Goro Akechi

Occupation Detective, Hitman for Shido Date of Birth June 2 c.1998

Age 17-18 Zodiac Gemini Height 178 cm (5'10") Weight 64 kg (141 lbs)[5] Blood Type AB[5] Melee Weapon Laser Sabers, Serrated Swords Ranged Weapon Ray Guns, Silenced Pistols Akechi has shaggy, neck length brown hair with bangs and reddish-brown eyes. He wears a tan peacoat with black buttons, striped black and white tie, black pants, black gloves and black loafers. His casual winter outfit consists of a white long sleeve shirt with flaps under a blue argyle sweater vest, beige pants and brown shoes. Once he reveals his true intentions, Akechi swaps his princely garb for a body-covering, black and dark blue striped outfit. In this form, he has several black studded belts strapped around his legs and arms, a short black cape and clawed gauntlets. He also wears a dark enclosed knight helmet, with a black mask tinted red, resembling a sharp beak, which breaks after his defeat. Much like with Loki's design, it alludes to a lack of agency, and is meant to give a chaotic feeling and invoke the question "what's the real you?"

Goro Akechi is a playable character from Persona 5. He is a public celebrity, touted by his fans and the media as the second coming of the detective prince (after the first appeared in Persona 4), and is investigating the mysterious Phantom Thieves of Hearts case sensationalizing Japan.

During the course of the story, Akechi would condemn the Phantom Thieves' actions. He temporarily cooperates with them for professional reasons, using the codename Crow. He also acts as the protagonist's rival. His past having produced inherent feelings of hatred that would become a stigma for him, Akechi tries to perfect himself to be acceptable to others.

In public and with all of his relations, Akechi appears to be well-mannered, friendly, humble and charismatic. His achievement of being a high-school detective, coupled with his handsome features, makes him highly popular among the general public and he is commented to be "The Second Coming of the Detective Prince." His intelligence and smooth-talk earned him enough trust from the police to conduct his own investigation despite his young age, working with Sae Niijima, who fully trusts him to assist her in her investigation. He presents himself as having a strong sense of justice, disapproving of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts for their methods. He is candid in expressing his disagreement, but he wants to hear about other people's views in an honest fashion. He quotes Hegel on this, citing that "advancement cannot occur without both thesis and antithesis." He finds an interest in the protagonist because he speaks his mind. Much of Akechi's talents have been naturally nurtured thanks to not only his own open-mindedness and effort but also the support from others he has accepted.

This cheery disposition, however, is nothing short of a fraud that has been carefully crafted to grant him a public image and mask his real personality. Due to having been born an illegitimate child, he would be despised by others as he would be nothing more than a scandal for them, even ruining his mother's life and driving her to suicide. He would subsequently be placed into child institutions. Akechi grew up a lonely child and a "nobody" who yearned to be loved; this feeling persisted into his teenage years. The stigma of being an illegitimate child, while also heavily implied to be an impulsive mistake on Shido's part, has haunted Akechi and become the basis of his incredibly misanthropic worldview as well as his legitimate self-loathing. Regardless of how much Akechi tried to change, that hatred that bound him to his past would persist deeply.

Akechi's desperation for acknowledgement leads him to study hard to become perfect and develop his outward Detective Prince image in hope to be accepted by people around him. Even while having developed an overwhelming fanbase, Akechi is still disliked among individuals for his affiliation, as he's become quite obviously a fraudulent hero of sorts: not only does the more honest Sojiro Sakura dislike him for his work with the police, but the Phantom Thieves of Hearts themselves find him a menace as his public views and remarks are nothing more than a hindrance to them. Even the public's support doesn't fill the hole in his heart, as he knows he's loved only if he upholds the pretense of being a charismatic idol detective rather than a bastard child; his fans are quick to turn on him anyway if he makes mistakes, such as when the Phantom Thieves triumphed over Kaneshiro and Medjed.

