{18Trip} <PROLOGUE SIDE-A: Still blank> 000-A08 The biggest bet of one’s life
A translation of 18TRIP's PROLOGUE SIDE-A by 82mitsu. ENG proofreading by sasaranurude. Note: this is the final chapter of the prologue.
Kafka: ……
Kaede: Kafka? Hey, what’s wro—-
(Loud popping noise)
Kaeda: Uwawgh!?
Kafka: Congrats Kaede-chan!
Kaede: Huh, what…!?
Kafka: My company has decided to hire you~!
Kaede: Hweh, eh?
Sakujiro: Congratulations. I believe this has taken you around 5 hours. As expected from Kaede-san.
Kaede: Sakujiro-san!? Eh, where did you… why…?
Kaede: Also, you said “my company”... as in Kafka’s company?
Kafka: Fufufu… Surprised, aren’t you. Here, look at this.
Kaede: What…? Documents?
Kafka: Yeah. Registration documents for the company I created.
Kaede: Registration… I can’t keep up with what’s happening, but… did you really—a company…?
Kaede: What’s this mission statement thingie right here?
Kafka: Management philosophy, or maybe… the guidelines for what ideas you want to realize, perhaps I should say.
Kaede: In other words, what you want to achieve by making the company?
Kafka: Exactly that!
Kafka: Do you remember the first time you went on a trip? What you were wishing for, with who, and where you went?
Kafka: A heart-pounding experience, a chance encounter… There might've been some unforeseen trouble, too.
Kafka: However, none of these things can be experienced unless you take that first step forward to embark on a trip.
Kafka: Where should you go? What should you do? What should you take with you? Together with who—?
Kafka: All the people that yearn to see the world, and those who haven’t had a taste of traveling yet, HAMA receives with open arms.
Kafka: Hoping one day your heart will grow warm when memories resurface, as if it’s reaching out to give you courage.
Kafka: A trip to the HAMA that’s kept close, and loved. To take your hand and lead you there—
Kafka: That is…
Kaede & Kafka: Hama Tours
Kaede: Kafka, this is…
Kafka: Say, Kaede-chan.
Kafka: Today, you felt it when going around HAMA, didn’t you? In the past, how it differs from the first trip that you gifted me… That the HAMA we know now—it's in a tough spot.
Kafka: I’m no longer that ill person waiting for Kaede-chan’s tales of traveling.
Kafka: I’ll wager all that’s left of my life, and bring HAMA back on its feet. And in order to achieve that, I need you. That’s why…
Kafka: So, Kaede-chan, bet your whole life on me too.
Kaede: Kafka…
Kaede: (The whole time, no matter where I was, I could always feel a tiny bit of regret. Wondering if this is really the kind of job I wanted to do. Even though travel work is what I yearned for, these feelings that I had—)
Kaede: (Were ones of wanting to make someone smile, from a trip to HAMA. That’s what was left of them. —A trip like the one I gave to Kafka that day.)
Kaede: –I’ll place a bet.
Kaede: On Kafka, on the work to bring HAMA back, I’ll bet my whole life!
Kafka: …Really? You mean it?
Kaede: Without a doubt.
Kafka: And it… isn’t it because you pity me? Wanting to “help” someone as miserable as me…That’s not how you feel, right?”
Kaede: No! Not a chance I’d ever think that.
Kaede: I, honestly, have been frustrated the entire time. Seeing HAMA drained of color compared to how it was… How it’s helpless, lifeless.
Kaede: But all I could do was absentmindedly stare. That’s why… you’re truly amazing.
Kaede: Thanks to you, I’ll be able to do something for the sake of HAMA, too. I’ve never been this happy before.
Kafka: Right… yeah. Right!
Kafka: Seems like I won after going all out, one way or another.
Kaede: Hm? What are you talking about?
Kafka: Nothing at all.
Sakujiro: ……
Kaede: Um, so then… what now? Actually, what should I do first?
Kafka: Oh? You’re sure fired up~ Kaede-chan. How admirable!
Kaede: Obviously I am! Because…
Kaede: (I feel like I finally found the kind of job I wanted to do. And, most importantly, it’s the same one as Kafka’s.)
Kaede: (Reading HAMA Tours’ mission statement makes it all clear. How it's the same as me… How the trip we took together that day made Kafka who he is today!)
Kaede: Either way! I’ll do anything! And when do we start… Ah, that’s right. I’ll work myself to the bone if it’s from next week on.
Kaede: That unemployment really came at the right time…
Kafka: Yeah, I knew.
Kaede: Eh… Did I… talk about how the company went out of business?
Kafka: Fufu, makes you wonder. The planets really aligned for this one, didn’t they.
Sakujiro: Young Master, it’s getting time…
Sakujiro: Your body will get cold.
Kafka: …
Kafka: I love the rain. No matter who it is, the raindrops will fall the same onto everyone. Besides—
Kafka: The coldness that has never stopped raining onto me will, at last, clear up tomorrow.
Kaede: Tomorrow? Is there something tomorrow?
Kafka: Yeah. My surgery.
Kaede: Wha….? Surgery… Surgery!? But Kafka, on PeChat, you said it was over…
Kafka: That was a lie.
Kafka: YOU LIED!? But, Sakujiro-san was also…
Sakujiro: My deepest condolences. This very Sakujiro’s 879th special skill is Co-Conspirator in No Time.
Kaede: Unbelievable….
Kaede: Wait, not that part!
Kaede: Even though your surgery is tomorrow, you went out, and now you're sitting in the pouring rain like this…!
Kaede: Put on this jacket! And then a towel, towel… Ah, I have a handkerchief. Here use this to dry yourself off immediately—
Kafka: Ahaha! You’re panicking all over the place, Kaede-chan.
Kaede: Of course I’m panicking! This is no laughing matter, you know!?
Kafka: It is something to laugh about, c’mon.
Kafka: I won a bet I placed with my whole life, so I’m invincible now. No matter what the success rate for my surgery is, there’s no way I’d lose…
Kafka: I absolutely won’t die.
Kaede: I do believe that but… Kafka, why are you that confident about it?
Kafka: Because of the courage you gave to me.
Kaede: I did…?
Kafka: I’m done with just gazing through the window at the world you live in.
Kafka: I won’t let you leave me behind anymore, and I won’t wait for you either.
Kafka: From now on we’ll be equals, standing side-by-side, walking forward while being on the same page.
Kafka: It’s likely that… not everything will be alright. Just like that one trip we took back then, we can end up getting lost, not be able to make it to the observation deck because we didn’t have the money, things like these might happen, too.
Kaede: Yeah, you’re right. But…
Kaede: When that happens, we’ll look for somewhere else.
Kaede: Even if we didn’t get to the observation deck that day, the view of the evening colors from this building was breathtakingly out of this world, wasn’t it?
Kafka: Yeah… it’s exactly as you say.
Kafka: That’s why, Kaede-chan—
Kafka: Let’s go on a trip, together!
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