Chapter Three - ...it's a contract.

Then there was a loud, booming noise that sounded like something you'd hear from a train in transit...which was shown directly on-screen. The scene faded into a shot of the interior of the train, where all but a few passengers were shown - one of whom was on the far right of the screen, so far you could barely make out what he or she looked like, from the face. The angle was cut off just barely enough such that they could only see the person's back.

"Attention, passengers," the intercom blared, "We sincerely apologize for any-"

And then the camera shifted to behind the shoulder of the person who had been to the far right of the screen - he was looking out the window and his reflection appeared on said window after the train passed by a building, music faintly playing in his ear.

"-inconvenience caused by the delay. The next stop is Iwa-"

They all stopped thinking for just that one brief second as his reflection gave a shot to them of his eyes obscured by his blue hair and his mouth in a stoic line. Not once did they ever think of how typical it was for him to be so emotionless, but the only thought that hit them was, We're playing as him, aren't we?

Junpei gripped the controller tighter and gritted his teeth. He had known it from the beginning. Obviously. They were gonna be playing as him...he was the main character. 'Course he was...he seemed the most "main-character" material out of all of them, come to think of it. He frowned at the screen and he let out a small and uncomfortable noise as he thought to himself, Please don't be the main character...

It wasn't out of jealousy that he had thought all these things. He was going to be playing as his former best friend. The man who had led him and everyone else to victory years ago - and who had sacrificed his life in doing so. Was he supposed to feel joy? How was he going to play him properly? There was no way he'd be able to properly represent...him. The only person who could...was him. Any other person doing it would be...just disrespect.

He was afraid. So afraid.

But their collective shock turned into a bit of a surprise when the next thing that appeared on-screen jumped at them.

/You've got to, to let it move first/
/Let it out-/

A blue butterfly flashed on-screen and fluttered its wings in slow motion as that song from his earphones played.

"What the-?!" was Akihiko's reaction (and pretty much everyone else's), but then-

"-Iwatodai."

He appeared shocked, judging from his reflection on the window, but what was outside the window flashed white as they cut to the butterfly again, the song from the earphones playing much louder, now.

/-amn depressed/
/Let's get it up/
/Then what'cha gotta do is drop-/

They didn't really want to question the ambiguity of the butterfly and just felt all weird inside. But, luckily for them, the scene shifted yet again.

Circular, cylindrical things were turning as the intercom in the station called out, "Iwatodai, Iwatodai. This is the final train bound for Tatsumi Port Island. Please make sure you board in time for departure."

As the voice said these things, they saw him lazily walking around, blissfully unaware of his impending death less than a year later. The camera cut to a shot of him walking by in slow motion, focusing on the earpiece shoving music through his eardrums.

"Iwatodai. Iwatodai."

He had been in front of the turnstiles - before it faded to black.

The music in his earphones kept on playing.

/Burn my dread.../

And then a clock showed up behind him, the hands slowly turning to midnight.

Midnight. Midnight.

Midnight.

Everyone knew what was to happen, and none of them liked the fact that they knew what was going to happen, and they disliked what was going to happen even less.

They got a shot of his mp3, and the music stopped dead. The device, showing the time to be 12:00 AM, immediately turned black. The electronic message board behind him blacked out as well.

"Huh?"

Hearing his voice again was almost...an alien sensation. Just that simple word - out of reaction, he had said it, yet it rang volumes to them. For, indeed, there had been a time when they all had wanted to hear him say something - anything to them...and he'd not respond.

The desk screens and the lights blacked out in the station as well, and the sky turned from its natural, calming dark blue to a searing and sickly green.

The clock now had a streak of blood running down the glass.

They had thought they'd already escaped the Dark Hour's clutches. They had lived years without it - and had been content with that fact.

But now...it had returned. And it was mocking them - viciously so. Taunting them from that black box with images of him.

Yukari, Aigis, and Fuuka couldn't believe their eyes. Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Ken were enraged. Koromaru couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen. And Junpei just made a point to power on through.

