'Hello, welcome back everybody. Without further ado, let's begin. Hit it machine!'

The StoneMasked Taliesin doesn't own Persona 4. Atlus does. He only owns the original characters and ideas

'This thing is very useful, isn't it?'

It is rather useful

Chapter 4: Enter the TV

Souji

His morning walk to school was not nearly as peaceful as before. He was too busy thinking about what happened yesterday night. To his surprise, the Midnight Channel actually worked. And he had almost gotten swallowed by his TV. That had also happened. Which left him with a question-How the hell had he put his hand in the TV? He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't hear someone calling him at first.

"Hey, Souji, wait up!".

He turned around, and Chie ran under his umbrella.

"Sorry, I don't have my umbrella anymore, so I hope you don't mind".

He raised an eyebrow. "What happened to your umbrella?".

She hesitated. "Well...I was watching a kung-fu movie yesterday, and I tried to copy one of the moves in it with my umbrella, but...I broke both the umbrella and the shogi".

He resisted the urge to laugh and instead just smiled, shaking his head. They walked for a while, before Chie suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?".

"W-Well, we're really close right now...", he had noticed that, "so I think I'll just run ahead", she said hurriedly.

He internally smirked. He knew exactly why she had said that, so he decided to have some fun.

"Okay then, let's race!", he said with a grin.

Chie looked at him in a mixture of confusion and shock. "Huh? There's no need for both of us to get drenched"

"Which is exactly why you should stay under the umbrella", he said seriously. Chie looked at him for a moment, before smiling.

"Okay". And so they continued to school.

Yosuke approached him after school, with an uncharacteristically serious face.

"Hey, um...Well it really isn't important, but...last night on TV...", Yosuke struggled to find words. Just then, Chie appeared.

"Hey Yosuke, did you hear the rumors? Apparently Saki-Senpai was the one who found the body".

"Really?", Yosuke asked, surprised," Maybe that's why she was so down yesterday".

At this point, Yukiko, who had been packing up, got up to leave.

"Are you going back to the inn?", Chie asked her. Yukiko nodded.

"Yeah".

As Yukiko left, he noticed that her shoulder's were slumped. Apparently Yosuke noticed too.

"Yukiko-san seems more tired than usual". "They must be running her ragged", Chie said with concern.

She turned to them. "So...did you see 'it' last night?", she whispered.

"If you mean the Midnight Channel, then yes", Crystal said matter-of-factly, leaning in her chair behind him.

"You saw it?"

"Yup"

"What about you guys?", Chie asked Yosuke and himself.

"Yeah, I saw it"

"Me too".

"What about you?", Yosuke asked Chie. She pursed her lips.

"Yeah, I saw a girl with shoulder length hair. I think she was wearing our school uniform...But what does that mean? My soulmate's a girl?"

"Hey that's the same thing I saw!", Yosuke exclaimed.

"Me too", Crystal chimed in.

Chie looked confused. "Wait, you guys saw the same image? Does that mean we share a soulmate?".

"Isn't that against the rules?", he said dryly.

"What about you? What did you see?", Chie asked him. He hesitated. Should he tell them about what had happened yesterday? Against his better judgment, he decided to tell them.

For a minute, they were silent. Then, Chie made a sound in between a snort and a laugh.

"What?", he asked flatly, knowing fully well how absurd he sounded.

"Weird voices aside, what was that part about the TV? You must have fallen asleep, huh?".

Chie was now fully laughing.

"I like the part where you got stuck because your TV was too small. Very realistic".

He looked at Crystal, who had been oddly silent during the whole story. He was surprised to see that she was looking at him thoughtfully.

"Speaking about TVs, I was thinking about buying a new one, so I can watch my kung-fu movies"

"Well you're in luck. Junes is having a sale in the electronics department".

Yosuke turned to him. "Maybe they'll have a TV that you can fit in", Yosuke said jokingly. He glared at him. Yosuke and Chie continued to chuckle on the way out of the class.

