Chapter Text
You always had this misguided belief that if you were ever faced with a yandere you would live. Well, not a real one exactly; one from a yandere romance game. Even more specifically you are so delusional that you think if you were ever isekai’d into a yandere romance game you would be able to get the best ending, no problem.
This all started in middle school. After learning about what a yandere is you soon found yourself taking a quiz titled “Would you survive a yandere?”. You, of course, aced it, getting the best outcome. From there the obsession grew.
You’ve played so many horror romance games at this point you’ve started to find them easy. Time and time again you would play a new game blind only to end up with the best ending first try. This of course did not help with your delusion, only worsening it.
Perhaps you’re being cursed for your hubris, you ponder as a clown presents a black and red circus ticket to you.
~~~~~
You were late. Your alarm didn’t go off, or maybe you turned it off and forgot about it? Either way, if you didn’t hurry you wouldn’t make it on time to work. You hate being late, not only is it rude it just inconveniences everyone involved. On complete autopilot you rush through your morning routine, not once taking a second to think or even breathe. Maybe it was because of your rush that you didn’t notice the glaring signs screaming that something was wrong.
Something bad was going to happen today. You just didn’t know it yet.
You run down the streets as fast as you can, not paying any mind to the people around you. You’re finally pulled out of your thoughts by a loud thud. It takes you far longer than it should for you to realise the thud was you hitting the ground. Now on the ground you see a man looking quite startled, his elbow still in the air after accidentally smacking you in the face with it. In a way you are almost grateful for this. With one good smack the haze you didn’t realise was clouding your mind cleared. You look around, realising you have no idea where you are. Finally you are truly able to see the world around you.
You look back up, the man above you sputtered, somehow more shocked than you that his elbow made contact with your face. He hesitates, seemingly wanting to say something but thinks better of it. The onlookers might have had something to do with this. He walks away, finally leaving you alone, or so you thought. You nearly jump when your dropped bag comes into view, you weren’t expecting the black gloved hand holding the purse out to you.
You gape at the familiar black and red clad clown standing in front of you. How had you not noticed him earlier? You stare at him; he stares back. Gently you take your purse back from his gloved hands. He continues to stare at you, hand still outstretched. A few seconds of awkward staring later you realise he wants you to take it. Clawed hands wrap around your much smaller fingers. He helps you stand, neither of you saying a word, both still staring at each other.
Your phone’s alarm rings out, putting an end to the strange staring contest. You reach into your bag for the blaring object, dropping a box of bandages in the process. With the alarm shut off you were free to grab the box of bandages. You grab one for the silent clown. He tilts his head when you hand the pink kitty bandage to him so you point to the bleeding scratch on his pure white face.
“You’re bleeding.” You manage to mutter out. He smiles, wider than any human could, his face now a lovely shade of pink. He reaches for the bandage, clawed fingers brush against your much smaller ones. He grips the bandage lovingly in his hand. With that now settled you give a small wave to him before running off. You ignore the yellow eyes following you as you run off to work.
Finally alone you are free to think. Nothing is making sense, how could you not have noticed something was off sooner? How could something like this even happen in the first place? At least one thing is clear, even if you don’t want it to be true.
You can’t believe you got isekai’d into The Freak Circus.
~~~~~
It's a miracle you even made it to the small café. You ran blindly, brain having no idea where to go with your feet already knowing exactly what path to take. It seems whatever brought you here didn’t want you to lose your job. Here’s hoping you can make it home after as well.
“You got here just in time.” Your boss tells you as soon as you walk in the door. You’re not sure how, with the murder clown taking so much of your time this morning. “It’s going to be busy today, Carol hasn’t shown up.”
“Is she okay?” You ask, knowing the answer but still hoping you’re wrong.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t reach her. She’s probably not feeling well.”
“Oh…”
“Hey, don’t worry so much, I’m sure it's fine.” Your boss assures you. You nod.
“That’s the spirit, now go get your apron, I need you to take these orders to their tables.”
“Got it.” You walk towards a small sink, looking in the mirror above it you could see a small bruise forming where that man elbowed you. You reach into your purse, hopeful. Thankfully there was some concealer you could use to cover it up.
~~~~~
The customers keep you busy. You spent so much time running around you almost forgot that this isn’t your real workplace, your real life, your real world…. Ah, great, now you’re thinking about it again. Thankfully whatever autopilot brought you to the cafe also helped you get the hang of your new job. You barely made any mistakes, even when you made coffee for the first time.
The customers are really nice too. They would stop and chat with you whenever you weren’t busy. Normally you hate talking to strangers but in an unfamiliar environment any information you can get is vital. It seems you really are trapped in The Freak Circus game. Several of the customers even say exact dialogue from the game.
