Rewrite Note: (20/10/2024) From 4k to 6k
I do look forward to rewriting the second arc, I've gotten quite a few extra ideas that I want to add, and one that I completely forgot about lmao.
Once again, changing a few of the I lines to He/Issei. Speaking of Issei, I may or may not have made him a bit more angsty or perhaps self loathing, I will try to expand on it as it ties in with a wake up call I got planned for him.
That being said, I want to also mention that I actually have a spin off in the works that centers around a specific character, and said spin off is also its own story with its own characters, the references to this fic in that one will be minimal if none.
When will I publish it? Not any time soon, I work from arc to arc, and I have many more ideas that work by the same rules.
As the last bell rang, Issei got ready to go straight back to the Literature Club, and both of his friends just waved goodbye while gritting their teeth in jealousy.
He was happy to say the least, after continuing to create new poems he found out that a Great Grade poem could also have an effect, given how easy they were to create, it did seem quite the cheat he did say so himself.
But at the same time he wondered what made them so special.
He took them out once there was no one watching him as he looked at the pink notebook he had. The cover had drawings of cherry blossoms and it gave off a very soft smell of said tree.
The other one he got was white, a purple thunder decorating it, aside from that, there wasn't much else that could be seen in the cover.
Item
Poem of Cherry Blossoms
Grade: Great
Description: The weak scent of cherry blossoms that this poem emits is able to calm down the disturbed. It tells the story of a man who sees as the cherry blossom that he's taken a liking to withers away.
Effects: +15% Sanity Regeneration while in the user's inventory
Item
Poem The Color of the Electric Sheep
Grade: Great
Description: The reader gains the understanding and importance of moderate sleep, as they become mechanically attached to a strict sleep schedule. The tale shows two lovers seeing each other one last time as one of them falls to an eternal sleep while counting electric sheep.
Effect: +1 Temperance while in the user's inventory
These were the poems that Issei was going to show today, it wasn't a Magnum Opus, but the Great Grade was still higher than what most of the girls wrote, so he didn't think much about it.
Of course, the only reason why was more outstanding than the rest of his club mates was simply because he had the Writer's System by his side.
Yet again, that small doubt tried to get ahold of him, that thought of his achievements not being his did make him frown.
Trying to get away from such negative thinking, he decided to push onward as he arrived at the club.
Entering the club room, he noticed that a few of the members were already there, and that, he meant that only Monika was missing from the room.
As they decided to wait for her, the members started to speculate why she was taking so long to arrive, usually it wasn't anything longer than just five minutes, but this time, it was far more than that allotted time.
Sayori thought that Monika was hanging out with her boyfriend, a thought that Issei and the rest of the club knew wasn't true.
They quickly shot down that idea as they continued to wait patiently until the leader of the club finally arrived.
Waiting for her to come back, Issei could tell that Sayori continued with her happy persona, she was being happy around her childhood friend and talking to the other girls like nothing was wrong.
Of course, he didn't expect her to change in just a single day, but he at least expected her to find a way to try and open up her problems to others.
As they continued to wait, Monika finally came through the door, apologizing for taking too long to arrive at the Literature Club.
While the other members seemed to ask what happened, as it was unusual for her to arrive so late, Issei didn't really care much.
He was thinking of a way to get closer to one of the members, it didn't matter who, but he needed to complete the quest before today's meeting ended.
He thought that the best one to strengthen bonds with was Sayori.
After all, he did see her most vulnerable side, which gave him a great headstart for any further interactions, it was also one of the times where he genuinely wanted to form a friendship rather than a relationship with a girl.
Was it perhaps because of how serious their conversation was the day before? He didn't know why it was the case with her.
Well, there was Aika, but she didn't count as a girl, he refused to believe that the devil was anything akin to one.
Then again, forming bonds with other members also had its perks, the problem was that Yuri didn't seem to like him after what he said during their first poem sharing. The reason is still unknown to him.
Natsuki just hated his guts due to being a pervert, that wouldn't really be a problem by itself, after all, everyone already knew and most likely hated him for his perverted actions. The problem was that he was being insulted despite not having done anything yet.
Monika was one that he wanted to get close to, she made his heart flutter each time she smiled at him, but given how interested each female member was in Cordis, any chance of him having anything special with her went down the drain.
