When he'd first called him 'my big invigilator', the greeting wasn't exactly well-received, to say the least.
"My big invigilator," Qin Jiu held a bag of bread—compliments from the Languages exam office. "Baguette or vienna for you?"
"I belong to myself," was his only response; he hadn't even bothered answering the actual question before his head fell back onto the table with a soft but perceptible thud, like a full stop at the end of a terse sentence. Seconds later, You Huo was no longer awake.
Qin Jiu clicked his tongue—he'd only wanted to ask if he was hungry.
Afterwards, Qin Jiu had the prudence to try softening it a little—surely 'our' would work. It wasn't like it couldn't be interpreted as just a friendly way of signaling in-group solidarity.
"Invigilator A, join us for dinner?" was another examiner's invitation the other day—a half-ditched attempt to bridge some degree of camaraderie between the two factions.
"No thanks."
Well...not that they'd expected him to accept anyway.
"Come on," Qin Jiu, now also known as 001, had no prudence to give up, nor give in. "Surely our big invigilator can show us some face. We're colleagues after all, even if not from the same side."
"..."
Ten minutes later, the few of them, 001 and A included, sat around the restaurant table, half of them regretting their life decisions, most of the other half wanting to go home, one of them smirking and the last one of them looking like he could kill a man any moment.
"Can't believe our big invigilator really did show us some face." Qin Jiu, on You Huo's right, reached over to You Huo's left where the teapot was positioned. "What a lucky day."
"I am my own person." You Huo pushes away his teacup which Qin Jiu had just filled, the scalding water narrowly missing the latter's pinky. "I also have arms of my own, so drink your tea."
Surprisingly, "our big invigilator" seemed to have wound up being acceptable at some point.
"Traitor," some drunken colleague of theirs (relatively new and junior-ranking: 968th, going by the tag on his shirt), had grown the balls to go up to Invigilator A of all people to unleash their frustrations. "You people are traitors to humanity for not stepping up against anything. And you most of all, A."
You Huo wasn't moving—it wasn't clear if he was just letting him continue kicking him in that inebriated state, or was a few moments away from potentially killing this Invigilator 968.
"I'm afraid our big invigilator has an appointment with me now,"
Qin Jiu had stepped in—it wasn't clear who he was trying to save.
"If you'd excuse us."
Pulling away 'Traitor' Invigilator A by the wrist, Qin Jiu realises he'd been silent the entire time.
No protest; no cold assertion of not belonging to anyone but himself.
Two years and one coincident period of memory loss later, Qin Jiu's hypothesis still remained the same—"our big invigilator" (actually, now "our top student") is O.K., at least if not uttered sarcastically. Or maybe it was because ever since that time they'd 'cleaned' the haunted school, they came to be officially established as 'friends'.
(Qin Jiu had certain complaints to make about the 'friends' status, but he figured it was, at least, certainly better than being enemies.)
"You can make yourself at home," Qin Jiu threw his jacket over the couch, evidently making himself at home at his own home. "Would our top student like a drink? I have gin."
"Water is fine." You Huo was already sitting on the couch at this point; a few seconds in and his eyes were already shut.
Qin Jiu chuckled—he didn't think he'd really make himself at home.
(He hadn't told him this yet, but he could make himself at home here any time he wanted.)
Three years and a victory later, they try to make themselves a home. Some time ago, they'd realised their goals were aligned; along the way, they'd also had certain other mutual realisations on the side—those that really felt more central than anything else; those that told them it wasn't just their goals which were aligned.
The door clicks close. It doesn't take Qin Jiu a long process of elimination to figure out who's back.
"My big invigilator's back," Qin Jiu is already at the stairway to accost him. "How much I've missed you."
"Move," You Huo's fingers and palm apply a funny ticklish pressure on his abdomen. It's obviously not a lot of pressure, but Qin Jiu lets himself get 'moved' anyway.
Upstairs, the only room is the bedroom—there's only one, the master bedroom, and even the toilet is within the room. Life is better here than in that dingy old district, and not only because it isn't an either-or between 'invigilator room' and 'confinement room'. Also, the rooms are pretty large—at least, large enough to fit a bed meant for two.
"I've been thinking about something recently."
You Huo blinks at Qin Jiu near-expressionlessly. In such moments of seeming inscrutability, only those who've already known him for a while may manage to catch the question mark in his eyes; Qin Jiu is mere centimetres away, so he definitely sees the question mark.
"You never protest anymore at being called 'our big invigilator', or even 'my big invigilator'. Same for 'our top student' or 'my top student'. Why?" Qin Jiu's trying to frown but he fails; of course he's grinning, it's a happy problem. "What happened to belonging to yourself, and being your own person?"
Qin Jiu is no longer centimetres away, nor waiting for an answer—after all, he already knows it.
"I've always been my own person, but I'm now already also yours."
Splatoween starts tonight! And a quick reminder to nab your gear! To get yours, open News on your Nintendo Switch system, then launch the Splatoon 3 game via the Squid Research Lab article. After that, visit the in-game lobby to collect your costume. See you at 5pm PT!
