroom really quick. I'll be right back." I got up and walked in the direction of the bathroom.

*Five minutes later*

I walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. Walking to the kitchen, I saw that Mc wasn't there anymore. Then, from the living room, I heard his voice calling out.

"Hey, Alex! I'm in here! Someone wants to see you!"

Hearing this, I had a pretty good idea about who this "someone" was. Walking into the living room, I saw only a blur of tan and coral pink before the force of a brick wall slammed into me, barely leaving me standing. Next thing I knew, Sayori had me in a vise-like hug that would be difficult for a professional bodybuilder to break out of.

"Alex! It's been so long!" She exclaimed, not letting up with her full body chokehold.

"H-hey S-Sayori. Um... ribs..." I barely squeaked out.

Realizing that she was making my lungs collapse with her hug, she quickly let go of me, looking embarrassed.

"Heh. Sorry, Alex. I just haven't seen you in forever! It's so nice to see you again!" She hugged me again, but a little more gently.

'Jesus.' I thought. 'How would anyone guess that this little ball of sunshine had depression?'

This thought reminded me of just how much pain Sayori was hiding, and how much she was suffering. I assume that I failed to hide my expression, because Sayori suddenly looked very concerned.

"Alex? Are you alright?" She let go of me.

Her voice snapped me out of my stupor, and I quickly responded with: "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just weird seeing you after all these years. It's amazing to see you, too."

This seemed to cheer her up, and her smile returned.

"Okay!" She said, surprisingly happily.

Before our conversation could continue, Mc's voice rang out from behind Sayori.

"Hey, guys? If we don't leave soon, they're going to close the gates before we get there."

The three of us exchange glances, and then start making our way to the front door. When we got there, Mc stops in front of a storage closet to our right, next to the door. He opens it and reaches inside, pulling out two backpacks. He holds one out to me. I take it.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just made a few sandwiches for your lunch. Hope that's okay." He said

"Oh, it's fine" I put the backpack on. "Admittedly, I was really interested to start eating some Japanese dishes. Guess I'll have to wait till later."

Sayori looks at me.

"If you wanted, I could share some of mine with you!" She said with a giggle.

"No thanks, Sayori. You'll need that lunch. From what I remember, you're always hungry." I responded. This made Mc laugh.

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" He said, still laughing.

We walked out the door together, and I finally got a good look at the neighborhood that Mc lived in. In the game, all you saw was a flat picture of an honestly lifeless area. Here, I saw people tending to their lawns, getting ready to go to work, and walking down the street. The three of us quickly joined in with that third category.

As we walked down the street, I witnessed just how carefree Sayori really was. I watched her swinging around poles, jumping in puddles, and even chasing a few birds. It didn't matter if people were staring or not. She just didn't care, and I admired that. However, a thought crossed my mind:

'Shouldn't she have asked Mc about the club, yet?'

That thought was followed by immediate panic. Since I was here, she isn't asking Mc!

'Looks like I'll have to take charge.'

I cleared my throat to get Sayori's attention, and then started talking:

"So, Sayori. Mc mentioned something about you being in a club?" I inquired, despite already knowing the answer.

She put on an expression of surprise, which then turned into excitement.

"Oh, yeah! I was going to ask Mc to join today!"

"Sayori..." Mc wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he didn't want to join. "You haven't even told me anything about this club OR who it's members are. What makes you think-"

"It's a literature club!" Sayori said excitedly.

Mc had the most confused look on his face. "Since when did you have an interest in literature?"

"Oh, um... well..." Sayori's cheeks started turning red, and she began to look guilty. "I always thought it would be fun to help start a new club. So, when I was told someone was starting a literature club, I jumped at the opportunity. This made me the vice president by default."

Mc had a skeptical look on his face. "So, you don't actually have an interest in literature, but you decided to help start a literature club?"

