Volume 2 Epilogue & Afterword

-Epilogue-

It was the morning of Monday, May 22nd, and another day of class was just getting started in class 1-B of Starlight Academy’s east district high school. While homeroom teacher Mariko Yamagata was going over the usual start-of-class material, Yuko gazed lazily outside of the window. Even though she had just been in Central the day before, the whole experience felt almost like a dream.

“Ms. Maeda? Did you get all that? Yamagata asked with her usual gentle smile, as Yuko quickly snapped back to attention.

“Ah, yeah, of course!” Yuko hastily responded.

Despite this being the same kind of classroom situation she’d grown used to, Yuko felt a bit more attached to Yamagata than before. The two got to share the unique experience of visiting Central together, after all.

As Yamagata began going over the upcoming midterms, Yuko once again found herself spacing out just a bit, lost in thought. The night before, she’d had a normal night of sleep for the first time in a few days. During her time in Central over the weekend, she’d had some bizarrely realistic dreams, all of which were brought about by the young girl she’d gone to help: Tsukiko. In the end, it seems like the whole situation was resolved, and Tsukiko apparently no longer has the ability to enhance or link dreams anymore, meaning she’ll likely get better soon.

Still, Yuko couldn’t help but ponder about the ultimate reason behind how or why those things occurred in the first place. Was that dream power some kind of magic ability, like the spells from Alviquan that Kanna could use? At the very least, it was worth asking about.

Yamagata’s morning announcements wrapped up, and it was time for the class lectures to begin in earnest, so Yuko quickly put her ponderings into the back of her mind, and decided to focus on class. The rest of the morning passed relatively uneventfully.

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“A… dream power, you say?” Kanna asked, feeling a bit perplexed.

It was now around noon, and the various students had all scattered to enjoy their lunch break. Yuko decided to take this opportunity to ask Kanna if she knew anything that might explain the dream phenomenon in Central, so the two met up in an isolated stairwell in the corner of the school.

“Yeah, a power that seems to make dreams really vivid, and also connect the minds of various people as they sleep. Does your world have any kind of magic that can do something like that, Kanna?” Yuko asked.

“No, I do not believe so…” Kanna frowned. “The magic system within Alviquan is based upon elements found within nature, and manipulating them. As you know, I am an ice magician. My magic power has a strong affinity with that element, so it is what I am most adept at controlling.”

“I see… Yeah, that makes sense…” Yuko sighed.

“So, are you certain of this? That child in Central could readily manipulate dreams in such a way?” Kanna asked, feeling unconvinced.

“Yeah, I’m positive.” nodded Yuko. “But she can’t do it anymore. I don’t entirely know why, but after a bunch of things happened while our dreams were connected, it’s like she lost the power. It was bizarre at the time, sure, but right now I can’t help but think about what a strange experience it all was…”

“Hmm…” Kanna was deep in thought. “Manipulating the mind is no easy task. There are very few uses of magic that could achieve such an effect, and as far as I’m aware, none are as specific as what you describe.”

The two girls were at a standstill. Yuko had regularly depended on Kanna to give an explanation for any of the bizarre supernatural stuff she encountered. But if even she didn’t know anything about what this dream stuff could be about, then Yuko may just be out of luck on ever getting an explanation.

“My apologies.” Kanna bowed. “I do understand how unsettling it must be, having encountered such an unnatural situation. I wish I could be of help, but I am at as much of a loss as you are.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” Yuko waved off the subject. “I think I was just being too hopeful, assuming you’d have all the answers. But it’s fine. Like I said, the situation seems to have been dealt with anyway.”

“A fair point.” Kanna acknowledged. “But let us not forget, we still have a mystery of our own right here.”

“Oh?” Yuko blinked.

“Right here.” Kanna pointed straight at Yuko. “We still do not yet know what this ‘Guardian’ inside of you is, or did you forget?”

“Oh, right…” Yuko gave a wry smile. “I guess all things said and done, I’m still mystery number 1, aren’t I?”

“Well, from my perspective at least.” Kanna smirked.

“That reminds me…” Yuko suddenly had a thought.

