Souji's Shadow First Draft
Jun. 22nd, 2015 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points: Persona 4 Playthrough Mild AU, ABANDONED START
Chapter Summary: The Investigation Team runs into some unexpected problems in Rise's dungeon.
Word Count: 2,033
Rating: T
Souji doesn’t rescue Rise in two days. If Yosuke had been paying enough attention, that would’ve been a warning sign. That, and all the other weird behavior from Souji lately. But he’d been a little distracted, and so what if Souji seemed weirder? All it meant was that the guy was getting relaxed enough to show more of his true face.
Their leader’s looking particularly frustrated today, though, and this catches Yosuke’s attention. He’s quieter, giving less orders. Kanji’s excited about that. He hasn’t figured out, yet, that it’s not trust. Not that Souji doesn’t trust them. He does. He’s also like the legendary Zhuge Liang or one of the other strategists. Not for the first time, Yosuke spares two seconds of thought to the question of why it’s so much interesting in the hands of writers and game-makers than it is with the historians and teachers. Yes, there’s a lot of exaggeration, as he doubts it’s a common thing back then to add fire, ice, or wind damage to your weapon, or that Sima Yi really summoned lightning while cackling madly. But even the somewhat realistic depictions still made it less sleep-inducing than class. Then again, the Sensei always made the mistake of introducing the topic early in the school year, when Yosuke, at least, wished he was outside in the sun. Though more realistically, he’d be working at Junes, but still, a man can dream.
He’s gotten off track again, but the point is, their Leader is the Leader for a reason. He reads the flow of battle, knows when they can take it easy and just attack and when they need to actually pay attention, maybe even play things defensively. He has an intuitive understanding of battle and maybe even Shadows, and it’d almost be rude, the way he does it, but instead it comes off like a genius directing a symphony, and…well. If you interfered with that, you’d be stupid.
Not that Souji’s not unfailingly polite. Usually. Though he’s on the verge of not being, today, and that’s also a warning sign. But all of them have wondered, he thinks, or maybe it’s just him, whether Souji’s seen too much of their dark sides, whether he trusts them to make their own decisions. Until they’ve seen the maestro at work, at which point, they wisely take a step back.
He’s not Leading now. Not really. He’s glowering and swinging his sword and grunting pretty much monosyllabic words, and if that’s a leadership style he’s suddenly following the Xiahou Dun school of command, which he’s never done before and should never do again. It doesn’t work for him.
So Yosuke’s about to say something, but then a Shadow comes around the corner and everything goes fuzzy. He’s pretty sure he’s been Charmed, but he can’t bring himself to care. He’s almost angry when Yukiko casts Amrita and he comes to his senses. It’s easy, being Charmed. He doesn’t have to think about what he’s doing right or wrong. He just needs to go on instinct, and it’s so free that way.
Souji’s face is stormy. He’s more furious than Yosuke’s seen him, than anyone’s ever seen him. “Um, if we’re doing that bad, maybe we should go back…” Yosuke begins to offer, quieter than he’s ever been around the guy, when something goes horribly wrong. Or, well, more wrong than it’d been before.
“Enough is enough,” a voice like Souji’s says, and Yosuke only has the time to garble out something like “wha-” before the space on the side of the dungeon’s catwalk expands and swallows their grey-haired Leader whole, which—yeah, this is new.
Teddie’s panicked voice comes over the mental connection. He’s so freaked out that he’s not making sense. Not that Yosuke blames him. Kanji’s babbling, Yukiko’s trying to keep him calm, and all Yosuke can do is stare blankly at the hole in the floor. His brain isn’t working. He’s trying to work through it, but he can’t even get past the point when this all started. When was that, anyway?
Eventually, a voice he doesn’t recognize as his own breaks through the chaos. “Everybody, just shut the hell up for a few seconds, okay?” A shocked silence falls, and in the quiet Yosuke realizes he hasn’t been breathing. He breathes in a deep breath, lets it out again, and finally finds himself able to think.
He nearly loses that breath upon facing a scandalized Yukiko, but manages to keep breathing as well as the circumstances allow instead.
“Hey, Ted,” he manages in a shaky voice. “You paid attention to what happened, right? Did you happen to pick up anything about where he might’ve gone?”
“Yosuke-kun…” Teddie sounded a touch calmer. Not by much. Chie was probably panicking, too, but she didn’t have a fancy ability that let them hear her. “I don’t…bear with me.” Yosuke tries not to groan at the pun. This is serious, damn it. But maybe that’s exactly why the stupid bear is making puns, because he’s trying to work through it in the only way he knows how.
Teddie’s voice crackles in again. “Yosuke, the situation’s rather grizzly. Something kidnapped Sensei, and they changed the place you’re currently in to do that.”
“I got that myself, with my eyes. Do you have anything useful to add, Teddie? Anything that might help us find Souji?” A black thread of despair whispers in his mind, maybe his partner’s dead, or being tortured, maybe something was tired of the interference, maybe it was the true culprit, maybe maybe maybe. He refused to follow it down into the rabbit hole, because if there was even a chance they could save him, it didn’t matter who the culprit was. They’d find him. They’d face any dangers for him.
“Not just any bear could do it. Yosuke, something has to be really strong to get Sensei.”
