Persona: World And Judgement – Chapter Thirty-Five
Salt In The Wounds
So, we meet again, my friends! Well, looking at the title for this chapter, you could probably tell that things are about to get more butt-crazy in this chapter! The tension is looking to rise...and how did Marie end up in the Midnight Channel, we wonder. Don't worry though! If the suspense is killing you, I have just the cure for you; look no further than this chapter! I shouldn't keep you any longer, so...LET'S GT-R-DONE! Note: Spoilers for Persona 4: Golden! If you don't want to be spoiled, look away now!
08/08 - Dark Hour - The Real World
The trek was long and hard, even when the stacked TVs were only within a short walking distance. But no one minded it at all; it was Yu that they were all worried for. They lent him their shoulders and helped him across the murky plains despite lending their Personas' power now and again to cast a Diarahan on him and being slowed down by his limps and staggers; throughout the way though, he gradually found the strength in his leg muscles and slowly recovered to begin walking on his own, albeit he still needed the support from the others to stop him from collapsing. His safety was all that mattered to them, and when they finally reached the grouped TVs that queued up for their exit, they quickly made their way through, trying to find the best way to get Yu back to the surface as painless as possible.
After everyone made their way back to the real world, they immediately led Yu towards Mitsuru's single antique chair and sat him down, standing at his front and sides so that he couldn't have any chances of standing up again; they knew Yu would get back up no matter how injured he might get, but even if that was a respectable quality of him, there was more concern than respect. The drop of blood stained the side of his chin, and that was the first thing they needed to see to. "Rise, there's a basin and some tissues in my ensuite. Could you please get them for Yu?" Mitsuru asked Rise, immediately receiving a quickly-reacted nod as she ran towards the bathroom door.
"Guys...this isn't necessary..." Yu objected politely as he tried to stand back up, only to be met with a painful sensation as he put pressure onto his feet. This was then followed by Chie's hands forcing his shoulders downward so that he would have to return to the seat. "Oh no you don't!" Chie urged as she placed Yu back into the chair, "There's no way you're getting any sleep with those injuries!" Everyone agreed with her, which only made Yu surrender to their wills to help him, even if he felt that he didn't need it.
"You are our leader after all, Yu. You've got to take care of yourself as well, you know." Ken suggested, keeping a watchful eye on Yu in case he tried to escape from his seat again. Yu still had thoughts of protest at this point, and placed his hands on the arms of the chair, preparing to support himself for when he tried his second attempt to stand on his two feet. "I'm fine, Ken...really..." he said as honestly as he could, putting pressure on the palms of his hands as he leaned forward to make his leave from the chair.
But as soon as he did this, he was suddenly forced back down into the cushions by another huge weight on his shoulders by Marie's hands. As he looked up to her, the shadow that cast over him made him feel vulnerable to the situation and instantly found the angered raise in her eyebrows. "You stupid jerk!" Marie yelled directly into his face, "Can't you just sit still for a moment?! You're friends are worried about you! I'm worried about you! So just let us help you, okay?!"
The severe sternness in her voice may have been enough to shout the whole hall down, but the sincerity in her tone showed a completely different side to what she was getting across to him. She may have been abrupt, but in her eyes, Yu could see great concern and worry, and it even brought back a memory to his mind that made him think about why he could see those feelings in her. He remembered the last time he saw her with his friends very clearly, recalling the black suit-jacket and glasses she wore in contrast to the clothes she was wearing now. He even remembered the weather forecast she revealed to have control. But the one thing that he recalled so vividly were those last three words she said before handing the Autocue over to the news reporter. "Love you, Yu!" echoed those three words in the chambers of his mind. Her words may have been harsh, but Yu knew that she only says things like that to make everyone else unaware of what she is really feeling.
"Oh no..." Yu thought to himself as he heard his own croaky voice resonating through his subconscious, "...I hope Marie doesn't still mean that...we're just friends...I even told her about me and Rise on the phone...Aww, shoot...I wonder how Rise's going to react..." Yu remembered Marie and Rise conflicting with each other in the past, and just looking at Marie at that moment in time, his thoughts were nothing but pessimistic. He didn't want them to fight, and with the cuts and bruises he suffered, he felt helpless to stop the possible.
