Chapter 4
The story of the Midnight Channel
After Ms. Matsumura's class, the guys went to English class. When they entered, the teacher wasn't there. After they settled down, the door opened. The teacher was tall and skinny. He had a light brown hair, his eyes were pale green and he wore a blue jacket, white shirt and some jeans. His name was Ken Sarumaki.
Ken: "Hello class!"
Class: "Hello Mr. Sarumaki."
Ken: "This year I'll be teaching you English. The topics we're going to cover are…"
The teacher talked about the topics given for the year. The bell rang. And they went to math. They met the math teacher, Mrs. Yuki Sajino. They had math for 2 hours. Afterwards they went to lunch. The 14 of them sat down together.
Seta: "Well, what a great morning it was!"
Atsuki: "Yes it was. Um, can I ask a question?"
Seta: "Sure, shoot away!"
Atsuki: "Do you know about something called the Midnight Channel?"
Seta, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Rise and Naoto looked to themselves. In that same second Kanji appears.
Kanji: "Hello, guys. Um, who are they?"
Chie: "Oh yes, they're our new class mates and Atsuki's old fiends from Kisaragi city."
Kanji glanced at everyone but his eyes fell on Akira.
Akira: "Please sit down."
He points at the chair beside him and Yukiko.
Kanji: "What are you talking about?"
Ryo: "Something Atsuki asked about the Midnight Channel."
The people at the table were silent. Atsuki already knew about it but he had to get more info. Then, Seta started talking.
Seta: "The Midnight channel is something weird. It only can be viewed in a rainy night, on midnight as the name implies, on a switched-off TV set. First it was Yosuke, Chie and I who investigated about it. We discovered that the people who were supposedly were your soul mate it was the next to die."
Yukiko, Kanji, Rise and Naoto shuddered. Seta continued talking.
Seta: "The first one to die was a reporter called Mayumi Yamano, who maintained an affair with a very important man named Taro Namatame. She was found dead on a post. The next victim was a girl a year ahead of us named Saki Konishi. It seems that she found the body and the murderer killed her to silence her."
Yosuke: "One night, Chie, he and I checked the Midnight Channel. Seta saw a girl with a kimono but the face was blurry. After the transmission started, he tried to touch the TV screen and nearly got sucked in."
Ryo: "Wait a sec! That's impossible!"
Shinji: "That's completely wrong!"
Chie: "Yeah we started to think like that too, but one day we tried at Junes. We went to the electronic department and did it. Seta could go in the TV. Yosuke got spooked and pushed me, Seta and himself into the TV."
Rui, Yayoi and Mika gasped in suspense.
Seta: "We fell into a weird room. It looked like an old TV studio. In there we found a bear-like thing who called himself Teddie."
Chie: "He showed us a weird room with a lot of ripped posters. The posters were from Namatame's wife who is an enka singer."
Yosuke: "In that room we saw a chair and a piece of red cloth, and many other things. After that we went to a piece of the Central Shopping District. We found an open shop. It was the liquor store that Saki-senpai's family owned. I discovered there a doppelganger of myself. I said to him: 'You're not me!' then he transformed into a giant monster. I got unconscious and Seta told me he defeated it. Afterwards, I accepted it was me and it joined me. It became my Persona. Seta told me he had one."
Atsuki: "Exactly what is a Persona?"
Seta: "A Persona is a part of us that we hide from the rest. Yosuke's hidden personality was the sadness caused by the death of Saki-senpai and the hate of the people who owned shops in the shopping district."
Ryo: "It's like Edward Steiner told us at that reunion we had, remember Atsuki?"
Atsuki suddenly remembered about what Steiner said, but remained silent.
Seta: "After a few days we decided to check it again. Then we saw the same person again but much clearer. It was Yukiko. We went to the TV world and found a castle. In the 2nd floor we found a copy of Chie. She did like Yosuke's. It transformed into a monster. Yosuke and I beat it and Chie accepted her other half. Her secret feelings were that she was in the shadow of Yukiko."
Yosuke: "Later on, we found the real Yukiko and its copy. She told her shadow self that it wasn't her and again, it transformed. We destroyed it. Yukiko's feeling was the loneliness and the trouble she had of inheriting the Amagi inn."
Yukiko: "After they rescued me, the next target was Kanji-kun."
Chie: "We checked the Midnight Channel and confirmed it. We followed Kanji through the whole town to see if he was alright. One day we asked for him in his mother's shop. She said he went around town the day before and didn't come back. Yosuke noticed the piece of red cloth in the shop."
Yosuke: "So we made a trip back again to the TV world. Teddie made us some glasses for us because over there it was too foggy. We discovered that after 3 days of rain a thick fog covered the town. When the fog covered Inaba, in there the fog lifted. The shadows over there got dangerous and they killed the victim."
Seta: "We went into a sauna in that world and found Kanji in the 11th floor with his shadow. His big secret is…"
Kanji: "Watch out what you're saying senpai!"
Yukiko: "He was gay."
Everyone got shocked. Kanji looked at Akira and vice versa. They blushed and Kanji pulled his seat more to Yukiko.
Chie: "It was a hard fight, but we beat him."
Yosuke: "After a month we met Rise. Rise was next. She was taken to the TV world. We went and found her. Her secret was that she didn't want to become a sex icon. Her shadow was easy, but the real threat was Teddie's shadow."
Kanji: "We blasted 'im fast and escaped."
Seta: "Then we had to rescue a guy named Mitsuo. He was from another school, but he was in senior year. His persona was a real monster."
Rise: "After a harrowing fight, we beat it."
Naoto: "Then a month later they met me. I was targeted. The shadow was powerful. They beat it one-handed."
Seta: "The last one being targeted was my cousin Nanako. But she didn't have a shadow. She was so pure, that she didn't have one. But we found another person: Taro Namatame. We thought he was the murderer at first but it wasn't him."
Naoto: "After all that, the murderer was…
Atsuki: "Tehru Adachi."
Seta: "How did you know?"
All of them looked him. Nola nudged him on the ribs.
Atsuki: "Um…uh… I heard about the case…"
They looked him suspiciously.
Yayoi: "It's nearly 12:30. Let's go."
They went to history next with Mrs. Kushina Inafune. After the hour, they went to physical education with Mr. Minato Hashirama. After doing exercises they got science with…
Inaba Teens: "Ms. Kashiwagi?"
Kashiwagi: "Yes, I'm being your teacher again. This year you're having science with me and my partner…
The door opened. The teacher that came in was…
Kisaragi Teens: "Mr. Yamato?"
Yamato: "Yes, that's right! I got transferred here too, you slimy morons!"
The class was the nastiest one.
Yosuke: "A maniac and a weirdo in one classroom."
Akira: "They're a pain in the ass alright."
