Fanfic / A Different Kind of Truth

This story is the tale of Johnny Joestar starting to walk.
Not only in the physical sense, but from adolescence to adulthood.
In this tale, Johnny Joestar begins to learn that he doesn't need to be alone.
That bonds with others can help the broken bird fly again.

A Different Kind of Truth is a Persona 4 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure crossover by The Infamous Man. Here, Johnny Joestar, the protagonist of Steel Ball Run, replaces Yu Narukami as the protagonist of the game, bitterness and disability included. How will this much stark contrast to the Protagonist of the game play out in the spotlight, along with interacting with the residents of Inaba? Read it here and find out.

The author has also brought the fic into Spacebattles, which can be found here. He also has written a self-parody titled A Different Kind of Truth Abridged (?), which can be read here

---

This fic has examples of:

• Abandoned Hospital: Gyro wakes up in one of these, which happens to be the dungeon created by his Shadow Self.
• Absurd Phobia: Chie has Etomophobia/Acarophobia, or a fear of bugs. She absolutely flips out when a grasshopper lands on her hand. This will undoubtedly cause some... Problems given that her boyfriend Johnny has a bug bite fetish.
• Abusive Parents: George Joestar was very much this toward Johnny in the emotional/mental sense, mostly stemming from him finding Johnny an inferior replacement and failure when compared to his more successful older brother whom George favored more. It gets especially bad after Nicholas dies and ultimately culminates in a fight between George and Johnny that ends with George saying that Johnny should have been the one to die instead.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • Dojima walks in on Johnny in the bath on one occasion.
  • Yosuke accidentally peeps on Chie when he tries and stop Teddie from seeing her change. Cue him getting kicked in the nuts and owing Chie a few beefsteaks.
• Action Fashionista: Johnny is a Rare Male Example. He is obsessed with looking as fabulous as possible while kicking ass.
• Adapted Out: As of this writing, the titular "Steel Ball Run" racing competition and the Saint's Corpse have not been featured or alluded to. Justified since the story is set in Japan and in 2011, in contrast to the Steel Ball Run timeline occurring in the 1890's.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Izanagi's appearance is given several stars, hearts, and leg-brace engravings on the greaves to match Johnny's usual flamboyant casual clothes and his physical condition.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While Teddie remains jovial, silly and naive regarding the real world, he is more knowledgable about his world inside the TV, the Shadows roaming there, and surprisingly analytical when explaining the abilities of the Personas the party displayed.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Due to the nature of the story, Stands and Personas are effectively combined into one with the change going both ways. Unlike the game Personas, the Personas in the fic are like Stands in the sense that they have a specific power. However, this causes the IT to use that specific power in various ways that turn the abilities into deadly attacks. Meanwhile Johnny and Gyro both have to take the extra step of breaking a Tarot Card to summon their Personae, which only works in the TV World. Normally, they would be able to summon their Stands with just a thought anywhere they so desired.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Mr. Morooka's point of view is elaborated on right before Mitsuo murders him, revealing a well-intentioned man beneath his domineering and judgmental exterior. The reason he's so hard on his students is because he's afraid that their youthful irresponsibility will leave them aimless losers like his father. Also, he legitimately laments Saki's death, believing it to be a waste of someone who still had a chance to make something of herself.
• Age Lift: In Steel Ball Run, Johnny and Gyro were 19 and 24 years old respectively. In order to fit into the alternate setting of this story, they are much younger as they are attending Yasogami High School as second-year and third-year students, making them 16 and 17.
• Agent Peacock: Johnny once more. He has to be as Fabulous as possible while kicking ass and taking names.
• Aloof Ally: Johnny has shades of this, constantly saying that he has nothing better to do than hang out with the others or engage in otherwise boring activities to help people.
• Alternate History: Subtle, but still apparent. Pop culture has radically changed, as is political situations.
  • The Dark Tower Saga: The Gunslinger is the first part of a movie series. The series is only in book form with a film adaptation that never went off the ground in our world.
  • According to Word of God, Twilight never became a movie series and The Walking Dead never became a show. Thus eliminating the pop culture fascination with romanticizing monsters and zombies, which has been replaced by a fascination with westerns thanks to both The Dark Tower movie series and the Preacher TV show which had been released instead of The Walking Dead.
  • Also according to Word of God, Lyrical Nanoha never became a franchise or popular because Magical Detective Loveline had been released two years prior, and thus Nanoha fell into obscurity while Loveline became a mega-hit franchise in its place. Also, Kamen Rider and Power Rangers do not exist and the Featherman series is in their place.
  • Funny Valentine is the 44th President of the United States, with Puerto Rico now a state.
  • Rohan Kishibe's Pink Dark Boy manga is basically this world's version of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
• Alternate Self:
  • Noriyuki Kakyoin is this fic's version to Noriaki Kakyoin, albeit lacking in his main series counterpart's traits and characteristics besides being a Chick Magnet in Yasogami High School.
  • Emilio Pucci is one to Enrico Pucci, and he can't be more different than his main series counterpart.
• Always Second Best: Johnny was this to his father when compared to Nicholas.
• Ambiguously Gay: When Shadow Kanji claims only men can accept him, Gyro notes it's not the same as affirming Kanji is queer.
  • Yosuke's very loud meltdown when Johnny puts lipstick on just raises some questions, as Chie said it best.
• Ambiguously Related: As it turns out, the Female Protagonist of Persona 3 is named Megumi Kujo in this fic. Kujo is the surname of several members of the Joestar family in both the pre Made in Heaven universe and the post Made in Heaven universe. While she was already hinted to have some form of connection to Johnny due to appearing when Johnny first awakened to Tusk Act 1, and whenever Tusk evolves, the fact that she has the same last name as known members of the Joestar family heavily implies that the reason that connection exists is because Megumi herself is in fact a Joestar.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Some Social Links have their respective characters changed, either from the Persona cast, Steel Ball Run, and even from previous JoJo parts (albeit it's their alternate counterparts).
  • Thanks to Yosuke asking Johnny to spend time with him and Noriyuki Kakyoin, Johnny's Devil Social Link is with Noriyuki Kakyoin rather than Sayoko Uehara.
