While Yu Narukami was no stranger to keeping secrets, he only ever seemed to do so for very solid reasons. One could only imagine why he was keeping this one. Yu bit his lower lip, contemplating his next words very carefully. "...From what I understand, it seems that the year I spent in Inaba wasn't the only one."
Hold on, that was impossible. If Yu had been in Inaba before, then- "I've lived out the investigation several times over now."
Wait, what?
Instantly, the table went into an uproar. Questions were slung back and forth rapidly, melding into a cloud of white noise. Holding up both his hands, Yu managed to silence his friends, who quickly calmed down after seeing that they were bombarding him beyond all recognition. He pointed towards Naoto first, who already had her notebook open at the ready. "Senpai… does this mean that you knew about every single twist and turn during our time together?"
"Yes."
"The Midnight Channel, the identity of the killer…?"
"Yeah. I knew about all of it." Bad idea. Instantly the table was in an uproar again, with the noise sounding much, much angrier this time around. Yu's eyes widened in shock as his friends' scowling faces barked at him like a pack of wild animals. "Sort of! It didn't all come back to me at once!" He insisted.
Holding up his hands did nothing this time as Chie, Kanji, Naoto and Rise verbally assaulted him. Their questions ranged from a simple "Why and how?" to "Why didn't you try to stop the murders?" Astaire could do little but shift in his seat and act incredibly confused at the whole situation, considering his history with everyone didn't even measure a week's length.
The other silent party was the one to stop the whole fiasco from erupting even further. As Yu seemed to be mentally beaten down with each question that plagued him, Yukiko stood up from her chair and glared daggers at her friends. Like the stare of falcon towards a field mouse. Everybody's voices were cut off instantly, as though everyone had had their plugs pulled in unison.
"Now then…" Yukiko began, sitting down slowly. "...I'm guessing you had some reason for letting things play out, right?" As if from the flick of a switch, her eyes softened as they met Yu's face. While it went without saying for everybody else, Astaire made a mental note to not get on her bad side from there on out.
Finally having an opening to explain himself, Yu cleared his throat and straightened himself in his chair. "As I was trying to say, it didn't all hit me at once. It was…" He paused to gaze upwards and tap the table in thought. "...It was kind of like a gut feeling, or something. When I met Saki Konishi, I had this really odd sense of deja vu. It felt like everything she said and did was familiar somehow." As he recalled the details, Yu's face gradually became more sullen. He placed a hand on his opposite shoulder and glanced away uncomfortably, clutching at the fabric of his shirt. "If I'd known for certain that she'd…"
"Of course you would have." Yukiko assured him before he'd even finished. "We all know you would have, right?" She asked, turning to everyone else. Her inflection made it sound like a question. Her pointed smile made it seem like anything but. The team quickly nodded in unison, Astaire included. "Now that you mention it, I did think it was kind of strange how quickly we saved everybody. It was like you knew where to go ahead of time!" She said as she snapped back to Yu, inexplicably taking the oppressive atmosphere with her.
"Probably because that's exactly what happened." Yu pointed out blankly, before he returned to looking sullen. "I'm sorry I never brought it up before now. I thought you'd all call me crazy."
"After a year's worth of jumpin' inside the TV and kickin' the hell outta Shadows? Who'dya think you were talkin' to?" Kanji asked incredulously.
It was certainly hard to deny that if anyone knew how much stranger truth could be than fiction, it'd be the Investigation team. But there was a difference between jumping into other worlds and outright travelling back in time. "But man, you must be a pretty good actor, knowing what was gonna happen and never getting found out." Chie said as she stretched out her arms and legs.
Naoto cleared her throat after jotting something down in her notebook. "About that. You knew who the culprit behind the whole case was ahead of time, correct? It would've been all too easy to inform the police ahead of time, then." She asked somewhat accusingly.
This exact level of complicated explanations was the precise reason Yu hadn't brought the issue up in the first place. Chances are he never would have again, if Astaire hadn't shown up. "It wasn't that simple. Accusing him earlier wouldn't have let us get at the true culprit later. For that, everyone needed their Personas." Yu explained matter-of-factly. "Plus… I thought it'd be better if everyone faced themselves again. Don't act like it didn't help you all out in the end, on top of making us as close as we are."
Well, he had them there. Their Shadows may have been tough to face, both in and out of battle, but they needed facing all the same. Thinking about the differences in everyone's lives without having gone through the ordeal was a staggering endeavour, even for Yu.
"What about Nanako-chan, then?" Rise asked with a tilt of her head. "She didn't get a Persona like the rest of us. I thought you'd have wanted to keep her safe."
She'd only meant it innocently, but the look on Yu's face let Rise know she might've needed to work on her phrasing first. "That's… We needed Namatame. Getting him in the hospital was the best way for us to question him. Even if I already knew all the answers ahead of time…" His voice was quiet, his eyes filled with hurt.
Someone needed to say something. Lighten the mood even slightly, somehow. "So… How is that similar to what's happening to Astaire-san?" Naoto astutely asked, getting Astaire to jump at the mention of his name and expertly clearing the air all at once. His eyes seemed a bit glazed over after listening to Yu's story, considering he hadn't the foggiest notion what he was on about..
"I was getting to that. But first, let me ask you guys a question. At the risk of sounding self-centred, what do you think of me?"
Wow, that was a little self-indulgent. However, it had to fit into the topic at hand somehow, and thus everyone decided to play along.
"You appear to be a very competent and courageous leader, if you don't mind me saying." Astaire began.
"You're super smart, but you're also really strong and stuff!" Chie remarked.
"You're also diligent and determined, as you've shown several times." Naoto added.
"Not to mention you're a real charmer, isn't that right, Yuki-chan?" Teddie teased, nudging Yukiko in the side before she tried blushing and glaring at the same time. It didn't work quite as well as the last time.
Soaking up everything with a smile on his face, Yu finally got around to the point he was making, putting his hand to his heart as he poured out its contents to his friends. "Well… I wasn't always like that. In fact, I was probably the opposite."
Yu Narukami not being a lady's man, genius, and the overall vision of awesomeness that he was today? Unthinkable. "When I first came to Inaba, I barely had the courage to ask Yukiko for her phone number, and I felt nowhere near smart enough to even attempt to talk to Naoto." He explained.
Having finally calmed her blushing, Yukiko spoke up. "Huh? But you asked me straight out when I gave it to you last year!"
Naoto seemed to be in a similar position. "Likewise, I had seen your test scores posted somewhere beforehand and if anything, I almost felt too lacking mentally to be talking to you…" She said, a tinge of red seeping into her cheeks.
"Over time, I became smarter and braver, to the point where when I repeated the next cycle, I was like how I am now."
"So THAT'S how you did it! I knew no human being could eat a Mega Beef Bowl from Aiya all on the first go! It's just not possible!" Master Detective Chie deducted. She looked pretty pleased with herself, likely taking pride in the fact that she had just regained her status as the most formidable carnivore in Inaba.
Naoto pondered over Yu's story, stroking her chin as she thought. "So in other words, from your perspective, you had prior knowledge of things you shouldn't have known about." A nod of confirmation confirmed Yu's theory/explanation to be over for now. "...You may be close, but I don't think this is quite the same as what is happening to Astaire-san." She added, flicking through the pages of her notebook again.
