Novel Vol 9 Prologue (The Kind Ayakashi)

The kind ayakashi (from Kakuriyo Fandom)

As per my recent post, I have jump-translated Vol 8 Epilogue which depicts a conversation between Ōgondōji and Ōdanna, narrated by Ōdanna-sama. Now, I have translated Vol 9 Prologue as a continuation of Vol 8 Epilogue. I will return to translate Vol 7 Ch 4 in early-mid April  June (2021, that is). Volume 9 chapter list is here. To read my translation in other languages, check this tips. There is no title for this prologue (it’s not even labelled as a prologue per se), but I titled it as “The Kind Ayakashi”). MAJOR SPOILERS, so be forewarned. 

Please refrain from posting my translations elsewhere. If you need to quote it, please acknowledge my site for the quote, because translating from Japanese hardcopy texts to English is a really hard work...

I will delete this translation when there is an indication that the novel will be translated into English and I will replace it with the summary of the chapter.  Meanwhile, thank you for reading! 

-xxx-

Volume 9: The Ayakashi Bento Boxes For You

Prologue (The Kind Ayakashi)

p5-6

“Ōdanna-sama, please take a look. This is my daughter Aoi.”

That man, Tsubaki Kyōtarō 杏太郎, showed me his little beloved daughter upon me arriving at Utsushiyo. Was it when the child was not even 2 years old? The child’s name is Aoi. Tsubaki Aoi.  

Aoi stared at my human form with her innocent eyes. Like her grandfather and father, she can see the ayakashi. This child, she might have been able to see through my human form and recognise my true form. 

“But that’s the thing, right? Because of Dad’s careless promise, whether I like it or not, Aoi might eventually be your wife…”

Not wanting to marry out his beloved daughter, Kyōtarō hugged the child firmly and nervously.  

“Ahhahahahaha! At this stage, such a non-committal and irresponsible promise that Shirō made has no validity. Don’t worry about it, Kyōtarō.”

“However, a promise made with an ayakashi carries its own meaning, right? I somehow has this premonition that Aoi will one day marry you, Ōdanna-sama. 

P6

Call that an intuition.”

“That’s because, amongst Shirō’s children, you’re the one with the highest psychic power. But let me put it this way: from the viewpoint of such a young child like Aoi, I’m even older than Shirō. In addition, getting involved with a child of a friend is – as expected – a complicated matter, even for me.”

Kyōtarō chuckled. “But, Ōdanna-sama, you look the same as always. No doubt, before we know it, I’ll be the one who looks older than you.” As he said those words, Kyōtarō gently gazed at Aoi, who was playing with her doll on his lap.

Despite being Shirō’s son, Kyōtarō was a good and honest man with no malice, such that I took a liking to the cheerful mood surrounding him. I felt the same ambience with Aoi. It would be good to have her growing up to be like his father. At that time, I didn’t even consider her as someone who would be my wife. Instead, with a feeling of watching over her, I patted her head. 

Nevertheless… Nevertheless …

“Ōdanna-sama. Kyōtarō has died. It was because of the curse. No, it’s actually all my fault.”

“… Shirō…”

P7-8

Kyōtaro died. He left behind the little Aoi with her mother.

Kyōtaro had an airplane crash when he was away for work. Kyōtarō’s curse often threatened his life, but he said he always successfully avoided it every single time. However, in the end, he was down due to an unavoidable sort of accident. As fate would have it. 

It seems there was a testament inside Kyōtarō’s bag. The were words of love for his wife and child. Then a note, hastily written, about something like a black hand, visible outside the window. 

And then, the terror prior to death.

“The King of Tokoyo, the Underworld^, while he keeps me alive, he keeps bringing misery to my blood relatives. I can’t believe that Kyōtarō … rather than taking my son’s life, I wish that the King would take my life instead.”

Only at this time, while grieving and mourning, Shirō uttered strange words. Before, no matter how bad the situation was, he would never admit his sadness. However, even this type of a person…

Only at that time he would say how sorry he was for Kyōtarō, how he wish he would die in his son’s stead. 

Once when Shirō was young, he betook himself to Tokoyo the Underworld and, in doing so, had grieved a certain king of the ghosts^^ and made him very angry. 

P8

The punishment for Shirō deed was such that even I am keenly aware of my helplessness against that punishment. I wouldn’t be able to do anything against a curse inflicted by a Great Yōkai from Another World. 

“I’ll go once more to the ‘Underworld’ to find a way to lift off the curse.”

“Wait, Shirō. I heard that Tokoyo is now a very dangerous place.”

“But Ōdanna-sama, the curse of the Yōma King, what if it also happens to my granddaughter Aoi? Because Aoi’s psychic power is similar to mine, if anything happens to that child, I can’t face Kyōtarō even in that world.”

