Fanfic / Ace In The Hole (Persona 5)

A hidden advantage or resource kept in reserve until needed.^note Art by Pinigo

Ace In The Hole is a Persona 5 fanfiction by eiranerys/xiaolianfa''. It focuses on a What If? scenario on Ken Amada being sent by the Shadow Operatives to Tokyo to investigate the Phantom Thieves. This will eventually lead Ken to join the Phantom Thieves, under the codename "Ace". Here is the link to the AO3 version.

There is also a spin-off fanfiction called Persona Q2: The Ace Edition, which is the Persona Q2 spin-off version of Ace In The Hole. You can find the the AO3 version here.

Additionally, as a part of "ShuAnn Week 2019," eiranerys created a one-shot set in the same universe that centered around the wedding of Ren Amamiya and Ann Takamaki entitled A Future In Her Eyes. The link to the AO3 version can be found here.

The author also wrote another oneshot in this universe about the 20th anniversary of Ken's mother's death, fittingly titled Twenty Years Later. You can also read it on AO3.

You can also find all canonical parts of the series under its Archive of Our Own Designation: PT!Ken AU.

Fan art and additional info can be found on Tumblr here.

Expect unmarked spoilers for Persona 5, as well as other installments like Persona 3 and Persona 4.

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Stories within the Ace In The Hole Universe:

• Ace In The Hole: The events of Persona 5.
• Persona Q2: The Ace Edition: The events of Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.
• Full Deck: A collection of one-shots set within the universe.
• Seal It With A Promise: One-shot; Ren's plan to propose to Anne.
• A Future In Her Eyes: One-shot; Years after the defeat of Yaldabaoth, Ren and Anne get married.
• Love, Always: One-shot; On their honeymoon in Paris, Anne finds a series of love letters that Ren had written for her, reflecting on their relationship.
• Pink Carnation: One-shot; A pregnant Makoto receives assurance that she's going to be a good mother.
• Twenty Years Later: One-shot; Twenty years after the death of his mother, Ken reflects on how his life has changed since that night.

Additional Stories

• Counselling Justice: One-shot; The day after the anniversary of his mother's death, Ken has a counselling session with Dr. Maruki. Set within a version of the universe following the events of Persona 5 Royal.
• Ace In The Hole: Borrowed Time by BkZa555: One-shot; Ken and the Shadow Operatives experience Dr. Maruki's perfect reality. Set within a version of the universe following the events of Persona 5 Royal.
• Journey and Answer of the Twin Fools by Gamma745; The events of Persona 3. Intended as a prequel to Ace In The Hole.

Tropes pertaining the main story:

