Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume27 Postscript

Afterword

“Chisato-san”.

“Absentee’s chance”.

⸻Words that are difficult to read aloud, this volume’s yokozunas.

Especially in the case of “Chisato-san”, the five hiragana characters are consecutive, and “ち”, “さ” and “と” are similar, so even if you follow it visually, it still gets confusing. Even if it were to be written “Chitosa-chin” by mistake, at first glance you would probably still read it as “Chisato-san”.

There are names that are also made up of three hiragana characters, but aren’t difficult, like “Kazuyo-san” or “Midori-san” or “Akane-san”.

Hello, it’s Konno.

Now that the three-month “postponement period”, that I don’t know whether it was long or short, is over, I am pleased to present my new book, “Maria-sama ga Miteru: In Search of You”.

Since the release of the previous volume, “Crisscross”, I’ve received quite a few letters with predictions of where the white card is hidden in the corner (or in the middle), which I’ve enjoyed.

I didn’t have time to keep accurate statistics, so I can only give a rough impression, but I feel like about 60% to 70% gave the correct answer. As for me, I’m relieved. Not because I’m a sore loser, but because I’ve scattered hints throughout the text with the feeling that it would be nice if other people could solve it. It’s boring if everyone solves it and there’s a problem if no one does, right?

So far, I haven’t come across an answer that seems more correct than the correct answer. Like with the many spell-like words that Noriko heard on her way to check the answers, even if they almost form a sentence, unless you know how to search for the card based on that, it doesn’t work as a hint. Is it obvious?

However, there may be some great treasures hidden in the letters that I have yet to read.

Recently, or rather, in the past few months, two events related to Catholicism have happened that are close to me.

First one.

A good friend of mine from the first year of high school was being baptized.

I had heard that she was attending church for a while, but I was surprised to hear that she was even getting baptized. Why was I so surprised? If our alma mater was a school like Lillian Girls’ Academy, it would be normal to have many friends like this, but it had nothing to do with Catholicism. On top of that, the friend’s mother’s family home is a temple, so I was double surprised. When I heard that, I couldn’t help but scream. ⸻ “You’re Shimako!”

Thinking it would be a good idea, I interviewed the Real Shimako (at a coffee shop after returning from a concert) and was able to hear a lot of things about the modern day Catholic Church. As expected, my knowledge extends to kindergarten and a few years of Sunday school. It is frozen in time of about 30 years ago, so a lot has changed since then. I was quite shocked by how modern the wordings of the prayers are. Because I thought that prayer is something that never changed. “Erm, I made Yumi say the prayer that I was chanting,” I realized, but the festival was already over. It’s fine. Lillian Girls’ Academy is a school with a long tradition, so they have inherited the same old prayers. Therefore, in “Maria-sama ga Miteru” I will continue to write “Ave Maria” and “Our Father, who art in heaven”.

Second one.

A wonderful encounter with a sister.

That’s amazing. Last December, when I went to the kindergarten that I had graduated from for the first time in a while, I saw two sisters standing and talking in front of a convent on the same grounds. As I passed by, I greeted them, and after exchanging a few words, it turned out that both of them were sisters there when I was in kindergarten and one of them was my favorite homeroom teacher sister. That sister had already transferred from kindergarten about 30 years ago, so I was surprised to see her there. It seems that she had only recently come back there. The sisters also remembered me very well, and meeting like this after a long time, we put our hands together like high school girls and (with utmost zeal) shouted “Kya!”. I could only think of it as us being guided by Maria-sama.

I was invited to “come and hang out”, so I visited the monastery after the New Year. I didn’t really feel like doing any research, I was just chatting and feeling nostalgic, but I learned a lot.

When the sisters learned that I was writing a novel series set in a Catholic girls’ school, they were very happy. I received some kind words, such as, “You have a role to play, so do your best”. My heart warmed, as if I had received a blessing from Maria-sama.

Although I am not Catholic, I will continue writing about it.

Maria-sama, please watch over me.

Konno Oyuki

Translator's Notes

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