-Summer Day 3-
"Please tell me you all saw that last night right?" Yosuke choked out.
Once more they had gathered at Junes the atmosphere heavy and everyone looking bewildered.
"There's no way that was senpai, just no way in hell!" Kanji roared in defiance before Naoto touched his shoulder gently.
"I find it hard to believe too, but from what we know, that is his shadow, those were his true feelings." her eyes darted to the floor.
"I only saw the end, I was helping around the inn before I came to my room to find it at its end." Yukiko frowned.
Chie flipped her hair angrily, "Well I didn't see anything! I was too beat to stay up until midnight so I missed everything!" she cried out, Teddie nodding beside her.
"I stayed up until Nana-chan fell asleep, which was really early before her dad sent me away..."
After Naoto's deduction yesterday, it seems Yosuke wasn't the only one who stayed up to see if their TV would play the Midnight Channel again. Rise out of planted guilt, Naoto to confirm her deductions, and Kanji simply because he happened to be with Naoto at the moment as a witness to her deductive theory. But they saw it,they saw him, the real him and it was shocking to say the least.
- o O o-
"Welcome one and all!"
"Hello and welcome to the Midnight Channel, yes we've been off air for quite some time now but I'm happy to inform you we're back and with better programs than ever before!"
Souji was on the screen, the background dark but a spotlight shone on him brightly. Now of course Souji was unafraid of anything but the outfit he was wearing was less than dashing. It was reminiscent of a prince in a way with a violet (velvet from the looks of it) coat with frilled cuffs cutting into the fabric of the sleeve. A pristine white ascot was tucked into a cream colored ornate vest. His pants were silly bright yellow and poofy which ended just at the knees and white stockings were covered by curled yellow shoes. Despite the princely look, a large floppy jester hat rests on his head with oversized bells jingling with every movement. He looks ridiculous and yet it looks as if no one but Souji would even be able to remotely pull that off.
"Today's program is the first of many, but for now allow me to introduce-"
Souji sidestepped with a hop and a big flashy title appeared.
"Jester's Mesmerizing Tales! Tomorrow's tale preview: A wonderful tale of friendship and going on an exciting and fun adventure. Will good triumph in the end, will the power of friendship pull through? You'll have to see for yourself in tomorrow's super fun showing. See you then!"
And that was when the program was lost in the static that was the TV before eventually the screen faded to black and left those who witnessed it shocked beyond belief. None of them saw it coming, Souji was always an open book. Or so they thought.
"So does this mean he's in there now?" Chie asked worriedly after a quick explanation.
Rise looked down at her hands on her lap, "It seems so. I'll go check." and with that she stood and walked away, the gloom on her face apparent.
Teddie quickly looked back at Rise and then the group, his big blue eyes showing concern, "I'm going with her!" he quickly stood nearly toppling his chair and hurried after her, his steps fading away.
Naoto frowned as she watched them go feeling a slight guilt, she felt as though she had placed the blame on Rise but she didn't really mean to, she was just stating the facts as usual.
"What bothers me," she said finally turning back to face the group, "Is what he said: This program is just one of many."
"So that means there'll be even more? Does that mean the Midnight Channel has begun again?" Yosuke bit his lip in thought.
"It's a possibility." Yukiko's gaze fell on the drink she had bought and yet she had not touched it.
"Man that sucks. I thought we were done with all that bullcrap!" Chie cried angrily her open palm hitting the table.
"Yeah, same here, something must be going on for this to be starting up again." Kanji gave an input.
"Well you know what this means guys." Chie kicked back in her seat looking rather smug as everyone's eyes were on her, "We just gotta go in, weapons blazing and rescue our buddy before anything happens." she waggled a finger in the air confidently.
"But Chie, this is so sudden, and it's Souji's shadow, we don't know how strong it could be. If we just charged in we might be hilariously disadvantaged." Said a worried Yukiko.
Naoto nodded in agreement, "She's right Chie-senpai, we need to take some time to prepare before we charge in."
"I'll stay here for when Rise and Teddie get back, you guys can go into the shopping central for a while and get ready before we go or anything." Yukiko offered with a hopeful smile.
The rest glanced at each other and to Yukiko who nodded in confirmation.
"Alright," Yosuke stood with a huff, "Chie, you and I got to your little Swords R Us, and Naoto and Kanji you both go to Shiroku's general to go buy medications and all that fancy jazz." he waved his hand.