You look down at your phone, the same one from the real world. Only a few things have changed, you now have a few additional contacts (Carol and your boss) and almost all traces of the freak circus fandom have been removed. Instead of finding fanart when you find people are people posting ticket sales and blurry photos of the circus acts. You guess that makes sense.
What doesn’t make sense is that the official freak circus tumblr still exists, that and NekoBueno’s. Maybe this is one of those special isekai perks? Instead of “I got isekai’d into a fantasy land with a magical gun.” it’s “I got isekai’d into a video game with all of the character Q&As.”
You sigh. What a mess you’ve found yourself in. What’s even worse is that you didn’t even get the choice to interact with Pierrot. You just kind of ran into him.
You look down at your phone once more. It seems your character was quite close with Carol, even texting her last night.
Yesterday 8:43 PM
Carol: Work was sooo boring today.
Carol: Wish you were here instead of whatever fun thing you decided was more important than me.
You: You mean cleaning my house?
Carol: That’s what you do on your time off? Girl you need to live more.
Carol: Do something! Anything!
You: Like what?
Carol: Well there’s a circus in town.
Carol: We could go see it together.
You: The horror circus? Yeah, I’m good.
Carol: Oh come on! I know you secretly like horror!
You: I do like horror. Just not gore.
Carol: How do you know there’s going to be gore?
You: It's all the customers will talk about.
You: All the blood in their shows.
Carol: You’re just mad it's not your favorite type of horror.
You: Which is?
Carol: Yandere romance horror
You: :[
Carol: lol
Carol: You can run all you want but you can’t escape from the truth!
Carol: Look, since you want to be such a scaredy cat I’ll go first. That way I’ll know what’s too scary for you, you big baby.
You: Wow, how sweet.
You: What would I ever do without you?
Carol: Spend your free time cleaning.
You: :/
Carol: lol
Carol: See you tomorrow.
You: See you tomorrow.
It's strange. The texts sound just like you, even the way you type is the same. And the words are such a punch in the gut, Carol went to the circus by herself so that you wouldn't be scared. Wow. Why do bad things always happen to kind-hearted baddies? Even though you know she won’t receive it you still want to send her a quick message. It feels wrong not to.
Today 12:57 AM
You: Hey, I heard you weren’t feeling well.
You: I hope you get better soon.
~~~~~
It's not until late into the evening that you realise you haven’t seen Pierrot in the store windows. You don’t know if that's a good sign or a really bad one. Either he didn’t take enough notice of you to want to stalk you, or somehow a six and a half foot clown covered in bells is so sneaky he can escape your notice even when you know to look for him. Both could be pretty bad, actually.
You look around the cafe, it’s absolutely covered in circus flyers. Seeing as there are no new customers you decided to take a second to start cleaning them up. Your boss will want you to clean them up later anyway you might as well do it now.
“Oh good. I was just about to ask you to clean those up.” Your boss says, right on schedule. “If you see anyone trying to pass those out in here tell them we don’t allow that, it's bad for business.”
“Got it.” He smiles at you, pleased, before going right back to the kitchen. You go back to gathering the fliers, just as you pick the last one up the bell on the door chimes.
You welcome the new customer at his table, stack of flyers still in hand. The Ticket Taker stands before you in his human disguise. He wears a blue suit, his black hair slicked back. A dark shadow covers his features from view despite the ample lighting in the café. The only part of his face you can see clearly is his mouth and left eye.
“I’d like a strong, hot coffee.” The man orders.
“Of course, right away.” You turn to get his order, eager to leave his watchful gaze. He stops you with nothing but his words.
“What are those flyers for?” He asks, voice smooth as hot chocolate.
“They’re flyers for the circus. They keep getting left in here so I have to pick them all up.” You explain, careful with your words.
“I see. How rude of people to leave them in a place of business, it just creates more work for everyone.” You nod along, pretending to listen. “I’ll take them off your hands, I was in need of paper for recycling anyway.” You wonder what he’ll do with these flyers. Does he go around picking up all the unwrinkled flyers around town? Does he just hand them back out again afterwards? Well it's convenient for you, now you don’t have to go throw them away.
“Thank you.” You leave the stack of paper on the edge of his table.
“No problems, dear.”
“Right, I’ll get your coffee then.” You walk behind the counter. The Ticket Taker’s visible eye follows you, it makes you nervous. This is one coffee you really don’t want to mess up. You walk back to his table, drink and check both on your tray. Hopefully he won't stay too much longer.
“Here you go.” You say, trying your best to give a cheerful customer service persona. “Do you need anyth-”
“Do you like the circus?” He asks, interrupting you.
