Baccano! - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

First, a big thank-you to everyone who read this book, even though it has nothing to do with the main story.

This story does have the “Baccano!” title on it, but the characters from the previous volume… do not tear up the pages in a new incident (with the exception of one couple). The world in which they’re set is the same, but the intent was to keep each incident separate. Most of the characters have been switched up, too. However, it’s still America during the same time period, so please assume that the characters from the last volume are still there, living somewhere offstage.

I’m terribly worried that if I write a huge, sweeping, epic series, it will get axed right in the middle, or I’ll set up tons and tons of foreshadowing and the story won’t go anywhere, or I’ll run out of ideas at the climax and pull a “Catch the rest in the next volume!” and then never publish another volume. I do want to get good enough to write a long series like that someday, but…

Partly as a consequence of that thought, for this Baccano! series, I’d planned to keep each volume as self-contained as possible, but—

—as you can see from the “To be continued” there at the end, we’ve got a split volume right off the bat.

Although it does say “To be continued,” the “Express Run” volume that comes next doesn’t start right after the end of this one. It’s actually going to be a story written about the same incident and set during the same time frame as this “Local” volume, but told from different perspectives.

This volume rivals the previous one as far as the number of characters is concerned, and as before, it would be great if you’d think of your favorite character as the protagonist… Or that’s how it should have been, but as you probably noticed, there are a few characters that just disappear partway through the story. I’ll be writing about those characters’ movements and endings in the Express Run, so I’d be terribly thrilled if you’d read that volume as well.

This one turned into an irregular split volume, but I’ll do my best to create stories that live up to your expectations, so please keep an eye out for me in the future as well.

Movies, plays, novels, manga, and more: Trains make frequent appearances as an archetypal set in most genres. I chose a transcontinental railway for the setting this time around because, among other things, I like watching stories like that.

In all sorts of stories, trains appear as more than simple sets. Sometimes they’re props, sometimes they’re important keywords, and sometimes they become the main character and add color to the story. I love that sort of atmosphere, but… Even now, after I’ve finished writing it, I’m not sure how I handled the train in this story. As I was putting the plot together, I imagined a train rolling with ferocious speed over an intricate web of rails, but all the way to the end, as I wrote, I was afraid the story might suffer a derailment.

… Well. This is the first time I’ve been published in half a year, and I’m not quite sure what to write here.

I managed to graduate safely, and aside from writing books, I’m living a terribly laid-back life.

I got a late start due to my graduation thesis, and I’ll psych myself up and make up for that lost time: I plan to challenge myself to see just how much I can write in the year after this book is released. Of course, in this first year of my new life, I want to do my absolute best to polish my writing and story-creation skills, so that the day never comes when my editor smiles and tells me, “You’re boring. Don’t write anymore.” That’s my current goal, at any rate. I hope you’ll be patient and bear with me.

* Like last time, note that everything past this point is thank-yous.

To Chief Editor Suzuki and the good people of the sales and PR departments, who really helped me out—or rather, for whom I caused nothing but trouble—thanks again with this release.

To Mine, who isn’t my supervising editor, but who told me a certain something that put pressure on me and made me shape up, and to everyone in the Dengeki Bunko editorial department.

To the proofreaders, who caught the typos and dropped characters in my inexperienced writing, as they did for the previous book.

To my family, friends, and acquaintances, particularly everyone in S City, who helped me out in all sorts of ways.

To Katsumi Enami, who captured the individuality of all these diverse characters and added a dashing liveliness to the story, even though he was very busy.

And to those readers who picked up this book as well, or who’ve picked up one of my books for the first time.

Thank you very much. I want to hang on to this feeling of gratitude without letting it fade and devote myself daily to producing better results next time and into the future. I hope we’ll meet again then.

Until next time…

May 2003, at my place

Playing the last five minutes of DEAD OR ALIVE (directed by Takashi Miike) on repeat.

Ryohgo Narita