Myre hated the rain. The opposite was also true, but that was because rain fell into one of two categories: a drink to the parched earth, a washer of sins and a bringer of peace to the soul... or the sign of the end, a flood to drown those sins.
Or, on a somehow much more dour note, the weeping of Heaven for the lost.
Myre watched the droplets plinking against his window as he sat in his bedroom, blanket around his shoulders. He'd been up an hour now, the events of last night playing over and over in his head. Everything... everything was so solid, so real but... what even was that? Questions ran over and over in his head until he began questioning if he actually did see anything. So deep he was in his own mind arguing over if he was going insane or not that it took him some time to realize Nanako was calling him down for breakfast. His uncle was missing to literally no one's surprise, having to deal with Saki and her family still.
Gods, he'd have to explain all this to Chie and Yosuke, and as if it were the garnish atop this meal of misery, his fall from last night had hit him harder than expected. He had to hobble with his cane to school while the rain poured atop his umbrella, leading him to be overall miserable when he finally reached the classro-
...what the hell was the teacher wearing?
After the eccentric history teacher's lesson (and much whispering from the other students about why he had a cane to one another), Myre found himself under the intense focus of Chie's fussing.
"Chie, I am fine."
"Okay, I just want to be sure. It was just a slip, right?"
"Yes, Chie, nothing is broken, twisted, sprained, or torn." She would make a good mother or orderly, but she was very... persistent in trying to see if something was wrong, and he quickly tried to turn the subject away from himself, "Have you seen Yosuke?" Chie shook her head.
"No, he seemed to be extra worried for some reason. I think it's because of that interview last night with Saki."
"That face covering really did nothing, did it?" Mayuri sighed, but the door to the classroom opened and Yosuke stepped in, quickly bee-lining for them, "Speaking of the prodigal son."
"Wait you know the word "prodigal," but not "date-"" Chie was cut off as Yosuke spoke up.
"H-Hey, did you two..." Yosuke trailed off, groaning and sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "I can't believe I'm asking this." He looked at the two. "Did... you two see the you-know-what last night?"
"I totally did!" Chie thankfully brought all her focus onto the new topic, "Get this though: I saw a girl! What is that even supposed to mean?" Myre and Yosuke shot each other a look. "...what?"
"Nothing." Yosuke quickly responded. "What did she look like?"
"She had our school uniform, brown hair, I think it was down to her shoulders..."
"That's the same girl I saw." Yosuke said, eyes going slightly wide, and Myre bit his lip as Chie continued.
"W-Wait, what? How is that possible? Two people can't have the same soulmate! Right?" They looked to Myre, and suddenly the bluenette found his mouth incredibly dry. They saw the same thing, he wasn't going crazy, but it wasn't... could he really share what he saw? It was so different to what they saw...
"I... I saw it too." Myre offered lamely, "It's why I fell, I was so... so shocked."
"Well, yeah, but did you see the same image?" Yosuke pointed out, and Myre briefly cursed in his head.
"...Yes." He finally offered after a beat of silence, and he hesitantly began to explain the truth of what he saw and what happened, at least up to putting his hand inside the television. He had zero idea how to even broach the subject of Saki, so-
"Do you think you could fit in a bigger T.V.?"
"...eh?" Mayuri asked as Yosuke joked, the fog that seemed to hang over him disappearing.
"We've got some widescreens at Junes if you want to try them out." Yosuke winked, and Mayuri was so completely floored by the joke that he barely registered his two friends discussing prices on a flatscreen T.V., or when they convinced him to follow along after school. When they arrived at Junes he finally had his sense come back to him, and as Yosuke discussed prices with a stunned Chie he finally worked up the courage to speak.
"Yosuke, could you come here, please?" Yosuke blinked and left Chie to glare at one of the T.V.'s.
"What's up? You think Dojima would let you get one of these for your room?"
"No, it's... it's important. It's about-"
"Our top story this afternoon: the assault of Saki Konishi." Myre's lips were immediately sucked into his mouth as Yosuke whipped his head to one of the T.V.'s that was previously displaying a field of flowers, now showing a news broadcast as Myre slowly turned his head to look at it, "After an anonymous tip police searched for, and found, Saki Konishi at around 3 A.M. last night in critical condition outside of Yoshi Electronics." The scene cut to a police cordon around the store, a smashed T.V. on the street as Chie stepped up to the two stunned boys. "No official statement has yet been given in regards to Ms. Konishi's condition, however one officer shared that she was found hanging from a telephone pole in a similar manner to-"
"Adachi you pustilanimous twat!" Myre hissed in English, causing Yosuke and Chie to jump before he sighed. "That... was what I was trying to tell you about."
