Chase The Truth

Chapter 50: A Dumb Plan

Begin!

~Normal POV

10/27 - Thursday

Yu had honestly thought he'd seen the dumbest idea to come out of Yosuke already. That insistence on getting a scooter license just to get a date. Making Chie and Yukiko put on swimsuits just to "make up" for the campout dinner failure. Talking about Rise's Shadow in vivid detail right before meeting the real girl in person, leading him to say some things he shouldn't have. But all that was apparently tame in comparison to his newest devious plot. Yu seriously could have strangled his best friend for this one.

The scheme in question was discovered by Yu early in the school day. He was passing by the bulletin board in the entrance area, and saw an announcement listed on it. The special event of the Yasogami school festival was going to be a beauty pageant, open to any female students. Now, Yu had no issues with such things on their own. If a girl is comfortable enough to go up on a stage in front of a crowd and show off her looks, then good for her. He can't fault someone for having that kind of confidence. But that wasn't the issue at all.

The problem was: Yosuke signed up all their female teammates for it. And since Yu could recognize easily that it was Yosuke's handwriting, he could only conclude this wasn't done with their permission. His guess was quickly confirmed when everyone went to the roof for lunch. When the girls joined them, they were absolutely furious. And within every right to be so. All Yu and Kanji could do was watch as their friend got chewed out.

"You'd better have a damn good explanation for this!" Chie shouted, practically backing Yosuke into a corner against the chain link fence around the rooftop.

"F-For what?!"

"The beauty pageant!" Chie screamed, angrily. "You wrote down our names without telling us, didn't you?!"

"N-No! It wasn't me! Why do you automatically blame me?!"

"The fact that it was your handwriting was a good tip off." Naoto said, glaring at him with pure disdain.

Yosuke tried to open his mouth to argue but that evidence was too damning to try to brush off. It made sense that they'd notice such a detail. "I- I mean, if you don't wanna do it, you just say no, right? Like, it was just a joke!"

"Entering your friends in a beauty pageant as a joke? Yeah, that makes it sound so much better..." Yu commented, dryly. The girls seemed to agree with this, Yosuke was only digging himself a deeper hole.

"We wouldn't be so pissed if we could just say no!" Chie shouted, "With Kashiwagi planning this year's event, even those who got entered by other people can't back out!"

Yu could now see why they were really mad. It was all Kashiwagi's fault. Well, Kashiwagi for making that moronic, unfair rule. And Yosuke for putting them on there in the first place. Mainly, Yu was inclined to blame Yosuke more. As much as he hated Kashiwagi too, she wasn't the one who signed them up in the first place. It was all Yosuke's fault they were in this mess.

"Should have expected nothing less from such a bitch," Yu said.

"Seriously?" Yosuke said, "Must have been something in the fine print I overlooked-"

"SO IT WAS YOU!" Chie repeated.

She and Yukiko went on to have a full on shouting match with Yosuke. To tell him all the reasons why this was way over the line. It was hard to hear yourself think with all this yelling.

"Hey, do you want us to take part in the beauty pageant?" Rise asked, rather calmly.

This got the trio to stop shouting. "Well- yeah." Yosuke said, smiling. "I mean, you guys know how popular Yukiko is here. And on top of that, we have an idol and a Detective Prince! What's the point of having a beauty pageant if all these incredible heroines aren't going to take part?!"