Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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School Trip
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
December of my second year of high school, the colors of autumn passed and the cold winter began. I went on an extremely normal, high school-like staple school trip to Kyoto.
If one were to ask why in winter, that would be because it was hard to reserve hotels in autumn–the top tourist season–since tourists from all over the world were visiting.
The school trip during my third year of middle school was also Kyoto, and although it was the same place two years later, my spirits were naturally high as it was a school trip nonetheless.
The ban on the use of airplanes had been lifted on public high schools in the Ibaraki Prefecture, and in the past several years, there were a lot of schools that went to Okinawa and Hokkaido. It was decided through a student survey that we would be going on a Kansai school trip centered around Kyoto. 1
Family vacations are nice too but going with friends makes me unsettled in a good way.
Because of my school life and hometown’s high school, I had a lot of old friends with inseparable relationships and no complaints whatsoever.
The second day of the school trip was for group activities, and as the 700th year establishment celebration event of the temple we visited, hibutsu–the great Kannon (Bodhisattva of Compassion)–was specially made available to the public to see. 2
Of course, we didn’t know when the hibutsu would next be shown to the public. Although it wasn’t in our plans, we decided to line up and take a look.
Our group of eight people–a mix of both boys and girls–went to line up.
“Aren’t we quite lucky!”
Takashi, who I’ve been with since elementary school, was in lively spirits.
His excitement was even greater than mine.
“It’s the first time it’s been revealed to the public in around 400 years, so wouldn’t it have accumulated a lot of power?”
“Hahaha, what kind of power?”
If it really has been accumulating power for the past 400 year, have there been any benefits for the people who have come to worship it? Or so people will ask. 3
“After awakening from 400 years of sleep, its powers will return the world to the darkness of chaos.”
Tomoya, it’d be nice if you quickly recovered from your 8th-grade syndrome.4
“Oioi, that’s rude to the great Kannon (Bodhisattva of Compassion).”
Kunimitsu, you should try hiding that Ibaraki dialect a bit.
“What~, come to think of it, 400 years ago–that’s near the end of the Sengoku period~.”
Takashi, you too. 5
“I envy Toyotomi Hideyoshi~.”
“Why’s that? Tomoya.”
“Makoto, if you were speaking of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he’s the strongest historical harem character in Japanese history, after all.”
Is that so? Does the Edo Castle inner palace not count?
Well, it seemed like his various institutions were strict, so it certainly would seem like Toyotomi Hideyoshi to be free to do whatever he wants.
“Honestly, boys are idiots~.”
Honoka, my childhood friend who lived next door–a cookie-cutter scenario right out of a drawing, looked at us in scorn.
“Shut up~ All guys long for a harem, right! Right? Makoto!”
“Well~, ahem, don’t throw the conversation over to me.”
“Uwa~ Makoto-kun also wants a harem, huh~”
That’s wrong Kayo-chan. That’s wrong, you know.
“The light novels this guy has are only isekai harems you know, big breasts loli heroines not to mention.”
Takashi, that was supposed to be a secret wasn’t it? I lent some to him to have him keep it a secret, but this guy was troublesome whether as a traitor or as loose-lipped.
Well, it wasn’t a problem to have that exposed, it really wasn’t, but could you stop yelling people’s fetishes out loud—-Oh, looks like the line started to move.
“Inside here will be very dark. It’s in order to protect the great Kannon from ultraviolet rays, and also as a result of this place being extremely sacred, light kept to a bare minimum. Please advance by moving slowly along the wall one by one. When you proceed to the underground of the main temple building, this temple’s idol, the great Kannon, will be there. Please refrain from whispering and pray peacefully (gasshou).”
At the temple’s entrance, a young Buddhist priest guided us with a smile.
“Singing a chorus (gasshou) he said! What should we sing? Kaeru no Uta?” 6
“Idiot, that’s wrong, it’s praying, putting your hands together and praying, you know.”
“It’s just a joke, just a joke, Micheal Jordan.” 7
“Hey Takashi, stop fooling around.”
Then, it was our turn. Probably reading the atmosphere, my friends who were fooling around stopped talking and walked into the temple.
Inside was total darkness, only the breathing and footsteps of the people treading down the passageway with wooden walls that entered could be heard.
Inside the temple that was darker than night, I couldn’t even see my fingers.
