The Fourth Period Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

Note 22: A segment from the Japanese variety show Tamori Club, featuring viewer submissions of foreign song lyrics that sounded like Japanese. Guests would often comment, "Now that you mention it, it does kind of sound like that."

Note 23: A parody of the Light Novel Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu..

Note 24: A parody of the shogi-themed Light Novel The Ryuo's Work!. "Seven Crowns" refers to the seven major titles held by professional shogi players.

Note 25: A parody of the Light Novel Karikari Naruri. A short story by its author, Hirohina Ishikawa, was also included in this volume.

Note 26: A parody of the Light Novel The Scum and Angel's Second Lap Life. A short story by its author, Mukai Tenjin, was also included in this volume.

Note 27: A parody of the Light Novel <My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend's Fierce Shura Field>.

Note 28: Guri and Gura is a story about two mice named Guri and Gura baking pancakes. Its Japanese title sounds similar to "Karigyura."

Short Story Collection 4 ALLSTARS Afterword

Afterword (Hirohina Ishikawa)

"The readers of Oregairu are the Service Club's twelfth members. They deserve to be the protagonists of a short story in a short story collection." I used that excuse to fool my editor and got my story approved, but now that I thought about it, did the Service Club even have that many people...?

I also thought of another version: "The vengeful spirit of a girl who died before she could finish reading Oregairu, joined by a psychic, attacks Wataru-sensei's Oregairu mansion." The spirit, having turned from fan into hater, destroyed all of Wataru-sensei's collected artworks, luxury cars, and absurdly enormous beds! An inversion and collapse of order that could never happen in the real world—that was the power stories possessed, wasn't it?