Futaba Sakura

Futaba Sakura is the Navigator of the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5. She is different from the main crew of the Phantom Thieves, as prior to Persona 5 Strikers, she was a shut-in who does not attend school and rarely, if ever, leaves her house.
==Appearances==
*Persona 5 / Royal: Major Character; Navigator; Hermit Confidant
**Persona 5 (Manga): Major Character
**Persona 5: Mementos Mission: Major Character
**Persona 5 Dengeki Comic Anthology: Major Character
**Persona 5 Comic à La Carte: Major Character
**Persona 5 The Animation: Major Character
***Persona O.A.: Major Character
*Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight: Playable Character; Hermit Social
*Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight: DLC partner
*Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Navigator
**Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special
*Persona 5 Strikers: Navigator
*Persona 5 Tactica: Navigator
*Persona 5: The Phantom X: Side/Playable Character
==Design==
Futaba is a young girl with hip-length black hair dyed bright orange, with straight-cut bangs and two long strands in the front along with a single small, thin strand at the top. Her brown eyes also seem to have some faint purple tones in them, appearing mauve. She wears large black circular glasses, and is almost always seen wearing a set of AKG K845BT headphones with red ear cushions. She seems to be very short, even compared to other girls.
Her casual winter outfit consists of multiple layers: she wears an off-shoulder white top with a red splatter-like pattern on her chest with five white asterisks (*****) which are reminiscent of a password input system in the red splatter, a black tank top underneath, a dark green jacket with a faux fur trimmed hood, black short shorts, a studded black belt in a slanted position, black thigh high socks and black knee-high boots with buckles and studs at the top. The green jacket has A.F.K. on the back (for "away from keyboard"), although it is difficult to see because of Futaba's long hair.
Her casual summer outfit consists of a black tank top with a image in front, with a green tank top underneath. She wears gray baggy pants with black laces on the bottom and green sneakers. She also has a white hip pack that forms a monstrous face with the zipper as the mouth and green eyes.
Her nightwear outfit consists of a black shirt with "JLMK!" (presumably "just let me know") over a white-and-black striped long sleeve shirt and short black shorts with a light green trim.
During Christmas she wears a reindeer themed crop hoodie with white trim and matching shorts.
During the Third Semester in Royal, Futaba now wears a neon green oversized hoodie with a pixelated purple alien creature on the front with the text "Mars Crusher" under it, and the number "23" printed on the left sleeve. She wears a black jean skirt underneath, black tights, two loose blue studded belts hanging off her hips and short calf-length black leather boots. For colder weather, she also wears a black knitted hat with a pom pom on top.
Her Metaverse costume consists of a skintight black bodysuit with fluorescent neon green glowing stripes and matching black boots with neon green soles. Her mask is a pair of big black goggles with orange lenses. This outfit was inspired by sci-fi movies like ."Persona 5 Official Design Works", YouTube.com. Xcompr (February 25, 2017)
In Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, she wears an outfit similar to her main one. Her outfit consists of a white tank top with what appears to be a red shirt underneath along with a black strapless bra, a black studded necklace, black short shorts, ripped black thigh high stockings, a green sweat jacket with black cuffs and dark gray hightops. She retains the studded black belt.
In Persona 5 Strikers, her outfit consists of a neon yellow T-shirt with a purple pixelated heart on it under an olive-colored overcoat with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, black denim shorts, and sky blue sneakers with orange laces. She also wears a black cap and blue headphones when outside. While at the festivals, she wears a dark green yukata with a flower pattern and an orange sash with a purple line in the middle. During the day off on the Okinawa beach, she wears a white bikini top with blue stars and red trim, red short trunks with white star patterns, and matching sandals.
==Personality==
With a case of social anxiety bordering on agoraphobia developed from the trauma of losing her mother Wakaba Isshiki, combined with her generally introverted personality, Futaba is strongly uncomfortable with going outside. When the protagonist first meets her, she is a shut-in who does not attend school and almost never leaves her room. She communicates with the world remotely via the Internet, and her adoptive father Sojiro Sakura enables her lifestyle out of guilt that he could not protect her from trauma. Having disconnected herself from humanity and the world beyond her apartment, Futaba suffers from suicidal depression, crippling bouts of anxiety and would freak out instantly when seeing unknown people inside Sojiro's house. When first encountered, Futaba is so consumed with self-loathing that she suppresses her desire to live, causing her Shadow Self to develop a much more helpful personality than average, one who only desires Futaba's happiness. Prior to her Change of Heart, she thinks that her room is the only place she actually feels safe to dwell within due to the frequent hallucinations she has about Wakaba bearing hatred on her.
