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madimpossibledreamermain points: persona 4 .hack inspired au
chapter summary: souji brushes off yosuke and nanako wants to play innocent sin. also in the future yosuke's character has gone missing. for those of you who somehow missed it in the last part, souji's character is named kenshin and yosuke's character is named koual.
word count: 2002
rating: T
Kenshin doesn’t have much luck tracking down the missing Koual. He asks around, but very few people know the character. There are a few people who express concern, but none of them have seen him.
It’s somewhat odd questioning a dog, and for an instant Souji wonders how his uncle would handle a situation like that. The dog character, Isamu, is trying to communicate his concern, as the last time he’d grouped with Koual the player had been uncharacteristically down, as compared to his usual cheerful, selfless, generous nature, but due to limitations imposed on Wildren characters the chats come across as linguistically strange.
There’s another more useful character Kenshin runs across near the police station. He explains he’s looking for Koual, and Ry responds, worried. “I haven’t seen him, but I should have.”
She hurries on to explain, “Koual-senpai’s been amazing. I wanted to play an online game, but I wasn’t sure. Koual-senpai addressed all the questions I had about ISO and helped me make up my mind, but he didn’t stop there. When he heard I joined the game he welcomed me with open arms and told me if I ever ran into any missions that I couldn’t do on my own or a particularly hard enemy or if I just wanted some company to contact him. He’s really busy so it’s not like he can be on all the time, but when I email him he’ll repond with a time and a date and he’ll at least give notice if it turns out he can’t make it. I haven’t heard anything, though. That’s not normal. I think something’s wrong.”
As much as Kenshin wants to dismiss it, he’d noticed himself how responsible and helpful Koual had been, helping him and Nanako get adjusted to the game, and, in fact, Koual had indeed always followed that format. He seemed fairly busy, and once something had come up, upon which Souji had received an email through the official forum’s email system.
“Maybe you just haven’t received it yet? Check again,” he suggests, trying to quell the rising tide of panic.
“That’s not it,” the kitsune quickly insists. There’s a moment of what he guesses is embarrassed silence before a reply is typed again. “I’ve got my phone with the forum open. I always do, just in case I have a question about one of the rumors that I need to ask. Or find, because it’s probably been asked before. He hasn’t sent anything.”
This isn’t good. What kind of trouble was Koual in, anyway?
“Do we need to contact the police?” Yep, Ry is starting to panic, too.
Souji has a moment of disoriented confusion before he realizes she means the police in real life, not the ones in Kounan. “We don’t really have enough we can talk to them about. They’d just dismiss it.” It’s not really enough to go on. Dojima would glare daggers at him and say something about wasting the department’s time on the basis of a weird online conversation. “Why don’t we just post something on the forum about it? Not too worried, or anything, just to show that he is missed and people notice and care.”
“That’s a good idea. You’re a great guy, just like him.” Impulsively, the kitsune uses an emote to kiss his character on the cheek, and in real life Souji blushes.
He doesn’t deserve this kind of gratitude. He hasn’t done really much of anything, aside from keeping her vaguely calm.
Previously:
It’s after class, again, that Souji hears more about the thing Yukiko was told about by the girl in green.
“I tried it last night, Yukiko, and seriously, I saw a girl. But what’s that supposed to mean?” The girl’s voice is a gossipy whisper.
“I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything, Chie. It’s just an online game.” Yukiko’s voice sounds quiet and calm, but if Souji’s not mistaken, it’s just the slightest bit irritated.
“I know, I know!” Chie isn’t deterred at all. “But it’s interesting.”
Souji notices the unfortunate brunet from the day before is listening to the conversation, too, but when the boy also notices, he holds a playful finger to his lips, winking. It gives Souji a distasteful feeling.
Yukiko darts a look at the clock like a caged bird.“I’d love to discuss it more with you, Chie, but…”
“Again? You’re really busy, huh?” The girl in green quickly hides her disappointed look. “I’ll email you later, so don’t lose hope.”
The distracted smile as the girl flutters out of the room might not be completely genuine, but it wasn’t Souji’s place to interfere. Just like the day before, Chie hurries up to catch up with her friend.
It’s then that Souji becomes aware of a shadow across his desk. He looks up to see the boy with the seat behind him standing there. The messenger bag is already packed, even if it looks a bit lighter than the day before, and a foot is tapping to music only he can hear, given that his headphones are still nestled safely around his neck. “I’m sorry you didn’t get more of a welcome. It’s just been a weird couple weeks.” There’s a tinge of genuine sorrow, friendliness, and a deep exhaustion permeating every bone. “I’m Yosuke Hanamura. And you’re…Seta Souji, right? Maybe I could take you out for the local delicacy, steak, show you that this place isn’t all bad.”
“Not today,” Souji says firmly, and feels a pang of what might be guilt at the heartbroken look that flashes over the brunet’s face before a fake smile appears. It’d fool most people, maybe, but not someone who’s spent his whole life pretending. And honestly, if that’s how awful he looks when he’s pretending, he can see why Nanako-chan hates it.
