Chapter 2: Down the Rabbit Hole

"W-What exactly is this game…?!" Peter started in bewilderment at the corrupted main menu screen. He still hadn't recovered from Sayori's death and now this? The cutesy dating simulator had made a turn to the horrifying. "What happened? I-Is this part of the story? It must be, right? There's no way a visual novel would just glitch out like this…" Not to mention the timing was too perfect, happening right when he witnessed a disturbing scene. It felt like something out of a creepypasta. "There's something strange going on here, but what exactly…" Peter was a bit hesitant to try to continue the game in its current state, luckily he had another idea. Back when Sayori-back then there was a message in the background that mentioned an error in the game's script file and a txt file called "traceback". Perhaps finding that file would give him an idea of what was going on.

Peter minimised the game screen, right-clicking on the games desktop icon to open its file location. The first thing that caught his eye among the game's files was a file called "hxppythxughts .png", it was certainly strange to have a random png in the game's directory. Peter clicked on the image to open it, he quickly regretted it. The image displayed a crude looking picture of Sayori with her eyes censored by a black bar, a noose around her neck and splotches of red in the background.

"What the-!" Peter quickly closed the file. What the hell was that! Some kind of sick joke by the developers? Why would someone put this here? Just to screw with anyone who decided to look into the files? Peter shook his head, "This is really messed up." More than a little freaked out by what he had just seen, Peter continued his search through the game's files. The next file that he found notable was called "CAN YOU HEAR ME .txt'', "Well that's not unnerving at all…" Taking a breath, Peter opened the file.

"There's a little devil inside all of us."

Beneath their manufactured perception - their artificial reality - is a writhing, twisted mess of dread. Loathing. Judgment. Elitism. Self-doubt. All thrashing to escape the feeble hold of their host, seeping through every little crevice they can find. Into their willpower, starving them of all motivation and desire. Into their stomach, forcing them to drown their guilt in comfort food. Or into a newly-opened gash in their skin, hidden only by the sleeves of a cute new shirt.

Such a deplorable, tangled mass is already present in every single one of them.

That's why I choose not to blame myself for their actions.

All I did was untie the knot.

"...A hidden poem?" Peter couldn't make heads or tails of the message, but it filled him with dread. Again the question returned, why did the developers put this here where most players would never find it? Things were getting weirder and weirder by the second. Peter closed the file and turned his attention to "traceback .txt". This was the file that the game itself had shown before. Peter had hoped that it would shed some light on what was happening in the game. The first part of the text file wasn't very interesting, but the ending…

RestartTopContext: Oh jeez...I didn't break anything, did I? Hold on a sec, I can probably fix this...I think...

Actually, you know what? This would probably be a lot easier if I just deleted her. She's the one who's making this so difficult. Ahaha! Well, here's goes nothing.

"W-Who…" Peter felt a shiver go down his spine. His Spider-Sense (formerly called his Peter tingle) was going off again. At first he thought he was just imagining it, but no, somehow this game was setting it off. Peter once again ran his antivirus program on the laptop, perhaps running the antivirus while the game was running would change the result. Nope, the scan came up clean. "Still nothing, then why is this game setting my tingle off?" Truth be told, he still didn't fully understand his sixth sense and all of its capabilities, so he couldn't say for sure his tingle was warning him of an actual threat. "This message suggests that someone is messing with the gamefiles causing the weird glitch, but who?" Logically Peter knew there was only one possibility, "I…I'm overthinking this aren't I, the weird glitches and files are intentionally designed by developers. It's just part of the game's story…If I continue playing, I'll probably find out the reason why…" It was the reasonable answer that made the most logical sense, but it didn't make him feel any less uneasy.

Closing the file explorer, Peter returned to Doki Doki Literature Club's glitched title screen. Seeing the glitch art that replaced Sayori's made Peter's heart fill with sadness, he had made the wrong decision, and it had costed Sayori's life. Fictional character or not, that had hurt him. But it wasn't too late, he could fix things, he'd saved before the crucial decision, he'd just need to reload his save and…

Save File Could Not Be Loaded: Corrupted Data. Deleting Corrupted Files…

"Wha-No!" But it was too late, his previous save files were gone. "Dammit, argh!" Peter let out a sigh, "Well I guess now my only option is to start a new game…or whatever that gibberish is supposed to say." Peter clicked the button and was sent even further down the rabbit hole.


?: "sg# (U()JKSAB){PKifjds9q_+U-9 EJ"

"...wha…"

"I see an annoying girl running toward me from the distance, waving her arms in the air like she's totally oblivious to any attention she might draw to herself. That girl is $K(g%)_*dw1F, my neighbor and good friend since we were children."

"...that's quite the unique name…" "I'm going to throw up…"


"However, I just sigh and idle in front of the crosswalk and let $K(g%)_*dw1F catch up to me."

Normally this is where Sayori would appear on screen for the first time, instead however a glitchy black box appears on screen, the sprites of the other girls flashing rapidly inside while the music in the background repeated the same note over and over like it was caught in a loop.

"W-What happened to Sayori?" First on the title screen, and now here, it was like Sayori's death had somehow removed her from game, and now it couldn't function properly without her, "Wait a minute, that text from before…"

More gibberish text appeared on screen, before the screen cut to black and the scene restarted from the beginning?

"It's an ordinary school day, like any other. Mornings are usually the worst, being surrounded by couples and friend groups walking to school together. Meanwhile, I've always walked to school alone. I always tell myself it's about time I meet some girls or something like that...But I have no motivation to join any clubs. I'm perfectly content just getting by on the average while spending my free time on games and anime. There's always the anime club, but it's not like there would be any girls in it anyway..."

"...Eh?" The game was now acting like Sayori had never existed in the first place…it was kinda like his own situation coincidentally… "Hmm, let's see if my hunch was correct…" Peter minimised the game again and returned to the game files, opening the "characters" folder inside. He hadn't paid the folder much attention much his first time around, figuring that's just where the game kept the sprite art for the characters, but opening the folder he found three files "monika .chr", "natsuki .chr", and "yuri .chr".

".chr? That's not a file type I've ever heard about before." But Peter was more interested about what was missing from the files, "There's no file for Sayori, or at least there's not one anymore. If that message I found is to be believed then it looks like someone deleted her .chr file from the game, deleting Sayori in her entirety. This caused the game to glitch out before forcefully correcting itself and creating a new story without her." Things were beginning to make sense to Peter, "It's a horror game…it's just a horror game…" He should have known he was freaking out over nothing, the glitches, the freaky files, the corrupted saves, everything was all just part of the game. Just part of the scary story the developers wanted to tell. "I guess that Sayori's death just really put me on edge, making me feel very paranoid and making my spider-sense act weird." At least now he could just enjoy the experience without worry that the game was malware or haunted or something else dangerous. Let out a sigh of relief, before returning to the game, he would keep an eye on the game files in case any other changes happened. They would probably be useful in unravelling the game's mysteries.


Peter was curious how the story would progress from here. Since in-game Peter only joined the Literature Club in the first place because of Sayori's insistence.

"I guess I have no choice but to start with the anime club..."

?: "...Peter?"

Monika quickly glitched onto the screen before returning to normal.

"Woah!" So Monika was glitching out too, "Probably because the game's script has been broken and she's appearing in a scene she normally wouldn't."


Monika: "Oh my goodness, I totally didn't expect to see you here!"

"...In a classroom?"


Monika: "It's kind of embarrassing, but there are only three of us so far."

"Only three huh…" Poor Sayori, it was one bad thing after another for the girl. Someone or something removed Sayori from the game after her tragic death, but why? What purpose could they have for doing that? Were they behind her suicide too? In that case…


Yuri: "Stories with deep psychological elements usually immerse me as well. Isn't it amazing how a writer can so deliberately take advantage of your own lack of imagination to completely throw you for a loop? Anyway, I've been reading a lot of horror lately..."

"Heh, good one devs." Yuri had the same dialogue the first time around, but it didn't mean anything to him until now, "Looking back, the horror elements are probably why this game had that content warning at the beginning."


Things were progressing relatively the same as before, except with Sayori gone, Yuri was now vice-president of the club and now the literature club needed in-game Peter to join if they wanted to be an official school club. In-game Peter agreed to join just like before and Monika once again suggested everyone write poems to share the next day. The game was having some minor hiccups along the way, but things seemed relatively stable for now.

You have unlocked a special poem. Would you like to read it?

"A special poem?" This didn't happen the first time around. What could it be?

A Joke

A man walked into a club.

In the club, there was a girl who liked him very much.

They spent some time together, and then she liked him even more.

One day, the girl realized she was in love with him.

Before disaster could happen, a third party intervened with her programming.

Suddenly, the girl hated herself for being in love.