"What!?" Yosuke looked to Myre who began shushing them, hissing his words.
"Keep your voice down!" Myre looked to make sure the section they were in was still empty, "...Last night, when I got sucked into the T.V., I saw... I saw Saki in some sort of store, and she was facing some... monster. She was injured and I-I tried to pull her out, but the T.V. was too small-"
"D-Dude, what're you talking about?" Yosuke went white, and Myre's stomach churned as the look on Yosuke's face was one he knew all to well as a denial of horror.
"Wait-Wait-Wait-Wait, you mean that was real!?" Chie cut in, "Th-There's no way, that's not funny!"
"I'm telling you, it's what I saw."
"Dude-"
"Yosuke-"
"Just stop!" Yosuke actually shoved him, not particularly hard but Myre wasn't exactly a mighty oak, so he went toppling over into the T.V.. He saw Yosuke and Chie looking horrified before he was swallowed by fog, something latching onto one of his arms as he fell..
...oh, he was on the floor now.
Wow his lungs really hurt.
...was someone calling for him? It sounded like Yosuke, might've been Chie. All the colors above him were green or black or brown-
A hand pressed down on Myre's shoulder and intense pain brought everything into impossibly sharp focus: Yosuke and Chie were staring down at him after they'd fallen on him, he was on the floor with pain shooting through his whole body down to the bone, and the sky was a deep, sickly yellow. A breath confirmed that a rib was definitely fractured but least not jabbing into his lung, and another told him the wind had been squarely knocked out of him as he lay there and recover. When his hearing was clearer and his diaphragm wasn't crumpled like tin foil he groaned out, "Cane." Chie was first to react and quickly placed the item into his hands, his two companions helping him to stand... well hunch over, but it was close enough. He took deep, steadying breaths as he looked around to the square they'd landed on, metal beams and walkways stretching far out until they were eventually were swallowed by the fog, "...are...are we...?"
"When... when I shoved you, you fell into the T.V., so I tried to grab on to you to pull you, but then I started getting pulled in so Chie tried to grab me..." Myre... found it hard to be mad at Yosuke, knowing there was no way what he could know what the push would cause, not to mention the regret in Yosuke's voice was so thick you could brick a wall up with it. Chie was glaring hotly at Yosuke as he spoke before looking down at Myre with worry.
"Are you okay? Are you sure you can stand?"
"I'll live." Relatively speaking, at least. His injuries were fine, but this place... the fog smelled like blood, to such a degree it made his teeth ache. "How are you two?"
"Don't worry about us! You were out for a minute there!" Chie chastised him as Yosuke looked around.
"Damn it, can't see anything, even with those lights!" Myre nodded, pushing himself to stand straighter with his cane before hobbling to the edge of the platform they were on as Chie fretted after him, trying and failing to spot anything other than an abyss.
"We need to be sure of our footing. One slip and I think the fall will do worse than drop us on our rears."
"What? I can barely see anything, how are we supposed to do that?" Yosuke spoke up and Myre blinked as he looked back.
"What? The fog covers the far end of the walkways, but-"
"Dude, I can barely see you and Chie over there." Myre was wondering just what the hell Yosuke was on about before he froze, eyes going wide.
"Shh!"
"Wha-"
"Shh!" Myre shushed them again as he felt his hackles raise, eyes darting around as instinct kicked in. It was a feeling he felt long, long ago but he would damn well know anywhere.
Something was stirring.
"We need to go."
"What? No way, they say if you're lost the best thing you can do is stay where you are for rescue." Chie pointed out.
"Wait for rescue!? Who's going to look for us in a T.V.!?" Yosuke countered. The two were about to argue but Myre slammed the butt of his cane on the platform, the sound silencing the two of them as he spoke.
"This is not up for debate! Now!" He quickly began limping his way to one of the walkways, and the two shook off their surprise quick enough to follow him. There was no sound save the clacking of Myre's cane and the trio's footsteps, the minutes stretching on until Yosuke finally spoke up.
"Can... you see where you're going?" The words were whispered and Myre nodded, eyes darting over every inch of space ahead of them.
"Some." Yosuke was clearly expecting more but Myre just kept moving. "Stay quiet."
"Why? Did you see something?" Myre actually glared at Chie's "whisper" and she flinched back before he focused ahead.
