Persona 4: The Fooling Jester

Chapter 4: The Midnight Channel

4-22-11

Adachi felt like yesterday was one of the worst days he could experience. Not only was a dead body discovered, but it turns out Namatame might have known the person as well. What was even unkind was that Adachi felt like a brick that morning. However, he still couldn't miss school. For some reason, he thought, he seemed worried about Namatame's condition and it Mayumi needed any help with him. Even though Adachi probably threw up a week's worth of food when he saw the dead body, he couldn't help but feel like Namatame took the worst of it, even if he didn't show it. Without much of a second thought, Adachi finally got out of his futon and got dressed, ready to go to school.

-During School-

During class, Adachi noticed that Namatame wasn't at school, but Mayumi was. However, her earlier happy look was more saddened and worried, as if she was expecting something. Dojima was here as well, but looked exhausted. When lunch came about, he began searching for Mayumi, who was on the roof eating soba noodles alone. With whatever confidence Adachi had, he walked towards Mayumi with his own lunch.

"Mind if I eat with you?" asked Adachi, holding up his box of lunch. Mayumi looked up with curious eyes as if she was caught off-guard.

"Sure, go ahead." replied Mayumi. Adachi opened his lunch to some sushi and some leaves of cabbage and began eating. Off the bat, Adachi decided to ask. "How's Namatame doing?"

Mayumi stopped eating and looked down. At first, she looked like she was going to cry, but instead, she sat up and took a deep breath. Curiously, Adachi watched only to see if what he had asked would cause her problems.

"N-Namatame…I found him drunk last night. After walking me home, I couldn't bear to see him so hurt. I went to his house a little later and I found him in his room asleep after downing an entire bottle. I just couldn't stand to see him so hurt, but I left. I thought that if he knew I saw him like that, his confidence would go down."

"Who was that girl though? What was bothering Namatame so much?"

Mayumi cringed a bit. "That girl was Misuzu Hiragi, like you found out. She's his ex-girlfriend from another school. Despite having such a strained relationship, he still cared about her. I guess that he's just taking it hard."

Adachi frowned at her statement. Now he understood why he looked so awful at that moment. While Mayumi sat in silence, seemingly trying to get over her sadness, Adachi began thinking to himself. They said that Misuzu was found on a TV antenna. It's not possible to rule out murder, he thought to himself. The real question was who in the right mind would do such a thing? Adachi quickly snapped out of it when he heard the bell ring for class to begin and simply walked to class with Mayumi in silence.

-After School-

As Adachi was packing up, Mayumi was nowhere in sight and Dojima was approaching Adachi. "Hey rookie, want to hang out somewhere?" Adachi, while not used to the nickname, decided to enlighten Dojima and went with him to the local mega-market Junes. After eating a bit in the food court, Dojima got giddy when he remembered a rumor he heard about.

"Hey rookie, ever heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"Huh? What's that? Some kind of adult show or something?"

Dojima blushed at his statement. "N-no, it's not like that! It's this weird, creepy channel that comes on at midnight with the lights off and when it rains at night. I even heard a rumor that someone saw the girl from yesterday on it."

Adachi cringed at the thought of that. Hearing about her from Mayumi seemed to finally trouble him. "Sounds like something from a sci-fi film."

"How much do you want to bet that it's not a lie?"

"How about this instead. It's going to rain tonight, right? I'll try it out tonight and see if your rumor is true." said Adachi in a confident manner.

"Alright fine, but you gotta tell me as early as possible."

After some more conversation, Adachi and Dojima parted ways.

-Evening-

As Adachi arrived back at the Amagi Inn, Yosuke greeted him from outside.

"Hey Adachi, our guest decided to come early. C'mon, dinner's about to start." said Yosuke as he rushed Adachi inside.

Without much choice, Adachi went to the dinner room of the Inn and saw Yukiko heavily conversing with a woman. At his distance, the woman seemed familiar. Upon closer inspection, Adachi realized it was the woman from yesterday, the one who handed him the napkin when he was vomiting. From the sound of it, they were having quite the lively conversation. Adachi took the spot across their guest as Yosuke sat across from his wife.

"Oh hey, you're the kid from yesterday! Sorry you had to see that." said their guest.

"Huh? Don't worry about me, I'm feeling better" said Adachi shyly, not wanting to remember Namatame and Mayumi's state.

Yukiko chimed in. "Oh, you haven't introduced yourself to him right? Go on, I'm sure the more people he knows, the better he'll be here."

"Oh yeah, that slipped my mind. I'm Chie Satnonaka, detective at the Inaba Police Department." said Chie, holding her hand out to Adachi. He smiled and shook it back. One of the chefs came in and sat a huge plate that had an assortment of foods on it. Adachi smiled as dinner promised to be lively tonight.

-Adachi's Room-

Chie seemed like an easy-going girl, but she was more like a steak-loving kung-fu fanatic who once held the title of "The Carnivore who discarded Womanhood." Yosuke probably should've let that title stay unsaid as after the party, she could hear him yell when he was hit in a sensitive place. Adachi was told not to worry about it as 'it happens all the time.' He knew better than to question it and went up to his room.

Remembering what Dojima said back at Junes, he stayed up to see this midnight channel that he heard of. Regardless of it, he felt uneasy. Why? Even he couldn't figure it out. For now, he simply sat there on his couch, looking at the empty TV in his room with the rain being heard outside. The clock made a noise that indicated that it was midnight. Adachi kept staring at the screen intently, waiting for something to occur.

His patience finally paid off as static came across the screen. Adachi sat there with a wide mouth, wondering what would happen. A person seemed like they were on the TV, but they could not even be seen through the static. As Adachi stood up to look into it, he felt a ringing in his head occur.

"Thou art Us…" said a collective voice from nowhere. Adachi grasped his head, clutching it in pain.

"We art thou…" Adachi's vision began to blur as he couldn't stand up straight.

"The time has cometh. Open thyne eyes and call upon our names!"

Adachi finally lost his foot and forward to his TV. However, he couldn't feel the TV. Instead, he felt his arm going through something like water, but not getting wet. As his vision began to come together, he saw perfectly that his arm was simply going through the TV into something. He quickly pulled out his arm, accidentally falling back on the table. Grunting in pain, he heard Yukiko knocking at his door.

"I heard you fall in there. Is something wrong?"

Adachi began to stammer. "N-nothing's wrong here! Just tripped, that's it!"

"Oh my. Well, get some rest. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Adachi tried to search for words, but then he knew he wouldn't be able to produce any.

-Chapter End-