He hit the floor. Pain pierced into his arm from the awkward way he landed on his elbow. Was it broken? He didn't know. He didn't look. He didn't move from his position after he rolled to a stop. He was laying on his side, bangs falling over his eyes, arms and legs limp, like they weren't even his. He didn't move. He couldn't even tell if he was breathing. He just stared into the emptiness of the fog before him and waited.

He just... waited.

He heard shuffling from behind him. A few agitated grunts, the shuffling of sleeves on pants, and then there was nothing. No footsteps—nothing. But, he could feel it. He could feel the gaze that penetrated the back of his skull and just watched. Waiting.

There was a silence that overtook the surroundings. It was a silence that was somehow deafening—it overtook the air and choked the atmosphere within it. It was a suffocating, deafening silence. It... felt familiar...?

When Adachi broke it with a click of his tongue, everything felt emptier.

"That didn't kill ya, did it, kid?" Adachi asked. Amusement was laced in his words, but annoyance was hidden in the tone. "After everything else you went through, one tiny fall kills you?"

He heard Adachi laugh to himself, thought he could hear the man shaking his head. There was more shuffling, and the sound of footsteps. They were getting closer. He closed his eyes quickly and tried not to tense his body. He tried to keep his breathing calm and controlled. Could he fool Adachi into thinking he was dead? Was he going to walk right by him?

The footsteps stopped right by his head, and he could feel the presence of the man looming over him. Stay calm stay calm stay calm, for once in your life, stay calm. This was so different from everything else. It wasn't loud, it wasn't someone and somethings screaming at him, it wasn't someone and somethings chasing him down a hallway or down a rainy street. It was quiet. It was a deafening, suffocating silence. It was horrifying.

Suddenly, he felt the heel of Adachi's shoe land on the side of his head, twisting back and forth into his ear. Adachi kept toying with him; rocking his head back and forth for a moment. Souji tried not to give a tell.

It was so hard.

Souji found himself rolling onto his back with a harsh and definitive pull from Adachi. His ear was burning from the force, but he tried not to show anything. Adachi sighed, in annoyance, and he could feel the air get even heavier than before. It felt like Adachi was closer to him—kneeling by him, perhaps? Then, he felt the modified gun rest on his forehead.

"Well, if you are dead, I should probably make sure, right?" He could hear the sick grin twisting onto Adachi's face, and he didn't want to move, he didn't want to make a sound, but he couldn't stop his eyes from snapping open..

As fast as he could, Souji rolled away, and then turned the roll into a crawl. He scrambled to get to his feet. He didn't get far—Adachi was grabbing onto his ankle in the blink of an eye. Souji couldn't even scream, he just looked back at the man in absolute horror, and Adachi returned the stare, expression deadpan and... bored. They looked at each other for what could have only been a second, but it felt timeless, like they were frozen in that moment.

He tried to kick his leg free, but Adachi only dug his nails into his skin. Instead, Souji clawed at the floor, trying to gain leverage, ignoring the pain throbbing in his left arm. It wasn't broken, at least. That was one good thing he could say in this scenario... Not that it calmed him down any. A horrified yelp escaped his throat when he started to get dragged back. He tried kicking Adachi again, trying to free himself however he could. Nothing helped. It made the nails dig through his skin even harder—even when Adachi was grabbing him by the knees to pull him over with more momentum. For the briefest of seconds, he wasn't being dragged anymore, but it was short-lived as Adachi grabbed him by his hair and yanked him into a sitting position.

His heart was heavy, and his chest hurt from trying to control his breathing. Adachi's expression was blank, like a porcelain doll, his eyes empty and devoid of feeling. Souji didn't know what to do—did he cry? Did he scream? All he could do was stare at those desolate eyes, trying to remember them only a couple of hours ago where he was laughing at a joke he made. The smile lit up his eyes then.

For a second, Souji thought he saw yellow and purple flash in the man's eyes.

"You're giving up?" Adachi cocked his head to the side, brow furrowing. "Just. Like. That?"

He cocked his head to the other side, turning Souji's forcefully with a pull of his hair. Adachi's lip twitched, parting a little in a silent snarl. The grip on his head unfurled as Adachi got to his feet without a word and started down the pathway. The man shoved a hand into his pocket, and twirled the toy gun on his free hand. He was leaving—just like that? Souji watched in confusion, Adachi never looking back once while he slowly disappeared into the fog. Souji scrambled to his feet again, slowly, like a mouse trying to avoid a cat. He kept his eyes on the retreating form of the detective, who continued on his way like nothing had happened. Swallowing the lump in his throat and ignoring the sweat rolling down his face, Souji tried to tiptoe away quickly in the opposite direction.

And then he heard a bang.

He could feel the bullet whip past his face.

He could feel his heart stop.