Lo and behold, Rise rushed back to Yu with the basin and tissues in hand, placing the large bowl of water down onto the carpet. And as soon as she dipped the first small portion of tissues into the water, she stood up, immediately finding Marie's arms on Yu's shoulders. "Wha-?! Marie, what are you doing?!" she shouted at her, irritated to see Marie taking a hold of her man. It was just the thing Yu was afraid of, and he could see that Rise remembered that TV broadcast well.
And when he turned his head round to the others, he could see Yosuke placing a hand over his eyes as he lowered his head. "Aww, crap..." Yosuke mumbled to himself, unaware that Yu could hear him. Although, Yu couldn't put it better himself; he knew what was going to happen next. "I'm just letting him know that I'm concerned about him," Marie replied to Rise, "in fact, I want to help him as well. Could you pass me those tissues?"
"Why you-!" Rise yelled, suddenly stopping herself before finding herself in an embarrassing overreaction, turning her attention back to Yu before she could forget about what was important, "T-There's no need...I have this under control..." And after calming herself down, she began to tend to Yu's wounds, dipping a small scrunch of tissues into the water before dabbing his lip.
"I just want to help, that's all. Geez..." Marie explained herself briefly, giving a tone that suggested her observation of Rise's sudden critical behaviour. This only made the redhead more hot-headed than she needed to be, and just hearing that seemingly ignorant 'geez' made Rise begin to teeter on the brink of losing it. "...That's fine, Marie...I can do this on my own..." she replied, just barely containing her rage as she began to give her full concentration on the wounds.
There was a long silence between the group as they watched Rise softly wiping away the bloodstains on his bottom lip. And as Yu darted his eyes round to each and every one of them, he couldn't help but feel awkward towards the situation. It was just too quiet and too invasive to even consider the atmosphere to be at least comfortable. He sighed. "Don't worry, I won't escape or anything. You guys can relax..." Yu said with a forced smile, "...also, could you all give Marie a rundown of what's going on? She'll need to know everything that's happened up until now." With a nod of their heads, they all turned round, walking towards the luxurious sofas that were elegantly arranged into a square formation around the centre of Mitsuru's bedroom.
When everyone was out of earshot, Rise turned to Yu as she continued to dab away at the cut on his lip. "Why did she have to suddenly turn up?" Rise asked with a disheartened look, "I mean, she's tolerable...but I just...I just..." It was months ago since she heard those same three words Yu did, and even now, it was still something that made her heart lurch with a sickly feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had loved Yu ever since the day they met, and just seeing someone else trying to take her place was a sight she couldn't bear, even if it was someone she had been friends with.
"I'm certain she knows about us..." Yu said as he held her open hand in reassurance, "...I talked to her about us after I went back to the city. And even if she still felt that way, can we blame her?" Rise knew Yu wasn't taking any sides. But that's what she liked about him; he was fair and honest, even though it wasn't all to her approval. She understood how right he was, and to unleash a tantrum at Marie wouldn't be dignified in the least. "I'm sure she's moved on from that though. If that's not the case, then we'll sort it out together, okay? Don't worry..." Yu said for Rise's comfort, squeezing her hand as he entwined his fingers with hers.
In reply, Rise leaned in towards Yu and turned her head slightly to the side when she brought her lips into contact with his, avoiding the cut so that she wouldn't hurt him while they were entering their tender embrace. "Okay." she answered when she pulled her lips away to look into his deep grey eyes. As she looked to the cut on the other side of his lips, she could see that the wound had stopped showing any more signs of flowing blood and placed the damp ball of tissue in the nearby bin provided. She then looked back to Yu to identify any more cuts that may have been inflicted on him. And when she found a small patch of blood on his shirt, she scrunched another portion of tissues and dunked it in the basin.
"Could you open your shirt please, sir?" she asked him, sticking her tongue out and giving a wink to Yu in the way only she, as an idol, knew how. The combination of her tongue and wink showed a very seductive side to Rise, and being called 'sir' made Yu smile upon being called that title. "Most certainly, nurse. Though...do be gentle won't you?" he answered softly, beginning to unbutton the lower half of his shirt as if he was playing the role of a charming patient. Rise couldn't help but giggle at how they were acting towards one another; it was natural for them both though. The chuckles were loud enough for everyone else to hear, including Marie who sat at the far end of the couch that placed her within the clearest range of hearing compared to the others.
