[4/14: Thursday]
It was raining yet again the next morning. This town might not be a ghost town, but it was decidedly gloomy.
Nanako handed Souji his gray umbrella, and though he took it, he kept staring at her Loveline umbrella. She moved it from one hand to the other and his eyes followed it. "Souji-kun, would you like to use my umbrella again?"
The boy's pale face colored. She barely had time to notice it before he was looking down at his feet. He shook his head.
"Are you surrrre? I really don't mind. Almost everyone at my school uses the transparent ones so I kind of stick out with this."
He looked up at her hopefully. She handed it to him without a word, and then gently took the gray umbrella out of his unresisting hand.
She stepped out into the rain and opened the gray umbrella. "There... now I have a little bit of Souji-kun with me at school!"
He looked embarrassed. It was adorable.
"Say, Souji-kun. Do you watch Loveline?" she asked while they were walking to the intersection.
He didn't answer.
"It's my favorite," she admitted. She quoted a line from it: "'We're on the case!'"
She stopped in her tracks. The boy was smiling. It was faint, but he was smiling while he looked up at the silly pink umbrella.
She almost squealed and gave him a hug.
This Sunday, she vowed, running to catch up to him, we will watch the new episode of Loveline together.
The school was abuzz with gossip over the announcer's death. Nanako was interested at first, but it soon became clear that no one had any facts.
"Y-yo, umm... Nanako-san..."
"Hmm?" Nanako turned in her desk to face Yosuke, who was standing next to his desk with his arms crossed, and boy, did he look pretty awful, like he hadn't had much sleep at all. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair hadn't been combed. Maybe his TV had done a number on him, too.
"It's not important, but, last night, on the TV, I..." He looked away and didn't look back. "N-nevermind. It's too weird..."
Nanako opened her mouth to reply, but Chie suddenly ran up. "Hey Yosuke!" she said. "I heard Saki-senpai and her little brother were the ones who discovered the body."
"No wonder Saki-senpai's been so down lately," Yosuke remarked, sounding mournful. "You know, I think she skipped class today."
"By the way, did you try it?" Chie asked, just as Nanako had predicted. "The Midnight Channel?"
"Yeah, my TV tried to eat me," Nanako replied. "Did yours?"
Chie laughed and Nanako realized that she thought it was a joke. "What I saw... Well, there was a guy on there. But I don't know who it was. Yosuke, did you see anything?"
"Huh? Oh... No."
Nanako narrowed her eyes. Yosuke was avoiding eye contact. He was lying.
"Well, the guy I saw had kind of short, wavy hair," Nanako said.
"Hey, mine too!" Chie exclaimed. "Wait, do we have the same soulmate? Does this mean I have to fight you for it?"
"Nah," said Nanako. "I'm thinking: threesome."
Chie laughed in astonishment. "Ah, I don't think I know you well enough to share like that..."
"Wh-wh..." Yosuke began and then shortly stopped.
"Hmm?"
"Wh-what about... f-foursome?"
"There's no way we'd include you, Yosuke!" Chie yelled, making a fist.
"Th-that was a j-joke!" Yosuke stepped back instinctively from her wrath.
Nanako eyed him shrewdly. "Are you saying... you saw the same guy too?"
"Y-yeah..." he admitted. His eyes were downcast and his face a little pink from embarrassment.
"Huh," said Chie, and that's all she had to say.
"But both of you—your TVs didn't try to eat you?" Nanako queried. "And you didn't hear any weird voice about opening doors?"
"What do you mean, try to eat you?" Yosuke asked.
"I touched the screen and my hand went through! And then something tried to pull me in."
"I'm pretty sure you're pulling my leg right now," Yosuke said. "Yakuza girl."
"Oh god, are people calling me that now? I suppose that's my own fault." Nanako sighed. "But I'm not lying! I'll show you right now! Where's the nearest TV?"
"You know, Junes has some really big TVs," Chie remarked. "I bet you could go all the way in."
Nanako just hoped whatever had tried to pull her in on the other side of it wouldn't try again. "Yeah, sure! Let's do it!"
Chie and Yosuke exchanged indulgent glances, and in the face of their disbelief, Nanako felt her determination grow. She stood up and marched out of the room, not even waiting to see if they would follow.
