Makoto's Lies
is an adaptation of Persona 5's story except from the point of view of Phantom Thief member Makoto Niijima.
While the story follows the game closely, it has taken some liberties with the source, like in events where the protagonist wasn't present and especially during the later chapters.
This fic has examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Makoto's inner thoughts are given more focus in the story, and scenes not in the game are added.
- Authority in Name Only: Ren perceives Makoto as the true leader of the Phantom Thieves, but accepts the moniker as the leader as a narrative that ultimately protects the team, and her.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys:
- Discussed. Makoto overhears a member of her Student Council rant about how someone wanted to be with a nice guy, but ended up being with a delinquent. Makoto thinks the conversation was about Ryuji and Ann, but its implied it's actually about her and Ren.
- Makoto seems to have a thing for bad boys. Not only is she dating the leader of the Phantom Thieves, who happens to be a convicted delinquent serving probation, Makoto also barely managed to not Squee like a fangirl when she met Iwai, who in her own words seemed like a character taken straight out of one of her favorite Yakuza movies.
- Amazon Chaser: Seconds after Sae releases Iwai from the submission hold she put him into due to a misunderstanding, he starts to hit on her. His embarrassed son Kaoru immediately drags him away.
- Base-Breaking Character: Akechi is an In-Universe example here. Ren thinks of him as yet another of Shido's victims. Makoto has a far less charitable opinion of him and she's conflicted that Ren doesn't feels the same, while also acknowledging that his kindness as one of the reason she fell for Ren in the first place. This comes to a head with Akechi's death. Ren regrets being unable to save him, whereas Makoto admittedly doesn't and thinks she likely never will. What she does care about, though, are Ren's feelings on the matter and so she won't push her opinion further than that.
- Chess Motifs: Upon hearing the proposed Thief name Queen, Makoto likens it to the Chess piece, for its power and freedom of movement, likening it to Johanna.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Downplayed. Makoto is bothered by Ren (seemingly) going out with Ohya, even though they were still Just Friends at the time. She also feels unease when Ren comforts Futaba with a hug when remembering her mother's death.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: While having lunch with Ren, Makoto suddenly asks if she's bad at kissing, since they haven't kissed each other in a while. They are both taken aback by this.
- Double Meaning: Futaba comments to Makoto about how Morgana is worrying that Ann won't hang out as much with him now that she's dating Ryuji. It takes a moment for Makoto to realize that what Futaba is actually doing is asking Makoto if it's okay for her to be as close as she is to Ren, now that he's dating Makoto.
- Fatal Flaw: Makoto literally is killed because of her penchant for lying, keeping secrets and taking on big problems by herself. She is revived with Samecarm but she and Ren are scarred for months because of it.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Takes place in Ren and Makoto's first date. It's also where their First Kiss takes place.
- First Kiss: Ren and Makoto's date took place during a Ferris Wheel Date Moment.
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: When Ren and Makoto start dating, Ren buys her a creepy necklace that she secretly dislikes. Its actually a necklace to protect her from Hama attacks because he is still traumatized from accidentally killing her with Hamon.
- Hello, Attorney!: Sae Niijima, of course. Both Iwai and Takemi hit on her right after meeting her, but she doesn't appear to notice.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Ann, like in the game. A bit of a Deconstruction happens when she and Makoto go swimsuit shopping for the gang's day at the beach. Makoto was actually pretty confident with how well her first pick fitted her figure... until she saw Ann in hers. Feeling suddenly inadequate, Makoto changed her mind and went for the less-daring swimsuit set she wore in the game.
- Hollywood Encryption: An ambiguous spell prevents Ren from telling the other Phantom Thieves about the Velvet Room. When he tried to tell the others, they just got distracted and forgetful. When he tried to tell Makoto, she was hit with a painful headache, so he stopped trying.
- Hope Spot: Makoto believed that a cognition of her late father would exist in Sae's palace, similar to how there was a cognition of Futaba's mother in hers. She breaks down in tears when she isn't able to find it.
- It Meant Something to Me: Lampshaded hilariously by Haru and Ren. When Makoto realizes Ohya was only pretending to date Ren, just like with her, Haru teases her overtly. Then Ren privately says she was jealous.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Ren approaches Makoto when she's spying on him, she immediately gets flustered, lies about needing to go shopping at Rocinante and runs away. Its implied Ren knows she's lying.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Both Makoto and Ren.
- Kick the Dog: When Makoto and Akechi meet each other again after Ren's capture and "suicide", Akechi proceeds to describe how bloody the crime scene was. To add insult to injury, he claims that Ren must have been working under Kaneshiro and then used the Phantom Thieves to get rid of him when it suited him better. To make things even worse, Akechi rips off and destroys a necklace that Ren gave to Makoto on their first date. Makoto retaliates by breaking his phone.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Makoto and Ren fully commit to one in the end. Makoto expresses insecurity about making it last, but Ren eases her by finally admitting he loves her.
- Love Hurts
- Mistaken for Romance:
- Based on how flirtatious Cognitive Akechi was with Makoto, the party deduced that Sae believed the two were going out at that point.
