Fanfic / For Want of a Name

The cops come and the cuffs are cold as ice, but his eyes burn as he stares down the man about to ruin his life. He stares and stares with eyes everyone told him were too intense as he painstakingly committed the face to memory.
He refused to forget his face.
And a simple Google search later got him the rest.

— Excerpt from the summary of For Want of a Name

For Want of a Name is a Persona 5 Point of Divergence one-shot Fan Fiction by Writer_of_the_Dragons that can be found on Archive of Our Own.

Amamiya Ren never forgets Shido's face, and he learns his name at the Wilton Hotel. Thus, the politician becomes the Thieves' second target rather than seventh, which has serious consequences concerning the boy in the black mask.

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Warning: Due to the story's nature as a one-shot, all end-game spoilers for Persona 5 are unmarked. You have been warned.

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For Want Of A Name contains the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass: The founding members of the Phantom Thieves, Ren, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana get this by virtue of going after Shido first after Kamoshida instead of the second-last (or third-last in Royal). They're at least as strong as Akechi by the time they tackle Madarame's Palace.
• Adaptation Expansion: While it's only alluded to, Shido's Cognitive Akechi gets this as his role and function in Shido's Palace is to relentlessly chase after intruders of the Palace until they can no longer run and be taken out by Shido's cognitive copy of Akechi.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Downplayed Trope with Yusuke. Though he is the fifth member to join the thieves, he is woefully underleveled due to the fact that the original four went after Shido first before they go after Madarame. Ren and co had plans to level up Yusuke so he could catch up, but the training was cut short due to accidentally meeting Akechi in Mementos.
  • Madarame's Palace and the Shadows residing there also gets this treatment in a downplayed manner. Due to the thieves going after Shido first, Madarame's Palace wound up being an In-Universe Breather Level in comparison.
• All for Nothing: Akechi felt this way when the thieves managed to steal Shido's heart first before he could get to personally deal with Shido. He felt that his goal in life is ripped off and he tried to find the thieves in Mementos to get his answers. This was later reinforced when he was told of the process of how a change of heart works.
  Akechi: What was the point of everything then? All the blood and the pain and the lies? What was the point of it all, when everything could have been solved by snatching some simple bobble from that man’s mind? What’s the point now, that it’s already been done.
• And the Adventure Continues: The story ends with Akechi deciding to join the Phantom Thieves hand in changing society. There's also the implication that they will eventually face Yaldabaoth at the end of their journey.
• And Then What?: Akechi gets this epiphany when his chance to take revenge against Shido was snuffed away via the thieves changing Shido's heart first after establishing the group. Add this to how Akechi is also Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life, Akechi realizes that he doesn't have anything else to live for beyond his revenge against Shido and was forced to face what he had done to get to the current point of his present where he had soaked his hands in blood of innocents to get his revenge.
• The Atoner: At the end of the story, Akechi is all but implied to join the thieves with the goal of atoning for the lives he killed.
• Breather Level: In-Universe: Madarame's Palace becomes this to the founding thieves since they went after Shido before dealing with Madarame.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Shido doesn't recall meeting and filing a false lawsuit against Ren that ruined Ren's life, just like canon. This ended up being Shido's downfall in this story as Ren remembers him and Shido ends up being blindsided by him when the thieves go after Shido to change his heart.
• Commonality Connection: Ryuji, in an attempt to appeal to Akechi to stop his suicide, used their shared similarity of having an Abusive Parent that they partially wish to please and make them acknowledge their child. Unlike Akechi, Ryuji realizes that trying to get approval from his own Abusive Parent isn't worth it and tells Akechi to not let Shido have full control of him and his decisions.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Phantom Thieves, who have grinded levels to the point of overcoming Shido, go through Madarame like wet tissue.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: After learning of Shido, Akechi devotes himself to getting revenge against his biological father. But when the Phantom Thieves instead go after Shido first before he could, Akechi is devoid of purpose and made the next goal to find the Phantom Thieves and get his answers on how they were able to change Shido's heart. When he got his answer, Akechi had nothing else to live for and had to be convinced by Ryuji, and later, Ren, into living to atone and fight for the Phantom Thieves.
• Didn't See That Coming: The thieves going after Shido first as soon as they established themselves as a group blindsided no more than three key players to the plot of Persona 5. To wit:
  • Firstly, Akechi had his chance of revenge taken away as he did not expect another group of Persona users to take on Shido.
  • Secondly, Shido expects Akechi to go after him eventually, and thus was unprepared at all when the Thieves, consisting only of Ren, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana at the time, were able to fight him off and change his heart. Shido even said this to the thieves when they finally defeat him.
