Roleplay / Persona: HEAVEN (Afreaknamedpete)

Persona: HEAVEN is a Forum Quest hosted on Sufficient Velocity written by afreaknamedpete. It's a crossover between Persona, Sword Art Online, and a myriad of other Isekai fiction.

On December 24, 2016, Akihiko Kayaba meets his old college friend Takuto Maruki to lament on how their lives have gone with Maruki telling Kayaba about his work on Cognitive Psience. This provides Kayaba with the inspiration he needs to get out of his slump and gives him the idea to go far beyond simple FullDive technology and making Sword Art Online...

Fast forward to 2025, Kayaba's death game was cleared last year but the SEED has been let loose on the Internet and the VR boom is on the rise. This has led to the appearance of new worlds known as HEAVENs, virtual worlds that desire to become real and wish to supplant the current world for one where everyone can be a God of their own personal HEAVEN. In response, the Velvet Room has been taken over by the mysterious ETTEILLA who tasks Hiyori Kashiwazaka aka Lux, an SAO Survivor and former Laughing Coffin member with tearing down HEAVEN.

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This Fanwork Contains Examples Of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • In Girl's Ops, Lux initially uses an Avatar similar to Kirito in appearance, even to the point of emulating his fighting style, and only retires it after a buttload of Character Development in favor of her old SAO avatar. Here, she picks the latter from the get-go. This is mostly due to pragmatism since Argo is blackmailing her to investigate ALO so she doesn't have any ideas for a new avatar and its best to stick with what she knows. It also ends up becoming an example of Adaptational Late Appearance as well, because Hiyori uses the Kuro alias for Gun Gale Online although her GGO avatar ends up having no resemblance to Kirito.
  • Enhance Armament and Release Recollection, elements present beginning from the Underworld arc, appear since the start in this quest, and play a huge paper in how a Persona mechanically works.
  • Chronologically, the Death Gun incident only started in December of 2025. Here, it begins as early as June, with some elements of the Alternative timeline playing up a bit earlier as well. In fact, the whole existence of GGO so early is this, as it was one of many games released with the Seed to pop up in the aftermath of Fairy Dance.
• Adaptational Heroism: In canon, Kayaba threw 10,000 people into Aincrad not caring that they'd die so he could live out his childhood fantasy. While still a villain here, Kayaba creates Aincrad with the full knowledge that his perfect world would never make others happy, instead, seeing it as a necessary sacrifice to finish the HEAVEN system so everyone can make their ideal worlds making him more of a Dark Messiah with a warped sense of altruism.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In canon, Sigurd was a Smug Snake Hate Sink whose attempted betrayal in a video game was treated with the gravity of a real life crime, if just because it makes it harder for Kirito to rescue Asuna. Freed of canon's Protagonist-Centered Morality Sigurd comes off as more of an exasperated Only Sane Man and his plan to betray the Slyphs is treated with apathy by Lux and Gwen since faerie politics are nothing more than game fluff to them. And when he's off the clock from his political scheming, despite some jerkish moments, is still a decent enough guy to go out of his way to help newbies and join the party of someone who ghosted him for weeks and is horrified by what small hints of Alfheim's dark secrets he sees.
  • XeXeed. He is still an arrogant man who loves to indulge in trash talk and possibly tricked a whole faction of gamers in Gun Gale into picking suboptimal builds, but he has noble traits, like having a friendship with one of Death Gun's victims and, while also being moved by pride, this still serves as one of the reasons why he accepts Itsuki's offer of a NerveGear to use inside the game.
• Adapted Out: Clover from the side story Clover's Regret, both because of the author's preferences and because its role is taken instead by Cayna.
• Always Second Best: In his interlude, Sugou fumes on how he was this to Kayaba during the time they worked together under Professor Shigemura. He was the man with the ideas before his coming, but nothing he created ever matched his ideas. This affected him to a point where he missed even the love of Rinko.
• Amazon Brigade: In Alfheim, until the Fool Persona, all the times that there was a female Persona to be chosen as a reward from Social Links and other types, Lux always picked up the female one, to the point that became an achievement by the end of the arc.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: From time to time, the story follows other characters in interludes that play a large role in how things develop story-wise.
• Anti-Climax Boss: In GGO, Kuro is paired against BLANK, one of the best players in the entire game, as her preliminaries match. However, when time comes to face against him, he simply doesn't appear, leading to a victory by default.
• Anti-Hero: Hiyori is this. She means well, but it's not afraid of using ruthless methods to get what she wants. Stay on her good side, though, and she may treat you well.
• Arc Hero: Considering the mechanics of Lux's recruitment, she can enforce this by recruiting different players in different games.
  • For Alfheim, the focus is on Yuuki, Rain, and Shiroe, with Sigurd being a character that held some spotlight early on, but got left behind once the Ragnarok plan was set in motion.
  • For Gun Gale Online, we have Lugh and Sinon. with Pitohui, LLENN and Blank being notable figures of interest.
• Arc Villain: Sugou acts as this for the first arc as OBERON.
  • DEATH GUN is the big antagonist for the second arc, but the matter is more complex than it seems on surface.
• Arc Words: The GGO arc centers around most of the major players wanting to be "the Real Deal" and the lengths they're willing to go to reach that vague ideal.
• Ascended Extra: In a way. Lux is still a protagonist in Girls Ops, but she has to share the spotlight with Silica, Lisbeth, and Leafa. Here, she's the sole protagonist of the story.
• The Atoner: Lux is one. Even if she wasn't a direct participant in many of the killings of Laughing Coffin, her actions resulted in the death of many. On a more personal level, she feels the need to atone for what happened to Rossa, as she gave her life to save Lux's.
