May 16, 2011
Forecast… Cloudy
"I think that I should just stop trying to watch the Midnight Channel…" I had my face firmly planted on my desk… My life was about to end, because the next person to find out about the Midnight Channel would be my mother… "Anyway… so person on Midnight Channel."
It was after school and we were plotting our plan of attack, which was still trying to name the victim at the moment… Chie was still worried about me, especially since she knew how my sister got. Still, we had to focus on the victim… "Yeah, so the one was on last night… It's THAT guy, right…?"
"Kanji Tatsumi, huh?" My head came off of my desk, Kanji was the guy that I meet on my first day in town… to be honest, I just remembered that. "He definitely didn't look like the social type."
"Not when I met him…" Everyone stopped and looked at me, they all seemed scared… that was one of the most awkward moments that I had ever had with my friends… After a few minutes, I got a little nervous, they were staying quiet… "Oh c'mon! I only met him once! That was so he could point me in the direction that I needed to go to get to my house!"
"That's a bit of a relief," Chie smiled as she sighed slightly, I looked away from her as I started to blush ever so slightly. God, I guess she really cared about me… "Still, Yosuke, that was an understatement. Isn't he really scary?" Not when I talked to him… "Did you see the news special the other day?" No.
"Yeah, I saw it."
Yukiko decided to join the conversation at that point in time as well. "You mean the special on biker gangs? I watched it too. He wasn't like that when he was younger, though…"
"STOP!" I yelled out the word so that the rest of the team would see me. "One, he was nice to me… and two… you knew him when he was little?"
"Well we haven't talked to each other in a long time." There goes my idea… "His family runs a textile shop, and we've been a customer of theirs for many years. So I speak with Kanji-kun's mother from time to time."
"Sooooo," I leaned back in my chair, again… almost falling out of it, but saving myself at the last moment. "Ya know what we should do…?"
"Go check it out!" Yu smiled as he was catching on to what I was talking about… man he's good…
"Sounds good." Chie was in agreed with me and Yu, which was good. The more people behind the idea, the more we would be motivated. "At the very least, we can ask if anything strange has come up lately."
"That's my girl!" I smiled still leaning back in the chair… we didn't do very much couply stuff, but just about everyone in the school knew we were dating, so I didn't try and hide it… Hey, what can I say… I have a problem of not being able to focus on one conversation if I'm not engaged in one. Which, would honestly help if I became a detective, but there was no way in hell that would have happened. So, Chie started to blush slightly as I praised her slightly, which made me smile even more, still we had to focus. "Anyway! Let's get going! We don't want Kanji to be kidna- WHOA!"
That's when I yet again fell out of my chair, only this time… I was a freaking ninja and dodged the chair! "Th-that was close…"
"Ladies and gentlemen…" Chie smiled as she tried not to laugh at me. "My boyfriend the scaredy-cat."
"Not cool Chie! Not cool!"
Location change: Yasogami High to Shopping District, North end…
Tatsumi Textiles
We all entered the store at the same time, not catching a glimpse of Kanji on the way or into the store, which was worrying us, maybe he was already kidnapped… we had no way of knowing until we saw him. Anyway… we entered the store to find an older woman and a young man… wait, no, that dude looked like a girl… the facial features and curves gave it away for me… Oh my god! That's a girl, I felt like a ass when I first thought that I was looking a guy, still. Yukiko was the first one to talk. "Hello."
The older woman took notice of us, or Yukiko… either way, it was good for us. "Ah, Yuki-chan. It's so nice to see you."
"Well then, if you'll excuse me, Ma'am." Okay, that was definitely a girl, she was talking with a obviously fake, deepish… well it wasn't that deep, still… deepish voice. That's when I noticed something that kinda scared me even more… the girl had blue hair (as well as a blue hat, blue eyes, blue over coat, blue neck tie, plad slacks, that were also blue… man this girl liked blue!)… it reminded me of the image on the Midnight Channel that came after Kanji… was there going to be two victims this time!? The thought to me was scarier than death… Yet I was thrown back on track when the girl turned to us and again in that fake deeper voice talked to us. After Kanji's mom apologized for something. She nodded at us and just walked right out the door. That's when Yosuke said something that made me face palm so hard that the girl turned back around just to make sure everyone was okay…
"What's up with him…? Weirdo." The moment Yosuke finished that sentence, my face hurt to the point I had to sit down. "Dude, are you okay?"
