The other day, a novel featuring the same white doctor so prominently featured in Yashakiden: The Demon Princess was published. I was signing books at a department store in Yokohama.
That day I received quite a shock. Because Toya-san happens to inhabit the place. (A more precise term than “live,” believe me.)
Thankfully, no suspicious shadows bulged out from the line of fans, and the signing proceeded in an orderly fashion. Then in the afternoon, I found myself greeted by four girls who looked like college co-eds. They smiled at me in a manner that said another shoe was about to drop.
Huh? I couldn’t help thinking.
“This girl is the one who sent Mr. T the letter.” They pointed to the girl wearing the glasses on the end.
Ah, Mr. T and that letter. No more needs to be said about that. The woman who’d written him in the afterword mentioned in a previous volume. The stationery and the handwriting had both struck me as that of an adult woman (a compliment!), a supposition that had apparently led me in the wrong direction.
(Incidentally, the inclusion of a telephone number just to make me jealous seemed a scam on his part, and the photograph was actually of his girlfriend. What kind of man am I dealing with here?)
The girl has contributed quite consistently to the reader’s corner in The Lion magazine (Asahi Sonorama Publications), where a manga I’m writing is appearing (lots of resemblances). Every time she sends something in, it gets printed. Little gems within an already fine work. That’s why I recognized her name.
The girls and I went our separate ways, all smiles. No matter what the world, the human smile is as necessary as air.
Describing this incident to Mr. T later, he opened his eyes a bit wider and said, “Huh, I always thought it was a young lady.”
His eyes sparkled. And no wonder. College co-eds, after all. Apparently he favored youth over experience.
The assumption that Mr. T had addressed his “love letter” (see the previous installments in this story) to the aforementioned co-ed turned out to be off the mark. But since then, more letters have come his way, overflowing with feeling. It got to the point where: “There’s talk of starting a fan club for me.”
By the way, no mention of the young lady in question starting a fan club for me. Just to screw with him, I put my foot down and said, “No way.”
Well, then.
Whenever it comes time to write another installment for Non Novels, Mr. T and I decamp to a summer resort on the outskirts of Tokyo and set to work. A hotel in the city would be fine with me. But everybody at Shodensha says that once it gets past noon, the well goes dry.
In a nutshell, I’m packed off to a desert island with a guard standing over me. Have these people no respect for human dignity? That’s not necessarily why, but I have the strong sense that my pleasant trip is about to end. In fact, Seisaku Yoshida has something to do with this, though in any case, risk always attends the resort writer (I can’t go into the reasons here, but according to Mr. T, Seisaku Yoshida is “sexy”).
Yashakiden finishes in the next volume (really). Granted, it’s too soon to start getting sentimental, but I truly feel that we’ve come a long way together.
I apologize to my readers, who might in some small way be experiencing similar emotions, but take heart. The structure of a new adventure with Setsura and Mephisto is already taking shape. I’ll start writing it the day after the serialization is put to bed. I’ll make it ten volumes this time (no, just kidding).
When it comes to Maohden, Demon City Blues and Double-Faced Demon, my reaction is more muted. They have come to the end of their runs. What happens after this cannot be written.
What happens next. What comes after this. That’s what writing is always about.
Time flows inexorably towards tomorrow.
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Hideyuki Kikuchi (while watching Pet Cemetery)
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June 16, 1991