zao zhenyong is the court official helping to oversee various adminstrative affairs in a southeast asian purgatory. he’s been there ever since he died, yet thanks to his stoic exterior, no one can really tell if the five centuries he’s spent have taken its toll on him.
being sent to purgatory usually means unresolved emotions, or being at the wrong end of a local spirit’s wrath (in keika’s case). it’s usually the job of the local court to help people process said unresolved emotions so they can be sent off to the actual afterlife they’re destined to face. however, in order to make the process easier, purgatory is set up such that people who end up there have their memories erased, so they won’t be burdened by their pasts as they sort out just their emotions (their memories are returned when they leave).
this isn’t the case for zhenyong.
sometimes the higher gods beyond purgatory’s borders will grant a blessing to visitors they favour to entice them to “get over it” faster by giving them a taste of what lies beyond. unfortunately for zhenyong, said blessing is to remember everything from his past. retaining the painful memories of being killed by someone he used to trust and never having closure for what happened to his sister and her children after dying in front of them basically makes it impossible for him to rest in peace. ever since his death, he’s stayed on to help the local court out of gratefulness for taking him in, but he’d end up spending that time trying to convince himself he isn’t lonely being the only permanent human resident. burying himself into fluffy gay romance novels certainly helps.
it’s also impossible to talk about zhenyong without mentioning the next human resident to come in, myeonghoon. for anyone who’d been watching them since myeonghoon’s arrival in the 1800s, it’s hard to imagine how their present relationship even came to be. they used to be quite hostile to each other due to perceived personality clashes, and even when their fights dwindled years later, they were still quite cold to each other. now they’re basically inseparable husbands. because he’s the more outgoing one on the surface, everyone assumes that myeonghoon was the first to fall in love. this very much annoys zhenyong, given that he’d been hiding his love for myeonghoon for a full century. an uphill battle thanks to myeonghoon’s ability to read minds by contact, and the fact that it took myeonghoon a century to realise he was allowed to like men.
(more about the pink haired girl under the cut + bonus doodles at the end)
“keika tatsuya” (as her intended vtuber name goes) is an indonesian trans girl in a southeast asian purgatory who has the power to shapeshift! only, she hasn’t fully mastered it yet, and the most she can do without overexerting herself is to stretch her arms out to reorganise bookshelves.
in the living world, keika was a huge fan of vtubers and japanese pop culture and wanted to become a vtuber herself, drafting up whole designs of her vtubersona, names for her fans and entire lore. she grew up in a rather conservative neighbourhood so the only person who knew keika as a girl was her best friend. eventually, driven by dysphoria, she tries a ritual she read online that could supposedly summon a wish-granting demon. it does summon a demon, but it ends up dragging her into purgatory alive. it does grant her wish of wanting to change her body though, by giving her transformation powers she struggled to control.
being in purgatory ends up being better for her, as the few permanent residents there are more accepting and help her control her powers just enough to settle into a form comfortable for her, specifically the vtuber design she drafted in the past. it’s not completely perfect though, and she gets a job in the local court’s library sorting records to help her get used to the mushy tentacle-arms she got out of her powers. one day, she won’t need the seal to help her control her powers and she can finally match her full megabat-inspired vtuber design.
purgatory also happens to have an internet connection, for some reason, and as keika is the only one who knows how to use the internet (everyone else is either from the 1500s, the 1800s or is a nature spirit who doesn’t concern herself with modern human technology) she’s been abusing her Internet Privileges by streaming on youtube. the only reason no one realises that she’s streaming from the afterlife is because everyone thinks the whole purgatory thing is just a lore-related bit.
