Chapter Text
Haruto woke up in his own bed.
He got ready for school.
He went to school.
He came home.
He did his schoolwork.
He went on a walk.
He ate dinner.
He watched a couple shows.
He went to bed.
Everything was pretty normal.
Haruto woke up in his own bed.
He got ready for school.
He went to school.
He went to the tofu shop.
Some weird reporter asked him about an idol.
He ate his tofu.
He came home.
He did his schoolwork.
He went on a walk.
He ate dinner.
He watched a couple shows.
He went to bed.
Everything was pretty normal.
Haruto woke up in his own bed.
He got ready for school.
He went to school.
He came home.
He did his schoolwork.
He went on a walk.
He ate dinner.
He watched a couple shows.
He waved at a passerby standing on the side of the road.
Everything was pretty normal.
The glorious jingle of slot machines never fails to get Haruto shooting out of bed with the energy of a thousand suns.
Gambled away his life savings went without a care in the world before winning it three times over off of twenty dollars.
The security guards started a fistfight with him for… shit, he actually didn’t remember why!
Where were those fireworks? He wanted to show his buddy Akira what a REAL birthday party was like!
Oh my lord! What was that putrid stench!? Oh, nothing to worry about, just the scrumptious scent of urine on the recently deep cleaned carpet. And of course- oh shoot, that was burning!
Haruto passed out unconscious from trying to deal in a couple guests for blackjack in thick smoke.
Everything was fucking great.
Bottom right to middle, corner to middle, and… did he flip over or leave it?
Yu was trying to remember the steps to making an origami lotus flower while making dinner in the kitchen. Nanako was watching TV while his uncle was reading the paper. He initially started folding origami for the money but he actually started to like the process a lot.
That reminded him of something. Shu mentioned that he liked origami, didn’t he? He should show him some of what he’d made. Maybe he could even teach him.
Right, the food. Yu took it out of the oven and started to set the table while he waited for their meal to cool off. He overheard a tidbit or two from the television.
“No other comment from Rise or her grandmother, but the fans are just as eager as ever to catch a glimpse of the former idol!”
Nanako gasped. “Oh no! Did Rise quit her job?”
“No, she’s just taking a break.” His uncle grumbled. “Damn reporters twisting their words for engagement.”
“Just take a look at this young man right here! Say, sir! How long has your life been waiting for such a glorious opportunity such as this?”
“Huh?” a soft-spoken teenage boy replied. “Oh sorry, I’m just going to grab tofu.”
“Aww, don’t be shy, young one! There’s no need to deny it! It’s alright to go after a dazzling model such as Rise!”
There was a slight pause from the boy as Yu straightened the table out. “Who? Oh, the idol? Is this where she lives?”
“These guys are weird.” Nanako said.
Dojima grunted in response. “Change the channel, will you?”
Yu obliged. As he was doing so, he could hear a fierce wind slap droplets of rain on the side of the house.
It was raining? The forecast he looked at this morning said otherwise. It was a good thing they saved Rise right away, or else the fog might’ve come early.
The dinner was probably cool enough to eat by now. Yu brought it over to his family for the trio to eat in peace.
The static of the Midnight Channel shook Yu out of his studying trance as the light of the TV flooded the room. Odd, he could have sworn it was eleven thirty just a couple moments ago. He tried to give it little mind as he continued, but a strange feeling in his stomach prompted him to look, even though nothing would be shown.
Except when there was something shown.
His papers flew to the floor as Yu shot up like a bullet. Staring at the figure, the only thing that he could identify was the figure’s age and gender: a male around their age.
As quickly as it had come, it disappeared.
Almost immediately, Yu’s phone began to ring.
“Hey, did you see the Midnight Channel?” Yosuke asked in a tense voice.
“I did.” Yu responded, equally as serious.
“Dammit…” he sighed. “Just after we saved Rise? And wasn’t it supposed to be clear skies tonight?”
A sigh came from the other end of the phone. “Hey. Let’s talk tomorrow. I wanna do it with the rest of the group.”
The two said their brief goodbyes and went to bed.
“Huh?” Yukiko said before bursting out into a fit of giggles. “Hey Chie! Listen! ‘Huh?’” Before snickering uncontrollably once more.
“Sheesh.” Chie groaned as Kanji walked into the food court. “You’re hopeless.”
“What happened?” Kanji asked as he sat down on a nearby chair.
Chie sighed. “There’s this video going around where an animal gets confused. Someone edited the sound of a guy going ‘huh’ over it, and ever since Yukiko saw it she’s been quoting it all day.”