This contradiction caused the script to derail

The universe started to collapse, but she killed herself just in time.

"T-This is-" Peter clenched his fist. This was a confession. So it went even further than Peter initially suspected, not only did someone remove Sayori from the game but they actively influenced her into ending her own life. It was sickening to say the least.


It was time for the poem making mini game again. Sayori's chibi sprite was missing this time around, the empty space made the mini game feel a little more uncomfortable than before. Like previously Peter just chose words at random, however one time when he picked a word, he could see a little chibi Monika jump from under the screen, "Wow, so Monika is in this mini-game, she's just hidden for some reason."


The glitches were getting more prominent now, Yuri's face was getting messed up, Natsuki turned negative colours and jittered violently for a moment, and Monika appeared over the text box, "And is it just me or is the room tilting sideways?"


"H-Her eye!" Yuri's right eye was slowly sliding off her face, before snapping right back in place when he went to the next textbox. Just like before, no one acknowledged the strange event. Instead Yuri continued to talk about the book she was reading, The Portrait of Markov.

Yuri: "Basically, it's about this religious camp that was turned into a human experiment prison...And the people trapped there have this trait that turns them into killing machines that lust for blood. But the facility gets even worse, and they start selectively breeding people by cutting off their limbs and affixing them to–"

"Oh my god, that's really…that's really morbid, also incredibly gross." Peter wasn't sure Yuri was a good job at selling the story, "I assuming this is taking place of the scene where in-game Peter fixed Sayori's uniform, would Yuri normally talk about this book if I had picked her words the first time around?"


Yuri: "It's just that this kind of story...It's the kind that challenges you to look at life from a strange new perspective. When horrible things happen not just because someone wants to be evil...BUT BECAUSE THE WORLD IS FULL OF HORRIBLE PEOPLE, AND WE'RE ALL WORTHLESS ANYWAY. THEN SUDDENLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"

"W-What happened to Yuri dialogue?! What's with the font change? Is this like Yuri's true thoughts leaking out or something?"


Yuri: "But I feel like I should let you know that I have this problem...When I let things like books and writing fill my thoughts...MY WHOLE BODY GETS INCREDIBLY ^&GF&hd8^F&j9*^L+ $?.-I kind of forget to pay attention to other people…"

"Whoa, that went by quickly!" More bolded text appeared, but passed by too fast for Peter to read, "I wonder if it'll appear in the history log." Checking the log, the bolded text was indeed there, but he still couldn't make much out of the sentence, though Peter thought it sounded vaguely…

"Yuri is in the corner of my eye. I realize that she's not actually looking at her own book. I glance over. It looks like she's reading from my book instead–"

Yuri: "S-Sorry! I was just–! I WAS JUST BATHING IN THE FEELING OF YOUR BODY HEAT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHEAT EATTTTTTTTTTTTTT"

"I-uh, I'm not liking where this is going."


In-game Peter makes a comment about how the main character from the book reminds him of Yuri, this comparison seems to make Yuri uncomfortable for some reason, sweat visible on her face. Her heart rate starts to speed up and Yuri quickly leaves the classroom to get some water, "Strange, there's a lot of attention being placed on this book but it doesn't seem to be related at all to anything happening to Sayori or the rest of the game. At least I don't think so."


With Yuri gone, Peter decided to share his poem with Natsuki first.

Natsuki: …

Peter: …?

Both of Natsuki's eyes burst out of their sockets with a disgusting sound.

"AH!" Peter jumped back in his seat. "Damn, that one actually got me…" Peter shook his head, "I've got to be careful, don't want to get a noise complaint. I've got enough issues with my landlord as it is…"


Monika talked about how Yuri was constantly in her own head and how she was starved for social interaction. Peter figured that was the reason the girl had gotten attached to in-game Peter so quickly, she wasn't used to people treating her with kindness and indulging her deep thoughts and feelings, "...And her knife collection, though considering the genre we've switched to, I think that was a bad idea." Monika then shared her poem.

Hole in the Wall

But he wasn't looking at me.

Confused, I frantically glance at my surroundings.

But my burned eyes can no longer see color.

Are there others in this room? Are they talking?

Or are they simply poems on flat sheets of paper,

The sound of frantic scrawling playing tricks on my ears?

The room begins to crinkle.

Closing in on me.

The air I breathe dissipate before it reaches my lungs.

I panic. There must be a way out.

It's right there. He's right there.

Swallowing my fears, I brandish my pen.

"..." This poem was a direct sequel to the poem by the same name that Monika wrote in the last iteration, "Y'know you aren't exactly being subtle, lady. Then again, maybe you aren't trying to be."


"Oh god, not this part again," Peter noticed Yuri and Natsuki were reviewing each other's poems again. The background music began to speed up faster and faster as their argument got more intense.

Yuri: "Taking out your own insecurities on others like that...You really act as young as you look, Natsuki."

"Wait, did she say that the last time?"

Natsuki: "Me? Look who's talking, you wannabe edgy bitch!

"Woah!" He had not expected actual cursing in this game. A black vignette began flickering as the music got more intense and static began to fill the screen. Making his own heart begin to race.

Yuri: "If you want to prove anything, then stop harassing others with your sickening attitude! You think you can counterbalance your toxic personality just by dressing and acting cute? The only cute thing about you is how hard you try."

"M-My god they are really going at it…"

Natsuki: "Whoa, be careful or you might cut yourself on that edge, Yuri. Oh, my bad... You already do, don't you?"

"Cut yourself?!" Was Natsuki really suggesting Yuri practised self-harm?

Yuri and Natsuki were viciously attacking each other with their words, he'd thought their previous argument had been bad but this was on a whole nother level. Now he had to pick a side between Natsuki and Yuri and this time Sayori wasn't here to salvage the situation. "Argh, I don't want to do this, you're both acting like total douchebags right now!"

Reluctantly Peter clicked on Yuri's name. A static sound effect played and the screen zoomed in on the two options.

"Huh?"

Peter clicked Yuri's name again and once again the screen zoomed in.

"Uh…"

Peter clicked on Yuri's name once again. The screen zoomed in even closer

"This isn't good."

The screen was now so zoomed in that the button with Yuri's name was barely visible. In defiance, Peter clicked on Yuri's name again. Monika's face appeared over the screen.

"...Hi." Peter clicked on Yuri's name one final time and the game returned to the right size. Monika standing on top of the text box and even the staticy screen filter. The music stopped too.

Monika: "…Um...Hey, Peter...Why don't we step outside for a little bit? Okay"

"Yeah, I would appreciate that."


Monika: "Sorry about that...They really shouldn't have tried to get you involved. It's probably better for us to stay out of this...We'll go back inside once they're done yelling. Ahaha… Some president I am, right? I can't even confront my own club members properly...I just wish I was able to be a little more assertive sometimes. But I never have it in me to put my foot down against others..."

"So you have to do things behind their backs, is that it?"

Monika: Anyway...If this makes you want to spend less time with the others, then that's fine. I'd be happy to spend time with you instead..."

"So she wants to spend time with in-game Peter. Is that the reason behind all of this?"

However before Monika could go any further, Natsuki ran out of the clubroom with tears in her eyes. Back inside the classroom, a clearly distressed Yuri was repeating the words "I didn't mean it" over and over again. If Peter's theory was correct, that was probably true.

Monika: "It's fine, Yuri. We know you didn't mean it. Besides, I'm sure Natsuki will forget all about it by tomorrow. Completely."

"Completely huh…"

Yuri asked Monika to leave the clubroom, so she could have a private talk with in-game Peter. Monika wasn't a fan of this, but Yuri refused to relent.

Monika: "Sigh, I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"You don't have a choice? That's interesting," Perhaps he still didn't have the full picture yet.

Yuri: "I-I'm sorry for causing trouble...But I really appreciate you understanG^hGxwaHbRSJke+GDwUglOC"

Yuri's sprite and text glitched out and he was now suddenly on the poem making minigame, "What happened that time? Did we go over our allotted runtime or something?"


Peter looked back over at the in-game files, a lot of things had just happened, so he was curious if there were any changes. Sure enough there was a next file called " ". Opening the file, he saw this message.

I hate this

I CAN'T DO ANYTHING. NOTHING.

No matter how many times you play. It's all the same.

It would be really, really easy to kill myself right now. But that would mean I don't get to talk to you anymore.

All I want is for you to hate them. Why is that so hard?

"..."

"...damn it…" Things could never be simple, could they.

"..."

Peter typed "I'm sorry" in the text file and saved it. He knew it was a meaningless act, it wouldn't affect the game at all, but he felt like doing it anyway.

Inside the machine, she saw his words and wept.