She had her head turned to the loving couple, watching how they laughed with one another and how genuine their smiles were when they were together. Many would see this sight to be an image of true love; to her, however, this seemingly perfect picture was something she couldn't look at with a happiness for them both. In fact, there was a more nasty, ugly and dour emotion that sank her heart the more she kept observing their interactions with one another. Jealousy.
As she sighed, she could hear the shake in her breath when her own windpipe choked her. And the feelings she felt at that moment didn't help either; the only way she could stop the emotion from taking her over was to just look away from them. "Err, Marie-chan?" called a voice from the couch opposite her. Hearing her name, her dull head suddenly shot up to the person calling, finding that the voice belonged to Yukiko. "Is everything okay?" she asked her again, trying to get a look of her dispirited face.
"Wha...? Y-Yeah, sorry..."Marie apologised, feigning a neutral expression as she lifted her head up to Yukiko, "...I'm just exhausted...this was my second time in the TV world, you see...I-I'm just not used to it as you all are..." It may have been a few months since the Investigation Team had seen her, and it was the first time S.E.E.S had met her, but she was unusually hesitant in her reply. And not only that, but she was strangely quiet as well.
"The TV world is a very easy place to be fatigued in," Naoto said in reassurance to Marie, "it's no small wonder that we're all tired." Naoto's explanation made Marie's secret all the more hidden, but even so, it was still painful to keep it from everyone; the consequences of that however could be severe, so she thought. She just nodded, unable to think of any other response to give her.
"So, do you think you're up to speed now? I know it must be a pain having all this information being thrown on you..." Akihiko asked, feeling just as light-headed after explaining all that has happened up until that moment in time. Again, Marie could only nod. "Yeah, sure..." she replied, "...Tartarus and the Dark Hour...whatever those are...a couple of hooded guys having the power to create false beings...I think I'm good." Marie may have sounded like a child who didn't fully listen, but she didn't just cast the information to the side. Even then, she was still trying to build the jigsaw puzzle to everyone else's standard.
"Since we're on the topic of the TV world," Yosuke began, having a thought in his head that he wanted to talk about on behalf of everyone else who had the same idea that confused them, "how did you end up in there? I mean, we saw someone on the Midnight Channel who was linked to another of our friends here...but we didn't see anyone who had any connections to you..." Everyone looked to Marie for the answer, having had this baffling thought ever since they all found her in the TV world. They saw Metis on the Midnight Channel that night, but no one with any relation to herself. Marie was the only one who could shed light on it all.
"Well..." she began, struggling to recollect the memories in the front of her mind; it was a condition very common amongst the Investigation Team, but when Marie lifted her head as she came out of deep thought, she opened her mouth with some confidence in what she remembered. She continued, "...like you said, there was someone on the TV just when it became midnight, and you're right...that person wasn't linked to me at all...but then some time after that, there was another broadcast..."
At this point, they were all leaning forward in their seats with their necks stretched over their knees, as if they were trying to listen more intently to Marie's version of events. "...it showed another person on there..." Marie continued with her story, "...but this time, I did know this person. All I remember after that was that I felt...empty inside. Then I blacked out, and the next thing I know, I see all of you in front of me inside the TV." After listening, everyone suddenly gave odd looks to Marie, more confused than before. But when Naoto brought the information and clicked it with the previous information that she gathered along the investigation, she had more questions in mind.
"Marie," she asked for her attention, "when you saw this person on the TV, was someone there who encouraged you to go in?" Upon Naoto posing her question, everyone knew that she was talking about one of the two culprits who was responsible for putting everyone into the TV on previous nights. Marie looked down to the floor again, rummaging through the corners of her mind in attempt to pick out any obscure knowledge that would help her to answer Naoto's question. "Actually..." Marie spoke, sounding as if something had just suddenly sprung to mind, "...I remember someone next to me talking into my ear...and I think I do remember a hood as well..."
"It was one of them again, wasn't it?" Kanji asked rhetorically, snarling at the thought of those boys when they came into thought, "Man, they sure like winding us up a lot..." He knew as well as anyone else that Marie had been controlled and lured into the TV, and the thought that the boys managed to encourage her and Aigis on the same night made their hatred towards them build even more.
