Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Volume 7C, Afterword

Now, that was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon VII-C. Part A said to wait for “the final part” but this volume had three parts in all, so I hope no one missed a part because of that.

Anyway, this one brings an end to a lot of things. For my generation, Yoritomo is most known as the person who hits you with a baton in Genpei Toma Den, but when you look at the actual history, there is actually a lot of drama surrounding these people, so it’s pretty fascinating.

When I was researching it, I realized that, when you pass the Heian period and enter the Kamakura period, the records of the politicians seem much more like they’re talking about real people with families.

Before that, they felt like people from a play or from another world, but starting with the rise of the Taira clan, they seem to have more connections based on their immediate family rather than a whole clan, a whole house, or their official position.

In the imperial court, even close brothers who were not the direct heir could be strangers or held different statuses to each other, but the samurai system from this era was based on family and kept that from happening. There were certainly plenty of Machiavellian people, but from the Kamakura period onwards, they ended up being a lot “closer” to each other for better or for worse and I wonder if that is what led to people overthrowing their masters more often. Well, when you get down to it, once politics are no longer ordained by heaven, everyone has equal opportunities and they can start overthrowing their masters.

Now, time for the chat.

“Got any more stories for me?”

“Like what? The time I accidentally shot some fireworks into the US military base and set off a siren?”

“Is it nothing but crimes from you!?”

“But I can’t use the less criminal stories about traffic stuff anymore because recent changes to the laws make it harder for people to get the exact nuance I’m going for. Do you have any good traffic stories?”

“Well, a long time ago when I was riding my bike through Tottori, the road suddenly ended along the ocean. And there was a bigger road through a pine forest, so I cut through to there while carrying my bike. And…”

“And?”

“I heard a sound from the right and turned to see an airplane charging toward me. It chased me. For real. I’m sure things have changed since then, but I still think of Tottori as ‘the prefecture where you can get on the runways with your bike’.”

“How is that different from my fireworks into the base story!?”

Hey, these things happen. Anyway, this background music this time was S.S by Passepied. That’s my idea of a song that captures the feeling of Naruze’s all-nighters. And this time I leave you with this:

“Who worked themselves the hardest?”

Wait just a bit until the next one.

April 2014. A morning of persistent pollen.

-Kawakami Minoru

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