Ren Amamiya

Akira Kurusu (AKA The Phantom) is the protagonist of Persona 5 and he is the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

About
Akira appears quiet and docile, but this behavior is a profound ruse that hides the heart of a trickster. Akira is not very talkative, but he is courageous and wise in taking actions and also has a strong sense of justice. Akira has a free heart, despite his social standing and how others view him, he never stops choosing his own path.

Early on he got involved incident where he witnessed a woman being sexually harassed by a man, and stopped him, only for the man to sue him and press charges. It is later revealed that the man was a powerful politician with strong connections to the police department. As a result of his intervention, and the man's injuries, the incident went down on his permanent record, and the protagonist was subsequently expelled. At the court hearing, he was told to transfer schools, and move away, a condition his parents agreed to, thus leaving him in the care of Sojiro Sakura.

After he arrives at Shibuya, a mysterious application starts up in his phone, much to his confusion. The world around him slows to a halt, and a fiery blue figure manifests before his eyes, followed by a vision of the flames developing a red grin, and himself with yellow eyes. Afterwards, as time resumes, Akira seemingly deletes the application, and makes his way to a coffee shop called Cafe Le Blanc, owned by Sojiro Sakura.

He arrives to find Sojiro speaking with customers. Sojiro is surprised that the "punk kid" he was asked to look after is Akira. Sojiro shows him his new room and says he has to be the one to clean it up. He also touches upon the details of the incident for a brief moment before leaving him alone, though he also warns Akira that if he causes any trouble, he will kick him out.

As Akira prepares for bed, he recalls the incident, thinking to himself that he simply couldn't ignore the woman being harassed. He hears his phone ringing, and to his surprise, he finds that the mysterious application from before is still there, despite having deleted it earlier. He shortly falls asleep afterwards.

He awakens in the Velvet Room, and finds himself in prison garbs, even bound in handcuffs with a ball and chain on his leg. Igor greets him to his Velvet Room, and the twins tell him that he is still asleep in the real world. Igor greets him, explaining that the Velvet Room is a place that exists between dream and reality, and is only accessible to those who have, in some form, made a contract. He then explains that he brought the protagonist here in order to discuss an important matter that will affect his life. Igor also refers to Akira as a "Prisoner of Fate," and that destruction awaits him in the future.Igor then states that he will explain more another time, as dawn has already approached in the real world.

On his way to school the next day, Akira once again open the mysterious app in his phone and then sees a girl called Anne being offered a ride to school by a gym teacher, Suguru Kamoshida. As he sees them drive off to school a student named Ryuji Sakamoto runs up and yells at the car calling Kamoshida a perverted teacher. Akira then gets acquainted with Ryuji and inquired what he meant, which resulted his inquiry is responded by the app, opening the path to another world. There Akira and Ryuji are quickly captured and put in a cell where they encounter Shadow Kamoshida who starts beating Ryuji and is about to kill them, but Akira then awakens his Persona power, summoning Arséne. While escaping, they also encounters a cat-like creature, Morgana, who got captured in a prison cell and asks to be freed in exchange he will help show the way out for them.

Once both he and Ryuji are back in the real world, they confronts Kamoshida about this, but he claims to have no idea what they are talking about. This causes Kamoshida to force Akira's classmate, Yuki Mishima, to spread bad rumours about the Akira to the whole school. After visiting the world the second time and hearing everything from Morgana, the protagonist and Ryuji decides to expose Kamoshida's true nature. Akira asks Anne Takamaki about this, and she confesses that Kamoshida is trying to make a move on her. Since no other students are willing to talk, Morgana proposes to make Kamoshida admit his crimes by stealing his treasure in his Palace, which represents his arrogance. However, when Morgana warns them that if they kill Shadow Kamoshida the real Kamoshida will also die as well, Akira and Ryuji requests Morgana to give them some times to think it over.

