AUTHOR'S NOTES
Before I begin my rant, I'll answer an obvious question in your mind right now.
WHY THE HELL IS HE USING ONE ENTIRE CHAPTER FOR AN AUTHOR'S NOTE?! WHY NOT EVERY CHAPTER?
Well, my answer is actually 2 folds.
First. As an author that is incapable of making a satisfying chapter in 4000 words or less, I tend to over think stuff. Even a simple Author's Note requires me to use the same metal capacity as to writing a complicated battle scene. As such, I decided to simply abandon the chapter by chapter Author's Notes and let my story do all the talking
Second. This chapter is going to be the Author's Notes of the entire Arc, so expect that this will be a long one.
PS: The next time you'll see another Author's Notes is probably at the end of another Arc….. that is, if I still have the mental capacity and the patience to make it that far.
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OKAY! LETS BEGIN THE AUTHOR'S NOTES
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Ahem….
To start off, I must apologize for the whole incest thing. Prior to reading the SAO novels, I was actually watching Yosuga No Sora for the very first time, and the Sora route left one hell of an impression on me. Since the story was very good (and very controversial), I decided to add it in.
Lets face it, the whole incest thing is much more interesting than the typical, overused girl-meets-boy scenario.
For those who thought it was creepy/disgusting, I deeply apologize for that.
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Next… Lets talk about the COUNTER GUARDIAN.
As most of you have already guessed, I am a big fanboy of TYPE MOON. Because of that, I incorporated a few things from the Nasuverse, namely the title COUNTER GUARDIAN, the Faux's dagger ( DEATH PERCEPTION, in homage to Tsukihime and Kara No Kyokai), and Faux himself (who emulates ARCHER and Emiya Kiritsugu to a certain extent).
Some people who arent Nasuverse fans may be confused why I chose COUNTER GUARDIAN as the title. Well then, let me quote something from the TYPE MOON WIKIA on what a COUNTER GUARDIAN is.
Counter Guardian, also called the Protectors of Balance or the Beast of Alaya, is a special category found within the group of existences known as Heroic Spirits. If a regular Heroic Spirit is someone who became a hero by his own power and is admired for that, then a Guardian is an unknown person who has achieved a great feat due to the assistance of an outside force. They are the ones who have made a pact with the World (Alaya) and offers his services as a Heroic Spirit after death in exchange for a miracle during his lifetime. While normal Heroic Spirits are a natural phenomenon that just happen to be beneficial to humanity, Counter Guardians are a strictly human phenomenon.
Due to their contract with Alaya, these heroes are incorporated as part of humanity's Counter Force (hence the name Counter Guardians) and are summoned whenever a factor in the extinction of mankind is detected. They are the ones who appear on the site of great disasters in order to eliminate the source of that disaster and all those involved, even if the target of elimination are humans themselves. Not bounded by moral values such as good and evil, they exterminate guilty and innocent alike in order to protect those completely unrelated.
Ahem… to most people, the words above is a load of complete gibberish. But on the second paragraph, the bolded text is the main reason why I chose COUNTER GUARDIAN as the title of my work. Faux and the rest of the PKK's kills those who are perceived as a threat to the general population as a whole. Because of their greatly distorted moral compass, the PKK's no longer care if the target is a man, woman or child.
If they are PK's, they will die.
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Next. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but aside from chapter 5, all chapter titles are related to the 12 Major Arcanas of fortune telling. Which is why I like to call the COUNTER GUARDIAN ARC as the ARCANA ARC.
The main reason why chapter 5 is titled differently from the others is very simple…. I couldn't think of any arcane to represent the chapter… sorry about that.
As to why I added the 12 Major Arcanas into my story… well… that's because I'm also a fan of ATLUS' PERSONA series.
Just like the Social Links in the Persona games, all of the major characters in my fanfic emulates the arcana they represent.
Here's a list… Oh and just for the fun of it, I'll add their real names (NOTE: These are all FAN MADE NAMES)
The Fool –Faux /Raphael Arisato Norton
The Magician- Andrei/ Andrei Iosif Kustov
The Priestess- Argo/ Kaori Kurashima
The Empress- Czarina/ Angelica Shiro Norton
The Emperor- Kibaou/ Yosuke Nokurao
The Hierophant – Gawain/ Gino Karasuba
The Lovers- Marcus and Millefueille/ Makoto Saemaru and Loraine Kada
The Chariot- The SILVER CROW guild
Justice- The INQUISITION guild
The Hermit- Kirito/ Kazuto Kirigaya
Fortune- Tamil/ Takane Mimiro
Strength – Klein/ Ryoutarou Tsuboi
The Hanged Man- The QUARTET guild
Death- All PKKs
The Temperance – Lisbeth/ Rika Shinozaki
The Devil- Flandre/ Remirura Hiiro
The Tower- PoH/ Emilio De Los Reyes
The Star- Asuna/ Asuna Yuki
The Moon- Tyrant/ John Doe
The Sun- Yulier/ Hana Naotaka
Judgment- LaCroix/ Christopher La Croix
The World – Heathcliff/ Akihiko Kabaya
PS: One name there is actually a direct relative of a character in another series, somewhere in the distant future. I wonder if anyone can guess who that person is…
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Next, let's talk about future chapters.
And to answer your question, Yes, I still plan on continuing COUNTER GUARDIAN for as long as I possibly can.
The next arc will begin after 1 or 2 chapters.
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Lastly, I'm requesting some feedback from you guys.
Was I able to pull it off?
Was I able to successfully engross you with my story? If not, then why?
Was my characters good? Mediocre? Horrible?
Was my battle scenes lacking detail? Or was it executed well enough?
Was 9 chapters enough? Or was it too little?
Be it in by reviews or by PM, it doesn't matter.
Such feedbacks will allow me to improve as an author, so please send me some feedbacks.
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FINAL NOTE: This Author's note took me 3 hours to write and 1092 words were used…. Now, do you understand why I don't want any Author's Notes in my chapters?