STAY GOLD

Maiki is a genius (yes)

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:59:09 GMT

Lea/Ria and Sia.
You know it will be.

UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:15:50 GMT

BIRTH BY SLEEP SPOILERS

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

Edit: It's Zack Fair from FFVII~

BRB DYING OF FANGIRL JOY

SOCUUUUUUTE

Washed-up Paopu?

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:15:03 GMT

Love the beach~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIAAAA <333

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:16:16 GMT

HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I hope everyone treats you well~!! Don't forget to tell people, yanno!!

~~I know it's tomorrow, but i figured you'll see it on time this way!~~

I wanted to surprise you with much more than this, but my bad time management skills fail so hard ;____; I bought the Reverse/Rebirth novel, cause I know how much you like Riku! I haven't managed to get any done, but I've scanned all the pictures!! Lol, even though you're in Japan and probably have the novel yourself ^^;;;

Sorry the quality is bad, new scanner is crap.

Kingdom Hearts art by Amano Shiro.

Nomura's comment on this pic in his art book: 'Riku looks a lot girlier than usual here'. I should translate all the comments in that art book one of these days. I'd scan the pics too, but my scanner is shitty.

Whyy is the quality so bad ;___;

<333333 I guess there's no need to say that translations will be coming someday? XD I love the basement gang, and REPURIKU, they need so much more love~

The 14th: Illustrations

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:13:37 GMT

My last posting spree was from the town library, and I didn't have to sneak, but I bet a snail could crawl along the cables as fast as the data travels in there =______=

Please thank gold_panner brother #1 for cropping (and naming lol) the pictures, brother #2 for holding down the lid of the crappy scanner, and brother #3 for making gold_panner microwave cake to eat to calm her down about the ruined spine of her book. *loves on my three little monkeys*

Illustrations from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days: The 14th

by Amano Shiro

The books on the floor in the lobby are the KHII manga XDDD TIME PARADOX MUCH.

This page is translated here. ♥

WHY WASTE A PICTURE ON PETE. WHY. WHYYYY

Riku on Riku: the many faces of Riku.

My faaavourite picture ♥♥

Also, did any one notice that I changed the name of my journal? ~~no, why the hell would they~~ XD You guys know how I work for HEARTSTATION , right? Well, the site was named after one of Ms. Hikaru Utada's songs. The other song on the same single is called.... stay gold. XDDDDDDDDD

Love youse all!!

Chapter 2 Translation Notes

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:49:24 GMT

Chapter 2: Seasalt Icecream Translation Notes

~any suggestions or questions on stuff I didn't explain are always welcome!~

+’ It was the first time he’d brushed with a keyblade wielder, even in his memories. He’d heard of them, though.’ You’ve probably noticed that I put character’s thoughts in italics. In the original, it isn’t quite so clear. Narration and character’s POV blend together, and sometimes I’ll be halfway through doing a line or paragraph in one style, and then I’ll find that the tense or the tone of the line means it is the other. Some of the lines in this section with Marly could have been him thinking; there was nothing to say either way.

+’ “…Heartless,” muttered Roxas…’—the words ‘muttered’ and ‘murmured’ are interchangeable. In fact, Japanese as a whole seems to have far less synonyms than English. I look at the context, and pick which one seems to fit better. ‘Murmured’ is softer and maybe more thoughtful, to me. ‘Muttered’ sounds slightly disagreeable. I don’t know. I don’t think the Japanese word has those kinds of connotations at all.

+Just wanted to say that I am torn between being upset at not getting those other cute tutorial scenes… and being happy that I didn’t have to translate more stupid tutorials =_____=

+’ Keeping yourself clean also comes under resting.’—yeah, I don’t know either.

+’ “Journal?”—日誌。Diary, journal, record, log book. Not sure what the game uses. Diary? It might just be me, but diary sounds a bit girly. So, I decided on journal.

+’Larxene sniped’—ラクシーヌに言われて。I didn’t explain it well. In Japanese, when they use the passive tense, it means something is unfortunate, bad. に言われて has the same kind of feeling as ‘oooh, you got told.’ Or, it does to me XD

+’ cranky-pants’—ここツンツン頭。Literally, ‘cranky-head’… but it’s more cute and condescending, so ‘pants’ seemed to fit better XD

+’ Very good job’—ご苦労様です。Zexy is always incredibly polite <3 Ahh… we don’t really say this kind of thing in English. This is like お疲れ様でした、it is a phrase that means something like ‘thank you very much, you must be tired, well done’. People say it to each other at the end of a day of work, or after doing something tough.

+’ “So what do we do now?” asked Axel, in a light tone.’ I got the impression that he was keeping his tone light on purpose.

+’ Close, but no cigar.’—確かにその回答は正解に近い。でも正解じゃない。’That answer is definitely close to being correct. But it’s not correct.’ I tried to make it more natural :x it’s probably a bit failtastic though.

+’ Seems like Roxas and those kids are destined to run into each other or something.’—どうやらロクサス、このこどもたちとよっぽど縁があるらしい。’It looks like Roxas has some kind of destiny with those kids’. I know it doesn’t literally say ‘to run into each other’, but I felt it was implied; I’m pretty sure Axel was speaking slightly sarcastically, but I fail at picking up sarcasm, so. It is pretty ironic in any case.

+’ sensing some kind of pain-in-the-ass atmosphere in the silence.’ Pain-in-the-ass: 面倒くさい。The word in itself is a pain in the ass to translate, cause pain-in-the-ass isn’t an adjective in English, and all the ones I can think of—troublesome, hassling, bothersome—sound waaaay too stiff and clunky to be good translations of this informal word.

+’ Saying it is really freaking embarrassing. But, saying it out loud gives it significance.’—なんだか自分の発している言葉がすごく気恥ずかしい。けれど、言葉は発することで意味を持つ。’My own words that I said out loud are somehow incredibly embarrassing. But, words are made significant through being spoken aloud’. Naww, Axel. <3 Sorry for butchering your lines ;___;

+’ Does that condition have deep meaning?’—The way this was placed in a sentence made it seem like Roxas was thinking this line. But then, it became apparent that the following thinking lines were Axel’s. I’m still confused. I don’t really know whether you’re allowed to switch POV that fast in Japanese…

+’ “Oh, then I’ll also—”— witness my triumph over sentence structure differences BD it sounds a bit too stiff, but it’s the closest I can get, because what he actually said was something like: ‘ah, I’ll -???- too, then.’ Cause, the verb comes last in Japanese sentences. So when they get cut off halfway through a sentence, it’s incredibly hard to translate. I remember Naminé said in the CoM manga something like, ‘because I -???- you…’ which made sense in Japanese, since she cut herself off before she got to the verb, but in English we need. That. Verb. Dammit. You can’t cut it off there and still have the next words.

The 14th: Chapter 2

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:46:37 GMT

Written by: Kanemaki Tomoco
Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya and Nojima Kazushige
Illustration: Amano Shiro
Copyrighted by Disney, Square Enix and Touchstone Pictures
Translations: gold_panner

Notes: No profit is gained from these translations. Every effort is made to make them as accurate as possible, however, due to factors including the differences between the two languages, they are not word-for-word. For Pou and V. As always, comments, corrections, questions, any feedback at all is greatly appreciated~

Chapter 2: Seasalt Icecream

Missions were given one at a time from Saïx, every day.

On the 9^th day, Roxas’ mission was with Marluxia. It was at Twilight Town, same as the day before. There wasn’t much sign of people. Just the setting sun, shining over the town.

It seemed like missions—or rather, training—was to continue in that town for a while yet.

“You’re Roxas, aren’t you. Let’s re-introduce ourselves. My name is Marluxia. I’m Number XI,” said Marluxia, in a gentle tone, looking at Roxas.

It was the first time he’d brushed with a keyblade wielder, even in his memories. He’d heard of them, though.

As a Nobody, he couldn’t see anything special about the boy standing in front of him.

“What should I do today?” said Roxas, his gaze shifting slightly from Marluxia.

“Today, your mission is to collect hearts. Can you bring out your keyblade?”

“—yeah,” Roxas nodded, and made the keyblade appear in his hand.

The blade, shaped like a giant key, shone in Roxas’ hand.

It was the first time Marluxia had seen a keyblade.

“So you’re Number XIII, the one chosen by the keyblade,” muttered Marluxia, without realising, but Roxas didn’t show any special reaction.

Just then, as if called by the keyblade, a Heartless appeared.

The black-bodied thing was a Shadow, a low level Heartless.

“So the small fry have come out—Roxas, it’s sudden, but please show me the power of the keyblade. Defeat that Heartless.”

Whether he’d been listening or not, Roxas ran at the Heartless, keyblade in hand. There was no hesitation in his movements. Roxas swung the keyblade down at the Shadow, which faded away with a few blows. Marluxia had been hoping for strength that would bring a Shadow down in one blow, but as a yet newly-awakened Nobody, this was to be expected.

“The thing you just defeated was a Heartless called a Shadow.”

“…Heartless,” muttered Roxas, still gripping the keyblade.

“The Heartless are beings of darkness that roam about, searching for hearts. There are two kinds of Heartless. One is the Pureblood type, such as the one you just defeated. Hearts do not emerge from Pureblood Heartless, even once defeated.”

“So how are hearts gathered?”

“Defeat Emblem Heartless. Those ones.”

Little Heartless had appeared in the air in front of them.

“Got it.”

Once more, Roxas ran into the throng of Heartless.

His agility wasn’t good, as expected. Just then, from a defeated Heartless, a heart floated up and vanished into the air.

It was the first time Marluxia had seen a ‘heart’ being collected before his very eyes.

If those hearts could be collected… but before that, there’s something that must be done.

Even so—the keyblade has marvellous power.

If that power was in my hands…

Roxas defeated all of the Heartless. He turned back, breathing hard.

“Is that okay?”

The keyblade disappeared from his hand.

“Yes—the things you defeated this time were Emblem Heartless. Unlike with those Shadows from before, after defeating them, somebody’s heart emerged, didn’t it. Today’s mission is to collect those hearts.

“How are those hearts collected?”

Marluxia was a little surprised at Roxas’ question.

How can a keyblade wielder not know such a thing?

“If you defeat Heartless with your keyblade, they get collected.”

“…What happens to the collected hearts?”

The continuous questions showed that Roxas didn’t know a thing.

Marluxia took a breath, and told him.

“They gather in the great Kingdom Hearts.”

“Kingdom Hearts?” Roxas tilted his head.

I haven’t seen the real thing, either. But the name, as the ‘outcome of research’, was let known to me.

“The goal of our Organisation is to complete Kingdom Hearts. In order to do so, we must gather hearts.”

“Gather hearts—so, everyone else in the Organisation is gathering hearts too, I guess.”

“Only the keyblade can free hearts completely.”

“Huh?” Roxas’ voice rose, as if he was surprised.

“We—in other words, except for you, when those of the Organisation defeat Heartless, the hearts aren’t collected. The released heart will, in due course, become a Heartless again. Heart collection is something special that cannot be performed with anything but the keyblade you wield.”

“Something special…”

Roxas’ gaze dropped to the ground, as if he were thinking.

It appears that they really haven’t let Roxas know anything. Is he not being told? And, are these things that Roxas should be learning from now on? When Saïx put me in charge of this mission, I did not receive any special instructions. All he said was to teach him how to gather hearts.

“For the sake of our Organisation, defeat Heartless, and complete the great Kingdom Hearts—we’re counting on you, Roxas,” he said, and Roxas nodded.

xxx

He had just finished reporting to Saïx, in the lobby.

“It looks like you’re progressing fairly well.”

“…Yeah.”

“Are you resting properly?”

“Resting?” Roxas asked.

“Whether you’re sleeping properly or not. Keeping yourself clean also comes under resting. It’s a mission to make sure you can perform on missions.”

“Probably…”

Saïx wasn’t very satisfied with Roxas’ answer.

“Arranging equipment and understanding your own skills is the same thing. And so, from today, you are to keep a journal.”

“Journal?”

“Yes, in order to understand yourself.”

Saïx handed Roxas a notebook.

“You don’t actually have to hand it in or anything. That is all. Go back to your room and rest,” was all Saïx said, and he went ahead and left the lobby.

In the lobby, members who had finished their missions were talking and relaxing. Roxas watched the members, sensing a strange sort of feeling in the air.

In the lobby was—Larxene, Demyx, and Luxord.

“What are you looking at,” Larxene sniped. Roxas looked away, flustered, and met Demyx’s eyes this time.

“You can’t play some kinda instrument, can you?” Demyx said.

“Instrument? What’s an instrument?”

“Like one of these.”

A strangely shaped weapon appeared in Demyx’s hands.

“What’s that?”

“It’s my sitar. Will you? Listen to this.”

Demyx touched the weapon, and a strange sound rang out.

“Shut up with that noisy thing!” yelled Larxene, disagreeably, and Demyx shrugged his shoulders.

“Which one’s noisier, anyway…?” Demyx mumbled, looking away.

“Huuuh? Did you say something, cranky-pants?” Larxene stood up from the sofa.

“…In life, such pleasures are necessary, too.”

Luxord had slid in to stand in front of Larxene.