It is only after realizing Shido himself has manipulated him why Akechi has realized what the true meaning of justice is: specifically the matter of free will. This would not only cause Akechi to see the error in his original views, but would see just how terrible the things Shido has done to both him and Japan are; he would also understand the Phantom Thieves' views and just how much they differed from his, but at the same time would ascertain that due to his position, he would only drag them down even with his sudden transformation, entrusting the Phantom Thieves to finish the job and stop Shido.

The first and the only person that Akechi has ever formed a bond with close to friendship is the protagonist who he has complicated feelings for, albeit innately positive. After meeting the protagonist, for the first time, Akechi is able to experience a simple, normal life with a friend. Unlike most people, the protagonist is honest with him when speaking his mind and actively pursues him. Spending time with the protagonist gives a profound effect on Akechi. He admires yet envies the protagonist, who does not let anything stop him from carving his own path, and thus considers him his rival. He holds the protagonist in high regard to the point that he believes that the Phantom Thieves are nothing without the protagonist's leadership. Persona 5 Maniax as well as Akechi himself in Persona 5 state that despite being overwhelmed with jealousy and contempt for the protagonist, who has everything he doesn't, Akechi says he would have wanted to meet the protagonist earlier, and doesn't deny what Morgana says about him taking a liking to the protagonist. In an interview in Persona 5 The Royal Official Complete Guide, director Kazuhisa Wada comments that Akechi doesn't care much for other people except the protagonist.

As a result of their relationship, Akechi is especially attentive to the protagonist. In Persona 5 Royal, on Christmas Eve, Akechi willingly turns himself in to testify against Shido in the protagonist's stead, claiming he does so to repay his debt with him. He is alarmed and disappointed should he ever accept Takuto Maruki's reality, as he believes that it betrays his ideals and their relationship with each other. At the same time, he is relieved each time the protagonist turns Maruki's offer down, knowing that he is resolved to return to their normal reality, and accepting Maruki's offer would be a betrayal of Akechi's wishes. This is also expressed in his navigation lines, whereas he is close to panicking whenever the protagonist is about to or got knocked down, but polite when Sumire was knocked down and scold her severely or even dismissive when she missed her attack.

In the third semester of Persona 5 Royal, Akechi no longer cares what others may think of him after rejoining, completely abandoning his detective prince persona. Now perfectly comfortable with his true self, he doesn't mince his words regardless how other people would be affected by it. He won't bother making small talk, directing the conversation straight to the point. While Akechi seems to no longer hold any contempt for the Phantom Thieves, he is no kinder than before with them since they already know his true nature. The game doesn't show Akechi showing his true personality to other people except the Phantom Thieves, but he makes no attempt to hide it either, which surprised Sumire during their first exploration of Maruki's Palace. He also shows a morbid sense of humor, dryly suggesting they kill Maruki when handing him the calling card. He usually speaks in a calm and polite fashion, but when he drops his guise and engages in combat as the Black Mask, his dialogue becomes wildly aggressive and profane. However, he displays this behavior only towards enemies, for example, Shadows. This side of him is elaborated upon further during battle, as he refers to small Shadows as "scum" and delights in killing them.

When it comes to his enemies, he is still merciless, seeing no problem in killing if he feels it is necessary. During a conversation in the Thieves Den, Akechi outright states that he would have killed Madarame or Kamoshida if he were to be abused by them like Yusuke or Ann were; in turn, they responded that letting them suffer their guilt for an eternity would be a better punishment than outright killing them. Akechi does show a certain restraint to this side of him, depending on who his opponents are, as shown in Maruki's Palace when he chooses to back out and leave the protagonist to fight Sumire alone: Akechi says he doesn't want to accidentally kill her, but in the Japanese version, he states he doesn't want to accidentally hurt her. He would attempt to kill Maruki only as a last resort when he'd see no other choice. Usually Akechi will use "boku" to refer to himself and "kimi" to refer to other people, which is (usually) considered polite. However, when he's the Black Mask, Akechi will always use "ore" to refer to himself (which is also used by Ryuji) and refer to others as "kisama" or "omae" (the latter of which is used by both Ryuji and Morgana). All of the three pronouns he uses as the Black Mask are considered extremely impolite, and are also used by Shido when he drops his facade to deal with people personally.

