Chapter Two
It was Sunday and Yosuke found himself heading over to Yu's house. His friend hadn't seemed all right over the last few days at school. Hadn't wanted to meet up at Junes and talk about who the murderer could possibly be.. Didn't want to talk about the fog that was enveloping the city. Yosuke really found it weird, as did everyone else. Sure, his partner was usually quiet, but this was something else entirely.
It didn't take long to get to his friend's house, seeing as Inaba was so small, and he knocked quickly on the door. "Hey! Partner open up! You didn't answer my text about coming over, so.." he frowned, hoping his friend would open the door and let him in. Maybe he could count on Nanako to-
He stopped himself right there. Nanako wouldn't be answering the door. There was a pain in his chest for a slight moment, but Yosuke took a deep breath, willing it to go away. Didn't need something else to get worked up about right now.
Starting to get a bit irritated, Yosuke knocked again, but louder. "Come on, Yu! Let me in, I-" he tried the door handle, and to his surprise, it was unlocked. Well, that was good, he guessed. For the moment, anyway..
Opening the door, Yosuke let himself in, and he looked around, growing quiet. The house was clean, as it usually was. But.. Nothing really felt right. Closing the door behind him, the teenager ventured further into the house, and he couldn't stop an overwhelming sense of grief come over him. Man, who knew it'd be this hard to come here and not see Nanako. Though, what he felt was probably nothing compared to what Dojima had to deal with.
Sucking it up for the moment, the magician finally went for Yu's room, opening the door without bothering to knock. The sight of Yu's bedroom was not what Yosuke had been expecting. Everything was.. clean. And Yu was just on his laptop, typing away. Yosuke had been expecting everything to be a complete mess, including his partner.. But what really bothered him was that Yu was..
Ignoring him.
"Yu! Man, what are you doing? We all thought you were depressed or something.." he commented, stepping further into his friend's room. "I mean, you're acting so different at school and-"
"Why are you here?" the silver-haired boy snipped, not even bothering to turn around to look at his visitor. "I figured you would put together the fact I didn't answer your text meant for you not to come over."
Yosuke winced. That was harsh.
"What the hell?" the teenager grunted, nervously fiddling with his red headphones. "I wanted to check up on you! You're acting really weird at school. We.. I.." he grew quiet, suddenly regretting his choice to come. "I wanted to check up on you.." he was quiet for a few moments, feeling nervous. Feeling stupid.
"Please leave, Yosuke."
Once again, the teen winced at his friend's tone. But the awkwardness he felt was soon replaced by an abrupt anger.
"What the hell?!" he yelled, his hand gripping Yu's shoulder and forcing him to turn around. "What's your problem? Why don't you come to the food court anymore? Why are you so uninterested in finding out who the murderer is?! We're so close, and suddenly you just.. Don't want to have anything to do with it anymore! You're the leader! We've got to solve this case and stop this stupid fog from killing everybody!" his voice cracked, brown eyes staring into cold grey. "Don't you care anymore? Nanako died because of all this, and you're just sitting on your ass at home-"
Suddenly, Yosuke felt himself being lifted off the ground, and a sharp pain shot through his neck before he realized what had even happened. Yu had stood up and caught him in the throat- All Yosuke could manage were a few coughs and to stumble backward, tripping onto Yu's small table.
Looking up at Yu, Yosuke couldn't find any words to say. This was different than what Yosuke was used to, and it scared him, though he wouldn't admit it.
"You think I don't care that Nanako died..?" Yu asked, hand going to cover his face in attempt to hide any emotion. "Don't ever say that again.." though his hand hid his eyes, Yosuke saw his friend's lips quiver. Narukami was always a hard guy to read, but now..
Dropping his hand, Yu gazed down at his friend, trying to remain emotionless. He had thought that distancing himself from his friends until he had to leave would've made things easier, but.. It didn't. He couldn't.. Live with himself. Not after what he had done. Not if his friends knew. If his friends found out he had aided Adachi.. Yu couldn't bear to even imagine their reactions. He had sacrificed his friendships in order to gain Adachi's, and the officer had laughed in his face.
