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)
A Robot Dancing in the Light
I raced along the road to Café Alpha on my bike. Despite my jacket
being zipped tightly, the wind was biting cold. I think the “fake winter” has
arrived again.
By the end of January, the maple and ginkgo trees bear fruit—Grandpa
once told me it used to be much colder this time of year.
People often say I’m too sensitive to the cold, but I can’t help it;
I’m just not used to it.
As for Grandpa, he went out drinking under the pretense of a
neighborhood association meeting. He probably won’t be back tonight. I brought
fresh fruit and fish to share with Alpha. No matter how delicious food is,
eating alone isn’t much fun. While Alpha can’t eat fish, I know she’ll enjoy
the fruit.
The wind suddenly picked up as I parked my bike by the fence in the
front yard. I ran to the front door, shielding myself from the gusts.
“Alpha!”
...No reply.
For some reason, Alpha wasn’t at the café. The cowbell on the door
chimed faintly, but the sound was drowned out by the roaring wind and crashing
waves.
I rang the doorbell at the main house, but still, no one answered.
There wasn’t even a sign saying the shop was closed.
“Where on earth could she be on such a stormy day?”
Worry started to creep in. While this area was generally safe, there
was always the chance of something unusual happening—a stranger wandering in
or, worse, Alpha being too sick to move.
The thoughts churned in my head, refusing to let me sit still. I ran to
the porch, scanning the front yard. No sign of her.
I hurried to the backyard, where a field of tall silver grass swayed
violently in the wind. The grass hadn’t withered, even in this cold, but Alpha
was nowhere in sight. Each strong gust sent the tips of the grass slapping
against my cheeks.
If... if there’s a stranger
around, I shouldn’t shout.
Remembering Grandpa’s warnings, I stayed silent and carefully moved
through the grass, pushing it aside with measured steps. Darkness was settling
in as thick clouds rolled overhead.
Rain began to fall, light at first but quickly turning into a downpour.
Cold droplets stung my skin and blurred my vision. The steady rhythm of rain
striking the grass drowned out all other sounds.
I yanked the grass apart with force.
Then, suddenly, a scream.
“Alpha!?” I shouted.
A startled yelp followed as something toppled over.
Alpha was crouched in the middle of the field, her wide eyes locked on
me. I was holding her ponytail in my hand.
“T-Takahiro?” she stammered, her voice weak and trembling, as though
she were on the verge of tears. I’ve never seen her like this before. My heart
started pounding in my chest.
“S-sorry, your hair...”
Her expression softened into a smile, and then she broke into laughter.
“Oh my goodness! What weather, huh?” Her cheerful voice cut through the storm,
and I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
“What are you doing here? You had me so worried!”
“Sorry,” she said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “I was
looking for the water tap.”
“What? Isn’t there water in your house?”
“Recently, some seawater started mixing in. The coffee’s been salty
lately. I think there’s a water plant to the north. If I could find the main
valve, I’d have clean running water... But, you know...”
“It’s all filled up?”
She scratched her cheek awkwardly, and I noticed a rusty iron lid
beneath her.
“That’s it, Takahiro!”
Together, we managed to pry the lid open with a crowbar. Beneath it was
a thick water pipe with an old, corroded faucet at a branching point.
“Want me to help open it?”
“Yes, please!”
We hooked the crowbar onto the valve and pushed with all our strength.
It creaked loudly, the rust flaking away as water began to flow. Both of us got
completely soaked.
“Ah! The water’s all red. I’ll have
to keep the faucet running until it comes out clean,” Alpha said as she emerged
from the bathroom, carrying a large towel in hand.
As for me, the moment I walked
through the door, I felt like I had a fever.
Although only a wall separated it
from the shop, this was my first time inside the main house. Beyond the
entrance was a large kitchen, completely unlike the tidy one of the café.
Knives, cutting boards, dirty mugs, and more were scattered everywhere. For
some reason, wandering through Alpha’s living space made me uneasy.
“Sorry, I only have one spare.
Please dry yourself with it,” Alpha said, dropping the towel over my head. It
carried a sweet scent of flowers and fruit, reminding me of the time we watched
the first sunrise of the year. My heart skipped a beat.
She used another towel to gently pat
the water from her hair, which hung loose around her shoulders. Why did such a
casual gesture make her look so beautiful?
“If you don’t dry yourself quickly,
you’ll catch a cold.”
As if on cue, I let out a loud
sneeze. Alpha grinned at my sniffles.
