sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 3.8.5

From the second story window Seishirou looked down at the hill road before the house numerous times. Even after the crowd of people had dispersed, quite a few villagers had stopped to gaze up at the house but they too broke off into groups of three to five, with those few remaining disappearing as well. The western sun shone over the peaceful scene of the now empty road. With a faint smile he turned away from the window. heading deeper down the hallway, his feet carried him to the back of the house towards the innermost room.

Opening the evergreen oak door in the hallway, there was one more inward opening door in the way. Entering into the roughly one meter space between the first and second door, closing the hallway side door, he then opened the inner door.

Inside was a true darkness. Once the door was closed he felt around its side to turn on the light. Inside was a two part master bedroom. A window set facing north and the bedroom door were both blocked by two-way doors, completely stopping up the light. Seishirou took a seat in the armchair before the fireplace and looked up at the clock on the mantlepiece. Just a bit longer until sunset.

A bit after sunset, the bedroom door opened. Seishirou smiled.

"Morning."

Sunako who stepped out looked to Seishirou dubiously.

"Were you waiting on me? It wasn't a peaceful day then was it?"

"Mm. It wasn't. Today, there was a strange old woman who'd come."

Sunako took a seat in one of the armchairs and began to do up her hair.

"----Who?"

"Now what was she called? She seemed a bit of a strange person. She made a big fuss that we were Oni. She incited the lot from the village to storm the house."

"That really isn't a peaceful story at all is it?"

Seishirou laughed lowly. "They said we were The Risen. That our only showing ourselves at night was proof."

"And then?"

Seishirou smiled at the little girl as she tilted her head.

"She wanted to drive us out. I went out. But she was waving about an onbe or something or another. It was completely unthinkable to her that it would have no effect. At the very end, the Doctor of the Ozaki's had come to take my pulse."

Sunako's small voice rose in a laugh. "Doctor Ozaki, I'm sure he was surprised!"

"He indeed seemed to be. That face, I do somewhat wish I could have shown it to you."

With a giggle Sunako looked up at Seishirou.

"And so? What will we do?"

"What was the brave elderly lady named?"

"Itou, Ikumi I think it was. I think that she lives in Mizuguchi. If I recall she lives with her forty or so year old daughter. She's a stray element, isn't she?"

Yes, Sunako nodded.

"---Shall I kill her?"

"That wouldn't be very wise. The death of somebody who openly opposed us would probably be seen as strange by the villagers too don't you think?"

"Likely so."

Sunako looked up at the clock and rose. Turning to face the window directly behind her, she opened the heavy evergreen door. Forcing open the long and narrow double doors, in the alcove within was a window with two curtains over it. Opening the curtains, she then opened the window. Opening yet another wooden door outside of it, outside of the window the scene was died madder red and indigo. Outdoors the rusty afterglow lingered but they were well into the domain of the night. The cold breeze blew in with the twilight.

"......Yes. How about having her go on a trip, perhaps?"

Seishirou nodded. "A one way trip, of course."

"Yes." Sunako smiled and turned around. "Surely she feared our revenge. That's why she left the village. She doesn't believe. Even if somebody else affirmed it, she cannot think of us as harmless. But if she cannot find allies here, she will flee to safer territories."

"---And her daughter?"

"Is that her only family."

"It seems so."

"Then, wouldn't she surely soon call her daughter to her? They are their only daughter and mother respectively, after all."

Seishirou nodded and rose.

"I'll make the arrangements. ---Anything more?"

No, Sunako shook her head lightly. "Thank you, Seishirou. I really think it a thing to be thankful for that there are those who understand as you do."

Seishirou turned about with a smile. "Today I felt like even I had been of use. It was worth holding off on going out during the day time, wasn't it?"

"You are always doing so very much good for us."

I'm glad to hear it, Seishirou murmured as he stepped out of the room then stopped. "Come to think of it, the clinic's interior seems to be furnished now. The external may take a bit more time but we can begin medical examinations now."

"That was quick wasn't it. --And the funeral parlor?"

"That too can begin business at any time. Hayami-san said that he would come here tonight."

"I see," Sunako murmured. She called out to Seishirou who moved to leave again. "......Say? Today, when the elderly woman had come, the Doctor of the Ozakis had come running hadn't he?"

"Yes he did. He said that somebody had called him it seems, but what of it?"

"Was Dr. Ozaki the only one who came?"

At Sunako's questions, Seishirou gave a soft, knowing smile.

"While there were many spectators gathered, it did not seen that Muroi-san was amongst them."

I see, Sunako murmured. Without saying anythung further, Seishirou left the room. Sunako once again went to the window and turned her eyes to the mountain.

The nearby northern mountain rose high and dark. Halfway up she could see a few number of lights. She tried casually letting her gaze shift from the side of the mountain to the west, to where the western mountain crossed with the northern one but it was all too naturally dark. Sunako knelt on the floor, placing her elbows on the window frame. Setting her face atop her arms she gazed at the northern mountain.

"......Right about now you're hearing of it, aren't you?"

Probably from Toshio, or possibly someone in the parish. And then soon enough now he would hear of Itou Ikumi's disappearance. Probably by now he knew that something was happening.

"It can't be helped, Muroi-san. From the start, everything had already been decided..."

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In the end, Seishin and Sunako are just using one another for their own personal gain, and only see one another as the extension of their selves.

The major characters probably don't have much luck at relationships, really -- platonic or not. It's Shiki, so.