Why did you betray everyone? The man's question burned in Yu's ears. The teenager knew exactly why he had done it. But he wasn't able to bring himself to tell Adachi. He felt the older man would laugh at him for it. And as the days passed by, the more Narukami thought about his decision and the more agonized he became about it. Because it hadn't been worth it. Adachi showed no more affection for him than he did before. In fact, the murderer was keeping an even closer eye on him than before. The fact that Yosuke was here was dangerous, and he didn't want his friend getting into any danger. But even when he was acting so cold toward his friend, all the guy wanted to do was stay.
Tears threatened to fall down Yu's cheeks, but he attempted to will them away. Just what had he gotten himself into..? It was stupid, that he had been so desperate for the officer's affections that he threw everything.. everyone.. away.
And he felt powerless to do anything about it.
Though Yu was unusually good at hiding his emotions, there was such turmoil going on within him that he couldn't help but stifle a small sob, so many emotions rushing forth that he was unable to do anything to stop it. He collapsed on the floor in front of Yosuke, face buried in his hands as tears burst forth, as his shoulders shook. Short fingernails dug into his face as if he were trying to hurt himself in order to make that sick feeling in his stomach go away.
"Y-yosuke.." the teen stuttered, pain clear. "I'm.. I'm s-sorry.. I.." he continued to sob as the magician gazed at him, dumbfounded.
"Yu.. I.." seeing his friend in such a state really worried Yosuke, and he didn't.. Didn't know what to do. Usually Yu was the one comforting people. He was the one helping everyone out. But here he was now, sobbing right in front of him. There was a lump in the teenager's throat as he continued to stare at his crying friend, not sure of what he should do or say.
"Partner.." he said quietly, brows furrowing. "I.. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that.. Of course you cared about Nanako, I.." biting his lower lip, he squatted beside his friend, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. "Nah, man.. Don't be sorry.. It didn't hurt too bad.." figured Yu was apologizing for hitting him in the throat. But man, now he felt bad for making him cry. This entire situation was awkward, his hand tense on his partner's shoulder as his friend cried hysterically.
Yosuke's hand on his shoulder was hardly a comfort. It was more of a reminder of what a failure he had been. Narukami kept thinking back to that single moment that had changed everything.. When he burned that letter. If Yosuke knew about that... These thoughts only made Yu cry harder, though he tried to stop, it was in vain. It didn't help that Yosuke thought this was only about Nanako- if only his friend knew the true depths of his troubles.
In a single moment, Yosuke found himself wrapped in Narukami's arms, his friend deciding to hug him in some sort of comfort. It made the magician's heart beat a bit faster, and he grew even more nervous. But that was stupid. Why should he be so nervous around his partner? Hugging was normal, right? Hugging someone when they were grieving..
Unable to stop himself from tearing up, Yosuke returned the hug, resulting in Narukami squeezing him even tighter, his friend crying into his shoulder.
Yu was always the strong one. The guy everyone looked up to. Heck, the guy helped him face his own shadow, helped him.. become okay with some parts of himself. No.. it was more than that. Yu was a good friend to him. The only good friend he'd ever had. The only person he felt he could really trust. Trust with his life. He hugged his friend tighter, burying his face in Yu's shoulder as his friend continued to cry.
It was the least he could do.
"You know, if.. If you ever need to talk, I'll listen.." Yosuke offered quietly. "You're always there for.. me. So.. you know..." saying this brought a bit of color to the teenager's cheeks, and he could feel it. Why did he have to feel this way around Narukami? He wasn't into guys.. That was Kanji's department. But he wasn't. A sigh left him as his partner just continued to cry, though it was less sobbing and more sniffling at this point. He'd never seen Yu break down like this, and it really.. It actually really hurt him to see his friend like this.