A-F

• The Ace: It's implied that Minato is considered this out of the Wild Cards, as Ren is especially impressed with how he sealed away Death.
• Adaptation Deviation: Morgana's self-esteem issues are worked out differently and when he walk out on the Phantom Thieves it's resolved much quicker and after Haru already has joined. Haru's recruitment is also handled differently. The Phantom Thieves are scoping out Okumura Foods when they run into Haru, and their poor attempts at an excuse for being there leads to Haru realizing their identities. After Haru formally asks them to steal her father's heart, she secretly follows them to see if she can help, and subsequently gets pulled into the Metaverse. The first confrontation with Shadow Okumura leads to Milady's awakening much like in canon, and Haru joins the Phantom Thieves.
  • Similarly, in Chapter 44 Akechi takes a page out of Ren's playbook and uses Shadow Negotiation, or more accurately, forcing Shadows to beg for their lives, in order to acquire more Personas, something he was either incapable of doing, or simply choose not to do, in canon.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Ken's family history is discussed in Ken's confidant. Ken's parents divorced when he was young. Ken has no concrete memories of his father due to him dying while Ken was a toddler. His mother has an estranged twin sister, but Ken has no idea what's become of her. It's later revealed that said twin sister is Goro Akechi's mother, making the two boys cousins.
  • Ren's feelings about his parents are more expanded. He feels greatly betrayed by their lack of faith in them. Ren also mentions that he's an only child because his parents were devoted to building up their careers before having a child. Additionally, Ren's hometown is revealed to be Shimoda, a small coastal town.
  • Sae's Palace contains a cognition of her father, acting as a casino security guard and a sub-boss.
  • The Phantom Thieves attempting to clear Ren’s name after he turns himself in to testify against Shido is much more fleshed out than in the original game, where only glimpses are seen of Ren's Confidants working to prove his innocence.
• Adaptation Name Change: Ann's name is spelt "Anne" in this fic.
• Adapted Out: Due to Persona 5 Royal being announced while the author was writing the Okumura arc, the new characters introduced in Royal will not be included in the story. While Maruki was given a Alternate Universe brief sidestory where he had a counselling session with Ken and an author approved Royal-centric one-shot written by a fan focusing on Ken reacting to Maruki's created idealized illusion, the author has stated she has no plans to add any content from Royal.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Lampshaded by both Ken and Akechi.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted, with both sets of Arisato twins.
  • Minato and Minako being a set of different gender twins, are fraternal twins. They don't even share a hair or eye color, with Minato have blue hair and gray-blue eyes and Minako having auburn hair and red eyes.
  • Minato's children with Yukari look a little more alike, both inheriting his dark blue hair. However, Kaito has brown eyes from Yukari while Miyuki has Minato's eye color.
  • Additionally averted with Tsukiko and Hikari Himura, the mothers of Akechi and Ken. They both have the reddish brown eyes that Tsukiko passes down to Akechi, but their hair colors match their respective sons. On top of that, they have different bang styles.
• Always Someone Better:
  • Once Ren learns about other Persona users and their leaders, he finds himself unsure that he can live up to the standards set by the Wild Cards that came before him. Yu helps him out with a pep talk.
  • Akechi resents Ren and everything he has and is capable of. Even when Akechi learns how to use multiple Personas, he is unable to win against the Phantom Thieves.
• And Then What?: A major part of the Thieves' "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Akechi in Chapter 48; over and over again they ask him what he'll do if/after he finally gets his revenge, and he can never come up with an answer.
• And This Is for...: Haru socks Sae's cognition of Akechi in the gut as payback for her father's mental shutdown and subsequent death, mostly because she couldn't do so to the real Akechi at that point in time.
• Anger Born of Worry: There's a lot of it to go around with the Phantom Thieves' plan to get the Conspiracy off their backs, both from the planned instance of Ren's interrogation (and beatdown) and the unplanned instance of Ken being kidnapped by Shido and subject to torture.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted. Shinjiro and Ken's adventures with Personas and Shadows have caused them to be very open-minded.
  Futaba: I want to know what crazy thing that you've seen that makes a talking cat seem normal.
• Arc Welding: In this story, Wakaba was a former employee of the Kirijo Group. In fact, her death is the reason the Shadow Operatives are aware of Shido in the first place.
  • Minako also reveals that Sugimura once attempted to court Mitsuru.
• Ascended Extra: A downplayed version, but there's more of an emphasis on Haru breaking away from her father and choosing to rebel.
  • Similarly, Yusuke is more active in helping out Haru during Okumura's arc as he empathizes with her.
• Babies Ever After:
  • Koromaru ends up fathering a litter of puppies, which are given out to fellow Persona users as pets.
  • Yukari Takeba has given birth to her and Minato's twin son and daughter, Kaito and Miyuki Arisato.
  • In Chapter 41, Minako gives birth to her and Akihiko's daughter, Kiyomi Sanada.
• Baby's First Words: Ken reveals to Ren during his confidant that Miyuki and Kaito's mutual first word was "Stupei", due to them mimicking Yukari.
• Bastard Angst: Comes up in conversation when Yukari's son Kaito is called a bastard by some passersby on account of their mother being a single parent, and Akechi takes it upon himself to explain what that word means.
• Battle Couple: Ren/Ann and Ken/Makoto.
  • Even before they get together, Ren is seen blocking blows for Ann and she uses that opportunity to blast Shadows with fire.
• Beach Episode: As in canon, but the end has Ken telling the Phantom Thieves that he's ready to tell everything about his past.
• The Bet: Ren, Ryuji, and Futaba bet over when Ken and Makoto will get together. Futaba ends up winning.
  • Shinjiro also notes in his narration that Minako and Junpei apparently like to bet. A lot.
• Beta Couple: Ren and Ann, contrasting with Ken/Makoto. By the time Ken comes to Tokyo, they're already quite close. Ren also comments that his attention was always on Ann and he had eyes for nobody else. This contrasts with a huge part of the fic being dedicated to building up Ken and Makoto's feelings for each other.
• Big Fancy House: Where Ken and Shinjiro live in Tokyo. It's described to be an opulent building, owned by the Kirijo family. The Phantom Thieves are surprised that Ken lives there when they first see it.
  • Haru's house is unsurprisingly quite impressive, but she feels that it's a cold and lonely place to live in.
• Big "WHAT?!": Shadow Sae is prone to this when Akechi outwits her.
• Birthday Episode: Chapter 35 is mostly about putting together a birthday party for Ann.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Ken's birthday involves him having to trail the Phantom Thieves in Kaneshiro's Palace. Being not used to sneaking around like the Phantom Thieves, he accidentally triggers one of the traps, which leads to the Phantom Thieves discovering his presence. He ends up getting chased by Ryuji for his trouble, and is barely able to escape.
  • Though when Ken mentions this was his birthday a few weeks later, the rest of the Thieves decide to give him a belated birthday party.
• Blackmail: In order to release a kidnapped Ken from Shido's clutches, the Phantom Thieves and S.E.E.S. record him gloating about being responsible for the mental shutdowns to Ken and threaten to release them right before the election, unless he lets Ken go and never threatens the Shadow Operatives or the Kirijo group again.
• Bland-Name Product: Several.
  • As in canon, we have Super Bash Bros.
  • There's also Campfire Emblem, Pusemon, Bop Bop Revolutionand Legendary Lawyers mentioned as video games.
  • Chapter 44 has Super Nario Jubilee mentioned as a video game as well.
• Blunt No: When Ryuji suggests that the boys spy on the girls while the latter are in the hot spring, Ken casually shoots him down and then reminds him about how terrifying the girls can be.
• Brain Bleach:
  • Turns out poor Ken had the misfortune of... er... seeing his senpais having a romantic moment when he was still a kid. So, Ken has every right to want to forget that moment.
  • Shinjiro also wants to forgot when he accidentally runs into Ken and Makoto while they were having their first kiss after they finally confessed their feelings for each other. Poor guy even went as far as ask Mitsuru to have her scientists to make real mind bleach.
• Brainy Brunette: Makoto and Ken. Ken is mentioned to work especially hard so to earn a partial scholarship to Gekkoukan, so to be less of a burden to Shinjiro.
• Brick Joke: When Ken first met Ren, the former questioned why the latter was carrying around a cat (Morgana). Ren's excuse? Morgana is his therapy cat. Morgana did not take that well. Ren proceeded to use the same excuse again when he first met Shinjiro. Ken certainly didn't drop this 'therapy cat' detail when he was confronted by the Phantom Thieves after the gang found out that Ken is a Persona user.
• Bridal Carry: Ren carries Ann in this style during the fight with Kaneshiro.
  • Makoto does this, carrying Ken out of danger during a Mementos trip.
  • Ken also catches Makoto in a similar fashion after a failed attempt to jump the Bridge of Judgement.
• Call-Back:
  • Ken initially escaped from Black Mask by dropping a wall on him. Ren remembers that event and pulls the same trick on Akechi in their final fight.
  • There's also one to a canon event in Persona 3. At the end of the casino heist, Ken offers himself up in place of his team's navigator to the bad guys, just like what he did to protect Fuuka. He ends up getting bailed out by Shinjiro again, but this time it's Ken who gets heavily injured instead.
  • Ren initially has several hangups about not stacking up to the other Wild Cards out there, especially Minato Arisato, but the help of his friends and even Yu Narukami help him work through it. By the time Akechi reveals his ability to use multiple Personas too and claims it makes him just as good or better than Ren, Ren can answer that he knows his own worth, and it isn't about his status as a Wild Card.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Makoto and Ken both wrestle with their inability to tell the other how they feel.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Ren is especially prone to quips and witty banter while fighting Shadows.
• Cassandra Truth: Both Mitsuru and Ren dismiss Shido's claims that Ken and Akechi are cousins as an attempt to manipulate Ken into joining him, given Shido's track record of deception and treachery. However, as Akechi reveals to Ken later, that was probably the only truthful thing that Shido had ever said.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Several characters note how closely Ken and Akechi resemble each other. There's a reason for that: Ken and Akechi's mothers were twins, thus making them cousins.
• Character Development: Unlike in the game, the Phantom Thieves gain their ultimate Personas through in-story scenes like in Persona 3.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • At the end of chapter 34, Ren ranks his Adjustment Confidant up to 8, giving Ken Endure. This saves Ken from a Mudoon the next chapter.
  • During their escape from Sae's Palace, Ken throws Akechi a smoke bomb. He later regrets doing so in Shido's Palace, when Akechi uses it as a distraction to separate the two of them from the other Phantom Thieves.
• Children Are Innocent: Kaito showed no understanding on what a bastard is. Things got really out of hand when Akechi tried to explain it to a boy who got called a bastard by a bunch of women who were jealous of Yukari. Ken had to resolve the issue when Akechi's explanation caused poor Kaito to be distressed and worried that his mother might actually prefer that he wasn't born.
• Chilly Reception: When Ren's parents show up to Leblanc after he is arrested, they get a very vocal reaction from some of the Thieves for how they treated their son, with Ryuji even storming out in frustration. Ann points out that they're doing the same thing to Ren's parents that everyone else initially did to Ren - refusing to hear them out - which cools things a bit.
• Class Trip: Shujin goes to Hawaii. This class trip shows how big the Phantom Thieves have made it and it also introduces the beginning of Haru's turmoil.
• Compensating for Something:
  • When Ken is questioned by the Phantom Thieves after their battle against Kaneshiro, Ryuji, whether he was just joking or actually being serious, starts to ask Ken if this is why he chose a spear as his weapon of choice, only for an unamused Ken to cut him off.
  • This is what everyone thinks of Sugimura when they encounter his Shadow in Mementos and it turns into Mara.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: After Ren has turned himself in, Sae finds Akechi at his mother's grave and encourages him to testify as well, if for nothing else than to atone for his crimes and do the right thing. Akechi briefly considers making a run for it instead, but his mother's words to not run away from his mistakes like she did eventually makes him agree.
