April 17, 2011

Forecast: Sunny

I started to walk to Junes to meet off with the rest of the gang, I pulled out my phone to text Chie when someone ran into me from behind, making me throw my phone at least five feet in front of me. "Ow, hey are you oaky- Chie! OH my god, are you okay!"

Chie was lying on the ground; I could see tears falling from her face. I went from confused to shocked to concerned in less than five seconds. "Chie, hey, are you okay?"

She was shivering, I put my hand on her shoulder, I could hear her sobbing. "Y-Yukiko, s-she…!"

"Chie…" I started to rub her back as she continued to sob. "Tell me what happened."

"I-I," Chie was quivering slightly still. I rubbed her back some more. "I tried to call her, b-but she wouldn't…."

"It's okay," I gripped her shoulder now. "Can you stand?"

She just nodded, and then she stood up the tears had stopped, but I knew she still wanted to cry. "It turns out that Yukiko really did disappear!"

"Hey!" I smiled and planted a thumb onto my chest. "We will get her back safely, after all! We just have to do before the fog lifts right!"

"H-how?"

"What?"

"How do you know that!?" Chie yelled at me. "How can you possibly know that!?"

My smile faded as I knew what she was getting at. Yet it returned just as fast "Because logic says it's impossible, and we pretty much kicked logic to the damn curb in the last few days!" My smile faded again. "Do I have a reason to lie to you?"

"YES!" Chie stomped her foot at me. "For all you know, she is already dead! And stop it with the 'because logic says so, it's wrong!' You don't know what it is like to have no hope left!"

"SHUT UP!" I didn't want to get pissed at her… I just did, she crossed the line. My anger got the best of me. "Do NOT talk about having no hope left until you WANT to fucking die, because EVERYONE thinks you are nothing more than garbage! I went through ten years of HELL, because I was the kid whose mom was rich! I wore a beanie everywhere so that I could hide from the world! You think I wanted to get that low that I thought the best option was to just kill myself!"

I finished yelling as Chie recoiled in fear and shock, my anger quickly subsided. Yet it was replaced with concern again, only not for Yukiko, for me… I felt like an asshole for what I just did. "H-hey, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to snap."

"N-no," Chie shook her head at me. "You're right; you have had it the worst out of all of us. I'm the one who shouldn't have snapped."

"Hey," I smiled again, even though anyone could tell it was forced. "Let's go meet the guys at Junes!"

She nodded as she took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. "Yeah, you're right! Let's go!"

Chie started to run a head of me as I recollected my cell phone; luckily it was still in tack! I quickly followed Chie until we got to Junes and noticed a police car out front; the cops were placing two people into the car, two very familiar faces. "Oh my freaking god! What did those two idiots do! God they probably took weapons into the damned store!"

"It was probably Yosuke's fault too!" Chie stomped her foot as we ran after the cop car that was slipping farther and farther away.

Police Station

"No more running to try and catch a freaking car!" I was so out of breath that I about fell on the ground and passed out, Chie on the other hand was perfectly fine! How in the hell that was even possible, don't ask me! We noticed Yosuke and Yu walking out of the back, neither looked like they were sorry about… whatever the hell they just did. Which kinda pissed me off, when Yosuke noticed he tried to say something only to get an elbow to the stomach. "You freaking dumbass! What did you idiots do!"

Yu stepped in between us quickly, apparently he was worried I was gonna get arrest next, because I did just kinda assault a guy in a police station! "S-sorry Yosuke."

"D-dude!?" Yosuke was grabbing his stomach. "Why?"

"Again," I started to rub the back of my head, an embarrassed smile on my face. "A-anyway! Now we need to confirm some things! Like the fact of… Wait? Should we really does this here!?"

"Huh?" Yu looked at me with confusion in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

I mouthed the words, "police station, police can hear us!"

Yu's eyes widened as he noticed that I was right. "H-hey guys let's go outside for a bit!"

Everyone (except Yosuke, still withering in pain!) nodded in agreement; I grabbed Yosuke by the shoulder and started to walk with him over my shoulder. "Again, sorry man!"

Well, what do you expect, my anger was still kinda high, and that moron just did the dumbest thing anyone could ever do, be Yosuke! After a quick recap of what happened with Yosuke and Yu, and Chie. I was calm again, but I knew they were still morons! "Okay, so there we have it! Now what about the cops thing things?"

"Oh!" Yosuke stopped his story after saying that "the cops were saying some weird things." "They think that Yukiko-san's hiding to 'lay low…' Apparently Yukiko-san's mom collapsed because that announcer lady bitched her out."

"Well," I sighed loudly, some pieces of the puzzle started to fit together nicely. "That explains why she kept having to leave early… Wait! How did you guys find that stuff out!?"

"Who cares!?" Chie's face started to get red with anger and frustration, yep she was pissed da fuck off! Not to my surprise though, hell not to anyone's surprise, they were making it sound like her best friend was a murderer! "They think that Yukiko did!? What the hell is wrong with them!?"

"Cops look at facts that are logical," I sighed loudly, again, cops never think about what could have happened might be illogical, that's one reason I'm never very happy around cops, but Yu's uncle looked like a good guy, so… why the not!? "That's one reason I go against logic! Still, now we can assume that Yukiko is on the other side… So now we have to go save her, all four of us!"

