Player Choices
By psychored1911
Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 4 or Persona 4 Golden
4/14- Early Morning
Ugh, last night was hell. What the hell was that? Did I really go through my TV last night? What would've happened if it wasn't too small? Would I have been sucked in there, trapped inside forever?
"Perfect timing! Sorry, move over!"
Huh? Oh, it's Chie. Why is she running in the rain?
She forces her way under my umbrella. Whoa, too close! Too close!
"I did have my own, but I saw this kung fu movie where they used an umbrella to pull off some sweet moves and… I accidentally broke mine trying to mimic the move." She chuckles, trying to hide her embarrassment.
And that kids, is why you don't mimic what you see on television.
"By the way… did you see it?"
I did see it. The strangest experience in my life.
But I can tell her that later. Now I could say "I did." Sweet and simple. But I also could lie and say "See what?"
But, considering the opportunity to mess with someone, I couldn't help but say:
"You were on my screen. Are you my soul mate?
"What!?"
Chie goes from wet to red in less than three seconds flat.
"I was kidding." I say.
"W-Why would you say something like that?" she stammers, almost sounding disappointed.
"Because it was funny." I blurted out. Oh now I really sound like an asshole.
She's pouting. Okay I'm feeling pretty bad now, she's giving me a sarcastic look. I should apologize.
"I'm sorry."
And now she looks less upset. Upset. Just less.
"S-So, who did you really see?" she stutters.
"I dunno. All I know is I saw someone. It was too obscure to see any details besides the feminine build." I told her. "Who did you see?"
"Ah," Chie hesitated, stopping for a second or two "Never mind. I'll save it for when the others are around. We're gonna be late for school."
Huh? She's avoiding the topic? Did she see a girl like I did? Oh that's hot. Or better yet did she see me? Nah, that's pushing it. No way would a girl like her be interested in a guy like me.
We continued walking for a bit before she stops.
"Oh… U-Uhh…" Chie slowly starts backing away "I-It's kinda awkward to only bring this up now, but we're pretty close up here…" she starts backing up even further "U-Um, I'm gonna just go ahead and run the rest of the way!"
"Don't worry about it."
"You'll catch a cold."
"Then let's race!"
-"Don't Slip."
Chie blinks in confusion "Huh? Why would I slip?"
Oh, you're just tempting fate, now are you?
"See ya later!"
She barely made it 30 feet without slipping. This is starting to remind me of another person I know that slipped in the rain. Well at least she was on her feet and not on a bike. I go over to her and put the umbrella over her head.
"Wanna walk with me instead?"
She smiles and chuckles sheepishly. I'll take that as a yes.
After School
Ugggggghhhhhhhhhh…..that was so long! Do school days in this place last this long? It's only 3 and it feels like forever. And look here, there are girls talking about that murder a couple days ago. It's always sunny in Yasoinaba, now isn't it?
"Y-Yo. Um…"
Yosuke! Finally, something that isn't death. Wait, something doesn't feel right.
"It's, uh, it's not really that important, but…"
If it's something not important, then why do you look like you want to talk about something?
"Well, Yesterday on TV, I…" Yosuke hesitates on his words.
"So, what is it?" I ask.
"Oh, uhh… Never mind. Look, I'll tell you later. Ahaha…" he laughs nervously.
There's definitely something wrong going on…
"Yosuke, did you hear the rumor?" Chie suddenly cuts in "Saki-senpai's supposedly the one who discovered that body."
Saki-senpai? You mean that part-timer from yesterday?
"I wonder if that's why she looked so down… She doesn't seem to be at school today either."
Huh, really? She seemed fine last time I saw her. Though if you ask me, I almost sensed a tinge of annoyance from her whenever Yosuke was around. Either that or I was hungry. I dunno.
Yukiko gets up from her seat.
"Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the inn today too?" Chie asks.
Oh, right she works at the inn…
She looks upset. "Things are really out of hand right now… I'm sorry."
