Inaba Municipal Hospital

A silver-haired man was sitting in the hallways, patiently waiting outside the room two of his friends were in. He turned to his wife, who was nervously playing with her copper-colored hair while fidgeting in her seat next to him.

"Hey, are you alright?", he asked calmly, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"My best friend is giving birth right now, how am I supposed to be fine?" she hissed.

"Of course she's giving birth, that's what we're here for, right?" he deadpanned, causing her to groan.

"That's not what I meant!" she pouted.

"I'm just worried that something might go wrong." she finished with a frown.

"You were so excited to have a godson just a few days ago, what changed?" he said in an attempt to calm her down.

"I-I guess you're right." she replied with a sigh. "You're right, there's nothing for me to be worried about. Thanks Yu." she said enthusiastically, making him chuckle.

"Now that's the Rise I know." he said with a smile. A nurse then came out of the room.

"Mr. and Mrs. Narukami?" they nodded. "The child has been born successfully; you may visit your friends now." she said as she smiled at the couple.

"Thank you, we'll be right there." Yu said as they got up.

They proceeded to go inside the room to meet their friends. Once they entered, they could see that one of them had tears spilling down his face as he looked at his newborn son while his wife was giving the baby in her arms a loving look.

"Hey, you two~." Rise whispered cheerfully at her friends, turning their attention to her.

"Oh, hey guys, didn't notice ya there." the black-haired man said softly.

"Not even trying to hide the tears, huh Kanji?" Rise said teasingly.

"'Course not! There ain't no reason for me to hide 'em when my precious kid was born." Kanji protested in a quiet voice, trying his best to not wake up the sleeping infant.

"I get that. I don't think I could keep it together either." Yu remarked.

"Oh~, does that mean you're planning on having one too?~" Rise continued her teasing, Yu however remained unphased.

"Maybe." he deadpanned, making her pout at him. "Anyways, how are you feeling?" he asked as he turned to the blue-haired woman.

"While it was a rather painful experience, to say that I'm overjoyed at the moment would be an understatement." she responded softly and kept her gaze at her son.

"I'm really happy for you Naoto-kun! And for you too Kanji!" Rise congratulated them, getting a grateful smile from the couple in response.

"Thanks Rise, I'll definitely do my best to be the parent he deserves." Kanji said with determination.

"The same goes for me. I hope I will be a great mother for him." Naoto added, she then looked at her friends. "And while I did deem the two of you suitable godparents. Be warned that if you end up being a bad influence for our child, there will be consequences." she warned with a cold glare.

"You won't have to worry about that." Yu said as he sweatdropped. "I promise we will be good role models for…" Yu interrupted himself as he put a hand to his chin. "Actually, what is his name?" he asked sheepishly, making everyone in the room chuckle.

"Guess we haven't told ya yet, huh?" Kanji said as he looked at Naoto. He nodded at his wife to let her answer the lingering question.

"His name is Ren. Ren Shirogane-Tatsumi." she said as she smiled at her baby.

16 years later

Ren was sitting on the train, waking up from a daydream. He looked at his surroundings and heard the train announcing its next destination. He frowned at the ground, memories of that night flashing before his eyes. "Damn brat! I'll sue!" He was on his way to Tokyo in order to serve out his probation for a crime he didn't commit. Once he arrived at his destination, he noticed a weird app with an eyeball on his phone.

"That's weird, I don't remember ever installing something like this." he thought to himself as he swiftly uninstalled it.

When he walked out of the station and tried to look up directions, the weird app appeared again. Despite his frown, the raven-haired boy couldn't help but let his curiosity get the better of him and tapped on it.

Ren's eyes widened as time rapidly slowed down until it stopped completely. He looked around in confusion and then saw a giant blue flame emerge, which shaped into a winged figure with an evil smile on its face. Out of nowhere, Ren saw a vision of himself with yellow eyes and a sadistic smirk formed on his lips. Ren gasped and time seemed to flow confused about what he just saw, he looked at his phone again and uninstalled the app a second time without hesitation.

He arrived in Yongen-Jaya and asked an officer for directions to find a certain 'Sojiro Sakura', the man who would be his guardian for the next year. Once he found Sojiro's house, he was informed that his guardian is probably still at his café 'LeBlanc'. Ren entered said place and a middle-aged man stood up from his seat as he looked at the kid.

"Oh right, they did say it was today." the man thought out loud.

After a little small talk with customers that were leaving, he turned to Ren again.

"So, you're Ren." the shop-owner as he scanned the raven-haired student.

"Yes, that's me. Ren Shi—" he cleared his throat "Ren Tatsumi, sir. Nice to meet you." he said in a calm tone and gave a polite bow.

"I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody over the next year." Sojiro responded as he gave an amused smile at his polite introduction.

"I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh?" he continued. "Have you been told, a customer of mine and your parents know each other and… well I guess you already knew that. Anyways, follow me." he said and walked towards the stairs leading up to an attic.

