Nureki Chimuo Archive

“How are things going between Rakka-san and Nureki-san these days? I’m curious. The story between Rakka-san and Sensei is of great interest to me, so please do let me know.”

I occasionally receive letters like this.

Everyone knows I prefer handwritten letters sent by post, so almost all the letters I receive are written in ink.

Moreover, everyone writes such careful, heartfelt letters that sometimes I feel a closer connection than when we meet and talk in person.

When I receive such letters, I simply cannot help but reply.

So, to those concerned about my relationship with Rakka-san, I will report.

It’s fine. We’re getting along just as well as ever. No, even better than before, working closely together on various things.

We seem to be meeting more often, and the time we spend together doing things has also increased.

What do you mean, “doing things together?”

If asked that, I’d be a bit at a loss to explain in just one word, but well, it’s all sorts of fun things.

We don’t do things that aren’t fun (obviously).

I’m currently serializing these “Talking Theater” style writings on a site called Web Sniper, and they’re all about what’s happening with Rakka-san right now.

So, if you read those, you should understand perfectly. It feels a bit odd saying this myself, but it’s pretty amazing.

After all, it’s called “Nureki Chimuo’s Testament of Obscene Pleasure.”

Inoue-kun, who handles Web Sniper, praised it, saying, “‘Testament of Obscene Pleasure?’ Hmm, that’s a great title. As always, Nureki-san sure knows how to come up with clever titles.”

Feeling good about that, I replied, “I’ll work hard on the content too, not just the title.”

So, I’m putting quite a bit of effort into the content as well.

Honestly, I’m amazed at myself for being able to write such shameless stuff at my age.

Well, maybe it’s precisely because I’m older now that I can write it.

Even though I’m just a third-rate writer who’s only ever churned out cheap erotic novels, getting older means I can write stuff like this now.

Put another way, maybe I’ve just become more brazen.

A writer I respect, Chokichi Kurumaya, has some harsh words to say.

“Writing a novel also begins with mercilessly speaking ill of others behind their backs. Nothing gets a conversation going like trading insults. Gradually, words become exaggerated, and lies start to creep in. That ‘lie’ is precisely where creation begins. However, literature cannot be built solely on speaking ill of others. The time comes when you must also mercilessly expose your own backbiting. What do you do then? Most people cleverly give up on writing novels right there. Clever people cannot write novels. You cannot write novels unless you become a fool. Clever people are intelligent, but they are weak-minded. Only those with strong minds can write novels.

Writing a novel means, first and foremost, that the author themselves must be wounded. You must bleed.”

And, he also said this:

“I have written only what has seeped into my very bones, using words that have seeped into my very bones. I have written novels with the spirit that I could lose my life at any moment. I have written with the resolve to trade my own life for my novels, to live or die.”

This is transcribed from “My Theory of Fiction,” within “Hurricane” by Chokichi Kurumaya, published by Bunshun Bunko.

“Hurricane” is read as “Hyofu.”

Since it has furigana2, I can read it too.

But this character3 probably isn’t in the computer.

It’s three ‘dog’ characters stacked together, with the radical4 being “wind.”

I’ve never seen a character like this before.

As I’ve explained several times before, all of my manuscripts are handwritten.

I don’t use machines like word processors at all. It’s not that I don’t use them, it’s that I can’t use them.

Most of the manuscripts I write are converted to electronic text and published by R-san.

R-san is now practically my right-hand man.

What do you think, R-san?

Is the character “飆” available on a computer?

But even if it’s not in the computer, finding it somewhere and magically making it work is one of R-san’s specialities, so I’m sure she’ll figure something out.

After all, the Bunshun Bunko edition actually has the character “飆” printed in it.

I did check it myself, just to be sure.

It’s not in a standard Japanese dictionary.

It’s not in the Kojien either.

Furigana is when the phonetic alphabet, hiragana, is written above the kanji,often seen in situations where the kanji reading is obscure or to help students learn kanji in reading exercises. 3 The character in question is 飆, which is not part of the joyo kanji, the standard set of kanji that Japanese students learn in their education from elementary through high school. 4 A radical is a basic component of kanji. Each kanji character is composed of a number of radicals. The kanji 犬 is dog, and 風 is wind. If you inspect the character mentioned above, you can see this description is accurate. 2

My study has old Japanese dictionaries and Chinese character dictionaries, but since I don’t use them regularly they’ve gotten lost somewhere and I can’t find them right now.

As for the meaning of the character “飆,” I’ll look it up later at my leisure. But Chokichi Kurumaya’s words are truly splendid, and even a petty person like myself can understand them well.

I sometimes wish I could make such a grand, splendid declaration myself, but it’s simply beyond me.

Even if I stood on my head, I couldn’t say it.

I’m a coward who loves the easy way out. So even if I can’t write good novels, I just want to live as long as possible.

(I suppose it’s because I love the easy way out that I managed to stick with a job like “bondage specialist” for so long…)

I want to live a long, drawn-out life, lazily savoring the pleasures of this world.

I don’t mind shedding a little blood, but I really don’t want to spill too much.

I want to avoid painful or distressing experiences as much as possible.

Regarding the point where Chokichi Kurumaya says, “Lies are the very beginning of creation,” I think he’s absolutely right about that part.

So, “liars are the beginning of novelists,” that makes perfect sense to me. I’m relieved.

But saying it plainly as a “lie” would be tasteless, dull, and lacking charm, so I’ll call it “acting” instead.

Even regarding Rakka-san, writing only one hundred percent truth could, first of all, risk causing her trouble.

No matter how careful I am to avoid causing trouble, living in this troublesome world means I might inadvertently cause some at some point. While that might be unavoidable, I still want to cause as little trouble as possible.

Well, I suppose this is what you’d call age-appropriate discretion.

I don’t want to cause Rakka-san any unnecessary worry.

So, while I can’t write about the most crucial things, I will write the truth to a certain extent. I have written it.

If I don’t write the truth. Even if they say “lies are the beginning of creation,” it just isn’t interesting for either the writer or the reader.

For example, I think I’ll write the name of the love hotel we went to exactly as it is.

(I’ve already written it properly in “Testament of Obscene Pleasure.”)

Huh? What’s that?

You mean even if I wrote something like that, readers wouldn’t find it interesting at all?

I wonder. Is that so?

But if I wrote the love hotel’s name and where it is, wouldn’t it be a little more interesting, since you’d know the range of my and Rakka-san’s activities?

I’ll write it.