D genesis three years af.., p.32
D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared Side Stories,
p.32
Thomas: This isn’t referencing the tank engine with the creepy face, but the mustachioed man who accompanied Asha and her father during the sale of the Super Recovery orb. Apparently he was more of a military attaché than any kind of intelligence agent.
Telepathic “meow”: This happened in a scene of the volume 7 short story, “Birds of a Feather.” Yoshimura assumed that Mama had no concept of vocabulary, but she had only just gotten her D-Card at that point. Now that she can understand the language, perhaps there actually could be reciprocal communication between pet and human.
That little display: See volume 5, January 16, 2019.
Awaodori: Awaodori is a type of chicken local to the Tokushima prefecture (as hinted by the “Awa” in its name, which is also a historical name for the Tokushima area). Apparently it’s the number one local chicken in Japan in terms of quantity produced, and it can easily be bought at pretty much any grocery store in that area. By the way, the big three in terms of local Japanese chicken are generally Hinaijidori, Nagoya Cochin, and Satsumajidori. Awaodori is an absolute bargain compared to these—you can usually get it for half the price or less!
The building: Why does the SIS Building (headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as the MI6 Building) look so much like a military facility? The DIS Building (Defense Intelligence Staff, whose Security Service is known as MI5), which lies kitty-corner across the Thames, is such a stately and dignified old building, comparatively...
Anyway, the bridge referenced here is Vauxhall Bridge. It’s two bridges upstream from Westminster Bridge, and is home to the statue that holds a miniature St. Paul’s Cathedral, well-known among those who have heard of it. Unfortunately you can’t really see it unless you lean out over the railing.
Dungeon: This refers to the London Dungeon. Let’s just say it’s a haunted house attraction that some would consider in rather poor taste. Before they relocated, though, apparently at least one skeleton they had been using was discovered to contain actual human remains. Between 2012 and 2013, they relocated next to the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel beside the River Thames). The London Eye would be visible through the windows of the SIS Building.
Commentary
Ai just so happened to be a black cat, so I couldn’t help but do things this way...
If she had been a calico instead (she is a female, after all), I probably would’ve ended up making her a Holmes-style detective cat... Wait, I guess Jiro Akagawa already covered that with his Mike-Neko Holmes series. I have no idea if she’ll ever be able to operate a keyboard, though. (Supposedly one of the initial ideas for Mike-Neko Holmes involved her typing on a typewriter.)
The reason I referenced the possibility (in the Annotations) that Ai might be able to communicate via telepathy now that she can understand language was to foreshadow a related plot point showing up in the future... Nah, it was actually to cover my ass just in case. (lol)
England is a country chock-full of ghosts, but when I’m writing stories like this, it always ends up being the first thing on the chopping block. Sorry, Great Britain!
Note that although several of Ai’s scenes referenced or parodied portions of Natsume Soseki’s I Am a Cat and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat as a form of tribute, the copyrights on the originals and the translations are all long expired, so hopefully there shouldn’t be any problems on that front.
Afterword
Hello, dear readers, how have you all been? It’s me, KONO.
Many of these stories have a bit of a summer theme, despite the fact that it’s been winter for ages in the main volumes. This was a result of me being a bit hyperaware of the typical release time frame.
Gathering all of the short stories together in one book like this makes me realize how many of them have horror nuances. As I understand it, that just happens to be due to the preferences of the author. Horror is a spooky good time! I recently watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe by director André Øvredal, the first half of which was enjoyably creepy. The latter half felt a bit lacking, but I still had fun thinking about what I would’ve done in the same situation.
Now, unlike stories serialized in magazines, original written works are pretty loose with deadlines, to the point that pressure feels pretty rare—or almost like it’s not even there (yeah, right). The short stories, though, always have the same drop-dead due date lying menacingly in wait: the release of the associated volume. That means I can’t use things like writer’s block as an excuse, and I get a little taste of what it’s like to be a serialized author.
The experience begins with a subtle feeling of bitterness getting tacked onto the daily routine I had been enjoying so much, like a lone sauce stain on a clean, white tablecloth. Before long, the acid of panic starts adding its own touch of color, slowly overtaking everything like a cloud of poison spreading across the world. As time passes, the bitterness transforms into pure anguish, and I end up unable to breathe. Heeelp meee.
People who have no problem dealing with that kind of pressure every single month really do deserve to be called the chosen ones. I’d never be able to handle it.
Speaking of tablecloths, it used to be that a determining factor of whether you were at a proper restaurant was the presence or absence of said cloths. It’s definitely cool to see a spotless white tablecloth draped over a table, but it also makes it all the more obvious when you inevitably mess it up by spilling a few drops of sauce on it during your meal.
When that happens at, say, a place like L’Osier, sometimes they’ll discreetly place a white cloth over it for you, but that’s a pretty embarrassing experience in itself. Also, while I doubt it’s related at all, more and more “first-class” restaurants like Sézanne have been forgoing the tablecloths nowadays. I kind of miss them, but it also kind of makes sense.
But I digress. Back to the topic at hand.
So, despite the fact that I had already gone through the same pain and suffering eight times before, naturally I let the same thing happen with the volume 9 short story as well (which I was writing while I was working on this collection). That one unfortunately ended up being the closest shave I’ve ever had to deal with. It’s common knowledge that those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it—and I’m apparently pretty good at blocking things out. (I know I’m not alone in this!)
They say old habits die hard, and that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. In my case, let’s just leave it at this: tomorrow...is another day.
May we all meet again in the next volume!
KONO Tsuranori
Summer 2024
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Copyright
D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared Side Stories
by KONO Tsuranori
Illustrations by ttl
Translated by A. V. N. Wilson
Edited by Jonathan Engel
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
D GENESIS DUNGEON GA DEKITE 3 NEN SIDE STORIES
Copyright © KONO Tsuranori 2024
First published in Japan in 2024 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0.1: December 2025
KONO Tsuranori, D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared Side Stories
