Broken Fool's Journey
is a Persona 3 fanfiction by BkZa555. It is a retelling of the Persona 3 story focused on the What If? idea of Makoto being psychologically scarred by years of unresolved trauma, told through the format of the Fool's Journey.
The story was posted to both AO3 and Fanfiction.net.
The writer has since begun a thematic sequel focused on Persona 5, To Break The Unbreakable to AO3. The story was also being posted on FanFiction.Net, but the writer has since abandoned that platform, leaving it unfinished there.
Spoilers for Persona 3 are unmarked.
This story contains examples of the following tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Chapter 12 revisits past events in the story from Shinjiro's perspective, before revealing what happened when he had his confrontation with Ken on October 4th.
- Chapter 23 provides Ryoji's perspective on the events following his “birth” after the Greater Shadows are defeated, through to the immediate aftermath of the battle with Nyx Avatar.
- Adapted Out: Whilst the Yakushima trip still occurs, the more comedic events like the guys reacting to seeing the girls in bikinis and Operation Babe Hunt are completely removed, and instead the focus goes to Makoto and Yukari's strained relationship after the previous Full Moon operation.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- Makoto suffers from PTSD, depression and panic attacks as a result of the accident where his parents died and his experiences in foster care.
- The events of the July Full Moon Operation are changed from Makoto and Yukari nearly hooking up under the thrall of the Lovers Shadow, to Makoto trying to strangle Yukari whilst under the Shadow's influence.
- Adaptation Deviation: The events of October 4th - Makoto arrives as Takaya is about to shoot Shinjiro, and in his attempts to stop the Strega leader, is repeatedly shot in Shinjiro's place - but not before cutting one of Takaya's arms off. Subsequently, Shinjiro survives and talks things over with Ken, and gets to take part in events that occur after his death.
- Adaptation Distillation: A number of events from the game are just glossed over, such as Chidori's death and resurrection.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Shinjiro returns to SEES to help deal with Makoto's issues, and does so before Ken joins the team - the reason Shinjiro returns in the game and anime.
- Adaptational Name Change: The Persona 3 Protagonist is called Makoto Yuuki, rather than the canonical spelling of Makoto Yuki.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Junpei's resentment of Makoto is completely excised from the story, due to Makoto's psychological issues.
- Shinjiro's motivation for joining SEES is changed from a desire to protect Ken, to helping the rest of SEES manage Makoto's trauma. He's also significantly more open about his interest in cooking, as he teaches Makoto how to cook as a way to distract himself.
- Fuuka goes from The Quiet One to The Gadfly teasing Makoto and Yukari about their relationship thanks to Lucia's/Juno's ability to sense life not being something she can actually turn off, making her into something of The Peeping Tom.
- An Arm and a Leg: During the events of October 4th, Makoto winds up cutting off one of Takaya's arms. After already receiving multiple gun shots.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: After the majority of SEES lose their memories of the Dark Hour and everything tied to it, Makoto tells Yukari that he's in love with her as he approaches his final days and it starts looking like no-one is going to remember their promise to meet on graduation day.
- Bittersweet Ending: Makoto dies, having sacrificed himself in order to save all of his friends and the world as a whole, leaving Yukari heartbroken over her boyfriend's death. However, he leaves the remaining members of SEES gifts and journals where he details how much each member of the group meant to him, and an open letter where he roasts each member of the team. The final scene of the story is Yukari opening his gift to her, a ring and a note asking her to marry him.
- Book Ends: Chapters 1 and 26 – which features Makoto's death – are both named for the Fool tarot card.
- Broken Ace: Makoto, as a result of his life just being a string of traumatic events. Despite that, he's still a Wild Card and skilled fighter, and the most powerful member of SEES.
- Cooldown Hug: Yukari develops a habit of holding Makoto's hand to calm him down, which escalates to her playing with his fingers and mapping out the lines on his hand. It stops working after Takaya shoots a hole through Makoto's hand, damaging the nerves on his fingers - but by that point, Makoto has begun to heal from his trauma so it's not as necessary.
- Demoted to Extra: The story is largely focused on Makoto dealing with his psychological issues after years of traumatic events. As such, every member of SEES (With the exception of Yukari and Shinjiro) receives significantly less focus than in the original Persona 3, and most of Strega's scenes are completely absent from the story.
- Deuteragonist: Yukari serves as such, with much of the narrative switching between her perspective and Makoto's.
- Easily Forgiven: Makoto escapes Mitsuru's execution after the boys are caught in the Kyoto hot-spring, largely because she sees how badly scarred his body is for the first time – though he does receive a stern lecture from her instead.
- Everyone Can See It: The rest of SEES are very much aware of Yukari and Makoto's feelings for one another before they actually start dating; Fuuka in particular notices that Yukari has fallen for Makoto before she realises it herself.
- The Gadfly:
- Fuuka happily teases Makoto and Yukari about their relationship, implying she knows more about what they're getting up to than they realise.
- Makoto grows into this as he starts to heal from his various psychological issues. He even makes writes an open letter to be read after his death where he roasts each one of his friends in turn.
- Ironic Echo: After Makoto nearly strangles Yukari whilst under the influence of the Lovers Shadow, he refuses to accept Yukari's reassurances that it wasn't his fault as he wasn't in control of his actions at the time; when Yukari finds out that she unwittingly triggered his PTSD by yelling at him over the matter, she has the exact same reaction of "Isn't it?" when Fuuka tries to reassure her that it's not her fault because she couldn't have known how bad his psychological issues were.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Takaya loses an arm by Makoto's blade in the midst of his attempted murder of the boy; because Makoto is healed back to health by the next full moon - nerve damage not withstanding - Takaya comes out of the situation worse than the boy he tried to murder.
