Yu leaned up against the ventilation system on the roof of Yasogami High, staring over as Chie, Yosuke and Yukiko made there way over to him. All their face were tense, there eyes looking about to see if there was anyone else in sight. Sitting down next to Yu, who nodded his head at them, the three teenagers took out their lunches and sighed. ″Saki should be up in a few minutes.″ Yu sat down and crossed his legs as he looked over at his friends with a wary eye. Looking over part of the ventilation system that surrounded the teenagers, Yu gave a sigh and shook his head. 'I know I need to go out and just face this shadow of mine, but I wonder...' Yu looked at his group, Chie and Yukiko were making instant ramen while Yosuke was just eating some rice.
″Man that looks good...″ Yosuke looked over at Chie's food as he hovered his rice near his mouth.
Chie raised an eyebrow and leered over at Yosuke. ″Forget it pal, this is all mine!″ Chie shifted her sitting position and shielded her ramen.
Yukiko looked up at Chie then to Yosuke, ″Uh... yeah. Should we start talking about some plans for what to do?″ Yukiko looked seriously at Yu, her hands tightly holding her spicy ramen bowl. ″I know Saki-senpai isn't here yet, but maybe we should start thinking about plans on what to do.″
″Yukiko's right... this is pretty serious.″ Yosuke leaned back and pushed his rice to the side. ″I think you should just head in there and duke it out.″
″That's kind of what I was planning to do...″ Yu looked at his friends; Chie and Yukiko looked put off, fidgeting in their seats. Chie opened her mouth and made a sound as if she was about to say something, but the words died before leaving her mouth. ″I know it's stupid, but I will end up going in there eventually. Might as well do it on my own watch rather then getting surprised in the middle of the night.″ Yu's eye twitched as he remembered the night before. 'I do not want to use Teddie as my alarm again.' Turning his head away from his friends he scoffed and ran a hand through his hair. ' He kept waking me up over the stupidest thing, he even woke up Nanako! That stupid little... I had to stuff him in the closet before Nanako could see him' Yu then flinched as he felt Chie flick his nose.
″Hey, Yu-kun? Anyone home?″ Chie smirked as Yu looked at her with a look of utter aggravation. ″He's back with us.″ Sitting back in her place she opened up her ramen bowl which sent out a stream of steam. ″Aw~ at last.″
Yosuke scoffed and leaned back as he watched Chie loudly slurp up her food. ″You're doing that on purpose...″
Sighing, Yu looked over to the door of the roof and saw it open up to reveal Saki quietly exiting and shutting the door. Looking over at Yu she smiled at him and waved.
″Saki-senpai!″ Yosuke sat up straight and quickly began fixing his hair.
″Ooo~″ Chie smirked at Yosuke which caused him to flush and stop fixing his hair. ″What's the matter, lover boy?″
″Hey Saki-senpai,″ Yukiko scooted over, allowing Saki to sit next to her. Running a hand through her short hair she smiled and tilted her head. ″so I was kind of wondering, how do you think my hair looks?I've never had short hair like this before, so I've been trying to make it look good.″
″Huh?″ Saki gawked at Yukiko for a moment then smiled softly. ″Its... uh... nice.″
Yukiko blushed and looked down to her bowl. ″S-sorry. I just thought it'd be nice to talk with another girl about this...″
″Hey, I'm a girl. Why don't you ask me about it Yukiko?″ Chie looked at Yukiko with a look of hurt. ″I can help with that girly stuff too ya know!″
″Well... you never seemed the sort that would be interested in this kind of thing.″
Before Yukiko and Chie could continue Saki cleared her throat. ″Ahem, not to be rude, but we only have a limited time for lunch. I want us to get to our decision qui-″
The door to the roof slammed open making the group all swerve their heads over to the door to see a huge blond in a leather coat huffing at the entrance. He slowly looked about till his eyes made contact with the teenagers by the vents. ″Yu!″ Kanji ran over to the group and hugged Yu as tight as he could lifting into the air.
″Uh... why is this muscle head man-handling our team leader?″ Yosuke looked at Saki who shrugged, while Yukiko and Chie stared shocked at the unexpected event before them.
″M-man handling?! What's that supposed to mean?!″ Kanji let Yu go, who fell to his rear. ″Oh shit! Sorry Yu!″ Kanji bent down and helped Yu up, then swerved to Yosuke. ″Now whatch you say about me?″ Kanji raised a fist up in anger as Yosuke scooted away towards Chie.
″I, I didn't mean anything by it! Just something weird is all. Any friend of Yu is a friend of mine.″ Yosuke gave a weak grin and saluted Kanji who's shoulders relaxed a bit. ″Okay... so why are you here again?″
Kanji's eye twitched and crossed his arms over his chest. ″I just wanted to make sure Yu was safe... I was real scared last night when I saw him on the TV.″ Kanji looked over at Yu who smirked and rested a hand on his shoulder.
″It's okay Kanji, we're making plans now on what to do.″ Yu looked over to his group who were all looking patiently at him. ″So...″ Yu brought his hand down from Kanji's shoulder and had him sit down next to Yosuke, who grimaced and scooted closer to Chie. ″I will have to enter into the TV world, and I feel the sooner we get this over with the better.″
″Yeah um...″ Saki blushed and began to rub the back of her head. ″I needed to tell you guys something... I don't think I'll be able to help out in the TV world for a while. My parents are keeping a close eye on me and are having me starting work at the alcohol shop today...″
Before Yu could react, Yosuke slowly looked up to Saki ″You what? But... what about Junes?″
″I have to quit for a while... God...″ Saki held her head bit her lower lip. ″I... I still have to talk to the manager about this. Damn it.″ Saki scoffed and leaned back, looking up into the sky above. ″I still want to help though. I can't just let you go in alone.″
As Yosuke stared despondently at Saki, Yu sat down and began to rub his chin. 'Saki's had more practice then the others in the TV world... maybe we should wait till she can... no. I'd be taken by force if we wait too long. We'll have to make do with Chie and Yukiko.' Yu looked up and saw as his friends were all looking quietly about.
