Third is the Fire book. This book is about fighting. The spirit of fire is fierce, whether the fire be small or big; and so it is with battles. The Way of battles is the same for man to man fights and for ten thousand a side battles. You must appreciate that spirit can become big or small. What is big is easy to perceive: what is small is difficult to perceive. In short, it is difficult for large numbers of men to change position, so their movements can be easily predicted. An individual can easily change his mind, so his movements are difficult to predict. You must appreciate this. The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions.

The Ni To Ichi Way of strategy is recorded in this the Book of the Void.

Fire opens the gates of victory.

Fire is the reuniting of matter with oxygen. If one bears that in mind, every blaze may be seen as a reunion, an occasion of chemical joy.

Fourthly the Wind book. This book is not concerned with my Ichi school but with other schools of strategy. By Wind I mean old traditions, present-day traditions, and family traditions of strategy. Thus I clearly explain the strategies of the world. This is tradition. It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others. To all Ways there are side-tracks. If you study a Way daily, and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a good way, but objectively it is not the true Way. If you are following the true Way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence. You must realise this. Other strategies have come to be thought of as mere sword-fencing, and it is not unreasonable that this should be so. The benefit of my strategy, although it includes sword-fencing, lies in a separate principle. I have explained what is commonly meant by strategy in other schools in the Wind book.

Bright-flaming, heat-full fire,
The source of motion.

If a woman is going to write a Book of Peace, it is given her to know devastation. ("Fire" opening line)

The fire burns as the novel taught it how.

Fire may be represented as the destroyer of all sophistry, and as the image and demonstration of truth; because it is light and drives out darkness which conceals all essences [or subtle things].

People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.

What a good word is “flame,” expressing the form and soul of fire, lambent with forked tongue!

War is like a fire, Agnes. One man may start it, but it will spread all over. It is not about any one thing in particular.

The ability to make fire
at will. It allowed us light to see in the darkness, warmth
against the cold, a tool to cook our food.’ He gestured
vaguely in the direction of the Delta’s engines. ‘Fire is what
eventually led to travel across the black beyond, the ability to
start a new life on a New World.

War is like a fire. One man may start it, but it will spread all over. It is not about one thing in particular.