Another day at the club began with Monika entering the room.

"Aw, man… I'm the last one here again!" she sighed.

Josuke looked up at her. "You're fine. I only just got here too."

"Were you practicing piano again?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah…" Monika nervously giggled.

"You must have a lot of determination. Starting this club, and now picking up piano…"

"Well, maybe not my determination, but I guess passion. Remember that the club wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of you. And I'm super happy that you're all willing to help out for the festival, too!"

Natsuki jumped up excitedly. "Aaah, I can't wait for the festival! It's gonna be great!"

The group looked at her, confusion written on all of their faces.

"Weren't you complaining about it just yesterday, Natsuki?" Monika asked.

"Yeah. I'm not talking about our part of the festival, but it's a whole day of school where we get to play and eat all kinds of delicious food!"

Josuke noticed that she was acting a bit off. "You sound a bit like Sayori all of a sudden…" he said.

Hang on. Where is Sayori anyway?

He looked around to room to finally see Sayori sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, looking down at nothing.

"Hey, Sayori," said Josuke as he waved his hand in front of her face.

She blinked and looked up.

"You're spacing out again."

"Ah! Um… D-Don't mind me. You can just go talk to everyone else."

What…? That's pretty out of character, especially for someone like her…

"Is everything alright?"

"O-Of course! Why wouldn't it be?"

"Sayori, it just seems like there's something off about you…"

"Jeez, you worry too much about me. I'm fine, see?" She smiled brightly. "Don't let me distract you from having fun with everyone."

"… What? Am I not allowed to have fun with you or something?"

"A-Ah… N-No, that's not it…"

I don't think that this has anything to do with a Stand. She just seems down for some reason. Did she find out that we aren't really childhood friends? I mean, that got me down a bit when I first found out. I think she just wants a friend… Maybe?

"Sayori," Josuke began. "You can always talk to me. You know that right? I'm here for you if you ever need help."

Sayori looked back down at her desk and whispered, "… Th-Thank you… but not here. Just go hang out with the others today."

He looked at her with confusion and concern. He eventually said, "… Alright."

Maybe this is a pretty personal issue that she doesn't want to talk about here. I can understand that. I should ask anyone else if they have noticed anything off about Sayori as well.

Josuke turned around and began to approach Monika.

She took notice of this and looked up at him. "Josuke! What's up?"

"Hey, this might sound a little weird, but have you noticed Sayori acting a little differently?"

"Differently? How so?"

"She just seems down today. I was just wondering if you had noticed it too."

"I can't say that I have." She then peered across the room to see Sayori idly drag an eraser around her desk. "Maybe she has something on her mind. Although, I'm surprised I'm not the one asking you, Josuke. I mean, you know her much better than I do."

… I can't really say that I don't actually know that much about her. "Uh… I don't really know because she is never like this… She was really dismissive when I asked her about it."

"Well, thanks for telling me. I'm also friends with her, and I also care about the well-being of my club members. I'll try to speak with her myself."

"Thanks, Monika. You're the best."

Monika smiled sweetly as her cheeks took on a red hue. She then stood up and made her way to where Sayori was.

Man, she's cute! … Wait. What? Why did I just think that?

He sat down in a desk near the front of the room.

I am worried about Sayori, but… Wait!

He turned around slowly to see Monika kneeling next to the desk Sayori was at, talking to her.

Could Monika be the Stand user? Have I made a mistake…?

"Hey."

Josuke looked up and saw Natsuki standing in front of him, manga volume in hand.

"Oh. Hey, Natsuki. What's up?"

"You still haven't given back the first volume even though you claim to have read it."

"Wha- Oh! Right!" He reached into his bag and pulled out volume one of Parfait Girls and handed it to her.

She swiped the volume out of his hand. "Thanks."

Josuke noticed the other volume she was carrying before she took the one he had. "Oh. S-Sorry. Something just came up. We can start now."

"Jeez… Now you're making me feel like a jerk. If something's bothering you, then you can just tell me to leave you alone, and I will."

"No, it's fine. Hopefully, I'm making a bigger deal out of what it actually is. I've just been thinking about Sayori, that's all."

Natsuki straightened up and almost yelled, "S-Sayori…? Thinking about her…?"

"Yeah, she seems pretty down today, and she never said why. I can't help to wonder if something bad has happened to her."

"Oh… Okay then. W-Well, let's get started already."

"Alright."

"Okay, everyone!" Monika addressed the club after some time. "Why don't we share our poems now?"

Everyone went to retrieve their poems. Josuke made eye contact with Monika as she smiled.

I wonder what she was talking about with Sayori. She's so kind and sweet… Again? What the hell is up with me?