Even before her mother's death, Futaba was quite a lonely child growing up. Part of this was due to her isolation for being a genius, with other students thinking she was a freak due to her eidetic memory (things she's reminded of when she's given a tour of Shujin), while the other part was due to her mother working long hours to support her, meaning the two hardly ever got to spend time together. It got to the point where Futaba would sometimes think her mother cared more about her research than she did about her, an insecurity that only worsened when her mother died and she was read the fake suicide note. Because of her desire for her mother to be alive again, and the belief that she deserves to die, Futaba ended up creating a Palace where her mother wants her dead. With the help of the Phantom Thieves, however, she realizes that the suicide note was forged and manages to remember the real Wakaba. Futaba is also very fond of sushi and Sojiro's curry, both of which were meals she shared with her mother. 
When she first joins the Phantom Thieves, Futaba states that her main goal is to find out the truth behind her mother's death, but also gains a growing investment in the group's goal of reforming society. 
After her heart is changed and she begins to actively go out, Futaba still initially tends to hide behind the protagonist so that she won't be seen in public, or wears masks which make it impossible to identify her. Even during Strikers the anxiety issues do not completely go away, as, if the protagonist talks to her while investigating Alice Hiiragi in Shibuya, she will say that the heat and crowds of people during summer still makes her uncomfortable.
Futaba begins to change after meeting the protagonist and the other Phantom Thieves, as she begins to practice opening up and challenging her own boundaries. Beneath her anxiety, Futaba has a childish side and enjoys teasing her friends, particularly Ryuji Sakamoto, Yusuke Kitagawa and Morgana, and occasionally Makoto Niijima and Sojiro Sakura as well. She often pokes fun at Yusuke by calling him "Inari," a word which means fox, but can mean tofu curd sushi due to tofu being offered near Inari Shrines. This forms a pun which implies that Yusuke is a degenerate. Futaba's social ineptness often causes her to be very blunt, to the point that she seems to have no concept of tactfulness; she will often make notes about the thieves behaviors as if she is studying them, and she shows no qualms over commenting on/reacting to the other girls' phantom thief suits or the size of Ann Takamaki's breasts. In addition, she addresses Sojiro by his given name instead of "Dad," which is considered very impolite in Japan, even in the case of adoptive paternal figures. Sojiro refers to himself as her father, and while he never insists on her calling him "Dad," he becomes very pleased when she occasionally begins to. 
Despite her social ineptness and anxiety, Futaba has little problem talking to people as long as the subject interests her. When Makoto is originally attempting to help Futaba open up, she has little success bringing up mundane topics like food and the weather (the latter meaning nothing to former shut-in Futaba). However, once Yusuke starts rearranging her Featherman figures, Futaba begins passionately arguing with him, which soon turns into an actual discussion, allowing Makoto to deduce that she's simply not interested in mundane topics. 
Futaba is a prolific hacker. As the original Medjed, her skills were of worldwide fame, even if her own identity remained anonymous. Sometimes she is shown to use this without regard for privacy or consequences, such as her bugging of Leblanc to keep an eye on Sojiro, bugging the protagonist's phone camera so she can keep an eye on them during their trip to Hawaii, and finding out her Uncle's financial history (which Sojiro had to point out was obviously illegally obtained, meaning they couldn't make use of it without getting in serious trouble). Makoto even mentions before the Hawaii trip that she's glad Futaba is on their side, recognizing she'd make a fearsome enemy. 
As a former shut-in, Futaba appears to be the least physically fit member of the Phantom Thieves, to the point that she may end up sleeping for days at a time (something that happens often enough that Sojiro is unconcerned). She is also shown to be heavily reliant on the internet as she doesn't see the point in going shopping since you can buy anything online and even claims that she can use it as a substitute for going to school. 
Futaba loves computers (if the protagonist claims he built his own PC, she asks for details on the GPU, CPU, RAM, etc.), often plays video games, is into sci-fi (as shown by her Phantom Thief suit and her Persona being a UFO), and is a big fan of the show Phoenix Ranger Featherman R (as evidenced by her posters and figurine collection).
==Profile ==
===Persona 5===
====Past====
Futaba is the daughter of cognitive psientist Wakaba Isshiki; her father is unknown. Due to her high intelligence compared to other children around her, she was bullied often and barely had any friends other than a girl named Kana. However, Kana's parents were sexually harassing their daughter, and when Futaba discovered this, Kana left her as well.
At some point, Futaba, under the codename "Medjed," began acting as a "hacker of justice," becoming well known. However, because she stayed anonymous, other hackers began using the name all over the world, eventually forming their own hacktivist group. Futaba saw that the group was getting out of hand, but found it too much trouble to expose its members. Instead, she simply changed her handle to "Alibaba" and stepped away from hacktivism. During the events of the game, the moniker that Futaba used was impersonated by an IT Company president to launch blank threats against the Phantom Thieves.
While Futaba and her mother had a great relationship with each other, two years ago, when she was in middle school and the first Metaverse-related incident instigated by Yaldabaoth and Shido started, her mother, Wakaba Isshiki, suspiciously died in front of her because of a mental shutdown caused by Goro Akechi and ordered by Masayoshi Shido, resulting in Wakaba throwing herself in front of traffic. Her relatives, who have an eye on Wakaba's legacy, blamed the prodigy programmer for her death, based on a forged "suicide note," particularly after agents of the Conspiracy used it to manipulate Wakaba's family, hoping to keep her (alongside other cognitive psience researcher's) research for themselves.
