Afterword

Hello.

I’ve been pulling all-nighters to meet the volume 2 deadline. So while I have my reservations, at least I can relax knowing it worked out.

Apparently, it was recently discovered that sleep is a way for the brain to expel waste. In other words, they proved what we already knew, that it’s not good to go without sleep. Who was it who insisted that no one had ever died from lack of sleep? But even if you don’t die, it can really cause your mind to wander, right? Therefore, I want to sleep. Let me sleep!

This is an old story. Once, there was a martial artist who used to suffer sleep paralysis.

He was able to break out of it through his own power — I don’t know how — but then he heard a voice say to him, “Don’t think this is over!”

I tell that story to make people laugh, but about half of the people I tell it to find it scary.

That story was on my mind because I was recently allowed to meet someone related to that martial artist. I was able to ask him what happened after the sleep paralysis incident.

“Nothing in particular,” he told me. So maybe it was just a case of sour grapes.

As for why I was meeting a martial artist, it’s because of a lack of material.

A long time ago, I used to dabble in the martial arts. (Um, I’m not good at all, so please don’t try to challenge me!) So the ones I met were my senpais, or masters, or partners of the time.

But when I asked them, “You taught me this move, didn’t you?” they would say “Wait, did I?” It was very sad, and I was left no better off than before.

Lately, I’ve been so sluggish, and it’s going to make me fat. I really need to do something about that.

Now for the apologies.

To my editor, I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you.

To my illustrator, An2A, I’m pretty sure the only reason the first volume sold was because of your illustrations. Thank you for providing even more wonderful illustrations.

And thank you to everyone else who helped. It was hard going, but I managed to write it all out. I also hope to write more, so please enjoy that when it comes out.

In the next volume, Yuichi was going to refuse to go on the training camp. But then I got people asking me if the training camp would involve swimsuits on the beach. So it might still become that kind of story, or it might not.

Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

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