SplatoonJP:
いよいよ明日から世界合同ハロウィンフェス「Splatoween」が始まるぞ。
Nintendo Switch本体のゲームニュース「イカ研究所通信」で仮装にピッタリのギアをゲットして、特別な装いの街に繰り出そう。
Hang on. It seems like Mastermind isn't Lu Guang's song like I thought it was but Liu Xiao's. Lyrics below with the Chinese parts translated via Google.
Time is a hypocritical construct
Righteously it wipes out all of us
But I keep rising back from the dust
Again and again again and again
无数碎片 [countless fragments]
不停缠绕相连 [Continuously entwined and connected]
The shadows they whisper in your head
I let them linger and you will like it
You're tied on my strings like a puppet
Before you even notice
I made a deal with the demons
I crave the feel of true desire
There's nothing real 终究走向黑暗 [Eventually heading towards darkness]
Listening all your desperation sounding like a song
Destiny is just my game but is all you counting on right now
Joining the game
Killing spree I'm enjoying the game
So get ready I'm here
Get ready for it for it
Again and again again and again
Take my hand let's set this world on fire
Light it up for the show
Pain will get to you when the night arrives
Like the hunter when a prey lies
It's just how the world's like
Dadadada dadadada
Got nothing holding me back
Dadadada dadadada
Mastermind stays in the dark
Let my flame be your redemption
If you ever get helpless
Just take it in and we'll have some fun
在雷鸣之间我不计代价 [Between the thunder I don't care about the cost]
承受无限电压太蛊惑的力量 [The power to withstand infinite voltage is too bewitching]
在每个时间都呈现我推演结局 [Show me the ending of my deduction every time]
没人能改变或阻挡 [No one can change or stop]
You're down on your knees 'cause u can feel the pressure when I'm taking over
Excerpt from Cowboy Bebop: The Jazz Messenger - History (translation below)
西暦2022年、地球上空で開発中の位相差空間ゲートが大爆発を起こしたとき、すべては始まった。
爆発に巻き込まれた月の破片が地球に振りそそぎ、放射線汚染と環境の変化でもはや地表に人類は住めなくなってしまった。残された人類は地下シェルターでの生活を余儀なくされ、そこに入りきれない人々はほかの惑星へと移住せざるを得なくなった。幸い、研究段階にあったテラフォーミング技術が位相差空間ゲートにより実現のメドがたち、皮肉にも、人類はゲートにより地球から放り出され、ゲートによって地球以外の惑星で生活できるようになったのである。
国家は、なしくずし的になくなり、人種は入り乱れた。
西暦は終わり、宇宙暦が始まった。
時が経つにつれ、各惑星や衛星は独立国家へと姿を変え、 経済も徐々に復興し始める。スパイクたちの乗るような小型の宇宙船も、ぞくぞくと市場に出回ることになった(要免許)
そのかたわらで経済格差も広がっていき、スラム街も増え、犯罪は増加の一方をたどっていく(とくに宇宙暦初頭は法もロクに整備されておらず、犯罪組織が暗躍する時代でもあった)。
激増する犯罪に対抗するため、各惑星はついに太陽系刑事警察機構(I. S. S. P. = Inter Solar System Police)を設立、国家を超えた犯罪者に立ち向かうと同時に、賞金制度を設け、賞金��ぎに対して超法規的措置(犯罪者をとらえるためなら多少の違法行為も帳消しにされる)をとることも決定した。
ゲート事故から50年、「ビバップ」はそんな混沌とした時代の物語である。
It all began in the year 2022, when a catastrophic explosion ripped apart a hyperspace gateway(*1) under construction in Earth's orbit.
Caught in the blast of the large explosion, pieces of the moon rain down onto the surface of the earth, rendering the planet uninhabitable due to widespread environmental destruction and radioactive contamination. What remained of humanity was forced to live underground in shelters. Those that could not find room in these shelters, were forced to migrate off-world. Luckily, the terraforming technology that was still in its research phase gained traction after the hyerspace gateway incident. Though it was the destruction of the gate that had forced humans from Earth, it was thanks to this very same technology that humans were able to establish a new life on planets beyond Earth.
Nations ceased to exist, and the races of old Earth began to mix.
And so ended use of the Western Gregorian calendar in favor of the Space calendar(*2).
Over time, each planet and satellite became its own independent nation and the economy began to recover. Smaller spaceships, like the one used by Spike and his crew, flood the market in droves (license required).
At the same time, economic inequality was rampant, there were more slums, and crime continued to rise (especially in the early years of the Space calendar when there were few laws in place and criminal organizations thrived).
In response to the surge in crime, the I.S.S.P (Inter Solar System Police) was established on every planetary body to fight against these interplanetary criminals. At the same time, a bounty system was implemented that granted bounty hunters extrajudicial power (which allowed the execution of any illegal acts committed in the process of apprehending criminals).
The story of Bebop takes place during this chaotic era, 50 years after the hyperspace gateway incident.
*1: I think a closer translation for the Japanese word for this gate, 位相差空間ゲート, would be phase shift gate, as that seems to be the scientific phenomenon referred to with the Japanese name, however, since your average viewer likely doesn't know what ‘phase shifting’ is, I understand why translators would go with a more localized term like ‘hyperspace’ or ‘astral gate’.
*2: I couldn’t find any references for how 宇宙歴 is translated in the English version. It’s possible the term was avoided altogether if it never showed up in dialogue.