Another treacherous thought pops into Yosuke’s head. He tries to force it down again, but it’s harder this time because it’s so plausible.
“Yeah, I was afraid of that,” he mutters, before overriding a shaky bear who hadn’t heard what he’d said. “Okay, we’re coming back to the entrance.” He almost tosses a Goho-M before the voice of his conscience, which has taken on a suspicious Souji-like tone recently, reminds him calmly that, without his Partner, these might end up being all too necessary. He puts it back.
Instantly, there’s protests. He quickly shrugs. “We need healing, desperately. And some rest. That thing,” he nudges one orange sneaker-clad foot in the fight direction, “…can at least wait until we’re fully ready to tackle it. We can decide what to do about this after.”
It’s almost smooth until the entrance. Shadows attack, but they seem half-hearted and the Inaba Investigation Team’s rushing, desperate style seems to work pretty well. They try a few of the all-out attacks, but without Souji to coordinate it’s too hectic. Yosuke doesn’t appreciate a fan to the face, and he keeps hoping the murderous looks from Kanji after he misses and slams into the shield don’t really read homicide in his future, anywhere.
They make it to the entrance just ahead of Chie and Teddie. Yosuke raises an eyebrow and Chie gets all red. “Shut up!” He puts up his hands, but refrains from actually telling her he wasn’t going to say anything. Of course, he wasn’t going to say anything because she’s probably going to say something on her own anyway, but he doesn’t need to mention that. “We’re fine! We couldn’t just sit there and do nothing!”
“We don’t all need to get killed, you idiot,” he tells Chie, heart pounding. He couldn’t lose her, too.
Instantly there’s protest. The loudest is Kanji—“You asshole, you’re just going to abandon him?
“Of course not! I’ll die for him if I have to!” It’s not until the words leave his mouth that he realizes this is serious. It’s no game. If possible, the others look more surprised than he is that he means every word. He looks at the others and sees the fear and realization on the other’s faces. “Yeah, up until now, it’s been dangerous, but not this dangerous. If we mess up, we’re dead. You don’t have to come with us—in fact, it’s probably better if someone lives through this, so they can tell someone what’s going on. Show the cops—Dojima, maybe? He…he hates me,” he sighs, scratching at the back of his head, “…but he’s serious, and he’s good. But just because we could die to save Souji doesn’t mean that we should. If we can save him without dying, all the better. So we’re going to rest here at the entrance and get in as good shape as we can before going back in.
“We don’t have to go too far!” Chie yelps excitedly. “We found an entrance in the Shopping District, in the liquor store.” She and Teddie high five, and Yosuke tries not to sit down too quickly or breathe too obviously. His Shadow reappears in his mind, taunting him, and he can’t quite decide whether it’s real or just a memory.
Can you shut the hell up for five minutes? Not repressing, here, but it’d be nice to be able to do this. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to die either. Or for him to die.
I know it’s pretty pathetic, hoping that if I can just save one guy I’ll have meaning in my life, but so what? I asked for excitement, I got it. Now I gotta deal with the consequences.
His mind’s absolutely silent at that inner monologue. He doesn’t honestly know whether it makes him feel better or worse.
“I’m not abandoning him.” Looks like Kanji’s said this already while Yosuke’s been thinking, but wants to make absolutely sure that the words are heard.
“I’m not either,” Yukiko states quietly, fan at the ready.
“And you’re nuts if you think I’m just staying behind.” Chie sees his mouth opening and kicks him before he can even say anything. He doubles over in pain, and Yukiko heals him with a flick of her fan, though if he’s paying attention it might hurt a little more than usual.
He’s too busy being mad at Chie, though. “Chie? What the hell?”
“You deserve it sometimes,” she states matter of factly.
But it’s Kanji who interrupts. “Senpai, shouldn’t you be taking your anger out on the Shadows, not each other?”
There’s a moment of stunned silence, then Yosuke breathes deeply. “He’s right; we need to think calmly about this.”
They’re not ready to leave, not really, but they’ve rested as much as they can. Any more, and they’ll be psyching themselves out, which won’t be good for anyone’s survival.
It’s cold in the liquor store, and there’s barely enough room for everyone to crowd in. Yosuke feels a shiver, and knows that it’s not from the cold of the store. It’s like the place is haunted, not just by Saki-senpai but by the memories. All the voices have stopped, here, but it feels like they’re still here, somewhere. Sometimes he wants to yell at the dad or her neighbors, but he can’t.
Back there, behind the barrels, there’s a door that’s new. It’s painted with the image of a magician. It’s gaudy and over the top, and there’s something about the image that makes Yosuke sick to the stomach, but since it’s new it’s probably a good guess of somewhere to check.
“Good job,” he tells Chie, who almost glows with pride.
He steels himself, gripping tightly on his kunai.
This is for my partner. Who could be dead out there, or dying. Just think about how much it pain you felt, hearing Saki-senpai was dead. How much it would hurt if Souji died too, and how much worse it would be, knowing you might’ve been able to save him, but were just too much of a coward to go through one stupid door…
He’s starting forward before he realizes it. His hand’s on the door before Kanji begins saying something like “Wait, senpai, what if it’s a trap—” but it’s too late.
