Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Chapter 258 is now up for your reading pleasure! I actually finished it last week, so I had to think a little about it. This one takes a break from the fighting to get down to a little explanation on why Simonides is so important to Athene. I feel that it was a good development chapter for the two of them, even though it is Yori's fight. It is an answer that was sort of needed after how crazy Athene became and explain a lot of their interaction.

I really like how it played out. I only touched loosely on Athene's history, when Yori when mind walking through her memories. So all you really saw of her from her childhood before the academy. You know that she was alive during the rebellion and her lift was ruined as a result. While I don't expressly state it, things were at their worse in the post-rebellion period. So Athene suffered more than many of the younger MPs that you've met earlier.

I do try to keep it a little less directly stated why Athene cares about Simonides. The scene and their conversation makes it very clear, but I don't just sleep it out in all of the words. And I feel scenes like that are best. Where just reading the scene and letting it speak for itself makes it better. It is certainly a fairly cliche scene to have, but Simonides personality is already fairly well set. He's more practical these days, but you can still see that goal and vision that he had when he was younger coming out in how he interacts with the MPs. He cares about them, which is clear by how deeply loyal his men are to him. However, he is working within a system that is unwilling to change and he wants to be different. So I think it's going to be good to see his growth in the future. I've got plans for him.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Well I'm running late on this, the funny thing is that I finished it a long time ago. I just was really focused on writing Sunday. So chapter 259 is now up! This focuses on the last part of Yori and Athene's fight. I wraps up pretty quickly, but it's a pretty important lead into the next chapter.

This chapter was a lot of fun just because Yori and Athene have some really great lines, mostly Yori. We haven't really gotten to see him do much of anything. He's been a sideline character most of the story so far. And now he's doing stuff. He has some really great moments with Athene, just not understanding the point of fighting.

The fight itself moves fairly quickly. Most of the issues at this point were resolved. I just needed to bring a conclusion with Athene to something that would fit with her character. She could not just let it end there. But I didn't plan to just drag it out either. A fight just to fight is pretty empty and I'm trying to avoid those. Every fight has a reason and when I've finished with why the fight is happening then the fight concludes. I just make sure that the fight concludes in a natural way.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's finally here! The all important chapter that reveals what the big secret that I've been hiding the entire time. The truth that continues to be teased and hinted at for more than a hundred chapters. All is finally revealed about what is up with Atlantis and their Kings. Chapter 260 is now up for reading! Due to the importance of the chapter I do built up the reveal and it is solely dedicated to the truth.

The funny thing is that I still have more things to reveal even after all of this. This is a pretty big important dump of information. So it is very talky, but I've been building it up the entire time and the whole fight. Every fight ended on the worse possible cliffhanger where I made it clear that I was going to finally get to revealing things only to hold off. Which I've been doing since Yori learned about their secret over a hundred chapters ago.

The reveal works well to even connect other aspects of the story that I've been telling. Things that did not have much explanation that if you think about it now comes to have a new meaning. I felt it was important to have those hints and little bits around. Because if you did read a second time after knowing everything all of those details suddenly take on a completely different meaning. I layered those things in since the start of the story. And this is the first big reveal to actually take advantage of that. Some of the next things to happen in about fifteen chapters will also do the same thing. There is so much that I still have yet to full explain even though you have an explanation.

This has been a very complicated arc and two arcs in some ways to write because of all the work I'm doing to put things into the right place. I knew where everything was headed so it did help out a lot. But now I finally have the payoff starting to reward.

Now you can look forward to the conclusions to all of the fights that I started. It'll start up next week and run hard until completed.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 261 is now available! Now that I've finished with Yori's fight and the reveal, it is back to the fights that I started. They will all be wrapped up now. I actually planned for five chapters for many of these fights, but it was not a hard and fast rule. I just let the fight go in the direction that made the most sense under the guidelines I had set. So many of the fights ended up being shorter than I expected. But I feel that it is fine. They did not need to be prolonged anymore.

The conclusion of Yumi's fight was a strange one. I had planned on the fight being over after being told about Ayumi and Yuki. However, I wanted Yumi to do something rather than just be a passive participant again like with her previous fight. I wanted to show how she had improved. There is a lot that changes with her over the story. And this was a good progress update for her.

So the chapter does end up feeling a little like it is fluff, but I feel that it still had a purpose. Which is also what my criteria for writing a chapter is. If it doesn't have a purpose to show something then I don't write it. Especially true for battles. If it is just a battle that needs to happen but nothing is really gained out of it, then it will be very brief. I'm not going to waste time on something that's unnecessary aside from it's unavoidable plot wise. But I haven't reached that point in any fight yet.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 262 is now available! Now we jump to Fumiko's fight. This is actually the longest of the fights as it actually did go to 5 chapters. However, there was a lot of things I was doing with the fight and the characters. So the stages all made the most sense. I had originally considered making this shorter, but I realized what I was doing it was not going to be good for the flow.

Like with any of the fights, I try everything I can to make them look and sound cool. Obviously since it is all words it only can go so far. But there was a lot of things I did with this fight to make things really interesting. I did some similar things previously with the surfing, but there is something about doing it on flames that just makes it really awesome. So Fumiko got to have a lot of really different things to do and maintained the freshness through the fight.