“Eh, whatever. I’ll be saying goodbye to that racket soon enough.”

“What do you mean?” asked Demyx, forgetting he had been yelled at.

“It’s got nothing to do with peons like you. Later.”

Larxene left the lobby.

Behind her, Demyx played his sitar once more.

“That woman is such a pain in the ass!”

“One of the finer points of the fairer sex, is it not?” said Luxord, stroking his beard.

“Don’t really get you there, man. Right, Roxas?”

“I… don’t really understand,” replied Roxas.

Women are a pain, I guess? I don’t really understand what a woman is, anyway.

“Ah, you’ll understand someday,” grinned Luxord.

xxx

The next day, Roxas was in Twilight Town again, with Zexion.

Zexion, who had been the youngest member of the Organisation until Roxas came, was watching Roxas’ movements, unwaveringly.

If the keyblade did not exist, our plan would not succeed.

It’s contradictory, saying that we are searching to seek what we lost ourselves, Zexion thought, recalling their former research. I don’t think our choice to research the Heartless, and their creation process, was a mistake. But, as a consequence, we lost our own hearts.

“Was that okay?” asked Roxas, who had finished his mission.

“Very good job. I hope that you will want to complete your next mission in such a positive manner, too. Is there anything you’d like to ask?” Zexion asked, and Roxas stopped moving.

Zexion had meant for Roxas to persistently ask questions about the mission, but the words that came from Roxas’ mouth were unexpected.

“What is Kingdom Hearts?”

Zexion hesitated for a moment on how he should answer.

But, Roxas continued, not noticing Zexion’s manner.

“Defeating Heartless and gathering hearts makes Kingdom Hearts, right? Are we going to do something, once we’ve made Kingdom Hearts?” Roxas asked, in rapid succession, and Zexion was lost in thought for a while.

How should I answer…

Roxas’ gaze was fixed right on Zexion.

“…The goal of our Organisation is to fuse with the people’s hearts of kingdom hearts, and become complete. All the members of the Organisation are nobodies, missing hearts—that is to say, since the time we were born into this world, we’ve lacked hearts.

Of course, I wonder if he can understand that explanation.

And then, is it necessary to make Roxas understand?

“So, does that mean I don’t have a heart, either?” Roxas asked, looking strange.

Perhaps he still doesn’t understand what a ‘heart’ is yet.

Before, that me, who researched, and had a ‘heart’, thought he understood a little of what a ‘heart’ was.

The uplifting feelings from the time I had a ‘heart’, engraved in my memories, cannot be felt any more. Now I can only remember, and work hard to try and taste it once again.

“Yes, that’s right. We members of the Organisation do not have hearts. That is why we seek them. Complete Kingdom Hearts, an aggregation of people’s hearts, and merge—in order for that to happen, Heartless must be defeated with the keyblade you wield, and hearts gathered. In order to achieve the Organisation’s goals, each member of the Organisation is given their own role. Your role is to defeat Heartless with the keyblade, and collect hearts.”

But—I’ve heard that Roxas has no memories.

If so, it means he doesn’t have memories from the time he had a heart either, like we do. Perhaps even feeling that he has no ‘heart’ is difficult.

Roxas listened to Zexion’s explanation, looking as if he was thinking about something to himself.

“Is there anything else you would like to ask?”

“…Ah, no.” Roxas shook his head.

I wonder if Roxas understood about the ‘heart’—, Zexion thought suddenly, stepping into a corridor with Roxas.

xxx

Having finished his mission, Marluxia called out to Axel.

“I heard that you’re coming to Castle Oblivion, too—”

“News travels fast.” Axel stopped walking, and looked back at Marluxia.

“Well, you and I have different missions. You’re going on matters of the ‘keyblade hero’, I see.”

“You’re well informed, aren’t you?”

“The members being made to go over there know that sort of thing,” he answered. Axel shrugged. “Aren’t you interested? In the keyblade hero.”

“Not especially.”

That’s the truth. I’ve got no reason to have special interest.

“Were you not showing interest in Roxas?”

“Can’t help it, I’m sort of in charge of him,” Axel answered, and turning his back on Marluxia, started walking.

But, the next words made him stop.

“So you wouldn’t be interested, even if you heard that Roxas is the Nobody of that keyblade hero—?”

Turning around without realising, Axel looked at Marluxia, eyes narrowed. It didn’t look like he was lying.

Seeing Axel’s state, Marluxia laughed. “How honest. Just like a human.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Perhaps it is a compliment, for what it means to have reactions as if one had a heart,” Marluxia said, a bewitching smile still pasted on his mouth.

“So? Is that all the business you have with me?” Axel asked. Marluxia gazed fixedly at Axel.

xxx

A few days later, Roxas was in Twilight Town with Axel.

“This is the second mission I’ve been on with you, isn’t it.”

“Yeah—” Roxas nodded, and gripped the keyblade.

Today’s mission was to gather hearts, too. It boiled down to Heartless extermination.

“Will we go?”

Roxas broke into a run at the sound of Axel’s voice.

I thought he’d have done heaps of missions by now, but I heard from Saïx that this is the first real one.

Roxas was moving with far more agility than the first day he’d gone on a mission, and behind him, Axel was acting as back-up, throwing his chakrams at Heartless.

We Organisation members, other than Roxas, can’t get hearts even if we defeat Heartless.

In other words, when I go out on a ‘heart gathering’ mission with Roxas, supporting him becomes my role.

But Roxas was running, swinging the keyblade, without even looking back at Axel. His movements were pretty admirable. When he had gathered enough hearts, Roxas finally turned back to Axel.

“That’s it, isn’t it.”

“…Yeah.”

The keyblade vanished from Roxas’ hand.

Beads of sweat stood out on Roxas’ forehead, as he steadied his heavy breathing.

“So what do we do now?” asked Axel, in a light tone.

“What do we do…? I planned on reporting to Saïx and then sleeping in my room, like always.”

Close, but no cigar.

Axel peered into Roxas’ face, scratching his head.

“You know, Roxas…”

Just then, the town’s children—the three from before—ran past Axel and Roxas.

“Hurry up, Pence!”

“Wait~!”

“Loser treats the winner to ice cream, you know!”

Seems like Roxas and those kids are destined to run into each other or something.

“Just now…?

Roxas was watching the children’s backs strangely.

He didn’t seem to remember that he had seen them the first time he had been with Axel.

“That was the town’s children, just now.”

“Hmm…”

Roxas narrowed his eyes. Axel was surprised by his reaction.

“Do they all do that?”

“That…?”

Axel didn’t really understand what Roxas meant.

“Running around in a pack like that, and, making noise—” Roxas asked, and Axel thought that his expression was a little different than it had been up until then.

Perhaps he’s remembering something from his past, when he spent time like that.

“That’s… something people with hearts do, I guess?”

“A heart, is it…”

Roxas hung his head, and looked at the ground. Axel scratched his head, sensing some kind of pain-in-the-ass atmosphere in the silence.

And then he said, “Will we have some ice cream, too?”

“Why?”

“Why…? Cause…”

I don’t know what I should say.

I just want to eat ice cream and talk with Roxas in that place like we did the day we met, that’s all, but I’m getting the feeling that I’ve gotta dress it up in different words or something.

Roxas probably—wouldn’t understand, if I didn’t.

After taking a breath, Axel said, “Because we’re friends, see.”

Saying it is really freaking embarrassing. But, saying it out loud gives it significance.

And I couldn’t think of any other excuses.

“Friends…”

“Friends eat ice cream together, talk about stupid things and laugh, that sort of stuff. Like those guys from before, for example.”

Roxas looked up at Axel, a strange look on his face.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Axel started walking towards the milkbar, as if he were fleeing from Roxas’ gaze.

xxx

Children were talking to each other in the open space in front of the clock tower.

Does that condition have deep meaning?

Roxas watched them as he ate his ice cream.

I can feel a greater sense of self from Roxas than he had the day we first met, or the day of his first mission.

But, it’s still hollow and cold, somehow. That’s something all nobodies have in common.

“Hey, Roxas.”

Roxas lifted his face.

What was I going to say, again?

“When we’ve finished a mission, let’s eat ice cream here again. It’s boring to just go back and forth between the castle and missions, right?”

Even I’m surprised at those lines.

Just like the things I said before, even I wasn’t expecting it. But, it just popped out of my mouth automatically.

Roxas looked at the children in the open space again, with a strange look on his face.

“Yeah—friends, right…”

It was probably just my imagination, but I thought I saw Roxas smile just a little.

“Well, I won’t be able to eat ice cream here for a little while, though.”

“Huh…?”

Roxas’ eyes went wide.

“It’s been decided that I’m going to Castle Oblivion for a while, starting tomorrow.”

“Castle Oblivion…”

“You still don’t know anything but Twilight Town, do you? But there are heaps of worlds out there, and the Organisation has a castle in another in-between world. That’s Castle Oblivion. Got it memorised?”

“…So there are places like that…” Roxas looked down. “When do you come home?”

“Hm—I wonder when. When I’m back, let’s eat ice cream here again.”

“…Okay.”

Roxas’ gaze followed a train, running in the distance.

“Well, I’ve gotta head back soon. Heaps of stupid things to get ready.”

“Oh, then I’ll also—”

“You relax and eat your ice cream. See ya.”

Axel stood up, opening darkness on the side of the clock tower, and his figure vanished.

Roxas was left alone.

“…It’s salty…” Roxas muttered, gnawing on his ice cream.

Just then, Roxas saw that something was written on the ice cream stick, and put the rest in his mouth in one go.

“What is this…”

‘Winner’ was written on the finished ice cream stick.

Chapter 1: Beginning of the End Translation Notes

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:41:51 GMT

+‘Larxene gossiped one-sidedly’—ラクシーヌは片方の口の端をつり上げ。Uuugh, this gives me a headache. 口の端 is ‘gossip’. ‘Larxene was gossiping about one side’ might be more accurate, but I have no idea what the ‘one side’ is meant to be. Probably a word-fail on my part. つり上げ is to lift, drag up, to rig… and if it has ‘eyebrows’ in front of it, means to be angry. Maybe she’s angry? But, it doesn’t say まゆをつり上げ。Suggest something, if you know? :D? EDIT: it WAS a word fail. It was meant to be literal, not not an expression! thank you,rizutan ! <3 It's now 'curled her lip'~

+‘Round Room’—円卓. Literally, ‘round table’, but this is how the dub did it. Not ‘knights of the round table’ round table; it’s the word for like those round tables that business people have conferences around. Sort of like a joke. But, it’s also a bit stupid, cause when they say ‘table’, I think they mean the floor. Wtf. This means that sometimes they refer to someone being on the floor as ‘on the table’… Idek

+‘we people of the Organisation’—he actually used the word 人間, or ‘human’, here.

+‘dark corridor’--闇の回廊。Literally ‘covered passageway of darkness’… but I thought ‘corridor’ sounded cooler. This turned out to be what they call them in the dub, anyway! BD

+‘The 14^th’—I could also use ‘Fourteen’, I guess. I tried that for a while, cause it looks cooler. But then I realised the book was called ‘The 14^th, so. It’s probably meant to be that.

+‘‘Well, some kinda insurance is needed,’ said Xigbar.’—Xigbar ends many of his sentences with ‘ってハナシ’, which… argh. I can’t explain it. ハナシ means ‘talk’, or ‘story’ or that kind of thing. Him adding it on the end doesn’t mean much; it’s just a characteristic of his speech. I don’t know how to reflect it in English though… ‘that’s what I’m talking bout BD’. Ohhh yeeeah. I’ll just put, ‘as they say’… I think he says this in the dub? EDIT: It's now going to be 'is what I'm sayin', which is much cooler!! Thank you ruthyuki999 <3

+’ mentor’—教育系. Maybe more like ‘in charge of his education’.

+’ Like always, their face was hidden deep in a hood, and he couldn’t tell anything.’—damn English, for not having a non-gender specific pronoun. Damn Japanese, for not needing pronouns and forcing me to make them up. If I accidentally use a certain pronoun, don’t hurt me, alert me!

+ ‘You interested in that one?’—I hate trying to translate the wordあいつ. The closest I can get is ‘that guy’, but it’s non-gender specific, so it doesn’t work in situations like this one, and sometimes is a bit ruder than ‘that guy’, depending on the context. Bleeeh. Please note that often my translations sound a lot stiffer and more formal/polite than the original tone was meant to be. It’s because I suck. I’m sorry.

+“Got it memorised? Roxas.”—Couldn’t resist. Axel uses various forms of that phrase a lot. And trying to make it sound like his catchphrase in English is very difficult sometimes. This one wasn’t too bad.

