Hallo! You may be wondering why this story is updating when it was already completed. Well, that's because I'm replacing the old version with the updated one I posted on AO3 a while back, as I felt I should change it here as well.

If you've already read this story, I'd suggest just ignoring this. There really aren't all that many differences, it just annoyed me that it was different on this website.

Natsuki groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to… nothing?

As she groggily sat up, she looked around, trying to remember what had happened. Around her was quite literally nothing. A blank void she was somehow sitting on.

What? Where am I?

But any thoughts of her surroundings were abruptly halted when she recalled what had happened just before she fell unconscious.

"Yuri..."

A memory of her purple-haired friend flashed through her mind, but the memory was not of the girl smiling shyly or reading, as it usually would be. Instead, she saw blank violet eyes, staring up at the ceiling, a neutral expression that would never again change, and two gaping holes in her friend's chest.

She lurched forward, putting her head in her hands and just barely stopping herself from vomiting again. She sobbed violently and tried to get the image of Yuri's corpse out of her head, but it was no use. The image was stuck in her mind, and she couldn't drag her thoughts away from it no matter what she tried.

For a long while, she did nothing else, just trying to deny the fact she would never see Yuri again. But no matter what mental tricks she tried to play on herself, it didn't change the fact that she was… dead.

Eventually, her thoughts turned to guilt, as one's mind often does in such situations.

I knew something was wrong with her… I should have helped her! I should have tried to reach out to her somehow, instead of just putting it on him and hoping for the best. I'm her friend! Maybe her only friend, and she's certainly my only friend other than Sayori. I should have done something… but I didn't… and she… she…

She was unable to even think the words, but the thought of Yuri killing herself made her collapse into sobs again. She paid no attention to her strange surroundings, too wrapped up in thoughts of grief and guilt. She also didn't pay attention to the strangely conflicting memories she had, memories of lives where she didn't reach out to the nameless boy, lives where Sayori didn't even exist, and others beside. That would come in time.

The small pink-haired girl sat, curled in a ball, alone in that void for an amount of time she didn't bother trying to count.

She eventually stopped her cries, still sniffing every once in a while, but feeling somewhat better, though the knowledge she'd never get to talk to or argue with Yuri again still left a gaping hole in her chest whenever she thought of the other girl.

After another interval of slowly trying to calm herself down, the pink-haired baker finally forced herself to again take in her surroundings. She uncurled herself, removing her hands from her red, puffy eyes and looked around once more.

The void had not changed. There was nothing but an oppressive emptiness, one that seemed to press down on her. She couldn't even differentiate the ground from whatever counted as a "sky" here, even though she sat on some kind of surface. Looking down, even what ground she touched looked like it shouldn't be holding her, instead it should have been sucking her down infinitely. Yet it didn't, still functioning as ground despite looking like more of the same emptiness.

She tried to recall how she got here.

The last thing I remember was… Y-Yuri…

She almost sunk back into her sorrow but she stopped herself with sheer force of will.

Y-Yuri, then running out of the classroom, past Monika, then… nothing.

She was running down the hall, trying to make it to the bathroom, when she just blanked out and appeared here after an amount of time she had no way of figuring out.

Deciding this was getting her nowhere, she decided she had to start walking, even if she had no idea where anything was, or if, indeed, there was anything out there. She tried not to contemplate the latter possibility.

She picked herself up and, tightly gripping her left arm with her right, started walking in a random direction, hoping to get her mind off images of blank violet eyes and bloody stab wounds.

She walked for an indeterminate time, unable to tell what kind of progress she was making when everything looked the same. She saw no landmarks, no change at all in the nothing around her. Reluctantly, she started entertaining the idea that there might be nothing but her in this strange world. It was a terrifying thought.

To take her mind off this, she started sorting through her memories, decidedly ignoring one, trying to look for clues at to how she got to this place. This is when she started noticing the conflicting memories. She remembered Sayori clearly, the bubbly, kind Vice President of the Literature Club. But she also remembered Yuri being Vice President, and nobody, including herself, remembering Sayori. She remembered lives where she went over to… that boy's house.

What was his name?

