"Tokyo is the most populated city in the world. With over 38,000,000 people living there, the police department never has a moment to relax. But some criminals are more than the police can handle. And when they strike, the mysterious woman known as the Phantom Queen appears to save the day."
The Phantom Queen is a complete Persona 5 Fanfic written by vivvav
as part of his series of fics for Tumblr's Makoto Niijima Week.
The story stars an Alternate Universe version of Breakout Character Makoto Niijima, recast as a Batman like superhero. It can be read here.
Is not connected to The Evil Queen, another Persona 5 work by the same author.
The Phantom Queen provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo: Yusuke "Da Vinci" Kitagawa's rifle is actually a paintball gun. The paint it fires however is Hollywood Acid which eats right through Panther's whip in seconds.
- Adaptational Villainy: Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, and Haru all go from noble Phantom Thieves to Silver Age supervillains, and Kamoshida (astoundingly enough) goes from a "mere" Evil Teacher to an outright sex trafficker. In addition, Iwai goes from a somewhat shady ex-yakuza trying to do right by his son to a guy who sells illegal explosives to whoever wants some. Finally, Kasumi and Morgana go from noble Phantom Thieves to Haru's Co-Dragons.
- Adaptational Wimp: Akira Kurusu is at best an Action Survivor here, a significant drop from the badass Phantom Thief he was in canon.
- Adaptation Species Change: Morgana goes from a magical cat to an ordinary human man.
- Affably Evil:
- Captain Skull, this universe's version of Ryuji, is this. He says he'll let Akira go if his plan goes off smoothly and there's no need to kill him, and even agrees to an interview about his choice of name and costume. (It's cut short by the Phantom Queen's appearance.)
- When cornered, Haru is perfectly polite and friendly to the Phantom Queen.
- Affectionate Parody: Of Silver Age comic books.
- Age Lift: Most of the teenage cast are presumably adults here, but most notably Shinya, who is 19 in this AU.
- Apologetic Attacker: Agent Pink apologizes to the Phantom Queen before attacking her, noting that she and her coworkers are all fans and wish things didn't come to this. She also apologizes to Agent Purple after accidentally kicking Queen into him.
- Artifact Title: During the confrontation with Haru, she grumbles that she can't exactly call her Co-Dragons the "three musketeers" anymore now that Agent Black is worm food.
- Badass Normal: Since the Phantom Queen is basically Batman... yes.
- Berserk Button: Panther and Da Vinci exchange banter with each other when they both come to steal a valuable painting. The playfulness in Panther's retorts ends when Da Vinci calls her outfit gaudy.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Akechi goes out.
- Career-Ending Injury: Da Vinci is shot through the right hand when he tries to attack Phantom Queen from behind. He despairs that he'll never be able to paint again, even when Naoto Shirogane points out he's ambidextrous, as his "muse" only works through his right hand.
- Clark Kenting: Naoto seems to see through this in chapter 2...
- Classy Cat-Burglar: Ann "Panther" Takamaki appears to fully embrace her Catwoman inspiration in this story, attempting to rob an art museum as soon as she escapes the prison transport.
- Co-Dragons: Kasumi and Morgana are Haru's second-in-commands, as Agents Pink and Purple. Akechi was also one of these as Agent Black, but is killed during the story.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Phantom Queen has no compunctions about using dirty tactics such as kicking her enemies while they're down, and even notes that honor doesn't win fights.
- The Commissioner Gordon: Akechi serves as Makoto's primary contact in the Tokyo Police Department. Subverted when he turns out to be an assassin who murdered Iwai and Kamoshida.
- Death by Adaptation: Sugimura was stabbed by Haru in self-defense prior to the fic's events. Munehisa Iwai and Suguru Kamoshida are murdered by Akechi. Sae Nijima is Makoto's Death by Origin Story. Goro Akechi, whose fate was left ambiguous in the original game, clearly gets his head blown off by a sniper.
- Death by Origin Story: Sae Nijima was assassinated by Shido three years prior to the events of the fic, turning Makoto into the Phantom Queen.
- Dual Boss: Kasumi/Agent Pink and Morgana/Agent Purple fight the Phantom Queen together.
- Evil All Along: Akechi turns out to be Iwai's murderer.