"Alright, we've established that," Naoto said, trying to steer the investigation back on its tracks, "also, it's worth noting that since Marie was able to enter the TV, we can tell that she didn't transmogrify into a coffin during the Dark Hour. Even now, she's still retaining her human form." Half the group had forgotten that it was still the Dark Hour. It was considered a common mistake among the group since the Midnight Channel shows its surroundings with a similar colour scheme to the Dark Hour. But nonetheless, Naoto's deductions were slowly revealing more of Marie's stories. That wasn't the end of her questions though. "Moving on," she said briefly before phrasing the question in her head, "I noticed that you aren't wearing your usual attire for forecasting the weather, and because we all haven't seen you on the news lately, we had suspicions that something might have come up for you."
"Yeah, I had to take a leave from weather forecasting. But I had to lie to my colleagues because of the reason why I had to leave in the first place...you know how I can decide on the weather? " Marie asked, getting nods from the others. She took a moment to arrange her thoughts into the correct chronological order before speaking. She continued, "...do you remember when it was hot and sunny one day and then it was cold and rainy the next? It was on the day of a concert in Iwatodai, I remember. Anyway, I didn't make it rainy that day...it just started raining by itself, and no matter how hard I tried to make it sunny, nothing happened. I thought I had lost my power...so I left the news centre to find out why this was happening..."
"Why is that?" Naoto asked, leaning in interest as she rubbed her index finger along her chin. "Urmm...well, it was only a thought..." Marie replied hesitantly, putting on an expression that suggested that she didn't want to say it. Before she said it though, she ran through the thought in her head, in case she would find it as a stupid idea after saying. But when she found it plausible in her head, there was no other choice for her. "...but what if Ameno-Sagiri was still alive?
And when that name unexpectedly entered the ears around the room, everyone recoiled in shock when Marie put 'Ameno-Sagiri' and 'alive' in the same sentence. It was a shocking thought, but when they all thought about it, it was entirely possible. "What?!" Chie cried out, "You mean Ameno-Sagiri could've sapped away your power or something?!"
"That was what I was thinking...but it's just a thought, so it's nothing definite..." Marie said in an attempt to reassure the group, but mostly to calm the Investigation Team since they've actually fought the god of fog before. But it wasn't an idea they were going to discard that easily. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news..." Junpei said as he fixed the position of his cap in discomfort, "...but going by what Yu found out on the phone to that Adachi guy, I'm starting to believe that...I mean, he even said that Ameno-Sagiri can just find another host..."
"But what Adachi said was that Ameno-Sagiri would have to find someone who was just like him..." Yu explained as he stood up from his seat with the help of Rise's hand. As they all looked towards him, they couldn't find a bloodstain in sight; there may have been small cuts and visible areas of injury, but apart from those minor inflictions, he was good as new. His legs were still slightly achy and supported himself using Rise's waist to walk over to the group. "...that would mean it would have to find someone with the same thoughts and the same mind. It would be quite unlikely that someone could be exactly like Adachi..." he explained further, making his way over to the other end of the couch Marie was sitting on.
Marie watched as he limped past her with Rise holding his chest to stop him from falling forwards. The sight of seeing such closeness with one another suddenly caused something to lurch in her gut, feeling a churning sensation twist her insides into several knots and ties that made her feel sick inside. This feeling was fairly new to Marie, and having her first tastes of it was hard enough. But when she found Yu's hand being wrapped in Rise's fingers, it made her eyes quickly dart away to the floor.
"It's a possibility. Let's just leave it at that for now." Yukari suggested, sparing Naoto the endurance of trying think about if Ameno-Sagiri came into the equation or not. Before anyone could say another word about it, Naoto continued on to the rest of her questions. Marie prepared herself and looked to Naoto, hoping that she could shake off the feeling by focusing her mind on the questions.
"Now, there's the matter of where you fell in," Naoto began, continuing to rub the bottom of her chin with an intrigued disposition, "you couldn't have fallen in at the news centre because of your leave. So where did you fall?" And as the question was asked, Marie looked back down to the floor, closing her eyes to visualise her memories more clearly. She dug through her lobe, trying to pick out the relevant information that she needed to answer the question.