Buzz… my wings go buzz… it won’t stop
You can’t taste the honey that seeps from me, but I’m coming anyway
Here was a bug, unchanged, in changed surroundings
It’s a yellow and black insect, so you might get drawn to it
Looks like they’ve forgotten the pain of my poison
The ones who gather around the overflowing honey and admire it are all guys
“Bees are just what’s trending now,”
They place such value and comments on the other worthless bees and nothing else
It’s affection with no substance
サナギで藻掻いてた頃は 無視されたが
Body 変態した途端 雄バチどもが buzz…
I was ignored when I was writhing in my chrysalis
But as my body was perversely transformed, the drones went buzz…
毒あり 毒あり ずっと 毒針 毒針がある
どんなに どんなに 経っても
アナフィラキシー要注意 Chu Chu
毒あり 毒あり 一生 毒針 毒針がある
どんなに どんなに環境変わり
but I am a "menace
Poisonous forever, I’ve got a poison stinger
Time may pass by a lot
But you still gotta watch out for anaphylaxis, chu chu
Poisonous for life, I’ve got a poison stinger
The environment may change up a lot
but I am a “menace”
あたしぶんぶんぶん きみもぶんぶんぶん
みだりぶんぶんぶん 集るぶんぶんぶん
I buzz-buzz-buzz, you too will buzz-buzz-buzz
All over the place, buzz-buzz-buzz, all in one place, buzz-buzz-buzz
Buzz… my wings go buzz… I won’t stop
You can’t taste the honey that seeps from me, but I’m coming anyway
Even if you don’t plan for it, I can count you in the swarm[1]
If it’s a yellow and black insect, anyone would be fine
Not a single drop of honey to be found, but the sweet taste is a common blessing
Uploading a verbose song filled with verses laced with poison, there’s a million people addicted
I lost my edge, they say? A comment so pointed it makes polygons look like circles
The sum of the internal angles is innumerable
I’ll pierce you all with an overly shrill song
あんなに「耳障りだ」つってたくせにね
調子良さそうな時だけ 雄バチどもが buzz…
They once said that I was grating on the ears,
But only when I look like I’m in good shape do the drones go buzz…
Poisonous forever, I’ve got a poison stinger
Time may pass by a lot
But you still gotta watch out for anaphylaxis, chu chu
I don’t sway easily, I’m that useless kinda girl
I won’t numb the pain of the lame needle I half-heartedly put in you
Buzz breaks the rules, and venom bows down
I'm a Japanese Giant Hornet
あたしぶんぶんぶん
A fleeting boom boom boom
Buzz breaks the rules, and venom bows down
I'm a Japanese Giant Hornet
I buzz-buzz-buzz
A fleeting boom boom boom
調子良いときはフレンド
それが自然の定め
調子悪いときは見捨てる
それが自然の定め
You're my friend when I’m in good shape
That’s the law of nature
You'll leave me when I’m in bad shape
That’s the law of nature
---------------
Small notes:
1 - 頭数 literally means 'head count' but i thought swarm was more thematically appropriate lmao
even then, i don't think it takes away from the point of that lyric so i personally think it's an ok liberty to take
Tell me why I should be alive
If you come this close
I won’t be able to walk unsteadily alone
Hey, you’re giving me that triumphant look again
I hate hearing ‘I love you’ with no assurance
and the nights you don’t reply to me as well
so do it right with your own two hands,
and end me
貴方の合図で
私は綻び
照らされてしまう
光が似合うよ、と。
At your signal
I let the seams
be lit up and revealed
‘The light goes well with them.’
If the riot squad is there, I’m not coming quickly
But you should feel a bursting love if you think about it too much
Even if it’s awkward, it’s alright, I’m sure!
There’ll always be a bustling crowd in the east exit
this is a remake of an older song of the same name by the artist!
there's also a lot of text onscreen that read like a novel which...i don't feel like translating right now. maybe if someone else chases me for it in the future, since it means having to transcribe all the text myself </3
慊焉的な蒙昧さゆえ
眼が辷るような最終話が
回送列車の中、揺られている
As a result of this blissful ignorance,
like eyes slipping, the final episode
is swaying in the deadhead train
鮮明な夢のような、損な感覚
心拍する掌上の中
貴女の首を、ただ絞めている
A disadvantageous sensation, like a fresh dream
I feel my pulse beating in my palms
as I wring your neck in them
博奕な恋
思い出は重い手で終わらせなくちゃ
未だ 硝子の管で日々を繋いでいる
This love is a gamble
I have to end these memories in these heavy hands
The days are still held together by glass tubes
I’ll give you the worst possible words that I can,
“I’d be better off dead.”
Certainly, as of late I’ve just been pulling you in
Heart, eyeballs and eardrums,
if I were to plant them into your body,
I said, as if mocking myself,
「トピアリーみたい。」
“It’s like a topiary.”
見世物に成り果てるなら
一層の事、贋物になろう
花奢な指先に触れている
In the end, everything ends up just being for show
I’d much rather everything have been fake
I’m being held by fragile fingertips
辺鄙な好意
後悔とも呼べないような喪失感を
貴女を諦めきれず無為に縋っている
A goodwill that’s hard to reach
Instead of giving up on you, I’m idly clinging onto
a feeling of loss that can’t exactly be called regret
Let’s give them the worst possible days
such that no one will be able to get between us
I’ll take you away, so we can make our escape, just the two of us
So that I can undo the brainwashing
that convinces you that you want to die,
here is some medicine and ethanol
さあ、飲み干して
Now, drink up
縦横無尽にきらめくライト
鳴り響く巡回車 警笛
「じゃあ、逃げよう?」
Brilliant lights sparkling everywhere you look,
and the resounding sirens of patrol cars
“So, shall we run away?”
