"My name is Makoto Yuki. I want to tell you that first. Because that is the only constant by which my life has founded itself upon. The story I'm about to tell you is mine. Mine, in that I've witnessed every event you're about to read. Every single part of this story is a part of me. But it's...in a way, chaotic."
— Makoto Yuki
Persona 3: The Alternity Paradox
is a Persona 3 fanfiction detailing the journey of the Protagonist in his quest to find out the truth behind the deaths of his parents and his sister, by returning to the city where they had died: his hometown, Iwatodai. That, and he experiences a twenty-fifth hour of the day where the sky turns green, all sources of liquid turn into blood, and people turn into coffins. It's pretty much an AU retelling of the original story which takes a ton of liberties to the plot, but not enough such that it deviates completely from the original themes and messages of the original game.
The author stated that the story is the first in a series of fanfics he dubs the Alternity Universe. The other fics in the series are:
- Persona 4: Garden of Souls, written by the author's friend, Emiya2004.
- Persona 5: Better to Reign in Hell
None of the fics have been completed as of this writing.
Because of length issues, each fic is categorized into different folders.
The Alternity Universe contains the following tropes.
The Alternity Paradox
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: To say the least...
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe. Some characters' personalities are deconstructed while other characters have their backstories completely changed via ExternalRetCons.
- The fic also pulls a huge ACI of Hamuko, who is usually represented within the fandom as a bubbly, cheerful girl who serves as a great Living Emotional Crutch to the rest of the characters...and in this fic, actually goes insane and is indirectly responsible for all the events that have transpired in the story.
- Of note especially is Yukari, who's role in the story has been changed from being a potential Love Interest and the first person the MC meets in the dorm to being the actual Love Interest of the story and a childhood friend of Makoto's who had seen how horrifying he was firsthand at the age of seven.
- Mitsuru has experienced some Flanderization, turning from a Wise Beyond Their Years Team Mom into a hardened Pragmatic Hero willing to do whatever it takes to destroy the Shadows. This is because her mom was killed by Shadows in this universe.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Shadows whose voices we don't hear are this.
- Always Save the Girl: Deconstructed. Makoto's constant desire to protect Yukari whenever she's in danger is presented as harrowing sometimes, and even a little obsessive. The Umbra calls him out on this, implying that Makoto legitimately only sees Yukari as a Standard Hero Reward.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Hamuko is this to Makoto. This is pretty impressive, considering that she’s dead. But they do have a pretty good relationship. Then, it turns out that she was fake all along...
- Anti-Nihilist: Makoto eventually starts growing up into this with shades of
Iron Woobie sprinkled around it. With all the horrible stuff he's endured at this point, he decides it's best to use his life to help others grow into better people. - Anyone Can Die: Part II's fourth chapter ends with Hidetoshi and Elizabeth dead.
- Ascended Extra: Pretty much the Social Links are shaping up to be this. They are getting Personas.
- The Atoner: After rendering Yuka comatose by throwing her into a lightning storm in a fit of rage, knowing she'd be forced to use her Forbidden Technique, Makoto desperately seeks atonement for his actions and fights the Shadows partly to account for his mistakes, deciding to forego his need for vengeance.
- Author Appeal: The author loves Berserk. It really, really shows.
- Ax-Crazy: Makoto, for all his hatred of being labelled "insane," doesn't really do much to show sanity during his fights against the Shadows. He relishes killing them, to an unhealthy degree. This proves to be his undoing at Shirakawa...
- Bad Liar: Makoto's terrible.
- Batman Gambit: A horrifying version. During the battle with Arcana Hermit, Makoto has Oumitsunu pick Yuka up and charge her right into the boss itself, keeping himself out of harm's way and knowing she'd be forced to defend herself using the Demon's Eyes on it. It works. Keep in mind, though, that she had to go through a lightning storm to do it.
- Berserk Button: Makoto really doesn't like being called insane. However, he does tend to act like he is from time to time...
- Also, do not touch anyone he cares for. He will be all to willing to put you through several worlds of torture if you do.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In the original timeline, it's heavily implied Hamuko brutally murdered all of S.E.E.S.' members to spare them from a Fate Worse than Death.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Makoto is unquestioningly on the side of good, but there are multiple occasions wherein he becomes pretty morally grey, and it's especially shown in how ruthless he is in battle. Opposite him are the Shadows, EldritchAbominations that are either Always Chaotic Evil and Faux Affably Evil.
- Blood Knight: Akihiko's love for battle is played up here.
- Makoto is kind of a subversion. He would much prefer living his life normally rather than fighting the Shadows, but whenever he has to fight...