“Can we please focus?” Yosuke politely asked. “Kanji, did you hear the news? Someone new appeared on the Midnight Channel last night!”
“Oh shit.” Kanji commented. “D’ya see who it was?”
Yu shook his head. “Too blurry.”
“Alright, well do we have any idea who it could be?” Chie asked. “Anyone in the public eye?”
The group fell silent.
“Uhh…” Kanji scratched his head. “There was this really annoying commercial on TV the other day. Heard a couple guys talking about it. You think the killer might be irritated enough to go for the actor?”
“I don’t know, that doesn't sound right.” Chie frowned as she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Hmm. Could it be a government figure?”
“Usually the targets are quite local, so I doubt it.” Yosuke said. “Maybe it’s someone’s birthday? Some news stations announce the birthdays of people if you submit a message and ID.”
“That seems like a shot in the dark.” Yukiko remarked. She pursed her lips as the rest of their group continued spitballing ideas.
Yu breathed in and leaned back in his chair in response to getting an idea. “The blue guy.”
“Who?” Chie asked. “Oh right, the detective interested in Kanji.”
“Interested— What do you mean by ‘interested’?” Kanji gripped the handles of his chair.
“Oh yeah.” Yosuke nodded. “Maybe we could get his help in finding out who the next target would be.”
But this prompt only elicited a frown from Yukiko. “That might draw some suspicion to us. I thought that Yu-kun was suggesting he would be the next target.”
The group pondered that idea for a moment.
“Has anyone seen him on the news?” Yosuke asked with the tone of ‘please let the answer be yes so we have someone to go after’.
But he only received heads shaking as a response.
“I heard my uncle talking about him a couple days ago.” Yu elaborated. “He was irritated that some “kid” was working on the case with them. That’s about it.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen anything either.” said Yosuke. “But are you sure we couldn’t just ask for his thoughts about who the next target might be?”
“Nah, that’d draw too much attention.” Kanji murmured.
Yosuke gave a smug laugh. “Since when were you so considerate about drawing attention?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just look at yourself, dude.”
“Hey, I’m taking this seriously, you know!”
The group laughed softly at their banter, but it did little to ease the tension.
“Let’s wait until tomorrow.” Yu suggested. “Maybe by then the Midnight Channel will be clear enough to get a good look at him.”
The others had no choice but to agree.
Good news: The boy in the picture wasn’t the detective.
Bad news: He had no idea who it was.
His phone started ringing.
“Hey, you recognize that guy?” Yosuke asked wearily.
“I don’t.”
“Geez, you too?” he could hear an audible sigh from Chie.
“This doesn’t make any sense!” Yukiko whispered. “The Midnight Channel was supposed to broadcast people in the public eye, but we can’t even find this person when we’re looking for him!”
“You think this means he won’t get kidnapped?” Kanji asked.
“We can’t take that risk.” Yosuke assured everyone. “Does everyone remember what he looks like?”
He heard no objections. “Good. After school tomorrow, we’ll ask around town about a boy who fits the description. It’s the least we could do to prevent another kidnapping.”
Everyone agreed to do so, and they all shortly went to bed to prepare for the next day.
“Huh?” Kou walked up to Yu after hearing his conversation with a female classmate. “Oh, you must be thinking of Daisuke. Yeah, he’s a really interesting character, he is.”
Yu winced. “It’s—It’s not Daisuke, Kou.”
“You sure?” Kou raised an eyebrow at him. “Maybe you should check again. Oh, I didn’t mean to leave you out, you wanna tag along?”
Yu politely excused himself from Kou’s attempts to attract girls.
“Ma’am, please.” Yosuke begged. “This is the third time you’ve shown me that photo of your grandson, is there anyone else you know who fits the description?”
“Actually.” The old woman cut him off. “This reminds me of a time when he was your age, struggling with his math homework.”
“Oh, hold on a second, I forgot my wallet at home.” Yosuke didn’t bother waiting for a response before he got as far away from her as possible.
His phone began buzzing ecstatically, but when he went to check it, Kanji sent a photo of… Yuuta?
Yosuke:
Kanji, that’s a child.
Kanji:
YOU GUYS SAID A KID HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU MEANT IN HIGH SCHOOL.
Yosuke slapped his forehead.
“Any progress?” Chie said in between licks of a popsicle.
“None so far.” Yosuke sighed. “We got a couple leads, but they turned out to be different people.”