Nanako stood back with her hands on her hips while the two inspected the biggest TV on display. "Yep, solid glass," said Chie.
"Or whatever they're made of nowadays," said Yosuke. "Some of them feel like plastic."
"Has to be plastic. It's from Junes," Chie teased.
"That's not going to stop you from buying one from here, isn't it?"
They bickered some more until Nanako interrupted. "Are you done making fun of me?"
"I dunno," said Yosuke, turning towards her. He crossed his arms in front of the large TV. "It's kind of—h-hey!"
Nanako pushed him back until he fell all the way through the TV's screen.
She turned away and dusted her hands off with satisfaction. It was the easiest way to show them both, really, and served as a little bit of payback for not believing her.
What was the worst that could happen...?
"H-holy cow!" Chie gasped. "Wha—Where'd he go?" The short-haired girl looked behind the TV and called for Yosuke, but there was no answer. "Uh, umm, Nanako...! He's... he's not coming back out."
"Give it another minute," Nanako told her.
They waited a minute. They waited two minutes. On the way to three, it was too much for Chie. After psyching herself up, she touched the screen herself, but it was solid. "Wh-why can you do it and not me? M-maybe he needs you to bring him back? N-Nanako...!"
"You have a point," Nanako admitted. "He might be stuck on the other side. Well, you wanna come with?"
Chie gaped at her and then looked at the TV. Before she could say anything, Nanako pushed her in and then jumped in after.
Nanako wished she could say that she landed gracefully onto her feet. She didn't, but she managed to turn the awkward fall into a relatively painless tumble.
She took stock of where she was. Yellow. The place was very... yellow. And foggy, too. They were on some sort of center stage, like for a TV show. Metal catwalks led off into the distance, obscured by the fog. There were chalk outlines drawn on the floor. Like a crime scene...
"Yosuke!" Chie shouted, nabbing her attention.
The boy was cowering in the fetal position on the floor. "Ch-Chie?" He lifted his head up and looked incredibly relieved to see them. Well, except for Nanako. "You-you threw me in here! Th-there's no way out!"
"Have you looked?" Nanako asked, placing a fist on her hip and tilting her body.
"No...?"
"I don't blame you," said Chie. "This place is seriously creeping me out. What is it? Some TV studio?"
"Makes sense, I guess," said Yosuke. "We're in a TV, after all. We're in a TV." He repeated it like a mantra several more times. "Nanako-san, why are we in a TV?"
"I guess I opened the door like that voice said." She put a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Well, we aren't going to figure anything out by staying here. Let's explore."
"Yeah." He shot her a strange look and then nodded. "You're right. This place... Why is there fog in a TV?"
"It's pretty thick, too," Chie noted. "Which way?"
Nanako chose a direction at random and headed off.
After a very long walk—so long that they almost stopped to go back—they found some sort of apartment building. Every door they tried was locked, but the door on the farthest end was wide open. Without making any fanfare of it, Nanako walked right in.
There was a bed, a fridge, a potted plant, and a chair. What drew Nanako's attention were the dozens of posters on the wall. The posters were of the same woman, and in each one, her head had been scratched completely off. It was kind of horrific, like this was a crime scene and the criminal had been psychotic or obsessed with one particular woman. The red and yellow paint splatters all over the walls did little to change that opinion.
"That kind of arrangement is never good," Yosuke commented.
Huh...? Oh.
Above the chair was a scarf acting as a noose.
Nanako hadn't even noticed that. Her powers of observation still needed some improvement.
"Yikes," she murmured. Was someone around here thinking of suicide...? W-well, who else would be around here? What was this place, anyway? And why was she continuing to think in terms of crime scenes?
"Argh, I can't take it anymore!"
When Nanako turned to look, Yosuke was doing the infamous 'have to pee' dance.
"Oh, just go in the corner," she told him. "I don't think anyone is living here anymore anyway. The bed hasn't been used... ever, as far as I can tell."
"Eww, gross!" Chie protested when Yosuke actually moved to the corner.
Yosuke whimpered and looked over his shoulder. "I won't do it with you two watching—!"