He could hear... a chime?

A pain shot behind his eyes and spread throughout his head at the thought. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, nausea overwhelming his body. It felt like he was forgetting something. What was he forgetting?!

He took a deep and sudden breath when—

He found himself outside in a daze, watching as a student stormed by him on her way to the school, muttering something about leaving her cell phone at her desk. It was freezing. There was fog. He'd forgotten the route.

Souji's breath hitched in his throat as he walked aimlessly through the empty streets. He paused abruptly, staring up at a telephone pole. Something wasn't right—there was a person. They were hanging off of it, upside down and absolutely still.

"...Body." Was the simple word he heard himself say into the phone he suddenly had in his hands. "Dead body."

He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he gave his uncle confused and indirect directions. He wasn't sure where he was himself... He thought he heard the sound of a chime.

Souji opened his eyes, looking in confusion at the sight of a ? in front of where he stood. When did he get up? He found his body turning to the TV as if he weren't in control. He stared at the static-consumed screen and found his hands touching it, only to push through as if he were wading his fingers through water... something grabbed tight onto his wrist and dragged him in before he stopped halfway. He screamed and struggled... He thought he felt someone flick his fingers off the edge of the TV.

He cried as the chime resounded in his head once more, Souji covering his ears as he watched the Shadows before him bubble and fizz as they moved close. The Shadows stopped dead in their tracks when his Shadow snapped his fingers... pinning Souji to the ground. His Shadow chuckled lightly as he crept upon Souji... cupping Souji's face in his hands as he brushed their foreheads together. Souji watched the other's amber eyes open. Souji whimpered softly as his Shadow's hands started to move from his face down to his neck, squeezing... His vision spotted over, gasping and gagging uselessly as more pressure was pushed onto his throat.

"We're worthless."

It felt like he was falling, but he never quite landed. The world around him was gone, and all that was left was silence. It was ear piercing, the quiet. It was louder than any sound he could think of. It was deafening, and he wished he could block it out. He heard a chime.

There was a ?

He remembered his feet blistering as he ran, rocks and concrete digging into his skin. He remembered something falling loudly behind him. He remembered tripping and crashing to the floor. He remembered the sound of a chime, and everything was lost, the world falling into a ?

His eyes opened in a panic, a Shadow pawing at his skin, His heart jumped in adrenaline, and he quickly kicked his leg, the monster squealing as it was flung across the room. Hesitantly, Souji pushed himself up along the wall, legs shaking as he finally managed to stand, his eyes never leaving the Shadow. The monster gurgled angrily as it regained its composure, which was echoed by more disgusting sounds, and all he could do was watch while more Shadows piled into the room. His legs locked in terror as the monsters closed in, watching as the Shadows bubbled in fury the closer they got.

A chime rang through his ears.

"I am though... and thou art I," echoed in his mind. There was knocking, a child crying, screaming, a body strung in the air, Adachi shell-shocked as he looked to the glass in his shoulder. There was knocking, windows cracking, doors breaking, static bleeding through his ears, claws burning through his skin.

There was knocking, the girl in green-

"...and then there was this super BRIGHT flash of—"

A pain rocketed in his cheek and Souji found himself flying into the floor. His nostrils flared as he breathed heavily through his nose, blood pooling into his mouth. He lifted himself onto his elbows. It was hard, the world swaying underneath and above him. Souji felt the blood pool out of his mouth, and he thought he felt something touch his lip. Did he lose a tooth? What just happened to him? Rocking back and forth, he inelegantly got to his feet, leaning against a railing that he managed to find on his way up. The blurry image of a man was before him—no, two men—no, no, it was one man. The world settled around him slowly, the man approaching him dangerously. Tohru Adachi. That's who it was. The eyes were still empty, but they bore down on him all the same with all the anger in the world.

Souji could feel the blood falling down his chin. He saw the gun in Adachi's hand, the grip bloodied from the blow. He looked back up at the man's porcelain face with the dead stare and all at once, it... clicked. The woman on the telephone pole. The one that hurt Chie. The one that flicked his fingers off the edge of the TV and had him hurdling through hell.

It was the man in front of him that did it.

It was Tohru Adachi that did it all.

It was Tohru Adachi.

It made him see red.

The world snapped back into view, like the headache and the pain didn't even exist. Without a thought, Souji pushed himself forward, using the railing as extra leverage and charged at the detective, who's eyes widened in surprise. Before Adachi could draw his gun and fire, Souji had tackled him to the floor, the gun flying off into the distance. He sat up, Adachi struggling to get out from underneath him, but Souji hit him as hard as he could, the detective's head bouncing off the floor. And then he hit him again. He had questions, he had so many questions, but he couldn't ask them. His heart was heavy with betrayal and fury, and all he could do was push out a scream. It was a guttural scream—it was loud, it was scratchy and terrible to listen to, but it asked all the questions he couldn't as he pummelled the shit-stain of a human being beneath him into the ground.

