#GG2O tag

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): THAT MAN - ISOTOPE & ISOLATION

Word Count: 1645 Warnings: None Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

Having completed the basic theory of the force of law, humanity began researching applications of that theory in various fields without a break. Each country, in pursuit of their own interests, invested heavily in this research and recruited top scientists in rapid succession. These scientists, too, were striving to develop new technologies in this new field in a favorable environment. At the forefront of applied legal research was a semi-state-run research institute in the United States of America where three up-and-coming young minds were gathered.

“Oh my god! He’s smoking in the lab again!”

Aria, who had shoulder-length red hair and a folder tucked under her arm, opened the door and slid into the lab. She was the only woman in the group and was undeniably talented, having obtained a doctorate in information engineering in her teens. Her mature behavior made her seem older than her actual age, but the occasional gesture or mannerism still showed the face of an innocent young woman. 

“Zip it. This ain’t a cigarette.” 

A man who was sitting by a window, looking listless, responded. Frederick was a tall man with a toned physique more like an athlete than a researcher. Two years older than Aria, he held a degree in particle physics and was a leading researcher in the recently established field of force of law energy physics. 

“...Oh! You noticed then?”

“...No, not really… Sure, I noticed.”

“Aw, come on! Aren’t you usually like, “You look good today, man,” or whatever? Ah, as expected. It gives me chills imagining you saying something sensible…” 

With a sniff, Frederick looked away.

“Haha, that’s quite dramatic…” 

A slender man who served as the head of the laboratory appeared quietly, holding a steaming cup of coffee in both hands. He was also a young genius scientist who studied life science at a young age and played a role in the completion of the basic theory of the force of law and its mechanics. He had since shifted his major to bioinformatics, and as the head of the laboratory, he was leading the research on applied forensic mechanics.

“Oh, good morning! It's getting warmer, and the long hours are getting in the way of my work..."

"Mm, you're looking a lot brighter today.”

"Wow! Really?”

"Hmph, looks like you're finally getting out of your schoolboy mood…” Frederick said, bitterly. 

"Haha... Here, Frederick. Be careful, it's hot.”

He handed him the cup of freshly brewed black coffee. Frederick took the cup silently and sipped it.

“...So, were you two up all night again?”

“Yeah, well, I must admit I wasn’t working. We got into a little bit of a conversation…”

“I wouldn't call five hours ‘little’…"

Frederick looked disinterested, and then he said venomously, "Ugh, five hours. I don’t know how you two don’t get bored… So, what were you talking about?”

“We were talking about events that still remain controversial in our time.”

"What a disappointment. That’s not much different than talking about your job…”

Aria sighed. Frederick, ignoring her, continued, “We and science are not all-powerful. There are things we can't understand or solve.”

“I don't deny that, of course. What I am saying is that there is a difference between ‘events we cannot unravel due to our lack of understanding’ and ‘events we cannot perceive in the first place.’”

“What do you mean by ‘imperceptible events?’"

“For example... Yes, the existence of God. Let's put aside religious belief for the moment, but we can understand the concept of God. But we have not scientifically proven the actual existence of God.”

“God is God, and that’s it. Apparently whoever believes in Him will be saved.”

“I used a bad metaphor. Let's talk about something more familiar. Our bodies are composed of about 60 trillion cells, whose roles are determined by DNA. In the 20th century, we finally figured out how this worked.”

“You're the one with the expertise..."

Frederick nodded arrogantly then sipped his coffee.

“But we don’t truly know by whom or even how this mechanism was constructed.”

“Who said that..? It was the result of trial and error woven by nature, wasn't it? If you fail, you start over. If you succeed, you move on to the next step. Of course, there must have been mutations.”

"Aria... Do you think that all of this, including the mutations, is an accident of nature?"

“I don't see how it could be any other way…”

“That's far too stochastic. Though, probability theory is your area of expertise.”

"Probabilistically, you're right. But what else is there?”

An impatient Frederick urged him on.

“Sorry, Frederick. Let's jump to a conclusion. What kind of being has the power to direct the course of events in a single direction? A being that defines in detail the course of every event in the world.”

“Alright, so that would be a god, then?”

“It is close to that concept. Let's call it ‘God’. And if ‘God’ is something we cannot perceive fundamentally..."

“Even if it did exist, what’s there to be worried about..?“

“Do you know what a 'missing link’ is? It’s a term used to describe a significant gap in the expected continuity of an event when a discontinuity is observed. To use a simple biological analogy, it’s a situation in which the existence of Species B, which should have occurred during the evolutionary process from Species A to Species C, is completely missing. So, how does the missing link occur? I believe that this phenomenon is a control error by ‘God’. In other words, ‘God's’ definition of events does not always work as it should. So… why then does a control error occur? Is the mechanism itself flawed, or is it encouraged to mutate by a third party..? I believe it is the latter. That is to say, a "third party" intervenes in the evolution from Species A to Species B, which was determined by ‘God’ as the natural course of events, and suggests evolution to Species C... or eliminates the possibility of evolution to Species B. In any case, the original evolution was to evolve to Species C via Species B, but the "third party" rewrites the program to evolve directly to Species C. I call this third party ‘divine revelation.’”

“W-wait a minute! That’s not easy to understand at all…”

Aria pouted. Frederick saw this and followed by folding his arms.

“It isn’t necessary to increase the length of a 1-meter giraffe's neck from 2 meters to 3 meters to 4 meters to make it 10 meters long. Make it 10 meters all at once. Rewrite its DNA. However, he's saying that this rewriting of DNA is not the work of a god but some kind of ‘revelation.’”

“I get the logic, but it's a bit far-fetched. Besides, if it's a being that encourages successful evolution, then what's the problem?”

“No, that's not always the case. There are a small number of extinct species among those for which the missing link has been identified. The ultimate goal of biological evolution is the perpetuation of a species. Therefore, extinct species cannot be considered an evolutionary success story. This is also true for us humans. If ‘divine revelation’ intervenes and forces us to evolve in the wrong direction while we are trying to evolve properly, we are doomed.”

The tone grew more serious and the color drained from Aria’s face.

"...Aria, it’s all bullshit. Don’t take it seriously.”

“Haha, that’s a heartless thing to say, Frederick. Call it a hypothesis.”

“Ok, so what do you really think, Fred?”

"It's best if you find your own way. I couldn't stand it being decided for me... That's all." 

“I’m glad. We’re on the same page, then…”

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Beep. Be-beep. Beep. Be-beep. Beep. Be-beep.

An electronic warning alarm echoed in the darkened room.

"Oh my, I've exceeded the overflow limit again..."

A tall man dressed all in black clicked his tongue loathsomely. He tapped the console to stop the device. Then the man walked to the end of a terminal, a huge coffin-like structure, solemnly as if he was approaching an altar. 

With a flick of a switch, the lid of the device was removed without a sound. A few moments later, a pale, slender boy rose from inside the device. The structure’s interior was filled with a colorless liquid, blocking interference from the outside world. This highly viscous liquid clung to the boy's naked body.

The boy's brain plasma was connected to over hundreds of tiny metallic threads. The procedure involved reattaching memory data to the hippocampus. More specifically, it was the process of receiving backups of stored memories from the HPC server and restoring lost memories.

The procedure to rejuvenate the body had the fatal flaw of causing a high rate of memory clouding and loss. For that reason, the boy temporarily stored his memories in advance in preparation for permanent memory loss.

“How are you feeling?”

“My senses feel fresh and finely honed. The restoration was completed without any problems.”

“Though, rejection of juvenile hormones is troublesome..."

“It is not originally a human bioactive substance. In the meantime, these memory data will continue to be backed up in advance.”

“...Hm”

The man in the black cloak with the word “raven” written on it, bowed his head reverently.

“Incidentally, how are you doing? You seemed to have had subtle brainwave disturbances during the session..."

“...Indeed, I was reminded of a memory from long ago. Perhaps my emotions got the better of me.”

