Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-02-15 07:27 pm
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-02-15 07:27 pm
Shiki Novel Translations 3.16.2
October 27th. Word of Takemura Akiko's death came in. Toshio left the hospital. A notification came in to the staff awaiting his return that the child of the Tayo bookstore had died.
"Tayo-san's.... I see." Mutou shook his head helplessly. "When he came by before, I thought that it might be that, but. I guess it was after all, huh."
"Yes......"
The Tayo family must have been heartbroken. ---Or, Ritsuko thought. Did they understand it instead as that at last the inevitable had come to them?
The deaths were only picking up steam, unceasingly. The Ebuchi Clinic's inpatients as well as the patients at the hospitals outside the village were sure to be dying as well, so the deaths they knew of weren't likely to be all there were. And furthermore, today, Kiyomi didn't come in.
Ritsuko looked to the clock. Medical examination hours had already begun. Even now there was no contact at all from Kiyomi. Ritsuko swallowed back the words 'She isn't coming is she?' She thought that it went without saying. Yasuyo and Mutou likewise said nothing. But at times they turned their eyes to the clock, so it didn't seem likely that nobody had paid it any mind. Mutou had looked up at the clock countless times now, wordlessly shook his head and went into the office. That left only Ritsuko and Yasuyo in the breakroom.
"......The Junior Doctor's running himself that ragged over it and all," Yasuyo suddenly spoke up. When she looked towards her, Yasuyo smiled. "So things will work out here soon. From long ago, he's never known when to give up. He likes to make futile efforts out of spite, but in the end, he makes it work out, so even his futile efforts aren't something to dismiss."
"Is that right?"
"It is! It was like this when he was about to go to college. During his senior year, it seems he was told to lower his expectations for what rank of school he could get into. But he's just so obstinate. He took the test in vain, but he really did pass it. That's the kind of person he is."
Ritsuko laughed.
"The worse the situation is, the more into it he gets. With someone as bull headed as that, it can't continue like this. One way or another, he'll find a solution."
"......That's right."
When Toshio returned to the hospital, annoyed, reception desk was now open. In the 'in' tray were patients, death notices, and Nagata Kiyomi's resignation notice waiting for him.
"----Kiyomi-san's?"
Yasuyo nodded.
"Just now, she called."
Yasuyo didn't say anything more, but Toshio couldn't help but call to mind yesterday's uncomfortable conversation.
"That's.... gonna hurt. Don't think we can convince her?" Toshio asked, to which Yasuyo nodded.
"For the time being I tried calling and left a message, but. Well, she does have a husband and a child after all. With talk of an epidemic, it sounds like her husband had been pestering her quite a lot to quit."
I see, Toshio nodded.
"So honestly, is it?"
"Is it--what?"
"Is it really an epidemic?"
Toshio was at a loss for words.
"Somehow or another, it looks to be something else to me, these days. Though if someone were to ask me what, I couldn't say."
"To be honest, I don't know."
Is that right, Yasuyo sighed. Without asking any further, she returned to the waiting room. Toshio couldn't help letting out another sigh of his own. In a deadlocked state (what could he say to try to recruit any assistance?), the impending central threats. They were the dirt over the seed of apathy planted within him by the building weariness.
(It's not like I can do anything alone by myself, is it?!)
Burnout had descended upon him.
As Ritsuko carried out her job, she thought about Kiyomi. Yuki's disappearance, followed by Satoko, Kiyomi's resignation. The hospital had become quite lonely. It wasn't just the staff, the number of patients was lessening too. Due to the lessening staff, the relative workload didn't decrease but the absolute number of patients was lessening. And not just the patients of the new usual; there were now few of what used to be many before, those patients with trivial complaints. In the end, those who came t the hospital lately were whose who had been coming since long, long ago, with chronic diseases, or the injured, and those to were whittling down. --And that's scary, she thought.
The number of funerals wasn't lessening. This morning, two death notices came in. The deaths would not stop. Therefore the restlessness of the villagers would not abate. It was the same unease as ever, wasn't it? Then there should still be patients coming in with minor ailments. Why was it that those were those on the decline? And also, why were the now standard patients on the decline? It was the same as the decrease in patients with chronic illnesses or for physical therapy. It might have been that the number of people themselves was on the decline.
(Somehow, something very scary is happening......)
Ritsuko couldn't help but think that. Finishing her work with that uneasy thought, she returned home and yet could not calm down. Looking at the clock, she made up her mind. Putting on Tarou's leash, she left the house.
She would try talking to Kiyomi. Of course whether she quit or not was Kiyomi's own decision, but Ritsuko couldn't help feeling forlorn. Something somewhere, beyond her view, something scary was happening. And while it didn't make sense, the fact that she couldn't see it with her own eyes made her all the more uneasy.
