Chapter Text
All five members of the Literature club stood in the room, now that Monika had finished slamming the door shut. The cacophony of eldritch terrors ceased the moment the door sealed itself, and left behind only creeping silence.
Natsuki, Aoi, Sayori, and Yuri all shared the same haunted, vacant, numb expression on their faces, while Monika slowly pushed herself away from the door, an exhausted, embittered expression on her face.
For a few minutes, none of them said anything. Monika was the only one of them actively moving, and even she was only using a tablet, cautiously monitoring the situation to make sure that finally, truly, they were all safe. The rest were standing in place, occasionally fidgeting in place from exhaustion.
It was only when Natsuki accidentally bumped into Sayori that Sayori, through pure visceral instinct, emitted the loudest scream that had ever emitted from a teenage girl, and Aoi, Natsuki, and Yuri reflexively clasped their hands around their ears to try to block it out. Monika merely winced, and with a flick of her finger, Sayori’s voice immediately dropped by several tens of Decibels.
Gingerly raising her hands from her ears, Natsuki yelled, “Sayori, shut the fuck up!”
This seemed to jog Sayori’s brain, and she immediately went quiet, her eyes darting around. “Sorry,” she said more quietly than she’d intended, due to Monika’s adjustment.
Aoi walked to one of the cast-iron walls of the room and slumped down against it, her navy-blue skirt briefly riding up against the wall until she hit the ground, where she took a moment to adjust it properly.
Monika let out a sigh that could have been of relief or of exhaustion. “Aoi. Is it finally gone?”
Aoi raised up her hand and looked at the back of it. “It’s been gone. Of course, maybe I was just distracted, but at least for the last half hour or so it felt like it was gone.”
“They, not it,” Monika chastised.
Aoi tried to shrug, but couldn’t find the energy.
Monika weakly smiled. “I guess we’re safe now!”
Natsuki gritted her teeth. “From what, exactly? Even if they can’t get to us anymore, how long will it be before you mess with one of us again and turn us into some kind of killer??”
“HEY!” Monika objected, “I only did that to Yuri, and it was on accident.”
Yuri folded her arms against herself defensively. “I would never… I am not the sort of person who would revel in causing harm to anyone,” she said, weakly defending herself.
“You also made Sayori kill herself.”
“Again―on accident!”
“Eeeeeeeuuuuuuugh…” Sayori’s voice trailed off as she still tried to compose herself.
“And you also turned Aoi into a girl!”
“Okay, that…!” Monika said, pointing at Aoi, “… I had nothing to do with that. All I did was remove the programming that represented her Main Character status, and once she gained free will, she decided she wanted to be a girl. That’s all it was.”
Aoi folded her arms. “I prefer to think of it as simply acknowledging that I was really a girl all along.”
Monika rolled her eyes. “Yes, Aoi, we’re really thrilled to finally meet the real you.”
“Thank you,” Aoi responded, consciously ignoring Monika’s sarcastic tone.
Sayori smiled softly. “I guess it’ll be nice to have an actual girly sleepover for once.”
“Where?” Natsuki coldly asked. “In here??” She said, gesturing around at the cold iron prison they’d retreated to.
“Sleeping on a flat, sturdy floor like this is actually much better for your posture, once you get past the initial few days of discomfort,” Yuri blurted out, as though she was unable to stop herself.
“I really doubt that’s true,” Aoi said sardonically.
“Yeah, it sounds like total bullshit,” Natsuki added.
“Well...” Yuri said indignantly, a wounded expression on her face. “Maybe you should all try it sometime, you might be surprised.”
“Shut the fuck up, Yuri,” Natsuki snapped at Yuri, who recoiled.
“Natsuki...” Aoi said, furrowing her eyes.
“I…!” Natsuki threw up her hands. “Look, I’m stressed out, and everyone’s just saying dumb shit or freaking out!”
“That doesn’t give you the right to be shitty to people,” Aoi replied sternly.
The room got silent at that remark, save for Monika’s tapping on her tablet.
Eventually, Natsuki sat down, folding her arms around her knees as she did so, and drooped her head. Then, turning to Yuri, she said, “I’m sorry, Yuri. I shouldn’t be yelling at you.”
Monika blinked and stopped tapping on her tablet so she could look up at Natsuki and see the genuine look of contrition on her face.
