(Thanks for SRHtheHedgehog for double-proofing my chapters~
Hopefully, this is one of the more fun chapters.)
All through Saturday, the rain had never let up. You were stuck in your dorm room the entire day. You took the time to talk to the roommates you tended to neglect when you were busy. You walked in the kitchen area to get a snack, but you had to cross Steve's game to get to the fridge. You politely asked him to pause the game.
"Oh, sure," he said before the game stopped. "Hey, wait; you're still here, Souji?"
Of course. It was raining so much you wondered if there would be any flooding.
"I was just asking 'cause Aaron was out somewhere, and with you and him being such social guys, I thought you would've been at the same place."
You chuckled. You told him you simply had a group of people at the arcade you liked to be with. You had yet to meet many other people in the city.
"I heard that arcade's pretty sweet. Can I come some time?"
You didn't see why not. You told him it would be on a Friday, and he considered it.
"Maybe one of these weeks. Well, anyway, it's gonna suck for Aaron getting back here. The rain's supposed to get worse. Rob's in the other room doing homework... he has some superstition that studying in the rain makes you smarter or something."
"It would if you'd turn down that game!" he yelled from his room.
"Sorry!" Steve apologized. "Well, I think a dark afternoon like this is the time to go into some games. You wanna play a round? It's a fighting game; all you have to do is button mash."
Hungry, you insisted on getting something to eat first. You poured some assorted crackers in a bowl and brought them to the game.
"These for me?" he asked. "Thanks, dude!" He stuffed his face with about five crackers. "Ruhy uh guh?"
Ready... to go, perhaps? You picked up the controller and spent a carefree day gaming and slacking off...
-.
You stood outside on Sunday morning. It was incredibly foggy and eerie. You hadn't bothered to watch the Midnight Channel the previous night, seeing as your television didn't work, but you were sure something had to be on the screen with that much rain...
"Souji."
Devil Zukin met you at the foot of the building. "The Midnight Channel, as you call it, appeared last night. Did you see?"
You said you didn't see it; you left out the part about lazily going to sleep before midnight.
"I saw a screen filled with static. Does that mean anything to you?"
You smiled, knowing that Rage was safe. You said that if the channel was empty, no one was in there.
"I see," she said. "Then it's a way to reassure us that no one was hurt. Or perhaps... a warning of what could've been."
That was a pessimistic way of looking at it...
-.
"What happened to you on Friday?" Emi asked you on Monday morning. You simply told her you were really tired and weren't able to make it.
"Aw," she said. "I called Rage and he said the same thing. Something about how Zukin didn't think he was feeling well and she wouldn't let him come."
Well, surely, "I'm too tired" wasn't enough of an excuse for a man to tell his girlfriend. It was a good thing Zukin could bail him out.
"Oh well," she said, "you probably got a lot of homework done over the weekend."
Not really...
"I got some done, too, but if I keep going to the arcade, I'm gonna need a part time job..."
You remembered that you still needed one for yourself. Otherwise, you foresaw a lot of days where you really wouldn't be doing anything...
-.
On Tuesday, Emi told you that Rage was going to be at his takoyaki stand, so the two of you went to visit him after classes.
You wondered when you would see him alone so that you could ask him questions about his kidnapping... but you also questioned if he would even remember anything.
"Hey, Emi, Souji!"
He waved as a couple of happy customers left his stand. Emi skipped ahead of you with her arms swaying by her sides. You took your time walking.
"It's been forever, Rage!" she said. "You didn't even show up at the arcade! Don't worry me like that."
Rage sighed. "Believe me, if I was well I wouldn't have disappeared like that." He was staring at his ingredients as he prepared another batch of takoyaki. Emi continuously tried to make eye contact with him.
"Are you gonna be able to come up this Friday?"
Rage nodded. "Yeah, I'll be there this time, definitely."
"Good!" she confirmed. "So how's business going today?"
"I'm glad people are coming back after I closed up last week," he said. "Couple people have asked what happened and I've had to just tell 'em that I just couldn't come up here."
"Cause you were tired?"
"Y-yeah, that's it."
"Well, that's 'cause you work so hard," she said. "You should be proud of yourself."
He smiled a little. "Yeah. Yeah, I should!"
You smiled, too.
Rage's head lifted to look at you. He seemed to have just remembered something.
"Oh. yeah," he began, "Zukin wants to talk to you. She says tomorrow, after 8:00, she'll be around for a bit. You gonna be able to go up there?"
You assumed it had something to do with Personas, but why so late in the day? Couldn't she just find you like she did the other day? Well, you didn't want to make it hard on her, so you agreed to go visit her at Yuni's mansion.
"Oh, you met Zukin?" Emi said. "Yeah, she doesn't always come to the arcade 'cause people act weird around her, but she's really nice when you get to know her."
"She's cool and all," Rage said, "but Emi, you think everyone's nice. You'd probably say Zero was nice if we asked."
"But he is!" Emi said.
Rage had burst into laughter. You started chuckling simply because Rage's laugh was contagious, but you weren't sure why it was so funny.
Emi fumed a little. "That's mean!"
"I'm always hard on the guy," he said, ending his laugh. "That's what he gets for acting all high and mighty all the time."
You remembered Zero as the man you were supposed to talk to about a job, and you wondered if he was going to be able to help after all...
Well, that aside, you went home and carried on with your schoolwork until the next evening...
(His hair is nice, anyway.)