• Badass Crew: The Fangs of Fenrir. Besides Lux's growing reputation as the EDGE PUNISHER, you also have another Persona user in Gwen, a Blacksmith capable of mimicking Unlimited Blade Works, two of the finest warriors in the entire world and a veteran Glitch Hunter that just happens to be the mastermind behind the Ragnarok plan.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Asuna tells Lux and Cayna that Sugou never acted like he did in real life as he does as OBERON they think she's about to try to give him some measure of sympathy. Asuna quickly clarifies that she's really warning them that Sugou is crazier than she ever imagined.
• Badass Normal: To a given designation of normal. Lux can party with anyone that aligns with her wishes to destroy the HEAVENS and not just Persona users. This means she could theoretically team up with your run-of-the-mill players like Leafa and Sigurd, or with figures of incredible underlying talent such as Shiroe and the Sleeping Knights, that still fits the 'Normal' designation.
• Badass in Distress: Asuna in Alfheim. While she was protected from OBERON's tricks thanks to Kayaba's actions, she was stuck inside her cage for a very long time. One of the reasons why Argo chose to use Lux to investigate ALO was to figure out if there was any way to take her out of there.
  • In a more general sense, Kirito. Contrary to canon, he has yet to wake, even after the events in ALO. Not only that, but his body was also in Rath's possession for whatever reason. An interlude reveals he's trapped in the Underworld, amnesiac, with Yui attempting to make his memories resurface.
• Becoming the Boast: "The Edge Punisher" was originally just a cringey title Lux added to her character name for a power up without thinking and is deeply embarrassed that she showed that side of herself. By the end of the ALO arc the Edge Punisher has become a name everyone takes dead seriously spoken of in the same breath as legendary players such as the Black Swordsman and the Absolute Sword and is famous as the person who destroyed Alfheim Online.
• Becoming the Mask: Bit by bit, Sugou suffers this, taking some of the mannerisms of Oberon in real life, together with some of it's Charm Person attributes. Shino also seems to be suffering this from her Sinon identity, leading to Lux suspecting that she's a likely candidate to have a HEAVEN of her own.
• Beyond the Impossible: Incarnation works on this. As long as you believe in something enough, you can materialize it in the shared dream that is a Fulldive. Whether it be to summon Personas, use their signature moves, which can vary from a super Groin Attack to summoning a giant beast to eat the whole enemy party, or even to use characters from other games -even those not natural to the Seed!
• Birds of a Feather: Despite Hiyori being able to see that Kyoji is a bottle of incel-gamergate rage and Kyoji's own obsessive possessiveness of Shino the two find themselves getting along quite well much to both their confusion. It most likely has to do with both of them having traits ETTEILLA deems worthy of being his Chosen One.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: What happens to most people under OBERON's influence, as not only it turns them obedient to his will, but also makes them believe they are real fairies. This applies to both the SAO Survivors trapped inside Alfheim like Gwen and a majority of the normal players like Leafa.
  • Something similar happens in Seven's concert, leading to the Crowd Brain boss fight.
  • And again with Shino, who is entranced by the allure of power granted by the Black Star and being basically puppeteered around by Aimotopolis as she engages Kuro.
• Break Them by Talking: The way to defeat OBERON. In his condition as a GM, it's impossible to to take him down the usual way. However, Shiroe manages to deduce that it's possible to defeat him by targeting Sugou himself, emotionally disturbing him to a point where he's unable to keep his facade as the Fairy King and make himself vulnerable to strikes.
• Breaking Old Trends: In contrast to the usual way a Wild Card slowly recruits a group of Persona users over a year the way HEAVENs act like VRMMOs allows anyone to enter them to be able to fight through their game avatars allowing Hiyori to recruit anyone she can convince in destroying a HEAVEN to her party.
• Brick Joke: As a sort of olive branch after the disaster in Seven's concert, Lux gives Sumeragi a box of mochi. At the end of the ALO arc, when Kikuoka attempts to question her, he offers a box of mochi -the same mochi that she gave as a gift.
• Brutal Honesty: A trait of Lux's Shadow. She doesn't mince words towards anyone, which can make her look like an asshole more often than not. However, most of the time all her criticisms became a case of Jerkass Has a Point.
• Butt-Monkey: While Hiyori gets more respect in the main story she becomes a cosmic punchline when doing her part-time jobs. From the weirdoes she meets at the VR maid cat cafe, the embarrassing mascot costume she has to wear, along with becoming a sign holder to a nudist cult, she never gets a paycheck with her dignity or sanity intact. It tends to end with her inventing some kind of Spoof Aesop to justify to herself that it was worth something.
  • As in Canon, Recon. A Running Gag is that Lux can't ever remember his name - to the point that in the Dramatis Persona tab, his name is listed as Rebar.
  • In a way, Sumeragi. On paper, he's Seven's bodyguard and a pretty strong player overall. However, Lux manages to constantly outplay him, and, when they meet in real life, he's the target of many of Hiyori's antics.
  • Kazuma. Somehow, he ended up under the employ of the Blank siblings. And if you know anything about No Game No Life then you know that Shiro and Sora are brutal masters.
• The Cameo: In line with his end in Royal, Maruki is seen as a taxi driver at the start of the quest.
  • The DEATH link social namedrops Takemi, again from the fifth game.
• Call-Back: Sinon's Death Gun Persona is very similar to the JOKER Persona infection from Eternal Punishment.
• Canon Foreigner: Characters from the Gameverse exist in this setting. Of note are Rain and Seven, pivotal figures in the Alfheim arc.
  • Yui takes the identity of Persona Vabel in the Underworld, an alterego that originates from the crossover game with Accel World, in where she's her grieving future self.
• Caps Lock: Beings of supernatural significance tend to have their names written in all caps. Examples include HEAVEN, ETTEILLA, MAXWELL, OBERON, and DEATH GUN.
• Cast from Money: Simon Magus' Simony. At the cost of utilizing one Mist Coin, a type of digital currency provided by Mitsuha, it can provide two random party-wide buffs. Essentially, an early version of the Ma- -spell tier.
