Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2022-12-26 01:23 pm
sinnesspiel) wrote2022-12-26 01:23 pm
Shiki Novel Translations 3.18.5
5
Yuuki returned home and dumped his belongings on the shoe rack in frustration.
"......Oni, he says? That's ridiculous!"
Yuuki spat those words out there. And yet he couldn't let go of how foolish Toshio was, of his indignation towards him.
"Of course they don't exist!"
Honestly, it was so stupid it wasn't even worth talking about. Talk about ignorance, and that was the only doctor in the village. He felt disgust even with himself, from the bottom of his heart, for ever wanting to move into this village.
"Even kids don't believe in that these days!"
Yuuki stormed angrily into the living room. The sun was still up but he had to drink. It was all so stupid, he was so mad he couldn't stand it.
"And he's a doctor of all things, how the hell!"
He slapped the table but the sound reverberated emptily. In a completely empty house, he sat there shouting alone. The part of himself that coldly observed his own behavior seemed to raise the question of which one of them was truly the fool.
"......It's ridiculous."
Yuuki's voice echoed through the emptiness, back into his own ears, sounding quite forlorn, devoid of spirit. Strangely, what came to his mind were the faces of the two siblings who had some to see his son.
That couldn't have been. Something like that shouldn't exist.
"It can't be."
It just couldn't be that those siblings were the ones who were right. If so, it'd mean heh had driven out those who would have saved his son. He had torn down the goods placed to protect his son, and driven his own son to his death.
"That can't be right."
Yuuki put his mouth to the glass and gulped. For some reason he couldn't stop the hand that was holding the glass from shaking.
This was something else. Maybe it was a new variety of illness. Perhaps its fatality rate was high, perhaps once contracted, no doctor no matter how cutting edge could save them.
---That obviously had to be it.
Hasegawa finished washing the glasses and looked about the empty shop. The younger staff at the hospital used to come to eat during the day time but lately not even they had come. Ever since Shimizu and Yuuki had had their household losses, they had come by less often, and there was a clear decrease in other regulars as well. He began closing up early at night. Part of it was because his wife had asked him to come back in the evenings, and part of it was that for some reason there were fewer customers at night as well. Hasegawa himself, thinking maybe he was just getting old, found it troublesome to keep the shop open at night these days too.
I'm tired, he thought. He and Toshio both. Maybe the entirety of the village.
A strange loss of will power, a feeling of emptiness that coiled around one's self, and smoldering at the heart of that a sense of anxiety. That was how it had been when he had lost his son. He was adverse to anything and everything, found it hollow, and it seemed inescapable. An impetus to cast aside everything.
For a time, Hasegawa sat alone at the counter, lending an ear to the sound of a melancholy saxophone. When he finally stood, he switched off the stereo. He thought about closing down the shop.
Maybe he'd stay in the village still, or maybe he'd move somewhere else. Hasegawa was always a rootless tumbleweed to begin with. He cast aside his roots in the city and drifted into this village. Maybe drifting out of here would be fine too. He didn't feel especially uneasy. It was just that wherever he went, he'd get by somehow.
Anways, before all that, he should maybe take his wife somewhere, travel. Yeah. Maybe as soon as tomorrow. He thought about the two heading to a hot springs to take it easy, and from there, they'd discuss what do to from here on.
Tashiro returned to the shop, then somehow had the idea to head towards the town hall. He asked the old man who seemed to be house sitting the office for a copy of the family register, returned to the shop, then when evening came he closed up shop and stopped by the town hall.
Now that the sun had set, at last the town hall had characteristic hustle and bustle of an office, forcing himself not to pay attention to that state of affairs, he took the certified copy. Sure enough, his son was indeed marked out due to death
"Like I thought," Tashiro murmured with a bitter smile. The staff member who had provided it tilted his head curiously. It's nothing, Tashiro mumbled, trying to deflect. "It's just... the deaths keep happening in the village."
Indeed, the staff member nodded. "They just don't stop, do they. I wonder what's happening?"
"We really have had a lot of deaths, hasn't this place, since this summer."
"Yes, indeed. The town hall has even talked about having a look into it themselves."
Tashiro let out a sigh of relief. "Have they? ---They would, wouldn't they."
When Mutou returned home, his wife Shizuko was in the kitchen preparing dinner. He changed into his night clothes, and for a while peered into the kitchen, thinking. He spoke to his wife who was arranging the dinner table.
Then he used the bath, got out to head to the dining room, and since dinner was ready, Tamotsu was already holding his chopsticks. Happy to see his vigorous appetite, Mutou turned his gaze to the single lonely empty seat. Some mingling of sadness and pain built up in his chest and rose to his throat.
It was an all too normal dinner. Incoherent fragments of conversation flowed, dishes passed back and forth. When Tamotsu sat down his chopsticks and rose up, Mutou asked him to wait.
"What's up?"
"I wanna talk about something."
Tamotsu looked at his father's face. He seemed somehow tired, a little out of it, the same as his father always had seemed lately.
While uncertain, Tamotsu stayed in his seat sipping his roasted tea. His older sister sat her chopsticks down and their mother at last with a knowing look sat down hers as well.
