Just before midnight, Souji stood by his window, staring out into the foggy neighborhood. His wall clock ticked in a heavy rhythm that seemed to echo through the house, striking him with an anxious fever with each passing second. He let the curtain fall and went to his tiny TV.
Midnight. His head pulsed with a pounding pain. As the ache subsided, sirens wailed in the distance from the fog. Did something happen? He wondered this as his cell phone rang. It was Kanji.
"Someone found a body," came Kanji's numb voice. "They're saying it's Naoto's."
It felt like something had torn out Souji's stomach. He had no words to say to either comfort his friend or reassure himself that it wasn't possible.
"Dammit! Will someone tell me what the hell's going on? Why did this happen?"
Kanji's desperate, raspy yell was accompanied by unseen tears. "Senpai, are you listening? Senpai?"
Souji dropped his phone. His chin touched his chest, and a grin smeared across his face. A giggle bubbled up from within, growing into an insane cackle. He lifted his face to the ceiling, arms out wide as he let out his uncontrollable laughter until another strong head pulse dropped him to one knee. Dizziness overcame him, and the next thing he knew, he was sitting in the Velvet Room across from Igor and Margaret.
"Are you awake?" Igor asked in his mellow voice.
He didn't get to answer as Igor continued. "The mystery has deepened and the fog has grown much thicker. It has become too dangerous to continue driving. Whether you end your journey here, or retrace your steps some ways."
He sat there shuffling his Tarot cards. "The time has come to make a decision," he said, and the scene before Souji went dark. Blinking, Souji's eyes stung from the harsh morning light as he took in the fuzzy image of his ceiling. A fluffy orange face sniffed at him and mewed loudly.
Souji sat up, yawning and blinking down at the kitten. To the orange fluff ball, he grumbled, "Are you pretending to like me so you can get free food?"
"Mew," the kitten replied, looking up at him with hungry eyes. "Mew!"
Yawning again, Souji got up to get ready for school, having already forgotten about his dream as he tossed his shirt over the kitten. By the time he remembered his dream, he was sitting at one of the Junes food court tables, surrounded by his friends as they discussed the detective's disappearance. Struck by the jolting realization of his dream, Souji tensed up in his seat, sweat beading his face as he relived Igor's words.
"Hey, Partner? You okay?"
Souji snapped his stoic face to Yosuke. Only the two of them remained at the food court.
"Dude, you look sick," he said, cocking his head at Souji. He grinned. "Don't tell me you're that worried about—"
"NAOTOOOOO!"
Both boys looked up and ran to the edge of the food court. Several floors below, they spotted Kanji racing around Junes' entrance, grabbing shoppers by their shoulders and demanding information on the missing detective. Some were fortunate enough to break from his grasp. A little girl kicked him in the shin while her brother head-butted him below the belt. Both Souji and Yosuke shrunk from view, astounded and ashamed for their friend.
"Should we stop him?" Yosuke asked. When Souji remained silent, Yosuke shrugged and pulled out his cell phone. He was halfway through dialing a number when it rang.
"Uh oh. Chie says she wants us to meet up here," he reported just as Souji's phone also rang. He found that Chie had sent the same message to him as well.
"Sounds serious. Did they find any info?"
Sighing, Yosuke dropped back into his seat. "Not sure. Guess we'll find out in a bit."
The two got comfy with cool drinks, listening to the erratic howls from far below them. Yosuke narrated what Kanji was doing while Souji became lost in his thoughts, worried that he was too late to save Naoto.
…
Within fifteen minutes, everyone but Yukiko and Kanji had returned to the food court. Rise was fanning herself with her hand, slumped in her seat while Teddie tried to imitate her with a fluffy paw. Yosuke sipped a melon soda with his face resting against his fist. Everyone looked positively miserable, but Souji looked around at them all in wonderment.
"Where's Kanji and Yukiko-san?" he asked Chie.
Only Chie looked chipper as she stood before her friends. "Well, we need some scouts to keep finding info, right?" she insisted. "Besides, I called us all together to remind you all how important this rescue is!"
"Ugh. But Chie-senpai, we just had a meeting about it," Rise groaned, sinking even lower in her chair. Her high pigtails wilted with her.
Chie straightened up with her fists on her hips. "Ah, but that's where you're wrong!"
"No, she's right. We really did just have a meeting about this," Yosuke pointed out.
"Yeah, but this is different!" Clearly frustrated, Chie leaned forward on the table. "But first, we have to welcome our newest member!"
All eyes flew to Souji. Their hard stares made him itch with discomfort. Chie's broad grin sent fear creeping into his spine.
