Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Chapter 288 is now available! This chapter helps to start closing out things. The whole common issue of parents being ignored or not even mentioned was not something that I was going to be doing. When they all left, they had to do something about their parents. Not all of them were very peaceful breaks, Fumiko and Saki's namely were not the best. Yori ended up doing a really good job lying, though more than a month missing is sort of hard to explain. Chiharu literally just left without a word, because that's what she does and Seiji never end returned back. He just stayed.

One of the more important things is the stuff happening with Fumiko. As seen in the previous chapters, she's been affected by what happened in Atlantis more than anyone. And she's still trying to recover from it. There's a lot going on with her and I'll be doing what I can to address it, because it's critical to her development.

The other fun thing was with Chiharu, since an important part of her development is the reasons she went on the whole thing in the first place. She was in search of something for herself. And it is clear that she has more confidence in herself now. Though she is more used to taking orders, given that she was following Yuki's commands, she found herself in a way. She faced an aspect of herself and is starting to come to terms with things. Which was important from her last fight which was as much an external battle as it was an internal one.

Yuki's family is always fun. Momoko plays the mom and constant nag on Yuki, so she's going to be pretty upset with they just return and in the worst presentation possible too. It only makes it more entertaining and that she lectured them for an hour. But there was also the heartfelt part where she was happy to have Yuki back. There is also the heavy secret that they hold now that only makes the whole thing more sad. It's going to be a common theme.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for reading is chapter 289! This is nearly purely a Saki chapter, which it sort of needed to be. Saki left on one of the bigger worst notes to leave on. Fumiko did as well, but there was no real history there. The difference with Saki was the deep history that ran between them over Yuki. So it had a bigger importance when she returned home.

As you should expect things didn't play out smoothly. Saki's very stubborn when it comes to Yuki and now she's gained time with independence and confidence away from her family. She was ready and willing to stand up to her mother. The last time she argued, but ended up running away pretty much. This sort of ended in running away as well, but she got to finally have it out with her mother. But it ended up becoming more complicated when she saw the depths that Saki had fallen into. She had a different look about her and that ended up scaring her mother. It was a complete emotional fight done in the heat of moment, but one that will have a big impact on Saki.

It is an important stage for Saki as she's forced into independence now. This will be something that I'll be addressing with her character development. The big deal will be her keeping it a secret from Yuki, who would only blame himself. But Saki's started to become good at doing things behind Yuki's back. Things only get more complicated for her. Nothing is ever simple.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 290 is now available! After finishing things with Saki, it only made sense that I returned to Yuki. Things weren't completely finished up with them. There still remained what Momoko was going to do about Yuki. However, things did not really play out, at least in a meaningful way. They're all still confused, though relieved. Which doesn't make it easy to write, since it's just a lot of staring.

I did get to do more with his father though. There was the little bit remaining behind. Which is the final step up for the "adventure". Or in this case, that last plot thread. The one of many that will continue on for a while. Since it is not in one place, it is going to take some time to discover the locations.

Everything is still in a pretty big lull right now. But that's about to change pretty fast. The next set up chapters will start getting things into the deep end pretty fast.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 291 is now available! This is the real start of the new arc, The War Arc. Everything before was mostly setup and some after effects sort of things. I laid down some hints on things and put other things into place. This is when you will finally start getting some answers about what's going on in the area, since I make it very clear that there something bad happening.

I've oddly look forward to this arc quite a bit. Part of the reason is that it has some great payoffs that I set in motion years ago. But more than that, you finally get to see Hiroshi again, which is a personal favorite of mine. He's a fun character and I enjoy his sort of personal code that he has. But this arc is also a very dark arc. It is probably going to be the darkest of the series or at the very least one of the darkest. There's another arc later that gets pretty bad as well. So we'll see how far things go. I can only speak on this arc, since what I'm talking about I've already written, though everything in the arc going forward is going to be a really big slide down into the pits of despair. It'll be in tone, but also different in tone with things so far. An upcoming chapter I actually had to think about how much detail I was going to provide on something very dark happening. Since it is not designed to be something that mature in content, I opted not to go all in. Though the vagueness I provide is probably bad enough to give you plenty to image. As I go through it'll only get worse to when you start thinking about everything.

Anyway, enough of the ominous talk. This is a big tease chapter in a way. I setup things that you won't get answers to immediately. There's plenty of bad things happening with no clear view on what's happening. Right now the easy target is the UN as they're causing their own problems in the city. But the arc is nowhere near as long as The Siege Arc, so you won't be waiting on answers for long. The answers just aren't going to be good ones.

The important thing to remember is that this arc is more in tone with the story. The School Days Arc was pretty happy fun times stuff. Even a good amount of The Siege Arc was lighthearted, though it is where I start introducing the gray. There is the corruption, the prejudice and injustice, there is a lot of bad things happening. Not to mention that if you think about it, Yuki's group was in the wrong with what they were doing. They were misled, but doesn't change the fact that they are actually more the bad guys in the arc than Atlantis. Which is some food for thought. But The Siege Arc started to turn the tone around and point things where it is going in the future. The War Arc though is going to be fully embracing the true tone of Shift and one of the primary themes. As things descend into darkness, you'll realize too late that you're already deeper than you thought. It's been a slow carefully guided one. But this is where the real Shift begins.

