Volume 3

Narukami listened to Yosuke ranting on the phone as he made Nanako dinner. He was careful not to slice off his fingers while he cut the carrots into slices, which wasn't too hard despite the fact that his head was tilted sideways.

"I just can't believe she went out there like that, ya know?" Yosuke repeated. "She could've gotten herself killed. I mean, she's the only one of us that doesn't have a Persona. She shouldn't just be charging into danger like the other night."

"She's lucky that she only got a small cut on her arm," Narukami agreed. "It looked a lot worse than it actually was."

"No kidding." Yosuke sighed. "She scared the hell out of me, man." Narukami stopped chopping for a moment.

"Yosuke, are you in love with her?"

The other side of the line filled with a flurry of denials. "Wh-what?! No way, man! I mean…I kinda like her, but…not love-not by any means!" Narukami chuckled slightly.

"I was just kidding."

"Oh…" Yosuke cleared his throat. "She's…she's our friend, man. That's all."

"Right." Narukami scooped up the neatly cut carrots and placed them in a boiling pot. He heard a door open and close on Yosuke's side.

"Oh, hey, she's here. I gotta go. Talk to ya later, bro."

"Have fun."

"H-hey! What do you mean by that?!"

"Nothing. I meant have fun."

"Oh…well, see ya, then."

... ...

Aila gave Yosuke a huge smile when she walked in, cutting her singing short when she was past the borders of the front door. Yosuke recalled that she loved singing, but she never seemed to be able to show off her talents in front of the others.

"Heya!" She greeted him, tugging her concealed purple ear buds from her ears.

"Hey," Yosuke replied, smiling back at her. "How're you doing?"

Aila slipped off her shoes at the front door, shaking out her soaking hair. "I'd be better if it wasn't raining. What is with the weather, lately?" It'd been raining solid for a few nights and few people had wanted to go outside during that time.

"I dunno," Yosuke said, shrugging. Aila suddenly giggled. "What?"

"Yosuke, why are you blushing?"

Yosuke jumped. "I'm not blushing!"

"Yes, you are. Right there." She gave his cheek a poke and laughed again when his face flushed. "Who were you talking to before? What did they say?"

"N-nothing!" Yosuke turned on his heels to hide his face. "Let's just start the movie, ok?!" Aila laughed and followed him through the house. Yosuke babbled on. "My dad is out of town right now, but he said he wouldn't mind if we used the TV for the next couple of nights." Yosuke gestured for her to sit down while he grabbed the remote. Then he stood over her for a couple of minutes.

"You know," he said, "I can take your jacket to hang-dry for a while. It doesn't seem like it'd be really warm all soaked like that."

"Oh, no, it's alright. I don't mind it at all." Aila got really uncomfortable suddenly. Yosuke imagined it was because she was trying to hide her bandages from him beneath the long sleeves. She'd been careful not to let him see it because of how worried she'd made Yosuke when she'd gotten it. Despite his concern, he let it go this time.

"Ok. Then let's get this started!" He plopped down next to her and pressed play. The movie was an old horror flick that Yosuke and his dad used to watch when he was younger.

"This used to scare the hell out of me," he explained as the opening scene began. "I used have to horrible nightmares about it for month's after we'd watch it. Now, it seems like a kid's Saturday special compared to the TV World." Aila nodded in agreement, staring at the show with unfocused interest. Yosuke didn't say anything and just listened carefully to her breathing next to him. His arms were sprawled out on the cushions behind them and, after a while, he felt her burrow into his shoulder.

Yosuke froze internally and glanced down at her. "Um…you okay?"

"Just…a bit cold," Aila admitted softly.

"Oh. Well, here." He grabbed a blanket on his other side and threw it over her. She pulled it tightly around her.

"Thanks." After a few minutes, she threw half of it over his legs. "You should have some, too."

"Nah, I'm alright." But oddly enough, neither of them moved it off.

Despite what a lady's man Yosuke had declared himself to be, he didn't know what to do in this situation. He sat motionless under her warming head, running through different scenarios in his mind on what to do. He looked down at her face, which was troubled, her eyes half drooped.

"Hey, are you sure you're ok?" He asked. Aila was silent for a few minutes.

