Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Chapter 348 is now up for the reading entertainment! The Hiroshi and Hitomi fight continues to advance as I play around with his powers. I never state in the chapter what the game is, but I do give a few hints to it. The obvious hints are the way the game is played and setup, but I also include a hint in the title of the chapter as a really bad pun along with one given by Hiroshi. There should be enough for people to figure out what the game is without too much trouble.

One thing I always try to do if it is in the way the character is, going for the kill when it makes sense. Even if it is ends up failing, I don't let characters that would try to kill not do it just because I don't want to end the fight that fast or kill a character. I'll figure out how I'm going to handle it, but I don't want to ignore what can be a very glaringly obvious point. There is so many times you complain about characters not taking the shot when they should have and it was only ignore because the fight had to continue. I may continue the fight as well, but I'll make the kill attempt still happen to show the character's resolve or personality.

The next game I setup for Hiroshi was a hard one to figure out. It's the sort of thing where I needed to show off the potential of his power and still find something that will be useful in a fight. Because not a lot of the children's games are very good for actually fighting. So I have to get creative while not feeling like I'm stealing from Bleach, who already has a character that can do the same thing. I also wish for moments like this that I was born Japanese, I'd have a lot more material to work from, but it is just how things are.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 349 is now available for reading! Hiroshi's Death Game is finally revealed, a game of his own making. This shows off the full extent of his powers currently and the actually power he has. Since his power is a reality shaping on, it actually makes him extremely strong with the right use of it. It puts him up there with Yuki, which is a dangerous power.

Since he can make up any game he wants using both real games and ones of his own making, it gives him some pretty unlimited potential. But it does has the serious flaw that everyone in his power's influence is forcibly required to participate in the game. That is not something that he can control. So it does mean that he has to be careful about where and when he uses it.

The other thing that I made sure to do was that he wouldn't be fair about this games. He is trying to win and end things, especially with Hitomi in a way that doesn't completely drain him. However, that means he has to be very cutthroat with his methods. It's not something he is happy about naturally, but just the hand force upon him.

The next chapter will be the end of the Hiroshi and Hitomi fight. Things will be wrapping up shortly and I'll be moving into the Takako fight soon. The final showdown will be coming and answers will be hitting. It's still going to be another few months before things finish, but it'll be before the end of the year that I'm moving into the fourth story arc.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 350 is now available for reading! This is the end of the Hiroshi and Hitomi fight. The end of this fight sort of under tones a lot of the darkness in this arc over all. The harsh realities and the weight of death. Hitomi is dead, but as Hiroshi learned, she was never corrupted or controlled like the others. He just made the assumption that she was under Takako's control like everyone else. But at the end, before Hitomi dies, it becomes more clear how scared she is and how very different she acts from all of the others.

Hitomi is the first sort of innocent death in the arc, not counting all of the unnamed people that die and Miyako's men that got killed. Hitomi was different and that's something that will weigh very hard on Hiroshi as a result. Something that Takako hints at in her final words to him before she starts their fight.

One thing that I don't make completely clear and try to do what I can to sort of imply things, is everything that Hiroshi did in the last bit of his fight. It is his game and his rules and as I have him state, he made special rules. So I put that line in as a clue to how all of the other things he does in the fight happened. The one that I don't give a clear answer on, but more describe for you to figure out is what the fourth option was that Hiroshi won using. There were technically several options, but given their location and difficult, the fourth option he used was the only one that was easiest to set up.

And it should not be a surprise, Yuki is alive. He did have his power up as he noted to Seiji before being dropped. It is just that a kick by Saki is certainly not an easy one to shrug off. The whole thing did put him out while he buried. His power lasted long enough to survive the impact, but it was solid enough to knock out leaving him buried for the whole time. Yuk will be rejoining the combat in the next chapter as the arc start to come to a close.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 351 is now available! I use this chapter as a transition and wrapping up some leftover ends on a couple of fights. I had left both Yori and Tatsuya's fights both equally unresolved in that they were both going to be killed. It would have been very easy to have drawn this out even further with even more fights. But I didn't feel that there was anything useful gained from those fights being made. Not to mention how they were handled by the characters is the most logical way anyway.

Tackling the first part of the chapter, I left a lot of what happened more implied than explicitly stated. There's enough pieces there to figure things out without a need to actually get into the specifics. I had considered showing the whole thing up to that point, but it did not really need to happen, not to mention it would have double the length of everything or more. It is also still the end of Yori's fight, so it makes more sense that it would be still from his point of view rather than Seiji's point of view. I don't plan on showing any of the fight with Nerine and Yumi, since the important pieces have already been shown and they were during the fight. There's enough there that I'll be picking it back up. There was no need to continually beat everyone over the head with it.