Yosuke turns to Chie. "Is it just me, or does Yukiko-san seem way stressed out today?"
Nope, I'm seeing that too. It must be hard training for such an important job. Though if you ask me, I'd be afraid to take up such a job, knowing I'd be chained to it forever without being able to make my own fate.
"I guess they're running her ragged…" Chie shares my suspicions "By the way, did you see… it… last night?"
Is she talking about the Midnight Channel again?
Yosuke looks pale.
"Huh…? Uh, well… What about you?" Yosuke says hesitantly.
Dude, you didn't answer the question.
"I did! I seriously saw a girl!"
…What?
"But… my soulmate's a girl?"
Niiiice- No, bad head! No thinking dirty thoughts!
"What's that supposed to mean? I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure… Her hair was brown, about shoulder length. She was wearing our school uniform, and…"
Yosuke looks up quickly. "Hey… I think that's the same person I saw."
Huh?
"I couldn't make out that much detail, though. The image I saw was much blurrier…"
Chie even looks even more surprised. "Wait, so you saw it too!? And we saw the same girl…? Does that mean… we have the same soulmate?"
Well, that put a weird image in my head.
"How should I know?" he turns towards me. "How 'bout you? Did you see it?"
I told them what happened to me last night.
"I saw a dancing girl with brown hair and then I heard some creepy voice… and then I got pulled through the TV screen. It would've sucked me in if it wasn't too small."
Wow, that sounded even crazier than I thought.
They both look at me like I'm crazy, can't say I blame them. Yosuke speaks up. "It sounds like we all saw the same person… But weird voices aside, what was that about getting sucked into your TV…? Were you that tired last night? You must've just fallen asleep in front of your TV."
I can't believe the obliviously whipped guy is telling me I'm nuts.
Chie speaks up. "That'd be one interesting dream though. I like the part where you got stuck 'cause your TV was too small. That's pretty realistic. If it had been bigger-"
At least she thought it was funny…
"Ohhh, that reminds me. Our family's been talking about buying a bigger TV."
Yosuke looks up at her. "Oh yeah? Well, flat screen TVs are definitely in these days. Wanna go check 'em out on the way back? We're beefing up our electronics department this month."
Chie grins "Oh, Definitely! My parents don't know anything about electronics, and I've just gotta see my kung-fu movies on the big screen!" she strikes a pose. "Hwa-taaaa!"
I wonder if she cares if other people might be able to see under her skirt.
"We've got pretty big ones in stock. I bet they'd be big enough for you to fit into, hehe." Yosuke smirks.
I should have known they wouldn't believe me. It would've felt less like added insult to injury hadn't it been said by the dude who had he brilliant idea of going down a slippery hill on a bike while holding an umbrella.
Ugh, never mind. I'll just go with you guys to Junes.
Junes, Electronics department
"Wow, this is huge! And…" Chie gaps at the huge TVS as she glances at the price tag "Holy crap, it's expensive! Who buys something like this?"
Someone who's totally compensating for something.
"I dunno… Rich folks?" Yosuke guesses with a shrug "Honestly, not many people shop for TVs here. That's why we don't have clerks around."
Or customers for TVs. I doubt anyone could even afford something like that in this kind of town.
"Huh… Not worth trying then, I guess. Well, at least looking's free." She actually looks a bit disappointed.
They both knock the TV screen a bit. Their hands don't go through the screen… Huh, maybe I was seeing things.
"Nope, can't get in. Figures."
Don't have to rub it in that much…
"Besides, these flat screen TVs are so thin, you'd just end up on the other side… Argh, what am I saying!?"
I think there is a better chance that I'll knock over an expensive TV.
They both go over to other TVs. If I was real, I would have been able to fit in here.
I put my hand against the screen, gently pushing though until it goes through… okay… Don't panic! Whatever you do, don't panic! This better not be one of those things where you stick your hands into something- no wait that joke is too messed up even for my standards!
The two of them approach me from behind, probably gasping in shock.
