Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-08-29 02:38 pm
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-08-29 02:38 pm
Entry tags:
Shiki Novel Translations 3.18.1
1
It was the thirty-first, the Monday Toshio had been awaiting in order to head to the town hall. There was no time left for indecision. He would gather the documents and seek help outside the village. Toshio had no choice but to accept the fact that the situation getting this bad in the first place was the result of his own decisions.
As he entered the branch office, he found the inside deserted. The office wasn't that big to begin with, and there was nobody within. Toshio instinctively looked to his watch. Comparing it to the office clock, it was indeed not the lunch hour. The desk was abandoned without an owner. --Yes, abandoned, word strongly fit the impression the scene gave.
When he looked around wondering why nobody was there, an aged figure appeared from the back. If he remembered right, it was Kami-Sotoba's Hirosawa Takafumi.
"Takafumi-san."
"Aa, well if it isn't the Junior Doctor."
The old man gave a broad smile, but Toshio couldn't quell his suspicions. Takafumi and his wife both should have been making a living in forestry and farming. He couldn't make sense of why Takafumi would be in a government office.
"Why are you..."
"Well, you see," Takafumi rubbed at his receding hairline. "Lately, I haven't been able to make it in the mountains. There's a lot of wild dogs. Dangerous stuff, dangerous. And I'm getting old too, so just when I was thinking of giving up on the mountains and the rice fields to live a quiet life on a pension, there was talk about whether I wouldn't come work at the office here, and."
"Aa--That right. And? The other employees?"
"Ha, about that. No one's here in the day."
"Not here? Bullshit."
"All the same. They're not here. I heard the head of the office has something wrong with his body, sounds like he can only come out at night. There's paperwork that has to have his stamp of approval on it, but if that's how things are with the big man himself, then it's not like those forms will get processed during the day. So now it seems all the staff come in at night. During the daytime, it's just me watching over the place."
Toshio was dumbfounded. "That's... Bullshit."
"Not much I can say to that. If you have some paperwork to turn in, I'll be sure to pass them on. Although if you need something certified, you'll have to come back in tomorrow to pick it up. If it's urgent, please try again tonight. Around seven's when the staff are here."
"Takafumi-san, I'm trying to get copies of death certificates. If you can, I wanna inspect the family registers, too."
"Then, please come again tonight," Takafumi gave a strained, apologetic smile. "I wouldn't know anything about all that. I really am just house sitting. Things like that, I can't just go messing with myself. All of that's in a locker, under lock and key."
Sorry for the trouble, Takafumi bowed to Toshio was he left the office, distracted. Come to think of it, he'd heard something about the town hall having some kind of night window or something, hadn't he? Wondering just what the hell was happening, he puzzled while waiting out the evening, once again getting in his car and leaving the hospital. He couldn't muster up the mood to walk on foot through the village once the sun had set on it.
It was past eight o'clock but the windows of the town hall were lit up. Even before entering, he could see the office full of people busy at work through the glass door. Workers standing and working. Two, three customers, the noise of the office machines. An utterly garden variety office scene. ---Or it would be, were it not at night.
Toshio entered the town hall. He looked over the people working within, but there wasn't a single face he recognized. In his consternation, he went towards the counter where a thinning middle aged man looked up to him.
"Excuse me, is the public health official here?"
The man gave an apologetic smile and said that he wasn't. "The last Public Health Official vanished on us. Since then we still haven't found the right person for the position. ---Is there something I might help with?"
"That's..." Toshio couldn't stop himself from subconsciously reassessing his surroundings again and again. "I want to know the number of deaths since September."
The man's eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I'm not able to give you an answer to that one. If you absolutely must know, I'll have to ask you to inquire at the office in Mizobe."
"I'm---I'm Ozaki. From the hospital."
"Yes, I know that. Even so, I'm unable to answer. There are regulations."
"That can't be right. I've asked before and gotten answers. I wanna know the number of deaths. If possible, with copies of the death certificates."
"Surely you jest. We can't show those documents to somebody who isn't an official."
"I've done it before."
"I don't know what you've done before," the man flatly brushed aside his protest with his faint smile still in place. "But as for me, I haven't received any orders to that effect. Nobody's said that Ozaki-san is an exception, nor have I any orders to give you special treatment."
Toshio took a long, hard look at his face. The man smiled mockingly. Maybe it was just the florescent lights, but the face of the man with the thin smile looked to have a poor complexion.
"My, if you're that upset about it, take it up with the Chief or with the Town Hall."
"Then get me the Chief. Since there's no Public Health Official, doesn't seem I have much choice."