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Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): RAVEN - THE POOL OF BLOOD’S SONNET

Word Count: 1600 Warnings: Blood/death, self harm, suicide, suicidal ideation Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

To live is to die. From a philosophical standpoint, that may be a cliché. However, this man was truly living to die. In a way, for this man, “living” as a concept no longer had value. The daily routing that he had repeated for hundreds of years had far exceeded the limits of boredom. Recently, he had finally stopped feeling anything. What could be seen, heard, smelled, or tasted. He felt nothing equally from any stimuli he received from his five senses. However, there was one thing from which he could still enjoy fresh sensations: Pain. 

Death is a necessary condition for the fulfillment of a life. The completion of life is a necessary condition for the enjoyment of death. What, then, of immortality? Can eternal life, which the living ultimately seek, be equated with life? The man had a clear answer to this question.

For longer than anyone could know, the man had been seeking death. The pain he felt in the pursuit of reaching death was an irreplaceable pleasure that awakened within him a sense of life. This man always sought death; he always sought the pain that was as close to death as he could get, and this thirst for death was expressed in the form of several suicides. Every attempt was a failure. 

The man was resolved to die, and he had procured a way to guarantee it. A special device with an octagonal weight attached to each end of a cylinder. If he could penetrate the brain stem with it, perhaps....

Komm susser Tod! [German: Come sweet death.]

With a prayer, the man struck his own forehead with all his might… 

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What am I living for? 

Since the beginning of human civilization, there have been young men who have never forgotten that universal question every human born into the world has pondered at least once.

It was over a thousand years ago. Born and raised in a very average middle-class family in Germany, this young man was drafted into the army in his mid-20s and served a tour of duty in a foreign country. On a battlefield filled with the smell of blood and death, he fought hard wielding the weapons he was given, and defeated his enemies. With his excellent physical strength and physique, he attained great results in his first battle and continued to accumulate military achievements. Thanks to his successes, the expeditionary force defeated the enemy one after another and advanced deeper into the enemy's country.

However, as the war dragged on, the expeditionary force found it difficult to maintain its long supply lines. Its frontline units also became increasingly isolated. The loneliness and starvation of the battlefield made the soldiers anxious and they began to lose their composure. Military discipline became a formality, and soldiers soon began to raid enemy farming villages for food.

A little over a year into the man’s service, his unit hit a small enemy farming village in the mountains. The soldiers, who had not had comfortable beds or food for a long time, feasted and got drunk late into the night. When they had fallen asleep, the troops were attacked in the night. When the man awoke from his sleep in a room of a private house, his unit was already half destroyed and in a state of pandemonium. The clanging of bells, screams, and shouts were all one sound that rang in his ears. The enemy had surrounded his unit as part of a scorched-earth strategy, using a single village as bait.

(I have to escape!) 

Sensing danger, he reached for the armor that lay beside his bed. However, a roar sounded close by, stopping his hand. The door to the house had been kicked in. The next moment, enemy soldiers would break into this room. Understanding this, he decided to give up his armor and escape with only his sword. Being careful not to make a sound, he opened the window and let himself soar into the outside world.

Just before dawn – the eastern sky beginning to turn white. There was no match between the defenseless army and their well-prepared enemies. It would have been a one-sided slaughter. The troops had suffered catastrophic damage in a matter of minutes.

(Somehow I must find a horse.)

Taking great care not to be spotted by enemy soldiers, the man searched for a horse, ducking behind cover as he went. Soon after, he found a horse that had lost its owner and was standing around with nowhere to go. The man did not know who owned the horse, but that didn’t matter anymore. He gently approached the horse and rubbed him down. The horse was ill-tempered and seemed to be fearless. Then the man put his foot in the stirrup, jumped up with all his might, and just as he was about to step over, the horse whinnied. The sound alerted enemy soldiers and they descended upon him.

“There’s a survivor! Over here!”

“Round them up! Horses! Get the horses!”

He chose the mountain forest as his escape route, but was pursued relentlessly by the enemy and spent half an hour on the run. His horse's legs were pierced by numerous arrows, and he himself was hit by several arrows in the back.

The arrow wounds took their toll – after several miles, the horse shrieked and suddenly fell over. The man was thrown from the horse, and he flew into the air. His whole body hit the ground hard, his face contorted in pain. When he tried to stand up, the enemy had already caught up with him and he was surrounded by five soldiers.

He rose to his feet and readied his longsword. However, the sword fell out of his hand without reaching a single enemy soldier. A volley of arrows from the enemy pierced him and he fell to his knees.

Blood poured from the arrow wounds and flowed down to his feet, creating a sea of red and black on the ground. As the man gazed at the scene, he knew that his life was coming to an end and his vision gradually became narrower and darker. He had been prepared for death ever since he went to war. 

He should have had the same fear of death as anyone else but when the time came, strangely, he felt no emotion. As he was vaguely wondering if this was how he was going to die, he heard a strange sound. It was not a sound heard directly by his ears, but a sound that traveled through his body. When he realized that it was the sound of blades stabbing through his chest and into his abdomen, he was certain then that he had at last died. This was the first death he had experienced. 

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Where am I? Heaven, Valhalla? Am I dead?

The man was in a place unknown to him. A cylindrical space about 10 meters [32ft] in diameter. Light shone through windows set on all sides, but he could not see the world outside them. The windows were like mirrors, showing only his reflection. 

His body was floating in the air. Despite this, his sense of up and down was maintained. 

He examined his body and found no abnormalities. There were no arrow or stab wounds, which were his cause of death. 

That's right. He had been hit by arrows from enemy soldiers on the battlefield and stabbed through the chest and abdomen with swords. They were definitely mortal wounds. Unable to think clearly, the man held his head in his hands.

At that moment, the man suddenly felt as if someone was looking at him appreciatively. He was not sure how many, but more than one or two or at least. It was as if a large crowd was staring at him all at once. “Like a cage surrounding a bird of prey…” the man thought.

The gaze he felt began to hurt. The pain was like sharp thorns cutting into his hands, legs, face, abdomen, and organs; everywhere receptive to touch. The constant pain violated the man's exposed nerves without causing any external injury. It was the greatest pain a human being could feel. There were no units of measurement to accurately describe the agony that he felt at that moment. The man could not faint, could not scream. He could only writhe. 

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After a few minutes, the pain suddenly stopped. At the same time, he saw a familiar scene reflected in his eyes.

Was it all a dream? The ground was stained with the pool of blood that had spilled out of him, showing that what had happened to him was undeniably true. However, he was still alive. 

Did he come back to life? He didn’t think he had God’s blessing because he lacked faith. 

He checked his wounds, and they were closed. However, unlike a moment ago, the wounds themselves were not entirely gone. Faint scars remained. The wounds seemed to have healed rapidly and completely. How they had healed was beyond comprehension. It was impossible to know. Thus rose the curtain on his immortal life...

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The Japanese title for this one is difficult to get into English: 血だまりの詩. The kanji at the end, 詩, can mean song, poem, verse, or Chinese poem. I tried to replicate the feeling of it in English by rendering it as “sonnet.”

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): VALENTINE - THE FIRST ONE

Word Count: 1,534 Warnings: Dense scifi word salad Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

Everything that happens in this world is the result of decisions made in the Backyard. To be more specific, the infinite number of possibilities created in the Backyard are the extremely low-probability results of the countless processes of selection that have led to the prompting of their manifestation. Conversely, the number of possibilities that have been eliminated without being manifested is infinite.

Consider the universe, which is the largest scale that can be perceived and logically interpreted. The Earth on which everyone lives, and the universe as a whole, extends approximately 470 billion light-years, and all of its components were contained in a sphere only 1.7 cm in diameter at the primordial birth of the known universe. This sphere is called the "Big Bang Model," and it is the very universe in which we live.

