Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Well this is a day late due to horrid internet, which is still plaguing me. I'm just muddling through with bursts of 5 minutes of internet with 5 minutes of downtime. Makes it rather difficult to do anything. Anyway, Chapter 318 is now available for reading. Picked back up where it was left on with Seiji making plans with Hiroshi, it becomes clear how Seiji will go for Yuki. He's got a lot of Saki's traits in him, though she's more ruthless than he is willing to be, which is the major difference.

This is very much a Seiji chapter and some good character moments for him. As I've worked him, I've expanded him from just the seemingly dumb fighting type initially presented. Even during his opening sub-arc back in the first arc, it was clear that he was a lot more observant than he seemed. He acts dumb and doesn't like thinking through things, but he is not blind. It's a careful distinction that makes a lot of difference in his character.

And Yori brings up a matter that will need to be faced in the future. It's another one of those cases of consequences have some pretty big repercussions. When the arc ends thins won't be pretty and his talk here foreshadows that. It's sort of meant to start putting you into the mind set of thinking about what they have been doing and how they'll react. This is a very dark arc and the ending won't be any brighter as a result.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Late again, bad timing this weekend, but chapter 319 is now available! This is the big push to close out the arc. The final battles are about to be set now. I just have to get all of the players into place. But it'll all be setup pretty quickly and then it'll be a good bunch of fighting. I haven't picked on lengths for these yet, though I always assume it'll be five until I start writing them and readjust accordingly.

I got to show a little more of Yuki planning, though there is the counter planning happening as well. This is a foreshadowing thing. It'll make sense in time. But I also had to do stuff to nerf Yuki a little. Since we're now dealing with people that are not MPs, Yuki's powers are very overpowered, unlike before how Saki's powers were really overpowered in the last arc. I'll be adjusting things naturally for each situation. In this case, Yuki would not want to waste time and would make full use of his powers to neutralize the threat. However, that won't always be the case for things. Some opponents he'll choose to fight normally without cheating because it'll be the only way to convince them to stop. Because he can't remove people's powers permanently, it's only a temporary thing. So like in the case with Takako, he will have to fight to put her down because talking her down it is not possible and just knocking her out delays things.

Hiroshi's group moving in will bring in the rest of the fighters. This will include Yori and Haruo, but also Hiroshi and Tatsuya as well as others. I'll be able to show more of what Hiroshi and Tatsuya can do with their powers. And Yori will have a little more of a normal fight, since he's not enraged like the last time. And Haruo will be himself.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 320 is now available! On a relatively normal time at that. This is still another setup chapter for the fights. It does introduce some complications which are rather important. But it is continued push to Takako right now. Everyone has to break off in their fight. There actually a couple more fights than I had originally planned. So things will be a bit longer, but it is good to have them. It'll allow me to show off more about those that have only had a brief time to fight.

The bigger part of the chapter is on Hiroshi's group. I brought Miyako back, which should not be much of a surprise. She is too strong willed to do nothing, especially after all of her boys died. But the other half is the setup for Yori and Yumi's fight, which I figure was very much expected. Their fight is going to be a little complicated. But the stuff with Yumi is very important and should already start being rather apparent to everyone else.

On the other side, there is Yuki and Seiji. Things only get more complicated now that he is unable to use his powers to just put them to sleep. This is something that will be explained, but don't expect your answer until the end of the arc. It is very important plot point though, so while it does help in preventing Yuki from god-moding the whole thing. It is something that will come out as being hugely relevant to what's going on.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 321 is now available! All of the fights are now setup barring the last one and one other that hasn't really been telegraphed really, but will happen. I did end up taking Yuki out of the equation for a bit. He'll be back in, but it gives me the needed time to focus on the rest of the fights. I have a bunch setup and I need move through them first. The showdown with Takako is the final battle, so I won't be setting it up immediately.

This chapter does re-enforce the dark and horror aspects of the arc. Like before, I don't really need to go into details. Reactions from the characters are enough to put ideas into your heads and that'll be far worse than what I can describe. Plus while I call it out, that's not really the focus of the chapter. So I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it. The setup was more important.

I do finally get around to Seiji's lack of hindsight on the fact that while he went behind Yuki's back it is not like what he did was going to remain a secret. He understood that mostly. Just sort of expected the fallout to come after the fighting, not during it. So they don't have a moment to really fight over the fact, but it'll be coming back naturally.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

I'm a little late on this, but chapter 322 is now available! This picks back up on the Fumiko and Haruo fight, now that most of the setup is out of the way. They were the first to start things, so returning to them made sense. There are going to be some interesting things I'll be doing with Fumiko and some good character moments with her.

