Fanfic / Breaking (all the) Things

Breaking (all the) Things is a completed Peggy Sue Persona 5 fanfic, in which Goro Akechi dies in Shido's palace only to wake up a year earlier and immediately change the timeline, preventing the Phantom Thieves from coming into existence. The story is written by VampireBadger, the author of the Forewarned is Forearmed series and published on Archive of Our Own which can be found here.

This fanfic provides examples of

• Abusive Dad: Judge Kurusu may not be violent, but he is a controlling asshole with no indication of love for or trust in his son. He grounds Akira for simply being at the scene of Shido's assault and then refuses to believe his version of events over the false witness report, before forcing Akira to thank him for, as he puts it, "making sure I didn't end up with a criminal record after I messed up." He subsequently puts parental controls on Akira's phone, and gets furious with him when he takes a trip to Tokyo and claims he was looking for his mother. It's later confirmed that he was no better to his wife Hina, who walked out on him and Akira years earlier. Later, it's also revealed that he lied to his wife just so she won't get to have custody of Akira after she walked out on the family and lied to Akira as well about his mother not wanting to see him just to satisfy his need of control over them both.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: As a result of Akechi's actions, Akira is never framed for assault. While his home life is shown to be very bad, he eventually moves to Tokyo after his parents are arrested, where Sojiro is far less hostile to him and the Shujin rumor mill concludes he's an oddball who's into the occult rather than a psychotic criminal. It's later discussed by Akechi in the final chapter as he noticed that the Akira in the original timeline was more withdrawn than the one he knew in the newer timeline and surmised that the reaction Akira's Abusive Dad had on Akira's false arrest had a bigger effect on him more than he lets on. Since Akechi didn't get Akira falsely accused in the new timeline, the Akira he gets to know is a lot more honest with himself and of his opinions. To fix that, Akechi offers to help the original timeline Akira to save and change the heart of Akira's mother.
• Adaptational Badass: Futaba awakens to a combat-capable Persona that uses Fire attacks and status buffs instead of a navigation-based Persona, as a result of Akechi leaving her and Morgana to face her Palace by themselves. As a result, she can easily fight on the front lines alongside the rest of her team.
• Adaptational Heroism: Due to Akechi's interference, the woman from the original arrest incident never perjures herself framing Akira for assault.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • In the game, Sojiro is introduced as having No Sympathy for the protagonist despite evidently believing his version of events over the official story, telling him he should have minded his own business. In this story he's a lot more sympathetic when they finally meet albeit under different circumstances, since his parents both being arrested on corruption charges is not by any stretch of the imagination Akira's fault.
  • Kawakami initially started out stand-offish to Joker in canon and it took until starting her Confidant for Kawakami to give him some slack. Due to Akira transferring to Shujin and being aware that he transferred due to his parents being arrested, Kawakami is a lot more sympathetic to him. It also helps that by that point, Kamoshida is no longer part of the faculty so there's no one to spread out or leak Akira's record or reason of transfer.
• Adaptational Villainy: The original Sae had nothing to do with Akira's arrest, and interrogated him genuinely (and correctly) believing he was a Phantom Thief. This Sae proves willing to arrest a teenager she has no actual evidence against purely to use against Sojiro, dismissive of the fact that his entire life could be ruined as collateral damage.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Akira doesn't awaken to his Persona until Sae's Palace, and awakens a navigation Persona instead of a combat one. He displays the potential to use the Wild Card, but never actually does so over the course of the story.
  • Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, and Kasumi never awaken to their Personas and remain normal humans, never joining the Phantom Thieves as a result.
  • Royal's third semester villain Takuto Maruki never discovers the Phantom Thieves' identities, never befriends them, and never becomes the new God of Control in the new timeline. Akechi notes that he's just living his normal life. This is justified as Akechi is studying in a different school and didn't recruit any of the canonical thieves sans Akira, Morgana, Futaba and Haru and as such, none of them had a chance to actually interact with Maruki or give him cause to suspect the presence of the Metaverse.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Akira's life before being framed and sent to Tokyo is greatly expanded on. His father is emotionally abusive and deeply controlling, and he's a bit isolated as a result. His mother walked out on them seven years ago and has no interest in being a part of her son's life (or so his father claims - he said the opposite to her in order to drive a wedge between the two and keep him under his thumb).
  • The woman from the assault incident, Megumi Kawaguchi, is given a name and some backstory. She notes that Shido refused to allow her to come to Tokyo to visit him, and that she is pregnant with his child.
