Accel World - Volume 24 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Kawahara here. It’s been a while. Today, I’m bringing you Accel World 24: Sword Sage of the Blue Flower.

I feel like for the last however many volumes, I’ve apologized for the gap between volumes in the afterword, and again with this volume, I made you wait a full eleven months. And with so many volumes drawing the story out—always “to be continued”—when there’s a yearlong gap, you do forget the details of the previous volume, hmm? My reputation is in tatters…

Naturally, the story has advanced quite a bit, and now I feel that in the next volume, we’re finally coming to the end of the White Legion arc, ongoing since Volume 17. Oh, you there! You don’t believe that! And with good reason! Well, I’ll leave talking about the next volume to the next volume and touch on the content of Volume 24 here.

(Spoilers ahead. Beware!)

In the Accelerated World, there is an exception to every rule, and in this volume, the long-dead Sentry is brought back to life. As she herself says, this method will not apply to all of the exiled (in practice, it was usable only by Sentry), but there is also the example of Orchid Oracle brought back through different means, so we do become a little anxious about what will happen in the future. I was surprisingly happy, however, to have been able to fully depict Centaurea Sentry and her real-world self when she has been nothing but a mysterious voice up to this point. So the subtitle for this volume, which I’d originally thought to make something to do with Inti, I instead decided to make something about Sentry. For Haruyuki, this means yet another young lady in the position of teacher to him, but he was born under that sort of star, so I get the feeling Sentry will not be the last of these young women.

And as is our custom here, my recent doings…As usual, I’ve been extraordinarily busy with all kinds of things concerning the media mix for another series. This year is the tenth anniversary of the publication of that series, and those involved are kindly making all kinds of plans for it, but it is also the tenth anniversary of Accel World! And yet there is nothing here, which makes me extremely depressed, so at the very least, I’ve been wondering if there isn’t something I can do as an individual.

In my personal life…there is nothing in particular as always, but my move-house gauge is steadily filling up. This time, somewhere near the sea or the mountains would be delightful!

In conclusion, I’m so sorry for all the trouble I cause to HIMA and to editors Miki and Adachi in pushing things right to the very edge every single time. Thank you for always sticking with me! And to everyone who has read this far, I sincerely look forward to seeing you again in the next volume!

Reki Kawahara

On a certain day in June 2019