So look forward to the revelations and twists. The surprises and the tears.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

The next chapter in The War Arc is now available, chapter 292! While Hiroshi's words hinted at it last chapter, this chapter starts making where things are going a little more clear. The fighting between friends and classmates makes it clear that something very serious happened while Yuki and company were away.

You can see now why I say this is a darker arc. This is largely only the tip of the iceberg for the arc. There is much worse. However, the whole friends fighting friends sets a dark tone for things. Explanations will be coming in future chapters, but when the situation crashed into everyone like it did, there is not really time for questions any longer.

One of the things that was hard and took some time to figure out was Hiroshi's power. Like I've done with most of the characters at this point, I decided on what their powers were going to be a long time ago. I went through and just gave them all powers. Since the way that Yuki granted powers was based on things that fit with their character, I wasn't going to specifically design powers as the plot needed them. They were going to have them and I'd deal with it when plot came to them. Which did not make it easy for Hiroshi, since it requires me knowing Japanese children games to make his powers work. It's a cool idea and I liked it both at the time decided on it and even now. It's just not an easy thing to do. It took a lot of research. And I will likely make up some games myself as things Hiroshi invented, but I will also use traditional Japanese children games as well.

The other fun part was making use of Yuki's continued genre savviness. Since he is well read, he can easily make use of that knowledge to make significant leaps in logic that are otherwise not normal, as called out by Yori. It's not the first time he's done it, but I do try to use it when I can since it is an important aspect of Yuki.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 293 is now available for reading! As you would expect, there's fighting! Got to have some fighting. There hasn't really been any in like nearly 20 chapters. Though even still, this isn't the full blown one-on-one type fighting that you're used to seeing. It is more chaotic and a mess. Everyone is doing different things. So I don't spend a lot of time on expanding out the fight. What is happening more the important thing rather than how it is happening.

The friends killing friends is the important part of it that I left on in the last chapter. Fumiko arriving on the scene and taking them out really settles in the tone. She's not fully reached that point of going around mercilessly killing, since she is a third year and they're first years, so they're strangers to her. So that gives her a little help. But she's already shown all of the signs of where she is pushing towards. Which is something that she needs to deal with and I'll be, but right now things are just going to be stacking up on top of each other. If she doesn't have time to think about what's she doing, then she doesn't have to feel the weigh of it.

As probably should be expected, there is the Resistance, though the title gives that away. A large underground base and secretly working for the protection of the city. Though less of an oppressive government thing and more protecting everyone. But it is a classic little setup to push things into the next phase.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 294 is now available! This is where it happens, what I was talking about things getting dark. The last couple pages just descend so fast and hard into the darkness that you don't realize how deep your in anymore. I've sort of gotten you used to a little of it, since yeah bad things were happening before and I had that nightmare fuel with Yumi. But this goes to a completely different level.

As you read, it is still pretty tame in terms of details I provide. I could have easily gone so much worse, but there's not a lot of point since it's not that type of story. I had a point to drive home with the setting, it did it and I moved on. But it is still a very unsettling imagery.

And I of course pull the pronoun game for a little bit to push off the reveal of who is the mastermind until the cliffhanger surprise. This is one of those big surprises that I've been holding on to. I had all of that stuff with Eudokia that I built up over hundreds of chapters. This one I seeded all the way back in the second sub-arc in what you thought would be a completely inconsequential conclusion. I continued the thread with Saki visiting Takako, but then I shipped her off. And now she's back as the next big bad! I hadn't forgotten her and planned this whole thing out all the way back then. So you can imagine how excited I was to finally be able to talk about this big reveal.

The fun thing is that I end tie back to that story line just before the reveal with Saki thinking about to the mental scarring she took for that ordeal. And Takako came out even worse from it, since she was vegetable pretty much and largely no responsive. And now she's doing all this.

And unlike last time, I'm not holding out on the secrets as long. There's still obviously the big question of why still and even more why with Takako's reveal. But this is short arc relatively speaking. So I'm not holding down the secrets until the end. But this is probably the darkest chapter that I'll write few things are much darker than what I wrote there for what I have planned and anything potentially worse isn't coming for at least another hundred to two hundred chapters and a few arcs later.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for your reading pleasure is chapter 295! This is a little bit of a retread, but it helps to fill in a few more details on what happened the previous chapter. It was rather important to cover them since I skip over things as the chapter previously focused more on Saki. So it skipped ahead and this jumps back to answer what everyone else is doing.

A brief thing I brought up in the last chapter, Saki had tails on her and I explain that they are ones from Hiroshi's group. Which is something that would make sense as I have things explained in this chapter. He's not letting them out of his sight and plans to protect them from themselves.

As it's already started to develop, one of the important elements for this arc is picking sides. Hiroshi is very adamant about picking one, though Yuki naturally wants to be his own side. But it is not something that is really going to work out for him. It'll be something that he will realize soon enough that he can't remain neutral and still expect to do things his way. He'll have to make some tough choices coming up and this is going to be one of the big ones.

The other thing is that this settles up the conflict for the next chapter. Since while Saki was off doing her thing, others were also doing stuff as well and getting into trouble. It is actually a pretty busy chapter over all. A lot of fill in things. And there is the big cliffhanger at the end with Saki kneeling before Takako, making things even more complicated. You should see where things are going now.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available is chapter 296 for reading! It may seem like it is going on forever, but we are finally getting close. There are only a few chapters left before we're finally fully caught up. The September Shift is closed out and you have now nearly gotten 30 chapters. I blew through so much of the story in that short period of time. So now it'll be going back to the weekly posting on Sunday.

