ShuAda

"...You got the right to be happy, though. I'd be nuts to claim otherwise, when you're about to save the world. So...get up. The future you're after can still be reality. 'Bout time for you to lift those eyes. Everyone's waiting, after all."

- Adachi to Souji in the True Ending, Persona 4 Manga Volume 13

ShuAda is the slash ship between the Persona 4 protagonist and Tohru Adachi from the Persona fandom.

Persona 4 Golden
Yu and Adachi first come across each other when the police discover the first murder victim’s body. Adachi runs past Yu and his friends to vomit, before being yelled at by Dojima. The next time they bump into each other is at the police station, where he offers some information about the case, including his doubt of Yukiko’s innocence due to her disappearance. Once Yukiko is rescued, Yu and Adachi meet properly when the former’s uncle, Ryotaro Dojima, brings the latter over for dinner. After this, Dojima tells Yu that if he catches Adachi slacking off, that he should scold him on his uncle’s behalf. Once Yu runs into him at the department store, Junes, he’s able to initiate a conversation with him that starts Adachi’s social link (The Jester).

Throughout the first six ranks of the social link, Yu and Adachi spend time together, most often at Junes while Adachi is slacking off. Between social link events, they shop together for groceries and chat. Adachi opens up a fair bit about his distaste for country life, commiserating with Yu about the culture shock of moving in from the city. Adachi complains about work, too, mentioning that he’s usually too tired afterwards to cook anything more demanding than cup ramen; Yu can offer to make Adachi dinner, which intrigues the detective. He does eventually end up coming over for dinner after attempting to avoid a friendly old woman’s invitation to dinner, using Yu’s invitation as an excuse. Yu, Adachi, and Nanako spend some quality time together helping Nanako with her homework, discussing marriage, and Adachi delights Nanako with magic tricks. When Adachi promises Nanako that he’ll draw a big flower as a mark showing she read her assigned book for class, he jokingly asks Yu if he has anything that he’d like a flower drawn on, as well.

Throughout the social link, Yu’s internal monologue expresses his sense that Adachi cares for him. He also notices that despite Adachi’s griping over the old woman’s friendliness, he seems happy, and can sense Adachi’s sadness when he sees her fawning over her son instead.

As the mystery and plot thicken, Yu receives two warning letters from the culprit. Dojima puts him into police custody after questioning him. Once Dojima leaves the room, Adachi expresses that he’ll be safe here, and that Dojima likely cares for Yu a lot. When it’s discovered that Nanako was kidnapped and the Investigation Team put together a profile of the probable culprit, Namatame, Adachi subtly allows them to leave the interrogation room despite Dojima’s orders, telling them that if anything happens, “he didn’t see anything."

Once Namatame is in police custody at the hospital, Yu parts from the rest of the Investigation Team and goes to visit Dojima’s room. Adachi is there watching over him, and once Yu shares the news that Nanako has been rescued, Dojima passes out from exhaustion, leaving the two to chat. Adachi offers to stay with Dojima that night, telling Yu he can go home and rest. If Yu insists that he’ll be alright, Adachi shakes his head and points out that Yu looks terrible, and stresses that he should get some rest. Yu senses Adachi’s concern for him, and heads home.

After Yu and the Investigation Team spare Namatame and discover Nanako came back to life, Yu runs into Adachi again in the hospital hallway. Adachi updates him on Dojima’s condition; regardless of which answer is picked, he reassures Yu that Dojima will be alright, and that he wouldn’t want his nephew to worry about him anyway. He lightens the mood and mentions that Yu should enjoy his time alone at home while he can, since Dojima and Nanako will be coming back soon.

When Yu suspects Adachi of being the culprit, he reflects upon their bond and hesitates. Yu wavers between sharing his deductions with his friends (leading to the true ending) or keeping the information to himself and protecting Adachi (leading to the accomplice ending).

True Ending

If Yu tells his friends that he thinks Adachi might be the culprit, they all head back to the hospital to confront him, leading to Adachi accidentally incriminating himself and escaping into the TV world. After finding and confronting him, Naoto sympathizes with Yu, knowing that “it must hurt, since you seemed to have a personal relationship with him.” Rise ponders that she feels “a presence kind of like [Yu’s] up ahead” and that Adachi might be “calling to [him].” Yosuke asks Yu to promise them that he won’t go confront Adachi alone.

That night, Yu reflects on what his friends said, but still feels compelled to see Adachi. He sneaks into the TV world and heads to where they last saw each other, only to be held at gunpoint. Yu attempts to get through to Adachi, either through asking him to reconsider or by expressing that he believed in him, and Adachi continually pushes him away, asking Yu “just what was it about [him] that made [Yu] want to believe in [him] so bad”. He stresses that Yu made the decision to believe in Adachi, and that decision was what betrayed him, not Adachi himself. When Yu stands up against this, Adachi expresses his disdain for Yu’s naive thinking that he can “turn [Adachi] around”, and points his gun at him once more. He shoots, the bullet grazing Yu’s ear, and threatens him that he won’t miss next time. Despite all of this, Yu thinks that it didn’t seem like a threat. At this point, Adachi’s social link arcana, formerly the Jester, reveals itself as Hunger. Yu reflects that he wasn’t able to get through to Adachi.

The Investigation Team confronts Adachi together, and Adachi’s Persona is revealed to be Magatsu-Izanagi, a dark reflection of Yu’s Izanagi. After defeating Adachi and Ameno-Sagiri, Adachi comments that they have the same power, but things turned out so differently for them. He also admits that maybe if he’d been more like Yu, things wouldn’t have gone the way they had. Yu senses Adachi’s sincerity, and feels as though he finally understands Adachi.

