Shiki Novel Translations 3.6.3

[sinnesspiel]

3

Toshio looked up to the clock in his own room. Even though it was past ten at night he hadn't heard from Seishin. Yesterday he'd left just saying to let him think and that had been the end of it. What's there left to think about at this point, Toshio thought with irritation. What was happening in the village was now obvious. At least for the time being only Toshio and Seishin were aware of the true state of things, and if they didn't do something then how did he think this calamity was going to be stopped? That afternoon, Tamo Hiroya from Monzen had come by. Tamo Safafumi's grandson, he was still in high school. He had that. While time was passing like this the disaster was steadily spreading.

If the village's distress wasn't his problem, if he was going to say he didn't care who died then he could do what he wanted, but it wasn't that, it was the fact that while saying he wanted to save it, when it came time to do it he was seized with fear and drew back that was so annoying. He got that there might be some emotional resistance but this was a problem with only two choices.

Toshio glared at the clock countless times, thinking more and more that he should call it quits for the day. Weariness clung to him like another skin. His arms, his legs, his entire body was in pain. Since that summer he'd been at this day and night. Thinking that he might be forgiven for at least taking a rest today might have been because of Seishin's attitude bringing him down, and then again it might have been discouragement at not having a plan of what to do from here on.

All there was was the feeling he had to do something. But that didn't mean he knew what he should do. Anyway for the time being what Toshio could do was dig up the grave of the victim who came after Shuuji--Megumi's grave, but what would come of it if he did, he thought. Moreover there was Setsuko, he thought. If he didn't put up some kind of dam then the damage would keep spreading. To make sure Setsuko wouldn't rise up, he'd put a stake in her in advance. But even thinking that, up until now they were all patients he'd had a connection with--even if only as corpses--and when thinking of pounding a stake into them, even Toshio hesitate. He couldn't escape the feeling of wanting to put it off every little bit that he could.

(Why do they rise up......)

If he knew that, then he might be able to find a plan to stop them beyond stakes. Be it poison or something else. If it could be something injected, how great would that be, he thought. Even if it wasn't an injection, if it was something Toshio could do in secret during the autopsy. ---But a stake wouldn't work. In the village it was still close relatives that washed the body for burial. Even without that, they wore the white burial clothes. If the corpse were injured there would definitely be signs of it. 

(Anyway, Megumi-chan ... Or should it be Setsuko-san......)

Toshio pulled the curtains and looked outside of the window. It was already dark. He didn't think that he'd catch sight of them that easy but he did think that going out alone was dangerous. 

With a single breath exhaled, Toshio rose. Anyway, for the time being he'd at least check out Setsuko's grave. He didn't want to go out, he wanted to rest, it was a compelling desire, but his impatience wouldn't allow it. 

Putting on his blouson and leaving his room, he went towards the hospital. If he was going for a night walk, he'd need to close up the hospital waiting room. When leaving the hallway, he heard Takae's voice behind him.

"You're going out?"

Toshio nodded vaguely.

"These days you're going out every day. Just where are you going?"

"Well, just out."

"It doesn't look like you're going on a house call."

Yeah, was all he said with another still vague answer. Takae pointed to the hallway with a stern expression. 

"Now you come here."

"Sorry but," I'm in a hurry Toshio had tried to say but Takae sharply cut him off.

"Just do it, come here now. We are talking."

Clicking his tongue in his thoughts, he heard light footsteps coming down the stairway. Kyoko was just coming down from the bedroom. Was she sleeping? Her eyes looked dubiously at Toshio and Takae.

"Anyhow, Toshio, could I have you come for a bit?"

Reluctantly, Toshio nodded. As Kyouko gave him a questioning stare he followed after Takae into the tatami room. Within the tatami room was the nearby study that was Takae's room. Since before his dad had died, Takae had been staying in there.

"Now sit down," Takae said pointing to the low table. As Toshio hopelessly took a seat, Takae poured the hot water from the small tea pot while speaking coldly. "Where is it that you think you were going?"

"......The temple."

"And last night?"

"The temple. There're some meetings with the three pillars."

"You are telling lies. Last night there was a telephone call from Tamo-san, I'll have you know."

Toshio clicked his tongue. Takae thrust the cup out at him as if blaming him. 

"You aren't by chance busying yourself in the village, I hope?"

"Mom." Toshio closed his mouth, dumbfounded. 'Busying yourself in the village' was a code word for Takae. She was asking if he wasn't keeping himself busy with a woman from the village. Don't ask how he knew. That seemed to be the only thing it could mean from Takae. In fact it'd been something he'd been asked since high school, to his frustration.

"That's not what it is. I really have business with Seishin. We haven't called Tamo-san yet but lately it's come to the point where the three pillars might have to have a meeting."

