With You (Souyo)

Weakness

Yu's POV:

Nobody says anything - nobody even tries to stop me. I slowly head towards the Shadow, bracing myself for its impact. Honestly... I'm terrified. But I have to go along with this. I have to make things right. For him.

I hear Yosuke wheezing out my name.

"Partner!" His Shadow chuckles, swinging his arms forward, as if to embrace me. "I love seeing you, you know?"

"Stop this," I beg, stopping nothing but a meter before it. "Please."

"How else are you supposed to know how I feel?" He sighs. "How else will I know if my efforts are fruitless?"

"You don't mean... any of this.

I can't have hope. I can't. This isn't Yosuke, remember? He's not like that; he... he's normal.

"Oh, but I do!" He closes the narrow gap between us. "I always thought I wanted to be like you, Yu; but it turns out, I only ever wanted to be with you."

I don't say anything.

"There's nothing more I ever wanted than to be by your side -- to be able to call you mine." He continues.

"D-don't listen to him, partner!" the real Yosuke yells, being held back by Kanji and Naoto.

I hold my hand up to silence him.

"Seeing you... with all those other girls hanging off you like dead flies," the Shadow slurs, "it makes me... jealous. Like I have to constantly compete with beautiful women to win your heart."

"And why didn't you say anything?" I mutter.

"I didn't want you to leave me," it says, quietly. "Don't you see? Everyone I care about leaves me. Saki-senpai left, my brother left, and now you'll--"

"You have a brother?" I ask, cutting him off.

"Had," the real Yosuke says, behind me. "He's not my brother anymore."

I open my mouth slightly, before the Shadow beats me to it.

"If you leave," his Shadow says, sadly, standing on its tiptoes, lifting my chin up with its finger to meet his eyes. "What will I do then?"

Slowly, carefully, it pulls my chin towards its mouth, and touches me softly on my lips.

A lone shiver travels through my body.

"You taste wonderful," it smiles, after parting lips with me slightly.

"STOP IT!" The real Yosuke tears himself from Kanji and Naoto, running toward us, parting us with his bare hands, swinging a fist of fury at the Shadow. "YOU'RE..."

"Yosuke-kun! Don't say it!" Yukiko yells.

"YOU'RE NOT ME!" He screams at the top of his lungs.

The Shadow grins, and the maniacal laughter it expresses fills the room.

I pull Yosuke behind me, blinking a couple of times to take in the Shadow's form.

It's huge like the other Shadows, and it's physique is incredibly feminine, wearing a long, blue gown with thin, frail limbs to accompany it.

The main thing I notice, though, is the word 'partner' etched into its cheek, encircled in a heart.

"Get ready, everyone," Rise says, preparing to back everyone up.

"We've done it before," Chie says, "so we can do it again."

"Senpai did it before," Naoto corrects. "We haven't."