sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 7.2

"Mom, I'm going to Megumi's!" Kaori called to her mother in the kitchen.

"Oh, a get-well visit?"

Yup, Kaori nodded. "I have a book to bring back to her, too."

"I see. There are some grapes in the refrigerator, bring those with you."

"It'll be all right."

"You can't go empty handed. I bought them as an offering for the holiday, anyway."

As told by her mother, Kaori opened the fridge. Inside were a box of chilled muscat grapes. Taking them out and bringing them together with the book, Kaori put on the slipper by the kitchen door and headed out. In the cooling night wind, people could be seen here and there standing about after lighting the welcoming fires.

Love popped his face out from his dog house wanting to go along, but Kaori shook her head and walked along the roads at night. The tap tap of her sandals mingled with the voices of the insects behind her.

Night in the village were generally dark but that wasn't the case at all in Kaori's neighborhood. As soon as she left the house, there was the Ootsuka Sawmill lumberyard, and beyond that wide field was the national highway. The highway was between that plot and the Kusunoki Stand. The bright light from the gas station shone undeterred, lighting up the surroundings, much more reliably than any telephone pole street lights could have.

The cooling night air was very settling and calming. Easy going, she passed by the lumberyard when, illuminated by the light of the gasoline stand, she could see Ootsuka Yasuyuki pointing towards the lumber. Yasuyuki was already past thirty, much older than Kaori, but he felt like a big brother figure from around the neighborhood. Maybe it was because ever since her little brother Akira was young, he'd let them come over and lpay incessantly. That Yasuyuki was pointing to the mountain of lumber, talking to a figure beside him about something. Even though it's Obon, he's working this late, thought Kaori as her walking slowed, when she caught sight of the woman she had never seen before at Yasuki's side.

Yasuyuki was still unwed. He had a good temperament but the problem was that he was shy, so she had heard that the little old lady from Ootsuka Lumber had said. He was looking to be set up for a marriage with somebody but, with that said, the problem was with who? The age to be doing marriage interviews is in your twenties, so it's believed.

Marriage interviews and weddings, maybe it was because those talks still lingered in her mind, and because the woman was dressed in her best. She was in a white summer-knit one piece, and a transparent top over that. In white heels and a white bag, her hair was loosely put up. Her earrings glistened in the light.

(She's beautiful...)

Kaori's feet stopped. Of course her facial features were gorgeous; how to put it---she felt very sophisticated. Like an actress who would be on TV.

Maybe Yasuyuki noticed that she had been thoughtlessly just staring at them, as he turned towards her. He smiled shyly.

"Hiya, Kaori-chan. On an errand?"

"Going to Megumi-chan's."

Is that right, he said, almost blushing as he motioned to the woman beside him. "This here is the Madame of the Kirishikis. She says her name is Chizuru-san. You know, from Kanemasa."

"Heh? Kaori murmured. This was her? Then, Yasuyuki definitely wouldn't propose to her. With Yasuyuki seeming so completely flustered, she suddenly got the feeling it was a shame. It'd have been good if he could have gotten engaged.

"Good evening," Chizuru greeted. Something was coquettish about her, like a star who would be on TV, like she'd thought.

"I just met her over there a while ago. This seems to be the first time the Madame of the Kirishikis has seen a lumberyard."

Hmm, Kaori mused. When a smile rose on Chizuru's face as Kaori received her gaze, she was suddenly conscious of herself, in a childish T-shirt and culottes with an elastic waste-band. Somehow, it was very embarrassing.

"This girl is from the neighborhood, she's called Tanaka Kaori. Right now, she's in middle school."

As Chizuru's eyes narrowed, Kaori became more and more embarrassed. You could even call her timid. If she had at least put her hair up or something. As it was, she had barely just run a comb through it.

"She's a really good girl. --Madame, do you have children?"

"I have a daughter. She is in her first year of middle school but, unfortunately, her body is weak, so going to school is..."

"Oh yeah? That must be difficult."

"Thanks to that, she's very shy of strangers. If she's able to become more healthy here, it would be good if she could make friends, but." Saying this, Chizuru smiled towards Kaori. "If you'd like, please do come by sometime."

"Ah... Yes. Likewise. Thanks." Kaori said, chewing out a response, hastily bowing her head and leaving as if running away.

(...What a surprise.)

While running clack-clack ahead, she turned back to look at the lumber yard. Yasuyuki was, face red, talking to Chizuru about something.

There really are people like that, she realized. She was like a wife in a TV drama. And furthermore.

(Her body is weak...)

A first year middle school girl. The same age as Akira. She probably didn't go to school. She was really like the star of a TV drama.

Still flustered, trotting through the night streets, if she had gone any further she'd have went right past Megumi's family's house. She hurried her limbs to a stop, hurrying towards the entryway. Though she haf always gone around to the kitchen door, tonight for some reason or other she felt like visiting from the entryway. For what was practically the first time, she stood at the entryway, pushing the doorbell.

There was an immediate response, the door opening. Megumi's mother's eyes were wide.

"Oh my, it's Kaori-chan. I thought we had a guest."

