Tsuzuru Minagi | [SSR] To My Dear Friend [1] | Your Friend
“Just like how I want to put new feelings down onto words on a page, I think Luke must also have more feelings that he wants to convey.”
Translated by: Mod April
(Player name has been set to "Izumi".)
—
Part 1
Tsuzuru: Ah, the thinly sliced beef seems to be pretty cheap today. … woah, 40% off!?
Izumi: Amazing! Even though it wasn’t advertised on the flyer? It’s a pretty good deal, so let’s buy a lot and make a luxurious curry—
Tsuzuru: We’ve been having curry for the past three days! Can’t we have something different today?
Izumi: But if you switch up the spice ratios…
Tsuzuru: Even so, nothing will change! Curry is curry!
Izumi: Ehh~!
—
Clerk A: For those who have a lottery ticket, you can claim your prizes here~!
Tsuzuru: Ah, there’s a lottery again.
Izumi: Speaking of which, I got a ticket just now at the checkout. I received some… oh, here it is.
Izumi: Seems like we only get one spin, so let’s go try it out.
Tsuzuru: Oh, I see. Who’s gonna pull?
Izumi: You can go ahead, Tsuzuru-kun.
Tsuzuru: Got it. Then—
[ Tsuzuru spins the wheel. ]
Clerk A: And the result is… oh, a consolation prize! Your prize will be these pocket tissues.
Tsuzuru: Ah… hahaha… I guess that’s how it is. If it were Sakuya…
Izumi: Well anyway, the lottery spin is basically just extra freebies.
Izumi: Plus, we ended up stumbling onto today’s silent sale, so maybe that’s where all our luck went.
Tsuzuru: You think so, huh?
Izumi: For sure.
Tsuzuru: (Speaking of which, I didn’t actually get a good look at the prizes. Prize A is…)
Tsuzuru: Hm? That’s…
Izumi: Ah! Prize A looks a lot like that robot toy you won last time.
Tsuzuru: Doesn’t it?
Izumi: What happened to it afterwards?
Tsuzuru: Honestly, a bunch of things happened, so I don’t have it on me right now.
Izumi: Ehh, don’t tell me you threw it away…?
Tsuzuru: No, no, I wouldn’t do something like that. I gave it to my younger brothers.
Izumi: Oh, so that’s it.
Tsuzuru: (Come to think of it, I wonder what’s happened to it… I don’t think they threw it away, but…)
Izumi: But that’s unfortunate, huh? If we got Prize A, we could have gotten that robot a friend.
Tsuzuru: No, it’s fine, there’s no need for that.
Izumi: Eh~ Really?
—
Tsuzuru: I’m home.
Takeru: Tsuzuru-niichan~! Welcome home!
Yuzuru: Big Bwo Tsuzuwu! [2]
Tsuzuru: Lively as ever, huh.
Yuzuru: U-um…
Tsuzuru: Hm? What’s wrong?
Yuzuru: Can you do something for us…
Takeru: This robot broke when we were playing. Tsuzuru-niichan, can you fix it?
Tsuzuru: This one? … From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem to be broken.
Robot: “H-H-H-HE-HE-HE—”
Yuzuru: It won’t say hello anymore. :(
Tsuzuru: Changing the battery might fix it, no?
Takeru: We tried that, but it just ended up like this.
Tsuzuru: Ah, I see…
Tsuzuru: (The speaker is broken. If the arms or legs came off then it’d be more manageable, but I can’t fix this…)
Tsuzuru: …
Tsuzuru: I’ll see what I can do. Do we have a screwdriver?
Takeru: Yeah, we do!
Yuzuru: Thanks, Big Bwo Tsuzuwu!
Tsuzuru: It’s still too early to thank me.
Tsuzuru: (Since it’s like this, I’ll ask that person for help.)
—
Part 2
Chikage: “... how is it? The sound?”
Tsuzuru: I’ll try flipping the switch.
