AFTERWORD

Hello for the first time in two months. This is Mamare Touno.

Thank you for buying Log Horizon, Vol. 5: Sunday in Akiba. This is the last Log Horizon of the year. Boy, was this a long year. Well, it’s over now, anyway! …As much as I’d love to say that, as far as the publishing industry’s concerned, it’s already 2012. Not only that, but it’s spring.

Those of you who work may know what I’m talking about, but it’s normal for the times when you make things and the times when those things appear in stores to be out of sync. For the people who’ve picked up this book, it’s probably December already, but Touno’s physical body is currently trapped in the October Country.

Little by little, the days are getting colder, the sunlight is getting more welcome, and I’m missing my blankets more and more. That’s right: The season demands naps. They say “autumn is for eating” and “autumn is for sports,” but for Touno, autumn is for sleeping. Even the most important one for writers—“autumn is for reading”—can’t win out over naps.

Now then, as if having had my books outed to my family in Volume 4 was a load off my mind, I began living the NEET (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”) life at home. I was pretty much a NEET already, but now that I have books out, I’m a professional NEET. Authorized, company NEET (international first-class), married NEET (international second-class), and now professional NEET (domestic first-class, restrictions partially lifted).

NEET life means days as free and easy as Moominvalley. I thought it would be a blissful life where I got to write every single day, but I was unable to hold up under the pressure from all directions, and I’m being made to clean the house from top to bottom because this is “a good opportunity.” Making a NEET do physical labor is a violation of the International NEET Charter, you know. Of course, that “from all directions” euphemism was me being politically correct, and what I meant was “violent compulsion from Sister Touno.” *Cough, cough*

The rice cooker. Kaboom. The stove. Kaboom. The refrigerator. Kaboom.

…That was how that turned out, and we ended up getting rid of our household effects. It was more like moving house than a general housecleaning, or rather, more like fleeing in the night than moving house. If bald people are said to have neat and tidy hairstyles, then the Touno house is terribly neat and tidy. How did this happen?

Since we lost the refrigerator, Sister Touno’s ice cream stockpile was wiped out. We’re heading into winter, so there’s no need to stockpile ice cream, but Sister Touno is in high dudgeon. Until my sister started middle school, she thought that Häagen-Dazs was ice cream for grown-ups, so unless you had a license, you couldn’t eat it. …Because that was what our mother taught her.

At our house, Lady Borden was treated as a substitute ice cream to pass the Häagen-Dazs age check. My most sincere apologies to Madame Lady Borden.

In terms of that sort of comparison, at my house, grated daikon with dried young sardines was considered a step below grated daikon with salmon roe. Even regarding the sardines, my mom told us anecdotes about “sinful mankind, who eats fish this tiny.” That’s an awfully awkward thing to hear during a meal. On top of that, we thought anchovies were baby smelt. Both of us, me and Sister Touno.

Now that I think about it, my mom was really mean.

The reason I can’t eat natto is because my mom told me, “Deep in the interior of Chiba, there’s a cultivation pool used to rot the beans, and lots of people have to do forced labor there.” Boy, was that a horrible story. A decade or so later, when I asked her about it, she laughed and said, “I was just messing with you, because you were a smart aleck.”

At the time, I really wondered whether I should do something about her, but come to think of it, I feed Sister Touno a lot of made-up trivia, too, so I’m guilty of the same crime. Blood will tell, I guess.

Just the other day, before I went out, I told her, “I have to go check on the final printing process; I’m going to the printing office to adjust the color of the ink. It’s a really important job for authors.” Sister Touno saw me off with an honest “Don’t cause trouble for people.” She can’t have imagined I was actually on my way to a yakiniku party. (Although she eventually found out, and I got punched.)

Due to these circumstances, I feel like asking my supervising editor, Ms. Fta, to handle the “heroine” frame of this afterword. If we continue down this path, the social pressure from Sister Touno is going to increase. That means physical injuries for Touno.

All right: Wrapping up the customary Touno family circumstances afterword report, this has been Log Horizon, Vol. 5.

It’s an everyday story with Akiba’s festival as its stage, a breather after the tense raid battle that lasted through the previous volume. The romantic circumstances that surround Shiroe will keep right on evolving, so it’s also the story where Akatsuki and Minori both set themselves in motion.

Just as Lady Borden isn’t a substitute for Häagen-Dazs, and grated daikon with dried young sardines isn’t an inferior version of grated daikon with salmon roe, both girls are simply different people. The theme of this volume is being unable to see that completely natural thing as being completely natural, and the workings of that hopeless feeling of comparing yourself to someone else. Still, without that pain and darkness, it’s likely that dawn would never come.

The items listed on the character status screens at the beginning of each chapter in this volume were collected on Twitter in September and October 2011. I used items from 545454248, IGM_masamune, YoshiSondermann, hige_mg, hpsuke, iron007dd22, kane_yon, kuroyagi6, roki_a, sawame_ja, shibachi, shisei_ssi, vaiso, yamaneeeeee, and zrk_. Thank you very much!! I can’t list all your names here, but I’m grateful to everyone who submitted entries. Log Horizon is created through your support.

For details, and for the latest news, visit http://mamare.net. You’ll find information about Mamare Touno that isn’t Log Horizon–related there as well. The “Maoyuu—Demon King and Hero” side story volume with drama CD is on sale and popular. Look for information on the comicalization project there, too!