The Big Bang model was also defined in accordance with the Backyard's code, and the emergence of its existence was established. The same is true of its internal components. First, the possibility of the birth of the Big Bang Model was created. Then a selection of possibilities was conducted to determine whether or not the existence of the model occurred, and the possibilities of the components within the model were determined through an infinite number of processes. In other words, it is possible that the Big Bang Model itself did not come into existence, or that it could have had a different shape and mass. Even if the possibility of the sphere's creation had been determined, if the Big Bang itself had not been determined there would have been the possibility that it would have continued to wander forever in another dimension.

Oddly enough, the Big Bang Model drew on the extremely low chance of causing the famous "Big Bang," a massive explosive phenomenon. The occurrence of this phenomenon itself is also only one of the possibilities according to the Backyard's code, and is the result of an astronomically low probability.

These potential selections by the Backyard are extremely mechanical and inorganic physical phenomena in which no one's will can intervene. The Backyard itself has neither will nor emotion. It is simply a world of information that generates all possibilities and determines events. Since these events are created according to the standards defined in the Backyard and undergo an unlimited number of selection cycles to produce a single result, the common phrase "fate is predetermined," can be simply explained as the result of an unlimited number of selection cycles until an unlimited number of possibilities are reduced to a single result.

However, Valentine was born after the intervention of an indeterminate force that destroyed every possibility in which she was not born.

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When was she born? It’s nonsense to seek an answer to this question. It isn’t impossible to estimate the time in this world, but it is not equally possible to calculate her age because time in the Backyard is not synchronized with our world. Simply put, the unit of one second observed in the Backyard from this world is not an objective second within the Backyard. A minute can be a second, or it can be a hundred years.

It took several hundred times longer for Valentine, who was born and raised in the Backyard, to be fixed into a complete shape than it would take a human being to grow in similar circumstances.

The first step was the formation of the body that would serve as the vessel. Most of the possibilities that were conceived for the human-like form were confirmed without problems, but there were some irregularities due to "Mother's intervention". She was created using a human woman as a model for her appearance. By eliminating all possible differences between her appearance and that of the model, she achieved a very close resemblance. The most significant physical difference between her and the human’s were the antennae-like organs extending from her head. It took more than a hundred years to determine the possible shapes of her form, to compose them, and to make them into a vessel.

With the vessel complete, the next step was the formation of her soul. When she acquired the potential to be conscious, to acquire language, and to pronounce words, the first words she uttered were not much different from those of the average human infant.

“Mother.”

A synonym for identifying one’s female parent. At this time, she still had no emotions and was only allowed to express objective facts about perceived events. Since she had no feelings, she could not "lie.”

“Who… am I?”

The next step was to ascertain her own existence. It is a process of checking and recognizing in detail the elements, shapes, and textures that made up her body.

“I am Valentine… not Aria. Aria… Who is..? The configuration of the body has been identified. Checking the faulty regions. Lower extremities are unresponsive. Check for communication deficits. Measuring electrical synaptic transmission. Abnormality confirmed. Re-order axial guidance. The hippocampal cortex is impaired. Valentine's memory is… stable. What are… these? Aria's memories? Aria… the model for this body. This feeling… Fred… who is that? My partner… someone I love… my beloved… warmth…”

Valentine stopped speaking.

“Emotions are incomprehensible, suspending this process. The entire body is operating at 92 percent. No rejection. No issues with mission execution. Confirm purpose of action. Mother's errand. Searching for a key. Confirm mission objective… no faults. Check the route. What… is that? What’s this?”

Valentine tilted her head.

“That isn’t correct… There’s no way out.”

At that time, the gate connecting the Backyard to the tangible world did not exist in all dimensions. In a way, this situation was fortunate for humanity, because Valentine's goal would have meant its destruction. For Valentine to achieve her goal would have meant extinction for the human race.

“No way out, no way to run my errand… There is no other way… none. This is a problem. Hmm, hm, mmm."

Without any clear intention or reason to guide her, Valentine began to wander around.

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“Hey there, girl. What are you doing here, in the Backyard?”

A round object appeared.

“Who are you? Your nose is bleeding.”

"No, this is… because, you know, you're… naked."

Valentine didn’t understand.

“I am Valentine. When I'm naked, your nose bleeds. Correct?"

“It’s common sense that blood would burst out like this, come on.”

She still didn’t understand.

“I mean… Why are you naked?”

"Valentine was just born. This is normal…"

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I guess so. What are you doing now?”

“I'm… going to run an errand for Mother.”

“You’re quite devoted to your family!”

“However, it appears that I am in trouble. There is no way out. I can't enter the other world. I can't complete my errand.”

“What? You want to go to that world?”

“There is a high probability that is affirmative…”

“Well… Maybe don't walk around naked, eh?"

"…Hm? Why?”

“Well, you… You don't want other men to see a young soon-to-be bride naked, do you?”

“…Bride… Negative.”

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. Alright, well if it doesn’t make a difference to you… how about… we go on a date together?”

"… Denied."

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There is a word, "troublemaker." It’s a person who creates problems and is highly irritating to others. There are several patterns among troublemakers. The most vicious of these are those that cause problems unconsciously, without symptoms, and do not cause any harm to themselves.

There was one person who could be called the most striking example of this vicious pattern. Out of respect, he will be referred to as "Mr. A." While there are many troublemakers who can be quickly dismissed with a laugh, in the case of Mr. A., the situation is extremely serious. The list of troubles that Mr. A. has caused in the past is endless and, in every case, he has invariably caused deaths.

Mr. A.’s troubles are created by himself, and "action" is necessary for them to happen. Conversely, after Mr. A. takes that "action," trouble will always be sure to follow. Of course, he is not aware of it. Though many people would like to know what that "action" is, to avoid exploitation, it will not be described.

One day, Mr. A. unintentionally took an "action." There was no noticeable trouble around him. However, the trouble was on an unprecedented scale, and it was happening in another dimension.

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“How long is this going to continue..?"

“Until we find the gate…”

"Pft… Although… gates are not that easy to find.”

"Probability is extremely low."

“I see. Well, that's okay, I'm not busy. And, you know… if I can be with you…"

“There it is…”

“Don't make me say any more embarrassing th– Wait, you found it already?!"

“It’s luck.”

Valentine jumped into the gate without hesitation.

"Hey… wait! I'll also… let's go together… ahaha?!"

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Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

Special thanks to Volcanic Fighter (@Nincopyjasb) for the Japanese manuscript for this story.

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): KY - JUSTICE FOR WHO?

Word Count: 1,699 Warnings: Pregnancy (no birth) Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

Gears are mindless biological killing machines created by mankind. However, among such abominable bio-weapons, a kind-hearted girl was born. She was the Half-Gear offspring of a human and a Gear, and was a charming young woman with a gentle and compassionate heart. Despite her peaceful disposition, for the sole purpose of being a Gear, she was hunted by humans and her life was constantly threatened.

Ky Kiske, the former leader of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, a group specializing in warfare against Gears, had his first encounter with the Half-Gear two years ago. For Ky, who had engaged in mortal combat with Gears on the front lines, the encounter with a gentle Gear that despised destruction and carnage was both new and strange.

After that, through several reunions, the existence of the Half-Gear woman gradually transformed into something to be protected in Ky's mind. If one were to define the beginning of their love, it would be this time. Ky decided to offer her safe harbor and defend her.

He knew that this was a rebellious act against the justice and humanity he believed in.

They began to live together. Ky, a public servant, worked diligently to fulfill his official duties, while the Half-Gear waited for Ky to return home and did her best to take care of the household. It did not take long for the two of them to develop a bond of mutual trust and desire for each other's presence. Ky loved her with all his heart, and she sang to and loved him in equal measure. Ky could no longer hide his true love for her.

Since she had no nationality and no family record, the Half-Gear could not legally marry. Ky, knowing that she wanted to propose, asked her to marry him first. The two exchanged vows of eternal love without public recognition. Tormented by guilt…

The two spent a year or so in happiness, which gradually faded away that sense of guilt and immorality that had been nagging at the back of Ky's mind. However, something happened to reawaken those feelings: his wife became pregnant.

