#< guy whose only played p5 and p2 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cardcaptorcoconut · 6 years

Text

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc Chapter 25 Translation

Happy July! I hope everyone’s getting geared up for the second half of the year.

In that spirit, this is just a gentle reminder to anyone following this blog, but be nice to the people around you - both on and offline, in and out of fandom. There’s no reason not to be and moreover, it’s a waste of your time and energy to dwell on negative things. Daily life can be hard and that extends to the internet sometimes, but putting your energy into something constructive and positive instead of the opposite will make a huge difference and will make both you and those whose lives you touch much happier in the long run. In short: What Would Sakura Do?

This month’s chapter is back to being low-key compared to last month’s cliffhanger, but without giving too much more away, I will say that you should grab a tissue box beforehand.

Also, some sad news, but unfortunately there will be no new chapter next month. Chapter 26 will be out in the October issue of Nakayoshi (available in September).

Special thanks to @meimi-haneoka for proofreading!

And to everyone from the discord group - thank you guys so much for everything up to now. I will still be around, so don’t be a stranger! Message me anytime and if we haven’t already friended each other, just poke me and we’ll fix that! ;)

☆★Translations Notes Reminder★☆

Disclaimer: These are just fan translations. Please support the official release.

Chapter 25

Cover Page: “I will protect Sakura and the cards.”

[EDIT: Also possibly “I will protect Sakura with the cards.”]

P1 Narration: This story took place not that long ago.

[Lit: This story didn’t take place all that long ago.]

Narration: In a certain (land), there was a clan known as the “Most Ancient Sorcerers in Europe” whose bloodline (endowed all of its members with magic). Narration: Everyone born into this family (possessed magical ability).

[Lit: …this family could use magic.]

Narration: The power to fly through the sky, the power to search for things, the power to teleport, the power to speak with animals, the power to instantly erase (things). Narration: Each and every member of the family had a special ability, and they were all masters of their crafts.

P2 Narration: It was into that family that a young girl was born. Narration: Everyone in the family eagerly anticipated what kind of magic the girl would be able to use. Narration: When she’s old enough to (walk), what (shapes will her techniques take)? When she’s old enough to speak, what incantations will she recite? Narration: But… even as she grew into a lovely child and began to walk, she couldn’t use any magic at all. Magician 1: What is the meaning of this? Magician 1: Every one (of us) has shown some sort of magical talent before learning to walk at the latest...

[Note: From this page on, it’s hard to tell which magicians are saying which lines, so I added the numbers as I saw fit, but there’s no real way to tell who’s who.]

P3 Magician 2: She must be able to use incredibly powerful magic. (It must be that) she can’t command it while she’s still so young. Narration: The family waited. Narration: However more time passed, and even when she had reached the age where she could read… Magician 1: I can’t sense any magical ability. Magician 1: There isn’t a single trace of magic inside of this child. Magician 2: There’s no way! Magician 3: That’s not possible. Magician 4: So, she’s not able to use any magic… Narration: Everyone in the family was in disbelief. How could someone with the same blood running through them possess no magic?

P4 Magician 2: How can this be? Magician 3: Her father and mother have some of the most outstanding abilities in our clan. Magician 4: For their only child to… Magician 4: …not to be able to use magic.

P5 Magician 1: The elder sisters of the Li Clan in Hong Kong don’t have magical talents, but I’ve heard that the youngest son possesses fantastic ability. Magician 2: How is that? Magician 3: What does it mean? Magician 1: It seems the current Head of the Li Clan intends to have that youngest son as their successor. Magician 4: (Such is) Clow Reed’s family lineage… Magician 5: To fall behind to the Li Clan is… Magician 5: …(unthinkable).

[Lit: …unforgivable.]

Magician 2: Our clan’s pride is on the line.

P6 Narration: Already without her parents and with no one of a younger generation in the clan, there wasn’t anyone close in age to her around. Narration: The girl longed for someone to play with, she longed for someone to talk to. Magician 2: (She’s) the only child (we have) who is the same age of the Li Clan’s next leader, yet she’s incapable of using magic. Magician 3: And for her not to be able to use even the (simplest of spells)…

[Lit: …even simple magic.]

Narration: No one in the clan would (acknowledge) this girl who had no magic.

[Lit: No one in the clan would speak with the girl who had no magic.]

P7 Magician: (It’s absurd that) she can’t become a sorcerer.

[Alt: I can’t believe that she can’t become a sorcerer.]

Narration: As she grew, they would check to see if she had developed even a little magical power or not. Narration: However, those were but “questions” and not “conversations.” Narration: And as expected, the girl could not use magic.

P8 Narration: Upon seeing her family’s disappointed faces and demeanor, the girl felt very guilty and remorseful. Narration: And (from then on) she was always alone. Narration: However, the girl loved books. Narration: She was very good at remembering the languages and scripts of various countries. Reading books made the girl feel happy. Narration: Even if no one would listen to her, even if no one would pat her on the head…

P9 Narration: The stories in the books and the characters in the stories are always by her side. Narration: They smile with her. They cheer her up. Narration: Books are the girl’s beloved, cherished friends. Narration: But… in truth…

P10 Akiho: …(I’m) lonely. <Akiho wakes up> Akiho: It (was) a dream. Of the past. <Akiho picks up Momo>

P11 Akiho: Now I have Momo with me. Akiho: And Kaito-san. <Akiho looks at her book and smiles>

P12 Akiho: And… everyone I’ve met (since) coming here too. Momo: That’s right, Akiho. Momo: Don’t forget that there are people who will (stay) by your side now.

[Note: The Japanese here is 「今のあなたには一緒にいてくれる人たちがいることを忘れないで」- the first part could also possibly be interpreted as “…will stay by your side as you are now”]

Momo: And at “that time” too…

P13 <Sakura wakes up crying> Kero: What’s wrong? Are you in pain?