Chie rolled her eyes with a groan but stood as well with Naoto and Kanji who nodded.
"Alright then, let's go!" Chie pointed onward however leaned down to whisper in Yukiko's ear, "We'll be right back ok?"
Yukiko gave a soft giggle, "Alright, I'll be waiting."
And with that they set off to prepare for whatever could be waiting for them.
- o O o-
In the TV world, Rise was filled with dread. As she feared, Kouzeon scanned the TV world searching for any traces of an energy spike she could muster. However, she didn't need to search long, only slightly south-east from her was a clear energy spike, nothing too strong, but it was strong enough to be easily identifiable. It was definitely Souji. It was even worse when Teddie could smell it.
"Sensei is definitely here. But I'm beary worried, if this were sensei you'd think his traces would be hard to find, but here it is as clear as the nose on my fuzzy face." he bopped himself on the nose.
"I just don't get it Teddie, something feels so wrong here but I can't decide what it is. Is it that Senpai is gone, that he has a shadow, what would he not tell us?" Rise bit his lips and fiddled with her fingers nervously her eyes darting around the familiar TV, "It feels so wrong."
Teddie was silent for a moment before waddling over to her and giving her back a nice pat, "Don't worry Rise-chan, I'm sure we'll figure this all out and we'll win like we always do and everything will be fine again!" he chimed with a soft reassuring hum.
Rise was still confused, but it would be wrong to say that it didn't cheer her up in the least, "Thanks Teddie, you're right. We'll just figure this out like always. Hehe, and when senpai sees it was me who saved him maybe he'll finally fall for me. I'll just swoop in and sweep him off his feet." she joked with a light hearted laugh.
"There you go Rise! But uh..." Teddie suddenly nuzzled her hand, "If it doesn't work with sensei I'll be glad to be swept of my feet." he gave that affectionate growl of his.
Rise scoffed with a warm smile but gently gave his forehead a playful flick, "Nice try buddy."
Teddie giggled and rubbed his forehead as he backed off a bit, "Can't blame a bear for trying."
Rise bent down and suddenly embraced him in a hug, he was surprisingly warm for a suit, "Thank you." she nuzzled his fur for a bit then let go and patted her skirt,"Welp, we should get back to the others and give our reports right?"
Teddie saluted, "Aye Aye captain, let's go!" he smiled and they both headed toward the tower of small TVs feeling comforted for the time being.
- o O o-
"Why does this place even exist?" Yosuke muttered as he eyed a rather ornate looking Knife that he could never afford in his lifetime.
Chie inclined her head checking out a pair of boots that caught her eye, "Be glad that it does, otherwise can you imagine how many times we would have had our ass kicked in battle?"
Yosuke suddenly turned toward Chie, "Well yeah but, this guy doesn't even question selling a whole crapload of weapons to a bunch of teenagers! He doesn't even ask what we use them for and why we keep coming back!"
Chie gave his head a condescending pat, "There there don't think too hard about it. It's probably better for us that he doesn't ask otherwise we'd be stuck explaining things awkwardly and sound like loons."
Yosuke waved her hand away, "It still concerns me."
"Yeah I'm sure it does." Chie turned back around not paying any further attention to the subject and picked up the boots, "Hey do you think these would look cool on me?"
Yosuke groaned, "C'mon Chie it's not about looks, and besides don't go for the super expensive stuff, we gotta have enough to buy new weapons for everyone." he plucked the boots from her hands and set them back much to Chie's displeasure.
"Fine fine, but then how do we do this, buy weapons that are both efficient and strong and yet cheap?"
Yosuke didn't have the answer for that. Neither did Chie of course. They both came to a rather sad conclusion: Souji always bought their weapons for them. He was the one who was better at these kinds of things. They felt a bit bad just leaving it up to him, but he always made the right choices and in the end it helped them out a lot.
Yosuke coughed, "We'll just have to figure it out somehow, I mean we can do it right, pshaw this should be nothing."
Yes he said this, and yet they spent nearly another hour puzzling over which weapons to buy.
Over at the Shiroku store, Naoto and Kanji weren't doing any better.
"Yes Kanji I admit healing items are a top priority but what if we need status healing items?" Naoto frowned looking over several products.
Kanji actually mimicked her frown, "Well yeah a few won't hurt, but what if we seriously need healing and Yukiko-senapi can't do her magic stuff?" he retorted.