'This is going nowhere.' I thought. 'I need to get this moving'

I turned to Mc. "Hey, it might not be too bad. Even if you don't have an interest in literature, you'd still be able to get some new friends. From what I've seen, your friendship circle is more of a friendship triangle."

"Easy for you to say." Mc responded. "Didn't you say that you're the one who wanted to join?"

Before he even finished that sentence, Sayori sprang up and stared at me in curiosity. This expression slowly transitioned into confusion, and then she started to talk:

"How come you want to join? It's your first day of school here." She asked.

"Well, it's simple" I started to explain. "My only two friends at this school are you and Mc. If I were to join a club with one of you in it, I would get to know more people."

Sayori's mood switched back to embarrassment, and the blush returned.

"Oh... that makes sense." She admitted. Sayori could be so cute sometimes. I smiled to myself, and then quickly turned to Mc.

"So, what do you say, Mc?" I inquired. "If I join, then will you join?"

Mc pondered over this question for a few moments, and then responded with:

"Maybe." Immediately after he said that, Sayori instantly perked up and started to jump up and down excitedly.

"Yay! Thank you, Mc!" She jumped forward and tackle-hugged him. Unfortunately for Mc, he wasn't as good at keeping his balance as I was and fell to the ground. After about a minute of trying to get Sayori off of him, I was able to wrestle her off. Expressing a bit of curiosity in the club at this point, Mc started asking about it.

"Sayori, can you tell us some more about the members?" He asked.

"Well, there are three other members." She answered. "Their names are, actually, hang on."

She then took off her backpack and opened it. She pulled out a sheet of paper and then handed it to Mc. She then pulled out another sheet of paper and handed it to me. As she tried to close her backpack, however, she began having trouble zipping it back up. Mc crouched down to help her, but she started talking first.

"Don't worry. I got it. Just read those papers that I gave you." She said.

Looking down at the sheet, I began to read:

School Club Registration Form

Club: Literature Club

Room: 224

President: Monika Kontororu

Vice President: Sayori Yuutsu

Members:

Yuri Kizu

Natsuki Kurushimi

Note: This club doesn't meet the minimum member requirement of five. Five members are required by the end of the month in order for this club to continue.

'Wow. Who the hell came up with this format? It's terrible.' I thought. However, reading back over the registration form, I took note of their last names. I don't know why I did, but it was probably just the fact that I had never seen or heard their last names before. Looking up from it, I could see that Sayori had finally finished closing her backpack and was back on her feet.

"Hey, Sayori? Don't you need these?" I asked.

"No, actually. I'm supposed to give them to people who want to join the club, like you. Keep them." She responded. Mc put his sheet in his backpack, as did I.

"Which member do you want to know more about first?" Sayori asked with a smile. I didn't say anything, since I already knew everything there was to know about them. Instead, I turned to Mc and told him to answer.

"Tell me more about Monika. If I'm going to join this club, I'd want to know more about the president first." He admitted. I knew better. He remembered having Monika in his class last year, and he wanted to know her interests so he could talk to her.

And so Sayori started to describe Monika in both physical appearance and personality. Having already known all about them, I just tuned her out as we continued walking. As we walked, my mind began to wander. As I was thinking, a curious thought crossed my mind: Was this world parallel to the original game, or was it parallel or similar to a mod? Or was it its own universe? As I was thinking about it, a headache was starting to form.

Continuing, on, I started crossing out possibilities. This couldn't be based on the original game, because Sayori would be self-aware if it was. Judging by Mc's personality and behavior, it also wasn't Summer Hope or Relapse. I kept on thinking, crossing off countless mods and fanfictions from the possibilities. As I did, the headache kept on getting worse and worse, turning into a migraine. I ignored it.

'It couldn't be A Brand-New Day, either. Wait, could it be Exit Mu-' The headache suddenly became unbearable.

"Ack!" I exclaimed as I fell to my knees, barely keeping myself up with my arms. Mc and Sayori had been walking in front of me for the duration of the trip. They turned around at my sound of pain and a look of fear spread across their face. They rushed back towards me, with Mc going to my side to help me up, and Sayori crouching down in front of me.