+’ Not like you’re gonna forget that, anyway.’—そりゃ忘れるわけねぇよな。I’m gonna say it now. I cannot make Axel sound like Axel in English. He’s slangy and drawling and awesome in Japanese. But I can’t do it in English. Sometimes I think I should do it like… for example here, make him say ‘and don’t forget it’. Which might sound more like him. But then the pedantic side of me goes ‘nuuuu you caaaaan’t, he didn’t saaaay thaaaat’, yes, exactly that whiney and annoying, and then another part of me goes, ‘well the official translators would do that,’ and then another part of me goes ‘but you’re not an official translator, so you don’t have the right to make assumptions and changes like that’, and then another part of me goes ‘and anything you made up would suck hairy balls anyway, why do you think you’d sound anything like Axel anyway, don’t wreck Ms. Kanemaki’s story’. And then you end up reading stiff ugly lines. ;_____;

+ ‘It’s a town of twilight,’—in most cases, they use English loan words for world names and enemy names etc. For example. ‘Twilight Town’ is ‘Towairaito Taun’. And, because Japanese have their own words for ‘twilight’ and ‘town’, in the novels, they often include a little translation (here, 黄昏の町). In English, this sounds really stupid, so I’ve gotten rid of some of them… it’s just repetitive, otherwise.

+’ reaction-y kind of reaction’—反応らしい反応. ‘reaction-like reaction’, only his sentence was more informal… hence, reaction-y XD

+’ ice lolly.’—アイスキャンデー。I guess it’s literally ‘ice candy’, but I’ve never heard them called that before. And the word candy makes me think of strippers. If I were to say it as naturally as possible I’d call it an ‘icy pole’, but I don’t know if that’s too Australian or something. Maybe ‘lolly’ is, anyway! Arrrgh. EDIT: it's now 'ice treat'. Thank you hcb_chibi, love you~

+’ “Follow me, Roxas! I’ll even show you around my special place!”’—gawd this made me laugh so hard. I need to grow up. Could have said ‘show you my special place’, but. Uh. ‘Show you to’ or ‘invite you to see’ would be just as correct.

+’ Axel … clapped his hand on Roxas’ shoulder.’—ロクサスの肩を抱くようにひとつ叩いた。I can’t even picture what the hell he’s doing. At first I thought it meant something like ‘Axel put his arm around Roxas’ shoulders and gave him a slap’, or something, but then when he starts walking, he doesn’t pull Roxas along with him, so maybe he didn’t have his arm around his shoulder?? Literally, the sentence might say something like… hit Roxas once, as if he were putting his arm around his shoulder’. Confuuuused. I watched the cutscene; it’s the one from the opening, and he seems to just sort of clap him on the shoulder, so I said that…

+’ cheap sweets shop’—駄菓子屋。A lolly stand…? EDIT: a milkbar! Thanks again, ruthyuki999!!

+’ “Good on you, you found it.”’—ちゃんと見つけられたな。Literally, ‘you were properly able to find it, weren’t you.’

+’ I took Roxas back to the castle, to stand under Xemnas’—literally, ‘when I took Roxas to under Xemnas’… not sure if it meant, stand under him at the round table, or, be under him as in… be under his power etc. Or. Well, you saw the pedo smile, right.

+“This kind of thing is—”’--これくらい—. Literally… ‘this level is…’ I think he was about to say something along the lines of, ‘this is pretty freaking easy’… XD

+’ RTC?’—uuuuugh. They had to have one in here, didn’t they. A kanji pun. 帰還, or ‘return home’, is homophonous with 機関, or, ‘Organisation’. Ha. Ha. Ha. I know in the dub they translate it as ‘RTC’, which is probably a similar pun in English for all I know. *steals*

+’ Memorise it properly’—ちゃんと記憶しとけ。Axel loves saying 記憶. 記憶したか？ Got it memorised? In reality, it could be translated as ‘remember it’ or something. ‘Commit it to memory’. XD

+’ it’ll melt on you’—溶けちまうよぞ。Slangy way (Eastern Kansai man slang, apparently) to say 溶けてしまうよ. I don’t mean it will drip on him, I meant… it’ll go and melt, or something. Like, ‘she’ll go and lose it on you’, that kind of ‘on you’. It’s hard to approximate しまうin English… it gives the impression that something is unfortunate. I think I failed at expressing this.

The 14th: Chapter 1 pt 2

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:35:30 GMT

Chapter 1: Beginning of the End (cont'd)

xxx

He opened his eyes, and found himself on top of his bed.

What happened yesterday?

I can’t really remember, like always.

Roxas got out of bed, and went to look out the window.

The sky is as pitch dark as always, so I don’t really know, but it seems like the date has changed.

I have to go to the lobby once I’ve woken up. At the moment, that’s all I understand.

Roxas left his room and walked the hallways just like had had the day before, heading for the lobby.

“Roxas,” came the call, the instant he stepped into his place of destination. It was Saïx. Roxas stared vaguely up at him.

Mission.

Somehow I get that it’s not okay for me to just be here.

I don’t really understand what I’m here for, though, like always.

“It’s closer to training than a mission. There are various things we’d like you to remember before going out on missions. Today you will be moving with Axel. Isn’t that nice, Axel.”

Roxas shifted his gaze to the side of Saïx, and Axel was standing there. And, behind him, Roxas saw one more member was standing there.

That was the 14^th.

“What is this… am I supposed to be his mentor or something?” Axel answered, scratching his head.

“Yes. Teach Roxas mission basics.”

“Yeah yeah. Understood.”

Removed from Axel and Saïx’s conversation, Roxas watched the 14^th.

Like always, their face was hidden deep in a hood, and he couldn’t tell anything.

“We’re going, Roxas,” said Axel, peering into Roxas’ face. Following his gaze, he turned to the 14^th.

“What’s up? You interested in that one? That must be… come to think of it, I dunno either,” said Axel, scratching his head again.

Saïx opened his mouth. “It’s Number 14, Xion.”

“Xion, then…” Axel muttered.

“Xion…” Roxas voiced, quietly.

“Got it memorised? Roxas.”

He shrugged, and Axel looked deep into his face again. “Yeah…” Roxas replied, voice lacking strength. Xion was still at the end of his gaze. But, it was also possible that Roxas wasn’t looking at Xion.

Roxas’ blue eyes reflect the view of his surroundings, but for some reason, it feels like he isn’t looking at anything.

Is this vagueness just what you expect of a newly-woken Nobody?

I want to try and hear him answer me, thought Axel.

“So, what’s my name?”

“Axel…”

It seemed that Roxas hadn’t been able to forget it, somehow.

I wanna ask one more thing.

“What’s our boss’ name?”

“Xemnas…”

“Not like you’re gonna forget that, anyway. Okay, let’s go, will we?” asked Axel, a smile playing on his lips, as he opened a dark corridor beside him.

xxx

At the end of the dark corridor was Twilight Town’s underground passageway.

“So… well, first I’ll explain the mission, and we’ll go from there, will we…”

Axel turned to face Roxas, who was following behind him.

“Okay? Today’s mission is—ahh…”

Axel went to explain, scratched his head, and sighed.

Roxas’ eyes were as indifferent as always, like he wasn’t seeing a thing.

“Rather than explaining stuff, it’d be faster to just do it. Okay, first, come with me.”

Axel started running. He hadn’t seen Roxas ever move fast before, but to his surprise, Roxas followed him pretty quickly.

Climbing up a level, Axel stopped halfway, and turned to Roxas.

“During a mission, you shouldn’t run straight for the target. You gotta pay attention to your surroundings.”

“—Pay… attention?”

Those words that came from Roxas just now are the most ‘with it’ I’ve seen him so far.

Maybe it’s cause he’s moving his body.

Even though it’s not perfect, Roxas, who hasn’t been saying anything but the names of things and people until now, is joining words together.

“It means you gotta look hard at the things around you. You’ll overlook surprising things, otherwise. Got it memorised?”

“Yeah—got it.” Roxas nodded obediently.

“Okay, let’s go practise, will we,” said Axel, brightly, able to think that those eyes were finally taking him in. “There’s a treasure chest somewhere in this area. Today’s mission is to find that.”

“So we should look for the… treasure chest, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Look carefully, now,” said Axel, and Roxas looked around him.

From the beginning, Roxas was like a pure white canvas that had to be painted on. Some of his reactions are slow, but it feels like there’s some bigger reason why.

From the first day we met, he’s been different from the others somehow.

xxx

Axel watched a vanishing dark corridor, scratching his head. On the other side of that corridor, he had faintly been able to see the Organisation’s boss—Xemnas.

“He told me all of a sudden to take him back, but…”

Axel gazed at the boy standing in front of him, remaining in the trails of vanishing darkness.

The boy in the white shirt was at least ten years younger than himself, Axel guessed. Though age wasn’t something that existed, for nobodies.

I don’t even know the boy’s name.

He must be a Nobody that was just born today, in this town.

I know that this town, the one they call Twilight Town, is a special place.

It’s a town of twilight, standing in the rift between darkness and light.

The darkness of dusk blurs the figure, in the same way light does.

Here, those that belong to neither darkness nor light—even nobodies are allowed to exist.

And so, Axel hung about in this town when he had free time.

Walking around idly like always, Xemnas had suddenly appeared in front of him.

He hadn’t been wagging missions or anything, but there’s nothing like bumping into one’s boss all of a sudden for awkward.

But, Xemnas had merely given Axel one order, without reproaching him.

“It’s a new member. Take him back to the castle, prepare him suitably, and bring him to me.”

“Huh?” Axel had asked, and a dark corridor opened up behind Xemnas. And then, he disappeared as if being swallowed.

Well then take him back yourself, I thought, but I’m not in the position to be able to say things like that.

And, the boy didn’t move at all.

A tiny sigh escaped Axel. “Follow me.”

He opened a dark corridor, but the boy didn’t react.

“….Oi.”

“………..”

Axel closed the portal, nothing for it, and stepped closer.

The boy finally moved, looking up as Axel.

“What’s your name?”

The boy blinked.

Dunno if that blink was actually a reaction.

“I’ll ask you again. What’s your name?”

“...Ro, xas…” he said, in a husky voice.

I know that Xemnas gave him that name just before.

I got my name in the same way.

“I see, Roxas. My name is Axel. Got it memorised?”

The boy—Roxas did nothing but gaze straight up at Axel.

“Anyway, let’s go home.”

Well, I doubt whether that gloomy castle is any place for Roxas, who has just begun his existence, to go home to, but even so, there’s nothing else to do.

Just then, Roxas’ gaze shifted.

That’s the first time he’s showed a direct reaction-y kind of reaction.

“Hm? What’s up?”

At the end of Roxas’ gaze were some of the town’s children.

I’ve seen them countless times.

A noisy group of three kids from around the town. They look like they’d be about Roxas’ age.

And, in their hands was sea-salt ice cream.

A special flavour—a sweetly salty blue ice treat.

Axel didn’t exactly hate it—actually, he liked it. Well, he remembered liking that ice cream.

“…We’ll go home after we eat some ice cream, will we?”

Axel started walking towards the shop in the middle of the town plaza.

“Follow me, Roxas! I’ll even show you around my special place!”

Roxas didn’t move.

“Geez, guess I got no choice.”

Axel went back, and clapped his hand on Roxas’ shoulder.

Roxas trembled, surprised, and looked up at Axel.

“Let’s go,” said Axel, and when he started walking, Roxas came along. Slightly relieved, he headed for the milkbar in the middle of the plaza.

xxx

“Is this… a treasure chest?” Roxas’ worry made Axel turn around.

There was a treasure chest at Roxas’ feet.

“Good on you, you found it.”

Roxas stared at the treasure chest, unmoving.

“…What’s up?”

“Today’s mission was to find the treasure chest…”

Like I thought, Roxas seems a little… off, somehow.

“You know, Roxas. Even if you’ve found it, it doesn’t really mean much if you don’t take what’s in it, right?”

“Is it okay to take it?”

“Yeah, you can do what you like with whatever you find inside boxes during missions.”

And, a shining key appeared in Roxas’ hand.

Each member of the Organisation has their own weapon, but, could that be—a keyblade?

Roxas touched the treasure chest with the key, and it opened with a burst of light.

It’s a keyblade, no mistake.

That’s right, on that day, when I took Roxas back to the castle, to stand under Xemnas, he said so.

The one chosen by the Keyblade—

If so, is Roxas the Nobody of the keyblade hero?

But of course—I haven’t heard anything about the hero becoming a Heartless.

From inside the treasure chest, Roxas collected a—potion, and the key disappeared from his hand.

“Okay, good work. How was it? Do you kind of get how a mission works?” said Axel, making an effort to be composed.

“—Yeah.”

“You really okay?”

Roxas lifted his face. “This kind of thing is—”

“Hm?”

“It’s nothing,” said Roxas, with a shy smile.

That reaction was completely different from anything else until now.

Axel also let a smile spread across his face, with a strange sensation he’d never felt before.

“You’re getting there, aren’t you. Okay, since you worked really hard today, you get a reward,” said Axel, and he started walking.

“We’re not going to—RTC?”

“Come with me. You remember the special place, don’t you?”

Axel knew Roxas was following behind, even without turning around.

xxx

The special place—the big clock tower on top of Twilight Town station.

You could look out over Twilight Town from there.

Axel sat down at the front of the tower, and looked up at Roxas, who was still standing.

“You sit down too,” he said, and Roxas sat down next to him.

“Here, a reward.”

And so, Axel gave Roxas a sea-salt ice cream.

Roxas stared at the ice cream.

“Do you remember what this ice cream is called?”