"What!?" Yu and Yosuke looked at me with shocked expressions. "Are you sure you guys will be alright…? I mean you guys don't have personas so…"

"Dude!?" I was pissed that he even thought about that! Come on don't be all high and mighty just because YU beat the shit out of YOUR Shadow! Chie curled her hands into fist, clearly still pissed.

"I'm going," Everyone, including me, looked at her with concern. "And that's final!"

"Fine," Yosuke looked to the ground for a moment. "But damnit they confiscated our weapons! Man this sucks!"

"Weapons!?" Chie looked surprised and hit with a bolt of inspiration, all at once. "I know just the palce!"

Oh god! This isn't gonna end well!

"Oh. My. God!" I just shook my head in disbelief at the shop. Dear fucking god! This shop would be heaven for a serial killer! Wait… Why did we never think it was the shop owner! WHAT THE FUCK!? I mean it would make sense! Jesus Christ, what the hell am I saying here! The person used a freaking TV and super powers to kill people! Hell, the manager at the Junes Electrical Department was a more likely freaking candidate for the murders than the man who made dangerous weapons used to kill people with!

Yes by the end of this case, logic was nonexistent! HOLY CRAP Almost ruined the plot there… I think… Anyway ways! I digress from my point! Yosuke was a little surprised that Chie even knew the place. "Chie, doesn't this seem weird to you!? Why would you know about a place like this anyway? Oh, I get it… You watched one too many kung-fu movies, and…"

"Dude!" I was close to grabbing a battle axe off of the wall and "axe" Yosuke a question! Huh-huh, ya get it! Too much…? A-anyways, god, I'm just trying to bring the humor back! "Not cool man, not cool!"

"I heard some guys in our class talk about it!" Chie stomped her foot in anger at Yosuke, again not a surprise! I shrugged though, I knew the weapon I was gonna use, but if I was gonna sneak it into Junes, I might as well buy it there! Chie looked over some of the inventory, a huge ass chain mail chest plate, yes because the police are just gonna look at you and go "Nice armor and big ass sword you got there! Have a nice day and make sure to use those weapons!" "Here, this one looks good. But it might be too heavy…"

Thank you god for giving someone other than me at the moment some common fucking sense! Yet, is sighed, I was close to offering to buy everyone their stuff, I mean after all, I had enough money to keep the house I was staying in running for at least ten years with constant repairs! "Yeah, we go in with too much stuff, dumbass one and dumbass two will get arrested again!"

"Wh-what about you!?" Yosuke stammered for a moment trying to bitch me out.

"Nope!" I smiled evilly, you know for how serious this case got, we almost never got down about it… almost. "What I'm going to use I can just buy at Junes and no one will be the wiser!"

"What?" Everyone actually looked confused.

"You'll see." Yeah, if they got away with this, it would be a freaking miracle! Especially with Yosuke and Yu, most likely under watch by the freaking cops!

"I dunno, Chie, Kreed…" Yosuke looked at the two of us with concern, which surprised me mostly! "I still think it's too dangerous. I know you feel, Chie, but-"

"You don't!" Chie didn't even let Yosuke finish his sentence before exploding in pure anger at Yosuke, even after our talk she was still overly worrying about Yukiko. I couldn't blame her either. "You don't know shit about how I feel… Yukiko might die from this, for crying out loud! I'm going, and that's that!"

"So am I!" I stomped my foot and poked my chest. "Yosuke, I know I was against it before, but now someone could easily die from this. Damn this sucks, but I'm going to help as much as I can. We are going to get Yukiko, even if it kills us!"

Yosuke looked to the ground with defeat, he lost the fight and he knew it, Yu on the other hand nodded at us with a smile. "Okay, just becareful!"

"Pssh," Chie smiled at him. "I'll be fine! My reflexes are second to none!"

"Besides," I grinned at Yu. "You and Yosuke have those Persona things! We'll be fine!"

"Listen…" Yosuke now actually looked sad as he tried to explain to us the danger of the other world. "I'm not kidding around. You don't know what it's like in there! If you two aren't gonna listen to our warnings, we're leav-"

"Don't even finish that sentence!" I got up in Yosuke's face, yeah we had no idea what the shadows were like, but we knew the world, which was all we needed. "You even try and enter without us and I will smash all of your teeth out!"

"Fine," Yosuke finally admitted that he was the loser, to which I held out my fingers on my left hand in an L shape and flipped him the bird with my right! "Just make you guys have something to protect yourselves."

We all nodded in agreement. "Okay I'll meet you guys at Junes; I'm going to get my weapon there!"

Before anyone could object, I ran out of the shop and ran all the way to Junes. This way we were ready for anything!

Junes

"What took you guys so long?" I was standing at the usual table in the food court, a shopping bag in my hands. "Why are all three of you in your school uniforms?"

"To hide our weapons," Yosuke stated as a matter of fact, god this was even worse than bringing the weapons in the first time! "What's in the bag?"

"You'll see!" I sighed loudly as all three of them stood there. "Ya know, why didn't you just hide them in your normal clothes, after all, they still would have fit? Chie what is your weapon?"

Chie smiled a little as she just nodded at her feet, go figure right? I just sighed Yosuke finally spoke up again after a few minutes. "We really stick out… Guess it doesn't help that we're in our school uniforms on a Sunday."

"Again!" I threw my hand and slapped my forehead. "Hide them under CASUAL CLOTHES! Chie you didn't even need to hide yours."

They knew I was right, about still they sighed looking at the ground for a moment. "Well everyone ready?"

