Sep 30, 2024
Author's Commentary #70:
Time to talk about Chapter 70: Japan's beautiful SPCMs.
Originally meant to serve as a fanservice special to celebrate the 69th chapter, revisions led to this being both watered down compared to the original, and stuck in the 70th chapter. At lest Chapter 69 had maid Daria though.
A big reason why I changed the fanservice bit was simply because the original was too long. But if you're a fan of the original, don't worry, it will likely come back in some way, shape, or form as a special chapter. And trust me, it will be worth the wait, both fanservice-wise, and even story-wise as well. Now let's discuss some of the new characters.
黒代 白羽 (Kuroshiro Tenju) is how Tenju's name is spelled in kanji, while 黒代 黛羅 (Kuroshiro Taira) is how Taira's name is spelled in kanji. 白羽 means "white" and "feather", while 黛羅 means "black veil" and "net". The twin's surname, 黒代, means "black" and "substitute". As you can tell, the twins are based off the theme of black and white. Taira tends to favor the color black, while Tenju the color white. Her hair is naturally black, however she dyed it white.
Their birthday is January 24th. I chose this day because it was apparently regarded as the most depressing day of the year. The twins have a very harsh backstory. All I'll reveal for now about it is that both were born prematurely and were abandoned by their birth mother. Many believed Taira in particular wouldn't make it, and the twin's mother even requested Taira be euthanized, however, despite being just a premature newborn, Tenju protected her sister as best she could. Luckily, the doctors refused to go along with the twin's mother's request and did all they could to keep the twins alive.
This incident is what originally led Tenju to develop a sister complex as she felt she was the only one that could stand by Taira's side since everyone else seemed to shun her. As for why Taira was shunned, that will be revealed later in the story.
Tenju's favorite piece is the rook, mainly because she views them as essential companions to the king, and compares the relationship to her and Taira.
Taira's favorite piece is also the rook, however, she likes them mainly for the fact that they tend to be an essential piece in the endgame.
祖堅 道空 (Soken Doraaki) is how Doraaki's name is written in kanji.
道空 means "road" and "sky" while 祖堅 means "ancestor" and "hard".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me.
Her birthday is November 4th. I chose the date at random so there's no significance behind it.
Her favorite piece is the pawn, mainly because she thinks they look cute.
One final thing I'll touch on is warping. SPCMs and maestros possess the ability to warp to any secret puzzle cafe in the world, WWCF HQ, and their own home. They are unable to warp anyone along with them, unless it is to and from the WWCF HQ. Players are able to unlock a teleportation ability, however, it is very costly. Though in a video game adaptation, you can bet players would instantly have this skip travel ability.
As for the final SPCM introduced in this chapter, I'll talk about her more in a future commentary.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