凡てを振り切って
Break free from everything
「赤熱の火焔なんかよりも、
三六度五分の方がずっと温かいよ。
間違っているかな。」
“36.5 degrees celsius always felt warm to me,
more so than the flames of red-hot heat.
Am I wrong to think so?”
ふたりきりでえいえんにいようね
はぐれないようにてをつないで
Let’s be together, just the two of us
Take my hand so we won’t get separated
The white adipose, the muscle tissue
The sickening scent of iron
They all block my nasal cavities, I feel it so painfully and dearly
At the very end of this tragic comedy
is the rousing applause and the finale
I fight strenuously to escape
When I’m hungry, I consume wisdom.
Only through my will can I decide my future, so they say.
An evil that tells me there’s nothing I can do is always
trapped in the past, unable to do anything
Your words were handed down from me
so I entrust my words to someone
Why do you still struggle even when your wings are broken?
No, that’s a silly question, I was just kidding, forget about it.
I reached my hand into tabooed land
because I didn’t know the meaning of life
This burning passion is the only thing
that gives us meaning,
maybe.
僕の気持ちは君と違うな
どうしてなのか知りたくて
この手を汚すことを選んだ
後悔したか解らない
My feelings are different from yours
and I’d like to know why
I chose to dirty these hands of mine
I don’t know if I regret it
禁足地に手を伸ばしたんだ
I reached my hand out into tabooed land
禁足地に手を伸ばしたんだ
命の意味解らないから
滾るような情熱だけが
僕たちの水を枯らしてくれる
そんな気がした
I reached my hand out into tabooed land
because I didn’t know the meaning of life
This boiling passion is the only thing
drying our water away,
that’s what it felt like.
I pretended to have not known a thing
I had never doubted that that was correct
Why do you still move even when your wings are broken?
That’s right, my bad, you’re already dead, aren’t you?
背水、偶像神話/A Last-Ditch Myth of Idoltary (English Translation)
Music/Lyrics:
Illustration: Danjo Sora
Vocal: SEKAI
the longer the shadow, the brighter one has to shine to illuminate it, what a great older sister! (connected to this other song which is about a girl living in her older sister's shadow)
The top scorer of the class, commanding respect from everyone
I turn my ever growing self-esteem into nourishment
I am offered so much worship it makes me nervous
But I can’t sit on my laurels, I must keep moving
I must always remain my most optimum self
I have to indirectly guide her to the foundations for her heart
I hold tightly onto the hem of the blazer and promptly let go of it
For her sake, I must become her ideal
like the brightest star that lights the sky at dawn
I stand further than anyone else, in the far future
I am at the forefront
What you wished from me, what you wished for
Let it become real
I have no intention of losing
Now, right at this moment, glare at them
and reach with overwhelming scale!
Let them remember the burning heat in your eyes, okay?
I need my appearances to hold it out
The endpoint is imminent from here
I’ll bite down, swallow everything and leave nothing,
so keep waiting for me there!
The dreams I regretfully left behind
and the guilt bound to me
I take on the burden of everything, everything and I soar
So look at me here, watch over my weakness
I won’t give up easily, I’ll keep writhing and struggling
like the shining Cygnus constellation
Just narrowly before
the forefront on thin ice
I’ll put on a papier-mache front,
connect to reality and make it real
Just in front of her, at all costs
do not let this brilliance die out
Charm everyone with the way you disregard the potential rewards
I’ll leave you in the dust so ready yourself
I stand further than anyone else, in the far future
That’s what I have to do
What you wished from me, what you wished for
I have to make them all real
I can’t lose
I don’t want to lose
My heart is about to burst
I lock up all those feelings
The only thing I’ll do is shine with my full strength
Not yet, I’m only just slightly ahead, I shout out my promise,
Come here, to the forefront
This awful joke of a border
is my way of deceiving you
That’s surely what she wishes for.
As her older sister, I must respond to her
Reach with overwhelming scale,
charm everyone with the way you disregard the potential rewards
Gleam with the style of Venus!