Having been manipulated and controlled by Shido before, Akechi values free will above all else. For this reason, he is disgusted by Maruki's salvation plan that requires his memories to be distorted and changed, which Akechi sees as no different than when he was controlled by his father. He is determined to live his life following the path that he chooses for himself, without anyone dictating him, even if it means he will die doing so. His overall worldview, even while omitting his characterization in Royal, is comparable to that of a modern-day Robin Hood: although both fights the comfortable and arrogant to support the oppressed, Akechi specifically focuses on authority, or rather the morality that it has bloated, as formed by his upbringing of his unjust reputation and the manipulation he's experienced by Shido himself under the pretense of blissful acknowledgement, as well as Shido's own arrogance that's been built in a similar fashion.

Despite his reputation as a detective being a fabrication, Akechi has genuinely sharp, intuitive and innovative deduction and analysis skills, as seen during Niijima's Palace and Maruki's Palace, as well as during Persona Q2; his quick and in-depth thinking allows him to be an effective asset when an ally. He is also extremely cunning, secretly planning a means to counter Shadow Sae's last minute cheating in her Palace without the knowledge of his teammates beforehand. This proves that even without having to fabricate cases, he actually does have what it takes to become a true detective. However, his usage of the Wild Card happens to be very poor, as he relies on only two Personas based on parts of his personalities and doesn't have special bonds with anyone besides the protagonist. The official Persona 5 art book states that Akechi lives alone in a city apartment. His main skill is reasoning, and he has a habit of getting lost in thought during conversations. His hobbies include cycling (specifically with a hybrid bicycle for easy turning in Tokyo), bouldering, and playing fashionable games like darts. His guidebook profile also states that Akechi always makes sure to try out the latest popular dishes in order to use food as a conversation piece. Waiting in long lines for this does not bother him. He uses his cycling hobby to ride around town, gathering stories to utilize in conversation with adults. Since he spends a lot of time with adults, he has a reputation among Tokyo's famous hidden stores and high class restaurants, although in truth he has little interest in the food's flavor.

Akechi is the illegitimate child of Masayoshi Shido, the same man responsible for the protagonist's probation period. His mother was a sex worker who was shamed for having a child out of wedlock and committed suicide. According to him, before her suicide, she raised him alone, and whenever she brought men from the red light district into their home, she would tell him to go to the bath house. Akechi desired to make Shido apologize for his crime of making her illegally conceive a child, but was powerless to do anything because Shido was already a high-ranking official by then. Orphaned after his mother's death, he was passed between a succession of relatives who took no interest in him. Two years before Persona 5, Akechi acquired the power of the Wild Card and gained access to the Metaverse, although he is never shown in, and is likely not permitted in the Velvet Room. He then offered his newfound abilities to Shido, who employed him as an assassin to achieve his goal of becoming Prime Minister. However, in truth, this was just a plan by Akechi to catch Shido off guard so he could expose his acts to the public before killing him when he took premiership.

Shido proceeded to teach Akechi about inducing mental shutdowns by abusing Mementos. One of the first people he killed was Wakaba Isshiki. After Akechi killed her, Shido seized her research and had men in black read a false suicide note to her daughter Futaba out loud, keeping her in the dark by convincing her she's responsible and psychologically harming her.

During their collaboration, Akechi used Loki to fabricate scandals of Shido's opponents to discredit them, then proceeded to "solve" the case himself. This, along with his already standing charisma, earned him the title of "The Second Coming of the Detective Prince," along with celebrity status. If any of Shido's enemies proved particularly troublesome, Akechi would assassinate them personally by inducing a mental shutdown. Akechi's powers and pragmatic tendencies quickly made him a valuable tool for Shido to dispose of his opposition. Aside from Shido himself, Akechi also killed people that were commissioned by Shido's allies (sometimes other political players who aren't in Shido's party) to silence their foes or anyone they don't like, often in exchange for granting Shido funds or connections. With a powerful tool to instill fear and silence all opposition in his hands, Shido became nigh-impossible to stop by normal jurisdictional means courtesy of the fear of experiencing a mental shutdown or a psychotic breakdown.

