Toradora! - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Through unexpected circumstances, the button on my slacks burst open today, too.

I don’t want to believe it, but this is reality. I’m Takemiya (Yu). Hello. I don’t really care, but I guess people don’t call them slacks nowadays…sorry. They’re called pants. Right. And those black women’s trousers… underpants… spats. Those aren’t called spats anymore, right? They’re called leggings now, aren’t they? I don’t know how to pronounce that word. I’ve probably never said it out loud. Leh-gin-gs, (crypt-creeper though I am, I can still at least write the word). Legins (actually, looks like I can’t).

Well, more importantly!

To everyone who picked up Toradora! 4, which was the first volume of 2006, I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart. I give you my heartfelt gratitude.

Sometimes I notice I’m using words I think are normal, but are actually obsolete, and I’m taken by surprise by the flow of time. Sometimes I put in gags I think are funny (I guess we don’t really call them gags…are they j-jokes?) and people think I made a mistake while writing my Japanese, so they make me correct it. Then I realize how lame the joke was. I suffered through those accidents while writing this book. Did you enjoy it? If this book was of use to you during your time at your heated kotatsu tables, then I am incredibly, incredibly overjoyed! I’m gonna keep it comin’ so if you’re interested, I hope you’ll continue to cheer me on to the next volume. Thank you very much!

Today, I have a small, magical thank you present from me to everyone who was kind enough to hold this book. If it pleases you, please take it.

This is magic that will let someone with even the smallest appetite eat a whole serving of rice alongside a meal with no problem.

One. Take one sack of tarako roe and scrape it out of the skin.

Two. Take the white part of a green onion and chop up to your tastes. If you have too much, you’ll water down the flavor, so be careful.

Three. Take just the yolk from an egg and mix it with the tarako and green onion, (you can use the whites in a miso soup or something else…) 

Four. Put it together with some freshly cooked rice.

Before you know it, a portion of rice will disappear from your rice pot. If you have it with spaghetti, you can even polish off 200 grams of it! (Insert decisive exclamation mark!)

If you continue to use this magic everyday, you will become a villager of the village just as I have. You’ll know exactly what kind of village that is as soon as you become a villager. Now, get over here. Calories? You can think about that later, just hurry up. It’s not scary, it’s delicious, so it’s fine. Now come!

But, this magic, (actually, it’s just a side dish), is amazing. You’re eating stuff that could potentially have turned into thousands of fish, something that could potentially have turned into a chicken, and rice grains that could potentially have borne hundreds of ears of rice—and you’re eating thousands of grains at that—all in one go. The cholesterol’s off the charts, but the potential is also amazing. It’s infinite. My favorite food might just be potential itself. Come to think of it, I also like salmon roe bowls (the potential for hundreds of salmon × the potential for hundreds of rice × several thousand). Well, I also love cuts of salmon.

Basically, I’ve been eating piles and piles of that potential and throwing my own potential as a “young lady” right out. Ahh, blood just spurted from my fingers onto my keyboard as I was typing!

…

W-well then! I am incredibly, incredibly grateful for everyone who listened to all this baloney coming from the likes of me up until the very end! I’ll make the absolute best of my abilities so that you hopefully buy my books again! I’ve been given the power to do my best! And, Yasu-sensei, Manager-sama, I think I probably weigh more than both of you. But, without breathing a word of that, let’s do our best to share the load and get through this damned tri-star romance comedy!

—Takemiya Yuyuko

Artist’s Afterword

Hello. I’m Yasu. I was asked to draw the illustrations again. I just barely, barely made it in time… (Whew.)

It’s been bizarrely cold lately, and that’s a pain, isn’t it? These days, it’s intensely cold whenever I go out, so I automatically go back inside. It’s been cold, it’s been cold in a lot of ways. I want it to get warm sooner.

For now, here are messages to those who have been caring for me:

•    To Takemiya Yuyuko-sensei & the Lead Editor—As always, I’m really sorry for giving you trouble!! I will be diligent this year and look forward to working with you! 

•    To Oyama-sensei, who lent me a hand—Thank you so much for helping me this time around as well, sensei! 

•    To those who took this book in their hands—Thank you so very much!! I hope you have a great year! 

And with that, I look forward to the next year with you.

—Yasu