His father nodded, though it wasn't clear to who or what. He then looked to Tamotsu and Aoi.
"How do you two feel about leaving home?"
"......Why?" Tamotsu blinked. He couldn't understand why his father would say that suddenly.
"How do you feel about renting in apartment in Mizobe, living there as boarding school style students?"
"That'd be... fine, I guess." Tamotsu looked to his sister. Aoi tilted her head and nodded. As if their mother had known this talk was coming, she stayed quiet sipping her tea.
"The young wife at the Ozaki's died. Tohru has passed on, Natsuno-kun and Masao-kun are both dead, and even after them, there have been so many deaths in the village. Something strange is going on, here lately."
Tamotsu nodded.
"I don't know what's happening, and I'm sure I'm not a wise enough man to figure it out. But still. I'm a coward. So I don't want to experience what happened with Tohru again with either of you." Saying that with a smile, his father blinked his eyes. "That's just how parents are. When it comes to their kids. We don't want to let danger get near you, we don't want to let you be where it's dangerous. No matter how trivial a danger it is, we can't be at ease until we've put a good distance between you and it."
"I get all that, but..."
"Your mother doesn't want to leave our home. And I have work too." At his father's words, his mother smiled.
"Wherever you are, that's my workplace after all. My job is taking care of you."
"I guess that's true too. So, the two of you, try moving out. Man never knows what may lie ahead for him in the future, so get some practice at living on your own."
He said it with a smile. Aoi looked down as if to hide something. Seeing her reaction, Tamotsu again looked to his parents faces. His father had such a cheerful expression.
It was true that the village was strange, he thought. So many people were dying one after another. So get out of here, his father was saying. While he intended to hold his ground here. If his workplace weren't a hospital, he might have told his father to come with them. But he did work at a hospital. He had heard that the staff numbers were dwindling but maybe that was all the more reason. Yet he knew that his father intended to stay behind in the village to support that place. And his father knew the dangers that came with it. That was why he told them to practice living alone now.
At last, with a husky voice, Tamotsu answered. "......Yeah. I understand."
I see, his father nodded, and said that tomorrow after school their mother would take them to look for an apartment together. While Tamotsu nodded, he had a cynical, lonely thought.
(I'm the one who gets to get out of here...... Natsuno.)
Yuuki returned home and dumped his belongings on the shoe rack in frustration.
"......Oni, he says? That's ridiculous!"
Yuuki spat those words out there. And yet he couldn't let go of how foolish Toshio was, of his indignation towards him.
"Of course they don't exist!"
Honestly, it was so stupid it wasn't even worth talking about. Talk about ignorance, and that was the only doctor in the village. He felt disgust even with himself, from the bottom of his heart, for ever wanting to move into this village.
"Even kids don't believe in that these days!"
Yuuki stormed angrily into the living room. The sun was still up but he had to drink. It was all so stupid, he was so mad he couldn't stand it.
"And he's a doctor of all things, how the hell!"
He slapped the table but the sound reverberated emptily. In a completely empty house, he sat there shouting alone. The part of himself that coldly observed his own behavior seemed to raise the question of which one of them was truly the fool.
"......It's ridiculous."
Yuuki's voice echoed through the emptiness, back into his own ears, sounding quite forlorn, devoid of spirit. Strangely, what came to his mind were the faces of the two siblings who had some to see his son.
That couldn't have been. Something like that shouldn't exist.
"It can't be."
It just couldn't be that those siblings were the ones who were right. If so, it'd mean heh had driven out those who would have saved his son. He had torn down the goods placed to protect his son, and driven his own son to his death.
"That can't be right."
Yuuki put his mouth to the glass and gulped. For some reason he couldn't stop the hand that was holding the glass from shaking.
This was something else. Maybe it was a new variety of illness. Perhaps its fatality rate was high, perhaps once contracted, no doctor no matter how cutting edge could save them.
---That obviously had to be it.
Hasegawa finished washing the glasses and looked about the empty shop. The younger staff at the hospital used to come to eat during the day time but lately not even they had come. Ever since Shimizu and Yuuki had had their household losses, they had come by less often, and there was a clear decrease in other regulars as well. He began closing up early at night. Part of it was because his wife had asked him to come back in the evenings, and part of it was that for some reason there were fewer customers at night as well. Hasegawa himself, thinking maybe he was just getting old, found it troublesome to keep the shop open at night these days too.
I'm tired, he thought. He and Toshio both. Maybe the entirety of the village.
A strange loss of will power, a feeling of emptiness that coiled around one's self, and smoldering at the heart of that a sense of anxiety. That was how it had been when he had lost his son. He was adverse to anything and everything, found it hollow, and it seemed inescapable. An impetus to cast aside everything.
For a time, Hasegawa sat alone at the counter, lending an ear to the sound of a melancholy saxophone. When he finally stood, he switched off the stereo. He thought about closing down the shop.
