Chapter Text
The idea of moving—again—wasn’t really much of a bother to Yu. It hadn’t been such a big deal the first time around, when they were moving to Inaba because of their parents’ jobs. Still, he knows that moving can be a pretty big strain on people, especially if the change is from one type of environment to the next. Yu, thankfully, was able to adjust to the country-type of life with ease. Having a few friends around to help certainly made it easier, too, but that’s because they had been lucky enough to make friends at school.
This time around, however, it would be the opposite. Moving from a small town into the big city—and a part of Yu (more like all of Yu) was rather worried about Nanako’s well-being after their move. They’d never really seen her hanging out with too many other kids her age, even in Inaba, but it somehow seems harder to seem isolated in a small town than in the big city. She’s grown a lot in the year that Yu’s been living with them (and now they’re practically adopted by Dojima—he thinks that all he has to do is sign some papers, and they’d be an official member of the Dojima family).
Nanako’s a strong girl, though. Yu’s seen her be braver than any grown adult man in some instances. (They’re a little worried about what that might mean when she gets older, but that’s a problem for Future Yu, not Present Yu.) As sad as she is to be moving, Nanako seems to be on board with the entire plan. She keeps both of them on schedule—making sure to remind both Yu and their dad what to pack specifically, making sure that they don’t leave any spot in the house dirty for whoever will be renting or living in the space for the next odd-some amount of time. It’s still surprising how assertive an 8-year-old can be when she wants to be.
The most surprising part of moving, though, had to have been when he went to go tell all of their friends about moving; both Chie and Yukiko seemed to be pretty bummed, but Yosuke, shockingly, wasn’t as perturbed. Days later, about a week before the moving date, Yosuke had had the audacity to just say, “Oh, yeah, I’m moving to Tokyo, too! There’s a Junes branch there, y’know—figured I should get the experience in of working at one of the busier places, don’t you think?” (Yu’s pretty certain it was fabricated, but they’re not going to say anything against it. At least, not yet.)
Tokyo might be big and intimidating, but Yu’s got their family and his best friend.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Admittedly, having to have gone to three different schools for all three years of high school isn’t the ideal way to have a “good” high school experience. That being said, Yu’s not that bent up about it. Being a senior means harder work, but it doesn’t mean that Yu has to focus too heavily on making new friends or struggling to “fit in.” After all, once this school year is up, they won’t have to be here any longer. He’ll be able to head off into university, if he really wants to. No more high school, ever.
Yosuke, on the other hand, is having a much harder time adjusting to being one of the “new kids” at Shujin. It’s probably for the fact that the two of them are going to be in different classes, and the two of them have been classmates for the past year. Yu would never tell this straight to zap’s face, but they honestly think Yosuke might have a bit of separation anxiety—not that Yu blames him for it, after everything they’ve been through together. Yosuke is in Class 3-D, while Yu is in Class 3-E. There’s a bit of minor panicking on Yosuke’s part, but Yu reminds zap, “We live together now, Yosuke. We’ll literally see each other all the time when we’re not in class.”
Yosuke smiles a bit sheepishly, “I know, but… I dunno, I guess I was just looking forward to us being classmates again, y’know? Keeping something the same since all of this is a pretty big change.”
Yu smiles back, reassuringly. “It’s alright. We’re still together now—that’s the same as before, right? We’ll be alright.”
Zap makes a bit of a noncommittal noise. “Speaking of being alright, can you believe that we’re going to this school? The same one that seemed to start all the Phantom Thieves craze—aren’t you kind of excited?” Yosuke’s face lights up now, an excited grin coming to his face. “What if we run into those guys? The Phantom Thieves?”
Yu’s never really thought about that, actually. It hadn’t even crossed their mind during the entire time they were moving, nor when he heard about the fact that they were going to be transferred into Shujin. The idea of meeting any of the Phantom Thieves was… pretty miniscule in his brain. Now that Yosuke’s brought it up—yeah, okay. It might be pretty damn cool to meet them. Especially considering the fact that they already know what the Phantom Thieves really are.