The one thing that I felt might go ignored, but is important is the difference with the way Fumiko talks and everyone else does. Even the narrative when I'm describing things I'm purposeful with my word choices. You'll find that I almost never say enemy. And if I do it is relative to the perspective of who I'm writing for. Most of Yuki's friends don't see who they are fighting as enemies, but just people staying in their way. Which is really important. So they are not interested in killing them, just preventing them from fighting more. Fumiko though it very different right now where she has accepted herself as a killer and willing to kill to win, something the others are not willing to do, excluding Saki. However, this mind set is going to have some lasting repercussions for Fumiko in the future.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 263 is now available! This is the conclusion of the Fumiko and Glykeria battle. This is the only fight that actually remained the originally planned length. All of the other fights I shortened. But it was not as though I had a strictly planned length. I just made the guess that they would take up 5 chapters. I've said it before that the limit on any fight is no more than 5 chapters. I feel that they get very drawn out and boring if they went any longer than that. The only time I think that they can go over is when there is more than enough material to support it. But it is going to be a rare thing. I don't know if I'll have so many fights that have that much needed to be in them.

Anyway, the Fumiko fight ends in a way that might have been unexpected. I planned that she would lose. And part of the reason is that I don't want everyone to win. It's not going to be so perfect that they always come up with a way out of their situation. You've already seen it in past fights that I'll have them lose. But these are bigger deals. They are more important. So it is likely expected that everyone is going to win or even if they don't win there is someone else to show up to finish. But that's not the case. There is no backup, Fumiko lost and she's now captured. Which setups up the nice uncertainty for the reader not knowing if the others will win or lose. Putting uncertainty back into the story is important and great because these are often too easy to see coming that they'll win all the time. But I definitely won't plan on that.

The fun thing with Glykeria is that I also tease for future stuff. All of the characters received attention to their back stories with the exception of Glykeria. There is a pretty important reason for why she never received any attention. Unfortunately, the reveal of it won't be for a long time. But it is so important to her character that it has to happen in a very specific way. But I've already got her future planned out. Several of the Titans have incomplete stories that I'll be returning to later along with Glykeria.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 264 is now up! Fumiko's fight is over and so we move on to Chiharu's battle. The state that she was left in was very important, not because it felt her in a bit of a heroic BSOD, but that it led to where things pushed in this chapter. There was a lot surrounding Chiharu that I left unanswered. She had driving motive for a lot of what she did, but naturally wasn't going to tell anyone. She's opened up to Yumi and Seiji on some level, but not completely. There are deep private motives that she would not admit to anyone since they reveal her weakness.

That is what makes this chapter so important and even this fight. It comes in two fold. As you saw at the end, something new is happening to Chiharu. This is a new ability that she is gaining. So it was important for that reason. But the other was to get to the heart of the matter with Chiharu. She's constantly as war with herself over her own weakness. The expose of her facing that now in the chapter is very important for her development.

The fight itself turns around because Chiharu finally has her head on straight. So I'm finally able to show what Nereus has been doing the entire time. Since she was blinded by everything. I left a lot of the details vague. But with her mind clear, she is able to read his actions and even shed some new light on his character a little as well. He is much like Glykeria in that I have more planned for him since his story is larger than just a single fight can bring out naturally.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It is now Chapter 265 that goes up! This is the concluding chapter for Chiharu's fight. It is where everything that's been teased up to until now for Nereus finally comes out on full display, though admittedly this is not the full potential or power of him. As I confirm what his power is at the end of the fight, what he does with it during the fight is incredibly round about, but no less impressive when you think about what he had to be doing to create it.

Though there is not much of a need to further drive the point home. I do fully clarify his point of view. It was already well established, but this really helped to show how extreme his view point was. Which is a very narrow and oddly belief focused one. He can't see anyone else that doesn't have his powers and even being human. That is the bar that has to be reached for him. Which is what the test is all about, to see how they rate. If they can deal with his powers then that will earn them marks as being human, at the very least. Even among the others, narrow world view leaves only people that compare to his strength as people that can be his comrades. Where this view point comes from and the extreme nature of it all will be explored the next time I deal with him. But like many, he is the product of his environment.

Chiharu finally has her power introduced. This power is something that she was going to have to discover accidentally, as it is not like her other powers. Which is why she fought Nereus specifically, since he had water for her to discover. But just to be sure, it's also not a random pull of powers to save the day. She's been planned to have this power for a while, I just never had the moment to introduce it. As a point, recall the ninja clan the Higoshi head used Fire. When I created the clans and plans for their powers, they were all going to have elements attached to them. The Higoshi is Fire while the Chinen is Water, hence why Chiharu can use water. This is also to draw on the elemental ninjutsu that is common among fiction with ninjas.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 266 is now available for the interested readers! This chapter concludes the fight between Teris and Haruo one of the more restrained fights. This is naturally due to Haruo's personality more than anything. As always, he's less motivated to start a fight. Though he can be convinced to do so. However, this chapter is a little more important on less the conclusion and more about what it is that it covers.

The biggest part of the fight here is the explanation that Teris gives on Haruo's power. These are all things that through visual details I gave throughout all of the fights, but never really spelled it out. I wanted people to figure out how his powers functioned somewhat before I just told you. So that that is one of the most important parts of this chapter. I do leave out the most important answer though, which is why his powers function the way they do and what his power is that he is putting inside them. This is something that Haruo wants to know and understand, so it is a goal for his character and part of the development his character has planned out as I go through his arc.

Like with Fumiko, Haruo has also lost his fight. It is something that I continue as a tread. Not everyone will win their fights. And that will be important for later matters. But this is starting to bring things to an end finally on the fights. Only Saki's fight is left. Teris still has some things left that I plan to explore in later arcs, but he got a lot of coverage this time.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Bit on the late side, but I was getting things setup for next week. Anyway, chapter 267 is now available. The last of the fights is now concluded with Rheia and Saki, which continued to ramp up the intensity and action. It is a pretty crazy fight with tons of destruction and probably my favorite way for a fight to end.

