Talk to Me

Disclaimer: P4 belongs to... Atlus?

It was a mild shock, really.

Shocking enough that the steak skewer Chie had held was sitting ignored in the gutter while the owner sat slack-jawedly from the revelation. Mild enough that Chie hadn't immediately banged her head onto the table after convincing herself it was just a dream.

"You... what?"

"Engaged," Yukiko said, eyes downcast.

"You... what?"

She sighed. "Engaged. Making me repeat it thrice isn't going to change anything, Chie. I'm engaged."

"What when why how?"

"My parents announced it three weeks ago – they thought it was time for me to start taking my position seriously." Biting her lips, she wrung a discarded skewer stick in her hands. "They have this idea that having a husband will somehow make a woman out of me. Help the inn thrive. I wanted to tell you, but..." She looked away.

It was a dream. It had to be. Just yesterday Yukiko was cackling normally at one of Teddie's bad jokes, even causing Yosuke to spill his drink when she started slapping his back. Chie closed her open mouth in a desperate attempt to regain even the tiniest amount control. "No way. Nu-uh. No way. You're joking, right. Right?"

Yukiko smiled wryly. "I wish that's the case. I'm supposed to meet him in a week, as the last arrangement before everything is finalized. It's not like we won't be friends anymore. We can still meet. We'll always be-" Hearing the beep, she flipped open her phone, glanced at the screen then pocketed it. "I'm sorry, Chie. Mother wants to choose the kimono. I have to go."

"Wait. Yukiko- I. I."

By then Yukiko had neatly gathered her remains of the lunch and discarded it into a nearby trashcan. "Good-bye, Chie," she said, and walked away.

When the recorded message of Yukiko's furiously calm voice answered for the twelfth time, Chie decided to throw the phone out of the window.

"Sempai!"

She ignored Rise's startled cry and resumed her pacing around the room. "I can't believe it. This is stupid. Ridiculous. I'll get Suzuka Gongen to bufudyne that guy to hell." Thwack. "Galactic punt him. I'll get Teddie's persona to launch his rocket at that bastard." Thwack. "Hell, I'll get Kanji to loan me his desk and bash that sonu- omph!"

Rise had elbowed her in the stomach.

"Sorry," Rise said after Chie fell onto the sofa groaning, "you were kicking holes into the wall. And it was hard finding a phone with that shade of pink; I had to- oh, hi, Naoto-kun."

"Satonaka-sempai; Kujikawa-san," Naoto said, side-stepping an amputated chair leg and an upturned table. "...is this an inconvenient time?"

"Not at all," Rise said cheerfully, motioning towards the sofa. "Make yourself comfortable. And careful of the splinters."

"A bit late." Naoto grimaced and shook something off her foot. Limping slightly, she went and sat down besides the slumping Chie whose forehead was currently glued to the coffee table. She looked at Chie, then up at Rise. "An explanation, if you will."

By then Rise had dragged the only chair that still had four legs and positioned it across the sofa. She sighed dreamily. "Lost love." Chie lifted her forehead from the table just enough to glare at her. "Yukiko-sempai is getting married-"

"Engaged!"

"-carried off by an evil man into his dark, decrepit castle. Tomorrow-"

"A week!"

Pouting, Rise looked at Chie reprovingly. "Oh really sempai, must you always be so dramatic?"

"I'm not-"

"So. In seven moons hence the rightful prince will don her finest armour – she will show up on her magnificent steed to slay the villain and claim the princess as her own and then together they shall ascend the throne and rule happily ever after."

A few moments of silence passed.

"I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately," she said sheepishly. "Aaanyway, we're here to help Chie-sempai win Yukiko-sempai back. I tried calling Yosuke-sempai and Kanji, but they're busy. So it's just you and me for now, Naoto-kun."

Before Naoto could speak, Chie held her hand out as if to say 'stop'. "Wait. What do you mean help?"

"Well," and only Rise could make such an innocent, mundane word sound like a shorthand of duh isn't is so obvious? "Help you carry the princess into the sunset. What else? Right, Naoto-kun?"

"I never agreed-"

"I know that," said Chie, going on as if Naoto was just another piece of furniture. Chie was beginning to feel like a patronised pre-schooler. "But. I mean. Look, I don't– I never asked for help, okay? It's true that I'm pissed. I mean, come on, what parents would sell their children off to some balding old dude? Yukiko deserves better than that."