Back during those dreams… Every time she fell asleep, she had a feeling as if she were sinking. During that process, she saw her: a mirror reflection of herself. Was that… the Guardian? Yuko had no way of knowing for sure, but perhaps, within those dreams, she caught a glimpse of that other ‘self’ within herself.

“Well… nevermind.” Yuko dropped the subject with a smile.

Even if Yuko had seen her at that time, it probably didn’t mean much of anything. At least, that’s what she told herself. After all, it was technically a path to a dream.

“Right. Well, I shall take my leave.” Kanna bowed, before heading down the stairs, off to take care of whatever she had to do during lunch break.

“See you later, Kanna.” Yuko waved, before heading to the cafeteria herself soon after.

The rest of the school day passed in the blink of an eye.

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“Oh!” two girls muttered in surprise upon spotting each other.

It was now the end of the day. The sun had already set, and the moon glowed brightly in the sky. The two girls, Yuko and Chisa, had both run into each other on their way back home from their job and club respectively.

“Let’s head back together.” with a smirk, Chisa pointed the way with her thumb.

“Yeah, sure thing!” Yuko smiled in response.

The two girls made their way down the walkway illuminated by the nearby streetlamps. Various other students were passing by as well, many all headed the same way. The two girls made casual small talk as they made their way back to the dorms.

“Man, I still can’t believe you got to visit Central again…” Chisa remarked, recalling what Yuko had told her about the trip earlier.

“It really wasn’t all that exciting. As I told you, I spent most of the time in the hospital.” Yuko gave a wry smile.

Yuko decided not to tell Chisa about the odd dream-related occurrences from the trip. In fact, she still had yet to inform Chisa about some of the details from the incident at the end of April. Yuko felt kind of bad keeping it all from her, but a lot of it was all so unbelievable that it was difficult to bring up. Still, Chisa was important to Yuko. So she decided to partially broach the topic in her own way.

“You know, while I was in Central, I had a lot of dreams about the old days we spent there together…” Yuko murmured.

“Oh wow, that trip must’ve been making you feel nostalgic. But, well, it was the same hospital you often visited too, so that’s probably part of it.” Chisa nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, haha.” Yuko smiled. “Seeing that place again brought back a lot of memories. You know, I’m really grateful to you, Chisa.”

“Grateful to me?” Chisa turned to her friend, her curiosity piqued.

“Yeah… I think it’s a great thing that we’re still here, together like this.” Yuko turned to face Chisa as well. “It’s just sad that Aoi ended up somewhere else…”

“Aoi… Yeah, I miss her too.” Chisa gave a sad smile in response to the name Aoi. “The three of us were always together. That clever girl really rounded out our group back then.”

“Yeah… I hope she’s doing well.” Yuko glanced up at the night sky.

Surely, Aoi was somewhere else within Starlight Academy, looking up at the same sky. Even though they were apart, they both still existed in this world, and someday, they would surely get the chance to meet again.

“Oh hey, look over there.” Chisa stopped walking, and pointed toward a nearby stretch of grass.

“Hm?” Yuko turned and glanced in that direction. There in that small field, there was a small patch of clovers growing.

“Whoa, are those clovers?” Yuko was a bit surprised.

“Sure looks like it!” Chisa dashed over into the field.

“Hey!” Yuko exclaimed, chasing after her.

Chisa had already knelt down in the field, and was searching through the patch of clovers. Yuko stood behind her, with a look of slight confusion.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Ain’t it obvious?” Chisa grinned, as she continued searching the clovers. “I’m trying to find a four-leaf clover!”

“Now? But it’s already dark out. Even if one’s in there, it’s probably too tough to find…” Yuko reasoned.

“Don’t worry, the moon’s bright enough tonight. I can see just fine. Let’s see… not this one… not here either…” Chisa began to mumble as she rummaged around.

“Oh, Chisa…” Yuko sighed with a smile, opting to let Chisa do what she wanted.

“Ah!” after a few minutes passed, Chisa suddenly exclaimed in excitement.

“Hm?” Yuko blinked in surprise.

Chisa stood up, turned around, and reached her hand out to Yuko. In Chisa’s palm, sure enough, was a four-leaf clover.

“No way…!” Yuko shouted in surprise.

“This time, you don’t need any luck or get-well wishes, so… Here’s to our continued friendship!” Chisa gave a big smile as she handed the clover to her friend.