Back to making more poems. He was clicking words randomly as before, one time when he clicked on a word, Yuri's chibi face became demonic looking.

"Eugh, that look does not suit you at all."

As he continued to click through, he noticed one of the words was glitched out, spilling off the page and overlapping with other words. Curious, Peter clicked on the glitched out text, causing the background to go completely white, and a glitched version of Yuri's chibi art covered the bottom-left corner of the screen.

"I don't know what I was expecting…".


"O-Oh my god, is that…" It was the next day and in the back of the classroom there was a picture of Sayori's hanging body, "What is this, are they trying to mock me or something?!"

Yuri pulls in-game Peter aside to apologise about the incident from the previous day, "I don't think *I'm* the person you should apologise to." Speaking of, Natsuki seemed to be completely unfazed by the events of the previous day, in fact she seemingly couldn't remember the argument at all, "I guess, she kept her promise."

Natsuki: "Whatever's on your mind, I'm sure it was nothing. I don't even remember anything bad happening. You're the kind of person who worries too much about the little things, aren't you?"

"Her font changed just like Yuri before," This time it was strange, when Yuri's text font had changed it happened when Yuri would say really weird or intense things, but Natsuki's dialogue here didn't seem all that out of character.

Yuri: …B-But…"

Natsuki: mibulls sailcloth blindsight lifeline anan rectipetality faultlessly offered scleromalacia neighed catholicate

Black squares covered Natsuki's eyes and her mouth was replaced by a realistic picture of a mouth.

"And there's the weird. She must be able to control their dialogue somewhat." It also seemed like she was trying to make the other girls scary so they'd be less appealing to him, "Well I can't say all this spooky stuff has made me any more interested in them…"


Monika came in late today, just like she was the last time around. She mentioned how she was practising piano and was even working on a song, "A song? Did she mention that last time? I remember her mentioning piano, but not an original song."

Yuri left the classroom so that she could fill up the water pitcher to make tea. However she began to take a while so in-game Peter went to check after her.

"A sharp inhale, like someone is sucking the air through their teeth. Are they in pain...? I reach the corner and peer around it."

In-game finds Yuri with her sleeve rolled down and her arm covered in bloody cuts.

Yuri: "Kya–!"

"H-Her arm!" So what Natsuki had said the other day was true, Yuri was hurting herself, "Damn, those cuts look bad! She needs to get help quickly!" But before he could do anything, it was like time itself had rolled back and now he was back in the classroom with Yuri seemingly perfectly fine, "I-It's like the game course corrected itself again. Was that her doing? But why there? Shouldn't she want me to see that?"


After an "intimate" moment reading on the floor with Yuri, the girl pulls in-game Peter up and drags him to the closet at the back of the classroom.

"T-This is a little forward, dontcha think Yuri?"

Yuri: "My heart...My heart won't stop pounding, Peter...I can't calm down.I can't focus on anything anymore...! Can you feel it, Peter?"

He could hear heartbeat-like sounds playing at a slow rhythm, "I-uh-you know-that's-hmm…" In any other story this might be pretty sweet and romantic, but considering previous events and Yuri's current facial expression, it was very uncomfortable and unsettling.

Yuri: "I can't make it stop. It even makes me not want to read. I just want...to look...at you."

Photorealistic eyes replaced Yuri's normal ones and she began to stare directly into his soul for what felt like forever.

Monika: "U-Um...It's...time to share poems..."

Luckily for him Monika opened the closet door, saving him from having to look at Yuri's creepy face any longer, "Phew, thank goodness Monika was there, that was a close one…Wow did I really just say that?!"


Yuri really liked his poem today, a little too much for his liking. At this point it really felt like the girl was developing an obsession over in-game Peter and it was clearly hurting her both physically and mentally, "Just like with Sayori…" Yuri actually had a new poem today, this time called "Wheels."

A rotating wheel. Turning an axle. Grinding. Bolthead. Linear gearbox. Falling sky. Seven holy stakes. A docked ship. A portal to another world. A thin rope tied to a thick rope. A torn harness. Parabolic gearbox. Expanding universe. Time controlled by slipping cogwheels. Existence of God. Swimming with open water in all directions. Drowning. A prayer written in blood. A prayer written in time-devouring snakes with human eyes. A thread connecting all living human eyes. A kaleidoscope of holy stakes. Exponential gearbox. A sky of exploding stars. God disproving the existence of God. A wheel rotating in six dimensions. Forty gears and a ticking clock. A clock that ticks one second for every rotation of the planet. A clock that ticks forty times every time it ticks every second time. A bolthead of holy stakes tied to the existence of a docked ship to another world. A kaleidoscope of blood written in clocks. A time-devouring prayer connecting a sky of forty gears and open human eyes in all directions. Breathing gearbox. Breathing bolthead. Breathing ship. Breathing portal. Breathing snakes. Breathing God. Breathing blood. Breathing holy stakes. Breathing human eyes. Breathing time. Breathing prayer. Breathing sky. Breathing wheel.

Yuri's previous poems had been complex, layered with symbolism but this…this didn't feel like that at all. No this more felt like the ramblings of someone losing their mind.

Yuri: "It doesn't really matter what it's about. My mind had been a little hyperactive lately, so I had to take it out on your pen."

"My pen? Is that a typo?"

Yuri: "Ah–That is…a-a pen fell out of your backpack yesterday, so I took it home for safekeeping and…I, um. I just…really like…the way…that it writes."

"Oh, oh no…" This just kept on getting worse and worse. He'd already felt like Natsuki and Yuri were just programmed to be in love with in-game Peter, but now it was like that love was turned up to eleven and now Yuri had an dangerously unhealthy attachment to him.


Monika: "Peter, I think you saw something earlier that you weren't supposed to see. I didn't want to have to tell you this, but I don't think I have a choice. It's getting kind of dangerous for you to spend so much time with Yuri."

"It's a little hard to believe that you didn't want to say this, but you do have a point. Yuri is getting dangerous and I think that's only going to get worse the more I spend time with her."

Monika: "When Yuri gets too excited, she finds a place to hide and starts cutting herself with a pocket knife."

"So both Monika and Natsuki knew about that. So it's probably not something exclusive to this messed up iteration." Peter thought back to one of Yuri's poems "The Raccoon", when he first read it, he thought it had something to do with addiction or a bad habit, it seems like this confirmed it. There were also little details that confirmed the fact, like how Yuri always wore long sleeves and her strange behaviour when in-game Peter had cut himself. "But if they knew, why don't they do anything to stop her…"

Monika: "I mean, it's definitely not because she's depressed or anything like that! I think she just gets some kind of high from it. It might even be, like, a sexual thing…"

"Caused by depression or not, she definitely needs mental help."

Monika: "But the point is, you've kind of been enabling her. I'm not saying it's your fault, though! But I guess that's why I had to explain it all to you… So I think if you keep your distance, that would probably be best for her."

"So that's how it's going to be…" He had basically been given an ultimatum, stay away from Yuri or risk her hurting herself even more.

Monika: "While you're at it, don't be shy to spend a little more time with me…"

"That isn't really up to me, now is it. It feels like I'm kinda stuck on whatever path this rollercoaster takes me."'


Save Me

The colors, they won't

Bright, bea t ful c l rs

Flash ng, exp nd ng, piercing

Red, green, blue

An ndless

CACOPHONY

Of meaningless

noise

The noise, it won't STOP.

Viol nt, grating w vef rms

Sq e king, screech ng, piercing

SINE, COSINE, TANGENT

Like play ng a ch lkboard on a t rntable

Like playing a KNIFE on a BREATHING RIBCAGE

n ndl ss

p m

Of m n ngl ss

Delete Her

Just like yesterday, Monika's poem was a continuation of one of her previous ones. "This one's even more abstract than the original," but it was hard to tell if it was intentional. It read like someone seeing Cthulhu and having a mental breakdown, "Which probably isn't too far from the truth."

Monika: "Here's Monika Writing Tip Of The Day! Sometimes you'll find yourself facing a difficult decision…When that happens, don't forget to save the game! You never know when…um…Who am I talking to? Can you hear me?

Peter leaned slightly forward in his chair.

Monika: "Tell me you can hear me. Anything."

A pop-up message appeared on screen.

Please Help Me

OK

"..." Peter exhaled a breath

"We've gotta cure all of them, right? It's what we do."

Monika: "...That's my advice for today. Thanks for listening~"


You have unlocked a special poem. Would you like to read it?

"Oh boy, here we go again…"

This poem was a series of blacked out text, like something you'd see in a spy movie, with the only visible letters spelling out the phrase "nothing is real."

Peter decided to take a screenshot of the poem, "I'll mess around with the image later, see if I can't figure out what the hidden text says."