[Lit: Do you hurt somewhere?]

Sakura: Alice… was crying.

P14 <Sakura goes downstairs> Fujitaka: Good morning, Sakura-san. Sakura: Morning, dad. Fujitaka: <alarmed> Your eyes are red. <Sakura rubs her eyes> Sakura: I’m fine!

P15 <Fujitaka looks at her worriedly> Sakura: …… Sakura: I had a dream. Fujitaka: A scary dream? Sakura: No, it was a sad dream. Sakura: (In the) dream, even though (she was) lonely and crying, I couldn’t do anything.

P16 Fujitaka: (Have you heard of) lucid dreams?

[Lit: Do you know lucid dreams?]

Sakura: Lucid? Fujitaka: It’s when you (realize) that you’re dreaming while you’re (asleep).

[Lit: It’s when you know that you’re dreaming while inside of the dream.]

Fujitaka: (It’s said that) when you know you’re dreaming, you can change the dream to make it go how you want it to. Sakura: That’s amazing! Can you do that too, dad? Fujitaka: (Well) no, it’s fairly difficult, but...

P17 Fujitaka: If you happen to have another sad dream… Fujitaka: (See if you can’t) change the dream by making the person who’s sad smile. [Alt: I hope you can change the dream by…]

P18 Sakura: …Okay. Sakura: Um, dad… About what I asked (permission) for before… <Scene changes to later; the doorbell rings> Sakura: Coming! Sakura: <to Akiho> Welcome!

P19 Akiho: Hello! Sakura: I’m sorry to have called you over so suddenly on our day off. Akiho: I’m happy (that you did)! What did you need? Akiho: I hope that I’ll be able to help. Sakura: I just really wanted to see you. Akiho: Sakura-san… Sakura: And also, two promises.

P20 Akiho: Is it okay like this? Sakura: Yeah, that’s fine. Sakura: Peel the potatoes and heat them in the microwave. Then, mash (them up). Sakura: Finely chop the onions, add the ground meat, and when it’s mostly cooked add in the potatoes. Akiho: And mix them (together), right? Sakura: Yeah! Can you do that for me, Akiho-chan? Akiho: Yes!

P21 Sakura: Season it. Sakura: I’ll make the breading. Sakura: Put in the breadcrumbs and olive oil, or rice-bran oil is tasty too. Sakura: Toast them on a low flame until they’re a nice color. Sakura: And then, let them cool down and spread the toasted breading in plastic wrap. Akiho: These are a good color too. Sakura: On the potato, ground meat, and onion you mixed for me… Sakura: …we coat it with some beaten egg… Sakura: And then into the breadcrumbs in the plastic wrap.

P22 <Sakura shapes the croquette> Akiho: It’s cute! Sakura: Let’s (make) them together. Akiho: Okay! Sakura: Bake them in the oven.

P23 Sakura: And (we’ve got) no-fry croquettes!

[Lit: And the no-fry croquettes are complete!]

Sakura: I thought that making something fried all of the sudden would be a little scary, and this way we’re only using a little oil. Akiho: Is it okay if I dig in? Sakura: Of course! Sakura & Akiho: Let’s eat. <Both take a bite>

P24 Sakura & Akiho: It’s delicious! Sakura: (You can) make these for Kaito-san too, okay? Akiho: Kaito-san seems like he’s kind of tired recently…

P25 Akiho: He’s always smiling like usual, but I can tell somehow… Sakura: I hope that eating (your food) perks him up.

[Note: Sakura doesn’t say “your food” here, but that’s the implication.]

Akiho: …Yeah. <Scene changes to Kero and Yue talking online> Yue: How is it going? Kero: They’re (having a good time) cooking together and are taste testing right now. Yue: (Do you feel anything?)

[Lit: Is there any presence?]

P26 Kero: Nothing at all. Kero: As we thought, Akiho doesn’t have any magic. Yue: …Our mistress had a dream this morning and was crying, right? Kero: Yeah… Yue: I will go. Kero: Where to?

P27 Yue: I’m going to speak with Li Syaoran. Narration: At last, Yue makes a move…!!

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura clear card arc #card captor sakura clear card arc #clear card arc #ccs #ccs clear card arc #translations: clear card arc

209 notes · View notes

panda-noosh · 6 years

Text

Bad At Love {P3}{Photographer!Keith x Prodigy!Reader}

Words: 5633

Summary: Keith Kogane was known for being the good-boy-gone-bad. You were known for being the emotionless prodigy that only ever showed up to school to stop her foster parents from getting arrested. Whenever you two are put together on a school project after briefly meeting during detention, you find your world tipping upside down as you realise that there’s more to life than science and logic.

Pairing: Photographer!Keith x Prodigy!Reader

Notes: p1 – p2 - p4 - p5 - p6 - FINAL ; so… we finally got some angst. But I swear this story won’t be overly-angsty. It’s actually more of a fluff story than anything else, so don’t fear.

Chapter 3

“You really should smile more.”

His voice comes out of nowhere, startling you just enough to make you look up from the volume you are reading. A thick, leather bound book that you borrowed from the library only days before – the library of the school you were currently sat in.

You had never before seen Keith step foot in the school library – especially not before school hours. It was rare that he was even in the building on time, so the fact that he had pulled himself out of bed nearly an hour earlier to come trotting into the library was a shock to you.

You narrow your eyes when they meet his. He has a bounce in his step as he approaches you, his camera raised and his backpack flung carelessly to the side of the door. The librarian doesn’t miss her chance to shoot Keith a dirty look, clearly not enjoying the bad-boys presence.

“What are you doing here so early?” you ask.

Keith sits down on the green, plush chair that is pulled up beside your own. You look over his shoulder as he does so, catching only a small glimpse of his camera screen – a picture of you is pulled up on it. You have your head down, absorbed in the large book which is sat in your lap. Your head is resting on your hand whilst your other holds the book steady on your knobbly knees.

