Fairly English Story

""Scooby Doo flashback!"

--Minato in chapter 83"

""My name is Minato Arisato, I'm a Fool Arcana so I got a bajillion Personae, but my first one was Orpheus. I use whatever weapon I can get my hands on but I always did like Shortswords, and my favourite fictional character is Simon the Digger."

--Minato in chapter 91, introducing himself to the previous generations of Persona users."

""That thing came from you Yosuke. You have to admit it or it'll go bearzerk again." Next person that says that has this bottle shoved where the sun don't shine.

'''Teddie, followed by Souji's monolouge in Face Every Shadow, Chapter 7."

Persona 3: Fairly English Story started as an AU Fic of what the author thinks Persona 3: FES would have been like if Minato Arisato had been raised in England after his parents' death. Then things started to deviate from the original source material, and Stuff Happened.

It's told in first person from Minato's perspective, giving him more of a personality while still keeping the sleepy, expressionless teen that Fanon has made him out to be, while taking a few levels in badass along the way. Towards the later chapters, things start to get a little out of hand, yet it still somehow manages not to break canon most of the time, even the canon for its somewhat direct sequel, Persona 4.

It also serves as a deconstruction of the concept of the Mary Sue / Black Hole Sue. Basically, Minato reaches Sue status, then the world refuses to play by the Sue's rules.

The author has posted the first chapter of the sequel (titled For Every Soul, because get it? FES?) and there's an omake series called FESxtras, formerly called "Investigation Team Yo!". Then he goes on a two-year mission. Casey W has also begun work on an official sequel from the viewpoint of Seta Souji as he goes through the events of the altered Persona 4 canon. It's called Face Every Shadow. All tropes related should go below.

The Author recently did a prequel called Stay Awake With Me, which covers the events between Minato's parents dying and him moving to England. It's alrady a Tear Jerker just on its own, but if you've already read Fairly English Story, then it's just absolutely heartbreaking. A rewrite is also currently in the works, titled Rebuild of Fairly English Story. If you considered reading Fairly English Story but was put off by the poor writing quality, then check these out.

