Fanfic / The AFR Universe

aka: The KFR Universe

The AFR Universe (AFR short for "Amamiya Family Reunion") is a collection of Persona fanfics written by vivvav. It is a continuing series of fics that mostly explore the lives of the former Phantom Thieves of Hearts after their original adventure came to a close. The stories are largely centered on character interaction and Slice of Life. Most of vivvav's stories (including The Amamiya Investigation) tie together in the AFR Universe, save for a few fics and two Alternate Universe stories; The Evil Queen and The Phantom Queen.

You can find the AFR Universe on vivvav's page in Archive of Our Own here.

WARNING! The AFR Universe is set as a sequel series to Persona 5, so there will be late-game spoilers unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

NOTE: This series was originally called The KFR Universe ("K" standing for "Kurusu"), but after the reveal of Joker's canon name "Ren Amamiya", Vivvav edited his fics within the now AFR Universe to reflect the announcement.

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Tropes found in the AFR Universe:

• Accidental Pervert: In the second story of "The Top 5 Times Ryuji Sakamoto Fell Into a Lake", Ryuji realizes that Ann lied about what she ate for breakfast. When pointing out the fact that she ate pancakes when she shouldn't have, he points to a syrup stain on her chest as proof. Ann takes offense to Ryuji poking her boob and punches him, causing him to fall into the nearby pond.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Ann and Shiho are in a relationship.
• Adoption-Induced Pregnancy: In "The Amamiya-Niijima Family," Makoto and Ren have been trying to start a family, with tests resulting in "improbable." The two then consult with Sae, who suggest adoption as an alternate means if things don't work out, the Niijima sister submitting the adoption process papers after their meeting. A few months later, Makoto reveals she's pregnant to Ren, and they begin making the necessary preparations to welcome their new baby. In the excitement of Makoto's pregnancy, everyone (including Sae, Makoto, and Ren) all forget about the application for adoption, blindsiding Ren when he's informed by child services that they were approved for an adoption, two months before Makoto gives birth. Ren and Makoto briefly have a moment of hesitation about whether or not to adopt while also having their first child, but the two ultimately decide to adopt her into their family. By the end, they have two daughters; Hanami as their birth daughter and Ryoko as their adopted daughter.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Makoto pats Futaba on the head in "Like A Buchi" after she forgives the latter after Futaba apologizes for having made the fake crossover trailer.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Haru has this problem as she explains in "Rainy Day Visit". The reason she's still single is that she wants to find someone exciting in her life. Ryuji and Hifumi think to ask Makoto if she knows any single police to help fill that void, though Ryuji and Ren do joke that Haru might be fine with an exciting criminal they happened to bust.
• Ambiguous Syntax: In "Boys and Queens", Ryuji calls Ren and Makoto to ask for advice since he wound up in a scandal thanks to a "pop rat" taking his picture.
  Makoto: You mean "Paparazzi". It's Italian.
  Ryuji: I dunno what country the guy's from, Makoto!
• The Apprentice:
  • Ren becomes a protégé to Toranosuke for his future in politics.
  • Haru trains as a barista directly under Sojiro so that she can open her future café.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Hanami is this to Ryoko.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Exploited By Yosuke in Agent Hanamura where he pretends to be a foreigner barely able to grasp English to tail his target without making himself seem suspicious.
• Avengers Assemble: "Alleycat" shows Morgana spreading the word about Ren's arrest to most of his Confidants so they can help him get acquitted.
• Bad Liar:
  • Ann still has a terrible time hiding her lies. When Ryuji gets suspicious about what she ate for breakfast when they were supposed to be running together, she starts sweating and looks away from Ryuji when he (rightfully) accuses her of binging on pancakes.
  • When Mitsuru pulls out a photo showing the Phantom Thieves of Heart during their televised calling card to Shido when asking Futaba if there isn't anybody she'd go to any extreme to protect, Futaba lets out a Big "WHAT?!" and after stammering a "That's not...I don't" (which Mitsuru clearly doesn't believe), Futaba points at Makoto's silhoutte and says "I guess I see the resemblance a little, but that's not me". Mitsuru responds with "Of course not. That is." while pointing at Futaba's silhouette and tells her "Before your claim otherwise, I will remind you that I saw you wearing this outfit when you summoned your Persona." prompting Futaba to respond with "Oh...right."
• Babies Ever After: Several of the former Thieves, and their partners, have become parents years after the game. Their children include:
  • Yoshio Sakamoto, Ryuji and Hifumi's son and first child, born 8 years post game.
  • Hanami and Ryoko Amamiya-Niijima, Makoto and Ren's daughters, born 11 years post game, with Hanami being their birth daughter and Ryoko being their adopted daughter.
  • Jun Mifune, Yusuke and Chihaya's daughter, born 12 years post game.
  • Jean Takamaki, Ann and Shiho's son, born 14 years post game.
  • Natsumi Sakamoto, Ryuji and Hifumi's daughter and second child, also born 14 years post game.
