I managed to fix up Chapter 7 to the point where I'm moving the two days at the end to Chapter 8 but could easily be its own chapter, having damn near 4,000 words. In two days. Most of it came from the 7th. That was... interesting. It was the first storm day. And it is a very stormy week were I live, so I feel that it's perfect to have worked on that then.

Now then, I can't remember if I have any special notes for this chapter. Oh, I did give Shadow Yosuke dialogue, and I think it came out damn good... well... what would be right there?


Chapter 3

Back at Junes, Yu stepped onto the tiled floor, and instantly grabbed Naoto's hat, which was conveniently right in front of his feet, placing it back on top of his head before anyone saw him without it. As the last ripples from the TV disappeared upon the others coming out, Naoto walked up, grabbing his wrist and started to drag him away before he could talk to the two about keeping the other world a secret, so instead he shot them a stunned, but stern look that he hoped got his message across. "We are not here to look at TVs, senpai," she told him. Yu apologized, and Naoto stopped dragging him.

About a minute later, they found Dojima and Nanako sitting at the food court. "Geez Yu, you were so quiet the whole trip here, we didn't even notice that you disappeared," Dojima said.

"He was in the electronics section with some other high school students," Naoto informed Dojima. "We should just get you a hat and leave before you cause any trouble."

'It's a little late to be saying that,' Yu thought as they walked towards wherever the hats would be located, Naoto staying next to him, ensuring that he wouldn't wander off again.

Half an hour later, (because Nanako got distracted quite a bit at the different things that Junes had to offer) they had finally found Yu a suitable hat that didn't show any signs of the ears existence. It was, rather conveniently, multi-colored like his ears, only without the tie dye pattern, it was more like a blob, like all of the colors of Skittles after being chewed together. So far no one had noticed the tail that he had either, which he mostly kept wrapped around his waist. Naoto just figured that anyone who did see it mistook it for a colorful furry, and possibly twitching, belt, which Yu was perfectly fine with.

On the way home, Yu got himself a job making origami cranes and translating, telling his uncle that he had a tendency to get bored easily, and would blow right through them. He also picked up a toy model that a man requested that he finish for whatever reason. He saw some books that he wanted as well, but he didn't have any money, and he was told that he would have to pay for that on his own, so he'd 'better get cracking on those jobs.' They ran into a few other people, but none of them gave Yu anything else to do, nor said anything of particular interest.

After getting home, Yu went upstairs to begin on the model like a kid that just got a new toy, and couldn't wait to open it, leaving the others to talk about what to do to get him out of P.E. for the rest of his school years, every other year after he moves again included, provided they never get rid of his new ears. They figured that they would just tell the school's staff that he had contracted a disease that prevented him from physically exerting himself, which it didn't have a name, didn't seem to be contagious, and was only dangerous to him if he was in P.E. They decided that they would tell his parents when the time came. With that decided, Naoto returned home, promising Dojima that tomorrow she would watch out for Yu, and guarantee that he wouldn't remove his hat throughout the day.


(Friday) (23rd)

The next day went without any problems, though after school the two that had fallen into the TV with Yu dragged him away before he could go home, or talk to anyone that he had intended to talk to, mainly Naoto about getting out of P.E. He had barely managed to make up an excuse that let him out. They took him to the Junes food court, and started talking to him about going back into the TV, to which Yu objected to the idea, repeating Teddie, that it had to be absolutely necessary to return to the other world, but Yosuke forced Yu's hand into the TV anyway and pushed himself through the portal that his hand had created, dragging Yu along, but leaving Chie behind.

Yu growled as he landed in the other world. Ripping off his hat, Yu threw it to the ground in a rage. "I told you, I didn't want to go back unless I had to!" His ears stuck straight up angrily, and his tail did so as well.

Yosuke backed away from him. "OK, I won't want to ever want come back here again, just get rid of the fangs and claws man!"

Yu looked down. His fingernails had grown to long points, and feeling his teeth revealed that they had become that of an animal's, sharp, made to kill. Slowly, his teeth returned to their natural state, however, his nails remained the same length. Yu reasoned that it was ignited by his anger. An animal side of him that he didn't know he had (but probably appeared with the ears and tail) changed him into something that wasn't really human.

"Sorry, I didn't know I could do that." Yu said to Yosuke. "Um, do you have any nail clippers?" Yosuke looked at the claws that had been short a minute ago. Slowly, he pulled out nail clippers in his pocket and handed them to Yu, who accepted them, and started to trim his nails down to length.

