(Do you know of any resources that dictate what a Navigator is in the Persona universe? I'm only familiar with the main 3-4-5 games, and there doesn't seem to be much information as to what designates a Persona-user as a Navigator over a combat-suited role. Not much is given, but for something that has a "title", it sounds like you'd have to be trained specifically for the job. Maybe I'm missing that info from spin-offs or something. Thanks in advance!)
In P1 and P2, every character’s Persona is shown to have a certain amount of “navigation” potential. For example, characters will sometimes state their Persona feels “anxious” or “senses something dangerous up ahead”.
I think the same is true for the games after, and Fuuka, Rise and Futaba are just those rare cases of Persona Users whose Persona’s energy is more focused on sensing or transmitting information, rather than on self-defense or expressing aggression. Mitsuru’s case is a good example of that: Her Persona is mostly combat focused, but its sensing capabilities are strong enough to help navigating Tartarus.
Fuuka actually voices a hypothesis about that late in Persona 3: Her Persona is primarily a scanner because Fuuka is extremely concerned with understanding what other people expect of her, to the point that it reflects in her Persona.
Similarly, Rise has a preoccupation with how she is *perceived* by other people and how she can make them perceive her differently, so her Persona “broadcasts” information about her to others and about others to her.
As for Futaba, while she is a shut in who’s not especially connected to the outside world, she’s always hungry for information, hence why her Persona is Necronomicon, and that hunger for information is reflected in its powers: She can use her Persona to *suck up* information about the things around her and distribute them. It’s a result of her extreme curiosity.
So to sum up, Fuuka’s Persona reads hearts, because Fuuka wants to understand people. Rise’s Persona broadcasts her thoughts and receives the thoughts of others, because Rise wants to broadcast herself and receive other’s feedback. Futaba’s Persona sucks up and distributes information, because Futaba is one of what Japanese scholar Azuma Hiroki called a “Database Animal” herself.
Before you ask, Mitsuru’s case is a little different: Since she’s desperate to learn what she needs to do to safe her father from her family’s legacy, that “despair to learn” is reflected in her Persona.
Teddie and Morgana don’t count. Teddie’s Persona doesn’t have unusual scanning capabilities (contrary to Mitsuru’s false assumption in P4U), he does; because he’s a Shadow and thus entirely made of information and emotions himself, he can sense the emotions and information of others. It’s as simple as hearing a human voice is to us. Ditto for Morgana; he’s a Velvet Room denizen, and those beings can sense presences the same way as Shadows can.
