Horizon:Volume 10A Afterword

Afterword

And that was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon X-A. We’ve finally reached the double digits and that’s all thanks to you. Thank you so much.

Anyway, a direct confrontation with the Ten Spears and the Azuchi has finally begun, but let’s talk about the Iga Crossing that was referenced in the story. Nowadays, the Iga Crossing might not seem like much since it was just traveling a short distance, but you have to remember it happened in an age without paved roads or even that many roads at all. Kyoto was controlled by Akechi and it was an unfamiliar place for Ieyasu who was from the east. Plus, he only had 34 people with him. If people only have to defeat 34 people to take the head of a powerful ruler, there’s a good chance anyone asked to assist will attack to claim the credit. Given the circumstances, Ieyasu was panicked from the start and even considered killing himself at a temple in Mitsuhide-controlled Kyoto, but the others stopped him. That man has a lot of stories about panicking or soiling himself whenever something happens, so working for him couldn’t have been easy…

Now, there are differing accounts on whether he had any trouble on the way, but given Musashi’s policy, I turned it into a history recreation in the story. Many different commanders demonstrated their skills and earned themselves a future during the Iga Crossing, but Hattori Hanzou didn’t actually join with Ieyasu here. He was already serving Ieyasu and performed some negotiations when they were crossing his home of Iga. The Iga and the Koga would end up serving Tokugawa later, so this is also a story concerning the Iga and Koga ninja.

Now for the chat.

“Got any nice memories from your school days?”

“In elementary school, my homeroom teacher (M) was having an affair with the next class’s homeroom teacher (F). One day, his wife stormed into class and caused a big scene about it.”

“I ask for nice memories and this is what you give me?”

“Well, she suddenly showed up and began strangling our teacher and tried to throw him out the window, so we had no idea what was going on. Girls were crying, boys were running away, and some other teachers ran in to try and get her to stop. Reenacting it got really popular with us for a while afterwards, so the principal had to officially ban that.”

“Principals get stuck with those jobs at every school, huh?”

Anyway, my writing background music this time was Stage 1&6 from Konami’s Crisis Force. Man, chiptunes from shoot ‘em ups really get to me at times like this. It’s been digitalized, so go check it out.

Oh, and a Horizon…social network game? has started. You should find it if you search for “The King and his Eight Companions”. Anyway, a lot came up this time, but I’ll leave you with this:

“Who was the most flustered?”

Next up is Part B. Wait just a while longer.

July 2017. A fairly hot morning.

-Kawakami Minoru

Back to Chapter 24

Return to Main Page

Forward to Illustrations