“Yeah, absolutely!” Yuko nodded happily, gently taking the clover in her own hand.

After that small side trip, the two friends returned to the paved walkway and continued making their way back to the dorms. In the end, it was just by chance that the two happened to come across that small clover patch. But taking the opportunity to reaffirm their bond was a nice little experience, as cheesy as it may have been. For these two friends, the four-leaf clover was a symbol of their unity, of their memories of the time they’d spent together.

To such longtime friends, perhaps finding a four-leaf clover again evoked a feeling similar to nostalgia.

[Volume 2: Nostalgic Trip Phantasmagoria – END]

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-Another Epilogue-

[An Excerpt from the Diary of a Certain Doctor]

I’ve been the head doctor at Central hospital for a few years now, but I’ve never come across something as baffling as what recently occurred here. I’m not sure if this is something I should speak with anyone else about, but since I’ve been trying to keep this diary filled, I decided I’d write out my thoughts here.

To start with, this past weekend we had some guests from the eastern district come to stay at the hospital. They came by so we could run some tests on a former patient in order to help a current patient. Of course, it was my suggestion that we try this approach, but I’m shocked the school went along with it so easily. This institution is very strict about making sure students in the four outer districts stay mostly isolated from one another, aside from a few very specific events and circumstances. Of course, Central here is the main hub connecting them all anyway, but even then, it’s not common for any ordinary student to return during their schooling in the outer districts.

Putting all that aside, the guest and her teacher were both very kind people. I remember seeing the guest here when she was younger and a patient in this hospital, so it was nice to see her again. They came, we took care of everything as planned, and then they left. If it were as simple as that, it would probably not be worth writing about.

But something weird definitely happened here, and I just cannot figure out what.

For starters, there was a small incident late in the night of May 20th (early morning of the 21st, technically), in which one of our hospital rooms caught fire. No one got hurt, and the fire went out surprisingly quickly, but the room itself and everything inside was totally burnt up. We won’t be able to make use of the room for the foreseeable future.

While the fire itself was strange (we still have not been able to determine a specific cause for why it occurred), the most baffling thing of all is how it was followed up on. The following day, several of the hospital staff and I decided to check the records from the hospital’s security cameras; trying to catch a glimpse of what may have happened that night. But to our surprise, some representatives from the main office were already here, and they were confiscating all of the recorded data from the weekend.

Naturally, the incident had been reported to the higher-ups as soon as the situation had settled down. And while we may be at fault by waiting so long to check the recordings ourselves, I still never expected this bizarre intervention.

As they were taking the data away, I noticed the east district manager Tokushige accompanying them. I approached and asked him what this was all about, but he simply waved off my question, saying it was just a routine check because of the guests from his district. While it was true they were keeping a close eye on the guests due to the uniqueness of this situation, I still felt a strange vibe from the whole ordeal.

Though I thought it was strange, I merely kept it in the back of my mind and didn’t think much of it. But things continued to get even stranger. The patient who those two had come here to help, a young girl who’d been hospitalized here for about a month, suddenly seems to have been cured of her symptoms. She used to always wake up each morning with fevers, pains, trouble moving around… It was a tough situation we were never able to fully understand, which is why we chose to study a prior patient with similar symptoms in the first place.

And yet, after their visit, it was as if the whole thing took care of itself, and the patient was cured.

Now… the room that caught fire, it belonged to this patient. At the time, she and the guest were both together in the hall. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But it’s strange that those two were together in the middle of the night. The guest had her own room on the first floor, and ordinarily would’ve been asleep there, only learning of the fire when the alarm went off. Yet, she was already at the scene before many of us got there…

Even as I write this out, the reason behind all these weird situations still eludes me. Something definitely happened over the weekend, but for all intents and purposes it seems like something I may never know about. Perhaps I’m writing this down now just to get this all off my chest. As the one in charge here, it’s a frustrating feeling.

Regardless, after a few days our patient was discharged and will be returning to school. Even after making our guest go through all those tests and collecting all of that data, we never even made use of it. Truly, I feel like I didn’t accomplish anything. And yet, something surely seems to have been accomplished here anyway.

Oh well… that’s all for this entry.