Before her mother died, Futaba asked her to go on a family trip, at which Wakaba expressed her annoyance at Futaba bothering her for completing her research for the sake of her life, upsetting Futaba. It was thought to be the reason of Wakaba's death and that Futaba drove her into a corner, but in reality, Futaba's response was merely a tantrum, and Wakaba, although having scolded her for being selfish, promised her that she will bring her to anywhere she wants to go after she completes the research.
The combination of the suspicious timing of her mother's "suicide" being after a family quarrel between the two, and the derogatory content of the forged suicide note, engineered the delusional belief that her mother hated her, which drove her to a complete breakdown. Following her mother's death, custody of Futaba was passed to several of her uncaring relatives, including her money grubbing uncle, Youji Isshiki, who refused to even treat her as a person, not even allowing her to bathe or feed her food or have a proper bed. Futaba did not know that her mother died of a mental shutdown due to the secrecy of the method and her inability to identify it, and Shido quickly forgot about Wakaba after he killed her.
The incident led Futaba to develop guilt, psychological trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, extreme social anxiety and hallucinations. The hallucinations are often of Wakaba's face overlaid on other people (or Wakaba herself) looking disappointed in her. She has not attended school ever since graduating middle school: by her age, she should have been a first year student in high school. Wakaba's close friend Sojiro Sakura has adopted Futaba, paying her uncle the better part of Futaba's inheritance to leave her alone. During her isolation, she tried to use her substantial hacking skills to learn about her mother's research and how it relates to her death only to find all of the information related to it had disappeared completely, and she shut herself in so tight at Sojiro's house that nobody around Yongen-Jaya had heard of her before, even from stores where Sojiro frequents. By the time of the game, her depression has worsened into outright suicidal impulses and a refusal to meet anyone, including Sojiro, as well as a delusional subconscious belief that her death would bring Wakaba back to life. Sojiro even tried to call a doctor to no avail, since she refused to come out of her locked room. The sheer magnitude of her negative emotions was drastic enough she managed to generate a Palace, despite not being a criminal with a heavy desire for controlling other's lives unlike the majority of targets. Due to her heart being distorted, she does not properly recall any of the events that ruined her life, as the memories are concealed in several murals in her Palace.
====Fourth Heist: Futaba Sakura====
Shortly after Junya Kaneshiro's fall, the Phantom Thieves are being confronted by a hacker group named "Medjed," who threatens to unleash a "Cleanse" against the Phantom Thieves and all of its supporters. In reality, this is an impersonator and the "Cleanse" is actually a blank threat issued by the CEO of an IT company affiliated with Masayoshi Shido. Futaba finds out that the protagonist and his friends are the Phantom Thieves by listening to their conversation in Café Leblanc through the bug she placed there. Knowing her own impulses and realizing she has to stop, Futaba sends a message to the protagonist under the alias Alibaba, asking him to steal her heart in exchange for helping them deal with Medjed, who are declaring war against the Phantom Thieves. However, when the protagonist presses for more information, Futaba realizes that in order to steal her heart, they need to know more about her. This causes her to panic and hastily attempts to cancel her request for the first time. However, for the second time, "Alibaba" claims that if the protagonist does not change her heart before the Medjed "Cleanse," she will expose all identities of the Phantom Thieves and their supporters, which will most certainly lead to their arrest. Again, she then hastily attempts to cancel the request for the same reasons as the first time. This aroused heavy suspicions around the Phantom Thieves due to the heavily threatening and anonymous nature of the "Alibaba" deal.
thumb|250px|Futaba enters her Palace.|left
When problems with Medjed start to get worse, the desperate Phantom Thieves conclude they require her hacking skills to put an end to the situation. After piecing together the facts, Makoto Niijima deduces that Alibaba is in fact Futaba herself. When visiting Sojiro's house, they find out she also lives there so they directly ask her about herself to get the keyword into the Palace. They sneak into Sojiro's house at night trying to find her. The household was pitch black and seemingly empty, until lightning broke out and Futaba could be heard screaming, greatly alerting Makoto. This alerts Futaba that people are barging into her house, and she comes out to check only to see a terrified Makoto clinging onto the protagonist's leg. Both are terrified of each other, and Futaba flees into her room instantly due to her extreme agoraphobia. Sojiro then returns to his house to see the party's mess. Despite initially being bewildered because the party deliberately barged into his home and the party terrified in fear of reprisal, he consented to their presence and brought the party back to Leblanc and explained the situation to them. When the party sneaks into Sojiro's home the next day, they do not force her to come out and allow her to communicate through chat. She told the protagonist that she wanted to die, shutting herself in her room, then inputs the keyword "Tomb" by accident into the protagonist's navigator, transporting the party into her Palace: a vast desert with the pyramid, her "tomb" itself, being a drive away. However, exploration of the pyramid was halted when Futaba's heart started to instinctively reject them, causing Shadow Futaba to appear and drop a boulder on them, forcing escape.