What Yu was saying seemed to make sense, but as far as Astaire could see there was one glaring difference, that being that Yu had retained his memories of starting over from the beginning of his journey, thus keeping the information he learned fresh in his mind, at least after a certain point. However, he himself hadn't a single clue about what he had been through before being imprisoned in the Undead Asylum.
For a moment, he pondered if the depth of his knowledge on how to use every weapon he'd come across could be attributed to this perplexing temporal anomaly. Of course, that was easily attributable to said weapons having souls imbued in them from which he could draw strength, but how exactly had he come to know how to do that in the first place? The more Astaire thought about it, the curiouser he became.
Which was good, considering Naoto was about to satiate his curiosity. "This isn't a case of remembering how to do things, it's knowing how to perform actions from an entirely different culture, as well as a different time period."
"Notsomuch remembering the past as predicting the future, or something." Yu commented idly. "This is all so confusing. Are you sure you can't remember anything, Astaire-san?"
Just as he was about to say 'No,' Something held Astaire's tongue.. This was exactly what his shadow had been talking about. "Actually… I think I may have something. My Shadow spoke to me last night." Everyone's eyes widened at once. Speaking to a Shadow that had already been defeated? Was that even possible? "It said something about me being affiliated with all the different covenants in Lordran, as opposed to being a Warrior of Sunlight. If what happened to Mr. Narukami is indeed happening to me…"
"Then you've not only lived one life over and over, you've been living different ones each time?! Yu said in relative disbelief.
"That seems to be what it was trying to tell me. If I truly have been a part of every covenant at some point, I can only imagine that my motivation for doing so was corrupted as well." Astaire continued, beginning to look through his bottomless box once again. "...I struggle to imagine why, or how. But if it is to be believed, I can only assume that I must've thrown my hat in with them." Finally grasping on to something, he withdrew from the box a wide, thick sword, so black that it seemed to eat away any light which fell upon it. Upon sight of it, Astaire's heart sank deep into his chest. "Darkwraiths. Enemies of man."
No matter which universe you came from, anything that bore the title "Enemies of Man" generally didn't conjure up many cheery images. The once-proud Astaire seemed to visibly deflate as he realised this, his chivalric ways brought into question. "W-Well it doesn't matter now, does it?" Rise said, waving her hands frantically. "The Astaire-kun we have now is good for sure! He wouldn't have helped me out in the TV if he wasn't!"
While her belief in him could have been seen as rather touching, somebody was having none of it. "How can we sure? From the sound of it, I think he could be anyone." Yosuke butted into the conversation, his mood seemingly having not improved over the time he'd been away. "He may not know that he was some 'enemy of man' in a past life, but his Shadow sure seems to." Sitting down at the table, he crossed his legs and arms as he glared at Astaire menacingly. "So somewhere deep down, he MUST know all about the things that he's done, evil or not."
Astaire's fingers tensed up around the hilt of the Darksword while his brow twitched subtly, trying not to lower in aggression. "I assure you… Yosuke, was it?" He began slowly, trying to choose his words carefully. "That my intentions are peaceful. I owe you all thanks for saving me from that other world. To pay you back with treachery and backstabbing would be unthinkable."
"Are you sure?" Yosuke raised an eyebrow. As Astaire gave him a similar look, he presented a newspaper which had been stuffed in his back pocket, laying it out in front of everyone. Turning a few (but not many,) pages in, he pointed to the large page-length article, showing Rise and Astaire's stand off with the reporters in the hall. "Because this doesn't sound very peaceful to me."
Much to his dismay, Astaire was quickly noticing that this little fiasco was coming back to bite him more times than he cared to admit. Yu slid the paper around so that he could read it himself, reading aloud for everybody to hear.
"Acclaimed idol Rise Kujikawa startled reporters last night with the introduction of her new bodyguard. Said bodyguard, calling himself "Knight Astaire," is claimed to have nearly cut a man completely in half with the large sword he was using at the time. Reporters are said to have turned up out of the blue to interview Kujikawa, only to receive hostile threats from the bodyguard."
It appeared that Rise and Astaire were among the few who had actually seen the full broadcast on the TV beforehand. As evidenced by the fact that everyone's eyes had slowly met Astaire's as the article progressed. Even Yu was giving him a questionable glance by now. He shrunk back into his coat, as though their gazes were pendulums waiting to release and strike him in two.
Clearing his throat, Yu continued. "Matters were made all the more confusing when the bodyguard accompanied Kujikawa into her hotel room, never once leaving throughout the night." Both Rise and Astaire thought it best not to pry about how they knew that. "Could there be more to the relationship than there seems? Is there a reason this mysterious sword-swinging man has simply shown up after being previously unseen by anyone? Only time will tell." Finally it finished, with the rest of the page being taken up by online messages which were posted about the story overnight. For the sake of both Rise and Astaire's sanity, Yu thought it best to conveniently leave them out of his reading.
"You nearly cut somebody in half? For wantin' to talk to Rise?" Kanji uttered, looking more awed than concerned.
Notsomuch concerned as fuming out the ears, Chie completely leapt out of her seat and slammed her hands on the table, making Yosuke very much relieved that there weren't many people about the food court right now. "Are you insane?! That's jail time just waiting to happen, you idiot!"
"It does seem very unnecessary, given the circumstances." Naoto added, much calmer and quieter than Chie, thankfully. "Such methods may be appropriate when fighting off shadows and monsters, but normal people…?"
"Normal people don't deserve to be killed for invading someone's privacy. It's certainly not a condonable act, but it's nowhere near death-penalty material." Yu also added, calm but seeming a little less at ease than he had been.
And of course to put the nail in the coffin was Yosuke. "And this won't be the only time, Rise." This particular nail being driven in with a sledgehammer. "This isn't gonna wash over like your hiatus did. If he's not nearly killing reporters, he'll be hanging around and starting these stupid boyfriend rumours!"
"Yosuke-senpai, stop it!" She pleaded, but Yosuke was on a roll now. He had upgraded from a sledgehammer to a jackhammer.
"If he sticks around, he'll only cause more trouble for you! It'll get to the point where he's going to do something stupid and the blame is gonna get placed on the both of you! He's going to ruin your whole life if you let him!"
That was it. The silence which Yosuke's rant had caused was deafening. The wind seemed to stop. The air seemed to stifle. Everyone's breaths seemed to get caught in their throats. The only person who moved at all was Kanji, whose eyes were still drawn to Astaire. If he nearly chopped someone into bits for trying to ask Rise questions, how on earth would he react to this?
But Astaire did nothing. He had long since put the Darksword back in the box and stuffed it into his coat again, now sitting with his head low and his hands clasped together. His eyes were out of sight, meaning nobody could be sure if he was ready to explode or burst into tears. He moved so little that he might as well have stopped breathing altogether.
The only person who dared to disturb the silence was Yu. "Yosuke…"
"What?!" he snapped back.
"...Don't you think you're going a little too far? The fact that nobody was hurt should be proof enough that Astaire isn't evil, after all."