Naoto sighed tiredly, "I know that Kanji, but you and Chie are particularly vulnerable to rage, whereas Yukiko and Chie are prone to silence and Yosuke to fear. And what if we were to be poisoned or panicked?" she looked over an odd item which she was certain had been there a couple of weeks, much to her disgust.
Kanji rolled his eyes, "Hell, for fear, panic, and rage we can always give each other a good slap to the face to bring us to our senses."
Nato couldn't deny that method worked plenty of times, but during battle you couldn't have any weaknesses exposed or hindrances that could prevent you from getting the upper hand. So she stubbornly continued to push for more status healing items.
Souji shopped for items too, he knew just the balance between the items. Wow, he sure did a lot for the team that they never really noticed. Oh man now they were feeling guilt for taking him for granted. Well no more, they were going to save him and they would show their appreciation!
But first Kanji had to dissuade Naoto from buying five jars of royal jelly. For what he did not know.
After what seemed like five hours in total, Yosuke, Chie, Kanji, and Naoto finally returned to the Junes food court only to be greeted by the sight of Yukiko and Rise playing a game of tic-tac-toe, apparently the last round of many as several napkins bearing the marks of previous rounds littered the table. Teddie had his head leaning against the table as he seemed to have dozed of waiting while Yukiko and Rise seemed on the verge of joining him as well.
When Rise noticed their presence she didn't look pleased in the least.
"What the hell took you guys so long?!" she cried standing suddenly, "We were waiting forever for you guys ugh, senpai is waiting for us to go and rescue him and you guys are wasting precious time!"
Kanji looked startled from being reprimanded so harshly, "H-hey this isn't as easy as it looks, turns out buying shit actually takes some thought."
Chie groaned and shifted weight to her left leg, "Yeah seriously, we would have been here sooner if Yosuke would stop nagging. 'Oh those are too expensive.' 'Oh those are too weak.'" she mocked in a droning whiny tone.
"Hey, I just want to make sure we're all well prepared for this battle sheesh!" Yosuke shot back nudging Chie's arm roughly.
"Well I hope you got everything and made sure you got it all right, because we're going right now. Like right now." Rise said hurriedly brushing past them.
Yukiko gently rubbed Teddie's back in an attempt to wake him up, only it seemed to succeed in helping him sleep better. As she gently whispered for the sleeping bear boy to wake up he only gave small groans and sighs of wanting to sleep more. Eventually Yosuke stepped in and made some threat about Hanako coming to get him and never before had anyone seen Teddie shoot up so fast and dash for the electronics.
With a rather cruel chuckle Yosuke lead the others in the same direction.
- o O o-
Despite the fact that there was so little fog to the point where they didn't even need the glasses anymore, the TV world seemed thick with tension once more. Yet they all still donned the glasses Teddie had worked so hard to make for them all as it became a habit of them wearing it inside.
Rise was still surprised to feel the energy spike so clearly and in the same direction as well. She felt as though it was mocking her in some way, somehow. But with determination the team set off wherever Rise led them.
The first odd thing they came across as they got closer was a little toy train that chugged right past them, blowing little rings of smoke. The second would have been a medium sized ball as it bounced before them in a circle for a moment before disappearing as soon as it came. As they walked on, the world's sky grew darker, and pine trees sprouted tall and suddenly. The team then found themselves walking through a thick forest area.
Chie wasn't the only one greatly unnerved with the occasional child's echoing giggle resounding amongst the trees, just what kind of world is this and why would it sprout from Souji's true feelings? It only got worse as Yukiko let out a shriek as something fell from the branches and onto the hard ground with a noisy clatter. It was her. Or a better way of saying it would be that it was a puppet of her. Rosy cheeks, a delicate smile drawn on and the clothes it was wearing was the trademark red-sweatered uniform she always wore last year during the investigation. The detail was spot on and this was frightening as soon they noticed puppets hanging from the branches.
There was one for Yosuke, Chie, Kanji, Rise, Teddie, and Naoto too, but they also spotted Nanako, Dojima, Adachi, and several Yasogami high school students as well. All of them had fine details crafted onto them and the likenesses were uncanny.
Everyone agreed when Chie voted that they promptly move on. However as the team turned around and took several steps away more puppets dropped from the branches, but dangled ominously before them.
Everyone's stomach dropped.