"As president of the F.L.A.M.Y. Club, I proudly welcome Souji-kun and recognize that he will be a great addition to our cause!" announced Chie.
It took all of Souji's strength to not double over in disgust as he calmly asked, "What's the flamy Club? And why am I in it?"
"It's not 'flamy' but—"
"Nope. He's right. It's exactly as it sounds," Yosuke cut Chie off.
"Guys!" Chie no longer grinned. "We are the Finding Love Assisting Manless Yukiko Club, and we are dedicated to, uh, finding love while assisting—"
The corner of Souji's lip twitched. "'M-manless?' Isn't that—"
"Love is serious business, Sensei!" Teddie squeaked.
Yosuke smashed his palm on the tabletop. "We don't have time for this!" he shouted at their president. "Yukiko can find love anytime she wants! She's got half the school after her!"
"Listen up!" Chie yelled over them all. "Our new target is Naoto-kun, and if we don't save him soon, Yukiko could be manless forever!"
There goes that word again, Souji thought to himself. "Chie, that's kinda harsh."
"Reality is harsh!" she screeched. "My sources say that Yukiko and Naoto-kun may be interested in each other, and it's up to us to make sure that they get the chance to let, um, you know?"
"To, let their love blossom into a budding romance?" Rise finished for her.
"Yeah! Rise-chan, you're now the new VP!"
The younger girl's face fell. "No thanks. Kanji can keep that title."
"As I was saying," Chie continued, ignoring Rise, "We need to do everything in our power to locate and rescue the target. Any information you can find is vital to our cause. Do it for love! Do it for Yukiko! Do it for—"
But everyone was already heading to the elevator, Souji leading the small pack and stabbing the call button repeatedly with his finger. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Chie bounding up to them with a huge smile on her face.
"That's my dedicated team! When we find Naoto-kun, we'll celebrate with a round of steak! On Yosuke, of course."
"Oh, hell no! You can't just reward us with my hard-earned money!"
"You can afford it! You're treasurer!"
"That's not how it works, dammit!"
Souji drifted away from the group. "I'll just take the stairs," he whispered to no one, grateful that no one noticed him leave. It was a long way down, but at least it was quiet except for his heavy footfalls on the metal stairs.
The brief meeting had left Souji feeling the sting of the past few days when he thought that Yukiko had grown interested in the detective. He had been ecstatic that Yukiko had cleared everything, but just hearing that his friends no longer supported them in favor of a new guy made his stomach drop.
"But I know the truth," he reminded himself. "There ain't no other guy for Girlfriend! Beat that, you flamy club!"
He shoved his hands into his pockets, hunching over on his way down more flights of stairs. He knew how Yukiko felt, but he still wasn't fond of Naoto. But he reassured himself that if he saves Naoto's "shiny detective ass," then he could edge out the competition for good. He was the hot, mysterious new guy in town, and he intended to hold that title.
The first place he checked was the school. It was already late in the afternoon, with golden sunlight tinting the long hallways devoid of students. The few he found in clubs and sports had nothing to offer, since they were more focused on their activities or just didn't know anything about Naoto whatsoever.
"Is there anything you can tell me about him?" he asked some girls by the shoe lockers.
The shorter-haired girl tugged on her shoes. "Well, he's the youngest detective ever," she answered.
He narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, that's what he's known for."
Both girls stared up at him, the other girl saying, "Well, that's really all we know about him. He pretty much keeps to himself."
Thanking them, he resisted yelling "USELESS!" at them as he left the school. He tried the shopping district, the flood plains, and around his neighborhood, but no one knew anything about Naoto except that he was a detective. One young woman commented that the detective was quite the cutie. Again, Souji bit back a cry of "USELESS!" and returned home.
As usual, Nanako sat by the TV, flipping through the channels with a steaming styrofoam cup of instant noodles in front of her. The chopsticks still laid on top of the paper cover. When he entered the room, she gave her usual greeting.
"Do you know anything about that Detective Prince guy?" he asked as he prepared his own cup of instant noodles.
"All the girls in my class really like him," she replied, checking on her cup. "They think he's cool."
"Right. Cool," he muttered to himself. He took a seat across from his little cousin and steered his eyes to the drama detective show Nanako had landed on.
"Um, I couldn't get the can open for Lola."
"For who?"
Nanako held up the little orange kitten in her lap. "Lola," she repeated. "She's hungry."
He put on a confused smile. "Why did you name a kitten Lola?"
"You named her, Big Bro. Remember? Like the song?"
