Date A Live Encore - Volume 8 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

 Long time no see, I am Tachibana-sensei. I never would have imagined that in 2018, this book would be placed in the storefront together with Sumo Magister. I hope you enjoy it. 

 Probably because it’s such a memorable episode, Origami in this book is also dressed in formal clothes where a noble atmosphere is very charming. The dog ear school swimsuit maid is Origami’s outfit of choice. 

 Anyway, the short story collection has reached the eighth volume. The style for this volume is somewhat different from the previous ones. 

 The book is based on the fantasy world of <IF> that is, “hypothetical” fantasy world short stories and then summarized into a newly written short story. It’s a style that I haven’t tried before, what do you think? I would be honored if you enjoyed it. 

 Now, I will provide the explanations for this “Encore” collection. The content will contain spoilers for the stories, so if you haven’t read the book yet, please be careful. 

Natsumi Double 

 The first short story. Although it’s based on the concept of depicting a hypothetical world, the setting was too complicated in the beginning and so some people might be confused. Therefore, let’s start with the more popular school story. Shido was an intern teacher and came to the school where all of the Spirits were students. 

 After all, since I’ve written a fantasy world story specifically, I hoped not only to develop a plot but I wanted to do something I wouldn’t be able to do normally. That is to say, to have (Adult) Natsumi and (Child) Natsumi be able to appear at the same time. I wanted the (Child) Natsumi to be my focus. She is super cute. What’s not cute is her cuteness (contradiction). 

 Although the illustrations published in <Dragon Magazine> only showed the swimsuit scene, the design for Natsumi-sensei wearing old sportswear was made then as well. I added this new content this time around and I’m really happy. 

Tohka Brave 

 At first I thought that it would be better to write using Origami or Nia, but because the cover of <Dragon Magazine> that published this story happened to be Tohka, I decided to write a story about Tohka pulling out the legendary sword. It was necessary to realize the scene of a battle between Tohka and Inverse Tohka. 

 I like the illustration of the confrontation. According to their clothes, you can vaguely infer each character’s role in the team. I really wanted to see Origami dressed as a knight. 

 Probably, the picture of Natsumi hiding behind Yoshino was so expressive that it left a deep impression on Princess Miku, who didn’t actually appear in this story. 

Kotori Editor 

 <Ratatoskr> is used as an editorial department to encourage the Spirits to submit short stories. From this story, the storyline from her moves forward. There are a lot of shortcomings, but inexplicably it all fits together well. This lined up nicely to meet the 30th anniversary of <Dragon Magazine> which feels very meaningful; <Dragon Magazine> would never leave this until the last minute… Right? 

 Thinking of the pen names for each of the Spirits was unexpectedly interesting. My favorite pen names were Shirai Kobina-sensei and NATSUKO-sensei. 

Mukuro Geisha 

 “Would you like to see… Mukuro dressed as a geisha?” With this thought, I decided to write this story. After seeing the illustration of Mukuro-san, I was sure that my intuition was correct. Yoshino and Natsumi behind her were also very cute. 

 Naturally, it should go without saying that Nia as the landlord and Miku are both also suitable here. The last six lines of the story are some of my favorites. The rest could not have been written without those words. 

Shiori Spirit 

 This story is especially surprising in the volume where the story is full of imagination. In terms of facing the other side. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it came from the same concept as Natsumi Double and Tohka Brave but has a sense of abruptness about it. 

 The <Ultimate Maid> wielded by Shiori is very versatile, not only for cooking but also for cleaning, washing, picking out fish bones, and the like, it’s a very practical Angel. 

 If Shiori had an inverse form, it would probably be a super lazy Spirit that has a messy room. She wouldn’t wash her clothes and had poor cooking skills… Hey? Nia? 

The Nightmare Begins / End of the Nightmare 

 A new short story written for this book. I rarely ever add a preface. 

 Because the outline for this story was formulated before writing Natsumi Double, it was very hard to stop once I started writing. 

 I decided from the beginning to let Kurumi wear a CR-Unit, but for the sake of the plot, Mana wearing a gothic lolita costume to contrast was actually added once I started writing. Since Kurumi was dressed in a CR-unit, Mana had to wear the gothic lolita costume to be fair, right? 

 This is the second time a Spirit has worn the unit since Origami. However, if the Spirits had their own dedicated units, it would be really interesting. Come on, <Ratatoskr>. 

 Now I have finished the commentary. 

 A new anime season is in production. I have several pieces of news that I want to share with you, but because this book’s release date happens to be the day before Mr. Fuji’s event, I can’t share it with you just yet. I think you will find out what the news will be shortly, so stay tuned!” 

 (Tachibana is referring to the air date of DAL season 3 here.) 

 In addition, there are also “Date A Live” stickers in the LINE stickers to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Fantasia Library, please be sure to check them out! 

 Well, it would be impossible to publish this book with the help of many people. To the amazing illustrator, Tsunako-sensei, the responsible and the beautiful editor Kusano, the other editors, and other related personnel as well as the readers who picked up this book, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude. Thank you. 

 Then, I look forward to meeting you all again next time. 

 Koushi Tachibana 

 September 2018 

Disclaimer: Date A Live is owned by Kadokawa and Koushi Tachibana. This is a non-profit fan translation; please support the official release. 

 Author: Tachibana Koushi 

 Illustrator: Tsunako 

 Translator: Lightning Farron 

 Editor: Ene 

 Epub: OfficeCasual 

 This is not your work. Please do not take mine, with credit or otherwise. Thanks.