(no subject)
Mar. 26th, 2005 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tammaiyaGAARA! *sob*
Um, yeah. That's my Naruto fangirling done with for the moment. *cough*
Anyway, I am now up one pair of very cool calf-high platform boots, am a size fourteen, and have finished the translated script for the scanlation of chapter 18 of Spiral.
Oh, speaking of translations, I did this back in January when I was at Port Stephens but I forgot to edit/upload it. (And I refuse to translate SOUND EFFECTS so everyone can just put up with them.)
According to many people, at early dawn on the sixth in Yamanashi prefecture, Koufu city, the Takeda Shingen public shrine was broken into and discovered to have been destroyed. Among the Yamanashi police, it is seen as a malicious prank, and with the cooperation of the local residents and so forth, they are searching for the perpetrator.
*
Baki!
The boy in the school uniform who had been struck went flying back, crashing violently into the beer cases stacked up against the edge of the wall, and with a loud noise they tumbled down together.
Gata gata GATA-N!
".....!....."
Yuzuru let out a huff of breath, shoulders shaking.
Just now, he is standing there in a straight right-side pose.
He has returned to himself.
"Eh?"
For an instant, he didn't know if the boy could get up on his own in the condition he was in.
(What?)
He stared at his tightly clenched fist.
(What is this?)
When he looked around the surroundings, there were just four high school boys wearing school uniforms with navy blazers. Either they had been knocked out by someone or they had collapsed here and there from exhaustion.
Yuzuru fixed his gaze on them.
"Wh... what?"
The boys are all looking at Yuzuru with horror. Their faces are wounded like they've been hit arbitrarily, and their eyes are fixed this way as if they are primary school students being bullied. They crawled to gather together in one place, and threw jeers at Yuzuru with all their might.
"You, you've pushed your luck! You stupid bastard!"
"You'd better r, r, r, remember this!"
Gradually, their sharp parting remarks and their voices were turned inside out, and now they were lacking in a yakuza sword; running away was just saying he won, and the boys ran hastily in the direction of an alleyway.
"Huh?"
Gaping, Yuzuru watched them go.
He doesn't know them. But, from their uniforms, he guesses,
(West High students? Why?)
Yuzuru's eyes dropped to his own appearance. His uniform is in disarray, covered with dust, and his tie has come undone.
When he notices this, the edge of his mouth hurts like it has been pierced. He turned his gaze to his hands and picked weakly at the blood on his fingers.
"Ah..."
He was dumfounded and in shock.
He hadn't recognised the West High students who had disappeared in the direction of the alleyway. A dull pain remains in his knuckles, as if he's been hitting people.
Like a scar...?
No. He'd hit something. Maybe he and those high school students...
(What have I been doing up until now...?)
Yuzuru covered his mouth with his hand. He tried to think back. However, when he followed it back he had no memory. He couldn't recall- it was blank.
What had he done?
Yuzuru's face stiffens slightly. He rewinds his memory and tries to relive it. From where does it stop? From where is it disappearing? He can't remember what he's done today. What did he do? What is he doing?
Where is this?
"!"
Yuzuru feels a person's concern; his shoulders shake wildly, and he turns to look back.
A tall male student stands there, wearing the same brown school blazer as Yuzuru. How long had he been there? Leaning against the white earthen wall of a construction storehouse, he was gazing at Yuzuru. Then, with a cool faint smile, he said a single thing to Yuzuru:
"Not bad."
".........."
Yuzuru's eyes widen. This time, it isn't a face he doesn't know.
"... Takaya......"
Without thinking, he called that name out.
*
The clear blue sky stretches out above the town. In the direction of that sky the peaks of the northern Alps look down on the town and sparkle beautifully with leftover snow.
With the Kamikouchi winds, too, May is invigorating.
Nagano prefecture, Matsumoto city.
The town of Matsumoto, a beautiful province surrounded by blue peaks, is famous for the mountain-climbing Alps at its entrance, and is called the mountain town; again, it is a town that grew from its ancient history as the town of Shiroshita.
Within the city, there were many landmarks such as the national treasure Matsumoto Castle and the old Kaichi High; it was a town said to be the heart of culture within the province of Nagano. Currently, we focus on the population of the secondary commerce and industry area within the prefecture; at the outskirts of the city, the residential areas also stretch out.
Beyond that...
Here in Matsumoto is where those two boys, Narita Yuzuru and Ougi Takaya, are second years at the prefectural school Jyouhoku High.
"Fillet of fish and a large of fries. Aah... and a medium coke."
At a time like this on a weekday, while the shop assistant at the counter asked the loitering high school student for his order, Takaya looked behind him.
A fast food store in front of Matsumoto station. For some reason or another, the two who had returned in the direction of the station had decided to go calm down somewhere and had entered this shop they were accustomed to, but...
Yuzuru, who he'd brought along, is somehow unwell. His eyes are darkened, and he is leaning against a wall beneath a poster.
"..............."
Takaya gazed at Yuzuru, elbow braced on the counter, and turned back to the shop assistant.
"And another coke."
