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ragecndybars · 1 year

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I was rambling about this the other day, but I feel like I'm ready to expound upon it a little more, so... AU where Shinjiro Aragaki, post P3P femc route, ends up on the Investigation Team in Inaba two years later.

Obviously he couldn't go back to school right away after the events of the game, given that he'd just come out of a months-long coma and had been wasting away from the suppressants for years before that. So he had to take a year off for health reasons. But when the time came for him to actually have his third year of high school, he found that he couldn't go back to Gekkoukan. It was just... too painful. His only memories of that school now are either bittersweet at best or actively painful. And the rest of SEES had just graduated, save Ken of course, so it wasn't like he had any friends he wanted to stay for.

Mitsuru would want him to apply to a ton of prestigious, highly-ranked schools, of course, but don't get it twisted -- he agreed to finish high school, not become some model student out of nowhere. Sure, he's a smart guy, and he actually doesn't mind studying, but, even with his conscience cleared of the events of October 4th, he's still a badmouthed delinquent who hates authority and cuts class. Most prestigious schools aren't owned by a close friend of his, and therefore take issue with admitting someone whose attendance record and rap sheet are as bad as Shinjiro's. And it's not like he wants to put up with those high expectations and strict rules, anyway.

So, to appease Mitsuru, he applies to a decent enough school, one with pretty high average test scores, but he mainly makes his decision based on his own wants and needs. He wants a school that's relatively lenient with delinquents, but without a large delinquent population -- he doesn't have the time to be surrounded by punk kids, even if he himself is still a punk kid at heart -- and, most importantly, someplace calm. Someplace small and out in the middle of nowhere, so that he can get some damn peace and quiet.

It doesn't get much quieter than Inaba.

Of course, because God hates him, there's a murder in town, like, two days after he gets there. One minute, everyone in Yasogami is whispering non-stop about how one of the transfers this year is a third year delinquent-looking guy who's visibly pushing 20. The next minute, they're all being sent home, and then a dead body is found.

Initially, Shinjiro doesn't suspect any Shadow- or Persona-related weirdness is afoot, but then he hears all the buzz around school that something called the "Midnight Channel" was showing the victim's face in the days leading up to her death, and he has had enough horrid supernatural experiences at midnight to be suspicious. So he tests it out for himself, sees Saki Konishi on the screen, and the next day, she turns up dead the same way Yamano did.

So... great. Amazing. Perfect. Obviously something is going on, and Shinjiro has no idea what it is or what to do about it. At least back in Iwatodai, he knew that someone else was on top of the Shadow shenanigans, so he didn't have to worry, and he had a direct line to the Dark Hour experts if he ever needed to step in. Now, as far as he knows, there's no one around but him to handle this. Sure, he could probably call Mitsuru and have her send the newly-formed Shadow Operatives to handle it, but... well, he's not entirely sure that it's actually Shadow-related, and, even if it is, it's not like he has any other information that could help them solve it, so they would be wasting their time. And... okay, to be honest, things are still a little tense between him and the others right now, and his pride can't handle having to ask for help less than a week after moving away. Especially since Akihiko and Mitsuru in particular had both been hesitant to let him out of their sight.

So... for now, he's on his own. He'll look into this himself, at least until he gets a bit more information.

First things first: the next time he watches the Midnight Channel, he looks carefully and tries to find out who it's depicting. He knows barely anything about the town, so he isn't able to figure it out just from noticing it's a girl in a kimono, but he spends the next day looking around for a place where people might wear kimonos as daily attire, and the news pieces on the Amagi Inn put Yukiko on his shortlist.

Before he can do anything but hypothesize, though, she goes missing. Not yet knowing how the TV world works (or even of its existence), and hypothesizing that he might have until midnight to find and save her, he goes into crisis mode and starts frantically searching. Luckily, while he never would have found her on his own, in the midst of his search, he runs into something that he does know how to handle.

