“I’m telling you, it was her! Momo, in the flesh! I’m not lying to you!!”
Just as I made the suggestion, I began to hear ominous-sounding testimony as the police interrogated the hostages. We exchanged worried glances.
“She’s got to be somewhere nearby still! I swear, she saved us!”
The voices gradually grew louder, ignoring the officers’ attempts at preserving the peace.
“Looks like taking it slow isn’t an option, huh?”
“I, I’m sorry…um…”
“Ughh…What a day this turned out to be…”
“I, I can’t hold him anymore…”
The sun filtering in through the windows was as powerful and punishing as always.
It was still chokingly hot outside, no doubt.
The cicadas had to still be blaring as loudly as they could, and I could already picture the haze rising up off the white-hot asphalt.
It was enough to fill me with more than a little bit of dread, but it was far, far different from the kind I felt before.
August 14th.
No way am I ever going to forget what happened today.
EPILOGUE
August 15th. The end of a long, long day was at hand.
I’d have never guessed we would actually spend all of it at the amusement park.
Ene was one thing, but having my sister and her friends join me was something I never could’ve predicted.
Something had to have gone terribly wrong somewhere.
Going back to this morning for a sec.
I’d awoken feeling much more refreshed than I should have, given what I’d experienced the previous day.
If I found myself in a hospital bed…that sort of thing I could follow.
Instead, I woke up in a room within a secret hideout populated by Medusa and this invisible (?) guy; and what’s more, they had apparently saved my life; and what’s more, my sister had joined them somewhere along the line.
…I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about, but don’t worry.
You’re far more clued in than I’ll ever be, trust me on that one.
The recap my sister gave me was so bizarre that it required a long Q&A session afterward, and even then I was still in the dark about most of it.
But those guys my sister called her friends…Talking to them, I found they were actually pretty nice.
Of course, given that I chiefly talk with a whacked-out demented AI girl day and night, I might have pretty low standards.
Either way, though, that Kido girl has a good head on her shoulders.
She made a mean breakfast for me, and I can picture her running a pretty tight family if she wanted.
…If you can ignore that ice-cold gaze, she might be the most normal one out of all of us, including me.
It was a crazy group overall, but apparently they’re helping my sister out with her “eye” problems. They’re real easy to get comfortable with, too. After all, these were the first people ever that my sister introduced as “friends.”
Ene, on the other hand, was giving me a lot of grief.
I had no idea she and my sister were connected to each other…
Ene didn’t share anything from my private repository, did she…?
Ugh…She totally must have…Man…Cut me a break…My sister will never respect me again…
Even now, I am obsessed about my sexual proclivities getting exposed for all the world to see. We spent the whole day at the amusement park, and that was all I could think about. To be frank, I don’t exactly remember much of the stuff we did.
All I did was sit on this ride, that ride, the other ride, following Ene’s instructions to the letter.
Of course, maybe that’s not a bad thing, every now and then.
I haven’t felt that way in a while.
After we left the amusement park, we kept walking around for a little while.
I began to wonder what kind of shut-in life this girl I was carrying around led.
I never thought I’d meet someone physically weaker than myself…
“Hey, sorry about that. Guess Marie got herself a little too excited in the heat.”
“Wow, Shintaro, this is, like, your big break, isn’t it? Giving a piggyback ride to a real girl! It might be your last chance forever!”
“No kidding. My brother’s a big wimp and an anime perv, so this might really be his last chance. But, boy, wasn’t that amusement park fun, Ene?”
“What a trip! I particularly liked how my master threw up in the middle of it, too! I’ll copy the photo over to everyone once we get home!”
“Ooh, way to keep a sharp eye out, Ene! How ’bout I trade you for pics of some of Marie’s creepier moments?”
“Ha-ha! Nice one, slit eyes! You’re on!”
“N-no…No, don’t show her…”
“Huh? Hey, if you’re awake, why don’t you walk by yourself? Shintaro’s probably about ready to collapse.”
“Just…just a little farther…”
“Ha-ha-ha…Huh?”
“Mm?”
“…That an accident?”
As we took the first street off the main drag, we noticed a crowd forming in front of a small city park.
