Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi Volume 2 Afterword

Afterword

Rejoice, the second volume is published.

I know these words written by myself is pretty pointless, but I'm truly grateful that the second volume of 'Sunday Without God' is released. It is thanks to your reads that this volume is published. Thank you very much. For the first time in my life, I received what they call fan letters. These are my treasures.

Life truly is full of the unexpected.

For example, there was something I encountered.

It happened on a certain day, at the Ryugoku station of the Chuo-Sobu line. I was standing on the platform towards Chiba because of stuff. It was probably a holiday. The weather was good, and I could see many bringing their families.

One of these groups were a family, two parents bringing a boy who was probably in lower elementary.

So the boy suddenly shouted,

“That Chuo-Sobu train's really fast!"

I felt it was strange. The Chuo-Sobu line did have a Limited Express, but the boy was pointing at the local line which stopped at every station, so it probably was not fast or anything. For me, the train would accelerate obediently, and decelerate according to schedule, reaching the stations on time. Being too early or too later was no good, so I was curious about the boy's words.

And the boy continued,

“Look at how it's so new!"

I did not understand what he was saying at first, but on a closer look, I realized the train he was talking about was a new model, the still rare futuristic model.

New=new model=fast.

I was a little shocked. I probably used to think that way, the time when being cool was justice. I probably experienced thought processes like him, like whether it was anime or manga, the new version would surely be faster and stronger.

After twenty years, I knew too much, and could not no longer be that naive. Chuo-Sobu is Chuo-Sobu, and it did not matter to me whether it was a sparkling new model or a worn down old method

The father next to the kid listened with a '???' look,  so it seemed he had become a full-fledged adult (and just to note, the mother next to him was not listening at all, going "Oh really?"). I was pretty much in the middle, going "Kids these days..." thinking how I used to be like this.

…………………………Eh? Something seemed to be amiss. I wanted to talk about how 'Life is full of the unexpected', but the story here is more like 'kids have really interesting viewpoints'. Where did I go wrong? Well, it is a fine sorry[story?], so I shall leave it and not delete it. I do not have the time to rewrite.

Yes, I have no time. The emphasis of this afterword is not about how much the editor has been pressuring me, but I am really short on time. The editor told me this was a 'baptism', and I really do feel this way. I guess it would be something like que sera sera, or a blessing in disguise. Something like that.

Now then, I have used up all my regrets for tomorrow, so I shall end things off here.

Thank you very much.

This is all I have to say, and I earnestly wish for the next day we meet again.

Kimihito Irie

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