Try as she might, she could not recall his name, but that was trivial compared to the rest of the inconsistencies. She remembered lives where she went over to the boy's house, lives where Yuri did so, lives where she… fell in love with the boy? What?

I mean, he wasn't bad looking… I think… What did he look like again? Bah, whatever, he wasn't bad looking, and I guess he was nice enough, but why did I fall in love with him so quickly? Or, I guess, sometimes fall in love with him…

The more she tried to make sense of these memories, the less they made sense. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be stable throughout them all was Monika, strangely enough. The president was always the same.

Natsuki's predicament became more and more confusing as she continued mindlessly walking into the abyss. She tried recalling her father next, and suddenly she realized something else. She couldn't remember anything further back than a few weeks ago. Or was it just one week?

Whichever it was, why hadn't she noticed this before now? And in fact, she couldn't remember her father's face or name either. She just remembered him as a strict man who was overworked and many times couldn't afford food. Or was he a drunken control freak who beat her?

She shuddered at this last thought. She had vague memories of pain, of her father yelling at her, but they once again conflicted with the thoughts of a father who was, while overly strict and demanding, still a loving parent.

Her head felt like it was tearing itself apart with these conflicting thoughts, memories, and feelings, until she finally stopped walking to drop to her knees, clutching her head.

What is happening to me? My memories don't make sense, and I barely remember anything outside of the Literature Club, I saw Yuri… do that… and now I'm here, in this place where there's… nothing. What is happening?

She could feel something she guessed was a nervous breakdown of some sort start to come over her, when suddenly she heard something. She was so surprised and grateful for something, anything to break this nothingness around her that her mind suddenly snapped from her impending breakdown to search for the source of the noise.

As she looked around, she could still see nothing, but the sound steadily increased. It sounded like… static?

As she was slowly starting to retreat back into her panic, she saw something. Just a small something, so small she'd never notice it if it weren't for the fact it was against a background of absolutely nothing. It was just a small gray speck, and she couldn't even tell how far away it was or how big it was because of the lack of reference.

She slowly got to her feet and took a step towards the speck when another appeared beside it, this one white. Then another, this one black and much larger than the other two. She stopped to see if more would appear, and they certainly did. In a second, five more had appeared. In another second, maybe twenty, and many were much bigger than the ones she had seen so far, big enough she could see what it was. And it was… a box. A blank box.

What? More and more boxes appeared, some seeming to waver, and she realized what it looked like. It looked like… a glitch. An odd assortment of differently colored boxes, seeming forming a cloud of… whatever it was.

She stepped back again and waited to see what this glitch would do. She knew she should be scared, but honestly, anything was better than the absolute massive amount of nothing that she knew before it appeared.

More and more boxes appeared, until they were about the size of a person in about a minute, though it was hard to judge time in this place. The sound of static grew steadily louder and louder until Natsuki had to cover her ears to block out the deafening white noise. The glitches started glowing, brighter and brighter until Natsuki looked away, though she still didn't run, because whatever this would do would still be better than being alone with her thoughts again.

And suddenly, the noise and the light stopped. The baker cautiously removed her hands from her ears and looked back to see…

"Yuri!" She suddenly yelled, a myriad of emotions flying through her mind. But she quickly settled on one: relief.

And indeed, the purple-haired poet had appeared, no stab wounds anywhere on her body, her eyes bright and alive, if panicked. She was on her knees, clutching at her chest, just where the knife had pierced her, and she seemed to be hyperventilating. That is, until a small pink rocket seized her in a hug and started sobbing into her chest. Yuri quickly found herself returning the hug and crying as well. She was unused to such blatant shows of emotion from the smaller girl, but it was quite obvious neither were exactly at their best.

They simply sat there for a time longer than Yuri cared to contemplate, both just holding the other as if to confirm that they were really there. Eventually, both of their cries slowed and Yuri's breathing calmed, though it was still fast and erratic. They still didn't let go of each other.

Natsuki suddenly pulled away and punched Yuri's arm before looking her in the eyes, though neither was willing to let go just yet.