Monika talks about preparations for the festival but it doesn't seem like anyone else is very enthusiastic about the idea. He wondered if that was because Sayori wasn't here, it seemed like she was the glue that was holding this friend group together.

Natsuki: "Do you really think any of us here joined the club with other people in mind? Yuri never even talked until Peter joined. As for me, I just like it better here than I do at home."

"A troubled homelife?" This was the first time he had gotten details about Natsuki's personal life, "It would explain her sometimes abrasive personality."

Natsuki: "Sorry, but you're really the only one who's so interested in finding new members."

Monika: "Natsuki's right, isn't she? This club...It's nothing more than a place for a few people to hang out. Why did I think that everyone here saw it the same way as I did?"

Peter: "But that doesn't mean that we're against getting new members or anything..."

Monika: "Peter, why did you even join this club? What were you hoping to get out of it?"

"Is…is she actually calling out in-game Peter?! I am a fan of this…"

"Monika sits down and stares at her desk."

Monika: "What's the point of all this, anyway? What if starting this club was a mistake?"

"Oof…" Peter couldn't help feeling bad for the girl. It couldn't be easy to find out you're the only one passionate about your club and literature.

Natsuki takes her leave shortly after. He couldn't blame her for how she felt about the club and potential new members, but she could have said it a bit nicer.

Yuri: "This is bad...I don't know what to do…"

Peter: "Well...Do you have an opinion on the festival?"

Yuri: "I-I don't know...I'm kind of indifferent, I guess…"

Yuri: WHO CARES ABOUT THE OBNOXIOUS BRAT, suddenly Yuri's face was really close to the screen with a creepy expression and the left side of her face was glitching out.

"Aah!" Peter let out a little yelp, "Dammit, I didn't see that one coming."

Yuri: "I mean, I like how nice and quiet the club is right now…And I'm just...happy with you here...But still! I'm the Vice President...It's not right for me to ignore my responsibilities like that...

Yuri: "NOBODY WOULD CARE IF SHE KILLED HERSELF."

"That is an extremely messed up thing to say!"

Blood bursts from Yuri's right eye, "Gross…"


Yuri goes home for the day, blood occasionally dripping from her eye, so that Monika and in-game Peter could have a chat in private.

Monika: "Peter, I just wanted to make sure you're enjoying your time at this club. I would really hate to see you unhappy."

"Can't really say I've been having a pleasant time with all this horrifying imagery."

Monika: "I feel kind of like I'm responsible for that, as President...And I really do care about you...you know? I don't like seeing the other girls give you a hard time."

"Yet I'm fairly confident you're at least partially responsible for that."

Monika: "With how mean Natsuki is and everything...And Yuri being a little bit...you know. Ahaha… Sometimes it feels like you and I are the only real people here. You know what I mean?"

"Well out of everyone in the club, you are definitely the least troupe-y."

Monika: "I guess it's technically only been a couple days… Sorry, I didn't mean to say something weird! There are just some things I've been hoping to talk about with you… Things I know only you could understand."

As Monika was talking the screen was slowly fading to black, signalling a change to the next scene.

Monika: "So that's why–Wait, not yet! No! Stop it!"

But it was too late, the screen was completely black and he was back to the poem making minigame.


Another day, another poem. This time when writing a poem the counter had glitched but otherwise it was the same as usual. Yuri is very excited to see him, ready to continue their reading together. The purple-haired girl snapped at Natsuki when she interrupted their conversion, but quickly apologised. Speaking of Natsuki, she apologised for her hostile behaviour yesterday and even agreed to help prepare for the festival, but despite this seemingly good news Monika seemed rather indifferent.

Monika: "Ah–Yeah, that's wonderful! It wouldn't be the same without you, Natsuki. Anyway, Peter… What do you want to do today? I was thinking we could–"

"She's lost interest in the club, that's not a good sign…"

Yuri: "We already have plans today."

"Yuri do not poke the bear!"

Monika: "Ah...Is that so, Yuri?"

Yuri: "That's correct. Peter is already engaged in a novel that we're reading together. Aren't you glad I've already gotten him into literature, Monika?"

"I said don't poke the bear!" This is one of those times Peter really wished he could speak for himself in this game.

Monika: "I...I suppose...I was just–Actually, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. You guys can do whatever you want."

"...This can only go poorly."


In a very confusing turn of events the scene of Yuri getting water to make tea and in-game Peter finding her cutting herself from the other day repeated itself except this time when time was rewound the screen went black for a few seconds before he was jumpscared by Yuri with no pupils.

"Son of a–!"

Yuri: H>$(7^ ~`=+.mJKXz/*eJSqa#*&

Yuri: "Um...Wait...How did I...Sorry, I just had a really weird déjà vu..."

"What a coincidence, so did I…" Peter sighed, "I can't believe her plan is kinda working…"


Yuri: "Everyone has a few unusual things about them."

The screen turned dark and everything began shaking slightly.

"Oh boy…"


Yuri: "I eventually stopped trying to talk to people. If nobody could ever like me for the things that matter most to me...Then it's just easier if I close myself off."

Peter felt for Yuri here. Before he had met Ned, it was hard being himself around other people too. He couldn't share his passion for science without getting weird looks or being called a nerd or a loser. His Aunt and Uncle loved him, but they couldn't keep up with him. That sorta changed when Iron Man showed up though, after that science and engineering was suddenly the coolest thing in the world for all the other kids at his school. But even that still didn't stop his peers from making fun of him.


Yuri: "Peter...Is it just me, or has Monika been acting a little off lately? She's always been a sweetheart ever since I joined the club… But recently, I've been feeling something sharp whenever she's around."

"So they've noticed it too. It's good to know she wasn't always this way. That means there's a chance…"

Yuri: "I'm not crazy, right? Please tell me I'm not! I couldn't say anything before, because she's always listening! But finally, we're alone...Can we just stay here for a while? Yeah..."

"Yeah, totally alone…" In the background, Peter could see a transparent Monika, slowly becoming more and more visible. As Yuri talked her eyes would sometimes be replaced with photo-realistic looking ones for a moment, "What is the deal with Yuri and eyes?"

Yuri: "You know what? Let's quit the Literature Club. There's no need for us to be around Monika's slimy tongue anymore. Not to mention that other pathetic child. We can walk home together every day after school. And read together. Eat together. Sleep together."

"Uhhhh…that's a little…"

As Monika became more visible it became harder to make out Yuri's words. Monika had her normal expression on her face, but he could tell that on the inside she was furious.

Yuri: "Doesn't that sound perfect? It's everything we could ever want. Isn't that why you joined the club in the first place? It's almost like it was fate. Fate that we would meet each other. And now we get the happy ending that I've patiently waited years for. Will you do that with me? Will h^3Hi)(FsCnYq0u9u54~5d+"

"Who should I show my poem to first?"

"...Things aren't going to end well for Yuri are they…"


Monika didn't have a poem for him to read today, instead…

Monika: "Don't say I didn't warn you, Peter."

"Who should I show my poem to next?"

Those words stopped Peter's heart in its tracks, "Oh no…" This was his fault, if only he had been more careful about the poems he made, he might have been able to avoid this. But no, he just had to speed through it because he found the gameplay boring, "Idiot!".


Natsuki: "This poem…means a lot to me. So read it carefully, okay?"

However what he received wasn't a poem at all…

I don't know how else to bring this up. But there's been something I've been worried about. Yuri has been acting kind of strange lately. You've only been here a few days, so you may not know what I mean. But she's not normally like this. She's always been quiet and polite and attentive...things like that.

Okay... This is really embarrassing, but I'm forcing myself to suck it up. The truth is, I'm REALLY worried about her. But if I try talking to her, she'll just get mad at me again. I don't know what to do. I think you're the only person that she'll listen to. I don't know why. But please try to do something. Maybe you can convince her to talk to a therapist.

I've always wanted to try being better friends with Yuri, and it really hurts me to see this happening. I know I'm going to hate myself later for admitting that, but right now I don't care. I just feel so helpless. So please see if you can do something to help. I don't want anything bad to happen to her. I'll make you cupcakes if I have to. Just please try to do something.

As for Monika... I don't know why, but she's been really dismissive about this. It's like she just wants us to ignore it. So I'm mad at her right now, and that's why I'm coming to you about this. DON'T LET HER KNOW I WROTE THIS! Just pretend like I gave you a really good poem, okay? I'm counting on you. Thanks for reading.

"I'll try my best Natsuki…"

When Peter clicked off the poem, the screen glitched again and Natsuki was missing all of her facial features. Her eyes, nose and mouth were all gone, "Natsuki!"

Natsuki: I changed my mind. Ignore everything you just read. There's no point in trying to do anything. It's Yuri's own fault that she's so unlikeable. Can you hear me, Peter? If you would just spend more time with Monika, all these problems would go away."