  • Due to interacting with Aika more than Yu and visiting Aiya's often, Johnny's Temperance Social Link is with Aika Nakamura instead of Eri Minamari.
  • Gyro ends up becoming Johnny's Moon Social Link instead of Ai Ebihara, due to Johnny making a personal investment to learn from him no matter what.
  • Thanks to practicing horse riding and due to not joining any clubs, Johnny's Strength Social Link is with Slow Dancer rather than Kou Ichijo or Daisuke Nagase.
  • Because Gyro dragged him to the local church, Johnny's Hanged Man Arcana is with Emilio Pucci instead of Naoki Konishi.
  • Rohan becomes Johnny's Hermit Social Link since Johnny never visited the shrine and thus never met the Fox.
  • When Johnny finally gets near the shrine, he meets Rina Higashigata, who becomes his Death Social Link.
  • Axl RO is Johnny's Tower Social Link instead of Shu Nakajima.
• An Ice Person: Tomoe Gozen's Persona power focuses more on its ice abilities than its physical skills, forcing Chie to have to think outside the box in fights.
• Ate His Gun: Narrowly averted in Johnny's case, having nearly been driven to that point while trapped in Shadow Mitsuo's Lotus-Eater Machine.
• Attention Whore: Shadow Rise, constantly making lewd gestures and suggestions in order for people to see her "naked self". She even performs a song and dance number in order to get attention!
• Awful Truth: A common theme with the Shadows when it comes to the darker parts of a person. They do this to force their owners to refuse them, and in doing so causes them to go berserk from being rejected and attempt to kill the original. Accepting their dirty laundry, however, subdues and calms the Shadow down, becoming a Persona in the process. As all members of the IT can attest to, this is much harder than it sounds.
• Batter Up!:
  • Chie wields a bat during the second visit to the TV world as she lacks a Persona at this point.
  • Shadow Rise uses her pole as a bat against Tomoe and Pyro Jack.
• Battle Cry: Some of the Personas apparently have some, not unlike the Stands.
  Jiraiya: YOYOYOYOYOSHA!!!
• Berserk Button: Do NOT call Johnny by his full name.
• Big Eater: Averted. Johnny doesn't have the build or training to eat even a good portion of the Mega Beef Bowl.
• Birds of a Feather: Gyro with Yukiko and Teddie due to their Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, especially that the latter two are the only ones who understands and laughs at the former's lame jokes, much to the others' dismay.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Johnny and Teddie point out that Shadows don't have bodies like normal humans, lacking bones which allow for otherwise impossible contortions and also allows them to weather physical punishment better.
• Black-and-White Morality: Yukiko tells Johnny that Chie more or less has this worldview, classifying things as either right or wrong.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Lampshaded. Johnny and Gyro both acknowledge that they would kind of feel more at home in The Wild West, but also feel perfectly fine living in the present.
• Break the Haughty: Johnny knows he had everything and pissed it all away when he got crippled simply for being too rich and famous for waiting in line, and not standing up for the fact he did not believe the club was worth it to his date. Not to mention his Shadow revisiting all the bad moments of his life.
• Breather Episode: Chapter 55 (Dog Days Are Over) involves the Investigation Team taking a very much needed breather and break after the absolute hell that was the "Just Push Play" arc, which includes Johnny taking some downtime with Nanako and the rice omelet party from Persona 4.
• Break Them by Talking: And how! Shadow Johnny, like all Shadows, just loves to dredge up the worst emotions and experiences Johnny went through. And without anything to fight against, Shadow Johnny thought it would be fun to mentally torture Johnny by making him WATCH every bad event throughout his life, with Chie and Yosuke having a front row seat.
• Broken Hero: Crippled below the waist for two years, emotionally hesitant towards making friends, and a very unpleasant person to be around due to being stuck in a hospital where practically no one visited him. All these events led to Johnny becoming, in his Shadow's own words, a "self-pitying asshole".
• Brutal Honesty: Johnny is a firm believer in this, going so far as to point out to Yukiko that getting involved in the hunt for the murderer could get her killed.
• But Not Too Foreign:
  • Johnny is a blonde-haired and blue-eyed American, as he was in Steel Ball Run. But in the fic he is half-Japanese on his mother's side so that he could be Dojima's nephew.
  • Diego in this fic is half-Japanese instead of just British, since his late biological mother was Japanese with "Kamiyama" as her maiden name.
• Call-Back: Shadow Yosuke's Winds of Oblivion, in this fic, occurs in a process very similar to Wamuu's Holy Sandstorm.
• Camping Episode: Chapter 31 is this for the IT only with Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji going through a Horrible Camping Trip while Johnny and Gyro having a normal one.
• Camp Gay: Shadow Kanji, just like in canon. However, The Infamous Man goes an extra mile with this aspect by having Shadow Kanji use Polari, an outdated form of homosexual slang.
• Can't You Read the Sign?: Yosuke is annoyed that some customers in Junes don't do this.
• Cast Full of Gay: TIM has recently revealed that the majority of the cast is some degree of Bisexual with some standouts being Johnny, Yosuke, Yukiko (Who was previously in love with Chie), and Johnny's predecessor, the canonically Bisexual Persona 3 Female Protagonist who is named Megumi Kujo here. Ironically, Kanji has not had any sort of confirmed same-sex attraction, likely to keep his character consistent.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Johnny, much like his Steel Ball Run self, is a bitter shell of his former self due to the events before and leading to his crippling. The only reason why he goes to Inaba is to find a reason for a "useless person" like him to keep on living. Finding said purpose is the only reason why he stopped his own suicide attempt.
  • Unscrupulous Hero: While Johnny is willing to help try and find the murderer, solving the murders of Inaba isn't his top priority. Figuring out why he can walk in the TV World is, and his quest just coincides with the investigation. Even after the confrontation with his Shadow, Johnny is still a bit self-centered and selfish. Plus, he suggested to damage Yukiko's legs to avoid fighting her Shadow without any remorse.
• Classic Villain: All of the Shadow Selves shown so far show their other selves sins.
  • Shadow Johnny represents Wrath, Pride, and Sloth.
