Family Secrets
, backup can be found here) is a Persona 5 Fan Fiction by RyuuNoKami, crossing over with Persona 3.
An alternate universe where Makoto and Sae Nijima are the daughters of Minako Arisato (this universe's name for the P3 female protagonist) and Akihiko Sanada. Because of his work as a police officer and his concern that his family may be targeted by criminals, Minako keeps her maiden name and their daughters are given the "Nijima" name. This eventually drives away Sae, who believes Akihiko effectively abandoned her, and causes various problems between the daughters and their parents, but also between said parents as well. The POV switches between that of the family members, and also Ren Amamiya/Joker, who meets Makoto earlier than in canon and eventually starts having a relationship with her.
It is still ongoing, but is an absolute mammoth of a fanfic, spanning over 170 chapters and over 700,000 words.
Spoilers for Persona 5 and Persona 3 will be unmarked.
Tropes contained in Confide in Me:
- Adaptation Expansion: The first notable one is Kamoshida's attempts to flirt with Makoto, culminating with with attempting to rape her to get revenge on Akihiko (fortunately, Morgana saves her by attacking him).
- This also leads into an expansion of Kamoshida's Castle in Chapter 17, where Ren's narration briefly mentions that said castle includes cognitions of naked girls chained to walls as broken sex slaves, with a cognition of Makoto being among them.
- It also elaborates on how Sae was informed of Wakaba Isshiki's research - Akechi informed her of the potential lead and suggested talking to Sojiro about it. This later becomes a plot point, as Akihiko realizes and points out to Sae that Akechi somehow discovering information about Wakaba's research when the very existence of said research was covered up is suspicious.
- Adapted Out: So far no aspect from Persona 5 Royal has happened yet, and neither Kasumi nor Maruki have appeared, due to the fic starting before Royal came out.
- Berserk Button: Threatening to hurt either of the Nijima sisters in any way triggers this in Akihiko. When Kamoshida gloats to him about wanting to rape Makoto, Akihiko does not hesitate to beat the crap out of him.
- During the school festival, Ren shoves Akechi into a wall when he gets a little too hands-on with Makoto.
- Bus Crash: Koromaru is the only member of S.E.E.S./The Shadow Operatives who hasn't appeared in the story (except for Shinjiro, who died during the events of Persona 3) likely because he died of old age long ago due to being a dog.
- De Powered: Minako woke up from a coma a year after defeating Nyx, completely deprived of her Persona abilities. This is why she is desperate to contact Igor and Theodore again, and find out what happened.
- The Gadfly: Ren really enjoys teasing Makoto, mainly because he finds her reactions adorable.
- Gambit Roulette: The plan around Sae's Palace gets even more complicated and starts even sooner. When Akechi blackamils the Phantom Thieves into going after Sae's Palace during the school festival, he unknowingly plays right into their hands, as they and the former members of S.E.E.S. not only were already expecting the true culprit, (who they already heavily suspected was Akechi) to attempt to shadow the Thieves and kill Sae's shadow. However, now that Akechi wants the Thieves to change Sae's heart and intends to participate in the heist, it only makes it easier for them to keep track of him, prevent him from killing Sae, and most importantly, potentially lure him into a trap or exploit his prescence in some other fashion.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Plenty of this, considering the party members from both P3 and P5 are of very different generations. The first notable one is Akihiko and Ryuji, and later on, Ren and Minako bond over being fellow Wild Cards.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Akihiko publicly disassociates himself from his wife and children to protect his family from criminals. His fears become true when Shido threatens to sell off Minako and Makoto as sex slaves and use Sae as his puppet if Akihiko doesn't drop the investigation against the Conspiracy.
- Mama Bear: Minako for her daughters. She's possibly even scarier than her husband.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Igor is surprisingly hostile when Ren confronts him about Minako and Theodore, to the point of essentially booting him out of the Velvet Room. Later, Minako tries to find the Velvet Room door in Mementos, but something starts affecting her health and she collapses, implying Igor is trying to keep her away. That's because the Velvet Room was taken over by Yaldabaoth impersonating Igor, and he does not want a previous Wild Card exposing his identity.
- Out of Focus: Ann and Yusuke get significantly less focus compared to the other Phantom Thieves in this story. Haru gets more focus than them, which is ironic due to her Late Character Syndrome in the original game. Ryuji, Futaba and Haru fortunately get less of this, but the main focus is certainly on Minako, Akihiko, Makoto and Ren.
- Papa Wolf: Akihiko is this for his daughters. This is a problem for Ren, who is regularly quite intimidated by him once he properly starts getting close to Makoto.
- Putting the Band Back Together: The events of the story eventually necessitate Mitsuru summoning the remaining former members of S.E.E.S., who haven't summoned their Personas in years and require practice in the Metaverse.
- Shipper on Deck: Quite a few characters start actively supporting Ren and Makoto's relationship at the first opportunity, especially Minako. This later includes Haru, Futaba, and possibly Ann.
- Spot the Thread: In chapters 119 and 121, Akihiko and Sae have individual moments of this that make them very suspicious of Akechi.
- Stations of the Canon: For the most part, the events of the original game have gone by largely unchanged. However, the more notable changes have started occurring around the chapter 120 mark, once the Phantom Thieves meet the former members of S.E.E.S., and they not only independently decide to go after Sae's Palace before the school festival occurs, they also realize that Akechi is very likely the Black Mask, and plan to use Sae's Palace to lure him into a trap.