"The Chief has stepped out, but I do believe he'll be back shortly."
"Then I'll wait."
"As you wish. ---Although, even if you do wait, I don't think anything will come of it."
"What does that mean....?"
"After all," the man said with a low laugh. "You're asking about the death count since September, Doctor? And for copies of the death certificates?"
"...That's right."
"Once you discuss it with the Bureau Chief, and if he does give the OK, I will give you the death toll. But as for the copies, well. I know I won't be doing that."
Toshio's head tilted. The man gave a jeering laugh.
"After all, there aren't any. Who can give out death certificates if there haven't been any dead to certify?"
For a moment, Toshio couldn't make sense of those words. "...What the hell?"
"As I've said. Since September, there haven't been any villagers who have died here. Therefore, there's nothing for me to turn over a copy of. --Not a single certificate."
"...Bullshit. That's impossible. Just the other day, my own wife!"
Even if you say that, the man smiled. "In August, there were about four consecutive deaths. But since then, at least until today, not a single villager has died."
"That can't be true. There are real---"
"Ah, there was some fuss with Ishida-san, the Public Health Official, who had given some kind of instruction to Tanaka-san who oversees the family registers, though. Some kind of prattle about delaying the documents that were supposed to be sent to the government office in the city. And then the town hall itself started to pester him. He hurried and looked into it and somehow got it into his head that people who hadn't died had, and in his hurry he'd made a fake list. But he has since corrected it and submitted the corrected reports."
Toshio stood mouth agape. ---Yes, the one who had asked Ishida to stop forwarding on the reports was none other than Toshio himself. But he had just assumed that that had stopped once Ishida had disappeared.
"There's no way," Toshio glared at the man. "I'm a doctor. I, a doctor, have written real death certificates. I've got the documentation."
"That's very troubling," the man laughed. "That'd be considered forgery, Doctor."
Listen up, Toshio pointed to the man. "You're making a big mistake if you think this kind of fraud's gonna work. There are real people in the village, at the national hospital, at the cooperative hospital who tended to the patients. You wanna say none of them have died since September? There's no way they haven't. Yasumori Mikiyasu died in September. He went to the national hospital by ambulance with his son Susumu, both of them confirmed dead there. If it comes down to it, you want me to drag in their attending physician in?"
Ah, the man laughed easily. "Mikiyasu-san from the construction firm? But he had moved out before his death."
Toshio's eyes widened. The man's challenging stare held Toshio frozen in place. Smiling faintly all the while.
"He submitted his transfer notice at the end of August, you see. Oh, it seems he still stayed in the village but according to the town hall records, neither he, his wife, nor his son were villagers any longer. And therefore, the death count is zero."
At a loss for words, a growl rumbled deep within his throat. He found himself looking about the office for help, finding the other office workers watching over their exchange with thin smiles.
---So that's, that's how it is, then?
Toshio thought, feeling as if he'd been knocked down. The string of moves, the string of deaths, the people who commuted in from out of town to work, the people who commuted out of town to work, all without exception had filed their resignation. He finally understood: all of it was to conceal their deaths.
Toshio turned away without a word. He literally ran away from the office, fleeing into his car.
The village death toll was officially zero. Those weren't just words, there was no mistaking that all adjustments had been made to support it. Toshio had access to his medical records and the death certificates he had filled out but if none of them were recorded in the all important family register, then indeed if he started waving those about carelessly, Toshio himself wouldn't be able to avoid charges of forgery of personal documents. ---No, if death certificates were discovered for people who hadn't died, it would be easily rearranged into a different kind of crime, wouldn't it?
Thinking through it that far, Toshio smiled.
(Nonsense.)
Gripping the steering wheel, He lightly smacked himself in the head.
The family register at the town hall and Toshio's own records were two sides of a balance sheet that didn't add up. He could wield that much to get the attention of someone outside the village. It wouldn't be impossible to raise at least some doubt about which was was correct, and as long as they couldn't erase people's memories of the numerous deaths, it wouldn't be impossible to prove that his were correct. If the government looked into it, this fraud would be exposed in an instant. ---But.
(I bet they won't let me get away with that.)
They just had to erase Toshio the way they erased Ishida. Then they could rearrange the official records to match all appearances.
"...They got me."
It was the thirty-first, the Monday Toshio had been awaiting in order to head to the town hall. There was no time left for indecision. He would gather the documents and seek help outside the village. Toshio had no choice but to accept the fact that the situation getting this bad in the first place was the result of his own decisions.