"Yosuke…" I sighed as I slowly stood back up. "Sometimes, your stupidity hurts that much!"
"What are you talking about?" Chie now looked at me like I was crazy, well so did everyone else.
"Yosuke just called that girl a dude." I sighed as I finally made back to my feet. "That's what happened!"
"Wait…" Chie raised an eyebrow at me… oh no! "You mean the guy who just left?"
"I already give up!" I threw my hands up in the air! This was not going to end well. "So, don't mind me, continue…"
This was horrid… was I the only person that knew that guy wasn't a guy… I was brought out of my train of thought by the older woman, who… I'm guessing was Kanji's mother… "Yuki-chan, you're as lovely as always. Your features are starting to remind me of you mother when she was young. How can I help you today? Are you out shopping with your friends?"
"Oh, um, well… actually…" Yukiko, Chie, and Yu walked up to Kanji's mother, Yosuke was looking at some of the contents of the store, when I noticed something on a table in front of us.
"Oh crap!" I jumped back, I was surprised that I was able to even recognize the item, considering I couldn't see anything when I saw the other one. "GUYS! Look, this scarf, wasn't from that room in TV!?"
I was pointing at the scarf when Yosuke and Chie came over to see the scarf. "Hm?" Yosuke was stumped for a moment until Chie back stepped with shock.
"You're right! It was in that place!"
"That's right! That room with those faceless posters… Then… it's that announcer's." Yosuke crossed a line with that one, so I did what I always do when he's being a dumbass… I smacked him. "Hey, what was that for!?"
"Too much info given away!"
"Oh…"
"Yeah."
That's when Mrs. Tatsumi turned to the rest of us now standing by the scarf. "Are you acquaintances of Ms. Yamano?"
"Uh, well, kinda…" Smooth Yosuke, real smooth… good thing there wasn't a cop nearby… that would end badly for the investigation team… like abstraction of justice bad… "Um… Did Ms. Yamano happen to have a scarf like this?"
"I think we know the answer to that…" I rolled my eyes as the words left Yosuke's mouth…
"Shhh!" Real smooth Yosuke… you suck at this dude… he really did.
"Yes, it was a special order she placed." That made all of stop dead in our tracks… this was the connection that linked Kanji to Ms. Yamano, we were in trouble now… he really was a target! "She actually ordered a pair, but in the end, she said she only wanted the women's scarf. It left us with no choice but to sell this one separately."
"Oh man… There IS a connection to the first case…!" Chie seemed worried again; I quickly took this opportunity to grab her hand. "What are we gonna do…?"
"It'll be fine…" I looked over the other members of the team, Yosuke looked scared shitless, Yukiko was a little worried, and Yu seemed emotionless… Great! We are the mighty, scaredy-cat persona-users… we fear you! "Even if it does happen, we'll just save him, like we did with you, Yukiko, and me! His shadow can't be that powerful!"
"I guess so…" Chie still looked worried, only just a little less than a moment ago, she knew I was right… all we had to do was do what we did best… Save people from their shadows! "Thanks."
"Anything for you!" I smiled at her, that's when I heard another voice from down the hall of the store.
"Hello! Delivery here for the Tatsumis." It seemed like the delivery man had arrived, so that meant it was time to get out.
"Oh, I'll be right there." Mrs. Tatsumi then turned back to us and started to get up. "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me."
"Oh, it's okay." Chie was almost surprised by this, but we did need to leave. "We should get going."
Yukiko was her usually polite self to the old shop keeper. "I'll come again, Ma'am."
"Is that so? Well, then please say help to your mother for me." With that, she left the room and Yosuke actually seemed worried about everything.