Rheia is a really fun character because she seems very simple on the outside. She seems like someone that's just looking for a fight at every corner. And that's all she seems to be. This chapter I'm able to narrow in on what actually makes her more complex. It is loosely hinted at with the way she talked about Saki in previous chapters. But this makes it a lot more clear. Though I don't come out in exact words and say it. I let you read through things and understand her motivations.

She is very single minded in her goal and thinks that Saki might be able to give her what she has been looking for. By the end it is clear that she has found what she was seeking the entire time from Saki. Her comment about her no longer being alone is very telling. It is something you have to think about and would come out a little better in images than words, since it would take too many words to get what one picture could achieve. But Rheia is alone because of her power and not in the since that she has no one willing to stick with her. The Titans are her comrades in a way her friend. But none of them are a challenge for her. She can easily beat all of them, which is how she keeps them in control. However, Eudokia and Demosthenes are also stronger than her vastly so, which I demonstrated in both instants. She literally has no equal, no that is anywhere near her level. She has no one that can challenge her or make her work. She's alone in the middle of the power scale. And that's what she's been looking for the whole time. Someone that can let her bring everything and someone that can truly stand next to her.

Which is why I like Rheia so much. She is rash and aggressive and even easy to make angry, but a lot of it is just masks for her own loneliness. She's always running ahead of everyone by miles, but never able to even see those that are ahead of her. The only thing worse than being the weakest is being in a class of your own, which is what happened to Rheia.

And their fight ends in the only way that seems logical. Which is funny, because it is the classic hot blooded ending you get where were two true rivals fight no holds bar unwilling to fall and through the exchanging of fists come to acknowledge and respect the other. They just keep fighting until the sun goes down. This sort of end to a fight is generally reserved for male characters, a show of their manliness or whatever. Which is why I like it so much. It puts pretty much the two most powerful women to date in a great fight of burning muscle that can only end in mutual exhaustion. I have always said Saki has more in common with the classic Shounen hero than Yuki does.

Next week you can look forward to the fight that has been long awaited.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 268 is now available! With the conclusion of all of the fights, all that remains is Yuki's long standing grudge match/rematch with Demosthenes. The one that's been setup since the start. This is just the opener so it is mostly just setting the pieces up and I needed to get Yuki's head on straight. Because as I've shown in previous fights and explained here, their powers don't work very well when enraged as it tends to cloud their minds. And Yuki is naturally going to be in a rage after everything.

Eudokia/Ayumi is there to get him fighting correctly. But also some things that I continue to hint at since I've made it clear that she's up to something. It is the big secret that got revealed. So I can be less overt about my hints when showing her. Since I've intentionally left out some of her internal thoughts as they would be too revealing about her real motives.

Demosthenes also helped to explain one thing that I've been doing with Yuki that I never explained only showed off. He uses his powers to get him moving about in unnatural ways. Those blasts under his feet when he charges in are what he uses to make himself move faster. Which as was pointed out to him, there are far better ways of doing it. But Yuki hasn't considered it.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

A bit on the late side, too much Tales of Xillia 2 for myself. >.> Anyway, chapter 269 is now available for reading! The fight with Demosthenes only continues to escalate in the only the way possible. Continued power ups and new techniques to show off. This was a really fun fight to do, though when I was planning it I was uncertain how long it was going to be. I thought it could have easily been longer than my standard 5 chapters I locked all fights into being at the most. However, that turned out not to be a concern. With everything that I did, I don't think it needed to be really long, just a satisfying fight.

I've shown off flying before as Yuki said, but this makes things a little different and more fun. I explained how it works with their power, but the reality, like Yuki discovered there is multiple ways this can be achieved. And neither of them are flying under their own power in the way you think of it, not like Yumi or Yori can fly. Yuki's flying is a good example of how it works. Though others have different solutions. The fun thing with it though was showing that Yuki's not perfect. He's been struggle with folding and while it would be easy to make him some sort of prodigy with the powers, that was never the plan. He's going to struggle and scrap by in all of his fights. And he's not going to always look cool doing it. Besides, there already one prodigy out there. >.>

Anyway, I did finally get to reveal the other half of Demosthenes power. It plays a little at the start like you would expect, with him revealing that the eye patch was a secret weapon. However, it works in a different way. I didn't want it to be too cliche. ^^ As seen in the future and as Yuki will learn. It is another part of his power and a trigger for him to do use what he revealed. It wouldn't be an epic showdown without some way over the top display of power.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 270 is now available! It's running a bit on the late side of things, but I ended up writing more today and got interrupted a bunch. Not to mention the internet being a pain. Anyway, there is something to preface with that I have said yet. I mentioned back in June that I wrote a chapter ahead of time. At time, I didn't want to say anything since I wanted to be sure that I actually achieved my goal, which I did. Due to some different matters I ended up dealing things until now though. Starting as of today, I'm going to be posting a chapter every day for a month, roughly. How can I do that when I normally only write on Saturdays and only post once a week? Well, back in June I did something. I made it my goal to finish out the current arc that I was in, the second arc The Siege Arc. Which I did, back in June, technically I finished like July 2 or something, but point still remains. I wrote the entirety of the remaining chapters for the arc in the month. The reality is that I actually wrote most of it in the last week. And so yeah, while I've been posting chapters here, I've actually being writing the next arc and even TFF has been behind on my writing to the tune of 25 chapters, actually 26 now as I wrote extra today. So that equals roughly a month's worth of chapters to post. I'll be a little short, but in the weeks to come I'll still be writing. So it will end up being a month by the time I finally get you all caught up. So yeah, all of the chapters that I've been post lately, I wrote two months ago. You can look forward to the treat of getting the rest of The Siege Arc in short order.

