Imaginary Nonfiction Everyday

くうそうノンフィク日和

• by Koyanagi Tsubuo
• published by Kodansha Box

First winner of Kodansha Box's annual contest; I read it in Pandora, the Kodansha Box magazine, but it comes out in a couple of weeks in regular book format.
Long slice of life intro before one girl turns out to be a witch and goes off to another world to fight, another boy becomes her knight, killing people who have escaped from that world to ours, and the other boy becomes a sort of super detective, trying to track down the knight.
All of which is told from the point of view of the guy who runs the restaurant they all used to come to; the witch brings him letters for her two friends, and he delivers them. Little glimpses of how each of them is progressing in their quests; the girl buys a digital camera and films herself slaughtering armies, the knight swings in and out of crazy as the increased police presence makes it harder and harder to murder people, and the detective makes friends with yakuza and terrifies boxers.
Meanwhile, the restaurant owner starts dating one of his customers.
It has an intriguing lack of momentum to it; all these events are just happening sort of in the background of life, imaginary, but nonfiction (hence the title, which means Imaginary Nonfiction Everyday) and events vaguely spiral upwards before gradually drifting back down, with no dramatic climaxes, just a gradual, naturalistic flow to a finish.
Definitely an author worth keeping an eye on.