Afterword
What did everyone think of volume fifteen of "The Irregular at Magic High School," "Ancient City Insurrection, Part II"? This time, "Attempted Ancient City Insurrection" might have been a more accurate subtitle, but it would have spoiled the story, and more importantly, it couldn't entirely be called an "attempt" either. I hope you'll understand and forgive me for that.
So, the Yotsuba branch families have finally appeared. Although they were only supporting characters in this story, I couldn't help feeling, "So these guys have finally come out..." No, they'll still be supporting characters in the future, but they are indispensable to the production on the grand stage of "The Irregular at Magic High School," and I've been looking forward to their appearance for a long time. The story in which they truly take the stage will be one of the highlights of this series.
Although the branch families were slated to appear from the beginning, their surnames were only decided recently. I tried this and that and agonized over them quite a bit. Shiba, Mashiba, Shibata, Kuroba, Mutsukura, Tsukuba, Shizuka. Of their surnames, I think Shiba, Mashiba, and Shibata should be easy to understand. They are all variations on "Yotsuba" → "Yotsuba."
As I think everyone has already noticed, Kuroba came from the "Yotsuba four-leaf clover."
Mutsukura came from a plant called yotsuba mugura.
Tsukuba was based on yotsuba ōson. Yotsuba ōson is a perennial plant in the lily family with four leaves.
Shizuka was named after a plant called ginrensō. This is also a four-leaved perennial.
I kept researching as I chose their surnames, and put considerable effort into giving their names a consistent pattern.
Lastly, a little behind-the-scenes talk about the writing. The story contains the premise that "Zhuge Kongming developed Demon Gate Dunjia" (a premise that applies only to this work), and I wrote the properties of Demon Gate Dunjia used in the "Yokohama Disturbance" and "Ancient City Insurrection" arcs based on my own interpretation of Kongming's story in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (or, more precisely, Eiji Yoshikawa's "Three Kingdoms"). In other words, rather than having Kongming develop Demon Gate Dunjia, the correct order was that I established the techniques Kongming used as Demon Gate Dunjia. Although "Three Kingdoms" does contain descriptions of Zhuge Kongming, the properties of Demon Gate Dunjia are purely fictional.
Thank you very much for joining me again this time. If possible, I hope you'll also support the next volume, volume sixteen, "Yotsuba Succession."
(Tsutomu Sato)