As a young couple in love, this result itself was not surprising. They were delighted when the doctor, one of the few people who understood the couple's situation, told them the news, hand in hand.

However, the changes to her body caused by the pregnancy were different from those of a human’s. Her abdomen had swelled to the size of a human halfway through pregnancy in about a week. Her growth was much too rapid. Ky was once again confronted with the fact that she was a Gear and that the child in her belly was also a Gear. The sense of guilt that had been lying dormant in his heart rekindled at once, and the doctor's report was a dark cloud hovering over Ky's mind.

“I can't see the fetus. It appears to be encased in a hard shell.”

"…I don’t… What does that mean?”

Ky asked, feeling his eyes darken as he started to lose hope.

“Gear… Pardon me… Your wife seems to be oviparous…"

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The long-standing Crusades, the name given to the war against Gears, had left devastating damage to major cities around the world, leaving many people without a livelihood. But still, people had to live. The ultimate concern for many was simply "to live." People at that time avoided the ravages of war and worked together to develop new land and rebuild cities.

As their efforts bore fruit and the reconstruction of the city progressed, life became more stable, and problems that had remained hidden until then began to surface. The community that had been formed to focus solely on "living" had become a melting pot of many different ideas, philosophies, and religious beliefs. Ironically, it was not until the reconstruction of the city that people became aware of this abnormal situation. Fortunately, the people of that time, who were painfully aware of the bitterness of war, did not engage in major conflicts, and those who shared a common ideology and religious beliefs naturally diverged and re-formed their own societies.

Under these circumstances, officials from the United Nations invested vast amounts of capital to support the communities that were being formed. As a result, they gained a powerful voice and influence over these communities, and eventually succeeded in gaining control over the whole of Europe and western Eurasia.

Thus, the world became polarized in terms of the structure of governance: the power of the United Nations member states versus that of other states and municipalities.

In recent years, seeking to further strengthen their control, the United Nations embarked on a national restructuring. This was a major transformation of the system, in which the national government they controlled was divided into three regions, each ruled by its own king. To date, two kingdoms have already been established, with only one remaining: Illyria, where Ky lived. When this country, which had already been named the United Kingdoms of Illyria, was born, it would only be the second largest in the world in terms of total area, but it would have the largest commercial market in the world. There was no doubt that it would be the center of humanity’s reconstruction.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

On the same day Ky learned of his wife’s condition, he accepted an invitation to appear before the United Nations. In a small, gloomy, conference room, he was surrounded by people representing the Senate of the United Nations. He wondered what the sudden order to appear meant. If it had been discovered that he was harboring a Gear, they would not have summoned him with something as leisurely as a letter. He could surround his home with a large army if he had to, but he could not let his guard down.

“International Police Force Captain Ky Kiske, reporting for duty.”

“You have been called in here today for one reason: to ask for your cooperation.”

Ky was relieved; it was not about his wife. His mind regained its composure.

“I am a public servant under the jurisdiction of the United Nations and will not disobey a proper order. However, do you have the authority to issue such orders to me?"

It was a check and balance. At the same time, it was also an attempt to discover the true nature of the organization known as the Senate.

“This isn’t an order… it’s cooperation. As I said a moment ago, did I not?”

“Understood. Then, what is it you need my cooperation for?”

A moment of silence. The man with the low voice coughed before he spoke again.

“I want you to be the king of the Kingdom of Illyria.”

Ky was surprised by this unexpected statement.

“The Kingdom of Illyria will be born soon. At the beginning of the new year, a referendum will be held to choose the king. I would like you to run in this election.”

“You are a hero. You’re a genius in swordsmanship and law, and at a young age you became the leader of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. In addition, you are a handsome man.”

"Indeed. You will be quite popular with the people.”

"We promise to support you to the fullest extent of our ability. If that sounds appealing to you. What do you think?”

Ky hesitated. In fact, he had seriously considered running for king before. Becoming king meant that he would be able to change the world and gain real power over it. For the sake of his suffering people, his wife and unborn child… he wanted to change the world, and this was the perfect opportunity! But what was the Senate's true intention? Ky decided that he should wait and see before giving an answer.

“I am honored by your nomination, but I am a military officer. I don't think I can engage in politics…"

He chose his words carefully and reserved his attitude. He did not expect a straightforward response.

“That’s alright, you don't have to play politics. You can sit on the throne in silence.”

There was no better response; Ky understood completely. They wanted a puppet… an ornamental king who would do their bidding. What was frightening was that they didn't even try to hide it. It was a sign of their confidence, and they had already decided that he was someone they could play with. Ky needed time to think now.

"…I can't make an immediate decision. I'd like some time to think about it.”

"Hmm… Well, that's all right. You may have some time to consider our proposition.”

“Thank you…”

"By the way… Your common-law wife is terribly charming, isn’t she?"

"…What?!”

“I remember seeing your wife somewhere. Now, where was it..?”

A high-pitched voice spoke, the words coming from a grinning mouth. Ky shuddered. They probably knew everything.

"I'm expecting a good answer.”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

That day, Ky Kiske went to his familiar church early in the morning. In front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, he placed his sword beside her and dropped to one knee as if in a crumpled heap. The days of suffering were a staggering burden, weighing down both his heart and body.

The answer was still not clear. There were many different threads of justice to choose from. In the past, he had the courage and pride to fight for the justice he believed in. But now…

Where is my justice? Who is my justice for?

Can I build such a world where humans and Gears coexist?

Am I qualified to lead the world with my many sins as I have..?

Ky kept asking himself these questions. He lost track of how much time had passed before he heard footsteps behind him.

It was rare to hear footsteps at that hour. When he turned around, Ky saw the man whose face he wanted to avoid seeing the most.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

This story connects to Sol's: UNPARALLELED CONFESSION.

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): DR. PARADIGM - INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS

Word Count: 1478 Warnings: None Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

“D-Doctor?!”

“What in the world could have happened that’s got you in such a panic, my dear Keloppa?”

"My head..," a sniffle, "it hurts..."

Dr. Paradigm looked and saw a large bite mark on Keloppa’s head.

“Oh dear, did you get bitten again?”

A huge creature approached them, causing tremors in the earth. It was a familiar sight.

“Now, now, master Bonebiter. Don’t take a bite out of our boy Keloppa. I always have to remind you of this.”

“Boooone…” 

Paradigm sighed as he watched the dragon-shaped Gear roar forlornly in response to being scolded. He understood that it was an instinctive behavior, but he was getting tired of the fact that it could not quit preying on its own people, no matter how many times he warned it.

“Day after day you fellows do this. Should we be delighted by the tranquility of today, or should we be pessimistic because of this critical situation? It’s hard to decide.”

The doctor folded his arms and muttered. Then something abruptly flew by without a sound and spoke in a high-pitched voice into Paradigm’s ear.

“Doctor, doctor! Please, it’s horrible!”

After breakfast, his daily routine was to take a walk around the island. Dr. Paradigm, a Gear, was in a good mood as he felt the pleasant autumn sun and wind. The seagulls flew overhead, the tidal waves... Everything was peaceful.

After the Crusades, Gears were freed from the curse of Justice and moved from place to place to avoid human contact, finally finding somewhere to rest and settle down permanently several years ago. Here they found peace and tranquility. As Paradigm walked along, humming a song of his own composition, "God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world," he saw one of his compatriots running up towards him, sobbing and crying.

“Oh, don’t startle me, Assistant Bonnie. How many times have I told you not to yell in my ear…”

“Ah, come on, please, it’s urgent!” 

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Assistants darted around in a hurry to get back to the laboratory. They were homunculi created by Paradigm through the application of Gear cell technology. 

“What is the matter with you? They say time is money, but I’ve never seen a good result from being in a hurry.”