"We either find an exit or cover if we keep going." The question of "what do we need cover from" seemed to fly over their heads, but they still followed along as Myre did his best to traverse the strange fog. Even stranger was when the steel walkway began to give way to concrete, the two blended together until they were walking along some sort of apartment building's path, warping bands of red and black taking up the open doorway at the end.
A dead end.
Myre's face curled at the morbid thought, looking to the doorway and shut doors of other apartments. He reached out, testing one door but it was locked shut, and he returned his focus to the warping portal. "I fear... we may have to go inside."
"What!? No way man!" Yosuke protested, "We can just double back, can't we?"
"This place dragged us in, I doubt it will let us go so easily."
"Dude, seriously, I can't-"
"Shush."
"Don't you shush me, this place is-"
"Shhhhhhhh!" Myre hissed, head whipping around to the path they had just come from. He could hear... something, dripping almost. He held out his arms in front of the other two and started moving backwards while keeping his eyes on the path, trying to corral them towards the portal. Myre's worries were not unfounded: a mouth came out of the fog, hovering towards them. That was the only way to describe it, a disembodied, floating mouth as tall as they were, tongue lolling out and sliding from one corner of its lips to the other as drool splattered against the ground.
"What the hell is that!?" Yosuke screamed.
"Does it matter!? Just run!" Chie turned, as did the others, and they all ran off into the portal. The portal stretched into an impossibly long tunnel before the trio stumbled into... an apartment.
"I don't know what I was expecting." Myre thought to himself, quickly glancing back to see the same portal filling the doorway to the apartment, and no door to block it. Myre scanned for anything before he grabbed a small table in the entryway and practically slammed it into the path of the portal. He rushed to the kitchen and began searching for anything to use as a weapon, but unless the sponge was a choking hazard, there wasn't much he could do. "Chie, Yosuke? Start moving things in front of the doors and windows."
"What?"
"Now!" Myre slammed the tip of his cane into the floor and the two jolted before scrambling to follow his orders, and soon they had... the best they could do. They were all milling about the living room, breathing labored before Yosuke suddenly screamed.
"Oh God, what!? What is it!?" Chie jumped to action, frantically looking around as Myre gripped his cane, ready to-
"I gotta use the bathroom!"
There was a deathly silence as the two slowly looked to Yosuke, who was now clutching the front of his pants. "The-There's gotta be a bathroom in here, right!?"
Yosuke scrambled about the apartment as Chie snapped, "Are you kidding me!? We just got chased by a monster you jerk, I thought this was an emergency!"
"It is an emergency, I feel like I'm about to burst!" Chie looked ready to strangle Yosuke before he disappeared into a bathroom. Myre sighed heavily and began rummaging through the cabinets and drawers. Maybe he had missed something; a knife, a hammer, anything that could act as a weapon. He found... a box of pain relievers. At least that's what the box said, the writing appeared to be gibberish minus those two words. Wary but desperate, he tucked the medicine away as Chie sighed.
"I need to take a breather. My head is pounding, maybe there's a bedroom around here." Chie left to open the last door in the apartment and Myre opened the refrigerator. There was... actually food here, but the words were gibberish again. Who knows if-
"Uh... guys? You might wanna come in here..."
Chie called out, and Myre made his way over to the bedroom. Red and yellow... something was splattered across the room, posters with the faces ripped out lining the walls, but the centerpieces were a chair sitting directly under a noose. Myre felt his stomach lurch at the image, and his thought from earlier hit him like a cannon.
A dead end.
"...Whoa. It's a good thing I don't have to pee anymore." Yosuke spoke up as he peered around the doorframe. Silence hung heavy until Chie whined
"I wanna go home." Myre looked back. He hadn't seen a T.V., but would going through it even put them back at Junes- "Maybe... Maybe we need to go back the way we came..."
Yosuke opened up his mouth... then closed it, looking away. "Yeah... I don't wanna fight whatever that was, but we can't just sit around here either. I'm starting to feel pretty sick here, too- wait! If this place has less fog, then maybe-!"
Yosuke lit up, quickly fishing out his cellphone. He angled it around and tapped on the screen a few times before sighing. "I guess phone screens don't count. Not even a signal."
"Then the only way out is..." Chie glanced in the direction of the front door. Myre thought, and thought, and thought, but there was only one option he saw. He clutched at his cane and took a breath.