You blush at the sight of the picture, narrowing your eyes.

“I got dragged out of bed early so my parents could go shopping,” Keith replies, clearly unaware to your knowledge of the sneaky picture he had taken of you. “And I knew you liked coming to the library, so I thought I’d come and find you.”

“How sweet of you,” you reply. “If you don’t mind, I’m gonna go back to reading.”

“Well, this is no way to treat your visitor,” Keith mumbles. “What are you reading?”

“A book you’ve most likely never heard of.”

Keith rolls his eyes, leaning his weight onto the arm rest to get a look at the scribbled mess of words that you are currently reading. He takes a moment, his eyes widening whenever he sees the complexity of the language used, how small the print is and how thick the book is.

“No pictures,” he mutters, and it’s not a question. It’s a statement that is littered with mild disbelief, and you can’t help but chuckle at the sound of his voice.

“No. No pictures,” you confirm.

Keith hollows out his cheeks and pulls back, leaning against the other arm rest so he can get a good look at you as you flip through the pages. “I read Harry Potter once when I was, like, 7 and that’s about as far as I’ve gone with reading.”

“That explains a lot.”

He pouts, nudging your foot slightly with his own. You smile over at him, the gesture unusual to you and you aren’t exactly sure where it came from but the way Keith replies with a cheeky smile of his own makes it seem like the right thing to do.

You still couldn’t pin point what he was doing here this early on a Wednesday. The snow this morning had forced you out of the house earlier than usual due to Ann-Marie’s anxiety that the roads would only grow worse as time went on. She would never even dream of letting you have the day off, meaning you were being shipped out of the house at 7:15am and you had arrived at the school gates by 7:30am. It was a little earlier than usual, but you were early most days anyway.

Keith, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.

Some days, he just simply didn’t show up, so seeing him now, huddled up beside you with a grin on his face even though the sun had barely risen and his sleepiness had barely been shaken – it was weird and you weren’t sure what would have prompted him to put himself through such a sudden schedule change.

“You’re staring at me,” Keith says. It’s only then that you realise you are, in fact, staring at him, though that statement alone doesn’t make you turn away.

You simply nod towards his camera, searching for anything else to say to him other than admit that you were wondering why he was here in the first place.

“I saw that picture you took of me,” you say. Keith immediately frowns, clenching his camera firmly in his hand. “It’s a crime to take pictures of people without their permission.”

Keith shuffles up in his green plush chair, rolling his eyes as a way to soften the embarrassment he was no doubt feeling right now. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh come on, Kogane!” you nearly exclaim. “I didn’t expect you to be the type of to play stupid.”

“I’m not playing stupid!” he objects. “I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t take pictures of people-“

“Did your finger slip or something?”

“Y/N, there is absolutely zero pictures of you on my camera. I can guarantee you that much. You’re not exactly photogenic.”

You raise a brow, taking his comment as a joke. Judging by the way Keith tilts his head as he speaks, avoids your eye contact and keeps his grip tightening on his camera, it’s clear that he’s lying. Spending years learning human emotions, Keith wasn’t about to be let off easily.

He catches your sceptic eye and immediately shakes his head, raising a hand in your direction. “Drop it, okay? I’ve had a hard enough time actually getting out of bed at the crack of dawn – don’t make the day worse.”

You chuckle slightly, keeping your gaze locked on him. It was weird how easily flustered the boy got at such a simple call out – one he still insisted on denying even as the bell rang to signal the start of the day. You had spent months truly believing that Keith was nothing more than a sleezy, woman-using high school kid who didn’t know right from wrong – that was what the rumours had led you to believe, and yet here he was, flustered by a simple statement made by someone whose social abilities were far less superior compared to his own.

The two of you stalk out of the library together, you trudging behind him and continually commenting on how, “I can pose next time if you want.” Keith had decided to ignore you, giving you a small, “Oh ha ha,” before he was putting his headphones in his ear and waving goodbye to you from halfway down the hallway.

You walk into maths class with a smile on your face that day, an expression which has even the teacher, Mr Boyle, doing a double take. You ignore him, setting up refuge in the back of the classroom, feeling bubbly and excitable on the inside.

What a way to begin the day.

Apparently, sitting on your own at lunch had become a reflex after six years.

You hadn’t even thought twice as you got your food for lunch and sat yourself down at your usual spot – a small, circular table at the back of the cafeteria that was rarely sat at by anyone other than you. The odd time, a first year would sit there to wait on their friend from the food line, but they would scatter as soon as the seniors started jeering at them for sitting at the ‘loner table.’

You would then happily take their place, simply glad to have your table back.

It was only whenever a grumbling, clearly frustrated Keith started making his way towards you that you realised your mistake – you were meant to be sitting next to him today.

With a mouthful of chicken, you say, “Oh shit, sorry.”

Keith doesn’t even reply. Instead, he slams his tray of food down in front of you and sits down, immediately resting his head in his hands and tugging on the black hair that his fingers are wound through.

You swallow the chicken in your mouth slowly, keeping your eyes locked on the bothered guy in front of you. He looked more exhausted than he did this morning – you hadn’t seen him since then due to your lack of classes together. His hair was a ragged mess and his jacket had a fresh new hole in the sleeve. His eyes were smaller, his lips chapped.

“Everything okay?” you hesitantly ask.

Keith looks up at you through the gaps in his fingers before promptly going back to tugging at the strands of hair that fall limp against his forehead. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

It doesn’t take a psychology record to know he’s lying.

“I mean, it’s not,” you say, using your good-old-fashioned blunt method. Keith looks up at you again, narrowing his eyes as if to dare you to continue.

You do.

