Toradora! - Volume 8 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

So…I have a document where I keep track of important things like my internet IDs and passwords. (I put it in an envelope that says something like, “Important, so keep it safe!”) I made it nearly ten years ago and thought, “This is so important, I’m sure I’ll lose it.” And…I lost it! One day, the envelope that had survived moving twice suddenly vanished from the spot it should have been in. 

I looked for it everywhere but couldn’t find it. I looked for it in my work desk drawers, the closet, the shelves, the dresser, the kitchen, the streets at dawn…in Sakuragicho…even though there’s no way it’d be there…

Wh-what’ll I do now? This is just how I’ve been living my life lately. It’s been nearly thirty years since I was born. I’ve lost flexibility in both my mind and body, so when I have these kinds of sudden accidents, I don’t have the smarts to cope. I have no room for accommodation, I can’t listen to anything, and I’ll never get any taller. I’ll never grow up. I can’t get back what’s been taken from me, either. In other words, I have only one direction left to go in—ruin!

So, I’ve had a ton of things taken from me. But I’ve also finally gotten to the eighth volume of Toradora! Everyone who has stayed with me so far, thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone’s help, I’ve accumulated several volumes of this series. We’ve gotten a manga version from Zekkyo-sensei, an anime, and…ahh! I want to tell you everything, but there’s something I can’t say yet! There are actually a ton of things going forward! 

That’s right—there’ve been a lot of new developments that I want you to enjoy. I haven’t actually fallen into ruin. I haven’t been stung by a prickly caterpillar. I don’t suddenly have a ton of bumps on my right arm. “Are they hives? Is it from stress? Is it just mental?” I said as I went to the dermatologist. When I showed it to the doctor, they didn’t make an instant diagnosis of, “Oh, it’s caterpillar dermatitis! This is the eleventh case today! That’s from the Japanese browntail moth!” I didn’t go home, look up what the browntail moth looks like when it’s a caterpillar, and faint for a moment, either (don’t do this). It’s also not super itchy, and I definitely didn’t faint again on thinking that if I scratched it, the stingers from the caterpillars would prick me from inside my skin. (If only I didn’t know what they looked like…)

So, everyone! I’m really grateful that you read Toradora! Volume 8 right up to the very end. I plan to keep working quickly on Toradora! Volume 9. I hope that you enjoy it! Yasu-sensei and Manager-sama, I feel like the next volume will be an ordeal as well, so please don’t fall to ruin as we work hard together!

—Yuyuko Takemiya