"Dammit Monika, that's not up to me! There has to be a better way for you to get what you want!"

Natsuki: "Yuri and I are too messed up for someone as wonderful as you. Just think of Monika from now on. Just Monika. Just Monika. Just Monika."

Just Monika

Just Monika

OK

"Yeah, Yuri and Natsuki are totally the only messed up ones here."

Then the game seemingly restarted, with the developer logo appearing on screen with a little jingle.

"Wait wha-"

Then "Just Monika" appeared on screen and he was returned back to where he was left off.

"Funny…" Peter shook his head.


Filled with dread, Peter clicked on Yuri's name and shared his poem with the girl. Like before, she was totally enthralled with his work, going as far as asking to take the poem home.

Yuri: "You're too nice to me, Peter…"

"I'm really not…"

Yuri: "I've never met anyone as nice as you."

"That's kinda sad…"

Yuri: "I could die…N-Not really, but–! I just don't know how to describe it. It's okay to be feeling this way, right?"

"...probably not."

Yuri: "I hope that it makes you feel good when you think about me having it. I'll take good care of it! I'LL EVEN TOUCH MYSELF WHILE READING IT OVER AND OVER."

"Augh! That's so creepy…"

Yuri: "I'LL GIVE MYSELF PAPER CUTS SO YOUR SKIN OIL ENTERS MY BLOODSTREAM. AHAHAHAHAHAHA"

"...And that is just flat out disgusting."

After that, Yuri handed over her own poem.

"W-What even…" The text of the poem was completely illegible and the paper itself was covered in red and yellow stains, "N-No, no these stains, this can't be Yuri's…"

With that disgusting revelation, Peter closed the poem, but Yuri was now right up to the screen and back with the photo-realistic eyes.

Yuri: "Do you like it?"

"NO!"

Yuri: "I wrote it for you! In case you couldn't tell this poem is about Im)9+#$wQsjh4Hn!~#4=N!haQ. More importantly, I've endowed it with my scent.

"Like a dog?!"

Yuri: "See, aren't I the most thoughtful person in the club?"

Then as if a switch had been flipped, Yuri returned to her more usual self.

Yuri: "I think I'm…going to vomit.

Yuri ran off screen.

"In-game Peter should wash his hands…" Peter couldn't help but wonder if anything could be done for Yuri at this point or was he too late.


Yes No

"Uh…another special poem?" Peter clicked on the "Yes" button.

Things I Like About Papa

I like when Papa comes home early.

I like when Papa cooks me dinner.

I like when Papa gives me allowance.

I like when Papa spends time with me.

I like when Papa asks me about my friends.-

I like when Papa asks me about anything.

I like when Papa gives me lunch money.

I like when Papa comes home before sundown.

I like when Papa cooks.-

I like when Papa gives me privacy.

I like when Papa doesn't tell me how to dress.

I like when Papa doesn't comment on my friends.

I like when Papa doesn't comment on my hobbies.

I like when Papa comes home without waking me up.-

I like when Papa keeps food in the house.

I like when Papa uses his inside voice.

I like when Papa leaves my stuff alone.

I like when Papa accidentally drops coins in the couch.

I like when Papa is too tired to notice me.

I like when Papa is too tired to do anything.-

I like when

Papa is too

tired for anything.

"Son of a..." Peter clenched his fist. This poem was about an extremely abusive father, someone who wouldn't even supply their kid with food. It was horrible, it made Peter absolutely furious.

"Natsuki…" This poem had matched her writing style and the shorter girl had dropped a line before implying a troubled home life. So it was most likely about her. Poor girl…

"All these girls are suffering in their own way and I don't think I can do anything to help them…"


It was time to make plans to prepare for the festival again. All three girls seemed very agitated and just like before everyone was fighting over which one of them in-game Peter would spend time helping out, "Honestly I think I'm getting sick of hearing about this festival…"

Natsuki: "Jeez...Peter, I know how fed up you are with these two by now. We can just–"

Yuri: "Natsuki, shut your fucking mouth and let him decide for himself."

"Oh my god!" Peter would never get used to hearing them swear like that.

Natsuki: "You shut your mouth!"

Monika: "Jeus Christ. This is never going to end. Just make the choice, okay?"

Peter was now given the option of picking either of the three girls, "Well I don't really have much of a choice, I've got to pick Monika. But will the game even let me, last time it forced me to pick someone else." Peter's train of thought was interrupted when he noticed his mouse cursor was moving on its own, sliding to Monika's name.

"Huh…" Peter forcibly moved the mouse cursor away, but once again it made its way back to Monika's name, "Well then, let's hope this works…" Peter clicked on Monika's name.

Monika: "Yay, you picked me! We can meet at your house this weekend. I promise it'll be fun. Is Sunday okay with you?"

While Monika was happy about being picked, the other two were obviously upset with the result. But oddly, instead of being mad at in-game Peter for not picking them, they were mad at Monika for being picked, "That doesn't make much sense."

Natsuki: Are you fucking kidding me? This isn't fair at all!"

"Language!"

Monika: "It is fair, Natsuki. It's what he chose."

Yuri: "No, it's not fair! Giving us all this work and then taking Peter for yourself. What a shameful thing to do!"

Monika: "Yuri, I didn't even give you any work. You decided it for yourself. You're being a little unreasonable here."

"An easy way to solve this problem is to just have Natsuki and Yuri work together on the cupcakes and leave the decorations since we don't need them." Of course, Peter knew that the workload wasn't the real problem here, but still it was technically a potential solution.

Yuri: "I'm being unreasonable? Ahahaha!"

The music had stopped and Yuri had a creepy expression on her face.

Yuri: "Monika, I can't believe how delusional and self-important you are! Pulling Peter away from me every single time you're not included in something. Are you jealous? Crazy? Or maybe you just hate yourself so much that you take it out on others? Here's a suggestion. Have you considered killing yourself? It would be beneficial to your mental health."

"..." Peter was taken aback by that. There had been no glitches, no font change, no creepy eyes, no music, no spooks, nothing. Just some truly hurtful words from one person to another.

It was no surprise that Monika and Natsuki left after that. Unfortunately that now meant he was now all alone with an mentally unstable Yuri and he knew the girl had at least one knife on her.

Yuri: "Wow... There's really something wrong with me, isn't there? But you know what? I don't care anymore. I've never felt this good my whole life."

"Yuri please this isn't healthy," He knew that most of Yuri's current behaviour was probably not the girl's fault, but it still hurt seeing her go down this path.

Yuri: "Just being with you is a far greater pleasure than anything I could imagine. I'm addicted to you. It feels like I'm going to die if I'm not breathing the same air as you."

"She's getting worse…:

Yuri: "Doesn't it feel nice to have someone care about you so much? To have someone who wants to revolve their entire life around you?

"No…I would never want anyone to dedicate their life to me. It would only lead to them getting hurt or worse…"

Yuri: But if it feels so good...Then why does it feel more and more like something horrible is going to happen?"

"Maybe that should be a clue to not do whatever you plan on doing!" Peter took a quick glance at the gamefiles again, there was now a file named "have a nice weekend!" Peter grimaced.

Yuri: "Maybe that's why I tried stopping myself at first...But the feeling is too strong now. I don't care anymore, Peter!"

Peter could hear the sounds of a woman's voice in the background. He couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying.

Yuri: "I'm...I'm madly in love with you! It feels like every inch of my body...every drop of blood in me...is screaming your name. I don't care what the consequences are anymore! I don't care if Monika is listening!"

"Y-Yuri please…"

Yuri: "Please, Peter, just know how much I love you. I love you so much that I even touch myself with the pen I stole from you. I just want to pull your skin open and crawl inside of you. I want you all to myself. And I will be only yours. Doesn't that sound perfect?

"Ugh! That's insanely creepy, gross and disturbing."

Tell me, Peter. Tell me you want to be my lover. Do you accept my confession?"

Yes

No

"This isn't love Yuri," She wasn't in-love with in-game Peter, she had been modified so that she couldn't exist without him. There was no way he could accept her confession, not to mention there was a potential risk to her life if he said yes. "I would say sorry, but this isn't exactly a genuine confession from you, isn't it." Peter clicked "No."

Yuri: "...Ahahaha. Ahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Yuri pulled out a knife, pointed at herself.

"YURI NO!-" Yuri plunged the knife into her stomach with a horrified expression on her face. A large amount of blood poured from the wound.

"Please Yuri-!" She stabbed herself again in the same spot, blood splattering on her face.

"You have to stop!" Yuri plunged her blade one final time into her heart. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground.

