There was a rumor that a new student was coming to Yasogami today. Despite the brothers staying up to watch a movie Chie let Yosuke borrow, Teddie's fidgety excitement knew no bounds.

"C'mon, Yosuke? Aren't you excited?"

Yosuke, who hadn't even taken off the covers yet, responded with, "Sorry, I'm still trying to take in that ending. That was deep, bro."

"So deep you had to take the whole morning to dream about it?"

"Crap! We're gonna be late!" Yosuke shrieked. But to his confusion, Teddie picked up his bag, already bulging at the edges.

"Which is why I packed everything you needed, made your lunch and got you an umbrella because it is pouring outside!"

Yosuke could only sigh at his little brother's generosity. "Thanks, bro…"

The moment they got outside, Yosuke took his bike out from the garage, to Teddie's surprise.

Putting a hand on his hip, he said, "You're going to slip, you know."

"Fine, be late if you don't wanna rush." And Yosuke was off.

"I'd rather be safe than on time!" Teddie yelled before his brother was almost beyond the horizon.

Still worrying about Yosuke's safety, Teddie's walk to school was rather uneventful, the sounds of the raindrops hitting his umbrella being the only thing that was genuinely pleasing on his otherwise mundane stroll through Inaba. He did manage to pass by Nanako at least, who happily waved at him, with Teddie waving back.

Only a few blocks away from the school, an all too familiar voice was wincing in pain, saying stuff like "Was that a cracking noise? Did I break a bone?"

Teddie immediately began speeding up, and his umbrella started to flap in the wind. Just as he expected, there was Yosuke, holding his leg, writhing in pain, sitting next to a telephone pole.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" Yosuke answered. "I just needed to rest my leg for a bit."

"I don't want to say I told you so, but…" As Teddie helped his brother up, his thoughts trailed off as he saw everything his brother dropped.

"Aw, man. You broke the umbrella, too?"

"I did?" Yosuke turned his neck to check. "Oh come on!" He cried in agony.

Teddie's eyes rolled before turning towards the bike. "Look, I'll bring the bike to school, you hold the umbrella for us, okay? It's the least you can do."

"Heh, you got me there…"

"So I took a glance at a sheet in the main office, and yup, that new kid from the city should be here today."

"Did you find out if it was a guy or a girl?"

"Not sure… the name I saw could be either."

Teddie pushed his desk back and forth to try and drown out the conversations. He couldn't take it anymore, he just wanted to see what the person looked like! His pushing and pulling stopped when he heard Chie's voice in front of him.

"A city kid, huh? Just like you two… what's with the dead look?" Chie asked Yosuke, who had his head on his desk.

"I don't wanna talk about it…"

"He thought it was a good idea to ride a bike in the rain," Teddie immediately answered.

"Teddie!" Yosuke scowled while Chie and Yukiko giggled.

But finally… finally, Teddie's waiting paid off. A boy with silver hair walked into the room.

Right away, he immediately tried to do the hair flip thing guys always do to try and woo girls, but not a single reaction was given from any of the students, they all just stared at him as normal.

"Alright, let's just get this done and over with as quickly as possible." The teacher, "affectionately" nicknamed King Moron by the other students, (at this point Teddie kept forgetting what his actual name was) groaned in his raspy voice. "New kid, city boy, blah blah blah, you do the rest."

"Gladly," The boy said in a fake attempt to sound suave, "The name's Yu Narukami."

Whatever Yu was trying to pull, it must've been working on Teddie. His mouth was open in awe the entire time, and the girls sitting in front of him turned around to take note.

"I wonder if the culture shock will get to him too." Yosuke whispered to Teddie, who kept staring forward, his mind not even registering what he said.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon… sit here, sit here, sit here, sit here!" Teddie was shaking in anticipation. Chie must've been reading his mind, because once King Moron's rant about perverts or whatever was over, she raised her hand and asked, "Hey, can he sit with us, please?" Chie shot a wink at Teddie. He paused, chewing a nail to see if that would work.

