Hi!

-This is an author's note.

The pupose of this story was never to follow the plot, it was to follow Torito Yuu's life and struggle in coming to terms with his old life. I made his old life as vague as possible while being specific in many areas because those were what impacted him the most. In the beginning, he slowly accepted his memories as his while having a slight identity crisis, he was a person that didn't take too well in being molded even if it was his past self.

In a sense, it was like going through purgatory, to come to grips with his past guilt and let go of his regrets that he didn't know he had and move on. He was still living in his past and he was suffering through the motions of daily life because he couldn't separate himself without being reminded of what happened and what can happen. It wasn't until the realization that he didn't have to protect anyone anymore that he finally accepted his new life as Torito Yuu rather than as Rayford.

In a way, Rayford going away with the Shinigami was just as symbolic because it meant he was also moving on. His own expression in wanting to see Yuu live on shows that he knows he couldn't keep his past from restricting Yuu's own future anymore. He finally accepted his death completely and moved on himself with his last thoughts for Yuu.

Everything Yuu did was a reflection of his past, the commodery and building friendships, his brotherly relationship with Minato, his need to prevent anyone from hurting them, and making sure nothing repeats itself onto others. He was reliving his old life but he was slowly seeing Minato and the others rather than the faceless figures as he was growing back up.

Orochimaru on the other hand was a totally new experience. Loving others intimately was something he never really remembered so he didn't have any triggers when it came to him. Shikaku on the other hand simply tried to go for a relationship at a bad time in Yuu's life, if Yuu wasn't having his breakdowns it might've worked but with Yuu's past, it wouldn't really worked out because Yuu didn't want to put that burden on anyone. Orochimaru's research and persistance in searching for immortality gave him a clearer picture in what Yuu was going through so it worked.

And they're both reptiles, go figure.

-On another note about a sequel.

Maybe, maybe not. The best I can do is does a series of shorts of what goes on in the couple's life and maybe follow the plot somewhat. It'll be crackish and will not be a serious project for me to continue, to be honest, I wanted to continue to canon but the main reason why I stopped the story as I did was to maintain my character's integrity as a unique Oc.

I realized that if I continued this, I'll end up domesticating him and I do not want that. At all.

The reason why I posted this story in the first place was to add something different in the Oc community. I love reading other author's stories, I love reading Oc/SI stories, but after reading so many, I found myself stopping in the middle of the chapter and never reading it again because they all were structured the same way.

This isn't to bash on anyone but it was getting hard to find something different and unique and I had an idea, a plot, and the tools to contribute something just like that to our vast community. I was happy to read that many of you readers felt the same way and I wished that it was just as popular as the other fanfictions so that it reached more people but this is a start to hopefully inspire others to think outside the usual, 'reincarnated' and 'I can change the plot' idea.

And I hope that my consistant updates and my insane Oc's life showed that there are still ways to keep this community from stagnating. There are plenty of ideas that are explorable, plenty of characters we can develop differently and we shouldn't be afraid to post something different. I'll be honest and say that I was nervous in the feedback and I wanted to change my story according to what you readers wanted but I was so much more happier in writing in what I wanted.

Thank you for your support and Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.