- Makoto also mistakenly thought Ren and Ohya were an item. In her defense, she caught sight of them when they were pretending to be a couple.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ren takes accidentally killing Makoto with Hamaon very hard for months. When their intimate relationship starts, he buys her a creepy necklacke she dislikes to protect her if it ever happened again.
- Narm Charm: In-Universe. Makoto says to Ren that some of his romantic lines are too cheesy for even him to pull off. He retorts that's not really convincing, coming from someone sporting a Luminescent Blush as bright as hers.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Haru clobbers Sae's Cognitive version of Akechi for killing Futaba's mother and her father. Futaba doesn't see it happen and assumes Makoto was the one who beat up the cognitive Akechi, which is the account of the events that she tells the protagonist in the game.
- Oblivious to Love: In Sojiro Sakura's house, Makoto latches on to Ren while terrified of the lightning and darkness, so tightly that she can sense his heart racing. She thinks its because he's as frightened as she is, but really its because he has feelings for her.
- Once More, with Clarity: Inverted. Unlike the game, the story depicts the events leading to the Casino heist chronologically, instead of setting up The Caper's Plot Twist by hiding key events from the audience.
- Perspective Flip: While Ren is still the leader of the Phantom Thieves, the entire story is from Makoto's perspective.
- Poor Communication Kills: Played for Drama. When Makoto explores Sae's palace on her own, Ren mistakes her as the Black Masked killer, casts Hamon and literally kills her. The story allows for resurrection via the Samecarm spell, but leaves Ren horrified for months.
- Questionable Consent:
- Defied. Ren refrains from initiating physical intimacy with Makoto, including kissing, once they learn about the Conspiracy's plans to kill him. Given her personality and the prospect of his death looming on the horizon, Ren arrived to the conclusion that Makoto wouldn't have been able to refuse him if he were to take things too far, regardless of her real feelings in the matter.
- The above becomes a Subversion when they finally talk it out. Contrary to his concerns, Makoto was in fact feeling very insecure due to his apparent disinterest, but she wasn't able to convince Ren that her reassurances of the opposite weren't at least tinged by that fear. They compromise to let her take the lead, something she wasn't exactly content about, but she reasoned with herself it was only a temporary measure and that they did have bigger problems to worry about.
- Relationship Upgrade: In canon, the player romances Makoto during rank 9 of her Confidant story, but that doesn't happen in this fic until much later. Ren and Makoto become a couple when he asks her out after looking into Sae's Palace.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Yusuke thinks so of Makoto when "Ratted." She develops a bit of a trauma about it because he tends to manhandle her when she's in her tiny and helpless form.
- Secret Relationship: Ren and Makoto keep their relationship a secret from even their friends until Futaba realizes they're dating. Makoto keeps it from Sae even after she is turned to their side. She eventually tries to say something about it to Sae, but is constantly interrupted.
- After Ren turns himself in and the Niijima sisters talk about it, Makoto asks if she Knew It All Along. Sae states she suspected there was something going on between the two.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Eiko, as in canon. She squees when she learns Ren and Makoto are going out for real.
- Haru is on board when Ren and Makoto admit the two are dating.
- Sleep Cute
- Stalker with a Crush: Discussed. Ren reveals that he knew Makoto was following him when she was looking into the Phantom Thieves, claiming that he was partially hoping it was because she liked him. Makoto says it kind of became the case in hindsight.
- Suggestive Collision: After getting turned into rats in Shido's Palace, Ren and Makoto ended up entangled in a pile. The "suggestive" part of the trope comes up when Haru deactivates the trap and they come back to normal, leaving the couple in a rather compromising position.
- Sustained Misunderstanding:
- Before their Relationship Upgrade, Makoto was convinced that Ren was dating an adult woman after she accidentally saw him and Ohya together in the city. It took her until the Phantom Thieves fought the Shadow of Ohya's boss in Mementos to learn they were only pretending to date in order to keep Ohya's investigation hidden from her boss.
- Makoto started to feel insecure about their relationship when Ren stopped kissing her for no apparent reason. When she finally worked up the nerve to ask whether she was really that bad at kissing, or rather when the question simply jumped out of her mouth, Ren admitted he was instead worried that their awareness of the plan to kill him would make her feel obligated to consent, so he opted to avoid putting her in that position.
- The Social Expert: Ren demonstrates very high emotional intelligence and empathy, sensing the feelings, motivations and flaws in Makoto, the Phantom Thieves, Akechi, and others.
- Through His Stomach: After their first date, Makoto brings Ren a boxed lunch to school.
- Unreliable Narrator: Makoto is an observant and reliable narrator, but her emotional awareness isn't the best there is. For example, the reader isn't likely to believe her when she tells herself Ren is free to be together with anyone he wants after she mistakenly deduces he's dating Ohya. Makoto also misses the clues that Haru fell for Ren as in her Confidant's sidequest in the game and privately resents the fact she met him too late for him to have eyes for anyone but Makoto.
- You Don't Want to Die a Virgin, Do You?: Deconstructed by Ren in Chapter 19. Ren refuses to use the urgency of the risk of being killed to engage in intimacy, and he discusses this with Makoto on the matter.
