Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Volume 4A, Afterword

Sorry about the wait. Here is Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon Volume 4 Part A.

The setting shifts to Kantou and Tohoku, so the major players of Date, Mogami, and Uesugi are showing up. When you look at actual history, Mogami had the upper hand in their territorial struggles. Date and Uesugi were both manipulated by Mogami Yoshiaki who was known as a “fox”.

On the world side of things, Russia has shown up, but 16th century Russia had broken free of temporary Mongol rule and was beginning a rapid expansion under Ivan the Terrible. The surrounding nations were very worried, but England traded with them on good terms and Elizabeth was even sent letters telling her to stop trading with Russia. The surrounding nations were in a touchy situation with the Reformation and the expansion of the Ottoman Turks.

Anyway, the Far Eastern nations are also in a tricky situation along the Oushuu route. You’ll have to keep reading to find out what happens with all that. And now for the usual chat.

“Do you have any unpleasant memories from middle or high school?”

“Yes. In middle school, I smelled curry from a house on the way home. I started sniffing away, but then the door opened and the girl I liked at the time stepped out. My life was over right there.”

“Yeah, that impression would never go away… But the smell of dinner is a must-have when walking home from school.”

“I know, right? I remember hearing the sounds of frying, getting all excited that I might have something like that for dinner too, and then getting home to find nothing but a bag of Curls on the table.”

“Yeah, Curls aren’t fried. (That’s true.) But why Curls?”

“Well, both my parents worked. There was no one there to get mad at and I didn’t have any food, so I ended up watching Transformers and eating the Curls. I think I climbed a step toward adulthood that day. I never thought I’d grow up to be the kind of adult that eats Curls for dinner, but my parents must have known.”

No, I don’t think they did.

Anyway, the background music this time was Asian Kung-Fu Generation’s Siren (there are two versions of the lyrics, but this was the proof of existence version). It can be the signal before a comeback.

The smoldering fire is slowly growing, but…

“Who was hiding the greatest fire?”

I’ll leave it at that.

Now, Part B is coming next month, so wait just a little longer.

June 2011. A morning that’s already hot.

-Kawakami Minoru