A/N: Hey Guys! Sorry it took a while, this chapter turned out a little longer than I usually write for. I hope the additional length helps make up for the time. Anyway, I'm glad to see people are interested and am thankful for you're favorites alerts, and especially my one review! It means a lot and I appreciate it! Anyways, if you like the story please leave a review with what you like, critiques etc. Well I'm done with my self pimping, enjoy!
Chie glared daggers at Yosuke, watching him with unequaled anger as he made small talk with Yu. Faintly she picked the words 'my treat' and 'steak.' The mention of steak was enough to momentarily cause her anger to subside, but its lingering traces prompted her to approach Yosuke. "Hey," she called out, "After what you did yesterday I think you should treat Yukiko and me for steak too!" She looked at her best friend for support as was surprised to see that she appeared to be a little crestfallen.
"Umm… no thanks," the raven haired girl said meekly. "I don't want to gain anymore weight. And besides, I need to go help out at the inn today." She gathered her things and turned towards Chie before leaving, "I'll see you later Chie…"
"Aww, okay," Chie replied, disappointed. She turned to Yosuke, narrowing her eyes as she did. "Don't think this means you're off the hook!"
"Heh… right…." Yosuke said rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Valuing his future capacity to have children, he didn't argue any further with martial artist.
They had ended up at Junes, much to Chie's chagrin, and she wasted no time in making her displeasure known to Yosuke. "Hey! This isn't steak!" She complained, eying the dish in front of her. Oh well… meat is meat I guess.
"Well, once you hopped on the free-loader train I had to change my plans," Yosuke quipped, rolling is eyes at the meat aficionado. It looked as if he was about to continue further when his gaze turned to the other end of the food court. "Senpai…" he said under his breath. "Well, you two enjoy," Yosuke said, rising out of his seat. "I have business to attend to." He briskly made his way to a high school girl nearby.
Yu looked at the boy quizzically. "Is that his girlfriend or something?" He asked.
The ridiculousness of the proposition was almost enough for Chie to choke on her food. She swallowed and replied, "Pshh, in his dreams. That's Saki Konishi, a third year at our school. Her family runs a liquor store at the shopping district, but it looks like she's been working part time here. Most likely weaseled into it by Yosuke." Chie rolled her eyes at the thought.
Saki, meanwhile seemed to be more interested in Yu than whatever Yosuke had to say, much to his chagrin. She walked over greeting Yu with a smile. "You're that transfer student right? I'm glad Hana-chan is finally making some friends!" Yosuke blushed in embarrassment at both the nick name and the thinly veiled insult. He was about to protest when Saki continued, "Hana-chan's a nice guy, but he can be a bit nosy at times. You got to tell him right to his face when he's annoying you."
Like that'd do anything, he still bugs the hell out of me. He still owes me another Trial of the Dragon.
Yu came to Yosuke's defense however, saying, "Nah, he's a great guy."
Saki laughed at Yu's comment. "I know, I'm just kidding. Play nice, Hana-chan!" She waved goodbye to Yosuke and the others then proceeded to exit the food court.
"Saki has a little brother. She pretty much treats me the same way," Yosuke sighed.
"Oh I see," Chie said, grinning mischievously. This opportunity was just too good pass up. "You don't want her treating you like that."
"Wha- no it's not like that!" Yosuke protested, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Chie went on mercilessly, "The daughter of a local store, the scion of an invading retail chain! Ohoho! The flame of forbidden love!"
"Hey quit it!" Yosuke said, even redder than before.
Suddenly an idea crossed Chie's mind. "Ah don't worry Yosuke, I got just the thing for your lovesick heart! Have you guys heard of the Midnight Channel?" Yosuke and Yu shook their heads. "They say on rainy nights that if you look on a TV screen your soul mate will appear!"
Yosuke pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Man, for a second I thought you were going to say something actually helpful." He looked up at her in disbelief. "How could you get excited about such a childish urban legend!"
"Hey, it's true! I heard a guy the other day saying something about that announcer lady being his soul mate!"
"Meaning you haven't tried it either. Man this is so dumb," Yosuke said dubiously.
"Well if it's just some dumb legend then you won't mind trying to watch it tonight!" Chie challenged.
"No way, why would I waste my time doing something like that?" Yosuke complained.
"What are you? Scared of the 'childish urban legend,'" Chie mocked, doing her best imitation of Yosuke.
"Dude! I do NOT sound like that!" Yosuke shrugged in defeat. "Fine I'll watch your stupid midnight channel…"
Yu had been silent for the whole conversation. "Hey," Chie piped up, "You're getting in on this too right?"
Yu shrugged nonchalantly, "Sure why not?"
"Alright it's settled! Everyone's watching the Midnight Channel tonight!" Chie said with a tinge of excitement.