These puppets were all too familiar, Yukiko in a gorgeous pink ball gown and a tiny tiara atop her head. Kanji semi-naked save for the bath towel around his waist and red flushed face. Rise in her orange bikini. Teddie in his suit. Naoto in the lab coat. All of them had those eerie glowing yellow eyes.
Yosuke had enough when as if it couldn't get worse, the puppets began to shake violently, their wooden limbs clacking together and they all let out hysterical laughter in their very own voices.
With that he let out a cry and charged through, knives cutting through their strings and letting them all fall to the ran on, leaving the others behind. Chie screamed and kicked her leg, flinging her shadow puppet which clung to her leg, convulsing with crazed laughter. It proved too much to handle for everyone as they avoided the puppets with hasty care before running off to find Yosuke.
"Oh man, oh man, that was some fucked up shit back there, what the hell was that?" Kanji wheezed as the team broke into a clearing, leaving the trees behind.
Kanji's question went unnoticed as they fell silent, Yosuke already standing silently, gaping at the large red and white circus big top tent. Laughter and cheers came from inside, and lights shown outside and dimly from the inside.
"This... Is the world that sprouted from Souji's heart? What the heck is all this?" Chie whispered gazing at the scene with furrowed brows.
"I guess we won't really know until we go inside, right?" Kanji breathed out, adjusting his glasses.
"Guess so." Yosuke shuddered and walked to the entrance, pushing the tarp aside and suddenly all the cheers and laughter stopped leaving an eerie silence in it's wake.
As the others followed behind him the big top proved to be much bigger on the inside than anticipated. In fact it seemed impossibly big and maze like, of course they always were. It was never just easy. Then a voice resonated in the tent, Souji's voice,
"My, it would seem we have some surprise guests. Couldn't wait for the story huh, well I guess that's alright, I love telling stories." he chuckled mischievously.
Suddenly a spot light came on, and revealed a life sized puppet of Souji himself, just as he was back then with the Yasogami school uniform and once again the likeness was uncanny. However he had a deep frown on his face and was slouched as he gazed down at his feet. It was an uncharacteristic pose for him.
"Let's start with the hero of our story. Our hero starts by moving to a new place, away from friends and family to a place he's never been before. He lived in the cities all his life, and moving out to the country to meet different people was daunting. It turns out the little town was in shambles and it was impossibly boring. Our hero could only hope to stumble upon something that would make him feel more at home."
As the voice spoke the puppet looked up at them, swaying in jerky movements before turning, the wooden limbs clanking together noisily as it shambled on into the darkness the spotlight fading with it. Then silence fell for a long while before Teddie whimpered,
"Do we... Follow it?" his round eyes fell on Naoto who shook her head,
"I'm not sure. It could be a trap."
"Well, we won't know standing here." Yukiko inclined her head to look at the others and confidently brushed past all of them, following in the puppets footsteps.
As the others followed her, Teddie abruptly stopped and looked back to see Yosuke was frozen and shivering.
"Yosuke, are you ok?" the bear waddled over to him, breaking his trance as he gave a jolt.
"Yeah, I just... That was really weird." he somewhat lied.
The main reason of his sudden discomfort lied in the fact that for a moment, Souji's shadow sounded too close for comfort to his own shadow. Moving from the city to the country, that boredom that overcame him, only Souji and Teddie were there to see the worst of him that day. It was quite shocking to hear that Souji had hidden away feelings that were quite similar to his. But what didn't make sense to him, was that if the feelings were similar, why didn't the shadow appear earlier, why now to show up and ruin everything.
With a scowl that worried Teddie, Yosuke marched on leaving the bear confused and waddling quickly to keep up.
The circus tent was eerily silent after they entered, with only dim lighting keeping it from being pitch black. Rise worked even harder to sense where shadows were in the darkness and map out the area. Her Cry of alert barely came in time as a shattering roar followed shortly with a large cat pouncing from the shadows onto Naoto. A Nizam Beast roared nearly deafening the poor girl before Kanji managed to get his arms around it's chained neck and strained to pull it off even an inch.
It was Chie who managed to knock the beast away with Haredo-no-Okami's heat wave. The large cat was knocked back with a snarl. Teddie let out a screech as another beast joined into the fray, finding him a suitable chew toy. This one, was not a Nizam Beast, this one was dark grey, with white hairs and it looked incredibly old. This one was an Enslaved beast.
