Horizon:Volume 4B Afterword

Afterword

Now, that was Volume 4-B of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon.

A Volume 4-B is a first for my career and it’s thanks to all of you that I could do this. Thank you very much.

Now, the stage this time is Oushuu and Jouetsu, but when you look at Japanese history, the daimyo of this region were not as monolithic as we tend to picture them.

In games, they’re given the simple image of an independent daimyo and his subordinates, but it was actually more like an alliance of nearby clans with the one major clan that represented them. So they weren’t so much subordinates as they were allies.

So the further you move from the center, the easier it is to find infighting between the powerful clans and families. Shigenaga was from a clan like that, so he was basically a tsundere that would defy the Uesugi clan at every turn yet intercept any external enemies that showed up. To keep those energetic people in line, it feels like the main clans focused a lot on their position as managers of Kantou.

Even a schemer like Mogami Yoshiaki kept a focus on Onikiri’s origin and took great care of the position of Ushuu Tandai inherited from the Muromachi Shogunate.

And the usual chat.

“You can continue with weird memories from your school days.”

“Come to think of it, there was a guy in my class with the nickname of Stimulant. He got the name because he always acted like he was on stimulants. When we greeted him on the street saying “Hey, Stimulant! How you been!?”, the old ladies walking by would turn back in surprise.”

“That’s a little too blunt of a nickname, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I was known as Nyo.”

“Why?”

“Well, after we got our health exam results back, my nickname became Urinary Proteins. I thought it was hilarious, but during homeroom, the girls said it was too straightforward. So to match the music scene at the time, we shortened it to Nyo. When I showed up on stage during the school festival, everyone was shouting Nyo. Jealous?”

“Isn’t that the kind of thing people usually try to forget…?”

Anyway, the background music this time was Ellegarden’s Salamander. I guess you could call it hard rock that makes me think of an aerial battle. And the lyrics are cool. But…

“Who best remembered the promise?”

I’ll leave it at that. The next part will be out after a month break, so wait a little longer.

August 2011. A suddenly chilly morning.

-Kawakami Minoru

Notes

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