IC Inbox (Purgastory)

[depressured]

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[aerodynamic]

[ he is picturing the idea of exploding heads, yeah, and that's not good. there's a brief ? at her saying she knows archery but then he's more focused on the. bear? electrocution? all of this is a lot actually, he's taking a few moments to process as she's telling him this. ]

So he was with you and helping you defend yourself up until something... hypnotized him? And then he vanished and you had to find your own way. [ this is starting to sound bad. ]

What happened after you found Tsukasa and Edamura-san? Did you find where Lucian went through the mirror? [ ... ]

[depressured]

One of his friends explained the situation to us and helped us prepare for an inevitable fight. She said he had something on him that this troupe's Mouthpiece was using to control him. So we gained access to weapons and more defensive things to allow us to protect ourselves and try to slow him down.

And then we went to the theater to fight on the stage.

[ This is the abridged version. She's still tired. ]

[aerodynamic]

[ there's a long, tense pause. ]

None of you are combatants. [ sorry, he's just saying this. none of you? none of you!!! ]

[depressured]

None of us are combatants.

[ She agrees! ]

But it was the only way to save him. We had to fight.

[aerodynamic]

[ he's rubbing a hand over his face slowly. ]

Right, I get it. You wanted to save him from himself, and from being under the Troupe's control. Is that where most of the injuries came from?

[ how did the fight go... ]

[depressured]

Yes. There were mannequins dressed like people we knew, who acted like people we knew, and more of those bear dolls... and then Lucian showed up.

Edamura-san was... preoccupied, I think, so Tsukasa and I faced him.

[ She hadn't wanted to. But they'd had to stop him. ]

I realized the mask he had on was the same mask his reflection did, and so I tried to hold him back so Tsukasa could get the mask off. [ it went about as well as you would expect a teenage girl holding off an assassin with just her body to go. ]

He did it. And then we had to deal with the Mouthpiece, but Lucian was back to himself by then, so it wasn't really that hard at that point.

[aerodynamic]

[ he scowls a little at the idea of mannequins looking like people they all knew, but he figures she would know why that makes him mad (because it's shitty.) but he thinks on this, trying to visualize it. ]

That couldn't have been easy on either of you. Any of you, even. So when you got the mask off of him it broke the mind control... what happened to the Mouthpiece and the rest of the troupe then? Are they statues now...?

[depressured]

We fought... one final push. And Lucian dealt the killing blow.

[ Like a bamf. ]

And then we had to run because the stage was falling apart.

[aerodynamic]

... I think I'd want the final blow on somebody who was manipulating me, too. [ lightly. but hm... ]

That seems to be a common thing. Getting near the end and everything falling apart, I mean. Did you get out of the castle then? What happened after you left the stage?

[depressured]

We said goodbye. The lobby itself was fine. But it seemed to be the best time to part ways.

And then we ended up back here.

[aerodynamic]

And on a dumb dating show. [ seriously what the hell. ]

... does it bother you to not know what happened to Lucian after you guys split up to come back?

[depressured]

A little.

[ he went through a lot. ]

But he's back where he belongs, with his organization. So I think... he should be able to live his own life now.

[aerodynamic]

[ there's a nod of agreement because whether any of it was actually "real" or not, it doesn't change that part. ]

... you guys did a good thing helping him, even with such a high risk. I'm just sorry it had to go like this.

[depressured]

We weren't killed.

[ Which is the most important part. ]

So I'm glad we made it back. All of us.

[aerodynamic]

Yeah, that's sort of how I felt after we got back, too. [ they didn't die, so that had to count. he lets that hang for a bit, reaching forward to poke at his shoelace just to busy his hands and not put her on the spot immediately. ]

I know this may be hard for you to answer [ for... multiple reasons... ], but how are you feeling now?

[depressured]

Feeling...

[ ... ]

Physically? Mentally?

[aerodynamic]

[ there's a hum of thought. ]

How about both? It might be a little easier to really tell now that things have quieted down.

[depressured]

I'm sore.

[ The bruises are finally sinking in. ]

And... tired. I had a lot to think about.

[aerodynamic]

[ he doesn't want to offer a second time to heal her if she would rather not, but he does at least keep this in mind as he nods along. ]

It's a lot easier to ignore how much it hurts when you're in the moment. You kinda keep going until your adrenaline taps out, but the aftermath sucks. I used to pass out for hours after we finished a fight. [ but yes... the thinking. ]

Was it stuff you were able to find answers to, at least? Or just kinda... thinking about the things that happened and why?

[depressured]

[ He can offer, she's honestly forgotten-- ]

The latter.

[ ... ]

... Why were you fighting?

[aerodynamic]

[ i think she has an excuse... ]

I get it. I spent a long time thinking after ours, too. Still am, I guess.

[ but ah... this would be a lot easier if he knew if she knew about ryuji, but he also has already learned his lesson about spilling other people's secrets, so he debates... ]

It's a really long story, but... the short version is that there was a case we wanted to solve. It kinda evolved from there. We were the only ones who could stop more people from being killed.

[depressured]

In what way?

[ She says this patiently.

Yosuke, please. You've been inside her phone. ]

[aerodynamic]

[ yes and he is now concerned if her sekai has somehow gotten worse. he keeps that thought to himself though. ]

... okay, so you know how you get to your SEKAI through your phone? Maybe you won't think it's so weird to hear that there's a whole other world inside the TV. But like your SEKAI, only certain kinds of people can enter that world, or bring other people there themselves. My friends and I were some of those people, and the killer was someone with the same kind of power.

[ so. they were the only ones. ]

[depressured]

[ Please don't underestimate how desolate Mafuyu's mental state is on most days. It looks exactly the same! No better, no worse. ]

So, the killer was... committing acts inside... rather, in this other world?

[ She doesn't appear stunned, at least. ]

[aerodynamic]

[ this still isn't great, but acceptable.

the fact that she doesn't seem stunned helps a little. it's easier to elaborate this way. ]

Inside the TV is a whole other world. And in that world, it was covered in fog and there were these monsters called Shadows. They're monsters born from people's suppressed feelings. While people may not always be able to enter the TV, on certain nights anyone can look into it. It started with a rumor: if you look at a dark, turned-off TV at midnight on a rainy night, you'd see your soulmate. But that wasn't true. What they were seeing was a person that was on everybody's minds, reflected back at them. And when the image was more clear, it was a person who was trapped in that world. [ so. she may notice this probably has something to do with why he talks to her the way he does. ] If a person was thrown into the TV and left there, eventually their own Shadow would be born from those feelings. They were safe while the fog was still lingering, but the minute the fog cleared on that side, the Shadows would go crazy and kill whoever was in there. Their body would be thrown back out to our world and nobody would be able to tell how they died.

The killer didn't really know the first time, just that he could push people in and leave them there to punish them, or to have power over them. But he knew exactly what would happen the second time. The second time, he pushed a girl into that world and told her that if she begged, maybe he'd let her out.

... they found her body strung up on a rooftop a few days after they found the first. And after they told us she'd been murdered, I knew there was something happening that involved the Midnight Channel and needed to solve it. For Saki-senpai's sake. [ ... well. ] ... for my own sake, truthfully.