Yukiko managed to pop Teddie out of it's mouth by setting the beast ablaze which seemed to be it's weakness. As it lay stunned Yukiko called upon Sume-Okami to heal him and to heal the puncture wounds the shadow's teeth left.
Teddie quickly picked himself up with a bounce and gave an enraged roar, "Ooooo, you're going to pay for that!" he huffed stopping his foot and brandished his claws charging recklessly at it.
Meanwhile Naoto was recovering from the surprise attack as Rise did her best to heal her wounds as best as possible. Kanji called upon Takeji Zaiten to shock the Nizam Beast while Yosuke followed up with a strong Garudyne attack from Takehaya Susano-o which sent the beast back into shadows. Looking back Yukiko looked shocked as a triumphant Teddie stood upon the fallen body of the Enslaved beast before it dissipated from under him.
"Hey, are you ok?" Kanji knelt down to Naoto who was brushing herself off.
"I'm fine, really." she sighed fixing her hair meticulously, "Cats never liked me, besides I'm more of a dog person anyway." she tried to joke as she stood up.
Rise stood close by to keep her steady, "Careful Naoto." she whispered a word of caution as Naoto swayed slightly.
However, she simply brushed her hair back, "I said I'm fine, let's keep moving." she frowned and moved on, leading the others through the dark circus.
It was rather tiring and taxing on the team. Many more beasts awaited them along with Magical Magus and Wonderful Magus. Needless to say the team could see a circus theme going on here. That was all well and fine, but each time they moved onto a different section of the circus tent, the puppet of Souji would be waiting for them before moving on, each time a different scenario.
"Our hero was disappointed to find that his new school wasn't any better than his last, in fact the most interesting thing that happened was a murder investigation going on at the time of his arrival and a strange dream that called to him one night."
Here the area of the circus had no enemies oddly. It was only wide and open.
"Please avert your attention to the tight rope please."
As the team, did as they were told, Yosuke immediately felt sick and wanted to simply fall to the ground. Atop the high wooden beams connected by a taut rope were three familiar hanging bodies, those of Mayumi Yamano, Saki Konishi, and Kinshiro Morooka. Despite Rise's confirmation that they were simply puppets, it didn't help the fact that seeing even a puppet of Saki made Yosuke want to rush into the corner to rid himself of his stomach's contents. The puppets were too life-like for his liking.
"Our hero was then approached by some schoolmates and even seemed to make a friend,"
At this point large scaled versions of Chie, Yukiko, and Yosuke's puppets joined in with Souji's.
"One rainy night however, by mere curiosity of a circulating rumor, our Hero then discovered he had the power to enter the TV. Suddenly the tiny little town didn't seem so boring as now our hero was tasked with finding the culprit to the ongoing murders."
"Ugh, I never thought I'd hope for Souji to just be quiet." Chie groaned.
"I don't see the point he's trying to make. Just what the hell is going on here with all these puppet things?" Kanji huffed wiping his face of some grime that he was sure was shadow slime.
Upon reaching the sixth floor, there was a tent tarp dividing them from the next opening, pulling it back shadow Souji awaited them along with the puppet of himself.
"Congratulations on making it this far, you must really like the story because this is where it gets interesting." he smiled in a childish manner.
"Here our hero must save his friends from the monsters that manifested from their hidden feelings.," he patted the puppet's shoulder and it shuddered with soft clacks.
Then shadow Souji suddenly pointed in the team's direction, "The shadows that came from them threatened the hero's fun and so had to be eliminated immediately." he declared.
The team seemed taken aback, "Wha-? Does he think we're the shadow's?" Yukiko glanced around to make sure he wasn't pointing to anyone else.
"What the hell do you mean fun?! You thought all of that was fun?!" Kanji scowled shaking a fist in the shadow's directions.
Souji seemed surprised to be scolded, taking on an innocent demeanor for a split second before he donned a dark smile, looking at them from under his bangs with a sneer, "And what is I said I did?" he chuckled covering his mouth to hide his smile.
"You-! How dare you!" Chie cried surging forward toward the shadow and it's puppet.
However, just before she could land a solid punch to the shadow's face, the puppet but itself between them, sword in hand. Unfortunately for Chie, the sword was not made of wood, but of actual sharpened steel. Chie was luckily quick enough to the point where the blade only sunk itself into her hip rather than her chest where it was originally aimed.
