Volume 20, Afterword

Volume 20, Afterword

Here we are at big number 20.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Heavy Object was the second story I started with the idea of filling it with all the people and things I could never include in Index, my first series. I think the endpoint of Carat Affinity’s story seen in 19 and 20 is a great example of that. Fighting for what is right will sometimes backfire, but Quenser didn’t let it get him down and is working to once more save the boy who joined the bad guys. Quenser and Heivia were mostly created as a contrast to Kamijou Touma, but now I feel like they’ve developed an individuality completely separate from what I had built up with Touma. They are important because they helped break the chains binding my thinking of what a story’s protagonist had to be.

I increased the scale of the wars in the previous volume by including a ghost and natural disasters, but this time I had all sorts of different stories and parts of the world interact in order to bring an end to the world powers structure.

When considering where the final battle should happen, my first thoughts were the Legitimacy Kingdom home country of Paris or the mysterious Island Nation. I ultimately couldn’t decide on just one and used both.

The final boss was the Manhattan 000. I imagine a lot of you have already noticed, but for the climax in 19 and 20, I broke my usual rules and had fun including a ton of characters from previous volumes. Since I was already doing that, I thought it would be more exciting to have a rematch against that Object they never actually defeated instead of coming up with some new most powerful Object. It ended up being Quenser and Heivia completing some unfinished homework, but what did all of you think?

There are two main reasons why weapons are never built beyond a certain size. Either there are treaties limiting the caliber of the guns or the displacement of the warship, or the physics means their structure can’t support the weight of a greater size or otherwise harms the weapon’s effectiveness. I decided to use that dilemma facing colossal weapons in the final battle. I thought it would make a fairly ironic ending for the series.

Low-stability plasma cannons, laser beam cannons, rapid-fire beam cannons, railguns, coilguns.

Air cushion propulsion devices, static electricity propulsion devices.

All Objects are ridiculous 50m weapons, but I think it’s fun how you can gradually see different design patterns when you line up all the information like that. Which type of Object did all of you like best? I hope you found a favorite among them all.

I quite like each of the Legitimacy Kingdom, Capitalist Corporations, Information Alliance, and Faith Organization, so it was a lot of fun coming up with what was so wrong with all of them. I wonder what the new big four will be? Maybe a world power based on beauty or health will rise to the top. Everyone loves good looking men and women and everyone wants a longer and healthier life, so I can see groups like that gaining a lot of support. …I bet you could use “What would your four world powers be?” as a personality test. Answer without thinking too hard and you would reveal all of your desires and insecurities.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Nagi Ryou-san and my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. I started this series as something that strayed from the standard formula I had created for myself, but looking at it now, it was a crazy concept to write a series about. I am truly thankful you gave it such life. I think the illustrations went a long way toward convincing people to accept the absurdity of it all. I hope we will be blessed with the opportunity to work together again.

And I give my thanks to the readers. The battles fought by the colossal weapons and the potatoes have come to an end. It’s hard to believe you’ve been supporting me with this for more than a decade now, so I can’t thank you enough. This gave me some experience I couldn’t have found any other way. I will now lay down my pen while hoping I can make use of that experience in some other way one day.

I pray that the future of this world will now play out in your imaginations.

Would the story have concluded differently if I hadn’t used the expansion pack system for this series?

-Kamachi Kazuma