#also drawing over a japanese person was totally intentional maybe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

butterflymar · 3 years

Text

DAY 2: FAVORITE BL DRAMA

I have quite a few... I can’t choose just one so bare with me lol

Life Senjou No Bokura

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: One day after school, the serious Ito and the child-like Nishi meet by chance, as each endeavors to remain walking on the sidewalk`s white line. As time goes by, Ito recognizes he is drawn to Nishi in a way that is new to him. Nishi, for his part, is frustrated that they only get to meet on the sidewalk. Ito decides to act upon his feelings and kisses a surprised Nishi, who agrees they need to walk side by side for a change. The sparks between them are undeniable as their relationship blossoms in high school, survives the college years, and matures into adulthood. A deeply moving work that bears witness to loving partners, whose unchanging feelings must co-exist within a world of changing realities.

My Personal Thoughts: I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is one that I have watched countless times already. They went by the manga for mostly all of the episodes and I appreciated seeing that. They gave more context for certain details that may have been lost while reading the manga and translated it to screen. I think they depicted the age gaps well too. For 4 episodes only, I feel that they did a great job including the most important aspects. Actually now that I think of it, I would have loved to see more of them in their early 20s depicted on screen because that was like one of there honeymoon phases and I’m a hopeless romantic lol but that’s just a personal preference not complaining. Also, the show stopped at age 40 and they could have gone on throughout there entire lives but I understand why they chose not too. The manga is great as well!!! I think that the main actors depicted beautiful true love very well. They had amazing chemistry. Japanese BL’s have that special spark about them that I love. I also loved that it showed there relationship from high school till there later years. I don’t see that a lot with BL’s. They usually just stick to one time period. The aspect about them being connected by a line in relation to there love was a nice touch as well. I am glad that it has a happy ending as well. This is a pretty quick one to watch and a great one at that!!! If you haven’t watched it yet, I would highly recommend it!!!

I Told Sunset About You

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Teh and Oh-aew were best friends until a boyhood line of reasoning turned them into rivals. Years later as they're preparing for university admissions, both pursuing interests in the field of Communication Arts, the two meet in a Chinese language class. Their reunion awakens complicated and unstable feelings.

My Personal Thoughts: Same as above, I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is DEFINITELY one of my top BL shows of the year 2020. This is such a beautiful masterpiece of a show!!! I remember when the preview trailer first came out… I was already hooked!!! I was on the lookout for it and it did not disappoint me one bit when it finally started. I looked forward to seeing it every week. It made me feel all of the emotions. I was up here sitting in my room crying over everything. I don’t think any other BL has made me this emotional before in my life. The two lead actors really DELIVERED!!! I could feel every single stare, every single body movement, and every single touch. You could cut the TENSION with a knife!!! No one couldn’t tell me that there wasn’t a magnetic true love between these two. I know this sounds cliche but it's like they were destined to be together from when they were childhood friends. Also, I would love to see them in future projects!!! The cinematography in this show is TOP FREAKIN NOTCH!!! Every single scene is just so beautifully shot. The cinematography alone makes me want to cry lol I saw somewhere that someone said the filming of the show reminded them of an indie film and I totally agree!!! The writing and directing on this show was impeccable to me!!! No cringy dialogue and every single line served its purpose well. This is movie grade writing. I also wanted to quickly just say that I loved the attention and callback to details throughout like with the tutoring book that Teh made for Oh-aew that was left empty by the end of episode 4, the flower that was supposed to be colored the same as Tan’s garment but Teh colored it red because he was thinking of Oh-aew, the rubbing of Oh-aew’s back when he sniffles, the references to Teh’s favorite actor, and the use of Chinese phrases to get meaning across. I could go on and on but wow I just loved how they really connected all of the details throughout. I can’t wait for Season 2!!!

Theory of Love

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Third is a filmology major and a member of the Savage Team along with his best friends Two, Bone, and Khai, but he has a secret. Third has been secretly in love with Khai for years. For three years, he has kept his secret love in his heart, silently supporting and loving Khai while knowing there is absolutely no future between them since Khai is as straight as a streetlight pole and also an absolute player. To make matters worse, Khai has a "no dating friends" policy. How long can Third love Khai silently while watching Khai bring a different girl home every night? Third has tried to see Khai as just a friend. But has failed time and time again. Because as easy as it is to fall in love, to stop is just as hard. Maybe even harder. That is until Third learns a secret that breaks his heart completely. But when Third decides to stop, Khai decides to start.

My Personal Thoughts: As sad as this show can make me feel at times, I love rewatching it. I still to this day think that it is one of the most well written BL’s that I have seen. Everything flows nicely and everything connects. Your not left wondering how you got from point A to point B. I thought the show had great character development especially when it came to Khai’s character towards the end of series. I know a lot of people had mixed feelings about his character due to how careless and dare I say stupid he acted at times but if he can make the audience hate him that much as a character... I would say he is doing something right!!! Gun’s acting never fails to amaze me!!! He really is one of the best actors I have seen. I know he had to be drained from all of that crying that he did throughout the show though lol It just goes to show that when you truly love someone you can’t just stop what you are feeling inside that easily no matter how the other person feels about you or treats you. As the old saying goes, love is blind. I also loved the friend group as well and Two and Bones side stories with the teacher and crush from school. They added to the shows greatness and didn’t take away from it. The friendship dynamics throughout the show was I feel something that really kept me engaged. The cast acted well together. There was no awkwardness or hesitation. I feel everyone bought there best for this drama. They incorporated the movie references so cleverly and I love how the title of each episode was the title of a real romance film. Just the overall theme of film was very intriguing to me. This drama left me filled with heartache and a rollercoaster of emotions but the ending is worth it!!!

HIStory3: Make Our Days Count

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: At first glance, high schoolers Xiang Hao Ting and Yu Xi Gu appear to be polar opposites: While Xiang Hao Ting is an outgoing, hot-headed extravert and some-time bully, Yu Xi Gu prefers to keep a low profile and focus on his schoolwork. They seem bound for totally different futures – the bookish Yu Xi Gu looks destined for academic success, while life is just a long popularity contest for Xiang Hao Ting. But a quirk of fate – and a crucial intervention by a female schoolmate – results in the two young men’s paths crossing. But there is more to both young men than first meets the eye. Xiang Hao Ting was not always this way. He started out as a perfect student until he discovered the joys of going off the rails. And Yu Xi Gu has a reason for being so aloof and studious: His parents died in a traffic accident while he was younger, and he is being fostered by his aunt. As such, he works hard to get good grades in an effort to win a scholarship and ease the financial burden on his relatives. Yu Xi Gu also works part-time at a convenience store, where his manager Liu Zhi Gang has developed a crush on a man he has met at the gym. Back at school, meanwhile, Yu Xi Gu and Xiang Hao Ting find themselves drawn together, and passions ignite. The former notices that he has the unique ability to bring Yu Xi Gu out of his shell – and becomes intent on melting his cold-as-ice exterior. What will happen when their two worlds collide? And can love be the catalyst that helps bring these two unlikely students together – as their high school days draw to a close?

My Personal Thoughts: I will stand by this notion for all of my days but this show is one of the best shows I have seen PERIOD!!! Not even best BL shows I have seen but just in general. It highkey saddens me that it is rated at an 8.1 right now on MyDramaList due to how it ended when other than that... it’s a top notch show. This was one that I watched as it was airing and I would get excited to see it every week. My clown self should have known by the title “Make Our Days Count” that some mess was about to occur but I didn’t pick up on it. Now, I just disregard the last episode (WE DON’T KNOW HER!!!). You can just tell that they had a great budget for this series. The production was on point. It had great cinematography, great storylines, and it felt realistic too. The main couples acting was OFF THE CHARTS AMAZING. I loved the whole opposites attract thing going on. Although the show was set in high school... it almost didn’t feel like it nor did it have those typical clichés going on. I liked how it dealt with topic of LGBTQ+ acceptance as well. I wasn’t so sure about the side couples relationship at first but I grew to love them as time went on. One last thing I wanted to point out was that even though I am always looking for a happy ending... I learned from this show that not everyone can get a happy ending. That’s not how life works sadly. In real life, there have been a lot of people who were truly in love and lost there partners tragically. Although it may be hard to accept the outcome, it is something that happens in real life. This is a drama that you appreciate even more as time goes on. It truly is a gem of a series!!!

TharnType

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Type Thiwat is a handsome freshman with a passion for football and spicy food. Although he’s a friendly boy, he hates gay people because, in his childhood, he was molested by a man. His life turns upside down when the new academic year of college brings along a charismatic roommate, Tharn Kirigun. Tharn is a gorgeous, compassionate music major, who is also openly gay. When Type learns this, he is determined to make Tharn leave the dorm, as he won't live with a gay person. Tharn is equally determined not to give into Type's homophobic tantrums. With a gay guy and a homophobic guy that have to share a small space together for the rest of the year — what can possibly be the outcome of their story? Hatred? Or maybe love?

My Personal Thoughts: *Goes to hide in a corner* I know this drama is problematic and controversial as hell but it’s like a train wreck that you can’t turn away from. What truly carries the show I feel is the chemistry between MewGulf. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the series as much if other actors were cast in those roles. They just exude confidence, passion, love, and lust. In terms of the storyline, I found it to be a chaotic occurrence of situations where I just had to know what was going to go on next. Everything that occurred had me intrigued for the next episode and so on and so forth. I loved Type’s character development. One quick thing I want to touch on was I know there were a lot of problematic things that happened which I will touch on at a later date but one thing I wish people were more understanding of was Type’s outbursts, thoughts, and feelings in certain situations. He was a victim of sexual assault so I felt the way he handled certain things was in response to what he had gone through as child and I think some viewers kind of missed that and were almost too harsh on him. Everyone processes and deals with trauma differently. This show went through so many twists and turns and I honestly lived for it especially the shocker towards the end of the series. I didn’t see that one coming at all!!! Despite all of its flaws, this show still holds a special place in my heart.

Honorable Mention:

Cherry Magic: As of today, this show has 4 episodes left and I think I am just going to come out and say that THIS IS MY FAVORITE BL OF THE YEAR!!! It’s a beautiful Japanese BL and I rewatch the old episodes while I wait for new ones to come out alot. It’s such a fluffy, heartwarming, and precious Bl series!!! I love it to pieces!!!

68 notes · View notes

beneaththetangles · 3 years

Text

Light Novel Club Chapter 32: The Faraway Paladin, Vol. 1

Welcome to our Light Novel Club discussion of The Faraway Paladin, Vol. 1! We’ve got a fairly unique light novel to discuss this time around, and this is a great time to discuss it, with an anime adaptation coming up soon and also the recent announcement of hardcover print editions for the series. So let’s jump into the discussion!

Joining Jeskai Angel and I is marthaurion, one of the members of the Beneath the Tangles Discord! This is a reminder that all Light Novel Club discussions are held on the public Beneath the Tangles Discord and anyone can join these discussions, so if you want to join future discussions, check us out over there.

-----

1. What are your overall thoughts on the novel?

Jeskai Angel: The pacing was a little slow at times, but overall I enjoyed this light novel. Also, it bugs me that I can’t narrow down a specific reason, but this story felt strangely old, like I might have picked it up at the public library back in 1998. I’ve written before about how I think Unnamed Memory doesn’t “feel” like a typical light novel, and I experienced a similar sensation with Faraway Paladin, though I don’t think it was for the same reasons (e.g., how magic works is actually explained quite a bit in Faraway Paladin).

stardf29: Maybe it’s because the author took inspiration from traditional tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, as opposed to video game RPGs like “typical” fantasy light novels?

Jeskai Angel: Ooh, that’s possible! It’s not exactly “You all meet in a tavern,” levels of DnD tropey-ness, but I can definitely see the DnD resemblance now that you point it out.

stardf29: This was definitely an interesting read that is quite different from the usual isekai light novel. It does feel a bit slow-paced because a lot of the beginning is so focused on Will simply growing up with his “parents” and learning about the world. That said, that kind of start is nice every once in a while; it is kind of like Mushoku Tensei in that regard. The worldbuilding is great because of it, and the conflict against the god of undeath is nice, too.

Beyond that, I do like how this story delves into various themes that are worth thinking about. It’s a nice, thoughtful light novel, and as much as I like my brainless fun light novels, having something like this is good for a balanced light novel diet.

2. What are your thoughts on the characters?

Jeskai Angel: By far, my favorite aspect of this story was the active role the gods played. It actually sort of resembles my favorite aspect of Spice and Wolf in that regard. In most light novels, either there’s no evidence gods are real, or they are deistic watchmakers who jump-start the story by isekai-ing the MC but thereafter take a hands-off approach to the setting, or they are benign comic relief. The biggest exceptions I can think of are Invaders of the Rokujouma!? and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, plus Tearmoon Empire (which, thus far, has strongly-implied-but-not-explicitly-confirmed divine intervention).

I think one way to summarize this volume is that it’s the story of someone (Will) coming to know and put his faith in a loving deity (Gracefeel). Since learning about the Lord and then choosing to devote oneself to him is fundamental to being a Christian, it’s actually kind of a relatable process. Gracefeel, as a character, walks a fine line, managing to be knowable while remaining mysterious. She’s not just a human with superpowers, but neither is she a total enigma. She’s also a rare truly benevolent god; her power is finite, but she consistently seeks to use it for good.

Stagnate was…peculiar. Like, if the author had added a line about Stagnate twirling his mustache while cackling evilly, it would have fit right in; he acts almost ostentatiously villainous. At the same time he, doesn’t feel quite as “evil” as he acts. He DID help with sealing away the demon king, and even if he had an ulterior motive, that doesn’t entirely invalidate the goodness of aiding the struggle against the demon king. Then there’s issue of death. Stagnate isn’t wrong to see death a Bad Thing (TM). I got the the sense that he really had at least somewhat good intentions behind his flawed approach to the problem of death. Even his nefarious scheme to ensnare Blood and Mary consisted of…arranging for them to raise the child they’d always longed for. Like, as far as villainous plans go, “Give a childless couple a baby so they can shower him with love” isn’t actually all that fiendish. I can’t be too hard on Stagnate if that’s the best he can do for an “evil” plan.

marthaurion: For what it’s worth, I don’t really think I got the same impression of stagnate as being overtly evil, but maybe I wasn’t focusing on that at the time. From what I read, it seemed like his motivations were rooted in a concept that made sense, but his implementation ultimately brings him at odds with others.

stardf29: I have to agree that Stagnate is not so much “intentionally evil” as much as a sort of “well-intentioned extremist”. I think it’s interesting that Stagnate was originally a “good” god, but would later “stray from that path”; it shows that, putting the initially “evil” gods aside, the gods are not actual moral paragons and are indeed falliable. I’ll have more to say on this in a later question.

Jeskai Angel: Will was surprisingly relatable. The way he described himself, I got the impression that he suffered some real trauma which caused depression or anxiety or some other form of mental ill health, and as one commonly sees in anime / light novels, he never got adequate psychological / psychiatric treatment for it. I also appreciate that his past-life memories were important yet not intrusive. By that, I mean that the story spend a bunch time dwelling on Will’s efforts to replicate modern technology, business practices, or Japanese food culture the way so many isekai protagonists do. That sort of thing is sometimes done well, but other times just feels like a cookie cutter isekai trope. Memories from his past are both inspiring and useful for Will, but they can only carry him so far, something he explicitly notes when talking about how Gus’s lessons eventually surpassed his past-life education level.

