Fanfic / Persona 5 New Game Plus: Joker’s Second Chance

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Persona 5 New Game Plus: Joker’s Second Chance is a Persona 5 Peggy Sue fanfic. It’s a collab between GreyKing46 and GhostKaiser23.

Two years after the events of the original game, Ren Amamiya shoots himself in the head. Expecting death, he instead wakes up on the day he came to Tokyo. Turns out the Velvet Room’s main head, Philemon, decided to give him a second chance after seeing his death and sent him to the past to redo his journey.

The game was not rigged in his favor... what if it was?

It can be found here.

Tropes for this fanfic include:

• Abandoned Hospital: Oyamada's Palace takes the form of castle with the inside being a creepy hospital.
• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Due to the story being written before Strikers and Royal was released, characters from Royal got adapted out and Ren's situation in his hometown is much bleaker in comparison to Strikers hinting that Joker's situation in his hometown is positive due to Yaldabaoth's cognitive control of the public masses, including those in Joker's hometown being released in light of his defeat.
• Adaptational Badass: Shiho, Kawakami, and Tae all gain Personas.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Kaneshiro's Palace appears slightly early, as Ren and Lavenza visit there on a quasi-date that gets interrupted by Shadows, letting Lavenza show Ren what she can do.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Makoto Niijima is slightly more hostile to the Phantom Thieves, but not to blatant Adaptational Villainy levels, before she finally joins them.
• Adaptational Villainy: Oyamada caused a lot of trouble for Tae, but he was only a Mementos target and never developed a Palace. Here, he has.
• Adaptational Sexuality: While none of the romance options show signs of being overtly bisexual in canon, here, they are very affectionate with each other as they are with Ren.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Ann is much more sexually forward in this fic than in canon. It's to the point that she's usually the one who instigates most of the intimacy that the polyamory does.
• Adapted Out:
  • Due to the story being written before Strikers was released globally, the events of Strikers and Tactica by extension didn't occur in Ren's original timeline in this story. Especially as Strikers hints that Joker's situation in his hometown is far more optimistic in comparison to Ren's own in this story due to canon hinting that Yaldabaoth being defeated for good means that the false god's More than Mind Control on the people of Tokyo that caused Joker to be reviled for no reason is no longer in effect, which includes those in Joker's hometown, resulting in Joker being portrayed as a lot more cheerful by the time of Strikers, while Ren doesn't have canonical Joker's luck with his hometown in this story.
  • Due the story following the original game instead of Royal, Maruki, Kasumi and Jose don't appear.
• The Alcatraz: Kobayakawa's Palace takes the form a military prison where he serves as General, with a cognition of Makoto serving as his most loyal henchwoman.
• "All Grown Up" Remark: Ren notices that Lavenza had grown up to be a beautiful young woman. Doesn't stop her kicking ass when Shadows interrupt her and Ren hanging out in Kaneshiro's Palace.
• Ascended Extra:
  • While Shiho had a minor role in the game, Ren’s actions led to her not jumping off the school roof and coming to Kamoshida’s Palace, leading her to awaken the same time as Ann and becoming a member of the Phantom Thieves as their scout
  • Kawakami eventually awakens her own Persona in Kobyakawa’s Palace.
  • Due to Oyamada developing a Palace, Tae gets involved in the heist and awakens her Persona.
• The Baroness: A cognitive version of Makoto acts as Shadow Kobayakawa's warden dressed in a fetishized mix of Shujin's female uniform and a warden's uniform. Add in a riding crop and Kobayakawa no doubt sees Makoto as this. The fact that her One-Winged Angel form takes the form of a dog's body with her body above the waist acting as it's head. And it drives in just how little he sees her as.
• Berserk Button: Yadalaboth and Shido are both sore spots for Joker. During the first trip of Mementos, he flies into a blind rage shooting at the locked gate that leads to the Holy Grail.
• Big "NO!": The last thing Ren hears before killing himself in the old timeline is Morgana trying in vain to stop him.
• Boom, Headshot!: Ren's fate in the original timeline, shooting himself in the head with a gun.
• Butterfly of Doom: The real Igor reveals that Ren's altered actions have made changes to how events proceed, both good and bad.
  • Due to Ren’s insistence of not letting Makoto get involved with Kaneshiro, she doesn’t awaken her Persona in his Palace and he’s much stronger when the group faces him due to not knowing them.
  • As another consequence of dealing with Kaneshiro privately, Principal Kobyakawa hadn’t been scared off and Medjed wasn’t sent after the thieves. This would eventually lead Kobayakawa to form his own Palace that the Thieves have to shut down, as he had threatened to have Makoto expelled if his heart isn’t changed.
  • This is the explanation by the authors for some of the new Palaces forming. The Thieves' reputation is what caused some people to only be in Mementos out of fear of being a potential target. In the new timeline, though, they're more under the radar, and the lack of a threat has caused some people to form Palaces of their own, like Dr. Oyamada.
