Ace in the Hole

Official blog for my PT!Ken AU fanfic. Avatar by @pinigo. Sidebar art by @scruffyturtles.

[personaaceinthehole]

Masterpost

Ace in the Hole is my take on the PT!Ken AU as well as incorporating some concepts I'm fond of (the P3 twins AU + Shinji living). This story mostly focuses on the P5 cast + Ken, but all of the P3 and P4 party members (barring Minato) make an appearance in the story.

Ken's codename is Ace and his outfit is a mix of Tuxedo Mask as well as invoking the Gekkoukan school uniform. Art below was drawn by @pinigo!

Important Links

Kaneshiro Arc (Prologue - Chapter 6) [fully edited] Futaba Arc (Chapter 7 - Chapter 18) [fully edited] Okumura Arc (Chapter 19 - Chapter 29) [partially edited, currently editing Chapter 26] Sae Arc (Chapter 30 - Chapter 40) [mostly edited, will complete after Okumura Arc] Shido Arc (Chapter 41 - Chapter 50) [fully edited] Mementos & Epilogue Arc (Chapter 51 -Epilogue) [fully edited; Epilogue in progress]

General Art Tag (encompasses all of the art I've commissioned/been gifted for this fic)

Older P3/P4 Character Designs

Ken's Winter and Summer Casuals

Ken's P5D outfit and Beach Outfit (ft. KenMako)

Silly Meme Posts

[personaaceinthehole]

Sae Arc Commentary

My beta has finished editing the few chapters that were un-edited in the Sae arc so I'm back at it again. (Just as a side note, she's working on rereading the rest of the story so she can catch any discrepancies in the epilogue. The epilogue is done, just needs to be edited).

Once again, spoilers (including a small PQ2 spoiler) under the cut!

A underlying part of the story is Ken slowly asserting his independence. So he argues against Mitsuru's desire to bring him back to Port Island.

I felt that Haru's grief wasn't as touched on as it could've been. Like she has messy feelings but she had hopes about getting closure about her father. But she never will get it because Akechi killed Okumura. And obviously, since this is majorly a crossover with P3... I couldn't *not* have Mitsuru want to connect with Haru.

I did debate on having Makoto confess to Ken when the threat of Ken being forced to move back to Port Island loomed over their heads but I decided it was a bit inappropriate with the timing. So a quieter moment in the aftermath of the festival. Unfortunately for Shinji, he had to walk in on them. (It's entertaining for me though so I made it into a small running gag).

To tie into the aftermath of Okumura, I wanted more of the PTs to try and reach out to Haru. They don't fully succeed because Haru's still processing things :(

Given the similarities of the situation with Haru-Okumura & Yusuke-Madarame, I found it fitting for Yusuke's Persona to ascend here.

Ken smacking Ren for his shenanigans in the haunted house is inspired by the P5 anime. It has its... flaws, but had some entertaining moments like this.

Ken has an intense hatred of puns thanks to Ikutsuki. But Ren does come up with some pretty terrible puns so... can't really blame him.

Akechi's fake story regarding his awakening is specifically meant to parallel with what actually happened to Ken. Akechi and Ken are foils. They both join the PTs on not entirely truthful reasons, but Ken got attached, Akechi was hellbent on revenge.

Also slightly altered the way Akechi joins because... boy he was not subtle. I wanted him to be a little more sneaky, hence the alterations.

I also wanted to alter Akechi's slip up because... the pancakes jokes are entertaining but I wanted Akechi to be a bit less obvious.

When the PTs develop the plan, it comes crashing down on Anne how much she needs Ren. So she initiates sexy time. Which Ren was waiting for, because he wanted her to take the lead on when that'll happen.

The scene with the Shadow Operatives badge was set-up. I had decided that Ken needed an up close and personal meeting with Shido and well... the ending of the Sae arc was the best way to do it. Another bit of foreshadowing was when Ken admonished Futaba for neglecting her physical stamina.

I wanted to build up on Akechi's growing jealousy of Ken and Ren. I want to note that Akechi's attitude regarding Ken was vastly different before and after he learns that they're related. Akechi is jealous that Ken is wanted by Shinjiro, when he kept trying to endear himself to others so someone would want to keep him. Akechi's jealousy regarding Ren is how he has the PTs' respect so easily, not to mention the power of the Wild Card.

Sae's Palace overall is one of my personal favorites buuut... I would've loved to see a cognitive version of her and Makoto's father. Officer Niijima haunts the Niijima sisters' narrative so I thought it was a shame that we never got a cognition of him in Royal either.

One advantage of the written narrative is getting to focus a bit more on Makoto's messy feelings with Sae. I decided to fully discard the red herring about Makoto, focusing on building up Akechi.

And I always thought the deleted poker scene with Akechi was interesting. So I adapted it in the story, to build up to Akechi being a clever schemer.

With how Shinji reads Akihiko very well and bolsters his and Ken's personal arcs, I wanted him to also read into Sae's behavior and give her a nudge. While antagonizing her because Shinji is Shinji

During Haru and Anne helping Makoto get ready for her first date with Ken, Makoto notices that Ren's shirt is in Anne's closet. This is a blatant reference to P5D, with Anne's closet having Ren's shirt in there... for some reason ;)

A lot of people missed that getting extra people for the plan was actually a red herring. There was a huge focus on the plan so I could throw in the twist about Ken's kidnapping.

Anne's birthday was mostly there for fluff but I also wanted to build up to Akechi's confusion about Ken and Shinjiro's relationship. Unfortunately not the last time he'll misconstrue their relationship...

The scene where Makoto attempts to use Johanna to jump the gap to reach Sae's Treasure is inspired by some criticism regarding this scene. But I really don't think it would've been a good workaround, regardless, since only Makoto would be able to cross. But it was a way to reinforce Sae's hypocrisy about cheating with how she rigs her cases.

