by Takehaya
“He doesn’t do as much in these clothes, but I’ll still give them a check.”
Kiriha pulled out the articles of clothing one at a time. After getting everything out, she would return everything that looked like it was still in good condition. That was her standard procedure.
“Oh?”
Once she’d taken all the clothes out, she spotted a paper bag pushed into the back of the drawer.
“What’s this? It feels like it has clothes in it too...”
Kiriha picked up the paper bag and looked inside. It was filled with all kinds of things, not just clothing. There was a half-knit sweater, an old-fashioned but well crafted knife, a small wooden accessory with wool decorations, and more. None of the things in the bag seemed to have anything in common.
“Oh no... This was something I shouldn’t have opened. Sorry, Koutarou.”
Looking at it all, Kiriha realized that they were mementos of some kind and she decided to return the bag to the back of the drawer without touching anything inside. As she went to close it up, however, something in the bag caught her eye.
“Th-This is...!”
It was an antique necklace of polished jewels and fangs strung together by a colorful string. Its style gave away its age.
“What... H-How?!”
At first, Kiriha thought she was seeing things. It couldn’t be real. Yet no matter how many times she blinked, the necklace in her hand didn’t vanish.
“It’s... It’s real...”
Kiriha reached out to touch the necklace. Her heart was pounding and her hand was trembling. She was normally calm, but her heart was now racing and her mind was going blank. Her hand just wouldn’t stop trembling, not even as her fingertips reached the necklace. The touch of it was familiar. Her shaking hand lovingly lifted the necklace out of the bag.
“Th-There’s no mistaking it... This is my mother’s necklace...”
The beads of the necklace clacked together in Kiriha’s trembling hand. It was almost like the rhythmic ticking of an elaborate pocket watch.
“But... why is it here?! This is impossible!”
Even though it was right in front of her, even though she was touching it, Kiriha still couldn’t believe it. But regardless of how unreal it felt, there was no denying the truth that confronted her.
“Even if I don’t believe it... if this is here... then that means...”
And that truth meant something big for her.
The day Kiriha had been waiting for the past ten years had finally come.
Afterword
Long time no see. It’s the author, Takehaya.
The publication of volume 9 marks our return to the main story. Thank you very much for purchasing it. In this volume, the strongest invader legend finally manifests and begins to invade Koutarou’s normal life. An unexpected problem arises for Ruth too. And with Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, everyone is starting to get antsy. Really, this volume is bursting at the seams. Ruth, who has mostly been in the background, even gets her turn in the spotlight.
While working on this volume, I had something on my mind. And that was regarding translation. As of writing this, there are two foreign versions of Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, a Taiwanese version and a Korean version. There’s been talk of a third one, but these were the two I was thinking of.
In Japanese, we can distinguish the characters based on how they refer to themselves. Here’s a list of how it generally works out.
Ore = Koutarou
Atashi = Sanae
Warawa = Theia
Watashi = Yurika
Waga = Kiriha
Watakushi = Ruth
Oira = The Haniwas
On top of this, the characters can be differentiated by what they’re saying and their tone. When it’s all taken together, dialogue tags to label the speaker aren’t necessary.
But a question popped into my mind the other day. How would this work in another language? Take English, for example. In English, all subjects refer to themselves as “I.” As a result, Sanae, the haniwas, and everyone else would all talk about themselves the same way. It would be impossible to distinguish them based on pronouns.
Moreover, there aren’t as many linguistic distinctions between genders and social groups as there are in Japanese. While that kind of thing could be conveyed through body language and such in person, it’s much harder to do with just words. I think that’s one of the reasons people speak using such colorful language in English novels.
But this isn’t about which language is superior. It’s just a difference in how we communicate. To someone who speaks English, Japanese must look like an incredibly inefficient language, trying to convey everything through words rather than using expressions and body language. Compared to Westerners, the Japanese have smaller eyes and flatter faces, so we’ve developed a language that didn’t rely on those things.
So how do the Taiwanese and Korean versions of this novel look? I’ve gotten copies as samples, but since I’m not very proficient in any foreign language, I can’t read either of them. But I’m sure there are lots of challenges like this in translation, so I imagine the translators have their work cut out for them in trying to figure out how to overcome that. So in conclusion, I’d like to tell all the translators that I’m very grateful for their hard work. I hope we can work together in the future as well.
This afterword is four pages (which I am sure will change depending on the translation—it’s a surprisingly tough job), so I’ll sign off here.
I would like to give my thanks to the editorial department that publishes this novel; to Poco-san who always manages to make amazing illustrations for the strange stories I write; my friends who take me drinking whenever I get stuck; and to all of you who bought this novel.
Well then, let us meet in the afterword of volume 10.
January, 2012
Takehaya
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Copyright
Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Volume 9
by Takehaya
Translated by Warnis
Edited by Morgan Dreher
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 © 2012 Takehaya
Illustrations Copyright © 2012 Poco
Cover illustration by Poco
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2012 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2018 J-Novel Club LLC
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: February 2018