• Continuity Nod: Several.
  • Ken references Wild-Duck Burger, preferring that chain to Big Bang Burger. Futaba also mentions there's a mental shutdown connected to Wild-Duck Burger.
  • Ekoda is still teaching at Gekkoukan and evidently still a Jerkass.
  • Chapter 14 is named "I'll Face Myself", a reference to the song in Persona 4 that plays when the characters face their Shadow self, earning their Persona. Fitting for the chapter where Futaba comes face to face with her Shadow and ultimately gains her Persona.
    • In a similar vein, Chapter 48 is entitled "Ying Yang," after the song used in Persona 4: The Golden Animation during Yu and Adachi's one on one fight. A fitting fight and song for a one-on-one fight between two Cain and Abel cousins who are essentially reflections of each other, much like Ken and Akechi are.
  • Yukari mentions the Persona users from Mikage-Cho and Sumaru City.
  • During Ken's first venture into the Metaverse, he's wearing the Ring of Darkness, Thanatos' heart item. This allows him to have an advantage that evens the odds when fighting Akechi.
  • Ken's Confidant bonuses are centered around Combination Attacks. When the Adjustment Confidant started, Ken mentions that this is what he'll teach Ren, mentioning that he's well versed in them. This is a reference to how he was a team with Koromaru in Ultimax.
  • The Phantom Thieves and the Investigation Team play The King's Game together, much to Kanji's displeasure.
  • Shinjiro and Ken are a bit... paranoid when Haru offers to cook, due to several previous female Persona-users being notorious Lethal Chefs.
  • In an early chapter, Ken mentions to Makoto that Gekkoukan took a trip to Kyoto, like the members of SEES did in Persona 3. To top off that, Ken mentions that they had good snacks, something he had remarked on in the game.
  • During the Adjustment Confidant, Ken is telling Ren about Minato and his sense of humor. He then goes on to say that Minato convinced Ken that he drank coffee with hot sauce, which can happen in an optional conversation with Ken in Persona 3.
  • In Ren's What the Hell, Hero? speech to Sae during her interrogation, Ren acknowledges that there are a lot of people who joined the police for selfish reasons, such as the right to legally carry a gun.
• Crash-Into Hello: Ren gets absorbed in his thoughts and ends up knocking into Ken.
• Crossover Cameo:
  • This is mainly a Persona 3 and Persona 5 crossover, but there's a chapter dedicated to the Phantom Thieves visiting Inaba and meeting most of the Investigation Team.
  • Shiho also makes a couple appearances throughout the story.
  • Kei Nanjo (from the first two Persona games, three if you count Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment as two separate games) makes a quick appearance as an ally and benefactor of the Shadow Operatives. Eriko Kirishima, Eikichi Mishina, and Katsuya Suou and his wife Maya Amano are also mentioned as Shadow Operatives.
  • There's a scene where the entire Investigation Team/Seekers of Truth discuss the plan to help save Ren's life and get Shido off of the Phantom Thieves' backs over a video chat.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ken's fight with Black Mask goes poorly, since he's just reawakened to Kala-Nemi and hasn't seriously trained in years. He only manages to escape by collapsing a wall onto Black Mask.
• Dead Guy Junior: Discussed. Akihiko mentions that he and Minako discussed naming their children after their deceased siblings depending on the gender but ultimately decided against it.
• Death by Adaptation: Not a person, but rather a location. In the game, the fate of Sae's palace is left ambiguous as the Thieves did not steal her treasure and is never brought up again after being used to help Joker fake his death. In this story, however, after the scheme is completed, Sae undergoes a change of heart herself and the Palace disappears.
• Death by Childbirth: Haru explains to Yusuke that her mother died giving birth to her younger brother.
• Deconstruction: The story briefly deconstructs a plot point regarding Joker's relationship with the people of his hometown from his family and friends, namely, stories that depict the people in his hometown as Hate Sink's due to the belief that the whole town turned against him over the false accusation. In Ace in the Hole, Ren's belief that his parents completely abandoned him was due to Ren's anger over how he remembers the day he was arrested, perceiving his parents' poor reaction as them completely believing the cops over hearing Ren's side of the story, while in regards to his friends, Ohya points out to Ken that she doesn't believe that the whole town would turn against Ren so easily and that there are probably several individuals who are peer-pressured to turn on Ren. The belief that everyone turned against him is mostly from Ren’s perception of the event that it clouded his impression on people he thought would back him up like his parents and his old friends in Shimoda, and that there are ultimately varying perspectives in play to events in one's memories and life.
• Did I Say That Out Loud: Shinjiro accidentally reveals to Fuuka his plan to propose to her while trying to think of a way to propose to her. Fuuka accepts the proposal nonetheless.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Ken's dad died when he was young, but Ken's not really broken up about it, since he doesn't have much memories of him anyway.
  • As in canon, almost all the Phantom Thieves' dads are out of the picture. The only exceptions are the fathers of Ren and Ann, but neither of them are in Tokyo.
  • And of course, Minato Arisato, Kaito and Miyuki's father, passed away before the twins were born as a result of his Heroic Sacrifice in sealing away Nyx.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: A variant with the Amamiyas. During the period when Ren's arrested to testify against Shido, the Amamiyas tell Anne how they both believed that Ren had been so independent before his false assault that they believed that Ren didn't actually need them. This nearly destroyed their relationship on the day Ren was falsely accused. Ren actually needed his parents' support, and when the Amamiyas didn't believe Ren was innocent right away and didn't contact him for months on end when he was sentenced to probation, it convinced him that they completely abandoned him instead.
• Doorstopper: Ace in the Hole has a prologue + 48 chapters (with the entire fic projected to have 58 chapters in total), and is nearly at 600,000 words.
• Dramatic Irony: Akechi's POV in Chapter 37, with him believing that he's always a step ahead of the Phantom Thieves, having no idea that they've already figured out his scheme.
• Duel Boss: Ken's first fight in the Metaverse ends up being with Akechi in his Black Mask form.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Haru makes an early appearance during Kaneshiro's arc, when she crosses paths with Ken.
• Eating the Eye Candy: When Akihiko takes off his shirt in front of the Thieves, Futaba is very appreciative and comments that his wife Minako is a lucky woman.
• Entitled Bastard: Morgana veers into this territory after Ren and Anne admit their feelings for one another, believing that Ren had stolen "Lady Anne" from him; Ken has to point out how unfair Morgana is being towards his friends by expecting neither of them to act on their feelings for one another because he likes Anne too, before the cat finally accepts the relationship and apologises.
• Everyone Can See It: Makoto was not... the best at hiding her feelings for Ken. It got to the point where the Investigation Team saw it very clearly, despite that being the first time they had seen Ken and Makoto interact.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Akechi finds out that Shinjiro was responsible for the death of Ken's mother (and Akechi's aunt), he immediately concludes that Ken is staying with his mother's murderer for the same reason that Akechi is staying with his bastard of a father - slowly biding his time until the perfect moment of revenge, which is why he instantly goes to Ken's apartment for an offer to join their revenge quests together. Unfortunately for Akechi, he is completely off the mark.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The original 3 human Phantom Thieves can be considered this. Ren is the Thief, as while they're all thieves, Ren's design provokes the classical Phantom Thief look and he wields daggers, a typical weapon that thieves use. Ryuji is the Mighty Glacier, much more reliant on his physical attacks than his magical spells. Ann is the magical powerhouse amongst them and relies mostly on her fire magic against Shadows.
• First Kiss:
  • Ren and Ann share their first kiss after confessing to each other.
  • Ken and Makoto also shared their first kiss after their own confession.
• Flashback Nightmare: Ken dreams of the night his mother died as well as the day Shinjiro almost dies on October 4th in the story. Apparently, Ken has had this exact same nightmare every year on October 4th ever since his mother gave her life for him, with the addition of Shinjiro Taking the Bullet for Ken having become a part of it after Takaya's failed attempt to murder Ken.
• Flat "What": Ken's initial reaction to learning that the Palaces collapse after the Treasure is taken. He then goes into Oh, Crap! mode.
• Foil:
  • Akechi and Ken share similarities with each other, and it's not just their similar appearances. They are both Persona users of the Justice arcana, as they seek justice for how they were wronged. They seek vengeance against the person responsible for the death of their mothers, and joined forces with their murderers' groups to do so. However, while Ken learned to move on and grow into a better person as his mother's murderer was a sympathetic figure, and built up a strong familial bond with the members of SEES, Akechi is too absorbed by his anger and past suffering caused by an unsympathetic Jerkass, and still holds a raging grudge against Shido. This results with Ken and Akechi developing clashing personalities and different ideas of justice. Taken further by their preferred elements, with Ken using Bless and Akechi using Curse, and also with their Personas, with Akechi using the treacherous Loki and Ken eventually using the staunchly-loyal Tyr.
    • And then it's revealed that the two are actually cousins. This comes to a head when Akechi finds out their familial connection and the fate of Ken's mother, and goes to Ken with an offer to join forces, as he concludes that Ken is only staying with Shinjiro as a ploy to bide his revenge just like Akechi. He can't understand the fact that Ken loves Shinjiro as a parent and that will never change, and is thus dumbfounded when Ken rejects his offer on every aspect.
  • Shinjiro and Sae are also this. They both received Promotion to Parent, but it was by choice on Shinjiro's part. Sae is also very proper and eloquent, whereas Shinjiro is blunt and sometimes crass. When they meet, they almost immediately start clashing. To emphasize this, the story mentions that they're the same age.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Reveal that Ken and Akechi are cousins. Firstly, Ken is often mentioned to resemble Akechi. In Ken's Confidant with Ren, it is revealed early on that his deceased mother has an estranged twin sister, after some kind of scandal happened. During the Sae arc, Akechi tells Ken that his mother fell prey to Shido, because she desired love and happiness like how her twin sister found with her high school boyfriend.
  • In one chapter, Ken chides Futaba for not exercising. He cites there may be a situation where she'll need to be fit enough to dodge danger. A few chapters later, he's proven right as Shido's men chases after the two of them and Futaba ends up getting caught.
• Forgotten First Meeting:
  • Ken and Makoto are revealed to have one in Chapter 36. Ken's maternal grandparents died in a car crash when he was 5, so Ken's mother brought him to Tokyo for the funeral. On the day of their arrival, Ken had wanted to go to the park and ended up wandering away from his mother. This led to him meeting Makoto and her father.
  • Ken and Akechi are revealed to have one in Chapter 37. Akechi's mother brought her son with her to meet her sister, Ken's mother, after their parents died in an attempt to reconcile with her sister. Akechi and Ken bond over their love of Featherman. However, the visit is cut short when their respective mothers get into an argument concerning their parents.
• Forgiveness: A lot of Chapter 56 involves Ren struggling with the idea of forgiving his parents for their harsh words to him when he got arrested, even when they come to Tokyo hoping to reconcile. While it comes out that there were mistakes in communication made on both ends, Ren still feels conflicted, and all his friends agree that whether he chooses to forgive his parents (like Yukari with her mother) or not (like Ken with his uncle, Fuuka with her parents or Ryuji with his dad) is up to him and no one else.
• Framing Device: Averted. Instead of the entire story being presented as Joker's recalling event to Sae, the story unfolds naturally. There's even a scene where the Phantom Thieves figure out the plan against Akechi. However, there is still a flash-forward scene to Ren informing Sae of the moment when Makoto and Ken revealed their relationship to the other Phantom Thieves. The story also starts with Sae asking Ren about his connection to Ken Amada.
• Freudian Threat: Haru makes a thinly-veiled one towards Cognitive Sugimura shortly after awakening to Milady.