Inside the shop was less crowded than he'd thought. Then again, it is still before lunch time. His watch read just past eleven o'clock. Takaya carried the tray upstairs and dropped into a seat by a window facing the terminal in front of the station; as Yuzuru took his seat, Takaya scowled up at him.
"What, were the tacos better?"
Yuzuru rests his chin in his hand, answering while staring out the glass window.
"I had tacos yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
Automatically, Takaya leaned forward.
"Yesterday. I knew you were skipping!"
"What's so 'I knew it' about that? More than that, aren't you doing the same thing?"
Takaya looked sour, like he was sulking.
"I had self-study in maths, so I came to look for you."
"Self-study? Why?"
"You know I'm going to fail whatever I do, so it doesn't matter even if I play truant."
"Play... Argh! You argued with the teacher again! You can't! You said maths- isn't Yoshikawa new? In that case, I feel so sorry for him, with you persecuting him!"
"I wasn't persecuting him! It's because he's an idiot who babbles and doesn't understand anything!"
"I'm afraid that you'll fail for being such a hothead."
"It has nothing to do with you!"
Takaya really was sulking, looking the other way with a straw in his mouth.
"More important than that is what's going on with you, Yuzuru."
"?"
"What are you doing skipping school?"
".........."
Yuzuru's expression clouded over with anticipation. Takaya sees this, and clears the paper cups on the table to the side.
"It's the second day, and you always go on at me like this."
Yuzuru doesn't answer.
"Geez..."
Takaya sighed.
"I tried to ring you at home, and your mother said you'd already left for school. Then when I wondered what you were doing and tried to find you, you were in that place surrounded by those guys. Moreover, there were four and you somehow beat them up just like that... you're acting weird."
"Weird?"
Yuzuru leaned forward, just a little.
"I'm being weird?"
"..........."
Takaya gazed at Yuzuru coolly, and rested his chin in his hand as he turned to look out the window.
"Yeah, you've only been weirder than other people since a long time ago."
"----------"
Yuzuru bit his lip in a timid reaction. Since a little earlier, he has clearly not been in high spirits. He's being taciturn.
"Even though you haven't gone back to class, maybe you've got the blues from start of term. But that that's the first time I've seen you get into a fight... it doesn't seem very like you."
Yuzuru's personality has always been mild, and getting himself into fights is not like him.
"If you're in a bad mood, then say so. If it's the kind of thing you can't talk about then I'll keep you company."
"Takaya--"
"Why have you been skipping class?"
"I wouldn't exactly say I've been 'skipping'."
"?"
Takaya reacts.
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey--"
"It means I don't know what I've been doing either."
So saying, Yuzuru put a hand to his forehead.
"Today I left the house intending to go to school, but then something funny happened. When I regained awareness, I was knocking down guys I didn't know and it looked like they had been injured in a brawl."
"Yuzuru?"
"Yesterday it was the same thing. When I left from home I took the same road as always, yet when I regained awareness I was sitting in the middle of town. The day before that, too..."
Takaya had simply been watching Yuzuru, but his expression turned serious.
"You can't remember anything during those periods?"
".........."
Yuzuru nods.
Takaya takes a breath.
"You're saying that--"
"I don't understand it at all. What's wrong with me? This has gotten really seriously bizarre. I can't remember anything. And during that time, I've been moving around. What have I been doing?"
"----------"
"But I can't think that that earlier brawl seemed like it was me fighting. I can't remember anything, and it seems like the guy who did that wasn't me at all..."
"... maybe."
"?"
"You could have provoked those guys into a fight somehow without thinking about it."
"Takaya."
In a closed off tone, Yuzuru asked him a question as though he was clinging to it.
"What is this? I don't really understand, but maybe a guy like that is some kind of split personality?"
"A split personality? Why would something like that happen to you all of a sudden?"
"Even if we can make him say how..."
Yuzuru was glared at by Takaya from directly opposite and closed his mouth. Even if it isn't meant to be, the look in Takaya's eyes is scary. Takaya leans forward deliberately, with the appearance of a detective in an interrogation room, and asks Yuzuru a question harshly.
"Is there anything that seems like some kind of trigger?"
"Trigger... you say?"
".... Is there?"
"Y...yeah."
The walking people coming and going below the window. The stream of loose cars in the terminal. While watching all of that, Yuzuru drew his eyebrows together with a 'ku'.
"A dream..."
"Eh?"
Takaya reacted to that whisper, and Yuzuru elaborated.
"I had a strange dream. That day, I woke up with that and. It's since that. That things have been happening."
"A dream? You remember that?"
"Yes. Clearly..."
"What kind?"
"You won't laugh?"
"What, is it the kind of dream that can be laughed at?"
"Don't make fun of someone when they're saying something serious, you!"
"I wasn't making fun of you! And since I wasn't making fun of you, tell me. What kind of dream?"
"A dream where my body is covered in flames."
Takaya widened his eyes. "What?"
Yuzuru vaguely noticed Takaya's reaction, and still with that listless expression returned to his story.