Yosuke's jaw nearly hit off the table. "Are you being serious right now? You're actually sticking up for him?" He said, pointing an accusing finger in Astaire's direction. "The guy who carries around a box full of weapons who chose to swing at a group of reporters? Are you out of your goddamned mind?!"
Without hesitation, Yu stepped away from his seat and punched Yosuke in the nose with a crack.. Surprisingly, Yosuke didn't strike back. Everyone was justifiably shocked, up until Yu once again opened his mouth. "Do you remember the first and last time we disagreed like this?" The statement had been aimed more at everyone than just Yosuke. Even still, he nodded in response. "You're jumping to conclusions. Just like last time." He turned towards Astaire and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think we should hear Astaire-san and Rise's side of the story first before we go slandering anyone."
Charismatic as ever, it seemed. Nobody could deny that Yu Narukami was a hard man to argue with. Even Yosuke, who just a few seconds ago had been read to cut someone's head off, looked sufficiently more calm after Yu's little display. The tension seemed to dissipate as everyone let out a sigh they didn't know they'd been keeping in. "...But I think that can wait for another time, don't you think? I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm tired of hearing all this explaining in one day." He added.
"Sounds like a plan to me. I need to stretch my legs anyway, I've been sittin' here for way too long." Kanji yawned, looking as though nothing had even happened. "Need to get some more Animal Crackers too. Mind if I swing by the snacks inside?"
"Now that you mention it, I think I'm in the mood for snacking as well. My budget won't cover as much steak as I'd like, and neither will Yosuke's." Chie agreed. With that, it seemed to be settled that everyone had business within Junes. A better way to clear everybody's heads there had never been.
"You didn't have to hit me, y'know, I don't mind getting' yelled at." The somewhat stuffy version of Yosuke's voice said as the speaker clutched his nose, which he was lucky not to have broken altogether.
"Dont worry," Yu said, patting his partner on the back. "I'm sure Daisuke won't mind you stealing his look for a while." He smacked a small bandage onto Yosuke's nose, soft enough to apply it correctly but hard enough for him to feel it. He cringed at the impact but the two of them laughed it off as they followed the rest of the group.
The only two who had lingered behind were Astaire and Rise. "Hey, you alright?" She asked softly. Slowly but surely, Astaire lifted his head. He looked pale and sullen, a far cry from the boisterous version who had escorted herself and Teddie through the TV World earlier. He gazed up at his protectee with deep disappointment inherent in his eyes. Not for her, but for himself. "C'mon now, don't be like that… I know it was getting a little crazy back there, but Senpai and I still believe in you!"
He sighed. "I fear their reactions are not without some kind of backing, Ms. Kujikawa. I cannot deny that my attitude towards these 'reporters' has been quite inhospitable. Not peaceful in the slightest." He raised his hand, a black-red glow enveloping them in much the same way his pyromancy flame had done before. "I have indeed been a Darkwraith at some point in the past. I can only hope that my crimes were not too severe."
It was clear that despite the… happy? Neutral? Whatever sort of ending the meeting had ended up at , Astaire was still incredibly bummed out by Yosuke's words. How fortuitous it was that he should be stuck with the one person who knew him best, then. "Astaire-kun… I'm going to go look at some stuff inside, okay?" She said as she turned on her heel and began slowly walking towards the elevators. "It'd sure be terrible if something were to happen to me if I walk off on my own…"
Within the blink of an eye, Astaire had picked himself up and was striding alongside Rise, his face calm and collected once again. "Shall we make haste then? Your friends are likely to be waiting for you." He spoke with such conviction that there was no questioning he was back to his old self. Try as she might, Rise couldn't resist smiling at how dramatic the change was.
It was quickly becoming evident to Astaire just how infectious her smile could be.
Nostalgia hit Yu in waves as he strolled through Junes with everyone. While it was true that more time was spent in the food court than anywhere else, memories of the occasional foray inside were just as welcome, if not moreso. Everyone would split off into their own sections and come back with any amount of who-could-say-what. Many things Junes may have been, but it was never boring.
The company it let him keep wasn't half bad, either. "You surprised me back there. I haven't seen you that aggressive since we apprehended the killer." Yukiko said, walking close to his side.
"It just didn't feel right, talking about Astaire-san that way. You saw how he reacted, didn't you? He looked really out of it."
"He and Rise are still at the food court, aren't they? What do you suppose is taking them so long?" Yukiko bit her lip as the possibilities flew through her head.
"Nothing dangerous, I'd imagine. If it was Yosuke he was stuck with I'd be worried, but he and Rise seem to be on pretty good terms." Yu replied calmly.
He seemed to trust Astaire pretty strongly in spite of them barely being acquainted, Yukiko noted. Whatever his reasons were, she could only surmise that he must have held them for a very good reason.
The peaceful air surrounding the two was quickly interrupted as Teddie's blue head came tumbling between them, separating them from each other before rolling to a stop. "You should have seen those two in the TV world, Sensei! It was awesome!" He said happily. "Of course, they couldn't have done it without my help, hee hee!"
While Teddie's confidence in himself was rather amusing, it did leave the question of whether Rise and Astaire could make it back on their own. Shadows didn't stay dead, after all.
Such questions could wait for later. In the meantime, Yu's ears perked up. "Hey Yu-kun, come over here!" Chie called, disappearing behind one of the aisles. Eager to see what had her so worked up, the party of three decided to follow her. Around the corner sat everyone else, admiring some of the musical instruments which were on display. Kanji tapped on some of the drums and cymbals, while Chie herself eyed up the trumpets. "Since we'll have an easier time getting everyone together, we should totally play another concert here some time!"
Admittedly the idea had crossed Yu's mind once or twice when he had arranged the meeting, but he doubted things would go that easily. Rise's agency would likely be much less forgiving of a random concert in the middle of nowhere, after all. "Hey, do you think Astaire-san plays a musical instrument?" Kanji inquired.
"I doubt it. Like he said, his talents mostly lie in the realms of combat, above all else." Answered a somewhat disappointed Naoto. Having another member in their little band would have been pretty cool.
As luck would have it, they had a chance to ask the man himself. "Ooh, you guys are looking at instruments?" Rise enthused as she rounded the corner, knight in tow. "It's been awhile since we last did that concert, hasn't it?" She turned to Astaire, who was examining some of the instruments with great interest.
While he usually carried about his Zweihander wherever he went, this was one of the few times when Rise had seen him without it in public, sitting down excepted. "Pray tell Ms. Kujikawa…" He began, pressing a key on the keyboard and reeling back in surprise. "...What the devil are these things?"
This was getting beyond a joke. "Really? You've never seen a keyboard before?" An astonished Rise exclaimed. Not having played a piano or keyboard was one thing, but never seeing one or knowing what they were? "In fact… have you seen any of these things before?" A shake of his head was all that was required. This was worse than Rise had thought.
Henceforth, that was the start of Naoto and Rise's crash course in piano and keyboard playing. Despite Yosuke's best efforts to restrict them from touching the equipment, they did it anyway. "Alright, so normally the fingers on your left hand go here…" Rise began, grabbing hold of Astaire's hand and placing it over the proper set of keys. Once again was lucky that she was more focused on his hands than his face. "...and here's where your right one goes!"
