Novel Vol 9 Intermission: Ōdanna (The Marriage Promise)

This chapter has a big spoiler about Aoi-Ōdanna marriage promise (pic source)

I actually already started translating Vol 9 Ch 6 where Aoi gave Ōdanna his last bento before another big event happens… then I realised that there was a tiny moment at the start of Chapter 6 where it could have been interpreted differently… Hence I backtracked to one small intermission chapter narrated by Setsu. Since it’s only 7 novel pages, and because it contains the context of the "Promised Bride", I worked on it. I also translated the last two pages of Vol 9 Ch 5 which is a direct continuation of this intermission chapter. Btw, the title of this chapter is 'Ōdanna', but I added '(The Marriage Promise)' in the blogpost title to give hints about what the chapter is mainly about.

To read my translation in other languages, check this tips. 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! 

Excerpt from Vol 9 Ch 5 (The New Year's Meal, part 2)

P194

“Aaahh… so tired!”

I am so tired that, upon returning home, I roll over on the tatami. Today was really fun, with cooking and interacting with many children, but it consumed a lot of my energy. Anyway, I’m sleepy. I’ll definitely doze off as soon as I close my eyes. I do still want to eat the New Year’s soba though…

“Aoi, you’ll get sick if you fall asleep here.”

I hear Ōdanna-sama’s voice. I struggle to open my eyes and I can see that Ōdanna-sama is looking at me.

“Ōdanna-sama…”

P195

Why did Tannosuke^ invite Ōdanna-sama? Perhaps to talk about what kind of job Tannosuke can do in Tenjin-ya? I wanted to ask a lot of things, but I am too sleepy to say anything. However, I somehow roll over to Ōdanna-sama’s direction. Being reassured of his presence next to me, I grab his kimono hem and lightly squeeze it.

“You really did your best, you know. You persevered…”

With such gentle and sweet words, he praises me and caresses my hair^^. Ah, how I love that big hand of his…

To receive such a compliment from Ōdanna-sama, aaah… how happy I am… I’m so glad I persisted… I’m so glad I finally arrived here after such a struggle*.

“Good night, Aoi. I respect you, from the bottom of my heart…”

P196

Good night. To receive such words from Ōdanna-sama, how happy I am…

It seems that Ōdanna-sama keeps saying something, but I can’t hear what he says. Nevertheless, your voice is here. As if in a dream, from a faraway place.

-xxx-

These cosplayers are so cute! So, Aoi does have a habit of holding onto Ōdanna's hem (source)

Vol 9 Intermission: Ōdanna 

p197

“Ōdanna-sama…”

Once more, with a small voice, she called me. I wonder if she squeezed the hem of my haori, yet then fell asleep mid-way, definitely exhausted.

“Good night, Aoi. I respect you, from the bottom of my heart.”

Saying those words, I kissed her forehead.

So, Aoi has apparently forgotten that thing. She has forgotten the meaning of this matrimony.

Shirō’s marriage written oath, truly, from the beginning, it barely has any meaning whatsoever. I only used it to bring you to Kakuriyo, in order to fulfil the promise that you and I once made.

-xxx-

P198

On that day, at that time, in that isolated, stagnant room.

Because I was afraid that my oni mask would scared any child, I borrowed Ginji’s white Southern Land mask and went to see you.

I told you that things would be alright, that you wouldn’t die. That I would definitely help you. Afterwards, you answered like this:

“Then, don’t leave me alone… even if I am not dead, if I’m always alone, I hate it!”

Oh no. I’m in trouble. As you said those words, I spontaneously shook my head. That’s not possible, I said. You are a human, I am an ayakashi. We also live in different worlds. For a human girl to live by the side of an ayakashi in Kakuriyo, upon arriving in Kakuriyo, she would need to marry that ayakashi. 

And then, once again you said something unexpected.

“Then, marry me.”

“… that is…”

“If I’m not gonna die, marry me.”

I was completely at loss.

P199

In the first place, I had no intention whatsoever to make this little girl my bride. No, this maybe is an extension of what a little daughter often says to her father. 