The other part of the chapter is with Yuki, which it could have very easily been a whole fight by itself. However, as shown before Yuki doesn't want to engage in fights where he can avoid it. He is feeling pressed for time against Takako. He wants to end things. Not to mention these are his friends, he has no wish to fight them on any level. So he is going to take the fastest route to ending it. Which is what I had him do. This is another fight that I don't make completely explicit in what happens, but I give enough details for you to figure it out. So long as you've been seeing how Yuki fought in the past, it should all make sense.

Ending the chapter where I did is the next part of a lot of implied things in this chapter. However, this one was done for a couple of reasons. I wanted to show that Takako does present some danger, though what it is remains unclear. Hiroshi's loss adds to the dramatic cliffhanger and I keep all of the things with Takako a secret so that it is still fresh when I have the fight that is coming up.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Well I'm late, but Chapter 352 is now up! This is just the start to the Yuki and Takako fight. It's mostly just the building tension and getting a little mystery out of the way. Though it its also pointing out the big unanswered questions and that they'll be addressing them before things end for the arc.

One thing that if you notice, Takako has become more sane over time from her first introduction with Saki. That's an important thing to remember and that is key to her power. Which is a hint that she gave during their conversation. She does state that her power isn't mind control. Though the effects of what her power does to people acts like mind control.

Also spent some time putting a more explicit point on some of the implied things that I had. Since Takako was involved in the whole incident, I went back to the whole second sub-arc, where she was kidnapped. And if you put the pieces together from the second arc and what was happening in the first arc. You'll realized that none of them were after Yuki, but Ayumi. Something she stated during her fight with Yuki. But it makes it more clear how things were very different back then. Takako was just collateral damage in something bigger. And it's technically not even sins of Yuki's past directly, but more Ayumi. Though since Yuki gave her the means to do everything she's doing now, he's taking that blame on himself.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 353 is now up and back on a better schedule. After the opening introduction by Takako, this is the start of the real fight between the two. The final showdown for the arc. Hiroshi plays the role of bystander between the two. The commentator that will explain a few things for the sake of the reader. It's a necessary evil that I'm not too much of a fan of, but there are a few things that I don't want to be mysterious for too long. Takako is not a fighter or even that smart in combat. She's a novice, so I can't rely on her noticing things. She'll just over come them.

One of the challenges in fighting with Takako, is the fact that she had a negation on Yuki's abilities. Which has forced me to write for him differently. I have to think further outside of the box than normal so that everything that he does can still actually do something. This is the same thing that Nerine ran into while fighting briefly. I never really explain it, so Yuki's here to answer what was going on. The thing he'll be doing shortly in the next chapter is an extension of what Nerine did in order to be successful in her fight. It makes things more complicated and much more risky.

A lot of the fight is going to be Yuki trying to understand what her power is. Once he figures out her power he'll be able to actually bring an end to the fight. The key to her powers is a very big weakness. It is something that she is aware of and just teases around her powers. So Yuki will be trying to survive long enough to be able to beat her. It's a very different sort of fight for him, as he had been used to fighting others like him up to that point. This is the first real fight that he has against people with real powers and he'll have to adapt to fight them, as he's not built like they are. Making him very disadvantaged and no amount of powering up is possible for him. Making him very contradictory to the standard.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 354, though late is out now for reading! Point to Tales of Zestiria this week. Still recovering from the game, but I'm getting back into the rhythm again. Though with my personal life being busier than ever. It is pretty hard to keep judging everything. But I'll keep putting stuff out.

This chapter starts to ramp things up in the fight with Yuki and Takako. I've been giving this a longer build up towards the big action. So things are still pretty small scale. Though Takako threw off the kit gloves at the end of the chapter producing a forest. So things will be getting more intense in the next chapter.

It continues to be hard writing for someone that is so horribly disadvantaged in the fight, but still make it look like he's in control most of the time. Because he has to work through methods that he is no used to doing just to stay in the fight. And anyone with speed is a huge disadvantage for him. Future fights will only become that much harder for him.