"The most basic song to start off with is usually "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," which goes a little bit like this." Naoto took over, showing Astaire how to move his fingers over the keys, as well as explaining some of the other basics, such as the keys on either side being low and high notes respectively.
A sort of dazed look had washed over Astaire's face in between explanations, Rise noticed. Before she could snap a finger in front of his face, he opened his mouth. "I see." He said halfheartedly, gaze distant "I think I'm beginning to get the gist of this…" He muttered.
Now in a noticing mood, Rise couldn't help but appraise Astaire's hands on the keys. Instead of positioning them the way she had told him, he seemed to be spacing out his fingers ever so slightly wider and swapping between different positions altogether, as though sizing up the device before him.
Without warning, Astaire's hands went into a frenzy. A far cry from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, his hands danced expertly up and down the keys, with motions that were all at once rapid, controlled and calculated. Needless to say, surprise was in no short supply amongst the team. Astaire's ignorance in light of not just the piano, but the instruments in general, seemed very genuine. Yet there he sat, hands approaching a blur as the tune continued.
In truth, everyone wasn't sure what was more surprising, the fact that Astaire could play the keyboard, or that he looked just as confused as they did. "This wouldn't happen to be some kind of normal, would it?" He said, quickly forcing his busy fingers to a stop as everyone sat stunned, himself included. However, if one thing could be said about the situation, it was beginning to shed some light on one of the more puzzling aspects brought up earlier.
"That's it!" Yu exclaimed to break the silence, pounding his fist into his other hand. "I know why Astaire-san's been doing such strange stuff without knowing it!"
Astaire blinked a few times before responding. Clearly he wasn't quite as perceptive as Yu was at the moment."What? You do?"
Yu nodded. "I think you are remembering how to do the stuff you're doing, but not with your head." He held up his hands. "You're remembering stuff with your body. Muscle memory, in other words."
Now that he brought it up, that did seem plausible. While Astaire may not have been able to remember things, there was a chance that the things he had done up until now had been things he'd done many times before. So many times that he could recall how to perform the actions without having to think about it.
Straight out with her notebook, Naoto began jotting things down again. "That would make sense, but it has one large inconsistency. If Astaire remembers eating with chopsticks, playing a keyboard and using a phone… where did he use those things to begin with?"
Crap. Straight back to the start. If there was one other thing Astaire was good at without knowing it, it was giving people headaches.
Still, better to make the most out of the situation. "Well, reasoning aside I think this is pretty good! We have another member in our band now, right?" Chie grinned.
"Yeah, but Naoto already plays the keyboard. Don't suppose you know how to use any of these other things, do ya?" Kanji asked.
Well, only one way to find out. Astaire circled the aisle, trying all the different instruments on display to see if they received any similar results. A trumpet, saxophone, drum set, guitars of every kind, just about every instrument the team used at the concert and more, but to no avail. It seemed that Astaire had at one time been a pianist, but little more than that. "In any case, this is liable to be beneficial on a few fronts. Astaire-san's playing sounds like ragtime." Naoto pointed out. "His style is much different from my own, and it might help shed some light on where he picked up the song in the first place."
"Perhaps. Either way we agreed to speculate on stuff like this later, so let's go check some more stuff out!" Rise enthused, grabbing Astaire's hand and pulling him behind her, turning the corner fast enough to almost sweep him off his feet entirely. Seeing no reason to do otherwise, the team followed suit.
"We should totally do something big again this year! We could stay over at Yukiko's place again, go to the beach, go see Nanako-chan…" Listing the items off on her fingers, Chie recited nearly every possible activity they could get up to, seeing as the restrictions which bound them from last year had been essentially lifted.
"We could even have a cook-off again!" Rise chimed in. She couldn't help but notice all the boys' faces trying to contain the fear inherent in their eyes, with the exception of Astaire, who luckily didn't know any better. "Don't worry, I've been practicing in my spare time to make sure I don't lose again!" She winked.
Yukiko was having different thoughts. "Why do the same stuff we did last year? We should find somewhere different to go sometime, to make things interesting!" The suggestion hinged on what exactly she classified as "interesting," making yet more worried faces amongst the girls.
Not that he was disagreeing with her, partly because he wasn't that stupid, Yu gave his two cents as well. "We could even head to the city for a day, if we could get Teddie and Rise to guide us there." Then again, some small part of Yu did enjoy scaring the girls with his ghost stories, but he felt it'd be safer if he offered them an alternative. "I'm sure it'd be better this time since we're not going with school."
Everyone continued to talk amongst themselves, happily discussing all the endless possibilities which were laid out for them. The only exception was Astaire, whose attention was being drawn elsewhere. Much like in the city streets, he was well on guard now that they were in a more densely populated area. The aisles and shelves in Junes seemed much more intimidating with the paranoid possibility of someone hiding inside them. Keeping his hand on his sword, he scanned over everybody who passed by, looking for anyone who might have been holding their gaze on him for too long. His eyes shot back and forth, desperately trying to confirm that there was indeed danger to be found.
Unfortunately, he was in a position where even innocent people were staring at him. As Yosuke had ever-so-kindly pointed out, both he and Rise were all over the news with their little display the day before. It was hard to mistake a tall, black-haired fellow with orange eyes and a velvet trench coat. Wandering eyes glanced over and quickly glanced away again,people cupped their hands and whispered to one another. Any of them could have been planning something..
But there was one person who caught Astaire's eye. He was sitting on the end of a bench just across the room. His teeth seemed to almost force their way out of his mouth, jutting forward and giving him a permanent disagreeable look. His eyes were large, but the character squinted so heavily that they looked barely above a fraction of their original size. What struck Astaire the most was his outlandishly thick handlebar moustache. The longer Astaire looked at him, the more uneasy he felt.
"Astaire-kun, what do you think we should do?" Rise asked, grabbing his attention away from the suspicious stranger.
"Pardon?" He turned to see Rise staring back at him expectantly. Not sure how to respond, he stood there for a while trying to come up with an answer. Just to be sure, he swept back around to steal another look at the strange man, only to find that he'd up and left entirely. He sighed, mostly out of relief that he hadn't appeared behind him with a knife in his hand.
"Everything okay? You look a little out of it." She said softly. Astaire's heart leapt at the sight of her concerned look.
He shook his head and forced a smile. "I'm quite alright, Ms. Kujikawa, thank you." Letting down his guard probably wasn't the best idea right now, but if it would ease Rise's mind, he would take whatever was thrown at him in due time. He released his grip on the hilt and turned around to face the group fully. "So, what 's going on?"
"The guys need a tiebreaker. They can't seem to decide on where to go now that we're all together again…" She explained, motioning to her friends behind her.
"Oh, that's right! Apparently someone found a haunted house out in the hills not too far from here! We should totally go and check that out!" Yukiko said gleefully.
Needless to say, Chie wasn't amused. "Are you crazy?! You'll give us all heart attacks if we go somewhere like that!"
"Yeah, the ski lodge was bad enough, but that's just overkill!" Rise agreed.