Persona users.
A year after Yu and the rest of them had to take care of that serial murderer in Inaba, there had been an insane craze with this group called “The Phantom Thieves.” The only reason they even knew about it, all the way in Inaba, was because their TV networks had been hacked. And even in their local newspaper, people couldn’t seem to stop talking about these Phantom Thieves and the mysteries surrounding them. If none of them had lived through what they’d lived through, then Yu probably would have fallen victim to the silly rumours surrounding them, as well. Fortunately or unfortunately, all of them already knew the truth behind these Phantom Thieves.
“We have to go to class now, Yosuke,” They attempt to pry the other teenage boy away from his side, to no avail. Yosuke only peels away from him when they reach zaps classroom, which is just a few doors down from Yu’s own. “We can meet up for lunch, don’t look so sad. You look exactly like a kicked puppy.”
With a wave, Yu walks off to their own classroom, with just a few minutes to spare before the bell rings for school to actually begin. He knows how this goes, though, and he’s sure that Yosuke is in the exact same position in his own classroom. The homeroom teacher—Yu vaguely remembers his name being Matsumoto—introduces them to the entire classroom, and Yu immediately bows. It’s easy, over with quickly, and they’re sent to a seat towards the middle of the classroom. It’s a bit strange at first, sitting in the middle of a bunch of people he doesn’t know, but it’s not so bad. Yu’s sure they’ll be used to it within the week.
You know, after last year, Ryuji was pretty sure that they’d be done getting new students at random times—meeting and befriending Akira had been enough excitement for him, not to mention everything that happened with the Phantom Thieves. Unfortunately, life seems to think it’s really funny to throw new kids into Shujin Academy and watch chaos unfold. (Okay, so—Ryuji might be a little dramatic about it. Sue him.)
It’s not like there’s anything inherently wrong with the guy, either. He seems pretty normal, from what Ryuji can tell. And pup’s been watching them since class began, practically boring holes into the back of the guy’s head. He’s a little surprised they haven’t said anything, or even turned to look at him, because if it were Ryuji, he’d have already tried picking a fight with whoever won’t stop staring at him. They’re just… weird. And Ryuji’s not sure if they can really trust him or not.
When lunch rolls around, Ryuji is more than happy to book it right over to Akira and Ann’s classroom, ready to ask them if they want to eat together. Only, when pup goes to head in the classroom’s direction, New Guy (yeah, Ryuji knows his name, but is he gonna say it yet? Not quite) is headed the same way. That’s even weirder. Ryuji squints at his back, shoulder hunched up now as they practically stalk behind New Guy from a couple of feet away. He watches them open the classroom door, but instead of going in, another person comes out.
“What the fuck,” Ryuji mumbles to himself, squinting more. “Two transfers?”
New Guy and Second New Guy both leave, so Ryuji takes the opportunity to barrel into 3-D’s classroom and right in front of Ann’s desk, flailing his arms a little. “Who was gonna tell me we got two new kids?!”
Ann sighs, looking up at Ryuji with a face that tells pup he should’ve known it beforehand. “Don’t you pay attention to any kind of school rumors anymore? Even the third years keep talking about them.” Love purses her lips a bit, tilting her cheek into her hand. “The one in our class is just your carbon copy. Did you get cloned without us knowing? Because I swear—”
“Hey!” Ryuji pouts, pointing towards her. “That’s mean. I thought we were past me being just obnoxious to you!”
“You will always be obnoxious to me, but that’s part of your ‘charm’,” Ann makes quotation marks with her fingers.
Exasperated, Ryuji throws up their hands in solemn defeat. He turns to Akira, who’s been quietly watching them talk for the past couple of minutes. “Is he really some kind of carbon copy of me, Akira?”
Akira peers up at pup for a moment, an amused smile on their face. It tilts its head a bit, before he shrugs a little. “I’m not sure.” When Ryuji groans and lays himself across their desk, Akira chuckles quietly and Ann rolls loves eyes. Then Akira carefully brushes a hand over Ryuji’s hair and leans in, speaking quietly, “You’re cuter, though, so I wouldn’t say he’s a copy.”