I wonder about that, Takae murmured in a low voice. "I heard this from that very Tamo-san, but they've managed to open a clinic in Shimo-Sotoba, haven't they? You, did you even know that?"

Ah that, Toshio said with a sigh. "Well, yeah."

"Has the doctor of the Kanemasa's come to speak with you?"

"Nah. But it's just a matter of time, I'm sure."

"And what do you intend to say to him?"

"What---? I don't have the right to stop him."

"Has he contacted the Medical Association?"

"I haven't heard from them in a while so I don't know."

His father interacted zealously with other medical professionals and had quite a few contacts within the Medical Association, but Toshio wasn't fond of wasting his time like that. Toshio had always been outside of the network made by the regional physicians. He had just loose enough a connection that they would take his patients and he was on good terms with other doctors from the same college, but none of them were setting up business in his area. 

"Do you intend to give your implicit consent? There's no need for two doctors in this village. And on top of everything, to open a clinic without so much as a word to you, it's an atrocity. If you don't convey the situation to them thoroughly, then."

"Like I said," Toshio said with a sigh. "It isn't something I've got the right to say anything about."

"This is no laughing matter. You absolutely must say something about it! Just what are you thinking? Going into practice even while the Ozakis are here. Why, it's no different than saying Ozaki is not sufficient!"

"Even if they are I don't care. To be honest, we're not enough. The business is just overflowing. If Ebuchi-san wants to open shop, it's actually even helpful."

Saying that, Toshio felt a clench inside of himself. The Kirishiki household was quite possibly a den of Shiki. Didn't that mean that Ebuchi would be one of their allies? Ebuchi himself might have been another one to have risen. If that were the case then what could Ebuchi be thinking, opening shop? 

Patients who went there, regardless of what the cause behind the symptoms they were seeking treatment for was, would probably come out with white faces and vacant eyes. ---There was no doubt it'd come to that. Or did they have another goal in mind for that?

Takae was running her mouth about something, but Toshio was no longer listening. 

They moved in. --They invaded. Since then they'd always been closed up in that mansion, keeping their silence. This was their first move. What could it mean?

Toshio had only thought that they'd simply come to the village. But that was strange, wasn't it? Why did they come to this village, what were they thinking when they did? To go so far as to rebuild that mansion in order to move here, there had to be a goal behind it. Ebuchi opening shop may have been one part of that plan. If that was the case, what role would Ebuchi be trying to carry out from here on?

"Toshio! Are you listening?"

He replied absently to Takae's scolding. He wanted to ask Seishin what he thought but at this rate he wouldn't be going out tonight. He felt strangely impatient. The increasing number of victims--of dead. It was possible that there was something beyond that that Toshio and the others had to fear. Something they had to take measures even one step sooner to put any kind of stop to it that they could. 

Comments

8D

[(Anonymous)]

Now I know where Toshio got his habit of thrusting things out at people from.

It's only realistic that Toshio's also afraid of going too far into this unknown realm, and this is nice to know. He also really has the mindset of 'me + Seishin, me + Seishin every time, whatever I do', though it kind of seems that he's also seeking out emotional support from him? Well, he also definitely needs his technical supports. This chapter isn't actually as shippy as I thought the first time I saw it lol. I believe that he feels fatigued primarily because he's afraid inside, not exactly because Seishin brought him down in a very literal sense. Him not giving his explanation led to the current absence of support, emotionally and technically which helps bringing him down. However this chapter is still very amusing.

I do get the impression that he depends on Seishin a bit too much though. However, I'm wondering if part of his emotional distraught over Seishin here could be personal, not tied to the village, because considering the usual pattern with Toshio it may be.

Lol Takae. Has it never occured to her that men can have relationships with other men? Considering Toshio's been asked that specific question since he was in high school, and there's a very high possibility that he only mainly hung out with Seishin at that time. Even Toshio is aware, I think, that it could mean 'he's been busying himself with Seishin'.

Plot twist though: Toshio misunderstands the code word, because he doesn't think someone like Takae will be aware that men can have relationships with other men... while Takae actually does mean that; that she really means that he's been busying himself with Seishin, as a possibility of meaning behind her murmur 'I wonder about that'. This doesn't really match their prior sentences though, and if she really means Seishin she wouldn't say 'the village', I think.

My gut says that there really is something big behind the sentence 'don't ask how he knew' that I'd really like to dig deeper into. That Toshio could be seen as a womanizer right since high school (something I would never have expected within a mile) ... perhaps he did fool around with someone around that time, and then returning home in less than a totally decent state (or at least being suspicious enough) and was caught by Takae. But then the statement following it 'that seemed to be the only thing it could mean from Takae' will more likely suggest that, if that was true then it wasn't with a woman. Well, if this is true, again, there's a possibility that it's Seishin since the households that are considered quite separate from the village (Ozaki, Muroi, Kanemasa/Takemura) don't have daughters. Considering the very uptight Seishin however... what if it's another man even? Because from the looks of it it suggests that whatever he did, he was being suspicious more than once that the suspicion sticks with Takae. I cannot exactly imagine that even if Seishin let his guard down, he'd do it more than once. Or I could be underestimating Seishin here. After all, they separated for 11 years and Seishin perhaps wasn't as uptight and reserved as now. High school seems to be his most rebellious period too.

