86 - Volume 3 afterword

Let’s show some love for the long ranged weapons! Hello everyone, this is Asato Asato.

Missiles and cannons might be the easiest to ignore in a combat robot show, with probably as much relevance as air, but I want to give them some time to shine. There are times when I want to see the ace unit bombarded abruptly and unreasonably by a large area of effect bombardment.

So, with that in mind, the enemy this time is,

A Railgun

On,

A Railway Artillery.

A dream fusion of the modern long distance cannon, the railgun , and the World War 2 long distance cannon, the railway gun!

…Right, sorry. That’s just what I wanted to do. I didn’t care about how realistic it is.

And so, I’ve kept all of you waiting.

Presenting the third volume of 86, “Run To The Battlefront (Part Two).”

The plotting phase of this “Run to the Battlefront” was supposed to something more light-hearted.

The first volume was too grim, so I wanted to write a story of the Eighty-Sixers racing down a brand new battlefield, a happy, entertaining story, as the tagline would imply!

So I thought.

But when I started writing, I found that it wasn’t as lighthearted as I would have liked.

Those who have read the story knows how it isn’t as lighthearted, but as an author, I was shocked at Shinn being the plot crusher here. The plot changed, the ending changed, and all that’s left from the initial draft is ‘the enemy is a railgun’. What is this…!?

This time, a few notes.

・Nachzehrer

This is a demonic fusion of the Caspian Sea Monster, the largest transport carrier in the world that is the AN 225 Mriya and the Stealth Bomber B2 Spirit. Just to note, such weapon classifications do exist, but the specifications were all made up by me.

Yeah, I just wanted to do this. I don’t care about reality (etc).

・Rejoice, this is the Hell you guys love

The line appeared in the last part of chapter seven was copied from the editor-in-charge Kiyose-san when this series was decided to be adapted into a manga (just to say, nothing really terrifying happened. It’s just a little joke that we’ll be really busy starting from now). So when I heard those words, I decided that I would make sure the sergeant or someone else say this.! I kept it on standby until now.

・Fido

I think it’s bad balance to just talk about Kiyose-san, so to make it up, I’ll talk about the other editor-in-charge Tsuchiya-san.

Fido was destroyed at the end of volume 1, and was revived in volume 2, partially because I-IV-sama’s design is really cute, and the other half of the reason is that Tsuchiya-san loves Fido.

After all, every meeting, Tsuchiya-san would always ask me if Fido will revive…

Finally, the thanksgivings.

To the editor-in-charge Kiyose-sama, Tsuchiya-sama, thank you both for guiding this reckless me and the lost Shinn once again, pointing out precisely what the faults are.

Shirabii-sama, This volume is full of battles! Thank you for the amazing illustrations provided. Apologies for causing you all sorts of problems.

I-IV-sama. There are two impressively big objects this time around…!

I always wanted a chance to get you to design a long ranged cannon when you became the mecha designer. I’m really grateful.

To Yoshihara-sama, who’s in charge of the manga adaptation, I kept thinking “I want to have a read the manga soon!” when I saw the character roughs and the powerful storyboard . I really hope that the serialization will begin soon. I Want to read it…!

And also to all the readers who received this book. Thank you for the support all this time. This third volume finally focuses on Shinn’s psyche, so I hope you will continue to love him. For the fourth volume next time, I’ll make sure to write a happy, light-hearted story! A light-hearted story where he and she finally meet, and bicker with the other Eighty-Sixers! See you next time!

And so, I hope this book will bring you on a journey to pursue the sunset, to his battlefield amidst the scenery of the crimson sunset and the azure night.

When writing this afterword. BGM：Seiran Keppuroku.（Ali Project）