It took a moment for Souji to remember that he had indeed been the one to name the kitten. He shifted uncomfortably at the memory. "Now that I think about it, she doesn't look much like a Lola. Why don't you name her?"
Nodding, Nanako set the kitten down, scratching her behind the ear. She appeared to be deep in thought, searching for a decent name that didn't sound like it would end in tragedy. While they waited for their noodles, Souji got up to find the can of cat food that Nanako had mentioned, seeing that the little metal tab had broken off. He threw open drawers and cabinets in search of a can opener, finding an old-fashioned kind that needed to be stabbed or hammered into the can's top and wedged through. He brought it back to the low table.
"Here. Look at this," he said to her. "This is easy, since the can already has that easy-open top. So just do this to lift the top, and—"
He pried open the lid, revealing the ground up meaty mush with gravy. A salty, meaty smell wafted into their noses, Nanako wrinkling her little nose. But the kitten leaped up from her lap, mewling and scurrying to the open can. Souji snatched it up from the table to scoop the contents out into a bowl. He was closely followed by the kitten, who tangled itself around his ankles, rubbing and meowing desperately as he worked.
"What kind of world do we live in where the stray cat eats better than us?" he joked, thinking about the instant noodles on the table.
"You must really like cats, Big Bro."
The kitten leaped up onto Souji's leg, digging its little claws deep into his thigh. It was practically howling at him now, climbing higher and higher. Souji let out a yell whenever the claws stabbed into him, and Nanako had to pick off every individual clawed toe from him to let him set the food bowl down. He later discovered that the little hungry beast had drawn blood.
"Try to help a kitty, and you get clawed," he sighed. "No appreciation, huh?"
"But look how happy she is!" Nanako squealed. The kitten attacked the food with voracious hunger, never looking up and nearly sticking her nose into the quickly shrinking pile. Somehow, Souji felt himself feel better, knowing that he helped it eat.
"You win, Naoto-kun. We'll find you, even if it means getting clawed for food," he whispered low enough for Nanako to not hear.
…
Souji and his friends were at a loss. For days, they scrambled to find any scrap of information on Naoto, but all they learned were the same things over and over again:
"Naoto Shirogane? He's that detective, right?"
"Isn't he a first-year high school student?"
"He's so dreamy! A real prince!"
Even Chie was getting frustrated, but for a completely wrong reason. Souji nearly ripped the battery out of his cell phone due to her blowing it up with messages either asking if he had learned anything new or offering what he called "emotionally damaging" encouragement for not helping Yukiko enough and that even Kanji was tearing up the streets screaming for people to tell him what they knew. Souji had to kindly remind her that Kanji had actually informed him earlier that he had lost his voice doing that.
"I'll check around town again," Souji told Chie after school one day. He had been doing so daily, but letting her know that he wasn't slacking off helped keep her off of his back. The flood plain was the closest to the school, and he was heading down to the riverbed when Yukiko came up behind him with a bento box in her hands. His insides deteriorated almost instantly.
"Hey, Girlfriend," he greeted after a quick look around. "It's been awhile."
"It has," she agreed, leading him to the gazebo. "I thought we could finish the investigation up fast, but no one seems to know anything about Naoto-kun."
She held up the lunch box to him. "I, um, thought that you might be hungry. All this running around takes a lot of energy."
He caught her coy smile and smirked. "You know, I hear that Kanji's been dashing around day and night. I think he might be a little famished himse—"
"No!" She yelled, surprising even herself. "I-I mean, um, he wouldn't like what I made."
She blushed. Souji found her adorable for being so defensive about sharing the lunch. Now he was curious of what was inside.
"You were so confident the other day," he pointed out, slowly untying the cloth. "What changed?"
"Because that time, you weren't eating something I cooked!" she blurted out, falling silent soon after.
He pulled off the lid. Inside he saw little sausages cut with fat and skinny legs. Tiny sesame seeds had been pressed on, and puny mouths cut below. He felt like the mouths were groaning "Kill me!" at him and pitied them. Next to them, lumps of brownish-red masses sat in a fluted cup. Rolled omelet pieces appeared to have melted into eggy goo. The rice looked normal, but smelled like vinegar and durian had a bastard child. Souji's eyes began to water from the acrid scent and poked at the most normal-looking thing: An untouched, untainted cherry tomato on top of a pile of green something.
"I made it myself," Yukiko said with no confidence in her voice. "I nearly had to fend off the chefs when they said that I wanted to make myself some lunch."
"They wouldn't let you make your 'own' lunch?" he asked, savoring the tiny tomato morsel with every slow chew.
