Thank you for reading Accel World 27: The Fourth Acceleration.
I’m sure more than a few of you recall that I wrote in my last afterword that “this volume (Volume 26) [is] delayed the most out of any previous volume,” and now I have gone and updated your recollections. I also wrote, “I will be working hard this year,” so why…? That is the general feeling, but I really did work hard!
The fact is, however, in 2023, the writing of short stories for every series outside of the main story overlapped with various supervisory tasks, and while I was taking on all of this work in my gloomy office, the long summer and the short autumn passed by. Before I knew it, the year’s end was upon me. By the time this volume goes on sale, I believe I will have also laid out a forecast for my work in 2024, and I would very much like to make this the year I focus as much as possible on the main story.
With all of that said, a few words on the details of Volume 27. I was finally able to put into motion the players from the fourth Accelerated World, aka Dread Drive 2047, who appeared in the last scene of the previous volume. Given that I’d previously written that AA2038 was a shooter, BB2039 was a fighter, and CC2040 was a hack-and-slash, I decided to make DD the MOBA genre of game, and since the hero unit is the usual for a MOBA, the motif for the Drive Linkers is nature and superheroes.
The first out of the gate, Urocyon, does have quite the informal air to him, hmm? When I design characters, I often don’t set their manner of speech, but rather leave it to how I’m feeling in the moment when I’m actually writing their dialogue. Because of this, there is occasionally overlap in speech styles. However, the fact that Urocyon’s way of speaking is a little bit Niko-ish is simply a coincidence and does not mean he is her long-lost brother or some such!
Also, the top-ranked Beings that have made appearances in name only thus far all come out together, with the exception of Nyx, and this more or less concludes the debuts of all the named characters in Accel World. I do regret that I was unable to show off the student council president at the Eternal Girls’ Academy junior high division, but I am certain she will play a large role in the next volume, the real start of battle.
“Leap to Infinity,” the story at the end of this volume, was written as a special bonus for people who went to see Infinite Burst, released in theaters in 2016, and tells the tale of Risa Tsukiori/Nitride Uncia, who appeared for only a brief moment in Volume 22. I intend to have her join the main story in the next volume, so I do hope you’ll continue to stick with Accel World as it plunges into its climax at long last!
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Normally, this is where I would write about the author’s recent happenings, but…this year really has been all about work! And yet the publication gets delayed and delayed again, and I’ve inconvenienced illustrator HIMA as well, so in 2024, I will work hard—no, I will toil relentlessly!
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Reki Kawahara
A day in December 2023