• Clock Tower: Ren’s true Velvet Room takes the form of this, which is considered fitting for a phantom thief.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Downplayed; Ren knows he's attracted many women and is even in a polyamorous relationship because of it. He just doesn't know why. It's implied that in the first timeline, he ignored most of the life simulator aspects, not reaching max level with some of his confidants.
• Code Name: In addition to the canon Phantom Thieves, "Dove" for Shiho, "Fleur" for Kawakami, and "Seacole" for Takemi.
• Criminal Record Stigma: An enforced deviation from canon, as Strikers instead reveals that this trope is not in play for Joker when it's globally released months after this story was initially published. Word of God says Japan in real life has a very heavy example of this trope, and its presence in the prologue leads to Ren committing suicide and being sent back in time while pointing out that Strikers's portrayal of and implied mention of how Joker fared relatively well in his hometown after the events of the original game (Be it Vanilla or Royal) is unrealistic.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The story follows the original game rather than Royal. Additionally, the story timeline doesn't include Strikers in Ren's original timeline, which hints that Joker's situation with his family and hometown is much more optimistic due to Joker being shown to be cheerful in Strikers contrasting Ren's own Happy Ending Override in this story. Justified, however, as the story was initially published before Strikers went global, and Joker's situation in Strikers being unrealistic according to Word of God.
• Deconstruction: The story deconstructs the ending of Joker and Morgana returning back home after everything's over by pointing out how bad an idea it was for Joker to go back home and stay there for a year when Japan's stigma against former criminals, even after Ren was proven to be innocent and framed by Shido, doesn't erase easily in a small countryside town than it would in a big city like Tokyo. All of which led to Ren suffering from scorn from his old hometown because they refuse to give Ren another chance, despite his now clear and proven innocence at the time, with Ren's parents trying to extort him out of the money he gained over the year in Tokyo because of the "shame" he brought to the family name, among other examples. This later contributed to Ren committing suicide in a last act of defiance against the people of his hometown who expect him to follow the status quo of Japanese society. Had Philemon not sent him back in time, Ren's death would have been permanent.
• Despair Event Horizon: Losing all contact with his old friends and Morgana in the old timeline was the tipping point for Ren to decide "Screw This, I'm Outta Here" in regards to his life. Thankfully, he's given a new chance by Philemon.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with Ren, broken by society, shooting himself in the head in a final act of defiance. Lucky for him, Igor and Lavenza decide to send him back in order to forge the bonds he missed.
• Fire-Forged Friendship: Subverted the first time around. According to one of the co-authors, Ren only got his confidants to rank 8 at best, meaning that his relationships were still those of mutual gain rather than becoming blood-oaths. Because of this, he wasn't in contact with the other thieves after returning to his hometown, which added with the sociatial persecution, lead to his suicide.
• Groin Attack: Shiho escapes Kamoshida by delivering one of these to him.
• Happy Ending Override: Ren going back to his hometown after the ending of the main game is revealed to be a bad idea because the people living in the countryside are too set on the ingrained, traditional and societal beliefs in contrast to those living in a big modern city, resulting in Ren being even more of an outcast despite his name being cleared.
• Hate Sink: The people in Ren's hometown are a collective one due to their contribution to Ren and Morgana's Happy Ending Override in the original timeline.
• I Die Free: Ren's suicide is framed as this, a final act of rebellion against the expectations of Japanese society.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite Lavenza and the real Igor being present, Caroline, Justine, and Yaldabaoth!Igor are still present, unaware of how circumstances have changed.
  • Despite being an Adaptational Jerkass and the resulting stigma by those Phantom Thieves who aren't Ren or Shiho, Makoto Niijima does awaken her Persona and join their ranks as Queen, just doing so in Kobayakawa's Palace instead of Kaneshiro's.
  • Despite his time travel, it’s shown that Joker still found his way into police custody and has to tell his story to Sae Niijima.
  • Despite Kobayakawa having a Change Of Heart, he is still killed to keep him from revealing the conspiracy. It's just the lack of Shadow means that Akechi had to use an alternate method.
• Lampshade Hanging: Ann does this regarding the Combat Stilettos trope when Ryuji complains about sore feet during a stint in the Metaverse. The narration itself gives Ryuji a small defense in that the original Thieves have been at it for a couple of hours at that point.

