Sea of the Unconscious Part 14

[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.
Aeon Yosuke continues to be awesome.  If hurt from the last adventure.  He also messes with the fourth wall in a meta way.  There's also summaries of the next couple floors, because I wasn't kidding about Hermit pretty much broke my creativity for this story.  There's also the end, which if you're hoping for a well-written ending, you're...not going to find it.  It's pretty much just the lead up to the revelation without the revelation, plus a little flirting.
Word Count: 1659
Rating: teen
also, this is the last alternative paths non-Buffy work I've got to post (yay!) and I've got a lot of Bloody Petals and other Buffy works I want to post, so that'll probably take this posting slot starting next week.  not last week.  i sadly have no time machine.

          The first floor of the Junes dungeon was no less creepy on the second entrance.  The doors silently slid open.  The floor was even messier, if possible.  This time, they knew not to look at what might be on the shelves this time.
          "Oh, sorry.  We didn't see you, it's lovely to see returning customers!"  This time, it sounded like the cheerful, not-so-creepy Yosuke.  Which was just a bit odd.  "Try not to disturb the cleaning crews.  They tend to get ornery when interrupted, probably because Dad doesn't pay them enough.  But I'm happy to help with any purchases."
          The Fool Yosuke (or so Souji assumed) wasn't curled up in a corner with his headphones this time.
          "Sempai!  I sense Shadows!" Rise's warning came over a second before groups of Shadows barged out of the elevator, swarming the group.
          The floor layouts were the same, apart from the addition of Shadows every step of the way.  Surprisingly enough, none of them were getting tired.  The Shadows were dropping more items every floor than Souji could remember seeing in one single dungeon before, and this time instead of draining energy, the place seemed to be giving them it instead.
          Maybe it was a daily thing, something that changed depending on other circumstances, the leader mused between battles. 
          They'd reached the sixth floor before realizing something somewhat important.
          "Hey, Sempai, where's the other Yosukes?"  They hadn't run into any of the Shadows so far.  That was a bit worrying, especially since no announcements had come since the one at the very beginning.
          Before too long, they'd reached the tenth floor.  This time, there were two doors, one white and one black.
          Something was telling Souji to choose the black door.  So he did.
          It slid open to reveal the same warehouse they'd seen earlier, the same place that Yosuke had fought the Scientist Yosuke.
          "I don't sense anything," Rise told them with a touch of anxiety.
          And then they noticed the large smear of blood on the floor.
          "No!" Chie shouted.  Yukiko had a shocked hand to her mouth.
          They walked along carefully, Souji kneeling by the stain and determining along with Naoto that it had in fact been there a while.  Possibly a day.  (Maybe even shortly after they left, though Souji's trying not to think about that.  Or the possibility that he might have gotten someone killed just because they'd been right about the need for a break.  Now he knew how Chie had felt.)
          "Hey, guys!  You look like someone died.  Lighten up!"  They all glanced up to see Yosuke, the Yosuke that had saved them yesterday, jogging toward them, a slight smile on his face.
          The leader took a good look.  Despite the cheeriness, the shoulder had been bandaged clumsily with a scarf, and he could see the stain of blood even through the dark green fabric.  The exhaustion could be seen around the eyes, but despite all of that, Hanamura still looked more cheerful than any of them had ever seen him.  And that was saying something.
          "I'm glad you guys made it.  Looks like you're tougher than I am."
          Yukiko stepped forward, a little fire in her eyes.  "You're hurt.  Let me heal you."
          He shook his head with a smile, pushing the glasses back up his nose a little.  "Sorry, but you're going to need every single drop of SP and whatever else you can wring out of the old sponge."
          "You keep talking about 'SP'.  We have a lot of questions," Souji stated, quiet but scary.
          A flash of hurt flitted across this Yosuke's face, but he waved it off.  "I'm still not the Yosuke.  Exactly.  I'd rather have him say it, not just some Shadow or Persona or whatever I am.  Wouldn't you?"
          "He's going to hate you," Takuma observed.
          Yosuke laughed, long and hard and carefree.  "Oh, don't I know it.  But he'll be a bit happy someone stepped in.  He's already feeling guilty enough about the setup and what you guys had to go through."
          "You know where he is?" Souji asked, surprised.
          This Yosuke nodded, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.  "Yeah.  Top floor, of course.  And I'm pretty sure the Junes Yosuke or World Yosuke or whatever is the one making the announcements and he's probably making your Yosuke watch, too.  Everything.  I don't even want to think about what pain he's in.  There's a plus, though.  This whole floor is cut off from the very top.  Even better, when I drove the robot me off..."
          "He was a robot?"  Takuma asked, shocked.
          Another chuckle answered.  "Yup.  Robot.  I kind of went on a sabotage spree, so now a fair amount of the cameras are, well, nonfunctional.  You can bypass this entire floor, which is good because it's almost a mini-dungeon in of itself.  Robot Yosuke's hanging out until the self repair goes through, which gives you a nice big window of opportunity of about five hours or so.  I'm not sure whether or how I can show up and help.  I really don't understand my existence, or where the other friendly mes went.  I've nicknamed myself Aeon Yosuke, because I'm pretty sure that I'm a mix of all of the Shadows and  Personas or something, but that's just a theory that, sorry, I'm sure you probably didn't actually want to hear.  Haha, sorry.  Just let me know if I'm bothering you and I'll try to shut up."
          He looked up to see Yukiko smiling encouragingly at him.  She quickly hid it behind a hand, but it seemed to encourage him.
          He grinned again, carefree and light.  “I’d show you through, but I’m in a mood for destroying things, so I might be doing that instead.  Running interference.  You know.”
          “Idiot,” Kanji snorted.
          Yosuke faltered, a slightly lost look in his eyes.  “S-sorry?”
          “You should be.  You seriously think that we’d rather you go it on your own than have you with us?” Kanji’s stare was kind of scary.
          Aeon Yosuke looked away, closing his eyes.  He looked like he might cry, but when he looked back up at Souji with clear, pained eyes, he was still smiling.  Just a little grimmer than he’d been.  Just a little more truthful.  But he didn’t lose the smile.
          “Kanji, as always, you’re the voice of reason.”  He chuckled, amused.  “Don’t worry, I…This is something I need to do.  I’ll be okay.  But…thanks.  He might not believe it, but…I can feel it.  The truth.  Your conviction.  You’ll need it.”  He bit his lip and squared his shoulders.  “I’m not alone.  Neither are you.  Um…Souji…”
          “What is it, Yosuke?” Calm, light, untroubled.  A serene lake.
          Yosuke paused, cheeks going pink.  “N-Never mind.  I’d kill me.”  He saluted them all.  “Follow the stairs in the back.  They might be kind of narrow, but they’ll get you where you need to go.”
          He then ran up the stairs he’d indicated ahead of them.  When he was gone, and silence had settled again, Rise giggled.  “He wanted to kiss you, Souji-senpai.”