"The sale should end soon, that'll get rid of some of the people wandering around here. Hey, Chie?" Yosuke grabbed her attention; I already knew where this was going. DUDE you LOST leave it alone! "You know it's not too late to-"

Chie again beat him to the punch line, god Yosuke, you are an idiot. No matter what would have happened that day, all four of us were going in. Nothing was gonna change that fact. "I'm going!"

"Fine," You could physically see the irritation on Yosuke's face. "But don't push yourself, got it!?"

"Okay people!" I shot my hand into the air pointing a finger straight up into the air. "We got an unscheduled guest appearance on a very low budget TV program. So let's get the show on the road!"

Entrance of the Shadow World

The fall through the TV was a lot shorter than I remembered it; then again I somehow still managed to land right on my ass! Freaking great! "Okay that is gonna piss me off!" Chie only stumbled a bit and then managed to catch herself before falling flat on her face. Yosuke and Yu just kinda landed on their feet like all they did was jump up three inches. "Show offs!"

I looked around for a moment, I was confused, mainly because the guys said that when the fog lifted that the world was dangerous, but I couldn't see any fog what so ever. Chie noticed a form in the corner by some lights, how she could even see was beyond me. "Whoa, it really is that bear from last time…"

"H-hey guys!?" Yu turned to look at me, I noticed that he now had glasses on, so did Yosuke… what the hell, as far as I could tell they hadn't needed them in our world. "W-why is there no fog?"

Yu just pointed at his glasses, I looked at him for a moment before looking under my glasses, like I do all the time when reading. I could see that the world was still covered in the thick fog, so the lenses that were in the glasses wear what helped me see through the fog. "That's kinda cool!"

Yosuke was focusing most of his efforts to getting Teddie's attention to even notice me; I was now flipping my glasses up and down over my eyes to see if they worked that way. I was having so much fun with it! "What're you doing?"

"Can't you tell?" Teddie sound kinda down for some reason or another. Hell, I could only guess, I picked up my shopping bag before throwing the bag off of my new weapon! "I'm thinking about stuff. I've been dli-bear-ating over it for a long time now."

I stopped and looked at Teddie for a moment. "Animal puns, oh I so want in! Hey Teddie can you tell us if someone's here, we can't 'bear' to wait anymore!"

"Uugh," Yosuke groaned at us for a moment. "You know it might be useless for you to think too much about it. I've seen the inside of your skull, and it was empty."

"WAIT!?" I yelled and everyone turned to look at me. "WHAT THE FUCK!? HIS HEAD IS EMPTY!? HOW, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY!?"

"Will you guys shut up!?" Chie was very clearly pissed, I know she was worried but no need to rip off everyone's nads for it god! "Now's not the time for stupid jokes! Listen… Someone came here yesterday, right?"

Teddie seemed surprised for a moment. "Wow! There's a girl with a better nose than me!? What's your name Miss?"

"Dude," I pulled my weapon into view for the first time. I pointed my baseball bat with a weight on it at Teddie. "Or you just might end up being the ball in a home run!"

"It's fine," Chie sighed and Yosuke gave me a stupid grin and I pointed the bat at him. "I'm Chie, and Mr. 'Home run' here is Kreed."

I gave a slight bow and gave my attention to getting a few practice swings in. "Tell me more about that 'someone!'"

"I think it happened a little after I talked with you guys. After that, it felt like someone was here."

Yosuke suddenly seemed surprised by the new information, even though we already freaking knew that Yukiko HAD been kidnapped! "Is it Yukiko-san!?"

"How the hell is supposed to know!?" I swung the bat one last time before I was satisfied with the results. "Not like he has TV's… oh wait, shit, he has TV's…"

"I don't know. I haven't looked…" Teddie seemed like content with that statement. "The presence is over that way. That's probably where they are."

"Well," I smiled evilly as I started to walk in the direction Teddie pointed. "Times a wastin', let's get this caravan moving!"

Everyone just looked at each other for a moment before Chie ran up to my side. "Don't worry Yukiko, I'm coming to get you!"

I smiled and started to sing a song that I knew would work for the time being.

Hey kid

Do I have your attention?

I know the way you've been livin'

Life so reckless, tragedy endless

Welcome to the family

Teddie seemed to quickly and loudly run in front of us. He needed to lead this mission, at least until we got to Yukiko. That way we knew were to go if it took more than one day!

Hey

There's somethin' missin'

Only time will alter your vision

Never in question, lethal injection

Welcome to the family

I started to kick my feet out in front of me swinging the bat a little bit as I started to spin a bit while singing. Yu suddenly recognized the song… even though it was and English and did his best to sing along with me. Yosuke just sighed and put his headphones on to block out our singing.

Not long ago you'd find the answers were so crystal clear

Within a day you find yourself livin' in constant fear

Can you look at yourself now?

Can you look at yourself?!

You can't win this fight

Me and Yu just stopped singing at this point, because one, I tripped and fell and two, he started to laugh at our failed attempt to sing the song. I knew that today was going to be a long day, just not as long as it turned out to be for me.

Yukiko's Castle

"Um," my eyes widened as they fell upon the castle that had appeared on the Midnight Channel. "I'm remembering why I had trouble sleeping last night… Guys, maybe we should bring a cut out of a prince, ya know lure her out of the castle."

"I don't think it's gonna be that easy…" Yosuke sighed as he looked at one of the statues outside of the castle. "Hey Ted, you're positive that no one's behind a camera for that bizarre midnight program?"