That actually went for all other members actually, but this would have been one that he would have actually actively tried to seek a romantic relationship.
After considering everything, minus Cordis, who he still had a bit of resentment for, he decided that the best choice would indeed be Sayori.
If he got close to Sayori, perhaps he could end up finding a friendship with Cordis, and Sayori would be able to convince the other members to give him a shot.
Issei was still too concentrated on planning that he didn't realize that Sayori and Cordis went to get supplies.
Upon realizing that they had left, he asked Monika where they've gone.
And the responde made him realize that the festival was coming up soon and the members started making preparations, albeit mostly just Monika and Sayori.
He personally didn't know what to think about it, he still had no knowledge on what they were going to do there as it was never a festival that existed before he got the system.
He spent a few minutes siting idly as he waited for the two to come back, only to remember that he had put the poems back into Mystery Storage.
He face palmed for his stupidity as he did not know why he even put them back in. He sighed as he got up and excused himself to leave the room.
Looking around,he made sure sure that there was no one near him when he used his ability, he activated Mystery Storage to take out Poem of Cherry Blossoms, Poem The Color of the Electric Sheep and Poem of the Black Swan, the last one in case he needed it and shoved them under his jacket.
He then spent a bit going around the halls to pass time, mostly just to make it seem as if he actually went out to do something.
While strolling through the academy, he heard a loud crash, alarmed by the loud sound, he got closer to where he heard the sound to check if anyone got hurt. Inside the room was Sayori with an opened box of crayons while said crayons were scattered on the floor
"Hey, are you alright?" Issei asked as he got closer to her. "Did you get badly hurt anywhere?"
He gently crouched beside her as he put his hand over Sayori's forehead, he raised Sayori's hair to see if there were any injuries.
Realizing what he was doing, he quickly retracted his hand. "Ah! Sorry about that."
Embarrassed over the exchange, he then inquired in hopes of changing the topic. "Where did Cordis go by the way?"
"He went to get a cold drink for my forehead, so he'll come back any time soon" Sayori answered as she then proceeded to ask him a question "But what are you doing here? Weren't you in the club room just a few minutes ago?"
"Well, I was coming back after going to the restroom." He explained. "Then I heard a loud crash, which happened to be you, so I just came as quickly as possible to see if I could help."
Sayori nodded, convinced by his response. Seeing as she was alright, and that the silence was starting to get awkward, Issei then decided to ask. "So, what's the festival all about? I'm not sure what we will be doing during the festival since Cordis and I are new."
"Oh, haven't the others told you? We're going to perform our poems." Sayori excitedly responded while rubbing her forehead, the box of crayons had smacked her in the head after all. "You know how people get on a podium and act? Well, it's basically something similar."
He did not expect something like this for the festival, but at the same time there really wasn't much that could get the attention from a Literature Club so he guessed that this was the best thing that they could come up with.
While waiting for Cordis to come back they both kept silent once again, Sayori continued trying to recollect all the scattered crayons while Issei looked around. His gaze ended up on Sayori, this time while looking at her, all he could think about was if she was genuinely smiling or if she continued to keep up a mask even with someone who knew how she felt.
He ended up asking another question "So, how long did you feel like this?"
He knew he was starting to ask a bit more personal questions but curiosity and concern were the primary reasons why he kept pushing the subject.
Sayori kept silent for a bit as she continued to pick up the crayons, she then stopped to respond without the happy tone she usually had. "I've been feeling like this for my whole life really, the feeling of emptiness when I try something has been accompanying me for years now."
"I know you haven't told anyone yet, so I appreciate it, I wouldn't really want the others worrying too much about me." She smiled, perhaps this time as a genuine one.
"But I told you that you could be a bit selfish." Issei reminded her.
He sighed, it was understandable though, this sort of stuff took time, so he tried to be patient with her. "I am not telling you to immediately do it, but rather open up little by little."
Even after saying that, he felt sick of himself. The only reason he was even talking to her was for his own gain, all for the quest that he had, and perhaps for the progress and benefits he could get if he continued to push this for a bit.
Sayori still seemed skeptical about this advice, it seems like his advice was not convincing enough, or maybe it just needed more time to sink in.