″Going into the TV world without Saki?″ Chie grimaced and nodded her head. ″Well, we got to head there anyway. Let's get this over with as quick as we can.″ Chie clenched her fist and stood up. ″Yu! I'll do my best to keep you safe while we fight against your shadow!″
Yukiko stood up next, her hands delicately folded over each other on her lap. ″Chie's right. As long as we're together I'm sure everything will go fine.″ Yukiko and Chie looked at each other with confidant grins and highfived.
″ Yeah... and I'll just stand look out in front of the TV again.″ Yosuke sighed and leaned his head onto his chin. ″Exciting.″
Yu bowed his head to his friends and looked off at the town of Inaba that made up the horizon before them. ″I don't know how things will turn out.″ Yu then grew quiet and looked down to his feet. 'Before I head out into the TV world I think I should call mom and dad, or at least email them. I don't know how things will go with my shadow.' Yu felt a hands grab his shoulders. Looking over his shoulder he saw Saki on one side, with Chie and Yukiko on the other. Kanji lingered behind them, blushing as he fidgeted on his feet. Yosuke just say by the vents, holding his chest and looking down to the ground with a tense posture.
″We've got your back Naru-chan.″ Saki winked and gave Yu's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
″Yeah, we'll be sure to kick all the butts!″ Chie released Yu's shoulder and kicked into the air. ″Hiya!″
″What should I do?″ Kanji walked forward with a determined look. Yu turned about, Saki and the other two did likewise and looked at a now blushing Kanji who shrinked away a bit. ″I uh... I want to do something to help you out.″ Kanji stomped his foot and beat his chest. ″I can beat the ass of an asshole who would even try and hurt you! Let me protect you!″ Kanji began to blush more as the girls all looked at him confusedly.
Chie sardonically looked over at Yukiko, while scratching her head,″Uh... yeah, not gonna happen.″
Chie raised her hand up as Kanji released a confused ″Wha?!″
″Dude, we're heading in there to fight Yu's shadow! Number one, you have no experience with this, number two, you probably have a shadow and we don't want to fight two at once!″
″Well, I don't think we have to Chie. All Yu has to do is accept his shadow and we'll be fine.″ Chie glared at Yukiko who flusteredly stepped back. ″What did I say?″
″Yeah, but that was back when things were going according to that shadow things plan. Things have changed, and I wouldn't be surprised if it changed up the rules of how this is gonna go down.″
Yu gave a soft gasp as he heard this. 'Chie's right, I was expecting that there would be things for us to fight but I didn't consider any other changes. What if Izanagi has changed the way the shadows will interact with us. Can she do that?' Yu began to hunch over leading Saki and the others to look at him quietly as he sat down on the ground. 'Maybe just accepting him won't be enough anymore. I need to figure out some back up plans... gah but I don't know what to make the back up plans for!' Yu grabbed at his head and began to let out a aggravated scream.
″Uh... Yu? You okay?″ Kanji began to scratch the back of his head and knelt down in front of him.
″He's probably just trying to think this through.″ Saki sat down next to Kanji as they watch Yu stare angrily into his lap. ″Wonder if he knows we're talking about him right now?″
″Maybe not, he doesn't usually seem to notice what we were talking about when he gets like this.″ Chie squatted down on Kanji's other side while Yukiko followed suit.
″Is it... healthy that he gets like this?″ Yukiko looked over at Saki who just shrugged.
Yosuke walked over and leaned over the four teens who were staring at Yu. ″You guys might want to snap him out of it. Lunch is almost over, and we need to make a decision as to what we're going to do. I think we should head to Yukiko's again by the way.″
Kanji raised up his hand and booped Yu on the nose. ″You still there Yu?″
Blinking blankly at the others, Yu began to blush. ″Uh... yeah, right. Um, sorry.″ Yu sighed and crossed his arms.
″So, what's the plan boss man?″ Yosuke smirked and rested himself on Chie's head, who's face suddenly grew sour.
″I think heading to the Amagi inn after school is a good idea. We rent a room and get this over with.″ Yu sighed and looked down to his feet.
″What do I do Yu?″ Kanji looked expectantly at Yu who slowly looked up to him.
″I...″ Yu blushed and looked back down to his feet. ″If you really want to help, stand guard with Yosuke. I don't want you getting hurt Kanji...″
″But I can help fight! Come on Yu, I want to be by your side fighting whatever asshole wants to get you!″ Kanji frowned as Yu shook his head. ″But!″
Yosuke patted Kanji's shoulder and shrugged. ″It's okay dude, I know the feeling. Let's just accept it. He's not gonna relent on this.″
The school bell rang ending their debate. Scoffing Kanji stood up and crossed his arms. ″Whatever, you better not get hurt in there Yu.″
Everyone went on heading back to class, except Saki and Yu who still sat on the roof for a few more moments. Saki patted Yu's shoulder and gave him a supportive smile. ″It'll be okay. I know facing your dark side is tough, but knowing you its gonna be a cake walk.″
Yu nodded, but stared despondently at the ground. ″I guess... let's... let's head to class.″