Part 3 of the increasing Persona/Yakuza Universe, this time taking us away from the busy streets of Tokyo to a quieter town

The sliding doors to the gates of leisure stood across the baking road. In the shade of a nearby tree, a Yasogami High school student fumbles with his large schoolbag, cursing as he tried repeatedly to re-order the contents in the hope of finding more space in the fabric or at least to muffle the other noises emerging from it "Come on, just be quiet..." he whispered into the bag, the sun reflecting off his glasses as the wind ruffled the leaves above and his raven coloured hair.

"It's not working!" Came a voice from inside that only the one student could hear "How am I supposed to stay quiet with a book on... I can't see what it's on because it's up my butt!" Came the complaint as the complainer emerged. A black cat with a white fur belly popped his head out with a surprisingly serious expression for what looked like a normal house cat with a yellow neckerchief.

"Look, how else are we supposed to get passed this guy? Unless you like getting sunburn by the river this is literally the only thing to do!" The student chastised in a terse whisper "Just keep quiet until he reach the lifts and we're fine, Morgana." he finished.

"Easy for you to say Ren, you don't have calculus crushing your tail." Morgana whined as Ren zipped the bag back up and crossed the road, aiming straight for the Junes shopping centre main opening.

It was all well on the outside, not a single sole raised an eyebrow at a schoolkid in his third year walking into Junes, it was a thing that just happened in Inaba. Places to be and things to do were in short supply, the main street hung on through niches so niche that they had been hand carved into the town's culture but unless he was going to develop a sudden love of blacksmithing or textiles, Junes was still the best place to be. Or at least, it had been until he showed up.

The former Phantom Thief thought he was in the clear with his complaining backpack, but as soon as he hit the button to call the lift he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. Taking a deep breath he turned his head to try and let the sunlight bounce off his glasses, hiding his eyes from the merciless glare of Junes' new security guard.

"Hey... kid..." The large man said, eyes piercing through the glass and into Ren's soul, "What's in the backpack?" Hiroki Ryu had apparently only been in Inaba for a year, but already he seemed to be intent on making the already dreary post-Tokyo life even worse by being both a stickler for the rules, rules such as 'No animals except working dogs' which in Morgana's mind was blatantly unfair on the grounds that he wasn't a cat... and by being six feet tall with a glare that said 'I can end you in an instant'. It made even the fearless leader a little worried about openly antagonizing him.

"Books. Haven't had time to head home and drop them off." he said cooly while Morgana held his breath inside.

"Seems an awful lot of books." the security guard repied not believing a word of it.

"Well I got the college entry exams to prep for, third year is pretty rough..." Ren tried to explain, cursing himself as he heard his voice trail off unconvincingly. It wasn't long afterwards that he found himself being shoved back onto the street, Morgana in hand as he stumbled over the curb sending a book on political theory jumping out of his backpack and on to the tarmac "What if I tripped and fell?" he yelled back "This is animal abuse!"

"Let's just get home..." Morgana groaned, yawning in Ren's arms "Forget about trying to get past that monster."

"Alright," the scruffy haired student sighed, gathering his scattered stuff "Where does a guy like that even show up from?"

Kazuma Kiryu was dead, he knew this was true because he had checked the death certificate himself to make sure they got his age right. At the time it struck him as a weird thing to do, reading your own obituaries and paperwork that condemned the Dragon Of Dojima to the history books, but it really was the only way. People had merely thought of him as dead before and something always cropped up, pulling him back. Now it was official, Kazuma Kiryu was officially in ever sense of the term: an Ex-Yakuza.

All he needed to do now once his life was over was to start a new one.

If he stayed too close to Haruka and Haruto so soon it was only going to make it all the easier for something from his past life to crawl back and try to snatch away what vestige of happiness he could find, so with the help of Detective Date he tried to start a new life in the sleepy town of Inaba. With the name Hiroki Ryu he set himself out as a real estate developer, going back to his days with Tachibana to keep his story straight, now semi-retired and looking to get away from it all and enjoy the more basic things in life without the heart pounding stress of the city. It was half-true at least, and with both government assistants and Date vouching for him, it had worked off well.

Inaba was calmer than anywhere else he'd lived, it had been too long since he'd been able to walk the main street by himself without some idiot or someone trying too hard to make an insurance scam work jumping him and starting a fight. He was able to fish in peace along the river, strike up conversations with people in the few bars, and there was even a little shop that did custom dolls for him to send to Haruto.

A few months in he applied for a part-time security job to find something to do and that was... well... that. He got the job with very few questions asked and theoretically his only problem was keeping out a black haired youth who seemed obsessed with breaking the rules "That has to be the tenth time he's tried to sneak that cat in..." he groaned, stepping back into the lobby with a sigh. He could have sworn that the cat gave him a serious Look when he plucked it from the backpack and placed it in the kid's arms. It never tried to claw or his at him, it just looked angry at him for having the audacity to pick him up and deny access to the fresh food section.

"Everything alright here?" Called a young voice as a police officer's cap poked through the door with a light brown bowl cut underneath it "I heard shouting and thought I'd better get moving before you had to put someone through a wall."

"It's just that kid with the cat again, officer Satonaka." Hiroki explained, stiffening up as the beat cop walked in, all smiles.

"Again?" Police Officer Chie Satonaka sighed "Ever since he got back from Tokyo he's been a pain in the butt to hear the teachers talk about it," Nothing was a secret for too long in a town this small, when someone starts gossiping for lack of anything else to talk about it was hitting the outskirts before the initial gossiper had finished talking "Maybe he's just got something against authority figures?" She pondered.

"And that means trying to sneak a cat in to a department store?" Hiroki asked with a noticeable amount of disbelief. In his experience people with a problem with authority figures were a lot worse than being just a regular nuisance.

"It's not just that! ...But it's mostly the cat thing. He tried taking it in to Aiya's for the Mega Beef Bowl last week as well! Maybe they're way less strict about cats everywhere in Tokyo so he just got used to carrying it around for a year. Like it's emotional support." Chie suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

"He'll learn eventually," Hiroki said in hope "At least he's not trying to start any major trouble for now."

"Hopefully before that cat starts a fight," she sighed before snapping back to smiling "Oh! Did you give any thoughts about coming to training this week?"

"Maybe... I'm not as athletic as you think I am, Satonaka. I don't think I could last through a full police training session." he said, trying to weasel his way out of revealing that all that bulk wasn't for show.

"That's what you said last time!" Chie complained before a buzz on her uniform pulled her back to some semblance of professionalism "Uh oh, gotta get back to my post or my partner's gonna think I ditched him again. See you, Ryu! Training at 7 in the morning on Saturday and tell Hanamura I'll kick his butt if he doesn't let you go. I know where he lives!" She waved before sprinting back out of the door, leaving Hiroki to chuckle to himself.

"Another day in paradise." He mused to himself as he let the air conditioners gently blow against his face, taking the edge off the heat from the sun's glare. It had taken a while, but things had finally seemed to calm down for not just him, but everyone.