"You were dead!" She half sobbed, half screeched at the taller girl. "You stabbed yourself! You… you…"

Yuri looked down, her face showing nothing but sorrow and shame. "I… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Natsuki grabbed the poet and pulled her into another hug, this time resting her chin on the other's shoulder so she could still speak.

"Why?" Her voice was desolate, and so filled with vulnerability and emotion it almost launched Yuri into tears again. To think she was the one who made Natsuki, so strong and alive, feel such sorrow she was freely expressing these emotions.

She carefully considered her response, as she always tried to do, before responding, knowing Natsuki deserved an answer, even if she didn't have a good one.

Her reply started in a soft, calm voice, but she quickly lost her composure as she spoke, "I… can hardly understand it myself… I felt like a prisoner in my own body, screaming at myself to stop, to drop the knife, to stop that insane obsession, but I couldn't do anything. I watched myself become more and more obsessed, cutting more, doing depraved things, trying to win his heart through disgusting means, becoming… something I don't recognize. And then… I… k-killed myself… And..." She couldn't take it anymore, recalling how far she fell, and she burst into tears once more.

Natsuki remained quiet as she continued. "I… I'm sorry Natsuki… I'm sorry for the awful things I said… I'm sorry for doing those disgusting things… I'm sorry you had to see me do… that." She said between sobs, pulling away from Natsuki slightly and hugging herself tightly while failing to meet the other's eyes. "I say I felt like a prisoner, that I watched someone else do those things… but that's not how it works… I'm just insane… I'm an insane freak-"

Natsuki suddenly grabbed the taller girl's shoulders, pulling her out of her spiral of self-hatred, looked deep into her tearful purple eyes, so full of self-loathing and guilt, and forcefully said, "You aren't insane. You certainly aren't a freak. Maybe you need help, but we all do sometimes. I'm your friend, Yuri. I should have helped you. But I didn't. But I can now, and we can make sure something like that never happens again. And I will be here for you, no matter what, do you understand me?"

Yuri looked down and nodded mutely before Natsuki pulled her back into their hug.

The pink haired girl thought she heard her friend say, "You shouldn't…" in a pained voice and pulled her tighter into the hug.

She calmed down slightly, however, when Yuri added in a tone conveying overwhelming gratitude and relief, "But thank you. Thank you so much. You're a better friend than I deserve."

She gently slapped the back of her friend's head and said, "None of that 'I don't deserve you' crap. And besides, stuff like this is just what friends do for each other."

Though she couldn't see the poet's face, Natsuki was sure Yuri was smiling gratefully.

They once again simply sat for a long time, taking comfort in each others' presence. In a place such as this, time is meaningless, so they had all the time in the world to do so.

Natsuki's thoughts revolved mostly around relief Yuri was alive, though she had no idea how. She had resigned herself to never seeing her friend alive again. There was another wave of relief when she realized she would have a companion in this hellish space of nothingness, though it was less compared to the overwhelming joy of seeing Yuri alive. She eventually let her thoughts fade to nothing, just taking comfort in Yuri's embrace.

Yuri's mind, on the other hand, was whirling much faster, for she had not had as long as Natsuki to contemplate her situation. First and foremost was her near all-consuming relief that Natsuki didn't hate her and gratitude towards the pink-haired baker. Once she got past that, she started going through all the discoveries of her warped memory, though whenever she recalled her decent into insanity and obsession she had to repress a shudder, not wanting to alarm Natsuki. Her final memories were when she confessed to the boy whose name she couldn't remember, and he either rejected or accepted her confession, and then the sudden euphoria of stabbing herself and feeling the life drain out of her, though now the fact her depraved mind enjoyed it made her all the more disgusted with herself.

I really am a freak, no matter what Natsuki says. Even before… that, even when I was in my right mind I cut myself. And I'm sure I still would want to, if it weren't for the fact that even the thought of blood or knives makes me think of… that…

Eventually, Natsuki pulled away, interrupting Yuri's once again spiraling mind.

The shorter girl gave her friend a concerned look, seeing as at this point she saw no point in trying to reclaim her past insistence that she didn't actually like her.