This chapter actually took a while to write because I was a little aimless in what I wanted. Fortunately, I've resolved that and I have a better direction of where things are going with the fight. Haruo is a difficult one to write for due to the way he is. He is a contrary individual, he's is silent, but highly talkative in his mind. He doesn't understand what he does, but does it anyway. The only thing that I wish I could do was speed up his understanding of his powers more. But it is a progressive thing since the way his powers work are in complete defiance to the way he is. So it is not something that he'll naturally think of. But once that mystery is gone, it does leave him rather empty.

Fumiko on the other hand is nothing but problems. She is really fun to write for, though since she is on the enemy side right now, I'm not doing the fight from her perspective. That'll change later in the fight, but she has a lot going on. A little to my surprise, she ended up going through a lot of changes in the second arc, much like Yumi. Though Yumi's changes were throughout, while Fumiko's largely occurred in the second half. The things that happened to her are her new problems and ghosts. The second arc was a big setup for her character to push into her own arc later on in the story. And she'll be managing all of the mistakes and things that made then for a long time. It is what shapes her character from now on.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Been a little behind on my posting, I've still be writing, just bad about posting. Blame a lot of Type-0 and Bloodborne for that. Anyway, Chapter 323 up now. This is the continuation of the Fumiko and Haruo fight with the cliffhanger being quickly handled as Haruo is like always really tough.

Much of the fight is exploring how much Fumiko has changed since her fight with Glykeria. Thanks to her training, which she mentions, she has a lot more tricks up her sleeve. The control she has is actually important for her character, not just for her combat. It is part of her development and something that I will be getting to as I dig deeper into her character.

Despite Haruo being on the "good" side right now, the fight is more about Fumiko than him. A lot happened to her in the last two months and it had huge impacts on her being. So Haruo is very much a device to explore them. There is not as much to explore with him at the moment. He is a very slow burning sort of development rather than the rapid changes with Fumiko.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Still got more stockpiled, Chapter 324 is up now as well! The rest of Fumiko's powers get explained here as well as some updates to Haruo as well. It is a very focused Fumiko fight, but I still gave some time for Haruo as well.

The important point in the chapter comes at the start and the end. This is where Fumiko makes a statement on her belief of what they are now. Which is something that is rather important overall for the arc and just a window into how people are going to react to receiving such powers. It's never really been dug into too deeply at this point, because they've been focused on survival rather than understanding the incident. But everyone is going to think differently about it. There was the mention earlier about how some thing of Yuki as a god for what he did. Fumiko states that because they have powers that are offensive and violent that they're meant to fight. Yuki did give everyone powers that are inspired or modeled off of his Shounen fantasies. And the core of most Shounen stories are focused around fighting. Their powers are rarely used for anything else. So Fumiko makes for a good point on this.

The other part of the chapter is the last bits of details on the two of them. I explain what Fumiko was doing with her staff. And I give Haruo some time despite it not being a huge focus. There are some important things that I did want to bring up with him. He is really not suited to fighting right now. He is very reason based and ask questions, but not really good at taking action. And he is not really good with his powers. He is pretty straightforward as well. But he is starting to understand more about what they can do. They are created from him and honed from him. Something he'll start understanding better as he progresses.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Returning today, Chapter 325 is now available, spacing things out a little. Things have largely fallen into yelling and arguing over the nature of things. It started up in the last chapter, but it is in full swing for this one. It is something important that I did want to get into and talked about in the previous comment. Different people are going to react differently to what happened.

Fumiko stance on it is very key to the things that are currently happening to her. But she also does bring up a very interesting and important point. Everyone very conveniently had powers well suited to them and the whole thing was very much setup like it was meant to a fighting paradise. Of course, we know that it is because I made the story that way. However, calling it out in the story makes for an very important point. Haruo may be dismissing a lot of what she says, but she's got a point. Look at Yuki and his mindset. It is a very dangerous though to consider for him.

It is made even more curious with the consideration that Takako is the saner one of the two. Everything that happened did come from his mind. So it makes you wonder who is the more insane one. The one lying, but engineering everyone to fight because they like that sort of story. Or someone being honest, but also horrific. It's a complicated question, especially since it calls into question Yuki's subconscious. We know consciously he wouldn't do something like this, but subconsciously is a completely different story, especially given his past as much as he ran away from it.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Hurray for being blind in not noticing the misplaced post. Anyway, chapter 326 is up now and I'm caught back up on my posts. The rapid posting sort of kills the cliffhangers, but even still there is a lot of good story stuff coming out of them.