- Bloodier and Gorier: Yyyyep.
- Bowdlerise: Makoto's dialogue was originally more salty. The author toned it down a lot in later edits.
- Call-Forward: Check Rule 63 down below.
- Also, the Midnight Channel is in the story.
- Canon Name: The Protagonist uses the name Makoto Yuki instead of the more popular Minato Arisato. It actually could be kind of a subversion, considering that the word on whether or not Makoto Yuki actually is the canon name is still under debate by lots of fans.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The fic, at first, seemed kind of standard Persona novelization fare. And then Shirakawa happened. It turned a genuinely funny and awkward moment from the game into a horrifying ordeal for every character involved, and it firmly planted deep into readers' minds that nobody was safe from harm in this story.
- Character Development: Like the game, everyone gets this. But in very different ways.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: It's implied that if S.E.E.S., in the original timeline, had taken the time to actually try to befriend Hamuko - and if Hamuko herself was willing to establish Social Links - things would have played to a more acceptable conclusion than they had.
- The Chew Toy: Makoto's life sucks.
- Actually, so does everyone else's.
- Childhood Friends: It turns out Makoto and Yukari were this.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Sometimes, Makoto's attacks against the Shadows border on this. It can be downright unsettling, especially since he seems to enjoy doing it.
- Cosmic Plaything: Makoto, so, so much.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Chapter 72 of Part I firmly steeps the story into this territory. Makoto (and by extension, everyone in S.E.E.S.) is revealed to be just a pawn of Philemon's whose role as Messianic Archetype can be replaced at any given time, for any given reason. Both Philemon and the Shadows take on the role of cosmically powerful beings who have the fate of the world in their hands, while Makoto and his friends are just treated like tools.
- Covert Pervert: Makoto hides doujins underneath his bed.
- Darker and Edgier: Like you wouldn't believe.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Makoto was maltreated and bullied by practically everyone he'd met before, and for reasons that aren't very clear. He was also called insane for asking about the Dark Hour to his classmates, and to this day, being called insane will just make him mad. And then it turns out that he's got Fake Memories implanted in him, so it's completely possible that his Dark and Troubled Past isn't nearly as Dark and Troubled as it may seem. In fact, most of the flashbacks in which we see what really happened shows him as the main perpetrator of all the horrible things in his past. Though not of his own accord...
- Deadpan Snarker: Makoto to practically all he meets.
- Deconstruction Fic: To elaborate...
- The battles against the Shadows are harsh, to say the least and can get downright chilling. The ways the protagonists get put through absolute hell several times over from these battles can just be nail-biting to read...and you wouldn't blame them if they ever asked to actually give up on their mission. For example, in the fight against Arcana Justice and Chariot, Makoto gets a bullet run across the surface of his stomach: and it causes a scar so deep it actually spills out his guts onto the floor. And need we mention what happened to Yukari at Shirakawa? It shows that even a person with a power as awesome and powerful as the Wild Card would be completely at the mercy of the Shadows.
- The fic also details just how horrifying it'd be for everyone involved if you had a friend who literally has Death holed up in his brain. While Makoto has amazing powers that help immensely in his battles against the Shadows, the other characters are so terrified of his powers (since Death is pretty much treated as an Eldritch Abomination in the fic) that they start hating him and distrusting him the moment he shows his ugly side to them. And that leads to Makoto getting so aggravated with the situation that his mind starts going bonkers.
- Not to mention, the fic details just how difficult it is to be a Wild Card, depicting how harsh the ramifications of being one can be to a person. The Shadows always go after Makoto first, because he's the most powerful out of S.E.E.S.' members, and the fact that he holds Death in his psyche doesn't help matters much. And if going after him doesn't work, they go after his friends and basically try to force him into submission by threatening them.
- Destructive Savior: Haha, Makoto.
- Determinator: Makoto and the rest of S.E.E.S. breathe this trope.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: In a stunning turn of events, at Yakushima, Makoto lights Yukari up when she makes the mistake of saying that he knows nothing about what it feels to lose a loved one in a blind rage. He immediately regrets it upon seeing her facial expression after his outburst.
- Doom Magnet: Makoto is a huge one. Even in his past. When he was a kid, his mere presence made people commit suicide around him because of Death inhabiting his soul. Seriously.
- The Dreaded: Surprisingly, Makoto was this to Yukari for a time. And that's even before Makoto becomes this to everyone.
- The Umbra is this to Makoto.
- Eldritch Abomination: Death is treated as such in the story. Every time it reminds the characters of its presence, it strikes fear into whatever sees it. This is made especially clear after the events at Shirakawa.