"It looked like the aftermath of a battle scene from a historical play."
"The aftermath of a battle?"
"Yes. The whole sky is a reddish-violet colour, something that looks like a desolated plain stretches out all around and the corpses of dead warriors and soldiers are tumbling down... I don't know something, but I'm walking over there alone. Broken spears and destroyed flags and such are stuck in the ground... Then, I can hear a groan, like a rumble in the ground. It's eerie, and when I'm going to run, the warriors who had died swarm together and rise to their feet."
Recalling the fear he'd felt at that time, Yuzuru wraps his arms around his body.
"They said not to go. To stay put. And then suddenly--"
Yuzuru closes his eyes firmly.
"Suddenly my body bursts into flames."
Takaya stopped with a chip at his lips.
Yuzuru continues like he's groaning.
"It's a blue-violet flame, and it's so hot I really think I'm going to die. So hot it's somehow not a dream, and I'm going to burn to death! That's what I thought, and then I woke up."
Yuzuru takes a deep breath.
"I was so scared it was real."
"..........."
While Takaya watched Yuzuru intently, the potato chip slowly disappeared into his mouth.
From near the stairs the lively voices of children raised up. Takaya turns that way with a cold look. It seems to be a mother's shopping group. Their screaming children had been brought with them, and though there was lots of other empty space, the ladies had purposely taken the seats behind Takaya and Yuzuru.
Takaya's eyes widened with depression, but Yuzuru does not react to that. He looks haggard, his pale face looking down.
"..........."
Takaya's glance returned to him like that and he shut his mouth. Their table falls silent, and behind them the children run around noisily.
Gata.
Takaya stood up.
"Takaya?"
"Let's go, Yuzuru."
"Eh? Ah, wait up, Takaya."
In confusion, Yuzuru followed after.
*
"As I thought... Yuzuru."
While walking along the Metobu river that flowed through the town, Takaya was talking to Yuzuru.
Yuzuru raises his eyes while taking a bite of the leftover fillet of fish.
"What?"
"That is to say, from calling it a split personality, hasn't something taken control of you?"
"Possessed? Me?"
"Because things like a neurosis or depression from a new school term, don't they have some kind of cause? Even if something like that were to suddenly happen, wouldn't there need to be an explanation of some sort?"
"Maybe," Yuzuru says, eyes dropping to the asphalt. "But I don't know what."
"In your case, I can't laugh at you or call you an idiot," he murmured, and gazed at the babbling river. The fresh May wind brushes gently at the cheeks of the two uniform clad figures walking on the pavement. There was a pause in the cars passing them, and the sound of babbling water reached their ears.
Takaya speaks.
"Is it just during class that you've been feeling like this? There was the spirit of a girl who committed suicide ten years ago. Before that, didn't the spirit of an old lady who died in a traffic accident hang around? When you took photos on vacation one could have come out as a ghost photo. You must have called it out. Like that. I'm not connected to psychic phenomenon, but wouldn't a guy with such sharp senses like you make a good target?"
"What do you mean, target?"
"I don't understand it, but wouldn't a spirit possess a person like that? Like a professional spirit medium or a shaman or something."
"Don't confuse the two."
"And there was that strange dream you had. Like a battle from a historical play? It could be a spirit from the Warring Clans period."
"No way..."
Yuzuru said and laughed, but...
Suddenly.
He stopped walking.
"?"
Takaya notices and also stops. Yuzuru's gaze is fixed ahead of them.
"Yuzuru?"
"Takaya. That."
Shifting his gaze, Takaya stared in that direction too. On the small red bridge above the river Metobu.
There is a girl in a school uniform looking down at the surface of the water.
She is of medium height with long straight black hair. She appears to be about the same age as Takaya and Yuzuru, but a sailor fuku with a cobalt blue ribbon on its navy collar is a uniform they don't recognise. Furthermore, the middle of the morning on a weekday is not a time when an ordinary high school student should be there.
The girl carried nothing in her hands; it felt as though she was merely standing still and looking down at the river. Her expression becomes still, her eyes go blank, and her face goes pale.
Something is strange.
Yuzuru sees the girl seemingly have a convulsion. Takaya notices like he does; thinking it dubious, he goes to call out.
Yuzuru took a step forward as though being sucked in.
He opens his eyes and his lips part slightly, and unconsciously he takes another step. His legs move as though they are being manipulated by something. Helplessly, like he is staggering. Then, another step--
"! ......Yuzuru!"
"Eh."
He has returned to himself. Takaya grabs his wrist. He yelled near Yuzuru's ear.
"Idiot! What were you doing!"
"Takaya."
"Being some kind of girl chaser, that's not like you!"
"~~~~....."
Yuzuru closed his eyes. Then, the girl on the bridge turns her glance to them with a 'ku!'
The two she had noticed turn to look at her too.
The distance between them was about ten or fifteen metres.
When they looked at each other simultaneously, the girl's pupils dilated with tension. The eyes that had been blank took on light, and suddenly life returned to her expression. She stares at the boys on the pavement. However, that look is not usual.
