Afterword
—
Ah, good evening (probably).
To first-time readers, it’s nice to meet you. To those of you who are returning, it’s nice to see you again, and thank you as always. I’m Einshalt, the author of this book.
Thank you for picking up Rainy Days and Mondays. This is my tenth book about Setsuna from White Album 2, and the style and contents are more or less the usual, but I hope you enjoyed it.
*Rainy Days and Mondays
The inspiration for this came from a key word that was tossed out (?) in a scene from CC that probably caused a lot of stomach pain for Setsuna fans. The scene in question could well be a contender for first- or second-worst cause of stomachaches in the entire story, but with all of that, I imagined that after Setsuna’s route in Coda, or around the time of the Mini After-Story, something like this could happen.
Similar to the scene when Setsuna sends Haruki away in her route in Coda, there’s a scene that makes you think, “One misstep here would be tantamount to self-destruction, but now that I’ve decided it’s what I should do, I can’t keep myself from doing it (i.e., I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for not making this choice).” It’s unclear who was the first person to suggest it, but Coda also has that mention at the outset of going to the Arumi Integral Hotel every year, as a sort of “revenge” for Christmas, so even if it seems like they’re making a deliberate show of their problems, I feel like this is something they might do.
In addition, as usual, the content itself is not all that WA2-like, so please be understanding of that (ahaha. This seems to be the case for all of my short stories).
Setting that aside, once I had decided on my material, I decided to take a train out to Hakone to do some location scouting. By car, I’d been to Hakone by the new road, the old road, and even the old Tokaido, but for someone who’s just driving through, it’s difficult to stop at hot spring districts, for example, or the art gallery that appears in this story, so I hadn’t had the opportunity. From Kanto, it’s within the scope of a day trip, so I hadn’t really found any incentive to stay at an inn in the area, either.
So, I decided to go and see it for myself, but the season and weather were both different from the story, and there were a lot of foreign tourists there, so I’m not sure how successful it was as a location-scouting trip… (sweats)
By the way, on my way back I decided I might walk one station’s worth of distance, so I walked down a mountain road, but midway it wound up going around the exterior of the art gallery, which was quite interesting. It’s marked off by hedges, so you can’t see inside, but the sculptures are right inside those hedges and a lot of them stand relatively high, so from the perimeter, I just saw a row of sculptures from behind… Honestly, I felt a good bit like I’d wandered backstage (lol).
Actually, considering “Shinjuku” is concealed by a different name in the story, why is Hakone left as it is? (lol) Well, I figure there are a lot of circumstances at work there.
*Brilliant Love
This is a very, very short story tied with the wall hanging from the “Setsuna Ogiso Only Set” sold at the Character 1 event held in May of this year.
At that time, I honestly didn’t have much in the way of expectations for new WA2 merch, especially Setsuna-related (ahaha), so I was taken very much by surprise, but it was something official… so I decided to write something that expanded upon one of the illustrations.
Thus, it is a story from Haruki’s point of view, set on the day of their wedding. I thought, if I were to attach writing to that artwork, it would most likely be that kind of situation.
Also, I picked a title that I thought fit the content of the illustration, “Brilliant Love,” from my usual pool. I feel like it’s a pretty tight fit as a title for the illustration itself, as well, and personally I’m quite happy with it (lol).
By the way… I don’t suppose they might ever sell that wall hanging again…? (dies)
Finally,
The cover illustration was once again done by Touya Ayase-san from Blue Garden.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to respond to my unreasonable request for “Setsuna in Hakone with hydrangeas.”
Also, as always, I am grateful to the printers. I send in my manuscripts right on top of the deadline every single time, and every single time they handle it. Thank you so much.
This space is for me to thank everyone collectively.
And, to everyone who has picked up this book, you have my gratitude.
If you have any comments or reactions to share, I would love for you to send them my way on twitter. And, if you get the chance somewhere further on, I hope you will support my work again.
Bye for now.
—
Titles are taken from the song “Rainy Days and Mondays” (Carpenters, Carpenters) and the Japanese title of George Harrison by George Harrison (Jiai no kagayaki).
—
Rainy Days and Mondays
Publisher: White Hairband
Date published: August 13th, 2017
Author: Einshalt
Url: zauberflote.squares.net/
Twitter: @Einshalt ELIIS
Printer: Printing Inn Co., Ltd.