#I’m not even an akechi guy!!!!!!

[persona-brainrot-real]

I know for a fact that if you make the decision not to accept Maruki’s offer, having given him the calling card, Akechi still goes to fight. I think he stands outside of the palace for a while, perhaps longer than he needed to while he waits for Joker and the rest of the PTs to show up, and I can imagine the bitterness and betrayal he feels realising not only has Joker chosen his life over everyone else’s, against his direct wishes, but intended on denying him his free will and his active choice in the decision. It’d be a betrayal he’d almost find hard to believe hurts him, but he did get close to Joker over the past month of working together, but the sting of realising Joker didn’t listen to him would probably be what encourages him to go, despite the risks, and fight Maruki alone.

And he would lose. He would have to- Maruki only loses because he’s outnumbered by several strong-willed people, all people he knows and respects (particularly Joker) but with Akechi? Just one opponent?

One moment he’d be stood opposite Maruki, teeth grit and hands fists, Loki looming behind him, and the next Akechi would be waking up in his Detective Prince outfit, back home, alive and whole and maybe for a moment he’d be upset, or enraged, or devastated, but only a moment before Maruki’s control over cognition wins and he can’t remember what he was unhappy about.

[qualityrain]

not pictured is joker teaching neku to dodge bullets idk

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I do kind of want to briefly ramble about Akechi’s rank 4 scene though because it kind of pleasantly surprised me?

So Akechi takes Joker to the jazz bar, which is his place to get away from it all, kind of his safe spot. His best options are when you give responses that show excitement and enthusiasm about the place, which is… aw.

Then the conversation segues into Akechi asking if Joker has a place like that, where he feels at ease, and all of the responses obviously reference Leblanc. First of all, that’s really sweet to have a kind of confirmation of that - Joker and Sojiro had a rocky start to their dynamic, but now he’s feeling like it’s a safe spot for him, and with Morgana there too, and the Thieves having come to visit a few times, maybe even more of a home than the one he left (though perhaps that’s pushing it?).

Secondly though, alarm bells were going through my head, because nowhere in all of this business does it seem a good idea to tell the detective investigating me where I live and am now operating my heists from. (Even though he probably could find that out easily… but still.)

So I picked the vaguest option, to be on the safe side, but little did I know that it doesn’t matter.

Because Joker tells Akechi about Leblanc anyways. Completely without player input. And at first I was a bit taken aback, but then it made a lot of sense.

For one thing, it confirms that Akechi is being genuine about this being his place to feel at ease. Not that I doubted that, but Akechi often says one thing and means multiple; he’s quite good at controlling the flow and direction of a conversation to get the info he wants. But that’s not the vibe I got here at all. He’s just… sharing it. Wants Joker to enjoy it the way he does. It’s actually a fair amount of openness, especially in that he’s never shared that place with anyone else before. And so Joker returns that openness with an honest answer and his own place of comfort - prioritizing returning Akechi’s honesty with his own instead of potential repercussions. Wild. I love it. And it tracks from their previous interactions.

Akechi downplays his skills by using his non-dominant hand, which Joker notices. Joker returns that (whether intentionally or inadvertently, I can’t actually say) when he puts his glasses on Akechi - the fake glasses that he wears, ostensibly, so as not to draw attention to himself. There’s a sense of honesty for honesty here, openness for openness, particularly from Joker. It’s just interesting.

[lotus-pear]

ok so i finished the game and i fear this aged terribly

also like an absolute fool i did the true ending so i got no shuake angst on 2/2 like i was expecting……….i also didn’t have a file ready before the talk with maruki so it appears i’ll have to play the game for the third fucking time just to get the bad ending

finally started p5 royal ‼️‼️‼️‼️

expect some royal trio art soon they are my dearly beloveds (minus akechi i hope he dies in this reality too)

[thedaythatwas]

something I appreciate about akechi as a character is that he never seems to think hmm, maybe I should emotionally distance myself from joker, because being invested in him could end up being bad for me when I need to kill him. the vengeance-oriented character goro is made out to be at first glance ought to think like this, but NO! goro akechi is NOT (just) that guy!

from the beginning, akechi goes above and beyond the minimum requirements of getting intel on joker and gaining his trust. he says, I’ll go the extra mile! I’m going to follow him around, inside and outside the metaverse. we’re going to talk about my dead mom. I’m going to insist that we’re RIVALS! I’ll spend so long thinking about all the reasons I hate him that it’ll become obvious to everyone around me— even joker’s (not a) cat— that what I feel isn’t really hate but something much more complex. obviously, this will make killing him that much more gratifying, because our lives are now intertwined! HA! take that joker! I WIN!

