Rin Kurusu was falsely charged with assault and thrown into a new start as a criminal in the big city against her will. With a haunted past following her and a previous life of solitude, she hopes to make the most of a new start. However as soon as she arrives she is thrust into a game of fate as a Trickster and a Phantom Thief. With the help of her new friends and fellow Phantom Thieves she fights against the distortions and herself to find her true self again.
A retelling of Persona 5 with a female protagonist written by RSturman
. Similar to Persona 3 Portable, there are some changes due to the different gender of the protagonist, but there are more alterations in this story by comparison. The author credits Dowdz of Crimson AU fame for providing inspiration for the story.
As of February 2022, the story is currently ongoing at 141 chapters with updates every Sunday. It can be read here.
Tropes found in this fanfiction:
- Adaptation Deviation: In this story, the events of Persona 5 Strikers occur 3 years after the end of the original game rather than half a year.
- Adaptation Expansion: Makoto's character arc is expanded upon due to her making an earlier debut.
- Adaptational Badass: In this story, Rin is already an experienced athlete in gymnastics, and she is able to utilize her abilities both in the real world and the Metaverse. She also takes far more beatings than Ren did in canon, and she is no worse for wear.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: While Makoto can make cameo appearances during Kamoshida's arc, she doesn't make her true debut until the Madarame Arc. In this story, her first appearance is in Chapter 10, and it is prior to the Phantom Thieves stealing Kamoshida's treasure.
- Adaptational Intelligence: While Ren can become extremely intelligent in the game and eventually get the top score in class, Rin is able to get the top spot in both the midterm and final exam of the first semester.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Sae Niijima is far more hostile towards Rin in this story than in the game because she knows Rin and Makoto are friends. Subverted at the end of sixth arc where she does warm up to her.
- Kamoshida is considerably worse than in canon.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Makoto Niijima is generally a good person in canon, but she is far less hostile towards Rin partly because they met and befriended each other prior to Makoto being recruited by Principal Kobakawa to investigate the Phantom Thieves.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Rin has a habit of flicking her friends foreheads as a sign of affection.
- Always Someone Better: When Makoto joins the group, Rin makes it clear she views Makoto as being superior to her in intelligence.
- Anger Born of Worry: Rin has a tendency to cause Makoto to experience this, especially in Chapter Fifty-Two.
- Attempted Rape:
- As with canon, Kamoshida attempted to force Ann to having relations with him before Rin convinced her not give into his demands. Kamoshida attempted to rape Makoto. He then attempted to rape Rin due to her interference. It is implied he tried doing it to Yoshizawa before Rin interrupted their conversation. His shadow attempting to rape Rin was another reason for Ryuji's awakening.
- Kaneshiro orders his men to rape Rin and Makoto, but they are stopped by the timely arrival of the other Phantom Thieves.
- Badass in Distress: In Chapter 32, both Rin and Makoto are subjected to this when they are captured by Kaneshiro's men with Rin getting far worse treatment.
- Berserk Button: Rin loses it when Ryuji indicates he cares more about making the Phantom Thieves popular rather than actually helping people. They make up later.
- On a different note, Rin's Berserk Button is betrayal. The Royal Arc slams this button HARD as from Rin's perspective, her friends abandoned her for a fake (if well-intentioned) reality in order to fulfil their own wishes, making everything they went through as Phantom Thieves All for Nothing. Rin even considers breaking up with Makoto as she is seemingly happy in this reality, although thankfully she doesn't go through with it.
- Both Sides Have a Point: In Chapter Fifty-Two, Rin was right that she needed to do what she did to protect the Phantom Thieves, but Makoto was right that Rin was reckless and nearly got herself killed as a result.
- The Bus Came Back: Philemon appears in Chapter 136.
- But Not Too Foreign: Ann and Rin both have a quarter of Western blood. In Rin's case, she has British blood in her.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Subverted. Rin originally didn't have any intention of revealing the fact that she occasionally hears voices or experiences hallucinations until Morgana witnessed her having an episode. She eventually tells Ryuji and Ann after they celebrated their first victory as Phantom Thieves, and she tells the later additions of Yusuke and Makoto.
- Crush Blush: Both Rin and Makoto are prone to this, but it is unknown either of them understand their feelings for each other extend beyond friendship.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Rin has severe mental issues that are reoccurring throughout the story. It gets to the point she hears voices and even suffers hallucinations. While Ren does have some trauma that is highlighted in the game, it is small by comparison.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: In all of the above mentioned beatdowns, Rin was not in a position to continue moving afterwards in the immediate aftermath. For the gymnastics assault, she spent months in the hospital. For Kamoshida and Kaneshiro, she needed some amateur medical attention from her fellow Phantom Thieves and took at least a day before attempting to return to the metaverse. After her interrogation, Rin's injuries are so severe that she needs Takemi to treat them, and it takes the next couple of chapters before she's recovered enough to explore Shido's palace.
- Forced to Watch: During Chapter 32, Makoto is unable to prevent Rin's injuries at the hands of Kaneshiro's men.
- Rin's former gymnastics team later ambushes her and Makoto while they are hanging out and plan to do this to Rin by hurting Makoto in front of her. Fortunately averted when Rin manages to drag them into the Metaverse and uses her Persona to intimidate them into leaving her and her friends alone.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Invoked by Maruki. Rin was friends with Kasumi and Sumire before Kasumi's death and Rin receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from her former gymnastics team. Although Rin became a lot more reclusive as a result, she would recognise something was up with Sumire if they ever met, so Maruki erases her memories of the twins during a meeting between them, while also erasing some of Rin's memories of her trauma in order to help her come out of her shell.
