Q: Why Yukiko?

Q: Reviewer Viktor Mayrin recently asked the question, "Why does everyone have Souji/Yukiko?"

A: I have no good answer for that.

While other authors may put Yukiko and Souji together, there are lots of other authors who like pairing Souji with Rise, or Chie, or Naoto...as well as with Yousuke and Kanji (though I don't see that one very often). In all honesty, given the open-ness that the player can take with the Hero Main Character (for ease, we'll call him Seta Souji), the romantic/sexual relationships can go any way you want. I've read a few stories that made Ebihara Ai his one true love, and I've seen a few pieces of artwork that put Souji with Ozawa Yumi and even Matsunaga Ayane. As I said, it's really up to the individual's personal tastes and outlook.

As for me, my Hero MC hooked up with Yukiko the first time I played the game, because I thought they just "fit" together. Listening to the Drama CD, I'm even more convinced that Yukiko and Souji are the best fit. Besides, I immediately put Yousuke and Chie together as the bickering would-be lovers who just couldn't admit their own feelings to themselves or each other, and Kanji and Naoto work great as a couple exploring their own feelings as well as the societal barriers and baggage that come along with their personal choices (I like the way that Kanji takes a more traditionally feminine role - sewing, cooking, emotionality - while Naoto takes the more traditionally masculine role - guns, stoicism, logic). And Rise (especially based on the Drama CD) just seems to fit with her fellow kouhai, even though most of the time she's really just playing matchmaker. So, that left Yukiko and Souji.

But that doesn't mean that even in my story, Souji didn't occasionally have feelings for the other girls. In fact, in the most recent chapter update (Chapter 39, "Let Go, Hold On," posted 18 November 2009), Yousuke makes a telling observation about Souji regarding his old leader's romantic proclivities. And Chie jumps to a bit of a strange conclusion on her own (earlier in the same chapter), simply because she's projecting her own fears and doubts. And because we all think the world revolves around ourselves.

Now, there is a snag. Yukiko, as my readers will know from Chapter 33 ("Juxtaposition" - read it here if you've forgotten), is currently on the mend from a relationship upheaval of her own. How will that translate to her affection for Souji...if any of those feelings still exists at all? Curious readers will just have to wait and see.

So, I don't know why a lot of other people choose Souji to be with Yukiko. But those are my reasons.

Hope you're all enjoying the story, and these little glimpses into how I make the story work!

Tanabata and the Duel

- All chapter links listed below will take you to the Fanfiction.Net versions. -

Now that Chapter 37 ("Agonies and Thrills") has been up for a full week and we've moved on to Chapter 38 ("Two Steps Forward....", posted 2009 Nov. 11), I think it's relatively safe for me to go off on a tangent as regard to the duel challenge plot and its culmination.

But just in case, I'm going to SPOILER mark it for those who have not read Chapter 37, so rollover to view the rest.

In Chapter 30 ("Star Princess"), Chie's grandfather Kazunori relates the story of Tanabata. The chapter title refers to a couple of different things. One is the heavenly princess Orihime, the heroine of the Tanabata story; the second is Kuma, whose Arcana is the Star; and the third is Chie, whose fate, at least so far as the duel is concerned, is linked very closely with sweet Orihime's.

Pet names are not common in Japan, but I felt it was important for Yousuke to give Chie the pet name of "hime-chan" or "princess," because that's what she is to him. He's a bit of a chauvinist in this regard - wanting to protect and take care of Chie...not necessarily because he thinks of her as a lesser person because of her gender, but because he thinks she needs someone to protect her and take care of her. (I'm not saying he's right - and she needs to prove time and again that she's the better fighter of the two of them - but that's the way that he thinks. Chalk it up to a patriarchal society.) The princess symbolism doesn't end there, of course...but that's a topic for another day.

Nevertheless, readers who have been paying close attention to what happens in the story will notice that the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi - which Kazunori relates to Kuma and the others - relates almost directly to what occurs with Chie and Yousuke at the conclusion of the duel fight. In the simplest of comparisons:

Chie (Orihime) goes to her father, Hitoshi (Tentei), and begs him to let her stay with Yousuke (Hikoboshi), the man whom she loves. It's specifically Orihime's tears - much like it is with Chie's - that sway Tentei's/Hitoshi's heart in favor of his daughter, despite what his feelings may be for her future or for her lover.

Now, I also felt it was necessary to have Yousuke and Chie grow as adults, as well as both friends and lovers, during the trials of the training chapters. And it was very important for the characters to venture into the Mayonaka TV world, because the Shadows (and Personas) come into play quite significantly in Part IV. And I wanted to build up some tension in the latter chapters, especially, to keep readers interested in seeing what was going to happen in the fight itself. But, for readers who were paying attention, I was giving away the ending of Part III very early on, all the way back in Chapter 30.

END SPOILER

So, this was just a small glimpse into the workings of the mind of an author who's trying to keep everything in a plot moving toward a culminating goal of neatly-woven entertainment. (Or maybe not so neatly-woven. You can judge that for yourself.)