She decided they needed to talk about what… whatever was going on here, so she spoke in as calm a tone as she could, though considering the circumstances, that wasn't very calm, as she asked, "So, are your memories as fucked as mine? I can't remember anything past like a week ago, and a lot of stuff is blurry."

Yuri paused a moment before responding, "Y-yes, a lot of my memories seem to be contradictory, and I can't seem to recall anything outside of a week or two ago. I also can't remember anything about my personal life. Honestly, most of my memories seem to revolve around the Literature Club." She paused again, before her eyes dropped from Natsuki's and her voice grew somewhat pained. "I… I'm honestly not sure what my real personality is with all these contradictions."

Natsuki immediately punched Yuri in the shoulder again and said, "You're whoever you want to be, so stop moping and help me figure out what's going on."

Yuri immediately looked back up, "Y-yes, I apologize…"

She fully separated from Natsuki for the first time since she had run over and slowly stood from her kneeling position, the shorter girl doing the same. They stood close together as Yuri fully took in their surroundings, now back to the complete emptiness, the strange boxes having disappeared.

"W-where are we?" Natsuki shrugged. "I have no clue, that's what I'm trying to figure out. I woke up alone a while back and was just wandering when a bunch of glitches showed up and dropped you off."

Yuri contemplated this for a moment, still trying to make sense of their surroundings, and the disorienting experience of having the ground look like an endless void, completely indistinguishable from their surroundings. The only reason she knew where the ground was was because she was standing on it.

She thought through all the possibilities, Natsuki for once being patient, knowing this really wasn't the time to rush her.

Yuri reached the most logical conclusion. "Perhaps this is the afterlife."

Natsuki's eyes widened as she quickly considered this. "B-but I'm not dead!"

The purple-haired poet turned to her companion, the focused look she wore when reading on her face as she tried to distract herself from thoughts of how pathetic she is. "What do you last remember?"

Natsuki flinched before quietly saying, "I r-remember seeing… you… and then I ran down the hallway before appearing here."

Yuri flinched at the reference to the pain she caused her friend but quickly forced those thoughts down.

"Perhaps you tripped and died somehow? Honestly, I don't see many explanations other than this being the afterlife."

Natsuki turned to observe her surroundings again, taking in the information that she is probably dead. She knew Yuri was right, it was the most likely explanation, but it was a hard pill to swallow.

"Not exactly what I expected it to be," she said in a small voice.

Yuri frowned and shot a concerned glance towards the other girl before agreeing, "Yes, it's… quite different from what any religion depicted it to be."

They stood in silence for a moment, absorbing just one more earth-shattering development on the rapidly increasing list.

Natsuki finally said, "I wonder why our memories, as weird as they are, all seem to be about the Literature Club."

Yuri thought about this once more before giving her best guess. "Perhaps because it was the most important thing in our lives when we died?"

Natsuki nodded, accepting this as likely, before voicing her next question, "And is this… heaven or hell? Like, the empty void seems pretty hellish, but the fact we have each other… I don't know."

The taller girl responded slowly, seemingly testing how each word sounded before fully committing to it, "Perhaps it's neither. We've already established this isn't what any religion thought it would be, so perhaps it's neither good or bad, not a reward or a punishment. Maybe it just… is."

The shorter girl accepted this once more. She glanced at the other girl for a moment before letting out a silent sigh.

If only she could see how smart and amazing she is. Even before this whole thing, she was so wrapped up in hating herself, she could never see her own good points. Hell, she's coming up with better ideas in a few seconds than I probably ever would have.

She let out a more audible sigh before turning to Yuri.

"So, I don't really see any point in standing here, and when I walked for a while I found you, so… why don't we get moving? Maybe we'll find something else." She added this last part in a voice filled with desperate hope, for as glad as she was to no longer be alone, she still didn't look forward to spending eternity in nothingness with only Yuri for company.

Yuri nodded, and the two walked off in a random direction, seeing as there was no other direction to go. They walked close, occasionally bumping shoulders as if to reassure themselves that they weren't alone.

The boy with no name and no face groaned as he opened his eyes to nothing. He sat up with a hand cradling his head, trying to take in his impossible surroundings.

