Chapter 96

AFTERWORD Where Your Eyes Don’t Go Jin here. It’s an honor to have you holding Kagerou Daze VI -Over the Dimension-. In the afterword to the last volume, Kagerou Daze V -The Deceiving-, I wrote the following: “I think we’ll be able to get Volume VI released before too long.” Tee-hee! Check it, check it, check it, dudes and dudettes!! It’s been over a year since then. …What? What happened to me? Well…I mean, ugh, it’s a year. A whole year. In hamster terms, that’s, like, half of your life. I really can’t believe this. I’m producing these books far too slowly. I bet you’d just like to reach through these pages and wring my neck, don’t you? Don’t you? Well, (falling on hands and knees) I sincerely apologize about this. Although, in my own defense, it’s been a busy year. There’s been the anime, the live shows, and all the music production I’ve been doing. I’ll make an effort to get the pace going a bit more quickly, so I’d appreciate it (he said, tearfully) if you didn’t dump me by the side of the road just yet. So, to everyone holding this volume in their hands—once again, sorry. Volume VI is done. The hero this time around was Noted Shy Kid, Haruka. This character was, shall we say, a challenge to write. It was the first time I ever tackled him really, but trying to figure out how to fully portray the “pureness” of his personality was a real bear. What do you want from me, after all? When I’m writing, I’m in a place that’s about as nonpure as nonpure can be. Positively evil, in fact. Thus, while I wrote this, I shouted to myself, “What would Haruka say in this situation?! What?! Gaaaahhh!!” on more than a couple occasions. When he and Ayano first met, the first line I had for Haruka was, “Dude, you’re hot, are you on Snapchat?” Sadly, my editor—you’d recognize him on the street, he’s the one in the iron mask—was about ready to take a pair of pliers and rip my fingernails off with them, so it was rewrite time. And here I thought I’d be allowed to have a little fun for a change! I can’t help but foster a fondness for my characters as I write for them, though. Nowadays, I’m head over heels in love with Haruka. The latter half of the story has a scene where Shintaro visits him on his deathbed, but if anything, I wish I was the one dropping by instead. “Wow, Haruka, you’re looking pretty chipper today!” “Thanks for braving the heat to visit me, Jin.” “Aww, no worries, pal!” [smirk] It would’ve been awesome. Why couldn’t I have just tossed myself -Over the Dimension-, I wonder? When’re they gonna invent that app for me? Regardless, I’m now here, writing the afterword to the latest volume…but I’m actually in a little bit of trouble. Uhmm, well, I’m homeless (gasp!). I was so busy that I wasn’t able to find a new place to rent before the lease on my old one expired. Thanks to that, I’m currently staying inside a room in the office, where I shackled myself to the chair so I could write this novel. It’s, uh, not ideal. My heart goes out to all the employees here, too. You see, when I write a novel, I usually hole myself up in my room, just writing on and on and on until I’m done. There’s no hard and fast daily schedule to speak of, so there can be times where I’m writing for ten hours a day, or even more if I’m not careful. This results in a lot of what I will give the fancy name of “garbaggio” piling up around the room. I have to eat, too, so if I don’t clean that up, the “smellzio” gets pretty bad, too. Having that kind of thing occupy an entire room in an office building…I’m sure it’s not all that tolerable, no. I can already feel all the “hatred-eo” from the rest of the staff. Sorry, guys. Really. So. I know I was keepin’ it a bit real for the past couple paragraphs, but I still have to remind you that I couldn’t write this without the kind support of everyone around me. I really can’t say enough good things about Sidu, whose trendy and attractive drawings decorate every volume of this series. I know, I know. I really feel like I need to work harder on this. And I will. Priority one is to get a new apartment, but priority two is to get working on Volume VII right away. This volume ended with Shintaro in a situation where we’ve got no idea what’s going on with him, after all. I’ll try to resolve that in the next volume, so keep an eye out for it. I’d also like to try tackling a spin-off volume sometime, like I hinted at in the previous volume. The main story comes first of course, but… I actually discussed this with the editor a bit ago. It went like this: Me: “I’d like to make a spin-off series with [censored] as the main character, but…” Editor: “You dumbass!” [his way of sayin, “Sure, great!”] Me: “Oh, Mr. Editor…[whine, whine, lick]” I think that’s how it went, anyway. So keep an eye out for that, too, but not too keen of one, if you know what I mean. In fact, if you ever thought to yourself, “I want to read more about this guy!” let me know. I’d love to hear your feedback. So! I’ll do my best to get the next volume out quick, so here’s to the future! JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)