Chapter 1 Part1 (1/2)

Translator's preface:

I bought this light novel while I was overseas and found it to be a great, touching read. It's pretty different from the stuff I've been translating in terms of genre. It's also my first time translating a light novel instead of a web novel.

I'll be doing this as a side project with probably irregularly-released partial chapters whenever - the LN's chapters are split neatly into small parts, which is nice.

This is something of an experiment to gauge interest as well, since I'm not sure how much interest there is for this genre of story. I particularly like it, and if you do as well, please leave some supportive comments or something.

Yos.h.i.+

Chapter 1: Short season, cold feeling

TLN: This chapter t.i.tle is the English caption written next to the j.a.panese chapter t.i.tle, which actually translates to: “The season of cherry blossoms and the temperature of linoleum.”

There were cherry blossoms blooming on both sides of the road on the hill. As I finished climbing it, a brand new hospital came into view. It was a new and relatively clean building, and it somehow didn’t feel like people lived here. Despite being a hospital, it had an office-building-like air to it. That made me feel a little more at ease. I informed the reception desk of my business here and was quickly told which room to go to.

Thinking about how I would soon be meeting a complete stranger, I felt quite nervous. Not to mention the fact that this person was a girl who had been hospitalized due to illness.

I was a little restless as I waited for the hospital’s elevator.

“I heard she’s a real beauty,” someone had told me.

Apparently, her name was Watarase Mamizu.

During the first homeroom of my first year in high school, Yos.h.i.+e-sensei, our homeroom teacher, spoke in a well-carrying voice.

“Watarase Mamizu-san has been hospitalized since middle school due to a serious illness,” she said. “I hope that she will be discharged as soon as possible and enjoy her school life with everyone.”

There was one empty seat in the cla.s.sroom. Our school was a private combined middle and high school, so the students attending didn’t really change from middle school. Even so, it seemed that almost n.o.body knew Watarase Mamizu.

“I heard that it’s luminescence disease.”

“Then she probably won’t be able to come to school, huh.”

“Who is she?”

“Apparently she hasn’t been to school since May in our first year of middle school.”

“I don’t remember her at all.”

“Doesn’t anyone have a picture of her on their phone?”

The people in the cla.s.s began gossiping about her a little, but there wasn’t any significant information about her, so that quickly stopped.

If it was luminescence disease, it would be difficult for her to return to school. It was known to be an incurable disease.

Its cause is unknown. Treatment methods haven’t even been established.

A full recovery is impossible. That’s why most people with the condition spend their entire lives in hospital. The disease progresses as the patient grows to adulthood, and the symptoms just suddenly appear one day. It’s said that most patients develop symptoms in their teenage years or in their twenties. Once the symptoms appear, the mortality rate is high; most patients die before becoming adults. There are many different symptoms, but the characteristic one is the strange phenomenon in the skin.

It glows.

It’s said that at night, when the light of the moon s.h.i.+nes on the body of someone with the condition, it emits a faint, fluorescent light. Apparently, that emitted light becomes stronger as the condition progresses. That’s why it’s called luminescence disease.

… Either way, it’s unlikely that this girl named Watarase Mamizu will come to the cla.s.sroom, I thought, and decided to quickly forget about all of it.

A few days after that, during break time, what appeared to be an enormous piece of colored paper was pa.s.sed around to me.

“Okada, write something in here,” said the person who’d given it to me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“You know, what was it again? Something-san, the one with luminescence disease. Everyone’s supposed to sign it and then it’s going to be given to her.”

Uninterested, I ran my pen across the colored paper.

I hope your illness gets better soon. Okada Takuya.

I wrote these words smoothly within three seconds and then looked around to pa.s.s the signed paper to the next person.

“Wow, Okada, that’s pretty vague.”

“Who am I supposed to pa.s.s it to next?”

“Everyone around here’s signed it. Ah, Kayama hasn’t yet, I think. Go and give it to him. You and Kayama are close, aren’t you?”

“We’re not really close,” I replied before approaching Kayama’s seat.

Kayama Akira was untidy as usual. His uniform s.h.i.+rt was hanging out from his trousers, and he was slumped forward in his seat, sleeping like a log. He was tall, and his hair was long. He didn’t give off the air of a delinquent. He didn’t have any violent tendencies, but he could be suitably described as “unserious.” He was still popular with girls because he had a well-featured face, but he usually responded to people somewhat arrogantly, so most of the guys avoided him a little.

“Kayama, wake up,” I said.