Mushi Uta:Volume 1st Afterword
Afterword[edit]
A while ago, I went to Odaiba with my friends to have fun.
We drank and ate and played games and rode the Ferris wheel…
That was a familiar scenery to us just two, three years ago, when we were still students.
As we watched movies till late in the night, what a group of us three males thought of was to go to the hot spring. And so, we took a taxi to the nearby hot spring.
When we reached, it had just closed. By the time we turned back in a daze, the taxi had already left leaving us alone in the parking lots.
To get back to the rest we left behind, we had no choice but to walk back to the movie theatre. As we walked, the sky started to brighten up…
For some reason, that reminded me of the times of my youth.
About how I am still considered quite young, right.
After two hours.
I had collapsed on the bench in a state of apparent death. Just from walking a bit, my oxygen-starved brain had blanked out…
Somehow, that made me thought of reality.
…I have certainly aged…
Good day, this is Iwai Kyouhei.
As I do not think I am allowed to share about how the personal life of an author has nothing but tears, allow me to append some additional explanation for this volume.
This series, ‘Mushi Uta bug’, is a series of short stories serialised in the magazine, ‘The Sneaker’, under the same name and collected into a volume. Episode 04 was an exception, it was newly written and thus had a somewhat different viewpoint from the rest.
As for the setting, this series recounts the events that occurred two years prior to that of the main series, ‘Mushi Uta’. The characters from the main series will also appear here and there sporadically. However, due to past events, their personalities might be slightly different from how they are in the main series.
This ‘bug’ series will eventually converge with the main storyline, returning us to the start of the main series. However, there is definitely no intention of making this into, ‘To understand the story, buy both!’. I hope to unravel the mysteries of the story in both the main series and the ‘bug’ series concurrently as much as possible, so that people can enjoy the series no matter which it is.
But, I do have a nano-sized bit of expectations after all, if you read both series, that would make me happy (lol). I would be glad if you are able to enjoy reading how the past and the present runs in parallel and connects to the future.
Since the serialisation began, I have received lots of support and constructive feedback. I want to thank Onai-san for overseeing the work, and also Yamaguchi-san for looking over the manuscript with such a fierce eye for detail. It certainly felt like being hit by a pincer attack… truly the strongest steel comes from the strongest fire (to rephrase), it was under the help of the two of you that I was able to improve as a writer. Thank you very much.
And to Ruroo-san who delivered to us this beautiful art, I am under your care as always. I cannot repeat this enough. …I am truly sorry to send you the original manuscript late all the time…
And to the esteemed readers of this work, I pay my respects to you. Whenever I feel downcast, after reading a fan letter, I would regain my initial resolution and feel motivated again. I will continue to do my very best.
Let us meet again in the next volume or perhaps in another way.
Iwai Kyouhei
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