"Just whip it out and go," Nanako said. "Guys are so lucky. You can pee anywhere!"
"Just whip it out...!?" Yosuke yelped.
"I don't want to see that!" Chie cried.
"Well, neither do I, actually," Nanako admitted. "Let's give him some privacy."
Nanako left the apartment. She looked over the railing, but couldn't see much of anything through the thick fog. She was starting to feel a bit ill... She stepped away from the railing before she got too dizzy and fell over.
"We still don't know how to get home," Chie said, joining her outside the apartment.
"Yeah, that is a problem... Let's go back to the... uh... starting point?"
They started the long journey back without Yosuke since he was taking so long. A few minutes later, they heard him running somewhere in the fog behind them, so they slowed until he caught up. Nanako noted his faintly relieved smile upon seeing them, which prompted her to remark, "Feel better now?"
"Y-yeah..." he admitted. "I'm good. And I'm ready to go."
They eventually made it all the way back to the stage, and Nanako took some time to investigate it more thoroughly. The outlines on the stage floor weren't done in chalk; they seemed to be painted on as some sort of avant-garde art or something. White and black rings were painted on the ground, too, originating from the stage's center. It looked much like a target. Well, it was where they'd fallen in. She wondered if other people had fallen in, and then got lost in the fog...
"Any luck?" Yosuke asked after a few minutes. He'd tried circling the stage, but apparently he hadn't found anything.
"I'm thinking of climbing up on the catwalks," Nanako told him. "Maybe we can turn a spotlight on or something."
"Yeah... I'm not sure I want to volunteer for that. But I can help you up."
"You just wanna look up my skirt."
"N-no, I didn't mean that. I'm just tired all of a sudden." Yosuke wasn't lying; he looked tired, too.
"I was just teasing." Nanako tried to smile at him reassuringly but she was starting to feel it herself. Chie was already sitting down with her legs stretched out in front of her on the chalk outlines, and Nanako thought she might join her.
Then Yosuke's body tensed up. "Th-there's something there!"
Nanako turned and Chie got to her feet. A shape appeared in the fog and moved towards them. It was large and round and... the silhouette looked like a freaking bear!
"Guys, run!" Nanako shouted.
"Run? Where?" Yosuke cried, glancing around them.
The apartment had been a dead end, so...
"Just... follow me!" She grabbed his hand and yanked him behind her, and let go when he got the idea. "Chie, come on!"
"R-right!"
They rushed headlong into the fog, with the bear or whatever it was right on their tail. Nanako wasn't sure it was a bear anymore because it made this sweep-swash sound and she had no idea what animal on this earth would make such a noise. Maybe, maybe it wasn't of this earth...
And then it started talking at them.
"Grr! If you're running, you must be guilty! You must be the ones throwing people in here!"
"Nanako-san! It really wants you," Yosuke gasped. He followed it with a very desperate laugh.
"Rawr! You admit it!?"
"Sh-shut up and run!" said Nanako.
They ran for what seemed like a very long time but was probably only a couple of minutes. Then the creature spoke again, sounding worried. "S-stop!" it cried. "Don't go that way! Oh, why are you going that way?"
Nanako caught Yosuke's eyes, and then Chie's. They nodded and continued in that direction. If their pursuer did not want them to go there, that meant it was the perfect place to go.
"Th-the Shadows are that way! The strongest ones I've seen! Oh, don't go there!"
As they continued, the color of the fog gradually changed from yellow to a soft periwinkle. The fog also seemed thicker here, and Nanako noticed that the floor had changed. It was now formed of large red tiles framed in black. She slowed while panting to catch her breath. Yosuke stayed behind her and turned to face the direction they had come, his fists raised, as if he might try to protect them from whatever was after them, but Nanako could tell he was trembling. She was glad he had peed earlier.
"This place looks familiar," she said. "I think... I think we can stop running." She no longer heard the sweep-swash sound. They were no longer being followed.
"Familiar how?" Yosuke asked between gasps for breath.
"I had a dream and I think I was here... Well, I remember lots of fog. It was just the other night, my first night here in Inaba. I remember a voice." But she didn't quite remember what it said. And her hands felt empty. A naginata, yeah, she'd had that, and she'd attacked something in the fog with it...!