“Umm…”

Roxas tilted his head to one side, looking like he was thinking back.

“Sea-salt ice cream—I told you before, right? Memorise it properly,” said Axel, gnawing on his ice cream. Roxas gnawed on his own ice cream, copying Axel.

“Salty—but sweet,” murmured Roxas.

“Roxas, you said the same thing recently, you know.”

“Did I—I don’t really remember all that well…”

Roxas turned his gaze vaguely at the sunset.

His hair was moving in the wind.

“Come to think of it, it’s been about a week since you joined the Organisation, hasn’t it?”

“Maybe…” said Roxas, eyes still on the sunset.

“Maybe…? Don’t you remember that, either?”

Roxas’ gaze dropped.

“Well, it means you finally get to go on missions like a real Organisation member.”

“Organisation member…”

Roxas was making a weird face for some reason.

“That makes today the beginning, or something, maybe.”

“The beginning—”

Roxas was looking at his ice cream again.

“If you don’t hurry up and eat it, it’ll melt on you.”

“—Okay.” Roxas bit his ice cream.

The clock tower’s bell rang out, telling the time, and a train was running in the distance.

This was Twilight Town.

And this clock tower—was still a special place only to Axel.

The 14th: Chapter 1 pt 1

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:32:57 GMT

Chapter 1: Beginning of the End

That place is always lit up by the same scarlet sunset.

I wonder where that place was. It must have been Twilight Town.

“Roxas…”

I wonder who it was that spoke to me.

I don’t remember the name of the person that stood in front of me, wearing a black coat.

But I must have been given a name there.

And then I met him.

Him—that guy with the red hair, and of course wearing a black coat.

And then, we ate ice cream.

I remember.

I remember that, I haven’t forgotten.

I won’t forget.

xxx

The preparations for his awakening are complete.

As a Heartless, he has already vanished, the Nobody remaining—and, it is he, returned to normal.

xxx

The sound of waves could be heard.

The tide was moving in and out, washing sand away from the beach.

The boy’s body sank slowly into the water.

Or, perhaps he was trying to be caught by the waves.

And then, the boy opened his eyes.

A stark white room. A stark white bed. Through the wide window, a pitch black sky and the neon of skyscrapers were visible.

Where is this place, again?

This is my room.

This is a place called ‘The World That Never Was’.

And, my name is Roxas.

That’s my name.

I’m number 13 of the Organisation.

I feel like I’ve been dreaming the whole time.

No, I also feel like I was awake the whole time.

Yesterday—yesterday, I was by a dark ocean. I met him there.

Our boss.

After that—I don’t really remember so well.

Maybe the stuff that happened yesterday didn’t really happen at all.

Maybe I’m still dreaming.

The boy—Roxas got out of bed, and left the room.

He continued along a corridor, white just like his room, and made of something inorganic. It was a little like stone, and a little like something artificial; Roxas didn’t know what it was. Only that there was a space that continued along there. Many doors, like the one to his own room, lined the corridor. The design of the rooms on the other side of the doors were also probably the same. And so, inside were probably people just like him.

Shortly, the space opened out, and he started descending a sloping hallway. At the end of it was The Garden of Weaving Light and Dark—the lobby, it was called. He had been told to come here upon waking.

By who?
He didn’t really remember.

The lobby was chilly, enclosed in transparent glass, outside of which there was nothing but pitch black darkness and white buildings.

‘Huh? You finally up?’

Roxas turned. A blonde woman, wearing the same black coat as Roxas, was looking down at him. Roxas couldn’t answer at all, and she—Larxene curled her lip, resting her hip on the side of the sofa. Roxas had no idea what on earth the change in her expression meant. But, when he saw that look, he got just a little uneasy.

There were three people other than Larxene wearing that same black coat, spending the extra time they didn’t know what to do with inside the lobby.

Roxas approached someone who was looking at the pitch dark outside the window; a person with red hair.

Perhaps there was a reason he was chosen to pair up with Roxas, perhaps there wasn’t. Roxas didn’t know that, either.

But, when Roxas drew nearer to that person, he turned around, a smile showing on his face.

“Hey, Roxas.”

“…………”

Roxas cast his gaze downwards. He didn’t really know what he should say in reply.

“What’s up? You need something?”

I don’t really need anything, but I was thinking maybe it would be nice to talk to someone, that’s all.

The red-haired person—Axel looked at Roxas, who was still looking down.

That reminds me—that’s right, that day, it must have been the first day, the one who was with me was—

“Oh yeah, they said we have to meet at the Round Room today… what a pain in the ass…’

“Round Room…” Roxas murmured.

I remember the place they call the Round Room.

That was also on the first day—no, wasn’t it after that?

Roxas looked up at Axel.

“Apparently there’s something we have to hear. Let’s hurry up and go.”

Axel held up one hand, and darkness opened up before it.

Oh, I know. We people of the Organisation can manipulate that darkness at will.

That darkness must be a—

“You wanna hurry and use a dark corridor?”

“Dark corridor…”

That’s right, a dark corridor.

On the other side of the darkness, other worlds open up. Instead of using doors, so to speak.

“I hate it, always get a sore ass from sitting on those hard seats,” said Axel, laughing as he spoke.

He was interrupted by a person standing in the centre of the lobby.

“You two, hurry up.”

Axel and Roxas were the only ones left in the lobby, apart from a man with long blue hair and a large scar on his forehead—Saïx. Larxene had already left. The others had probably left to be present at the Round Room long since.

“Yeah yeah—let’s go, Roxas. Open a dark corridor for yourself, too,” said Axel, entering the darkness he had opened.

“…………”

The darkness closed up before Roxas’ eyes.

“Hurry up,” announced Saïx, and he also disappeared into a dark opening.

Roxas was the only one left in the lobby.

Roxas stared at his own hand.

How do I open the dark like that?

Roxas lifted a hand, like Axel had, and closed his eyes for a second.

He recalled that darkness.

I have to get to that place—the Round Room.

Beside Roxas, the darkness opened its gaping mouth.

Is the Round Room really at the end of that?

Roxas stepped inside.

xxx

The hall that they called the Round Room was enclosed by a circular wall. The walls were made of the same white material as the other rooms. In the middle of the room was a large circular table—a stage-like ‘round table’, and thirteen seats surrounded it. The chairs were tall, and each had a different height.

And, twelve other black-coated people had also taken their seats.

Roxas couldn’t remember all their names very clearly, and he stared vaguely at the ‘round table’ placed in the middle of the room. Painted there was a mark that was very similar to a cross; it was also painted on Roxas’ bed. Roxas knew what it meant.

That’s the seal of the Organisation—of the Nobodies.

But, I don’t know who told me that.

“Today is a day that deserves commemoration.”

The air quivered with the resounding voice.

Oh, I know. That voice belongs to—that guy, our boss, Xemnas.

And then, a lone person appeared in the Round Room.

“A new comrade has joined our ranks.”

I can’t tell what that person’s face looks like, what with it hidden so deep in their hood.

“The 14^th…”

Thing were suddenly flitting across Roxas’ mind. It was only a few days ago—probably six days ago.

Axel dressed him in a black coat, and then brought him to this room.

The one chosen by the Keyblade—

Xemnas must have said that to me, that day.

The Keyblade?

I don’t even know what that is.

Roxas looked at the person standing in the middle of the Round Room.

The person lifted their face for just a moment, and Roxas stirred, getting the feeling that they were looking at him.

It looked like that person’s mouth, which should have been concealed and unseeable under the hood, was smiling.

I feel like I’ve seen that smile somewhere before.

But I can’t remember where.

Until now, these seven days past, I haven’t once been scared of the things I can’t remember.

But now, I’m somehow—scared.

Scared?

What does it mean, to be scared?

Roxas sensed something flicker, and he looked up.

Xemnas had disappeared, wrapped in darkness. And then, one after the other, the members of the Organisation disappeared.

The 14^th was still looking at him.

And then, Roxas passed out.

xxx

What’ll happen to me—?

I’m—fad——ing—into the dark…

xxx

Xemnas watched Roxas, who had been put down to sleep on his bed.

“—Hurry up and awaken.”

There was no answer.

Xemnas’ figure vanished from Roxas’ room.

xxx

The air in the Round Room quivered.

As if the darkness was burning, many dark corridors opened into the seats, and the figures of the black-coated members appeared.

There were seven of them. The seven people between No. I and No. VII—in other words, Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexeaus, Zexion, and Saïx.

“To allow the newcomer to attend.”

The biggest newcomer amongst the members in attendance—Saïx stared straight at the centre of the Round Room, without showing any particular reaction to Vexen’s words.

“Have we been able to extract the ‘key’?” Xigbar asked.

“Key? You must be talking about the fragments. If it’s only the fragments, we can take them out without the aid of the witch’s power,” Vexen answered.

“Are more fragments necessary?” asked Zexion.

“That depends on the movement of the hero,” Vexen said, without hesitation.

Lexeaus opened his mouth. “More importantly, are the movements of the heroes being properly monitored?”

“Marluxia has been ordered to act without any slipups,” answered Saïx, this time.

“The hero’s Nobody appearing was pretty irregular in itself, anyway,” said Xaldin, and all gazes concentrated on him. “Doesn’t the existence of the hero’s Nobody make continuing the plan meaningless?”

“Well, we need some kinda insurance, is what I'm sayin,” said Xigbar.

“The plan has been set in motion,” Xemnas interrupted, and all six faces lifted. “In order to assure our new power, we will put our first plan into action,” he stated, in conclusion at last, and the other six each nodded.

TBC...

The 14th: Contents etc.

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:20:21 GMT

For Pou and V. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do~ my gift is my--*shot*

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Vol. 1: The 14^th

Contents

Chapter 1 Beginning of the End

Chapter 2 Seasalt Icecream

Chapter 3 Xion and Roxas

Chapter 4 Castle Oblivion

Chapter 5 Chain of Memories

Chapter 6 Reunion

Chapter 7 Friends

xxx

Because even if you can’t remember, it doesn’t mean that the memories have disappeared.

xxx

I remember.

I remember that, I haven’t forgotten.

I won’t forget.

xxx

Characters

Xion

A girl who appeared as the 14^th member, six days after Roxas joined the Organisation. In the beginning, she kept her hood up, and never showed her true face. By and by, she becomes important to Roxas.

Roxas

The protagonist of this story. Number XIII of the Organisation. He has no memories of the time before he became an Organisation member, and so as he performs missions every day, he has doubts and questions about everything around him. He is able to wield the keyblade.

Axel

A wielder of fire-imbued chakrams. Number VIII of the Organisation. While fulfilling the role of mentor to Roxas, the main character, he melts little by little. He acts for a common goal shared with certain members of the Organisation.

Riku=Replica

A ‘doll’ of Riku, created by number IV of the Organisation, Vexen, for the sake of certain research. After meeting this experimental body in Castle Oblivion, great doubts begin to grow inside Axel.

Saïx

Number VII, who serves as the Organisation’s aide-de-camp. Because Roxas and the other members of the Organisation are always receiving missions via Saïx, there are many meetings in which they make contact with him, however, his detached objections give a cold and stern impression.

Xemnas

The leader of the Organisation, and Xehanort’s nobody. He is a figure of absolute power within the Organisation. It seems he knows something about Roxas’ past…

Xigbar

Number II of the Organisation, who wields gun arrows. With a carefree sort of personality, he calls Roxas ‘kiddo’ and Xion ‘poppet’, teasing them every day. However, he is very well informed about various things, and it is hard to guess what he’s really like inside.

Beast

A prince who was turned into a beast by a witch’s curse. Roxas and the others spot him while investigating Beast’s Castle.

Pete

A detestable fellow who does nothing but evil. This time, too, Roxas and the others see him toddling about behind the scenes, with the goal of increasing the number of heartless.

Genie

The genie of Agrabah’s lamp. He left to travel with a flying carpet, but he became worried about his best friend, Aladdin, and while he returns to check on him, he meets Roxas and the others.

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:52:32 GMT

DAYS CAME OUT IN AUSTRALIA TODAY

THAT MEANS

I FINALLY GOT IT :DDDDD

Now I don't have to just devour spoilery tidbits from my f-list!!! Ironically, I also FINALLY got my Japanese copies of the game... TODAY. So one minute I had no copies, and now I have 3. wtfff

I have decided: I will not let myself play past where I'm up to in the novel, so I don't fall behind. Unluckily, I'm up to a chapter which is pretty much the goings on in castle oblivion... which isn't even in the game... so I have a lot to do before I can play again!! D:
OH WELL. The novel is pretty awesome, too~

(I am actually playing this one, not forcing my brothers to play while I watch, like with all the other games... I am on beginners mode 8D)

Now I've seen the localised version, I know how to translate a lot of terms better, and I can fix up my capitalisation stuff too... so, my translations so far will get an overhaul at some point before I post them on my journal. The ones on http://heartstation.org will also get fixed too! Ahhh, I am so excited and HAPPY. FINALLY!!! FINALLYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

The 14th: Chapter 1 and 2

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:18:25 GMT

Still banned, but. >:D
Please keep an eye on http://heartstation.org, cause it will probably be updated more. I still have to post the bios and contents page and scans of the pictures by Mr. Shiro someday, but they're on heartstation so far anyway.
Chapter 2 is pretty much done; if it's not uploaded tonight, it will happen some other time I can sneak on/whenever it appears on heartstation! *EDIT: IT IS DONE :D* I'm so sorry for screwing you guys around like this; I hope you're all still excited about it :x
sylpherius: i lost your icon!! thats the only reason i'm using that ugly one up there!! sorry ;o;

Written by: Kanemaki Tomoco
Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya and Nojima Kazushige
Illustration: Amano Shiro
Copyrighted by Disney, Square Enix and Touchstone Pictures
Translations: gold_panner

Notes: No profit is gained from these translations. Every effort is made to make them as accurate as possible, however, due to factors including the differences between the two languages, they are not word-for-word.