    Shido: Funny, you're not the ones I expected to see here.
  • And finally, going after Shido, who had been the lynchpin to Yaldabaoth's plan to rig the game against Ren and Akechi, ruins Yaldabaoth's full influence to the masses, causing the false god to be kicked off his pedestal and fuming behind the scenes as Ren accidentally ruins and change the game to a way that he can't fully control its outcome to something that would benefit Yaldabaoth himself.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the game, Shido's cognitive Akechi is implied to have been killed back in the engine room along with the real Akechi. In this story, Shido's Shadow ordered the cognitive copy of his son to kill himself instead.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • After getting his answers from the thieves, Akechi decided to kill himself right in front of the thieves' eyes due to the realization that he wasted his two years for an easy solution that doesn't require him to kill innocents, realizing that he is far more alike to his mother than he realizes. Thankfully, Ryuji managed to stop him and get through him.
  • An enforced example with cognitive Akechi, who calmly and eerily killed himself without hesitation when Shido's Shadow ordered him to, with the sight being disturbing for the thieves.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Ren, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana were quick to become this, overlapping with True Companions. When Ren told them about Shido and how he knows a target that they could change the heart of, Ryuji, Ann and Morgana all readily agreed to change Shido's heart for Ren's sake.
• Forced into Evil: Akechi admits that he had suspicions about what happens when a Shadow is killed but by the time he noticed the effect, the damage has been done. And he chose to continue to stick to his methods out of desperation while biding in his revenge, unaware that Shido had already known who he really was and taking advantage of Akechi's need of acknowledgement to control him as his personal hitman.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Ryuji is the one to stop Akechi from killing himself by sprinting after Akechi to get the gun off from Akechi's hand and tell Akechi to not let Shido win.
  Ryuji: You think that’s gonna bring any of those people back? You think dying will do anyone any good? You moron! The only thing dying will do is let that bastard win!
• Greater-Scope Villain: Despite Shido being dealt with early, the thieves still have to contend with Yaldabaoth, who is still running behind the scenes at the end of the fic and is fuming behind the mask of Igor at how the initial status quo of the game he planned against the real Igor is now broken and how Nothing Is the Same Anymore due to this one setback.
• Heel–Face Turn: The end of the story has Akechi join hands with the Phantom Thieves to take out the remnants of the conspiracy and change society.
• Interrupted Suicide: After coming to grips with the fact that all of his monstrous actions were for nothing, Akechi attempts to shoot himself. Fortunately, Ryuji stops him.
• It's Personal: Ren admits to Akechi that he targets Shido for a personal reason that Shido ruined his life by using his power to falsely accuse him.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Akechi, after his epiphany at realizing how he could have saved time with a change of heart than to kill people to bide time and gain Shido's trust, laments that for all that he insist that he is nothing like Shido, he had also been alike to his own mother at how much they let Shido control them to a point that they have nothing to live for without Shido in the picture.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Akechi points out that he could see who the Phantom Thieves target in the Phan-site and use it to find their activities. In canon itself, the conspiracy and Akechi took advantage of the Phantom Thieves reliance of the Phan-site to later frame them for the mental shutdowns.
  • Ren notes internally that the thieves would have gone after Madarame as their second target had he not remembered and saw Shido at Wilton Buffet, instead of third.
• No Name Given: Downplayed Trope. Since the thieves didn't know about Akechi's civilian identity when they met in Mementos, they refer to him as "Terminator dude" in their point of view, nicknaming him after his cognitive counterpart in Shido's Palace.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The story ends with Shido's change of heart potentially creating ripples that would spell doom to those who are part of the conspiracy such as Kaneshiro and Madarame among the major backers, as Shido being taken out early leaves the party scrambling before they get captured, and with Akechi now joining hands with the Phantom Thieves with promise to change the heart of the remnants of the conspiracy, among several, it will eventually lessen Yaldabaoth's influence in the cognitive masses of Japan due to Yaldabaoth depending on Shido as the lynchpin to his plan to rig the game to the false god's favor so strongly that he failed to consider other potential fail-safes. The effects of Shido's change of heart will change how the future un-adapted parts of the story would have run such as the heist of Futaba's Palace.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Downplayed Trope. While several segments to how the founding thieves tackle the obstacles in Shido's Palace were alluded to at several points, such as the rat puzzles and the thieves encounter with Shido's cognitive Akechi, the end result shows that they manage to be able to defeat Shido after a long fight and that all the work they put in training in Mementos worked.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Ren's internal dialogue has this reaction when Akechi points out that he could see who the phantom thieves target in the Phan-site forum that Mishima created, realizing that the Phan-site could be used by their potential enemies as well as people who are truly in need of helping from someone else.
