( Shadow Operatives procedures )

( saejima does not encounter what he expects )

        “Ow!!  Keiko-chan!  Stop that, now.  You’re not allowed to kick your manager.”
        “Who says?”
        “Your contract of employment.”
        “…Oh.  Fair.”

It was his mom that was the famous lawyer.  His dad was the one running Junes, same as canon.  She learned martial arts as a precaution, and it was useful, but not against a gun.  She fought back, though—there were signs of a struggle, blood everywhere…

Sometimes she had to stay overnight, if it was a big case, because she worked in Tokyo, so she had an apartment there.  His dad was also working a lot, and he ended up running to Katsuragi’s and staying there overnight.  Just long enough for someone to find them for revenge.

Most of the time, he loves his parents.  His dad was a goof, but meant well.  His mom worked hard, and he’s still a little in awe of her.  But sometimes, at his lowest, he hates her, because she took the case that got her killed and won.  Because sometimes he looks in a mirror and sees her.

He really didn’t know what he wanted to be, when he grew up.  It was only after he met Kirijo that he started to have an idea.  That strong sense of justice grew.

Yosuke’s mother was an expert in aikido, and she taught him a little, so he knows a number of throws and knows how to smoothly get back up if knocked down or thrown.  He enjoys transitioning a throw into a freerun along a surface, using the momentum to swing back into someone’s face.  He still retains some of the desire to keep his attackers from getting too hurt, but that idealism has been tempered by the streets of Kamurocho.  He mainly does a quick mental checklist to decide how much force he’s willing to use.  If they’ve legitimately hurt another, for example, the gloves are coming off.  He has a messenger bag with three straps that he can securely fasten to his person, but sometimes he’ll decide to loosen it and use it as a weapon for, for example, trapping another’s arm.  He’s not usually carrying it, but he does sometimes, when he thinks he’ll need to carry something more than his phone and wallet on him.  What he lacks in strength he makes up for in sheer determination, enthusiasm, and a sense of timing. 

He favors using his legs and is really flexible (if a little clumsy at times), but won’t hesitate to get some good punches in if he sees an opening (and definitely uses his clumsiness as a feint to catch opponents by surprise, since at this point his recovery is a lot faster than they expect it to be).  Unlike his canon counterpart, he’s not used to using wrenches or kunai, focusing on an unarmed style (though he’s also opportunistic and will use that wrench on the ground or that flight of stairs).  He’s really good at dealing with falls and has a quick recovery time.

Yosuke has Yagami’s mouth and gets in just as much trouble.  He’s a scrappy kid, but gets beat up.  A lot.  Protag gets the anime-canon and game-leaning slight homophobia, whereas Yosuke had the Patriarch (equiv of Matsugane) pull him aside and explain when he finally started getting settled down.  These days being bi disaster is so natural to him he half forgets that used to be a thing, and then once he realizes goes ‘oh, yeah, uh…I’m so very sorry, younger me was terrible’.  Protag is basically Mafuyu only hasn’t figured out his attraction yet.  (His game also has arcade, investigation, dancing, and karaoke, because you can’t pry music and Yosuke apart with a crowbar.  A lot of it might be original songs written in English because a lot of those 'canonically he owns these' CDs were in English.) 

Which, interestingly—he got that he’s a water (character quiz).  He’s more flexible, but he’d say he has less ‘substance’ and he also has terrible intuition.  He doesn’t, but.  He doesn’t know that.

Yosuke wants the wardrobe he used to have, but it’s been severely reduced, in no small part due to the ‘ran away from his aunt and uncle’s’ bit.  Outfit-wise he mostly still goes for the v-necks (which he has the most choices, mostly because he swaps those out and rewears everything else), jeans (a couple, 1 red pair, a couple ‘normal jeans’ color, some of which were ripped and he refuses to answer whether they came like that or not, at least one that is definitely jeggings and therefore best for fighting in, and a nice black pair he’s half forgotten he even owns), and the white fur-jacket he practically wears everywhere except in summer.  He doesn’t have money to dye his hair anymore, so it’s the naturally darker look.  A couple comfortable street sneakers.  One pair is orange, of course.  He only kept a single one of the suits, a nice brown one.

Same with his music collection.  He’s got a full drawer of CDs organized carefully, though he stopped displaying them, and the record player was a gift from a client who didn’t want it anymore and otherwise couldn’t pay the bill.  He prefers his ancient wired headphones for listening to music in the office, but uses wireless earbuds for communicating with his team and/or playing music.  That was also a gift, this time from Rise—he and Souji knew her before she became an idol.

He knows how to pull off the homeless look, too—this is because he technically was homeless, when he first came to Kamurocho.  He’d buy a bowl of ramen and doze off at the table or fall asleep on the train—apologize profusely to the workers who had to wake him up, of course, make up some story about visiting relatives and escape if he had to.  He misses his guitar, his games—the only thing he had, besides the hoodie, sneakers, v-neck and jeans was his battered old PSP.  He misses playing games, but he’s worried about breaking it, so doesn’t take it out much of the time and just downloaded a few on his phone.  It’s not the same, but it’s what he’s got. 

Disguises: Werewolf, Reindeer, Butler Suit, apron, maintenance (looks a lot like the jersey), Neo Featherman Yellow, homeless outfit

( stepping up to the plate )

        “Wait.  Yosuke.”
        “Yes?”  He looks slightly nervous.  He usually does around you, but that amount is new, probably having to do with your tone.
        “Do you—” argh, how do you even finish this question— “like our mysterious transfer student?”
        Yosuke likes to bounce a little on the balls of his feet when he’s nervous.  He’s doing that now.  “Um.”
        You’re happy he’s moved on, but a little sad too.  It wouldn’t be fair to him if he was still hung up on you, but at least you don’t completely miss him acting like a precious little puppy around you (he still does, evidently, considering he probably didn’t realize his feelings midconversation here) and he hasn’t kicked you out of his life.
        “If he turns out to be the murderer or otherwise breaks your heart, I’ll ask Chie to galactic punt him into the sun.  They’ll never find the body,” you tell him, and he blushes scarlet.
        “Thanks,” he mumbles, trying to melt into the floor, and you laugh and pat his head.  He ducks and grumbles but he’s grinning.

( the sun goes down )