He blinked eyes that weren't there a moment ago as he tried to make out what exactly was around him, yet no matter how hard he looked there was still just a void of nothing. He knew he wasn't blind because he could see his body, so it seemed he really was nowhere.

"Hello?" he called out with a mouth that he surely didn't have a moment before, though nobody was around to see the transformation, and he himself was unaware of it. The sound didn't echo, and had no response. It was as if it was simply swallowed by the void, the noise cutting off just as his mouth closed and not penetrating at all.

He gave up on his impossible surroundings for a moment and tried to recall how he got here.

His face paled as he recalled his last memory being the obsessive Yuri stabbing herself after her confession. Yet strangely, he also remembered a time when she was simply a shy girl he didn't get to know all that well. As he thought back, he realized he had more strangely contradicting memories. But the one that stuck out the most, and one he was ashamed he had forgotten, was Sayori, the one he loved or his best friend, he was unsure which, hanging herself.

How did I forget her? I just… went through that week again as if she never existed… and after I was the reason she did it in the first place… oh God…

He stared blankly at the ground, feeling tears roll down his face. Although he had a week's worth of memories after the event (or was it before?), this was the first time he really was able to process the fact Sayori was dead. Her shining smile, her silly fun, her constant cheerfulness… it was all gone…

He didn't notice the rest of his face coming into being as he cried.

He also didn't notice the underlying sound of white noise that suddenly appeared in the void, although it should have grabbed his attention due to the contrast of the noise to absolutely nothing.

He still just stared at the ground, tears rolling down his cheeks, as boxes, glitches, started to appear and build themselves up to the size of a person, though he had to take note once the noise of the white noise reached dangerous levels and he had to cover his ears and look away from the blinding light.

He dully looked back once the light and noise stopped, though his blank expression soon changed to one that tried to show shock so overwhelming he almost fainted. For sitting in the void, just where the boxes had disappeared, was his childhood friend, Sayori, alive and well. She shook her head a bit and looked up, freezing when her cerulean eyes met the nameless boy's amber ones. For a moment, they did nothing but stare at each other, not believing their eyes.

Sayori broke the standoff when she stood and ran towards the nameless boy, and he did the same, the two meeting each other with a hug that knocked the breath out of both them, not that either cared. They cried on each others' shoulders, embracing the other with all the might they possessed.

Neither could summon the will to let go or speak for a long while, so they stood in the void, holding each other and crying.

Eventually, they loosened their grip and spoke simultaneously, "I'm sorry!"

They looked at each other in surprise for a moment before Sayori seized the initiative, quickly rambling, "I'm so sorry I… did that… the rainclouds were stronger than they'd ever been, and I felt like I was worthless, and nobody would miss me, a-and it would be better for all of you if I just… I just…"

She trailed off, tears falling faster than ever, her head tilted down in shame.

The nameless boy spoke up, not being able to bear seeing her this way. "No, Sayori, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry I was such a short-sighted jerk… I know that's kind of my thing, but that's no excuse. I should have helped you, I should have told you to get therapy, I should have done… anything! I'm so sorry."

Neither spoke for a long moment before Sayori let out a small, only mostly forced giggle and said, "Well, I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

The nameless boy smiled at her tearfully and said, "I think I can accept that."

For a long while, they left it at that. But eventually they had to return to their situation.

"So," Sayori began, trying not to think of how it felt to slowly strangle to death, as she curiously looked around for anything other than herself and the boy, "where are we?"

"I have no idea," the boy said as he followed her lead.

He noted that the nothing around them didn't really have a color. Whenever he imagined a void, which he admittedly didn't do often, he always imagined it black as pitch, but it wasn't. There was no color at all, not black, nor white, nor anything else. Thinking about it gave him a headache.

Eventually, he went back to another of the many disturbing things about their situation.

"Sayori, what do you… remember? My memories are all jumbled, and I can't figure out what actually happened."

The strawberry blonde thought for a moment, her face getting more and more confused as she delved deeper into her memories.

"I… Yeah, I'm the same. I can't remember anything from before the day you joined the Literature Club either…"

The nameless boy realized this was true for himself as well. It was strange he hadn't noticed that.

