Shift Comments Thread

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

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!

[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.

[Coff9]

Well, that is exciting!

So far, I like your writing style. I'm sure that it will become even better as it goes. I just need to find the time to read more; I'm currently neck-deep in books I'm trying to read, both fiction and non-fiction.

Good luck with your writing!

[Andromeda]

I'm glad that you're enjoying it so far. I write Shift differently from other things that I write since it is supposed to be a manga-styled story. I do what I can keep with that feeling through the story. Hopefully it continues to be something you enjoy.

[Andromeda]

Chapter 376 is now available for reading! The start of the new arc begins! As promised, this is the Yumi character arc. Being pretty clear at the start, is recovering Yumi, but as you can imagine it's not going to be that simple. Complications will be quickly thrown in and before long you should get a sense of where the new arc is going. Sorting out pacing, it should be a few chapters before we dig into the meat of the arc. This is the prologue and setup for things to come.

In the past Yori's been a reluctant and disagreeable member of the group. He tags along because of his sister and for the most part, he's been working with everyone. During the end of the Atlantis arc, Fumiko became difficult in the group due to personal issues with Yumi and herself. Breaking up the bonds that were forming in the group. With Fumiko out of the picture for this arc, yes she's not going to be in like Chiharu wasn't in the last one or this one as well. Fumiko is going to be stubborn and not interested in helping Yumi, not after what she said to her. They'll eventually get things sorted out to some degree, but Fumiko's got personal matters to resolve. And so in a way Yori's taken up that part of not fitting into the group that Fumiko had before. Yori's had just always been there. He's never liked Yuki, because of how protective he is of Yumi, but he was warming up to Yuki. Though after this, it's become even more difficult for him to trust Yuki. Yuki and Yori will be one of the through arcs and sub-plots of this arc as Yumi is the focus.

Starting out the arc, I brought some needed levity to the situation. Things have been pretty heavy as of late and Yuki and Seiji bring a good brand of positivity A way to keep people from sinking into the pits of despair with everything going on around them. Yuki as much as Seiji, understands how things are, but knows that they need something more up beat to keep things moving forward even with all the sadness. This is very much a core of Yuki as probably should already be realized.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 377 is now available for reading! Confronting the one with control of Yumi turns into a fight, like to be expected, though it is more prep for things to come. It's a trial as made pretty clear by the one in control. They want to see their worth before things progress. But it won't be a long fight, since it's not the point to show off abilities or anything. It is make a couple of quick but very powerful points and then progress.

Putting Yori in the chessmaster position as it were is rather important of the plot of the arc. It won't be understood why for a while, but it'll become very clear in time. So this fight helps to show him in that light. He's a smart person with a good sense of planning, but it is still very inexperienced and far from the Tactician's equal. Defeating them has become something of his purpose now with how hot headed he has become.

Showing off Yumi's potential in the fight is also interesting, since she is surprisingly powerful, though admittedly this is without any of the others going through any sort of training or practice beyond what they have. So she out classes them right now because of the simple fact that she skipped ahead thanks to their unique understanding of her powers. Something that's been seen in other fights previously.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 378 is now available for reading! The short fight with the Tactician is over now. Like I said, it would be short and most of its purpose was to set some things into place because of the results of the fight. The way it ended most importantly being the biggest factor and the one that really crushes the spirit of Yori in that regards. But it also sets some things up for later down the road in the arc for Yori. It'll make sense when I get to that point.

There's a couple of interesting factors that pop up and hints to the future. The fact that they have abilities Yumi doesn't possess herself is a big hint to things. And it does get explained as the arc goes on. Things will be clear with them very soon. As the arc digs deeper into the story. And the power difference that Yumi possesses against everyone else, especially Yori is a big blow to him. He already knew before in the last time that they fought, but this time only makes it so much clearer. The vision of the future that Yumi will be.

Something else that I wanted to do, Yuki stepping in with a way to resolve it points back to his awareness of the relationship that him and Yumi have between them. He's already shown that he's aware of what she's feeling, but is playing dumb for now, mostly out of selfish reasons. But it's a important thing that makes him different from other characters that are romance blind. He's not blind, though he is resistant to it since he's got a lot on his shoulders right now. But he made use of that knowledge knowing how Yumi would react.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 379 is now available for reading! Before jumping straight into the next beat of the plot, I wanted to touch back on happenings with Hiroshi. Hiroshi's sub-plot is something carrying on for a while before it takes center stage. But I don't want to ignore the progress and just make it sudden and rapid. Though as he becomes less seen in the future that's going to be an inevitability. But I'll try to give updates on it once and a while. I don't need to cover every little detail, but show when major beats occur. It'll be important for later.