“Huh?” The Ticket Taker repeats himself. “Oh, um, no. I don’t like loud crowded areas.” You say in an attempt to shut him up but, you know, trying to not sound like you're trying to shut him up.
“I see. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. The performances themselves aren’t very loud at all.” The man pulls out a pink and black slip of paper from his pocket. He slides the ticket across the table to you. “I was planning on going to the circus a second time, so I bought another ticket. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it so I was hoping to find someone else to use my ticket for me.” He taps the ticket twice with his index finger before pulling his hand away.
Your first instinct is to refuse the ticket but you decide to give it some serious thought. You know the dangers of this ticket when nobody else does. If you refuse this ticket it's just going to end up in someone else’s hands. Perhaps if you take it, that means one less person being taken away by the circus.
“Well… if you insist.” You reach out, hesitant. Finally you pick up the pink ticket. “Thank you.”
“Thank you, I’ll be glad to know someone used my ticket.”
“Yes, well… Let me know if you need anything else.” You leave the customer to his drink, returning to the back room. You carefully place your newly acquired ticket into your purse. You aren’t sure what to do with it now.
“We’re closing up early tonight.” Your boss approaches. “When the last customer leaves I want you to start locking up. I have an unexpected appointment and I’d rather you didn’t stay here alone too late.”
“Alright. Thanks!” You say, glad it's finally over.
“You’ve never closed up alone before, are you sure you got this?”
“Of course! It's no problem.” How hard could it be anyway?
“Good. I already cleaned the kitchen so it's just the front that needs to be wiped down. Call me if you need anything.” Your boss sets the keys on the counter for you. You give him a little wave as he exits the back door.
“Here’s the payment. I’m heading out now, have a good night.”
“You too, sir!” You call out to the customer. That was almost immediate. You wonder if the Ticket Taker heard your boss telling you to close up, deciding to not overstay his welcome.
“Alright time to clean up.” You say to yourself, stretching. As you wipe the tables you get the feeling that you forgot something. But what?
Just then the lights went out. Deep in the darkness you hear the jingling of bells.
Calmly you walk towards the breaker, there is just enough light to ensure you don’t bump into any tables. You look over all the switches, not sure with one you need to flip at first.
“Ah hah, there it is.” you whisper to yourself. With the lights back on you go back to wiping the tables like they were never out in the first place
*ring ring*
Ah! That’s right, you forgot to lock the door!
“Excuse me! We’re closed.” You call out, not even looking up from the spot you were scrubbing. When you don’t hear any more noise you finally decide to turn around. You end up flinching involuntarily. You weren’t expecting Pierrot to be so close to you, literally right behind you, but there he was. You didn’t realise you stepped back until you saw the rejected look on the red clown’s face.
“Oh! Hello again. I didn’t see you there.” You smile warmly, welcoming the clown you met earlier. You feel weirdly accepting of the presence of this cute murder clown. Perhaps it's the hurt puppy dog look, or perhaps it's the lingering affection you have for this yandere romance protagonist.
He smiles widely. Grabbing your hands he thrusts something into your open palm.
“Huh? Um, Thank you?” You look over the small object, an origami flower, recently painted red. The “paint” is not fully dry in some areas. Pleased he nods his head, the bells on his hat jingle. You look up at him and get a clear view of the cut on his forehead. Well, you’re already in the deep end so you might as well swim.
“You’re bleeding.” You state calmly, pointing to the cut. “Here, sit at the counter. I’m going to get the first aid kit.” When you return with the kit you find the red clown sitting right where you directed him too, silent as a mime. He’s taller than you even sitting down so you have to ask him to lean down for you.
You grab an antiseptic wipe, warning your patient of the incoming sting before wiping up the blood. The cut is right along his hairline, luckily there isn’t much blood in his hair and only a little dripped onto his mask. The drop gives you an excuse to look over the strange object.
‘How does he make all of those facial expressions with a mask? Wait, how did he bleed through a mask!?’ You decide to stop thinking about it anymore. ‘Let’s just get him cleaned up.’
“I’m glad this cut is so small. When I saw all the blood I was worried you would need stiches.” You tell the clown, applying a bandage from the first aid kit. It's not nearly as cute as the first one you gave him, just a faded apricot color. You take a step back, you were a lot closer to his face than you realised.
“Well, all done!” You smile, turning towards the first aid kit and away from the clown. You clean up the supplies to hide the slight blush on your face. You can not crush on this guy! He’s not real! He’s not real? Except he kind of is? Okay, new mantra. He eats people, he eats people.
