Frosted Wings is an Alternate Universe Freedom Planet fanfiction written by Writing Poke. The series is currently split into two stories and has 26 chapters and 69,871 words total.
Fall of the Crimson King introduces the reader to Yuki, a falcon who had been living on her own ever since she was just an egg. As a result of injuring a member of the Red Scarves, she started to be hunted by their ranks. When Yuuto, a member of the Shoheki, saw Yuki fend off one of the Scarves, he immediately enlists the help of her in defeating the Crimson King, the boss of the rival gang, the Kakuchu. (Complete)
The sequel, Rewound Memories, centers around two seemingly unsolvable cases; one of mass murder, and the recent death of Kyushei. Minato, a detective from the Shang Mu Investigative Offices, gets hired by Mayor Zao in an attempt to prove his innocence in the Kyushei murder case. As more details are revealed during the investigation, it becomes slowly clear that the two cases correlate. (Dead; the author has started a rewrite, Mafia Rebirth
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This fanfiction contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Early chapters of Fall of the Crimson King talk about the Crimson King's plans of obtaining the "Affinity Soup", mentioned to be able to awaken an Affinity's fullest potential. With the death of the Crimson King before he got hold of the recipe, this story arc ends up dropped and also wasn't reintroduced in Rewound Memories.
- Action Girl: Yuki could count as one.
- Adjective Animal Alehouse: The Jade Dragon.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: While Fall of the Crimson King centers around Yuki, its sequel story, Rewound Memories, revolves around Minato. Yuki herself still makes some smaller appearances though.
- Antagonist Abilities: A little more on the downplayed side but still applying, especially with the Affinity of the Big Bad Enhanced Performance, that boosts his speed and power immensely for a split second.
- Anti-Hero: While also Gangbangers, the Shoheki are still considered the Lesser of Two Evils since they are the only faction Yuki is allied with.
- Their Grey-and-Gray Morality is further shown when it's revealed that they were secretly working with the Red Scarves to help with taking out the Kakuchu.
- Anyone Can Die: While this definitely applies, it's downplayed as the main characters are still less likely to die.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: One of the ninjas early in the story.
- Astral Projection: Minato's Rewind allows her to look through past events, and during this process, she becomes a projection that can move freely through the world.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: An example would be Lavender Doctor's poisonous ability.
- Big Bad:
- In Fall of the Crimson King it's obviously Kyushei alias the Crimson King.
- Big Eater: Downplayed with Yuki.
- Big "NO!":
- Said by Yuuto before he throws a knife at Marigold Mandarin, to prevent him from attempting to light Yuki on fire.
- Marigold screams it before getting his head and leg crushed by a car.
- Bittersweet Ending: While the Crimson King, who was earlier revealed to be Kyushei, was killed by the hands of Yuki, the story didn't end on a good note.
- Yuuto, who had previously exhausted himself from the encounter against Marigold Mandarin, wasn't able to aid Yuki during the fight, saddening and upsetting her. It's only when Yuuto wakes up that he hears the mailbox that contains a message from Yuki, stating her anger towards him, and any attempt of apologizing is futile; their relationship was destroyed.
- Yuki's depression goes even farther as Kyushei was not only still seen as a Nice Guy who was now brutally murdered, but also right about his claims.
- Bloodier and Gorier: While the games based on the fanfiction use Bloodless Carnage and Symbolic Blood in the form of flower petals and Cherry Blossoms, Frosted Wings doesn't censor any injuries and is generally more brutal.
- Bold Inflation: The Crimson King typically speaks in bold text to represent his darker voice.
- Calling Your Attacks: The Boss cried out the name of the Affinity he copied; Crimson King's Enhanced Performance.
- Chase Scene: The entirety of the Convoy Mission.
- Central Theme: The central theme of Frosted Wings is "redemption".
- Close-Range Combatant: A lot of Affinity users qualify for this.
- Cerulean Samurai's and Crimson King's Affinities are only as effective at close-range.
- Same with The Boss, who replicated both of their Affinities.
- Cerulean Samurai's and Crimson King's Affinities are only as effective at close-range.
- Collapsing Lair: Justified, as Yuki's giant icicle launches Kyushei against the hideout's supporting structures.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Yuki is a bird and assassin while Minato is a panda and a detective.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The Crimson King had two encounters that were in his favor.
- Gyoja didn't have the slightest chance against him as the King knew of his fatal weakness; transforming into strings made it easier for Gyoja to be ripped apart, especially through the use of Enhanced Performance.
- The first half of his fight with Yuki was pretty much one-sided.
- The Crimson King had two encounters that were in his favor.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The Crimson King successfully crushing Yuki's spirit during their last fight.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: Applies to Yuki. Even though she had been hunted by the Red Scarves before that, the events of the first story have her infiltrate a gang and commit mass murder.
- Darker and Edgier: While the game's themes and the character of Brevon weren't lighthearted at all, Frosted Wings stays more consistent with its darker tones.
- Disabled Snarker: Emerald Emissary is mute yet snarky in his mind.
- Dislikes the New Guy: When Yuki was introduced to the Court, Marigold Mandarin could not stand her at all.