  • Shadow Yosuke represents Envy and Wrath.
  • Shadow Chie is Envy and Pride.
  • Shadow Yukiko is Pride, Sloth, Lust, and a whole lot of Wrath.
  • Shadow Gyro is equals part of Pride and Wrath.
  • Shadow Kanji is pure Vanity and Pride.
  • Shadow Rise is pure Lust with hints of Vanity and Wrath.
• Clothing Damage: Prevalent to the extent that the Investigation Team stocks multiple outfits on their incursions into the TV World. It's unusual if they don't have to change clothes once the fighting is over.
• Combat Commentator: Teddie's job is to explain whatever brilliant tactical move an Investigation Team member have performed.
• Combat Pragmatist: Johnny definitely qualifies. During the fight against Yosuke's Shadow. He uses cover to distract it, knocks it down by tripping it with wind, smashes it in the head with thrown liquor bottles, lights it on fire with matches, leaves the store to alter the battlefield in his favor, and even snipes it out of the air with Izanagi's lightning when it tries to attack Yosuke!
• Coming of Age Story: Like the game and Steel Ball Run, the investigation seems to be this for Johnny and the IT as a whole.
• Competitive Balance: There are some instances of this during the fights in the TV World.
  • Glass Cannon: Johnny's Persona abilities may be impressive and even powerful when he uses them right, but unfortunately due to his weakened legs and lack of mobility it makes him an easy target for attacks. Not to mention his scrawny physique makes injuries all the more painful and effective.
  • Lethal Joke Character: While Yosuke may screw up, is not smart academically, and shows off with bad results, he is a brilliant combat strategist whose Persona's abilities are absolutely deadly if he uses them correctly.
  • Squishy Wizard / Black Mage: Yukiko has the most powerful offensive attacks, however since her Persona isn't good with close-range combat it cannot fight back when its abilities are nullified or defend itself well.
  • Long-Range Fighter: Gyro relies on his Persona Puck, which augments his steel ball weapons. This allows for Gyro to launch long-range attacks and have extra mobility, at the sacrifice of not doing that great at close-range.
  • Magic Knight: Chie is able to use Tomoe for physical attacks but can also trace ice sculptures into existence. Although doing this will sacrifice her mobility and she needs time to complete them.
  • Close-Range Combatant / Mighty Glacier: Kanji's Take-Mikazuchi is the most powerful Persona of the group with physical attacks. However it does not move fast, has no real long-range attacks, and an enemy can land a lot of blows on it if the Persona is brought out at the wrong time. And its most powerful attack incapacitates Kanji.
• Chick Magnet:
  • Noriyuki is extremely popular with girls, much to his chagrin.
  • Johnny used to be this before the loss of his legs. He still has some mojo, as evident with his interactions with Rise and Chie, the latter of whom he's gotten some heavy Ship Tease with.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Gyro has his fair share of quirky moments. Which is part of the reason he gets along with Yukiko and Teddie very well.
• Composite Character: Johnny fills in Yu Narukami's shoes on the Persona side of things. Aside from being related to the Dojimas, however, that's as much of Yu's traits as Johnny shares.
• Continuity Nod: Apparently, this world does take place in the universal reboot started by Enrico Pucci's Made In Heaven, and the events of the fic take place after the Female Protagonist of Persona 3''s sacrifice.
• Contrasting Reboot Main Character: Yu Narukami was a stoic yet all around nice guy with the talent of being perfect in everything he tried and the ability to easily make friends. Jonathan Joestar was a kind, idealistic, unselfish, and musclebound man. Johnny contrasts both by being a snarky, fundamentally selfish, cynical, and scrawny kid who cannot move anything below the waist. Johnny also is not intentionally looking forward to making friends or being with other people. And to top it all off, Johnny does not become the leader of his group. Instead, that goes to Gyro.
• Cold Ham: Johnny is the most cynical, deadpan, and stoic of our heroes... despite also being the most flamboyant.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yosuke isn't exactly the most tactful or smartest person in the world, but when put into a combat situation he's a competent tactician. Johnny is often whiny and over-reliant on his friends during battles, but he does have the power of the Wild Card and shows often that he can hold his own and win battles or be instrumental in some victories.
• Cry into Chest: After the absolute mind-numbing hell that Shadow Mitsuo put him through, Johnny breaks down into Chie's arms at the end of Chapter 54.
• Cryptic Conversation: Igor and Margaret do this all the time, understandably frustrating Johnny.
• Culture Clash: Like JJBA, this fic uses cultural practices and differences as gags.
  • Johnny thinks most of anime involves girls with impossibly big tits with only a few geared towards kids like Nanako.
  • Johnny tries to use chopsticks to eat rice... but fails and grows frustrated enough to ditch the chopsticks and just use a spoon.
  • Johnny is treated to another serving of food in Aiya's, due to not finishing his plate. This leads to a small argument with Aika when she won't take it back or give a refund.
  • Gyro has no idea that Japan has over 200 flavors for Kit-Kat bars, and accidentally picks one up that is soy bean flavored. He then goes into a rant as to why Kit-Kats should just be chocolate flavored.
  • Chie doesn't have a problem when it comes about eating horse meat which totally horrifies Johnny - an American ex-jockey.
• Curse Cut Short: Johnny comes close to this before Yosuke stops him.
  • Shadow Rise's curse is interrupted when Teddie goes "bearserk".
• Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: Chie shares her lunch with Johnny. He ends up eating most of it.
• Darker and Edgier: Everywhere in this fic, at least by Persona 4 standards. Characters have more angst, plenty of Gorn, injuries abound...
• Deadpan Snarker: Johnny's prone to snark a lot, due to his very sarcastic nature.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • Johnny's misgivings about the Social Link system have primarily to do with the fact that he feels as if he's not in control of his social life. He feels as if the system itself is more or less forcing him into having relationships with people and he's not in control of his own decisions. The implication that his relationships are all pre-determined and even have labels for them do not sit right within Johnny and he spends plenty of chapters mentally hating the system itself. It, along with Gyro's encouragements, forces Johnny to simply inform the other members of the team about the system.
