Author Note [5-14-12]: Just to let everyone know, I now have a new account. I've had it for a little while, but I've recently become more active on it. Anyways, after the really long [and not exactly planned hiatus] I do have some ideas for this story. I'm going to try and continue it this summer, as I have been writing more anyways. When and if I do continue this story [which I have very high hopes of doing] I will be putting it on my new account. If you would like to know what my new account is feel free to send me an email at . [Sorry to be a pain and make you email me and what not, I had some problems in the past, and would like a fresh start while avoiding a few users if possible]. Thanks for sticking with me everyone! I hope to hear from you =]

Thanks for all the reviews and favorites and wahtnot. I really apreciate them! Before you read this I just wanted to warn everybody that there are major spoilers in this chapter, just so you know.

Souji was once again staying at the Dojima residence. Since he was going to the university in Inaba, he figured it would be easier to stay with his uncle. He also wouldn't have to pay rent since Dojima declined his offer. "You're welcome here anytime Souji," Dojima had said. "You helped me and Nanako out last time you were here, that more than makes up for it."

Souji walked through the front door at around 8:30pm to find Dojima and Nanako watching the news. Dojima was seated on the couch while Nanako was sitting on the floor.

"Welcome home big bro!" Nanako cheerily greeted Souji.

"Hi Souji," Dojima said. "How was you're day?"

Well I was attacked by shadows, and I'm worried that The Midnight Channel might come back, he thought, but instead he simply said "fine. How was yours?"

Dojima shrugged. "Uneventful, I just got back from work about an hour ago."

"How about your day Nanako?" Souji asked.

"Great!" she said enthusiastically. "I finished the doll Kanji taught me how to make!" she said proudly holding up a somewhat misshapen rag doll.

It looks like it has a tumor on its left arm, Souji thought. "That looks really good, you'll have to show it to Kanji," he said, opening the fridge.

"Thanks I will!"

Souji inspected the contents of the refrigerator. There was a cup full of something that look like tea, but probably wasn't, an odd, moldering lump of something, and a banana. Souji reached for the banana when he realized Dojima's name was written on it. I probably shouldn't eat that, last time I did…

Souji closed the fridge again. "I think I'm going to go to bed, I'm pretty tired."

Dojima nodded, "sounds good to me. Nanako, you should probably go to bed too since you both have your first day of school tomorrow."

"Aw, okay," she sighed. "'Night big bro!" she said to Souji who was heading up the stairs.

"Goodnight Nanako," he replied.

He walked into his room and set his alarm for 11:55pm so he would wake up in enough time to watch The Midnight Channel if it did reappear. If he hadn't been so tired he would have just stayed up until midnight, but he was now having trouble keeping his eyes open after a busy day.

Two suitcases were sitting on the couch, still unpacked. Souji opened the one containing his pajamas and changed into them. He turned off the light and lied down in bed. A few minutes after pulling the covers over himself and closing his eyes, he was sound asleep.

Souji had the odd feeling that he was falling. He was disoriented and he didn't remember falling from anywhere, or know where he was falling to. Suddenly, it stopped. There was no jolt at the end as he had expected, he had simply stopped falling and was now sitting down. He was seated in a violet car seat with a velvety texture, and when he looked up he realized he was inside of a limousine along with two other familiar people. Oh shit, he thought.

"Welcome, once again, to The Velvet room," Igor said. "You were such an interesting guest last time, it's good to have you back," he cackled.

Why does he always have to be so damn creepy, Souji thought.

"It's nice to see you again," Margaret said.

"It's, um, nice to see you too. So why am I here?"

Igor cackled again. "That is a very good question," he said. He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table with his hands clasped beneath his chin.

"I think you may be in for another interesting journey soon Souji."
Oh this is just wonderful, Souji thought sourly.

A small leather book had appeared on the table. The pages fluttered open to reveal

a contract with a space at the bottom for Souji to sign his name.

"I need you to sign this again Souji. It says…"

Souji cut in, "I know, I know. It's the one that say in responsible for all my

actions and choices right?"

Igor chuckled, "you catch on quickly," he said holding out a pen.

Souji took the pen from Igor's hand and signed his name on the paper. He closed

the book and set down the pen, both of which disappeared.

