Chapter 31 : Someone that can help you
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Another news, we have officially reached over 4,500 readers on this story, which is actually insane to me. Seriously, I love seeing so many people checking out my work. Every time I feel stressed or down, I go on here, check my page, and see all the readers, reviews, and people who have left favorites and follows, and it just cheers me right back up, because it proves that whatever I'm doing is resonating with people.
Little aside, but don't really expect anything in terms of a Halloween-themed chapter, and even if I do one, it'll probably be late. Trust me, I actually do have a soft-spot for fun seasonal-themed chapters, but with the current pace and time period of this story, it just doesn't seem like it would be easy to do. Still, I might write something when we eventually find ourselves passing by October 2012 in these nine months, because obviously, some amount of time-skipping is going to be necessary for this story arc.
Now, with that aside, let's touch on a few of the major details for this chapter!
Chapter Notes:
[The Idea Behind the Chapter]
First off, yeah, Vin falling unconscious wasn't just because of blood loss that could be easily treated on site. I wanted the aftermath of the fight to have real repercussions to it, and I thought hey, why not throw my precious baby through the grinder some more!
[Lint Sellzen]
At this time, we also see the first appearance of Lint in the story! Thanks to Dragonsaiyanblue for reminding me that she actually exists. I'll sort of retcon her not being in the Vatican earlier by saying that she was out on a mission at the time, alright? After reading up on her for the sake of this story, I realized there could be a really cool scene between her and Xenovia, and I really enjoyed the way it turned out. I think having a character who can be more witty like Freed without being overly-vulgar made for a really fun dynamic between the two for this scene, all framed by the scene of the doctor's trying to fix what is essentially the embodiment of Xenovia's 'failure' that she talks about in this chapter.
[The Theme of Failure]
This chapter, thematically, is all about grappling with failure, and learning to accept failure and move on. We can see that with Xenovia, Griselda, and even to a certain extent Vin himself. Xenovia's perceived failure to properly assist Vin before he could get mauled and poisoned by the stray devil; Griselda's failure to accurately assert judgement, and let such an incident happen in the first place; and Vin's failure to properly fight back due to his inexperience. All in all, failure is a pervasive theme here.
[Vin & Xenovia]
And finally, to wrap it all up, the little callback to the conversation between Vin and Xenovia last chapter. I thought it would be a cute moment to end the chapter on, while subtly showing that Vin is now starting to worm his way past the walls that Xenovia has put up around herself.
REVIEW ROUNDUP:
Tyrant Overlord Killidia says:
"Heheheh, this is going to be quite the ride that we're going on. More than one Stray Devil was present and Vin had to be saved from it. I can already figure out that this is going to be a theme with him for some time: He gets his butt handed to him in a fight and ends up having to be bailed out by his teammates. It's kinda like what happened with Issei before he trained with the rest of the Gremory Team in the ten days before their first Rating Game."
Yeah, this is going to be one hell of a ride, especially since we're going to see Vin grow more and more as an actual combatant over this arc, because remember, this takes place over the span of nine months.
These first few months are all defined by Vin's shortcomings, and I am absolutely going to put him through hell as much as realistically possible in this first story arc. Perhaps there will come a day where Vin can save someone else, or hey, maybe even himself; but that day is most certainly not today.
Also, in terms of writing, having Vin be saved by Xenovia helps preserve some of her character's agency throughout the story. It seems like for a while in DxD canon, they really don't seem to remember that Xenovia is really fucking strong, so I'm going to preserve that fact here. In this story, it won't be that Xenovia sort of dips down to Vin's power level as she becomes a devil, no. It's going to have to be Vin who rises up to Xenovia's level in order to stand toe-to-toe with her.
This entire arc is like an expanded version of the Pre-Rating Game Gremory training camp from the beginning of DxD, except stretched out to an actual realistic amount of time, and even then, nine months is actually pretty short, which is why Vin's really pushing himself with the double-training.
So hey, thanks for leaving so many reviews on my story! It's always great to see you guys so engaged in my work. I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last, even if this one had a considerable focus on character dynamics rather than action or comedy.
OzmaGale says:
"Hello again, another wonderful chapter. I don't know about you but I always had a vendetta against Excalibur shattering. I think it's because I'm a big Fate fan and it bothers me to see the sword of promised victory broken but I shouldn't compare the dxdverse to the Nasuverse. Now that I think about it, was it just me or was Excalibur ruler a bit overpowered compared to the other fragments like sure you could go fast or go invisible but Ruler could just control Fenrir. Anyways regarding the chapter It was lovely to read as I have stated before. I don't know why but when I read that Vin was in trouble I sorta thought that he would instantly get a balance breaker and become op... I think i have PTSD for bad fanfics (I stated that as a joke PTSD is not a laughing matter and if you think you have it consult family or someone that can help you)"
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