![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
DRT1.2.10: EVE burst error, section 10
(A short note: I tweaked the translation for Section 2 because I realized it was an excerpt from the larger scene presented in this section, and so I had made some errors in context and voice. Sorry for being careless!)
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
10
At a time like this, we should at least get to go wild in some stores.
We grabbed whatever food we wanted from the shelves of the now-empty supermarket. We set some sausages and zucchinis and stuff on a makeshift table made from some upturned vegetable cases, and I drank a can of beer. I don't usually make a habit of nicotine or alcohol use, but, crisis situation and all. The haze of tipsiness felt good.
It was probably the first time I'd wanted booze since that despair-filled graduation ceremony. That was when I drank a ton, and stayed drunk for two... no, three days? After I drank and drank and got totally wasted, I threw up everywhere like the protagonist in A Personal Matter[1], but I wasn't able to purge the despair that had seeped into me.
I was hurt by A Personal Despair that had been planted in me because of hope, and so I had no choice but to become a mole. To buy some peace of mind, I had no choice but to escape into a peaceful sleep.
I was crushed by hope, and so I lived in a world without hope. I didn't leave my room, and lived peacefully in a place where hope was nowhere to be seen.
"Ehehehe."
"H-Hey... Why are you laughing?"
"You really are inexperienced, mister. When you laugh, even if it's forced, you can calm yourself down."
"Is that right."
"Why don't you try it out right now? Come on, let's do it together. Ehehehehe... Hm? What is this? It's delicious. Try some of this. It's so good."
So why was I outside, connecting with someone over a meal like this?
The foreign gummy that Aoba handed me tasted kind of like a bike tire. When was the last time I'd eaten something that wasn't to my tastes? This kind of thing was a frequent occurrence with other people around. Eating, reading, seeing things I didn't like.
"Nom nom." As Aoba walked around the store, eating gummies, her eyes glittered like a scheming cat's.
According to her, she was here on a trip to mend her broken heart, and she'd looked weary laying eyes on the corpses. Maybe she was a normal girl in that sense.
But her resilience? That was something else. Even though she was wrapped up in this situation without knowing why, and even though she'd just seen plenty of corpses, she didn't look anything less than fully recovered from that. What kind of life led her here?
"What are we gonna do now?" I, on the other hand, was exhausted. "I don't wanna see any more corpses."
"Nom nom. It doesn't seem like we'll reap anything else here, but I'm wondering about the other towns, so maybe we should move elsewhere."
"Agreed. Completely agreed."
"Any family or acquaintances, mister?"
"Nope."
"No lovers either?"
"What are you even asking? My parents don't live here, and I never had any friends to begin with."
"My condolences."
"Huh?"
"My con-do-len-ces," Aoba said, as if she'd inserted punctuation between the syllables. "I have a good idea. Why don't we split up?"
"W-Wait a minute. What's with that?"
"What's with what?"
"What about that is supposed to be a good idea? Even if any fellow survivors are scattered around the town..."
"Ehehehe. I can't feel like there's any benefit to working together with you," Aoba said bluntly, a smile appearing on her face.
"Um but, uh, uhhhh." I was in deep shock, but I still tried desperately to make myself think. "Look, don't people say that there's no such thing as a chance encounter? The people who caused the Taika Reforms, Prince Naka no Ooe and Nakatomi no Kamatari, were friends who met through playing kemari."
"Kemari?"
"Do you not know about the Taika Reforms?"
"I probably learned about it along with the Isshi Incident."[2]
This was no time to get worked up about the generation gap. I desperately begged, advertising that I was familiar with the local geography, and that I could drive a car. I'd never self-promoted so much in my life.
Aoba seemed reluctant, but she agreed to go with me. It was time to get moving before she changed her mind.
We left the supermarket. A beautiful girl was walking right next to me. It was the first time in my life that I was walking anywhere accompanied by eye-candy like this. And yet, if I let my guard down even a little, Aoba would abandon me and go off somewhere else. Doing that during peacetime would be one thing, but when we were in a situation as weird as this one?
No. Maybe it was that I had to be strong because it was an abnormal situation. It was exhausting being a man. Being worthless if I wasn't strong.
"Mister, where is your car, incidentally?"
"I don't have one."
"..."
"Wait, um, hold up, hold up. Let's take that one." I rushed over to an old-style Toyota Corolla that was parked on the side of the road. I took some wire I'd swiped from the store, bent it into the shape of a fish hook, and [REDACTED] to open the door to the driver's seat. Then I turned my hand underneath the steering wheel and [REDACTED] to turn on the engine.
Aoba looked slightly taken aback as she watched. "Where'd you learn that trick, mister?"
"I looked it up online a while back."
"Why?"
"Well, I wanted to be stronger..."
"Pardon?"
Thunk.
I heard a noise.
Aoba looked at me.
I—
I—
I pretended I didn't hear it.
