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"You know, partner, out of all the weird things living in your head, I think I like that one the best."
Souji adjusted his glasses and looked down at Jack Frost, who was grinning merrily up at him, having just learned Bufula and apparently very proud of himself.
"He is real cute," Kanji agreed. "Kinda looks familiar, too, like I seen him somewhere before."
"I'm kind of sad we can't take him home with us." Yukiko knelt down to pat him on the head and Yosuke did a double take.
"Hold on... you can touch him? Like, he's actually... there?"
"Oh. You're right. I guess so?"
"Ho."
"... Did he just... say something?"
"Ho!"
"I ain't hearing things. It definitely said somethin'..."
Jack waddled over to sit on Souji's foot and Souji blinked, wondering if this was some interesting status ailment they hadn't seen before, some kind of hallucination, or maybe just the effect of too many hours in the TV world. Yukiko and Kanji didn't do much of the heavy fighting with the group, Souji preferring to have Yukiko as an emergency healer and Kanji around in case anything lurking outside their immediate area needed to "get bent," but he never wanted their levels to fall behind everyone else's and he had taken to training with them and Yosuke in areas he thought he knew reasonably well enough to ensure weird things like this did not happen.
And yet, here he was, with Jack Frost sitting on his shoe, looking very pleased with the current situation.
"Actually," Yukiko interjected, "there aren't any Shadows around right now. How can he still be here?"
"Want to go ho-home with Souhee."
Everyone stared. Souji decided that, of course, the best way to deal with a temporary hallucination would be to go back to the other side. Effects never, ever lasted once they were back in the regular world. However... Jack Frost was still on his foot, which meant he couldn't walk, and clearly the only way to fix this would be to pick him up and carry him through the TV, which he would not actually emerge from, because he was not actually there.
---
"Hooo," was Jack's awed, almost reverent assessment of Junes' electronics department.
"...Seriously?" Yosuke looked panicked.
"Chill, senpai. Ain't like anybody's gonna know he just came out of the TV. We'll just tell 'em he's a doll."
"A moving, TALKING doll?"
"There are dolls that move and talk, Yosuke-kun."
"Let's just get out of Junes, alright? My dad knows the merchandise in here better than he knows what we have in our house, he'll know we don't sell anything like that!"
The group split outside the store, a safe distance away from staff and security cameras. Yosuke offered to walk Souji home, clearly still uneasy about the situation, and Jack walked between them, reaching up to hold one hand each.
"So," Yosuke began, apparently planning an attempted interrogation. "You're... here."
"Here ho."
"And you know who we are?"
"You're Hosuke. He's Souhee."
"Why are you here?"
"I like Souhee."
"What about me?"
"Don't really know. Souhee likes you."
"So you know what Souji's thinking?"
"Sometimes."
"Right now?"
Jack looked up at Yosuke and shook his head, still grinning.
"Do you always smile?"
"Hee."
Yosuke looked over at Souji. "He seems harmless enough."
"Oh? He passes?"
Souji was half-smiling, clearly amused, and Yosuke tsked. "I'm just making sure he's not, like... dangerous," he finished lamely.
"I appreciate it." Souji sounded so sincere that Yosuke felt himself flush.
"A-anyway. I better get home. Have fun, uh... guys."
Jack waved and Souji followed suit. Yosuke wondered what he had done wrong in his past life to end up in this one.
---
Souji was met by the sound of clanging pans and a very enthusiastic greeting when he opened the door.
"Big bro! You're ho - oh! What's that?"
"I'm Jack Frost, hee ho."
"Are you a toy?"
"He's a friend," Souji interjected, assuming Nanako would just accept it. She was a smart girl, but she was still only 7, and Souji thought he was still within the time frame of being able to pass Jack off as something relatively normal.
"He's so cute!" Nanako squealed. "Can I pet him?"
"I don't know if--"
Before Souji could finish his sentence, Nanako was gently patting Jack on the head, and when he appeared not to mind very much, Souji shrugged and went to rummage through the fridge. Maybe Nanako had gone shopping and he could make something for dinner. ... Dinner. Did Jack eat? Was he supposed to feed him? Souji turned back around to ask and found Nanako had progressed to picking him up, clearly with great effort, and wobbling around the kitchen with him, placing him in different spots on the floor as though he was a very squishy decoration.
"Is anyone hungry?" Souji thought that was the most diplomatic way to phrase things.
"Let's make cookies!"
"Jack hee likes cookies."
Souji wondered how Jack even knew what a cookie was. He knew he should probably refuse and tell Nanako that cookies were not dinner, but the both of them looked so excited about the prospect of cookies that Souji could only sigh and take out the flour.