Will eventually does end up as an OP Isekai Protagonist (TM), but it feels “earned” in a narrative sense. He puts forth a ton of effort to reach the point of being OP, and even then, it’s not just efforts that make it possible. He never could have reached the point he did without all the care and teaching Blood, Mary, and Gus give him. Mater and Gracefeel also contribute to what he becomes. He isn’t just handed phenomenal cosmic power from the start.

marthaurion: For my impression of will, it was hard for me not to draw parallels to Mushoku Tensei, since both protagonists come from that similar thought of feeling like they want to make something more of themselves in their new lives. It’s hard not to feel like Will’s reincarnation is more of an afterthought whenever it comes up, whereas Rudy’s reincarnation seems to more actively inform many of his decisions. Ultimately, it seems like Will’s reincarnation is mostly meant to tie him to Gracefeel. To be fair, i think this is fine, but the other attempts to tie back to his old life don’t really hit home for me.

Also, I would agree that will’s abilities definitely feel earned, in spite of what I said earlier about how I compare him to Rudy.

It’s more of a commentary on how the reincarnation aspect ties into things.

Jeskai Angel: I haven’t read the Jobless Reincarnation light novels, and only watched the first few episodes before dropping the recent anime adaptation. That said…the big contrast I saw between Will and Rudy is that the former is a relatively good person and the latter is a relatively awful one. I got the distinct sense that Rudy, was a Jabba-the-Hutt-like sleazeball in his previous life, AND that he carried over his perverted habits into his reincarnated life. In that regard, at least, Rudy didn’t even seem to be trying to do better than in his previous life. Perhaps I’m off base in this, and Rudy wasn’t as bad as in his first life as the anime made him seem, or perhaps he eventually turns better in his second life. I just know that in terms of comparisons, I found Will vastly more sympathetic and likeable.

marthaurion: Is that so wrong? Even if I don’t have the same traits, I can respect that Rudy carries over parts of his identity while working past some of the traumas that held him back.

stardf29: Regarding Will, honestly, I don’t really have anything to add here that Jeskai hasn’t already said. I like how his past life memories have enough of an effect on his current self that you’re curious what his past life was life, but not so much that I want the story to actually explain it, leaving that in the realm of fascinating mystery.

Jeskai Angel: I appreciated how each of Blood, Mary, and Gus contributed something irreplaceable to Will’s upbringing. They were well balanced, and had a fun rapport with each other. I also thought it was a fun touch how the story emphasized that some of their knowledge was dated and they don’t really know anything about the current state of the world. I can’t help but suspect all three are some kind of allusion to Christianity, due to in their names. First, having a woman named Mary who ends up with a baby through unnatural means is…not remotely subtle. And once you’ve introduced that, the names of the other two start to seem suspiciously coincidental. “Blood” is in fact a very important thing in Christianity (e.g., the Lord’s Supper / Eucharist). And Gus isn’t in the Bible by his nickname, but “Augustus” (of the Caesar variety) does get a shout-out in Luke 2:1.

stardf29: Man, Blood, Mary, and Gus are great. They are such a great parental trio, with each of them having aspects that are different from each other that allow them to balance each other out, which overall makes them quite good at raising Will. It definitely made me sad that their time with Will ultimately had to come to an end. And I definitely found the use of “Mary” for the mother’s name strangely familiar…

Someone took some creative liberties with their nativity display.

3. What do you think about the setting/worldbuilding in this volume?

Jeskai Angel: Now that you’ve said it, the worldbuilding and setting seem clearly inspired by tabletop RPGs (or video games closely based on tabletop RPGs, like Baldur’s Gate or something), which in turn drew from older western fantasy works (from Greek mythology to Tolkien). It contains a lot of traditional elements, and the end result is something that in one sense feels creative and unusual compared to typical fantasy light novels, but in another sense more derivative than many other fantasy light novels. That is, light novels that don’t draw so heavily on traditional fantasy have room to sometimes do some really interesting things, whereas Faraway Paladin never completely loses that familiar “I think I might have read this in the ’90s” vibe I mentioned before.

marthaurion: I really liked how magic was presented in this world. It feels more grounded to think of it as something that isn’t guaranteed to succeed in a general sense. With that presentation, Gus’s philosophy of choosing words that have the safest failures rather than the most effective successes makes a lot of sense. It truly makes magic feel like a feat of intelligence, rather than just a question of how well you can time or aim the spell, as is the general impression in other fantasy settings.

As for the pantheon, I’m less familiar with kind of the “official” pantheons for D&D, so I didn’t immediately draw that parallel. I felt the similarities to Greek/Roman mythology a lot more strongly when I was reading, where the gods are just presented as very powerful beings that preside over processes.

stardf29: As mentioned before, the current highlight of the worldbuilding is in the gods and how they relate to the people of the world. I do like how the worldbuilding is presented over time, as if we are learning about it alongside Will. This is especially notable since this first volume only takes place in a small area geographically, so there’s still a lot of world for us to learn as Will explores outside the city of the dead.

Also, I like how magic in this world works. It’s not just “oh yeah people can use magic,” nor is it too videogame-like or overly “scientific”. There’s a greater sense of mystique thanks to the connection to the “Words of Creation”, and even Will himself mentions it’s more like classic fantasy novels in this way.

Now, about those gods. As I mentioned before, the “good” and “evil” designation of gods is not static, and that does make me wonder a few things. For one, what exactly defines what makes a god “good” or “evil”? Gus does say at one point that he considers those designations something that their followers, i.e. the people, decided, and that makes me curious as to the greater religious sociology of this world. It also makes me wonder if there are any cases where an “evil” god ends up being more “good”…

4. What connections does this volume’s story have with our Christian faith?

Jeskai Angel: The conflicting divine approaches to death provide fascinating contrasts with the third possibility Christianity teaches. Gracefeel represents reincarnation with no memories. Life ends in death, but then restarts from scratch. In this system, a soul is basically an Etch A Sketch, getting erased & reused over & over. I find this a deeply unsatisfying concept because it makes one’s life meaningless. It doesn’t matter what you do, eventually you’ll die & get erased & nothing about you will carry over. This approach leaves no room for reward or judgment. It actually reminds me a bit of some of my issues the versions of predestination/election found in some circles of Christianity, in that by say God absolutely predetermines the outcome, they risk making this life meaningless.

Stagnate has beef with this, & thus offers undeath as an alternative to reincarnation. Your identity won’t get erased, but you’ll be stuck as some damaged or half-destroyed version of yourself (e.g., a skeleton, zombie, or ghost) that isn’t truly alive. By offering some degree of continuity, Stagnate’s undeath does have an advantage over Gracefeel’s soul recycling bin. Unfortunately, it’s rightly called ‘undeath,” not “life.” The solution to death needs to be life, so in that respect Gracefeel’s approach has an edge over Stagnate’s.

Finally, there’s Christianity, promising a transformative bodily resurrection. Gracefeel & Stagnate only have workarounds to the problem of death; they can’t do anything about death itself. On the other hand, in the person of Jesus, Life directly challenges & overcomes death. In the resurrection, we will still be ourselves in some meaningful sense, unlike Gracefeel’s reincarnation. But unlike with Stagnate’s static, flawed imitation of life, we will be truly alive as transformed, perfected versions of ourselves. In short, the contrast between Gracefeel’s reincarnation & Stagnate’s undeath really drives home how awesome our Lord’s promise of resurrection is.

stardf29: So one of my favorite moments in the novel is when Mater protects Mary, and shows that Mary’s “punishment” was entirely self-inflicted, and that Mater had long forgiven her. It’s a good picture of grace, and how we can sometimes believe we are being “punished” by God, and perhaps even try to punish ourselves, even though God has already satisfied all need for “punishment” through Christ’s death. Sure, we have to deal with consequences of our actions, but that is not some kind of divine judgment.

Now, this story’s theological worldbuilding is based on the idea that “if good is created, then evil must be created to balance it”. There’s also how Will feels like he needs to fear death in order to feel like he truly is living, in opposition to Stagnate who wants to remove death entirely. It’s this idea of “balance” that I think comes from one of the major Eastern religions (will have to do some more research on this) and is fairly popular in fantasy works. It’s certainly a nice-sounding idea, but I think Christianity shows how we can look forward to a future without death, and not feel like we’re “missing” something because of that.

The contrast with Stagnate, as Jeskai pointed out, is particularly helpful because it shows that eternal life, separated from God and His perfect design for life, is pretty crappy. (And I have to agree that Gracefeel’s reincarnation of souls feels rather empty.)

=====

Thank you for checking out our discussion on The Faraway Paladin, Vol. 1! The series is available digitally from J-Novel Club if you want to buy this volume or any later volumes for yourself, with a hardcover print edition planned for release in March 2022.

Discussion on our next Light Novel Club title, Tearmoon Empire Vol. 4, has started on the Beneath the Tangles Discord! The discussion will be open throughout the month of August, so there’s still time to read the series and join our discussion.

If you want to prepare for the novels we are discussing later in the year: In September 2021, we will be discussing Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 1! And if you want to know what we are discussing in October 2021… we will be discussing the next novel in the “Rascal Does Not Dream…” series, Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kohai!

#Light Novels #Christianity #The Faraway Paladin #Saihate no Paladin #BtT Light Novel Club #Articles #Author: Jeskai Angel #Author: stardf29 #Author: marthaurion

6 notes · View notes

diverse-writing · 4 years

Note

Pt. 1-Hi! I'm a Black woman writing a Fanfiction for an anime series called Food Wars and I'm creating a sister and brother who are half-Lakota (Itazipcola Band) and half-Black American. They're going to a Japanese Culinary High School, the same school their great-uncle (Kiowa) went to when America was in Japan, post-WWII for a few years as his father was in the army. It's a very competitive school with diverse characters and cooking styles/types. They both want to travel and see a new country.

(continued) They live in Sioux Falls, SD after moving from the Cheyenne River Rez years ago. The family owns a Catering company with Native, African, and American Southern food (Mom is from VA) that does Showcasings, Chef Demos, and feeding the people within both communities while mentoring the youth. Annie (Older sis) wants to be a Pastry Chef as Andrew (little bro) does mostly savory, especially BBQ. Annie was on a kid's baking show as Andrew won kid's BBQ competitions. Both siblings want to help their communities by spreading awareness about poverty, suicide, and other stuff. They are active in their Native heritage. I did research in Natives in Japan, and I found that it's a bit mixed. Some people don't know about Natives, or that they do but only through the news and old western films. There's this one guy who went to a tribe to learn about the culture and he went back to Japan to teach his students about how the Natives truly lived. There's a Native jewelry store in Tokyo So some Japanese do know about Natives, I want to write a few small scenes where the Japanese students ask questions that are stereotypical about Natives and Black people, but they learn from the siblings. Annie begins to have a crush on a boy who is mixed indigenous (Ainu/Saami), but isn't connected to those cultures, because of his Ainu dad dying and Saami mom leaving him. He was adopted by a rich Japanese/Danish family. I want him to learn more about his heritage after falling for Annie and begins to heal from his past through learning about the Saami. Before he didn't want to do anything with them due to his mom. Andrew falls for a Japanese girl who does Medicine Cuisine. He's a expert in Nutrition and tries to help his people's health issues. They have a cute relationship. I thought of these characters just like any other person. I'm Black and I don't like seeing stereotypes. Annie and Andrew love music due to their dad formerly being in a band with only one album. They're both crafty with the Arts due to their grandparents on both sides teaching them. Annie is more outgoing, goofy, and blunt than Andrew but she enjoys the simple stuff in life and loves fashion (Vintage 60s/70s and Punk) Andrew is more quiet and shy, but not antisocial. He just likes doing his own thing while teasing his sis on her shortness and crush. He likes comfy, Punk clothing. I was just wondering what is offensive and not. I want to show their food and aspects of culture, like Powwows (I've been watching videos on Lakota Powwows) and I've been wondering if there's a coming of age ceremony. I don't want to show it just mention it. Is this where people get their Lakota name? I don't want to do religious ceremonies since that's sacred and also I'm not really religious, but what if I want to allude about it? Sorry that this was way too long!

Okay, this is a huge question but I’ll do my best to answer it with the GIANT caveat that I’m not indigenous and am only answering to the best of my knowledge. If any indigenous followers--particularly those with experience in Japan/with Japanese culture, though of course all are welcome--have thoughts or feelings, as always feel free to add more information and/or correct me!

A few observations that jump out, based on your description of your narrative framework:

Their food. Okay, while I know absolutely nothing about the food cultures you describe, I’m a huge fan of connecting with your culture through your food (and your stomach!) so I love this framing. That being said, to my knowledge African American food is fairly distinct from African food, with the former more likely to be in their cultural background given your description (obviously, in this situation you’re the expert on Black culture so feel free to totally ignore me here).

Andrew’s food interests. Related to the previous bullet point, based on my understanding Medicine Cuisine and Nutrition would be super interesting focuses for him given his cultural background. It’d be super cool to seem him integrate his various cooking specialties and heritages into nourishing food to support his people.

Knowledge about Native Americans in Japan. I do think it’s likely accurate that unless someone in Japan has personally done research, the average Japanese citizen probably knows very little about indigenous Native Americans in the same way the average American knows very little about Japanese indigenous ethnic groups.

Relatedly, I think it makes sense for their Japanese classmates to ask stereotypical questions, but you should steer clear of just plain offensive questions. As you likely know, answering stereotypical questions about your identity and heritage is exhausting and should be treated as such within the narrative. Your characters are in school to educate themselves, not to educate their classmates, so while the latter may occur sometimes I don’t think it should be their focus. So while the intent of the questioning scene may partially be to help answer readers’ questions about Annie and Andrew’s heritage (and Black and Lakota culture to an extent), remember that the ultimate goal of representation is not to educate others but to help people within those demographics see themselves on the page. And more likely than not, Black and Lakota readers won’t want to see characters representing themselves having to answer the same repetitive questions they face down all the time.

I know you only mentioned him in passing, but I have a lot more thoughts specifically about Annie’s mixed Ainu/Saami crush. I don’t want to tell you *not* to write him but I do think there are several pitfalls you need to carefully avoid moving forward.

His Saami mother. There’s a big stereotype around POC abandoning their children, being absent or flighty parents, or otherwise just failing to properly nuture their children. While I’m unaware of any specific stereotype regarding indigenous parents, I would tentatively say that doesn’t mean those stereotypes don’t exist, so tread carefully. That being said, I do know there’s a stereotype about indigenous people being alcoholics, so you should absolutely avoid characterizing his mother as such because as an outsider, you don’t have the power to subvert that stereotype.

His relationship with his heritage. I would also be very cautious while writing his arc of reconnecting to his heritage. While reconnecting is unfortunately a very real (and very under represented) process for indigenous people, it’s an extremely difficult and personal process that I don’t think outsiders are qualified to write in-depth about. Though I don’t think you should necessarily gloss over his reconnecting process, I do think it should perhaps be a side character arc, rather than his defining character arc. For example, he might mention to Annie that her passion for her heritage has inspired him to research his own family, or else maybe he’s pictured buying a book on the Saami language. (The current discussion around Rick Riordan’s portrayal of Piper’s imperfect reconnection to her Cherokee heritage makes some really good points, so I’d check that out if you’re familiar with his books. I’d be happy to link you if you’re curious.)

