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Hi! My name is Tobyn Jacobs but you might have heard of me under the username “MeanForce1”!
...
PLEASE DO NOT CALL ME THAT! I BEG OF YOU! IT WAS JUST AN AUTOMATED USERNAME! I’M CRYING RIGHT NOW!
Ahem.
S-Sorry… I got a bit carried away. I need to resume my introduction! Right! Because the story I’m about to tell you, is easily worth the Seven Wonders’ worth! Logical since it involves the eight one.
Crap I’m blushing now.
A-Alright. Like I saying, name’s Tobyn Jacobs. You might except to say that I’m an average high school, which to be fair, is a completely normal assumption from the outside. I really look unassuming! (If not secretly devilishly handsome.) But no that’s wrong! I won’t downplay myself! I possess the greatest talent anyone could ever dream of. My papercraft is only rivaled by the likes of Yu Narukami, so you should rightfully fear me.
Well… this isn’t exactly the only reason that puts me at odds with normality, whatever the term means. You see my mastery of paper has for equivalence my love towards a fictional character: Sayaka Maiozono from the game franchise Danganronpa.
Now I could present the character to you, but if you’re here, you already know her I presume. On top of that, a more pressing matter might urge itself in your brain: Why? Why be so attached to somebody that doesn’t exist? Somebody that deeply wounded the person she cared the most about.
To be honest I don’t know. She just… comforts me. Do you get what I’m saying? Probably not, unless you’ve been in a similar mindset. Even so I don’t advocate an understanding nor a craving for validation, I just want to be left in peace with what makes me happy.
Which is why I decided to cover an entire room just to her glory!
How great! My skills could finally be put into good use! I even had more swagger than anyone could ever achieve in their entire lifetime by walking around with a cardboard of her! That day was the freshest I’ve ever been.
Jokes aside, if I’m writing this today, it’s because something magnificent happened over the course of this past month. You see…
…
Heh… I’m a bit embarrassed to say this but… I don’t exactly have the best diet, which Maizono would rightfully comment on, so it’s possible some of my food can come from… unusual sources let’s just say...
Oh god, this isn’t even the most embarrassing part of this story.
Basically, sometimes I’m keen to eat in the Maizono Temple, as I like to call it, and during those times it’s not uncommon for me to be hit, struck, pierced by an intense and fierce desire. A desire that burns my chest and my vocal throat every single time I begin to crave for it to come true. Something that mere mortals can’t understand…
I FREESTYLE TO THE GLORY OF MY QUEEN BABY!
Mind you, I’m damn good at that, and it takes a lot of energy to be a pro like me, so that’s why I always bring a lot of food in the room even if I don’t always eat it all. That energy consumption is also part of the reason for my slimness, that is perpetually associated with rapping skills that aren’t too shabby like the shady.
That’s also why there’s a micro-wave in the temple.
Damn now that I think about it, I could make loads of bucks by converting my room into a full-blown temple, that’s pretty dope. However I digress!
As you might not know, chicken are the greatest animals that ever graced the Earth, just behind the elephants, and Babar. So I love to have them in my diet.
The chicken not the elephants.
This day, I decided to have some take-out nuggets from a shop nearby. I should have probably guessed it was going to be of poor taste when the app announced thirty seconds after I received the order that the shop was shut down because of hygiene issues. Still you have to understand me… They promised me a free ice-cream next time I’d order! Aren’t they such nice fellows?
So despite the fact the nuggets were as green as kryptonites I decided to still put them in the micro-wave. I’m tight on money anyway, and besides, who’s to say I wouldn’t have gained super-powers mmh?
BUT THIS! This is the moment I’m struck by inspiration! Seeing these bad boys heating themselves up in the machine, rotating on and on! Oh boy! I was ready! This was the day I would drop the sickest bar for my love!
“Yo it’s your boi Tobyn!
Some say I’m really mean,
But I don’t see what they mean,
I never caused any scene!
I’m only here for this girl,
The way that she twirls,
The way that she swirls,
Her haters make me hurl!
SA-YA-KA,
That’s her name!
MAI-ZO-NO,
That’s the syllables that tame…
Me!
Loyal to a T!
Both to her homies and Naegi!
That fool was too blind to see!
She was gone in a blink, homie!
A cruel fate by the Gods of her world!
If I took their justifications for it, worthless wordless!
