Niijima Sae risked everything by presenting cognitive psience as proof that the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns were connected. Tragically, her gamble was for naught and she was dismissed, only to awaken in a velvet prison and be granted the power of the Wild Card. Now, she must forge bonds with those that the system has failed and confront her own failings as she changes the hearts of the wicked.
But, how can she reform society if she can't even reform herself?
This Is Our Justice is a Persona 5 Alternate Universe Fic by Apex_Primus
, published on Archive of Our Own.
This is Our Justice has examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Sadayo Kawakami, Sae Niijima, Sojiro Sakura, Tae Takemi, and Hifumi Togo are all Phantom Thieves here. Downplayed with Iwai after he joins them, insofar as he was badass enough in canon.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Since the Thieves are using Leblanc as their meeting place from the beginning, Futaba overhears them before they go to Madarame's Palace.
- Haru is also introduced much earlier, becoming part of Ren's friend group by the end of the Kaneshiro arc.
- Adaptational Heroism: Sae is a lot more heroic than she was in the canon game here, given that she's the Trickster (and has been making actual progress in the mental shutdown investigations thanks to her work with the Thieves).
- Adaptational Jerkass: Inversely, Makoto wounds up getting some of Canon!Sae's negative traits, albeit on a smaller scale. Notably, she lets her preservation of self-image get the better of her to the point where she goes through a Friend-or-Idol Decision situation of her own, with her contemplating forging evidence to paint Ren as part of the Phantom Thieves in an act of desperation to remain in Kobayakawa's good graces.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Even without the Adaptational Heroism she has due to being the Trickster, Sae is considerably more pleasant here than she is in canon due to her efforts in the Metaverse and the bonds she's forged.
- Adaptational Wimp: The original Phantom Thieves, except for Morgana, are all currently normal students - big fans of the Thieves, granted, but normal students regardless. Subverted as of Chapter 36, when they take on Kaneshiro's gang after Makoto is kidnapped and put up a pretty good fight, though they would have ultimately been killed if Kaneshiro's change of heart hadn't happened when it did.
- Adults Are Useless: Averted - the entirety of the Phantom Thieves here save Morgana and Hifumi are adults.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Zigzagged when Sae tells the rest of the Thieves in Chapter 18 about bringing a Persona for Caroline and Justine to see.Sae: The Velvet Room is owned by a man named Igor. His... assistants Justine and Caroline requested that I present them with a particular Persona as a way of measuring my strength.
Tae: ...Okay, are you sure my medicine isn't making you hallucinate?
Sae: We're standing in another reality where the human consciousness takes corporeal form and we fight the darkest parts of said consciousness, but it's too hard to imagine me dreaming about another place where I take orders from a mysterious benefactor?
Tae: ...
Sae: ...When I say it out loud it does sound insane. - Ascended Extra: Sae, Sojiro, Miss Kawakami, Tae, Iwai and Hifumi are all Phantom Thieves here.
- Bait-and-Switch: Initially, it seems that Ohya is going to be pulled into the Metaverse and Kobayakawa's Palace... and instead, Hifumi is brought in.
- Beach Bury: Ren gets this from Ryuji and Ann, who shape the sand into a muscular hunk, much to Makoto's amusement.
- Beach Episode: As in the game, Chapter 38 has the teens go to the beach in Kanagawa, this time accompanied by Haru.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Kawakami continues pummeling Kamoshida's Shadow after he's beaten, and has to be talked down from killing him.
- Haru's creepy and sadistic side shows up when she helps the others take on Kaneshiro's gang, using a fire axe she steals from the building to intimidate one of them.
- Big Sister Instinct: After a brief moment of shock, Sae gets very upset when she learns what Kamoshida thinks of Makoto. It comes up again when Kaneshiro's Shadow threatens her, and almost leads her to kill him when they go for the treasure.
- Both Sides Have a Point: After Makoto finds out about Sae's investigation into Kaneshiro, she accidentally lets slip his name to Ren and his friends, leading them to debate whether to try passing the information on to the Phantom Thieves through the website. Makoto and Ann are reluctant due to the possible consequences of leaking information from an ongoing investigation, while Ryuji doesn't trust the police to do anything and the Phantom Thieves already have a better track record considering Kamoshida and Madarame. However, after Ryuji puts a target on them, the others start to accept that the Phantom Thieves are their best option.
- Code Name: All of the Thieves have codenames like the canon Thieves, to differentiate themselves.
- Sae: Arbiter.
- Morgana: Mona.
- Sadayo: Ronin.
- Sojiro: Boss.
- Tae: Doc.
- Hifumi: Athena.
- Iwai: Knight.
- Conflicting Loyalty: The Phantom Thieves' success starts to negatively impact Sae at work. As a result, during the infiltration of Kaneshiro's palace, she starts looking for clues she could use to bring him down in the real world without changing his heart. None of the other Thieves are especially happy about the ethics of this, though Hifumi and Sadayo concede the point that Sae needs to keep her job.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Lampshaded by Iwai (who isn't evil himself, but in this case he's referring to the yakuza).“Not all of us were good, but back then there were lines we tried not to cross. Now though, Kaneshiro and his gangsters are spittin’ on those lines. They’ll do anything to make some quick cash.”
Extortion wasn’t new to the methodology of the yakuza, but mass extortion of children? Even back then they had a few standards. There was a certain measure of human decency the old guard tried to honor, but the new guard? Everything was fair game to them. - Excellent Judge of Character: Ren very quickly pegs Kamoshida as, at the very least, a pervert, noticing when he tricks Makoto into bending over and stepping in to block his attempt to look up her skirt.