"Yeah sure, knock yourself out." The overbitten teacher said, nonchalantly slouching back in his chair.

What do you know? King Moron actually made him sit there. Chie immediately started gossiping with Yu the moment he sat down, and Teddie listened in on every word until roll call. During which, he was distracted by his brother tapping him on the shoulder.

"Dude, look." Yosuke whispered. Teddie looked down near his desk to see the case for the movie they had watched yesterday night, opened to reveal a large crack on a part of the disk. Using his free hand, Yosuke pointed to Chie, who was thankfully too focused on the other students randomly saying either "here" or "present" to notice, to which he then pointed towards his chin, and flicked himself with his finger.

"Oh." Teddie pondered how to solve the dilemma at hand before he whispered to Yosuke, "Don't worry, I'll buy an empty disc, pirate the movie online, put it on the disc, and she'll never know!"

Closing the disc case, Yosuke put it back in his bag and put his head down on his desk, and his hands on the back of his head.

"She is actually going to kill us…" he thought.The rest of the school day went as normal, nothing too out of the ordinary.

At least, until the tail-end of it, however.

It was the final few minutes of the school day. Teddie's eyes were on the clock. Everyone's eyes were, all of them eagerly awaiting that final bell. But instead of the generic electronic ringing that they were used to, the class heard a different jingle. The announcement bell.

"Attention, all teachers. Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting."

Which sounded like a good thing.

"All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice."

Emphasis on sounded.

Yosuke dropped his head on his desk in frustration and adjusted his headphones to be on the sides of his head.

Teddie was going to say something, but he had to cover his ears once he heard the sirens of an ambulance driving by. Like dogs to a mailman, most of the students in the classroom flocked to the window to see what was going on outside.

"That's gotta be really close by!"

"Let me see it!"

"Stupid fog getting in the way!"

Right, it was raining today, which meant when Teddie went up to the window, he was given the grim reminder that for some reason…

"What fog?" He tried to ask over all of the commotion.

"How do you not see it?!" One student was able to get in to Teddie before being pushed aside. But no matter how hard he looked, every time it rained, the window was completely clear to him. Granted, the ambulance was already out of the window's view by then, but that still didn't make it any less awkward considering how many of his classmates were complaining about it. But that wasn't all they were discussing, amidst the shouting and rumors being spread around, Teddie could just barely make out words like "Announcer" and "Yamano".

After a few more seconds of this chaos, a second announcement bell rang telling everyone that the lockdown had been lifted and everyone could go home. Teddie speed-walked back to his brother to tell him that they could leave now. Yu was already getting up to head home, and when Teddie turned around to see him, he also noticed Chie and Yukiko introducing themselves to him. He ran back over to his desk, strapped on his backpack, and quickly went over to do the same as soon as Yukiko finished talking.

"Hi I'm Teddie Hanamura that's my brother Yosuke over there we sometimes work the afternoon shift at Junes and I think I've been seeing Yosuke reading some very-"

"Miss Satonaka?"

Everyone turned their attention behind Teddie to see Yosuke, who was holding something behind his back.

"Okay, first off, the movie was great,"he began. "The fight scenes were really well put together and I can definitely see why you like it so much." The longer he went on, the sweatier his forehead got. "Now I know you're gonna kick me in the nuts for this, and honestly, once you find out, go ahead, I deserve it. I just want to let you know this was a complete accident. I fell off my bike, it was in my pocket, and it just kinda-"

Teddie, realizing what he was about to tell Chie, pleaded, "I'm telling you, we don't have to tell her about that! We can just go with my plan!"

"What plan?" Chie firmly asked, hands on her hips. That was never a good sign if it was from her.

"Listen, Ted, she'd find out anyway if we tried that." Yosuke said, handing Chie the DVD case. "That being said," he whispered to Teddie, "Please cover for me."

