Hifumi Togo was originally meant to be more involved in the main story of Persona 5, and a possible party member. As one of my favorite confidants and characters in Persona 5, I can’t help but wonder about what could have been if she was a party member and what role she could have played in the story. Below is a concept of her Persona, Phantom Thief appearance, and skills. This was mostly used as a way to gather research for a later fanfiction project, but is also for fans that wanted an idea of what Hifumi could be like in the party dynamic.

I am not Japanese but this concept has a lot of Japanese influences, which I feel is only fitting for Hifumi’s character, her background and personal story. I have done my best to research this. If anything comes up as insensitive or incorrect, I do not mind corrections or suggestions. Finally, I want to thank imazombiebutterfly who has spoken with me about concepts and helped give me some ideas, particularly with her Phantom Thieves outfit. I hope she can show what she has drawn to everyone soon!

Phantom Thief Concept

Hifumi’s Phantom Thief costume uses a modified Hannya mask that is used in Japanese Noh theater. It is meant to represent a woman that has become a demon due to her jealousy or obsession, but can also represent great sorrow. Unlike most traditional Hannya masks, however, Hifumi’s eyes can still be seen, along with the bottom of her mouth so it would be easy to still see her expression with her fellow Phantom Thieves. The rest of her outfit is inspired off of popular culture’s perception of a ninja, using the colors of black, blue and yellow.

Hifumi’s melee weapon of choice is a naginata, a pole weapon with a blade attached on the end. While used by Samurai, it is also considered the weapon of choice for women warriors in Japanese history. Her ranged weapon is based off Miniguns, a six-barrel rotary machine gun. It can fire many rounds at once but as a spray, similar to Ann. It does not do a lot of damage but it’s ability to fire many rounds a turn along with Hifumi’s high crit rate means that it can be useful in attempting to take down enemies for All-Out Attacks.

As a party member, Hifumi would get really into the combat and almost seem like she was role-playing when fighting, like she is when playing Shogi. Her familiarity with battle strategy would still be prevalent and would earn her the codename Advisor.

Her Persona

A fox spirit that disguised herself as a human to earn the Emperor’s trust and power to eventually kill him. Loved for her knowledge and beauty, when it was discovered what she was truly was, she fled and years later killed by an archer’s arrow.

Hifumi’s starting persona is Tamamo-no-Mae. She appears as a fox-eared and double-tailed woman in highly stylized Japanese junihitoe, a many-layered kimono only worn by women of the Emperor’s court, becoming popular in the Heian era. Tamamo-no-Mae’s junihitoe would not follow the traditional color patterns I’ve mostly seen in my research of reds and greens, instead being mostly yellows and blues with some reds and oranges, similar to this. Tamamo-no-Mae’s black hair would be split evenly down the middle and go down her back. Her face would have traditional Heian era makeup, a painted white face with red lips and high eyebrows.

She is an opposite of Akechi in regards to resisting curse and being weak to bless damage. With this change it is under the assumption that Akechi will no longer have Curse skills under Robin Hood, but he would gain access to AOE bless skills. He would also keep almighty skills that he earns early to maintain the image of being a strong character. Hifumi gains two almighty skills, one to compliment her fear status skills and the other (typically) after Akechi leaves the party. While Hifumi’s initial persona is similar to the protagonist’s initial persona, Arsene, it would be assumed that the player would have stopped using Arsene at this point.

Hifumi is mean to have a high crit and hit rate (including instant kill skills if setup properly) in battle. This is at sacrifice for her physical damage output and incoming damage received, along with her health pool. Like how you can decide on whether to focus more on Psych skills or Gun skills for Haru, Hifumi can be built to more handle instant-kill scenarios or to do heavy magic damage.

“You’ve known all along, haven’t you? None of this is for you…but you went along with it in the vain hope that it’d get better. As long as you could play your games, it’d be okay…but now she has taken that away from you as well! And for what? You are more than just a pretty face…lets show everyone what we’re really capable of!”

- Tamamo-No-Mae, Hifumi’s awakening.

To be continued in The Dangling Pawn.