This may have been a long time coming, but hello, everybody! If you haven't heard it from me already, Happy New Year! To all my veteran readers, it's always a joy to have you around for another year! And to any potential newcomers, thank you for sticking around and getting this far!
It's hard to believe how fast 2023 came and went. Now, we're already in February? Sheesh! I better get to it then.
So, it's been a year since chapter 20 released, and aside from omake 6 and the rewrite of the Christmas special, there hasn't been a major new chapter since.
Most of my time is spent working to the bone across my many jobs.
I'm working 7 days a week most of the time, so finding days to sit down and write has been rare, but rest assured, that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.
Let's talk about it.
What's the status of Chapter 21? It's coming along at a steady pace, which is good, all things considered. I'd say it's at the halfway point, or maybe just above it.
The chapter currently has 218 pages and is shaping up to be around the same length as chapter 20, if not a smidgen shorter... Don't quote me on that.
Do we have a release window? I don't want to set anything in stone, but I'm planning on releasing the chapter around April-June if I'm able to keep the momentum going.
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What else is there to look forward to? I mentioned before that chapters 21 and 22 will be the last chapters of Phase 1 and that we'll be moving on to the next arc of the story, but there are still things in Phase 1 that need to be done, both old and new so we'll still be getting some Phase 1 content sprinkled throughout.
I still have to re-write a lot of those earlier chapters. The Halloween special, in particular, will be getting an overhaul while still keeping the basis of its foundation.
We'll be seeing Omake 7 as well, and that'll be the final chapter of that miniseries. I still can't believe how well-received Omake 6 was.
It's nice to see so many readers get excited for guest characters despite their minor roles. The omake nonsense allowed me to write for a lot of characters I wanted to add before choosing Ghost-Spider, Ryūko Matoi, and Ruby Rose as the final roster.
On one of my older Writer Update posts, I mentioned there was another side series akin to the Sidetracked chapters that would've went back to show what the Skullgirls cast was doing running adjacent to the main chapters, those will be known as Reprise Chapters, and we'll get to see a lot of new stuff from the perspective of other characters.
For example: in chapter 5, after the battle with Double, Marie talks to the Player, Filia, and Squigly about the nature of the Skull Heart and her mission against the Medicis, when it's mentioned Squigly has a job to finish, which means slaying Marie, we cut to the Player returning Umbrella to Parasoul, but the Reprise chapter will show what exactly played out - why Squigly decided to spare Marie, she does mention it had something to do with "the Player's request," but we never see it so we will here.
