Toradora! - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

It’s 8 PM on a Friday night, and I’m at a family restaurant. I was worried, as I was headed there, that there might not be any seats in the middle of the dinner time rush. Actually, this place is pretty empty. It seems there aren’t many people in the world who come out of their way to eat dinner at a family restaurant on the weekend…but it’s tasty…and convenient…and there’s all you can drink soda fountains… Plus you can work, just like I am now… 

I am Yuyuko Takemiya… I’ll even spread tarako roe on my toast. I’ll spread butter on it and then seaweed…

Now then. I want to thank everyone who was kind enough to take Toradora! 6 in hand and everyone who has continued to follow the series with me from the bottom of my heart! Thank you so very much! Though I’m an awkward novice, I somehow reached the sixth book! I was only able to write this much because this series drew your interest. You’ve really given me strength! If you had even the slightest bit of fun reading this book, I couldn’t be happier! 

Now I have something important to talk about. There’s been a rumor that this might be the last book I’ll write in my twenties. If you continue to follow the next volume, I might be IN MY THIRTIES…? Maybe? I might be. There is that possibility. The chances aren’t zero. I wonder, now… Yeah, I don’t know…

On that note, I have prepared myself to enter the world of my thirties to the degree I can. I have to because lately, when I talk to my girl friends who are my age, the topics that come up in conversation include “insurance,” “cancer checkup,” “inheritance,” “interest rate,” “pension,” “inflation,” “in the case of an accident”…

Oh, and there was that, too—the marriages, divorces, and pregnancies of actors. Even though we don’t even know them, it’s all about who they’re with, whether their event was too showy, their dress was weird, or that their food looks good. It’s all about whether something they did was good or bad, and after talking about this and that…we’re four or five hours in, and that’s even without alcohol involved… I’m doomed, aren’t I? I can’t protect myself from it anymore. I’m declaring that I don’t know what to do. I have a Gandhi-like proclamation about aging: Do not resist the movement of time. My strategy is the same as Shingen Takeda’s. I’ll be as dry as the wind, as withered as the forest, as burned out as the fire, and as crumbly as the mountain. This is a woman’s war cry! I’ll at least insure myself enough to pay for my own funeral service!

Also, I bought a beige granny undershirt! It cost four thousand yen—isn’t that expensive?! But, as a woman ages, inexpensive granny undershirts are too cold and make your skin itchy because they’re too rough. I couldn’t endure it! I need my granny underwear to at least be on that level!

And so, somehow, please, please, continue to read the next volume: Toradora! 7—the chapter of Yuyuko’s thirties~! Thank you for staying with me until the very end! Manager-sama & Yasu-sensei, I look forward to working together with you next time even as I age…

—Yuyuko Takemiya