The detail of the pledge that I exchanged with Shirō that I would marry his granddaughter, briefly flashed through my mind. Nevertheless, to begin with, the debt Shirō made has been settled in another story. Consequently, at that time, I didn’t feel like marrying her. 

However,

“Whenever I said that I wanted to marry Dad, Mum would say ‘No!’…”

“…………”

“In the end, Mum was Dad’s only bride. That’s why Mum said this: ‘Aoi, you should marry the person who loves you the most. You need to find that person and have him staying with you forever’. That’s what she said.”

That was when her father was still alive, and her mother still loved her, I suppose. When Aoi was a little child, when she was loved, she would remember any memorable words well. 

“Hey… what is ‘marriage’? Is that always be with someone? But when Dad died, Mum was only looking at Dad’s photos, and she doesn’t look at me anymore. Is that marriage?

P200

Is that what being a bride is?”

“No…that’s not it, Aoi. But… Is that so... Your mother couldn’t endure it. Perhaps that’s also her fate because of the love between husband and wife.”

Aoi’s mother, Tsubaki Kyōtarō’s wife, truly truly loved Tsubaki Kyōtarō. However, because of the extent of her love, she’s thrown out her responsibility as a mother and is now running after the shadowy remnants of the late Kyōtarō. It’s her fate. However, at that time, as I said it once more, I wonder whether there was nothing I could do about it^. For Aoi, not having her mother was okay for her. Then, this child, who would^^…

“Please. Stay with me always. Let me be your bride. I don’t want to be alone anymore. Why, why, I want to be loved by someone…!”

Aoi must have wanted to be loved. She had lost her father’s love and her mother didn’t love her anymore. While she was but a child, she must have wondered why her mother stopped loving her… She must have wondered why…

Because you can no longer endure your loneliness, you ended up saying that you wanted to be my bride and all that. What a stupid and pitiful thing to say.

P201-202

Those words triggered the troubles within me, giving birth to a wish and a small grief. The me whom everyone hated. The me whom no one wanted.

Why, I was also like that. For sure, I had Tenjin-ya back then^. Yet, I always had this fear that, if I show my true self, I would be again trapped in the dark place, alone.

With that in mind, anyone, anyone would do. I’d also accept anyone^^.

I wanted to reach out to this tiny and pitiful little girl, to spoil her and give her my love.

For me, there was Ōgondōji-sama. However, Ōgondōji-sama also said the same thing that Aoi’s mother said. 

I can’t love you the most. My number one love is already in my heart*. I must pour the love I got from that person to many others. That’s why, Setsu. Find your own true love. Find that person you want to protect the most. That person you want to spend your lifetime with, the only one who accepts your true self. No matter how long it would take to find that person, find her.

P202

At that time, I knew nothing about love. So, for a very long time, I thought that the most important thing to me was the inn called Tenjin-ya. 

This girl also didn’t know what it meant to be married. Just because she was lonely, she clung to me. She didn’t want to be alone, and so she implored me to marry her. When she grew up, what would she think about me the oni, I wonder. When one day she learned about my true self, would she be scared of me? Would she hate me? Would she want a divorce?

No, that was perhaps up to me. 

I was not going to refuse this girl, who wanted to be loved by me. I would accept her. Then, it’d be fine if I keep wondering about what she’d do when she finds out about me. 

Truly, for someone like me, that was fine.

And then I’d also keep asking myself whether I do love this girl. 

“Alright, Aoi. Then, I want you to promise me one thing. I will definitely marry you. When that time comes…”

Yet, it seems you no longer remember that dream-like, unreliable and fleeting promise, do you?

P203

It’s better if you forget it at once, along with those painful memories.  At least, that’s what I keep telling myself^. 

However, in the first place, it was you who suggested it. You said you wanted me. 

That was why I have been watching over you until you grew up. Until you come to know love, until the time comes for you to decide, I have also decided to keep calling you “my promised bride” whom I unconditionally accept. No matter what or whom you choose in the end.

