CHAPTER 10 – HARDEN MY HEART
Tuesday, 13th April 2011 – Morning – Yasogami High School Class 3-1
Minako slept surprisingly well that night in spite of what had happened the day before. Mayumi Yamano had died, killed by an unknown assailant in a world beyond the veil of a TV's screen. A world where a potent poisonous fog was unescapable, unknown danger lurked and bizarre lone creatures resided in. Yet they made what felt like the first steps in uncovering the mystery of the Midnight Channel, after having been stuck for over a month.
Despite her good rest, Minako could not bring herself to pay attention in what was the first regular day of class. Elizabeth had gone with Tamaki and Aigis to procure some equipment for today's expedition and Mitsuru and Akihiko had sent some specialists in an unmarked van to drive around the town of Inaba. Their goal was to uncover where the signal might be originating from or if it even was receivable with the equipment left over from the Iwatodai Dorm.
She was not the only person to be preoccupied. Half the class was still shaken from yesterday's murder news and everyone was talking about it. Suzumi Takeo came to Minako before class and was full of worry for yet another reason. Saki Konishi hadn't come to school two days in a row now, and his attempts to contact her have proved futile. Worse yet, her parents only told him that they didn't know where she was either.
Minako had an ugly hunch of what might have happened, but knew telling him would be foolish. She'd have to bring it up to her comrades, if they were able to recreate the events of yesterday. Having Elizabeth and Aigis on her side meant the ability to face most conventional danger head-on and she looked forward to seeing how Tamaki fought using her demons.
With the final words of the biology teacher (a woman who Minako and seemingly the rest of the class were repulsed by) and the chimes of the bell, class had ended for the day. Minako got on her bike and rode to JUNES to meet with the others.
The detective waited near the entrance while chatting with Elizabeth. Some people looked at her for wearing a gauntlet on her wrist, connected with bulky black cables to a glove and an oversized earset, all while wearing an otherwise fairly elegant striped, brown suit. Others paid the strange outfit no mind, but Minako was definitely drawn to the technology. She thought Fuuka would be geeking out right about now, were she or the others not kept busy by their jobs.
"Is that the Demon Summoning tool?" She asked bluntly, attracting the duo's attention.
"Hello to you too, Miss Shiomi." Said the older lady, ignoring the question at first. "Yeah. It's the COMP. Brilliant piece of tech; created by Stephen Hawking himself… or at least that's what they say."
Elizabeth watched their conversation without a word, seeing Aigis approach them from the parking lot in a long coat and a backpack, full of hidden weapons for her teammates.
""Kotone, Elizabeth, Tamaki. I have accomplished my given task. Shall we proceed?" Tamaki nodded, and the unusual group went inside. They didn't get very far, as having reached the top level, Minako spotted an unexpected sight. At the tables near one of the fast food restaurants was a group of four people. She saw Yosuke Hanamura hang out with Chie Satonaka and some silver-haired guy she had never seen before. Talking to the group was none other than Saki Konishi in her JUNES employee uniform.
"Well, my break's just about over. Back to work I go… Laters!" She said to her acquaintances, leaving them to their banter while the stranger stayed mostly quiet.
Minako took off and ran towards her, as her companions except Aigis stood and waited to see the outcome.
"Konishi! What are you doing here?"
The curly-haired girl looked fairly normal, but there was something off about her behavior, a marked sense of confusion.
"Can I help you?"
"Are you okay? Suzumi has been worried, he said your parents didn't know where you were. You haven't come to school these two days either." Minako tilted her head slightly in a worried expression, as Aigis watched the girl and studied her expression.
Saki did not react positively. She felt attacked. "Suzumi's w...? I… Do I know you? Please don't bother me while I work."
Minako backed off, fearing further pressing would have led to security possibly getting involved, and this would have worse consequences than intentionally blocking the entrance to the school's announcement room back at Gekkoukan. She was perplexed by her classmate's behavior, who left to sweep the floor on the other side of the food court.
"Something's not right." Aigis remarked, and Minako agreed.
It was then that Minako heard a voice call from the table Saki was just at. "Oh, it's Shiomi-Senpai!"
She turned her eyes towards them, and approached the table from which the green-tracksuit clad girl waved, as Aigis followed.
"Satonaka, you know her too?" The brown haired male remarked in surprise, to which she replied with a smug grin.
"Surprised, Hanamura? I told you I had more friends than Yuki-Chan."
"Hi! I didn't know you two knew each other." Minako decided to strike up a conversation while she processed what happened with Konishi Saki just now. Tamaki sighed as she saw Elizabeth was gone from her side as well, buying Takoyaki nearby, so she slowly made her way to the group.
"We're classmates! Guy's new in town, so I thought: 'might as well!'" The short-haired girl replied. Yosuke didn't react, but was glad of the company after being met with a rather cold reception for the first couple of months in Inaba.
"So who's your pretty lady friend?" He asked, gesturing with his head toward Aigis much to Chie's annoyance at the comment.
"Is this what they call déjà-vu?" The android remarked to Minako while ignoring him, thinking of her interaction with the creature inside of the TV world.
"Her name's Aigis. She's a friend of mine from my old school." In response, the black-haired girl looked at the stranger among them. She saw an unfocused silver-haired man wearing the same uniform of Yasogami High, with an inexplicably magnetic aura of utter confidence about him. She felt an odd attraction towards him, as if she HAD to get to know this man. "Who's your friend?" She asked both of them.
"Oh, he's a transfer student like you. He's in our class." Chie replied, as the mystery man stood up and extended his hand.
