Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Volume 2 Prologue

VOLUME 2 - THAT WHICH CONNECTS SOULS prologue

I’m picking up psychic detective yakumo translations as a bit of an end-of-summer project. I’m starting from volume 2 since volume 1 has already been translated, but I’ll go back to do that later if I decide to continue this since it appears that it was translated from a different version than mine (e.g., missing/added sentences) and I’d like a uniform translation.

I know the prologue and the first bit of chapter 1 for this volume has already been translated, but again, I’d like to do it uniformly so I’ll be starting from the beginning! if there are any translation notes, they’ll be at the end of the post, but so far yakumo doesn’t seem to need many of those. as a note for this translation and all future ones, if you spot any errors, please send me a message so that I can fix it!

anyhow, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did (o???o)?

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PROLOGUE

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The rain was beating down that night.

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Entering March, the days were becoming warmer, but it was still cold once the sun went down, especially in rain like this.

Gotou Kazutoshi was writing his work log at the police station.

He hated doing it. It had already been two years since he entered the police force, but this was the one thing he could not grow accustomed to. He would rather some sort of incident occurred.

Gotou reclined on his chair as he mulled over these indiscreet thoughts in his head.

The sound of pouring rain rang in his ears.

Suddenly, he noticed that somebody was standing in front of the police station.

He was a man in his mid-thirties. Even though it was raining so heavily, he was not carrying an umbrella, and his black coat was completely soaked.

That wasn’t all. It was a rainy night. Even though visibility was already not that great under the circumstances, the man was looking down and had on dark sunglasses, as if to hide his face.

There was a strange atmosphere.

Gotou stood up and headed towards the man at the entrance while keeping a hand on the police baton in the holder at his hip.

‘What are you doing there?’

When he spoke up, the man slowly raised his face.

’A child...’

’What?’

Gotou could only hear the beginning of his sentence, the rest of which had been drowned out by the rain.

’A child is about to be murdered.’

The man spoke in an emotionless voice. Almost like the synthetic speech of a machine.

’What did you say?’

’A child is about to be murdered, officer.’

The man’s expression was serious, and it did not feel like he was lying or joking. However, something was missing.

Urgency.

A child might die. Even though he came to inform Gotou about such a dangerous situation, this man was not panicking at all.

’If you don’t hurry, the child will die.’

The man spoke while water dripped from the tip of his chin.

He was right. There was no time to think about that sort of thing. If what the man said was true, it could be too late.

’Where’s the kid?’

’I’ll show you the way.’

The man said that quietly, turned around and started walking.

Gotou rushed out into the rain after him.

The rain was incredible. His uniform was soon completely soaked through. He couldn’t see anything. The man was doing very well walking perfectly in a situation like this while wearing sunglasses.

Still –

’A kid’s going to be killed, right?’

Gotou yelled at the man’s back.

’Yes.’

The man stopped and looked up at the rainy sky.

’Then we have to hurry.’

’Yes.’

After the man replied, he started walking again, but he was not walking any faster.

What was up with him? Why was he so walking so leisurely?

’Where’s the kid?’

Gotou spoke up, unable to bear it any longer.

The man stopped again. He slowly took his right hand out of his pocket and pointed down the completely dark street.

’Just down the road.’

’The kid’s ahead?’

’There is a building under construction.’

’The kid’s in there?’

’Yes.’

’Got it.’

At the same time as he replied, Gotou dashed down the asphalt.

He knew the building the man was talking about. It was a bit over a hundred metres ahead. If he ran, it wouldn’t even take twenty seconds.

Soon, he could see the building he was looking for. There were five floors, but the concrete only went up to the second floor, while the floors above it still showed steel scaffolding.

He should have just asked in the first place. When he turned around, the man from before had been swallowed by the darkness and could not be seen.

Gotou stepped onto the premises. There was a red car parked in front of the buildings with its engine still on.

He approached and took a peek inside a window, but there was nobody inside.

’That’s strange,’ Gotou mumbled. Then, he went inside the building.