“Judging by the way you’re tugging on your hair and the way you stormed over here with particularly heavy footsteps, I’ve come to the scientific conclusion that you-“

“There is no scientific conclusion,” Keith scoffs, letting his hands drop. “I just – I had a bad day. That’s all you need to know.”

“Correct,” you mutter, placing a leaf of cabbage in your mouth. “I don’t need to know much more than that, but I’d like it if you indulged. Maybe I could help you.”

Keith smiles softly at you. “I’m afraid having an IQ of 160 isn’t enough to help me with this one. Thanks, though.”

You frown. What problem couldn’t be solved with science and math and common logic? You had yet to come across one.

“I don’t mean to be – uh – nosy or anything, but what exactly is the issue?”

Keith takes a moment to reply. He has his arms folded over his chest, his eyes cast to the table in front of him where his untouched salmon sits. You find yourself leaning slowly across the table, trying to catch his eyes with your own but he seems to be doing everything in his power to avoid the eye contact you find yourself wanting so desperately.

You had never before felt what it felt like to care for somebodies wellbeing – somebody outside of your foster families. But sitting here in front of Keith, inspecting the distress on his face, this is what it must feel like to actually care about somebodies feelings.

It was awful.

It made you feel weird, like you had an obligation to do something that was completely out of your control. You hated things that were out of your control.

Nevertheless, you can’t push the feelings away and you know there’s no point in trying. So you succumb to them, waiting patiently for Keith to reply to your question.

But he doesn’t. He simply inhales deeply, leans forward and begins to dig into the salmon on his tray, leaving you half-speechless in front of him.

“Is it really that bad?” you find yourself asking.

Keith looks up at you finally, narrowing his eyes and shaking his head slightly as he holds a forkful of salmon between his teeth.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Lesson one for Keith’s social classes,” Keith says, his words slurred by the salmon. “You don’t ask somebody how bad their problems are.”

Your mouth shoots into a thin line, an embarrassed pink colour grazing your cheeks at the realisation that your lessons with Keith hadn’t even started yet and you were already messing them up.

You stay silent after that, choosing to finish off the chicken wrap you had ordered before you messed up anything else and maybe made your friends day even worse. That was the last thing you wanted to do, and yet the question of why he was in a mood was still itching at the back of your brain. Having spent years being able to solve any question which popped into your head, you felt a bit weak being unable to do so now, because the answer was all down to Keith and he wasn’t willing to give it to you.

Keith finishes his salmon before you’ve finished your wrap, even though you had started before him. Your appetite had shrunk with the curiosity coursing through your veins, and you had spent nearly the entirety of lunch time simply staring at Keith, trying to see what was wrong with him through silent inspection. Whether he noticed your gaze or not, you didn’t care.

He sighed when he finished, leaning back in his chair and wiping his hands on the napkin that sat on his tray. “I should get going. I have some pictures to take for the schools website and I need to get them done before my next class.”

You’re standing up before you know why, your wrap still in your hand. “I’ll go with you.”

Keith raises a brow, looking up at you as he stays seated. “Are you allowed to go into sunlight without combusting into flames?”

“Ha ha. Funny guy.” You stuff the finishing pieces of your wrap into your mouth, turn to Keith and say, “Let’s go,” through a mouthful of food, uncaring about how unflattering you look.

You didn’t know that as soon as you turned around, Keith smiled.

You knew you were never particularly good in social situations, but you thought that you could at least stand in the garden of your own school without feeling like the most stuck-out person within a half mile radius.

You hovered behind Keith as he took the pictures, and judging by the way nobody seemed to pay attention to the sprawled out kid on the grass, Keith did this often. Some of them even went as far as to say hello to Keith as if they saw him here on a daily basis. A few tried to say hello to you, but you simply nodded with your usual, monotone look on your face and hoped the conversation wouldn’t grow further than it needed to.

Keith lay in the grass on his stomach, camera pointed at the flower pots which lined the walls of the school. Benches were in the background, kids sitting on them and laughing as they ate the food they weren’t even meant to bring out of the cafeteria. Keith managed to capture the scene perfectly.

You took a seat in the grass beside him, folding your legs over one another as you made a job of picking at the grass.

“So you do this every lunch time?” you question.

Keith grunts as he rolls over onto his side to get a better look at the picture he had just taken. “Most days. I find the cosy atmosphere of this place really inspiring.”

You nod. “I mean, cosy atmospheres are usually created in small, dimly lit places. This is far from small, and it’s outdoors so there’s even more added space that the brain picks up on, even if you don’t realise it. Also, the amount of people in this place would make it seem more claustrophobic than cosy, so I have to-“

“What do you do when you get home after school?” Keith cuts you off. You look down at him, eyes narrowed with one brow raised in mild confusion at his question.

“Why are you asking?”

Keith shrugs, going back to his task. “I was just wondering. Like, do you sit and watch TV with your parents? Does your mum cook for you? Is dinner already on the table when you get in?”

“Dinner is usually on the table a few hours after I get home,” you reply. “During those few hours, I go upstairs and get changed, organise my school bag for the next day and play some music to myself. Oh, and I don’t have parents.”

Keith immediately stiffens in the grass, his camera suddenly shaking slightly as his grip tightens around it. You continue to play with the grass, not entirely bothered about having an entire conversation on your history with the parents you never knew, or the history of the foster houses you had been jumping between for the entirety of your seventeen years on the planet.

You can see Keith shooting you a small glance out of the corner of his eye, careful not to turn his head fully in fear of you catching him. There’s a concerned aura to him all of a sudden, as if he expects you to burst into tears at the mention of your parents – you find the mere suggestion absurd. You weren’t going to cry over people you didn’t know. That wasn’t how you worked.

“I still don’t know why you entirely care, Keith,” you continue. “Your life has to be a whole lot more exciting than mine.”

“I only asked so you’d stop spewing facts at me.”

