Afterword

As always, thanks for buying the book. It’s me, Shoutarou Mizuki.

Lately I’ve been watching nothing but baseball, F1, and other sports. And of course I watch it on TV, so it’s extra unhealthy. I think all of you should spend your winter playing outside.

Actually when I was little, I once got stuck in a graveyard a few dozen meters from my house due to the snow. If I’d died there, I would’ve gone straight to the grave. But even so, boys should play outside.

I hope you’ve enjoyed volume four. Thanks to you readers, I’ve been able to do the first two-part book in this series. It’s also the first time I’ve written a two-part book. I’m writing the second part as we speak, actually. Those of you who started here, and those of you who’ve been reading since volume one, I hope to see you next time. My apologies to those of you who are picking up this book at a different time, but as of right now, December 2008, the comic version of this book is being run in Akita Shoten’s “Champion Red.” The adaptation is being done by Souichi Itou himself. It’s following its own original plot now, so even those of you who’ve read the book can still enjoy it.

I also hinted at something beyond a comic last time, and that is a CD drama. This will be available early next year. It will star Daisuke Ono and Mai Nakahara. The rest of the cast will be first announced on the homepage (http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/hjbunko/), so I hope you’ll check it out there. I’m looking forward to it myself.

This really doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but I just bought these cordless headphones, and for some reason I was only getting static out of the right side. I went to the store and swapped them out. The guy there said they were fine, but I took them home and tried them and I had the same problem.

Since they were cordless, the problem was probably with the infrared transceiver. I didn’t want to go back to the store again, so I got mad and smacked the transceiver, and it fixed it. I didn’t think that worked on things anymore...

So each time after that when it stopped working, I would hit it... And after that, it broke completely...

Um, anyway, back to the book.

As always, there’s no real need to explain it, but you’ll probably enjoy it more if you’ve read the previous volumes. Some characters appeared in volume two but not in volume three, so if you read back, you’ll know who they are. So for that reason, I hope that those of you who are starting with this volume will go back and read the ones before it. You see, it’s nice to have finished stories each volume, but as an author, I think this is also part of what makes a series fun: seeing a character you introduced earlier in a minor role go on to do great things.

I’d like to finish by thanking everyone who made this possible.

To Souichi Itou, the illustrator. I read your comic version every month. It’s fascinating to see how it changes and evolves each chapter. And it makes me happy when I think that there’s more to come.

To Ohashi, my editor. It was a pleasure working with you as always. I’m very sorry for the trouble I always cause, though I’m getting a little too old to use youthful inexperience as an excuse. I’m sure I’ll get faster, at least. Personally I think that whether you’re in your 30s or your 40s, if someone asks you “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you have to answer. But eventually, your story has to find an ending.

And of course, thanks to everyone else who helped. You’ve all done so much for me.

Now then, it may feel like the climax, but the story actually goes past volume five. Don’t worry, we’ll all be able to enjoy this a while longer together!