"Futaba's Unveiling" is a Persona 5 Fan Fic and Troper Work written by SpyHunter29, with support by IncredibleIntruder.
Taking place in the middle of P5's story note , this fanfic stars Futaba Sakura, who has been practising a secret hobby which has kept her sane since the loss of her mother, and that hobby is... belly dance. After a chance accident, knowledge of her secret spreads among her foster father and her friends, inspiring her to join a bellydance class and take her talent to the next level.
This story may be read on deviantART
, FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own, and Pixiv.
Futaba's Unveiling contains examples of the following tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: Futaba gets in a few annoyed comments about her lack of chest in later chapters.
- All Just a Dream: Much of chapter 9 takes place in a trauma-induced nightmare of Futaba's. Downplayed in that the author tells us that it is a dream before, as well as after, it takes place.
- The epilogue also takes place in that same dream world, although a more idealised version where Futaba is a princess of Sojiro the sultan.
- Amazon Chaser: When Ann first lays eyes on the athletic Ayame Ueda, she wonders if Ryuji might be interested in meeting her. Judging by his attempt to ask her out in chapter 16, she was right.
- Arc Number: 16. Futaba practises her individual belly dance moves in sets of 16, due to its relevance in computing and music, and the story itself has 16 chapters, not counting the epilogue.
- Big Damn Heroes: During the Shadow Aramaki fight, just before a brainwashed Panther is about to land a killing blow to Joker, Skull gives her a Harisen Recovery to snap her out of it.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Joker, Mona, and Panther all fall victim to a Brain Jack attack during the Shadow Aramaki fight, and start attacking each other.
- Broken Ace: Atsuko Saito is the most talented dancer among Maiko’s students, but her secret side-job as a stripper has worn down her confidence. Once the Phantom Thieves change her boss’s heart, she gradually builds herself back up to the point of surprising Futaba and the others with a performance at their recital.
- The Cameo: Rise Kujikawa from Persona 4 shows up in chapter 16.
- Captain Ersatz: Various details given in chapters 14 and 15 distance the Personaverse's version of Shantae from the real thing, such as her costume being green instead of red, and her catchphrase being "Ret-2-rock" rather than "Ret-2-go".
- Cluster F-Bomb: In chapter 9, Alibaba launches into an implied example of this, hidden by a Narrative Profanity Filter. It is summarised simply as "no".
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Honoka has a ponytail on only one side of her head.
- First-Name Basis: Atsuko's boss at the Shag Pad initially goes by only his first name, Takashi. This is justified in that he doesn't want to give out his full name, in fear of being hunted by the Phantom Thieves. They wind up convincing Atsuko to provide his last name, Aramaki, before they can find and confront him in Mementos.
- Genki Girl: Honoka Tachibana, a perky teenage fangirl of idols like Rise Kujikawa and video games like not-Shantae.
- Hollywood Pudgy: In-Universe with Yuki Kobayashi who is described as having "a figure that was somewhat more plump than the other girls" in Maiko's class. By the time of the recital, she grows confident enough to perform without any doubts about her body shape.
- Hotter and Sexier:
- In-Universe, Atsuko Saito's stage persona, "Atsu-Atsu", is this. Ryuji even mentions this trope by name in chapter 12.
- In the epilogue, the dream version of Futaba is older and more voluptuous than her real self.
- Kill It with Fire: The final blow Panther uses to vanquish Aramaki's shadow is Agidyne, a high-level fire spell.
- Knight of Cerebus: Atsuko Saito. Her appearance in the story heralds more serious themes, such as her being stuck in an abusive job as a stripper for an unsavoury nightclub owner.
- Named After Someone Famous: Maiko was named after Yasunori Kawabata, author of the novel "The Dancing Girl of Izu".
- Narrative Profanity Filter: In addition to the author blanking out any bad words, and employing Ryuji's trademark "eff" in place of the F-bomb, there are several occasions where cursing is implied without direct censorship:
- While talking to Ann in chapter 4, Futaba catches herself about to swear, and does a Last-Second Word Swap to "bogus".
