The path to the truth: Male Reader X Naoto

Stakeout for an Idol

Evening.

I finally got home after being lectured by Naoto. Everyone was eating Tofu at the dinner table.

"We sure have a lot of tofu." Nanako said.

"Yeah, it tastes great. You visited Rise Kujikawa today, what did you talk about?" Dojima asked.

"About the cases." Yu said.

"I told you to keep your hands off this. Listen, this is a job for the police. Forget it, I shouldn't have brought it up." Dojima said.

"You guys met Rise-chan!?" Nanako asked

"Yeah." Dojima said while sighing.

"Are you, fighting again?" Nanako asked.

"Of course not, here hurry and finish your dinner." Dojima said.

Later that evening. It's pouring again. Time to check the channel. It's the same girl again. It's Rise Kujikawa! The image is fairly clear tonight.

I called Yosuke.

"Hey, we were right about it being Rise Kujikawa. The one on television seems a lot creepier than the real Rise, but you could see her face clearly. There's no mistake. Let's all get together as soon as possible tomorrow." He said.

I went to bed.

06/23

We met up at the Junes Food Court.

"So about the Midnight Channel last night, that had to be Rise Kujikawa." Yosuke said. "It even showed her face this time."

"So now we know one more thing, the ones that the culprit's targeting are..." Yukiko began.

"Broadcasted on TV." Yu said.

"Exactly! So we can rule out the assumption that all the victims are connected to the incident with Ms. Yamano. As for Rise, I took a quick peek this morning, and she was still at the shop. So I'm guessing that "TV show" thing doesn't appear on the Midnight Chanel until after the person enters the TV." Yosuke said.

"Teddie said before that it might be the victim's own creation upon entering that world. I didn't understand it all at first, but now I feel it may be true. The one that appears on TV, is your inner self, maybe the victim's true feelings are shown unconsciously." Yukiko said.

"But, we see them on the Midnight Channel before they disappear. You know, when it's still really fuzzy and you can't tell who it is. How do you explain that part?" Chie asked.

"Yeah it always happens before the person disappears. Like an advance notice." Yosuke said.

"Or like a random note, but who are they announcing it to? And for what?" Chie asked.

"I dunno, ask the killer. There's a bunch of stuff I still don't understand." Yosuke said.

"Is it possible that we see those images for the same reason?" Yukiko asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Chie asked

"If the Midnight Channel shows the victims true feelings, maybe it does the same for the culprit. Maybe what we're seeing is the culprit's intentions." Yukiko said.

"Well, it's a possibility. The killer can throw people into the TV after all, which means they must have the same power that we do." Yosuke said.

"So, when the killer thinks, "I'm gonna attack someone now," that's what we see on TV?" Chie asked.

"I don't know about that." Yukiko said.

"Well, if we're gonna go that far with it, we might as well say that's the basis for that entire world. Like it's some kind of mix of the minds of the victims and the killer, or maybe it's everyone's minds?" Yosuke said.