Outbreak Company: Volume 10

by Ichiro Sakaki

  Thinking the Exact Same Thing

  In the Japanese, Shinichi says he and Myusel shared aun no kokyuu. Kokyuu means “breath.” Aun (or a-un) refers to the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. In many Japanese temples, a pair of imposing statues can be seen, one with its mouth open to represent the sound a, the other with its mouth closed, making the sound un. Between them, they represent the beginning and end of all things. The two are considered to be in perfect harmony, and therefore the expression aun no kokyuu (“[sharing] an a-un breath”) means to be of one mind.

  Sneak Tourism

  Jp. O-shinobi kankou, “sightseeing on the sly.” This must be used by people who have spotted Shinichi and the gang out and about but trying to be inconspicuous.

  A Certain Anime Event

  Shinichi may be referring to Summer Comiket, or just perhaps to the now defunct Tokyo Anime Fair, though that was mostly held in February or March.

  Intercom

  An intercom providing audio and often video from a buzzer at the front door is a feature of many Japanese residential homes.

  A Supra, a Skyline, or a Fairlady Z

  That is, a Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline, or Nissan Fairlady Z, all well-known Japanese sports cars.

  Systema

  Another Russian martial arts system. There are actually a couple of characters in popular fighting games that allegedly use Systema, but the games (including Street Fighter V and Dead or Alive 6) are too recent to be specifically referenced here.

  “More Subdued Arts”

  Judo and aikido (a martial art similar to judo but with less emphasis on competition) are widely perceived as being “gentle” arts; they’re often associated more with joint locks and control holds than with direct physical strikes. Karate and to an extent kenpo (a somewhat broad term) are associated with punching, board-breaking, and “karate yells” (kiai). Police forces in Japan frequently learn “softer” martial arts so that they can respond to and control situations and suspects. It would be a mistake, however, to think of these arts as harmless; they have punches, kicks, and other physical strikes like any other martial art, and both are known for their devastating throws, such as the one Reito performs on the Russian agent.

  Reito’s Gun

  Japanese gun laws are exceedingly strict, generally allowing only law enforcement officers and a small handful of game hunters to possess firearms. The only other people who carry guns are gangsters. Reito obviously doesn’t spend most of his time in the mountains stalking wild boar, so his having a gun marks him out as either a constable or a criminal.

  Special Security Team

  A counterterrorism arm of the Japanese Coast Guard.

  Tracing the Character for Person on One’s Palm

  The character for person (hito) is 人, two simple strokes, making it easy to trace quickly and repeatedly. This helps provide a distraction and calm anxiety.

  Chapter Three

  The Going Is Easy, but the Coming Home...

  The title of chapter three alludes to an Edo-era children’s song which includes the line “Iki wa yoi yoi, kaeri wa kowai” (the going is easy, but the coming home a fright). The tune (the song is known as “Touryanse,” or “Come On In”) is—or used to be—commonly played at street crossings in Japan when it is safe to cross, and as such is probably familiar to most anime fans who have seen any series with a contemporary urban setting, even if they don’t know what it’s called.

  Specialty Shops

  As Petralka discovers, because gacha are dispensed at random, it can take a fair amount of time (and money) to get a specific figure you want. For this reason, some shops purchase the figures from the gacha machines themselves, so customers can pick the figures they’re after and purchase them individually.

  Otome Road

  An “otaku street” in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district that appeals especially to women. (And especially to fujoshi.)

  Tourist Sites

  In thinking about where Elvia might want to go, Shinichi ticks off a whole list of otaku-oriented attractions in the Tokyo area. A giant Gundam statue has stood in the Odaiba area since 2009 (originally erected to celebrate Gundam’s 30th anniversary); in 2017 the original statue was replaced by one from Gundam Unicorn. Comiket (short for “Comics Market”) is a semi-annual convention focusing especially on doujinshi, while Nakano Broadway (so called because it’s a large thoroughfare-cum-shopping district in the Nakano area of Tokyo) is another shopping area with lots of stores selling anime-related goods.

  A couple paragraphs later, he goes on: “Rat Kingdom” (Nezumi no Oukoku) is an attraction in Urayasu City in Chiba Prefecture, next door to Tokyo. The Ghibli Museum is located in Mitaka, on the western edge of Tokyo’s metropolitan sprawl. It’s not far from Kichijouji, the “trendy” district Shinichi mentions. Kichijouji has a lot of green space in the form of Inokashira Park (which includes a zoo), as well as shopping and eating opportunities.

  Aniki

  This is a reference to Billy Herrington, a gay porn star who became an internet meme in Japan. In his popularity, many mashups of clips from his videos were made. (The mashups are known as gachimuchi, which Shinichi uses in this sentence and which we translated simply as “mashups.” Literally, though, it’s derived from gay slang referring to someone with a muscly but sexy body, like a wrestler.) Herrington became known as Aniki (“Big Bro”) on the Japanese web. Many of these mashups play on deliberate mishearings (in Japanese, soramimi) of lines from his films; soramimi is what Shinichi accuses Elvia of when he exclaims “You misheard!” Herrington sadly died in a car accident in 2018, at the age of just forty-eight.

  M4A1 Carbine

  A gun similar to an assault rifle currently favored by the US armed forces for a wide variety of applications, largely replacing the familiar M16.

  Aggregator Blog

  In Japanese, matome burogu (or saito, site). These are websites that collect information or links about a specific topic. Sometimes also called “curator sites.”

  CH-53D Sea Stallion

  As Shinichi explains, the Sea Stallion is a heavy transport helicopter used chiefly to ferry troops from one place to another. The crash he mentions is probably one that occurred on 13 August 2004: a CH-53D belonging to the US Marines at Futenma Air Station crashed into Okinawa International University. The crash didn’t cause significant injury or damage, but it did exacerbate tensions with residents of Futenma, where the airbase is not very popular. Other incidents in the years since this book was published have continued to make the base a point of contention and have fueled calls for its closure, although as of this writing it is still open.

  Hayate

  The term Hayate can refer to a few different military vehicles, but the one Shinichi seems to have in mind is the so-called koukidousha, or High Mobility Vehicle (HMV). It’s a JSDF personnel carrier that looks a bit like a beefy Jeep. Its nickname, Hayate, literally means “[a] swift wind.”

  Afterword

  KanColle

  Short for Kantai Korekushon (Fleet Collection), a browser game that features classic Japanese battleships personified as young girls.

  Manuscript Paper

  Called genkou youshi in Japanese, this is a type of paper printed with a grid of either 200 or 400 squares, each intended to accommodate a single Japanese character (kanji or kana) or punctuation mark. Genkou youshi is ubiquitous in Japanese life, being used, for example, to do school assignments, so any Japanese adults would have a sense of how much text is represented by a certain number of pages of manuscript paper.

  Yuugen Character Designs

  Strawberry Mar**mallow

  Refers to Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro), a manga that started in 2002 (there was an anime in 2005). Petralka’s outfit in this volume resembles the clothing worn by the characters in this series.

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  Copyright

  Outbreak Company: Volume 10

  by Ichiro Sakaki

  Translated by Kevin Steinbach

  Edited by Sasha McGlynn

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 Ichiro Sakaki

  Illustrations by Yuugen

  All rights reserved.

  First published in Japan in 2014 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.

  Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

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  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Ebook edition 1.0: August 2019