“Maybe we should warm up,” she
suggested.
“Maybe,” I muttered under my breath.
“Oh, it should be ready,” Alpha said
as she grabbed my hand and led me to the bathroom. Next to the sink was a
frosted glass sliding door. When she slid it open, a wave of warmth hit my
face.
“Come on, take them off,” she said,
tugging at my clothes with a playful smile.
“I-I can take them off myself!” I
stammered, retreating into the bathroom and quickly sliding the door shut
behind me. I peeled off my wet clothes, reopened the door, and dove into the
red-tinted water. It was only lukewarm, but at that moment, it didn’t matter.
“Alpha—”
“What?”
“Just leave my clothes there.”
“We have to dry them. I already hung
them up,” she replied, opening the door.
For a fleeting moment, I thought I
saw a figure with soft curves moving through the steam.
I immediately dunked my head under
the water, squeezing my eyes shut. But then I felt her slender legs sliding
into the bathtub, causing the water to overflow with a loud splash.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Alpha’s
amused voice came from above. I couldn’t breathe.
Looking up, I saw her smiling,
immersed in the water up to her chest, her hair wrapped in a towel. The water
was so murky I couldn’t see anything below the surface. For a moment, I felt
disappointed—a thought that made me want to punch myself.
“What’s the matter? Feeling unwell?”
“…No, that’s not it,” I mumbled,
shaking my head vigorously. I glanced at Alpha’s neck and quickly looked away,
as if bracing for a painful injection.
“Owner once told me that there used
to be public baths where people would bathe together,” Alpha said cheerfully.
“…Really?”
“Yes, people would form what she
called ‘naked friendships,’ chatting about all sorts of things while bathing.
I’ve always wanted to try it,” Alpha stretched, her voice brimming with
excitement.
I’ve also heard about public
baths—Grandpa used to talk about them while scrubbing my back. But Alpha was
misunderstanding one crucial detail.
“Alpha, Professor Hatsuseno may have
left out something important…”
“Hmm?”
“Public baths separate men and
women.”
“Ah?” Her straightforward reply
caught me off guard. I turned to look at her in surprise.
The sight of her faintly pink-tinted
shoulders made me blush. Though the water was only lukewarm, it felt like my
body was about to overheat. What she said next, however, was like a bucket of
cold water over my head.
“Owner said that children can enter
the women’s bath, so you’re safe.”
She continued chatting about her
dream of trying a public bath, while I could only manage curt replies.
To Alpha, I was just a kid.
I wanted to sink into the red water
and disappear.
After getting out of the bath, Alpha
handed me some clothes. They were too thick for me and carried her sweet scent.
My clothes were hanging on a rope stretched across the room, gently swaying in
the heat of the stove. I’d grown taller since New Year’s Day, but all my
clothes were still kid sized. Hunching my shoulders, I let out a dejected sigh.
“What’s the matter? Why are you
sighing?”
I spun around to see Alpha standing
there in her pajamas. Her hair, usually faintly shiny, shimmered with an
iridescent glow. Her pale cheeks were tinged with a soft pink, and her smooth
skin seemed to capture the light. Sharing a bath with her felt almost like a
dream.
“You’ve been spacing out a lot. Maybe
you have a fever?”
Her concern irritated me. “I’m just
a bit too warm. I’m just a kid, after all,” I snapped, my tone sharper than I
intended.
“I see. Then maybe some fresh air
will make you feel better,” she said, pulling out a small fan from the corner
of the room.
“Wait! You’ll catch a cold!”
Alpha tilted her head, then put the
fan back. Why was she always so considerate? I sighed again.
For dinner, we ate some dragon eggs
I brought. They’re sweet fruits, about the size of goose eggs, bright red with
green horns sprouting here and there. Alpha devoured them quickly, she loves
sweets after all, but I wasn’t hungry. The thought of eating, or even talking,
didn’t appeal to me.
The scene was silent, just the two
of us.
“Takahiro, what’s the matter? Are
you feeling unwell after all?” she asked, looking at me with concern.
I shook my head and bowed slightly.
“…How about we listen to the radio?”
Alpha turned on the portable radio
in the corner of the table. It tuned into Radio Hamamatsu, the station Grandpa
always listens to. There were only three announcers, who took shifts covering
the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. At night, a middle-aged man with a
calm, gentle voice hosted.
