Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Nice singing, partner!” said Yosuke. 

“Couldn’t have done it by myself,” Yu replied breathlessly, looking a bit flushed after finishing their passable attempt at a duet.

The Investigation Team was all together in a karaoke room that they had discovered in Okina. Naoto couldn’t help feeling a bit crowded, given how loud the music and the other’s yelling could get, not to mention how the room was just barely big enough to fit all of them. 

“Alright,” said Yosuke, taking a seat, “so who’s up next?”

“It should be Naoto-kun’s turn,” said Yukiko.

Suddenly faced with his turn in the metaphorical spotlight, Naoto couldn’t help feeling apprehensive at what was coming. He did his best to ignore it as simple stage fright; he didn’t want to bring down everyone’s fun by refusing to participate.

“I, ah… haven’t found a song I like yet,” Naoto simply replied.

Teddie leapt up off the seat. “Oh! Oh! I’ll go again while you pick one, then!” he said excitedly.

“No!” several of them called out in alarm.

While the others spent the next few minutes wrangling the microphone from Teddie, Naoto skimmed the options available, mentally working up the courage for the task of singing in front of the others. Naoto didn’t know anything about music, so he eventually settled on one that he was at least somewhat familiar with. 

Yukiko handed him the microphone, and he stepped forward, pressing play before his nerves could make him hesitate. 

The entire song was almost painful to go through. 

He had picked a song with a masculine voice, one he liked the sound of, but the song’s range was much too low for Naoto to reach. Half the time he managed to match up with the song, but when the singer’s pitch dropped too far, Naoto had to go up an octave instead to compensate or else be unable to hit the notes at all.

It sounded choppy, and just… bad, to his ears.

After finally finishing the song— had it really only been two minutes? It felt like far longer— the others clapped or cheered, freely sharing words of encouragement. He wasn’t quite paying attention enough to register exactly what they were saying; there were a lot of them talking at once, and it was getting a bit too loud in the crowded room. Naoto was suddenly aware of how tired he was, so he quickly passed the microphone to Chie and sat down.

As Naoto watched Chie begin to perform, he found his thoughts wandering instead, tuning out everything else. 

Logically, Naoto knew by now that the point of this wasn’t to perform perfectly. Even so, he couldn’t help feeling… frustrated? He had hoped to do much better than that, at any rate.

Naoto didn’t think his voice sounded all that bad on a normal basis, even without taking into account how he usually spoke in a lower range. But something about attempting to sing made it far more obvious that his voice sounded wrong to his ears, and it was surprisingly difficult to fine-tune his voice well enough to match up with the music. 

(He suddenly had a lot more respect for Rise’s skills.)

Naoto tried to shake off his brooding thoughts and pay attention to the group session. After all, he did still enjoy his friends’ company, and he didn’t want to sour his time with them by putting himself in a bad mood.

But…

Part of him that sounded a lot like his old Shadow self wished they could just… be opened up so easily like a science experiment, so he could see what was going through their heads. He wanted to know what they were experiencing. Wanted to understand what part of this was fun.

He skipped his turns for the rest of the session. He was feeling a bit too tired for it, anyway.

Rise felt the cold January air hit her face as soon as they stepped outside, the afternoon sunshine almost blinding after being inside the karaoke for several hours. 

“That was more fun than I thought!” Teddie said as soon as they left, still bouncing in excitement. “We should do it again!”

“Yeah, I didn’t even know this place was here before,” Chie pointed. 

“Oooh, it’s still so cold out,” said Yukiko, shivering and pulling her coat a little tighter around herself when a light breeze picked up.

“We can get something hot to drink at Chagall,” Yu suggested. “It’s right next to the station.”

“Sounds good to me!” Rise agreed. 

“Partner, I know you’ve been to that place,” said Yosuke. “I don’t know how you can suggest it, their drinks taste weird.” 

“It’s an acquired taste,” Yu replied simply.

The conversation went on for a while between the group as they made their way to the station, stopping at the cafe before parting ways. Rise noticed Naoto was still lingering outside for a moment, and stepped in next to him instead of going inside with everyone.

“Hey, Naoto-kun?” asked Rise. “Are you alright?”

“Of course,” Naoto responded, looking surprised at the question. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, you barely joined in when we were at the karaoke place,” Rise pointed out. “We’re all friends. You don’t have to worry about singing badly in front of us!”

“After Teddie’s performance, poor singing on my part wasn’t really a concern I had,” Naoto muttered, partially to himself. 

Rise winced slightly at the memory. Yeah, Teddie’s singing skills really needed work. “Then why didn’t you?” she asked.