For Pou and V. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do. My gift is my --*shot*

It's all here, for now! =______________=

~~The thing is too freaking big to put in one post and I'm in too much of a hurry to screw around with lj-cuts that never work the first time and alkrgjhaerg just. Kill two birds with one stone ;D~~ Please comment here, if you want to, dunno when I'll get to read them but I love love love feedback/comments/corrections/squeeing/ANYTHING. ♥

smoke bomb

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:45:00 GMT

I have recieved my 358/2 Days novel.

I have also been banned from the internet. ~~I can't really work up any emo about being banned just yet. I regret nothing~~~

I will find a way to work around this, but I can't keep up with commenting, looking at stuff and replying as much as I want to anymore, if at all.

Love to anyone following me for translations, I promise I'll do my best to get these out to those who are looking forward to them.

And love to all the people on the net whom I have become closer to recently. Thank you for being awesome, guys, I don't even have words. That might sound like a cop out, but the closest thing I can get to explaining would look like an all-caps keyboard smash coupled with trying to hug the computer at the same time and shrieking... do not want, right. Therefore, exercising restraint.

Thinking of you. Over and out.

Roxas--Seven Days: Prologue

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:12:58 GMT

I have been motivated! Take this offering as my aplology for being so slack; and also as a pre-apology for me going to be a little more slack soon. Evil end-of-high-school tests and whatnot are coming up, but that means holidays are coming, too~

'Kingdom Hearts II: Vol. 1 Roxas—Seven Days'
Written by: Kanemaki Tomoco
Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya, Nojima Kazishige
Illustration: Amano Shiro
Translations made much easier by the use of those by ruthyuki999, which can be read here.
I don't make any money from this, so don't sue me. I have made a lot of lovely friends, though~ ♥
With many many thanks to hcb_chibi, forever and ever.
Do not repost these translations without crediting me, or HEARTSTATION.

Prologue--EPISODE ONE--

The place was Hollow Bastion. Outside the door, the princesses should have been there awaiting the return of Sora and his companions, who had sealed the keyholes. But – emerging from the door, the place Sora and the others had wandered into was strange and hazy.

“Huh...?” Donald tilted his head.

“Where is this place...” Sora muttered, looking around.

That moment, Sora's body was hit by a strange feeling.

“Oh, it seems you’re special, too.”

“Who’s there?!” Sora turned around at the sudden voice from behind. At the end of Sora’s gaze, one man was standing. The man was wrapped in a black robe, and was steadily looking down at Sora from inside a hood.

“Ansem—?” Goofy said questioningly, readying his shield behind Sora. The man's voice certainly sounded like Ansem. However, as the hood covered his face, it was not possible to identify if the man was in fact Ansem. Tense, Sora and his companions glared at the man.

“That familiar sound—” The man muttered slowly, as if to himself. And then, he continued.

“You look like him.”

“What do you mean?!” Sora yelled back, keyblade still raised, not having a clue who the ‘he’ the man was speaking of was.

“It means, you aren’t complete. An incomplete being—I want you to let me verify that power.” The man approached Sora, seeming to glide over the ground, spitting huge light from his hand. Sora was repelled by the light, and was flung to the ground.

“Sora!”

Goofy, running to try and help Sora, was sent flying back by two blades which had flown out from the man’s robe.

“Firaga! Thundaga! Blizzaga!”

Donald fired magic at the man, but they all dissipated before his robe.

“—Very interesting. Now, it will become enjoyable.”

“What are you saying...!” Sora yelled, rising to his feet.

“It is impossible for you to comprehend, at present. Perhaps, someday, the time for us to meet again will come,” the man told Sora quietly, his blades vanishing.

“Who are you!”

“I am—merely an empty shell,” came the answer to Sora’s question, and the man vanished just like smoke.

It was a voice that Sora, struck dumb, still holding his keyblade up, could remember hearing before.

“Good job, Sora.”

Turning around, standing in front of Sora was Leon.

“Have you come back…?”

“What’s wrong, Sora?” Leon asked Sora, who tilted his head.

“Umm—nothing.”

Sora smiled, and walked on—to the final battle, the battle against Ansem.

xXx

When he came to, he was standing there. This place is like the end of the world—he felt. Decayed looking rocks jutted out along the dark beach.

That reminds me, haven’t I sat in a place like this somewhere, talking of the future?

Blue sea—blue sky.

He slowly shook his head at the scene which had spontaneously risen in his heart. Because, it shouldn’t have.

Then, he finally ran his eyes over his own body. He didn’t remember the black clothing—no, a coat, to be exact—that was wrapped around his own body. Even though it was the first time he had seen himself, it wasn’t strange or out of place.

“I was waiting.”

He turned around at the sound of the voice. Standing there is a man, dressed in the same way as me. Because of that hood, completely hiding his, I don’t really know what his expression is like. Which means, he shouldn’t be able to see my expression either.

“I went to see 'him'.”

Him?

He went to ask, but, feeling like he knew vaguely who the ‘him’ the man had spoken of was, he held his tongue.

“'He' looks a lot like you.”

Yeah—I guess I probably do look a lot like ‘him’.

‘He’ and I are like the face and reverse of a coin—.

“And you are?” he asked the man in front of him.

“The empty shell—no, maybe I’m the original form.”

He frowned a little at the man’s evasive answer.

“I was asking your name.”

Yeah—I wanted to know the name of this man, standing in front of me.

“That thing means nothing. What about you? Do you remember your true name?”

Even though that tone made him think he was being treated like he was stupid, he opened his mouth.

In order to say ‘his’ name, in the depth of his memories.

“My true name is—”

xXx

And so—the story begins.

Thank you for reading! Comments, questions, notifications always welcome!

**EDITED because I accidentally left some of ruthyuki999 's text in there o////o**

One and a half months to go? :DDDD

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:39:02 GMT

Wednesday 30th September 2009: 'Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Novel Vol.1 The 14th' goes on sale

I FRIGGEN LOVE WEDNESDAYS. ♥♥♥♥

Roxas--Seven Days: Akuroku day snippet

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:25:25 GMT

I just realised it's akuroku day, and it has been for... many hours. Dammit, I'm not slow, my hemisphere is early!! D:

So! Since I can't write or draw, I got off my ass and translated an appropriate scene from the KHII Novel: Roxas--Seven Days.

From Kingdom Hearts II Vol 1 Roxas--Seven Days, by Tomoko Kanemaki

The memory that re-surfaced with pain was the terrible reality.

In Roxas' hand, the keyblade glittered.

"--ngh!"

Holding back tears that blurred his eyes, Roxas smashed the keyblade into the computer.

All my memories are fake--not only my memories. My friends, this town; it's all fake.

That's--

Roxas stared at the computer he had destroyed.

Behind him, a door opened.

Roxas rushed through it.

Waiting on the other side was Axel.

"Axel."

"This time, you really have remembered? How happy!"

Despite his words, Axel readied his chakrams, a distorted smile on his face.

I haven't really remembered, thought Roxas.

Why--I don't understand why Axel is after me.

Naminé said Axel is my best friend. But then why is Axel trying to kill me?

But now, more than that, this situation I'm in is so horrible I can't stand it.

I'm so sad I can't stand it.

"But, it's too late!"

Flames shot up from around Axel.

If Axel's going to try and defeat me--I'll take him on!

The moment Roxas felt power flood through him, with a burst of light, a keyblade appeared in one hand--then in the other.

"Two!?" Axel yelled, and came running. But, Roxas blocked the attack with his two Keyblades, stopping him.

"Let's go then, Roxas--"

Axel grinned. That instant--a memory came rushing back again.

In that town, illuminated by nothing but neon, Axel was yelling.

"If you turn against the organisation, they won't leave you alive!"

It was a continuation of the memory he'd just seen in the white room.

"No one would be sad," I said to Axel, and started walking.

"I'm--sad..."

Those words that Axel murmured that time, I pretended I didn't hear.

Because, to we nobodies, who have no hearts, there shouldn't be such a thing as 'sadness'.

But, now I understand how Axel felt then.

Roxas knocked Axel back with the keyblade, and Axel fell to his knees.

The drive to deliver that final blow--he couldn't summon it.

"Axel..."

Yeah, in the organisation, we were best friends, just the two of us.

"...Let's meet again, in the next life."

Axel was surrounded by mist the colour of darkness.

"Yeah, I'll be waiting."

"Silly--you'd have a next life, but..."

Axel, drawing ragged breaths, was swallowed into the darkness. Roxas' gaze didn't waver until that figure had completely disappeared.

I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do! ♥ Hope you enjoyed the scene whether or not you're a fan of akuroku!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:56:05 GMT

From HEARTSTATION (by ucco):

"When Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days first released I juggled with the idea of how much of it we at HEARTSTATION.ORG were going to translate. The cutscenes of course, secret reports, that sort of thing. And for a while, we ambitiously attempted to translate the entire game’s script. Given that there is simply way too much for us to handle, there is no way we will be able to translate the whole game. However, for those who are interested, I’ve gathered up everything we were able to do before giving up.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Script – Days 7 through Day 12

The file contains spoilers! It may not seem like much, but I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it. If there are specific scenes anyone would like translations of, feel free to request them. Please provide a video of the scene if possible!"

I'm pretty sure I told a few of you guys here that we were doing it... well, we got the tutorials done at least! BD
You are welcome to request scenes right here on my LJ too, if you like! <3

Chapter 4: Phantom Storm Translation Notes

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:17:51 GMT

NOTES

+The first freaking word was troublesome. 異空の海: literally, ‘ocean of different/strange space/sky/air’. My first impression was that it is describing whatever kind of ‘outer space’ that the gummi ship travels through. After some googling, it seems this line was used in Ansem Report 10, from Final Mix, and the guy who did the unofficial translation did it as ‘the ocean of other worlds’. I’m going to be boringly literal and use ‘ocean of strange space’ because it sounded better in this context, to me…

+’Gwah’, that sputtering quack noise Donald makes…

+’zongzi’ The first time I read this I misread it as ‘kimuchi’ (kimchi in English?) which confused me because that’s Korean and Mulan is Chinese. The second time I misread it as 'chimuki'. It's 'chimaki' o////o *fails* Thank you so much, eraserfaerie for letting me know! ♥

+’rice ball’ onigiri. A ball of rice, usually with some kind of filling like tuna or sour plum or fish eggs, and usually wrapped in seaweed, though there are many different types. I had a friend who just squirted tomato sauce into rice and made balls out of it and called that onigiri XD

+’let’s eat!”「いっただきまーす」an etiquette thing you say before a meal, kind of like saying grace but without any religious implications. It is literally a very humble form of ‘to receive’, and I have been told it means ‘I humbly receive this food, paying respects to the living things from which it derives’, though explanation was from an old Japanese lady with weird opinions about sardines having feelings, so I don’t know whether it’s the standard interpretation.

+’plump and puffy’ もっちりむっちり. Sora-POV style cuteness. Mocchiri is like a plump, puffy pastry, and mucchiri is like a plump, chubby face or bum.

+’chew’ もぐもぐ、even more cuteness. You know how I said Sora’s POV narrations use cuter language? One way they do this is to use plenty of onomatopoeia. I remember this one time when I got teased as I ate chewy octopus, everyone saying ‘paku’ when I put it in my mouth, ‘mogumogumogu’ for as long as I chewed, and ‘gokun’ once I swallowed -_-;

+’ship’. For gummi ship, they use the English loan word ‘shippu’, but for this ship, they use the actual Japanese word for an ocean vessel-type ship, 船. The Japanese word for ‘space ship’ uses this kanji anyway.

+’Goofy…grinned’ にーっと笑う, which is just an elongatedにっと笑う. Say ‘niiii’ in the mirror and you’ll get how he is grinning. XD

+’a Ghost Ship’. More annoying jumping between English loan words and Japanese words. The word they used for ‘ghost ship’ when they first saw the ship used the Japanese word; this time, they say ‘gousuto shippu’. I think this is because heartless always have names that come directly from English loan words. So… they think they’re being clever. It falls flat post-translation XD

+‘canons’,　砲台、literally ‘battery (technical) a number of large guns that are used together’. However, I didn’t know what that was until I looked it up, and it seems a bit technical to put in a kids story.