As he entered the branch office, he found the inside deserted. The office wasn't that big to begin with, and there was nobody within. Toshio instinctively looked to his watch. Comparing it to the office clock, it was indeed not the lunch hour. The desk was abandoned without an owner. --Yes, abandoned, word strongly fit the impression the scene gave.
When he looked around wondering why nobody was there, an aged figure appeared from the back. If he remembered right, it was Kami-Sotoba's Hirosawa Takafumi.
"Takafumi-san."
"Aa, well if it isn't the Junior Doctor."
The old man gave a broad smile, but Toshio couldn't quell his suspicions. Takafumi and his wife both should have been making a living in forestry and farming. He couldn't make sense of why Takafumi would be in a government office.
"Why are you..."
"Well, you see," Takafumi rubbed at his receding hairline. "Lately, I haven't been able to make it in the mountains. There's a lot of wild dogs. Dangerous stuff, dangerous. And I'm getting old too, so just when I was thinking of giving up on the mountains and the rice fields to live a quiet life on a pension, there was talk about whether I wouldn't come work at the office here, and."
"Aa--That right. And? The other employees?"
"Ha, about that. No one's here in the day."
"Not here? Bullshit."
"All the same. They're not here. I heard the head of the office has something wrong with his body, sounds like he can only come out at night. There's paperwork that has to have his stamp of approval on it, but if that's how things are with the big man himself, then it's not like those forms will get processed during the day. So now it seems all the staff come in at night. During the daytime, it's just me watching over the place."
Toshio was dumbfounded. "That's... Bullshit."
"Not much I can say to that. If you have some paperwork to turn in, I'll be sure to pass them on. Although if you need something certified, you'll have to come back in tomorrow to pick it up. If it's urgent, please try again tonight. Around seven's when the staff are here."
"Takafumi-san, I'm trying to get copies of death certificates. If you can, I wanna inspect the family registers, too."
"Then, please come again tonight," Takafumi gave a strained, apologetic smile. "I wouldn't know anything about all that. I really am just house sitting. Things like that, I can't just go messing with myself. All of that's in a locker, under lock and key."
Sorry for the trouble, Takafumi bowed to Toshio was he left the office, distracted. Come to think of it, he'd heard something about the town hall having some kind of night window or something, hadn't he? Wondering just what the hell was happening, he puzzled while waiting out the evening, once again getting in his car and leaving the hospital. He couldn't muster up the mood to walk on foot through the village once the sun had set on it.
It was past eight o'clock but the windows of the town hall were lit up. Even before entering, he could see the office full of people busy at work through the glass door. Workers standing and working. Two, three customers, the noise of the office machines. An utterly garden variety office scene. ---Or it would be, were it not at night.
Toshio entered the town hall. He looked over the people working within, but there wasn't a single face he recognized. In his consternation, he went towards the counter where a thinning middle aged man looked up to him.
"Excuse me, is the public health official here?"
The man gave an apologetic smile and said that he wasn't. "The last Public Health Official vanished on us. Since then we still haven't found the right person for the position. ---Is there something I might help with?"
"That's..." Toshio couldn't stop himself from subconsciously reassessing his surroundings again and again. "I want to know the number of deaths since September."
The man's eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I'm not able to give you an answer to that one. If you absolutely must know, I'll have to ask you to inquire at the office in Mizobe."
"I'm---I'm Ozaki. From the hospital."
"Yes, I know that. Even so, I'm unable to answer. There are regulations."
"That can't be right. I've asked before and gotten answers. I wanna know the number of deaths. If possible, with copies of the death certificates."
"Surely you jest. We can't show those documents to somebody who isn't an official."
"I've done it before."
"I don't know what you've done before," the man flatly brushed aside his protest with his faint smile still in place. "But as for me, I haven't received any orders to that effect. Nobody's said that Ozaki-san is an exception, nor have I any orders to give you special treatment."
Toshio took a long, hard look at his face. The man smiled mockingly. Maybe it was just the florescent lights, but the face of the man with the thin smile looked to have a poor complexion.
"My, if you're that upset about it, take it up with the Chief or with the Town Hall."
"Then get me the Chief. Since there's no Public Health Official, doesn't seem I have much choice."
"The Chief has stepped out, but I do believe he'll be back shortly."
"Then I'll wait."
"As you wish. ---Although, even if you do wait, I don't think anything will come of it."
"What does that mean....?"
"After all," the man said with a low laugh. "You're asking about the death count since September, Doctor? And for copies of the death certificates?"
"...That's right."
"Once you discuss it with the Bureau Chief, and if he does give the OK, I will give you the death toll. But as for the copies, well. I know I won't be doing that."
