"Shadow/Higher being"
Chapter 24
It was silent as the team watched the train leave. They had mixed feelings about it, but it didn't really matter. All they could do was watch anyways. They began to walk back into town and proceed through the day as normal.
"…dead body just outside the Shopping District!" The team overheard two ladies gossip on their way back. It seems something has happened.
"Did I hear that right…?" Yosuke said, slowly putting his phone away.
"Excuse me…" Yukiko greeted, approaching the two gossipers. "Could I ask what you are talking about?"
"Huh? Well, someone said there was a dead body just outside the Shopping District!" The lady replied. The others gasped when they heard that. Yukiko continued to ask more from them.
"Could it be Rise-chan?" Yosuke said, still shocked. "But… we rescued her. I'm sure of it! What the hell is going on…?"
"Why did this have to happen as soon as Minato-senpai left…?" Kanji asked, not really looking for an answer.
"Alright look, let's meet at Junes right now to discuss this." Souji said. "Yosuke, can you head over to the scene and see what is up over there?"
"Yeah, leave it to me!"
"Alright, meet up with us at Junes when you're done."
Minato did not feel comfortable on the train at the moment. He was currently sitting next to some punkish-looking guy. His two other buddies were sitting nearby as well. They seemed to be a few years older than Minato was. If Minato so much as looked at them…
"Whatchu lookin' at, huh?" The one next to him growled out.
"Ha…" Minato laughed nervously. He noticed his other buddies had begun to play cards. "…Know how to play poker?"
"Yeah, it was murder all right." Yosuke came running to the headquarters panting. "The body was hanging upside down on an apartment's rooftop railing." Everyone was confused as how this could've happened. "Also… the victim this time, it… was King Moron." At this point, everyone stood up from their seats in shock. "There's no mistake…" Yosuke finished.
"Gotta be shitting me… Ain't the killer targeting people who get shown on TV?" Kanji asked. "I ain't never seen King Moron on the Midnight Channel, or any other programs!"
"I thought we had finally figured some things out…" Chie began. "Were they all just a big coincidence?"
No one answered. They thought about it, but Souji saw that their investigation was getting nowhere because of this. "Guys… it's too early to give up."
"Damn straight!" Kanji said with determination. "We started this thing 'cause the police can't tell their asses from their elbows. We give up now, and that shithead's gonna be on the loose forever. This ain't the time for bitching and moaning… Minato-senpai would've agreed with Souji-senpai as well. We just gotta keep on keepin' on!"
Souji was grateful. 'Kanji, you have leveled to epic stuff or something.'
Kanji's little speech seemed to arouse action from everyone. They began to look at the situation more determinedly than before. The team decided it would be best to go ask Teddie if he knew anything. They split up to change into their uniforms and regrouped at the electronics department.
"Now that's unusual…" Yosuke was referring to the Junes staff hanging around the electronics department. He walked over to them and asked what was going on. Souji heard bits of the conversation, but it wasn't difficult to find out what the staff was referring to when they said 'weird mascot around'.
"Whoa, h-he's here!" Chie hissed out in surprise, pointing at Teddie, who was sitting in a chair. They all ran over to him.
"Wh-What the…? I mean, how'd you…?" Yosuke seemed to be at a loss.
"It took you guys long enough! I've been waiting." Teddie replied cheerfully. The team had so many questions for Teddie which he answered very quickly and with answers that they should've been able to figure out for themselves.
"Spending time with you all sparked my curiosity about this world!"
"Oh yeah, there's something we need to ask you!" Yukiko said, remembering their original purpose for finding Teddie. "How long have you been here, Teddie? Did anyone enter the other world?"
"I stayed until the fog settled in on my side, but no one came."
"You're positive?" Yosuke was trying to confirm if it was true. "You really didn't sense a single person?"
"I just said that I didn't! I was there all by myself, like always. Hmph!" Yosuke continued to pester Teddie and it was making him frustrated. Well either way, Teddie was sure. Teddie handed Souji a pair of glasses saying they were for Rise.
"Today begins the New Legend of Teddie!" Wait… what? Souji felt their group bond strengthen.
'Did I miss something?' Souji thought. The group moved to the Junes' table when people began to gather to see the commotion.
The team continued to speculate some more on the inconsistency of the victim and the Midnight Channel. "I think we can be sure now that King Moron was never thrown into the TV." Yosuke concluded.
"Then what, he was killed over here? Why not throw him into a TV, like all the rest?" Chie asked.