Rise tilted her head."What's the problem, then?"

"The problem is," Chie said, then stopped. What was the problem really? That she actually wanted to run in, bash the guy's head in and drag (by the legs, even) Yukiko out? That was the whole point of the holes in the wall, wasn't it. She wasn't in denial. Not really.

Then she thought: Yukiko deserves better than me.

"Maybe she doesn't want to break off the engagement," she said again, thinking that maybe if she said it out loud it would become real – as real as the sudden flutter of nausea in her stomach. "Maybe she's happy. Maybe that's why she's not answering the phone. Hell, maybe she's even in-" Her voice broke off. If saying it out loud would make it reality, then it was a reality she didn't want to be a part of. A reality she wouldn't even consider. "In... in..." She couldn't say it – it was as if her throat had simply clamped shut and detached itself from the rest of her body.

Rise and Naoto exchanged worried looks.

"In love, Satonaka-sempai?" Naoto suggested with an uncharacteristic wary tenderness in her voice.

There was no getting around it, not when Naoto had spoken the dreaded word.

"...yeah... in love," said Chie dejectedly, and proceeded to stare at the floor.

"But, how do you know what she wants or doesn't want?" Rise said with what Chie thought as a voice that should only be used for kicked puppies. "It's not like you to be so pessimistic, sempai. She's probably going to end up psychotic, agidyne him and burn the whole town in the future. Or start mass killings with a baseball bat, for all we know."

"Ha. That's not funny, Rise." But Yukiko would find that funny. She'd laugh and maybe choke at her drink. Chie imagined Yukiko going around with Kanji's swagger, a baseball bat held over her shoulders – and ended up trying to swallow her own laughter. "If she's not doing this willingly," she said after her face had resumed its normal expression, "why else would she ignore my calls, then?"

"Well. It is quite obvious that you are both in lo- Ow!"

"Sorry, Naoto-kun. Sometimes my legs would twitch on their own," said Rise. Especially if someone's about to make a stupid comment, her gaze seemed to add.

Naoto blinked. "...oh. Err- what I meant was, it is quite obvious if one should possess the necessary skills to make deductions based on careful observations, that she is irrefutably not in love with any man."

Chie wondered briefly about the inflection at the last word, but then discarded it as something unimportant. Not when Yukiko was getting married, there were holes in the wall (and a pair of metal boots that needed replacing), and she was being cornered by two very noisy, very much snooping underclassmen.

"Do I even get a word in this?" Chie said, already feeling a portentous shadow looming.

Rise drew in a deep, deliberate breath. "Honestly?" she said, "mm. Let me think. Nooooo, not really, sempai."

"But. She's just. She's just a friend. I don't have the right to interfere with her life."

"Forgive me for assuming, but the phrase 'I don't have the right' would indicate that you feel like you should have the right- or you do, perhaps. But social ethics and considerations about the precarious nature of your relationship dictate otherwise. Is that right, Satonaka-sempai?"

"Um." Chie wondered if Naoto had simply copied that off a text-book somewhere.

"Or sempai's just being a blockhead. A cute blockhead, mind you," Rise said with a flash of teeth as she caught Chie's stupefied look.

The aforementioned 'blockhead' narrowed her eyes at the blindingly cheerful idol. "You enjoy this, don't you?"

"Oh sempai," said Rise without a single second of hesitation, "of course not; why would I? This is clearly a serious life or death matter. I wouldn't dare."

Blindingly, suspiciously cheerful. Chie's eyes narrowed further to the point of forming two straight lines.

Naoto interjected before Chie could confirm the world's misguided stereotype about Asians. "Despite her wayward means, I'm sure Kujikawa-san means well. We..." A single moment of hesitation, but then she plowed through more confidently with a determined tension on her shoulders. "The team- we care about you. You, Amagi-sempai. We want you to be- ah- to be..."

"Happy," Rise said.

"...happy." Naoto's voice sounded strange uttering such an unfamiliar word. "Even if it means meddling and commencing actions you deem as unnecessary. Even if it means forcing you to face reality."

"We've been through a lot, together," said Rise.

"Yes," Naoto said.

"Often times it was you and Yukiko-sempai's teamwork that brought us out of a dangerous situation."

"You would promptly cover for Amagi-sempai under heavy fire as she heals the rest of the team. We wouldn't have made it out in some cases, otherwise."