Like what the Buddhist priest at the entrance said, we advanced forward one step at a time slowly, following the wall with our hands.
My eyes got used to the darkness, but I couldn’t hide my slight astonishment that you really couldn’t see anything in a place with no light.
Even in my room at night, even if the lights were turned off, there would always be some sort of light.
Light from the TV power light, my charging smartphone, air conditioning, and air purifier, even if it was dark, the light they gave off played a sufficient role in helping navigate the room.
In front of me is Takashi, behind me should be Honoka. I wonder if it was my imagination? I felt like Honoka was holding onto my uniform with some questionable strength.
That made me slightly relieved as it reminded me that I wasn’t the only one in the dark, but as I slowly, slowly, and slowly progressed my feet, I lost that pulling feeling.
Hm? Something’s wrong. Even in a space where you couldn’t feel time and distance due to the darkness, I should’ve progressed a whole lap back and forth to the enshrinement hall by now.
Around that moment when I should’ve taken another step, I noticed the strangeness. I couldn’t hear the footsteps or Takashi’s breathing in front of me for some time, and I became uneasy as one would expect and called out.
Called out quietly that is.
“Hey, Takashi, you here?”
Hm? There was no reply, what’s with that? You’re the type that’d talk even in this sort of place right?
I raised my voice a bit louder.
“Hey, Takashi? Honoka?”
I called out in a louder voice than before and they should’ve heard it no matter what, but there was no response. Have I gotten lost in an unknown place?
Wasn’t this supposed to be a straight path?
How much further until the great Kannon-sama?
Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, something’s wrong. Nevertheless, I must not stop my feet and keep progressing or else I wouldn’t get out. Anyway let’s keep going.
Hm? What’s up, you are here, aren’t you? I could hear a voice and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Lord~ (oyakatasama)”
Hm? Who are you talking to? Boss (oyakata)? Are you talking about the chief carpenter? Well, it’s good for the time being if someone’s there. As I walked along the wall, I could hear voices and I saw a long small piece of red light.
Is the exit close? Is this finally the exit? That small light illuminated similar to a Japanese sliding screen. Is it okay if I listen in? This is finally the exit, right? Alright, I’m opening it.
“Muwahahahaha, it would be good if I, Nobunaga, would be killed by someone like Mitsuhide, it cannot be avoided.”
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
- Flowingcloud: Many high schools in the past banned the use of airplane travel due to high costs and other reasons, but this ban has been relaxed in recent years. Hokkaido and Okinawa are islands separate from Honshu (mainland Japan), and flying is the primary method of going to those places.
- Flowingcloud: Hibutsu – There’s no good translation for this world in my opinion, so I just left it as is. Hibutsu are Japanese Buddhist icons of statues that are usually not made available to the public for worship unless it is a special event. If you pay attention in anime, most of the times when people go pray at the shrine, they pray in front of the temple, but in fact, the icon or statue is hidden inside the temple to protect it. Feel free to read more on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibutsu
- Flowingcloud: This was honestly a pain in the ass to translate, so I kinda BSed my way through, but it requires religious knowledge to understand. Basically, since it’s hidden away and protected, they’re memeing that they have been absorbing their faith and worship for 400 years and might release the faith it’s been accumulating in the form of some grace or blessing to the people visiting.
Arocks141: TLCed. - Arocks141: ‘Chuunibyou’, a disease rampant in Japan, particularly common within 8th graders. It is a mental disease whose symptoms include hallucinations and severe belief that oneself is in fact some sort of superpowered hero or villain reborn into a world of hidden terrors. Cause of disease is believed to be the plethora of shounen mangas and anime shown to them.
- Flowingcloud: Sorry, I’m not good at translating accents, so I just keep them as is. Both Kunimitsu and Takashi were speaking in Ibaraki dialect.
Arocks141: Hmm… I could put in some efforts to edit the dialogue to match a particular dialect and increase readers’ engrossment into the text… Or I could take a nap. - Flowingcloud: Such a sh*tty pun by the author lmao. Here’s the song he mentioned if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7luT3ymmlo
- Flowingcloud: This pun wasn’t even funny even in Japanese. Too lazy to explain this pun. If I knew someone who said this is real life, I’d stop being friends with them.
Thanks for the chapter.