"Maybe he never intended too?" Souji replied, unsure.
"So you're saying he wasn't like the others to begin with? But why?" No one really had an answer. Yukiko had a theory that it was possible that the killer thought he couldn't kill people anymore using the TV. They thought about it and they came up with some reasonable support for it. Their next plan was to see if Rise could fill in any blanks for them.
"It's so hot out." Teddie sighed. "…I'm taking this off."
"Wait! You're not talking about your head, are you?" Yosuke saw that Teddie was beginning to reach for his head to pull off and promptly hit him on the head. "Cut it out! There are kids watching!"
"Actually, I'm no longer a hollow bear!" Teddie let out a laugh. "I trained and trained, hoping to someday score with Chie-chan and Yuki-chan… and now I finally have an inside!"
"Yeah… good job with that." Chie said in disbelief.
"Come on! Can't we give it a rest with the whole 'scoring' thing?" Yukiko said, exasperated.
"Dude you're hollow. Taking your head off isn't going to cool you down!" Yosuke said.
"But I just told you! I'm not hollow anymore! Agh, it's too hot. I can't stand it…" Cutscene… ahem cough. Teddie began to rock back and forth as he reached to his back where the zipper was and pulled it. Everybody watched as a blond-haired boy with blue eyes emerged from the suit. Nobody moved. It was silent as they watched Teddie drink his soda. Everything seemed to be in slow motion.
"Hey, Chie-chan, Yuki-chan." Teddie said in an almost seductive voice.
The two being addressed were still in shock either from the person who had just emerged or from seeing the person or both. They let out a mumble of disbelief.
"Do you have anything to wear? I'm basically like a new born at the moment…"
'Damn dude. Minato would've had a kick out of this…' Souji thought.
After getting over their shock, Chie and Yukiko led Teddie away into Junes to buy some clothes leaving just the guys at the table.
"That's… Teddie…? He said he's not hollow anymore… so like… he grew himself a body in there?" Kanji was still in a state of shock over what had just happened in the past few minutes. Silly Kanji.
"Flush." Minato laid down his hand and sure enough they were all of the same suit. The four of them were playing inside an empty train carriage.
"Damn, this is one scary kid." One of the punks muttered. They had agreed to strip poker, which was awkward because they were all guys, but whatever. They had been playing for quite awhile and Minato had a pile of clothes sitting next to him. It was going to be the final round. The punks obviously knew that Minato had been cheating since they themselves had been cheating, but somehow Minato kept winning without being suspicious in the slightest. The smile on his face was a bit unnerving though.
"Royal flush." Minato laid his hand down once again. The other guys face palmed. These guys weren't such bad people; they only appeared to be. Through this one whole game of poker they had become acquaintances that enjoyed the game. Minato was glad that Igor taught him sleight of hand. He never thought he would have to use it, but hey… it saved his skin. The train had stopped, and this is where the three of them had to get off.
The one with the blue frizzy hair and the apparent leader of the three held out his hand, which Minato took. "I don't know how the hell you did it, but you're good kid. So yeah… can we get out clothes back now? This is our stop."
"Yep, no problem." The three departed from the train and Minato waved goodbye to them from the window of his seat. The one with the frizzy hair tossed him a pack of cards, which Minato caught.
"That's for a good game!" What an eventful day…
Souji, Yosuke, and Kanji were waiting for Chie, Yukiko, and Teddie to show up. They were meeting in front of the tofu shop. It was hot out, so the three of them decided to get Topsicles from the store nearby.
"Sorry we're late…" Chie said, approaching them.
"How'd it take you that long to find clothes for Ted?" Yosuke asked.
Teddie approached the group as well. His appearance would explain why. Teddie was wearing a very unique style of clothing, which would explain the amount of time it took. He wore some kind of dress shirt with ruffles at its collar and black pants. Part of his shirt was unbuttoned which left his chest slightly exposed.
"Whoa…! I-Is that you, Teddie…?" Yosuke asked in amazement.
"Qui, monsieur! How do I look?"
"Uh… C'est magnifique?" Souji answered uncertainly.
"…Don't encourage him." Chie said exasperatedly. "It was a huge mess with everything so new to him." Chie turned to Teddie. "You can't just do whatever you want when you're in this form, got it? If you can behave yourself, you'll be pretty cute."
"Is he cute…? What do you think Kanji?" Yosuke asked, turning to Kanji.
"Huh? What're you asking me for?"
"Well, I was just wondering if he was your type."
