Justice
"Look, I don't think this is any of your business. I'm sorry you had to see my wife and I talking like this." The man in the apartment parking lot said. He promptly turned back around and tightened his grip on his wife's arm and led the upset-looking woman to the car. He paused briefly to give Katsuya a polite nod.
Katsuya had given a disconcerted glance over his shoulder, but at the moment felt only the smallest bits of pity for his neighbor as he kept walking upstairs toward his apartment. Only when the car door shut did the alarm bells set off. Hanako-san was alone, had been ever since she'd separated from her husband a little over a year ago. She was a secretary, and had always appreciated the gifts Katsuya had sent to her on the holidays.
She was separated from her husband.
He dropped his bag and sprinted back out of the building.
"Stop! Wait!" He grabbed the driver's side door before the man could pull it closed. His neighbor jerked her head toward Katsuya with a terrified look and shook her head from her seat. It would only be worse if she got anyone else involved with this.
"What's your problem?" The man asked, glaring up at Katsuya, who promptly ignored him and peered into the car.
"Is there something wrong, Hanako-san?" He gave her an even look, but there was a crisp professionalism in his voice. When she paled, but didn't reply, he turned a glare to the man. "Get out of the car. You're not forcing this woman to go anywhere."
He tried to jerk the door closed, but there wasn't any prying it out of Katsuya's grasp. With a grunt of frustration he shoved the door further open instead and climbed out. The shove put Katsuya slightly off balance, just enough to not avoid the fist that connected with his cheek.
"You should have kept to yourself. Where I take my wife is none of your business. You think you can use her name so freely like that?!" He glanced back toward the car while Katsuya picked himself up, one hand at his cheek. "You sleep with him too?!" The man barked loudly toward the car and Hanako-san was already getting out, her hands to her mouth.
"Suou-san! Ryota, stop! I never dated him, he just lives upstairs with his brother!" She moved before Katsuya could yell, but when the man turned to hit her too Katsuya moved, grabbing his wrist before he could swing and twisting it sharply behind his back.
"Don't. Touch. Her." There was a surge of anger that couldn't be controlled fully. Katsuya looked over Ryota's shoulder to his neighbor. "And you. Don't come closer. Go inside and call the police." The man jerked in his grip, started to yell something and was promptly thrown to the ground before he could threaten her. Hanako turned and ran inside as fast as she could.
"She's my..wife." He choked, holding one arm with the other while he laid on the ground. "I won't let you scum near her."
"So you abuse her and assault any man that goes near her when you've been separated for over a year? She told me she'd filed for a divorce already. She has a right to live her own life. Hanako-san doesn't belong to you." His voice was wavering, and when the man she'd called Ryota looked up at him with that self righteous hating look Katsuya had an urge to stomp on his face.
"You don't understand. She's my wife! I won't let her go, no matter what!" His? The man jumped to his feet and took another swing at Katsuya's face. The cop moved his head, taking a glancing blow to his shoulder instead as he moved out of the way. Scum like this that would do anything to keep what they wanted?
When he swung again, Katsuya stepped aside entirely, his own fist connecting solidly with the man's chest. It knocked him over and on the ground again. How long had he been stalking her? How long had she been suffering?
The ground at Katsuya's feet shimmered brightly. Ryota backed up from where he was on the ground. He had to have hit his head or something. Hallucinating. Because there was no way those were eyes hovering over Katsuya's shoulder, claws extending and retracting in calm certainty.
But soon he didn't think anything at all as Helios grabbed the man by the collar, lifted him off his feet, and then slammed him on the ground at Katsuya's feet while he glared down at him.
He deserved it.
When the police showed up, Hanako-san told them everything; about her husband coming after her and threatening her, and about the fight he'd started with Suou-san from upstairs when he'd tried to help her. Katsuya had seemed upset, but had only shortly told his coworkers what had happened, and since he'd been acting in self defense, he was only glad that his neighbor was alright.
They'd taken the man, still unconscious, away. Katsuya had grabbed his bag from the floor and skipped going home entirely. Parabellum was a better place to brood.
He deserved it and more for what he'd put Hanako-san through.
No matter how many times he told himself, the anger didn't seem to lessen. He'd attacked a civilian with his Persona. Had that really been necessary? He could have easily won that fight.... But he'd been mad. Why?
Because what that man..Ryota...had done..was wrong. Terrible. Because he'd justified his actions with with the same plight Katsuya now found himself in. Hanako-san was his wife, even if they'd been separated. But that didn't make it alright to harass the woman and attack anyone he thought was involved with her. It didn't make it right to give in to those impulses and go on a rage.
Was it right to give into that rage to stop him?
With a solid thud Katsuya dropped his head onto the table in his arms. His right cheek hurt immediately, but was ignored. The man had deserved it, but who was Katsuya to judge? He should have gotten the man on the ground and kept him there until the police came. Should have held himself back from hitting the man. Should have kept his own anger in check.
Katsuya was no better.
Blindly, he groped for his glass to finish off his drink and get another. No better. It was all just a lot of hypocrisy. Bitter, sore, and angry, Katsuya sat up and emptied his glass. He was doing the right thing. Maybe. And he had all night to convince himself.
((Ficpost relevant to the current timeline.))