She then continued saying. "You know? It's kinda funny, I've been hiding this from everyone else I hold dear... and here I am, telling you all my secret emotions that not even my childhood friend knows."
"You are a stranger who I have never met before, someone new in my life, and yet, I feel comfortable telling you all my woes."
That last bit did hurt Issei a bit, albeit it was true, they've only known each other for two or three days.
Issei scratched the back of his head as he sighed. "I guess you want someone else to hear you, someone... who isn't an anchor in your life."
"You are worried about what would happen if you told this to someone close, how they would react, how they would change how they treated you, or how they might worry about you more than they would normally do..."
"But telling your problems to a stranger who listens could feel more refreshing as you'd know that they wouldn't pester you much about it, is that correct?" He finished.
Issei seemed to understand her point, but he still wasn't sure if it was even correct. Truthfully the only way he can even help her is just being there to listen to her woes, there wasn't much else he could do given how little they've known one another.
"Hey Sayori, I cam- Oh, hey Issei, I didn't expect you here." Cordis seems to have finally come back from getting something to help Sayori, what he gave her was a cold bottle filled with apple juice.
"I was just strolling around when I heard the noise by chance and came here." Issei explained.
As Issei said this, Sayori's character went back to the happy go lucky girl Cordis knew her as, Issei was quite surprised on how fast she could switch characters.
Seeing as he was no longer needed here, much to his disappointment, he decided to part without making much of a fuss. "I should get back to the club room, I'll tell them about what happened here if you want me to."
"Oh there's no need, we'll do it ourselves once we get there." Cordis reassured. "Right now I just want to have a chat with Sayori."
Issei paused for a moment after leaving the room. He felt a bit insecure after hearing that.
He knew full well that Cordis didn't mean it, but it was making him feel like he wasn't supposed to be in the club in the first place.
He clenched his fist as he shook his head, there was no point in thinking this way, he already showed his worth by making a Magnum Opus... albeit with the help of the Writer's System.
"Well then, I'll see you in the club room then..." He whispered a bit irritated.
Of course, Cordis and Sayori didn't hear it, it was merely a small emotion he would keep to himself, just like Sayori does with her emotions.
Issei went out of the room, heading back to where he was supposed to. He sat down back on one of the seats, none of the other members either asking or even looking back at him.
Waiting there for the other two missing members to finally arrive back, he checked back on the Relationship menu to see how much of an impact that interaction had.
Relationships
Story 1
Cordis 14/100 - 0/100
Monika 20/100 - 0/100
Natsuki 15/100 - 0/100
Sayori 48/100 - 0/100
Yuri 23/100 - 0/100
At the very least he did make progress with Sayori.
Now all he needs to do is to do a final push with Sayori, the best way to do so would be sharing poems yet again. This time he had Poem The Color of the Electric Sheep and Poem of Cherry Blossoms, he waited patiently as Cordis and Sayori finally came back.
" Well, this is bad. " Issei thought as he didn't have any chance to really interact in a meaningful way with the girls.
Yuri commented on how his writing degraded but not to a concerning point, she told him that sometimes you make better or worse poems. That wasn't the problem, the issue was the fact that she sighed in relief upon reading his poem, much to his confusion.
Natsuki just told him that she liked the theme, aside from that, there wasn't much, it was as if she didn't want to talk about him at all.
Meanwhile both Sayori and Monika gave detailed explanations and takes regarding what he had written, all he could do was simply nod in response as they explained to him what they just read.
When he had Cordis' poem in hand, it was just a white piece of paper, but to the girls it apparently had some writing in it. It seemed like Issei never was supposed to read it.
After sharing the poems, he went back to thinking about them while the others talked about the festival. He first took a look at Yuri's poem, since it was the one that really alarmed him
Item
Poem The Raccoon
Grade: Good
Description: The Raccoon represents the curiosity turned into excitement Yuri had as she cuts off the bread, the bread represents her arms as she continues to cut herself with the knives, just like a guilty pleasure it is her guilty snack.
Right now what Issei needed was to process what the actual fuck he had just read.
He wanted to help Yuri but he knew that just asking her about it wouldn't work like it did with Sayori, Yuri wasn't confrontational and could not handle it if he decided to ask her himself, and just saying that it was bad would probably just make her even more upset.
He had no idea how to handle this situation and so kept quiet until he saw a chance to really help.
