Originally written as a prequel but it was ready first. This little project came about when I changed a couple lines of dialogue in another story which ended up causing me to re-write multiple stories and then creating this one.

See you at the end of the chapter.

Original Document Name: Role Reversal Pt1

Beta Reader: KasaiStormDog

Traditionally Unorthodox

'Taking your fortune and running with it.'

Those words were serious truths to Naoto Shirogane, the bearer of the Fortune arcane and someone who has managed to find a large amount of it in her high school years. Her focus today was securing information from the family of her long term boyfriend Souji Seta, the man that guided the team to avert one of the greatest disasters to never be recorded officially. It's been almost seven years of dating, and they've done long distance, super natural beings, fought each other with weapons and personas and an onslaught of various social and family issues, but they've just kept on ticking. And even after seven years of dating, Naoto was just as excited to see him since the first time they decided to go out, and she was sure her other half thought the same. However today, she was at the front door of the Seta residence on the outskirts of Tokyo with Souji completely unaware of the meeting going on. As much as she would love to see him, her resolve would crumble really easily if he was with her, let alone speak in front of him to his parents about this.

"Here goes nothing..." She pressed the button on the doorbell, and waited patiently for someone to attend to the door. The spring day made the day not warm but also not cold. The light breeze caused Naoto's long hair to sway in the wind. She chose to go with her traditional detective's attire today. It's normally the best outfit if she needed to focus and work. While this wasn't a work trip, the focus was good with especially how touchy the subject is.

A middle aged woman with dark hair opened the door, a large smile on her face appeared when she noticed who was at the door, she shared the same warm grey eyes her boyfriend had. "Ah Naoto-chan you're on time. Please come in." Naoto stepped in gracefully, taking her shoes off at the landing. She quietly pressed the door closed and followed Souji's mother to the living room where tea was already prepared.

"Would you like anything else? I can make a quick lunch if need be if you haven't eaten." Naoto shook her head with a small smile.

"That won't be necessary, I made sure I ate before my arrival, I wouldn't want to burden you with any more duties for my sake." Souji's mother tilted her head with a sunny smile in return.

"You know any time I don't mind cooking for you. I'll go get Hiroki so we can start." She disappeared upstairs to get her husband who was probably working in the office. Naoto took a seat at the dining table, counting her good fortunes that she managed to catch the Seta family when they were not travelling abroad for work. She took off her jacket and hung it on the back of her chair. This was not her first time at Souji's parents' house but it's the first time she's been able to take it all in without Souji as a pleasant distraction. Their living room consisted with basic furniture, nothing expensive with very minimalistic styling in grey and brown. They had a few family pictures on the wall but the most recent addition was the picture of Souji graduating from university. Even with the travel, the Seta family had a very modest and small home. Naoto deduced long ago that even though her boyfriend's family traveled a lot for work purposes, it was more for a need rather than they could. The Shirogane family in money and name wise dwarfed the Seta household considerably.

The sleuth was shaken out of her thoughts as she heard two sets of footsteps walking towards the table. "Sorry about Naoto-chan, I just had some work to finish off, just lost track of time." Souji's father Hiroki had many similarities to the former leader, she could tell where the silver hair and the looks come from.

"No no, it's fine. I have the pleasure of calling this assembly." Hiroki laughed, his voice deep and gruff but shared the same softness in his words as his son's.

"No need to be all formal here, we arn't like that, nor is it needed. I'm sure Maori-chan can agree." She hummed in support.

"Well that's reassuring. I know Souji was never really one for formalities." Naoto replied causing Hiroki nod.

"Definitely, that brat was always informal at the best of times borderline rude for the worse of them. His sense of humour tends annoy anyone older than him, but I guess I didn't help since I raised him to question anything, rather be free thinking then bogged down formalities and such." Naoto smiled again. That definitely sounded like him, only time he's formally serious is when her grandfather questioned him about their relationship.

"Sounds about right, have you seen him recently?" Maori clasped her hands together.

"Yeah he was around last week when he had to grab some things from home; it wasn't long because he wanted to get back to you as soon as possible..." She sighed. "That boy, so love struck he can't even catch up with his own parents." Naoto blushed over heavily.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to become a burden on your relationship with him." She stuttered in response. Both parents laughed.

"We are only pulling you leg. Anyway, what exactly is the topic you wanted to talk about? I know it's important for you to come down but I'm figuring that you did not want Souji-kun to hear it." Hiroki inquired.

"I-I wanted..." She hesitated. She was unsure how they would react due to the woman in the couple asking for marriage, it was rare in general and especially in Japan. "...I wanted to ask if I could marry Souji-kun." The older Seta couple gave surprised glance at the detective.