Around a day after the protagonist is pulled into the rehabilitation game, Akechi causes a massive subway accident for the sole reason of framing the traffic department for incompetency.

Akechi is first brought up to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts by Shadow Madarame and Shadow Kaneshiro after his fall, although they only mention him as a nameless figure with a black mask.

Akechi first meets the group during a Shujin Academy school trip to a TV station in Akasaka Mitsuke, where he is scheduled to appear as a guest in "Good Morning Japan." He passes by and overhears Morgana talking with the protagonist, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Ann Takamaki backstage about the shape of the TV dome resembling pancakes, attracting his attention, and commenting on it.

During the show, he expresses a distaste for the Phantom Thieves, whom he accuses of taking the law into their own hands. Although he was covertly trying to influence public opinion against the group, Akechi quickly takes an interest in the protagonist for openly opposing his argument, approaching him after the show and telling him that he enjoyed their conversation, and hopes to speak again sometime.

After the phantom thieves' success with Kaneshiro's case, Akechi continues to tactfully build negative reception, suggesting the possibility they're fabricating confessions. Not only that, but he exploits Medjed's threat against them, as although he looks down on their actions as well, he uses Medjed's status to paint the Phantom Thieves in a negative light, as well as their threat to the small group, demanding that the thieves reveal their identities should they not want Medjed to damage Japan's economy, putting down the responsibility on them.

Additionally, Akechi would talk with the protagonist's group, which would suspect if Akechi's figured them out.

Goro Akechi would visit Leblanc at Sae Niijima's recommendation, and would meet the protagonist there. He would confide to the protagonist about his past as an orphan, the fate of his deceased mother, and his father's actions against her, without telling any names. He would decide he'd be a regular at the cafe in his ordinary life.

Once the Phantom Thieves' popularity reaches its peak, the public stops taking what Akechi says seriously. His popularity would plummet so low he would be ranked as a target request on the Phan-site, and he wouldn't have the freedom to speak ill of the thieves should he not want them to backfire on him. However, the Conspiracy tricks the Thieves into making their next target Kunikazu Okumura, who is also one of Shido's enemies and an obstacle to his path. After their target's defeat, Akechi takes the chance to assassinate his Shadow Self before his Palace collapses, subsequently causing the real Okumura to suffer a mental shutdown and die an unspecified amount of time later. This leads to the public believing the Phantom Thieves to be behind his death. On the other hand, Akechi's support skyrockets due to his staunch disapproval of their methods, and Shido's conspiracy takes advantage of this to frame the Phantom Thieves for a crime that they did not commit.

Later, as Shujin Academy is voting for a guest celebrity to speak at their cultural festival, Akechi is chosen by a landslide majority, and he accepts Makoto Niijima's invitation. During his speech, he boasts of knowing the Phantom Thieves' identities on stage, knowing full well they were listening, and uses a fake call as an excuse to talk to them personally. Backstage, he blackmails the Thieves into a deal using photographic evidence of them leaving Okumura's Palace.

Akechi claims he entered the Metaverse a month before, and awakened to his Persona when he was attacked by the black masked man who killed Okumura. Akechi says that his overwhelming need to find the truth and share it with the world was what caused him to awaken to his Persona, Robin Hood. Akechi requests that he accompany the Thieves on their heist in Sae's Palace in order to catch the real culprit and clear their name. In exchange, he'll destroy the photo evidence. However, another caveat is that the Phantom Thieves must disband after this last heist. With no other choice, the group agrees.

