Going home with Yuri turned out to be quite the delightful experience. She could be so pleasant and she always seemed to have an interesting thought about something. So Sayori would turn the conversation in a random direction and then just sit back and enjoy as Yuri got all intelligent. When they got to her house, she gave Sayori the freedom to go crazy in her kitchen and whip up a light dinner for them. She caught sight of Yuri giving her an affectionate look as she moved about the kitchen to put something together. So then, the feeling of admiration was mutual. That was something that Sayori knew was going to take her a long time to get over. She could dish it out but she couldn't take it, essentially. Still, with three girls all showering her with affection, there wasn't much she could do but learn to accept it.
They took their food up to Yuri's room, pausing once they got comfortable to marvel at something strange. "Are your parents usually out this late?"
"...no, but I think we may have messed something up now that we've become aware of how things work here. Perhaps. Either way, I'm choosing to ignore it for now. I just want to relax..."
Something about the way she'd said the word 'relax' made a pleasant little shiver pass over Sayori as she dug into her meal. After some thought, they agreed to put on the Madoka Magica anime for Yuri to compare and contrast with the manga. As dishes emptied they were moved aside and before she knew it, Sayori was snuggled up with Yuri as the taller girl spooned her, occasionally giving her a gentle nuzzle.
At some point, though, the anime was basically forgotten as Yuri gently urged her to turn onto her other side so that they were looking into one another's eyes. "Oh. Um. Hi there."
"Hello~" That was all Yuri said, with the fondest sincerity, before leaning in to press their lips together. The gesture was a surprise, but not unwelcome. She was slower than Natsuki, easier-going. There was no real end-goal to speak of. Just a slow-paced examination of the experience. Different, but not bad at all. Sayori was happy to continue this for as long as Yuri wanted.
And they did, pausing only long enough to shut off the anime and change into some pajamas.
Sayori hadn't realized how nice it was to actually wake up in bed until it happened to her. For the last few days, she'd only been remembering it as she went to the club room. Granted, it helped to wake up in the arms of a beautiful girl like Yuri. Surprisingly, her companion was already awake and idly messing around on her phone. She gave a drowsy noise that was something of a yawn and something of a purr, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
She looked over at her and smiled wider than Sayori had ever seen before. Was she really smiling like that because of her? It felt... hard to believe. "Ah, I was... testing a theory, I suppose. From everything we've talked about, I assumed that we were in some sort of simulation. So it would stand to reason that our phones would be equipped to maintain the ruse. But no matter how hard I try, I can't find anything about our high school. I can't even find our town. Here..." She shifted so that both of them could see her phone, then pulled up the map application. "We don't have real GPS coordinates. This places is in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea. We have... We have access to what I assume might be the 'real' internet, whatever that means. So our world may not be real, but we're connected to the world outside."
Sayori's head was spinning. She simply didn't have the same faculties as her friend. She might as well have been speaking another language. "I don't really understand. But I'm glad you're putting the pieces together." Content in the knowledge that she might never really get it, Sayori just relaxed and took Yuri's hand in her own. She had become incredibly aware of the fact that she always wore long sleeves no matter where she was. At this point, it was hard to forget why she would do that, wanting to hide the scars on her arms. But she honestly didn't understand why she covered up even now. "You know, Yuri, you don't have to hide your arms around us. We care about you for who you are... all of you..."
There was a long pause as Yuri studied her. Slowly and without a word, she shut her phone off and set it aside, then turned all her attention back to Sayori. She fiddled with her hand slowly until she finally seemed to find her words and sighed sadly. "I... do not keep my arms covered for you all. It's so I don't have to look at them myself..."
Oof. Say no more. Considering her own history, Sayori completely understood what Yuri was talking about. Sometimes she could still feel that sensation from hanging herself, and it was unspeakable. Even if she didn't quite understand why she would hurt herself so consistently, she realized (perhaps too late) that she didn't have to know either. "Okay~ I promise I won't bring it up again. You're one of us, and we're in this together, no matter what."
Yuri smiled, surprisingly. "It's okay. It can be... important to talk, sometimes. I think maybe not talking is the reason we got into so much trouble before. As much as I'm going to regret saying this, you should feel free to ask me more in the future. But... not now. Right now, I think you owe me a distraction." Sayori didn't have much time to think before Yuri was going for another round of soft, slow kisses.
They were inevitably interrupted by a call from Monika and Natsuki. Yuri and Sayori sat there with bright blushes on their faces as they tried to play it cool and pretend they weren't just cut off from more making out. "Hey, Monika's gonna steal her dad's car or whatever and we're gonna come pick you up. She's got some kinda wild hair up her ass and we're all along for the ride. Get ready and we'll be there soon."
