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DRT1.5.1: Me and the School and I (The Second Half), section 1
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Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
1
I screamed. Or, to be more precise, I tried to scream, but no voice came out. Even as I silently screamed, I didn't take my eyes off of what was in front of me.
Observation. Just like always. That was my job, after all.
There was an ornately decorated, round white table with a white chair on the sprawling campus grounds. On top of the table sat a teacup that was—you guessed it—primarily white. It looked like someone had been having teatime there just a short while ago.
Byakuya-sama's corpse had fallen to the side of the tea set.
Eyes closed, head resting on the table, and arms and legs crossed, undisturbed from their habitual pose, Byakuya-sama looked at a glance like he was simply taking a siesta. But a line of blood ran down from the corner of his lips, and his throat was not moving.
I have to commit this whole scene to memory, I thought, and hated myself for it.
The time was 11:37 PM. I noticed now that in the sky, darkness had eaten away at the moon until only a slim crescent remained. This was the end of the midnight sun.
Normally I would have been able to resist lingering on such dull metaphors, but Byakuya-sama's death had broken me, so now I was incapable of proper composition or proofreading.
Two people in lab coats were watching me as I was in such a state: a small girl, and a man holding an umbrella.
They were the Hasegawa Research Institute, who killed Byakuya-sama.
I boiled with murderous intent. The impulse to slaughter them where they stood shot through me. But my spirit kept itself in check with the idea of questioning the two of them about what had happened. Reason came before instinct, and my work came before my feelings. After all, I was the Super High School Level Secretary, and writing Journey Under the Midnight Sun was my categorical imperative.
"Why did you kill him?" I asked.
"You're angry right off the bat..." said the girl, who had to have been elementary school age, the overlarge sleeves of her lab coat swaying as she spoke. "Well, you'd better listen up, Onee-san~. Togami-oniisan wouldn't confess what he knew. I tried soooo hard to threaten him, you know? I said, 'Hey punk, I'm gonna stick a grilled bamboo skewer under your fingernail and pour piping hot wax down it~!' But he wouldn't listen! It was totally out of my hands. Oh, by the way, I'm the Chief here."
"Chief?"
"I came here on a business trip from Hasegawa Institute's Hokkaido branch. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, punk~" The girl calling herself Chief bowed, her small body bending in half. "The body of a child! The authority of an adult! What I mean is, you'd better be reeeeal careful to show your respect to me, the Chief!"
"Die."
"O... Oh? That didn't sound like respect at all. It's almost as if I was being plain old made fun of. Weeeeird. But I even have this lab coat. And I'm super popular at school... *hic*. E-Even I'm, y'know. I'm crying. I hope you're proud of yourself, making a little kid cry... Later you're... gonna be in big... trou, buh, b, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb—"
As the Chief's body started convulsing, the man holding the umbrella slipped something between her lips with nimble fingers.
"Nomnomnom... Phew. Th, thaaat was dangerous. Look, I'm a genius, so my brain burns through sugars super fast. That's why if I don't take some sugar every so often, I get hypoglycemic. You want one too? It's a Rokkatei Marusei Butter Sandwich.[1] It's my stabilizer. It's 165 calories."
"Let's proceed with the conversation, Chief," said the umbrella man. "You've been running your mouth since you were first introduced, but you haven't shown even the slightest indication of your genius."
"This is my subordinate~. That's 'subordinate'. He's subordinate to me."
"I am Kanai the subordinate." The umbrella man bowed his head.
"All right, Kanai-kun. My subordinate, Kanai-kun. My errand-boy, Kanai-kun. My toilet slipper, Kanai-kun.[2] You'll be explaining things in my place~!"
"Understood," the man called Kanai said with a polite nod, before turning to look my way. "Allow me to explain in place of the Chief. As you know, the Hasegawa Research Institute researches anything and everything. We will not be satisfied until we have researched everything from the beginning of our universe to the reason why the Tower of the Sun has those arm-like protrusions[3]—essentially, until we have researched every nook and cranny of all of creation. For some time now, we have had a particular interest in the Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity; however, as we had no probable cause to pick a fight with the ruling Togami family, we kept our hands to ourselves. Yet now that this World Domination Proclamation has been issued..."
"Hey Kanai-kun."
"Chief. A lady chooses to listen to long-winded explanations until the very end."
"Um, well, my brain wants sugar..."
"Didn't you just eat a Butter Sandwich?"