You frown. “Oh, right. Was that not socially correct?”

Keith shrugs. “I don’t care so much about you being socially correct. You were proving me wrong. Nobody likes being proved wrong.”

A soft laugh immediately escaped your mouth, getting wisped away by the wind which is sauntering around you and Keith both. The grass the two of you are sat on is soaked by the snow that had melted from earlier that morning, meaning your trousers and Keith’s shirt were bound to be damp for the rest of the day, but you found yourself not caring. There was something about watching Keith up close – this close – that made you want to stay like this, just to admire the way he did things.

“Tell me more about your home life,” Keith asks, suddenly. Your eyes flick up to look at the back of his head, the only thing you can see as he presses his eye into his camera. He sounds almost timid as he asks you, clearly not knowing whether or not said question would be the thing to break the emotionless persona you had put on since the day he met you.

And there was a side to your home life that you didn’t like discussing – mainly the side that made people feel bad for you. You hated sympathy. Guilt from other people over something they barely knew anything about, because you barely knew anything about it. Until you were eighteen, them records were shut off to you. The only information you could really spill was from the records you had stolen when you were five and memorised – anything new that had come up since then was hidden away neatly, in a hiding space so tight that only certain members on your foster team knew where they were.

Either way, you find yourself feeling comfortable enough with your first real friend to tell him. You tell him about your parents, and how they couldn’t handle a child prodigy on their own. You had put them through hell from what you had gathered of the records – building things from scratch and making other children cry by telling them the science behind why the tooth fairy wasn’t real and making even adults cringe by explaining step-by-step how babies were made when you were only at the age of six.

You explained your foster mother – Ann-Marie – and your foster brother – Patrick – and how you had only lived with them for two months but they had done more for you than any other foster family you had been shipped to. You explain to him that you had only ever been with three foster families before – nobody else was allowed to take you, because according to the government, you were prized goods. If the person taking you wasn’t tip-top and an overall perfect human being, they wouldn’t risk letting you out of the centres you had been trapped in your whole life.

Which was why you were forever grateful towards Ann-Marie, for being that perfect person. She had dragged you out of centres that you used to get abused in, centres that held people who couldn’t care less about your mental well-being – most of them only left you alone because they knew you were smart enough to find some way to tell the police if they did anything bad to you or anything bad to anybody else in front of you.

Keith is silent once you stop speaking and you find yourself messing with the grass even more vigorously once the information is out in the open. It doesn’t seem right to have put so much sad information on him all at once, but it was out there now and there was nothing more you could do except hope Keith didn’t expel you from his life completely.

“But it’s all okay now,” you add on, just to soften the blow. “I’m good now. All good and stuff. Dandy.”

“That’s really fucking sad, Y/N,” Keith comments, finally looking into your eyes. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

You shrug. “I mean, I didn’t really. No, I did, but, like, I don’t remember it well enough to – to care.” Why were you getting flustered?

Keith sits up, placing his camera in his lap. “No, I get it, but it must suck knowing the reason behind your parents leaving you was because . . . Well, because of that.”

“I like to think of it as their loss, but my non-existent ego can’t do that.”

Keith closes his eyes, a ghost of a smile playing at his lips as your words, again, are used to defuse any tension he may have been feeling due to the information you had just laid out for him.

He shocks you whenever he sits down properly, folding his legs over one another and you’re even more shocked whenever he leans forward and takes your hand in his. The gesture is only small, but the feel of human skin on your own is enough to make your body flare up in a heat you didn’t think possible during mid-November. And yet here you were, cheeks firey red and your arms suddenly erupting into goosebumps and suddenly you’re almost sure you’ll never be able to breathe again.

“I’m serious,” Keith says, opening his eyes to meet yours. You narrow your own.

“You’ve become sincere.”

“You’re spoiling the moment.”

“I didn’t think we were having a-“

“Just sh and let me talk!” Keith hisses, kicking your ankle with his toes. You nod silently, pursing your lips as you continue to gaze into his eyes. “What I was saying was – I’m serious about what I said, Y/N. You didn’t deserve that, and those two people you referred to as your parents aren’t your real parents if they treated you in that way and gave up so easily.”

“Actually, going by biological history-“

“I know at the park I made it sound like I wanted you to change when I told you I would help you become more socially adjusted, and I didn’t realise how bad it sounded until I got home. But I just want you to know that, even though I’ve only known you for a short period of time, I like you a lot and I don’t want you changing yourself because of me. Being an introvert isn’t a setback and you shouldn’t need to change it if you don’t want to.”

You blink, desperately trying to cypher through the words he just said for any sign of sarcasm or any sign that this is all a joke and he’s actually planning on saying “Sike!” before kicking dirt up into your face and running off.

But no matter how hard you try and no matter how much you investigate his demeanour in this moment, there seems to be absolutely zero menace in the words he had just spoken. He was being genuine.

For once in your life, somebody was being genuinely nice to you, and it wasn’t just because you were intelligent, and it wasn’t just because you were the new foster kid on the block – he was being nice to you because he felt like you deserved it, and nothing had warmed your heart up quite in the same way.

You aren’t sure how showing affection and gratitude works, so you try your hardest to swing a guess. You clench your fingers around his own, gently squeezing his hand and giving him a small smile of your own, but it doesn’t seem like enough. Nothing could possibly feel like enough.

“Thank you,” you say, finally. “Thank you for – uh – reassuring me and being a – a good friend to me. I really appreciate it.”

Keith smiles back, pulling his hand into his lap. He takes a second longer to gaze at your blushed face before the bell goes off, signalling next class. The two of you clamber up, rubbing the wet patches off of your clothing before you swiftly say your goodbyes and head to your separate classes.

Suddenly, biology and ICT can’t come quick enough.

