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DRT1.2.14: EVE burst error, section 14
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Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
14
"Wait a minute. That's your motive?"
"That is correct." The President gently raised his head, having perhaps regained his composure. "We are killing people for the sake of Operation Global Locked Room Transformation."
Oh, I see. No wonder it doesn't make any sense. I was relieved to learn that it wasn't supposed to make sense. It was reassuring to know that we weren't cut from the same cloth.
"Naturally, I don't presume I can get you to understand," the President continued. "It's rather rare to possess the sensitivity required to feel the beauty of the ritual, where each crime, each myst'ry, each locked room that arises once again, offers the reward of a corpse."
"...Just in case, there are subjective symptoms, right?"
"It is a mania based on the self-awareness of the madness."
"All maniacs are insane."
"And all maniacs are excited by being called 'insane'."
"So is Byakuya Togami a Myst'ry Maniac too?"
"No, Togami-shi[1] is only an investor. For the sake of his own world domination, he offered us as much funding and personnel as we needed to accomplish Operation Global Locked Room Transformation. Not just in this town. Right now, in various places throughout the world, Operation Global Locked Room Transformation should be progressing simultaneously."
Nope, didn't make any sense. That's fine. Everyone can have their own opinions, and their own talents, and do whatever they need to be satisfied.
But there was still just one thing that I simply could not let go. Lemme ask again: Why should anyone give a siiiingle shit about world domination? If all Byakuya Togami got out of going overboard with his Super High School Level Heir talent was sullying his hands with world domination, I couldn't forgive him.
That would be heading in the wrong direction. That wouldn't be the Outside I'm looking for.
"We should be happy to be here experiencing this Eve before the main event," said the President. "Although, I think it's about time to start bringing some color to your boring lives."
"A-Are you going to kill us?"
"What sort of locked room would you like to die in? Do you have any favorite tricks?"
"Why the hell would I have one of those...?"
"Don't be mad. Don't be afraid. I'm only saying that I'll take your meaningless life and shift it towards a meaningful death with a locked room. I am delighted to..."
"I gooooooooooot it!" roared the Vice President, who I just then noticed hadn't been participating in the conversation for a while now. Cookie crumbs spilling out of his mouth, he was pointing a finger (also covered in cookie crumbs) at Aoba.
"Quiet down, Vice President," warned the President, naturally. "I went to so much trouble explaining this and that about the situation, and I had finally made it to the good part of the scene where I start threatening them."
"No, more importantly—"
"What could be more important?!"
"I finally remembered!" The Vice President was watching Aoba. "Hey, you're Satomi Aoba-san, aren't you?"
"How do you know her name?" I blurted out in surprise.
"Hey now, what kind of reaction is that?! Are you telling me you've been traveling with her this whole time and you didn't even know?!"
"Know what?"
"Satomi Aoba. She's an idol!"
When the Vice President said that, the name of an idol group every Japanese person knew, famous throughout the nation, and the name of its top idol who served as its center, fell to the tip of my tongue.
Sayaka Maizono.
I was pretty estranged from pop culture, so I knew her so well less from her good looks or popularity, and more from her talent. Sayaka Maizono was enrolled in Hope's Peak as the Super High School Level Idol.
So—Aoba was a member of that idol group? I was walking around a broken world with an idol? What kind of plot twist was that...?
"Oh wow oh wow. Coooooooooool!" The Vice President seemed impressed. "But wait a minute, what's Satomi Aoba doing in a place like this? Some kind of location shoot? Promo pics? Can I have your autograph?"
"Ehehehe." Aoba just laughed.
"Woohoooo! Yeahhhhh!" Apparently, the Vice President was taking that as a yes. "Hey Prez, gimme some paper you're not gonna need back. You're always carrying around books, so can you just rip one up a little?"
"What kind of attitude is that to have towards someone's precious books?"
"You're so stingy. There'll be more mysteries if one of the pages is missing, so that should be great for you!"
"Waah! How dare you say such a thing!"
"I like your position, y'know." The Vice President was in high spirits. "Most people are all about Sayaka Maizono, and the maniacs back Ayaka Hayama, but that's all too mainstream for me."
