Chapter 2: Deathly seed.
Translated and Edited by: luccayn.
Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you’re close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it’s cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one’s older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.
In elementary school, I was subjected to a class trial.
During P.E., a girl’s recorder was stolen while I was the only one in the classroom at the time. She wasn’t just a girl though. Her name was Saori, and I liked her.
Still.
—Creepy.
—Disgusting.
—Gross.
Even now, those voices so ineffably jarring still echo in the recesses of my mind. When it happened, I was made to stand right in the middle of class as all sorts of insults were thrown at me. And because I confided my first love to a guy I thought was my friend, everyone knew I liked her.
It was only fuel to the flames.
With suspicions only rising, I was made a scapegoat. Missing battle cards, someone’s toy being broken, and numerous things I had no idea even happened were all directed at me. To them, I was to blame for every little thing.
While I stood there, the homeroom teacher just stayed silent. Not a word coming out of his lips. So, unable to bear the constant defamation thrown at me, and seeing Saori crying sadly in a corner, I couldn’t help but hang my head and say—
“I did it.”
…It was miserable.
Even in a classroom where kids frolicked with foolish ideas like making a hundred friends, or whatever the case, I was the only wrong person. If 29 people could be happy, was it okay to abandon one? Even those bullied introverts coughed and threw their stones at me.
It was all because I liked her. All because I was just watching P.E. from a window. Those reasons alone were enough to make me an outcast from this societal structure called a school.
But I didn’t do jack! I knew I didn’t!
So, I gathered evidence by the next day, and another class trial was held. There was another person who stole that recorder, so I figured that if it hadn’t been found yet — and it hadn’t — then it must still be in their possession.
In the past, I shoplifted a candy from a store once without malice. The sheer guilt I felt from it afterward was gut-wrenching and unforgettable. It forever clung to the tail of my existence, and it’s still there to this day. I learned then that normal people can’t escape the guilt toward the innocent. That’s why religions exist, or so I thought at the time.
During that first trial, while I pitifully cried and bowed in the middle of class as the pariah I was made to be, I didn’t miss how he averted his eyes from me. Oh, he couldn’t bear to watch because he knew I wasn’t the culprit. With that, I was determined to clear my name from the false accusations.
Lo and behold, the culprit was our homeroom teacher, that son of a b*tch!
Late at night, he’d snuck into the staff room and stole Saori’s recorder from her very desk. He also rifled through the locker and stole a couple of girls’ gym uniforms. Evidence showed he was a perverted man who lusted after what he could not. So, I taught the world of his debauched hobby! I showed how much of a scumbag he was for shaming kids!
“You’re the culprit, b*stard! Damn you!” I spat vitriol, laying everything I’d gathered out in the open. Desolate, his legs gave out.
Later that same day, after school had ended, Saori came up to me and said, “I knew it! I knew it wasn’t you, Shin-chan!”
…Don’t mess with me.
“Hm?” She didn’t catch my mumbling.
“Don’t mess with me! Just yesterday, you just spat whatever came to your head and made me out to be the bad guy! Everyone, you included, gathered around and treated me like a lump of crap, acting like a league of righteous heroes!”
“Sh-Shin-chan?”
“If only I hadn’t fallen in love with you. If only you hadn’t shown me such a painful thing… Maybe I could’ve told you I was different.”
I couldn’t take it. Even as an elementary schooler, I understood that my emotions were so messed up, that I could probably cross the line of ethics from there on. Sadness, excitement, anger, it was all jumbled.
“It’s all your fault! I shouldn’t have liked you! You and everyone else are the same as that perverted b*stard!”
“That’s…!”
“You bunch of sin-crowding locusts! F*ck you! Rot away!”
Words spilled; I couldn’t stop myself. What remained afterward was guilt over my destroyed first love and the trashy school life I had to spend rotting away. I passed the rest of my middle school days in the remains of what once were, and there was no lingering thrill to get back at anyone, or a sense of righteous superiority. Just a messed up, twisted head.
…But, thanks to that, I learned something.
Love is the seed of a deathly, shameful, sh*tty, and murky thing called betrayal. And evidence is the only thing that can save me.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment your opinions below!