And the dark maze felt like a perfect way to set up Sae's cognition of Makoto. When it boils down to it, Sae sees her as a little girl still meant to be protected and kept in the dark.

Aside from being a sucker for the "Forgotten First Meeting", I wanted to set up more hinting towards Ken and Akechi's moms. I also wanted to parallel the doomed relationship between the Himura sisters and the relationship of the Niijima sisters. Sae and Makoto eventually manage to patch things up. Not so much for Hikari and Tsukiko :(

And finally, we've got the buildup for the actual heist, including Chie! Couldn't fit her for the Inaba trip so she's here for this part of the story.

As I mentioned above, I felt that Ken needed a personal confrontation with Shido. I started considering this in the Okumura arc and started to lay down some groundwork. This is why during the Inaba trip, Rise mentions having a concert in Tokyo during November.

But while writing the chapters leading up to it, my beta pointed out that there needed to be a bit more buildup for Akechi believing that Ken would side with him. So Ken gives him the smoke bomb as well as suggesting to Akechi they could keep working together rather than the disbandment of the PTs and healing him during the fight.

In general, I'm not a fan of the half-brother theory. Especially since Ken's parents were established to be divorced in the P3 info book. I opted for cousins so their mothers can parallel their situations to a degree.

Another situation that isn't as emphasized is that Ken's situation with his uncle/cousin once removed is essentially emotional neglect. Ken never talked about it with SEES until they met the man in person in 2012.

I felt it only fit for Makoto to awaken to Anat as she resolves to change Sae's heart. I really enjoy the conflict in canon between them but I wanted to enhance it (and give them a proper conclusion/payoff)

Makoto's presence in canon is done fairly well but with Ken's kidnapping I really wanted her to step up as a leader. Also makes for a nice parallel to when Anne rallies the PTs to take action about Ren's imprisonment.

I also picked Akihiko to help out for a few reasons. Akihiko is the one to push Ken into his last bit of character development, so it'd be meaningful to have him help out Ken. Ken is the baby brother of the group. He wasn't able to do anything for Miki but he can for Ken. Also ramps up the drama even more when Minako goes into labor out of stress.

Morgana and Ken have a bit of tension in Futaba's arc so I thought it would tie nicely to have Morgana restore a bit of hope in Ken and convince him to take action.

Fun fact: Ken's brief summoning of Kala-Nemi without pulling off his mask in the PQ2 fic was meant to be foreshadowing to Ken's moment of summoning his Persona in the real world. He has the potential, he just never really attempted it.

Shido was... interesting to write. He wanted to use Ken either way but he did attempt to manipulate him. Ken also lets himself be intimidated. This in a way is a reverse of the Phantom Thieves' initial awakening. Shido is the one instigating Ken to fight back and thus gives rise to Tyr.

As I've explained in the past, Forseti was discarded as Ken's ultimate because it doesn't have that flair of rebellion/trickery. In hindsight, I do think Odysseus could've been a fitting in-between as well, but I'm content in my choice of Tyr, especially given Akechi's true Persona is Loki.

While I chose Kiyomi for Akihiko and Minako's daughter's name, I actually planned on naming her Kotone... until just a couple chapters before the Ken kidnapping arc was written. I didn't really feel it was a name that suited what Akihiko and Minako would pick. Akihiko canonically uses "Shinji" for Shinjiro and Minako strikes me as a type to enjoy nicknames too. So I picked Kiyomi, but they shorten it to Kiyo. They'll have three children in total and their two youngest also have names that have easy nicknames as well.

With the aftermath of the rescue though, Ken is just wracked with guilt. Makoto and Shinjiro and Akihiko all comfort him, but I feel it just makes sense that he would have a complex about people saving him. After all, his POV in Ultimax notes, after Kanji rescues him "I did it again..."

Mitsuru was having a very sleepless night though so her patience was worn very thin. So she snaps at Ken and that's what makes him ultimately crack.

Gotta throw in some humor though, so Shinji and Akihiko tease Ken about Makoto checking up on him.

I always thought it was a shame that the neutralization of Sae's cognition of Akechi was just recounted by Futaba. So it was amusing to do my version. Makoto was absent so... the other girls went in her place. And terrifying Yusuke (he'll live)

But speaking of Sae, I couldn't help myself by giving her a little bit of comedic torture. So Ren rambles on about Anne and what they're doing in the bedroom.

There was some drama with Sae revealing that she knows about Makoto dating Ken. I know it can be a meme that Sae is a protective sister but I feel that it's more interesting to play with Sae being shocked that Makoto has grown up so much that she's now in a relationship (since falling in love is usually part of growing up). And this does color how she tries to navigate interacting with Ken in future arcs.

While Ken and Ren have their scenes with their girlfriends in the aftermath of their trauma, the big scene was saved for their personal talk. Ren didn't get the full picture until Ken tells him, reinforcing that Ren is one of Ken's most important relationships in Ace in the Hole.

Ken and Shinji's small trip to Port Island needed to happen for plot reasons but I was glad to be able to write a few ensemble scenes.

Ken's fight with Mitsuru was to show how Ken's progressed (and how the PTs have influenced his fighting style now). And as you know, Mitsuru's insistence on Ken using the Ring of Darkness comes in handy during the Shido arc...

[iwonn-arts]

Shinjiro/Fuuka commisssion for @/xiao_lianfa <3

___ ✦ commissions✦ ⟡VGen ⟡Twitter(X) ⟡Bluesky

[personaaceinthehole]

A little teaser of what's to come for the epilogue of Ace in the Hole!

[personaaceinthehole]

what Strikers one shots do you have planned for Full Deck?

Sorry for missing this! it got buried underneath my notifs.

As for your question, the next will be regarding Sophia's codename. I will be deviating from canon. I'm not entirely sure how many oneshots i want to write of the Alice arc but there's a reason why I wrote in an interview of Rise talking about Yu. So that'll be elaborated in a future oneshot (most likely the retelling of the talk show part). And Zenkichi's intro will be incorporated in a oneshot too of course.

