MaruMA:Volume09:Afterword
Murata Ken’s Declaration of Friends on the Sea
“Build up those buff muscles! Musclemen! Use the power of your inner thigh! Musclemen—G’day, I’m Murata Ken, also known as Muraken.”
“Eh? Uh, I’m not a flighty character, right~ So I shouldn’t have ‘mura[1]’…”
“You’re Shibuya, so you have the ‘ya’ (canyon), right?”
“…What do you think we’re talking about, maps? Come to think of it, why are you singing the Girl’s Day song? Isn’t it already April? If you want to sing, you should be singing ‘Can We Keep a Hundred Friends’[2]!”
“Geez, I can’t stand you—How am I singing the Girl’s Day song? I’m just singing ‘Rejoice! The Followers of the Muscle Club’! Oh, yeah, Shibuya, what’s the award you want to win the most in this lifetime?”
“Award? Why are you randomly asking? Although honestly, my life these past sixteen years had nothing to do with ‘awards’. So as long as I can win an award, I don’t really care which one. Like the Police Overseer Award’s not bad, feels like an avatar of justice. But if I really want an award, it should be the ‘Best Nine’ or the ‘Golden Mitt’, I guess.”
“Whoa~ The Golden Globe! I get it, I get it. Although it’s known as the prelude to the Oscar’s, but they do have somewhat different qualities.”
“I think you got it wrong.”
“How about this then, what is the thing you treasure the most?”
“What? You change topics way too quickly. The thing I treasure the most… should be my family, friends and comrades. Mn—In a wider sense, I guess it’s my relationships? After all, that’s not something you can get just by working hard.”
“Relationships, huh. True, mm. Shibuya, you’re absolutely right, and you just entered everybody’s once-every-thirty-six-years limited time only great luck with the ladies promotion period.”
“Wait, what did you say? Once every thirty-six years? Meaning if I miss out on this, I’ll have to face the next thirty-six years without any luck with the ladies? Waa—But during this limited time only great luck with the ladies promotion period, out of all the people interested in me, there’s only one girl of the same age. Even though the others are all super pretty, they’re all guys!”
“What about the maidmer princess? She’s obviously a girl, right?”
“You say she’s a girl, but she’s female, female, a female creature!”
“Shibuya, you really are something, making friends not only with the humans on land, but the number of your friends on the sea are increasing rapidly too, everything between maidmer princesses to Sasai-san.”
“Sa-Sasai-san?”
“That’s right, Sa-sai-saan, Sasai-saaan, Sasai-saaaan born in Sakai Moving Company[3]—Chang, changchang—changlang. Chang, changchang—changlang, chang, changchang—changlang, chang, changchang—changchangchang, pang!”
“...They work hard too.”[4]
“Then, what’ll happen to Kuchii-san next week? The man crossing borders, Shibuya Yuuri seems like he’ll be getting more friends on the sea.”
“…How do I cross borders… But Murata, friendships can be built in many ways. It’s different from love, and doesn’t require a sacrifice from one person, as long as someone is in the same circumstances and age range, we can confess our worries or be honest with each other, and grow the sprout of friendship!”
“Uhm—That’s a very mature opinion! But Shibuya, don’t you have friends on earth?”
“Eh, ah? H-how is that possible?”
“Ah, what is there to be surprised about? You’re being very weird, you know. Aside from your teammates on the baseball team, the truth is you don’t have any friends, do you? Why don’t you tell me about your rotten friends or childhood friends, or the mild memories of your first love?”
“Ahh forget about any childhood friends, my family never even showed me any of my baby pictures.”
“What? Then that’s weird~ Maybe you had horns or a tail—Or perhaps you had a plate on your head, and the mark 666 somewhere on your body…”
“That’s not even human anymore… By the way, who’s the guy with 666?”
“I give up.”
“Really? Is he that far gone… Batting percentage is 6.66, I thought it’d be a foreign troop or something. But looking at that number, guess it’s not something a human can do. Wait, could it be a jersey number? Are you talking about jersey numbers?”
“I’ll advise you to look for your baby photos.”
“W-what are you doing, Murata? Why are you suddenly so serious? W-what do you know…”
Afterword
[Recap/summary, lots of stuff about the anime coming out, how surprised and flustered sensei is, puns and references with people’s names I don’t get T^T Oh, and ads for new merch, and… stuff?]
Right, we’re finally entering the book’s main topic. Because I like talking nonsense a lot, so I end up saying a ton in the foreword, and the main topic gets pushed way to the back. Ah, I thought so, there’s only one page left? Actually this book is roughly divided into three ideas. One, a brand new ‘how can this be’ development. Two, the title will now graduate from ‘Ma no-’. Three, Günter should get a chance to act cool once in a while. The first thing is, as mentioned in Murata’s Declaration of Friends on the Sea, Shibuya Yuuri is entering his ‘good luck with ladies’ phase, and three was me writing with the full intention of showing Günter in his full cool glory, that’s why I requested that the cover was ‘Günter drawn in a manly way’, and the final product really was a beautiful and handsome Günter-- Temari-san, thank you so much! Me: “Then the actual story must make him as cool as the cover!” GEG: “…There’s something wrong here, something just feels off to me.” What’s off—As long as it’s for His Majesty, the man who isn’t scared of misunderstandings, the man chosen as special ambassador with full authority, his name is Lord von Christ Günter! He’s already cool to the point no one else can reach.
The remaining point two… Why is there still ‘Ma no-‘ this time? You haven’t graduated at all? On a side note, the original title of the book was ‘As Long As I’m By the Maou’s Side’. Sounds just like a British spy movie, feels pretty good.
Anyway, we’ve finally entered a brand new chapter. As this is the long-anticipated main story, even if I throw Shibuya into an unbearably cruel situation, I will still make him live actively and energetically. Actually I’m feeling a bit dazed by the changes around me, too, like how the anime is completely different from the original work, but I will put in my all as well, hoping that the novels won’t lose to it, and I hope everyone will also accompany the characters in the book to a brand new land.
It’s all thanks to the support from all you readers, that ‘Ma’ can achieve all that it has today.
Takabayashi Tomo
| Back to Chapter 10 | Return to MA Series | Forward to Volume 10 Prologue |
References
- ↑ ‘Mura’ sounds like ‘madara’, which means spots. When you’re a steadfast and unchanging character, they say you ‘don’t have spots’.
- ↑ A popular song amongst Japanese middle schoolers
- ↑ Sasai is supposed to refer to Saralegui(?!)
- ↑ That was probably the ad jingle of the company, and Yuuri is saying the catchphrase.