Toshio's head tilted. The man gave a jeering laugh.
"After all, there aren't any. Who can give out death certificates if there haven't been any dead to certify?"
For a moment, Toshio couldn't make sense of those words. "...What the hell?"
"As I've said. Since September, there haven't been any villagers who have died here. Therefore, there's nothing for me to turn over a copy of. --Not a single certificate."
"...Bullshit. That's impossible. Just the other day, my own wife!"
Even if you say that, the man smiled. "In August, there were about four consecutive deaths. But since then, at least until today, not a single villager has died."
"That can't be true. There are real---"
"Ah, there was some fuss with Ishida-san, the Public Health Official, who had given some kind of instruction to Tanaka-san who oversees the family registers, though. Some kind of prattle about delaying the documents that were supposed to be sent to the government office in the city. And then the town hall itself started to pester him. He hurried and looked into it and somehow got it into his head that people who hadn't died had, and in his hurry he'd made a fake list. But he has since corrected it and submitted the corrected reports."
Toshio stood mouth agape. ---Yes, the one who had asked Ishida to stop forwarding on the reports was none other than Toshio himself. But he had just assumed that that had stopped once Ishida had disappeared.
"There's no way," Toshio glared at the man. "I'm a doctor. I, a doctor, have written real death certificates. I've got the documentation."
"That's very troubling," the man laughed. "That'd be considered forgery, Doctor."
Listen up, Toshio pointed to the man. "You're making a big mistake if you think this kind of fraud's gonna work. There are real people in the village, at the national hospital, at the cooperative hospital who tended to the patients. You wanna say none of them have died since September? There's no way they haven't. Yasumori Mikiyasu died in September. He went to the national hospital by ambulance with his son Susumu, both of them confirmed dead there. If it comes down to it, you want me to drag in their attending physician in?"
Ah, the man laughed easily. "Mikiyasu-san from the construction firm? But he had moved out before his death."
Toshio's eyes widened. The man's challenging stare held Toshio frozen in place. Smiling faintly all the while.
"He submitted his transfer notice at the end of August, you see. Oh, it seems he still stayed in the village but according to the town hall records, neither he, his wife, nor his son were villagers any longer. And therefore, the death count is zero."
At a loss for words, a growl rumbled deep within his throat. He found himself looking about the office for help, finding the other office workers watching over their exchange with thin smiles.
---So that's, that's how it is, then?
Toshio thought, feeling as if he'd been knocked down. The string of moves, the string of deaths, the people who commuted in from out of town to work, the people who commuted out of town to work, all without exception had filed their resignation. He finally understood: all of it was to conceal their deaths.
Toshio turned away without a word. He literally ran away from the office, fleeing into his car.
The village death toll was officially zero. Those weren't just words, there was no mistaking that all adjustments had been made to support it. Toshio had access to his medical records and the death certificates he had filled out but if none of them were recorded in the all important family register, then indeed if he started waving those about carelessly, Toshio himself wouldn't be able to avoid charges of forgery of personal documents. ---No, if death certificates were discovered for people who hadn't died, it would be easily rearranged into a different kind of crime, wouldn't it?
Thinking through it that far, Toshio smiled.
(Nonsense.)
Gripping the steering wheel, He lightly smacked himself in the head.
The family register at the town hall and Toshio's own records were two sides of a balance sheet that didn't add up. He could wield that much to get the attention of someone outside the village. It wouldn't be impossible to raise at least some doubt about which was was correct, and as long as they couldn't erase people's memories of the numerous deaths, it wouldn't be impossible to prove that his were correct. If the government looked into it, this fraud would be exposed in an instant. ---But.
(I bet they won't let me get away with that.)
They just had to erase Toshio the way they erased Ishida. Then they could rearrange the official records to match all appearances.
"...They got me."
Relevant flashback
no subject
(Anonymous) 2021-11-03 03:37 am (UTC)(link)no subject
For example, if you want to know if something is more formal or informal language, etc. or even if you're just not sure of a nuance on a line you could translate a couple of ways in Spanish. I don't know any Spanish, but I can try to explain what the Japanese feel is, or may be alerted to some nuance I unintentionally added in English.
If you give me a link to where you're translating it, I'll also put a link to it on the Shiki Master Translation post.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2022-03-18 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
Thank you
(Anonymous) 2022-06-15 06:00 am (UTC)(link)I’ve been reading your translation of Shi Ki for 5 years. I’m always so glad to see another chapter translated. We’ve reached the half of this novel, what a journey !