Seven authors have taken on this extremely bold project, made as a tribute for the 35th anniversary of Alice Arisugawa's literary debut.

They are all authors in the prime of their careers, still full of youthful energy. I never dreamed this project would result in such a wonderful anthology (to be honest, I still can't believe it).

All of the works contained within these pages were originally published in two magazines: Bungeishunju Extra (an online magazine) and All Yomimono. To quote one of those magazines, seven authors came together to pay tribute to Arisugawa on the 35th anniversary of his debut in “a tribute project in which they competed to write the best short stories they could while making free use of 'Arisugawa's World'.”

In other words, they wrote under the constraint of using characters, settings, and concepts of my creation.

I expected an array of playful, lighthearted stories, but the lineup I was shown is full of true masterpieces that made me think “It'd be a shame to waste it on a project like this” and “Did they need to go that far?”. I was amazed, thinking to myself “So this is what young authors can write when they're enjoying themselves”.

Fans of Alice Arisugawa, fans of the participating authors, and mystery lovers who have never before heard of Alice Arisugawa will all enjoy themselves.

It's true. Please, read and find out for yourself.

—Alice Arisugawa