This chapter returns things to what was going on with Yumi and Yori after they got cornered by Yumi's friends Kaede and Katsumi. I didn't really get to do much with either of them, but given the situation it was not going to be easy. Neither are prepared to fight for real against people that they know. Which is what makes the whole thing more difficult and darker. As you probably saw coming, Yumi gets taken as well along with Fumiko. And it is clear with the end of the chapter that Saki is sided with Takako now as well. The genre savvy probably know what's going on, the rest of you will learn in like 6 or 7 chapters.

I finally get to show off the powers of Kaede, Katsumi and Miyako. I gave Kaede and Katsumi powers a long time ago in prep for this. Like I said before, everyone was given powers. I just hadn't gotten to do anything with them. There are some in there that I gave some really silly powers to because I didn't want to be formulaic for all them. Kaede has some fun powers and Katsumi's aren't completely clear right now but will explain themselves in time. Miyako's power is the one that is actually different than what you think. It'll be something that will be explained later, but for now I'm intentionally painting in a misleading light.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available to read is chapter 297! This chapter is more divided than the others as I had to put people into their locations. Yuki was the only one not accounted for from the group, so I needed to show his location. And then I worked in Seiji because it's important for a few things.

This is actually where the start of Seiji's focus on his character begins. It's going to be a while before his big moment, but this is all just pieces setting that up right now. His development and story is one of the longer stories to carry through due to the way things are. But it is nice to get the wheels in motion on it.

The rest is just set up for the cliffhanger really. Miyako had to return along with the others. Yori's still high on rage. Something that he hasn't be able to control and lost to the last time as well. When it involves his sister he goes nuts and now he has power to back up his emotions. Which makes him even more dangerous than normal. It lost a lot of his even composure due to his desire to protect Yumi and his feeling of failure and inadequacy. But as you can see most of the character changed quite a bit during their time in Atlantis with only Haruo really resisting any sort of change.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Available early for you, chapter 298! Getting close to that 300 number, I keep forgetting how close I am to it every time I write a chapter. Now I'm writing 300 for next week. But anyway, the blitz starts this chapter. It is a very sudden attack on their base, but there are reasons for it. One's that won't be clear for a while, but it is happening for a specific reason.

This finally gets down to one of those classic what if sorts of things. If they had to fight each other who would win. Though admitted it is pretty unfair and not really fully committed to it. Yori gets just destroyed by Saki, which is to be expected. She has a lot of things working in her favor that make her very difficult to deal with. However, as you can see, Tatsuya actually seems to be able to keep up with her. The way his powers work is actually very interesting and works out well for fighting Saki. You'll get to learn what his power is later and it'll make sense.

I've been spending a little time on Hiroshi whenever I can. He was a side character that got more development back in the first arc. I sort of did the bait and switch then, where I gave a somewhat random side character more back story as though I was going to kill them, but then had it be Kazuhiro instead. However, the back story for Hiroshi is important since he becomes a critical character now and I needed that setup. Despite his modesty, he is actually a good leader and people naturally want to follow him, which I made clear in the back story. So the people here are all willing to follow him. He cares about everyone and even unfortunately those that are his enemy. He accepts his responsibility as painful as it is. He is nicely complicated, since he seems simple, but is not really. He is actually pretty self-sacrificing.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

And now the last chapter to catch up on, chapter 299! Just one chapter before 300! Another milestone is quickly approaching. This chapter runs the conclusion of the blitz attack. Yeah things are moving really fast with this arc. It was what I planned on. It was never going to be a massive arc like the ones before it. Though tonight as I was reading through it I was re-evaluating some of the things I was doing. Everything feels a little too rush in places. I'm wondering if I want to do more character development for these people that I'm killing off. Because I'm just offing people left and right with little regard to who they. But I haven't really built them up, so you can't really get attached to them. Though it is also not really that sort of thing. This is a brutal and merciless arc where lots of people die. So I don't really have time for everyone. I'm going to think over things.

One other thing that I was mulling over was if I wanted to do a full out fight with Fumiko and Haruo and Saki and Tatsuya here or not. Most of the big fights aren't planned until the end of the arc. None of these fights really have a huge point than that they are setup for later. As I've said before I don't do anything without a reason. So I don't like dragging out fights that have little point. Which is why a lot of these are short, because their point isn't to showcase something new just to set up things in the plot. So they happen and then they're over. It's pretty fast.

Despite the brisk pace things have been moving right now, things are going to be slowing down now that the blitz is over. Things are going to move at a slower pace through to the end. The only thing is that I don't know how big the fights here are going to be yet. I'm still ironing them out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's here! The 300th chapter celebration finally! As you should expect by now, I do completely separate chapters that are following a different arc as it were. These back story chapters are really fun to write, but also good to help flesh out some things. This one is probably more packed with details and things than the past two chapters. I also rewind further back on this. Chapter 100 and 200 are linked together and take place when Yuki is seven, meaning eight years in the past. While chapter 300 is before Yuki was even born, set 17 years to the present.

I leave things a little vague at the start, though given the focus of the chapters/arc here it should be obvious that it is Yuki's parents. When I was planning on this chapter I didn't know if I wanted to do this chapter or do the one where his father dies. The important thing about these chapters is that they tie in closely with the related events surrounding them. While a little off, since the current arc focus is on Takako and what's up with her in the city. One of the important things Yuki just learned is that his parents are tied with Atlantis on some level, what that level is unknown to him. So it made more sense to do it here. I have more chapters planned for this arc that doing when his father dies would be more fitting later to help add more to what's going on then.

