The Destruction of the World by Fire (18 page)
When Rentaro looked up again, he saw the sky covered with a cloud of dust and fine particles. “No way…”
There was no way. There should have been one more day before the collapse. Wasn’t that what the precise calculations done by the Seitenshi’s office said?
Rentaro’s clothes flapped in a sudden gust of wind, and at the same he had a sudden realization: “The wind…”
Currently, in the year 2031, it was still hard to completely predict the weather, and they could not accurately predict the chaotic air currents. The people at the Japanese National Security Council had read the flow of wind wrong.
It was starting. The Third Kanto Battle was starting—and not when they were planning.
“
Satomi!
” Kisara yelled.
“I know!” Rentaro hung up and fixed his eyes on the Monolith once more, running toward the battlefield.
July 12, 2031 at 3:16 p.m. This moment in time was the start of what would be remembered in history as Tokyo Area’s worst war, the Third Kanto Battle.
When trying to accomplish something, I do not think it is futile to calculate how much effort it will take to arrive at the end. And most goals can be calculated with the equation: Talent × Environment × Effort. For example, if you assume that there is a value of a thousand required to reach the goal, then someone who has a ten in talent and environment, and a ten in effort, will be able to accomplish their goal (pass the bar exam, write a song using Vocaloid software, become an author, etc.) because 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000. What I realized using this equation was you can’t use inferior talent or environment as an excuse to abandon effort.
There are many people who brag about how they have no talent and then abandon effort, but I personally think that’s not how it works. I think people who were not blessed in the areas of talent or environment need to put in a hundred times the effort of a genius or someone privileged. Even if the values of their talent and environment variables are only one, it is entirely possible to reach the goal with a thousand in effort. I often say that I’m a failure, but even so, I believe my strong desire to create the best is the only thing that determines the quality. I believed that, and I kept believing and believing until I was working so hard that I spit blood and continued to move forward and finally became an author, and I am somehow able to continue being an author.
When I met the author who wrote the cover review for this book, Reki Kawahara, and told him how excellent I thought his composition and writing, he shook his head furiously, denying it. It may sound presumptuous, but because I am also an author, no matter how humble the other person is, I can feel the mastery achieved after oozing blood by reading between the lines. I wanted to write about how happy I was that the review was written by someone who was a hard worker like me.
Everyone should also bless hard work. If you have a heart that
earnestly believes and pushes forward, I’m sure your dreams will come true.
This time, too, I owe a lot to my managing editor, Mr. Kurosaki, the illustrator Saki Ukai who makes the main character look excessively cool, Reki Kawahara who wrote the review for the cover, and everyone else who was involved in the book, including everyone at the editorial department. Thank you all.
Finally, to my dear readers: In the next volume, we will start on the story of
that person
who was inserted occasionally in the subplot up until now. I hope you will look forward to the next volume as well. Thank you very much for buying this book. I pray that all of my readers will be blessed.
Shiden Kanzaki
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BLACK BULLET, Volume 3
SHIDEN KANZAKI
Cover art by Saki Ukai
Translation by Nita Lieu
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
BLACK BULLET, Volume 3
©SHIDEN KANZAKI 2012
All rights reserved.
Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS
First published in Japan in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Yen On
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First ebook edition: April 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-34497-5
E3