• Berserk Button:
  • While Ryuji's dealing with a trio of thugs berating him and making passes at Hifumi during "Confidant Roulette", he's his usual abrasive self, but in control. When one of the goons insults his mother, Ryuji is ready to deck him in the face.
  • Makoto takes it very personally when someone in an online chatroom accuses all police of being Corrupt Cops due to his bad experiences with police profiling.
• Big Damn Heroes: Chapter 3 of The Shadows Linger has Aigis saving Futaba when the latter is plummeting to her death after accidentally hitting the edge of the Dark Zone.
• Big Eater:
  • An offhand thought reveals that Haru has completed all three levels of the Big Bang Burger challenge, meaning she's been able to eat burgers nearly as large as she is.
  • Several references have been made to Yusuke's starving artist habits, including eating 8 popsicles in a row in preparation for the King's Game.
• Big Sister Instinct: Sae does love and cares for her sister greatly. She goes out of her way to interrogate the Phantom Thieves to find out what kind of people they are and what her sister is doing in "Her Sister's Motives", then she interrogates Ren when she finds out he and Makoto are dating in "the Older Sister's Interrogation".
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Makoto lets out a "What?!" when she learns Ren has been serving as Dr. Tae's guinea pig.
  • This is the main reaction from the other Phantom Thieves when Haru lets slip that Ryuji plans to propose to Hifumi.
• A Bloody Mess: In the first story of "The Top 5 Times Ryuji Sakamoto Fell Into a Lake", Ren and Ryuji are working together to clean a river. Someone in the nearby crowd pulls a gun and fires it at Ren. Taking the Bullet for his friend, Ryuji falls into the river with a stain of red on his chest. Ren fears the worst, but Ryuji soon realizes he'd been shot with a paintball gun rather than the real thing.
• Brainy Specs: At fifteen, Jean Takamaki wears glasses and is reading college level medical textbooks.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: This piece of narration after Futaba hits the edge of the portable Dark Zone while trying to escape Mitsuru and Yosuke:
  Prometheus vanished. The sunlight was back. The world below had electricity again, and Futaba’s Phantom Thief outfit was gone. And also she was a hundred feet in the air, unsupported by anything, about to fall to her death, the last bit of upward momentum from Prometheus’s flight quickly draining.
• Call-Back: While training in Mementos in "Okumura Power Lifting", Joker and Queen share concerned looks and call the mission over when they hear rattling chains. They both had to flee for their lives from the Reaper once in "the President's Investigation".
• Canon Marches On: Joker originally had the name Akira Kurusu, after his official name in the Persona 5 manga. When future games released and gave Joker the official name of Ren Amamiya, the stories were rewritten to accommodate.
• Casual Kink: Various stories imply that Ren is one in his relationship with Makoto.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: While playing the King's Game in "King of Thieves", Morgana realizes Ren is cheating by using his Third Eye to pick the King stick several times in a row and exposes him. As punishment, he's locked out of their hotel room to sleep on the balcony for the rest of the night.
• Chocolate Baby: Due to a mix up in Ann's artificial insemination, she ends up getting the sample of a Nigerian immigrant, making her son Jean 1/4 White, 1/4 Japanese, and 1/2 African.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: After getting to know Yusuke, Tae does her best to try to point the boy away from his art obsession and towards more healthy life practices.
• Collective Groan: "Dudes" ends on the Phantom Thieves all groaning together when Makoto doesn't answer back with "dude", failing the impromptu game they were all playing.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: After becoming human at last, Morgana was taken in by Haru as a ward with the cover story that he's her late father's illegitimate son.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "Like a Buchi", Makoto inflicts one on Futaba for making a fake crossover trailer between her two favourite franchises by removing her PC. And when Futaba begs for mercy and says she'll do anything to get her computer back, it's implied that Makoto coerces her into effectively defictionalizing the trailer.
• Con Man: Ryoichi Eguchi is revealed to be Jiro Takagi, a con artist who targets orphans who become successful in life by pretending to be their long-lost father, only to eventually swindle them out of a large sum of money and disappear from their lives. He does this by photoshopping pictures of himself with hired models to look like his target's potential mothers and hacks into medical computers to fake a match on a paternity test.
• Continuity Cameo: A member of the Investigation Team appears towards the end of "The New Adventures of Buchimaru-Kun".
• Continuity Nod:
  • After watching the new Buchimaru show, Makoto goes on an online forum to talk about it. One of the forum users brings up his dislike for cops (with the exception of one detective) and the fact that those with blond hair are immediately judged as punks. He later offers to make Makoto a Buchimaru plush, saying it's what he does for a living, heavily implying that this forum user is Kanji Tatsumi, doubled by the fact that his screen name TextileZaiten references his Ultimate Persona in Golden, Takeji Zaiten.
  • The engagement ring for Makoto was made by Inaba's metalsmith, Master Daidara (who sells weapons to the IT in the game), at Kanji's suggestion.
• Control Freak: Morgana is very bossy and demanding. In "Untenable", he lasts 10 days under the same roof as Makoto before moving out to live with Haru.
• Covered with Scars: Being a father and a body guard has left Ryuji with a number of injuries he recounts in "Old Wounds".
