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DRT1.3.4: Threeway Battle, section 4
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 3: Threeway Battle
4
Whether it was because Czech was a more obscure language, or because absurd Czech literature was already commonplace, there wasn't currently a Czech translation of the Despair Novel circulating.
It's generally considered that the original version was written in Japanese, a language that blows Czech out of the water, obscure though it may be. But the Despair Novel's disease didn't seem to be spreading within its home country as much as you would think, given that. With Japan's industrious workers, all-night-long anime broadcasts, and proliferation of 24-hour convenience stores, there was basically no time to read, and the low incidence rate in Japan could be taken as proof of that.
To be honest with you, I don't really have much interest in the Despair Novel. I actually kinda forgot about it, between the phony making the World Domination Proclamation, and Byakuya-sama and the world with him falling into peril. If I were a member of the Council of Global Controllers myself, I might have a more intimate sense of conflicts and epidemics happening in faraway countries, but in the end, I only had a civilian's grasp of events at my disposal.
And that civilian was currently in a hidden room built underground the Church of Bones.
I'd hoped to find survivors, but no one was there. Apparently, no one had made it down. They might not have had time to.
"The vault appears to be untouched," Byakuya-sama said with satisfaction, sitting on an art piece made of skulls. "What the hell are you doing? Hurry up and open it."
I undid the lock on the vault that was built into the wall of the hidden room, and found—
A satellite phone.
Portable rations.
And a whole lot of gold ingots.
"Hot damn, bullion!" Hiroyuki-san stuck his head in. "How many pelica d'you think that is total?"[1]
"So, Third-Rate Conglomerate, is this amount of gold enough for you to offer up your life?"
"Didn't I mention? I'm a total ass-kissing suck-up to my betters. I offer that service as a freebie!"
"I suppose I asked the wrong person."
"Aw, don't get down on yourself about it. In this crazy world of ours, I'd say it's harder for people to find someone they can have a normal conversation with than the opposite. Personally, I can't talk to people who like cats more than other people, or people who laugh like, 'durhurhur, lulz!' Well, anyway, Nee-san's waiting on me." After throwing words around left and right as he pleased, Hiroyuki-san headed back up.
Finally, the two of us were alone. Byakuya-sama was watching me.
"U-Um, what is it?"
"Would anyone risk their life for this amount of gold?"
"Oh, so that's what we're talking about..." How disappointing. "I don't know, honestly. Are you saying you don't think they would?"
"You are cold-blooded, after all."
"Like... Capote?"[2]
"You haven't had any hope or despair for years now," said Byakuya-sama. "Even I myself walk through life with hope as the bait encouraging me along, and despair as the whip cracking my behind. But your life isn't even visited by hope, let alone despair. They call that cold-blooded."
"I don't really get it, but I'm not cold-blooded or anything."
"What is the meaning of your existence?"
"To complete your biography as the Super High School Level Secretary, Byakuya-sama."
"That is correct. You're living to write Journey Under the Midnight Sun. And that's the only thing you're living for."
There might be people out there who think I'd be sad to hear a declaration like that, but I assure you that couldn't be further from the truth. It's quite the opposite, really. After all, my categorical imperative was "Thou must prioritize the writing of the biography at all times."
"Through reading biographies, we were meant to learn about people like Helen Keller and Madame Curie," Byakuya-sama said, pushing up his glasses. "But I wonder how much fiction slipped into them?"
"Biographies are non-fiction. Biographers are slaves to reality."
"Hmph. But not in practice. Presenting things in a traditional fashion. Fabricating episodes exaggerated out of the facts. Moralizing through anecdotes... How many biographies are rendered unappetizing by such sweet, sweet sugars? Even though making real events into a dramatization is just looting the scene of a fire."
"I won't do anything like that. Journey Under the Midnight Sun will stay pure."
"Do you know why it is biographers won't adhere to these basic rules?"
"No, I don't."
"Because they're human." Byakuya-sama let out a brief sigh. "Can you tell me something, from your perspective as Blue Ink? What do you think of every day, when you live with neither hope nor despair? Is there perhaps a greater concept than hope and despair?"
"That's..."
"Desire."
I heard Byakuya-sama's voice. But Byakuya-sama, standing right in front of me, had his mouth shut.
"Desire. That aspiration is far stronger than hope or despair. That is because desire is the prototype, the starting point, the original sin of hope and despair. Desire steps in before each and every action that is taken."
That voice probably wasn't only echoing in the hidden room. It was probably being transmitted throughout the Church of Bones, throughout Prague, throughout the Czech Republic, and throughout the whole world.
"There you are, you fraud," Byakuya-sama said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Why don't you show me your next move? Try not to disappoint me."
The fake continued loquaciously, as if to say, Naturally.
They both seemed to be having fun.
Translator's Notes
[1] pelica - a reference to a currency used in Kaiji.
[2] Capote - Truman Capote wrote the book In Cold Blood (which in the Japanese title is just the "cold blood" part, that is the same word Togami uses to describe Blue Ink). Relevant to the discussion that follows shortly afterwards, that book is a true crime novel, but some of the details in it are fictional.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 3: Threeway Battle
4
Whether it was because Czech was a more obscure language, or because absurd Czech literature was already commonplace, there wasn't currently a Czech translation of the Despair Novel circulating.
