Fanfic / It's Just a Light Rain (But the Storm's Still Comin')

It’s Just a Light Rain (But the Storm’s Still Comin’) is a Persona 5 Fanfic written by Westward. The story is part of The Forecast Universe.

Even the simplest of actions can challenge fate.

As it so happens, the 11th of April was supposed to be a fateful one. But as Akira prepares for his first day at Shujin Academy, he notices the dark clouds hanging above Leblanc, and decides to take his umbrella. And while he arrives at Shujin a little rained on, he manages to arrive on time.

Two weeks later, a strange group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves steal their first heart.

—

Or, the one where Akira becomes the Phantom Thieves’ target instead of their leader.

---

This fanfic provides examples of:

• 10-Minute Retirement: Yusuke abandons the team after Futaba's Palace, out of disgust with Makoto for not telling them about Alibaba's threats and Ann and Ryuji for how much they contributed to Akira's Palace. He's persuaded to come back in Chapter 17, after Futaba approaches him and brings up the possibility of Akira's Shadow being hurt or killed by the Wardens, and they start to come up with a plan to help Akira and clear his name without further antagonizing him. However, Yusuke refuses to involve Makoto in it due to the aforementioned loss of trust, while Futaba refuses to bring in Ann or Ryuji (dismissing them because they'll try to stop them to keep them safe) and doesn't trust Morgana to make up his mind after their argument the previous night (though he does end up following them back into the Palace).
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Canon Akira's life wasn't exactly sunshine and roses, but at least he had the Phantom Thieves to provide True Companions and a sense of purpose. This Akira has none of that, and is instead an angry, miserable loner.
  • The Phantom Thieves all have to deal with serious moments of regret and introspection; Ryuji is forced to confront his own mortality, Ann has to deal with the realization of her own cruelty towards Akira, Yusuke loses faith in Makoto's trustworthiness and the Thieves' justice, and Makoto is deeply guilty about keeping her friends in the dark about Alibaba.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • The Phantom Thieves, in particular Morgana, Ryuji, Ann and Makoto - without Joker’s leadership, they frequently bicker with one another and lack the cohesive trust of their canon counterparts. Ryuji, Ann and Makoto actively antagonise Akira because they believe he was responsible for Shiho attempting suicide, and whilst Morgana doesn’t actively antagonize him - being nothing more than a cat in Akira’s eyes - he allows Ann’s vendetta against the supposed delinquent to fester for months. Even Yusuke doesn't escape unscathed in this regard, as while he is still shown to have his own doubts that Akira is truly as bad as he’s told, he doesn’t do anything to act on his doubts further and proceeds to take the Shujin enrolled thieves at their word, until he learns that Akira's shadow is the inmate of the Palace. While they later have their own epiphany after realizing how much they messed up, the damage towards Akira is already done. Of the canon group, the only members to escape this are Akechi, Futaba and Haru, who remain closer to their canon counterparts, whilst Kasumi is a non-entity to the main narrative beyond her cameo in Maruki's interlude.
  • Yuuki Mishima. Not only is his leaking of Akira’s criminal record under Kamoshida’s instruction retained from canon, but he actively requests the Phantom Thieves change his heart purely because of the rumours going around Shujin about him, even rigging the Phan Site polls to ensure Akira remains present as a viable target for them. On top of that, his Acquired Situational Narcissism from his Confidant is in full effect, with Mishima effectively throwing a tantrum when Ryuji seemingly ignores his messages whilst investigating a palace.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Due to Shiho talking to Akira shortly before her suicide attempt, the Phantom Thieves believe that Akira was responsible for pushing her over the edge. Thus, the Phantom Thieves seek to change Akira's heart to make him confess his 'crimes'. This animosity eventually goes both ways, with Akira eventually starting to dislike the Phantom Thieves as well.
  • Akira and Sojiro's relationship had turned far tenser as well. Akira believes that Sojiro is only in it for the money and doesn't truly care for his ward. Thus he pushes Sojiro away so he wouldn't be hurt anymore. In reality, Sojiro's side story shows that he does care for Akira's well-being but his attempt at tough love only made tensions grow between the two.
  • Due to Akira never becoming a Phantom Thief, Akira has been working himself to the bone at multiple jobs around the clock. He never meets his other confidants, with the exception of Kawakami, who knows him professionally, and Maruki, who Akira was mandated to go to his sessions. It wasn't until later in the school year that he befriended Haru and even then, that friendship is stymied due to Haru's fiancee refusing to let her see him (at least outside of school).