Her sin is Wrath, which turns her Palace into a giant pyramid filled with numerous traps such as quicksand pits and boulders and contains several murals which represent her self guilt over "causing her mother's death." Due to her proficiency with technology, the pyramid's interior appears with integrated electronics, and mirroring her shut-in lifestyle, the desert that acts as the outskirts of the Palace is extremely hot while it is much cooler inside the pyramid. Since she does not see anyone other than her mother Wakaba in a distorted way and she outright refuses to even meet people, the only cognitive existence in the Palace is the massive, spiteful sphinx that takes her form, which represents Futaba's guilt over her death, and it fights with Shadow Futaba for control of her own mind.
While the Phantom Thieves are having trouble with the sphinx, she notices the appearance of the Metaverse Navigator application on her own phone, and wonders if she can enter her own palace. She does so, encountering her Shadow and becoming her own Treasure in the process. She is forced to face her own fear as her Shadow urges her to remember her mother's death. Recalling that her mother's death was unnatural and realizing she had been deluding herself, Futaba awakens her Persona power and helps the party defeat the cognitive existence of her mother that she created, who wishes she was never born. After the battle, the image of the true, benevolent Wakaba appears before Futaba, and confesses her love for her daughter before disappearing. After the battle at her own Palace, Futaba holds her end of the bargain, hacking into Medjed's website to stop them from further bothering the Phantom Thieves. This does no damage to Medjed however, and is merely a part of the Conspiracy's plan, due to Medjed itself being an impersonator and the actual Medjed is Futaba herself.
If the protagonist cannot complete her Palace in time, the police come to arrest the protagonist with charges of extortion and suspicion of being a member of the Phantom Thieves, with Sojiro also being arrested for harboring a criminal, implying to be Futaba actually blackmailing them. This scenario is a false recollection made by the protagonist during Sae Niijima's interrogation, due to his mind being addled by drugs forcibly administered to him by the police. Futaba is also already reformed during the interrogation, further indicating that what happens is obviously a false recollection. Sae proceeds to leave the room to give the protagonist time to recover, at which point an assassin takes the opportunity to kill him.
====Fifth Heist: Kunikazu Okumura====
After the Phantom Thieves change her heart, she finally comes out from her shell, starts to go outside by regularly visiting Café Leblanc, interacting with the protagonist and his friends and eventually joining the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to find the culprit truly responsible for her mother's death. She reveals she created the original Medjed identity and later gave her hacking scripts to a group of friends, but when counter-hacking the hostile Medjed she realizes that they do not use her distinct programs. From there, she deduces that someone else must have stolen their name. In addition, she reveals to the team the suspicious way that her mother's condition degenerated before she died, and that her physical notes were the only research that hadn't been destroyed and are possibly the only way to find the ones who forged the note that ruined her life.
====Sixth Heist: Sae Niijima====
After the death of Kunikazu Okumura, while cleaning Futaba's room, Sojiro accidentally finds the Phantom Thieves' calling card for Futaba that she keeps as a memento. He questions the protagonist and Futaba about this, giving them no choice but to explain what truly happened to Futaba's mother. Sojiro only thought that the protagonist had some kind of connection to the Phantom Thieves and got Futaba involved, but Futaba's slip makes him realize that the protagonist is in fact the ringleader of the Phantom Thieves himself. Sojiro then reveals the truth about his past, and how he had realized that the Thieves' methods have some similarity with details of Wakaba's research. Hearing Futaba's wish of wanting to find her mother's killer, Sojiro immediately rejects the idea. However, after seeing how determined both Futaba and the protagonist are, Sojiro promises to keep their secret and allows them to continue their activities under the condition that they should stop if it gets too dangerous.
====Seventh Heist: Masayoshi Shido====
The Phantom Thieves later find out that the ruining of Futaba's life was orchestrated by Masayoshi Shido, who ordered an assassination on her mother to protect his reputation from being damaged by her research that could otherwise expose his crimes, then forged a suicide note and told his men to read it aloud to her in an unnecessary act of cruelty.
While infiltrating Shido's Palace and obtaining letter of introductions from his patrons, Futaba tackles an IT Company President by trying to chat him up with IT due to their shared interests. When she discovers that he's faked Medjed just to set up the Phantom Thieves' public downfall, she declared that they're not equals, as he only abused the internet to exploit the weak, thinking it's innovative. This causes her to be unable to negotiate for a letter of introduction, however, forcing the group to help and fight his Shadow.
When the thieves finally secured the route to his Treasure, Futaba hijacks the broadcasting system of Japan to broadcast a message against him nationwide, which alerts him and causes his Treasure to take form.