• Crazy-Prepared: The Shadow Operatives have either a recording or duplicate of Futaba's voice claiming she suddenly needed to run into work for a top secret emergency case so Sojiro doesn't suspect anything.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ryuji doesn't know much about shogi, so he gets eaten alive in all ten matches against Hifumi in "Confidant Roulette".
  • Ryuji deals a brutal beatdown unscathed to a trio of creeps with Hifumi's guidance.
  • While playing shogi against Hifumi's father, Ryuji loses in seven turns, said to be the fastest anyone can ever lose in a game of shogi.
• Cuteness Proximity: Ann goes completely bonkers when she's around a baby and she obsesses over little Yoshio in "Baby Sakamoto" to the point where she has to be literally dragged out of the hospital room by Haru.
• Death Glare:
  • Makoto gets one in "Like a Buchi" when she realizes that the trailer for the Buchimaru/Like a Dragon crossover movie is a fake created by Futaba, and she storms out of Leblanc in such a Tranquil Fury that an unnerved Sojiro comes back in asking Ren what the hell he did.
  • Iwai gives one to a shady customer who tried to sell off Ryuji's present for his mother that has him white as a sheet and getting the hell out of Untouchable.
• Delinquent Hair: Natsumi Sakamoto dyes their hair a shocking blue as a teen and is always looking to pick a fight, even going so far as joining a gang of Bully Hunters.
• Did They or Didn't They?: The end of "Buchi-Con" heavily implies that Kanji and Haru end up sleeping together.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: In "King of Thieves", Ann ends up demanding a massage from Haru during the King's Game. The end result is Ann in agony and unable to play for the rest of the night.
• Doting Grandparent: Shizuka Sakamoto is quite fond of spoiling her son's children.
• Double Date: In "Boys and Queens", Makoto suggests a double date with herself and Ren to the new couple Ryuji and Hifumi to both ease them into the new dynamics of their Relationship Upgrade and make their first date special. They choose a dinner date at a French restaurant.
• The Dreaded: Mitsuru to Futaba, so when Mitsuru shows up to take Futaba in "The Shadows Linger", the latter has a major Oh, Crap! moment.
• Eating Machine: Labrys has a variant body used for undercover work. To pass herself off as human, the body has a refrigerated storage container inside to store any food she "eats" for disposal later. In "Agent Hanamura", she explains this to Yosuke after "eating" her steak dinner and plans to give the now ground-up meat to Koromaru.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed in "The Trickster's World". While Yaldabaoth does have an academic understanding of how humans derive strength from their bonds, he still believes he is above such trivialities.
• Evil Is Petty: "Amamiya Family Reunion" reveals that the reason Ren never got any letters from his family was that the man who sued him used his connections to prevent Ren from getting any of that mail, simply because of his own spite.
• Exactly What I Meant to Say: While texting, Haru recounts a time when she took one of Queen's punches while she was under Marin Karin, noting how painful and scary it was and saying she would wish that on her worst enemy.
  Ryuji: You mean "wouldn’t" wish it on your worst enemy, right?
  Haru: That was not a typo, Ryuji-kun.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After dropping out of college, Ryuji would spend the next five years in various backbreaking part-time jobs just to get by with his mother. Fortunately, Haru would eventually help Ryuji find stable employment in Private Security.
• Fanboy:
  • Serious and straight-laced Makoto Niijima is completely obsessed with the mascot character Buchimaru. When she learns the character is getting a Continuity Reboot, her personality does a 180 as she suffers "Buchifever".
  • Futaba towards Yukari (because she's Feather Pink) and Fuuka (well-known in the tech-based fields). Finding out they're secret agent Persona users is a big thing for her.
  • Similarly, Junpei has been a Phanboy since the Kamoshida case.
• Flash Step: Ann runs up to see the baby in "Baby Sakamoto" so quickly that everyone briefly wonders if anime flash steps are a real thing.
• Freudian Excuse: "Distant Friends" gives a reason why Ryuji never says the word "fuck". It was his abusive dad's favorite and most-often used swear word. "Everything was ‘effin’ this’ and ‘effin’ that’ and ‘you’re an effin’ waste of space’ and ‘don’t you effin’ talk back to me'." Ryuji wants nothing of his father in his life, so he censors himself on that word.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: "Goro Akechi Falls Down The Stairs" makes it clear how much the Phantom Thieves despise Akechi. The only one to show any genuine concern for him after the titular fall is Morgana, and purely in a Can't Kill You, Still Need You sense.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Discussed in "Distant Friends," where Ren note that Ryuji and Makoto aren't really "friends," and more acquaintances who hang around with Ren and tolerate each other because of their shared camaraderie as the Phantom Thieves. The story is about the two hanging out and even has Makoto getting Ryuji to open up about himself.
• Fun with Homophones: In "Operation Bear Hunt", Hanami hears Futaba comment about her mother Makoto destroying someone "with her bare hands". Hanami doesn't know the expression and thinks Futaba said her mother has "bear hands". She's confused at first but then sees someone in a tv show shapeshift their hand into an actual bear. Seeing this, Hanami thinks Makoto's hands can turn into bears too and goes about trying to get the transformation to happen.
