Sea of the Unconscious Part 6

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Persona 4 Sea of the Unconscious
Summary: Yosuke was not part of the original investigation team. In fact, he wasn't even part of their world. He was a huge fanboy. And then he fell into Inaba, and his life changed forever...
Really old, so not perfectly written, and it was during my FONTS EXIST phase. Slightly inspired by Chisotahn's Ten Steps fic. The entire concept is a little chuuni/Gary Stu. I don't think it would be bad with some tweaking, but that's tweaking i don't really want to do, so we've got this instead.
Word Count: 847
Rating: teen

          An ambush, surprisingly enough, wasn't waiting.  Souji felt a touch cheated for a second before realizing that was actually possibly a good thing.  Possibly.  Unless it was just giving them more time to put something really nasty together.
          This floor was messy.  Someone had pushed all the shelves to the sides of the room and set up an enormous projector.  Pillows were scattered around over top a gigantic blanket that was not even sold in Junes as the movie, an animated one with people flying around and lots of explosions, played.  Seta Souji didn't recognize it, and he could bet none of the others did.  Yosuke, in the short time he'd come to know him, had shown to be a distinct expert on the esoteric.
          The teenager himself was spread out along the floor, on his stomach and watching the movie with a smile, occasionally popping popcorn from a bowl in his mouth.  A white t-shirt and red shorts, luckily not blood-stained, were this one's outfit of choice.  The legs waved lazily, the picture of someone in a happy state of laziness.  He turned with yellow eyes toward the group, smiling in greeting.  One hand was pulled out from propping up the head to wave lazily.  "Hey, guys.  Join me?"
          Voices started seeping out of the walls.
you have to make a good impression
take out the trash
you're a representative of Junes, just as much as your father is
do your homework
you should think about studying
how about us planning the rest of your life and you just going along with that is that okay son?
          He flinched and muttered "Shut up".
          "We can't, sorry.  We're in the middle of..." Souji began.
          A hurt look appeared in Yosuke's eyes, and he deliberately looked away.  "Yeah, I know.  Something more important than hanging out with me.  I get it."
          "You are aware we have come to rescue you, correct?" Naoto asked quietly.
          He laughed shortly.  "No, duh.  But hey, it doesn't matter to me.  No big."
          "You don't care if another version of yourself dies?" Chie asked, disbelieving.
          "Well, sorta, but not really.  I mean, there's enough of me it's not like I could do anything about it.  And you guys are already getting to it.  Besides, he gave in too easily.  I mean, what's really so wrong about doing what I want to do anyway?"  Kanji's hand clenched the chair tighter.
          The voice over the intercom came on again.  "Would the employee on the fourth floor please take care of our guests?  I mean, aren't there some guests you just want to get rid of for good, because they're never satisfied, always asking for more?  Customer service, well, how about a little employee courtesy now and then?"
          This Yosuke sat up, fists clenched, jaw tight.  "No one tells me what to do," he stated softly, dangerously.
          "You've got to help us, Yosuke.  I mean, you wouldn't really want Teddie to die, would you?" Teddie asked quietly, not getting the subtle hints of danger radiating from the teenager.
          He stood, fists clenching even further.  Chie laughed nervously.  "Calm down, Yos-"
          She didn't finish her sentence.  With a roar, this Yosuke changed.  "NO ONE TELLS ME WHAT TO DO!"

          This one was humanoid, a man with a giant helm that covered his entire face and most of his neck, too.  It looked vaguely Roman, apart from the fact that the color was copper, rather than gold, and the slits in the helm streamed a glimmering red.  The feet were bare, red and scaly like a lizard's, and a short red lizard tail poked out behind the armor.  A giant shield was held in one hand, a short sword in the other.  Well, it would have been short if the Shadow was anywhere near human sized.  "LEAVE ME ALONE!" it bellowed, swinging its sword at them.
          It didn't take long for them to discover that the Shadow cast a few very strong ice attacks, some of which left the room half-frozen and presented a hazard if they were attempting to move around, and also had some fairly strong but less strong physical attacks (with its sword).  It also could guard fairly effectively against its weakness (predictably fire) with the shield and also attempted to heal itself a couple of times.  Casting a fire spell on it when it was in the middle of doing so proved a very effective means of stopping it, although it appeared only Souji was able to do this.
          By the end of the fight, Souji was very grateful he had panicked and grabbed all the items he could as well as visiting the shrine.  If the rest of the floors were anything like this one, they'd need them.
          Eventually it fell heavily, larger shape dissolving into the fourth floor Yosuke Shadow.  It flinched as Souji knelt to touch it on the shoulder.  "Go get 'em, partner," it muttered, then fell asleep.  As far as anyone could tell.
          "Well, that was a lost sale," the other Shadow remarked, sounding only a little bit disappointed.