Jul 31, 2026
Author's Commentary #15:
Time to talk about Chapter 15: Beware the Ides of March.
This is the prelude to the 3rd major arc of the series, The Ides of March arc. Funnily enough, the idea for this arc came about simply because I though "Ides of March" would make for an epic arc title. As such, this also impacted the time period the story took place as I wanted the Ides of March arc to take place on the Ides of March in-universe.
Originally, the story was going to start on March 13th instead of the 12th, but after I decided to introduce Emeri earlier, I decided to move the start date of the story to the 12th so I could fit the Unbeatable escape room arc, Emeri's introduction, and the Museum of mummies arc in before Ides of March.
Speaking of Emeri, this was originally going to be where she'd be introduced to the story. The original idea was that Mochi would surrender her phone voluntarily, however, the station's resident hacker would have been unable to recover the video. Madoka then would have taken Yuni to Emeri's place where Emeri would have been introduced as Rolly Polly.
Originally, Emeri's introduction would have seen her disguising herself with layers of clothes to the point that at a glance, people would assume she's a fat man. Madoka would have still known Emeri prior, but wouldn't know that Emeri was a hacker, nor that she was actually Rolly Polly. All she would have known was that Emeri had great respect for the hacker named "Rolly Polly". Once the video had been recovered, Emeri would then shed her disguise and ride to the station on her motorcycle, where she'd get kidnapped after stopping by a convenience store.
As for Yuni and Fujiko, Fujiko actually would have stalked Yuni all the way to Emeri's place and then headed to Yuni's place to lie in wait until revealing herself at midnight. I'll discuss more about the initial drafts for this arc as the arc progresses. For now, let's go back to some points I mentioned last commentary, namely why I felt the need to build up Fujiko as an irredeemable terror.
First off, I wanted to establish Fujiko as a terrifying villain so that it makes the moment where she arrives at Yuni's apartment all the more suspenseful. Second, the incident with Bianka also shined some light on Serika and offered a glimpse into her character. In regards to that, I felt like having Bianka get shaved at the salon was a better move as it was home turf for her as in the original, she was shaving her before a crowd at the police station. It also showcases Serika's fears more as originally, she went after Fujiko once the shave was done, but here, she tried to stop her mid-shave, but got so spooked when her past was brought up that she abandoned Bianka. All I'll say in regards to Serika is that she will play a major role in this arc.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
