The Itsuka Kotori arc has come to an end.
I have to say, the early-stage plot of this volume was truly a form of torture for me.
On one hand, there's no way Apocalypse Sanluo could fall so quickly. She clearly has her own motives for approaching Itsuka Shidou, so I can't give the two of them too many interesting interactions at this stage.
On the other hand, for the sake of later plot development, even in the early parts I still need to lay the groundwork for their emotional connection while also taking the main storyline into account.
So, as you can see, in the early parts of this volume, I relied quite a lot on the original plot. That was a compromise I had no choice but to make.
These parts are extremely difficult for Apocalypse Sanluo to be involved in, but if I simply skipped them, the content would feel empty and the plot before and after would have noticeable gaps.
Even though I know that readers who come to read fanfiction have definitely read the original—at the very least watched the anime—and might even know the plot better than I do, as a novel (even a fanfiction), I still hope the story logic and the narrative flow can be kept coherent.
If I avoid referencing the original in order to prevent repetition, and the plot ends up having gaps, then what if a reader can't remember what happened? Would they have to waste time going back to check the source material?
I already need to reference the original work when writing this fanfiction. I assume none of you would want to constantly compare my writing with the original while reading, right?
In any case, throughout this entire volume, Apocalypse Sanluo has always just been an outsider. Their relationship hasn't even reached the starting point of a romantic arc.
It's frustrating—really frustrating and painful.
Compared to this, I even feel that writing Apocalypse Sanluo and Tokisaki Kurumi in a yuri pairing might be easier (just kidding… probably).
As for the next volume—honestly, I'm still hesitating whether I should write the Yamai twins arc.
If Kotori's arc worked because she reminded Apocalypse Sanluo of her sister from a past life, giving her room to be inserted into the story, then for the next arc I genuinely have no idea how to make Apocalypse Sanluo join in naturally. Am I supposed to throw her from the sky next to Shido again? That feels way too forced.
I've been agonizing over this recently, so there probably won't be many updates this weekend. If I want to prepare for putting the story on shelves, I have to stockpile chapters.
Anyway, that's probably all I want to say for this volume. There have just been too many things going on recently—my head hurts.
Well then, see you in the next volume.
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