It’s that day of the week again. I kind of just blasted through this part, so please excuse me if some parts seem to be worded poorly. I’m also thinking about lessening the TL notes as to not sound too much like a commentary, though there’s just a lot of the JP only references that I couldn’t help myself.
I also corrected chapter title referenceS from the previous volume. Browsing through Nexon JP’s site, I realized what was some of the references actually were (though I’ve played them in the past, it completely slipped my mind as I was translating). Seeing this also convinced me even more that Rusian might actually be a reference to Lucian Kaltz from Talesweaver.
That aside, it’s pretty stale just translating again so I’m going back to reading volume 18 again once this post gets published. I’ve also had my eyes set on another work that looks really interesting to me (なれる！ＳＥ, basically systems engineers doing things). Though as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really one for cleaning/typesetting so maybe some kind soul would want to help on that end. Otherwise, I think I’ll just enjoy it by myself.
I’d also just like to slip in here that another one of the lines that really made this novel amusing for me was the one uttered by Ako here. That statement about being late is my creed whenever I’m going to end up being an hour or so late for work. Also, that comment about forgetting all sense of time is definitely the cherry on top.
That’s all I have for now. Please enjoy the first part of chapter 1 below.
TL note: Reference to Wizardry Online.
Translation: Yamaking
There are a lot of things that you normally see in-game that are not found in real life.
For example, just trekking through the desert or volcano biomes makes you take damage periodically. I thought for sure this was pretty unreasonable.
That was what I thought, up until now.
But I’ve now realized. I was completely mistaken.
Those characters in-game were already giving it their all.
“Hot…”
It’s because that, the early morning sun during the end of summer really hurts.
Just having the sun there is really sapping away at my HP.
Deserts and volcanoes are definitely places that should not be visited by human beings.
“Please make a Fire Resist Potion… I’ll buy it right away…”
Why does something from the fantasy world not exist in real life? It really feels like modern science is losing out on this front.
On the morning of September 1st, I was on my way to school, all worn-out.
I wonder if it’s because summer vacation just ended, but the sun doesn’t seem to be letting up. Damn it, it’s hot enough as it is.
I just want to head back to my room right away and bask in the breeze of the aircon while I wrap myself in my comfy futon and go to sleep.
“Even though me and my futon are bound by a pledge of eternal love, why must we be torn apart like so?”
I sighed at the thought that I just can’t have my way in the real world.
And not having Ako butt in with me saying that just feels like something is missing.
I’m sure Ako is suffering even more than I am right now as she’s commuting to school.
I changed into my indoor shoes and sluggishly headed towards the classroom. It’s hotter outside but, the corridors and classrooms are still hot.
For some mysterious reason, the aircons in Maegasaki High are only used to maintain the usual temperature. I wonder if it’s the school as a whole that’s testing our ability to endure this temperature.
“Even though it’s always at full blast in the staff room…”
“It’s really hot isn’t it?”
As I was talking to myself, the guy who sat behind me answered back.
“Morning— Ta, Takasaki.”
“Why was there a pause there?”
“You just seemed a bit different after the break, you know?”
‘That so?’, Takasaki said as he looked puzzled. Though I’m sorry, but I don’t really think you’ve changed that much.
It’s just that well— I just couldn’t remember your name for a second there.
No, no, it’s not that I forgot it alright? Look, I remembered it properly, see?
This guy is Takasaki. He’s a classmate of mine that called out to Ako and got destroyed in the process.
After that incident, the girls have been kinder to him so it seems like his market value has risen a bit.
Yeah, I remember it properly. Good.
Although, did Takasaki and I really get along this well?
Enough to have small talk like that?
—Heck, there’s no way I’ll understand those kinds of interpersonal relationships anyway.
I barely did anything outside of playing net games this whole summer, so it feels like I’ve completely forgotten what it’s like to socialize.
“The end of summer vacation sure is dangerous.”
What do I do? I have no idea on how to approach anyone right now.
Blanking out is scary. Very scary.
“Uwah—, your skin is as pale as ever Nishimura. Not a hint of sunburn anywhere. Just what did you do this summer?”
“I used my PC, played some net games, and did some browsing.”
“Aren’t all those the same thing? As for me, I was out practicing in track everyday. Look, I’m completely burnt.”
“Aah—, yeah.”
Even though I answered like that, I didn’t know Takasaki was in the track and field club.
Is this fine? Is carrying on with the conversation like this fine? Or is this going to add to my list of fatal blunders?
‘If it was only someone I was closer to then—’, though as I was in the middle of thinking that, the person I’m closest to in this class came to mind.
That’s right, it was Schwein. If it was her then I would have no problems whatsoever.
She played a lot with me too during summer vacation so I can definitely do that. I can talk to her.
I’ll talk to her and ask, ‘How do I act as a High School Boy again?’!
I excitedly searched for the figure of my long time partner in-game, Schwein, that is, Segawa, in the classroom.
“And then see, after that he kept going on and on about his part time job. It’s summer vacation you know? If you think about it normally, shouldn’t you put me first? And you call yourself my boyfriend? See, that’s what happened.”
