Clockwork Planet 1: Afterword
–It all started more than a year ago.“I say, aren’t mechanical clocks really cool?”
Yuu Kamiya suddenly mentioned this question on Skype, and Tsubaki Himana answered as such,
“…Aren’t you still going through cancer therapy? I’m in college now, and I need to look for a job too, you know?”
Both of us probably don’t have time, Tsubaki said gloomily. But–
“Okay okay. Stop playing that Sk*rim Er* Mod and listen to me.”
This is to be expected of a friendship for more than 10 years. Kamiya continues on with the attitude of having seen through this.
“It’s when I was doing therapy overseas. I so happened to see a mechanical clock in a duty-free shop, and that pamphlet was amazing.
“Oh…but a pocket watch or something like that is really romantic.”
“Humph, I knew you would have such shallow knowledge. I so happened to take a photo of it. Here, I’ll send it to you–watch it!”
Seriously? Tsubaki reluctantly opened the JPEG picture that was sent.
He stopped what he was doing.
—
“Oh…what’s with this mechanical beauty? My crotch’s about to rise (scrolls through)
A mini universe was hidden within.
The delicate gears fill the inside according to precise calculations, and the metal polished as brightly as a mirror gave off a functional luster. Upon seeing the beautiful clockwork function, the romantic circuit located in the right abdomen, which any man will have, starts to ring–
After seeing Tsubaki’s reaction, Kamiya nods in a self-conceited manner, and continues,
“So, let’s trying doing it for real. A plot.”
“Plot?”
“Let’s call it–Clockwork Planet! Where clockwork functions turn a dead planet back into a newly made planet!”
Tsubaki thought about it.
…I see, a world constructed with such elegant clockwork functions. A Clockwork Planet floating in the middle of space–now that’s a wonderful idea. But, Tsubaki said,
“…It’s not nice to say this, but aren’t you writing a series called “No Game No Life”?”
If Tsubaki’s memory was not mistaken, this friend of his (Kamiya) had quit being a mangaka due to decreased vitality from his cancer treatment. To filled up his wallet, now penniless from the treatment, he had changed professions as a light novelist, and started a debut work–he should be in the midst of a turbulent life where he could not make any snide remarks.
However, Kamiya calmly ignored him and continued,
“I found that this plot doesn’t match my style after I tried writing it. It’s a rather hard-lined world view after all.”
“You really don’t care about the consequences.”
“–So, do you want to try writing this plot?”
“And you’re not listening to me! I’m saying that I’m going to college. I need to study. I need to look for a job–“
“It’s fine even if you don’t write it now, right? You’re graduating next year anyway, so why don’t you write after that?”
“Hm…” The plot he was entrusted with was certainly interesting.
Ever since they were acquainted since high school, they exchanged many themes from doujins to commercial products, and they had discussed and worked together on the works released till now. When Kamiya was acting as a mangaka, Tsubaki did help out as an assistant.
I do wish to see this story take shape. There’s time…and I can squeeze some time. But–
“I can try, but if I’m going to write it, can I try writing it in my own style?”
Actually, the script handed to Tsubaki was almost complete.
He simply needed to add some more details to the world view, the characters, the story, and the ending. However, it would not be interesting for him to simply write on like this, and most importantly, there would be no significance of him writing this.
If he had to do it–he first had to be satisfied with it.
However, he merely got back a nonchalant line as a reply.
“Sure. Anything goes as long as it’s interesting.”
This is to expected of a friendship more than 10 years old.
–Half a year later.
“Erm, Mr Kamiya? Can I bother you for a while?”
“–What? I’m busy making adjustments to the ending of “No Game No Life” volume 2.”
This time, Kamiya sounded rather busy in his reply, him being the one unavailable this time.
“Erm, I’m told that I can make changes based on my own interests, but I’m lost…well, do you mind helping me?”
“No actually, I don’t really have the time–“
But as the cause of all these, Kamiya, who could not reject others easily, said,
“…I, I understand. Once “No Game No Life” is done again, let’s discuss the plot together. We’ll use your ideas, correct the paradoxes in it, and I’ll let you write in detail here.”
“Leave it to me.”
–And another half a year later.
“This is the result of what I was entrusted in.”
When Tsubaki handed the draft over with a trembling voice, Kamiya had a hand on his forehead, groaning,
“I say…this is much more interesting than what was corrected, how are you going to end this?”
“That’s why I’m here to discuss this, no?”
…Though there was the urge for a punch to be swung, the thing preventing this was the geographical distance of Kamiya in Saitama and Tsubaki in Kyoto.
“I don’t have to right to say this about anyone, but aren’t you going overboard with dealing problems when they appear?”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, you workaholic in therapy.”
“…Got it. Do–this again with this as base! Reconstruct the plot again, and then you try writing it!”
“Yes sir!”
–And so, a few days later.
“Hey, why did you ignore the story again?”
Kamiya’s scream rang through Skype again, from Saitama to Kyoto.
“It’s more interesting now, isn’t it… (trembling voice)?”
“Well, for that, I think I need Master Kamiya’s strength for this, no~? (fidgets)”
Shall I just get to Kyoto and beat this guy up–but that notion was omitted due to time and transport fees issues.
And after a few exchanges–the script was finally completed.
And then–
“I heard that you wrote a new story series with your friend.”
Where did these news leak from?
Here appears Do S, the original editor-in-charge for Kamiya’s debut work “No Game No Life” at MF Bunko J, and escaped–correction, swapped over to the newly established Kodansha Light Novel company.
“Let’s publish it then (a very radiant smile)”
“Well, we don’t have that much time–“
“Let’s do our best together then (charmingly irresistible smile)”
–……
And so, this work got published after going through such hoopla and acrobatics.
Kamiya and Tsubaki both thought that there was no prior instance of a work being ‘co-written’, for normally, the original storyline, writing, and other duties were established before the actual work was to be written.
As for why the authors of this work were added in this one…
“–So, who exactly wrote this?”
The editor asked with a puzzled expression–but,
“As for the issue of who wrote this,”
“We think it’s just minor issues.”
Both of them answered with cheerful smiles–probably indicating that they had already given up on thinking about it.
“…Well, never mind. We shall leave the illustrations to Kamiya as usual–ah? Huh? Kamiya?”
“He logged out of Skype immediately once he saw the word ‘illustrations’.”
And so, someone else suddenly appeared on the Skype window–the name is “Shino”.
“I heard of ‘something very interesting’ from Kamiya’.”
Shino, without knowing anything, simply asked a question innocently, and Tsubaki firmly believed in this,
He could imagine that the editor-in-charge Do S, on the other side of the screen where he could not see, was showing that smile akin to that of a certain chef.
“It is nice to meet you for the first time, Shino. I heard of your activeness in other areas. You are right in that it is a very important thing. Okay, let us go there to talk.”
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