Chase The Truth

Chapter 49: Lunch Meeting

Begin

~Normal POV

10/21 - Friday

After telling Naoto what happened over the phone last night, Yu had everyone go to the roof for lunch today for their emergency meeting. He figured it'd be a bad idea to do this at Junes, with so many people around. (But it did mean having to forgo putting Teddie into the conversation, since he was working.) Plus, Yu was a bit desperate to show this to the others as soon as possible. Best to do it now since they always ate lunch on the roof. He'd be able to focus easier once he told them. Once everyone was here, and made aware of the situation, Yu took the letter out to hand to Naoto.

"Sorry that I didn't think to open it with gloves on..." He said, frowning.

She took it from him and examined it. "I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered. Our culprit has eluded the authorities for months, I highly doubt he would start making such rookie mistakes now. Is this all of it? There was nothing else in the envelope?"

Yu took the envelope out and showed that the inside was empty. "Nothing..."

"'Don't rescue anymore...'" Naoto read aloud, "It sounds like a warning."

"No punctuation or capitalization..." Chie commented, reading over Naoto's shoulder. "What a cliché."

"Ain't this just a prank?" Kanji asked, worriedly. "The kinda stuff that only happens in the movies?"

"I wish, Kanji-kun..." Naoto replied, "But this is far too serious to dismiss it as a fake."

"Did you show this to your uncle?" Yosuke asked.

"Hell no!" Yu said, bluntly, "If I had, I'd be under a fucking microscope right now!"

"Dojima-san is trustworthy, but it may be best to keep this to ourselves." Naoto said, calmly. "If this letter is real, what's most important isn't what it says... it's the fact that it was delivered to the Dojima residence, addressed directly to you. This means the culprit knows in great detail who has been interfering with his crimes... And of all of us, he chose to deliver his message to the Dojima residence, home of a police detective." She sighed, "The text is a warning, while the subtext expresses the culprit's confidence that we can't pinpoint his identity."

"So it's useless to tell the police..." Chie whined. "In fact, that would make things worse."

"Cross your fingers that it's just a prank..." Yosuke said, bleakly.

"I think the chances of that are slim..." Yukiko replied, "This message is too specific, too perfect to be a prank. But how could the killer know so much about us? Could he be watching us from somewhere?"

"Teddie's been saying for a while that when we're over there, he senses someone watching us." Yosuke said, "...Wait- every time we went to the other side to rescue someone, did we end up on the Midnight Channel ourselves?"

"I don't know..." Chie said, shaking her head. "It seems like no one else knows what we're doing. I haven't heard any rumors about us at school. Even people who I know check that channel haven't said anything... The only gossip I heard was about the people who disappeared."

"Chie's right," Yu said, simply. "If we were seen there, someone would have said something. Or maybe told the authorities by now."

Yosuke sighed. "I see... Come to think of it, how the Midnight Channel works is still a mystery..."

"Let's put aside for now the matter of what that world truly is," Naoto said, "There's too little data to go on. For now, we need to keep in mind that the culprit knows who we are... As long as we're all aware of that, it will be enough for now."