Tropes contained in Persona 3: Fairly English Story that were not included in the original game.
""Will you say Candle Jack?""
 * The Ace - Minato. Except at Video Games.
 * Always Someone Better - Usually Minato. It shocks him when he finds it's someone else.
 * Arson Murder and Jaywalking - Minato's sense of priorities aren't always the same as everyone else's.
 * Acquired Situational Narcissism - Minato does a lot of awesome things. This often inflates his ego. Now he's much more humble, but still points out that he is awesome on several occasions.
 * Arc Words - First it's "Price on your honesty", then "Fire and Ice and Rage".
 * Ascended Extra - The Reaper is turned into an actual character. Yeah.
 * starts off as just a nice little cameo. By the end of the story, he has become part of a huge cast of supporting characters, while
 * Author Appeal - Can you think of any other reason why the Jakkai become anthropomorphic animals?
 * Big Brother Mentor -
 * Big Brother Instinct - Makes sense, given the backstory.
 * Then when we actually see the backstory, it makes even more sense.
 * Big Screwed Up Family - On Minato's mother's side, her brother is in the SBS, his cousin (his Distaff Counterpart of Persona 3: Portable) has been trained to fight since she could walk, his other cousin goes for midnight runs atop buildings. His father's?
 * It gets even worse that he didn't even know about it being  for ten years.
 * Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu -
 * Bag of Spilling - Averted. The S.E.E.S. armoury holds a large pile of normal weapons, but Minato keeps the good stuff to himself and loans out the leftovers, much like how most players did during the game.
 * Body Horror - Jessica. 'Nuff said.
 * Bring My Brown Pants - Invoked by name.
 * Big Eater - Minato, Ryoji, Mitsuru.
 * Big No - See the Running Gag below.
 * Bigger Stick - Shinji's favourite trope.
 * Bilingual Backfire - For the first few chapters, Minato has to concentrate to understand Japanese. If someone says something and he isn't ready for it, it's written in Romaji.
 * Bilingual Bonus - Minato's nickname for
 * Black and Grey Morality
 * Blade Lock
 * Bullet Catch
 * Candle Jack -
 * Carnival of Killers - The worst part was when they realised just what their target was.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue
 * Chekhov's Armory - Subverted. The author takes the tiniest things and creates whole plotlines with them, so readers start looking for Lost level patterns. In reality, the author's really just playing Xanatos Speed Chess.
 * Chess With Death - You Just Lost The Game.
 * Minato's also got a contest going on with the Reaper too.
 * Combat Pragmatist - Minato. Makes sense when we meet the uncle who raised him.
 * Clothing Damage - Gender flipped: Since Minato's furthest on the front line, his clothes take the most damage.
 * Played straight later on with
 * Crazy Prepared - Minato, to somewhat scary levels sometimes.
 * Can't Bathe Without a Weapon - Don't ask where he was keeping that spare Evoker. Just… don't.
 * Crazy Enough to Work
 * Crossover - Persona, Eternal Punishment, Innocent Sin, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, Shin Megami Tensei II, Devil Survivor, Shin Megami Tensei If, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona 4, Devil May Cry. Turns out that last one actually does count as SMT.
 * Conveniently Timed Attack From Behind -
 * Akihiko did it for Minato too, at one point.
 * Colour Coded for Your Convenience - Devil Rounds.
 * Combat Pragmatist -
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive - Minato learns a few things from Tanaka.
 * Curb Stomp Battle - Whenever Minato gets an advantage over his enemy, the battle quickly becomes this.
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique -
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy - Minato.
 * Darker and Edgier - You would think this would be hard to do in a world where the world's already gonna end and there's nothing you can do about it, but it happens.
 * Death Is Cheap -
 * - Read at your own risk.
 * Destructive Saviour - At least he destroys the evidence.
 * Delinquents - Minato was heartbroken that Banchou culture had died out in Japan.
 * Determinator -
 * Dead Little Sister -
 * The Prequel. Just... The Prequel.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The author himself admits mainly getting his information off the Megami Tensei Wiki; though there are some errors that would have been avoidable.
 * Case in point, his Tatsuya Suou has aparently killed Philemon. Who invokes As Long As There Is Good.
 * Similarly, Tatsuya describes the Wild Card as an 'impossible' power (or, for reference's sake, an Innocent Sin), which begets an Eternal Punishment. As the respective title's pages explain, the titles refer to Tatsuya himself, not his Wild Card.
 * Did Cthuhlhu Just Punch You Out?
 * Die or Fly - Literally.
 * Digging to China - What happens if you drop an indestructible spear that pierces anything? It turns up a couple of days later in Canada.
 * Divine Parentage -
 * Don't Look At Me
 * Drunk With Power - Both played straight and literally.
 * Dual Wielding
 * Eldritch Abomination
 * Energy Absorption - Why Fuuka's so important.
 * Epic Fail - Minato has one for every Epic Win he does. Unfortunately, his victories aren't always as memorable as his failures.
 * Equivalent Exchange - Usually SP, but some of the more hardcore stuff demands different fees.
 * Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting - January is an interesting month, considering it only took place over the space of ten chapters.
 * - Again, January is an interesting month.
 * Facing the Bullets One Liner
 * Equivalent Exchange - Usually SP, but some of the more hardcore stuff demands different fees.
 * Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting - January is an interesting month, considering it only took place over the space of ten chapters.
 * - Again, January is an interesting month.
 * Facing the Bullets One Liner

"If anyone asks, I'll say Junpei did it."
 * False Flag Operation -  He thought this up seconds after the fight ended.
 * Fan Nickname - Minato gives these out to people. Extra points go to for the Bilingual Bonus.
 * Fangs Are Evil - Or at least a sign of demonic power.
 * Festival Episode / Breather Episode - Considering what happens next, both tropes apply.
 * Fighting Your Friend - Minato gets charmed. RUN.
 * Also when Minato has to beat some sense into Junpei from time to time.
 * Fix Fic - Averted by Word of God
 * Freudian Excuse - Inverted. Minato punches those people even harder for being pussies.
 * Played straight with Minato's. He's the walking example of a psychopath with a broken psyche.
 * Flat What - A lot.
 * Foreshadowing - Whenever Minato maxes a Social Link, this happens.
 * Fun With Acronyms - The sequel is named "For Every Soul".
 * Then there's Fairly English Story.
 * And now Face Every Shadow.
 * Averted with Stay Awake With Me.
 * The Glasses Come Off - YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!
 * Good Thing You Can Heal - Dia, we love you.
 * Guns Are Worthless - Averted. Hard.
 * Hannibal Lecture - Hell, even Minato gives one in the middle of an I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight against Junpei.
 * His enemies do it too sometimes.
 * Headphones Equal Isolation - Minato listens to less and less music as he gets more responsible. He plugs in the headphones only when he's running from these responsibilities.
 * Help Yourself in The Past - He gets a skill that lets him do this, and it's powered by Awesome.
 * Heroic BSOD -
 * Heroic RROD - Valhalla
 * Heroic Resolve - Minato, but others would too if he gave them a chance.
 * Heroic Sociopath - Minato. Fire and Ice and Rage, indeed.
 * He's Back - Several times. Now he's back to stay.
 * Hey Its That Voice - While watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the characters note that Simon's voice sounds a lot like Minato.
 * High Altitude Battle -
 * Hoist By His Own Petard - If Minato offers you a gun the size of a small child to shoot him in the back with, Don't Do It!
 * In addition, most, if not all, of Minato's problems are caused by his actions, so this trope also applies to him. A freaking lot!
 * Hope Spot
 * Hot Blooded - Surprisingly, Minato
 * How Do I Shot Web -
 * How Much More Can He Take - Minato Vs, Nyx.
 * Ho Yay - To the extent where Minato considers whether he's Homophobic or just plain tired of it.
 * Humans Are Bastards - Yet, Minato likes them.
 * Implausible Deniability
 * Implausible Deniability