+’wheels’, 車輪, as in ‘sharin-gan!!’ XDDD

+’lucky!’ (does anyone know that horrible sketch comedy show The Wedge? With those fat bogan sheilas at the pokies who always screeched ‘lu-ckyyyyy!!!’…? Yeah. That’s all I wanted to say XDDD)

+’aye-aye sir’ 「アイアイサー」XDDD

+’fists clenched in triumph’, in Japanese they use a word they created from English words, ‘guts pose’. Kids were very surprised when I told them we don’t use that in English XDD

+“Let’s finish this!” he literally says ‘finish!’ in borrowed English (finishu!)

Chapter 4: Phantom Storm

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:09:58 GMT

‘Kingdom Hearts 2: Short Stories Vol. 2 Axel—Seven Days’

Written by: Kanemaki Tomoco (not me.)

Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya and Nojima Kazushige (not me.)

Illustration: Amano Shiro (not me.) ** these illustrations can be viewed here

Copyrighted by Disney, Square Enix and Touchstone Pictures (not me. Though please credit http://heartstation.org or me for the translations of it ;D)

Any questions, comments, please go ahead!

Chapter 4: Phantom Storm

The gummi ship made its way through the ocean of strange space.

“I’m hungryyyy…” muttered Sora, yawning widely and gazing out at the pitch black ocean.

The gummi ship moved on autopilot unless they got into big trouble, and so there wasn’t really much to do during travel. Also, the view of the ocean of strange space didn’t really change in the most case.

“Gwah! There’s the zongzi Mulan gave us.”

“Zongzi? What’s that?”

Donald produced three lumps wrapped in leaves.

“You eaten these before?” Goofy asked, and Donald shook his head furiously.

Beside Sora’s seat, the three of them stared at the mysterious leafy lumps.

“Do we eat them just like that?”

Sora took one of the lumps, to look at it. It was moist, and heavy in his hand. It looked like there was something wrapped in the leaves.

“These leaves are inedible, aren’t they?”

Goofy also took one from Donald, and stared at it.

“Maybe they’re edible?”

“Mulan wouldn’t give us something weird, you know,” Sora said, nodding, and Donald tilted his head.

“But I wouldn’t be so sure if it was Mushu!”

The three of them cackled at Goofy’s words.

“Let’s unwrap it and see!”

Sora began peeling off the leaves. There was a weird object like a rice ball inside.

“It smells good!” said Donald, as he peered into Sora’s hand.

“Rice… looks like, doesn’t it?”

Goofy nodded, as he too unwrapped the zongzi in his own hand.

“Let’s eat!” Sora bit into the zongzi. “Yuuuum!”

Plump and puffy, there were nuts inside.

“Did Mulan make this herself for us?”

“Looks like it.”

Donald and Goofy also began to chew.

Just then!

“What’s that!” Donald pointed out in front, the zongzi still in his hand.

A huge ship was floating in the ocean of strange space.

The mast of the ship was ragged, looking just like a ghost ship.

“Is it Hook’s ship?”

Sora stuffed the whole zongzi into his mouth, staring out in front.

They’d encountered a mysterious ship in the ocean of strange space just like this before. That time, it had been Hook. He remembered that Kairi and Riku had been inside that ship.

“It could be Jack’s ship!”

Goofy also stuffed his zongzi in his mouth, and grinned.

Jack was their pirate friend in Port Royal.

“It looks like it’s coming over here.”

Just as Donald had said, the ship was getting closer and closer to the gummi ship.

A familiar mark was drawn onto the huge mast.

That’s---

“Heartless!” the three yelled in near-perfect unison.

A heartless that had taken the shape of a ship—a Ghost Ship. At the bow, there was a huge face. They could also see many huge canons. There were huge wheels fixed to the sides of the ship.

“Everyone to your stations!” Donald yelled, and everyone dove into their own seats in the cockpit.

Disengaging the autopilot, Sora gripped the control stick. Donald and Goofy also each started preparing their shots and lasers, respectively.

“Let’s go, everyone!”

With Sora’s call, the ship gained speed. At almost the same time, the Ghost Ship fired a shot at the gummi ship.

“Look out!” Goofy yelled, and Sora pulled on the control stick. But, not in time! The shot that the Ghost Ship had fired smashed into the gummi ship. The gummi ship jolted with force.

“Gwah!”

Donald and Goofy were flung out.

“Are you okay, you two,” called Sora, clinging to the pilot’s seat.

“What~! That-that! Gwawawawawawa!” Donald bashed on the shot button over and over.

A wheel fixed to the side of the Ghost Ship was blasted off by a shot.

“Good one, Donald!” Sora steered the gummi ship, making to slip past the Ghost Ship.

“Something’s coming!” Goofy called.

Round black heartless were flying from the Ghost Ship one after the other.

“Ahyuk!” Goofy’s lasers shot them down.

“There’s no end to it…” muttered Sora.

“Isn’t your steering the problem?” Donald jumped up, and lunged for the control stick.

“Wah, what are you doing, Donald!”

“I’ll steer!”

“Stop it, you two,” said Goofy, resignedly, from behind the jostling pair.

“We decide this with rock-paper-scissors the other day, didn’t we?!”

“It’s always you, Sora, you sneak!”

As he went to push Sora aside, Donald’s foot kicked the control stick.

The gummi ship rose abruptly, and lunged towards the mast of the Ghost Ship!

“Gwah!”

“Ahyuk!”

“Look out!”

The three of them covered their eyes, unthinking. But—the mast of the ghostly Ghost Ship turned out to be less hard and strong than the gummi ship.

Wham! With a huge impact, the mast snapped.

“Lucky!” Sora yelled, shoving Donald away again, and gripping the control stick tightly.

Circling quickly, they turned to the front of the Ghost Ship just like that.

“Hey, get to your station, Donald!”

At Sora’s words, Donald trudged back to his seat.

“Now we launch an all-out attack!” Sora yelled.

“Aye-aye, sir!” Goofy answered.

“Gwah… aye-aye, sir…” Donald answered, looking a little dissatisfied.

The mouth fixed on the front of the Ghost Ship opened wide before their eyes. Deep inside, they could see a skull-like face.

“Let’s go!”

With Sora’s shout, shots and lasers were fired into its mouth. The enormous skull-like face gave a roar.

The mast fell, and the wheels fixed to the sides of the ship fell one by one.

“So that’s it, I guess.”

“That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Gwah…”

Beside Sora and Goofy, who were looking at each other and had their fists clenched in triumph, Donald was still hanging his head.

“Guess it can’t be helped. Come here, Donald!”

Sora stood up from the pilot’s seat.

“Gwah!”

Donald dove into Sora’s pilot seat, and gripped the control stick tightly.

The gummi ship wheeled higher.

“Let’s finish this!”

Sora, who had run to Donald’s seat, delivered the final blow to the Ghost Ship.

The already tattered Ghost Ship broke up, as if sinking into the ocean of strange space, and disappeared as particles of light.

“You sneak!” shouted Donald.

“You said you wanted to steer, right Donald?” grinned Sora.

And so, quietness was given back to the ocean of strange space—but taken away from the inside of the gummi ship.

“Sora, you’re always the one to do the cool things, you sneak!” Donald stamped his feet in frustration.

“Can’t be helped, right? It’s decided that the hero is cool.”

“The Palace Magician is cool!”

“You two, stop it~”

It came into view before those three—Olympus Coliseum.

The world of heroes among heroes.

The journey was still to continue for Sora and his friends.

*~s~*~d~*~g~*~j~*

So that's it! That's all I'm going to do of Axel--Seven Days! Part of me feels like I should do the rest, just so I can say I've translated a whole book. But, I fully intend to do that with the 358/2 Days book >:D I'll give my poor, bent and dirty Seven Days a good rest. ♥

Thank you for sticking with me so far~ *loves on everyone*

**edited because I am an idiot who can't read katakana. Chimuki=/=chimaki=zongzi!! Thank you,eraserfaerie !!!

Roxas--Seven Days: Contents and Character Bios

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:54:16 GMT

I was just so excited to have the book ^^; I've skimmed through most of it now. To satisfy my huge urges to translate it, I did the first few opening pagey things... but...

Kingdom Hearts II: Vol. 1 Roxas—Seven Days

Kanemaki Tomoco

Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya & Nojima Kazishige

Illustration: Amano Shiro

xXx

What’ll happen to me—?

I’m—fad——ing—into the dark…

xXx

Memories that fade away

Memories that are restored

And—

in a world without you

—dreaming of you

xXx

CONTENTS

Prologue: EPISODE ONE

1: THE 1^st DAY

2: THE 2^nd DAY

3: THE 3^rd DAY

4: THE 4^th DAY

Insert: FRAGMENT (Wherever you are…)

5: THE 5^th DAY

6: THE 6^th DAY

7: THE Last Day

xXx

SORA

A fifteen year old boy, chosen to be the Keyblade Hero. Bright and naïve by nature, he has an uncommonly strong sense of justice. Along with Donald and Goofy, his journey to find ‘Riku’ and ‘Kairi’ continues. In order to take back the important memories he had lost, he went to sleep in Castle Oblivion.

ROXAS

A boy who is particularly good on a skateboard, he lives in Twilight Town. Though he was living a very ordinary life, suddenly one day he starts to dream about the adventures of Sora, a boy he’s never met. Straight after that, he begins to experience strange things even in reality…

PENCE, HAYNER, & OLETTE

Roxas’ friends, living in Twilight Town. There’s Hayner, the hot-tempered leader, Olette, the reliable one who looks out for everybody, and the easygoing yet sharp-witted Pence. They’ve been getting together and playing at the ‘Usual Spot’ on their summer holidays.

THE BLACK-HOODED MAN

Working with DiZ and Naminé, a mystery man who draws close to Roxas. He hides his face deep in a black hood.

DiZ

A strange man who appears in red bandages and a red mantle. He is monitoring Roxas’ movements, though his goals are a mystery. It seems he is an acquaintance of the King.

THE KING

The King of Disney Castle. A Keyblade Wielder like Sora, he is out on a journey to save the worlds. He fought alongside Riku at Castle Oblivion.

NAMINÉ

A girl who can undo other people’s memories, and connect them to separate memories. She had been trapped at Castle Oblivion by Organisation XIII.

AXEL

Number VIII of Organisation XIII. Of those who were in charge of Castle Oblivion, he is the only surviving member. He is trying to get Roxas to remember something.

Character bios now added ♥

OMGOMGOMGOMG~♥♥♥

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:12:42 GMT

hcb_chibi
YOU OWN MY SOUL
FOREVER
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Once, there was a very lonely book.

The book was lonely because there weren't any other nice Japanese novels around.

So, it spent a lot of time crying on its own.

Then one day, it met someone who it shared a lot in common with.

They hit it off right away.

(Macbeth went back to brooding in the bottom of a schoolbag, with Frankenstein and Year 12 Maths Quest)

...And they lived happily ever after ♥

asd'adelfkwefh THAAAAANKYOU!!! I have no idea how to express how happy and grateful I am!!! For you to give me this book, for absolutely free, and even post it from Texas to Australia and refuse any payment whatsovever. Just. I. Ahhhh!! You are so--WORDS ARE FAILING ME AADAJDJAFA

;_____; I hope someday you are repaid properly for your kindness.

In the meantime, I will do my best to translate things!!!

Dahh. I wanna hug you so bad. *hugs pillow* actually be glad I can't hug you, it would probably hurt >___>;;

*flails some more then goes off to translate cutscenes*

Amano Shiro's Novel Illustrations~

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:38:06 GMT

I just realised that the scans I did for http://heartstation.org have disappeared in the overhaul the site is going under (sorry, julianifuliani ). I have discovered that I CAN actually post pictures on my LJ (for some reason I assumed you needed a paid account to do that >___>;) so, without further ado:

Please don't re-post these without crediting me or HEARTSTATION ;D

Chapter 1: Let's go to the Sea: Translation Notes

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:20:38 GMT

+‘memories’. Literally ‘memories’, though it would make sense if it were referring to photographs. I’ve never heard the Japanese language use the word photograph to mean literal ‘memories’ before, though.

+’Hayner asked the two.’ Literally: ‘Just now, it was Hayner who asked the two this question in return.’ Since Olette and Pence’s questions were purely rhetorical, hardly recognisable as questions, it sounds weird to say that Hayner ‘asks in return’ in English (to me, anyway).

+’sharply’, clearly, frankly.

+ ‘Roxas felt as if his heart’--HIS HEART??? Well, Japanese has two different words for your pumping heart and your feeling one. This is not 100% concrete evidence that nobodies have physical hearts, though. It says that ‘felt as though’. ~~Grasping at straws because the pulse-less metaphors are too pretty~~

+’how many times we remember’. The word here for ‘remember’ is the exact same word used for ‘think’ in Hayner’s line; 思う. However, the sentence pattern isn’t identical; Roxas doesn’t specify any object to the verb. It usually means ‘think’, but depending on context can be translated as many words, including ‘recall’, ‘remember’ and ‘look back’. Besides, if I were to use ‘think’, the sentence hasn’t got enough nouns in it to sound nice in English.