• Casting a Shadow: As per usual, Alice (the Mankind Persona, not the Integrity Knight.) Her moveset is almost fully made of Curse spells, with the sole exception being Megido, a technique that hits anything.
• Cessation of Existence: Asuna nearly suffer this when OBERON creates her Fluctlight copy, Titania. As HEAVEN Alfheim saw Titania as the "real" one, Asuna was negatively affected by the power, and only managed to stabilize once her copy was slain.
• Character Development: Lux. Even if you take her from the beginning of the story to the end of Alfheim, you have a girl that was weighed down by her sins and ghosts and shy as a flower that soon grew into a badass leader of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits that tore down a whole world, and that decided to become someone better and fight for the sake of others.
• Charm Person: Sugou has gained the ability to make women unconditionally love and admire him through his HEAVEN. It's become so powerful that he can even use it in the real world.
• The Chosen Many: Besides Lux, the other options of playable characters were a Fluctlight copy of Kirito and Kyouji Shinkawa, bearing, respectively, the Star and Fortune arcana. Each was chosen by one of ETTEILA's attendants, with the chosen one being MAXWELL's pick and his companions disappearing as a result of that.
• Chronic Self-Deprecation: Subaru. Even if he doesn't have his powers in this world, he still suffers quite a lot with his struggles, to the point he tends to moan much about his misery.
• Chuunibyou: Hiyori is an odd positive example. As she gains confidence in herself Hiyori becomes willing to admit she likes such things, admitting that she finds her Edge Punisher title cool instead of cringey, likes making her Cold Ham speeches. One of the reasons why she went with the Ragnarok plan was because she found the aesthetics of a Standard Evil Organization Squad destroying the world to be really fucking cool. If anything, Hiyori's chuuniness shows her growing maturity since she stops letting herself be controlled by the fear of what others think of her.
• Closest Thing We Got: Argo would really prefer that Hiyori rots in jail for being an accomplice in multiple murders in SAO but with Kirito still comatose and having no idea what's going on she forcibly recruits Hiyori to help her investigate Alfheim. Later on, when Kirito doesn't wake at the end of Alfheim she continues the connection with Hiyori, as she's her best lead to reach the truth of what was happening in the world.
• Continuity Nod: Kikuoka remarks that cops are not seen in a favorable light in Japan. Besides how they had not one, but two figures in their ranks being secretly murderers—one of them also being a notable public figure, mind you—with the cherry on top of the shit Sunday being how most of the SIU was in on Shido's conspiracy further compounded by the police never being able to catch Kayaba who got away and didn't fry his brain in this timeline making them look even worse.
• The Corruption: Death Gun has evolved into this from a mere group of killers. Thanks to them creating a legend people want to believe in, people who desire strength or to become 'the Real Deal' can declare themselves Death Gun making them more powerful as well as making them colder and more willing to kill as shown with XeXeeD and Sinon, the latter going as far as being able to summon a corrupted Death Gun Persona.
• Combat Pragmatist: Hiyori is an open and proud cheater. She knows her Persona are a massively unfair advantage that allows an average gamer such as herself to fight the best players in VRMMOs and only doesn't use them when it would prove too suspicious.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Hiyori is this to the comatose Kirito. Kirito is the Stock Light-Novel Hero and a Godlike Gamer while Hiyori's flaws are far more criticized by the narrative and as a gamer is completely average. Kirito masters any game he plays through sheer skill and reflexes while Hiyori is an openly admitted and proud cheater either using magic with her Persona or more mundanely just exploiting game mechanics. Kirito charges ahead and fights his enemies head-on while Hiyori lurks in the background gathering information on her foes all the while stacking the deck in her favor only revealing her hand when she's certain of victory, Kirito is favored by VR while Hiyori is backed by beings who champion reality.
• Crapsaccharine World: On a surface level, things seem fine enough as they are, especially considering that one of the most infamous incidents in Japan's history was finally given closure. However, not only the manifestation of a HEAVEN have the potential of being very damaging to the world itself, the users of it have very distorted mindsets, akin to a Palace Ruler, and, if Sugou/OBERON is an example, most of the people attempting to seize control of it are not nice people. And that's without considering that this setting was fused with Persona, meaning one has to worry about the conflict between Nyarlathotep and Philemon, the goddess that wanted to grant humanity's desire for death, the other that who wanted to put the world into an eternal fog to hide the truth, the third one that who wanted to control the world...the list goes on.
• Curbstomp Battle: Happens when Igor returns to Velvet Room. When MAXWELL attempts to stop him, he's nailed by enough Megidolaons that, by the time both Luxs become aware of his presence, he has the attendant floored.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: What Lux looks at first glance, so much that it won her the nickname of Airhead in her school. However, Hiyori herself is actually skilled in manipulation and can be quite calculating to boot, and then her Shadow takes the reins...
• Cutting the Knot: Shadow Lux's greatest advantage over normal Hiyori. Hiyori tends to be paralyzed by self-pity, overthinking things, her public image, and a fear of the consequences of her actions in contrast Lux isn't afraid to act quickly and decisively such as intimidating a bully into submission or creating a gigantic scandal to free Seven from her mind control feedback loop with her fans.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A trait shared by most of the SAO Survivors really, but Hiyori suffers it more than most because of her hand in the Laughing Coffin killings and the guilt that came with it, and that's not even counting Rossa.
  • And then there's Shino, of course, with her past deeds haunting her to the present days.
• Dark Messiah: Kayaba has gone this route, he wants to give everyone the power to be the god of their own world regardless of their own morality, the people he has to sacrifice, or who gets in his way.: He's even being backed by a god, PHILEMON.
• Dark Reprise: Alfheim is one of the themes of 4 about truth and lies. Like Izanami, Sugou uses ALO as the fog to occult his dastardly plans, and it's up to Hiyori and the Fangs to serve as the Investigation Team and reveal the rottenness beneath the kingdom.
