Prologue

Inaba Shopping District

Tuesday, April 12th, 2017

Midnight

The native silence loomed over the small town of Inaba, Japan, as Naoki Konishi quietly slipped out of his home. He had troubles sleeping tonight, and when that happened he would go for a late-night walk to clear his head. He locked his front door, making sure not to wake anyone in the house, and stuffed the key in his jacket pocket as he began his stroll down the shopping district. The idle glow from the nearby streetlights had a rather relaxing effect on the area, as the young man turned on his mp3 player, Nujabes interrupting the chorus of nearby crickets through his headphones. Regardless of the environment, however, Naoki was far from relaxed, as he headed towards a particular street in the area. Something kept racing through the young man's mind that night. Something that was actually bothering him for a few days now.

This was no ordinary Tuesday night.

That very night marked the six-year anniversary of the beginning of a murder mystery. A case so bizarre, so scandalous, that it turned the very town on it's head. A cat-and-mouse chase that had the entire police department on edge. A mangle of disappearances and murders which was, from a pedestrian point of view, questionably solved. And it all started on the night his sister had found…

Naoki shook his head, doing his best to avoid thinking about Saki's connection to the case. While he found solace and managed to get through the process of mourning, you could say his family never got over the loss of their daughter after all these years, and honestly, they had some extent of a right to. His sister was a pawn, at the wrong place and time, who didn't deserve the fate she was given. Nonetheless, she was no longer in pain, and he could never hate her for that.

Naoki stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, suddenly snapping out of his daydream. He growled in irritation for a moment, but then regained his cool. The fog in Inaba had grown thick lately, and around this time it was difficult for one to see where they're going. It was around this time that the streetlights were the least useful. In the fog, they were barely visible, and was very easy to lose sight of.

However, there was one way to navigate through the fog to his destination.

Like clockwork, the windows of the town's old electronic stores began to glow a bright light as the televisions all turned on at once. He stopped by one of the shops and stared at the screens in the display, waiting for the next special. You see, Naoki was on edge over the anniversary of those murders, but for multiple reasons. The main reason was because of a rumor that seemed to rise from the dead.

A rumor about rainy nights and destined lovers.

It had been years since Naoki had heard about the Midnight Channel from his sister, and he was very skeptical of it at that time. The rumor was that on a rainy night at midnight, if you stare at a blank television screen, your soulmate would appear. He remembered laughing about how ridiculous such a thing could be with Saki. She would joke that they had to try it someday, and if they got the same person, they must fight to the death over who would get them. Saki had such an interesting sense of humor...He missed that.

He remembered that she had tried the channel out the day after she had found that reporter. She had told him that other students at their school were proclaiming that they had seen the reporter on it shortly before her death, and she couldn't help but feel like it wasn't a coincidence. Though in the end, his skepticism prevailed, but to no joy, as he watched her break down, the stress the family gave her, along with the local gossip, and now the fact that she couldn't even prove a lead, finally getting to her...And shortly thereafter, one day, out of thin air,Saki Konishi had vanished.

And now here he was, staring at the exact same TV she used when she would take these walks. Tension built up in his shoulders for some reason, his breathing gaining weight as it seemed to begin changing channels. He thought that was bizarre, since it supposedly only showed one channel, according to the rumors. Suddenly the TV he glared at shut off, and his heartbeat intensified. Was….Was it going to show…

Static.

Naoki scoffed, shocked that he had wasted his time coming out here for this crap. He knew it was some garbage rumor, but for some reason he actually fell for his dead sister's joke. Even in death, Saki knew how to make him believe anything. That thought actually calmed him down, smirking at the fact that she fooled him from beyond the grave. He began to turn around, ready to go back home and sneak into bed for the night...Until he saw it.

On the monitor that he was staring at, the static suddenly warped into an image of a white rabbit. It's eyes were gold, which seemed to stand out through the static. The rest of the image was being slightly warped from the poor signal, but it was clear he was staring at a white rabbit for sure. He could almost feel the symbol's eyes pierce into him, which started to intimidate him. And suddenly, in a flash, all the televisions shut off in unison, leaving Naoki lost in the thick fog.

His heavy breathing and heartbeat drowned out his headphones as he began to run home. At least, he believed he was heading that way. This fog was messing with him, but he was NOT going to let it intervene with him getting the hell out of the area as soon as possible. He tripped again, faceplanting onto the asphalt. He gets up on all fours, collecting his consciousness and getting ready to scream in irritation and fear…

Until he saw the blood dripping in front of him.

Naoki's expression went cold. His eyes felt stuck to the floor, too afraid to look up. 'No...Please no…' Naoki thought to himself as he slowly forced himself to start tilting his head up. 'Please don't tell me…' He then finally looked up at the mangled corpse on the antenna, covering his mouth to hide his horror. 'Oh god…'

She began to look familiar as he made himself look dead-on at the girl. She had long, beautiful black hair, and silky, white skin. She had a kimono on, which appeared to be ripped from some struggle. He then noticed the fan that was on the ground below her, and recognized it right away. It was one of the fans that the staff at the Amagi Inn would carry on them. He knew this, because the only person he knew personally that had one was...was…

As Naoki Konishi identified Yukiko Amagi's mangled body before him, his screams interrupted the peaceful chorus of crickets nearby, as an old murder mystery...had been brought back to light.

The Velvet Room Library proudly presents:

Persona 4 Midnight Special: The Case Of The Inaba Rabbit

(A Persona fanfiction)