It shouldn't exist in this society.
(...... What the hell.....!)
A feeling of bizarre tension.
An intense incompatibility like entering a different dimension.
Then.
They could see white light radiating behind her.
They gasp.
(What on Earth is this--)
Jiri...
Yuzuru retreats back without thinking.
The girl is staring at them.
Like a person of high stature from olden times looking down on someone of humble rank, she stared at them with an expression that made them feel bizarrely coerced to stay still.
Suddenly, the inside of those pupils wavers.
"?"
It was Takaya who had reacted.
The girl's expression changed subtly, and the feeling of coercion disappeared. In its place an expression like absentmindedness spreads out, and she widens her eyes. From her neat red lips, a faint murmur escaped.
"... Thou..."
Takaya opened his eyes with an 'eh'.
The girl moves in his direction slowly. Her lips parted again with the intention to say something.
That instant.
"!"
The girl's body shook. Takaya lets out a 'ha!' and the moment he moves-
Bo!
"What the!"
Blue flames sprang up from the girl's body.
A shriek pierces his ears. The girl's body has burst into flames.
"Wh... ! The hell!"
Engulfed by flames, the girl writhes. An enormous noise like a gas burner builds, and the girl's body burns. Her scream gushes out. Blue flames; no, purple. --- Purple!
"No way! Oi, Yuzuru! Yuzuru!"
Takaya yells; Yuzuru's face twitches, and, as if he was trembling in fear, he doesn't react.
"Oi! You!"
Taking off his blazer, Takaya rushed over to the girl. The girl enveloped in fire writhes violently. Takaya had been trying to beat the fire out, but his arms stilled in confusion.
It's not hot...
The flames aren't hot.
(What? ...an illusion?)
Purple flames. Bizarre anywhere… severe flames.
"Che!"
Takaya bit his tongue and wrapped the girl's body in the blazer. Restraining the raging girl, he calls out.
"Yuzuru! An ambulance! Call an ambulance!"
Yuzuru doesn't move.
"Yuzuru! Can't you hear me? Yuzuru!"
The passers by began to gather. Takaya screamed.
"Yuzuru! ........ OI! Yuzuru!"
<< The seal of the spirit grave is broken. Assemble at our origin. Brethren who have returned to the earth. >>
Um, yeah. That's my Naruto fangirling done with for the moment. *cough*
Anyway, I am now up one pair of very cool calf-high platform boots, am a size fourteen, and have finished the translated script for the scanlation of chapter 18 of Spiral.
Oh, speaking of translations, I did this back in January when I was at Port Stephens but I forgot to edit/upload it. (And I refuse to translate SOUND EFFECTS so everyone can just put up with them.)
Chapter 1: The Blazing Vortex of a Chance Meeting
According to many people, at early dawn on the sixth in Yamanashi prefecture, Koufu city, the Takeda Shingen public shrine was broken into and discovered to have been destroyed. Among the Yamanashi police, it is seen as a malicious prank, and with the cooperation of the local residents and so forth, they are searching for the perpetrator.
*
Baki!
The boy in the school uniform who had been struck went flying back, crashing violently into the beer cases stacked up against the edge of the wall, and with a loud noise they tumbled down together.
Gata gata GATA-N!
".....!....."
Yuzuru let out a huff of breath, shoulders shaking.
Just now, he is standing there in a straight right-side pose.
He has returned to himself.
"Eh?"
For an instant, he didn't know if the boy could get up on his own in the condition he was in.
(What?)
He stared at his tightly clenched fist.
(What is this?)
When he looked around the surroundings, there were just four high school boys wearing school uniforms with navy blazers. Either they had been knocked out by someone or they had collapsed here and there from exhaustion.
Yuzuru fixed his gaze on them.
"Wh... what?"
The boys are all looking at Yuzuru with horror. Their faces are wounded like they've been hit arbitrarily, and their eyes are fixed this way as if they are primary school students being bullied. They crawled to gather together in one place, and threw jeers at Yuzuru with all their might.
"You, you've pushed your luck! You stupid bastard!"
"You'd better r, r, r, remember this!"
Gradually, their sharp parting remarks and their voices were turned inside out, and now they were lacking in a yakuza sword; running away was just saying he won, and the boys ran hastily in the direction of an alleyway.
"Huh?"
Gaping, Yuzuru watched them go.
He doesn't know them. But, from their uniforms, he guesses,
(West High students? Why?)
Yuzuru's eyes dropped to his own appearance. His uniform is in disarray, covered with dust, and his tie has come undone.
When he notices this, the edge of his mouth hurts like it has been pierced. He turned his gaze to his hands and picked weakly at the blood on his fingers.
"Ah..."
He was dumfounded and in shock.
He hadn't recognised the West High students who had disappeared in the direction of the alleyway. A dull pain remains in his knuckles, as if he's been hitting people.
Like a scar...?
No. He'd hit something. Maybe he and those high school students...
(What have I been doing up until now...?)
Yuzuru covered his mouth with his hand. He tried to think back. However, when he followed it back he had no memory. He couldn't recall- it was blank.