Something stirred within her. I shouldn't be here. She paused. Not yet, anyway.
"You said you heard a voice last night, when you watched the TV," Yosuke remarked. "Was it the same one?"
She shook her head, but with all the fog, he probably couldn't see it, so she said, "No. I'm not sure, but—"
She shuddered as a wave of pure malice suddenly hit her.
"N-Nanako?" Chie's voice quavered. The girl took hold of Nanako's arm for support. She must have felt it too; this place was dangerous. "Y-Yosuke, are you still there?"
"Y-yeah, but I can't really see either of you with all the fog around us. It's... Nanako-san... It's getting hard to breathe, too."
"Do you think we should go back?" Chie asked.
No one answered. The unspoken question: which way is back...?
The fog swirled around them, and the periwinkle color was gradually darkening into an ominous deep purple.
"Nanako-san, you're really from Tokyo, right?" Yosuke asked. "Uh, just checking."
"Y-yeah," she said. "I really don't know why I could go into the TV. I just could. I swear I've touched TVs back home and nothing like this has ever happened."
"I... I don't know if that's reassuring," Yosuke said honestly.
There was a strange scraping sound like metal-on-metal in the distance, and it was starting to get closer. The almost overwhelming feel of imminent danger grew with it.
"Yosuke, Chie..." Nanako said. "I'm sorry for bringing you here. I'm really, really sorry."
Although they didn't answer, the air was thick with tension—but it was perhaps not as thick as the fog.
With the sound of flapping wings, the fog was temporarily driven away, which revealed a dozen or so different monsters facing them, including several large eagles, the source of the sudden wind. A military tank, a giant hourglass, a beetle the size of a car, a flying book, a couple of cherubs with bows and arrows, a statue of an arm carrying a sword, and... more, Nanako didn't have time to see because suddenly the things were charging towards them.
Yosuke squeaked, his knees banging together in fear, but he tried to put himself in front of Nanako and Chie as the horde came upon them.
Then the familiar sweep-swash rang out, and there was a red and blue bear... thing in between them and the monsters. It twirled, and a stack of three televisions appeared in front of it. "H-hurry!" it shouted, waving its stubby arms. "Go in there, escape!"
They needed no further encouragement. Nanako pushed Chie and Yosuke in, and an arrow whizzed over her head while she was struggling to get herself through. The bear came to her aid, pushing her swiftly into the screen, and she barely managed to thank the creature before her head went through.
They collapsed in a heap in Junes' electronics department and laid there gasping on the floor for several minutes, not caring if anyone came upon them and wondered what they'd been doing to become so exhausted.
"Nanako," Yosuke moaned while pulling himself slowly up to his feet. "Please never do that to me again."
"Yeah, I think I've learned my lesson," Nanako replied. "Rule #1: No pushing people into TVs."
Chie got up and started talking about posters and enka singers, but Nanako was too tired to even listen anymore. All she could think about was her futon and how far away she was from it right now. She began to shuffle towards the elevator in a zombie-like manner, counting down each step. The others followed after her, equally exhausted and equally uninterested in talking about what had just happened.
When Nanako got home, she could barely manage to eat the takeout yakisoba Souji had bought for her. Whoa, was she so late that her dinner was this cold? How long had they been inside that TV? The events of the day seemed so unreal now.
"Are you okay?" Souji-kun asked her after watching her struggle with the chopsticks. His gray eyes were big with concern. Despite the circumstances behind the exhaustion, she was happy to see that he cared about her.
"Feeling a little sick," she admitted. "Maybe it's the rain."
She finished the yakisoba and barely managed the strength to put the takeout box in the trash. When she made to go upstairs, though, Souji stopped her. "H-here," he said, holding out a small bottle. She took it and blinked at the label. Cold medicine.
"Thanks," she told him, pulling off a smile that she didn't feel, even though she really was grateful. "I think I'm going to bed early."
He nodded. "Get better..."
She patted him on the head before climbing the stairs to her room. Ugh, were there really so many steps...? She shuffled past the work table and collapsed into bed without changing at all.
[Next Chapter: Perso-what-now?
Nanako and a friend revisit this 'TV World' to investigate further.]