Chapter 113

AFTERWORD Kicking Sand in Your Eyes JIN here. I know it’s been a little while, but hey. Thanks for waiting over a year for me after Volume VI—the next volume is finally here, and I put everything I have into it. Man oh man, has a lot been going on in the past year. I lost my home; some of the staff left…It’s been a giant panic party, if you will. It hasn’t exactly been a ball all the time, but… Huh? Ball? Balls? Big swingin’ balls? (grins) Anyway, how did you like Kagerou Daze VII -From the Darkness-? This volume focuses mainly on everyone’s favorite boss, ol’ Kido herself, and—no need to mince words here—in the entire history of Kagerou Daze, she was the most hellish character to write from a subjective point of view. Haruka in the previous volume was pretty challenging, too, making me wail “Ahhh, Haruka, why do you have to be such a pure-minded bastard?” as I typed away, but this was even harder than that. Like, seriously. Tsubomi in her younger years is different from me both in gender and in age, so I had very little to go on in terms of understanding her feelings. It was tough, but I can’t exactly hop over to the local elementary school to figure out how little girls tick, either. Not if I don’t want some police company in short order. Thus, you had the awesome sight of a twenty-five-year-old man (occupation: unknown) sitting night after night, muttering “Come on, Tsubomiiii, tell me what you’re thinking already” as he toiled endlessly at the creative process. That’s Tsubomi Kido. Exciting stuff, isn’t it? The Kagerou Daze novel story is finally at the final act. I can’t say for sure until I start writing it, to be honest, but I’m thinking that the next volume will be the last. Hard to believe that it’s already been four years since this project kicked off, isn’t it? I’ve made it this far mainly thanks to all the fellow staffers carrying me on, to say nothing of all the people reading this. I’m so packed with thankfulness, my nipples are practically erect with it (a hard act to keep up for four years). To be honest, I’m really torn right now figuring out how the final volume will be structured. I basically have two scenarios in mind that I consider to be the “correct” way to end this. There’s a theme I’ve been trying to bring across during this story, too, and I’m not sure which way is best to express that at the very end. At the very least, I’m pretty sure the kids who appear in the story will be faced with a pretty big decision. I hope you’ll all be looking forward to it. I’ve been working on my abs a lot lately in order to live up to all your expectations. (Writing? Psh.) By the way, Kagerou Daze will be making a sort of theatrical debut this winter. It’s something called an “attraction movie,” the sort of thing where your seat rumbles and stuff while you watch the film. Really neat. I can’t wait to see it, but the semicircular canals in my ears are just as weak as they are in the characters that appear in the movie. I’m not sure my sense of balance will let me survive the entire showing. It took just one attraction ride during a trip to the theme park the other day to get me barfing (sadly). While the friends I went with were enjoying the day, I had to sit on a bench and watch a bunch of costumed characters perform onstage. I’ll never forget that day. I do hear, however, that the theater setup is adjusted, so it’ll be easy on people who get quickly nauseated by that sort of thing. Even if that describes you, I hope you’ll see it if you have the chance. I’ll be joining you. Anyway, this afterword went by surprisingly fast. It’s almost over now, in fact. This was another challenging volume to write, but the more work you put into a story, the more you can’t help but love it. Tsubomi was greatly affected in this volume by Rin and Azami—two women with flower-inspired names. It makes me wonder how the rest of the gang see her, now that she’s grown up and in full bloom—and how that comes across to you, the reader, for that matter. The next volume, too, will have its own protagonist. A rather awkward one, and one who I think is supremely deserving of having the “hero” role when it’s all said and done. It might be down to the wire for this group of kids’ battle against the Kagerou Daze, but who can say how it’ll turn out? I sure can’t wait to see. (What? I have to write it first? Psh.) I’m getting the feeling that I’m being too serious with this afterword. I feel like I’m trying to wrap it up a little too nicely and neatly. That’s crazy! What am I doing?! This cannot stand! Balls, balls, balls, balls, balls!! There we go. Mission accomplished. See you all in the next volume! JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)