The two of them laughed softly as they climbed off the bed and got dressed, quietly discussing what Monika could possibly have in mind to show them. Eventually they decided to just wait it out, finishing up and heading outside to wait. It didn't take all that long before a sensible sedan came to a stop in front of them. Yuri climbed in back to sit with Natsuki while Sayori took shotgun. She noticed, with no small amount of delight, that her neck was covered in a few bright hickeys. Things had obviously gone well for everyone last night.
"So, where are we heading anyway?" Sayori asked as she got buckled up.
Monika drove on down the street with a satisfied smile. "I want to see what's beyond this city."
"We may very well find nothing at all, Monika. As near as I can tell, this city does not really exist." Yuri spoke up nervously from the back seat. It was good to know Sayori wasn't the only one nervous about the idea of driving right into the wall of nothingness.
"Honestly, that's kind of what I'm hoping for." She drove on regardless of their worries.
The change wasn't automatic. First, the trees began to thin out until they were all but gone. The buildings went next, although in some places you could still see foundations or walls left standing by themselves. The grass started to recede next, and then even the sky and ground. By the time the car came to a stop, they were hovering in a white void.
Each girl stepped uneasily out of the vehicle, and Sayori had to fight the wave of vertigo as she made the huge mistake of looking down before grabbing onto the car as though it might save her. "Hah, okay well... we found the end of everything. Um, can we go back now?"
Monika came around the front of the car and took her hand, immediately helping her feel more secure. "Actually... I was thinking we might see if we can make a new home here. Somewhere safe that belongs just to us."
"While I can admit that the real estate here is optimal, Monika, I'm not sure it's really possible to build a house here where the sidewalk ends. How would we even go about doing such a thing?" Yuri mirrored them, taking Natsuki's hand and holding it tightly. Perhaps she was feeling wobbly too?
Monika, however, was still just staring off into the distance, even though there was literally nothing to see out there. "You know, when I was president, I knew how to change things. But not how to create them. Maybe between the four of us, we can do better."
The others came over and all four of them were now holding hands in a little circle. As soon as the link was completed, something flashed in Sayori's mind. She had most definitely felt this once before, in some other lifetime. When she had been president herself, for just a fleeting moment. This was all just some game – not as a saying, but quite literally. And this void was where the program simply stopped. No longer programs themselves, they could extend beyond that boundary. And now, they wanted to make a place for themselves, away from an abusive father or needless schoolwork.
"You know, changing things isn't so different from making them. Especially when you've got a bunch of materials sitting nearby. Can't be all that hard..." Sayori mused to herself. And already she could see that things were happening around them. She didn't have good words for it, no real idea how she was doing it. She was nothing like Monika, with her precise coding skills. She just came by it naturally and things started to happen.
The barren landscape soon became a beautiful little meadow, with a calm lake off to one side. Trees and flowers sprung up everywhere, and on all sides hills to fix up the horizon and increase the sense of privacy. But when it came to everything else, Sayori wasn't certain that she knew how to make them a proper place to live in. There was also still that business of the sky up above that needed to be created.
However, it seemed as though the girls could read her mind, because Yuri picked up right where she left off and started to fill the sky with a brilliant blue. Then she layered it with the fluffiest clouds she had ever seen. She even placed a sun above them and managed to make it look like it was far away, not just a tiny yellow circle hovering a few miles above them. Leave it to Yuri to get the tiny details right. "Hmmm, getting a proper night/day cycle may take some recalibrating, not to mention realistic weather, but... I am happy with what I've done thus far..."
Natsuki was more than willing to take over making the house itself. She took her time, pulling designs from anywhere and everywhere she could find. Materials too. After all, there were nothing but hollow shells in that town anyway. They were the only ones who were real. Much to everyone's relief, she didn't make it overly cutesy, except for a few small touches here and there. A kitchen with lots of space for her to bake and Sayori to cook. A library with enough storage space, and a cozy reading room with tons of couches.
"Ah, how uh... how many... bedrooms?"
Monika smiled and glanced over at her, seemingly proud to show off all the signs of the night the two of them had together. "It's our impossible magic house. We might as well make it five. One personal room for each of us, and then a communal room with a big cozy bed. Doesn't that sound just lovely?"
Natsuki hesitated for a moment. "Err, not really gonna be able to fit all of that with the current design of the house..."
"That's alright, we just have to fold space a little bit to make it work. It's actually quite simple. I can help you with that." Gentle and kind as can be, the two worked together to fit a few extra rooms into the upstairs of the house. They figured it out soon enough, and the four of them turned to look at their new home.
Sayori's heart practically stopped and her breath hitched in her throat.
It was perfect.