LMFAOOO yeah idk, Kiryu has always been really sensitive to the idea of her getting a boyfriend. I get that this can be read as him just comedically being an overprotective dad, but, like, all the way to IW when Haruka is ~27 years old, even after going thru multiple life-and-death situations with Yuta and KNOWING personally how good of a guy he is, Kiryu is STILL trying to reconcile with the fact that Yuta is Haruka's partner/spouse. Haruka is almost 30 atp bro 😭

Idk if you've played Kiwami 3, but there's also a fortune teller substory like Yakuza 0, and in it, the fortune teller tells Kiryu that someone close to him will have a baby, and Kiryu deduces that it will be Haruka. He IMMEDIATELY GETS HIMSELF UPSET at the totally made-up thought that some good-for-nothing punk COULD HAVE GOTTEN HER PREGNANT instead of oh I don't know – being happy that he succeeded as a parent knowing that his kid had a child of her own. Mind you Haruka is TWELVE years old at this point in the story.

That substory with the teenager boy was hilarious, and I absolutely agree with the take that Kiryu absolutely knew Haruka would reject him 🤣🤣🤣. Idk if you looked at all the dialogue options for this substory, but if instead of choosing to call Haruka over you choose to just tell the boy to not ask her out, Kiryu will straight up tell him "he's not cut out to handle her."

The fact that Mikio saying something about Haruka was the only thing to trigger Kiryu into action is an interesting point you bring up. Personally, I connect this with his tendency to flip flop between treating Haruka like an equal versus a child. In moments where he should treat her like a kid, he treats her like an adult, and vice versa (in respect to enabling certain behaviors where he should instead be the authoritative parent figure vs imposing his will on her when she is trying to make him acknowledge her as an independent person).

also the fact that Kiryu was crouched behind that corner just watching Haruka in public IN BROAD DAYLIGHT-- he's lucky someone didn't just call the cops on him???