  • The Gun Gale Online arc has a strong thematic around death, just like Persona 3. In a poignant moment, Sinon performs the Evoker motion with the Black Star to call upon the power of her Death Gun Persona, Aimotopolis.
• Death by Irony: Once again, a dual wielder defeats the user of Holy Sword with Elucidator and Dark Repulsor. For extra points, Hiyori is an admirer of Kirito and Sugou knew Kayaba.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sugou and Shino's obsession with their VR identities heavily resembles a drug addiction and both fly into a rage when their fantasy isn't acknowledged.
• Dramatic Irony: Miller, PoH, Lugh, and Lierve all pitch ideas of using or recruiting Kuro, Hiyori the Laughing Coffin spy, and the Edge Punisher for their plans in different ways completely unaware that they're all the same person while the audience does.
• Dual Wielding: Thanks to her admiration for Kirito, Lux asks to be granted this by Rimuru. Fittingly, Oberon obtains Kayaba's Holy Sword.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Deliberately invoked by Lux against OBERON. Exploiting his remaining feelings for Rinko, she takes a disguise potion to take her shape and fake being trapped inside Alfheim. It's also a darker version because, as Lux points out, it's not that OBERON wanted her love, his wish was to possess her, and even manages to "reach" this wish with the Fluctlight copy of her, Queen Mab.
• Enemy Mine: Between Tomo (a.k.a Argo) and Lux. Argo has an immense dislike for Hiyori because of her connection to Laughing Coffin, and the latter doesn't want anything to do with the Rat. However, they form a Social Link in the end, as both have an interest in investigating ALO HEAVEN, and they both have skills that help each other: Tomo as an info broker, and Lux because of her skills in snooping.
  • A lesser one with Asuna in the final battle of Alfheim. Asuna starts antagonistic towards Lux thanks to only learning at the moment that she was a former member of Laughing Coffin but ultimately sees Sugou as the greater threat.
• Enemy Within: How Hiyori sees her Shadow. Like with most Shadows, she's many of her most negative aspects —namely, the part of her that is devoid of the guilt that plagues Hiyori and focuses instead on how they survived. Part of the deal to accept becoming a Wild Card is for them to share the body, which is the reason behind Shadow Tag, a skill that makes that part of the activities Hiyori takes to be taken instead by her Shadow. With both parts coming to accept that they are, indeed, one, the effects of this skill are also reduced.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Surprisingly, enforced. To weaken HEAVEN Alfheim, Lux's party sets course to mislead the system into thinking Ragnarok is beginning, leading to self-destruction.
• Evil Feels Good: Sinon believes this under her Death Gun personality. More specifically she enjoys being free from the mixed feelings of shame and pride born from killing a robber in self-defense feeling that by being the Real Deal she won't have to deal with those feelings anymore.
• Evolution Power-Up: Or rather, Fusion Power-Up. After achieving rank 3 with a Social Link, Hiyori can combine the original Persona with another concept related to the Social Link by either PHILEMON or ETTEILLA, in a way reflecting their visions of the world. And at times she can Take a Third Option and sometimes risk it with a Fusion Accident that grants her something entirely different.
• Fallen Hero: PHILEMON has gone this way, aiding Kayaba with the radical escapism of his HEAVENs as she's lost faith in the current world.
• Foil: Meimi and Asuna. Both are heiresses to rich, powerful corporate family's which only serves to highlight their many differences despite their similar positions. Asuna's family is Nouveau Riche while Meimi's from an Old Money family that made their fortune before WWII. Despite being new to Japan's elite Asuna is an archetypical Ojou while Meimi flips the script by being a casual shit-talker, Asuna fights with European weaponry and armor while Meimi uses Stock Ninja Weaponry, Asuna is conventionally beautiful while Meimi is short and petite for her age much to her chagrin, and most importantly, while both their dads exemplify Adults Are Useless for all that Asuna's dad is a useless stooge he, in the end, loves his daughter while Meimi's father is cold and callous only viewing her as an asset to his empire which feeds Meimi's resentment.
• Evil Mentor: PoH. In the past, Lux worked with him the most of the three leaders of Laughing Coffin, learning some tricks here and there. And, even if you only consider his actions inside SAO? He still is very much one of the vilest figures in the setting, only outdone by the likes of Quinella and, possibly, Subtilizer.
• Fusion Dance: As tradition for one of its base series. As the prize for reaching rank 3 in the Traitor Arcana -and consequently, growing more attuned to her Shadow - Lux wins the ability to combine Personas to form new ones, albeit a heavily modified one by the Persona system utilized. She uses it for the first time to combine Havfrue with a Norn to form the brand new Undine, which proves to be critical to guarantee the victory against them.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Lux's issues with her shadow make it so that she has two personalities of sorts, one being soft-spoken and shy (which is her original) and one that is crass and blunt (the Shadow). As they are both the same person, only different aspects, this means they have a large influence on their daily actions. This is best seen in the Shadow Tag ability, where a fraction of Hiyori's actions must be done by her Shadow, leading to unpredictable results - one example being the Shadow signing to all possible part-time jobs available rather than selecting only a few. On the other hand, as Hiyori slowly starts to come to terms with her issues, the effects of this ability reduce proportionally, but her daily personality starts taking cues from the Shadow, becoming more assertive in the process.
  • The passage of ALO to GGO introduced lots of gameplay changes in regards to combat and usage of Personas by part of the author. In-story, many characters remark that the nature of ALO allowed for an easier time calling for the power of Personas, whereas the somewhat more grounded Gun Gale makes things harder.
• Gender Bender: In contrast to their previous dark-haired male avatars PHILEMON manifests as a white-haired female fortune-teller in this story, most likely with Hiyori's face underneath her mask.