But this chapter as I said brings out a lot of new details that expand the characters you already know. The initial bit is dealing with Isamu and Tomiko. Not about how they met, but that they work together. It explains what they do, which was never stated. However, due to the work that they have, it is the reason for the lifestyle they have, noteably that the house is fully paid for. It's not a large house or expensive area, but it is fully paid for. So all Momoko has to do is maintain it and deal with utilities. Which is why they can live where they can. I'm pretty sure I stated that somewhere else, but that's something I established day one.

Also it explains that they both very smart and Isamu even more so as he finished university before Tomiko. While they said she's a prodigy for having gotten into the company without his help, that's not the case. Isamu would deny the claim that he is a prodigy, but it is very intelligent and she is as well. Additionally, the four of them have known each other before even their kids. Tomiko is the reason for them being together Kiku and Hachiro. The other thing which I never pointed out because it never really mattered on the story I was telling at the time, but Kiku is American in race, but she's born in Japan. Her parents were stationed in Japan and had her in Japan and stayed after their service. Kiku has a Japanese name as their hope that she'd fit in more despite being American in appearance, but more Japanese in upbringing. This is how Saki is Japanese-American and why she was bullied when she was younger, besides the whole thing with Hachiro being a teacher. She was bullied on both issues.

So lots of different answers and details coming out of this chapter. Also, this is the first meeting that they have with the King of Atlantis, Yuki's real father. Though naturally, they don't know it since he was pretending to be British. They'll have their real face-to-face meeting later though. All very important details. But this is just fleshing out and setup for those future chapters.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 301 is now up! It's a bit of a miracle today, the internet has been so spotty I didn't know if I'd be able to post. Anyway, I jump back to Seiji for a bit and then cover some flashback. It's more of an expanding chapter and developing one rather than one that pushes things forward. There has been a lot of forward movement so I did need to start spending some time on the characters.

As I've said before, Seiji's first couple of mentions here in this arc after he left the group has been for a specific purpose. It is the further setup for his character arc. The things here are laying down the groundwork for things that I plan to do in the future with him. There is a lot that you know about Seiji thanks to his personal involvement with Yuki, but there's still a lot you don't know as well. Things that are a little more closer to home have only loosely been described. An important part of his character arc is going to be family, due to the circumstances that his family is in right now, a missing father and an abandoned mother. Due to everything, they aren't actually divorced either, which is largely because no one can find their father.

The rest of the chapter is a little more Hiroshi focused than it is necessarily Miyako focused, despite that it is more centered around her. What happens in the flashback is more telling for him than her. But that's not to say you don't get a good image of her as well. But it is a Hiroshi flashback and not Miyako flashback. Something that I will continue to show and develop is how Hiroshi reached the point that they are at now. He's become very different from what Yuki knows or the reader and that has become clear through his current actions. But no one just becomes like that one day. Hiroshi fall into the darkness is something that I will cover in detail. This is just another piece, getting closer and closer to when it happened.

And naturally, you can't really think that Yumi, Saki and Fumiko are dead. Yumi's powers prevent that from happening pretty easily. So they're alive and moving on with their plans. A big gloomy cliffhanger.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 302 is now available! It is later than you probably expected, but my weekend work day got switched on me, so now I'm on Sundays until things are done. So I have to deal with like late postings. Hopefully, nothing so late as this, since circumstances ended up delaying things. Mostly because I had rewrite a significant part of the chapter.

This is another flashback chapter. Probably a little strange coming off the Hiroshi flashback, but this one is important, since it is from Miyako's point of view. They might have already died, but I still wanted to give them a little time on their development. It is still more for Miyako, since is a formative moment for her in her life and the reason for why she is the way she is now. So it is really important for her development to see these. The only thing is that I only planned for a short flashback, but it's not going to happen. What I want to do is going to take more time and this is important for her. So I'm going to spend the needed time on her, despite me being very excited to the scene that comes after this.

I had already set her up previously as a yankee looking woman. Keep in mind that is in her mid-twenties in the current story. So this is a flashback going back eight years, making most of the cast elementary students right now in the flashback. But Miyako has a lot going on, since she's trying to get out of the gang life that she was involved in for quite some time. The fact that she looks like a yankee still means something happens in her past. Which is why I said this is a formative moment for her. It is what set the course for her future. She's a pretty confused girl during her flashback, despite her being used to being in control of her situation.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 303 is now up for reading pleasure! It's these Sunday work day delays, but better than last week anyway. Though I still ended up in a place that I predicted, but still was not sure it'd happen. It's sort of funny. I wrote the ending to the last chapter first, because I was so excited to do the next part. Yet because Miyako's flashback is taking more time to develop and cover I had to move it off. And now I have to move it off again. Unless I'm really digging deep into this though, I should be moving on in the next chapter. But we'll see, I am enjoying writing this little story for Miyako.

Miyako was a new character for this arc. And it might seem a little strange the attention I'm giving her, but she is the only character, still alive and with a name that I haven't already giving a back story to. Even Tatsuya and Hiroshi have back stories already covered in the first arc for their characters. Miyako is going to be playing an important role in the future, so she is getting attention now to develop her so that when I do need her later it all makes sense for her character. There is a bit of a cliche in her back story, the whole in too deep to leave trope, but she managed to leave without the whole go through some horrible ordeal to do it. Helps when you own the gang and she's bad news enough that most just leave her alone.

