Baccano! - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Hello, it’s Narita; it’s been a while. Thank you for picking up my book again!

All right: This is my tenth volume.

As it turns out, this book is the auspicious tenth volume.

It’s been a full year and a half since my debut, and I finally managed to reach the ten-volume milestone.

This is all thanks to my readers, the people of Media Works, bookstores across the country, and all sorts of other individuals, and in order to repay that kindness, I plan to keep writing like crazy.

*The following includes spoilers.

…And so, for the landmark tenth volume, I decided to go back to my roots and write a Baccano! story. That said, it somehow morphed into a two-part book, and that’s causing trouble on several fronts. I’m really sorry about that.

This time, the protagonists are Tick and Maria.

A torture expert and a hired killer. Dengeki Bunko’s main target audience is middle-and high-schoolers, and this hero and heroine are far removed from their usual house style, but they were the ones I started wanting to write about, so there was really no help for it. Forgive me.

That said, as usual, other characters came in from lots of different angles, and the story got pretty jumbled. However, to the author, the protagonists are this odd couple, and I’m planning to develop part 2 around them as well, in a slashing and snicking sort of way… Only, I haven’t started writing it yet, so there’s no telling how it will turn out. There’s a definite possibility that Vino or Ronny or the new character Christopher will end up becoming the center while I’m not paying attention, but please consider that a reason to look forward to part 2, if you would.

So those of you who read the Dengeki home page probably caught this, but…this story includes the continuation of a four-panel manga drawn in Jin Shinonome’s Four-Panel Jack, published in the home page issue 29.

That’s right: I’m treating all information drawn in that Four-Panel Jack as fact.

Ha-ha-ha, well, you know, he toyed with my story, and I couldn’t just let that lie, so this time, I toyed with his work, as payback. Thank you very much, Jin Shinonome, and also, I’m very sorry.

Even I thought I might have gone too far this time, but…

Me: “Chief Editor, Four-Panel Jack just did Baccano! didn’t it?”

Chief Editor: “Yes. What about it?”

Me: “In the next Baccano!…could I maybe treat those four-panel jokes as if they were actual fact, not jokes?”

Chief Editor: “As long as it’s interesting, sure.”

As long as it’s interesting, sure. That comment’s a bit of a land mine.

It seems wonderful at first glance, as if I’m allowed to do absolutely anything, but if that “anything” turns out to be uninteresting and gets rejected, all the responsibility for it naturally falls on me. And if I think something is interesting but the readers and editors don’t share my opinion, it will all come to nothing. Those words are a fairly risky bridge.

On top of that, I think Chief Editor Suzuki, who happens to be my supervising editor, uses that phrase—“As long as it’s interesting, sure”—more than anyone else in the editorial department.

In other words, this first (probably) Dengeki Bunko collaboration with Four-Panel Jack was the hapless result of what must’ve been the thirtieth instance of “As long as it’s interesting, sure.”

Parenthetically, nobody cleared this with Mr. Shinonome.

I hope it’ll be okay…

*As usual, everything from this point on is thank-yous.

To Chief Editor Suzuki and Wada (Papio Z) of the editorial department, for whom I’m constantly making trouble.

To the copy editors, for whom I’m always causing problems by being late, every single time. To the designers, who make my books look good. To H. from the marketing department, and to the people of the publicity department, the printing department, and Media Works as a whole.

To my family, friends, and acquaintances, who are always taking care of me in all sorts of ways, and particularly to everyone in S City.

To the Dengeki authors and illustrators, who help me out in lots of different situations.

To Katsumi Enami, who draws my far-too-numerous characters distinctively and brilliantly every time, even as jobs pour in from all over the place.

And to everyone who read this book.

Everyone mentioned above has my deepest gratitude. Thank you very much.

July 2004, at my place

Listening to Chronicle 2nd (by Sound Horizon) on repeat and basking in its fantasy.

Ryohgo Narita