First of all I just want to apologise for suddenly deleting my story without explanation. There's no good reason for that honestly, I just panicked in the heat of the moment after watching more of the anime and saw no alternative. I honestly thought I was going to forget about doing this but then I thought again and realised "Maybe I can make this work"

For starters, I'm going to admit, I was very naive and under-prepared for writing a fanfiction about Rising of the Shield Hero. I'd only watched the first two episodes of the anime and none of the Light Novel content and was pretty much jumping in blind without knowing as much as I needed to. So I took a step back and admitted to myself that I needed to watch more of the anime in order to fully gauge where I might be going. And boy was I glad I did! Seriously, it was a much darker and grimmer world than I originally thought, and the way Naofumi is constantly beaten down and spited just for being the Shield Hero almost made me want to reach through and strangle Spear Hero, Malty, the King and all the other jerks there! Dark much? Now I can see why Naofumi is twisted and messed up, and why his character works so well because of his transformation from the curious newcomer to the distrusting loner and how he interacts with the world as a whole.

That last part is also a response to one of the reviewers on my previous story who feared I might not be a fan of Naofumi's character and why his portrayal is part of what makes ROTSH (for me) such a gripping anime. I really do see why it works, and how it makes the story great! I just thought, maybe I could put in an OC who might be a little wiser to the way fantasy worlds work, but will still be kicked around and despised just for being the Shield Hero. He might just respond a little differently to how Naofumi did (although that was completely justified). So the plot will move along the same, there might just be some bumps and twists along the way as my OC reacts differently. There might be SOME similarities with Naofumi's character, I mean it would just be stupid to ignore how being kicked around, vilified and ignored for something you couldn't help might affect one's character, but I will try my best to make him as different in as many ways as I can.

I'm also going to take that reviewer's advice and start from a fresh beginning. I must admit, trying to start with a Japanese background without knowing much about it was a stupid move. So he's going to be a veteran World of Warcraft player from an English-speaking country who was a warrior tank, and as such may be a bit of a faster learner as to how the Shield works and be able to get to grips with the fantasy elements of the new world and in so doing play things out a little wiser.

I'm also going to take the time and do my research, watch the anime and know what I'm talking about before publishing any chapters. I also intend to write a few chapters out first and review them before publishing the first one, just so I can be satisfied with how the story is progressing and correct any mistakes. So I can't promise when the first redux chapter is going to come out, but when it does, I'm not going to bore you with a backstory like I did in the first chapter...in fact, that'll only cover a few lines, maybe a paragraph but we'll kick right off where I ended the first chapter of the original, with my OC having just arrived in the world

Thank you to all those who reviewed, like, followed and gave a favourite to my first story, it meant a lot and I feel awful about letting both you all and myself down by not carrying on and providing an explanation as to why I deleted it. Hopefully I can make it up to you in this one. I'll see you in the first chapter!

With sincere apologies and thanks, theoneandonlyedster