"You want his hand in marriage?" Hiroki looked at her confused. "Has he already proposed to you?" Naoto shook her head.

"No. I plan on 'popping' the question to him rather soon. I have no reservations on asking him myself rather than relying on him to do it." The couple stared at each other for a moment, thinking of a response.

"Has he made any references to getting married or alluded to it?" Maori asked. Naoto put her head to her chin in thought.

"He has on multiple occasions, normally in passing or some of the... compliments he gives me."

"I'll say one thing, Souji was right about you." Hiroki grinned.

'So that's where he learnt that grin from.'

Maori smacked him on the shoulder. "Hiroki be polite."

That caught Naoto's curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Ignoring the glare from his wife, he chooses to continue. "Souji-kun always said you were unorthodox while being traditional, normally those two statements will contradict each other but I guess there is always something that it applies to."

"I see..." Hiroki shrugged however.

"But I can see what you mean, sometimes that kid will get stuck in a loop on what to do regardless of how impulsive he may seem to be. He does spend a lot of time in thought on some big things but it's mostly smaller ones that will eat at him usually." Naoto gave a look of confusion.

"Hmm?"

"Like I'm sure without a doubt he has thought about marriage. Actually I would be more surprised if he hasn't." He gave her a matter of fact look. "At this point I assume it's a case of it being how to ask you or if the time was right is what he's dwelling on."

"I can see your point." Maori nodded in agreement.

"Yeah that is him in a nutshell. But don't let us put you off." Naoto's raised an eye brow.

"Are you saying I should still go through with this instead of waiting?"

"Well that's not exactly what I was implying but we can go with that." The father leaned forward, focusing on Naoto. His gaze put her on edge, just enough for her to change posture. "Well you two do seem inseparable. It's hard enough trying to pry him away for a couple days let alone stop him when he's trying to see you." He chuckled at Naoto's flustered expression.

"What do you think Maori-chan?" She beamed in delight as she finally had time to process the news.

"Well according to my brother you took good care of him on his year in Inaba. So that's one good thing already, but you two have been dating so long it's only a matter of time. I'm expecting any day now for him to finally decide to get it over with. I'd rather still be alive when he has grandchildren to be honest."

'Grandchildren...'

Naoto deepened in colour even more as the thoughts ran threw her head. "T-That will still be a while off. I still have many cases to do before settling down and..." She blurted to the amusement of the couple.

Maori giggled. "Oh no, I don't expect you to be trying right away but it's always reassuring to know you would be no?" Naoto's head, if it wasn't a tomato with blue hair before, it was now. Who thought his parents would have just as ruthless sense of humour as he does.

"Alright Maori-chan, let's cut her some slack before her head explodes, I'd rather not want to explain that to our son." His grin never wavered though.

"S-So what do you think?" She stumbled.

"Well to be honest, you really didn't need our blessing. It's up to Souji to decide if he would like to or not, and if he did there would be nothing we could do to stop him." Hiroki replied, his grin forming to a sincere smile.

"Plus we would never hear the end of it if we did persuade you not to go through with it." Maori added.

"But for the sake of keeping things simple, yes you have our blessing for whatever its worth." Naoto let out the breath she had been subconsciously holding.

She bowed her head in gratitude. "Thank you so much, you don't know happy this made me. I've been worrying about this for years that I might not be a good enough step daughter-" Hiroki waved his hand dismissively.

"No way. You are heir to the Shirogane dynasty of detectives." He gave her a wry smile. "I may not work in the anti-crime industry, but Souji has told me enough for me to get curious to look it up myself. I've seen your work and impressive doesn't even come close." Naoto blushed at the compliment.

"I-I see..."

"If anything I'm glad my son is marrying someone who would be a good anchor for him. Logical thinking is definitely something he needs."

"I'm glad you would like me within the family. I appreciate the advice and the care you have given me in the years."

"Don't mention it Naoto-chan, you make our son happy, that's all I can ask for. Go, I'm sure you'll make him the happiest man alive." Naoto nodded, she was now relaxed knowing she can go ahead with her plan. She finally took a sip of her tea, calmed from the talk they've been having.

"I will do that, hopefully you'll hear the good news soon."

"So how have you been Naoto-chan? The cases keeping you busy?" She took another sip of her tea.

"Well I have a lot to tell you..."

For the rest of the afternoon Naoto Shirogane told them stories of various cases that she took on and the ones Souji helped with part time.

Yeah, there will be a little social commentary at the end of this little project which I won't get into now. I'm hoping to release the second chapter to this once a few follow up things are done. Currently, this and the little mini series this is a part of is actually already finished. So things will be uploaded soon.

This also ties into the Seta-Gane Shorts timeline.