He was able to hide from the rain, but it was pitch-black and he couldn’t see anything.

Gotou took the torch from his hip holster out and switched it on, waving it left and right.

Clunk.

There was the sound of something falling.

Gotou switched the torch to his left hand and took out the baton with his right. He slowly headed towards the direction the sound had come from.

Something moved in the shadow of a pillar.

Gotou pointed the light towards it.

Someone’s there –

He could see the back of somebody crouching.

’I’m a police officer. What are you doing?’

A woman in her late twenties turned around, surprised by Gotou’s voice.

She had refined features and skin that was so white it seemed almost transparent. The glossy black hair that fell to her shoulders was covered in droplets of water.

Though she was so beautiful it would make someone hold their breath, Gotou could only see that beauty as something manufactured.

The woman said nothing. Her almond eyes stared as her thin red lips trembled.

’I asked you what you were doing.’

’Ki... ll...’

Finally, the woman opened her mouth.

Unlike her appearance, her voice sounded like an old woman’s. He couldn’t hear what she said clearly.

’What did you say?’

’I’ll kill him.’

The woman spoke again.

This time, the words properly reached Gotou’s ears.

’Kill? Who are you...’

Gotou started speaking, but he stopped without thinking. In front of the woman, there was a boy of elementary-school age who had fainted face-up, and the woman had her two hands around that boy’s neck.

’Stop! Take those hands off!’

Gotou shouted and pulled the woman towards him, but she clung on and put more strength into her hands around the child’s neck.

’Let go!’

’No! I have to kill this child!’

’Don’t be ridiculous!’

’Don’t get in my way!’

The woman violently shook her body to resist.

’I’ll listen to what you have to say after, so take your hands off that kid!’

’I have to kill this child now! If I don’t, the child will definitely kill many people! Just like him!’

The woman’s cry reverberated against the concrete.

’What are you saying!?’

’Let go! Kill that child, and me too..’

Damn! She wants to commit double suicide –

If she wouldn’t listen to him, he would have to use force.

Gotou hit the woman’s arm with his baton. Just as she was bent over in pain, he thrust her away with a tackle.

The woman rolled a few times on the concrete floor and collapsed with her face to the ground.

Gotou immediately checked the carotid artery of the boy, who had collapsed facing up.

It’s fine. There’s still a pulse. Breathing too. That’s great.

’Hey. You OK?’

When Gotou shook the boys shoulders, he opened his eyes soon after.

He abruptly got up, still expressionless.

Even though the kid must have had some scary experiences, he didn’t cry or scream. Maybe he didn’t understand the situation he was in, or –

That was right. The woman.

Gotou looked towards the location where the woman had fallen, but she was already nowhere to be seen.

For a moment, he thought of chasing her, but he couldn’t leave the boy by himself. He gave up and turned back to face the boy.

’Everything’s OK now.’

There was no reply.

’What’s your name?’

’Yakumo.’

’Oh, so you’re Yakumo-kun.’

Gotou patted the boy’s head. He had pale skin and almond eyes. The boy’s face looked a lot like the woman’s.

Was the woman from before this kid’s mother?

Gotou picked up the torch that had fallen to the ground in the confusion earlier and shone it on the boy’s face.

For a moment, he thought his eyes were tricking him. However, he was wrong.

The child’s left eye glowed red like a blazing flame.

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Notes:

(Though these aren’t translation notes this time, they will be here in the future!)

Each chapter of Yakumo is separated into many mini chapters, some of which are under a thousand words in length. However, if I were to put the full chapter in one post, that would be tens of thousands of words (and it would take me much longer to translate (´????)????). There isn’t really a good way to group the mini chapters either because of all the shifts in perspective, so I’ll either be posting further translations a chapter at a time or a mini chapter at a time. (For reference, the first chapter is fifteen mini chapters long.)

If you could drop a message telling me which would be preferable, I’d greatly appreciate it. (o???o)? Messages about the translation would also be really nice (????)