Editing User:Idiffer/Sandbox3

If you had to choose between a silent place and a lively place, which would you prefer?

Если бы вам пришлось выбирать между тихим и оживленным местами, какое бы вы предпочли?

A silent place when you want to read a book or study?

Тихое место, когда хотите почитать книгу или позаниматься?

A lively place when you want to hang out with friends or eat something?

Оживленное место, когда хотите потусить с друзьями или что-нибудь съесть?

Depending on your purpose, your preference might change.

В зависимости от целей ваши предпочтения могут меняться.

But even if it suits your purpose, a place that is ''too'' silent will make you uneasy and a place that is ''too'' lively will annoy you.

Но даже если место подходит для вашей цели, от слишком тихого места вам станет не по себе, а слишком оживленное начнет раздражать.

Be it silence or liveliness, it's all a matter of degree.

Будь то тишина или оживленность - все зависит от степени.

That said, of the two, I happen to prefer silence a bit more - most likely because I am used to quiet places.

Но так получилось, что тишину я предпочитаю несколько больше - скорее всего потому что привык к тихим местам.

What I am getting at is:

Вот к чему я клоню:

The Tsukumodo Antique Shop is as dead silent as ever.

Антикварный магазин Цукумодо как всегда мертвецки тих.

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One might compare it to the soft slumber of being in the womb.<!-- I tried a couple of other pp verbs in place of 'encased' which is sort of creepy in context, decided it just had to go -ss -->

Можно сравнить это с мягким сном будучи в утробе.

While I was giving myself over to a silence that bundled me up in a blanket of cozy warmth, a bubble slowly rose beside me.

В то время, как я предавался тишине, укутывавшей меня одеялом уютной теплоты, рядом со мной медленно поднимался пузырь.

I touched it.

Я дотронулся до него.

It burst into a "Re".

Он лопнул со звуком ре.

Another bubble came floating upwards.

Еще один пузырь поплыл вверх.

I touched it.

Я дотронулся до него.

It burst into a "Fa" this time.

Этот лопнул со звуком фа.

One after another, the bubbles rose around me.

Один за другим вокруг меня начали подниматься пузыри.

One, two, three—no, more. A hundred, two hundred, three hundred, more. More, more.

Один, два, три - нет, больше. Сто, двести, триста, больше. Больше, больше.

At last, the notes started to burst from the bubbles without my touch; they burst into notes of music. And these countless notes eventually grew into a melody.

Наконец ноты начали вырываться из пузырей без моего прикосновения; они лопались в музыкальные ноты. И эти бесчисленные ноты со временем слились в мелодию.

This was the womb of a mother of music.<!-- mother of sound is weird, mother of notes is weirder and vague. I'm going to change it to 'mother of music.' We'll see how that works -ss --><!--fwiw, mother of music seems best -grrarr-->

And I was one of the few permitted to step into this realm.

My duty was to gather those notes as they were born and bring them to the world outside.

Here, nothing existed but me and the notes.

There were no other humans, nor any other noises.

It was just me and the newborn notes.

"———"

There was an intrusion from outside.

It felt like being inside a water balloon as it is popped by a needle.

In the resultant destruction everything was scattered.

The slumber I had indulged in and the silence—everything—crumbled away.

The newborn sounds streamed away. They seeped away through my fingers.

I was forced back to consciousness.

I was in the same room as always.

The sheets of music on the table before me were filled with notes.

When I was in the world of sounds, my hand would automatically write down the notes of the sounds I gathered.

That was how I composed. A method that only I could employ, requiring no instruments of any kind.

But the music on the score stopped halfway. The notes were distorted and broken—because of the noise that had intruded. Because of the disruption, the notes I had gathered had died aborning.

The room I was in was soundproofed from the ceiling to the floor. Not, however, to keep sounds from escaping. I lived in a deserted ghost town. There were no inhabited houses near mine.

The purpose of my soundproofing was to keep any sound from getting in.

It was all for the sake of composing without interruption.

However, the insulation could only dampen sound, not erase it completely.

Just as in this case, outside noise could break into this room—the womb of music—and cause pollution.

As soon as that pollution scattered my visualization, it was all over. The notes around me would fly away and leave the composition dead.

''I had been so close...''

Seized by anger, I threw open the door and headed upstairs to the living room on the ground floor.

Upon my arrival, I found my helper, Mei, asleep leaned over the table.<!--ss, was there a typo in this correction? -grrarr--> On the floor was a tea cup. I didn't know whether the sound I had heard just now was the banging of her head against the table or her knocking the tea cup to the floor, but the thought that such a trivial thing had just killed my sounds was just unbearable.

Normally, such soft noises wouldn't be heard in that soundproofed room, but my ears are so sensitive that they pick up even such tiny sounds. And that's why I would always caution Mei to avoid making any noise.

"Hey!" I roared.

Mei's eyes flicked open.

As she recognized me with her frowsy eyes, she quickly sat up and asked,

"Have you already completed your work?"

"You ruined it."

Mei noticed the tea cup she had accidentally dropped on the floor and its spilled contents. She paled.

Probably realizing what she had done, she hung her head in shame.

"I'm in a bad mood. I'm going out for a while."

Leaving her to her own devices, I left the house.

My name is Eiji Kadokura. I'm 32 years old. I compose music. I have composed a considerable number of pieces so far and pride myself on being fairly popular and well-known.

My usual genre is soothing music<!--Should this be changed to "easy listening?" I mean, easy listening is an actual genre, but also has negative connotations - so I can't see someone who works in that field referring to his own work that way. Well, maybe if that person were humble/self-deprecatory/self-aware...but this composer seems totally full of himself... -grrarr--><!-- other terms I've heard for 'soothing music' and, of course, 'new age.' Maybe 'new age?' It's still elevator music, but it's very full of itself. -ss --><!--Good call - I think 'new age' works well here-grr-->for which I commonly accept assignments. But my most famous composition is most likely a classical piece I had written for a certain renowned violinist, which became a million-seller in spite of its genre, thanks to the recent classical music boom.

Today, I had also been working on a music piece for an assignment that was due in a week. Well, I had been until I was disturbed by my helper.

Once a piece of music has been dispersed, it is forever lost to me.

While traces of it remain in my head, it feels like a cheap copy if I finish the song with those remnants.

It resembles the feeling when the toy bricks you piled up in play start to shake, and even though you manage to regain balance, your tower eventually falls apart after a few more bricks are added.

Or maybe it's also similar to sewing a garment: your thread runs out and you have to tie in a different one—a knot remains and makes the garment look shabby.

Either way, a ruined piece of music can't be mended.

I couldn't stand a patched-together song.

I had to start all over again.

Even though there was not much time left before the deadline.

I got in my car and drove to a café I frequented.

Located in a calm basement, it was usually a much-appreciated haven of tranquility for me. But on that day of all days, I found the café unable to soothe me.

A group of ten-odd tourists or the like had gathered there. Their mere presence was enough to bother me, but on top of that, they seemed to treat the venue like a bar and made hellish amounts of noise.

Upon noticing me, the keeper of the café bowed his head apologetically.

I took it as an apology and an invitation to leave for today.

Suppressing the urge to give the rude customers a good dressing-down, I nodded to the keeper and left.

Because I was now even more irritated, the street noise I could usually tolerate annoyed me horribly.

Be it the engine noise of the cars and their piercing horns, the loud voices of strolling students and their vulgar laughs, the yells of salesmen who unsuccessfully tried to attract customers, or cheap music.<!-- we've got a list here of things that annoy him, but it leads with 'be it' which is singular. Therefore, the list is not a collective, but a list of individual things that annoy, so we need or, not and in the last place. Likewise, your comma after salesmen falls into a grey area. I suggest leaving it out just to avoid a forest of punctuation. Neither meaning nor rhythm are impaired by its absence. Likewise, we switch the semicolons, which splice related clauses into a sentence, with commas, which order a list of similar nouns -ss -->

They all annoyed me.

Why was there ''so much'' noise and racket in the world?

As I wasn't at work, I wasn't asking for perfect silence, but living amidst so much noise and racket was unendurable. I couldn't understand how other people tolerated it.

While fighting the urge to roar at the noisemakers to shut up, I backed away into a narrow side street.

After I got some distance from the main street, the noise grew somewhat more bearable. While it hadn't faded out entirely, I could endure it from afar. I decided to walk among these back streets for the time being.

"Now if only there were another café somewhere, I'd be satisfied for the time being..."

The very moment I thought so, I spotted a small, quaint, antiquated shop before my eyes.

It was hard to tell from its exterior what kind of shop it was. Willing to linger if it turned out to be a café, I pushed open the door.

The pleasant sound of a bell announced the arrival of a customer.

Much to my regret, however, the shop was not a café. Various things were lined up on the shelves in a disorderly fashion. There were jars and plates and other ceramic ware, and dolls of Japanese and Western origin and one lone tinplate robot. There was even a camera. I assumed it was some kind of antique or second-hand shop.

Curious, I took a look around.

"Welcome," someone said to me.

Behind the counter sat a charming woman clad in black. She looked a little younger than I did, but her languorous air gave her a somewhat mature and mysterious aura.<!-- for my edification in order to get her 'voice' right - this is Saki, isn't it? -s_s -->

"Are you looking for something specific?"

What I was looking for was someplace silent. The shop fit the bill perfectly, but saying so would have been admitting up front that I didn't intend to buy anything.

"I was just wondering if I might find something curious."

I made up an answer and looked at the shelves as though I were very interested.

"But there is something you seek, is there not?" she said, as though she had read my heart. "Tell me. Perhaps you might obtain the object of your desire?"

"As I said, something curious..."

"You don't want 'something'. You want 'a thing'."<!-- I really want to change this to "You don't want 'something'. You want 'some thing'." EEE, is this closer or further away from the source text? -s_s -->

"Huh?"

"If you want 'something', you will walk away empty-handed. It must be a specific thing that you want."

Perhaps she was teasing me with word play, or perhaps she had seen through my intention of not buying anything and wanted to chase me out. I was already feeling fairly irritable, so even this slight provocation managed to annoy me.

"If you really have what I want, I'd be more than willing to buy it."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Complete silence."

She gave me a slightly troubled glance. I was ashamed of acting so childish. I should have named some article she was likely to have or just left.

"Sorry - I'm afraid that's not available here."

"Certainly. I'm sorry, t..."

"It is in our 'sister shop'!"

I doubted my ears—but was angry an instant later.

''She'' was playing with ''me''? "Not here"? Don't make me laugh.<!-- I realise there wouldn't be a ? in the original, but it's a good EN usage with the ital and ? but not without. -ss -->

"It can be mine if I go to that sister shop? Then please, by all means, tell me where it is. ''If'' I can really find complete silence there, that is."

"A Relic that can create a room of complete silence by warding off all sound...That is...the Mirror of Serenity."

"Relic? The Mirror of Serenity?"

"Note that by 'Relic' I don't mean antiques or art objects <!-- if she says 'objets d'art' then we'll just insert that here -->. 'Relic' is the word we use for tools with special capabilities created by mighty ancients or magicians, or for objects that have absorbed their owner's grudge or natural spiritual powers."

"A relic is something like a stone that brings ill luck, or a cursed voodoo doll or a triple mirror that shows how you are going to die. You've probably heard of many of them, and the Mirror of Serenity is one. But we don't currently have it here!"

I had no idea what she was talking about. While I had indeed heard of a superstition claiming that objects may gain a soul after a long time<!-- insert footnote on Shinto animism and 8 million kamis -ss --><!-- Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukumogami the origin of the book title is exactly that. -EEE --><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukumogami</ref>, hearing about it just then rubbed me the wrong way.

"Don't make a fool of me. Sure, I admit that I didn't enter this shop because I expected to buy something. But you have no right to mock me because of that. 'Relic', you say? 'Mirror of Serenity'? Stop ridiculing me by making up such mysterious names!"

"You don't believe me?"

"Of course I don't. Complete silence does not exist. I have perfect soundproofing in my house, but I can still hear sounds from the outside."

"Because it's soundproofing. The Mirror of Serenity works differently. It wards off sound."

"Don't get so carried away..."

"This place is similar!"

It was then that I finally noticed.

There was not a sound in this shop.

Indeed, the woman and I were having a conversation, so there was sound. However, there was no noise from outside. I could not hear the distant noise that had tormented me until I'd entered the shop, not the slightest bit.

I perked up my ears and listened carefully for outside noise.

But I didn't hear a thing.

No matter what kind of soundproofing this shop had, there was no way it could block out every sound from my ears.

As long as we didn't speak, it was the complete silence I had been longing for.

"...but what does this mean?"

"It means that this place is special as well. But it doesn't create complete silence— noise from outside doesn't come here merely because of ''a side effect''. However, the Mirror of Serenity will create complete silence for you."

"You said it can be had in your sister shop, right?"

My heart was pounding in my chest, and at that moment, I felt that the loudest sound in the world was the beating of my own heart.

"If I go there, will I get my hands on the Mirror of Serenity?"

"I can't say for certain. You must ask the shop's owner. But I'm sure you will be able to obtain it if you wish. Relics naturally find their way to appropriate owners."

I left after receiving a note with the address and store hours of the sister shop.

"———"

At that instant, noise returned.

All the sounds that had previously vanished returned as soon as I left the shop.

It was as if I had been dreaming.

Suddenly, my cell phone rang. It was a call from my assistant, Mei. She told me that a client who had requested a composition had stopped by the house.

We had scheduled a meeting for today, but it had completely slipped my mind.

I replied that I'd be back within the hour and headed to the parking lot.

Before hanging up, she said something I found unsettling.

She asked me to keep my cell phone turned on.

Apparently, she had tried several times to reach me without success. However, my phone had never been turned off. That shop hadn't been underground, either, so I should have been within communication range.

A cold shiver ran down my spine and I thought about looking back at the shop, but my body wouldn't let me. I quickly left the area.

When I got home, Mei asked me where I had been.

I found myself unable to answer. I did remember the shop, but for some reason I couldn't remember where it was and what kind of person the shop assistant had been.

Only the paper with the address and store hours in my hands assured me that it had not been a dream.

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Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

"Shut up already!!" the shopowner roared.

Towako Setsusu's roar resounded through the building, but was drowned out by an even greater noise from outside, causing her roar <!-- does author use the same verb twice? I would change it to 'utterance' or something similar the second time. -ss --><!-- In the original it's a sentence construction that can't be adopted 1:1, so feel free to change it. -EEE -->to lose most of its impact.

Usually, her appearance was characterized by clear-cut eyebrows, self-confident eyes, and lustrous black hair that hung straight down to her waist. Today, however, her brows were wrinkled, her eyes were narrowed in a displeased fashion and her hair was a mess because she had been constantly mussing it up.

[[Image:Tsukumodo_V2_17.jpg|400px|right]]

"Yelling at them won't get you anywhere!" I—Tokiya Kurusu—replied while leaning on the counter.

Towako-san made a theatrical gesture of putting her hand behind her ear and asked, "What did you say?"

I brought my face close to her ears and shouted, "Yelling at them won't get you anywhere!"

"Can it! Don't shout like that!"<!-- I'm not sure what we want to replace the 'urusai' but here's one attempt. -ss -->

"You can't hear me otherwise, can you!?"

"Be quiet, both of you - I can't concentrate on my book," my co-worker Saki Maino complained indifferently.

Her pale hair reached the middle of her back and shone silver in the light, and her complexion was clear and pale. She was clad entirely in black: a frilly black shirt, long black skirt and black boots.

She was about a head shorter than I (an average male student), and so slender that she seemed she could be broken by a single embrace. She was sixteen and thus a year younger than I. She did look her age, but because of her demeanor, she seemed a little more mature. A smile as radiant as a blooming flower (as suggested by the meaning of her name) utterly failed to adorn her face; instead, she was completely expressionless as if to refute the saying "nomen est omen."<ref>Literally "Name is omen." Implies that a name is fitting for an object or person. Saki's name is written as 舞野咲, which can be translated as "Blossom of the dancing field." Also see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism Nominative determinism]</ref>

That said, even Saki appeared a bit annoyed today.

''But Saki, don't take it out on us!''

The noise from a construction site nearby was to blame for her irritation, as that cacophony <!-- 'ruckus' has a certain spurs and cut plug quality about it that just doesn't work with a Japanese high schooler. -ss --><!--agreed; I'll blame it on the subliminal influence of the reference to "gusts of wind and tumbleweeds" two paragraphs down :) -grrarr-->had plagued our ears for some time.

We had been informed beforehand that the construction work would start today and last for a week, but we hadn't expected the repairs to be so deafening.

It was quite the opposite of the silence that had been present up until yesterday, when we might as well have been surrounded with gusts of wind and tumbleweeds.

This shop, the Tsukumodo Antique Shop (FAKE), handled, as the name suggests, ''fake'' Relics.

Not antiques or objects of art, but tools with special abilities created by mighty ancients or magicians, or objects that have absorbed their owner's grudge or natural spiritual powers.

In tales and legends, there are often artifacts that possess special powers.

For example, a stone that brings good luck, a doll whose hair grows night after night, a mirror that shows your future appearance, a sword that brings ruin to anyone who draws it.

Everybody has most likely heard of such things.

But people consider them mere fantasies because they have never seen one; even if an artifact were right before them, it remains unnoticed; even if a mysterious event were to occur, it is dismissed as coincidence.

Some people are unconcerned, while others are certain that such things do not exist.

However, Relics are real, and more common than people think.

I'd recently dealt with a number of Relics: a pendulum that called forth coincidences, a statue that stimulated one's life force, a notebook that made one remember everything written in it, and a wallet that made me lose all my earnings unless they were spent on the day received.

However, such Relics were not for sale in the shop. As I mentioned earlier, we only sold fakes. The articles on the shelves were fakes that the shop owner had purchased under the incorrect impression that they were real.

Of course, the customers who visit us have no idea what Relics are. And so they feel that the uncommon pendants, uncanny dolls, unmoving clocks and the uninteresting stones we offer are a waste of time, then leave while regretting the mistake of dropping by in the first place.

Well, ''if'' they come in in the first place. Days when we don't have a single customer are hardly uncommon.

"Wouldn't you rather just close the shop for a week?" I suggested.

"But that would put a stop to our sales."

"We wouldn't get any customers anyway."

"What?"

"We wouldn't get any customers anyway!"

"Yeah, no one would care anyway!"

"You don't deny it!?"

"Now won't you keep quiet already? I can't concentrate on my book."

''Now don't you get that it's not our fault? And didn't we go through this already?''

Apparently, even Saki was annoyed because of the noise, though her annoyance barely showed on her face.

"Man, now my head's starting to hurt. Hell, can't we do something about it for crying out loud? Towako-san, isn't there a Relic that can switch off that noise?"

"Come on, don't ask for the... possible?"

"Possible?"

Towako-san walked out of the room with a reflective look on her face, and Saki put aside her book and came up to me.

"That's it!"

With those words, Towako-san returned from the storeroom with a mirror in her hands. The looking glass was covered with a purple cloth. The wooden frame surrounding it shined like lacquer and rested on a stand.

"That's a Relic that wipes out noise?"

"Well, have a look."

She pulled away the cloth.

Suddenly, the noise vanished.

The heavy noise from the building site vanished.

It hadn't ''become unhearable''; rather, it had ''vanished''. In addition, all the other sounds around me — the people and traffic outside, the television in the living room, and so on —had also vanished.

"<span style="color: white">What's going on?</span>"

I ''tried'' to ask, ''What's going on?'' but my voice could not be heard.

I tried once more to give voice to my confusion, only to fail again. Not only was Towako-san unable to hear me, I couldn't even hear myself speaking. No, that's not exactly right. It's closer to say that there was no voice to be heard in the first place.

Towako-san realized this as well and yelled something at me, which—of course—I couldn't hear.

Instead, I tried to express myself with mouth movements.

By provocatively putting her hand behind her ear, Towako-san indicated that she couldn't hear anything.

This time I tried to tell her to cover the mirror again, but because of the sudden change in my mouth movements,<!--liberal edit-grrarr--> she got confused and wrinkled her brow.

I pointed repeatedly at the mirror and formed the words, "cover it!" with my lips.

With a—possibly—loud angry voice, she put the cloth on the mirror.

Instantly, the lost sounds returned.

The noise from the building site, the traffic noise from further away, the approaching steps of Towako-san, and...

"For the love of God, why don't you get it? I can't hear you!"

...the sound of a fist.

In truth, I wanted to defend myself-to tell her that I couldn't hear her either-but the pain whirling around my head kept me from saying anything for a few moments.

"...That thing really shuts out all sound, huh?"

"That's what I've been telling you. Any sound vanishes from the region it reflects. The sounds from outside are completely deflected, and no sound can be produced within the area of reflection. In short, it creates a zone of complete silence."

"But you can't do anything in such a place!"

I hadn't thought that it would be so hard to make oneself understood without a voice.

"Just communicate via pen and paper."

"Huh... But somehow it was ''so'' silent that it bothered me more than when it was noisy."

The noise of the building site had now settled down to a level where it became possible to talk normally, which made the unnatural silence of a few moments ago seem much worse.

"Besides, we can't attend to our customers like that!"<!-- Tokiya -->

"We wouldn't get any customers anyway, right?"<!-- Towako -->

"You two..."<!-- Saki --><!-- is there any implication as to who is arguing with Tokiya and who is saying 'you two'? --><!-- -->

"Are you still holding that against me?"<!-- Tokiya -->

"Why, no? I'm used to it."<!-- Towako -->

"You two..."<!-- Saki -->

"Well, I do think that there won't be any."<!-- Tokiya -->

"Can't you show at least ''some'' consideration?"<!-- Towako -->

"You two..."<!-- Saki -->

"Didn't you admit it yourself?"<!-- Tokiya -->

"But ''you'' mustn't. Even if I do admit it myself."<!-- Towako --><!-- OK, now that we know who says what, now I must ask: is there any cue in the Japanese about who saying what? You know, keigo, pronouns, word choices? My point: do we need to add anything to this to make it flow more like the original, or is this really supposed to read like the 'who's on first' routine? -ss --><!-- There are a few pointers apart from the context: Tokiya uses keigo for Towako, Towako uses none for Tokiya and talks rather bluntly, and Saki is trying to make her presence felt here by using a feminine "ねぇ" -EEE -->

Suddenly, our heads were grabbed from behind and forcibly <!--just noting that this changes the meaning slightly when replacing "forcefully" -grrarr--><!-- yes, but 'forcefully' is pretty rare in EN - we express the use of force other ways. Forcibly, however, says that she used force to turn their heads toward the door, which in fact she did. -ss --><!--I actually changed it from forcefully to forcibly for that reason; was just noting the slight modification to meaning. Back when I changed it, I didn't have a good sense of EEE/your/etc level(s) of touchiness re: edits and was erring on the (excessively) conservative side by adding a note; better calibrated now...I think :) tl;dr: agreed -grrarr-->turned toward the entrance.

"We have customers."

In the direction she indicated stood a man and woman.

"It's still 'no'."

"Can't we come to an arrangement?"

"No."

"You can have as much as you want."

"I'll refuse any offer."

The man and Towako-san had been going back and forth in this manner for some time. The customer was in his thirties, wore an expensive suit, and might have witnessed what had just happened with the mirror. He seemed to have a strong interest in it. At first he had stood stone-still in the entrance, but once he had gotten over his surprise, he started pressing Towako-san to sell him the mirror.

Towako-san repeatedly refused. Her will seemed firm, as she had just told him it wasn't a matter of money.

In fact, Towako-san had never sold a Relic to anyone. We only sold fakes and not actual Relics. She preferred that others did not obtain Relics.

"Why does he want the mirror so badly, anyway?"

The man was obviously wealthy - he had offered a remarkable sum.

"That man..." Saki muttered as she went to the living room.

She returned with the book she had been reading in her hands.

"I thought so."

There was a photograph of the man in the book. The accompanying profile said that his name was Eiji Kadokura and that he was a composer.

''I see. It would make sense that he'd want a silent environment if he's a composer.''

"But why do you have a book like that anyway?"

"I think that commerce and composition have a lot in common."

"Indeed, they ''sound'' similar."

"I'm being serious!"

"So tell me what you actually meant."

"Providing the music someone desires and providing the goods someone desires is very similar, isn't it?"

Saki just doesn't tell jokes. She's always very serious about her work and spares neither trouble nor expense to improve her customer service.

Of course, it was forbidden to disagree with her and tell her that her book, ''Composing made easy!'', had nothing to do with customer service. I didn't agree with her statement about commerce and composition, either.

"Anyway, I'm not selling it to you. And I have no business with you," Towako-san said point-blank and took the mirror with her to the living area.

"Please wait!"

"I am afraid I must ask you to stop here."

The building that housed the shop also served as the home of Towako-san and her freeloading boarder Saki. Because the customer was about to follow them out of the shop into their private living space, I had to block his way.

"I have nothing to discuss with a part-timer."

I couldn't help taking offense at his attitude.

"We have nothing to discuss with you, either! Please leave if you don't intend to buy anything."

"That's what I'm here for."

"Please leave if you don't intend to buy an article that's actually for sale. Just because this is a shop, doesn't mean that we are obliged to sell things that aren't for sale."

Kadokura-san had just opened his mouth to continue complaining when the ringing of his cell phone resounded through the shop. He grudgingly took his phone out and flicked his tongue after reading the display.

"...a business related call. Looks like I have no choice."

"We don't hope that you will visit our store again!"<!-- Strange phrasing on purpose - EEE -->

"I will!"

"Please don't."

The bothersome customer squared his shoulders and left the store.

"He's gone for now," I shouted toward the living room where Towako-san was hiding.

She muttered "okay" with a displeased look.

"Why didn't you just sell it to him? For such a pretty penny..." I asked and was glared at.

At the risk of repeating myself: Towako-san is against giving out Relics. Partly because of her collecting passion, but mostly because she knew of many people whose lives had been ruined by Relics.

Should I be proud of the fact that having received a Relic from her, I seem to have earned her trust?

"Excuse me..." a woman said as Saki led her over.

It was Kadokura-san's companion.

"Please let me apologize for Kadokura's rudeness."

I wondered if she was his manager or something. She didn't look that much older than I, but her air was that of a genuine business woman.

"Please call this number should you change your mind."

She held out a business card with the name "Eiji Kadokura" and his contact information.

Towako-san, however, showed no sign of wanting to accept the card. Losing to her helpless gaze, I accepted the card instead, and was glared at even harder.

Apparently, Towako-san did not approve of my action. She should have told me so ''before'' I accepted.

"It's been a pleasure," Kadokura-san's companion said with a bow and left the shop.

"Now throw that card away."

"But that would be kinda..." I muttered as I began to turn and glanced in the direction in which Kadokura-san's companion had left.

It was then that a painful noise rang inside my head——

It was a place I had never seen before.

I saw a room.<!-- "In a room" to "I was in a room" The former is somewhat awkward, but the latter changes the meaning somewhat, so def revert it if needed. That is, there's a difference between feeling present in a room in one's vision, vs simply observing/seeing/being made aware of something via a vision, w/o necessarily emphasizing a sense of presence, physical or otherwise. -grrarr --><!-- the description in v1 of how 'vision' works is pretty specific. But his POV does seem to be in the scene rather than floating above it. Maybe 'I saw a room.' -ss -->

My field of vision encompassed a wall—and a shut door.

Scuffed with countless longish lines, the door gave off a bizarre impression.

My vision moved downward, bringing the lower part of the scene into focus.

A woman had collapsed on the floor.

She was wearing a frilly dress and curled up into a ball, and was completely still.<!--liberal edit on my part--grrarr--><!--original version was off, but not sure if curling was supposed to be active? Logically speaking, it seems more consistent for her to be “curled up” already, if she didn’t move a muscle. So for instance: “She wore a dress with frills and was all curled up, and was completely still” -Grrarr -->.

It was—

"What's wrong?"

Towako-san's voice brought me back. She looked quizzically at me.

"Did you have a vision?" Saki hit the nail on the head, having guessed from my appearance.

The scene I had witnessed after that painful noise was an image of the future, revealed to me by my Relic.

My right eye is artificial. It has been replaced by a Relic named "Vision" that I received from Towako-san.<!-- we run into a tricky problem with literary past tense here. Our narrator seems to be limited-omnicient: he has experienced the events in this story and is relating them, but does not appear to have knowledge or perspective beyond the immediate story. We have to presume that his possession of 'Vision' continues into the present, and therefore the sentences relating to his possession of it and its operation should be in present tense. This form and conceit is most common in detective stories like Dashiell Hammett.--><!-- Agreed. It's the same for German. -EEE -->

"Vision" sometimes shows me events from the immediate future.

When it happens, a pain runs through my head, much like static on a TV, followed by a cut-scene of the future.

However, "Vision" won't show me the entire future: I can't foresee the winning number of a lottery, or the winner of a sports match. I can't even predict the weather, nor can I choose to see a particular future event.

But there is one type of future that "Vision" shows me without fail: the potential moment of my death or that of someone I'm acquainted with.<!-- 1.From volume 1, the futures that he sees can be changed, so I added "potential" as a modifier 2."someone related to me" could be misinterpreted as "family members" -grrarr --><!-- good point. Tweaked 'related' to 'close.' Could also use 'acquaintance' -ss --><!-- This is a bit tricky -- there's no real definition of *whose* dead he can see (actually, there's more to it than it seems, but that matter won't come up before the last two volumes). He doesn't need to know a person well (as is the case this time) to see his/her death. -EEE -->

What I had just seen was the impending death of a certain person.

"That woman... is going to die."

<div style="text-align: center;">◆</div>

"Shit!"

I crumpled up a blank sheet of music and threw it at the wall, just to lean back powerlessly immediately afterwards. Unable to hold my weight, the chair I was sitting in fell over and left me staring at the ceiling.

It wasn't one of Mei's mistakes that had brought me back from my creative reverie <!-- ... or a phrase that's less over-the-top, but there needs to be an insertion of some phrase here -->today. I was simply having trouble concentrating.<!-- you know, this guy is a professional easy-listening music composer with a big ego. (think Kenny G/Michael Bolton) We also see that he's a bit of a blow-hard. High-flown phrases suit him well. Go with it. -ss --><!-- done. -grrarr-->

My concentration had been better in the morning, and it was a shame that it hadn't lasted. Because of... No, that doesn't matter. When I'm in the zone, I wouldn't lose my concentration over something so trivial.

I was in a slump. Despite the imminent deadline, I didn't even have an image. When was I last in such a terrible slump?

''...Right, the time when I had just left home.''

Back then I was living in a tumbledown apartment that was dozens of years old. Because I wanted to avoid noise of all forms, I had chosen a remote place far away from the city. I hadn't been as nervous back then, but under the stress generated by the anxiousness of living on my own and the change of environment, I had found myself completely unable to write a single piece of music.

''How did I manage to overcome the slump back then...?''

I didn't remember. The slump had been over before I knew it. Well, most likely, I hadn't even considered it a slump at the time.

<i>But that's right. This isn't a slump, either.

I'm just having some trouble concentrating.

If I manage to concentrate, I'll be able to compose again.</i>

I calmed myself down by closing my eyes and taking deep breaths.

''Imagine it. Imagine the world of sound...''

—Clank—

I heard the very soft sound of something falling to the ground upstairs.

My image vanished and my concentration disintegrated into thin air.

''Again...? Yet again...?''

"SHIT!"

''Why do I have to hear it? Why can't I just ignore that sound...''<!-- this is a little tricky. Grammatically you're right, but English carries redundant information in questions - we have both a questioning particle(like Japanese), and a punctuation to indicate a question. When you have both in a sentence, it is more querulous. If you leave off the question mark, you replace an angry question with a sad/tired/depressed one, which I like better here. -ss -->

A few moments later, a knocking at the door invaded the room with its sound and vibration. I paid it no heed, but the knocking didn't stop. Hadn't I told Mei not to knock more than five times...?

"Silence!"

I thrust open the door. With a short shriek, Mei fell on her bottom. However, I didn't feel any guilt.

"What is it?"

"Ah, yes. I have a work related call on the line for you."

"Tell them I'll call back later."

"But... it seems to be rather urgent..."

"I said later!"

I deliberately slammed the door shut. Even that sound resounded in my ears.

I was craving complete silence.

I was sure I could write music if I possessed it.

The "Mirror of Serenity" crossed my mind.

</div>

<div style="text-align: center;">◆</div>

"Welcome!"

While absorbed in admiring the almost palatial residence before our eyes, we were greeted by the woman who had accompanied the composer Eiji Kadokura.

Her name was Mei Oohashi and she took care of the composer. As proof—or perhaps not—she was dressed as a maid. The business-woman-ish aura she had given off in the shop was completely gone, and to be honest, she was even standing out a little now.<!-- Not quite sure what the intent of "she was standing out a little now" is - as currently phrased, it doesn't seem quite right -grrarr --><!-- I think he wants to say that the maid uniform makes her stand out - since business women are no rare sight. -EEE --><!-- ah, ok - let me ponder the phrasing a bit more open_item -grrarr -->

Using the directions that Mei-san had given us, Saki, Towako-san and I had travelled to the residence-cum-workplace of Eiji Kadokura.

His house was located in a suburb far away from the center of the city. The suburb was a district that had become a ghost town because its development had faltered. Even though there were lots of apartment buildings, there were no shops or people at the train station. As his residence was a fair distance from the station, we had to take one of the rare taxis to get there. It turned out to be quite a wearying journey. In all honesty, I wouldn't have expected a famous music composer to live in such a place.

I suspected he had deliberately chosen this location because he wanted to escape the noise of the city.

"This way, please." <!-- with or without comma both OK in informal usage. Comma, more formal, probably better here, because she's acting as a maid. -ss -->

Guided by Mei, we walked through a garden of dimensions that would have been unimaginable in the city, passed through a pointlessly large entrance and finally arrived at a living room, but only after traveling down a lengthy corridor. Mei told us to make ourselves comfortable on the sofas and disappeared into the kitchen to prepare some tea.

The moment she was gone, however, Kadokura-san appeared.

"Hello and welcome. I've been waiting for you!"

[[Image:Tsukumodo_V2_41.jpg|left|400px]]

He welcomed us with open arms, though, truth be told, we clearly were not the true target of his eagerness.<!-- alt, "weren't what he'd so eagerly been waiting for" – I realize that this sentence needs work. Less literally, something like: "we were clearly just means to an end?" open_item-grrarr -->

"Have you brought ''it'' with you?"

With a scowl on her face, Towako-san showed him the cloth-wrapped mirror in her bag.

A contented smile appeared on his face.

The reason we had come here was ''not'' to leave the Mirror of Serenity with him.

Rather, it was to prevent the future that "Vision" had shown me—in other words, Mei-san's death.

Saki had stopped me from going to Mei-san and directly instructing her to watch out because she was going to die. It was definitely a bad idea to thoughtlessly inform her. After all, we had no clue as to the circumstances of her death. Therefore, we decided that our best option would be to approach and watch over her.

So in order to get closer to Mei-san, we submitted the following proposal to Kadokura-san:

While we would not sell the mirror, we would be willing to lend it to him for a few days - but only if the mirror remained in our presence at all times.

Kadokura-san had agreed to these conditions. He probably thought that we wanted to a free stay at a famous composer's residence in return for lending the mirror to him.

However, we had no interest in any of that. We had to find and eliminate the cause of Mei-san's death before the lending period came to a close.

In truth, Towako-san was against this operation because our actions might themselves become the cause of Mei-san's death. It was, however, just as plausible that her death would occur because of our inaction. If so, we couldn't simply sit back and take a "wait and see" approach.

Fortunately, I had a holiday on Friday because it happened to be my school's anniversary, giving us a total of three days time. Because "Vision" is unable to see very far into the future, I was sure to find some hints to ward off Mei-san's demise.