I believe this… interesting… thought process has something to do with akechi’s central motivation being more than just a desire for vengeance. he also desperately craves approval and recognition. akechi is not actually all that pragmatic. he’s highly driven by emotion, sometimes at the cost of logic (I mean… his revenge plot isn’t all that mature or well-thought through. it’s basically suicidal).

this considered, it seems that becoming akiren’s rival would be second nature to goro. it gives him a veritable cornucopia of things he craves. winning their “game” allows him to feel recognized for his worth. just playing it gives him opportunities to feel seen and known. being a rival is addictive. he gets the chance to embrace the anger he cultivates towards akiren and the rush of putting him at the center of his thoughts. their rivalry is by far the most intimate relationship akechi has. and so, he gets more and more tangled up with joker— and in his feelings about joker— regardless of any risk that poses to his plans. distancing himself would go against goro’s every instinct.

being akiren’s rival is tied to akechi’s vengeance, but somewhere along the line, “besting joker” evolves to be about more than plotting against shido. this is probably for similar reasons as to why akechi’s desire for vengeance against his father was never purely about “vengeance” at all.

of course, this comes with the pesky, entirely predictable side effect of akechi getting a bit obsessed. oh well! it doesn’t end up stopping him from trying to carry out his order to kill akiren.

regardless of how events actually unfold, akechi’s feelings are a clean-cut liability to his revenge plot. a rational character would probably want to avoid such an obvious crack in his armor. this to say, as intelligent as akechi is, he’s not really all that rational. there’s a difference! he’s not who he appears to be at first glance, or even second or third glance. he’s not the detective prince, or an assassin with tunnel vision for vengeance, or even just plain angry. akechi wants to be needed, and he’ll do anything to chase that feeling.

so yeah, it would’ve been nice if he had found a homoerotic rival before the shido revenge plot debacle happened! alas.

[vashtijoy]

Extremely random thought but do you think that cringy fanfictions written by preteens who then grew up to be embarassed adults would have never existed in the Marukiverse, considering how that art student who was in a slump was forcibly pivoted to archery instead?

wow, goddamn. I guess you could take it either way, couldn't you? Maruki does seem to think that struggling against the odds isn't worth it, and that depression and discouragement are best treated by giving up.

I do tend to think that Maruki is able to tell what people truly want, to somehow divine it out of their heads, even before 12/24—just because all of the kids get something they really want, even when it's not necessarily obvious. Maruki makes some startling judgements there, but the PTs all seem to agree that they were genuine temptations.

So my reading would tend be that Yusuke's artist friend really did think he might have been happier as an archer, and really did believe there was no hope for him in art—but, just as the PTs all turn down their wishes that they desperately want, Yusuke's friend has chosen not to switch paths, and to stick with his painting despite his slump. Until Maruki happens to him, at any rate.

What I think is more likely is that people who want to write would still write. They just wouldn't ever feel discouraged, or down. They wouldn't go through that phase of realising all their work is cringe. And of course, because Maruki's reality has no pain or challenge or complexity, nobody would ever write anything worth reading.

Which brings me to....

deleted text chat

While I was checking the archery chat, I ran into this deleted chat all about conflicting wishes, and how the very thoughts in people's heads, their ability to feel negative emotions at all, will likely be erased. It's unsettling reading, and confirms a number of theories that go around about what life in Maruki's reality would really have been like, and how he'd likely handle conflicts.

It's SCRIPTCHAT_282, and since it didn't make it into the English localisation, it will have been cut in very early dev. Look out for Akechi chiming in when Ann talks about wishing to get rid of people they don't want around.