Though I do have plans and setup that are being put into place so that the fight will be able to keep up with things. Not to mention the fight will start revealing more about what Takako's powers truly are and what happened to do her. Since this is the last fight in the arc I am a little concerned that it is going to go over my self imposed limit of five chapters for a fight. I don't like dragging the fight out. But if there is enough going on I want to give its due. And this is the last one, so it should feel big and epic. I'll keep pacing things and see how it turns out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 355 is now up and back on my preferred timing. The continued ramping up of their fight allows me to show off more of what Takako can do. So for the moment it is mostly just volume rather than diversity. With the changes that Yuki has coming, it'll force her to start doing more. They've been both holding back their powers for different reasons. Yuki's reason will be fully explained in the next chapter as it is the cliffhanger.

Most of the chapter was arranged to show off the potential that Takako had as well as the overwhelming nature that Yuki is now in. While initially considered a very easy person to defeat with only having mind control powers. With Hiroshi's defeat and her finally showing off what she can do with her powers. She stepped out of the shadows to become someone truly worthy of a challenge. And even someone that Yuki might not be able to defeat.

Still working out the length of the fight. It is just coming naturally for me. So I can't say that it will just end on the fifth chapter or not. But the arc is coming to a close at least. The next chapter will show what Yuki has learned from fighting her so far and his past fights.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 356 is now available for reading! Continuing the fight, things swing back to being in Yuki's favor for the chapter until they look like they are getting reversed again. The armor is an extension of things that he's learned before. Much of the things that he uses are extensions of learned or gained techniques from the previous arc taken further. A lot of the arc is the application of what was learned by many of the characters.

While there is still more left in the fight. I am sorting to focus on the end. What Yuki is searching for is a sign of the end of the fight coming. Though there naturally is still going to be more left in the fight even after he finds what he is looking for. That's going to be rather important for a number of things. Like always, I'm seeding future arcs while I'm reading the current arcs. Nothing is done without reason or purpose.

I'm de-emphasizing Hiroshi's role in things since I don't need him for the peanut gallery commentary. It is something that I try to avoid generally either by not having bystanders in the fight or just leaving it up to the actually chapter to explain it. But it has been hopeful in this case to have him and keep it out of the fight.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's taken longer than planned, but chapter 357 is now up! This is getting to the climax of the fight between Yuki and Takako, which makes it the fifth chapter. And as you can tell, it will continue on for at least another chapter possibly even two. It depends on how quickly I wrap things up here. The rest of it is planned out, but getting there is not clearly set in my mind.

This chapter finally explains what Yuki was waiting on. This was actually a very important key for his side to be able to win the fight, without the device dealt with he would never have actually been able to beat her. Now that it is out, he's got a chance to win. Though there is still one reveal left to go that Takako has to surprise everyone. But at least for the moment Yuki's got the high ground.

Judging from the way things are going I should ideally finish up the third arc around the end/start of the year. I'm not sure how long I'm going to spend on the epilogue. Unlike the second arc, which I'll admit that I sped through faster than I had planned on, I'm going to be taking my time with the epilogue here. There are a lot of pieces I need to settle before moving on. There is going to be one important piece that'll immediately trigger the next arc though, which I won't be bringing up to the attention of everyone until it is over. It'll be very clear what it is when I get there.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 358 is now up for your reading enjoyment. As expected, the fight is not completely over. Though unless something strange happens in the next chapter, I'm going to be ending it in that chapter. Much of the heavy fighting is already over. The way things will end will be a surprising and probably unexpected conclusion.

The big twist here that I've been waiting on revealing is that Takako was immune to the powers of Yuki thanks to using the array on her own body. Which is a pretty crazy and extreme thing to do. But it is also a very telling act on how fearful she is of Yuki and his ability. This is something very important overall to her motivations and the conclusion. Yuki's been getting small pieces here and there for what is going on. He'll finally put all of the pieces together soon enough and that'll be his answer. There's only one way to beat her.

I will explain in the next chapter as well how she is breaking through the invulnerable powers that Yuki is using. It's a special and surprisingly clever thing for Takako. It's one of her powers that she stole like with all of the others. But it does mean that even Yuki's god-mode abilities can be overcome with the right know about power.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 359 is now available for reading! Yeah I didn't finish the fight this chapter like I thought. But it is setup to end in the next chapter. There is no avoiding it at this point. The epic struggle between the two will finally come to an end next week. Yuki found his solution/answer and like what a lot of this chapter is about, there isn't a good answer or necessarily a right answer, just the one that has to be done. It's been made very clear that someone will have to suffer for others to be free. There can't be a perfect happy ending and the way I've already hinted about things, there's nothing happy about the way things are turning out.