Ryuji shoots back up into standing position, face flushed, and pup refuses to look at it. Akira is definitely grinning, and they can see that Ann is laughing behind her hand. He flips her off, love returns the gesture, then the three of them gather up Mishima and head out to have lunch together.
“How was school?” It’s a pretty neutral question—tacking on ‘first day’ would have warranted some kind of different response, probably some kind of white lie. With this kind of question, it’s really open-ended, and the kids are free to answer it however they want. And they might not feel as obligated to tell him something if they’re not quite ready.
Nanako looks up at her dad, carefully gripping at Dojima’s hand. She smiles, though it’s a bit small—not sad or upset, just small. “It was okay. No one was mean or anything. I just don’t know if I’ll like it here or not.”
“You don’t have to know right now,” Dojima feels a bit guilty, though there’s really no reason to feel that way—schools are difficult to gauge, especially for elementary schools, and there was no way to really see the school in person until they actually moved here. Nanako, at least, doesn’t seem to be too worried. Probably for the best.
Dojima glances up towards Yu then, assuming that they had been waiting for Nanako to answer first. Yu pats at the bag hanging over their shoulder, which has the Shujin Academy crest plastered onto it. “Yosuke and I have different classes this year, so he turned kind of clingy all day, but other than that, it was fine.”
As if Yosuke wasn’t clingy before—Dojima wouldn’t dare say that bit out loud, but Yu may be a tad oblivious to the fact that Yosuke’s always been that way with him. Even for Dojima, it’s difficult to acknowledge it. Yu is, at this point, his son, after all. Having to come to terms with the fact that your kid’s got someone who has a crush on them is… weird. And awkward. Dojima wasn’t ready to deal with this so soon, because Nanako’s only 8, and she’s got a long time before he’s got to even think about anyone trying to win over her heart.
Dojima shakes himself out of it. Maybe not the best time to be focused on that, considering why they had to move all the way out to Tokyo in the first place.
“How’s it going with the police work?” Yu’s only curious, he knows that, but there’s only so much Dojima is inclined—and allowed—to share with them, despite them having helped tremendously back in Inaba.
He sighs quietly, rolling his neck. “It’s what you’d expect from a big city police department, I guess. It’s a lot busier than back home, but it still seems like there’s not much any of them can do to help us. I’ve only got about five people on my team—it’s apparently all they can spare.” Yu nods, but he’s not sure if Yu understands all of the nuances behind what Dojima’s saying. Not that they need to worry about all of that on top of spending their last year of high school in a new school, a repeat of last year.
The guilt of making them move hits Dojima again like a wave, a frown making its way onto his face. He knows he shouldn’t feel guilty; neither Nanako nor Yu have done anything that would or should make him feel this way, but he supposes it’s what comes with the territory of his profession. He’s had to make a lot of sacrifices, both at home and at work, to try and have a stable home life for Nanako. Adding Yu into the mix complicated things a tad, but it also allowed Dojima to relax more than he had before. Now, Nanako had an older brother, someone who could look after her and help her when Dojima wasn’t able to. Still, it’s not easy, having to ask an 8-year-old and a teenager who, already, has had to move from one location to the next. Leaving them back in Inaba, without him, would have just made Dojima feel even worse.
A compromise is a compromise, even if it’s not always the best from the outside looking in.
“So,” Dojima clears his throat, looking between his two kids. “What should we do for dinner? There’s a lot of places around here, since the kitchen’s not set up yet.” Before Yu can ask, he tacks on, “And you can invite Yosuke along.”
Unsurprisingly, Nanako’s answer is a resounding “Junes!” Even if they’re far away from the one back in Inaba, she’s still hooked on the place, despite being surrounded by so many other restaurants and shops.
It’s a little taste of home. Maybe they’ll end up eating at Junes just as often as they did back in Inaba, but that’s alright. Dojima’s more than happy to let Nanako have this, and he’s certain that he wouldn’t mind it. As long as their little family is together.