  • What happens when you take Spaghetti Western-like Seinen characters out of their natural environment and place them into a setting like Persona 4? The darker sides of their characters shock, horrify, and anger the Lighter and Softer residents of Inaba. Johnny, who has a Darker and Edgier backstory, turns out to be suicidally depressed and his Unscrupulous Hero tendencies only make Chie completely livid at him. His and Gyro's less than stellar childhoods also tend to shock anyone who hears them and remain in the back of their friends minds, but they do not excuse their behavior in any way, shape, or form.
• Determinator:
  • Chie to the extent that she soloed Shadow Yukiko and won despite grievous injuries such as burned lungs!
  • Also applies for Johnny because getting the shit kicked out of him by a horse, having a piece of wood lodged in his leg, and stabbing himself in the hand will not stop him from earning Gyro's respect so that he can learn the Italian's horse riding trick.
• Despair Event Horizon: Shadow Mitsuo's Lotus-Eater Machine attempts to do this to Johnny by putting him in a dream world where his friends slowly abandon him one by one. It would have succeeded were it not for Johnny realizing the inconsistencies within the dream world.
• Deuteragonist: At first, Chie was set up as this during the first few chapters of the story. When Gyro arrived, much of the role shifted to him.
• The Dreaded: The Reaper quickly becomes this to the Investigation Team when it finally makes its appearance. As soon as it appears, everyone hides and waits for it to move on once they realize how strong it is and Teddie's panicked reaction. Even the Shadows are scared of it as the Reaper kills any it comes across.
• Ditzy Genius: Teddie might be a complete and total spaz but he's the smartest of our heroes able to figure out how Persona and Shadow powers work even quicker than their users do.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: The main reason why Johnny doesn't mouth off to Igor and Margaret is because he realizes that they must be very powerful and that bad things could happen to him if he pushes his luck.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: A major Berserk Button for Johnny, he loathes it when people try to help him out due to his disability.
• Disproportionate Retribution: How Johnny wound up in a wheelchair and a Broken Hero. He got a guy kicked out of line while trying to impress a girl he liked by showing her to a club, and said guy shot him and left him paralyzed from the waist down.
• Dramatic Irony: Johnny Joestar, the most unfriendly and cynical Joestar, is in the setting of a slice-of-life murder mystery where he gets stronger with the power of friendship.
• Duel Boss: Chie and Shadow Yukiko have a one-on-one personal match.
• Embarrassing First Name:
  • Johnny's actual name is Jonathan, but he forcefully insists that people call him Johnny and even writes his name as 'Johnny Joestar' when introducing himself to his class. Reason why? He hated his nickname 'JoJo' which he got from the first two letters of his first and last name, so he just decided to refer to himself as Johnny to stop it. He doesn't even let Dojima, his own uncle, call him Jonathan.
  • Gyro Zeppeli also has traces of this. Notice how he interrupts Adachi just before he was saying the real first name in his horse riding permit.
• Energy Absorption: The Bribed Fuzz are capable of absorbing energy, both the regular variety and kinetic energy.
• Epic Fail: In an effort to look cool by twirling his new kunai, Yosuke succeeds only in cutting his own arm and whacking himself in the forehead.
• Escape Battle Technique: The Joestar Secret Technique makes a glorious comeback when Johnny and Gyro decide it's better to run and escape than fight Shadow Teddie.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Johnny can't bring himself to purposely be a dick to Nanako.
• Evil Is Hammy: Each Shadow just keeps on getting hammier with Shadow Yukiko matching the Pillar Men in pure villainous ham.
  • Then she is outdone by Shadow Kanji, with his over the top Camp Gay act.
• Evolution Power-Up: Tusk evolves when Johnny grows as a person. When Johnny willingly puts himself in danger without thinking of himself first, Tusk's form changes to Act 2 and gives Johnny the ability to launch nail bullets. It happens again when Johnny learns how to spin his nails with the golden ratio, granting him Act 3.
• Fan Disservice: Basically the in-universe reaction Johnny (and eventually all the team) have with everything related to Shadow Rise. A hot teen idol with an hourglass figure wearing skimpy clothes? Sexy as hell. A vicious personality hellbent on mentally torturing the original Rise Kujikawa? Not so much.
• Faking the Dead: An ice clone fools Shadow Yukiko into thinking that Chie had been roasted by ignited oil, giving Tomoe time to complete an ice circle that froze her to the ground.
• Fetish: Just like in canon, Johnny has Formicophilia which is a fetish for bug bites. Johnny takes great pains to hide this when Chie reveals that the grasshopper might have bit her.
• Fire-Forged Friends: While most of the Investigation Team is friendly with one another, it takes a while form some of its members to truly connect with each other or so much as consider everyone more than just simple acquaintances or allies of convenience. This is especially the case with Johnny, who has trouble connecting with others, much less trusting them. By the time of the "Just Push Play" arc, Johnny truly considers the IT to be irreplaceable to him, especially when they decide to continue going to the TV World so he can get his legs back in working order.
• Flat "What": Johnny has a habit of giving this plus Precision F-Strike when reacting to some of the more outlandish Midnight Channel shows.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Turns out all men in the Zeppeli family are doctors and its expected that their sons do the same. Gyro wasn't exactly 100% okay with this idea and began to doubt that he even wanted to become a doctor.
• Foil: There are numerous examples through the fic.
  • Johnny and Gyro: Johnny is a scrawny crippled teen with a huge chip on his shoulder due to a Dark and Troubled Past, while also being a Jerkass to practically everyone. Gyro, while having his own Dark and Troubled Past, is a non-crippled teen who's very friendly and is able to socialize pretty well with nearly everyone. Also unlike Johnny, Gyro's generally very goofy and tells lame jokes which he thinks are hilarious.
  • Johnny and Chie: Johnny's a scrawny crippled teen who dresses very fashionably at any occasion. Chie's an active and physical Tomboy and considered One of the Guys. Also while Johnny's a Pragmatic Hero, Chie has a Black-and-White Morality.
  • Gyro and Naoto: Gyro's a generally goofy and friendly person who tells bad jokes and knows when it's appropriate to be serious. Naoto however is a very serious person who doesn't exactly know when to "turn off".
