Persona 4- The Priestess' Impasse

Chapter 3- Floods

A/N: So I've pretty much got the arc for this whole thing planned out in my head now. Should be good. Still not sure on the ending I have planned though. I get the feeling it could be really polarizing XD If anyone has any thoughts as to how it could end, drop me a line :) You will of course be credited :) Regardless, Enjoy :)

xxx

Chie sat staring at her phone for the rest of lunch. She wasn't really doing anything, it was more a cover to keep people away while she tried to mentally process what she saw on the rooftop not ten minutes ago.

Yu Narukami, the suave, debonair leader was straddling her best friend on the roof.

What?

How the hell was she supposed to react to that?

Chie was sure that Yu and Yukiko weren't together or anything. Yukiko had never mentioned it for one thing. She was Chie's best friend, they told each other absolutely everything. Chie told her about her… accidental encounter with Yosuke last year, so why wouldn't she tell her if Yukiko was dating Yu?

Second, Yu hadn't ever seemed remotely interested in Yukiko. Not since Rise came on the scene at any rate. He was always staring at the Idol, after all. He always looked out for her especially. Why would he do that? He's a nice guy, sure, but he never did that for Chie or even Yukiko…

Either they had become the best secret-keepers in the shortest period of time, or something fishy was going on…

"Hey, Earth to Chie!" Yosuke said in a derivative tone. "You OK, Spaceface? You've been zoning in and out for like five minutes." Despite the insult, Chie knew he meant well… Still, could she tell him about this?

Not yet.

"Sorry, my brain's been going a mile a minute" Chie laughed. "And who're you calling Spaceface?"

"You" Yosuke said, sticking his tongue out at the girl. She thought that was cute, a little bit. She did like his somewhat childlike nature…

God, what was she thinking… This Yu and Yukiko thing must be messing her up.

"Seriously though" Yosuke's voice changed, he had dropped the act. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know if I can tell you…" Chie said, opening up slightly.

"Why?"

"It's… relationship stuff…"

Yosuke's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"Hey, Chie, I like you and stuff, but I don't really see you in tha-" Was all he could say before Chie cut him off.

"What?! That's not what I meant, you dork! Get over yourself, as if I'd go out with you!" She said, practically screaming. Every other head in the class turned to look at her outburst. Noticing this, she slinked back in her chair.

"She's in denial" was one of the thing she heard one of her classmates utter. Normally, she'd go and tell him off. Too much was bothering her, however.

"Look" Yosuke said, while moving to the front of Chie's desk so as to talk to her properly. "Maybe I can help. You like someone or something?"

"No…" Chie groaned into her arms, her face still red as a beet from her exclamation. She looked up at Yosuke, however. Maybe she could tell him at least some of the truth…

"OK, so…" Chie mentally prepared herself. "If you saw two of your friends, who were normally never like that, on the roof practically trying to climb inside one another's mouths, what would you do?"

"Who are we talking about here?" Yosuke asked.

"Does that matter?"

"Yes." He said, straight-faced.

"Why?"

"Because, it depends on the people, dummy" Yosuke said, bopping her on the head with a sheet of paper.

"Do that again, and I'm telling you nothing" Chie threatened.

"C'mon, just tell me what happened!" Yosuke was practically begging at this point.

Chie remained silent for a moment, contemplating the situation. Despite his many, many, many, many faults, Yosuke was a good guy at heart. He always put others before himself… She had come to a decision.

"I was going to the roof to eat my lunch like ten minutes ago and I saw…" Chie paused slightly to mentally reassess the scene before continuing "Yu-kun on top of Yukiko, kissing her…" She said, in barely a whisper.

"What?!" Yosuke shouted, breaking the almost-silence.

"Keep your voice down!" Chie scolded him.

"Sorry…" he said, genuinely morose. "Wait, that explains that weird text then…"

"Weird text?" Chie asked, her interest piqued by this new evidence.

"Yeah, Yu sent me a text the other day…" Yosuke pulled out his phone and played with it for a second before finding the message.

"Hey. I can't wait to see you either x You want me to bring snacks and stuff? Also, wear your Kigu, it's growing on me a bit, I'll wear mine xx Tomorrow's still good, I'm not working then. xxx" It read.

