Credits
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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou—Mite, Aruki, Yorokobumono by Teriha Katsuki.
Illustrations by Hitoshi Ashinano
Originally published by Kodansha on October 23, 2008.
Based on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano, published in Monthly Afternoon (1994-2006)
Raws provided by /u/horu_hosu
English translation by H. Berry (aitch99berry@gmail.com)
Cleaned color illustrations by Arturo Songor (@artson593)
Stars at
the Bottom of the Cove
I heard there’s small sandy beach near Dr. Koumiishi’s hospital, so I decided to check it out. The café was closed anyway because of the shortage of coffee beans.
From the road leading to the
hospital, I made my way down a cliff scattered with sparse black pines,
arriving at a sandy beach no larger than my backyard. Watching the waves roll
in, I felt a sudden impulse. Without overthinking, I jumped into the sea wearing
nothing but my shirt.
The submerged remnants of the old
town lay beneath the crystal-clear water, the sunlight piercing through to
reveal their secrets. Houses that sunk twenty or thirty years ago still stood,
their walls adorned with barnacles and seaweed. Bookshelves, dressers, and
various household items remained inside, preserved in a world now ruled by
fish.
I could only hold my breath for five
minutes at most. When I surfaced for air, I noticed Dr. Koumiishi standing on
the beach, waving at me. She looked tiny from where I was. I must have swum
farther out than I thought. Gulping in fresh air, I kicked hard and swam back
to shore.
“I brought a souvenir!” I announced,
holding up my prize—a light-green glass bottle with a small ball trapped
inside. “What is this?”
She squinted at it, her expression
tinged with nostalgia. “That’s a Ramune bottle. It was used to hold a drink. We
always knew summer had started when the general store at the bottom of the hill
began selling it. Though now, it feels like summer is endless.”
I tilted the bottle, letting the
sunlight shine through it. The glass shimmered with the color of a shallow
midsummer sea. I wondered what this forgotten drink tasted like and what
happened to the people who used to sell and buy it.
“Just below this beach was a coastal
road,” she said, gazing out at the sea as if searching for something lost.
“I think I saw part of it when I
dove down once—there was something buried in the sand that looked like a
guardrail.”
“The roads rose with the sea,” she
continued, lighting a cigarette. The smoke rose in a straight line into the
still, blue sky. “There were so many roads like that. They’ve long since
disappeared—buried, swallowed by the waves, or simply forgotten. I used to take
him along those roads. We went all over the place.”
“You mean Ojisan?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes, back when we were
young, we rode motorbikes. The world was so busy then. Roads were packed with
cars; everything was alive and in motion. Now, it’s all so quiet. But back
then, even with all the noise, it was beautiful. Those sights… you could only
see them in that fleeting moment.”
Her eyes grew distant, lost in
memories of a bustling, vibrant world I could scarcely imagine.
Something around her neck caught the
sunlight, drawing my attention. It was a pendant hanging just above her
collarbones, a simple design of a figure with its arms raised.
“Doctor, what’s that pendant?” I
asked.
“Oh, this?” She smiled shyly and
held it up, letting it glint in the sunlight. “It’s my emblem. It means
‘Seeing, Walking & Enjoying[1]’” she
cradled the pendant in her palm, her expression softening. “It reminds me of
when I got my first bike. Back then, I felt like I had wings, like I could go
anywhere as long as there was a road.”
She turned her gaze back to the
sunken city. “I made an emblem just like this one for him. I wanted us to
explore the world together. It’s just a little pendant, but it’s been with me
through so much. It’s precious to me.”
Moved, I stayed silent, letting her
words sink in.
She put the pendant back on and
smiled. “Sorry, I’m just rambling like an old woman.”
“No, not at all,” I said hastily.
“You must’ve seen so many incredible things,” she tilted her head curiously,
and I fumbled for words. “Take sunsets, for example. No matter how long I live
or how many sunsets I see, the color of the sky in that moment only exists
once. If you miss it, you’ll never see it again. Sure, you might see something
similar, but it’ll never be exactly the same.”
She looked surprised. I was too, but
my mouth kept moving. “If you come across something beautiful, you should stop
and really take it in. That’s what Owner—” I stopped, suddenly self-conscious.
She chuckled softly. “So that’s what
Hatsuseno taught you.”
I scratched my head, embarrassed. “I
thought I came up with it myself, but I guess I was just following what Owner
said all along.”
