Consciousness. Pulse. Sight. Hearing. Emptiness.
I'm surrounded by things I don't understand; things that are incomprehensible to someone like me.
... No, that's not entirely right. I'm not sure if this counts as 'surrounded' or not, as the only thing existing here is empty space.
I try moving my hands, but I can't find them. I try holding them before me, but I can't see them.
Fear creeps up my spine. It gets closer and closer to my mind, rooting itself within me.
"Ah -" my pulse accelerates. Something is wrong, horribly wrong. After all, this confirms it; I have written this scene. Panicking, I try to move, but I can't feel any movement. As a matter of fact, I can't even feel my body anymore.
I feel the urge to throw up. I try holding my hand over my mouth, but I have no mouth. The realization makes me all the more sick, but there's nothing to throw up; my stomach is empty, inexistent.
I observe everything around me, making sure not to miss a thing, and no new useful information enters my cerebral cortex.
That's when I hear it; a mechanical voice different from anything I have ever heard before.
No time for formalities; they will be skipped. Listen, whoever you are. You are entering a simulation. This simulation was made to gather data without care for human minds. You are in a precarious situation. If you don't want to die, you have to stop the data collection from taking place. Find Libitina. Control her. Break out of the simulation. Do it before Kronos -
The voice abruptly cuts off, but I don't need to listen to know what it's going to say.
It's all the same... it's all the same! I feel myself start going insane.
That's when it happens. As if I just stepped off a cliff, the scenery changes entirely, leaving me dazed. A number of images make their way past me, robbing me of thought. As much as I want to pay attention to them, if I did, my brain would surely overload. Despite looking ahead of me and trying to keep steady, a sharp headache hits me. It feels as if a metal bat was swung at my cranium, leaving it permanently deformed. I'm extremely close to losing consciousness, but I somehow stay awake.
When I open my eyes again, I'm no longer in the hollow space. This time, I find myself at the side of some road I have never, in my entire life, seen before.
Of course, unless I count the time I saw it in Doki Doki's background art.
"Heeeeey!" My eyes, wide open from the scene before me, grow wider upon noticing the girl that's running towards me. She looks completely oblivious to everything, but she understands much more than she lets you think.
Her name is Sayori.
At that moment, I'm forced to accept it. Everything I've experienced up to this point could've been a bad joke, but there's no mistake this is real. If it weren't, then I wouldn't feel the sweat accumulating under my armpits.
The brown-haired girl, having set her high score for the 25-meter dash, looks up at me. Still attempting to catch her breath, she clumsily says, "did I make you wait?"
A couple of seconds pass, and I still haven't answered her question. I'm aware of the fact this is truly happening, but my mind isn't a swiss army knife, so it's acting slow as it always has.
... I think I should answer. With that thought, I smile at Sayori and say, "a bit, but don't worry about it. We live close by, and it's fine by me even if we're a little late. Being too uptight about getting there on time would be lame."
The girl raises her brows in surprise. "I didn't know you were so... accepting... Well then, if you say so, I won't worry about it!"
I instantly understand Sayori is trying to tease me, but it's not going to work. I was the one to write this story, so I don't feel surprised at all.
Instead of saying something, I nod my head in the school's direction. She easily understands the meaning behind my gesture, and starts making her way to school alongside me.
After a couple of minutes of silence, I say, "I would actually appreciate it if you were early though... you know what? I had an idea."
Sayori squints her eyes. "You're not going to tell me you'll just go alone, right...?"
That's not an option, especially because I need to create a good ending. "No, not at all!" I say while shaking my head. "I wanted to propose I wake you up. When we were smaller, we used to be at each other's place all the time. I can't think of a person more suitable than myself for this task!"
"E-eeh?" Sayori stammers. When I look at her, I can tell she's trying to hide a blush. "We-ll, depends on whether you have the time for it or not."
Hearing her say it like that reminds me of how she used to act before she revealed her depression; trying so, so hard to take everything on herself, when she would've been better off sharing her thoughts.
Without giving her the chance to consider me to be hesitating, I say, "if it's for you, I would find the time. I've been getting the feeling we haven't spent much time together lately, so I wanted to make up for that."
"..." Sayori stares at me, not saying a word. Her expression is neutral, hence I can't read any of her thoughts, but I can easily imagine them.
"... Okay." In the end, she agrees. I know how much she cares for me, and the only way to show the feeling's mutual is to treat her like this from day one. I can't go wasting any of the time I have; even if I have to act like a double- I mean, triple- I mean, quadruple timer, I have to save them.
That's the first step; everything starts from there.
Sayori doesn't raise her voice again. Realizing we haven't spoken of a very important matter, I bring it to her attention, "oh, by the way, I've chosen on a club."
"Wha- wha- what do you mean you chose a club?" Sayori screams at me, attracting the attention of the students walking in our same direction.
I choose to ignore her tone and say, "yes. Honestly, I was having some problems thinking it up, but I think I've found a club I want to join."
Sayori beams. "I'm happy! So, which club is it?"
Just for the sake of avoiding anything remotely close to Act IV's speech patterns, I'll go with a sincere answer, "the literature club!"
Sayori frowns, looking at me quizzically. "Come again?"
Accommodating her request, I repeat, "the literature club."
She looks at me, tilting her head "...What is going on with you today?" Her gaze has turned cold. "It's almost as if you're a different person."
Sayori picks up on things a little too fast. That said, I have an easy counter for this one; "I realized I wasn't spending enough time with you - didn't I already say it? I reflected on it. In my life, there are very few people of importance. Other than my family, I hardly talk to anyone. I guess I simply realized how much your friendship meant to me." I pair those words with a smile, making sure to act as innocent as possible.
"...!" Strike one! Strike two! Strike three; batter out!
And so, I turn a bad situation into a good one and go on the offensive. Sayori has already turned away, hiding her massive blush from me.
"..." Taking her silence as a chance, I reinstate my target.
Even if it's scummy, even if it's foolish, there is only one way to save all four from their fate: make them like me and then make them follow my decisions. I'm going to be manipulative with most of them, but I need to if I want to create a happy ending.
I won't question the nature of this place, the reason I was taken here, as I already know it. I won't forget what will happen, but I will have to think about it when it comes.
Maybe... maybe I just don't want to think about it right now.
So until I have it, I'll enjoy it; the small ray of sunshine shining upon me.
... Hopefully, this happiness lasts just a second longer than I know it's going to.
/ THIS IS NOT PART OF THE STORY /
Hey guys, it's the author speaking! Though it's probably more like I'm typing... well, technicalities aside, I wanted to let you guys know you can easily copy text from fanfiction by using its mobile website. Without leaving the story's page, you can simply replace (in the URL bar) www with m and it will take you to the mobile website. Works on mobile devices as well as PCs. There, you can copy and paste as much as you like. Enjoy, and good luck decrypting the message!