Title: Last Understanding
Fandom: Persona 4
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1,605 Words
Content Notes: This is derived from the bad ending.
Author Notes: Composed to the PS2 version of the Castle Oblivion theme (from Kingdom Hearts).
Summary: Yōsuke meets Sōji again at the end of the wrong journey.

* * * *

The street inside the TV seemed as full of fog as its counterpart in reality – full of fog, but empty of people. And yet it had started to feel comforting to Yōsuke, perhaps because the Midnight Channel had always been like that. It had not changed to become that, unlike reality. The fog had descended upon Inaba, and it stayed there regardless of all other conditions. Then, it became impossible for people to leave the place. Any cars that disappeared into the fog soon returned, their drivers confused that driving in a straight line had brought them back again.

After that, every TV in town had started broadcasting the Midnight Channel at all hours ... and nothing else. Then, rumors started of Shadows lurking in the fog, and it became impossible to see anything without using the glasses that Teddie had once made for the Investigation Team. Yōsuke and the others had tried to stay on top of everything, tried to determine why the incidents continued to escalate, but people had started to disappear around town, nonetheless, as if all of Inaba had been sucked into the TV, there to perish at the hands of Shadows.

Finding one person at a time inside the TV had been enough of a challenge, but searching for whole groups of people quickly became impossible. The IT spent day after day exploring the other side ... and finding nothing. Then, their families started to disappear, too. Yōsuke had come home after one journey to find his house empty, and he had frantically texted the others, only to discover that his mobile had no reception, meaning that none of them did. And he had run back to Junes, hoping to catch up to the others. He had, but ... not all of them.

Kanji had not emerged from the TV like the others. Yōsuke thought that he had seen him, but ... no. Had it been a trick of the fog? Of his mind? Both? The others, already concerned because of how they had lost so many people dear to them, started to panic. And so did Yōsuke. But he urged them to go back into the TV, anyway. They had to find Kanji, had to get him back, had to keep the IT together. They all agreed, and they returned to the inside of the TV ... perhaps for the last time, Yōsuke had realized, his heart sinking into the pit of his stomach.

And that had brought him back to the street where he had once faced his Shadow. Alone. Perhaps all of the others had been sent back to their dungeons, too? Impossible to say. But Yōsuke returned to the liquor store, half-expecting to hear the disembodied voice of Saki Konishi again. Inside, nothing. Only silence. He had a seat on one of the barrels, resting his hands on his knees. Where did I go wrong? Because he held himself accountable for it all. Without Sōji, he had told himself that the IT had become his responsibility – his, and his alone.

A voice. A small child, crying. Nanako-chan? He stood up again. Behind the counter, he noticed a door that had not been there before, half-open, hinting at the red-and-black pattern that led to a different place. There's no way that's safe, not when it's just me. But he passed through the door in spite of the danger. Nanako had been safe at the hospital, but ... the hospital remained in Inaba. The fog could take her like it had so many others. He had to look for her if there existed the slightest possibility that she had become another victim.

On the other side, Yōsuke found himself walking a path of what looked like red clay bricks, sloping downwards. What's this? There's nothing like this in Inaba. Did I make this? No. Nothing around him had the sense of belonging to his Shadow. The environment almost seemed alien to him, too expansive to be the product of the human subconsciousness. He placed one foot in front of the other, eyes always watching for Shadows, still listening for a little girl crying in the darkness. I hope she's not here. There's nothing right about this place.

He thought about the others. Chie and Yukiko, never apart from each other. Kanji, lost in the fog. Rise, afraid of how her powers had become weaker and weaker as the fog had expanded. Naoto, trying to think three steps ahead, but seeming stuck in a loop. ... Teddie, long gone before the end of the case. What did he not tell us? What did he know? Because Sōji represented the key to it, and he had left Inaba without tying off all the loose ends the case had left behind. Why? Had he simply decided ignore all the little inconveniences they caused?

That's not like you, partner, Yōsuke thought, the path seeming to end in front of him in the mouth of a cave, that's not like you at all. He had entrusted his life to Sōji. They all had. And yet he had not finished the job, had he? He had left them, left Nanako, and now everything they thought they had achieved had come undone. I ... could punch you again. It'd make me feel better. That had been how they had sealed their friendship, had it not? He clenched his fist in spite of himself, but he heard a little girl crying again ... inside the cave before him.

Nanako-chan? No light inside, but the fog seemed to stop there. He had to stoop to get inside, almost had to crawl to go forward. The glasses helped, if only a little. He thought the downward slope continued, as if he had to crawl towards the center of the earth, but he did not have to go far before he encountered a seated figure off to one side, leaning against the wall next to a familiar sword he had apparently discarded. What the – ? Sōji? Here? But ... why? And — Sōji held Nanako, her head resting on his chest, her breaths short and shallow.

"Partner?" The darkness around them seemed to swallow up his voice. Sōji turned to look at him, his eyes full of a sadness so deep that Yōsuke immediately asked himself why he had wanted to hit him. "So ... you didn't do this to us. You didn't mean to. You just didn't know." Saying that left him feeling hollow. He had placed his belief in a person who, despite all of his talents and successes, was still only human, in the end. "But it got you, too, so now you're here with Nanako. It's ... better that she's not alone." No response. "A-and I'm here, too, you know!"

"It's too late." His voice was wrong. It had a familiar echoing quality, and Yōsuke realized he was talking to the Shadow of the one he had once called partner. "I messed up, and now it's too late. There's nothing I can do –" His eyes assumed an eerie, golden glow that Yōsuke had come to know all too well. "– and now it's just waiting for the end. I'm not sure I even made it home before the fog took me." Consumed by his Shadow. Like Mitsuo had been. What had he been keeping from all of them? Had it been so bad that his Shadow had overtaken him?

"You can tell me anything," Yōsuke said, his voice breaking, "even now, even if you're not all you any more. You let me hit you. That's got to mean something, right?" A weak laugh, but it was the best he could manage. The Shadow only looked back at him impassively, as if it had nothing more to say. In its arms, Nanako barely had any breath left, and her lips had started to turn blue. "Even if it doesn't, she's still alive. If you were really you, you would never let this happen to her. You'd never be that selfish." He clenched his fists. "Give her to me."

The Shadow said nothing, but it did not resist as Yōsuke gathered the little girl up from its arms. She was cold to the touch, but she still had breath, still had a heartbeat, if only Yōsuke could get her back to the surface, get her out of the TV, but ... he looked back, and the way back through the cave had become too narrow to pass. Trapped. He turned to look at Sōji again, but the Shadow had become nothing more than a black, human-shaped mass, its eyes golden sparks against a background of nothingness. And still it had nothing to say.

"Nowhere to go but forward, then, huh?" Yōsuke said, mostly to himself. "You weren't strong enough, partner, so I've got to be strong instead." Why was that comforting? "I leaned on you too much, and that's why I'm here. Well, I guess that means there's only one way to learn. I've got to go on." He thought that he glimpsed a light up ahead. If he kept going, he could at least get to a different place. "C'mon, Nanako-chan. Your big bro couldn't get you out of here, but I can." His voice still sounded hollow in his own ears, but it was going to have to do.

Yōsuke put one foot in front of the other, still walking forward, heading towards the light, trying to ignore the fog that he knew had reappeared, had already started closing around him. All he had to do was keep going, going, going ....

END.