+ ‘That weird silver-coloured creature that had stolen all the memories to do with Roxas.’ I have no idea why, but I think this sentence actually literally reads: “Roxas had stolen all the memories to do with the matter, that strange silver creature”. Grammatically it seems to make ROXAS the stealer, not the creature. This makes no sense in context, however, so I concluded that I’m getting something wrong and wrote it how it makes sense.

+’miserable’, a hard word to translate. 寂しい。It means more like ‘lonely’, ‘bare’, ‘sad’... kind of like how there’s no word for ‘missing’ someone in Japanese, English doesn’t really have a word for this feeling.

+’beach’, literally ‘ocean’. I don’t know whether this is an Australian English thing, but we don’t usually say ‘go to the ocean’, we say ‘go to the beach’. Since maybe the use of the word ‘ocean’ is some kind of vague metaphorical reference to Kairi, I thought about leaving it as ocean, but then I thought it made the tone of the lines to too formal. Or, maybe this scene has some kind of relevance to 358/2 Days…

+’Hayner hopped’, with a ‘pyon!’ sound effect XD

+’fried noodles’, yakisoba. Yum. Hayner says, ‘海といえば焼きそばだ。Literally this is something like ‘to speak of the beach, you think of friend noodles.’ And Roxas replies, ‘isn’t it, to speak of the beach, you think of watermelon?’ 海といえばスイカだろ？

+’make do’, close to ‘endure’ or ‘bear’. ‘Suck it up!’

+’important tone’. Confused myself here. The word 偉いmeans ‘elevated, important, special’, but in my local dialect (鳥取弁) it is slang for ‘tired, exhausted’. I almost though Hayner said it in a ‘tired tone’, before I remembered no-one outside my tiny prefecture means it like that XD

+’odd jobs’, the word used is アルバイト, which is usually translated as ‘part-time work’. I don’t know if this here is more Australian English wankery, but I wouldn’t really call that what they do, because they don’t have to involve tax file numbers ~~perhaps because it’s a videogame.~~ I think ‘odd job’ makes more sense.

+’the man’, is おじさんwhich is literally, ‘uncle’ but is used as a sort of term of endearment/irreverence for father-aged men. English kind of fails at conveying these nuances…

+’said Hayner, shocked.’ This is that same old ‘shocked/wearily’ problem: no kanji, so I don’t know which of the homographs it is. I decided that Hayner wouldn’t be the type to get down about a possible challenge, so went with ‘shocked’.

+’you reckon, right?’ だろだろ？ ‘isn’t it, isn’t it?’ or ‘right, right?’ ‘see, see?’. The phrase makes me feel Hayner bouncing with energy for some reason!

+’she’ll be right’; it’s okay, it’s fine. I just wanted to convey Hayner’s slang.

+’let’s struggle!’ I never paid that much attention, but is the guy you get this job from the same guy who announces the struggle tournament…? And that’s why he’s in charge of the posters…?

+’board’ Olette uses slang, saying スケボーinstead ofスケートボード

+’a little’ though not her direct thought but in Olette’s POV, it uses the cute word ちょっぴり to mean ‘very’.

+’fairly regretful’, I know this sounds weird, but it’s repeating the same word from ‘fairly steep’ and ‘fairly heavy’ and I thought it was a device worth keeping…

+Pence’s noises:

“Hnn…” うーん……

“Yaaaaaaaaaargh!” うわあああああああああ！

“Ooh…”　うぅ……

“Ugh!”　ぐっ！

+’ow-ow-ow-ow…’ イテテテテ, which comes from the word痛い, or ‘painful’ (used as an exclamation like ‘ouch!’).

+’Hayner had ridden Roxas as he fell’. The word is のっかる、a cute form of the word乗る. THERE IS NO WAY TO FIX THE WRONG IN THIS SENTENCE. The funniest way I could have worded it is, ‘Hayner had fallen while in the position of mounting Roxas’, which made me laugh so hard I couldn’t breathe.

+’sorry…’ they say すいませんwhich is a slightly less polite version ofすみません, or ‘excuse me’.

+’yeah’ he says おう, which is this noise guys make to mean a lot of things including ‘good morning’ and ‘yes’. It gives me strong sumo/kendo/baseball-club-boy images, but that’s probably just me ^^;

+The last scene has parts that mirror a scene in Axel’s chapter identically. For continuity’s sake I used the same words as the chapter I’d already posted, however, reading it again I realised I made a lot of mistakes. So! Here is the re-worded part.

Twilight Town was wrapped in the usual red sunset. On top of that clock tower, Roxas (/Axel) watched the sunset vaguely, a sea-salt ice cream in his hand. (Roxas: From far off), he could hear the sound of a train running, and a bell rang out from that place. It was the usual scene of the somehow fond sunset town.

You already know, but if you've got any questions at all I'll do my best to answer them!

.....I was gonna shorten it to ASD:1, then I remembered ASD is Autism Spectrum Disorder.....

Chapter 1: Let's go to the Sea

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:11:58 GMT

I’m not dead! :DDD

This is chapter one (i.e. short story #1): Roxas in Virtual Twilight Town. Parts of this chapter are reflected in Chapter 6 of this book, and also in Somewhere in Time (if you squint), which is the main reason I decided to go ahead and translate the whole thing. Yes, the TWTN Gang are adorable, but minigames in novel form = teeth grindingly boring to translate. (He jumped off a roof! He ran! He stuck a poster up! Ad infinitum! GAAH) It’s not so boring to read, I hope >___>;

Also, the binary code line breaks are artistic licence on my part, i.e. they don’t appear in the novels. someone actually decipher it xoxox

‘Kingdom Hearts 2: Short Stories Vol. 2 Axel—Seven Days’

Written by: Kanemaki Tomoco (not me.)

Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya and Nojima Kazushige (not me.)

Illustration: Amano Shiro (not me.) ** these illustrations are here

Copyrighted by Disney, Square Enix and Touchstone Pictures (not me. Though I wouldn’t mind credit for translating this.)

Any questions, comments, please go ahead!

+Chapter 1: Let’s Go to the Sea+

These holidays, won’t everyone go to the beach?

01010011

While everyone ate sea-salt ice cream together in the usual spot, Roxas was idly thinking about his memories of the summer holidays. Memories… that’s right, it was terrible how those memories were lost yesterday.

Memories—all the memories to do with me were completely lost, and I haven’t been myself.

“I wonder if we can always be together,” said Pence, suddenly.

“That’d be nice, wouldn’t it,” Olette said, blending with Pence’s following sigh.

The atmosphere is different than usual, Roxas sensed, looking at the pair’s faces in turn. It looked like Hayner was also thinking the same thing.

“What’s up with this all of a sudden,” Hayner asked the two.

“No, it’s nothing—I was just thinking so,” replied Pence, gnawing on his ice cream. His expression was a little gloomy.

“Well, I think it’s impossible in reality,” announced Hayner, sharply.

Roxas, and then Pence and Olette, looked up at him.

But you’d think we were all thinking how it’d be nice if we could always be together like this. Why would Hayner say something like that? Roxas had just decided to say something back, which was rare for him, when Hayner continued speaking.

“But, if we grow up, that’s natural, right? The important thing is not how many times we all meet together, but how many times we think of each other—that.”

At Hayner’s words, Roxas felt as though his heart had thudded with a start, and his head dropped just a little.

The important thing isn’t how many times we meet; it’s how many times we remember...

My chest is in some kind of turmoil.

Then, Pence snickered. “That line doesn’t suit you, you know.”

At Pence’s words, Olette also laughed. As if it was unbearably funny, in fact.

“What is this?! You guys, give back those ice creams!” Hayner angrily looked around at everyone’s faces, but when his eyes rested on the unsmiling Roxas, he let out a small sigh.

“Far out… what is with this heavy air!” scowled Hayner.

Certainly, the usual spot had a heavy atmosphere.

“It’s because of that thief yesterday, isn’t it…” said Olette, her head dropping downheartedly.

That thief yesterday—the memory thief. That weird silver-coloured creature that had stolen all the memories to do with Roxas.

What the hell was it, wondered Roxas.

“You’re wrong, you know!”

Roxas snapped out of it at Hayner’s words, and looked up. Hayner, who had made the clear declaration, had an expression that was filled with some kind of confidence.

“We’re just feeling miserable because the summer holidays finish soon is how I see it!” said Hayner, angrily this time.

That’s right, it is pretty miserable that the summer holidays will finish. It’s a short holiday anyway, and ending in five days, it’s just so… miserable.

“And so, I have an idea! Let’s all go to the beach!” said Hayner, as if announcing a serious matter.

“The beach?” Roxas echoed, without thinking.

Speaking of the beach, I remember that dream I see every night.

The sound of waves. Light sparkling on the water. We ran on the pure white sand… we? It’s not me appearing in those dreams. A boy called Sora is the one who appears. And then—others. I don’t remember their names. Spent fun times there every day. No, ‘spent’ as in ‘dreamed’.

Because I’ve been seeing these dreams nonstop lately, they’ve come to feel like things that actually happened.

But, because of that, I want to go to the beach with everyone.

I really want to go.

To the beach I really wanted to go to, but couldn’t.

“We haven’t even been to the beach once these holidays! The blue sea! The blue sky! Let’s take the train to the beach!” Hayner said with force, hopping down from the place he was always decidedly seated—the top of a crate. Drawn along without realising, Roxas and the others also stood up.

But, Olette was the one who realised something right away. She dropped her head, downcast. Pence followed suit.

“No good?” asked Hayner, timidly, at their countenances.

“Well, I don’t have much money…” Olette said, in a small voice.

It was almost the end of the holidays, and so she’d already spent nearly all of her pocket money. She expected Hayner, Pence and Roxas were the same. There was nothing left in their wallets, other than enough for the sea salt ice cream they bought every day.

“Leave it to me! Let’s go to the shopping district!” announced Hayner, and he flew out of the usual spot. The remaining three people exchanged glances.

“He says to leave it to him, but…” Pence said worriedly, looking at Roxas.

“Let’s follow Hayner.”

Pence and Olette nodded at Roxas’ words, and ran outside.

01000101

Following Hayner up the slope to the shopping district, Roxas found Hayner in front of the notice board.

“It’s gonna be the day after tomorrow, so soon,” Hayner said, looking at a poster stuck on the notice board. The poster was about a struggle battle to be held in town the day after next. The struggle battle was like a Twilight Town festival, held every year in the summer holidays, where the winner was chosen by battling with excusive swords. The preliminaries were already over, and Roxas and Hayner had been chosen to advance.

“Let’s battle in the finals! So, whoever wins, we’ll share the prize between the four of us, okay?”

“That’s good,” Roxas replied to Hayner, and they shook hands.

“It’s a promise!”

“Yeah—a promise.”

At Roxas’ reply, Hayner, beaming and laughing, shook his hand free, gave a small jump and stood in front of the three.

“Are we all together?” The three nodded. “So then! About today,” said Hayner, walking into the centre of the group. “The train fare to the sea is 900 munny. For four people that would be…?”

“3600 munny,” replied Olette straight away. Hayner sounded kind of like a school teacher, asking questions like that.

“And one person’d need about 300 munny for spending on fun stuff, right? Four people would need…?”

“1200 munny. Add that to the train fares and that’s… 4800 munny, right?” answered Pence, this time.

“Fun stuff?” asked Roxas, tilting his head.

“Fried noodles are what you think of when you hear ‘the beach’. There’s nothing more important than that.”

“Don’t you mean watermelon?” Roxas asked back, at Hayner’s words.

“Too expensive. One watermelon is 2000 munny.”

Hayner’s right. We should probably just make do with fried noodles.

“To go to the beach, we need 4800 munny. But what do we have on us now?” asked Hayner, in the same important tone.

“I’ve got 800 munny,” said Pence.

“…650 munny,” followed Olette, apologetically.

“Sorry, 150 munny,” added Roxas, even more apologetically.

“So then, all up we have 1600 munny! We need 3200 more munny in all to cover it!” declared Hayner, quickly. “Meaning, we’ll do odd jobs and earn munny! We’ll aim for 800 munny each! The time limit is until the train leaves!” Finishing speaking, Hayner ran for the plaza as if escaping.

“Um…” Watching his retreating back, Olette tilted her head. “Hayner said to leave it to him, didn’t he…?”

Pence shrugged and chucked. On that topic, Hayner had spent all his holiday pocket money. He didn’t have even one munny left.

“It’s fine. So we can go to the beach, let’s do odd jobs!”

Pence and Olette nodded at Roxas’ words. The three immediately looked at the crowded notice board in front of them.

“I’ll deliver letters, shall I…” muttered Olette, looking at the flyer.

“I think I can carry luggage,” Pence decided of his work.

“I’ll… go look at the tram plaza, shall I.” Pence and Olette nodded at Roxas’ words.

“Well, see you later!”

Seeing the two off, Roxas started running.

01010110

There were, in total, three job notices on the tram plaza notice board.

“…Clearing up junk… putting up posters…”

Roxas decided to try putting up posters, and ran to the man who had placed the wanted notice. There was already someone there to see the man.

“What, you’re doing this job too, Roxas?”

“You too, Hayner?”

It was Hayner who was there. It seemed Hayner, who had run off before the others, had picked his odd job from the tram plaza notice board.