"Minato in Chapter 59: "This is the line in the sand... To cross this line is to cross me. And to cross me is to end.""
 * Intimate Psychotherapy -
 * Turns out,
 * In the Blood -
 * Indy Ploy - Gods, demons, terrorists, schoolteachers, and Magnificent Bastards are all plotting against Minato. He just goes with it.
 * Author's kinda doing this too, just not so much lately.
 * Infant Immortality -
 * Immune to Bullets -
 * It Got Worse - Chapter 79 onward is made of this trope.
 * From chapter 94:
 * Its Up to You - At first, Minato is chosen to lead as Akihiko was injured and he was the most competent fighter out of him, Yukari and Junpei. However, once people start realising just how powerful he is, he ends up doing most of the fighting in many of the fights.
 * Then again, it's from his point of view, so he'd only really talk about the others if he can see them, and since he's almost always leading the attack, he just doesn't notice what they're doing, so they level up behind the scenes.
 * Jesus Was Way Cool -
 * Karma Houdini - Justified.
 * Katanas Are Just Better - Averted in an epic Oh Crap moment.
 * Kill Steal - Happens in Tartarus many times.
 * Kill It With Fire - Usually works.
 * Kill It With Ice
 * Kill It With Water
 * Kinda Busy Here
 * Knife Nut - Minato has rules to stop himself from overusing them.
 * Knight of Cerebus - Ikutsuki.
 * Large Ham - One of Minato's back-up plans to defeat Nyx is to shout as hard as he can.
 * Laser Guided Karma - Minato gets this often in the first half of the story.
 * Lampshade Hanging - Minato often gets irritated at the spooky voices in his head reminding him that he's farming friends for demonic powers at the most inappropriate times.
 * Lawyer Friendly Cameo - Dante appeared in Nocturne, so it's okay for him to appear in this fic apparently. Even though other characters have actually played Devil May Cry.
 * Leeroy Jenkins - Minato for a while until the Senpai call him out on it.
 * The Legions of Hell - They act as Big Damn Heroes for Minato.
 * Let's Get Dangerous - Even Minato does this.
 * Level Grinding - They call it "Training".
 * Life or Limb Decision - Minato often has to do this. He usually winds up picking the other guy's limb.
 * Line in The Sand - Done after the November Full Moon.
 * Not quite what the trope means, but the following quote was just too good to pass up on.
 * Not quite what the trope means, but the following quote was just too good to pass up on.


