Author's Note:

Greetings. This is Yuni. The author of this fic.

For those of you used to my writing style and general scheme, I tried something different here. Instead of posting on a chapter by chapter basis, I wrote a batch of chapters, worked on them slowly but surely, and then posted them.

I think this improved the quality of the chapters as it gave me time to sit and think about how to approach scenarios. It also allowed for other influences and inspirations to affect and enhance them.

I also didn't post Author's notes before and after each chapter as I do with my drabbles and other works. I've started to be a little simpler and brief with my notes, if any of you have kept track thus far with my other Ni no Kuni related fanfiction. I believe that in doing so, I've allowed the piece to shine better.

Really, it's a matter of approaching things in a slightly more mature light- or at least that's what I view it as. It's also a matter of market research as I've looked at other writers' works and asked myself, "What is it that works for them that not only attracts readers but keeps them?"

Anyway, enough of my stratagem. This fic has been a passion project/crossover (sort of, more on that now). It started with me playing Borderlands 2 and buying the Mechromancer DLC. I guess it was my obsessed mind or the fact I've already completed the vanilla game, but I somehow started wondering if Gaige (or Scrofie as I lovingly named her, as that is the true origin of her alias) would be a good approximation to what someone who grew up with the legend of Swaine would be like. Then I wondered, "Hey, what if it's his tom-boy niece?!" And then I started kind of roleplaying what that character would say in the middle of battle and whenever I got killed in the game. I still intend to finish that playthrough, by the way. (If I could only find good enough pistols, that would be great.)

So, the thing about the Mechromancer? She has a robot she can summon. This robot is a giant floating metal thing that has two arms and laser claws that come out for battle when enemies are present. This was what inspired the design for Avery. Only I took that and gave him an extra set of arms, the lower ones being the ones with- sadly- non-laser claws. Razor sharp, but no lasers. The bottom of the body for the Deathtrap, the robot from the game, has a disembodied spine, Avery does not have this spine- in fact, Avery has a rounded base. He kind of just floats like a Sprog Cog.

Then one day, after getting stuck on a part because my poor gaming PC wasn't configured properly to handle so many enemies, I decided- what the hell. I might as well write about this character. Her mannerisms are rather different from her Borderlands 2 counterpart, only because that version of her makes so many sci-fi pop culture references, there wouldn't be a good way to implement it. So really, I actually had to build off of her core personality without the pop culture references.

For that, we have someone who could die over and over again and still want to finish what she started- something that happens a lot in my playthroughs of Borderlands 2- so we have someone with a similar stubbornness of our favorite gun toting master thief. Then there's my tactic of siccing the robot on them and hiding- so she'd definitely be sneaky. Her mechanic skills easily got attributed to her uncle's propensity to tinker and work with machines- something I often say he still does throughout Ni no Kuni as you make new weapons for him (the parts even match up). On top of that, I'm not entirely familiar with the Mechromancer storyline in the game, so whatever Gaige's character is beyond sci-fi referencing, robot building, overly prideful nerd is beyond me.

The missing arm Lynnea has? That's partially Gaige's design- only Lynnea has a full functioning hand; she has all five digits compared to Gaige's four. Gaige also doesn't have a grappling hook or claw feature, so that's a difference. And if I recall correctly, Lynnea's entire arm is gone. Gaige still has part of her fore-arm from what I recall from the game.

To sum it up, when it comes to Lynnea herself, she's heavily based off the Mechromancer from Borderlands 2 feature wise except for some key parts- Gaige doesn't use actual magic. Lynnea, being the daughter of a sage, does. From there, I built Lynnea further off of that template, giving her a unique identity separate from Gaige. So, the Mechromancer, for that DLC's content and all, is owned by the creators of Borderlands 2. What I made and added/altered- whatever has nothing to do with that DLC for that game? My ideas.

Am I cheap for making a character partially based on another character from another game? Probably. But I feel, despite the heavy influence of that character, that I still managed to make a character that was all her own in the end- that wasn't just a carbon copy of Swaine, Marcassin, or even the Mechromancer class. So, I credit Borderlands 2, and its creators, for the original idea that spawned Scrofie/Lynnea. I don't think I would have ever made this fic if I never bought that DLC.

As for the rest, I really liked the idea of Swaine teaching, magic or otherwise. That's something I wish we had more of in Ni no Kuni. I really thought that was an underused trait in the game- that he knows about magic and how to cast spells. He's been trained for that purpose. He even dedicates himself to tutoring his younger brother, despite his lack of magical talent. I always imagine Swaine correcting Oliver on how to cast a spell because of it. That's why I included that moment of him correcting Lynnea- he knows how spells work.

I also aged him up quite a bit- giving him more of the role of wise old man/mentor but keeping his original personality intact. He still knows how to be a giant dork and a pain in the arse. On top of that I love the idea of him moving smoothly and swiftly to evade when he can, almost dancing. I think he would have gotten better at that as he got older. Only, I had to give him a weakness to counter that increased mobility- something that comes with old age and would decrease his mobility occasionally. See, Swaine never took care of himself all too well from what we could tell when we first meet him. He still probably didn't do so well in doing so after he joins everyone and had to be reminded or forced to better take care of himself- probably because of his sense of responsibility or someone (Esther, more than likely) telling him to freaking eat… Or bathe. (Hey! A fic idea!) So that presented the possibility of his personal neglect catching up to him in the form of arthritis- specifically, the legs.

