(( Whoa, guys. You guys are really getting it good, another update in the same month. Back to Yu's perpective. Yosuke was fun, though. I might experiment with other character's 'voices'. Especially when it becomes relevant to the plot. ;D ))

Of Facades and High Fantasy

Chapter Six: Diplomacy

Well, at least we can feel included.

Unlike the last time we went to the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood, the five of us make our way down the hidden door behind the dresser of Delphine's room, each step creating a short echo through the downward stairway.

Dunjar's the first to enter the stony basement, resting his arms on the table in the middle of the room. On the other side of it Delphine stands, and quirks a brow. "Took you long enough. Didn't think it'd take you all night to do so, but you're at least here. I have our way into the Thalmor Embassy. I have a contact there, Malborn. He's a Wood Elf, so you have every reason to trust him."

Dunjar stands up straight and nods. "Alright. You'll be with me, yes?"

The Blades member shook her head. "No. I would draw too much attention. But they have no idea who you are. Just meet Malborn in the city of Solitude. Go to the Winking Skeever tavern, and he'll be able to get you in. Any questions, dragonborn?"

The nord shook his head. "No. I'll see you in Solitude."

Delphine nods, but holds up a hand to the four of us. "By the way, it turns out I only have one invitation. The four of you will have to simply wait this one out."

Yosuke blinks. "Yeesh. Anything we can do, while that's going on?"

The former innkeeper shrugs. "You're not bound by a leash. I suppose you can find your own things to do, in the meantime."

I pat the sack of coins in my bag. "We have enough money for one or two days." I say.

Yukiko scratches the back of her neck. "A break does sound nice. It's been four or five days of traveling or fighting."

Dunjar turns to leave, along with Delphine. "Well." The bearish warrior says, "I wish you well, until next time we meet."

They head up the stairs, as we look to each other. "What's all this mean, then?" Yosuke asks.

I shrug, and start heading up the stairs. "Whatever we want it to, really." I say. The others follow me shortly. Yosuke and Chie push the secret door closed, and close the dresser itself. I head into the inn room we rented as we first came here, and sit on the bed. "Though, it's nice to get a little rest. It's tough just surviving out here. Especially with all this armor on."

Chie leans against the wall, and crosses her arms. "And we just have the leather stuff, too. I mean, these people put metal on every day."

Yosuke shudders. "That's awful. That shit has to be heavy, seriously."

But before anyone else could reply, something busts through the door. We all turn to see that it's-.

It's Teddie. It seems he got off work and noticed we were gone. He shrieks and bounces up and down. "I found you! I came home and noticed Yosuke's game was still on with no one around. And then I saw you people on the screen!"

We all stand up straight and gather around Teddie. Yosuke fist pumps and grins. "We have our way out! Let's see those exit TVs, because man I'm tired of the cold!"

Teddie raises a paw. "…But wait. Why is the TV World Yosuke's video game? That's really weird."

I scratch my head. I hadn't really thought of why, just that it happened. All of my thoughts had been towards survival from day one. "That's a really good question. But we can investigate that after we're not here."

Teddie nods. "By the way, you all have really weird clothes." He throws the four exit TVs from out of nowhere, and sets them down. I look to the desk, and see a pen and inkwell.

"I'm going to leave Dunjar a note, just so he knows." I say, as I take the pen from the well and start writing.

Dunjar, we've found our way back to our world. There's no need to look for us, and we'll be investigating why this happening. –Yu Narukami.

I set the paper down and head for the exit TV, seeing that the others had already taken their exit. I dive in, as my vision fades for a short moment.

I'm sure this isn't the end of what's going on.

My vision comes back, and I'm in Yosuke's room. The first thing I hear is, "Hey, he's out! Turn everything off!" from Chie. Yosuke scrambles and turns off the Xbox, takes the disc from the system, unplugs the system, and unplugs the TV. He falls back and starts panting.

