Sea of the Unconscious Part 10

[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: 2333
Rating: teen
Warning for...amorous cat yosuke?  I don't even know at this point...  Though Souji's dealing with it well.  Like he should.  Also some blood/injuries (brief but slightly graphic) because some fighting.

          “At your Junes, every day is customer appreciation day.  Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products.  Of course, if a stupid employee left the lights off, you can hardly see for yourself, can you?”  There was a chuckle.  “You can hardly see for yourself anyways.  You listen to gossip and other people’s opinions.  You listen to ads and the propaganda released by politicians.  But then, that’s hardly your fault, is it?  After all, customers are a bunch of sheep to be controlled, and believe me, we at Junes wouldn’t have it any other way.  Your ignorance pays our salaries, after all.”  Another burst of ugly laughter accompanied the static on its way out.
          “I really don’t like this,” Suit Yosuke commented.  “He could have set a trap and we’ll have no idea because we can’t see anything.  Rise, do you sense anything?”
          “I’m not sure,” her voice came, distorted by the effort of summoning Himiko.  “This isn’t like an ordinary dungeon.”
          “Great,” he replied, a thump following.  “Don’t worry, everyone, I just kicked something that moved.”
          “Mmmrowl?” another voice asked, sounding like a larger-than-normal exhausted cat.
          Child Yosuke might have been small, but he was definitely strong and doing his best to crush Souji’s hand.
          “What’s going on?” Chie asked, sounding a little hysterical.
          “You guys are lucky I bring a flashlight on my keychain,” Takuma grumbled.  Soon a light was shining dimly on a humanoid cat, who blinked sleepily at them and yawned.  Its yellow eyes glowed slightly in the light like cat’s eyes tend to do in the dark.  It seemed to have been dressed in a hoodie, t-shirt, and jeans.
          “We’ve added a new line of products to our shelves.  Pets.  There aren’t enough of them in Inaba simply from the dozen or so we have breeding in town because people are too stupid to have their pets neutered.”  The cat yowled disapprovingly, and the Junes Yosuke chuckled.  “So we thought we’d add a few more miserable ones in cages for people to come stare at and leave behind because they’re useless and unwanted and only fun to play with for a little while.  Why we try to push these things on a small, poor, useless town like this, I tell you…it’s a waste.  But have fun playing with this one, since it’s free so far.”
          “Roww?” it asked, eyelids still heavy with sleep.
          It rolled onto its back and stretched, turning into about twice its size.
          “I don’t like the sound of ‘play’,” Suit Yosuke admitted, keeping one fist firm and ready.  One of its ears twitched.  Its eyes kept closing, and then jerking open again.  It was tired, but this was far too interesting to sleep through. 
          Souji bottled up the laughter, realizing that this might be deadlier than it looked.  “Is it a Shadow?”
          “Not so far as I can tell,” Rise responded, sounding frustrated with itself by this point.
          Taking a deep breath, Souji called back down Izanagi.  As soon as the glowing card appeared, the cat bounded up on all four paws, gaze intent and tail twitching as it watched the card falling into his hand.  It licked its lips.
          He crushed the card in his hand and it looked disappointed.  However, when Izanagi appeared, it looked startled, turning its head to one side.
          Izanagi strode over to within a few feet of it and stopped, crouching.  It watched the progress suspiciously, tail twitching more, uncertain of this newcomer.  When Izanagi did not move for several long seconds, it trotted over, not appearing too eager for the sake of pride.
          It sniffed the Persona and appeared to like what it smelled, because the “Reeor” couldn’t be described as anything but pleased.  It proceeded to rub itself all over the patiently crouching God of Japan.
          “What are you doing?” Takuma asked, confused.
          “Shh,” Souji responded, interested in the show.
          Izanagi began stroking the cat softly, and it purred and leaned so hard against the Persona that he fell over with a large crash.  The cat looked panicked and climbed onto him, trying to lick the face as an apology, or as much of one as a cat ever made.  This time, Souji couldn’t help but laugh, and the little boy next to him smiled up at him.