Akira and Ryuji finally decide to accept Morgana's suggestion after witnessing Anne's friend, Shiho Suzui, attempt suicide by jumping off the school's roof after being molested and hurt by Kamoshida. The three of them are then joined by Anne who wants to get justice for Shiho. To make Shadow Kamoshida confronts them himself, Ryuji pins a calling card to Kamoshida under the name "Phantom Thieves of Heart", enraging Shadow Kamoshida in the Palace. The Phantom Thieves succeed in defeating Kamoshida's shadow and Anne chooses to spare his life, they then quickly steal his treasure and escape. The next day just like Morgana has said, Kamoshida abruptly breaks down and confesses to all of his horrible crimes in front of the whole school. Thanks to this, the bad rumours about them stopped and the expulsion that was planned for them was dropped.

They all decides to celebrate their success at an expensive restaurant by using the money from selling Kamoshida's treasure. At the restaurant, Akira and Ryuji meets a man named Masayoshi Shido who rudely looks down on them. Akira notices that Shido's voice reminds him of the man who falsely accused him, but quickly dismisses this thought. Their encounter with Shido convinces Akira, Ryuji, and Anne to continue their work as Phantom Thieves to steal the hearts of corrupted individuals to create a reformed and free world so there will be no more victims like them.

Yuki, who knows of Akira's identity as one of the Phantom Thieves, created a website that also serves as request board for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to take on missions. However, since not many people believing their existence, the Phantom Thieves decides to change another corrupt famous adult to make their names known. They get this opportunity when an art student and disciple of famous Japanese painter Ichiryusai Madarame, Yusuke Kitagawa, asks Ann to become his model for his next work. A former apprentice of Madarame, Natsuhiko Nakanohara, tells them that Madarame actually steals his students' painting, one of them even committed suicide after his was stolen. So Natsuhiko asks them to stop Maradame before he can steal Yusuke's painting.

Yusuke's trust for his teacher causes Akira and the others to have difficulty in finding information to enter his Palace until Ann found the proof of Madarame's doing in his studio and shows it to Yusuke. When escaping from Madarame and enters the Palace, Yusuke gets dragged as well and he awakens his Persona power after saw his teacher's true nature. To reform his teacher, Yusuke joins the Phantom Thieves as well. After defeating Shadow Madarame and steals his treasure, they finds out that there's a third party beside them inside the Palace, but Madarame only reveals the person to be a person with black mask. Yusuke then gives Madarame's treasure, the real "Sayuri" painting that his mother painted before her death, to Akira and he has it displayed at the Cafe Le Blanc.

Following Madarame's confession at Live television, the Phantom Thieves' activities becomes known and attracts many people, particularly high school detective Goro Akechi and student council president Makoto Niijima. During a study trip, the protagonist meets Goro who reveals his disdain towards the Phantom Thieves' actions. Despite this, Akria gets well acquainted with Goro. The principal of Syujin High School also gets worried about them so he makes Makoto investigate the possibilities that the Phantom Thieves are among the students of the school. Makoto quickly gets suspicious of Akira and his friends, secretly following them and finally gets the proof in a form of recording of Ryuji who declares themselves as Phantom Thieves. She blackmails the protagonist to take her to their meeting place and demands the Phantom Thieves to show her their justice, and if they can prove they are right, she won't reveal her recording. She gives them a target of a man who has connection with yakuza and is extorting some of their school mates. Without any choice, the Phantom Thieves accepts her request.

They eventually tracks down the extorter, Junya Kaneshiro, and enters his Palace, but can't find his treasure since they don't know his whereabouts in real life. Makoto helps them locating the real Kaneshiro, but Makoto's reckless way leads Kaneshiro to take incriminating pictures of them in his club and threatens to leak it to the media unless they pay him. To stop Kaneshiro from leaking the photos, the Phantom Thieves invites Makoto to the Palace where she awakens her Persona power and joins them. At the end of their fight against Shadow Kaneshiro, he reveals there's a third party that manipulates the Palace and Mementos for their own ends without caring for the consequences. With Kaneshiro's heart stolen, he deletes the photos and turn himself in, assuring the protagonist and the others there won't be any photo leak.

Their success in changing Kaneshiro's heart earns them the attention of a hacker group called Medjiedo who demands the Phantom Thieves to cease their false justice by joining them. Following Medjiedo's offer, the protagonist receives an unknown chat from a mysterious hacker called Alibaba who requests him to steal a certain someone's heart in exchange they will take care of Medjiedo. Should the protagonist refuse, they will leak his identity to the media. Akira and the others thinks that the chat is a mere prank, but Alibaba proves themselves that they do know about the protagonist by leaving a calling card in Le Blanc. Alibaba requests him to steal the heart of a girl named Futaba Sakura, who is revealed to be related to Sojiro. Since information about Futaba is too lacking, Akira tries to ask Sojiro, but he refuses to tell him anything and threatens to kick him out if he ask more. Akira tries to ask Alibaba for more detail and asks to meet them, but his request leads Alibaba to abruptly cancel their request.