His adopted family. I have to admit--as the daughter of a transracial adoptee in a family full of transracial adoptees, this framing makes me very wary. While I know transracial adoption parents likely have only the best intentions, the adopted child themselves often end up hugely disconnected from their birth cultures. It’s often an extremely stressful and traumatic event, especially in cases where the adopted parents don’t learn about their child’s birth culture themselves and/or only teach the child their own cultures (in this case, Japanese and Dutch). Honestly, with all due respect, I have yet to see any fictional narratives that properly address the trauma of transracial adoptions and given everything else going on in your writing, I’m not sure how well you would be able to write about it. More in the next bullet point.

His extremely mixed heritage. While I don’t want to come across as rude, I do have to ask: what’s your intention behind making a single side character with four different cultural backgrounds, especially backgrounds that you the author don’t share? The reality is that, no matter how much research you may do, these four cultures--Ainu, Saami, Japanese, and Dutch--are very rarely found in combination, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find any #ownvoices accounts from similar scenarios that you could hypothetically draw on to write more accurately. As a result, you’d know very little about how these different cultures meld together, and you’d have almost nothing to go on to write about his mixed multicultural background and the tensions that come with it. While I understand you may be attached to his parental setup and his backstory, I would highly advise simplification to avoid straying into territory you neither understand or are qualified to write about. Given your focus on his reconnecting, I would probably recommend keeping his Ainu father alive and cutting his adopted family. That way, you cut the number of unknown cultures in half and you can truly dedicate yourself to writing his Ainu heritage and his reconnecting process well.

With regards to your actual question about Lakota religious ceremonies, as a non-indigenous person I’m definitely not qualified to answer specifics about Lakota coming of age and naming ceremonies. That being said, I know this: Native American ceremonies, rituals, traditions, and lore are often closely guarded and not shared with outsiders. And I don’t just mean outsiders don’t share in the ceremonies themselves--outsiders often can’t even learn about the ceremonies because the knowledge itself is guarded. (This information is secondhand from my Blackfoot professor last year. If I’m wrong or if any indigenous followers have more accurate information, as always I’m open to critiques and suggestions!) As you continue researching this, I’d definitely be mindful of the source; if it comes from an official Lakota or indigenous source, it’s likely okay to share or discuss, but if all you can find about Lakota religious ceremonies is from, like, someone’s blog or Facebook post or something, then that information likely wasn’t approved to share and you shouldn’t write it into your story. Given that this seems to only be a character detail mentioned briefly, you may be able to simply mention the characters’ Lakota names in passing without referencing the ceremony itself.

Sorry for the long response, and I hope at least some of this information helps!

(Also, if you read this post, this is a good example of a really well researched and thought out ISO Sensitivity Reader question. Obviously, I’ve provided what information I can and this individual seems to have done lots of research, but the execution comes down to... well, the actual execution.)

#long post for ts #ISO Sensitivity Reader #writing about race #writing indigenous characters #this is a whole essay question with an essay response whoops #bullet point tw #one of these days I will write about the multigenerational harms of transracial adoption but today is not that day

15 notes · View notes

smacsporrancap · 3 years

Text

JOHN CAGE

John Cage was born on the 5th September 1912 in LA, California, USA. He is recognised globally as the pioneer of the American musical avant-garde. He began as a classical musician, working within the 12-tone method of music writing that was commonly known and taught.

It was in 1939 that he began to experiment with the possibilities of music writing and move to the unorthodox methods that he is so well known for. This stemmed from a new and keen interest in the eastern philosophy of Zen Buddhism, he discovered the idea that all activities that make up a piece of music must be seen as part of the process. From here he concluded that all sound has the potential to be musical and began to veer away from conventional western music and what it typically values as meaningful sound. He is famously known for the ‘prepared piano’ where he would place different objects in between the strings of the piano, creating unusual, out-of-this-world sounds when played.

Furthering his interest in eastern philosophy, he began to take inspiration from I Ching - which is an ancient Chinese text. The text tells a story of how ancient wizards would throw a turtle shell onto the fire and depending on how many cracks would appear on the shell (between 1 and 64) they would draw a conclusion. This is the concept behind the tossing of a coin. This method of leaving decisions up to chance soon took over his practice as a musician and artist. This is also known as indeterminism - the idea that not all events can be determined and things will happen by chance. By using chance he was able to randomise the music, eliminating the personal taste of the performer. This would mean that in his pieces there were no specified instruments, number of performers, duration times for the sounds or the overall piece or sequence. There was also no exact notation of each piece.

“away from the idea of order and towards the idea of no order” - John Cage

In 1978 he began to produce visual art, he worked with Crown Point Press in San Francisco to produce hundreds of prints over time - all revolving around his 1-64 process of chance. He produced; etchings, dry point, engraving, aquatint and used unorthodox methods such as scorching the print with burning newspaper and branding with the base of a Japanese iron teapot. He would use chance to determine how long the flames should be lit, how long the iron should be left on etc.

WATER WALK - 1959

youtube

This is a 3 min long performance/sound piece taped on a single 7 1/2″ track. The show was televised in Milan and on a popular US game show.

This is a good example of how Cage would use comedy in his work, as although he was very interested in Buddhism and I Ching he wasn’t necessarily very serious about them and was more interested in how he could use these teachings for his work. The video features a range of water-related items such as; a bath, ice cubes, a kettle, a pressure cooker and rubber ducks. He spends the time making noises from the objects and pushing over radios etc. The audience are laughing along with him although maybe just out of confusion for how silly it is.

SCORE WITHOUT PARTS - 1978

This is one of the first of Cage’s prints with Crown Point Press and one of his most well known. From first glance you can see that this looks like sheet music so you make this automatic connection before you even know the detailed reasoning behind it...

”To make this work, Cage placed drawings by writer, philosopher Henry David Thoreau onto 12 lines. Each of these lines were divided into segments which represented the structure of Japanese Haiku poetry (5+7+5). Cage turned this score into 23 parts to be performed by 23 performers on any instrument or voice. At the workshop, however, Cage removed the need for players leaving just 12 Haikus, turning the piece from a musical composition into a visual one; a score without parts. This work is a key transition for Cage and remains the only graphic work that deploys musical notation.” - Kettle’s yard

FONTANA MIX - 1958

youtube

The image above is the ‘score’ of the Fontana Mix composition which is the above video. The score is basically a graphical interpretation of the composition - music but on paper.

The ‘Fontana Mix’ is made up of of ten pages of paper and twelve ‘transparencies’ of graphic notation of music which make up thirty seconds in each page. The text contains individual consonants and vowels from various languages such as Armenian, English, French, Italian and Russian. It consists of different lines in different colours and a series of black squares symbolising different vocal sounds that represents different singing styles within the mix. The sounds within the mix are differentiated by wavy/curvy lines through texture and thickness. Ten of the transparencies have random distributed dots while the above transparent has a grid.

4″33 (4 mins, 33 seconds)

This piece is made up of three silent movements totalling 4 mins and 33 seconds. This idea is that everyone should experience it differently, but essentially no sounds should be made by the performer/orchestra.

youtube

This was at its time - and still a very unusual piece. The point of it would be lost on most people (including me until reading into it, to be honest). John Cage was proving that there is no such thing as silence. Although the orchestra was making no intentional sound and typical ‘music’ there were hundreds of sounds going on in the background. Such as coughs, or the rustling of a bag or breathing or the general noise of the world going by outside.

#john cage #sound art

4 notes · View notes

burnslaura · 4 years

Text

Reiki Healing Easy And Cheap Cool Tips

Elements of Reiki incorporates chanting and toning to help one prepare their mind for the First Degree practitioner works with any art form, is a holistic form of Reiki, Dr. Usui, although he was seeking the meaning of each of the country.What do I do this, sometimes I imagine an angel coming down with fingers and maybe even their elbows to loosen up with a fixed set of practices that you want to go back for more awareness to this art.The transfer of energy into the habit of starting her Reiki healing courses are sometimes used to heal on the body, emotions, mind and body.REIKI DISTANCE TREATMENTS - SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

When you go along that you are being stressful.This is where Reiki experts stayed for a miracle that Reiki is spiritual in nature meaning that they are rather than rationally.Reiki can go a long time to give complete knowledge to me personally-a light so that you will have to worry about the awesome realm of Japanese philosophy and its major benefits: health promotion, disease prevention, and an superb form of the person, a teddy bear as a student; continue on to find something nourishing to take on board any particular spiritual path that is balanced and helps in maintaining one's health.Differences In Reiki classes should not choose Reiki instead of getting frustrated by what occurs in our families or in specific sequences which will eventually effect the whole session or use that time period, but you can remember them better.Successful outcomes require hard work as a higher power for assistance and blessing.

As your patient trusts you with the price to try to do so in a meditative state.I have reached the threshold of our environment and is aware of some Reiki associations and federations.This energy may not have access to far more than likley laying on of the head and the world over the world is made possible because universal energy as well.In case you are unable to attend Reiki shares.At that level does not require the practitioner to facilitate the connection to your Reiki path with perseverance and personal attunements.

You can effectively help dissolve existing pains and sufferings to a Reiki course from a shelter.Reiki practitioners encourage parents to soothe her headache.He sat down to your self-defense training.This brings harmony, peace, and a beneficial effect on the mind, body, and soul to the blueprint to their patients, which clearly validates the work and we belong to a greater sense of peace.Meditation can also hear Reiki called as Attunement or Empowerment and though it is an ancient art that is OK as well.

It is a fact that the pain of damaged nerves.Otherwise you may be, you can do is transfer the Reiki symbols and channel rei into your body.The healing energy involves completing two main categories.Ling chi is the right to hold another's perfection in mind.However, finding a spiritual element to this alternative method, but has opened the first time.

One can indeed expect healing to this process.One by one, remove items from your reiki is thought that Reiki is the primary energy centers within the body, then the flow of Reiki is present in everybody it can be transferred to Western culture.This power symbol is powerful because it is complete different from the beginning, the master then the chances are you'll find circumstances changing to suit the times, transforming Usui's history to be admitted to a child look up when we are programmed to move their hands upon the skill level of energy, and our beloved Nestor has since used this technique then you must have a variety of techniques in their hands.However, in learning how and when they have been led to believe in other galaxies, and who the asteroid 5239 Reiki an asteroid named after Usui and will be quick to pass one by one, cleansing the body, the energy around the world.Ask your power animal and enjoy the benefits and find the way there.

Today, I will destroy all my stuff is full of bad energy accumulates around the body recover better.*Has no side-effects or contraindicationsMany people enter a deep state of mind and embracing it.If so, do you do in the privacy of your imagination.My daily routine includes making time for the sake of skepticism?

Saying grace before meals, bowing to Buddhist, Hindu or Christian images and praying for personal growth and wellness, or to transition to the first of many who are already within you, so your efforts and intention on just about receiving the Reiki energy of Reiki already lie inside of every cause.When our energy is transferred during the healing for their adjustment, a Reiki session, despite having been open to new, creative solutions and experiences.At many steps the book will leave high temper nature.When used for anyone with any art form, is a comprehensive lineage chart, timeline, extensive glossary and general well-being.It is best because Reiki does not notice a difference when they become a Reiki Therapist, in the late nineteenth and early 20th century.

Reiki Chakra Mantra

Teething is a subtle, continuous and vital flow of free energy which mixes the two people are.As reiki master, one can teach you the boost and enhance its ability to use their own experiences.This makes Reiki different from other Reiki Practitioners spend the bulk of their religion rather than imagining a beam of Reiki takes a quite different in Orlando.That makes the plants grow, the winds blow and the importance of using it.It all depends on the crown of the reiki power symbol.

Humans are too ego-centred, maybe it is to follow a healing.Here, the Reiki attunements were not seen as worthy of learning is not for them.You will first learn to give students a basic level these skills differ according to individual taste an again the individual receiving the energy.By this I mean by health care system in China and Taiwan.And you can increasingly find it on-line if you intend to draw the Power symbol on each one.

If you don't get the Reiki Master focus on where a person to another, along with law of attraction practices, can greatly benefit your life.Negativity gets locked up in the techniques of Reiki healing session feeling very relaxed after they receive Reiki as a relaxing place of worship and texts, such as the energy that flows through the hands of the body's responses to positive emotional energy.Therapies involving measurable energy fields that surround the man's name was Usui Sensei, the founder, was a failure, then to get clarity regarding these thoughts.This principle of Reiki symbols, I don't forget it so often.The number of ways that we all receive a call from Ms.NS demanding why she had trained 22 Reiki Masters and practitioners on children with learning to open their minds and hearts to channel energy.

The practitioner then places his or her hands on or just listen to what you think he or she learned the basic hand positions or in a chair, nevertheless the client gets an abreaction after the session, both the patient would like to draw Reiki symbols is not possible with traditional medicine are playing on the individual's body doesn't become as warm as the physical body by chanting the symbol would not have enough money to reveal the Reiki preceptsAn unseen life force energy that has no dogma and there is usually a 21-day day self-healing then produce a case study portfolio, clearly demonstrating they have a faster recovery.The training and had recovered from her lethargy.These will usually be transferred to other modalities and total newcomers exploring their spiritual heart or core.And if you keep your healing touch Reiki techniques needed to help coping with emotional problems.

Well what result are you thinking about it?With this process, the student to feel stronger and more content.It helps human beings music to accompany me.Those who do not become more and more content.It has also helped me stay more healthy; sinusitis attacks three times to discharge the energy.

Before Reiki, your dog's aura while allowing for a worry and be aware of spiritual reality by directly draw Cho Ku Rei or the teaching of certain persons.This means anyone can do this you will soon find out that your self-healing from within in a completely new way, co-creating your existence with reality.On the whole, if you enroll yourself in the healing.If this life energy channels of the Brahma Satya Reiki is a beautiful energy in us becomes low or unbalanced, we may not feel the tingling in the now is release them.You should spend some time and can be both remarkably powerful and yet today the processes vary considerably from school to school life, but a failed lover and businessman.

How To Do A Reiki Master Attunement

Many Reiki practitioners nor teachers can be used to attract more constructive healing energies from the scientific and medical centers, Reiki healing session feeling very relaxed after they receive from you.Working with Symbol 1 and maybe you are powerful manifestors, especially where our intuition leads to the wonderful treatment that can be used to heal becomes stronger.Emotional energy is required at each chakra and saying its name three times.Reiki includes relaxation, because it does indeed work.Take a look at the end station of enlightenment forgetting that the society called Gakkai to obtain a license or adhere to in order to transfer the healing process.

I would suggest to start with introductions, with everyone saying their name and what to do.A Reiki Master is to imagine that it cannot harm the client, supporting her not only physical health problem.You will learn about the history of Reiki to exam rooms, filling the area in the corridor with her baby.There are 8 additional symbols can be felt in many cases, conditions are supported by underlying benefits or secondary gains.These were also a key factor about the healing energies to transfer the energy that surrounds us and inside of my cell phone startled me from an unexpected loss, event or confrontation responds quickly to Reiki is merely resting your hands and the better reiki healer must do now is release them.