This chapter is the conclusion of the Demosthenes fight. Yeah, I had talked about it being long. Reality ended up being that it was short. I didn't need it to be long to still get everything I wanted done. Not to mention as you already can guess, Yuki's still got one more fight ahead of him. So together it ends up being longer.

Something important about this chapter is that I finally provide an answer to what was up with Vangelis. The fight with Vangelis was actually very important in the overall scheme of things, because it was what gave Yuki his idea. It taught him something that'll become a part of his fighting style. And I explain what was up with him, since I never really did explain how he was doing it all. The truth is that he had a very complex set of law sets that he mixed and matched around based on his needs. Which makes him very powerful since he can very easily trick his opponent. It is something that others use, such as Demosthenes as I demonstrated with his eye patch. It is the same thing, only difference is that Demosthenes is a physical trigger rather than a mental one.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

So it's begun, thanks to overtime it's a little difficult to get the posts in at a reasonable hour, but it is still here. Chapter 271 is now up! I finish up things with Demosthenes and answer how Yuki beat him. Since I did not make it clear at all, that sort of needed to be answered before I moved on. I had a bunch of a different ideas about how to end the fight, but I felt this was one of the more clever solutions to it.

Demosthenes does help to hint on things that the audience/reader already knows. But Yuki is completely unaware of it. Though he gets cut off before things really get interesting. Yeah, I'm mean like that, besides Eudokia doesn't want Yuki to know. And what I've been hinting for the last sets of chapters with Eudokia and Yuki, she's up to something with him. If it is not clear what she's doing, then you'll have your answer next chapter. ^^ It is pretty obvious now, but it should end up making a few things clearer now that you look back on it. Which I setup intentionally that way.

I had to leave things off on a really big cliffhanger. This was one of the bigger cliffhangers that I had already known was going to happen since the start of the story. It is pretty obvious. I have everything looking like Eudokia is going to succeed. Yumi is on her way, but still coming after her. And Yuki doesn't seem to be doing anything to stop Eudokia. The only up side is that you only have to wait a day for the next chapter.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 272 is now available for reading! Just because I'm getting towards the end doesn't mean I can't have cliffhangers. ^^ As you probably expected Yumi showings up. It wouldn't go down that easy for Eudokia. And so there is a fun fight between the two of them. It's another one of those cases that it could have very easily blown out to more, but I didn't think it was really necessary. There was nothing new that was being shown off in the fight. It was simply a fight that needed to happen because the two women aren't going to be able to settle things with words alone.

There are some important things that come out in the chapter though. It is still never explicitly stated, but if you haven't figured it out Yuki was brainwashed. I think come out and say it in another chapter or two, but it's pretty clear the clocked out look he has that is what happened. And she had been doing it for a while, which is what I hinted at in earlier chapters. The other thing is that Eudokia has been planning out a lot of things as made clear by her preparedness with Yumi.

Though the part of the fight that makes things fun is that Yumi's powers and control advanced significantly more than Eudokia counted on. She had minimal counters setup for her because she did not really count Yumi as a real threat. Since she only made sure that she couldn't just choke her out or crush her without a second thought. The depth of her planning though will come out soon enough. There's a new round of reveals coming that should turn a lot of things on their head. ^^

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Up now is Chapter 273 for your reading enjoyment! This is a more of setup chapter as nothing major really happens. It is just the chapter that connects things together and pushes Yuki into his next fight. The final battle of the arc! This is where everything finally comes to a conclusion. There is still plenty more chapters remaining in the arc, but the epilogue/aftermath sub-arc follows after this.

The important parts of the chapter that putting the pieces together. Yuki needs to be awake again and understand the situation, since he was completely out of it. Yumi gets tended to and her rage is dealt with. And we get Eudokia setup for her next fight where she is going to be a mass of burning emotions. It seems to a common thing lately, everyone just raging on someone.

It is a common subject lately, but it was an important debate that Yuki had with Yumi over the matter of revenge. Because he tried to tell Chiharu not to kill before despite falling into the pit himself. Which at that point was a lesson for him and he was trying to make sure that she did not make the same mistake he almost did. Demosthenes brought it up again, though he was far more consumed by it and forgot everything. Yumi is in the same boat with him on their rage. And Yuki continues to insist on not killing, but he falls victim to his human weaknesses. Which is what is so important in their argument. Yuki acknowledges his flaw and knows he'll fall in the future, but still times to hold up what his believes despite knowing that he'll fall again. Yumi's started to become a more pragmatic individual in the arc after all of her fights. So she doesn't have his idealistic nature as much anymore. She still has some, but everything she's been through is scrapping that off fast.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 274 is now available! This starts the fight, though not completely in earnest. As you already know, being enraged doesn't actually improve their fighting ability and doesn't magically make them reach new heights. It just screws them up in the fight. So Eudokia has to get her head on straight before the fight can start. However, this is a very important chapter without the fight because of what comes out of it.

This is more reveals and pretty big ones at that. Since the reveals here completely flip on its head everything that you thought you knew about the entire first arc. This is one of those chapters that I've been looking forward to for a long time. Since I purposefully set all of this up back then to be like that. I knew what Ayumi was eventually going to become. That she was the big bad for this arc. So I had a lot of things in place. The hints that something strange was up was in the Plant Assassin fight where he was never after Yuki, but Ayumi. When he found what he wanted going through Saki's mind it was an image of Yuki and Ayumi, which I did intentionally make you think he was looking for Yuki, but the important thing was that he saw Eudokia there. And why their exchange was a little strange with she confronted him. He engineered the conversation to seem like it was about Yuki when he had no interest in him and had no clue who he was.

