Accel World - Volume 22 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Thank you so much for reading Accel World 22: Sun God of Absolute Flame.

I truly apologize for making you wait eleven months from the last volume The Snow Sprite. A number of things happened in 2017, and I was forced to turn my resources toward another series, but even so, that is too long of a gap, isn’t it? I’m working hard to bring you the next volume as soon as possible!

A little more about the book. I have a memory of writing something about how I’d like to do a laid-back story of the everyday, but when I lifted the lid, this ended up being far from laid-back…At this point in time, the specific weight of the story is leaning toward the Accelerated World side, so I am always thinking about how I’d like to write about the real lives of Haruyuki and his friends, but the situation in the world isn’t really permitting that. If I split up these twenty-two volumes by episodes, I believe we end up with Volumes 1 and 2 being the start-up arc, Volumes 3 and 4 the marauder arc, Volumes 5 through 9 the Armor of Catastrophe arc, Volume 10 short stories, Volumes 11 through 16 the ISS kit arc, and Volume 17 the White Legion arc. Lining them up like this, it seems that Volume 22 here is entering into the climax part of things, and the story will take a little more time to resolve the big issues and return to the everyday. That said, Haruyuki has promised Kuroyukihime, Niko, and the others that they would go visit his grandparents in Yamagata, and he also has to run for student council with class representative Ikuzawa. I’m also thinking that I want a resolution with the White King in the next volume!

Now then, now then: If you look at the very top of the spine of this volume’s Japanese edition, I believe there is “Ka-16-50” printed there. “Ka-16” means the sixteenth author whose pen name starts with “Ka” who has had a book published by Dengeki Bunko, while “50” is the serial number for the number of books that author has released. In other words, this Volume 22 of Accel World is my fiftieth book.

My debut novel, Accel World, Volume 1 (numbered Ka-16-1, of course), was published in February 2009, so it has taken me eight years and nine months to get here. When I look back, it feels both long and like the time passed in the blink of an eye, but at any rate, the fact that I have been able to amass fifty books is thanks to nothing other than the readers who have been rooting for me all this time. Let’s say the next turning point is a hundred volumes, and although it’s not entirely certain that I’ll be able to make it there, I will work hard toward that goal, so I would appreciate your support!

I also have to thank my illustrator HIMA, and my editors Miki and Adachi, who I left idle for nearly a year and then in the end made progress on the knife’s edge. For the next volume, the gap and the progress will be faster! I am really going to try, I promise!

Reki Kawahara

On a certain day in October 2017