"Always." Teddie responded, glancing at Chie as she opened the case, her eyes growing wide at its contents. He knew she wouldn't kick him if it wasn't his fault, so as the brothers ran out of the school building, he waved goodbye to Yu as Chie gave chase.

"Have fun with the girls!" Teddie yelled.

"Teddie, get out of the way!" Chie roared as she was gaining on their tails.

With how far and fast they needed to run before Chie decided to catch up with Yukiko and Yu instead, the brothers were close to collapsing. Teddie had finished his homework in record time, as usual, and as Yosuke was finishing up, Teddie asked, "Yosuke, can you change the channel, please? I can't get up…"

"Where's the remote?" Yosuke moaned.

"I can't find it, that's why I asked you to look…"

"Did you check under the couch cushions?"

Teddie lied down, his body taking up the entire couch. He put his hand in the spot between the couch cushions. It bounced between them, but there was nothing of substance besides some dust-bunnies and the covered metal underneath. He left his hand there as his eyes went half-closed.

"Yes."

Someone in their family must've absent-mindedly left the news channel on for the entire evening. As Yosuke reluctantly searched for the remote, all the two of them could listen to was the monotonous sound of weather reports that were barely ever accurate, and of course the occasional death of some random person somewhere in the country.

"Our top story this evening concerns a bizarre case in a quiet suburb. Around noon, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba."

"Hold on a sec," Yosuke paused his search for the remote to run over to the TV. "Samegawa? Isn't that ridiculously close by?"

"Yeah, look!" Teddie pointed to the background. "That's the school right there!"

Yosuke's mouth slowly opened as he connected the dots in his head. "Dude, that's what caused the lockdown."

"That explains so much."

"The deceased has been identified as Ms. Mayumi Yamano, a 27-year-old announcer at the local television station."

"Damn, it's always the good ones that go out like that." Yosuke exclaimed once he saw her picture.

"The body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident's roof. Authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such a state."

"I would be too," Teddie commented. "Aren't murderers supposed to hide the body? Why would you put it somewhere where everyone can see it?"

"Seriously, what kind of incident is that?"

Before the boys could take more time to dwell on what they had just heard, the new Junes commercial which Teddie had assisted their dad in making began to air.

"Look, Yosuke! There I am!"

Yosuke could only sit and watch as the news story from earlier just wouldn't leave his head.

"I guess dangerous things happen in quiet country towns, too."

"Yosuke! Slow down!" Teddie wailed as he tried to chase his brother's bike down the street.

"I'm trying! It's a downhill street!"

"Then use the brakes!"

"What brakes?"

"Just pedal backwards!"

Next thing they knew, Yosuke was flying head first into a nearby trash can.

"Are you okay?" was the only thing Teddie could muster as he rolled around in it.

"Ugh, come on! They forgot to put a bag in it this time?"

That was all the answers he needed. Right as Teddie got him out of the trash can, he did a double-take and saw Yu staring at what, to him, was just Teddie pulling Yosuke's legs and dragging him out of there.

Teddie was careful to come up with a speedy explanation. "Oh… it's a weird story, I swear," he smiled big and wide to make him look innocent.

"No worries, I saw what happened." Yu's smile was smaller compared to Teddie's clearly fake one.

"That just makes it worse." Yosuke said while standing the bike back up. "Oh wait, you're the new guy, right? Narukami, was it?"

"Yup," Yu's eyes darted back and forth between the brothers. "So, you're the Hanamuras, right? Teddie caught me up to speed."

Teddie put his hands behind his back while his eyes turned away from the other boys. "By the way, did you catch the news last night?"

"The dead body?" Yu assumed.

"Yeah, that one!"

"I'm just saying," Yosuke continued. "I think it could've been some kind of warning. I feel… what's it called, a premonition? Because that could NOT have been an accident!"

"Yeah, it's definitely a very weird way to murder someone."