Also keep in mind, she is wearing her school uniform through all of this. So she has a very unsuspecting appearance to those that don't know her personally. All of the ones dealing with her would know her name as anyone would, but they don't know what she looks like and since none of them are associating with any gang anymore, they have no markings. So they look like random hoodlums just out for trouble rather than part of a gang. Otherwise, they would have thought twice about messing with her or her men. But can't have a fight without misunderstandings.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 304 is now available tonight! So yeah, still stuck in that flashback. I'm really starting to fail at judging things, which had been pretty good at lately. However, I am rather enjoying the story for Miyako. She's going to be an important player in the future as I said. So what I develop here for her is not wasted time, even if it might seem like it. It all leads into some very relevant things for her, though I won't be explaining how or why it is for a while. That part you'll have to wait for. The backstory is the hint to what her power is, since her power is actually a fairly subtle one in how it works. One that will make it difficult for me to explain without someone just expressly stating it. Later on, I'll explain some things about her power for now you just get to guess.

So yeah, this was supposed to the final chapter for her story. However, I ended up having the way she reacts take up the chapter. Though I'm going to have trouble seeing things continue on for much longer. Worst case I think it'll be two chapters, but I'm shooting for only one. The funny thing is that I planned to already be regrouping everyone at this point, which clearly did not happen. I'm still waiting on doing the fun part with Seiji too.

This chapter is more about her realizing how important they were all to her. They were just men she ordered around before and the ones that stuck by her side after her disbanded were like friends to her. However, as I brought up in another chapter before this, they're like family to her. This is where she makes that connection, though only subconsciously right now. She cared about them, but did not realize how much until now. She wanted out for different reasons. Things that will all get brought up in the closing chapter or chapters depending on how I write it out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 305 is now available and at a better time of the day. Don't rely on that just yet though, it's like going to be changing again for the next few weeks until things calm down. Anyway, yeah I still didn't end the Miyako back story once again. As I've said before, I'm really enjoying this little part. Which is part of the problem. When I enjoy something I start digging in pretty deeply to it. Not say that I don't enjoy other aspects, but everything else was well planned and previously established. I didn't need a lot of details. This was different.

Miyako's story continues with her looking for the gang, the Black Gate. This is the group that Jiro and the other belong to. How they become part of Miyako's group is what this is all leading up to. The more I dig into the story the more I find that I want to explore. I've introduced this entire different world within my world. A gang life that Yuki and Seiji only touched on as being just rogue street punks out for a fight. They likely crossed some of those gangs. However, Miyako was inside it and lived it for a few years. And each chapter I pull more out of her story.

This time the Willows gang makes an appearance. This group will be very important later on. The more I've been developing her back story the more elements I've decided to add into it. As I said, Miyako is going to be very important later on in the story. So the time I'm spending is time well spent. And the deeper I'm going, the more I'm able to setup for that future. Because the Willows will play an important role with Miyako in the future. All this is just setup for the future arc to come. So though it is long and longer than planned. All of this will come full circle. Though not for a couple more arcs.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 306 is now available! Another chapter comes and goes without me wrapping this up. But it'll be over soon. There is very little left. The only thing I was trying to decide in this chapter if I wanted an extreme neck break ending or not. I voted on not, since it would have been too rushed. Things will end in the chapter, there is nothing left for me beyond what I have planned for now. Technically, there is a ton left, I just don't plan on getting to those details until a later date. The important part right now is how Jiro and them end up with Miyako and how she gets on her current path, which is different from how she wanted to be in the past. That will all get an answer in the next chapter.

So as I said, the longer I've stayed in this flashback the more I've built it up. I've created another world inside a world. Which is actually quite important, as I've repeatedly been saying. It is going to be not until later of course. But it is going to be really important. Just have to wait a couple of arcs. But the vast seedy underbelly of the city will come into play in a big way. It is sort of funny that Yuki and Seiji danced around in the area that Miyako had been in, the light dark side of things, though never actual gang members. They were just street punks looking for a fight and they usually came from very low level gangs or just other street punks. The two can very easily blur. It is the playing house side of things.

However, the real dark side is something that I wanted to expose with Miyako. It is the mobster or real gangster side, the organized crime or at the very least the gangs that take themselves very seriously and delve into unsavory things. Miyako sat in the glorified area, the one that Seiji sort of idolize in a way. The place that is about a fair fight and honor and all that, not that Miyako necessarily always lived like that. But I wanted to be sure that I wasn't just going to be having some glorified side of things. There is a real darkness there. And how dark it gets will be seen in the next chapter.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 307 is finally here, the one that ends the flashback. The ending cap to the chapter is the part that I've been continually pushing off one chapter at a time until the flashback came to an end. It's a bit of a mood whiplash going from something so serious and dark to something more lighter and comedic, but you sort of need it after how dark things got at the end.

One of the things I was judging for the final chapter here was how direct I wanted to be about it. I settled on implying a lot and being more indirect. However, there is enough there to know what was going to happen next and it was going to be pretty bad. And yes, I did not show how Miyako escaped or if she got revenge on the Black Gate group or not. But that was never the point of the flashback. The point was how the Jiro, Junichi, Shigeru and Yasuo met Miyako and became part of her group. It is also about how she changed her view point to where she is currently. It's about family and protecting, not about fighting, which is an important aspect for her. She'll fight, but only to protect not just to fight.