More under the cut but there will be Strikers spoilers!

I'm not sure how much I'll retell of the second and third arcs but i know that i want Ken to interact with Ichinose a bit, to hammer in how he'll be MAAAAD about what she pulls with Sophia.

Zenkichi will be interesting to cover, especially since Akihiko and Minako have Kiyomi. i think Zenkichi and Akihiko would have some interesting conversations about their careers and fatherhood.

And of course... I can't not cover the similarities Akane and Ken have ;)

[personaaceinthehole]

Finally got the Okumura arc all edited so wanted to sit down and continue my commentaries-

Just be warned, there are spoilers to future arcs in the commentary!

As always look below the cut!

- I knew pretty early on that I'd want to adjust how Haru ended up joining the Phantom Thieves. It's a common take in the fandom to feel that Morgana's arc hurt Haru's intro. This is why I decided to have a bit more of Haru in the past couple arcs, to start drip feeding into Haru's into.

- For newer readers who might be unaware, I originally wrote out Morgana's arc all together. Had Ren and Ken directly address the issue. However my beta did point out that the point of the arc is for Morgana's insecurities to come to a boiling point. We came up with a potential way to have a more happy medium between canon and my original idea.

- For anyone who was curious, I did have another idea of how to involve the Reaper. Which would've come in much later. Buuut more on that in the arc it was meant to happen

- But back to Mementos, it was fun writing Ken's reaction to it and mentally comparing it to Tartarus.

- Now with Hawaii school trip, I remember watching the scenes and feeling like there could've been a bit more with character interactions. I personally love character interactions, especially since Persona is half slice of life.

- And took that as an opportunity to add in some Ken/Makoto ship tease, since it's never clarified if Makoto roomed with anyone as a chaperone haha

- I also wanted to have an excuse to have them share a bed

- Ken has dealt with his own share of nightmares so he doesn't want to leave Makoto alone with her dark thoughts 💔

- Though honestly if Shinjiro ever found out that Ken slept in the same bed as Makoto before he figured out his feelings for her, he'd dope slap Ken so hard 💀💀

- also Makoto already has the gf buff that lets her get away with playing with Ken's hair~

- I added in the souvenir buying scene because it'd be fun to see everyone shop for their loved ones as well as a small hint about the Makoto-Sae plotline

- also small background drop on Anne's parents! Her paternal grandmother is Finnish-American and Anne takes a lot after her nana 🥰😊

- Ken's a guy so he doesn't pay much attention to specific flowers aside from the ones everyone knows. But he will remember Makoto mentioning her favorite flower after they start dating 👀

- Ren has had thoughts about the deed with Anne. He's perfectly happy waiting for Anne to be ready though. He won't outright admit it to Ken though lol

- Sugimura was far from pleasant to write. Shinjiro's intentional roast and Yusuke's unintentional roast were hilarious to write at least.

- Also I'm not sure how apparent it is, but Shinjiro's POV is one of my favorites to write. Snarky asshole makes for a lot of hilarious internal dialogue.

- For Okumura as a villain, I wanted there to be more nuance. So I emphasize that Haru loved the man he once was, more mentions of how he once loved his family, and how Haru's mother and little brother died due to complications. It doesn't excuse his present actions but I wanted there to be an emphasis on why Haru cares so much about changing his heart.

- I really feel that people sleep on Yusuke and Haru's similarities. I meant to originally just ship tease them a little but well. I kept adding more and more. Plus Haru liking Yusuke by the time of her rank 9 takes away from her heartbreak 💔

- Makoto and Ken are really meant for each other. Romantic disasters who hyper focus on details. also overthinkers to the core

- Makoto's never had a crush before. So she bluescreened rather hard during her realization.

- As revealed by Minako, Sugimura tried to cozy up to Mitsuru. Mitsuru tore into his ass hard and kicked him to the curb 💀

- I do wanna note that Mitsuru had a small crush on Minato during the tail end of P3. The Wild Card rizz is too powerful. But by the time Minato started spending time with Mitsuru though, he was with Yukari. Rather similar to the situation with Haru and Shuann. But like Haru, Mitsuru respected that Minato's heart was elsewhere. But as of right now, Mitsuru has little interest in dating. She has other things she'd rather focus on.

- Back to adding to the Morgana arc, he just really wanted to contribute to the team which is why he runs off while checking out the Okumura HQ 😭

- Adding onto Haru's awakening was really fun. Haru's speech to Okumura about fathers is inspired by 2003 Teen Titans Raven's speech to Trigon.

- The return of Shinjiro vs Sae! I won't lie, it was very funny to have them be at odds but in a comedic way. Then angelrin added to it by having him claim to Lala that Sae was a nutty alien conspiracist lol

- I really like Makoto and Haru's friendship but I wanted to add to Haru adopting the nickname Mako-chan. It's an intimate way to refer to someone in Japanese culture so I wanted to give them a moment where they connected, to add some connective tissue on why Haru would call Makoto that.

- also adding another scene to how distant Makoto and Sae are now :(

- also couldn't resist adding in the hot sauce coffee joke especially since Ren is now all in for coffee thanks to Sojiro haha

- but more importantly, this arc is the start of Ren's Wild Card arc. I don't think Ren would necessarily feel as small had he met Yu and Minako post P5 buuut not the case here. Ren is in the middle of his journey so hearing his predecessors having achieved so many feats is very intimidating.

- But that's why I love Ren and Ken's friendship. Ken loves all of his Wild Card leader friends in different ways and sees their different strengths. You'll note that Shinjiro only compares Ren to Minako due to their personality similarities. But Ken also mentally compares Ren with Minato, regarding the strength of their character.

