Afterword

It’s been a while. Yuki Yaku here.

This series is already on its seventh volume. If we include the short-story collection I published between Volumes 6 and 7, I’ve actually had the pleasure of writing eight Tomozaki books.

Since debuting as an author, my life has been a series of new experiences. In part, that’s because I myself have leaped into new realms, but whatever the reason, life certainly isn’t boring these days. Just since the previous volume went on sale, The Yomiuri Chukosei Shimbun (a weekly newspaper for teens) published an enormous photo of me, and I figured at that point, I might as well finally show my face on Twitter, so that happened.

But now that I’ve gone and revealed myself, going about life has become riskier. I’ve got to take appearances into consideration, which I suppose means it won’t be so easy to go around making offhand statements like I have in the past. Needless to say, I can’t say things that might harm my image—you could even call that a taboo for a professional writer.

In which case, I probably shouldn’t take this opportunity to discuss Gumi-chan’s quads.

For example, it feels much too risky to touch on the fact that while discussions of thighs usually focus on width, represented by the x-axis, and length, represented by the y-axis, the drawing of Gumi-chan on the cover of this volume also depicts the swell of the muscle as it recedes from just above her knee to the front of her thigh, producing a sense of depth that we might call the z-axis, thereby giving the drawing a fresh sense of physicality.

Likewise, by emphasizing all three axes, the drawing conveys a sense that despite Gumi-chan’s lazy personality, she naturally has a nice degree of muscle definition in her quads and therefore must be a normie with high natural potential. However, mentioning the connection between her thigh muscles and her top-tier sense of composure would definitely detract from my image, so I had no choice but to keep my thoughts on this matter to myself.

I therefore considered discussing the timidity of youth suggested by the fact that she’s not wearing earrings even though you’d think she would be, but for some reason, I seem to be out of space, so I’m afraid I’ll have to skip that conversation as well.

On to the acknowledgments.

To my illustrator, Fly-san. When I DMed you to ask if I could share a screenshot of one of our chats on Twitter and you said, “Go ahead and share it all,” I was floored by your coolness. Thank you for everything. I’m a fan.

To Iwaasa-san, my editor. Remember the time we talked on the phone about this book in the middle of the night, then the next day, I went to your office at Shogakukan and stayed there until the next morning working on the manuscript with you, and afterward, you said good-bye to me as I left? I was just wondering if you actually live at Shogakukan.

Finally, to all my readers. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of tweets such as “Yaku’s book is late, wonder if he’s busy searching himself” or “He hasn’t posted on Twitter lately, must be playing Smash” or “Good luck on Smash!” but I’d really appreciate if you could try not to forget that I also do write books now and then. Thank you for your ongoing support.

I hope you’ll join me again for the next volume.

Yuki Yaku