He decided to start sharing his poem with Monika.

She noticed that he was approaching her and greeted him. "Hi Josuke! Have you thought about what you want to submit to perform at the festival?"

"Well…" he began to trail off. "I'll have to think about it some more, but I might just end up performing Best Friend, the one I wrote the first time."

"Okay! That one was great! Anyway, let's exchange poems."

"Sure…" said Josuke as they swapped poems.

Town

No one owns this town.

Everyone lives here to live a happy life.

The people are nice.

They are always willing to help.

There are many people who have friends.

There are some who are friends of friends.

And some even have best friends.

No one uses an arrow in this town.

No one points out who has more or who has less.

You can be whatever you want to be in this town.

There are those who envy, filled with greed.

Those are the ones not welcome in my town.

Those who want to hurt, those who want to harm, I will make sure they're not in my town.

"… W-Wow! Very interesting writing style," said Monika.

Josuke had finally finished reading her poem. "Thanks, and your poems just keep getting better and better each time!"

She smiled sweetly. "Thanks!"

"Say, I've been meaning to ask you, what were you and Sayori talking about?"

"O-Oh… Uh… I-It's kind of a personal issue. Not really a kind that she would want to be talking with a GUY about."

Josuke closed his eyes, nodded and slightly grimaced. He vaguely knew the territory that she was going into and knew that that is not really something that he should know about.

"Ah. Got it."

He went around, exchanging poems with everyone before he finally got to Sayori. They exchanged poems.

She remained silent for a bit. "Hm… It's nice, I guess."

"What do you mean by that?" Josuke asked.

"I-It doesn't really matter what I think. After all, you wrote this poem for someone else, didn't you?"

"What? I didn't write this for anyone specifically!"

That was kind of a lie. Like my last one, this was more directed towards any possible Stand users.

"Maybe… That's not really what I meant, though. But it's fine. You're making new friends, just like I was hoping. That makes me… really happy. And you're happy too right, in this club?"

"Like you were hoping? What are you talking about? I mean, I am having fun in the club but-"

"Good! That's all that matters to me! Thank you, Josuke."

"Sayori, please talk to me. Tell me what's up. It doesn't have to be now, but sometime at least. Maybe we could hang out at my place after this!"

"I… Ah… No, it's fine. I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired today."

"… Just tell me if you need anything."

"I will. Just don't worry about me, okay? You can go play with everyone else now."

Josuke was speechless. He had no idea how to respond.

"I'm gonna go home a little early today," Sayori said.

"Sayori…? I'll come with you!"

"No, it's fine…"

"But Sayori, I want to-"

"Just tell Monika I wasn't feeling well and went home. Bye!"

Before he could stop her, she had already gone out of the room. He stood there trying to process what exactly just happened.

"Okay, you three!" Monika began, bringing Josuke back to reality. "We're all done sharing poems right? Why don't we start figuring out-"

"Hold on a second!" Natsuki interrupted. "Is it just me, or did you say something strange just now?"

"Oh yeah. Sayori wanted me to tell you that she wasn't feeling well so she went home." Josuke said.

"Is that so? I hope she's alright…" Yuri said concerned.

"Seriously? Of all the times to not go home with her, you pick the time she's not feeling well?" Natsuki scolded. "So much for you two being all lovey-dovey."

Josuke's eyes widened. "Ah. We're friends but I don't think that we're THAT close!"

Monika suddenly stepped in. "Anyway, we need to figure out the rest of the festival preparations, so let's decide what everyone will be doing this weekend."

Natsuki smiled. "I already know what I'm doing!"

"That's right. Natsuki will be making cupcakes. But we might need a lot of them, and different flavors… Can you handle that all by yourself, Natsuki?"

"Challenge accepted!"

"And as for myself, I'm going to be printing and assembling all the poetry pamphlets. Sayori will be helping me design them. And as for Yuri… Yuri you can… Uh… Guys, help me think of something Yuri can do." Monika whispered at the last part.

Yuri looked away. "I… I'm useless…"

Meanwhile, Josuke's nephew sneezed while on a boat, watching a dolphin migration.

"N-No!" Monika stammered. "Th-That's not it at all! You're the most talented person here, you know!"

Natsuki pouted, ashamed of Monika.

"N-Now Natsuki is pouting, too?"

Josuke signed. "Hey, Yuri. I have an idea." Yuri looked at him shyly. "Maybe you can make some banners and stuff to give the presentations a specific atmosphere."

Yuri slowly looked back towards the group. "I… I'd love to do that!"

