Sinking their sneakers into the gravel of the path, the hikers in Asuka hurried along the trail. The faces of all the nearby tourists displayed irritation at the unwelcome arrival of rain. Kerberos shot through the hills at high speed, Nakajima tightly gripping the corpse of Yumiko on his back. But the extremely abnormal sight didn't seem to phase the hikers.
"What was that just now?"
"They must be shooting a movie here, I guess."
The relaxed voices grew faint behind Nakajima. Presently Nakajima arrived at the hills he had seen in his vision. Nakajima did not know that this 200-meter tall hill was a Kofun tomb known as "Shirasagi Mound." Shirasagi mound was huge for a Kofun tomb, and was deeply shrouded in mystery. It was unknown whether or not it was a zenpokoen-fun "keyhole"-style tomb or just one that took advantage of a natural hill, let alone who was buried there or when it was built. However, it had been passed down in oral tradition that a woman had been buried here, and some of those who had studied the treatise "Gishi-Wajin-den" argued that it was the grave of Himiko, the ancient queen of Yamato. In the modern day, fully half of Shirasagi Mound had been cultivated into fields, and of the original burial mound, only a single stone chamber remained, along with a few Kumazasa shrubs and pine woods.
As Kerberos climbed the hill, his movement became visibly slower, and the spasms of his rough breathing could be felt on his back. As soon what appeared to be the entrance to the stone burial chamber appeared, Kerberos finally came to a stop. Nakajima dropped to the ground, leaving Yumiko on the back of the demon beast. And as if his strained nerves had finally reached their breaking point, as Kerberos' front legs bent, he collapsed to the ground. Perhaps his wounds from the battle with Loki had worsened, or perhaps Shirasagi Mound itself caused pain to the animal, but either way, as if he could no longer take another step, Kerberos stuck his tongue out and started panting, while letting out a low whine. The flicker of fire in his eyes was gone.
"You did good, Kerberos. You can go on back."
Nakajima had no choice but to return the digital beast to his handheld computer.
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4 comments:
Another short chapter. Getting close to the end here.
Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Part 4 are also really short. After that is Part 5, the final one in the book. It has one average chapter, three very short chapters, and then one final monster chapter.
There are only 35ish pages left. With luck I might have the whole thing done in a month or so.
Thank you for all of your hard work.
Thanks for all your hard work ^_^ really interesting (albeit a bit gory >_> <_<) stuff here. Would love to read the rest ^___^
I know I'm very late to the party, but I must thank you profusely for the excellent work done on this translation many moons ago. I'm glad this is continuing to live on for the enjoyment of new MegaTen fans like myself...
Besides being the beginnings of the MegaTen game franchise and considering the age of the novels, can this also be considered the origin for one of the core concepts within the Pokemon universe as well (digital/computer storage of "monsters")? Certainly I know the connections have been made before in comparing the games, but I was struck here how Nakajima addresses the exhausted Kerberos here in almost the exact way Pokemon trainers talk to their defeated Pokemon... "You did a great job! Now return and get a good rest."
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