After what felt like an eternity of being wrapped in Narukami's arms, the silver-haired boy finally released his hold. Yosuke sighed inwardly, figuring that his friend was opting out of talking about what was bothering him. It.. irked Yosuke, if only because he wanted to know what was going on in order to help, but.. This was difficult to talk about, he knew. After all, with what happened to Saki-senpai that while ago, the brown-haired teen knew what it was like.. Save for the fact that Nanako was someone who was much closer.
Just as Yosuke opened his mouth to speak, his friend interrupted him.
"Yosuke.." he said quietly, wiping his eyes dry, voice cracking. "Yosuke, I.. I didn't mean to.. To shut everyone out.." slowly, grey eyes rose to meet brown, filled to the brim with sorrow. "But I have to. I can't talk to you guys anymore." Yu's voice grew quiet, and the boy talked at an oddly quick pace. "I can't have anything to do with this case anymore, Yosuke. I can't be involved. You'd all.. You.." tears welled up in his eyes once again, but he desperately fought against them as he tried talking to the closest friend he'd ever had. "I c-can't handle b-being around everyone.. not when.. When I.." betrayed you all. He wanted to desperately say, but found he couldn't. No.. No. Not even Yosuke should know what he had done. Already unable to live with himself, Narukami couldn't imagine how it could feel any worse, and he didn't want to find out.
It took a few moments for Yosuke to process what his friend was saying. Everything he said sounded so.. Weird. But maybe Nanako's death had affected him so much, causing him to shut everyone out? To completely shut down? Making him want to forget about the case altogether?
Hand balling into a fist, Yosuke felt a sudden fire in his gut.
There was no way he was going to let his friend quit like this. Not when they were so close to finding out who the true killer was.
"I know this is tough, but listen up!" he began, causing Narukami to perk up. "You can't just quit! You're our leader! All of us would've never gotten this far without you! You're what holds us all together!" he flashed a smile, a reassuring hand going to Yu's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "You can't let this case go unsolved. Not when we're so close to finding out who the real killer is! We've got to put the real killer to justice! That creep doesn't deserve to get away with this! Not after Saki!" his gaze hardened as he continued, feeling quit spirited at the moment. "Not after Nanako-chan. We can't let her die in vain. I know it's hard to hear, but.." he sighed, starting to calm down a bit as he looked solemnly at his friend. "We can't do this without you, partner."
One would expect Yosuke's speech to be uplifting, but all it accomplished was making Yu truly feel like shit. Everything Yosuke said was true- they really did need him to solve this murder case. Sad thing was that the case was already solved.. But Yu wasn't exactly willing to share this information with his friend, if only for the fact that he had helped Adachi in getting away with it. Though, as he let his friend's words toss around in his mind, it did manage to light a small flame- a sort of renewed feeling of hope. Maybe if he told his friends what he had done.. They might still be able to take Adachi down after all..? There was such a high risk though. What if his friends didn't forgive him? Besides that, what kind of lengths would Adachi go through to make sure he and his friends would never be heard from again? Then again, Yu had something Adachi didn't- the power of his friends. But would that be strong enough for them to forgive his betrayal..? Perhaps this was a risk worth taking- after all, weren't his friends doomed already..?
Hopeful resolve in mind, the boy's small flame of hope grew a bit bigger, a determined look in his eyes. "Yosuke." He said suddenly, tone serious, surprising his friend. "You're right. We've got to put an end to all this. But there's.. There's something I have to tell you first.." his determination faltered, if only slightly, but he had to do this.. Right..? "Yosuke, I-"
A ringing sound emitted throughout the room, and Yu hastily withdrew the phone from his pocket, answering without a second thought. "Hello?"
"If you involve your little friend in our business, I can't imagine things will end well for him."
Yu felt his skin crawl, the small flame of hope that had begun to flicker inside him had been snuffed out in just a mere second. The voice on his phone made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, made his feel nervous, nauseous.
It was Adachi.