Namely, when he's asking around about Amagi, he hears a lot of people mention her friends, and said friends are acting suspicious as hell. Butting into the police investigation. Getting caught with weapons in the Junes food court. Skulking around outside Daidara Metalworks after school. Gathering around and muttering to one another in a cluster in the lunchroom.

This isn't Shinjiro's first rodeo. He knows the signs. Those kids are Persona users, and clearly they know what's going on more than he does.

But obviously he can't just leave it alone at this point. If those idiot kids bite off more than they can chew and get themselves killed, that'll be on his shoulders. So he corners them outside Junes, confronts them, reveals to him that he knows something supernatural is going on and that he can tell they have Personas, and manages to convince them to bring him into the fold.

They escort him into the TV world -- I think he probably wouldn't be able to enter by himself at first, but once he was in the first time, he would be able to enter freely. He doesn't manifest a Shadow due to already having his Persona, which makes them a bit less wary of him, since it lends validity to his story. He also summons Castor with an Evoker at first, but it freaks them out so much that he begrudgingly learns how to crush the tarot card instead, just so that these damn kids will stop looking at him like that.

With his help, they manage to rescue Yukiko in record time, but they're still a little leery of Shinjiro and his supposed old friends. Given that they kept the police completely in the dark as well, I think it's unlikely they would trust him to bring in an extremely shady group of unknown "Shadow Operatives", and... well, like I said, Shinjiro's pride doesn't want him to contact Mitsuru, either, so he doesn't fight them too hard about it. At this point, it seems like they'll be in good shape to safely rescue everyone who gets tossed in, so it's not like Mitsuru being there would necessarily help, anyway. Or he's able to convince himself of that, at least.

From there, the plot would proceed more or less unchanged. Maybe they manage to save everyone a little faster than they would've without Shinjiro's help; maybe they're able to resolve some conflicts amongst themselves that would've lasted a little longer if Shinjiro wasn't there to give them a smack upside the head and tell them to get over themselves; maybe a few other arguments run even longer than they would have because they strike Shinjiro in a sore spot. But, overall, they save everyone who gets thrown in and they collect clues as to the identity of the culprit at a similar rate to canon.

Eventually, the IT would warm up to Shinji and he would warm up to them. Like I said, the plot would be mostly unchanged up until around Naoto joined, at which point they would finally contact the Shadow Operatives for help.

Of course, they immediately come running to help, and Shinjiro isn't going to admit it, but he feels horribly guilty for having not contacted them earlier. Even though it was technically the Investigation Team who refused to let him, he still went along with it because of his pride, and now he feels that Morooka's death and the suffering that the rest of the IT went through are all on him, even if the Shadow Operatives couldn't have logically prevented all of that.

He starts withdrawing from the team somewhat, guilty and uncertain, until, at the worst possible moment, he suddenly finds that he can't summon Castor anymore. Next thing he knows, another dungeon is forming in the TV world and his Shadow drags him inside, forcing both the Investigation Team and the Shadow Operatives to rescue him.

I keep going back and forth on what his Shadow would be, but I keep going back to the idea of Shadow Shinjiro is literally hunting Shinji down like an animal, just like Castor used to turn on him -- because it's a manifestation of Shinjiro's self-hatred and inability to forgive himself for the death of Ken's mother.

Only after accepting his own Shadow does Castor evolve, and Shinjiro no longer has to take suppressants to stop it from rebelling. It was his own self-hatred and rejection of himself -- rejection of Castor -- that was making it act out. Finally, he's forced to face himself and accept himself rather than running from the guilt that's haunted him since October 4th.

And like. the ending of the game would not really change, either. But just. Shinji gets closure and self-acceptance. The Investigation Team gets someone a little older and more experienced to look after them. Kanji gets a good role model, even if Shinji won't admit that he is one. Yu gets someone who isn't afraid to question his decisions but is still willing to back him when they agree.

Just... soft self-indulgent fluffy fanfic where Shinjiro joins the Investigation Team and gets to experience the normal teenage years that he never got (even if there's also more Persona nonsense and a murderer thrown in there).