"Keep them," Yosuke told him. "If you get angry again, you need to hide any evidence that something like that could happen. I needed new ones anyway."

"Right, now that we have that out of the way, what are we going to tell the bear about why we are here?" Yu asked him. "I don't want to have to talk to him, I have a bad feeling that he will blow up on us."

"Well, to avoid talking to him, let's go see if there are any of those exit TVs lying around. Lead the way, I mean, you can see through the fog better than me, right?" Yu sighed and rolled his eyes, and started walking away.

A minute later, Teddie appeared, sniffing. "Those morons are back," he said to himself. He sniffed again. "Without the girl, heading… that way!" Teddie started running in the direction that the two had wondered off in.

"Walking off and not waiting for the bear has probably doomed us." Yosuke commented, confused, as it seemed that they were now in a twisted version of Inaba's shopping distract.

"It appears that is the case." Yu added, turning around, starting to walk back, Yosuke following, seeming to want to cling to Yu's arm like a child.

Yu stopped after heading a noise. He turned around and saw a black blob. It was moving towards them, in a threatening manner. Yosuke backed away, and Yu took a fighting position. When he did so, a blue energy surrounded him, and a card appeared in front of his face. An unknown voice in his head told him to not fear it, and without realizing it, he automatically crushed the card in his hand. It shattered, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

The warrior that his Shadow momentarily transformed into a couple nights ago stood behind Yu, towering over him. The blob stared for a second, before running (slithering, really) away in a fright. Yu knew that letting it live would only cause more problems later, and because he didn't need any more issues to deal with, he nigh-unconsciously ordered the soldier behind him to attack.

In a quick slash, the creature was gone, and the giant warrior turned into a ball, and disappeared into Yu like it had the other day. He heard the unknown voice again, "I am thou. Thou art I. I am the Persona known as Izanagi. I will fight by thou side as long as my assistance is required."

Yosuke said, "Wow," as he approached Yu. "Originally, I thought it would be cool to have ears like that, but now, I'm frightened, and not sure if I want it anymore, if that is the power you get from it."

"So you don't want a giant warrior that will be at your beck and call?" Yu asked, confused as he figured his new friend would love that.

"Hell no!" Yosuke yelled.

A voice from behind them spoke up. "There you are!" They turned around to find Teddie, out of breath somehow, considering he was a costume, and looking very annoyed. "Why are you back here? I don't see any urgency in your movements, so you must have come just to mess with the peace!"

"Listen, Teddie," Yu started, and then he paused for a moment in thought. "It was all Yosuke's fault," he informed the bear, jabbing a thumb in the other teen's direction.

Yosuke looked shocked at Yu's bluntness, and fell to his knees, and dramatically said, "I thought that this world should be looked into, considering it's inside a TV!"

"Stop lying to yourself, you were just bored," a voice said, a second Yosuke with yellow eyes walking out from behind a nearby telephone pole in an overly dramatic fashion.

"It's his Shadow!" Teddie and Yu called out simultaneously, before looking at each other, each wondering how the other knew.

Before a conversion could start about why Yu knew what a Shadow was, Yosuke's started talking. "We're bored of that other world we have to call 'home.' We're too lazy to study, but nothing else interests us! Think about it. A bored, nearly depressed teen with nothing better to do learns of a whole other world, inside a TV, no less! It's a breath of fresh, foggy air!"

"You know, I think you're depressed because of the weather," Yu interjected. "They say that moving from somewhere sunny to somewhere cloudy and rainy all the time will negatively affect a person's mood. You just need more sun."

Yosuke, his shadow, and Teddie all stared at Yu like he was crazy. Which probably he was, considered he decided to point out something as random as the weather affecting his friend's mood at such a critical moment.

"Do you think we care?" Shadow Yosuke asked.

"Not really, but I figured that I should mention it anyway," Yu shrugged.

Shadow Yosuke sighed. "Well, that killed the mood."

"Yes it did," Yu agreed.

"Anyway," Shadow Yosuke sighed, turning back to his other self, deciding to just return to his previous task and forget what just happened. Unfortunately for him, he no longer sounded nearly as interested or threatening. "Inaba bores us. It's worthless and everyone that lives there can go fuck themselves."

"Don't you think that's a bit extreme?" Yu asked, turning to look at Yosuke, who looked like he wanted to strangle his other self for saying such things. 'Huh, so his Shadow's getting under his skin? I wonder why mine was so calm in comparison, then,' he thought. 'Is it my personality?'

