24th Piece — Against the Rules

Some administrative stuff real quick; the author deleted the web novel off of ncode, which is slightly troublesome. More details at the bottom.

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The second floor of “MOON”.
The interior of Shizuku-san’s room was painted with tastefully vintage colors.

「After all, weeeeell.」

Haven’t thirty minutes already elapsed since this meeting started?
Shizuku-san, who sat down on a couch made of some kind of leather, is considerably drunk…… it seems, holding a glass of red wine filled to the brim in one hand, lisping as she talked.

「Soota-kun, this Sato-san girl, why are you so deeply in love with her, I wonder?」

「……」

Why did you have to change the subject to that, I wonder.
I, who sat down on the opposite couch, having nothing to do, held an imported carbonated drink from a country I didn’t know well to my mouth.
Naturally, it’s non-alcoholic.

「Hey, answeeeer~, you handsome guuuuy~」

「Hold on, ow!」

As a result of trying to exercise my right to remain silent, I was kicked in the shins.
This is a person unaware of human rights.

「Ow, hold on a second…..! There’s no certain reason! Separately, it’s impossible that I’m going out with her!」

「I have one, but you know~」

Mayo-san, side-by-side on the couch with Shizuku-san, elegantly enjoyed a narrow champagne glass of white wine, and said in a sluggish voice.

「Eh?」

Shizuku-san’s and my voice overlap.

「What do you mean you have one……?」

「Because I’m proud of the work I put into Koharu-san’s ensemble, I took a picture for “hidamari”’s official Minsta.」

Proud of the work……?
……come to think of it, thinking under those circumstances, Sato-san was at “hidamari” until she ran into me.
That is to say, that coordinated outfit, had only just been completed?
Perhaps Sato-san, the same as me, was preparing for Saturday’s date……

—I use both hands to pinch and stretch my cheeks! 

「Uwaa, what are you doing all of a sudden!?」

「I’m only correcting my disgusting hubris.」

「Haa……?」

「—yes, this is the photograph.」

During that exchange, Mayo-san operated her smartphone at her own pace, putting her smartphone on top of the glass table.
Shizuku-san and I bend forward, and look into the screen.
In the middle of the screen, is the aforementioned Sato-san in casual clothing.

……as expected, she’s cute.
However, because this Sato-san is nothing but cute, inside of me a hazy feeling arises.
Mayo-san was saying this photograph is going to be uploaded onto “hidamari”’s official account.

「Don’t worry, the uploaded picture is from her neck up, and because of how it comes out when trimmed, Koharu-chan’s casual clothing can be monopolized by Oshio-kun.」 [T/N: they read him like a BOOK]

「……」

……this person, she can honestly read my mind, it seems.
I hang my head and my face turns red from shame.

「Oo—, no, she’s honestly cute, a surprising cool beauty, isn’t she?」

「Gap, it’s gap, she’s a splendid airhead-san, so she’s cute.」 [T/N: They’re referring to “gap moe”, where a person’s appearance being very separated from the way they act]

「Heee… then? How far have you gone with her then, Soota-kun?」

Shizuku-san, her breath reeking of alcohol, hurls that kind of question at me.
……with her eyes glazed over.

「How far……」

「Have you kissssssed? Chuuu—」 asked Shizuku-san, pursing her lips.

「I, I haven’t done that.」

「Are you a guy who can’t put his tongue in?」

「Not with any tongue, not at all, nor on the cheek!」

「Haa? Then, what have you done? What’s the furthest you’ve gone?」

「……a selfie, with us together.」 [T/N: Oshio again uses that term “two shot”, a photo of a guy/girl together but it doesn’t convey it as well unless you know that term so I opted to be more explicit.]

Furthermore, it was almost something like an accident.

Receiving that, Shizuku-san laughed scornfully, unnaturally shrugging her shoulders,

「—that sort of thing, how could you just say you’re falling deeply in love, you fake handsome guy!」

「I have not said that about myself even once.」

Being deeply in love or being a handsome guy.
……No, falling for Sato-san is certain but, granted because it’s embarrassing, I have not said it even once.

Shizuku-san drank her wine completely like it’s water, and then vigorously slapped her empty glass onto the table, and then started to say 「Remember, fake handsome guy

「The truth about falling in love is…… don’t stop! With all your heart just press forward! Press forward!」[T/N: This weird line break is intentional, I’m matching the formatting of the raw.]

「……different people have their own pace, you know.」

「Haaan! Saying that kind of lip service, you aren’t at all serious about love, huh!」

At her drunk nonsense that I also understood was something like making fun of me, I unintentionally started to get angry.
I drink my carbonated drink again, gulping it down, and put the empty can on the table,

「If you honestly think about how the other person feels, you don’t want to cause trouble for them, you don’t want to hurt them, so wholeheartedly you have to be careful, that’s love.」

「Fuuuuun, then, who asked you not to hurt someone?」

「Who asked……」

I flinched at the unexpected reply.
Shizuku-san stares at me with sleepy eyes while……

「Causing trouble is just fine, in the first place people profoundly are affected by people, that in itself is troubling and hurtful, you know! But people wanting that are great in number! Therefore, in the whole town, couples are overflowing! The main point is, not wanting to get hurt…… the one who doesn’t want to be hurt is you, isn’t it?」 [T/N: She read him to filth lmao]

「Th…… that sort of thing is not what it is at all!」

I, unable to tolerate it, object.
Shizuku-san silently holds out the palm of her hand,

「Then, lend me your smartphone.」

「…….come again?」

「Lend it.」 [T/N: In the raw she just says 「Ha yo」 which doesn’t mean a whole lot so I took a liberty here.]

With a tone that can’t let someone refuse, Shizuku-san continues to press on.
As for me, I can’t understand the significance of it, so I only tilt my head.
Mayo-san also doesn’t seem to understand Shizuku-san’s aims, also tilting her head.

「Lend it.」

……well, at any rate, she’s getting drunk.
There’s nothing in particular that I have a reason to be guilty for on my smartphone, also, considering an escape was an annoyance.

「Is this good?」

I hand my smartphone over to Shizuku-san.
Shizuku-san with her experienced hands, uses the received smartphone for ten seconds…… what is her intention, as she put my smartphone in her breast pocket, then picked up a bottle, and then from it began to pour wine into her empty glass.

「……?」

Geez, honestly…… what did she do?
Mayo-san and I’s doubtful gazes dashed over, however that person herself continued to drink wine.

Then, in the strange atmosphere, we wait for several minutes.

「Any time now, will it be good, I wonder?」

Saying that suddenly, she takes out my smartphone from her chest pocket, and throws it across at me.

「Uwaa!」

In a panic, I catch it, safe!
……what were her intentions, I wonder.
With her strange attitude, the nature of her unknown “pause”  for some reason is eerie.

While I have a tinge of anxiety, for now I start up my smartphone.
There for some reason, the MINE app that should have been closed greeted me.
Huh?, I thought, and in the next moment—I see on the displayed screen, and just now, the understanding of to what extent of a dilemma I am finding myself in solidifies.

「Shizuku, what did you do?」

In this situation, only one person, Mayo-san who does not understand the grave state of affairs, asks that in a sluggish tone.
Towards that, Shizuku-san, with a 「Nahahahaha」, laughs in a good mood while saying,

「No, I didn’t do anything considerable, it’s only something small, so I only sent the Sato-san he’s deeply-in-love with a message saying ‘I like you’……」

—at that instant, a certain pashiiiin! sound echoed through the room.
It wasn’t long before I realized Mayo-san’s surprisingly quick open hand fell down like lightning on the top of Shizuku-san’s head.

「Heh……?」

「—that! That’s against the rules, isn’t it?!」

The usually calm Mayo-san violently rebuked her.
Until recently, the smiling Shizuku-san who looked like she was having fun, trembled with a start, tears starting to form in her eyes—this is out of the question!

“I like Sato-san.”

The short message had already been sent.
And then across from the message, the “already read” symbol.
In an instant, my face becomes pure white.

This is dangerous, dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous!

I, nearly losing myself, rush out of Shizuku-san’s room, run down the staircase while tapping the call button, holding the smartphone to my ear. [T/N: The raw says “incoming call” button, but I assume that he meant “call button”. I double checked as I also use LINE, and there’s no “incoming call” button if you’re making the call.]
Sato-san answered the phone immediately after I left “MOON”—

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Wew I was on fire for this one. It only took me 2 days to do this one!

Not a ton to say for this one, other than bahaha, Shizuku is great. Next chapter is very, very interesting, to say the least, and is the finale for Volume 2. We’ve come a long way, huh?

As for administrative stuff, some of you guys may have noticed a Ko-Fi link going up. Originally, it was because the domain renewal is coming around soon, so that’s why. However, a second (unfortunate) reason is that the author deleted the story off of ncode, which is where the raws were. This means it’s now necessary after next chapter, which is already translated, having access to the raw PDFs, which I’ll have to purchase or, if it’s a physical book, have to scan. Fortunately I did save the link on where to go get it, but it’s a slight OOF there. (More details below though)

Of course, do not feel obligated to give anything, I’m 100% capable of maintaining the domain and WordPress site myself (for the foreseeable future). It’ll be nice if anyone helps offset the cost of the books, though. They’re really only like 7 dollars (~700 yen-range), but still kind of in that “slightly annoying expense but I can still cover it” range, haha. The novel only seems to be one volume though, which like, is good for the long term, as I don’t have to keep buying them.

I did have some reservations about translating the official novel, as well, because like, these raws are just hosted on a public website anyone can read from. I don’t know how I feel too much about translating the actually-published-actually-a-real-book-on-the-shelves, and what the ethics/my own personal feelings are around that are. I probably should’ve saved a copy of the raws beforehand, so that’s my mistake there. For some people, I think it makes no difference, because ultimately yeah, I’m working with someone else’s work here, but in my head/heart there’s some weird different itch; it’s like translating some off the cuff fanfiction you find somewhere vs. translating a published book in a library somewhere, especially now that I did open up a Ko-Fi to help keep the site running. I guess it’s one thing to do it on my own dime, another to at least get some help in running it, which is exceedingly amusing and hilariously bad timing.

We still have the next chapter translated, so expect that in the usual time-frame, but I’ll have to see what the options are going forward. If I can copy text from the PDF, that’ll be good, but if it’s just scans of pages I’m going to have an aneurysm scanning that. I’ll have to spend some time this upcoming week figuring that out. I’ll let everyone know where we stand during the next chapter, though. As of right now though, I’m leaning towards continuing to translate it, but I am going to shill that everyone purchase a copy of the story from the official source here, and I will shill it harder than your favorite YouTuber shills NordVPN.  However, I believe it is also just the right thing to do that, should I ever discover that there is an official localization, that I will likely take down these translations and instead simply link to the official one.

As always, see you guys next time!

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