One thing I always felt like in P4 is that I didn’t mind Souji romancing Naoto, even if I preferred Kanji and Naoto hands down (and wished, oh so wished that I could use my Souji skills to give Kanji the courage to romance her), but I always felt that if Souji was, indeed, going to romance the detective… Kanji should have some sort of reaction.  I mean, come on, everyone KNEW about the crush, right? 

Senpai is a great guy.  The greatest guy that’s ever guyed.  Kanji Tatsumi knows this.  Kanji Tatsumi respects this.

Kanji Tatsumi hates this when Naoto Shirogane comes around. 

When he – she, whatever it doesn’t matter Naoto is perfection – comes along things start to happen.  For one, Kanji develops his first crush.  Well, maybe not first, he’s sure he had them as a kid, but this is the first meaningful one, you see.  Naoto is all he thinks about, no matter the time of day or night – especially night, dear lord, just…

… moving on.

Then, said crush joins the team.  It takes all of Kanji’s self control not to burst into hearts and rainbows – though he thinks there may have been a heart or two.  And then Kanji makes a terrible realization. 

Senpai is a great guy.  The greatest guy that’s ever guyed.  

But why senpai has to charm his boyfriend – girlfriend, actually Naoto is neither because Naoto has no clue – is beyond Kanji’s comprehension.  Souji Seta can have any boy, girl, single mother, hospital nurse, basketball player, Junes employee… the point is Souji can have absolutely anyone.  Anyone! 

So why does he have to spend time with his Naoto?

… all right, not his but… his damnit!

And she falls for it, too.  She blushes, she smiles, she talks about the case with him, her eyes lighting up whenever senpai comes around.  It’s not as obvious as Rise’s need to fling herself in his general direction, nor is it as obvious as Yosuke’s declarations of partner, but since Kanji only pays attention to Naoto these days he notices it right away.  Dear goodness, she never says Kanji-kun the way she says senpai and it’s eating him up inside.  And Kanji knows, oh yes, he knows that Souji knows that he’s got a thing for Naoto.  Everyone knows.  The team knows.  The school knows.  His mother knows.  The weird fox knows.  Just…

Everyone.  Knows!  (except for Naoto)

So why even… I mean… they’re supposed to be friends.  Senpai is supposed to be a great guy.  What’s so great about stealing your friend’s boyfriend – girlfriend, whatever friend?

Things get worse once the case is over – not the Namatame part but Kanji feels like he made some headway with Naoto, cheering her up over Nanako-chan.  He’s talking about the Adachi part, the part between Christmas and March, the part where they actually had nothing to do but hang out with each other.  Kanji had hoped that with the case settled down, Naoto wouldn’t be interested in talking to senpai anymore.  But no, oh no, she still spends time with him, still talks to him, still smiles like a sweet angel when he’s around.  And Senpai just eats it up, adds her to his growing collection of “people who worship the ground Souji Seta walks on.”  It’s irritating, and Kanji is starting to want to punch that great guy smile off of his face. 

He almost does on Valentine’s Day.

Naoto shows up at school with senpai, holding a box of chocolate, cute little hands shaking with a faint blush spread across her cheeks.  Kanji glares so hard at Souji that it makes him flinch, rub the back of his head, and give Kanji a nervous grin.

“Kanji, it-“

“Just shut up!  I don’t want to hear it!”

At this Naoto stares at Kanji, eyes wide and mouth dropped, “K-Kanji-kun?”

“You just couldn’t help yourself, couldja?  Had to take ‘er away from me, didn’t ya?”

Now Naoto looks truly shocked, trying to find the words but all she can do is stutter out a soft, “A-away… from you?”

“Kanji, it’s not like-”

“Bet you were laughin’ behind my back, weren’t ya?  ‘Oh ho ho, look at that blockhead Kanji, totally in love with a girl I already have.’  You don’t have enough people who are head over heels in love with ya, senpai?  You had to take ‘er too?!”

This is, of course, said in front of as many people as possible.  Just in case, it’s shouted loud enough for the whole school to hear even if they’re not at the scene. 

Kanji can see Yosuke-senpai standing in the corner, staring at them.  Without warning he starts laughing, hard enough to break the tension, his voice echoing around Kanji.  This is the most inappropriate time to laugh so Kanji threatens to break Yosuke’s face in two.  This doesn’t make the boy stop laughing, in fact, he starts laughing even more, “D-d-dude, you’ve got it all wrong!  She’s not dating Souji!”

“Whatever!  They’re together all the time, she’s givin’ ‘im chocolates and-”

“They’re for you,” Naoto whispers, giving Kanji a sheepish look, “I… got them for you.”

“… what?”

Naoto steps over to Kanji, slowly handing the box to him.  By now her entire face is drained of all color and she desperately wants to pull her hat down far enough to cover her entire body.  Instead, she forces herself to look up at Kanji, “I… s-senpai… helped me pick them out, for you.”

“Kanji, do you really think I’d make a move on Naoto?  We all know how you feel about her.”

Kanji looks at Yosuke, then Souji, then Naoto.  He tries to come up with something to say but he can feel the heat rising over his face.  He’s fully aware that the entire school is watching them – or most of the school, anyway.  There’s that girl who’s in the band, the guy on the soccer team.  Naoki, damnit, he’s there too grinning like an idiot over Kanji’s antics.  What Kanji wants to do is scoop Naoto into his arms, kiss her like there’s no tomorrow, and forget that this entire fiasco ever happened.

Hell, there probably won’t be a tomorrow once Naoto murders him because he embarrassed the living fuck out of her.

So Kanji takes a deep breath and says, “Screw it,” before pulling Naoto into his arms and giving her a kiss so deep that the school talks about it for days.

Much to Kanji’s relief, the detective doesn’t kill him… yet.