On top of that, I really wanted to kill him off. At the time I guess I was just trying to usurp my obsession with the character by having him die but… no. That didn't happen. In any case, I hadn't realized it but I set up the opportunity for his death perfectly. Lynnea doesn't have healing magic- so there wasn't a way to bring him back through that. Esther got there a minute too late, as did Rashaad. No one had anything to heal his wounds. When I went back and read through it, only now have I realized how carefully I planned that out. And that's only because of my new approach to posting multichapter fics.

Agh, I'm getting side tracked. I really wanted to kill Swaine. I wanted to kill him- but I wanted him to die a hero. I thought of the idea of bringing him back, I thought of someone mentioning the idea of bringing him back, how'd there be an argument, but no. I decided not to for the same reason I didn't want to go through with chapters 16-18, I felt it would just drag on. What would be the point? From a traditional writing perspective, it wouldn't make sense. We've already had our climax… Time for it die down. Time for this version of the thief to finally rest in peace.

And Esther… I tried to keep her in character for the most part. The same goes for Rashaad. It was a little difficult mostly because… well, I really don't care for either of those two. Esther has always been kind of annoying to me mostly because she doesn't have much of a point beyond being a glorified tool for getting familiars and healing the party, as well as being obnoxious. Granted, that's just my personal complaints about her. In response to these complaints, I often try to give her a purpose and rationalize how much she quarrels with Swaine as a sort of sibling relationship more than anything. (A major sticking point for me is obviously how they set her character up initially.)

On the matter of Marcassin: I tried my hardest to make Marcassin smarter, or at least smarter than the way I've written him in the past. He is a very intelligent man and a very powerful sage, so, if I could, I tried to capture that. I also felt the need to give him a wife/lover. A constant one at that. (What is it with sages in this game and lacking physical proof of existing current or past partners?! Did I miss something?! The only one I know of is Kulan, but all the rest are suspiciously absent. Oh, well.) I hope in doing so, I gave a good approximation of what that would be like- married to a ruler/great sage. I hope I didn't fail you.

Squishy… Is a reoccurring character in my fics. Same with Vemahl and Gemini. I always write Squishy like a giant puppy/protective mother ape… because I feel like that's the kind of familiar the Papa Sasquash in any playthrough of Ni no Kuni would be to Swaine. He'd be a big daunting creature to enemies, a big fluff ball of sweetness to companions and his master. There was one thing I didn't include regarding Squishy. It was a prototype idea of Lynnea, Swaine's familiar locket, and their original bond. I think it got slightly worked into one of my other drabbles but I can't remember. This idea had the kid knock over a much bigger creature cage belonging to the thief, letting out the three familiars I consistently attribute to him. Of them, was Squishy. The kid, at first would have been afraid of the yeti, but the yeti, in response to her fear and also having sniffed out the familiar scent of his master on the toddler would just scoop the kid into his arms and coddle them. Then, Marcassin would come in to check on the child, but find Squishy and initially panic, only to see how gentle the yeti was being.

…Typing that all out makes me realize how adorable that would have been and probably would have strengthened his and Lynnea's bond a bit… Perhaps one day I shall add it. Probably as a scene prior to her waking up in Squishy's arms. Who knows.

Now let me talk about Amos. I actually didn't expect to like Amos as much as I did. I was originally just going to have him be a one off evil guard character, but the more I wrote him, the more I wanted to flesh him out. He kind of grew on me and I wanted to give him a sort of redemption for what he did. I think for him, I drew a little off of Sherlock, some of what I've seen in pop culture about Samurai, and that one insane guard in Al Mamoon who wanted to fight a monster cause… Well he thought it was the right thing to do, even though he knew it was a stupid idea that could get himself killed.

If you hadn't noticed at the end of the fic, Marcassin drops a hint that Amos may be the son of our favorite rogue prince. This is in reference to an idea I had been toying with about a coup by the council as well as revealing that fact to Amos himself. Then he'd have to deal with the grief and all that. Deciding that it would be too heavy handed with how much I've been showing Lynnea and everyone else going through this grief, I didn't do that. However, I did keep the idea and used it as a ploy to show that Marcassin does indeed have a heart when it comes to Amos. Another bit, the part with Marcassin stating that he dreamed that Swaine set Hamelin on fire was initially going to be a line in reference to the coup being started over Amos being saved by him. He was originally going to say it in response to the fear he had of the nation going to ruin because of the chaos that would ensue. The issue here? I can't see the citizens of Hamelin being so easily pushed into a state of chaos and revolt given the type of city Hamelin is- a city of revolution and level-headed thought.

There have been wars in the Empire, yes, but Hamelin has stood through them all. I always thought that it wasn't just the armaments and the iron walls sealing the people inside, but also the people themselves- the stubborn steadfast, hardworking, reasonable citizens. Because of that, I just couldn't see them in such a state. It is possible, but of all the horrid sights I have given to you, dear reader, this chaotic mess was not one I could bring myself to imagine and put to paper comfortably.

In the end, I guess I wanted this fic to truly be about how important it is to remember that our real-life heroes are still people. They have flaws. Some of them are much closer to home. Some are celebrities. For those who can, it's important to take care of what we do with what those heroes leave behind while still being our own legend/person in the end. As the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who once said, "We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"

This is all I have in its entirety to divulge to you. I thank those of you for reading. As a disclaimer, I do not own Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. I do not own any of the characters from the game. I own my own ideas.

I hope you enjoyed. I hope it was interesting. This has been one wild ride for me. Thank you.

Thank you for reading this.