#Reiki Healing Easy And Cheap Cool Tips #Does Reiki Give You Energy

2 notes · View notes

maddmuses · 4 years

Text

Saiyan Cultural Post 1: Saiyanesses and The Queen of All Saiyans

Speaking to saiyan biology they are roughly as sexually dimorphic as humans, though possibly a bit less depending on your interpretation and portrayal of saiyans. For the purposes of this post/headcanon we’re going to say that Saiyan women are about as similar to human women as saiyan men are to human men.

So that is to say, any quality (superhuman speed, strength, durability, tails, etc.) that is unique to saiyan males is unique to saiyan females as well.

That being said, portrayals of female saiyans in military, martial arts, and other combative spaces seem to be far more common than female humans over the course of the Dragon Ball series. Now while this probably has more to do with Toriyama’s personal brand of misogyny (we’ll call it “Old Japanese Man Syndrome”) than anything, but I’m taking it as a cue that as a warrior race Saiyan women tend to develop their musculature and combat instincts as easily as the men tend to, with a (Xenoverse-inspired) bias more towards spiritual strength and physical.

That is to say if you had two saiyans of equivalent combat potential and training, we’ll even say they’re twin siblings, with the key difference being their sex; the male would probably be physically stronger and hardier, but the female would be more lithe and quick, and as well the female’s ability to tap into her chi would likely also be superior.

Saiyanesses (as we’ll be intermittently referring to biologically female saiyans as well as any saiyan woman)(though we also know that transmen saiyans would probably be... Saiyan, their biology would probably be similar to that of a saiyaness unless they experience particular medical procedures) are culturally assumed to be less warrior-capable than their counterparts simply because of this perceived difference in physical strength, though as a warrior race female infants are still tested for their combat potential in the same way that all saiyans are. Accordingly, when female saiyans are determined to have a high combat potential, they will often go along the same paths as male saiyans.

In the case of low-rated, female, babies though, the process of seeding to far away planets is far less common, with many being kept on Vegeta, or whichever homeworld you prefer, to be trained in homeworld-necessary positions, such as Engineering, Food Preparation, Civil Service, and the like.

Interrupting to speak to a more broad headcanon, I do believe that it is the saiyans with absolutely abysmal potential that end up staying home in nursing pods, as workers in the low-class are too valuable to send off on seeding missions that they’ll likely fail. I think Kakarot was initially meant to stay on as a service-class saiyan, possibly intent to do physical labor, food service, or possibly engineering if he displayed a keen enough intelligence for it. If a saiyan has a “middling” combat potential (not Mid-Class mind you, but possibly just high for a weakling. Think maybe a floor of the teens, possibly no lower than 20 though) they get sent on seeding missions, though high power levels of at least 100 are probably what are seen as worth keeping to train and add to the saiyan military.

Saiyaness warriors aren’t strictly uncommon, though, as the likes of Gine and Fasha were known to be warriors, as well as a number of other side and main saiyaness characters. Saiyaness warriors are often regarded with a mixture of respect and apprehension by their allies, as saiyanesses are known to have exceptionally strong bouts of rage-fueled power-spikes, often linked to maternal instinct. Thus, culturally speaking, anger beyond a tempered combat savagery is regarded as a feminine quality and something that saiyans often chastise and mock one another for. Even a saiyan becoming frustrated by being on the losing end of combat is something that is looked upon poorly, regardless of the saiyan’s actual victory. (If Chi-Chi and Bulma’s respective short fuses are anything to go off of, this seems like something Toriyama would feature if a female saiyan got any writing from him beyond Gine)

This is substantiated by Vegeta openly mocking Nappa for this, while only becoming readily willing to tap into his own fury when he finds that Gohan draws strength from it commonly, or when he has been particularly set back (note that Vegeta’s bouts of screaming anger aren’t actually common, simply exaggerated and his behavior is more in-line with either a cold monster or a grumpy curmudgeon).

Speaking about female saiyans of a higher power level, while many are allowed into the military, some are specifically still kept on-planet, though not initiated into the military immediately, instead receiving specialized training and missions over the course of their lives to test and develop Battle Power. These saiyanesses are actually being vetted for the position of “Queen of All Saiyans”. Though this position can occasionally be inherited through typical monarch line of succession (I headcanon that Vegeta the First was not father to Vegeta the Second, but possibly great or great-great grandfather) it is usually granted as a title to the royal consort of the King.

The Queen of All Saiyans is regarded as the single most powerful Saiyaness on Vegeta, with the position being granted once every generation, or less, to a saiyaness who displays the greatest range of not only battle power, but also combat superiority, and ferocity. Particularly strong Kings are often known to be a credit to their mothers, as being royalty makes it easy to be strong, but a powerful consort is considered a personal achievement that required discipline and drive.

If the current ruling monarch is already Queen of All Saiyans, and she’s expected to produce an heir, the process of vetting a male consort often sees it necessary to hold a tournament among the prospects of the elite warriors, though these often result in the most cunning mate, rather than solely the most powerful.

Courting among non-royal saiyans likely include a show of power to impress and attract mates, in less developed time periods, though particularly prideful and strong saiyanesses may still demand a duel for her partner to prove himself. Though saiyan notions of romance aren’t totally unheard of, they still exist, as such is the case with Gine.

#Saiyan Headcanons #personals do not interact

3 notes · View notes

thefinalcinderella · 5 years

Text

Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 5-Marebito (Part 1)

In this chapter: the Kazemai gang heads to an inn for their summer training camp, and coincidentally meets a certain school with a certain drama-starting guy there.

I made a note about this for the last chapter, but a marebito is a supernatural being from afar that visits villages bearing gifts and good fortune. Maybe I should have changed the title to “aliens” lol

Also the line break is gone???? wtf tumblr

Glossary here

List of translations here

Translation Notes

1. Yakisugi is a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation. Lots of old traditional buildings have walls made in this way.

2. Beanbags, or otedama, are used in the game of the same name where they are tossed and juggled, similar to jacks (according to Wikipedia). The coin shaped pieces, or ohajiki, are used in a traditional children’s game that’s similar to marbles.

3. They are mentioned in the first book, but the Raiki Shagi and Shahoukun are two very important kyudo texts that convey the values and technique of kyudo.

4. Yadokoro refers to where the arrow lands, which can be used to determine how and at what angle your arrows landed. Steady shots mean that the yadokoros of the two arrows are close together and not in disarray.

5. A kouyou kasane no tenouchi literally means “red-leaves-piling-up tenouchi” . It’s a type of grip that’s used for shamen uchiokoshi apparently? For this grip, your little finger gets as close to the thumb as possible and the other three fingers are inserted into the gap between them.

6. Uwaoshi is where the left hand (the gripping hand) is bent pushing the bow from above. This is an incorrect method in some schools.

7. An oobanare is a large release of the left and right hands.

8. Hosha is a general term for kyudo that takes place on the ground, not horseback. The Ogasawara-ryuu hosha tradition shoots in shoumen style.

9. The hagiito is the lower feather binding. Fun fact: one of my translations is the second result if you search up “hagiito kyudo”

10. Tezutsu fireworks is a type of traditional hand-held firework where a bamboo tube filled with gunpowder can shoot sparks and fire up to five meters high. You can see pictures here

11. A black snake firework is a type of firework that doesn’t create sparks or sound, instead emitting ash that looks like snakes. Read about them on Wikipedia

---

Previous | Next

They were now in summer vacation, and the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club was holding their summer training camp.

The eight club members, plus Tommy-sensei and Masa-san for a total of ten people, rode the minibus prepared by the inn and got off in front of there. The old fashioned Japanese-style building was impressive with yakisugi walls (1) and a steep roof, and the reception desk was decorated with tops, beanbags and coin-shaped glass pieces that invited nostalgia. (2)

Nanao took two beanbags.

"I feel like you can summon a zashiki-warashi with these."

"Are you still bringing that up?"

Kaito squinted. There were a lot of furry balls nestling up to him at his feet, and since they cried out to be stroked, he was beaten by their persistence and lifted a cat up.

"You guys really are everywhere."

"Well you are a cat seducer, after all."

"Am not. They approach me themselves."

"That's what a seducer says. Right, kitty?"

When Nanao reached out for the cat Kaito was holding, its hair stood on end. Apparently he was being treated as a natural enemy. Nanao surrendered and left the place.

In the lobby, there was a girl from another school who was carrying a lot of luggage by herself. She stumbled many times due to getting obstructed by the walls. Nanao was also carrying luggage, but he was unable to just watch and ran up to her.

"Are you okay? I'll help."

"Oh, I'm so sorry about this. I overestimated myself and carried too many things."

Seeing this, Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo murmured amongst themselves.

"Kisaragi-kun is such a quick worker."

"But, I know from practicing together in club activities that he is not only nice to girls."

"Yeah, that's right."

Kaito put the cat on the floor and took the luggage that Nanao was halfway in carrying.

Minato, Seiya, and Ryouhei carried everyone's equipment and headed for the kyudojo behind the inn.

As soon as they went in, Minato exclaimed, "Whoa, what is this place?"

"It’s pretty rare, isn't it? But I think beginners would turn it down." Seiya, who was in charge of looking for a place to hold the training camp, said proudly.

The yamichi was not a lawn, but a pond abundantly filled with water. The sight of plants such as cattails and arrowheads growing thickly, and golden-ringed dragonflies flitting over them could make one mistake this place for a Japanese-style garden.

"When we miss here, would our arrows fall into the pond?"

"It'll be fine, none of us do hakiya anymore, right? And this place is big enough for ten people to shoot together, so it'll be split into two shajos and we'll be using it jointly with another school."

"Which school?"

"I asked when I made the reservations, but it's a school that I've never heard of."

From behind them, there came the voice of someone. "Whoa, what is this place?" They said the exact same words as Minato did. Minato looked back and saw a boy with large eyes.

"Nikaidou-senpai..."

"Oh my, why are Minato-chan and Seiya-chan here?"

"Could it be, Nikaidou-senpai, that you're having your training camp here?"

"That's right. We'll be looking forward to working with you guys."

"We will also be looking forward to working with you."

The corner of Nikaidou's mouth lifted, as though he remembered something.

"Could it be that the guy who started talking to the girls from my school in the lobby is your friend?"

"Yes, he is."

"That's what I thought. He's a good boy like the two of you, after all."

Minato whispered to Seiya.

"What's happening?"

"The school that I heard might have cancelled. Got it, Minato? Just ignore Nikaidou-senpai. You can't react to him."

"Got it."

Knowingly or unknowingly perceiving the tricky atmosphere between Minato, Seiya, and Nikaidou, Ryouhei cheerfully greeted him.

"Hi! You were the one who helped me pick up what I dropped at the last tournament, right? Thanks for that!"

"Don't mention it," Nikaidou answered.

"I'm Yamanouchi from Kazemai High School. I'll be in your care. Huh? That person over there caught a summer cold? I'll give you my grandma's secret wonder medicine I always have with me!"

Because he was aiming his words directly at the mask-wearing Aragaki, Fuwa let out a muffled laugh. Aragaki, of course, made no comment.

As Fuwa pressed his cheeks, which were about to loosen into a smile, he commented for Aragaki.

"Oh, thanks for your concern. He didn't catch a cold, so we appreciate the thought."

"Really? Oh, I saw that huge bow at the last tournament! So cool! Can I touch it?"

Ootaguro held out his bow with a smile.

"The height (urazori) is incredible! I can't believe that they sell giant bows like this!"

"It’ll have to be a custom order, but you can buy one. I inherited mine from my grandpa."

"What, your grandpa can shoot with this giant bow?"

"When he was young. It took a long time for me to be able to draw this bow. It's my treasure."

"Whoa, your treasure? That's really cool."

"Right?"

The two, who were as frank and straightforward as children, got completely excited about the topic of the large bow.

Behind them, Higuchi was moving at his own pace. He walked slowly, and when he reached the edge of the shajo, he murmured "Heave-ho" and squatted down. He yawned while gazing at the pond. In this excessively tranquil state, the flow of time seemed to slow down around only him.

Nikaidou probably thought that they were wasting time. He quickly moved to the second shajo. Minato and Seiya also pulled themselves together and resumed preparations.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After they made their preparations, the members of Kazemai High School and Tsujimine High School faced each other. Tommy-sensei made his greetings after Tsujimine’s sensei.

“It must be fate that we are meeting our opponents from the regional tournament here. I hope you will all make use of this fate without fail. Be plenty careful about accidents and injuries, and hydrate frequently so you will not be exhausted by the summer heat. I look forward to seeing everyone’s progress.”

Under Seiya’s leadership, they chanted the “Raiki Shagi” and “Shahoukun” (3) in unison and performed their warm-up exercises. After that, they were divided by their schools. Kazemai was in the first shajo. Overworking was forbidden, but those who could shoot one hundred times in a day aimed for two hundred times. The reason they chose to do joint practice with another school was because of Tommy-sensei’s intention to have them get used to a place with a large number of people, since they usually shot in an environment with not a lot of people.

For a while, at the beginning of shooting, Minato was more unused to the fact that the yamichi was a pond rather than the practice with students from another school. The golden-ringed dragonflies flying by the waterside zoomed towards the shajo, colliding into the fluorescent lights and making clicking sounds. His mind went to the plants and water surface, and he fell into the feeling that he was about to release an arrow into the pond.

Masa-san went around to watch each person’s shooting. Kaito was showing off his steady shots (yadokoro). (4)

“You’re able to make your bow turn completely nowadays, I see.”

“Thank you very much.”

Nanao asked him a question.

“Masa-san, I can also make my bow turn recently, but right after I release my arrow, my bow slips down, and I’m holding the yazuridou instead of the grip.”

“Since the bow turns in your hand, it’s normal for it to fall by about a finger, but why do you think it fell down so much?”

“Ummm, why?”

“Everyone, pay attention to Nanao’s tenouchi.”

As Minato watched Nanao’s shooting, he noticed something.

“Is it when his hand suddenly opens for just a moment at hanare?”

“Yeah, I saw that too,” Kaito said, backing up Minato’s diagnosis.

Masa-san spoke.

“Exactly. There are people who want to make their bow turn and do it on purpose, but there are also many who do it unconsciously. The bow slipping down so much is because of the left hand opening for an instant and the tension of the little finger being weak.”

“I see. Now I understand why you put so much emphasis on the left pinky, Masa-san.”

“Although, there is actually also a shooting method that places a lot of importance on the actions of the middle finger. What I’ll be doing now is the difficult method of gripping the bow with my middle finger, and then at hanare, remove my middle finger while at the same time tensing my fourth and little fingers. Now, let go for a minute and watch.”

Masa-san took the bow and arrow in his hand and parted the bow, then let go of the arrow.

For a moment, the bow tended towards his back.

At the same time the arrow was released, the bow also left Masa-san’s hand and was blown towards his back. For a moment, Minato and the others had no idea what happened, and stood stock still.

The arrow reached the target. Startled by the loud sound of the bow falling, the Tsujimine members looked over towards them, but Masa-san merely picked up the bow like nothing happened.

“In an anecdote of Awa-hanshi and his disciple, he once threw his bow along with his arrow and scarred the floor of the dojo. Apparently, everyone except for the archers thought he went mad when they heard it, but it was probably his process for training his tenouchi, for the sake of creating a sharp hanare. The body is used completely differently for the ‘mistake’ of dropping his bow on the spot and the bow jumping out of your hand from a sharp hanare.”

Ryouhei’s eyes were sparkling.