The rest of the chapter, the part with Seiji picks up from where I left him after visiting his mother's apartment. This is where the story picks back up, since it is does directly tie things back to Yuki. And I cliffhang things on Nerine arrival and the likely romantic turmoil that is stirred up from her appearing. So I'll be having a little fun before going serious again. Need a bit of a breather after everything that happened.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 308 is now available for reading! It should not really be much of a surprise that I continue with Seiji. As I said before with all of the heavy and dark things happening, I needed to put a pause or breather in here. Things in Miyako's story got dark and in general the entire arc is very dark. So something light and comedic is welcome. Though it won't last for long as the main story will resume shortly.

And yes, I pretty much just play at classic romantic comedy in anime for this chapter. Even Shoji and Yuki's conversation sort of poke fun at that subject. I was really looking forward to this little bit because it just writes itself and the characters are having fun. Yuki is more in his element with the fourth wall breaking and Shoji. Plus, I get to have fun with Aoi and Nerine I knew if the two ever met there would be trouble. While Aoi hasn't made it clear, she does appear to harbor some amount of feelings for him, so it is not going to sit well with her when some other woman comes in asking for Seiji. There's going to be hostility between the two and Nerine tries hard to be so mature that it only makes things worse.

It is a fun chapter and I got to do more with Shoji. He got a little more development and explanation. He is locked up in the shrine a lot so he has a massive amount of curiosity and just wants to have fun. It is not always so easy for him. So he ended up pretty sheltered from everything. So he gets super excited whenever anything fun and interesting happens, even at the expensive of others.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 309 is now up for reading! Things immediately start getting heavy again after the more comedic last chapter. Which is not really that much of a surprise seeing how had to get more serious. The subject matter of arc is very dark, a little light jokes will only last for so long before things return.

This chapter is mostly about getting Yuki's head back in the game and putting them where they need to be. The setup gets them in the area and already in trouble again. And Yuki is more positive about handling the situation. Seiji's more simplistic nature can work wonders on people, but that's not say Seiji is devoid of his depth as I've shown before. But his more direct nature helps to attack the problem directly.

While I did tease them before, this is the game group of UN soldiers that I showed dealing with the people trying to break the blockade back at the start of the arc. These are the same people and they finally get their proper introduction. Like so many things in Shift, they are very important as well and will play very critical roles to the story. So they will be getting their time under the sun, just not in this arc. That is for the future.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 310 is now available! The tension is on the rise once more! This is more about the building tension and introduction on new characters than anything. The UN team is an important part of the story as I said. So I need to get a little time in to build them up. There will be a fight with Seiji and Yuki against the UN, but it'll be more prologue and tease than anything. The UN is the focus of the arc, but you know me I seed things. I don't like when things just come out of left field. So if it is an element that should have been around for a while I want it introduced in some way. Which is the reason for the Takako stuff all the way back in the first arc. It was a long setup, but it paid off, same for the UN.

I setup Masayuki as another Rheia type. But when you're doing with people with power there is only going to be two ways it is handled. Either they are so insane or fear inducing that you follow out of fear rather than loyalty or you respect the power. These are not normal soldiers that have a loyal to command or some ideal that they follow. These are all self-serving individuals, so the only thing that they respect is power. They want a fight and get stronger, this is the best solution for them. Though Masayuki is very different from Rheia, she was more the insane type while Masayuki is more order. The mirror sides of order of chaos as it were. But it does mean that Masayuki is very powerful, he has a unique power that grants him a distinct advantage.

But I also get to play a little with Yuki's acting, something that is commonly brought up throughout the story. He does a lot of acting and pretending, so much so that people don't know where the real Yuki lies at times. This'll be an important plot point for later. I have it planned for either the fourth arc or the sixth arc depending on things. It is something that will need to happen, just need to find the right time for it.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 311 has arrived now, a little later, but still pretty good on time, since I did just write it now in an hour and half. This chapter I ended up putting off partly due to matters of my own making, but also due to other issues within the story. The biggest issue was that I was working on the new characters I was introducing. I needed them to show off their powers a little bit so that you knew what to look forward to in the future.

All of the UN team needed some new powers, something that was going to be different from what has been seen before, but also powerful and advanced enough for evolution and the future. Like I said, they'll be important later on. So they needs to be powerful now and even more powerful in the future for when Yuki and company have to fight them for real. Right now is just the tease. And I even withheld two of the people's powers for later.

The whole point with the Seiji fight was just to give a good gauge on their strength and allow them to showcase some of their unique abilities. The UN team is a very different set with some vastly different types of powers that I haven't really shown off so far. The hope is that I can keep coming up with some original powers and original uses of some more standard powers. Which is really important for the future.

The one that I teased the least was Masayuki's since I wanted to do a lot of build up with him. He's stronger than all of them and has a vast array of potential. So for now, his presence is enough to set things up. Though Yuki does sort of make them all look like children next to what he can do. Which drives home how powerful and weak Yuki can be. He was knocked out for the entire fight, but still is able to put them all in their place. This should not really be a surprise though, since I intentionally showed off this capability during the second arc, since it is going to be something that's important for the rest of the story. Yuki does have some story breaking powers, but he is also more honorable than someone with his powers need to be. So I'll take advantage of this power at times, but when Yuki fights people for real, it'll be because just negating their powers won't actually win the fight. Yuki will need to beat them or show that they are wrong. But it is still something that I will address and not forget. I'm not going to ignore it or use it to make cheap fights.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 312 is now available for your reading pleasure! With the little skirmish settled, I continue my development of new seeds. As I have said already the UN team is completely different thing that I'm going to be handling in the future. This chapter continues to cement their seeds for the future. It's only a two chapter deal, but considering some of the seeds I've put into place, this is actually a pretty good planting.