Yukiko cried out and in a fury sent out Sume-Okami to light the puppet ablaze. Immediately the puppet flinched away making it's aversion to fire known. No surprise considering it being made of wood. As the puppet retreated Yukiko ran forward taking Chie into her arms and asking her persona to heal her already severe wound. With her unrivaled healing ability Chie's wound was sealed in a matter of seconds and looked as if there was never a gash in the first place.
Naoto frowned and pulled out her pistol and expertly fired several shots into the puppet, the damage being very little as the bullets seared right through the wood leaving only little holes. In retaliation the puppet quickly surged forward to Naoto, only to fake to the left and ram the blunt hilt of the sword into the abdomen of Yosuke who was knocked to the ground before the puppet then held the sword above it's head bearing it down on Teddie, the material being cut by the steel easily.
Kanji let out a roar as he pulled his fist back and put it into the puppet's wooden face, the damage being very little before the puppet counter attacked by swinging the sword his way which it was easily dodged.
Chie managed to sit up and jumped up angrily, "Oh you, you're gonna pay for that!"
Calling her persona Chie let out a roar as she balled up her fist and sent down God's Hand upon the puppet, the damage severe and causing the puppet to loose it's left arm. The puppet merely picked itself up nonchalantly and glanced at it's missing arm without a care before picking up the sword with it's remaining hand.
"Yukiko, hurry light it up!" Rise cried.
With a nod Yukiko tried once more to use Agidyne, however the puppet was quick and avoided fire at all cost.
"I-I can't hit it!" Yukiko growled trying one more time only to have her flames be evaded once more.
Yosuke then came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, Takehaya Susano-o behind him, "Try again, this time let me help."
Yukiko was quiet for a moment before she understood with a nod, "Let's end this!"
Sume-Okami raised her hand and set fire toward the puppet who was ready to dodge once more.
"Now! Go!" Yosuke cried out as his persona set a whirlwind toward the puppet who froze seeing both attacks coming toward it. A vortex of wind swirled around the puppet sucking in the fire and essentially creating a fire tornado from which there was no way out.
There was only a clatter and when the wind and fire subsided there was only ashes left in the puppet's place.
Everyone was silent, glancing at the ashes and the lone sword. Well that was over.
"Here Teddie, let me fix you up." Yukiko cooed softly walking over to Teddie who was holding his costume seams together desperately.
Once more she had her persona heal him up while Yosuke walked over and kicked up the ash, "The shadow got away." he muttered darkly.
"We'll catch up to him." Chie smiled confidently punching him in the arm.
Yosuke looked back at her and sighed with a shrug. But she was right, they had to catch up to Souji and save him. So what if he thought it was fun.. Actually it bother him a lot that he thought that. But hell, if Souji could accept him at his worst, he could do the same for him right? Everybody's got an ugly side, Souji apparently was no exception. He needed them now just like they needed him then.
With a new spark of determination Yosuke glanced up and nodded to himself. He looked to the team, who seemed ready to go, just as determined as he.
With one of his grins he thrust a knife into the air, "Well then what are we waiting for, let's go!" he shouted on before turning on his heel and running for the next area with Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Naoto, Kanji and Teddie following close at hand.
Despite their enthusiasm the next few floors really took a toll on them not physically, but spiritually, Yukiko had no more energy in her to heal anyone any longer and they were nearing the last remaining medicine in their inventory.
"I told you we should have gotten more healing items." Kanji murmured to Naoto who only rolled her eyes and stuck out her lower lip in a pout.
It wasn't until Rise warned them of a powerful energy beyond a curtain did Chie stop Yosuke.
"Hey now, are you sure we can handle this?"
"I can't heal you if we go in there." Yukiko frowned apologetically.
"I think we're all low on energy, there's no guarantee our personas will be able to manifest on our low energy levels." Naoto added.
Rise nodded, "Maybe it's best we go back and rest up for now. We can always start back at this area when we come back."
It made sense, if it were Souji he would have turned back. He wouldn't risk the safety of his team for a win. But Yosuke wasn't Souji, he just wanted to hurry and get this over with. He just wasn't as patient as their leader. But in a sense he wasn't going to risk his friends either. And so while it irritated him to come so close just to turn back, Yosuke heeded his comrades words and allowed himself to be led out of the crazed circus tent. It's not like they hadn't made this decision before.
As they left back for the main landing point, Yosuke glanced back only once at the tent and frowned. Oh he'd be back.