Afterword

Hullo, Sakaki here, bringing you Volume 16 of Outbreak Company!

This volume and the previous one form a single story, but life got in the way, and there was a pretty big gap between the publishing of the two volumes. I’m really sorry about that. I know you’re not supposed to make people wait to see how a cliffhanger turns out.

If you’ve been reading along so far, you’ve probably started to guess that the series is coming to its conclusion... but while working out the exact details of the plot, I realized it was going to be borderline trying to wrap it all up in a single additional volume, so I’m currently refiguring things.

Initially, my plan was to have Volume 17 be the final book. So will it be another Part One/Part Two thing? Will the last volume just be really thick? It’s a close call. Sorry again.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always known how I wanted to end the story, and the only real question was what twists and turns it would take to get there. Wouldn’t you love to see all the characters combine their power at the very end to defeat the last boss in an epic final confrontation? (Editor’s note: There’s a last boss?)

My working method goes like this: I think up the plot and dictate it out loud, whereupon my assistant (and live-in disciple) writes it down, which both helps me work and helps my assistant/disciple learn. While taking down the plot for the final part of this series, my assistant(/disciple) said, “Wow, I can’t believe Outbreak Company is almost over. It hits you right here, doesn’t it?” And I have to admit, I got a little choked up myself.

Think about it: I did the first planning for this series back in 2011. I just glanced at the file on my computer, and I saw the file name was “Sim Akiba (temp title).”

But then again, it hasn’t even been ten years since then. And in that time, there’s been both an anime and a manga adaptation of the material. It’s been a wild ride.

So with that, the next volume will be the last one—or maybe not; we’ll find out! (He says, as if he wasn’t involved.) To all my readers, I would be thrilled if you’d stick with me to the end.

Sakaki Ichiro

11 Nov 2016