---
As Souji thought, he should have refused. What they had created was definitely not even dough yet, but all of them (and the kitchen floor) were covered in flour. Dojima was going to kill him. Souji was in the middle of contemplating how to best dust off the kitchen when he felt a tug at the hem of his pants, and looked down to find Jack grinning up at him, one finger pressed against his chin as though deep in thought.
"Yes?"
"Have you hee seen my brothers? Lonely ho."
Of course. Of course he was.
"Your brothers?"
"Draw you heecture?"
Nanako helpfully provided crayons and Jack sat down at the kotatsu, working carefully on a picture of what were apparently his missing brothers. Souji wondered what he could possibly say if Dojima walked in the door just then and wanted to know what the hell was coloring on his table. Cookie operation seemingly put on hold, Souji managed to clear most of the debris from the kitchen counters and had just about swept the flour off the floor when he was suddenly presented with a piece of paper.
"He's good at drawing!" Nanako was clearly impressed.
Souji looked at the paper, which was clearly labeled BROTHEERS. One of them seemed to be a pumpkin holding a lantern. Okay. That one he was pretty sure about. The other seemed to be... a skeleton? He definitely didn't know that one.
"Turn over," Jack prompted, and Souji did. Oh. More drawings. This side was labeled FRENS. Oh, Souji recognized a couple of these as well. An extra large Jack Frost with a crown and curly hair... that one definitely wouldn't fit in his house. This one with the red eyes had to be Black Frost... well, how much harm could he be, really? The last one appeared to be... Jack Frost as a police officer? It was carefully labeled RAIHO.
"Not Raihee?" Souji was only joking, and Jack wasn't exactly capable of multiple facial expressions, but Souji could have sworn he looked almost offended as he vigorously shook his head and pointed insistently at HO. Weird.
"Know them?"
"Well," Souji replied carefully, "I think I know this one, and this one, and maybe this one, but I don't think he'd fit in the house." Jack seemed to agree. "But I don't know how to... get them."
"Limhousine?" Jack suggested, and Souji shrugged, then nodded. Of course. Why not? It's not like the day could get any weirder anyway.
---
"I must say, this is a very... unusual request. But, then, you are a very unusual guest..."
And that was how Souji found himself walking home from the shopping district with Pyro Jack and Black Frost.
---
As it turned out, Dojima would be working overnight, and that was just as well. Souji ran a hand through his hair and surveyed the first floor of the house. The cookies had been made... eventually. Pyro Jack had insisted he get out the Halloween cookie cutters, Black Frost had set various objects on fire, Jack Frost had accidentally frozen the entire fruit drawer (Black Frost had tried to help thaw it out, but the fruit was added to the long list of burned items), the crayons had been used on the walls, and now the power was out because Black Frost hadn't liked the way the green numbers on the digital clock were looking at him. At least that pumpkin lantern was coming in handy. Souji sat down in Dojima's usual spot on the couch and watched Nanako and the three Jacks sit around the kotatsu playing checkers and eating the slightly crispy cookies.
"King me ho."
Black Frost pointed to the checker and it burst into flames. Nanako clapped in appreciation and Souji calmly doused it with a spray bottle before adding it to the bag of ruined items he was keeping under the sink. He turned around to catch Nanako stifling a yawn and sent her to bed before Black Frost could be offended by her hair ribbons.
"Souhee? Is it ho time for sleep?"
Souji briefly entertained the thought that the three of them would see themselves out if he said it was, but that thought was quickly squashed when he found himself headed up to his room, stairs lit by Pyro Jack, all three of them trotting behind him.
"We'll look hee out for you."
Souji wanted to argue, or to say he didn't need sleep, not really, or to at least put his prized possessions away before they wound up torched, but he was exhausted and vaguely confused and decided to let himself drift off to sleep before he gave too much thought to the fact that a pumpkin wearing a hat was spinning around in his desk chair.
---
"Ho."
Souji blearily opened his eyes. His room was pitch black and he could feel something patting him, although he couldn't make out what it was.
"Wha..." He checked the clock. "It's 3:00 am."
"Ho!"
"What happened?"
"Jacks are going home hee. Come play with us tomorrho Souhee ho."
"Sure," Souji replied, yawning into his wrist, and thought something may have hugged him. Hugging was nice. Sleep was also nice. In the morning, he'd wake up, and he'd realize this had all been a dream, and the power would be on, and they'd still have flour, and the checkerboard wouldn't be missing ten pieces.
He almost could have made himself believe that if he hadn't woken up to a mysterious, charred looking hole in the toe of every single one of his socks.