Soon after, she lifted her head to Naoto. "I think..." she began, confirming her thoughts before speaking again, "...I fell in a TV behind a train station..." Marie was confident in her answer, but to everyone else, it was vague, and the train station she mentioned was said very generically. It just wasn't specific. "Do you remember which train station it was? Was it the one back in Inaba?" Fuuka asked, assuming that Marie was still in Inaba whilst she was on her search.
Surprisingly, Marie shook her head. "No...it wasn't in Inaba..." she said, only to turn everyone's expressions back into perplexed looks of confusion and bafflement. She took a moment to bring her memories into bigger clarity, and even showed expressions of struggle on her face as she did this. But then suddenly it hit her. "Oh!" she shouted in realisation, opening her eyes to the group who were all leaning on the edge of their chairs with impatience, "It was behind the Port Island Station! There was a discarded TV there..."
Suddenly, an eruption of shocked looks were scattered around the room, and Marie could hear some gasps from one place to another. She could imagine why they would put on such a reaction though; all of their assumptions expected her to have fallen from somewhere in Inaba, or at least somewhere near there. But when she mentioned a train station that was situated only a short distance from where the Tatsumi Hall was, it was hard to believe it at first.
"What?!" Teddie yelled in disbelief after hitting his back on the sofa's cushions due to the mutual shock, "Surely you can't mean the one in Iwatodai, Emmy-chan! We've taken trains at that station so many times and we didn't see you once!"
"That's why she said she only fell from BEHIND the station," Yosuke explained, undermining Teddie's intelligence in the usual manner, "Besides, it's not like she was staying there or anything. And what I hear from Junpei that no one even dares to go near the back of the train station because of the locals there. I swear I even told a ghost story that involved these people as well."
"Sorry to burst your bubble..." Marie said, putting on a voice that seemed to contradict what Yosuke was saying, "...but actually, I went there often...and the locals weren't really a problem..." After saying this, everyone from S.E.E.S just couldn't believe what she was talking about, not even Junpei and Yukari; they saw the back of the Port Island Station before, and they remembered the violent nature of those people perfectly. Just hearing Marie brush them off as if they were just normal people was something they weren't expecting at all.
"Are you serious?!" Junpei asked in a shout, gobsmacked by how Marie was the only one in the room who thought differently to everyone else, "I went there once before and a fight broke out! You can't just say that they weren't that bad! No one'll believe you!"
"Okay, okay, we're getting off track here," Yu said as he gestured for Junpei to calm down, "the locals aren't what we need to worry about. But if she was at the Port Island Station, then that begs another question..." As he began to phrase the question in his mind, he turned to Marie who seemed reluctant to even look at him, let alone Rise. She didn't even turn her head to him, and Yu had noticed that even when he leaded up to the question.
"Why were you in Iwatodai?" he asked, hoping that Marie would answer despite the non-reaction of ignorance that seemed to come up on her face. Though, when she
looked down to her lap again, he knew that she was willing to answer, watching as she went through the archive of memories before lifting her head again. But her head still wasn't turned to him, and it seemed like she head no intention of doing so.
"For the first few days of trying to find out what happened to my power, I was in Inaba. When I felt that I was getting nowhere though, I tried to find you guys. But after I went to the Dojimas house, Ryotaro told me that you guys had gone to Iwatodai...so I went out to find you all..." she explained, keeping her eyes on the people in front rather than the couple beside them, "...but when I got off the train, I was getting harassed by some of the people behind the station..."
"See what I mean?!" Junpei interrupted, feeling as if he was proving a point, "There's a reason those kind of people hang out there! They're a bad crowd to be around, let alone bump into!" Anyone could've agreed with Junpei, especially if they were a member of S.E.E.S. Put even though his case was argumentatively put across, Marie just put a hand up as a sign to make him stop. "I wasn't finished..." she said bluntly before putting her hand back down.
Watching as Junpei scratched the back of his neck, she continued with her story. "I was getting harassed by some of the people behind the station, but the reason why I'm saying they weren't that bad is because there was someone who I made friends with who stood up for me. Then they all stopped getting on my case. I hung out with him everyday at that place in the afternoons after I tried to find you all..."
Marie's head was then snapped to the side, donning a look that made her realise something. At first, she was confused as to why the thought suddenly dawned on her. But when she thought about it more and more, her expression gradually turned into a look of worry. "Wait...oh god..." she mumbled to herself, but it was loud enough for everyone else to hear.