"You gotta be kidding me… Did you really stick your hand through the screen?"
"Oh man… This is for real… that's some magic trick, man! So how's it work, huh!? What's the magician's secret!?"
Both of them are staring at me but why on earth are they more panicked than me?! My hand is stuck in a screen and while I'm almost calm about this, they look like they will flail around any second now!
You know what, while I'm at it, I might as well freak out these two a bit more. If my hand can survive in the TV, why can't the rest of me? Maybe this will be funny…
I stick my head inside of the screen.
"It's roomy in here."
I mutter to myself as I ponder of Chie and Yosuke's reactions. Oh, I can just picture them panicking right now, running and screaming and- WHAT THE?!
The two of them knock all of us inside the TV.
Oh this can't end well.
*THUD!*
Bend with your knees! Bend with your knees!
I fall on my feet.
And I stick the landing! The crowd goes wild- No! Now's not the time for this!
*THUD!* *THUD!*
"Ow! I landed on my wallet…" Yosuke mutters, getting back to his feet. Trust me, it's better than landing on your keys.
"Man, where the heck are we?" Chie stumbles, trying to get a sense of her surroundings "What is this place? Some place inside Junes?"
"Hell no it isn't! I mean we fell through a T.V. actually uh… what is going on here?"
He turns to me and gives me a strange look. Don't look at me like that! I'm weird just not this kind of weird!
"So… uh… we're still alive… right?"
Three things came to my mind:
"Where are we?"
"Are you guys okay?"
"Is this a dream?"
But first things first, we have to find out if we're still awake, or at the very least, still alive. There's only one way I know how to wake up immediately, and that's with pain... Oh, I'm not gonna like this… I brace myself as I say to her:
"Chie, we looked up your skirt!"
…
…
…
"WHAT?!" Chie screams, her face flushing bright red.
Well, her rage is real.
"YOU STINKING PERVERT!" She rushes over to Yosuke and give him one hell of a roundhouse kick to the face.
*THWACK!*
…Did she just ignore me- no, don't dwell on it, if manga and anime taught me anything, dwelling on it will just get me hurt.
"Ughh…" Yosuke groans "Well, at least we know this is real…"
Sorry Yosuke, I thought she would kick both of us… I was wrong- Hey wait a second, why didn't I just pinch myself? Great, now I feel even more like a douchebag.
He then starts looking around.
"Whoa!"
"What now!? Did you wet your pants!?"
Where did that assumption come from?
"No, stupid! Look around!"
I take a better look around this area. What are we standing on?
"Is this… a studio? All this fog… Or is it smoke? There's no place like this in Inaba, is there…?"
Okay, calm down… try to identify what you can see. Okay, I can see studio lighting fixtures above us, and below us there's… a target… with white victim outlines… a lot of white victim outlines… Do not think of the many white victim outlines… probably tell Uncle Dojima of the white victim outlines… Nah, he won't believe me about that. I don't believe where I am either.
"Hell no. But man… this place is huge…" Yosuke's right. This place is way too big.
Chie looks worried. "What are we gonna do….?"
"Let's look around."
"Let's go home."
"It's up to you."
Nope, none of those things will work, I gotta think of something else… gotta find our way back… gotta find… I got it. I take a deep breath and:
-"ECHO!"
They both cringe and glare at me, bewildered…
"Dude, the hell was that?" Yosuke cringes while rubbing his ears.
"An echo is produced by sound waves bouncing off large objects." The echo came back somewhere to my left "The echo came back from my left, so there has to be something big over there." I told them, pointing to my left. This may not come off as a surprise, but since I didn't have any friends to occupy my time, I spent several days humoring myself with knowledge of random stuff I found on the internet. Thank you, antisocial circumstances, you made me into an even bigger weirdo than I originally was. Hoo-rah…
I walk to my left, as either Chie or Yosuke, I really wasn't paying attention to who, mutters "Could've given us a warning…"
Later
After walking a bit of walking, we're at… a bedroom? How did we get here? I know going into an eerie, glowingly red doorway was a bit of a death flag, but a bedroom?