"It's pathetic, isn't it? The head chef wouldn't even let me add squid ink to the potato salad!"
Nearly choking at the revelation, Souji silently thanked the head chef and sampled the octopus sausage. It was cold, chewy, and so raw that it had to have come just off the pig and into the bento, skipping the cooking process completely. He held back the urge to throw up.
Yukiko looked on with expectation. He did his best to find something positive to say, but she eyed something behind him and waved. "Nanako-chan!"
The little girl came frolicking up to them all smiles. "Big Bro! Big Sis!" she cried happily. Souji silently promised himself to buy his cousin the most expensive Christmas gift he could find for her if she could save him from the lunch.
"What brings you here?"
"I'm going to get some cat food from Junes!" Nanako squeaked, eyeing the bento in Souji's hands.
"You have a cat?" Yukiko asked.
She nodded. "Yeah! We don't know what to name her, though."
Nanako turned to look at the bento. "Big Sis, did you cook it yourself?"
Yukiko visibly shrunk in her seat. "I did, but I'm still not sure if it was any good."
"Then I'll try some!"
Souji tensed up. He couldn't let Nanako eat raw meat or bastard rice! When his little cousin reached for the brownish-red mass, he held the lunch away from her.
"Big Bro! Let me try!" she demanded in her adorable little voice. She pouted as she hopped up and down, trying to grab it from him with her hands raised over her head.
"Souji-kun, why don't you let her sample something?" Yukiko asked him, also reaching for the box.
But he held it away from her, too. He got up and started to run away, shoveling rice, gelatinous egg, mystery masses and whatever else there was into his mouth while the two girls chased after him. He even ate the fluted cup whole.
"Don't run with food! You'll get sick!"
"I wanna try, Big Bro!"
He turned around and flashed them the empty bento box, chewing rapidly and swallowing hard. It felt like he had swallowed a brick or two. Nanako groaned in disappointment while Yukiko took the box from him.
"Wow. It must've been good if you ate it all that fast," Yukiko marveled. Souji thought he saw his vision double for a second.
"You're mean, Big Bro!" His cousin pouted before turning to Yukiko, saying, "Next time, can I try? I really wanna try your cooking, Big Sis!"
Souji swore in his head. His stomach felt like it was disintegrating, breaking apart and melting into lava. He burped, smelling noxious fumes so toxic that he could taste it and feel it burn in his nostrils and eyes. In an attempt to clear the smell, he opened and closed his mouth, breathing through there until he noticed something between his teeth. His tongue poked at it, but it wouldn't move. His fingers freed it, and he found himself staring back at half a mangled chicken feather. Even Yukiko and Nanako stared in horror at the discovery, and Souji ran to the nearest trash receptacle to violently empty his stomach.
For three days after, Souji suffered from food poisoning. The consolation was not having to go to school for those few days. The downside was not getting anything done on investigating the detective. He kept having feverish nightmares of Naoto standing in the middle of an erupting volcano with flowing rice lava and little raw octopus sausage demons parading around him with chicken feather pitchforks. Anything he ate would quickly come back up so frequently that he had to camp out in front of the toilet, oftentimes with his head hanging on the bowl. It was all he could do, since Nanako and her father had school and work, respectively. The only one around to watch over him was the unnamed kitten, who showed how much she cared by nibbling on his toes and meowing at him for food.
Throughout those three days, he would receive texts from his friends, checking on him between classes, at lunch, or after school while investigating. They offered to visit, but he would tell them to keep asking around town. On the fourth day he attended school, where Rise fussed over him during lunch and Yukiko kept shooting seething glares at her. It felt nice to be the desirable new-ish guy again.
"It must've been something from the cafeteria," Souji told everyone once he had recovered. They seemed to agree. Yukiko nodded with everyone. He mentally slapped his palm to his face at her cluelessness.
He got lucky on a Wednesday afternoon. A policeman had been kind enough to let him know that Naoto had gotten obsessed with a case and refused to let it go, while the other detectives and officers had shut it already.
He called Yukiko. "I've got a lead," he said once she picked up.
"You did? Good work, Boyfriend!"
"Yeah." He told her about his obsession with the murder cases.
"He's obsessed? Wow. He's really dedicated to his work."
Souji nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Yeah, but we still need more info for Rise-chan. Since we've already asked everyone in town, I'll see if there are any more cops to ask. They seem the most familiar with Naoto-kun."
"Great. Good luck, okay?"
"Thanks. I'll let everyone know."
He sent a mass text to everyone and continued running around town in search of another police officer, finding no one. It would be another day until he came across another one, who had another valuable piece of information about their much sought after Detective Prince.