 * Last Second Chance - If his enemy is human, he will usually give them a couple of warnings to back down before slaughtering them. Usually.
 * Ley Line - Suggested as a reason for why Japan gets all the Persona problems.
 * Lotus Eater Machine - Ryoji gets much more persuasive.
 * Louis Cypher - The man himself.
 * Magnetic Weapons - One of Ken's heavier-hitting tactics is to turn his spear into a railgun.
 * Major Injury Underreaction - Minato of course.
 * Male Gaze - From the first chapter on.
 * Man On Fire - Junpei.
 * Meaningful Name -
 * Meido - Remember when Yukari tried on that Maid outfit once?
 * Messiah Creep - Explored very well through Minato's character development.
 * Metal Scream - YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!
 * Mind Screw -
 * Mood Whiplash - Minato loves doing this.
 * More Dakka - Often invoked by name.
 * Multi Melee Master - Once he gets the combat practice, Minato often swaps weapons regularly during the course of a single battle.
 * Murder Is the Best Solution -  He doesn't stop there.
 * My Name Is Inigo Montoya - Chapter 73. Just… Chapter 73.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood - Kenjamin, but then he grows to like it.
 * Narnia Time - Time in the Velvet Room passes either hyper-fast or not at all. A more prominent example, however, would be the passage of time in the demon world
 * Never Bring a Knife To A Fist Fight - One of the first things we learn from this Minato's backstory.
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown - This story loves this trope. Minato gives them, Minato gets them, we assume other people do too, but whenever Minato sees a fight he likes to join in.
 * Not So Different - Minato's conversations with Arcana Shadows often go this way.
 * Not So Harmless - Remember Ikutsuki?
 * Strega qualifies too.
 * And let's not forget
 * Noodle Incident - Unreliable narrating often skips important things and just mentions them offhand.
 * Nonuniform Uniform - The head of the Student Council is allowed to take this further.
 * One Hundred and Eight -
 * Oh Crap
 * One of Us - The author is a troper, and it shows in the story. In fact, he himself apparently put the story into the Fan Fic Recommendation page of Persona 3.
 * No I Didn't!
 * We're glad you did.
 * One Winged Angel - Chariot and Justice, which starts as a Space Marine Predator, transforms into a Space Marine Dreadnought and a Gundam respectively after splitting apart. Minato specifically has an Oh Crap moment at this.
 * Organ Autonomy - Minato's best friend is sleep.
 * Paper Thin Disguise - Usually works, unless someone who talks to him on a day-to-day basis is in the room.
 * Parental Abandonment -
 * Pass the Popcorn
 * Patrick Stewart Speech - In order to counter Takaya's The Reason You Suck Speech.
 * Phlebotinum Rebel
 * Person of Mass Destruction - All of S.E.E.S., really. Especially Minato.
 * Powered Armor
 * Power Born of Madness - Personae.
 * Minato can get away with a lot of things because he honestly doesn't believe he can get in trouble for it. When he does think he's going to get a comeuppance, he usually does.
 * All Psychology Is Freudian - Averted. While Minato does prefer the psychodynamic approach, as do the universe in general and the author, other branches of psychology, notably biological psychology and the behavioral approach, have large influences as well.
 * President Evil -
 * Rage Against the Heavens
 * Rain of Blood - Done without any gore when it rains during the Dark Hour.
 * Rage Against the Mentor - While he's still getting his act together, Minato takes this more than Mitsuru does.
 * Minato sends that rage towards Ikutsuki.
 * President Evil -
 * Rage Against the Heavens
 * Rain of Blood - Done without any gore when it rains during the Dark Hour.
 * Rage Against the Mentor - While he's still getting his act together, Minato takes this more than Mitsuru does.
 * Minato sends that rage towards Ikutsuki.

""MEMO'S!!!""
 * Rage was due to Aigis's problems on her first day at school.

""NOOOOOOOO! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!""
 * Real Men Wear Pink - Minato listens to women talk about shoes; Shinji has his own apron.
 * Never has a gay florist been so badass since Kurama.
 * Red Armband of Leadership - Lampshaded in
 * Refuge in Audacity - Main character's a God Mode Sue? That's fine, make everything else God Mode Sues too.
 * Remember When You Blew Up a Sun - All the time.
 * Religion of Evil - The Nyxists.
 * The Rest Shall Pass - Instead of the Shadows splitting up, Minato has to fight the Fortune Shadow alone while everyone else takes on Strength.
 * Rousing Speech - Some very good ones too.
 * Rule of Cool
 * Rule of Drama
 * Rule of Funny
 * Running Gag

"Well, I'd recommend calming down and getting to the front of the car and killing that Shadow. Oh, you were swearing. I was gonna say, I'm not that awesome."
 * Sarcastic Devotee - Pharos.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong - One set of Shadows sent Minato back in time a week. He trained in Tartarus then jumped the Shadows just after they sent his past-self back.
 * Shout Out - So many it rivals Shinji and Warhammer 40 K
 * That's been shouted out too.
 * Minato's thinking posture?
 * Minato's other thinking posture?
 * Remember the Hermit? That thing stuck to the sound system who used that electric attack that was an absolute pushover to beat? It's the Chouginga Gurren Lagann.
 * Shonen Upgrade - Turning him into a Badass Abnormal.
 * Song Fic - When the Shadow the Hedgehog theme "I Am" appears, someone is going to be kicked up the arse ARISOTO STYLE.
 * Also, the Epiclogue
 * The prequel too, kinda.
 * Chainsaw Good - Minato is ecstatic when he finds a Chainsword in the Chariot dungeon.
 * Scarf of Asskicking - Minato wants one, but is too aware of the downsides, settling for a tie instead.
 * Fridge Brilliance? It really is an eye-opener. Reading the story a second time gives you a whole new perception of the tale.
 * Serial Escalation - From chapter 72 onwards, this is only to be expected.
 * Showy Invincible Hero - Admittedly, he is very powered, but he never gets hit by Hama or Mudo, and the closest thing he's had to a loss is a tie, running away, or picking up an a fatal mistake his opponent made and ripping it to pieces in panic.
 * Averted. The difficulty catches up with him towards the end.
 * Spell My Name With an S - Minato's last name is Arisato, but the author didn't know that at first. Whoops. He even lampshades it later, but decides to stick with it.
 * Sphere of Destruction - How else do you
 * Smith Will Suffice


