Strike the Blood - Volume 9 - Chapter Aft

Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Add to favorites

Afterword

I’m the type of human being who loafs around his own house rather than goes to far-flung places, but actually, I’ve traveled a decent amount, with travel-loving friends taking me to this or that famous resort: Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii, and so on. And along the way, I’ve had such terrible times that it’s funny. Missing our flight and having to wait half a day at the airport was relatively benign compared to, say, being unable to leave the hotel until the day of the return trip because of a direct typhoon, or having the brakes of your rental car give out halfway on a long, downward slope and staring death in the face. Beyond that was an international phone call from Mr. Managing Editor right after landing at the destination airport, with all my fellow travelers going off to have fun while I stayed at the hotel all by myself, writing copy, something I remember vividly to this day. Ha-ha-ha…

So in a similar vein, my own biases toward resorts were certainly reflected in the current episode. If you go on a trip, tribulations await!

On that note, Strike the Blood, Vol. 9 has been delivered.

In contrast to the relatively heavy story of the previous volume, I planned to focus on daily life and a resort in this book, but once I lifted the lid, all kinds of crucial bits of info started trickling out.

Among them, the especially large keyword was demon beast, I suppose. Just as described in the story, these are non-humanoids discriminated against compared to demons, whether they can communicate with humankind (chiefly via language) or not. Naturally, in a world where vampires and beast men dwell, it is not strange for other monsters to emerge—but the reason demon beasts hadn’t appeared very much so far was because they were not under Demon Sanctuary protection. That said, I felt like it was a good idea to write about them this time around and further expand the setting. The result became clear, the world’s own distortions included.

Besides, I feel like this is first time we’ve had Yukina and friends in swimsuits. Even though a southern island is the stage for the setting, sea bathing and pools somehow felt too normal, but, I thought, might as well do this sort of thing sometime. It also bugged me that no one had done any actual swimming (not that they were wearing proper swimsuits at the time), but there’ll be other opportunities for that.

Now then, I think the Strike the Blood TV anime might well be airing by the time this volume goes on sale. Fortunately, I have the firm feeling we’ve been blessed by excellent staff and a splendid piece of work will be the result, which I’m looking forward to from a creator’s perspective. I think the contents will satisfy all of you who have supported the novel series so far.

Furthermore, the comic version of Strike the Blood is being serialized in Monthly Dengeki Daioh. As always, TATE-sensei, I thank you for taking over the comic version. Please keep it up!

Once again, Manyako took very good care of me with the illustrations. It’s always fun to look over the design leaflets, and I like all the girls in this volume, new characters included. Thank you very much!

Last but not least, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone involved in the creating and distributing of this work (i.e., the people I caused trouble to on the schedule front).