- Dumb Muscle: Cerulean Samurai.
- Elemental Powers: Certain Affinities grant their users elemental powers.
- Yuki (Ice Manipulation/Blue Ice): An Ice Person.
- Unnamed male canine (unnamed Affinity): Shock and Awe.
- Unnamed male rabbit (unnamed Affinity): Sand Blaster.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The evolved form of Yuki's Ice Manipulation, Blue Ice, which she acquired during her fight against the Crimson King.
- Elite Mooks: Daichi and Jocho.
- Elsewhere Fic: The entirety of the story happens at a different time than the games and without most of Freedom Planet's main cast.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: While the Crimson King is a fire dragon, he does not actually use any fire-related abilities. As such, this trope is only downplayed.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
- Fall of the Crimson King is about, well, the fall of the Crimson King.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: The unnamed canine from chapter four gave Yuki an explanation of how his electric Nunchaku work.
- Exposed to the Elements: Yuki wears the same outfit in a warmer and colder climate. That's justified as she grew up in the snowfields.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entirely of Fall of the Crimson King, except for the prologue chapters, lasted only two-three days.
- The Faceless: The Crimson King throughout most of Fall of the Crimson King.
- Foreshadowing
- Genius Bruiser: The Crimson King always strives to know his enemies' weaknesses and to exploit them.
- Glass Cannon: Yuki is horribly lethal with her ice attacks but can't take many blows herself.
- Healing Herb: In this universe, the Crystal Flower petals from the games can also be used as medicine.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power
- Heroic Second Wind: Justified, as Yuki got hold of a petal syringe, which brings her back to full health.
- Invisible Means Undodgeable: Yuki's ability to freeze a person's blood.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This happens to Kyushei when he gets hit by Yuki's giant icicle.
- Long-Range Fighter: Yuki's Ice Manipulation gives her some long-range options by allowing to launch icicles or ice fists.
- MacGuffin: Subverted, as the recipe for the "Affinity Soup" didn't end up being important.
- Musical Theme Naming:
- Every Fall of the Crimson King chapter that features the Crimson King prominently are named after songs produced by King Crimson.
- Chapter 8: Century Schizoid Man.
- Chapter 11 and 12: Court of the Crimson King.
- Chapter 13: Moonchild.
- Chapter 17: I Talk to the Wind.
- Chapter 18 and 19: Epitaph.
- Remaining references to bands/songs in Fall of the Crimson King:
- Chapter 15: Highway to Hell by AC/DC.
- Chapter 16: Here I Go Again by Whitesnake.
- Epilogue: The Moody Blues.
- Likewise, tracks produced by The Moody Blues are the namesake for all Rewound Memories chapters that focus on Minato:
- Chapter 3: Dawn Is A Feeling.
- Chapter 5: Another Morning.
- Every Fall of the Crimson King chapter that features the Crimson King prominently are named after songs produced by King Crimson.
- Necessary Drawback: Without the cooldown of Enhanced Performance, Kyushei would be even more unstoppable.
- Police Are Useless:
- The police officers in Fall of the Crimson King, Yun, Kaede, and Namari, played a card game while Yuki's was fighting the Crimson King.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Court as a whole.
- Redemption Equals Death: Emerald Emissary.
- Serial Killer: In Rewound Memories, Yuki has become an assassin who kills her victims by freezing their blood. This has caused the public to assume that a serial killer with the powers to cause heart attacks is set loose on Shang Mu.
- Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness
- Spell My Name with a "The": The Boss.
- Stock Phrases:"M-Ma'am, what's going on?! I-I want mommy!"— Unnamed fox paperboy"I did, you fool! It's not my fault it doesn't work on gas masks and has such a long cooldown!"— Lavender Doctor"This isn't over, you know!"— Lavender Doctor
- Start of Darkness: The ending of the Fall of the Crimson King is the start of Yuki's descent into darkness. Upset over Yuuto's betrayal and after Kyushei's death, she is lacking a direction in life to take. The money she obtained for the operation made her thinking about "going a step further".
- In Rewound Memories, she is then revealed to have become an assassin.
- She even started to become like Kyushei; she wants to keep her identity a secret and adapts his approach of obtaining as much information about a target as possible and exploiting its weaknesses.
- Squashed Flat: What happens to Marigold Mandarin, at least to his head and arm, after his fight with Yuki and Yuuto.
- Superpower Lottery: Getting an Affinity, and a powerful/effective one, is mostly luck-based.
- Took a Level in Badass: Chapter 9 of Fall of the Crimson King has Yuki obtain a new ability through training; the ability to freeze someone's blood.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In chapter 15, The Boss used his mechanical parts to mimic the properties of Enhanced Performance, Crimson King's affinity, and punched a hole through Cerulean Samurai's chest. Making sure that the Cerulean Samurai would be killed, The Boss followed this up by a barrage of bullets from his minigun.
- Trash Talk: Some coming from an unnamed ninja early in the story.
- Will They or Won't They?: There are some milder moments that imply Yuki and Yuuto would have at least become friends if it was not for Yuuto unintentionally leaving her behind when it mattered most. Yuuto is somewhat implied to been in love with her.