“That’s how we humans are,” she said
gently. “We can’t learn these things unless someone teaches us first. Hatsuseno
taught me something similar—never overlook the beautiful or wonderful things in
life, ”she reached out, cupping my cheek with her soft hand, “but the way you
see the world? That’s your own.”
She pulled something from her coat
pocket: the small fish sculpture I gave her.
“Wow, you kept it!” I exclaimed.
“Of course. It’s important,” she
said, showing me how she’d carefully varnished it and added a metal fitting to
turn it into a keychain. “It’s not just the way you look at the world. You can
create beauty from it, too. That’s amazing. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Her words trailed off as her
expression grew thoughtful.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She didn’t answer immediately but
instead tucked the fish sculpture back into her pocket. “Right, there’s
something I want to show you. I just remembered.”
“Huh?”
She continued, seemingly ignoring my
confusion. “Do you often go to the town to the north?”
She meant the village further north
of Kinugasa, where I occasionally go shopping. I rarely venture there, and if I
do, it’s only to pass through.
“No, there aren’t any shops or
anything.”
“Then you haven’t seen it? Perfect.”
“Seen what? What do you mean?”
She smiled enigmatically. “Well,
you’ll have to wait and see for yourself. Shall we head out before it gets too
late?”
Without waiting for a response, she
turned and began walking back to the hospital. I hurried to catch up. I
wondered if Ojisan had ever been dragged along like this.
We drove from the hospital in a
minivan, taking the ridge road toward the northern town. After passing
Kinugasa, the signs of human life—people, cars—disappeared entirely.
By the time dusk arrived, we reached
a lookout point overlooking a large cove. The setting sun bathed the western
mountain ridges in brilliant orange light. The tips of the sunken buildings
gently swayed beneath the water’s surface.
“That city there was called
Yokosuka,” she said, squinting at the crimson sky in the west. It was the first
time I’d heard the town’s name.
“Just like Yokohama, the low-lying
areas were submerged,” she continued, “but for some reason, the name was
forgotten along with the town itself.”
While she spoke, my eyes remained
fixed on the cove, its still waters reflecting the changing sky. The water,
once a bright blue, now mirrored the deep crimson of the sky, fading into the
lapis lazuli of the night sky to the east.
“It’s beautiful… a great hidden
spot.”
“Well, it’s not exactly hidden,” she
said, turning toward the cove. “Yokosuka is where I was born and raised.”
I turned in surprise. She showed no
emotion as she spoke, her tone calm as if she had long ago accepted the
disappearance of her hometown.
“I’ve known this place since it was
full of people. But now, no one comes here anymore.”
Unsure of how to respond, I lowered
my gaze. She patted my shoulder lightly, as if to reassure me.
“Don’t make that face. It’s not like
I’m sad.”
“If it were me… I don’t think I
could bear it if the café disappeared.”
“That’s probably because you’re
storing up memories in that place,” she said. “But not everyone lives like
that. For some people, it’s a relief to have nowhere to return to. All the
memories, good or bad, are buried at the bottom of the sea. I’m not trying to
sound sentimental; I’m just telling you how it is.”
“Really?”
“No matter how certain something may
seem, everything eventually disappears. Alpha, you need to come to grips with
that.”
Her words were so earnest, so
powerful, that they resonated deep within me.
“…Come to think of it, Owner once
said something like that, too, a long time ago.”
She smiled as she looked into the
distance. “Just like Hatsuseno gave you many wonderful things, I want to show
you something too. Just as I did with that old man a long time ago. But this
isn’t everything we came to see.”
“Is something going to happen?” I
asked, excitement creeping into my voice. What could happen in this deserted
place?
“You’ll see. It’s almost night.”
The sun had already set behind the
western mountains, leaving the sky awash in a dazzling crimson afterglow. A
deep purple veil soon covered the horizon, and beyond that, a deep blue
stretched out. Before long, the entire sky deepened into the ultramarine of
night.
The colors of dusk—an afterglow that
felt infinite—stirred something within me. It was just the sky, just the
colors, but they felt like they were shaking me to my core.
“Look closely at the cove,” she
whispered.
I followed her gaze to the surface
of the water. The dark, still surface of the cove reflected the sunken town
beneath it, but something else caught my attention.
A single speck of light began to
twinkle in the water. Slowly, more lights appeared, flickering across the cove,
near and far, here and there. The lights spread like wildfire, covering the
entire cove in a dazzling display of white lights.
It was as though a starry sky had
descended upon the earth. The lights flickered, seeming to pulse with life,
their pale blue glow replacing the remnants of the vanished town.