The biggest thing is the cliffhanger. So I'll jump on that first and work around. I actually planned on the scene to go longer. But I just couldn't stop writing it. So I actually cut it down and move the other half of the conversation into the next chapter. So there is going to be a little continuing on with it. And I'll probably come back to this from time to time, since the UN is an always present threat in the Japan. But the biggest issue is that Yuki was identified as a threat. I'm going to assume people already have some assumptions about things, but I'll those assumptions up to you for now. I'm not going to fully explain the situation and people involved for a while. But since Yuki has been marked, it does mean that Masayuki's group will be hunting him down since he is someone completely driven by upholding peace and justice. Something that will complicate matters in the future, but what would things be if they were not complicated.

The rest of the chapter finally gets everything up to the speed and in place for re-uniting with Hiroshi and the others. Something that's been a long time coming now. That's be in the next chapter. But the Atlantean businesswoman is back again. She was seeded back in first arc for several important purposes to the story. This is the first major part she has to play in the actual plot. But she's got quite the history and I'll be hinting at her history a little this time around. But it will be more teases than clear answers. Just stuff to keep you guessing for now. But she's actually quite important, I did sort of relate her to Urahara from Bleach I think in the past which is fairly accurate, though her reasons for exile are quite a bit different than his.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for reading is chapter 313! Things are finally coming back around and heading into the final stretch of the arc. Yes, the arc is surprisingly nearly over by now. Though the last stretch is still going to take like a good chunk of the year to complete, which should not really surprise you. Given everything that's happened, you can pretty easily see where the lines are being drawn now. There are a series of fights that are being created now. What makes this arc interesting is that it is friend against friend, though in this case it is more unwilling than anything else.

A lot of the chapter does focus on the UN and Masayuki. The stuff from last chapter spilled over more than planned and I wanted to fully seed things. So the stuff has been clearly setup now with Masayuki. He's not going to be on the hunt for Yuki. So he has another thing tailing him. This one is certainly more complicated than the others. While Masayuki is an antagonist, he is something that believes strongly in what he is doing is right and is a largely rational person that can be reasoned with and talked to, except when it comes to the peace of Japan. He is completely focused and devoted to bring peace to Japan. Yuki and him are in ways on the same sides, just different sides going at things in different ways. Which is why it'll be interesting when they clash again. But Masayuki isn't evil, not like some of the others and he's not doing bad things. He is a police officer in a way and not even a bad or aggressive one, just one that passionately believes in the peace. Unfortunately, he now believes Yuki is a threat to the peace, which is going to make him nearly impossible to reason with now.

The rest of the chapter finally brings everyone back together. Which only ends in an expected way. The Hiroshi is now is too binary for Yuki to accept. And it's only made worse with them learning what happened to their friends. So there will be a lot more clashing and butting of heads before things settle out. The whole arc has been fun because it is put characters you know into a different light and situation. They are acting foreign because of the new life they had to deal with. I do wish I had developed more background characters to work with for this arc. But they probably would have been forgotten.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 314 is now available! Things have slowed a little with it coming more down to personal drama and leading into more flashbacks. This one I'm imagining to be pretty short though. It is purely there to just set Hiroshi's current personality with a little more development. He's already had plenty of pieces throughout the arc so far. So I don't need to do a lot of really add to it. Just a little story. It's mostly needed for the sake of getting Yuki to be a little more willing to work with them. The emotions are all running to hot that Yuki's not going to forgive or easily work with them. So he needs something.

I do come back to the guilt that Yuki has for the problems that he caused. It is something that he feels all the time now that he is back in Japan. It is only made worse seeing how everything has collapsed into ruin. But Seiji can keep on him on the course without Saki doing it.

The showdown is coming up though as promised. There is very little standing in the way of it right now. Overall this has been a pretty short arc and even when it ends, it should only be like 50 chapters long at best. It's more of a setup and tone shift arc than a massive epic like the last one. The fourth arc is going to be pretty long from all of my guesses. So you can look forward to that again. Though the plan is not to do massive arcs like that anymore. There is only really one remaining arc that has the potential of being massive, but a 200 chapter arc is just more than necessary. There are too many arcs going on and plot threads that the story won't survive well with massive arcs like that.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 315 is now up! The flashback starts, but doesn't end. Yeah, it should not be much of a surprise at this point. While I was writing it more came to me to give Hiroshi further development and the story. It felt like just one chapter was going to be too brief to handle the weight of what it was. So I split it into two chapters. It's a short story, just one that helps to position Hiroshi.

Starting with the cliffhanger, yeah this is going to be one of those moments where you need to have a really good memory. Because this is a callback, a really far one at that. You have to go all the way back to chapter 56, which was years ago. So unless you re-read my story a lot, which is unlikely probably, you don't remember her. Sakura is the girl that Hiroshi knew from his time in middle school. She actually appeared in the other Hiroshi flashback. They knew each other, but their relationship was never really made clear. It was a brief sort of flashback. But Sakura is back now and well you probably know how this is going to end at this point. There is not a lot of mystery given the tone of this arc. All it is now will be seeing it play out. Which will be the next chapter.