Now that the fight is wrapping up, I'm digging into another flashback this time for Fumiko. The affect the fighting had on her was something that I wanted to address earlier, but it felt a little out of place. And so it got moved to here, which ended up working out well for it in the grand scheme of things. This is going to finally answer what's been going on in her head. Fumiko has been affecting by everything a lot more than the others, even during the fighting. She was disabled twice because of mental trauma over what happened with her powers.

And now she is come face to face with it now that the peace was found. Even though she did not fight for long, it did a lot to change her. And the effects were very long lasting. So she is suffering some a slight case of PTSD. She was fighting against people that wanted to do her harm and capture her, though there were certainly some more interesting in fighting or killing. Which is a very unnerving sort of thing to be dealing with, especially with the kill order that was given during the latter half of the arc. And she did her share of killing as well both soldiers and just innocents or at least soldiers that were not even in the fight. What complicates and makes things worse for her is that she's gotten off from all of it, she's not being punished because Yuki got them off the charges.

The next chapter will dig more into what her thoughts are and how she handled it. Because it is something that is going to be haunting her for a long time.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Back on a more normal schedule for the most part. Chapter 327 is now available for reading! This is the conclusion to the Fumiko and Haruo fight. It ends with some new details and some explanation. It is a less than epic final to the fight, but it is just the way some of them go. Not every fight will be big and explosive. The problems with Fumiko were more important in the fight as they get explained through the flashback.

I don't expressly state things, but it should be clear enough what was going on. There were the things that she was doing to keep herself sane through it all. And her focus was on her power. So she actually grew dramatically because she was doing nothing but practicing day in and day out. It was her only avenue. So it netted a lot of gain in her power. It was mostly in control rather than actual destructive power. But it'll mean that she is a lot more versatile in the future now.

But I also manage to sneak in some details about Takako and Haruo as well. I finally start getting down to what she was doing to people. Though it is not clear at the moment. The pieces are starting to be laid down for everyone to explain. Naturally, all of the answers won't come until Yuki's showdown with Takako, but that's still a distance off. Haruo did get a brief bit of new details on his personality with the questions about his emotions. The whole thing going on with Fumiko at the moment is a lot worse than it seems at the moment, since she is being subjected to a mind crushing amount of guilt with not possible way of being released from it. So it is like a nightmare you can't wake up from, but mental and emotional tenfold worse. I mentioned how they would handle such things in the future, since these are very real concerns. Fumiko is only the start of that.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 328 is now posted! With the ending of Fumiko and Haruo's fight, I can move on to the next fight, which is actually two fights. I wasn't going to make Seiji have to do a two on one fight when I have Miyako still around. After her encounter with Kaede, I had decided that they were going to fight. I really liked the idea of Seiji and Miyako fighting together, they are very similar sorts coming from the street punk background, though Miyako actually had a gang. But they both are people that talk with their fists and very straightforward individuals. Though you have to remember that Miyako is actually in her early 20s, something I'm not sure if it was completely clear.

I actually spent a good bit of time putting more work into Kaede as she is a more primary threat now in the arc. She has powers that are very deadly and varied. Given the last time she was seen, there should be a good idea of how her powers work, just not everything that she is capable of. But I gave her enough room to grow so I can have plenty for the fight. So it'll be a good match up with Miyako, who is the more of the unknown. I haven't explained her power, because Miyako doesn't know what her power is. She actually doesn't believe she has a power, aside from superhuman strength. But she does, it's just a lot more of a subtle type, though also very matching with her personality. I can say that she is stronger than he was earlier in the arc due to her power. At her first introduction, she was actually significantly weaker than Seiji, but now she can actually come to a tie with him in strength.

Seiji on the other hand, I went into him a little more. He seemed a little contrary to his usual pattern of just fighting. But he is fighting two on one at the time, so he was being more careful. Now that he is only dealing with Katsumi, he'll be back to his straightforward and less thoughtful method. He can be more strategic, it is all about fighting naturally. He's had to fight against groups before so he's got practice and knows the best away to deal with it. Though against powered, he is smart enough after getting his head punched in a few times by the two of them to play a little smarter.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 329 is now available! The Seiji and Katsumi fight has begun. It was a rather interesting chapter to write, though a little difficult for Seiji. Since it is very clearly an unsettling fight for him because of there being something wrong with Katsumi. There is a good explanation coming after the dust settles on what is up with Katsumi, just be prepared for some fridge horror.

It's a complicated fight and one that drags a little since Seiji is not willing to full commit to a fight that doesn't really make any sense to him. Which I take the chance to show off one of the abilities of Takako as a result. There are some unique circumstances involved with Katsumi. But it makes for some really creepy imagery thinking about Katsumi and how she is basically a puppet.