“You can scold me later… Anyway, please look at this!”

“Ack… Is this..?!”

Paradigm's gaze fell on the monitor of an instrument that observed the Backyard. The cursor that tracked a fluctuation of values moved in a completely different way than usual.

“Is this..?! Is space being minutely distorted? What happened?”

He reached for the console and entered a code.

“The distortion is being caused by… this?! Assistant Bonnie. From your terminal, add up the millionths of the Dirac constant, one by one, in that order."

“Y-yes! Well, um… Eichibar has… this is it! W-wow. The distortion graph just got even bigger!!”

“I knew it! Assistant, continue.”

“Yes! Ah, now it's turned around! It swung out the other way!”

“Good. Secure the state as it is... No, no. This is not a valid operation. Assistant. This time, subtract. Bring it back slowly.”

“Yes… carefully now… What’s this? The cursor is recovering!” 

"All right, that's it! Lock the values, please. Assistant Bennie, lend me a hand. We need the same values over here next."

The other assistant, Bennie, who had been watching the proceedings in a daze from on top of a book, finally got up. Paradigm pointed to another instrument console.

“I see. That’s great, doctor! You can calculate the shape of the object by observing it from different positions on different devices!” 

“It’s nothing but classic trigonometry. I did invent the force of law occurrence rangefinder, after all... No, wait, that doesn’t matter right now. Is this a sphere of about 1.7cm in diameter? The boundary theorem is polarizing… Between this world and the Backyard!!”

“Ah! The cursor is oscillating… Hmm, it’s gone…”

“Assistant Bennie. What’s the record now?”

“Log, all checks are good.”

“All right. I want you to print out all the logs for the instruments after you secure the constants..."

“...Understood.”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

A few minutes later, Paradigm was in a tank—or, rather, in his private room. This was a room designed specifically for his body, which can only breathe underwater. His assistants sat at desks, listening to him read the data, and his face seemed to be somewhat tense.

“What’s wrong, doctor?”

“Hmm… Well, I’ll explain to you what I’m seeing in the output.”

“Ah… Okay.” 

“The sphere I mentioned a moment ago is a kind of boundary between this world and the Backyard. The normal order lightwave optimized for the observation of the Backyard, which was emitted toward the center of this sphere, returned an unquantifiable value. Conversely, the normal order lightwave in the present world returned real numbers. In other words, the inside of the sphere is this world. The molecules that make up this gate are thought to have been specially processed by the force of law occurrence. The absorption rate of the normal order lightwave is certain.”

"Well, uh, what does that mean?”

“It's very similar to the special code I use to observe the Backyard.”

“Forgive me, doctor, I don't know how you observe the Backyard.”

“Ah, I see. I never taught that to you. Simply put, I am observing the Backyard from this world by “spoofing” the theorems of our world into the theorems on the Backyard’s side. This is the best I can do, and I can never send real numbers to the Backyard – I can never interfere physically… However, that sphere was composed by physical interference with the Backyard from this world. This means that someone other than me succeeded in making physical contact with the Backyard ahead of me."

"Huh… Does that mean there's someone smarter than the doctor, by any chance?"

"I'm terribly sorry to say so, but yes. Well, let's set that aside for now and address the real question..."

"Question..?"

“Who it could be. I have an idea, although it's somewhat disconcerting.”

"Eh, who is it?! "

“As I explained earlier, I use a "spoof” code to observe the Backyard from this world. Though, this code is actually not my original. It is a modified decoding of a portion of the source code extracted from the genetic information contained in Gear cells."

“Gear cells?”

"Yes. The molecular bonds that make up the sphere I just mentioned are riddled with code quirks common to Gear cells… In other words, I am… displeased to report that the sphere was probably created by… "That Man."

"That Man... is the Gear Maker?!”

“You know that thing called the Gear Maker. The nefarious man who started the Crusades..."

It was Bunnie, the sister of Bonnie's assistant, who looked up and joined the conversation at last. Compared to her industrious and modest sister, she was somewhat headstrong and lazy.

“Mm. The creator of our parent Gears. He’s a fearsome villain who is said to change his form over and over again and live for hundreds of years. But to interfere directly with the Backyard… is too far out of the realm of humans!!"

The Backyard is a higher-dimensional space that defines all the laws of the world and generates phenomena. Since its existence was hypothesized as a concept at the end of the 21st century, it has been studied by some scientists. However, mankind had yet to prove its existence.

“What do you think you're going to do?”

“I don't know. But if he has reached the Backyard, this is something far worse than the Crusades!”

"Hey, I don't understand, can you explain it to me?"

“The Backyard is a higher-dimensional space formed by a collection of densely compressed information that defines and controls this world.”

“Doctor. I'm sorry, but I don't understand it at all. Explain it to me in plain human language.”

"Mm-hmm?"

“You know, sister. Let me tell you a parable. The Backyard is a place where 1+1 is supposed to become 2. What do you think would happen if a bad person came to that place and played a trick to make 1+1 become 3?

“1+1 is 2. It can’t be three, right?"

“Well, yes, but I can do a trick and make it be three. You cut an apple once, and it becomes three pieces.”

“That's very convenient!”

“Come on! It's not about convenience, it's about the laws of physics! The world will collapse!”

“Sorry, I don't understand your explanation either..."

“Anyway. I thought I would be able to stay away from That Man until now, but I can't say so anymore.”

"Doctor, why don't you contact Mr. Izuna?

"Oh, yes! I should let him know about this unusual situation..."

–

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

Special thanks to Volcanic Fighter (@Nincopyjasb) for the Japanese manuscript for this story.

[solradguy]

GUILTY GEAR 2 -OVERTURE- MATERIAL COLLECTION SHORT STORIES (ENGLISH) = INDEX

This is the mobile-friendly index for the English translated chapters of the short stories from the Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- Material Collection art book and links to the posts for each of them. Word count and content warnings are within each chapter post. If you enjoy these stories, please consider supporting the book by purchasing a copy: BOOK☆WALKER (ebook) ・ AMAZON.JP (physical)

= CREDITS =

Original Story Composition & Writing / Yoji Ushizawa and Masaki Mejiro, Tristar Inc. English Translation ・ Editing ・ Scans / solradguy Special thanks to Volcanic Fighter (@Nincopyjasb) for the Japanese manuscripts for Paradigm’s and Valentine’s stories.

 Neocities Index

Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans & webview)

2024 Oct. 30: These translations are old and aren’t as good as the ones on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

These versions are also missing footnotes. I can’t turn reblogs off because they were made using the old post editor. This index is staying up mostly for archival reasons, even though I don’t like the quality of these translations anymore.

= STORIES =

Sol - UNPARALLELED CONFESSION

Sin - TO GREATER HEIGHTS!

Izuna - OYABIN’S TALE OF PAST AND PRESENT

Dr. Paradigm - INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS

Valentine - THE FIRST ONE

Ky - JUSTICE FOR WHO?

Raven - THE POOL OF BLOOD’S SONNET

That Man - ISOTOPE & ISOLATION

[solradguy]

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[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): SOL - UNPARALLELED CONFESSION

Word Count: 1449 Warnings: None Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-sol

This version is also missing footnotes. I can’t turn reblogs off because it was made using the old post editor.

Illyria was a city of modern architecture that many expected to become the new capital of the world in the near future. Sol Badguy, a man who hunted Gears, biological weapons, as a bounty hunter, visited this city at the request of an acquaintance as winter approached, just before the end of the year. 

“I think he’s in the cathedral down the street.” 

The woman Sol was talking to concluded her explanation, “Please, that man…”

She bowed her head deeply and her long hair, which was tied up with ribbons, swayed and fell down her back. 

“What a pain in the ass…”

With a frown, Sol replied in a bland manner. He was not in a particularly bad mood and anyone who knew him would feel this behavior was no different than usual. 

“...This little brat?”

