Fanfic / Cat Chat Series

Yu sees a high school boy carrying a cat in his school bag. Then the cat talks. - The Cat's out of the Bag Summary

The Cat Chat series is a Persona 4 and Persona 5 crossover story series written by mewrose, featuring Narukami Yu serving as a mentor figure for the Phantom Thieves.

The story has 10 installments:

• The Cat's Out of the Bag - The first installment featuring how Yu gets to know Amamiya Ren.
• Cat Got Your Tongue - How Narukami Yu meets the rest of the thieves.
• Cat o' Nine Tales - A series centering Ren's "Confidant" with Yu.
• Phantom Felines - A Chat fic featuring the miscellaneous chat between the thieves and Yu, spanning till future content.
• Curiosity Killed the Cat - A collection of side stories relating to the series.
• What the Cat Dragged In - A Persona Q2 Spin-off centered on the same universe with a group of Phantom Thieves familiar with an older Narukami Yu.
• The Councillor's Anomaly - Maruki Takuto reacts to Narukami Yu.
• Throw the Cat Among the Pigeons - After Royal ended, Ren takes a detour to Inaba before he heads back home.
• A Game of Cat and Mouse - An adaptation of Persona 5 Strikers in the setting.
• Cat's Cradle - A series of What If? and deleted scenes for the story.

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The Cat Chat series has the following tropes:

• Adaptational Deviation: In A Game of Cat and Mouse, the Thieves interacted with Zenkichi's shadow first instead of physically bringing the real Zenkichi to the Shibuya Jail.
• Badass Bystander: Yu serves as this for the thieves as he explains that him joining the team full time would hinder Ren's own growth and journey as a wild card. However, this stops being the case come "A Game of Cat and Mouse".
• Big Eater: After getting used to being in Tokyo, Ren is capable of eating a lot and can compete with Yu for the highest level of the Big Bang burger challenge. The rest of the thieves wonder if it's a wild card thing to be Big Eaters.
• Big Brother Mentor: Yu served as an older sibling figure and mentor to the thieves.
• Breather Episode: "Throw the Cat Among the Pigeons" is one for Ren as it involves Ren taking a short reprieve in Inaba before he heads back home with Morgana.
• Commonality Connection: One side-story in "Curiosity Killed the Cat" involves Sojiro and Dojima bonding over their ward's involvement with the supernatural. For added bonus, they both are the Hierophant arcana of their respective games.
• Continuity Nod: Mentions to Persona 4: Dancing All Night and the Persona 4: Arena duology can be found throughout the stories.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Referenced in "A Game of Cat and Mouse", due to Ren not knowing that the head of the Shadow Operatives is Mitsuru despite Ren himself being under Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory in regards to the events of Q2, Ren and the rest of the thieves spent much of their time not fully trusting the Shadow Operatives due to them technically being part of the government. When Ren later learned in the finale that Mitsuru was the head, Ren laments that it would have saved much of the miscommunication and mistrust he had of the organization had he known that Mitsuru was the head of the organization then.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Yu's story followed that of Golden while Ren follows Royal.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Councillor's Anomaly majorly focuses on Maruki's point of view regarding the events of the third semester and of his interactions with Yu.
• Doorstopper: While the stories are short when read as a standalone, the series accumulated a total of 340,000+ words as a whole.
• Experienced Protagonist: Downplayed Trope. While Yu is an experienced Persona user, he lacks full knowledge to how the Metaverse works. This is why Yu tried not to stand in the way of Ren's journey and is content to mentor the team instead.
  • "A Game of Cat and Mouse" averts this trope for Yu as he is just as lost as the Phantom Thieves regarding the Jails.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Invoked In-Universe example in "Cat o' Nine Tales" that describes what perks that Ren will get from his "confidant" with Yu.
• He Is All Grown Up: Ren's reaction once he realized that the Akechi look alike he met in Sendai is a grown up, older Ken in Phantom Felines.
  Cat Burglar: Wait
  Cat Burglar: YOU’RE the guy we talked to in Sendai???
  Ken: Yes.
  Cat Burglar: I didn’t even recognize you! You were like 10 the last time I saw you! You look so different when you’re our age!
  Yukari: Wait, how did that happen?
  Cat Burglar: I’ll tell you in the non-cat chat.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • One side story in "Curiosity Killed the Cat" has Yu fighting in the real world to protect civilians when Shadows started popping up out of nowhere, meeting Mishima, Iwai, and Sae along the way while the thieves are busy fighting Yaldabaoth.
  • While the thieves are out in the road trip during "A Game of Cat and Mouse", the Shadow Operatives are dealing with other Jails that are unexplored and not ventured into by the thieves.
• Honorary True Companion: Yu, as Jack, is this for the thieves as while he isn't a full-fledged thief, he's also the group's Big Brother Mentor and is considered such for the Phantom Thieves.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The story titles are cat-themed and named after cat-related phrases with the Maruki-centric story (The Councilor's Anomaly) being the lone exception.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Yu has a strong love for cats and this love of cats is what started his interaction with Ren, as Yu notices Morgana and approached him.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Invoked Trope. Akechi was kept out of the knowledge of Yu's presence, though Akechi was hinted about his friendship with the thieves when Ryuji slipped up, Akechi didn't know that he's an experienced Persona user until the third semester.
• Meaningful Name: Yu's code name among the thieves is Jack, from the Jack of All Trades.
• Named by Adaptation: All three protagonists from P3, P4 and P5 use the canonical names of Yuuki Makoto, Narukami Yu, and Amamiya Ren.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: The story has no hints of romance, with the major focus being the friendship between the Thieves and Yu.
• No-Sell: Due to Yu being the Wild Card whose journey involves seeking out truths behind the lies, Maruki's actualization doesn't work on Yu too well like it did with the thieves until they break out of the actualization.
• One-Steve Limit: There is Yuuki Makoto, the protagonist of Persona 3, and Niijima Makoto. This is a Downplayed Trope due to the different surnames, however.
  • Briefly discussed when Niijima introduces herself by her given name in Phantom Felines (which is framed as chat log between all three teams) and the Shadow Operatives talk about her sharing their former leader’s name.
• Point of Divergence: The point of change is Yu becoming the Phantom thieves Big Brother Mentor and how this affects several interactions and relationships.
• Police Are Useless: In "A Game of Cat and Mouse", this is what made the thieves hesitant to trust Zenkichi and also partially why they don't accept the help of the Shadow Operatives right away so Yu had to tell Mitsuru to find a way to discretely help them.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Ren and those that have resided in the Velvet Room are the only ones to remember the events of Persona Q2. When Ren later learns that Mitsuru is the current head of the Shadow Operatives, Ren points out that it would have saved a lot of grief and distrust if he had known earlier.
• Seen It All: Yu doesn't bat an eye at Morgana being able to talk outside the Metaverse because he's used to strange things. With the events of Persona 4: Dancing All Night being the weirdest experience that Yu ever had. Quoting:

  Yu: Well...that would be the time I had to teach Shadows the value of love and friendship by dancing for them.

  Morgana: What.

• Schrödinger's Cat: Discussed and invoked. Yu mentions this theory to Ren to assure him of taking a stand against Maruki and of the possibility that Akechi may be alive regardless of Maruki's doing. Akechi is also given this chat nickname after reality is restored while still leaving his ultimate fate fairly ambiguous.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the stories in "Curiosity Killed the Cat" has Yu mention that he often asked his uncle to surprise him to make his coffee, referencing the Hiimdaisy Persona 4 comics.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Zigzagged Trope regarding Akechi. While his fate is unknown in the main scenario, the "Cat's Cradle" What If? collection has one story where Akechi survives due to Yu Cutting the Knot early, while another story in "Cat's Cradle" has Akechi Killed Off for Real.
• Surpassed the Teacher: The pen-ultimate "Confidant" between Ren and Yu has Yu talk about how the "Jack" used to be the strongest card in the deck until the "Joker" took over it as Yu talks of how far Ren had come since their first meeting.
• Story-Breaker Power: Briefly discussed by Yu to explain why he can't join the Phantom Thieves full time. Yu tells the group that he'd hinder the Phantom Thieves own growth if he interfered. The Phantom Thieves gracefully accept but had him join as a Honorary True Companion instead.
• Tempting Fate: At one point in Ren's "Confidant" with Yu, Ren mentions in his narrative that "It seemed silly to have a “Phantom Thieves Without Jack” chat, a “Phantom Thieves With Jack” chat, and the “Phantom Felines” chat where they all posted copious amounts of cat pics". Later, when Akechi joined with intentions of betraying and selling Ren out, the thieves agreed to keep Jack out from being noticed by Akechi so the separate chats are necessary.
• What If?: The "Cat's Cradle" serve as one for the series with these alternative scenarios:
  • One where Yu is Cutting the Knot early to stop Maruki and restore reality back to normal.
  • One where Makoto, the protagonist of Persona 3, was revived during the events of the third semester and got involved.