"No service. What a surprise…" Yosuke checks his phone.
"Can't you guys slow down a little?" Chie complains, catching up behind us "It's hard enough to see where you're going…"
"What are you talking about? I can see… just fine…" Huh? Wasn't it foggy a while ago? Why's it so clear in here?
"Huh? That the…!?"
Chie turns around as we actually pay attention to our surroundings for the first time. The bedroom is covered in red and yellow paint splatters, all over these ripped up posters. And there's that chair and the scarf noose over in the corner. Did we just walk into some serial killer's lair or something? This shit is creepy as all hell.
"It keeps getting creepier and creepier the further we go…"
You got that right, Yosuke.
Yosuke suddenly lurches forward in agony "Aargh! I can't hold it any longer…" he moans. "My bladder's gonna explode!" he runs over to the wall and unzips his pants.
"Yosuke!? What're you doing!?" Chie yells at him.
"I gotta let it out before I piss my pants!" he yells back.
"You're going here!? Oh, you have got to be kidding…" she facepalms.
Now, I could say nothing, or I could be a decent person and yell "We're right here!" but instead, I point at the potted plant behind us and say:
"Kill the plant."
Chie turns to me, bewildered "Dude! Don't encourage-"
"Brilliant idea!" Yosuke charges straight past us (I cover both Chie's eyes and mine, so we're good) and stops right in front of the plant. As he does that, I bring Chie outside so he can do his business in privacy.
As we stood outside, Chie just fumes at me "You just had to encourage him, didn't you?"
"What? If you needed to pee somewhere strange, I'd obviously give you privacy." I say in my own defense.
"…" Chie turns her head away from me. Okay, I may have pissed her off. No pun intended.
"Hey guys…" Yosuke calls us back "look at this…"
Walk in
-"We don't wanna see it."
"What do you mean by-" he pauses, before realizing what I meant "Oh gross, not that! I meant look here, in the room!"
We walk back in, hoping his pants are up. Yep, his pants are up.
The two of them look around the room one last time, fixing their gaze on the roof and at the noose which, for some reason, looks creepier with the three of us staring at it.
"We should probably get out of here." I comment, inching closer to the door.
"Agreed."
"I'm with you there."
Chie and Yosuke nod in agreement as we all make for the door.
However, before he leaves, Yosuke stops and looks at one of the ripped posters "Hey, I think I saw this before-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know what a poster is. Let's just leave this place." I say as I go back and drag him by the collar.
Later
"Whew, we finally made it back here." Chie sighs as the three of us made our way back to the creepy target with all the victim outlines. She then pauses, "Wait a second, what's that?"
We see a shadow of- okay, I don't know what it is, but work with me here- approach us.
It comes out of the fog, it looks like some department store mascot reject. I don't know why, but I like it.
"What is this thing? A Monkey? A bear….?" Chie looks at it, confused.
"What in the world…?" Yosuke looks puzzled.
"Th-That's what I wanna know! Who are you guys…?"
It can talk. I like it more already.
Chie gasped "it talked! W-What are you!? Y-You wanna fight!?"
"Don't yell at me like that…"
He looks scared.
Maybe I should be nice to him. I could ask "What is this place?" Or "What are you?" Or even "Is this a dream?"
No wait, I can do better than any of that:
"Hi there. My name is Yu Narukami. What's yours?"
The big thing seemed to calm down a bit "I-I'm Teddie." he says timidly "You're from the other side, aren't you?"
"I'm definitely not from here, if that's what you're saying." I told him.
"Y-You weren't thrown in like the others, were you?"
Thrown in? You mean people were forcibly tossed into this place?
Teddie doesn't give us any time to comment "Nonononono! You guys gotta leave, now!" he tapped the ground as this stack of old 50's TVs emerge out of thin air before pushing the three of us into their screens.
