Atogaki ー Afterword

Japanese title: 前人後敵 (Zenjin Kōteki)
English title: Front Friend Back Foe
The 249th Hyper-Imagination Contest: Rear View
Pickup Rookie Award Recipient

Thank you very much for reading this story.
Since the theme of the contest was “rear view,” I started writing with a simple idea:
“Wouldn’t it be terrifying if there were a village that attacked you the moment you saw someone from behind?”
At first, I considered a concept where people wore elaborate masks on the backs of their heads as well. However, I realized that once you got used to them, it would be easy to see through the trick, so I discarded that idea.

While writing this piece, I spent most of my time thinking about the customs and strange festival of a single village—and I found it fairly enjoyable.
If this village’s bizarre festival actually existed, I’d love to see it someday—maybe on YouTube or something.

That said, anyone who visits this village would almost certainly lose their life, and anyone who manages to leave it would likely end up arrested for assault or something similar.
No matter whether leaving was for travel or any other reason, the villagers would fall into the belief that “those who leave never return; the outside world is dangerous.”
From there, an even more isolated village would be formed—at least, that’s as far as I thought it through.

Honestly, the sooner this village disappears, the better for the world.

As for the title, it comes from a very simple idea: If someone is facing forward, they’re a friend. If you see their back, they’re an enemy.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking about translating the title into English, so deciding on an English version later became the biggest challenge.
I briefly considered shortening it to “FFBF,” but that would have been completely unclear, so I settled on Front Friend Back Foe instead.
For the cover illustration, I made sure that “FFBF” stood out visually.

For the Japanese version, I used a smartphone app to edit the image and add the title text.
That’s why the frame looks a bit different from my other works, and why I went a little overboard with a monochrome filter.

For the English version, I added the title using Photo Director 365.
This story takes place long before Episode 1 of my main series, Two in the Abandoned House—back when Sayuri was still drifting around freely.

Once again, thank you very much for reading.
I hope we’ll meet again in the next story.

December 29, 2025　Tochika