Author's Note : Last Update before exams start, I wrote this in the middle of studying Science..... So.....Boring.......Need........Air...........XP

Disclaimer : I.......Do......Not........Own........Per-So-Na

C h a p t e r 3 : M i d n i g h t C h a n n e l

Later that night, at the Dojima residence

Souji and Nanako was watching TV after dinner, the local news was on.

"I wonder if Dad's not coming home again tonight." She suddenly said that out of nowhere.

The main topic of the news is on, it was about a woman found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba, the Inaba Police Department identified this woman as Mayumi Yamano, the school zone and the area around it is being showned.

"Is it the same incident that I hear?" Souji thought to himself.

"The Inaba Police Department! Th-That's where Dad works!" Nanako stammered.

"It'll be alright." Souji said, trying to calm her down.

"..I know, that's is job, so this stuff happens." Nanako sighed.

The news continues. It seems that the initial results of the investigation has been revealed, the body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident's roof. Authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such state. With the cause of death is uncertain, police continues to investigate whether it was an accident or a homicide. A thick fog apparently has slowed their progress, so the plan on fully investigated the area was delayed until tomorrow.

"They found her on the roof, that's scary…." Nanako looks sad, but because of a Junes commercial, she becomes very happy and started to sing the store motto, which Souji found really annoying at first, but Souji supported her anyway.

Souji was tired because of the sudden change in environment, so he excused himself to bed while Nanako is still watching TV.

The next day…

Souji woke up early in the morning; he walked down the stairs towards the dining room. Nanako was finished with cooking and is now eating her sunny-side eggs.

After eating breakfast, Souji left for school.

"Yo, Souji!!" Someone called him from a distance, it was Minoru. "Morning."

"Morning." Souji greeted.

"Have you gotten use to the environment yet?" He asked while they walk to school.

"Pretty much." He answered, as a bike cycled quickly past them, and hit a pile of garbage. The guy was rolling around inside a trash can.

"S-Someone." He writhed in pain.

"Um….Should we help him?" Souji asked.

"…….Why not?" Minoru answered after a long pause.

They pulled the student out of the trash can.

"Whew, you guys saved me. Thanks Minoru and…Um….." He was trying to remember Souji's name.

"Oh yeah, that's right. You're that transfer student, Souji Seta." He said, "I'm Yosuke Hanamura, nice to meet ya."

"But you can call him Hana-chan, for short" Minoru added.

"HEY!" Yosuke shouted, making Minoru chuckled.

"Is your bike okay?" Souji asked.

"My bike? What about me?!" He seems surprised.

"Yosuke seems to be alright" Souji thought to himself.

"Say, did you hear about the incident from yesterday? They found that announcer lady hanging from an antenna!" Yosuke said.

"Yeah, this world is getting more and more twisted already." Minoru said.

"You think it was some kind of warning? "Yosuke asked"There's no way something that weird could've been an accident."

"Actually, I have no idea." Souji answered.

"Dangling a dead body over a roof like that… That's just messed up." Yosuke said."Then again, it's pretty messed up to kill someone in the first place."

"You do know that this little chat is going to make us late, right?" Minoru asked.

"Oh crap, you want a ride? It's a little squeaky, but it should be fine." Yosuke asked.

Souji sweat dropped.

Not long after that, they were sitting in class, listening to King Moron's unimportant lectures.

"Be quiet, you idiots!" Morooka began to talk harshly. "You guys ARE in high school, aren't you?!" Can't you shut up during class? Don't you have any common sense?"

"First of all, my job is to waste my precious time teaching you assholes philosophy! And since I'm so nice…. I'll straighten up your rotten attitudes while I'm at it! Aren't you honored!?"

"And I'll be going especially hard on any of you morons that're curious about the murder! Got it!? Now get your books out!"

After school.

Yosuke let out a huge yawn after listening to King Moron's lecture intently. Then he approached Souji.

"So, you getting used to this place?" He asked

"Yeah, pretty much so." Souji answered honestly.

