Author's note: I had to add this chapter immediately. Some of the next part is already written, but I still need to study up before continuing. Until then, here you go. :)
January 5th. Rain. Inaba General Hospital.
Yosuke slouched in the chair with his cheek propped against his right fist. Yu lay in one of Inaba General's private hospital rooms. The EKG and EEG machines beeped steadily, indicating life still existed within the youth's body. He was breathing on his own, but he was completely unresponsive to anyone's voices. He wouldn't even respond to Teddy's loud, ebullient, annoying tone as he lavished compliment after compliment on his 'sensei.' Kanji, however, did respond by shoving the short blond kid into the bathroom and jamming the door with a chair shoved under the knob. No one objected for a good five minutes.
It was nearing midnight, and it was –ironically enough—raining.
Yu had survived his confrontation with Tohru Adachi, and all of them had come away from the battle in one piece. Yu had even avoided becoming a shadow.
Yosuke remembered the command he'd given to Jiraiya's advanced form, Suzano'o. Save him. He'd reached out with his right arm, his Persona doing the same, and felt the power shatter the darkness overtaking his friend. He'd brought his arm to his chest in a 'catching' motion as Yu fell. Suzano'o mirrored the motion, caught the weakened Narukami, and protected him with as much spiritual energy as he could pull from his counterpart.
The fog in Inaba had lifted that day. The Goddess, Izanami, went back to observing Humanity from her ivory pedestal –or her Moel gas station—in wait for when her trials would again be needed, and Teddy's world within the T.V returned to its original beautiful paradise.
After all that, the last thing anyone expected was for the leader of their group to simply collapse in the chip isle at Junes without cause. A coma suffered over a bag of cool ranch Doritos.
He glanced to a slumbering Chie in a corner chair with her head propped against a pillow. He envied her ability to let herself relax enough to sleep. Yukiko had gone back to the Inn a couple of hours ago, though the phone conversation with her mother hadn't been pleasant as she rallied vigorously to stay the night in Yu's room. Yukiko doing anything with heat behind it was out of place for her. She was the calm one who kept everyone from spiraling out of emotional control. She was the healer. Yet now the Healer's heart lay in a hospital bed, and her patience disappeared long ago.
None of the tests gave any positive conclusion as to why Yu had fallen into a coma. Nothing the doctors did could bring his best friend back to the land of the living, and there was no reason why he should even be unconscious.
Yosuke thought back to the day before they'd gone to rescue Yukiko from her Shadow. He'd had a theory tested then and had its legitimacy proven. It was a long shot at the time, but then so were a lot of things in his life in the past year. One more crazy idea wouldn't hurt the list.
He stood and stepped up next to Yu's bed. This might not work, and the danger factor blew way beyond a '10' on the 'are you nuts?!' scale, but he had to do everything in his power to help- even if it meant harvesting the longest of long-shot ideas. There was no way he was going to let Yu Narukami fall. His best friend had brought him back from the brink more times than he could count. The least he could do was return the favor. Yu was his brother.
He reached down, paused, and wrapped his long fingers around Yu's left wrist. Whatever energy he had left from the day, he put into an order to his own Persona. Talk to Izanagi.
Silence filled the room in between the medical monitoring equipment.
"Any time, man," he whispered to both his Persona and to Yu. "C'mon. Say something…"
He tightened his grip, as if that would help the connection.
Yosuke…
He inhaled sharply. It was incredibly faint, but there was no mistaking Yu's voice...or it could have been Izanagi's. He'd only heard his friend's Persona a few times, and they sounded very much the same. "Fight, partner. Wake up."
He stood there waiting patiently as the minutes ticked away. His eyes closed of their own accord.
~Well? Did you hear anything?~
Silence.
~… Jiraiya.~
Rain pattered against the window.
~What, did you fall asleep? Where the hell are you?~
Yo.
Pleased he'd even received a response, Yosuke let out a breath of relief. Jiraiya was notorious for ignoring his attempts at conversation. He still clung to the 'saving your sanity' twinky defense, although Yosuke had broken through on more than a few occasions. Apparently, Jiraiya held a subtle rebellious thrill is breaking his own rule. ~Did you hear anything?~
And how.
~Knock it off with the suspense already and spill it,~ he growled at the thought.
You…you don't want to know, man.
"Seriously?" he hissed out loud. "Dude, where are we? Where the fuck are we, and what am I doing right now? Getting his measurements for a watch band?!"
Chie stirred from the sound.
He bit his lip, afraid he'd wake her up. She rested peacefully- calm, and warm in her sleep. He didn't have the heart to bring her back to this nightmare. Though it was a small gesture no one would know of, he felt he needed to protect her, even if she could protect herself. She could be abrasive at times, but he wouldn't have her any other way.
He heard a sigh. Fine. You've been warned, dumbass. Yu's there, as is Izanagi, but… so are THEY.
~Eh? What do you mean? Who's 'they?'~
Them. Every Persona he can control. They're all there, …and they're all awake.
Yosuke's eyes flashed open. "Holy shit."
That's what I said. I only got back because of you.
~'Got ba-' Hold on. You were in his head?~
You said to talk to Izanagi, so that's what I did. Or...tried to do. It's a whole different ball of rice, diving into someone elses bowl of Nikudon.
He paused a slight moment to process the analogy. Were his witty remarks always that obscure?
Yes. Yes, they are.
~So, if you're a part of my soul, I should know what you experienced.~
Oh, you will. In about 4…3…2…Cue dramatic info dump reaction.
Yosuke pressed his hands to the sides of his head to try to compress a flash of new memories that burst through his minds eye in fireworks of emotions and images. He stepped back from the force of the onslaught, waiting for the experience to fade and the memories to merge as if he'd been there himself. He saw numerous pairs of eyes staring back at him from the depths of a vast ocean, from beneath it, and even from the sky where the ground sloped upward to the clouds like a curl of wood shaving. He stood on its shore. Dozens of hands of various sizes reached out with needy fingers. His ankle became trapped in the grip of a hand so incredibly cold, he shivered involuntarily. It was Jack Frost. Voices caged him in, all speaking at once, all demanding to be heard. He felt his heart race as he broke free and ran away. To hell with this place. He ran up a set of stairs to a floating platform and lept over it into the shore of the Semegawa river. He followed something that looked like a blue transparent cord coming from his chest –his connection to himself. One familiar silver-haired person appeared in the distance.
Yu stretched out his hand toward Jiraiya before Izanagi's protective form surrounded him away from the attacking voices. The samurai Persona said Yosuke's name once. Then he was gone in a heart beat.
Stunned, Yosuke slowly lowered his hands.
Ee-yeah. It's like M. C. Escher puked in there, dude. It's seriously messed up.
~You gotta go back. You gotta get him back to the surface so he can wake up.~
Eh, no. Sorry, buddy. No can do. Whatever woke them up tried to pull me down with them. I'm not strong enough to get all up in that kind of biz-niz.
~But we are with help?~
I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.
Yosuke looked to the sleeping Chie. "Then I'll call an emergency meeting. The Midnight Channel Investigation Team has one more mission to complete."
Next Scent: Rescue Operation