“Yeah I know what you mean—”
Ah, there she is.
It felt as if she was really getting annoyed as she kept tapping on her desk while a girl was talking to her.
“……”
Segawa then turned to face me, as if she felt my gaze on her.
(“…Morning.”)
(“Yo.”)
We exchanged greetings with just our glances.
Segawa looked up at me with her dead eyes as she languidly stooped her shoulders.
That really irritated look of hers really speaks volumes about the annoyance building up inside her.
(“Hey Nishimura, this dialogue is really annoying. Do you know why I can’t skip it?”)
It feels like she just asked something like that!
(“What the heck are you saying!?”)
‘No, no, that’s no good you know! You have to properly enjoy conversations with your classmates!’, is what I thought while I shook my head.
Segawa then slowly stood up from her seat and walked towards me.
“E, err, Segawa-san?”
“Come with me for a bit.”
“Just like that!? At least tell me why fir— Hey, wa— My neck! My neck!”
“Aah, seeing Nishimura get strangled by Segawa like that really makes it feel like school has started up again right?”
“Youuuuuuuuuuu!”
Treating this as if were a stranger’s problem and just watching me get dragged like that!
I really shouldn’t have been too considerate about talking to him earlier!
After I was dragged by Segawa into a corner in the hallway, all that inexplicable rage from before seems to have dissipated. Even though I was pretty close with her, I have trouble mulling over on what to say.
“Err, it’s been a while, I guess?”
“We just met yesterday though.”
We did, but that was in the game.
Even though we had that talk about the ‘Club Activities Five Days A Week!’ plan during the start of summer, after a few days of doing it, opinions that went ‘It’s tiring to go all the way to school and it’s hot anyway, so let’s just meet up at LA okay?’ came out and so members of the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club stopped coming to school. In reality, we haven’t met up with each other in real life for about a month now.
We frequently chatted in-game so it doesn’t really feel like it’s been a while.
“That aside, listen to this will you? Come on, listen up. Just shut up for a moment and listen to what I have to say.”
“O, oh? What’s up?”
I was wondering why Segawa was this mad when suddenly,
“Now that summer vacation is over, can’t we just skip over these forced scenes with our classmates?”
“I knew you were thinking something around those lines!”
We really come together at the most useless of things don’t we?!
“But when you think about it normally, games that don’t have a skip button for scenes are just shitty games right? They should let me skip these things if I press ESC!”
“Real life doesn’t have a skip function!”
So when I saw her tapping on her desk earlier, she was actually mashing on the ESC key huh!
So you were trying to skip your dialogue with your classmates after all, weren’t you!
“Actually, how have I been able to hold up being a normal JK this whole time? To be honest, I don’t really remember. For now, you think I should just look at the guide and start over from scratch?”
TL note: JK is short for joshi kousei (high school girl). On that note, JC is joushi chuugakusei (middle school girl) and JS is joushi shougakusei (elementary school girl). There’s also JD which joushi daigakusei (college girl).
“It unsettling how you’re really similar right now to those people who say ‘I kind of stopped playing healer for a while so I might slip up a little’.”
In the first place, isn’t High School Girl your main job?
You got too absorbed using your alt so now you forgot how to use your main?!
“Ah, Akane. Morning.”
Just then, Akiyama-san, who was passing by, waved to Segawa.
“M’ning.”
Akiyama-san looked puzzled in response to Segawa’s unenergetic reply.
“What’s the matter? Are you not heading in class? What this? An affair? Hey, long time no see.”
“Why’d you direct that last message towards me? Yeah, it’s been a while.”
If Ako caught wind of what you just said, she’d hole herself up in her room again so please stop it.
“It’s not like it’s any of your business Nanako. I just had something to discuss with him here.”
“It’s been a while since we last met so let’s go into class together, okay?”
“You talk too much you fail summoner. If you get any closer, I’ll throw your Mu-tan in a mountain somewhere.”
“So it’s about the game?!”
Why did you suddenly spout abusive language there without rhyme or reason?!
“And besides, my Mu-tan is such a good boy! Why do you hate him?!”
“It’s because that thing runs about a bit too wild.”
“Not you too Nishimura-kun! You’re mean—!”
Akiyama-san, the novice summoner in LA, rushed towards the classroom as if to run away from here.
Well, we’re not really at fault here.
If you’re just going to let your pet run wild luring enemies to us then don’t bring it.
‘Bad Mu-tan~ ><‘ doesn’t work after all.
It’s definitely not that we’re taking our anger out on you.
“Though, you may not be Akiyama-san, but you have a lot more friends compared to me. Why not just enjoy talking with them?”
“Well, normally I would be enjoying it too but…”
Segawa looked a bit irritated as she shook her head.
“Since it’s the first day after summer vacation has ended, everyone’s all talking about the same thing. To sum it up, they’re all just bragging about how fulfilling their summer vacation was. I already heard that from the person before you so give me break.”
“I guess that sounds really irritating.”