          Suit Yosuke, however, was not amused.  “That thing still strikes me as highly dangerous.  And even if it’s not, we shouldn’t be treating it like…”
          “Rowwrol!”  It sounded highly distraught, but it wasn’t as if Izanagi could get up with a lap full of human-sized cat.
          It glanced up as Souji was laughing and went still, yellow eyes gleaming at him in the dark.
          The next thing he knew, it was approaching him slowly, almost shyly, tail twitching more than normal.  “Mrrrowr?” it asked, much more quietly.
          A smile, apparently, was enough to make it bolder.  He bent down for it to sniff.  It bypassed that entirely, purposefully pushing him over.  It padded over him, tail desperately twitching and curling around his leg, licking his face as its claws kneaded his shoulders.
          Souji was a little stunned, but thought he recognized the behavior-the cat had certainly adopted him and might have done more…sometimes it was hard to tell.  He grunted in pain as someone grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and forcefully hauled it off.  The claws embedded in his skin ripped.
          “Get your paws off him, you stupid cat,” Suit Yosuke hissed, facing the cat whose tail was twitching violently by this point.
          It was literally shaking, growling low and deep in the throat.
          “You’re not even human.  You should know your place,” Suit Yosuke continued.
          “RRRRRRAAAAAAA!!!” it screamed and pounced, sharp teeth and claws ripping into the suit and skin.
          Suit Yosuke bared his teeth and transformed into a man with the skin of a fish, wriggling out of the cat’s paws.  He hacked at the furious ball of fur with an axe.  The cat yowled back and flew back at him, claws outstretched.  The fur and blood continued to fly as the two continued to fight each other using physical attacks, yellow eyes narrowed in fury.
          Nervously, Lovers Yosuke approached a still-dazed Souji.  “A-are you okay?”
          The grey-haired teenager smiled back.  “I think we should probably stop them.”
          The smallest of smiles appeared on the blushing face.  “Um, yeah, probably.  I mean, I don’t think that cat was…very aggressive.  A bit, um.”  He blushed deeper.
          “It appears we got the same impression.”  The leader held out a hand, and Yosuke blushed even deeper, hesitantly taking his hand and hauling him up.
          “I found the light switch,” Naoto announced a second before the lights came on.  The cat yowled, then screamed and rolled away from the fight, curling itself into a ball.
          “That’s enough,” Souji yelled as the transformed  Shadow approached the cat, axe raised high.  It stared at him for a moment, resentment in its eyes, before it changed back.
          “Do you enjoy hurting kitties?” Kanji asked, scowling.  Suit Yosuke, whose suit was no longer in perfect condition, crossed his arms and glared back confrontationally.
          “Too much testosterone.  Is anyone volunteering themselves for being punted?” Chie threatened, and eventually everyone looked away and the tension slowly eased.  Aside from the loud, overwhelming purring in the corner.
          “Wh-why is it purring?” Yukiko asked.
          “It’s trying to calm itself down,” Souji answered, taking a deep breath and walking over to it.  He ignored the warning look he got from Suit Yosuke.
          “I’m sorry,” he told it.  “Yosuke was just worried about me.  I’m not a cat, I’m afraid, and I can’t get close to you in that way, but I’m sorry you got hurt.  May I see?”  Cautiously, he rubbed the head, and it mewed pitifully, slowly handing him a paw.  It was cut almost to the bone, blood matting the fur around it.
          Souji fought the urge to be sick.  Instead, he softly called, “Ishtar,” crushing the card as it floated down to him.  “Mediarahan,” he informed the cat, which was slowly blinking again, falling asleep.  The spell healed both combatants, but the cat fell asleep, purring more gently.
          He said nothing to Suit Yosuke as he passed, instead heading for the stairs that had appeared.  Lovers Yosuke nodded at him, looking a little worried.  A little hand slipped into his halfway up the stairs, and he finally allowed himself to relax and smile.