“Thank you, my lady.” You jump, not expecting the deep voice behind you.
“Huh?” The clown repeats himself, a little louder and more cheerful this time. “Oh, it was nothing.” You blush, embarrassed by your reaction.
“It’s not “nothing” to me, my lady. I sincerely appreciate all you’ve done for me.” He gives you a theatrical bow. “I’m the Pierrot, nice to meet you.” He introduces himself with a hint of flair.
‘I know.’ You think, your words mirroring his own from the game.
“It's nice to meet you too!” You give him your name as well, ignoring the words whispered under his breath. You debate kicking him out now. He hasn’t given you his ticket yet but you’d like to hurry this up. You would like to go home after all.
“What’s this?” Suddenly Pierrot is a lot closer to you. He even grabs hold of your face, turning it so he can see your cheek better.
“What’s what? Oh! The bruise! It was from earlier.” You explain. The bruise had completely slipped your mind. You’re surprised Pierrot saw it, in the dim lighting and covered with makeup. “I haven’t thought about it since this morning. Does it look bad?” Pierrot doesn’t answer you. He just continues to hold your face, glaring at the spot the man from this morning hit you.
“Pierrot?” Suddenly he’s gone, almost as if he was always a proper distance from you.
“Ah, that’s right there’s one other thing. I’ve brought you another small token of appreciation.” He pulls a red ticket from out of nowhere. “I’d be most delighted if you came to my show, my lady. I assure you I’ll make you smile with my performance.” He holds out the ticket, eager for you to take it.
Perhaps you’re being cursed. You ponder. Perhaps your hubris is finally coming back to bite you. You said you would survive a yandere romance and God said “Bet.” You got your wish and now here you are, stuck in a yandere romance visual novel.
“Can you really give tickets away for free?” You ask, not once mentioning the pink ticket from earlier.
“Of course! Each performer has their own special tickets to hand out.” He smiles at you.
“Special tickets? What do the special tickets do?” You pry. He’s silent for a moment. He must be scrambling to make an excuse.
“You get front row seats.” He says finally. “And the other performers will know I invited you.” He says the last hesitantly, like he’s not sure if he should.
“Oh, I see! Thank you.” It's the same excuse Ticket Taker gives in game, but Pierrot did basically admit that the tickets are a way to mark you as his territory.
“Will you come see my performance, my lady?” Pierrot asks, still holding his ticket out for you.
“Of course I will! I’d love to see it!” You take the ticket from his hands. Pierrot’s face turns bright red as your fingers brush up against each other. You flip the ticket over in your hands. A picture of Pierrot is on the back. It's kind of cute, for a picture of a horror themed clown. Your eyes drift over the counter, lost in thought. You see the hand towel you threw to the side, finally remembering that you’re supposed to be cleaning.
“Oh right, I forgot that I didn’t finish cleaning up yet.”
“Do you need help, my lady?” He asks, leaning a little closer to you. You shake your head, already grabbing hold of the towel.
“There’s no need, I just have to clean the tables and lock up. It won’t take long at all.” You tell him.
“I see, then have a good night, my lady.” He stands, the bells on his hand jingling. You walk him to the door, you’re going to remember to lock it this time.
“Goodnight, Pierrot!” You wave him off, shutting and locking the door behind him. You clean up, quick but through. You are eager to get home but don’t want to miss something and have to clean it all over again in the morning.
You pretend you don’t notice the yellow eyes following your nightly routine.
~~~~~
You return home to the apartment, somehow. It's not like you actually knew the way back. You had to rely purely on whatever got to the café to bring you back, luckily it worked out.
Once inside you shut the apartment door behind you, clicking the lock in place. You throw your bag on the floor, not caring where it ends up, that’s tomorrow’s problem. You place the flower Pierrot gave you on the nightstand and hide the tickets in a drawer before scrounging over every inch of the apartment. There has to be some sort of clue as to how you got here. Maybe there’s even a way to get home. You're not too hopeful on that front, you’ve never heard of someone in an isekai actually making it home.
After an hour you finally give up. You looked over everything at least twice and found nothing. You’re exhausted and a little bit sweaty. Just a quick shower and then you can sleep.
You collapse in bed with your hair still dripping wet. You could stay like this all night if it weren’t for one thing; the curtain. You forgot to close the curtain for the balcony door. You groan, standing up despite your body’s protest. You lock the sliding door and close the curtain. It probably won’t actually stop Pierrot from getting inside but you aren’t going to make it easy for him. You throw yourself back on the bed, asleep the moment your head hits the pillow.
That night when you dream it is of red-clad clowns whispering devotion. Several times you tried to wake, only to be soothed back to restful darkness.