“It’s the coldest night in years
near Hamamatsu…” the familiar voice said. Perhaps it was my imagination, but
Alpha’s eyes seemed to narrow slightly at that, “…If you’re going out, please
dress warmly. Cold nights are perfect for stargazing—”
“Takahiro, let’s see the stars!
There’s a big window in my room,” Alpha said suddenly, standing up with the
radio in hand.
“Uh, but it’s cold…”
“Looking at the sky will cheer you
up! Come on.”
Alpha practically dragged me to her
room. The walls were decorated with strange fish sculptures, similar to the
weathervane outside. She leaped onto the bed and pushed open the large window
behind the headboard with all her strength.
A cold wind rushed in, making me
shiver. I stood next to the headrest and looked outside.
“Put a blanket around you—it’s
cold,” Alpha said softly, draping a blanket over my shoulders.
I gazed at the sky just as Alpha
turned off the lights, plunging the room into complete darkness. Slowly, stars
began to appear, shining like tiny shards of glass scattered across the black
expanse of the night.
I held my breath.
The stars sparkled sharply, the sky
completely cloudless, as if the rain earlier had been nothing but a dream.
“Betelgeuse rests on Orion’s
shoulder. The blue Sirius shines at the tip of the Canis Major, while Procyon
marks Canis Minor’s heart. The Milky Way should be faintly visible between the
three…” The radio announcer described the constellations.[1]
“Hey, Takahiro, do you know which is
which?” Alpha asked softly. I looked at her silhouette, faintly illuminated by
the starlight. Despite the cold, she sat there with a blanket draped loosely
around her shoulders.
“I think I do. What about you?”
“…I don’t know!”
“Huh?” I asked, surprised. “Don’t
you have amazing eyesight, Alpha?”
“I can see so many stars—it’s
dazzling. I can’t tell which ones are which.”
It took me a moment to understand.
Be it the faint glow of a firefly on a tree or the shimmer of a fish’s scales
deep underwater, Alpha’s eyes are extraordinarily sensitive to light. On a
clear night like this, she can probably see the entire Milky Way, making it
difficult to pick out individual stars.
“Hey, Takahiro.”
“What is it?”
“We’re beneath the same sky,” she
murmured, her voice tinged with a quiet loneliness. For some reason, it
reminded me of the blue glow of the Misago.
I reached out and gently placed my
hand on hers. She turned to me in surprise.
“It may look different for each of us, but it is the same sky.”
I looked directly into Alpha’s eyes, hoping my feelings could reach
her, even if a little. For a moment, she stared back at me, wide-eyed in
confusion. Then her usual warm smile returned, and I couldn’t help but smile
back. Maybe, just maybe, I’d left a small mark on her. That thought made me
happy.
Before we realized it, the stargazing program on the radio ended,
replaced by one about long-distance bus travel.
“…I couldn’t find a single star in the end,” Alpha muttered, sounding a
little disappointed.
“You can see more than the guy on the radio ever could. That’s what
matters.”
I meant it as encouragement, but Alpha just laughed softly, looking a
little embarrassed. She didn’t say anything else.
Did I say something wrong?
“The announcer’s voice sounded a bit like Owner’s…” Alpha murmured,
setting the radio on the windowsill.
She gazed out into the distance. Her expression was so gentle and
lovely, yet it stirred a strange frustration in me. I felt like I was missing
something important, though I couldn’t quite grasp what it was.
“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
Alpha’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. She set up a thick mat and
futon for me. Compared to the thin, rice cracker-like futon I usually sleep on,
this one was fluffy and unbelievably comfortable.
Lying down, I watched Alpha as she curled up on her bed. She must’ve
been exhausted; she fell asleep instantly. She lay on her side, facing me, and
her peaceful expression was enchanting.
Even in the dim light, I couldn’t take my eyes off her face. Her closed
eyelashes were long and delicate. Her lips, curled into a faint smile, seemed
to be mumbling something I couldn’t quite catch. Looking at her like this, my
heart felt calm, as if I were in a dream.
Without thinking, I reached out, my hand hovering close to her cheek.
Just as I was about to touch her, I hesitated and pulled back slowly.
Something in me whispered that I shouldn’t do that.
As my consciousness began to fade, a thought lingered: we can lose
sight of the things most precious to us without even realizing it.
The cold wind brushing against my cheeks woke me up. The room was
bathed in pale blue light—it was morning.
When I turned to Alpha’s bed, I saw she was gone. The window was wide
open, letting the frigid air pour in.
“Takahiro!” Her voice called out, bright and lively, from beyond the
window, “Come on, hurry!”