"I wish he'd let it go already," the officer griped. "No wonder the whole department treats him like a kid."
Souji raised his eyebrows. "They treat him like a kid?"
"Oh, sure. He's getting all worked up over nothing. That's why everyone gives him the cold shoulder, ya know."
Souji was so excited to discover more information about Naoto that he started jogging towards Junes. He whipped out his phone and began texting Yukiko, not noticing the motorcycle speeding by as he stepped off the curb.
...
The next thing Souji knew, he was in the hospital with a twisted knee, bandages over his head, his right arm, and he wore a blue and white hospital gown while a strange yet familiar woman sat at his bedside. He screamed.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-You're that C-C-Cougar woman!" he shouted, and poor Mitsuru put her hands up in frustration.
"I told you, I'm only twenty years old! What's the matter with you?" she argued, her eyes wide with alarm. "And stop screaming!"
"But, why the hell are you here?"
"I'm the one who hit you with my motorcycle, so I'm here to make sure that you're okay."
Souji covered his chest with his hands. "How do I know that you're not after my supple, teenage boy flesh?"
Mitsuru was at a loss. She let out an exasperated sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. "I must have hit you harder than I thought," he heard her mutter. She turned back to him. "Seta, correct? I apologize for accidentally running you over, but you should have watched where you were going."
She took out her cell phone. "Do you have any family that I can call to take you home?"
He settled down. "I do, but my uncle's always busy at work, so I can't really reach him."
"What about your parents?"
"They're overseas."
She snapped her phone shut. "Very well. I'll take you myself."
With the permission from the doctor, Souji was allowed to leave on crutches that Mitsuru bought for him. Nighttime had long-since fallen, with the late summer air slightly cooler than it was during the summer. Mitsuru brought her motorcycle around to the front, where Souji stared from her bike to his crutches, wondering how he was going to hold them before swinging his injured leg over the seat and holding the crutches under one arm. Mitsuru handed him the spare helmet he remembered using back on Port Island, and while he strapped it on, she shot her bike forward, the sudden acceleration nearly throwing Souji from his seat. Outside his uncle's house, he got off and thanked her.
"Can you keep quiet about this to Yukiko?" he asked timidly. "I don't want her to worry."
Mitsuru eyed the brace over his knee. "I can't lie to her, you know," she told him. "I'm not about to lose her trust just because I didn't tell her that I had hit her boyfriend with my motorcycle. And I'm sure that she would want to know."
He let out a heavy sigh. "I'll call her when I get inside," he grumbled. "But only since you didn't kill me and you bought me these crutches.
"Also," he said loudly over the revving of the motorcycle's engine, "You're the nicest cougar I've ever met."
Mitsuru revved her engine again. "Call me cougar again, and I will execute you," she warned in a low, threatening voice. "I am going to speak to your girlfriend about this later."
"Bye, Cougar!"
She left without saying anything more. Souji hobbled into the house, finding Nanako at her usual place at the low table, nodding off with the kitten jumping around her, trying to bat her pigtails with its tiny paws. At the closing of the front door, she jolted awake and her eyes grew wide at the sight of her Big Bro on crutches with a brace on his right knee.
"What happened?" she asked as she hurried over to him.
"I didn't look both ways before crossing the street," he said to her as he settled on the sofa. "And so I got run over by a cougar on a motorcycle."
Nanako tilted her head in confusion. "Big Bro, that's silly-Animals don't ride motorcycles!"
She brought him a nice, fresh cup of instant ramen and sat with him on the couch with the kitten in her lap. Souji slurped up the noodles while the kitten tried to bat at them, growling at the kitten between mouthfuls to get her own. The kitten mewed at him with the intensity of calling its mother for backup, and Souji dangled a single noodle over her head until a drop of golden broth fell onto her little pink nose. She shook her head, flapping her ears wildly before licking the soup off.
"We still need a name for her," Nanako reminded him. "What should we call her?"
While he slurped up more noodles, he came up with a name. "How about Cougar?"
"Yeah!" Nanako cuddled the playful little kitten. "Cougar! That way, she'll grow up big and strong!"
"And threaten to execute people she ran over," Souji muttered into his noodles so that Nanako wouldn't hear.
Later that night after a hot bath, Souji went up to his room, hopping on his left leg up the stairs with one hand on the rails and the other supporting himself with the crutches. At the top of the stairs, he burst into his room, panting, and collapsed onto his loveseat.