====Final Heist: Mementos====
====Confidant====
:To check Futaba's Confidant dialogue options and skill, see: Confidant/Futaba Sakura
thumb|250px|The protagonist on a date with Futaba.|left
Futaba's Confidant is automatically unlocked on August 31st. However, advancing it past the first rank requires the protagonist to have rank 4 Kindness (Selfless). Maxing this Confidant makes Necronomicon evolve into Prometheus and unlocks the fusion of Ongyo-Ki.
Her story progression revolves around her exposure to the outside world, as years of social isolation has left her completely maladjusted, and fulfilling a list of things which her mother made her do to help boost her social skills. Progressing the Confidant will unlock additional support abilities for Futaba to aid the party with in-battle through her Persona.
As she slowly rehabilitates with the protagonist, her journey leads her to reveal that even in her youth she has been bullied for her intelligence and only had one friend named Kana who was the only one to actually try to talk with her. However, one day she uncovered that her best friend's parents were abusing her (the implication is of sexual abuse, as Kana wrote in her diary of being forced to wear strange costumes and have photos taken). Although Kana stopped talking to Futaba after she discovered her secret, Futaba lied to her mother that they were still getting along.
To soothe her guilt, she tracks down Kana and discovers that the abuse has not stopped. Futaba was then entrusted with the task of stealing her parent's hearts so she can live a normal life again. After Kana and Futaba reconnect, they rebuild their friendship, and both girls resolve to attend school again. At that point, the protagonist can choose to start a romantic relationship with her or not. If they do, Futaba goes out and buys a figure on her own as proof of her independence. If they do not, she spends close to an hour exploring Akihabara on her own. Either way, she thanks the protagonist for giving her something irreplaceable: her life back. Her newfound strength and independence causes Necronomicon to transform into Prometheus.
Futaba's farewell gift after maxing her Confidant is the Promise List that she and the protagonist were using in their Confidant. This item allows Futaba to use Mementos Scan and Treasure Reboot starting from Rank 1 of her Confidant in New Game+. If the protagonist pursues a romantic relationship with Futaba, she will gift the protagonist Headphones on Christmas, allowing the protagonist to earn more points when using a Hermit Persona during their Confidant in NG+, and Futaba's Chocolate on Valentine's Day, which fully restores SP to one ally when consumed.
===Persona 5 Royal===
====Taking Back Reality====
Eight days after Yaldabaoth's fall, Futaba is seen celebrating the New Year with Wakaba on January 2, with Wakaba shown to be alive and well. This was revealed to be an alternate reality created by Takuto Maruki, who rewrote history so her assassination never happened, out of Futaba's desire for her mother to still be with her, and to have a complete family. Akechi still remembers murdering her, however, due to his special circumstances. Futaba then can be found at Akihabara, exploring with Sojiro and Wakaba when the protagonist goes to check on her. Once Futaba denies Maruki's reality, Wakaba is never heard from again.
Despite not being present in the party during these days due to living happily in Maruki's reality, her Treasure Reboot Confidant skill still has a chance to occur during the investigations on January 2 and January 9. This is likely due to an oversight.
If the protagonist maxes her Confidant, Futaba will call him over for a talk in her room. However, when inside the room, she wears the mask that she used to only wear when she was still learning to talk to people. She then takes off the mask and regrets having her selfish desires of seeing mom once again betray the protagonist's trust, even believing how he would be most definitely angry right now even after his reassurance. She then asks him if Maruki's reality is an illusion, in which he answers that it isn't in a sense. While she was grateful that she would see her mother once again and she could spend more time with her, even for a fleeting moment, she accepts the truth that she will never meet her again and Maruki's reality is not to be relied on. She tells the protagonist that she will move on from her grief so her mother will be proud. Realizing this, she tells the protagonist what she believes that her mother wished for her to become, causing Prometheus and Necronomicon evolve into Al Azif.
Should the protagonist allow Maruki to completely overwrite reality, Futaba would begin to go to school at Shujin Academy. She then will be seen enjoying life with Wakaba and Sojiro in the credits, their family complete like it was never able to be.
A few weeks after the Phantom Thieves defeated Maruki and restored their original reality, Futaba revealed to the group in Leblanc (at Sojiro's urging) that she passed her entrance exams for high school and plans to continue her education into college to pick up on researching cognitive psience in her mother's footsteps, inspired by the events within Maruki's reality. Everyone acknowledges that they'll remain connected with each other as they separate and move forward on their own paths towards their own future.
Some time after the group helped the protagonist evade tailing government officials (with the assistance of the reformed Maruki who now works as a taxi driver), Futaba continued to stay over at Sojiro's house and would write a letter for the protagonist in her room during the credits.
===Persona 5 Strikers===
Futaba is now fully rehabilitated and has enrolled in Shujin Academy as a second year student.
