TROUBLE MAKER 1

Natsume: Excuse me? Why can’t Switch join the Halloween Party?

Now listen, could you stop giving voice to every whim you have?

And especially so suddenly, right before the event...

You could stand to plan things out better, because I’m always the one who has to deal with the brunt of things, as the leader of Switch.

Sora: So it’s no good? Buuut, dressing up and eating candy sounds so fun!

Sora wants to say “trick or treat!” like Hina-chan and everyone else, too~ ♪

Natsume: Urgh... I’ve met my match. I’m weak to those puppy-dog eyes of yours, Sora.

Sora: ... ☆

Natsume: Nnghh...

If I rearrange some of our plans, I could make it work. We can tie in some of our other affairs to make it worth our while.

One moment, I’ll look into it.

Mm... the problem is Shu-nii-san. My other Oddball nii-sans are one thing...

But I would feel guilty leaving Shu-nii-san behind and acting on my own.

We’ll need to confirm what Valkyrie is planning... If we’re going to do this, we’ll need to be thorough, proactive, and miraculously flawless about it.

It should be about time that the hands on our clock begin ticking forward, too.

Sora: What do you mean? You say things that make no sense sometimes, Master.

Natsume: Fufufu. No one can ever perfectly understand others.

Words are mere tools which symbolize and filter vague thoughts to generate the illusion of sympathy.

I’m only muttering to myself to organize my own thoughts, so don’t pay any mind to it.

You don’t need to think about anything at all... It will be fine; I’ll make your wish come true.

Sora: HaHa~ ♪ You never turn down Sora’s requests, so Senpai was right to say Sora should try to persuade Master, right?

This is so exciting! It looks like we’ll be able to be part of the Halloween Party~ ♪

Natsume: Yes, about that... where is that mophead, anyway? And what is he up to? Whatever, it doesn’t matter.

It’s confusing when you try to explain things; or rather, it requires high reading comprehension skills, so it’s difficult.

Sora: HiHi~ Sorry, is Sora’s way of talking hard to understand?

Natsume: You could say the same of me. We are the heretics of society, with our own distinct cultures and languages.[1]

In any case, we’re supposed to help 2wink hand out fliers, correct? Then you shouldn’t be idling away here; go back out there.

Those children have a bright future ahead of them; it wouldn’t hurt to get in their good graces.

Sora: But Master... since it’s Halloween, shouldn’t we dress up?

Natsume: Costumes are Senpai’s responsibility. You’ll have to ask him about that.

But that thing moves so slowly, and he’s such a perfectionist. There’s no way he would have them ready by today.

I suppose there’s nothing else to do but lend you some old thing of mine. Hmm, it should be stored around here...

Aha, there it is ♪

Let me help you put it on, Sora. Now, abracadabra... ♪

Sora: HuHu~ ♪ That tickles~

Natsume: Stop moving. Good, the fabric has shrunk, so it ought to fit you perfectly.

It’s almost as if it were made to order, though it might need some adjustments. How does it fit?

Sora: Ooooh~ It’s so stylish. What kind of monster is this?

Natsume: It is no monster; we are magicians.

Around this time last year, I helped Wataru-nii-san with his stage performance, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This was the costume I wore.[2]

Sora: HeHe~? Did you participate in the Halloween Party last year too, Master?

Natsume: No. Last autumn was a veritable hell, you see. I had no leisure time to enjoy such carefree events.

To distance me from the maelstrom, Wataru-nii-san invited me onto his stage.

I naïvely spent that time in idle amusement, without catching on to his true intentions...

And so I kept the costume to serve as a reminder of my foolishness and as an admonition for myself.

But I suppose it’s also a bit servile. If you’d like, I’ll give you this costume. It shouldn’t look too out of place in the context of Halloween.

Monsters, magicians—to ordinary people, they are probably the same. They cling to their narrow worldview and distance themselves from anything outside of it.

Halloween is one of the few opportunities we have to play around in their world.

So take your fill, because everything you are is a hope and a miracle.

Sora: HoHo~? That doesn’t make sense, but okay! Sora will enjoy himself so much ♪

Natsume: Yes, and I will handle the procedures for getting Switch into the Halloween Party.

I must contact the little kitten, but she’s likely overwhelmed with work.

She is such a hard-working girl that it almost worries me.

But if Halloween is to be shaped by her ideals, then surely it won’t be the hell it was last year... surely it won’t all end in tragedy.

Once Halloween is over, we’ll be cast out of the human world. But until that time comes, let us all hold hands and dance and sing together.

Let us indulge in this sweet, delicate, beautiful, transient dream.

Natsume: T̴̶r̪̦͠i̬ͩck oͨ̿r T̸̉r̼͍͡ea͇͐͢t ♪[3]

  1. Natsume calls himself and Sora まつろわぬ民 (matsurowanu-min). This is a term which refers to native peoples on the Japanese archipelago which refused to accept their subjugation to the Yamato people. I’m not given a time frame for this subjugation (the word is surprisingly difficult to find solid, lengthy sources on?), but efforts to “unify” Japan have been ongoing from “ancient times” to as late as the Meiji period (the systematic colonization of Hokkaido didn’t begin until 1869). The concept of “Wa” is rather lengthy and complex, but a TL;DR version is that the aforementioned Yamato people, and their nation Yamatai-koku (or Yamato-koku, but the -tai ending is more common I’ve found), made extensive efforts to colonize and unify the whole of the Japanese archipelago under one banner—this banner being, of course, that of Yamatai-koku—using “Wajin” (倭人) as a rallying cry and a cultural identity that was effectively forced upon the native peoples, erasing their heritage, cultures, and languages in varying degrees of success.

    To get back on topic, the matsurowanu-min were those native tribes who rejected Yamatai colonization and refused subjugation. The word means, loosely, “peoples unwilling to submit.” “Submit” refers to a subjugation of culture and identity, that which the Yamato people were attempting to strip those tribes of in their grandiose colonial ideals. In this line, Natsume is identifying with these tribes fighting against colonization and the ensuing stigma placed upon them as outsiders, as rebels, as unruly, as specifically apart from “Wajin,” or greater Japanese society. I used “heretic” as my translation to draw a connection to peoples outside of Christendom whose languages, beliefs, faiths, and cultures were all stigmatized and systematically eradicated by the Church, though it’s not a perfect analogue because heretic refers specifically to a religious pariah, while matsurowanu-min refers to a political pariah.

    If you want a bit more detailed explanation of specifically Wajin and Yamatai-koku, I would suggest reading my translation notes for Sudden Death/Believability 3 (or other literature on the topic, since my summary isn’t infallible or all-encompassing), since this is, like I said, a rather complex topic.
  2. I assume this is a reference to Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and that Wataru has adapted it into a stage play. There are some other adaptions of this poem such as Disney’s animated short that also adopts the composition by Paul Dukas, which is yet another adaption of the poem, so Wataru could also have been performing that. It’s ambiguous. Anyway, this poem describes a, you guessed it, sorcerer’s apprentice, who uses magic to enchant a broom to do chores for him that he doesn’t want to do. This backfires spectacularly and is only remedied when the sorcerer himself undoes the spell, warning that only a master should invoke powerful spirits.
  3. “Trick or Treat ♪”