“Are you sure you remember his face well enough? Maybe you actually got the right person but just didn’t realize it.”
“No, I’m sure! I’d know it when I saw it.”
She responded with a shrug. “Whatever you say.”
“A–Anyways, how’s progress for you? How many people did you ask?”
A frown. “Yukiko and I talked with some of the teachers, but none of them really took us seriously. There’s only so much five kids can do.”
Yosuke closed his eyes as he let out a groan of frustration. He was starting to feel the anxiety building in his throat. At least they had leads for the other cases, but if they didn’t even know where to start, how could they possibly hope to prevent it this time?
He opened his eyes and took one last look around, desperately hoping to see someone who even remotely looked—
“There! There he is!” Yosuke exclaimed as the man in question rounded a corner.
“Hey! Excuse me!” Chie started running towards him, prompting Yosuke to follow.
They rounded the corner and were about to say something, but the man turned around and gave them a quizzical look.
“Huh? Oh, it’s just you guys. Did you need something?”
“Dammit.” Yosuke scratched his head. “Sorry Adachi-san. We thought you were someone else.”
He laughed lightheartedly. “You lookin’ for the mystery kidnapper? I didn’t know I acted that suspicious.”
“No, it's just— Oh, whatever. Sorry for bothering you.” Yosuke then quickly turned on his heel and dragged Chie away from the strange detective. He watched them leave for a few seconds before shrugging and continuing on his walk.
“What’s wrong?” Nanako inquired. “You look lost in thought, big bro.”
Yu softly chuckled and reassured her it was nothing. But it was something. They had to call off their search by sundown, since the target was probably home by then. And now that he’d gone home and made Nanako dinner, there was a good chance that the target was already inside the TV World. Their attempts to stop the kidnapping this time had ended in a complete failure.
Well, the only thing to do now was to view the Midnight Channel again to see what his shadow would be like.
What the hell was happening?
Unbearably loud noises emanating from every direction were met with Haruto’s ears the instant he regained consciousness. Cheers, cries, garbled speech over a loudspeaker, sirens, horns, slot machine jingles, just trying to delineate each specific sound was tiring him out.
When he opened his eyes, blinding lights from every direction launched an assault on his irises. Was he in the middle of a stage or something? Hand in front of his eyes, he slowly got up and tried to piece together where he was.
The only thing he could even begin to describe his surroundings with was a horrible mixture of a casino, a concert stage, a night club, and probably several other types of social gatherings he didn’t even know existed. Voices rang out from every corner, but something felt off about them. He couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Well, well, well.” Every hair on his arms stood straight up as someone behind him started speaking. “Look who finally woke up. Just in time, I might add!”
Haruto whirled around to come face to face with—
What?
The person that was standing in front of Haruto was an impossibility. It was both him and not him. They shared a voice and yet the two could not sound more different. Their clothing was an utter contrast to Haruto’s, but they awakened a sense of familiarity somewhere deep in his soul. They stood like he did, talked like he did, existed like he did. And yet they were so undeniably foreign.
They cackled a gleefully sinister laugh and placed an arm around his shoulder. “You’re so tense! Loosen up, man, life’s too warm to freeze up like that!”
Haruto couldn’t even focus on what they were saying. What exactly was this? There was no way that his exact doppelganger could not only exist but could speak as if they were long friends in anything short of a dream. But it didn’t feel like a dream. Was this a drug trip? No, that didn’t sound right either. Psychosis? Reality might be an amalgam, but with the presence of rational thought, he had to rule it out.
“Get out of your damn head! The show’s about to begin!”
Show. Some show was beginning. Ok. That had a possibility to make sense. It certainly fit in with the rest of wherever the hell he was.
The figure that both was and wasn’t him walked a couple feet and turned to a nearby studio camera out of his line of sight. They cleared a throat they evidently possessed, and began to speak.
“Kick! It! Up! For the best night of your life! I’ll make you live like you’ve never lived before, and I’ll enjoy every single second of it! All its ups and downs, twists and turns, triumphs and failures, I’ll kiss each one of them smack on the lips! Haha! I’m the most valuable person on Earth, baby! I’ll be seeing all of you real soon! Real soon!”
Well, reopening that drug trip theory. Who was to say he wasn’t on some hardcore substance when his exact inverse clearly was?
S–Shoot, they’re looking right at him!
“Didn’t you hear the announcement, little boy?” Haruto instinctively backed away in response to a hint of malice in the figure’s voice. “Live like you’ve never lived before.”