"Shut up," Yosuke whispered.

"Oh, what was that?" The Shadow asked.

"I said, shut up!" Yosuke yelled. "Inaba isn't bad! You don't know jack about what I think! The face you wear is nothing but a mask! You don't know anything about me. I don't know why you've decided that you're me, but let me tell you now, you aren't me!"

The Shadow started to laugh and a thick cloud of darkness appeared, covering the Shadow, until it formed something that looked like a camo-frog with half a humanoid figure on top of it, waving around a little. "I am a Shadow, the true self," it spoke. Then, in a lower voice, it said, "That took way too long."

"Yes, it did," Yu replied before preparing for battle while Teddie ran the hell away. He quickly called forth the being that called itself Izanagi, who then launched itself at the Shadow. Shadow Yosuke made a sound that indicated he was annoyed, and called forth numerous smaller Shadows that started to get it the way of Izanagi's progress.

Knowing that he had to step in, which sounded like a pain in the ass because he would have to divided his attention between himself and his warrior, Yu nearly ran into the fray, stopping before he could when he realized that he had no weapon. He gulped, and decided to rely on the strange demon power that had appeared earlier. He closed his eyes, concentrating, Izanagi stopping when he did so. The Persona got smacked around, which unfortunately pained Yu, but he continued to picture the strange powers that he had in his mind. Eventually, Yu felt a surge of energy, and opened his eyes, finding that his nails had grown again, and his teeth were sharp.

He shot forward, ripping his way through the mass of Shadows like an animal, using everything at his disposable (causing a horrible taste in his mouth whenever he bit down on an enemy) as his Persona moved to take down Yosuke's other self. Yu moved like a predator, using all four appendages, figuring that if he was to use the power more, he could get some weapons that would work around the fact that he used all four of his limbs. The fight was over quickly, which Izanagi slashing the demon monster in half while the Shadow stared, presumably scared of the warrior.

After Yu took down the last Shadow that was too stupid to run after the big guy was murdered, he pulled out the nail clippers, calmly walking over to Yosuke, his Shadow, and Teddie, who had returned, while trimming his nails. "Don't do that again Yosuke, I don't want to clip my nails again today."

"Oh, so it's my fault now!?" Yosuke yelled at him.

"Just accept the damn Shadow," Yu replied, focusing on his nails, trying to remember how long they were before entering the TV.

Yosuke sighed and looked at his Shadow. "You were right, I was just bored, nothing more. I'm sorry I said that you aren't me. After all, only I could know that I'm bored out of my mind back in Inaba. I pride myself with my amazing acting."

The Shadow nodded and smiled, like it was saying, 'I accept your apology.' All the while, it rolled its eyes because it knew Yosuke couldn't act. Why he said that really didn't make any sense in the slightest. It then transformed into a strange looking Persona that was more or less the Shadow's battle form, only more humanoid. It changed into a ball a second later, and disappeared into Yosuke's chest, like Yu's did.

Yosuke fell forward, tired. Yu sighed and helped Yosuke as he followed Teddie to where they entered. Teddie called forth the TVs, saying, "If you ever have to enter or exit the TV world, it's best you do it from the same spot. Who knows where you'll end up, otherwise."

"So, if we exit 10 feet to the left, we'll fall out somewhere completely different?" Yu asked.

"More than likely," Teddie answered.

"I'll keep that in mind that," Yu said while nonchalantly shoving Yosuke headfirst through the bottom TV. After Yosuke was gone, he shoved himself through, saying, "Have a good day, Teddie."

In response, Teddie waved happily and said in a menacing tone, "Don't you dare come back here without reason, or else I will rip off your legs, and stick them on your head." While saying this, he had a cute, innocent look on his face that made Yu shiver involuntarily. "Don't forget your hat," Teddie told him before he could escape, holding it up with that same innocent smile. Yu grabbed the hat and placed it on his head, not replying as he hightailed it out of there.

Back in Junes, Yu turned to Chie, who apparently sat there, blankly staring at the TV the whole time they were gone. Now, she was staring, confused, at the unconscious Yosuke in front of her. "Sorry about that," Yu said. "We're back now." He looked down at Yosuke. "So, what should we do about him?"

Chie sighed and said, "Don't worry about it. This is a somewhat common occurrence, considering he's so clumsy and stupid. I'll take him home."

Yu nodded. "Thanks, you have fun with that. Have a good day." With that out of the way, he left, going home.