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Since Akira never goes to the Metaverse, he is simply just a normal human with no supernatural abilities.
  • The rest of the team doesn't quite measure up to canon either. Without Akira there to network with their suppliers and help Makoto with battle strategy, the Thieves often find themselves rushing into battle ill-equipped and taking a beating before eking out a win.
• The Atoner: The Phantom Thieves are gradually becoming this after seeing the consequences of their treatment of Akira:
  • In Chapter 16, Morgana visits Akira in his attic and apologises to him as best he can for choosing to ignore what he saw and keep enabling Ann's hatred of him. He effectively moves in with him at that point.
  • In Chapter 17, Yusuke unmasks himself to earn the trust of Akira's Shadow, and promises to do what he can to help both him and the actual Akira.
    Yusuke: What I want is to stop you from hurting, Akira. I don't just want to make things right, but I want to make things better, too. If I had known what I know now, I never would've helped Ann and the others do what we did to you. You're an innocent man, Akira. You deserve to be a free one, too.
• Bad Liar: The Phantom Thieves try to explain Yusuke's injuries from fighting Cognitive Wakaba as the result of falling down some stairs, despite the visible bruises and injuries that the rest of the team are sporting; as Takemi notes, the excuse is so poor that it just reinforces the idea that the teenagers had an argument that went too far and resulted in punches being thrown.
• Benevolent Boss: Akira's boss at the flower shop, Hanasaki, is very friendly towards him and shows consistent concern for his well-being.
• Both Sides Have a Point: After it becomes clear that the Phantom Thieves played a part in creating Akira's Palace, the team become divided over whether they should continue trying to steal his heart or if the best thing they can do is leave Akira alone from now on. Yusuke takes the latter position, causing him to leave the team, and Ryuji comes to agree with him after learning from Futaba that having a Palace does not equal being evil, as does Ann when she sees how Akira views them. On the other hand, Futaba, being the only who knows what it's like to have a Palace, is most vehement about finishing the job, and she manages to convince Yusuke to come back by pointing out that Akira's Shadow is still in danger if they don't do anything. As such, they attempt to come up with a plan to help him in the real world from behind the scenes, while still leaving the actual Akira in peace.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • Because Akira had noticed it was about to rain, he borrowed Sojiro's umbrella before leaving Leblanc. Thus, when it started raining, he didn't need to stop under the overhang and arrived at school on time. Through all of this, Akira never becomes the leader of The Phantom Thieves. Unfortunately, this ended up dooming him to a lonely, isolated school life for the first semester of his probation in Shujin as everyone in Shujin are under the opinion that he was involved in Shiho's suicide and of Kamoshida's actions towards her on top of his leaked criminal record (that Kamoshida blackmailed Mishima to spread) worsening it, and he also spent that time not truly bonding with Sojiro due to his assumption that the man only agreed to be his probation officer for the money he'd receive. Because of all of this, Akira ends up being a Palace target instead.
  • Mishima's hostility towards Akira apparently leads him to rig the voting on the Phansite so he can justify approaching the Phantom Thieves about it. When Futaba figures this out, she also notices that someone has done the same thing to rig the votes against Kunikazu Okumura, making it less likely they'll target him (though whether his ongoing treatment of Haru will change this, if indeed they find out about it, remains to be seen).
  • Without Akira to catch on to Akechi's pancakes slip, Akechi has an easier time remaining beneath the suspicion of the Phantom Thieves for when the time comes that he infiltrates the team.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: Despite missing the call, the supernatural and magical are still invested in trying to get Akira involved in the plot. This ranges from Akira becoming a Palace target for the thieves to the real Maruki having plans regarding Akira now that Akira's cognitive Maruki has merged with the real Maruki's shadow.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: The story as of writing leans heavily on the Cerebus Syndrome side of the rollercoaster due to the Butterfly of Doom in effect, starting from its Downer Beginning and how things get progressively worse as it continues. While there are a couple of hopeful moments that imply that things might improve at certain points ^Examples  Akira befriending Haru, the Thieves finally getting their Heel Realization and taking the first step to fixing their mistake with Akira. , that hope is quickly quashed as things take a turn for the worse in one way or another ^Examples Sugimura ruining things and preventing Akira from hanging out with Haru outside of Shujin grounds, Ryuji and Makoto accidentally setting Akira's cognitive Maruki free so he can fuse with the real Maruki's Shadow.. While the story does away with the light-hearted and comedic moments of Persona 5 in favor of focusing on the Butterfly of Doom in effect, it still has its own hopeful and heartwarming moments that prevents the story from being considered a Dark Fic.
