The Naked Truth- the return of the Inaba Abductions

Ask any local what the sleepy little town of Inaba was known for you might hear a few odd replies. Beefsteak was a common one, sometimes followed by the question of where the steak comes from when there were no cows. The Amagi Inn might be a close second, the local hotspring resort that attracts even far away visitors during the winter season. Junes, the local big corporate franchise owner...once upon a time this was a flippant response, but the local branch of the franchise actually enjoys a uniquely beneficial and profitable relationship with local stores and businesses. And of course, there are the odd local celebrities. Naoto Shirogane, the first of the Detective Princes (and please ignore the fact she is really a girl). Risette Fujikawa, the celebrated international idol. All right. Two celebrities. More than most towns can boast.

Only the most obsessive occultists and occult otaku would mention the rumor of the midnight channel, an odd phenomena that appears on rainy nights in the local area. Some say it shows you a love interest. More morbidly, some say it shows you someone in the town destined to die. A few local crazies say it shows local folk who go missing acting like fools and idiots, engaging in scandalous behavior or making wild declarations. Of course...no one...absolutely no one...talks about the Hollow Forest. There aren't many people in the world, let alone the town, who have the means to access that place. One must awaken their other self, their Persona, to enter that alternate reality where the secrets of the heart give birth to strange vistas and dark dopplegangers of those who enter. The few who know what lies behind the televisions of Inaba are wise to keep such things a secret, despite the fact that more than one supernatural entity born purely from the mindscape of the townsfolk currently walks their streets posing as ordinary people.

Of course, the answer so many think of but so few want to say is the Murders. The Foggy Morning Killings, the Midnight Channel Massacres, the Antenna Slaughters. Tabloids traded grim titles for the trio of victims found raised up on antennas early in 2011. It shocked the world and for a brief time paralyzed the town. The fact the killings apparently ended not long after was a mild cause for comfort, even though the town was plagued with strange vanishings and reappearances for the better part of a year after that. A culprit was arrested and confessed in the end. The town has largely moved on from that time, although the infamously thick fogs rumored to host some strange illnesses inspire most people to stay indoors even if the killings ended a long time ago. The fears of the past still linger, even if no one will admit it.

Which was why, some two years after the incidents took place, no small amount of panic went through the town the one foggy morning when the locales glimpsed a body strung up along a power cable. Rumors move faster than lightning in a little town like Inaba, and the streets were alive with dread and gossip that the killings had begun again. It took longer than it should have to get the police and the coroner on hand thanks to the crowds. It took even longer for some observant bystander to take note of what the police should have seen straight away had they not been gathering testimony and coaxing people to disperse. The girl on the antenna was still breathing.

She was still breathing. And she was quite naked.

The girl was eventually identified as a local weather woman named Marie. Adored for her eccentric behavior on air, and often acting with nonchalance as if she could control the local weather, the aloof and occasionally acerbic young lady had met with a circle of close friends the night before. An odd mix of old highschool comrades, celebrities, and even a influential CEO of the Kirijo group, the party had met at the local eatery on the Junes rooftop (it helped that the son of the local owner of the company was part of the entourage). People were curious, of course, but the odd little group was well known in some circles for these gatherings. A few observant souls surmised it had something to do with the capture of the Midnight Channel Murders some time before, as one of the assembled was Naoto Shirogane, who was instrumental in solving that case and known to cryptically remark she owed her success to the assistance of local volunteers. What the murders had to do with the Kirijo Group was anyone's guess, although a few astute gossipers pointed out Naoto and his entourage of volunteer investigators aided the head of that company with recovering stolen property that had been smuggled into Inaba for reasons unknown. No doubt some kind of private celebration to mark the anniversary of the infamous killings.

Marie walked out into the fog of the early morning and for the next three days vanished altogether. One or two people claimed to see a strange person appearing on their televisions over the course of those few days. No one connected the two events except those deeply familiar with the forces behind them. On the third day, Marie reappeared, her arms and legs bound tightly to an antenna several stories up in the air, her body displayed in a rather obscene and overt way so that all her secrets and private places were easily viewable even from such a height. She wore her platform black shoes, the striped thigh high leggings, the black and red gloves that covered most of her arms, a red choker collar complete with a golden lock around her neck, and the stylish blue hat she sported when not in her more professional business attire presenting the weather. The rest of her quite attractive body was very bare, displaying her massive orbs and swollen nipples prominently alongside her cleanly shaven pussy lips and bouncy butt cheeks.

Her first act when finally regaining consciousness was to scream in humiliation and attempt to cover herself. Her second act was to stiffen in place as if being struck with some form of mental trauma, before shifting her position (now cut down from her defacto perch) to provide the crowds a good view as she mechanically began touching herself, all the while drunkenly moaning in dismay in abject humiliation. All the while, she babbled a litany of nonsense, though perhaps some parties could make sense of it.

"We missed a piece. We missed a piece. The Sagiri came back. Izanami came back. All the pieces of what I used to be became one with me. But we missed a piece. Like the Sagiri. Like the Sagiri. Adachi. Namatame. Pawns on her game board. Pawns in her games. We missed a piece. Adachi. Namatame. One more pawn. One more piece of me hiding inside a human soul. We missed a piece. One pawn left. One...more...game to play. Have to find them. Have to....stop. They want to play a new game. They want to show us all....the naked truth...."

Her condition hasn't changed. She experiences long moments of lucidity, but each day she has another 'episode' like the one described above. Her clothes come off, she starts to babble, and she plays with herself. If there's an audience to be found she will seek it. Her second such episode took place live on air during her weather report. Of course they cut away...or tried. But Marie snapped her fingers, and the cameras were live again. Worse, the broadcast was now on every channel, across the nation, recording her naked debasement in sharp high definition to the stunned viewing of several million people.

At present the police are operating on the assumption that Mrs. Marie was ambushed in the fog by parties unknown and subjected to some unknown procedure akin to the previous murders but apparently less lethal. Of course the original culprit Adachi claimed to have thrown his victims into a TV, whatever that means. Are the methods being used similar? No one knows. All that is certain is there is a new culprit stalking Inaba's streets, searching for a new candidate for their 'naked truth'. Inaba waits in fear once more.

Two nights ago, in the midst of a midnight storm, a television was rumored to have flickered to life. It offered a brief, staticky glimpse of a woman, naked and covering herself, staring at the viewer in motification and despair. The rumors say the woman was the exact likeness of the corporate CEO Mitsuru Kirijo.