"Wow, that was fast." Yosuke said. "There isn't much to do out here compared to the big city, but there is that certain…something you can't get anywhere else."

"The air is clean, the food is great... Oh, and do you know about the local delicacy? It's grilled steak, man! Like that's anything special, huh?"

"I know a place where you can get it cheap. Wanna come? You helped me out this morning, so it's on me….Hey, Minoru, wanna come too?" He shouted.

"Huh? Oh, okay." He nodded.

"Man, you're not even paying attention." Yosuke complained.

"Whatever…."

But suddenly, Chie walked in.

"How about me, huh? No apologies?" Chie said out of nowhere. "My 'Trial of the Dragon'"

"Urgh….You always come around when I'm talking about food…" Yosuke groaned, sensing that his wallet might get lonely by the end of the day.

"How about it, Yukiko? Don't you think he should treat us too?"Chie asked.

"I'll pass…I don't want to gain anymore weight. I need to help out at the inn today, anyway." Yukiko answered.

By this, Souji was a little disappointed; he wanted to know Yukiko a little bit more.

"Wow, Yukiko-san! You started training to take over the business? Yosuke asked.

"It's not like that! I'm just helping out when it gets busy." Yukiko replied. "Well, I should be on my way."

As Yukiko walked away, Chie said "Oh well, we should get going too."

"Huh? Do I seriously have to treat three people…?" Yosuke gasped.

"Sucks to be you." Minoru commented.

Junes Food Court

As Yosuke walked back from the counter, Chie complained "THIS is the cheap place you were talking about..? They don't have grilled steak here."

"Yeah, well, once you hopped on the freeloader train, I had to change my plans." Yosuke said in act of self defense.

"Still, that's no reason to take us to your place." Chie said.

"C'mon guys, break it up." Minoru said.

"Dude, this isn't my place or anything." Yosuke said.

"I said, break it up." Minoru repeated.

Souji looked at them with a questioning look.

"Oh, right. I haven't told you yet, huh?"Yosuke said."I moved here from another city about six months back. This location just opened up and my dad was assigned to manage it. So our entire family came out here." Yosuke explained.

"Here, this is to welcome you to town." Yosuke said. "Satonaka, Kirijo, yours is on me too."

"Yeah, I know." Chie replied.

"Thanks, Hana-chan." Minoru replied.

"Cheers!" The four of them shouted and drink their own beverages respectively.

"Y'know, it's only half a year since this place opened up, but I haven't been to the local shopping district much, since."Chie said,"A lot of stores there started closing and… Oh,uh…" Chie trailed off.

"You can't blame it all on Junes, can you?" Yosuke sighed.

Suddenly, a girl, who apparently works at Junes, sat on the table next to them. Yosuke definitely know her.

"Hey, it's Saki-senpai! Sorry, be right back." Yosuke got all pumped up and approached her.

"Is she Yosuke's girlfriend?" Souji asked.

"Haha, He wishes." Chie chuckled.

"Yosuke has been trying to get close to her, but haven't really made much progress." Minoru added.

"Who is she, anyway?" Souji asked.

"Oh, that's Saki Konishi. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district." Chie explained. "..I think she's working here part-time, though."

"Hey, how's it going? You look beat." Yosuke tried to strike a conversation with her.

"Heeey! I'm finally on break." She said in relieve. "What's up, Hana-chan? Boosting your family business by bringing your friends here?"

"Madam, you wound me." Yosuke faked a play. "Kidding aside… You look down. Did something happen?

"It's nothing. I'm just a little tired." Saki answered.

"Hey, if you need to talk, I'm always willing to listen. I…" Yosuke said.

"I'm okay. Thanks, though." She chuckled. "Why'd I leave school early yesterday…?"

She saw Souji and said "Hey…. Is he the kid who transferred here?" She approached him.

"Are you the transfer student?" She asked. "Oh, did you hear about me already?"

