Chapter 1: The First Step (part 1)

It was another slow day at the store, most days were slow at this point.

"Excuse me?" A silver haired teen asked. "Could you recommend some tofu for me?"

"That depends, what are you using it for? If you're eating on its own, then get silken. If you're gonna cook with it, then I'd go with momen." Hikaru explained. Hikaru Asano was a copper haired teenager with blue eyes, his hair was messy and long. He was sixteen and a second year at Yasogami High school, the teen in front of him was actually one of his classmates. Hikaru was wearing his usual plain black t-shirt and jeans combo and he had his black and white high-tops on. He normally wore a red and black unbuttoned shirt over the t-shirt, but his work uniform, an apron and kerchief, was a bit uncomfortable with the shirt on.

"I plan on using it for cooking, so I'll go with momen." Yu replied.

"All right..." Hikaru trailed off as he got the tofu. "That'll three hundred yen, Narukami-san." Yu seemed surprised, it was hard to tell considering how stiff his expression was, that Hikaru knew his name. "We're in the same class at Yaso, I sit next to Yosuke Hanamura." Hikaru explained as he passed a bag to Yu, who handed Hikaru the specified amount of money. "Thank you for your patronage, please come again." He smiled.

Yu gave him a small smile and a nod. "Yeah, see you at school." It was Hikaru's turn to be surprised, he hadn't actually expected Yu to say that.

Hikaru let out a sigh. "Well, seems like that's it for the day... We really need to find a way to drum up more business, I wonder if she would be willing to... Nah, she deserves a break."

The bell rang to signify that it was lunchtime, Hikaru tried to be sociable and walked up to a certain group of people.

"Erm, hi... I... uh..." Hikaru started freezing up. He could handle customers at work by using a work personality, but people he talked to outside of work was uncharted territory. He almost froze completely when the four heads turned to look at him.

"What is it?" Yosuke asked.

"Ah! Uh... I was wondering if... if..." The copper haired teen couldn't find anything to say. 'Crap, I didn't think this far ahead.'

Luckily, Yu remembered him from their brief exchange the day before. "Oh, you were working at the tofu shop yesterday." This seemed to spur the others into taking the initiative with the conversation.

"Oh, do you mean Marukyu tofu? I thought the only person who worked there was that old lady?" Yosuke questioned.

Hikaru let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, grandma takes most of the shifts."

The brunette obviously thought he had been insensitive with his question as he tried to apologise. "Ack. Sorry, I didn't know she was a relative."

"It's fine, like you said, you didn't know."

"Uhm... I have a question." Chie stated as she raised her hand as she was asking the question during class. "Why are you wearing the boys uniform?" It seems the others had been wondering the same thing, since they looked at Hikaru expectantly for an answer.

"Well, Satonaka-san. That would be because, despite my appearance and voice, I am a guy." That seemed to come as surprise to the group. "I have been androgynous since a young age, people have often mistaken me for a girl due to my physique and voice... And because my first name is unisex."

"Sorry." Chie apologised.

Hikaru smiled. "Don't be, I'm used to it."

"Um... I don't think we've gotten your name yet." Yukiko pointed out.

"Oh, right. I'm Hikaru Asano, it's a pleasure to meet you all." The blue eyed teen introduced himself. "And I am actually very nervous right now... I don't normally talk anyone except the customers at the store." As he said this, the group noticed that he was visibly shaking.

"But you were fine talking with me yesterday?" Yu questioned.

"Like I said, I normally only talk to customers at the store. Though, I use my 'work personality' for that." The teen answered.

"Why do you get nervous around people normally then?" Chie asked.

"I suppose that's 'cause I never really talked with people much when I was younger. I spoke with my parents and cousin and any other relatives, I just never really spoke to anyone outside of my family." The silence that followed that statement practically choked Hikaru. 'Oh, god. They want me to leave them alone now don't they?" The teen thought pessimistically. "I... I'll be going then." He waved goodbye as he hurriedly left the room.

"Hah... I blew it." Hikaru sighed as he leant over the sink.

A few people walked in and Hikaru turned to greet them. "Wel...come?" He was confused when he saw Yu, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko and surprisingly Kanji standing a bit in front of the entrance.

"Hello." The, seemingly, leader of the group greeted.

"Ah... ah... Hi?" The copper haired teen barely managed to get the word out, his work personality shattered. "Why..?"

"Well you ran out the class at lunch and you left quickly when school was over, so we decided to speak with you here." Yukiko explained.

They still wanted to talk to him? "...Huh?" was he could muster before tearing up.

"Huh? What the hell are you crying for?" Kanji asked, somewhat aggressively.

"Y-you still want to speak to... me." Hikaru began wiping his eyes.

"Of course, you seem like an interesting person." Chie confirmed, Hikaru smiled as the rest of the group nodded.

The group stayed and chatted with Hikaru through his shift, unsurprisingly there were no customers. Hikaru waved goodbye to his new friends as he took the kerchief off, he didn't notice the figure behind him until it was too late.

It was five minutes until midnight, it was raining so everyone had agreed to keep an eye on the Midnight Channel. The suspense in the air only grew as time ticked down. 3... 2... 1... The Midnight Channel switched on. The image that appeared was a girl with long copper hair and golden eyes, definitely a shadow, her figure was... impressive, to say the least. The girl was wearing a white halter top and dark blue denim short shorts, the outfit left little to the imagination. She was leaning in front of the camera at angle, as if she was checking it was on. She bounced away from the camera and bent forward, her... bust swaying as she did.

"Hello? Hello? Are you all watching? Oh! Brilliant!" The shadow gave an innocent smile before she continued. "Well then... I suppose I should welcome you all tooooo..." There was a drum roll before a ta-dah sound effect played and a sign appeared, the sign read.

The Super Duper Revelation of Hikaru Asano!
Just What Will We Find Out?

Credit where credit was due, this show, barring the shadows appearance, seemed tamer than the last two. Though, the show belonging to Hikaru was a surprise.

"Oooooh, what a secretive title." The shadow said, feigning ignorance when she would have to know what this secret is. "Well, I hope that whatever this revelation is... it isn't too traumatising." The shadow had a sadistic smile on its face now. "I would sooooo hate for this to ruin my dear guests life, but if it does... oh well." The shadow went back to its innocent smile before doing a twirl and striking a cute pose. "I do hope you'll all watch." She said, the screen turned off shortly after.

Yu answered the phone after checking the caller, Yosuke.

"Dude, did you see that?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah." Was all Yu gave as a reply.

"We only just met Hikaru and he's already caught up in all this."

"It doesn't make sense though." Yu pointed out.

"What do you mean?" The brunette questioned.

"If Hikaru's been targeted, it throws our assumption out the window."

"Oh, right. He hasn't been on TV..." Yosuke went quiet after the realisation.

"Let's talk about this more tomorrow, with the others. We never know, he may have been on TV and neither of us saw it." Yu tried to stay optimistic.

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow partner." Yosuke hung up.

"So, could you clarify it for me one more time? Where am I?" Hikaru asked the girl in front of him, she vaguely resembled him.

The girl sighed as she turned to face him. "I told you, that doesn't matter!" The girls voice was dripping with venom, Hikaru was purposefully trying to provoke her.

'C'mon... slip up already.' He thought as he stayed sat in his seat, choosing to ignore the restraints.

"This is what his area looks like?" Chie questioned. The sight in front of the investigation team was a studio, a TV studio to exact.

Yosuke sighed "His shadow did make it sound like it would be a talk show."

"Let's go." Yu ordered.

"Right!" The rest of the team responded in unison.