  Ryuji: My feet are friggin' killing me!
  Ann: You're not the one wearing heels, Skull.

• Laser-Guided Amnesia: While Morgana did return to the past with Ren with his abilities intact, he doesn’t remember anything that happened in the game. He does, however, retain memories of being a Phantom Thief and the embodiment of Hope, and everything that happened when they went to Ren’s hometown. Both what memories he has, and the loss of the ones he did, are justified by Morgana being in close vicinity when Philemon sent Ren back in time, according to Word of God. Due to not being the intended target and not being practically in bodily contact, Morgana ended up losing a few memories in the time warp.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Rise Kujikawa, Naoto Shirogane, and Yu Narukami are name-dropped.
  • Shiho's Arcana, Lust, is the return of the "Hunger" Arcana from Persona 4 Golden.
• New Game Plus: The real Igor explains that this is how Ren is going to beat Yaldabaoth this time around. In this new timeline, Joker now has access to what he had before his death: memories of the old timeline, most of his equipment, all the Personas he had registered in the Compendium, and his Level 3 Social Stats.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The people at Ren's hometown view Ren in a "Once a criminal, always a criminal" light despite the fact that his innocence has been proven (And due to real-life Japanese society having a general, heavy stigma against criminals) and it's one of the factors of Ren's life in his hometown spiraling toward suicide.
• One Degree of Separation: Turns out Tae used to date Sae in college.
• Part-Time Hero: Due to Kawakami and Tae being adults with full time occupations, they are unable to join the Phantom Thieves at any given moment and can only do so if their schedules permit it. This is especially poignant as their jobs are very public (a teacher at a school with multiple scandals thus very much in the public eye, and a back-alley doctor that has become increasingly popular despite being blacklisted) and thus their absences would be noticed.
• Peggy Sue: The fic's premise. Philemon sends Ren back in time to the start of his year on probation, armed with many advantages such as what memories he still had when he died, his Compendium, and the support of Lavenza and the real Igor.
• Point of Divergence: Igor reveals that the Phantom Thieves' altered methods has led to some drastic changes:
  • Thanks to Ren telling Shiho to stand up for herself, she gets away from Kamoshida before he does anything to her, so she never attempts suicide. This allows her to join Ann in Kamoshida’s palace and gain a Persona as well.
  • Since Makoto doesn’t awaken in Kaneshiro’s Palace, she awakens in Kobayakawa’s Palace, which takes place after Futaba’s Palace.
• Polyamory: Ren is slowly gaining a veritable harem. Currently, Ann, Shiho, and Tae have all agreed to share Joker, while Futaba has confessed to him. Makoto, Haru, Kawakami, and Ohya have also gained interest in him, as well as the twins and Lavenza.
  • According to the real Igor, Yu Narukami also has several lovers, two confirmed to be Rise and Naoto, later Margaret, Chie and Yukiko are also part of their polyamory though the latter two started as an exclusive relationship. Yu's predecessor as the Wild Card may have done the same, even including Elizabeth.
• Porn with Plot: There are chapters where Ren is busy satisfying his harem.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: After realizing he's now in the past, Arsene suggests to him to fix how the original timeline went wrong, in regards to Shiho, Mr. Okumura, and Akechi. So far, he has managed to save Shiho, and she has even joined the Phantom Thieves this time around.
• Shout-Out: In chapter 11, the Thieves start quoting a Great Rider show.
  • Chapter 22 has a double-whammy, Ren mentions having "their Navi" with them (short for Navigator, also Futaba's Japanese codename) and Futaba immediately jokes "Hey, listen!"
• Starts with a Suicide: Ren’s to be exact, as a final act of defiance against his circumstances.
• Sudden Game Interface: To help Joker, the real Igor gives him a new phone app which works how the game’s menu would.
• Tarot Motifs: Shiho becomes a new Confidant Link under the Arcana of Lust, which is a symbol of life, purpose, and self improvement. Her link story is her slowly overcoming her trauma from Kamoshida. It's also a positive Arcana this time, as "Lust" appeared in Persona 4 Golden as "Hunger" which was the finalized Arcana for Tohru Adachi, the Big Bad Friend, and is the Thoth deck's counterpart to the Strength Arcana.
• Teacher/Student Romance: One of Kawakami's hangups on being part of the polyamory is that she's in a relationship with four students from her school, two of which are in her very homeroom. She does get over it rather quickly.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: Shiho, Ms. Kawakami, and Tae Takemi all join the Phantom Thieves, when the latter two were Confidants in the original, and Shiho was part of Ann's Confidant.
• Trauma Button: While Shiho wasn’t raped in the new timeline, the fact that it nearly happened still has her traumatized to the point that she doesn't do well with crowds and trains.
• Wham Line: Chapter 40 features another part of the interrogation with Sae. She then reveals that another new Target has popped up in the timeline... and it's not one that's expected:
  Sae: Tell me why you targeted Dr. Oyamada? And what does my ex-girlfriend have to do with any of this?
• Wham Shot: One straight in Chapter 2, nonetheless. Instead of summoning Zorro like Joker expected, Morgana summons Mercurius, his Ultimate Persona. This makes Joker think Mona remembers the old timeline, but later learns he doesn't have all of his memories.
• What the Hell, Hero?: As opposed to canon where he only gets a minor telling off, here Ryuji is read the riot act in full for his treatment of Morgana as well as his glory hounding ways to the point that Tae ends up giving him some Corporal Punishment.
• Whip of Dominance: Kawakami, even more so than Ann, due to using riding crops as her melee weapon. It's to the point that rather than buying them at Untouchable, Iwai has to send them to a specialty shop due to not carrying them. Ann even asks what the difference is, with Iwai saying that as unconventional a weapon a bullwhip is, it can still cause significant damage.