"I'm Yuu Narukami. Nice to meet you." Minako grabbed his hand and both of them felt a jolt go through their bodies. Neither of them knew the strange sensation was mutual, so they didn't think much of it.
Tamaki walked up with Elizabeth, who was holding a plastic tray with fresh Takoyaki, to Aigis and Minako and put her hand on the latter's shoulder. "Come on, we still have some stuff to do."
She nodded and said goodbye to her acquaintances, as the four made their way to the Electronics Department.
"Who was THAT? Did you see that weird stuff on her arm?" Yosuke commented on the surprise visitor that approached his city acquaintance before she left.
Chie shrugged and answered him: "That's Miss... Uchida? She's like her mom or something. I kinda forgot."
Yuu looked at the four in the distance, ignoring his friend's conversation. He suddenly broke his silence and said: "She was hiding something."
Chie and Yosuke were confused what he had meant, until the boy spoke again. "Under her coat."
Yosuke was startled by his comment, and got up fast. "I'd better go check it out. God, I hope I won't have to call security…"
He ran after them, and Yuu and Chie followed suit, while keeping a slight distance. Having reached the Electronics department, he saw that nobody was there beyond the other workers. The people from before were nowhere to be seen, and upon asking the cashier, they heard that they had already left without incident or triggering the anti-theft gates. Looking in other places of the store yielded the same result. Whatever they did, they got away with it.
Chie was getting annoyed and so was Yosuke. "Let's just go home for now" He said, as Yuu nodded and Chie agreed.
The trio split up for the day, and the tallest of them went home to eat dinner with his family and check out that Midnight Channel rumor Chie had mentioned earlier.
Tuesday, 13th April 2011 – Afternoon – ?
The second landing in the TV world went smoother than the first one. As it turned out, Tamaki was unable to enter it by herself, until Elizabeth grabbed her hand and they did so together. They all landed in the same area as where they met the bear creature the day before. Tamaki noticed a target-like pattern on the floor, with outlines of people roughly at the spots they fell onto, and thought it fitting.
Elizabeth had cast a spell from her book and a blue aura emanated around her, branching through the fog like roots of a tree and falling onto the other people present. Minako, Tamaki and even Aigis felt their weariness and vision clear and were able to see through the fog now, just as if it lost half of its volume.
"It worked, Eliza-chan." Minako felt confident about today's expedition now that the obstacle they faced yesterday was gone. "Clear visuals confirmed. I am fully ready." Aigis added.
Elizabeth lowered her stance for a second, maintaining the spells in use. "I'm afraid I will be unable to provide any combat support in this state. I'll be able to navigate and provide minor support, but nothing beyond that." She said, before adding a bit of reassurance. "If I get attacked I will be able to quickly rid the world of the enemy, but I shall alert you if the mission will be in danger."
Minako nodded, and the three went on their way taking one of the branching paths from the initial room. Elizabeth saw the creature from yesterday scaredly lurking nearby, but paid it no mind.
What followed was a long corridor, shrouded in the same fog. A few easily beaten shadows were wandering around, but as they wandered on and on, they saw no change in the environment or any sign of advancement. Eventually the team under Minako's leadership decided to walk back to the starting point. The hour lost in the endless corridor was made up in just a couple of minutes. They soon found themselves back in the initial room, noticing the lurking bear on the way back, which fueled Tamaki's curiosity.
Elizabeth looked at them and said a simple "Welcome back.", Minako sat down on the floor like a tired athlete and looked as if she lost her prior confidence. Their arrival had been pointless, for even when prepared for the local environment, they were unable to find anything helpful.
The group was ready to leave and call it a day, when a bright pillar of light appeared in the distance. The bear looked startled and let out a scream, attracting the others' attention.
"What's wrong?" Minako asked.
"O-OH! I smell something! ...Y-Y-You threw more humans in! You scoundrels! You evil fiends!" The creature was much less daring than yesterday and more hostile towards the group, despite their passivity. Minako noticed that and so did Elizabeth, but the latter thought it best to ignore the being.
Tamaki intervened to calm down the scared creature. She summoned a Jack Frost clad in an old school uniform, who materialized in front of her at the click of a button, with the sound of "Hee-ho!".
The bear's attention was drawn to the demon, forgetting the distress he had. "Oooh, Persona!"
"We'd appreciate it if you could lend us some help. We're not responsible for what just happened, but we'd like to help. You said that was a human? If so, they could be in danger. Help us help them, and we won't bother you again." The detective hoped the words were enough to persuade the creature, and it seemed they were at least somewhat successful, as it didn't look afraid anymore and had come out of cover.
"You promise?" The bear asked with a slightly worried tone of voice, and Tamaki replied with a blunt yes. It approached the four, and Aigis lowered her guns, sensing no danger from him anymore.
Minako got up from the floor and spoke to it: "Hey, what should we call you? What's your name?"
The bear did not respond, lowering its gaze.
"Don't have one, huh? No matter. Let's go, Teddie. Which way?" Teddie led the three fighters, Elizabeth and Jack Frost from the entry point to where he smelled the new arrival from. While he wasn't aware of it then, he was happy to have found some companions and the name the short girl gave him was not new, but started to feel real to him.
A short walk down a hidden path later, they found themselves upon a rooftop, overlooking the town of Inaba. But it had not been the same as in the real world. The city looked dilapidated and dark, a lot of shadows roamed around and the sky took on a red and black pattern. In the distance, a lone house at the end of the fake central district stood out, its entrance glowing with power.
"That's where answers are found. Be beary careful." Elizabeth said, easing into her support stance from earlier, as her companions and Teddie walked into the dungeon.