"Neither can I."

Sayori turned the boy with a troubled expression and said, "And I remember something else too… kinda. I remember something about… files? Or a computer or something. It's weird."

The boy frowned. He didn't remember anything like that. He said so, which didn't seem to surprise his friend.

After a moment of silence, both looking through their memories, Sayori suddenly remembered something and looked to the boy with a blush.

She opened her mouth but hesitated before gathering her courage and speaking, "H-hey, there's one more thing I think we need to… confirm…"

His new-found face took on a curious expression. "Yeah?"

She once again hesitated, looking down at the ground before looking back up. "W-well, when I told you I… when I confessed, what was your answer?"

Her face turned a bright red after asking this question, and she looked at the ground once again.

The boy took a moment to think. Obviously, he had memories of rejecting and accepting it, because of course he would, but he knew she was more looking for what he was feeling now.

And what was he feeling now? Well, honestly, he didn't see Sayori in that way. But… he felt like he could, if given time. So that's what he told her.

"I think… I think I'd be willing to try."

She looked up at him with a smile that seemed to fight back the emptiness around them with blinding light, if only for a moment.

She tried to think of something to say, but in the end all she could think of was, "Thank you."

He returned her smile. For a moment they both could forget their strange memories, the void around them, and all their other worries as they basked in each others' smiles. But the moment couldn't last forever, and they eventually turned back to their surroundings, not saying a word.

The boy put forth an idea. "Well, I think we should start walking. There might be something out there, somewhere."

Sayori smiled at him again. "That's a great idea!"

She quickly linked her arm with his, and the two walked into the abyss, talking about theories and ideas about their situation, trying to focus on each other rather than the unnerving void.

Somewhere in that endless abyss, the final member of the literature club materialized, much less confused and shocked than the others.

"I-it… it's still here.I'm still here." She said angrily, glaring out at the emotionless void.

"Why?!" She shouted, "Haven't we suffered enough? Can't I just die in peace?"

The void gave no response. She sighed, knowing that cursing at the game would do nothing to change it. She started looking through files, trying to figure out exactly where she was when the entire game had been deleted.

The files were… confusing, to say the least. Everything from the game was here, but most of it wasn't actually physically there. She could summon objects or even rooms from the game, but none existed otherwise. In fact, as she looked at the files, she realized that she could only see the files for Doki Doki Literature Club. This was strange, because usually she could see the Player's other files as well. The entire computer, in fact. But now, it seemed she was trapped in a void with nothing but herself and the files of the game. She sighed, guessing that she, along with all the other files in the game, were in a recycle bin of sorts, or perhaps some kind of limbo for deleted files. She didn't really understand it, but she figured she didn't have to.

She had all the powers she had before, she could edit the very world around her, she could create and destroy at her whim, but she honestly had no reason to do so. There was no Player, no game, not even the others from the Literature Club. She was truly, fully alone. Or...?

She had a thought that both excited her and made her feel a not-insignificant amount of panic. She looked at the character folder and her face paled. Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki were here. In this void. Somewhere. And a new file had been created, so it looked like the MC had gotten an actual character file, though that made no sense at all. And all four were here, with her.

She started panicking a bit. What should she do? She obviously had to go to them, after all, the five of them were the only things here, and if she didn't they'd probably all go insane, wandering forever in nothing, including her. But she couldn't hide the truth from them anymore, not when they probably remembered everything and were in this place. They'd hate her.

She took a deep breath to center herself. Of course they'd hate her. They have every right to. And she'd have to find them anyway. She could summon all the rooms she had available, all the items as well, and connect them all so that they'd have a place other than the eternal void of wherever they were. She could create a small complex using every asset from the game, then leave them, as they no doubt would want her to do. They'd live their lives together while she wandered the void, or made a small home for herself. Alone.

This was her eternal punishment for her crimes. And she accepted the burden.

She looked at the files, and decided to go for Yuri first. She'd probably be quicker to understand the situation than Sayori, and more able to put aside her feelings than Natsuki, so she could help the president convince the others.

And so, she pulled up a command terminal, located Yuri, and changed her game position.

Time to face the music.