In reality, Akechi was planning to have them arrested after they changed Sae's heart so he could murder the protagonist under Shido's orders. However, the Phantom Thieves knew this from the beginning, due to him appearing to hear Morgana talk about the shape of the TV Station Dome despite his cover story dictating that he had never been in the Metaverse prior to early October, allowing them to deduce that he is a mole (since this implies that he spied on the Phantom Thieves all the way back when they were dealing with Madarame) and create a plan to prevent him from killing their leader. The Thieves planned on not stealing Sae's Treasure and instead take an empty briefcase, allowing her Palace to remain, while Futaba planted a bug onto the protagonist's phone to transfer Akechi to a part of Niijima's Palace that Sae has little control of. As Niijima's Palace contained a Cognitive Akechi, Makoto would then hide this fake out of the real Akechi's sight. The protagonist would then leave the Palace himself as a decoy, only to be arrested, and then convince Sae to show the protagonist's phone to Akechi so Futaba could remotely activate the Metaverse Navigator on the protagonist's side, preventing him from assassinating the protagonist as well as keeping the other Phantom Thieves and Confidants alongside the protagonist himself alive.

When Shadow Sae impeded the party's progress by increasing the number of coins required to enter the Manager's Floor of the casino to the seemingly insurmountable number of one million, Akechi reveals that he had been secretly used a loan card that Futaba told him to get rid of to borrow as many coins from the casino as possible, performing the calculations right in front of everybody, which add up to over one million coins, allowing the party access to the Treasure. After Shadow Sae's defeat and the Treasure found, their victory is cut short with a police invasion outside Sae's Palace, heavily implied to be drawn in by Akechi via passive use of the Metaverse Navigator. The protagonist decides to act as a decoy so the rest of the Phantom Thieves can escape, and Akechi follows the others while the protagonist catches the police's attention and is ultimately caught.

Back in the present, Sae concludes the interrogation by requesting that he reveal the identities of all his comrades and allies, promising to help lighten his sentence if he cooperates with her. If he refuses, the protagonist's drugs will begin to wear off, and will remember that the group was aware of Akechi's true motives all along, and had been prepared. He then recalls the true extent of the plan he crafted with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, and performs the crucial last step of giving Sae his cell phone, requesting that she show it to Akechi if she happens to meet him.

With the protagonist captured, Akechi heads to the interrogation room, planning to assassinate him. On his way there, whilst crossing paths, Sae shows Akechi the protagonist's cellphone. After Sae leaves, Akechi asks the guard outside the room to join him, before killing him with his own gun. He then gloats for a moment before shooting the protagonist in the head, staging the scene as a suicide before leaving. When he reports to Shido of his success in assassinating the protagonist, he considers killing the remaining Phantom Thieves. Akechi tells him to wait until after the election to avoid rousing suspicion, and assures Shido that they won't seek revenge without their leader.

In reality, when Sae showed Akechi the phone, he was transported into Sae's Palace, and the protagonist and guard he killed were mere cognitive replicas, which were present there because Sae had just seen them in reality. The protagonist also deliberately let himself get caught and interrogated so that his cognitive self would appear in the interrogation room, although he was only unable to recollect that he had a plan in the first place because he was drugged. Sae is shown evidence of Shido and Akechi being the culprits and rescues the protagonist, but to the rest of the world, the protagonist committed suicide while in custody.

The conspiracy, overconfident, immediately files a false death certificate without checking for a corpse.

Alternatively, the protagonist can reveal all of the Phantom Thieves' identities to Sae. If so, Sae leaves and crosses paths with Akechi, not knowing he came to assassinate the protagonist. Due to Sae not showing him the cellphone, Akechi murders the real guard and protagonist as planned, and the residents of the Velvet Room lament his failure and sentence him to be imprisoned inside his cell for the rest of his life.