"This is your room. " Sojiro said once they arrived. Ren looked around only to find a messy and pretty dusty room.

"So this is what I'm in for this year" Ren pondered as he kept scanning the room.

"I'll at least give you sheets for your bed." Sojiro continued and turned to him, meeting his pondering expression. "You look like you wanna say something." he added, snapping Ren out of his thoughts.

"It's big." Ren sputtered out the first thing that came to mind.

"I'll leave it up to you to clean up the rest." he said before giving him a warning of the consequences in case he causes trouble. Sojiro then proceeded to recount the events that lead up to his probation, causing Ren to avert his gaze with a hint of shame in his eyes.

Once his guardian finished his speech and went downstairs, Ren decided to clean up his room, trying to distract himself from his frustration. Ren let out a relieved sigh as he sat down on his bed, looking at the now much cleaner room.

"What the heck? I heard you making all sorts of noise up here, but I didn't expect you to actually clean." Sojiro said as he scanned his ward's room in astonishment.

"Anyways, why don't you go to sleep? It's not like you have anything better to do now right? I'm going to close up shop and get out of here myself" he told him before leaving him alone at the store.

When Sojiro arrived at his house he had a feeling that he forgot something.

"Ah crap I forgot to flip the sign. Might as well tell the kid to do it." Sojiro thought to himself before taking out the phone and calling the kid. Once he gave the young man instructions, he let out a sigh as he put his phone away, thinking about his first impression of his new ward.

"Guess the kid isn't as bad as I thought. Maybe Yu wasn't exaggerating about the things he told me about the kid. Then again, I should be careful, he could still cause trouble and if he is a threat to Futaba, I won't hesitate to get rid of him." he thought to himself with a frown.

Back at LeBlanc, Ren returned to his room after flipping the sign and took out his phone, holding it to his ear after dialing a number.

"Hello?" a rough voice said.

"Greetings father, I just wanted to tell you that I arrived safely." Ren answered in a calm manner.

"Oh Ren! Thank goodness, I was actually startin' ta get worried, ya know." Kanji said happily.

"Sorry about that, I was busy settling into my new room." Ren said sheepishly.

"Nah 's fine, I'm just glad that you arrived safely. What's your guardian like anyway? Does he treat you right?" Kanji asked in a concerned manner. Ren let out a sigh.

"Well… let's just say he is a bit stern. He does not seem like a bad person, but I think he's got a wrong impression of me because of my record." Ren replied.

"Alright, but if he does somethin', just tell me and I'll cycle all the way to Tokyo to deck that guy in the face." Kanji told his son with determination, making Ren chuckle.

"As amusing as that sounds, I think I'll be fine. How is mother by the way?" Ren asked in a concerned voice.

"She's already asleep. Don't worry about her, I'll keep an eye on her and make sure she properly takes care of herself while she's handling the case. Oh, and Ren?" Kanji said in a somber voice.

"Yes?" Ren asked.

"No matter what others tell you, no matter what you tell yourself, this ain't your fault. Your ma and uncle are doin' their best to prove your innocence." Kanji said sternly before letting out a sigh.

"Before I forget, I put a sewing kit and some knitting needles into your luggage in case your clothes get torn up or you get bored. It's gettin' late, so you should go to bed now. Good night Ren. I love ya son, never forget that." Kanji said in a soothing voice.

"Y-yeah, I love you too father. Tell mother I said hi." Ren, who had been grimacing for a while now, replied in a shaky voice before hanging up and plopping onto his bed.

He looked at his phone and to his chagrin, the weird app appeared for a third time. After letting out a frustrated sigh, he deleted the app again. After setting his alarm, he puts his phone away and closes his eyes, only for memories of recent events to flash before his eyes.

"Stop! I'll call the police!" a distressed voice called out.

"Damn brat! I'll sue!" an angry voice yelled.

"I'm so sorry Ren!" a soft voice whispered as it started sobbing.

"This is bullshit! He doesn't deserve this!" a rough voice cried out in agony.

"Ren, I swear that I will find the truth and prove your innocence!" a calm voice declared with determination.

Ren clutched his head as the memories returned to him. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes in an attempt to properly fall asleep.

He let out a sigh and thought to himself "It's just a year, right? What's the worst that could happen?"


Author's Notes:

I first had this idea in March, during my NG+ run of P4.
I compared Kanji's reputation at school with Ren's, in the sense that both of them are seen as delinquents/criminals even though they're good people if you actually got to know them.
The more I started writing fics, I decided to make this idea I had into a fic as well.
I won't be able to regularly update this fic, because I need a lot of time to think this fic through but you can follow me on Twitter (under the username ChrisWritesFics) so you guys won't miss me uploading my newest chapter.
The reason I make this a vanilla P5 AU is because I'm not caught up on Royal. I know what happens in the third semester but I don't know anything new that happened before like Maruki's Social Link etc.
This fic will obviously focus a lot on Ren's relationship with his parents and I will put his dynamic with Akechi into focus as well.
I hope you guys will look forward to this story and thank you guys for reading.