Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Volume 8B, Afterword

And that was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 8-B. As summer break enters its latter half, everyone is thinking hard about what they should be doing and who they should be. If you ask me, everyone goes through that during summer break. And I could only write this thanks to all of your support, so thank you very much.

There are some realizations you can only reach during summer break and you meet not just people but media and other things, so I was wondering what that sort of thing was like during the Warring States period or the Thirty Years’ War.

After all, they didn’t have any solid means of communication or transportation at the time. Entire areas could be behind the times or not with the current fashions because the things developed in Kyou had no way of reaching Kantou. In that sense, I can see why people liked the thoughtfulness of Buddhism and Shinto and why they liked to exchange letters or collect books. It’s known that Nobunaga liked unusual things, but I think that was both a way of entertaining himself and a way of satisfying his subordinates’ curiosities and boredom. Think of it like a boss who lets you play a brand new video game and provides commentary on it. If he could show you some foreign item and use it to fascinate you enough that you could talk about it for an entire evening, I can see why everyone came to love Nobunaga.

Anyway, time for the usual chat.

“Got any embarrassing stories from your school days?”

“What, you want to hear about how I nearly failed my kindergarten entrance exam?”

“That’s a lot higher level than I expected, but sure.”

“One of our freeform assignments was to ‘draw a picture’. Now, everyone else drew normal things like a car or an animal, but I decided to draw the ink wash painting displayed in an alcove at home.”

“You were an ambitious child, weren’t you? But if they knew what you were doing, why wouldn’t they pass you?”

“Unfortunately, the other kids took all the black paint, so I had no choice but to draw the clouds and waterfall in purple. They thought I was drawing a storm of violence in a disconcerting color, so they ended up calling my parents in to speak with them. Apparently, I really wouldn’t have been let in if my older siblings hadn’t gone there.”

You could’ve chosen something other than purple, you know? Anyway…

“Who was thinking most about what they should be?”

That’s the question this time. My work background music was Nandattanda? 7Days by the Barbee Boys. Their other song Megitsune on the Run is more summery, but I think this one’s lyrics and music fit summer break better (although I have a feeling only people from my generation would understand why). It really gets to me when I hear it while on the move under the summer sun.

Anyway, the next one starts with summer on the Ariake. Wait just a while longer.

January 2015. A morning without snow.

-Kawakami Minoru