“And...” Natsuki continued, “same for you, Sayori. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
Sayori shook her hands. “It’s really fine, Natsuki! I think we’re all just stressed out and worn down, and it’s okay if we’re having kind of a bad time!”
“Okay,” Monika said, using her Club Leader voice, “I think we need something to take our minds off...” She gestured at the door, “… that, and it might be best if we found some kind of fun activity to do!”
“Are you f―” Natsuki began, but quickly stopped as she looked at Aoi and her continued disapproving expression. Then, more reservedly, she said, “Is that really the best idea right now?”
Aoi grimaced. “I think it’s a good idea, but… What could we possibly do in here?”
“Oh, well…!” Monika began tapping on the tablet, and said, “I just have to load up a room, and we can conduct activities in it!”
“Are there any… anything… left?” Aoi asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well,” Monika said, examining the tablet closely. “That’s, uh. That’s a very good question. Let’s see, there’s...” She swiped across the tablet, her cheerful, ‘Club Leader’ expression faltering. “No, that’s been… Okay, wait, so this… no… Uh… Hang on a second, maybe if we...”
Sayori tried to sit down and lean her head back against one of the pillars jutting out of the wall, but leaned too fast and smacked her head against the stone. “Augh!”
Aoi winced and got up, producing a handkerchief from her pocket, and walked over to Sayori. “You okay?”
“I’m okay, I―ahh!” Sayori exclaimed, suddenly tensing up and backing away from Aoi as she got close.
Aoi retreated, bringing her hand close to herself. “Oh, uh… I...”
“No, it’s fine, it’s fine...” Sayori put on a weak smile. “I’m really okay.”
Aoi bit her lip, and tersely nodded before walking to stand next to Natsuki.
“Smooth,” Natsuki said, her eyes narrowed.
Aoi folded her arms around herself defensively. “I was just trying to help.”
Sighing, Natsuki lowered her arms. “Yeah, but the last time you approached Sayori like that, she ended up blind and drowning in her own blood.”
“But that wasn’t…!”
“I get it,” Natsuki interjected, “but you, of all people, know how fragile she is.” A melancholic look formed on her face as she finished her sentence.
Yuri walked over towards Monika, who at this point was rubbing her temple in frustration. As Yuri approached, Monika sighed. “Alright, I don’t think there’s anything we can use.”
“Shocker,” Natsuki said quietly.
Aoi ran a hand down her cheek. “Given what we’ve been through, I guess I’d be surprised if there were anything left.”
Out of Monika’s peripheral vision, Yuri peeked over Monika’s shoulder. “Ah…?”
Startled, Monika spun around, and immediately hid the screen of the tablet from Yuri’s view.
“Monika, it appeared that three scenes in that list were uncorrupted, could we not use one of those?” Yuri asked.
“Huh?” Aoi emitted, looking at Monika’s suspicious behavior, and the flustered look on her face.
“No… No...” Monika replied, her voice higher pitched than usual. “There really wasn’t anything we could use...”
Yuri tilted her head. “But there were quite clearly three distinct rooms whose integrity was still at 100%, did you not―”
“OKAY!” Monika said, pulling the screen of the tablet against her stomach to completely hide it. “Okay.” She exhaled deeply. “So, yes, there are three scenes we could load up while still being safe from…” She gestured vaguely at the door, “… that.” Her expression changed to frustration.
“… But?” Aoi said, narrowing her eyes.
“… But,” Monika continued, “given everything we’ve just been through, any of them would probably be inappropriate and poorly timed.”
“… Inappropriate how?”
Rolling her eyes, Monika lifted the tablet up and handed it off to Yuri. She scanned the screen for a few seconds before a luminescent blush crept across her face. “Oh my goodness. That is…”
Sayori suddenly shot her head up, a more cheerful expression on her face than she’d exhibited in a long time. “Is it smut?!”
Aoi and Natsuki both exhaled expressively at Sayori’s outburst.
Monika took the tablet back. “Well, let me read these out for you. The first scene is basically just the four of us posed nude with a stage-able camera.”
“Four of us?” Natsuki said, glancing at Aoi.
“The game designers obviously designed Aoi as a boy, so she’s not one of the people posed.”
Aoi shifted uncomfortably in place. Natsuki bit her lip and looked at Aoi again. “Right. Sorry.”