Aoba sighed briefly, and moved towards the direction the noise had come from, dragging her carry-on bag behind her.
Thonk.
The next noise was heavier, like a bowling ball being dropped, sending waves right through my stomach. It was, unfortunately, loud enough to determine which house it had come from.
Auugh, all right already!
I chased after Aoba. She was already standing in front of the house where I thought the noise had originated.
"Why did you follow me?"
"I mean, I was worried..."
"I'm opening it." Aoba put a hand on the doorknob, and it opened easily. Despite the fact that we'd entered fifteen houses before that, and all of them had been locked.
We snuck in. Living room: all clear. Kitchen: all clear. Bathroom: all clear. We went up the stairs to the second floor, but right when we were approaching the door that seemed to lead to a bedroom, voices seeped out from inside.
"Hey Prez. What'm I s'posed to do with this! I can't cut right with this saw!"
"I told you, didn't I, Vice President? If you want to do dismemberment right, you have to chill the corpse first."
"Waaaahaha~~! It's frozen tuna! Exciting."
"C'mon, look at this. It's all slippery with blood. It just freakin' slides all over!"
"I'm not going to take pity on you. It's your fault for not listening to my advice."
"I'm tellin' you it's too slippery! Slippery like an eel! This is definitely gonna traumatize me and then I'm gonna end up with a thing for it sooner or later!"
"Enough. Less talking, more lopping."
"All ri-hi-hiiiight~! It's quadruple dismemberment! Heart-pounding."
I shuddered. They were children's voices. There were some of the telltale changes of puberty, but their voices were still high-pitched. And judging by their conversation, those children were chopping up a corpse.
I remembered the thonk sound from earlier. What part had they been cutting off then?
"L-Let's get out of here," I said. "I can't take this anymore. Let's get out of here."
"But—"
"Listen to yourself. No buts. There's nothing you can do to help..."
"That's correct." The door opened, and a young boy in school uniform stepped out. "You cannot aid the deceased. A locked room is the sole exception."
Translator's Notes
[1] A Personal Matter - a novel by Kenzaburou Ooe. The protagonist in that novel gets very drunk and vomits after finding out his child was born with a birth defect.
[2] kemari/Taika/Isshi - Kemari is an antiquated Japanese sport. It was popular with the Japanese aristocracy back around when the Taika government reforms were taking place. The Isshi Incident was a coup that precipitated the reforms, involving the same two men mentioned.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
10
At a time like this, we should at least get to go wild in some stores.
We grabbed whatever food we wanted from the shelves of the now-empty supermarket. We set some sausages and zucchinis and stuff on a makeshift table made from some upturned vegetable cases, and I drank a can of beer. I don't usually make a habit of nicotine or alcohol use, but, crisis situation and all. The haze of tipsiness felt good.
It was probably the first time I'd wanted booze since that despair-filled graduation ceremony. That was when I drank a ton, and stayed drunk for two... no, three days? After I drank and drank and got totally wasted, I threw up everywhere like the protagonist in A Personal Matter[1], but I wasn't able to purge the despair that had seeped into me.
I was hurt by A Personal Despair that had been planted in me because of hope, and so I had no choice but to become a mole. To buy some peace of mind, I had no choice but to escape into a peaceful sleep.
I was crushed by hope, and so I lived in a world without hope. I didn't leave my room, and lived peacefully in a place where hope was nowhere to be seen.
"Ehehehe."
"H-Hey... Why are you laughing?"
"You really are inexperienced, mister. When you laugh, even if it's forced, you can calm yourself down."
"Is that right."
"Why don't you try it out right now? Come on, let's do it together. Ehehehehe... Hm? What is this? It's delicious. Try some of this. It's so good."
So why was I outside, connecting with someone over a meal like this?
The foreign gummy that Aoba handed me tasted kind of like a bike tire. When was the last time I'd eaten something that wasn't to my tastes? This kind of thing was a frequent occurrence with other people around. Eating, reading, seeing things I didn't like.
"Nom nom." As Aoba walked around the store, eating gummies, her eyes glittered like a scheming cat's.
According to her, she was here on a trip to mend her broken heart, and she'd looked weary laying eyes on the corpses. Maybe she was a normal girl in that sense.
But her resilience? That was something else. Even though she was wrapped up in this situation without knowing why, and even though she'd just seen plenty of corpses, she didn't look anything less than fully recovered from that. What kind of life led her here?
"What are we gonna do now?" I, on the other hand, was exhausted. "I don't wanna see any more corpses."
"Nom nom. It doesn't seem like we'll reap anything else here, but I'm wondering about the other towns, so maybe we should move elsewhere."
"Agreed. Completely agreed."
"Any family or acquaintances, mister?"
"Nope."
"No lovers either?"
"What are you even asking? My parents don't live here, and I never had any friends to begin with."
"My condolences."
"Huh?"
"My con-do-len-ces," Aoba said, as if she'd inserted punctuation between the syllables. "I have a good idea. Why don't we split up?"
