High Speed! Volume 2

Afterword

Supported by everyone's warm encouragement, alongside offering my deep gratitude for having arrived at the sequel's publication, I have never been happier that my work truly was loved by many people.

Upon writing the sequel, I experienced a stifling sensation that's like being on the verge of getting crushed by unease, whether I could live up to everyone's huge expectations or not. However, right after I began writing, I realized that it was an absurd fear. Indifferent to the writer's unease, Haruka and the others were passing days filled with liveliness as always. Even while being bewildered about a new life, nurturing the courage to look hard at themselves, they were vigorously moving forward. The writer just had to copy and depict them as they're advancing with all-out efforts, gazing only forward while running, while stumbling, and sometimes while falling over and drawing attention to themselves.

In the course of writing, I noticed that "the eyes changed". Both Haruka's and the writer's eyes. I thought that the way of looking at things, the way of thinking or the way of feeling things is changing compared to before. That wasn't the type of thing like growth or evolution, much less something as prominent that can be called a transformation. Perhaps it was something only trivial that ought to be called a "sign". However, I certainly felt that "the eyes changed".

Perhaps the meetings with others and the changes in environment had made it so. Or perhaps, facing the fact that they had been averting their eyes, it could be that they had gotten the resolve just a little bit to accept what they have been consistently refusing. In any case, I feel it is certain that at least the attachment towards living has gotten stronger.

Anyways, being a middle schooler means you eat often. Regardless of whether you're hungry or not, "if there's something, you eat". Eating is living. In other words, the attachment towards "eating" is also attachment towards "living". Then the strong feelings towards living become energy in the end, and intensely burn as the origin of everything. It can't help but burn.

Before I knew it, I could no longer take my eyes of off them, living vigorously. No matter what kind of talent they have, no matter what kind of potential they're hiding, it has nothing to do with it. I could only think of portraying the current them to the maximum. Not even the writer knows what they're swimming for and what awaits them beyond it. While feeling the violent throbbing of their heartbeats and their rough breathing, all I could do was keep writing, driven by emotions. Once I had been touched by the strong energy they release, I didn't need to hesitate anymore. They were so overflowing with liveliness that I had no time to hesitate.

It would make me happier than anything else if the many people who have read this work have sympathized with Haruka and the others even a little bit.

In closing, I would like to kindly express my gratitude to everyone who had given their efforts and to the companions who are connected by eternal friendship.

2014. Summer breeze weather, Ooji Kouji