"Naoto-kun, when we rescue you, I am feeding you to a volcano as a virgin sacrifice so that my luck won't suck anymore," he groaned. "I swear, it's like the universe doesn't want me to save you. Not that I don't mind, but-"
He propped his bad leg up on the seat to unwrap the brace. He rolled up his pants leg to see that it was still pretty swollen. It only hurt if he put any weight on it, but there was no way that he was going back downstairs just for some ice.
Ice. Snow? Yukiko! He had forgotten to call! His phone was on the corner of his desk, just beyond his reach. Stretching his arm out, he was obviously too far away and made lazy, desperate grabs for it with a miserable "eeh" noise with every swipe of his hand.
"Na-na-ko-chaaaan!" he wailed loudly. When she appeared in his doorway, he put on his sad, miserable, pitiful eyes.
"What is it, Big Bro?" she asked, staring at him in wonder.
He made the same grabbing motions towards his phone that he had used in the past minute. Nanako followed the direction of his hand and retrieved the phone for him.
"Big Bro?"
He was still nuzzling his phone to his face when she said his name. She rubbed her toe into the carpet and frowned.
"Is it okay if I can hug you?" she asked timidly. "You don't have to hug me back. I know you're having a rough week. I just want you to feel better."
Tears filled Souji's eyes as he reached for her and gave her the biggest hug he could manage without breaking her. Her little arms wrapped around his middle as she tried to match his strength.
"When I get rich, I'm buying you a hundred Juneses," he said, trying to hold back a sob.
"Do you need anything else?" she offered. "I can get you some ice, if you want."
He accepted her kind offer, and when she left him with an ice pack, he raised it up above his head.
"The god of all bastards has accepted your delightful offering and will not be throwing you into the volcano!" he announced.
"Big Bro?" came Nanako's muffled voice from beyond the door. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing! Good night!"
"G'night."
Somehow, he managed to drag himself to his futon but had no desire to spread it out to sleep in. He ended up pulling the thin cushion over himself and settled on the blue checkered rug by his table. He then put the ice pack over his knee and called Yukiko. She caught it on the first ring.
"Kirijo-sama told me about what happened," Yukiko said urgently. "Are you all right? You're not hurt too badly, are you?"
"I think I'm dying," he groaned, feigning a cough.
"Poor you!" she cried. Souji heard her voice soften as she spoke to whom he presumed was Mitsuru, saying, "How could you run him over? He says he's dying!"
"He was perfectly fine when I dropped him off at his home," he heard Mitsuru say bluntly.
"Oh. That's good."
Souji felt a little hurt that Yukiko would dismiss his pains so easily. "Aw, come on."
"She says that you were irresponsible enough to be texting and crossing the street without looking," Yukiko added, and her words were spears through his chest. "Is that also true?"
He pouted. "Yeah, because I found a lead on Naoto-kun," he told her.
"You did? Well, why didn't you say so sooner?"
"Because she ran me over with her motorcycle."
"Oh, yes. That's right."
He dropped his voice low. "Hey, we can't talk about this with Cougar there, so we'll have to talk later, okay?"
She giggled. "She does have the fierceness of a cougar, doesn't she?"
"Not you, too!" sighed Mitsuru in the background. "I'm only twenty!"
"What does your age have to do with animals?" Yukiko asked innocently. Mitsuru let out another frustrated sigh. Even Souji sympathized with her while chuckling.
"You just rest up, Souji-kun. I'll see you in school. Good night!"
"G'night."
The floor turned out to be an unkind bed without the cushion of his futon beneath him. His hips were too narrow, his shoulders too broad, and his spine was curved at a painful angle when he lied down on his side. On his back, everything was just too solid for him to get comfortable on. He found the will to spread out the futon properly and lay on top, and just as he got cozy, the kitten scratched on his door to be let in.
"Dammit, Cougar!" he swore under his breath. "Go away! Go to Nanako-chan!"
She scratched on the door again, letting out a tiny, squeaky mew. Her itty bitty voice slew him from cuteness, and he got up on one leg to hop over to the door just to let her in.
"Is this punishment from that Kirijo woman?" he groaned as the kitten stood just outside, staring up at him without taking a step into his room. "Do you wanna be inside, or out? Pick one!"
"Mew!"
He scooped the kitten up in his hand and brought her in. Back under the covers on his futon, he stuck the kitten by his pillow and tried to go to sleep.
An hour later, Little Cougar scratched at the door again to be let out. He gave up and left his bedroom door ajar so that she could come and go as she pleased.
...
"Senpai! What happened to you?"
