Afterword. Pleased to meet you, I’m Hachijo, the author of the Hirano and Kagiura novel, the Sasaki and Miyano novel, and now, this newest volume in the spin-off series. After we did the book about the first-years, I was so hoping we would get to work with the second-years, and now here we are. And about the time this book comes out, the anime should be running on TV, which is extremely exciting. Congratulations, Harusono! Picking up where the last volume left off, we start with Kuresawa’s story. His unaffected love for the people he cherishes makes him a rare and valuable friend for Miya, I think. This made me realize that everyone has a story to tell, even Tashiro, who looks very bold with the way he treats everyone equally but strikes a balance, not being too wild or uninhibited. I’m sure there must be plenty of readers out there who were hoping that the story of Miya’s school trip, which was never told in the main series, would get a chance to come out somewhere along the line. Especially after it appeared in Volume 1 of the Hirano and Kagiura comics! Several parts of that story and this one overlap, so once you’ve read the story in this book, you might enjoy going back to look at that tale of a year ago… At least, I hope you will! The discussion on the night of the school trip was a series of discoveries and “moe” moments based on Harusono’s plot notes. I could watch a scene of these guys chatting forever. Being able to see these boys’ school lives from a variety of angles is part of the charm of “SasaMiya.” The heart-pounding White Day episode… Well, I don’t have anything further to say about that. Please enjoy the story! The image of Sasaki and Hirano during free time was just me imagining how they would encourage each other if they bumped into one another during exams. Please take care of your health, everyone! Finally, to Harusono, our editor Sakurazawa, everyone at the Gene Editorial Department, and everyone who played a part in getting this book into print, thank you—and thank you to all our readers! Kotoko Hachijo
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Afterword. Hi there, Harusono here! We’re delighted to release the second Sasaki and Miyano novel, following them into their second year. Thanks so much for reading! Kotoko Hachijo handled writing duties again. My thanks to her! I was really hoping for a second novel, something that would show how the boys’ relationships changed from the youthful naïveté of their first year to the more complex and varied relationships of their second. I’m so happy we were able to provide that. In the first book, each chapter was written from a different perspective, so you could dip into whichever story you felt like reading at any given time. For this volume, although the chapters are still basically self-contained, they also flow into each other, which will hopefully make everything easier to follow. The part in chapter 1 about opening the door wasn’t in the original plot; that was Hachijo’s touch. The first time I read it, I was screaming inside, like, “Oooooh, Kuresawa! That’s you! That’s exactly the kind of guy you are!” Gosh, he’s cute. He’s got this urge to be cool that only shows up in the presence of his girlfriend, but he’s not very good at it. Just your average awkward high school boy. Hachijo and I had exactly the same read on him, and I’m so grateful. The stuff in this chapter about a “show of gratitude” relates to chapter 40 in Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 8. Chapter 2 is pretty much “The School Trip: The Boys’ Love Talk ~with a whiff of Hirano and Kagiura~.” In the manga, Sasaki and Miyano don’t have much to do with the story… Or at least, so I thought! We didn’t get a chance to have an all–Hirano and Kagiura chapter in this book, but this seemed like a good opportunity to point Kuresawa in their direction. Personally, I love catching just a hint of other characters while we’re experiencing some other perspective. Chapter 3: White Day. For this one, we have a cameo by Niibashi, who shows up in Hirano and Kagiura. He’s sort of to that series what Kuresawa is to Sasaki and Miyano. I happen to like that kind of person. Chapter 4 is Sasaki and Miyano’s take on White Day. This takes place between the graduation ceremony at the end of Volume 7 of the manga and the beginning of chapter 40 at the start of Volume 8. I was eager for Volume 8 to start with the third-years in April, at the beginning of the school year, so I put this idea aside, thinking I might try it as a bonus story sometime. Chapter 5 is the story of Hirano and Sasaki in chapter 32 of the manga (Volume 6). As with the rest, it’s something that didn’t quite make it into the comic. I really wanted to include this story, so we did it, even though they’re both third-years. (Their friends are second-years, so it still counts.) Hirano and Sasaki tended to regard each other as “classmates,” but I wonder if, by the time they graduated, they’d become friends. Each of them can be lively and cheerful when he’s with someone he’s close to, but when they’re with each other, suddenly they go quiet. There’s not much eye-catching action in this one; this is a story of Sasaki slowly getting his thoughts together. The restrained atmosphere lent itself to monologues, something you can really only do in a novel. I’m so glad we got to do one! So there you have it. This novel gave me another chance to bring out a bunch of stories I’d been looking for an opportunity to tell. It probably would have taken me a good year or two to draw them all myself, so I’m happy they could see the light of day in this format. If you have a chance, please feel free to send us your thoughts! Attn: Kotoko Hachijo and/or Shou Harusono c/o Yen Press 150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor New York, NY 10001