A/N: Yeah, sorry I took so long. I had midterms, and unlike my bro, I had AP courses to take care of… and… yeah, as an apology, and because this chapter was pretty dramatic and not completely funny, I added a preview of what's to come. This is not what's going to be in the next chapter. This is for a future chapter that I have yet to make. If you haven't played the part yet, you think this may be spoilers, you haven't played Golden or if you really don't want to read it, you can stop right here. This is the actual end of the chapter! If you do however, you will find a line that my brother said to girls before and he kinda got away with. It's a really kind of messed up line that he says to people who knows he's joking, he says it in a non-serious tone and oddly enough everyone he talks to especially girls loves it when he says stuff like this out of the blue. He doesn't get in trouble for it, he doesn't say it to be offensive or in any way to offend people, he says it to amuse people. Trust me you'll know it when you see it. I hope you guys find the line amusing too and not offensive and I hope you guys enjoy this preview. Please review! I always appreciate seeing reviews to my stories and honestly, they inspire me to write faster. P.S. you should know who he's talking to at the end…
6/15- After School
Okina station
"This is so weird. I think someone's watching us from somewhere, though." Yosuke commented.
"I don't get that at all."
"That seems… unlikely."
"I want to go home."
-"Yeah, like two students with scooters sitting in a parking lot for hours on end doesn't catch attention."
I snarked, wondering how we didn't violate any loitering laws. Maybe I should've told him this isn't how you pick up girls. I'm sure I was thinking this a while ago…
"H-Hold on! I'm sure if we hang around a little longer…"
"We'd be breaking loitering laws, and Kanji looks suspicious enough without our help."
Kanji looks at me quizzically "Huh? How do I look suspicious?" He asks as I avert my eyes. That was kinda mean of me to say.
"Anyways, I'm pretty sure staying here won't get us anywhere, it's already brought us to one place, nowhere."
Yosuke frowns and stamps his feet in irritation "Oh low blow, man!"
Man, am I mean today; it's probably because of all the sun. Or the sitting. Or the sitting in the sun for hours on end.
Kanji shrugged "Senpai's got a point; we've been out here for a while with nuthin' to show for it."
Maybe I should say something. Three things pop in my head.
"It's Yosuke's fault."
"It's Kanji's fault.
"Is it my fault?"
No, that won't kill the boredom from standing… standing… I got it!
"Do you guys wanna try actively picking up girls instead?"
They look at me ?This is literally not the weirdest thing I've said recently.
"Dude, I doubt that's gonna work." Yosuke frowned.
Kanji rolled his eyes "I dunno. I'm likin' his plan better than yours right now, Yosuke-senpai."
Still, between standing next to a motorcycle and actually talking to girls… I think actually talking to girls would work better.
We all look a bit disappointed.
Kanji then speaks up. "Senpai, can you give me ten minutes?"
Oh my god, is he in?
"I can't keep quiet after getting' shut out like this. I'll avenge you guys!"
Haha! I knew this guy was awesome!
"This isn't a fight you know! What're you gonna do to "avenge" us? Hit on some girls?" Yosuke looks at him with skepticism.
"Hell yeah! How else would I fix this?"
"C'mon… we have motorbikes and we failed. There's no way you could do better. Right?"
Three things pop into my head-
"Keep dreaming, Kanji."
"I'll be doing the avenging here."
"Three minutes is all I need."
Even though I could probably get a number in three minutes (I got Yukiko and Chie's number just by asking them to their face) but I don't want to say that. Instead, I'll say:
"This sounds like fun."
"Now that's my senpai!" it seems I got Kanji excited. "Let's make this a contest. I'll show you clowns how a real man gets it done!"
I say to him, "Who are you calling a clown?" I have the feeling I could have said something like that a while ago.
Yosuke looks a bit fed up. "Calm down! This is turning into something we've all got a stake in. I mean, do you realize what you're saying? This means we're the ones that have to approach girls. That sounds lame… and I doubt it'll go well for us…"
Is it any better than standing here doing nothing?
