sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 3.14.1

It was the morning of the twenty-second. Yasumori Kazuya awoke hearing a strange noise. As he started to rise from the bed, his wife Junko beside him in the bed was having convulsions. He rushed to call for an ambulance but his wife had died without ever even reaching the cooperative hospital. Acute heart failure, it was diagnosed.

Yasumori Atsuko was stupefied by her daughter in law's death, and yet somewhere in her mind she ruminated on a single phrase. She couldn't forget those words said by Itou Ikumi: "The Risen." Something was out there. And it wished for their demise. She couldn't shake the sense that there was was something that appeared in the night, that it was something that was some class of Oni. It had devoured its way through the branch family and was now sneaking its way into Atsuko's household. She could not escape the premotion that from thereon, the Oni would thrive in the horror it wrought to her surroundings, and Atsuko's household would be obliterated from the very roots.

(That just isn't possible....)

The Risen, honestly. The only ones who believed in such things were religious fanatics like Imuki. And even Atsuko knew what a farce Ikumi's accusations had been shown to be.

Yet, as Atsuko was bringing her daughter-in-law's corpse back to the village, she couldn't help but sense something ominous in the scenery beyond the car window. The various people continuing to die, the various people continuing to abandon the village. Coinciding with that, the outsiders who had come. There were so many like Sasaki whose character was unknown, or like those who dwelt in Kanemasa whom nobody had ever laid eyes on. New inhabitants who weren't there when they should be, vacated houses all about, there was a dark presence lurking within all of it. That which had invaded the village, lurking at every turn: "Death."

(But Oni, really. They don't exist.)

Atsuko insisted to herself. She could declare with absolute certainty that it was true.

(But just the same...)

Death continued at the contractor's firm. In Atsuko's home this made the second one dead after Giichi. While she didn't particularly believe in the superstitious, just the same it was clear that she had felt it a bad sign.

Yes--This time, if she had the chance, she would go to Mizobe, pay a visit to the shrine, and have an exorcism performed. It would achieve nothing more than easing her mind, but there was something to be said for easing the mind for its own sake.

As she was thinking that, her husband Kazunari spoke distantly.

"What'll we do about Jun-chan's funeral?"

What'll we do, Atsuko blinked. Kazunari gripped at the steering wheel glumly, his eyes forward.

"Lately it feels like a lotta things're being neglected. When I think about it, memorial services and rituals just feel like they've gotten mechanical."

"That's true--they really have."

"Of course we gotta stay humble. That's why I wanna be sure to do Jun-chan's service right and proper, but. It's just, Jun-chan said she'd made some kinda contrast with the Sotoba Undertakers, didn't she?"

Atsuko made a face. Yes, Junko got some thought in her head that had her going not to the Ozaki Hospital but taking herself to the Ebuchi Clinic, and it was there that she had put her seal on a contract with the Sotoba Undertaker service. Atsuko set her gaze on her son's car driving ahead of theirs. Her son Kazuya had been surprised to hear it as well, but Atsuko had been both surprised and aghast. It was incredibly ill-omened, she had thought, and the contract was said to be for a secular service. It would mean there would be no call for a monk, but with their connection to the temple there was no way that that could happen.

"So, whadda you think about doing it the way Jun-chan wanted it done?"

"That's, of course not!"

"But you saw the old man's service and how that went. No one but the Junior Monk even came. The temple's got their hands full. So when you think of it like that, it almost feels bad even asking the temple, and don't it make you feel bad for Jun-chan thinking about it being such a sad, lonely thing like that again?"

"...That is true."

"It sounds like the Undertaker's services are a little weird but it sounds like they do take care of anything and everything. If that's the case, doesn't that mean we don't have to think about nothing and can just focus on thinking about Jun-chan? That's how I figure."

That may be so, thought Atsuko, her eyes falling down to the envelope containing the death certificate in her hands. In order to bury in the village, one had to turn over the document to the branch office or they wouldn't receive the permit for the burial. How many times had it been now that she'd turned in this document, that she'd gotten the permit? How many times had they gone to a worn down, painful, nerve-wracking funeral service? If she were to speak honestly, Atsuko too was reluctant to have another funeral like the ones they'd had lately. It wasn't that she was making light of Junko's death, but now she wanted to leave everything that could be left to others for them to do, and to only focus on mourning and missing her poor daughter-in-law.

"You're right. ... Let's talk it over with Kazuya."

"Yeah. ---Hey, when Jun-chan's service is over, how's about we pay a visit to Hachiman-sama's shrine?"

Atsuko gave a powerful nod. "Yes, I think that we should."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi there, found your translation of Shiki a yr and half ago, and seriously thank you for restarting translating again

Thanks for continuing to check about to see that it started up again!

