Dear Readers,

Today marks the completion of the prequel for my first-ever DC fanfic Katana | R. Grayson and I am so so happy that you all supported me and appreciated my work. The journey for Sayuri's character started in the September of 2019 when I started writing Katana and back then I had no idea that she will become such a lovable character that you all would want me to write a prequel too.

I had been very excited about the prequel and I think it shows because this story got completed in just 14 days. Nope, this is no joke, it only took me two weeks to get it all written out due to the tremendous feedback I got from you lovely readers and the inspiration that kicked in from the playlist this story has.

Music, I have found, is a great tool when it comes to writing. If I have to sum up this story through songs and you want to listen to something to get the feel of the story, here are my top picks: Battlefield by SVRCINA, Armor by Landon Austin, Love and War by Fluerie, Game of Survival by Ruelle, Lovely by Billie Eilish and Khalid, and last but definitely not the least, Hands of Love by Miley Cyrus.

(I tear up all the time when I listen to Battlefield because it reminds me of the last scene I wrote of Sayuri and Ryuu in that prison cell).

Also, I would like to say my special thanks to the following readers who have been with me through Katana | R. Grayson and are now also here for its prequel Warrior | S. Drake:

GuyOfMany

penguinflops34

Viola130831

Grusume

The_chicken_wing

garip_bir_insan

-obsessedreader-

And all those who I couldn't mention here, I am extremely thankful to you as well for reading this story. I am glad I got your support and feel blessed to have such supportive readers.

Sayuri holds a very special place in my heart and so do both the books I have written about her. She was the first character I had written for a DC fanfic and back then I was nervous because I was new to the fandom and I was already doing a lot of experimentation with my story writing.

I wanted to give people a love story that was not just written for the sake of it being a love story. It was supposed to be a story about moving on, self-healing, and falling in love again without replacing the person who our protagonist had first fallen for. I was nervous because to me it was a sensitive topic and I did not know how the general audience would perceive it. But I am so so glad to see that not only did I get very positive feedback on Katana, you guys have really appreciated the prequel too.

Special thanks to Grusume whose comment on Katana about wanting to read the prequel gave me the idea to start writing Warrior. And now that we have come to the end, this prequel has made me realize how far I've come from the time I was writing Katana. 

I will obviously be editing and revamping Katana now that Warrior is complete and I have made many alterations to the timeline that must be kept consistent in both stories. For those of you who haven't read Katana yet, you can think of it as a sequel to this story as it starts from right where I have ended this fanfic. 

And for all of you who will be rereading Katana after this prequel, please excuse all the errors that story might have as it is not yet fully edited. I hope to edit it very soon but have been busy these days with my thesis project.

Anyways coming back to the story, you guys know I take this last Acknowledgements chapter to share my experience on writing the characters and the scenes the story contains. this time I decided to insert trigger warnings because I didn't want any reader to feel unprepared and shocked by anything I have written. I hope you guys did not have any issues this time and I am adding trigger warnings disclaimers to the rest of my stories too though it will take time as I sift through and find out which chapters need disclaimers (I certainly don't remember all of them by heart and have to reread).

My favorite character to write in this story was Ryuu Ishikawa (and I think some of you might have guessed because, well, I have this awful habit to kill my darlings). Back when I was writing Katana, Ryuu was a very secondary aspect of the story but in this fanfic, I got to explore his character in detail and I loved writing each and every chapter that involved him.

Although the later chapters gave me just as much pain as you guys must have gone through upon seeing how he reached his end, still I love this adorable boy who wanted to end the war without any side experiencing pain. Back when I first wrote the chapter with him and Sayuri as kids and briefly mentioned his aversion to pain, I hadn't known how big an aspect it would become for his character. And I am very proud of how his character turned out and I hope you guys enjoyed reading about him too. 

Jack Drake, on the other hand, is one of my least favorite characters to write about but this time I twisted the story a little by putting Janet in a bad light instead (maybe I shouldn't have done that but whatever). Also, some of you guys didn't notice but my decision of making Miyu Haga the traitor was also purely instinctive and not thought out beforehand. I was going to turn Keiji into the traitor but then decided against it at the very last moment for of course, more drama and tragedy. 

If you guys have any questions regarding anything that I might have failed to cover in the story, or if you want to know anything I didn't quite focus on because I had to keep the story fast paced, do let me know and I will answer here.

However, all these little notes aside, we have finally reached the end of Sayuri and Ryuu's story so I have gotta bid my adieus here. 

Once again, thanks a lot for reading and supporting both this story and Katana | R. Grayson. Hope you all have a great day and stay safe and blessed.

Love from,

Zenina Dawson