“Alright everyone!” Miss Shaw exclaims from the front of the classroom, her round hips and small torso becoming very prominent in the tight beige dress she was wearing. She had slid her cardigan off mid-lesson, revealing a nice pair of toned arms that you didn’t realise she had. Her body proportions continued to surprise you as the years went on. “The rest of todays lesson will be spent planning out your research projects, and every lesson up until the due date will be spent in the same way. This is mainly for the partners who can’t get to each others houses to work. You can spend your class time wisely, and I hope you’re spending your breaks wisely as well. This needs to be tip-top people! Now, go sit beside your partners and get to work.”

You pull your hood off of your head and straighten up in your seat as you watch Keith trudge up the steps to the row of desks you’re sitting on. He had put on his bad-boy persona once again, his hood pulled up on over his black hair and a scowl permanently etched on his features that softens whenever his eyes meet yours. You give him a warm wave that he repays by simply raising his hand in the air.

And then he’s sitting next to you.

“I trust you know everything we’re doing for the project already?” is the first thing he says, barely turning his head to look at you.

You grin. “Just call me your personal computer.”

Keith pouts, straightening up in his seat to get a better look at the map of ideas you had been working on throughout the entire lesson – you had basically created a textbook of facts on every animal classification, and even branching off to go into greater detail, that you could remember – and it was most of them.

Keith shook his head in awe, tracing his fingers over the ink. “I still feel bad for only being the photographer.”

You nudge his elbow with your own. “Is that why you were so huffy earlier on?”

Keith freezes, and you silently curse yourself. Not even two seconds in and you’d already said something that you weren’t meant to. You hadn’t know, when the words came into your head, that they were bad, but going off of the way Keith suddenly begins to nibble on his bottom lip and the way he leans back in his seat tells you that they were, in fact, inappropriate to say.

“I thought you forgot about that,” he replies, softly. “You should forget about that.”

His hesitance to tell you what’s wrong makes you even more uneasy. Of course, it made perfect sense for him to have secrets. Although you were never the type of person to hide things from people, finding no shame in anything you did, Keith wasn’t like you. He had healthy EQ levels, and that meant it was perfectly normal for him to thing of things he had done as shameful or unrepeatable.

You slump back in your seat, taking a highlighter off of the desk so you can doodle on your knuckles. “Sorry. My tongue went before my head again.”

“No it didn’t,” Keith scoffs. “You’re curious. I get it.”

“I’m curious but you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. It’s none of my business what goes on outside of our friendship.”

Keith inhales deeply. “We both know that’s bullshit.”

You raise a brow, not looking up from the highlighter-yellow squiggle you had just traced down your knuckles. “We do?”

“I do, because you shouldn’t have to open up to me in the way you did outside and me not do the same. It’s not fair.”

“I opened up because I feel comfortable talking about what I spoke about. If you don’t, I completely understand.”

And you did understand. You understood more than he would ever know – understood the science behind secrets and the feeling of pressure people often felt whenever they were faced with this kind of situation.

But just because you understood, didn’t mean you felt any differently. You still wanted to know, wanted to be somebody Keith could go to whenever he needed to talk to somebody, but right now it seemed like you two weren’t particularly on that level.

And again, you understood, because you had been through this so many times with so many different people. They were all okay with your knowledge until it went against them in ways you couldn’t control. You had numbed yourself to the disappointment of being the only one in a friendship who trusted the other person.

Of course, you had hoped Keith was different. He had lasted the longest and he was definitely one of the only people you felt genuinely attached to, but if he didn’t feel the same way then there was nothing you could do to force him. If he wanted to hold some things back from you, then that was okay with you. It was only a matter of time before things crumpled and you went back to being the lonely-smart-girl that everybody spoke about.

At least you were prepared.

But until then, you would make the most out of your time with Keith and you would bask in the feeling of feeling things for the first time in a long time, because that was what you did – you made the most of things until your unexplainable brain ripped the joy out of your grip and made you feel numb all over again.

Keith’s POV

She was thinking.

I could see it in the way her eyes twinkled and the way her hands worked with turning the highlighter over and over in her hand on a continuous loop. I could see it in the way she stuck her tongue out from between her lips every once in a while, or she looked towards the board and squinted, even though there was nothing written on it.

She was trying to distract herself from whatever she was thinking of, but I had an idea that forgetting things wasn’t as easy to her as it was to everybody else.

I found her so intriguing when I first met her in that detention hall. A smart girl, quiet and well mannered who knew the basics of everything, and yet there she was – slumped over in a chair for an after-hours detention. It seemed like the most unlikely of things, and I had become mildly hostile. I didn’t believe it to be true – she must have been a bitch.

But she hadn’t been. God, she was far from it and it hurt me to think that I was hurting her with my lack of skills in opening up to people.

She did it so well. She told me about her parents so monotone and easy and she simply shrugged it off whenever I comforted her on it – she just didn’t care, and maybe that was a bad place to be in. Maybe not caring was a bad mindset to lock yourself in, but it was one I craved in this moment.

Things were getting harder. He was getting worse. She had disappeared all together and there was really nothing I could do about it. The phone calls were beginning to come through even when I was at school and I could no longer just ignore them – I would have to excuse myself from class to go and read his angry texts and I would reply back in low-caps and pretend to be calm when in reality I had a panic constantly clawing at my chest and making my heart race and my bones ache.

And the one person I wanted to tell was her. Y/N. Sat beside me now, acting like she didn’t have a care in the world because perhaps she didn’t have a care in the world. Her mind was occupied with scientific explanations to the meaning behind every little thing and math equations and synonyms for words that weren’t even in the English language.

Perhaps that was the reason I liked her so much – liked her more than I really should. She was intriguing and nice and care free, but at the same time she was this walking pile of surprises that I struggled to get out of my head whenever she wasn’t with me. She gave me comfort even if she didn’t mean to, because there was just something about the way she spoke to me – treated me like how I used to be treated – that comforted me.