It was after school the next day, and the team had gathered at the Junes food court to discuss the information that Souji had gathered. Rise fawned over his injuries, eyeing the small cut over his right eye and the brace on his knee while the others stared at him from across the round table.
"Sensei, I will avenge you!" Teddie proudly declared in his bear suit.
"Don't worry about it," Souji told him calmly as he waved a hand. "She's a friend of Yukiko-san's."
Rise turned to Yukiko. "You're friends with people who would do this to him?"
Yukiko frowned. "I was told that Souji-kun had crossed the street without looking both ways, and that is why he got hit."
Yosuke clicked his tongue. "Damn, man. Even Chie knows you should look both ways."
"Shut up!" Chie hissed at him. "Anyways, it's not like we can go rescue Naoto-kun if our leader's knee is messed up."
It was clear that she was upset about this, though Souji had a feeling that it had something to do with her flamy club. "Sorry, guys," he sighed.
"It's okay, Senpai," Rise reassured him with an affectionate smile and a pat on his shoulder. "We can still scan for him inside the TV, so you just stay put."
Everyone got up from the table except for Souji. They all agreed that shoving a guy on crutches into the TV would look even more suspicious than them falling in casually, and so they made him stay behind to sip on his lonely soda.
Over an hour later, he had gone through three sodas when everyone returned.
"We found him!" Teddie cheered.
"Dude, he's got an insane world going for him," Yosuke told Souji. "It's like those secret bases you see on TV."
"We gotta go now!" Kanji urged them all, startling some of them. "Naoto's been in there for over a week! He's gotta be starvin', o-or-"
"We're not going anywhere without our leader," Yukiko hissed, taming Kanji and getting him to sink down into a chair.
"That was amazing, Yuki-chan!" Teddie exclaimed as he bounced on his feet.
"We really can't do anything until Souji-kun's better, huh?" Chie said woefully.
Souji let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, guys. If you can elect a new leader, you can-"
"Uh-uh. No way, Senpai," Rise said firmly.
"She's right, Partner," Yosuke agreed as he patted his shoulder. "Imagine putting Teddie in charge."
The bear flapped his stubby arms in a frantic panic. "H-Huh? You want Teddie to lead?"
Yosuke shot him a dirty look. "Hell, no! You'd put yourself in an all girls' team and make them do all the fighting!"
"What about you, Yosuke-kun?" Yukiko suggested.
"M-Me?" Yosuke waved his hands wildly in front of himself. "No way. I'm more of an idea person, not a leader. We'd all end up needing to be rescued by Naoto-kun!"
"What about Kanji?" Souji asked.
They all looked at the troubled first-year, grinding his teeth and rubbing his knuckles into his brow. He muttered darkly under his breath, and everyone took a step back.
"Chie might be a good leader," Yukiko said as she beamed at her friend.
"Are you kidding me?" Yosuke whined. "She's so indecisive that she'd be all, 'Yosuke, use Garula! No wait! Dia! I need Dia!' and we'll end up dying before we even make a move!"
"I'm not that bad!" Chie shouted angrily while Yukiko snickered.
"But, but that's how you sound when we study for exams!" she giggled.
"Aw, geez, Yukiko."
Rise cocked her head to the side. "What about Yukiko-senpai? What would she be like?"
"Duh. What else?" Yosuke said with a shrug. "She'd throw flames around like confetti while laughing at everything burning."
They all looked to Yukiko as she giggled on, and everyone let out an uneasy chuckle.
Yosuke sighed. "Basically, none of us are fit to lead. Rise-chan's got her hands full with scanning Shadows, so she can't do both."
They agreed that until Souji's leg healed, they wouldn't go into the TV to look for Naoto. Souji had suggested that they use Diarama on his knee, but the Yosuke saw one immediate drawback of it.
"How are you gonna explain to everyone that your knee is all better?" Yosuke asked.
"It's a miracle!" Souji shouted as he raised his crutches into the air. It got the attention of other shoppers, startling them.
"Can't we at least just heal him and make him wear the brace all week?" Yukiko asked them. "We really should rescue Naoto-kun as soon as possible."
"Yes!" Chie barked. Her eyes were wild with eagerness and she almost drooled at the thought.
"Let's rescue Naoto!" Kanji agreed, pounding his fists on the table and frightening the other shoppers.
Rise shook Yosuke's arm. "Come on, Yosuke-senpai," she pleaded. "He just has to look like he's still hurt."
"Ah, good point." Yosuke finally consented to the miraculous healing. When they emerged from the TV and back into the electronics section, Souji was still on his crutches, wearing the brace, but was pain free and ready to save some detective booty.