"Alex! A-are you okay?!" She worriedly asked. The headache had left by that point, and my head was cleared. I tried to answer, but my throat was completely dry. I swallowed and tried again.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I answered with a smile. This seemed to calm her down quite a bit, which was what I was going for.

"What was that?" Mc asked as he got me to my feet. I thought about it for a second, and instantly connected it with the fact that I was thinking about what story this world was based on. Knowing that I couldn't tell them that, I quickly came up with a lie.

"Just a random migraine. It's a medical thing that's been happening recently. They usually aren't this bad."

Mc looked at me skeptically, but Sayori looked convinced. As soon as we started walking again, she asked me:

"Are you sure you're okay? I mean, that headache seemed serious."

I sighed. "Sayori, I can assure you that I'm fine."

She looked like she wanted to press me more, but conclusively decided to take my word for it. Sayori finished telling us about the other club members (in a surprising amount of detail, I might add) and we spent the rest of the walk to school in silence.

After arriving at the school, I was told to go to the principal's office so I could get my timetable and locker location. I bid Mc and Sayori farewell and made my way there. It took me a while to find the principal's office, and included multiple moments where I had to ask for directions. However, I eventually found it.

I walked through the doors and found myself in the reception area. Behind the desk was a thin woman who looked to be in her late 30s early 40s. She looked up from her computer and said in a cheerful tone:

"Hello! You must be Alex. If you would come over here, I'll get what you'll need."

I walked over to the desk and the receptionist handed me two sheets of paper. I looked down at them. One of them was the timetable for my class schedule, and the other was a map for the school that showed both floors. Looking closer at the map, I saw a small circle in one of the corridors, marking off where my locker was.

"Alright, get along now. Wouldn't want to be late on the first day!" She said, despite the fact that there was still twenty minutes until my first class. I left reception and made my way down the maze of corridors to find my locker.

My locker, it turned out, was in an area of the school where none of the other lockers were being used. This meant that I would be the only person in this area when I needed something from it. In fact, the area wasn't really used at all. It was just a long line of unused lockers in a really out-of-the-way part of the school. There weren't even any classrooms.

I opened my locker and began to unpack my backpack. Inside, there were two binders, a water bottle, and a bento box. Looking inside the bento box, I saw a simple peanut butter and jam sandwich. Pretty basic, but so is Mc. My binders had been labeled as AM and PM, supposedly representing they should be used during only my first half and second half of my classes respectively.

Putting my backpack, PM binder, and bento box in my locker, I closed it and picked up my AM binder and water bottle. The water bottle was just a simple blue plastic one with a retractable drinking straw. Looking down at my timetable, I began to read it.

"Math, science, history, and geography." I said to myself. "I couldn't think of a more basic schedule if I tried." I started making my way to math.

*one class later*

I never found math difficult. People are always saying that math is their worst subject, but that's never been the case for me. Anyway, after breezing through math, I looked down at my timetable to find my science class.

As I walked into my science class, I noticed two things: There were pre-assigned desks as was shown on the board, and the desks were pushed up together in groups of two. Sitting down at my desk, I started thinking of a plan to talk to Monika at the club. After about five seconds of thinking, however, I was interrupted by an annoyed girl's voice off to my right.

"Excuse me, but you're in MY seat!"

Startled, I looked up at the voice's owner, finding myself looking at a short girl with pink hair. The expression on her face expressed major annoyance over such a minute thing, and she was carrying a small, pink binder and a volume of manga. I instantly knew that I was looking at Natsuki, my favourite girl from DDLC, and the one who's abused by her father.

I assumed she got impatient in the three seconds that I was looking, because she started complaining again.

"Well? Are you going to move, or are you going to keep staring like a pervert?" She said, even more annoyed.