• Chekhov's Gun: On his first day of school, Akira trips and loses his phone. Later on, Ryuji mentions finding a phone with the Metaverse app when recounting how he and Ann discovered the Metaverse.
• Contrived Coincidence: In Chapter 18, the fact that Chihaya just happens to be in earshot of Makoto and Ryuji when they're discussing the list of Tarot arcana they found in Akira's Palace (and not even in Shinjuku where she normally works). It's even acknowledged in the narration: "(What a strange coincidence, running into a fortune teller when that’s exactly what they need right now.)"
• A Day in the Limelight: Akechi is the focus of an interlude chapter, wherein he ventures into Akira's palace out of sheer curiosity as to why the Phantom Thieves had targetted some random teenager in Yongen after their previous higher profile targets.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Akechi. He's still around in his canon role, but has little involvement with the main narrative beyond an interlude chapter.
  • Kasumi still exist and appears in Maruki's interlude, but due to not interacting with Akira, she's a non-entity to the main scenario.
• Didn't Think This Through: After Yusuke quits the team in disgust over their part in causing Akira's palace to form, the rest of the team proceed to head back into the Metaverse without reassigning Yusuke's duties to another member of the group - leaving them struggling to find a way out of the palace after running into Caroline and Justine...
• Double Don't Know: From Ann in Chapter 14, after Ryuji asks if she still wants to steal Akira's heart.
  Ann: I don't know. I don't know if I want Yusuke to be right or not. Because if Kurusu is actually innocent… if I've been wrong all this time… then I don't know how to fix this. O-or if I just want to run away. Or I don't know what―
  Ryuji: [squeezing her shoulder] We'll get there when we get there.
• Downer Beginning: The first chapter ends with 'Igor' forebodingly warning Akira that his rehabilitation will not be fulfilled and is now impossible due to the ripple actions of Akira missing the call and losing his phone.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When the Thieves first infiltrate Akira's Palace, they find that the door to the Overseer's quarters is locked, with no clues as to where the keys are. Seeing the similarities to Madarame's Palace, they decide that the best way to proceed is to change Akira's cognition by having him invite them into his living quarters in the real world. However, in the process of doing so, the Thieves offer a Backhanded Apology as their excuse to approach Akira, prove willing to lie to him to snoop around, and mock his living quarters while they're at it. The whole debacle just ends with Akira telling them to Get Out!, and the security level increasing in his Palace.
• Dysfunction Junction: Deconstructed Trope. Without Akira to lead and/or help the thieves, the Phantom Thieves all had their Character Development stalled. As a result, they don't grow out of their flaws and clash far too often. It eventually comes to a breaking point by the time they get the Heel Realization at how much they, especially the Shujin enrolled thieves, fucked up and contributed to Akira's situation.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Yusuke is furious with Makoto for hiding Futaba's blackmail from the team, and later makes it clear his trust in her is severely and quite possibly irrevocably damaged.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ann, Morgana, Ryuji and Makoto display shades of this as they are horrified and have their respective Jerkass Realizations after seeing how Akira's cognitive versions of them act, with Ann in particular being horrified with how Akira believes she wants Akira dead to avenge Shiho. Despite their misguided hatred of Akira due to misunderstanding what his interaction with Shiho entailed, none of them actually wanted Akira to die.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Ann's reaction to the cognitive version of her in Akira's Palace, whose cruelty and sadism is disturbingly not that much of an exaggeration of how she's been acting around Akira. When Cognitive Ann gives her a shiv to murder Akira's Shadow - or the real Akira, Cognitive Ann makes it clear that she really doesn't care which one dies - Ann attacks her with it instead.
• Femme Fatalons: Akira's cognition of Ann has her fingernails sharpened into wicked claws.
• Fuzz Therapy: Morgana manages to provide some comfort to Akira by letting him pet him after he wakes up from a Catapult Nightmare the first night they spend together in the attic. He starts joining Akira in his bed more and more to help with the nightmares as he comes to sympathise with him, moving in with him on a permanent basis in Chapter 16.
