Souji's story

Chapter 4-Murder!?

(Izanagi makes another appearance)

Yosuke's POV

4/13/2011

"Murdered!? What the hell!? How?! Why?! For what reason!? What the hell is going on?! Why is this happening!?" I yelled in shock, unable to say anything else. How could that even be possible? Such a word was almost never uttered in Inaba, let alone thought about! Inaba was the most peaceful place one could even think of and yet…someone has been murdered here of all places? Just what the hell is going on today?! I'm getting a bad feeling about this…

"Yup. We found the body not too far from here, hung on some telephone pole, too. I suggest you all head home as soon as possible. See ya, kids. Stay safe." he said, turning around to get back in his car and then he drove off, the wheels splashing more water on us as what seemed like a final insult to our dignity and pride. Seems like he's got a stick too far up his ass…makes me wonder about the rest of the cops here…at least Dojima-san's a good cop, and so is Adachi-san. They don't get us wet at the least…most of the time. Sometimes they did get us wet. Sometimes.

"You damn asshole of a cop, you could at least apologize for getting us wet, you jerk! Get back here!" yelled Chie not a second later, screaming and yelling in the direction of the car. I don't blame her for yelling like that when she's soaking wet. I'd yell too if I wanted to do so.

Yukiko tried to comfort her by patting her friend on her shoulder. "Don't worry, at least it will save on laundry today! Isn't that good? Plus, you were complaining about getting hot earlier…" Chie couldn't help but smile at that, completely forgetting about being wet for the time being. But that calm silence didn't last too long…

"Damnit, I just got my clothes semi-dry too! Urgh that jerk! What the hell's wrong with him? And he calls himself a police officer? The police chief needs to fire him…poor Minko, she's probably gonna get a cold now…and I've run out of cold medicine. Damnit to hell, this is not how I wanted my first day at school to go. Just wonderful, wonderful." Souji said, beginning to wring out the water from her shirt and turning to comfort her daughter a bit, doing the same to Minko's shirt.

After she was done, she turned to look at me with a classic look that screamed 'I'm-having-a-really-bad-day, do-not-fuck-with-me, I-will-kill-you.' I felt sorry for her; but I chose not to say anything to provoke her when she was in a bad mood. Best not to say anything.

"Hey Yosuke, are you okay? You've been staring at Souji for a bit…is everything okay? Shouldn't you say something to her to make her feel better?" asked Yukiko as she looked at me with a curious look in her eyes. I blinked; had I been staring at her? I didn't even register the fact that I was staring at her until I heard her dial a number on her cell phone. I could hear her talking rather frantically and it seemed like she was talking to Dojima-san from what little I could overhear and what little I could overhear was about her daughter and if she was okay or not. Her eyes were wide with fear.

Minko seemed unaware of what her mother was freaking out about on the phone. She tilted her head in a way only a toddler would do.

"Hey, why's Souji so frantic all of a sudden? She seemed fine just a few minutes ago? So what's the deal with her? Is she okay?" asked Chie as she walked up to me, confused. I shrugged my shoulders and went over to ask Souji herself. I chose to go ask her.

"Hey Souji…um…" I began to say, but I was cut off by her relieved sigh. That's when I went to ask her…

Souji's POV

"Huh? Why was I acting all panicky?" I replied to Yosuke's question in confusion as I put my cellphone away in my soaked pocket. He nodded as I was thinking of a response for him.

"I was just talking to Dojima-san…I mean…" I said, not wanting to tell them the real reason why I was panicking-the fact that there was a murderer on the loose somewhere here in Inaba. I could hear Izanagi's voice, telling me to tell Yosuke the truth and to stop beating around the bush. I mentally replied to him and told him to stop bothering me for a moment and to stop being so nosy. He replied by saying that I was being too anti-social for my own good.

I didn't hear him say anything else, so I left the matter be for now. I could see Yosuke's questioning stare and I replied in a whisper,

"Something happened at the school where Shiori went to…something about a small wild animal getting into the bathrooms…" I muttered as Chie and Yukiko walked up to us.

"A wild animal got into the restrooms? Is she okay? What about the other children?" asked Yukiko in an oddly excited voice for someone so calm and poised to take over a family inn someday.

"Yeah, they caught it and released out into the wild…no one was hurt." I replied to her in relief. I can't imagine how scared Shiori and the other kids were.

I could see that this conversation wasn't going to end so fast. After a brief moment, the four of us started to walk again towards where my new home was. I hoped we'd run into Dojima-san on the way to pick up Shiori.