Akechi makes a public appearance where he addresses the protagonist's unanimously-acknowledged suicide on a talk show and intends to capture the remaining Phantom Thieves, even if they go after him, with full support from the public. However, in thought, he laments how the public does not know he was an undesired child, revealing he devoted himself to becoming an honor student, made his name as an ace detective and got rid of anyone who opposed him, courtesy of the MetaNav and his Persona. At that moment, an audience member's phone rings, causing Akechi to recall how Sae showed him the protagonist's phone before he carried out the murder. Later, Shido abruptly demands that Akechi dispose of those involved with the conspiracy or at least those Akechi deems suspicious. When expressing doubts due to the lack of necessity, Shido threatens him and reminds Akechi if he knows what it means to disobey him. At this point, due to Shido's strange paranoia, which could potentially be explained as someone tampering with his Palace, Akechi realizes that there is a high chance the protagonist is still alive and leading the Phantom Thieves in an assault on Shido's Palace.

After the Phantom Thieves secure the letters of invitation required to enter Shido's Treasure Room, Akechi confronts the Phantom Thieves in the engine room of the great ship that is Shido's Palace. When accused of cooperating with Shido and having malicious intentions, Akechi scoffs all of this and reveals his plan to expose to Shido his status as his illegitimate son after having been acknowledged, ruining his life. Furious that the Thieves are in the way of his plans, Akechi then battles the group in his Prince outfit with Robin Hood as his Persona and summons two Shadows to kill them, demonstrating his powers by driving them berserk with a mysterious other Persona. After his first defeat, the Phantom Thieves try to discourage him from continuing his revenge and that he can always start over and work together; even Morgana tries to get him to listen to his true feelings. Akechi's hatred however runs deep, all of which he directs towards the protagonist. He uses his own berserk ability on himself in a last ditch effort to defeat the Phantom Thieves, officially revealing Loki and using all of his power to attack them. The Phantom Thieves manage to defeat him after a vicious struggle.

The severely overwhelmed and heartbroken Akechi admitted defeat and lamented about never being able to become someone special to anyone, and that he also supported Shido because otherwise his fame and trust would vanish once he were exposed. However, to his surprise and confusion, the group thinks the opposite of him: they not only see him as a talented man, admitting they've only defeated him because they worked together, but also acknowledge his fatal errors in life and working for his own personal benefit: ultimately, they offer him to join them if he so wishes. Even Haru and Futaba, while they don't express forgiveness for his murder of both of their significant parental figures, do express sympathy with his position, both of whom having dealt with similar hardships as him in their lives.

Before Akechi can respond one way or the other, Shido's cognition of Akechi appeared, who in comparison explained that Shido had intended to kill him after winning the election due to being the only remaining threat to him. Initially, he considered this cognition as merely a tool for Shido to protect himself in the possibility that he decides to tear through his Palace. The cognition blankly admits it is true, but mocks Akechi, declaring him as having been a puppet for Shido from the very beginning, and would plan to kill him as retribution for the murders Shido made him commit; much to the Phantom Thieves' shock and anger. The cognition would then offer Akechi a chance to redeem himself if he shoots the Phantom Thieves. Akechi, having realized the Phantom Thieves are his true allies, deceives the cognition, instead using it as a chance to shoot it and then the controls for the bulkhead, sealing him off from the rest of the group. Knowing that they would die if they tried to save him, he puts his trust in the group to stop Shido for him. As Akechi faces off against his equally wounded cognitive self, two gunshots sound, and Futaba is unable to detect any living signatures beyond the wall afterward.

After securing the infiltration route, the Phantom Thieves all express their understanding and sorrow for Akechi. Haru and Ann point out that he was a victim of Shido that couldn't be saved and Yusuke believes he himself would have become the same had he not met the party. Ryuji personally admits he cannot forgive Akechi, but openly states he can't forgive Shido even less for warping his mind. Makoto agreed that what Shido did was truly reprehensible, and Morgana ultimately summarizes him as not having been so bad deep down; telling the protagonist they have to take Shido down, no matter what. When the party confronts Shadow Shido, he confirms his plan to kill Akechi, as his birth is a taint on his political power; he could not keep him alive, since he had intimate knowledge of his past. Shadow Shido gloats about how he used praise to manipulate Akechi, even brazenly declaring that it was thanks to him that Akechi could use his powers properly to begin with. The Phantom Thieves condemn Shido for corrupting Akechi only to discard him in the end, and for grooming a teenager into a murderer in exchange for acceptance and validation, arguing that he never would have been able to make it to where he was without Akechi's help.

