Utsuro no Hako:Volume1 Author's Notes

Hello, I am Eiji Mikage.
It has been right three years since my previous work. If there have been readers anticipating my new book, I beg for pardon. And also, thanks for not forgetting me.
There was a period in which I came to a halt, but it's not like I gave up writing. The reason that I didn't publish a book in three years is simply because of my own lack of power.



I wrote this book with the intent of a high entertainment value. My stance concerning my intention of writing novels has changed as well.
But I couldn't help but to get anxious with all this change. Won't my quality disappear? Won't my faithful readers feel betrayed by me? Won't it be buried under the numerous other great books?
This was the anxiety - and fear - I was fighting against at every moment of writing «Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria».
But this anxiety and fear had disappeared before I knew.
Because I noticed that this book is nothing but my own book.
I believe that it has become a book, I'm able to say «Try reading it» to the readers that liked my previous works, to the readers that didn't, and also to the readers that didn't know me at all up to now.
How was it? Was it amusing, now that you tried reading it?
If the answer is «YES», then there's no greater delight for me.

By the way, this is my 4th book and also my first one with illustrations.
To be honest, I was worrying that the interpretation of the reader would change due to illustrations at first, but when I received a mail with a rough sketch, I changed my mind.
It was the sensation of my own characters stopping to be owned by only me.
It was the sensation of having my characters escape from my control.
This time, I didn't know the looks of my characters until I was almost finished with writing, so the influence was only small, but I'm going to slip this "independence of my characters" in my future works.
I'm eager to know what the outcome will be.

Furthermore, I received support from lots of people while writing this book. To say it clearly, the weight of my gratitude is just different this time. Because I finally could strongly feel for the first time that I was able to complete a book like this.
Therefore, my thanks is going to become respectively long. I beg pardon.
All the people in the editor team of ASCII Media Arts. The proofreader. The designer. Thanks all of you.
415-san who had drawn the illustrations for me. I was anxious about illustrations at first, but as soon as I saw 415-san's illustrations, this anxiety got wiped away. My days have since changed to having various delusions while looking at his illustrations with a grin all day long.
My friends that have helped me develop myself, all my colleagues at my part time job.
My family that has watched over me when I had quite problems to get book out.
Yuu Fujiwara-san. I'm really thankful that you encouraged me when I was about to rot because my manuscripts were getting rejected non-stop.
And of course Kawamoto-san who's in charge of me. If it wasn't for you, this book would have never existed. I'm amazed that you didn't abandon me, looking at how I was in the past - no joke. You helped me grow in various aspects, not only regarding books. I'm really thankful. Best regards also in the future.
And then of course I'd like to thank all you readers that took this book into your hands.
Novels exist because there are readers who read them. All of you are part of this novel... which would be a bit rude to say, but anyway, you are indispensable components.
I hope I could convey my gratitude to everyone at least a bit interestingly.
I hope that we will associate for a long time from now on if possible.

Ah, and then, somehow sorry for writing such a boring afterword!

- Eiji Mikage

Eiji Mikage
I live in Saitama. My shoe size is 24.5cm. Men's shoes have no minimal size. When I went bowling with some friends the other day, my rental shoes were the only ones that had a Hello Kitty printed on them. Goddamn.

415
I live peacefully in a corner of the Tokyo Metropolitan area with a mechanical pencil in my hand.
My room's always a mess with all the mangas and documents in there, so I have set keeping my room beautiful for more than a month as my goal this year.