- Enemy Within: The Umbra.
- Evil Laugh: Well, more Evil Chuckle, but Makoto gives these whenever he slaughters a Shadow. Sometimes.
- Face–Heel Turn: Theodore throws his lot in with a force that opposes Philemon.
- Fake Memories: Turns out Death implanted these into Makoto's head to prevent him from finding out the truth of the night everything began. So every Flashback Makoto's had of his past is now put into question.
- Fatal Flaw: Makoto's lived a life where everybody pretty much mistreated him after his family died, and he's now living a life where the beings responsible for his family's death torment him every chance they get. Makoto's not pleased at all with this, but his rage in many a situation has led to some pretty deep divisions between him and his friends, who often get freaked out by how utterly angry he can become despite his stoic facade.
- Faux Affably Evil: All the Shadows are this. At least those whose voices we hear.
- Foil: Hamuko is Makoto's foil. While Makoto is a Nice Guy who tends to go off the deep end when pushed too far, Hamuko was practically always off the deep end, but had a few moments where she was much nicer than she let on. For example, when Makoto was presented with the idea of Social Links, he was hesitant to establish them considering the rather manipulative undertones of it all, but took on the job out of necessity. Hamuko refused to establish any Social Links whatsoever because she didn't want to use others for power.
- Freudian Excuse: So...turns out the reason why Mitsuru's much more aggressive in her stance against the Shadows is that her mom was killed by the Shadows in this timeline, as opposed to her "role" the original game, where we don't even know what happens to her.
- Good Is Not Nice: While Makoto is a Nice Guy, he can be quite blunt and harsh whenever he calls someone out on their wrongdoings. Not to mention, he's not exactly very merciful when it comes to the Shadows.
- Hero Killer: Theodore kills Elizabeth and Hidetoshi with Armageddon.
- Hero with an F in Good: Makoto doesn't really actively try to have heroic qualities about him, more or less focusing on preserving as much life as possible. The problem is that the Shadows end up pushing him to his breaking limit more than once, and he ends up committing very morally ambiguous acts in response.
- Heroic BSoD: Makoto gets a hefty number of them over the course of the story.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Makoto. Makoto. Makoto.
- Horrifying Hero – Makoto turns into this after Shirakawa , at least in the eyes of the S.E.E.S. members. They get over it.
- In-Series Nickname: Makoto is dubbed The Incarcerator by the Shadows. Due to the nature of the name, it's kind of spoiler-iffic in regards to the events in the original game.
- Invincible Hero: Defied, as stated by the author. Makoto gets pummeled in practically every encounter he has with the Shadows and he almost always manages to win by a hair's width. If not for Death's powers, he and the other members of S.E.E.S. would be dead.
- Irony: Makoto is afraid of death and holds the literal incarnation of it within his psyche. And uses its powers.
- I See Dead People: Makoto can talk to his dead little sister, Hamuko., but only in his dreams. Although it turns out later she's not even real, so it's a subversion.
- It's All About Me: It's revealed, when The Umbra confronts Makoto for the third time, that Makoto's desires to protect his friends are not necessarily because he cares for them as people, but rather because they both serve as a tether to his own humanity and are there to help him through a rough patch when he needs them.
- Kill the Cutie: Well, more like Put the Cutie Into a Coma.
- Knight of Cerebus: Arcana Lovers. Oh, man.
- Likes Older Women: Downplayed, but Makoto's Love Interest, Yukari, is actually a few months older than he is. Her birthday is October 17, 1992, and his birthday is on December 31 of that same year.
- The Masquerade: The situation gets so bad and Makoto's mental stability gets spread so thin that everyone in S.E.E.S. ends up acting nice to him both out of concern for his well-being and out of fear that he'll break down and do something horrible.
- My Greatest Failure: Makoto's is forcibly throwing Yuka into a lighting storm and rendering her comatose indefinitely.
- Nice Guy: As mentioned earlier, Makoto is a genuinely nice and kind guy...except when facing the Shadows, where he goes above and beyond to put the beasts through hell. But the fact that he's so kind and sociable to others is what attracted Yukari to him in the first place.
- Satoshi Himuro and Tomoya Kitamura are Nice Guys, too. And then it turns out they're Time Gods...
- Not Afraid to Die: Subverted. Makoto is afraid to die. It's his biggest fear, but whenever the people he love are in danger, or even if innocents are in danger in general, he's willing to throw his life away for their sake.
- With Hamuko, this is played straight, to the point where she ironically repeats the same lines Makoto used in the movie series: "Is dying all that scary to you?"