- One of Makoto's last requests is that Yukari gives as much shit to Fuuka and Shinjiro over their relationship as they had received over their relationship. Naturally, she agrees.
- Last Minute Hook Up: Shinjiro and Fuuka get together in the final chapter, after Makoto's open letter to the rest of SEES openly taunts Shinjiro about not asking the girl he likes out.
- The Lost Lenore: Makoto has become this for Yukari as of the epilogue, emphasised by his final gift to her being a ring and a note proposing to her.
- Mythology Gag: Makoto's gift for Aigis is the red tie she wears in Persona 4: Arena.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Yukari unwittingly triggers Makoto's PTSD after she snaps at him over his blaming himself for what happened when they were mind controlled during the July Full Moon Operation.
- Downplayed – part of the reason the boys are still in the Kyoto hot springs when the girls arrive is that Makoto took longer to get ready due to his anxiety over his scars.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Takaya nearly killing Makoto on October 4th allows Pharos to show Makoto his past traumas, understand what actually happened and begin to heal from his trauma.
- Official Couple: Makoto and Yukari, with the entire story ultimately being centred around their tragic romance.
- Once More, with Clarity:
- Chapter 12 shows what actually happened when Ken confronted Shinjiro, after the previous chapter showed it from the perspective of the rest of SEES.
- Chapter 24 is Yukari's perspective on the month between the battle with Nyx Avatar and graduation day; Chapter 25 is those same events from Makoto's perspective.
- Plucky Girl: Yukari, to the point that it's her refusal to let Makoto push her away in a misguided attempt to protect her from himself that results in their admitting their feelings to one another.
- Psycho Psychologist: The first two therapists that Makoto sees during the story are both assholes who just make his issues worse, rather than actually trying to help him. Their actions are so damaging, that Shinjiro begins collecting Makoto from his sessions with the third therapist to make sure he's not pulling the same shit.
- Right Through the Wall: The morning after Makoto and Yukari have sex for the first time, it's revealed that the entire dormitory (Except for Ken and Aigis, who don't understand) were aware of what they were getting up to, much to their mutual embarrassment, because whilst the rooms were all soundproofed, the building wasn't impact-proof.
- Scars Are Forever: Makoto starts the story covered in scars, accumulated through traumatic events like the car accident that killed his parents and years of self-harm, and he gets even more as the story goes on – including several bullet wounds and a deformed hand, courtesy of Takaya.
- Secret-Keeper: Makoto tells Shinjiro that he's probably going to have to die to stop the Fall; when everyone else forgets about their time as SEES, Shinji remembers and has to keep Makoto's impending death a secret from his friends for a month.
- Ship Tease: When Makoto's open letter to the rest of SEES taunts Shinjiro over being scarred to ask out the girl he likes, Akihiko immediately becomes worried that Makoto was referring to Mitsuru, implying that Akihiko has feelings for her.
- Shipper on Deck: Fuuka and Shinjiro actively encourage Yukari and Makoto to admit their feelings to one another, but it's fair to say that all of SEES qualify.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Shinjiro survives the events of October 4th, in large part because he's already resolved to live because he wants to protect Makoto, so he summons Castor when Takaya attempts to shoot him instead of letting the Strega leader kill him without difficulty.
- Chidori's Disney Death and resurrection introduced in Persona 3 FES is included in the narrative.
- Spotting the Thread: Makoto pieces together that Shinjiro was responsible for the death of Ken's mother by picking up on the few details provided about Shinji's previous departure from SEES and noticing the way he carries himself around Ken.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Makoto and Yukari, thanks to Makoto's Heroic Sacrifice.
- Tarot Motifs:
- Each chapter that is relevant to Makoto's Fool's Journey features a Punny Name relevant to one of the tarot cards, and an explantation of what that card means in it's standard and reversed states.
- Chapters 12 and 23, which are the respective spotlight chapters for Shinjiro and Ryoji, are named for the arcana that each character represents.
- Chapters 24 and 25, which are respectively Yukari and Makoto's perspective of the month after the final battle with Nyx, are named for alternate readings of the same card – World/Universe.
- Their First Time: Makoto and Yukari lose their virginities to one another in the days leading up to the final battle with Nyx.
- Tragic Keepsake: Makoto left gifts and journals for each member of SEES, to be given out following his death. Of particular note, is Yukari's gift of a ring and a note proposing to her.
- Trauma Button: Makoto suffers a panic attack because of a car alarm reminding him of the incident on the Moonlight Bridge; when he attends the fireworks festival with Yukari, he puts on his headphones and starts listening to music so the explosions don't trigger another episode.
- Trauma Conga Line: The death of Makoto's parents was just the first traumatic event he went through. At one point, Yukari bitterly laments that his entire life was just him bouncing from one traumatic event to the next.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 11 features the October 4th Full Moon Operation, and ends with the rest of SEES arriving in the alley after Shinjiro's confrontation with Ken to find Shinjiro alive and Makoto bleeding out on the ground after Takaya tried to kill him instead of Shinji.
- What the Hell, Hero?: No-one in SEES is happy when they find out that Makoto had realised Ryoji's true nature for some time and didn't tell any of them.