"Okay. Now that we can never have that happen again, I'm just going to say… everything smelled, it was really cold, and I liked it better when everyone wasn't trying to kill me for real." Yosuke says, as he shakes his head.

Yukiko tugs at her armor. "And maybe we can get all of this off, too. And a shower. That's nice, too."

Teddie pinches his nose with his paw. "Yeah! You guys reek! You guys haven't even been gone for that long. It's only been a few hours."

Chie sighs. "Yeah… but that game's time goes faster. We've been in there for four days."

Teddie flails. "Whoa! You guys gotta' tell me some stories, later!"

Suddenly, Yosuke's cell phone starts to ring. As I briefly marvel at the sheer battery life this thing has, I move to answer it seeing that Yosuke's on the other side of the room. On the line is Naoto, "Yosuke!"

Yosuke bolts to me, yelling, "What the hell are you doing?!"

I speak to Naoto anyway. "Naoto?"

Everyone freezes. "Whoa." Chie starts. "What's Naoto need?"

Naoto speaks. "Yu? You'll work too. We need you to gather the rest of the team and meet me at Junes! I have Rise and Kanji, it's an emergency, so come quick!"

I blink. "We'll be there." I say, before Naoto hangs up. I turn to face the rest of the group. "We need to head to Junes. Naoto says it's an emergency."

Yosuke frowns, and rubs his face. "I don't like the sound of this. Nothing's a coincidence in this town. Nothing ever is."

We all rush out of Yosuke's room, and start navigating through the house and bolting out of the exit. Yosuke closes the door, and then we start running through the neighborhood. I feel exhausted, but I still keep putting one foot in front of the other. I don't know what's going on, but I know this is more important than resting.

After a ten minutes of running, we finally see Junes in the distance. Though, there's something wrong. I see smoke in the distance. Yosuke says something in between pants. "Good thing we kept our armor on!"

We finally reach Junes, to see something burst through the roof. We all stop and look up to see a dragon flying right towards us! We scramble out of the way as it lands where we were standing. It seems people have already cleared the place, as there's no one in our way.

Chie sprints up to the dragon and starts stomping and kicking the dragon's side with her spiked boots, taking her sidearm dagger out and stabbing its hide once. Yukiko had already started her barrage of firebolts, each successful hit getting recoil from the dragon.

Yosuke and I charge the winged beat, I give a few slow, methodical slashes. Each motion I take I give all my strength, while Yosuke settles for quickly tearing into the flesh of the beast with his two daggers. The dragon writhes in pain and leaps into the air, soaring above Junes.

Kanji, Naoto, and Rise sprint out of the store, running to us and looking to the dragon in the air. Rise blinks, and tilts her head. "What's with the armor?"

Naoto points her pistol at the dragon, closing one eye and aiming. Kanji seems to be wielding a sign from the store, holding it like a baseball bat as he looks to the four of us. "You come prepared for this, or somethin'? You look like you just came from some faire."

I wave my hand dismissively. "We'll explain later. We need to kill this dragon, first."

Yukiko nods. "Yeah. We don't want the police to come here and freak out, let's hurry." She points her staff, and starts blasting bolt after bolt of fire. Most of them dissolve into the sky, but a few manage to hit its hide. Naoto lets off a few shots from the gun, the dragon flinches and once again dives towards us.

"Outta' the way!" Yosuke yells. We all scramble out of the way once more as the dragon skids across the road. It turns to Rise and Yosuke as it takes a deep breath.

I widen my eyes. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I yell. Yosuke screeches and dives to push Rise and himself out of the dragon's stream of fire, the street and sidewalk becoming scorched and blackened.

Naoto fires another shot into the dragon's eye, fliching as more firebolts hit its hide. Chie looks to me. "Alright, guys. Pile on, ready?"

I nod, the group charging once more as the weakened dragon's reflexes start slowing down. I start putting more of my strength into each slash that cut open the dragon's hide. Kanji seems to be smashing its neck with the heavy looking sign. Soon, the dragon falls limp, but looks to me.