The big note out of the last chapter was Yumi being rescued, but showing that things aren't fixed. There is still something wrong with her. Some probably wonder at this pace and direction, how Yumi is the main character even with her being the story focus. That'll come to be understood in time. A few more chapters of setup are needed before that is made clear. But once that happens, it'll be easily understood.

And the conflict between Yuki and Hiroshi will remain for a while as well. It'll be a long time before things settle between them. But there will be an important moment when that happens. The reconciliation will happen, just like it will with Yuki and Yori and Fumiko and Yumi. There are a lot of conflicts with the characters out right now. But things will happen and people will change that will start pushing them towards that settling past grievances.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 380 is now available for reading! I do a little skipping around of explanations for the sake of getting to the point. They are already covered, so make sure to cut to the important parts. It allowed me to pack in this chapter a little tighter than might have been expected. The whole point was getting Yori back in the game after his heavy blow to his personal worth. While it's not something I'm dwelling on right now, there is definitely going to be sub-plots about this as the story progresses. For now, I need his head in the game as do the others and this puts him back there.

Unless I get fancy and winded, I'll be pushing into the first major sub-arc proper very shortly. It's only a couple of chapters away at this point. The last pieces of things are being settled now with Yori. I'm really looking forward to the sub-arcs and what they will bring to the story. The first one up won't be a huge divergence from the norm, but it is just the introduction. Things will shift dramatically with each progressive sub-arc until the end.

And the core of characters you're seeing right now will be the ones that are present Yumi's story. The cast is going to be smaller than the last few arcs due to circumstances. It's also a more personal story so the others won't be involved in this due to not being as close to Yumi or just being busy. Hiroshi knows her well from school, but he's got obligations now with the UN and everyone that he has to protect. So he doesn't have the option to help, though he would want to help. And Fumiko's keeping her distance from this completely. This will have a tighter focus though keeping the cast easier to give attention equally.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Running a little late, but Chapter 381 is now available! Focusing on Yori's decent into madness a little, his journey through Yumi's mind space to find her. This won't be a long segment, though it could very easily be one. Since this aspect isn't a big focus right now of them. It is a transitional moment in the progress towards getting back to Yumi.

There are a number of hints and foreshadowing in this chapter for things to expect in the future of the arc. There are very important clues that will help to identify things. Though for now the context has little meaning until I start getting into the main part of the arc. But the worse thing for Yori is that all of the dying is weakening his mental fortitude to everything. Making him staying inside more dangerous to his mental health.

The last voice that helps Yori should seem familiar, though I will make it clear in the next chapter who they are. It won't immediately become clear what's happening, but looking back it should start to make sense what happened. As Yori understands things more he'll start piecing things together. Though that will be a while before he figures it all out.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 382 is now available for reading. This chapter finally concludes the rescuing element of Yumi. While the following chapters will remain multi-perspective for the time, it will start shifting attention to Yumi until she becomes the main character that the majority of the story is seen through. This was a chapter that I was pretty uncertain about how to do well, which I'm thankful that it turned out as well as it did.

The chapter plays things a little more subtly, as I intended to, show the progressive degradation of Yori's sanity. It handles things in three stages as Yumi's mind tries to break him completely. The maze, or the labyrinth that is literally seen at the start is the same thing that was present inside Yori during Athene's invasion of his mind. That part alone was enough to drive her to near insanity and break her mind such that her brain literally can't function properly hence the lose of her eye sight. That Yori survives the literal maze is a sign of his difference from Athene mentally.

The other two phases are still all part of what is called the Labyrinth of the Subconscious Floor 1. Yori never made it any deeper. And the thing that left Athene in despair was knowing that she had only cracked the door to gain access to Floor 1 essentially. Their mental defenses are that more complex than a normal human, eve compared to other superhumans. Yori would not have nearly the same sort of trouble with anyone else.

Each phase works on a different part in breaking Yori down until he is ready for the next part. The maze is meant to alter and change perception. Give you hope while never showing you anything. And slowly work on breaking you down until you start actually accepting and feeling comfortable with chaos. Once chaos feels normal then you're dropped into something static. Pushed to the edge of order and chaos, something unchanging now puts cracks into the thinning sanity now. You know time is passing, but no progress is made and nothing changes. It is the same. And like a constant slow drip of water on your forehead it starts to chip away at your sanity. You lose a sense of self and identity as your sanity breaks. And with your sense of identity gone you can't remember yourself or your intent only the pattern. And are dumped into the final area until you completely exhaust yourself. There Yori sees multiples of himself because he no longer sees himself as a person or as Yori just something existing without personal definition. He is defined by others external goals. He's is nearly broken and has little traces of sanity left. He longer even knows which of the many Yoris is the real one. With that it is just a wait until he completely collapses and at that point he would completely lose his sense of even external definition as the others are gone and he ceases to have anything that could be considered an existence. Collapsed, he's out of his mental energy and can no longer go on anymore fully drained and will in time be absorbed into Yumi's mind scape completely unknowingly.