G-L

• Gambit Roulette: As in canon, the Phantom Thieves concoct a bold and daring plan for Ren/Joker to allow himself to be captured by the police, lure Akechi into the Metaverse and have him assassinate the cognitive body double of Ren that would be created by Sae's cognition. However, once they catch wind of the Phantom Thieves' insanely risky gambit, and that the make-or-break aspect of it involves convincing Sae Niijima, whom Shinji doesn't believe can be trusted, to show Akechi Ren's phone, the Shadow Operatives enlist the aid of Chie Satonaka, Akihiko Sanada, and Rise Kujikawa in order to at least reduce the roulette aspect and tip the odds in their favor.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • One of Ken's Confidant bonuses is that he's able to narrow down a Shadow's weakness. His suggestions usually boil down to the correct weakness and the weakness the Shadow had as a Persona in Persona 3.
  • Ren's Confidant rank ups are also acknowledged throughout the story.
• Generation Xerox: Ken and Akechi to their mothers, who were twin sisters. While Akechi's mother, Tsukiko, was a loving mother to her son, she also was bitter about her life's circumstances. Ken's mother, Hikari, had lost someone she loved, her former husband, but was able to move on with her life and try to live it to the fullest. On top of that, Ken and Akechi are said to look very much like their mothers.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: But with a catch. While the Phantom Thieves are able to earn a lot of money from the Shadows in the Metaverse, they also spend a lot of that money on buying new weapons and supplies for their trip to that same Metaverse.
• Get Out!: This is Ken's furious response when Akechi, finding out the similar fates of his and Ken's mothers (who are sisters) comes into his house with an offer to work together as cousins and get revenge on their mothers' murderers (i.e. Shinjiro, Ken's trusted guardian and friend) while simultaneously disparaging Ren and the Phantom Thieves.
• Girls Have Cooties:
  • A flashback shows a young Akechi thinking this, wondering why his cousin, Ken, would want to play in the park with Makoto.
    A girl? Wasn't this cousin of his aware of the dangers?
  • In the same chapter, Ken and Akechi agree that the parts of Featherman where Pink Argus and Red Hawk kiss are gross. Also, Ken acts disgusted at the thought of kissing Makoto.
• The Glomp: Theodore and Margaret give one to Lavenza after they are freed, much to their little sister's discomfort.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: After Ann attempts very, very badly, to get Ren and Makoto to confess that they are dating to the rest of the Phantom Thieves, Ryuji snaps and explains what was really going on between them.
  Ryuji: EFF THIS I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!
• Grave-Marking Scene: Makoto and Ken visit the former's parents' grave, right before confronting Sae's Shadow. Sae herself is implied to have done the same not long before Ken and Makoto arrived.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Morgana immediately becomes jealous of Ken when it becomes clear that Ken has more knowledge about Personas than him.
• Happily Adopted: There's a mention that Yosuke's parents adopted Teddie, making him and Yosuke brothers.
• Hate Sink: Ken's uncle (from his father's side) and former guardian, Isao Amada, despite his brief appearances, is quite a nasty piece of work. It's implied that he treated Ken rather terribly while he was still his guardian, and only decided to try and take Ken back so he could boost his own social standing. He constantly belittles Shinjiro as nothing more than a common thug, looks down on Ren as a social inferior when they first met, and coldly informs Tsukiko of her sister's death while insulting her son Akechi as a doomed bastard child. It thus becomes extremely satisfying when Ken finally snaps and gives his uncle a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, kicking him out and telling him to stay out of his life for good.
• Have We Met?: Akechi asks this to Ken when they meet after the latter's first trip to the Metaverse and subsequent encounter to the former as Black Mask. Ken wonders why Akechi would ask a question like that. While Akechi was referring to their first meeting in the Metaverse, it is later revealed that Ken and Akechi met as children, specifically, as cousins.
• Henpecked Husband:
  • Kaito and Miyuki observe that all of the SEES males are this, much to Akihiko's chagrin.
  • Ren seems to be this to a degree with Ann. After Ann berates him for being reckless in Okumura's Palace, he sheepishly apologizes.
• High-School Sweethearts:
  • Most of the established ships, with Ken noting that the tribulations that come with being a Persona user would make it difficult to romantically connect with a normal person. Barely averted for Kanji and Naoto, since they only started dating after they graduated.
  • Ken's parents are revealed to have had a similar romance, but unlike with the romantic relationships that formed amongst the ranks of SEES and the Investigation Team, they did not last.
  • A related oneshot also shows Ren and Ann getting to that point.
• Hot Springs Episode: When the Phantom Thieves are in Inaba, Yukiko invites the girls to soak in the hot springs. It leads to some girl talk. Ryuji actually wants to go peep but Ken puts a firm stop to it.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Shinjiro/Fuuka, Yu/Rise, and Kanji/Naoto all have this dynamic.
• I Have Your Wife: Shido tries to pull this on Mitsuru by kidnapping Ken and sending her a picture of him, threatening her to stay out of his business.
• Interrupted Intimacy:
  • Ken walks in on Ren and Ann having a make out session at one point. It's also implied that it's a recurring problem with Shinjiro and Fuuka.
  • And then it comes full circle when Shinji walks in on Ken and Makoto's first kiss. Shinji then proceeds to forbid Ken from making fun of him and Fuuka about being intimate.
• Internal Reveal: Chapter 45 involves Akechi confirming Shido's statement to Ken that the two of them are cousins, and Ken informing the rest of the Phantom Thieves.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • As in canon, Shinjiro has "Shinji" and Akihiko has "Aki". Shinjiro is only called that by Akihiko, Minako, and Fuuka, whereas Akihiko is only called that by Shinjiro and Minako.
  • Akihiko also calls Minako "Mina".
• In Spite of a Nail: While Ken's presence in the story has created a domino effect, there are still some things that remain the same.
  • Okumura still dies after the Phantom Thieves defeat him, leading to the Phantom Thieves' names to be blackened.
• I Resemble That Remark!: One time Morgana is going through his whole "I am not a cat" routine, Shinjiro asks what he said, and Futaba replies that he's asking for fatty tuna. Morgana says he's not saying that, but then sheepishly admits that he wouldn't say no to fatty tuna.
• It's Personal:
  • There's an added tweak where Kaneshiro is responsible for Detective Niijima's death.
  • Ken and Ann both take Futaba being suicidal very personally, as Ken used to be suicidal when he was younger and Ann had to watch her best friend attempt suicide just a few months ago.
• Japanese Politeness: It's been pointed out that Ken has a habit of being overly polite, using honorifics even with his fellow SEES members, whom he's literally grown up with. There's a big fuss made after the Internal Reveal about the events on Port Island and Ren accepting Ken's explanation, whereupon Ken calls Ren by his first name without the honorific.
• Jerkass: Ken's uncle (or cousin once removed) and his former guardian, Isao Amada. He's shown to care only for reputations and is generally uncaring, not even batting an eye at the heartbroken reaction Tsukiko has, when he coldly tells her of Hikari's death. He also tells her that she had cursed her son, Akechi, to a doomed life since he was born a bastard. On top of that, he seems to resent the fact that Shinjiro has guardianship of Ken, because of Shinjiro's rough exterior.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Sugimura gets hit with a Change of Heart shortly after Haru's 18th birthday.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: In Persona 3, Ken was The Baby of the Bunch. By the story's start, he is a year older than the Phantom Thieves' Leader Ren and in the same year as Makoto and Haru, with a lot more Persona experience under his belt. His age is the reason Minako suggests to Mitsuru to have Ken transfer to Shujin Academy (the site of their debut mission), so he can investigate the Phantom Thieves and find out if they were Persona Users, while avoiding immedient conflict with Shido's conspiracy since Ken wasn't one of Mitsuru's subordinates.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Many of Shido's goons, particularly the ones who shot Futaba and abducted and drugged Ken, were subjected to a beatdown by Akihiko and Shinjiro in their rescue mission.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: The Phantom Thieves and their allies split up in order to rescue Ren and Ken. Ann, Yusuke, Haru, Rise, and Chie make up the squad tasked to retrieve Ren after his interrogation, while Makoto, Morgana, Ryuji, Akihiko, and Shinjiro make their way to one of Shido's bases to retrieve Ken.
• Living Crashpad: When Theodore, Margaret and Marie are freed from Yaldabaoth's imprisonment, the former is squashed beneath the latter two when they reemerge in a pile.
• Locked Out of the Fight: Before the fight with Akechi inside Shido's Palace can kick into high gear, Akechi shoots a switch on the wall and drops the bulkhead doors, blocking out the rest of the Thieves from the fight between him and Ken. At least for the first half of the fight; the Thieves eventually break through and join in.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Averted with Sojiro Sakura. While he was Wakaba Isshiki's government liason, there was no indication that he was aware of what the power of Persona was. Here, however, not only does he know about Personas and the Shadow Operatives, but he even knows about the Dark Hour, something very few people indeed know about ever having existed, and is shown to be uncomfortable with what Ken has told Futaba and Ren.