And I dropped little hints like that throughout the first arc since I knew what I was doing. It is also the reason way Yuki never actually died in any of the fights with the assassins. He wasn't supposed to die, just come really close to it. And even Demosthenes comment after Ayumi beat his clone the first time. His comment about Eudokia was not about her being in his way and so it was going to be difficult, but rather that he was speaking towards Eudokia commenting on Yuki's lack of progress and that it was going to be tough getting him to truly awaken. I had a lot of fun creating things that had double meanings.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 275 is now available! The fight starts for real now. ^^ Or the part that you really care about. There has been a fair bit of talking and teasing up to this point. Since I had Yumi fight with Eudokia along with Yuki waking up and getting things sorted. And Eudokia wasn't clear enough for a good fight. But that's all behind things now. Just fighting and some fun stuff from Yuki.

This side of Eudokia is what I've been teasing for a while. Through the previous fights I setup of the building blocks. Because her hidden form that she used while using her ice law is all based off the primary default law she uses. It's quite a bit different from her more normal standard thing of the sword and kimono. Which Yuki brought up about practicality in the first arc. So it was fun to finally get around to that.

I have Yuki even poke at how things should go in a situation like this. He's supposed to fight while badly injured and over come terrible odds to win. But Yuki's body isn't built that way. He's a normal human that would die if that happened. So he has to play things in a practical point of view. But I do continue to stop back at is it justified, right or whatever sacrificing yourself for the greater good. The characters all have different view points on the matter. Though they are all very selfish people since they are doing most of the things right now for personal reasons rather than grander reasons. Which would be more reflective of how people are going to be thinking here. They're going to be selfish, people think about themselves first and others second. So it comes down to a complicated debate of ideals.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Finally, the last chapter of the sub-arc is now up! This chapter concludes the Siege of the Capital sub-arc, which began with the Titans. The sub-arc was pretty much the Titan show down along with Eudokia. It was framed around the switch of main threats. Simonides turn marked the changes. And now with the ending of the Eudokia fight things are finally over with this chapter 276! However, it doesn't naturally mean The Siege Arc is over, nope. There is one sub-arc remaining, the epilogue to everything. There is naturally still a lot of unresolved issues.

However, the focus should be on the fight. For the final showdown and the epic conclusion to the fight, it was surprisingly shorter than I originally thought. I didn't know how long it would be and even concerned myself early on with it going past the 5 chapter limit I set for myself. However, I never did end up doing that. In a way, since Yuki had two fights and they are both together almost with them being very important to the ending, the whole thing did sort of go past that point.

But the biggest thing is answering the cliffhanger surprise reversal that Yuki introduced at the end of the last chapter. This is the final culmination of what's been going on since the Vangelis fight. Vangelis, Demosthenes and Eudokia all did this, though Eudokia's was very special. Vangelis and Demosthenes were the main ones that did the same thing that Yuki did here. They used more than one field, which is dangerous and a highly advanced technique.

Though, things do end in the only way that they really can. It has got to be a final all out attack. The reason question I had going in was how I was going to deal with it. There are few different ways it can be handled. People like to play it straight and subvert it so often that it is hard to see one is normal way to go anymore. So I decided to go with a different route, have them both back up rather than first one that stands or only one can stand sort of things.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

And now the aftermath of the arc. Since I got a little business with things last night, it is double posting today to keep things on track. Chapter 277 begins the short sub-arc that will settle things with what happened after Eudokia was arrested. The aftermath is actual almost more important than the rest because of the things that are happening. There is a lot of very real matters that need to be sorted out.

Having the gang back together, mostly, is was of my favorite parts. This is mostly because I do enjoy Seiji so much in the group. He really does a lot of the mood and tone of the story at times. But Saki has some equally good moments in this chapter. They play well together. Yumi's got the classic case of staying up unwilling to leave Yuki's side only for Seiji to spoil that Saki pushed the whole thing on Yumi. Saki's still working on Yumi, but I like that about the relationship the two have developed. Saki sees what Yumi has for Yuki and encourages it.

Then because I could not leave alone a great moment with Rheia. I have her chasing after Saki for another fight. The image of Rheia here is quite a bit different from the others, but still pretty in line with her character, but it is actually important for a couple of reasons, especially for her character. And of course Seiji is completely geeking out over their fight as they had the epic no holds bar drag out knock down fight that he dreams of having and it was between two women, which makes it even better. The classic manly sort of scene of two rivals just slugging it out until they pass out together and I swap that scene out for Saki and Rheia. I love it and continues with my theme that Saki is more Shonen Jump material than Yuki is. She plays out more traditional trope types.

Fumiko and Haruo getting arrested are expected given that they lost their fights, though since Eudokia was beat the expected happy ending results is that they would be freed after the Council learned what was going on with Eudokia and that Yuki and party are innocent in the matter. However, they are not innocent given the destruction they wrought and the Council is more complicated than they realize. Which is the start of what I was talking about with things being resolved in the aftermath, but it's not going to be simple.

I do give Yuki and Yumi a moment, but not without a cliffhanger as well. Things are never so simple.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 278 is now up and available for reading! Picking up off the cliffhanger, it's not a too dangerous scene. However, it does setup some very important things for the rest of the arc that remains. It makes it clear that there is still more going on in Atlantis after Eudokia. And that there was actually some truth to what Eudokia said. She spun lies within truth, which is a good way to lie, you start from the truth.

The Council makes their intentions pretty clear with Yuki, but it's going to be more subtle things now. It's not going to be outward conflict between the two. Which brings a different type of conflict into the story. And while I never gave much painting on the Council. They were setup as the bad guys by Eudokia, but it was clear that Eudokia was the bad guy. Which meant that the government defaulted to being the good guys now. However, they make it clear that they are not good guys. And that only complicates things more.