"I don't get why you're so excited over something so stupid," Yosuke sighed.
"What! It isn't stupid! You haven't even…"
Yu merely sweat dropped as the two got into another heated argument.
Chie set aside the still cooking instant ramen as she got comfortable in her room. She approached her window as the rain pattered against it. Rain. Check. Soba. Check. Now all I have to do is wait. She looked anxiously at her clock. Still a couple of minutes till midnight… well good thing I came prepared! Time to dig in! Chie walked back to her desk where her now steaming ramen waited for her, waiting to be devoured. Chie licked her lips in anticipation as she broke apart the chopsticks that she had brought with her, proceeding to peel off the plastic lid, the tantalizing aroma of soba reaching her nostrils.
As she began to eat with fervor Chie let her mind wander. I wonder if this thing will actually work. If it does really show your soul mate I wonder who mine will be? Maybe it'll be-
Chie's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of static on the TV. Slowly, a blurry image came into view. It looked like it could've been a high school girl! Come to think of it… she looks kinda familiar…Wait a second, does that mean my soul mate's a girl! What a load of crap! And to think I was kinda hoping… Chie sighed in confusion as she set aside her now finished soba and attempted to drift into an uneasy sleep.
Chie sighed; it had been another long day of one of King Moron's infamous 'sermons.' Remembering last night's events, she walked over toward where Yu and Yosuke were chatting. "Hey…" Chie began slowly. "Did you guys see it?"
"See what?" Yosuke asked, although he looked uncomfortable for some reason.
"Duh, the Midnight Channel you ditz!" Chie rolled her eyes at Yosuke's apparent ignorance of the situation. "How 'bout you Yu-kun? See anything weird?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Yu said doubtfully.
Chie couldn't help but become extremely curious at this answer. "C'mon, tell us! It can't be stranger than what I saw."
Yu looked down but began to speak, "I didn't just see things. First the midnight channel came on and I saw some girl or something. Then I heard a weird voice in my head. Something about 'opening the door.' Anyways, I unthinkingly touched the TV screen and my hand when completely through. Next thing I know I'm being sucked in to this thing! But apparently it was too small for me to fit, and I was able to pull myself out, at the cost of hitting the head on my work table." He rubbed the back of his head tenderly as he finished the story.
"Hey," Yosuke said, "I saw a girl too! How 'bout you Chie?"
"Yeah, I saw one too! She was in a high school uniform and had like shoulder length brown hair…"
"Wow, I wasn't able to get that much out of what I saw, but it sounds like we all saw the same person!"
"But what does that mean?" Chie asked, more confused than before. "Do we all have the same soul mate?"
"Never mind that!" Yosuke said irritably, waving his hands dismissively. "What's all this about voices and getting sucked into a T.V. Sounds pretty crazy if you ask me!"
"Oh yeah!" Chie piped up. "I liked the part when you said the T.V. wasn't big enough, pretty realistic story telling there! No way something like that could've happened though, must've been some crazy dream!"
"The back of my head begs to differ," Yu muttered, rubbing the back of his head again.
"Speaking of TVs, do they have anything at Junes Yosuke? My family's in the market for a new one. Hopefully they get a big one so I can watch my kung fu movies on the big screen! Hwa taa!" Chie cried out, adopting a martial arts stance.
Yosuke stared at Chie, dumbfounded for a moment. "Uh, yeah Junes is beefing up their electronics department this month." His gaze shifted over to Yu. "Who knows maybe they'll have one big enough for you to fit in!" Yosuke said jokingly.
Yu merely rolled his eyes in response, obviously annoyed that his friends didn't believe him.
"Well c'mon," Yosuke said. "Let's head over to Junes!"
"Yeah, alright!" Chie said excitedly. The prospect of seeing all her kung fu movies on a new, huge, high definition TV was just too good to pass up.
Yu sighed in response, but didn't mention any other of last night's events as he moved to get out of his seat.
"Whoa…" Chie marveled, staring at the gargantuan TV that stood before. It was bigger than any other TV that she had ever scene, and she quickly visualized how awesome Trial of The Dragon would look on the large screen. She looked over at Yosuke and gushed, "Man, this is awesome!"
"Yep," Yosuke agreed, "Flat-screens are definitely in now!"
"Yeah, I'll say," Chie agreed. Her eyes wandered over the price tag, and her eyes widened in shock. It would appear that the monstrous TV had an equally monstrous price tag to match. "Ouch, this one's way too expensive." She made an inquisitive glance at Yosuke. "Got anything cheaper, c'mon you gotta hook me up!" Chie pleaded.
"Dude!" Yosuke protested, "I can't just do that! What kind of TV was your family on the market for?"