• Genki Girl: Besides Yuuki, there's also Monkey Girl, as Hiyori's very, very excited schoolmate and Sun confidant.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Hiyori is very conventionally feminine, cares about looking cute, and has a massive collection of stuffed animals she sleeps with but is also a Gamer Chick and a fan of model building and giant mecha and turns out to secretly like dark and edgy things. Her Shadow's Ruder and Cruder personality also adds more depth to this.
• Godzilla Threshold: Nephren-Ka is this. A Persona granted by ETTEILA's Social Link, it is a massively powerful figure that has a large number of widespread moves and a powerful Enhance Armament and Release Recollection. Each use of it also accumulates stress on Hiyori and said super moves can also affect Lux herself. It finally makes his debut against Oberon, allowing Lux to see all his weak spots.
  • And then there's Archaon, who is somehow an even bigger one, considering that it was given by Kayaba/Philemon. Not only he has the first example of a -dyne spell -and a Nuclear one, to boot - but is also an incredible support figure, albeit a risky one. Considering that it's a shadow of Yaldabaoth, maybe this is to be expected.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Quinella seems to be setting herself up to be one. Not only she still controls the Underworld like in canon, but she also attempted to seize OBERON's Fluctlight through Yanai, who in turn attempted to manipulate Asuna with the knowledge of where Kirito was. Knowing her plans in canon, it's not hard to think sooner or later she will be in Lux's path.
  • For Gun Gale Online specifically, Itsuki seems to be setting himself up as this. As in Fatal Bullet, his NerveGear plot seems to run without issues, which enables many of the antagonists to perpetuate the Death Gun plot. Not only that, but he actively instigates Xe Xeed to return to play the game with a NerveGear after Kuro spills the beans of the Death Gun's killings. Only time will tell where he goes with that.
  • And of course there's Kayaba, the biggest one of all, the one who started this whole mess with his actions in Sword Art Online.
• Green-Eyed Monster: As her Social Link with her progresses Hiyori admits that she's jealous that Monkey Girl has the perfect no-strings-attached normal life she's desired since SAO.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Igor shows up dressed like this during his Big Damn Heroes moment since he was called back to the Velvet Room during his vacation complete with tacky shirt, sunglasses, and flipflops to drive the absurdity home.
• Hero Antagonist: Well, not the person itself, but what he represents in Persona: the Fool. This is the Arcana that Kayaba belongs to, and, if OBERON is anything to go by, it's likely a shared trait amongst the rulers of the HEAVENS.
  • Most of SAO's cast stands against Hiyori at first because of her former associations with Laughing Coffin, though Agil eventually warmed to her.
• Heroic BSoD: Happens against Norn. All members of the team, bar Shiroe, get inflicted with Despair, leading them to nearly get swayed by their issues into a Total Party Kill. It takes Lux coming into blows with her Shadow and the appearance of Igor for her to get her act together and pull out a Heroic Second Wind.
  • A minor example in the OBERON fight. In an attempt to calm Asuna down, Lux offers her life to her...but this makes her Shadow protest against that choice, the resulting contradiction nearly resulting in further fracture of the soul only stopped by MAXWELL helping stabilize it. It isn't until the battle against Alberich that she finally manages to solve this inner conflict, promising to never be the person she used to be.
  • At the end of their fight, Sinon falls down exhausted, breaking down after she pushed herself to her limits yet was unable to make Hiyori get truly serious. This almost leads to her being killed by Aimotopolis, forcing Hiyori to take the Mudoon it launched.
• Heroic RRoD: Happens a few times with Hiyori. Of note, there is the aftermath of the first time she used her Persona, after the Norn fight and, last but not least, after she overused Hama to release 100 players trapped in HEAVEN ALO and had to be carried by Cayna until she recovered.
• Heroic Second Wind: In fact, we can say that two of those happened in the battle against Sugou, from each side. The first comes from Kayaba intervening in the aftermath of the end of ALO, giving OBERON enough power to awaken to his own Persona, Alberich, and nearly perform a party-wipe against the Fangs plus Asuna. Then a more straightforward example with Lux, who, after finally solving the issue on what kind of person she wants to be, recovers enough power to summon Undine and fight back -which also leads to the other Fangs fighting back for the final battle.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Sugou basing Alfheim Online in Norse mythology massively bites him in the ass. As a HEAVEN ALO wants to become a real world and is shaped by its residents' thoughts and desires. Lux and her allies begin a plan to convince it that Ragnarok is the only possible future for the world effectively tricking it into destroying itself.
  • One against Lux in the final battle. Using Nephren-Ka's Third Eye allowed her to find the best ways to break OBERON, but also gave him ammo against her, by creating an attack specifically designed to hurt her, but also by setting Asuna at odds against the Fangs of Fenrir by revealing her former affiliation to Laughing Coffin. As Asuna is the symbolic Fenrir in Ragnarok, this strengthens OBERON slightly.
• Hypocrite: Subaru hates it when he thinks people are pitying him, but at the same time when he doesn't study for a test he knows is coming he shamelessly tries to get Hiyori to help him by acting as pitiful as possible while knowing it would badly affect her prospects as well.
• Iconic Item: Seeing that Excalibur is one of the things Lux decides to take away before destroying Alfheim's SEED, the blade clearly has become this for her.
• Immune to Mind Control: Since Sigurd doesn't buy into ALO's fantasy he's completely immune to OBERON and his HEAVEN's mind control which affects a majority of the other players.
  • Urvashi's Release Recollection works with this, creating a ring of light that makes the members of Lux's party immune to mental effects. Useful when the Big Bad is also a Charm Person.
• Jack of All Trades: It comes with being a Wild Card. However, this is subverted: Hiyori is far more limited in the amount of Personas she can obtain - as it's only possible to get them by starting social links - and usage, in that she has a limit of how many she can use through a fight.