“How do I put this… It’s like when you accept that quest ‘Find the Missing Celine!’ and then looking at the quest objectives only to see ‘Obtain Celine’s remains’. Of course I wouldn’t be interested in the story anymore!”
“You get spoiled as soon as you accept the quest!”
“Aah yeah, yeah. Celine dies.”
“Stop it! The NPC is still hoping for her return!”
This happens way too often that it stings!
“It just makes me want to keep pressing Enter. I wish I could skip through all of it by just holding down CTRL.”
“You can’t skip through dialogue that you haven’t seen yet so give it up.”
TL note: This is the default control scheme for most VNs. Skip unseen scene/text ticks are also common in modern VNs.
You can’t use that here anymore.
“Hasn’t Ako arrived yet? I at least want to mess with her so I can get some healing.”
“Could you stop being mean to my wife?”
Just because she’s mentally weak doesn’t mean you can do that.
“That reminds me, a lot of stuff has happened right? You and Ako must have met up sometime during the vacation right?”
“Well, I won’t say that we didn’t.”
We met up with each other every now and then.
It’s not frequently though. Just every now and then.
“Shut up. Just what were you two doing together?”
Why would you ask about it if it upsets you?
If it’s annoying then it’s better to not just hear about it right?
Heck, even if you ask me, there’s really nothing interesting about it though.
“Ah well… Even though we did meet up all we did was just play net games.”
Though we did go on an actual date once.
Furthermore, our destination that time was a net cafe.
“You should really just get dumped.”
“Stop it! Don’t say something so scary!”
I’m still traumatized by that one word!
You got it wrong! You see, even I wanted to go do something else with Ako during that summer.
But I’d like for you to think it over for a bit.
I had the pressing need to bounce back from that incident after getting my gear taken when I got my account hacked. The most important thing during that time was the game. This all happened under those circumstances.
“‘Going out is a bit of a pain, so how about we play the game?’, is what she would tell me so in response, I think ‘Yeah, I guess. It’s hot out too, so I don’t really mind.’ and it all snowballs from there!”
“I knew it, you both really aren’t dating, are you? You’re not some middle-aged couple whose relationship has grown cold right?”
“I told you to stop it!”
I’m also traumatized by that! I’m still troubled on how to progress from here!
I mean, I can’t help it, can I? Since even when I get invited by others in the class to go out, I just turn them down thinking that it would decrease my playtime.
If you pair the kind of person that I am with Ako, of course we would favor playing net games over going out.
It’s fine isn’t it? Just playing games with Ako from home. I meet up with her sometimes during summer vacation anyway. Whenever I feel that I want to meet up with her in real life, I do my best to fulfill that end as well.
I think we’ve actually progressed somewhat nicely. Yeah.
“…But now that you mention it, it’s true that Ako hasn’t come over yet. Though it’s fine if she doesn’t anyway.”
She’s always, always, barging into my class every morning so it’s fine if she doesn’t do that. But just thinking that she really won’t come over is worrying me.
The bell’s about to ring soon, but is she going to be fine? Fortunately, as I took out my phone to check, a call came from her.
“Speak of the devil, it’s a call from Ako.”
“That girl is not thinking of skipping on the first day, is she?”
I really wish she would stop that for the sake of her future. Although, I’m quite worried that she might be taking today off because she was really sick.
‘If she’s down with a cold or something, then I should hurry back and visit her’, is what I was thinking as I picked up her call.
“Hello? Ako?”
{Rusian? Good morning~}
What’s this? She sounds lively. It doesn’t feel like she’s sick at all.
“She sounds fine, doesn’t she?”
Come now Segawa, eavesdropping is bad.
But then why isn’t she here? Is she even coming to school?
“Err… Ako, are you coming to school?”
{Oh about that Rusian… Why is everyone not logged in?}
——.
“Ha?”
“Huh?”
{Yes?}
All three of our voices piled up together.
E, eeh?
What do you mean log in? I mean, today’s a school day you know? I can’t log in even if I wanted to.
{Uhm, I didn’t find anyone online even after I logged in so I was going to ask if we weren’t going to have any club activities today.}
“……Are you serious?”
It may be already too late for my wife at this point.
“What are we gonna do Segawa?”
“She’s your wife isn’t she? Do something about it yourself.”
Of course right. Of course I have to be the one to do something about it.
I held back my tears that were about to fall as I calmly said,
“What do you mean log in Ako… Do you know what today is?”
{Uuu, please don’t remind me. I know that school is about to start back up again already.}
It’s not ‘about to’.
“It’s September 1st you know.”
{…Eh?}
I could hear the sound of something rustling from the other side as if she was trying to look for something.
After a short while…
{…T, Tell mii eet izunt saaaaw!}
TL note: A reference to a line uttered by Kazuma Kenzaki in Kamen Rider Blade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBDN6feWhZE). In addition to Burontism, the author also loves to add Ondour speak to Ako. It’s called like this because of how the character delivered this line as seen here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD8qAyqDGes) where in the original line was supposed to be 本当に裏切ったんですか！ but then the actor slurred and it came out as ｵﾝﾄﾞｩﾙﾙﾗｷﾞｯﾀﾝﾃﾞｨｽｶｰ!. Just give the two a whirl in google translate and you’ll find out why. Also, Ako pulls off this line perfectly in the anime during episode 9 (https://twitter.com/g47z1ei8pgedkdb/status/738939570511740928).