"You were an idol maniac this whole time?" the President asked, dumbfounded.
"Sayaka Maizono's in the center, but there are five people on stage." The Vice President wasn't shutting up. "#2 and #3 are on either side of Sayaka Maizono. Ayaka Hayama is on the far right, and Satomi Aoba is on the far left. That's just their default starting position, but you get it, right? So if you're a supporter of Ayaka Hayama, who's the least popular one, that's just picking the 'safe' option."
"Aren't you getting even more worked up about this than you've ever gotten about myst'ry?"
"Okay, Prez. If you say you like Yutaka Maya, you're gonna sound like you know more about myst'ry than someone who says they like Koutarou Isaka, right?[2] It's annoying when brats act like they love the carrots they eat in their curry, right?"
"I don't quite grasp the latter example."
"Ayaka Hayama supporters are basically advertising themselves like, 'Oh, aren't I so hip and refined for cheering for that unpopular uggo Ayakanegon?' And it's a comfy position at the same time."
"Please say something, anything at all to follow up on Isaka-san. I get the feeling that it will be no laughing matter..."
"Sayaka Maizono fans and Ayaka Hayama fans are just the same from where I'm standin'. I think the perspective the industry really needs right now is less focus on #1 or #5, and more focus on #4, Satomi Aoba, the girl whose looks are fine and whose singing is fine, but for some reason, she's always #4, Satomi Aoba!"
I didn't know anything about this idol group, but I still felt like I could grasp Aoba's position after hearing that detailed explanation. Or maybe I should say detailed gouging, since that's basically what it was. But her expression didn't change. She still had a smile on her face. Was it because she was a professional? Because she was prideful?
Or maybe just because she was used to pigs talking shit? If that was the case, then, same. So let me just pretend that we had at least that much in common.
I've been gouged plenty myself by those cheats running rampant through this world—those puffed-up fakes who go Outside without even any talent. It was no isolated incident that a no-talent hack would tell me, "You're a no-talent hack." Truth was, this Operation Global Locked Room Transformation these guys were talking about seemed like exactly the kind of plan no-talent hacks would cook up as a desperate ploy to somehow stand out on the Outside. I'm not gonna put up with cheats throwing the word "talent" around anymore.
Talent.
Fucking talent!
These affiliate school nobodies who couldn't even recognize their own lack of talent were all paying attention to Aoba. Like maybe, they couldn't care less about a mole.
I regulated my breathing, subtly wiping the sweat off of my palms. My fingertips were trembling. I had a headache, probably from all the tension. My mind, having never experienced success, was swimming with images of failure and defeat. I didn't feel like winning. I didn't feel like doing things well. But I had to do it anyway. I had to just go for it.
I put my hands on the table, and flipped it over all at once. Teacups, plates, spoons, and the sugar bowl all went flying through the air to assault those talentless middle school kids.
Now.
I grabbed Aoba's hand. It was soft and cold.
"We're going now."
I dragged Aoba by the hand, bursting through the living room windowpane. We jumped outside, showered in a rain of glass shards, and escaped into the street from the garden. We got in the car from before, and I pressed down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward immediately. We were off. We were able to get out of there.
The scenery rolled past. A town with no people in it.
No—that wasn't it. All of the houses we could see had corpses shut away in locked rooms. Their lives had been stolen from them, nonsensically. But we'd averted that nonsense by the skin of our teeth, and we were alive.
"Hey, Mister," Aoba said after a while. "Just now, that was—actually pretty cool."
Yeah. I thought so, too.
Translator's Notes
[1] -shi - this is a formal honorific, but in the sense that it's more professional/businesslike than reverent or subservient. It is used in newspapers and formal documents, so the President's usage of it shows a certain level of pretentiousness, especially for someone in junior high.
[2] Yutaka Maya/Koutarou Isaka - mystery authors, of course. Perhaps an illustration of the gap in popularity between them is the fact that Yutaka Maya doesn't even have a English Wikipedia article.
Stay tuned for ~the start of a whole new chapter~ next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind! (although I'm not sure anymore if that spoiler code even works)
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
14
"Wait a minute. That's your motive?"