Finally, Shoji Masuda, who produced this volume as well; the illustrator, Kazuhiro Hara (I’m sorry I was late with the revised manuscript); Mochichi Hashimoto, who drew the hideout map illustration; Kikue Tamura, who drew the festival map; 24, who drew the gourmet food illustrations; Tsubakiya Design, who handled the design work; little F_ta of the editorial department! And Oha, I’m in your debt yet again! Thank you very much!

Now all that’s left is for you to savor this book. Bon appétit!

Mamare “You mustn’t leave nameko mushrooms with grated daikon out of the party” Touno

Inside Akatsuki, something clicked into place.

Lowering her body into a slight crouch, she stopped breathing for a moment. The image that rose into her mind with that stance acted as a trigger and activated a special skill. The Tracker’s “Hide Shadow.” Ordinarily, the special ability could be activated only from the command menu, but Akatsuki had added conditions to her martial arts and trained until she could activate it.

Almost as if her life force was draining away, the sense of presence evaporated from her black-clad body. Akatsuki was fading.

Even Akatsuki stopped knowing where she was. As the demon sword flew toward her, its attack stood out sharply in her fixed field of vision. Akatsuki was leaving herself open to an attack that would strike home. However, another Akatsuki was watching the scene from somewhere else. “Hide Shadow” had evolved to “Shadow Lurk,” and the separated life force was moving straight across the battlefield.

Akatsuki ran through the murderer’s attacks, which whipped up a freezing blizzard.

The shadow that looked like Akatsuki and Akatsuki’s perspective were in two different places.

As proof, Akatsuki’s shadow flickered and blinked, blurring as though the blizzard was erasing it. Like a phantom, it negated every attack.

In the midst of an overwhelming sense of acceleration, Akatsuki reached the murderer’s back.

She wasn’t able to hold this state for long periods.

The special skill was active for only a brief time, while Akatsuki stopped breathing and froze her heart. A skill that could take an ability ordinarily used for infiltration work or evading monsters’ senses, and forcibly activate it during combat: This was the Mystery Akatsuki had acquired.

Pointless.

With the speed of a swallow in flight, Akatsuki swung her short sword.

The attack, which had come at the murderer suddenly from behind, left a shallow cut on his neck. To think that even when she’d launched an attack on a vital spot from that illusion, he’d been able to avoid a fatal wound. It brought home to her just how amazing the demon sword was. But…

Pointless.

There was no delight at having a wish fulfilled in Akatsuki’s heart.

She held her breath and activated Shadow Lurk again. The shadow double appeared immediately, and she used it as camouflage to leap out of the way of a triple thrust from the demon sword.

Evading the large pellets of ice that accompanied the thrusts, Akatsuki sped up even further, leaping onto the murderer’s sword.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

AUTHOR: MAMARE TOUNO

A STRANGE LIFE-FORM THAT INHABITS THE TOKYO BOKUTOU SHITAMACHI AREA. IT’S BEEN TOSSING HALF-BAKED TEXT INTO A CORNER OF THE INTERNET SINCE THE YEAR 2000 OR SO. IT’S A FULLY AUTOMATIC, TEXT-LOVING MACRO THAT EATS AND DISCHARGES TEXT. IT DEBUTED AT THE END OF 2010 WITH MAOYUU: MAOU YUUSHA (MAOYUU: DEMON KING AND HERO). LOG HORIZON IS A RESTRUCTURED VERSION OF A NOVEL THAT RAN ON THE WEBSITE SHOUSETSUKA NI NAROU (SO YOU WANT TO BE A NOVELIST).

WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.MAMARE.NET

SUPERVISION: SHOJI MASUDA

AS A GAME DESIGNER, HE’S WORKED ON RINDA KYUUBU (RINDA CUBE) AND ORE NO SHIKABANE WO KOETE YUKE (STEP OVER MY DEAD BODY), AMONG OTHERS. ALSO ACTIVE AS A NOVELIST, HE’S RELEASED THE ONIGIRI NUEKO (ONI KILLER NUEKO) SERIES, THE HARUKA SERIES, JOHN & MARY: FUTARI HA SHOUKIN KASEGI (JOHN & MARY: BOUNTY HUNTERS), KIZUDARAKE NO BIINA (BEENA, COVERED IN WOUNDS), AND MORE. HIS LATEST EFFORT IS HIS FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOK, TOUMEI NO NEKO TO TOSHI UE NO IMOUTO (THE TRANSPARENT CAT AND THE OLDER LITTLE SISTER). HE HAS ALSO WRITTEN GEEMU DEZAIN NOU MASUDA SHINJI NO HASSOU TO WAZA (GAME DESIGN BRAIN: SHINJI MASUDA’S IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES).

TWITTER ACCOUNT: SHOJIMASUDA

ILLUSTRATION: KAZUHIRO HARA

AN ILLUSTRATOR WHO LIVES IN ZUSHI. ORIGINALLY A HOME GAME DEVELOPER. IN ADDITION TO ILLUSTRATING BOOKS, HE’S ALSO ACTIVE IN MANGA AND DESIGN. LATELY, HE’S BEEN HAVING FUN FLYING A BIOKITE WHEN HE GOES ON WALKS.

WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.NINEFIVE95.COM/IG/