"So what is this journey you were talking about?" What's supposed to happen?"

"That, my dear friend," Igor said, "depends on you. Many choices will have to be

made; all leading to a different outcome. You will be responsible for making the right ones. You will meet many new people who will help you reach your goal, but many of your old friends will be by your side as well, some with new roles to play in this journey. There is one person in particular I would like to tell you about though."

"Who?" Souji asked.

"A few years before you last visit, I had another guest. His journey didn't end quite so happily as your own, but I think that you may be able to help him. If you do, I believe he will be quite useful on your journey since he had abilities similar to yours. In fact, you may not be able to complete your quest without him."

"What's his name?" Souji asked.

Igor laughed, "You'll find out soon enough."

Souji sighed, great; he's going to be vague as usual.

"Also, I believe there may have been someone you wanted to help, someone you felt was punished unfairly during your previous journey?"

"Adachi?" Souji asked.

Igor gave no indication that he had heard him. "If you make the correct choices, you will have the opportunity to save him. He may even choose to help you in your next quest."

Souji sat there taking everything in. He was still hardly able to believe he was back in The Velvet Room about to begin a new journey, and on top of that, he had learned about all of this new information.

"Ah yes, and before I forget, all of the options you had in The Velvet Room

previously are once again available to you."

Margaret held a key out to Souji. "Take care not to lose this, it will allow you to return here whenever the need arises."

Souji took the key as his surroundings began to fade.

"I'll be seeing you again soon," Igor said and cackled.

As Souji began to return from the dream world back to the real life, he had the odd feeling that someone was staring at him. He opened his eyes to find Nanako's face a few inches away from his own. "Holy shit!" he yelled and pulled away from Nanako. When Souji looked at her again, he realized she must be sleepwalking.

"Souji, Daddy, are you two fighting again?" she asked.

"Um, no," Souji said. "Go back to bed."
"Okay," she said in a dazed tone. "But only if you promise not to eat my pudding anymore."

"I-I promise." How'd she know it was me? Souji wondered as he watched Nanako slowly wander back to her own room.

Souji sat up and looked at the clock to see that it was 11:45. Fifteen more minutes until The Midnight Channel, he thought.

Souji changed the setting on his alarm so it would wake him up at 6:00 and walked over to the couch. He turned on the lamp in his room and waited to see if anything would appear on the TV screen.

Souji picked up the newspaper that was lying on the table and began to skim through it. He began reading one of the stories that caught his attention. It was a story about Apathy Syndrome, and whether or not it was making a comeback. He vaguely remembered hearing about Apathy Syndrome about five years ago. It hadn't really hit where he was living at the time, so he hadn't known much about it. He saw that there had been five new cases of what doctors said was possibly Apathy Syndrome. Souji finished the story and placed the paper back on the table. It's probably the media just trying to make a big deal out of nothing, he thought.

The clock now said it was 11:58, just two more minutes until midnight. Souji watched the clock for the remaining two minutes. Finally the clock changed to 12:00 and Souji directed his gaze towards the TV screen. He saw that it still remained blank. He waited a few more minutes to see if anything would appear, but the screen stayed blank. With a sigh, he stood up and turned of the lamp before retuning to bed.

Souji still wasn't confident that The Midnight Channel wouldn't reappear; for one thing it wasn't raining, and for another Igor had called him back to The Velvet Room, promising a new journey.

Souji pulled the covers back over himself, and fell asleep once again.

Six hours later Souji woke up to the sound of his alarm. As he reached up to turn it off, he heard the sound of laughter coming from the direction of his couch. He looked in the direction of the noise to see Igor sitting on his couch cackling. Souji began to scream when he felt someone shaking him.

"Big bro! Big bro, wake up!" he heard Nanako's voice say. "You slept through your alarm."

He opened his eyes to see Nanako standing over him, shaking his shoulder. Once Nanako saw he was awake, she let go of his shoulder. Souji pushed the covers off of himself and got out of bed.

"Were you having a nightmare or something?" Nanako asked. "You were mumbling something and you looked really scared when I came in."

Souji glanced towards the couch to see that there were now only pillows on it. "You don't even want to know," he mumbled.