Futaba 正月のこと覚えてるか? Do you guys remember New Year? Ryuji そりゃもちろん 嫌でも忘れねーよ… Course we do. There’s no way we could forget that. Futaba わたしのおかーさんいただろ? 春もおとーさんいたよな? My mom was there, right? And Haru’s dad was there too, right? Haru え、うん　いたけど… Uh, yes. I suppose so... Makoto なにかあった? Did something happen? Futaba ちょっと考えてたんだ I was thinking. Futaba 死んじゃった人に会いたいって 思ったら生き返ってたじゃん? If we think about wanting dead people back, they come back to life, right? Futaba んじゃその逆は? って So does it work the other way around? Sumire 逆…ですか The… other way around? Ann いなくなってほしい人に 消えろって願ったら… If we wish for people to disappear, who we don’t want around… Ann ってこと? Is that what you mean? Futaba そ! Yeah! Akechi なかなか面白い考えだね 、どう思う? That’s quite an interesting thought. Ren, what do you make of it? [Joker] 消える気がする I feel like disappearing myself. [Joker] 考え方が変わる It’s changed my perspective. Yusuke だが、誰かが生きてほしいと 願ったらどうなるんだ But then, what would happen if somebody else wished they were still alive? Sumire 一度消えて また現れるんですかね… They’d die, and then reappear again, wouldn’t they..? Ryuji 忙しいな Busy day. Akechi そういう考え自体 が 消えてしまうんじゃないかな You know, even thoughts such as these may die out in the end. Yusuke 自分のか? You mean our own thoughts? Sumire そういうこと考えなくなる ってことですね Do you mean we just wouldn’t think such things any more? Akechi 僕も同意見だな　思考自体を消されると思うよ It does seem likely. I’m afraid thought itself will be erased. Futaba あーなるほど Huh. I see. Haru 負の感情を抱かなくなるのかぁ… So… so we won’t be able to feel bad things any more..? Ann 平和になりそうだけど なんか気味悪いね It’s kind of creepy, isn’t it? We’d get to live in peace, but… Ryuji つか、よくそんな 物騒 なこと思いつくよな You always gotta think of the worst things, don’t you, Futaba? Futaba だってヒマなんだもん It’s because I get bored. Futaba あ、そうじろう帰って来た そんじゃな! Oh, there’s Sojiro! See ya! Yusuke 本当に暇潰しだったのか So this was all just to relieve her boredom? Makoto じゃあ、私たちも 授業に戻りましょう We should all turn back to our lessons, anyway. Morgana 人を生き返らせる、か。認知を使ってそんなことするなんて… Bringing people back to life, huh? Imagine using cognition to do such a thing… Morgana ワガハイには理解できないぜ。 I just can’t understand it.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (posted 2024/11/30)—first posted.

[moonllita]

Do not date all the guys on Valentine’s Day…

Ryuji finally say fuck

Yusuke finally did this face

Mishima is finally called by his first name

and Akechi finally kill you

Sorry for the potential typo errors, English is not my main language but I tried (I’m not even good in my native language lol)

[gio-cosmo]

Is this making sense to you guys do you see the vision here???

Every time I look at Akechi all I see is the human version of a coffee almond toffee crunch ice cream bar.

[monakisu]

I'm pretty sure Joker being like Sleeping Beauty in Royal was intentional. After all, third semester in general has a fairytale theme, with Sumire being Cinderella and Maruki being the Fairy Godmother that grants her (and everyone else's) wishes. But he's also Maleficent, because he puts Sleeping Beauty (Joker) to sleep. Hence Maruki viewing himself as the good guy but also being the bad guy. He gives Sleeping Beauty his Prince Charming (Akechi) in order to convince him to stay within the dream of the false reality, but fails to realize what Prince Charming's goal is in every telling of the story. To wake Sleeping Beauty. Hence, Akechi being the most against the fake reality and being the one to convince Joker not to stay in the reality. By failing to admit his role as the villain, Maruki brings about his own demise in the form of Akechi. It's so well done I can't imagine it being anything but intentional. I mean, Joker even walks with Akechi, "once upon a dream" if one considers the fake reality akin to a dream.

^^^ YEAH!!!!!! YOU GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🧨💥🧨💥🧨💥

i find the irony of goro and maruki’s varying self-awareness levels to be RESPLENDENT!! like here we have goro who has always desperately yearned to be the hero and yet he’s resigned himself to playing the role of villain, the big bad wolf killing mothers and fathers and plotting against the righteous thieves… but come third semester he’s the heroic prince charming saving sleeping beauty!!

(although i like my yaoi toxic, i have to admit how perfectly akira and goro click together as two halves of a whole; they intrigue and excite each other, fulfill their savior complexes and desire to be known intimately, bring the best and worst out of each other...) these two freaks are literally this:

anyways i like to daydream that in the euthanasia ending (i enjoy how horrifying and clinical that name is) even after the rest of the world has long forgotten akira, goro, who has always been stubbornly aware and driven by the truth (i mean, both his AOA's talk about the truth; the boy is FIXATED), will eventually make his way up sleeping beauty’s tower to wake up his love…

and then there’s the other part of the irony: maruki who thinks himself to be his new reality’s messiah but is actually the real Big Bad woa!! a classic evil queen, the evil stepmother, coraline’s other mother trying to trap her in her spiderweb… amazing!!! like u said, he’s simultaneously sumi’s fairy godmother and akira’s villainous fairy! everyday i thank the devs for adding third semester bcuz hoo boy did it elevate p5 to the high heavens!!

i’ve always been very fond of the sleeping beauty parallels in p5, but i’d never thought about it thoroughly enough to realize how instrumental goro’s prince charming role is in dismantling malecificent’s curse! thank u for opening my eyes!! i’m literally giddy from glee!!!