- Makoto, in the Maniax character profiles, states she prefers a partner both smart and knows martial arts. so seeing Ken take down a Shadow just had her 🫣

- We also edited in an addition of Makoto mentioning Futaba's stamina... which will come back into play at the end of the Sae arc :(

- Hugs in Japan are much more intimate than in the west. When Shinjiro said that Ken lets Makoto touch him in a lot more ways than he's allowed other girls in the past he means it. And then the hug just lives rent free in Ken's head afterwards lol

- Annnd finally get to squeeze in a bit more of P4 in the Inaba visit! Aside from allowing for more inter game interaction, this was also allowing to add to Ren's wild card arc. Furthermore, I did want to tease that Yu is keying in that not everything is what it seems...

- Also Ren would 10000% make fun of Yu's inspirational speeches as shown in Arena

- I note this in the author's note but Inaba is based off of the small country town Fuefuki. I used Fuefuki to measure how far it would be from Tokyo. Port Island is inspired by Kobe. However, I place it further south than Kobe's location, on the southern border of the Kansai region. This is to keep in mind how SEES could ride a boat to get to Yakushima in about half a day.

- There have been many jokes about how clueless Ken is but 60% of why Ken doesn't get it is that he's such an overthinker when the real answer is actually the "simple" one. Don't get me wrong, he's still dumb. He just thinks too hard 💀

- Minako makes a remark about how it'd be great if they had kids who end up as best friends. Junpei and Chidori do end up having their first child almost in between the gap of Akihiko and Minako's first two children. I do plan on revealing when Minako's second pregnancy occurs during a Full Deck oneshot so keep an eye out.

- Miyuki and Kaito are the co-presidents of the Yukari Takeba fanclub. they will NOT be taking criticisms of their mommy

- I still love that the fandom collectively decided that Ken as a teenager would wear a sweater vest. And I'm more justified with Ace's design 😉

- One concept I had for Ken's end career is that he decides to go into prosecuting. I thought with Sae switching to being a defense attorney, Makoto going into the police force, it might make sense for Ken to become a prosecutor to help nudge the system along. However I do think that my choice for Ken's career fits well. Unintentionally ties into P5T too haha

- Annnd we've hit October 4th. Couldn't not go into a lot of detail for that day :(

- And of course there's the scene in the base P3, just to hammer it in. Between these two incidents, Ken has developed a complex about people "saving" him at their own expense. But more on that in the Sae arc commentary

- When I replayed P3P, Ken's dialogue of saying that his mother protected him that night always struck me. So I interpreted it as Hikari taking the hit for Ken. And Ken wound up getting a good deal of her blood on him :(

- Futaba of course had to come check up on Ken with their similarities backstory wise. I really do love their sibling-like relationship.

- Also Shinjiro's claim about Futaba needing to dry herself for the sake of the flooring was a total lie. He didn't want her to catch a cold but dude ain't gonna say it upfront 😂

- Shinjiro is also tired of Ken not figuring out that he's totally crushing on Makoto.

- Like I mentioned before, I interpret Ken as demisexual. But he also confused the lines of friendship and romantic love blurring with Makoto. Ahhh Ken, if only you were less oblivious, you could've gotten the girl so much sooner

- Annnd Ken falls right into panic mode. His brain goes into hyper mode, starts overanalyzing EVERYTHING. If Shinji could read Ken's mind, he would probably smack Ken 💀💀

- Writing Haru's reaction for the tail end of the Okumura Palace hurt :(

- But I really wanted to emphasize her resolve to change her father's heart. for it to be much more of a gut punch when the PTs fail.

- Ren is such a menace when it comes to teasing his friends. It'll be over for Ryuji when Ren keys in on him falling for Shiho post P5.

- The fandom tends to focus a lot of Yusuke's eccentricities. But I really loved bringing his more thoughtful side out, especially in how he empathizes with Haru.

- Also I really wanted Haru to get her chops in to help out the PTs. So team up with Morgana to free them from the barrier! And small reference to Ren's line during the Royal final battle~

- Even though my version is not the same as Royal's, I do think it's funny how I wrote in Cognitive Haru prior to Royal haha.

- Also Unison Attacks galore!! Not as bombastic as the visuals you see in PQ2 but writing the team ups was very fun.

- Writing Akechi's POV was interesting. There's an underlining of him projecting Shido onto Okumura but also him mentally justifying why this is fine.

- Annnd as some levity, I added more of Ken's crush crisis ft. Shinjiro (unwillingly).

- Also some background on Shinjiro and Fuuka's relationship! One person was surprised by Fuuka making the first move but I see Shinjiro being very reluctant to put himself out there. (Whaaaat, he's not a hypocrite at all)

- But also more of how Shinjiro knows Ken so well. I love their relationship so much 🥰❤️

- Shinjiro makes a comment on how Akihiko would probably be horrible with girl advice and that it's a good thing that he and Minako are expecting a girl. But they'll end up with two boys in the future lol

- Ken and Makoto's conversation in Destinyland is meant to also hint that Ken pays attention a lot to what Makoto says. So that's why he takes her out to Seaside Park for their first date ❤️

- Annnnd then everything goes to hell :((

- I pull a lot from canon scenes so I really wanted to add onto how Ren feels about this "failure". In his perspective, nobody has screwed up as a leader like he has. Fortunately he has good friends to push back on this sentiment

- And with how Mitsuru constantly is reluctant to burden her friends, she immediately panicked when they saw what happened to Okumura. Technically, she isn't wrong when she states that Shinjiro would agree that they should come back to Port Island. But Shinjiro has been watching Ken as he interacts with the PTs and he knows Ken won't just take that lying down.

[personaaceinthehole]

Okumura Arc, Fully Edited

I'm happy to announce that the Okumura arc (Chapter 19 - 29) are completely edited now! Many thanks to @angelrinisadork for her hard word and edits.

Please see below the cut for direct links!

Chapter 19: Back to School

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/41449679 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/20/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 20: Aloha!