"It's 'cuz I'm a genius... so... I... get... light... head... eddddddddd—"
"Please just deal with it for now. When this is over, I'll buy you whatever you want."
"Dddddddd—what, whatever I want? Will you buy me a cake?"
"Understood."
"Ovocný Světozor's pomerančový dort se zakysanou smetanou."[4]
"Pardon?"
"It's the name of the store and the type of cake."
"You surprised me. I was sure for a moment that you'd become a master of the Czech language."
"I've known Czech since I was two years old. 'Cuz I'm a genius. All right, punk, get back to explaining things~"
"As you wish." Kanai nodded. "For the reasons previously stated, we captured Byakuya Togami, heir to the Togami Conglomerate. Yet, as he would not tell us anything, we were led to take the measure of feeding him a truth serum. This was a special Hasegawa Research Institute truth serum, so the results were top-notch. It simply has a side effect which makes ingesting it fatal. As you can see."
Right. He was indeed dead. As I could see.
Byakuya-sama's fallen corpse looked somehow lonely, like a statue of a tyrant that had been toppled after a revolution.
Loneliness. That at least was inherent in any corpse, strangely enough, no matter what type. All corpses were like the one I was seeing. The people you once loved, and the people you once hated—they all die, all of them; and they're all lonely, all of them.
"After ingesting the truth serum, Byakuya Togami had much more to say to us." Kanai's explanation brought me back to reality. "And finally, at last, we were able to understand. The Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity. Yes... the Kudan."[5]
Translator's Notes
[1] Marusei Butter Sandwich - a famous Hokkaido treat from Rokkatei Confectionery.
[2] toilet slipper - in Japan, besides the regular house slippers, there are also slippers specifically used in the bathroom. As one might expect from an object associated with toilets, they are viewed with disgust if brought into any other context.
[3] Tower of the Sun - a fairly unique tower in Osaka built for the Expo '70 world's fair.
[4] Ovocný Světozor - Ovocný Světozor is a dessert shop local to Prague. The Chief asks for an orange cake with sour cream, which is the "Orange" on this page. (I can't believe I had to look at a whole page of cakes when I'm on an elimination diet. That is much deeper suffering than constructing an entire phrase in Czech having only katakana phonetic approximation to go off of)
[5] Kudan - a youkai that takes the form of a cow with a human face, that tells the future with absolute accuracy.
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 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
1
I screamed. Or, to be more precise, I tried to scream, but no voice came out. Even as I silently screamed, I didn't take my eyes off of what was in front of me.
Observation. Just like always. That was my job, after all.
There was an ornately decorated, round white table with a white chair on the sprawling campus grounds. On top of the table sat a teacup that was—you guessed it—primarily white. It looked like someone had been having teatime there just a short while ago.
Byakuya-sama's corpse had fallen to the side of the tea set.
Eyes closed, head resting on the table, and arms and legs crossed, undisturbed from their habitual pose, Byakuya-sama looked at a glance like he was simply taking a siesta. But a line of blood ran down from the corner of his lips, and his throat was not moving.
I have to commit this whole scene to memory, I thought, and hated myself for it.
The time was 11:37 PM. I noticed now that in the sky, darkness had eaten away at the moon until only a slim crescent remained. This was the end of the midnight sun.
Normally I would have been able to resist lingering on such dull metaphors, but Byakuya-sama's death had broken me, so now I was incapable of proper composition or proofreading.
Two people in lab coats were watching me as I was in such a state: a small girl, and a man holding an umbrella.
They were the Hasegawa Research Institute, who killed Byakuya-sama.
I boiled with murderous intent. The impulse to slaughter them where they stood shot through me. But my spirit kept itself in check with the idea of questioning the two of them about what had happened. Reason came before instinct, and my work came before my feelings. After all, I was the Super High School Level Secretary, and writing Journey Under the Midnight Sun was my categorical imperative.
"Why did you kill him?" I asked.
"You're angry right off the bat..." said the girl, who had to have been elementary school age, the overlarge sleeves of her lab coat swaying as she spoke. "Well, you'd better listen up, Onee-san~. Togami-oniisan wouldn't confess what he knew. I tried soooo hard to threaten him, you know? I said, 'Hey punk, I'm gonna stick a grilled bamboo skewer under your fingernail and pour piping hot wax down it~!' But he wouldn't listen! It was totally out of my hands. Oh, by the way, I'm the Chief here."
"Chief?"
"I came here on a business trip from Hasegawa Institute's Hokkaido branch. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, punk~" The girl calling herself Chief bowed, her small body bending in half. "The body of a child! The authority of an adult! What I mean is, you'd better be reeeeal careful to show your respect to me, the Chief!"
