(Because I'm fusing two chapters, I'm back to totally not being ahead at all xP)
You said goodbye to your roommates before you left for the arcade.
"Hey, Souji?"
Huh? It seemed that Robert had stopped you.
"Do you think I could go with you this time? I... kinda wanted to play some DDR again."
Of course he could come! You were happy that he decided to get out and have some fun that Friday. You two said goodbye to the other boys before heading out the door.
-.
You led Robert to Emi and the others at the arcade. It seemed Emi had brought a very full backpack that evening.
"Hiya!" she said to you. "I've got some stuff for you!"
Stuff? She gave you her bag; once you grabbed hold of it, you nearly dropped it due to its weight. Once you realized it was filled, you regained your balance and asked her what was inside.
"Oh, duh, I should've told you. I finished unlocking everything on DDR X, so you can borrow it now. My DDR games and stuff is all in there. And here," she paused to get another large plastic bag from underneath the table, "is my DDR mat." She pushed it in your direction, but Robert butted in.
"I'll help you get this back to the dorm," he offered.
You thanked him for that, and you thanked Emi for the games.
"Oh, it's good to see you back, too!" Emi exclaimed to your friend. "Do you wanna play DDR with me next?"
"Sure, that sounds like fun."
"Yay! Let's go wait in line, then."
She hopped out of her seat, and they walked to wait behind the dancers. At the time, Zero and Alice were on the machine. They were both playing on the same level, but it didn't seem like either one of them was having much of a challenge.
"Souji," Rage called over the music. When you gave him your attention, he motioned you to follow him. You had no idea what he was going to do; he seemed a little stressed, but you figured he wasn't angry at you. You stood up, and he had you walk to a set of vending machines, far enough so that you couldn't see the DDR machine.
"Zukin tells me you were the one to get Zero back," he started. Was he mad at you...?
"No, I mean, you probably had good intentions and all," he started, "but I kinda wish you hadn't. I mean, I like Alice, who doesn't? And uh... you could say I like Zero, I guess. I just don't like how he's... he is creepy, yanno? I woulda told the guy that Alice's Shadow nailed him perfectly; it's a good thing you handled it, though."
Technically, Alice did most of the work...
"Yeah, but that's the problem; she's too nice about everything. But I hope if she learned anything from her Shadow, it was that she needs to stop people from pushing her around."
Then why doesn't he tell her that?
"'Cause that pretty boy hasn't left her alone," he grumbled. "At least not since she got here today."
You would find some way to separate the two for a little bit, if that made him feel any better.
"Ah, wouldja? That'd be great."
After your conversation with Rage, you made your way back behind Emi and Robert, whose turn came seconds after you returned to the machine. The pair traded places with Zero and Alice, while you and Rage confronted them. Unsure of what to say, you gave him a belated welcome back to the arcade.
He shrugged. "I don't come here every week as it is, and I was only gone once."
But you did see him every week since you got there.
"You're observant, aren't you?" He smirked, but you sensed be was a bit annoyed. He began to walk away from you; he looked behind you, noticed something, and then turned around, leaving you. You looked behind you and saw Rage talking to Alice; whatever he was saying, it was going well.
The second song between Emi and Robert began. You thought you recognized it from before. You walked to Robert's side to get a better look at the stepchart, and discovered that you even remembered the video. That guy picked Paranoia Hades again! Surely, he knew Emi didn't usually play boss songs. She had a hard time playing the song on Difficult. You frowned, not liking to see her struggle. You wanted to scold your friend a little after they were done.
The last song appeared to be Emi's choice. She chose some unison of a Japanese song with English lyrics... was it A Geisha's Dream? Someone had played it before; you weren't sure how long ago. Emi played on Difficult with her usual joy, while Robert was aiming to get a good score on Expert. Even so, he wasn't as tense as he was the first time you brought him. He tried swinging his arms a little more, and his face held less stress and more determination than last time.