Looking at the board, I noticed that I had misread it, and that I was supposed to be in the seat to my left with Natsuki to my right. Embarrassed by this mistake, I quickly got up and sat down in my actual seat. Natsuki put her binder down on her desk, laying the volume of manga down on it and sitting in her chair.

Feeling like I had to get on her good side quickly, I tried to start a conversation.

"Hey, listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take your seat. I'm not usually this inobservant." I apologized.

Natsuki sighed, and then started to respond:

"Don't worry about it. I've just been having a bad day." She then muttered under her breath something that sounded like "assholes". Knowing how much her life sucked, I decided to try and talk to her.

"Let me guess." I started. "Did someone bully you because you don't look old enough to be a fourth-year?"

This earned a gasp of surprise from Natsuki, and she accusingly asked: "How did you know that I was bullied about my appearance? And how did you know I was actually a fourth-year?"

Hearing her ask this made me panic a little. I couldn't tell her the truth, but then what could I tell her? Then, I remembered that Sayori told me and Mc all about the other club members. From that, I came up with an answer.

"Sayori told me all about you. I'm an old friend of hers. You're Natsuki, right?"

This put an angry expression on Natsuki's face. I thought it was aimed at me at first, but then she said to herself:

"Damnit, Sayori. Do you just overshare about everything?"

"Hey, it's not that big a deal." I reassured her. "I'm not the kind of guy to make fun of someone for something they couldn't control. I'm Alex, by the way." Natsuki seemed a bit happier after that comment, but still pretty skeptical.

"Anyway, there's actually a reason why Sayori told me about you. You see, I'm planning to join the literature club." Whether or not saying that sentence was a good idea, I didn't know. What I did know was that I saw a series of emotions conveyed through Natsuki's expressions, eventually settling on calm. She started talking in a surprisingly laid-back tone:

"So, you're the "new member" she keeps talking about?" I couldn't lie to her. Even if I got away with it, she would still find out by the end of the day. I wanted to be on good terms with her, so I had to be honest.

"Actually, no. The "new member" she's talking about is her childhood friend, Mc. I recently moved here from Canada, and I'm staying with him for a while. I was thinking I could meet more people through the literature club." I braced myself for the inevitable string of annoyed comments coming my way, but they never came. Looking back at Natsuki, I saw that she was surprisingly calm. Tempting fate, I decided to ask her:

"Um... aren't you going to say something?" Noticing that she'd been staring at me, a blush quickly creeped up her cheeks, and she looked away.

"Oh, well... what do you want me to say? Two boys are joining the club. Usually I would be against that, but you seem nice enough. And if this "Mc" guy is anything like you, he can't be too bad either." She responded.

I opened my mouth to respond, but she swiftly cut me off:

"But don't let that go to your head." She was back to a slightly sour tone. "I didn't say I liked you. I just said you're not that bad. If you do anything to change that opinion, you'll find my foot in a place where you don't want it to be."

I was… surprised for lack of a better term. I thought I could get Natsuki to like me early on, but it seemed that wasn't the case. I was going to try to continue the conversation, but I was robbed of that chance by the bell ringing.

"Okay, class! Eyes up front! My name is…"

*One class later*

Well that was easy. I heard the bell ring, signaling the end of class, and the beginning of lunch. I turned to my right to talk to Natsuki, but by the time I had, she was already walking out the door.

'That's probably for the best' I thought.

Picking up all my stuff, I left the classroom and made my way to my locker. After a five-minute walk, I was standing in front of my locker. I had just finished getting my lunch out when I heard a female voice from around the corner:

"Ah!" It sounded like an exclamation of pain, which was followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. I heard a second voice, this one sounded male, and a condescending one as well.

"Woops, my bad. Your body is so big, I thought it was a part of the wall." The second voice was saying this as the person who presumably had fallen on the floor was crying. Then, a third voice rang out from a little farther away. This one I recognized as the voice of Natsuki.