"Indeed. We should have a slumber party with Kanji, sometime."

"I adamantly refuse."

"Boo. You're no fun, Naoto-kun."

With the playful conjecture over with, again, both of them stared pointedly at Chie, who felt like she had to say something, because that little monologue from Naoto (and she used the word happy. Happy!) might as well be a heartrending opening of a soap opera – the detective wasn't used to gooey stuff, and that was definitely bordering on gooey. And though somewhat surprised, Chie appreciated that. She could see how they really had her and Yukiko's well-being in mind.

"Wow, you guys..." Chie said somewhat breathlessly. "I never knew. Thank you, I guess." She blinked. "But what does that have do with anything?"

Rise looked like she really wanted to hit a desk with someone's forehead. "Urgh. I can't believe this."

"I think subtlety isn't one of Satonaka-sempai's strongest points," said Naoto with a subdued version of the same look.

Chie wondered if her forehead was in any danger. But they couldn't just expect her to shift through hints and clues that sounded like anything but. She had other things to worry about. Like her best friend getting married.

She didn't have time for-

Subtle hints and clues.

Clues.

God. How could she be such an idiot?

"...Rise, Naoto-kun, you're right. I am an idiot-"

Rise looked alarmed. "Wait- sempai? I never said-"

"If only I were smarter, or paid attention more, I could have seen the signs or hints or clues or- I would've found out sooner. I would've..."

"Whoa whoa, hold it right there. We were there too, okay? We were meeting almost daily but none of us caught it. It's not just you. Hey, look at me," Rise gently led Chie's hands away from her face, then tipped her chin up to face Rise's own. "We never knew. And looking back, there was no way we would've have known. Yukiko-sempai never betrayed anything. Not a single thing."

"To put it bluntly, we are all equally guilty in part."

Rise wanted to hug and high five Naoto then and there. 'Thank you,' she worded wordlessly, acquiring a curt nod in return. There was something startling about seeing a sempai – who had kicked giant tanks so easily into space – reduced into something close to a nervous breakdown. Just because she was too stubborn to admit her own feelings. Or too considerate about the other party's feelings.

"Look," she said, patting Chie's back. "Think about it, sempai. You always said, 'don't think; feel,' right? So feel." Rise paused. Something was wrong there. "Uh- and think. Okay, that was a failure. Anyway, my point is: think about your feelings for Yukiko-sempai, and her feelings for you."

Chie looked at her in confusion. "I don't have to think. We're best friends."

"And stop hiding behind that phrase. We both know-" Rise exhaled slowly. "Never mind. Have a bath; clean up your room; whack some trees; sleep. Call me when you've finally figured it out, okay?"

"Kujikawa-san? I think I saw the remnants of your phone by the door step."

Oh. Right. And she really, really liked that model, too. "Call me at home, then. Or drop by. And I know you will, so don't start protesting," she said as Chie had opened her mouth to do exactly it.

Chie clamped her mouth and nodded.

A final pat to Chie's back, then Rise rose and grabbed her coat from a sofa arm. "Well then, we're leaving now. Remember what I said, sempai." She motioned towards Naoto – who was still seated awkwardly besides Chie. "Let's go, Naoto-kun. Lots of things to do."

"I understand. Good luck, Satonaka-sempai," Naoto said.

With a dip of her hat, she retreated after Rise.

"I think it would be considerably easier to tell her," said Naoto after the door closed behind them.

"Can't. She has to realise it on her own."

"Even if it is utterly obvious?"

"Well, you know what they say." There was a pause as Rise bent down to retrieve the pink pieces of her phone from the ground. "Love is obvious to everyone but the parties involved. Or something. She'll come to, eventually. Your hat, Naoto-kun."

Naoto held her hat out to act as a container for the pieces. "I never knew phones could shatter like that."

"Aesthetics over quality."

Silence lapsed.

"You sound quite, ah, experienced about this."

"About what? Cheap phones? Last one."

Obediently holding her hat still, Naoto cast her mind about to search for the word. Failed. Decided to stress it instead."This."

"Oh. Well," Rise said as she pat her skirt up and down for dust. "I've had experience counseling people with similar situation."

"Really. And who might they be?" said Naoto in her best disinterested voice.

"Kashiwagi-sensei and Hanako-sempai ."

Naoto dropped her hat.

"Hey!"

Continued

Next:

In which Chie almost gets assassinated by stealthy maids.