• Heel Realization: Overlaps with Jerkass Realization due to the Adaptational Jerkass treatment that the Phantom Thieves receive. The Phantom Thieves start to go through this the more they learn about Akira's situation.
  • It's cemented for Yusuke after they find out that the Inmate was Akira's Shadow all along. "All this time Kurusu's Shadow wasn't the Overseer. He was a prisoner. We're the real monsters here."
  • Ann is also hit especially hard when she sees Akira's cognition of herself. When Morgana tries to tell her that it will never be her, Ann replies, "That was enough of me." The narration adds, "Enough to scare her."
  • While Morgana didn't do as much to create the Palace as the others, he does blame himself for enabling Ann's hatred for as long as he did, and tries to apologize to Akira despite his inability to. "I'm sorry, Akira. About everything. I'm sorry I couldn't see how much you were hurting… and I'm sorry I ignored it when I finally did. I don't think you should be alone anymore. And I don't want you to be."
• A House Divided: The Phantom Thieves are at each other's throats far more often, especially considering Akira's Palace and Alibaba's blackmail.
• Humiliation Conga: Akira goes through one in Gardening Supplies when Sugimura finds Haru giving him get well soon chocolate after an apparent seizure, punches him out, threatens to have his place of work blacklisted, and forces him to make him a free apology bouquet.
• Hypocritical Humour: When Yusuke asks Futaba why he's brought her laptop with her to a diner in another part of Tokyo, she points out that he's carrying his art supplies with him.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite Akira never starting the Phantom Thieves, the other members are still members of the team, with them still being able to beat the canon antagonists without him, albeit with much more difficulty.
• Internal Reveal: In Chapter 17, when Futaba, Yusuke and Morgana find their way into the Palace's records room, they start to piece together what actually happened when Akira was arrested. Chapter 18 sees Makoto and Ryuji start to reach the same point with help from Chihaya's fortune telling, though she can only tell them so much.
• Karma Houdini: Akira is a subversion. The Thieves think he got away with provoking Shiho into attempting suicide, but in reality it was a completely innocent conversation... and he's already paying for it.
• Logical Latecomer: Yusuke and Futaba are the newest Phantom Thieves, and they have a much better track record with the Akira situation, due to not being exposed to the rumors at Shujin.
  • Yusuke constantly asks for details on confrontations he wasn’t a part of, and questions whether the Thieves had obtained proof of Akira’s crimes.
  • Futaba realizes how unlikely it is that this supposed juvenile delinquent could maintain the same spot on the Phan Site’s request list for two months, and discovers that Mishima had been rigging the polls. She’s also prone to Stating the Simple Solution by, for instance, pointing out that it could only help his cognitions to treat Akira better in the real world- and that the other Thieves are at least partly responsible for the Palace.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Akira becomes the unfortunate victim of this at the hands of the Phantom Thieves, especially the Shujin-enrolled thieves who target him due to believing that he was complicit in Shiho's suicide and sexual assault under Kamoshida on top of his leaked criminal record. It's only until the Phantom Thieves have their Heel Realization that they finally cut this out and work in trying to fix it.
• Missed the Call: The very concept of the story is Akira missing his chance to enter the Metaverse the first time since he arrived in Tokyo.
• Moral Myopia: The Phantom Thieves don't take kindly to Akira acting hostile and suspicious towards them- or to his Palace being absurdly forbidding and difficult to navigate, for that matter. They tend to forget that they chased him off after Shiho jumped, practically accused him of abducting Morgana, and tracked him down at Le Blanc for unknown purposes- all basically based on his reputation. This ends up coming back to haunt them when they all realize Akira's Shadow is the inmate rather than the Overseer, and that they contributed to his Palace forming to start with.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Yusuke suffers through this when he figures out that Akira was actually the Inmate, and not the Overseer. He believes that they had a part in the creation of Akira's palace. Even the other Phantom Thieves start to recognize just how badly they messed up after seeing how their cognitive selves saw Akira, with Ann even suffering some nightmares due to how hellbent her cognitive self in Akira's palace was so gleeful at wanting Akira's death.
• Mythology Gag: When Akira stays up way too late studying, Morgana notes that if he had been one of the Phantom Thieves he would have forced him to get to bed long ago. He later does exactly that when Akira wakes up from a nightmare and tries to resume studying, though it takes him a while the first time.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The Phantom Thieves' naked distrust of Akira worsens his mental state to the point he forms a Palace.