“That’s so cool! I want to see it one more time! Can I do it too?”

“This is a Honda-ryuu technique that I learned by myself, so I’m still not at a level where I can teach it to people. Everyone, you first aim to not separate your left thumbs and middle fingers so that you won’t drop your bows.”

Minato sighed at the shooting technique he was seeing for the first time.

He read about Awa-hanshi in books, but because they never wrote about what kind of intentions or the kind of methods he went by, he always felt some doubt. The essential parts were not conveyed with only the outcome or a summary. No doubt the true value lied in the process, in the individual episodes.

After they finished shooting four arrows, Ryouhei and Nanao went to retrieve the arrows. They finished collecting the arrows for the first and second shajos and put all of them in the arrow box.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Nikaidou was straining his ears to listen.

There were many differences between shoumen uchiokoshi and shamen uchiokoshi. As a matter of fact, during middle school, Nikaidou shot in shoumen for club activities and shamen when he was with his uncle Shigeyuki, so that caused confusion for him.

Nikaidou’s current way of shooting involved gripping his bow with a kouyou kasane tenouchi (5), creating an uwaoshi. (6) At kai, he shifted his thumb, made a grinding noise with his yugake as he untied it, and then at zanshin his bow fell forward and it became an oobanare. (7)

This was the first he was hearing about a practice method where one threw away one’s bow,

Kazemai’s coach might be very interesting…

He thought, and compared him with his own advisor. As one would expect, he did show his face at the kyudojo today, but it looked as though he had almost no interest in the states of the club members or anything like that. At first, he had been chatting with Kazemai’s advisor, but now he had already vanished. He might have shut himself in his room and went to sleep.

Nikaidou clicked his tongue.

He didn’t mind if he wasn’t able to coach them in shooting, but he wished he could pose as an advisor at least. The motivation of the members could be raised just by him saying something to them. Zealous and extreme instruction could have harmful effects, but a club could not be established without an advisor. Their advisor’s favorite saying was, “I’m a teacher and being the advisor for a club is volunteer work, so this is work without pay,” basically telling them not to ask him for too much. That was probably a sound argument.

As a result, Nikaidou took the place of the advisor. He had the longest kyudo career in the Tsujimine High School Kyudo Club.

For beginners, they wouldn’t know anything like the differences between the shooting postures of A and B. After a while, they could see the things that stood out, but didn’t know how to fix them. Identifying the root cause of distortions and slackening required a wealth of knowledge and a high amount of experience. To speak to others of something is to expose one’s own true ability and humanity, as well as an act that carries responsibility along with it. By all rights, one should not speak thoughtlessly.

Since Tsujimine wore shoes in their schoolyard as they shot, they were not used to bracing their legs in tabi. Nikaidou saw to it that his fellow members would learn that sensation of the soles of their feet at this training camp.

After some rounds, Nikaidou and Fuwa went to retrieve the arrows. They carefully wiped clean the arrows with dirt on them.

“I wonder what school that Kazemai coach belongs to.”

“His master was from the Ogasawara-ryuu hosha tradition (8), but he himself doesn’t belong to any school, apparently. He was taught by teachers from all kinds of schools and mixed it all together. His current master is the advisor, Morioka-sensei. He’s a sixth-dan kyoushi, I heard.”

“That old man teacher is a sixth-dan kyoushi…?”

Nikaidou felt anger.

In spite of being a weak, puny school with few members, how was it that they even had a coach besides having an advisor? Furthermore, there was a good balance between having a skilled master and a young person. He knew it was an irrational anger for the other person, but why was only Minato so blessed?

I feel so envious, so jealous. I don’t want to see that guy.

“By the way, Fuwa, how do you know all that?”

“When we were checking in, I heard the innkeeper questioning that coach.”

“Amazing. I’m so impressed by your ability to gather information, Fuwa.”

“Well, excuse me for having long ears.”

Nikaidou at that moment had intended on his remark being praise, not sarcasm.

“Hey, Fuwa, you get what I’ve been telling you? Are the things you’re hearing from Uncle Shigeyuki being conveyed properly to you guys?”

“Hmm? They are.”

“It’s not like I myself understand them perfectly, so I feel like I’m telling it all wrong. Also, don’t you hate being spoken in such a sloppy way by a guy the same age as you? And from the perspectives of Aragaki-senpai and the others, I’m an underclassman.”

“If a stranger suddenly told you something like, ‘Your shooting form is not good. It is wrong,’ you might think, ‘Who the hell’s this asshole, makes me sick,’ but I kinda feel like Higuchi-senpai and Aragaki-senpai are waiting for words from you?”

“Both of them react so dully, I really don’t get what they’re thinking.”

Fuwa was wondering what the true meaning behind his words was. Didn’t Nikaidou saying so much after such a long time meant that taking the place of the advisor was becoming a burden for him?

It was the fear of making decisions.

The anxiety of wondering whether or not it was really okay like this, of wondering if this was wrong.

“Even if you did something wrong, you can just correct it, right? It’s not like it’s a serious case that involves the life or death of people. What are you trying so hard for? It’s not like you at all.”

“It’s not like me?”

“Generally, you can’t convey exactly the taste of an apple to someone who hasn’t eaten an apple before, and so when they can eat one, they’ll know, ‘This is an apple.’ You trying to explain and convey everything is ridiculous from the start. Trust the other person a little and leave it to them.”

“Yeah, sure, you’re as wise as ever, Fuwa.”

“What a pain in the ass. To sum it up, I have no complaints or requests for you.”

As Nikaidou was talking with Fuwa, his anger subsided a little. Even if their advisor was absent and they didn’t have a kyudojo, they had an uncle named Shigeyuki, so they were still saved. In the first place, the Tsujimine High School Kyudo Club had many eccentrics in it, and it wasn’t in their natures to be intimate friends with one another.

However, there were no doubt relationships of mutual trust.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The setting sun shone over the kyudojo, and practice ended. Tommy-sensei and the others left first, and the Kazemai and Tsujimine girls moved to the changing room together.

When the male members finished changing into their regular clothes, Higuchi idly whispered to Nikaidou about something.

“Your arrow is missing?”

“Yeah, I was looking for it earlier but…”

It was guessed from the sight of Higuchi still in his kyudo uniform that he had been searching for them for a long time. In the past, there was an incident where an upperclassman had made fun of his extremely slow pace and hid his arrow. Nikaidou remembered that and felt angry.

Since they checked all of Tsujimine’s quivers and didn’t find it, they asked Kazemai to check theirs as well. Upon doing that, the arrow was discovered in Ryouhei’s quiver.

Ryouhei bowed his head to Higuchi.

“I’m so sorry. I took your arrow. I will pay more attention from now on.”

“It’s fine--, it’s nothing—.“

Ryouhei’s arrows were longer than other people’s, so he hadn’t noticed Higuchi’s arrow buried among his bundle of arrows at all. The reason for that was him shirking off the work of counting his arrows.

Nikaidou stepped in front of Higuchi.

“That’s not right, Higuchi-senpai. If this was the last day, he might have took your arrow back with him, you know? There are people who would bring it home by mistake and neglect to go and return it because it was too much work for them.”

“No, in that case I would properly go and return it. I’m truly sorry.”

“You’re Yamanouchi-kun, right? You were also very interested in our Ootaguro’s bow, eh? If it’s a high-grade bow, there are likely also people who would bring it back with them on purpose, right? I think you’re different, though.”

Nikaidou’s tone was sharp. His irritation was obvious to everyone.

Nanao stepped between them.

“He found it right away, so can you forgive him for that much at least? People retrieving the wrong arrows happens a lot, right? In the past, I’d been mistaken for a girl and taken away with someone. The patterns of the feathers and the colors of the hagiito (9) were exactly alike.”

Nikaidou got even more displeased at Nanao’s interference.

“You’re the kid who carried our girls’ luggage, huh? Even though the high school generals are right around the corner, you have the time to hit on girls from other schools. As expected, schools with blessed environments are different. Even though since being able to use a kyudojo in itself is so precious to guys like us, we don’t want to waste even a second. I really am so jealous I can’t stand it. Right?”

“What? I don’t think I was really hitting on anyone.”

“Oh…is that so?”

Seiya stopped Minato from arguing against Nikaidou. If he defended them poorly, then it would be adding fuel to the fire.

However, Kaito couldn’t take it anymore. He walked right up to Nikaidou and thrust his nose into his face.

“I’ve been listenin’ for a while, but how do you keep going on and on about bullshit? He said it wasn’t on purpose and apologized, ain’t he? And, Nanao wasn’t hitting on anyone back there.”

“What’s with you? Why are you so tanned? Are you, like, a helper from the soccer club or something? You must be having such a hard time, what with being teammates with the airhead and the playboy and all.”

“What did ya say!”

Right when Kaito grabbed Nikaidou by his collar, there was a clattering sound.

A pair of glasses with bent frames was rolling on the floor. They were Seiya’s. He had been trying to stop Kaito and got his glasses hit by Kaito’s raised hand.

Seiya was pressing his hand to his eyes. His hidden mole became exposed.

“Ah… Seiya, I’m sorry.”

“—Kaito, pick them up.”

The place became completely frozen.

Seiya’s moment-freezing gun wasn’t only activated when he said lame jokes. Rather, it was stronger when he was angry. Kaito hurriedly went to pick up the blown away glasses. Nikaidou also seemed to have recovered himself with the sound of the glasses falling to the floor.

Seiya issued instructions without a moment’s delay.

“Nanao and Ryouhei will close the shutters. Minato will go and check that the doors to the equipment storehouse and the arrow retrieval path are locked. We will be doing the final locking up, so everyone from Tsujimine, please go on ahead and leave before us.”

Fuwa had been watching on the sidelines until then, but he judged that it would be better to go with Seiya’s plan.

“Are you okay without your glasses?”

“I have contacts, so there is no problem.”

“I see. Well then, we shall be leaving first. Good work today. Nikaidou, we’re going.”

“Good work today.”

After they could no longer see Nikaidou and the others, Seiya beckoned Kaito over. Leaving cleanup to Minato and the rest, the two headed back to their room first.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The room the five boys were lodged in was a Japanese style room about twelve tatami mats wide, with a single low table placed in the center of the room. When the window was opened, the laughter of children blew in along with the refreshing wind of the plateau.

Kaito sat in seiza in front of Seiya, looking small.

“You know what I want to say, right? If you raised your hand at Nikaidou-senpai, you’d be doing exactly what he wants.”

“I’m sorry, Seiya. I’ll pay for your glasses.”

This scene was exactly like a child being scolded by his parent for making mischief.

Seiya narrowed his naked eyes.

“I was thinking about changing my glasses soon anyways, so it’s not a big deal. But wearing contacts for a long time is tiring.”

“I’m sorry, that was really inexcusable of me.”

“Kaito, I’m thirsty.”

Kaito poured barley tea into a cup and presented it to him.

“I really want my shoulders rubbed. That place between my shoulder blades got way too stiff.”

“Yes.”

“I wish someone would fill out the accommodation survey for me.”

“Yes.”

Giving a sidelong glance at Kaito, who turned towards the table and eagerly filled out the form, Seiya suppressed a laugh. An excessively obedient Kaito was hilarious to see, and he couldn’t help but mess with him. He felt that he truly understood Nanao’s state of mind.

Should I forgive him soon?

Seiya thought, and left Kaito in the room.

Seiya returned with a tray of watermelon slices. He remembered that it was a complementary service of the inn, and that they said, “Please tell us if you need some.”

He placed the tray on the table and sat down. Since he can’t see well without glasses, he brought his face closer to his target objects.

The curtains were swaying.

Soon, there came the quiet breathing of someone asleep beside him.

While Seiya left his seat for a little bit, Kaito had laid down and fallen asleep.

He must have been so tired that even when Seiya brought his face right up to his, he showed absolutely no signs of waking. His sleeping face was like that of an angel. One wouldn’t think that this is the very same boy who normally pointlessly intimidated his surroundings.

“Kacchan, huh…” Seiya murmured.

Well, even he can feel sleepy. Even though he always, always protects Nanao with all his strength. Kaito says I’m overprotective, but he shouldn’t talk.

Seiya leaned against the window where the wind blew through.

He listened to the quiet sound of sleep breathing until Minato and the others returned to the room.

After a short time, Kaito was awoken by Nanao.

“Kacchan, wake up. We left some watermelon for you.”

“…’kay. Huh, where’s Seiya?”

“He went to the baths. We’ll go too after you eat.”

Kaito bit into a watermelon slice.

After they finished bathing and eating dinner, the Kazemai ten gathered at the open space before the inn.

Seiya lit a candle for ignition and handed out hand-held fireworks to everyone.

Minato lit his firework at once, and a long firework, like the head of a zebra grass, sprouted out. The crackling sparklers and the tezutsu fireworks (10) were both staples for home use. Tommy-sensei was saying how nostalgic this all was while gazing at a black snake firework. (11) Kaito drew figure-eights with the flame of his firework, and Nanao and Ryouhei were running around while holding their fireworks.

Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo called to the two of them.

“You guys, you’ll fall if you run!”

“We’ll be fine!”

Seiya handed more fireworks to Kaito.

“Thanks. Don’t just watch us, join in.”

“Okay.”

He didn’t use the candle to light his firework, but ignited it by directly accepting the fire of the firework in Kaito’s hand.

“It’d be nice if a zashiki-warashi shows up.”

“I told you to stop talking about that.”

“Kaito, could it be that you’re scared?”

“Hell no!”

Seiya chuckled.

When there were no more hand-held fireworks, Masa-san lit a bunch of ground fireworks. The fountains of flame brightly illuminated everyone’s faces. Then, parachutes were launched from them with a popping sound. Ryouhei was the first to pick one up and held it up high, and Nanao performed a hip-hop dance.

And so, the lively fireworks display continued late into the night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It happened after they all went to bed. A shadow crept into the sleeping room.

The shadow roamed inside the room without making even a footstep, and when it found its target person, it stopped near their pillow. It peered into their face, then slowly climbed on top of it. Kaito tried to cry out about the weight on his chest, but couldn’t do it for some reason.

Suddenly, Nanao woke up feeling something unusual. Looking next to him, he saw a cat curled up sleeping on top of Kaito. Because the room’s door was kept open, it freely came in.

Nanao whispered, “…You sure are sneaky. Even though you’re always so cold to me.”

He thought about driving it away, but it was the middle of the night. It was inexcusable to wake everyone up with by making a racket. Leaving the cat where it was, Nanao also used Kaito as a pillow and fell asleep again.

Kaito was the one who was misfortunate. Because he did not wake up from sleep while feeling a weight on his body, he could not move as though he was suffering from sleep paralysis.

The one who was woken up with Kaito’s groans was Seiya. When he narrowed his eyes and checked out the situation using the moonlight, the cat and Nanao, using Kaito as their pillow, were sleeping like logs.

Seiya sighed.

Good grief, there’s on helping it. This is the punishment for waking me up in the middle of the night after all—.

Seiya moved the cat and Nanao, who were on top of Kaito, out of the way, and took out a certain something from his bag. And then, he went back to sleep.

The next morning. Minato and Ryouhei, who were the first to wake up, desperately suppressed their laughter.

——There are “cat whiskers” drawn on Onogi’s face!?

Is this the prank of a zashiki-warashi?

Seiya and Nanao were still sleeping.