“Maybe later, then.” There’s no hiding that amount of disappointment. Maybe it’s a bit over the top, but if the boy really doesn’t have many friends, he’s probably really lonely. Souji can maybe give him some of his time, one of these days. Once he’s settled back into the homework load, perhaps.
Though maybe it wouldn’t hurt…
“Would you like to at least walk home with me? We could at least talk.” It’s surprising how just a few true words can make such a difference. The wink is seriously delighted.
“Well, I’ll have to walk my bike, but that’s not really a loss.” Is it weird that he could practically describe the kid as vibrating with excitement?
“It’s probably safer for you and all pedestrians that way, yes,” Souji replies neutrally, gathering up his notebooks and pens methodically.
“Hey, it’s not that bad!” The mock hurt combines a little with real hurt.
“So what happened yesterday isn’t a common occurrence?” Somehow, with the scene this morning as an out of control bicycle barely managed to avoid the trash cans, Souji admits himself skeptical.
“It wouldn’t be half that bad if I really had the time or money to fix it up,” Yosuke concedes. “I swear it’s not me or the bike. The bike’s a really nice model, and I’m not a bad rider either. Though I’m a little out of practice riding with an umbrella.”
“I’d rather just get soaked.” Souji’s surprised. Something else he didn’t mean to say.
“Heh. It seems to fit.” Souji opens his mouth. “Don’t ask me what that means. I’m not sure. I’m saving up for a motorcycle.”
“Warn me when you get it.” Souji plans to be in Okina on that day.
“Haha, so you can get a ride? It will be pretty great, if I can get the model I’ve got my eye on.” There’s a little hint of something—a weird melancholy.
Souji quickly changes the subject. “So, what were Chie and Yukiko talking about?”
“Oh, that’s a game that’s really popular at school right now, Innocent Sin Online. There are various rumors that are part of the game, and one of them is that if you go to the Alaya Shrine at midnight on a rainy night, you’ll see an image of your soul mate.” Yosuke’s answer is pretty fast, without having even thought about it. He knows a lot about the game, it seems like.
He ended up voicing something like that. “You know a lot.”
“Heh.” Yosuke’s suddenly embarrassed and uncomfortable. “Not that much, really. It’s just something that people at school keep talking about. Seriously, you can’t escape the rumors about the place sometimes.”
They come to a turn, and Yosuke says, “Well, my house is this way, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Don’t get yourself killed on that death trap,” Souji tells him, the slightest twinkle of humor buried in the utter seriousness of the statement.
“Very funny. I’ve survived for years, I’ll have you know.” Despite the words, Yosuke winks again and waves before getting on and beginning to pedal up the hill.
It might be entirely true that this was Yosuke’s turn, but…he really didn’t want to talk about that, did he?
When he gets home, he’s met with Detective Dojima, who’s oddly home. It’s really, really early for his uncle, if Nanako’s resigned expression the last two days said anything. “How’s school going? Have you made any friends?”
Souji doesn’t bother to put that much effort in the responses. It’s not like they really matter, anyway. It hasn’t been that long.
After an agony of small talk, Dojima finally gets to the point. “I hate to ask you a favor so early after you arriving. You probably aren’t settled in yet, but…it’s about Nanako. Thanks to her hero of Junes, she’s become interested in a game.”
At his nephew’s questioning look, the detective adds, “You’ve probably seen how happy she gets when a commercial for Junes comes on.” He had, actually. He doesn’t fully understand it, himself, but if Nanako-chan sung the theme, sales would probably double. It’s more attention-grabbing than the currently recorded one.
“A lot of those commercials lately have been featuring an online game, Innocent Sin Online. She’s been begging me to let her play. I’ve been telling her no, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Her mother’s dead, and I can’t exactly be here all the time, so we’re not as close as we could be as it is.”
Souji nods but doesn’t interrupt. Dojima looks surprised but pleased.
“It’s hard to monitor the kind of interactions she could be having online, since I’m not here all the time. She could get bullied or meet online predators. I don’t think she understands how dangerous the internet can be.” Unlikely. She’s, what, seven? Six? Hardly the age where you become a cynic.
“But if you play with her, you can keep an eye on what people say to her, and it can also serve as a kind of bonding experience for you both. What do you say?”
No.
“Yes.” It could be hard, but not that hard. And making friends with her will make these two years a lot easier on everyone.
“Thank you.” He really does look relieved, but then, it’ll make him a lot less of a villain in his daughter’s eyes.
And everyone here is exhausted. Dojima looks like he could fall asleep on that couch any minute, even if he is trying to have a conversation with me. “One more thing. There’s rumors—they’re false, but it’s probably important to know anyway. There are rumors that playing the game can cause a coma. A few people ended up with triggered epilepsy attacks, but that’s a hazard with any game, and there’s no more flashing lights in this game than any other according to the investigators. Nanako hasn’t shown any indication that she has epilepsy, but if the situation arises…”
“I’ll take good care of Nanako. Don’t you worry, sir.” He’s not a monster.
Dojima’s eyes soften as he stares at Souji. “You’re a good kid,” he mutters eventually, ruffling the grey hair before shuffling toward his own room.
