Chapter 47

AFTERWORD Next story preview! A fishy new item has turned up at the antiques shop, Sonohara-dou. Kuon plans to buy and resell it for a hefty sum, but then a mysterious group shows up to snatch it! His hired transport, Celty, suffers a night of terror as a result. There are others lurking around, too, in search of quick money. What will happen to Celty? And what happens when the would-be villain Shijima finally makes a big move?! Somehow, Yahiro ends up appearing in the minors’ division of Rakuei Gym’s Mixed-Species Martial Arts Tournament. Kuon tries to collect intel on the opponents so he can get some of the prize money, and Yahiro becomes a standout combatant without realizing it. Later on, Yahiro has to deal with a mysterious boy named Jami. Meanwhile, Kuon realizes that there’s a mysterious group plotting behind the adult division of the tournament, which even Libei will compete in—and the group has its sights on Himeka and Shinra for some reason! I might give you one of these two ideas, or I might do neither! …I’m sorry. My plans aren’t set in stone at all. But whether I use one of these stories or something else entirely, I’m pretty sure the mysterious lad we just saw at the end of this volume will be involved. Hope you’re looking forward to more life in the Headless Rider’s Ikebukuro! Anyway, hi, I’m Narita. The in-universe story that appears in SHx3, Owl of the Peeping Dead, isn’t based on any particular franchise. I just wanted to explore how scary it might be if you had people who went way too far, either as fans or as haters. No matter the series, whenever fans get together offline and get really heated about stuff, whether malicious or not, I just hope that it doesn’t turn into a scene of violence or nasty arguments. Also, I’ll admit that I invented this Owl of the Peeping Dead series and its live-action movie adaptation…and then I started getting jealous of it. So your punch line is that I’m the one who’s experiencing the direst break from reality… Please, folks, take care not to end up like me! Now, at the point this book comes out in Japan, January 10, 2015, the new series of the Durarara!! anime will be airing! Let me tell you, it’s been such a long road since the plans for a second season were first hatched… I’m so overjoyed! Also, it’s going to be split into three cours, so there’s a long way yet to go, even now that it’s airing. I’ve already done my supervising pass on the script for the final episode. I can tell you that parts that ran a little long in the original novels have been smartly compacted into a three-cour run that has a great dramatic tempo to it! After seeing the anime staff in the production process, hearing the enthusiasm and effort in the voices of the actors during recording sessions, I thought ominously, Oh, crap. This is good. It’s going to be too good. Durarara!!’s entire image is going to get taken over by this anime! I still haven’t seen the first episode, but I’m bursting with anticipation to experience the anime along with all of you! And as the original creator, I’ve got to keep writing novels that live up to that anime at the very least, so I hope you check them out! Also, on the twenty-ninth of this month in Japan, there’s a new PS Vita game coming out, Durarara!! Relay! We’ve also got the Durarara!! Re;Dollars manga drawn by Aogiri in the pages of G Fantasy, along with other adaptations. Keep checking out the ever-expanding Durarara!! universe! I’ve also got a bit of stuff to promote… This month, I’m attempting my first ever “two books on one day” schedule with Dengeki Bunko! I’ve got a spin-off of the Fate series called Fate/strange Fake coming out as a series with Dengeki Bunko, and it’s out now, too! Please do check it out! Lastly, my usual acknowledgments. To my editors, Papio and Anami, and everyone at ASCII Media Works and the printers, I’m sorry for making you put up with me for two books in a single month… To the excellent folks who are bringing Durarara!! to life in different forms of media, including our new anime series. To the family, friends, authors, and illustrators who support me. To Suzuhito Yasuda, who manages to create such tirelessly wonderful illustrations for my books, despite being easily busier than me with his own career. But most of all, to you all for picking up the continuation of Durarara!! SH. Thank you, thank you all! I hope that we meet again soon! November 2014—Ryohgo Narita