Florence was waiting by the shoe lockers. He followed them out of school. They walked to Junes, Chie and Yosuke talking, while the others remained mostly silent. He glanced at Crystal. She still had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What about you?", he asked her.

She looked at him, startled.

"Huh?"

"Do you believe me?".

He knew it wasn't a dream, no matter how weird it was. She looked at him for a moment.

"Maybe"

"You actually believe me?", he said, surprised.

"Well, we won't know until we try it out, yeah?", she told him.

Florence interrupted their conversation.

"What are you guys talking about?".

He told him. All Florence said was a thoughtful "hmm". As they entered Junes, he wondered why they believed him.

"Here we are", Yosuke announced.

True to his word, there was a sale in the electronic department. They stood in front of a giant flat screen TV.

"Wow, that is one huge TV!", Chie exclaimed.

Chie and Yosuke glanced at each other, before going up to the TV and tapping the screen.

" Nope, can't go in", Chie said with a grin.

"Go to hell", he muttered, though he was smiling.

"Though, you would just go out the back, since it's a flat screen", Yosuke said jokingly.

Both Chie and Yosuke laughed. Then, Chie saw the TV's price tag.

"What kind of person would buy this!? I can't afford it!"

"I should have asked you what you meant by cheap. How about that one over there?", Yosuke said, guiding Chie to another, smaller TV.

Crystal prodded him with her elbow.

"What?"

"Well? Let's see if you can go inside", she said, gesturing to the TV.

"We won't know for sure if it's possible unless you try", she said, a spark of curiosity in her eyes.

He nodded, and walked up to the TV. Would it really work? He reached out and put his hand on the TV screen...and watched as his hand disappeared into the TV. Crystal and Florence were on his side instantly.

"Woah", was all they said.

At this point, both Chie and Yosuke noticed that his hand was inside of the TV.

"What are you doing!?"

"How are you doing that!?".

Ignoring them, he turned to Crystal.

"I'm going to see what's inside".

Ignoring Chie's hushed yell of "Don't do it!", he went inside.

What was the inside of a TV like? Surprisingly spacious. And very empty. All the sudden, he felt something stir next to him.

"Huh. Kind of expected more".

He glanced to see Crystal right next to him.

"I didn't expect it to be this empty".

"What do you mean empty!?", they heard Chie yell, though her voice was distorted.

Yosuke started to yell about the bathroom or something. He ignored them and looked deeper into the TV, trying to see past the fog.

"Can you see anything?", Crystal asked.

"Nope. You?"

"Absolutely nothing".

He suddenly heard a yell from outside, felt something collide against him, and he fell into the TV with everyone else.

Florence

He hit the ground. Hard. Ignoring the pain, he got up and looked around. All he saw was thick fog. And everyone else sprawled around the ground. His sister had fared the fall the best, curling into a ball and rolling on the ground before springing back up. Everyone else...

"Gah!"

"Chie, could you please get off me?"

"Yosuke. Move your hands. Now!".

Yosuke paled, before scrambling off of Chie, who in turn leapt of Souji, who calmly got off the ground.

"W-Where are we? There's nothing like this in Inaba, is there?".Chie's voice echoed.

"Hell no!", Yosuke said.

"Where ever it is, it's pretty big", his sister noted.

"It kind of looks like a studio...", Souji said uncertainly.

"It's hard to see with all this fog...Or is it smoke?", Chie asked. She turned to the rest of them.

"What should we do?".

"Maybe we should look around?", Souji suggested.

"Huh? B-But we need to get home and-!". Chie turned around, only to turn back towards them again.

"W-Wait. Which way did we come in from? I don't see a way in...or out!".

He looked around. She was right. There didn't appear to be any exit way of any kind.

"What? That can't be right! H-How could that be!?", Yosuke said alarmed.

"I don't know! Don't ask me!", Chie yelled at him. She hugged herself.

"I can't take this anymore, I wanna go home!", she yelled, her voice on the edge of panic.