  • In Chapter 18, Makoto reveals she took Akira's cognition of Dr. Maruki out of his Palace. Her attempt to interrogate him results in him escaping and merging with the real Shadow Maruki, causing obvious negative effects on the real Maruki's personality.
  • In the same chapter, Ryuji calls Makoto in to investigate Justine’s clipboard without telling anyone else- even though the team is still reeling from the last time Makoto tried going off on her own. He overrules Makoto’s entreaties to wait a few hours by saying that the other Thieves should’ve kept their phones on, and he’d take responsibility if they got mad. The investigation eventually leads to Cognitive Maruki getting loose, and the two realizing that they’ll need to explain that they made things worse by not keeping the team in the loop again.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Sojiro tried to be tougher on Akira when they first met, but his side stories as an outsider seeing the effect of the thieves trying to go after Akira's heart in his palace caused him to realize that he effectively caused Akira to isolate himself from people that would try to reach out instead. It also doesn't help that he keeps framing Akira's action as a "mistake" that he's paying for, as opposed to him being punished for doing the right thing, causing Akira to repress the sense of pride that his Shadow claims to feel regarding what got him locked up.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Ann is so convinced that Akira played a part in convincing Shiho to attempt suicide that she never brings it up with Shiho herself for fear of triggering her. It's not until Chapter 16 that she contacts her with the intent to ask her.
  • Makoto holds off on telling the others about being contacted by Alibaba, leading Futaba to contact Yusuke about instead and drive a wedge between the two of them.
  • Morgana doesn't tell the team about what he saw of Akira's obvious mental issues when he spent the night in his attic, and doesn't tell them when he suspects the Inmate in Akira's Palace is Akira's Shadow.
• P.O.V. Sequel: The side stories Gardening Supplies and Get Some Rest (and Wake to Watch the Rising Sun) both feature alternate perspectives (Haru and Sojiro respectively) on the events of July 24 in Chapter 11 of the main story, in which Akira suffers a seizure while working at Rafflesia as a result of the Phantom Thieves actions in his Palace, especially involving his Shadow.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The side story Gardening Supplies ends on a bleak note for Akira and Haru's budding friendship and for Haru's situation in general, as she's still trapped in an engagement to a controlling, abusive Hate Sink who has already beaten up Akira once just for befriending her, and accurately considers himself untouchable despite having done so in front of witnesses. However, this hasn't completely ended their friendship, as the story ends with Haru inviting Akira to her rooftop garden whenever he needs to get away from everything, and of course the main story is still ongoing. But it doesn't help that when Kunikazu Okumura eventually does come to the Phantom Thieves' attention, Futaba dismisses him as a target after finding out the vote against him is being rigged. The author has also noted that Gardening Supplies is not a must-read story for the main one.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: This question comes up when infiltrating the Penitentiary of Regret, considering how personally the Thieves take that particular mission. Morgana has to ask Ann early on whether she's in it to get Akira to turn himself in, or merely void his Karma Houdini Warranty... and no, "Can't it be both?" is not an acceptable answer.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Sugimura punches Akira for being friends with Haru, Akira's boss Hanasaki tries to stand up for him, refusing to serve Sugimura and promising to pass his name onto the police for assaulting one of her employees. Sugimura dismisses her by casually threatening to ruin Rafflesia if she tries anything, and Haru's reaction makes it clear he absolutely has the connections to do so.
• Selective Obliviousness:
  • Since the Phantom Thieves learned about Akira's Palace before Futaba reached out to them for help with her own Palace, they were still operating on the belief that the mere presence of a Palace was proof that the Ruler was the scum of the earth. Thus, since Akira's name was on the Penitentiary of Regret, they immediately jumped to the conclusion that he had to be the Overseer... even while they observed the real Akira's pitiful living conditions, complete lack of friends, and grueling work/study routine. Morgana later admits that he had more than enough information to know that Akira was suffering but didn't act on it. The thieves are proven horribly wrong when they discover that Akira's shadow is the inmate.
  • Ann in particular is guilty of this due to her own guilt regarding Shiho's suicide and partially blamed Akira because she doesn't want to face the guilt that she couldn't do anything to help Shiho. Ann was forced to face this when she is confronted with Akira's cognitive version of her who wants Akira dead for Ann to realize that she is doing nothing but be the reason that someone else potentially dies as after that particular confrontation, Ann has a dream of Akira actually dying under her hands as a consequence of her months long hostility towards him.