• Friendship Moment: As to be expected with ANY Persona fic. It's also somewhat played with in that while most of the cast is willing to befriend Johnny, it takes a long time for him to so much as reciprocate the gesture, much less go out of his way to try and connect with other people.
• From Dress to Dressing: Chie uses part of her skirt to patch herself up at one point.
• Genius Bruiser: Gyro is a strong and skilled farmhand and jocky as well as an excellent Combat Medic with encyclopedic medical knowledge.
• Genre Shift: The scenes involving Mitsuo and Morooka evoke the feelings of dread and discomfort from a horror movie or novel, unlike the game which both are from.
• Genre Throwback: To old-school Shounen manga/anime and Westerns much like Steel Ball Run.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Chie slaps Johnny both for what his Shadow revealed (The reason why he acts like such a jerk to her and Yosuke along with his suicide attempt) and to snap him out of his mantra of denial.
• Gorn: As a crossover with JoJo, the fic has its fair share of Shadows spewing out blood and the protagonists getting injuries that give off tons of blood.
• Groin Attack: Yosuke's even more of a magnet for this than canon, leading him to wonder if he can still have kids.
• Growling Gut: Much to Johnny's embarrassment.
• Happily Adopted: Subverted. Diego was taken in by their adoptive family, but their introductory chapter shows that said adoption was hardly done out of love. If there was, its long gone as a woman implied to be Diego's adoptive mother tells him the second he's of age, she'll have him thrown out into the street.
• Headbutting Heroes: Gyro and Naoto don't like each other that much. Most of their interactions together have them either subtly insulting each other or just plain making their dislike apparent.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Chie refuses to believe that her Mystery Food X really is that bad and eats some of it. She quickly joins Yosuke in suffering from its horribleness.
• Hope Spot:
  • At first, Johnny is overjoyed to discover he can feel his legs and move them in the TV World, thinking he can walk again...only to learn he's back to being disabled in the real world. Its subverted when subsequent visits to the TV World slowly, but gradually allow him to regain some feeling in his legs, but nowhere near as much as he does in the TV World.
  • There was a moment where the IT thought that Chie was going to defeat her Shadow without denying it, only for the inevitable to occur...
• Idiot Ball: Despite multiple warnings from Johnny and Chie, Yosuke's antics with the weapon replicas in Junes' food court lead to all three of them being arrested.
• Ignoring by Singing: Yosuke attempts this against his Shadow's words. Suffice to say it doesn't work.
• Ignore the Disability: Averted for Johnny. He uses it to justify not entering Deidara's during their first visit since he can't use any weapons effectively until his legs get stronger.
• I'll Kill You!: Johnny is understandably pissed after he breaks free from Shadow Mitsuo's dream world and declares his intent to kill the son of a bitch, his dark determination being in full effect, The Investigation Team however, stops him before he can succeed.
• Improbable Weapon User: Gyro's weapon of choice is a pair of steel balls, which he can transfer his persona Puck into.
• Ineffectual Loner: Played with. While Johnny doesn't actively set out to make friends, the Social Link system will create a bond between him and others whether he wants it to or not.
• Ingesting Knowledge: Shadow Rise does this by taking in fluids. This includes blood and saliva, which she gets by either licking any object that has blood on it or kissing Yosuke.
• Innocently Insensitive: Johnny had no way of knowing that his joke about late-night crashes would bring up bad memories about what happened to Dojima's wife/Nanako's mom.
• Involuntary Group Split: Inflicted on the Investigation Team by Shadow Yukiko, which leads to Chie fighting it by herself.
• It's All About Me: Shadow Johnny calls out his original on being nothing more than a self centered punk being incapable of owning up to his own mistakes.
• It Can Think: While some of the normal Shadows the Investigation Team encounters tend to be smarter than their appearances would suggest, the Shadow Selves are a step above, ranging from either their dungeons being tailored to psychologically attack their original or their abilities and powers after being rejected meant to reflect what their original wants to deny. In Shadow Rise's case, she's by far the most deadliest due to Ingesting Knowledge by absorbing bodily fluids.
• It's Personal: Shadow Yukiko and Chie both have their own personal grudges against one another and have a very personal fight.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It is revealed in Chapter 57 that Yukiko had feelings for Chie two years before the story takes place, wanting Chie to spent the rest of her life with her far from Inaba, which was reflected on her Shadow. However, she decided to let go and move on as Chie states she can't see Yukiko that way. It doesn't change the fact that the two remains as best friends.
• Jerkass Ball: Whenever Johhny's oversized ego is poked, he becomes a flat out Jerkass. TIM tends to use these periods to shelve Johnny and focus on other characters.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Johnny's a self-centered kid who's always more than willing to snark, is rude to family members, a hypocrite who holds some hatred for Yukiko due to what her Shadow said (despite going through the same thing), and doesn't really care for other people.That being said, Johnny's still willing to do the right thing when the chips are down and he does care for Yosuke and Chie, even if he denies that they are his friends.
• Just a Flesh Wound: Chie tries to pass off her injuries after fighting Shadow Yukiko as this, a lie that Johnny promptly calls her out on.
• Kill It with Fire: Yukiko tends to do this with her fire Persona, especially when finishing off Shadow Gyro.
• Lampshade Hanging: Johnny does this onto his unconscious JoJo-style posing. He admits it's slightly ridiculous, but also comments that it feels right. Even Chie is flabbergasted at how fashionable and loaded Johnny is when he's wearing an outfit straight from Gucci.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Avenging Knight is so fast that it puts a hole in Jiraiya's (and Yosuke's by extension) leg before Yosuke comprehends what just happened. Bonus points since Yosuke is the group's Fragile Speedster!
• The Load: Chie has this opinion of herself during the fight with Shadow Yosuke. Other than hitting the Shadow with her bat (hurting Yosuke himself in the process) she wasn't able to do anything to help the others.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Johnny definitely fits the bill, especially at the start of the story, where he is at his lowest point.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Shadow Mitsuo traps Johnny in one at the end of Chapter 52 and lasts all the way up to Chapter 54, meant to push him over the Despair Event Horizon. It almost worked until Johnny realized something was wrong.
• Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: Gyro Zeppeli's jokes. All of them. It isn't helped by the fact that he comes up with them on the spot and forms them by tying two seemingly unrelated things together without even so much as a single pun.
• Manly Tears: Johnny has these both when he learns that he can regain his ability to walk in the TV World, and again when he loses the ability upon his return.
• The Medic: Thanks to Personas such as Pixie (who's power is to heal small wounds on others by kissing the injury), Johnny has taken on this role. When Teddy joins as a fighter with Kintouki-Douji, Johnny promptly cedes this role to him as Teddy is able to restore entire lost limbs with just one usage of his Persona in a manner reminiscent of Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience.
• Misplaced Retribution: Johnny tends to project his bad relationship with his own father onto Dojima whenever he's in a bad mood.
• Mistaken for Racist: Thanks to living only in Japan, some of the Inaba residents assume national stereotypes with foreigners. For example, Chie thought that since Johnny is from the United States, he would naturally know everything about the English Language. She soon realizes how wrong that sounded when Johnny gives her a look.
• Motor Mouth: One of Noriyuki Kakyoin's dates Rin is so bad at this that everyone around her is pissed off by it. It's likely why Kakyoin ditches her the first chance he gets as she is also very vain and shallow.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Well, this is a JoJo fic. Washing dishes or eating ramen never has been so awe-worthy.
• Mutual Disadvantage: Averted and partially played straight when Johnny and Tusk fought against Shadow Yosuke. Tusk was unable to harm the Shadow with its attacks, Johnny had a partial resistance against the Shadow's wind attacks but was thrown into a wall and hurt anyway.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Remember how Chie is able to kill anything up to and including a miniboss with her Galactic Punt? Here she took down Shadow Yukiko with it and even uses the canon name!
  • Aika demonstrates her ability to simply know random facts as per Persona 4: The Animation by providing Johnny with a spoon and fork at Aiya's without being asked or being informed about his problems surrounding chopsticks.
  • Naoto wears what appears to be a copy of Jotaro's hat.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Chie realizes that actually attacking her Shadow just made it even more vicious once she denied it.
• Now It's My Turn: After weathering Chie's assault, her Shadow promptly returns the favor with interest.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The fate of all Shadows that are particularly sadistic and tough.
  • Shadow Kanji received one from Johnny, Chie, and Yosuke after trying to trick the group into forgiving it and letting it be.
  • Shadow Rise earned one for the sexual thrill she got from torturing them during the fight, the constant awkward sexual innuendo and mannerism before the fight, and mentally torturing Rise. Gyro was the one who delivered it to the Shadow, paying it back for all of its actions throughout the arc.
  • Both Shadow Mitsuo and his original get the shit kicked out of them by Johnny, who is ragingly fucking pissed after being put through the emotional hell that was the former's Lotus-Eater Machine. If it weren't for the Investigation Team, he would have followed through on his plan to kill Mitsuo.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Shadow Yukiko started out as camptastic ham but after she went berserk became one of the fics darkest and competent villains, with her fight with Chie being the bloodiest yet.
  • Shadow Rise started out as an awkward Shameless Fanservice Girl, but proved to be far more deadly than Shadow Yukiko. With a combination of tactics, an adaptable power-set, and taking joy in the pain it caused, Shadow Rise would have killed the entire group if it wasn't for Rise's acceptance and Teddie going "Bearzerk".
• Not So Stoic: Aika turns out to be this, subtly making fun of Johnny as he attempts to take the Mega Beef Bowl challenge.
• No Social Skills: Marie's so bad that she makes Johnny look downright suave by comparison.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Shadow Kanji's Camp Gay persona seems to be an act to an degree which he uses to confuse or unnerve his foes and to mask his surprisingly rational schemes, which is later confirmed when it drops the mask after it gets seriously hurt by Johnny's nail bullets.
• One-Hit Kill: Chie kills the Avenging Knight Shadow with a single powerful strike to its head.
• Only Sane Man: Chie is the only main character that conducts herself in a rational manner.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
  • Chie when she says that Kanji being gay is totally cool and that she hopes his date goes well. Needless to say, it causes...problems. She later admits that saying that was stupid.
  • Done when Yosuke assumes that Johnny is gay when the American states that he's not interested in girls, rather than just being asexual. Johnny is not amused by the assumption.
• Parental Issues:
  • Johnny's relationship with his father was not to the best, especially after Nicholas' death and not helped by Johnny acting emotionally immature at times. George considered him inferior to his older brother and even smacked him across the face one time. He takes out his frustrations on Dojima on a few occasions whenever he's unable to be there for Nanako.
  • It's revealed that Gyro also has a less than stellar relationship with his father.
• People Puppets: One of Shadow Chie's abilities, once she strikes an enemy with its whip.
• Personality Powers: Highlighted by Tusk\Morpheus.
  Tusk: I am thou... thou art I. From the sea of thy soul, I come forth. Thou refer to me as Tusk, and while I shall accept that name, my true name is Morpheus, Lord of Dreams.
• Phenotype Stereotype: Much of Johnny's casual wear has something to do with the colors red, white, and blue and also stars. However, it's not as bad as his initial canon outfit.
• Playing Sick: Johnny and co do this in order to skip school on the Monday after rescuing Rise. Their nausea from the day prior due to their injuries and blood loss help to sell the idea, even though they had pretty much recovered the next day. Kanji however is forced to keep going to school because of mandatory attendance, and Rise is still recovering.
• Potty Failure: One of things that hurts Johnny upon discovering his disability after being shot is that he's soiled himself, and that's just ONE of the things he realizes on the worst day of his life.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Chie seemingly thrashes her Shadow, only for it to reveal that it is perfectly fine and had faked its injuries.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs:
  • Yosuke puts Jiraiya's A-Ranked Speed to good use, which seems to be in Star Platinum's range.
  • Inverted with Chie's Tomoe Gozen who attacks with Rapid Fire Kickticuffs.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Johnny buys a bunch of pins that girls would normally wear to make his casual clothes and uniform look better.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: When Mitsuo traps Johnny in a Lotus Eater Effect, and keeps ranting about how hollow everyone is, Gyro is absolutely scathing to him.