Katsumi's power is actually very well suited as Takako mentioned to fighting Seiji, something that was intentionally set up by Yumi. Due to her ability to resist the damage that Seiji puts out, it makes it very difficult for Seiji to actually finish the fight. And with him being unsettled with the whole thing, someone like Katsumi/Takako, who is hardly experienced in fighting is able to overwhelm Seiji. He is getting beat pretty badly. Most of the fights here are going to be very bloody and rough affairs that won't end very simply.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's running late, but I still made it. Chapter 330 is available now. I had originally planned to end the fight between the two here, but it ended up turning out well enough that I wanted to let to go out the natural course rather than speed it up. So there will be one more chapter to it. I'm going to do a little more with Seiji in the fight to advance his character, mostly in terms of power.

This chapter is actually a little of the more humorous side than others. It does help a lot that it was Seiji, but the arc is extremely dark at times, so having Seiji lighten things up now and again is good to keep things from being nothing but black. There is not a lot of these sorts of opportunities for it. So I do enjoy when I can do it in this arc.

This chapter also gave an important clue to some of the things that I'll be explaining later on as well. Dropping in these little things are important since there are often a lot of things that I don't expressly explain or at least take a while to get around to explaining. So putting in these little clues are good to help the reader try to piece things together on their own.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Doing better today, Chapter 331 more on schedule. This does largely end the fight between Seiji and Katsumi/Takako. There is still a little left over, but it is not going to take up the full chapter. But there is some important aftermath work that I want to handle with Seiji, which is why I decided to cut it before I got into that since it could easily balloon out of control.

We see a new side to Seiji, something a little hinted at in past fights. He had suppressed his desire to kill previously in his fight with Cosmas. And so things seemed to be in order with it resolved. However, something new has happened to Seiji all caused by Yuki's supposed death. A berserker mode, which is being fueled by his talismans that had in the past protected him. This is a continuation and development of his character arc and powers arc. It ties in very well with his personal arc that'll come at some point in the future. That's still a long ways out.

Though mores the question of who shot Seiji and Katsumi/Takako. The big cliffhanger was perfect to leave things off after I realized that it was going to take way too long to deal with all of the aftermath in a good order after the fight ended. There is some important developments for him in this fight, something that might have seemed like a throw away fight is actually important.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 332 is now available. The conclusion of the fight went longer and differently than I had planned, but it worked out for me. Seiji's part was already finished and he was out of the fight. So having Nerine in was good, she just had more of a role than I had originally planned. It just flowed better as I thought about it.

Nerine's part in the fight laid down a good a little hint to what's up with Takako. More obviously will be explained later, but it was a good opener to start getting the pieces laid out for Takako. And like better, Nerine is for Seiji, what Saki is to Yuki. Nerine's already showed herself willing and able to kill when Seiji was unable to do so. There's still going to be a little more remaining with Katsumi, she's got one last story to tell.

The bigger part of the chapter though is Seiji. He is finally acknowledging what he had been ignoring since the first arc. He's got shinto priest powers that he has to face. And there are some good developments as a result of this. Seiji is actually well versed in things, but has ignored or tried to forget it all. However, it doesn't go away so simply. And now he is forced to confront a part of himself and his past that he has otherwise been running away from. This is the true start to his character arc, the rest up to his point was just prologue and introduction.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 333 is now available! It picks up the fight back where it began with Miyako and Kaede, the other half of the fight. This one is the real sort of rematch or grudge match in the arc, since there aren't a lot of a fights that happened. And Miyako and Kaede only really fought for a brief amount of time before the retreat.

There is actually quite a lot that I have setup for Kaede's powers. So this'll be a fairly evolving fight. Miyako is much like Seiji, but older and wiser. She likes the normal fist fights, but knows better than Seiji to charge straight in. With all of the teenagers in the group, I wonder if it gets lost that Miyako is an adult. Her powers though are complicated to explain in any natural way, since not even Miyako knows what her power is and the nature of her power is a lot more passive. I'll explain in eventually, but I have to find a good way to do it.

Kaede's powers on the other hand were show cased a little last time and this time I kept them a little more secretive. There was the hint that I can last time, so some will have probably figured it out. But there is a lot going on with her power. And while it might seem pretty average, the way it works is actually very different. I've gone through a lot of effort to try to do what I can to make original or unique powers when I can. It is not always possible, but the sky is the limit. So I should have fun.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 334 is now up and ready for reading. The continuation of the Miyako and Kaede fight pushes things into high gear now. Since both were using physical means of fighting I wanted to do what I could to show off the power being tossed around. Miyako and Kaede are both fairly unrefined fighters with their powers. Miyako is more refined due to years of fighting, but not refined with power control. So there is a lot of destruction and devastation due to that.

