A/N: First off my apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I just started a brand new job and moved into a new apartment in the past two weeks so things have been a little hectic. Hopefully I'll have a smoother schedule now that I'm into the swing of things.

I am still so happy that all of you are enjoying this so far! Super thanks for those of you who reviewed.

Chapter 3

Destiny was knitting the weirdest looking web, she had to be. Yuri knew he never had the best luck, but this? This was just… insane. Of all the towns in Japan and of all the people in Japan, he ended up in Yasoinaba, in the same town as (the same classroom as) Flynn Scifo.

Flynn. A guy who five years ago Yuri was pretty sure he would never see again, but here he was sitting through math class and history class in the desk next to him. And Yuri was not glancing sideways every couple of minutes just to make sure. But he really was. For the first time in his life, Yuri was actually dreading the lunch bell. Maybe he would be able to dash out of class to the office and manage to take the entire hour for that paperwork he needed to finish up.

It wasn't that he didn't like Flynn. In fact it was quite the opposite; Flynn was probably the only guy he'd call a lasting friend. They were just very different people, which was both a blessing and a curse when it came to their friendship.

But if he was being really honest with himself, the only reason he was more than dreading that break between classes was because once Flynn found out why he was in Inaba, what Yuri had been up to since the last time they saw each other…

He would never hear the end of it. Ever. Because that was just the kind of person Flynn was. Sure, that was five years ago, but he highly doubted he'd changed much. Flynn was as resolute and unchanging as a mountain. It was a quality he loved about the guy and something he really, really hated. It was also mostly the reason they parted five years ago on not so good terms, but that was a different story entirely.

Although in the end, maybe he should reserve judgment; a lot could happen in five years.

So much can happen. And he probably knew that better than anyone else.

Yuri glanced at the clock above the teacher's head and watched the second hand tick past the 12. One minute until the bell rang and Yuri wasn't sure if the little red ticking hand was going too fast or too slow, but either way it was taunting him.

As time so often did.

Definitely going too fast, Yuri decided as the bell rang and he distinctly didn't move or glance to his right which took way more self-control than he wanted to admit. Still, he managed to stay staring at the blackboard filled with dates and names that he didn't recognize because it wasn't like he listened to a word the teacher had said all period. Although that wasn't totally true. He remembered her mentioning something about Edo which couldn't mean one in a million things in a lecture about Japan's history.

Flynn didn't move either. His pen was still pressed up against his notebook on the tip of the final character he was writing for his notes and the ink was slowly leaking out in a wet black dot. As the rest of the class picked themselves up for lunch, their lack of movement became all too apparent. A few people stopped and stared, wondering when one or both of them were going to move. A few waffled between asking what they were doing, but after a solid minute gave up and joined the steady flow of students out the door.

Awkward, Yuri thought and fought the urge to bury his face in his hands or stretch loudly. He didn't want to be the one to break the apparent stillness contest Flynn had initiated with him, but if he didn't do something in the next minute he'd probably end up punching the guy instead.

Which, honestly, wouldn't be to out of the norm for them.

With a small groan, Yuri shook his head. This is ridiculous.

He swung around in his chair to face Flynn at the same time as the blonde snapped his head to the side with a finger in the air. Both froze, their mouths open to speak when a thin body suddenly stepped between them.

Yuri stared up at the girl who'd been sitting on the other side of Flynn and wondered just how she managed to sneak around them without their noticing. She did more than stick out a little with her bobbed pink hair and white and pink cardigan that she wore over her uniform.

She looked between the two of them, bouncing slightly on her toes and finally settled her eyes on the blonde. "Flynn, do you two know each other?"

Yuri looked up at her and put on his cheekiest grin, nodding fervently. "Yep." Just as Flynn shook his head hard enough to knock locks of gold hair out of their perfect place. "No."

Ouch. Guess five years wasn't enough to for him to forget about our last fight.

Yuri leaned slightly over his seat to catch blue eyes and made sure he kept his grin as mirthful as possible otherwise this wasn't going to be any fun. "Aw, come on Flynn, don't be like that. We go way back, right?"

Flynn sighed, grabbing the bridge of his nose (and it was nice to know he still did that after all these years). "Yuri…"

The girl clapped once and smiled, excitement lighting up her eyes. "I knew it!" She turned to fully face Yuri and held out a small hand. "I'm Estellise. Flynn's mentioned a Yuri a couple times before, but I didn't know you were going to be moving here."

