The Most Surprising Thing is what I call a "Golden Age" fic, since it was obviously written before the full game was released. That isn't a bad thing, necessarily; the quality of β-fics isn't significantly lower than the quality of post-release fics (and among the β-fics there aren't any BEFFs,* which would ultimately turn out to be the very worst kind of
Katawa Shoujo fanfic intended for public consumption.) The thing is, though, that in order to enjoy this fic, you basically need to be conscientious of the fact that this story takes place not in a Divergence but in literally a complete alternate universe.
To fully enjoy this fic, you need to keep the following things in mind about the AU:
• Hanako's backstory is completely different. Rather than being raised in an orphanage, she was raised by a single mother, and the bullying she suffers is happening in the present, rather than the distant past. This has a significant impact on her personality; she's quite a bit more assertive and sociable as a result of her somewhat happier upbringing.
• Shizune's backstory has changed slightly. Instead of Jigoro, she has two parents who empathize more deeply with her and have a greater degree of concern for her well being. She's also not Lilly's cousin in this AU, and is bisexual.
• Misha isn't a lesbian in this story, or at least doesn't have an upwelling of angst stemming from an unrequited love for Shizune. She does date a boy in the fic, but whether her feelings for him are genuine or if she's using him as a beard is up to the reader's interpretation.
That said, this is a really fun story, and one of the few Hanako/Shizune fics in existence. I read the story without knowing it was a β-fic at first and honestly thought it was going to be an exploration of the more caring, sensitive side of Shizune we saw briefly during Hanako's route. Once I figured out it was a β-fic, I found it kind of oddly prescient. But really, it's not; we know for a fact that, though Shizune is a hardass, she has a bit of Lilly's nurturing side to her, even though we never see it (particularly not in Hisao's route, where he acts considerably more mellow and reasonable than virtually anywhere else in the game.) Shizune knows it's her job to look after the people around her, and though she sometimes loses sight of that, and can be obsessively goal-oriented, at the end of the day she's more than capable of taking care of another person.
Reading the story, there's definitely some parts where you don't feel like you're at Yamaku Academy; I don't think in my own fics, I would ever depict the school as having so many bullies, for example. And in some sense, it certainly would have been nice for there to be some kind of advance notice that the characters involved were bisexual; sexuality in this story comes as such an afterthought that the sex scene epilogue seems a bit out of place. It's basically "yuri for the sake of yuri." If you're going to write Shizune as gynosexual (and since she's compelling in that role, there's no reason why you shouldn't, so long as you can solve the Mikado Question,) I feel like you have to provide a little bit more advance warning.
In fact, it would be good to compare and contrast this story to
From Shizune's Perspective, another β-fic where Shizune is stated to be extremely comfortable with her bisexuality; though Shizune is very,
very out of character throughout that fic (and not completely intentionally,) I love the way her sexuality is depicted in the story. She's clearly been with other men and women in the past and doesn't have any huge hangups about those relationships going sour. Her approach to romance is still somewhat reticent but much more "fuck it, I know what I want and I'm going to go for it." Though that story is definitely more of a spectacle than
The Most Surprising Thing, I definitely feel like Shizune's attraction to Emi was more intrinsically "Shizune" than her affection for Hanako is in Griffon's fic.
They're both wonderful reads, though, and practically mandatory reading if you like Shizune. Ultimately, as an AU fic
The Most Surprising Thing is a great story, even if some of the best aspects of the main characters in the story wind up unexplored or watered down. It's still a wonderful exploration of Shizune's tender side, and it's kind of nice to see Hanako living a somewhat happier life for once.
*Bad End Fix Fics.