Teddie then remembered something. "I told Yosuke this last night, but why would they even put the body there of all places?!"

Yu shook his head. "I dunno, but whoever did it must be pretty confident in themselves if they're willing to go through the effort to even put the body there, what with likely climbing to the top of the antenna and all."

"Either way, a murder's a murder, and…" Yosuke glanced at his watch, and his eyebrows shot up. "Oh crap, we're late! If you want a ride, I can get you there faster."

"Don't. Last time I did, I think I sprained my elbow." Teddie said immediately.

"Eh, I was going to pass anyway."

"Guess I'll race you there, then!" Teddie cheered, ignoring Yosuke's offended gawk.

It was a miracle Teddie got through the entire school day with how much daydreaming he was doing. His head was lying back on his chair (probably not good for his neck, but he didn't care), Yosuke had gotten up to stretch his limbs after sitting for so long, Chie was eavesdropping on anyone who was having a conversation in some of the corners, and Yu was mainly checking some things on his phone, potentially a text message or two, before he left.

"Yosuke, are we doing anything today?" Teddie asked.

Bringing one of his arms down to pick up his phone, Yosuke glanced for any texts before promptly responding, "Nope. We can just head home, maybe grab a snack at the food court along the way," a small blush appeared on his cheek when he said that, "and then we're free to do whatever we want."

Looking at the boy in front of his brother, a light bulb turned on in Teddie's head.

"Wanna invite Yu?"

Yosuke snapped his fingers before looking at Teddie. "Good call. I'll ask him." To which he proceeded to not so subtly stand himself next to Yu's desk.

"So, new guy, have you gotten used to this place yet?"

Yu put his phone back in his pocket and placed his head on his desk. "I guess."

"Wow, that was way quicker than I thought." Yosuke placed a hand on Yu's desk, causing him to look up at who was talking to him. "There's not really much to do here compared to a huge city like yours. Food here's great though. Me and Ted were just about to hit the food court at Junes-"

"We work there." Teddie added.

Yu's head picked back up slightly to see who said that.

"Yeah, I remember. You mentioned that yesterday."

"I did? Oh…" Teddie' head drooped.

"Anyway," Yosuke continued, "We were wondering if you wanted to come with us, see what this place has to offer, our treat."

Yu's shoulders raised. "Eh, sure, why not?"

As if on cue, Chie yelled from a few desks over, "You know you still owe me for breaking that DVD."

Of course she was listening in on their conversation with Yu.

"See, what'd I tell you, Ted? It's every time I mention going out to eat. She's like a leech!"

"Yeah, well, this 'leech' wants her compensation. Yukiko, back me up on this!" Chie called to her.

"No thanks." Yukiko waved off, "My shift at the inn starts soon. You four can go without me."

Teddie's head swung onto his desk as he commented, "Oh boy, I know how that feels. You have something you really wanna do, but your shift gets in the middle of it."

Yukiko turned towards the group once she got to the doorway. "Yeah, but at least that means there's never a dull moment there…"

Once she was gone, the tone became quiet between the remaining members of the group in the room, with Teddie eventually breaking the silence.

"Anyway, yeah, you can come with us."

"If she's coming, you're paying for her." Yosuke affirmed.

"Deal."

The food court was never an easy place for Teddie to go to eat. He spent longer than he should've looking at all of the different restaurants and deciding what to have this time around.

"Ted, it's not that hard, just pick something." Yosuke groaned, already frustrated from how long he was waiting in the takoyaki stand's line.

"I'm trying to!" Teddie told him as he paced by him.

Yosuke was almost at the front of the line now, his foot tapped in sync with Teddie's steps. "Tell you what? Why don't you just have what we're having? Makes it easier to pay."

"I already had that last time we were here, but at this point, I don't mind." Teddie wiped his brow as he watched Yosuke make his order.

"Hey," his brother called, "Don't forget you're paying for one of 'em!"