And then, Shirō unexpectedly looked up to me with a face that reminded me of a promise made long ago. 

“That’s it, Ōdanna.  I once wrote a pledge to you, vowing to give you my granddaughter, right? Well then, really, I want Aoi to be your wife. And then, I want her to be protected somehow. I want her to never be abandoned. If it’s you… if it’s you…!”

“… I see. Do you really want to send your granddaughter to me to pay off your debt? Is that why you went to such a trouble? Surely you can’t face Kyōtarō in that world like that.” 

“But Ōdanna! Kyōtarō would surely agree if it’s you. You’re a trustworthy person. I never thought that I’d meet such a reliable, trustworthy oni. Okay, Ōdanna?! Look, the promise I made at that time, 

P9

I know you took that promise as a joke. But really, I’d be really relieved if Aoi is married to you. No, really, it’s really preferable to me. If it's you, you would protect her. If it’s you, Aoi would also surely come to love you^.”

I was astonished at Shirō’s words. To begin with, he’s finally paying off his debt.

“Don’t decide your granddaughter’s life at your leisure, Shirō. It’s not like you, a person who loves freedom, to decide other people’s life. On top of that, I don’t love anyone and no one loves me.”

In vain, my words melt into the dark night.

Shirō said nothing. He just hung his head and disappeared into the darkness. 

As for me, although I had no desire to have Aoi as my bride, due to my sense of duty to Shirō and Kyōtarō, I was worried about her. However, Aoi’s mother suddenly disappeared with Aoi, as if escaping from “something”. The mother couldn’t see the invisibles, but perhaps she sensed something wrong around her husband and daughter, which made her tired and sick. 

“Ōdanna-sama, we have detected Tsubaki Aoi. However, it’s complicated^^.”

For a while, I have unfortunately lost sight of Aoi’s existence. However, with the help of the ayakashi folks who live in Utsushiyo, we found her again. 

P10

However, at that time, the curse had already threatened Aoi by trying to extinguish her life force. Death from a curse is often not as direct as what Kyōtarō experienced. Sometimes, even the mother is used to make the target walk the fate of death. After her husband’s death, it seems that Aoi’s mother moved her aimlessly around the country. At some point, she stopped caring for Aoi. 

Kyōtarō once said that his wife was a gentle, serious and skillful wife. However, the wife herself was a lonely woman who had parental issues with her parents. Driven to the wall by loneliness and fear, his chosen wife abandoned their child. As a mother, she even lost her love to her daughter and severed the bond between mother and daughter. Because of her mother, Aoi was left alone in a room. Without anything to eat, she was dying of hunger. I think that, perhaps, the little girl wasn’t even given enough food even until her mother left her. Because of that, she was very thin when I found her. 

Abandoned, even by her only reliable mother, she was laying quietly on the floor like a piece of trash, in the middle of scattering trash and nauseating odor, losing her will to live. 

Tsubaki Shirō.

Tsubaki Kyōtarō.

And then, Tsubaki Aoi.

P11

The inherited blood curse. The chain of suffering.

Shirō...what a huge price to pay for making the King of the Underworld angry...

Witnessing such a tragedy, such a pitiful scene, even I as an ayakashi tremble. I remembered the moment I saw the little Aoi, alone inside that dark room. 

A long time ago, having broken 1 million yen worth of a Tenjin-ya vase, Shirō got himself into a debt and made a pact to give his granddaughter to me in marriage. At that time, Shirō was drunk. Hence, I also didn’t take that promise seriously. The promise he made at that time really had no effect, meaning or reason. 

However, Shirō always sympathized with the perennial bachelor me, thus he scribbled the vow in view of the fact that I was never married. For the time being, I officially accepted the pledge (although it was really just a façade to me), and kept it in the back of my closet. So much for a contract.  Shirō also completely forgot about that. Later, he obtained another treasure and donated it to Tenjin-ya.  That was all there is to that story.

Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking about that pact in front of the very tiny and fragile Aoi.

If you were about to die, if you would die anyway, just come to me. 

P12

If you feel lonely and all alone, just come to Kakuriyo.

I’ll feed you plenty of delicious food.

I’ll protect you from fearful things.

Apart from that, you don’t have to be my wife. Adopted daughter would do. Anything would do. Because, in Tenjin-ya, we also have children of ayakashi working for us, and I treat them as my children. 

But wait, no. That won’t do. This child cannot be protected merely with those kinds of positions. She is a human daughter. She is Shirō’s granddaughter. She is a special child with a high psychic power. 

“Aren’t you afraid?”