While to the reader it should have been obvious, I make it finally clear where Kaede's power is coming from, her hair. Which is another one of my efforts to make for some unique types of powers. She still has a lot of the same sorts of things you'd expect, but the way she gets them gives her some variety. However, due to how the switch has to happen, it does not make her as ideal as others in the middle of the fight. Which is why her changes always happen during downtime when she is out of sight. It does give some dramatic flair added to the sudden dropping of a new power.

Miyako started the fight injured to some degree. She had already been fighting a bunch of fodder and still recovering from her last fight, which was not really more than 12 hours prior. It was a really short time. So she is going in more like a classic Shounen type of hero, which is something done intentionally. Yuki is the one that subverts that, but I allow it for the others since they actually are Shounen types, Yuk isn't. Plus, the tone in this arc is a lot different. So people will be a lot more messed up and broken at the end, the fights will be reflecting that.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Finally back, lots of things happened and I ended up not doing much of anything. Notably, the expansion for FFXIV came out that sucked away literal days from pretty much everything. Finally starting to come down off of that, though not completely, and start working again. It's not easy when the game is so good and addicting, but I did need to get back on my writing schedule.

So without delay, chapter 335 is now available. The increasingly longer fight with Miyako and Kaede has extended from what I thought would be a short fight to now a full blown fight. It all serves things well since both characters are important to the future plots I have planned. I just had very little clue about how the fight was going to play out from the start. Having only rough ideas didn't help, which is part of what's made writing these more difficult. And one of the things I attribute to why it has taken me so long to getting back on them, other matters certainly did not help though.

I did fortunately have things figured out once I started working on the fight. So that helped, but it was just a matter of feeling out the pacing. This chapter focused on one of the more important parts to Kaede's power though. There is a side effect to her powers, one that she can't control. The beast mode that activated at the end was a mark of that. There is going to be more with it later as I do more with her character and she understands what her powers truly are.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

You know the drill by this point for anyone following, when I got on a long gap of failing to keep up with my schedule I always correct that schedule, eventually. Usually, by dropping all the chapters at once, this is one of those times. So chapter 336 is available for your reading pleasure! This concludes the epic fight between Miyako and Kaede. The rest of the aftermath of the fight will be picked back up after all the fights are over and they're dealing with the fall out.

Something more important to remember here, is that the people fighting are trying to protect their town and the people that they care about. So while the fighting is happening in the city, it is being done in parts that were already abandoned. As shown by this fight, there are still areas that are lived in and Miyako most of all wanted to avoid harming innocents or getting them involved. The Takako Faction naturally has no worries about this. Miyako is older than the rest and can think about more than just her fight, something that Yuki and his friends sort of forgot about in the chaos if their fighting during Atlantis. Consequences come from such fighting and though they managed to escape it thanks to Yuki playing some big cards, it is not always going to be the case. The systems are different, not to mention any sort of destruction that they cause will be answered by with the UN making moves. I introduced the UN for a specific reason and they'll be a constant threat and worry for any sort of action that they make, not that in this case they are thinking about those consequences.

This is actually one of the longest chapters that I wrote for Shift so far. It surpassed my personal limits that I put on chapter length. So I'm a little bothered that it went over, but I just rolled with it. This was the end of the fight, there was no point to dragging it out any more. And it was a good end to the fight. One thing I wanted to be sure with Miyako was a big finish of will power, something very classic of Shounen Jump type fights. Even though she was always on the losing end through the whole fight she never really seemed like that with the way she carried herself. And broken and beaten, she could not fold. Which is something very true to her character and a highlight to the sort of person that was. She never lost herself, she was always believing in herself and had confidence even though she knew she was out matched and it was a bad fight. But she carried herself through it. She is a really enjoyable character.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 337 is now up! With Haruo, Seiji and Miyako's fights out of the way, back to one of the bigger ones of the arc. The fight between siblings, sort of, it's complicated. Yumi's a complicated character now, something that wasn't really the case in the first arc. But this fight is actually more about Yori than it is about Yumi. It is from his point of view, especially since he's on the side considered good while Yumi or the person inside her is on the bad guy's side. So this is a fight for Yori, someone that's been a bit of a joke up to this point.