バッチリな自分
クランク下げないでね
Don’t turn the crank down
on your perfect self, okay?
so for javert his first pokemon he had in childhood was rookidee, and when he started working he got his doggies in different stages of his career, and later pupitar (his breast of bronze or sorts), which hasn’t been able to further evolve. after his big swim, he came out with the azurill that he’s reluctantly taking care of as he tries to sort out his relationship to valjean
valjean grew up farming and pruning trees with his bulbasaur. his anger forged in prison is represented by his arcanine, and his second, more water-filled stint by his poliwrath. his time as mayor, partly in hiding, is when he acquires his mimikyu, and later takes on fantine’s marowak. oddish comes along as he raises cosette, but he doesn’t see fit to evolve her until javert comes crashing into his life again
i didn't realise that i had this translation sitting around since 2023...it's just a little challenging to be super certain of whether i interpreted certain lines right or not :skull:
腹を割って言ったせいで
君の待つ夢の舞台まで
Because I spoke so frankly[1],
All the way to the stage in your dreams where you wait
嗚呼
どれくらい どれくらい
遠のいてしまったの
Ah
Just how much, how much
have we drifted apart?
腹を切って逝って去って
君を待つ黄泉の世界で
I’ll cut myself open, pass on, leave
In the afterlife where you wait for me
消え去ってしまいたいわ！
もうやってらんないわ！
I want to disappear!
I can’t do this anymore!
ひと想ひに
Just set me free!
優柔不断な短刀が
喉元で震え待っている
As you indecisively hold the dagger to my throat,
you shake as you’re waiting
宇宙空間にいるようだ
息が思うようにできなくて
Like I’m in the vacuum of space,
I can’t breathe the way I want to
さあ！ 間違った芸夢[2]（げいむ）をしよう
嫌いなふり 痛くないふり
Now, let’s play this game that’s all wrong
Pretending that we hate it, pretending that it doesn’t hurt
存外 世界は残酷なようで
Who would’ve thought? The world seems so cruel
振りほどいて 離れてみたって
ない傷跡を 毟ってみたって
Even if I try to shake free from it and pull away,
Even if I try to pick at scars that aren’t there,
悦に入った本性（ぼく）が笑ってんだ！
I actually feel really complacent, I’m laughing!
腹を割って言ったせいで
君の待つ夢の舞台まで
Because I spoke so frankly,
All the way to the stage in your dreams where you wait
I’ll cut myself open, pass on, leave
laughing, crying,
“Wait, why?”
Tear me open, sew me back up
“It hurts”
Are you crying? Laugh,
Laugh! Laugh! Laugh! Laugh…
真っ赤に染まる前に
言の葉が真っ赤に染まる前に
Before I’m dyed in red
Before my words are dyed in red
振り下ろして 首落として
艶やかに春が吹いている夜に
この可惜夜が明けてしまうなら
Bring down your sword and cut off my head
On this night where a fresh spring breeze blows
If this regretful night were to dawn…
君が真っ赤に染まるように
君の手が真っ赤に染まるように
To dye you in red,
To dye your hands in red
悪いのは君だ 殺したのは君だ
今日も泡沫の涙が咲いてゆく
You’re the one in the wrong! You’re the one who killed me!
Today too, transient tears bloom
あーあ
笑っちゃった
Aah
That’s real funny!
------------
Notes:
[1] - Literally means to 'split open [my] stomach'.
[2] - The word 'game' here is written in ateji form using the characters for 'art' and 'dream'. Note that the song lacks anything written in katakana other than the title.
Personal thoughts (feel free to not read this lol):
Harakiri is that practice of (usually) a disgraced warrior ending their lives by slicing their stomach open as penance for whatever it was that disgraced them. Though, the process of doing that doesn't always instantly kill the warrior. So in history, when someone had to commit harakiri, there would always be a second person in standby to cut off the head after the deed is done to ensure the warrior dies quickly.
With that, I personally think this song is directed towards that second person. Harakiri was also a way to execute warriors lords didn't like, so this song does really read like it's from the point of view of someone who was forced to do harakiri, and they blame the second person for what happened to them (either by being that second person or for some kind of betrayal).
I’d like to come across that contraindication
The story of the two of us has come to a conclusion
An unbearable sweetness and my life
is all that was left behind
done done
たまらないその瞳
I can’t get enough of your eyes…
「You are my main dish」
Love Shake Shake
アイスは体温で溶けて
Love Shake Shake
Melt the ice with your warmth
赤いtorchは消えていた
君は上下に揺れていた
The red torch has disappeared.
You were swaying up and down.
------------
Small note:
At the end of the video, a mock PSA appears showing the girl from ‘being loved’ with English text. I may be a translator but I am, unfortunately, unable to transcribe well through the static noise. I still tried. The only word I couldn't make out for certain is the last one.
“Parts of a woman’s body were discovered today. If you have any information at all, please let us know immediately.
She was madly in love. She continued to investigate. Yesterday she was murdered by her boyfriend. The murderer has yet to be caught. Please be careful when you go out. Don’t forget to lock up your [rooms].”
ellievsbear
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
titsay
andulkaphoto
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
turnnoffyourmind