Owari no Chronicle

Volume 12, Afterword

Volume 12, Afterword

And that was Owari no Chronicle 6-A.

I’m not sure how to put it, but it feels like I’ve taken the story as far as it needs to go (because I can see the big picture as I write it). It’s thanks to all of you that I have been able to write this to the very end. Thank you very much.

And with that, it’s time for the usual chat.

“I’m not even sure why I’m asking anymore, but did you read it?”

“Sorry, I’ve been really busy at work recently.”

“You just abandoned me, didn’t you!?”

“Don’t be stupid. Don’t take a working man lightly. I’ve been so busy that I find myself collapsed and sleeping in the entranceway after getting home. And with the door still open, too. I only realized it the following morning. For some reason, the morning paper was sitting on top of me.”

“That must have been a terrible surprise for the delivery man.”

“Yeah, that delivery man’s the kind of moron who suddenly opened the door to sell me something while I was cooking fried rice in the nude on a hot summer day. And then he ran off without even giving me his sales pitch. What was he even there for? Scouting out the place?”

“Do you have anything to say about yourself in that situation?”

“I made sure to put an apron on after hearing the knock on the door.”

“Enough about how insane you are nowadays. Do you have a painful story about middle or high school?”

“Yeah. One hot day during summer break in my second year of middle school, I was lying in my room in only my underwear.”

“Why do you strip at the drop of a hat? Is there something wrong with your brain? There is, isn’t there?”

“Just listen. So I spotted a roach on the ceiling near the door. Just as I was thinking how hot the thing had to be, it flew right down at me. It went straight up the right leg of my underwear and into the darkness within. Ha ha ha. Scared the hell out of me.”

“What an awful summer memory.”

That’s enough of that.

Anyway, my background music this time was Watanabe Misato’s 10 Years. I think it’s a great song and I’ve had it forever.

“Who is aware of the best resolution?”

That will do for this time.

The answer is right there.

September 2005. A morning with a typhoon blowing in.

-Kawakami Minoru