"A cheap one," Chie answered simply.
Yosuke cleared his throat and motioned her to follow him, entering sales pitch mode. "Well, see here we have the latest in this line of televisions, just released this spring," Yosuke said in a dramatically intoned voice.
Chie examined the TV. Not as big as the other one, but whatever… let's see how much this one costs… Chie quickly moved to examine the price and groaned out loud. "Yosuke! That's way too many zeroes!"
"I guess I should've asked what you meant by 'cheap,'" Yosuke mumbled. "Hey Yu, are you…" Yosuke trailed off seemingly startled by something.
Chie turned around to have a look at what he was staring at. She saw Yu… putting his hand inside the TV they were looking at earlier. She looked at Yosuke in surprise, "What the… that isn't like, some new function of anything right?"
"Hell no…" Yosuke said, his eyes not leaving Yu. They both ran over to him unable to believe their eyes. "Alright man," Yosuke said nervously, "That's a nice magic trick, what's your secret?"
Instead of answering Yu placed both of his hands on the edge of the screen and pushed his head through. Yosuke and Chie both went bug eyed at the sight, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
"Huh, it seems empty, but spacious," Yu said calmly, as if sticking your own head into a TV was the most natural thing in the world.
"Empty?! Spacious?! What the hell man!" Yosuke yelled.
"Shhh, pipe down Yosuke, someone might come over here!" Chie hissed.
"Ohh man!" Yosuke said, unable to keep his composure. "My bladder can't handle this!"
"Are you serious? Gross!" Chie moaned.
They heard Yu snicker inside the TV.
"Dude what's your problem!" Yosuke said angrily. He unthinkingly pushed Yu, causing him to lose his balance and fall further into the TV.
"Oh shi-" Yosuke panicked and made a vain attempt to pull Yu back, only managing to get sucked in along with him.
Chie quickly moved to grab onto Yosuke, but found herself pulled into the abyss that lurked within. She was momentarily blinded then felt a falling sensation. She would have hit the ground, but she found her fall softened by… something.
"Uhh… Chie," Yu began.
Chie noticed that his voice sounded like it was coming from… beneath her? She looked down to find Yu, who was doing his best to maintain a blank expression. Chie practically leapt off him in shock. "Uhh… sorry about that heh…" Chie said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. She heard a loud groan next to her, and she noticed the supine form of Yosuke nearby. "Yosuke! This is all your fault!"
"What! My fault? I'm not the one that goes-"
"Guys calm down, we can play the blame game later," Yu cut in calmly.
"Yeah… you're right," Yosuke mumbled.
Yu noticing the state of his friends asked, "You guys alright?"
"Yeah I think so…" Chie replied, marveling at how well Yu managed to keep his composure. His presence had a strange soothing effect that wasn't entirely unpleasant.
Yu nodded in response. "Let's try to find a way out of here," Yu stated, wasting no time in getting straight to the point.
"Right…" Chie said, trying to stay calm despite the strange situation. She examined their surrounding. A thick fog enshrouded the area, making it hard to see anything that wasn't extremely close. She was able to make out that the area looked sort of like a studio, with a variety of lighting hanging above them. The floor had strange patterns on it shaped like those chalk body tracings like in one of those cheesy mystery shows. Looking further, she noticed that there was several other of these scattered about the floor nearby. Man… this place just gets creepier and creepier…
"C'mon," Yu said, gesturing them to follow him. "Let's go over here, maybe we'll find an exit."
"How do we know if we're going the right way?" Chie ask, a worried expression on her face.
"Worst case scenario, we just come back here and try something else," Yu said smoothly. It wasn't much of a plan, but nobody else had any better ideas. With no further objections, Yu began to lead Yosuke and Chie on a path he had discovered. As they wandered through the strange world, Chie couldn't help but feel that the scenery was eerily familiar for some reason, although she had never seen anything like the scenery before her, which consisted a haphazard arrangement of buildings and a dark sky filled with red streaks. The very aura of the place was perturbing to say the least, and the longer they were there the more uncomfortable Chie felt.
Finally they came upon a room; the walls plastered with desecrated posters and splattered with strange, yellow ooze. In the center of the room was a prominently placed chair with a noose suspended above it.
"Whoa, what's the deal with this place," Yosuke said. Taking note of the noose arrangement he took on a panicked stance. "Oh man, that kind of arrangement is never good…" He seemed to break out in cold sweat and started bouncing on his toes. "Argh! I can't hold it anymore!" He hurriedly walked over to corner and unzipped his pants, attempting to relieve his straining bladder.
"Eeeww!" Chie shrieked in disgust. "Are you really gonna do that right now!"