Because I feared that my oni mask would scare her, I used a Southern Land mask I borrowed from Ginji. Wearing that mask, I appeared in front of Aoi. However, I apparently was still worried. Would she be afraid of me or not…?

“Aren’t you going to call for help? Aren’t you going to cry and scream?”

“Don’t worry. I’m not afraid at all. … Because… I’ll die anyway soon.”

However, Aoi said it with a dispirited tone devoid of a will to live.

“That’s why it’s very tough. I don’t feel sad or pain. I’m done for.”

She said she felt nothing, she knew nothing. Nothing of what she wants, whom she loves, what she wants to eat to sustain her from here on.

P13

Although she was but a child, she knew despair. 

Ah… but I also know this feeling well. Because I also knew despair.

“Don’t worry, Setsu. I will create for you a world where you can live. That’s why, don’t despair.”

Ōgondōji-sama. You freed me from that place. And then, you embraced my crying human child form. Do you remember those words you said to me back then?

I thought of myself at that time, who remained imprisoned alone in that place in that hated and estranged form of mine, with no one to love me. 

However, any extended hands and any supporting words would be welcomed by humans and ayakashi alike. 

Tsubaki Aoi’s fate seems to intertwine with mine someday, somehow. 

I want to rescue^ that child.

I want to protect her every being. 

“Don’t worry. Nothing will scare you anymore. Because… you’re not going to die.”

P14

I’m so not going to let you die.

This curse, no matter how hard Shirō looked for its remedy, he couldn’t find a way to break it. It’s a permanent curse that is deeply ingrained in Shirō’s blood ties, particularly with those with deep blood ties with him. But, with this little child, because it was only her, I might be able to break the curse.

Afterwards, I went to visit Ōgondōji-sama for her advice. I told her the situation and I asked for help. Together, we found the way to break Aoi’s curse.  

It was through the food that changed her fate. Through the food that broke her fate.

Eliminating the curse required a huge amount of power. 

At that time, the food that I gave to Aoi was… none other than the essence of my psychic power.

It was my own life^, my own life force.

- TBC in Vol 9 Chapter 1 ; click here to read Ōdanna's next narration about the context of Aoi being promised as his bride -

Translation notes:

Following Kakuriyo Translation & Fan Translator By Choice, I put the page numbers of the original novel volumes (the Japanese version) in the translation to enable any readers who can read Japanese and have the books to examine the related pages. If the last sentence of a page goes over the next page, I will put a combined page number as an indication. 

I use mainly Jisho.org for Kanji searching, though at times Romajidesu.com and Nihongo-pro.com are used as well. I use Google Translator to have a rough guess of the meaning of phrases, but then I consult my trusted Japanese grammar book for the closer approximations of the meanings (the “Japanese the Manga Way” by Wayne P. Lammers – I would have otherwise tripped on nuances such as “kita”, “iku” and “okimasu”). I use The Jaded Network for SFX effect translations.

Specific translation notes:

P7: ^ I used to translate Tokoyo as “The Land of the Dead”, but I think “Underworld” is simpler. I’d equate it to Hades’ realm in the Greek mythology.

^^The king of the ghosts here is called Yōma no Ou 妖魔の王, with yōma being the ‘ghosts’. He’s the Hades of the Japanese lore. 

P9: ^ The Japanese sentence is「お前なら、葵もきっと、愛すだろう」. The previous sentence was 「お前なら、葵を守。」, thus it is clear that Aoi is the object of ‘omae’ (Ōdanna)’s protection. But with the sentence afterwards, the particle ‘mo’ も was confusing to me, initially, as in whether ‘mo’ も replaces ‘wo’ (the object particle) or ‘ga’ (the subject particle). After more reading, it seems that ‘mo’ も can replace ‘ga’ as a subject particle (check also this), but for ‘wo’ or object particle, we can’t delete the ‘wo’. 

After consulting with my Japanese sensei, I realised that we can also apparently replace 'wo' as the object particle with 'mo'. However, from the context of the sentence (Japanese language is a VERY contextual language), particularly because "Omae nara, Aoi mo kitto, aisudarou" follows "Omae nara, Aoi o mamoru", it means that Aoi would (as the subject) surely come to love Ōdanna (which actually truly happens).

^^ I translated it from 「ことは一刻を争います」which literally means “Things are competing at the moment”, but I take it as “It’s complicated”.

[Update 24 April'21]

p13: ^ The Japanese sentence is  「この子を助けたい」and I mistook 助け (to help, to rescue) for 動け (to move). That was why that sentence looked odd. I am revising it just now, apologies for the confusion.

[end of update 24 April'21]

P14: ^ Just to be clear, the Japanese sentence is 「僕の、命そのものだ」, with  命  'inochi' meaning either 'life' or 'life force'. To make it clearer, I used both here.