"It really is connected to the first case after all…" Yosuke mused out loud, yet this was freaking ridiculous! Why would a killer attack someone because of a scarf!? It was out there, but someone might do it… "But it's just a scarf. Would the killer target someone just because of that…?"
"There are some people…" I looked to the ground, this was stupid! A scarf! That was the motive this time!? "Yet, this is just ridiculous! There has to be another reason for this!"
"C'mon, let's talk outside." Yosuke proposed, but it was a good idea, we didn't want to worry Kanji's mother by saying anything about him mostly likely getting kidnapped soon… So we all turned to leave the store, yet we didn't even get a few steps before Yukiko stopped us.
"Huh…? It's Kanji-kun." Yukiko pointed to the other end of the street, and sure enough… Kanji was there, talking to the girl that was dressed as a guy… seriously, how did they not know that was a girl!? Still, when Yosuke noticed the pair on the other end of the street… he panicked…
"Wha- quick hide!" And the rest of us, not being very smart… followed him to behind a light pole…
"Yeah, this doesn't look suspicious at all!" I layered my voice with sarcasm. Chie knew that we were going to be seen easily… I think the girl knew that we were there to begin with…
"You're not fooling anyone, you know…" Yosuke was taking offence to our comments; it was obvious with the next sound that left his mouth.
"Shhh!" Yosuke made that sound a little loudly, so yeah, the girl knew we were there… "I can't hear what they're saying!"
I still couldn't even hear what they were saying; I was able to catch a few of the words, like: sure, after school, of course I'll be there. So I was lost, but I did hear what Kanji said next. "Did he say he was interested… He's a guy… and I'm a guy… But… he's interested in me…?"
I couldn't help myself with the next line that came out of my mouth. "I'M I THE ONLY PERSON THAT NOTICES THAT'S CHICK!?"
Everyone looked at me, including Kanji… "Fuck all kinds of duck…"
"What the hell are you pricks looking at!?" Kanji ran at us, everyone but me ran down the street… I really didn't wanna have to deal with this shit… Kanji stopped a few feet away from me. "Wait… don't I know you?"
"Sup Kanji?" I half smiled at him. "Thanks for the directions."
"You're the new kid?" Kanji raised an eyebrow at me. "The one I gave the directions too?"
"Yep," I pointed down the street. "Sorry, my friends and me were just passing by when I dropped something over here… s-so I better catch up with em… Bye!"
I quickly turned and walked away from Kanji, he just stood there staring at the back of my head. "He's weirder than when I first met him…"
South end of the Shopping District
"Where's Kreed!?" I heard Chie start to freak out from down the street… that was a good and a bad sign… this was not gonna end well. "I thought he was right behind us!"
"Poor Kreed…" Yosuke… go figure… "He will be missed, but he let us get away from the rage of Kanji…"
That's when I came around the corner and saw Chie trying to help back tears as Yosuke did a mocking pray stance. I walked up to Yosuke and put a hand on his shoulder and swept Yosuke's feet out from under him, sending Yosuke straight to the ground. "OW! Son of bitch! Who did- Kreed!? I thought Kanji was gonna kill you!"
"I told you before…" I leaned down and got in Yosuke's face. "I met him before."
I was about to help Yosuke up when I was tackled by something, which sent me to the ground myself. I looked at what attacked me, I was in fight or flight mode at that moment… until I looked up to see that it was just Chie holding on to me… I smiled slightly. "Th-thank g-god… I-I thou-thought that you we-were a goner!"
Everyone half smiled at as, I guess I had to half thank Yosuke for this, but I was still gonna kick his ass later! "I'm fine Chie. Though, Yosuke might lose might lose his ability to reproduce now… Anyway…" I didn't give Yosuke time to react before diving back into the topic that was most important at that moment. "What are we gonna do about Kanji?"
Yu gave me an evil smile… "Time for a stakeout!"
"Oh fuck all kinds of duck…"
Sorry it took so long to update! I've very freaking busy… god, it sucks, but I hope that this makes up for! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please send me your feedback!