I say joke and I mean it in different ways. I had him kidnapped because he made the most sense and I wasn't going to capture a girl, it's over done. So having the guy captured and needing rescuing was important. Which started off his own arc as a result. He was the only one in the group that really did not want to go with them. He did not belong and he was even convinced he did not have any powers, or at least anything useful for fighting. Him being captured started to show him that he could not just be running and hiding from everything and that he could not convince the same of Yumi.

This fight is a the natural continuation of that, since he never really got to do much with the last time around. The last time he fought, he was enraged over being separated from Yumi and wanting to get back to her and then not wanting to fight because he had talked his opponent down. It still ended in a fight, but he lost and he did not really learn much from it other than the reinforcement that he really did not belong in their world. Unfortunately, due to Yumi, he found himself stuck in the world that he did not belong.

So this fight picks back up with him needing to confront those matters, among some other matters that he did not know that he had. Even though this will be a fight, this is going to be a character fight, much like some of my other fights have been. The character will come out of the fight with something that changes them. Yori's a complicated character like his sister, but it is started to unravel now that complexity. The important thing to remember about Yori is that he's not brave or strong, he's weak and a coward. He wants to do things, but finds that once he is in the situation he doesn't know what he should do. He's full of a lot of self doubt and more convinced that he should not be fighting, which comes from his time in Atlantis. As it said before, the Atlantis arc affected everyone in different ways. And for Yori, it just gave him more reason that he never should have been there. And he is continued to be dragged along by other people, mostly his sister and his brotherly obligation.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

The last chapter in my big update, chapter 338 is now available as well. Continuing Yori's fight with the woman inside Yumi, I start getting into a few details about what happened with Yori in the month that they were touring. As it should not really be much of a surprise, he trained with Athene to try to improve himself.

While it'll come out in later chapters, he trained not because he accepted that he wanted to fight, but that he accepted he had power to protect Yumi that he wanted to understand. It was something that he really did not understand or control during his fight with Athene. He was learning about it during the fight and he did not want that if it came down to another fight. So he's more experienced with this power this time around, but he is still lacking the resolve and confidence. Something that comes out in his wish-washy attitude. He collapses really easy when things get dangerous. He convinces himself that this is not what he is supposed to do and dumps blame of everything on Yuki.

He will be an annoying character, that much I foresee. Because he had power, but folds really fast under real pressure. The only thing that keeps him going is the singular motivation of protecting his sister. But this fight is calling that into question and what his true motives actually are. So as the fight drags on he is going to be forced to keep looking at himself and how he sees himself fitting into the new world.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Back on a better schedule, chapter 339 is now up. Continuing with the fight, Yori continues to need encouragement to stay in the fight. It is the sort of person he is as I described before. But, he is no more into things so there is not much pushing he needs. He's got his confidence now.

However, I drop some very interesting pieces of information in his flashback. They are pieces for a bigger puzzle and mystery, but they are seeds, ones that you wouldn't really expect to see in the middle of a fight here. But given the nature of Yori, it makes more sense. He thinks about things more than the others. So he considers the plans and situation moving in place around them. And this is a big one for the overall story.

But now that Yori is also more into the fight than before. I'll be able to focus on that fighting and showing off the things that he can do. He still have some things left to do and powers to show off. So the fight will continue, but it is different sort of fight. The beginning hinted at it, but the way it'll end and the things happening will make it all clear. It's all set up for the next arc.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 340 is now available for reading! This is coming to close to the end of the Yori and Yumi fight, though there are still some pieces left to be handled in the next chapter. Most of the fighting is all pretty wrapped up now though with Yori being unable to fight now.

It's hard making a fight that is about tactical maneuvering without getting heavily buried in the details. I kept it open and simple enough that the entire chapter wasn't lost to just trying to describe a single action or two. But I believe it still got across the point of their fight, which is a very different one from what I've done in a past. This fight will actually fuel a story in the future as well as this is the source to something later.

I loop back around on the topic that started it all out, which is important for this fight and the coming story. There's a lot going on with Yumi one of the more important things is explaining what's going on with her powers and the personalities. This is the first real time that things have been a lot more explicitly stated. Which will help things out going forward.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 341 is now up and it has concluded the Yumi and Yori fight. Things ended up playing at differently than I had planned. I had something else in mind as I hinted at in the previous comment. However, when I started writing it I realized that I didn't like the way it was going. So I rewrote the way the chapter would play out.

The fight is definitely finished between the two of them. There's not really much left that I can do with someone that is on death's door. It does continue the trend of the heroes getting really wrecked from their fights. But Yori's fight as I started looking at it is a weird one. As I already start making clear in the conversations between the two, there is a motivating factor for Yori, which is pretty transparent. It is the one that he has been using the entire time. He does everything because of his sister. However, this fight really highlights how twisted that can become. The woman inside Yumi is making it pretty clear that there is something wrong with the way Yori is thinking.

