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Chapter 3:Junes and the Midnight Channel

Souji

He expected his morning to be normal. What he didn't expect was a bicker veering past him at breakneck speeds. He watched calmly as the bike rushed past him, before crashing into a winced before walking towards the poor sap. The bicker was currently stuck in a trashcan, rolling around. He watched the bicker roll around for a while, before taking pity.

He pulled the biker out of the can and helped him up, before realizing it was the same guy as before.

"Thank you so much", he said with a sigh, before looking at him in surprise.

"Hey, your the transfer student from the city aren't you?".

He nodded.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you. My name is Yosuke Hanamura. You can just call me Yosuke", the bicker said with a smile.

"Nice to meet you too". The shook hands and started walking. Eventually, the topic of the murder came up.

"You heard about the murder yesterday, right? What kind of sick person would hang someone from an antenna? Then again, you have to be pretty twisted to murder someone in the first place". Yosuke was about to say more, before he took a look at his watch.

" Oh crap, we're going to be late! You wanna ride? The bike may be a little squeaky, but it should be fine". Against his better judgment, he got on the bike, and they got to school on time without any major incident.

After surviving King Moron's long winded, though surprisingly illuminating class on philosophy, the bell rang, and thus another day of school was over. Yosuke had gotten up to stretch.

"So, how's Inaba?".

He considered the question carefully.

"It's nice, I guess. Still getting used to it" "Yeah, I mean you just got here. There isn't much to do here compared to the big city, but there's that certain something you can't get anywhere else. The air's clean, the food's great. Oh, you know what the local delicacy is?". He shook his head. Yosuke smiled. "It's grilled steak! Like that's anything special! We can go get some later, I know a place that sells them for cheap". As if drawn by the world, Chie popped out of nowhere.

"Hey, what about for me? No apologies for my 'Trail of the Dragon'?" "Ugh. You always come around when I talk about food...", Yosuke groaned. "What about you Yukiko? don't you think he should treat us too?". Yukiko shook her head. "I'll pass", she said, getting up, "I don't want to gain anymore weight. I have to help out at the inn today anyway"

"Wow Yukiko-san! You already started training to take over the business?" "It's not like that, I'm just helping when it gets busy". With that Yukiko said goodbye, before leaving.

"What about you Crystal? Don't you think Yosuke should treat me to some stea-", Chie said, before stopping. He turned and saw that Crystal was nowhere to be found. She must have left while they were talking. Chie turned to him. "What about you Souji? Should Yosuke treat us to some steak?". He shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure, why not?"

"Wait, what?".

"Let's get going", Chie said happily, ignoring Yosuke's complaints.

They were at the food court in Junes, a large department store. Chie was less than amused.

"They don't serve grilled steak here", Chie complained.

"Yeah, well once you got on the freeloader wagon, I had to change plans".

Chie sat down at the table with a huff. Yosuke came back with drinks.

"Anyway, here's to Souji. Welcome to Inaba". They all toasted.

"What's the occasion?". He blinked in surprise and looked behind him to see Crystal right behind him, looking at them in interest. He suppressed his surprise. Yosuke and Chie on the other hand...

"What the-!"

"Huh!?"

Crystal looked at the two of them in surprise.

"What's wrong?".

"What's wrong? You just appeared out of thin air!", Yosuke said.

Crystal blinked owlishly. "I was shopping when I saw you guys here, so I decided to say hi". He looked at what she was holding. A bag of food and a thick cookbook.

"Oh, Do you cook?", he asked.

"Not much, but I might as well learn right? What about you?"

"I like cooking, so I'm kinda good".

"Maybe you can help me then", Crystal said glumly, before shaking her head. "I got this cookbook though. This place has everything".

"Yeah, I haven't been to the local shopping district since Junes opened", Chie started, before suddenly stopping, glancing at Yosuke. Yosuke frowned.

"Come on, you can't blame it all on Junes, can you?", he asked. Yosuke turned to him. "I guess you don't know do you? My family isn't the most wanted here, because some of the smaller business's are getting less business". Yosuke shook his head. "Anyway, like I said before, Welcome to Inaba", Yosuke said, before getting up.

"Oh. I should probably welcome you too", he said to Crystal. Crystal looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Come on, I'll buy you a drink. It's on the house". Crystal shook her head.

"You don't need to do that"

"Nonsense. Come on".

Yosuke lead Crystal away, leaving him with Chie.

Crystal

"Here you go".

She took the cup of drink from Yosuke.

"Welcome to Inaba", he said with a smile.

She looked at the cup dubiously before sipping the straw. Immediately her mouth was filled with a sweet bubbly substance. She took a long sip.

"Thanks", she said.

Yosuke was about to say something, before his eyes suddenly widened.

"Wait here", he said, before walking away quickly. She watched as he walked up to a girl with long, wavy, light brown hair. He started to talk to her animatedly, but she was too far away for her to here. After a while, the girl walked away with a smile, and Yosuke came back, grinning like a maniac.

"Something good happen?", she asked.

"Huh? Oh, not much", Yosuke said, shrugging and acting nonchalant.

"Don't lie to me", she said with a grin, while they walked back to the table.

"Okay, okay. I might have gotten a movie date with Saki-senpai", Yosuke whispered. Unfortunately for him, Chie heard.

"Oh really? So you finally asked her?", Chie said teasingly.

"Wait, wha-!"

"The daughter of a local family liquor store and the scion of an invading chain. The flames of forbidden love!", Chie sighed dramatically. Souji snorted, before sipping his drink.

"Come on, it's not like that!", Yosuke said quickly.

"Oh really. Well, I know a way to test that. Ever heard of the Midnight Channel?".

They shook their heads.

"Well, if you turn on your TV at midnight on a rainy night, your supposed to see your soulmate".

"That's a bit farfetched, isn't it", Souji asked.

"Yeah, do you really believe that kind of stuff?", Yosuke added.

"Well, it's raining tonight, so let's all try it!".

"You mean you haven't tried it out yourself?".

Chie ignored Yosuke's question. "All of you better do it tonight, okay?".

They nodded. "Good", Chie said satisfied, sipping her drink.

After eating another dinner of noodles, she stayed in the living room. Her brother had already gone to bed a few minutes ago after staying outside for a while. She turned on the TV at 11:30. To pass the time, she took out her cookbook, reading through the recipes. She sighed. This was no use. She continued to read though.

She closed her book at five to midnight. She stared at the TV. After a while, she was starting to doubt the whole thing. Then the clock struck midnight, and the TV suddenly flickered to life. She sucked in a breath of surprise.

The figure on the TV was blurry and grainy, but is was most definitely a girl. Her soulmate was a girl? But, she couldn't shake the feeling that that wasn't it. She looked harder, the figure seemed familiar...but she place her finger on it. The clock struck 12:01, and the figure disappeared, leaving her to wonder what exactly happened.