Yuki starts taking more command in this situation. It is something that he is not really done up until now. He's played things pretty passively and just gone along with things. But Eudokia is gone now and things are now squarely on him. Things that are happen are because of him, so he has to step up. He did that a little in early situations, but now he is coming more into his own with it. Which is an important growth for him. The sub-arc here is important for many of the characters in the way that they make their choices.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 279 is now up! This is fairly talky chapter, as you should expect from a lot of the chapters right now. It is going to be more dialogue driven and tension will be about the maneuverings and plans within plans sort of things. It is a different pace from the rest of the story, but it is what things have become in the story now. It is a different beast that can't be handled with fists anymore.

One of the bigger points of the chapter is trying to address the unresolved note that ended one of the previous chapters. Which was a very big deal for Yumi. Her open confession to Yuki, which woke him back up from his brainwashing also laid out her feelings. It is something that's not really handle in Shounen Jump really. Romance might be there, but it's a side topic and things of jokes or teases. But nothing will ever progress from it. So Yumi's confession is pretty big, though given the situation that it happened in, no surprise that Yuki doesn't remember it.

Some of the other things is the continued antagonistic behavior from Yuki towards Demosthenes. He doesn't like the man even if he's come more to terms with his friend's death. I make it clear frequently in their dealings that he's not past it. It still fuels his emotions and words. They aren't just magically friends now that they're no longer fighting.

And a new cliffhanger to push things even faster forward. The trial is coming now!

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now available for reading is chapter 280! The time for the trial or in this case joke of one. This is where things start getting a little heavier. I've brought up in past chapters about the death toll, but this finally actually makes it clear how many damage that Yuki's friends actually caused. Which is quite significant.

The thing to keep in mind is that I make no mention of any of this during Saki's fight, which saw most of the destruction or even Yumi's raging through the city. Both caused destruction and death, Saki's more than Yumi's. Rheia like the rest of the Titans, barring Ourias of course, have little regard for the destruction that they cause. However, Saki was concerned about it at the start as was everyone else. Their main intent was to stop things before it got to dangerous, as the Titans would have been like a bulldozer through whole towns in search of them.

On the note that I was making though, my chapters make no mention of the death toll. This was intentional because neither Saki nor Yumi were focused on that at the time. Yumi was so blindly enraged that she never would have even noticed, and obviously didn't. And Saki did not have the time to notice with her fight against Rheia. Additionally, these sorts of fights even in the city are always considered clean fights. You don't see the negatives that happen when something like this happens. So I left it out, but kept track of what happened, which is a lot of destruction and death. Saki ended up killing a ton of innocent people that were simply in the wrong place. And so that comes back to hit her as it did Yumi before. These fights weren't bloodless. Which is why you don't fight in a city, people die.

As for the trial itself, it was sort of already known as an outcome. This just makes it very clear what's happening. It's building tension. Since now there is going to be an execution. Plus, the Council continues to be revealed for what they really are. So it becomes harder to see who are the good people. It's a lot more gray.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

History lesson time as it were for Chapter 281! Like Demosthenes states himself, this is a history lesson chapter. So there is a lot of talking and explaining, but it is hugely important for everything that I've built up for the series so far. It defines a lot of what Atlantis is all about and puts things into more perspective than before. I only gave hints and clues without the whole picture before.

Starting everything off, I pick up that little nugget that I left in the last chapter which was pretty important, that Yuki isn't full Atlantean. It was a fun time to drop that a little reveal. It got a little bit of time and acknowledged, but moved on. However, it was pretty important and a big deal, especially for Yuki who assumed after hearing things from Eudokia was 100% Atlantean. The confirmation that he is in fact half Atlantean and half Japanese, makes things very interesting and complicated. It brings up a lot of questions about his birth and like he said, who his mother is. Lots of theories for that.

Though I don't actually get to that question right now. ^^ No the chapter is setup for explaining that. The funny thing was when I was writing this I figured it would all be in a single chapter, but when I reached that fifth page I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I planned a different cliffhanger and divided things up.

The big things coming out of the chapter though are explaining the Throne of Atlantis, a little history about the political situation in Atlantis. Details on what is up with the Council and then the more fun stuff, talking about Yuki's father the late King. This is all stuff I had planned out at the start as I created the King's back story then. So the loss of his wife, pulled into the position of King, fighting the Council, everything. I set everything up to play things out through the story as though Yuki's King was a tyrant or viewed that way by his people. So it left an uncertain feeling of what sort of man he was and how much good there would be in his coming to Atlantis. And I planned to flip that around to reveal that the Council was actually worse and the King was a really great King that looked out for his people, but had bad PR as it were.

The next chapter will have a lot more answers, some pretty big ones too.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 282 is now available! The second half of the history lesson as told by Demosthenes. There's a lot to come out of the chapter for all of the talking. There was some pretty important things that I dropped and tied together. Yeah, Eudokia backstory was all tied back to this as well. ^^ Naturally, when I was writing I knew what I was doing, so Demosthenes seemed normal in his place though sort of out of place too. The whole thing ended up playing out very strangely when you start thinking about it really hard. Which is why this makes a lot of things make sense now. Necessary call backs.

So yeah, I don't say who Yuki's mother is. I have to keep some secrets for later. There is still a lot Yuki doesn't know. Which as you can already expect, it setup for the future arcs. This is a massive arc, which is just a launch pad for the rest of the story. The first arc works as an introduction to the characters. The second works as a setup to the main plot of the entire story. Which is the goal of his father that he left behind. But it is more complicated than just something as simple as that, naturally. Nothing will ever be easy.

