Chase The Truth

Chapter 55: Emergency Rescue Mission

Begin

~Normal POV

11/6 - Sunday

This time they didn't need any extra info to track Nanako. They all knew her well enough at this point. But their first glimpse of her "world" was rather painful. To think someone so young would have a world here at all. The entrance was bright and colorful, looking something like a castle gate. It resembled a child's storybook version of heaven... It wasn't hard to see why it would turn out like this. Nanako missed her mother, even though she tried to keep it inside.

Yu could sense everyone's fierce determination as they traversed through this place. They all loved Nanako very much; she was their friend. Everyone was fully intending to make Namatame pay for daring to target her. But none more so than Yu himself. When he got his hands on that bastard... Rise eventually noticed through her scanning that Namatame had in fact jumped in here with Nanako. Hence why he disappeared from the crash last night.

It took a long time, but they finally reached the top. Here they found Namatame, who was clutching Nanako to his chest by her neck. They had seen Namatame a few times on the news, due to his affair scandal. In person, he was rather grey-skinned and had a thin face, like he didn't eat well. And his demeanor was as frantic and unhinged as they expected.

Nanako, both terrified and confused about what was going on and where she was, latched onto the only thing that made sense right now. Seeing her cousin and his friends showing up. They would save her.

"Big bro!" She cried out, trying to escape. But the man kept his grip on her too tight.

"You mustn't go!" Namatame shouted.

"Let go of Nanako!" Yu demanded.

"I'm going to save this girl..." Namatame said, firmly. Something was definitely not right with him.

"So you're the killer..." Yosuke said, angrily.

"Aha... you're the ones I saved..." Namatame said, staring down at them. "Don't worry... I'll save this girl too..."

"Is this dude high or something?" Kanji asked, "Quit talking shit and let go of the girl!"

Kanji, in his usual hot-headed manner, tried to approach, but Naoto quickly held him back by the arm.

"Don't come near me!" Namatame shouted, tightening his grip on Nanako, making her gasp for air.

"Calm down, Kanji-kun!" Naoto said firmly, "We can't predict his behavior! We have to keep him talking. If we can discern his intentions, perhaps we can somehow deal with him."

Yu had no choice but to admit that Naoto was right. They were in a hostage situation. They needed to try to reason with this man. Though it didn't look like he was right in the head for reason to even work. But they had to try or they'd never get Nanako back.

"Why are you doing this?" Yu asked, carefully.

Namatame moved one hand off his captive, and answered. "To save them..."

Yu still couldn't tell if Nanako was ok, but he kept going with a new question. "What is the Midnight Channel?" He figured if anyone would know, it'd have to be this man.

Namatame seemed breathless right now with his frantic demeanor. It must have been a combination of his own craziness and the fog getting to him from being in here. "People..." He said, "Needing to be saved... appear... That's why I put them in the tv..."

"You put the people you saw on the Midnight Channel into this world." Naoto said, "Am I correct?"

"They all... want to be saved..."