Toaru Majutsu no Index

Volume 3, Afterword

To those who have been buying each book from Volume 1: welcome back.

To those who took this chance to buy all 3 books: welcome & thank you very much.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

...Yes, this book is called A Certain Magical Index. Those of you who have finished reading can have a nice laugh now. I’m sure you’re wondering what is with this magnificent (and pointless) trick. Those of you who started by reading the afterword just need to read the actual book. That will answer your questions.

But before you throw the book at the wall, let me make some excuses. There are a few parts of this book that touch on magic. Of course, one of those is the scene with Index in it, but there are actually other sections that give explanations regarding magical systems.

I guess you could say the theme this time was the technique of everyday magic where there is magic but is never referred to with the word “magic”. This technique is primarily used in fairy tales and the like, but I tried using it this time. As the author, I would like it if you have all your friends read the book and then have discussions over where the magic talk was hidden.

To be honest, I’m a “rule junky” that loves these kinds of hidden rules that have nothing to do with the main topic but still exist to the side.

A real life example is the decoding of ISBN codes.

There should be the letters ISBN followed by a number on the back of this book. Most people know that the number refers to the name of the book, but I don’t think very many people think seriously about what the number means.

If you go look, A Certain Magical Index (1) is 4-8402-2658-X. With just that, you can’t figure anything out, but let’s compare it to another book. Suzuki Suzu-sensei’s Umibe no Usagi is 4-8402-2631-8. Oh. The 4-8402-26 is the same. And Minase Hazuki-sensei’s Kekkaishi no Fugue that debuted the same month as my series is 4-8402-2659-8. It is only one number off from my 4-8402-2658-X.

In that case, you might think the 4-8402-26 refers to Dengeki Bunko and the numbers afterwards are the order of release. However, Hayama Tooru-sensei’s 9S (1) is 4-8402-2461-7. Oh? The previous assumption would say that should have been 26.

If we look further, we find that Takahata Kyouichirou-sensei’s HHO (01-03) is 4-8402-2414-5. That’s 24 again. Those two books with 24 were released in 2003 and the others with 26 were released in 2004. In that case, those two digits seem to indicate the year.

The fact that it moved from 24 to 26 in one year is most likely because the next 2 digits refers to the number of titles released in that year. Dengeki Bunko releases about 10 books a month, so they release 100-200 titles a year. I’m guessing the number jumped from 24 to 26 because 25 was used as a cushion for when the number of released titles reached three digits.

I’ve written this all out fairly confidently, but that’s probably not the correct answer. In fact, it’s highly likely that I’ve made a major mistake. But that’s fine because I’m in this to enjoy imagining different rules rather than to find the correct answer.

If you read all this and got interested enough to look at the back cover, then I suggest you look into the number known as the JAN code. It seems that is hiding a certain set of rules behind it too, so it would be perfect to kill some time.

Now a rule that currently has my interest is the spines of Dengeki Bunko books. It seems they are color coded by author, but what is the rule behind the color coding?

1. It is a definite choice based on color psychology.

2. The colors are simply put in rotation based on the order the authors make their debuts.

3. It is based on the whim of the editors.

When I thought about it, I ended up choosing number 2, but what do you all think?

I give my great thanks to my editor Miki-san and my illustrator Haimura Kiyotaka-san. It is definitely those two who gave color to this book that is so full of holes it’s like a bee hive. On my own, I’m like a small bird without any wings, so I hope we can continue to get along.

And I give my greatest thanks to you who have picked up this book. It is most certainly due to you that I stand here now.

I now pray that this book will always stay in a corner of your bookshelf.

I also hope that it remains in your precious memories.

And I lay my pen down for now.

20,000 Sisters...Did I end up breaking a record for the most new characters?

-Kamachi Kazuma

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