[Another Epilogue – END]

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-Afterword-

Hello again, it’s balanime! And just like that, volume 2 is done! It’s wild to think about, but it’s already been 6 months since I started writing & posting chapters of Yuko… Time really passes in the blink of an eye, doesn’t it? If you’ve diligently kept up with my story all this time, I can only express my highest gratitude. Thank you so much!

Honestly speaking, I’m such a small name in the vast pool of internet storywriters. But even though I’ve been involved with all kinds of creative works over the years, this is my first time really just pouring story ideas from my mind out onto a page and sending it out to the world as-is. It’s been such a unique experience.

So, Volume 2! When it comes to light novels and stories structured for that medium, I’ve always held the belief that stories willing to get “weird” for their second volume have a special kind of strength to them. What I mean by that is, the concept of a “Volume 2” is such a heavy weight, especially for someone who’s just finished their first volume. The easiest path is to just take what you introduced in Volume 1 and build upon those things to tell a continuation of that story. Well, it’s more like, that’s the only logical thing to do. But if you want people to stay along for a story’s journey long term, isn’t it best to show the range in what kind of stories your series can express?

It would’ve been easy enough to just take the conclusion of Volume 1 and railroad the story into some kind of new conflict, or write about the appearance of a new enemy character for Yuko and Kanna to deal with. Of course, I have plenty of ideas for just such a story and I’m sure you’ll see a story more like that in the coming third volume. But for Volume 2, the volume with the sole responsibility of following up the story’s introductory arc, what is it that I as an author wanted to express? That, dear readers, is the kind of thinking that lead to this story.

Volume 2, “Nostalgic Trip Phantasmagoria” is more like a slow character study. It was a story written around the characters and who they are, in contrast to volume 1, which I felt like I wrote more around the storyline itself. In this story, Tsukiko’s dream powers served as a catalyst of sorts, a lens through which we explore who the involved characters are as people at this current time in their lives. This was, of course, most important for Yuko herself. She’s the protagonist of this story, and while Volume 1 revolved around her, I really wondered if I was able to fully express what kind of person she really is. Thanks to the introspective nature of dreams, I was able to depict Yuko’s resolve as a character to live in the present while acknowledging her past. I could bring those traits to forefront, and really get a good look at Yuko’s character, all while exploring the large backdrop for this scenario: Tsukiko herself and the situation with her, Haruto, and her teacher Shinohara. Naturally, these aren’t characters we’ll get to see very often. After all, they live in Central, a location isolated from the eastern district where much of this story takes place. So it was fun getting to write them while I could.

Anyway, sorry for rambling about all that. You’ve read the story yourself, so I’m sure you all, as readers, have your own conclusions to be drawn from these characters and their interactions. I’m not the kind of writer to boldly go into a story declaring “the theme of this story is THIS!” because the interpretation of a reader and what they get from a story is something I feel should be cherished. In fact, I feel like I learn more about the characters the more I write them, and I think this volume really helped me understand Yuko herself. I’m growing to understand these characters right alongside all of you.

That said, it must be acknowledged just how much of a departure Volume 2 was, and I hope it didn’t throw you all off too much. I think the coming stories will be more along the lines of what you might’ve expected from this series. I’m still conceptualizing some elements of Volume 3, but I have a really good feeling about this one, so please look forward to it. It seems I’m going to be introducing a lot of new characters once again…

Speaking of which, I never ended up making illustrations of Yamagata, Shinohara, Tsukiko, or Haruto… I’m really sorry. I was too busy writing, I never found a moment to actually draw them. I want to make art of all my characters at some point, so keep an eye out. I’m sure I’ll eventually get to it… right?

Anyway, this turned out to be a rather longwinded Afterword. I’m writing this all at the last minute, the day before upload, so I’m just kind of dumping thoughts onto the page. Lately I’ve been caught up in a certain hit video game about a Kingdom’s Tears, and it’s suddenly gotten a lot harder to focus on writing. (lol)

I don’t know when Volume 3 will be ready, since I have a lot of planning to do for it, on top of planning for a different unrelated project I’ll be involved in. So it may be a bit of a wait, but please look forward to it.

Until then, please keep Yuko in your heart! See you next time!