- Evil Versus Evil:
- Panther and Da Vinci end up fighting each other in an art museum over a valuable painting they both want to steal.
- Crime boss Junya Kaneshiro gives the Phantom Queen a tip-off about the true mastermind behind recent events because the chaos they are creating is harmful to his mental health.
- Expy: Akira is basically a gender-bent Lois Lane, while Makoto is a gender-bent Batman (complete with Sae in the Thomas/Martha Wayne role).
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Haru reveals that Iwai was getting cold feet about his role in her operation and Akechi was planning on turning her in to the police. Both were killed before they could get the chance to redeem themselves.
- Intrepid Reporter: Akira becomes one in this AU.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The Phantom Queen does this to Agent Pink to provoke Agent Purple into overextending and running into a trap.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Akechi is assassinated after letting slip that his accomplice was a woman.
- Malaproper: When asked why Ryuji uses the alias "Captain Skull" despite the world knowing his real identity, Ryuji says he chose the skull because it was fitting for a pirate, "ironic". Akira corrects him by saying "iconic".
- Motive Rant: When confronted, Haru explains all of her goals and motivations to the Phantom Queen.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Haru's true goal. She believes that killing criminals forces society to acknowledge their crimes, and wants to raise a private army to do just that.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Toranosuke Yoshida, the police commissioner in this universe, wants the police to be the ones to protect the city and catch the escaped criminals, but he fully supports and admires the Phantom Queen's efforts.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A textbook example in Makoto's backstory.Naoto: December 11th, 2013: Prosecutor Sae Niijima is murdered in her own home. December 12th, same year: Detective Makoto Niijima is put on suspension by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department after assaulting a superior officer who denied her request to work her sister's case. December 13th: Three dozen low-level gang members are hospitalized in one night, all claiming to have been attacked by a woman with brass knuckles in a mask. December 20th: Detective Makoto Niijima formally resigns from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. December 24th: The yakuza hitman Kanta Iwasaki, AKA 'the Cleaner', is found beaten within an inch of his life, his home thoroughly damaged in the process. His broken body — which he was unable to move because the assailant left him paralyzed from the neck down — was wedged through a wall in his kitchen. When he was removed, this wall was found to contain a secret storage space with several years worth of documentation of his communications with various clients, including a recorded conversation with Diet member Masayoshi Shido requesting the assassination of the late Prosecutor Niijima. Shido is arrested, as are multiple associates of his also named in the Cleaner's files.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Naoto had figured out Makoto was the Phantom Queen almost from the very beginning, but kept quiet since Makoto was grieving her sister and actually doing some good with her actions.
- Skeleton Motif: Captain Skull paints a skull on his face with dirt and blood.
- Skewed Priorities: When Naoto shoots Da Vinci's hand, Akechi shouts at her. Not because she shot someone, but because she has a gun despite not being part of the police (Commissioner Yoshida gave Naoto special permission).
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: "King" Suguru Kamoshida is a known and wanted sex trafficker.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Captain Skull speaks with a stereotypical pirate accent.
- Teeth Flying: Phantom Queen joins the fight between Panther and Da Vinchi by punching Yusuke hard enough that he spits out a tooth.
- This Means Warpaint: Ryuji and Yusuke use face paint for their villainous personas. Captain Skull painted a skull onto his face with blood and dirt just after escaping the transport and Da Vinci arrives at the art museum with full Kabuki style face paint.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The Phantom Queen saves Panther's life from one of Da Vinci's attacks during the art museum break-in. Panther rewards her by digging her claws into Queen's back.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Akira notes that Haru Okumura is hosting another charity event during the prisoner transport event and that it's one of several she's hosted since taking control of Okumura Foods after her father's sudden passing. She turns out to secretly be the villainous Lady Noir, using her philanthropy as Haru as a cover.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Haru/Lady Noir's plan is to raise her own private militia to slaughter criminals.
- Wham Line: At the end of chapter 2, Naoto Shirogane reveals to Makoto that she knows her secret identity.
- Worf Had the Flu: An inexperienced novice like Lady Noir would ordinarily pose no threat to the Phantom Queen in a straight fight, but she's already been worn down by a grenade explosion and a fight against Agents Pink and Purple, leaving her drained and making Noir more of a threat.