An ambulance had just arrived on the scene, a pair of grim-faced paramedics cutting through the throng with a stretcher.
Between all the people, we caught a glimpse of a young man, about the same age as us.
He looked worried, hands on the ground, as he stared into the face of a boy lying next to him.
It was hard to make out much of the kid, but he couldn’t have been more than…say, ten or so?
“…Huh. Pretty young.”
“You think he’s hurt…?”
Kido and Kano bounced assorted theories off each other.
I couldn’t see any obvious injuries on the boy, but he was definitely unconscious, lying listlessly on the ground.
But there was nothing much we could do for him.
As we passed by, not giving it any further attention, I noticed a change in Ene’s behavior.
“…!”
“…Ene? What’s wrong?”
“…Konoha…?”
“Huh? What was that? Ene?”
The boy was carried into the ambulance, the young man climbing in behind him.
The siren lit up as the ambulance began to drive away from the scene.
“…Momo! Can we go chase after that guy just now?!”
“W-wha?! Why?!”
“Just do it! Please, hurry…!”
“Sh-Shintaro…?!”
“Ene, what’s up? Did something happen?”
“…Why? Why would he…?”
August 15th. The five p.m. children’s bell rang out from bullhorns strung up across town…
—And, for all of us, a long, long “day” was finally about to begin.
AFTERWORD
“A Story that Makes You Want to Cover Your Eyes”
Hello. This is Jin.
How did Kagerou Daze: In a Daze treat you?
This project came about when I was invited to write a novel that linked up with “Mekakushi Daze,” my first album. I based it largely off the story elements of four of the tracks in that album.
Going forward, I’m planning to write out the stories from the rest of the songs in future novels.
Of course, if this novel winds up being a flop, I might end up writing an (only somewhat) sexy high-school slice-of-life comedy starring a harem of totally normal girls.
…Not that I would complain too much about that, though.
This novel marks the first time that the characters from the songs receive full names. I think I did a good job making them sound neat, giving them last names modeled after the Japanese words for flowers and so forth.
As I was researching these names, I came upon a type of rose known as “chin chin.”
Rather chic name, isn’t it? It reminded me a bit of “chin chin,” which is how you refer to a…uh, rathe
r less elegant part of the body in Japanese.
Apparently “chin chin” is how you make a toast in Italian, too.
I can only guess they got that from the sound of the glasses clinking against each other.
Getting back to the novel, writing it was a pretty arduous process.
I thought it was going to kill me, in fact.
Working on a novel and a new album at the same time, with assorted live events thrown in here and there, made for a packed schedule. I didn’t even have any time to enjoy my chin chin.
As a result, now that I’m free and have more time on my hands, I’m spending some quality time with my chin chin right now while I write this afterword.
In fact, I’ve been loving on my chin chin so much, it’s taken nearly two hours to get this far.
Sorry I’m such a slow writer.
Oh, I’m talking about the rose, by the way. Got that?
By the way, if you look up the chin chin on Internet rose databases, they’ll talk about how it has a “faint scent.” Elegant indeed. Like it’s afraid to expose its true self, you could say.
All this talk about chin chins reminded me of something else. There’s a kind of snack food in Nigeria that’s called chin chin, too. It’s these little balls of dough, fried up so they’re like tiny round cookies.
I like that name a lot. It makes it sound so…I don’t know. Deluxe.
Kind of funny they’d give that name to a food, though.
I’d love to take a trip to Nigeria sometime, taking in the chin chins (roses) while scarfing up as much chin chin (snack) as my mouth could take…Truly, the ideal way to spend an afternoon.
…Oooops, out of space!
That about wraps up this elegant, high-class afterword. Hopefully we’ll see each other in the afterword of the next volume…assuming we get the chance!
Thanks, as always, for your continued support.
Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)
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Copyright
KAGEROU DAZE, Volume 1
Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)
Translation by Kevin Gifford
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.
Kagerou Daze -in a daze-
©2012-2014 KAGEROU PROJECT/ 1st PLACE
Cover art by SIDU
Edited by BOOKWALKER Co.,Ltd.
First published in Japan in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN
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 [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: May 2015
ISBN 978-0-316-38468-1
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