- Not So Above It All: It's quite easy to get Makoto to stoop down really, really low depths. Just push one of his many, many buttons.
- Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: You really can't help but feel sorry for Makoto and Yukari...
- Omniscient Morality License: Deconstructed! Philemon's pragmatic attitude ends up just making Makoto really mad, and it proves incredibly harmful to Makoto's mental state as he breaks down from all the harsh things Philemon does to him to protect the world. And that's the point.
- The worst part is that IT WORKS.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Some of the new Shadows introduced in the fic can be kind of...freaky, to say the least. Examples are the Mother Spider, her children, and the Ice Behemoth.
- Pet the Dog: Despite glimpses of her mental state showing her to clearly be a more insane and violent version of her character, Hamuko is also shown to have legitimately cared for S.E.E.S. in her timeline...in a tragic, twisted way. That, and the reason, according to Philemon, that she didn't want to establish Social Links is that she didn't like the idea of using others for power.
- Pragmatic Hero: Makoto is willing to go above and beyond the limit to protect other people and his friends from the Shadows' clutches. While this does end up beneficial overall to the team's efforts, this also strains his relationships with the other characters primarily because of how surprisingly amoral he can be.
- Ret-Gone: Hamuko
- The Reveal: Hooo boy. Hamuko was originally meant to survive the car accident that was the progenitor of all the events of the story, but because she went insane in her own journey and attempted to use the Abyss of Time to go back and save her brother, she put the universe itself at risk of a Temporal Paradox. Philemon had to turn back time - with the help of Shiva and Mahakala - and he altered the whole timeline, switching the role of protagonist to her brother, Makoto.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Makoto gets really upset over what the Shadows do to him and his friends over the course of the story.
- Rule 63: Yuka Narukami. And she's a member of S.E.E.S.
- Sanity Slippage – This happens to Makoto from time to time, particularly after everyone rejects him due to their fear of his powers . As you can probably guess, this doesn't bode well for anyone involved.
- Tragically, this also happened to Hamuko, and it was MUCH more effective on her.
- Significant Birth Date: Makoto's is December 31, 1992. Which makes him younger than Yukari, whose birthday is October 17 of that same year.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The reason Yukari grows attracted to Makoto is because of how sociable and trusting he is of others.
- Slasher Smile: Makoto gives this whenever he enjoys massacring Shadows.
- Sociopathic Hero: Hamuko was pretty much this. But despite this, she doesn't establish Social Links due to her feeling uneasy with the whole prospect of using others for power.
- Standard Hero Reward: The Umbra accuses Makoto of only thinking of Yukari as a trophy to be won rather than an actual person he cares for, citing Makoto's outright obsessive need to save her as evidence of this. Given that this is The Umbra talking, there may be some truth to what he says...
- The Stoic: Makoto's lack of facial expression masks the fact that he actually does have emotions, and it also comes off as less of a quirk and is seen more as unnerving to other characters.
- Not So Stoic: While Makoto is written as stone-faced to the point of his friends being unsettled by his lack of emotion, he brings up his stoicism pretty casually, and his inner dialogues actually showcase him to be much more emotive than you'd think. That and despite being The Stoic, Makoto is an awful liar.
- Story-Breaker Power: Makoto gets Death's powers. You'd think this would end the story right then and there. But the Shadows tend to prove otherwise.
- If anything, a lot of Makoto’s failures are really of his own doing. Numerous confrontations he has with the Shadows ultimately end up so chaotic because he doesn’t go all-out on them. Even in situations where he does go all out, it doesn’t necessarily prove helpful in the long run. There are even times when his violent side ends up making the situation worse.
- Suffering Builds Character: The reason Philemon gives Makoto The Reveal.
- Temporal Paradox: Ironically enough, this never happens in the actual story, despite it being the namesake of the title. However, it is the risk of this that ultimately puts the events of the story into motion.
- The Unfettered: Deconstructed again. Makoto being this from time to time just serves to strain his relationships with the others more as they end up getting either freaked out by what he does to put the Shadows down or just plain mad.
- Unscrupulous Hero: Makoto. He is unquestionably on the side of good, but the fact is that he is far too easily swayed to commit horrible deeds in order to countenance a perceived greater good. He can go from heroic and noble to villainous and horrific in a heartbeat, which is what strains his relationship with S.E.E.S. - they just don't know how to react to him.
- Unreliable Narrator: As it turns out, Makoto's been filled with Fake Memories of his past, as a result of Death's influence on his mind. This puts every Flashback of his concerning his past life into heavy question.
