v1c4 section 1 (2/2)
”Idols go on location in Rishi+ri?”
”I've even been to bu”
”That's hardcore”
”This is the first time I've traveled on my own I just hopped on a plane because I wanted to” Aoba s in the wind ”The world's pretty funny I dared to break the rules and step outside, and even when that was all it was, et wrapped up in world domination”
”No course of action could be deterot his nan philosopher,” I said[3] ”Even with the rules of ically refute soeable about obscure trivia”
”Reading books is basically all I ever did”
”You must really like theuess you could say that,” I said, keepingthem ever since I was little”
”Did you have a favorite picture book?”
”Probably Where the Wild Things Are”
”I loved Picky and Pocky Go Swi in the Ocean[4] Fuu-chan the mole was really cute”
”The person rote that became a novelist, and the illustrator went on to become the main illustrator for Haruki Murakaain
This tiht I—
”I love books”
”What's your dream for the future?”
”Huh?”
”Your dream for the future You must have one”
”I'et to use words like 'future' or 'drea What was that fable, again? With the sour grapes”
”You mean The Fox and the Grapes?”
”Yes, that's the one,” Aoba said with a srapes that look delicious, and he tries juh for hirapes were obviously sour anyway' You didn't even jump, mister”
”I don't have any talent”
”Have you ever felt seriously jealous when you saw Hollywood actors, or billionaires, or mafia dons, or top models, or presidents, or rock stars?”
Why would I? There's no way I'd ever becoe or talent There's absolutely no way anybody is actually going to wind up on that level Right?
The Outside that's been prepared for us is ers University professors Lawyers Sushi+ chefs Marrying rich Designers TV stars That's the h talent to do that much That's all there was to it
”You really are inexperienced,” Aoba said, continuing to pile on the blaet seriously jealous when you see Hollywood actors, and billionaires, and mafia dons, and top models, and presidents, and rock stars, and if you don't seriously believe that you can becos, your life screeches to a halt”
”So why don't you go ahead, right now, and tryyourself more popular,” I said, partly out of annoyance, and partly because I wanted to change the subject, butthat elephant in the room
Silence
Aoba rolled up the , and showed roup on it—they were all there, all girls wearing colorful outfits, sparkling with youth and beauty Aoba pointed to the one on the far right
Th-This is
There's a saying in japanese: a crane in a trash heap It's soe I'll probably be called out for sounding discri it up because the scene on this CD jacket was the exact inverse of that
If you have groups like, for example, ”12345”, or ”ABCDE”, or ”甲乙丙丁戊”, and if so and tells you you're in fourth place, you et down on yourself about it, but you can accept it
But what if you had groups with one person in thethere in the first place? Like ”1234☆”, or ”ABCDЙ”, or ”甲乙丙丁◯” What if someone told you you were fourth place then? Wouldn't fourth place basically be last place?
Aoba was a beautiful young woman, with a stand-out voice and style, but like she said herself, it was only natural for idols to be cute Truthfully, just froe difference between Aoba and the top three girls And yet, Aoba was in fourth place What did they have that she didn't?
Talent
That's what it coh talent as an idol It's gotta take so out that opinion loud and clear, they proved it by hurting theht ofas she was still young, as long as she still had pride and a chance, Aoba wasn't going to let herself be crushed This girl knew very well that there were going to be more opportunities for a dramatic reversal than she would knohat to do with, and that her own talent wasn't going anywhere She believed that she would break through to the Outside
On the other hand, here I was, holing up like aup at the Outside with resent like a mole was kinda nice I was the bottom of the barrel But I was also in first place There's a sense of invincibility I got fros of society There's a sense of relief I got frootten serious yet
But
After the World Domination Proclamation, the world turned upside down That security blanket had been ripped away from me, I had been driven out without h this lawless world
”No course of action could be determined by a rule”
”The real probleotten into er, and the car sped up I was speeding Running red lights Driving under the influence nobody was around to tell that I was breaking traffic laws nobody else was on the road right now No onco traffic, no pedestrians, and no police I was free to do whatever I wanted
When I nevertheless slowed down, it wasn't because of any traffic laws It wasn't because anyone told me to I, of my own free will, chose to drive more carefully
Translator's Notes
[1] Me and the School and I - these chapters are titled using the different pronouns for the different narrators we've had so far; the narrator for Chapters 1 and 3 uses watashi+, while the narrator for Chapter 2 uses boku So in a much clunkier translation, these chapters would be 'Watashi+ and Boku at the School' I thought of all different kinds of more liberal translations to capture the two narrators in the title, but in the end I ith so simple, since ”me and X” vs ”X and I” makes a silish, and they can be combined pretty conveniently
[2] S-nery/Mix Juice - these are two different groups of japanese voice actresses that have released albuan Ronpa trivia, two of the singers in Mix Juice are Chiwa Saitou (Asahina's voice actress) and Mai Nakahara (Yukizon philosopher - it was Ludwig Wittgenstein, writing in Philosophical Investigations The concept is further explored in Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language
[4] Picky and Pocky Go Swis Are, this is a japanese picture book
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to co these rules in mind!