Disclaimer: I do not own School Days nor Shiny Days whatsoever as they're all owned by Studio Overflow. I also do not own Marvel's What If...? Series nor anything related to Marvel Studios whatsoever. This story is rated M for mature and sexual content. If you don't like it, then don't read it!
Also, this What If...? Story will be based on the anime!
Introduction: Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know. I am the Watcher. And I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question..."What If...?"
We've seen the events of School Days, where a boy named Makoto Itou met a girl named Kotonoha Katsura that faithful day, where once day Makoto confessed his feelings to Kotonoha and became a couple with the help of a girl named Sekai Saionji, where things took for the worse when Makoto, out of his lust and sexual desire, broke up with Kotonoha and had sexual affairs with Sekai and many girls and women he met along the way, where Kotonoha was raped by men and became broken, where things took for far worse consequences as Sekai ended up getting pregnant with Makoto's child which forced Makoto to break off with Sekai and get back together with Kotonoha, and eventually led to his death by the hands of Sekai, who was eventually led to death by Kotonoha, who severed his head and ended up at the sea where she could be alone with her 'Makoto' forever. The event of School Days was led by many poor choices, most of which came from the very boy who confessed his love to the girl, who accepted his love.
But what if the events that transpired never happened? What if the girl, Kotonoha Katsura, who one night saw the vision of what was to come and saw it as a nightmare, decided to reject the confession of Makoto Itou, and different events happened because of her rejection?
At night, after meeting Makoto Itou and being introduced by her friend Sekai Saionji, Kotonoha Katsura was sleeping soundly in her bed as she sleeps off for school tomorrow with a smile on her face as she couldn't wait to see Makoto, the boy that she liked since she saw him on the train. But then, Kotonoha, for some reason, began to feel uneased as she began to stir in her sleep, as she began to see the vivid vision of something, something very horrible that was about to happen which involved her.
Here in this universe, Kotonoha Katsura has a bad dream, a nightmare of what was to come in the future. However, her vision of that nightmare is blurry and vivid, unclear that what she saw only involved herself and the fate of the two people she met.
In her vision, Kotonoha vividly saw that, from her point of view, she was in what appeared to be an apartment complex, and Makoto Itou was lying motionlessly on the ground in a puddle of red, his blood, and in her hand, was a knife covered in blood, while in the other, a saw axe, which she used to cut off his head. Then, she vividly saw she was on the rooftop where Sekai had introduced her to Makoto, and Sekai was there, her hand on her stomach and a knife in the other as she yelled at her from Kotonoha's point of view, although it sounded incoherent given the vividness and blurriness of the nightmare. But then, Kotonoha drew out her saw axe and struck down Sekai, causing blood to spill out of her as Sekai's eyes rolled to the back and she fell on her back, lying dead on the ground.
"No...no!" Kotonoha thought as she shook in bed, "No, please! Please stop, me!"
Then, the next scene horrified her as she saw herself in her point of view that she cut open Sekai's stomach to see what was inside her, causing more blood to spill and spread on the ground, and saw the inside of Sekai's stomach.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kotonoha screamed out loud as she woke up from that nightmare, and she began to breathe and pant erratically as cold sweat dripped from her skin, eyes widened from the nightmare that she had just seen in her sleep, and although it was vivid and blurry, and although it was a nightmare, it felt so real to her, and it was clear to her to what she had just seen. Panicking, she looked around her surroundings and, to whatever relief she could find, saw that she was still in her bedroom, lights out as darkness surrounded her very vision.
Once Kotonoha was able to breathe normally, she quickly got out of bed and hurriedly went to the kitchen where she took a glass cup and filled it with water before drinking it to cool herself down, and repeated the process until she stopped on her tenth glass of water. Once she was calmed enough from drinking water, Kotonoha sat down on the couch and began contemplating the horrible nightmare she just saw in her sleep. And although what she saw in her nightmare was vivid and blurry, one thing was clear to Kotonoha Katsura.
"I...I killed them..." she said, horrified by the nightmare, "I...I killed Itou-kun...and Saionji-san...I killed them both...b-but why...? Why would I kill them...? Why would I ever want...to kill such people...? And...oh, my God...will I...will I really kill them...will I really do the same as...as I did in my nightmare?!"
