"Shadow/Higher being speak"

Chapter 2

The next day Chie, Yosuke, and Souji met up after school by Souji's desk discussing what they had seen last night. They all agreed that they had seen a girl of some sort while watching the Midnight Channel.

"My soul mate is a girl? What is that supposed to mean?" Chie asked, apparently confused.

"I could say so many things about that, but this is serious business here." Souji replied.

Chie gave him an annoyed look. "I couldn't tell who it was exactly, but she was wearing our school uniform."

"So is there anything else you can add about what you saw last night?" Yosuke asked.

"Well…" Souji told them about his events of last night.

"…So my cousin, Nanako and I ate dinner until my uncle came home last night. We watched TV for a bit before that Junes jingle came on and then Nanako was like "Every day is great at your Jun-"

"Uh… get to the Midnight Channel part." Yosuke said, apparently not liking the jingle either.

"Oh right. Well, I saw the same thing you guys saw, but I got this massive headache and heard voices in my head afterwards. Then all of a sudden my hand went through the TV, and the rest of my body with it. My TV was too small though so I was able to pull back out. I slammed my head against the table really hard." Souji finished, while rubbing the back of his head gaining weird looks from both Yosuke and Chie.

"…What was that about getting sucked into your TV? Yosuke asked slowly. "This is serious business, like you said. Maybe you just got knocked unconscious in front of your TV when you fell back."

"I like the part where you got stuck in your TV because it was too small. That's pretty realistic." Chie said. She had "That reminds me, my family has been talking about getting a bigger TV."

Figures they wouldn't believe him.

"Well, flatscreens are definitely in these days. You wanna go check them out on our way back?" Yosuke asked and Chie readily agreed so off they went to Junes.

At Junes, Yosuke was showing Chie a bunch of TVs. They even went as far as to tap the TV screen to make sure what Souji said was false. Jerks…

Yosuke and Chie went a little further down to check out more TVs. Souji stared at one of the TVs and wanted to confirm for himself that the whole hand-through-the-TV thing was false however, having his hand pass through the TV for the second time, cleared all remaining doubt he had left. Apparently, both Chie and Yosuke were shocked, babbling a lot of nonsense that had nothing to do with what was going on, something about magicians? Souji was thinking with a TV this large he could probably stick his head into it too. That action apparently shocked them even more causing Yosuke to actually have bladder problems. Yosuke yelled out that customers were coming and of course they started panicking causing them to all fall into the TV. Where they landed nobody knew. The landing hurt very much though.

The trio got up to take a look at their surroundings, which wasn't much considering all the fog that obscuring the area. They could however make out a studio of some kind? Well seeing as they couldn't find a way out of this strange world, they went to explore. They stumbled onto a normal room at first appearance, but what threw the trio off was that there were clusters of posters on the wall with their face cut off. There was also a chair and a noose-like object… Under Chie's suggestion the trio decided they should go back to where they came in, it didn't help that the trio was feeling nauseated as well.

"Whoa, what is that?" Chie exclaimed. Both Yosuke and Souji looked in the direction she was looking at. A figure walked forward and it revealed itself to be… a bear? It was very round for a bear. It talked too. Greatest discovery ever!

"Who are you guys…?" The bear thing asked.

"W-What are you…? Uh… Y-You wanna fight…?" Chie yelled out stuttering.

"D-Don't yell at me like." The bear thing said cowering over apparently to shield itself from Chie's wrath.

"Excuse me… but what is this place?" Souji asked taking control of the situation.

"This place is what it is. It doesn't have a name. It's just where I live. If I were you guys I'd hurry back to the other side. Someone has been throwing people in here."

"Throwing people in? What are you talking about? Yosuke asked, getting over his initial shock.

They never really got an answer from the bear thing, but Chie was still panicked about their situation and shouted at the bear thing some more causing it to hide behind Souji. They talked a little while longer before finding out that the bear could let them out. The bear thing summoned a stack of TVs and promptly pushed them out of the mysterious world. They landed in front of the TV in Junes. After getting through the shock that they made it back home; they found out it was late and they were exhausted so they agreed to go their separate ways.

It was evening by the time Souji returned home. Dojima was waiting for him when he got there and Nanako was patiently waiting for the ramen to be ready so they could eat their dinner.

"…I doubt you would know, but have you heard of a student named Saki Konishi?" Dojima asked hesitantly.

"Well she wasn't at school today." Souji said after recalling what a few other students said earlier at school today.

"…I see. To be honest we got a call from her family saying she disappeared. We are currently looking for her, but she hasn't been found yet." Dojima grumbled something else under his breath.

The TV was on again and the news was still talking about Mayumi Yamano. The night passed quietly… kind of. "Every day is great at your Junes!" Nanako repeats it. Yep, perfectly quiet night.

The next morning Souji walked to school and overheard something interesting. Apparently, something happened in town and the police were on it, although it wasn't clear what happened. School started normally, though Yosuke seemed a bit down and distant. The afternoon schedule was filled with a school assembly.

The principal addressed the school that Saki Konishi had passed away which would explain Yosuke's current demeanor. The school was shocked and began to murmur things amongst themselves.

After the assembly, Yosuke confronted Chie and Souji about Saki. He was saying how he watched the Midnight Channel again last night and saw Saki was in pain and stuff. Yosuke was adamant on the fact that the other world had something to do with her death. He began to explain his theories using Mayumi Yamano's death and what they discovered in the other world to support them. The more Souji listened to Yosuke; the more it began to make sense. Perhaps Yosuke was right to some extent. Yosuke was determined to go back into the other world to find the answer to his questions. Either way, Chie and Souji agreed that they couldn't leave Yosuke to do something like this alone.