"I…haven't been sleeping well." She looked down at the floor. "I've been having nightmares about Mina getting carried off." Her eyes welled up; she looked like she was about to burst into soft sobs. Yosuke remembered the day they'd found her wandering in the TV World, looking for her friend who'd fallen in also. They became fast allies, and even faster friends as they all scoured hundreds of areas for the missing girl. Yosuke knew Aila as a generally happy person, always smiling and trying to make everyone feel invited to their fun. He hadn't heard her talk much about Mina before, but seeing her so broken up about the friend now made him feel like he'd lost someone important, too.

"Hey." He used his finger to tilt her head up to meet his gaze. "Don't worry about it. We'll find her, I promise." A tear escaped, and that prompted a few more to fall with it. Yosuke wiped one away with his thumb. "It'll be ok."

"Thank you, Yosuke." She told him with a shaking voice that she fought to control. He nodded once and gave her a small, comforting smile. Aila regained her composure and returned the gesture.

At the same time, they both noticed how close Yosuke had gotten to her face and couldn't move for a split second. Then, they both turned away from each other. Yosuke coughed awkwardly.

"We should rewind this part," he said quickly. "It's the best-you can't miss it." He went to the previous scene and forced himself to remain staring forward. Aila rested her head back into his chest, moving slowly so as not to make things to weird. She muttered something that Yosuke didn't quite catch.

"What was that?" He looked down at her face to find that she'd fallen fast asleep. He stared at her peaceful expression and found himself putting his hand on her head with a sigh. He stroked her soft hair with his fingers until he, too, fell into slumber.

... ...

12:00am.

Yosuke awoke to a muffled voice calling out. He opened one drowsy eye to Aila's head, which still rested heavily against his body. His arm had gone numb from the position it'd been in, and he carefully pulled it out from under Aila. Her head bobbed up slightly and she placed it back on the cushion beneath them without waking up. Yosuke rubbed his eyes.

"Aila…"

Yosuke jumped and turned to look at the TV. It was still on, but the movie had stopped. Now, a fuzzy image of a girl had taken its place. Yosuke couldn't see the top half of her face, but even without being able to see her eyes he could tell that she was afraid. Tears poured down her cheeks and past her lips, agonizingly dripping off of her chin without being wiped away.

"Aila…please…" Mina cried. "Help me."

She put her hand on the side of the camera, choking back more sobs. Her voice got louder. "Aila, please! Please, I need you! Help me, Aila! Help me!"

Yosuke knelt in front of the TV, watching it carefully. As Mina called out, Yosuke checked the sleeping girl behind him. She remained still, too deep in her sleep to hear the friend's begging.

At last, the girl turned away and the screen faded to static before Yosuke got to see her whole face.

He glanced back at Aila once more, then got out his cell phone. It rang once before the other line picked up.

"Dude, did you see that?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah," Narukami answered.

"What should we do? Do you think it's a trap?"

"It could be." Yosuke heard Narukami hum thoughtfully. He closed his eyes to contemplate, too.

"We shouldn't tell her about this," he told Narukami. "If she knew, she'd go in there to get her without a second thought. She's already put herself in too much danger." He stared back at Aila sorrowfully. "I hate to lie to her, bro, but we have to keep her out of the TV World, at least until we figure out what that was all about."

"You're right," Narukami agreed. "But how do we keep her from going inside?" Yosuke snapped his fingers.

"Let me call Teddie. I have an idea. You call the rest of the gang and let them know that we'll go investigate tomorrow." Narukami gave a short laugh.

"Since when did you start acting like the leader?" He joked. Yosuke couldn't fight back a smile.

"I was born for this," he answered with a chuckle. "You've been demoted, bro."

They hung up and Yosuke started dialing Teddie's cell. Aila stirred a bit, which made Yosuke paralyzed for a few moments. But she was just turning over in her sleep, nearly falling off of the couch.

"Mina…" she mumbled in her sleep. Yosuke sat down beside her and moved strands of her brown locks out of her face.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to her, "but this if for your own good."

... ...

Hello again! Volume Three is posted! OMG! Mina is in trouble?! They must save her!

I realized that every chapter has started out with Yosuke thus far. Could this be favoritism? Perhaps.

The other characters should (hopefully) be showing up soon. Thanks for reading!