It's generally considered that the original version was written in Japanese, a language that blows Czech out of the water, obscure though it may be. But the Despair Novel's disease didn't seem to be spreading within its home country as much as you would think, given that. With Japan's industrious workers, all-night-long anime broadcasts, and proliferation of 24-hour convenience stores, there was basically no time to read, and the low incidence rate in Japan could be taken as proof of that.
To be honest with you, I don't really have much interest in the Despair Novel. I actually kinda forgot about it, between the phony making the World Domination Proclamation, and Byakuya-sama and the world with him falling into peril. If I were a member of the Council of Global Controllers myself, I might have a more intimate sense of conflicts and epidemics happening in faraway countries, but in the end, I only had a civilian's grasp of events at my disposal.
And that civilian was currently in a hidden room built underground the Church of Bones.
I'd hoped to find survivors, but no one was there. Apparently, no one had made it down. They might not have had time to.
"The vault appears to be untouched," Byakuya-sama said with satisfaction, sitting on an art piece made of skulls. "What the hell are you doing? Hurry up and open it."
I undid the lock on the vault that was built into the wall of the hidden room, and found—
A satellite phone.
Portable rations.
And a whole lot of gold ingots.
"Hot damn, bullion!" Hiroyuki-san stuck his head in. "How many pelica d'you think that is total?"[1]
"So, Third-Rate Conglomerate, is this amount of gold enough for you to offer up your life?"
"Didn't I mention? I'm a total ass-kissing suck-up to my betters. I offer that service as a freebie!"
"I suppose I asked the wrong person."
"Aw, don't get down on yourself about it. In this crazy world of ours, I'd say it's harder for people to find someone they can have a normal conversation with than the opposite. Personally, I can't talk to people who like cats more than other people, or people who laugh like, 'durhurhur, lulz!' Well, anyway, Nee-san's waiting on me." After throwing words around left and right as he pleased, Hiroyuki-san headed back up.
Finally, the two of us were alone. Byakuya-sama was watching me.
"U-Um, what is it?"
"Would anyone risk their life for this amount of gold?"
"Oh, so that's what we're talking about..." How disappointing. "I don't know, honestly. Are you saying you don't think they would?"
"You are cold-blooded, after all."
"Like... Capote?"[2]
"You haven't had any hope or despair for years now," said Byakuya-sama. "Even I myself walk through life with hope as the bait encouraging me along, and despair as the whip cracking my behind. But your life isn't even visited by hope, let alone despair. They call that cold-blooded."
"I don't really get it, but I'm not cold-blooded or anything."
"What is the meaning of your existence?"
"To complete your biography as the Super High School Level Secretary, Byakuya-sama."
"That is correct. You're living to write Journey Under the Midnight Sun. And that's the only thing you're living for."
There might be people out there who think I'd be sad to hear a declaration like that, but I assure you that couldn't be further from the truth. It's quite the opposite, really. After all, my categorical imperative was "Thou must prioritize the writing of the biography at all times."
"Through reading biographies, we were meant to learn about people like Helen Keller and Madame Curie," Byakuya-sama said, pushing up his glasses. "But I wonder how much fiction slipped into them?"
"Biographies are non-fiction. Biographers are slaves to reality."
"Hmph. But not in practice. Presenting things in a traditional fashion. Fabricating episodes exaggerated out of the facts. Moralizing through anecdotes... How many biographies are rendered unappetizing by such sweet, sweet sugars? Even though making real events into a dramatization is just looting the scene of a fire."
"I won't do anything like that. Journey Under the Midnight Sun will stay pure."
"Do you know why it is biographers won't adhere to these basic rules?"
"No, I don't."
"Because they're human." Byakuya-sama let out a brief sigh. "Can you tell me something, from your perspective as Blue Ink? What do you think of every day, when you live with neither hope nor despair? Is there perhaps a greater concept than hope and despair?"
"That's..."
"Desire."
I heard Byakuya-sama's voice. But Byakuya-sama, standing right in front of me, had his mouth shut.
"Desire. That aspiration is far stronger than hope or despair. That is because desire is the prototype, the starting point, the original sin of hope and despair. Desire steps in before each and every action that is taken."
That voice probably wasn't only echoing in the hidden room. It was probably being transmitted throughout the Church of Bones, throughout Prague, throughout the Czech Republic, and throughout the whole world.
"There you are, you fraud," Byakuya-sama said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Why don't you show me your next move? Try not to disappoint me."
The fake continued loquaciously, as if to say, Naturally.
They both seemed to be having fun.
Translator's Notes
[1] pelica - a reference to a currency used in Kaiji.
[2] Capote - Truman Capote wrote the book In Cold Blood (which in the Japanese title is just the "cold blood" part, that is the same word Togami uses to describe Blue Ink). Relevant to the discussion that follows shortly afterwards, that book is a true crime novel, but some of the details in it are fictional.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!