This begins chapter 40

I think I have settled (at least for now) on maintaining my initial plan of drafting the whole thing before polishing it up to post on FF.net and such, because, well, the truth is... I dislike FF.net commenters on the whole. So I considered that I am clearly able to continue on my own, and whether opening myself up for said commenters was more likely to energize me or mess with my motivation, and thought the latter much more likely.

Anyway, today is just a little scene to start off the next chapter...

( It looked better on paper... )

The next scene should probably be Miboshi's viewpoint; ick. I also realized that with Keisuke busy researching (in position for his next plot point which is later), Mitsukake feeling better (same), and Hiro still asleep (yes, I want to wait and wake him up just in time for the worst possible freak-out), I have left myself nowhere to cut away to. The fight will involve cutting back and forth a lot between different characters and locations, tho, so...