• A Shared Suffering: Yusuke attempts to get through to Akira's Shadow by comparing his experience with Madarame to that of being tormented by the Palace Wardens. "Our circumstances may be different, but I know how it feels to suffer under those who are nothing but vile, selfish monsters."
• Small Role, Big Impact: Kamoshida is only mentioned in passing, but his leaking Akira's record haunts Akira throughout the entire story and affects how the rest of the Phantom Thieves see him for months.
• Simultaneous Arcs: The events of August 10 are split between Chapter 17 (Yusuke and Futaba meeting up before going with Morgana to Akira's palace), Chapter 18 (Ryuji and Makoto meeting up before going to Mementos) and hopefully Chapter 20 (which is set to include Ann visiting Shiho to ask her about her conversation with Akira).
• Spiritual Antithesis: With A Tale of Two Tricksters, which was inspired by It's Just a Light Rain as a Foil example. Both stories feature a Joker-less Phantom Thieves and a Joker who, due to the Butterfly of Doom, did not enter the Metaverse at April 11 and the chain of events had them shunned and mistaken to be guilty of being responsible for Shiho's suicide and sexual assault due to last being seen talking to her, even though no such thing happened. However, that's where the similarities end.
  • A Tale of Two Tricksters is an Accomplice AU story and unlike Akira, who had a completely isolated social life in Tokyo and his relationship with Sojiro being tense, Ren still had some semblance of social life to support him despite his social isolation in Shujin, which includes Sojiro and some of Ren's canonical confidants such as Takemi, Ohya, and Shinya. Ren is also on good terms with Kasumi and Haru in Shujin during his first semester while Akira in It's Just a Light Rain doesn't interact with Haru until far later.
  • Joker's Character Development took a different route in the two stories. Akira in It's Just a Light Rain grows withdrawn and isolated with the thieves later learning that he plans to run away from Tokyo to get a fresh start away from what he went through in his first semester in Shujin and it took four months for Akira to get a semblance of a friendly relationship in Haru, and later Morgana and Yusuke. Ren in A Tale of Two Tricksters, on the other hand, managed to have a support network on his own in Sojiro, Takemi, Shinya, and Ohya among his canonical game confidants, and Futaba, Kasumi, Haru and Akechi among the playable thieves in the game. But the support network alone wasn't enough to help Ren that the Trauma Conga Line Ren suffered in Shujin and under the Phantom Thieves constant antagonism of him led to Ren's Protagonist Journey to Villain that convinced him to join Akechi. Akira also remains a regular human without a Persona at the moment of writing but with a chance that he can potentially mend and reforge a better relationship with the Phantom Thieves of his story despite what he went through, while Ren had awakened to his Persona at September in Shido's Palace to save Akechi, but except for Futaba, Ren doesn't care about the rest of the thieves, especially the Shujin enrolled members, due to what they put him through for his first semester in Shujin and had a lot of grudge and understandable anger at them that makes any form of reconciliation harder to do.
  • The thieves never got to explore Ren's Palace despite knowing about its presence due to Ren awakening to save himself and protect Akechi in A Tale of Two Tricksters and the revelation of the truth of Ren's "criminal record" instead forces the thieves to realize that they had gotten everything they thought about Ren wrong, while in It's Just a Light Rain, the thieves go after Akira due to Mishima's request, with Akira instead being a victim of their Miscarriage of Justice until Futaba's awakening triggers a Wake-Up Call and Heel Realization that Akira isn't evil, and that they are the ones who caused Akira to develop a Palace.
  • Additionally, A Tale of Two Tricksters shows the cause and effect the thieves cause to society such as Hifumi being Demoted to Extra due to Kamoshida's arrest affecting how schools treat their faculty and students, while It's Just a Light Rain heavily focuses on the effect that the Butterfly of Doom has on Akira and the thieves. A Tale of Two Tricksters also had its moments of levity and showcase that the situation with the casts isn't as bad as it seems despite the Butterfly of Doom in effect (Ren having a social circle outside of Shujin Academy, the Phantom Thieves being True Companions even without Joker, etc), while It's Just a Light Rain has a bleak outlook for the majority of the plot and in regards to Akira and the Phantom Thieves situation as of writing.
