Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

Shift logo above, if you haven't noticed from last week. I finished it finally and put it up. I might be including it into the first post of the story as well. Don't know how many people still read this. A raise of hands might be nice. Anyway, Chapter 255 is now available as well. Saki and Rheia's fight really heats up in the chapter with things getting a little crazier. I'm still holding back on the full blown over the top fight that I've got planned for later chapters between them. This is the warm-up chapter, though it's more of the conclusion of the warm-up.

One thing I knew I wanted for this chapter was a punctuated moment where things shifted. Where you could see things were going to be stepping up and the crazy would start happening. A big opening follow by a calm follow-up and then lead into a continual rise in the action. The thing that makes them both a lot different from the other fights is that this is going to be the traditional straight up fist fight that you're sort of used to seeing from the early Dragonball days where energy blasts was a rarity and it was just martial art techniques. This is going to be a more technique driven fight and just a pure physical fight. But it's going to be a drag out knock down fight until the end.

I brought back the flashbacks Saki had from her previous major fight. It helped to highlight one of the things that she was too focused on, straight out attacking. Her personality sort of makes there that way, but in all honesty her only point of reference is Yuki, who's also an all out attack type back when they were younger. Yuki got away with it since the people he was dealing with were quite a bit less skilled than him. However, the fight has to play out differently when the opponent is equally or greater in skill. So getting Saki's head on straight was needed to push the fight into the next stage.

Enjoy!

[LocoColt04]

That logo is really awesome, but my only concern is the letter F and the place at which it is broken. It's not unreadable but the brain doesn't put the pieces together properly. It looks almost as though it's meant to be an E based on where the top of the F continues.

But the concept is PHENOMENAL and I really like it. Perhaps a variant on the font could provide a more cohesive disarray? Either that, or maybe just raising the panel with the T a bit to place the top of the F above the middle part of the letter.

[Andromeda]

Maybe cutting out the middle part rather than the upper part would improve the readability of it? I'm glad you'd like the idea. Feedback is always welcome to keep improving it.

[Andromeda]

Running a bit late, but still all good on the front. Chapter 256 is now available! I've now caught up all of the fights to the same critical point in the story, barring Yuki's fight naturally. Yori's fight will be coming next and you can look forward to finally having those answers that I've been cruelly teasing for the last 100 plus chapters.

I step up the action and the destructiveness of the fight now. After doing a German Suplex through a wall, you sort of have to step things up. Things start general havoc in the city with them trashing the place from their fight. Don't worry, I plan on having consequences for this fight. Some pretty important ones and I'll explain some other things that might seem missing too. Just remember this is from the perspective of someone in the middle of a fight.

This is where I finally reveal what Rheia's power actually is, which is the reason for her flexibility and strength. Considering what she's doing it should be very impressive up against the rest of the MPs seen and why it's such a big deal. When I get back to their fight I'll be able to get into more things about her power and how it actually impacts her.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

The next chapter for Shift is out now, Chapter 257! I've finally arrival at the Yori battle, which you should all understand what that means. As promised, you'll have your answers very soon. I have all of my fights roughly guessed to be no longer than 5 chapters as you've seen in many cases. But I don't strictly follow that. If it is shorter, it's shorter. I won't drag it out longer. I do want to keep things at or under 5 chapters. Though for this one I thought it'd be 5 just because the others have been, but the way I'm looking at it things will probably only be 2 or 3 chapters. I don't have a ton that needs to be done. Just have a cool fight showing off what Yori can do and get some story on Athene then end things.

The most important thing about their battle is the resolution, which comes with quite a few answers to the entire first two arcs of the story thus far. Naturally, I wont be answering everything. There is too many things still to resolve, but Ayumi's primary action and what it means for everyone will finally be answered. It's a pretty big deal, considering as I already revealed it'll get Yuki killed.

This fight starts out with the classic sort of rage fueled attacks only for Yori to come to his senses and not know what's going on. He won't be able to do all of the cool things with his power yet, but it is unlocked right now and his desperation will be enough to keep him in the fight. But the initial focus for part of the next chapter will be explaining some of Athene's history. Yori's already gotten a piece of her history when he went running around in her mind.

Enjoy!

[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]

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]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!