Next up was Monika's poem, as always it was too much for Issei to understand. At this point, he actually believed he needed to study or activate Epistemophobic's Nightmare to truly understand what they meant.
That being said, he wanted to avoid having a headache, so he decided to try and see if he could find any information about it later.
Item
Poem Save Me
Grade: Great
Description: Just like chaos, the many sounds and images play at the same time, making it impossible for someone to stay calm. Once you understand this chaos you will be able to understand that something didn't go well and so you rewind, to before this chaos happened and restart.
Again, too difficult for him to understand, he did notice that it said "Load me" in the end, mixing it with the title it did seem like it was a game, maybe she liked playing games and accidentally put the cartridge in incorrectly? That was too ridiculous but it was the most he could think of.
After that was Sayori's, this time, just by reading it, he knew what it was about. He could remember how the first time he read it, his face took a wrong turn as he then gave her a look of sadness. He could also picture her sad look and how they merely spent in silence as they awaited to switch partners again.
Item
Poem Bottles
Grade: Good
Description: The bottles represent her ability to help others, as time goes on, due to the many people she's helped, it has come to a point where it is too much for her to handle, what were happy memories become a task that can no longer fulfill, as an alien thought invades her.
The last part was the only thing that Issei didn't really understand, maybe there was more going on than what he thought, but in the end he let it go as he didn't want to push the subject more than what he had done today.
Natsuki's poem was the last one he had to read, she seemed the most normal out of the female members of the club.
Item
Poem Amy Likes Spiders
Grade: Good
Description: While it may seem like a straight forward poem about ignorant people, it is in actuality the worried outlook of someone who sees a problem no one else can, even if she is considered a bad person, she is willing to sacrifice herself to show them how worrisome it is.
Issei could connect the dots a bit, if Yuri's poem was alarming, Natsuki's was what it seemed to be a way to reassure him that someone else does know, he decided on letting Natsuki handle this, as while she was able to see Yuri's problem, she wasn't able to see Sayori's.
As they all finished sharing their poems, he saw as they started practicing for the poem performance, each one of them would choose a poem to perform in front of the other members.
He simply went with what the others did, clapping when the one on the podium finished or commenting how nice it was, he was a bit nervous as he didn't know how it would go for him.
"And now it's Issei's turn since Natsuki still doesn't want to go." Monika declared as Issei began walking towards the podium, before he could do anything time stopped as a panel showed up, it was similar to the one he had when creating poems, but unlike the others it showed the many poems he had, he needed to choose one of them to perform, so he checked at the probability of the ones he had.
"The Color of the Electric Sheep? No, it had a 55% chance of working, Poem of the Black Swan? uh, it's even lower, Well Written Poem? ... Yeah no, that's of course a 0%." He looked through the many poems he had in his Mystery Storage, until he checked his last poem. "Poem of the Cherry Blossoms seems to have the highest chance of succeeding, at 85%, I guess I'll have to go with this one."
You are attempting to perform Poem of the Cherry Blossoms, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 85%
Yes/No
He had nothing better than this so he continued with Yes, as soon as he did, he found himself in front of a clapping audience composed of the other members.
Issei had a lot of questions on what just happened. The most obvious answer would be that time passed and the System controlled his body, or at the very least he assumed it to be the case just like when he did his first Magnum Opus.
"Wow Issei, that was a great performance, you've been doing great ever since you've joined." Monika kept clapping her hands as she praised him for the performance he didn't know happened. "Say, what was your inspiration on creating this poem, it's quite different from The Color of the Electric Sheep, you know?"
" Perfect. " Issei though.
He was waiting for an opportunity like this. "Well, uh. I kinda got inspired by Sayori for making this one." This surprised everyone in the room, but Monika seemed to find this situation funny as she giggled. "Oh my, it seems like Sayori is quite popular with the boys in the club."
"Ah? Wait, does that mean that Cordis also made one inspired by her?" Well, that would make things a bit more embarrassing for Sayori, but truthfully Issei was worried that she would feel guilty from taking the attention of the members.
The reason why he said what he did was simple, he needed to make progress for the quest.
That being said, it wasn't a lie that he got inspired by Sayori, her fake personality was similar to that of a cherry blossom.