"Die."
"O... Oh? That didn't sound like respect at all. It's almost as if I was being plain old made fun of. Weeeeird. But I even have this lab coat. And I'm super popular at school... *hic*. E-Even I'm, y'know. I'm crying. I hope you're proud of yourself, making a little kid cry... Later you're... gonna be in big... trou, buh, b, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb—"
As the Chief's body started convulsing, the man holding the umbrella slipped something between her lips with nimble fingers.
"Nomnomnom... Phew. Th, thaaat was dangerous. Look, I'm a genius, so my brain burns through sugars super fast. That's why if I don't take some sugar every so often, I get hypoglycemic. You want one too? It's a Rokkatei Marusei Butter Sandwich.[1] It's my stabilizer. It's 165 calories."
"Let's proceed with the conversation, Chief," said the umbrella man. "You've been running your mouth since you were first introduced, but you haven't shown even the slightest indication of your genius."
"This is my subordinate~. That's 'subordinate'. He's subordinate to me."
"I am Kanai the subordinate." The umbrella man bowed his head.
"All right, Kanai-kun. My subordinate, Kanai-kun. My errand-boy, Kanai-kun. My toilet slipper, Kanai-kun.[2] You'll be explaining things in my place~!"
"Understood," the man called Kanai said with a polite nod, before turning to look my way. "Allow me to explain in place of the Chief. As you know, the Hasegawa Research Institute researches anything and everything. We will not be satisfied until we have researched everything from the beginning of our universe to the reason why the Tower of the Sun has those arm-like protrusions[3]—essentially, until we have researched every nook and cranny of all of creation. For some time now, we have had a particular interest in the Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity; however, as we had no probable cause to pick a fight with the ruling Togami family, we kept our hands to ourselves. Yet now that this World Domination Proclamation has been issued..."
"Hey Kanai-kun."
"Chief. A lady chooses to listen to long-winded explanations until the very end."
"Um, well, my brain wants sugar..."
"Didn't you just eat a Butter Sandwich?"
"It's 'cuz I'm a genius... so... I... get... light... head... eddddddddd—"
"Please just deal with it for now. When this is over, I'll buy you whatever you want."
"Dddddddd—what, whatever I want? Will you buy me a cake?"
"Understood."
"Ovocný Světozor's pomerančový dort se zakysanou smetanou."[4]
"Pardon?"
"It's the name of the store and the type of cake."
"You surprised me. I was sure for a moment that you'd become a master of the Czech language."
"I've known Czech since I was two years old. 'Cuz I'm a genius. All right, punk, get back to explaining things~"
"As you wish." Kanai nodded. "For the reasons previously stated, we captured Byakuya Togami, heir to the Togami Conglomerate. Yet, as he would not tell us anything, we were led to take the measure of feeding him a truth serum. This was a special Hasegawa Research Institute truth serum, so the results were top-notch. It simply has a side effect which makes ingesting it fatal. As you can see."
Right. He was indeed dead. As I could see.
Byakuya-sama's fallen corpse looked somehow lonely, like a statue of a tyrant that had been toppled after a revolution.
Loneliness. That at least was inherent in any corpse, strangely enough, no matter what type. All corpses were like the one I was seeing. The people you once loved, and the people you once hated—they all die, all of them; and they're all lonely, all of them.
"After ingesting the truth serum, Byakuya Togami had much more to say to us." Kanai's explanation brought me back to reality. "And finally, at last, we were able to understand. The Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity. Yes... the Kudan."[5]
Translator's Notes
[1] Marusei Butter Sandwich - a famous Hokkaido treat from Rokkatei Confectionery.
[2] toilet slipper - in Japan, besides the regular house slippers, there are also slippers specifically used in the bathroom. As one might expect from an object associated with toilets, they are viewed with disgust if brought into any other context.
[3] Tower of the Sun - a fairly unique tower in Osaka built for the Expo '70 world's fair.
[4] Ovocný Světozor - Ovocný Světozor is a dessert shop local to Prague. The Chief asks for an orange cake with sour cream, which is the "Orange" on this page. (I can't believe I had to look at a whole page of cakes when I'm on an elimination diet. That is much deeper suffering than constructing an entire phrase in Czech having only katakana phonetic approximation to go off of)
[5] Kudan - a youkai that takes the form of a cow with a human face, that tells the future with absolute accuracy.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!