However, this was different from the ski lodge. "Haunted, you say?" Astaire repeated, suddenly very interested in what was being discussed. "I don't think we can take something like this lying down. What if someone less able wandered in and was snatched away? Unthinkable!"
He grabbed the Bottomless Box and was halfway through pulling out a katana before Yu stepped in. "Woah, wait a second!" He cried, pushing the hilt back down into the box. "Don't just pull stuff like that out in here, you'll get us arrested again!"
All but Chie and Yosuke's faces were suddenly giving Yu perplexed looks, particularly Yukiko's. Yu could have sworn he heard a death knell off in the distance as he realised he might've let slip more than he necessarily should have.
Shrugging, Astaire tucked the sword away again. "If you insist. You'll need something if you're going to be slaying ghosts, though."
Slaying ghosts? Surely he was joking.
Okay, so he wasn't joking.
"This is gonna be awesome." Kanji said, weighing up the shield Astaire had lent him. "I can't believe you guys actually talked the girls into doing this."
Yu also got a feel for his weapon, the katana which Astaire had almost produced earlier. "Yukiko would have come even without us having to say anything. I'm more surprised Naoto, Chie and Rise came as well."
"I'm gonna owe Chie a cow's weight in steak after this, I know it…" Yosuke sighed, also giving the daggers Astaire had lent him a spin in his fingers. He could say what he wanted about his methods, but Astaire carried some kickass weaponry. "Why are we doing this again?"
"Well, Astaire seems to be really eager to go here. Might work well as an icebreaker, that sort of thing." Yu replied.
Teddie looked somewhat disappointed at the small set of claws Astaire had given him. He had to change back into his human form to even wear them in the first place, which then resulted in Astaire nearly lopping his head off after he showed up in a body he'd never seen before. He was still in high spirits, though. "I think this is a great idea! The girls get spooked and all of a sudden, whoosh! We come in and save the day, getting all the ladies with our manly display of manliness!"
Teddie cut off before he could plan any further as Yosuke tapped him on the forehead with the knife's grip. "Hey, don't go around scaring people just for that reason! If I have a heart attack in here i'm gonna make a rug out of you!"
He growled comically. "Groowr… you're no fun, Yosuke. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend yet!"
"Alright, that does it!" Yosuke threw down his knives and began wrestling Teddie on the ground. He wasn't going to hurt him, but he was sure as hell going to tighten his lips a bit.
Yu did nothing to stop them. If anything, Teddie's comical responses to Yosuke's wrestling was funny it and of itself. "Oh Yosuke, I'm ticklish there, stop it! Ahahah!" He cried, coaxing a snort from Yu.
Meanwhile, Astaire had been left with the girls.
"Are you absolutely, one-hundred percent, completely and utterly sure that this'll be okay?" Chie whispered, not sure who she didn't want to hear her.
"Th-there is absolutely no scientific proof whatsoever to confirm the existence of ghosts. I highly doubt we'll see anything at all." Naoto reasoned.
"There's also no scientific proof that other dimensions exist and that people can enter TVs, though. Anything could happen!" Yukiko enthused. Unfortunately, her argument was rather convincing, to the point where even Naoto paled a few shades
The only person who wasn't either scared or gleeful was Astaire, who was still acting differently for another reason. "M-Ms. Kujikawa, would you please…?" His face was flushed as Rise latched onto his arm and refused to let go. While it was true that he had been eager to go and investigate the supposedly haunted abode, something told him that if he'd foreseen this exact situation, he mightn't have bothered bringing it up.
Despite his pleas to regain her composure, Rise held firm. "No way! You said yourself that you were gonna protect me no matter what, right?" She squeezed his arm tighter as the house came into view. It was creepier than she had been anticipating, which said a lot considering she had pretty high expectations already. "Ooooh… I don't like this, Astaire-kun…"
Her uneasy tone made Astaire feel incredibly guilty. He hadn't intended for her to get this distressed. Seeing as he had to take responsibility for it, he took a breath and tried to ignore the incredibly cute girl clinging to him for dear life. He approached the boys, who had just about finished messing about. "You suit those weapons, it seems. I'm glad to know I'll have someone to rely on in here." He said, fishing about in his coat with his free arm.
Yosuke's eyes narrowed as he saw Rise clinging to Astaire. Any wonder he'd been so enthusiastic to come here, he thought. Then again, considering everyone's reactions earlier, now probably wasn't the best time to harass him for it. "So, what? You expect us to go in here and stab up some ghosts like it's nothing?" He said instead.
The response was issued in the form of something slicing through the air with a sound both sharp and deadly. From the bottomless box, Astaire had produced an ornately crafted black greatsword. The blade shone brightly and was much shorter than the one the knight usually carried with him, which was boggling to think, considering it was still a greatsword. "If it should come to that, yes. Now then, would you like to lead the pack, Mr. Narukami?"
Yosuke's earlier question being ignored in favour of the later one, Yu nodded and walked up to the front porch of the massive house. The wood under his feet creaked at the touch, sounding on the verge of breaking, likely due to the age. It struck Yu as rather odd that such a creepy-looking house had went unnoticed if it was as old as it was. It didn't even look remotely Japanese, bearing more resemblance to Victorian manors he'd seen in history books. Brushing these concerns aside, Yu pushed on the door, letting the loud creak echo throughout the house.
"Well… let's go, everyone." He said, taking the first few steps inside. Hot on his heels were Kanji, Teddie, Yukiko and Astaire, the only ones looking forward to this little excursion. Rise was brought along by extension, her grip on Astaire's arm so tight that she threatened to have it fall off him altogether. Once again, Chie and Naoto didn't want to be left behind, throwing themselves into the darkness which lay within.
Holy crap it was dark. If the boys hadn't thought to bring flashlights along with them, chances were nobody would have taken a single step further. Even then, the girls considered that perhaps seeing what was lying around inside the house wasn't the best idea either. Even with the light shining on it, everything was covered in black. It looked like a fire had struck through the building at some point, inexplicably charring every surface, but not burning them away entirely.
Not only that, but the house couldn't seem to settle on how quiet it was. At times the sounds of footsteps and creaking wood filled the air, soon to be overthrown by the entire house seeming to shudder as though it were alive. Finally it would die down, returning to its quieter state.
By that point, nerves were getting wracked. "A-Astaire-k-kun…" Rise squeaked, looking all around her in fright. "...Are you s-sure nothing'll h-happen in here? You wouldn't let it, right?"
"Of course not. This isn't the first time I've done this, you know."
Wait just a freaking minute.
"You… You what?" Naoto asked on behalf of everyone present.
"Fought ghosts. They're sneaky buggers, that's for sure." He said calmly as could be.
Perhaps that wasn't the best idea, as Chie soon demonstrated by latching onto his collar. "Are you telling me that ghosts are actually real in your world?! You're kidding, right?!"
"Not at all. You see…" Astaire began, lowering his voice. "...A long time ago, there was a city called New Londo. It was a city governed by four mighty kings." Yukiko by this point was all ears, and admittedly so were a few of the guys as well. "But one day, the kings became corrupted at the hands of the Darkwraiths, given the ability to suck someone's humanity out of their body with their bare hands."