Maybe he'd stay in the village still, or maybe he'd move somewhere else. Hasegawa was always a rootless tumbleweed to begin with. He cast aside his roots in the city and drifted into this village. Maybe drifting out of here would be fine too. He didn't feel especially uneasy. It was just that wherever he went, he'd get by somehow.
Anways, before all that, he should maybe take his wife somewhere, travel. Yeah. Maybe as soon as tomorrow. He thought about the two heading to a hot springs to take it easy, and from there, they'd discuss what do to from here on.
Tashiro returned to the shop, then somehow had the idea to head towards the town hall. He asked the old man who seemed to be house sitting the office for a copy of the family register, returned to the shop, then when evening came he closed up shop and stopped by the town hall.
Now that the sun had set, at last the town hall had characteristic hustle and bustle of an office, forcing himself not to pay attention to that state of affairs, he took the certified copy. Sure enough, his son was indeed marked out due to death
"Like I thought," Tashiro murmured with a bitter smile. The staff member who had provided it tilted his head curiously. It's nothing, Tashiro mumbled, trying to deflect. "It's just... the deaths keep happening in the village."
Indeed, the staff member nodded. "They just don't stop, do they. I wonder what's happening?"
"We really have had a lot of deaths, hasn't this place, since this summer."
"Yes, indeed. The town hall has even talked about having a look into it themselves."
Tashiro let out a sigh of relief. "Have they? ---They would, wouldn't they."
When Mutou returned home, his wife Shizuko was in the kitchen preparing dinner. He changed into his night clothes, and for a while peered into the kitchen, thinking. He spoke to his wife who was arranging the dinner table.
Then he used the bath, got out to head to the dining room, and since dinner was ready, Tamotsu was already holding his chopsticks. Happy to see his vigorous appetite, Mutou turned his gaze to the single lonely empty seat. Some mingling of sadness and pain built up in his chest and rose to his throat.
It was an all too normal dinner. Incoherent fragments of conversation flowed, dishes passed back and forth. When Tamotsu sat down his chopsticks and rose up, Mutou asked him to wait.
"What's up?"
"I wanna talk about something."
Tamotsu looked at his father's face. He seemed somehow tired, a little out of it, the same as his father always had seemed lately.
While uncertain, Tamotsu stayed in his seat sipping his roasted tea. His older sister sat her chopsticks down and their mother at last with a knowing look sat down hers as well.
His father nodded, though it wasn't clear to who or what. He then looked to Tamotsu and Aoi.
"How do you two feel about leaving home?"
"......Why?" Tamotsu blinked. He couldn't understand why his father would say that suddenly.
"How do you feel about renting in apartment in Mizobe, living there as boarding school style students?"
"That'd be... fine, I guess." Tamotsu looked to his sister. Aoi tilted her head and nodded. As if their mother had known this talk was coming, she stayed quiet sipping her tea.
"The young wife at the Ozaki's died. Tohru has passed on, Natsuno-kun and Masao-kun are both dead, and even after them, there have been so many deaths in the village. Something strange is going on, here lately."
Tamotsu nodded.
"I don't know what's happening, and I'm sure I'm not a wise enough man to figure it out. But still. I'm a coward. So I don't want to experience what happened with Tohru again with either of you." Saying that with a smile, his father blinked his eyes. "That's just how parents are. When it comes to their kids. We don't want to let danger get near you, we don't want to let you be where it's dangerous. No matter how trivial a danger it is, we can't be at ease until we've put a good distance between you and it."
"I get all that, but..."
"Your mother doesn't want to leave our home. And I have work too." At his father's words, his mother smiled.
"Wherever you are, that's my workplace after all. My job is taking care of you."
"I guess that's true too. So, the two of you, try moving out. Man never knows what may lie ahead for him in the future, so get some practice at living on your own."
He said it with a smile. Aoi looked down as if to hide something. Seeing her reaction, Tamotsu again looked to his parents faces. His father had such a cheerful expression.
It was true that the village was strange, he thought. So many people were dying one after another. So get out of here, his father was saying. While he intended to hold his ground here. If his workplace weren't a hospital, he might have told his father to come with them. But he did work at a hospital. He had heard that the staff numbers were dwindling but maybe that was all the more reason. Yet he knew that his father intended to stay behind in the village to support that place. And his father knew the dangers that came with it. That was why he told them to practice living alone now.
At last, with a husky voice, Tamotsu answered. "......Yeah. I understand."
I see, his father nodded, and said that tomorrow after school their mother would take them to look for an apartment together. While Tamotsu nodded, he had a cynical, lonely thought.
(I'm the one who gets to get out of here...... Natsuno.)
no subject
(Anonymous) 2023-01-08 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
Next chapter's another doozy for anyone who holds filial sentiments.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2023-01-08 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2023-05-15 03:34 pm (UTC)(link)thank you
(Anonymous) 2023-08-13 06:31 am (UTC)(link)your work in translating this novel has helped me greatly, as i am running an anime themed exalted vs world of darkness rp game. and one of the first story arcs is me putting the players though the plot of shiki. the novel has given me a lot more insight into the story & the characters, which wasn't exactly covered in the anime or manga.
so thanks for doing such a good job translating this work.