"Chie, calm down. We'll be fine", he said, putting as much Calm as he could muster.

"Florence is right Chie. Panic won't get us anywhere right now", Souji said firmly.

Chie looked at both of them for a second before taking deep breaths.

"So, what do we do now?", Yosuke asked.

"Well, how bout we find a way out? If there's a way in, there's a way out", Crystal said.

Seeing that no one was disagreeing with her, she spun around in place, looking around, before pointing in a random direction.

"This way!", she declared.

"Why that way?", Yosuke asked.

"No reason. I just chose randomly".

Crystal

She lead the rest of them down the path. The visibility was almost non-existent. She had no idea where they were going. But it was better than just sitting still. She didn't even know what was around them. For all she knew, she could be leading them in circles. Fortunately, it soon became apparent that she wasn't.

The fog became thinner and thinner, and she could see a bit. And they were in a vastly different place from before.

"What is this place? It feels different from where we are before...", Chie noted.

She put her hand on the wall next to her. It was stone. Brick to be specific. She smiled. She concentrated and tapped the wall, listening carefully.

"It's a building of some kind", she said.

"Yeah, it looks like a building...Damn it, this fog is so thick I can barely see", Yosuke groaned.

"Guys, I think I see something up ahead", her brother said, pointing forward.

They walked forward, and found a swirly black and red portal. She stared at it for a moment. Uhh...

"What is it?", Chie asked.

The girl had gotten over her panic, and was looking at the portal with interest.

"It looks like a portal...", Souji noted. Chie rolled her eyes.

"Well, duh. I mean, what do we do about it?".

"Well, I'm definitely not touching it!", Yosuke said.

Souji looked at the portal for a moment, before putting his hand through, much to Yosuke's annoyance.

"It's safe", he announced.

"D-Dude! Seriously, stop doing that!", Yosuke spluttered.

Souji ignored him, walking through the portal, and she quickly followed him.

"It's a dead end, there's no exit!", Chie cried out.

They were in a small room. At first glance, it just seemed to be a regular bedroom. And then she noticed the posters on the wall, each of the same person, sans the face. And then there was the yellow and red paint (she hoped it was paint) splattered across the walls.

"This room is pretty creepy", Souji noted.

"Yeah, it just gets creepier and creepier the further we go...", Yosuke said quietly. Then he groaned loudly.

"Argh! I can't hold it any longer! My bladder's going to explode!".

She tuned out the rest of his antics and instead looked closely at one of the posters. It looked like a woman, wearing one of those dress thingies people wore here. Kimonos if she remembered correctly. Without the face, she couldn't tell who it was, though she wouldn't be able to either way. She was drawn out of her thoughts by Yosuke, who had stopped yelling.

"Dude...this chair and rope? That kind of arrangement is never good".

She turned around to see Yosuke staring at a chair that was under something that suspiciously looked like a noose.

"Is that a scarf?", Souji asked, pointing to the noose.

"C'mon! Let's go back to where we came from and look somewhere else for an exit", Chie said, eager to get out of here. Her voice became heavy and tired.

"I don't feel so well...". Souji frowned.

"Me neither", he said.

"Well now that you mention it, I don't feel so well either...", Yosuke added.

She frowned. Other then a slight fatigue, she felt perfectly fine. She looked at her brother. He had a puzzled look on his face.

"Well then, let's go", Souji said firmly. He walked out and lead the way back.

Florence

They made their way back to the beginning area, but they still hadn't found an exit. He was sorely missing his regular form. His powers would have been really helpful about now. Though, even if he had them, he wouldn't be able to use them in front of the others. Chie tensed next to him suddenly.

"Hey, did you guys see that!?".

He turned to where she was looking, and saw a figure standing in the fog.

"Is someone out there?", Souji said loudly.

For a minute, the figure remained unmoving. Then it walked towards them, coming into focus, and was revealed to be... what looked like a toy bear with blue fur, wearing a red and white clownish costume. It had a large zipper around it's neck, and was shorter then everyone else. He blinked. This was...new.

