Durarara!! - Volume 12 - Chapter Aft

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AFTERWORD

I’m sorry—it didn’t end at the twelfth volume…!

So anyway, hello, I’m Ryohgo Narita.

In the previous volume, I wrote about how I wanted to mark the end of a story in Volume 12, but thanks to a flare-up of my many bad habits, I ended up with too much content to fit into one book, so I had to split it again.

Volume 13 will be rather thick, and it should complete the story of Mikado, Anri, and Masaomi for now, so I hope you look forward to it…

Now, let’s talk about this story, content spoilers included.

We ended off with Izaya and Shizuo in quite a state, but if you think about it, it feels rather potent, as those two might not have faced off directly (in the novels) since the situation at Izaya’s apartment in Volume 2.

Even I’m not sure who will win or what the outcome will mean in terms of life or death, so just wait for Volume 13!

Also, I do remember having a crosstalk interview with Kazuma Kamachi of A Certain Magical Index before and saying something like “What would be the point of giving Celty her head back and turning this into some wild supernatural occult manga? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” To Mr. Kamachi and everyone who read that interview, I am so sorry! We are at the wild supernatural occult stage!

Even I didn’t think Celty would get her head back, but once I realized I was putting Shingen into the city with freedom of movement, and that of course he would do something like that, it essentially became inevitable.

As for what will happen to Celty in Volume 13, and whether she’ll lose all her memories of Shinra, and whether morning will ever come to Ikebukuro—not to mention all the other squabbles happening outside of Mikado’s vicinity, and how they’ll wind up, and who will laugh and who will cry at the end—the answers are all blowing in the wind at this moment.

I will be making my way toward Volume 13, one step at a time, and hoping that at the very end it is hope that will come blowing back our way.

I hope that you, too, will come back to see the ending of Mikado Ryuugamine’s tale.

The manga adaptation running in the G Fantasy magazine has reached the material from the third novel now, depicting the story of Masaomi and the Yellow Scarves. Ms. Satorigi’s Durarara!! makes use of every last ounce of the manga medium’s potential, and I find it a bracing way to reexperience the story.

Please check out the Yellow Scarves arc, reborn into manga form!

In more personal news, I’ve been through a bunch of events in the last few months, and with the help of many people, I’m managing to stay upbeat about life.

At the Dai Dengeki Bunko-ten Exhibition, there was a Durarara!! photography area, and I cannot thank the staffers and the many people who came to visit enough!

As Durarara!! and Baccano! both head toward a climax, I’m in the mood to tackle new challenges, so I hope you will continue to patronize not just Durarara!!, but the many projects I, Ryohgo Narita, work on. I will do my best to be worthy of your time.

Now I’m going to shill for one of those “new challenges”… On the twenty-fifth of this month, assuming I do not meet an unfortunate accident after writing this afterword, Media Works Bunko should be releasing a new book of mine titled Wednesday and Laughing Otsuberu.

This story will be linked with the world of Durarara!! but features an ordinary Tokyo setting where nothing supernatural like Celty or Saika appears. I hope you’ll check it out.

You might see characters from Durarara!! popping in and out of the background here and there, and in fact, you might be able to find bits in this very book that link back to Wednesday and Laughing Otsuberu. Buy them both and enjoy looking for those hints!

*The following is the usual list of acknowledgments.

To my editor, Mr. Papio, and the rest of the editorial office. To the proofreaders, whom I give such a hard time. To all the folks at ASCII Media Works. I know I was a tremendous drag on the schedule this time around, and I am so sorry!

To my family members, who do so much for me in so many ways, my friends, my fellow authors, and my illustrators.

To Director Omori, Akiyo Satorigi, and everyone else involved in the various media projects, including anime, manga, and video games.

To Suzuhito Yasuda, who took time out of his busy schedule with Devil Survivor and his new Yozakura Quartet anime project to provide his wonderful illustrations for both this book and the cover of Wednesday and Laughing Otsuberu, even though my manuscript was very delayed.