The answers to what Yuki found will come out either in the next chapter or the one that follows. It'll depend on how much fist fighting I include before the fight wraps up fully. There are still several mysteries that will have to be solved during the aftermath. And I'll be getting to those in time. There is a lot of things to touch on for the epilogue of this arc. I have to revisit people and lay out the ground work for future arcs as well. There is a lot of things that happened to people that is going to have lasting impacts on everyone.

I will also be addressing the UN as well, since such a massive fight would hardly go unnoticed. That'll be looked at in the epilogue and actually very important to the future arcs as well. There are even more secrets to hint at that I'll start shining light on with things coming to an end. It will all make it clear how much things are very not settled with the way things are going.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 360 is now available! The end of the Yuki and Takako fight is finally hit. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but it came to a natural conclusion without being rushed. And it ends on what I think is a natural conclusion to everything up to this point. Yuki's desire to save her was going to clash with everyone else. The aftermath and fallout of everything is naturally going to leave things very divided and complicated.

The answer to what her powers actually were will come out in the next chapters and I'll start to explain the left over things to put the pieces into place. There is going to be a lot of clean up with things. Once I hit the end of the arc, we're going to be quickly jumping into the next arc as there is a major unresolved event that popped up that will become a very big problem.

Tonally, this arc is probably about as dark as any of them will ever get. This was darkness to the extreme for Shift. There will be other bad moments, but this is furthest I plan to take things into this grim and very raw sort of direction. It by no means points to a brighter future or happier one for the story. The effects of the accident that Yuki wrought upon Japan will continue to develop into larger and larger problems. Which will give rise to future arcs that will have to be resolved. But this is the starting point.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

It's running a little behind, but I got chapter 361 up now! The aftermath is finally starting. And the aftermath is going to be pretty grim and depressing matters. Because people did some horrible things. And they now have to deal with that. On top of that it's going to be made even more complicated by the fact that the UN forces are now arriving on the scene as well. So there is Saki, Hiroshi and Tatsuya among others that will want to help the people in a warm and inviting environment, while the UN is going to muscle their way in and arrest everyone and sort things out after they've taken control the situation.

The first thing I had to do since I did nothing for it during the fighting. I focused on the fighting rather than something that wasn't going to be fighting anyway. The UN was never going to be part of this fight. It was about Yuki and his friends fighting other friends. The UN's involvement would have muddied the waters in something was meaningful to them. But the UN naturally would be involved because someone is shooting off fireworks. So I needed to address it in a way that makes sense. The person in black should be pretty obvious, but I'll put out the hint of who it was in the next arc, since I'm not going to dwell on that matter.

The other big thing was that I finally explained what Takako's powers truly were without any of hinting or teasing. And while I don't saying it explicitly, though it is the reason they're even discussing it, is the meaning behind what her powers were. Mind control was a side effect, but not something she mainly did with her powers. That is something that comes out in Fumiko's fight making it clear what she got from Takako was a perspective shift, but it wasn't until Fumiko lost that Takako exercised control over her. The whole fight Fumiko was in control of the situation and working independently, but still believing in Takako. And that is the more frightening aspect than those that were just under mind control. It'll be one of the primary subjects for this part of the story in the aftermath. How the people will handle what they did knowing that it wasn't as easy to write off as mind control.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 361 is now available for your reading entertainment! The UN arrival brings back the tension for the aftermath. It was never going to be a simple epilogue due to the situation and with the UN introduced into the mix matters have to be handled with them. I can't have the UN appearing incompetent at this point if I have them present. They won't ignore situations like this so I have to handle them. But they won't always be around, since other parts of Japan won't have the same sort of protection or coverage that the UN is attempting. The city of Yuki's is one of the more normal and easier to maintain as opposed to others, which have been heavily altered.

Setting things up from Masayuki's side, I'm working on giving him some character and relate-ability. He's not a bad man, just one in a difficult situation trying to make the best of a horrible situation. He is going to be a constant thorn in everyone's side due to him being on the frontlines and going to be after Yuki. But he going to be someone that they won't be able to confront as easily, though with Yuki out Saki isn't quite the sort for diplomacy as seen by her solution.

And unlike last time, where I skipped a lot of the events while Yuki was passed out. I'm going to be making others the main character, in this case Saki is going to be the leading figure. She's got command of the situation and handles things very differently from Yuki. Though funny enough, they both have made declarations of power against Masayuki. But the situation is going to be more complicated with the survivors waking up and the real aftermath starting to kick in now.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 363 is now available for reading! A very intense chapter that leads into the heart of the matter for the epilogue. There was also some important matters with Saki as well that happened, which will have lasting impacts for things. I also got to show a little bit of the power that Masayuki bares allowing him to stand up to Saki's power with ease. Though she wasn't at her peak power, but neither was he. As they stand right now, Masayuki would actually beat Saki with relative ease thanks to the powers that he possesses. Saki's power growth though is something that will even things up.