Failing to complete any of the first six Palaces before their deadlines would revert time forward to the interrogation day with Sae; believing the overdose of drugs has affected the protagonist's memories makes Sae leave. Akechi then kills the protagonist as a mysterious figure, criticizing his righteousness as trivial. Failure to complete Shido's Palace before the Election Day leads to Akechi discovering that the protagonist is alive, and he arrests him for murdering a guard and deceiving the police after arriving at Leblanc. This is regardless of whether he was fought previously or not, and hence his disappearance. After Shido's defeat, Akechi will never be heard from again for the rest of the game.

Lavenza revealed that Yaldabaoth gave Akechi access to the Metaverse to see whether or not Akechi's desire to destroy the world was stronger than the protagonist's desire for rebellion and societal reform. Akechi's supposed goal after discrediting Shido is the destruction and recreation of society, as opposed to the protagonist reforming society by removing its corruption. However, Yaldabaoth would blatantly rig the outcome in an attempt to prove that humanity indeed wants his "salvation" by controlling the people of Tokyo and stagnating their thoughts regardless of who won. An extra event in Persona 5 Royal has Akechi bumping into the protagonist and Kasumi Yoshizawa near the Shibuya station, where Kasumi reveals that her father hosted the talk show he was on earlier. Akechi responds that he had met the host personally, but is surprised that Kasumi is his daughter. The three then have a chat in a café, discussing the Phantom Thieves. Kasumi excuses herself shortly thereafter, not wanting to worry her father, and the group disbands.

During an unspecified period within the game in his celebrity career, Akechi was also interviewed by Shinichi Yoshizawa's talk show "Good Morning Japan" for one week in a row, allowing him to know Shinichi's daughters, Kasumi Yoshizawa and her younger sister, Sumire Yoshizawa personally.

In Royal, Akechi's Confidant is also optional instead of automatic, although all original events that originally progressed the Confidant in Persona 5 will still occur. Completing his Confidant will include visits to Penguin Sniper and Jazz Jin, and later ranks will allow the protagonist to randomly uncover enemy weaknesses and eventually randomly uncover all of an enemy's weaknesses. The deadline for the optional Confidant events is the 18th of November, where the last two events in the confidant will be automatic. After the 18th, the protagonist cannot interact with Akechi afterwards until the Third Semester.

In the protagonist's Rank 8 event with Akechi's Confidant, unlocked after he joins your party, Akechi will ask the protagonist to meet with him alone in Mementos. Morgana is a bit confused by the request, but he allows them to do so. In Mementos, Akechi finds a quiet location and then pulls a silenced pistol (similar to the one he used on Shadow Okumura and later the protagonist), saying that he wanted to follow up on his agreement that he will truly duel the protagonist. This will trigger a short battle where the protagonist is able to fight Akechi solo; winning this fight or surviving a number of turns is necessary in order to advance the Confidant. After the battle, he will then profess that he hates the protagonist. The localization has him go into detail about how the protagonist is able to expertly recover from the situation he was unwillingly thrust into, something Akechi himself was never able to do. In the Japanese release, his comparisons between himself and the protagonist are more highlighted, which are the cause of Akechi stating he "hated" him. He goes into detail of the protagonist's traits that he admires and puts himself down by comparison, making it sound like Akechi wishes he could have become such a well-adjusted person. He eventually throws his glove at the protagonist as a challenge for a rematch at a later date.

In Shido's Palace, if the protagonist reached Rank 8 in his confidant, then before the second half of his boss battle, Akechi will assume that the protagonist was also left unsatisfied with how their previous battle ended and declares that they will now finally attack until the bitter end. If the protagonist previously accepted his challenge to a rematch, then following the battle, when Akechi traps himself with Shido's cognitive version of himself, the protagonist will remind him of their promise, which surprises him.