The weight of the tray from four orders would have normally been a struggle for anybody else, yet when Teddie held it, it didn't feel that way for him. The tray was as light as air. Not even he knew where that strength came from.

"Now I remember why I don't come here often." Chie said after swallowing her first bite. "This stuff's pretty cheap compared to other places. No offense, guys."

Yosuke shrugged. "None taken, this wasn't even our place in the first place!"

"It is now!" Teddie rebutted.

Yu tilted his head towards the brothers, "What do you mean 'in the first place'?"

"That's right, you're new here!" Yosuke exclaimed, and the two of them proceeded to explain their backstory to Yu.

"Well it's always nice to meet some fellow city people."

The conversation then proceeded to become animated over small talk, or at least it would've been if Teddie didn't have so much to say before Chie could finally get a word in.

"To be fair, you've only been here for half a year, but ever since we met, I can't remember a single time I've been to the shopping district." She took a sip of her soda and swallowed faster than the others had. "Then again, it makes sense. Everything's been closing since then."

Teddie started to scratch the back of his head. "I'm not really here to compete, that just happens."

"Yep, can't really blame it all on Junes." Yosuke said as he kicked back in his chair, which gave him just enough distance to see familiar locks of dirty blonde hair in the corner of his eye.

"Oh, uh… hey, Ted, can you keep these two busy for a moment?"

"Yes, sir!" Teddie saluted.

"Okay… looks like I might have some more catching up to do than I thought." Yu said as Yosuke ran off.

"Oh, that's Saki Konishi. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district." Chie explained. "I think she's working here part-time though."

Yu's eyes, however, were focused on Yosuke and Saki rather than the two sitting with him. "Oh! Is she his girlfriend?"

"Not yet!" Teddie proclaimed with way too much confidence as Chie snickered in the background. "As Yosuke's self-proclaimed wingman, it is my job to make sure that she only receives the best impressions from the boy who's clearly-"

"Hey, are you the transfer student?"

Ironically enough, it was Saki who had interrupted Teddie in the nick of time.

"Oh, hi, Teddie!" She smiled and waved towards him before turning her attention back to Yu. "I bet it's nice to have a pair of other city people to talk to, huh? I think Teddie's the only other guy I've ever seen him talk to."

Yosuke opened his mouth to say something before Teddie butted in. "Not true! There's Kou, Daisuke… okay, that's about it, but it's more than just me!"

"Well it's always nice to see him be a bit more social." Saki giggled, Yosuke put his head in his hands just to try to wait out the conversation. "Hana-chan can be a bit nosy when Teddie isn't around. Otherwise, he's just trying to stop his brother from whatever antics he's getting himself into. They're both fun people to hang around, but keep that in mind when they're separated from each other."

"Can't say they haven't become too much of a handful yet." Yu replied, head resting in the back of his hand.

"You'll get used to it once you get to know them better!" Saki winked. "I think my break's almost up, so hopefully I'll see you soon!"

"She's gone now." Teddie tapped the back of Yosuke's head. He looked up and turned to see Saki walking away from the table and back into the kitchen.

"Oh, thank god. Sometimes she can be nosier than both of us combined. Can you believe she has a brother too? She should know how this works!"

"And yet you love her anyway." Chie said with a smug look.

"I just…" Yosuke paused. "She treats me and Teddie pretty much the same way. Heck, she treats me like how I treat Teddie sometimes!" He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and…

"Do you think she sees me as more like a brother to her?"

Teddie placed a hand on his shoulder. "As your brother, absolutely not, girls just do that sometimes. Now Chie, on the other hand-"

"Let's not get too deep into that, okay?" Chie interrupted hastily.

"I don't think it's that likely." Yu added. "I've had quite a few girls have their eye on me back home, and I wouldn't really say any of them felt more sister-like than romantic. Saki doesn't seem too different from that."

"Welp, I heard it's going to rain tonight, and in this day and age, there's only one way to know for sure!" Chie claimed with her arms crossed. "Some good old fashioned late-night TV!"