One of the important points is what Saki was going. It's not spelled out clearly, but she taking the fall for everything that happened with Takako. And she's doing this for some very important reasons that she'll explain in up coming chapters. It's not actually for Yuki, but for Hiroshi. She has plans and though she was being rash, she was doing it for a specific cause. There was something that she wanted to happen, which did at the end of the chapter. And will continue into the future chapters. Saki's not as muscle dumb as she likes to pretend sometimes with the way she reacts emotionally. Masayuki was picking up on that as well.

The ending of the chapter is the part that is going to be making up the rest of the epilogue. There's a lot of people and they very clearly remember what they did. A lot of people aren't going to be able to handle what they did, even if it was against their will. And Masayuki is going to be in a difficult position. He's a good man, something I wanted to get across in the chapter as well. He's a good man knowing that he's doing things for good, but having to do distasteful things for the sake of the good. And things don't get much more distasteful than this situation. Everything here is guilty of some crime, though they were under the influence, which is going to be hard to prove with the person dead. It is complicated and he's going to have to make a decision at the end of all of this.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 364 is now available for reading! First chapter written on my new laptop. Finally made the full switch over for writing needs to the new laptop. Still getting used to things on it, but I think it is going to work out. Anyway, the epilogue continues and as made pretty clear by the turn of events things are not so happy or rosy. Things like this were already hinted at by Yori and implied by me. So this is just finally making it clear what is happening. Terrible things happened and people can't handle the situation.

This chapter serves a couple of important uses. Focusing a little more on the showing than telling, which I try to do as much as I can, though I tend to get a little tell-y when going into people's minds and emotions. But for the actions in the world I tend to be more showing than telling. And showing people killing themselves rather thing just saying it is happening is more important, especially when I start giving the numbers. After everything that happened to people it only made sense that there was going to be people that couldn't handle it. Very awful things happened and none of it was when they were in control of themselves, though those in the school that weren't part of the army are the ones killing themselves right now because they were living off base emotions. It was just pure corrupted emotions and instinct the worst possible things to be doing and they saw it and participated in it and remember doing it. Those that remember it vividly are the ones killing themselves right now. But the numbers will only increase as time goes on like Hiroshi said.

The other part of the chapter is me wanting to show off Hiroshi's leadership abilities. He takes charge of the situation and is working together with Masayuki in trying to resolve the situation. There's more going on in the situation than I have explicitly stated right now, but I'll be getting to that later after things are calming down and Hiroshi realizes what is happening. For now things seem going in a positive direction and I'm cleaning up the mess now. Though there is going to be more things left that I still have to do before the arc is completely finished. But with the progress I'm making it doesn't seem that it is going to take much longer.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 365 is now up! I've hit a year's worth of chapters, hurray! Anyway, I'm finishing putting the pieces in place now for the rest of the epilogue as well as the next arc. I've gotten most of what I need out of this and it's been well covered. So I'm going to be skipping ahead a little bit. There's still aftermath stuff to handle for this arc, but I need to advance time to get to the next part.

The last piece was Yori and Yumi for this part of the story. I'll be getting to Haruo and Fumiko later, since Haruo actually walked Fumiko out of the combat area. The advancing time will start setting new things into motion and giving you a sense of what has been put together. Because Saki has a plan, as much as it might seem like she doesn't. And that plan is in motion now. I'll be doing some light touching on it, but I can't show the whole thing in action just yet. But what she's put in motion will help into future arcs.

There are still a few answers that I'll give from this arc in the coming chapter, but most have already been handed out. The remaining answers are largely unrelated to Takako, but others in the group. To help explain a few things that weren't made very clear during the fighting. And I have to catch up with Yuki and the others. The UN still has something to play with Masayuki. So matters will only be getting more complicated.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 366 is now available for reading! The epilogue continues to move on progressing into deeper areas. The fallout of the fight and the consequences for doing such things while the UN was present is something that had to be addressed and not ignored. As shown Saki's plans were accounting for all of it and getting things into position. It's not much different than in the last arc where they had to be handle accountable for all of the death and destruction that they caused. But they got a pardon for that thanks to Yuki's position he took. However, that's not going to be the case now. The consequences for what they did won't be wiped away, but there's a lot of complicated maneuvering going on now. And Saki being used for a propaganda and political stunt makes things a lot more interesting.