• Adaptation Name Change: Akira's code name is Navi instead of Joker, emphasizing his different powerset and how different of a human being he's become due to Akechi's changes to the timeline.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Unlike canon, Akira finds Igor very unnerving and hostile. He also befriends Justine and Caroline far quicker than in canon.
• Asshole Victim: Akira himself has complicated feelings on the matter when he learns that his father has been arrested on bribery charges following his mother also being arrested. But considering how much of a controlling Abusive Parent Mr. Kurusu was, it's very difficult to give the man sympathy.
• Berserk Button: When Akira confronts Akechi about being the only person who could have given his description to the police, Akechi is able to coolly dismiss the accusation until Akira lets slip that Megumi, the woman Shido was assaulting, is pregnant, and is incensed to realize that Shido is putting another woman through the same thing his mother went through.
• Blaming the Victim: Exaggerated. Akira's father blames and punishes Akira merely for being present when a violent situation occurred that escalated into a police report.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Despite Akechi changing things, Akira still gets brought to Tokyo as an indirect consequence of Akechi's later actions.
• Canon Character All Along: A variation, Akechi is already a canon character to begin with, but the final chapter reveals that this specific version of Akechi is also the Akechi who's playable in the third semester of Royal, having been taken from the new timeline he created and brought to the canon Royal timeline by Maruki. When he disappeared at the end of Royal, it was explained as him returning to the new timeline instead of staying in Maruki's reality.
• Control Freak: Akira's father treats everything about Akira's life as his personally to control. Akira's mother even notes later on that to him, getting custody of his son was less because he wanted him in his life or wanted to raise him and more because he wanted to take away their choices in the matter.
• Crossover: This takes place in the same multiverse as the author's Forewarned is Forearmed series, and the story Thieves Guild has the two Akiras meet each other in the Velvet Room.
• Death by Adaptation: It's eventually revealed that Kamoshida killed himself after his change of heart, because Ann, who wasn't a Phantom Thief in the new timeline, didn't say anything to stop him.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Among the original Phantom Thieves, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, and Kasumi are only mentioned a couple of times in passing. Ryuji is an outright non-factor.
  • Among the targets, Kaneshiro and Maruki are reduced from major Arc Villains to minor annoyances that Akechi swats offscreen.
• Didn't Think This Through: Akechi's first action is preventing Akira from being falsely accused by Shido by punching him first. However, Akechi belatedly realizes that without Akira, the Phantom Thieves will never come to be and the lack of Phantom Thieves means that there won't be anybody strong enough to stop Shido. This forces Akechi to fix things by becoming the founder of the Phantom Thieves himself so they can change the hearts of the Palace owners that they had originally gone after in the original timeline.
• Dirty Cop: Somewhat ironically, the same police department who would have screwed Akira over on Shido's orders in the original timeline, were willing to bury the false witness report against him thanks to Judge Kurusu's influence.
• Driven to Suicide: Kamoshida takes his own life out of guilt after his change of heart.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Futaba does not take it well when she learns Akechi, a man she trusted and considered a friend, was the one who murdered her mother.
• Heel–Face Turn: Akechi gradually makes one, having realized that his plan for revenge was doomed from the start and that he now has a chance to find a better way. The issue is complicated by the fact that a lot of the murders he committed had already happened in the current timeline, particularly Wakaba Isshiki, and it's mentioned that he's still carrying out at least some mental shutdowns on Shido's orders, as much as he's come to hate them.
• I Choose to Stay: The final chapter has Akechi affirm to the Akira from his original timeline that he'd rather refuse Maruki's deal so he could get back to the new timeline where he is more at home with the Phantom thieves that he created and founded, instead of the one that Akira himself started and founded in the original timeline. As far as Akechi's concerned, he has no place in the original timeline anymore. Once he hears the reason, Akira takes Akechi's decision in stride and rejects Maruki's deal to send Akechi back home to the new timeline.
• I Have No Son!: Akira's father disowned him in the original timeline after the arrest incident.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • While Akechi's actions prevented Akira from being arrested, he eventually ends up being forced to move to Tokyo, still living with Sojiro and going to Shujin, as a result of Akechi getting Akira's parents arrested instead.
  • Akechi noticed that some things had stayed the same from the previous timeline such as the Medjed plan and Akira being brought to Tokyo, even if he's months late, and Akira still befriending some of the original Phantom Thieves such as Haru.
