Chase The Truth

Chapter 18: New Teammate

Begin!

~Normal POV

6/4 - Saturday

Yu checked his bedroom window again. There it was: the fog had set in at last. He was really beginning to hate that fog. But at least it was predictable. He shut the curtain and turned to his tv. The clock struck midnight, and the tv sprang on. He breathed out in relief. No images this time. That was twice in a row they'd outsmarted the culprit. He dearly hoped they'd be able to keep up that winning streak.

~...

6/6 - Monday

After waiting around so long for it, they finally saw Kanji again today. He wasn't too eager to come to school, but he was feeling better. (His mother must have made him do it.) Yu ran into him before class started and told him to meet them all on the roof after school. It'd be easier to talk there. When the time came though, Kanji was the last to arrive. When he joined the four of them, he seemed a bit nervous. Quite a stark contrast to how they'd previously seen him act.

"...Uh, hi there..."

Chie snorted. "Where'd the manners come from?"

Kanji rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Well, um... I didn't know you guys were my senpai." This got a good natured chuckle out of everyone, seeming to make him calm down a little. "Anyway, um, thanks a bunch... Though I don't really remember what happened..."

"There are some things we'd like you to tell us about," Yukiko said.

"First off, that boy you met with," Chie started. "What was that about?"

"Oh, Naoto?" Kanji replied. "I really don't know him well... When he asked to hang out, I had just met him. Never saw him before that."

"And what did he want from you," Yu asked.

Kanji shrugged. "Fuck if I know! He just asked me about stuff like... if anything different happened lately..." He turned a bit red in the face as he added. "I don't know where my head was at... when I came to my senses, I blurted out that I wanted to see him again..."

"To a guy," Chie commented slowly.

"I don't really get it myself..." Kanji admitted, embarrassedly. "Girls are so loud and obnoxious so ya know... I don't like dealing with 'em. Guys are a lot more laid back. So, uh... I started thinking... what if I'm the type who never gets interested in girls...? And I couldn't accept that, so I kept spinning around and around in my head."

"Well, I can understand the part about feeling more relaxed around dudes," Yosuke commented.

"How do you feel now then? Better I hope," Yu said.

Kanji smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine now. I mean, it was all in my head when you get down to it. I was the one shutting out that stuff." He opted to change the subject. "So uh, my family's run a textile shop for generations... Oh, yeah you already knew that. My parents are kinda weird... They say stuff like, 'Dyes are one with the universe.' And 'Cloth is alive...' That's the kinda house I grew up in. So I've been interested in sewing and stuff since I was a kid... But the second I say stuff like that, people look at me funny... Girls make fun of me, the people in the neighborhood treat me like I'm some zoo animal, so I was sick of everything. And when I got to my senses... I was running wild."

He blushed again and quickly added. "Shit, what is with me today? I'm going on and on about myself... Forget all that. Man, I must look really lame right now."

Hearing the full story, it was easy to see why Kanji was so hostile to them before. And it made some things make sense. He just wanted to be left alone because people kept making fun of him for the things he enjoyed. It must have been a miserable existence to keep intentionally pushing people away instead of opening up. But seeing this side of him was a welcome change. He really wasn't a bad guy at all. Just very misunderstood and a little too defensive.