"Look what I can do!" Souji cheered as he began to river dance to show his friends. Unfortunately for him, an elderly man in a wheelchair happened to be wheeled by, earning him dirty looks from the old man and his caretaker.
Yosuke slapped a palm to his face. "Dude. Just stop."
With nothing more to do, they all went home, and Chie and Yosuke escorted Souji back to his house. Too often, the other two would walk too fast for Souji to keep up on his crutches. He had to yell at them to come back to him or to wait long enough for him to catch up, but after the fifth time, he gave up and let them continue up the hill of the Shopping District.
Night was beginning to fall, and his eyes caught the faint glow of the Velvet Room door. Souji knew that if he was going to rescue Naoto, he would need strong Personas that were unbeatable. He looked up the hill to see Yosuke and Chie gone from view, and took a moment to look both ways before crossing the street.
"It's been awhile since your last visit," Margaret greeted warmly from her usual spot.
Souji hobbled onto the cushy car seat and stretched his injure leg out. Igor and Margaret both stared at the brace, but neither had any questions for him about it. Igor kept his head down and his upper lip resting against his hands, letting Margaret take care of their guest.
"What can I do for you today?" she asked Souji.
"I need an awesome Persona," he said confidently. "One with the power to slay the masses!"
Margaret smiled at him. "Is one such Persona all that necessary?"
He nodded vigorously. "I need a Persona that can finish the job quick. Got anything like that?"
Margaret got up from her spot and crossed the small space, bending low so as not to hit her head on the ceiling. She sat down next to Souji so he could see the compendium, flipping through the pages and telling him about the possible fusions that he could make.
"Nah. Too weak," Souji said at the first one.
"Weak to darkness? Are you kidding me?"
"Weak to physical attacks?"
"No healing? Come on."
He blinked at the latest page. "That's a penis."
Igor had begun to shuffle his deck of Tarot cards. "Don't forget that you can summon past Personas and fuse more than three at once," he reminded them both.
"I've already got twelve on me," Souji told him.
"Fuse some of them to clear some space," Margaret suggested. "You'll be surprised at what will come up."
He fused several, making a handful of newer, stronger Personas. Still unsatisfied, he asked to see more possible fusions that he could make.
"Wait!" His finger pinned down a page. On it was a samurai in red armor. "Yoshitsune? What's that attack there?"
"Hassou Tobi," Margaret answered. "It deals light slashes to all enemies eight times in a row."
"That one!" he exclaimed, and his spit flew onto her pale face. "I want that one! It's perfect!"
"You need to summon the necessary Personas, first."
Souji frantically searched the compendium for the Personas he needed, finding only half. The others, he had to fuse himself, draining all his money to a meager sum so paltry that he couldn't afford meat gum on clearance. Once all the Personas were in place, he watched hungrily as Igor began the fusion process for creating Yoshitsune, lifting the cards up in the air. A brilliant flash of light blinded him, and a single card fell to the floor.
"Wh-what happened?" Souji asked as Igor stooped to pick up the card. The old man gave it a look.
"Ah. This must be the 'wild card,'" he said to Souji as he showed it to him.
Souji took it in his hand and screamed. "No! Not that one! Igor! What the hell?"
"These things do happen," Margaret tried to reassure him.
Souji held the card in her face. "You want this in your pocket?" he screeched at her.
"W-Well, I suppose not. But you can always try again."
"No, I can't!" He turned out his empty pockets. "I spent everything I had on that, that thing!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I cannot help you there," Igor said in his soothing voice. "If you want to try again, you'll need to accumulate more money. But, I can assure you that that Persona is quite strong, as long as you use it properly."
"Now you're just making fun of me," Souji grumbled miserably as he got up from the saet. "I give up. I hate you both."
"Come back again soon!" the two residents called after him as he left the Velvet Room.
Now that his knee was healed, he just needed to prepare himself for the battles ahead. He wasn't sure what to expect, but with his friend and their Personas, nothing was going to stop him from rescuing Naoto.
...
Author's note: Sorry for the extremely delayed post. To be honest, I had lost the passion for continuing this fic in pursuit of other works and school. I do hope that I can see this story to the end, which, to be honest, I have most of it planned out already. I just don't feel the drive as strongly as when I started it years ago.
Also, I would like to clarify that this particular AU is reflective of the original PS2 version of the game, before any other games or the anime for it had come into existence. There will be inconsistencies. There will be mistakes.
Lastly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your encouragements to keep writing. I apologize again for the ridiculously long delay. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope that I can get the next one out sometime within the next five years.