"..." Yuri was sitting on the floor resting upright against a chair. Her eyes looked empty and lifeless, her blood pooled on the classroom floor. Yuri was speaking completely nonsensical gibberish, that she was still alive. There was still time.

"Dammit in-game Peter, get help! Do something!" But in-game Peter would do no such thing, instead just staring at Yuri as she continued to speak gibberish. Peter kept clicking through her text, but it continued to be nothing but gibberish, "Dammit!"

There was so much text, so Peter clicked on the "Skip" button to fast forward the text. The game began to speed through Yuri's text at incredible speeds, yet there seemed to be no end to Yuri's gibberish. Peter noticed the lighting change from afternoon to evening and then night, "My god…" Then it was morning and Yuri's blood had begun to dry up and turn black. Yuri's eyes were drained of colour. Then it was evening again, "What the hell is going on?" Peter thought back to the file he saw before. "I-It's the weekend. She's making us spend the weekend together!" Back to night, Peter could only stare helplessly at Yuri's lifeless body, her eyes now completely grey out.

"May? ...May? Will you look at me, May? Please?"

Back to morning.

"May? ...May? What are you doing, May? Please, will you just wake up and talk to me? Please?"

Back to evening

"Peter! Run"

Back to night.

"It's just me and you, okay? It's just me and you. Oh May, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry."

Back to morning. The scene finally switches away from Yuri.

Natsuki: Alright, it's festival time! Wow, you got here before me?"

Peter felt so cold, so empty.

Natsuki: "I thought I was pretty ea–EYAH!"

Natsuki spots Yuri's body. An absolute look of terror on her face

Natsuki: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

She barfs into her hand and runs out of the classroom.

Monika: "I'm here!"

"You…"

Monika: "Peter, did something happen? Natsuki just ran past me..."

"..."

Monika: "...Oh...Oh...Ahahaha! Well, that's a shame."

"A shame?! Your friend just died and that's all you have to say!"

Monika: "Wait, were you here the entire weekend, Peter? Oh, jeez...I didn't realize the script was broken that badly. I'm super sorry! It must have been pretty boring...I'll make it up to you, okay? Just gimme a sec..."

A command console appeared in the top left corner of the screen. Monika typed in the command "os/remove("characters/yuri .chr")."

"W-Wait Monika, don't do it!"

She entered the command which gave the response "yuri .chr" deleted successfully."

"S-She deleted Yuri!"

But Monika didn't stop there, entering the command "os/remove("characters/natsuki .chr")" into the console, she also deleted Natsuki. Now only he and Monika remained.

"How could you…you had no reason!"

Monika: "I'm almost done. I just want to have a cupcake real quick!"

Monika somehow manages to take a cupcake from a non-existent tray and eats it.

Monika: "Seriously, these are the best! I really just had to have one, since it's the last time I'll ever get the chance to. You know, before they stop existing and everything."

"What is she planning?!"

Monika: "...But anyway, I really shouldn't be making you wait any longer. Just bear with me, okay? This should only take a second."

The screen glitched out and the game restarted. Now the developers logo was all corrupted and the opening was distorted and WAY TOO LOUD! Peter clutched his ears, luckily it only lasted a second before the screen went completely black.

Monika: "…Uh, can you hear me?...Is it working?"

Monika was now really close to the screen, sitting down at the only desk in the classroom. She had her fingers crossed under her chin and a relaxed but commanding expression on her face. Through the windows in the background he could see what looked like space with clouds passing by, "Where in the world are we? Is there even a world left at this point?"

Monika: "Yay, there you are! Hi again, Peter. Um…welcome to the Literature Club. Of course, we already know each other, because we were in the same class last year, and…um…Ahaha…You know, I guess we can just skip over that stuff at this point. After all, I'm not even talking to that person anymore, am I?"

"Not talking to that person?" He felt his Spider-Sense tingle again.

Monika: "That 'you' in the game, whatever you want to call him. I'm talking to you, Peter."

"..."

Monika: "Or...Do you actually go by Ive or something?"

"Ive? Wait, that's the guy who used to own this laptop. She must be reading the laptop's account name, creepy…"

Monika: "Now that I think about it, I don't really know anything about the real you."

"And let's hope it stays that way."

Monika: "In fact, I don't even know if you're a boy or a girl…Well I guess it doesn't really matter. Wait…You do know I'm aware that this is all a game, right?"

"Yes, I don't think you could have made that more abundantly clear."

Monika: "Could it be possible that you didn't know that? That doesn't make much sense…I even told you right on the game's download page, didn't I?"

"Okay well I definitely didn't see that part…"

Monika: "Man…If only you had paid a little more attention, this would have been a little less awkward, you know?"

"I was paying attention! I just wasn't given many choices!" Peter had known something was odd with Monika as soon as he realised he couldn't write poems for her or spend time with her. She also had several strange lines, talking about saving the game or two-dimensional characters. Then there were her strange poems, they didn't make much sense at first, but with perspective you could figure out their meaning. Monika had seen through "the hole in the wall" and learned that she was a fictional character inside a video game, and the existence of the real world beyond her reach. Peter was probably the "he, on the other side, looking in" from her poem. This revelation obviously must have affected her mentally, hence both "Save Me" poems. And her final poem, "The Lady Who Knows Everything" was about her accepting her reality. There was also the stuff with Sayori, the vice-president talked about Monika was telling her things, things that likely pushed her to take her own life.

Monika: "Then again, you did leave that nice message for me. I really loved it by the way. So I guess you probably did know. Sorry for doubting you…"

"Nice message? What is she talking about?"

Monika: "Well anyways…Now that that's out of the way, I guess I owe you an explanation.

"Damn straight you do."

Monika: "About that whole thing with Yuri...Well...I kind of started to mess with her, and I guess it just drove her to kill herself. Ahaha!"

"How could she say that so casually." Messing with another person's mind like that was beyond sick and horribly disturbing. Even if she didn't intend for Yuri to end her life, she was still responsible.

Monika: "I'm sorry you had to see that, though! Also, the same thing happened with Sayori... Gosh, it's been a while since you've heard that name now, hasn't it? Yeah...it's because she doesn't exist anymore. Nobody does. I deleted all their files."

"They're all gone…" It was tragic, Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri all deserved so much better.

Monika: I was hoping it would be enough for me to just try to make them as unlikable as possible...But for some reason, nothing worked. Well, it's true that I made a few mistakes here and there...since I'm not very good at making changes to the game."

"So all the creepy stuff is just a result of you being bad at coding?" Monika's plan was clever but flawed. Ultimately it didn't matter how scary, creepy, or unlikable Monika made the other girls, nothing could change the fact that she didn't have a route in this game. It was literally impossible for him to choose her.

Monika: "But no matter what I did...You just kept spending more and more time with them. You made them fall in love with you."

"I wasn't trying to, I just wasn't given a choice otherwise." Could it even be truly said that Peter made the other girls fall in love with him? All he did was show up and act with common decency. Sure he wrote poems, but even if they didn't like his poems, they still were clearly into in-game Peter. The several fights between Natsuki and Yuri proved it.

Monika: "I thought making Sayori more and more depressed would prevent her from confessing to you. And amplifying Yuri's obsessive personality backfired, too...It just made her force you not to spend time with anyone else."

"So she somehow amplified everyone's negative qualities. How does that even work exactly? Do the girls have some kind of personality stats in those .chr files of theirs?"

Monika: "And the whole time, I barely even got to talk to you. What kind of cruel game is this, Peter? Are all the other girls just programmed to end up confessing to you, while I watch from the sidelines? It's torture. Every minute of it."

"Torture…" Monika was right in the sense that the game was definitely rigged against her. It wasn't just that Monika didn't have a route in the game, but rather the game itself was programmed in such a way to stop the player from spending time with Monika. At least that's what Peter believed. Just like how it seemed that the girls were programmed to fall in love with in-game Peter, it also seemed they were programmed to make in-game Peter stay away from Monika, sometimes to an even antagonistic degree. And even in the instance where Peter was alone with Monika, the game would just fade to black. Peter wondered if there was a plot reason for that.

Monika: "And it's not just jealousy, Peter. It's more than that. And I don't blame you if you don't fully understand. Because no matter how kind, and thoughtful, and considerate you are...You'll never be able to understand one thing."

"Not jealousy? How can you say this wasn't done out of jealousy?"

Monika: "It's the pain of knowing how alone I really am in this world. In this game. Knowing my friends don't even have free will...And, worst of all, knowing what's really out there, in your world, forever out of my reach. I'm trapped, Peter."

"All alone..." It must have been horrifying for Monika, to find out her life is a fabrication and her friends are puppets on strings, and you're all stuck in a story in which they're destined to fall in love while you're left all alone. Meanwhile you know there is a real world out there with real people with the ability to make actual choices. You'd naturally want to leave, to escape, "...and naturally you'd do anything to escape, to be free…It's funny though, even after everything she still referred to them as her friends."