 * Standard Bleeding Spots -
 * The Stoic - Justified exceptionally well.
 * Not So Stoic - Subverted.
 * Story Breaker Power - By the end, everyone. Even the Mooks are Story Breakers, so it evens out.
 * Super Powered Evil Side - Minato's is still Minato. And yes, it is that damn scary.
 * Super Mode
 * Suicidal Overconfidence - Anyone who gets in Minato's way.
 * Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist - Naoto.
 * Take a Third Option - Played straight and inverted. A villain creates a Lose-Lose situation for Minato, daring him to try and think up of a third option.  Yes, that's the lesser evil.
 * Played straight later on concerning
 * Taking the Bullet
 * Tank Goodness -
 * Time Travel - Remember the Stone Angels?
 * Breakbeat?
 * Tragic Monster
 * Tropes Are Not Bad - Obviously.
 * Troperiffic
 * Team Rocket Wins - Strega become effective, dammit.
 * The Slow Walk - Again, from both sides.
 * Throwing Down the Gauntlet - Both by Minato and to Minato.
 * Tired of Running - Minato's answer to Ryoji's offer after talking a walk.
 * This Is a Drill
 * This Is Sparta
 * There Are No Therapists - Lampshaded. Minato was genuinely surprised when he actually met one in Japan.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill - Or at least making damned sure that it's dead and not coming back.
 * Training From Hell - Monad.
 * Translator Microbes - Everyone understands demonic as their mother tongue. However, demonic terms, aren't translated, even if they have meaning in another language.
 * When talking to a demon, you automatically know how to speak Demonic. Probably got something to do with the Sekai Rei.
 * Tranquil Fury - If Minato gets this, run.
 * Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty - Anything's fair game when Minato gets in close. His opponent usually descends to his level, and then Minato just plain beats them with raw experience.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass - Minato, when he starts getting arrogant.
 * Explains the one Yukari took between The Journey and The Answer.
 * Turn in Your Badge: Mitsuru deprives Minato from his leading role after seeing just how he behaves in Tartarus firsthand. It was only temporary though, and he learnt his lesson.
 * He later does the same thing to Ken until he gets his revenge issues sorted.
 * Ubermensch - Arguably Minato.
 * Up to Eleven - Not just the fic.
 * Unwanted Harem - Minato, of course.
 * The Unfettered - Never try to call Minato's bluff. He will follow through with spades in anything. Anything.
 * Unknown Rival - Minato has lots of these.
 * Unstoppable Rage - Never Charm Minato and make him beat the crap out of his Nakama. Ever.
 * Utility Scroll
 * Vigilante Man - I'm sure you can guess by now.
 * Wanna Do Something Bang Out Of Order? - You will quickly learn to love this phrase and what it causes whenever uttered.
 * Wanton Cruelty to The Common Comma - Apostrophes, rather.
 * The War Sequence - Suprisingly,  First time was when S.E.E.S. had to force their way through a train cart full of Shadows which were packed in there like sardines.
 * Weak but Skilled -
 * What Measure Is a Non Human - Aigis.
 * What the Hell Hero - More or less Minato's modus operandi. FOR EVERYTHING.
 * Wham Episode - Arguably hurt more than the original game's.
 * Chapter 103. That is all.
 * Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys - Scrolls? Quasi-dimensional armoury?
 * Welcome to My World - Welcome to a world of cardboard.
 * White Mask of Doom - We don't know what the Doom is, but it's suggested that whatever it is, it's full of doom.
 * Wild Card - Minato, but not just because of his skills. However, the real prize goes to . Seriously, we don't know whose side he's on anymore.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity - The stronger Minato's Personae get, the crazier he becomes.
 * Worthy Opponent - The Reaper. In fact, he combines this trope with basically being Tartarus' own Killer Game Master.
 * World of Badass - Arisojack.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl - Most of the male characters.
 * Would Hit a Girl - To Minato, an opponent is there to hit, regardless of sex, creed, colour, age, or species.
 * X Meets Y - Persona 3 meets Shinji and Warhammer 40 K