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[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[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!