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AFTERWORD

“Too Terrible to Look At”


    Hello. JIN speaking.
    Did you enjoy Kagerou Daze 2: A Headphone Actor?

    This novel was written in the middle of summer, with the temperature outside never going below the upper eighties—not unlike the story setting I was writing about. Of course, I had the AC set to seventy-three degrees and gorged myself on pizza throughout the project, but the point remains.
    I apologize for leeching off everyone at the office in the meantime.

    Which reminds me. In the afterword to my previous novel, Kagerou Daze: In a Daze, I wrote something along the lines of “If this winds up being a flop, I’ll have to write a school romance/comedy next!” Luckily, thanks to all of you, the response I received for that book exceeded all expectations. Thanks! *smile*
    As a result, the manifesto above is not the reason why this volume wound up being a bit school romance/comedy-ish.
    The real reason is simply that I have grown starved for affection. Rest assured about that, please!
    This volume, much like the last, was written in the midst of a busy schedule of music composing and live concerts. But it was no big deal…as long as you consider a breakneck, death-march schedule that made me feel like I was about to froth at the mouth no big deal.
    No, no, it really wasn’t hard at all, you know? It’s true.
    Just thinking about starting work on Volume 3 gets me so excited, it makes me want to release everything I’ve eaten today right into the toilet!

    My HP gauge, which has gradually been falling over time, recently went from yellow to red and flashing.
    I’m writing this Volume 2 afterword right after finishing the novel, amidst what I could only call a hazy sense of consciousness. I’m afraid I’m going to mess up and write something dirty without even realizing it. It makes me, and my big, luscious double Ds that just won’t quit, terribly frightened.

    Though I really don’t have to worry. I’m sure my editor (Ikebo) will clean up and de-curse everything before it reaches the readers’ hands, after all. I know he will. Yep.
    (* Editor’s note: This afterword is being published as-is per author request.)

    Speaking of dirty jokes, the way I kept writing “chin chin” (the name of a rose variety, not the name of a certain body part) in the last volume’s afterword nowadays makes me cringe every time my mom out in the country (age fifty-two) calls me up and says, “I’m telling everyone I know that my son’s written a novel, all right? So keep up the good work!”
    And yet, when my sister (age eighteen) told me, “You’ve be surprised how many of my friends are reading it!” I was instead filled with an alarming sense of excitement.
    Hey, sister’s friends, are you reading this? Yeah, I’m that girl’s brother! *grin*
    My sister also tells me I resemble Shintaro, the novel character, a lot.
    I can’t say I agree with her, and to be frank I consider Shintaro to be a pretty gross and distasteful character overall, so I was less than thrilled with this assessment. But then I took another perspective.

    Maybe, just maybe, I could take advantage of this.
    If I had Shintaro get friendly with some women in the novel, maybe that’d help me get a little more lovin’ attention from the ladies around me in real life. No, it has to! I’m sure! Maybe!
    I mean, remember how Shintaro busted up his PC in Volume 1? My computer just crashed and burned, too, giving me some kind of indecipherable error as it did. You have to admit it—there’s some kind of deep, intertwined connection going on here.
    Thus, Shintaro has more than a little bit of fun in this volume. So there you go. I’ll be expecting someone to send me amusement-park tickets in the mail before long. I can’t wait!

    Along similar lines, I’ve been sitting every day at my PC, pants down, wondering if today’s the day when a cute girl will appear on-screen, start talking to me, and never go away for me, too. But there’s no sign of her yet, weirdly. Why? It honestly baffles me.

    The other day, though, I stumbled upon an ad for an adult site that, no matter how many times I closed it, kept on popping up anyway.
    This isn’t exactly how I imagined things would unfold, but I’ve been keeping my mental state stable lately by talking to this ad on a daily basis. Thanks, God.

    Well, it’s just about time to say my good-byes again for now.
    I received gracious support from all kinds of wonderful people as I wrote this volume. Thanks very much for that.
    Also, thanks in advance to my readers for their continued support, of course!
    Let’s meet up in the afterword to Volume 3, all right? See you—’till then!

JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)


















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