Four months after the protagonist and Morgana's departure, the former Phantom Thieves decide to reunite and go on a camping trip during summer vacation. While discussing preparation, Futaba suggests that they use a recently popular mobile app called EMMA, which can give them recommendations of equipment for their camping trip. However, the group learns of a new Metaverse-related threat where the EMMA application can be used by specific people to Change the Hearts of people via Jails, making them obsessive towards their ruler, known as Monarchs, which can lead to the point of property loss and violent incidents. They once again reestablish the Phantom Thieves of Heart to change the heart of the Monarch of the Shibuya Jail, Alice Hiiragi.
While investigating Alice, the gang is approached by a police officer named Zenkichi Hasegawa, who reveals that they are the prime suspects of the recent-most change of heart incident against the TV host a day ago, even if Alice was the true instigator. He offers to clear their name in exchange for their cooperation in solving the cases. Not wanting to accept the offer, the group is determined to clear their own name by changing Alice's heart. Like she did with Shido, Futaba hijacks the TV stream to send a calling card to Alice, allowing the group to fight her and get her back to her senses. Unfortunately, their plan backfires as the police instead become convinced that the Phantom Thieves are involved in the recent cases, and only now the Thieves knew that this was a Japan-wide incident. Futaba searches through the incidents that Zenkichi mentioned and discovers that he has been telling the truth. With no other option, they reluctantly accept his offer to investigate the incidents, although hand-to-hand with their trip.
During their trip at Kyoto, Futaba and her friends became acquainted with Zenkichi's daughter, Akane Hasegawa. Futaba is able to relate with Akane's feelings, having lost her mother. When the Phantom Thieves are framed for hacking into EMMA and murdering the Monarch of the Okinawa Jail, they discover another Jail in Kyoto and enter it accidentally upon realizing Akane was captured. In reality, they are all unknowingly being lured into a trap set up by Akira Konoe under EMMA's proposal; when they found Akane, she was revealed to be not of her real person, but her Shadow Self, whom has became the Monarch of Kyoto by accidentally consulting EMMA to "save her," with the real Akane being rendered comatose in her room. Shadow Akane captured the Phantom Thieves, but Futaba, who tripped while trying to catch up, ended up avoiding capture. Unable to fight, Futaba is forced to retreat and meet Zenkichi at their hideout. Having no one else to turn to, Futaba pleads with Zenkichi to help her friends and Akane. She navigates Zenkichi during their infiltration until they reach the cage where the Phantom Thieves are being held captive, with Shadow Akane keeping an eye on them. Once Zenkichi awakened his Persona and defeated all the shadows Akane summoned, Futaba freed the rest of the Phantom Thieves.
=== Persona 5 The Animation ===
Futaba appears in the fifteenth episode of the anime, where like before she contacts the Phantom Thieves under her alias of Alibaba to have her own heart stolen. Unlike the game version where Futaba merely threatens Ren with an SNS deal at class, she hijacks the phones of all other students in Ren's class by causing them to make noises. The Phantom Thieves were able to deduce her identity through the wording of Alibaba's texts and Sae's visit to LeBlanc to threaten Sojiro. Futaba herself makes a physical appearance at the end of the episode.
As she and Makoto scream, Sojiro appears, where he finally comes clean about his relationship with Futaba. Like in the game, the Thieves agree to steal Futaba's heart in order to stop the group Medjed. While in her palace, it is shown that Futaba's mental state partially transfers over to Shadow Futaba, showing the shadow self in agony as the voices of Futaba's relatives in the tomb.
===Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight / Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight===
Futaba hacks into Fuuka Yamagishi's laptop, and befriends her using her screen name "Alibaba." Futaba informs her of new found love of dancing, alongside the other members of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, though due to the fact that their memories are erased upon completion of the ball, neither retain the memories of these interactions. Fuuka's screen name was "Lucia."
===Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth===
Futaba is the party's default navigator. She uses the Persona Necronomicon. She acts as navigator alongside Rise Kujikawa and Fuuka Yamagishi.
As Hikari bears striking similarities to her old self, she is one of the party members that genuinely cares for her, often attempting to talk to her despite the fact that she often shuts down when being talked to. When the party is preparing to weaken Kamoshidaman, Futaba spends her time talking to Hikari.
During the 3rd labyrinth A.I.G.I.S, she acts as Ribbon's caretaker due to her pro-efficiency with technology. She was capable of undoing the Overseer's immobilization of Ribbon just by flipping a switch and was able to remove the seal that prevented her from activating Orgia Mode, allowing her to overthrow the Mother Computer with the help of the party. After the fight against the omnipotent AI, she was capable of repairing her completely from orgia mode overload with the help of Aigis.
Futaba enjoys tricking Aigis into behaving in inappropriate or informal manners, as Aigis is extremely suggestible and oblivious to it, to the point that she manages to carry Futaba's mannerisms into reality at the epilogue.
==Etymology==
*The name Futaba means "pair, set" (双) (futa) and "leaf, plane, lobe, needle, blade, spear, counter for flat things, fragment, piece" (葉) (ha/ba), which literally means "bud, sprout, two leaf/twin leaf" altogether. 