Kaori felt herself blushing. She always opened the back door and called out. There were even times when she'd just call out and go on up on her own. So she herself didn't understand very well why she was in the mood to ring the doorbell.

"Uhm.... how is Megumi-chan's condition? This is a get well visit. Uhm, this is from Mom,"

Kaori presented the box of grapes. As Megumi's mother accepted them, she murmured in surprise. "Oh, well. Thank you. ....What's wrong, Kaori-chan, you're so stiff."

"Well... this is a get-well visit...."

"Well. It wasn't such a big deal. It was only anemia. Anyway, go ahead on up."

"Sorry for intruding," Kaori said formally, stepping into the entryway. She slipped off her shoes and, even while told to go upstairs, she nodded, and headed to the second floor. Was this always the kind of house she had, she thought while going up the steps.

Megumi's house was, compared to Kaori's, very new. The walls were mortar and plaster but adorned with wallpaper, and the floor was distinctly western in style. Megumi's mother, being a fastidious person, kept the house well cleaned, with flowers arranged in the entryway, and small trinkets lining the shelves. Kaori had always thought of Megumi's house like this, as a place that had felt very stylish.

And yet, tonight, it looked different. Megumi's mother didn't go as far as to wear casual night gowns like Kaori's mother but, she was indeed dressed comfortably and normally, and she had no makeup on. The inside of the house, too, if you looked closely, was already starting to show the colors of age, and the florists's decorations, too, seemed somewhat jumbled up.

With a complicated feeling, she climbed the stairs to Megumi's room, where there was a stuffed animal beneath the bedroom door nameplate, holding onto a dried flower but, something about that, too, seemed to have a layer of dust, as if it, too, were going terribly downhill.

She knocked ant opened the door. The truth was that Kaori had always admired the perfectly western room of Megumi's, overflowing with girlish little knickknacks and yet, tonight under the florescent lights, it seemed terribly washed out. It was a completely ordinary room. The only thing different from Kaori's old worn out room was just that it was filled with newer things, nothing more---

"Megumi-chan, how are you feeling?"

She entered the room and came by the bedside. It didn't seem like Megumi was asleep, her eyes were open, with a gloomy look.

"You're looking pale. Are you okay?"

Megumi gave a sluggish nod, but she might have just been half asleep.

Kaori pulled out a small stool that a stuffed animal had been sitting on, moved the stuffed animal out of the way and sat. Considering the strange lack of vividness in the room tonight, she looked at Megumi, thinking that this was what Megumi had been staring at all this time. Kaori had come to think of Megumi's room as just amazing but maybe to Megumi it had always looked to be these colors. So, she always went up and down that hill, always looked up to that house. Certainly there was no comparison to this house and Kaori's huose with that house at Kanemasa. Although, there was no doubt that the "something" that this home seemed to be faking was a "something" that house genuinely possessed.

The voices of the insects rode in on the wind through the open window. Kaori peered into Megumi's face, that seemed somehow so vastly far off.

"So, like, it was really amazing. Just now, who do you think I met?"

Megumi didn't answer. Still, her gaze, if only that, shifted towards her.

"They said their name was Kirishiki. The people from that mansion. I met the lady of the house. She's called Chizuru-san. She was such a pretty person!"

Megumi's shoulder had only a twitch of movement.

"It's the first time I'd seem someone put on makeup and earings, even though she was just walking through the village! But, it really suited her. It didn't feel flashy like, it was more what you'd call elegant, maybe?"

"I know...."

Eh, Kaori looked at Megumi. Megumi's expression seemed to possess a certain bite to it.

"I know... at least, that much."

Kaori blinked as Megumi wore a thin smile. Some part of her expression seemed to be scoffing at Kaori.

"She's beautiful.... so, very beautiful...."

Kaori tilted her head, watching Megumi's facial expression attentively.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

well... Both the manga and anime (OVA) have the pipeline scene, so I'm sure the novel has it too. I like that particular scene too, it's very powerful (though the OVA is slightly different at the end) it's such a turning point too, the humans who initially vowed to only fight against Shiki, have reached a point to murder fellow humans as well, just because they're 'suspicious'. I'm really looking forward to how it goes in the novel.

I'm actually very strict about canon, so that's why I don't really want to rely on the manga/anime. What comes from Ono herself is the most original, most canon, so for analyzing stuffs/taking conclusions or stuffs, I'll mainly refer to the novel. But she's awesome and all that jazz so I have faith that hers is the best. (though regarding Shiki, in the past I'd just take what I could get T.T I didn't even expect that it'd be made anime you know) but nowww we have the novel as well, thanks to youuuuu 8DD

True! It's a little different between versions, but I like both the version where my favorite character gets a little more badass time (manga), and the version where it's more a shot of the general villagers (anime, novel).

I can appreciate being a purist at heart. I think the anime and manga add enough specific to their medium to appreciate independently, but as someone who can't accept dubs or "localized" translations (they don't bring enough unique to the medium to justify a complete erasure and unofficial reinterpretation of a substantial part of the media--namely, the original voice track or meaning. Though, if they change enough to be a full rewrite with its own creative merits that stand out independent from its base material, for example a parody, that's different.), I see where you're coming from in absolute loyalty to the source. I myself consider anything in the novels *not* contradicted in the anime/manga to be canon for the anime/manga, but not vice-versa.