He's mentioned a…what? That was unexpected to say the least. Did Flynn actually miss him? Yeah, no. That's about as likely as me getting an A in math class. ..

Yuri stood and took the hand offered to him. He looked down momentarily surprised at the strength behind her shake. "Nice to meet you Estellise. To tell you the truth, I didn't know I was going to be moving here until last week. It was kind of a…a last minute decision. Didn't even know Flynn was out here. "

Flynn snorted. He did not look the least bit amused. "Last minute decision? On whose part? Yours or Officer Leblanc's?"

Damn it. He hasn't changed one bit.

"You still ask questions that you already know the answers to," Yuri said as he reached down to pick up his notebook off his desk, but a hand was suddenly pinning it down and blue eyes were inches from his own dark ones.

"And you still don't take anything seriously."

"Um, Flynn?" Estellise said, her voice suddenly soft and worried. "Is...is everything okay? I thought-"

"Its fine, Estellise." Flynn ground out between gritted teeth. His eyes stayed locked with Yuri's for a moment more before he stood up straight and looked at the girl. He took a deep breath and straightened the collar on his jacket. "My apologies. I know I don't usually act like this. Are you hungry?"

Estellise, for her part, looked extremely confused. "S…sure?" She frown and turned to Yuri. "Do you want to join us?"

Before Flynn could respond, or grab Estellise and flee the classroom, (which was exactly what he looked like he wanted to do) Yuri shook his head and gathered up his notebook and pen. "Nah, sorry. I gotta head to the office and finish up some paper work. Maybe next time."

And the look of utter relief on Flynn's face kind of hurt even if Yuri didn't blame him one bit. He did show up completely out of the blue. Not that he would have told Flynn had he known he was here because for as uncomfortable as this was, it was still extremely amusing. Then there was the fact that Flynn knew Yuri well enough to know that only the biggest amount of trouble could have landed him out in Inaba.

"Oh, that's too bad." Estellise sounded genuinely disappointed but she smiled as she grabbed onto Flynn's arm and started dragging him towards the classroom door. "Then tomorrow! We will hold you to it, right, Flynn?"

Flynn stumbled a little as he tripped over his own feet not expecting to be pulled away. "Huh?" He looked at Estellise and if that wasn't a hint of rose on his cheeks than Yuri would eat his pen for lunch. "Yeah, of course. We… we will? Wait, Estel—"

Yuri watched in muted disbelief as his old friend was half dragged out the door and down the hallway before he shook himself and laughed to the empty classroom. He didn't know who this Estellise was, but he liked what she did to Flynn.

Short, pink, and bouncy. Really Flynn?

Yosuke Hanamura leaned back in his seat and let out a long, loud sigh. School day down. Afternoon of work, here I come…

He actually didn't mind work all that much because without a part time job what was there to do in a town like Inaba? His homework? Yeah, right, that'll happen. Not.

Still, he was stuck in some kind of sick catch-22 because, yes it was something to do, but it was also something that made his life a different kind of living hell that wasn't quite being bored out of his skull. It was being hated by all the people he could potentially hang out with when he was bored out of his skull.

Hated for reasons that he had absolutely no control over.

Not that he could blame anyone. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't, so usually he did his best to avoid the subject of his parent's store causing a mass closing of traditional family stores that have been in Inaba for a really, really, really long time. It was a touchy conversation and he was never very delicate with words.

The city kid. That's what he was here: some criminal outcast that was being punished for punishing Inaba with his presence. It was awesome that he had to up and move into this in the middle of his first year of high school. Or, you know, not awesome at all.

Yosuke gathered his things slowly and made it halfway to the door before someone grabbed him from behind and he did not just squeak in surprise. Nope. He turned to see who it was only to get a face full of… ninjas?

"You wanted to borrow it, right?" Chie Satonaka shook the DVD in her hand a couple times before bringing it down just enough to set her best warning glare on Yosuke. (She could be really scary when she wanted). "Don't you dare break it."

"Oh come on, Chie." Yosuke said, snagging the box out of her hand with a slightly overdramatic eye roll. She had no faith in anyone; especially him (or that's the way it seemed). "Take DVD out of case, put into DVD player, return when finished. It's not like I'm gonna go play Frisbee with it or something."

Chie put her hands on her hips and frowned up at him. "Well, I can never be too careful with you, you klutz."

Here we go again. "Klutz? Aw, man that's not cool."

"I saw you crash your bike again this morning!" Chie's disapproving frown turned into a grin as she giggled. "Nearly ran over that new senior student."

New…what now?