"Program…?" Oh my god the way he said program made me realized he had no freaking clue what that world meant!

"Quick!" Everyone turned their attention back to me. "Give this bear a dictionary!"

"Maybe people on your side can see stuff in this world." Teddie just over shot my question, maybe he didn't hear me. Oh, well there was no way in hell I was gonna repeat myself. "It might be that. And I told you before! There's only me and Shadows here! There's no 'camera stuff going on. This world has been like this from the beginning."

"What beginning?" I titled me head as I presented the new question to our bear-y out of the lope bear. "Your beginning, my beginning, the big bang beginning, twentieth century beginning? World War two beginning?"

"I dunno…" Teddie just looked at me with his huge ass eyes. "Can you guys explain everything about your world?"

"Well," I put on my best impression of a college professor. "In the beginning of time- quick there's no time to explain!"

I was probably looking like an ass right now, but I was having a blast! Though Teddie's explanation did pose a really good question that Chie voiced. "Well… is that really what's happening? Are we really looking into this world? Because the first time Yukiko showed up on that channel was before she disappeared. Doesn't that seem off?"

"Unless," I was serious now, I had actually that about this, but I needed to see a shadow for myself to get my answer. "N-never mind! Though some of the stuff she said didn't seem like her from the little time I got to talk to her, like 'get a harem' god I'm still shaking a bit."

Chie nodded. "You're right; I mean Yukiko was also saying things like 'score myself a hot stud?' That's not like her at all!"

Teddie seemed confused when Chie finished her sentence. "'Score?' 'Stud…?'" I made a horrible discovery at that moment. Oh god! He is like a little kid who repeats everything that they hear!

"Yeah," Yosuke spoke up with us as well; it seemed for how retarded he was earlier, he was actually on the same page as us, so he was smarter than I was giving him credit for. "I couldn't believe it either… Yukiko-san would never say anything like that. I wonder… is this kinda like happened to me last time…?"

"What did it say!?"

"You still don't need to know!"

"There's a lot of stuff I still don't get." Teddie sounded like he had some confidence in himself suddenly! "But after hearing your story… I think that 'program' happens because of the person who appears on it. Or something like that…"

"Dude," I was so confused that I sure that if a purple elephant on a pink seal were riding a unicycle along a red hippo's back I would have understood it more than that statement. "That makes no sense, are you saying that Yukiko made that show?"

Chie suddenly got worried for a moment. "Hey do you feel Yukiko's presence from inside?"

"I'm pretty sure." Teddie smiled a little as thought about his next words. "So, um what's this 'scoring with a hot stud' thing…?"

"Yukiko's here…" Chie stated that like it was the plain truth and nothing but the truth, which was actually right, but still… "I'm going on ahead!"

The moment those words left her mouth we all started to freak out, I even went into a coughing fit so hard I had to wait a moment to regain my breath. Yosuke tried to grab her attention, which it clearly failed because she just ran ahead anyway. "Hey, wait! Don't go alone!"

"Goddamnit Chie!" I started to ran ahead as well, they guys tried to grab my attention, but I just ignored them, Chie was my main objective at the moment. "If you die on me I'm going to kick your ass Chie Sotanaka!"

I could kinda see her ahead of me and that's also when I saw them for the first time. Shadows, some of them looked like giant mouths, others like tables with mask, hell I even saw a glove. Some of them where lying on the ground as thought Chie had kicked them. I pulled up my bat and went into a slide on my feet as I swung the bat as hard as I could smacking it into the head of a smaller shadow, sending it flying into a wall. The other shadows noticed this and started to close in around me. "Shit! Not good!"

Just before one of the mouth thing got a hold of me a large spear slammed into its side and the thing exploded into a cloud of purple clouds. I noticed a creature that owned the spear and a mask on, It also had on a long black trench coat and clawed hands with bladed feet. "Izangai!"

I heard Yu's voice screw as he commanded his persona, it was shadowing some of his own movements, Izangai lifted its free hand as more of the mouths flew towards it, finally Yu gave the command. "ZIO!" With that Izangai closed its fist as lightening came out of nowhere striking the Shadows and forcing them to explode. I was in shock for a moment as Yu dismissed his Persona and ran up to my side. "You okay!?"

"M-m-m," I was dumbfounded; Yu and Yosuke had a power like that! "Maybe you two should have done this alone…."

Yu smiled at me, shaking his head. "No, we do this together or not at all!" I smiled at him; at least he didn't hate the persona-less.

"Yeah," I looked ahead as Yosuke slid to a stop next to us. "Chie ran ahead, I know that we're here for Yukiko, but I am not gonna leave her just because she wants to save her best friend."

"You two really are getting close." Yu put his hand on my shoulder, my cheeks got red with embarrassment.

"I told you that we just met less than a week ago!" Yu laughed again as Yosuke smiled evilly at me. "Look, I'm gonna get everyone out of her! No one is gonna die while I'm here, I'll bet my life on it!"

They both nodded and we started to run down the halls of the castle. Shadows where around every fucking corner, god it was like they were playing pica-boo with us! Damn shadows about gave me a heart attack, still the three of us got into a pretty good groove. Yosuke would knock the shadows in the air with his Persona that looked like a ninja frog in a jump suit, then Yu would shock them, any that survived I would start playing whack-a-mole with their faces! After a while we came to a stair case. "G-give me a moment. God, so many fucking shadows!"