The interesting parts about Saki now is how much she is sacrificing herself for everyone. She's almost lost her own self worth in the way that she's taking on everyone's troubles herself. She was doing it first for Yuki and would continue to do so, while she's doing for Hiroshi and everyone else now too. As I point out in this chapter, she positioned things such that Hiroshi would be where he is now and where he'll be in the future. She did this all very intentionally because she knows that the city needs someone and Hiroshi is someone she can trust. Unlike Yuki, she understand the importance of making hard and tough decisions without naivety entering into the account. Saki and Hiroshi are very much a like knowing that terrible things must be done for the greater good. Though unlikely Sak, Hiroshi is more weighed down and troubled by the actions. Saki's come to terms with it already, though that's not to say it won't eventually catch up to her.

The other part that's important here is the continued setup for future events. I had planned on teasing it sooner, but this worked out to be the best time to do so. The mysterious figures watching the battle. They are important obviously and connected to the events based on their conversation. These are important seeds to show off the hands at play here. But this is still some more left to face. The epilogue isn't nearly over yet.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 367 is now available for reading! The epilogue continues and grows more complicated. This is setting up things for the future more than anything. While I was pretty quiet about it before, this chapter makes things pretty clear about Shigemitsu. There's a lot going on with him and plans for the future. Sadly, between arcs planned out and the plans Shigemitsu making are long term ones, it's going to be a while before it does see the light of day. But this is putting things to place like I tend to do with Shift, advanced seeding.

Things are starting to wind down though. Hiroshi is back at his place, so is everyone else. And we've got everyone recovering now. There remains some things with them, besides just the situation with Saki to handle. So it is going to still be a few more chapters before everything is finished. I have to have Yuki wake up naturally. But there is also the matter of a couple of the people that they brought back. Things are calm now, but will end up getting more complicated soon. And Seiji is overstating what Yuki would do. To be clear, Seiji isn't thinking about what Yuki did last time to get people saved. The characters don't speak in truths.

The stuff with Shigemitsu and Saki are some long term setups. It'll get play in time, but this will be putting things to the places that they need to be. But I am doing a lot to setup a thing with them that there is something impossible going on, but will make sense when it is explained. Yet despite some impossible things happening, people are still just accepting it without question. Once they start questioning things, then stuff will start rolling.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

A little slow on things, but chapter 368 is now available for reading! The epilogue continues despite the fact that it actually appears to be heating up more. A night raid on the UN base is no small thing. But I'm not dragging things out too much. It is all merely setup and prologue to things to come in the future. The epilogue is prologue, pretty normal stuff for me right now in Shift.

This chapter jumps around a lot to different people, though the big focus is the raid. While I'm not making things explicit, it's pretty clear the hands at work going on here. Which is why I say that it is setup for things to come. Things are being set in motion and Shigemitsu is doing a lot of manipulating. But now Saki's got some new trouble with this unknown rogue group attacking. I'm not going to make it take up too much time right now, but I'll be using them more.

The other part starts getting Hiroshi fully in the loop on things. He finally knows what's going on and now is even more suspicious of Yuki. The truth about what Yuki's up to will be coming out in time. But things a little hectic still and won't end up stopping for a bit. So it is not something that they can get back to until later. And it won't even be something that I'll be able to put time into for the story until much later. The next two arcs coming up won't allow for that story to progress. Different stories are going to be progressing.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 369 is now available for reading! Yes, it's a bit on the late side. I had to work yesterday, so I had to write the chapter today. But I did so pretty quickly. So I was able to get the chapter out without too much trouble. The way the epilogue is going at this point, I could take things into a new arc, huh? Well this is all just setup for things in the future. This is going to be important in the upcoming arcs down the road. So I'm putting them together now.

Saki gets rescued and taken out of her situation to be executed. Which seemed like a pretty obvious thing, the way I was setting things made it pretty clear that I wasn't going to be killing her. But the North Byakko Alliance are going to be some very big players in the future of the story as I said. There is a lot of turmoil in the city and they are at the center of it. Something that everyone is going to have to be dealing with. And a lot of that will be coming out in the coming chapters. But I should be reaching the end soon.