The Phantom Thieves thinks that the problem has been solved with Alibaba not bothering them again, until they heard from Goro that Medjiedo has declared an all out war against them, so they have no choice but to once again track down Alibaba. Machete correctly deduces that Alibaba is actually Futaba herself, which is confirmed when Sojiro finally explains about Futaba after the protagonist and the others caught a glimpse of her when visiting Sojiro's house. They confronts Futaba and asks to make a deal with her again, which she agrees.

After the climax of Casino heist, Akira uses himself as a bait to lure the Shadows so the party can escape. When he exits the Palace, however, he is quickly apprehended by the police. While in custody, he is interrogated by Sae. If the protagonist answered right, the protagonist reveals he knows that Goro is the traitor so he already hatched a plan with his friends to expose him. He tells Sae to show his smartphone to Goro, which has been programmed by Futaba using the Palace's reality-warping ability, saving himself when Goro attempts to kill him and make it look like a suicide. Afterwards, Sae helps Akira escape and escort him back to Cafe Le Blanc.

Once his apparent death is broadcasted, Akira remains in the cafe and goes out in a hoodie without showing his face for a while to deceive their enemies. Finding out that a politician Masayoshi Shido is the one Goro is woking for, he and the party tries to find the keyword to enter his Palace, but got nothing until the protagonist remembers his voice, which is the same as the man who falsely accused him before. From his reminiscence when Shido assaulted the woman, Akira finds out the keyword to enter Shido's Palace where he and the party confronts Goro and Shido, eventually succeeding in changing the latter's heart.

During the climax of the game, Akira learns that the Igor who had been helping him was, in truth, is an evil being called Yaldabaoth, who had imprisoned the real Igor, thus taking over the Velvet Room in the process. He also split the true attendant, Lavenza, into the twins Caroline and Justine, resulting in them possessing amnesia.

The Phantom Thieves are virtually left helpless at Yaldabaoth, as he easily overpowers them. However, the tables quickly turn when the party hears the voices of the masses, which were inspired by the cheering of Yuki Mishima. Eventually, everyone believes in their existence, which leads to Akira awakening to his Ultimate Persona: Satanael, who's size is equal to even Yaldabaoth. The god tries to strike them down, but his attack does nothing. Akira then finishes him off, blasting a hole straight through Yaldabaoth's head. Their victory causes the Palace and Mementos to cease from existence and sadly also Morgana who was created to assist the protagonist on his journey, and the world begins to return to normal.

Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, Sae informs Akira that even though Shido confessed his crimes, it's difficult to prove it since there's little solid evidence as the other world is no longer exist. Because Goro has disappeared, the only ones who can prove it is the Phantom Thieves. To properly judge Shido, his testimony is necessary. Reluctantly, Sae asks Akira to turn himself in to avoid further complication and she promises she will make sure his friends will be safe. Doing this, however, means there's a big possibility he will be sent to youth detention centre and will be closely observed. Despite knowing the consequence, to save his friends, Akira agrees. After the interrogation, Akira is sent to youth detention centre.

In response to his arrest, the rest of the Phantom Thieves together along with the other people Akira made friends with, tries their best to look for evidence to prove Akira's innocence. Two months later, they eventually found the woman whom Akira helped when she was assaulted by Shido and she testified against Shido, allowing the probation and charges against Akira to be dropped. He is then picked up by Sojiro to the cafe where everyone, for exception of Morgana, welcomes him back. While talking about Morgana, Ryuji also asks Akria if next month he is going back to his hometown since his probation has been dropped, something that Akria confirms. The group then decides that if their leader leaves, this means the Phantom Thieves will officially be disbanded. Morgana then comes shortly after, revealing that the one that disappeared is his other world self while his real world self is still exists. Morgana then decides he will stick together with Akira from now on to look for a way to become a human.