((Also apparently some history between Toshio's parents))

[sinnesspiel]

As much as I wish it and thought it myself when translating ("C'mon, someone address how suspiciously gay these guys are, don't pretend it's only in my head!"), I somehow don't think Takae was implying that he was messing around with Seishin of all people; I got the impression she thought he was using Seishin as a fake cover/excuse as much as she supposed he was with Tamo. I suspect she'd love to accuse him of anything with Seishin as an excuse to try to push them apart if sweet, sweet ToSei ever occurred to her.

Once, I read a 4koma gag riffing off of this line where Takae said she was fine if Ozaki fooled around with *men* because at least with men he wouldn't make illegitimate children, and that the bigger tragedy would be him impregnating a village girl since the Ozakis, Murois, and Pillar folk don't take village girls for wives. I doubt she'd be so open, but it was funny at least and it does seem very Takae to be more concerned with image than anything.

I'm wondering if Kyouko's lack of reaction to any of this conversation is just because she doesn't care of if it's hinting that she's effected since she's just sleepily staring. The fact that she bothers to give a questioning look suggests to me at least that she's not actually affected yet since once bitten they largely seem indifferent to everything. Is Kyouko unable to read between the lines, is she used to Takae being nuts, or does she just really not give a damn?


As for 'don't ask how he knew', I was and am now a bit uncertain on whether my translation choice on that is solid. The most literal translation would be "he did not know why." But it's clearly not a literal statement, since it follows up immediately with the suggestion that he knows that's what she means because she'd been using that phrase to accuse him of it since high school. Maybe I went too colloquial with it and should go with "for some reason or other" or "somehow, he just knew." But since it's kept in present tense along with other present tense 'background' information that seems to be Ozaki's frustrated reflection on top of the past tense (but narratively present) scene, I felt a looser tone might be more accurate even if it breaks a bit from the English language omniscient narrator "character" voice.

In favor of your theory though it could also be translated as "For some strange reason she thought that." or "Don't ask why she thought that" or "why she would think that was a mystery." But given that it's otherwise wedged between Ozaki (and thus the audience) reading between the lines for her code, I stuck with that context.

8D

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I have to agree to that. As for finding them suspicious, I think we'll never find any instance of this from the villagers, according to Ozaki hospital intro chapter, since they're so used to their weird ways and thus perceive it as 'normal'. But the very same chapter also implies that people outside Sotoba will immediately find them weird, and if you ask me, it will not be limited to 'oh, it's so weird that a doctor is talking to a monk.'. If they know about how close they are, I bet they'll think along the same line as us. The Kirishikis, and Natsuno's family will perhaps also do, were they know.

Funny because it's also somehow the impression I got. The way I see it, it's like Takae practically doesn't really care about what Toshio and Seishin do, but it's more because her line of thought doesn't reach 'far' like we do, as she's a villager. She figures they'll not go that far, whatever it's between them. If she knows that Toshio's actually been fooling around with Seishin, say, I think she'll be scandalized but afterwards it'll go along what you said, that she's going to be more concerned with image than anything. She'll ask them to be discreet, even if inside she's fuming and unaccepting. The image of the Ozaki comes first!

I think she just didn't hear their prior conversation because she was sleepy? Perhaps her stare just means 'Here the mother and son go at it again. Poor Toshio, having to deal with his Mom again.' But perhaps she also acknowledges that it's a bigger deal because Takae takes the pain to conceal her anger, if she has it, and doesn't scold him openly like she usually does-- instead she asks him to come talk to her privately.So her throwing questioning looks means that she's curious, but not very much.


That's what I think too; that it's not just a sudden baseless intuition since he has to have learned what she actually means since she's been accusing him since high school. It's amusing because here Toshio seems to be frustrated that she can only think about him fooling around with a woman, if he were to fool around that is. In this sentence: 'that seemed to be the only think it could mean from Takae', I think 'that' would mean 'Toshio busying himself with a woman' while 'it' means 'Toshio busying himself in the village'. It's like Toshio's begging Takae to be a bit more imaginative and think that, no, if men fool around it doesn't have to be with women. Kinda gives me hope that Toshio is a rather open minded person? Considering this takes place in the 90s and he came from a traditional village.