Of course, we know the reason why such an event in her nightmare would happen as we had seen it in one universe, Sekai Saionji killed Makoto before being killed by Kotonoha. But to Kotonoha in this universe, she believed herself to be the one responsible for killing both Makoto and Sekai on the same night in her nightmare, but the reason behind it, even she did not know, and she fears of knowing what reason behind her killing them would be. And so, fearing that such a nightmare would eventually come true, there was only one way for Kotonoha to prevent such a horrible event in her nightmare from happening. She had to cut off her connection with Makoto Itou and Sekai Saionji and keep her distance from them as far away as she possibly could so that she would never end up being their murderer.
The next morning, Kotonoha was dressed in her school uniform waiting for the train to arrive, all while clenching her school bag really tightly as she steeled herself for what she was about to do when she sees either Makoto or Sekai.
"Katsura-san!" She heard someone call her, and she turned to see it was Makoto himself, who came running towards her.
"Oh, good morning, Itou-kun." Kotonoha greeted, though her tone of voice didn't sound excited.
"Good morning, Katsura-san." Makoto greeted her with a smile, not noticing her lack of enthusiasm.
Kotonoha bite her lips at seeing his smile, hurting her to see that whatever she was about to say to him would break that smile, even knowing that she had no choice as it was the only way.
"Uh...listen, Katsura-san." said Makoto, "There's...something I've been meaning to tell you."
"Yes?" said Kotonoha, "What is it?"
"Well, uh..." said Makoto nervously before he took a deep breath to calm himself and then said to her with confidence, "Katsura-san, I...I...I like you!"
Kotonoha softly gasped at his confession to her.
"I really, really like you a lot!" Makoto confessed, "I've liked you for a long while, and I...I...I really wanna be your boyfriend and I want you to be my girlfriend! So...so...please, go out with me!"
Kotonoha was taken aback by the sudden confession by the boy that she liked as she too had liked him for quite a long while, and deep down, she was joyful that he felt the same about her and she wanted to accept his confession. But then, just as she was about to accept, she remembered the nightmare she had last night, about her killing Makoto and Sekai that night, and she held herself back from saying yes by biting her lips.
It took a long moment for her before Kotonoha finally said with sadness in her voice, "Thank you, Itou-kun...but I'm sorry, I can't."
"...Eh?" said Makoto, confused as he did not expect to be rejected.
"I can't accept your feelings," said Kotonoha, "And I can't be your girlfriend. I-I can't tell you why I...I just can't. I'm sorry." She then turned away from him as the train arrived before she turned back a little and said to him as the final straw she needed to cut ties with him, "And...please, please don't ever see me again!"
With that, Kotonoha ran away from Makoto and into the train before Makoto could even stop her, and the train began moving, leaving him behind as the train took off with Kotonoha with it. Kotonoha leaned her back against the door as she looked down at the floor and tears began to fall from her eyes as she began silently crying. Although it hurt, she knew it was the only way to keep Makoto from ever pursuing a relationship with her.
At school, Kotonoha was walking along the hallway to reach her destination: the principal's office. But then, she was stopped by Sekai, who came running up to her until she made it to her with a smile on her face as Sekai happily greeted Kotonoha, "GOOD MORNING, KATSURA-SAN! IT'S A WONDERFUL DAY, ISN'T IT?!"
"Ah, good morning, Saionji-san..." said Kotonoha, and again, her tone of voice didn't sound excited.
"Ehhh~?! What's with that doom-gloom?!" said Sekai, "You're supposed to be happy today! I mean, it's a brand new day in school, which means lots of awesome crazy events will be happening for us high school kids!" She then gave a mischievous smile and asked, "Speaking of which, Katsura-san, did something crazy happen to you this morning?"
"No, not really." said Kotonoha, sounding as apathetic as possible.
"Heh? Really?" said Sekai, "Not even with Itou-kun? Did he say anything good to you?"
"No." said Kotonoha.
"Heh?" said Sekai, confused, "Wait, really? N-Not even like, uh...something great or anything that makes your heart go...you know...doki-doki?"
"No, not really." said Kotonoha.
"Huh?!" said Sekai, now even more confused, "Wait, hold on, so like, did Makoto...uh...not confess to you? Like, at all?"
"...He did." said Kotonoha, "But, I turned him down."
"Oh, okay." said Sekai, taking a moment to process what Kotonoha just said before she became flabbergasted and shouted, "Wait, WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTT?!"
Sekai stopped Kotonoha on her track and asked incredulously, "Wait, what do you mean you rejected him?! Why in the world would you do that?! Don't you know that he likes you really much, like, a lot?!"