"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing, Okane?!" I heard quick footsteps, as if she were running closer. "Yuri, are you okay?"

I silently gasped. Was Yuri getting bullied? Who the hell was Okane? I began to stealthily make my way towards the commotion. I peeked my head around the corner, and saw four people.

Natsuki was helping Yuri off the ground, who was heavily bawling. Standing behind them looking proud were two males. One was closer to Yuri, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and had about the same body dimensions as Mc. I could only assume this one was Okane, since it looked like he was the one who pushed Yuri.

The second guy was slightly taller, and looked like the kind of guy who would sleep with two girls in the same motel room one after the other. He had "rich boy" hair and (somehow) red eyes. I changed focus to the situation that Yuri and Natsuki were in. Natsuki started talking.

"What the fuck is wrong with you two?!" She exclaimed. They only laughed in response. Then, the one with red eyes said:

"The real question is: What the fuck is wrong with you? I'd hit you too, but they'd probably count that as child abuse!" This comment pissed me off to no end. No one, and I mean NO ONE, insults Natsuki like that when I'm around.

Natsuki started to turn red with rage, but Yuri put her hand on her shoulder.

"Natsuki, it's not worth it. It was my fault after all... I wasn't looking" Damnit, Yuri. Why are you always blaming yourself? The one who was named Okane responded smugly:

"Yeah, it is your fault. And kid, you should know to not take on people who are twice your size. Even two-on-two, we'd have the advantage." Natsuki started to stand up, but I acted first. I stood straight up, walked around the corner, and announced loudly:

"What was that about two-on-two?" Everyone looked in my direction. "You know, you really should learn to treat women with a little more respect."

Everything froze. Yuri stopped crying, Natsuki stared at me in shock, and the two "rich boys" just stood there, staring smugly. Red-Eyes spoke:

"Heh, you don't look like much. You really want to get beat up in the name of a couple of freaks?" Despite the sudden situation, I already knew exactly what to say.

"First off, they aren't freaks. They're better people than you could ever hope to be." I stood there, steadily. "And second off, whoever said anything about a fight?"

Both of them looked confused. 'Well,' I thought 'Looks like I'll have to dumb it down for them.'

"Let's look at the situation here." I continued. "There's three of us, and two of you. Even if both of you attacked us, one of us would still be able to go and get a teacher."

I could physically see the rage building up inside of them. Wanting to get this over with, I continued even further:

"Right now, you have two options: You could attack us and get caught, or you could fuck off. So, which will it be, boys?" They stared at me with pure hatred after I said that. Despite this, I didn't feel in any way that I'd made a bad choice.

After a few seconds, Okane slowly said: "Alright, fine. But know this: You're messing with people you don't want to mess with. You'd better watch your god damn back from now on." He grabbed Red-Eyes' shoulder, turned around, and started walking away.

Looking behind me, I could see Natsuki attempting to comfort Yuri. I walked over to them and crouched down in front of Yuri. She looked up with tears in her eyes, but said nothing.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked gently.

She wiped her tears from her eyes. "W-why did you do that? You don't know me, you don't know them, it was all my fault!"

I glanced at Natsuki, then looked back at Yuri. "Actually, I do know who you are, Yuri." This made her gasp, then stare at me in fear, so I quickly added: "I'm not a stalker! I'm an old friend of Sayori's. She's told me all about you. I've been thinking of joining the literature club." Her mood calmed slightly after that.

"Oh, um... t-thanks then. I've never had anyone stand up for me like that before." She timidly responded. "I-I saw you looking at Natsuki just now. Do you two know each other?"

"Yeah, actually. We have the same science class." I said. Natsuki stared me down.

"Uh! Don't just announce that to the world! Dummy..." Natsuki said, annoyed.

"Er... anyway... who were those guys?" I asked.

Natsuki cut in here. "Their named are Okane Burondo and Chad Dickson."

