(I was gonna cut this part way but decided not to...)
Friday evening, you took a sturdy umbrella with you as you traveled back to the arcade. The rain was pouring heavily; you figured the Midnight Channel would appear. You tried not to let the thoughts of the TV world haunt you while you were with the others, but you were sure some of your teammates were thinking the same thing.
You knew to keep watch of the others at the arcade, as you didn't know when the next victim would be kidnapped or who it would be. You knew that Rage would watch over Emi, and that Steve was never alone when he frequently visited the arcade. Who would watch Gus and Alice, though?
You would figure out Gus after you asked Alice if you could walk her home. You confidently walked up to her while she was watching Devil Zukin and Emi play DDR.
"You... want to walk me home?" she asked. "Um, it's funny you ask that, 'cause somebody was already gonna walk me home."
Someone asked before you? But who? That aside, you told her you were relieved; you just wanted her to be safe.
She smiled, though you sensed she was uncomfortable. "Thanks for watching out for me, but you don't have to worry."
Did she want you to leave her alone...? You were sure she was giving that kind of vibe, so you nodded and walked away. It was strange... you never felt that kind of thing from Alice before. Perhaps she was still mad about Wednesday. You decided to give her more time to forgive you before bringing it up again.
That only left Gus. You weren't particularly happy about asking to walk another man home, but you knew Devil Zukin enjoyed watching people. Would she do this one favor?
After she finished her round, you asked her.
"Where will you be?" she asked suspiciously.
You figured you'd probably just go back with Steve and his friends. You told Zukin that the Emi and Alice were already being accompanied, and Gus was the last person you were concerned with.
"I see," she said. "Then I will stay by him."
With that, one of three things would happen: no one would get captured, someone would be able to see the criminal, or the criminal would go after someone else. Truthfully, you believed the last to be the worst case scenario; because if someone unrelated was kidnapped, you would be back to not knowing who to protect.
-.
On the bus, Steve was rambling about the games he played.
"The later levels were near impossible and took like three lives to get past them. I mean, the game was only a quarter for three lives, but I -had- to get that high score. Best two bucks I ever spent."
He was a gamer. What else would he spend two dollars on, anyway...?
"You getting any better at DDR?"
You thought you were. You didn't play as much as you wanted to, but you managed to get past a few level six songs on Basic. You wondered when you would be able to move onto Difficult, but you noticed that there were more arrows in between arrows in higher levels; those were rather confusing to try to read. Perhaps that's what your next step to improvement was: to get better at reading arrows.
"Yeah. DDR's all about that concept of hitting arrows with your feet, but when you boil down to it, it's just another video game. You gotta develop a strategy to get better, and the more you can predict the obstacles, the better you are. I'd play it, but I'm just not coordinated. I'd probably just play it on the controller or something."
He'd probably be pretty good, but you developed the belief that DDR on the controller was more like... controller revolution or something.
"Ha, I've heard that term before. They call it CCR."
Evidently, he knew more about DDR than you did.
During this conversation, you felt your phone vibrate. You apologized to your friend, but you were quite puzzled as to why anyone would call you when they just saw you at the arcade. You looked at the name; it was Zero. You answered the phone, despite knowing that the reception was terrible in the bus.
"Souji, it's... I tried ... sh... I..."
What was he trying to say? You interrupted him and said you could barely hear him, being in a bus.
He hung up.
-.
You got back to your dorm room about a half hour later. You decided to call Zero back, hoping that you wouldn't be a bother.
"What happened earlier?"
He actually snapped at you. You quickly told him that your phone wasn't picking up what he was saying on the bus, but you could hear him clearly at this point.
"I was trying to tell you that Alice is gone."
What? She went missing?
"I took her home, and when she shut the door, I waited for a few seconds. As I walked away from her apartment, I heard a rumbling noise. It was bizarre and hard to describe, but it wasn't normal, so I tried to get back into her room. She hadn't locked it yet, and I made it inside. She was missing, and there was no sight of a criminal. No one was there, not even Alice. She just... vanished."
What time was it? You looked at your watch; it was about 10:40. You asked Zero if he could watch for her on the Midnight Channel. If she wasn't in her apartment, she was definitely in the television.
"I should just leave her apartment like this?"
He was still there?