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/41899793 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/21/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 21: Change of Plans

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/42104372 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/22/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 22: Fate Is In Your Hands

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/42555563 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/23/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 23: Enter Noir, the Phantom Thief

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/42879665 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/24/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 24: Lasting Impressions

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/43407293 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/25/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 25: The Spaceport of Greed

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/43555898 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/26/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 26: The Inaba Trip

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/44172691 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/27/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 27: Conflicting Feelings

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/44624587 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/28/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 28: Good Parents, Bad Parents

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/45062431 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/29/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 29: Crash Landing

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/45312511 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/30/Ace-In-The-Hole

[personaaceinthehole]

you wouldn’t be happening to be going back and editing older characters of Ace in the Hole would you?

Yes, as I've stated in the last chapter's author's note, my beta and I are working on reediting all the chapters. We're working on Chapter 27 now. I will make a post when Okumura arc is fully edited, like I have for the Kaneshiro and Futaba arcs. We wanted to get it done before the epilogue.

[cinderace231-deactivated2025112]

Been rereading one of my favorites Persona fanfic where Ken Amada is sent to Tokyo to not investigate the Phantom Thieves but to also find a way to stop Shido, who doesn't know about him been part of the Shadow Operatives.

The name of the fanfic is The Ace in the Hole. I highly recomended.

So I wanted to make a fanart of Ken as Ace, his Phantom thief self. This was my first time drawing Ken as Ace so I hope that you all like it.

Plus this is my gift to the creator, @personaaceinthehole, thanks to this fanfic this was some that kept me distracted during the pandemic and that you can still make such a high quality Persona longfic such as this. I hope you like my gift to you and your beta @angelrinisadork

God bless you both of you.

[personaaceinthehole]

AAAAAAH this looks just incredible!! thank you so much for this adorable art of Ace <3

[personaaceinthehole]

Full Deck - Chapter 4

Full Deck's fourth chapter is up!! It's about my reimagining for Strikers' beginning.

You can read it on AO3 or FFN.

[personaaceinthehole]

Behind the Scenes - Futaba Arc

Follow up to this post! This time it's covering the Futaba arc!

At the tail end of my writing the Kaneshiro arc, I was replaying P3P. More specifically, I reached October 4th. So I had a very clear image of what I wanted to do with Ken's character during the Futaba arc.

But I also knew that I needed to build up to the reveal to the Phantom Thieves in this arc. I originally had a different idea of how I wanted the reveal to go and it would lead to the PTs feeling betrayed. However, about midway into the Futaba arc, I started feeling the whole scenario was OOC. So I decided to revise it and have Ken push for telling the truth. It gives Ken more agency and imo, it makes his own personal growth more pronounced.

As I've stated before, I also consider Ace in the Hole Ken's coming of age story. He starts to come into his own and this makes it click in SEES's brains that no, he's not a kid anymore. He'll forever be baby brother to them but SEES stops treating him like a kid.

When Ken states he was cleaning up the magazines in the living room when Fuuka and Shinji are kissing, he's really hastily trying to hide that there are wedding ring catalogues mixed in.

I also wanted to expand on Haru's small appearance during the festival. So the PTs actually get to speak with Haru shortly and a small build-up to Okumura and Sugimura.

When Shinji teases Ken about sharing an umbrella with Makoto, this is because in Japanese culture, it's a gesture that can be considered romantic. However, as Shinji tells Ken later, he did notice that Ken was more okay with going on a first name basis with Makoto sooner. Shinji honestly picked up on a lot of the cues with KenMako and silently judging Ken for being oblivious about it lol.

But with Ken suggesting his and Shinji's place as a place to meet... I really was 💀 at the Madarame/Kaneshiro hideout. Like guys, please... find a more private place... At least they got it starting in Futaba arc haha.

In my edits with my beta @angelrinisadork, she suggested altering where Ken got the spear. I think it really adds to building up to Ken's lies... which ultimately feeds to his guilt.

Speaking of that, Ken's relationship to the PTs is meant to be a foil to Akechi's. Ken's relationship starts out more friendly to them, ultimately joins the PTs under a pretense, but comes clean with them. Akechi is more antagonistic, also lies to the PTs while joining under a pretense but doesn't come clean eventually.

Also I get why some fans feel that Ken and Akechi would get along/relate to each other. But with Akechi's facade, he's just not Akechi's biggest fan. Additionally to that, he's rude to Makoto in canon and at this point, he's friends with Makoto.

And since Makoto is Ken's love interest, I decided to tweak the ship tease moment Ren had with Makoto at Sojiro's house but up to eleven, to have Makoto really latch onto Ken to start the ship tease rolling. The Kaneshiro arc was about starting Ken and Makoto's friendship and Futaba arc was about them developing romantic feelings. The Okumura arc was about them realizing feelings and the beginning of the Sae arc has them get together.

Ken's fear of the dark stems from his weakness being dark/curse.

In the very first version of Ace in the Hole, I had Ken just automatically switch to first name, no honorifics. Buuuut I think that's not completely fitting to Ken's character so the Futaba arc is when Ken addresses the PTs by first name-san.

Chapter 9 starts Ken slipping up a bit on his knowledge of Shadows and Personas. He's not perfect but at least he quickly recovers.

“You have your whole life ahead of you, Ken… don't waste it.” That quote from P3 pops up a couple times in the Futaba arc. I wrote Ken echoing this to Futaba later. While I didn't develop the parallel to October 4th for the casino aftermath until the Okumura arc, I think it's really fitting for Ken to pass along this wisdom to Futaba, who's going through something similar to Ken during P3.

Ken's codename came to mind because I wanted a name that ultimately referred to his past experience. But I also think it fits since Ren is the deuteragonist to Ken's protagonist so it's fitting that they both have a codename referring to playing card motifs.

Also yes, the Sailor Moon joke was absolutely necessary. Since Ken and Makoto's first child is a son, I imagine that Ren threw out the name Mamoru as a suggestion. Ken was very unamused about it.

