A short one shot based of Persona 4.
I don't own the characters, franchise. etc.
Yosuke Hanamaru stared at it with curiosity, magnifying glass in hand, as he examined every side of it. Once he had thoroughly assessed it all; he redid it all again to make his results more reliable. Naoto Shirogane watched the teen in front of her with a look of concern crossing her face... this was new. "What are you doing, Yosuke-san?" She asked slowly.
Naoto had walked into Junes to find Yoskue sat at a table wearing a very stereotypical detective uniform - something like what Sherlock Holmes would wear - and examining a simple tree branch which was placed before him. There was nothing special about it from what Naoto could see. Then again, a detective should never assume anything.
Yosuke either didn't hear Naoto or was ignoring her as he examined the stick again. "Brown in colour... probably covered in finger prints... I should take this to a lab..." the teenager mused to himself. 'He doesn't know anyone with a lab,' Naoto thought to herself. 'Maybe he is having a mental breakdown? Either that, or he now has a very strange interest in sticks. Maybe he has decided to become eco-friendly? But, what does finger prints have to do with the environment...'
Naoto was a good detective. She could deduct a culprit and their intentions from the slightest bit of evidence. However, seeing her friend examining a stick when he normally didn't give a damn about the environment was just confusing. "Yosuke-san!" The detective yelled.
The boy jumped suddenly and turned quickly to look at Naoto who was glad her voice had finally met his ears. "Oh! Hayy, Naoto-chan. You are just the person I wanted to see."
"I am?" Naoto questioned.
"Yeah! What's it like to be a detective?" Yoskue asked. Now Naoto could deduct what Yoskue was up to. It appeared he was trying to act like a detective; that explained the bizarre outfit and his rambling about fingerprints. That conclusion also explained the reason the teenager wanted to see her... but why in hell was he examining a stick? What was he trying to act like a detective for?
Naoto asked him the latter. Yoskue sat back in his chair as Naoto took a seat on the chair opposite him. "I'm having a mid-life crisis..." Yoskue admitted after a few moments of silence.
"You're fifteen!" Naoto exclaimed in disbelief. 'Today is going to be a weird day, isn't it?' The teenager thought to herself.
Yoskue ignored her intrusion, "... my life is going nowhere. I have no life plan and I don't want to spend my whole life working in Junes... So, I have been trying to come up with a life plan by looking at different things I could do with my life."
"And the stick?"
"'Thought I could look at two job choices at once. Try to see if I have the skill of a detective and care enough about sticks to work in caring for the environment but just staring at a stick is sooo boring," Yoskue whined, leaning back in his chair while letting out a sound of frustration.
Naoto closed her eyes and snorted, getting an offended look in return. "Yosuke, environmentalists don't just stare at sticks all day."
"I can see why," he admitted sullenly. "Let's face it, I'm going to die behind the cash register of Junes."
Naoto frowned slightly but didn't know whether she should offer. Her heart told her to help out her friend with his dilemma but her instincts told her to run away while she could. She always listened to her instincts when on cases so she was accustomed to listening to them but her heart normally did not come into the equation. The young detective adjusted the hat on her head as she said awkwardly. "Do you maybe... um... want me to help you with your mid-life crisis - or teen-life crisis, I should say?"
Yoskue's eyes lit up and Naoto knew she should have gone with her instincts. He grabbed her hand and shook it gleefully. "Thanks so much, Naoto-kun! I know! I'm gonna' try to become the world's best hockey player and you are going to be my coach. Prepare to be amazed."
Naoto groaned inwardly.
Today was going to be a long day.