"Astaire-san, you don't need to-"
"So, action was taken to seal away both the kings and the Darkwraiths who had blackened their hearts so. New Londo was flooded." His orange eyes didn't stray from the darker parts of the rooms, keeping check for anything out of place. "However… that wasn't all that was sealed away. People lived in New Londo after all. To this day, it is their spirits that now haunt the flooded ruins, the rattling of chains and the swishing of ghostly blades a testament to their presence." He finished, sounding a bit more sinister than he had intended.
Once again evidenced by Chie. "AAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'M GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!" She cried, running back the way they had come without a flashlight.
Obviously, someone with a flashlight would have to accompany her. "Chie, hold on a second! Get back here!" A concerned Yosuke called, rushing after her and depriving everyone from another source of light.
Running between everyone, Yu followed in Yosuke's footsteps, stopping only to turn to everybody else. "Let's go, guys. I don't want anybody getting lost in here." He said, turning on a heel and chasing after his friends afterwards. Once again Yu Narukami had proved himself to be a man who was hard to argue with. The pitch black floorboards squeaked and creaked as Teddie, Kanji, Naoto, Rise, Astaire and Yukiko followed suit. They comprised the majority of the group, but without their leader they felt that the loss of three members was much, much heavier than it seemed at a glance.
Following the dull light of Yu's flashlight became increasingly difficult. He was a surprisingly fast runner, and the labyrinthine construction of the building didn't help at all. There was no questioning that they were well beyond finding the entrance now. In fact, it left everyone wondering where the hell Chie was running to in the first place. Surely she'd tire herself out eventually, right?
"Hah… hah… Has anyone noticed…" Naoto panted, "How long we've been running for…?" Now that she mentioned it, nobody had really been paying attention. All focus was directed towards the pursuit above all else. It would only take so long for them to catch up to Yu after he caught up to Chie and Yosuke, after all. "I could be wrong… hah… but I think we've… overstepped the bounds of the house by now!"
In light of this, everyone stopped. "What the hell…?" Kanji could be heard saying. His attention was directed towards the far end of the corridor. The flashlight's dull radiated glow, which had been their main marker until now, had stopped. Had Yu finally ceased running? Had he overheard them and stopped as well? Kanji rounded the corner to find out. The light remained, but its source couldn't be seen. "A… ghost light?"
"Ghost light? Yukiko-senpai, do you know-" Naoto began, turning behind her to talk to the expert on all things ghostly, only to find that both she and her blonde-haired companion had, for lack of a better word, vanished. Her words caught in her throat as the realisation hit her. "Wh-what?! Where are Yukiko-senpai and Teddie?!" She exclaimed, unable to contain her uncharacteristic panic.
Seeing as it was the only proper thing to do, Kanji manned up and placed a hand on her arm. She leapt slightly at the touch, the combination of fear and confusion becoming readily apparent in her eyes. "Look, I don't know what's goin' on here, but we're sure as hell gonna find out." He said with an affirmative nod, clutching her arm tightly in the hopes it'd hide the shaking in his own. "We ain't leavin' here until we find out where our senpai have gone to. Just need to calm the hell down and think, a'ight?" He reassured everyone.
Rise's eyes met Astaire's. "I don't want to stay here, Astaire-kun… This is too much…" She whispered, still burying herself in his arm.
That was until said arm freed itself from her grasp and instead wrapped itself around her. She squeaked in surprise as she felt Astaire tense around her and hold her more closely to his side, forcing her to look up. His eyes were stern, but it was a look of guilt more than seriousness. "Please, be calm. I agree with Mr. Tatsumi. We mustn't lose our heads over all this." As if on cue, the house seemed to shake as something from higher up had crashed into the floor above. Rise felt Astaire's grip on her tighten as his head jolted around rapidly in every direction. For someone who was talking about not losing their heads, he was certainly jumpy.
"This is clearly the work of ghosts. They have to be hiding somewhere!" Astaire shouted, suddenly crashing his sword through the nearest wall. The wood gave way instantly, revealing yet more inky blackness on the other side.
"Woah, woah! What was that about tryna' stay calm again?!"
"Hiding in the walls won't save you now, damned spirits!" Astaire bellowed as he continued assaulting the walls. As he prepared for another swing, his arm came to a standstill as Kanji latched firmly onto his wrist.
Oddly enough in spite of how strong he was, Astaire couldn't seem to pull against him. "Cut that crap out, you'll drop the whole damn house on us! The wood looks burnt enough as is, no need to make it any weaker!"
"Actually Kanji-kun… something's been bothering me about that." Naoto said, kneeling down and running her fingers over the pitch black wood at their feet. "This wood does indeed look charred, but it is not burnt in any way." She gently jumped on the wood, which creaked in response. "I would guess that if it were, we would all have fallen through it a long time ago."
Rise bit her lip as she watched Naoto at work. Whatever was going on around them, it wasn't boding well. "We should try and find the others before anything else, okay?" She spoke softly as she stared up into Astaire's eyes.
How could he say no to a face like that? "Of course, Ms. Kujikawa." He replied, returning the sword to his shoulder. "On my honour, we shan't leave here without finding your friends first."
Taking the lead, he walked off with Rise under his arm, trusting Naoto and Kanji to defend his blind side.
"Chie! Yosuke! Wait up!" Yu cried as he dashed through the twisting corridors at a rate of 'd been running so long that we was beginning to wonder just how fast Chie and Yosuke were in the first place. He was bound to have seen at least some trace of them by now. "Damnit, where could they have gone?" He wondered, slowing down and finally stopping to catch his breath.
Hands on his hips and facing the floor, Yu wiped the thin layer of sweat which had formed on his brow, only then realising how far he had run. Sort of. "There can't be that many places to hide, can there?" He asked his followers, who… had disappeared. Too tired to react beyond gasping and widening his eyes, he scanned the hallway around him to see if they were doing this on purpose. "Huh. Seems I spoke too soon…" Guess not.
As he stood regaining his stamina and almost wishing for some of the bitter-tasting herbs Astaire had produced, Yu resorted to the only sense which would serve him the most in here. As his breathing became lighter, he listened carefully to the sounds the house was making, trying to pick up on anything which might give away where his friends were.
A single, drawn out creak emerged from around the corner to his right. Seeing as he was already lost and he doubted that was going to change soon, he ventured around the corner, trying to deduce if anything was actually causing the noise or if the house was just settling. Finally, after minutes of nothing but endless corridors, he came to something different for a change. A door. "Well, I guess it couldn't be anything worse than another corridor." He reasoned, grasping the doorknob and tugging firmly.
...Except the door didn't budge. It was locked. Pushing against it did nothing, not even when Yu tried to beat it down with his shoulder. Just as he was about to give up, he came to a decision. "...Well, it's not like anyone's living here anyway…" He once again reasoned as he unsheathed the katana Astaire had given him. With one fell swoop, the sword cut through the door with ease, separating the two halves with a single clean horizontal cut.
Satisfied with his swordplay, Yu once again approached the door and lightly pushed the top half away. With an earth-shatteringly loud thump, he was finally able to see what awaited on the other side.