Once the song ended, the two were awarded with different As (A and AAA). Emi happily told Robert something that you couldn't hear over the machine before they got off the stage. You waved to get his attention, and he came to you with a rare smile on his face. He noticed you were giving him teasing look and he started to chuckle.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Did I do something wrong?"
You asked him why he picked Hades when he was against Emi. Come to think of it, he played it the last time he was at the arcade... was it just his favorite song?
"Nah," he said, "I got it on Random several weeks ago, and I got it on Roulette this time. Guess I just have bad luck like that."
Well, at least he could pass it. Emi had ended the stage with an E, after all. You him to just pick a different song next time.
"Sorry, I hardly remember DDR's songs." He smiled apologetically. "I should probably just make everybody else pick what they like."
"You just need to play more," Emi came in. "Then you can learn the list and pick your favorites."
"Maybe," he told her. "After finals and stuff, is it all right if I keep coming here?"
"You better keep coming here," Rage said. He and Alice joined your conversation. "It's cool having another guy to challenge in hard songs."
"You need to get better at your rhythm," Gus joined. "You're not gonna beat him or me unless you stop screwing around when you play."
The crowd had formed around you as you all continued to debate Rage's dance skills among several other topics. Even Devil Zukin came back on her own, after going outside during the Hades round. You were surrounded by your new friends, and you could tell that bringing Robert here was good for the both of you.
-.
You held back from hooking up the Playstation until after work on Saturday. When you opened your dorm's door, you immediately heard Aaron sigh of relief.
"Souji, dude, you gotta help me study!"
What? But you were about to... wait, why wasn't he studying with Robert?
"The dude went home to see his dad. I think he gave up on me. C'mon, man, I really need help with English. You can help, right?"
... English was your second language.
"Oh, well, it's like, they want me to read this novel and write a report on it and you just need to help me start it. It's something like this chick is traveling and meets this guy but he's not human he's like a legend or something and she goes back in time and uh..."
...What?
"So what's that about? What's the theme?"
You had no idea.
"That's what I put in my paper! Okay, as long as we agree..."
You grimaced while he wasn't looking. You offered to help him on something more technical, like math or science, but something that required a lot of research was out of the question.
"Awesome, let's go to the algebra books."
You were afraid of what you got yourself into...
-.
You wound up trying to explain matrix equations until long after the sun went down, but fortunately for you on Sunday, he left you alone to finish that... likely hopeless paper of his. You vowed to catch up on some homework yourself (it was raining, and you enjoyed trying to study to its soothing sound), but the evening was reserved for playing DDR.
And what an evening it was.
After you plugged the console into the wall outlet and your television, you sorted through the other materials Emi gave you. You found one black memory card and plugged it in the port labeled Slot A, and then you had to decide on what game to play. Max? Extreme? SuperNOVA? You noted that everything was Japanese; she must have bought this Playstation when she was in Japan.
You randomly selected Max and simply went down the list of things that Emi had unlocked. You were destroyed by the speed of Max 300, but you heard many songs that you didn't find on the X machine at the arcade. Perhaps they were there, but you hadn't bothered to look for them. You mentally noted to find your favorites when you got back to the arcade. But your list of favorites grew too long to remember when you got to the end of the songlist on SuperNOVA, multiple games later...
"Yo, Souji, are you going to sleep any time soon?"
Steve had knocked on your door at the end of Seduction. You stubbornly finished the song before you looked at the clock. Let's see, you started at around 9:30 and it was... almost midnight? You quickly opened your door to see your roommate there, and you apologized for keeping everyone up.
"Nah, we're awake over here," he said. "I mean, I don't know what Aaron's up to, but his light is on. And I guess Rob decided to stay at his dad's. I was just thinking about going to sleep; I thought it was weird for you to stay up so late. You and Rob are more of the studious type." He laughed.
"Anyway, seeya around tomorrow," he said, waving before he went back to his room.
It was definitely time for you to shut the game off. You exited to the main menu and saved the game (not that there was much to save; Emi's scores were usually better than yours and all the songs were unlocked). You put SuperNOVA back into its original case and neatly put the games back into Emi's bag. You left the Playstation hooked up so you could play more tomorrow. You turned off the light, wanting to rest your tired body...