- False Cause: Ren and the others post Madarame's name on the Phan-Site shortly before the Phantom Thieves change his heart, leading him to assume the website has more influence than it actually does, since he has no way of knowing they were investigating Madarame already. This assumption is later backed up by Kaneshiro's change of heart occurring soon after they posted his name out of desperation, while again having no way of knowing the Thieves were already targeting him.
- Fire-Forged Friends: All of the canon Theives (minus Morgana) become a proper friend group after the fight againt Kaneshiro and his goons, including Futaba who was there by proxy via a drone she was controlling.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Ann does this to Ryuji when he's freaking out over getting everyone in trouble with Kaneshiro.
- Incompatible Orientation: Sae is attracted to Kawakami, which Tae quickly picks up on and tries to discourage Sae from pursuing it. Sadayo also picks up on it by the time Sae confronts her about her overworking herself.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite not being the Phantom Thieves in this fic, Ren, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto and Haru still form a friend group and get personally involved with each of the Palace rulers. Chapter 36 even has them fight Kaneshiro's gang in the real world, using mostly similar weapons to their arsenal from the game (e.g, Ann uses her belt as a whip, Ryuji uses a lead pipe, and Haru steals a fire axe from the building.) Futaba's presence in the form of a drone also matches up to her support role as Necronomicon.
- Yusuke has the Sayuri delivered to him by the Kosei staff after Madarame's Palace is completed, due to the Thieves deciding that it should go to the maker's son.
- Futaba still works with the Phantom Thieves to find her mother's killer. However, she doesn't get a Persona and her support is restricted to the real world. She also helps the canon Phantom Thieves after Makoto is kidnapped.
- Despite Sae being an Adaptational Nice Guy and a Phantom Thief here, she still lashes out at Makoto after she asks her about the Phantom Thieves and what their father would have thought of them.
- Internal Reveal:
- In Chapter 28, Morgana finds out that Futaba is Alibaba and alerts Sojiro to her setup. Sojiro introduces her to the rest of the team over the next few chapters.
- In Chapter 32, Ren tells Makoto the real story regarding his assault charge.
- Knight Errant: Iwai's Persona, complete with a horse called Rocinante.
- Late to the Realization: When the Phantom Thieves see a Will Seed memory of Kaneshiro ordering a hit on a police detective, nearly all of them take a moment to notice the detective's name, Niijima Junichi, and make the connection that he was Sae's father.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Averted - Sae tells the rest of the Thieves after dealing with Kamoshida that she's investigating the mental shutdowns, and that she suspects the killer is using the Metaverse to commit said crimes.
- Mama Bear: Part of Kawakami's reason for Awakening is to protect her students.
- Mission Control: Hifumi becomes the team's navigator during the boss battle with Kobayakawa's Shadow.
- Mistaken Identity: Mishima still thinks that Ren, Ryuji, and Ann are the Phantom Thieves who stole Kamoshida's heart.
- Mistaken for Romance: Kasumi initially thinks that Makoto and Ren are dating. Ironically, while they aren't at the time, the Interface Spoiler makes it clear that they will start dating eventually.
- Motive Decay: Kobayakawa's Treasure is his diploma, a Master's in Education, leading the Thieves to note that he genuinely wanted to teach well in the past and do right by his students.
- Relationship Upgrade: Ren and Makoto make it official after he rescues her from Kaneshiro in Chapter 36, and she pulls him in for a kiss.
- Role Swap AU: Sae, Sojiro, Kawakami, Tae, Hifumi and Iwai are the Phantom Thieves, while Ren, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto and Haru are normal civilians. Futaba is working with the Thieves as Alibaba, though she has yet to join them in the Metaverse.
- Shipper on Deck: After Makoto tells Eiko that she and Ren were never really dating, Eiko tells her it's a shame, since they looked so good together.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Tae delivers a rather nice one to Madarame.Madarame: Th-The art world revolves around money! You can’t rise up without any money! S-Surely some among you understand that at least!
Tae: You know what I understand? What I understand is that you hurt people. You killed them. Sure, I hit rock bottom once, but I pulled myself out of there. You just dragged other people down there and piled them up so you could climb out. - Stunned Silence: Every last one of the Thieves is left briefly speechless after they pick up Madarame's third Will Seed and see how he abandoned Yusuke's mother to die when he could have saved her.
- Tarot Motifs: Sae has numerous confidants - not the exact same Confidants as Ren would, though.
- The Fool: Igor.
- Lust: Prosecutor Niijima, to represent Sae's relationship with herself.
- The Magician: Morgana
- The Councilor: Takuto Maruki
- The Priestess: Makoto Niijima
- The Empress: Sadayo Kawakami
- The Hierophant: Sojiro Sakura
- The Chariot: Goda Daisaku
- Justice: Goro Akechi
- The Hermit: Alibaba/Futaba Sakura
- Strength: Caroline and Justine
- The Hanged Man: Munehisa Iwai
- Death: Tae Takemi
- Temperance: The Phantom Thieves of Hearts
- The Tower: Mine Mika (Ann's rival/"nemesis" model from the canon game).
- The Star: Hifumi Togo
- The Moon: Kawara Mizuki
- Judgment: Amamiya Ren
- That Was the Last Entry: Sae reads through her father's journal regarding his investigation of Kaneshiro, which ended on the day he died, with "Going for a midnight drive around Shinjuku. Maybe I’ll spot something."
- What the Hell, Hero?: The Phantom Thieves call out Sae when she reveals that she wants to use Kaneshiro's change of heart to benefit her career.
- You Are Not Alone: After the Phantom Thieves find out that Sae's father was murdered on Kaneshiro's orders, they go out of their way to try to be there for her.
