Hello, everyone. I am Qichang Jingxin.
Special Volu—The Future Where He Does Not Exist has been going on for two or three months now, and at last, it can be considered finished.
I still rember when I first ca up with this volu. It was after I finished reading Volu 18-Mio ga over. How should I put it... back then, after reading it, I was shaken in many ways. Especially after seeing Mio sweep the entire map like an unbeatable monster, I kept thinking about how Yutsuki could possibly defeat this ceiling of power.
And that was how this volu's plot ca to be.
As for the final battle between Yutsuki and Mio in this volu, honestly, it was the hardest scene I have written so far.
On one hand, Mio is truly very strong. Designing a situation where even a tiny chance of victory could exist was really difficult.
On the other hand, when I was writing that battle, I almost had a big battle with a friend who is a hardcore fan of the original Date A Live.
In the setting, Mio is invincible. No matter what, she cannot be beaten. In that battle, Yutsuki absolutely had to lose. My friend and I argued like the affirmative and negative sides of a university debate, pulling out all kinds of information and evidence and discussing it for a whole night.
But in the end, neither of us convinced the other.
Still, in the end, we each took one step back. We decided that I would write the plot while respecting the original Mio as much as possible. However, for the ability settings that were unavoidably altered, I will explain them clearly in this afterword.
First is Takamiya Mio.
I say the settings were changed, but thanks to that discussion with my friend, I actually gained a lot of new understanding about Mio's abilities and avoided many pointless changes. In truth, there weren't many altered settings. Whether it was Ain Soph Aur, Ain Soph, or Ain, I tried to write them as close to the original settings as possible.
The only change that was hard to avoid was Mio's final trump card——Ain the Angel of Nothingness.
According to my friend, it is apparently a sure hit ability that can lock onto its target on a conceptual level. Once Mio activates it, the opponent is guaranteed to die.
Based on that, I added another way for it to lock on and attack: erasing all targets within a specified space.
To put it in plain words, the original Angel of Nothingness is like a missile that can automatically chase the target with just one button, while I added an extra option for the pilot to aim manually.
Next is Ain Soph.
The part in the story where the Spirit Formula developed by Westcott is used to seize control was also changed after discussing it with my friend, and after I finished reading the later plot of Volu 19. Originally, my plan was just to have Yutsuki bluff her way through with so random explanation and force of will.
However, one problem is that Volu 19 gives very little direct description of the Spirit Formula. It only says that after Westcott used the Spirit Formula, he stole half of Mio's power.
Honestly, that developnt made Mio, who had still been in hyper invincible mode in Volu 18, feel a little subtle in my mind.
So here, I treated it as: in the original Volu 19, Westcott had already improved and strengthened the Spirit Formula. But in this worldline, the Spirit Formula Yutsuki obtained was the initial version from thirty years ago, which is why the fight was so difficult.
Speaking of that, you may have noticed.
The main point of my changes in this battle was not weakening the original settings, but strengthening Yutsuki... no, strictly speaking, specializing her.
Being able to use the Angels of other Spirits, and being unable to be directly locked onto on a conceptual level.
Because of those two points, Yutsuki was qualified to fight Mio without being instantly defeated, and in the end, she was able to avoid Mio's Angel of Nothingness and survive.
Also, I made so changes to Kurumi's Angel, Zafkiel.
More accurately, I changed the settings of Yud Aleph and Yud Bet.
In the original, both bullets require Spirit power to use. The distance crossed through ti, and how long one can stay in the past or future, are both decided by the amount of Spirit power injected into the bullet. Once the Spirit power runs out, the user is forced back to their original ti.
In this story, those two bullets have slightly fancier settings.
As Yutsuki said, traveling to the past and traveling to the future are two different situations, because ti moves toward the future.
If you change the past, that ans you change the present. But if you change the future, it does not affect the present.
For example, if Shido travels five years into the past, then five years ago, there would be two Itsuka Shidos.
But if Shido travels five years into the future, and does not return, then the future would also have an Itsuka Shido.
The forr can cause problems like the "grandfather paradox", but the latter does not. From other people's point of view, it is just soone suddenly disappearing and then appearing again after so ti.
Anyway, in this book, Yud Bet is set up so that the Spirit power injected affects the length of ti crossed, and is also used to resist the corrective force produced by the world trying to prevent history from changing. So the longer one stays in the past, the more Spirit power is consud. Once the Spirit power inside the bullet runs out, the user is forcibly thrown back to their original ti.
By comparison, Yud Aleph has far fewer limits. It consus relatively little Spirit power, and after arriving in the future, the user will not be forcibly sent back to the present. That is why Kurumi was able to spend six years in the future.
Of course, based on this theory of mine, there are actually plenty of holes. I am not an expert in this field either, and the only work I have watched about this kind of thing is Steins;Gate, so everyone can just treat this as amusing myself.
There is also Vav.
Although I did not change the setting of this ability, many readers seed confused about it, so I will try to answer based on my personal understanding.
One: Can Vav only travel back a few days into the past?