Before I end this post, here are the basic character dynamics I'm envisioning:

Souji/Yu: Actively trying to befriend Shinjiro from the beginning, but Shinjiro resists and avoids him because he sees too much of FeMC in him and it brings up bad memories. Yu tries to give him space at first, but ultimately is persistent and manages to make Shinjiro open up a little. Their relationship has a lot of mutual respect, but it takes a long time for them to progress past their uneasy alliance. Once they do, though, they're pretty tight.

Yosuke: Doesn't get along with Shinjiro at first, being much more wary of him than the others. Even when he decides that they're definitely on the same side, he's still kind of scared of him. Once Shinjiro proves himself, they get along better, often feeling like the only sane men in the group and bonding based on their shared exasperation. Shinjiro does get on his case a lot, though, and tends to treat him like a kid.

Chie: Looks up to him for his fighting ability and experience, but they also clash a lot because he snarks at her and calls her an idiot constantly. He can't help it. She's too much like a young Aki for him to treat her as anything but an annoying little sibling.

Yukiko: Thinks he's hilarious, much to his chagrin. They have a pretty average and respectful relationship most of the time, and half the time they end up feeling like the only sane men among the group. He also refuses to let her cook, even in the name of giving her "lessons", which annoys her, but whenever he bars her from the kitchen it usually means he'll take over, so she's willing to look past it.

Teddie: Flip-flops rapidly between being genuinely scared of Shinjiro and hanging off his arm. Shinjiro tolerates both of these behaviors because he thinks of Teddie as a young kid, and therefore is extremely protective of Teddie. This persists even when Teddie grows his body and looks/acts more like a teenager. In Shinjiro's head, he's just a very tall, very annoying toddler.

Kanji: Thinks he's the coolest guy ever. Shinjiro gets flustered by hates this lowkey idol worship and tries to dissuade it by being extra short with Kanji. Not only does this not help, but he can't even keep up the act half the time because he actually really likes Kanji and is way too fond of him to stay gruff. It doesn't help that, every time Kanji's "girlish" hobbies come up, Shinjiro feels the need to come to his defense as a fellow manly man who likes to cook and sew.

Rise: Thinks he's kind of unremarkable and a little intimidating. She's one of the few people in the group who actually has the guts to tease him to his face, though. She does not fear God. Luckily, being a non-combatant renders her completely safe from retaliation, so he mostly just glares and talks big whenever she pisses him off.

Naoto: Extremely appreciative of Shinjiro for being the Only Sane Man (Yosuke gets booted out of the position for being kind of a dumbass at times). Also annoyed because Shinjiro has a tendency to treat them all like kids, which bugs Naoto more than the others. They both appreciate one another's company and general maturity/intelligence, although Shinjiro doesn't like when Naoto tries to drag him into deductions or anything.

Nanako: Very scared of him and he doesn't know what to do about it. He tries not to show it, but it really gets to him. When she eventually warms up to him, he's so happy about it that he has to flee the house immediately before any of the IT catch on.

Dojima: Leery of him. Doesn't want Yu spending time with him at first, and only relents because he begrudgingly admits that it's not his place to decide who Yu befriends. Even then, Yu is constantly subject to prying questions about his group of shady-ass friends (known-delinquent Kanji and sword-in-food-court Yosuke don't help with this either, but nearly-twenty-and-still-hasn't-graduated-because-of-a-fucking-gunshot-wound Shinjiro takes the cake). Dojima eventually comes to accept that Shinjiro isn't a bad guy, but they never progress past icy stares and terse nods.

Marie: They get along okay but don't really like each other. They both think the other is weird as hell.

#Persona 3 #P3 #Persona 3 spoilers #MAJOR SPOILERS FR #Persona 4 #P4 #spoilers for that game too ig #IT!Shinjiro AU #Shinjiro Aragaki #Yu Narukami #Souji Seta #Kanji Tatsumi #Yosuka Hanamura #Chie Satonaka #Yukiko Amagi #Rise Kujikawa #Naoto Shirogane #Rage Writes #might write this fic eventually but i just had to get this out there

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