Yosuke shrugged. "My brakes don't work! It's not my fault my bike is a piece of trash. All the crappy weather here has it rusting since I gotta leave it outside all the time."

"Excuses." Chie whipped a hand out and hit him on the arm. "Are you working today?"

Ow… He never understood why she always had to hit him so hard. She probably didn't mean for it to hurt, but he wasn't exactly a muscly kind of guy.

"Yeah, we're taking inventory this week so I get to spend the afternoon in the back storeroom counting boxes." Which was fifty times better than having to deal with customers. No one to ask him if they could cut them a discount 'cause they were in the same grade or met on the street once.

Yosuke rubbed his arm and started out the door. Chie stepped up next to him and matched his pace, her hands now safely tucked into the pockets of her green sweatshirt. For as much as she teased him, Chie was probably the only person in town that didn't actually hate him for something or for just existing. For as tough as she acted, Yosuke wasn't sure Chie was capable of hating anyone. Sure, she had a small temper, but she usually let things roll off her like water on a duck's feathers.

Which was more than almost anyone else in town was capable of doing.

Still, she rarely ever stuck around to talk with him like this so why… oh. "Where's Yukiko?"

"She left at lunch to go help at the Inn." She only sounded a little more than suspicious about that and she definitely sounded a little hurt. "There's something big going on, but she wouldn't tell me exactly what."

And that was super fishy because Chie and Yukiko were like him and his headphones. One was almost never seen without the other unless it was a particularly bad day. So she was really only walking with him because her significant other (because seriously, they might as well be a couple) was busy. Not really surprising.

"So that guy from this morning was new?" Yosuke said in an attempt to make boring conversation. They headed outside into a rare partly cloudy afternoon and stopped next to the bike rack his sad excuse for a ride was tied to. Maybe if Chie could take a hint, she'd see that he really didn't have all that much to say and leave him to his squeaky bike wheels and music. "Did he just transfer here or something?"

"Well yeah, have you ever seen him before? I heard there was a new student in the senior class, but no one knew anything about his arrival until yesterday. Pretty crazy, don't ya think?"

"Crazy? How long did you guys know about me before I got here?"

"About a month." Chie tapped a finger to her lips, thinking. "They started building Junes way before you arrived and it was the talk of the town so it wasn't very surprising we knew about you. But then again, two weeks ago King Moron told us we'd have another transfer student in our class soon right? Monday I think... or maybe it's the week after next. I don't know. The point is we usually have fair warning about new people coming to town."

Yosuke stopped dead in the middle of unlocking his bike. He had completely forgotten about that. Another kid from the city, just like him. Someone like him, who had been living in the big city, civilization, and was forced to move to the middle of nowhere (because who would move to Inaba willingly in the middle of their high school life?). Someone he might actually be able to relate to ands someone who might not actually have a reason to hate him.

Probably not, but being positive was sometimes the only way to keep himself sane.

Things went pretty much as Souji Seta guessed they would until they stopped at the Moel gas station so Nanako could go to the bathroom and his Uncle could smoke. The gas station attendant gave him a pretty warm (and slightly awkward) welcome to town by offering him a job and after a sudden dizzy spell and desire for a pillow he was left alone with his Uncle to wait for Nanako.

Dojima seemed nice enough and once the initial 'we know nothing about each other' stage was over, Souji could see them getting along fine. It was the least he could hope for in the up and coming year. After all, his Uncle had been nice enough to agree to let him live in his house for a whole year; family aside that was no small thing.

After paying the attendant, Dojima leaned up against the car heavily and let out a low sigh. "I need to apologize to you. We have a bit of an unexpected situation at the moment."

Souji's stomach dropped, his Uncle sounded kind of angry. Usually when an adult apologizes and says the word unexpected it meant Souji was going to have to pick up his life and resituate it…again. And he had only just arrived, great.

"The police department in town is part of a program for… troubled teenagers about your age. We keep one or two in town and try to straighten them out and the department gets a generous donation for our efforts." Dojima shook his head. "Long story short we got a kid in town a few days ago, but the officer he was supposed to be living with quit last month so the chief stuck him on us. It shouldn't be for very long, but the house might be a little crowded for a couple weeks. "

Oh. Well that wasn't bad.

Souji laughed off the tension in his stomach and let a small smile crack his lips. He could deal with a possible criminal under the same roof as him. Changing living situations after he had just settled with the idea of this move? Not so much. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault that it happened."