Nanako shrugged, "well okay. Breakfast will be ready in about twenty minutes so come downstairs whenever you're ready."

Souji nodded and Nanako walked out of his room. He pulled the clothes he wanted to wear out of his suitcase and headed towards the bathroom to take a quick shower, giving his couch another glance as he walked out of his room.

With his hair still wet, Souji headed downstairs to eat breakfast. It smelled like bacon and eggs as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Nanako was already seated at the table eating along with Dojima who was reading the paper and drinking a cup of coffee. Souji sat down in front of his plate which was already prepared for him. "'Morning Souji," Dojima said.

"Good morning," Souji replied. He began to eat, and watched the weather report on the TV.

"Are you excited about going to college for the first time big bro?" Nanako asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Souji said. "You're going to be in third grade this year right?"
Nanako nodded.

"Are you ready to be going back to school again?"

Nanako shrugged, "I dunno. I'm going to miss being on break."

Dojima laughed "You were so excited about going back to school last year

Nanako, what happened?"

Nanako shrugged again "It's kind of boring."

Dojima stood up from the table, "Hang on a second," he said. "I have something that should cheer you up Nanako. I've got something for you too Souji." He walked into the living room and grabbed a bag that was sitting next to the couch. "Since you've been sewing a lot lately, I got you this," he said handing Nanako a sewing kit.

Nanako's eye lit up. "Wow! Thanks!" she said and began to open the box so she could see all of the sewing utensils inside.

"And for you," he said to Souji pulling another box out of the bag, "I bought this." He handed the box to Souji who saw it was a new phone.

"Thanks," Souji said. "I really appreciate it, but you shouldn't have spent this much money on me."

"It's no big deal," Dojima said waving him off. "Besides, you told me your old phone broke the other day. I know you're going to be staying here, but you're probably not going to be home that much since you'll be busy with school. I want you to be able to call us anytime you need to."

Souji nodded, "Thanks I will." He began to open the box when the door bell rang. He quickly pulled out the phone and the car charger since he was going to leave. He walked over to the door and pulled it open to see Yosuke standing out side.

"You ready to go Souji?" he asked.

"Yeah, just hang on a second," he said letting Yosuke inside. He walked over to the couch and grabbed his backpack. While Nanako and Dojima greeted Yosuke. He headed back towards the front door with his backpack over his shoulder and his new phone in his hand. "I'll see you later," he said to Nanako and Dojima.

"Have fun at school!" Nanako said.

"Enjoy your first day!" Dojima added as they walked out the door.

"College man! College!" Yosuke shouted when they sat in his car.

Souji laughed, "I know I can't believe it!"

"More freedom, better classes, and most importantly, more hot girls!" he said as they pulled out of the drive way.

Souji rolled his eyes and plugged his phone into Yosuke's car.

"Whoa sweet, is that a new phone?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna have to let it charge before I can use it."

"Let me see it anyways," Yosuke said taking the phone out of Souji's hand.

Souji looked out the car window to see they were headed straight for a parked car. "Watch where you're going!" he yelled and grabbed the wheel so they wouldn't run into the parked car.

"Ah shit!" Yosuke yelled and threw the phone in Souji's lap. "Whew, that was close. Thanks man." He said and laughed.

Souji shook his head, "You almost killed us and you're laughing."
"Hey, for one thing we're not dead, for another we're going to college! Nothing's going to get me down today!" he said cheerily.

Souji couldn't help but smile. He listened to Yosuke happily talk about how great college was going to be when he remembered he was supposed to ask about The Midnight Channel. He opened his mouth to ask, but then changed his mind. If Yosuke had seen anything on the TV last night, he would have said something about it by now. Besides, he didn't want to bring Yosuke, who was now back to the topic of hot girls, down from his good mood by asking about it. Instead Souji pushed the thought out of his mind and talked to Yosuke about all the great things that would happen this year.

Yes, I'm one of those people who doesn't blame Adachi for what happened. In my opinion it was Izanami's fault, plus his shadow kind of took him over, so yeah. Anyways thanks for reading. I hope to have the next chapter up soon. Oh, and don't forget to review!