Author's Note:

Sayonara.

Natsuki's perspective

I'm finally at a safe location.

I knock on the door, and it is promptly opened. An aura of disapproval greets me.

"H-Hey Yuri..."

"Oh God… I knew it! I fucking knew you'd use it on Makoto! D-Did you get here unseen?"

"Yeah, I made it look like I was just helping a really drunk friend. At least, until I got hold of a bag to put him in. Sidenote, man, he is heavier than I thought."

"Well… Come in, I suppose. You may as well explain what the hell you're doing out of public view."

She gives me a hand with the bag, and we both bring him down to her basement, and tie him up.

I can't help but notice that she's got a weird, large barrel, filled to the brim with some murky looking liquid.

"Yuri, what the hell is that?"

"You know I'm into creepy, slightly homicidal stuff, and you're into anime. So, when I heard you were coming over, I, well… Take a guess!"

"No… No way… Is this… 35 litres of water, 20 kilograms of carbon, 4 litres of ammonium, 1.5 kilograms of lime, 800 grams of phosphorus, 5 grams of iron, 3 grams of silicon, and trace amounts of 15 other elements?"

"Yes. Yes it is."

"Th-that's a brilliant idea Yuri! What a clever way to intersect our interests! I could kiss you right now!"

"R-Really?"

"No, of course not Yuri, I'm still 90% sure I saw you stab some chick in the bathrooms. I'm not interested in getting with you."

"Oh… I see. In any case, Natsuki, now that there's no imminent dangers… What the fuck?"

"I-I can explain. I've been suspecting something was afoot for a while, but I had a pretty massive crush on him, so I tried to ignore it for as long as possible."

"Alright, but why did you suspect him?"

"Simple."

"It started way back on Monday."

I pulled out a folded up sheet, which… to be frank, looked quite a lot like those weird boards conspiracy people use, complete with random red lines linking everything.

"Remember how he said he'd eaten solely frozen peas for 8 months? Well, even if by some miracle you survived that lethal diet, you'd almost certainly be in extremely poor mental condition. And yet, he responded not only logically, but with quite a deal of his wits about him. He also stumbled on his words a bit at one stage, referring to dollars as currency, before correcting to Yen. He didn't seem terribly suspicious, yet, but I decided to somewhat keep an eye on him, just in case."

"Alright, with you so far..."

"Then, on Tuesday, stuff got really suspect. First off, he seemed to have completely forgotten what unit we were doing in Calculus. That should've been a major red flag, but immediately afterwards he defended me from my bullies, so I was willing to move on. Later, I overheard his English teacher discussing an "unprecedented" change in his English ability; I quote, "Makoto showed an unprecedented leap, from almost flunking, to a native proficiency… at least in writing. I'll be sure to test his skills further next time he's in my class.". The exact opposite was stated by his Japanese teacher. He also seemed to be involved in some secrecy with Monika, who was herself making some really weird comments, especially that weird psychopathic Spongebob song parody. Finally, Monika and Makoto both showed up by my window, and then in a puff of smoke, vanished."

"You know, now that you mention it, they did some weird stuff when they were around me too..."

"Oh, but I'm just getting started. Thursday was when shit really hit the fan. First off, he seemed so nonchalant about the whole Christmas shift thing. Time had broken, and he seemed to wave it off as some minor thing. He also slipped on his words again, referring to McDonalds, instead of MacDonalds. So tell me, what have we gathered so far?"

"... Something peculiar surrounds Makoto, with regards to language, and he seems way too willing to accept the Universe throwing curveballs?"

"Precisely. So, here's the thing; I have a huge crush on him, but I'm not an idiot… I needed some way to deal with it if my suspicions were right, hence, why I asked you for that syringe. And then, I set up a trap for him. The one thing I know for sure is that he seems to think of dollars when he things of currency, and is suddenly adept in English, but not Japanese. So, with that in mind, I set up my trap."

"For the love of all that's holy; d-did you at least use subtitles?"

"Of course! I'm a noob, not a monster. Subs not dubs.""

A line that, to him at least, probably seemed innocuous. It's a pretty simple part of the anime community… In the West. But this is Japan. "Dubs" simply aren't a thing for anime here! Anime is originally in Japanese! The second he said that, I knew… Between that, his strange abilities in English, his sudden failures with Japanese, and his referring to dollars as currency… He is not who he says he is."

"W-Wait, what are you accusing him of?"

"He's lying. Whoever is in that noggin of his, it sure as hell ain't Makoto."

"Maybe he migrated here recently? Surely that would explain it!"

"Impossible. Sayori's his childhood friend… and she's been with us in Japan her whole life. She's known Makoto since they were three. Besides, if they were in a country that spoke English until recently, he'd have been adept there from day one."

Yuri looked strangely disappointed to hear this damning evidence. Maybe she had a crush on him too? Eh, probably just sad to think a friend was a fraud. In any case, time to interrogate! I'm sure he'll wake up any second!

Much, much later.

A splash of cold water to the face gives him quite a rude awakening.

