7_Afterword

AFTERWORD For those of you who have bought this book from the start, it’s a pleasure to see you again. For those of you who just bought the three volumes all at once to read this, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and thank you very much. I’m Kazuma Kamachi. …Uhh, this book is called A Certain Magical Index. Yes, now that you have finished reading the book, you may hold your gut and laugh uproariously. Has there ever been such spectacular (and meaningless) trickery? I’m not sure. For those of you who dive into the afterword first without a care, please try giving the book a read. Everything will become clear then. But before you throw the book across the room, just hear me out. The truth is that this book does touch on magic in a few places. One of them goes without saying—the scene Index is in—but there are passages here and there explaining the architecture of magic. This method, where magic is the theme and yet the word magic is never stated, is apparently called “everyday magic.” It’s mainly used in children’s literature, but I decided to give it a test run here. It would be a greater blessing than I deserve if you read this book in turn with a friend and start discussing where and how many magic conversations are hidden and things of that nature. To tell you the truth, I’m sort of a rule junkie—I’m a huge fan of hidden rules that aren’t directly related to the story itself but are actually slipped in here and there. If you want an everyday example of what I mean, there’re the ISBN codes. On the back cover of this book, there should be the letters ISBN and a series of numbers following it. Even if you know that they’re indicating something about the brand name, I don’t think there are many people who seriously consider the meaning of those numbers. If we give one a look, my own work A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 1 is 4-8402-2658-X. There’s no way to know what this is all about from just this, so let’s compare it to another work. Suzu Suzuki’s A Rabbit by the Waterside is 4-8402-2631-8. Huh. That 4-8402-26 is also in Hazuki Minase’s debut work, which was the same month as mine, The Barrier Master’s Fugue, which is 4-8402-2659-8. And when we compare it to my 4-8402-2658-X, it’s only one number off! So now I would think, perhaps the 4-8402-26 indicates Dengeki Bunkou, and the numbers after that go in order of publication. However, Tooru Hayama’s 9S Volume 1 is 4-8402-2461-7. Huh? Given the above numbers, it should be a 26 there. Investigating further, we find that Kyouichirou Takahata’s HHO (01-03) is 4-8402-2414-5. It’s still 24. These two books with the 24 there were released in 2003, and the other works with the 26 were released in 2004. Thinking about it that way, those two digits might represent the year. The reason for the leap from 24 to 26 in the span of one year is probably that the following two digits are the number of released titles. If we assume Dengeki Bunkou releases ten books in a single month, then the number of books released in a year comes out to be between one to two hundred. The 24 skipping to 26 is probably to leave a buffer should the number of released titles go into the triple digits. …I thought up to this point thus far brimming with confidence, but more than likely, it isn’t correct. Rather, there’s a high probability that I’m way off the mark and don’t realize it. But for me, what’s important isn’t finding the correct answer, but rather enjoying imagining all sorts of rules, so I’m okay with that. For all those who read the above, ended up getting interested in this and looking at the back cover, I recommend figuring out the numbers that represent the JAN code. It seems that there are some fixed rules hiding in that as well, so maybe you can kill some time with it. Now then, the rule that this inferior Kamachi is wondering about is the Dengeki Bunkou spine. Apparently its color depends on which author wrote it. What could the color separation rule be? One: It’s a measured choice based on color psychology. Two: It’s a rotation of colors in order of debut work. Three: It depends on the editor’s mood. After mulling it over, I’m secretly thinking option two, but what do you all think? A great thank you to my supervisor, Ms. Miki, and my illustrator, Mr. Kiyotaka Haimura. The ones who granted me this poor work riddled with more holes than a beehive are those two for sure. By myself I’m more like a small bird whose wings were plucked, so let’s please remain on good terms with each other from here on out. And a huge thanks to you, who picked up this book. I’m doubtlessly only where I am today because of you. Now then, praying that this book will forever remain on your shelf, and wishing that it leaves a vivid impression on your memory, today, I rest my pen down here. Twenty thousand Sisters…did I slip a world record in here? Kazuma Kamachi Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On. To get news about the latest manga, graphic novels, and light novels from Yen Press, along with special offers and exclusive content, sign up for the Yen Press newsletter. Sign Up Or visit us at www.yenpress.com/booklink Contents Cover Welcome Insert Title Page Prologue: Radio Noise Chapter 1: Imagine Breaker Chapter 2: Radio Noise Chapter 3: Railgun Chapter 4: Accelerator Epilogue: Only One Afterword Yen Newsletter Copyright Navigation Begin Reading Table of Contents Copyright A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX, Volume 3 KAZUMA KAMACHI Cover art by Kiyotaka Haimura Translation by Andrew Prowse and Yoshito Hinton This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. TOARU MAJYUTSU NO INDEX ©KAZUMA KAMACHI 2004 All rights reserved. Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS First published in Japan in 2004 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo. English translation © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Yen On Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 hachettebookgroup.com yenpress.com Yen On is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. First Yen On eBook Edition: February 2016 Originally published in print in May 2015 by Yen On. ISBN 978-0-316-31660-6 E3