• The Lancer: Once she's freed from brainwashing and makes amends with Hiyori, Gwen swears to become her companion as she investigates the HEAVENs.
• Last Villain Stand: After being given a second wind by Kayaba, Sugou pulls one of these, managing to summon a Persona of his own and going nuts against the Fangs. It nearly works too, because he catches them exhausted and his Object Eraser weakens them heavily, and he manages to partially recreate Alfheim. It takes a Heroic Second Wind from Lux to start turning the situation around.
• Light 'em Up: A few Personas know Bless spells, but the one that fits this description better is Magdalene, having access to both Kouha and Hama
• Loophole Abuse: The Object Eraser delects any items native to ALO. As Personas are not even entities belonging to the SEED, this means they are one of the few things that can survive taking a slash from that. When Shiroe and Yuuki incarnate in avatars of old games, their equipment is not affected, thus making them immune to that as well. This also counts towards Dark Repulser and Elucidator when they are used to give the finishing blow on OBERON.
• Making a Splash: Kinda. Havfrue and later Undine seems to invoke this at first glance, but their elemental specialties are in Bufu and Garu spells, as there's no proper water spell in Persona. However, played straight with Undine's Release Recollection, which allows to drag friends and foes into an enormous lake.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The Chaos and later the Fool Arcanas have very powerful Personas, with the exchange of putting Lux under stress from their powers.
  • Any Persona with the Real Deal trait alters Hiyori's mindset, allowing her to take actions she otherwise wouldn't. Of note, are the Strength Personas offered by Ainz, which narratively makes her more aggressive.
  • Death Personas don't have any offensive skills, instead focusing on healing people/buffing them via their dose system, which allows them to work like consumables in the Persona games.
• Mighty Glacier: Khomudumodumo, of the Nature Arcana, based on a beast of the South African folklore. Slow and not really good at spellcasting, but can take and dish out absolute amounts of Physical damage, and that's without counting his Enhance Armament. His evolution, Urmetazoan, averts this: it sacrifices much of its formidable physical power to become a Stone Wall that can eat damage like nothing, patch itself up and has a utility Recollection.
• My Beloved Smother: In this universe, Hiyori's mom is Mamako, and she feels that she is this. Partially justified, however, as Lux was stuck for two years inside SAO and then has to move to Tokyo.
• Mythology Gag: The author loves his references to Atlus' greater multiverse as well as isekai works.
  • Kayaba's Persona is Noah which takes the form it did in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
  • Kayaba's dream to make everyone the god of their own world is also rather similar to III's Reason of Musubi but with a far more optimistic bent.
  • Rimuru nicknames the SEED AI of Alfheim Raphael, the same name his AI companion in his home series, his GMPC avatar is his initial slime form, and his combat form looks like his True Demon Lord form.
  • One going way deep into Jungism MAXWELL implies that Igor is Izdubar, one of Jung's non-Philemon spirit guides which also means that Igor is really Gilgamesh.
  • Many of the threadmarks refer to other works. Some reference certain elements of SAO —one of the interludes is named after the infamous There is But One Ultimate Way sidestory and a series of threadmarks has a title Light Your Sword, the leitmotif shared between Asuna and Yuuki — Persona — one battle has as title Mass Destruction — or references to the works that certain figures come from — the chapter that starts Shiroe's Social Link is called Logged Horizons
  • The second phase of OBERON's boss battle has him being renamed to Alberich, which not only is fitting in a mythological sense, but also references his nickname in Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment.
  • The Personas offered by Philemon as result of Kayaba starting the Fool's Arcana refer to the previous main villains of Persona: Keres is the name of a violent spirit connected to the mythological Nyx, Yomotsu-Hisame is a servant of Izanami, and Yaldabaoth can be referred as an Archon in some gnostic texts. To hammer the point further, their respective Enhance Armaments summon the shades of those villains to mimic some of their signature moves.
  • One of the options for character creation in Gun Gale Online is the exact same avatar that Kirito used in his adventures during the Phantom Bullet Arc.
• Mysterious Backer: ETTEILLA, the new proprietor of the Velvet Room is a textbook example, a dark mysterious figure who speaks in vague philosophical terms who gifts Hiyori with the power of Persona and tasks her with destroying HEAVEN, though to people more familiar with the older Persona games might not find him so mysterious.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A more indirect example. In the Norns duel, Lux is inflicted with despair, and the subsequent visions makes her come to blows with her Shadow, almost leading to a blowout between the two. However, this made MAXWELL intervene in the situation, and also allowed Igor to help both of them, leading for the two to reach a better understanding of each other and subsequently unlock the power of Fusion, massively strengthnening Lux's arsenal.
• Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: Or rather, the lack of it, which is what allowed Kikuoka to spot the thread in Death Gun's killings: all of his victims utilized NerveGears, so it seemed as if they had their brains fried, and there were even burns marks in their heads, but they lacked all the other signs of such event, which allows him to deduce that someone wanted to disguise their true motive of death - heart stop.
• Odd Friendship: At first, the friendship between Hiyori and Shino doesn't seem like that...until you remember that a fair amount of interactions between the two happens when Shadow Lux is piloting, who has a far wilder personality than the original.
• Off the Rails: The Fangs of Fenrir with their Ragnarok plan throw any semblance of plot in ALO out of the window thanks to their actions, setting the world to it's destruction.
• Oh, Crap!: A collective one when Kayaba appears in the end of Alfheim. Not only he's part of the Arcana for Lux, he's also the Fool, which, for those that don't know, is the Arcana commonly associated to the protagonists of Persona. And he also gives enough tips to help Sugou pull out a second wind and summon a Persona of his own.
