The backside of the TV

April 14: 2011

We were walking on our way to school, but it's pouring out. Chie caught up to us.

"Perfect timing! Sorry, move over!" She said

Chie forced herself under Yu's umbrella. 

"I did have my own, but I saw this kung fu movie where they used an umbrella to pull of some sweet moves, and... I accidentally broke mine trying to mimic the move. By the way, did you see it?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said

"Ah do tell, but the person it showed... never mind I'll save it for when the others are around. We're gonna be late for school." Chie said

They continued onwards.

"Uh, I feel awkward to bring this up, but we're pretty close here. Um, I'm just gonna run the rest of the way!" She said

"Then let us partake in an event which involves fast movement of the legs and body!" Yu said.

"Huh? We're BOTH gonna run through the rain? Besides it's not like I wanted to make a break for it. Haha, am I worrying too much? Eh, I'll keep going with you anyway. Alright let's go!" She said.

And I'm stuck walking by myself again.

In class

"Hello everyone. My name is Kimiko Sofue, and I know you don't know much about world history, but I'm an expert. First a little about me, I love to use my dowser to look for lost items, and there's nothing quite like a romance. In fact, history is a magnificent romance. History is like a river, it was born in the past and flows ever forward. I hope we can all enjoy the profundity of history together. And since this is my first lecture, I'll start with an easy question. Our transfer student, Mr. Narukami, please stand up. The western calendar is based off of Anno Domini, the traditionally believed year of Jesus Christ's birth. What was the year before 1 AD called?"

"1 BC." Yu said

"Ah, you seem to understand this well. If you think that history is like math, 0 AD would be the natural assumption, but world history is much more complicated. The Gregorian calendar we use today is based on the Julian calendar, which was made when there was no concept of the Zero as a number. That's why when going backwards, we go from 1 AD straight to 1 BC. Hopefully this was a nice introduction to world history."

After school

"What's with the body being hung upside down? That's so creepy!"

"Is it supposed to be like mimicking an execution? It's so messed up. My Senpai told me it was a third year named Saki who found the body."

Yosuke walked over to us.

"Y-yo. Um, it's uh, not really that important but, well, yesterday on TV, I- oh uh, never mind, I'll tell you later. Ahaha." Yosuke said

Chie walked up to us.

"Yosuke did you hear the rumour? Saki Senpai's supposedly the one who discovered that body." Chie said

"I wonder if that's why she looked so down, she doesn't seem to be at school today either." Yosuke said

"Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the Inn today too?" Chie asked

"Things are really out of hand right now, I'm sorry." Yukiko said as she walked out of the door.

"Is it just me or does Yukiko seem way stressed out today?" Yosuke asked.

"I guess they're running her ragged." Chie said. "By the way, did you see, it, last night."

"Uh, well, what about you?"

"I did! I seriously saw a girl! But, my soulmate's a girl? What's that supposed to mean? I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure. Her hair was brown, about shoulder length, she was wearing our school uniform and.." Chie said

"Hey, I think that's the same person I saw." Yosuke said. "I couldn't make out that much detail though. The image I saw was much blurrier."

"Wait, so you saw it too?" Chie asked. "And we saw the same girl? Does that mean we have the same soulmate?"

"How should I know? How about you guys, did you see it?" Yosuke said

"SEE it? I put my whole arm and head though it!" I said.

Yu explained what happened.

"It sounds like we all saw the same person." Yosuke said. "Weird voices aside, what was that about getting sucked into your TV? Were you that tired last night? You must've fallen asleep in front of your TV."

I swear if this ends up turning into some weird ass orgy.

"It would be an interesting dream though. I like that part where you got stuck 'cause your TV was too small. That's pretty realistic. If it had been bigger- oh that reminds me! Our family's been talking about getting a bigger TV." Chie said

"Oh yeah? Well flatscreen TVs are in these days." Yosuke said. "Wanna go check them out on the way back? We're beefing up our electronics department this month."