“What’s happening?” My voice was
barely a whisper. The beauty of it overwhelmed me, leaving me helplessly
fragile.
“Streetlamps,” she said softly. “Many
of Yokosuka’s streetlamps are solar-powered. They light up automatically at
night. What you’re seeing are the surviving streetlamps, still shining.”
I tried to respond, but no words
came. I simply nodded, my tears beginning to fall. I quickly tried to wipe them
away, but they wouldn’t stop, as if my tear ducts had betrayed me. She gently
wrapped her arm around my shoulders, holding my hand to soothe me.
“The town may be gone, but the
streetlights are still hanging on.”
I nodded again, the tears continuing
to fall. Each light seemed to bear a quiet prayer, like candles lit for the
dead. I hadn’t mourned anyone, hadn’t lit candles for the lost. Yet, something
about this felt like Yokosuka’s funeral.
“The lights will go out eventually,
too…” I said softly.
In response, she lightly tapped my
shoulder, her voice calm. “This won’t last much longer. But I’m glad you’re
here to see it now.”
I turned to face her. Our eyes met, and without warning, we both started
crying.
“You still have so much time ahead of you. I’m envious,” she said,
looking up at the sky before taking a deep breath. “But there’s still so much
to see. We should make the best of our time.”
After a brief silence, she suddenly burst into laughter.
We stood close, our heads nearly touching, peering down into the
sparkling cove. I could feel the warm breeze blowing gently from the water,
carrying the faint scent of the sea all the way to the distant mountains.
Take a good look at it, because
it’ll soon disappear.
Ubumi’s
voice echoed suddenly, cutting through Omega’s mind, making him stiffen. He
reflexively scanned his surroundings, searching for the source.
When the
realization hit him that Ubumi was dead, the tension slowly eased.
He left
his heart unguarded, searching through Alpha’s memories, and Ubumi’s voice hit
him like a physical blow. It was as though a deep, buried seed in his chest had
suddenly surfaced, bringing with it a cold, inexplicable fear.
He
reached into his breast pocket, touching the glass ball through the fabric, and
took a deep breath. Gradually, his racing heart began to calm.
Burn it into your mind. Soon, you’ll
no longer be able to see it.
Omega
could remember traveling alongside Ubumi. The rusted roofs of forgotten
factories stretched endlessly at the bottom of the sea. Above them, mangrove
forests grew thick, filling the entire coastline.
Ubumi
never once looked at the scenery. He simply passed through it, moving through a
world that had fallen silent, where nearly all traces of people had vanished.
Omega and Ubumi stood only a few meters apart, but it felt like there was an
invisible barrier between them, a line of separation, as if Omega were looking
in from the outside.
“Why do I
have to see it?” Omega muttered to himself. Why is looking and remembering so
important?
He had a
vague idea, but he was too afraid to fully face it.
If I keep reading Alpha’s memories, will I find out?
Even
though Alpha’s lips, the source of those sweet memories, were right in front of
him, Omega hesitated to kiss them again.
Just by
intertwining his fingers with hers, Omega felt himself pulled into the fog of
Alpha’s memories. The pull was so strong, as if the memories were begging to be
seen.
Takahiro.
A soft
sense of relief spread through Omega’s chest. Takahiro’s memories wouldn’t open
the door to the part of his heart that he feared. There was only the joy of
savoring his feelings for Alpha, both sweet and bitter, to the fullest. That’s
why, if he experienced Takahiro’s memories, Omega would be able to see Alpha as
he wanted, without fear or hesitation.
The
boundary between Omega and Takahiro blurred, then faded entirely.[2]
[1] The emblem is of course in the manga and its meaning is brought in
conversation there too, though several chapters later and by completely
different characters. Roselia interpreted it as “Wander and See the World”
(which I nearly used for the subtitle of this book) while Seven Seas did it as
“One who Wanders and Looks”
[2] This one adapts two chapters, Ch14: Sandy Beach and Ch22: Yokosuka
Cruise. In the manga these two events are sometime apart while the novel puts
them one right after another. Differences include: Ojisan is with Alpha and the
doctor when she goes swimming, and Alpha goes to see Yokosuka on her own,
bumping with the doctor there.
Contents
Prologue
The Colors of Evening Calm
An Azure Shadow
Warm Hands
A Robot Dancing in the Light
Stars at the Bottom of the Cove
Time Spiral
The One Who Travels Through the Skies
Heron Cross
Flying Eyes
Epilogue
Afterword, Interview and Download links
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