• Geeky Turn-On: Futaba's reaction to Aigis and Labrys. Not just their bodies, but their discarded and alternate parts.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop:
  • Sadao Niijima teaches his toddler daughter Makoto this trick while she's playing pretend as a police officer. He plays the good cop to her bad cop to interrogate her Buchimaru toy.
  • Played straight in "The Shadows Linger", where Mitsuru is the bad cop and the rest of the Shadow Operatives are the good cop.
• Good Parents: The Amamiyas love their son deeply. They sent him to Tokyo for his year-long probation because they didn't want him to suffer in their small town as a pariah, hoping that if he went somewhere where no one knew about him, he could have something of a normal life.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Yusuke's boxers in "King of Thieves" are made to look like the pelvic area of Michelangelo's David, penis and all.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Before their daughter is born, Ren and Makoto take in an infant girl who was recently orphaned, named Ryoko by her late mother.
  • Now that Morgana is a human, a thirteen-year-old at that, he has officially become Haru's ward.
• Headbutting Heroes: Downplayed as it's not truly hate, but Morgana tends to butt heads the most with the other Thieves not named Ren or Haru:
  • Morgana and Ryuji still have issues getting along, and Hifumi also gains a disliking towards the former for how he treats Ryuji.
  • "Untenable" has him and Makoto butting heads when she moves in with them precisely because they're too much alike in their controlling tendencies, to the point that Morgana ultimately ends up moving in with Haru after they decide that they simply can't live together.
• Heroic Build: Years of working various odd jobs has given Ryuji a very muscular body as of "Café Noir". With his blond hair, Haru notes that he could be mistaken for American from behind. In "Last Night Apart", having spent a lot of time with Ryuji, Hifumi is completely unimpressed/non-flustered by the toned bodies of strippers, saying they simply don't take compare to the muscles of her husband.
• High-Class Glass: As of "Lost and Found", Yusuke wears a monocle. The vision in one of his eyes is failing, and he thought a monocle would be more practical than a pair of glasses. When asked if he would switch to glasses if both eyes started to fail, Yusuke said he'd wear two monocles so as not to waste the one he has.
• Hit Me, Dammit!: Ren asks Ryuji to punch him in "the Days Between" to see if he still has his fighting instinct from the Metaverse. Ryuji gives him a black eye, then asks for the same treatment which leads to Ren busting Ryuji's lip.
• Hopeless Suitor: A belated bonus chapter casts Lavenza was one to Ren. Despite being ageless her physical appearance still offers far too large of a social gap for her to be able to pursue Ren. This is something Akechi mocks her about.
• Hulk Speak: In "Alleycat", Morgana's cognitive Ryuji isn't very smart.
  Cognitive Ryuji: RYUJI NOT KNOW HOW SMILE NO WITH HIM
  [Morgana returns]
  Cognitive Ryuji: RYUJI CAN HAPPY AGAIN!
• Humanity Ensues: It took twelve years, but Morgana eventually achieved his dream of becoming human.
• Humiliation Conga: "The Trickster's World" is rather brutal on its main character. Yaldabaoth is sent on a journey that has him Brought Down to Normal, nearly frozen to death, and tricked and assaulted by pretty much everyone he meets. Subconsciously, Ren's Mental World knew Yaldabaoth was there to see if he needed to kill Ren so it pulled no punches on him.
• I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Ren notes how uncharacteristically quiet Ryuji is being over the phone when Makoto asks him if he'd like to date Hifumi in "Boys and Queens".
  Ren: I never thought I'd say this, but speak louder, Ryuji.
• I Choose to Stay: Ren does return home at the end of Persona 5, but "Amamiya Family Reunion" shows him telling his parents he's decided to live in Tokyo for good now to stay with all of his new friends and pursue a career in politics. His mother's initially against the idea, but Ren and his understanding father bring her around.
• Imagine Spot: "Alleycat" has a moment where Morgana imagines how events will play out when he returns to the Phantom Thieves. Considering his massive ego, it's as over-the-top and self serving as you can get.
• In the Blood:
  • The "Niijima Death Glare" is apparently hereditary as Sadao somehow passed it on to his two daughters.
  • Futaba remarks on this regarding her hacking talent when she learns her biological father is a Con Man who uses hacking in his criminal routine.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Ren tells Makoto in "Untenable" that he suspects that part of the reason for Morgana's pushy nature besides it just being his natural personality is that he's depressed because he's still no closer to actually becoming human even five years after Persona 5, which is also why he tolerates his behavior despite liking it no more than Makoto does.
• In-Series Nickname: Ren thinks of Toranosuke as "Old Man Tora". When Yoshida found out, he found the name charming and used it as his Twitter account name.
• Irony: Ryuji's daughter Natsumi is born with naturally blond hair, thereby not requiring that she dye her hair to pull off a Delinquent look like her father. When she does grow up, she joins a gang and ends up dying her hair to a different color anyways.
