The poetry failed to cheer anyone up.

It was mostly Natsuki and Yuri's fault. Sayori's poem had a tinge of sadness to it, but neither of the two aforementioned club members seemed to be paying attention to it, regardless. Instead, Natsuki kept shooting annoyed sidelong glances at Yuri. Yuri, as unsure as ever, shifted around in her seat and looked worriedly away from Natsuki each time. The constant movement from both of them was incredibly distracting.

The player character wasn't even here for them to fight over and they were all but at each other's throats. Was there really this much tension between them back in the game? Somehow, Monika didn't think so…perhaps it was another quirk of the new world.

Giving up on being able to immerse herself in Sayori's poetry, Monika leaned back in her chair and spaced out a little. Her vice-president's poem wasn't completely depressing. It was certainly happier than the poems that she'd written back in the game, if memory served. Of course, she hadn't really written those – they were a part of the game, after all.

Huh. Monika pondered on this for a moment. Back then, Sayori was still just a bundle of associated pictures, words, and feelings. One of the developers probably just wrote a few poems that they'd imagine Sayori would have written were she real and then put them in the game under her name. But here, Sayori stood before the club, very much real, and reading a poem that she very much wrote herself.

Monika smiled. Even if she never met the player character again and got the answers that she was looking for, she didn't think she'd complain. She was going to continue searching for them no matter what, but it was already Heaven on Earth just to be here with her friends. It didn't matter what Sayori was saying, it didn't matter that the player character had dropped off the face of the Earth – she and her friends were alive.

Sayori finished her line with a poignant, yet still peppy line and hopped down from the podium with a pleased smile. Yuri quickly applauded, and Natsuki, who had been in the midst of glaring at Yuri, realized quickly that Sayori's performance was over and clapped along.

Monika gave Sayori a few solid claps herself, and a beam of a smile to boot. "Wonderful, Sayori. You were absolutely riveting!"

"You think so?" Sayori asked, giggling to herself and stuffing her poem into her backpack. "Thanks a bunch! I worked extra hard on it."

"It's written on loose leaf," Natsuki observed, getting up from her chair and prodding Sayori's poem before she could finish putting it away. "And your handwriting is all over the place. Are you sure you didn't forget and do this over breakfast?"

"Um. Maybe," Sayori said, before pouting and zipping up her backpack resignedly. "But I edited it during pre-calc!"

"Well, I thought that it was very…insightful," Yuri said softly, looking off to the side.

Natsuki grumbled, but apparently couldn't think of how to put a negative spin on what Yuri had said and instead opted to turn away from the girl with a huff.

Monika clapped her hands together. "Alright, I guess that does it for this meeting! I'm giving you all the same assignment tonight, so please try to come up with something that you can share tomorrow, Natsuki, Yuri," Monika said, nodding to the two girls respectively. "And with that, today's meeting is…"

Monika trailed off. Sayori was tapping her shoulder rapidly. "Yes, Sayori?"

Sayori leaned in close to Monika's ear. "You forgot to read your poem!" she whispered in a voice that was easily loud enough for the other two girls to hear.

"Ah," Monika said. That's right…she wasn't exempt from the assignment just because she was the president. The girls were expecting a poem from her, too. "Right, the thing about that, is that…"

That what? That she didn't have a poem to read? Because she definitely didn't. But obviously, she couldn't tell them why that was, because then they'd think she was insane. But as the president of the club, she also couldn't afford to lose face by giving some sort of excuse…

Oh, boy. This was not a good situation.

Monika gulped, praying that her mounting anxiety wasn't showing on her face. "I would like – give me one moment, please." She needed time to figure out what she was going to say. She needed to stall. She walked over to her backpack, her club members trailing her with quizzical expressions on their faces.

Monika rifled through her backpack, trying her best to keep her breathing under control. Calm down. You can figure this out. Just keep stalling, keep thinking, keep…

Her composition notebook. The one she kept all of her poems in. Perfect. She brought it out triumphantly. "Here it is, everyone!"

She was greeted by a confused and awkward silence.

"Yaaay…?" Natsuki offered.

"R-Right. Sorry," Monika stammered. "Do you guys want to, uh, gather at the front of the room again, or just do it here?"

Natsuki shrugged. "I don't care."

Yuri wrung her hands together. "I don't have a preference."

Sayori smiled. "Looks like it's up to you."

"Um. Here, then," Monika said, leafing through her notebook, trying to look like she knew what she was doing. "Now, where was it? Ahahaha…"

Monika searched and searched, but to her surprise, very few of the poems within the notebook were finished. Many were merely single passages, and many more were single lines or phrases that had been crossed out in harsh red ink. The only couple of complete poems that she did find, she recognized from the game, and in this pressured situation, she wasn't willing to take the chance that her friends hadn't heard them yet.

Monika flipped a little faster. Was there really nothing in here that she could read to them? She was running out of –

There. On the most recently used page in her book was a poem written in her handwriting that was completely unfamiliar to her. It was the best chance she had.

"H-Here it is," Monika said. She cleared her throat and began to read:

The highest high, the lowest low, each one of you I've seen

I've been with you through thick and thin and all that's in between

And when our time came to an end and nothing could remain

Your beings all persisted in my torn and tortured brain

I rage and cry and scream at you these words you wish to hear

And only silence meets you there, so far away, so near

The cruel world that birthed you four, in all your perfect ways

And trapped you in that wretched, cursed place for all your days

A stalwart wall attacks our hearts and causes them to bleed

How do I write a poem for you I know you cannot read?

Monika looked up and was met with a trio of stunned expressions. Shit. She'd messed up bad. She knew she had to say something to fix her mistake, but with all of their eyes on her, she couldn't so much as open her mouth. A bead of sweat trailed down her cheek.

Natsuki stared at Monika incredulously. "That was…"

"Astounding." Yuri breathed, her mouth ever-so-slightly agape.

"Totally awesome!" Sayori cheered, grinning happily. "And it's so different from what you normally write! It was really, like…raw, and…and super epic!"

Monika blinked hard. "You…liked it?" she said cautiously, refusing to relax until she was sure that she was in the clear.

"I loved it," Yuri said, walking over so that she was looking at the poem over Monika's shoulder. She rambled on, tracing various lines with her fingertips as she went. "The prose was tremendous. And despite the line-by-line variance in word count and sentence structure, every line is exactly fourteen syllables long. Managing such consistency in structure while still giving each line an individual form is nothing short of masterful. Furthermore – "

"Okay, we get the idea, Yuri," Natsuki cut in, but was unable to hold back a smile as she peeked over the top of the notebook. "The ending was my favorite part. After all of that ambiguity, the last line punches the reader in the gut by saying exactly what the writer's been feeling for the entire poem. Nice to know you've been taking my advice, Monika."

Monika breathed a sigh of bewilderment, disbelief, and relief all at once. The unknown poem had saved her. She smiled shakily. "Thank you, everyone. That means a lot to me."

Sayori patted Monika on the head. "Don't mention it! It really is a great poem. Now then…" She hoisted her backpack up onto her shoulders and made for the door. "I've got a nap with my name on it waiting for me back home. See you tomorrow!"

"B-Bye," Monika said distractedly. Suddenly, she looked up with a start and called out. "Wait! Sayori! Can I walk home with you today?"