**Futaba is a reference to the (also known as 2chan), an imageboard in Japan that inspired the popular English-language imageboard 4chan. As a , Futaba could be seen as representing Internet or otaku culture.
***Her mother's name Wakaba is also a reference to the software that runs 2chan.
** Her online handle "Alibaba" is a Japanese word puzzle to her given name. Ali or Ari (あり/有) means "to have," so the handle can be constructed as "have leaf leaf" (有葉葉), in other words "have two leaves."
*Futaba's surname Sakura means "help, aid" (佐) (sa) and "warehouse, storehouse, barn, treasury, granary, cellar, magazine, godown, depository, elevator, storage place, repository, supply shed, grain elevator, stockpile, arsenal" (倉) (kura).
==In Other Languages==
Language 	Titles 	Titles
Japanese 	佐倉 双葉 (Sakura Futaba) 	ナビ (Nabi)
Korean 	사쿠라 후타바 (Sakura Hutaba) 	내비 (Naebi)
Traditional Chinese	佐倉 雙葉 (Zuǒcāng Shuāngyè) 	NAVI
== Trivia ==
* While Futaba has her own costume with every DLC pack, the only times she's seen wearing them is in safe locations within Mementos and the Palaces, the exit of the dungeons, or during certain non-animated cutscenes. If she activates one of her skills while in battle, she's depicted wearing her usual Metaverse outfit instead of the equipped costume.
* If Makoto is affected by an ailment during battle, Futaba will identify the affinities of enemies instead.
* Futaba was originally imagined as having black hair. Original sketches show her looking a bit emo/goth, with a black jacket with a skull, and a black-and-white striped shirt. However, the character designer wanted to make her stand out and so her hair was made bright orange, as depicting a sad and suicidal character with dark hair and goth/emo clothing is a bit of a cliche. Her final outfit is a lot less goth/emo looking, although she still wears black boots.
* The game files indicate that there was supposed to be a Shadow Futaba icon indicating an alert in her Palace, most likely to be used after meeting Futaba's Shadow, although all instances of if this were to happen depict Futaba's regular self.
* She has a Catherine figurine in her room of Catherine sitting on a stool.
*Futaba has a set of headphones for use at her desk, as well as one for going out. The set she uses at her desk are open-backed, meaning the cups have holes in the backs in order to play back music in higher fidelity with more directional audio. It makes sense why these are exclusively used at her desk, because headphones like these often require an external amp to work properly, and others can hear what one is listening to through the holes in the headphones. Her usual set of headphones share neither of these drawbacks, being closed-back and probably connecting to her phone through Bluetooth. 
* The method in which Futaba gains her Persona is more evocative of the cast of Persona 4 than other party members. Rather than having a mask to tear off, Futaba is forced to face a part of herself she was repressing (her true memories and her desire to live.) When she finally admits, "I couldn't face myself," and accepts the truth, her Shadow even becomes her Persona, just like in Persona 4.
* Futaba can equip gear and both of her Personas have stats, but those do not have any effect.
* The Famidrive that the protagonist can buy off of the second-hand shop in Yongen-Jaya originally belonged to Futaba.r/Persona5. Reddit (u/Raydnt, June 9th, 2020).
* Futaba appears in the first chapter of the Persona 5 manga during the time Akira is at the Shibuya crosswalk after time freezes around him. However, due to this contradicting her character plot it could easily be a look-alike or just a gag from the author.
* Futaba's calling card is initially worded differently from the final version; The text on the card says: "She never leaves her room or interacts with people, living an unproductive life of indolence. We are the Phantom Thieves that steal hearts. You will be made to bask in the light of the sun. Look forward to that time."The Cutting Room Floor
* In Persona 5 Royal, the protagonist can play darts with Futaba even though she is unable to use Baton Pass.
* Futaba has a poster of Egyptian Hieroglyphs on the back of her bedroom door.
* During the destruction of Shido's Palace, Futaba admits she can't swim.
* The official Twitter account for the Persona series posted a Happy Birthday message for Futaba on February 18, 2018.
** Afterwards, for the rest of the day, Futaba tweeted on the Persona account in Morgana's place. Her tweets were signed with "Alibaba."
* As shown in the battle versus Caroline & Justine and in Persona Q2, Futaba thinks they are cute.
* Futaba is the only Phantom Thief to enact a request during her Confidant.
* Before Alibaba's identity is revealed to be Futaba's, Ryuji suggests that they might actually be Sojiro Sakura's ex-wife and that he cheated on her.
* During the game, Futaba makes various references to other games. One of the most distinct is her voice line “Hey, listen,” which is a reference to Navi's quote in . Futaba's Japanese codename is also "Navi." Another one happens during the scene where she first goes to the electronics store with the protagonist to establish the Confidant; when she gets lost and eventually meets the protagonist again, she says "But then I thought about you while I was wondering around the store, and bam, a wild [player name] appeared!", which references the famous message that announces wild Pokémon encounters. If her invitation to Nakano isn't immediately accepted, the next day she'll send an additional message saying it's the "Dawn of the Final Day" to do so, referencing .
