Dragon Life Chapter 62 Part1

Chapter 62 – part 1
Oniichan and me.
Translated by Ninish~

—This is the worst.

If there were words other than ‘the worst’ to express this situation, I’d be yelling them out without end.

The unpleasant and undescribable sensation leaves me feeling listless, as if I had just woken up from a bad dream.

—Really, how did things come to this.

I wish this all would end up being just a dream. A dream that would reach the end after a long, long moment.

‘I don’t want to answer you back with an “I’m back”, though.'[1]

As I mutter that, the other me laughs sarcastically.

I wondered how long had pa.s.sed since that all happened, but I could easily judge the time by glancing at the darkness outside the window. The stinging sun was setting, and the fresh summer wind coming through the window caressed my cheeks.

I seem to have fainted, alone, in the school’s infirmary.

When I regained consciousness, I was unexpectedly back at home, and my older brother who left work early was by my side. Even though he fools around all the time, he had been making a serious and worried face just now so I ended up laughing at him.

“Itoka, are you all right now?”

“I’m fine already.”

The infirmary’s doctor, the person who found me, said that Touka wasn’t there, and neither were Naoki and Yuu. Only I was collapsed on the floor of the infirmary. That was it.

“But… Touka and the guys…”

Disappeared. They disappeared from that place all of a sudden.

Who would believe me if I told them that? An old book, a voice that sounded like a young girl’s, a magical pattern litting up the floor suddenly, the s.p.a.ce twists, and everyone disappears. Whoever heard that woould think it’s a lie. I would too, as long as I didn’t have “these memories” with me, I’d think that I just saw a strange dream, while the three of them sauntered away and left me behind.

“What happened to Touka?”

I hesitate to continue. How do I explain this to my brother? Would he go, “You finally decided to play along with me!” Or, “Is your head all right?” I think that the former reaction would be closer to his actual self, though.

I sigh and turn my gaze away. What should I do.

“Did something happen? Is it something you can’t tell me?”

“It’s not that but…”

Oh drat, how should I explain this?

“Itoka.”

He gently touches my shoulder. When I lift my downcast gaze back up, I’m met with Honoknii’s very serious expression.

It’s been a long time since I last saw him make such a face. It’s been several years since the accident. When a car collided with Touka in the street, he rushed over at full speed, applied first-aid treatment to him and called for an ambulance. Thinking about it now, his att.i.tude back then was slightly different from his normal self. I didn’t know that he could apply first-aid so swiftly and professionally, and I had never seen him make such a serious face, the same he’s making now. And such an adult-like att.i.tude. How should I put it, it was like he didn’t have his usual childishness, or it was like his easygoing nature was gone.

“You can’t rely on me?”

Of course that I know that you’re reliable. But this and that are different matters.

Touka and the others were unmistakeably caught up in something, and they were blown away to some other place. Or, to “that world”. So I have no way to confirm that they can return back here, nor do I know whether we will see them again or not.

Anyway, with the intent of telling him an excuse about Touka’s situation, I open my mouth.

“You know, Oniichan, Touka and the guys—“
“As I thought, …they were called over, weren’t they.”

He interrupted me when I indended to say that they had ‘flown away to some random place’.

“…Huh?”

What did he say just now? They were called over? Over to where?

“There is no sign of Touka’s presence in this world.”

My brother murmurs softly as he frowns. His gaze wanders in the air, and he seems to be thinking about something.

“What does that mean?”

It makes me hesitate about whether to ask further or not. But, unless I ask, the talk will not proceed.

When I voiced my question softly, he smiled at me, and then stroked my head as if telling me not to worry. He didn’t pat my head since the time I was a child. For him to behave like an older brother only at such a time, how sly.

“Itoka, just rest at ease. I’ll find them and bring them back, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“That’s why, what are you talking about…!”

He selfishly keeps on talking,but I don’t understand what he’s thinking at all. In the end he just stands up and makes to leave the room. …Where does he intend to go?

“Hana, come here.”

— Nyaa, I first hear a cat’s cute cry, and then Hana comes in from the open door and snuggles up to my brother’s leg. He lifts her up and gently strokes her neck.

“Would you like to go in an adventure with me again!”

He says to a purring Hana, before turning around to face me.

“I will leave the house for a while. I don’t know how long it will be, because the time axis is out of order, but you’ll be fine on your own until I return, right?”

Leave the house? Time axis? Not knowing when he’ll retun? …Just what is he talking about.

He sends a bitter smile my way, while I’m still left speechless, and then he tries to leave the room. At seeing this I stand up quickly from the bed in order to stop him, but I get a little dizzy and in the end, he had to support me so that I wouldn’t fall.

“H-Hey, don’t do something so rash!”

“Explain.”

I glare up at my tall brother from below. Since my complexion right now is bad, the glare should come out dreadful; hopefully it will work.

“I can’t understand a single thing about what you’re saying, Oniichan. It’s the stuff you always talk about, but… You know something about what happened to Touka, don’t you? You know to where they went after disappearing so suddenly, right?”

