Once, while I was cooking over my fire in a mountain campsite, a silver car came up and stopped in front of me. The elderly couple that got out asked me for directions. I told them how to get back to the highway and they thanked me, but as they were leaving, they asked if I was fishing—I was sitting beside a river. I told them I was on a day camp and had come to eat my lunch. They were confused and, after a moment, asked if I was alone.
I was indeed alone, but rest assured. This tale is of two people traveling, along with the meetings they have along the way. They can eat together and look at the scenery with one another. Still, there is one thing I want you to understand: food can taste great when you’re alone as well. Like a warm bowl of tamago kake gohan at night.
To everyone I’ve met through my last series Have a Coffee After School, In Another World’s Café (complete, with six volumes on sale and a volume of manga), it’s been a while. And to everyone I’m meeting for the first time here, it’s good to meet you, my name is Kazamidori.
I should explain. Have a Coffee After School, In Another World’s Café is the story of a protagonist that came to this otherworld and shut himself away in his café, and of the happy day-to-day life of the customers that visit. Once it was over, I wondered for a while about what I’d write next. I’d spent so long writing that story set inside the café that I inevitably decided I wanted my next one to be set outside.
This story, Goodbye Otherworld, See You Tomorrow, has the protagonist Keisuke—along with our heroine Nito—sharing a single steam-powered vehicle as they travel a ruined world. They set up a bonfire at the side of the road, warm up their canned food while doing this and that to make things taste more enjoyable, then tend the fire under the starry sky before retiring to bed. Keisuke goes to his tent, and Nito sleeps in the car. Thus, the days pass as they travel to the next new place.
Have any of you journeyed? Journeying is leaving your home to go to another place. School trips, business trips, leaving and coming home, going to a friend’s, walking around the neighborhood...all of these things are journeys. Even going to school or work is a journey. To all of you travelers, good work today.
My job is sitting at a desk and writing stories, but I often go on journeys of my own. As I type down the words and describe a scene, I can see it. As I write a character’s speech, I can hear their voice. I wander the story with them; I go here and there, like a lost child, sometimes doubling back, before finally arriving at the scene. It’s my role as an author to take you, my reader, on that journey with me.
How was the trip this time? I can only hope that it was a good journey.
So, now that I’ve set us up a good mood, I want to tie things up with my thanks to everyone, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I need to write another two pages.
For you readers, that was just a new line. For me, though, this afterword stopped right there for two weeks. The original plan was for a four-page afterword, but then suddenly another two pages were added in. It would be great if it were due to a story I absolutely wanted to get into the afterword or something, but it isn’t. Frankly, I’m writing this at Christmas. It’s currently six p.m. Fortunately, I’ve got plenty of room, so let’s explain how this came to be. Please read on.
Once the manuscript is written, it needs to be proofread. The proofreader checks for typos, omitted words, and malapropisms, and then the author checks again. Sentences are changed, deleted, and added. It’s the final chance for the author to lay hands on it. Ideally, this process won’t change the page count. There are certain page counts that are better for publishing, and the editor wrangles the manuscript to that number during the proofing. Finishing it off without ruining that is, so to speak, where the author’s skill shines.
I understood that well. I set about the proofing brimming with confidence. Then...the book got shorter, by two pages. Strange... That shouldn’t have happened...
It’s my own fault, and so I have to spend my Christmas adding another two pages to the afterword. These pages are my Christmas present—from the editor to me, I suppose. Huh? I can write another two pages? Thank you!
Everyone, have you ever read an afterword that says so little while still being this long? I don’t think there are many. I do hope that it doesn’t sour your impressions. I’ve seen an afterword be compared to the credit roll at the end of a film before. This time, the music changed halfway through, and here we have the second part. The afterword’s too long now, and seventy-eight percent of the audience has left the cinema already. You, the person reading this now, must be the kind to stay in the cinema until the very end, right?
Anyway, I should finish it up soon.
My illustrator, Nimoshi-san, drew such wonderful illustrations. They were like the crisp dawn after the first snowfall of the year. As soon as the sketches of Keisuke and Nito arrived, I could only nod and think, “Right, this story is theirs.”
My managing editor Tanabe-san helped from beginning to end. Whenever I let things slip and glossed over things, Tanabe-san pointed them out. It was like being wounded over and over, but because of that, it’s a deeper, more vibrant, and more interesting story.
I can’t thank the proofreaders enough for bringing together all the words on the page into one cohesive whole. As someone who worries whether to push or pull a door, I have to take my hat off to them for seriously looking over each and every word.
Thanks to an unimaginable number of people’s help, this book exists, was lined up on the shop shelves, and finally arrived in your hands. Above all, I give you my deepest thanks for reading so far.
I hope that we can meet on our journeys again at some time. Well, see you tomorrow.
Kazamidori, December 2019