I have set free the beast, the first two chapters are out. Ignore me as I anxiously chew on the bars of its empty cage.

It hasn't sunk in the commitment I've just made, but I have had such a fun time with planning this whole series and writing this fic that I'm not going to let the future daunt me in this moment.

I hope that my humble daydream, born from my love for fantasy, finds a comfy spot in the thousands of wind breaker fics and creates a safe space for people to escape and frolick in the fields.

Here's a sneak peak of from Chapter 1 (I'm counting the prologue, technically chapter 1 as chapter 0)!

Sat in the dark of the alleyway, the light of the setting sun that filtered in cast a shine to his eyes that had Sakura faltering. They spelt trouble — the amber orbs threatening him with unwavering loyalty so devout it felt less like a choice and more like an inevitable vow.  Without another word, Sakura pivoted away from Nirei and made a tactical retreat, practically sprinting out of the alleyway. Doing his best to erase Nirei’s look of surprise from his mind, Sakura’s gut told him that staying any longer around that guy, especially one like that, would get him into too much unnecessary trouble in the future. He never did mix well with the selfless heroic type.

here are some rambles from the past week:

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[4 Sep 2025 // ch. 7]

me: how long does it take for broken ribs to heal

me a minute later: oh wait, magic

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[4 Sep 2025 // ch. 3]

a little ritual I like to do before I proof read anything is skim through the chapter and screech while clutching my head. really helps to clear my mind.

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[5 Sep 2025 // ch. 3]

sometimes refining your work means writing out progressively more gut wrenching lines and having to bear the burden of all your previous failed attempts.

every time I think it can’t get worse, I realise I’m not satisfied with it and realise I, in fact, can make it more tragic, and I wail at myself.

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[6 Sep 2025 // ch. 7]

was pondering about sakura's characterisation, the trajectory of his character growth/development and the core themes for the series and ended up sobbing at the realisation that at this point, sakura would not understand the feeling of loss when you leave places because he's never belonged before and/or developed attachments in that manner

(PSA this is just my own opinion within the context of my au but after more thought realised this could be applied to canon!sakura at the very beginning of the series too)

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[7 Sep 2025 // ch. 3]

as I'm editing and tweaking this, I'm realising the importance of writing chronologically and not re-reading too much at a time, because going back to edit previous chapters is making me mess up the character progression. Like, yes sakura would indeed be more likely to throw hands at suo in ch. 3 but maybe not as much by the end of ch. 4

also, I've pondered and decided to slow burn this friendship to the best of my abilities. send your thoughts and prayers.

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[8-9 Sep 2025 // ch. 3]

me: how much of a little shit is suo and how feral/petty is sakura in response to suo

me and @lostsowly: yes

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LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE TITLE.

I know it sounds a bit abstract but there's a backstory behind this title, HEAR ME OUT.

So Wind Breaker is obviously wind themed yes, and there's a lot of symbolism about that but I'm not going to get into it now. I wanted to honour that, so I wanted at least the very first fic title to be inspired by that.

(the series title is also wind themed, it's called walking in the wind, iykyk)

Now, I'm going to hold your hand and slowly walk you along my thought process. Wind → Air → Oxygen → Breathing. This is the very first fic, the introduction to the whole shebang, the baby that will crawl, run and fly. Still with me? Good.

Did you know that when babies are born, their lungs that are filled with fluid need to transition to breath oxygen from the environment? Did you know that in order to do that, their little hearts will have oxygenated blood flow from the right atrium to the left? (source)

SO, with a little artistic flair, suspension of belief, and the mental capacity of a person awake at 2AM: water (deoxygenated blood) in the left (heart), air (oxygenated blood) in the right (heart).

MEANING. This fic where Sakura meets Suo and Nirei for the first time, can be compared to Sakura breathing for the first time, truly living for the first time.

[11 May 2025] finally writing the fantasy adventure wbk idea after a few weeks of brainstorming and it's been very enlightening and humbling. The brainstorming sessions mainly consist of lots trial and error, me muttering fervently alone in my room in intersperses, and a lot of guttural noises and forehead slapping.

Anyway! (did not finish writing the rest of the post LMAO)

[20 August 2025] but if I had to summarise it: about a week after I made this post (I think on the 30th of April?), I word-vomited so hard on world building, lore, the canon timeline and side stories I wanted to include, the whole shebang, for like 10 days straight and then wrote the prologue for the first fic of the entire series. (this time, not only did I not finish writing the rest of the post (again), I also did not have a proper intro to the post sksks)

[31 August 2025] ALRIGHT FINALLY A PROPER FULLY FLESHED UPDATE. I'm not going to get up until I finish this damn post. I am also laughing to myself as I'm writing this because I am faced again with the issue of "god where do I even begin" (I swear this is going to be a running theme throughout this whole series).

Alright, the very first fic of the series, aka the story of how Sakura met Suo and Nirei. I'll say this now: for those of you who have read/watched Frieren, yes, I was inspired by Stark's introduction. Plus, with how Sakura was introduced in Wind Breaker, it seemed fitting to me that he'd somehow find himself helping people out without realising it, and being the responsible and kind-hearted person he is, he'd stick around to see it through.

I also had way too much fun weaving parts of canon into this fic and playing around with how asshole-y Suo is in Sakura's eyes when they meet for the first time. Also, fight scenes. Can you hear me screaming into the void? I was not prepared for them and though I'm very good at biting the bullet and improvising, adapting and overcoming, it was really tough writing the last two chapters because my god was there so much fighting.

A short, one against five, is still okay. Fun even. But three against a whole nest of monsters? And those three having very different fighting styles? I'm giving myself two pats on the back for pulling through.

Seeing as how I am now writing the epilogue chapter, I can safely say that the fic is standing at a total of six chapters— unless I decide to split the fifth chapter into two because it's LONG —inclusive of the prologue and epilogue. Somehow, with each chapter, the word count increases because what is consistency and restraint.

(I mean, I knew I wanted this series to really test my writing capabilities, and it's always been a secret dream of mine to be one of those authors with insane chonky word counts for their long running fully fledged au's/series, but as I'm finishing this fic, I am wishing my future self good luck, you are strongly encouraged to pace yourself and take breaks.)

due to an unfortunate combination of things going on in my life, I have not had the time to proof read or even skim through the new chapter 😭

the worst part is a) this chapter is the longest in the entire fic, around 6K, and b) the things that have delayed me in doing anything related to this fic is going to keep being a Thing™ until the end of this week

therefore I'm going to delay posting chapter 4 to next week, some time between Wednesday and Friday, so I can (hopefully) have enough time to proof read and put out a chapter that I'm satisfied with