- In chapter 9, Alibaba delivers a scathingly profane retort to the sultan's request to willingly join his harem, which is summarised as simply "no".
- Precision F-Strike: Although all instances of profanity are censored, they still punctuate a few pivotal moments throughout the story.
- In chapter 10, when Futaba recounts the nightmare she had, Ann responds with a soft "holy ***".
- Later in chapter 10, when Ann turns down Aramaki's job offer:"I think I've seen enough. My answer is no, Takashi-san. I would never work for a ***ing creep like you!"
- In chapter 13, when Panther is about to launch her final attack on Shadow Aramaki:"Aramaki! You want your dance? You'll get your ***ing dance! Carmen... Agidyne!"
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Yusuke indulges in this in chapter 12, much to the confusion of the Book Dumb Ryuji."Quite so. I am also familiar with the Orientalist paintings of the nineteenth-century French Romantic period. I shan’t say I haven't been enticed by their alluring depictions of odalisques, but at the same time, I have grown to question their authenticity."
The esoteric eloquence with which Yusuke painted his verbal images left everyone confused, most of all Ryuji. "Umm... dude? What the eff are you talking about?"
"Ah, forgive me. I was referring to old pictures of harem women." - Sexy Discretion Shot: At the end of the epilogue, Ann provides a semi-diegetic example when she pulls the curtains down in front of princess Futaba and vizier Ren just as they start getting intimate, hiding their actions both from the other handmaidens in the room, and from the viewer.
- Ship Tease: There are a few hints to ships such as Ryuji/Ann, Ren/Futaba, and Ann/Shiho, but for the most part, the fic focuses on a Futaba/Ann friendship.
- Shout-Out:
- The music Futaba set her routine to was taken from a "genie-girl game", which was confirmed in the author's comments to be Shantae. Later on, Futaba and Honoka discuss crowd-funding a sequel to the game, a more specific reference to Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.
- In chapter 3, Futaba yells out "Holy crow" at one point, a euphemism borrowed from The Twilight Saga.
- In chapter 5, Futaba tries throwing out an "Allons-y!" to Ann and Sojiro, but neither get the joke.
- Atsu-Atsu's nickname, "The Scorching Beauty", comes from another famous belly dancer character, Rouge from Power Stone.
- In chapter 9’s dream sequence, Alibaba dual-wields machine pistols, which she borrowed from a "classic first-person-shooter game". The author's comments confirmed them to be Klobbs from GoldenEye (1997).
- Shown Their Work:
- The author exhibits a Double Subversion when it comes to his descriptions of bellydance. He did not practice it himself when starting out, but some of his friends have written about it from first-hand knowledge, including his proofreader IncredibleIntruder.
- He plays it straight when it comes to Persona 5's battle system. Some of the strategies the party uses during their battle in chapter 13 are ones he has used in his own play-through, such as combining charge and focus boosts with high-damage skills.
- Suddenly Shouting: Futaba does this in chapter 3, when she spots Ann in the middle of Maiko's interview clip, and again in chapter 7, to Ryuji.
- Sultry Belly Dancer: Since the fic revolves around this topic, there are numerous examples.
- Futaba and Ann both practise this as a secret hobby, but gradually encourage each other to become more open about it.
- Maiko Kawabata was a professional dancer who trained and performed while living abroad in Egypt, and began teaching her trade upon moving back to Japan.
- Atsuko Saito has training in both ballet and baladi, but after taking a job with a shady nightclub owner, had to perform a more Stripperiffic of her bellydance act.
- Tap on the Head: Futaba accidentally administers one of these to herself at the end of chapter 1, when she faints and hits her head on the wall.
- Throw It In!: In-Universe, Futaba accidentally loses her place during her recital solo, and improvises by instinctively adding her "charm attack" move for Ren. Later, during the epilogue, her dream-self does this for him intentionally.
- Training Montage: Chapter 15 features Atsuko training Futaba and Ann for their recital in the following chapter.
