Tsuk.u.modo Antique Shop has made it to the fourth volume.

I"m happy that I could at last bring you the latest volume despite the gap to the previous one. Good news, indeed!

Speaking of good news, my sister has brought a child into the world the other day. That officially makes me an "uncle." But you wouldn"t believe how incredibly cute my niece is! I stand no chance in the face of her loveliness.

Will my niece ever read my books once she can read? I will definitely cling myself to this job until the time comes!

All right, now that I have made a nice resolve, let"s begin with the introduction of this time"s chapters.

Shadow

Tokiya meets again a former cla.s.smate, but he hardly remembers her. A certain phial that dims one"s presence seems to be involved...

Writing this chapter took quite some doing, and it ended up as an entirely different story than originally envisioned, but I"m pretty happy with it.

I originally planned to put some more weight on the introductory ghost story and Saki"s unexpectedly *imid personality, but in the end I decided to leave it at that to maintain a good balance. It"s a secret pleasure of mine to reveal bits of Saki"s hidden traits as the story goes on, as I did in the cat chapter in volume 3.

Gamble

Tokiya springs the opponent"s trap and is coerced into a poker game with a certain invaluable price at stake. What he doesn"t know is that his opponent possesses a Relic...

I don"t play horse races, cycle races, or boat races, nor do I buy lottery tickets. Well, as a soccer enthusiast, I do buy toto tickets every once in a while, with the faint hope of hitting the jackpot. I don"t seem to have as much luck as Tokiya, though. I suppose I"ll have to live a humble life.

Pinky

There is a Relic that visualizes the red string of fate and lets its user retie it. One day, a certain girl makes a fateful encounter with Tokiya and falls in love with him, while her childhood friend watches over her. But what does Saki think of all this...?

Believe it or not, but this was supposed to become a romantic novel.

Secret

Saki receives an envelope with a letter and a ring, which she tries on. Walking in on her, Tokiya spots this scene and...

It"s a story of misunderstandings as always, but this time Tokiya is the one who finds himself in confusion.

Those are the chapters this time around. I hope you enjoy them.

All right, I would like to give my thanks to a few people at this occasion.

Thanks to Takabayashi-san for his work as my editor, Takeshima Satoshi for his magnificent Relic designs, all the people who made this book possible, and last but not least, my readers for buying this book.

Thank you so much, and until the next time!

Akihiko Odou