I stared at her. "Of course, his name is Chad Dickson. Why wouldn't it be?" I said mostly to myself. Natsuki and Yuri looked at me in confusion. I guess they just didn't get the joke.

"Never mind that. Anyway, what happened?" I asked.

Yuri's face had dried completely from her tears. She looked at me and said:

"I-it was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was-" But she was interrupted by Natsuki.

"Oh, bullcrap! That asshole Okane just barreled into you from around the corner!" Natsuki aggressively explained. I felt that this conversation was getting a bit too heated, so I decided to try to calm things down.

"Alright, alright." I said. "Let's just move on. Why don't we all just make our way to the cafeteria? Sayori and Mc are probably there. Sayori and I could introduce you." Yuri looked confused by that sentence, and I mentally kicked myself. She didn't know about Mc yet!

"Mc is the new member that Sayori is bringing in. He's her childhood friend." I quickly explained. Yuri looked even more nervous than before, which wasn't quite the reaction I was looking for. It was at this point that I had run out of things to say. Luckily, Natsuki chimed in.

"Hey, don't worry, Yuri." She said surprisingly gently. "If Mc is anything like Alex, he can't be that bad." I was shocked by how reassuring Natsuki's voice was. I knew she was secretly very sensitive, but I never thought she could be this caring to someone.

After a few seconds of nervous consideration, Yuri stood up. "Alright. Let's go." She suddenly sounded very confident as she picked up her purse. Something that I hadn't noticed before now was that, instead of a binder, Yuri had a dark-blue purse.

"Huh." I thought. "Guess she just doesn't get much homework."

I was about to lead the way, but then noticed that I had absolutely no idea where the cafeteria was.

"Hey, uh... can one of you lead the way? I don't know where the cafeteria is." I admitted. Yuri looked at me in curiosity, while Natsuki smugly grinned.

"Heh. Look who needs help now." She teased. I normally would've gotten angry at this comment, but I let it slide since she needs these victories. At least until I help her. "Follow me." She started walking down one of the halls, while Yuri and I trailed behind her.

"So, uh, you're new here, right?" Yuri asked as we walked.

"Yeah. I'm a transfer student from Canada." I responded. "I'd always wanted to move to Japan, but this isn't exactly how I saw it happening." Yuri let out a curious sound.

"Wait, what? Why would you want to leave Canada? I heard it was an amazing place." She confusedly said. I fake laughed.

"Actually, it's starting to go downhill. It's not as bad as America, but it's getting there." I looked over to Yuri to see her reaction. She was staring at me in curiosity.

"That's it?" I heard Natsuki say. "You left because the country was going downhill? That's not much of a reason." I had a sudden pang of sadness. There was a deeper reason as to why I'd always wanted to live in Japan.

I debated over telling them for a few seconds, then decided to not tell them. They just met me, and it would be weird to tell them about my sad past right off the bat. Before I knew it, Natsuki stopped walking at the doorway to the cafeteria.

"Well, here we are. After you, Alex." She said in a condescending tone. I was confused as to why Natsuki was letting me go first, but I wasn't going to ask. I walked past her and entered the most beautiful cafeteria I'd ever seen.

It was a very large room, about the size of a small parking lot. It was a section that jutted out from the rest of the school, and each wall was made purely of glass, giving an amazing view of the outside. Instead of benches, there were tons of booths throughout the cafeteria. Every two booths, there was a small garden of brightly coloured flowers acting as a divider.

I barely had any time to take any of this in before I heard an excited voice from across the cafeteria:

"Hey, Alex! Over here!" I searched in the direction from where I heard the voice, and saw Sayori sitting at a booth with Mc. Sayori was waving her arms in the air with reckless abandon, while Mc was looking at me with a smile on his face.

Yuri peeked around my shoulder and asked: "I-is t-that Mc?" She sounded much more nervous than normal, which was a really big accomplishment.

"Yeah, that's him. Don't be nervous, Yuri. Natsuki and I are here." I looked back at Natsuki, who was giving me a look of surprise.