Kanji looks up. "Ya Chicken?"
"That's not what I meant…"
Kinda sounds like he is.
Kanji looks at him again, "All we gotta do is ask them to be our friend. And then make 'em say "yes." Nothing to it"
Even though I'm ok with doing this, I doubt it's that simple.
Yosuke looks a little reluctant. "Well, I guess there's nothing to lose…"
Kanji looks like he perked up. "That's the spirit, Senpai! And if I lose, I'll run around the block in nothin' but my underwear and those gag glasses Yukiko-senpai had!"
We won't make you do that, nor would we want you to…
Yosuke looks a bit confused. "Only girls count for this, all right?"
"Well duh." I roll my eyes.
Kanji looks a bit pissed. "You're still stuck on that!? Dammit! Hell if I'm gonna lose this!"
He runs off.
Challenge accept- wait a sec, something tells me they never talked to girls before I came around.
Yosuke and I then split up into different directions.
This is gonna be easy. I don't think I should take this too seriously, it's not like I'm going to meet someone who would potentially be the love of my life in here.
I look over to a café nearby. There's a girl over there… why do I have the feeling I've seen her before? She is really pretty though. She has red-brownish hair tied up into pigtails. She's wearing glasses, I don't know why but they look fake. She does look kind of upset about something. I don't know what it is about her, but I almost feel drawn to see her.
She gets up to walk away. Maybe I should talk to her now. Hmm…? As I start to go over to her, I pass by the table she was sitting at, it looks like she dropped her phone. I was gonna go talk to her anyway, might as well bring this with me.
2 minutes later
Man, can she walk fast! It's taking me too long to catch up to her. It's like she knows I'm following her. Man, if I do this any longer I'm gonna feel like a stalker.
Another 2 minutes later
SLOW DOWN DAMNIT! Even people in the city I'm from don't walk this fast! It's getting harder to catch up to her- man, I really do feel like a stalker.
She's going into an elevator. Okay, at least she's going to stop moving for a second. I walk into the elevator with her and present her phone to her. "Here, you dropped this."
She actually looks pissed. I didn't pick up the wrong person's phone did I?
She glares at me, takes the phone back and says: "Why didn't you say so a whole lot sooner?"
It's clear, she did notice me and she did think I was a stalker. But what's up with the tone? I could just apologize or say nothing. But knowing me, why would I do any of those? Instead, I sarcastically say: "Do you act like this to everyone who helps you?"
She looks a bit confused. I think this is the first time someone ever said something like that to her.
She starts to say: "You did give it back to me instead of keeping it so thank you." she says with a slight blush. Okay so she's not a tsundere like I was expecting. Good to know.
Unfortunately, she started to frown again. I wonder what's wrong.
"You look like you're upset about something." Her head immediately goes up. I guess I was right. "I want to say that you're stressed out because you don't exactly have a lot of friends and when people do give you attention, it's not for the reason you want."
She looks surprised as if she's thinking I can read her like an open book. I know that look on her face, I've had it for a while.
"You're right. How did you know about that?"
I tell her: "Your face kinda screams that."
"I was pretty lonely when I was growing up, I was shy."
"You don't exactly look shy, the first thing you did when you met me was yell at me."
She laughs, at least I put a smile on her face. Then she says, "Well you were acting like a stalker!"
I don't know why I said the thing I said next. I playfully say, "You are so mean! Obviously your ex-boyfriend didn't spank you hard enough."
Oh my god she is going to slap me. No wait, she isn't? She starts to laugh uncontrollably. I definitely thought she was going to slap me.
"I never had a boyfriend!" she says playfully "I bet you act like this to all the girls you see."
"You think I'm flirting with you?" I ask "There's no way that's what's going on, though you look like you would flirt with me a lot though."
A/N: and for those who read past my previous warning, this is somewhere I'll be at in the coming months. As always, please review!