I just suddenly had this idea and decided to take a stab at it.
This is an AU where the P5 protagonist was from Inaba and that the plot of P5 happened in 2010, in between P3 and P4. I actually like this AU a lot but its been a long time since I last played Golden so I can't hop on the Novelization Fic Train just yet orz
Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 4 or 5. That goes to Atlus and Sega.
Kids These Days...
By Bilbo-sama
Akira cringed.
Oh god. There they are again. Loudly whispering about the murder case that started a month and a half ago.
They had a new member in their group: Kanji Tatsumi, local delinquent. He had vanished for a week after his yellow eyed self appeared on the Midnight Channel. Akira and Morgana were about to begin their investigation of the Midnight Channel when they overheard two housewives talking about the boy returning the night before feeling very ill and refused to explain where he ran off to.
Tatsumi's gaze met his and Akira looked away, pretending to be distracted by Morgana in his bag as he hurried away, promising sushi for dinner.
It was embarrassing to have an outsider perspective looking in on a random group of Persona users (and they had to be Persona users, why else would they want to hang out with each other if not for a common factor?) and realizing that this is what the Phantom Thieves were like before they moved hideouts to Leblanc.
They're trying to solve a murder mystery out in the open where everyone can hear them. Where someone could get the wrong idea and alert the police about them. Where the murderer can hear them and -
Akira took a deep breath. No. This isn't his problem. They'll figure it out on their own.
(He promised Lavenza he wouldn't directly interfere with her sister's guest's journey.)
(But damn he wished he could help out just a little.)
(If only to prevent some mistakes from happening.)