  • Akira is still suspected to be a Phantom Thief despite his lack of involvement with them in this current timeline. All because of Contrived Coincidence, and The Call Knows Where You Live combined that ensures that Akira still gets involved with the Metaverse. This later led to Akira being arrested again and face the Police Brutality he suffered in the previous timeline despite Akira being innocent and uninvolved at the time he was arrested.
  • Sae still attempts to confront and interrogate Sojiro about Wakaba's research to advance and get progress with the mental shutdown cases despite of Akechi's efforts to deter her from getting to Leblanc. However, instead of threatening Sojiro's custody of Futaba, Sae attempts to threaten Sojiro's custody of Akira and tried to frame him for being a Phantom Thief to get Sojiro to hand over what research he had from Wakaba.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Chapter 7 reveals to Akira that Morgana is a sentient being and not a cat.
  • In Chapter 10, the full story of Akechi's past crimes and his actions in the previous timeline are revealed to the team.
• Irony: Several examples occur, and some veering into Dramatic Irony:
  • In the original timeline, the Dirty Cops that screwed Akira over in the original timeline are now protecting him due to the influence of Akira's father. Though said father does it for himself instead of any concern for Akira.
  • When Akechi realizes why Haru was even a part of the Phantom Thieves in the original timeline due to the biometric lock, Akechi realizes the Okumura heist is potentially going to be doomed without her. Right after he thinks so, the next scene shows Akira befriending Haru.
  • When Morgana mentions how Akira had the Metanav on his phone and Akechi is worried that he might enter the Metaverse alone, Futaba and Morgana both dismiss the concern and say that Akira is smarter than that. The next scene shows Caroline and Justine suggesting that Akira use the app.
• It's All About Me: Judge Kurusu spells this out when he tells Akira that it doesn't even matter if the witness who described him is lying.
  Kurusu: Just getting your name tied to something like this can ruin your reputation. And, more importantly, my reputation. There is no good reason for you to be involving yourself in a situation with the police.
  Akira: Someone was being hurt. And some crazy guy jumped out of nowhere and attacked the guy that was attacking her. I wanted to see if she was okay.
  Kurusu: That is absolutely not a good enough excuse.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Akira's father is unnecessarily hostile towards his son and speaking from a position of selfishness, but he's absolutely correct in that Akira came that close to ruining his own life by getting involved with the domestic dispute that got him charged with assault in the original timeline.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After Akechi changes Hina Kurusu's heart, she turns herself in for various white collar crimes, bringing a lot of people down with her including her estranged husband, who gets arrested on bribery charges. In the final chapter, Akechi later helps the original timeline Akira to do the same to fight back against his Abusive Dad and give his mother some justice and freedom from his Abusive Dad's control.
• Late to the Tragedy: Akira goes off to visit his mother in prison while Akechi, Futaba, Haru and Morgana all head out to deal with trying to fight the Holy Grail and are later imprisoned in the Velvet Room under the false Igor's captivity. Akira has to enter the Velvet Room on his own to find his answers and later rescue them.
• Locked Out of the Loop: By the time the story reaches Sae's Palace, Akira is at the center of no less than three factions' plans against each other (the Phantom Thieves are trying to protect him and themselves and eventually recruit him, Sae plans to arrest him as blackmail against Sojiro, the Conspiracy plans to scapegoat and kill him for the Phantom Thieves business), and remains blissfully unaware of all of it.
• Misplaced Retribution: Igor reads Akira the riot act for refusing to start his rehabilitation, ignoring the fact that it was Akechi's interference that sent his destiny awry and that Akira has no idea what "rehabilitation" means. And that's not getting into the fact that it was actually "Igor" himself who put Akechi in place to interfere in the first place.
• Missed the Call: The premise of the story is that Akechi goes back in time and punches Shido in the face, preventing Akira from being sent to Tokyo and becoming leader of the Phantom Thieves. It's discussed in the final chapter when Akira jokes with Akechi about how he keeps missing the action because of Akechi.
• Missing Mom: Hina Kurusu walked out on her controlling husband and their son seven years earlier, moving to Tokyo and living in an apartment her husband agreed to pay for as long as she didn't ask for a divorce. It's later revealed that Mr. Kurusu had lied to her that Akira didn't want to see her when she wanted to fight and have a shared custody of their son, and he also lied to Akira that his mother doesn't want to see him, all to satisfy his Control Freak tendencies.