"Mama? You okay? Need Yuske? Need hug-hug?" asked Minko as she looked up at me in worry as she tugged on my sleeve. Her face was red after she had finished crying, looking rather worried to boot. I smiled at her and patted her soggy hair that would mostly likely need to be cleaned when we got back home after picking up her sister.

"Don't worry Minko, Mama's just fine." she picked up her daughter and kissed her on the forehead with a smile as she giggled at the nickname Minko had just given me, "…and his name is Yosuke, dear." she walked over after she put her cell back in her semi-wet pocket, hoping to god it wouldn't be ruined when she got home.

"Let's get going, guys. We've been here too long and we'll get sick if we stay out here with wet clothes. I'd rather not get a cold or have my daughter get one." she said as she sighed and rubbed her forehead. She didn't need to say anything else; Yukiko and Chie didn't need any more convincing and neither did I.

Chie's POV

"Aw man, I hate being wet! Yukiko, don't you have any dry clothes at your inn? I bet they have some good stuff!" I said, my teeth chattering as I forced myself to smile after we had walked Yosuke to his house and said goodbye for the day. Surely my best friend would have SOMETHING dry to wear for the night while I put my wet and freezing clothes out to dry.

She shook her head, "Sorry, we haven't been able to keep up with the laundry lately, so I'm afraid we don't have any dry clothes to spare, Chie." she said sadly, looking down. Not wanting to leave my friend feeling down, I cheered her up,

"Aw, it's okay, Yukiko! I'll just borrow some clothes from Mom then!"

Saying that seemed to satisfy her, we didn't say anything else as we each went our separate ways back to our own homes.

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Souji's POV

"Look at the bright side Souji, at least you made some more friends today during your first day at school. Minko and Shiori are fine, don't worry about them. Everything will work out." Izanagi chuckled. "By the way, your cell just went off. Might want to answer that."

Despite him saying that, I can't help but worry. Being a mother does that to you. You're always looking out for trouble in every little nook and cranny.

I checked my cell to see a message, talking about the Midnight Channel rumor that Chie spoke of earlier in the day, how if you stared into the screen of a turned off TV at midnight, you would see the picture of your soulmate appear.

Pfft, yeah right. Like such a thing is even possible. I thought I'd met my soulmate 4 years ago, but he up and left me while I was pregnant with Minko. I haven't dated anyone else since then. I'm not interested in any guy that's taken interest in me since then. Though Miki has tried to help me with the girls, she does have her own life to live and her own family. Doesn't stop her from trying to butt into mine though.

Though the 'Midnight Channel' rumor has piqued my curiosity a great deal. Yosuke told me to check it out just for fun, so I'd have something to do. Fun…seems like a distant memory sometimes to me these days, save for the moments I have playing with my daughters. Maybe I should listen to Izanagi's advice and watch it. It couldn't hurt to try…

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4/14/2011

Early Morning, Dojima Residence

Souji's POV

"Are you alright, Souji? You're looking pale again." Izanagi gently shook my shoulder as I forced myself to open my eyes. I took a glance at the clock next to my futon and cursed when I saw how early it was-4:00 AM, a time that couldn't be more annoying right now. Resisting the urge to throw something at it, I sat up to stretch and then got up to go use the bathroom before I went back to sleep. As I washed my face, my thoughts wandered to what had happened about five hours ago.

"That Midnight Channel…supposedly Chie claimed that if you had your TV turned off on a rainy night, when the clock struck 12:00 midnight, your soulmate would show up. But what I saw was nothing more than a blurry image of a girl." I sighed as I rubbed my eyes, "Does this make me bisexual, I wonder?"

"I wonder…" I crawled towards the small TV, "If an image of a girl could appear on the TV without it being turned on, what else could happen?"

Slowly reaching my hand towards the TV screen, I only expected to feel my fingertips touch the screen…

That didn't happen; instead I felt my hand go right through the screen like it was water. That definitely woke me up completely and I tried to pull my hand back out. I gasped softly as I felt my hand, and then my arm, being pulled farther into the TV until I felt my head pass through. That's when I began to panic,

"What the hell!? Wha-what the-?" After a few moments of struggling, I managed to yank myself out of the TV…only to have my head come into contact with the low table, complete with a loud thud. The sudden pain made my head feel like a watermelon. I began to hear Izanagi asking if I was okay.

I looked around to see that my daughters were still asleep; those two can sleep through anything…

After my headache died down to tolerable levels, I stared at the TV in shock at what had happened. Shaking my head in disbelief, I could not believe what had just happened.

I stared at my hand and arm, still attached to my body.