- Gender Flip: The premise of this story is the idea of a female protagonist.
- Groin Attack: During their downtime, Rin accidentally hits a ball into Ryuji's groin to which she apologizes for while Ann can't help but laugh.
- Healing Factor: Some of the injuries Rin receives are rather major. While the way they are portrayed are somewhat realistic and she does receive medical attention, she seems to fully recover from them in record time.
- Heroic BSoD: It is played seriously and for laughs.
- It is played for laughs in Chapter 22 when Yusuke blackmails Rin and Anne into posing nude for him in exchange for Ryuji not getting sued. Rin's reaction is far worse than Anne's was in either canon or this story.
- It is serious in Chapter 42 when Rin's former gymnastics team meets her and her friends.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Downplayed. Rin doesn't deny her accomplishments or intelligence, but she does downplay them, or she indicates someone, such as Makoto, is better than her.
- Locked into Strangeness: Rin's hair suddenly becomes platinum blonde, Sumire's gets brunette highlights, and Akechi's gets a black shimmer. Maruki theorizes this has something to due with how they forcefully removed themselves from his actualization, with the colors representing Rin's trying to balance herself while dealing with her mental issues, Sumire's wish to become her sister, and Akechi being more open with his dark side.
- Love Revelation Epiphany: Rin and Makoto experience this in Chapter 54, but the moment is ruined by Morgana. They both privately reflect on it to confirm their feelings.
- Major Injury Underreaction: For a majority of the injuries Rin suffers throughout the story, she takes it in stride for the most part. Some of the characters, especially Morgana have expressed concern regarding this.
- Moment Killer: Quite a few moments between Rin and Makoto are ruined during the story by others.
- Morgana kills a moment between Rin and Makoto in Chapter 54.
- Akechi and later Sae interrupt moments between Rin and Makoto in Chapter 87.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In Chapter 30, Makoto experiences when she confronts Rin with a recording proving she is a Phantom Thief. It triggers a mental problem for Rin which nearly causes her to lose it, and it nearly destroys the friendship they had.
- Mysterious Past: In Chapter 53, Chihaya reveals that she used her fortune telling to find out that Rin is forgetting something important, but she has no idea what that possibly could be.
- Mythology Gag: The fact that Rin has British blood in her might be a reference to how Ann pretends to have British blood during Shido's Palace.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: As of Chapter 48, Rin has been subjected no less than four of them. Chronologically speaking, the first one occurs prior to her obtaining a criminal record.
- In her backstory, she was assaulted by her former gymnastic team members, so she could be eliminated from being chosen as a representative. It resulted her in being in the hospital for months.
- In Chapter 10, Rin was beaten by Kamoshida after she prevents him from raping Makoto.
- In Chapter 32, Rin and Makoto are both captured by Kaneshiro's men, and she gets far worse treatment than Makoto.
- As with the canon game, Rin is subjected to this by the corrupt police before she is interrogated by Sae Niijima.
- Not What It Looks Like: In Chapter 51, Sojiro sees Rin and Makoto return to Leblanc, and he assumes they 'spent a long time alone' with each other. It takes Makoto to convince him that was not the case.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Subverted. When Rin is injured in the confrontations with Kamoshida and Kaneshiro, she tries to act like she can still function properly. However, it quickly proves to not be the case.
- Parental Abandonment: The parental issues the Phantom Thieves have in the original game is the same in this story, but it is more pronounced with Rin. Even before she was falsely arrested, she hardly saw her parents. She can barely remember the last time she interacted with them.
- Parental Neglect: Along with Parental Abandonment, they never really took care of Rin before the incident with Shido. According to Rin, she never could do anything to please them.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It goes without saying that Kamoshida's actions against Shiho and what he attempted to do to Ann, Makoto, and Rin make the Phantom Thieves hate him far more than other targets. Kaneshiro is a close second.
- Shipper on Deck: Kaneshiro is a twisted deconstruction of this trope. While he had Rin and Makoto in his custody, he seemed mildly amused by how protective Rin and Makoto were of each other. In the real world, he sent Makoto pictures of the room he planned on putting her and Rin in as well as a bunch of photos of Rin being stalked to get a rise out of her. He also calls Rin to get a rise out of her in regards to Makoto's safety. In his cognition, he depicts the two of them in his designated room making out while hopped up on drugs and alcohol.
- In Chapter 47, Sojiro is a more healthy depiction of a Shipper on deck for Rin and Makoto.
- Spanner in the Works: Kamoshida lampshades that Rin has prevented him from having his way with multiple female students.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Akechi is still alive despite him seemingly meeting his end in Shido's Palace and Maruki's reality bringing him back being undone. Akechi suspects that Rin is responsible for this due to her determination to keep him alive.
- Stalker with a Crush: When Makoto in investigating the Phantom Thieves, she also appears to be developing affection of Rin even if she doesn't admit it.
- Stalker without a Crush: Kaneshiro has Rin and Makoto stalked prior to his change of heart.
- The Tease: Takemi takes a lot of joy in flustering Rin.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Subverted. At times, Rin believes she has overcome the voices and hallucinations. However, in Chapter 30, she has a near relapse when Makoto inadvertently triggers an episode. Afterwards, Rin once again believes she has overcome this issue. However, it is unlikely that is the case.
- Undying Loyalty: As best illustrated in Chapter 42, the Phantom Thieves are this to Rin when they stand up for her against her former gymnastics team, and she likewise returns the sentiment.
- Would Hit a Girl: Kamoshida does not hesitate to beat Rin to a bloody pulp, neither do Kaneshiro's men, nor do the cops.