"Maybe you should head back." Yosuke, that idiot was still trying to get me to go back to the entrance.

"W-what," I stood back up pointing my bat at him again. "And let you g-guys take all the glory! You must be insane!"

Yu nodded as he slowly started to climb the stair, Yosuke slowly followed, just before I got a chance to start climbing again, Teddie shot right past me! Where the fuck did he come from! Just what the fuck did I get myself into… One the next floor, there was a large door no more than ten feet from where the stairs where. "Well, if this doesn't say end game, I don't know what does, I mean just look at the size of this freaking door!"

Yu and Yosuke looked just as dumbfounded as me. So it was safe to assume that Yosuke's shadow didn't get an awesome door, figures though. Teddie pointed at the door as though it was important, and again go figure. "There she is! Chie-chan is in there!"

My eyes widened, great Chie managed to lock herself behind the biggest fucking door in the damned world! Yet I quickly ran to the door and started to pull on it, Yu and Yosuke just looked at me like I was a dumbass. "You guys can help at any time!"

"Kreed," Yu walked next to me and put his palm on the door. "You know they push open, right?"

My eyes widened to a point that shouldn't have been possible, god I must have looked like a moron! Still leaning away from the door I let go to face palm only to hit my head on the floor. God it is hard to be epic when you're literally tripping all over the place! Yosuke laughed until I tapped him in the stomach holding my baseball bat, at which I slammed into his foot and as he brought his head down, I forced the bottom of the bat up! Yu wasn't even paying attention as he easily pushed the door open. Teddie just stared at me and Yosuke on the ground. "Soooo, is this scoring with a hot stud?"

"Say that again," me and Yosuke gave Teddie a death glare. "And we will beat the stuffing outa you!"

"Guys!" Yu finally got our attention bowing to the now fully open doors with Chie just standing there in the middle of, I wanted to say a ball room, but those were bigger and nicer than this small circular room… "We can proceed!"

I scrambled to my feet as I ran into the room Chie seemed like she didn't even know we were there. "Chie! Thank god you're okay! Chie… HEL-lo, Chie Sotanaka…"

The guys (and Teddie) quickly followed me into the room, they had noticed that I was getting NOWHERE with trying to grab Chie's attention. That's when out of nowhere I heard a familiar voice, Yukiko's… "She said that red looks good on me…"

"What da FUCK!?" That was the only thing that could come out of my mouth at that moment. I could tell Yukiko wasn't in the room, but we could definitely still hear her. Yosuke being, well Yosuke apparently couldn't tell Yukiko wasn't in the damn room!

"Yukiko-san!?"

"I hated my name…" Yukiko's voice continued to resonate around the room. "Yukiko… 'Snow…'"

"Hey!" I started yelling at the disembodied voice, yep I had hit the totally fucking insane marker! "What's wrong with snow!?"

"Snow is cold and it melts quickly… It's transient… worthless…" I groaned at the v- Yukiko's voice… so what that's make it's so fun, we treasure stuff like that as humans, even though it can be annoying at times, everyone is happy at least when in stops snowing and they can go and have fun in it. "But it's perfect for me… Apart from inheriting the inn, I'm worthless… Still… Chie told me that red looks good on me."

"That might be taking things a little far." I rubbed my head with bottom of the bat. Yosuke seemed to understand what was going on a little be- okay okay, he completely understood what was happening and I had no clue!

"Are these… Yukiko-san's inner thoughts?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"So what, we all just became telepathic?"

"No," Yosuke shook his head. "I remember hearing Saki-senpai's too…"

Teddie decided to drop a pretty important piece of information on us all of a sudden… "Yeah. This castle is probably here because of this Yukiko person."

"Thank you Teddie!" I rolled my eyes. "King of the philosophers!"

Apparently Yukiko loved to beat herself up, god if I ever had an excuse to yell at someone… this was it! "Chie was the only one who gave my life meaning… She's bright and strong, and she can do anything… She has everything that I don't… Compared to Chie, I'm… I'm…"

"Okay that's it!" I threw my bat to the ground for the moment and quickly picked it back, w-well it would be stupid if I left it here and kept charging threw the castle… wait no, STORMING the castle, YES! "I've got a few things I gotta say to Yukiko-san now… Wait did I just use an honorific, meh."

"Chie protects me…" Yukiko was getting into some pretty personal stuff now, I thought about plugging my ears, but I thought about it and the more stuff I heard the easier it would be to tell what I wanted, besides you just couldn't stop listening. "She looks after my worthless life… And I… I don't deserve any of it… Chie is so kind…"

With that the random thoughts of Yukiko segment of the show came to a close, yet it led into my least favorite memory of my life, seeing what a shadow could become… Chie was still absorbed in the thoughts of her best friend that she had heard. "Yukiko, I-I…"

"Hey Chie," Placed my hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. "You oka-"

"'Chie is so kind,' huh? What a joke." I jumped when I heard the next voice, it was distorted but you could clearly tell whose it was. I thought I was hearing things until a figure appeared out of the shadows. Chie was more surprised than anyone else as another version of her came out of the shade, it looked just like her, only it had a dark aura and last I checked, Chie's eyes were brown, not demonic yellow, still I had to think DAMNIT WHERE'S A CROSS WHEN YOU NEED ONE, BEGONE DEMON, HELLO CINNAMIN ROLLS! Wait, focus evil Chie, and focus on waiting to attack her!