"Joore. There are no coincidences. This will keep happening. The only way to stop the onslaught of the dov, you will… play along. You are not finished. He knows you left."

I stop, and run towards the dragon's head. "Who?" I shout. "Who sent you?"

The beast lets out what could be considered a laugh. "It's not your job to know. He… just wants the dovahkiin… prepared for what he needs done to him."

The beast closes its eye, and slumps. It's dead. Everyone stops their assault, and backs away. Yosuke frowns, and sheathes his daggers. "Guys. It wants us back in the TV World. This is bullshit." He throws his arms in the air. "It's not fair! We just got out!"

Naoto blinks, and shakes her head. "You guys were in the TV World?" She asks, looking over our armor. "What was that dragon? That's why you're in armor... but how did you guys end up in there?"

I sheathe my sword, and beckon the group over. "C'mon. I'll explain why we head to Yosuke's house. Preferable before people start noticing the teenagers in armor and a dead dragon."

We all start walking briskly towards Yosuke's house once more. I start again. "We were at Yosuke's house. He was showing off his new game and TV, and then we were suddenly sucked into the TV. When we landed, we were in Skyrim."

Kanji crosses his arms. "You guys were trapped in a video game?"

Chie nods. "Yeah, and thanks to the weird way time works in the game, we were trapped in there for four or five days."

Rise frowns. "That sounds awful! Everything in the trailers was all brown. And everything looked dirty."

Yukiko shook her head. "It's… it was interesting, to say the least."

After twenty or so minutes of walking and telling stories of what happened, we reach Yosuke's house. Yosuke steps in front of us and opens the door.

Teddie pops up as we head inside Yosuke's room. "What happened? Are you guys okay?"

I nod. "Yeah. But we'll have to go back into the TV World, or more dragons will attack Inaba."

Teddie flails his arms. "WHAT?! Dragons? A dragon attacked and I didn't come?! That's-."

Yosuke interrupts. "Wait. My stuff was unplugged the whole time. How did the dragon attack? Where did it even come from?"

Natoto shrugs. "I assume since Skyrim is a part of the TV World, it doesn't need the game system to sustain itself."

Chie steps to the TV. "Well. If we don't need the game to be on, let's go before another dragon starts attacking."

I nod, and watch everyone dive into the TV, one by one. As soon as everyone is in, I take a step forward and dive headfirst into the TV.

Well, at least we won't let Dunjar down.

I open my eyes to find myself in the inn room we were at when Teddie arrived. The room looks practically unchanged. I look to where I left the note, and find it to be gone.

Yuikiko walks up to me and hands me a note. "This was left on the bed." She said.

I hold the note up and read it out loud. "Kids, you've been a decent lot. I've appreciated your time and help. It won't kill you if you'd come visit every once and a while. Well, maybe it will kill you, but I assume you all are tougher than that. Dunjar."

Chie laughs. "The big stone-faced bear really does like us!"

Rise frowns. "It's kind of cold." She rubs her arms and twists her torso from side to side.

Yosuke shakes his head. "It doesn't get much better, trust me."

I shrug. "It won't be enough to kill you. We'll work on getting you three some armor, when we get more money. We spent all ours getting the stuff we got."

Naoto nods. "Of course. Now… we'll have to find out where to go, next. I assume you four know more about this world than I do."

I nod. "Let's go see if Dunjar has returned, yet. Or at least someone who knows where he is. He's at the center of all that's going on, as everyone keeps talking about the dragonborn. Or the 'dovahkiin'."

I look to Teddie, scratching my head at the bear. I think it'd be better if you got out of the suit."

Teddie groans. "D'aww! I'm sure I won't be a claws for alarm!" But he unzips the head and steps out of the suit anyway. It seems he's grown a bit taller and got a new outfit, a blue and white striped t-shirt with an anchor design, navy shorts, and yellow shoes.