"I'm glad you understand. He's sleeping in your room for now, but I'll move him to the couch in the living room; that's the space we made for you after all."

"I don't mind sharing." Souji said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly since his Uncle raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, it's just a little weird sleeping in the middle of everything. I've had to stay on a few couches before at friend's houses when my parents were out of town. I don't mind if it isn't for too long."

Which was both the truth and a lie. He really didn't care about sharing a space to sleep. What he cared about was unimportant at the moment.

Dojima looked skeptical but nodded. "If you say so, but let us know if you change your mind."

Souji nodded as Nanako bounced up between him and looked up at him with narrow eyes. "Do you get car sick? You don't look so good."

"She's right." Dojima said as if just noticing. He opened the back door of the car for Nanako and the front door for Souji before making his way around to the driver's side. "Let's get you home, you must be exhausted after your trip. We'll eat dinner then you can get some rest before you start school tomorrow."

With a nod, Souji plopped back down into the car and gave a small smile to Nanako as she buckled up her seat belt in the back seat. Souji didn't know a lot about his Uncle (other than the fact that he was his mother's brother and that he was a detective) and he definitely didn't remember him from the last time they met. Which was apparently back when Souji still wore diapers (and that comment was only slightly embarrassing). He remembered his mother mentioning the death of his Aunt years ago and being told to mail a fairly large gift basket as recompense for not being able to attend the funeral, but he had no idea about Nanako. You'd think mom could have at least mentioned her niece.

Although, maybe he shouldn't blame her to much; they were moving out of the country for a whole year and had to pack up their current flat and decide what they were bringing with them while Souji was trying to do the same on a smaller scale. They had their work to sort out and their new accommodations overseas. Remembering that her brother had a daughter might have just been a little too much on the irrelevant list.

Shouldn't have been, but these were his parents and Souji learned not to expect a whole lot when it comes to things outside of their precious work pretty quickly in life. After all, his mother being one of the scientists in the field of infectious diseases meant that her work was pretty important to the world, and his dad owned more hospitals throughout the country than Souji had years of school underneath him so he was always up to his ears in board meetings and site visits.

They were always on the move. From one new hospital to the next for his father or a new research institute or university for his mother, Souji couldn't remember ever living in the same place for more than three or four years and those were the longer residencies.

At least they had stayed in country up until now, but when his mother received the invitation to do research and guest teach at Columbia University in America for a year refusal was the most ridiculous idea in the world. It was something anyone in her field would jump at and his father found it as an opportunity to partner with the hospital at the school. An exchange program between his hospitals and the educational system in America could only mean profit.

Who cared if their son was in the middle of high school and couldn't speak enough English to move with them? That's what Uncles out in the countryside were for.

It didn't take long before they pulled under the car park next to Dojima's house and Souji was being ushered (more like dragged) inside by Nanako who was excited to eat Sushi for his "Welcome to the Family" dinner. He took off his shoes as quick as he could, still trailing behind Nanako and on the verge of tripping, when a chuckle filtered from down the stairs on his right.

"Whoa there, Nanako, you're going to rip your cousin's arm off."

"Oh!" Nanako let go, her cheeks flushing red as she looked up at Souji. "Sorry."

Souji shook his head and turned as the source of the voice padded down the last stairs into the living room. A boy about his age and height with long dark hair put a hand in the air in a small wave. "She's been jumping around all day waiting for your train to get into town."

He doesn't look like a 'troubled teen'. In fact aside from his absurdly long hair he looked pretty normal. And it appeared he got along with Nanako just fine.

Nanako turned to the boy and frowned. "I have not been jumping around."

"Running around then." The boy responded with a small laugh. "Either way you kept asking what time it was."

"You're mean, Yuri." Nanako tried to keep her frown, but it didn't last long before she broke into giggles.

"I am not." Yuri tapped her twice her head before he held a hand out for Souji. "Sorry about taking up your space. Name's Yuri Lowell, your poor Uncle got me dumped on him for a little while."

Dumped? I can relate. Because really, he was dumped on his Uncle too, just by his mother instead of a boss and Souji wasn't really sure which was worse for Dojima. An obligation to family or an order for a high up. Both seemed like the rotten end of a deal that wasn't really a deal to begin with.

Souji took Yuri's hand in a firm shake. "I'm Souji Set—" What the—

The world went gray as Souji jerked his hand back and Yuri pulled back at the same time almost toppling over up the stairs behind him. A sharp pain shot up his arm and down his spine and then the living room was back in focus and it was quiet as Nanako looked between them and Dojima stood in the doorway looking just about as confused as Souji felt.