"Wh-what…!?

The guys (and Teddie) must have known what it was because they were the least surprised by the second Chie's appearance, which only made me believe that this was a shadow. "Oh man… Is that…!?"

"It's just like Yosuke!" Yu just nodded in agreement with Teddie still waiting for a moment to attack. "She lost control over her suppressed self! Now it's a shadow!"

Ding ding, we have a winner! I freaking knew it, now my theory of the Midnight Channel was closer to being proven! Shadow Chie just ignored us, it was like it wanted Chie to hate it, as it laughed at Yukiko's pain. "Are we talking about THAT Yukiko!? She says I'm protecting her!? She says she's worthless!" It laughed at its own joke, which made me face palm there was nothing about this that was funny! "That's how it should be, right?"

"Wh-what're saying?" Chie had forgotten I was there and was more worried about the girl in front of her.

"Chie," was desperate to try and get her attention, I mean after all, her shadow was doing what people did to me. Make you hate yourself and just give up. "Don't listen to her!"

Before Chie could even look at me her shadow opened its bitch mouth again. "Yukiko's sooo good looking…" I still thought that there was someone better looking. "Sooo fair-skinned…" What the hell does that even mean!? "Sooo feminine…" So what girls like Chie where awesome, most of the time. "She's the one all the guys drool over." I face palmed now, dear freaking god! Not HIGH SCHOOL GIRL DRAMA! LORD KILL ME NOW! "When Yukiko looked at me with such jealousy… Man, did I get a charge out of that…" Okay this girl had some ENVY problems; well at least her shadow couldn't change its shape to anyone or anything it wanted to… "Yukiko knows the score. She can't do anything if I'm not around… I'm better than her… Much, much better!"

Chie was freaking out now, she was denying everything that her Shadow was talking about. Come on, every high school girl thinks that about their friends every now and then. "No! I have never thought that!"

Yosuke was so confused for what to do that he turned to Yu for the answer. "Wh-what're we gonna do?"

"Hey!" I yelled at all three of them. "Dumbasses! Protect her!"

They all nodded and run up to Chie, only for her to turn and yell at us. "N-no, don't come near me! Don't look at me!"

I snapped. "CHIE CALM THE HELL DOWN! Remember this morning!"

"B-but, no," her shadow had already messed with her head to much, it had won… "No, this isn't me!"

Yosuke and Yu suddenly looked scared. "W-wait, stupid! Don't say anything else like that!"

"Yosuke!' I ran up to him and smacked him on the back of his head.

"Wh-what was that for!?"

"You don't yell at someone who is having a mother fucking mental break down!"

Chie's shadow seemed so amused with our bickering that it started to laugh, but of course put on the straw that broke camel's back. "That's right. I'm the one who can't do anything alone… I can't win as a girl, let alone as a person… I'm pathetic. But Yukiko… She depends on me… That's why she's my friend… I'll never loosen my grip on her… She's too important to me."

"No…" Chie looked close to tears, her Shadow had now just managed to piss me off. "That is not how I think of her…"

"I've had enough of this!" I started to turn and run at Chie's shadow. "Shut your damn mouth!"

"So, you're just gonna turn your back and deny me again? But things are different now. When the time comes… I'll be the one left standing. You won't mind, right? I'm still you!" I was almost within swinging range when it happened. Chie denied her Shadow as my bat was mere seconds from flattening the bitch's face!

"Shut up! You're… You're not me!" A black aura started to surround the Shadow as it reached out and knocked my bat out of my hand. It was laughing hysterically like it just took over the world, and for all I knew, it had… Yet as it took its final form, it shot out a shock wave that threw me into the closest wall. I bashed my head and almost got knocked out. Just before Chie collapsed, but not before worrying about me. "Kreed!"

The guys ran in front of Chie to block her from her shadow. Which, OH MY DEAR FUCKING GOD IT WAS SCARY! The thing was on top of three pale versions of Chie with spiked yellow hooker boots long black bladed hair, yellow undergarments, not very appealing when they are worn by something trying to kill you. It had upon its head a yellow freaking stalker mask with a red smiley face on it. Its weapon of choice, the longest fucking whip I have ever fucking seen! "I am a Shadow… the true self… What do you guys think you're doing? Trying to defend the 'real' me? Then you're gonna pay the price!"

"SHUT YOUR BITCH FACE BEFORE I WHACK-A-MOLE IT!" I yelled from my spot against the wall, I could tell that nothing was hurt; I just hurt like a bitch. Yet as luck would have it, my baseball bat was blasted near me in the shock wave. Yosuke and Yu had summoned their Persona's already and where trying their best to beat the every loving shit out of Chie's shadow. Lightning and wind flying everywhere, the wind actually knocked the shadow to its, well one set of its knees, Yu and Yosuke charged in and a large white cloud appeared where they were kicking the shit out of Chie's Shadow, they got kicked out of it a few times. Teddie was telling what to hit it with, like he could smell the weaknesses of the shadows. Still the shadow seemed preoccupied with the guys, so I grabbed my bat and army crawled along the ground.

The fight started to go bad as I was about halfway to Chie's shadow when it hit Yosuke with so lightning knocking him to the ground. Yu tried to help him up when the bladed tentacles of hair smashed into his side, knocking him to the ground. That's also when the Shadow noticed me, it used it's hair to bring me up to its face. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Oh, you know just WHACK-A-MOLING YOUR FACE!" I smashed the bat into the shadows face as hard as I could, which made it let go of me as it grabbed the spot where the bat hit. I took this chance to stand up and line up a shot at the first pale Chie's knees. I swung the bat so hard that I not only swept the shadow's legs out from under it I also broke its knees.