None of the people she was talking to had a look that understood what she was saying before Yosuke decided to question it. "And how's that going to help?"

"Seriously? Come on, guys, it's been the talk of the town for weeks now! I get why Yu didn't know since he just moved here, but you two have no excuse!"

"I never know what's going on with people nowadays!" Teddie yelled.

"Rainy night? Turned off TV? Soulmate appearing on the screen at midnight? None of that ringing a bell?"

And Yosuke's head was back on the table. "If you wanted to give some good romance advice, you could've just come up with your own idea rather than letting some ghost story tell you what to say."

Chie put her chin in her hand and started scratching behind her ear with her other hand. "I'm just saying, I heard from a friend that someone she met found it one day, and that woman is now engaged to the person she saw! I've been meaning to test it myself for some time, I guess now's as good a time as any."

"So you don't even know if it works? Is this why you told me you've never found a single boy you liked?" A muffled Yosuke's voice said under the table cloth.

Chie was about to put her hands up before Teddie immediately grabbed them. "It's not worth it." Was all he uttered to her. "Anyway, getting back on topic, what happens when two people look at the same TV at the same time?"

"I dunno." Chie started to wonder as she calmed down. "No one I know who's tried it ever had any siblings."

"I'm game." Yu finally spoke. The guy didn't appear to be much of a talker in these scenarios. "I'll tell you all my experience with it tomorrow."

"And we'll find out who our double 'mate is!" Teddie declared, with Yosuke giving an unspecified murmur as his head tilted to the side.

"Teddie, wake up! It's 11:57!" Yosuke's voice was whispering the moment Teddie as he felt Yosuke shake him awake.

"Wha… oh r-right the Midnight Channel thing. Right." Teddie rubbed his eyes awake. The only thing he could even hear besides Yosuke's hands moving the bed sheets were the pattering of raindrops against their window.

11:58

Even if his eyes were half-closed and adjusting to the darkness, Teddie could still make out the flatscreen TV in front of him, which had been in a spot that was illuminated by a nearby street lamp. All he had to do now was wait for the few minutes Yosuke had given him to wake up.

11:59

A faint thunder clap could be heard from somewhere outside. Nowhere near where they were based on its volume. Teddie's eyes were wide open at this point, though his muscles were still weak. Even if this rumor was just a myth, it'd take him hours to fall back asleep. Just one more minute. He didn't have the energy to act like it, but nevertheless, the anticipation of who their collective soulmate was could be felt by the creaking floorboard, as if it too were interested in the potential magic.

12:00

"And nothing. Good night, Teddie; told ya Chie was just-"

And there it was. Static. Not from anyone pressing a button, or Teddie sitting on the remote (which he did double-check), or even Teddie falling back asleep and dreaming about it. It was really there. A series of images flashed by so fast that it was hard to make out who that single person on the screen was, but the fact that it was a single person had Yosuke's face moving so close to it that Teddie had to go sit in front of him just to catch that same glimpse. Still only one. The most normal thing about this was that this supposed "soulmate" was the most obvious person it could've been.

"Saki?!" The brothers yelled simultaneously.

Hopefully that didn't wake their parents up.

The entire way to school and then some, Yosuke was side-eyeing Teddie, to which he would simply whistle innocently whenever he did so. After enough whistling, Teddie's breath eventually gave out, and he had to ask. "Okay, this is about Saki, right?"

"Yeah…" Yosuke reluctantly admitted. "I just hope she doesn't end up being your soulmate instead."

Teddie looked toward the other end of the hallway where Saki's classroom was. "I think a better question for now is, where is Saki?"

Yosuke turned away from the classroom and scratched his chin. "Yeah… I've noticed. I want to say she's just sick, but I feel like she would've texted me that by now."

"We should probably tell the others what we saw." Teddie brought up.

"Yeah… we probably should."