His knuckles hurt. His throat hurt. He could see blood flying and he didn't know whose it was. Adachi's nose was broken, he had a split lip, Souji thought he cut his knuckle on the shit-stain's tooth. A sickening gurgle came out of the detective's mouth, and Souji stopped, and he felt his body run cold. Adachi looked at him from the corner of his swelling eye, and, despite it all, he still cracked a smile. A disturbing, unfeeling smile.

"I was bored..." Adachi laughed inbetween pained coughs, "That's why... I did it."

Souji's fists fell to his side in defeat, tears quietly streaming down his face in disbelief as the man continued to laugh. It was interrupted by coughs and blood, but he laughed. Adachi put a hand to his forehead, his mouth twitching into an even bigger, delusional smile before he slowly turned to look at Souji.

"And then... you came back to life! Like some fucking miracle! I wanted... I wanted to see if it would happen again, but... you! You threw yourself back in the TV before I could! And you came back—Again!" The laughter was growing hysterical, before it suddenly stopped. "You have to thank me for that second save, though."

Souji's heart hammered, "T-Thank you?! F-Fuck that! What are you—"

"You summoned your ?" Souji stared incredulously. Adachi's words suddenly turned into static and then popped back into reality just as fast. "I took a very upset uncle of yours home before not knowing what to do with myself. I was ready to drink a cold beer when the Midnight Channel interrupted me, and you were on it. Well, your Shadow, to be precise. I couldn't believe how furious it was!"

Adachi's grin twitched a little when he wiped some blood onto his sleeve. "And then... I found myself going into the TV. I hadn't done it before! It was a little frightening—but something compelled me to want to watch you kill yourself in person."

Souji felt like he just took the heaviest punch to the gut, even though Adachi hadn't moved from underneath him. He felt frozen. Again. The man's words were coming out like silk—like this all meant nothing to him. Like it was all some kind of game.

"It didn't send me where I thought it would," Adachi continued, seething between his teeth the odd time in pain. "It took me a while to find the house your little brain conjured up. Was that your place in the city? Very nice... That is, until you and your ? busted the whole thing down. Oh man! What a show! Shadows were flying everywhere, running off screaming, and there you were, about to get crushed by debris!"

Adachi started laughing again, "And then your ? just fuckin' disappears! But! It was the same as mine—and it was just so interesting. I couldn't let you die just yet. So, I saved you, because I was just so curious. There was some TV set stacked nearby, and I took your crumpled, unconscious body and threw it inside before jumping in myself. You go in through a TV, you leave through a TV, simple logic, right? We ended up in the junkyard, but, I had to leave you for someone else to find."

The man sighed, almost whimsically, looking at his surroundings before staring Souji straight in the eye. "I just had to know how you and I could possibly be the same."

"W-What are you talking about?!"

The smile Adachi had was sickening. Blood pooled from his nose and covered his mouth. His eyes flickered from yellows and purples. "Let me show you."

A sudden whirlwind appeared from nowhere, throwing Souji off of Adachi and onto the floor. He managed to look up in time to see black entities—Shadows?!—forming around Adachi and covering him completely. Even as the wind kept going, it looked as though they were melting off of Adachi's form, falling into his shadow on the floor before erupting into life behind the detective. A giant, bloodied shell of a man towered over them both, yellow eyes looking at him menacingly behind a faceless mask. Electricity appeared in the air, surrounding Adachi and the thing behind him, the crazed look in Adachi's face only more exuberant within the raging winds.

"Well?!" Adachi shouted, the grin never leaving his face. "Don't keep me waiting, kid! How much longer will your luck last, huh?!"

Souji could only stare in horror. What was Adachi doing?! What WAS that thing?!

Adachi's smile faded away when Souji didn't react. It was replaced with a scowl, and then he started screaming, "What are you WAITING for?! Summon it! Summon your ?"

Souji heard a chime in the back of his head that correlated in time with the sudden static of Adachi's words. He tried to crawl away, but he was stopped by a sudden burst of electricity striking down next to him, making him cover his eyes with his arm. The electrified wind was getting stronger. He slowly peered over his arm, only to see Adachi stomping towards him, stamping his feet so hard with every step it looked like he was a belligerent child. The bloodied thing started to raise a weapon—how had he not noticed it?!—into the air. It was a giant glaive.

The electricity and wind was intense, Souji unsure of how he was managing to keep his eyes open. Paralyzed with fear, Adachi loomed over him, craning his neck and sneering down at him with absolute disgust.

Adachi said something, but Souji couldn't hear it.

He was too focused on watching that blade strike down for his head.