Doki Doki Despair Club

Act II: Interlude

...

I find myself inside a bedroom that has paintings of clowns in checkered uniforms all over the walls, and the word 'dice' written in all capitals on the wall to my left, such that it stretches all the way from one side of the wall to the other. The room reeks of grape Panta and Fruit by the Foot, but the most notable part of all is the large hydraulic press located right in front of me, next to what I assume must be the bed belonging to this room's inhabitant. I get that a lot of people do hands-on work nowadays that requires disassembling old materials that no longer have any use, but right next to your bed? I pity anyone who tosses and turns in their sleep a lot and one day, thought it'd be a good idea to cuddle up right here.

Imagine having a nightmare that causes painful memories to resurface for you, resulting in you losing your shit and begging to wake up, only to fall into that hydraulic press, still on Cloud Nine at the same time. No one would even be able to picture the crap you were going through in your last moments, because there'd be nothing to see.

I'm probably overthinking this a little too much, but the idea of not being able to cherish someone's memory because they got turned into an obfuscated mess seems like it hits a little too close to home for some reason. Why am I in here, again? I'm snapped out of my inner monologue by what I presume to be muffled screaming coming from the press, likely from inside the bottom half. Sure enough, I walk over, to find a petite girl with long purple hair and eyelashes, alongside the same uniform the clowns on the wall had, inside, with her arms behind her head, like she's just waiting to be squashed. What do I say right now?

"Uh, hello? I don't really know how to explain what I'm doing here right now, but I'm pretty sure you realize that this is a hazard to your health, right? Can we talk more AFTER you get out of here?" I say.

"Nishishi, that's the entire point, silly. Does Saihara-chan not know how this works? I'm joining the Suicide Squad, wish me luck!" she replies cheerfully. Why is it always the most childish people who end up being the most disturbed?

I narrow my eyes. "How the HELL do you know my name? What's your angle, you plan to just drop something mysterious like this on me and then kill yourself before I can ask you anything else so that I'm left wondering forever? Taking the easy way out like that is pretty pathetic, you know?"

The girl sighs. "Wow, Saihara-chan, you're a lot crankier than I remember you being, it's kind of weird. But I guess that's kind of my fault, isn't it? I can't just take back what I forced you to see."

"I don't remember ever meeting someone like you, but you seem to know me, or think you do for some reason. What exactly is it that you think you did to me? And are you not going to come out of the press?"

"I don't have a lot of time to explain, but in case you didn't realize, the press isn't actually on right now, if it was I'd have already turned into cherry Kool-Aid, nishishi. There's like, no way you actually thought you'd just happen to show up conveniently enough to save me at the last second. I guess an emo detective is fast, but a man-made machine is waaaayyyy faster." she giggles. I don't know how that slipped my mind, but in my defense, I was just acting on the first thoughts most people would have in a situation like this. She continues. "First, I guess I need to reintroduce myself, which, hmph, I'm not really happy about, given how important I am! But since it's you, I guess I can let it slide. Anyways, the wait is over, I'm Oma Kokichi, the Ultimate Supreme Leader!"

...Oma Kokichi...you...supreme leader...thinking about this evokes way too many memories that I don't have the key to unlock yet, but I don't think she was lying about meeting me before. And with the way she's talking to me right now, it's like we were really close before, how could I just forget her so easily then?