A beautiful and strong tree that brought joy to others, but knowing the truth behind it, one could see just how many threats the cherry blossom had to face to stay healthy.
Just like her, the cherry blossom was strong to try and live on even against those threats, but in the end, she would end up consumed by those very same threats, leaving her to wither like a cherry blossom.
Wait, that's what the poem was about, did he really feel like that? But that would mean he took a liking to her.
He said it himself, he wanted to be friends with her, not find a relationship with her.
He didn't know for sure if he was in love with her or if it was simply the system's way of mentioning his attempts to comfort her. He hoped for the latter, as this was one of those times he had the chance to form a new bond with someone else.
Motohama and Matsuda were definitely starting to drift away from him. It appeared as all those friends he had before, would one day leave him, just like his childhood friend, and in the near future, those two.
He hoped that by the time they departed from one another, he'd have Sayori and the rest of the club to be his friends.
Departures were bound to happen, he accepted that when his childhood friend left Japan, and so, he believed that another one shouldn't be that big of a deal.
The activities in the club came to an end as each of them decided on focusing on the preparations of the festival, Cordis and him didn't really have a role in it, but they assumed that they would get one the next day to help.
He made his way to his home, he saw that the quest still wasn't complete, as such, he assumed that he had to wait till the next day to see what new quest and reward he got. He went straight to his room to check on the relationships and stats he had too.
Stats
Health 200/200
Sanity 100/100
Fortitude 2
Prudence 1
Temperance 6 (+1)
Justice 1 (+2)
Role: Secondary Character
He still wondered how he could get his Prudence up since he was able to increase the other ones at least once, Epistemophobic's Nightmare didn't seem to work, or at the very least, wasn't a very effective way to get it higher, so he guessed that it had to be from something else.
Maybe it had to be something he had to do with his own abilities, since Temperance went up as he successfully made use of the skill's boost or how his Fortitude probably went up with each beating he took from the Kendo Club.
He then switched to the Relationship tab, he hoped that his relationship with Sayori was high enough to complete the quest.
Relationships
Story 1
Cordis: 15/100 - 0/100
Monika: 24/100 - 0/100
Natsuki: 19/100 - 0/100
Sayori: 52/100 - 1/100
Yuri: 27/100 - 0/100
"What" Was the only thing that came out of Issei's mouth. When, Why, How did he get a Romance point with Sayori? Was it because he said he was inspired by her? There is no way a simple compliment was enough to get a point like that, it just was too illogical.
"Right, there is no way that would happen, it must be because of the amount of times I've interacted with her." Issei thought as he tried making logic out of what he was seeing.
He grasped his forehead as he sighed, he couldn't understand this at all.
To try and clear up his mind, he then focused on creating more poems.
He ended up attempting to write some without using Epistemophobic's Nightmare, but the results were, as expected, terrible. It got to the point it felt like an unhealthy obsession on gambling to succeed on getting a great drop form an enemy, good thing though was that it was free, so he wasn't losing anything other than sleep.
He looked back over the past few days. His life changed for what it seemed, the better, ever since he met that girl who tried confessing to him, his life has turned into an incredibly peaceful one where he was able to enjoy time with people aside from his two friends.
As he continued making poems, he noticed that he was now out of notebooks. He was bummed over it, so he decided to go outside to buy some more notebooks and maybe walk for a bit. Taking some of his own money with him, he put on a jacket to go outside in the cold outside.
It was a chilly evening, he had just bought a few notebooks to continue writing and a bunch of pencils, pens, erasers and such.
While walking he went through the same bridge he had his first confession.
His mind was full of questions he already wondered before in regards to the system, would he be able to meet any of the other members outside? Or did they show up and disappear when they were out of his sight?
He wondered if any of the relationships he did end up in would transfer to the real world or if they were simply stuck in the reality created by the Writer's System. He also wanted to know what the other two locked options in the menu were.
Welcome to the Writer's System
Stats
Traits
Skills
Quests
Relationships
(Locked)
(Locked)
Event Log
Gallery
Help
He finally got home and kept looking at the menu while taking off his shoes. His parents were in the living room watching a movie. He quietly went up the stairs to make sure he didn't disturb them.
While going up the stairs, he wondered how they would react over the fact that he got a new hobby, literature to be specific, surely they would be happy that their son was now doing something other than being a pervert.