Ken confronting Ren about his obvious feelings for Anne and yet is oblivious to Makoto's feelings and his own in the Okumura arc was 100% on purpose. But I also added this scene to start having Ren wonder what Ken isn't saying to them yet... Of course, the reader 100% knows that Ken is thinking of Minato and the limited time he and Yukari had together but that's the fun of dramatic irony.

I don't have Ken use his gun much on purpose, he's a little uncomfortable with it still because of October 4th. But he's forced to use it during the Akechi fight so it's a good thing that Ren insists on continuing to upgrade his gun.

Ken's Confidant would be similar to Sojiro's, in that his first 5 ranks would be available after he joins the party. I thought of writing a small scene where Ken declines Ren asking to hang out but it felt unnatural to me so I scrapped that.

I had Ken meet Shiho during this arc because it would make Ken realize why Anne takes Futaba's situation so seriously. Also extra bonus of writing in Ken hanging out with the PTs.

Also I couldn't resist writing Shinji's reaction to Yusuke's poor eating habits haha.

Playing with cognitions was something I started in Okumura's Palace but my beta had the great idea of adding a more benevolent Cognitive Sojiro in Futaba's Palace.

Ken's mother's ring was an heirloom from Ken's dad's side of the family. It has a more vintage design. This was supposed to be imply that Ken's dad was on the richer side and that's part of why Ken's uncle is a stuck up little snot.

Also Sae immediately honed in on Makoto calling Ken by his first name due to her knowing that her little sister is on the more formal side. She doesn't know that Makoto calls all of the PT boys by their first name since Makoto uses Akechi-kun.

Sae is 25 in my head because I feel it makes sense with the Christmas cake belief. It also enforces her being foils with Shinji.

I decided to go with the Shuann confession buildup to be a bit more of a romcom situation. So Anne sees Makoto on a fake date with Ren and comes to the conclusion that they're secretly dating, while having her own love epiphany. I also combined Ren's dialogue for Anne's romance route. In the Japanese version it was you have me vs you have us. I have no idea why the localization changed it but I wanted to acknowledge the original dialogue. Anne just ultimately chickens out of confessing because she thinks Ren is with Makoto.

But Ken was always gonna have a panic attack at the "flashback" of Wakaba's death. Writing this had me realize that I would have to Ken flashback to Hikari's death. So I settled on it being a nightmare flashback on October 4th.

Also Shinji had a feeling that seeing Futaba's Palace would be hard on Ken so he cooked Ken comfort food. I really wanted to enforce in the story that while they argue and bicker a lot now, they also get each other. Shinjiro and Ken's relationship post-canon is always interesting to me to explore and it's one of Ken's most important relationships in the story.

Anne was so determined to get Ren and Makoto to come clean. It's really no wonder that Ryuji snapped. When Ryuji states that Ren has liked Anne since June at least, he's referring to the bath scene with the boys. Ren admitted then that he thought Anne was breathtaking.

Ken's thoughts in this scene were basically "I TOLD YOU REN-SAN" and "You have GOT to be kidding me" and the verbal equivalent of OTL

Personally, I don't subscribe to the notion that Ren fell in love with Anne at first sight. But her moment of kindness to Ren wasn't miniscule and there was definitely something for them in that moment. I feel the Japanese concept of koi no yokan suits them better. Koi no yokan is described as the feeling of love being inevitable, it will develop over time, even if you don't feel it during that specific moment rather than love at first sight.

On a similar note, Ken showcased a moment of attraction to Makoto when he first saw her. But it's the mutual opening up to each other that ultimately had Ken fall for her. Makoto was the first girl Ken's age to show an interest in him, rather than the other girls being interested in a star athlete. A lot of people prefer the ship trope of Opposites Attract. I enjoy this trope as well, but I personally feel that Birds of a Feather fits them. The fact that Makoto mentions she would like a scholar who has knowledge of martial arts in her ideal lover in the Maniax character files enforces this for me.

But with Ken trying to comfort Morgana, I figured it would help for Ken to relate the situation with Akihiko/Minako. In both situations, it's kinda hopeless. Ken's 11 when he meets the 17 year old Minako; Morgana is a cat.

Expanding on the Wakaba fight/Futaba awakening was pretty fun. But another important aspect was enforcing Morgana slowly feeling pushed out in the PTs. Ken joining the PTs just made the feelings worse because he can help advise Ren in combat.

I also swapped Ken in for Ren when checking up on Futaba due to the emphasis on Ken's worrying for Futaba.

Shinji brings up Teddie and Metis for a reason when discussing Futaba's Shadow. Because all three of them are golden Shadows, a Jungian concept. Golden Shadows are positive repressed feelings and ultimately Futaba's Shadow was her desire to live and remember the truth.

Another early concept I ultimately scrapped was that Ryuji's mother was childhood friends with Ken and Akechi's mothers and I would introduce it when Ken and Shinji go to speak to Ryuji's mother about adopting one of Koromaru's puppies. I was inspired by ATLA with Katara and Sokka's grandmother having a friend in the North Pole and recognizing Katara's necklace. I would've written Ken meeting Ryuji's mother and she would recognize Ken as Hikari's son.

However, I decided to not go with the idea. I just added Ken showing Makoto a photo of him with Hikari and have Makoto note two things: a) Ken looks a lot like Hikari and b) she has reddish brown eyes.

The senpai trio scene had a couple of purposes but the main one was to establish Shinji has an ultimate Persona and hint at Shinji's reluctance to join the fray. He ultimately changes his mind though, after seeing everything Ken goes through.

Also the scene of Ren thinking of turning himself in if they can't rely on Futaba is 100% foreshadowing to what happens to Ren at the end of P5.

Ken and Futaba bonding over Feathermen was fun to write. But I had to write in Ken feeling that Yusuke mangled Futaba's figurines haha.

Futaba's conversation with Ken about the Shadow Operatives was important. Futaba is essentially the linchpin, the final push for Ken to decide not to keep hiding the truth.

