History Fanfic / OhAliceTheresNoReflectionInTheLookingGlass

* NewGamePlus: Essentially the nature of Akira's time travel due to having Alice, Yoshitsune and Kaguya Picaro as part of his main fighters. [[spoiler:Except unlike most examples of stories in this nature, Akira is brought back in time ''after'' he and his friends were erased from reality by Yaldabaoth and he is still traumatized from the experience.]]

“Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying.”''\\
- '''Oh Alice, There's no Reflection in the Looking Glass''', Chapter 2\\

--> [[spoiler:'''Akira! Alice''']]: I hardly even recognize myself in the looking glass anymore. What good is a looking glass of the reflection that isn't even your own? Oh, Alice, there's no reflection in the looking glass because the person you see looking back isn't you.

[[caption-width-right:1000:Key art illustrated by the author (intothefrisson)]]

[[caption-width-right:1000:Key art illustrated by the author themselves]]

The author has also done animations and illustrations for the story which has been compliled in her twitter [[https://twitter.com/i/events/1454565825910689792 here]].

* TheCameo: From VideoGame/Persona4, [[spoiler:Margaret makes a return as Akechi's attendant and Yu appears in a memory of Akira's past before later showing up in person to give Akira a pep talk that will motivate him to finally move forward.]]

[[caption-width-right:1000:Kurusu Akira and Alice (Illustrated by the author themselves)]]

* AscendedExtra: Jose, who can only be interacted with in Mementos in ''Persona 5 Royal'' and served as a BonusBoss in the Third Semester, plays a major role as he interacts with Akira and eventually, the rest of his confidants over the course of the story.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of completion, the story has approximately around 494,000 words total.

** Once he finally made his resolve of rebellion clear in the finale, [[spoiler:Akira lambasted at Caroline and Justine for claiming the guillotine fusion to be helping his rehabilitation when it felt more like ripping parts of his soul away hence his traumatic reaction when Arsene and Pixie are first fused. This gets to them and Margaret calling them out for being fooled by Yaldabaoth was all that it needed for Caroline and Justine to remember their true duty and identity as Lavenza.]]

** In [[spoiler:Akira's palace, Akira! Alice touched the TV and wonder if he could have friends if he showed up in the Midnight channel. Considering that you are brought to a personalized dungeon based on your insecurities and hidden fears and had to face your shadow lest you are at risk of being killed by them if you show up in the Midnight Channel, this is a very ''bad'' idea.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Akira's flightiness and habit of witholding crucial information ends up [[spoiler:making the rest of his friends suspicious that Akira is ''the'' Black Mask (Who is Akechi himself) which comes to a blow when Akira skipping the Hawaii trip due to food poisoning and then going to Mementos solo to see Jose around the time Kobayakawa was killed by Akechi happened at the same time and point all suspicion onto Akira himself, splintering the group.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler:In a flashback of Akira's past in his Palace, Akira once wished that he would actually be featured and brought into the Midnight Channel so he could have friends. A few and a time loop later, Akira survived his HeroicSacrifice by being brought into a copy of the Midnight Channel dungeon via Mementos as his Palace and didn't have a fun experience with it.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Unlike the Persona 4 casts who were able to quickly accept what their shadow has said, Akira still needed to come to terms with why he accepted his Shadow again and spent some time after his rescue despondent. Akira's Palace is formed by the trauma he experienced from his first time loop and childhood trauma that is so deeply rooted in him that Akira can't fully come out of it okay as quickly. It took a pep talk with a passing by Yu for Akira to finally take the step to pick himself up and catch up to the rest of the thieves to the depths of Mementos.]]

* YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: [[spoiler:Akira is so used to not having his own voice heard that he didn't tell anything about his time traveling to the thieves, the suffering he went through and also left out some crucial information about it from them. After seeing Akira's memories in his Palace, the Phantom Thieves admit that they didn't exactly have a good record of listening to Akira before.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJa7523wdc Epilogue Video]] is intended to be such by the author, though the Epilogue video is majorly interpreted as Akira reaching a BittersweetEnding where [[spoiler:despite having finally defeated Yaldabaoth for good, Akira is sent back in time again in another NewGamePlus with a photo of the thieves on a road trip in March before sending Akira back home to Inaba on his phone. However, hope is not lost. Akira now knows the truth of his journey and what it is that he needed to do to solve it all once more. Additionally, he also received a message from an unknown number implied to be a time traveling Akechi so Akira isn't alone to face the journey and its hurdles anymore.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJa7523wdc Epilogue Video]] is intended to be such by the author, though the Epilogue video is majorly interpreted as Akira reaching a BittersweetEnding where [[spoiler:despite having finally defeated Yaldabaoth for good, Akira is sent back in time again in another NewGamePlus with a photo of the thieves on a road trip in March on his phone. However, hope is not lost. Akira now knows the truth of his journey and what it is that he needed to do to solve it all once more. Additionally, he also received a message from an unknown number implied to be a time traveling Akechi so Akira isn't alone to face the journey and its hurdles anymore.]]

* TraumaCongaLine: [[spoiler:Akira doesn't have the greatest childhood with emotionally neglectful parents and a FriendlessBackground that left him yearning for friends and even though he is still falsely convicted by Shido, Akira admits that part of him felt happy to be away from Inaba. And then there's everything that ''Persona 5'' canon has put him through and Akira completely breaks as he saw his allies disappear one by one due to Yaldabaoth's machinations... and then he went back to the start of his arrival in Tokyo at April 9 and didn't take it well for several loops before finally putting his act together to reform the Phantom Thieves in the current timeline.]]

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Poor Akira gets through this in one way or another such as [[spoiler:feeling part of his soul being torn away and destroyed during each fusion via guillotine, unadressed trauma of his childhood from neglectful parents and survivors guilt due to having to see everyone he cared and loved for disappear right in front of his eyes... and then sent back right at the beginning of his journey shortly after.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJa7523wdc Epilogue Video]] of the story reveals that [[spoiler:despite finally defeating Yaldabaoth for good, Akira was sent back to the start of the loop again at April 9 after the thieves had a road trip together before sending Akira back home. But this time, Akechi also went back in time with him so Akira isn't alone to face the hurdles of his journey anymore.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: Akira had a bad habit of witholding some information out of the thieves and went solo on his own once in a while. [[spoiler:This comes to a blow when Kobayakawa is killed by Akechi and the rest of the thieves suspect Akira to be the Metaverse assassin]]. Akira also didn't tell the thieves about his time traveling [[spoiler:until they enter his Palace and in his defense, he knew that it would sound impossible and hard to believe and when Akira finally admits it, the other thieves, Akechi included, couldn't fully begrudge him for it.]]
* ShipTease: Akechi/Akira is the major ship that is heavily teased but there are also small hints peppered such as Hifumi and Yusuke.

* YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: [[spoiler:Akira is so used to not having his own voice heard that he didn't tell anything about his time traveling to the thieves, the suffering he went through and also left out some crucial information about it from them.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler:In a flashback of Akira's past in his Palace, Akira once wished that he would actually be featured and brought into the Midnight Channel so he could have friends. Many years and a time loop later, Akira survived his HeroicSacrifice by being brought into a copy of the Midnight Channel dungeon via Mementos and didn't have a fun experience with it.]]

* IntergenerationalFriendship: The story includes extra interactions and friendships between confidants such as Shinya with Iwai and Hifumi.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: After [[spoiler:Akira was rescued from his Palace, he later met Yu, whom he admired from afar due to his friend group and achievements and when Yu started talking about how and why he arrived in Inaba, Akira realized that the man he admired isn't so different from him after all.]]