"YU-KUN!" Clearing the bottom half of the door with inches to spare, Yukiko dove into Yu's arms with speed unseen by man, the momentum forcing them both to the ground. Temporarily stunned and surprised by her appearance, Yu could do little beyond stare into Yukiko's eyes as he registered what had just happened. She could barely contain her laughter as she rolled off of Yu and clutched her stomach in fits of laughter. "You...you should have seen…" she gasped, tears in her eyes. "...should have seen the look on your face! Hahahaha!"
"Well at least one of us is having fun." Yu chuckled, his chest feeling much lighter that it had been earlier. That is, until he took note that Yukiko was the only person who had greeted him. She was on her own. "Huh…? Yukiko, did you get separated from everyone else too?"
Able to answer after finally calming down, Yukiko wiped her eyes as she got onto her knees. "Well not everyone, Teddie came along with…" She began as she looked behind her, expecting to see the flamboyantly dressed young man chasing after her. Much to her surprise however, he was nowhere to be seen. "...That's odd… I could have sworn I ran down here with him…"
Getting to his feet, Yu offered her a hand. "Something's definitely wrong with this place, that much is certain." As he hoisted Yukiko to her feet, he sheathed the katana and grasped her hand with both of his. "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand, okay? I don't want to lose you again."
Without another word, Yukiko did indeed grasp his hand firmly. Time to get serious. Yu once again drew his sword, leading the way with his means of defense in one hand and his girlfriend in the other. As he turned away from her, Yukiko bit her tongue before she began swooning over just how cool he was when he put his mind to it.
Two bodies tiptoed their way down the hallway, their only source of light unsteady and unsure of what it was focusing on. "Would you cut that out?! I can't hold this thing steady with you going crazy like this!" Yosuke warned, prodding Chie with his free hand.
Despite her usual avoidance of similar awkward situations, Chie had found herself latching onto Yosuke for dear life, her arms attempting to stop her legs from carrying her further into this hellhole. "I can't help it, I swear! My legs are shaking on their own!" She insisted.
Yosuke sighed. "I don't understand what you're so scared about anyway, nothing's going to show up here! Do you think Yu would have brought us here if-"
His sentence was cut short by a loud crashing sound in the distance. It was far away enough to not be a threat, but it was close enough to be stupidly terrifying. "AAHWHATTHEHELLWASTHAT?!" Chie screamed in Yosuke's ear, leaving him surprised that he hadn't been deafened altogether. Truth be told the sound had made him jump as well, but he was more terrified by how tightly Chie was clinging onto him. Honestly, it would have been pretty cool to have a girl clinging to him in a haunted house, if hadn't been one who could snap him in half.
"Stop it, Chie…! I'm gonna collapse…!" He wheezed out as he felt his spine scream at him in agony. Not wanting to destroy him completely beyond repair, Chie did eventually relinquish her grip, leaving him gasping for air as he made sure he was still in one piece. "Look…" he sighed. "As long as nothing explicitly jumps out and tries to kill us, I think we're going to be fine."
Wiping her eyes, Chie looked up at Yosuke and nodded softly. "I guess you're right…" She sniffed. To his surprise, she almost looked kind of… cute. It wasn't a side of herself she showed often. but maybe she should have. Or not, considering Yosuke then felt like more of an asshole because of it. "Just… don't run away and leave me, okay? I don't wanna be left alone in here again…"
"Says the one who ran off on her own in the first place." Yosuke teased. He regretted doing so the moment Chie's elbow forced its way into his ribcage, leaving him to laugh through hastily drawn breaths.
Now walking alongside one another with less trauma being inflicted, the two resumed their trek down the hallway, with Yosuke occasionally taking his focus off the floor in front of them and instead scanning the walls and ceilings. "What was that about not being to hold that thing steady?" Chie said indignantly.
With a sigh, Yosuke did indeed resume highlighting the floor in front of them. "Have you noticed yet? There aren't any light switches in here."
"No switches…? Of course there aren't, there aren't even any lights in here!"
"Isn't that weird, though? A hallway this long doesn't have even a single light?" ...Now that he mentioned it, the hallway had not only seemed impossibly long, but it appeared to be unnaturally empty as well. "I mean come on, there aren't even any pictures or portraits or tables or anything! Who designs a house like this in the first place?" Yosuke complained as they rounded yet another featureless corridor.
However, there was something different about said corridor. It had windows on the right hand side, yet from the look of them it was easy to tell that what was fading in from outside was… "Moonlight?" Chie whipped out her phone to check the time. "4:50PM. There's no way it could be that dark already, not at this time of the year."
"Maybe it's just looking out onto something weird. C'mon, let's go take a look." But as Yosuke made his way to take a gander, he could see Chie wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he was. Which said a lot considering how enthused Yosuke was in the first place. "...Really? It's a freaking window, Chie." He sighed, juggling worry and frustration about as well as he juggled anything else. "Look, if it makes you feel any better I'll go check it out first, okay?" Not awaiting a response, he turned and approached the only source of natural light they had. What he saw was… well, nothing. Bizarrely, in spite of the moonlight soaking in through the window Yosuke could see nothing but pure, inky blackness on the other side of the window. "What the hell…?"
It wasn't a thought Yosuke liked entertaining, but maybe, just maybe, the house was driving them insane. Not one single thing inside it had made a lick of sense so far. Not the corridors, not the windows, not one damn thing. What other explanation was there? They weren't inside the TV World, so the regular entourage of weird crap they were used to didn't apply. How else could he rationalise it?
Yosuke's thoughts ground to a halt as something began to happen on the other side of the window. Thin, wispy streaks of light materialised from nowhere and began coalescing into two small orbs of intense yellow light. "Yosuke? What's wrong?" Chie asked with a shake of Yosuke's shoulder. The expression on his face shifted as confusion began to give way to anxiety.
The wisps of light ceased as the orbs took on their full forms. From somewhere within their depths, a pair of tiny black spots emerged from their centers. Like a pair of eyes. They stared at Yosuke, until a low, smug voice filled his ears. "...Guess who?"
Worse yet, it was Yosuke's voice they were speaking in.
That was it. Deciding to humour Chie's previous plan, Yosuke bolted from the window and grabbed her hand as he tore off down the hallway at full throttle. "WE HAVE TO GO RIGHT NOW! I'LL DIG MY WAY OUT OF HERE IF I HAVE TO!" He yelled as he nearly lifted Chie entirely off her feet.
Despite being unopposed to the idea of getting the hell out of dodge, Chie nonetheless tilted her head quizzically mid-sprint. "What's the matter with you?! What was outside the window?! Was somebody following us or something?!"
"Did someone squeeze you from behind when nobody was looking?!" Shouted a third voice.
...Wait a minute.
Leaping out of their respective skins, Yosuke and Chie grabbed onto one another as they rolled to a stop on the floor, the shock of the third voice throwing them for a loop that threw them to the floor in turn. Someone had been following them. Taunting them. Who could say as for how long? All that mattered was that they'd shown themselves, meaning-
"Oh come on Yosuke, not you too!" Oh god. That voice. It could only have been one thing.
