As I revised this story, I kept asking myself what personal experience had led me to write it. A long time passed before I finally found an answer.
Back in the summer of my third year of high school, we had an optional mock exam, but I was totally uninterested.
Naturally, I’d informed my homeroom teacher that I would absolutely not be taking part, but I guess Japanese is a tricky language, and by “optional” they meant “mandatory.”
Things went back and forth for a while, and in the end, I found myself with my butt in a chair at the test venue.
Answer sheets and problems were handed out, and the mock exam got underway.
The problem was this: I’m a pretty diligent person, and I showed up with mechanical pencils and an eraser, just as I was supposed to. Unfortunately, I’d somehow left my motivation at home (or possibly in the distant past).
I was in no state to solve any problems. But there I was, in the middle of the test, and bored out of my mind. Unable to come up with anything better to do, I used the bubbles on the answer sheet to make eight-bit art.
The bubbles were vertical ellipses, and my attempt at making a girl didn’t really work out. Landscapes were much more feasible, however, and I think I managed a pretty decent Tokyo skyline.
I finished off two drawings, gathered up my things during a break, and bailed.
The skies were clear, so I let my feet take me all the way to the zoo. It was a blazing hot day, and I decided that, in the future, I wanted to be a Russian tortoise.
But where are my manners? My name is Setsuka Narumi, and my favorite season is summer. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
A few formalities:
To my editor, thank you for guiding this book to completion. You kept coming back with ideas and information, and they made revisions so much easier. Sorry for being such a cynic. I hope we can keep working together.
To my illustrator, ALmic, thank you for drawing such lovely characters. When I got the proofs, I was astounded by your creative choices. Your ideas proved as inspirational as your art, and I can’t thank you enough.
I’d also like to thank everyone in editorial, everyone who selected me for the Eighteenth MF Bunko J New Writer Prize, and everyone involved in publishing and sales.
And finally, a hearty thanks to everyone who picked up this book.
Setsuka Narumi