But I’ll be here to leave on the world her mark, whorled!
Yeah, mark my words!
You would be no better,
If survival was the primary matter!
So don’t disrespect her,
Otherwise you’ll meet your maker!
I’ll be the one to call,
I’ll know you’ll be at the mall,
Hiding your ass in the stall,
I’m a psyche after all!
I protect that honor of hers truly,
I listen that voice of hers truly,
I crave to speak with hers truly,
I want to hug her, truly.
Even if time and space are in place,
I’LL TRANSCEND THEM TO BECOME HER ACE!”
But that’s the thing. The bar dropped was to hot! Put in a room alongside ice-cream and the radioactive chicken nuggets in the micro-wave created a physical reaction! My flow warped the radiation around its energy, creating a massive space-rift! I was immediately suck into it! I couldn’t do anything but yell in surprise!
Thoughts ran into my mind: “Is this it? Am I going to die for confessing my love?”
After feeling myself falling endlessly, I decided to close my eyes, in hopes of waking up in a better place. Instead I found myself in a familiar place. “A theater?” I commented short of breath.
I heard a voice yell behind me, blowing my eardrums off: “Oh mah gad! Finally somebody else here, apart from that old geezer!”
I immediately perked up! I knew that voice! Turning around my suspicions were confirmed. “Junko Enoshima???”
She smirked with a smile only the devil could imitate. “Duh, who else?” Then she began examining me. “Too bad you’re not some pretty boy. A decent-looking one with your pale skin and shaggy hair at best. Still you’ll do to cure my boredom.”
She started to lean forward, trying to touch me, but I pushed her away. “No! Another man might have fallen into your temptation! But I can’t! I only have eyes for one girl!”
Her disappointment was visible all across her face. “C’mon, you’re dead. This is why the two, now three of us are here. Stop having your panties in a twister!”
While I was struggling against her, a man placed a hand on her shoulder. “Now now, Enoshima. This is no proper behavior for a lady, no matter how desperate.”
Holy shit, Tengen Uzui! Wait, I feel like that’s the wrong name… Oh whatever nobody remembers him anyway. But why are these two the only ones here? “I don’t care! It’s so fucking boring, only watching the lives of others being way better than our own misery without any possible action! Shit! So despair-inducing of a death my ass! I now wish I was obsessed with Hope instead, like that shrimp is!”
Junko Enoshima sick with Despair? That’s something you don’t see everyday. “Well, it seems that both of us were indeed punished for our wrongdoings. The universe has probably felt appropriate the idea of us having nothing and no-one but ourselves a fitting punishment. There is nothing to do but accept that in our circumstances. Pardon her behavior.”
I quickly bowed down like he did, muttering something to express my understanding and acceptance of his politeness, despite my shock still not completely worn off. Junko keeps whining: “I’m supposed to be the Ultimate Analyst, know everything, and be a goddess! How can this-?! How can this fabricated little piece of shit Otonashi resist the original personality?! This doesn’t make any sense!”
So she’s considered dead because Otonashi became her own person and stopped her evil self? Neat. This was my only thought towards Junko’s story, no pity for her. Tengen sighed: “I understand your frustration. I, myself, came to see my life end in a rather humiliating fashion, however this is no way of treating our newcomer. Tell me boy, what is it you’re doing here?”
I began a bit panicked to tell my story, of course omitting the embarrassing details. Obviously somebody started to laugh her ass off. “AHAHAHA! That bitch is so screwed! At first I thought he was just an idol otaku that had the balls to reject me! But now he’s a crazy guy! AHA!”
Tengen, however, was taking my story much more seriously. “If you are telling the truth, this is entrancing, the possibilities are endless. But that also means, if you come from a world where we only exist as works of fictions, that you are not in fact, dead. The case of your appearance in this theater is truly a strange one indeed.”
Junko yelled: “Ah! And you’re going to believe the crazy twink?! You’re even more of a senile grandpa that I even thought!”
After a long minute of Junko cackling madly in the background, Tengen simply said “One second.” Before knocking her out with a chop and coming back towards me. He pointed a door at me. “You see, this gate is an exit to the theater for us dead people. It leads to a multitude of areas if you truly passed away, but I feel like it is going to send you to a foggy area called ‘Koenyume’, if that’s the case stay there. Don’t bother coming back to this old man and the crazy girl over here. Because if you were brought here through your love for this girl, then you’ll be obviously linked to her mind. If like us you died without anybody left to truly care for you, then going here will only result in a bland result, an endless fog that never comforts you, but you, my boy, might have someone needing your help.”
