Afterword

Afterword

Heyo, Yasohachi Tsuchise here. Volume 3. Yipeeee (insert happy sounds here)!

Ignoring the situation as of late, I’d like to talk about transportation methods in fantasy stories.

In Volume 3, our heroes cross the great ocean, find themselves in the sky, and even journey down into Hell. It’s in these “unknown places” and the way to travel to them that I feel the fantastical resides. Mermaid kisses, pegasi, gates to the underworld; all of them are tremendously fantastic.

And since I believe that shovels are also an aspect of fantasy, I wanted to add it in as a potential method of transportation. After thinking on it for a few days, the answer I arrived at was the Shovel Home Run.

Home runs fly a colossal distance, so they can be used for transportation. And since Alan was modeled after Ichiro, and as bats and shovels are both primarily made of wood, I felt that home runs and shovels had a high level of compatibility. I’m going to work hard from here on out to make sure that home runs are used as a means of transportation.

And now some words of gratitude.

Hagure Yuuki-sensei, and my editor…you’ve both done so much for me that I can’t even put it into words anymore. I’m truly, truly a fortunate little shovel. I’d also like to express my gratitude to Renji Fukuhara-sensei who is in charge of the manga adaptation. You made the bandit leader the cutest in the world, and everyone needs to read it. I’m truly grateful.

This has been Yasohachi Tsuchise. Catch you all later, shovel (greeting)!