• Kidnapped by the Call: In "The Shadows Linger", Futaba pokes into the plane hijacking thwarted by Aigis in Persona 4: Arena, and promptly finds herself abducted by the Shadow Operatives. While Mitsuru doesn't kidnap her with the intention of getting her to join, she makes the offer after it becomes (painfully) obvious that Futaba isn't one of the Kirijo Group's enemies.
• Kinky Cuffs: "Rainy Day Visit" shows that Ren and Makoto have a rather kinky sex life. Ren mentions that with Makoto pregnant, he starts finding himself in handcuffs more often, only to be cut off.
• Lack of Empathy: Subverted in "the Trickster's World". Yaldabaoth sees himself as above humanity, but he fully understands how they think and feel since he was born from their desires. He proves this by successfully talking a girl out of committing suicide in one of the Hermit's tests.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The King's Game in "King of Thieves" is quick to give the previous game's King hell for the demands they've made prior.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: After finding out Ryuji's going on a date with Hifumi, Ann collapses to the ground in a laughing fit.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: The Investigation Team made a solemn vow to never speak about the events of Persona 4: Dancing All Night again.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Sho Minazuki cut off his hand after it was crushed by Shadow Labrys to escape her and the Shadow Operative facility. He's been on the run ever since.
• Like Father, Like Son: Yoshio has taken after his father in "Rainy Day Visit", being a very loud child and aggressive to people he doesn't like. He's mellowed out as he's gotten older with his little sister being far more aggressive than he ever was.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In "Lost and Found", a man named Ryoichi Eguchi approaches Yusuke and reveals himself to be his long-lost biological father, a claim proven by a paternity test. The test also has the unexpected result of revealing Yusuke and Futaba to be half siblings. While it's a lie that the Con Man is Yusuke's father, he truly was Futaba's biological father, much to her dismay.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Yusuke picks up one of the cookies shaped like Buchimaru Makoto had made to celebrate the Continuity Reboot to inspect it artistically. Since they're right out of the oven, Yusuke casually mentions how painfully the cookie is burning his fingers as an afterthought. Ryuji shouts at him to put the cookie down.
• Malaproper: Ryuji often gets certain words wrong, though he's usually corrected by one of his friends when he does. This is usually a Once A Fic gag.
• The Medic: Chapter 4 of Police Department Intensive Martial Arts Boot Camp introduces Labrys as this for the titular Boot Camp, having downloaded everything there is to know about medical stuff and treatments. Needless to say, she's completely exasperated by the Boot camp and what Akihiko's putting Makoto and Chie through.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe. After learning about Twitter and the power of the internet, one day Old Man Tora tried to look up his name on Google to see how things were looking for his campaign. He accidentally entered his name on Twitter, so he ended up posting "Toranosuke Yoshida: Toranosuke Yoshida" on his page. A group of young people at his latest speech are seen carrying a banner reading "Toranosuke Yoshida Toranosuke Yoshida" afterwards.
• Mental World: "The Trickster's World" is set in a metaphysical reflection of Ren's psyche created by Yaldabaoth. The world is a "pseudo-Palace" that displays Ren's Confidants acting as their Tarot Motifs.
• Mood Whiplash: Most of the stories are slice of life stories but some such as "The Shadows Linger" can be quite serious.
• Mushroom Samba: "Confidant Roulette" starts off with Yusuke heading to Takemi's clinic to test one of her medicines on behalf of the bronchitis-ridden Ren. The results are detailed in Takemi's observation log.
  4:03 - Subject ingests the sample. Displays expected reaction to taste.
  4:04 - Subject has been drinking large quantities of water. Denies feeling dehydration, states it’s to wash taste out of mouth.
  4:05 - Subject displays signs of fatigue: Drops held object and declares lightheadedness, but remains lucid. Subject soon after falls over.
  4:06 - Subject rising from floor with difficulty. Claims to have trouble moving his body.
  4:07 - Subject attempts to climb onto exam table. Falls off.
  4:08 - Subject successfully climbs onto exam table. Beginning second art test.
  4:10 - Subject has exceeded time of pre-ingestion art test. Seems to be unable to focus on the page. Movements are uncontrolled. Pencil keeps sliding off page.
  4:12 - Subject still drawing. Keeps responding to inquiries about his progress with "Patience, Morgana."
  4:13 - Subject has begun singing as he draws.
  4:14 - Subject persists in singing, despite not knowing lyrics.
  4:19 - Subject completes second art test. Is calling work "a masterpiece". Seems to be suffering from delirium and a near-complete loss of motor skills.
  4:21 - Subject stands on exam table and loudly proclaims himself to be "Majestic and splendiferous fox". Unwittingly punches ceiling in the process.
  4:22 - Subject goes silent. Is staring at a poster featuring cartoonish animal creature. Has mystified expression on his face.
  4:24 - Subject still staring at poster. Is not responding to attempts at communication.
  4:26 - Subject still staring at poster. Starting to cry. Murmurs something about "sai".
  4:29 - Subject collapses. Doctor intervenes to make sure he remains on table and does not fall from a high spot to the hard floor.
  4:32 - Subject passes out.
  5:13 - Subject's stomach growls. Likely unrelated to medicine.