Naoto tugged at the cuffs of his coat sleeves, not making eye contact.“I’m just… not comfortable with singing. That’s all.”

“Ohhh,” said Rise, finally understanding. “Is it because you sound like a girl?”

Naoto’s expression grew slightly strained. “Something like that,” he admitted.

“Shoot. Sorry for prying, Naoto-kun.”

Naoto sighed. “It’s fine. I don’t mind talking about it with you,” he said. “It’s not that I wouldn’t like to join, but I can’t speak much lower than this without effort. Singing just reminds me of the fact that my vocal range is limited.”

“It’s really not as weird as you think, Naoto-kun,” said Rise. “You don’t need to limit yourself. Do you know how many guy singers I’ve met that sing in higher ranges? Some of them would kill to be able to sing that high. Not to mention that singing in falsetto is a thing.”

“I… suppose,” Naoto admitted. “That’s not exactly my point, though. It would just be nice if I knew some music that wasn’t sung so much lower than mine, but I hardly know where to look. It never really interested me before I met you all.”

“Right…”

At that moment, Yu popped his head out of the door. “Are you two not coming in? It’s a lot warmer inside.”

“One sec!” Rise called out. “Come on, Naoto-kun, you’ll freeze out here!”

Naoto flushed slightly. Rise privately wondered if it was from the cold. “Oh. Y-yes, of course.”

The two of them joined the others inside, but Rise’s thoughts lingered on that conversation. 

Rise loved singing. She wouldn’t be a famous idol if she didn’t. So feeling like you can’t sing, even when you really wanted to? That sounded like torture to her.

Well, then. That couldn’t stand. 

She would just have to find something Naoto could like. 

Rise was acting weird.

Yosuke was trying to ignore the fact that she had been following him at work for the past thirty minutes while he was busy mopping the floor of the produce section at Junes. Sure, he used to have a celebrity crush on Risette, since she was a popular idol that he now got to live in the same town with. But once he had gotten to know Rise Kujikawa, that crush had gone down in flames. 

(Along with his tastebuds. Seriously, how does she eat food that spicy?) 

He had long since gotten over that point where he wished she would look his way. Which was ironic now, since Rise was currently giving him an intense look that he wasn’t sure he liked. It felt more like a cat staring at a mouse right before it pounced.

Did he do something to piss her off? He couldn’t remember anything he had said that made her mad. 

“Yosuke~!” Rise said cheerfully. 

Oh god. Now this was just getting weird. 

He sighed. “What do you want, Rise?” Yosuke replied, pausing his work and looking up at her. 

“What makes you think I want something?!” she immediately said, looking offended.

He gave her a confused look. “...Because you usually don’t talk to me unless we’re with the others?” 

Rise winced slightly. Whoops. He didn’t mean for it to sound like that, even if it was the truth.

“Okay, fine, I guess I do,” she pouted, deflating a bit. “I want to get some music Naoto-kun might enjoy, but I don’t know what to get him. Yu-senpai said you listen to lots of different music artists, so you might be able to suggest some.”

Yosuke frowned, confused. “Wait. You need help with music? I thought you were the expert, not me!”

“Just because I sing doesn’t mean I listen to that much music!” Rise argued. “I mostly know pop idol music. I don’t know if Naoto would like that.”

Huh. He never expected his variety of music tastes to actually be helpful.

He leaned against the mop he was holding. “Okay. What are you looking for?”

“I was hoping to find some stuff with male singers. But sung with a higher vocal range, like his,” Rise explained. “You know any music like that?”

Yosuke noted how oddly specific the request was, and suddenly realized something. “Wait… is this about the karaoke we did yesterday?”

Rise looked surprised. “What? How’d you know?!”

“He passed his turn like, three times. It was hard not to notice,” said Yosuke. “I just figured he didn’t like singing.”

She grumbled a bit to herself. “So much for keeping it a surprise.”

Yosuke thought for a moment. “I’ve got a pretty good collection of albums at home, but if you’re trying to find a whole bunch of different music, you might want to look at the bookstore in Okina. I usually go by there to look for new CDs,” said Yosuke. “I can check it out if you want.”

“Okina bookstore… okay,” said Rise, looking determined as ever. “When do you get off?”

Yosuke was confused. “I… was actually just about to finish my shift.”

“Great! I’ll meet you outside!”

“Wait, what?” said Yosuke, but Rise was already running off. “Wait! Rise!”

Naoto had come to school earlier than usual that morning. 

Rise had sent him a text the evening before, saying she wanted to show him something before classes started. She wouldn’t say what it was when he asked. Fortunately, he usually came to school early anyway; he preferred having the extra time to read a book or review his notes before classes started. 