The cast of characters continues to grow very unwieldy for me. It is a good thing that I write down everyone that I create along with backgrounds and what not. Even with my memory and being the creator, I would forget things too easily if I didn't keep notes on everything. There are a bunch of new characters all in these couple of chapters and they will get their introductions shortly. Though they won't get the full sort of treatment until they take center stage in the future. But it will be an important piece for Saki.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 370 delayed a week is now up. I had overtime and other things happening that pushed it off. But it is now available. This is sort of a developing chapter getting to understand the new character and the situation. Which certainly sounds a little strange to be happening in the epilogue of an arc of course. But like I've been saying before this is all just to put things into place for later. So I'm giving them a little time rather than just thanks for the rescue, bye. This is going to be working towards the overall situation in the city, which is a a very important piece that's going to be played across multiple arcs as it develops.

Getting names out are something important, Ayano couldn't remain the same mysterious woman for the whole time. I do feel like I rely a lot on gangs for characters and story elements, but in the given situation they also seemed like the mostly likely to be the first to act after the confusion starts to wear off. Whether that is for good or ill is up to the different groups. But as the scene of the city sort of fits, it is a bit of a post-apocalypse situation, so people banding together to help and survive make sense and the strong will gather together.

With all of the gang member uses, I do try to keep from falling into the same times. Ayano is a bit of a lot of different characters, since she's got the spirit of Seiji, but more of the pragmatism of Saki. She deeply cares for the people that she wants to protect and will do what is needed to do so. She wields a lot of power, not just the tangible sort either. So she'll make for a really interesting character to have in the future and the setup that they have.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

As you probably expected chapter 371 is available as well. I had to catch up on the writing. This chapter finally starts to explain things about the group. Part of it is the contrast between this group and Hiroshi group. They have benefactors that aid them, but the way that they handle the situations are different. Hiroshi's group fought back against the violence, while this group even though they were actually more experienced in fight have chosen to be defensive. They want a peaceful solution rather than a violent one.

I did intentionally leave the details out of the story. Both for the sake of keeping this brief, since this is not the moment to really get into this and it is something that is better told later. There is a lot of things that this place have to offer and this is only a little taste of it. But like it said before, it is going to be an important piece to the city. The plans that Saki have put into motion with Hiroshi will spread to here as well.

I also didn't want to forget or ignore the fact that Saki did all of this to protect everyone from the wrath of the UN. She's trying to push off a fight that she knows is coming. And everything that she is doing is trying to keep that at bay. Unfortunately, it is going to be a tidal wave that won't be stopped. The slow building will end up coming out through the arcs until it hits a head. But Saki will continue to make plans behind everyone else to keep things forestalled. This group is going to be come important to Saki's efforts.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 372 is now available, a week later again. Issues came up last week that made it difficult for me to write. So I had to play catch up this weekend. But the progress on the epilogue is moving quickly now. I've wrapped up the matters with Ayano and the Byako Alliance for the time being. Like I said, they'll be back and they're important to the story. That'll become clear later on once I get into the big story arc that's coming.

Saki is finally back with everyone now. I do intentionally not make point to say the what the plan that Saki has for Hiroshi. I've already hinted at the intent before, so I'm leaving it alone for now. It'll be come clear as I progress what Hiroshi is going to be doing if you haven't figured it out. It'll be some very interesting character growth for Hiroshi what he has to do.

The original plan I had was for Yumi to wake up last, but as I was writing things I decided to move things around. There's a really good reason while Yuki is still asleep and so this plans into it that he's still asleep. Because there are very important reasons now for his slow recovery. Given what everyone knows, it should be pretty obvious what those reasons are. So Yumi will be the first topic to be approached.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 373 is also available now and gets me caught up once again. Providing nothing strange happens, things should be normal again. But with this chapter we're getting close finally to the end of the arc and epilogue, which has gone on much longer than originally planned. But it was not wasted time at least. It was all very important and much needed time. If things play out as I expect there really only should be two chapters left. I have the things to explain what's going on with Yumi's friends and then Yuki waking up. Yuki waking up will mark the end of the arc and the start of a new one.

Yumi waking up and presenting everyone with this dilemma of it not being her finally starts to put some focus no what's been going on with Yumi. Answering the questions to what has been going on with her since the second arc is going to be focus of the future coming arc. She's got a lot of things coming down the road and it's now time to give her face time. This is going to be the first in a series of non-plot related arcs, plot referring to the main storyline that exists with Yuki and his fight against the organization inside Japan and him completing his long dead father's goals of a free Atlantis. Having non-plot related arcs is something very important to me for a number of reasons.