Something that I don't completely call out in this fight, but is a bit of the theme, is finding resolve to fight even when you don't want to fight. Which really sums up a lot of what Yori has been doing the whole time. However, the interesting thing is that he does the very classic thing of powering up and overcoming an impossible fight, though still losing in the end, by finding the resolve to fight. But by this chapter I make it a little more clear that is not always a good thing. The resolve he found is based off something bad, not good. He has something twisted inside of him that is fueling. And so it is just as likely to be powered up by something wrong or false as it is something good. And it is not really much different from being powered up by friendship. It still can reach the same goals. It would also not be the first time something false has been used for the sake of powering up the hero. Yori is something very different from the rest of the group.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 342 is now available! I picked back up with Hiroshi and Tatsuya now, which remain as the only two that have not had their fight. While I did initially make the setup look like it was going to be Hiroshi and Tatsuya versus Saki, it was always going to be Tatsuya versus Saki, at least once I started writing the arc. I did originally have it planned that Hiroshi would be alone and fight Saki. In fact, it was supposed to be very different. Originally it was going to be Yuki and Seiji confronting Takako with Seiji having to hold back the guards that Takako has. But that all got reworked after I started doing more with Hiroshi.

Once I started writing the things with Hiroshi's group I ended up expanding things further than I had originally planned. These sorts of things happen frequently. The original second arc had a different direction as well until I started writing it. The overall direction here did not change. I just increased the cast and made up new characters that were not part of the original plan. But they've been all really good and I already have intrigrated them into the plot to have very necessary roles in the future.

I also realized that Saki and Hiroshi powers were really not suited for a fight. It was going to be very boring if they fought the way they should and trying to make it entertaining and interesting would not really be very easy. Hiroshi's powers in general are difficult to manage because they make games and rules. So they are a little overpowered depending on their use, sort of like Yuki. So I have to craft something that's going to be a better fight, which is why I sent Hiroshi ahead.

In fact, as I was writing and looking over all of the characters, I made the realization that Tatsuya was actually the perfect person to fight Saki. I do vary things from fight to fight. Sometimes I make match ups that are well suited to each other and other times I make matches up that are intentionally bad, powers wise. It varies depending on the prep of the enemy. In this case, Tatsuya knows he's the best to fight Saki due to his powers after seeing what Saki can do. But Tatsuya is still not a real fighter, not that Saki is either, but she has training and experience where Tatsuya barely has that. So it is still going to be a very rough fight and I'll get to showcase what makes Tatsuya so good against her.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 343 is now available! Picking back up on what might be a rather short fight with Tatsuya and Saki. However, Saki is one of the powerhouses of the group and Tatsuya doesn't have main character status, so he's not really that strong. So it turns into a more creative fight for him to find ways of dealing with her. I will get to explaining a little more about his powers, though if he gave away his secret to her it would end up being the end for him. So he's not going to be doing that.

Saki is very overpowering against a lot of the current characters due to her having a naturally powerful ability given to her, speed. She's had several fights for her to improve and learn about it too, something that Tatsuya has only really had in small bursts. He hasn't really had a lot of one on one sort of fights like her. So he has had to deal with groups and working as a team. In a group, he's actually better off and used to that due to how they work lately. So he is even more disadvantaged than normal.

It also doesn't help that Tatsuya is a naturally lazy character. While he is more motivated and driven now. He is not so driven as to refine and harness his power in the right well. Which is something that if he survives this fight with Saki will be something that'll be considering.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 344 is now available for reading! This continues the struggle Tatsuya has with Saki and pushing things into the final push. He's reached the giving up point in the fight, that is happening a lot this time around. None of these fights are easy and in general the odds are extremely stacked against pretty much everyone fighting. Yori's lost his fight already and Haruo barely survived his along with Seiji and Miyako. Seiji pretty much lost his needing Nerine to help and Miyako nearly lost her fight if she didn't get a last moment lucky action.

The dread and despair in the arc carried over into the fights. They are a lot more personal fights than the ones from the previous arc and they are far more challenging. All of the very powerful characters got moved over to the evil side of the fight. Making this a very different sort of setup. No one is coming out of these fights in one piece.

But it's been very interesting handling the fights since I have a lot of difficult people to work with in them. But they've all got complicated motivations which aren't completely clear from the start. It'll come out more through the fight and in the aftermath. Since as Yori mentioned a while back, things aren't going to be smoothly cleaned up at the end. Things were too bad and awful for that.