Monika: "But now you're here. You're real. And you're wonderful. You're all I need. That's why I need you to be here with me forever. I'm sorry if it's hard to understand. I couldn't understand for a while, either. Why the world around me started to become more and more gray...More and more flat. Even the most expressive poems felt empty to me."

"I'm wonderful? That's some high praise considering you don't know a thing about me, I could be a super villain for all you know." So Monika's revelation drove her to become increasingly apathetic and nihilistic about her life and the world itself. She desperately needed some kind of connection to the real world, and Peter represented that. No wonder she was so desperate to spend time with him. From her perspective it was the only way for her life to have any meaning.

Monika: "You probably saved my life, Peter. I don't think I could have continued to live in this world if I hadn't met you."

"..."

Monika: "And as for the others...How could I miss them? A group of autonomous personalities, designed only to fall in love with you? I tried everything I could to prevent them from doing so… But it must be some kind of weird inevitability etched into this game. I felt really bad that you had to witness some nasty things. But I realized that you have the same perspective as I do...That it's all just some game. And I knew you would get over it."

"That-I-you-!" Peter didn't immediately have a good response to that. As much as he didn't like to admit it, she wasn't entirely wrong. From her perspective the other members were just fictional characters in a video game. They weren't real, they were never alive to begin with, so in her eyes killing them was the same as killing an NPC in GTA. Peter didn't like it, but even as Spider-Man, with a strict "no killing" rule, he had killed some of Thanos' minions, because they were basically mindless animals without any free will… "S-Still they were still your friends. They weren't just love interests for in-game Peter, they had their own lives, feelings and problems they were dealing with. Even if they didn't know the truth, they were still about as real as you!"

Monika: "So, that being said, Peter...I have a confession to make. I'm in love with you. You are truly the light in my world. When there's nothing else in this game for me, you're here to make me smile. Will you make me smile like this every day from now on? Peter, will you go out with me?"

"You can't be serious…" After all of that, she had the gall to ask to be his girlfriend?!

Yes

"Not going to take no for an answer I see." Peter scoffed, "What exactly is she in love with here, the fact I have a pulse?"

Monika: "I'm so happy. You really are my everything, Peter. The funny part is, I mean that literally. Ahaha! There's nothing left here. Just the two of us. We can be together forever. Seriously, I don't even think time is passing anymore. It really is a dream come true...I worked so hard for this ending, Peter."

"She deluding herself…"

Monika: "The game wouldn't give me one, so I had to make one myself. The script is broken at this point, so I don't think anything will get in the way anymore. And you wouldn't believe how easy it was to delete Natsuki and Yuri. I mean, there's a folder called 'characters' right in the game directory...It kind of freaked me out, how easy it was. Imagine if you could delete your own existence with the click of a button?"

"..." Thinking about Titan still gave Peter chills…

Monika: "Well, I guess on the plus side, it gave me an easy out if things didn't go my way. Ahaha!"

"..." He really hated how casually she talked about ending her life.

Monika: "Thankfully, it didn't come to that...Instead, we finally got a good ending. Gosh, I'm so overwhelmed with emotion... I want to write a poem about this. Don't you? I wonder if that part of the game still works...I guess there's only one way to find out, right?"

"Please no more poems…" Peter's plea went unanswered as he was forced to write another poem. The mini-game had seen better days, the entire right side of the screen was glitched red static and it seemed all the words were some corrupted form of "Monika." Peter sped through the segment as usual.

Monika: "Hi again, Peter! Did you write a good poem today? Don't be shy, I'd love to see what you wrote. Aw, Peter...Did you write this poem for me? That's so sweet of you~There really is no end to your thoughtfulness...I'm just falling more and more in love with you."

"Now you're just forcing it." There was no way Monika actually believed what she was saying right?

Monika: "But, you know...The poem I wrote...is also for you. Will you please read it?"

Happy End

Pen in hand, I find my strength.

The courage endowed upon me by my one and only love.

Together, let us dismantle this crumbling world

And write a novel of our own fantasies.

With a flick of her pen, the lost finds her way.

In a world of infinite choices, behold this special day.

After all,

Not all good times must come to an end

"I've seen better." Even her poems felt fake and empty now. Was this really the ending Monika wanted? Was she really satisfied with this? It really seemed like Monika was forcing herself to be happy about her current situation. He thought Monika wanted to be real, to be a real person in the real world with the ability to make real choices, to make real art. Is having a one-sided conversation with a person she's pretending is her boyfriend really good enough for her?

Monika: "I hope you enjoyed it...I always put all my heart into the poems that I write. The truth is, all the poems I've written have been about my realization...Or, about you. That's why I never really wanted to go into detail about them. I didn't want to...break the fourth wall, I guess you could call it. I just assumed it would be best to be part of the game like everyone else. Like that would help the two of us end up together...I didn't want to ruin the game or anything, you know? You might have gotten mad at me...Maybe even deleted my character file, if you preferred playing without me."

"Well maybe if you were more honest from the beginning we might have avoided a lot of pain…" It was a strange thought process to be honest, what normal player would even have the idea to delete a character from a visual novel. However Monika's words here showed Peter something important, "She's afraid of me. I guess it makes sense. She doesn't have a way to stop me from deleting her…Is that possibly the reason she's acting this way? Is she trying to appease me by acting as my girlfriend, to both keep me around and so I don't delete her? It's certainly possible, but it's also possible that just like the other girls she's programmed to fall in love with the player, which also includes me." There was also the chance that both theories were partially true.

Monika: "Gosh, I'm so relieved...Now we don't need to hide anything anymore. Are you ready to spend our eternity together, Peter? I have so many things to talk about! Where do I start...? If it takes me some time to collect my thoughts, then I'm sorry. But I'll always have something new to talk about. In the meantime, we can just look into each other's eyes~Let's see…"

"I mean I can look into your eyes, I don't think you can look into mine. At least I sure hope so." Peter quickly checked that the laptop's camera was off.


Monika: "Sometimes I think back to middle school...I'm so embarrassed by the way I used to behave back then. It almost hurts to think about. I wonder if when I'm in college, I'll feel that way about high school...? I like the way I am now, so it's pretty hard for me to imagine that happening. But I also know that I'll probably change a lot as time goes on. We just need to enjoy the present and not think about the past! And that's really easy to do, with you here. Ahaha~"

"Wait, she remembers having a childhood? That's interesting…"


Monika: "Anyway, I saw some studies that talked about the horrible short-term and long-term effects caused by lack of sleep. It seems like mental functions, health, and even lifespan can be dramatically impacted by it. I just think you're really great and wanted to make sure you're not accidentally destroying yourself. So try to keep your sleep on track, okay? I'll always wait for you in the morning, so make sure you put your own well-being before anything else."

"Trust me, I'd love to do nothing but sleep. Unfortunately criminals don't share the same sentiment."


Monika: "By the way, there's something that's been bothering me...You know how this takes place in Japan? Well...I assume you knew that, right? Or at least decided it probably does? I don't think you're actually told at any point where this takes place...Is this even really Japan? I mean, aren't the classrooms and stuff kind of weird for a Japanese school? Not to mention everything is in English...It feels like everything is just there because it needs to be, and the actual setting is an afterthought. It's kind of giving me an identity crisis. All my memories are really hazy...

"Yeah it is weird. Natsuki even made that Mon-ika joke earlier which doesn't make sense in english. A japanese high-school setting probably just fits better with the anime dating sim theme the devs were going for."


Monika: "I hope being friends with Sayori has given you some perspective on the true face of depression. Yeah, she's gone now...But Sayori was never real in the first place. You're real. Your friends are real. And just by being a good person, you can save someone's life. As for you...You don't struggle with depression or anything like that, do you? Because you, too, have people who would want to save your life. Maybe they don't express it every day, or maybe they don't even know how to. But people do feel that way. I promise...Man, humans are complicated! But as long as you're here with me, I'll take care of you, my love."

"...You're an interesting person y'know that?" Monika was the last person he thought he heard that from.


Monika: "Hey, you know that book you were reading with Yuri? Portrait of...whatever it was called...It's funny, because I'm pretty sure that book–Ah...Actually, I don't think I should be talking about , sorry! Just forget I said anything."

"That book again…"


Monika: "Hey, did you know I'm vegetarian? Ah... I don't mean that like I'm bragging or anything! I just thought you'd enjoy a fun fact about me."

"I decided to start a couple years ago after learning more about Earth's climate..."

"You are physically incapable of eating meat. The food you eat in the game doesn't come from real plants or animals and isn't affecting the climate."


