Kämpfer:Volume 8 Afterword

Volume 7 Afterword

I'm Tsukiji. Here with the newest volume of Kämpfer for you all. The previous volume was like a brief intermission, but this volume's plot charges forward dramatically. Really charges ahead.

Thanks to all of you, Kämpfer continues to be released volume by volume, edition by edition, and the story is heating up nicely. Please keep supporting us.

Now then, I might have mentioned this before, but I have a cat at home. An American Shorthair, a very cute cat. And this fellow absolutely loves paper.

A novel isn't done just because the writing's finished. It goes through proofreading, then comes back to the author. Then you revise any unsatisfying phrasing or correct mistakes the proofreader pointed out.

At this stage, you get the galley proofs—pages printed just like they will be in the actual book—sent over. And my cat loves these galley proofs.

When the proofs arrive, the cat has to inspect them first. In our house, she's the boss. Whether it's a delivery or regular mail, she sniffs them to judge their quality. If the cat is satisfied, it's fine, but she loves the proofs so much she'll bite and lick them to taste them. (At which point I take the proofs away).

The cat always insists on sitting on these proofs. I mean it literally. When I need to start work and spread the proofs out on the desk, she inevitably comes and sits right on them. If I try to move her, she threatens me. If I force her off, she bites me, then yowls and scratches me. Then she plops back down and does as she pleases. She's practically a terrorist. So I tried ignoring her, but then she just started sleeping on them, so that didn't work either. In short, when dealing with a terrorist, you have no choice but to use force. My wrists are covered in scratches from our constant battles. I just want to work normally.

This cat also sits in front of the monitor or on the keyboard. But her favorite is the galley proofs. I could put the proofs aside and do other work, but then they end up full of bite marks and slobber stains—it's a real problem, they just become the cat's toy. This animal's complete lack of consideration constantly amazes me. From the standpoint of understanding human speech, the internal organ dolls are better. But hey, the cat is still very cute, so I'll add that disclaimer here.

Switching topics, let's talk about this volume. As you can see, it's a pool story, set in summer. You know, back in Volume 5, Higashida asked Natsuru about his summer plans, right? The content for this volume was planned long ago; it's not something I suddenly threw together. Really, it's not~

Honestly, it was a calculated move—aiming for this volume to come out in summer to match the season, haha. ...My apologies, I got carried away. It was actually a coincidence.

So, summer naturally means swimsuits, which naturally means Senmu-sensei's illustrations feature swimsuits. Natsuru, naturally, is in a swimsuit too and looks very cute, but everyone, stay calm—this person is male! Even though the chest is sizable, it's still a guy! While writing things like this, I'm also thinking, hopefully this swimsuit appearance will boost the protagonist's popularity even more.

Just talking about female Natsuru's figure and measurements... they aren't actually finalized. At a rough glance, the best figure among the girls is Shizuku's, which is practically a given. Next, I initially thought it would be Sakura-san and Natsuru, but I wonder if it might be Mikoto (undecided). Then after that, Natsuru, with Sakura-san trailing by just a bit—maybe that's how it is. Then, lagging behind by a fair margin—or quite a lot—is Akane, but after transforming, she should rank much higher, I suppose.

As for the plot, a pool trope is hard to reuse once you've done it, so I thought I'd use it thoroughly this time. Should we have a wardrobe malfunction too~? Just a standard malfunction isn't interesting; it should be more unusual. Like an earthquake making the swimsuit fall off, or a fire burning it off, etc. Although both are pretty unrealistic, Kämpfer itself is a very unrealistic story, so maybe such recklessness is acceptable? Even if a localized fire breaks out, just jump into the pool and it's OK, right?

Well, that's the general idea. The next volume is scheduled for release in July. The content continues from this volume. The hand extended by Sakura-san will pierce through Natsuru's heart. (Kidding)

Please look forward to it.

February 2008

Translator's Notes

This chapter was translated from the Chinese translation of the original Japanese text.

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