• One Last Job: Shiroe sees causing Ragnarok and crashing ALO to be the perfect ending to his hobby as a glitch-hunter and game breaker before he has to retire from serious gaming and focus on his studies and is thankful for Lux inviting him into her conspiracy seeing it as a chance to go out in a bang.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Kyoji manages to get his envy and resentment under control to sincerely thank Hiyori for stopping Endou's bullying of Shiho.
  • Whenever ETTEILA sees a Social Links Power Fantasy he usually shows his contempt for it with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech but gives Kanji Yakutani his sincere sympathies since he sees his dreamworld as one where he overworks himself to death again. He also praises Shiroe's capabilities as a leader and sees him as a person who can put the work and effort into accomplishing his dreams in the real world.
• Playing with Fire: This is the specialty of Gwen's Persona, Daji. She's the first Persona to show a -Lao spell, and it is Agilao.
• Poisonous Person: This is the specialty of the Prudence Persona Putana, possessing the Poisma skill and with her Enhance Armament and Release Recollection revolving around usage of it, albeit at different ways, with the first poisoning a ally to to buff some of it's stats and the latter playing it straight by inflicting the status condition to any enemy that hits her.
• Pretender Diss: When Hiyori logs into GGO for the first time ETTEILLA gives one to the adverised realism of the game seeing the chaos the game claims to have as sanitized and false compared to the chaos of reality ordering Hiyori to destroy the HEAVEN.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lux delivers a particularly scathing one against Rimuru in the aftermath of Seven's concert, criticizing how he kept seeing things as a game and how he didn't understand how wrong things were in Alfheim and RECT.
• Red Baron: Lux is the EDGE PUNISHER—though she would rather not.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Pina seems to be one at first. He also happens to be the boss of the 91th Floor from Aincrad, Dorz'l the Chaos Drake.
• Rousing Speech: ETTEILLA gives one to Hiyori right before the final battle with OBERON.
  ETTEILLA: This is the world he has chosen. This is his vision of HEAVEN. To him, love is a button on a screen, a prize to be plucked, a service to be bought. What is not of use to him has no need for existence. There is no grand reason, no logos nor a future for humanity he envisions. No, in his world, there will only be him and the chattel who shower him with love eternal. Take responsibility. Fulfill the terms of your contract! Remind this so-called god that he was born of flesh in a world of suffering, pain, and chaos! Drag down his delusion and tear down HEAVEN!
• Rule of Symbolism: Invoked. To make Ragnarok happen, the Fangs of Fenrir must perform actions told in the old epics about Ragnarok, to trick the SEED in creating this scenario and weaken HEAVEN, although it isn't necessary to perform all these actions. They are as follow:
  • The sound of Gjallarhorn and four ages of fighting. Achieved by ruining Seven's concert: the resulting chaos led to a massive fight even after the Fangs left the scene, while the screams of the fallen fulfilled the role of the horn itself.
  • Fimbulvutr (three consecutive winters), the battle between Thor and the World Serpent, and the leadership of the ice giant Thrym in his ship, the Naglfar. All of these were achieved on the same day. Killing the Norns started the chain of winters, and the Fangs managed to guarantee Thrym's loyalty by revealing that Thor had infiltrated his palace as the goddess Freyja to kill him and recover his hammer, leading to the death of the Aesir through words of poison from Lux playing the role of a syncretized Jormungandr, Loki, and Nidhogg.
  • Fenrir releasing himself from his chains and another wolf gulping down both sun and moon. Those events are set to happen on the day of Ragnarok: Hiyori infiltrated a GM account to make the system do the latter, and set the former by giving Asuna a copy of Excalibur to release herself from her gilded cage, which serve as the chains in question. The latter actually slightly backfires against Lux, as OBERON uses the knowledge granted by Nephren-Ka to out her as a Laughing Coffin member, leading to her standing at odds against the Fangs at first.
  • Loki killing Baldr. Attempted by Rain against Seven. It fails, but the group still manages to make the plot progress thanks to the chaos caused by said assassination attempt.
  • Surtr sets the World ablaze. Lux uses Nephren-Ka to cast Maragi against OBERON and Alfheim, leading to the end of the original Alfheim.
  • During the GGO arc, the Death Gun group abuses this to manipulate the rumor system in enforcing their wish of a new Death Game, by creating the myth that the Black Star can kill people in the real world.
• Running Gag: Hiyori never being able to remember Recon's name, even her character page misspells it as 'Rebar'.
• Selective Obliviousness: Mikami's really good at ignoring anything bad happening at RECT until it can negatively affect him.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: MAXWELL loves to talk in an extremely lengthy manner showing off his wide breadth of knowledge and extensive vocabulary.
• Shipper on Deck: Lux sets an encounter in all but name between Shiroe and Akatsuki.
• Shout-Out: Lux's Edge Punisher title is taken from the job class of the same name in .hack//G.U..
  • One of threadmarks is called Jive Talk. A possible stealth reference to a certain abridged series?
  • Some of the titles refer to pieces of work other than Isekai. Of note are A Liar, a Witch and a Tourney and Full Mythril Panic.
  • The chapter that starts the end of the Alfheim Arc is named Ragnarok Online
• Signature Mon: Havfrue and later Undine serves as this to Lux, being associated with her/her Shadow's Arcana, the Traitor.
• Smug Super: Sugou, oh so very much. So much that much of his power as OBERON comes from a belief of being invincible - meaning that, to get through him, one needs to also break this illusion.
• Spotting the Thread: Shino realizes Kyouji could be connected to the Death Gun conspiracy because they knew where she lived and only he and later Hiyori knew of the meaning behind that gun to her.
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: Hiyori and her allies invoke this trope as the Fangs of Fenris a death cult that wants to cause Ragnarok to empower themselves through the brainwashed playerbases collective belief.
• Stereotype Flip: Meimi/Gwen is one of The Ojou, she's from a powerful Old Money family steeped in Japanese tradition and has an affinity for Stock Ninja Weaponry but personality-wise she's a rude, crude loudmouthed gremlin girl who casually swears and uses gamer slang.