“It’s okay...” Aoi said with a muted tone.
“The second scene, AHEM!” Monika said, clearing her throat, “is basically a dialogue tester, or something? Basically we’re setup to say a bunch of super fetish-y phrases. There’s no PLAYER anymore, so we can’t be compelled to say any of those phrases, so it would mostly consist of us just sitting around...”
“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Natsuki interjected.
“… Also we’re fully nude.”
Natsuki winced.
“The pledge, and the prestige,” Yuri opined.
“The last scene...” Monika sighed. “It’s… Strip Poker.”
“Strip…?” Sayori said, confused for a moment, before planting her fist into her other palm. “Oh! You mean like the time we played at my house, in that other timeline!”
Monika blinked. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
“Well, we all have our memories now,” Natsuki said, blushing furiously.
“How could I forget! We all got to see each other naked!” Sayori exclaimed cheerfully.
“And diddling ourselves...” Monika added, averting her gaze.
“Yuri had to sit with her legs open the whole time… Oh!” She said, a mischievous expression forming, “Aoi and Natsuki had to have sex with each other.”
Both Aoi and Natsuki stiffened, and Aoi covered her face with her hands. “Sayori...”
“As a matter of fact,” Yuri said, a wry smile forming on her face, “the two of you did not merely have sexual intercourse with each other, but actually elided the use of protection and shamelessly attempted to reproduce with each other.”
Mortified, Natsuki also covered her face. “I… We… That was…!”
“Really hot!” Sayori exclaimed, running up between Natsuki and Aoi and grabbing both of them by their opposite shoulders to pull them close to her. “Hey Aoi, how did it feel to be inside Natsuki, BrEeDiNg with her?”
“Sayori!” Natsuki exclaimed, trying and failing to wrestle free of Sayori’s grasp.
Aoi winced.
“Sayori...” Monika said with a sharp expression on her face. “Don’t you think that might be a weird memory for Aoi?”
“Wh―!” Natsuki spun around, still tethered to Sayori’s hand. “And not for me???”
Monika grimaced. “You’re the same gender you were back then.”
“Honestly,” Aoi said timidly, folding her arms around herself, “that’s not really the weird part, at least for me.”
Blinking, Monika had a surprised expression. “Oh.”
Aoi narrowed her eyes at Monika briefly. “Don’t make assumptions about that kind of stuff.” She sighed. “No, the weird part is that everyone was watching us.” She glanced down at her crotch, and lamented, “Aoi Jr. is a delicate flower; she doesn’t perform well under peer pressure.”
An awkward silence spread through the room as each of the girls processed what Aoi had said; last of all Aoi herself, who immediately began intensely blushing.
Natsuki blinked. “Did you just call…?”
Unable to contain herself, Yuri burst into a giggling fit, hysterically clutching her sides as she tried to keep herself upright.
“You know,” Sayori said, an exuberant smile on her face, “if we were to play again, we’d all get a chance to meet Aoi Jr. now that she’s become more feminine than she used to be.”
Wincing, Aoi covered her face.
“That still requires us,” Monika interjected, “to agree that that kind of… perverted frivolity… is a good use of our time after we’ve just finished dealing with all that crap outside.”
“Well,” Aoi said sternly, “you can’t deny that the idea has relaxed a lot of our nerves.”
“I am...” Yuri gasped in between giggles, “not as shameless as Sayori, in spite of the circumstances I had to endure during our last session, but I am most certainly open to the idea of the five of us becoming intimate once again in a similar manner...”
Monika tapped her elbow with her eyes closed. “Assuming Sayori is also thirsty for us to debase ourselves… What about you, Natsuki?”
Natsuki looked around the room, then up at Aoi for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face. Then, she folded her arms with a pouting expression, and said, “well, if everyone else wants to do it, I guess I’ll be a good sport and go along with it. Don’t want to ruin everyone else’s fun!”
Sayori grinned at Monika. “Well, we got the Tsundere on board! How about it, Monika!”
Natsuki jabbed Sayori in the stomach. “I’m not a Tsundere!”
“Owwwww….”
Monika ran her hands down her face, briefly rubbing her eyes. “I guess this is fine then! I’ll get to work loading the scene!”
With that, she made a few gestures and taps on the tablet, and then…!