I listened to his advice and walked through the door. As he predicted my field of vision became clouded by fog. I turned around and the theater had disappeared. I continued to advance despite a sudden fear gripping my heart, knowing what kind of person he was, Tengen could have lied or manipulated me without any realization from my part.
However a silhouette drew itself in the distance. My brain genuinely couldn’t handle her presence, I felt myself crying for no reason. I tried to look at something else. This wasn’t a dream despite how many time I pinched myself…
Sayaka Maizono standed in front of me.
THANKS RADIOACTIVE NUGG- wait this joke would probably ruin the tension.
At her sight I audibly gulped, and she probably caught that because she turned around in surprise. An adorable yelp left her mouth: “Ah! My apologies, I didn’t see you there. You scared me.”
I felt my throat getting dry at an incredible speed, Hajime might as well have done some surfing down here. “Hmm. No-… No problem, and sorry about that! My name’s Tobyn! What’s yours?”
She bowed a little bit. “Sayaka Maizono. Maybe you’ve seen one of my work?”
I feigned a bit of ignorance as to not freak her out too much. “Oh yeah! You’re that idol right? I’m a big fan of yours! I simply didn’t recognize you right away.” Understatement of the century, and a bit of lying, but to be fair I didn’t think telling I came from another dimension is a good opening line.
She giggled a bit. “I knew it, I’m a psychic after all.”
‘God she’s so adorable!’, that’s how I still feel about it. I nervously laughed in response. “I guess you are.”
Sayaka then begun to look around for a bit. “It’s so strange though. I’m sure I fell asleep in my room after an exhausting day. What is this place? I sure hope you’re not some kind of pervert that kidnapped me!”
Nah you’re just my goddess and I put a huge ton of posters of you in my room. Yeah.. I was just going to deny any involvement and not make things worse for myself. “No! Not at all! Actually I’m as lost as I you. I arrived here on accident. An old man called it: ‘Koenyume’ I think? He simply said that I’d meet somebody wishing for my help here.”
She giggled again. “Well aren’t you full of yourself? What makes you think I’m not the one that will help you instead?”
I huffed, puffing my chest: “Well I don’t want to brag but my papercraft and rapping rival that of a pro!”
It was her turn to be prideful. “If we had a mic, we would have seen about that pretty boy. Nobody surpasses me in that regards, not counting Mioda and Akamatsu. I do hope I could see one of your work around paper though.”
I sighed: “Sadly there’s nothing here…”
She looked down. “Indeed.”
A moment of silence passed by where neither of us tried to engage in a conversation. I didn’t want to appear creepy nor press her so I simply sat down on the “ground”, and she followed.
In the end, she was the one who spoke first again. “You know Tobyn, you might be a psychic too, or a least a supernatural entity.”
I raised an eyebrow at this declaration. “Why is that Maizono?” I didn’t dare to use her first name in this case.
She looked sad, a sight I wanted to fix the second I saw it. “You were correct. There’s an issue I need counseling about.”
I softly laughed. “Well, if that’s why I was brought here, hit me up with it! I’m down to help.”
She smiled warmly at my declaration, her cheeks were starting to redden. “You see, I have some trouble with… Makoto Naegi… my boyfriend”.
As the red of her face started to blossom, my heart sank lower and lower. Of course… They are childhood sweethearts, destined to be together if not for the Killing Game, why did I hope for anything more. Seeing my discomfort, she immediately backpedaled: “O-Of course we barely know each other! So discussing so openly of my relation might be inappropriate! If you don’t want to...”
I was presented with three choices here. I could simply not help her at all after this disillusion, help her but sabotage their relation in hopes she’ll love me instead, or… “Alright I’ll do my best. Sorry about that little down time, it’s hard to picture an idol actually dating somebody.” truly wish for her happiness like I should do even if it hurts me.
She giggles: “Ah yes! It’s really not common, I actually fought a lot with my agency to be allowed to date him.” Even for love she’s fighting hard to live happily and how she wants to. Something I expected out of her.
I scratch my head. “So what’s the problem then? Naegi is a pretty great guy isn’t he?”