"It must be nice to have someone else from the big city to talk to, huh?" She said. "I don't see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys much."

"N-Not Necessarily." Yosuke stammered.

"He doesn't have too many friends, so I hope you two get along good." She hoped. "Hana-chan's a good guy, but he can be really nosy sometimes. You gotta tell him right to his face when he starts to annoy you."

"You got that right." Minoru agreed.

"Yeah, He's annoying." Souji said, Saki chuckled.

"Alright, break it up…. You kinda getting on my nerves..." Yosuke protested.

"Well, my break's just about over. Back to work I go… Laters! "and she left.

"Oh,uh, Senpai?" Yosuke said."Hahah, Saki-senpai says I'm annoying, but she's even nosier than me."

"She has a younger brother, and she treats me pretty much the same way." Yosuke continued.

"Ohhh, you don't want her to treat you like a brother, huh? Oh, I get it….So that's how it is." Chie smirked. "The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of invading chain.. The flame of forbidden love!"

"Wha-!Dude, it's not like that." Yosuke blushed a little.

"Oh, reaaaally… Well, I know just the thing to cheer up that lovesick heart." Chie said. "You ever hear about the Midnight Channel."

"You're supposed to look into a TV that's switched off, alone, exactly at midnight during rainy night." Chie explained."While you're staring at your own image, another person will appear on the screen. And they say, that person is your soul mate."

"I have a question….Who are 'they'?" Minoru asked.

"That aside, for a second I thought that you are going to say something useful." Yosuke said. "How can you get all excited over a childish urban legend like that?"

"Childish, huh? You don't believe it, do you?" Chie was pissed.

"Of course I don't" Yosuke replied.

"Well, it's raining tonight! Let's all try it out, then you'll see!" Chie was overly confident about this.

"Try it out? Wait, you haven't even tried it yourself?" Yosuke asked. "Wow, I'm trying to remember the last time I heard something this stupid."

"All that aside….you know that 'incident' yesterday? You guys think it was murder?" Yosuke asked. "Ooh, what if the culprit behind it was still lurking around..? Heehee"

"Sheesh, you shouldn't joke about something like that. Now who's the childish one?" Chie said. "All I'm saying is, you guys better try it out tonight."

Later that night, at the Dojima residence.

Nanako and Souji were at the living room, eating dinner with TV on.

Nanako looks worried, Souji tried to comfort her. But suddenly, the door opened. Looks like Dojima was home.

"What a day…" Dojima sighed."I'm back, did anything happened while I was out?"

"No. You're late again." Nanako protested.

"I'm sorry, been busy at work." Dojima apologized. "Can you put the news on for me?"

Nanako sighed, but do it anyway.

The main news is the follow-up story of the murder case, but with more detailed information. With an additional interview with the local student who found Miss Yamano's body.

The Interview was a drag and very uninteresting to watch, but she looks like Saki Konishi, Yosuke's Senpai.

The rest of the night goes pretty normal.

Souji excuses himself and go straight to his room, it was almost midnight and he has decided to try the Midnight Channel thingy, to see if it was real.

A few seconds before Midnight, Souji stood up and stand in front of the TV.

Midnight, nothing showed up, he chuckled and turned around, getting ready for bed. But suddenly, the TV turned on by itself. The Image shown are very blur, but It showed a girl who is moving around in front of a vending machine. Suddenly a voice rang inside Souji's head.

I am Thou…..

Thou art I…..

Thou are the one

The one who opens the door

Souji knelt on the floor of his dark room, his head is still spinning. It was 00.02 A.M. He tried to touch the TV screen. But instead, his hand got sucked in, along with his head.

When he tried to pulled it out, he crashed to the table behind him. Which apparently woke Nanako up.

"Are you okay?" She asked from outside the door.

Souji answered "Kind of…"

"Okay….Well, good night." And with that, she left and returned to her room.

Author's Note : A very Short Chapter........Well, That's all. Don't forget to leave a review..... Back to Science I go XP