"Oh definitely! My parents don't know anything about electronics and I've just got to see my kung fu movies on the big screen! Hwa ta!!" She said as she did a pose

"We've got some pretty big ones in stock, I'd bet they'd be big enough for you to fit into, hehe."

They don't believe us at all. We decided to head to Junes.

After school at Junes.

"Wow, this is huge, and, holy crap! It's expensive! Who buys something like this?" Chie asked

"I dunno, rich folks?" Yosuke suggested. "Honestly not many people shop for TVs here. That's why we don't have clerks around."

"Huh, not worth trying then I guess. Well, at least looking's free." Chie said

The two of them walked up to the screen, and touched it. Nothing happened.

"Nope, can't get in, figures." Yosuke said

"Hahaha, this proves it. It was all just a dream." Chie said.

"Besides these flatscreen TVs are so thin you'd just end up on the other side." Yosuke said. "Argh what am I saying? So Chie, what kind of TV are you guys in the market for?"

"They said they wanted one that's cheap. You got any suggestions?" Chie asked

They walked over to another TV.

"Well miss, might I suggest this one over here? It's the newest model, just released this spring." Yosuke said

"Whaa? That's not cheap at all! There's way too many zeroes!" Chie said

"I should've asked what you meant by "cheap" right off the bat."

"You got connections right? C'mon hook me up!" She said.

"You know I can't do that. Hey how about this one over here? It's a display unit, it's a little old, but-"

I walked up to the screen and touched it, my whole hand went through.

"Oh yeah, what kind of TV's did you-" Yosuke began then stopped

"Huh? What's going on Yosuke?"

"Uh, is his arm in the TV?"

"Uhhh, is that some kinda model? Like with a new function?" Chie asked.

"Hell no!" Yosuke said

They walked over to me.

"You gotta be kidding me! Did you really stick your hand through the screen?" Chie asked

"Oh man, this is for real. That's some magic trick man! So how's it work huh? What's the magician's secret?"

I stuck my head in.

"Don't do that! What are you doing?" Yosuke asked

"Oh my god!" Chie said

"It's just empty space inside."

"What do you mean inside?" Yosuke asked

"What do you mean empty space?" Chie asked

"It's pretty spacious in here." I said

"What do you mean spacious?" Yosuke said

"I mean what's going on?" Chie asked

"Holy crap! I think this is all too much for my bladder to handle." Yosuke said

"What the? Are you gonna pee your pants?" Chie asked

"I've been holding it all day! I haven't had a chance to go! Argh! Can't, hold, it, anymore! Shit, customers! They're coming!"

"What? But we've got a guy half stuck in the TV here!" Chie said. "What're we gonna do?"

I heard a scuffling about behind me, and the four of us fell through the TV. We landed in a yellow area covered in fog, looks like a tv studio.

"Ow, I landed right on my wallet." Yosuke said

"Wow where the heck are we?" Chie asked. "What is this place? Is this inside Junes?"

"Hell no it isn't." Yosuke said. "Actually uh, what is going on here?"

"So, uh, we're still alive right?" Chie asked

"Are your being collection of people ok?" Yu asked

"I think my butt's cracked now." Yosuke said

"Of course it is!" Chie said

Yosuke looked around, then spotted something on the ceiling.

"Whoa!" He said

"Wh- What now!? Did you wet your pants?" Chie asked

"No stupid, look around!" Yosuke said

"Is this, a studio? All this fog, or is it smoke?" Chie asked. "There's no place like this in Inaba, is there?"

"Hell no. But man, this place is huge!" Yosuke said

"What're we gonna do?" Chie asked

"Let us go to our place of residency that we call home!" Yu said

"G-good plan! Look, we need to get home, and.. huh?" Chie said as she looked around. "Wait a minute, which way did we come in from? I don't see a way in, or out!"

"Wha- that can't be right! H-how could that be?!" Yosuke asked

"I don't know! Don't ask me! I can't take this anymore! I wanna go home!" Chie said

"Ok so how?!" Yosuke asked

"Let us search about for a direction that hopefully leads to out of here." Yu said

"Y-yeah, an exit. We need to find one!" Yosuke said. "Let's calm down, and think about this. Alright, so we need to find a way out."