I love the headcanon that Futaba is a Yukari fangirl so I decided to add in a Feathermen event so Futaba can meet her. It was also a good opportunity to adjust the Akechi scene where he talks about his mother by paralleling it with the twins.

I actually have another Shuyuka fankid for another verse but the twins were created for this au. They were created to serve as a foil to Akechi's situation. Unfortunately, this made Akechi a little bitter that their situation is way better.

Yukari is also the best person to convince Mitsuru to give permission to Ken to come clean, given their friction in P3 about Mitsuru hiding/concealing things.

Also Ken is in denial about it but he definitely has a thing for brunettes who's at least a little bit of a tomboy haha.

Writing the recap of P3 was lengthy but I needed to write everyone's reactions for them to understand everything SEES went through. I also wanted to enforce why SEES is so important to Ken through this recap. This is also the beginning of Ren's feeling inferior to the past Wild Cards. But as Ken tells him later, he's a great leader. This was also to set up the PTs to slowly trust the Shadow Ops. in canon, P5 shows the PTs trust a select few but I wanted to elaborate more on this.

[personaaceinthehole]

Ace in the Hole has hit over 2.5k kudos! So to celebrate, I thought I'd write a series of Behind The Scenes posts. This will cover the Kaneshiro arc and the very early stages of planning behind of Ace in the Hole. There will be spoilers sprinkled in so if you haven't read up to the latest chapter, beware.

Ace in the Hole was essentially conceived because the context clues in P5 pointed to the year of 2016 and that led to me realizing that Ken would be the PTs' age. I then started to think about why the Shadow Operatives are not present and what their perceptions of the PTs would be.

In the very first draft, I had planned on Minako being the Great Seal. However, I think it fits better to have Minako as the surviving twin, due to the circumstances of the Shuyuka twins' birth. They serve as a better foil to Akechi's birth due to this. In this scenario, there would've been a heavy leaning of Ren reminding Ken of Minako.

I also decided on Wakaba having a connection to the Shadow Ops as a way to have them aware of Shido's actions early on. Just that they're not able to do much with Shido using the fact that the SO are a government group to hinder them.

Shinjiro being Ken's guardian is actually one of my favorite headcanons and I wish it was featured more in post-P3 fics. But drawing attention to their relationship was important, especially later in the fic, to show how Ken is different from Akechi.

I also decided early on that Ken would be related to Akechi but my original idea was that Ken's father was Akechi's mother's brother and Akechi just changed his last name, like in the finalized draft. But I decided on making their moms related, as I thought it would be better to draw parallels between them and their mothers.

I draw attention to Mitsuru noting that Ken can be considered an adult in certain countries, even if he isn't in Japan. This is because Ace in the Hole is also a Coming of Age story for Ken.

It's really not just Shinji who tends to feel protective of Ken as the youngest member of SEES, he's just the most vocal about it. And well... it's not completely unmerited, with how Shinji has a couple moments where he's stepped in to help Ken. More humorously with Kaneshiro's goon with how he effortlessly beats him up and more seriously, with the kidnapping mini-arc. (More on that during the Sae arc post)

Also I had to make fun of Ken being a chick magnet in-series, hence it being brought up time and time again. Ken personally strikes me as demisexual so the girls not bothering to get to know him always was a huge turn-off for him.

In the earliest draft, I had Ken speak with Mishima about Kamoshida. It didn't turn out quite right, however, so I changed it to Ken speaking with Newspaper-chan.

Ren notes that Ken's slightly taller than him. He's 5'10" because I wanted him to be the same height as Akechi. But the thought of him outstripping Akihiko in height during high school also amuses me. On a similar note, Shinjiro is 5'11" so he can still be the tallest SEES male.

But Ren and Ken's first meeting is also important because I wanted it to be a reverse of most of the first impressions Ren has with his future friends. Most of the first meetings Ren has are a little rough but Ken is less judgmental especially since he's been half-raised by Shinji for the past 4 years.

I also altered the info gathering on Kaneshiro a bit to involve Ken a little more in the Kaneshiro plotline.

I also wrote in dialogue from Shinji, indicating that Ken wrecked his eyesight due to his habits of studying well into the night. But part of why Ken studies so hard is to keep his scholarship, which he feels he should keep up to be less of a burden on Shinji.

I also don't care for the Shinjuku scene at all so I imply that it didn't occur at all here, which is why Ryuji's complaints of it have been completely omitted. I imagine that Ren and Ryuji just got to go home peacefully after Ren got the intel from Ohya.

I also gave Shinji a job at Crossroads because a) I think he'd mesh well with Lala and b) the idea of him dealing with Ohya is funny lol.

Also regarding the Ken and Akechi fight, I decided on that for a couple reasons. 1) I needed a reason for Ken to awaken in the Metaverse and 2) I wanted there to be a parallel to Akechi's lie to the PTs on how he awakened.

Since there are instances of party members stagnating in spin-offs, I figured that Ken stagnating a bit in combat and levels would make sense.

When I was configuring Ken's moveset, I decided to swap Ken's electric skills for gun skills and swapping in the Kouha line of spells, to follow more closely with P5's spells. The gun skills in P5 vanilla were only utilized by Haru, plus I thought it was a nice nod towards Evokers.

It's touched on in the story but I chose Ken's outfit based on two things. 1) The similarities to the Gekkoukan uniform and 2) it has a gentleman thief flare. But also Ken dealing with Sailor Moon jokes is funny lol.

An early draft of Ken's mask was based of the Phantom of the Opera mask. It was supposed to symbolize how Ken was masking part of himself from the PTs. But I eventually scrapped the idea, unsure of how it'd look with Ken's outfit. So I started to look at different types of masks and eventually found a black and white mask, which I thought was a cool reference to yin-yang. And since Haru just has a regular black masquerade mask, I thought it'd be a little more unique.

I want to say that Ken starts out as Lawful Good but his development slowly pushes him to Neutral Good.

