Yosuke's POV:
"I told you what you had to do. This is your goddamn fault," he screams at me. "All I asked for was one simple thing. Why couldn't you do it?!"
"Because!" I shake my head in denial.
"He's dead because of you!" Shin pipes in.
"That's... not true..." I yelp.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hanamura? This is Officer--"
"Big... bro?"
"How could this have happened?! He was my nephew, for god's sake! Why couldn't I save him?!"
"N-Narukami's really gone?" Chie cries.
"Senpai... no..." Rise breathes.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!!" Shin grabs me by my collar, and punches me in the nose. My eyes water, and I feel lightheaded. At this point, I hope he kills me. I shouldn't be here.
It all goes dark.
I wake up in a room with my infamous Shadow. There's a lake in the room, and he sits on the edge of it, wading a stick through the rippling water.
He doesn't see me, but I sit beside him, my knees to my face.
"Why didn't you do it?" His voice is hoarse. "Why didn't you just tell him to play the damn game?"
"I... don't know."
"Yes, you do."
"...Do I?"
"Think."
I think back to the conversation I had with the guy. His eyes were bloodshot, like he'd just been on steroids. His body was twitching a little, but I wasn't really paying attention. His lip was swollen, too, like he'd just been in a fight.
Fuck. How did I not see the signs?
"You didn't," the Shadow continues, like it can read my mind. "But I did. 13,000 yen for a basketball game? Sketchy."
"You're still part of me," I realize.
"I always will be."
"You know a lot of shit, don't you? Tell me... Why is Yu pushing me away?"
"So you don't break his heart."
"That makes no sense..."
"He loves you-- us. Fool."
"That's just what we want to think."
"You told him he was using us as a distraction, didn't you? In the storage room."
"Yes... He was."
"Who says that was the truth? Who says he isn't just using our brother as a distraction, now?"
"They're not even that close," I frown.
"You know that's a lie. You just don't want to admit it."
The Shadow has a point. Of course, Shin and Yu have been getting closer lately. It's like Shin has this charm to him. I just didn't wanna believe it was true. That he could so easily replace me.
"I don't know everything for certain," he shrugs. "Maybe you should check out Shin's Shadow."
"You... think he has one?"
"Of course. Everyone has a Shadow."
"Why would his Shadow talk to me?"
"It wouldn't," my mirror self shrugs. "But it would speak to Yu."
YOU ARE READING
With You (Souyo)
Fanfiction(Prolly still has a shitton of typos, feel free to point them out) Yosuke has never really been great at expressing how he feels. Certainly not to his partner, at least. He'd been... thinking about Yu differently since he left. And now that he's com...