I think I mentioned it before, but I drop a lot of names during this arc of students that get killed. They're all background characters that never really were addressed in any meaningful sense. So their deaths are a little weak, in that sure the whole thing is terrible, but you have no emotion connection to people that never had any speaking lines. Having Sakura really helps give more weight to things with Hiroshi, especially giving their history. The character defining moment in his life is the next chapter and it could only be done with someone important to him. A little sad I never had a lot of extra time to work with Sakura, but it largely would have been fluff or filler if I had. The story is already long enough as it is.

Tatsuya is someone that I don't really get to put a lot of time into. So it was nice to do this from his point of view. He's got a lot going on just like Hiroshi. The first part of this chapter is just as important as the rest. Since it does pick up the pieces from what is happening with Hiroshi and Tatsuya both everything went sideways. Something that I definitely wanted to show was that Hiroshi hasn't been handling Kazuhiro's death as gracefully as he is presenting. He was a friend and even more to Tatsuya a childhood friend. So they are both suffering in their ways, in very quiet ways. Showing how Tatsuya supports his friend, even though Hiroshi is often seen as the leader is a great moment for them. It clear through the arc at present that Tatsuya is the hand pushing Hiroshi forward and Hiroshi is struggling, even though Hiroshi plays a strong front. Something that Yuki is blind to, as he is not great as reading people yet. Ayumi would have picked up on and Nerine would as well since they are raised to being good at reading people, it's a necessary skill for them. It is the reason why I mention it a lot during their fights. When you're fighting where secrets are the thing that get you killed, reading the other person is the most important skill to learn. Yuki still has a long way to go, even though he has plenty of masks that he works around as well.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for reading is chapter 316! This chapter does actually conclude Hiroshi's flashback as promised. It is easy to make it long at times as you already likely know with me. So that I was able to keep it on point is good. It did not need to be a huge a flashback, it is not necessary to be really long. You know mostly already about how Hiroshi is and can easily guess how he got there too.

Even if you know or have a pretty good idea what is going to happen. It is still good and important for the character's development to know what happened and how it played out. In a classic case of melodrama, Hiroshi had to kill Sakura as the first person, who was clearly very important to him. Sakura's importance to Hiroshi is a story for another day. If I got into all of the different aspects, it would end up just bloating everything. So I'm keeping things focused. Hiroshi's importance to the story doesn't end in this arc. He's got more coming up for the future. Which Yuki and him will have a changed relationship and approach.

One thing that I did try to be careful about during the whole thing is that this is a story from Tatsuya's point of view not Hiroshi. And given what happened, this is not the sort of thing that Tatsuya went asking Hiroshi about after the fact. It is not something that he would willing or not talk about. So when they go up fighting on the roof, I don't show any of that. Hiroshi just comes out of worse from the experience.

There will be some quick follow ups in the next chapter to answer the last couple of points to what happened after Sakura. But that won't be a flashback. It'll be back to the present.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Another late day on the count of wanting to finish, but chapter 317 is now available! With the flashback over, it is now back into the heart of the matter. Things move pretty quickly and it is clear that I'm pushing to the end of the arc now. There has not really been a lot left to get into for the arc as I've been saying. So the showdown will be starting soon.

I do have to wonder for what I've done which side people will thinking it was going to play out on. The classic approach is that after hearing the story Yuki would see that Hiroshi is a good person still and caught in a bad situation. He would agree to work with them aiming for things to improve and probably work on Hiroshi for atonement. But that wasn't the way it played out. Even after listening to the story, Yuki refused them.

This actually ended up complicated matters for me. Because I was going the classic route in my original plans. However, as I started to write the arc, Yuki's personality spoke up about how he would feel about the situation. And I realized more than anything that Yuki would have difficulty facing anyone that was killing people, especially a friend. That first meeting was a sign of that. Yuki though he came close to wanting to kill before, has managed to keep himself from doing so because he sees that as a line he can't cross. Sort of makes you wonder how he'd handle it knowing that Saki has killed. And I'm not even referring to those that she killed in this arc. They all get a pass in this arc due to not being themselves. But Saki has intentionally killed and hid it from Yuki. Which will be a fun conversation when that happens.

Though in the case of Yuki, it is not that he hates Hiroshi, he doesn't. He just can't agree to work with them knowing that doing so would likely mean more people will die. Hiroshi and his group are convinced that killing is the only way to settle things. Yuki sees that and can't accept to work them. He does understand what happened to Hiroshi and even feels for him, but can't allow himself to be party to killing people.

So Yuki is moving independently to solve things. But the biggest surprise I think is Seiji's betrayal. I left things on a pretty big cliffhanger here since there are some implications in his words that could mean one thing. And for his character, that is saying a lot. So it makes for a really fun place to stop.

This arc has always been about betrayal and friends fighting friends. It is also the first arc to really drive home the point that what Yuki has done to Japan probably is not a good thing. It gets him depressed thinking what he did, but he does have a more hopeful outlook that good could be found in what happened, since his friends have managed to find good out of it. However, the darkness of Takako and the heavy shadow over all of Japan as the UN, makes it clear that nothing is simple or completely good. Shattering the naive reality is a pretty strong theme.

Enjoy!