I HOLD YOUR VOICE ALONE, UNDER THE STARRY SKY - Chapter 5 Afterword

Afterword

I’ve gotten a lot of spam messages, and at one point I got a great deal of them in a short amount of time. I lump them all together as spam mail, but there really were many kinds.

For example:

Would you like 100,000,000 yen? Click this link to find out more.

It would tempt you to click the link, then when you did, ask for your bank account details and credit card number. You might get spam, but never click those links.

Or perhaps something like this from a woman’s name.

Thanks for your email address [smiley face].

They might pressure you to reply, you’d talk for a while and then get invited to a dating site.

Or maybe a fake bill:

You have been charged a usage fee. Click here.

I see those and think “Huh? I’m not falling for that. I won’t click the links, and I’m not replying.”

And then just delete the message.

And then one day I wondered.

“Then what kind of message would I want to reply to?”

I thought endlessly over it.

I don’t really have any interest in the messages from girls wanting to meet you. And getting money just sounds too good to be true. I wanted it to feel more like it was from a person…

And then suddenly, the name Eina came into my mind. She likes novels, she has a bright personality, but she’s a little odd so she doesn’t have any friends. Because of that, she’s alone and starts writing on her phone like you’d talk to the wall…

If you got a message like ‘It’s all over. I want to die.’ From a girl like that, you’d reply, wouldn’t you?

Our generation communicates by text messages, but nowadays, social networking apps have chat functions so that built the setting as it is.

Before I knew it, I’d thought up the plot, so I tried writing it and thankfully managed to get it published. Thank you, spam mail.

With the advent of mobile phones, we’ve become able to communicate with our loved ones even if we separate, but that can’t divert from the loneliness of not being able to meet. I wrote with those heartbreaking feelings in mind, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Now, my final thanks:

Head editor Shouji Satoshi-san, thank you for all your help, your quick, pertinent advice allowed me to create this book, thank you very much.

Miwano Rag-san, my illustrator. Thank you for your wonderful illustrations. I like them all, but I particularly like the mysterious air of the cover.

I also give my thanks to everyone involved with the publishing of this book.

I give my greatest thanks to you, who picked up my book. A book is complete when it is read, thank you very much.

And so, I hope we can meet again.

Respectfully yours, Takahashi Bisui, May 2018