"Ohhh… I get it." Kanji said his tone thick with sarcasm. "What you're really asking is… 'Will you please beat the shit out of me, Kanji?'"
Yukiko began to laugh hysterically.
"It ain't funny, Yukiko-senpai."
Yosuke handed Kanji some money for him to take Teddie out for something to eat. Somehow this resulted in a huge argument between Yosuke and Chie. It had something to do with money issues or… something. Souji watched amusingly for awhile, and then he and Yukiko left towards Rise's shop while Kanji took Teddie to get some Topsicles. They saw the hat-wearing boy, who hung with Kanji back during his incident, step out of the shop.
"Are you here to ingratiate yourself with Rise Kujikawa?" Uh huh… speak normally please.
"Huh? W-Wait, you're that guy we saw with Kanji…!" Yosuke said from behind as he and Chie walked up to them.
"Precisely, I don't believe we've met since then. In fact, I don't believe I've ever introduced myself. My name is Naoto Shirogane. I'm investigating the multiple murders that have occurred here. Mind if I ask you a few questions on the subject?" Although he asked politely, he did not wait for an answer from them and continued to ask them questions about their teacher. "This Morooka… has never appeared on television. What do you make of that?" This kid was really clever to have figured out that much.
"…How are we supposed to know?" Yosuke replied, shifting his eyes slightly.
"Well, we'll leave it at that." He began to walk away. "For my part, I'd like to solve this case as quickly as possible. I'll be keeping an eye on you all. Well then, until we meet again."
"Who is that guy…?" Yosuke asked slightly perplexed.
"It felt like he completely saw through us… He even knew about the TV thing." Chie said in awe.
"Oh… hi." A familiar voice called out. The team saw Rise approaching from behind them. They traded greetings and asked how she was doing. They began to walk in the direction of the shrine discussing what had happened with her.
"Yeah, I remember being at my house. When I came to though, I was already in the other world."
"Still no real information on the killer…" Chie sighed.
"We met this weird kid name Naoto a second ago…" Yosuke told Rise.
"Oh… He's come to the shop several times asking me a lot about the incident. I didn't tell him anything about the other world though. I figured it'd be a waste of time. Actually he asked me about you guys too, but I just made up some stuff."
"Thanks. Even if he didn't believe you, at least you didn't rat us out or anything." Souji said.
Rise gave a small nod. "Um… I-I really appreciate what you did for me…" She said quietly before continuing. "Thank you soooo much! I love you guys!" Rise exclaimed happily.
'Wow that was sudden.' Souji thought.
"Huh? Awww, you don't have to thank us!" Chie replied.
'Chie, are you not surprised by the sudden change in attitude?'
"Dude… She's so cute…" Yosuke whispered to Souji.
'Does no one seem surprised?'
"Man, it's finally hitting me that you're the real deal. You really are Risette."
Well, I know I sounded gloomy and all from stress, so… I-I thought you might not like me that way. Do I… sound weird? Oh, but I guess it sounds more 'natural' this way to the public. I'm sorry… I've practically lost touch with what the normal me is like."
"Haha, no need to apologize. Just do what comes naturally." Chie laughed.
"Thanks. I'm glad you're the first people I got to know here." Rise said, chuckling.
"Oh yeah." Chie realized. "We almost forgot your present. The Teddie Glasses. You don't have to take them, but… well…"
Before Souji could act, Rise spoke again, this time directing her question to Souji himself. "Senpai, would you be struggling without my help? I can help you in that world, right? With my power, so wouldn't it be better if I joined the team?" Souji's answer was to wordlessly hand over the glasses with a smile on his face.
"These are kind of like proof that you're one of us…" Yosuke began. He and Souji explained that these were necessary in the other world.
"I see… I do remember you all wearing glasses over there. Thanks, Senpai. Now I'm part of the team, too!" Souji felt team bond strengthen with her on the team. "I'll be going to Yasogami High, starting tomorrow." Rise informed them. "But I don't have any friends yet, so don't ignore me, alright? I do owe you my life, so… you know…"
"Of course, leave it to me. I was once the new student here too." Souji told her.
"W-Wow… I didn't realize you were so cool, Senpai."
'I don't get it…' Souji thought.
Patcheresu: Yes, but the point of the phone is the uniqueness of it. Something that is the same as a lot of other items, but is uniquely made… if that made any sense…
DemonRaily: Random stuff! (:
Happy holidays to my readers and of course my beta!
Betaed RionAgrias!