Fanfic / Sitting Behind You

Sitting Behind You is a Persona 5 Alternate Universe Fan Fiction by RedOrange99.

Based on Persona 5 Royal, this story focuses on Ren and Makoto's relationship. It changes Ren into a third-year student who sits behind Makoto and starts dating her earlier than possible in canon.

This story currently updates every four days.

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Tropes found in this fanfiction:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Discussed Trope. When trying to sooth his girlfriend's concerns, Ren notes that unlike in an anime, the student council isn't as powerful in real life, so Makoto could not have done anything about Kamoshida.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Aside from imagining Ren as a third year instead of a second year student, the story's main premise may as well be a What If? tale of Makoto being the canon love interest and dating pretty much right from the start.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Makoto investigating Ren at the behest of the Principal is Played for Drama, as Makoto tailing Ren and Ryuji in Kichijoji and secretly recording Ann and Ryuji loudly claiming they're Phantom Thieves during a conversation strains the relationship between Makoto and Ren for most of the Kaneshiro arc.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Ren was born and raised in Inaba before having to move to Tokyo in the aftermath of his false arrest.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Ren uses Yoshitsune, specifically his Hassou Tobi Signature Move, to breeze through enemies.
  • The Sphinx in Futaba's Palace utilizes attacks that are classed as Almighty instead of merely Physical.
  • Futaba fights alongside the rest of the Thieves, serving as the team's Friendly Sniper.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • In the original Persona 5, Yoshitsune is only available upon reaching the seventh rank of the Tower Arcana and could only be obtained through a Velvet Room advanced fusion that required advancing other Confidants. In the story, Yoshitsune is Ren's go-to Persona despite not meeting Shinya any sooner than he did in canon.
  • Ren chooses to add Raoul to his his minuscule team of Personas after finally deciding to diversify his moveset. In the game proper, Raoul is a DLC exclusive Persona although can be purchased through the Compendium for cheap.
  • Alice Hiiragi appears as a singer Eiko got for her party.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed with Ren, whose sarcasm is also leveled at his fellow Thieves on occasion and considers Akechi more of a creepy annoyance than his rival. However, Ren is described as having a "tired dad" personality rather than being a plain unlikable asshole and is still an upstanding young man otherwise.
• Adaptational Job Change:
  • Downplayed with Kawakami and all of Ren's other teachers in the game, who now all teach third year students instead of second years.
  • Ren is initially appointed as Treasurer of the Student Council at Makoto's recommendation, although she's able to manipulate Kobayakawa into promoting him to Vice President by painting it as an idea to get the students to stop talking about Kamoshida. In Persona 5, Ren's involvement with the Student Council begins and ends with Makoto, and is never able to join it.
• Affectionate Nickname: Makoto frets over not being able to find one for Ren and is Played for Laughs when she asks Eiko for help.
• Anachronism Stew: Several examples which stem from Persona 5 being all but stated to take place in 2016.
  • Ren owns a "PlayBox 5" console, an obvious knockoff of the PlayStation 5 which didn't release until 2020.
  • Among the internet memes acting used hieroglyphics in Futaba's Palace are:
    • The Virgin vs. Chad meme, which didn't take it's modern form until 2017.
    • The use of ඞ (along with Futaba's Shadow occasionally moaning out "Amogus") both originate from 2018's Among Us (although the game's meme culture wouldn't form until the early 2020s).
• Ascended Extra: While a powerful Persona in its own right in the games, Yoshitsune plays the role of Ren's main Persona as he never summons back Arsene after Caroline and Justine force him to sacrifice him to demonstrate fusion.
• Badass Bookworm: Ren is both the Wild Card and a student who loves to study most subjects, with only a real disdain for writing essays. It's this quality that helps him bond with Makoto earlier in April.
• Birthday Beginning: The story opens with a Forgotten Birthday for Makoto. Ren finds out, leading to an impromptu birthday celebration that also turns out to be their first date.
• Cannot Spit It Out: The B plot for the Alibaba arc is Ren being unable to tell Makoto that he loves her despite being in a committed relationship in all but name by that point. Instead, he settles for telling her "I'll miss you" every time she leaves.
• Cats Hate Water: Ren gives Morgana a bath after Morgana falls out of a boat and they nearly drown and Morgana is none too pleased.
• Counterfeit Cash: Like in canon, Kaneshiro's treasure turns out to be a briefcase of fake money. Unlike canon, Ren uses the Twins' ignorance of the human world against them by claiming the fake money is legit so he can buy more Personas with it. It works.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Before Makoto joins the Thieves, Ren's fighting strategy was relying on Yoshitsune to the point where his entire fighting style was literally "Hassou Tobi bitches!" while refusing to use other Personas. While Played for Laughs when the other Thieves offhandedly discuss when he runs into enemies that are immune to physical attacks, Makoto's outright aghast that Joker had no other strategy beyond using a massively powerful physical attack that deals intense recoil damage which is described as if he's having his insides chopped up.
• Drowning My Sorrows: A non-alcoholic variant. Ren seeks out Takemi's clinical trial to get knocked out and take his mind off of Makoto when she is investigating him.