Things are coming to a head though with Takako on the horizon.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Running late tonight, but overtime threw everything off. Anyway, chapter 345 is now available! This is the conclusion of the Tatsuya and Saki fight. There is no further that I plan to do with them fighting. Everything will wrapped up with the cliffhanger at a later point. I'll be moving on to the Hiroshi fight and getting to that one. Since I have Hiroshi's fight with Takako's guard remaining before the final battle and showdown with Takako.

This is another lost fight, though Tatsuya got rescued from being killed. But like I said before, the aftermath and effects of this fight will change Tatsuya. I'll be working on him more as the story progresses over all. He put up a good fight, but Saki is still pretty overpowered. His power is the only one out of everyone that really would put them on any sort of level field and Saki still beat him without putting in much effort. Which is the rather scary part about Saki.

The person that Hiroshi is fighting is something that I've already introduced. It's been a while since they've been seen. But it'll be a very unusual sort of fight all around. Hiroshi will be able to take advantage of his powers in this fight and I show what he can do. Making children's games into something to fight with will be challenging, but it fits with Hiroshi. So I look forward to it.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 346 is now available for reading! This is the start of the Hiroshi and Hitomi fight, the one hinted at by Saki during Tatsuya's fight. Someone appearing wasn't the surprise part, but more that it was Hitomi. Which is another one of those long forgotten about characters. For those with really good memories, she is the girl, also on the track team, that went to Saki when Takako disappeared. Hitomi's nature is that of an extreme worrier. She stresses out over the smallest details. Though in the case of what happened with Takako, it ended up being for very good reason. Hitomi is close with Takako, which is why she was the one guarding her.

This is the arc that sort of brings up a lot of the minor details that I introduced back in the first arc. There was very little that I put into the first arc that I planned to ignore. Most of it was done with a purpose, a purpose for later. As I have said on at least one occasion, I've never been a fan of just suddenly introducing characters that are important to the plot now, but should have been present realistically in some capacity in previous parts of the story. So I made sure to introduce the necessary parts for future story arcs early. Once I got out of the first arc, it became less of a need. But I do still introduce small little pieces that I plan to make into big pieces later on. Part of it helps that I make plans for all of the future arcs well in advance so I can do what is necessary to introduce the pieces. So if they have a name then they are going to be important later on for something pretty much. So there is a lot of worth in going back and re-reading things. I'm intentionally writing Shift in such a way.

This is the second time we've seen the inside of Takako's throne room, a classroom. Last time with Saki, I ignore some of the details. So I did more to explain it this time around. Plus it is sort of awkward to say that there is some big room at the end of the hall in a school. That's just not true. So I needed to explain the layout better to get a clear view of how it is set up. Saki was admittedly less interested in the school and more focused on Takako. So she didn't take in the scene much.

I'm also finally getting to some of core parts for Takako as well. It's still going to be a bit before I start truly answering the questions. But I wanted to give Hiroshi a little face time with her so I could start stirring up the questions for the reader about Takako. There is still a lot of things that are not known about her. And I'll be finally getting to those very soon.

And Hitomi does indeed have the power to cry literal rivers from her eyes. It's one of the more silly powers I came up with for the characters. But it does fit in with her personality, which as I said is that she is a huge worrywart. So she's weaponized crying. But she's also a track member, which should be another important clue to remember about her.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 347 is more promptly up today. Nothing to get in my way really. So it is on time and getting deeper into the fighting between Hitomi and Hiroshi. This is still the opening parts of the fight since the last chapter was mostly talk and setup, while this chapter was a preview and tease of things to come. And I have Hiroshi state how silly it is to have such a power as to cry rivers.

There's still a fair amount of darkness around in the story, but with Hiroshi things get a little lighter. He's not too unlike Yuki in that he likes to joke around, though in Hiroshi's case he's doing as way to protect himself and keep himself level. Yuki does it more as a tactic in a fight to off balance his opponent. He's also been in a lot more fights than Hiroshi, so he has the ability to make light of things. Hiroshi is still try to desperately stay alive and keep why remains of his humanity and joking is his coping method.

Hiroshi activated his power again in the fight, but it is much like Yuki's in that it is an area of effect. Everyone in the area is effected by his power, including him. Part of the fun of the fight will figuring out what game is being played. And I'll be trying to use a couple of different games through the fight. Weaponizing children's games is not very easy since they way they play don't well suit combat in the normal sense. So I have to get more creative with how I use the games. And there will also be games Hiroshi has made up for the sake of his power.

Enjoy!