What is "接続章" supposed to mean in novels?


I've seen this a few times now near the end of light novels, "接続章", I'm not
quite sure what it's supposed to mean? Literally it seems to translate as
"connecting chapter". Is it supposed to be referring to a chapter that bridges
one volume of a novel to the following one in a series of novels?




接続章 is not a common word at all. Probably you will not see the word 接続章 again
outside the story you're reading. Some Japanese light novels series use unique
chapter names, and 接続章 should be one of these. Some other unique chapter names
I've seen are:

  * インターミッション (literally "intermission")
  * 行間 (literally "between the lines")
  * 幕間 (literally "between the acts/performances", [Entr'acte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entr%27acte))

Regardless of the name, the purpose is basically the same. From what I
understand, they are generally short, do not contain "dynamic" episodes, but
are used to conclude several chapters (or one volume) before them. In this
sense, it is similar in purpose to epilogues, except that they do not close
the entire series. Sometimes they have catchy scenes/lines at the end, which
attract readers to the next volume/chapter (effectively working as "a
bridge"). Sometimes chapters that have unique names like these may contain
side stories totally irrelevant to the main story.

