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Yosuke wanted to be wrong.
The silhouette a few days prior had been… Vague, even by the midnight channel’s standards.
Only the dullest silhouette pierced through the static.
But everyone had known who it was, regardless.
Seta Souji. Their leader- founder of the investigation team alongside Yosuke. Yosuke’s partner.
He could recognize him anywhere.
He still dared to hope, even as he sat in Souji’s empty bedroom, on the floor, back to the little table Souji used to fold cranes and make envelopes, staring up at the TV static, listening to the thunderous downpour outside. Even as the impression of Nanako’s brief excitement when she’d opened the door to the Dojima’s, clearly expecting her brother, quickly turned to a sad disappointment. Yosuke didn’t have to ask to know Souji wasn’t home.
Dojima wasn’t either, though, so he’d offered her a shaky smile and stepped up the stairs to Souji’s room.
Dread pooled in his stomach, weighing him down- he craned his neck up to stare into the TV, motionless.
Hoping to be wrong. Please, please be wrong.
Anyone else in the world could show up on that TV, and he’d feel some of this tense dread lift from his shoulders.
Yosuke snapped to attention as the telltale, sickly yellow glow seeped from Souji’s little television set- before quickly snapping to pitch black.
Slowly, the set began to fade in, and Yosuke struggles to initially parse what he’s looking at.
The room is pitch black, save for the faint yellow, swirling light coming from a small pile of retro TVs, much like the one Yosuke is viewing them through. The back wall, almost impossible to make out due to the faint light, is covered in cardboard cutouts, mimicking the patterns of the black and red TV World sky- clashing harshly against star-shaped yellow and pink stars.
On each TV begins to roll credits-
MAGICIAN: Hanamura Yosuke
CHARIOT: Satonaka Chie
PRIESTESS: Amagi Yukiko
-it continues in order, first assigning the investigation team these strange roles, with Seta Souji at the very bottom listed as the Fool- before soon meandering onwards to many different names and roles, some of which Yosuke recognizes- the Fox, Adachi, Marie, Kou and Daisuke- but also a lot he doesn’t. He tenses when at the very bottom of even that is the role “CULPRIT:”, though the name is scrambled and glitched.
Yosuke hears the sound of someone tapping at a microphone and lifts his gaze from the set to the shadow, sitting with a relaxed posture atop the pile of TVs. Yosuke knew it hadn’t been there a moment ago. He already knew- there had been no avoiding the truth, now- but seeing it with his own eyes still makes his stomach drop.
Even though the golden eyes aren’t visible from this side of the TV, Yosuke would know it wasn’t Souji even if this was his first time seeing the midnight channel. His posture is relaxed, wearing a TV announcer uniform, lips pulled in a soft smirk- but it looks almost forced. tense. Stressed and wound-up in a way Souji simply would never let anyone- not even his partner- see.
“Welcome, welcome,” the shadow starts, in Souji’s voice, tapping its microphone again. “Today, the Midnight Channel is hosting a very special episode. A behind-the-scene’s look at the production of the Midnight Channel, featuring an interview with the lead actor of your favorite rainy day broadcast!”
The shadow paused for a moment, looking left and right, as if expecting some off-screen audience to start cheering. Yosuke certainly wasn’t going to.
“Next time on the Midnight Channel, we’ll get a direct look into the mind of the actor who failed to save his sister, killed an innocent man in revenge, and doomed inaba to the endless fog!”
Yosuke shot up. But they’d saved Nanako, and- they didn’t- they didn’t- What?
Souji’s shadow stared at the screen, and if Yosuke didn’t know better, he’d swear the shadow met his eyes.
“For all this and more, remember to tune in!” The shadow grinned, copying Yosuke’s signature wink. “I hear the fog’s coming real soon.”
The midnight channel abruptly turned to static.
Yosuke stared at the screen in shocked silence, before snapping out of it and grabbing his phone next to him- he stopped himself right before calling Souji, before pausing and scrolling down to call Chie.
She picked up immediately.
Yosuke didn’t hesitate to speak, though his voice came out shaky. “Skip school and meet at JUNES as early as you can tomorrow. Tell Yukiko, I’ll call everyone else.”
Chie was quiet for a moment. “Y-Yeah, I will. …Yosuke, what do you think that-“
Yosuke cut her off.
“I need to tell everyone. We can talk about it tomorrow.” Before she could get a word’s in edgewise, he hung up on her.
He’d thought that Souji wasn’t keeping anything from him, much less from himself. When he hadn’t formed a shadow, Yosuke had simply assumed he wasn’t capable of it- wasn’t the type of person to hide anything from himself.
Clearly he was wrong.
Any ideas he could think of to explain what the shadow had so confidently declared sounded more and more insane- more and more like something Souji would have told him.
Souji would have told him, right?
Yosuke didn’t really register how he was struggling to breathe until he felt tears run down his cheeks.
No, focus, he forced his shaking hands to pick up the phone again, and dialed Kanji’s number.
We’ll get you out of there, Partner, Yosuke promised to himself and to Souji, somewhere deep in the TV World- If it’s the last thing I do.