  5:34 - Subject awakens. Seems to be returning to normal.
• Mythology Gag: In "Farewell to my False Self", Ren admits that he had written a fake name on the confession the police forced him to sign. The name he gave was "Akira Kurusu", which Vivvav had used as Joker's real name until Atlus made Ren Amamiya the official name.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Ren runs into a dilemma about this in "the Days Between". Sae comes to him to talk about inevitably revealing Akechi's death. The question becomes whether they keep the truth hidden to let Akechi die a hero and martyr, or to expose him as the monster he was, tragic though his circumstances might have been. In the end they find a middle ground: They reveal Akechi's true nature, but spin it into a cautionary tale about what kind of monsters poor upbringing and neglect can create.
• Not Helping Your Case: After terrorizing and kidnapping Futaba, Mitsuru suddenly tries to get her to join the Shadow Operatives. Futaba refuses, of course, leading to more threats from Mitsuru. Yosuke, playing Good Cop, informs Futaba of Mitsuru's complete lack of tact and social skills brought upon from years of being a rich heiress with too many enemies to list.
• Not Hyperbole: When Toranosuke comes up with his first post on Twitter, Futaba tells him it's too long. Toranosuke feels that what he said wasn't very much for anyone to read, only for Futaba to clarify that it's literally too long a post for Twitter's character limit.
• Not So Above It All: In "Alleycat," Igor celebrates the Phantom Thieves' victory against Yaldabaoth by taking his Holy Grail form, filling it with red wine, and then drinking from it, with a big smile on his face. The same mysterious and quiet mentor that many fans know. When Lavenza points out that it's a little bit tactless, Morgana notes that Igor pouts at that comment, and the Velvet Room master indulges in his victory as catharsis after being trapped and having his identity stolen.
• Number Two: Eventually Ren and Ryuji end up partners in their careers just as they were as Phantom Thieves, with Ren as a member of the Diet and Ryuji as his Head of Security.
• Obvious Rule Patch: During King of Thieves, after Ryuji terrifies Futaba by ordering Number 1 (Makoto) to punch Number 6 (Futaba) in the face, the King's Game rules are amended so that the King cannot order acts of violence.
• Odd Friendship: "Confidant Roulette" gives birth to several new friendships among the Phantom Thieves and Ren's other Confidants when they agree to help out in the sick Ren's absence:
  • Haru becomes a regular customer at Untouchable and learns a lot of sound business advice from Iwai.
  • Takemi becomes Yusuke's primary doctor and frequently tries to get him to take better care of himself.
  • Makoto occasionally works at the Crossroads bar to see Lala and Ichiko.
  • Ryuji becomes fast friends with Hifumi which evolves into romantic feelings, and eventually marriage/a family.
  • Mishima and Shinya run into each other at the arcade and become fast friends, going fishing together later in the episode.
• Official Couple: Ren and Makoto are romantically involved in this series. As of "Boys and Queens", Ryuji and Hifumi are dating as well. Seven years later, the two are married with a child.invoked
  • "The Shadows Linger" confirms Yosuke/Labrys, as well as the implication that Mitsuru was romantically involved with Makoto Yuki in the past.
  • Ann and Shiho are also romantically involved, though they haven't had many stories focused on them.
• Oh, Crap!: A lot, but particular examples include:
  • In Okamura Power Lifting, rattling chains are heard, prompting Joker and Queen to share concerned looks and declare the mission over remembering when they had to flee from the Reaper in an earlier story.
  • In The Shadows Linger, first when Futaba sees that the person who grabbed her wrist is Mitsuru Kirijo and again when Futaba realizes that with Prometheus gone (due to her hitting the edge of the Dark Zone while trying to flee), she's a hundred feet in the air and about to fall to her death. Thankfully, Aigis saves her halfway down the plummet.
• Opposites Attract: Ryuji and Hifumi end up becoming a couple.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Most of the AFR Universe is about Slice of Life and character interaction. "The Trickster's World" is a fantasy journey unlike anything else outside of vivvav's Alternate Universe Fics.
• Paparazzi: Hifiumi Togo is frequently hounded by shutterbugs due to her past as the idol shoji player and the scandal of her mother rigging the matches in her favor. Twice she has been caught on camera with Ryuji, sprouting a new tabloid article about what kind of double life she must be living for associating with a Japanese Delinquent like him.
• Parental Substitute: Thanks to various situations of absent or abusive parents, Sojiro has become a father figure to most of the Phantom Thieves.
• Perpetual Smiler: Igor. Morgana notes that Igor's smile growing slightly smaller was the closest he's ever gotten to frowning.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: Ann punches Ryuji hard enough in the face to knock him ass over teakettle into the nearby pond when he pokes one of her boobs (to point out the evidence of her eating pancakes when she knew she had a workout with him that day).
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: Comedic example at the end of "Like A Buchi" when Futaba tells Makoto this after the latter decides to take Futaba's PC as punishment for the fake crossover. It's implied that Makoto coerces her into effectively defictionalizing the trailer.
