My objective here is to, first and foremost, tell an entertaining story. I doubt I'll be able to get the kind of emotional response that the canon stories have managed to warrant, but that's fine with me. I was voted as the class clown in my graduating class, so I've always felt more comfortable in making people laugh rather than anything else. My other goal is to become a better writer, and I've been prepared to undertake the acts that entails without any objection. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated in all of its forms, although I'm not one to turn down insults and compliments even if I may disagree with them from time to time.
Now that I'm done talking about myself, here's onto the thing you're probably here for.
Overview:
The Akira Pseudoroute is an attempt to create a path for Akira Satou, Lilly Satou's older sister. Rather than going the way of the original routes and the other pseudoroutes, I've decided to try something different and have this story branch off of an alternate ending to the Kenji Ending, or Manly Picnic from the official game. Rather than fall from the roof to his untimely death, Hisao is knocked off balance trying to evade Kenji's grab/grapple/attempted fondle and falls on his back, going to sleep on the roof in a whiskey-induced stupor. In this alternate reality Akira Satou becomes the main heroine of the story, joining Hisao as he pulls away from his stagnant lifestyle.
Why Akira?
Akira, while not initially my favorite girl, was quick to interest me as a reader; even so many years back when I first saw her in the act 1 demo. The many impressions I got from her character spiraled into numerous ideas and interpretations, all of which eventually wove into a story I found myself wanting to write. Granted, she isn't a "Katawa Shoujo" so it doesn't really fit into the original theme very well, but something about it all really drew me in. The idea wasn't very well-planned initially, since the concept of an Akira route as a whole was something I'd have thought impossible until one night during a bout of writer's block, I woke up at 3 in the morning with tons of plans and concepts screaming through my head. Since then, it's taken a lot of re-writes and outside input/influence to shape the Akira route into what it is today, and I'm thankful that I've had the opportunity to write all of this.
Okay, that's cool, but why an entire pseudo-route?!
My original "style" consisted of numerous chapters interlinked by a couple of kinda-sorta common elements, which laid the foundation for a continuity among the parts. That kind of a mechanic doesn't work for larger stories, however, which is what I've found myself wanting to write for quite a while. I'd had ideas for some Akira stories before, but none of them were really of a grand scale like this. I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't a little bit influenced and even tempted by the fame of other stories such as the Suzu, Miki, Saki, and Rika routes; but in reality I felt like my writing had never really covered much. Save for the multi-part fics I wrote; each story was self-contained. They took advantage of openings and ambiguities in the official story's plot, and were really only set up to make for cute little adventures, which most of the time resulted in sex. Long answer short: I wanted to take on something that felt a lot bigger than what I was used to, that and writing nothing but sex scenes gets really boring after a while.
But anyway, that's enough of my rambling. HERE'S the thing everyone is probably here for.
Also, I fully encourage and appreciate fanart of Akira and of the scenes depicted in this story. I've seen some nice things already, and there's nothing that warms my heart more than knowing that something I've written has compelled someone to take an hour out of their life to sit down and draw something for it.
Theme of Akira Pseudo-route (Thanks to Crimson!)
https://soundcloud.com/crimson-harmony/acceleration
Title page by Honitsu oh my god he's amazing!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Act 2: White Wine
-- Part 1: A New Beginning P.1 P.2
-- Part 2: Gathering Intel P.1 P.2
-- Part 3: Black Coffee P.1 P.2
-- Part 4: A Spark Ignited P.1 P.2 P.3
-- Part 5: Great Expectations P.1 P.2
-- Part 6: Public Relations P.1 P.2
-- Part 7: Wrong Place at the Right Time P.1 P.2 P.3
-- Part 8: Intoxication P.1 P.2 P.3
Act 3: Shaken
-- Part 1: Insight P.1 P.2
-- Part 2: Progress P.1 P.2
-- Part 3: Silent Comedy P.1 P.2
-- Part 4: Kicking off P.1
-- Part 5: Qualifications P.1 P.2
-- Part 6: Deus Ex P.1
-- Part 7: Bad Company P.1 P.2
-- Part 8: Chains P.1
Act 4: Highball
-- Part 1: It's Never Just Rain P.1
-- Part 2: On The Rocks P.1
-- Part 3: Retrospective P.1
-- Part 4: Web P.1
-- Part 5: Imbalance P.1
-- Part 6: Crisis P.1
-- Part 7: Battle Phase P.1
-- Part 8: Shatter P.1
-- Part 9: Remnants P.1
--- Intermission: Bridging the Gap P.1
Act 5: Chaser
-- Part 1: Come Fly With Me P.1
-- Part 2: Just The Way You Are P.1 P.2 P.3
-- Part 3 - The Good Life P.1
-- Part 4 - That's Life P.1
-- Part 5 - My Way P.1
-- Part 6 - The Way You Look Tonight P.1
-- Part 7 - Under My Skin P.1
-- Part 8 - Sway P.1
-- Part 9 - Cheek to Cheek P.1 P.2
-- Part 10 Finale - Fly Me To The Moon P.1
