You're an idiot, Narukami, Yu thought, his head throbbing with pain, You just couldn't keep your mouth shut today, huh?

His room was bathed in darkness, the cloudy sky blocking out any moonlight from entering the window. His futon was just as uncomfortable as he remembered it being the previous night, but that was mainly due to the fact that he still hadn't finished unpacking.

You slipped up, he berated himself, frowning as the throbbing dulled, Let them talk, let them get bored, and be on your merry way. That is the plan. The plan you didn't follow.

He should have refused them, all things considered. It was standard first-day-of-school events, some student gets up the courage to talk to the "new kid," gets entertained by tales of life outside of the ass end of nowhere, then gets bored of it and never speaks to new student ever again.

Cynical, yes, but effective, all things considered. Leaving any potential "friends" with nothing to go off of meant that nobody grew close, making it all the easier when time came to leave again, as it inevitably did.

And what did you do, Narukami? Yu asked, lightly hitting his forehead with a fist, You spoke up, dangled a nice piece of cynicism in front of them, and now they'll try even harder to be friends with you since they pity you.

He wasn't entirely certain, however, and there was still the possibility of the Mario Sisters leaving him alone because of his slight outburst. Even he had to admit, that was a little cruel of him to say, but with luck they'd take it as him being callous. Callous was better than friendly, at least.

I should feel lucky I got off easier than that kid she ran into after class, he mused, recalling the vicious kick she had delivered to the student's more… sensitive parts, Although, that is still a possibility for tomorrow…

The throbbing in his head spiked once more, eliciting a small groan from his lips. The throbbing had started soon after dinner, becoming a constant noise in his skull after an hour had passed.

I must be coming down with something, his mind suggested through the pain, the spike causing him to grit his teeth, I felt the same yesterday. Maybe I caught something on the train ride over.

He laid there for a moment, trying to ride out the waves of pain until his mind was clear once more. After a few minutes, it was clear that he wasn't going to be able to think of a plan of action tonight, the noise in his skull increasing in intensity as the throbbing ate away at his mental functions.

Maybe I'll just sleep. Yu thought, I'll just try to avoid them tomorrow and hope for the best.

With luck, they'll forget I existed and everything can go back to normal.

The electronics section of the Junes department store was, as usual, quiet. Not many people in Inaba came to purchase televisions or stereos, after all. It was the one part of the store that was almost always dead silent, and that it was on that fateful Thursday following Yu's arrival in Inaba.

The silence was broken in an instant, however, as a low humming began echoing through the empty area.

Along the wall of dead, black televisions, one spontaneously lit, glowing dimly.

The intensity of both the light and the sound began to grow, almost in tandem, as the surface of the television rippled and buckled.

A head, covered in a mop of messy ginger hair cleared the surface of the television, flailing arms and torso following as a young man collapsed in a heap, his landing jostling free his pair of orange headphones.

Looking back at his passageway, he registered a green coat and brown hair before its owner crashed landed on top of him, causing him to yelp.

The pair got to their legs shakingly as a final head poked its way through, grey hair and grey eyes widened in shock. He stumbled forward, landing on his hands and knees in front of the two previous travellers.

"Just- just what in the hell was-?!" The ginger one stammered, slightly out of breath, "We were… we were in the TV!"

What the hell is right, Yu thought, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"I am so glad we made it out of there in one piece…" Chie added, leaning forward with her hands on her knees, "Those things almost killed us!"

"That was crazy." Yosuke continued, running his hands through his messy, orange hair, "We went inside of the TV-!"

"Calm down." Yu commanded, his tone firm, "We survived. That's what's important."

"Yeah, barely…" Their green companion noted, a grim look on her face, "Without that freaky light show of yours, Yu…"

"What even was that?" Yosuke asked, giving Yu a curious look, "That thing you summoned… that was a god, wasn't it?"

