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Summary:

Who the hell is "Souji Seta", and why does Yosuke get this weird deja vu from him?

Actually, back up, how is he even here to begin with when Yosuke's never seen him at school before?

No wait, the real question, what does Ted know that he's not sharing? Since when does Teddie keep secrets?

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

It's raining tonight.

Purrci had warned them to check the Midnight Channel, but as usual, he was pretty vague about who or what he thought they'd see this time.

Yosuke checks his phone for the time, again, before settling in front of the inn's TV in the back room. After a second, Ted bounces in after him, eagerly sitting right next to him.

He resists checking his phone again. It was 11:58 last time, and he'll know when it's midnight. Ted is right there, he doesn’t need to embarrass himself looking every few seconds. He's not supposed to act so anxious, Hanamuras are supposed to be patient.

… But he is not patient. He checks his phone again. 11:59. Any second now…

The TV flickers on, and even knowing that was supposed to happen, Yosuke still jumps a little. Ted leans forward like this is just another show they're watching together.

Honestly, he's not really sure why Ted insists on watching the Midnight Channel with him at all. He has a TV in his own room, he doesn't need to be in a staff-only room. But Yosuke isn't about to upset him, either- he can't help feeling bad whenever he does, the guy really wears his heart on his sleeve- so he just sort of lets him, without saying anything.

To Yosuke’s- well, horror isn’t the right word, since it was apparently “about time” for this to happen again- dismay, a figure appears on the screen. He starts to lean forward in spite of himself, expecting to have to try to pick out whatever details he can from the silhouette.

This is not the case.

The person leans in towards the “camera”, and is immediately visible in full detail. No blurry static whatsoever. This is weird enough on its own- does that mean they’ve already been in there for a while??- but what’s even weirder is that he’s… never seen this guy before in his life.

Whoever he is, he’s wearing the Yasogami uniform, just so things make even less sense. He’s known practically everyone at Yaso his whole life, no way there’s a student he’s never seen before sneaking around the halls. And with bright silver hair like that? This guy is absolutely someone Yosuke would want to pay attention to.

Wait, why did he think that?

He doesn’t get a chance to think about that too much before Ted makes a noise next to him, snapping him out of it.

“Uh, Ted, do you… know this guy?”

Ted shakes his head in that over-the-top way he does everything, but with eyes still glued to the TV screen. No way he’d act like that if he didn’t know. But why lie? Is he even able to lie? He’s so earnest about everything, all the time.

The shadow, because it’s not done with its broadcast after just showing up, clears its throat. “Hello, viewers.”

Something about his voice feels so familiar, just for a second, like he could effortlessly imagine it saying his name. What?? Why do thoughts like that keep popping into his head?? Who is this guy?!

As if reading his mind, the shadow announces, “I’m Souji Seta, the boy no one knows that they know. But don’t worry too much about it- you’ll learn more about me than you’ve ever wanted to in this exclusive behind the scenes look at my life. We’re covering everything you don’t know has already happened- the Investigation Team, the TV World, and the people important to me, especially my beloved little sister, and my partner. Coming soon to the Midnight Channel, just for you.”

The TV clicks off, but despite the fact that there were a lot of really strange and worrying things that shadow just said, Yosuke couldn’t seem to hear anything but the way it said “partner” ringing in his head. What did that matter?!

Ted made an “eep!” noise next to him, forcing his brain to finally process that the star had moved from the couch to directly in front of the TV.

“Uh, Ted, you sure you don’t know that guy?” Wait. “Hell, you have the same last name! Care to fill me in, here?!”

His eyes finally leave the blank screen, and it looks exactly like he would expect Ted’s “trying very hard to lie” face to look like, but maybe a little more panicked.

“You can just tell me if he’s like, I dunno, your brother, or whatever? I don’t blame you for being worried about him, dude, we’re probably going to head in right after school tomorrow with the way he showed up on the TV out of nowhere like that.”

Ted continues to fidget, but finally responds. “He’s… he’s not my brother! I don’t know him!! I, uh…” He trails off for a moment, thinking very hard about whatever is making this such a problem. “I just… got the feeling he was someone I needed to pay attention to?”

Yosuke doesn’t exactly believe that with how much Ted reacted to seeing this guy, but he can’t deny that he felt the same way about whoever this Souji guy was. He couldn’t remember ever feeling… what was it? Deja vu? This strongly. It was like there was an answer on the tip of his tongue that he knows he just read while frantically trying to study the night before the test, except he doesn’t even have the multiple choice section to help him here.

It was kind of frustrating, honestly, and he was having trouble not taking it out on Ted because he clearly knew more than he was saying. He looked about ready to jump into the TV after that guy himself.

But before he can ask anything else, his phone starts ringing. He only barely registers the caller ID before picking up; it’s Yukiko, unsurprisingly.

“Did you see the Midnight Channel?” She asks, voice a little less monotone than usual. Maybe she’s as freaked out about this as he is.

“Uh, yeah, what was that guy’s deal?" The rest of what the shadow said starts to catch up to him. "He said "Investigation Team”, right??"

“He did, and he said it like he knew we were watching, too. I’m not sure what he meant by all that, but I’m calling everyone to let you know we’re going into the TV World tomorrow.”

“Right, I figured.”

Ted fumbles with his phone, reminding Yosuke of how weird he’s being.

“Uh, I think… Ted might know this guy? He said he doesn’t, but they have the same last name, and seeing him on the Midnight Channel really freaked him out.”

Yukiko hmms. “It’s not like him to keep something from us, though… I guess we’ll just have to trust him, and hopefully he’ll tell us what it is soon enough.”

“If you say so. Uh, see you at school, I guess?”

“Yeah. Bye, Yosuke. Good luck with Teddie.”

She hangs up, and he flips his phone shut. Ted’s moved from where he was before, and is now anxiously shifting around the other side of the room, talking to someone on his phone.

At first, Yosuke just wants to ignore it and finally get some sleep, but as he turns to leave, he hears Ted say the name “Saki”, and that gets his attention. What does Saki-senpai have to do with any of this? He wasn’t really sure who he thought Ted would call, but he sure didn’t expect to recognize the name.

He tries to get closer to where Ted is to hear better, the fact that “eavesdropping is rude” be damned, without him noticing. He starts to pick up a few other words- “Sensei”, “shadow”, and then a very stressed “his partner!”- but before he can get any real sentences, Ted notices him, mutters a frantic “goodbye” into the phone, and snaps it shut.

“Yosuke, that’s beary rude of you! Th-that was an important call!!”

“Yeah, with Saki-senpai? Why her? You know Yukiko would’ve called her about the plans anyway.”

Ted flounders. “Uh- w-well, I just wanted to talk to someone and she was the first contact on my list! Goodnight, Yosuke!!”

And then he’s out the door and gone. Yosuke wants to point out that there’s no way “Konishi” was the first Investigation Team member that came up in his list, but then he realizes that the only names before it would be “Hanamura” and “Amagi”. So it’s not even a lie, if Ted was looking for the first member to call that wasn’t in the room or busy, and that just makes him angrier. But why wasn’t Yosuke good enough for Ted to talk to this time? Why does he even care?!

Ugh, this was so frustrating! He wished someone would just tell him what was going on with this Souji guy already.

Notes:

you guys I've been holding onto this forever to post

things are getting FUN around here

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