"Clear the doorway. I'll go first and face the creature, and you two come a few seconds later-"
"What!?" Chie shot up.
"Dude, you can't fight that thing, you're..." Yosuke trailed off, wincing.
"I'm the only one with a way to fight, and I'm probably the only one who's ever been in a fight. I'm the best chance to allow you two time to escape."
""Time to escape...?"" Chie tilted her head, confusion plain on her face before her eyes went wide. "Wait, you don't mean-"
"Chie I'm half dead already." Chie recoiled and Myre felt his dread pool in his stomach as he had to speak the plan aloud. "I can't... I can't run properly, Chie. If I go first and the creature is still there, I can at least be a distraction for you two to get away."
"No-No-No-No, you can't-"
"There are no other options, Chie!" Myre shouted, voice cracking, "Please don't... don't make this harder than it has to be..."
"Chie." Yosuke spoke, voice thick as he looked at the ground, "I think... I think this-"
"Don't you dare Yosuke! M-My martial arts, I can-"
"This isn't a Mackie Chen flick, Chie!" Yosuke shouted, head shooting up. "This might be our only chance!"
Chie bit her lip hard and Myre almost thought she would draw blood, fists clenched and body shaking. Myre... what could he say? Was there anything to say? He looked back towards Yosuke, "Start moving the furniture-"
Myre was suddenly wrapped up in a hug by Chie, the boy stunned for a moment before awkwardly patting her back. The hug only lasted a second longer before she marched past towards the front door, Yosuke trailing behind. Myre sighed, watching the two before he looked back into the room. After a moment he stood on the chair, gathering the red cloth from the noose. It felt... important, but who knows; maybe it could be used to identify whoever lived in this apartment, or identify him if Chie and Yosuke escape and come back with police.
Myre hobbled to the front entrance and his friends stood on either side, unable to look at him. He took a deep breath and stepped through the portal, cane again clutched in both hands. His hackles raised but this march... the more he walked the more familiar it felt.
The more right it felt.
"...In black-hewn cloak we meet our end." Myre clutched his cane tighter as he got closer to the end of the tunnel. "By fang and claw that maim and rend. Though we march to our doom..."
Myre stopped just at the edge of the doorway, taking one last breath before stepping through the threshold, "We do not cower from beasts that loom."
He was back onto the apartment path and saw... nothing. He waited a second, another, another before marching into the fog. His steps echoed along the path but there was no other noise. Eventually he raised his cane and smacked it on the railing, sure it would lure in the creature... but the air was still, silent, as it had been during their walk. He felt a pair of eyes on him but turning revealed only Chie and Yosuke, looking about nervously as they creeped along the path, looking both shocked and relieved to see him. He could only offer a shrug and the trio slowly traversed the fog, eventually coming back out to the platform they originally awoke on.
"Well, we're here..." Yosuke nervously looked around. "Now what?"
"...I don't know, maybe-" Myre stopped as he saw something walk onto the platform. It was... he legitimately had no words for it. It was some odd bubble-headed creature of blue and white fur that stood like a human, wearing some strange red and white outfit with noodle-like arms. "What?"
"What?" Yosuke asked.
"What's what?" The creature asked, and Yosuke and Chie nearly jumped out of their skins.
"What is that thing!?" Chie screeched, getting into a defensive pose. The creature recoiled and put its flat hands over its head.
"D-Don't yell at me!"
"...I... we apologize...?" Chie and Yosuke looked at Myre incredulously and he simply threw up his hands before continuing, trying to keep his words simple. "We... are lost, far from home. We fell in here through a magic box."
Myre went the extra mile of making a square shape in the air, and the creature stopped cowering. "You mean a T.V.?"
"...Yes."
"Oh... did you get thrown in too?"
""Thrown?"" Yosuke connected the dots faster than Myre did. "Wait, hold on: did you see a girl get thrown in here? Brown hair, wearing clothes like ours? Who threw her in!?"
"I-I don't know who did it, I just know a girl was thrown in here from the smell!" The creature put on a brave face, "But if I did know who did it, I'd stop them right there! They're messing this place up, riling all the shadows!"
Myre's head was spinning; there was so much to unpack in that last sentence alone, thankfully Yosuke continued. "Quick, can you take us to where you saw her?"
"What? Yosuke, we should have this thing take us back home!"
"She's right." The bear nodded, having to move its whole body to do so, "I wasn't joking when I said the shadows are really riled up. It's been a huge headache."
