Hagane no Renkinjutsushi - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

HELLO, Makoto Inoue here.

I hope you enjoyed my little foray into the world of Hiromu Arakawa Sensei’s Fullmetal Alchemist. The stories this time centered around little vignettes of Edward, Roy, and friends away from work and the hardships of their journey. I hope you had fun reading them, and if parts made you chuckle, that’s all the better.

This book brings the total of Fullmetal novels to four. I have to tell you, it’s a pleasure to spend my work day immersed in the Fullmetal world, both as an author and as a fan of the original series.

I like it so much that I forget to leave the Fullmetal world when I’m not working. I’ll find myself walking down the street muttering “Go, Edward, go!” or “Alphonse, no!” as I imagine various scenes playing out in my head. Before I know it, the real world has gone and passed me by.

Winter ends, spring comes and goes, summer fades away, and … what? It’s fall already? That’s strange. I wanted to make snow angels in the winter, go see the cherry blossoms during the springtime, and what happened to my plans to go to the beach this summer? It can’t be fall! What happened the rest of the year?

I know what happened. I was having fun in my own little Fullmetal world while my planned trips and scheduled events slipped by unnoticed. I’m sure spring was only barely beginning just the other day! Wait, if I use my imagination and squint my eyes just so … 

Hey! Look, the cherry blossoms are blooming! It’s still spring! I can go cherry-blossom viewing just like I planned! Ha ha, there’s nothing better than spring in Japan. Look, the cherry blossoms are falling, just like snow. Ah ha ha ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha … 

I’m not crazy, really. I know it’s September already. I know it’s autumn. So what if I were the only one who could see the cherry blossoms falling? It’s better than admitting the reality that the better part of a year has passed me by.

That’s why I imagine … No, let’s be frank, I fantasized that it was summer, and you know what, it’s not so bad. I can fantasize with the best of them. I’ve had lots of practice living in my Fullmetal world, believe me.

So, summer is on its way. I’m definitely going to the beach soon. And I’m definitely buying myself a pair of yellow beach sandals. 

So, if you see someone out on a chilly September day floating in an inner tube on the sea, it might just be me. If you see me, though, let me be. Don’t call out “are you okay?” No one knows how crazy I am better than I do, after all [sob].

Leaving that lonely (and, frankly, pitiful) story behind, I’d like to talk a bit about my pet. He’s a chipmunk. If you don’t like stories about other people’s pets, sorry in advance.

So, I’m keeping this chipmunk as a pet. For those who don’t know what a chipmunk is, it’s a small, furry animal with brown and black stripes on its back, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. To be honest, he’s so cute, I get all googly-eyed just thinking about him.

In the wild, chipmunks carry seeds and nuts and the like in their cheeks and then bury them in the dirt or hide them beneath fallen leaves for later, and even as pets, they keep right on doing this.

Though my chipmunk usually spends most of his time in a cage, I let him out to play in the room for about an hour each day. At first, he follows me around or jumps up on my leg and is generally adorable. After a while, he tires of me, then he goes around the little room finding seeds I’ve placed in strategic locations. He stores them in his cheeks and zips about, finding new hiding places for his treasure trove.

I often find myself reaching in my pocket to pull out my wallet, only to discover a clump of seeds instead. Or I’ll be asleep and feel something tickling my feet, only to find that, after I’ve jumped up screaming “spider!” and generally made a fool of myself, it was just a pile of seeds in the bed. When I take a book off one of the top shelves, it’s likely to come with a shower of grains and assorted nuts. My life is basically one encounter after another with seeds.

This practice, however, has led to problems. You see, seeds aren’t the only thing my chipmunk hides.

Chipmunks need a lot of protein, and so in addition to seeds, I feed him mealworms—little bugs that look like tiny worms (sorry, mealworms!). My chipmunk seems to love them … and you’d hope that he would eat things like vegetables and worms quickly, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I’ve lifted up the carpet sometimes to see little mealworms sticking their heads out and squirming around. When I moved a piece of furniture, I found molted mealworm skins. And not just one or two, either. This happens even though I don’t let him out of the cage for at least three hours after I’ve given him mealworms to eat.

So what, he was carrying them alive in his cheeks the whole time? Or is he hiding them in the cage for a while and then carrying them out when I open the door?

Either way, this hiding-insects-around-the-house thing has got to stop. No one wants to wake up with mealworms tucked between their toes!

Anyway, that’s my pet. Cute and thrilling.

I’d like to thank Arakawa Sensei, my editor Nomoto, and countless other people for their help while writing this book. Thank you all so much!

Thanks also to you, the reader, for picking this book up in the first place. And thanks to everyone who’s written letters. I read them all, each one carefully. It’s the best part of my day!

With the greatest thanks to everybody … until next time.