What had he done?
Yuzuru's face stiffens slightly. He rewinds his memory and tries to relive it. From where does it stop? From where is it disappearing? He can't remember what he's done today. What did he do? What is he doing?
Where is this?
"!"
Yuzuru feels a person's concern; his shoulders shake wildly, and he turns to look back.
A tall male student stands there, wearing the same brown school blazer as Yuzuru. How long had he been there? Leaning against the white earthen wall of a construction storehouse, he was gazing at Yuzuru. Then, with a cool faint smile, he said a single thing to Yuzuru:
"Not bad."
".........."
Yuzuru's eyes widen. This time, it isn't a face he doesn't know.
"... Takaya......"
Without thinking, he called that name out.
*
The clear blue sky stretches out above the town. In the direction of that sky the peaks of the northern Alps look down on the town and sparkle beautifully with leftover snow.
With the Kamikouchi winds, too, May is invigorating.
Nagano prefecture, Matsumoto city.
The town of Matsumoto, a beautiful province surrounded by blue peaks, is famous for the mountain-climbing Alps at its entrance, and is called the mountain town; again, it is a town that grew from its ancient history as the town of Shiroshita.
Within the city, there were many landmarks such as the national treasure Matsumoto Castle and the old Kaichi High; it was a town said to be the heart of culture within the province of Nagano. Currently, we focus on the population of the secondary commerce and industry area within the prefecture; at the outskirts of the city, the residential areas also stretch out.
Beyond that...
Here in Matsumoto is where those two boys, Narita Yuzuru and Ougi Takaya, are second years at the prefectural school Jyouhoku High.
"Fillet of fish and a large of fries. Aah... and a medium coke."
At a time like this on a weekday, while the shop assistant at the counter asked the loitering high school student for his order, Takaya looked behind him.
A fast food store in front of Matsumoto station. For some reason or another, the two who had returned in the direction of the station had decided to go calm down somewhere and had entered this shop they were accustomed to, but...
Yuzuru, who he'd brought along, is somehow unwell. His eyes are darkened, and he is leaning against a wall beneath a poster.
"..............."
Takaya gazed at Yuzuru, elbow braced on the counter, and turned back to the shop assistant.
"And another coke."
Inside the shop was less crowded than he'd thought. Then again, it is still before lunch time. His watch read just past eleven o'clock. Takaya carried the tray upstairs and dropped into a seat by a window facing the terminal in front of the station; as Yuzuru took his seat, Takaya scowled up at him.
"What, were the tacos better?"
Yuzuru rests his chin in his hand, answering while staring out the glass window.
"I had tacos yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
Automatically, Takaya leaned forward.
"Yesterday. I knew you were skipping!"
"What's so 'I knew it' about that? More than that, aren't you doing the same thing?"
Takaya looked sour, like he was sulking.
"I had self-study in maths, so I came to look for you."
"Self-study? Why?"
"You know I'm going to fail whatever I do, so it doesn't matter even if I play truant."
"Play... Argh! You argued with the teacher again! You can't! You said maths- isn't Yoshikawa new? In that case, I feel so sorry for him, with you persecuting him!"
"I wasn't persecuting him! It's because he's an idiot who babbles and doesn't understand anything!"
"I'm afraid that you'll fail for being such a hothead."
"It has nothing to do with you!"
Takaya really was sulking, looking the other way with a straw in his mouth.
"More important than that is what's going on with you, Yuzuru."
"?"
"What are you doing skipping school?"
".........."
Yuzuru's expression clouded over with anticipation. Takaya sees this, and clears the paper cups on the table to the side.
"It's the second day, and you always go on at me like this."
Yuzuru doesn't answer.
"Geez..."
Takaya sighed.
"I tried to ring you at home, and your mother said you'd already left for school. Then when I wondered what you were doing and tried to find you, you were in that place surrounded by those guys. Moreover, there were four and you somehow beat them up just like that... you're acting weird."
"Weird?"
Yuzuru leaned forward, just a little.
"I'm being weird?"
"..........."
Takaya gazed at Yuzuru coolly, and rested his chin in his hand as he turned to look out the window.
"Yeah, you've only been weirder than other people since a long time ago."
"----------"
Yuzuru bit his lip in a timid reaction. Since a little earlier, he has clearly not been in high spirits. He's being taciturn.
"Even though you haven't gone back to class, maybe you've got the blues from start of term. But that that's the first time I've seen you get into a fight... it doesn't seem very like you."
Yuzuru's personality has always been mild, and getting himself into fights is not like him.
"If you're in a bad mood, then say so. If it's the kind of thing you can't talk about then I'll keep you company."
"Takaya--"
"Why have you been skipping class?"
"I wouldn't exactly say I've been 'skipping'."
"?"
Takaya reacts.
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey--"
"It means I don't know what I've been doing either."
So saying, Yuzuru put a hand to his forehead.
"Today I left the house intending to go to school, but then something funny happened. When I regained awareness, I was knocking down guys I didn't know and it looked like they had been injured in a brawl."