- We ARE Struggling Together: S.E.E.S. gets into conflicts with each other kind of a lot.
- Wham Episode – Shirakawa. That is all. Poor Yukari...
- Chapter 60. Theodore makes a Face–Heel Turn.
- Chapter 68. Now we know why Yukari is so afraid of Makoto...kind of.
- Chapter 72. See The Reveal. It's quite a bombshell.
- Will They or Won't They?: It's ridiculous, the amount of times Ship Tease between Makoto and Yukari occurs yet the two end up pushed apart by all the horrible stuff that happens to them.
Garden of Souls
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Instead of Yu Narukami being our main protagonist, here we have his younger sister Yuka Narukami, who isn't a Wild Card, doesn't have a Persona of her own, but has both a Spell Book and a Forbidden Technique to compensate.
- Anti-Climax Boss: In-Universe - Chie, having witnessed Yosuke's Shadow going berserk on him, comes to terms with her own flaws and shortcomings when she confronts her Shadow, getting her Persona rather easily.
- Break the Cutie: The previous fic did this to Yuka. Which is why she's so unhappy at the beginning.
- Broken Bird: Given what The Alternity Paradox was all about, it's unsurprising to see that Yuka's become this.
- Character Development: Yuka's gone from a cheerful and snarky Genki Girl whose antics manage to annoy even Makoto Yuki, to a rather downbeat and much less happy yet much more mature Action Girl.
- Coming of Age Story: See The Power of Love below.
- Foregone Conclusion: We all know things didn't end that well for Yuka in The Alternity Paradox because of how much less upbeat she is.
- We also know that the coma Yuka ends up in by the end of Part I of The Alternity Paradox doesn't stick.
- Friendless Background: Yuka went through this twice.
- Genre Shift: While The Alternity Paradox is a cynical and harsh Deconstruction of the Persona series as a whole, Garden of Souls Reconstructs the universe by adding much more fantastical elements. If Alternity Paradox focused on the darker aspects of the SMT games, Garden of Souls certainly focuses on the more extravagant side.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Yes, Yuka has a lot of baggage, but she's not gonna let that stop her from helping other people.
- Lighter and Softer: Like the original game, the fic is shaping up to be much more lighthearted than its predecessor. By a lot.
- The Power of Love: One of the major themes of the fic. This fic is much like a Coming of Age Story for Yuka, and how the love she holds for her friends (and Rise) is supposed to help her overcome the issues she has with her rather tragic past.
- Reconstruction: In strict opposition to the bleak and dour tone of the preceding story, Garden brings back the magic and the joy of the Persona series in full force while still being a story about personal growth and companionship.
- Seen It All: Yuka pretty much has. Which is why she isn't really surprised at how she's able to stick her hand in a TV screen.
- Secret-Keeper: Turns out Dojima knows a lot more than he lets on...
- Spell Book: Grimoire Animus, the Persona Compendium Yuka used in The Alternity Paradox comes back here.
- The Stoic: Downplayed, but Yuka's become less...cheery than how she was in the preceding fic.
- Taking Up the Mantle: Yuka's taken up the role as protagonist now...and she's not taking any prisoners.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Yuka's not exactly too cynical, taking some time to actually crack a joke and even showing her softer side to people more, but it'd be a lie to say that she's as optimistic as she once was.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
- We Used to Be Friends: Yuka appears to have this "dynamic" with S.E.E.S.
To Reign in Hell
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Akira is not the Wild Card this time around. Makoto is.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to Garden of Souls, it will most likely end up this way. By a lot
- Deuteragonist: Makoto Niijima is the secondary POV character of the story; while it still maintains a first person POV centered largely around Akira himself, it shifts to third-person for Makoto.
- Downer Beginning
- Nominal Hero: Instead of being a suave Anti-Hero as in the original game, Akira's more or less a Sociopathic Hero whose goals more have to do with him deriving satisfaction from stealing the hearts of people worse than himself, rather than actually working to protect others.
- Petthe Dog: It's made clear that Akira has little to no sympathy or concern towards other people—outside those who've managed to worm their ways into his heart. His relationship with Kana establishes that yes, despite his stoic nature and his apathy to the world around him, he is capable of kindness and even love.
- Plucky Girl: Kana Kohaku. She is rather chipper in comparison to our protagonist here.
- The Stoic: Akira doesn't emote that much in front of other people. Though Kana was able to elicit a reaction from him.
- Troll: Kana certainly acts like one; dropping Akira's books and kicking one of them away from him when he goes to pick them up. All with a smile on her face.