• Precision F-Strike: Ren's reaction when he realizes Haru is using his body as a weight-lifting implement while his mind visits the Velvet Room. It's the harshest language he's ever used.
  Ren: Haru, what the fuck?!
• Rage Breaking Point: Makoto has a hard time adjusting to living with Morgana in "Untenable" since they're both rather controlling people. The final push that makes Makoto address Ren directly about Morgana's behavior is when Morgana orders them both to go to bed.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Futaba lets out a string of "Nope" while running away from the table to try and ignore Haru revealing Yusuke's extensive sexual history.
• Really Gets Around: According to Haru, Yusuke has a sexual partner in every country he's visited, male and female. During his 40th birthday party, he's seen dancing with nineteen people, with at least two of the dancers and two others at the bar being confirmed to be lovers.
• Robosexual: Yosuke and Labrys are a couple. Futaba does the obvious and asks if they have a sex life. Labrys refuses to answer directly, but what she says implies they do have one.
• Secret Test of Character: All of the trials Ren's cognitions give Yaldabaoth in "the Trickster's World" are layered with a test of character. He fails every single one of them.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: After some experimenting, the Phantom Thieves all agree Ryuji looks rather well when they get him into a nice suit for his date in "Boys and Queens".
• Shipping Torpedo:
  • Yu Narukami and Naoto Shirogane are romantic partners in this setting, despite Kanji's clear attraction to Naoto in Persona 4. In "Buchi-Con", Kanji reveals to Haru that he never got up the courage to ask Naoto out, so Yu beat him to the punch. He admits it was his fault and is happy for both of them, so there's no hard feelings.
  • "Buchi-Con" showed Haru was very attracted to Kanji and it was implied they slept together that night. "Rainy Day Visit" reveals that whatever spark was there didn't last. Neither Haru nor Kanji were willing to move from where they lived, and they had tried and failed at a long-distance relationship.
• Shout-Out:
  • At the end of "Spirit of Rebellion", Futaba sends Makoto an online link to an anime she thinks Makoto would like, Durarara!!.
  • When holding Yoshio for the first time in "Baby Sakamoto", Futaba wonders aloud if she could do the scene from The Lion King of Rafiki holding up Simba. Ryuji promptly declares her turn to be over.
• Spotting the Thread: Futaba figures out something is fishy about Ryoichi's claim to be Yusuke's father when she realizes that the "family photo" Ryoichi has was edited with Photoshop.
• Stylistic Suck: Stranger than Phan-dom has Ryuji, Ann and Morgana reading some bad in-universe fanfics that were written by the author of The AFR Universe and a couple of others.
• Take My Hand!: While trying to escape the Reaper, Joker falls off of Johanna as Queen drives on the ceiling in Mementos. Queen grabs onto Joker's hand for dear life as the two barely make it to safety.
• Taking the Bullet: One short story in "The Top 5 Times Ryuji Sakamoto Fell Into a Lake" involves the titular character taking a bullet for Ren (whom he's bodyguarding as a Diet representative) and falling into the river. Luckily for him, it was a paintball fired by a nut who had a beef with Ren as "No Good Tora"'s apprentice.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Yaldabaoth, of all people, successfully talks down a suicidal girl in "The Trickster's World" during a test administered by the Hermit. Subverted when some time passes and a stray comment by the girl's parents leads her to kill herself anyway; the point of this test is to show that no matter what you do, sometimes because of circumstances beyond your control, it just isn't enough.
  Yaldabaoth: Do you truly intend to jump?
  Girl: Huh!? Who are you!?
  Yaldabaoth: My identity is of no consequence. Step away from the roof's edge.
  Girl: What's the point!? My existence is worthless! I get poor grades, so I'm a burden to my parents! I spend all this extra time studying to try and make up for it, so all my friends have left me behind! And the boy I like doesn't even know I exist! Why shouldn't I end it all right now!?
  Yaldabaoth: Do you truly believe that your loved ones would not be upset by your passing?
  Girl: Huh?
  Yaldabaoth: You believe you are a burden on your family. But would your death truly come as a relief to them? Do you believe your mother and father are completely without love for you? Were you to die, do you believe they would feel their lives had improved? Or is it more likely that they would be stricken with grief, agonizing over the loss of their daughter, blaming themselves for being failures as parents? Would not your death bring them immeasurable pain?
  Girl: I... I don't- I didn't think of it like that.
  Yaldabaoth: Leave this rooftop. Return to your family. Take comfort in their love. Your current situation is temporary. Your life will offer many opportunities for change. You may also find it beneficial for you to seek aid from a mental health professional.
  Girl: Ok.
• Squee: In "Like a Buchi", Makoto lets out a massive one when she first sees the trailer for the crossover of Buchimaru/Like a Dragon. She spends most of the rest of the story talking Ren's ear off about it.
• Tarot Motifs: "The Trickster's World" reflects the story of the Major Arcana as Yaldabaoth plays the role of the Fool to meet all of the Arcana (Ren's Confidants).
• Tears of Joy: When Haru receives Sojiro's seal of approval for her coffee and Café Noir, she's moved to tears and goes to embrace him.
