DDLC Ex: Festival, Part 1

You wake up uneasy. You notice it’s five minutes before your alarm for the morning is set to go off. You had that bad dream again. But what was it? The details are even more foggy this time. But in the back of your mind you know it wasn’t as bad as last time. Something different happened. But what happened? You sit for a few minutes trying to remember, details hanging on the edge of your consciousness. But as soon as you think you remembered something, your alarm goes off, and the thoughts leave you mind all together.

Because today’s no day for bad thoughts! Today is the day of the School Festival! The day you, Sayori, Natsuki, and you’re sure Yuri, worked hard for all weekend.

You get yourself ready for the day, taking extra care making sure your uniform looks presentable. You’re a representative of the Literature Club after all! Though, it wouldn’t make much of a difference if new people joined or not, but Monika wanted us to have this festival go well before she left, so you decide to go through with it for her.

You check your phone to see if anyone had sent you any texts. You see you have gotten a new text. It’s from Monika.

“Hey, I’m sorry again that I left before the festival. I hope you all have a wonderful time, I know you’ll make it great :)”

You decide to respond, “Thanks! We’ll all be thinking of you.”

Soon after, you get another text back.

“Btw, I hope you and Sayori have a good time hanging out at the festival ;)”

You can’t remember whether or not you told Monika you planned to spend the festival with Sayori. Though with her new position as Club President, you wonder if Sayori will even have much time to spend with you. In fact, you’ll probably be busy much of the time yourself. But you assure yourself you’ll have time.

You try calling Natsuki and Sayori to make sure they’re awake. Neither one of them are answering. You decide to stop by Sayori’s before heading to school, see if the girls need help carrying all those cupcakes.

As you’re about to knock on Sayori’s front door, you hear Natsuki yelling.

“I can’t believe you’d do this! Why?!”

Suddenly a chill rushes down your spine. Almost as if on auto pilot you slam the door open and run inside.

“What hapened!?” you shout, adrenaline pumping.

“I-it’s Sayori!” Natsuki says. “She… she…”

You get further into the house and see Sayori.

“SHE ATE TWO WHOLE TRAYS OF CUPCAKES!!!!” Natsuki yells at the top of her lungs as you walk into the living room.

There you see Sayori sitting on the couch, twiddling her fingers.

“I was hungry….” she says, pouting and embarrassed. “There’s no need to be so upset…”

“Natsuki, calm down” you say. “We made more than enough cupcakes for the festival.”

“But how on Earth does someone like her manage to eat that many!” Natsuki yells. “She asked if she could have one or two, and by the time I get out of the bathroom she’s gone through two whole trays!”

Indeed, it looks as though Natsuki had just discovered this, she’s still wrapped in a bath towel, her hair not even done up as you’re used to seeing. Sayori is more or less ready, just without her uniform tie or shoes on. You notice she still has cupcake icing on the sides of her mouth. In fact, she’s still eating one as Natsuki is fuming mad!

“Sayori…” you say “Natsuki isn’t really mad at you, she’s just in shock is all.”

Sayori still looks embarrassed, but not as if she’s on the verge of tears or anything.

“And Natsuki,” you say, getting her attention, “there’s really no need to be this mad” you say, reprimanding her.

“But, those cupcakes…” Natsuki says, sounding defeated.

“Natsuki…” Sayori finally speaks up, “I’m sorry I ate so many cupcakes…”

“Sayori you don’t have to…” but before you can finish, Sayori interrupts, smiling.

“No, Natsuki’s right, I shouldn’t have eaten so many.”

As soon as she hears that, you can see on Natsuki’s face that she knows she over reacted, especially considering what you talked to her about.

“I-It’s ok…” Natsuki assure Sayori. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like I did…”
Sayori smiles. “It’s fine… Here! Let me make it up to you with a nice omelette!”

Natsuki’s face brightens up.

“Yay! Thank you Sayori!”

“Well…” you interject “looks like I wasn’t needed here after all.”

“Of course not!” Natsuki says as she puts her hand on her bicep. “We’re not so weak that we can’t carry a few dozen cupcakes, right Sayori!”

“Right!” Sayori says back with confidence.

“Alright then, I guess I’ll see you two at school in a little bit. Just don’t take too long getting ready.”

As you say that Natsuki suddenly seems to realize that this whole time she’s only had a towel wrapped around her. Her face turns bright red as she rushes back into the bathroom, slamming the door.

“Sayori…” you say as she turns to you. “I’m sorry about Nats-”

But Sayori interrupts.