Sol said, shifting his gaze downward. He meant the boy who was hiding behind the woman’s skirt and looking up at him fearfully. The boy was about three or four years old based on his appearance. He had pale golden hair, porcelain-white skin, a well-defined nose, and a light green left eye. The boy’s clothes fit him elegantly. In one of his small hands he was holding the woman’s skirt, and in the other he was carefully holding a stuffed animal as big as his face. If Sol had not had prior knowledge that he was a boy, he might have mistaken him for a girl. The boy’s overly-groomed appearance gave the impression that he was somewhat out of touch with the lives of normal people. In the harmony of such comprehensive beauty, there was one detail that stood out and caught Sol’s attention. It was the boy’s right eye.

An eye patch was worn over the boy’s right eye as if to cover something sinister. It was eerily real, with only that one spot in particular out of balance with the artistic harmony of the rest of the boy’s image. For a moment, Sol forgot to blink and stared at it. Perhaps concerned by Sol’s gaze, the boy, who was too young to even be called a boy, looked away and plunged himself deeper into the shadows of his mother’s skirts. 

“...Yes, he’s my...no, he's our child. We had him about six months ago.”

Sol was convinced. The boy was already as tall as his mother's waist, too big to have been born only six months ago. Of course, this was impossible at the normal rate of human growth. The mother's expression faded. Normally, this would be the happiest moment in a woman's life. However, she was not able to enjoy the happiness of raising her son in these circumstances. 

Sol's steps were heavy on the cobblestones. It was late afternoon and the high-end residential part of the city he was in was empty of crowds. The smoke from a passing house tickled his nose, as if the people inside were preparing lunch. He turned down an intricate alleyway and soon the view opened up. A stone structure laid ahead. 

He opened the wooden door and stepped inside. The building’s dark interior spread out before him, and the air felt drier than that of the world outside. There was a small amount of light coming in from above through ornate stained glass windows set in the stone walls. 

When Sol turned his gaze back to the front, he saw a statue of the Virgin just below. And, facing the statue of the Virgin, he saw a young man kneeling down on one knee in prayer. There was no one else in sight. Beside the young man was his favorite sword. 

How many years since I last saw him? The last time was... While Sol was thinking about it, the young man noticed his footsteps and turned his head to look back at him.

“...Sol?"

The words were said with a mixture of surprise and confusion. Their gazes met. After a moment, Sol inhaled sharply and frowned. The man’s face was far removed from that of the Ky Kiske that he had known. His cheeks had lost their color, his lips were dry and cracked, and dark circles lay under his eyes, which seemed to have lost their light. And, above all, he was wearing an eye patch over his right eye, just as the child Sin had been wearing earlier. 

“Hm… I get it now…” 

Sol said to him, intentionally letting his disgust show. Ky did not respond. There was silence for a while, and a cool air enveloped the two of them. Ky was the first to break the silence when the dry air shook as the cathedral’s bell rang to announce the time. 

“Why… are you here?”

He was thirsty, and spoke as if he had to force the words out. 

“Your God begged me to do this. Apparently your confession’s taking too long.” 

“What do you… mean?"

Ky muttered as if he was trying to dismiss the idea. 

But before he could say anything more, Sol closed the distance between them and attempted to deliver a heavy punch to Ky’s body. Ky quickly rolled to his side and avoided the attack. 

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“You've become even more disgusting than before…”

“Are you kidding me!”

Ky vigorously leapt off the floor and reached for Sol’s arm. Sol, without moving, grabbed Ky’s arm first before it reached him.

“You… You don’t understand my justice!”

Ky shouted at him as if the words were difficult to say, as if he was second guessing himself. 

“I’m not interested in your damn justice!” 

Sol's greatsword cleaved through the air horizontally. Ky quickly blocked the attack with his sword, Thunderseal. The two swords clashed violently, sending sparks flying and a roar reverberating through the cathedral.

“Alright, I’ll play with you. So, you better come at me with everything you’ve got!” 

Ky bit his lip and clenched his fist. His sword crackled with lightning. The first flash of electricity – Sol repelled Ky’s attack with ease, as if he was bored by it. 

“Your confession starts here!” 

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

After clashing swords numerous times, the two backed off from each other. Most of Ky’s attacks were avoided, repelled, and sometimes counterattacked. Ky was not in good physical or mental condition to begin with. Unable to hide his fatigue, he leaned back against his beloved sword and exhaled. Sol, on the other hand, was unperturbed and showed no signs of fatigue. “What’s wrong? You finished already?” 

“...I’m still… still…” 

Ky, panting, rallied his energy and stood back up again. Sweat glistened on his forehead and dripped off his face, which was beginning to have color in it again. His eyes were beginning to shine again. 

“Are you feeling a little better? Heh, it’s not enough!” 

Sol raised his massive sword and Ky readied himself in response. Sol took a big step forward. A moment after he swung his sword…

“S-Stop!” 

Something clung to his feet, something that stood out in sharp contrast to the bleak and brutal environment. 

“...Sin?!”

“What is it, kid? What’s wrong?” 

Sin clung desperately to Sol’s leg, refusing to let go of his hand. 

“Papa... I hate you… I hate you! But if you get hurt, Mom will die. I won’t forgive anyone who hurts Mom!” 

“I see. Aren’t you afraid of me, kid?” 

It was obvious that he was afraid of Sol. Sin looked as if he was about to start crying. The hand holding the stuffed animal was trembling slightly. 

“I’m scared. But… I won’t forgive you!” 

Sin said as he bravely stood up to the big man more than twice his size.

The sword fell from Ky's hand and hit the floor. Tears overflowed from his right eye and trickled down his cheek.

“Jeez… Even your son is better than you, isn't he?”

Sol scratched his head.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

"Sol... I need you to do something for me.”

"...What is it?"

“Can you take care of my son... Sin, for a while?”

"...Huh?” 

"I know it's a lot to ask, but..."

Sol was caught off guard by this unexpected offer and was uncharacteristically flustered.

Sin looked at the two adults alternately, whether he understood their conversation or not, and compared the two of them.

Then Sol asked back, “...Is that your solution then?”

“Well...no, no. But give me some time. Until I create a world where my child and wife can laugh..."

Ky answered without hesitation. Sol smiled wryly.

“You're not going to complain about how he grows up, will you?"

--

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): SIN - TO GREATER HEIGHTS!

Word Count: 1466 Warnings: Bullying, child abuse (?) Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

I can’t turn reblogs off because it was made using the old post editor.

“Look, Old Man! Can I eat this lizard?”

“Hey, get your ass down here.”

“Wait, wait a minute, just a second…”

(He sure does like to be up in high places…)

“Hurry up. I’m taking you somewhere even higher today.” 

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

“Oh wow! This is AWESOME!” 

Seeing his adopted son frolicking around, his foster father, Sol Badguy, let out a deep sigh.

(I shouldn't have brought him here...)

It was inevitable that he would be curious and excited about anything new to him at his age, but Sol, who did not like the loud noise, was quickly fed up with the child-like innocence of his son. 

It had now been six months since he took in Sin, the son of an acquaintance, and began to raise him. 

Today, they were visiting the famous floating nation of Zepp to collect a reward for their work. Bounty hunters by profession, both father and son traveled the world daily in search of new bounties – which sounded like good work but, in reality, it made them drifters. Their main targets were Gears, dangerous bio-weapons, but their populations had already dwindled to such an extent that it had become difficult for them to make a living on those bounties alone. Inevitably, the pair sometimes targeted common bounties. The other day, they happened to get tangled up with a gang of hoodlums, which was not by bad chance, but a lucky break for this father and his son. The relatively well-known gang was led by a criminal with a special bounty that the floating military state of Zepp was currently searching and offering a reward for. The two – though, really only one of them, as the other exercised too much self-preservation – managed to claim the prize without any effort at all.  

"Amazing! It's really floating in the air! What’s that?” 