What was she doing outside on such a cold morning? Her excitement made
me curious. Still half-asleep, I wrapped the blanket around myself and shuffled
to the window, shivering.
But the moment I stepped outside, sleep vanished entirely.
The blanket slipped from my shoulders, forgotten.
A brilliant white glow surrounded me. The grass shimmered in a pale,
milky hue, like it was dusted with crushed fish scales. A moment later, the
first rays of sunlight rose silently from the eastern sky, illuminating the
world in pure light.
And there, in the midst of the silver glow, stood Alpha.
“Wow… this is frost, right? Have you seen it before?”
I shook my head slowly, unable to look away from her.
In the silver-white dawn, her thin gown fluttered like dragonfly wings,
accentuating the smooth elegance of her figure. Her loose hair glimmered like
green gemstones, catching the light. When she turned to face me, her dazzling
smile shone brighter than the morning itself.
“It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed, her voice brimming with childlike
wonder.
She didn’t realize just how beautiful she looked in that moment.
“…Yeah,” I murmured, my chest tight. “It’s so beautiful.”
I really love this beautiful person.
From now on, every time I see the light of dawn, I’ll remember her like
this. I’ll carry the memory of her brilliance, etched into my heart, for as
long as I live.
Alpha danced through the silver frost, completely unaware of the mark
she’d left on me.
Above, the sky still held the faint moon, a soft, white arc drawn as if
by a delicate brushstroke. It glowed with a fragile light, as though it might
disappear at any moment.
Before he realized it, the connection was severed.
Omega sat motionless on the stool, the light slowly returning to his
indigo eyes.
The sleeping figure before him remained perfectly still, her features
illuminated by the pale sunlight filtering through the cloudy glass door. Her
cheeks glowed softly, bathed in a gentle, white radiance, and she smiled
faintly.
The sight was so beautiful it made him want to cry.
Omega never thought anything could feel so important to him. He had
never been so profoundly moved by anything before. His chest ached, as though
something sharp was scratching his insides. It was a sensation that reminded
him of the sadness the Misago showed, yet this pain was pleasant. It reflected
the joy Alpha often experienced, a paradoxical blend of sorrow and elation.
This strange emotion, Omega thought, was neither purely sadness nor
joy. Somewhere within the memories of the Evening Calm, the boundary between
Omega and Takahiro blurred, their identities overlapping and interweaving.
For the first time, Omega saw with his own eyes what made Alpha so
special to Takahiro. It was the essence of Alpha’s very life—the spark that
defined her existence. Even though that brilliant flame had long since been
extinguished, it lingered in her memory like an eternal ember.
But, what if that ember could reignite? What if, just for a fleeting
moment, she could open those radiant purple eyes that once brimmed with
vitality and smile at him?
“No matter what I’d have to give up, it’d be worth it,” he thought.
Omega gently pressed his warm forehead against Alpha’s cool one. There
was nothing more he could do than immerse himself in her memories, holding onto
the fragments of her presence.
It was an undeniably painful act, but within that pain was something
transformative. The intense emotions he experienced with Takahiro reshaped the
sadness of losing Alpha into something sweet—a memory that was both comforting
and eternal.
Omega, who had once been oblivious to the meaning of a kiss, now began
to understand. It wasn’t just an act; it was a message, a silent declaration
that someone was more precious than anything else.
As Omega’s warm lips met Alpha’s cold, colorless ones, an intense,
searing pain shot through him, like being pierced by countless needles.
A sound of rippling waves filled the air. Omega’s consciousness sank
deeper and deeper into the vast, endless ocean of Alpha’s memory.[2]
[1] This was difficult to translate. In Japanese Canis Major and Canis
Minor are simply known as the Dog and Puppy constellations, the way the
announcer describes them makes the scene sound somewhat poetic, but that can’t
really be conveyed due to their English names. As the announcer says, on a good
evening sky, it’s a truly incredible view. A more direct translation from
Japanese would be: “Betelgeuse
rests on Orion’s shoulder. The blue one, Sirius, shines at the tip of the dog’s
nose, while Procyon rests in the puppy’s heart…”
[2] Taking a big jump, this one is
based on Ch31: Red Water (them bathing together) and Ch56: White Morning
(stargazing and looking at the frost at dawn). In the manga Ojisan arrives with
Makki to pick up Takahiro before it gets dark after they bathe. Also, the two
events rather far apart in the manga, maybe by years.
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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