"I'm… not sure." Yu answered him, his stony exterior cracking, albeit slightly, as sweat rolled down his neck.

"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Chie added, looking over her shoulder, paranoia evident in her expression, "If we don't know anything about this… thing of yours or that world…"

How in the hell am I supposed to know? The silver haired student wondered, panic swelling within him, I can't even begin to understand what's going on.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, Yosuke and Chie staring at him with rapt attention.

"We need to stay calm and just go home." Yu stated, his voice wavering slightly, "If we just forget this all happened, we can go back to our normal lives and this will never affect us again."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Yosuke quipped, swallowing hard, his voice rising to a yell, "How in the hell are we supposed to forget a near death experience?!"

"By ignoring it, Yosuke." Yu replied, his brow creasing as the ghost of a frown settled upon his face, "If we focus on this, it will consume us."

Yosuke opened his mouth to reply, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He looked back at his green-coated friend as she looked at him with a mix of concern and pity.

"Let's just go home Yosuke." Chie reasoned, sounding tired, "We can talk about this tomorrow, arguing right now isn't going to do any good…"

He looked down, before glancing back up at the exchange student, a bitter look in his eyes.

"Fine. But tomorrow, we're gonna sit down, and you're gonna explain this all to me."

"I would if I could explain it, Yosuke."

The orange haired teen shook his head, scoffing at the exchange student's words. Without another word, he turned and left, pulling on his headphones as he went. Chie could only stare after him as he disappeared from sight.

She turned back towards Yu, staring at him with an odd sort of expression. To Yu, it seemed to be piercing straight through him, sending a feeling of dread and uneasiness coursing through him. Her expression shifted suddenly, turning stern.

"What is up with you?" She demanded, gesturing in the direction Yosuke went, "He's freaking out and you tell him to just forget about it?"

"...I-It's the sensible thing to do." Yu stammered slightly, taking a step back unconsciously, "If he keeps dwelling on it, he'll just make it worse…"

"Ugh, he's going to do that anyway!" She continued, covering her eyes with a hand, "It would've been better if you were just nice to him."

Yu looked down, his frown returning to his face as he stared at his shoes. He sighed as he turned away from his companion, the noise sad and hollow in the uneasy silence.

"You don't have to be a jerk, y'know."

He turned back, glancing up at her eyes for a moment, her irises burning with a fire unlike anything he had seen before. The intensity of her frowning gaze caused him to shrink back, looking down once more.

"It's just easier this way." He replied, his voice quiet.

Without waiting for a response, without even looking up to see her reaction, he turned away and walked out of sight.

Author's Note:

Alright, it's tomorrow, time for the actual author's note.

In today's episode, we introduce Yosuke (sort of) and also show off the fact that this story will be from different characters' points of view. Yu feels funny, we see the aftermath of the TV World, and drama starts to brew between the soon-to-be Investigation Team.

Anyways, I wanted to focus less on the dungeon exploits and more on the characters, which is why I time-skipped to them exiting the TV World. That section has been covered up, down, left, right, sideways, and upside-down by the members of the Persona fandom, and it's pointless for me to write it in with my style just to have it there. Cleaner to just skip it. As a side note, the first scene was originally going to be the end of the first chapter, but I moved it in order to preserve the flow. I'll just stick to one viewpoint a chapter from now on, I think.

Now for some bad news, I'm gonna get really busy during these next two weeks, so do not expect an update until at least February. Maybe I can squeeze in something right before the end of January, but no promises. College prep and midterms are not good when combined.

Sentinel07 - Glad to see you like it so far. Just don't overexert yourself, okay? You'll get tired with how much you're typing.

Dicsy Peter - It's a bit more complicated than just cold, I think. It's hard to tell from just two chapters, but Yu is more troubled than cold, he just seems that way through Chie's eyes at this point. Will he stay that way? Probably not.

Profesaaaa - That's the plan at this point. Gonna keep pumping 'em out as soon as I can, don't worry.