Afterword

Thank you for picking up the fourteenth volume of the novelization of Days with my Step Sister. I’m Mikawa Ghost, the author of the original work and this novel.

With them passing their university entrance exams and graduating from high school, I’m sure many of you, the readers, felt a certain sense of an “ending.” However, Yuuta and Saki’s lives don’t just stop there. Just as graduation is the beginning of a new life for many, for Yuuta and Saki, it’s merely another event that adds color to their own. In this fourteenth volume, I’ve depicted an ending and a beginning.

The graduation trip episode is a culmination of the relationships between Yuuta and Saki, and Maru and Maaya, and it’s also a tale of “departure.” It values “who you go with” over where you go or what you do. I’d be happy if I could have you witness this scene from their youth.

From the dialogue-driven drama of choosing a destination, to their actual sightseeing in Osaka, and then to the beginning of their university lives── Even as the setting changes, there’s “something unchanging” between them, with just a hint of a new atmosphere mixing in. I wrote this hoping to carefully capture those minute changes.

As their daily life with a stepsister starts to shift from the stage of high school, how will their relationship change, and what parts will remain the same? I would be delighted if you continue to watch over them.

By the way, I imagine this will have been announced by the time Volume 14 is out, but I’ll be publishing a new work with MF Bunko J titled Shimai Youhei (Sister Mercenaries). I wanted the readers of Days with my Step Sister to know the story behind it and my feelings on it, so I’d like to take up a little of your time here.

First, Shimai Youhei wasn’t written with the intention of being a series, but rather as a one-shot. For Days with my Step Sister, my personal theme was “to delve deeply into the subject matter and characters, to depict Yuuta, Saki, and the others living in modern Japan with high resolution, and to portray them fully.” Based on that, I chose a method of expression that would weave their lives together over a long, long time, which is how I’ve come to write fourteen volumes of this long-running series, with the decision to continue it further.

You could say that Shimai Youhei is the polar opposite of Days with my Step Sister, though they are close in spirit. The theme of “delving deeply into the subject matter and characters, depicting them with high resolution, and portraying them fully” is shared between them, but the world the girls live in isn’t modern Japan, but a modern battlefield.

It’s a work that will depict the daily lives of mercenaries on the battlefield. It might be the same world Yuuta and Saki live in, or it might be different. Even if it were the same, it’s a world that can only be perceived as something far away. And unlike Yuuta and Saki’s story, I’ve poured everything into a single volume, written so that you can feel it all in one book. If Days with my Step Sister is a diary spanning many volumes, then Shimai Youhei is a single memoir, or perhaps a documentary. Please rest assured that the existence of this work will in no way affect the publication schedule of Days with my Step Sister. It’s a work that marks a new step for me as an author, and I truly hope that all of you reading Days with my Step Sister will give it a read.

And now, as always, some acknowledgements to close us out. To Hiten-san, for always providing such wonderful illustrations. To Nakashima Yuki-san, Amasaki Kouhei-san, Suzuki Ayu-san, Hamano Daiki-san, and Suzuki Minori-san, for breathing life into the YouTube version. To director Ochiai Yusuke-san and the rest of the video staff. To Kanade Yumika-san for the manga adaptation, to my editor O-san, and to director Ueno-san and everyone involved with the TV anime production, as well as all the cast members—I offer you all my heartfelt thanks.

And, of course, to all of you readers who picked up this book. It’s thanks to you that this story has been able to continue for so long. Please, continue to follow the story of these two in the future.

That’s all from me, Mikawa Ghost.