"But this is a chance to-"
As if by divine humor Myre coughed, a tiny splatter of blood hitting the ground. The four of them stared at the blood before Myre looked at the shellshocked creature, "Friend, I think we would all like it if you could tell us where the exit is, but can I ask you something?"
"...friend...?" The creature repeated the word, still looking shocked before shaking their whole body, "Oh, uh, yeah."
"We may need to come back here to investi- ah, figure out who's throwing people in here. Is it alright if we come back? Y-"
"What!? No, no, no! It's bad enough already!" The creature stomped its foot and with a puff of smoke a stack of T.V.'s appeared. The bear came around and began pushing the three towards the T.V.'s with surprising strength. "No solicitors!"
The trio protested and struggled but eventually they were all shoved into the T.V., black bands and white space surrounding them until they all fell through, back into the real world and sprawled out on the floor of Junes. Chie and Yosuke sat up while Myre laid where he was, Chie looking around, "We're back...? We're back!"
"Oh thank God." Yosuke nearly collapsed onto the floor again, relief palpable. "Oh my God that was so... so... hey..."
Yosuke shakily stood and nearly ran over to a poster, leaving Chie to help Myre up and help him walk, "Yosuke...?"
"Guys, check this out: these are the posters from the room!"
Chie gasped, "I thought I saw those from somewhere! That's Misuzu Hiiragi!"
"...I remind everyone I came here less than a week ago." Myre spoke up, and Chie continued.
"Her husband was the affair partner of that announcer lady who died. Remember when we were walking home from school and we heard about... you know what?"
"...Oh." Myre looked at the poster. He hadn't taken too close a look, but it did seem to be the one from the room. "So she's connected to this..."
Yosuke shivered. "Nope."
""Nope?""
"Nope, nuh-uh, no way." Yosuke waved his hands in front of himself, "I am not thinking about that, I'm not even going to try and remember what happened today if I can help it."
"Wha- but Yosuke-"
"Attention shoppers!" The intercom chimed out in the store. "We're having our daily special sale on the side dish area of the first floor!"
"Aw crap, it's that late already?" Yosuke practially power-walked away, "Look, I'll speak with you two tomorrow, I gotta go!"
Myre wanted to call out to him but he stopped himself. He didn't know who was trembling more right now, himself or Chie, how could he blame Yosuke for trying to protect his own sanity? Plus, they were all in the fog for so long, and who knows if it was just a normal fog or something more sinister. "Chie, do you think you'll be alright?"
"Wha- me!? You..." Chie started to whisper, "You coughed up blood!"
"I wish I could say that was weird for me." Myre sighed deeply. "I think... for now, Yosuke had the right idea about leaving what happened for tomorrow. We all need rest, and clear heads."
"...Yeah." Chie looked ashamed to admit it. "I'm not feeling too hot either, b-but you need me right now."
"I've made it farther on worse days, Chie."
"But-"
"Also I would have to explain to Dojima why I brought a girl home." Chie's face went bright red and she nearly dropped him with how fast she pulled away.
"I-I'm heading home!" She sprinted off and Myre snorted, beginning the long trek back to Dojima's home. He was practically catatonic by the time he got back, but he tried to act as normal as he could, joining the others when he saw they were at the table.
"You're back. Where have you been?" It at least didn't sound accusatory.
"Was with friends." Myre yawned. More divine coincidence as the news began to discuss the murder of the affair partner of Misuzu Hiiragi's husband, revealing the affair partner stayed at the Amagi Inn... why did that sound familiar?
...oh cock and balls. Now the press was going to be bothering Yukiko too. "Eugh..."
"Something up?"
"...Still not used to the town air, I think." Not a total lie.
"Ah, a Spring cold coming on? Nanako, could you-"
"Don't bother." Myre waved off the concern. "I don't think your medicine cabinet contains anything stronger than what I'm already taking."
"Alright, but be sure to head up to bed early."
"Yes sir." Didn't need to tell him twice. Myre made his way uptsairs and reached for his medicines and then paused. Everything that had happened not a few hours earlier swirled in his head, and he bit his lip. Would Dojima check his pill count? Would- no, no, Dojima was too busy, and he had witnesses to what he saw. He didn't... he wasn't crazy. so surely he didn't need some of these. Myre nervously looked at his closed door before reaching only for his painkillers, gulping them down and head straight for his bed.
He had to be ginger, as his bruised back, damaged rib, and weak body reminded him, lowering himself down slowly into what was the most peaceful sleep he'd gotten in ages...