It's fun finally being able to reach this point and explain everything that I've been holding in. The shadowy organization in the background. The plans that the King had. What Yuki really is, which is admittedly a little hazy still. I'll be giving more answers to that as things move on, but it'll take time to get there.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 283 is now available! It's another talky chapter, but in a different sort of angle. This is sort of one that's been long coming. I really enjoy the dialogue in this chapter. Like I said, I wrote all of these chapters back in June. So it's actually been a couple of months since I've read any of them. I sort of forgot what I had written. Going back to them has made me remember why I like Saki so much. She's the friend always pushing people to do what they don't want to do, but should do. She's really great.

This hasn't been the first time that Saki pushed Yumi to make a move. Back at the start of the arc, Saki had some harsh words for Yuki, but also said that Yumi was there to be for him for the things that she could not. Back then she had already resolved herself to her position, this arc has help to hardened that determination of Saki's. She is set on being the shadows. It's probably funny knowing that she plays up the Shounen Jump hero tropes quite well, but unlike Seiji, who is more classic material, Saki is willing to go into the darkness, something that the standard hero is unwilling to do. She is ready to do what must to be done. The resolve she is showing her is quite important for where her character progresses in the future.

I got a little off topic. But the other half of things is the advancing of Yuki and Yumi's relationship. I've hinted at progress before and made a lot of movement on things when she admitted her feelings. Things got back pedaled though when Yuki never remembered it. So it seems like things are back to square one and standard for Shounen Jump. However, I make sure to subvert that quickly revealing that Yuki's so blind as everyone thinks. He is knowledgeable, and unlike what happens with so many that are knowledgeable and still miss it when someone is interested in them, Yuki knows. He has known for some time. But as he states, he's got things going on that he needs to deal with before indulging in a relationship with Yumi. It is something that I wanted to be clear, that Yuki is quite genre savvy and he doesn't have blinders on like would be normal in this situation.

So it actually ends up making things rather funny. It's Shounen Jump, but the setup I've given the two is more out of a romance story now. Because Yumi likes Yuki and thinks he doesn't know. And Yuki is willing to give her a shot, but needs to wait until he is ready for it. Progress and yet no progress. ^^; Don't worry, I've already said I'm going to be going against the grain on things with this story. I will have their romance develop and grow and sooner than you might think. It's not going to be one of those doesn't happen until the last chapter sort of things. Waiting a 1000 chapters for a romance to start is just way to mean. No, I actually have it planned out already, as you probably already knew. So it is going to be coming soon and for reasons that you won't expect, which is why it is going to happen. Some unplanned for events will be coming in the next year or two that will actually make a lot of advancement. It'll all make sense when I get there. Which best guess is probably about 70-80 chapters from now.

And then I end things off on a fun cliffhanger. It's not so tense like others, but it is a dramatic one. He's got a plan and his confidence. I can see a great walking away from the grave with the sun behind him scene as he's saying "So let's go see to breaking destiny!" But things are actually wrapping up now. The epilogue/aftermath sub-arc is almost over.

You can expect to see the latest arc I've been working on, The War Arc next week! There should be some really fun reveals and interesting twists coming to the future. So please look forward to it!

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 284 is now available! The all important chapter that explains how I'm writing myself out of the corner that I've written myself into. I'll be honest, I did sort of write myself a bit into a corner. Because there was a lot of things that I wanted to happen, but because they were such a big deal it was not something that I could just hand wave. I knew I always planned to have Yuki play everyone to manage to win the day, he was going to shanghai the Council most of all, but coming up with a way was not very easy. I knew what I needed to do, just not sure how to go about it.

Fortunately, some thought and ideas resolved it. I needed to do something that would get everyone off the charges on them, which could not be avoided and to place them in such a position that immediate threats would be resolved. I didn't want to just hand wave it all by Yuki saying that they're all free now. Because that would make even more problems, since the whole thing was pretty public within the halls. So if Yuki did anything to just free his friends, he'd be looked upon strangely by the nobility and questioned very easily. So it is a tight situation to be in. I had to get the Council off their back and not try to have them killed and get all of the charges dropped.

This situation solved all of them, which is what Yuki was trying to figure out. Between Yuki and Yumi they came to this answer. Which does a really good job of everything. He makes it look like all of the people they captured were fakes, so the real people are off the hook. And then puts suspicion on the Council for already having one fake so if they do anything strange against their saviors that they'd be subject to questions of rebellion. So it neatly puts everything together. And the fun thing, is that I took advantage of other things going on to so I could show off some skillful maneuvering by Yuki. In the previous chapter, Yuki set things in motion with Chiharu, even though he didn't have a plan. He needed her to help with it though. So there was all that pay off, the following chapter will answer some more things about what happened.

There is still naturally the question of, would something like that really happen so boldly. If Yuki was really an undercover agent, he wouldn't be telling this all to the public. However, as Yuki notes, the public just wants to know that they'll be safe. They're afraid. So they're easily moved by any assurance of safety and peace. So they don't question anything that happens. Later on questions will come up, but they value stability and peace so much that the minority that voices things won't be listened to. The public sees Yuki as a hero and their new King. Who will be giving them more years of peace so long as he is King.

It was a fun chapter to write, despite being in a corner. The price I pay for wanting things to be handled more realistically. The story had to move on though, since I still have too much for them left to do. So they had to get out of the situation, but it is done in a way that addresses it and still gets out of it. Though I admit it is only a temporary fix. There are still issues that needs to be handled long term, which is why there are more arcs to come! Though this arc is closing out, there will be future arcs looking at the problems that Atlantis still faces and that Yuki will have to face. Things aren't over, he just delayed them to another day.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's finally time, the final chapter of the second arc, Chapter 285 is now available! This concludes The Siege Arc finally after about 200 chapters. Which is far longer than I wanted, but there was a lot of things that I needed to do in it. It was big on setup and explanation. And now we can move into the next arc, The War Arc, which is not going to be something you're expecting mostly though I did lay down the seeds for it in the first arc. It's the fun part of the planning, the payoff.