Welcome back!!! I’m so happy, thank you for continuing. After all these years, Shiki still stays number one in my heart...

Thanks for sticking around! Shiki really is hard to let go of.

I’m positive I’ll never let go of Shiki. But it rly gets lonely this side of Hell... so I’m rly rly glad that you’re continuing, and I have another reader friend too who’s been enjoying the translation!!

!!!!

I am so excited you're updating again! I recently started rping natsuno and your translation has been such a joy to read and so well documented and detailed.

Roleplaying's something that makes me particularly eager to translate! I like when fans and RPers really care about the source material. Animanga Natsuno's a pretty different character from his novel self, but I hope it's still useful to helping you feel the Sotoba setting he's in.

Actually, I personally think Natsuno's pretty much the same between the three versions, and that Tohru, someone close to him, is different, and the things which happen to him are different. But I consider the novel insight into animanga Natsuno, myself. His seiyuu did a really good job bringing his maturity and callousness while also capturing the gentleness in the novel narrative and some of his more age-appropriate youth and mysteriousness.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy him even more for this and that it's useful to you!

I am definately one of those (reads all source materials just to get the best representation I can) :).

In my opinion I think they are pretty much the same, it's just the difference circumstances like you said—the line about how he was kinda bribed to go to Shimizu's funeral with the promise of ice cream is a good example, I live for little details like this. I also appreciate how he is softer in the novel and you can see him joking around more (did he ever laugh in the anime?), it's really helped for rp purposes.

Actually a question, feel free to mark as spoiler warning for others but the jinrou storyline is animanga only right? I pretty much play him as animanga with novel as strong supplemental, but I've always been curious if there's !novel natsuno jinrou.

I definitely do! I've enjoyed Natsuno more than I ever though I would tbh, haha :>.

An engaging read. It's lovely to see that you are translating this story again.

Hey I'm soooo happy that you're back to Shiki <3 I hope you'll manage to end it so we all of us Shiki addicts' souls that haven't read the novels souls can be put to rest haha! In the anime and manga I always seemed to like Megumi the most out of all the characters. I could quite relate with her, I also hated my hometown when I was younger and was constantly judged for being different and more open to the world than the rest. I am also very possessive of people, where I also related to Megumi haha. I am curious about her personality in the novels though and very impatient so could you tell me a little about her? Is she supposed to be likable to dislikable, in the anime they tried really hard to make us either Love her to death or Despise her but in the novels so far she seems alright and very understandable and well-developed <3 Thanks once again for updating this masterpiece

Thank you for continuing shiki. I really appreciate it. Since years back when the anime aired, someone says that the novel way better and more angst than anime so I really curious, but unfortunately the novel didn't have English version. You are such lifesaver. thankyou

I never thought I’d be able to read more of the shiki novels unless I learned Japanese or sth. Today I checked your dw profile, not expecting anything new to be there, then I discovered this and it made my day!
I haven’t read it yet, as I think it’d be more fun to reread the entire thing after such a long pause, so it’ll take some time until I’ll read this... but thank you so much in advance!

I just had an idea: how about a discord server for all of us who are reading (or working on, which is very cool of you) this translation to discuss the book and the adaptations and have some fun? Just some random idea.

Anyways, thank you so much for your translations and that you started making new ones again^^

would definitely second the discord idea.

Hello there! I found these translations a while ago, and I'm so glad that I did. I'm glad that you're continuing with it.
I know that it can be hard, so take your time, I'll be waiting for your next update. Once again, thank you for this translation!

I have a habit of periodically coming back to check for any updates (or to read favourite chapters again) and whoa... it's always such a joy to see this updated. has been bookmarked for 4 years. shiki never really leaves my mind either. I'm beyond grateful for the insight the original work brings in tandem to the animanga regarding its characters and bizarre little world, thank you!!

I'm really glad you resumed translating Shi Ki!!

I'm doing my last year of english literature analysis on it. (I'm french). Which is a terrible idea when the whole thing isn't translated yet xD But f*ck it, it fits in the thematic and I love Shi Ki.
I'm eager to read the whole story at last. And jesus I hope I'll have enough material to work on by the end of my school year xD

— Skurdandi

Thank you for continuing it, I had Shiki in the back in my mind for a while but I’ve been incredibly busy lately. I finally had the time to check if this was update and it was. I hope everything is going well for you, I haven’t commented it a few years now and last time I did you were very busy as well.

Shiki Novel Translations 3.14.1

Thanks for restarting

no subject

8D

no subject

8D

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I’m so glad you’re translated more chapters again!!

Re: I’m so glad you’re translated more chapters again!!

Thank you for the Translation!!!

-

Thank you very much!

Thank you so much