Disclaimer: I don't own the wonderful visual novel known as "Doki Doki Literature Club". That honor belongs solely to the legendary Dan Savlato and Team Salvato as a whole.

[Chapter 9 - The World Beyond The Screen]

Yuri had been quite worried for several weeks now. Something had been greatly bothering her to no end, regarding one the members of their literature club.

A certain pink-haired member, specifically.

It had been a source of great stress for her, if the various black-colored ink marks on her right arm were any indication. Her entire right arm had been teeming with ink. Yuri had already been trying to stop from cutting herself with a knife, after being shown how detrimental it was to her safety. Thus, lately she had been doing the alternative of writing on her arm with a marker instead, for every time she'd get the urge to cut.

Natsuki was the one to save her from such destructiveness, as she was the one to suggest the marker-writing alternative to Yuri. Well, at least the Natsuki from before who wasn't acting weird yet.

She had been noticing it for a while now, but Natsuki wasn't really being her usual lively and animated self lately. Almost as if she was on auto-pilot mode or something. Like she was merely acting out lines from a script, very robotic-like.

Like none of it was real anymore. That's what it seemed to Yuri anyway.

When she asked Monika about it, the club president looked like she was very frightened, but then quickly composed herself and replied that she didn't know what Yuri was talking about. All while suspiciously muttering to herself about epiphanies and whatnot. Monika certainly acted like an oddball herself at times, but that was the norm for the club president. Yuri was already used to Monika making jarring references about some other world out there all the time. The other girl's poem titled "The Lady Who Knows Everything" was an example of such weirdness from Monika, in her opinion.

What she wasn't used to yet however, was how Natsuki started being so cold all of a sudden. She'd much rather have their usual quarreling over this crushing silence.

Yuri then turned to the vice president, Sayori. But she too had no idea about what was causing Natsuki to act unlike her usual hot-blooded self.

"I have no idea Yuri... she doesn't even bring cupcakes or cookies here anymore! And when I tried asking her, she just brushed me off..." Sayori sadly replied and Yuri nodded in understanding.

Then came this one time, when Yuri approached her about reading some manga for the first time ever with interest. Normally, the mere concept of Yuri actually being somewhat interested in her manga to begin with would cause very pronounced reactions from Natsuki. Seeing as how different their opinions were regarding it.

"Hey, N-Natsuki. I'm curious about those books of m-manga that you keep in the club's storeroom. C-can I borrow a volume or two for reading?"

Instead of any sort of surprised expression though, she only received a lukewarm "Sure, go ahead." from the girl. With a distinct lack of genuine emotion and care.

That was when she truly knew something was off with Natsuki. Yuri swore to herself that she would definitely find out what happened to her friend, she just needed to find any clue or hint as to what triggered this sudden change.

She hadn't exactly been getting along well with Natsuki, especially when it came to matters such as if manga counted as true literature or not, but she really cared for the girl.

Natsuki was a dear friend to her, and Yuri wanted to make sure that everything was okay.

If only Yuri knew what really happened to her friend, and where she truly was at the moment...

*****The Color Pink*****

"And that's pretty much it, Natsuki. Don't worry my dear, you'll get the hang of it in no time!" Jonathan reassured the girl, as he left the store in her care along with Harold.

It was Friday afternoon, and classes had just finished. Since they were still grounded after the whole fiasco with Claire about a week ago, Harold and Natsuki had been expected to go straight home and then help with the family bakery.

"I'm still grounded too, it sucks!" Claire whined, as she walked towards the school gates with the pair.

"This is your fault, you annoyingly clingy she-demon. If you didn't have to be such a bi-"

Before another petty argument could start, Harold covered Natsuki's mouth and Claire merely sighed. It would take a while before Natsuki eventually learns to accept that Harold had buried the hatchet with the Hannigan.

Lexi had her cheerleading practice, so she had to stay late, while Tawna had gotten the flu. Hence why neither girl was with Claire as she went home.

"See you around Claire, my parents are waiting for me and Natsuki and I don't wanna get into any more trouble."

"See you later, cake boy. Once our punishment is lifted, we should go watch that new Pokemon movie!"

That was one thing that changed. Claire was now a lot more easygoing, and openly friendly with Harold and Natsuki. She also stopped doing the whole "school queen" gimmick, and became a lot more down-to-earth. It was obviously her original personality, and was only supressed for so long due to the role she had to play.

To say that Claire did a total 180 from her former bullying disposition, was a grossly huge understatement.

Obviously though, this meant that Claire had lost the respect she once possessed from some of her elitist peers, nevertheless she didn't really care if it meant being true to herself. Claire was friends with Harold now, and was free to act like a decent person without resorting to bullying anymore.

She was even prepared to be abandoned by Lexi and Tawna, but was happily surprised when they were actually glad that she patched things up with Harold. They were truly her best friends, and they stood by Claire after she reverted to her normal kind self.

"You're still calling me cake boy after everything?"

Sticking her tongue out cheekily, Claire gave him a thumbs up. "Yep! That's still my nickname for you, ahahahaha~!"

The Meyer could only sigh while trying to supress his grin, as he knew that in this case it was all friendly banter. They had truly buried the hatchet.

After parting ways with the Hannigan, and after getting home as well as resting for about twenty minutes along with a quick change of clothes for good measure, the Meyers decided that it was time to finally take Natsuki to the bakery.

Jonathan gave the girl an introduction on the stuff they used, and of course, Natsuki catched on pretty quickly due to her prior experience with baking inside of DDLC. She was pretty excited, and baking always made her happy so it was all good so far with the girl.