He downcasted his gaze as he knew he wasn't the best son, average scores, no outstanding features and an awful reputation, surely they probably were a bit saddened, and perhaps disappointed with him.
Though he was sad over the fact that he was a failure as a son, he couldn't change how he was... Until now, he realized that he was able to change, change for the better thanks to the Literature Club.
He'd make his parents proud over his ability to create great poems, even if it didn't seem like his own actual skill.
Finally in his room again, he took out the notebooks out of the plastic bag alongside the pencils. He proceeded to continue writing as many poems as he could.
Hours passed and he continued to write, it was almost midnight and he kept writing with such vigor, instead of sleeping he told himself each time 'Just one more' only to repeat again and again, he caught on to the fact that he started to act as that time he lost control of his body while writing poems.
Realizing the severity of what could be called an addiction, he looked up only to see that the system had given him a notification, just as he finished using Epistemophobic's Nightmare.
You have obtained the trait (Unknown Sefirot)
He didn't know what it meant at all, two words that were unknown... Alright, bad joke. A word unknown to him made Issei think that he may have gotten a negative trait, he was unsure if traits could be negative, but assumed it to be the case, as after all, not all traits were good in real life.
He slowly opened the menu to go immediately to the traits. He then scrolled down passing Second Take, only to see the following.
Traits
(Deus Ex Machina): If the user has 1 Health or Sanity, activate this Trait. The user cannot lose Health or Sanity for an extended amount.
(Mystery Storage): Access to inventory with infinite capacity. If anyone notices, reduce health to 0.
(Unknown Sefirot): User deals triple damage against Biblical enemies. User is immune against Biblical enemies. Increases Stat gain.
"Wait so God is real?" That was all Issei could think of, there wasn't any mention of anything religious in the Literature Club so there was no way they had anything to do with it, right?
But that aside, the trait was incredibly good even if the first two things didn't make much sense to him, the increase in the rate that he gained a new point in any stat was already incredibly good by itself.
"Maybe I should stop now." That was all Issei said as he got back to looking at the amount of poems he's made, unfortunately none of the Great Grade poems had any effects connected to them.
He slept away as his thoughts landed on what tomorrow would be like and what the quest would reward him with.
(A/N)
So that's it for now, a bit shorter than the last two chapters, but I legit spent my time writing this right after posting chapter 2.
You can smell the favoritism for Sayori from here lmao. But in all seriousness, Sayori seemed like the best one of the options since... You know, she doesn't stay around much. I also wanna repeat again, everything said in the fic should NOT be taken as advice.
You may also have noticed that the descriptions of the poems Issei has made have some sort of importance to them
Speaking of which now onto what the new skills and items introduced are based on.
Poem of Cherry Blossoms: Well, it's based on two things, one of which I am not saying since it will become important, but the other is obviously Sayori, truly, I give her too much screen time. But in all seriousness, my first idea on making something Sayori related was Cherry Blossoms, since she reminded me of them, low and behold apparently her name did reference them
Poem The Color of the Electric Sheep: Well, if you've heard a certain song which will also be somewhat relevant to the story, you know where I got the name from, if you're a Lobotomy Corporation fan, you may know. But you may think it is a reference to the novel "Do androids dream of electric sheep" which this line is actually based on.
Unknown Sefirot: Again, somewhat related to Lobotomy Corporation but not quite, in actuality it's more of a reference to a certain Yugioh Card, digging a bit may make you realize that maybe Issei could become quite OP... if it weren't the fact that there really isn't much action on the first few arcs.
And now back to scrapped content/ideas of last chapter.
Well first of all I was thinking of skipping all the poems, that was until I realized that I need to both make a decent amount of chapters for this arc as it could possibly be one of the longest.
Monika or any of the members aside of Cordis was supposed to show up in Issei's class to get him to the club, but thought it was kinda dumb since Issei already knows where it is and it would just drag the chapter more than it should (Maybe I should have removed the small interaction between Issei and Cordis instead, oh well, too late now).
Yuri was supposed to be the one crying instead of Sayori, but my bias for Sayori won, but it was also because it fit the theme of what I was going with in the Poem of the Black Swan.
And there really isn't much else to talk about, see you when I update again... which might be soon if I still have the rush to write.