His Uncle shot a glance at Yuri before turning back to Souji. "You two okay?"

Souji looked at his hand and then up at Yuri who shrugged and shook his head. "Static shock?"

Maybe if I was shaking hands with an electric eel.

Ignoring the tingling in his arm Souji nodded. "It just startled us."

"Uh huh." Dojima didn't sound convinced at all, but closed the door behind him. Souji took note about how his gaze lingered on Yuri as if he had done something. "Well since introductions have been made why don't we get dinner out and our little party started?"

Nanako clapped her hands and took off for the kitchen. "I'll get the plates out!"

Toru Adachi twiddled his pen between his fingers as he leaned back in his chair at the police station. Sundays were so boring and today was even more so since Dojima had to go pick up his nephew at the train station. No one to annoy to pass the time which meant that tomorrow he had to make up for his lost sanity by being twice as annoying.

Because seriously? How else was he supposed to stay sane out in the middle of bum fuck nowhere?

At least things weren't looking as bleak as they had been when he arrived in Inaba. With the arrival of that delinquent Yuri kid and now this juicy media frenzy around that stupid whore of a reporter with the councilman, things were actually quite the opposite. So life didn't suck one hundred percent; that was a change Adachi could settle with for now.

Adachi glanced up at the clock, threw down his pen and reached for his phone. He had been killing time before he'd call in Dojima to do work on their missing persons case. Sure, it was a Sunday and sure, his nephew just got into town, but this was an important case; it was on the news and everything.

He didn't even have to look at the numbers as he dialed, but his fingers paused just over the 'send' button on his cell phone as an unfamiliar face walked past his open door. Oh? What do we have here? Or rather who?

Adachi pocketed his phone and spun out of his chair to practically skip across the small space to the hall where he watched an older gentleman with slick chin length black hair slid into Chief Dinoia's office. Suspicious stranger in their chief's office? Sounded like a good excuse to investigate to him. A quick glance down the hall behind him and Adachi was knocking on Alexei's door and opening it before anyone inside could respond.

"Chief?" Adachi poked his head in looking as intimidated as possible. The new Chief couldn't be much older than him, but god did the white haired guy love his superiority complex. "I have a few questions about-"

"Detective Adachi." The annoyance in Alexei's voice was almost palpable. "Not now."

Faking surprise Adachi looked at the stranger sitting in the spare chair and bowed his head. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know you had a guest."

"He's not a guest." Alexei explained hurriedly. "He'll be taking over for Officer Tachi."

Oh things just got even better.

The dark haired gentleman turned in his chair to look at Adachi with a dull expression and dark circles under his eyes. He raised an eyebrow and glanced back at Alexei. "This is the trainee detective?"

Alexei nodded and shooed at Adachi with a hand. "Obviously. Now will you come back later? Officer Schwann and I have a lot to discuss."

"Yes Sir!" Adachi smiled and gave a sloppy salute before quickly ducking out of the doorway and slipping back into Dojima's office shutting the door behind him. He sat on top of the desk dangling his feet just above the carpet as he took out his phone to resume his call.

As the line rang he smiled. Teenaged delinquents, missing television reporters, a scandal on a government councilman, new police chiefs and officers? Oh yes, Inaba might not be as boring in the up and coming year as Adachi thought.

A few quick notes: I had some questions asked about the timeline- this does take place during the normal timeline of Persona 3 and 4. That means this is a few years AFTER Persona 3 and the "incident" I mention in the first two chapters is entirely apart (although not entirely) from Minato and his group.

We're going to start seeing more of the original group from here on out and as you will see, this story is going to evolve with both groups in their own ways. I'm not just replacing the original group with new people (I know a couple of you were worried).

Finally, I also had a few questions about working Vesperia plot into Persona plot…I am playing with plot points and ideas from Vesperia and working them into that casts' part of the story. It would be a little (okay way more than a little) lame to just throw the characters into this plot and call it a crossover. For example: the idea in this chapter that Flynn and Yuri hadn't seen each other in a long time…if you've watch First Strike you know that there was a period in their lives between when they were kids and from when they joined the knights that they didn't see each other. So I'm working with that idea. Almost all major characters and most of the major plot twists/climaxes will be, somehow, incorporated…just, you know, with new twists =)

That being said this is not exactly Vesperia world so things might evolve in very different ways from the game.

Anywho, I'll stop blabbing for now. Thanks a bunch for reading and see you guys soon!