"Come on, let's go." I began to make my way towards the booth where Sayori and Mc were sitting, Yuri and Natsuki in tow.

Mc and Sayori looked at me in surprise when they noticed Yuri and Natsuki. Mc's expression never changed, buy Sayori's quickly changed to excitement. We stopped at the booth, where we took our seats. I was sitting next to Mc, while Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri sat across from us.

"So..." Sayori started with a smug look on her face. "I see you've met Nat and Yuri, huh?" I was shocked by how smug she sounded. Yet more surprises from these girls.

"Well, with how descriptive you were when talking about them, it was pretty easy to figure out who it was that was sitting next to me in science." I responded, equally smugly.

"Ahem." Natsuki cleared her throat. "Are you going to introduce us to Man Meat over here, or are you going to leave us hanging?" I opened my mouth to introduce them, but Sayori beat me to it.

"Oh! This is Mc, my best friend! Mc, this is Natsuki," she gestures to Natsuki. "and this is Yuri!" She gestures to Yuri.

Everyone at the table instantly stared at Sayori, who was happily eating from her bento box, completely oblivious to our stares. Feeling awkward from Sayori's introductions, Mc began talking.

"So... yeah. I'm Mc. Nice to meet you two." He said. "I'm a fan of video games, anime, and manga. I was actually wondering if one of you could help to expand my horizons on literature."

"Wait, what?" I was so confused. "Just this morning, you were complaining about having to go to the club. What changed your perspective so much?" I inquired.

"Well, Sayori's been talking to me non-stop throughout the entire morning about the literature club, and I guess I finally saw what was wrong with my lifestyle." Mc answered. Before I could process this sudden change in attitude towards literature, Yuri piped up.

"Oh, um. I-I could h-help you with t-that." She said, stuttering. "I'm a b-big fan of fantasy novels. I w-was thinking that I could m-maybe introduce you to t-these kinds of b-books." A blush began to make its way up her cheeks. She snapped her gaze away.

"Hey, thanks Yuri." Responded Mc. "Also, you don't need to be nervous. It's not like I'll hate you if you do something wrong."

'Huh, I guess Mc is a lot better with people than I anticipated.' I thought. Yuri peeked back at Mc.

"Oh... okay then." She turned her head back to face Mc. "Thank you, Mc. It means a lot to me." She smiled warmly. Suddenly, Sayori exclaims:

"Look! It's Monika!" I look in the direction she's pointing, and sure enough, there's Monika walking into the cafeteria. She sees us, and a look of relief washes over her face. She walks over to our table and looks at me.

"Hello. You must be Alex. Pleased to meet you." She extends her hand. I shake it.

'Alright. This is the moment of truth.' I thought. 'I need to talk to her in private, but I need to make it discreet to the others.'

"Pleased to meet you too, Monika. Say, I was thinking about joining the literature club. Is it okay if I ask you a bit about it in private?" I asked. I gave her a gaze to tell her to play along. She seems to get my message, and starts talking again.

"Of course, Alex." She responded. "Follow me." She started walking to a door leading outside. I stand up, ignoring the weird looks the others are giving me, and follow her outside. She leads me around a corner, to a point where no one in the cafeteria could see or hear us. She turns around.

"Alright, so you probably have some questions." She said.

"Yeah, of course I have questions." I responded. "Why am I here, HOW am I here, what version of DDLC is this, and just overall, what the hell is going on?!" I burst out. I hadn't noticed just how anxious I was for this meeting, but I just needed some answers.