She put me in my place if I needed to be put in my place, and that was why I actually felt under control whenever she was with me, even if my life was crumbling around me.

143 notes · View notes

soto-translates · 7 years

Text

Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology: Konzen's Buff Challenge

This is the start of the Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology, raws provided by the lovely @seiten-taisei. Check out her post here, where she shares a bunch of stuff (this anthology is near the bottom of the list).

Goku wants to see a buff Konzen!

P1 Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology Ichijinsha Comic Zerosum Presents

P2 Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology Ichijinsha Comic Zerosum Presents

P4 Illustration: naked ape Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology

P5 Contents Saiyuki Gaiden Anthology

Comics Mikami Ritsuhiro “Konzen’s Buff Challenge” --------- 3 Mikawa Verno “Big Trouble Happens More Than Little Issues” --------- 11 Hiraku Naki “Small Promise” --------- 17 Fujiazuki “What If At That Time” --------- 25 Tokitou Kanade “Know the Appropriate Timing” --------- 35 Akanatsu “Fall, Fall, Full” --------- 43 Kosugi Mayu “Next to the Sun” --------- 57 Usatoru “Tenpou Can’t Clean Up” --------- 69 Suzumoto Jun “Color” --------- 81 Kogami Nana “Special Onigiri” --------- 97

Cover Illustration Minekura Kazuya

Illustration naked ape

P6 Goku: Heeeeyyy Ten-chan. What’s ‘muscle training’? Konzen’s Buff Challenge Mikami Ritsuhiro Tenpou: ...... Huh? Umm, I think you’re plenty strong Goku, so I doubt you need any muscle training... Goku: No! Not me! I’m talkin’ ‘bout Konzen! Tenpou: Konzen?

P7 Goku: The other day, y’know, Ken nii-chan, he said “Konzen’s skinny an’ weak an’ dangly like a burdock root, so he should do some muscle training”. Konzen: Get lost you forehead jerk! Goku: ? Tenpou: Ahh, I see... Well, it’s true I’ve never seen Konzen lift anything heavier than his stamp or chopsticks. Or paper. Goku: Hey, hey Ten-chan! Will Konzen get strong if he does that ‘muscle training’ thing? Tenpou: ... I wonder. It feels like he’d sprain his back with one round of sit ups though. He sits all day long, after all. Goku: ... Oh... sfx: disappointed

P8 Tenpou: Goku, did you want Konzen to become strong? Goku: ...Insteada becomin’ strong... I wanna see a buff Konzen! BG: Macho Man sfx: buff Goku: Konzen, you’re awesome!! Tenpou: I want to see that too. Then, why don’t you ask Konzen? Fuhu. Goku: ? Tenpou: --And so

P9 Tenpou: I prepared some basic muscle training goods for you, Konzen. Mail-order is so convenient. sfx: piled sfx: pull Box: Rakuten Konzen: I didn’t ask for ANY of this!! Tenpou: You spend all day every day doing desk work. If you don’t move your body every now and then, you’ll get old. sfx: snap Goku: Ow! Konzen: I don’t want to hear that from a guy whose hobby is holing up in his room and reading. Tenpou: I have missions to the Lower World too though. Konzen: My muscles are already aching, ever since that monkey arrived...! Anyway, clean all that up right now. Goku: Konzen! Konzen!

P10 Goku: I wanna see a buff Konzen! Konzen: ...Only 10 minutes. Goku: Yay!! Tenpou: (thinking) He spoils Goku. Goku: Which one’re you gonna use, huh!? Tenpou: You should start right away with the harder one. After all, we have to make Konzen buff in 10 minutes. Konzen: Like that’ll happen!! Narration: And then

P11 Narration: Dumbbell (20kg / 44lbs) Konzen: Nnaaaaagh! sfx: speedy lifting Narration: Abdominal roller sfx: vrooom Tenpou: Good luck. Narration: Pull up bar Goku: You okay Konzen? BG: Weakening. Narration: 10 minutes later sfx: panting Goku: ...Ten-chan. Konzen did the ‘muscle training’ but he didn’t change at all. sfx: wheezing BG: Ragged Tenpou: Well, life would be too easy if one could actually get buff in only 10 minutes. Konzen: (thinking) These guys...!

P12 Goku: But it was fun playing new things! Let’s do it again Konzen! Konzen: Hey. It’s been 10 minutes. Hurry up and get out. sfx: door opening Kenren: Ohh, so here’s where you were, Tenpou. Uh, what’s all this? Tenpou: Ah, we did a bit of muscle training. Kenren: Muscle training? Y’don’t need tools for that.

P13 Kenren: It’d be muscle training just lifting up Goku, right? Arrow: Approximately 80+kg / 176+lbs Arrow: Approximately 80+kg / 176+lbs Goku: Konzen! Carry me!! Tenpou: How nice. You can toss him in the air. Kenren: How ‘bout letting him ride on your shoulders? Konzen: All of you, OUT NOW!! Narration: The next day he ached all over and couldn’t get out of bed. END

#translation #saiyuki #saiyuki gaiden #anthology

60 notes · View notes

dimensionslip · 7 years

Photo

Persona Super Live P-Sound Bomb!!!! 2017 Event Report

The aforementioned event is a concert that took place today (August 2) at Yokohama Arena. The concert ran for almost three hours (approximately 7pm to 10pm) and focused on P3, P4, and P5 songs. The games Persona 5 Dancing Star Night, Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night, and Persona Q2 were announced during this concert as well. The first two are targeted for a 2018 release, while there is no news on the lattermost’s release date.

Under the cut are more details about how the event went, including the songs and shenanigans I can remember off memory. TL;DR it was a very fun concert and I’m glad I came!