And then you saw static on your television.
What was going on? You were sure you were still awake...
Your screen whirred and powered itself on. It seemed like the camera was in some sort of high-tech factory. The camera panned across an assembly line entirely controlled by robots. At the end was a feminine figure in a lab coat. You weren't sure if you were supposed to recognize her... until you saw her white hat.
You immediately knew that Emi was in the television.
The blue-haired girl quickly turned to face the screen. She had a pair of large goggles on, but there was no mistaking her hair and hat..
"At last!" she said. "At last, I've created my greatest machine! If my theories are correct, this thing can prevent time from moving forward. Nothing bad will ever have to come to an end ever again! Just give me some time to power up this big guy, and I will stop time forever and ever and ever!"
She rubbed her hands excitedly. "Soon, the word 'soon' itself won't mean anything. This waiting and uncertainty will be over!"
The screen faded to black.
You stood there, lost in confusion. You were just as surprised to see Emi as you were to see the channel itself. You shook your head, trying to calm yourself. Unsure who was awake, you decided to wait until morning before contacting everyone...
-.
"Souji, glad to see you here."
Rage was the first to say something when you arrived at Yuni's mansion in the afternoon. You arrived before both Alice and Zero; Rage, and the mansion's three residents were already there.
"So you really saw the channel this time?" Yuni asked, knowing this because she was the one who called you before school. Rage looked at her and then you, confused.
Before he could ask the same question, you explained that you really did see Emi's broadcast. You briefly described what had aired to confirm if they had all seen the same thing.
"I still haven't seen it," Akira said.
"But that's exactly what I saw," Rage told you. "You can totally see the Midnight Channel! Why now?"
What was different this time? As far as your television was concerned, the only real difference was hooking up the Playstation to it. You weren't sure if there was some more supernatural factor you were missing...
Devil Zukin's ears twitched, as if something alerted her. "Rage-sama... do you have a game system connected to your television?"
"Huh? Yeah, I use it to play DDR."
"That's weird," Yuni butted in. "I've got a DDR game in mine, too. But Zukin has my mat and my other game."
And... your DDR game was left in your Playstation as well.
"Akira, don't you play shooter games on your Playstation?"
"I do," he said. "My game system hasn't been touched much recently. Still, it seems that everyone who can see the Midnight Channel has a DDR game connected to their television."
What could that possibly mean? Did the game have something to do with the TV world? Maybe... the world wasn't created like in Inaba... were the victims being trapped in the game?
"It is more than that."
The room turned to Devil Zukin.
"I can sense it isn't so much a game as it is the music that's controlling the world. Ouze's ears can detect an evil song in the other world. I would usually get a strange feeling from this... sound, but I still can't put it into words. Detecting is sort of like a sixth sense."
"That's really weird," Rage noted. "Not that I don't believe you, it's just... it doesn't make sense to me."
You heard a knock on the door.
"Come in," Yuni shouted.
The door clicked open to reveal Zero.
"Yo," Rage greeted. "You caught us in the middle of some theories. Mind pitching in?"
"Mind catching me up?" he demanded.
Saving Emi's channel for later, you told Zero about how you all determined that the DDR games activate the Midnight Channel. You paused and asked if he had a DDR game.
"I don't own a game console, so that would be unwise."
You continued saying that once you had Emi's DDR game, you were able to watch the channel. No one could figure out what this meant, however; besides that Zukin believed it to be the world of an evil song.
"So what you're saying is... we're dealing with something that isn't human."
At this point, that was very likely.
"I've suspected that ever since you forced me into this group."
He actually asked to be-
"When Alice disappeared instantly and when we weren't able to find the culprit in the television, it wasn't logical. There were some other powers at work."
"Yeah, I think everybody kinda disappeared like that," Rage commented. "Everybody was taken when they were completely alone. Yuni didn't see anybody when she was hiding in the mall, and nobody saw anyone kidnap her. That's what's weird... nobody's seen this guy. He just comes and goes."