[ Tsuzuru flicks the switch on the toy robot. ]
Robot: “H-HE… GA-GA-GA-GA-GA-GA—”
Tsuzuru: Ugh, it’s no use.
Chikage: “Is that so… sorry, I have to go.”
Tsuzuru: Sorry for calling you so suddenly while you’re busy.
Chikage: “I don’t really mind. If you aren’t able to fix it, bring it back to the dorm.”
Chikage: “I can better understand what’s wrong with it if I see it for myself.”
Tsuzuru: Thank you.
Chikage: “See you.”
[ End call. ]
Tsuzuru: Hah…
Tsuzuru: (It’s already this late…)
Tsuzuru: (It was mostly for my brothers, but I guess I focused on the repairs more than expected when I thought about how useful it’d be for my role study.)
Tsuzuru: (Well, panicking isn’t going to fix it, so it’s probably fine to take a quick nap like this…)
—
Tsuzuru: … nnh. Huh, what was I doing?
Tsuzuru: (Oh, right. My brothers asked, so I was fixing this robot.)
Robot: “..........”
Tsuzuru: (In the end, the voice won’t come out at all anymore…)
???: —Can you pass that over?
Tsuzuru: Eh?
Tsuzuru: E-eh?
Luke: What is it?
Tsuzuru: No, uh… Luke, why are you here?
Luke: ‘Why,’ you ask… Weren’t you the one who wanted me to fix this mechanical doll?
Tsuzuru: Is that so…? Right, I guess that’s…
Luke: From what I can see, the sound won’t come out, right?
Tsuzuru: Yeah, seems like it. I tried messing around with it myself, but…
Luke: Hmm. I see…
Tsuzuru: (It’s like I’m dreaming again.)
Luke: Should I help you fix this?
Tsuzuru: Eh…
Luke: Or are you opposed to anyone else aside from you touching it?
Tsuzuru: No, that’s not…
Tsuzuru: (But if it’s Luke, he might be able to fix it.)
Luke: … if you don’t want me to, that’s also fine.
Tsuzuru: No, can I ask you to do this?
Luke: Understood.
[ Luke working SFX. ]
Luke: …
Luke: So here… is it this? No… something else.
Tsuzuru: (After all, this sort of thing is his forte.)
Tsuzuru: (Even though he’s a role that I created, it’s amazing that his skills are this refined)
Tsuzuru: (... but this kind of robot doesn’t exist in that world, right?)
Luke: … done.
Tsuzuru: You’re already finished?
Luke: It’s just this much, so I don’t need long. Try turning it on.
[ They turn on the robot. ]
Robot: “HELLO.”
Tsuzuru: It’s really all fixed!
Tsuzuru: You did a good job fixing it…
Luke: … I’ve seen this robot before.
Tsuzuru: Eh?
Luke: I was given it by my master who said he lost interest in it. After that, its power source died. At that time, I saw how it worked.
Luke: That was made the same way as this. So I just figured, one way or another, I’d be able to fix it.
Tsuzuru: Huh. If that’s the case, then I get how you were able to fix it.
Tsuzuru: (... but did that sort of setting always exist?)
Luke: This mechanical doll, I heard it’s a child’s toy. Is it yours?
Tsuzuru: Well… at first. But now it’s just become my younger brothers’ friend.
Luke: ——
Tsuzuru: Is something wrong?
Luke: No, I was just thinking about how this mechanical doll has friends too.
Robot: “LET’S PLAY TOGETHER.”
Luke: What the…?
Tsuzuru: This robot speaks on its own if you just leave it alone.
Robot: “LET’S BE FRIENDS!”
Luke: ——
Luke: … but it’s just a toy companion, so what should I…?
Tsuzuru: Wouldn’t it be good to give it a handshake?
Luke: !
Tsuzuru: Handshakes are how people greet each other. You should teach that to this little guy, too.