Answer: Yes. This bullet is similar to the Ti Leap Machine invented by Kurisu in Steins;Gate. It only sends the user's consciousness into the past. However, although each jump only covers a few days, in theory, Kurumi could use Vav again after returning to the past, then jump even further back.
Two: In the Refrain volu, why didn't Kurumi use Vav to jump to an earlier point, so she could have more preparation ti?
Answer: She couldn't. In June, because she kissed Shido, Kurumi accidentally lost Vav. She did not get it back until the following February, from Shido after his death. There was an eight month gap, and during that ti, Kurumi did not have Vav's ability. Vav's range also could not cross eight months. Moreover, by that point, Kurumi had already opened her heart to Shido. If she kissed the living Shido, not only would she fail to take Vav back, her Spirit power would instead be sealed by Shido.
Three: Why didn't Kurumi think of using ti travel to change the past when her close friend Sawa died?
Answer: I was confused by this at first too. At first, I simply thought Kurumi had not thought of it back then. But after thinking carefully, perhaps she believed that even if she herself did not beco a Spirit, Mio would find soone else to take her place, and in the end, that person might still harm her and her friends. So she decided to keep that power herself, then kill Mio and solve the problem from the source.
Four: Why didn't Kurumi use Vav or Yud Bet to go back thirty years and find Mio?
Answer: She did not use Vav because thirty years ago, Kurumi was only an ordinary person, possibly even a little girl. Vav's conditions do not support Kurumi jumping back thirty years. She did not use Yud Bet because the Spirit power consumption would be too great. And even if she returned thirty years ago, there would be no point if she did not have enough power to defeat Mio. So before that, she had to take Shido's Spirit power.
Speaking of Kurumi, so readers also said that my portrayal of Tokisaki Kurumi in this volu was sowhat failed. For example, Kurumi should not have given up her mission during the loops, and even if she did give up, she should have killed herself out of guilt.
Although what you all said is not unreasonable, I personally do not think this portrayal is wrong.
During the loops where Shido was killed, unlike the original where Kurumi resisted alone, Yutsuki beca her partner in this story. That had a major effect on Kurumi, both in a good and bad sense.
First, because of Yutsuki's involvent, Kurumi successfully prevented Shido's death many tis. That naturally caused Kurumi to develop so trust and dependence toward Yutsuki.
Normally, Yutsuki is soone who respects other people's privacy, knows how to keep a proper distance when communicating, and is very easy to get along with. But at crucial monts, she is also the type who will directly place a dangerous hidden problem in front of the person involved.
When Kurumi is with Yutsuki, it is like facing a mirror with no lies at all. Even the cowardice and confusion Kurumi herself had not noticed are reflected before her. If she cannot find an answer to that, then naturally, Kurumi will fall into confusion.
Second is Yutsuki's personality.
Although I don't know when it started, Yutsuki gained a "mother" trait that she did not have at first. Although there is a bit of cody in it, Yutsuki's personality does have a kind of motherly nature that can accept other people's mistakes and sins. That further tempted the confused Kurumi to give up the loops and choose to rely on Yutsuki.
If a person has no way back, then even if they are unwilling, they can only keep moving forward.
But what if there is still a way back?
Especially after experiencing more than a hundred unforgettable failures, can one still keep moving forward without wavering?
That is probably how I understand Kurumi's situation in this route.
What else should I ntion... Nia, I suppose.
When writing this volu, I wrote with the premise that Nia, having experienced Inversion once and having had her Sephira Crystal taken away, would no longer invert, whether ntally or physically.
But in the story, Nia's role is closer to soone who clearly wants to do sothing and change things, yet always finds herself powerless. She does not want to regret her choices, but unconsciously keeps making choices that lead to regret.
Rather than saying I was shaping Nia, I actually put so of my real life experiences into her.
That feeling where you sense that a choice is wrong, but by the ti you understand it, you have already chosen wrong.
"If only I had done that back then."
You think that in your heart, but you also know there is no "if" in this world. In the end, all you can do is keep regretting it inside.
Phew——we are almost at the end.
When this idea first ca to , I hesitated for a long ti over whether I should write it. After all, I had never written tragedy before, so I did not know whether I was suited to this kind of thing. During that ti, I even used another tragic idea of mine, The Girl and the Dragon, as practice.(TL:another novel of his)
And as you all saw, sure enough——I really am not suited for tragedy. Damn it! Whether it was when the Arusu sisters sacrificed herself or when Yutsuki sacrificed herself, I cried until my face was covered in tears. Having a low tear point really doesn't work. (TL: too...)
By the way, the plot of this special volu actually connects to the other volu, Kurumi Reset. If you have finished reading this volu, you can reread Kurumi Reset. Maybe you will have a slightly different experience. (TL: you can see how after 'Bad end 2', both Shido and Yutsuki all notice how different Kurumi was during that point)
Of course, there are also so ideas in this volu that have not been written out yet, such as the story of the normal end where Kurumi accepts reality. Perhaps after both you and I let our emotions settle, I will add it soday.
Finally, thank you all for your continued support of this book.
Then, everyone, until we et again!
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