Demon City Shinjuku: The Complete Edition (45 page)

I generously seasoned those offerings with the spice of “horror” and have hopefully found among my readers fellow kindred spirits happy with what I'm putting on the menu.

Right now, I've got a mountain of material stacked up on my desk.

Dracula, Frankenstein, witches, werewolves, serial killers with split personalities, limbs with minds of their own, monsters born out of thought, man-eating portraits, starships (I'd sure like to hop aboard the United Planets cruiser C57-D from
Forbidden Planet
), dragons, underground empires, cowboys and outlaws, famous cops and detectives, quick-draw gunfighters (guys like
Shane
), ninjas, martial artists, zombies (but not really zombies).

For many writers, these characters wore out their welcome a long time ago. But they look at me and shake their heads. “You can't destroy us. Whether we live or die is up to you.”

I think of myself at times as a kind of warlock, bringing them back to life by writing stories. And all the greater reward if my readers find enjoyment in my alchemy.

Last of all, sincere apologies and boundless thanks to the editorial staff for waiting so patiently while putting up with my negligent self and recalcitrant pen.

Hideyuki Kikuchi (while watching Bela Lugosi in
Dracula
)

July 24, 1982

I have brought Kyoya-kun back to life.

As you all know by now, he was my first leading man. And Sayaka was my first leading lady. Add to the mix Doctor Mephisto, and the prototypes for all my novels to date can be traced back to this maiden work. That might take a few of my readers by surprise, but that's how it is.

Everything I have now can be found in
Demon City Shinjuku
, and
Demon Palace Babylon
continues where it left off.

What kind of effect have these six intervening years had on these characters? Much the same effect that they've had on the author.

To be honest, it's been tough writing this afterword too. Hardly thirty seconds have passed since I put down the last word and phoned “Mr. I” at Sonorama to tell him I'd finished.

I haven't thought of anything else. I can't really summon up the feelings. If nothing else, I would ask that you read this novel together with its prequel.

How have Kyoya and Sayaka and Doctor Mephisto changed? Maybe they haven't changed at all, because the author hasn't progressed at all in the meantime. In this case alone, though, I don't have a problem with that.

This is part two of my maiden voyage. Please take the time to enjoy it. Right now, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Hideyuki Kikuchi (while watching
The Monster Squad
)

July 8, 1988

It probably goes without saying at this point, but
Demon City Shinjuku
was my debut novel, followed in due course by
Demon Palace Babylon
. Though I have spun off a number of other series in the Demon City universe, the original protagonist only mounts the stage in these two works, first published by Sonorama.

For the past twenty-two years,
Demon City Shinjuku
has stayed in print as a pocket edition. It was beginning to look like it would continue on that way even after I died. It has now been released as a paperback novel, and an omnibus edition to boot.

The emphasis from here on out is on publishing unabridged novels. And to that end, I've begun marshaling my most powerful reinforcements around me.

Rereading these two, I've been a bit surprised at the differences with the rest of the
Demon City
series. While the tools, gadgets and machines of near-future science fiction abound in novels I've written for other publishers, such as
Demon City Blues
, they remain at the core horror action. Flowing through all of them is the life blood of the bizarre.

In contrast, in these two books from Sonorama, the SF&F setting is far stronger. There are plenty of zombies and warlocks and ghosts and gremlins, to be sure, but also anti-gravity, androids and a world on the brink of nuclear annihilation—an assortment of dramatic devices that usually wouldn't appear in my beloved horror genre.

When I was writing
Demon City Shinjuku
, the horror novel genre was at its nadir. I can't help taking a little pride in swimming against the tide, but would have nonetheless been conscious of such market forces.

And then there's
that
. Without bothering to check things out for myself, I picked up my pen and proceeded to make a big mistake right from the beginning of my debut work (did you catch it?).

Hey, but isn't that what editors are for? Hello?

That
wasn't the only one. The names of movie theaters and the like—the “Shinjuku Globe Theater” — there's no trace of them left. They've all been updated. To those who thought the originals nicely preserved a sense of that era, I recommend the pocket editions.

And yet these two works haven't grown old. They are suffused with the pressing ambitions of those times, as if I'd written the last ninety-four pages of
Demon City Babylon
in a single day.

The day before the deadline.

Of course, there's no way I could pull
that
off. But from the moment I wake up until I pick up the pen, I always have the feeling I could. That's how the writerly muse works.

When I've finished the morning's writing, my feeling of satisfaction is not leavened by the least bit of fatigue. Still, from one day to the next, I seem to hit the wall at around ten pages.

I have one particularly indelible memory going back to
Demon City Shinjuku
.

At the time, I wrote at my desk, the manuscript piling up next to me. Unlike now, I wasn't feeding pages right into the fax machine. Ten or twenty sheets stacking up beside me is nothing. A hundred or two hundred—now
that
was a pile of paper.

I hadn't accomplished anything like that before in my writing career and couldn't help patting myself on the back. “Not bad, if I say so myself.”

That was twenty-two years ago.

So now
Demon City Shinjuku
again steps onto the stage in an all-new edition, with a detailed map and afterword, and a few of my thoughts preserved from when I was just getting my feet under me as a writer. Please read and enjoy.

Hideyuki Kikuchi (while watching
Escape from New York
)

April 1, 2005