"That is correct." The President gently raised his head, having perhaps regained his composure. "We are killing people for the sake of Operation Global Locked Room Transformation."
Oh, I see. No wonder it doesn't make any sense. I was relieved to learn that it wasn't supposed to make sense. It was reassuring to know that we weren't cut from the same cloth.
"Naturally, I don't presume I can get you to understand," the President continued. "It's rather rare to possess the sensitivity required to feel the beauty of the ritual, where each crime, each myst'ry, each locked room that arises once again, offers the reward of a corpse."
"...Just in case, there are subjective symptoms, right?"
"It is a mania based on the self-awareness of the madness."
"All maniacs are insane."
"And all maniacs are excited by being called 'insane'."
"So is Byakuya Togami a Myst'ry Maniac too?"
"No, Togami-shi[1] is only an investor. For the sake of his own world domination, he offered us as much funding and personnel as we needed to accomplish Operation Global Locked Room Transformation. Not just in this town. Right now, in various places throughout the world, Operation Global Locked Room Transformation should be progressing simultaneously."
Nope, didn't make any sense. That's fine. Everyone can have their own opinions, and their own talents, and do whatever they need to be satisfied.
But there was still just one thing that I simply could not let go. Lemme ask again: Why should anyone give a siiiingle shit about world domination? If all Byakuya Togami got out of going overboard with his Super High School Level Heir talent was sullying his hands with world domination, I couldn't forgive him.
That would be heading in the wrong direction. That wouldn't be the Outside I'm looking for.
"We should be happy to be here experiencing this Eve before the main event," said the President. "Although, I think it's about time to start bringing some color to your boring lives."
"A-Are you going to kill us?"
"What sort of locked room would you like to die in? Do you have any favorite tricks?"
"Why the hell would I have one of those...?"
"Don't be mad. Don't be afraid. I'm only saying that I'll take your meaningless life and shift it towards a meaningful death with a locked room. I am delighted to..."
"I gooooooooooot it!" roared the Vice President, who I just then noticed hadn't been participating in the conversation for a while now. Cookie crumbs spilling out of his mouth, he was pointing a finger (also covered in cookie crumbs) at Aoba.
"Quiet down, Vice President," warned the President, naturally. "I went to so much trouble explaining this and that about the situation, and I had finally made it to the good part of the scene where I start threatening them."
"No, more importantly—"
"What could be more important?!"
"I finally remembered!" The Vice President was watching Aoba. "Hey, you're Satomi Aoba-san, aren't you?"
"How do you know her name?" I blurted out in surprise.
"Hey now, what kind of reaction is that?! Are you telling me you've been traveling with her this whole time and you didn't even know?!"
"Know what?"
"Satomi Aoba. She's an idol!"
When the Vice President said that, the name of an idol group every Japanese person knew, famous throughout the nation, and the name of its top idol who served as its center, fell to the tip of my tongue.
Sayaka Maizono.
I was pretty estranged from pop culture, so I knew her so well less from her good looks or popularity, and more from her talent. Sayaka Maizono was enrolled in Hope's Peak as the Super High School Level Idol.
So—Aoba was a member of that idol group? I was walking around a broken world with an idol? What kind of plot twist was that...?
"Oh wow oh wow. Coooooooooool!" The Vice President seemed impressed. "But wait a minute, what's Satomi Aoba doing in a place like this? Some kind of location shoot? Promo pics? Can I have your autograph?"
"Ehehehe." Aoba just laughed.
"Woohoooo! Yeahhhhh!" Apparently, the Vice President was taking that as a yes. "Hey Prez, gimme some paper you're not gonna need back. You're always carrying around books, so can you just rip one up a little?"
"What kind of attitude is that to have towards someone's precious books?"
"You're so stingy. There'll be more mysteries if one of the pages is missing, so that should be great for you!"
"Waah! How dare you say such a thing!"
"I like your position, y'know." The Vice President was in high spirits. "Most people are all about Sayaka Maizono, and the maniacs back Ayaka Hayama, but that's all too mainstream for me."
"You were an idol maniac this whole time?" the President asked, dumbfounded.