The real test however for Natsuki, was when the customers came in to order their bread.

The Meyer Family Bakeshop was one of the most popular bakeries in their city of Everdawn, and so the Meyers were able to sell their products to people from all walks of life.

Since it was already deep in the afternoon, a lot of their usual regulars had already gotten their share of bread for the day. But some still came by during these hours.

One example being Mrs. Jones, who always bought her daughter's favorite from the Meyers.

"Can I get the usual please?" Felicity Jones, a kind and petite woman in her early forties beckoned at the pair, and Harold prepared the food with a smile with Natsuki taking mental notes.

"Three orders of the garlic focaccia bread, coming right up. How's Celeste doing, is she okay Mrs. Jones?"

A look of sadness passed by quickly on Felicity's face before quickly being masked with a smile. "My daughter's doing fine, despite her condition. You know how it is, she always faces everything with a smile even though such a horrible illness just..."

Both Harold and Felicity had shared a faraway glance at the sky, with Natsuki silent at their exchange. She had an idea on what they were talking about based on context clues, making her feel bad for the daughter of the lady.

"Send her my regards, a lot of us at school still miss her." the Meyer consoles while handing over the bread.

"Thank you, Harold. I'll be going now, it's about time to pick up Celeste from her checkup after all." as she was about to leave however, she notices Natsuki's presence.

"A relative of yours, Harold?"

"Oh, that's right! This here is Natsuki, a friend of mine who's staying over in the meantime. Natsuki, this is Mrs. Jones, she's one of our regulars here and her daughter Celeste used to go to the same school as we do."

"N-Nice to meet you, Mrs. Jones." Natsuki greeted politely.

Smiling at the girl, the lady winked at Harold. "It was nice meeting you too, Natsuki."

More and more familiar faces to Harold showed up to get their daily fix of pastries and bread, and slowly but surely, Natsuki was getting the hang of social interaction. It made her heart swell up, and she was quite proud.

Of course, there were still some among their customers that asked for her autograph however, recognizing her to be the character from DDLC.

"Here you go, enjoy your day!" Natsuki chimes while handing over a bag of cream bread with her autograph on the packaging.

"You look cute when you smile, Natsuki."

And just like that, the girl was reduced to a stuttering tomato after receiving the unexpected compliment, reverting to her tsundere-based demeanor.

"S-stop saying such silly things so suddenly, Harold you dummy!" she whined while lightly punching the boy in the shoulder as the blush on her face grew hotter. Harold merely chuckled, amused by her friend.

He really did find her cute though. That much was certain. Although egging Natsuki on would surely mess up their dynamic again, and thus Harold decided that he would reign in the teasing for now.

Various people still came and went from their humble store, until one particular customer showed up that stirred something within Harold's gut, but he wasn't sure what exactly it was.

As if on cue with perfect timing as well, said customer appeared during the time when Natsuki had to go take a bathroom break for a bit, leaving Harold solely in charge of the bakery and in turn the one to receive the customer's order..

"I'd like to take two orders of the cream bread, please."

A boy, around his age by Harold's estimate, was his latest guest. He had black hair that had obviously been hastily combed, and deep, piercing cold-black eyes.

But what stood out the most to the Meyer, was how tired this boy looked. He wasn't haggard nor disheveled or anything, but his entire stature had an aura of fatigue in it. Maybe it was mostly mental-sided.

Almost as if this boy resonated with him, somewhat.

"Here you go sir! Two fresh pieces of our special cream bread!" Harold tried with a smile, and the boy thanked him with a barely-concealed sigh.

Harold decided to push his luck.

"Had a tiring day today mister..."

The boy then looked at Harold, and gave him a smile while replying. "The name's Izuna and yeah, you can say that. I'm visiting a relative in the area over a certain... matter."

Pleased that the now-named Izuna was willing to engage in conversation, Harold pressed on and continued.

"I see, so you aren't from around here then?"

"Nope, had to travel by train for quite some time. But knowing what lies ahead for me, the lengthy trip gave me some time to reflect on all the crazy stuff that's happened in my life."

Nodding, Harold could see that this Izuna may have gone through some interesting things recently. His tired look now made sense to the boy. "Sounds like quite a tale, my name's Harold by the way. Harold Meyer." he extended his hand and the other male gladly took it in his.

They shook hands with grins. "Izuna Takaya, and it was nice meeting you Harold. Maybe I could swing by again one time and we could hang out or something. It'd be nice having a friend here in this city."

"Agreed, let's exchange emails and numbers."

After they had given each other their contact info and talking about the various events that happened in their respective lives, although both of them had been omitting some of the details towards the other, Izuna bid the Meyer his farewell and went off to a certain dojo's location that he had told Harold about. Meanwhile, Natsuki had finally returned from the restroom to see Harold staring off at the distance.

"Something happened Harold?"

"Not really, just met an interesting fellow while you were on break, is all."

"Hmmmmm? Tell me about it?"

Harold stared at Natsuki. Her interested expression set his heart a-flutter. He thought at that very moment, 'This girl really is beautiful.'

"Sure thing, once we close up shop." Harold replied with a warm smile, which the girl returned in earnest as well.

They say that chance encounters happen every once in a while in your life. Such was the fateful meeting of Harold Meyer and Izuna Takaya. A new friendship had formed that day, and the Meyer hoped that he could meet the Takaya once more.

Little did Harold know however, that he'd be meeting Izuna again in the near future a bit sooner than he would've thought...

-Chapter 9 END-

A/N: Well, that just happened. Hurray for canon lore-branching! Anyways, see you all in the next chapter!