M-S

• Mad Scientist: Turns out that several former Kirijo Group scientists are now working for Shido, providing him with tools such as the Persona suppressants. Even worse, one scientist expresses a desire to experiment on Ken or Ren, and it's implied that these were the ones who conducted experiments on Mitsuru when she was a child.
• Malaproper: In Chapter 31, Ryuji botches up scapegoat, using "scapecoat" instead.
• Mama Bear:
  • Yukari is shown to be protective of her children, Kaito and Miyuki, to the point that she taught her children to not trust strangers at all, and is quite livid when she finds out that two women who were jealous of her career had insulted her children by calling them bastards, and she isn't too happy with Akechi making things worse by bluntly explaining what a bastard was.
  • Mitsuru is pretty protective of her friends, especially Ken, who is the youngest of their group. This is best shown when she ordered Ken to come back to Tatsumi Port Island after the Phantom Thieves were framed for Okumura's death by Shido, making them the target of the police.
  • Ken's mother Hikari was also this, protecting Ken at the cost of her life.
• Manly Tears: Shinjiro starts crying when Ken is finally rescued from being tortured by Shido.
• Maternity Crisis: During the operation in Sae's Palace, Ken is captured by Shido's goons. When Shido sends a picture of him Bound and Gagged to Mitsuru, Minako is so distressed (since it was her idea to send Ken to Tokyo in the first place) that she goes into premature labor.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • In Persona 3, Shinjiro says to Ken specifically: "You have your whole life in front of you... don't waste it. Ken ends up saying this to Futaba when giving her the calling card.
  • Ren told Anne once while worrying about the Medjed threat that "If worse comes to worse… I'll go to the police and turn myself in. Hopefully they'll be satisfied with the leader." in case asking Futaba for help doesn't work out. After Yaldabaoth is defeated, Ren does just that to ensure that Shido stays in jail and protect his friends.
• Missing Mom:
  • Ken's mom died on October 4th, 2007.
  • As in canon, everyone's mothers are dead, save for Ren, Ann, and Ryuji's.
• Momma's Boy: Kaito adores Yukari. He's distrustful of the Phantom Thieves until it's shown that Futaba is a big fan. Miyuki is also quite fond of her mother as well.
• Muscle Angst: Ren is a little peeved when he gets a whole lot of protein shakes in Mitsuru's care package (likely because Akihiko swears by them and Minako thought it would be funny), and complains that he's already in shape for the next few scenes.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: A female example. During the interrogation segment, when Sae finds out from Ren that Makoto is dating Ken, she nearly flips out and starts to aggressively demand information about Makoto's relationship with Ken. Ren has to remind Sae that she's supposed to be interrogating him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The brief description of Krishna, one of Akechi’s new Personas, in chapter 48 brings to mind his One-Winged Angel form from Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.
  • When Akechi goes into hiding after Christmas Eve, he adopts the alias Soichiro Hoshi, the same name as his Japanese voice actor.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • The Persona 3 protagonists are Minato and Minako Arisato (though Minako is now Minako Sanada from being married to Akihiko), the Persona 4 protagonist is Yu Narukami, and the Persona 5 protagonist is Ren Amamiya.
  • Ken's mother was never named in the game but Ken's rank 8 reveals that her name is Hikari.
  • Akechi's mother's name is Tsukiko.
  • Makoto's parents are named in Chapter 38, Hideo and Masami Niijima.
  • The newspaper girl is named Kaori Sato.
  • Ren's parents are named Junto and Yuri Amamiya.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Ken is the Noble Male to Ren's Roguish Male. While both have their respective love interest in Makoto and Ann respectively, Ken is chivalrous, driven by justice while Ren is a Lovable Rogue, devilish and mischievous.
• No-Sell: During their confrontation, Akechi shoots a Curse spell at Ken, knowing his weakness, but Ken had recently resumed wearing the Null Dark-providing Ring of Darkness.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Rise points out to the Phantom Thieves that the Investigation Team didn't exactly straddle the line of the law.
  • Ken wonders if he and Akechi are more alike than he wants to admit, after Akechi reveals that they are cousins. Makoto and the other Thieves are quick to refute that idea.
  • There's a lot of these remarks shouted back and forth in Chapter 48, during the Phantom Thieves' big confrontation with Akechi.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Ken and Makoto had a lot of questions back in Hawaii when they found Ren and Ann having an intimate moment alone in Ren's assigned room, early in the morning. Note that Ren and Ann were supposed to be sleeping in separate rooms, and Ken and Makoto went to check on the other students as early as possible.
  • Deconstructed Trope with Ren and his parents. When Ren tried to explain what really happened and that he is innocent, his parents poor reaction to the news of the false accusation, on top of how Ren used to frequently sneak out till past curfew and his penchant to stick his nose into things made his parents initially assume Ren to be guilty of the crime he was framed with. Unfortunately, by the time they regretted assuming so of their son, the damage has been done.
• Official Couple: A bunch of them.
  • For the SEES group, we got Minato and Yukari, Minako and Akihiko, Junpei and Chidori, & Shinjiro and Fuuka.
  • For the Investigation Team, we got Yu and Rise, & Kanji and Naoto.
  • For the Phantom Thieves, we eventually get the official pairings of Ren and Ann, & Ken and Makoto.
• Older and Wiser:
  • The Shadow Operatives and Investigation Team in general, as it's been a few years since the Character Development from their games.
  • Ken especially, having taken on an older brother role to the Phantom Thieves.
• One-Steve Limit: When Akechi first joins the Phantom Thieves, he makes a long spiel about how his extra experience should make his Thief codename "Ace". The others have to awkwardly point to Ken and say that "Ace" has been taken for a while.
• Open-Minded Parent: According to Ken, Yukari's mother was supportive of her daughter giving birth to Minato's illegitimate children. This is especially so after everyone in S.E.E.S., including Minako, had insisted that Yukari have an abortion out of fear of the potential stigma that she and her children would face.
• Opposites Attract: This was the case for Shinjiro and Fuuka. The same can be said for Kanji and Naoto.
• Original Character:
  • Kaito and Miyuki are the children of Minato and Yukari who were conceived prior to the final battle against Nyx (which led to Minato's death).
  • New Personas of the Adjustment Arcana (counterpart to Justice, held by Ken Amada) are used throughout the story, and include Amnit, Astraea, Sherlock Holmes, Joan of Arc, Janus and Ma'at.
• Out-of-Character Alert: At the end of the chapter where Ken and the Phantom Thieves take a trip to Yasoinaba, Yu Narukami thinks that something's off with Igor, due to the proprietor of the Velvet Room giving Ren strange abilities like the Third Eye and noting that Marie disappeared while looking into what was going on with the Velvet Room. Of course, anyone who's played and finished the main story of Persona 5 will know that he's onto something.
• Papa Wolf:
  • It's no surprise that Shinjiro is protective of Ken, both before and after Ken was adopted by him.
  • Sojiro is also this to both Futaba and Ren.
• Parental Issues: The Phantom Thieves have hordes of this.
• Parting-Words Regret:
  • Tsukiko, Akechi's mother, tells her sister Hikari, Ken's mother, that she hates her for supposedly not doing anything when their parents disowned her for her pregnancy. After leaving, she clearly regrets her words, but feels that it's too late to make amends. She never gets a chance to try as Hikari would later lose her life in an accident.
  • According to Junto Amamiya, Ren's father, his relationship with his family soured when he married his wife Yuri, who was a former idol, and he didn't speak to them for 25 years. However, after Junto's father died last summer, his sister Sora reached out to him, not wanting to lose any time with the family she still had. This is what inspired the Amamiyas to try and reconcile with their son even after the year of separation.
• Patchwork Fic: This fic not only incorporates elements of the games, but introduces ideas from the anime, the Persona 3 stage plays and the New Moon/Full Moon Drama CDs.
• Pet the Dog: A minor one, but Ken recalled that Tanaka was among those who attended Minato's funeral.
• Poor Communication Kills: Ren with his parents. Ren had long been under the belief that his parents had abandoned him in light of the false accusation against him, but as the story continues, it's revealed that his parents reacting poorly to Ren's arrest due to the stress and shock of the news without listening to Ren's side of the story right ahead made Ren believe that his parents weren't going to listen and had been convinced that he had truly become a delinquent. When his parents tried to apologize and talk to him, they saw Ren shutting them out in his anger and disappointment at them and chose to give him space. Unfortunately, Sojiro telling Ren that his parents got rid of him for being a "pain in the ass" early in the year, a birthday package getting damaged near the months of Ren's birthday, and how his parents had no contact with Ren until the latter half of the year, only served to convince Ren that they had completely abandoned him. It took until Ren's release from Juvie in February for Ren and his parents to finally try and reconnect.
• Protective Charm: The Ring of Darkness, as it shields Ken from darkness spells, his weakness. Also a bit of a Tragic Keepsake, as it was Minato who gave Ken the ring.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Shinjiro initially balks when Haru offers to pay him for catering Ann's birthday party (¥15,000 at that), but acquiesces with a grumble when Haru breaks out the teary eyes.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Two for Ken involving his Jerkass uncle: In Chapter 34, the two get into an argument over Ken's guardianship with his uncle making disparaging comments towards Shinjiro and Ren when the latter tries to defend Ken. But when his uncle brings up Ken's mother, Ken snaps at him. In Chapter 36, his uncle drops by at Ken's apartment and argues with Shinjiro and proceeds to insult him. This is the last straw for Ken, who proceeds to tell his uncle to stay out of his life for good or he would consider getting a restraining order, before kicking him out.
  • After the fallout of Sae's palace, Sae and Shinjiro once again get into another argument, this time about Makoto and Ken dating. Ren, already stressed from the drugs and the brutal interrogation he had gone through, snaps and angrily calls them both out for acting so petty.
  • Ken hits this when Akechi said that Shinjiro deserved to rot in jail for what he did and ends up punching Akechi for it. Chapter 48 is certainly the chapter where Ken is at his angriest.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Shinjiro. He does have his overprotective moments with Ken, but he also trusts Ken more than Sojiro trusts Ren. He also points out that both Mitsuru and Ken have good points in the aftermath of Okumura's death.
  • Mitsuru is also this, exhibited especially in the aftermath of the destruction of Kaneshiro's Palace. Ken worries that Mitsuru will be angry with him for accidentally revealing himself, but she's more concerned for Ken's well-being.
  • During his last Adjustment Confidant rank-up scene, Ren admits to Ken that if not for him introducing him to people like Naoto, Akihiko and Mitsuru, he might've forgotten that there are still good people in authority out there, doing all they can to help.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Ken gives one to Akechi in Chapter 44, upon discovering that all of Akechi's actions were driven by revenge, and Akechi having the audacity to offer him the chance to work together. Not only that, but Ken takes the opportunity to hit Akechi where it hurts most: his Inferiority Superiority Complex towards Ren. It overlaps with Shut Up, Hannibal!.
    Ken: You know what I see? A petty and jealous ''child'' who's completely blinded to what's important. And you know what? I think even now, Ren's beat you. You obviously can't let go of your anger towards him. (Akechi tries to interject) No! You've been helping Shido this whole time! All the blood is on your hands! Does it ever bother you? That you caused countless deaths?! You keep going on and on about revenge, because of your mom. But have you considered that you might've orphaned others for your quest of revenge?! You gave Shido the tools to threaten Mitsuru-san! On top of that, you killed Ren!
