Ngl at first I was confused as to why you asked this LMAO, but then I remembered something about how the devil arcana’s themes wouldn’t work with a femyu for p4, so I get it now! Interesting question, anon. 👍

I will say that I could definitely see some interesting differences with a male!Sayoko and femyu. Their relationship would sour rather quickly because of his unwanted, creepy advances towards her. Don’t think it could really be salvaged. The game would certainly portray it as something truly disgusting compared to… canon.

(It’s a double standard when the game treats Sayoko’s advances towards Yu as not as problematic because of “hot, sexy nurse” trope, and the fact that predatory behavior isn’t taken as seriously when it’s a woman doing it to a man. rolls eyes)

Anyway, I suppose one reason is I don’t particularly care for male genderbends. They can be fun to think about sometimes, but idk, not enough for me to write about them.😅 And I primarily just wanted to focus on 1 genderbend for this fic—femyu.

Another reason… I needed Sayoko to stay as a woman. Like, needed. Can you imagine Chapter 7 when Yui wakes up in the hospital after the incident and male!Sayoko—an adult man who’s been harassing her—is the one assigned to take care of her? O_o His presence would definitely trigger her trauma in some way. It’s… kinda fucked up to think about. And also the conversation with Hisano, Sayoko, Yui, and Eri in Samegawa wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting because male!Sayoko obviously wouldn’t be invited. Ladies only. LOL.

(Also, I’m not saying that canon Sayoko couldn’t be predatory towards femyu in this AU. But, eh, she’s… painfully cishet to me. I don’t sense even the tiniest bit of fruitiness from her.)

Anyway, canon Sayoko becomes much more tolerable in this AU as a big sister figure to Yui—someone who understands how horrible men can be. Honestly, she was the perfect character to segway into after the incident, and a male!Sayoko would just ruin that moment they had together in the hospital. I liked writing Sayoko and Yui’s relationship in dxa, which was so refreshing after how I, frankly, disliked her in canon. And I believe even without the male!genderbend to contrast canon with a femyu, Yui was able to bring out a different side of Sayoko that we don’t get to see in canon. Kinda similar to the Sayoko who talked about that little kid she had as her patient once, but a little more mature “big sis” vibes. So… the discrepancy between their relationship and the themes of the Devil arcana didn’t really matter for me lol.