She claps her hands together, cute. “He definitely is! However, a lot of girls and boys are showing interest in him, and that’s actually because of something gripping inside my chest that I decided on a whim to ask him to date me. This feeling is still there of course. But when we’re alone it’s always a bit awkward and I don’t know what’s causing it. Do you happen to know why that might be the case?”
‘Okay, their couple is in a rough spot, but keep your expectation low, kill them even.’ was something I repeatedly told myself during this exchange. It was terrible I know, but I could only do so much about my feelings. I spoke frankly about the matter: “You should be upfront about it with him. Naegi is an earnest boy. He’ll understand and work towards fixing this issue.”
I realized afterwards that I gave a lot of information about him based on my knowledge of the series. She actually never told me what he was like. But she was so deep in thought and her problems that this wasn’t an issue she took issues with.
In the end she left the dream world happily, saying to me that I was kind and a great help. Even then we continued to see each other in it, each time she went to sleep, making her guess I was some kind of dream wanderer or something. For two weeks we had conversations, both about the world, which made me learn this was indeed a timeline where no tragedy occurred, and about everyone. She was such a social butterfly, it was easy for her to get along with the students, although she did avoid the subject of class 79, mostly because she doesn’t get along well with them apparently. During this time period I also helped her a lot with Naegi, gave advice, watched her be happy. I thought just being somewhat with her was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life.
In the times where I was left alone in this place, I would think. Think about my past, and the world I left behind. Should I try to find a way to go back home or stay here forever? In the end I decided to stay. After all, what fool abandon after achieving their impossible dream? I did however wished for everyone I knew to have good and healthy lives in my absences, whether they even missed me or not. This is what making sacrifice is all about.
Also during these two weeks, I would make her laugh a lot, we got closer, actually being friends to one another, even if I could only appear in her dreams. But I constantly told myself to restrain any kind of desire I might have felt during this period, to poor success. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to misinterpret her stares with her beautiful eyes, her silences, her fiddling with her hair when nervous, her blushes or how she touched me sometimes after a joke. She had Naegi.
The day just after these two weeks however, she came back to me looking relieved but also sadden at the same time. “What happened?” I immediately asked.
She sighed before smiling warmly. “Naegi and I had a long discussion today, and we actually came to the same conclusion. We are each other’s best and closest friend, but we don’t like each other that way. It took us some time to put it into words, but we are much better with a platonic closeness. When I asked him to go out with me, it was out of fear and jealousy that he would be spending time with somebody else. But really, I was just projecting my own insecurities on him, I put efforts yes but in the wrong places. He would have been by my side regardless of romantic feelings.”
My heart exploded and I felt myself blushing in an instant despite the situation. “Oh… Sorry, that… must… I mean… good for you if…”
She cut me off. “Tobyn, I’m a psychic you know?”
I was rubbing my neck nervously at this statement. “Y-Yeah I know that.”
She smirks a bit. “If you suddenly started to appear in my dreams, that’s not only because you wanted me to be happy, am I wrong?”
I didn’t answer orally but my body language did the talking for me.
She got closer. “I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me about yourself.”
I still kept my mouth shut.
My eyes were locking into hers.
She got even closer. “You’re a great guy. But you’re also a dirty liar. So why don’t you be completely honest with me this time?”
So I told her everything, in details, even the room, just everything my heart was building up over these past few weeks. How much I loved her. How much I always loved her.
How precious she was to me.
When I finished my rant, I was sweating from the stress of the embarrassment. I didn’t dare to look into her eyes before she grabbed my sleeves and made me.
We both were red like tomatoes. “You’re insane, but it’s so endearing.” is simply what she said before hugging me. “I couldn’t ask for a more loyal man.”
I simply grabbed her entire body with my arm, pressed it against mine, I didn’t want to let go. “Hey Maizono.” I said.
“Sayaka.” she corrected me.
I coughed a bit. “Sayaka.”
We still were hugging each other. “Yes?” She whispered sweetly.
I got a hold of myself and started to speak with more sincerity and courage than I ever did: “I know we don’t know each other for very long, my story is unbelievable, and I might not be the perfect man.”
She giggled. “But?”
My voice was quiet but my intention and determination were as loud as a shout. “I’ll make you the happiest woman on Earth, even if I only stay in your dreams, I’ll do anything, I promise. My loyalty will be unyielding and undying.” Still holding each other we look at one another. “Will you be my girl?”