Monika looked off to the side, then back to me. "Okay. I'll explain everything. This is a long story, so strap in." She sighed, and then began talking:

"What you are in is not the in-game world of DDLC. Instead, you're in an alternate dimension that overlaps with the world of DDLC." She paused, letting it sink in. "Because of this, instead of being self-aware in a video game, I'm aware of the existence of all alternate dimensions." She paused again, then continued:

"To make it simple, I've been trying to save the others for the past two years, but I've failed each time." Tears were starting to appear on her cheeks. "I just watched them die. Over, and over, and over again. Every time they died, the world would change a bit and reset. I didn't want to lose my friends again, so I decided to search for external help." Tears were constantly streaming down her face at this point.

"I gazed into your world, and saw you." She paused again. "You'd lost everything, and yet you continued to try to save us. Granted, you were trying to save digital versions of ourselves, but it was still us nonetheless."

"I'm still not completely sure how, but I was somehow able to pull you into our world and edit Mc's and Sayori's memories." She was actively sobbing in between her words. "I understand it if you hate me for what I did in the game, but I don't want that to happen again. I just want to save them."

She was barely talking right now, and spoke between sobs. "I-I understand if y-you h-hate m-me... B-but at least d-do it f-for them..." She stopped talking, and was full-on crying now.

I couldn't take it. No, not the story, but the fact that she blames herself so much. I couldn't just stand there, letting her cry rivers. Without thinking, I surged forward and threw my arms around her.

"W-what are you..." She trailed off.

"Monika... I don't hate you. You were drunk with power, and that can affect anyone." I said, consoling her. "I don't blame you, and if the others knew, they wouldn't blame you either."

"I-I... T-thank y-you." She shakily said.

"Sssshhhh... let it all out..." Monika began crying into my shoulder. Never in my life have I ever imagined that I'd be comforting Monika from DDLC.

After about three minutes, Monika broke away. "Thanks, Alex." She said in a dry voice. "I really needed that."

"No problem, Monika." I responded. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

Monika immediately responded. "Yes. I need your help to save the other club members."

"Yeah. I kind of figured that out." I admitted.

"I've always had a plan to save them, but I needed a second person to help me." She started. "Basically, we each choose a club member to help first. The third club member that we won't help immediately will be the one that Mc falls in love with."

"Alright, sounds like a plan." I said. "Anything else I might need to know?"

Monika considered this for a moment. "Actually, yes. Because I pulled you into this world, the walls in between this world and all similar worlds have weakened. To put it short, this world may have "glitches" where the world changes to match things from other similar worlds."

"I'm sorry, are you telling me that this world will sometimes change its characteristics to that of a DDLC mod?" I inquired.

"Actually, that's pretty close." But she didn't stop there. "Oh, and another thing. Have you had a really bad headache since getting here? And by that, I mean one that's so bad that it feels like your head's splitting open."

I think for a moment, then remember the incident from when I was walking to school with Mc and Sayori.

"Actually, yeah. I had one when I was walking here with Mc and Sayori." I responded truthfully.

"That'll happen whenever there's either a glitch, or you're think too hard about this world in relation to other worlds." Monika explained. "In the case of a glitch, you'll get visions relating to the changes occurring. You got all that?"

"Yeah." I responded. "Shouldn't we go back now? The others are probably getting worried."

"Of course. But first, let me give you my number, just in case." She said. I fished my phone out of my pocket and gave it to her. She took it for a few moments and then gave it back. Before we could go back, however, Monika pulled me into another hug.

"Um... Monika? What are you doing?" I confusedly asked.

Monika talked into my ear. "You know what I've gone through, even though you've never experienced it yourself." She explained. "It's the same the other way around. If it's any consolation, I'm sorry for your loss."

I began to feel tears sliding down my face. No one had ever said that to me before. To hear Monika say that meant the world to me that day.

"Thank you, Monika. It means a lot" I said through light crying.

We stayed like that for a few seconds, and then made our way back to the cafeteria. On our way there, Monika quickly stated:

"You know, Alex, you're a good friend."

Friend. I was honestly happy with that. I was mostly used to Monika being all yandere, so it was really nice to see this side of her. She'd changed. She wanted me to help her save the others, and that's what I intended to do...

End of Chapter 1