A sliver though remained that made use of Yuki, something that angers him and he is able to focus long enough to actually use his power correctly and locates Yumi before it's too late. But not before the damage is already done to him. It's a rather complicated and involved process that happened all in a single chapter. Yori is permanently affected by this though like Athene before him. He went too far and the damage can't be reversed. It amounts to specific brain damage basically that destroyed his brain's receiving and interpreting the light it sees. And he does literally have blood filled eyes right now from the physical strain left upon him.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 383 is now available for your reading entertainment! The switch to Yumi starts happening in this chapter as I already mentioned before. Most of the thoughts of her come out rather than the other characters. It's less omniscient, but that's always been the style here for Shift. It's selective omniscient since it's not 100% you know what everyone is thinking and doing at all times. And I can't quite call it limited, though it is limited. It's just a less standard limited, since I will jump around and I don't make it consistent in only these people will be the points of view. I'll jump around to whoever makes sense, which is why I call more selective, especially since even in a scene with characters that are normal the point of view I don't always make them it. It's driven by the story needs, who makes the most sense in being the perspective. There are a lot of different main characters and even just perspective characters.

While addressing the Takako issue, I pull things back subtly to the current situation going on with Katsumi and Kaede. One that Yumi knows nothing about yet, which they're withholding for the time. But Saki's point of view of the matter, which is partially a rationalized version so that she can justify the good in what needed to be done in a horrible situation is going to return. It's a going to be a situation that Yumi will have to face. Because Katsumi is saved, but she's forever a broken person as a result and just wants to die. Yumi will have a choice that she's going to have to make.

And unlike previous arcs, this one doesn't start out on a happy and positive note, though not for lack of trying on the part of Seiji. He's doing what he can do keep everyone's spirits up or else everyone is going to be crushed by the weight of their responsibilities and the horrible things happening. Though things will be in ways a little happier deeper into the arc. But it will come in waves.

The start of the first real sub-arc is on its way though. Yuki's idea is the start of things moving in that direction. There's still going to be some bumps before we get into it proper, but only a few chapters away now. And then the real meat of Yumi's arc begins.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 384 is now available for reading! Getting focused more on Yumi now as something to start setting the tone. And it start being fairly clear where things are going now that Yuki laid out his plan. Things will be advancing fairly quickly now moving into the sub-arc. I'm expecting it to be in a chapter or so that it'll hit. This one ends on a cliffhanger that sets things into motion.

One of the little tiny issues got cleaned up more and explained. Something that if you thought about it should be a little off and it gets the answer now. It fits in with the plan for this arc acting as a supposed plot hole that I cleaned up and becomes the device for this arc. It's an important aspect for the arc since it is dealing with Yumi and her personalities. They will get their time as it making pretty clear by the cliffhanger.

The fun thing about this chapter is that finally starts to give a little more background on Phoibe, who's remained a very mysterious character by intent and design. She keeps herself hidden away and seems to know more about things happening than she should. She is very resourceful and powerful given her explained history. Since the arc is about Yumi, you're not going to learn a ton about Phoibe. But there will be these little pieces that get picked up until the big reveal for her character much later into overall story.

I'm fast approaching the 400th chapter, which is a crazy milestone to be thinking about approaching. Another Rewind is already in the works for it. Like the previous ones, this will continue to explain and expand on the history and time before the death of the King. What he was doing and what Yuki's parents were up to back then. Unlike the 300th chapter, which focused on Ayumi and Atlantis, this will be back in Japan and focus on their work. This is a very important piece to the larger puzzle that Yuki lacks.

Enjoy!

[Andromeda]

Chapter 385 is now available for reading! I weighed things for this chapter in if I wanted to push straight on or not. One of the sub-plots with Yumi was going to be Katsumi, something I introduced and left in the last arc as an unresolved matter. It was going to be and still is a Yumi problem to deal with, given things now Yumi can't confront it. I just didn't know if I wanted it to happen now or be explained to her later. It ended up making more sense for the sub-plot to be like this. It's important for the sake of her character growth and will be something that weighs on her during the current trials.

Since I have pushed things a little it does mean that the planned start of the arc will happen in the next chapter. There is one last thing to handle here before things move forward into the sub-arc proper. But all of the pieces are in place. I move it at a fairly brisk pace, but there's no real reason to drag things out with fluff. So I jumped around a bit. And I keep hinting at other things that will be important in the future.

The next chapter will explain what is going to be happening for the rest of the arc, though only in initial details. Estimates for the whole arc are that it will be as long as the previous one. There are major sub-arcs for this one and each will take a lot of time to get through. So it's going to be hard to know exactly how long it'll be.

Enjoy!