Monika looked at them in disbelief. "Well… I think that that's a great idea! You'll be a wonderful help, Yuri. But anyway… That just leaves you, Josuke."

"The one who is truly useless," Josuke muttered jokingly.

Meanwhile, Jotaro has fallen off the boat from sneezing too hard.

Monika giggled. "Don't say that. In fact, both Natsuki and Yuri have some pretty heavy tasks to handle. It would probably go a long way to give one of them a hand. You could always help me out as well. I would be really appreciative of that."

Hold on. Is Monika saying that I should spend the weekend with someone from the club? Dang it. I was planning on spending more time trying to figure out who's a Stand user. We might even bring Rohan into this. Oh well, I can probably fit this in somehow… But who though. Maybe I can use this time to make Sayori feel better… or find who is a Stand user. In a closed and private area would probably make the user active their Stand.

The three girls before him seemed a bit anxious as they argued while Josuke thought carefully.

Okay let me think. Sayori, not a Stand user but appears to be down at the moment. I don't think that I could pick her because she is already helping out Monika, which rules her out as well. Yuri, not a Stand user, I'm pretty sure. And Natsuki… I could ask her about her bruise. I could find out if she was struck with the arrow.

Finally, Josuke decided. "Well, baking sounds like it could be fun, and it sounds like that could be done better with more people."

Natsuki smiled brightly. "Don't worry! Baking is tons of fun! You'll agree for sure!"

Monika and Yuri looked disappointed. The former turned to the latter and said, "You'll be fine by yourself, right, Yuri?"

"Of course," Yuri began. "I'm used to it after all…"

Everyone was silent for a moment. Josuke couldn't help to not feel bad for her. Although, he could always hang out with her next week, during or after the festival.

Natsuki suddenly spoke up, "So, that's eventually, right? Anything else we need to talk about?"

"No, I think that's about it…" Monika answered. "Are you guys excited?"

"Yes!" Natsuki cheered.

"I'm excited, too!" said Josuke.

Yuri didn't respond for a moment, sulking about having to work alone. Natsuki then went up to Yuri.

She said, "Yuri, you really are the most talented one here. And… And you're going to help make the event a lot more fun and welcoming. I mean, the cupcakes will probably help a lot too… But you're gonna make the atmosphere special. That'll be really important for the way that people feel during the performances. So… You need to stop being dumb and give yourself a little more credit!"

Yuri was silent at first then spoke softly. "You didn't… really mean that, did you?"

Josuke and Monika were surprised at Natsuki's words. But then Josuke understood what she was trying to do.

She was trying to sound like Sayori.

Eventually, the club dispersed and Josuke and Natsuki exchanged contact information.

"… And then she left!" Josuke explained.

Once the club had finished he joined Koichi and Okuyasu at the café and told them what happened at the meeting.

"Hmm… That is strange. Maybe I should talk to her…?" Okuyasu suggested.

"Okuyasu, I don't think she knows you well enough to tell you about her personal issues. Plus, Monika said that it was something that she wouldn't really want to talk to a GUY about."

Koichi grimaced slightly while Okuyasu looked at him, confused.

"So, what are you going to do about her?" Koichi asked.

"I don't know… Maybe I'll go see her tomorrow to talk things out."

"And you're sure that she's not a Stand user?"

"Positive. The only ones who I think could be Stand users are Natsuki and Monika. And one of them is coming over to my house on Sunday."

Okuyasu spat out his drink. "W-WHAT?! YOU'RE HAVING A GIRL COME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE?!"

"Chill, man! We're just going to be baking cupcakes for our presentation at the festival."

"Oh there is no such thing as 'just baking' when you're having a girl over!"

"Wha-What are you suggesting, you idiot? You think that this is a date or something? This is part of our plan! Once I find out if Natsuki is the Stand user or not, I would just have to find out if Monika is."

Koichi thought for a moment then said, "Hey, Josuke, what will you do if you find the user? What if they aren't intentionally trying to hurt anyone? And what if none of them are Stand users?"

Josuke gasped. He had never thought about this thing long-term. He had only joined initially because his childhood friend, Sayori, suggested it. But now he knew that they weren't childhood friends. He still considered her a friend, but none of his close friends like the two at the café with him were in the club.

Josuke chuckled and suggested, "Hey, if you guys come to our presentation and like what we do, would you join the club with me?"

The two others were initially taken aback then smiled and laughed too.

"Yeah, I might even get Yukako to join as well," said Koichi.

"You're gonna have to write some damn good poetry then!" said Okuyasu.

The gang chatted a bit more before they split off to go home.

Alright. Next objective: how did Natsuki get her bruise?

-To Be Continued