Also, if you enjoyed my translation and would like to feed my caffeine addiction, click on the button below and graciously give me my fix—I mean, a cup of coffee.
Strawberry Milkshake
November 12, 2023 at 2:26 amAnd thats how villain were born
Mr. K
November 12, 2023 at 9:09 pmI like this guy, in other novels it would have happened in two ways:
1. The protagonist accepts the apology but keeps his distance, eventually leaving for a different school.
2. No one apologizes to him and he remains behind while the rest only make excuses for his behavior.
I like that this guy didn’t shut up and I told them to go to hell.
side note: from the way the girl called the protagonist, it is most likely that she is a childhood friend, so if you go to the list of idiot childhood friends on this web site, I will save you a place along with the girl from “traumatized boy” I’m sure you two will get along well
Non-3p1c
November 13, 2023 at 3:13 amThanks for the chapter. Everything was going pretty well until i got to the paragraph that didn’t really have anything to do with the story about stealing some candy, other than that well written and nice backstory
RexAe
November 13, 2023 at 1:03 pmFinally some realistic anger (although a bit too mature for elementary kids). But atleast, the mc doesn’t pussy out on being falsely accused.
Declis
November 13, 2023 at 6:09 amTo Ynlucca, thank you for the translation. None of this applies to you.
———————
According to Google, in year 2 at elementary school, the child would be 7 years old. Let’s see what this author thinks a 7 year old can talk about.
“Don’t mess with me! Just yesterday, you just spat whatever came to your head and made me out to be the bad guy! Everyone, you included, gathered around and treated me like a lump of crap, acting like a league of righteous heroes!”
“If only I hadn’t fallen in love with you. If only you hadn’t shown me such a painful thing… Maybe I could’ve told you I was different.”
“It’s all your fault! I shouldn’t have liked you! You and everyone else are the same as that perverted b*stard!”
“You bunch of sin-crowding locusts! F*ck you! Rot away!”
Also, the act of gathering a full set of evidence in one day and manipulating an adult to bring him down in public? I have yet to meet a light-novel writer who has interacted with a 7 year old. This is ridiculous. In middle school, at least there is something you might be able to hand wave this over, but a 7 year old?
Also, once again, despite the first chapter saying “Oh, us normal people”, he’s apparently a super genius Detective Conan. Why is everything wish fulfilment? There’s no triumph in winning the game if you start at Lv. 99.
ynlucca
November 13, 2023 at 12:44 pmFirst of all, thanks for reading! This comment is more of a societal analysis than anything, so don’t take it as a pushback against your comment.
Well, what I’ve realized after a while reading Japanese novels is that they really love wish fulfillment and power fantasies. However, I’ve also realized they have reasons.
Japan is a very harsh place in terms of work culture, so when a salaryman that’s slaving away almost every day of the week comes home, he just wants to feel a little bit happier. So what does he usually read? Something that’ll make him forget the hell he’s going through, something that’ll take him away from this world onto a next, happier one where he’s strong, handsome, popular, etc. Hence why Isekais are so popular.
Now, these kinds of novels where the MC is cynical and hated, yet is also strong, work in the same manner. People that have bad experiences socially love reading this kind of novel because it makes them feel like they’re punching back at the world for the suffering that they’ve gone through. When the MC in this novel screams at the world for not believing in him, it’s reflected onto what a possible reader may feel about the world themselves.
So I’m all for this kind of “trashy slop” because people deserve a break from their hard lives. I read trash Isekai, not because it’s good or that I think it’s some amazing work, but because it makes me feel like I’m important in a different world. That I’m useful, loved, popular, handsome, whatever it is. Still, I agree this and basically 80% of other JP webnovels are not some masterpieces, but I personally see value in reading something to scratch that itch every once in a while. Anything to be a bit happier in this world.
All in all, this is just my opinion after a few years consuming Japanese media and noticing trends. Don’t take whatever I say as fact ^^
john
November 27, 2023 at 4:47 amWhat kind of yukito Kokonoe its this MC? a dark one maybe?.. I like it