"Just turn around or something! I can't do it with you both watching!" Yosuke stood for several seconds, but relief never came. "Dammit…" He sighed. "I can't do it. Man if my bladder explodes it's you guy's fault!"
Yu seemed to be completely ignoring Yosuke's antics, examining the room. He had taken an interest in one of the posters, looking over it carefully. "I think I've seen this poster before…" He noted to no one in particular.
Meanwhile Chie had grown more and more freaked out by strange room. In addition, a wave of nausea and dizziness had swept through her and her head throbbed with a dull headache. She put her hand to her forehead in an attempt to relieve some of the pain and turned to Yu. "Umm, Yu do you mind if head back? This place is really creeping me out and I'm starting to feel kinda sick."
Yu nodded, and after nearly getting lost several times, they finally made it back to where they started.
"How the heck are we going to get out of here?" Yosuke groaned.
Suddenly a silhouette appeared, and it appeared to be getting closer by the second.
"Whoa!" Yosuke yelled, pointing at the approaching figure. "What the heck is that!"
Chie got into a martial arts stance, attempting to suppress her fear. The figure finally got close enough to make out clearly, revealing a strange blue creature dressed in a red suit.
"Who are you guys?" The creature asked, appearing not to be threatening despite the nature of the rest of the world.
The group nearly jumped in surprise at the creatures voice.
"It can talk?" Chie shrieked, getting more unnerved with each passing moment.
"Hey, what are you guys all doing in here?" The creature demanded. "Someone's been throwing people in here and it's messing up everything here!"
"Hey, stop yelling at us you stupid bear thing!" Yosuke yelled back, causing the creature to shrink away in fear.
"Yosuke, calm down… this thing might be our only way out." The bear seemingly noticing Yu was the most level-headed of the group hid behind Yu so as to avoid being the target of further angry outbursts.
Yu turned to face the creature, politely asking, "Excuse me, but do you know how to get out of this place? We kind of accidentally stumbled in here and are kind of lost?"
"Stumbled?" The bear-like creature said quizzically. "Were you guys pushed in too?"
"No, as I said before, it was an accident."
The bear eyed them suspiciously for a moment, then suddenly appeared to panic. "You guys gotta get out of here, it's dangerous!"
Yosuke, beginning to lose his patience hissed, "That's what we've been trying to do this whole time!"
The bear nodded quickly before tapping his foot on the ground several times. Out of nowhere a stack of old looking televisions appeared before them.
"Hurry!" The creature said urgently. "The shadows are coming!" He pushed them all to the TVs hurriedly.
"Whoa, what're you doing!" Yosuke said, panicking. Before they could argue further they were all unceremoniously squished through the small TV. When the group came to their senses they found themselves back in the Junes electronics department.
"Whoa…" Chie said in disbelief. "We're back…"
Suddenly, an announcement came on over the store's PA system, announcing a daily sale. Hearing this, Yosuke seemed to be startled. "Man, it's been that long!" He sighed. "Well I'm just glad we all made it out…" He put his hand to his forehead then turned to face Yu and Chie. "Well, I don't know about you guys but I'm beat. It's late and we should probably all be heading back home." Chie and Yu nodded in agreement and then exchanged their farewells.
As Chie exited the store she took notice of just how late it was. The sun had already set, and she hadn't contacted her parents in hours. Chie groaned mentally. How the heck am I supposed to explain this to my parents?
Chie slowly slide the front door to her house, hoping to create as little noise as possible. With any luck, her dad would still be out late working and her mother had gone to chat with other parents in the shopping district. The latter possibility, however, proved to be far too hopeful, as she was greeted with her mothers stern face as she wandered into the living room.
"Chie," she scolded. "Where on earth have you been all this time! I that you might be with Yuki-chan but when I called Amagi-san she told me that the inn was very busy and that they needed her to help at the inn!"
Chie quickly searched her mind for some kind of excuse. "W-well… uhh…" Her mother eyed impatiently, still waiting for an explanation. "You see…" Suddenly an idea popped into her head. Doing her best to gain her composure she cleared her throat. "Well, Yosuke and I figured we show the transfer student around. We… uhh… got kinda sidetracked and before we knew it, it was really late." There…that sounded pretty convincing.
Her mother seemed partially satisfied by the story. "Alright," She said reluctantly. "But next time you decide to run around with boys, call me when you think you're going to be late."
"Mom! It's not like that!" Chie protested.
"Of course not dear." Chie's mother responded, not seeming to buy into her objections to the contrary.
Chie sighed, too tired to argue the point further. She sluggishly walked to her room quickly rolling out her futon and lying down. Man, what happened today? Was it all some crazy dream? No, it seemed to real, and with Yu and Yosuke there too…Chie groaned out loud attempting to push the thoughts aside as she drifted into an uneasy slumber.