Floor 11: Fortune Floor
quick resolutions by any means necessary, cheater

Floor 12: Strength Floor
cowardice, timidity, lack of backbone, won't stand up for self, just blend in Invisible Yosuke  (can see in the mirror)

Floor 13: Hanged Man Floor
Lack of compassion, egotistical, selfish

Floor 14: Death Floor
lingering, not coming to a natural end, clingy, refusing to let things go Yosuke

Floor 15: Temperance Floor
out of balance, extremes, frustration (try too hard), stress

Floor 16: Devil Floor
trapped in unhealthy

Floor 17: Tower Floor
the real world can just die.  because they all hate me, therefore I hate them back and they will die.

Floor 18: Star Floor
out of touch with reality-Crazy Yosuke  combatant

Floor 19: Moon Floor
I don't know who I am anymore.  I'm too busy being what everyone else wants me to be.  Ever-changing mask

Floor 20: Sun Floor

Floor 21: Judgment Floor

Floor 22: World Floor

Junes Yosuke.  All of above combined.  Yosuke tied up.  Yosuke’s biggest fear, barring all others, is being alone.  Being just way too weird and messed up to love.

          “Don’t get me wrong-I’m really happy to have you here,” Yosuke stated conversationally.  “It’s just…I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing, after you seeing all that.”  He paused, and apparently his thoughts weren’t very happy ones.  He laughed, but the laugh was forced.  “Sorry.  I mean, it’s not like I’m the only one, right?  It’s like I’m saying I should be special, which I…I shouldn’t, really.  I’ve done nothing to earn treatment like that-especially lying to like I did.  People keep secrets, yeah, but things that big-I mean, it affected all of you, too.  I didn’t have a right to keep secrets like that.”
          “We all have our secrets, Yosuke.  Some of them are important, but we can’t help but keep them anyway.”
          Yosuke glanced over appraisingly.  “Your secrets are so obvious that no one thinks about them,” he remarked quietly, sympathetically, confirming that he did, in fact, understand.
          “Hiding in plain sight is easy when you’re this quiet,” Souji stated quietly, the slightest hint of a smile dancing in his eyes.  Yosuke matched his smile far more openly.
          “Yeah, but it’s also possible to hide when you’re loud.  Your mask is so obvious that no one bothers to look underneath for anything else.”  That…made a lot of sense.
          Souji smiled affectionately.  “Well, anyone not in a similar situation, that is.  And I, for one, am very happy I decided to look under the mask.  I would have missed seeing the handsome face beneath.”
          Yosuke blushed.  “P-please, Souji…”
          “I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.  I just want you to realize that I actually am interested in you.  I’m not just playing with you.”  Souji Seta occasionally didn’t tell the truth, but this wasn’t one of those times.  He stared into Yosuke’s eyes, hoping that his sincerity shone through.