Shinjiro can't help the skeptical noise he made, but - seriously. He'd never met anyone this guy's age who could use a Persona - that's the entire reason they ran all of those experiments on those kids, why they snatched up him and Aki as soon as they could, why they put Mitsuru in danger no matter who her dad was. The idea that this guy could hold his own against Shadows wouldn't cross his mind, even in his wildest dreams.

No, what he saw instead was another adult thinking he knew best, writing him off as a punk. Which, admittedly, was fair - Shinjiro didn't think anyone should have grounds to trust him. It made it all the more frustrating, because there was real danger, and no matter how far a stick could've made its way up this adult's ass (and maybe he was a cop? Shinjiro thought he knew a cop when he saw one) he needed to try and get him to believe him anyway.

"You don't have any way to face what's coming, and I do." Shinjiro told him, wishing he was - someone else, frankly. Someone more persuasive. Someone less disreputable-looking. But what else was new? Wishing that never changed it.

There's something dark moving nearby that he saw - like living ooze, crawling with too many arms, keeping just out of sight. Hoping to ambush them. "Shit. We gotta go now."

Perhaps he could reach for this guy's arm and drag him ... away from the Shadow was a good start, they could work on more specifics later.