So I assume Seishin does have a secret woodland path to Ozaki's house and that he's in the habit of letting himself in. I assume Mitsuo-san does know about Seishin's scar and that whispers of Atsushi or Seishin or Ikebe being behind Megumi's disappearance still happened, even though we see nothing to suggest this in the anime.

But I don't assume there were any whispers of Ritsuko dating Natsuno or Tohru in the novels, even though it's there in the first episode of the anime. I don't assume Anime!Ricchan has a boyfriend/psuedofiance, that anyone visited the Kanemasa house during the search in the anime (they did in the manga, but Tatsumi didn't join the search). I don't assume Kaori knew about Megumi's Natsuno Stalking in the anime (because how could she not think of that when teaming up with him? "I don't know why Megumi-chan's mad at me!" makes no sense when she's been so close with Natsuno for the last month). I don't assume Megumi knew or hung out with Tohru's sister or little brother (in the novels later it'll show she knows them) since she goes into their house with absolutely no thoughts beyond "I don't like this guy, he's closer to my love interest than me." Actually, I don't assume *anything* from the anime about the Mutous in the novel, with Tohru's drastic change... though, I can appreciate the purpose of those changes from a writer's standpoint.

I feel comfortable assuming a flow from the source to the spin-off, but absolutely not with the reverse. In a way you could consider that a way of establishing first and second tier canon in the mind. Of course it's most valid to assume absolutely no flow from the source to the spin-off, to make no assumptions at all... but as someone playing with the canon in roleplay (or fanfic, or doujinshi, or whatever people play with), I prefer to source anything I have to assume to *something* official other than making things up myself if possible. It feels more justifiable. Or is that a self-serving excuse not to be creative?

Edited 2013-10-29 10:45 (UTC)

ah, you've mentioned before that you RP. I think I can understand, that those who RP/fics/doujinshi will want to consult every assumedly official sources. As for me though, I yearn for most original/canon materials, to the point that I'm ready to ditch any spinoff/adaptation, especially if they're not faithful to the original - except for fun. But it'll not be 100% fun to me if it's not the original, as in 'the absolute truth'. I guess I'm sort of idealistic this way? Even outside Shiki, I stick to the most original. If a manga title is the most original, I'll be completely okay with not watching the anime, as long as I've read the manga. Even if the adaptation/spinoff is better. But they're not the most canon? So it's no use to me.

Unfufufufufufufu. Given that I know several novel spoilers already, I know what to come. Fufufufufufu I'm really looking forward to thaaaatttt.

Even if the manga is the original, I wouldn't knock what color, motion, sound, music and voice can bring to a loyal adaptation, and there are too many Monkey Punch approved variants of Lupin III to cast them aside for being a different take on the same franchise. The animations aren't even internally loyal and re-do histories already covered once before for kicks!

I'd still say they're their own canon if there's enough variation that stands on its own independent of its base; Shiki is a Japanese adaptation of Salem's Lot, after all. Somehow, I don't think too many people would argue we should be calling Ozaki Dr. Cody or Seishin Father Callahan. Though you have given me a fantastic idea for an April Fool's update...

because of that, you could say that now my Shiki life depends on you. Because you're the one translating it. I'm actually quite pleased with the anime and manga. I love the black and white drawing style, and I looove the OSTs (my favorite is Eau de Vie). I'm not happy with the changes Fujisaki made though, why I'm so novel-biased.

What kind of idea? Is it about novel translation?

That's a lot of pressure. Hopefully I manage to carry across all her ideas and moods.

I'm not sure which I like best yet of the three. Between the anime and the manga I swing sliiiightly towards the anime, but I really think the manga did some things excellently which can only be done effectively in manga. The anime carried the serious tone and atmosphere best, but in manga you can have a gag panel or face and not interrupt the mood as jarringly as one would if a sudden joke were thrown into the anime. And in the manga, raving lunatic Yuuki is funny and just a little awesome for how shamelessly shounen action hectic tense it was... in the anime, I think it'd be hard to have scenes like that in there without breaking the otherwise serious climactic doomed tension of things. This slow, gradual, absorbing pace that first sucks you into the village is also something I don't think would work as well in a serialized medium where fans expect to know what they're in for within about three episodes/chapters, but it's great in a novel, a medium for those with a little more patience.

Look forward to it in April. Kukuku.

Ah, please don't feel pressured. I don't intend to pressure you. I have faith in your ability, only that pleaseeeee don't stop translating (especially out of a sudden) you know, the history with dead translations...

woooo, April is still a long time. But I'll be looking forward to it! 8D

I second it! I don't know how you do it, but your translations are always unfailingly top-notch. I always check like at least once a day for updates especially when I'm not home I'm like "yesssss, I get to read Shiki when I get home!"

Oh god I don't know if I should be scared or excited for April....

Shiki Novel Translations 7.2

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