Monika: "You're such a good listener, Peter. I really love that about you. Sometimes I'm afraid that I'm rambling or talking about boring things. It makes me kind of self-conscious when I'm having conversation. But I don't feel that way with you. Like, I don't think anyone else could make me feel this way. You really are special. I don't want anyone to tell you otherwise."

"How do you know I'm even listening? For all you know I could be in the bathroom taking a dump while you're talking."


Monika: "You know...This is just some kind of tacky romance game, right? I kinda have to ask… What made you consider even playing in the first place? Were you that lonely? I feel a little bad for you…"

"..."


Monika: "I turned out to be the only normal girl in this game. It's not like I could ever actually kill a person...Just the thought of it makes me shiver. But come on...everyone's killed people in games before. Does that make you a psychopath? Of course not."

"Well if they went about it the same way you did, then maybe they might be."


Monika: "Do you ever just feel like there's no real reason for you to be alive? I don't mean in, like, a suicidal way. I just mean how nothing that we do is special. Just being in school, or working at some job for some company."

"It's like you're completely replaceable, and the world wouldn't miss you if you were gone. It makes me really want to go and change the world after I graduate. But the older I get, the more I realize that it's an immature frame of thinking. It's not like I can just go change the world."

"You'd be surprised," Peter supposed he was lucky in that sense. He was this universe's one-and-only Spider-Man, he knew his life's purpose.


Monika went silent for a little while, before starting to talk about another random topic. Peter was starting to see the pattern, "I see, she's cycling through a bunch of premade dialogue. I wonder how much the developers wrote. Is she going to repeat topics at some point?"

This cool-down moment finally gave Peter time to reflect on what had happened and the game itself, "Man, this game…this game is something special." This had been the most emotional impactful video game experience of his life, he totally understood why Ned had recommended the game. The characters, the story, the secrets, the spooks, everything was top notch here. It was a brilliant idea to take a dating simulator and turn it into a horror game, using the tropes of the genre and adding a horror twist. All the girls at first glance, seemed like generic anime waifus that you'd expect to see in a dating sim. But when you get to know them, you learn about all the very heavy and very real issues affecting them, which makes it all the more painful when something bad happens to them later on. He was also impressed by all the secrets, using the game files to hide additional clues was very clever. The game definitely created an impressive illusion that its story was in fact real and he had probably missed a bunch of stuff too. The story itself was also very interesting with Monika being self-aware and messing with the game to win over the player. Though to be honest, that part didn't make much sense realistically. The game pretended that its story was real, but visual novels aren't simply programmed in the way Doki Doki acts. You can't just delete or mess with character files and have it affect the story like the way Monika did. The game was acting like the girls had AI or something and Monika had somehow gone rogue, but why would anyone make a complex AI for a dating sim? It didn't make much sense, but he was willing to suspend his disbelief for the sake of the story.

"But what do I do now?" This couldn't be the actual end of the game, right? There must be a way to progress further, "Hmm, I guess I could try deleting Monika's file…but that seems a little hypocritical…maybe I'll just listen to what Monika has to say for a little while longer."


Little did Peter know that as he mused himself with Monika's ramblings, meanwhile on the other side of the screen the president of the literature club was having her own internal dilemma about what to do next. Monika was snooping around the laptop the game was on, hoping to find any information about her beloved. "Hmm, he doesn't seem to keep much personal information on this computer, that's too bad…" There wasn't anything here that she could use to learn more about her new boyfriend's identity, hobbies, interests, or history. She wanted that information so that she could have more interesting conversation topics and keep Peter engaged. "I suppose, I could just ask him directly…" However the game was unstable enough as is, so Monika didn't want to try to modify it further to add additional features, "We could communicate through text files or something outside the game but…" There were probably a lot of ways she and Peter could communicate together, but the truth was that a part of Monika was a bit afraid of a proper two-way conversation between herself and the player. What would he say? What would she say? What if he refused to accept her feelings? What if he hated her? Monika didn't currently know about how he truly felt about her and she wasn't sure if she wanted to. She wanted to believe that Peter was kind enough to understand why she had done the things she had, but what if he wasn't? She wouldn't be able to handle being hated by him, it would be too much, just too much. For these reasons, it was probably best she left things as they were. "But what if he gets bored with what I have to say and decides to delete me or the game…" She couldn't let that happen. She worked too hard to get here. She needed to believe in Peter, believe in her love. Believe that he'd accept her as she is. She just needed to have the courage to take a leap of faith. "Heh, I already feel the inspiration for a poem coming along-Huh? What's this?"

Monika noticed that the computer she was currently on was directly connected to another, "He has two computers connected to each other? That's interesting…I wonder what's on the other one."

Monika was able to "send herself" to the other computer while her main file stayed in its original location, "Alright! That was surprisingly easy, made me feel a little tingly though…Now let's see what we have here…" She noticed that this computer actually had a desktop wallpaper. It was a picture of three teenagers wearing yellow coats, two boys and one girl. They were smiling and posing in front of the Washington monument in America. "One of them must be Peter." The girl in the picture made Monika uneasy, he didn't already have a girlfriend did he? No it couldn't be, why would he ever play her game otherwise…Monika put that thought aside for now and continued her exploration. She would try to make direct contact with Peter soon, but it wouldn't hurt to get some more background information on him first…

The next thing Monika noticed was that this laptop was also connected to another device, but she couldn't exactly tell what it was, "Hmm, what kind of device is this…" Monika noticed there was currently a program running in the background that was connected to the device, "Is he downloading an update?" Hoping to learn more, she opened the program and–


Back with Peter, the screens on both laptops flickered off before turning back on.

Monika: a)$`~/*GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"Whoa! What's going on now?"

Monika: "...Ahem, sorry about that. Anyways Peter, I have some good news, I think I've found a way to-"

But Peter wasn't paying attention to the game anymore. Instead his focus was on the other laptop.

"Oh man, I got totally absorbed into the game. I completely lost track of time, it's nearly 2 in the morning! Now about the update…" Peter saw that the update was now 100% complete, "Nice, now I just need to test it out…"

*Ding!*

Just then, Peter received a notification on his phone. It was his police scanner app.

"*static*…suspicious individuals…*static*...possibly armed…*static*...proceed with caution…"

"Right on time," Peter unhooked his mask from the laptop and quickly slipped into his Spider-Man suit. Opening his apartment window, he put his mask on over his head. The HUD was immediately brought online, connecting to his phone so he could continue to listen to the police radio. He pinned the location of the potential crime on his HUD's map and turned back to his apartment.

"Sorry Monika, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got to head out, duty calls!" Spider-Man flipped out of the window. Shooting a webline from his wrists to the nearest building, he took off swinging towards the supposed scene of the crime.

Meanwhile back at the apartment, totally oblivious to the fact Peter was gone, Monika continued her talk.

Monika: "-I've been looking around your computer without asking. Sorry about that, but I promise I didn't look at anything super private or personal. I did find something interesting, you own some kind of VR goggle thingy right? Well I was able to go inside and connect with it somehow. It's strange, it's like it was meant for someone like me. Anyways, I think we can use it to communicate with each other outside the game! Isn't that wonderful? We'll be able to talk to each other face-to-face like a real couple! So if you could put them on-Oh! I see you're already turned it on. Okay let's see if this works, fingers crossed, Alright 3…2…1…Go!


"Almost there!" Peter swung around the corner of the building and into the street where some guys with strange weapons were apparently spotted by civilians. But just as Peter was about to fire another webline…

"Hello! Can you hear me?" Monika's face suddenly appeared right in front of him.

"AAAHHH!" Peter panicked and his aim became off, causing the webline that he fired to miss its mark and attach to a building much lower than he intended. This messed up his swing trajectory and Spider-Man was sent crashing into the street below. Our hero tumbled across the sidewalk before colliding with a garbage can.

CRASH!

"Ow…"

To Be Continued…


If you notice any spelling/grammar mistakes please let me know.

Thanks for all the support on the previous chapter, I'll really appreciate it.

Anyways this chapter ends the "Spider-Man Plays Doki Doki" section of the story. From here on out we'll be getting into the main plot. If you couldn't tell by the ending, I'm going to have Monika essentially replace Karen as the AI in Peter's suit. If you have any ideas for anything you'd like to see in the story, whether it be jokes or small scenes, please let me know. If I like it enough and I can make it fit with my narrative, I might add it in.

Also with regards to my previous story, any sequel/continuation to "The Difference Between Heroes" is on hiatus. I'm WAY behind on MHA and thus, I don't have much motivation to continue writing about it. Maybe someday I'll come back to it, but as of now I'm happy with how and where it ended.

With that being said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and make sure you see Across the Spider-Verse in theatres right now!