"This is impossible. She was just here. She has to be in here. There's no way she or anyone could have made it out."
… unless... the criminal took her in the TV with him.
Zero paused before saying anything else. "Fine. I'll watch the Midnight Channel. Goodbye."
That whole time, you heard another side to Zero. You hadn't expected him to be so anxious about the person kidnapped, especially when he was rescued safely. He must know that you would easily be able to save Alice.
But the news had you shaken up a bit as well; this kidnapping had come out of nowhere; you literally had just seen her hours ago, and she was gone instantly. Could the kidnapper finally be trapped in the TV? Would he do anything to Alice while she was in there? You could only hope for the best...
-.
You didn't look forward to seeing Zero at the hospital.
You definitely didn't look forward to the weather, either.
Unable to watch the Midnight Channel, you decided to check the weather instead. It was going to rain on Monday and continue raining until Tuesday. The worst case scenario would be that you would only have until Monday night to save Alice.
When you saw Zero in the hallway, he stopped you and pulled you by your arm into a quiet corner.
"You said she would be on TV, right?" he said. "I didn't see anything."
He couldn't watch it either? Or was it possible that she wasn't in the television at all? No, she had to be; after Zero's story, there was no other explanation.
You told him your reasoning, and that the two of you should go to Yuni's house after work.
He nodded. "See you in the parking lot later."
-.
He was generous enough to give you a ride again, but he was coldly silent the entire ride there. You had no idea what this indicated; was he angry or worried? Whatever he was thinking, he managed to hide it.
That evening, the two of you met with the rest of the group at Yuni's mansion. You quickly greeted the others and asked who had seen the Midnight Channel last night. Rage, Yuni, and Devil Zukin raised their hands. They had all looked at Zero, whom you obviously knew didn't see.
"Zero, you too?" Rage said. "So that's you, Souji, and Akira whose TVs don't get that channel. What's up with that?"
"We can figure that out when we have time," Zero insisted.
"Well," Devil Zukin started, "from what I remember, it went something like this..."
The camera descended from the ceiling and circled around the room. A spectator watching it would feel a bit dizzy. There were all kinds of decorations on the walls, namely large cards, stars, wands, and drapery.
The camera found the center of the room, where a girl in a dress-length suit and top hat stood. She held a cane in front of her and leaned on it, facing the ground. Once the camera faced her directly, she looked up and smiled.
"Welcome to my magic show!" Alice began, removing her hat. "I, Alice the Illusionist, will wow you with my magic tricks! I can do anything you want; just challenge me with your requests, and then watch and be amazed!" She threw a deck of cards into the air, and they spiraled around her before they multiplied and engulfed her. "Stay tuned for the grand finale, where I shall make myself," the cards formed back into a deck and piled themselves neatly into her left hand, "disappear!"
Surely, she was speaking of illusions... there was no way she could make the real Alice disappear forever, right? You had to note that the next rainstorm was coming quickly, and you would need to take action as soon as possible before the Shadow became aggravated enough to take action.
"Let's go in now," Zero said.
He worked harder than you did at the hospital... was he really willing to go in?
"You said we were in a hurry. I don't need to overwork myself in that other world; you'll likely only rely on my magic, not my offensive skills."
That was true. You didn't know what his spirit power was like, but you said if it was all right with him, it was all right with you. You knew you wouldn't have to finish the dungeon in one day; in fact, it was usually impossible. It seemed wise to at least get through a portion of the area, so that you could have more power on your next visit.
"All right, but don't fall behind, got it?" Rage warned playfully.
Zero smirked. "If you get too far ahead, I can't help you."
"Heh. Well enough talk, let's go save Alice!"
"First, gather your weapons," Zukin advised. "Zero, your boots are over here with everything else. I also have this pair of glasses that you'll need once we're inside."
Your large team got their supplies. Your sword was stashed amongst the other weapons; it was much easier to be armed here than it was to sneak weapons into Junes. Zero apparently had hard boots with armored toes. He tied and buckled them on, and then lifted them awkwardly for a second before getting used to walking in the heavy shoes.
You led everyone in the television...
(... decided not to cut it because the next chapter is like the longest piece of fudge ever. Even though I hate writing action... going through a dungeon without any fighting just isn't realistic. I really don't know if cell phones work bad on a bus but it was also storming so eh, maybe?)