Sol hesitated as he looked at the child, who was both happy and sad to see this adventure come to an end. To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and unwanted suspicion, Sol decided not to take Sin to the bounty office. 

“I’ll go alone from here. Stay put and be quiet.”

"Huh? Why?! You’re leaving me behind again!"

Sol tied the chain in his hand to a tree in the back alley and started walking. At the end of the chain was, of course, a collar. And of course, the collar was tied to Sin.This was a strategy devised by Sol, a former scientist, to control the ever-mobile Sin. Sin was extremely reluctant at first, but Sol's loving iron fist made him obedient.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

While waiting for his adoptive father, Sin busied himself by rummaging around the diameter of the small area within his reach. Residents passing by giggled at the sight of Sin, who was still chained up and wearing a collar, but Sin didn’t pay any attention to them. As Sin was taking a break from his rounds of scavenging, a group of three boys about his height surrounded him.

"What the hell is he doing? He's wearing a collar!"

The leader of the group, a boy, pointed at Sin and laughed at him. The two accompanying boys started to laugh as well.

“Oh! Come play with me!”

Sin, unable to read the situation, invited the boys to play with him. Perhaps because he spent all hours of the day with his foster father, who was far from his age, he rarely had the opportunity to interact with people closer to his own age, which was why he was so intrigued.

"What is he, stupid?"

“So, what do you do for fun?”

"Hey, don't get smart with me. What elementary school are you from?”

To the boys, Sin, an out-of-towner who was conspicuous in their territory, was an eyesore, and his innocent remark irritated the boys.

"Hey, say something! Don’t ignore me!”

In a fit of anger, the boy who was the leader of the group grabbed Sin by the front of his shirt. Sin mistook the attack for "play." To Sin, who was used to seeing his foster father's inhuman movements on a regular basis and had continued to train himself in secret, the boy's movements appeared to be nothing more than an attempt at play.

"Hmm, that... What kind of game is this?”

The boys turned the tables on Sin's words.

“Cut the bullshit! Don't talk down to us!"

“Enough! Let's do it!"

The boys clenched their fists and surrounded him. At this stage, Sin finally realized that this was no "game.”

“You're wearing a hideous eyepatch. Are you trying to look cool?”

“Or are you covering up an infection or something?!”

One after another, the boys were shouting and reaching for Sin's eyepatch. A hand snatched Sin's eyepatch and shifted it for a moment, exposing the eye beneath through the gap.

“Don’t… Don’t touch me…”

Sin hurriedly covered his right eye with his hand. Already the pain was gone. But for Sin, it was forbidden. Whenever he touched his right eye, an abominable image that was burned in his mind came back to him like flickering images from a movie. Silently but surely, an uncontrollable anger welled up inside Sin.

“Wh- What the hell… was that?”

When the boys caught a glimpse of the appearance of Sin's right eye, they had a hunch that they had touched something dangerous that should not have been touched.

“Let's get going… This guy's eye is scary..."

The boys involuntarily backed away. Sin held his right eye, looked at the boys with his left eye, and leaned forward.

“Don't come any closer! You monster!”

The words were enough to make Sin's shrinking heart burst.

“U-UWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Sin roared with such force that the surrounding buildings creaked. Black lightning shot skyward from Sin's body as it erupted with arcs of released energy. The boys were directly hit by the shockwave and blown several meters backwards onto their behinds.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

By the time Sol sensed Sin's outburst and turned back, a crowd was already gathering. Sin was hopping around, holding his right eye. Sol understood when he saw the boys sitting on the ground before Sin. 

“Sin, did you do this to them?” 

“...”

“Who did it?”

"But- but these, these guys..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Sol's boot rammed into Sin's body. The impact blew Sin away, as well as the tree to which he was chained. Onlookers gasped at the unbelievable sight, and the bustle around them suddenly stopped. Sol strode forward toward the boys with an air of composure. The crowd watched with bated breath.

“Seems like my stupid son caused some trouble…”

“Oh, n-no, don’t worry about it!!”

“I gave him a good lesson, and you’ll get double that amount.”

(Not twice as much!!)

Everyone in the gathered crowd was thinking the same thought at that moment. 

“That makes up for this annoying problem, doesn't it?”

“Y-yes, of course! Of course!”

With that, the boys turned on their heels and hurriedly tried to leave. However, a merciless voice came from behind them.

“...Wait.”

A shrill scream from the boys as they stopped dead and turned back towards Sol.

"W-Wha... What is it?”

The boy in the leadership position replied in a hoarse voice.

"I'm done with this mess. However..."

"Ah???”

“Sin's an idiot, but he won't raise his hand unless he has to. I have good discipline…. What the hell did you guys do?”

Sol's tone was the same as usual. But for the boys, Sol's huge body and the power of the kick he had just delivered were a terror to them.

“You runts haven’t done your share yet. You’ll have to beg for forgiveness…”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

"Old Man, I'm sorry... I just lost my temper…”

“Enough... You'll learn to control yourself next time.”

“...Okay...”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Bonus

"You know... that weapon you have. Can I use it?”

"Fireseal? You can't use it.”

"I see... I'm a lightning man.”

“It's not a matter of attributes. What's up with you all of a sudden?”

“I want to fight like my father. That's why I need a weapon!”

“...It's too early to know something like that, but that's fine. What kind of weapon do you want?”

"Well, let's see. First of all, something manly. Something that can do aggressive thrusting. Also, a stylish form is important!”

“...”

“And one more thing. It’s important to have a weapon that will stand out held up against the sky!”

“...Then go wave a flag or something.”

“...Eh?!”

–

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

GG2OMC (ENGLISH): IZUNA - OYABIN’S TALE OF PAST AND PRESENT

Word Count: 1757 Warnings: None Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version Archive.org download page (.PDF + uncompressed art scans)

Translator notes for all the cultural references are at the end of the post. 

2024 Oct. 30: This is an old version of this translation and isn’t as good as the one on my Neocities: https://solradguy.neocities.org/GG2OMC%20Stories/gg2omc-index

I can’t turn reblogs off because it was made using the old post editor.

There is a world that exists as a dimension completely different from the Backyard and this world, Earth. That world is separated from both this world and the Backyard, and impossible to come and go freely without the definition of the Backyard. This world has been a foreign land inhabited by many different inhuman beings since ancient times.

黄泉平坂. Yomotsuhirasaka. It is the most famous world of them all. Generally written as "黄泉比良坂," it appears in the old Japanese peoples’ ancient documents, Kojiki and Nihonshoki, as an imaginary land. Of course, it is a world created with longing and awe in the sense that it was a place beyond the reach of the people of that time.

What is noteworthy here is the fact that people at that time had the concept of a dimensional world different from the present world, such as the afterlife. In recent years, the existence of the Backyard was at last hypothesized, and in the course of this research the existence of a world inhabited by non-humans, such as Yomotsuhirasaka, was deduced and hypothesized to be a world in a different dimension than the Backyard.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

“Hey, hey, Oyabin, Oyabin!” 

Nekomata played with her master’s hair while speaking to him. 

“...Hmm? What did you say?” 

The one who replied with lazy indifference was the popular Izuna, affectionately called "Oyabin" or "Oi-chan."

“Oyabin wears a lot of things, such as charms and sword crossguards, don't you? Hey, what's wrong?"

“I don’t know, I can’t remember. I've worn these for as long as I can remember.” 

“Hmm. Well, I wonder what it is then? Oh, this... this hairpin is cute!"

Nekomata fidgeted and then pulled on the hairpin.

"Ouch! That hurts, don't pull on it!”

Little Nekomata's cheeks puffed out in anger, but she soon forgot about it.

“Oh, I know. Tell me a fun story like you always do!"

It was a tranquil day. Izuna's daily routine was to tell stories to his fellow yokai, and the yokai would listen attentively to them.

“I guess I could. Right. We can talk about that today. Let’s see, we’ll start at a leisurely pace then, shall we?”