"Teddie!" Bellowed Yosuke as he caught a good glimpse of the blonde-haired young man standing in front of him, arms crossed and lips pouted. It took every decent fibre in his body to resist the urge to go and pull out his stuffing, human body be damned.
Ignoring the hellfire brewing in Yosuke's eyes, Teddie continued. "I swear, everybody's getting all lovey-dovey with each other when I'm not looking! It's a conspiracy, it must be!" He whined, stomping a foot over-dramatically. "Maybe I'll go find a cute girl myself and go make out with her when everyone's not looking, and then we'll-"
But his soon-to-be rant was cut short as Chie clawed at his shoulders and practically shook the stuffing out of him. "You stupid bear! Why did you sneak up on us like that?!"
"And who are you calling lovey-dovey?!" Yosuke added, lifting himself up off the floor.
Just about able to answer, Teddie tried not to throw up as Chie continued to try and give him whiplash. "Aaaaaagh! Stop it Chie-chan, you're hurting me!" He came to an immediate stop, but she refused to let go of his shoulders. "I-I tried calling out to you two, but you wouldn't turn around, but then you started running so I had to chase after you!"
Lovey-dovey notions discarded, Chie released her dragon's grip on Teddie's shoulders. "We didn't hear you…? But where were you running from in the the first place?" Chie rightfully pointed out. "We were in a completely straight corridor that lead to a corner, but we never saw you the entire time!"
Teddie cocked his head as she explained, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Eh? But the path went off in three different ways, wouldn't there have been two corners?"
The three looked back and forth between one another, each now as confused as the other. There was no other way about it, the corridor Yosuke and Chie had run down had most certainly had but a single corner, so how did it fit with what Teddie was saying? There had to be a mistake somewhere. "Only one thing to do now. We need to re-trace our steps and see what's going on here." Yosuke concluded, taking hold of the two knives Astaire had given him earlier. "We'll find out what's going on here if it takes all night!"
"What?! Forget that, I still need dinner before the day is out!" Complained Chie, still following Yosuke regardless.
"All the more reason for us to get this over with quickly, right? We'd better not waste any time." He replied, walking off down the corridor.
As he, Chie and Teddie walked, he still couldn't get the latter's words out of his head. Slowing slightly to walk next to him, he started, "Hey, what do you mean about everybody getting lovey-dovey when you're not looking?" He reflexively gulped as Chie shot him a look. "Not that we were getting lovey-dovey or anything. Totally weren't."
Teddie pouted as he recalled, clearly upset at the situation. "Hmph! I can't believe everybody was leaving me out the whole time! First Yuki-chan and Sensei, then Nao-chan and Kanji…"
Stopping him halfway, Yosuke interjected. "Wait, Naoto and Kanji aren't going out!"
Teddie continued as if he hadn't heard him. "...And now Rise-chan's got Astaire-san and Chie-chan's got you, Yosuke! Who am I supposed to fawn over now, huh?"
"And for that matter, we're not going out either!" But as much as he would have liked to be, he wasn't sure what the situation was between Rise and Astaire. He could only speculate at what they got up to by themselves. "...As for Rise, I dunno. But I'm sure she's not that stupid whatever the situation."
"You sure seem to have it out for Astaire-kun, Yosuke." Chie finally chipped in. "Lighten up a little."
"Lighten up? I think the rest of you need to stop lightening up! Can't you see how dangerous he is with that fricking huge sword of his?!"
"Well yeah, swords are meant to be dangerous. That doesn't mean the person carrying it is." She added. "It's like saying because some psycho decided to shoot someone in the street you suddenly don't trust Dojima-san with a gun."
This wasn't improving Yosuke's mood, evidently. "But he IS dangerous! Didn't you see how he threatened those reporters in the paper?! "
Yet Chie remained surprisingly calm in the face of it all. "Well he IS a knight after all. Haven't you ever seen those old Medieval movies where the bodyguard's all "You can't talk to the princess, go away!" and he waves his sword at them?" Shortly before the bodyguard got into an epic kung-fu fight, but Chie chose to leave that detail out.
Instead of blowing up again, Yosuke sighed. He seemed to deflate as he continued to do so. "What bothers me most isn't even him being so close to Rise." He turned, letting Chie see the hurt in his eyes. "It's that everybody's taking his side. You'd think knowing a guy for over a year would give you some grounds to trust him."
He felt a pat on his back as Chie closed the gap between them. "Look, we'll just wait and see, okay? If it turns out you're right, then I'll owe YOU the steak for once." She held her other hand out towards Yosuke's. "Deal?"
She was glad to see that her handshake was accepted if nothing else. Indeed, Yosuke did seem to lighten up after her reassurances. In fact, the atmosphere in the corridor overall seemed to be much better than it had been for a while.
"...Are you sure you two aren't dating behind my back?" Teddie asked, ruining the moment completely.
Five minutes later, things weren't looking a great deal better than they had been. "I don't think it took us this long to reach the end of the hallway last time. Something's not right." Chie pointed out.
"You're right about that." Spinning his knives eagerly, Yosuke gazed around the featureless hall for the umpteenth time. "The question is exactly what's not right. If we figure that out then we might have a chance of fighting it."
While the other two were on high alert, Teddie was now slumped over, his days of topsicle binging coming back to haunt him. "What if somebody's following us, Yosuke? You didn't catch me running up to you earlier…"
...Actually, now that Teddie pointed it out, that sounded plausible. The longer Yosuke mulled it over, the more uneasy he felt. Just to make sure, he flipped on a heel and began walking backwards as he gazed towards the stretch of corridor they'd come down. Lacking any external light beyond his flashlight, darkness loomed behind them the further they walked.
Yosuke began sensing a strange feeling the longer he gazed into the dark. It wasn't fear, at any rate. As long as those two yellow orbs stayed far away, he was cool with it. No, this was different. It was more of a gut feeling, an urge which was tempting him to take some sort of action.
His footsteps stopped resonating around the hallway, which caused Teddie and Chie to stop in turn. "Hm? What's up, Yosuke?" Chie asked. She didn't get a response. Instead, she noticed that Yosuke had ceased twirling his knives around in his fingers and had grasped them firmly. Without warning, he struck like lightning as he threw one of the knives into the darkness in front of him, despite there being nothing there.
Yet there was something. A very loud, definite "thunk" as the knife embedded in something. Something wooden, from the sounds of it. Not wasting time, the three friends ran in the direction of the knife. The tension rose like a room filling with water, with everybody having no idea as to what they were meeting, only knowing that there most certainly was something to meet.
Everyone's eyes widened as they came to their destination. It was suddenly all too clear what Yosuke's knife had embedded itself into.
A dead end.
A solid wooden wall. One which hadn't been there earlier. "What the hell…? We came this way, right? I mean, there's no other way to go!" A suddenly very frantic Chie exclaimed.
Teddie wasn't doing much better. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT'S GOING OOOOOOOOOOON?!" He squealed, forcing Chie to cover his mouth so as not to freak her out any more than he already was.
The wood split as Yosuke retrieved the knife from the wall, staring at the indentation before looking in every other direction. "I know what's going on now. I know what's wrong with this place."
"It's keeping us lost. It's rearranging itself to keep us trapped here."