[sinnesspiel]

Somehow, rather than homosexuality not occurring to the villagers because they're written as unable to think so "progressively", I think that it's just conspicuously avoided by the author herself. I just find it too hard to buy that the villagers would suspect pederasty and pedophilia and rape but not homosexuality, particularly from a delicate artsy type that they're conscious of enough not to force into marriage (while the narrative says people with less obligation to produce an heir feel that pressure a younger ages than him). They're clearly not that naive or simple or pure minded; homosexuality's not new, not as a topic of gossip or speculation.

However its increasing acceptance in non-niche fiction is. As I've said before, I don't think it'd be possible for homosexuality to come up without having to become some kind of thematic focus that would take considerable time and space to address. If it's only mentioned in passing and not discounted, it's practically yaoi-bait and you end up being a niche genre book. If you delve into debunking it, then you're stuck writing about sexuality and society whether you want to or not AND it'll still end up a book niched about sexuality.

Sometimes it's just not about our pet issues. I wish Shiki were about the trials and tribulations of my favored pair's relations, but I'm fine just saving that for fanworks.

While the fact that the 1990s were a less homo-friendly time is one thing (Shiki's a 1998 publication set 1994, safe to say it was probably largely written in the mid 90s), I wonder if it might be an even bigger mess if it were a Western work today what with an entitled subsection of Western fandoms demanding everything not only be about their pet issues ("More gays/women/trans/minorities/etc. and don't just make their minority status a token add on detail, but also don't make them stock stand ins for their issues and also it's bigotry to give them flaws!") but addressing their pet issues in "the right way." I don't think Ono was quite under the same pressure since it was 1994 and also Japan which is fortunately less prone to tokenism and the Tumblr mindset, but I can't say I don't understand why she just avoided the gay thing altogether... even if she did think of them in that way.

Now the manga (and the anime following it) went a lot further with pushing the limits of how gay you can get without addressing gayness as a theme... Hell, Megumi was openly jealous of Tohru. It might have just been braver about presenting it without debunking it, or it might have been riding on the fact that yaoi fans are gonna ship pretty boys whether you bait them or not so any 'gay' appeal can be written off by those who don't like it as fujoshi nature more than a niche feature of the work. Despite the fact that it's a shounen manga though, I think most fans of it are chicks...

As for Kyouko, ultimately I took a simpler view: doesn't give a damn, the Ozaki's really aren't her problem, they're just kind of like her weird neighbors who happen to live in the house she sometimes lives in. A bit curious at best. But I know her vivisection's coming up so when I see her name I think: "NOW? =D"

Personally I think Toshio's probably thankful Takae's not more "imaginative." The frustration is probably less with her focusing only on women as opposed to men and more on her thinking of relationships at all when he's dealing with a vampiric zombie death wave. Hell, even as a kid, constantly getting accused of being a sex fiend would be annoying.

But oh if only, if only his "how about you get remarried?" type sarcasm in the manga/anime could come in a "maybe I'm fooling around with a guy" flavor just once, how happy we would be. I'll look forward to such fanworks.

8D

[(Anonymous)]

Well, true enough. I totally forgot. I think I've also said that I'd perhaps buy the angle of not wanting to accuse him of being homosexual, because it'd be easily linked to Toshio if not other men considering Toshio is very close to him, IF they actually happen to like Toshio and would probably want to keep his image clean. Even if they like Toshio, since when do the villagers truly care about their peers' image? So, probably not. I'm now wondering if Seishin's suicide attempt helps shifting their focus from the homosexuality angle? But even someone pointed out that Seishin fit the 'sad homosexual trope' with one of the reasons being his suicide attempt. Even if it's a rumor, normally people would think along that line.

About it being only in your head... likely not. I know one online individual who only knows the anime and manga and she could see it still, from Seishin's end without much trying like you do. Do you know other people who also read the novels? What do they think? (though if people are unable to see it it doesn't mean it isn't there). If you ask my sincere opinion, I think they're quite suspicious but even I'm afraid of my mistaking something that's purely platonic as something in the line of romantic. I think I'm rather used to doing that in my life, so. As I said before, I lack any real experiences.

Well in a way Shiki is about trials and tribulations of our favorite pair... only it ends up in their ultimate separation. Admittedly Ono-sensei would want a wider audience for her books so it'd be better to avoid including things that would make Shiki pass off as a genre book. Could be her editors and publisher too.

I wonder about Toshio's past really. What did he do to be constantly accused of being a sex fiend? Did it follow the same pattern: going outside at night, nearing midnight and returning at wee hours or later? It's likely not him fooling around so I got to wonder what he was doing. Considering Seishin is usually the one who visits him at his own home I wonder if whatever he did, it involved Seishin in the first place or not. Perhaps he was just feeling suffocated in his home and had to escape for a while, poor man. If Seishin's rebellious period was, I think, mainly high school I think Toshio was oddly more quiet that time.