• Tempting Fate: Futaba pulls this twice in Chapter 3 of "The Shadows Linger" while being interrogated by Yosuke and Labrys:
  • First, Futaba brags that she has friends in high places and that it's only a matter of time before Soijoro notices she's gone and contacts the others and shuts down the whole scheme...only for Labrys to play either a recording or exact duplicate of Futaba's voice saying that she's got this super secret emergency case that she needs to run into work for and she'll be gone for a few days.
  • Then, she tries pointing out how the Shadow Operatives can't just access her laptop without running into about 100 alarms and security systems only for Labrys to tell Futaba that Labrys is a computer who can think and Futaba's security systems were fairly tricky for her to deal with but Futaba's way out of her league. This causes Futaba to mutter that Labrys is "so cool" which the Robot Girl proudly agrees with.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Having beaten three thugs harassing Hifumi with her guidance, both Ryuji and Hifumi shout in unison, "THAT'S CHECKMATE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
• Time Skip: The separate fics jump around to different points in time.
• Time Stands Still: The Shadow Operatives have a special box that allows them to recreate the Dark Zone in a given area so they can use it to grab Futaba. Mitsuru places a special ring on Futaba to stop her from falling asleep. The fact that it has the properties of the actual Metaverse allows Futaba to go into her Phantom Thief outfit and summon Prometheus to make her getaway. Her hitting the edge of the Dark Zone and causing the world to go back to normal and losing her Prometheus which she was using to fly away necessitates Aigis having to save her.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: As of "Café Noir", Makoto's had a growth spurt to a height matching her sister's, making her taller than Ren. Futaba jokes that now Makoto looks the part for who's in charge of the relationship.
• Tragic Dropout: In "Café Noir", set five years after Persona 5, Ryuji dropped out of his first year of college and has been working several minimum wage part-time jobs so he and his mom can scrape by.
• Tragic Villain: In "The Days Between", Ren notes while privately eulogizing Akechi that while he was a rotten monster who brought pain and suffering to everyone he met, he didn't rot himself and that Ren could have turned out just as bad with a little less luck.
• Training from Hell:
  • The training required to become a Shadow Operative is two weeks of Hell meant to push you physically, mentally, and beyond to your absolute limit. Since implementing the training, only one candidate has graduated: Yosuke.
  • Makoto volunteers for such training alongside Chie Satonaka and a few others in "Police Department Intensive Martial Arts Boot Camp" taught by none other than Akihiko.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Makoto gets like this in "Like a Buchi" when she realizes that Futaba was pranking her with a fake crossover between her two favourite franchises (Buchimaru and Yakuza).
  • In "The Old Man", when Ryuji sees the name of his father for the first time since he left, his usual surface-level reactions don't appear; he's dissonantly calm, even numb to an extent, but the anger is clearly still there. Even when he confronts said old man, their conversation is level, and the raw feelings Ryuji has only surface a couple of times (briefly). In the end, Ryuji gets his answers (or re-confirms what he already knew), yet despite admitting that he's dreamed of hurting this guy, of yelling at him, and more... he doesn't. There's no last parting shot, no beating his ass, no explosion of anger; Ryuji just straight-up leaves in disgust because he wasn't worth any of that.
• True Companions: Even after the dust has settled, the Phantom Thieves have all forged a bond that withstands the test of time. Perhaps best demonstrated in "Sakamoto Mother's Day" when the entire team drops everything to help Ryuji put together a nice Mother's Day celebration for his mom.
• Walking Spoiler: "The Trickster's World" stars Persona 5's Greater-Scope Villain, so it naturally spoils just about everything about the character.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: The female members of the Phantom Thieves, including Sae, Hifumi and Eiko try to convince Ren to do this with Makoto by faking his kidnapping, only for the plan to be refused. It turns out to be a ruse in order to get him worked up into revealing a ring he bought for her but has been holding off for weeks.
• Weapon Tombstone: Ren plants one of Akechi's toy swords into the dirt in front of his actual (albeit empty) tombstone as a way of saying goodbye.
• Wham Line: In "Rainy Day Visit", three-year-old Yoshio can tell that Ryuji is arguing with Morgana and starts to fight back against the "bad kitty", but then innocently reveals he can perfectly understand Morgana, to everyone's awe.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Makoto delivers one of these to Futaba in "Like a Buchi" for pranking the former with a fake crossover trailer between Buchimaru and Like a Dragon.
• Wine Is Classy: In "Alleycat", Igor celebrates Morgana's victory by drinking red wine from the Holy Grail that had once been Yaldabaoth, though Lavenza comments it's a bit in poor taste.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: In the fourth short story of "The Top 5 Times Ryuji Sakamoto Fell Into a Lake", Ryuji tracks down Ren and Ann at the fishing pond dressed in heavy coats with long fake beards and sunglasses to try and pass themselves off as elderly men while they pig out on sweets and junk food when they shouldn't be.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: In "Police Department Intensive Martial Arts Boot Camp", Labrys lets out a "Ya can't be serious!" after Makoto says she doesn't want to go home and wants to continue the program even though she took a pretty nasty kick from Chie.

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