Yosuke burst into the room like he was an unstoppable force, with Teddie comedically slowly walking in after with his hands behind his back. Yosuke ran over to Yu and stuttered as he asked, "Y-yo. Have you seen Saki today?"

"Oh, her?" Yu's head perked up. "No, I haven't. But weirdly enough, she was on the news yesterday night."

"She was what?!"

Teddie sped up in his last few steps to where the other boys were when he heard Yosuke's cry.

"What was she doing there?"

"It's because she was apparently the one who discovered the body." Chie walked in, noticing Yosuke catch his breath from the earlier reaction.

"Oh, you saw it, too?" Yu questioned. "They did a terrible job censoring her face."

"Oh, I didn't watch it, I just heard it on the grapevine."

As Yu and Chie continued their conversation about the earlier night, Teddie noticed Yukiko getting up and speedwalking out of the room.

"Hey, uh… is Yukiko alright?"

"I don't think so." Chie answered somberly, putting a hand on her arm. "The Inn's been stressing her out non-stop these past few days. I'm a little worried about her." Her eyes widened as she recalled something. "Oh, yeah, you all caught what came on last night, right?"

"Yup, you win." Yosuke sighed in defeat. "Just tell me who you saw. I'm not going to have stayed up so late just to not know who your soulmate was."

"That's the thing! The weirdest thing showed up!" Chie spread her arms wide. "For me, it was a girl! I dunno why this channel thinks my soulmate's a girl. My TV must be busted or something."

Teddie, knowing the potential actual reason why that would happen, placed a hand on Chie's shoulder and calmly told her, "Look, I know this is a difficult time in your life, but take this as a chance to rediscover yourself. I just want you to know that we're all here to support you."

"We are?" Yosuke reacted in shock. Teddie proceeded to elbow him in the waist, to which Yosuke repeated, "Y-yeah! Of course we are!"

He always did that whenever his brother was confused at people acting like that.

"Ok… identity crisis aside, I gotta know what was up with that girl. So if any of you see anyone at our school with brown, sorta dirty blonde, shoulder-length hair, you let me know, capiche?"

"That is weirdly specific compared to what we saw." Yosuke pointed out. "Though it kinda sounds like the same person we saw-"

"Saki? Was it Saki?" Teddie butted in.

"Teddie!"

Chie was weirdly nonchalant about that. "I dunno, probably. But if we all saw the same girl, does that mean the three of us all have the same soulmate?"

Yu raised his hand. "Make that four. The weirdest thing happened to me as I was watching it. After the broadcast concluded, the TV started sucking me up like a vacuum," He claimed, "My hand almost got stuck in there, and I think I would've been a goner if my TV wasn't so small."

"Aww, why didn't I try that?" Teddie pouted.

Yosuke shook his head in disbelief. "Ok, that was definitely just a dream."

"We just discovered a magical TV channel that shows you your soulmate, and an inhaling vortex inside said TV almost sucking someone inside of it is crossing the line?" Chie criticized.

Yosuke raised his finger and inhaled, but quickly put it down. "Well now that you say it out loud, yeah, fair enough."

"Speaking of which," Chie recalled. "my family's already been thinking about buying a bigger TV, so we could go to the TV aisle at Junes, find something big enough, and see if Yu was telling the truth!" She paused before asking the brothers, "You guys do have flatscreens there, do you?"

"Just got a new shipment of them a couple weeks ago." Yosuke confirmed.

Teddie started to rub his hands together. "Th-the TV aisle? Yeah, I guess that would… make sense."

Chie turned to Teddie with concern. "What's wrong with it?"

"Secret, and it's a long story anyway." Yosuke defended Teddie while still remaining calm.

Still, they had to go check it out, as Yu didn't exactly plan on admitting any lies.

As the four of them walked through the store, everything seemed so much bigger than it should've been. The halls felt longer, and the shelves were towering. It was only a matter of time before Teddie was about to arrive at the one part of Junes he never stepped foot on. He had to find a way to delay this, something, anything. So he checked his surroundings for a solution. Nothing on his right, but something on his left.