Later in the after school hours, they met up with Yosuke at Junes. He was prepared having brought a golf club and some rope.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming." Yosuke greeted them upon Chie and Souji's arrival.

"We came to stop you, idiot! It's dangerous there." Chie exclaimed.

"I know, but we were able to come back once right? Maybe if we go in from the same location, we'll meet that bear thing again." Yosuke reasoned.

"Maybe isn't good enough!" Chie said, becoming slightly hysterical.

"I can't pretend this has nothing to do with me."

"…That's true, but…" Chie said calming down. She couldn't argue with that reasoning.

"And what about you? Could you just turn your back and walk away?" Yosuke said directing his question towards Souji.

"It's true I can't just walk away from this, but I'm worried about Chie going along with us."

"Right, it'll just be us two. Chie, I'm leaving you in charge of this." Yosuke said handing the coiled rope to her.

"Then this is a lifeline…?" Yosuke nodded confirming Chie's statement. Souji noticed that he had the rope tied around his waist.

"And this is for you, Souji." Yosuke handed him the golf club he was carrying. "I think it's better than going in empty-handed. Okay, let's go. We can't waste anymore time. Chie, don't let go of the rope."

Yosuke then followed Souji into the other world once more.

"Alright, we're here, same place too. Seems that they are connected." Yosuke said.

"You guys… Why'd you come back…?" the bear thing said, coming out of the fog. He went on a rant saying how the two of them were suspicious while implying that they could possibly be the ones that were throwing people into this strange world. He then made a rawr noise…

"Hell no!" Souji said just flat out denying it.

"What do you mean throwing people in? If people were thrown in here and they couldn't get out, then they might die!" Yosuke shouted denying it as well.

"Guys, once you come in you can't get out. It's a one-way door. Remember how I was the one who had to let you out?" The bear thing pointed out.

"Yeah? Well we don't need your help this time. We got this lifeli-" Yosuke stopped abruptly when he noticed the rope had been cut off from the outside world. "Uh… Hey you… you better let us out once we're done investigating here!" Yosuke said, trying to keep his cool.

The bear thing made a rawr noise again… "I'm the one that wants to investigate here. Do you have proof that you're not the ones throwing people in here?"

"Proof? How the hell are we supposed to give you proof?" Souji replied back.

"Then it must be you guys!" The bear thing concluded.

"For the last time it's not us. So we got nothing to prove to you." Yosuke argued back. "Listen, people have died in our world. Every time the fog appears, a dead body shows up with it. We're sure it has something to do with this world! If you know something, tell us!"

"I know that when the fog appears over there, the fog lifts here. It's dangerous when the fog lifts here. That's when the Shadows get violent." Teddie finished meekly. He then proceeded to say that they had to be the culprits making a few rawr noises…, which Yosuke got fed up with. Teddie and Yosuke ended up arguing some more while Souji just looked on silently enjoying the scene. Suddenly Yosuke decided to pull off the bear thing's head to reveal…nothing inside.

"Hey, it's empty inside!" Yosuke exclaimed dropping the… head?

'Yes I can see that with my own eyes.' Souji thought.

So the bear thing flipped his head back on and then proceeded to make them promise to find the culprit otherwise he would not let them out. They accepted without any real choice and proceeded to introduce themselves.

"I'm Yosuke Hanamura, and this is my buddy, Souji Seta." Yosuke said, introducing himself and gesturing to Souji. "You have a name?"

"…Teddie."

…

…

Moving onwards. The bear thing, now dubbed "Teddie", gave them glasses, which allowed them to see through the fog and took them to what Souji saw was the Shopping District in Inaba except it wasn't since they were still in the other world. Yosuke had run off to explore a bit on his own and came upon a liquor store that Yosuke confirmed as Saki's parents

"Did Saki-senpai disappear here?" Yosuke said to himself.

"W-Wait a second. T-They're here!" Teddie exclaimed.

"What?"

"…Shadows. I had a feeling they were going to attack…!" As Teddie said this, two creatures came out from the liquor store. The creatures shifted themselves and became two spherical creatures with their tongues lashing out. Yosuke stumbled back in surprise, and the creatures went after Souji and Teddie who were nearby. Souji grasped his head as the familiar headache came back to him.

"I am thou…"

"Thou art I…"

"The time has come…"

"Open thine eyes and call forth what is within!"

Opening his eyes he saw a card in his hand. The back side depicted a mask, one side black and the other white. Flipping the card over, he saw it was blank. The card glowed, and Souji could feel power surging through him. A phrase passed through his mind.

"Per…son…a!"

A figure with a large cleaver-like weapon came forth, and immediately the battle began. Teddie was on the sidelines telling him about Shadows and their weaknesses. Souji gave a nod.

"Izanagi!" Souji called out crushing the card in his hand.

The figure burst forth, cast Zio on one of the Shadows and then proceeded to cast another on the other shadow. They were taken down in no time. Yosuke was in awe at the ability Souji displayed.

"I heard you say 'Persona'? Is that what the power is called?" Yosuke was excited at the idea of gaining a Persona.

"Calm down, Yosuke! You're troubling Sensei!" Teddie said coming up to them.

"Sensei?" Both Yosuke and Souji said surprised.

"You were amazing, Sensei! I am one impressed bear!"

"Well, anyways with both you and Teddie here, we should be okay! Now let's get back to the investigation." Yosuke said. The trio cautiously entered the liquor store now aware of the dangers they may face.

I decided to get a good amount of the exposition out of the way before bringing in the crossover part.

Betaed by RionAgrias. A big thanks for doing so!