* Due to an oversight in Royal, it is possible for Futaba's Treasure Reboot and Moral Support to activate while exploring the new Palace for the first time with Akechi, despite her not being in the party at that time. This is because they are Confidant abilities instead of skills on Futaba's Persona, and unlike similar skills such where the party member must be in the party for the skill to activate, Treasure Reboot and Moral Support does not require Futaba to be present.
* In the Sword Art Online collaborations, Yuuki is dressed as Futaba because they both share the same Japanese voice actress, Aoi Yuuki.
*Although Futaba's Palace is based around the sin of wrath, the English version of her calling card contradicts that by implying it was based around the sin of sloth.
** In the Japanese version of the game, Futaba's reading of her calling card reveals that said card only refers to her committing a "great sin" without mentioning what sin it was. The "sin of sloth" was added in the English localization.
*Futaba mentions in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight that the reason she sticks to glasses and doesn't switch to contacts is because she's afraid of leaving them on while she sleeps.
*Despite the official website for Persona 5 Strikers stating that one can play as "all Phantom Thieves," Futaba is an exception, reprising her role as a non-controllable support character.
*According to the official interview from the Persona 5 Royal Official Complete Guide, Futaba and Haru were deliberately designed to distance themselves from directly interacting with Akechi during the third semester to display that they never forgave him.
**During a game of Tycoon in the Thieves Den, Akechi cannot be at the same table as Futaba or Haru.
**There is an unused dialogue of the Phantom Thieves mourning for Akechi after his sacrifice, Futaba states that she won't forgive Akechi for what he did to her mother but still appreciate his help.Unused Phantom Thieves mourning Akechi dialogue
===Appearances in Other Media===
Title 	Details 	Date 	External Links
Chain Chronicle 	Collaboration event*Oracle, Clerics class, 4-star 	January 19th, 2017 - January 31st, 2017Persona 5 Collaboration Festival. Chain Chronicle Wiki. 	Article in Chain Chronicle Wiki
Puyo Puyo!! Quest: 	Collaboration event for Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth*Futaba Sakura, Balance Type, 6-star	December 3rd, 2018Persona 3, 4, 5 Popular Scene Vote Results, Persona Q2 Line Stamps Announced, Persona Q2 x Puyo Puyo!! Quest Collaboration. Persona Central (Reggy, November 24th, 2018)	Article in Puyo Nexus
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle: 	Color swap for Akihiko Sanada. 	 	
Catherine: Full Body: 	DLC NPC 	 	
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party 	Collaboration event*Outfit for Aoba Moca 	February 17th, 2019 - March 6th, 2019BANG DREAM! GIRLS BAND PARTY! X PERSONA SERIES COLLABORATION. BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Official Website (February 11th, 2019) 	
Kyoutou Kotoba RPG 	Collaboration event*Futaba (Kotodaman); Normal (5-star), Phantom Thief (6-star) 	March 5th, 2019 - March 28th, 2019Persona 5 x Kyoutou Kotoba RPG: Kotodaman Collaboration Trailer, Starts on March 5, 2019. Persona Central (Reggy, March 4th, 2019) 	
Super Smash Bros: Ultimate 	*Part of the Joker DLC:*Cameos in Joker's Final Smash,*Support Spirit (Novice Class) 	April 17th, 2019 	Article in SmashWiki
 	Collaboration event*Playable Character 	October 2019 	Article on the Star Ocean Wiki
Identity V 	*Second collaboration event*Futaba Sakura & ORACLE Skin for Mechanic 	November 7th, 2019 - November 28th, 2019Persona 5 x Identity V Collaboration Part 2 Announced for November 7 to November 28, 2019 Persona Central (Reggy, November 6th, 2019) 	
Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag 	Collaboration event*Oracle, NPC, Oracle skin for Yuuki: Slash type, Neutral element, 6-star 	February 17th, 2020 - March 10th, 2020
Persona 5 Royal x Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag Collaboration to Start on February 17, 2020. Persona Central (Reggy, February 13, 2020) 	
Sword Art Online: Integral Factor	Collaboration event*Oracle, NPC, Oracle outfit for avatar, Oracle skin for Yuuki 	February 28th, 2020 - March 10th, 2020 	
Puzzle and Dragons 	Collaboration Event 	July 27, 2020 - August 10, 2020 	
==References==
Category:Navigators
Category:Persona 5 Allies
Category:Persona 5 The Animation Characters
Category:Persona Q2 Allies
Category:Persona Q2 Characters
Category:Hermit Arcana
Category:Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight Characters
Category:Persona 5 Royal Characters
Category:Persona 5 Strikers Characters
Category:Persona 5 Strikers Allies
Category:Persona users
Category:Persona 5: The Phantom X Characters
Category:Persona 5 Tactica Characters
Category:Persona 5 Tactica Allies