“Just calm down for now okay? Say it out nice and slow.”
{Why… why didn’t you tell me so yesterday?!}
“We kept talking about that over and over yesterday!”
Weren’t you pretty heated about how you said you were still feeling pretty dull when we were talking about that?
{But wouldn’t you think that only meant that school was just about to start up again?!}
I won’t. I’m pretty sure everything we said meant nothing else but the fact that school was starting up back tomorrow.
“Actually, how do you even go about forgetting the start of classes?”
{I don’t look at the calendar so I’ve lost all track of the date or even what day of the week it is.}
How did it even come to that point?
{Haa… Since it can’t be helped, I’ll just go back to sleep again.}
“Isn’t it strange for you to come to that conclusion?”
I know that it’s frustrating, but skipping out on attending on a day with a shortened schedule like this is still going to hurt your attendance.
“It’s fine even if you’re late, so for now how about you just come to school?”
{If it’s bad enough that I’m going to be late, then I might as well skip the rest of the day right?}
“Personally, I think skipping out on the first day is just going to make going on the next day even more needlessly difficult.”
Skipping that first day of the new term is just going to end up carrying over to the next day. And when you actually go, it would feel like a total away game for only yourself that the mere thought of it scares me.
And since I think that, I believe it would terrify Ako even more.
“I’ll wait for you, so make sure you come. I also want to see you, Ako.”
{Uuu… I understand. I’ll do my best and go then.}
“Be careful on the way here—”
Segawa sighed as I hung up the phone and then she said the following with grim expression,
“…I guess I’ll go home too.”
“I told you to stop that.”
As Segawa, who had the eyes of a dead fish, shook her head, the chime signalling the opening ceremony began to ring.
The opening ceremony that always takes place in the gymnasium is really boring that I can’t help but feel sleepy.
The principal, the counselor, and all the student representatives from each year kept continuing on with their long speeches. When I looked at the clock, I realized that we’ve been here for a considerably long period of time.
Just as I was about to think of sleeping right then and there, I heard a familiar name being called out.
[“Next up is the welcoming remarks of our student council president, Goshouin-san”]
It’s Master. Come to think of it, she’s the student council president after all.
Master, who had walked on to the stage in a majestic manner, began to look around at the students who dull expressions on their faces. And with a dignified look, she then opened her mouth and said,
[“Good morning everyone. I am your president, Goshouin.”]
I feel like she said the same thing as before.
I took a look around, but of course, there’s no sign yet of the currently-running-late Ako.
[“I wonder, how has everyone spent their long summer vacation? I take it that you all have spent your time in meaningful, yet memorable ways.”]
Master’s speech continued.
I guess even she won’t think of messing around at a general assembly. It really feels like she’s just doing a proper and normal welcome.
[“Of course, I too, am no different. During this summer vacation, I, just like everyone else, spent my time on a very meaningful—”]
Then, she suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
As I tried to see what happened, I saw her face twitching.
Ah, I get it. That face is one of doubt where she probably thinking to herself, ‘Now that I think about it calmly, was that really something I could call meaningful?’.
[“A, a meaningful, and fulfilling…”]
Master seemed to really have a hard time getting the words out.
Yeah, I understand you.
Well of course right? After saying declaring that the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club would be continuing on with its activities, all we really did everyday was meet up in LA and play the game.
[“A fulfilling, and worthwhile endeavor…”]
As I kept looking over Master, who looked to be in pain, being someone who shared in the same summer activities as her made me feel pretty horrible as well.
Then, just as I was thinking that maybe we should have just went to a beach, lake, pool or something and watch fireworks like all those normies—
“I, I’m sorry for being late!”
I heard that faint voice from the side.
It felt like someone was frantically apologizing to one of the teachers who were a bit mad.
And then, the neighboring class’ line parted for a bit only for a single to fill in that spot.
Her classmates seemed to welcome her fondly, so I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“Uuuu… Rusian…”
Ako looked up to me after waddling her way here.
“Good morning. Good job making it here.”
Ako, with her disheveled hair and a face that’s about to cry, approached me. I then patted her on the head.
Good girl. I’m glad you won over your desire to stay at home.
As I turned my gaze back on the stage, my eyes met with Master looking over us with a pleasant look on her face.
[“…Indeed, ours was definitely a summer vacation well spent.”]
With a laugh, Master continued on with her speech.
[“And moving on, we will take a step further in our accomplishments starting today, on the first day of the second term. It is with this conviction that I have high hopes for what is to come. It’s the start of the long and arduous second term. Let us all strive and enjoy as we all spend the next coming months together. That is all”]
Now that the long summer vacation has ended, and the long entrance ceremony has concluded, our lengthy second term starts up once again.