"What…?" Chie said, trailing off.

"Yeah, he said after he sent it that it wasn't for me. I tried asking him about it, but he ignored me. Maybe it was for Yukiko?" Yosuke theorised.

"Yeah, but Yukiko doesn't have a kigu… She says they'd just make her laugh if she wore one. And check out the timestamp." Chie said, pointing at the small date and time printed below the message.

"12/17/11 21:11"

"What's so special about that?" Yosuke asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yukiko was working on the 18th, so she can't have gone on that date…"

"So… It was for a different girl?! Dude, how many chicks is he seeing?!" Yosuke almost fell out of his seat on the realisation.

"We need to talk to someone else… We don't know enough facts…" Chie said, staring at Yosuke's phone and still scanning the message.

"You're starting to sound like Naoto" Yosuke chuckled. "How about Rise? She knows about everyone's personal lives to make sure we're all OK to go in the TV"

"That's actually not a bad plan" Chie said, handing Yosuke his phone back and pulling out hers to call the young starlet. "Thanks, Yosuke" she smiled. He was a good friend… Not that bad to look at either…

She needed to solve this quick…

xxx

Rise was still a little shaken up. Her fight with Yu had knocked her about a fair bit. He said some really hurtful things. Hell, he made a teenage girl cry, that was enough to karmically unbalance him forever. She was definitely the wounded party in all this…

She felt terrible though.

She called the man she loved an asshole, to his face. She screamed at him to get out.

Despite all of that, she still loved him. She really loved him... Rise had never really had a crush before she met Yu. She never really felt attracted to anyone either way to be honest. The flirting was just second nature to her. Part of the job, comes with the territory and all that. Yu was special though… She really liked him. He was the only person she ever could consider doing… anything with.

She still loved him. She loved him more than anything else in the world, and if she let him go because of this, she may never find her perfect person. She had to make this right.

Before she could do that though, she had to help with something else. Chie said there was a problem that needed her immediate attention, and to meet her in the Calligraphy Club room. It would be empty, so Rise figured this would be really important.

When she got there, Chie was already sat down. Her phone was in her hand showing a photo of… something, she couldn't tell what.

"Hey, Rise-chan" Chie's voice sounded troubled.

"Hi, Chie-senpai" Rise said, weakly. "What's up?"

"I need your help with something" Rise had moved over to sit next to the green-clad girl.

"Sure, Senpai, what do you need?"

"Do you know if Yu-kun is dating anybody?" Chie asked, looking Rise dead in the eyes.

Rise gasped a little bit. How could Chie know that she and Yu were dating? They were super careful not to tell their friends yet, so how could Chie know?

"Not that I know of…" She lied. "Why do you ask?"

"Because, Yu accidentally sent Yosuke this weird text" Chie said as she showed Rise a photograph of Yosuke's phone. On the screen were the words Yu had sent to Rise just before their date on which they had the massive fight. He sent that out? Why was she asking about it, that was like two days ago, why wouldn't anyone asking about it literally the day it happened?

"I thought he sent it to his girlfriend, but if you say he doesn't have one…"

"What's all this about, Senpai?" Rise asked, an eyebrow raised. "Seems pretty random to ask me about this" She tried to giggle.

"It's just that… I saw something on the roof."

"You saw something?"

"You have to promise me you won't tell anybody"

"I promise, Senpai"

What the hell was going on?

Why is she talking about something about this like they were connected.

What does she know?

These were all questions that were flying through Rise's mind like bullets.

"I saw… Yu-kun on the roof" Chie started before taking another breath. "He and Yukiko were kissing… pretty passionately too. I just never thought Yu-kun…"

Chie continued talking, but Rise had long since stopped listening as soon as the word "Kissing" made its way past her lips. He had cheated on her. Yu had broken Rise's trust. He told her he loved her and now this happens?

The news hit Rise like a freight train. Worse than that, a train would have killed her so she wouldn't torment herself over this. Emotions zipped around trying to gain dominance. Anger? You bet she was angry. The man she loved, the man who called her special, the man that kept her safe. Her Senpai was making out with someone else? Confusion? Yes. Why would he do this? Was she not good enough for him? Did he need Yukiko for some reason? Did he not love her? What was going on?

