Afterword

Ao Oni — LNCrawler · All chapters

Afterword

This is the final volume in the Ao Oni series. It was about four years ago now that I was first asked, “Would you write the novel version of this incredibly popular freeware game?” At the time, I was honestly surprised. I’d been involved in novelizations for games before and written countless stories where people die one after the other, but those were all essentially in the mystery genre. The murderer was always human. I’d never written a genuine horror story where people were attacked by an honest-to-god monster. I had to question my editor about whether I was really the right man for the job. But in the end, the original game was so intriguing and I had been wanting to try writing something different, so I took the job without much thought... When the book actually came out, the reception shocked me. I received so many letters from readers and words of encouragement that, before I even realized it, people were calling this my most iconic title. Life can be so unpredictable. It’s all thanks to noprops for creating such a compelling scenario and Ms. Karin Suzuragi’s beautiful illustrations. I’m merely riding on the coattails of their greatness. I am truly grateful to have been involved in such an enjoyable project for so long.

I’ve had a rough idea of where I wanted this story to go since volume one. I didn’t think I’d actually get to put all five volumes into writing, however, so I thought it would just be sort of a secret backstory that only I got to enjoy. The reason the entire thing has come to fruition is thanks to the readers supporting the series this whole time. Thank you all very, very much. I decided I would end things at an early stage—a chance meeting in the classroom. I’m overjoyed that this final scene, which has been incubating in my mind for oh-so-long, was brought to life in such splendor by Ms. Suzuragi’s wonderful illustrations.

And so, the Ao Oni series comes to an end with this volume. But that doesn’t mean Hiroshi and Shun’s adventures are over. My mind’s already racing with new ideas, and I hope I get the chance to continue their stories again one day. So I’m not going to say goodbye for now. Here’s to meeting again sometime!

-Kenji Kuroda

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Ao Oni: Forever

by Kenji Kuroda

Translated by Alexander Keller-Nelson

Edited by Megan Denton

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Illustrations by Karin Suzuragi

First published in Japan in 2016 by PHP Institute, Tokyo.

Publication rights for this English edition arranged through PHP Institute, Tokyo.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

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Ebook edition 1.0: February 2019