"W-Wait a minute. What's with that?"
"What's with what?"
"What about that is supposed to be a good idea? Even if any fellow survivors are scattered around the town..."
"Ehehehe. I can't feel like there's any benefit to working together with you," Aoba said bluntly, a smile appearing on her face.
"Um but, uh, uhhhh." I was in deep shock, but I still tried desperately to make myself think. "Look, don't people say that there's no such thing as a chance encounter? The people who caused the Taika Reforms, Prince Naka no Ooe and Nakatomi no Kamatari, were friends who met through playing kemari."
"Kemari?"
"Do you not know about the Taika Reforms?"
"I probably learned about it along with the Isshi Incident."[2]
This was no time to get worked up about the generation gap. I desperately begged, advertising that I was familiar with the local geography, and that I could drive a car. I'd never self-promoted so much in my life.
Aoba seemed reluctant, but she agreed to go with me. It was time to get moving before she changed her mind.
We left the supermarket. A beautiful girl was walking right next to me. It was the first time in my life that I was walking anywhere accompanied by eye-candy like this. And yet, if I let my guard down even a little, Aoba would abandon me and go off somewhere else. Doing that during peacetime would be one thing, but when we were in a situation as weird as this one?
No. Maybe it was that I had to be strong because it was an abnormal situation. It was exhausting being a man. Being worthless if I wasn't strong.
"Mister, where is your car, incidentally?"
"I don't have one."
"..."
"Wait, um, hold up, hold up. Let's take that one." I rushed over to an old-style Toyota Corolla that was parked on the side of the road. I took some wire I'd swiped from the store, bent it into the shape of a fish hook, and [REDACTED] to open the door to the driver's seat. Then I turned my hand underneath the steering wheel and [REDACTED] to turn on the engine.
Aoba looked slightly taken aback as she watched. "Where'd you learn that trick, mister?"
"I looked it up online a while back."
"Why?"
"Well, I wanted to be stronger..."
"Pardon?"
Thunk.
I heard a noise.
Aoba looked at me.
I—
I—
I pretended I didn't hear it.
Aoba sighed briefly, and moved towards the direction the noise had come from, dragging her carry-on bag behind her.
Thonk.
The next noise was heavier, like a bowling ball being dropped, sending waves right through my stomach. It was, unfortunately, loud enough to determine which house it had come from.
Auugh, all right already!
I chased after Aoba. She was already standing in front of the house where I thought the noise had originated.
"Why did you follow me?"
"I mean, I was worried..."
"I'm opening it." Aoba put a hand on the doorknob, and it opened easily. Despite the fact that we'd entered fifteen houses before that, and all of them had been locked.
We snuck in. Living room: all clear. Kitchen: all clear. Bathroom: all clear. We went up the stairs to the second floor, but right when we were approaching the door that seemed to lead to a bedroom, voices seeped out from inside.
"Hey Prez. What'm I s'posed to do with this! I can't cut right with this saw!"
"I told you, didn't I, Vice President? If you want to do dismemberment right, you have to chill the corpse first."
"Waaaahaha~~! It's frozen tuna! Exciting."
"C'mon, look at this. It's all slippery with blood. It just freakin' slides all over!"
"I'm not going to take pity on you. It's your fault for not listening to my advice."
"I'm tellin' you it's too slippery! Slippery like an eel! This is definitely gonna traumatize me and then I'm gonna end up with a thing for it sooner or later!"
"Enough. Less talking, more lopping."
"All ri-hi-hiiiight~! It's quadruple dismemberment! Heart-pounding."
I shuddered. They were children's voices. There were some of the telltale changes of puberty, but their voices were still high-pitched. And judging by their conversation, those children were chopping up a corpse.
I remembered the thonk sound from earlier. What part had they been cutting off then?
"L-Let's get out of here," I said. "I can't take this anymore. Let's get out of here."
"But—"
"Listen to yourself. No buts. There's nothing you can do to help..."
"That's correct." The door opened, and a young boy in school uniform stepped out. "You cannot aid the deceased. A locked room is the sole exception."
Translator's Notes
[1] A Personal Matter - a novel by Kenzaburou Ooe. The protagonist in that novel gets very drunk and vomits after finding out his child was born with a birth defect.
[2] kemari/Taika/Isshi - Kemari is an antiquated Japanese sport. It was popular with the Japanese aristocracy back around when the Taika government reforms were taking place. The Isshi Incident was a coup that precipitated the reforms, involving the same two men mentioned.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
no subject
(Anonymous) 2016-04-15 11:15 am (UTC)(link)I honestly can't read this properly, btw. Every time I read "Aoba" and "she", I end up thinking of some female version of Aoba from DRRR!! lol
I guess I'll just roll with that.
Can't wait for sunday, and thanks so much for translating this!!
-CaramellNeko- (too lazy to make an account for now xD)