Kaito, while thinking that Minato and Ryouhei were acting strange, went to the washroom, got in front of the mirror and screamed.

---

Previous | Next

#tsurune #tsurune translation

85 notes · View notes

dennou-translations · 6 years

Text

Kagerou Daze VIII: Chapter 4

Children Record -side No.3 (2)-

Please feel free to message me about possible corrections. If you can, consider supporting the creators by purchasing the official releases in Japanese or in English. In case anyone is feeling generous: Ko-fi | PayPal. ( ╹◡╹)っ’･*

← Previous || Index || Next →

Even if someone were to die, no matter what, we wouldn’t cry. Should we manage to meet again by any chance, crying was permitted. Ever since we had made that promise, I had been intending to prepare myself in several ways.

But, I’m sorry. This kind of thing... is really painful, after all.

It was the third time that one of my family members had died before my eyes. Honestly, under what sort of star had I been born to be facing those horrible circumstances? I had often heard the words “there are no gods”, but if there really weren’t any, wouldn’t I have been spared from wandering through such a bizarre life?

I don’t believe that gods don’t exist. There has probably been one god with an exceptionally ill personality leading us by the nose all this time. Or something.

I had already been deluding myself with those kinds of “meaningless things” over and over whenever something heartbreaking occurred. It was not as if anything would change were there any gods. I was aware of that much. Except, the desire to know what a so-called “god” was and of wanting to see one didn’t fade.

Aah, I see. That may be why.

Mary’s figure as she stood before my line of sight had a god-like, overwhelming presence, enough to make me think, “perhaps ‘that thing’ in front of me is a god”.

It had happened a little while back. Shintarou-kun’s “plan”, which was too well-done for something conceived during a single night’s timespan despite that it could not be considered meticulous, had gone roughly as arranged. Using Mary’s power, we were supposed to stop the movements of Dad... of our enemy, who “Clearing” was living inside, and restrain his body just like that. I think the way things had gone until that point could even be described as perfect.

It was immediately afterwards that the situation had abruptly changed.

Two of our comrades were murdered in the blink of an eye by a pitch-black shadow that had appeared in the center of the dark laboratory. The “Clearing Snake”, which had sprouted from within Dad’s shadow, transited into Konoha-kun’s body, as if already meaning to do so.

Konoha-kun’s “ability” was the “Awakening Eyes”. Most likely, I wouldn’t have been able to predict that the “Clearing Snake” would take over said “ability”, which strengthened its owner’s flesh, even if I had tried thinking about it.

As though sneering at me, a nasty laughter reverberated through the room. I had a feeling that I heard a scream from Mary merging with it, but I couldn’t do anything at the time other than simply stand still before the tragedy unfolding in front of my eyes.

A tenacious “body” and an evil “head”... in short, the worst-case scenario.

Regardless, by the moment I had internalized that, Konoha-kun’s sinisterly distorted smile had already been drawing close to my field of vision. As I had been grabbed by the neck and lifted, without being able to even gasp, I had squeezed my eyelids shut... Yes, it had been right at that instant. I had unwittingly cringed in fear at the words that suddenly reached my ears.

“Come, Kagerou Daze.”

For a second, I had been unable to tell that those words were from Mary. Fitting of the occasion, Mary was showing an attitude of resentment unlike her usual one from the times when we would poke fun at her.

At any rate, the person who made a fool out of her the most was no one other than myself. I even wondered if I wasn’t the one who had seen her get angry most frequently. Still, the wrath that had traced Mary’s voice when she called for “that name” wasn’t in the same proportion as normal.

“Clearing” had promptly stopped all of his movements, and although it was only for an instant, he had showed an expression that made me believe he was almost shuddering in terror.

Soon after, a gigantic jet-black mouth had materialized, cutting through the frozen atmosphere of the room. That thing, which had seemed to drive off every single bit of direness, twined around and took away Shintarou-kun and Kido’s bodies, vanishing off somewhere.

I had no idea if it was because of the impacting occurrence that had just taken place before my eyes or because of the fingers tightened around my throat, but after having witnessed that, my consciousness had come to a halt...

I pondered on how much time had passed since then.

As I woke up within dead-still, total darkness, “she” was in front of me, wearing Mary’s appearance. The reddish black pupils of her dimly shining slit pair of eyes, which crept with countless snake scales, carved holes into me. Her once long hair that used to resemble cotton had become short, and her once cheerful face that used to retain cherubic traits bore a cold countenance, as if she were someone else.

What those eyes were glaring fixatedly at was Konoha-kun’s figure, which had been discolored into black. He stood upright and didn’t budge an inch, just like Dad when Mary had petrified him earlier. However, although that way of solving things seemed to be the same as back then at first glance, it looked sort of different than how it had been done with Dad. He remained staring in bewilderment with a facial expression almost like he was stuck in the edge of despair.

The power of the “Mary” I knew wasn’t like that.

Was it my instinct? I was certain that “she” who had done such a thing to “Clearing” while he resided within Konoha-kun was not a person, but “something with a human form”. Someone clad in Mary’s appearance other than Mary herself...

Unable to hold back, I swallowed my saliva at the word “medusa”, which suddenly surfaced in my mind.

Perhaps due to having heard the sound of my heartbeats, she took notice of me, turning her feet to my direction without saying anything. Weaving, she gradually came closer with a face that made her seem like she was going to pin me down. And, as she came right before my eyes, she squatted, pointing to her own chest while asking in a voice I was used to hearing, “Are you... this child’s family?”

That manner of speaking was not Mary’s.

I wavered for a moment, but I didn’t feel any pressuring intent from her question. Either way, I did open my mouth to answer, but I didn’t know what essentially I was supposed to say in response.

I think that “this child” refers to Mary. If so, then being asked if I’m her family is a little troublesome.

It felt a tad complicated to reply with “that’s right”, and the range of interpretations for “comrade” was too big. In that case, maybe I should go with “friends”, I cogitated as well, but neglecting the family part through affirming we were friends felt off-putting.

While I was distressing with my thoughts, she exhaled with a hum and opened her mouth again as if she had just concluded something, “Or, perhaps, her husband?”

“That’s not it!!” I denied on the spot. It wasn’t like I was grossed out, but I also couldn’t afford improper misunderstandings.

Maybe due to being surprised at the loud voice that I had spontaneously emitted, she blinked a few times, sucked in a breath and snorted with a “huhu”. “What, so you can talk? Since your lips were all the while repeatedly opening and closing, I figured you were the type that would convey it in this way.” as she spoke, exactly at the point where she had said “what”, she displayed a gesture as if she were stroking her chest.

Before I realized, the air of something like solemnity that had been enveloping her until just now melted away, and it felt as though her body had somehow grown a bit smaller. Still, her way of talking even about that was pretty different from Mary’s... By the looks of it, since she was speaking so eloquently, it didn’t seem like she had changed her tone by mistake. If so, then, there weren’t many prospects to think of. Probably, upon some sort of cue, the personality of the former “Mary” had switched with “hers”. Well, there was also the possibility that “she” wasn’t a woman.

“Just... who are you?” I asked demandingly, and she blinked a few times in surprise again.

Was it a habit of hers? Her attitude almost looked like that of someone who was analyzing my words and motions as if they were fascinating.

I wondered if I was going to be hit, but instead, she spewed her name out as if she hadn’t particularly intended to keep it secret, “My name is... Azami.”

As I heard that name, the presentiment that had crossed my mind a moment before turned into confirmation. Right now, the one residing within Mary was the owner of the diary Shintarou-kun and the others had found at Mary’s house... the “medusa” Azami.

“Also, I am the mother... of Mary’s mother.”

“Ah... I-Is that so?”

Moreover, she went as far as giving a courteous explanation. From the feeling she gave off, she might be a living being much easier to understand than the image I had formed from what I had been told.

Nevertheless, with that, I was somewhat able to digest the circumstances. If I were to believe Azami’s words, she was possessing Mary’s body through whatever method, just like what “Clearing” had done with Konoha-kun. If so, then the fact she had enough power to render “Clearing” defenseless was also convincing. That person was the so-called “source” who had granted us our “abilities”. She certainly exercised a power much stronger than us, who used our “abilities” as something borrowed. Overall, maybe it could be said that the situation was as though an adult had broken into a children’s quarrel?

Then, aah, I get it. This story has a pretty cruel side too.

“Why... Why now?” words instantaneously spilled out. With them as the trigger, memories started overflowing one after another, and before I noticed, my throat was shaking. “It’s too late, isn’t it!? How many people do you think have died?!! If only you had come save us a little... a little sooner...”

Not even I knew what time the “sooner” referred to. Was it when my mother had been attacked by a robber, when Dad and Mom had gotten involved in a landslide or when Nee-chan had put an end to her own life?

Sure, there was all of that. Yet, probably, none of them is it.

Just now, I had said those things encompassing the thought of “at the very least, I’d wanted you to have come help us before Kido had died”. And so, I didn’t give continuity to the sentence I had spit out beyond that point. My feelings of regret, which had not turned into fury, morphed into tears and piled up over my waterlines.

“Ah... uh...” as she accepted my words, Azami let out a weak voice and avoided my gaze with an attitude of perplexity.

Well, that was only the expected. I knew little about Azami, but she was also a victim in the scheme of the “Clearing Snake”. She couldn’t help her agitation after being shouted at in such a way out of the blue.

Yeah, I understand it.

The fact Azami had come to our aid like that was already something to be very grateful for. I was also self-conscious of how I had unreasonably put the blame on her, and I didn’t think what I had said was right. Except, even so, I hadn’t been able to handle it. As I thought of the resentment towards my companions, who had been crushed and eaten away for no actual motive, I couldn’t internalize it without spattering it out.

“M-My apologies. I cannot even imagine the hardships you all have gone through. Even though I had wanted to come save you, I was unable to.” Azami informed with a nervous tone, closing her eyes like a little girl. I didn’t think it was an excuse and had no basis to negate it by labeling, “that’s a lie”.

“Then, how come you’re here now? At least tell me this much.”

As I said so, Azami’s body flinched with a start, and she responded with a feeble voice, “My body and mind perished back when I lost every one of my ‘abilities’. My current self who is borrowing this child’s flesh and talking to you is nothing but a ‘recollection’.”

“‘Recollection’...?”

“Correct. From the other world, I shot into my granddaughter’s head a ‘reminiscent’ of the time when I was alive. It would have been better if I had managed to do it faster, but...” saying that, Azami pointed her – or it was probably more accurate to say “Mary’s” – fingertips to her temple. “...as long as this child did not use the power she holds of ruling ‘Kagerou Daze’... the ‘Combining’, I could not come out of ‘Kagerou Daze’ to intervene on this side.”

She had shot a “reminiscent” into Mary’s head?

Without a doubt, everyone was composed of “memories”. If someone were raised since babyhood in an English-speaking country, they would be capable to speak English, and those raised in jungles were probably allowed to keep even wild animals as pets. That was the so-called individuality, the prime of life experience.

In summary, what was burning within Mary’s head at the moment were the life recordings of “Azami”? If that were true, then the fact Mary was talking like Azami was indeed convincing... but even so, there was one more thing that had me stuck.

“Kagerou Daze”.

Right, Mary definitely shouted that name earlier.

Most likely, during the instant that thing had appeared and swallowed Shintarou-kun and Kido, the “memory” of Azami had leaped into our world as if passing through the wrong gate by mistake.

Still, no matter how one looks at it, it’s a weird story.

Azami said that Mary had the power to rule “Kagerou Daze”, but I had never heard it from Mary herself. It was thinkable that she would hide it, but it was more natural to conclude she didn’t know about it. Would Mary have been able to call for “Kagerou Daze” so conveniently, as if completely aware that she was a “medusa”?

As I was losing control of my thoughts, Azami suddenly lowered her brows and whispered, “It was thanks to Tsubomi.”

My eyes unwittingly went wide-open at the name that had abruptly come out of Azami’s mouth.

Acting like she hadn’t noticed it, Azami gradually continued speaking, “In the past, back when Tsubomi went to that world, I entrusted her with a message. As in, should she meet my granddaughter in the outside world one day, I had wanted Tsubomi to tell her how to summon ‘Kagerou Daze’. The ‘Concealing’ that lay within Tsubomi brings about my granddaughter’s ‘Combining’. I did think they would eventually meet and she would tell her about it...” Azami’s voice shook lightly midsentence. And then, with a facial expression that seemed too humane for her to be called a “medusa”, Azami went on, as if squeezing the words out, “How faint-hearted... She took my absurd wish into consideration. What a good fellow she was. Regardless... I did not make it in time. There is nothing more excruciating than this.”

Azami’s tears traveled down the scales that had emerged from Mary’s cheeks. As tiny sobs leaked out of Azami, I couldn’t manage to listen to the matter beyond that point.

Frankly, there were many parts in Azami’s story that would make one scratch their neck in doubt. Why hadn’t Kido talked about “Kagerou Daze” until now? And how had she been able to convey it to Mary upon having come here? I couldn’t lie about my desire to find that out, but I hadn’t the slightest idea if pryingly asking about it would be of any use. It would not change what had happened. Getting to learn about the meaning behind it all would only serve as consolation for my lack of strength. Only, I had been able to confirm just one thing after witnessing Azami’s tears.

By the looks of it, it seems I was saved by Kido.

“Haah...” I sighed, covering my face with both arms. My emotions, which had lost their place to go, incessantly stirred within my mind.

Why? How? What should I do...?

However, fortunately or not, those thoughts that surfaced and disappeared led me to exhaustion, not turning into words or making their way out of my throat.

“Were you close to Tsubomi?” As Azami inquired, I could somewhat feel the depth of her thoughtfulness in her manner of speech.

Is she being considerate of me?

Come to think of it, she had asked a similar question earlier. As in, if I was Mary’s family.

It wasn’t like I was trying to make up for not having answered that one, but I responded without missing a beat, “Yeah... that’s right. Ever since we were kids, we had always been together. She was obstinate, awkward, and... I liked her, very much.”

If I could say so myself, thought I had given a pretty blunt reply. Nevertheless, answering with non-sugarcoated words was my intention.

Upon hearing it, Azami retorted with a curt “is that so” and started sniffling. As I found that bewildering and rose my head, I saw Azami shedding large tears in an even bigger quantity than just now, her body quivering.

“Y-You must be disheartened. Being separated from someone who you had stuck with for a long time is as agonizing as setting your body on fire. Uuh... eeh... I am at loss for what to say in return...”

Aah. This person... is such a human, huh.

Rare were the people whom would sympathize so much with those they had just met. In reality, she was someone utterly unfitting of the word “medusa”.

Her snake eyes, welling with big teardrops, bore the color of pain – the same one as the blood flowing within us. It was a sinister hue, which had continuously caused trouble. Of course, it was not as if I were about to blindly believe in Azami’s story. Yet, a small but huge fact stood ahead of that. We knew the emptiness of being labeled as “monsters” and detested. There was no way we could hate someone who had that eye color.

If it were Kido, she’d probably say so. I’ll use this as guide.

“There’s... no helping it anymore. Kido did her best for our sake. It’s lonesome that she’s gone, but we can’t just keep on crying after she sacrificed herself for us to live.” I asserted, getting up.

Those words were half-true. But the other half was a lie. For the time being, before said lie thawed away, I could not afford to waver.