• Mythology Gag: In Chapter 7, when Akira takes Morgana to a vet in Tokyo, she reveals that not only is Morgana not a cat, he seems to have no biology of any kind, with x-rays not showing anything. This is based on the scene in Persona 4 where Teddie is given a physical examination and gets similar results.
• Named by the Adaptation: The woman who perjured herself against Akira in the original timeline is given the name Megumi Kawaguchi.
• One-Man Army: Akechi is forced to create the Phantom Thieves himself, and solo as many of their targets as he can, though he does have Morgana's help in delivering Kamoshida's calling card, Akira's help getting through a door in Madarame's palace, and he quickly gives up on going after Kaneshiro (being not as brave/stupid as the Thieves were), instead targeting Hina Kurusu to get the same kind of attention. By the time he goes after Okumura, he's almost accidentally formed his own team with Morgana, Futaba and Haru (who was a Required Party Member thanks to a genetically locked door in Okumura's palace). When Akechi later learns that Sojiro was threatened by Sae over his custody and responsibility of Akira as his parole officer so she could get something out of what parts of Wakaba's research remains from him, and how Shido still aims to use the Phantom Thieves as a tool to prop himself up to the position of Prime Minister, Akechi realizes that he can no longer do things solo as he used to.
• Open Secret: Morgana quickly becomes a very poorly-kept secret among Akira's social circle.
• Peggy Sue: A rare case where this not only happens to a villain, but they end up somewhere they never would have been in the original timeline. The final chapter brings Akechi back to the main timeline after the battle with Yaldabaoth so he can play his role in the Maruki's story arc from Royal.
• Pinball Protagonist: Due to missing the call, Akira spends most of the story getting punted around from one situation to another, and doesn't start taking his destiny into his own hands until he awakens to his Persona in Sae's Palace.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Upon arriving in the past, Akechi finds himself feet away from Masayoshi Shido and takes the opportunity to punch him in the face, only realizing later that Akira was right there and was supposed to intervene and get framed for assaulting him. He attempts to set things back on course by giving the local cops a description of Akira, but thanks to Judge Kurusu's influence, it doesn't get back to Shido.
  • Instead of Kaneshiro being targeted, Akechi instead goes after Akira's mother. This leads to the domino effect of Akira still being brought to Tokyo anyway despite Akechi's initial plan.
  • Due to Akechi changing things, Futaba is now a combat capable member when she joins him by virtue of Futaba confronting the cognitions of her own Palace and her Shadow on her own with Morgana for company, while Akira becomes the Navigator of the Phantom Thieves, this time with the Code Name "Navi".
• Post-Final Boss: Double subverted. After defeating The Heavy Shido, the Phantom Thieves wheel back and pick off Kaneshiro, whose heart Akechi had skipped changing, offscreen. Then they face the true Big Bad Yaldabaoth, meaning Kaneshiro has technically been reduced to a Filler Villain. Then Akechi gets sucked into the Royal timeline and has to deal with Maruki's crap, and takes some time to change the original Akira's mother's heart as well, playing the trope straight in the end.
• The Reveal: The final battle reveals Yaldabaoth was the one who brought Akechi back to the past to use as a weapon in his quest.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Akira's father buries the false witness report blaming Akira for attacking Shido. Not because Akira is actually innocent, but because he doesn't want his own reputation to suffer.
• Saying Too Much: In Chapter 10, Akechi tells the team about his past with Shido and why he invented the Phantom Thieves. "I didn't ever really plan it all the way through. But I needed something desperate to get away, and I thought that changes of hearts would be big enough. He would have seen another group operating in the metaverse as a threat, and it seemed like a distraction." Futaba picks up on "another group" and figures out that Shido already knew about the Metaverse and had been using Akechi to commit murder.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Akechi's Heel–Face Turn leads to him not committing several murders he committed over the course of the original story, most notably Kunikazu Okumura.
• Taking the Heat: Despite being uninvolved with the Phantom Thieves, Akira willingly confesses that he is the leader of the Phantom Thieves so Shido won't go after somebody else to be made The Scapegoat for his ploy.
• You Are Too Late: A few weeks after decking Shido, Akechi tips the police off to Akira's description in an ill-thought-out attempt to correct Akira's destiny and get him sent to Tokyo. Fortunately for Akira, by this point Shido has given up on finding the culprit and Akira's father is able to bury the accusation.