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ลำดับตอนที่ #14 : VOLUME 2 - THAT WHICH CONNECTS SOULS extra file: homecoming
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psychic detective yakumo novel translation
VOLUME 2 - THAT WHICH CONNECTS SOULS
extra file: homecoming (TRANSLATION NOTES)
-
We had been heading back after paying Ishii-san a visit –
Haruka walked alongside Yakumo on the ride by the line that led to the station.
Their conversation wasn’t really like a conversation. No matter what Haruka said, Yakumo would only reply with ‘ah’ or 'yeah’.
Even though he would usually complain, saying 'You talk too much’ or something like that, it felt like he was thinking about something.
The letter that the boy handed him earlier. He was probably hung up on that.
Just as they reached the level crossing, Yakumo suddenly stopped.
His eyes were narrowed, looking at something on the other side of the level crossing.
His gaze was on a woman.
She was as stylish as a model. She had coiffed brown hair and frankly mature makeup, and her features were well defined.
She wore a black party dress, matching it with a white cardigan.
She stood on the other side of the level crossing, and her back was hunched as she her held a white handbag in her left hand like she was holding a weight.
She felt very much like a typical woman in the business of night entertainment.
Yakumo’s eyebrows moved with a start, like he was responding to something.
'So that sort of woman’s your type.’
She hadn’t planned on saying that, but it slipped out of her mouth.
'You’re…’
Yakumo said something while frowning and raking a hand through his hair, but she couldn’t hear all of it since it was drowned out by the sound of a passing train.
'What?’
She waited for the train to pass before asking again, but Yakumo didn’t reply. Instead, he looked down at his feet and turned his head left and right like he was looking for something.
Haruka didn’t understand him.
The barrier came up.
However, Yakumo didn’t cross. He just cocked his head and leaned over.
People started flowing in from the other side.
That woman was a part of them. Just as the woman passed, Haruka’s noise was hit with the smell of strong perfume.
Like he had been pulled, Yakumo stood straight and looked at the woman’s back. Finally, he let out a big yawn.
'I got it. It’ll be fine if I go, right? You’re so annoying.’
Haruka didn’t know who Yakumo was talking to, but he started walking after the woman.
'Hey, where are you going?’
Haruka chased after him at a jogging pace and called out to him.
'Following.’
'Following who?’
'That woman.’
'Why?’
'Don’t ask me,’ Yakumo said disagreeably.
She could have just left him alone, but for some reason, Haruka also started following the woman with Yakumo.
'Why are you coming too?’
Yakumo stopped in his tracks.
'I’m curious.’
'You know…’
Yakumo started speaking, but he gave up partway and shook his head before starting to walk again.
Haruka decided selfishly to take that as an OK and followed the woman alongside Yakumo at his pace.
Why am I doing something like this –
She tried asking herself.
It was just as she said – curiosity.
Of course, it wasn’t curiosity towards the woman she didn’t know at all. Why did Yakumo suddenly start chasing that woman? That was what she wanted to know.
He might just be doing something tasteless like stalking.
Plus –
The woman went down the shopping street, moving away from the station, and crossed the main line road to walk onto the Tama River embankment.
They were near the gate. They had been here at lunch.
It was completely dark around them, and the bridge stood out, lit up by the orange streetlights.
Like a somnambulist, the woman staggered towards that bridge like she was possessed by something.
'Hey, where is that person going?’
'I wouldn’t be following her if I knew,’ said Yakumo disagreeably.
It was just as he said.
The woman stopped in the centre.
They stopped as well at about a fifty metre distance.
Will he call out to her? Haruka wondered as she looked at Yakumo, but his lips were in a thin line as he looked with a dubious expression at the woman.
It didn’t seem like the woman had noticed them. She walked towards the railing and, after crouching down, closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.
At her feet, there was a white chrysanthemum flower[1] in a can.
Somebody died here –
The woman’s back was shaking slightly.
Though she made no sound and no tears were falling, it was just like she was crying.
The person who died might have been somebody important to this woman.
After a while, the woman stood up like she had reached a resolution.
She put her two hands on the railing and looked down at the jet-black river.
– I’m sorry.
The woman said that in a voice so quiet it might have gone unheard.
'This is bad…’
Yakumo clicked his tongue.
'Eh?’
While Haruka asked that question, the woman put her feet on the railing and climbed up.
'Stop her!’
Yakumo kicked the ground and started running.
Like Haruka was pushed forward by that voice, she rushed towards the woman without understanding anything.
The woman stood atop the railing and looked like she would fall at any moment.
'Watch out!’
It was too late for her to make such a big realisation now. She reached out frantically, but all she caught was air – she couldn’t reach the woman.
Like everything was happening in slow motion, the woman fell towards the river.
– It’s too late.
She closed her eyes unconsciously, her body stiff.
However, the sound of something dropping into the river that she should have heard didn’t reach her ears. Instead –
'Don’t just stand there – lend me a hand.’
It was Yakumo’s voice.
When Haruka opened her eyes, Yakumo was holding the woman on the verge of falling back, restraining her with his arms.
I hurriedly rushed over to Yakumo and helped him pull the woman back to the bridge.
The woman, sitting on the concrete walkway, was scowling as she glared at them.
'Why didn’t you let me die…’
The woman tried to dig her fingernails into the concrete as she spoke while crying.
'To be honest, it’s none of my concern whether you live or die.’
Yakumo ran his fingers through his hair as he spoke, like he found it troublesome.
'Hey, what are you saying?’
Haruka couldn’t help but speak out at that manner of speaking.
'Please keep your mouth shut.
'How can I keep my mouth shut?’
Even though Haruka objected so vehemently, Yakumo turned back to the woman like he hadn’t heard anything at all.
'Though I don’t care, I had to since that kid would make a fuss.’
At Yakumo’s words, the woman looked up, cocked her head, and said, 'Eh?’
Haruka felt the same. She didn’t understand what Yakumo was saying at all.
'Your miniature dachshund. You know him, yes? He has a black spot on his cheek and a pink collar.’
'Hiro-kun…’ the woman murmured.
'I don’t know his name. All I know that he is still wandering around you.’
'You’re lying…’
'I knew that you wanted to die, didn’t I? We followed you all the way here.’
– So that’s what it was.
Haruka finally understood the situation.
At the level crossing, what Yakumo had been looking at was a dog. The wandering spirit of a dead dog. He had followed it here.
'But… Hiro-kun…’
The woman looked at the chrysanthemum flower.
The dog had probably gotten hit by a car when the leash fell from the woman’s hand on a walk or something.
'He can see him.’
It just slipped out. Haruka thought Yakumo might be mad, but he didn’t say anything. He yawned while looking up at the night sky by the railing, like he was saying that his work was done.
'See him?’
'He can see them. The spirits of the dead. That is, ghosts. It’s not human this time though.’
I explained to the woman in Yakumo’s stead.
'What is Hiro-kun saying…’
The woman looked towards Yakumo, like she was asking for something.
'I don’t understand the language of dogs,’ Yakumo said curtly.
No, he wouldn’t, but he could’ve said that a bit better –
'That’s right…’
The woman bit her lip.
An awkward silence –
'But that dog has always been beside you. He’s been so worried about you that he hasn’t been able to move on…’ said Yakumo, still looking up at the sky.
'Worried about me…’
The woman burst into tears.
Her mascara ran, so black tears went down her face.
It was like she was letting out everything that she had held in until now.
All Haruka could do was approach her and hug those shaking shoulders.
Finally, the woman sniffled and stood up on her own feet. With red eyes, she said firmly, 'I won’t make Hiro-kun worry anymore.’
'We’ll walk back with you.’
'It’s fine. Hiro-kun is with me, after all.’
The woman said that to my offer, and then she smiled, showing her teeth, and said 'Thank you’ again and again before she walked away.
Haruka still didn’t know why the woman had wanted to die.
Now, she wondered if she should have asked.
'Hey, is this really OK?’ she asked Yakumo.
'She knows she’s not alone. It’s fine.’
'Is that how it is?’
'That’s how it is. It was the same for me…’
'The same for you?’
Haruka asked again, but Yakumo didn’t make any reply.
'We’re going.’
Instead, he said that and started walking briskly.
Honestly, he just does whatever he wants –
-
One week after that, Haruka met her again.
Just as Haruka came out of the station gates, somebody said 'Hello’ to me.
She had pitch-black hair and her makeup was light. She wore jeans and trainers – a rough appearance – and had a large purse.
At first Haruka didn’t recognise her, since her appearance had changed so much. After the woman said, 'Before, on the bridge…’ Haruka exclaimed in her surprise.
That said, she wasn’t sure what to say next. Instead, the woman started speaking first, telling her that she was going to move to her parents’ home in Yamanashi and wouldn’t try to die anymore.
'Hiro-kun will also come with me. I think he’d definitely be happy to see the lake,’ she said with a smile.
On her wrist, there was a pink bracelet. (No, it had to be her dog’s collar.)
'Take care of yourself.’
'Thank you. Tell your boyfriend that for me too.’
The woman said that and then left for the platform.
My boyfriend –
I felt a bit embarrassed for not affirming or denying that –
-
[1] White chrysanthemums represent grief in Japan.
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