Chapter 38

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Whitelist us. Ad revenue gives additional support to the translator and keeps the site running.

Interested in being a part of the Nocturne TL team?

We are looking for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese translators. Join us on Discord and look for Mystique to guide you through recruitment.

===================================================================================================

The chirping of the cicadas were boisterous outside, while the sun persistently scorched the asphalt road.

It was August, still the height of summer.

(I don’t understand Tendou-san…)

Shouma was in his employer’s office. He spread out his reference books and notes on a large desk in the center of the room and was reviewing his language materials for University. He had to finish them by the end of summer break.

In front of him, behind the partition, was Tendou.

The man had recently become addicted to western dramas and was solemnly digesting the DVD’s he had rented from a local rental shop. He was wearing headphones in his ears. Under his eyes, he had some dark circles, as if he hadn’t slept much lately.

While Shouma was writing in his notebook, he observed his employer.

(Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about Tendou-san, do I?)

Why did he decide to collect the kaii?

Who was his teacher, who just suddenly had the motive to gather these creatures? He wondered what kind of person he was.

How did that man get involved with the kaii, in the first place?

He didn’t know anything about that either.

(I could ask Tendou-san, but I’m afraid he would just give me the runaround…)

Tendou-wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to tell much about himself. Shouma was sure he would just duck and dodge any question intended to him, and the mystery that enveloped him would only deepen.

(But then again, it’s not like I couldn’t ask anyone else beside him.)

Fuyuka, for instance, seemed to know something about it, but Shouma was a bit afraid to ask.

What may be a simple question for Shouma, may be a sensitive one for Tendou. It would clearly be an offense to ask such questions to anyone other than him.

While Shouma was lost in his thoughts, some laid-back sounding voices of a conversation reached his ears.

“Un! It just never ceases to amaze me what people can do, I can’t believe they invented this!”

“I know! I too was astounded, when I first saw it! An electric fan in the summer is great but a kotatsu is even better in the winter!”

“Yes, I understand what you mean. This just makes it hard to go outside. Imagine, you just broke into a house to startle some people, but before you know it, you’re just relaxing. It could even make a kaii shed some tears.”

It was Fuyuka and the Rokurokubi, sitting before the fan while basking in the breeze as they amicably chatted.

“Father, look!”

“Oh, you’ve done a great job!”

“What do you mean by that? I look much cooler in real life!”

The Tofu Boy was sitting next to Shouma, while in front of him was the Mikoshi Nyuudou, Enishi. And the one who was posing on top of the table was the Fusuma, namely Subaru.

Apparently, the Tofu Boy was drawing a picture of Subaru with one of the ball-point pens from the office. On the back of one of the flyers in front of him, there was a depiction of what looked like a four square zabuton. [1]

(The population density is a bit higher today than usual.)

It was Enishi, who Shouma had first called out from the Collected Records, just after the beginning of August.

He asked the kaii to take out a box of cups, they used to give for visitors, from the top of the filing cabinet. Although the office was mostly empty, they do get clients from time to time.

At that time, Enishi asked him if “Rokurokubi and the Tofu Boy also wish to come here once in a while. If it isn’t inconvenient, would you mind calling them out from the book?”. Since they asked to come, Shouma ended up in this situation.

He thought it would be a good idea, since it was still the summer break, so he gave them the permission to come and go to the book as they please, thus the office has been much more noisy lately.

It seemed Fuyuka enjoyed the ruckus and was happy whenever she came to work. She became bosom friends with the Rokurokubi before long.

Both of them were women after all, they have a lot to talk about.

“Didn’t I tell you not to get too carried away?” was what Shouma thought, Tendou would say when he told him about the daily visits, but he, surprisingly, wasn’t complaining at all. The man even said as he laughed, “Isn’t it nice? The more lively the more fun!”.

(Just as I thought, I don’t understand Tendou-san at all…)

Now, does he want to keep the kaii away from him or is it the other way around? He wondered which was really his employer’s intention.

In the meantime, both the Rokurokubi and the Tofu Boy told Shouma their names, so that they could be called out. That’s how another unexpected fact about the kaii came to light.

The Rokurokubi’s name was Kazuha, but as for the Tofu Boy’s name…

“You’re really good at this, Tarou! Don’t you want to draw your father next?”

His name was Tarou.

Apparently, it was customary for the kaii to be named by the people, and the Tofu Boy, who hadn’t had a name until then, became Tarou, after the ‘Tarou Yamada’ that Shouma gave him at a flash.

Part of him was glad that the boy seemed truly happy with it, though Shouma felt quite a bit of remorse, since if he knew from the start that this would happen, he would have taken more time to come up with a more suitable one for the little kaii.

“What did you draw next? Is it an oni?”

Enishi twisted his head as he looked at the drawing at Tarou’s hand.

There was a drawing of a round face with what looked like two horns on top of it.

“It’s not an oni, it’s a cat!” replied the boy cheerfully.

What he thought of as horns were apparently the ears of a cat.

“Speaking about cats, did you know? You know, there is the Takahagawa Park near the Rokko Hachiman Shrine. I’ve found an abandoned kitten there, it had been deliberately mauled before. It must have happened after it had been abused, I guess.”

Kazuha suddenly brought up the subject in the conversation with Fuyuka.

“Abused?”

Shouma frowned at the woman’s words.

“It was terrible. The tendons in its legs were cut and it couldn’t move. As a kaii, I couldn’t do anything about it, so I pretended to be a human and called someone who was kind enough to hear me out. And it seems that it was not the first case when injured cats were left there lately.”

“Were there many more of them?”

“Yes, apparently. The person I asked told me that it was probably some shabby kids from the neighbourhood who had hurt those kittens for fun…”

Kazuha must have found the injured kittens when she was roaming the streets for a time, looking for her husband.

“I haven’t been there since then, but I wonder if it’s still going on…” said the woman in a gloomy voice, while she slowly shook her head.

“Sometimes, people do some gruesome things to creatures smaller than themselves. It’s unforgivable.”

Fuyuka’s mouth was agape. She was a nekomata after all, she might have some thoughts on the matter.

Shouma felt sick to the stomach by just listening to the story.

“Abusing and then abandoning those cats…huh”

—–

Translator’s Notes:

[1] 座布団 A floor cushion, used for sitting or kneeling. (example)

===================================================================================================

This translation is hosted by Nocturne Translations.

Related