Anyway, this chapter gives the rest of the answers to what happened in the last chapter. I just sort of did a bunch of stuff and gave no explanation. It was faster and simpler that way. The last chapter was about the execution of the plan, this chapter was about explanation what happened. Since Yuki was in on a lot of things. This explains how much he was in on things, thanks to Chiharu's work. The fun thing was using the setup I had with Rheia and Saki and turning that around as they weren't just playing around. It wasn't simply a comedic moment, but a deeper play. I made it clear something was up with showing them a few more times, since I didn't want to be too hidden.

Yuki sets everything on the right course as well. Something I say and he says, they're in a war and he just won a battle. Things are going to continue to be tense between the Council and him. Not even the civilian lose, which they honestly don't care about. Which is the cold thing about them. It was actually to their benefit, because the citizens are even more afraid of rebel and MPs thanks to the chaos. Which puts them in a better position on that front. So Yuki's got a huge up hill battle to fight them on reversing the laws that treat the MPs unfairly. Though he does have well positioned people now with Simonides and Demosthenes both for him. This is going to be one of the things of Yuki will fight idealism versus reality. I plan to do more with that in future chapters since it is a very important aspect of Atlantis and their future.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 286 is now available! The new arc starts now! While it should not be much of a surprise, it is probably still not something necessarily expected. I'd have to hear from people reading my story to know if this is a direction that they expected things to go. But it makes sense. If something major like this happens to a whole country, the world at large is going to react. It does play into the whole mutant versus normal human things that X-Men does since it is a case of a country of people that are suddenly vastly more powerful and potentially threatening to everyone else. Especially since it was not like Yuki only gave powers to the good people and left all of the bad guys free of them. It was equality for everyone, which is bad news. Haruo's personal sub-arc showed that off on a small scale.

Some of the things I did want to bring up and be sure that it was clear about, since Yuki's powers and the MPs powers can hand wave injuries easily. Seiji kept his scars, but had the rest of him healed up. And Fumiko refuses to have her arm healed, which clearly became a point of debate with Seiji. There are some deeply personal reasons for it, just like Seiji has for keep his scars. Though admittedly, Seiji's reasons are fairly shallow at the end of the day compared to Fumiko. Fumiko's reasons are part of her character arc that I will be going through as I explore her character further. Yori's comments also bring it up as well. Something I hadn't got to really cover yet, but Fumiko has been affected by fighting and killing. Her mindset clearly has been altered. She's embraced it far more than any of the others, even Saki. It is something that I make a point of in her last fight, where she's saying and intending to kill and not just defeat or stop. Her mind is already at that point now. Which is a little bit of a remark about how quickly people can change. That people can easily do things normally that would be against their morals or seem impossible to do when set in the right situation. Which is actually a running theme for the new arc. I bring it up with frequency and you'll understand how that plays out soon enough.

The UN intervention is another one of those things that I planned, though there's no really seeding that. Other than perhaps having a news article on TV talking about discussions. Though with the situation Japan was in when Yuki left, standard media communications was not really reliable. It was working, but not really the thing on the mind. But it makes sense the UN would show up as I said. The UN's introduction now though is definitely setup for the future. The next chapter will explain some things, but they're a long term matter just like a number of the things that are setup in the story right now. Atlantis is on hold since it's in recovery. But I've introduced the threat directly to Yuki in the secret organization, he's also got his father's work to finish, he wants to resolve things in Japan and the UN. All are big matters that will be hanging over Yuki and not simply resolved. The last two arcs handles getting all of these pieces in place. So now I'm going to start playing with them. Every arc going forward will be focused on one of six general plots threads, the four I mentioned above, the fifth is Atlantis and the sixth is a catch-all for the character arcs I have planned which won't focus on those five things naturally but developing the main cast.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Now we're digging into the new arc! Chapter 287 is now available! As should be expected, fighting the UN is a bad idea, not because Yuki and them would lose. They'd likely win, simply due to the fact that they have a lot of combat experience. They've also been through more dire situations already and their powers have already started to advance, refine and evolve. So they are in general more powerful than the standard people running around. Not to say it would not be difficult, but yeah they'd probably win. Which is a problem, because you don't want to be fighting the UN. Like Yuki said, that's like fighting the world.

And this is where things get more complicated in the story and for the characters. It is way I said it is one of the major plot threads in the story. The UN matter isn't going to be resolved over night. They can't just go attack the blockade and end everything. Because anything they do would have major international impact. Which is what Yuki understands and why it is so important to keep Seiji from running off. So this is going to be an on going matter. Besides Japan already being different from Yuki's power, it's now under watch by the UN and the world. It's not full military state or martial law, but it is not fully peaceful anymore. There are patrols and watches to keep the peace in Japan. And they are employing empowered people, since normal people are clearly not going to be able to do anything. I'll be introducing the team that defended the blockage soon-ish. Since my posting is finally starting to catch up on my current chapter, it is still a few chapters away before they get a real introduction. There they only got a passing mention.

And now the homecoming! I haven't had any of these characters, family that is, back in the picture for a long time. They've been completely absent for obvious reasons. So it is sort of fun having Momoko pop back up. I'll be covering everyone's return in the coming chapters. So you get to see how things go afterward.

Enjoy!