“One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony.”
— Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Flight through Fall is a Persona 5 fanfiction written by Tayani
set post Persona 5 Royal and details of Kurusu Akira and how he eventually spiraled down from grief and trauma that went unprocessed after the events of the game and how an alive Akechi eventually helped and saved him.
The story can be read in AO3.
Flight through Fall has the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The story detailed bits of Akira's home life and how he fared in the aftermath of the events of Royal.
- Adapted Out: The story doesn't include the events of Strikers nor Tactica due to the story establishing that the Metaverse had been thoroughly rendered Ret-Gone, instead focusing on Akira dealing with his unaddressed trauma from the events of Royal.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Akira had clung to the hope that Akechi survived after reality was restored and had dreamed and wished for a future where he lived a good life surrounded by his friends with Akechi being part of that life. Akira got his hope answered... a few years after and Akira is unfortunately not in a good headspace to accept it all due to how the rest of his friends forgot about their time and involvement with the metaverse and how Akechi had already moved forward and got the help he needed to recover from his own past without Akira.Too bad it was too late, too many bridges burnt, too many betrayals endured.
- Bittersweet Ending: The story ends with Akira, after a few months of living together with Akechi since he was released from the hospital, to finally come to a proper closure to some of the pain he suffered and take the voluntary steps to actually recover and move forward. However, Akira still need to face and come to terms with all the emotional pain and turmoil that he had gone through over the years since Royal, along with having to come clean to his friends about his recent suicidal tendencies and how he truly felt about them over the years since. Akira's only taken the first step to move forward and he still had a long way to go for his recovery.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The story followed Royal and it's plot threads instead of the original game.
- Deconstruction Fic: Served as one to post-canon stories centering on Royal. To note:
- Many stories had Joker living out his life after the events of the game is over as best as he can. In Flight through Fall, Akira is not only spiraling from the unaddressed grief and turmoil from what he went through in Royal, his grief over Akechi's death at the time was left unresolved with little closure due to having no one that he can properly talk to about it. He doesn't take it well when he later learns that Akechi had been alive after all.
- In stories where Joker eventually reunites with Akechi post-canon, it's often a sweet but memorable affair. In this story, however, Akira reunited with Akechi after he gave up at the hope that Akechi was alive after all and was Driven to Suicide over it, and felt betrayed and angry that Akechi showed up right after he gave up.
- The Metaverse eventually faded from people's mind after reality is restored, and by that, it was erased thoroughly with only a hint of Wistful Amnesia being the only trace left to those who had gone there except for Akira, Morgana and Akechi. All of this led to Akira being reminded of the thieves idealized lives during the third semester that Maruki briefly actualized for them and contributed to the spiral.
- Flight through Fall had a dimmer view about Maruki than most other stories of similar caliber. Maruki's actions and manipulation of dangling Akechi's very life to Akira during February 2 was not only the root cause of Akira's grief and eventual spiraling, Maruki's actions throughout the third semester only caused Akira to not trust therapists and counselors in general out of fear that they'd end up becoming another Maruki who'd take advantage of his trust and vulnerability.
- Driven to Suicide: The first chapter details Akira's three attempts to kill himself due to his spiraling mental stability. The first two failed, but Akira nearly succeeded in his third attempt if not for Akechi's timely arrival.
- History Repeats: Doubling as a Call-Back, the story ends with Akechi and Akira on the door where a few years ago, it was winter and the day before they steal Maruki's treasure and restore reality, leaving Akechi's fate unknown. In the end of the story, it's now summer and it's Akira who would leave Akechi's apartment and potentially leaving with Akechi not knowing of his eventual fate. Unlike Akechi who left without a word then, Akira chose to promise Akechi that he'd come back.
- Hourglass Plot: During the events of Royal, Akira is surrounded by friends and allies while Akechi had no one that he could turn to. Years down the line, Akira's unaddressed issues from his Trauma Conga Line caused him to spiral down and isolated himself from his friends while Akechi is in a better headspace thanks to years of therapy and recovery and the only one close enough to be able to help Akira.