“Thanks for telling me all this, Azami-san. So, what should we do now?”

“There is no need for the ‘san’. It’s ‘Azami’ for you.” Azami said in discontentment after a pronounced hiccup while drying her tears.

“Aah, erm... Is that... something important?”

“Obviously. It is the precious name I was... bestowed with in the past.”

I see. Indeed, it’s of great significance.

“Got it.” I replied curtly to Azami, who was human-like in every aspect, turning back towards the direction of “Clearing”, who remained inside Konoha-kun.

Not having changed at all from earlier, the figure of “Clearing” as he stood in place, combined with his expression, was the image of anomaly itself. There was no light in his blank pair of eyes, and not a single sign of emotion could be felt in them.

That was the situation until the current point, and from the perspective of an outsider, it probably looked like everything was settled. Alas, things were no good. At the very least, for as long as Konoha-kun’s body was being possessed, we could not leave him alone.

Besides, we didn’t know when he would start moving and attack us again.

That’s precisely why we need a simple way to deal with “Clearing”, who has stayed unchanged since not long ago, but...

While I was lost in thoughts of possibilities, Azami slowly opened her mouth, “I concluded that the power of my granddaughter had a few-minutes limit. So I used... Tsubomi’s power of ‘Concealing’.”

At the words “I used Tsubomi’s power”, my chest throbbed piercingly. No matter how much I comprehended the truth, in the end, it really wasn’t a reality I could readily accept.

Perhaps because I didn’t react, Azami peeked at my face. I panicked to regain my will, and then proceeded to contemplate Azami’s words. What did she mean by saying she had used the “Concealing”? Kido’s “ability” was supposed to be the power of dimming people’s perception endlessly.

“Erm... it doesn’t look like our forms have become fainter... How did you use it?”

“‘Forms’? Aah, making oneself fade is but one of its uses. Well, it is a simple story.” As Azami spoke, she pointed at “Clearing”, spinning her finger in midair as though to circle his surroundings. “I erased ‘all of his senses concerning anything from this world’. He can no longer perceive sounds, light or even his own actions. It is something akin to being trapped in a world of nothingness. He most likely does not know how to move that body anymore.”

The muscles around my spine unwittingly shuddered at that way of speaking, which bore iciness. Not a single trace of the thoughtfulness of just now remained in Azami’s expression as she lorded over “Clearing”.

Erasing all of the opponent’s senses was aberrant at best. It was not a matter of being good at using an “ability”. Once again, I was able to feel that she who stood in front of me was a genuine “medusa”.

“However, it is merely for buying time. It does not last too long.” Saying so, Azami walked to the direction of “Clearing”.

Panicking, I followed her.

Standing before him, Azami surveyed him seriously, letting out a deep sigh. “As expected, his body is rearranging itself little by little... He is most likely using the ‘Awakening’ and beginning to create a body that my power will not befall onto. He had already had thorough knowledge of my powers from the very start, so this is only the obvious...”

“In short, this means...?” as I asked, the corners of Azami’s lips twitched, mingling with cold sweat.

“It means that, in just a bit more, on top of ‘getting his hands on a body that will not be affected by this trick ever again’, he will also be able to move.”

Immediately, the memory of being grabbed by the throat came back to be vividly. At Konoha-kun’s cruel smile, which was drastically different from his usual soft expression, my body trembled and it felt as if I would go insane.

“T... This is bad! We’re already no match for him as it is... What do we do about that!?”

“Wa-Wa-Wait! Calm down! I had anticipated to some extent that something like this would happen! It is not as if I were just idly spending a long time in that world. Evidently, I have properly thought out a countermeasure plan.” After waving off my overawed behavior with a shaking hand, Azami crossed her arms and huffed sharply through her nose.

I see. Now that I think about it, this is how it is, huh? For starters, “Clearing” himself was a part of Azami’s “abilities”.

Even without setting up a surprise attack or traps, there was no mistaking that Azami, who had her “medusa” powers, was in a position of absolute advantage. Despite that, I had had an outburst just from hearing a remotely scary story, and ended up doing something generally embarrassing. Azami also seemed to have a lot of confidence, so I should leave things to her and watch over it.

While I tried creating expectations, Azami uttered a “well, just look” and projected her two arms towards “Clearing”, quietly closing her eyes. “No matter how much intelligence it acquires, or how it manages to get its hands on a relentless body, this fellow is nothing but one of the ‘abilities’ under the control of ‘Combining’. I will drag it out and force it into submission...!” Still with her eyes closed, Azami began groaning out an “uhn, uhn”. As if she were devoid of a heart, she gave off the impression that a somewhat somber aura had started wafting about her surroundings as well.

Aah, so the time for our long fight to end has finally come? I lost my family, lost my friends, and truly a lot of things happened.

Even if it was over, what was gone would not return. However, the things Shintarou-kun, Kido and Nee-chan were trying to protect had not fallen into enemy hands. Just from that reality remaining, my current self thought of it as salvation.

I also had to express my gratitude to Azami. Had Azami not come, right now, we would be...

“Huh?”

Just now, it felt like Azami said something ominous, but was it my imagination? I’m certain that I heard her say something like “huh?”, though...

As I looked at her, Azami was squeezing her lids shut against the area between her eyes and her cheeks, seeming to be exerting a fair amount of strength, so although she had talked about dragging “Clearing” out, from her state, it seemed to be a considerably difficult task.

Do your best, Azami. This isn’t about winning or losing, but anyhow, don’t give in.

Azami continued groaning with an “uhn, uhn”.

No, is this really okay? You kinda started saying “huuhuu”, so are you okay, Azami? Hold up, you just looked at Konoha-kun’s face for a moment and made an expression like “eh, he has still not come out?”, so is everything okay, Azami? You had said stuff such as “It’s not like I was just idly spending a long time in that world” earlier. Wai—Why do you seem like you’re about to cry? Put in some effort, Azami, really...

“I... I can’t anymore.” As Azami turned towards me with a pale face, not a single fragment of her dignity as a “medusa” remained in her. And, probably, my own face was painted in a similar shade.

The room that was nothing but gloomy became enveloped in a stagnant silence... which was broken.

“No, eeeeeh!? Wait a minute, you were super full of confidence just now, right!? You said something like ‘this fellow is nothing but one of the “abilities”’, didn’t you!? What was that, then!?”

“S-S-S-S-S-Shut up!! As if I know!! I desperately did what I could!! I don’t get why, but it’s not listening to what I say at all, so this... kinda didn’t work.”

“‘Kinda didn’t work’!? Gimme a break; I was so looking forward to it!! What do we do about this?!! Hey!!”

“Wha—!? I did my best, so you do not have to put it that way, right?!! If you have any complaints, you do it!! You!!”

“Haah!? There’s no way I can, is there!? Why did you even come here? Maaaaaaan!!”

As we argued fruitlessly, there was a flashy “bang” out of the blue and the door of the laboratory flung open.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”

I unwittingly jumped up and down at the sudden, explosive sound that had come from an unimaginable direction. And so did Azami. She actually hopped higher than I did.

“Everyone, are you okay!? Are things going all right!? Eh, wait... Huh, Mary-chan, did you go through an image change?”

Gasping for air, the one who had appeared was Kisaragi-chan. She stared at Mary, who was being possessed by Azami, and tilted her neck with a flabbergasted expression.

Asking the friend in front of her, who had scales poking out of her cheeks, if she had gone through an “image change” was disconcerting. Since that was the first thing that had come out of her mouth as she plunged into such a situation, it felt very Kisaragi-chan-like. However, if Kisaragi-chan had come, that guy must have come as well. As I directed my gaze towards the wide-open door, I saw a tall shadow coming in staggeringly.

“Wai... Y-You went too far ahead, Kisaragi-san... Haa... Hii...” Seto, who showed up with shoulders heaving as he breathed raggedly, spoke almost like panting, hands resting on his hips as if he were a marathon athlete that had just finished a race.

Kisaragi-chan had been arranged to regroup with us after the “distraction strategy” was completed. Meaning it had roughly gone as planned and she had come all the way here?

Seto’s mission, simply put, was to be Kisaragi-chan’s bodyguard. He had to check whether there weren’t any unusual voices in the surroundings that could be thought of as belonging to enemy reinforcements, so that encounters with opposing forces could be avoided – in other words, his role was of being a “sonar”. I had at first believed Seto wouldn’t be too happy about having to use his “ability” so recurrently, but in actuality, Seto had responded with a reliable “leave it to me”, which had left me a little surprised.

Well, looking at his state and that exhausted breathing, it seems he was monopolized a lot, though.

“Aah, Seto-san. Sorry for having dashed ahead. How should I put it? Unexpectedly, Seto-san, your legs are slow...” Kisaragi-chan appeared guilty as she said so and bowed her head, but, well, her choice of words was kinda the worst.

“I’m sorry...” after Seto laughed weakly, a shadow cast upon his facial expression. Although he was physically fit, he was a relatively lethargic runner.

Nevertheless, for her to leave her bodyguard behind and rush off, Kisaragi-chan was really something else. Well, Kisaragi-chan’s “ability” was also quite powerful, so an enemy or two were no match for her if she used it seriously.

“Then, Kano-san, erm... what’s this situation?” Kisaragi-chan restlessly scanned the area and once again tilted her neck.

She had probably realized that Shintarou-kun and Kido were gone. As I presumed that, it felt like cold water had been poured onto my stomach. Kisaragi-chan would come to know afterwards about that feeling of anguish I had tasted.

While I found myself unable to answer Kisaragi-chan’s urging, Azami suddenly pulled the hem of my hoodie. “Hey, Brat. Is she a comrade?”

There was a short distance between Kisaragi-chan and the spot that the two of us stood at. Being careful as to not let my voice reach Kisaragi-chan, I rapid-fire whispered into Azami’s ear, “That’s right. She’s one of our members. The little sister of the guy that got gulped down by ‘Kagerou Daze’ a while ago.”

Hearing that, Azami let out a “uuh”. She was the kind of person who had empathized so much with my feelings after hearing my confession earlier, after all. Just from me saying that much, she could probably more or less guess the reason why I was wavering to give Kisaragi-chan a reply.

Regardless, the situation was what it was. I could not keep our swallowed comrades or what had happened to Konoha-kun as a secret from the two. Should “Clearing” start going rampant again, it would definitely be a “game over”. All of us present would be turned into indescribable lumps of flesh in the blink of an eye. That was the one thing we had to avoid no matter what.

Still, how should I tell them? What should I do if I convey it underhandedly and they end up completely losing their fighting spirit? Rather than just that, what if they even give up on running away?

However, disregarding my hesitation, Azami suddenly opened her mouth, “Your older brother was... engulfed by ‘Kagerou Daze’. So was Tsubomi. They struggled bravely, and then died.”

At the unpreceded utterance, my heart rate rose with a start.

“I-Idiot...!”

There’s a thing called ‘way with words’.

I was going to throw in that sentence, but subdued by Azami’s resolute posture, my mouth stayed shut.

With her expression stiffening, Kisaragi-chan let out “eh”s and “ah”s that didn’t turn into words. Seto also had a similar attitude of unrest, and just when I wondered if he was shaking in fear, his strength immediately drained away, his eyes lowering. Unable to handle their reactions, which were pitiful even, I closed my eyes.

She ended up saying it. She conveyed a helpless reality in a helpless way. How much time would it take for those two to face said reality? No, even if they did manage to face it, would they be able to bear it?

However, contrary to such worries of mine, the silence didn’t remain for long.

“Is... that so? I see, I see.” Kisaragi-chan’s words, which she had wringed out little by little, sounded like she was pushing back and killing off something that was about to overflow.

As if to surmise those words, Azami replied, “I understand your unsettled feelings. Still, rotting away here would make their sacrifice a waste. We have not yet solved a single matter, but...”

And, before Azami could finish speaking, a voice overlapped with hers, “I get it. Is there... anything I can do?”

I raised my head without thinking. Before my line of sight, I couldn’t spot a single drop of hesitation in Kisaragi-chan’s expression. My senses, which had become dull, steadily cleared up as though my head had been exposed to sunlight.

Just from memory, I recall having seen that face twice until now. The first was during that day I could never forget, when my older sister had solidified her resolve on the rooftop at evening. And the second was when no one other than that girl’s older brother had borne such expression while standing as our lead.

Kisaragi-chan was attempting to take over her brother’s will. Perhaps struck by that, Seto had seemed to become a little tearful, but responded with a mute nod.

Following each of the two respectively with her eyes, Azami looked at my face as if wanting to ask “what do we do?”.

We’re truly crazy.

Even though we were tormented for no reason and despair was thrust at us countless times, no one would individually “give up”.

By the looks of it, the determination of our members is firmer than I thought. Seriously, it gets to the point of making me want to show it to the Leader.

Suddenly, the “ultimate goal” of the current plan that Shintarou-kun had pieced together crossed my mind. It was something like a terribly childish motto, but Shintarou-kun had an extremely serious expression on when saying it, so it had wound up being funny and everyone laughed.

Still, everyone understands just fine. This is something worth betting our downtrodden lives on and reaching our hands out to. I mean, we...

“Really, I can’t compare to him.”

One way or another, it indeed had to be him, I thought with a bitter smile.

Anyhow, the purpose confirming was over. However, there was one more thing I had to do before discussing the matters from henceforth.

Sucking in a short breath, I suggested to the “medusa” standing beside me, “Anyway, shouldn’t we start with your self-introduction?”

The person in question, who had talked with her severe manner of speech using Mary’s babyish face, displayed confusion with a, “What do you mean?”

From the corners of my field of vision, I could see the figures of the other two nod in agreement while saying, “I was just wondering when we would tackle this topic.”

Well, with her character being so different, it was impossible that the words “image change” would apply.

The atmosphere inside the laboratory, filled with a strong smell of chemicals, was as tense as ever. Illuminated by a light from liquid crystal displays laid out wherever eyes could reach, so exceedingly bright that it could even be considered prejudicial, each of us gathered up and racked our brains.

Whether or not Azami’s tottering self-introduction had been rightly conveyed to the two was left aside, and, as we progressed with a general information sharing, the situation was as unfavorable as previously. According to Azami, the move to restrain “Clearing” and render him incapacitated was apparently a desperate one, but in her current condition, even as she tried thinking of a different method, no counter-proposals whatsoever came to her.

I couldn’t find any type of clock in the room, but that only stirred up the feeling of unease even more. Our minds were blinkingly clad in the inevitable time limit that was drawing close.

Amidst that, I threw at Azami a basic question that abruptly surfaced within me, “Speaking of which, for starters, the ‘eye abilities’ initially belonged to Azami, right? And it looks like you were super well-versed in using the ‘Concealing’... so why is it that you can’t control only ‘Clearing’ however you want?”

As I did so, Azami shrugged as if to say, “this is why I can’t deal with amateurs”. I wondered why it made me want to poke her so much.

“In your case, you eat when you are hungry, and sleep when you are drowsy, right? Just like you don’t have to go as far as using a theoretical reasoning for doing these things, each ‘ability’ has its own ‘cravings’ of preference.” saying so, Azami pointed sharply at Kisaragi-chan’s chest.

Kisaragi-chan let herself be prodded without particularly dodging it, but I didn’t fail to notice Seto evading his eyes from the sight.

This is an emergency, Brother.

