Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Volume 3C, Afterword

And with that, we’ve finished the beginning of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon’s story. You could say the middle of the story begins next time. It’s thanks to all of you that I can do this, so thank you very much.

But even if it feels like we’ve come a long way, they’re all just now starting to move in a number of ways. They have their own plans and circumstances, so I think things should be getting pretty busy.

Anyway, the events of the world from the late 1500s to the mid-1600s were a complete mess, weren’t they? These things seem to happen every few hundred years and one theory says it’s caused by the earth’s periodic cycle of warming and cooling. It was during the warring states period that Japan’s population grew quite a bit and one theory says it was because it was during a warming period and because the food supply had improved due to the various daimyos starting large-scale land cultivation and flood control to strengthen their states.

Now for the usual chat.

“Do you have any other painful stories from high school?”

“Why is this a three-parter? Wasn’t the last one the end?”

“Ha ha ha. You sure are careless.”

“You’re the worst! This is the same as holding a yakiniku party and, after everyone’s eaten a kilogram of meat, saying it’s time for dessert and pulling a decorated cake from the fridge!”

“If you understand that it’s the same, then go ahead and tell your painful story.”

“Okay. After I finished my standing battle with the urinal in high school, my mind must have been wandering when I closed the zipper because I got carried away and zipped something extra up. The most intense pain surged through the core of my body. But when I tried to unzip it, it was caught too tightly and wouldn’t unzip. I concluded I couldn’t win the battle standing up, so I made a quick spin and charged right into the stall behind me.”

“Everyone else must have been shocked when you suddenly turned around and ran into the stall.”

“Not just that, but after I let out a war cry in the stall and tried to unzip my pants, I found I still couldn’t do it. I had no choice and you know how they say people get superhuman strength in emergencies, right? Well, I grabbed the top of the zipper and tore my pants in two. After the battle was won, I kept anyone from noticing by letting the pants hang form my waist by the belt and untucking my shirt.”

Are there no normal people left in this world? Anyway, my background music this time was Ardjet from ANUBIS. It makes me picture a battle waiting to be saved. And on that note…

“Who was saved the most?”

I’ll leave you with that. Wait just a bit for the next one.

June 2010. A morning of sudden rain.

-Kawakami Minoru