Robot: “LET’S BE FRIENDS!”
Luke: … right.
Tsuzuru: (Surely, right now, Luke is remembering…)
—
Part 3
Tsuzuru: Mm…
Tsuzuru: … oh, a dream?
Tsuzuru: (I was thinking about doing role study while working, so is that why Luke appeared in my dream?)
Tsuzuru: Ah, speaking of which, that robot…
Robot: “...”
Tsuzuru: (Even though Luke fixed it for me in my dream, maybe…)
Robot: “...”
Tsuzuru: As expected, it hasn’t been conveniently fixed.
Robot: “HELLO.”
Tsuzuru: Huh, it’s fixed…!
Tsuzuru: (Did the messed up part end up fixing itself? I wonder what else it can say.)
Robot: “GOOD MORNING.”
Tsuzuru: Oh…
Tsuzur: (Right. I’ll send Chikage-san a LIME and let him know.)
Robot: “LET’S SHAKE HANDS.”
Tsuzuru: ——
Robot: “WE’RE FRIENDS!”
Tsuzuru: (I borrowed it because I thought it’d be useful for my role study, but—)
Takeru: Was that the robot talking!?
Yuzuru: The robot’s fixed!!
Robot: “LET’S BE FRIENDS!”
Takeru: Ahaha, you haven’t said let’s be friends yet~ Yuzuru, shake its hand!
Yuzuru: Okay, handshake~!
Tsuzuru: (That robot should make a good friend for them.)
Tsuzuru: … as I thought, your home is here.
Takeru: Tsuzuru-niichan, is something wrong?
Tsuzuru: No, nothing at all.
—
Izumi: In the end, you didn’t bring the robot back after all.
Tsuzuru: Yeah. Well, I doubt not having it will have any effect on my role study.
Tsuzuru: If anything, maybe I already did my role study when my little brothers asked me to fix it.
Itaru: In that case, the toy did its duty without any issues.
Tsuzuru: No, no. It’s duty actually starts now.
Tsuzuru: For now, I plan to have it complete its task of being a good friend to my little brothers.
Sakuya: Hehe, isn’t that great? For Tsuzuru-kun’s little brothers, and the robot too, if they’re together then there won’t be a dull moment!
Masumi: As long as it doesn’t break again.
Tsuzuru: Mm, true. I’m worried about that too.
Citron: It will be okay! If it breaks, then just fix it again. We have someone nearby who can fix it for us!
Tsuzuru: … that’s right.
Tsuzuru: Well, when that time comes, I’ll ask for your help Chikage-san.
Chikage: So it was me.
Tsuzuru: After all, you know I don’t think that I can fix it on my own…
Chikage: Well, I won’t stop you.
—
Luke: “... how about this?”
Robot: “... GOOD MORNING.”
Luke: “It moved…”
Luke: (Back when my master gave this to me, I got close but didn’t manage to fix it. But…)
Luke: (The experience I had fixing the mechanical doll the other day proved useful.)
Robot: “LET’S BE FRIENDS!”
Luke: “... shall we shake hands?”
Luke: “I’ll introduce you to him one day. To my dear friend.”
—
[1] I know the YC version has it down as "Dear Precious Friend"... So the Japanese name of the card is 前略、大切な友達へ. "大切な友達" is dear/precious friend. The "へ" denotes the "to", like this is toward said friend. In letters, "前略" is typically used to get straight to the point of a letter. Literally, it's something like, "I'm going to skip past all the fluff text that's usually here at the front." You'd usually use this for a close friend, for something straightforward, etc... But it's kind of clunky to put that in English, and it's essentially just the intro greeting of a note or letter.
[2] Yuzuru's like... three years old? For this one, we wanted to show that Takeru and Yuzuru specifically have two different ways of calling for Tsuzuru.
[3] I really had to hold back from putting little pleading face emojis on everything Yuzuru said, I'm so serious.