One of the things that always ends up bothering me in Shounen Jump stories is that the main character is always the hero even an in large cast of powerful characters. And the main cast tends not to receive much attention or growth beyond their one introduction arc. This isn't always the true, but it does largely hold true for most. So this is meant to address those issues. Every single main character will receive their own personal arc where they'll be the hero, not Yuki. He'll still be present in some of them, but the main character will be someone else than Yuki. And they will serve as major milestones for the characters growth as a person and with their power. I've naturally continued to grow and develop the characters through the main story arcs and that remains important. But they've all got personal stories and pasts that will need to be addressed. And they'll be given full attention to do so in these. Yumi is the first to receive this treatment and has the possibility of being the longest of the character driven arcs. I do expect it to easily be a 100+ chapter arc consisting of 4 major sub-arcs. It's a very big story for her.

That's going to be the future of Shift for the next year or two. I've got a lot of plans and interesting developments in store for people. So you can all look forward to that starting up very soon.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 374 is available for reading now! I'm hopefully back on my normal schedule again, at least until next month. But for now the epilogue is coming to an end. Yuki is now awake, which is different from last time. The epilogue started with him waking up, which did not hurt too much in that case since not a lot of things happened that I needed to directly cover. That wasn't the case here. Yuki's use to the plot in the epilogue was nearly non-existent since others were handling things. He served the use for him and I let other characters step forward.

But now that Yuki is awake things will wrap up quickly and I'll push things into the next arc. I only have the one remaining chapter for the third arc before I press on with the fourth arc. Yuki's insertion into the story once more will get things moving since his thoughts and plans will be less conventional in their minds. He has ideas that they won't have considered, which should not end up being too surprising for those reading.

The other big part of this chapter is finally getting an explanation on Katsumi. I had written specifically from the beginning of the arc in a certain way knowing how she was working. The reason for her dead like appearance while she fought Seiji was because of her power. She was dead mentally because she was constantly in that state of being assaulted by mental corruption and horrible things up against their power to resist. As a result of being whole sane and aware the entire time unable to bend to it after the weeks and months, left her in that dead state. It's like wanted to scream, but because you have no voice you can't scream sort of situation. She definitely by far had the worse outcome of all the characters and is broken even though she can't actually be broken.

The absolute darkness of this arc is finally coming to an end though. This is a new and very different tone for the story. But it will be unique to this arc. The rest of the arcs will not be so pitched in darkness. Though it is not to say there won't be dark arcs. I have several planned in the future. But I doubt they'll compare to how depressing this one turned out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 375 is now available for reading! This is the last chapter to the third arc, it is finally over. The long dark comes to an end. Unlike the last arc, this does directly cliffhang into the next arc, thanks to Yumi being in trouble. The cast will change again, since those involved this time will be different than those involved in the previous arc. But this is going to be very differently arranged arc thanks to what I'm going to be doing. So it's going to be a bit of a genre shift.

Hiroshi's purpose is being setup now, though it's a long term sort of thing like I said. I'm not going to spend too much time on things in the early stages. It'll be things that I'll touch on in the future once some progress is made. Something that I'll come back to when it is the right time and you'll see how things have changed a lot. Though it is also important that everything is perfectly fine after Takako's death. Yuki isn't magically over it all. Though he's more in the state of mind of having trouble accepting the reality while he is blaming himself. He never hated Hiroshi, he just couldn't agree with the idea of killing people. And that Hiroshi killed again to end Takako's reign of terror only makes things worse for Yuki because he failed to save her like he promised he would. So there is a lot of external shifting while internally blaming.

The new arc, the fourth arc for Yumi will be split up into five sub-arcs. The first one is going to be short with it putting the arc into position fully. The rest will be very meaty arcs with a lot of stuff happening. My current estimates envision this whole arc being about 100 chapters long, about the same length as the Takako arc. Though there is going to be a lot more smaller stories happening this time around, hence sub-arcs being present this time. You'll be getting learn a lot about Yumi and the way she thinks through his arc. And she's the main character don't forget. Yuki's not the main character. He'll start out as the point of view, but it will shift over to Yumi's point of view soon enough. That'll be very important in these character arcs. Yuki will be taking a back seat and won't be saving the day. It'll be on Yumi to do that.

Enjoy!

[Coff9]

(Am I allowed to comment on this thread?)

Shift is over? Wow, very nice! I just started reading it a bit ago. I don't know when in the world I'll finish it, but at least there is an end in sight!

Thanks for all you do.

[Andromeda]

Yes, you're allowed to post here. The comments thread is meant for people to leave their feedback, thoughts and whatever else here. But no Shift isn't over. The third arc is over, the fourth arc is starting next week. Shift won't finish for years to come.