Note: I tried my best to write everything I can remember from memory but there might be blanks here and there are some song titles I cannot remember well. I’ll note them as needed, in any case. Also I’ll be using the following to refer to the protags: P3 protag = Minato, P4 protag = Yu, P5 protag = Akira.

The concert’s opening song was “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There”, followed by “Burn My Dread”, then “Pursuing My True Self”. In all of these segments, the back-up dancers were dressed up as Shadows and accompanied Lyn Inazumi, Yumi Kawamura, and Shihoko Hirata respectively as they sang and danced (a bit) to the song. The three of them along with their back-up dancers performed a medley of “Beneath the Mask”, “Signs of Life”, and... a song from P3 whose title I can’t remember well. It might have been “When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars” but I’m very uncertain about it, the only thing I’m sure of is that the song is from P3. I will correct this post once I figure out what it’s supposed to be.

After this was “Life Will Change” (or some variation of it, I wasn’t noting the song names very well at this point in time), and it was revealed that the back-up dancers were actually costumed as P5 characters! So we had dancing Futaba, Ann, Haru, and Akira. After that, they danced to another song, I’m not sure of the title but there were less to no vocals in this one. It was “Tokyo Emergency”, I think. I could be wrong on this one though.

After that, “Mass Destruction” came up and the Shadow back-up dancers were revealed to be Mitsuru, Shinjiro, Junpei, and Minato. Lotus Juice was also present and was there for the next song, “Deep Breath, Deep Breath”.

For “Reach Out To The Truth”, we had dancing Dojima, Nanako, Yosuke, and Teddie. What a treat. After that was “Last Surprise”, followed by a small intermission where the singers had a bit of a talk!

Before I forget, all of the costume reveals were accompanied by some original voice tracks from their respective voice actors! Everyone went pretty wild with the P5 people and Shinjiro’s VA (Nakai), ahaha. I don’t think they were in the event itself, but it’s pretty neat they did those things!

Anyway, during the talk, they ended up commenting on their get-ups because they were pretty much getting into the Persona theme, to say the least of it! Kawamura was wearing a SEES armband and a really cool jacket that resembles the Gekkoukan High blazer, Hirata was wearing a Yasogami High uniform, Lotus Juice was wearing a SEES armband and a shirt with Yasogami High logos (apparently he couldn’t choose between the two games lol), and Inazumi was wearing something that looks a lot like Makoto’s uniform. They were all pretty cute and cool! Also Shoji Meguro was around!

After the intermission, we were treated to a tap-dancing Futaba, who was actually tap-dancing to “Phantom”. Next numbers are “Tokyo Daylight”, “Key Plus Words”, “Break Out Of...”, “Laser Beam”, “Will Power”, “Beneath the Mask (Rain)”, “Blooming Villain”, a song from either P4 or P3 which I can’t remember, “Keeper of Lust”, “Battle for Everyone’s Souls”.

After this, Hiroko appeared alongside someone else dressed up as Justine, with the other as Caroline. The person in question is someone named Arisa Noto, and she’s the one who was Dancing!Nanako earlier. They sang the “Junes Theme” together, it was really cute.

The next song was “Poem for Everyone’s Souls”, it was pretty dark throughout the time they played this song. They then played another song whose name I can’t remember, then “Mistic”, with the Haru dancer doing ballet for it. She continues the dance into “Heaven”, and “Our Beginning”.

After that, they played “Burn My Dread - Last Battle -” and “Maze of Life”. I think it was here in this song that they did some simple stunts, like the Shinjiro dancer lifting the Mitsuru dancer (I think Hirata also got lifted ahaha). The following songs were “Time To Make History”, “The Whims of Fate”, “Rivers in the Desert”, and then the game announcements followed!

Persona 5 Dancing Star Night was the first to be announced, followed by Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night. Later on was PQ2, with the Arsene logo thing and something like “more information to come”. Despite some of the announcements being a long time coming, the reactions were very positive and someone in the audience even shouted “Arigato!”. That kinda thing.

Somewhere around this time, they also played a song whose name I can’t remember. It might be the P2 song people have been mentioning, but I’m not too sure, please don’t take my word on this one.

There was a bit of singer talk again sometime in between the songs (I can’t remember the timing anymore), but sometime later after the game announcements, they showed some P3 movie ED scenes WHICH WERE NOT OK before they started playing “Kimi no Kioku”. This song is a million ways not OK especially since Kawamura asked us to sing a part of it and I think everyone was not prepared lol but we all sang it anyway. My heart ahh.

Next song was “Life Will Change”, then “Never More”, and lastly (predictably so) “Hoshi To Bokura To”. And that marks the concert end, more or less.

Alright, time for overall impressions! I already said it before I started but I really, really enjoyed this concert! I like what they did with the penlights here, i.e. the audience didn’t have to switch the colors of the lights and they all did automatically. Which, I think is the reason why they disallowed people to use their own lights. The light effects were damn cool, and some of the interesting effects include matching the colors to the game where the song’s from (i.e. blue for P3, yellow for P4, red for P5) and forming stuff like the letters P3, P4, P5 whenever necessary. Awesome stuff. Also that whole audience being asked to sing part of “Kimi no Kioku”. Hoo boy, it was kinda soft but I do like the way it involved the audience in that manner.

The singers also served as MCs of a kind and they did wonderfully as that, in addition to all the singing. This is my first Persona concert so I have no idea how they all fared in that respect, but yes, I think their experience as entertainers really shows and I certainly wouldn’t mind going to a concert of theirs in the future, should they do one.

That said, I’m very much looking forward to next year if they do one again! It’s worth every yen I paid and if they held this on another day too, I think I might actually be tempted to buy a ticket to that one too. If you guys get the opportunity to watch one of these concerts, please do! Or do the next best thing and buy the CD, if/when it comes out!

#persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona series #japan shenanigans #persona super live p-sound bomb #persona concert #ramblings

50 notes · View notes