“…I see, so they did disappear after all.”

With a bitter smile he takes a small book the size of a memo pad from his chest pocket, and searchs for something in it. As he searches, he admonishes me.

“What you saw did happen in reality. However, there’s nothing for you to fear, because there’s me! I will properly bring them back safe and sound, so rest at ease and wait–“

“Stop fooling around! I want to know what’s going on! Why are you—!!”

Suddenly, I notice.
That object which enters my sight.

—That means, that book.

The book he holds in his hand is extremely old, giving off the feeling that it has existed for countless years. However, it seems to be brand – new on the inside, and its wiggling characters are not something that I could possibly understand. They are similar to the letters in Naoki’s book. And, those are the same characters that I saw then.

A book. A small book. An old book.

A book. A small book. An old book. Touka, Naoki and Yuu disappeared. They were called over? Called over to where? He will leave the house for a while. Honoknii will go on an adventure. Together with Hana.

A book. A small book. An old book. Honoknii suddenly changed a few years ago. I don’t know the reason. However, the air about him changed vaguely.

A book. A small book. An old book. A book. A small book. An old book. A book. A small book. An old book.

A book. A small book. An old book. Honoknii and Hana. Needless to say, Onii-chan is j.a.panese. Hana is a cute pet cat.

A book. A small book. An old book. A j.a.panese, a cat, to be called over… A summon. …Hm?

I feel like there’s something that I can’t quite remember. An unlikely equation solves within my mind, and I open my eyes wide to stare up at the presence that is my older brother standing in front of me.

— No way… But how could I believe in such a convenient story? No way. No way, right? It’d be too perfect too be true. The timing’s too good.

But.

Then.

Hana who was purring in my brother’s arms would be.

“Maybe, an Earth Dragon?”

That’s absurd. I said it out myself but I’m denying it; no, I’d like to deny it, that this lovely Hana is actually a ferocious Dragon. But there is no other explanation. Because, otherwise nothing makes sense. My older brother carries a book that I have seen in the other world, and upon learning that Touka’s group disappeared, he readily took it in, and moreover, he’s talking about going to bring them back. What’s more, although his hair is now dyed brown, but I remember that before that his hair was of a glossy ebony color that’d make even Snow White jealous.

“Itoka, could it be you…”

This time it was my brother’s turn to be surprised when I spoke. But his surprised face soon turned into a smile.

“Her official name is Golden Geo La, which means ‘Earth Made of Gold’.”

What’s with that naming sense. It’s painful; so embarra.s.sing that it becomes painful, Oniichan.

Hana too, is incessantly gnawing at my brother’s fingers as if she’s dissatisfied with that name. It’s kinda cute.

“In the other world they abbreviated it to Gorilla. …In fact that ‘r’ should be ‘dz’, but the people from over there couldn’t p.r.o.nounce it, apparently.1 But it’s cool like this too, isn’t it.”

Don’t say that with a bragging face. How could that be cool.

I kinda remember Hana having such a name when she first came to live at our house. My family opposed it because they felt sorry for that name too, and so we settled with ‘Hana’. My parents’ naming sense is bad, but it seems that they’re moving on.

“Since you know about it, then that means that you have crossed over too. Your behaviour didn’t show it so I couldn’t tell at all.”

‘Crossing over,’ he says; does this mean that he was that “Savior”, that “Hero”? …My head hurts. Someone, please explain this to me. Hana which I thought was a cat until now is a Dragon, and my older brother is a Hero? What kind of setting is that. If it was the me from before, I’d have gone, ‘Yeah, yeah, you delusive weirdo’, but now’s not the time to say such a thing.

Holding my aching head, I heave a big sigh as I sit down on the bed. I seem to have become very tired all of a sudden.

“…I had forgotten about it. I only remembered it all a while ago, and it’s not like I went there in person. Time too, it’s like no time pa.s.sed at all.”

“Because the flow of time is different over there and over here. Would you let me hear the details?”

I don’t want to tell him. To the realist me who doesn’t believe in ghosts and doesn’t even want to believe in them, to have to tell such a dreamlike fantasy with my own mouth is a bitter thing. But if I don’t, things won’t move on; the disappeared Touka come back.

I set my resolve and open my mouth gravely.

I’ll tell him everything, as far as I can remember.

Yes, from the fact that everything started at Vizannu Mountain—–.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Translator’s Lair~☆

And well, the notes are never away for long~

Also, I noticed that I didn’t give the character name for Yuu last chapter… here it is: 祐. it means ‘help’, it’s the same character that’s used to write ‘Tasukete–!!’ if you’re into anime XD

Also… Gorilla. Please someone lend me a gun, i need to shoot some guy very dead. It’s better to die than to live with such a bad naming sense…

r -> dz: Honoka is saying, in case you didn’t catch the joke, that a proper abbreviation should have been… G.o.dzilla X’D I’m crying.  ゴリラ  —>>>  ゴジラ ↩