"Yuzuru?"
"Yesterday it was the same thing. When I left from home I took the same road as always, yet when I regained awareness I was sitting in the middle of town. The day before that, too..."
Takaya had simply been watching Yuzuru, but his expression turned serious.
"You can't remember anything during those periods?"
".........."
Yuzuru nods.
Takaya takes a breath.
"You're saying that--"
"I don't understand it at all. What's wrong with me? This has gotten really seriously bizarre. I can't remember anything. And during that time, I've been moving around. What have I been doing?"
"----------"
"But I can't think that that earlier brawl seemed like it was me fighting. I can't remember anything, and it seems like the guy who did that wasn't me at all..."
"... maybe."
"?"
"You could have provoked those guys into a fight somehow without thinking about it."
"Takaya."
In a closed off tone, Yuzuru asked him a question as though he was clinging to it.
"What is this? I don't really understand, but maybe a guy like that is some kind of split personality?"
"A split personality? Why would something like that happen to you all of a sudden?"
"Even if we can make him say how..."
Yuzuru was glared at by Takaya from directly opposite and closed his mouth. Even if it isn't meant to be, the look in Takaya's eyes is scary. Takaya leans forward deliberately, with the appearance of a detective in an interrogation room, and asks Yuzuru a question harshly.
"Is there anything that seems like some kind of trigger?"
"Trigger... you say?"
".... Is there?"
"Y...yeah."
The walking people coming and going below the window. The stream of loose cars in the terminal. While watching all of that, Yuzuru drew his eyebrows together with a 'ku'.
"A dream..."
"Eh?"
Takaya reacted to that whisper, and Yuzuru elaborated.
"I had a strange dream. That day, I woke up with that and. It's since that. That things have been happening."
"A dream? You remember that?"
"Yes. Clearly..."
"What kind?"
"You won't laugh?"
"What, is it the kind of dream that can be laughed at?"
"Don't make fun of someone when they're saying something serious, you!"
"I wasn't making fun of you! And since I wasn't making fun of you, tell me. What kind of dream?"
"A dream where my body is covered in flames."
Takaya widened his eyes. "What?"
Yuzuru vaguely noticed Takaya's reaction, and still with that listless expression returned to his story.
"It looked like the aftermath of a battle scene from a historical play."
"The aftermath of a battle?"
"Yes. The whole sky is a reddish-violet colour, something that looks like a desolated plain stretches out all around and the corpses of dead warriors and soldiers are tumbling down... I don't know something, but I'm walking over there alone. Broken spears and destroyed flags and such are stuck in the ground... Then, I can hear a groan, like a rumble in the ground. It's eerie, and when I'm going to run, the warriors who had died swarm together and rise to their feet."
Recalling the fear he'd felt at that time, Yuzuru wraps his arms around his body.
"They said not to go. To stay put. And then suddenly--"
Yuzuru closes his eyes firmly.
"Suddenly my body bursts into flames."
Takaya stopped with a chip at his lips.
Yuzuru continues like he's groaning.
"It's a blue-violet flame, and it's so hot I really think I'm going to die. So hot it's somehow not a dream, and I'm going to burn to death! That's what I thought, and then I woke up."
Yuzuru takes a deep breath.
"I was so scared it was real."
"..........."
While Takaya watched Yuzuru intently, the potato chip slowly disappeared into his mouth.
From near the stairs the lively voices of children raised up. Takaya turns that way with a cold look. It seems to be a mother's shopping group. Their screaming children had been brought with them, and though there was lots of other empty space, the ladies had purposely taken the seats behind Takaya and Yuzuru.
Takaya's eyes widened with depression, but Yuzuru does not react to that. He looks haggard, his pale face looking down.
"..........."
Takaya's glance returned to him like that and he shut his mouth. Their table falls silent, and behind them the children run around noisily.
Gata.
Takaya stood up.
"Takaya?"
"Let's go, Yuzuru."
"Eh? Ah, wait up, Takaya."
In confusion, Yuzuru followed after.
*
"As I thought... Yuzuru."
While walking along the Metobu river that flowed through the town, Takaya was talking to Yuzuru.
Yuzuru raises his eyes while taking a bite of the leftover fillet of fish.
"What?"
"That is to say, from calling it a split personality, hasn't something taken control of you?"
"Possessed? Me?"
"Because things like a neurosis or depression from a new school term, don't they have some kind of cause? Even if something like that were to suddenly happen, wouldn't there need to be an explanation of some sort?"
"Maybe," Yuzuru says, eyes dropping to the asphalt. "But I don't know what."
"In your case, I can't laugh at you or call you an idiot," he murmured, and gazed at the babbling river. The fresh May wind brushes gently at the cheeks of the two uniform clad figures walking on the pavement. There was a pause in the cars passing them, and the sound of babbling water reached their ears.
Takaya speaks.
"Is it just during class that you've been feeling like this? There was the spirit of a girl who committed suicide ten years ago. Before that, didn't the spirit of an old lady who died in a traffic accident hang around? When you took photos on vacation one could have come out as a ghost photo. You must have called it out. Like that. I'm not connected to psychic phenomenon, but wouldn't a guy with such sharp senses like you make a good target?"