"Wha- That's so inconsiderate! I'm going to catch a nasty cold now- Wait, where am I?"

"Yuri's basement. Now listen here, Buster, you've got a lot of explaining to do!"

Makoto stared at me indignantly.

"I've got a lot of explaining to do? Remind me, who decided to knock their date unconscious using some kind of fucking date rape drug, and then tie said date up in a basement?"

""Subs not dubs" ring a bell? You moron, we live in Japan!"

Makoto's indignation quickly dissipated, replaced with a hint of fear.

"... I see... So, uh, how long have I been knocked out here?"

Oh… I'd hoped that wouldn't come up...

"... Aha, well, uh, we didn't exactly know how much of the drug would be necessary to knock you out… so, we knocked you out for quite a while. It's… It's early Monday morning, about 5 AM. This is far from the first bucket of water I've dumped on you. Speaking of which, you should really change out of those clothes."

"Wait, wait, Monday morning?"

His face lit up with horror, followed by contemplation.

" It… It might not be too late… L-Let me out! I-I have something very important to do!"

"If you want to get out that soon, being honest and telling us what the fuck is up is a good way to do so."

"A-Alright, what do you want me to tell you?"

"If you're not Makoto, who are you, and how are you controlling him."

"... Anything else you want me to tell you?"

"Oh come on man, are you in a rush or not?"

"See, here's the thing; what you want me to tell you? It's really, really bad news. It depends on knowledge that drove Monika to the brink of suicide, and caused her to commit mass homicide."

Yuri runs down the stairs.

"Oh good, he's awake. And… damp. Natsuki, I told you to stop doing that, I don't want mould in here."

"I mean it worked, right? And Makoto, somehow I doubt Monika has committed murder. Just tell us the truth."

"Please Natsuki, let me out. I really want to protect you from that knowledge… Ignorance is bliss. But each second we spend here, we're dealing with an ever worsening case of Schrodinger's Sayori."

He… he doesn't sound like he's lying. But… No, I can't see why Sayori would be in danger.

"Why on Earth should I trust you?"

"Sure, I'm not Makoto. But simply put, you never knew the true Makoto. I did, and, well, he was kind of a crappy person, to be frank. Now, I know it's hard to put faith in someone you know to have lied, but think about the kind of person I've been. Would I really be dishonest with malicious intent? Or only in a genuine effort to keep you safe?"

… I'm going to regret this…

Yuri grabs my arm as I reach towards the tethers.

"What the hell are you doing, Natsuki? Do you have any idea how much trouble he could get us in?"

"... Maybe he is a lying scumbag… but I just can't risk Sayori's life for our own self interest. I acknowledge that maybe he just intends to call the cops on us."

"Gee, you think maybe he'd inform the authorities over his own kidnapping? What a fucking astute observation! Did you work that out all on your own?"

"Too bad. I place my faith in friendship."

"What the… this isn't one of your dumb manga or anime plots where "the power of friendship" will save us all. This is real life! You committed a felony, and made me an accomplice! If you're going to kidnap someone, and not obfuscate your identity, then to be frank, the kidnapped is likely to leave the house in the same bag he entered it in, albeit in smaller parts. They sure as hell don't just walk out the front door as soon as they wake up! No, Natsuki, I hope you can agree that we simply can't let him go."

"Yeah, while you were going off on that rant I set him loose. He's probably already left the house."

"Goddammit Natsuki!"

Makoto's Perspective

God, I wish I were more athletic right now. Running to Sayori's house is quite a tough task. Also, of course Yuri's house is on the opposite side of town. That's just typical of my luck. Of course they can't be closer together, my life has to be as difficult as possible.

I'm passing by the school, which means I must be… about halfway done.

"Makoto?"

I turn my head to the source of this familiar voice, and being the uncoordinated buffoon I am, trip over in the process.

Basil Exposition offers me a hand up. "Are you quite alright? You should let the cops know you're okay, they've been looking everywhere for you!"

"What… why are you here this early?"

"Yeah, it's a four month long walk to and from home. I'm living at the school now."

"Oh… Makes sense… N-No time for this, I need to get going!"

"You in a rush? I can drive you."

"... You have a car? And if so, why the hell didn't you just drive it instead of walking to school?"

"The last time someone drove on our roads, a sinkhole killed 93 people. It's now illegal."

"Right… Well, I'd love a ride! If you could take me home, that'd be lovely."

"Sure thing."

He quickly speeds off. After about a minute, I begin to wonder why he doesn't ask where my house is… and then I notice that it's covered in a metric ton of police investigation tape. Ah, right, on account of the whole kidnapping thing.

I'm not exaggerating about the metric ton thing, for the record. Part of the roof has caved in due to a simply unbelievably unnecessary amount of tape.

"Thanks Basil!"

I rush out of the car, and into her house.

"Sayori?"

No response.

I rush up the staircase. No time for stupid script junk about how her boyfriend ought to be doing stuff like this. It's not like I have time to make up some silly parody nonsense about it.

I pause at the door. Have… Have I made it in time? Is she even still suicidal?

I gently open the door.

"Sayo-"