Even before he became friends with the Investigation Team, he usually kept to himself, tuning out the inane chatter of the few other students in the classroom. Ever since his shadow had aired on the Midnight Channel, he had heard no small amount of rumors and speculation on his “real gender”, and he was in no mood to satisfy the curiosity of his classmates. Keeping his classmates at arm’s length was a bit isolating at times, but he could ignore it.

He is unable, however, to ignore Rise barging into his classroom with Yosuke in tow, marching up to his desk, and dropping her bag on top of his desk with an oddly heavy thump.

“Good morning, Naoto-kun!” Rise greeted him cheerfully. Far more cheerfully than most students would be first thing in the morning, he noted. Although maybe that was just Rise’s usual demeanor.

“...Good morning, Rise,” Naoto replied, slightly confused. “And you too, Yosuke-senpai…?” He glanced at the desk, watching Rise digging through her bag for something. “What did you want to show me?”

Rise chose that moment to dump half the contents of her bag on his desk, burying it under a small avalanche of plastic CD cases. “I brought a bunch of albums for us to look through!” she said, showing off her haul with all the pride of a cat bringing home a dead mouse.

Naoto’s confusion only grew. “Why?”

“Remember what you told me the other day about wanting to find music you like but not knowing where to look?” said Rise, thankfully lowering her voice a bit. “Well, I thought maybe you could look through these and see if you liked any of them.”

“She just asked me to help find some of these,” Yosuke added, fiddling with the headphones he usually wore around his neck. 

Naoto didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Rise might have shared that conversation with Yosuke when it was supposed to be private. He hoped Yosuke was genuinely under the impression that it was just Naoto showing an interest in expanding his music tastes, rather than his conflicted feelings over the sound of his own voice. Then again, Yosuke was one of the sharper members of the Investigation Team, even though he didn’t often show it.

Ignoring that line of thought, Naoto glanced between the pile on his desk, then back to Rise and Yosuke, when another thought occurred to him.

“...I don’t own a CD player,” he admitted.

After processing that statement, Yosuke turned to Rise, clearly annoyed. “You dragged me across town after a seven-hour shift to look for CDs, and you didn’t even ask if he had a CD player first?!”

“How was I supposed to know?” Rise shot back. “It was supposed to be a surprise!”

“It’s fine,” Naoto cut in, hoping to stop their arguing before it went any further. The feeling of being the subject of their argument was… awkward. “I suppose I’ll just go to Junes after school and see if they have any.”

Yosuke sighed. “Dude, you don’t have to do that. I have an old spare at my house if you want to use it.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Nah,” Yosuke waved off. “I haven’t used it in a while anyway.”

Rise suddenly perked up. “Hey, maybe we can go through all of these after school! You said you have more music at your house, right?”

Yosuke seemed surprised at the suggestion. “Sure? If you guys want to.”

Naoto hadn’t been to Yosuke’s house before, only Kanji and Yu’s. His first thought was to turn down the offer, since he didn’t want to impose… but he would prefer their assistance going through all these albums, since he knew nothing about music. And opportunities to spend time with the others were less frequent, now that Naoto didn’t have the murder case as a convenient excuse to seek them out. Old habits died hard.

After a moment, Naoto nodded. “I’ll meet you two after school, then.”

Yosuke brought the two of them over to his house after school let out. After a brief introduction and thank you to his mother for their hospitality, the three of them migrated to his room to listen to music in relative privacy.

Naoto had never been in Yosuke’s room before. He had never imagined he would, much less that it would involve himself, Rise, and an entire stack of CDs.

It was a bit cleaner than he imagined, actually.

“So… make yourselves at home, I guess?” Yosuke said. “Oh, right, let me get that player for you.”

“Where’s Teddie?” Naoto asked as he watched Yosuke rummage through the back of his closet.

“At Junes. Same with my dad.” Yosuke pulled out an old cardboard box and opened it. “He’s working the food court in his bear costume. He’s been getting pretty good at it, and my dad’s been wanting to see how he would do without me watching him all the time. Oh, found it!” 

Yosuke pulled an old portable player out of the box and held it out to Naoto. There were a couple minor scratches on it, and the metallic paint on the buttons was slightly worn away from use, but it was otherwise undamaged. “Sorry it’s a bit old.” 

“Does it still work?” asked Rise.

Yosuke tapped one of the buttons, but nothing happened. “Battery’s dead. One sec, I’ll replace it.”

After Yosuke stepped out, Naoto browsed one of the shelves in Yosuke’s room where there were even more CDs lined up. There were so many. And Yosuke only claimed to have a small selection. Maybe it was; Naoto hadn’t really explored the world of music enough to know.