There was something appropriately unsettling about this chapter. Sunako musing that Seishin's hearing of everything just now sort of seems to imply (to me) that he's never far from her thoughts. Perhaps she's never far from his if he allows himself to think about it. Now I really wish there'd been more to how they got on post-Sotoba.

Something that also interests me about that is that the last thing we heard from her in the anime, manga, and even in the novel, is her ultimately seeing herself as bad. While she goes along with Seishin, it wasn't clear to me whether she really agreed with his moral verdict or was just going along with the Eros like Seishin himself was. It seems like, as self-serving as her philosophy is in trying to justify her existence, she's always held a personal understanding of herself as something "wrong."

It is interesting, yes. I looked at it after seeing the ending from the angle of, 'even if she views herself as something wrong and damned, she still exists in some form and isn't truly dead, and therefore fears death.' Until the very end where she seems to say, 'I'm damned and want to die a final death anyway, since I've lost everything/everyone.' Then she realizes she has Seishin and, no matter whether or not they're 'wrong' they're in things together (such as being 'wrong' and 'damned'), no matter what those things are or where that may take them.

8D -- Sorry for tumbling in! Just want to give my two cents -- I'm just thinking that, when people are less sure about anything in general (could be their opinion, stance, or what they did) don't they go seek for validation all the more? I think it's exactly because Sunako sees herself as ultimately wrong that she seeks for a way to justify what she does/her existence. And since people are social beings, when they cannot find the justification they need in themselves, they will usually go to other people in a hope that these people will be able to help justify them. Sunako has found Seishirou, and as Sinnesspiel once said she likely also wants Seishin to validate her as well. After all, she found herself (or that's what she thought) in his novels -- surely he'd be able to understand her standpoint, she probably thought.

Then, there's also the point in being in a group -- being wrong together is often better than being wrong alone, I'm sure a lot of people would think. The larger the group is, the more power there will be. If she herself cannot impose her existence on other people on her own, she'll try to gather as many like-minded people as possible. I think she ultimately wants to create a group large enough to create their own system to justify their wrongness, in a hope that someday, they will be able to impose their ideologies/views, their existence, on other people. When people acknowledge her, she'll more readily acknowledge herself.

But ultimately, while seeking for external validation/power is all good and useful, I think it'll only go so far if they don't believe in it personally. That's why I think personal foundation/principles is most important. The scariest of people are those who actually believe in what they do. Sunako lacks this, which is why I think she ultimately falters in the end -- compared to Toshio, who's able to stand until the end, if not for what happened to Sotoba that's way beyond his power. (Though I don't know if he'll be able to keep holding onto his foundation after Sotoba no longer exists, since I see his foundation as ultimately linked to Sotoba's existence and order. If it disappears, so will a large part of him, I surmise)

Then there's Seishin, whom I kinda predict, will be another level of scary post-Shiki. If one aspect of scary is in acting on what one believes in, the other would be in acting out whatever one wishes without limits, since he doesn't believe in any. I don't actually believe that Seishin will be ruthless, since it isn't his style, but I think he'll be a certain level of scary because he'll be so different from how he used to be. Cutting links with humanity (or having it cut) will surely affect him a great deal. Not being a human means that he'll no longer be restrained by the rules human beings enforce. In his case, that's not what he actually wants. He wants to be included within the orderly world, to have his position appointed and to abide by the law. However, the world doesn't want him that it goes as far as cutting links with him, or it'd probably be most fitting to say that any link actually doesn't exist at all, since the very start.

That's what the canon says so far. However, I'm kinda skeptical about some things. I believe that a lot of things go both ways, so I think that if Seishin from his heart really thinks that he cannot fit into society because society refuses him, part of him must have refused society too that he cannot fit into it. If he thinks he's an outsider, a heretic -- must be partially because he himself wishes to be an outsider. Could be because he ultimately doesn't agree with the views the society holds that he refuses it. This is his true foundation. However, the current him cannot justify it yet. Is it right or is it wrong? But does he judge it by society's standards on right and wrong? Society's standards are already validated after all, and while he wants to validate it by his own standards, personal standards aren't 'valid'. In order to validate his own standards and ultimately his true foundation and existence, the society that keeps preventing him from validating himself must go down first, because with its destruction so will be its rules and standards.

Well, this is probably more of a word play than a theory, but I think it's kinda telling that he's represented by two people in his novel -- an 'outsider' older brother who wishes to maintain links with the order but keeps being refused, and a younger brother who's a 'true member' of the order who actually wishes to have his way out. (Is the younger brother someone who's a true outsider at heart but wears a mask, or is he a somewhat-insider who wants to be an outsider (because he probably finds it romantic? It fuels his martyr complex?) Are they two halves of one who embodies different parts of personality? Are they two side of personalities who have their priorities arranged in opposition? Or is the older brother the 'most real' one, while the younger brother is merely a mask? (my initial theory))

There's also this part of humanity that wishes to have the opposite thing of what one initially has. When you have something/trait, you're weirdly attracted to its opposite. Seishin wants individuality. But he also desires order. The part of him that has individuality desires order, and the part of him that's orderly desires individuality. I believe that individuality and order should actually balance one another, but who knows, his own black-and-white views probably make him think that he should only stick to either. I probably should stop before this becomes a wordception.

It would been interesting to write this book (or at least vol 1) from the Shiki perspective. Also Ozaki should have considered working more closely with Ikumi. I also remember that Ikumi was also from a family of priests? (In the anime it said so anyway)

Shiki Novel Translations 3.8.5

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Spoilers up in here, ya'll.

Re: Spoilers up in here, ya'll.

Re: Spoilers up in here, ya'll.

a Shiki chapter!!