  • And then in Chapter 48, Ken and the Thieves proceed to rip apart every aspect of Akechi's motivation during their final fight, from his hypocritical motivation of doing it for his mother while tearing apart so many other families in the process, to his rage at the world for not sympathising with him, from his insistence that he and Ken are alike and Ken is terrible for abandoning him, to the fact that he has nothing but hate and revenge to motivate him, thus leaving him empty if he ever does accomplish his goal.
• Recursive Fanfiction:
  • Ace in The Hole: Borrowed Time, a fan-created Royal-centric one-shot centering on Ken facing the illusory world that Maruki created that had been approved by the author herself.
  • Journey and Answer of the Twin Fools, a fan-created prequel covering the events of Persona 3, written with the approval of the author.
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • Ren and Ann receive one in Chapter 13, confessing to each other right before delivering the calling card to Futaba.
  • Ken and Makoto get one in Chapter 31.
  • Shinjiro and Fuuka go from dating to engaged in Chapter 42.
• The Resenter: Akechi. He begrudgingly acknowledges Ren's abilities, but is also deeply jealous of him.
• Revenge: As in canon, this is Akechi's entire motivation behind causing the mental shutdowns and acting as Shido's hitman and personal assassin.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: In Chapter 43, Mitsuru hears about Ren's injuries at the hands of Shido's goons and frets about a way to fix it, and Shinjiro snarks that she should buy him a ton of medicine. Mitsuru takes it as a great idea despite Ken saying it was a joke, and two chapters later, a ton of medicine does indeed arrive for Ren.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Downplayed, since they still have to be stealthy about it, but this happens when Ken gets kidnapped by Shido. Shinjiro, Akihiko, Makoto, Ryuji, Futaba and Morgana infiltrate Shido's headquarters to rescue Ken, taking out every single one of Shido's goons who got in their way with extreme prejudice.
• Running Gag: When one of the Phantom Thieves doesn't want to admit something, they usually will say "I plead the fifth". This usually leads to either Ken or Makoto irritably reminding them that's an American law, not a Japanese one.
• Save the Villain: Akechi's engine-room fight with the Phantom Thieves ends with him fleeing, broken and defeated. The only place he can think to go is to Sae, and despite Sae knowing everything that Akechi had planned for her, still takes him in and gives him a place to recover.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Ren and Ann have this dynamic (as do Yu and Rise).
• Sealed Good in a Can: Yaldabaoth does this to Igor, as in canon, but this fic also shows that he also captured Theodore, Margaret and Marie as well.
• Secret Relationship:
  • Yu and Rise are mentioned to have been in one for years, due to Rise's job as an idol. However, since Rise has moved on from being an idol, she and Yu have announced their relationship and now are dating publicly.
  • Ken and Makoto attempt this. It lasts a week.
• Scars Are Forever: It was revealed during the Phantom Thieves beach outing that Ken had many scars from his time at the Dark Hour when he was still a kid. Though, most of those scars have already faded.
• School Festival: The focus of Chapter 31, which leads to Akechi joining the team.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Ren, Futaba, Ryuji, Minako, and Junpei are all rooting for Ken and Makoto to become a thing.
  • Ken also quickly noticed Ren's feelings for Ann and encouraged Ren to go for it. Ryuji also supports them. It's implied that Shiho ships Ren/Ann as well. And the Phantom Thieves are on board once they get together.
  • He could also be considered this for Shinjiro/Fuuka, since he gives Shinjiro his mother's old engagement ring so that Shinjiro can propose to Fuuka.
  • Amusingly so, the three seniors find out that Sae actually ships Akechi/Makoto through encountering Sae's cognition of Akechi, who is rather flirtatious towards Makoto. Both Ken and Makoto are completely unimpressed. When Makoto reveals that she knows this to Sae, the latter is horribly embarrassed.
• Ship Sinking:
  • While the player can romance Makoto in Persona 5, in this story, Ren and Makoto mention that they felt horribly awkward during the fake dating. Makoto specifically mentions that she cannot see Ren in a romantic light.
  • Ren also talks about how Ann had enraptured him from the day they had met, so any other girl who ends up liking Ren would have an unrequited crush.
  • In Chapter 32, it's revealed that Sae would like Akechi and Makoto to get together, based off of her cognition of him. However, Makoto is scornful of the idea, as is Ken, who promptly knocks Sae's cognitive version of Akechi out cold with a single punch to the face.
• Ship Tease:
  • Yusuke and Haru are ship teased a bit in this fic, due to them having their father figure being a Palace ruler. Yusuke does his best to try and help her throughout Okumura's arc. Haru is also the catalyst to Yusuke awakening his ultimate Persona.
  • It is also implied that Sojiro had feelings for Wakaba Isshiki. It is not, however, clear if Wakaba recipricated those feelings, although the two of them have been specifically stated to have gone out for casual drinks.
  • Teddie makes jokes about Yosuke and Chie scoring with each other, and during Mementos's emergence into Inaba, Yosuke finally asks her out for Christmas.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ken's Phantom Thief outfit is clearly one to Sailor Moon.
  • A two-for-one in one particular scene where the Phantom Thieves are playing video games together. Ren mentions that he would love to jump right into Super Bash Bros very much like he, as Joker, did by being the very first DLC character revealed for Ultimate. Futaba is Leaning on the Fourth Wall right next to Ren by commenting that no one would ever see it coming, much like how no one saw the reveal of Joker as the first DLC character announced for Ultimate coming, some people initially believing the reveal trailer was an announcement for a Switch port for Persona 5.
  • Ace Attorney and Fire Emblem are both mentioned as games here.
  • Ann is shown to be a fan of "Bubbly Hills", which is most likely a parody to the Beverly Hills show.
  • Ren also wants to teach Makoto how to play Mario Kart.
  • It is suggested Kaito and Miyuki are fans of Pokémon since they would like to visit the Pokemon Center store.
  • In Chapter 10, immediately the first encounter with Futaba's Shadow, just as the boulder barrels down on them Morgana is shouting "Bad day, bad day, bad day!"
  • In Chapter 34, Ken "gestures to all of (Ren)."
  • Futaba mentions in Chapter 48 that Ren's power is his friends, quoting Kingdom Hearts.
  • In Chapter 52, when Minako sees Ken's Phantom Thief outfit, she proceeds to quip if he's supposed to be Tuxedo Visor, and Makoto his Sailor Eclipse.
• Single Mom Stripper: Chapter 37 reveals that Akechi's mother, Tsukiko, turned to prostitution in order to support herself and Akechi.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The two main ships. Ann and Makoto fall for their love interests due to their kindness. Makoto notes this during her Love Epiphany.
  • This also was the case with Tsukiko, Akechi's mother, but it didn't... turn out well.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Shinjiro is definitely blunt when he is talking. Even the twins Kaito and Miyuki picked up his swearing. Ryuji still has a pretty bad pottymouth, but less than Shinjiro.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Shinjiro and Sae have shades of this. They don't hesitate to trade barbs with each other and generally have a rather antagonistic relationship with each other. Shinjiro doesn't hold back any punches.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Yukari became pregnant some time before the Fall, giving birth to her and Minato's twin children. Yukari herself admits that, as the twins look so much like Minato, with Miyuki having her father's eyes, that it sometimes hurt her to look at them.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Some of the Persona 3 cast were rescued by the fanfiction.
  • Because this fanfiction had both Minato and Minako become part of the story as siblings, Minako was able to live past the Dark Hour arc and ultimately marry and have children with Akihiko Sanada after her brother Minato sacrificed himself to prevent Death from destroying the world.
  • Shinjiro was rescued as well thanks to Minako's involvement in the story.
  • Even Chidori survived in this fanfiction too.
  • Goro Akechi's final confrontation with the Phantom Thieves ends with him pulling a Villain: Exit, Stage Left, after being broken down both physically, mentally and emotionally. He survives to the end of the fic, and eventually thanks to some cajoling from Sae, turns himself in to let Ren off the hook.
• Statuesque Stunner: Sae is mentioned to be six feet tall in her heels.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • As in canon, Akechi resembles his mother. Ken is also mentioned to look very much like his mother. This turns out to be important, as it is revealed late in the story that their mothers were twin sisters.
  • Kaito and Miyuki also have some resemblance in hair color to their father, Minato. Miyuki also happened to have inherited her father's eyes, while Kaito inherited Yukari's.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The resources the Kirijo group and the Shadow Operatives could bring to bear would be able to solve a lot of problems in Tokyo - if not for the fact that Shido had already manipulated the government against them. Two years before the story's start, he had already convinced them to dismantle the Shadow Operatives' operations in Tokyo and is holding Blackmail as well as the threat of confiscating Aigis and Labrys to the government's mercies above Mitsuru's head. As such, when a Shadow nest is detected in Tokyo, the best idea that can be had is to send the school-age (and off-the-books member) Ken to investigate.
• Supreme Chef: Shinjiro, obviously. He also taught Ken how to cook. Ken's mentioned to be a good cook, but not at Shinjiro's level.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: So much that it is even lampshaded in the story. Some of it even plays an important role in the story.
  • Ren shares similarities with the other Wild Cards, Minato and Minako Arisato and Yu Narukami, being gifted leaders with a Troll sense of humor. This led Ren to develop an inferiority complex when he keeps constantly comparing himself with the other Wild Card users, especially with Minato (since he was willing to go as far as to sacrifice his life for his friends). It gets worse when he and the other Phantom Thieves fall for Shido's trap with Mr. Okumura's death and being tracked down by the police. Fortunately, Ann, Morgana and Yu, his immediate predecessor as both a guest of the Velvet Room and as a Wild Card, are able to help Ren recover from this and at least help him overcome his issues.
  • Ann and Ryuji's relationship reminds Ken about the relationship between Yukari and Junpei, down to how both groups love to argue with each other. Regarding Ann and Yukari specifically, Yukari gives Ann a shoulder to cry on after Ren turns himself in to the police, as she has personal experience with a loved one pulling a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Futaba shares similarities with Fuuka as both of them are Persona users who specialize as navigators and both of them know a lot about computers. This allows them to get along with each other very well. This is also why Fuuka and Rise are good friends, with Fuuka wanting Rise to be her maid of honor at her and Shinjiro's wedding.
  • Makoto is similar to Mitsuru as they are both Student Council Presidents who take their duties seriously, yet suffer from pressure from it. In addition, both of them had forced themselves to turn a blind eye from bad situations after being pressured by more powerful individuals, which led them to blame themselves when that situation gets worse because they didn't do anything about it. This similarity allows Makoto to be able to convince Mitsuru to not force Ken to go back to Tatsumi Port Island and not to run away from the escalating situation with Shido, as they both understand that it would only make the situation worse. Additionally, Makoto is stated to have felt some sort of "draw" towards Fuuka, most likely because their Tarot Motifs are both that of the High Priestess arcana.
  • Haru is an heiress to a large company that suffers from the sins of its previous leader, just like Mitsuru. In addition, both of them know what it is like to lose their father, whom they deeply love, and began withdrawing themselves from others as a result of that pain of losing their fathers. This relation allows Mitsuru to be able to talk Haru into escaping from her depression and open herself up again to her friends. Also, they both happen to be the Empress Social Link/Confidant for the Wild Cards of their respective generations, so that probably helped too.
  • While their personalities are two very different degrees of rough around the edges, both Shinjiro and Sojiro have the Hierophant Arcana as their Tarot Motif, both of them are Papa Wolves for their respective charges, and both of them are Supreme Chefs to some degree or another.
• Squee: Futaba is over-ecstatic when she meets Yukari, the actress who plays Pink Argus in "Neo Featherman: Victory".