She settled, however, on sadness.

Her eyes welled up with tears, and before long, the floodgates broke and she was sobbing uncontrollably. Her fists were balled up tightly, her eyes clamped shut with nothing but tears escaping them.

"Whoa, Hey, Rise-chan, what's wrong?!" Chie asked quickly, wrapping an arm around the Idol.

"I lied!" Rise screeched through her tears. Apparently, she hadn't completely discounted her rage.

"About what?" Chie asked, doing her best to wipe away tears on Rise's face.

"Yu! He is dating someone! He's dating me!" The tears were getting worse, as was Rise's breathing.

"B-But! He was kissing Yukiko!" Chie said, confused and still trying to control the Idol's tears.

"That's why I'm crying!" Rise was really struggling to breathe now and rightfully so.

Her whole world was crashing down around her. Not only did the man she love most on earth betray her, so did one of her best friends. Yukiko had done something and now had stolen her boyfriend. She couldn't comprehend it. Chie had to have been mistaken. She was never usually wrong though. How else do you interpret two people with tongues in one another's mouths?

Chie had to spend a good ten minutes calming Rise down before she could talk again. She was still crying, but talking. It was a start.

"You and Yu-kun are dating?" Chie asked, reaffirming the situation.

Rise simply nodded in response.

"So why is he kissing Yukiko?"

"It might be because we had a fight…" Rise said, he breath catching as she wept.

"You had a fight?"

Rise nodded and told Chie the whole story.

"I was really worried about him, because he left his keys and stuff at my place so he probably went to one of our places to sleep for the night… Oh god!" Realisation dawned on Rise's face. "What if he went to her place and they slept together?!" Her tears intensified yet again.

"Hey, we don't know if that's what happened, don't beat yourself up over it" Chie said, squeezing the redhead's shoulder.

"I don't want to lose him, Chie-senpai. He means everything to me. He's the only person I've ever liked this way and if I lose him, I might never be happy. I can't…" Rise wanted to finish, but only cried harder. She leaned into Chie's semi-hug and continued to sob.

"We'll find out what's going on, Rise, I promise. I'm gonna yell at him as soon as I see him, alright?" She felt Rise nod beneath her head.

"I need to talk to him" Rise managed to stutter out into Chie's neck.

"Yeah, you do… I'll find out what I can from Yukiko, alright?"

"OK… Thanks, Senpai…"

"Chie's fine, Rise, you don't have to be so formal…" Chie chuckled in an attempt to cheer Rise up a little. Surprisingly, it did. "Come on, you don't have to do it right now. You and me'll get some steak after school and you can do it then"

"I don't have any money" Rise giggled through her tears.

"It's alright, we have the Hanamura Bank to see us through"

The two girls shared a laugh as the elder one continued to cradle her younger friend for a few more moments. Chie didn't know what to do right now, really. She had to be there for her underclassman though. If helping her figure all this out would do that, then that's what she'd do. The bell signalling the start of afternoon classes rang, forcing the two to separate from their embrace.

"Thanks, Chie" Rise smiled, her face still stained with tears. "I need to go to the restroom to clean myself up before class. Promise me you won't say anything to Yu or Yukiko yet?"

"Promise" Chie nodded as she crossed her heart.

"Thanks" Another smile. It was obviously forced, but Chie didn't comment on it.

As Chie walked back into class, Yu, Yukiko and Yosuke were already seated. They all welcomed her, but she ignored the black haired heiress and the silverette leader and focused her attention on the Prince of Junes.

"I need you to buy me and a friend some steak after school." She said.

"Wh-why?!"

"I'll explain later, just please? She really needs it"

"You're going to need a damn good explanation, Chie"

"You'll get one" was all Chie said before turning her attention forward… Towards Yukiko Amagi. Rise had made it pretty clear that she and Yu were in more than just a causal relationship so Chie had no idea what she had said or done to Yu to convince him to kiss her like that.

But she had every intention of finding out…