The camera panned up to give the bewildered audience a look at their main protagonist. Appearing equally dumbstruck by the sudden change of scenery, he merely...blinked and was on the verge of shrugging his shoulders at the whole ordeal.

He let out a bored sigh as he moved to the right of the screen.

Junpei had a hand on his face and couldn't help but chuckle silently at that. What a guy...even then, he was bored of everything. Even Yukari raised an eyebrow at her former crush's impassiveness, while everyone else just kept their eyes on the screen, save Koromaru, who was now rubbing his eyes.

They caught a glimpse - up-close - of his earphone. Then, the yellow, humungous moon of the Dark Hour appeared and flashed a bit on screen, catching them off-guard with the almost surreal editing.

The screen then showed Iwatodai's streets, littered with coffins and with blood stains around the sides of the streets, before panning upward to get a better shot at the looming, incomplete moon glaring at the world.

And yet, he was just leisurely walking through it all...without a care in the world.

Are you kidding me...?

Even Akihiko couldn't take what was happening with a straight face. He'd been like this when he had first encountered the Dark Hour? How impassive had he been? This was not even funny - it was actually kind of frightening.

Mitsuru was put at unease, especially considering that he had expressed disbelief at there being a twenty-fifth hour of the day, when they had told him...this was his surprised face? He hadn't even looked just a little bit unsettled!

Yukari and the rest couldn't gather their thoughts in time, as before they could-

He stepped on a puddle of blood and was suddenly at the doorstep of their old dormitory. Opening the door, he let himself in, engulfed in a white expanse that was the interior.

Now inside the lobby of the dorm, he removed his earphones and ignored the warmth of the lights permeating the place.

"You're late," an unfamiliar voice cut in, "I've been waiting a long time for you."

A little boy's head popped up from the bottom-right of the screen.

Okay, what.

Yukari drew back a bit in her seat at the sudden intrusion. What was with the little kid, where had he come from, and what was with the creepiness in his voice.

Mitsuru and Fuuka were both unnerved at this little boy, and Junpei just widened his eyes.

"Wha-?"

He stared at the child, slowly turning his head as he did so. Even in the most creepy of situations...he maintained his stoicism. Almost an admirable trait, if only it hadn't been so...unsettling.

The boy snapped his fingers, and the camera panned over to his eye, "Now, if you want to proceed..."

Yukari made a disgusted noise and drew closer to Fuuka, who was drawing closer to Aigis, who already had Mitsuru nudging up on her left-

The boy appeared in front of him now, gesturing to the table, which had a clipbook on it all of a sudden.

"...please sign your name there. It's a contract." Said contract flipped itself open, "Don't worry. All it says is that you'll accept full responsibility for your actions." The scene focused on his exposed silver eye. "You know. The usual stuff."

"What...is going on?" Junpei vocalized basically the thoughts of everyone in the room. And then the next thing happened.

The screen had an arrangement of numbers and letters, and two rows of blank spaces. And Junpei knew what this meant.

"We're gonna give him a name."

"What...?" Yukari asked incredulously.

"The game is telling us to make our own name for him...he...oh, man..."

"What? What is it?"

"Don't you get it...? He...he was just...!" he stood up from his seat. "What they do in these kinds of games is they allow the player to make up whatever name they wanna make up for the main character, so they can put themselves in the role!"

And then implications started worming their way into each one's mind.

What did this mean? What did this mean? Was he truly a person? Had there truly been a mind inside him? Was he real? Was he...there...?

Just what was he? What truly was their friend? Was he even human? Had he truly cared about any of them? Had someone controlled him, all this time? Had he been but a mere puppet!?

And worse yet...what did that make them...?

Junpei's phone rang.

He opened it in a fit of rage.

Name him what he had told you his name was.

Junpei huffed. His eyes flared up, and he gritted his teeth. "Alright. Fine. That's how you wanna play..."

He dragged his cursor over to a few letters.

If that was how he was going to be-!

Arisato
Minato

He was gonna do this and do it by the book. If only to show him.

You aren't gonna break us. You aren't. I won't let you.