Afterword

And so, Strike the Blood, Volume 4 goes off to the presses.

With the fourth volume, this series has hit its second year. As the author, I feel like I’ve been sluggish every day like usual with no sense of growth whatsoever, but the product (and only the product) seems to be coming along fine, so please hang in there with me. It actually feels like the publication pace has increased. A little. Somehow.

Now, I feel like I have to come out right away and say I’m sorry, mainly for the treatment of Natsuki here. Actually, I intended to give Natsuki a crucial role back in the planning stage, but when it came to her actually getting her turn to lead… I mean, what in the world happened there?

Of course, I think everyone who has read until the final page can tell that it was really a simple matter of page count. Often, parts of the current episode are used to set up developments in future ones, so she’ll be playing a much larger role in the next volume and beyond. I’m still very sorry for all the people who saw our plans in the mail magazine, etc., and who had their hopes built up for Natsuki to do more here. Incidentally, it was the editor who flatly turned down my suggestion that “It’s okay to make Natsuki the cover girl for the fourth volume” so please direct any complaints to the editorial department.

This time, I received more criticism that Kojou was getting too many lucky scenes, so next time I’ll put him through the wringer (by company standards)—it’ll feel like it’s physically impossible for him to even flirt.

Maybe this is a reason why people don’t feel like enough happened, so just think of the next volume and after as being everyone’s revenge.

Now, just as touched on even in the text of this book, Itogami Island’s Hollow Eve Festival uses Halloween motifs. Maybe it’s not quite the same of late, but until I moved to a certain city a few years back, Halloween had a very fictional air to it; it didn’t really feel like an event you actually experienced in real life. It’s hard for single men to imagine any event existing in the entertainment world on the same level as Valentine’s Day.

Now in spite of all that, this city really made a big deal about Halloween, with Halloween season bringing an army of cosplayers parading through and occupying the center of the city, with little boys and girls in costumes (for children’s events) wandering around the shopping districts trick-or-treating every year like it was a normal thing, and it hit me: Whoa, this thing is real.

So, I’ve revived quite a bit of the impact of that moment with this, the Hollow Eve Festival arc, and that will continue. More to the point, next volume is the main event, so stay tuned.

So this ended up being last, but to Manyako, who decorated yet another volume with alluring illustrations, you truly have my thanks. Even though I hit you with overly clichéd requests like “How ’bout everyone in costume” and “Make it feel cute,” you really outdid yourself and I’m truly grateful. Let me also thank Yuzawa the editor once more and everyone who was involved in getting this work into circulation.

Finally, my deepest thanks to all of you who have read this book.

I very much hope to see you for the next volume.

Gakuto Mikumo