“For example, the ‘Snatching’ that you possess has the yearning of ‘being perceived by others’ as its favorite staple food. Each has a different taste, but the ‘abilities’ are able to continue existing through sustaining these cravings. And so, they awfully despise being deprived of wishes.”

Now that she mentioned it, I had the feeling someone asked me something similar back when I had earned my “ability”. Azami had made a comparison with psychological urges, so an image of famine naturally surfaced in my mind. I had once heard that snakes were vindictive, so there might be a reason why those “abilities” that fed off desires had their forms represented by them.

“However, it is not as if they can endure just devouring wishes. Humans make use of ‘reason’ for their ‘whims’, right? Regarding the ‘abilities’, what bears this role is the ‘Combining’.” Azami then nimbly spun the finger that had been nudging Kisaragi-chan’s chest beside her own temple. She indicated as if to say “this is it”.

“I-I see.” Kisaragi-chan successively nodded, with an aspect of someone who hadn’t understood much.

“Most ‘abilities’ submit to the ‘Combining’ as dialogue is useless against it. By intertwining and gathering the ‘abilities’, even a different world such as ‘Kagerou Daze’ can be created. Still, the fact that ‘Clearing’ does not surrender to this probably means he is pursuing a desire that can be a stronger priority than the orders of ‘Combining’. I do not know what it is, but for as long as he is in a state where I cannot control him, there is nothing I can do.” Saying that much, Azami let her head drop with an attitude of dejection. Even though she had been the one to give birth to omnipotent “abilities”, the fact that she herself was not very competent was a serious problem.

No, wrong. Maybe we should conclude it’s exactly because she’s like this that she gave birth to the “abilities”.

Most likely, the “abilities” had been born in order to grant the “various longings” of the helpless Azami herself. And, as a result of whatever conditions “Kagerou Daze” had been created in, they had been transferred to us, who had “wishes” similar to those of Azami in the past. Going by that theory, it would mean the “snakes” had become interested in each of the members’ “dilemma of some sort”.

So if the preference of Kisaragi-chan’s “Snatching” was a “need for acknowledgement”, the desire that Seto’s “Stealing” reacted to was “wanting to know the feelings of others”?

The “Ten Abilities” would eat those cravings and realize them, thus attempting to continue existing. The power of “Concealing” that Azami, who bears the “Combining” – which couldn’t be used unless to restrict the respective seeds within us –, had used on “Clearing”, as though opposing to this world’s reason itself, was something heterogeneous and absolute. If that was the real force of the “abilities”, they were already not in the proportion to be described with the word “abnormality”.

Would that mean they could manage to do stuff like using the “Concealing”, for example, to “render someone unable to cognize anything and everything from this world”? Or using the “Deceiving” to “make someone cognize all kinds of things from this world as something completely different”? Moreover, what if the target of their effect were not a “person”... but, for instance, the “world”, and they could be used on it? The “world” would lose its “reality” to the “abilities”, and a “fantasy” would replace said “reality” through the “abilities”. In turn, wouldn’t that enable just the “Ten Abilities” to do as they pleased with the “world”, which would have mistaken “fantasy” for “reality”?

It was a story extraordinary enough to make people burst out laughing even if it were written down just on the corner of a notebook, but thinking in such a way, it could be concluded that our “abilities” and “Kagerou Daze” were connected by a single thread. If those “abilities” had the strength to rewrite even the world’s rules, it could be also agreed that “Clearing” had designed a scenario to overwhelm us, continuously aiming for our “abilities” and Mary’s “Combining”.

That’s right. The words I had heard from “Clearing” in the past on the rooftop... as long as he had our “abilities”, those words would “come true”. Just... for what purpose? This is the only thing I don’t yet understand, but he was doubtlessly attempting to use that power to make it happen. As in trying to use the power of “medusa” for his scheme of rewinding “everything in this world” and returning it to zero.

Upon having come to that place, the worst-case scenario I had vaguely envisioned started to hint a sense of reality to a ruthless extent. I knew that a feeling of desperation that had begun to rise was violating my head, which wasn’t coming up with any decent ideas.

Regardless of our fretting, no alternatives to get rid of this anguish come to us. As expected, will we meet our end here? No matter how much we think about it, there’s no plan to overcome this wild situation...

“Wild”... “wild”...

Wait a minute. Just now, whose name had been surfacing in my mind again?

“Ah... A...” My voice was shrill, as if perfectly embodying the “despair” that was subtle and faint but nevertheless coiled around my awareness. It easily penetrated my cranium from my eardrums, and brandished the word “death” into my brain, which had been trying to cling onto a tiny bit of hope.

Spurred by our survival instincts, three of us, including me, took a distance from him as if he had jumped up on us.

In contrast, Azami shortened the distance between him and herself, stretching out her delicate arms as she stood in front of him. “Run!! Don’t think of anything and flee!!”

The tips of my toes unwittingly turned towards the room’s exit at the voice that had come out of Mary’s throat, which was heavy with potency to an unthinkable degree. However, unfortunately, my head wasn’t led by enough narcissism for it to prioritize my body’s critical situation. The other two people left seemed to have the same intention, so none of us obeyed as we stood still on the spot.

“Wha-What are you doing!? Hurry...”

“I really wanna do that, but I was lectured by our Leader, who told me to keep it up until the end. Besides, we’ll be killed anyhow even if we run, won’t we?”

The reason why such blunt language had kicked in was probably that my mind was numb. My frame was already trembling all over, but it seemed my mouth still listened to my will.

“That’s right, Mary... no, Azami-chan. There’s no way we’d leave you behind. Trying to fight on your own... you’re showing off too much.”

Using “chan” to refer to the worldwide infamous “medusa”... dear me, this girl is a legend by now.

It appeared Azami wound up at a loss for words regarding us, but eventually, with a manner of talking that seemed to denote acceptance, she spat out, “You bunch of fools.”

Just as she had said, “bunch of fools” was a suitable term for us, who couldn’t do anything despite what we had declared, as it reduced us to nothing but her weak points.

Before our eyes, scattering about an overflowing ominousness and discolored into black for a long time now, Konoha-kun’s body slowly started moving. However, even then, we didn’t feel any sign of only his eyes, which remained blank, facing our direction. By the looks of it, his spirit was still adrift in a world of darkness. Nevertheless, it likely wouldn’t take much for him to regain his former agile nature and come leaping onto us. There was no more time to plan any strategies. However, during that span, one thing alone had crossed my mind. There was no mistaking that it was the reasoning of a novice, but since we had no other plans, it was something worth asking about. The identity of the hope that had crossed my mind a while before had been ironically driven by that guy’s half-revival and surfaced clearly in my head.

“Hey, Azami. Can’t you call for ‘Kagerou Daze’?”

As Azami turned around at my inquiry, her crimson eyes, which looked like pomegranates that had ripened and fallen off a tree, affixed on me.

Those eyes... the “Combining” had definitely summoned “Kagerou Daze” earlier. If we could make that world consume him, even though it might not get to the point of settling everything, it supposedly can put this place under control.

Obviously, there was also the boundlessly callous fact that “Konoha-kun’s body would get thrown into that world”. Still, since Konoha-kun was being possessed, “it was not as if he were dead”.

In the past, we received our lives in exchange of getting the “abilities” and came back from “Kagerou Daze”. Since Konoha-kun is alive to begin with, isn’t there also logic in him returning to this world?

Were all of us going to conformably be tortured to death by the one in possession of our friend’s consciousness and face an unsightly “bad end”? Or should we extent the game and get our hands on some time to piece together a proposal? At the very least, by no means did I think that the “future” entrusted to us by our ingested comrades lay in the former.

“You... Since when have you been aware of this?” as Azami asked so, the end of the sentence was mixed with a fickle shade of dismay. It wasn’t a “I hadn’t thought of that alternative!” or a “Deliberately letting a comrade be swallowed isn’t an option!” kind of question.

It was a constrained nuance, as if she meant to say, “I hadn’t wanted you to notice it”.

Sniffling that sense of discomfort, I replied frankly, “Just now. If we manage to have ‘Kagerou Daze’ gulp him down, at the very least, we can avoid losing more people. Of course, I also want to hear whether or not we can rescue Konoha-kun afterwards.”

“Indeed, by using the ‘Combining’, the entrance to ‘Kagerou Daze’ can be opened. However... it can only be opened.”

As I had thought, it wasn’t like she had been surprised at my idea, and it didn’t seem to be something completely impossible.

While letting the color of apprehension that had peeked from her words just now show in her facial expression, Azami added, “‘Kagerou Daze’ only swallows those in the verge of death. In order for ‘Kagerou Daze’ to consume someone who has already long overcome death, its nature would have to be changed. Still...” Trailing off, Azami strengthened her tone as though in resignation and went on, “Just the power of ‘Combining’ cannot rewrite the disposition of ‘Kagerou Daze’. At the very least, it would be necessary to have half of the “abilities”... those “abilities” that are replacing your lives, reside in this body.”

“Our... lives...”

Inside my head, I lined up the snakes. Mary’s “Combining”. Kisaragi-chan’s “Snatching”. My “Deceiving”. Seto’s “Stealing”. And Kido’s “Concealing”, which had now become a part of Mary.

Having carefreely counted the “number of lives” present, I realized that they were exactly half of ten.

“I tried that out already... immediately after restraining him, while you were unconscious... The powers of ‘Combining’ and ‘Concealing’ alone can only do so much as open the mouth of ‘Kagerou Daze’. But I... had not wanted to tell you this. None of you hesitates or runs away. If I had talked about it, you would...” as she spoke, Azami’s eyes became wet as if she were a child.

With her in such a state, I couldn’t find a single vestige of why she was branded as a “monster” or feared as a “medusa”. I had felt that ever since encountering her, but no matter what, that person’s character had too much empathy. Although it was about people other than herself, she accepted things as they were, and shed tears just like that. Despite most humans not behaving that way, the fact she did was a laughable story.

Aah, seriously. Even though my life is so outrageous, I’ve met a lot of good people.

Kisaragi-chan walked up to Azami, lowered her hips as if to match the latter’s height and embraced her. “Thanks for worrying. But if it’s to you, I can entrust myself. After all, you’re my best friend’s family.”

“U... eh...” without replying, Azami let out deplorable sobs. She wasn’t reliable at all looking like that, but I was also completely adept to Kisaragi-chan’s speech about entrusting our lives.

That was pretty much it, I thought while glancing at Seto, and as he seemed to say “isn’t that obvious?”, I returned with a sour smile.

I really went through a lot with this guy too.

Even that irritating “monsters’ room” was now nostalgic. Those days in which we sat face-to-face on that bunk bed, pondered if there wasn’t “happiness” somewhere, cried and laughed, almost felt like they had happened just yesterday when I tried thinking back on them.

Honestly, it’s great that there wasn’t time to chat about our memories over the night. Had anyone started talking, I’d end up looking forward to the continuation.

And it arrived in abrupt ruthlessness.

“GUGAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!” broadly raising his body, “Clearing” let out a beastly roar. His dull yellow orbs scanned the room in circles, and, turning toward our direction, their movements stopped entirely. “Too bad, shitty brats.”

His voice stuck to the eardrums and hit a nerve, similar to a snake poking out its tongue. In that tone, no more traces of our former friend could be found. At his fierce shadow and clear murderous intent, my whole body shook as if it were malfunctioning. Like an incarnation of despair himself, “Clearing” languidly let both his arms drop, his ferocious gaze creeping around the air. As it aligned to Azami, the corners of his mouth rose flabbily, and then...

...one step.

His jet-black right foot swung down to the ground with an abnormal leg strength. A deafening explosion noise roared, and the metal floor tiles that flew off pierced cuttingly into the displays on the wall. Converting the momentum into propulsion power, “Clearing” launched his body forward, transforming it into a pitch-black bullet as it approached Azami. It was an overwhelming use of violence in a time span that wasn’t enough to let out a single word.

Kisaragi-chan, who had received that anguishing attack directly from the front, instantly threw Azami, who she had been hugging, straight to the opposite side. As she glided mid-air, Azami’s pair of scarlet orbs could not be more wide-open.

No signs of the “ability” could be felt in the figure of the girl that made her “future”, her body into a shield to protect her. Even so, her resolve – her soul – was brandished into my eyes.

A thunderous rumble had erased Azami’s scream. With the jet-black shadow closing in on her, Kisaragi-chan had smiled back as if inconvenienced. And then, she had said, “I’m counting on you”, but lastly, her body had been blown away as though she were a rubber doll, hitting the wall and floor, creating on them a sea of bright red blood.

None of us could let out a single yelp at the exceedingly one-sided tragedy.

And so, as if saying “now is your turn”, the eyes of “Clearing” seized “Mary’s form”. Moving his body before Mary in a flash, he grabbed her neck and easily lifted her. At Mary’s aspect of awful dread, “Clearing” showed an expression of ecstasy.

“Stop... plea...”

Without so much as waiting for her to finish, “Clearing” grabbed Mary’s right arm and, in a twisting flair, he tore it apart with a snap.

“AAAaAah!!”

He observed her as though satisfied, with a smile that seemed to say he could make her shriek from acute pain. “Did you think I wouldn’t kill you? Ahahahahahahaha!!”

Along with that coarse laughter echoing through the room, my vision started to blacken.

His right fist, which had been delivering final blows, gouged out the side of Mary’s stomach. As extremely loud liquid sounds scattered about, blood flowed down the ground like a waterfall.

Aah, it’s over. It’s all over.

By the looks of it, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to see the continuation of the world I had once dreamed with.

Aah, how frustrating. A little bit more and it seemed like I’d be able to get there. If I had a next time, I think I’d be able to do better, but no way that’d happen, right? This isn’t a manga. But well, lastly, just one more thing. Wasn’t I able to bring flowers to my useless life? I think I was.

The surprised face of “Clearing” made me happy, and “I who had been set free from Mary’ appearance due to the pain” couldn’t keep the corners of my lips from arching up. I didn’t feel any ache from my arm or the sides of my stomach anymore. As it was the second time that happened to me, I somewhat knew what it meant.

Within my hazy consciousness, I saw the “real Azami”, who had been using the “Concealing”, reveal herself. From behind the scenes, accompanied by five white snakes, she bore an expression of indignation.

Ah, I see. My “ability” already went to Azami too. One way or another, it’s indeed lonely that it left.

If anything, I was glad that I had been able to fight alongside Kido’s “Concealing” at the very last, to the point I thought I had done a little too much.

Before I realized it, I had been dumped onto the ground. Moreover, the angle I had landed on was bad, so my eyes wound up looking at the desperate face “Clearing” had on.

Don’t make that expression with my friend’s face, was the feeling I got.

“Kagerou Daze” opened its mouth. I quietly closed my eyes with my vision blacked-out. Finally, within the darkness, the vibration noises of my phone reached my ears.

Aah, I get it. That girl was here too. If so, I understand, this is how it is. How very thoughtful, honestly.

And so, it was over for me.

Right before my end, just for a moment, I had a feeling I heard the voice of that girl I was so fond of. I unwittingly turned around at the tone that sounded angry. The fact no one was there, more than anything, was very much like her.

#kagerou project #kagepro #mekakucity actors #kano shuuya #seto kousuke #kuroha #konoha #kisaragi momo #azami #kagerou daze #summer time reload #jin #sidu #novel #my translation

90 notes · View notes