• The Strategist: Shiroe is brought on to be this for the Fangs of Fenris. He gathers all the information about Norse mythology and other adjacent myths and uses it to craft their overall Ragnarok strategy, as well as acting as the Fangs' overall planner and battle tactician.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: After being defeated by XeXeexD Johnny Black-as-Death Gun goads him into killing him with his Black Star gun in revenge for murdering his friend which thanks to the way the HEAVEN they're in is developing will actually kill him in real life to further the legend the Death Gun conspiracy wants to create. It takes a last-second realization on part of Kuro to stop the execution.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Or lunatics, in PoH's case. When Miller thinks he's suggesting that they use old Laughing Coffin members as deniable assets/cannon fodder while searching for GGO's HEAVEN Seed PoH quickly shoots that idea down admitting that his former goons are too Ax-Crazy to be worth anything with only Hiyori being of any worth as a minion.
• Sucky School: Isei High is the Japanese high school equivalent of Springfield Elementary. It's openly considered a bottom-of-the-barrel school, the teachers are either apathetic, unmotivated, or unable to control their students, and if they are capable it's because they were kicked out of better institutions because of politics. The students are just as bad with a serious bullying problem, class cutting is common, and most are easily influenced by the whims of the rumor mill.
• Super Villain Lair: Thrym's castle becomes this for the Fangs of Fenris after they ally with him becoming their base of operations while playing ALO.
• Sweet Tooth: Hiyori LOVES eating sweets, to the point she wastes lots of money every week with them.
• Take That!: XaXa ends up meeting with PoH in real life and explains his canon Death Gun plan to him. PoH tells him that it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard and that XaXa and his cohorts would be caught in a day.
• Take a Third Option: All the original plans to climb the World Tree and defeat Sugou involved forming some form of alliance or coalition to complete the Grand Quest. Hiyori decides its pointless to wrangle together an army of Brainwashed and Crazy LARPers to clear a quest that was made Unwinnable by Design and decides to make a new route with Ragnarok.
  • On a meta-level, the players can waste Determination points to make decisions that differ from the ones offered by the author, which can often have unpredictable results.
• Taking the Bullet: In a deliberate parallel with Rossa's sacrifice, Hiyori puts herself in the line when Aimotopolis attempts to execute Sinon after the latter is beaten in the Bullet of Bullets. The image of the memory is so strong that Hiyori manages to Incarnate a projection of Rossa to absorb the Mudoon that would kill Kuro.
• Tarot Motifs: Wouldn't be Persona without one. However, contrary to the main games, which mostly utilize the 22 main Arcanas that tell the Fool's Journey, this quest utilizes the cards of Etteilla's Book of Thoth, which instead speaks of a world's journey. Later, a few more Arcanas were added: Wands, Swords, Cups, Coins, and the Fool.
• There Are No Therapists: Very much true for Hiyori. Even looking past the obvious trauma of being stuck into SAO for two years, she also was part of Laughing Coffin, and her actions during that time brought so many emotional scars that it's not wrong to point them as the reason for the existence of her Shadow.
• Tomato in the Mirror: One of the possible starting characters, Kazuto Narusaka, a Fluctlight copy of Kirito.
• Too Much Alike: Hiyori and Rain dislike each other from their meeting as they're both SAO survivors who are cute girls who take advantage of the fact to manipulate others and love holding secrets over others.
• Tournament Arc: Happens in Alfheim. It's also the place where Hiyori first meets Yuuki and Cayna in person.
  • Then there's Bullet of Bullets, a tournament to decide the very best shooter of Gun Gale Online.
• True Sight: As her power over her Persona increases Hiyori begins to be able to see what people playing VRMMOs look like IRL and in the real world can see whatever they want their ideal self to be.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The entire plot of Persona 5 is one. Between Kayaba's interactions with Maruki and the Phantom Thieves' deeds in the Metaverse, he got the idea to create the HEAVEN system and awakened Noah to make that dream possible -which eventually led to the SAO incident.
  • PoH is one for the GGO arc. When he meets XaXa in real life his former surbordinate explains his canon Death Gun plan leading to PoH, for all intents and purposes accidentally peer-review his Evil Plan causing him to completely change it leading to a drastically different arc.
• Villainous BSoD: Death Gun-Sinon has one after Kuro beats her and she realizes that she never had to risk her life or go all out to beat her. This causes Aimopotis to fire its seventh bullet at Sinon to kill her.
• Villains Out Shopping: Hiyori ends up meeting Sugou sitting down and playing a mobage while waiting for his boss to get out of a meeting.
• We Can Rule Together: After accepting the power of fusion, PHILEMON begins to appear in Hiyori's dreams trying to convince her of the righteousness of her cause and bribing her with sacharrine Persona and the powers of gods who were defeated by her Wildcards.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Hiyori in general. She plays up her status as a cute, ditzy girl as much as possible to appear as normal as possible but it's heavily implied that there was always a natural dark, viciousness to her before she was forced to join Laughing Coffin. She proves to be Birds of a Feather with amoral people like Gwen and Kyoji, enjoys reading peoples' reactions to her causing Ragnarok in ALO, and when she PKs in GGO for the first time she finds ambushing people to be rather fun when she's not killing them for real.
• World's Strongest Man: As in canon SAO, Yuuki, is seen as this after beating both Sumeragi and Eugene in the Tournament Arc.
  • In Gun Gale Online, this title belongs to Blank, one of the most mysterious figures in the entire game for their uncanny prowess in the game that is borderline cheating.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The rumor system making its triumphant return from Persona 2. By manipulating the perception of other people about reality, the users of this phenomenon can make them become reality. The Fangs of Fenrir abuse this to help in their quest to destroy Alfheim and the Death Gun conspiracy centerpiece is within the rumor that the Black Star can kill people in real life.

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