[luffyvace]

Hello first of all- Omg my new fav author I LOVE UR WRITING SM LIKE ???? APBDISBRQKOZ

I found your blog form the author!Reader the anon who ask haz a creative mind I loved the 2 post sm I already got addicted to it I hope u Dont mind me requesting sm form it

Imagine Kusuo getting a notification (he seems like the one has his phone on dnd but has his notification open for his s/o in all media) of her post sm in one of there public social platform saying "I'm turning into my emo phase if this writer block doesn't move on form me " and when checking her private acc (the it's only access for him and her older friend) she is all memes about her writer block and her saying "if I stop writing I give all my books and series to you my friend" just her and overreacting to her block writer

Hiii!! THANK YOU CUTIE!! It always makes me so happy to hear I can share my hobbies with others <3 ahhh I see! Of course I don’t mind dear :)

ohh so if I’m getting this right it’s Saiki finding readers second blog (in which she mostly posts unserious stuff about her writers block) I believe I get what ya mean :}

*･..°•*:.｡:3･.｡.:*･..*°.･

Lol if feel like almost every writer has they’re side blogs or blog where they not a writer they just read other’s stuff

and to me this blog seems like a kinda funny vent blog where reader can just complain about her writers block whenever she has it

LOL imagine going inactive on that acc for weeks and saiki’s wondering if you forgot about it or forgot the password but you just simply have had a lot of motivation lately

then all the sudden you come back and your rebloging all types of relatable author memes and making posts about how ‘your going emo because you have writers block’

honestly it’s kinda ironic to him

he likes your posts on both accounts to support even when your do have writers block

cuz who’s likes a guy who ups and leaves when you don’t have motivation?

the first time you threatened to give your books away he knew you were joking but at the same time he was like ‘wait don’t give all your books away they can’t write it as well as you can 😀’

’kusuo I’m joking’

🧍

‘me too I knew that’

(“Thank goodness..her books were the only thing keeping me sane from those nuisances..”)

- In Saiki’s head

he doesn’t get all the writer memes bc he’s not an author, obviously he’s not stupid so he does find some funny

i feel he doesn’t post on social media but if a post of yours does particularly good he’ll repost it

i think I touched up on him being supportive before but yeah I’m gonna say it it again bc it truly is an honorable mention

‘(Name/pen name) has posted!’

- notification

👆💥📲

- Saiki

the emoji combo was terrible but basically that’s him about to break his screen from how hard he clicked

he’s always the first one on your posts and interacts every way possible

except comments..

which sucks cuz it boosts it a lot but he just doesn’t interact online 😭

if it’s a social media where you can see who liked, aiura and torisuka always tease Saiki for being the first like every time

“Dang your a real simp huh? Your the first like on her every post!”

- Aiura

”MAN! You don’t miss a beat do ya Saiki? I can never beat you to it 😭”

- Toritsuka

“wow..you beat me once again. The second the notification pops up you’ve already liked, reblogged and shared before I can even click on it. That’s impressive I must say, but it’s also quite annoying because I would like to be the first one to support (name) one day. In fact you do everything first! You get the books before they publish! You like all her posts first! Satire or not too!- yadda yadda yadda..”

- Akechi

“you don’t even respond to me that fast! Sometimes you leave me on read or delivered for 2 days before you answer me”

- Kaido

Saiki also sees that your friend likes your second acc too

which he would figure since you two are close

ehehe..a bit short dearest but I hope it brings you joy regardless~ 😅💞

I have much to get out..need to be more active..