"GAH!" The shadow was in very obvious pain at this point. So walked over to its head again.

"Hi," I lined up one last swing until I noticed one of its tentacles of hair was dangling over Chie.

"Now," The shadow laughed threw its pained breaths. "It's her or me, which gets to live, so choose!" At that moment Chie had struggled to her feet. I quickly made my choice as I choice pretty quickly as I dropped my bat and ran for Chie, just as her shadow started to drop the blade, if I wasn't fast enough, it would impale and kill Chie! I luckily made it in time and pushed her out of the way as the blade now pushed in front of me, yet it still sliced down my shoulder.

"FUCK!" I was in some pain, enough to make me yell, but I could still move! "Yu, Yosuke! End this bitch, NOW!"

Yosuke and Yu nodded as they got back to their feet and summoned their personas at the same time. "ZIO!"

"GARU!"

"CLEAVE!"

"BASH!" those were the four attacks I heard as their personas' attacks just ripped through the shadow as it withered in pain. Suddenly the shadow lost a lot of mass as a black cloud of smoke shot off of it, and it reverted to its original form. "Alright! Way to go Partner!"

Yosuke and Yu high fived as I sat there still in some pain, only now I could kinda feel some blood starting to drip out of the wound. I managed to get up and run over to Chie. "Chie! Are you alright?"

"What happened…?" Chie asked as she looked up and noticed her shadow. "What's the matter…? Got nothing to say anymore?"

"Chie," Yu shook his head at her. "Don't, if you continue to deny it…"

"B-but…"

I smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "It's fine, if these three idiots don't get it, I do. Everyone feels envy towards their friends at least once."

"Kreeds right…" Yosuke sighed and looked at the ground. "I went through the same thing."

"Seriously," I turned back to Yosuke. "What did it say!?"

"IS THIS REALLY THE TIME!?"

"Chie," I looked back at her. "It doesn't matter what other people think about you, and you know that I know this one more than anyone here. Yet, you just need to think about the things that make you, you!"

Yosuke sighed. "Everyone has a side like this."

Chie suddenly looked sad, yet she turned to her shadow with determination. "Yeah… I kinda get it now. You are me… A side of me I couldn't forgive… That I tried to ignore… But you still exist. You're a part of me…"

Chie's shadow and just nodded at her, before being enveloped in a beautiful blue light, it changed form again, only this time it had a long white helmet that you could see two eyes in. She wore a yellow jump suit and an armored skirt. Instead of a whip it had a double sided ninjinta, I was in awe. This was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. I heard Chie whisper her new persona's name. "Tomoe…"

"I… Um," Chie seemed flustered over something, and I think I knew what it was. "It's true that part of me feels that way… But I wasn't lying about being friends with Yukiko…!"

Yosuke chuckled slightly. "Like we didn't know that already."

The moment Yosuke finished his sentence, Chie fell to her knees, scaring the crap out of me, yet when I went to help her, pain shot through my shoulder. My shirt was starting to get stained with blood now. "Ow! That still hurts!"

"H-hey Chie!" Thank you Yosuke for freaking ignoring me asshole! Yet Chie still just wanted to press onward.

"I'm okay… Just a little tired…"

"Chie," I grabbed her attention and her expression turned from pained to shock to concern in less than ten seconds. "I need to go home, don't you even think of interrupting me, you look like you just ran three marathons, so you need rest. So don't try and fight with me missy!"

"I bet," Yosuke wrapped his hand around his chin in thought. "You can use the same we have now." Chie looked shocked at this bit of information. "Hey Yu, what should we do?"

"We should go back for the day." Yu knew what was going on and what needed to be done.

"Yeah," I nodded my head. "After all, Chie could use the rest, and I don't think I'm gonna be up for a fight any time soon."

"I-I never said I needed a break!" Chie blasted through our concerns for her and forgot that I was injured. "I… can still keep going…"

"It's not that you think you can't," Yosuke tried to talk her down from her high horse. "But just look at Kreed, if you continue on we might be alright, and we might save Yukiko, but it could very well be at the cost of someone's life."

"Which is what we are trying to avoid!" I pointed out in a jokingly manner, just trying to lighten the mood.

"B-but Yukiko's still in here!" Chie tried to get to her feet, only to fall back to her knees. Teddie ran in front of her to try and stop her.

"Don't overdo it!"

"Chie," I put my hand on her shoulder. "Now that you have the power, you can fight with the guys. It would be best for everyone to rest for the night and regain their strength."

"B-but," Chie was beginning to get desperate for any reason to go and save her best friend. "If those were Yukiko's true feelings, I need to tell her something. I'm not as strong as she thinks! It's because she was with me… Because we were always together, I was able to act that way. If we weren't, I'd…"

I looked up at Yosuke and he nodded at me. "Look Chie, you can tell her that tomorrow, when we save her, and besides do I have a reason to lie to you?"

"Yes," Chie just had to put it bluntly. "But what about the shadows!?"

Smiled a bit, she had something I always wanted, but I knew we had to get her out of here for the day. "I don't think Shadows attack normal people, or Personaless, unless provoked!"