"I do." said Kotonoha, "But, I just can't accept his feelings and I can't be his girlfriend."
"Eh?" said Sekai, shocked by what she was hearing from her friend, "But...why?"
Kotonoha looked away from Sekai and said, "I just can't. There isn't any other reason, I just can't. That's all."
"Katsura-san..." said Sekai, not believing what she was hearing from her.
Then, Kotonoha looked at Sekai with a sad expression as she said, "And, Saionji-san, I...I don't think you and I should stay friends anymore. So, let's stop being friends and stop seeing each other anymore."
"...Eh?!" said Sekai, more shocked by what Kotonoha was saying to her, "W-Wait, you want us to stop being friends, right now?! B-But why?! We were just getting along well and getting to know each other!"
Kotonoha looked away from Sekai and said with sadness in her voice, "I just...I can't be friends with you anymore! I don't want to be anywhere close to you anymore! I can't tell you why, I just...I just can't! I'm sorry." She then walked passed Sekai as she then added, "And please, don't ever try to come to see me again. I...I'm leaving this school and transferring to a new one."
"Eh?!" said Sekai, more shocked than ever by what Kotonoha was saying.
Kotonoha looked away from Sekai and said, "I'm sorry, Saionji-san...and goodbye."
With that, Kotonoha hurriedly left to go to the principal's office to request a transfer to another school, leaving behind the still-shocked Sekai who stood where she was as she watched her now former friend leaving her and the school behind.
Kotonoha, though upset about what she did, shook her head to snap herself out of it and looked on forward, knowing that she did the right thing to protect both Makoto and Sekai from herself.
The next day, Kotonoha, after her request to transfer to another school was successful, was dressed in a new school uniform as she left her house to go to the new school that she transferred to. Not only that, but she was also carrying luggage as she was moving to a rent-free apartment that was close to her new school.
She turned to her mother and younger sister and said, "Well, I'm off. I'll see you all again in the holidays!"
Manami nodded and said, "Have fun and be careful on your way to your new school, and make sure you make lots of new friends, okay?"
"I will." Kotonoha nodded before looking at her sister and said, "Now, Kokoro, behave while I'm gone, okay?"
"Mmh!" Kokoro nodded, "I will!"
Kotonoha smiled before she turned around and began leaving for her new school. She stopped by at a bus stop and waited for the bus that will take her to her new apartment to arrive, and once it did, she carried her luggage in and told the driver the location of where she was going. Once the driver nodded to her where he'll be taking her, he instructed Kotonoha to take a seat at the very back of the bus, and she nodded at him with a smile before she did as told. Once she got to her seat and sat down, the bus began moving to go to her destination, and she sat and waited until she would arrive.
Kotonoha Katsura believed that she has done the right thing by cutting ties with Makoto and Sekai and moving away from her old school to a new school so that she could keep herself as distant from them as far away as possible, and the events that would transpire within her nightmares would never happen in the future. Though she did the right thing to prevent the future from happening, she doesn't know that another terrible event, far worse than the one we've seen in that universe will happen, and without her presence there, more terrible things were about to happen, and the people she knew and love will head to the wrong path, including Makoto Itou. Hmmm...I could tell her, I could warn her, intervene and tell her what will happen...but the fate of their universe is not worth risking the safety of all others. And besides, even if she listened, I doubt she'd believe me.
"Hmm?" said Kotonoha as she turned around and thought she heard someone say something, only to see that there was no one there. She looked around for a bit at the other passengers and, just to make sure and as quietly as possible to not interrupt the other passengers, Kotonoha said, "Uh...hello? Is someone there?" But she heard no response from anyone, and she sighed to herself and said, "Must be my imagination..." Then, she went and minded her own business while waiting for the bus to arrive to drop her off at her location, the apartment where she would be staying to go to her new school.
Little did she know that what the Watcher just said was about to come true.
So, what do you guys think? Please, be sure to leave a review for me on what you guys think of the story! I hoped you all enjoyed it. Don't be shy and don't just read the story, REVIEW it and tell me what are your thoughts on the story! And please, no flames!
Also, whatever happens next in this story, I will let you guys decide! So, go ahead and take this What If...? Story! It's free to adopt! Write down the story and tell me what and how you think the story will end! And, this work is shared at Archive of Our Own, so you can work on the story there, too! Good Luck!