“Don’t be! I’m glad she stayed over, it was a lot of fun. Besides, I did eat a lot of cupcakes….”

As she’s talking Sayori is getting out everything she needs to make omelettes for her and Natsuki. Sayori always did make good eggs, but you at before leaving your house.

“Well, then I’ll see you two at school!”

“Ok! See you soon!” Sayori says with a smile as she’s making the first omelette.

You get to school. Seems like Sayori and Natsuki will be a while, so you go to the Literature Club room. Yuri’s in there already, putting up decorations.

“Oh hey Yuri!” you say.

“Oh! Hi!” Yuri replies. “Where’s Sayori? Is she not with you?”

“No, her and Natsuki are running behind at her place. By the way,” you say after a brief pause, “how did making decorations go?”

“It went great!”

“That’s good” you say. “Wish you could have come over to hang out with the rest of us.”

“Oh, well, I just wanted to make sure the decorations were perfect, so I tried to avoid being distracted” Yuri says, with a somewhat distant tone.

“Well I’m sure we’ll all have time to hang out soon!” you assure her. “Maybe we’ll end up getting together at the end of the festival.”

“M-maybe…” Yuri mutters. “O-oh yeah” she says after a few moments “You dropped this pen the other day, and I didn’t have a chance to give it back. I hope you don’t mind I used it a little bit....”

“Thanks, Yuri! I appreciate it” you say happily. “By the way” you say as Yuri perks up, “since Sayori and Natsuki aren’t here, I might as well help put up the decorations.”

“Oh no, you don’t have to…” she says again, nervously.

“Come on, it’s not like I can’t just do nothing! And I’m sure you’ll need help putting up the banner above the door.”

Yuri blushes ever so slightly, “I-I guess you’re right. Thanks…”

You and Yuri spend about fifteen minutes getting the room decorated. Only one thing left, the banner. You hang your side up with ease, but Yuri needs a step ladder to reach the top of the door frame. As she’s tying off the end of the banner, you see her pull a knife out of her pocket to cut the excess string. Yuri doesn’t seem like the girl that would be carrying around a pocket knife. Not only a pocket knife, but a very nicely made and decorated one.

“Hey, Yuri, what’s with the knife?” you ask her.

Just ask quickly as you say these words does she realize you saw and fold it back up, trying to hide it in her hands.

“Oh, I’m sorry…” Yuri says nervously.

“Don’t be! I just never figured you to be the kind to carry around a knife like that is all.”

You can tell Yuri is embarrassed that you saw it.

“It looked really nice, do you mind if I take a look?”

“Eh?” Yuri seems happily surprised. “S-sure, I guess…”

You notice the handle of the knife is engraved with a dragon with red jewels for it’s eyes. The knife has a nice weight to it and the blade it quite sharp. This isn’t some cheap knife, this is a quality piece.

“It looks expensive…” you finally say after examining it for a bit.

“Well, I kinda collect these things…” Yuri says under her breath, almost as if she doesn’t want you to hear.

“I guess we all have different hobbies” you tell her. “I do like that knife, if it makes you feel better.”

Immediately Yuri’s face turns a bright red and her eyes get watery.

“Y-you do?” she says faintly.

Suddenly she gets off the step ladder and clutches the knife in her hands close to her chest.

“I-I have to go do something, I’l; be right back!” she says hurriedly before rushing right past Natsuki and Sayori.

Sayori tries to greet Yuri on her way past, but she keeps headed towards the bathroom as if she wasn’t there.

“What was that all about…” you say to yourself. As Yuri passed Natsuki, you could see Natsuki’s face change to a look of worry.

“Oh no…” Natsuki says. “Hey,” she says to you to get your attention “did Yuri have a knife with her by any chance?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh geez” Natsuki sighs. “Listen, it’s not your fault, I guess maybe I should have mentioned this before.”

“What do you mean?” you ask. You see Sayori has heard Natsuki and walks over inquisitively.

“So have you ever noticed how every club meeting Yuri uses the bathroom?”

“Well I try to go before our meetings” Sayori says, trying to cheer up what is an increasingly somber mood.

“Not for that!” Natsuki says. “I don’t know any way around this, so I’ll just come out and say it.”

“Say what?” you ask.

“Well, I’ve only known Yuri a couple years, not nearly as long as you and Sayori, but last year I found out she self harms.”

“Oh my god, that’s terrible…” Sayori says, looking like she’s about to cry.