Kiyomi's house was in Monzen. It wasn't all that far from Ritsuko's house. With Tarou in tow and taking relief in the houses that lit the night streets she walked, until she had come near to Kiyomi's house. That was when a large truck came in front of Ritsuko and passed her by. Without thinking, she turned to watch it go by.
--Takasago Shipping.
Suddenly she was struck by a strange premonition. Ritsuko hurried off the main road to the side road that lead to Kiyomi's house. Kiyomi's house had no lights on, and the storm shutters and windows were shut tight. When she hurried to the front entrance and rang the bell, there was no answer.
(......I thought so.)
She knocked on the neighbor's door. An old man poked his face out and told her, just as she feared, that Kiyomi's entire family had just now moved out.
(That's, it's ridiculous.)
If she had plans to move away, Kiyomi would have mentioned it sooner. Today, when she had called, she would have mentioned it as a reason that she was quitting. If she had said she had to quit because she was moving, it wouldn't rouse suspicion. ---And yet.
"......We're in the way, aren't we?"
The staff who supported Toshio. The existence of the Ozaki Clinic itself. That was why Shimoyama and Towada, the two part timers, and Yuki and Satoko and Kiyomi too, were...
(Someone who looked like Nao-san....)
It wasn't someone who looked like her. It was in fact Nao, without a doubt. This wasn't anything like an epidemic. That's why it targeted the hospital.
Suddenly her tears welled up. She would probably never see Kiyomi again. Nor Yuki, and surely not Satoko either. Ritsuko was sure of that.
"Everyone's gone... And there's nobody left."
Ritsuko knelt on the road and hugged her dog who let out a whimper. For a while, Tarou licked at Ritsuko's cheek as it to comfort her, but suddenly his voice changed to a fearful one.
Behind Ritsuko, a shadowy figure drew closer.
8D
(Anonymous) 2021-02-18 11:04 am (UTC)(link)I just love the little bit abt Toshio’s teenage days here — it’s exactly like how I imagined. The more ppl say he couldn’t do it, the more he’d endeavor to pull it off. But I’d also say that it wouldn’t be that much atypical for him to be able to pass into a good school — I remember a former senior telling him (in an earlier chapter way back) how he was a studious student, and I headcanon that he was a good student at least academically. Prob ppl’s reaction is like seeing a blonde woman and automatically think she’s dumb or so. Just bc Toshio is prone to acting like a bully, doesn’t mean he’s incapable of reflection and internal working.
Also dang, so Toshio is starting to get actual burnout. Well, it rly is impossible to do everything alone, and the Shiki rly aims to corner him and make him useless (Can’t wait for the Chizuru biting him part, bc then I rly feel he’s on the lowest stage of mentality with learning Seishin’s actual betrayal and stuff as well). then it’s so interesting how in the end he turns things around and kill Chizuru and stuff. Considering there’s no Natsuno to help him, prob he rly overrides her hypnosis thru spite alone.
Re: 8D
Maybe I should culture note what Japanese college exams are like; I don't know about Europe much, but compared to American schools where you submit applications, essays, etc., it's almost entirely based on passing a test for the specific school you're interested in. Big time schools have their own exam at their own level on the topics of their choosing; schools focused on sciences would skew harder towards that, ones focused on journalism would skew more towards language arts, etc. While schools can make special allowances with sports scholarships, etc., that's not the norm. Some lesser schools have them take a first tier, second tier, third tier etc. general test and take applicants based on the score, kind of like schools that have an ACT/SAT minimum level or "guaranteed over this level" bar. Counselors tend to assess Japanese students as to which exams they should take/colleges to apply to based on their grades in school, since grades tend to be based on test performance more than homework, so they consider it a pretty solid reflection of their test ability.
So I imagine the situation was akin to Toshio continuously getting a good score on the practice ACT, but not a 35 or whatever the school of choice has as its median, then managed to spite his way to the score he needed.
Or he might've been smart, but he was going to a Sotoba school; big fish, small pond, might have been told to curb his expectations.
I didn't even think about that; I should add that to the culture notes. Funny that I thought to explain divorce standards but not that. I guess I watch and play so many school oriented media I plum forgot it's not as common sense as "Japanese people take off their shoes when walking into a house."
Re: 8D
(Anonymous) 2021-02-19 12:27 am (UTC)(link)I wonder abt this: if I compare it to the map he might have gone to Kagoshima University or thereabout, and since it’s still in the prefecture I wonder if its ranking could compete with schools in bigger cities in Japan? Tho the author also didn’t rly point it out; aside from pointing out a place like Mizobe (which actually existed in Kagoshima) she didn’t rly point out which prefecture Shiki took place in it could v well semi-fictional. I do think he didn’t go outside Kyushu tho...