• Extranormal Institute: According to Yusuke, the pain of stepping on hot sand in Futaba's cognitive world is nothing compared to the entry exam for an art scholarship at Kosei, which involves painting whilst standing upon simmering coals. While its left ambiguous if Yusuke was joking, Hifumi later tells Ren that gym class is exclusively paintball and airsoft, Valedictorians are chosen via lottery instead of academic merit and instead of dissecting frogs or sheep eyes in biology class Kosei apparently has arrangements with several morgues to instead dissect actual human cadavers.
  Ren: Everything I learn about Yusuke is against my will.
• Forced Transformation: Ren is turned into a rat during Futaba's Palace and it persists longer than a single battle.
• Forgotten Birthday: Sae has forgotten Makoto's birthday at least two years in a row, which serves as only more gossip fodder for the other students.
• Getting Hot in Here: While driving to Futaba's palace in the desert, Ren tears off his too-small shirt and Ryuji takes his shirt off.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Apparently, Yusuke's skills with a rifle in the Metaverse comes from gym classes at Kosei consisting of either paintball or airsoft matches.
• If I Do Not Return: Played for Laughs when Ren has Makoto accompany him to the Velvet Room entrance near Untouchables in Chapter 41, who instructs her that if he doesn't "come back" after fifteen minutes to just kiss him until his consciousness returns.
• Imagined Innuendo: Ann talks about "doing" Ryuji when she means buying new outfits for people.
  Ren (thinking): She’s already ‘doing’ Ryuji, huh? Love that for her.
• In Medias Res: Downplayed. Sitting Behind You starts on April 23rd, roughly two weeks after Ren began attending Shujin.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite Ren and Makoto being close, Makoto still investigates the Phantom Thieves much like in canon.
• Interrupted Declaration of Love: In Chapter 44 just as Makoto is about to tell Ren that she loves him, Morgana interrupts them by demanding them to get to bed.
• Irony: Sae has a low opinion of Ren despite never having once met him due to his fraudulent arrest record and wants Makoto to have nothing to do with him. Sae forgetting Makoto's birthday is what helps kickstart the romance between Ren and Makoto at the beginning of the fic.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Whenever Akechi makes an appearance, it's usually involves him on the receiving end of Ren's trolling attitude or some other misfortune such as being the only guy Yusuke bars from entering Eiko's party.
• Life of the Party: Kosei students seem to have a reputation of throwing epic ragers, having gotten a private concert by Risette and appearances from the cast of Featherman at previous parties they've hosted.
• Long List: Eiko's attempt to help Makoto find an Affectionate Nickname for Ren has 44 suggestions.
  Makoto: Thank you, Eiko. These were helpful.
• "Miss X" Pun: As Ren is a third-year in this story, "Renpai" puns on senpai. Only Yusuke uses it, with Ryuji and Ann refuse on the basis of it being an Atrocious Alias.
• Mundane Utility: While the team is resting in a safe room in Futaba's Palace, Ann uses Carmen's fire abilities to reheat a plate of curry.
• Mythology Gag: In a game of "Would You Rather?", Makoto asks Ren if he would rather be in the same class as Ryuji or Ann. Ren picks Ann.
• Point of Divergence: Ren is a third year instead of a second year, and sits behind Makoto instead of Ann.
• Poor Communication Kills: When Makoto investigates Ren as a suspected Phantom Thief, instead of just asking her boyfriend about the Thieves, she opts to stalk Ren.
• Relationship Upgrade: Ren and Makoto in the first chapter, after the former treats her to a day out on her birthday while being the only one to remember.
• Rotating Protagonist: Chapter 41, Chores 2, changes the point of view between Ren, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, and finally Makoto as they prepare for Futaba's palace.
• Running Gag:
  • Whenever Kasumi appears in the story, she usually gets snubbed by Ren either for Makoto or for some other important matter.
  • Ren getting a new nickname by from most of his social circle. So far Yusuke calls him "Renpai", Ryuji calls him "Renren", Sojiro calls him "Kid", and Takemi calls him her "guinea pig".
• Secret Relationship: Ren and Makoto's relationship is this until the beginning of summer although by that point, Everyone Can See It.
• Shipper on Deck: Ann (and Ryuji, at her behest) to Ren and Makoto.
  Ann: They’re totally gonna kiss at the fireworks festival. I’m gonna make it happen.
• Shout-Out: Yusuke directly quotes Patrick Bateman's praise of Paul Allen's business card while shopping for blank cards to use to create skill cards.
  Yusuke: Oh my god, it even has a watermark.
• Silent Treatment: Ren's method of punishing Ryuji for violating Male Restroom Etiquette while trying to investigate as to whether him and Makoto are actually dating or not.
• Start X to Stop X: When Ren is turned into a rat in Futaba's Palace, he reverts back to human form by being hit by the same attack from another enemy.
• Straight Man: Poor Ren is stuck trying to mediate the various eccentricities and quirks of his fellow Phantom Thieves.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ryuji loves Manta soft drinks, getting them as birthday gifts and emptying out entire vending machines for them.
• True Love's Kiss: While Ren is visiting the Velvet Room and remains frozen in the real world, Makoto's kiss is powerful enough to draw him back. Caroline and Justine even notice that it's his "Priestess" pulling him back.
• Vengeful Vending Machine: During the Alibaba arc, Ryuji gets his arm stuck in a vending machine trying to get a stuck Second Maid for Ann.
• Wild Teen Party: After the Thieves complete Futaba's palace, they all have the free time to attend one Eiko hosts in her parents' penthouse apartment primarily meant to show off her new much older boyfriend Tsukasa. He never shows up (likely having no interest in getting drunk with a bunch of teenagers), but the party's still a total rager thanks to her inviting a ton of Kosei students.