Well, that was a lie… he had a pretty crystal clear idea of what was happening as he maneuvered his way through the twisted and overly exaggerated environment of the TV World, attention honed in on a possible breakthrough of uncharted territories than anything else. Frankly, he assumed there’d be no need to venture through yet another maze of repressed thoughts and conflicted feelings so soon after the team dealt with the latest obstacle (this time in the form of a melee tournament, really?) trying to disrupt their successfully acquired peacefulness, but fate always managed to find a way to bite him in the ass. It isn’t like complaining would do anything to change the predicament at hand, so he did his best to swallow the slight irritation trying to bubble over. This wasn’t about him right now.
He was merely a friend… a spectator… a chess piece that was tossed onto an unfamiliar playing field with only an electric guitar and keen senses at his disposal. Not much that could do in comparison to the far more experienced fighters among them, like Chie, Rise, and Yukiko… and his agility was basically sub-par compared to Haruka and Naoto, but Yosuke had to take a chance.
Rebecca was counting on him.
At least, he hoped she was.
“Defective trash, huh?” The idol spoke to no one in particular, watching the professionally dressed Shadow present herself in a manner that could only be deemed ‘formal’. Eerily enough, seeing her in such a state reminded him of his own, right down to the way she addressed him before vanishing all together. Swallowing heavily, and taking a moment to sweep an uneasy gaze across the ground floor of the dungeon, Yosuke made an attempt to process the situation. Between the scattered dolls whose broken limbs and vacant stares left an unmistakable lump in the pit of his stomach, and whispering winds that crept behind corners of empty hallways awaiting his presence, there was a lot going on here. A lot he needed to talk to Rebecca about after they got out of here. Together.
Fingers gripped tightly around the neck of his dungeon crawling designated guitar, he called out to the unknown before him. “For your information, the only trash I’ll be taking out are whatever shadows you think can actually hold me back from getting to Becca-chan!” A boastful exclamation, one he didn’t have much strength to support, but he’d be damned if he let that stop him!
He was a man with a mission, god damn it!
And with that, he charged forward into the abyss.
The first floor was as silent as a graveyard, the tapping of Hani’s shoes echoing through the hallways. There weren’t many Shadows, and the ones that were there could be passed by without much issue.
As soon as the idol neared the stairs, there was the sound of a young girl crying, a second young voice speaking.
“Auntie, I think she’s broken!”“I’m not broken-”“Auntie, you should get a new one!”“Shut up-! Leave Mama out of this-!”
The voices and the crying abruptly cut off, allowing Hani to ascend the stairs to the next floor. The next floor had a single room this time, a simple blonde-haired, sapphire-eyed barbie doll with a perpetual smile. The ears of the doll seemed to be slashed at and cut up however.
“Aren’t you supposed to be pretty? You’re a foreigner, aren’t you? Foreigner girls shouldn’t have muscles. What, are you just a dumb gaijin delinquent or something?”
Those simple words echoed in the room before going silent, the sound of a thrum, a heartbeat-like sound was the only thing that could be heard. There was the faint urge to pick up the doll once all went quiet.
That really should not have been her go to response, but she couldn’t help it. She was just as upset about the news as Rebecca was. What year was this, were people still trying to pull this cliche high school bullshit?
“The poor kid gets enough shit for things that are either outside his control or easily overlooked. I dunno why everyone has it out for him. He’s a good guy!”
She at least always made an effort to smile at him and treat him kindly whenever he visited the shop. And she had the added joy of throwing shade at people who gave him dirty looks whenever he was in the shop.
“Who gives a shit if there’s someone else who might be interested? If they’re so insecure that they have to resort to this sort of thing, then maybe they’re already aware that he won’t want to date them. Sounds like someone is desperate.”
“I didn’t before she ran away. Now I’m wishin’ I did, honestly. I could’ve punched her in the cooch cause I was sittin’ down too.”
The French girl lifted her head off the table, a fire in her sapphire blue eyes as she grumbled.
“Yosuke is a wonderful guy! I honestly don’t get why people are so against him or paint him as fuckin’ Satan or something! This one girl’s been hurtin’ him a lot too, she freakin’ kicks him in the ribs and balls! She could’ve broken somethin’ with how hard I’ve seen her hit him! He went so frickin’ pale the last time I saw that happen that I thought she shattered his rib cage…”
Rebecca let out a huff, crossing her arms on the table and resting her forehead on them.
Whenever Yosuke had stopped by the bakery, even before her introduction to his class as a transfer student, he always greeted her with a cheerful, yet polite smile. She looked forward to him dropping by again due to how kind he was.
“I didn’t even know who that girl even was. I mean, I recognized her as a third year but fuck if I remember her name.”
Back in the Game 
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