[kroosluvr]

since i’m drawing fem sh/uakesu/mi (to be uploaded tmrw hopefully) thoughts on if i designed a male sumire? tossing some ideas around, i think he’d be just as tall as akira- pretty lanky and cute looking.

his thjng w gymnastics is trying to make his performances look effortless and simple although it doesn’t come Easy to him like it did with kasumi. in the same vein i wonder if i could adjust the timeline so the kasumi accident happened earlier, so he was pretending for Longer. maybe… ok maybe what if kasumi wasn’t famous yet, so to the common person you wouldn’t necessarily doubt this guy as “kasumi.” it’s just sumire’s made-up notions that “kasumi is better than me in every way. and now he’s dead so now i have to carry on his legacy bc i could never do what he was on track to do.” smth like that. (i like it when AUs, even if it doesn’t change much, changes Little things that make the story fresh and there’s more to explore)

as kasumi he’s a little brash and outgoing, kinda like ryuji but not as hardheaded i think. daredevil but mostly egged on easily. sumire (third sem) is listless and quiet, lone wolf, throws himself into situations with the urge to just blindly “test himself” whatever that means.

i think with akira, as both “kasumi” and his real self, he genuinely just thinks he’s really cool and compelling. prob especially since akira lets the rumors just run off his back, “kasumi” thinks that’s really cool of him since his whole thing is seeming effortless. sumire in 3rd sem would respect him a lot, and strive to become strong so that he could be someone akira could depend on. he’d feel ashamed that he lied to akira this whole time though (acting as a fake self)

he’d def be nervous around akechi LOL i think more so than canon sumire? i think this sumire is locked on to making akechi Like Him so he’s overcompensating to an almost self sacrificial extent which reminds akechi of akira and disgusts him kinda. ( akechi also sees himself in sumire in those moments which is a complex feeling)

ANYWAY idk does this sound cool compelling? i’m just checking in bc i … havent rlly seen anyone do this sort of genderbend LOL so i’m not sure. let me know!!!

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

and when i spread my akechi wait for it agenda !!

WAIT guys…your obedient servant is kinda giving shuake realness…wait…

[oakdll]

i never liked akechi, even when his betrayal to shido was revealed, but honestly in the third semester i’m starting to get the hype.

seeing him acting as a good guy while still being batshit insane and ruthless is honestly a lot of fun

[akirawrites24]

Hi I hope this makes sense I’m still recovering from surgery and I was hoping to request something with some of the persona 5 boys reaction to their s/o going in for major abdominal surgery (maybe it being their third one in 3 years) how they’d help with recovery do they bring them to the hospital or do they even remember when the surgery date is. if possible yusuke, Ryuji, Akechi (and Mishima is possible he gets so little love sweet boy if that’s too many characters I understand)

I’m a bit late, but I hope that you will have/ had a good recovery!

Ryuji Sakamoto

Safe to say that our best bro is worried af

He wonders if you are sick, or hate your body as you have so many surgeries in the past 3 years

You had to make sure that none of that was the case

He doesn’t believe it though

So what does he do?

He makes sure to buy you gifts, visits you, makes sure your recovery is going well etc

in other words:

He will be the best boyfriend he can be to make sure you are doing okay!

Yusuke Kitagawa:

Hearing that you were going in again made him wonder if something is going on

Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious you assured

didn’t make him less wonder or something

He made sure to visit you lots after the surgery was over

He doesn’t have much money, so he draws a lot of things that cheer you up!

You are thankful that he is with you during this time

He got to meet your parents too at that time

He thinks they are good people lol

Yuuki Mishima

We all know how this guy is

Worried af

Of course his first thought was that something is off

Believe me when I say that he almost went in that surgery room with you

The doctors had to keep him out

made sure to be there for you 24/7 whenever he could

He is a walking green flag

You’re lucky to have him

Goro Akechi:

Let’s all be honest: he doesn’t care less about surgeries

As long as you end up fine, he is calm

He would make sure you heal correctly however

he may or may have not have made sure you got the best doctors

I’ll leave that up to you

Is often gone for work, but he texts you to make sure you are okay

He also forces you to stay in bed too

Everything goes back to normal very soon though

[omnifatal]

p5r does such a good job building dread with its dramatic irony and if i don’t talk about it i’m gonna explode (p5r spoilers below)

we the player see from a third person omniscient perspective that someone kills Okumura’s shadow after we steal his treasure.

but even before than that Sae asks us in the flash forward what we did to him, implying that something went wrong. so the whole lead up to this palace is tense because we know something is going to go very wrong. the whole thing feels weird, the motivations for going after this guy feel somewhat flimsier than the other ones. the story is that we think Okumura is connected to the mental shutdowns, but Morgana repeatedly says throughout the palace that we haven’t seen any evidence of that, and then someone else will say “oh maybe it’s further in”.

