Three weeks after the first series of incidents concerning Mu, life has settled down for Kazuki Arata. Along with his new friend, he has eased into a new life as an Awakener, special people with access to the other dimension and Armaments, weapons m...
Readers who have finished the volume, as well as those who have just read the afterword and are about to start digging in, I thank you. EternalSunset is once again here for another Afterword.
Time sure flies, and after several months, the second volume of Fractal Plane is finished. It has been a pretty fun ride for me, and I have you and my friends to thank for that.
A good part of the volume was spent on slice-of-life moments. I figured that after I got much of the introductions of the plot-important parts of Fractal Plane's world (the magic system, the enemies, the dungeons) out of the way in the first volume, it is time to add some life to the world and its inhabitants.
As a watcher of anime or a reader of novels, I always found downtime segments (often presented in anime or manga in chibi format) really enjoyable because you get to see the characters interact without the pressure of a major plot driving the narrative or the flow of their conversations. Such a segment allows an author to add some minor flairs and lowkey nuances to otherwise archetypical characters, and that is what I tried to do with the formal reception and the first part of the school trip in this volume. That, and the recap at the very beginning.
On the other hand, I always visualized my story being set in a world that is very alive, a world where so many characters and plot points move on, independent from the main characters. I hoped that the plethora of side character introductions helped drive that point home or at least get it started.
Onto the actual plot on hand, the main theme that I wanted to tackle this volume is the subject of empathy and indecisiveness. It is actually a plot point that I came up with after some self-reflection. In real life, I have the tendency to just be compromising and not take much of a stand. It's always the safest decision that I take, the one that I think would hurt the least people or put me away from trouble, and I decided to tackle the possible consequences of such thinking in this volume.
In the end, I hope that you guys enjoyed seeing that play out through Kazuki's character arc and development this volume.
This volume's shout outs go to my friends for having the patience to bear with me making them read my drafts (lol) and giving me some helpful perspectives. Given that the subject matter of the volume's core climax-setting drama is not something that I have any experience on, they have been really helpful in getting to see the scenario from various perspectives. Otherwise, my only frames of reference for that romantic drama would be anime that I watched.
Next up are my artist friends who have been putting in more than a hundred percent in helping me. You all continue to rock, and I humbly thank you for your hard work.
Finally, I thank the most important people, you readers. Thank you for accompanying Kazuki and the rest on their journey. I hope that you will continue to do so for the third volume, which I have already sown the seeds of conflict for in the epilogue.
See you next volume. Stay strong and stay cool, everyone.
Here's a look of the primary characters this arc in their formal wear. Although Amagi and Fujiwara did not get to wear theirs in-story, you can see them in their full glory now thanks to this excellent piece by leizilie (she also did art for Volume 1's Gallery by the way). Make sure to follow her on Twitter or Pixiv if you are interested in seeing more of her art.
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