Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Afterword
Afterword[edit]
If you picked them up one at a time, welcome back. If you bought them all at once, welcome.
This is Kamachi Kazuma.
With the kanji in the “Item” part of the title reading “girls’ coexistence”, one of the major themes of the series has been the girls’ bonds with their teammates and you could say the threat of betrayal acts as the other side of that coin, but this one explored the idea of betrayal in a different way from Frenda in Volume 4. I tried not to make it seem too nasty, but what did you think? On the other hand, when several people gather and live together, wouldn’t it seem twisted in its own way if they didn’t have any complaints or secrets at all?
Also, a note for all of you confused by the Two Wings last time. The world of weaponry is a confusing mess of different numberings and nicknames, so you can’t take anything at face value. I just hope this helps you imagine what the focus and essence of the Item series is.
By the way, what to do with Halloween was a little tricky since this series takes place before Index OT1. I ended up deciding it didn’t matter when it caught on in Japan because I was focused on the blonde-haired blue-eyed Seivelun sisters.
As for the enemy boss Norsitro Chatellenie, she took that form because I was wondering what the most frightening weapon is as laser weapons, railguns, and such become more and more practical. The tech is a little more retro in this series since it takes places in the past, but this still seemed plenty realistic. Supposedly it could become a next-gen strategic weapon surpassing nukes, but is that really true? The version in the story wasn’t just a swarm. It also allowed weather control attacks by stirring up the air over a wide area to change the air pressure. …By focusing on the idea of small individual powers combining in great number, you could probably find other ways of playing with the swarm concept.
Weaponizing weather and natural disasters is an idea I’ve also used in my other series from time to time. Maybe I see that as a line that humans aren’t meant to cross. …The scary part is that I get the feeling we really could accomplish it if we put our minds to it.
I give my thanks to my illustrator Nilitsu-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. For the new outfits, all I can do is apologize! Thank you so much for sticking with me this long.
And I give my thanks to the readers. Who is the most frightening member of Item? After digging down into the other characters, maybe it isn’t Mugino Shizuri anymore? I’m curious about all of your rankings. Thank you so much for reading this far!!
It is time to close the pages for now while praying that the pages of the next book will be opened.
And I lay my pen down for now.
All the trial and error before multi-rotors took over is so weird and fascinating, don’t you think?
-Kamachi Kazuma