It’s that day of the week again. I kind of just blasted through this part, so please excuse me if some parts seem to be worded poorly. I’m also thinking about lessening the TL notes as to not sound too much like a commentary, though there’s just a lot of the JP only references that I couldn’t help myself.
I also corrected chapter title referenceS from the previous volume. Browsing through Nexon JP’s site, I realized what was some of the references actually were (though I’ve played them in the past, it completely slipped my mind as I was translating). Seeing this also convinced me even more that Rusian might actually be a reference to Lucian Kaltz from Talesweaver.
That aside, it’s pretty stale just translating again so I’m going back to reading volume 18 again once this post gets published. I’ve also had my eyes set on another work that looks really interesting to me (なれる！ＳＥ, basically systems engineers doing things). Though as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really one for cleaning/typesetting so maybe some kind soul would want to help on that end. Otherwise, I think I’ll just enjoy it by myself.
I’d also just like to slip in here that another one of the lines that really made this novel amusing for me was the one uttered by Ako here. That statement about being late is my creed whenever I’m going to end up being an hour or so late for work. Also, that comment about forgetting all sense of time is definitely the cherry on top.
That’s all I have for now. Please enjoy the first part of chapter 1 below.
TL note: Reference to Wizardry Online.
Translation: Yamaking
There are a lot of things that you normally see in-game that are not found in real life.
For example, just trekking through the desert or volcano biomes makes you take damage periodically. I thought for sure this was pretty unreasonable.
That was what I thought, up until now.
But I’ve now realized. I was completely mistaken.
Those characters in-game were already giving it their all.
“Hot…”
It’s because that, the early morning sun during the end of summer really hurts.
Just having the sun there is really sapping away at my HP.
Deserts and volcanoes are definitely places that should not be visited by human beings.
“Please make a Fire Resist Potion… I’ll buy it right away…”
Why does something from the fantasy world not exist in real life? It really feels like modern science is losing out on this front.
On the morning of September 1st, I was on my way to school, all worn-out.
I wonder if it’s because summer vacation just ended, but the sun doesn’t seem to be letting up. Damn it, it’s hot enough as it is.
I just want to head back to my room right away and bask in the breeze of the aircon while I wrap myself in my comfy futon and go to sleep.
“Even though me and my futon are bound by a pledge of eternal love, why must we be torn apart like so?”
I sighed at the thought that I just can’t have my way in the real world.
And not having Ako butt in with me saying that just feels like something is missing.
I’m sure Ako is suffering even more than I am right now as she’s commuting to school.
I changed into my indoor shoes and sluggishly headed towards the classroom. It’s hotter outside but, the corridors and classrooms are still hot.
For some mysterious reason, the aircons in Maegasaki High are only used to maintain the usual temperature. I wonder if it’s the school as a whole that’s testing our ability to endure this temperature.
“Even though it’s always at full blast in the staff room…”
“It’s really hot isn’t it?”
As I was talking to myself, the guy who sat behind me answered back.
“Morning— Ta, Takasaki.”
“Why was there a pause there?”
“You just seemed a bit different after the break, you know?”
‘That so?’, Takasaki said as he looked puzzled. Though I’m sorry, but I don’t really think you’ve changed that much.
It’s just that well— I just couldn’t remember your name for a second there.
No, no, it’s not that I forgot it alright? Look, I remembered it properly, see?
This guy is Takasaki. He’s a classmate of mine that called out to Ako and got destroyed in the process.
After that incident, the girls have been kinder to him so it seems like his market value has risen a bit.
Yeah, I remember it properly. Good.
Although, did Takasaki and I really get along this well?
Enough to have small talk like that?
—Heck, there’s no way I’ll understand those kinds of interpersonal relationships anyway.
I barely did anything outside of playing net games this whole summer, so it feels like I’ve completely forgotten what it’s like to socialize.
“The end of summer vacation sure is dangerous.”
What do I do? I have no idea on how to approach anyone right now.
Blanking out is scary. Very scary.
“Uwah—, your skin is as pale as ever Nishimura. Not a hint of sunburn anywhere. Just what did you do this summer?”
“I used my PC, played some net games, and did some browsing.”
“Aren’t all those the same thing? As for me, I was out practicing in track everyday. Look, I’m completely burnt.”
“Aah—, yeah.”
Even though I answered like that, I didn’t know Takasaki was in the track and field club.
Is this fine? Is carrying on with the conversation like this fine? Or is this going to add to my list of fatal blunders?
‘If it was only someone I was closer to then—’, though as I was in the middle of thinking that, the person I’m closest to in this class came to mind.
That’s right, it was Schwein. If it was her then I would have no problems whatsoever.
She played a lot with me too during summer vacation so I can definitely do that. I can talk to her.
I’ll talk to her and ask, ‘How do I act as a High School Boy again?’!
I excitedly searched for the figure of my long time partner in-game, Schwein, that is, Segawa, in the classroom.
“And then see, after that he kept going on and on about his part time job. It’s summer vacation you know? If you think about it normally, shouldn’t you put me first? And you call yourself my boyfriend? See, that’s what happened.”
