Chase The Truth

Chapter 15: Rescuing a Delinquent

Begin!

~Normal POV

5/18 - Wednesday

After coming to terms with the fact that they were yet again unable to prevent another kidnapping, the gang was not in the best mood. But that wasn't the biggest issue. Right now, they had to focus on getting Kanji out of the tv world before he gets murdered too. They stuck behind in their classroom after school to discuss this.

"Ok- first question... we all saw the Midnight Channel last night, right?" Yu asked.

"Oh yeah..." Chie answered.

"Yeah..." Yukiko added.

"It's burned into my retinas..." Yosuke mumbled.

"It was different..." Yu admitted, "But what matters is: Kanji got kidnapped, just like we feared. And we need to do something about it."

"...I wonder what the Midnight Channel actually is..." Yukiko mused aloud.

"Yeah, I thought it was just an urban legend, but if you try it... it works- more than once too," Chie said.

"Wait..." Yosuke said. "If this is a rumor going around, that means a bunch of people are watching it... If everyone starts watching the Midnight Channel..."

"It could cause a huge panic..." Chie finished for him.

"If Teddie is right, the missing people are the ones creating what we see." Yosuke continued. "So it's not random. It's specifically related to whoever goes missing."

"Yukiko had a show too, but she doesn't remember doing anything like that," Chie said.

Rather than respond to that comment, Yukiko instead looked contemplative about something and said. "Um, this might be a little off subject, but... the culprit is probably watching the shows that come on, right?"

Chie scoffed. "No doubt! He's probably sitting back and enjoying- wait! I bet he is enjoying it! He's probably laughing his head off watching the show that comes on after he throws people into the tv!"

Yosuke shuddered at the idea. "Ugh, now when I think of the killer I get this image of a total sicko!"

"Well- the faster we save Kanji, the closer we get to finding our perverted culprit," Yu said. "Let's head over to Junes."

~...

5/19 - Thursday

Despite going to see Teddie yesterday, they were faced with a new problem. He said he couldn't track Kanji's location in the tv world. He did, however, make the suggestion that it would help if they had some clue about what Kanji was like as a person. This kinda made sense- since they actually didn't know anything about Kanji, other than his bad temper and scary reputation. Even Yukiko admitted to not knowing him that well, despite their mothers being friends. They were totally in the dark about what he was really like. So the four teens spent most of the previous afternoon wandering around town trying to find anyone who might know something.

Yu had hoped to gain more info from Mrs. Tatsumi, but it didn't work out. She was rather tight-lipped about her son, and was more concerned about when he was going to come home. Besides, he had this feeling that a mother's word wasn't what they were looking for. A mother will only say so much. They needed something different. He just couldn't place his finger on what that something was.

He sighed and approached the front doors of Junes. Maybe Kanji had been here a few times? The food court was a popular meeting spot. It was just a shot in the dark, really, but he was running out of options. None of the Tatsumis' neighbors had anything useful to say. And Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko were having no luck on their ends either. Right as he walked in the doors, however, he felt his luck improve near instantly.