And, as it seemed, without any television. How could he have kidnapped Yuni in a mall without any witnesses and without some sort of portal?
"We don't have any way to explain that yet," Zukin said aloud. "Perhaps we will figure that out once we rescue Emi."
"Right," Rage said. "But we gotta wait for Alice to-"
There was another knock on the door. Yuni instructed the visitor to come in again, and Alice shyly opened the door.
"Hi, guys," she said.
You all waved to her before you tried to condense the conversation you just had without her. She nodded as she tried to follow your story.
"Um, as far as the Midnight Channel goes... I don't have DDR either and I couldn't see it, so that's right so far. What was on last night?"
You told those who hadn't seen it what happened on Emi's channel.
"Why would she want to stop time?" Akira asked.
"Doesn't matter right now," Rage yelled. "Now that everyone's here, we gotta go in and get Emi!"
You nodded.
"Before we go in," Zukin began, "Alice, you will need these glasses."
"Does she need a weapon?" Zero asked.
"We picked out this neat fan," Rage answered. "Souji was telling me about how that one girl used a fan. I thought it sounded crazy, but it turns out they did have a couple neat fans with blades on 'em." Zukin gave Alice a pair of red glasses and a sturdy oriental fan-shaped weapon.
"I've never used one of these before," Alice said, fearfully looking at the deadly blades on the fan's tips.
Yuni took a look at it. "It's probably not that hard," she said, swiping the fan from Alice's hands. She swung it around in careless loops, making Akira nervous, and she fanned herself. "It's really light. Just don't poke yourself." She returned the weapon back to Alice before you led everyone into the television...
-.
You rolled on the ground, followed by Devil Zukin. Rage tumbled in afterward and crawled out of the way of Akira. Yuni leaped in, then Zero (who slid again; perhaps he still wasn't used to armored shoes), and lastly Alice who successfully tumbled on the ground as if it was a dance move. She stood up and quickly fixed her hair so that it neatly fell on her back.
"All right, Zukin," Rage said, "you and whatsherface can lead the way."
Zukin smirked at his lazy memory, and Ouze materialized to assist her in finding Emi. The two of them focused their powers together. Ouze calmly held onto Zukin's head, but the bat girl's lip began to quiver. She gasped, and her Persona faded in smoke.
"Something wrong?" Akira questioned.
"... Ouze was able to find her," she answered, "but something else is there." She sounded worried.
"Are you afraid of it?" Alice asked, concerned.
"There's nothing to be scared of," Rage tried to console her. "I don't know how bad it is, but we're all together. We have way more than enough power to take on something big." He began to walk toward her. "So lead the way."
"All right," she said, waiting for Rage to be a bit closer before she ran off in what you assumed was Emi's direction.
-.
The large, futuristic silver building was isolated in an empty yard, guarded by a very distant fence and trees. Besides being coated in a layer of shiny paint, the building didn't look very unique from the outside. It was made of rectangles and could pass for the shape of a warehouse. Had you not seen the factory on TV, you would've had no idea what to expect on the Zukin made it to the entrance, she waited for you. You took the lead from her and pulled open one of the double doors at the front, slowly walking in and giving everyone time to catch up with you.
The lights were on; quite similar to the television program, the room was filled with machines that were operated by computers. The computers were also operated by short, humanlike robots. The room was large and overwhelming; it seemed there were many pathways between computers and conveyor belts. You scanned the room, unsure of where to go.
"So where to?" Rage asked in his normally loud voice.
The room ceased production, and the operator robots faced your group. You all gulped fearfully.
"INTRUDER. INTRUDER."
The electronic voice repeated itself endlessly and the room's lights flashed red. The little robots' arms shifted to guns.
"Crap!"
"Way to go," Yuni said, "blowing our cover."
"Get ready!" Akira said.
PERSONA!
(Yes, suffer from cliffhangers much like I am with Tiger and Bunny lolz)