ShinSekai Yori:Part 4 Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am engulfed in noise. The slow grating of chairs being pulled back. The rhythmic beat of footsteps on wooden floors. The vibrations of students running and hopping about. The 'shuuu shuuu' of steam rising from the kettle atop the stove in the middle of the room.

Voices speaking with curious intonations. The din of laughter. Conversations that sounded muffled as though I were listening from underwater. A low muttering the source of which I could not determine.

The words of each individual should have contained the meaning they wished to convey to the recipient. But, when the voices of so many people are combined, they all get mixed up. It comes to be no more than meaningless noise, filling the air like the buzzing of bees.

If the thoughts of everyone present here were by some chance given voices I could hear, the result might be much the same. While the thoughts of each individual may have distinct meanings, this directionality is lost when all of them are combined, turning it into nothing more than annoying chaotic noise. All of it, just like the leakage of Jyuryoku.

I was bewildered by these words that came to mind without any apparent logical connection. Leakage...... What exactly was that about.

""Saki. Why are you spacing out?""

Thick letters were floating above the notebook. The square within the "What"(何) changed into "Eye"(目) as it appears in "Manga"(漫画), and winked at me as the (の) character grinned. I looked back and saw Maria watching me with a slightly worried look in her eyes.

"I was just thinking about something."

"I could guess that much. Was it about Ryo?"

"Ryo?"

I, raised my eyebrows. I would not have expected it but, Maria seemed to have gotten the wrong idea.

"You don't have to hide it. Your worried about whether he'll choose you or not right? It's okay. Because Ryo, is most certainly crazy about Saki"

Inaba Ryo. Childhood friend, energetic and vigorous boy. Always central among us, he possessed a certain Leadership that pulled others along. But...... unexpectedly, I was hit by a feeling that something was out of place. I wonder what it is about him.

"Isn't Ryo in group two. Why would he be choosing me?"

"What are you talking about now?"

Maria burst out with laughter.

"Wasn't that just at the very beginning? Hasn't he been a part of everything we've done together since entering group one?"

That's right. Ryo had become a part of our group along the way. The reason being that while group two had six members, our group one had Only Had Four Members From The Beginning. But, why was the number of people in our group small to begin with?......

"Saki. What's up? Your acting a little strange"

Maria placed her hand on my forehead as if to check whether I had a fever. While doing this, she took advantage of my lack of attention, silently leaning over to kiss me without warning.

"That's enough already"

I averted my eyes in confusion. No one seemed to have been looking in our direction but, I still felt strangely embarrassed.

"Look, you're cheering up already"

Maria said absentmindedly.

"It's not like I particularly wanted you to do that kind of thing."

"But there is someone in particular you do want to do that with now isn't there?"

"I wasn't thinking anything of the sort!"

"You two always get along so well"

The boy who had shown up behind Maria, was Ryo himself. I felt my face unintentionally becoming red. As I wondered if Maria would misunderstand or not, more and more blood went to my head.

"We love each other very much. You jealous?"

Maria said as she drew herself closer to my chest while I was sitting.

"Speaking honestly, a little bit."

"Of whom?"

"Both of you I suppose"

"You lie"

Simply put, Ryo was tall, cheerful, and loved by everyone, an existence one could not help but acknowledge.

On the other hand however, he was not the type to consider things deeply. I don't by any means mean that he was stupid but, the way he only responded superficially regardless of the topic at hand left something to be desired. In regard to Jyuryoku, It was not as if he were particularly outstanding.....

Again, I was getting that feeling that something was out of place. Who exactly was it that I was comparing Ryo to?

"Saki. Afternoon lessons begin before, can we talk for a bit?"

Ryo was calling me out.

"hmmmm. I'm sure you'll be quite happy once the interlopers are out of the way."

While floating through the air, Maria turned about as though doing a pirouette in the air, her red hair casually fluttering as she did so.

"Mamoru has always had eyes only for you."

Ryo said to Maria's retreating figure.

"But he seems to have been feeling uneasy ever since he learned how overwhelmingly you took first place in that popularity contest."

"Giggling' I suppose being too popular can be problematic too."

While Maria floated about like some whimsical dragonfly, Ryo turned back towards me.

"It's noisy in here, shall we head outside?"

"I don't mind"

I had no reason to decline. Ryo stood up first and I followed behind him as we exited the classroom. But, when it looked as though he would turn left at the end of the corridor, I felt shocked.

"Wait. I don't want to go that way."

"Why?"

Ryo turned back, a curious look on his face.

"That is...... What is it that you want to do over there?"

I myself did not fully understand why I didn't want to go that direction.

"No one ever comes this way, so I figured it would be a quiet place to talk. See, it's because the entrance to the courtyard is just ahead of us."

That was it. The Courtyard...... I felt very that it would be very bad to approach the courtyard. Why did I loathe the courtyard to such an extent. I did not even understand it myself.

"Before that, why not go outside? The weather is nice so it should feel good."

"Hmm? Okay."

We turned right at the end of the corridor, leaving the campus. The weather was certainly nice but, the Winter sunlight was weak, and the air quite chilly. Ryo too shivered and rubbed his arms. He must certainly think me to be the kind of woman prone to whim or unaffected by cold now.

"About the Duty Teams, I figured I would choose you Saki."

Ryo got straight to the point.

"Thanks"

Not knowing what kind of reaction would be best, I took the safe route with an expression of gratitude.

"Is that all?"

Ryo seemed like he was somewhat disappointed.

"What do you mean 'Is that all'?"

"How do you feel about it Saki? I just wanted to hear if you were planning to choose me as well is all."

Ryo persistently pressed the frontal attack.

"I……"

This winter, all of the students of every grade were divided into two member Duty Groups. Usually pairs consisted of a boy and a girl, but if the total number of students was odd or one gender more numerous than the other in a class, the occasional 3-person group or same-sex pairing was also a possible occurrence.

Officially, the only role of the Duty Groups was to preform the daily preparatory work for various activities but, in any case, groups continued to be established one by one as boy-girl pairs agreed to nominate one another. As far as the students were concerned, this was nothing but an official event for the purpose of love confessions.

It seems to have been an unmistakable fact that, at that time, even our romantic relations were controlled by the school. I feel that this is the reason why the word "当番"(Touban) even came to be used. The normal definition of 'to bear work in turn' exists but, if one looks the characters up in a Kanji Dictionary, the meaning 'Pair/Couple' can also be found for the character '番'(ban). Considering the degree of simple obsession the Ethics Committee and Board of Education have where Kanji are concerned, this might not necessarily be all that far fetched.

"I'm sorry. I still haven't decided."

With Ryo being so straightforward, I also answered frankly.

"You haven't decided? Is there someone else you have in mind?"

Ryo said in a worried sounding voice.

"No. No one in particular, but....."

Without knowing why, Satoru's face came to mind, but I quickly rejected the thought. A friend close to my heart though he might be, I could not think of him as a romantic partner.

"Why do you want to choose me Ryo?"

"Isn't that kind of thing obvious?"

Ryo, said with ample confidence.

"It's because I thought that up 'till now, I've always been looking at no one else but you Saki.

"Always? At what point did you begin to feel that way?"

"At what point you ask? That isn't the kind of thing that one decides on at some distinct point in time is it? But, If I must say something.....hmm."

Ryo's facial expression quickly changed to uncertainty.

"I'm not really certain but, I think it might be the time that we went to Summer Camp together."

Within my mind, the sight of the whole sky filled with stars was revived.

"What part of our time at summer camp do you still remember most clearly?"

"That would be.... all of it. Rowing the canoe together. Ah, wasn't there a time when you became so fascinated with the scenery that you almost fell into the river? I reached out and caught hold of your hand just in time to stop it. It was truly chilly back then too."

I frowned. Did something like that really happen? Moreover, we were involved in a life-threatening adventure during summer camp but, spent most of that time separated from one another. Speaking of shared memories, wouldn't it be normal for us both to remember that first evening, or else the time when we were reunited?

"What about Night Canoeing?"

"Night Canoeing?"

Somehow, nothing seemed to come to him immediately.

"That's right. That was fun."

That was fun...... I did not want to hear the precious memories we created that night summed up with so simple a single word.

As we were returning to the classroom, we happened to pass Satoru. I saw mixed feelings in Satoru's eyes as he looked in this direction. The thing his eyes were fixed on however was not me. Although this was not particularly strange. The reason being that, though it was only for a short time, Satoru once had a romantic relationship with Ryo.

However, what showed in Satoru's eyes at the time I saw them, surprised me greatly.* They was no emotional entanglement of jealousy and love. But what seemed to be the very image of pure incomprehension. His eyes had the look of a person who truly cannot comprehend the being before him.

......

Translation Notes

First few pages done. I'll add more as individual scenes/dialogues are completed. -Dusanh

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