The hot summer had come to an end, and the autumn that would likely become long would soon begin. If the media expands, I’d to made character songs with the breasts of each heroine singing. The tsundere that has been long-awaited by the readers has appeared (in Asia’s breasts, that is). It’s been a while. Ishibumi here. More naughtiness has been done yet again. The story has come this far with just breasts as its material. Even I’m surprised. It’s to the extent that Ise has become a protagonist that does a power-up like a Super Sa*yan and Ba*kai by poking breasts. Now that I think about it, Ise snapped when Buchou’s breasts were nearly halved, didn’t he? About Bilingual…I was sick when of thought of it. Volume 5 is the thickest book so far, but the afterword itself is also long so that I can talk about it. There are spoilers mentioned hereafter as well, so please read the rest of this volume first. - New Characters and the Underworld
Now then, the new characters this time are the monster dragon and the number one of the young devils, but I plan for Tannin and Sairaorg to play an active role from now on, so please look forward to them. Vali’s comrades were revealed one after another as well. Koneko’s onee-san “Kuroka”, the mysterious holy king sword-user. Are there any others? That is a secret for the future. The worldview was expanded in the previous volume, but I also had to depict in detail the devil industry in the main story, so this time I described that. From the beginning, I made the Three Great Powers alliance for the sake of the Gremory group versus the Vali Team and for the Rating Games between young devils. I’ll also move forward while focusing on that from now on, and I’d like to talk about things like the worldview and the setting in between breaks. Because, to the end, the main story is the high-school life and romantic comedy of growing up of Ise and the others. However, making the worldview of the Underworld was quite a challenge. This work is a present-day fantasy. The present-day Japan is also the stage in this world. Having to make a completely different world from that was extremely difficult. - Koneko and the club members
The setting of Koneko being a nekomata was discussed between me and Editor-san from the beginning of the series. The chance never quite came around and her true identity remained unknown for over a year, but the ban was removed at last this time. With this, all the members of the Occult Research Club has had their pasts and identities revealed. Now I feel I just need to show how they grow after that. Everyone has something they carry with them, but I’d like to have they overcome it along with Ise. When writing about the Occult Research club, I have the habit to make pairs. For example, Rias-buchou and Akeno-san are the “onee-sama duo”. These two were often at odds with each other from volume 4, but this is because I’m writing them as the “onee-sama duo” that compete for Ise. So Xenovia has become a duo with Asia. Their first meeting was the worst, but now they’re now friends through and through. I wanted to establish a close friend for Asia and for Xenovia, so I thought of making these two church-related people a duo. Koneko-chan’s companion is Gasper, aka Gya-kun and Gya-suke. The first-year duo. They’re a slanted pair as a sharp-tongued loli and a hikikomori cross-dressing boy, but they’re both cute kouhai, so I hope all the readers love them as well. The last are the boy dup. Ise and Kiba. In the story, Kiba actively teases Ise. The ace is Kiba no matter how you look at it. Up until volume 5, the ratio of enemies he’s defeated is in the top class among the club members. Ise is the main character, so he’ll absolutely become strong in the future. I also want Kiba to become similarly strong as a partner who protects his back. Inside me, I want to make him play as an active role as a rear main character, following Ise and Rias. In any case, he’s easy to write about in battle. Last is Azazel-sensei. He suddenly showed ways of fighting that no one thought of to the club members, and displayed himself as a deplorable teacher. This time he didn’t fight directly, but even so if the number of readers who like sensei increase, I’ll be happy. Now, there are many worries about what will become of the remaining [Rook] piece, but that’s something to look forward to in the future. I think it will come out within the next year. Here is a single point about the front cover of volume 5. When you take the wrapper off and look at the front cover, Koneko-chan’s ** is…

- Rating Game
Volume 5’s story focused on Koneko and Saji. I was especially happy about writing the story this time because I’m been planning this battle since I first created Saji. Since I wanted for Ise to be defeated at least once and I thought that Saji was the only one for that role. I wanted to give Ise an ordeal in the volume he attained Balance Breaker. I’m a severe author, aren’t I? There are a lot of prodigy characters in this series, but even so I was thinking that I’d like to also bring out effort-type characters. Ise and Saji are effort-types. I didn’t want to write like you can’t succeed if you’re talentless. Because I have usually found that hard work pays out. This is the back theme this time. I originally like thinking about the battlefields and tactics in Rating Game battles, but because this work is a romantic comedy, I thought that they shouldn’t just suddenly start playing the games, so I started by reinforcing the characters and worldview first. There are still more game battles to come in the future. Speaking of which, did you notice? The members that retired and the members that remained are reversed from the Phoenix battle. - Advertisement
It’s late, but here’s an advertisement. Short stories have started from this year’s Dragon Magazine November issue! Before that, all the female club members also appeared on a ecchi swimsuit poster (Buchou’s is a string swimsuit) + a short story in the September issue, but the announcement was slow. I’m truly sorry. To the readers who have only purchased the volumes, you may be unfamiliar with the short stories, but it’s mainly making the characters dash around in jokes and ero-moments. The sale of the short stories’ collection is still uncertain, so please read what you want. - To all the readers
Thank you very much for all your support! Thanks to you, this series has been doing well. It seems it will continue for a long time, so please continue to take care of me. I’d like to reach ten volumes by all means. I’ve also received fan letters! Since volume 4, there have been a lot of comments about Akeno-san. Did everyone fall for Akeno-san in volume 4, I wonder? I also enjoy writing Akeno-san since volume 4. Pay attention to the ero-ero onee-sama duo from now on. Of course, Asia and Koneko-chan will also play an active part. - About me
Thanks to this, I run to work every day.