"The Shadows only attack when the fog lifts here." Teddie was trying to back up my argument, so was Yosuke, I think he knew what the answer to his question was, he just wanted Chie to hear it.

"So Yukiko-san will be safe until then, right?" Teddie nodded at Yosuke's question.

"I'm positive." Me and Chie were both confused, but I thought it'd be best for her to question this logic.

"Why…? I don't get it…"

"Teddie told us that the weather here is the opposite or our own world." I was surprised that Yosuke spoke up explaining this information. "When it fogs over in our world… That's the day it lifts here, and that's when the Shadows attack their victim."

"So," I was grinning brightly. "If we leave for the night, she'll be fine. After all, that's what happened for the announcer and Saki-senpai, Might as well."

"You mean…" Chie was shocked at this shocking revelation that had been brought upon her. "They were killed by their other selves?"

"The fog usually appears after it rains." Yosuke was now just trying to console her of her fears now. "But it's been sunny lately. I don't think it's going to rain anytime soon. Don't worry so much. We'll check the weather forecast first thing when we get back."

"Or just come back tomorrow!" I pointed a finger in Yosuke face, which shot some pain through my shoulder. "Crap that hurts still!"

"Kreed," Chie looked back at me with concern. "Alright… let's get back; Kreed really needs to go to a hospital now." The guys started to walk a head of everyone else, just in case if there were any shadows on the way back, Teddie and me helped Chie to her feet. "I'm sorry about before… I shouldn't have rushed in like that by myself…"

"Not really," I smiled as I took her arm and wrapped it around my shoulder to help her stand. "I rushed in with you."

Yu and Yosuke smiled at each other before turning back to Chie. "No worries. We're definitely gonna save Yukiko-san… Right?"

I shot my arm up into the air. "HELLS YEAH!"

Chie smiled for a moment before replaying. "Right!"

With that we started to leave the castle. "H-hey Kreed, I'm sorry, your arm… it's all my fault. If I hadn't denied my Shadow…"

"It's fine," I smiled as we continued down the stairs. "Think of it as us being even now."

Entrance of the Shadow World

"I… I'm feeling even worse than the last time I came in here…" Chie looked even paler than when she had gotten her Persona. "My head feels like it's gonna split open… Are you guys okay?"

"Oh," I had kinda forgotten about the fog with these glasses being freaking awesome! "She doesn't have a pair of glasses… Crap, now it's really starting to hurt!"

"Oh yeah…" Please tell me she didn't just notice that the guys were wearing glasses… "What's with those glasses? Did your eyesight go bad?"

Oh. Dear. God, I may have friends for once, but they ain't all that bright… "Man… You didn't notice until now? How panicked were you…?"

Teddie suddenly spoke up. "Tum de dummm! I got a pair ready for Chie-chan, too." Teddie pulled the glasses out of nowhere and handed them to Chie.

"Dude," I raised an eyebrow at the colorful bear. "Where did you pull those out of!?"

"I just made them…"

"Cool."

Chie put the glasses on and was instantly amazed at the yellow framed glasses. "Whoa! What the-!? This is awesome! It's like the fog doesn't exist! Huh… so that's the trick. I was wondering how you guys could see where you were going. Hey, is it alright if I keep these?"

"Fo' sho!" Everyone groaned at Teddie's attempt to try and be shocked.

"Never say that again," Pain suddenly shot through my shoulder. "Shit! That hurt, hey guys I need to get to hospital… and fast!"

"Crap that's right!" Yosuke looked around quickly. "Really quickly! Yu would you mind being our leader?"

Yu just shrugged for a moment. SPEAK DAMN YOU NARUKAMI! "Sure."

"Good, I'm more of the advisor type." Yosuke smirked at Yu, for a moment, and then Chie smiled softly.

"I'll feel better with you as our leader."

"What the hell? I'm cool with it, now can I please leave now!? My shoulder is killing me!" Everyone nodded, so I finally left the TV world with Chie still over my shoulder.

Time Change: Daytime to Evening

"Man! This is awesome!" I was jumping around and dancing, pretty much just making an ass out of myself! Chie was smiling again even though she was incredibly tired, I felt good knowing that I could make her smile, I don't know why but I just made me smile back! We stopped at the hospital first and got me fixed up. Now I was walking her to her house, that way I could make sure that she didn't faint or collapse. "I can't believe I can already move again! Though that nurse did kind of scare me…"

Chie chuckled quietly as we continued walking. "H-hey Kreed, thank you for saving me today…"

"Huh?" I looked at her as I bent my back to look at her. "Oh! It was no problem… I-I could let anyone die. Especially you… b-but, still there is no need to thank me!"

Both of us got a little red at that moment. Chie smiled again until she noticed her house was close now. "Well, still… Thank you Kreed. I'll see you tomorrow!"

I smiled at her, and did a slight bow. "Good night Miss Sotanaka, we will definitely rescue Miss Amgai tomorrow, of that there is no doubt in my mind. So once again I bid you a lovely evening."

Chie smiled as she slowly walked to her house, it took a moment, but I stayed there until she vanished inside of her house. "Man, I must look like a stalker at the moment."

With that, I turned and headed for my own home. I knew that Chie was gonna get some sleep tonight. I just didn't know about me…

Few... Sorry I literally was about to post this chapter when my laptop lost its interent connection! And I did copy paste option and just typed the last 1,000 words there about 12:15 at night! So here it is now! Hope you enjoyed and enjoy the rest of the chapters to come! Feed back is very much welcome!