“I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s she can’t handle criticism, or maybe it’s positive attention. But I found out about a year ago and eventually got her to stop. Or that’s what I thought anyways…”

Natsuki looks like she’s choking back tears.

“She was one of my only friends before we joined the literature club, and I was there to help her with her issues. I’d been suspicious she might have started again after joining the club, but I wasn’t sure, until…”

Natsuki swallows and wipes her eyes.

“Until I saw she had that knife with her again…”

Sayori senses that Natsuki is about to break down and embraces her.

Stunned you finally speak up. “My god, I’m sorry. I couldn’t even tell…” And of course you couldn’t, you couldn’t even tell anything was wrong with Sayori.

“Of course you couldn’t, even I wasn’t sure…” Natsuki tells you. “Besides, I’m sure she’d especially want to hide it from you.”

“What do you mean?” you ask, confused.

“This might surprise you, but Yuri doesn’t normally talk to boys, and they don’t talk much to her either. Guess real life isn’t like anime where everyone’s all over the quiet, mysterious girl. And when they do talk to her they lose interest once she brings up what she’s into…”

“You mean like her knife collection?”

Looking surprised, Sayori asks, “Knife collection?”

“Yeah…” Natsuki sighs. “That’s one thing. Guess not many other people are as into horror literature as she is either…”

Natsuki crosses her arms and looks almost angry.

“But she’s really smart! And she like me too and, and…”

Suddenly Natsuki is back to sobbing and hugs Sayori again.

As the two girls are embracing each other you hear the door open and something metallic hit the floor.

It’s Yuri, standing in the door holding her left wrist in her right hand. Her knife lays at her feet. Tears fill her eyes as she runs off, crying.

“Yuri wait!” Natsuki cries as she jumps up, chasing after her.

Sayori follows suit and you quickly find yourself chasing all three girls. Eventually you end up on the roof of the school. Yuri is huddled on the ground, crying.

“You all hate me, don’t you?” she says through her tears.

“No! Why would we hate you?” Sayori says, bending down and putting a hand on Yuri’s shoulder.

“Yeah!” Natsuki shouts “we all care about you and want you to stop hurting yourself!”

Yuri looks up and sees you and immediately buries her face back in her arms.

“I just, when so many people are nice to me, it doesn’t feel real. I want to make sure I’m not dreaming about all the friends I have.”

“Why would you be dreaming!” Natsuki sobs.

“Yuri, we’re all lucky to have you as friends” you finally interject.

Yuri looks up and wipes the tears from her face.

“Listen, Yuri,” Sayori says to her, “I know how it feels to be worthless, to feel like I don’t deserve my friends. I’ve even been close to harming myself quite a few times, even up to this weekend.”

Those words from Sayori give you chills. “Even up to this weekend”? What does that mean?

“But!” Sayori continues “Anon insisted on being with me when I was at my lowest. He even had Natsuki come over and showed me people really do care about me.”

Yuri stops sobbing and her tears slow. She looks up at you and then Sayori.

Sayori keeps comforting Yuri. “I know it’s thrown everyone off with Monika leaving so suddenly, but I don’t think she’d want us to be spending the festival like this.”

“Yeah” you interject, reaching your hand down to Yuri. “So come on, let’s all go enjoy the festival.”

Yuri wipes the tears from her face and smiles, slowly reaching out her hand to yours before grabbing it. You help her get to her feet as Sayori keeps her balanced. As soon as Yuri’s stable on her feet Natsuki jumps up and wraps her arms and legs around Yuri, hanging on like a baby Koala.

Natsuki lifts her head up and looks at Yuri. “Don’t scare me like this ever again!”

Yuri smiles back. “Don’t worry, Natsuki. I think I’m ready to accept that people really do care about me.”

Sayori then follows Natsuki’s lead and embraces Yuri. She looks at you, signalling for you to join the group hug.

Yuri starts crying again, but with a smile.

“Thanks you guys, all of you…”

As everyone lets go of Yuri, she wipes her tears again and smiles even more.

“Ok!” Sayori says “Let’s all go enjoy the festival!”

“Yay!” Natsuki says, grabbing Yuri’s hand. “Let’s go see if they have fried octopus!”

“Ok, ok…” Yuri says, walking off with Natsuki.

As they walk off, you feel Sayori bump into you

“Come on!” she says, “Race you back to the classroom!”

Before you know it, Sayori is racing past you, then Yuri and Natsuki.

“Hey, wait for me!” Natsuki cries, speeding up and dragging Yuri with her, to her surprise.