"What do you mean, target?"
"I don't understand it, but wouldn't a spirit possess a person like that? Like a professional spirit medium or a shaman or something."
"Don't confuse the two."
"And there was that strange dream you had. Like a battle from a historical play? It could be a spirit from the Warring Clans period."
"No way..."
Yuzuru said and laughed, but...
Suddenly.
He stopped walking.
"?"
Takaya notices and also stops. Yuzuru's gaze is fixed ahead of them.
"Yuzuru?"
"Takaya. That."
Shifting his gaze, Takaya stared in that direction too. On the small red bridge above the river Metobu.
There is a girl in a school uniform looking down at the surface of the water.
She is of medium height with long straight black hair. She appears to be about the same age as Takaya and Yuzuru, but a sailor fuku with a cobalt blue ribbon on its navy collar is a uniform they don't recognise. Furthermore, the middle of the morning on a weekday is not a time when an ordinary high school student should be there.
The girl carried nothing in her hands; it felt as though she was merely standing still and looking down at the river. Her expression becomes still, her eyes go blank, and her face goes pale.
Something is strange.
Yuzuru sees the girl seemingly have a convulsion. Takaya notices like he does; thinking it dubious, he goes to call out.
Yuzuru took a step forward as though being sucked in.
He opens his eyes and his lips part slightly, and unconsciously he takes another step. His legs move as though they are being manipulated by something. Helplessly, like he is staggering. Then, another step--
"! ......Yuzuru!"
"Eh."
He has returned to himself. Takaya grabs his wrist. He yelled near Yuzuru's ear.
"Idiot! What were you doing!"
"Takaya."
"Being some kind of girl chaser, that's not like you!"
"~~~~....."
Yuzuru closed his eyes. Then, the girl on the bridge turns her glance to them with a 'ku!'
The two she had noticed turn to look at her too.
The distance between them was about ten or fifteen metres.
When they looked at each other simultaneously, the girl's pupils dilated with tension. The eyes that had been blank took on light, and suddenly life returned to her expression. She stares at the boys on the pavement. However, that look is not usual.
It shouldn't exist in this society.
(...... What the hell.....!)
A feeling of bizarre tension.
An intense incompatibility like entering a different dimension.
Then.
They could see white light radiating behind her.
They gasp.
(What on Earth is this--)
Jiri...
Yuzuru retreats back without thinking.
The girl is staring at them.
Like a person of high stature from olden times looking down on someone of humble rank, she stared at them with an expression that made them feel bizarrely coerced to stay still.
Suddenly, the inside of those pupils wavers.
"?"
It was Takaya who had reacted.
The girl's expression changed subtly, and the feeling of coercion disappeared. In its place an expression like absentmindedness spreads out, and she widens her eyes. From her neat red lips, a faint murmur escaped.
"... Thou..."
Takaya opened his eyes with an 'eh'.
The girl moves in his direction slowly. Her lips parted again with the intention to say something.
That instant.
"!"
The girl's body shook. Takaya lets out a 'ha!' and the moment he moves-
Bo!
"What the!"
Blue flames sprang up from the girl's body.
A shriek pierces his ears. The girl's body has burst into flames.
"Wh... ! The hell!"
Engulfed by flames, the girl writhes. An enormous noise like a gas burner builds, and the girl's body burns. Her scream gushes out. Blue flames; no, purple. --- Purple!
"No way! Oi, Yuzuru! Yuzuru!"
Takaya yells; Yuzuru's face twitches, and, as if he was trembling in fear, he doesn't react.
"Oi! You!"
Taking off his blazer, Takaya rushed over to the girl. The girl enveloped in fire writhes violently. Takaya had been trying to beat the fire out, but his arms stilled in confusion.
It's not hot...
The flames aren't hot.
(What? ...an illusion?)
Purple flames. Bizarre anywhere… severe flames.
"Che!"
Takaya bit his tongue and wrapped the girl's body in the blazer. Restraining the raging girl, he calls out.
"Yuzuru! An ambulance! Call an ambulance!"
Yuzuru doesn't move.
"Yuzuru! Can't you hear me? Yuzuru!"
The passers by began to gather. Takaya screamed.
"Yuzuru! ........ OI! Yuzuru!"
<< The seal of the spirit grave is broken. Assemble at our origin. Brethren who have returned to the earth. >>
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:16 am (UTC)1. I love you for translating this forever and always.
2. I've been watching the "Mirage of Blaze" OVA (three episodes that are post-series), and I think I might actually find the main characters stupider than I already did. It goes like this:
Takaya: Please, please
molestdon't molest me.Naoe: I must molest you so that you don't think I'll follow your orders all the time. Then, you won't be a winner anymore!
Takaya:
QuatreWinner? Me? But -- I have bad molestation memories!Naoe: Crap! You're Takaya, aren't you? Oh, fine. I won't molest you. *pets*
*later*
Naoe: I am not your dog. I may have been your dog before, but not now. Not at all. Not one bit. I'm going to a new master.