^{Warning, it's very long} —>Gyro Zeppeli: I'll summarize your whole world view, and I'm doing it because it's so pathetic and childish that I can't help but see it a mile away. You...Or the real sad sack of shit who'll need a good prison dentist soon, aren't exactly the most social types. You've got niche hobbies like reading comics and playing video games. Maybe your parents ribbed you once or twice hopping that would get a different interest, only for that to not pan out. Hey, it happens. And talking to other people is so much work! You gotta bullshit and talk to them about crap you don't care about, so you try to force conversations to go your way so you feel included and not just the quiet guy hanging around at the fringes of the group. Only...they stop going to you. They start hanging around in their own circle of friends who share a lot more in common with them, leaving you to the side. And what do you do in response? You stop making the effort. You don't understand what you did wrong. As far as you're concerned, it's everyone else's fault! They didn't understand you! They couldn't accept you!
Shadow Mitsuo: Because that is the nature of humanity. Bonds are...
Gyro Zeppeli: Oh spare me that bullshit. It wasn't the nature of humanity. They just got sick of your whiny uncompromising bullshit and decided you weren't worth the effort. Because you didn't try to meet them halfway, and that's what actual friendships are about. To get things back on track, you then decide that going outside is too much work! So you just sit inside playing video games or jerking off. Because, hey, at least you're impressing the forums and those cute cartoon girls think you're cool!
Shadow Mitsuo: Please. Validation from other humans as I am are...
Gyro Zeppeli: Empty? Because they had lives of their own? You...The real you...Probably saw that less and less of his fans were returning. The chat rooms were getting bare. Because, hey! Turns out they had school, or maybe they were going out to the movies with some friends! Maybe even going out on a date! All of them, living their lives with people other than your sorry ass. Hell, and you even knew that the guys who made the porn you love so much have careers. They had aspirations and were doing what they loved. Meanwhile, there you were. Just jacking off alone in front of your computers or televisions.
Shadow Mitsuo:...Be silent.
Gyro Zeppeli: Why? Because I'm getting warm? It wasn't fair to you, was it? That everyone but you seemed to have a life. That couldn't be true, could it? So what did the big and strong Mitsuo the great do? He told himself one lie. That deep down, everyone was no different than him.
Shadow Mitsuo: Be silent.
Gyro Zeppeli: It's pretty damn pathetic now that I say it aloud. But then in came Johnny, and you thought you had him all figured out when you latched onto him like a leech. Here was somebody that seemed to fit your idea of another human being. Someone who was rude, that was prickly, and had a niche hobby. Someone who, apparently, had issues nobody could possibly understand. But you saw one thing. One thing that separated Johnny Joestar from Mitsuo Kubo. He tries. He feels out of place whenever he talks to us. Sometimes he doesn't even want to be with us. He hesitates and sometimes says a bunch of shit like a jerk. But you know what? He apologizes when that happens. He still makes an effort, even when there's no gain for him. He doesn't believe in relationships are something he wins a gold star for attending. He tries...meanwhile, you just sit in your room playing video games. You run and hide, like a coward.
Shadow Mitsuo: Be silent! You know nothing, Gyro Zeppeli! You, who were without the crushing loneliness! You who have it all, and would be just as empty as I without them! Johnny Joestar is seeing that! He knows as well as I do what empty lives humans lead! How bonds between friends and family are the barest of playacting...
Gyro Zeppeli: Oh spare me, you big baby. You didn't stick Johnny in that dream world because you thought he was like you. You put him in there because you hated how he was everything you weren't. In conclusion, humans aren't empty. We don't just ditch each other whenever a relationship becomes inconvenient. And maybe...It was just you the entire time.

• Religion Is Wrong: Averted. Johnny says that while he doesn't believe in religion, it does not mean that he sees it as something to mock or be treated as wrong. He just does not believe in it.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Rohan is strongly implied to retain knowledge of his original timeline as he almost casually namedrops Josuke and visibly reacts when Johnny introduces himself as a Joestar, even asking him if he's related or knows about Jotaro or Joseph.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In-Universe. Chapter 57 introduces Diego Brando, who is currently dealing with a severe scandal that could potentially put an end to his career. The reception surrounding said scandal is so bad he calls his manager and aims to head to Inaba to lay low.
• Run or Die: After their fight with Shadow Rise, the two choices the group have when confronted with Shadow Teddie are stay and fight (and very likely die in the process) or run. Their answer? The Joestar Secret Technique.
  Johnny/Gyro: RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIVES!
• Sadist: Most of the Shadows are this, enjoying the pain and suffering that they put their original selves through and also those who choose to defend them.
• Sarcasm-Blind:
  • Teddie is definitely this, Johnny even lampshades that bears just don't seem to understand sarcasm.
  • Gyro seems to be this as well, as he takes Johnny's sarcasm about his jokes as a compliment.
• Self-Titled Album: Sayaka Kasshoku's band, the Runaway Suns, have a demo with their band name as a title. Understandable because it is their (hopefully) debut album.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Johnny has a rather foul mouth that would put the likes of Katsuki Bakugou to shame. Some of the Shadow Selves aren't much better either.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Shadow Rise, who constantly draws attention to her breasts and butt as well as run her hands through her body. Nobody likes it, and quickly find the Shadow's actions awkward and uncomfortable due to how much of Shadow Rise's personality is different compared to the real Rise's dour demeanor, and the fact that she's a sadistic bitch.
• Shock and Awe:
  • Izanagi can hit enemies with lightning bolts.
  • Shadow Kanji's "Ride the Lightning" ability, which lets him discharge lightning through the gender symbols he carries.
• Shout-Out: As is to be expected from a JoJo crossover, the story features several horror and music shout-outs, with each chapter and arc named after specific songs like Achtung Baby or Just Push Play.
• Ship Tease: As of Chapter 48, Johnny and Chie start growing particularly close to each other. Chapter 54 even features Chie being the one to comfort him and letting him pour his heart out and cry on her shoulder after going through some serious emotional hell from Shadow Mitsuo's manipulations.
• Smug Snake:
  • Shadow Chie is far too arrogant for her own good, constantly gloating and making Bond villain mistakes. Yosuke takes full advantage of this.