- I Have No Son!: Akira was disowned by his parents after his third suicide attempt nearly succeeded. Akira learning about this has him in the hysterics.
- Intellectual Animal: As a side effect of the metaverse disappearing, Morgana's voice and speech can no longer be heard by either Akira or Akechi and is reduced to this in real life.
- Interrupted Suicide: All of Akira's suicide attempts are this. Though he nearly succeeded with his third one, he ended up being saved by Akechi.
- It's All My Fault: Despite it being Akechi's own wishes, Akira felt and thought that he led Akechi to his own death for several years during February 2 that it influenced his suicidal tendencies. When he learned that Akechi was alive after all, it left Akira furious and felt that he grieved for nothing.
- Missed Him by That Much: Akechi tried to meet Akira again after hearing about his arrest to help him but by the time Akechi arrived, he not only learn that Akira was already freed during the day of his arrival to Tokyo, he also just missed Akira who boarded on the train back to his hometown with Morgana. Neither of them meet each other again until a few years later, in a dreadful set of circumstances.
- Named by Adaptation: Joker is given the name Kurusu Akira in this story.
- No Antagonist: The story has no actual human antagonist, only Akechi and Akira dealing with Akira's own inner demons.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: After missing Akira by a margin when he returned to Tokyo a month after reality is restored, Akechi decided to actually take the steps to move forward and heal by himself and stayed away from Akira, thinking that he wouldn't want Akechi in his life. However, after noticing the news of Akira's first suicide attempt and being the one to find and rescue him when Akira nearly succeeded in trying to kill himself the third time and what followed after, Akechi was forced to face the consequences that staying away from Akira since reality was restored for as long as he did without even informing Akira of his survival only caused Akira to spiral and that he contributed to Akira's state.
- Official Couple: Akechi and Akira are the main romance of the story.
- Parental Neglect: Akira's parents, while not abusive, were neglectful and outright ignore him ever since he returned from Tokyo due to believing that Akira had stained their reputation. The last straw for them was when Akira's third attempt of suicide nearly succeeded if not for Akechi. Akira later realized in hindsight that the neglect only made him feel worse.
- Ret-Gone: The metaverse being gone means that it will slowly fade away from the minds of those who are aware of it, with the rest of the thieves having vague recollections of what led to them becoming friends and how Morgana can no longer be able to speak. Only Akira and Akechi are left to be able to remember it and so does Morgana as he was originally from the Velvet room. On the other hand, the government agents who tailed after Akira forgot about Akira being a phantom thief leader suspect and left him alone when the erasure took effect.
- Rule of Three: Akira had committed suicide up to three times, of which the third attempt nearly succeeded.
- Secretly Selfish: The Penultimate chapter has Akechi admitting to Akira that part of the reason that he wanted to help Akira is out of a need to be useful to someone and refusal to let another repeat of his mother's suicide happen again.
- Spared By Adaptation: Akechi's fate in the end of Royal is ambiguous, but he is alive for this story.
- There Are No Therapists: Double Subverted trope. Akira was assigned to a therapist at a point but Maruki's actions caused Akira's opinion in therapists and counselors in general to sour and fear that they'd be another Maruki who'd use his vulnerabilities and trust against him, all of which contributed to his third suicide attempt and in the end, Akira recovered better while living with Akechi instead of getting assigned to a therapist.
- Together in Death: Akira hoped that killing himself would eventually let him see Akechi again in the afterlife. It turned out to be an Interrupted Suicide due to Akechi being alive after all and was the one to rescue him.
- Trauma Conga Line: The main crux of this story is Akira still reeling from everything that he went through in Royal that it caused him to spiral.
- Unreliable Narrator: Due to the story being heavily centered on Akira's point of view, it runs on this with Akira being on the view that Akechi would have left again after saving him from his third attempt anyway and how he felt that his friends and those he had come to know in Tokyo all eventually left and "betray" him to live their own lives without him in the picture.