She was crying a bit. “Yeah, I’d love to.” It was my turn to cry and I embraced her.
We didn’t speak for what felt like an eternity. Regardless, Eternity is nothing compared to a Goddess. So I, simple mortal, made sure to cherish that moment.
After this, I tried to go for a kiss but Sayaka stopped me, blushing. “Wait.” She said. “I spoke with Jin Kirigiri, my headmaster, and Yasuke Matsuda, the ultimate neurologist, about these dreams with you. The latter couldn’t find anything wrong with my brain, and so the former decided that if this story was true, they should manage to reproduce what got you here in the first place. So let’s wait until you’re actually in the real world alongside me.”
I nodded. “Alright.’ Before smirking. “But I might lose interest in you when this finally happens.”
A glimpse of malice flashed across her eyes. “Oh yeah? What does that imply?”
I said cheekily: “Maybe beside your idol persona, you’re nothing more than a plain and boring girl.”
She fired back: “And I never saw you sing. Maybe you’re actually a fraud and an even naughtier liar?”
I teased her. “I guess there’s only one way to settle this.”
She nodded. “You’ll only get to kiss me if you actually perform well.”
I concluded. “And you’ll only get to kiss me if our performance is so powerful the whole school learns go watch it! If you don’t succeed I’ll go on another tangent about the greatness of chicken and elephants!”
In the end all of this teasing finished in a tickle fight after Sayaka said “Feeling cocky aren’t we?”
Surprisingly, it only took the geniuses of Hope’s Peak one week to bring me back to the world of the living. But it wasn’t that far-fetched either, since there was namely, Yasuke, Otonashi completely independent from Junko, Kazuichi, Chihiro, Hajime without any sign of Izuru Kamakura weirdly enough, but even more surprising was the presence of Utsuro alongside them. ‘So that’s who populates class 79, I see. Maybe in this timeline class 79 is a cult to him hence why Maizono feels uncomfortable with them? Not my business anyway.’ was how I simply thought about the whole ordeal.
After being brought back, and given some clothing, I was pressed into Jin Kirigiri’s office. Damn I felt like a boss at this instant. “So I believe you’re the person that mysteriously started to invade Sayaka Maizono’s dreams and who claims to come from another world, is that correct?”
‘No, not at all, bye!’ was the kind of trollish response I wanted to give in the moment but I kept my serious. “That is true sir. My name is Tobyn Jacobs, although you can just call me Tobyn.”
He nodded at this, wrote it down, and asked me: “Tobyn, even your name is foreign… You may understand that the experience you just lived through is one that is… rather unique, and we wish to make you an Ultimate. Obviously, since you don’t have a family to return to in your circumstances we will offer you a dorm room like with the internships students. Would you accept that?”
I bowed down. “Yes sir. I’d love to be a student at Hope’s Peak academy.”
Jin Kirigiri smiled at the news. “Perfect, we will talk about the forms tomorrow. You are dismissed for now.”
Before leaving the room however, I had one last request for him: “Since my love for Sayaka is what drew me into this world, could you made me ‘The Ultimate Lover’ please?”
The headmaster nodded and I left his office satisfied and at peace, only to be tackled-hugged at full speed and strength by her, leaving me very few room to breath but I didn’t care. “Hey Sayaka.” I simply responded.
She pulled out two mics and a speaker she was carrying in her bag. “You didn’t forget your promise, did you?”
I laughed. “How could I? I’ll get that kiss.”
She stuck her tongue out: “Try me.”
We got up and rushed out in the blink of an eye.
Now I could tell you right now the story of my first kiss, how the music battle between the two of us went down, how despite my amateurism I put up a good fight thanks to my lyrics, how Kazuichi was managing the stereo and he, Ibuki, and Makoto were the first one to really amp the stakes by hyping everyone with their encouragements, how the kiss was not a reward but a sharing between two persons in love, but this is a story for another time folks.
And now I’m here at Hope’s Peak, at the side of the girl I cherished the most all my life.
I could not be happier.
“I love you Sayaka.”
“Me too Tobyn.”
If this writing of mine transcends time and space again to arrive in my original dimension…
Let me say that you shouldn’t be ashamed of your passions,
You shouldn’t feel judged because of an interest,
Because of what comforts you,
As long as nobody is hurt,
Why feel ashamed,
Of wanting to live,
As yourself?
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Fin