  • Shadow Kanji is also this with a sprinkling of sadism. This backfires ''spectacularly' by giving Johnny and the gang too much time in the end to turn the tables because it gloated rather than just killing Johnny right away.
• So Unfunny, It's Funny: Practically all of Gyro Zeppeli's "original gags" and jokes.
• Spotting the Thread: Johnny manages to spot some inconsistencies while in Shadow Mitsuo's dream world. The ones that stick out to him the most is Kanji off-handedly mentioning their battle with Mitsuo and his "inner voice" reminding him they defeated Mitsuo so as to keep him from suspecting something. In the former case, the Investigation Team's confrontation with Mitsuo is something they wouldn't tell anyone they didn't know, and in the latter case, which is the biggest red flag and what clues him in is that Johnny can't remember how they defeated Mitsuo's Shadow.
• Synchronization: Much closer to how Stands are connected to their users than the Personas in Persona 4: The Animation. In here, when the Personas are injured, the exact same damage is done to the users. Clothes are also wrecked and bloodied as a result, causing the Investigation Team to bring extra outfits to change in once the mission in the TV World is done.
• Take That!:
  • Johnny doesn't have any positive feelings towards the Harem Genre.
  • Johnny's summarization of H. P. Lovecraft is simply "paranoid racist". Also has some Truth in Television.
  • Shadow Rise makes Rise's not-so positive feelings towards Vocaloids apparent.
• Taking the Bullet: During the fight with Shadow Kanji, Johnny summons Izanagi and uses him to take the brunt of one of Shadow Kanji's lightning attacks.
• Tempting Fate: Johnny hopes that he won't regret going along with Yosuke to town with Noriyuki and his date. Cut to him regretting it a lot.
• Trauma Conga Line: In the end you can't help but feel sorry for and understand Johnny. At the age of seven his big brother dies, thanks to a white mouse that may or may not have been Johnny's recently freed pet Danny and making Johnny constantly blame himself since. At the age of fourteen Johnny has to hear from his dad that NONE of the awards and achievements he earned since becoming a jockey mattered since he's not his brother, and has never visited even ONE of Johnny's races. Johnny then gets into a fight with and nearly kills his own father (In his older brother's own room, much to Johnny's shame) and has to hear his father say that Johnny should have been killed instead of his brother. Not even a few hours after that Johnny is yearning to feel accepted by someone, even if it's his bitchy date of the week. He kicks a guy out of a club line to prove himself to said date, and gets shot in the back as a result. He then wakes up in a hospital, finds out he's crippled, spends a lot of his time crying and laying in his own filth with neither any of his false friends, date, or his father visiting him. Even worse, Johnny was also regularly abused mentally and mistreated by a sadistic nurse during his stay at the hospital after the incident that took away his legs. Needless to say, Johnny has a LOT of issues.
• True Companions: Already evident in the fledgling Investigation Team, a major example being Johnny willing to risk his life to help Yosuke.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Johnny, Yosuke, and Chie fit this rather well.
  • The Spock: Johnny
  • The Kirk: Yosuke
  • The McCoy: Chie
• Uncle Pennybags: Yosuke jokes about using Johnny like this, prompting an angry reply from Chie. Good thing too, since Johnny's "old friends" and the girl he had a crush on hung out with him partly due to his wealth.
• The Un-Favourite: Johnny was considered inferior to his late brother by their father which led to a lot of complications between the two.
• Unwanted Harem: Noriyuki certainly seems to feel this way in regards to the girls clamoring for his attention.
• Villainous Breakdown: Shadow Kanji absolutely loses its shit when Johnny is able to actually harm it. Completely throwing away its Camp Gay persona in order to threaten to kill Johnny in the most crass way possible.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Yosuke really lays it down to Johnny for hating Yukiko for the things her Shadow said, and calls him a hypocrite since he went through the same thing and he also forgave him and Chie for what their Shadows said.
  • Surprisingly, given to both Chie and Johnny by each other. Chie accuses Johnny of not giving a damn about the people who care about him and consider him their friend by not thinking about them, and Johnny accuses Chie of not really getting the reasoning behind why he performed his actions to gain Gyro's respect. In the end, both agree that they were wrong and make up.
  • During the camping trip, Kanji, Chie, and Yukio all take Yosuke to task for his homophobia towards Kanji (although Kanji does try to prevent it from turning into a witch hunt).
  • Johnny and Yukiko, of all people, give one to Gyro, accusing him of not taking his leadership position seriously enough, pointing out his tendency of doing whatever is easier instead of what should be right, of not taking charge at all and going with the flow, and, worst of all, of having not ambition or drive at all, being an aimless person living by superficially and half-hearteningly satisfying whatever expectations other people have for him. This would have been bad enough, even if they hadn't choice to do their call-out in the middle of Rise's Dungeon.
• Wicked Cultured: Subverted with Shadow Yukiko. She thinks of herself as a flawless princess when she has the gravitas and dignity of a drag queen on cocaine.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Shadow Kanji tries this, saying that if the party lets him go he'll leave them alone while also trying to grasp for its weapon. Gyro spotted the action, and knocked it away. Johnny, Chie, and Yosuke were not amused.
  • Shadow Rise does it more effectively, setting a trap by feigned distress and attracting Gyro, Chie and Kanji.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Despite all of the smarts Johnny shows in combat, when it comes too the overall themes of the Persona-verse he couldn't be more wrong. He seems to think he's in a Dark Age comic book when in Persona 4 Rousseau Was Right is in effect nine times out of ten.
  • While Dojima is a competent police officer, he has no idea about the supernatural element involved with the murders and finds himself completely flatfooted. Word of God states that he essentially thinks he’s in Law & Order when in reality he’s in ''Twin Peaks'.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Shadows will go One-Winged Angel. No exceptions.
• You Didn't Ask: Frequently stated by Teddie when the others wonder why he didn't mention potentially important information earlier.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Johnny's word-for-word reaction to Shadow Rise's clones.
• Yuri Fanboy: Both Johnny and Yosuke became very interested when Shadow Yukiko hits on Chie.

---