“Wow. Not a bad variety.” Rise browsed alongside him. “See any you like?”

“Not yet,” Naoto admitted. “If we’re simply listening to all these albums you brought, I don’t know what I should even start with.”

“Maybe just pick a random one?” Rise grabbed one of the albums just as Yosuke returned.

“Alright. Moment of truth,” said Yosuke. “Give it a try.”

Naoto took both items and popped the disc in the player, listening to the music through the attached headphones. Rise leaned in to listen as well, putting her head against his and straining to listen from the outside. Naoto felt a bit of heat creep into his face at the close proximity, but decided it was better to say nothing.

After a minute, Naoto began to nod along as smooth, jazzy instrumentals played through the headphones. “It sounds rather nice, actually—”

At that moment, the lyrics began to play in a jarring contrast to the music.

“Check it out, I’m in the house like carpet—”

Naoto immediately ejected the disc.

“Next song?” asked Rise.

Naoto nodded. “Next song.”

The first few albums went similarly. Naoto recognized them as pop songs that he had heard in passing. They weren’t bad, objectively speaking, but they didn’t truly spark Naoto’s interest. 

It actually wasn’t until Naoto idly picked up a case from Yosuke’s collection that he found something that stuck with him.

“What’s this?” Naoto asked, reading the label; it was handwritten on a piece of notepaper.

Yosuke saw what Naoto was holding and immediately turned red. “That’s–!” He then quickly snatched the album out of Naoto’s hands. “Dammit, I forgot I had this…”

Rise scooted over, curiosity shining in her eyes. “What? What is it?”

“It’s nothing! It’s dumb!”

“Did you make that?” asked Naoto.

Yosuke went even redder as he shrank in on himself, looking like he wanted to sink into the floor. “...Yeah,” he finally admitted. “It’s, uh, just some music I put together from a few video games I liked. It’s dumb, I know, but I made it back in middle school!”

“Well, nothing’s caught Naoto’s attention so far,” Rise pointed out. “Pleeease? Can we try it?”

Yosuke glanced between the two of them, clearly unsure.

“If it’s alright with you,” said Naoto. 

Yosuke finally relented with a sigh, handing it over. “Fine.”

Naoto gratefully took the case and popped the disc into the player. 

It was a rather simple tune, but it had a lot of energy behind it. Naoto read the handwritten label, seeing the names of several titles on it; the one he was currently playing was from something called… ‘Last Fantasy’? Odd name.

“I like it.”

Yosuke straightened slightly in surprise. “Really?”

“Yes.” Naoto read over the shelf. “What else is there in here?”

Yosuke rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… well…”

As it turned out, Yosuke had slightly more unconventional tastes in music than half of the albums Rise had brought. More often than not, Naoto ended up preferring the more unusual selections.

Yosuke listened to a lot of American music, especially rock songs. Naoto could admit that he was starting to see the appeal in listening to music in a foreign language; lyrics in English had a different flow to them than ones in their native Japanese. Hearing firsthand how the words were pronounced was as interesting as the music itself.

There were also a few instrumental albums in the pile of CDs Rise brought. Naoto enjoyed those, seeing how he could easily listen to one while still being able to read or do schoolwork. He especially liked one album that sounded entirely synthetic, dubbed as “techno” on the label. There was also one album of music done by a male singer with a deep voice; there was no way Naoto could possibly match the low notes, but there was something about the deep, rich bass tones that he couldn’t help liking, regardless of how he felt about his own voice.

Rise was clearly disappointed at first that they weren’t finding lyrical songs Naoto liked, but even she became curious as she listened along with them. By the end of the afternoon, she was diving into a few selections of her own, discovering a few new songs for herself along with Naoto.

Time flew by, and the trip spent the entire afternoon at Yosuke’s house until it was beginning to grow dark out. Naoto walked home that evening, old portable player in hand and school bag weighed down with more albums that he wanted to go through. 

In the end, they didn't find anything that Naoto felt comfortable actually singing with yet, even though Rise had clearly hoped they would.

But that was okay. Naoto didn’t expect to find all the answers in one day. Their investigation had taken months, after all. And Naoto didn’t consider the venture to be pointless, either: he had learned a lot, and he had gained a modest collection of new music. 

And it was… enjoyable, to simply spend an afternoon exploring and discovering new things he liked with just the three of them. More enjoyable than the karaoke bar had been. He would have to ask them if they would like to do it again.

Naoto pulled the portable player’s headphones out of his bag and put them on, pressed play, and let the music accompany him all the way home.