"Is there really a way out of here?" Chie asked

"We got in, so we must be able to get out somehow." Yosuke answered

"T-that's true, but..."

"If there's no exit, we're trapped, so let's cross our fingers and look around."

We walked around some, it's almost impossible to see with all this fog.

"What is this place? It feels different from where we were before." Chie said

"It looks like we're in some kind of building, but, damn, this fog's so thick, I can hardly see." Yosuke said

"Are you sure we're not wandering farther away?" Chie asked

"I can't be positive, but we've gotta trust our instinct a little." Yosuke said

"I know, but..."

We headed onwards to the red and black door, it kinda has a spiral on it.

We arrived in a bedroom.

"Hey, is it me, or is the fog lighter here?" Yosuke asked as he pulled out his phone. "No service, what a surprise."

"Can you guys slow it down a little? It's hard enough to see where you're going." Chie said as she looked around. "Huh? What the? It's a dead end! There's no exit!"

"It keeps getting creepier and creepier the further we go in." Yosuke said. "Aargh! I can't hold it any longer! My bladder's gonna explode!" He said as he went towards a wall.

"Yosuke! What are you doing?" Chie asked

"I gotta let it out before I piss my pants!" He said.

"You're going here- oh you have got to be kidding." Chie said

"Turn around I can't go if everyone's watching!" Yosuke said. "Aargh, I can't do it. It's all your fault if my bladder bursts!"

"Like I care!" Chie said. "Anyways, what's with this room? Check out these posters, their faces are all cut out. Someone must really hate this person."

Yosuke walked over to the centre of the room.

"Dude, this chair and rope, that kind of arrangement is never good." He said. "It's tied in a noose, is this a scarf?"

"C'mon! Let's go back to where we came from, and look somewhere else for an exit!" Chie said.

We headed towards the door.

"Hey, I think I've seen that poster before." Yosuke said

"Who cares!? Let's go I am sick of this place! And, I'm not feeling so good." Chie said

"Now that you mention it, me too." Yosuke said

I'm not feeling well either, maybe it's this place's oppressive atmosphere.

"Alright let's go back. I'm seriously starting to feel sick." Yosuke said

We made it back to the television set area.

"Whew, we finally made it back HERE. Wait, what's that?" Chie asked

We turned to see over in the direction she was pointing.

"There's something over there!" Yosuke said

It's some kind of, bear shaped creature.

"What is this thing? A monkey? A bear?" Chie asked

"What in the world?" Yosuke asked

"That's What I wanna know! Who are you guys?" The bear asked

"*gasp, it talked! W-what are you!? Y-you wanna fight?!" Chie asked nervously

"D-don't yell at me like that." The bear said.

It looks like it's scared out of it's mind.

"What the third person present of be this place?" Yu asked

"W-what?" He asked

"He means what is this place." I asked

"Oh, why didn't you just say that? Anyways this place is what it is. It doesn't have a name. It's where I live." It said

"You, live here?" Yusuke asked

"If I was you guys, I'd hurry back to the other side. Someone's been throwing people in here. It's a big headache." It said

"Huh? Throwing people in? What're you talking about?" Yosuke asked

"I dunno who's doing it! I just want them to think before they go doing things like that!"

"Hey! What's your problem! What gives YOU the right to yell at us like that!? What ARE you? Where are we!? What the heck's going on here?" Chie asked

The bear ran behind me.

"I-I already told you. Anyways, you should hurry back."

"What it comes down to is, you want us to get out of here, right? Well so do we! We just don't know how Dammit!" Yosuke said

"Urgggh! That's why I'm saying I'll let you out!" He said

"Like I keep saying! We don't know where the fricken exit- wait what?" The bear tapped his foot and a set of TVs appeared in front of us. "What the hell?" Yosuke asked

"W-where did those TVs come from?" Chie asked

"Okay now go go! Get outta here! I'm a busy bear!"

"What's going on now- Whoa! What are you doing?" Chie asked

"Stop pushing!" Yosuke said

The bear pushed us through the TV.