Accel World - Volume 21 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

I’m terribly sorry for the long wait. I bring you now Accel World 21: The Snow Sprite.

This book was scheduled for release in October, but that was postponed to December, for which I would like to offer my most sincere apologies once more. The delay was because the story for the theatrical release of the new anime Infinite Burst and the story for the Blu-ray/DVD ended up being longer than I anticipated, and I realize that it is really about time for me to acquire the ability to finish a story in the number of pages planned.

Now then, once again about this volume…(Warning for spoilers ahead.) The Territories with the White Legion, first of all, were settled as planned, and I breathed a sigh of relief. (LOL) Well, this definitely doesn’t mean that the fight is now over, but rather than going forward, we will finally be charging into the fundamental final battle…Or so it would seem, but for the next volume, I have planned a story that’s a little bit of a breather in the real world. It is Haruyuki’s long-awaited summer break, after all!

When I think about it, I realize I haven’t really written any true summer stories in Accel or SAO. As you well know, Accel started in the fall, and now we are finally reaching the summer, and most of the episodes in SAO are also from fall to spring. It’s not as though I am consciously trying to avoid summer, however. I think the true summer story will continue in Accel for a while, so I’d like to remember the summers that have passed in the real world (for the author) as I write. And while I sit here talking, it will be next summer soon enough…

Now, then! I mentioned the movie at the beginning, but it seems that many people came to see Infinite Burst, and so I must thank you! In the film itself, in order to pack the movie with scenes that we felt fans of the original work would want to see, we didn’t get to dig too deep into the new characters of Risa and Nyx, but you could supplement it with the special stories “Leap to Infinity” and “Return to Eternity”…Something like that. Also, as a new development on the game front, the title Accel World vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight was released, and just as the name suggests, it is a crossover between Accel and SAO. I got goose bumps watching the cut scene of Kirito and Crow flying together. They kindly allowed me to give them the foundation of the story, and it is still a story that steps into Accel, so please do look forward to it!

In this volume as well, I just barely, barely made progress despite the extension, causing trouble once more for illustrator HIMA and my editor, Miki. And I apologize to all of you readers, too, who were looking forward to the new volume! I’d like to deliver the next one to you as soon as possible!

Reki Kawahara

On a certain day in November 2016