We all walk out of the inn room. I look around, and see Delphine standing in the middle. She smirks, and walks up to us. "We thought you guys were gone for good. But it seems you guys only wandered off for a day. He looks over to Teddie, Rise, Kanji, and Naoto. "And you brought some new people."

I shrug. "It seems the circumstances have changed. We need to find Dunjar."

The Blades member strokes her chin. "He left for Riften a few hours ago on his own. I suppose you can take a carriage there and hope to catch up."

Yosuke nods. "Got'cha! We'll head there as soon as we can."

Delphine holds a hand up. "But may I get the names of the newcomers?"

"Rise Kujikawa!" The pig-tailed pop star says.

"Naoto Shirogane." The tomboyish woman in the police outfit follows.

"Kanji Tatsumi." The blonde, thuggish looking tall man says.

"Teddie! Nice to meet you!" The other blonde, windswept haired teen says.

The former innkeeper nods, and waves a hand. "Delphine. Nice to meet you., now you have a nord to catch up to. I suggest you hurry."

Yosuke turns, and beckons us to follow. "C'mon! Our first case as the newly reunited Investigation Team awaits!"

The rest of us follow. "I have some money left. I'll get a few blankets from the inn room chest. Naoto." I say, taking my money pouch and handing it to her. "There's about two hundred coins in it. It's nowhere near enough to get you all armor, but you guys will need weapons. Go to the blacksmith near here, and arm yourselves how you choose. You'll all need at least one."

Kanji nods. "Good thinkin'. I'll get me the most badass weapon they have."

The team leaves the inn; as I go to the inn room, kneeling down to open the chest. I take several blankets and stuff them in my satchel. They feel somewhat scratchy, but seem warm enough. I close the chest and stand up once more, leaving the room and closing the door.

Delphine stops me, once more. "Hey." She says. "Your new friends have those powers, too?" She asks.

I nod. "Yeah. They have Personas, why do you ask?"

She crosses her arms. "Well. It seems Dunjar's pretty lucky to have you guys, then. I'm not sure what those things you summon are, but I trust that with all of you, maybe not all hope is lost in Skyrim."

"Thank you." I say, and give a bow of my head. I turn to leave, and walk towards the door. I open it and embrace the nipping cold, once more. The sky is somewhat dark, but I can tell by some of the business being open that it's not too late. I see everyone sitting on the carriage parked outside. I make my way to it and climb aboard.

Yosuke turns to the driver. "We're ready." He says.

The driver nods, as the carriage starts moving. I take the blankets out and start passing them towards the back. The four blankets are distributed, as we all start draping them across ourselves.

"Thanks, Yu!" Rise says, and smiles.

"Of course." I say. "What all did you guys get?" I tilt my head.

Kanji holds up his two handed warhammer. "Got the biggest thing I could find." He grins.

Naoto holds up a shortbow. "I have the best weapon I could find for the way I prefer to fight."

Rise holds up a dagger. "I got something just in case."

Teddie holds up a shortsword. "Yeah! When do we fight!?"

Yosuke shrugs. "Whenever something tries to attack us. But right now, we're just going to rest until we get to wherever we're supposed to end up at."

Teddie makes a whining sound. "Bleh. I wanted to slash things!"

I rest my head and shrug. "We'll have plenty of that, trust me. Though, it'll be easier when it's nine of us against stuff. Eight of us having Personas, and one able to literally shout at things until they die."

Rise widens her eyes. "What?"

Yosuke shudders. "He's loud. But that wasn't a joke. He has some kind of power. He's able to do things with his voice. Like shouting people off of cliffs, or running really fast."

Naoto blinks. "That would be a useful power, indeed."

Yukiko nods. "Yeah. He's also really strong, too. He managed to hold a dragon back with his strength."

I start to close my eyes. Today has been exhausting. Too many things going on, but this rest is what I need after everything that's happened.

The gang's all here. Now it's time to get to the bottom of this.