I wanted to hint that Ken isn't completely immune to oogling girls, which is why he gets embarrassed looking at Anne in her Panther suit and he's stunned with how Makoto looks in her Queen suit. He's definitely still the most proper out of the boys though haha.

I also wanted Ken to have interactions with all of the PTs before the Kaneshiro arc. Makoto does get a little more than the rest since she's Ken's love interest but I wanted everyone to meet Ken in the real world and interact with him.

In the first draft, I thought to have Ken and Ryuji to be closer but as it panned out, Ken's closest relationships within the PTs ended up being Makoto, Futaba, and Ren. But I think the way it panned out made sense.

I also wanted to establish early on that Akechi has been keeping tabs on Ken. It just becomes more sinister as Akechi finds out their relation and uses his resources to be able to stalk Ken.

And yeah, I always planned for Ken's birthday to end up with him being chased by Ryuji. It serves a couple of purposes. The PTs become aware of his presence before they actually see who it is and to show that Ken may have experience but he's a little green with transversing Palaces.

For the Kaneshiro fight, I wanted Ken to have a moment where he ends up helping the Phantom Thieves. I also took some inspiration from the anime where Anne burns up some of Kaneshiro's money as well.

Given his knowledge of past Shadow nests, I figured that the Palace blowing up would really knock Ken off-kilter. It was then that I decided that's when Ken's cover would be blown. A couple reviewers commented that it was stupid for Ken to just run but it was either Ken being frozen in place (and I doubt that he would've been able to come up with a coherent excuse then) or him running. I opted to have him run away so Shinji, Minako, and Akihiko could help him figure out a game plan.

Ken and Makoto are both oblivious to it but some gossip stirred up when Makoto dragged him off (from their point of view) to talk in private. Sometimes I feel like a Full Deck chapter about the school's reactions to Ken/Makoto and/or Ren/Anne would be interesting, haha.

During the edits with my lovely beta, we decided to rehaul Ken's excuses on what happened, how he gained his powers, and why he was there to begin with. It really helped build up Ken's lie, only for him to eventually crumble as he continues to lie to the PTs.

[personaaceinthehole]

Futaba Arc Fully Edited

I'm happy to announce that the Futaba arc (Chapter 7 - 18) are now fully edited! We will be working on the Okumura arc soon. @angelrinisadork had some really great ideas for edits, so thank you again for your hard work! As with the Kaneshiro arc, I'll be sharing links to all the edited chapters below the cut.

Chapter 7: Medjed's Declaration

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/38103452 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/8/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 8: A New Member

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/38444456 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/9/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 9: The Pyramid Of Wrath

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/38584880 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/10/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 10: To Be A Phantom Thief

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/38965541 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/11/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 11: Down Time

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/39083104 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/12/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 12: Finish Line

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/39226767 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/13/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 13: Resolution

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/39475531 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/14/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 14: I'll Face Myself

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/39960801 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/15/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 15: Waiting Game

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/40400357 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/16/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 16: Futaba's Training

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/40782911 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/17/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 17: The First Outing

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/41054819 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/18/Ace-In-The-Hole

Chapter 18: Final Days Of Summer

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15503640/chapters/41237633 FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13019266/19/Ace-In-The-Hole

[personaaceinthehole]

@/Audreymak66 drew their interpretation of Tyr, Ken's third tier Persona in Ace in the Hole! I love their idea of the arm cannon resembling a wolf because of the Norse myth and how Tyr's body shape is a bit closer to Nemesis's. They did an awesome job, thank you again!!

[personaaceinthehole]

Got this simply adorable art done by @/Audreymak66 on twitter! The Ace in the Hole PTs as Maushold! Thank you again for this lovely art <3

[personaaceinthehole]

little something i got for the epilogue~ The epilogue will be similar to the P4G Golden ending with a timeskip to summer of 2017. I've had this ending planned for AGES, prior to Strikers dropping in Japan. And the ending will show Shinji and Fuuka's wedding and I'll be slowly getting art for the bridal party and such. However, since I'm still gathering refs for Fuuka's bridesmaids, I decided to get the PT girls' wedding looks first. Big shoutout to @angelrinisadork for coming up with these stunning looks for the PT girls!

[personaaceinthehole]

People might be wondering what about Strikers in this verse, since the epilogue is during the summer of 2017. As I hinted last chapter, Owada is still around. It's just that the events of Strikers will be delayed by a year. I have a oneshot in the works covering the beginning of Strikers, just a tad different to reflect some changes in this verse. It's about halfway done but I have a few oneshots in the works for Full Deck so it's just a matter of which I finish first.

[personaaceinthehole]

little something i got for the epilogue~ The epilogue will be similar to the P4G Golden ending with a timeskip to summer of 2017. I've had this ending planned for AGES, prior to Strikers dropping in Japan. And the ending will show Shinji and Fuuka's wedding and I'll be slowly getting art for the bridal party and such. However, since I'm still gathering refs for Fuuka's bridesmaids, I decided to get the PT girls' wedding looks first. Big shoutout to @angelrinisadork for coming up with these stunning looks for the PT girls! Art is by @/dehubbleton on Twitter!

[personaaceinthehole]

Since the Answer DLC for Reload just dropped, wanted to share a bit on Yukari and the twins in the Ace in the Hole verse-

Yukari is obviously grieving a lot, like in canon. But she actually knew she was pregnant when the Answer happened. I leave it a bit vague in-story, regarding the timing of the twins' conception, just that they were born a couple weeks early and that their birthday is in September. But Yukari was late in her first trimester during the Answer. The main reason why the twins exist is to serve as a contrast to Akechi; Yukari received support from SEES while Tsukiko unfortunately did not. But I also thought it would make Yukari's behavior a little more tragic since she wants Minato to get to know their unborn child.

Yukari would only reveal this during her breakdown after trying to take the key from Aigis. But it also makes Mitsuru encouraging her to let everyone support her more poignant.