"Yosuke! You should probably go to the bathroom before we go there. You know how many times you've needed to go during a sales pitch."

Yosuke raised a single eyebrow at him. "Um… TMI?"

"J-just looking out for you, bro. That's all." Teddie tugged on his collar. Did it always get so hot in here?

And then his brother facepalmed. "Fine…"

Teddie let out the breath he held in for so long. At least that gave him some time to mentally prepare himself for the terror ahead. Even when he was being honest, he was still in there longer than the average person. But not long enough, as when the bathroom door opened, Teddie jumped at the sound. Why did he always have to slam it open so loudly?

Well, there they were. The same aisle where Teddie met Yosuke all those years ago. Teddie had been avoiding it ever since they moved here, which his parents respected. So much had changed in the years since. Technology got more advanced, the two of them had grown up, and the whole building had a huge makeover. But that aisle was the same as ever.

Chie couldn't believe her eyes. "It's way bigger than I thought it would be!" She checked the price tag. "…and more expensive, too."

"Yeah, that's what everyone says." Yosuke was pretty nonchalant about that. "We got cheaper ones on the right over there."

Chie enthusiastically ran over to that end, and her shoulders drooped upon getting a closer look. "That's cheap to you?"

"I said cheaper, not cheap."

Meanwhile, Yu and Teddie were still staring at the giant flatscreen in front of them. The huge area of darkness staring them in the face was practically the size of a person. Yu must've noticed Teddie sweating, and he patted him on the back and told him, "Hey, you don't need to be there for this if you don't want to."

Teddie swallowed, gulped, and whatever else you did with your throat before a big moment like this. "No, I want to find out, too." Even still, he took a step back as Yu placed his hand on the screen. Hopefully it would only result in his fingerprints appearing on it.

"So this one's remote has a button for both the power and cable, but for some reason the channel flippers and up and down are the same buttons."

"Yosuke, you know I don't care about that tech stuff. I just want a big screen."

"Guys guys he did it he put his hand in you gotta see it!"

"Did wha-woah!" Yosuke and Chie were frozen in shock as they saw Yu's hand just casually sitting inside of black and white hypnotic circles.

"Told you it wasn't a dream."

The three bystanders fought for room to view what exactly the ripple effect on Yu's cuff was supposed to be.

"Do you know how this works?" Was all Yosuke could ask.

"Nope!" Yu proceeded to test out various positions. Sticking both arms in, then a shoulder, the other one, and…

"Wanna see me put my head in there?"

"Please don't." Chie begged. But it was already in there before she could finish.

"So, what's it look like?" Yosuke found another question.

"It's very… yellow."

"Is there anything besides yellow?"

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's a lot bigger than I thought."

A different sound besides the pulsating waves was getting closer to them. Footsteps.

"Well get your head out of there before someone sees this!" Yosuke warned. The noise, however, caused Yu to lose his balance on the shelf his legs were on.

And he fell in.

The mysterious image quickly disappeared soon after. All the rest could do was stare as other shoppers passed by.

"Welp, he's dead." Yosuke started walking away from the scene. "He was cool while he lasted." Then Chie grabbed him by the collar.

"We're not just going to act like we didn't see that!" she shouted. "We gotta contact the authorities! We gotta call some sorta paranormal activity police! We gotta- Teddie, what are you doing?!" She noticed him already having a leg inside the TV.

"Well I for one am not going to just let him have all the fun in there! And if anyone wants to join me, I'm all for it!"

"I can't let you do that alone…" Yosuke was already on his way back to where Teddie was.

"I just wanna see what's in there." Chie shrugged as strolled up to the boys.

"I didn't expect you two to want to go with me, but let's do it!" Without another word, Teddie swung the rest of his body inside, with Yosuke and Chie following shortly after.