Kagetora: Sit.
Naoe: *sits* FUCK!
Kagetora: *sneer* New master my ass, pretty boy. Now go kill people for me.
*later*
Naoe: I just turned down a really good job offer for you.
Kagetora: I didn't say you had to follow me.
Naoe: ...fuckityfuckfuckaroo.
Kagetora: On the other hand, if you leave now, you'll look like a dog with your tail between your legs. You are such a loser.
Naoe: ...*headdeskheaddeskheaddesk*
Kagetora: But, if you stop acting like such a loser all the time, and become a winner I'll let you hold me.
Naoe: ...Enticing.
Takaya: *thinking: I LOVE YOU NAOE AND I WANT TO HAVE ALL YOUR BABIES*
Kagetora: *back in a flash* Rawr. Leaving now. *walks off into the snow*
Naoe: *gets into his (green compact?) car*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:28 am (UTC)Also, I love your summary of the OVAs. *DIES* I know of their existence but I haven't been able to procure them yet. I do know, though, that they get so stupid you want to just shoot them in about volume 10-12 of the books, because someone on my flist has read them that far- she's not translating, but she IS summarising parts.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:34 am (UTC)*grins* They make me happy. The OVAs, I mean. By the end I was just laughing because I couldn't believe how idiotic Naoe and Kagetora were being. And Takaya for that matter. I mean, he doesn't have to sit back and take their BS. ;_; Right?
It doesn't surprise me that they only get dumber. -_-;; I still take some comfort in knowing they at least eventually sleep with one another. Eventually. ><;
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:38 am (UTC)Yeah, I think Takaya's more fucked over by his childhood than you'd think, otherwise he'd totally assert himself a little more.
Volume 20. TWENTY. A looooong way to go. *headdesk*
Speaking of them taking forever, though, I've got a fic in beta at the moment that went past 17000 words. Longest one-shot I've ever written, which I think counts as proof of their sheer idiocy. >
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:43 am (UTC)Yeah, he must be. The poor guy. And then Naoe gets all UBERSEME on him, which, of course, would only make Takaya shy away. Bad timing, Naoe. Bad timing.
I know. Stupid them. Seriously. But, holyfuckola on the story. I have one of similar proportions for Weiss... but half of the problem is Aya. Gyah. I just want to smash his head into a wall. >< The first part of it, orignally the only part of it, was 22, 268 words. Then, I had the urge to do more, so there is a part that takes place the next day racking up 22,239 words. And it's mostly stupid Aya being dumb as a particularly dimwitted rock. :/
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:48 am (UTC)*giggle* Yeah, I can see how Aya might mess things up. In the MoB one, I seriously just wanted to KICK them. I mean, they're just so... stupid. It's like, "we could have sex now, but I'm going to be a bastard and walk away." They took TURNS GRARGH.
I think the X fic I'm writing at the moment is going to end up even longer, but... it has the dubious excuse of being an AU, rather than just Seishirou and Subaru being dolts.
Which is not to say that they AREN'T being dolts, but not as badly as Naoe and Takaya are. Or something.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:54 am (UTC)...No, that's not what he's actually saying in that scene.
Seishirou and Subaru, as much as they are notoriously one of the most vapid pairs in the history of manga will never match up to the sheer lack of combined brain mass that is Naoe and Takaya. And I can totally see them taking turns. They probably even have a schedule drawn out.
Monday: Kagetora will be a jackass beyond reason.
Tuesday: Naoe will be a dipshit until 4pm -- Takaya will then proceed to angst a lot.
Wednesday: Kagatora will be back, the jackass.
Thursday: Naoe will leave and "never come back." Takaya will be angsting.
Friday: Still gone. Still angsting.
Saturday: Yuzuru was there, Takaya stopped angsting. Naoe mysteriously re-appeared. Kagetora was a jackass. Naoe let him be.
Sunday: On the seventh day they rested.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:59 am (UTC)God, so true. Although Naoe and Takaya beat Seishirou and Subaru in one respect- they actually DO get to sleep together. Eventually. Seishirou's stupidity pwnz all, given that he's the one who left originally AND the one who got himself killed. *throttles him*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 08:04 am (UTC)...I so want to go read that crossover you wrote again. I think I'll do that now, and then I'm going to bed while I still have my sanity. Sort of. (Not really >>;)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 08:07 am (UTC)Hee! Sanity? What is this... "sanity" of which you speak?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 07:56 am (UTC)Not that long, all things considered. A few days with nothing much else to do. There were a few words I needed to check on the net, though, and I did this back in January when I had no net access- I only remembered about the translation yesterday, so I checked them up then.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-10 03:31 pm (UTC)Sarah ^^
no subject
Date: 2005-04-10 03:52 pm (UTC)OMG...I bumped my head and gone to MoB Heaven ;-D
Date: 2005-04-10 10:26 pm (UTC)Thank you, thank you, thank you ;-D
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 06:29 am (UTC)I love you the way Kousaka loves lipstick.