Yo, requesting a bit of reader feedback here.

I had a couple polite criticisms here and on QQ, which I appreciate for being nice about things, and wanted to get a feel for how people see things.

I'll remove this upload after a few days so the word count doesn't impact the story.

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So, I named the story 'The Nekoshou's Wolf' for a few reasons.

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-The mercenary focus - it gets less technical as he gets stronger.

-The wolf based legacy - will dive deeper into the mysteries of it later on.

-The neko village - because the village becomes his family and the 4 main side characters in the Big sister/teachers play large roles.

-And because of the romance - Which is a strong pairing with Kuroka (to be introduced next chapter)

Due to this, I focus a lot on the side characters to build their character profiles as a foundation for Hei's development. For example, the HP series is 7 books totaling 1.1 mil words. I try to see stories like 'arcs' or 'books' where the focus is on certain things.

To me as the writer, I see a big picture and try to create steps to get there without moving too fast or too slow while not pulling power of friendship stuff or anything. I try to put a lot of thought into the 'little things' that add up to create 'big things'. So when something seems off, like Hei getting beat up by 2 cats, to me, they both serve different purposes.

Like how Hei gets born to a mystery woman Mystery woman gives him single-use Luck pendant Luck pendant activates when a big moment happens with his sacred gear awakening, focusing on giving him the best possible outcome for his scenario within limited power to make him meet and interest the old man The legacy that holds mysteries The focus on his younger life with human mercenary stuff Him reaching a point where the human world can't contain him any longer and his teacher having a connection to a supernatural being who can and will train him Stepping into the supernatural and seeing where things match up for him + discovering parts of himself he wasn't fully aware of before A focus on advanced training and re-designing his guns etc.

It's not all because of the luck pendant, but it was a catalyst for a series of domino effects.

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Question #1: How does everyone feel about the flow so far?

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Next is Hei as a character.

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I'm trying to expand on his character slowly but surely.

Many people think that because he has a past life, he is supposed to be a mature adult. But I tried to make many points whenever someone talked about reincarnation showing that Hei is not an 'adult'. He is a mix of an 'adult' who lived 20 something years (in a purely civilian life with barely even a single drunk fight under his belt), and a 'child' who was just born and is dealing with all the mental and physical hormones and thought process of a child. Due to the mix, he is mature in some ways, and naïve in others, but I feel it gives him room to grow.

I didn't want some munchkin guy who comes in guns blazing knowing everything. I wanted to imagine what would happen if I, without advanced knowledge on canon, came into a world of fantasy like that. All you gotta do is go camping off grid for a week or two and my imagination starts looking at the brass tacks. For example: In a zombie apocalypse without any magical/advanced science components, life would be utter hell. Always in fear, survival, drama, etc.

My point is, I try to add a bit of realism to the character who sometimes thinks he knows best but is lucky to have people who will smack him over the head and tell him there's more to learn.

He will go through emotional struggles, have phases, regress and improve. Because that's what people do. Of course, it's not that common and he's still going to be similar to a Black Lagoon character in a way.

Another aspect is that like any kid raised by a significant role model, Hei looks up to and takes after the Old man, but as a child without the life experience of the old man, it comes off as slightly angsty, which he grows out of in time. And his sisters will play role models as well in his behavior.

Not to mention when Kuroka appears.

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Question #2: So how do you feel about his character?

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Next, I want to talk about the training and guns from Lupa.

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The training - The old man had to start with a base human 4-year-old Hei. That's a very, very low starting point. His Sacred Gear helped speed things up a lot, but it doesn't change where he started from.

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The old man was already aging badly and was far from his prime. But prime or not, he still had incredibly deadly skills and knowledge. His focus for the first almost 7 years was to beat Skill into Hei while forging the building blocks of his physique. When you're at higher stages, it's easier to break a bone and heal from it. But when you're super weak, breaking a bone can be fatal or crippling. You can't rush things too much with a human body. Base Humans suck, that's a sad fact, but at least in this story, they can climb the ranks like anyone else. Vasco Strada for example is someone who climbed the ranks of tiers while remaining human. How he personally did it will be revealed later.

So the old man gave Hei the tools, skills, and knowledge to walk into a military base, eliminate the head, and walk out without being seen, and if seen, how to eliminate whats in his way efficiently. Thats like Black Widow/ John Wick shit taken up a notch. I figured almost 7 years to get there, with all the cheats, was already very good.

And after almost 7 years, the old man let Hei loose to gain experience among human contracts.

Now almost 8 years since he began his journey when the old man found him, he's stepping things up by seeing that for all his 'Skill', there is a hard wall between it and higher tiers. There will always be exceptions, and Lupa's could wait around for a decade to find the best moment to kill a target far above them, but I don't want Hei to be a purely low tier human forever.

He has the Skill, and now he begins rising in power and body to shorten the gap between future enemies.

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Question #3: What do you think about his growth path? Did I miss something that's annoying the readers?

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The guns - I put a lot of focus on guns so far.

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I get that many people don't like them, but just as many do.

First, I wanted to show how powerful modern weapons are. They really are incredible if you research them. An object moving at such incredible speeds has a lot of interesting applications.

So first I show how powerful they are Then I show Hei debating on what he's going to do and customize his guns thinking his plan will work Then i show him what happens when his modern guns are used against the worst possible match up.

Then I introduce the body tier scaling to match up what he will make to what it will be up against.

Why do this? Because I want to create a sense of urgency and desire in Hei to improve his weapons magically. He will NEVER be a mage or spell creator, but there are many ways without being able to cast/alter magic that can be used. From materials (RWBY style) to Rituals, Runes, Sealing, etc.

Hei will try stuff, and he will improve his guns with time. For those who like 'crafter' elements, it's a-coming. I considered having more side characters like Liz (SAO), Hephaestus (Danmachi - but in this case just a hot redhead smith), or Crozzo (Danmachi - could be a bro) that Hei would find to make stuff for him, but it seemed more fun if he tampered with bullet manufacturing himself and improved with time, all with the helpful hand of [spoiler] Big sis Ghislaine, or perhaps Chloe? who has a background in smithing/weapon creation from her many years of life [spoiler]

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Question #4: Are there any issues I haven't addressed about the guns so far?

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Next, POV's.

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I don't mind writing other POV's, but my pool to choose from is limited for stuff that would be relevant to the story.

At the moment, the best I can think of is:

-Some canon characters talking about random world events before a 'Lupus' product is brought out.

-Or some Canon faction leader going through paperwork about possible recruits and seeing the rising Mercenary 'Lupus' who they decide to keep an eye on.

-Or a Devil faction leader like Sirzechs having a funny moment with Grayfia before spilling paperwork by accident and humming as he sees an old report about the incident with the Ipos devil family.

-I was going to save more POV changes until Hei starts making more waves, but I'm open to reader feedback.

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Question #5: Do you all want more POV's? And from whom?

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Finally, I was debating on how I listed the story.

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Right now I have it as: The Nekoshou's Wolf - NEW

I could add stuff like (Highschool DxD SI) (AU) (John Wick Elements) Or something else.

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Question #6: Is anything about the title, or the summary, a turn off to prospective readers?

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Thats everything I can think about. Just sharing my questions, views, and concerns so far so I can make the best reading experience possible.