"Is everything alright, Marie-chan?" Naoto asked being the only one who could see her worrisome expression clearly. Suddenly, Marie stood up from her seat as a gesture of urgency, but hesitated in what she wanted to do. She had hoped that someone in the group, other than Yu, would be the leader, but knowing that no one could be a better leader than Yu, she had no choice but to face him, even though she knew her feelings would be an obstacle to do that.
And so, she turned to him, trying to carefully avoid the sight of Rise despite the fact that she could see the dark purple hair in the corner of her eyes. "Yu..." she called for him, feeling somewhat flushed just by saying his name which made it very difficult for Marie to keep her composure, "...the guy I just mentioned...I think he's in danger..." Her plea was ever so sudden, and the indication of emergency in her voice was ever so alarming, especially at this time of night. But Yu was willing to listen.
"Just before midnight tonight, we hung out together. But then this Dark Hour thing came along and Shadows starting turning up...he was getting attacked, and that's when I was being led into the TV!" she explained in a rushed voice, almost as if the memory of it just suddenly came to her mind in that instance. This alerted everyone to stand up from their seats, excluding Yu since the aches and injuries to his body were still restricting him. "We have to find him!" Marie shouted, almost demandingly. But when she began to run towards Mitsuru's door, a hand immediately stopped her in her tracks.
"Whoa, wait a second..." Akihiko said calmly, tugging Marie's shoulder to bring her away from the door. "...you're not seriously thinking that we're going out there with an injured teammate, are you? I know you're friend is out there somewhere, but consider the team's own condition first at least."
"Can't Yu just stay in while you guys go out and search for him then?!"
"He's our leader! Also, if we leave him in this state, then how can he recover? The injuries he has don't just get better on their own that quickly. I'm sorry, but in this situation, we have to put our own first."
"Marie, I would if I could..." Yu spoke out, interrupting her argument with Akihiko, "...but I'm just in no condition right now. Even if I went out the front door at this moment, I'd get instantly brought back in. We have to consider the conditions of the rest of the team before making any plans."
Marie could understand what Yu was saying. He was their leader, and without a leader, everything accomplishable would be much more difficult to achieve. He wasn't saying that none of them could reach anything if he wasn't with them, but the risks of even one person, apart from Yu, not being able to join the group in whatever venture would mean tipping the balance between danger and safety. Also, because of the pace the Midnight Channel had been broadcasting at, a quick recovery is what Yu needs before any other broadcasts, be it expected or unexpected, could be made.
"I'm sorry if we sound selfish to you, Marie..." Yu apologised, dropping his eyes to the floor when he felt that he was making a choice to leave an innocent person out in the Dark Hour for health concerns. Marie's head shot up, feeling guilty for her own actions. "No, no...don't..." she said, feeling a sense of shame coming into her line of thinking.
08/08 - After Midnight
Shortly after, the lighting suddenly changed, causing everyone's heads to turn from left to right as they looked around the room. The walls and floors had suddenly returned to normal from the neon sickness of the green colours, and outside, the natural black skies discarded its jade eeriness from the rain clouds. The roads were completely clear of the crimson puddles, and as a result, they were replaced with clear rainwater that resided in the potholes that were dotted alongside the tarmac.
"The Dark Hour's over at least..." Ken commented, as if he was saying it like it was the first good news they've heard all night; though, to some, it was perceived that way, "...there should be no Shadows out there now."
"I hope he's okay..." Marie said with concern, "...there was a kind of 'hideout' we used to share, and that was quite a safe place...I just hope he went there..." The Dark Hour may have ended for that night, but the worry for this mystery friend was still written over her face; soon after, it could be seen on Yu's face, but it didn't compare with the apologetic look he had as well.
"Marie, where was this hideout?" he asked, having an idea in mind that he hoped that would make up for what Marie might've been feeling at that moment, "I just thought...if there is a chance he's still...alive...what if we went out and looked for him tomorrow. We'll look all over the Tatsumi Port Island for the whole day if we have to. It's the least I can do for you..." Hearing his request, Marie's head shot towards Yu, feeling the worry and the stress ease away into the back of her subconscious. By this feeling of relief, she had the need to smile to him, but when she scanned her eyes over to the hand that was still entwined in Rise's, that need suddenly faded away, and it only made her turn her head away again.