  • In A Tale of Two Tricksters, the Phantom Thieves were still able to remain friends despite Joker not being in the picture and still finding some difficulty in advancing with their heists safely. And they also recognize that they had done wrong when they chose to reveal Ren's criminal record to Akechi within his earshot, despite still believing that Ren is guilty until Futaba told them the truth about what Ren's criminal record was about. While in It's Just a Light Rain, the Phantom Thieves are divided and heavily dysfunctional without Joker's leadership and presence to help them grow and get closer, with Morgana and the Shujin enrolled thieves having a hard time admitting that they had been completely wrong about Akira until it's shoved hard in their faces in Akira's Palace and from being called out by Futaba and Yusuke.
• Stress Vomit: Ann in Chapter 16, after waking up from a nightmare of herself killing Akira in his Palace.
• Surprise Difficulty: An In-Universe example. The Phantom Thieves are repeatedly blindsided by just how horrible the Penitentiary of Regret is, even compared to the previous Palaces. The Shadows that populate it tend to be exceptionally dangerous, between Dr. Maruki's mind games, Shadow Akira's terrifying speed, and the Wardens' crushing strength. But even beyond that, the prison's systems are rigged against them; just ending the lockdown, a necessary step to infiltration that Shadow Akira endorsed, collapsed half the Palace and nearly gave the real Akira a Mental Shutdown.
• Tarot Motifs: Discussed after Ryuji brings a piece of paper with a list of Tarot arcanas and numbers out of the Palace. After talking with Chihaya in Chapter 18, Ryuji and Makoto manage to piece together that the arcana match up to the few bonds Akira has managed to make, including that Morgana is the Magician (which Justine had called him in the Palace) and that Futaba is the Hermit. However, the arcana do not all match up to the canon ones, as Yusuke represents Justice rather than the Emperor, while Ann is the Tower rather than Lovers due to Adaptational Relationship Overhaul.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Much of the story's conflict is caused by Ryuji and Ann going after Akira after Shiho jumped on April 15 and believing him to be in some way responsible for Shiho's suicide and sexual assault under Kamoshida due to Akira coincidentally being last seen talking to Shiho. They then spent several months hating and believing Akira to be just as bad as the rumors about his criminal record said, with Makoto believing the same and Morgana enabling Ann's hatred for months, convincing her that she's right without actually asking Shiho about what really happened between her and Akira due to fearing that she'd trigger Shiho of the memory of her sexual assault, with Yusuke being the only one then who still had his own doubts regarding Akira and questions the Shujin enrolled thieves and Morgana about it from time to time. When the thieves learn that Akira's shadow is the inmate of the Palace, rather than the overseer as they initially believed him to be, and seeing how their cognitive selves acted based on how Akira perceives them in real life shortly after saving Futaba from her own Palace, which gave them the possibility that not everyone with a Palace are evil, it was then that the Thieves had their much needed Jerkass Realization at how much they contributed to the mess that was Akira's Palace.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Akechi infiltrates Akira's palace after noticing the Phantom Thieves targeting Akira. He takes note of how strange that a simple Highschooler's Shadow is so powerful. He uses this fact to convince Shadow!Akira to steal his own treasure, and kill the Phantom Thieves as well.
• Wham Shot: More so in-universe than for the reader: When the Phantom Thieves release the Inmate, they are greeted by the sight of Shadow Akira, garbed in prisoner's clothing.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The team, especially Yusuke, call out Makoto for not telling them about the threatening text message she received from Alibaba.
  • Yusuke and Futaba both repeatedly call out Ann, Ryuji and Makoto for how much they contributed to Akira's palace being created in the first place.

• What You Are in the Dark: The thieves' confrontation of Akira's shadow, in particular, learning that Akira's shadow was the inmate, and of their cognitive selves in Akira's palace forces them to realize their own shortcomings contributing to Akira's situation and face that they are not the paragons of justice that they claim themselves to be when they contributed to Akira's palace forming based on how he feels everyone hates his guts and refuses to give him a chance, and Ann particularly seeing how cognitive Ann is gleeful in wanting him dead over a misunderstanding of what happened to Shiho caused Ann to realize how horrible she had been.
• Wrong Context Magic: Akira's Palace repeatedly violates the rules of regular Palaces. Morgana notes that going from no distortion to a Palace in three months is unheard of, and it later turns out he has completely lost control of said Palace to "Igor", Caroline, and Justine.