“If you did it together for me, you’d probably finish faster”, said the man, sounding a little happy.

“Because losing ain’t possible!”

“For me, that is!”

“It’s not a competition, okay? Well, I don’t mind of you intend on entering the preliminary semi-finals the day after next, but there are only so many places to stick posters…”

“How many should we do?”

“Twenty posters,” the man replied to Hayner.

“So then, it’s okay to do ten each?”

The man brooded a little over Roxas’ words, and then opened his mouth.

“Truth is, there are forty-five notice boards.”

“So twenty isn’t even half’, said Hayner, shocked.

“Yes. And so, if you two are going to put them up for me, I’d be happy if you did them all.” If so, I’ll pay you two 100 munny.”

Roxas and Hayner looked at each other.

“Okay then! So then, can you give us, um… twenty three posters each?”

“I don’t mind. You’ll put them up even inside rooms?” The man optimistically answered Hayner, and started counting posters from a load on the side.

Hayner grinned. “It’s fine to put them up, but… this is a battle!”

“What do you mean?” Roxas asked.

“Whoever sticks twenty three posters up first wins! Loser buys the winner ice cream!” said Hayner, taking posters from the man.

“Maybe it’ll become the struggle tournament preliminaries…”

“You reckon, right?” Hayner said, happily.

“But no ice cream! We’re running out of odd jobs, and you wanna go to the beach, right?” said Roxas, taking posters from the man.

Hayner looked grumbly. “She’ll be right; it’s only about twenty munny.”

“Guess it can’t be helped…” Roxas said, as he started stretching his legs. It’s a very important warm up.

If it’s a contest, I cannot lose to Hayner.

“There are many notice boards in various places, so do your best! I’ll give you the shout to go,” said the man.

“Leave it to me,” said Hayner, in a stance set to take off at any moment now.

“Ok, let’s go. Let’s struggle!” Shouted the man, and the pair started running.

There definitely should be a notice board on the side of the lolly shop.

“You’re going this way too, Roxas?!” Hayner shouted, running.

“Naturally,” answered Roxas, pushing for speed, trying to arrive before Hayner.

“That notice board’s mine!” Hayner was also frantic.

There were six spaces for posters on the notice board coming up before them. Roxas also found a board that could fit three posters further down.

“First!” Hayner started putting up posters on the side closest to him, and Roxas hurried to the further wall. “Hey, you’re aiming for over there!”

Roxas stuck three posters in one go as he ran along the wall of the building.

Where next?

“Why the hell is it in a place like that!” Hayner’s yell could be heard from behind. Glancing around, there was a two storey building with notice boards on the walls.

Looks like we’re gonna have to climb up to ridiculous places to make forty five posters. But, I can’t lose.

Roxas slapped posters up on the notice boards, and hurried onto the next ones.

01000101

At the same time—

“I’m to deliver them to five people, aren’t I?”

Olette had received five letters. She could finish if she put them into some mail boxes from the top of the slope to the bottom.

“It’d be easier if I could ride a board…”

Hayner and Roxas often rode skateboards around town. But, Olette didn’t have the confidence to stop when she was going a little fast.

“It’s nice weather.”

Olette posted a letter in the first mail box.

I haven’t written a letter for ages.

When was the last time I wrote a letter…?

A pigeon stopped halfway down the slope, as if looking at Olette.

“Hello there. Did you by any chance want a letter?” Olette spoke to the pigeon, watching her so steadily, though she wasn’t really thinking that was the reason. Olette posted a second letter.

“I wonder if we really can make it to the beach.”

I hadn’t thought Hayner, who had said he wanted to go to the beach in the first place, would have absolutely no money.

Well, since it’s Hayner, it’s imaginable, though—.

I wonder if Hayner is properly doing odd jobs…?

Surely he hasn’t done any of his holiday homework, either.

Apart from the independent research assignment, Olette had done all hers.

If he says he’ll copy mine on the last day, I’m going to refuse.

With that resolution in her heart, Olette posted the third letter.

01001110

“Hnn…”

The hill going up to the station is fairly steep; I get tired climbing it normally. So why on earth did I choose to carry these huge pieces of luggage up the hill for my odd job…

Pence was fairly regretful.

Although it was loaded on a cart, it was fairly heavy. Even desperately pushing, upon taking even a little rest, the cart would go to fall down the slope.

“I know!”

It’d be easier to unload the luggage off the cart, right?

With that little plan, Pence tried unloading the big bags.

But!

“Yaaaaaaaaaargh!”

It seemed to have been a huge mistake.

Pence was pinned under bags falling off the cart.

“Ooh…”

Pushing at the bags, Pence went to stand. But as the bags slipped sideways, the cart, with nothing to weigh it down, went back down the hill, hitting Pence square on the shin.

“Ugh!”

Pence crouched where he was.

It seemed it would still take some time before the job would be complete.

01000100

Next target is the notice board on the roof of the house built by the wall.

Roxas ran up the hill, about to jump for that roof.

“Wah!”

Just then, someone grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

I can’t turn to face the one who grabbed me, but I know who it is.

“Hayner!”
“First!”

Hayner jumped up onto the targeted roof before him. In front of him, as far as he could tell, there was no fewer than five on the notice board.

I cannot lose to Hayner now.

Roxas chased after Hayner in a flurry, and grabbed Hayner as he finished sticking up one poster.

“What are you doing!”

“Returning the favour!” yelled Roxas, and he jumped first onto the roof of a shed.

“Yes!”

Clinging to the posters, Roxas leapt onto the next roof.

“Wait!”

Now Hayner was chasing behind, clinging to Roxas’ legs.

“That’s dangerous, Hayner!”

“Shut up! I’m not about to let you beat me!”

Like that, the two pushed and struggled on the roof, but, they rolled off the slope.

“Waaaah!” the pair shrieked in unison.

“Ow-ow-ow-ow…”

“Hurry up and get off me!”

Hayner had ridden Roxas as he fell. Roxas rubbed his bumped head.

“That happened because you’re so violent, Roxas!”

“That’s my line!”

The two began rolling around struggling for a second time. There was a person’s shadow next to them.

“Shut up! Who was it! Being violent on people’s rooves!” a townsman scowled down at the two.

“…Sorry…” the pair said in a small voice, after scrambling to their feet and bowing.

“Roxas and Hayner, is it! It’s okay to be energetic, but have some moderation!” The angry man went back inside his house.

“You made him mad, didn’t you!”

“It was your fault, Hayner!”

“That’s my line!”

The two argued again, then looked at each other, and laughed.

“Because losing ain’t possible!”

“For me!”

And then the two ran off in separate directions.

01000001

Three posters left.

Roxas jumped down from a roof, and looked around for any more spaces to stick.

That reminds me, I haven’t seen Hayner. Wonder where he’s stuck posters?

Then, just as Roxas stuck a poster on a notice board behind a building, he saw Hayner running in the building’s shadow. He yelled out without thinking.

“Hayner!”

Hayner stopped and spun to face that spot.

“How many left?”

“One!” Hayner yelled, and went running off.

I’ve got two posters left, so… if I were losing I’d lose by one poster… um… am I going to lose?!

Roxas ran, panicking, and climbed to the second floor from a back alley’s rubbish dump.

Posters have been stuck everywhere already.

“There!”

He saw a notice board right in front of him, with no posters on it at all.

One left. Where’s the last notice board?!

Roxas jumped off the house and ran.

I don’t see any. Far off, I can see Hayner running the same as me. Seems like Hayner’s looking for the last notice board too.

He ran around in the plaza, but didn’t find any notice boards.

Roxas stopped and thought.

Noticeboardnoticeboardnoticeboard

Ah!

He ran for the notice board which had had the job information, bang smack in the middle of the wide space.

That notice board had some space on it, I’m sure.

There!

Roxas ran in first, and stuck up the last poster.

“Ahhh! Roxas!’

Hayner had run there just a little too late.

“…I lost…” Hayner dropped to his knees, dejected.

“I win!” said Roxas, looking down at Hayner.

“I know… I’d better treat you to ice cream, right…”

“I don’t want ice cream,” Roxas said, taking Hayner’s hand and helping him up. “Instead of that, what about fried noodles at the beach?” Roxas laughed, and Hayner also smiled.

If we don’t do at least one more job, we won’t make the target sum.

It doesn’t really look like we’ll get enough for the yearned-after watermelon, but, I think I can keep working if it’s to get to the beach.

“Okay, will we do our best one more time!”

“Yeah!”

Roxas and Hayner called out to each other, and ran off for the next job.

01011001

In Twilight Town, the sun glowed red as it set. From the top of a clock tower, Roxas watched the sunset vaguely, a sea-salt ice cream in his hand. From far off, the sound of the train could be heard; bells rang out. The fond sight of the sunset was the same as always.

“Your ice cream is melting,” said Olette, peering worriedly at Roxas’ face. The sea-salt ice cream in Roxas’ hand was melting just a little bit.

“I’m sorry…” murmured Roxas, staring at his melting ice cream.

In the end, they hadn’t been able to go to the beach.

The money they had all worked so hard to gather had gone somewhere.

On the way to the station, Roxas had bumped into a man wearing a black coat, and fallen. And then, when he had gotten back up—the money had disappeared somewhere.

I think that man probably stole it.

But, despite that, everyone else said they hadn’t seen the man.

Just like that memory thief yesterday, things I don’t really understand keep happening, and it makes me feel kind of sick.

Roxas was lost in thought, his head bowed.

“I said not to worry about it!” said Hayner, angrily.

“But, I don’t really understand what it all means,” sighed Pence.

“…It’s weird,” said Olette.

“Yeah,” Hayner replied.

“—Can you feel Sora…”

“Huh?” Hayner gave Roxas a weird look.

The words Roxas had said unconsciously had been whispered by that black coated man, when he’d bumped into him.

Who is Sora?

“We can go tomorrow, right?” Hayner, who had finished his ice cream, stood up.

“Yeah. We still have some summer holidays!”said Pence, encouragingly.

"Will we call it a day?" Olette stood up.

"Yeah..." Roxas' expression was gloomy.

"Well, see you tomorrow!" Hayner and Pence started off down the clock tower.

"Don't worry about it too much, okay?" Olette said over her shoulder, as she went to leave the clock tower. Roxas gave a small nod at her words, and polished off his ice-cream in a hurry, scrambling to his feet.

The sun was sinking.

It should be the same sunset as always. Why does it look different, somehow?

Something is about to change—?

Am I remembering this view...?

"Roxas—!"

He heard Pence's voice, calling out to him from below the clock tower.

"I'm coming!" Roxas replied, and turned his back on the sunset, dashing down the clock tower.

In the end, we couldn't go to the sea.

But, I'd be happy if we could go tomorrow.

I want to go to the sea with everyone.

Because, we promised we'd all go to the beach when we got a holiday.

With who?

That's--that's decided. Hayner and Pence, and Olette, and me all promised we'd go to the sea together.

See, if I close my eyes, I can hear the good old sound of the waves.

Blue sea, blue sky.

We'll watch the sinking sun together on the beach.

Different to the sunset we always see, a special sunset.

Twilight Town's setting sun--was shining on Roxas' back.

01010011

X---End of Chapter One---X

Then you go read Axel’s day 3 and it kills ;___;

Thank you for reading! Translation notes for this exist in the next post.

I keep getting emails from people asking me about the other chapters, so:

CHAPTER 1: Let’s go to the sea (DONE)

CHAPTER 2: The nightmare before Christmas (NOT DOING)

CHAPTER 3: Pride land (NOT DOING)

CHAPTER 4: Phantom storm (ON TO-DO LIST): a cute and random short story about Sora, Donald and Goofy in the gummi ship

CHAPTER 5: Last minute to the castle oblivion (DONE)

CHAPTER 6: Axel—Seven days (DONE)

If you want to know what happens in Chapters 2 and 3, go play the Halloween Town and Pride Lands levels in KHII. I’ve read them, and that’s all they are, I swear. Personally, I think it would be a waste of time and effort for me to do them. But, if for whatever reason you REALLY need me to do them, I’ll put them on the to-do list. But if no one requests, I’m not even thinking of doing them ever.

Once I’ve done chapter 4, I’ll figure out how to make a sticky post with links to them and have it all nice. Though,ucco already has them all pretty up on heartstation anyway. <3

STAY GOLD

Maiki is a genius (yes)

UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Washed-up Paopu?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIAAAA <333

The 14th: Illustrations

Chapter 2 Translation Notes

The 14th: Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Beginning of the End Translation Notes

The 14th: Chapter 1 pt 2

The 14th: Chapter 1 pt 1

The 14th: Contents etc.

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The 14th: Chapter 1 and 2

*smoke bomb*

Roxas--Seven Days: Prologue

One and a half months to go? :DDDD

Roxas--Seven Days: Akuroku day snippet

Chapter 4: Phantom Storm Translation Notes

Chapter 4: Phantom Storm

Roxas--Seven Days: Contents and Character Bios

OMGOMGOMGOMG~♥♥♥

Amano Shiro's Novel Illustrations~

Chapter 1: Let's go to the Sea: Translation Notes

Chapter 1: Let's go to the Sea

smoke bomb