  • The thieves and Akechi get a collective one when they hear the sound of chains that signify the presence of the Reaper that they have to issue an emergency escape while still being in one of the lower floors of Mementos, resulting in the thieves getting out by the skin of their teeth and appearing in the real world in the middle of the station subway in Shibuya, instead of outside.
• Parents as People: Akechi acknowledged that his mother may not have been the best, but he appreciates that she tried to raise him as best as she could regardless.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: In-Universe example. The Phantom Thieves used Mementos as their leveling grounds for weeks as part of their Training from Hell to tackle on Shido's Palace.
• Point of Divergence: The story's main divergence is what if Ren actually remembers seeing Shido's face and that meeting him again at Wilton buffet convince him to become a Phantom Thief full time and tell Ryuji, Ann and Morgana about Shido, convincing the thieves to go after Shido first instead of waiting out for a potential target to come by.
• Police Are Useless: When Akechi attempts to stay in the subway to divert attention from the thieves and potentially turn himself in, Ren stops him and points out that the police won't actually help, and only Akechi can decide to atone and make a difference.
  Ren: Look, I’m not going to pretend like you haven’t done some fucked up shit, in fact, I’m willing to bet I only know the very surface of all the fucked up shit you’ve done. But I can tell you from personal experience that the police are not going to help you make things right. The only one who can do that is you.
• Pun-Based Title: The story title is named after the "for want of a nail" phenomenon, with "nail" changed as "name".
• Redemption Equals Death: Deconstructed and Defied as Ryuji managed to save Akechi before he could actually pull the trigger of his gun. Ryuji points out that Akechi killing himself is the same as letting Shido win over Akechi and had to goad the hitman to live and atone for the lives Akechi killed over the years.
• Resurrective Immortality: Shido's Cognitive Akechi has this as part of his functions due to Shido's belief of Akechi being his personal undefeated assassin. Even though Shido's cognitive Akechi was able to be defeated easily via a hit from the thieves Persona, hinting Shido's lack of full knowledge regarding the functionality of the cognitive world like Akechi had, Shido's cognitive copy of Akechi keeps coming back to chase after the thieves. This aspect is only gone when Shido's Shadow callously orders the cognitive version of his illegitimate son to end his life for his failure.
• Right Under Their Noses: In this story, due to the Phantom Thieves only just recently established and choosing not to go after Madarame first, the conspiracy, Akechi and Shido in particular, are caught off guard at their intervention and changing Shido's heart.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Akechi, due to Shido being dealt with way earlier than he should be dealt with in the story as a side effect.
  • With Shido being taken out of the picture early, it's implied that Okumura Kunikazu gets to survive as well.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Is one to the Memento's Rat Goro series by TwilightKnight17, with both stories having a similar concept of a Shido who was dealt with by the Thieves as a second Palace target than as one of the end-game bosses and an Akechi who joined the thieves due to Shido's early defeat. Unlike TwilightKnight's story, which was fairly light-hearted, For Want of a Name has the concept Played for Drama and taken seriously.
• Surprise Difficulty: In-Universe example. When the thieves try to tackle Shido's Palace for the first time shortly after they establish themselves as a group, they were all surprised at the strong Shadows in that Palace that they spent the rest of their weeks until they could safely tackle Shido's Palace level grinding in Mementos. It takes a lot of work, but they eventually get strong enough to tackle Shido.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Ryuji attempts this to stop Akechi from killing himself after Akechi faced the fact that everything he worked for had been All for Nothing, with Ryuji being close and fast enough to sprint and stop Akechi from pulling the trigger of his gun. Thankfully, it worked and Akechi was able to get a Heel Realization and take the steps to atone for his actions.
• Training from Hell: The thieves invoke this by tackling and fighting in Mementos for hours until they get strong enough to fully take on Shido's Palace.
• Underestimating Badassery: Though Shido expected Akechi to eventually come after him, the Phantom thieves, Ren himself in particular, being under Shido's radar and awareness means that he was blindsided when the thieves come after him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Shido's Shadow orders cognitive Akechi to kill himself due to his failure to fulfill his orders in taking out the Phantom Thieves. Seeing the callous disregard Shido's Shadow had towards the cognitive Akechi has Ryuji point out to the real Akechi that Shido doesn't care about Akechi beyond his usefulness to Shido when he tried to appeal the hitman to live on.
  Ryuji: So, like, I don’t get how you could go so far as killing people, but I understand where you’re coming from. But I met the dude, and let me tell you man: that guy did not give a shit about you. As far as he cared, you were only important in how useful you were to him. And if you weren’t useful? Then you might as well just die.

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