his connection to all this ends up being tangential, he knows a guy who does the dirty work for him but he himself is a pawn in the greater game being played and he gets killed off by that puppet master. but then you have the whole 20 days of Haru being worried (this is her first time doing this so it’s natural) and everyone going “nah it’ll be fine!”

and you the player KNOW he’s going to die. the SIU director literally looks into the camera and goes “haha yes i will kill this guy at an opportune moment”. so you look at the countdown clock and it’s basically “countdown to everything going to shit”. it’s so fucking good. i didn’t actually enjoy the mechanics of Okumura’s palace all that much (it was probably my least favorite boss fight so far) but the sheer tension of it all carries it

and then right after that all goes down, Sae tells you she was the last target. and she asks you if you changed her heart. shit man i dunno the fact you’re listening to me kinda sounds like maybe we did! but it’s ambiguous, would she even know?

we KNOW that the team gets caught in this palace. it’s literally the intro, you’re in a casino trying to run from the cops. the question is, did you steal her treasure first? is she moments away (in the present) from getting killed by the people puppeteering you both? and who is that?

the way the Phantom Thieves go from plucky underdogs and victims of circumstance, to thinking they hold all the cards, back to being desperate kids with their back against the wall is so engaging. i need to know what happens next. it surely won’t be good

also shadow Sae is so hot for no reason

edit: how could i forget the fact we SEE AKECHI SEE US GO INTO THE PALACE and have to sit with that until the school festival when he reveals he knows everything. the way he says “everyone’s here” and futaba even says something about it. i’m gonna be sick.

[somethingpersonarelated]

Why the fuck does Akechi read philosophy and psychology?

Have this metapost when i’m supposed to be working on finals papers hahahahahhahahahah. Follow up to this post!

This is kind of a middle of the night rant that came from nowhere so sorry if it’s a bit jumbled or erroneous in nature. I've always been a bit bothered by people saying that Akechi just reads philosophy and psychology to appear smarter. It's definitely a PART of it, but I don't think it can be singled out to one specific reason.

Yes, part of it is to appear smarter. though, appearing smart has a purpose, and he's proven time and time again in the story he IS intelligent.

It is also a coping mechanism

yes i do mean that let me explain

I'll also be following up to this post with breakdowns of the books on that list I made so if that interests you stay tuned, but I read some Jung and immediately something popped out to me about the will to power. The will to power, as explained on page 30 of Essays on Analytical Psychology by Carl Jung, is the instinct that compels us to do self-preservation. Further on page 31, he writes:

"The discovery is made that the 'other' in us is indeed an 'Other'-a live man, who actually thinks, does, feels, and desires all the things that are despicable and odious.... A true man, however, knows that his most bitter foe, or indeed a whole host of enemies, does not equal that one worst adversary, that 'other self,' who 'bides within his breast.'"

Akechi has already faced himself by the time we meet him, but still struggles with justifying himself as seen in no more what ifs and mementos mission. Let's talk about it in mementos mission a bit more (chp 4.5):

His justifications always end in some acknowledgement that he some control of his circumstances, and as long as that is true he can carry forward with the path he has chosen to take. But the fact that two years later, even around people that are not Joker, he still has difficulties with his position, is interesting.

These philosophies provide a way of living. Or it's better to say, a way of thinking about living, a way of thinking about what it means to live (in the case of psychology). Akechi (presumably) grew up very isolated from others and struggles with conceptions of himself. It's very typical of his age group to have these concerns, but on top of that-he's got a job as a hitman. Not good for self-perception or self-preservation. He is both the normal man and the 'other,' and does not become the 'true' person until Hereward is unlocked. That's when I imagine he kills the last of his doubts and settles on a perception of himself.

Philosophy (and psychology), in a way, can provide answers to these questions in a way that is separated from yourself. Jung hits a point that goes straight through Akechi, and Aristotle implies that souls are moved, rather than souls moving themselves. Both of these points are addressed in Mementos Mission. The latter is visible through those pair of hands wrapped around his neck, he is both a puppet and yet resolves that he is not one.

When these ideas contrast, there aren't many things you can do about it except philosophize (I guess. you could talk to a therapist but akechi doesn't really have that or a good support network so). Akechi having a mix of both in his reading repetoire means he both looks towards understanding others and himself. But he has a much stronger emphasis on what it means to live for himself and for his cause.

tl;dr akechi doubts himself and partially looks to texts like these to solidify his view on everything he does. and he does it to get smarter/look smarter. he's unfortunately that philosophy/psychology guy