T-Z

• Tagline: Both versions of the fanfic have a tagline of the definition of ace in the hole: "A hidden advantage or resource kept in reserve until needed."
• Take Me Instead: Ken surrenders himself to Shido's men in exchange for Futaba's life. Unfortunately, that was Shido's plan all along.
• Taking the Bullet: Ken pushes Makoto out of the way of a Mudoon in Chapter 35.
• Tarot Motifs:
  • Ken represents the upright Justice arcana, which represents the truth, justice, fairness, and the law, and his Confidant arcana with Ren is Adjustment, Justice's counterpart in the Thoth deck. In contrast, Akechi is the reversed Justice, representing unfairness, lack of accountability, and dishonesty.
  • In a bit of a literal example, all three male Wild Cards (Minato Arisato, Yu Narukami, and Ren Amamiya) have fallen in love with and dated their Lovers Arcana Social Links/Confidants (Yukari Takeba, Rise Kujikawa, and Ann Takamaki respectively).
• Tempting Fate: When Ken suggests to Ren that he has the potential to become a politician, Ren jokingly retorts that Akechi would become a Phantom Thief.
• Theme Twin Naming: Hikari and Tsukiko Himura, the mothers of Ken and Akechi respectively. Hikari means "light", which is associated with the sun. Tsukiko means "moon child".
  • Minato and Minako are also this.
  • Kaito and Miyuki avert this, however.
• There Is Another: The news that there are other Persona-users out there takes the Phantom Thieves, or at the very least, Ryuji, by surprise.
  • Later on, the news that there are other Wild Cards out there is something that takes at least Ren and Morgana by surprise, and also causes Ren to start developing an inferiority complex.
• There Is Only One Bed: Played with. Ken and Makoto end up sharing a room during the Hawaii school trip but it's furnished with two beds. But after Makoto has a nightmare, she asks Ken to stay with and sleep in the same bed as her.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Fuuka asks Shinjiro if he'd want to accompany the Phantom Thieves to finally deal with Shido. Shinjiro says that it would be nice, but considering how personal the Thieves' beef with Shido is, he decides to let them take care of it. Also, with how much Shido claims to want to improve Japan "for the children", it seems poetic for him to be taken down by so-called children.
• Took a Level in Badass: Ken mentions that more of the Shadow Operatives are capable of summoning their Personas in the real world, without using an Evoker.
  • Ken's Persona eventually evolves to its third level - Tyr.
  • Akechi eventually learns how to negotiate (read: threaten) Shadows and gain them as more Personas, just like Joker. By the time of his fight, he's recruited Sekhmet, Krishna, Fenrir, Tobi Katou and Sherlock Holmes.
• Too Much Information: Ren, still heavily doped up on truth serum, begins divulging intimate details of his relationship with Anne to Sae, much to the chagrin of her and the Phantom Thieves overhearing the interrogation.
• Twice Shy:
  • This happens when Ken and Makoto realize that their feelings for the other have turned romantic. Makoto realized that she had feelings for Ken early in the Okumura arc, but Ken was incredibly oblivious to both his own and her feelings. This leads to a few clumsy attempts of flirting on Makoto's part. Even after Ken realized his feelings, it took him a few chapters before he finally managed to spit it out.
  • Shinjiro implies that this also occurred with him and Fuuka. Apparently Minako and Yukari had to give Fuuka the final push to go for it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sojiro's off-handed remark that Ren's parents deemed him a "pain in the ass" at the start of the game, turns out to be not the case when he confronts his parents over it. Upon learning the truth, Ren deduced that Sojiro only said it to keep him in line during his stay in Tokyo. At the time, however, this only reinforced Ren's perception of his parents having disowned him.
• Villainous Breakdown: Oh, boy, does Akechi suffer one at the end of Chapter 48; getting rejected by Ken, getting deconstructed by Ren, and getting his ass kicked by the Thieves even after he'd managed to conscript other Personas, it's all he can do to use the last of his strength and flee in tears.
• Was It All a Lie?: Ren asks this of Ken after the Internal Reveal of Ken's past with Personas, SEES, the Kirijo group, and the Shadow Operatives, about whether he joined the Phantom Thieves just to infiltrate their ranks. Ken vehemently replies that no, while he may have joined their ranks due to the plan with Mitsuru, he also fully believes in the Thieves' mission.
• We Can Rule Together: When Akechi finds out that he and Ken are cousins through their mothers, that Ken's mother was killed by Shinjiro and that he is living with his mother's murderer, he immediately asks that Ken join his quest for vengeance to destroy the men that killed their mothers, as he believes that Ken is staying with Shinjiro just to prepare to take him down, just like how Akechi is allying himself with Shido. Ken and Koromaru have none of that and throw his offer back in his face.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 37. It turns out that both Ken and Akechi are biological cousins, their mothers being twin sisters.
  • Chapter 38. Ken gets captured by Shido's men after the Casino Heist, who intend to use him as a hostage against Mitsuru.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The Phantom Thieves were really shocked when they found out that Ken allowed himself to be adopted and raised by his mother's murderer, even if it was an Accidental Murder. Some of them were even horrified or disgusted by it before they finally calmed down.
  • Ken also gets this reaction when Mitsuru demands that Ken go back to Port Island in a misguided attempt to protect him.
  • Ren also has this reaction towards the end of his interrogation, pointing out how a great many members of the police force joined for selfish reasons, such as the right to legally carry a gun, similar to Adachi from Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden. He later has this reaction when Shinjiro and Sae get into a petty squabble over Ken and Makoto's romantic relationship, while stressed nearly to the breaking point from both the truth serum and the vicious Police Brutality he had been subjected to prior to Sae's interrogation.
• Will They or Won't They?: Ken and Makoto. They finally do, at the beginning of the Sae arc.
• Would Hurt a Child: Shido's goons have no qualms shooting Futaba and using her as a hostage, nor did they have any issue torturing both Ken and Ren, injecting them with lethal amounts of drugs. The beatdown that the flunkies who shot Futaba and kidnapped Ken recieved at the hands of Akihiko and Shinjiro was very sweetly deserved.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is Ken's reaction when they encounter a Mementos target whose Shadow form turns out to be Mara.
• You Must Be Cold: Ken lends Makoto his school blazer at one point. Makoto already had realized her feelings for Ken by then, so the gesture flusters her.

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Tropes pertaining the "Persona Q2: Ace Edition" spin-off:

A-Z

• Adaptation Name Change: Minako's Persona is called Eurydice instead of Orpheus.
• Alternate Self: Not only does Ken come face to face with his 11 year old self, but he's from a universe where only Minato survived the accident that killed the twins' parents in the "PT!Ken AU" timeline.
• Alternate Universe: The version of SEES that appear in this story are not the younger counterparts of the "PT!Ken AU" versions of the characters, but are actually from universes where only one of the Arisato twins survived the accident on the Moonlight Bridge - Minako is obviously from the version of the timeline where only she survived, whilst Minato and the rest of SEES are from the one where she died.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whilst the Phantom Thieves and SEES are from three different timelines, it's left unclear if the Investigation Team are from any of those universes or another entirely.
• Anger Born of Worry: Ken pushes Makoto to the the movie screen to get her to safety getting captured in the process. When the gang finally free him Makoto decks him for risking his life, then proceeds to kiss him senseless at reuniting with him.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Akechi is very skeptical about jumping in and out of the movie screen. However, since the Phantom Thieves actually visited the TV world when they visited Inaba, this comes as no surprise to them.
• Ascended Extra: Miyuki and Kaito are introduced in just a few scenes in the main fic. Here, they've been present since the second chapter, and even become Guest Star Party Members from Chapter 6 onwards.
• Ascended Meme: In Chapter Eight, Miyuki calls Akechi a "pancake butt" because "pancakes are flat, and he's flat-minded" See also, Akechi's infamous quote that ended up exposing Akechi as the Black Mask in Persona 5
• Badass Adorable: If Chapter 5 is anything to go by, Kaito and Miyuki Arisato seem to be well on their way to this, having knocked Kamoshidaman flat on his ass with their combined power, indicating that the potential to access the power of Persona runs in the family, and can be passed down through a Heroic Linage.
• Badass in Distress: As in canon, Haru is kidnapped by Kamoshidaman; however, instead of Makoto being taken, Ken is kidnapped instead.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Not in the physical sense, but Kaito and Miyuki are a... handful.
• Big "WHAT?!": Minako has this reaction when Kaito lets slip that one of the captured Phantom Thieves, Ace, is, in fact, a future version of Ken Amada.
• The Bus Came Back: Given the time-traveling-multiverse-esque nature of the movie theatre setting that Persona Q2: The Ace Edition is set in, it should really come as no surprise that the man, the myth, the legend, and The Ace of the Wild Cards, Minato Arisato returns, thus allowing Kaito and Miyuki to finally get to meet their Disappeared Dad for the first and indeed the last time, Minako to finally get to see her long-dead twin brother alive, well, and all grown up, as well as giving the Phantom Thieves the chance to meet him face to face, as well as Phantom Thief! Ken Amada, who knows full well that he's been given something that his senpai, Yukari in particular, would kill for the chance to get.
• Brick Joke:
  • In the first fanfiction, Ken's Phantom Thief attire reminded Ryuji and Ann of Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, much to Ken's embarrassment. Unfortunately, this topic got brought up again in the spin-off fanfiction, when Kaito and Miyuki proceed to point it out too.
  • In the first fanfiction, Ken once told Ren on how Minato claimed he could drink coffee mixed with hot sauce. Ren was horrified by the idea of coffee being tainted by hot sauce. In the spin-off, Ken punished Ren for bringing the twins Kaito and Miyuki to danger twice by warning Ren about possibly finding hot sauce in his coffee in the near future, much to Ren's horror.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Not long after attaining some form of Persona-esque power and helping the Phantom Thieves defeat Kamoshidaman, Kaito and Miyuki pass out from a combination of how draining being in a Shadow Nest is and a sugar crash.
• Butt-Monkey: Morgana is frequently scolded for his attitude by the twins.
• Calling Card: As in Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves deliver one to Kamoshidaman. However, the twins hand it over to Kamoshidaman, disguising it as fanmail.
• Cheerful Child: Kaito and Miyuki are both rather cheerful even with the situation they're in. They get along swimmingly with the Phantom Thieves, even though sometimes the Phantom Thieves aren't quite sure how to deal with them.
• Children Are Innocent: Kaito and Miyuki are shown to have little knowledge on what an 'execution' is, other than the fact that Akihiko is terrified of being executed by Mitsuru.
  • Kaito also naively asks Makoto if she and Ken have been doing "mommy and daddy things", much to her mortification.
  • The twins are also rather confused when Minako, Futaba, and Ren joke about Ken being a ladykiller.
  • The twins also show some confusion to Junpei mentioning that Ken and Makoto's relationship is nothing short of a miracle, as Ken has "never looked twice at another girl," with Kaito mentioning that Ken has looked at the female members of S.E.E.S./the Shadow Operatives plenty of times before.
• Death by Adaptation: Because of the Alternate Universe scenario, we got a universe where Minato died while both him and Minako were still kids during the Shadow incident.
• Defiant Captive: Haru and Ken during the Kamoshidaman arc.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did the Arisato twins just use Jack Brothers to knock down Kamoshidaman after he went One-Winged Rabbit?
• Discretion Shot: Kamoshidaman's 'death' was shown as his simply disappearing into nothingness. It is basically the censorship version of a villain's death in a kid's show.
• Dramatic Irony: There's loads here, with the presence of Minako.
  • One instance has Kaito and Miyuki asking Makoto if she and Ken have been up to some naughty things. The embarrassed Makoto denies this, and Miyuki comments that it's too bad because they wanted another baby to play with. Minako is left wondering if Junpei already has a child, unbeknownst to her that the Minako in that timeline is pregnant.
  • Ken tries to reassure Minako that SEES is fine, and starts to say that they have Minato. But Minako cuts him off, mentioning Mitsuru instead, deeply confusing Ken.
  • In a less dramatic example, the Arisato twins mention a Bland-Name Product version of Meet The Robinsons, a movie where a kid travels back in time to meet his father as an adolescent. While time travel isn't exactly involved per se, the Arisato twins themselves will ultimately meet their long-dead and buried father as a teenager, something that they themselves had wished for the chance to have before ending up in Kamo City.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Kaito casually asks Ryuji why he won't drop f-bombs, which causes the Phantom Thieves to freak out. Especially when Yusuke chides Miyuki not to, as it's not ladylike. This prompts Kaito to ask if it's okay for him to do it as he's not a girl.
• Future Me Scares Me: invokedWord of God has confirmed that Young Ken Amada from Persona 3, when he makes his appearance, will be deeply unsettled by his future self bickering and bantering with the Phantom Thieves so freely and openly, due to currently withholding the truth about his mother's death from S.E.E.S. as well as keeping his current team at arm's length.
• He's All Grown Up: Minako gets this reaction when she gets a good look at Ken.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: Naoto discusses with Yu the possibility that since the Phantom Thieves come from the future, they could tell the Investigation Team of the identity of the Inaba Killer. Yu refuses, saying that they made a promise to find the Killer themselves with their own effort.
• Humiliation Conga: Akechi falls victim to this at the hands of none other than Kaito and Miyuki Arisato. The crowning example is when the twins get into an argument about Akechi's mask resembling either a woodpecker or a tengu more than a crow. The Phantom Thieves, knowing full well that Akechi is the Sixth Ranger Traitor of their group, find themselves struggling to contain their laughter, while Akechi helplessly flounders, at a loss for words against the bluntness of the twins.
• It's All My Fault: Makoto blames herself for Ken's capture by Kamoshidaman because the latter protected her from being attacked by an FOE.
• It's Personal: After Kaito Arisato lets slip that Ace is actually a future version of Ken Amada, Minako's motivation to help rescue the captured Phantom Thieves quickly switches to this.
• It Runs in the Family: Chapter 5 reveals that Kaito and Miyuki have some kind of Persona. Unlike normal Persona users, however, they don't have a specific Persona. Instead, they have the ability to use Fusion Spells.
• Killer Rabbit: What Kamoshidaman becomes when he goes One-Winged Angel. Complete with carrot bazookas.
• Large Ham: This is Ren all over during the second battle with Kamoshidaman. Ken even silently snarks that this is overdramatic, even for him.
  Kamoshidaman: So… you've come to be punished! No matter, I will accept this gift-
  Ren: Oh no, no. *smirks* You see, Kamoshidaman… we're here for one thing… We will accept nothing less. *points at Kamoshidaman* Your defeat! Your complete and utter defeat!
• Locked Out of the Loop: The Phantom Thieves deliberately only refer to Ken as "Ace" upon first meeting the younger Minako, not wanting to worry her by revealing Ken (Who she knows as an 11 year old) is in danger, and similarly, try to keep the identity of the twins' parents a secret.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Since this story is set in an Alternate Universe where an older version of Ken Amada is a member of the Phantom Thieves and has vastly matured from his Persona 3 counterpart, something that Minako Arisato lampshaded before her and Ken talked in Chapter 6, and not only made his peace with his past but is under the care of Shinjiro, the Phantom Thieves crossing paths with S.E.E.S. and by extension, the Persona 3 version of Ken, could easily be described as this.
• Morton's Fork: The Phantom Thieves initially refuse to take the twins with them into the movies, pointing out that Ken would be pissed at them for putting the kids in danger; they only relent when the twins outright state that they'll just go in on their own if they don't get to go with them, since at least if the kids are with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, they can at least try to keep the kids safe.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: While Joker and Yu's brief fight was played for Rule of Cool in the game, the story here shows why it's a bad idea to use a gun as a melee weapon in a sword fight. Joker is completely forced on the defensive and is quickly disarmed by Yu, and would have lost had Ken not jumped in.
• Not in Front of the Kid: Ann berates Ryuji for swearing in the presence of Kaito and Miyuki.
• Not What It Looks Like: Ken's narration implies that Ann and Ren were in a suggestive position when they got dragged into the labyrinth.
• Oh, Crap!: Minako has a small one upon realizing who the mother of the twins is.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Part of the reason why the Arisato twins' animosity towards Akechi was because in Chapter 17 of Ace In The Hole he had inadvertently planted the idea in their head that they, as bastard children, were unwanted. The twins had never forgiven him since.
• Other Me Annoys Me: According to Word of God, this effectively sums up Phantom Thief!Ken's feelings towards his younger self from Persona 3, comparing it to his baby pictures coming to life. It is also something that Ren and Futaba will take full advantage of in order to tease Ken.
• Papa Wolf: Ken gets this reaction when one of Kamoshidaman's men grabs the twins. He gets angry enough to be able to summon Kala-Nemi without pulling off his mask.
• Shipper on Deck: The twins quickly latch onto Makoto and label her as their aunt. They also expect Ken and Makoto to get married, much to Makoto's embarrassment.
• Shout-Out: Several, courtesy of the Arisato twins.
  • Once again, someone, in this case, Kaito and Miyuki Arisato, feels the need to point out that Ken's Ace outfit resembles Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon.
  • Apparently the Arisato twins, or at least Kaito, are fans of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, as after Kamoshidaman is defeated, Kaito believes that the so-called "hero" was sent to the Shadow Realm.
  • The Arisato twins also reference Jurassic Park when they compared it with the second movie labyrinth, Junessic Park.
  • The Arisato twins even reference Fire Emblem: Three Houses. When the Phantom Thieves and Minako discuss why Ken still has Kala-Nemi instead of Nemesis, the twins point out how the name Nemesis reminded them of a certain Big Bad from the game.
  • When Ryuji said "Get your head in the game, or else you'll get left behind!", Miyuki claimed that that's not how the song goes. It is likely that she is referring to the song "Get Your Head in the Game" from High School Musical.
  • When Ren introduces himself to the Investigation Team in a way similar to James Bond. This was lampshaded by Ann.
    Ren: Uh... the name's Ren. Ren Amamiya.
    Ann: Going all James Bind on us, huh?
    Ren: Then maybe we shouldn't have marathoned a couple of his movies last date night then. It was your idea.
• Sibling Rivalry: Kaito and Miyuki seem to have this to a certain degree. Regardless, the twins clearly remain joined at the hip. Although it's probably to be expected of twin siblings.
  Ryuji: Uh, since I'm not on the main team right now… Who wants a piggyback ride?
  Kaito: ME! ME!
  Miyuki: Ladies first, Kaito!
  Kaito: What lady?
  Miyuki: Why you…!
• Spotting the Thread: The Phantom Thieves initially decide not to tell Minako that Kaito and Miyuki are her brother’s children with Yukari, but she eventually realises who their mother is after learning that the teenaged Ken is their Honorary Uncle and their mother is an archer who likes the color pink.
• Stepford Smiler: Minako is already showing shades of this. This is lampshaded by Kaito.
  Kaito: You try and talk to everyone, but you look sad sometimes. You smile at everyone but it's like... you're crying on the inside.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ken was understandably furious that Ren brought Kaito and Miyuki to a fight against Kamoshidaman twice.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Despite Children Are Innocent being in play, the twins were still perceptive enough to tell that Minako was a Stepford Smiler.

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