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Naoto was walking around the streets of Inaba. She had a lot of pent up energy saved via laying in bed for the duration of her recovery, and she reasoned that the movement would help her think about the murder case.
As she passed by Junes, she saw Yosuke exiting out of the store.
The boy locked eyes with Naoto, smiled, waved. “Hey Naoto-kun,” he said, “how’re you doing?”
“I am doing fine, Hanamura-san.”
“Come on, Naoto-kun. You know you can call me by-“ Yosuke cut himself off and shook his head. “Never mind. You know, I was wondering about something about you, and since you’re here, I guess I can ask.”
Naoto’s eyes narrowed. “If this has anything to do with what happened at the hospital-“
Yosuke’s eyes widened and he franticly waved his hands around in an attempt to placate the detective. “Nononono nothing like that! Although that would be interesting to know…”
“If you are just going to waste my time Hanamura-san…”
“Sorry, it’s just that when I was searching about Shadows and stuff, I decided to look up the guys our Personas were based off of. Naoto-kun, did you know Sukuna-Hikona is a guy?”
Naoto sighed. “What are you insinuating?”
Yosuke weakly laughed. “I’m not saying anything about you! Well, I guess sort of… it’s more about your Shadow.”
Naoto raised an eyebrow, and gestured the boy to continue.
“Well, you’re a girl,” he started, “but your Persona is a guy. I was just wondering what gender your Shadow was.”
Naoto blinked. “Shadows are negative shards of humanity. They do not have gender.”
“Yeah, those don’t have any gender, duh. But I was specifically wondering about yours. Everyone else’s Shadows were obvious, but with your Shadow, we didn’t even know if you were a girl. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, you already saw yourself as an actual guy instead of like an actor, and your Shadow was a guy to reflect that.” Yosuke scratched the back of his head, glancing away. “I guess it would make sense if that’s how you got a male Persona.”
Naoto crossed her arms. “I do not believe that is how it works, Hanamura-san.” She sighed, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “I believe it is because of our personalities that our Personas take the form that they do. It just so happens that their genders line up.”
“Huh, I guess that makes sense. Partner has a lot of Personas that aren’t guys. Well, I was just wondering.”
As Yosuke turned to leave, Naoto spoke up. “If I had to guess about my Shadow’s gender, I would assume it was female, as I am. As much as I wished to be male, I could never forget that I am female, and thus my Shadow would form that way.”
“Well, I guess you would know the best out of all of us, Naoto-kun. It’s your Shadow, after all.”
Naoto allowed a small smile to appear on her face. “If that is all you wanted, I believe it would be best if we went our separate ways for now.”
“Yeah. See you later, Naoto-kun!”
“You as well Hanamura-san.”