“However, I will be happy if you also come to love me^^.” 

-TBC in Vol 9 Chapter 6-

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.

Seigo Nakao’s “Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary” has proven to be very useful as a companion to Jisho.org. To assist with grammar, I also use Naoko Chino’s “All About Particles”, Kakuko Shoji’s “Japanese Core Words and Phrases”, Kakuko Shoji’s “Common Japanese Collocations”, Kakuko Shoji’s “Basic Connections” and Kamiya Taeko’s “Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication”.

Specific translation notes

P195: ^ Tannosuke (反之介) is a new character who appeared in Vol 9 Ch 5. Also, the Japanese sentence is: どうして反之介を大旦那様に誘ったの？

I take it that Aoi was talking about Ch 5 where she and Ōdanna-sama actually did visit Tannosuke during the New Year’s Eve. This is my guess, but I think Tannosuke is an important person (or tanuki?) in Ōdanna’s case, hence Tannosuke and Ōdanna were talking about the latter’s case.

^^ The Japanese sentence is 頭を撫でてくれるwhich means that Setsu is caressing Aoi’s head. However, it’s weird to say that in English, hence I wrote that he’s caressing her hair instead.

* Do remember that we actually had approximately TWO volumes (Volumes 7 and 8) without Ōdanna-sama, taking into account the last chapter of Vol 6 where Raijū arrived to declare he was the new master of Tenjin-ya. It was ~20 chapters altogether before we really read another chapter about Ōdanna-sama (Vol 8 prologue) and then another chapter in Vol 9 Prologue before Aoi was reunited with him. That was at least two months of separation, without Aoi knowing the wellbeing of Ōdanna-sama. Hence Aoi really, really worked hard to finally be with him.

P200: ^ The Japanese sentence is 母親末路だ。だけど、それを今更言ったところで、もうどうしようもないのだろう。

The context is actually present tense, which I originally thought the present tense of Ōdanna-sama’s when he was reminiscing about Aoi’s past as he watched her grown up form sleeping. However, the next sentence was about Aoi’s past again. Hence I thought this sentence was actually about Ōdanna thinking about Aoi as he stood in front of her little girl self. 

^^ The Japanese sentence is ならば、誰がこの娘を…

The last particle is ‘wo’, which indicates that the Little Aoi is the object in the sentence. I think Setsu wanted to say, “who would take care of her”, but he hadn’t finished that thought when Aoi interrupted again.

P201: ^ The JP sentence is 今でこそ天神屋という居場所うがあるが

Because the next sentence showed Setsu’s fear of him being trapped again in the dark place if he showed his true self, I take it that it was him again talking in the past tense context.

^^: This sentence (“I’d also accept anyone”) isn’t in the JP novel. I put it there to add a context, that – with all his lonely sufferings – Setsu also realised that he would also accept anyone’s love. Anyone would do.

* Gosh, it means that Ōgondōji-sama used to love another ayakashi too! Or a human perhaps? Whatever. So she used to love someone too and be loved in return!

P203: ^ This is a difficult sentence for me. The JP ver is:

辛い思い出しと一緒に、一旦忘れてしまった方がいいと、僕がそう言ってまじないをかけたのだから。

Tsurai omoidashi to issho ni, ittan wasurete shimatta kata ga ī to, boku ga sōitte majinai o kaketa nodakara.

Majinai = charm, magic, “majinai wo kaketa” seems like “to put on a spell”. 

“Boku ga sōitte majinai o kaketa nodakara” can be translated as “Because I said so, I put on the spell.”

However, Ōdanna-sama, no matter how powerful he is, he is not a magician. He cannot put a spell on humans, not that I’m aware, at least. Therefore, I think the closest thing that I can think of is that Ōdanna wanted himself to believe that if Aoi forgot the promise anyway, might as well she forgets all her dark past too.

^^ The way the monologue was written (with 「」  instead of  『』 ), it's clear to me that Setsu uttered this sentence in his present time, as he watches Aoi sleeping.