"Thank you, Yu..." she thanked, hard to show her gratitude since she didn't have the strength in her heart to face him. As he tried to get a look of her face, Yu could understand that she really meant her thanks, but when he managed to watch her eyes casting over to Rise, he eventually understand why she was acting in such a way. He looked to Rise who also looked at him with the same concerned look he had for Marie. It was clear that Rise understood what she was going through as well, and rather than being unmerciful like she was only moments ago towards her, there was a look on Rise's expression that seemed like she wanted to help Marie.
"If we are to conduct a search party, then I suggest we start in the morning," Mitsuru proposed as she stood up from her couch, "...we'll begin preparations beforehand, so we'll need all the rest we can get if we are to remain focused for the whole day, especially Yu." And with that, everyone nodded, signifying the end of the group meeting for the night. Everyone stood up from their chairs and sofas, and Rise helped Yu up to his feet. There was just one thing to do now, and that was to get to sleep; like Mitsuru said, they were going to need all the sleep they can get in order to stock up on energy. They have already entered the morning, so rest was a must, and as soon as possible.
"Marie, I can take you to your room if you want. It's just down the hall from here." Fuuka offered kindly as she walked to Marie's side. Without turning her head, Marie nodded, turning herself towards the door. And as she did this, everyone followed suit, walking in single-file through the doorway and saying their goodnights with Yu and Rise being the last to exit Mitsuru's dorm room. Yosuke, Akihiko and Junpei waited outside for the two so that they could lend a hand.
The five then made their way down the hallway with each of the four contributing to the support for Yu. And as they came up to the stairs, they saw Fuuka opening the door up to Marie's new dorm room which was situated at the end of the hall. Marie looked at them as they walked past, and Yu and Rise looked to her as she was about to walk into her room. "Goodnight..." Marie said as she grabbed onto the doorknob, giving an expression of melancholy to Yu and Rise before backing up into the room. "Goodnight, Marie..." they all replied in unison, watching as Marie slowly shut the door behind her and hearing the chunk of the lock being twisted shortly after.
Yu and Rise just couldn't help but feel ever so sorry for Marie, and after seeing her expression of sadness and depression before she shut the door, it was an image which wouldn't escape their minds. They just hoped that she might be able to sleep on it. "She must be tired from the TV world or something. I know I am." Yosuke said in reassurance to the couple when he noticed the worried looks they were both putting on. They knew Yosuke was just saying that to make them feel better though, and if there was any assurance given, there was only a mere fraction of it. "Don't worry, Yu," Rise whispered to him, "we'll talk to her about it, like you said." It may have been a dispiriting time for them both, but Yu was somewhat happy that Rise was making an effort to treat Marie with respect, given the circumstances of the situation.
"Goodnight, Fuuka." they all then said quietly to Fuuka, keeping in mind that they were close by to where Nanako's dorm room was. "Goodnight, guys." she whispered back before making her way to her own room.
After that, Yu had to brave the stairs, holding onto Rise's waist and the wooden banister tightly as they made their descent to the first floor. "I hope this isn't uncomfortable for you guys. I feel like I'm putting a burden on you." Yu said, transferring his weight from Rise to the handrail so that she wouldn't have to carry a heavy load. "Senpai, you're hurt. I'm not just going to let you climb down the stairs by yourself."
"Neither do we," Akihiko chipped in, "we wouldn't want you more injured than you are now, that's for sure. Just let us take care of you." Yu found this to be true; it was small struggle just to get down the stairs even with help from the others. With every step he made, he couldn't help but think about how this night was probably a low point in the investigation; the only thing that made him at least slightly hopeful was that things can only get better during the search party. That was, if they could find the mystery friend of Marie's.
So that's how Marie got into the TV, huh? And her friend's gone missing as well? Looks like we'll have to find out in the next chapter, eh? Anyway, keep reading and reviewing, and come on down to the Forum if you'd like (Forum link is on my profile page). Until next time though guys...CYA!
Next Time... [Midnight Channel broadcasts...]
BGM: Backside of the TV - Persona 4 OST
Yosuke: Does anyone else get the feeling like we're looking for a needle in a haystack?
Chie: A hood? That can't be good...
Yukiko: Brr! What a miserable summer... I don't know how the others can cope in that weather though.
Fuuka: We just have to keep looking and follow the description Marie has given us.