“Yeah I know what you mean—”
Ah, there she is.
It felt as if she was really getting annoyed as she kept tapping on her desk while a girl was talking to her.
“……”
Segawa then turned to face me, as if she felt my gaze on her.
(“…Morning.”)
(“Yo.”)
We exchanged greetings with just our glances.
Segawa looked up at me with her dead eyes as she languidly stooped her shoulders.
That really irritated look of hers really speaks volumes about the annoyance building up inside her.
(“Hey Nishimura, this dialogue is really annoying. Do you know why I can’t skip it?”)
It feels like she just asked something like that!
(“What the heck are you saying!?”)
‘No, no, that’s no good you know! You have to properly enjoy conversations with your classmates!’, is what I thought while I shook my head.
Segawa then slowly stood up from her seat and walked towards me.
“E, err, Segawa-san?”
“Come with me for a bit.”
“Just like that!? At least tell me why fir— Hey, wa— My neck! My neck!”
“Aah, seeing Nishimura get strangled by Segawa like that really makes it feel like school has started up again right?”
“Youuuuuuuuuuu!”
Treating this as if were a stranger’s problem and just watching me get dragged like that!
I really shouldn’t have been too considerate about talking to him earlier!
After I was dragged by Segawa into a corner in the hallway, all that inexplicable rage from before seems to have dissipated. Even though I was pretty close with her, I have trouble mulling over on what to say.
“Err, it’s been a while, I guess?”
“We just met yesterday though.”
We did, but that was in the game.
Even though we had that talk about the ‘Club Activities Five Days A Week!’ plan during the start of summer, after a few days of doing it, opinions that went ‘It’s tiring to go all the way to school and it’s hot anyway, so let’s just meet up at LA okay?’ came out and so members of the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club stopped coming to school. In reality, we haven’t met up with each other in real life for about a month now.
We frequently chatted in-game so it doesn’t really feel like it’s been a while.
“That aside, listen to this will you? Come on, listen up. Just shut up for a moment and listen to what I have to say.”
“O, oh? What’s up?”
I was wondering why Segawa was this mad when suddenly,
“Now that summer vacation is over, can’t we just skip over these forced scenes with our classmates?”
“I knew you were thinking something around those lines!”
We really come together at the most useless of things don’t we?!
“But when you think about it normally, games that don’t have a skip button for scenes are just shitty games right? They should let me skip these things if I press ESC!”
“Real life doesn’t have a skip function!”
So when I saw her tapping on her desk earlier, she was actually mashing on the ESC key huh!
So you were trying to skip your dialogue with your classmates after all, weren’t you!
“Actually, how have I been able to hold up being a normal JK this whole time? To be honest, I don’t really remember. For now, you think I should just look at the guide and start over from scratch?”
TL note: JK is short for joshi kousei (high school girl). On that note, JC is joushi chuugakusei (middle school girl) and JS is joushi shougakusei (elementary school girl). There’s also JD which joushi daigakusei (college girl).
“It unsettling how you’re really similar right now to those people who say ‘I kind of stopped playing healer for a while so I might slip up a little’.”
In the first place, isn’t High School Girl your main job?
You got too absorbed using your alt so now you forgot how to use your main?!
“Ah, Akane. Morning.”
Just then, Akiyama-san, who was passing by, waved to Segawa.
“M’ning.”
Akiyama-san looked puzzled in response to Segawa’s unenergetic reply.
“What’s the matter? Are you not heading in class? What this? An affair? Hey, long time no see.”
“Why’d you direct that last message towards me? Yeah, it’s been a while.”
If Ako caught wind of what you just said, she’d hole herself up in her room again so please stop it.
“It’s not like it’s any of your business Nanako. I just had something to discuss with him here.”
“It’s been a while since we last met so let’s go into class together, okay?”
“You talk too much you fail summoner. If you get any closer, I’ll throw your Mu-tan in a mountain somewhere.”
“So it’s about the game?!”
Why did you suddenly spout abusive language there without rhyme or reason?!
“And besides, my Mu-tan is such a good boy! Why do you hate him?!”
“It’s because that thing runs about a bit too wild.”
“Not you too Nishimura-kun! You’re mean—!”
Akiyama-san, the novice summoner in LA, rushed towards the classroom as if to run away from here.
Well, we’re not really at fault here.
If you’re just going to let your pet run wild luring enemies to us then don’t bring it.
‘Bad Mu-tan~ ><‘ doesn’t work after all.
It’s definitely not that we’re taking our anger out on you.
“Though, you may not be Akiyama-san, but you have a lot more friends compared to me. Why not just enjoy talking with them?”
“Well, normally I would be enjoying it too but…”
Segawa looked a bit irritated as she shook her head.
“Since it’s the first day after summer vacation has ended, everyone’s all talking about the same thing. To sum it up, they’re all just bragging about how fulfilling their summer vacation was. I already heard that from the person before you so give me break.”
“I guess that sounds really irritating.”
