Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 1 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

The plan for this series is ‘school stuff’.

Hello. I doubt many are meeting me for the first time, but still, for this series, I want to say ‘it’s good to meet you’. If you’ve read this far, thank you very much.

This series, ‘Cygnus Maidens’ has the subtitle ‘New - The Irregular at Magic High School’, but to be honest, there’s basically no irregular component. It is simply a new story set in the world of ‘The Irregular at Magic High School’. Characters from the previous series also appear, but the new characters will essentially weave this new story.

As I said at the start, this series is about ‘school stuff’. Unlike ‘The Irregular at Magic High School’, which was also set in high school but was at its core more or less about the relationship between a nonconformist (of extraordinary ability) and society, ‘Cygnus Maidens’ is going to focus on school life and family relationships.

But honestly I have to confess, the memories of my school life are vague, like they’re wrapped in a grey haze... I have nearly no memories of my school life, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t go to school.

So the high school life depicted in this series will be pure fiction. It is not a reflection of my own experiences. If I had to say it another way, it’s ‘original written fiction about a fictional experience of school life’. I’m sure there are many points where a reader will feel it lacks reality, but we novelists have an excuse up our sleeves for that kind of opinions. Let me reveal it to you right here: ‘This story is fiction’.

...I’ll stop the bad jokes right here and talk about how the idea for this series came about.

I first got the idea when I was looking up stars and constellations to garner material for the STARS in the previous series. On Wikipedia, in the explanation of the Cygnus constellation, it struck me when I read that ‘in Japan, there are regions that call it Juumonji-sama’[25]. It was like, ‘Ah, maybe I can use this somewhere’. I knew Northern Cross was another name for the Cygnus constellation, but I hadn’t seen ‘Juumonji-sama’ on Wikipedia before.

In the end, I never got the chance to use it in the original series, but it was still in the back of my mind. When I was planning the next series of Mahouka, the phrase ‘Cygnus Maidens’ appeared on my head. Fans of the famous manga[26] may get mad, but the Cygnus constellation had the image of ‘young’ and ‘girl’.

Based on that image, I decided on a young girl as the main character. And based on the Wiki explanation ‘in Japan, there are regions that call it Juumonji-sama’, I tried to relate it to Mahouka’s Juumonji Family.

The Cygnus constellation is a northern constellation, and swans[27] are northern birds, so how about setting the story in the northernmost part of the country — Hokkaido?

How about joining the Juumonji Family and Hokkaido by using an illegitimate child as a reason?

That out of the way, a reason was needed for why they didn’t take her in immediately — let’s try making her the daughter of a defected Russian. The family who she lives with is ordinary and not very interesting...

— And the result of assembling all those thoughts was this series, ‘Cygnus Maidens’.

This time as well Ishida Kana-san handled the illustrations. I apologize for requesting the design of new characters with detailed notes while you were busy with the anime for the ‘Visitor Arc’. Thank you very much for the lovely two protagonists.

When I explained the idea of the series to Mr. M, the editor, he remarked ‘It’s like an editor’s commentary’. I will take this as a compliment. I don’t think I’m fit for the hard work of an editor.

Well then, that’s enough of my ramblings. Please look forward to the second volume.

Satou Tsutomu

Translation Notes

[1] The Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or friction. It was first proposed in 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

[2] S Town is probably referring to Shiraoi, a town directly to the west of Tomakomai. This town has a river bearing its name with a main road going north to the inlands that splits into several branch roads. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tomakomai,+Hokkaido,+Japan/@42.5528236,141.3479137,14.71z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x5f7519d5c5b32289:0x6e600e18a6a55b0d!8m2!3d42.6312464!4d141.6031222

[3] The Tookami name is written 遠上. Katsuto wonders if they are related to the Toogami, which has similar reading but is written with different kanji, 十神, which starts with the character for ‘ten’.

[4] Marika’s name, 茉莉花, means Arabian Jasmine.

[5] The original text compares it to a specific “manga tic”, a situation in manga portrayed as comedic and usually has text written representing the situation. I couldn’t translate this directly so I replaced it with something that is hopefully similar enough and the average English reader will understand better.

[6] Original expression is 細マッチョ, literally ‘thin macho’, which is used to describe people who are slim but have properly defined muscles.

[7] The expression Alisa uses for “together” can also mean “get married”.

[8] 腐れ縁 – An undesirable, yet inseparable relationship

[9] 悪友 – Can mean both ‘good friend’ and ‘bad company’.

[10] 十六夜 – Sixteen-day-old moon. The waning gibbous Moon 16 days into its 28-day cycle. Also begins with the character for ‘Ten’, but they are unrelated.

[11] 魔工製品 – literally ‘Magic engineered products’.

[12] 魔工師 – literally ’Magic engineering specialist’

[13] Japanese uses a syllabary instead of an alphabet. The A column is first, followed by the K column and then the S column. Alisa’s last name belongs in the S column. 

[14] After the S column is the T and N columns. The Japanese vowel order is A-I-U-E-O, which puts TO and NA right next to each other.

[15] In the original text, this ‘Marika’ is ‘Alisa’. I believe this to be a mistake because it doesn’t make sense otherwise.

[16] Strikers – fighters who excel at standing and hitting but aren’t very good at techniques involving grappling.

[17] Go no sen (後の先).

[18] Tsui no sen (対の先), also known as Sen no sen (先の先).

[19] Shime-waza (絞め技)

[20] 高精細QRコード – High Resolution QR Code. The furigana indicates that 高精細 is read as ‘fine’.

[21] A dojo stormer (道場破り - Dojoyaburi) is someone to visits a rival martial arts school to challenge their members.

[22] Kani Basami (蟹挟) – A judo technique where a combatant puts his legs around his opponent’s like a pair of scissors and then knocks them to the ground using the strength in their legs. This throw is forbidden in many competitions because of the likelihood of serious injuries.

[23] Tomoe nage (巴投) – a technique where a combatant falls to the ground, pulling their opponent with them, and uses their legs to vault the opponent over their head to knock them to the ground.

[24] 武闘派 – Someone who doesn’t compromise and instead sticks to their guns and uses violence.

[25] Cygnus looks like a cross. Juumonji means cross. The Wikipedia line the author mentions is real. It is primarily the Kyoto region who calls Cygnus Juumonjiboshi (Cross constellation).

[26] I believe the author is talking about Saint Seiya. One of the characters was a man named Cygnus Hyouga.

[27] The name Cygnus comes from swan. This is also true in Japanese.