JUNE 13, 2022 UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF THIS FANFIC
Hey y'all, long time no see...I'm sure most of y'all are aware of this by now, but it was recently reported that Billy Kametz, the English voice actor for Takuto Maruki, has passed away due to colon cancer.
This isn't the first celebrity or public figure death to hit me hard, but it's the definitely first one to hit me really hard as fast as it did. I was crying before I even knew with 100% certainty that it was true, and once I did find out it was true, I started bawling in a way I don't think I ever have before over someone else's death. Suffice it to say that I'm beyond devastated over this, so I can't even imagine how his close friends and family must be feeling. I hope that they're doing what's best for themselves right now and that they'll come out of this alright.
Now, what does that mean for this fanfic? I'm sure that's what y'all are really wondering, since I'm going through the effort to write out this update and post it. Well...I wasn't sure at first, to be honest. It did cross my mind that maybe I shouldn't continue it, especially since the last update I gave was last year on July 10th, 2021, and it was just that I was starting to work on a new chapter. Uh, well, I never actually did start working on that new chapter...and it also crossed my mind that maybe it'd be disrespectful to continue this fanfic now that Billy has died…..but the more I think about it, the more I think I don't want to just leave this story unfinished. If anything, now that it's become even more clear to me just how much Maruki means to me as a character, I think I do want to continue this fanfic. I'm not sure if that means with absolute certainty that I'll ever actually finish it, but I don't want to just give up on it either.
So, this fanfic is not going to die. Not anytime soon, at least. That's what I've decided. I'm going to put it on a Hiatus for now as I try to figure out what the next step will be with it, but I do know two things I'm going to do for sure.
The first is that I'm going to change the title of the fic just a little. I like it for the most part, but I think it could be tweaked to sound and look a little better. The second thing I'm going to do is go over all the currently posted chapters again and possibly edit them again, because the last time I did that was pretty much a year ago. If they end up being edited, I'll let y'all know either in the summary of the fic or in the 1st chapter somewhere. And as soon as I start working on a new chapter, the summary will be updated to reflect that as well.
All I can really end this with is this: to everyone who loved and adored Takuto Maruki, even if it's not as strongly as I did, please just take this time to allow yourself to feel the pain and sadness of his loss, but don't let it consume you. Allow yourself to grieve over Billy, but also celebrate his life and the characters he breathed his passion and love into. There's nothing wrong with allowing yourself to feel the emotions that come with grieving, and even as painful as it might feel, it'll help with healing from it in the future. Maruki loved all of you. Billy loved all of you. Make him proud by continuing to exist and striving for your own happiness.