"Sayaka Maizono's in the center, but there are five people on stage." The Vice President wasn't shutting up. "#2 and #3 are on either side of Sayaka Maizono. Ayaka Hayama is on the far right, and Satomi Aoba is on the far left. That's just their default starting position, but you get it, right? So if you're a supporter of Ayaka Hayama, who's the least popular one, that's just picking the 'safe' option."
"Aren't you getting even more worked up about this than you've ever gotten about myst'ry?"
"Okay, Prez. If you say you like Yutaka Maya, you're gonna sound like you know more about myst'ry than someone who says they like Koutarou Isaka, right?[2] It's annoying when brats act like they love the carrots they eat in their curry, right?"
"I don't quite grasp the latter example."
"Ayaka Hayama supporters are basically advertising themselves like, 'Oh, aren't I so hip and refined for cheering for that unpopular uggo Ayakanegon?' And it's a comfy position at the same time."
"Please say something, anything at all to follow up on Isaka-san. I get the feeling that it will be no laughing matter..."
"Sayaka Maizono fans and Ayaka Hayama fans are just the same from where I'm standin'. I think the perspective the industry really needs right now is less focus on #1 or #5, and more focus on #4, Satomi Aoba, the girl whose looks are fine and whose singing is fine, but for some reason, she's always #4, Satomi Aoba!"
I didn't know anything about this idol group, but I still felt like I could grasp Aoba's position after hearing that detailed explanation. Or maybe I should say detailed gouging, since that's basically what it was. But her expression didn't change. She still had a smile on her face. Was it because she was a professional? Because she was prideful?
Or maybe just because she was used to pigs talking shit? If that was the case, then, same. So let me just pretend that we had at least that much in common.
I've been gouged plenty myself by those cheats running rampant through this world—those puffed-up fakes who go Outside without even any talent. It was no isolated incident that a no-talent hack would tell me, "You're a no-talent hack." Truth was, this Operation Global Locked Room Transformation these guys were talking about seemed like exactly the kind of plan no-talent hacks would cook up as a desperate ploy to somehow stand out on the Outside. I'm not gonna put up with cheats throwing the word "talent" around anymore.
Talent.
Fucking talent!
These affiliate school nobodies who couldn't even recognize their own lack of talent were all paying attention to Aoba. Like maybe, they couldn't care less about a mole.
I regulated my breathing, subtly wiping the sweat off of my palms. My fingertips were trembling. I had a headache, probably from all the tension. My mind, having never experienced success, was swimming with images of failure and defeat. I didn't feel like winning. I didn't feel like doing things well. But I had to do it anyway. I had to just go for it.
I put my hands on the table, and flipped it over all at once. Teacups, plates, spoons, and the sugar bowl all went flying through the air to assault those talentless middle school kids.
Now.
I grabbed Aoba's hand. It was soft and cold.
"We're going now."
I dragged Aoba by the hand, bursting through the living room windowpane. We jumped outside, showered in a rain of glass shards, and escaped into the street from the garden. We got in the car from before, and I pressed down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward immediately. We were off. We were able to get out of there.
The scenery rolled past. A town with no people in it.
No—that wasn't it. All of the houses we could see had corpses shut away in locked rooms. Their lives had been stolen from them, nonsensically. But we'd averted that nonsense by the skin of our teeth, and we were alive.
"Hey, Mister," Aoba said after a while. "Just now, that was—actually pretty cool."
Yeah. I thought so, too.
Translator's Notes
[1] -shi - this is a formal honorific, but in the sense that it's more professional/businesslike than reverent or subservient. It is used in newspapers and formal documents, so the President's usage of it shows a certain level of pretentiousness, especially for someone in junior high.
[2] Yutaka Maya/Koutarou Isaka - mystery authors, of course. Perhaps an illustration of the gap in popularity between them is the fact that Yutaka Maya doesn't even have a English Wikipedia article.
Stay tuned for ~the start of a whole new chapter~ next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind! (although I'm not sure anymore if that spoiler code even works)
So... What's going on? XD
(Anonymous) 2016-05-04 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)Thanks for translating! I'm very eager to see where this ride is taking us.
Cheers