“How do I put this… It’s like when you accept that quest ‘Find the Missing Celine!’ and then looking at the quest objectives only to see ‘Obtain Celine’s remains’. Of course I wouldn’t be interested in the story anymore!”
“You get spoiled as soon as you accept the quest!”
“Aah yeah, yeah. Celine dies.”
“Stop it! The NPC is still hoping for her return!”
This happens way too often that it stings!
“It just makes me want to keep pressing Enter. I wish I could skip through all of it by just holding down CTRL.”
“You can’t skip through dialogue that you haven’t seen yet so give it up.”
TL note: This is the default control scheme for most VNs. Skip unseen scene/text ticks are also common in modern VNs.
You can’t use that here anymore.
“Hasn’t Ako arrived yet? I at least want to mess with her so I can get some healing.”
“Could you stop being mean to my wife?”
Just because she’s mentally weak doesn’t mean you can do that.
“That reminds me, a lot of stuff has happened right? You and Ako must have met up sometime during the vacation right?”
“Well, I won’t say that we didn’t.”
We met up with each other every now and then.
It’s not frequently though. Just every now and then.
“Shut up. Just what were you two doing together?”
Why would you ask about it if it upsets you?
If it’s annoying then it’s better to not just hear about it right?
Heck, even if you ask me, there’s really nothing interesting about it though.
“Ah well… Even though we did meet up all we did was just play net games.”
Though we did go on an actual date once.
Furthermore, our destination that time was a net cafe.
“You should really just get dumped.”
“Stop it! Don’t say something so scary!”
I’m still traumatized by that one word!
You got it wrong! You see, even I wanted to go do something else with Ako during that summer.
But I’d like for you to think it over for a bit.
I had the pressing need to bounce back from that incident after getting my gear taken when I got my account hacked. The most important thing during that time was the game. This all happened under those circumstances.
“‘Going out is a bit of a pain, so how about we play the game?’, is what she would tell me so in response, I think ‘Yeah, I guess. It’s hot out too, so I don’t really mind.’ and it all snowballs from there!”
“I knew it, you both really aren’t dating, are you? You’re not some middle-aged couple whose relationship has grown cold right?”
“I told you to stop it!”
I’m also traumatized by that! I’m still troubled on how to progress from here!
I mean, I can’t help it, can I? Since even when I get invited by others in the class to go out, I just turn them down thinking that it would decrease my playtime.
If you pair the kind of person that I am with Ako, of course we would favor playing net games over going out.
It’s fine isn’t it? Just playing games with Ako from home. I meet up with her sometimes during summer vacation anyway. Whenever I feel that I want to meet up with her in real life, I do my best to fulfill that end as well.
I think we’ve actually progressed somewhat nicely. Yeah.
“…But now that you mention it, it’s true that Ako hasn’t come over yet. Though it’s fine if she doesn’t anyway.”
She’s always, always, barging into my class every morning so it’s fine if she doesn’t do that. But just thinking that she really won’t come over is worrying me.
The bell’s about to ring soon, but is she going to be fine? Fortunately, as I took out my phone to check, a call came from her.
“Speak of the devil, it’s a call from Ako.”
“That girl is not thinking of skipping on the first day, is she?”
I really wish she would stop that for the sake of her future. Although, I’m quite worried that she might be taking today off because she was really sick.
‘If she’s down with a cold or something, then I should hurry back and visit her’, is what I was thinking as I picked up her call.
“Hello? Ako?”
{Rusian? Good morning~}
What’s this? She sounds lively. It doesn’t feel like she’s sick at all.
“She sounds fine, doesn’t she?”
Come now Segawa, eavesdropping is bad.
But then why isn’t she here? Is she even coming to school?
“Err… Ako, are you coming to school?”
{Oh about that Rusian… Why is everyone not logged in?}
——.
“Ha?”
“Huh?”
{Yes?}
All three of our voices piled up together.
E, eeh?
What do you mean log in? I mean, today’s a school day you know? I can’t log in even if I wanted to.
{Uhm, I didn’t find anyone online even after I logged in so I was going to ask if we weren’t going to have any club activities today.}
“……Are you serious?”
It may be already too late for my wife at this point.
“What are we gonna do Segawa?”
“She’s your wife isn’t she? Do something about it yourself.”
Of course right. Of course I have to be the one to do something about it.
I held back my tears that were about to fall as I calmly said,
“What do you mean log in Ako… Do you know what today is?”
{Uuu, please don’t remind me. I know that school is about to start back up again already.}
It’s not ‘about to’.
“It’s September 1st you know.”
{…Eh?}
I could hear the sound of something rustling from the other side as if she was trying to look for something.
After a short while…
{…T, Tell mii eet izunt saaaaw!}
TL note: A reference to a line uttered by Kazuma Kenzaki in Kamen Rider Blade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBDN6feWhZE). In addition to Burontism, the author also loves to add Ondour speak to Ako. It’s called like this because of how the character delivered this line as seen here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD8qAyqDGes) where in the original line was supposed to be 本当に裏切ったんですか！ but then the actor slurred and it came out as ｵﾝﾄﾞｩﾙﾙﾗｷﾞｯﾀﾝﾃﾞｨｽｶｰ!. Just give the two a whirl in google translate and you’ll find out why. Also, Ako pulls off this line perfectly in the anime during episode 9 (https://twitter.com/g47z1ei8pgedkdb/status/738939570511740928).