On the day before Yu is set to leave Inaba, Nanako gives him a letter from Adachi, who is in jail. He details that something is still bothering him regarding the case, and offers some leads that help the Investigation Team discover the whole truth about the Midnight Channel. He also writes that he thinks about Dojima, Nanako and Yu a lot, realizing in retrospect that he enjoyed their time together. After thanking Yu and being rather sincere, he calls Yu a dumbass, wishing him good health. This letter confirms the definite bond between Yu and Adachi, completing their social link and granting Yu the ability to summon Adachi’s persona, Magatsu-Izanagi.

When Yu is taken down by Izanami, he sees his closest friends and bonds appear before him, giving him words of encouragement. Adachi is one of these friends, telling him to get up and not let Izanami win.

Accomplice Ending

If Yu decides to keep his suspicions to himself to protect Adachi, the mystery remains unsolved. On the night before he returns back home, Yu can go visit Adachi at the police station and talk to him privately in the interrogation room. Yu asks if Adachi committed the crimes, and Adachi continues to remain vague until he presents the hypothetical that if he had, what Yu’s goal was in confronting him here. He asks if Yu would want him to turn himself in, and Yu says no. He also says no when Adachi confusedly asks if Yu would try to blackmail him. Yu tells Adachi that he’s on his side.

Adachi presents the warning letter to Yu, explaining that it might be solid evidence against him, but affirms that since Yu is siding with him, he would be his partner in crime. He puts a lighter down next to the letter, staring at Yu who deliberates over burning the letter, thinking that it would be a betrayal of everything that happened over the past year. Still, he can decide to destroy it, shocking Adachi who didn’t actually believe he would go so far. Adachi expresses that destroying evidence is a crime. He then makes a show of calling Yu from his cell phone, threatening him that if he receives calls from this number, that he’d better pick up. Yu obtains Adachi’s number, reflecting that his decision was monstrous, but that he feels a strong bond between himself and Adachi. This scene causes Adachi’s social link (still the Jester) to hit 10 even despite skipping ranks. Adachi tells Yu to be careful on his way home with a final farewell of “Goodbye, partner.”

Yu gets on the train to return home, noticing it passing by Adachi and clutching his phone tightly. Adachi grins.

If Yu decides to protect Adachi but doesn’t visit him at the police station, he receives a phone call from him on the day he leaves Inaba. Adachi tells him that he’s transferring overseas and wishes Yu luck before hanging up. Dojima remarks that Yu must have been pretty close to Adachi if he called him to say goodbye.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Adachi features in "The Fog" (ATLUS Konishi Remix), a DLC song for the game. An interview from the game's official art book confirms the Adachi DLC as canon; however, unlike the other characters, who actually dance, Adachi merely dreams of dancing while he is still in jail following the events of Persona 4. This fact is hinted at by the backdrop of his dance, Yomotsu Hirasaka, which is also the setting of a dream Yu has early on in Persona 4. Yu being the only option for a dance partner to Adachi means that Adachi dreams specifically of dancing with Yu. Adachi's perception of Yu influencing the way he dances explains the differences between his dance style in his Fever Time with Adachi and his partner dances with other characters. In accordance with how Adachi views him, Yu's pushiness and naïvete manifests within the dance, such as when he reaches out his hand to Adachi, to which Adachi quickly rejects him by swatting his hand away. Despite Adachi's apparently unpredictable dance style, the pair moves perfectly in sync with each other. Their dance together ends with the two of them standing back to back, which seems to be the Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Episode Adachi reference also mentioned in the art book.

Quotes
"I wanted to talk with you more. Not out of pity, or so we could lick each other's wounds, but because...I wanted to get to know you better...Yes. If only...If only we could've met sooner."

- Souji's internal monologue regarding Adachi during their fight, Persona 4 Manga Volume 12

"From a fair bit away, Yu-kun is watching me with a look of surprise and bewilderment. It's not the same look he had last year, when he confronted me in the TV. There's no hostility in his face, no caution in his eyes. I see nothing in his expression but concern for me."

- Adachi's internal monologue about Yu after their fight with Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Episode Adachi

Fanon
Fans of ShuAda enjoy the contrast between the protagonist and the antagonist of the game, and the fact that, despite being on opposite sides of Persona 4's main conflict, Adachi and Yu are incredibly similar to one another. Fans of the ship have pointed out that Adachi mentions he wants to date a girl that can cook. Yu is known to be adept in the kitchen, and even invites Adachi over for a home-cooked meal in one of the Social Links.

Those who don't like the ship are quick to point out the age gap between the two characters, with Yu being a high school student and Adachi being roughly ten years older than him. Others dislike it simply for the fact that Adachi is the main antagonist of Persona 4 and has killed multiple times.

ShuAda is the second most popular ship in the Persona 4 fandom, with nearly 400 works on AO3. It is Adachi's most popular ship, and Yu's second most popular (after SouYo).

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Yu/Adachi tag on FanFiction.net
 * Yu & Adachi tag on FanFiction.net
 * Yu/Adachi fic list on Tumblr
 * Yu & Adachi tag on FanFiction.net
 * Yu/Adachi fic list on Tumblr

ART

TWITTER

Trivia

 * In the ship names ShuAda and AdaShu, "Shu" derives from the Japanese word for protagonist, "shujinkō" (主人公).
 * In the Persona 4 anime English dubs, Yu and Adachi are both voiced by Johnny Yong Bosh