If the protagonist maxed the Councillor Arcana Confidant, Akechi reveals himself to be alive on Christmas Eve after Yaldabaoth's defeat, offering himself to take the protagonist's place for Sae to testify about his and Shido's crimes. He turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders he committed on Shido's behalf.

Akechi was released on January 1st for no apparent reason, and sensed the world had been altered. Seeing an alive and well Wakaba Isshiki, and a human Morgana in Leblanc confirmed his suspicions. He asks the protagonist, who is the only other person aware of the irregularity, to help him investigate. After receiving a call from Kasumi, they go to Odaiba where an unknown Palace appears. The trio gather in the unknown Palace, but notice that the Metaverse Navigator has returned with a different icon, this time in white and black. Entering the Palace, Akechi proceeds to take on his Black Mask form, as he has no reason to lie about his true self anymore. Upon rejoining, he has Loki instead of Robin Hood, and consequently loses all Bless Skills in his arsenal. He also acts as the navigator during the trio's investigation. While infiltrating the Palace, Akechi begins to suspect that Kasumi is the Palace Ruler once she identifies her deceased sister as Sumire after seeing footage of her past and how the protagonist refers to her as Kasumi.

This is proven false once Takuto Maruki reveals himself as the real Ruler and the one who created the 'ideal' reality that they currently live in using his amplified actualization powers. When Akechi and the protagonist reject Maruki's reality, the former counselor gives them a week for the protagonist to experience his reality for himself before returning for another confrontation. Akechi, on the other hand, gathers information about Maruki. He also calls Sumire's parents and learns that Maruki already made them believe she's at a training camp. In addition, he reveals to the protagonist that, in Maruki's reality, the two of them haven't committed crimes, despite the Phantom Thieves causing a stir in society for both realities. However, he stated that Shido alone was arrested for attempting to overthrow the government. After a week passes, the protagonist and Akechi return to confront Maruki and reject his reality again. Kasumi, revealed to be her younger twin Sumire whose memory was altered by Maruki prior to the story, refuses to return. If the protagonist denies Maruki's offer, Akechi will be pleased, saying to Maruki that negotiations are now over. Choosing to accept Maruki's offer leads to an early bad ending, much to Akechi's shock.

On the evening of February 2, if Akechi's promise was remembered, he also arrives at Leblanc when Maruki visits, although in hiding until Maruki calls him out. Maruki then tells the protagonist that Akechi's existence is a product of the new reality, though it may not be entirely because of the protagonist's own ideal reality. While the protagonist's true desire is heavily implied to simply be remaining in Tokyo with the friends and allies he made during his year-long probation (as shown during the instance where he does choose to stay in Maruki's reality), this most certainly includes Akechi considering his tight connections with the protagonist. As well, Maruki himself says that he was saddened to learn of the protagonist's untimely separation from Akechi, and he wanted to use his own power to give the two of them a fresh start together (this may be because Akechi and the protagonist remind him of his own heartbreak of his relationship with Rumi).

However, the unclear nature of this situation may mean that Maruki could potentially be being untrue with the protagonist to get him to accept his reality. Akechi admits he has a gap in his memory between the encounter with the Phantom Thieves in the engine room and Christmas Eve, meaning that he had an inkling of his true fate the whole time. This makes it seem like Maruki was in fact telling the truth. Even so, despite knowing this, Akechi still refuses the reality Maruki created because he believes it would be no different from being enslaved. Akechi then speaks alone with the protagonist and makes it clear that he decides his own path, urging the protagonist to fight Maruki even if it means losing him, saying that the indecisiveness betrays his wishes and is irritated if the protagonist argues that the issue isn't trivial. The protagonist is then given the option to accept Maruki's reality by canceling the heist on his own. If he doesn't, Loki will evolve into Hereward, with Akechi vowing to "sow chaos as far as the eye can see," intensely relieved and grateful to the protagonist for keeping their promise.