"What is it? Some sort of monkey, or a bear?", Chie asked, confusion in her voice.

"That's what I want to know. Who are you guys?", the bear(?) said, taking everyone by surprise.

"Wait, it can talk!?", Chie said. Then she set her face into a glare and set herself in what looked like a battle pose.

"What are you! You wanna fight?", she yelled. In response, the bear(?) cowered in fear.

"Wahh! Can't you tell? I'm a bear. And don't yell at me!", the bear said. He had a very young sounding voice.

"Hey, calm down", Souji told the bear. The bear stopped cowering.

"I don't want to fight. I just want you guys to leave", he said plaintively. The bear didn't seem to notice the looks of confusion given to him.

"Someone's been throwing people in here, and I want them to stop!", he said.

"What do you mean?", his sister asked. The bear turned towards her.

"I just want to live here, like I always have, but ever since someone's been throwing people in here, my home's becoming a mess. I just want to live here peacefully!", the bear wailed.

"Then what do you want with us?", Yosuke asked.

"I want you guys to leave", the bear said.

Yosuke became angry.

"Well, we want to leave too, but there's no way out!".

The bear became annoyed. "That's why I'm going to let you out!".

"I keep telling you, we can't get out-wait, what?".

The bear stomped his foot, and three televisions appeared in front of them. He blinked again. The bear walked around them, and started to push them into the TVs.

"H-Hey, watch it!", cried Chie.

"Stop pushing!", Yosuke complained.

But he pushed all of them through the TV, and outside.

"Huh? Is this...?", Chie asked.

"Did we make it back?", Yosuke asked.

"We did. It's Junes", he replied.

They were on the floor of Junes. Souji and Crystal got up. Souji helped Chie up, while his sister helped him up from off the ground. The store intercom turned on and an announcement about some sort of sale came on.

"Crap, it's already that late?", Yosuke asked.

Then he did a double take.

"Hey look at that!"

"Look at what?", his sister asked.

Yosuke pointed to a poster on the wall."Now I remember where I saw that poster before".

The rest of them looked over to where he was pointing. And it was the poster they saw inside the TV, only complete.

"Hey, I see it now. I couldn't tell without the face, but that's Misuzu Hiragi", Chie said.

"Who?", his sister asked.

"Misuzu Hiragi's a famous enka singer. Her husband, Governor Namatame, was in an affair with the announcer, Ms Yamano", Souji told Crystal.

"Does that mean that that weird room had something to do with that Yamano lady's death?", Yosuke asked.

"Maybe...wait no! We got to stop thinking about this. I'm gonna wipe what happened today from my brain. I don't think my heart can take anymore", Yosuke said.

"I'm feeling a chill too. Let's go home and rest", Chie said exhaustedly.

Souji

He went home. It was dark by the time he got there. He trudged into the house. Dojima and Nanako where already at the table, so he took a seat too.

"Hey, welcome back", Dojima said. He then looked at the table.

"Um, I doubt you would know anything, but...", he looked at him straight in the eyes, "have you heard anything about a student named Saki Konishi?".

He frowned. Saki was Yosuke's friend. "I met her once. I don't think she was at school today"

"Hmm, I see...To be honest...We got a call from her family. She's disappeared".

He frowned some more. She disappeared?

"She hasn't been found yet?", he asked. Dojima sighed.

"We've got people searching for her, but she hasn't been found yet".

Why would she disappear? Then he overheard something interesting from the television. Apparently, Ms Yamano had been staying at the Amagi Inn. He tuned out the rest of the TV report. He was about to eat his dinner, when he sneezed.

"Are you sick?", Dojima asked him. And he did feel under the weather, though he knew it was because of that TV world.

"You're probably still adjusting to the new environment. Nanako, would you get some cold medicine?"

Even though he insisted he was fine, Nanako still gave him the medicine. Still exhausted, he went straight to bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep.