Anohana:Part 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Beast of Summer
It was so hot at the end of summer it felt suffocating. My messy bangs had grown too long, hitting against my eyelids. I had gone two days without showering and the sweat and oil in my hair irritated me so much that I had to put it up with a rubber band.
Delving into your mind’s world and battling with the present seven grave sins and the unknown eighth… I had used one hundred and fifty-six hours on this nonsense that seems to come from a video game for second year students in junior high.
They had understandably deformed the female genitalia. ‘Lust’ opened and closed repeatedly with a ‘kupaa, kupaa’ sound. I killed every single one of them relentlessly, recklessly killing the summer of my first year in high school.
The cicada sang, "kupaa, kupaa." It was very hot.
What a lewd design. The thing ‘kupaaing’ on the monitor squirted weird liquid out of its centre. Trying to dismiss in my mind the fact that I hadn't taken a bath, I pounded every single of these disgusting, filthy beings with a machine gun.
"Jintan, are they Jynx[1]?"
"No.”
"But its lips are so fat. Isn't it like Jynx's ‘hatoko’?"
... 'Jintan.'
This honey-sweet voice clung even closer to my skin than my sweat and oil.
"Do you know what 'hatoko' means, Jintan? It's your grandpa's little sister's child's child, you know? So that in Menma’s case is Kii-kun!"
"..."
Most likely I had been too hungry.
To have a gap induced from boredom and hunger is unacceptable, for it will allow unnecessary feelings to squeeze itself into it against my will.
At these times, one has to be decisive and swiftly fill this gap.
"... Let me eat some Shio ramen[2] then."
"Wah. Shio ramen. Menma wants to eat it too!"
I went into the kitchen next to the living room and lit up the matchsticks inside. The connecting points on the gas stove seemed to have a poor contact. I ignited it by throwing some ashes into the place where the gasoline had flown, and a loud boom was heard.
I like Shio ramen. Having waited for the water to boil, I meticulously threw an egg inside so it won’t be stirred.
“Ah, I want the eggs stirred! I want egg flakes!”
Right. I wouldn’t stir it. When I eat it, I would lightly poke the lunar-shaped egg to let the half-boiled egg yolk ooze out, crowning the noodles. This way of eating seemed much more mature than eating egg flakes…
“Boo! The egg is getting boiled! Stir it, quick!”
“…”
I would never admit believing in unreal things, for example: UFO, UMA, MRR, or spirits.
“Si...”
I had to regulate my breathing patterns with my nose, because at some point that I was unaware of, my breathing had become strained.
If I had to deny it, I should have to neglect it from the very start. If I were to be a bit wary of it, only just a little bit, it would be the evidence that I had already accepted it as reality.
“Ah. Look! It’s expanding already! Quickly stir it… Stir—it—quick!”
Three minutes. Give me three minutes and this will be done.
Nevertheless, three minutes that seemed to fleet so fast when I play games seemed so long now.
Noodles. Please, I beg you to become cooked as quickly as possible—thus I started to pray impatiently. At this moment, the malfunctioning, tone-deaf doorbell speaker rang its out-of-tone ringtone
“Aren’t you going to open the door, Jintan?”
“…”
Translation Notes
- ↑ A pokémon
- ↑ Wikipedia: Ramen
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