“Just calm down for now okay? Say it out nice and slow.”
{Why… why didn’t you tell me so yesterday?!}
“We kept talking about that over and over yesterday!”
Weren’t you pretty heated about how you said you were still feeling pretty dull when we were talking about that?
{But wouldn’t you think that only meant that school was just about to start up again?!}
I won’t. I’m pretty sure everything we said meant nothing else but the fact that school was starting up back tomorrow.
“Actually, how do you even go about forgetting the start of classes?”
{I don’t look at the calendar so I’ve lost all track of the date or even what day of the week it is.}
How did it even come to that point?
{Haa… Since it can’t be helped, I’ll just go back to sleep again.}
“Isn’t it strange for you to come to that conclusion?”
I know that it’s frustrating, but skipping out on attending on a day with a shortened schedule like this is still going to hurt your attendance.
“It’s fine even if you’re late, so for now how about you just come to school?”
{If it’s bad enough that I’m going to be late, then I might as well skip the rest of the day right?}
“Personally, I think skipping out on the first day is just going to make going on the next day even more needlessly difficult.”
Skipping that first day of the new term is just going to end up carrying over to the next day. And when you actually go, it would feel like a total away game for only yourself that the mere thought of it scares me.
And since I think that, I believe it would terrify Ako even more.
“I’ll wait for you, so make sure you come. I also want to see you, Ako.”
{Uuu… I understand. I’ll do my best and go then.}
“Be careful on the way here—”
Segawa sighed as I hung up the phone and then she said the following with grim expression,
“…I guess I’ll go home too.”
“I told you to stop that.”
As Segawa, who had the eyes of a dead fish, shook her head, the chime signalling the opening ceremony began to ring.
The opening ceremony that always takes place in the gymnasium is really boring that I can’t help but feel sleepy.
The principal, the counselor, and all the student representatives from each year kept continuing on with their long speeches. When I looked at the clock, I realized that we’ve been here for a considerably long period of time.
Just as I was about to think of sleeping right then and there, I heard a familiar name being called out.
[“Next up is the welcoming remarks of our student council president, Goshouin-san”]
It’s Master. Come to think of it, she’s the student council president after all.
Master, who had walked on to the stage in a majestic manner, began to look around at the students who dull expressions on their faces. And with a dignified look, she then opened her mouth and said,
[“Good morning everyone. I am your president, Goshouin.”]
I feel like she said the same thing as before.
I took a look around, but of course, there’s no sign yet of the currently-running-late Ako.
[“I wonder, how has everyone spent their long summer vacation? I take it that you all have spent your time in meaningful, yet memorable ways.”]
Master’s speech continued.
I guess even she won’t think of messing around at a general assembly. It really feels like she’s just doing a proper and normal welcome.
[“Of course, I too, am no different. During this summer vacation, I, just like everyone else, spent my time on a very meaningful—”]
Then, she suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
As I tried to see what happened, I saw her face twitching.
Ah, I get it. That face is one of doubt where she probably thinking to herself, ‘Now that I think about it calmly, was that really something I could call meaningful?’.
[“A, a meaningful, and fulfilling…”]
Master seemed to really have a hard time getting the words out.
Yeah, I understand you.
Well of course right? After saying declaring that the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club would be continuing on with its activities, all we really did everyday was meet up in LA and play the game.
[“A fulfilling, and worthwhile endeavor…”]
As I kept looking over Master, who looked to be in pain, being someone who shared in the same summer activities as her made me feel pretty horrible as well.
Then, just as I was thinking that maybe we should have just went to a beach, lake, pool or something and watch fireworks like all those normies—
“I, I’m sorry for being late!”
I heard that faint voice from the side.
It felt like someone was frantically apologizing to one of the teachers who were a bit mad.
And then, the neighboring class’ line parted for a bit only for a single to fill in that spot.
Her classmates seemed to welcome her fondly, so I breathe out a sigh of relief.
“Uuuu… Rusian…”
Ako looked up to me after waddling her way here.
“Good morning. Good job making it here.”
Ako, with her disheveled hair and a face that’s about to cry, approached me. I then patted her on the head.
Good girl. I’m glad you won over your desire to stay at home.
As I turned my gaze back on the stage, my eyes met with Master looking over us with a pleasant look on her face.
[“…Indeed, ours was definitely a summer vacation well spent.”]
With a laugh, Master continued on with her speech.
[“And moving on, we will take a step further in our accomplishments starting today, on the first day of the second term. It is with this conviction that I have high hopes for what is to come. It’s the start of the long and arduous second term. Let us all strive and enjoy as we all spend the next coming months together. That is all”]
Now that the long summer vacation has ended, and the long entrance ceremony has concluded, our lengthy second term starts up once again.