“Myeah~!” 

After seeing Nekomata's face break into a broad smile, Izuna calmly began to tell his story.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

It’s an old story now, right? There was this couple. The husband was a boorish, but serious and hardworking government official. The wife was also very kind and devoted to her husband. One day, the husband presented his wife with a beautiful wooden box. Then he told her that he was leaving on a mission. It was a dangerous job and he might not be able to return.

“Eep! So sudden... Is this a sad story?”

“Not really. Don't worry.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah, yeah.  Eh, now then, let’s be patient until the end, alright?”

“...Mm-hm!”

The wife asked her husband what his mission was. The husband's mission was to seal the nine "Killing Stones" scattered all over the country. The stones appeared when a certain yokai was exterminated. A high priest had smashed the stones before, and the pieces were scattered all over the country. The pieces then began to spread a poisonous mist around the area. The plants and trees in the area withered, and anyone who came close to them died from the deadly mist. It was said that the stones were spewing out the exterminated yokai’s hatred. 

“Mmmm. Is that a bad sign?”

“But, if you attach a talisman given by the emperor to a killing stone and pierce it with a sword on which a sutra is written, the evil spirit will disappear…”

“...Oh, really~? And then what?”

The husband came back with nine paper talismans and nine ornamental swords from the emperor. The wife thought, “If my husband goes off to war, he might not make it back alive.”

She did not want her husband to die.

“Mm, and then...?”

That night, after her husband went to bed, the wife took out the talismans and swords. Without them, her husband would not be able to go to war. Then, she thought, she should throw them away somewhere. It was a manifestation of her desire to save her husband and to not let him die.

“S-so what happened next, meow?” 

The wife decided to throw them into a nearby lake. She rowed a small boat to the center of the lake and was about to throw away the cloth-wrapped talismans and swords when...

...splash!

She slipped and fell into the lake!

“Meo-ahhhh!!!”

“Don’t be so loud, Nekomata!”

“But, but, but, but-!” 

“What do you think? Don't you want to hear the rest?”

“I don't want a sad story... But I'm so curious~”

“Well, shall we continue? The wife sank into the lake with the bundle. The end.”

“...What? That’s it?” 

“Mm, yeah.”

“It was a sad story after all. Oi-chan's a liar~!”

“Just kidding, just kidding. The next day, when the husband woke up, his wife was waiting for him with breakfast ready.”

"Huh? Huuuuuuhhhhh!!?? What, what, how?"

The husband quietly finished his meal and began to prepare for departure. However, he could not find his swords and the important talismans. When he asked his wife about them, she replied that she didn’t know. The earnest husband reported the situation to the emperor and asked for his judgment. The emperor did not say much, but ordered him to wait until replacement talismans and swords could be prepared.

“Ahh w-what the heck?”

It was a few days after that. Reports of the disappearance of the poisonous mist came one after another from various places where the rocks were scattered.

“Nya, fur real!?”

The result was so good that the husband was not blamed for losing the original swords and talismans and he lived happily together with his wife for a long time. This time, it's over and done with… for real!

“Happy ending? I feel cheated! ...Why is the wife still alive?”

“Well, who knows? Maybe there is no deep meaning in the old tales. But if Nekomata-chan is a good girl, she might get to find out.”

“Ohh!? I'll do my best!”

Oh, that's right. I forgot to mention; inside the gifted wooden box was a venerable hairpin given to the husband by the emperor. It was shaped like an ear of rice, made hundreds of years ago, it just adds to the mystery…

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The probability of humans perceiving the existence of a "gate" connecting the Backyard and Earth is close to zero. This is because the appearance of a gate in this world is extremely rare, and its range of appearance extends over the vast area of the entire universe, and the time before it vanishes again is irregular. It is not something that can be found by searching for it.

Such an astronomically low encounter rate was coincidental for the wife on this occasion. On her way down to the depths of the deep, dark lake, the wife encountered such a gateway to the Backyard and was swallowed. Her body was unable to withstand the external pressure of the Backyard, which boasted a high density of compressed information, and she fizzled out and disappeared in mere seconds.

Gods, demons, humans, yokai, and all other forms of life in this world are born with their existence equally defined in the Backyard. Izuna was no exception to this rule.

Originally, tsukumogami and yokai are deified after having their souls in some form of the 8 million things that can exist in the world, and after spending a hundred years or more with their shape fixed to their original form. Izuna, for example, is one of the tsukumogami that protect the island nation of Japan, which exists on the planet Earth in a certain galaxy. These phenomena are caused by rare irregularities that occur in the Backyard.

The "selection of possibilities" of the components of Izuna began to occur at a very early stage. At the stage when the approximate constituent elements had been determined, noise was introduced into the "information that constituted Izuna while his form solidified," and a change occurred in the structure. This is because the "strong thought of the wife for her husband" that remained as information in the Backyard even after the loss of her body accidentally rewrote Izuna's structural information when the irregularity occurred.

And the irregular structural transformation phenomenon consequently had a profound effect on the formation of Izuna's shape and personality. Izuna's soul was embodied in a gift the wife received from her husband before her death, a "hairpin shaped like an ear of rice.”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

※This work was written by the author [Yoji Ushizawa] based on ancient Japanese legends and folklore such as "The Fox of Nine Tails" and "The Killing Stone," with his own interpretation to match the worldview of the "Guilty Gear" series. Please note, the text does not necessarily follow the legitimate lore.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

Yomotsuhirasaka: The boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead (yomi).

Kojiki: is a chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, and oral traditions. It is the oldest surviving piece of Japanese literature.

Nihonshoki: Sometimes translated as “The Chronicles of Japan”;  the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history.

The Killing Stone (Sessho-seki) is a stone in the volcanic mountains of Japan that is famous for sulfurous hot springs and, in Japanese mythology, is said to kill anyone who comes into contact with it.

Tsukumogami are tools that have acquired a spirit or a kami. Foxes and tanuki, among other beings, that have lived for at least a hundred years and changed forms are considered tsukumogami. In modern times, this term can be written as 九十九神 (99 deities), which I accidentally translated it as previously. Special thanks to Volcanic Fighter (Discord) for the correction of this translation.

Explanation of the last part of this story: The Backyard is a dimension composed of raw, compressed, data. While Izuna was being given form within these data, the wife from the story fell through a hole in reality (located at the bottom of a lake)  and into the Backyard where her data mingled with Izuna’s, affecting both his physical form and personality. Her influence on Izuna manifested as the hairpin that her husband had gifted her. 

–

Chapter Index & Credits Page・ Mobile Friendly Version

[solradguy]

Ok now that I’ve got the next ~8 days off, here’s what I wanna get done, roughly in order I’ll be doing them in:

IMPORTANT STUFF //

Things I have deadlines for that I can’t ignore this upcoming week. The Patreon components here are easy things I will be able to do in less than a day, but still important. 

Patreon thing 01 - Timelapse video 

Patreon thing 02 -  July sketchbook post

GG White Day zine piece - Wanna finish the sketch, ink, and start on the flat colors so August can be focused on the shading. 

Patreon thing 03 - August sticker design sketches

FANDOM STUFF //

Scanlation projects and other stuff without deadlines.

Izuna’s GG2OMC short story - Next one in line. I want to get the text OCR’d into a document and then translated. Just needs translated now.

Translate the captions for the Ky and I-No illustrations from the GGX2k2k7 art book that have been sitting in my drafts since I posted the acrylic/gouache Daisuke masterpost.

Scan a bunch of new pages from the GGX2k2k7 book and get the captions ready for translating. 

Clean up the GDoc (and tumblr posts) for these translations and re-do the old ones that don’t match the quality of my more recent translations. There aren’t many of those left, maybe 3 or 4. 

Get Dr. Paradigm’s GG2OMC story OCR’d. I’d like to get it translated too, but these stories take about an entire work day to do so I’m not gonna push myself if I end up doing other projects instead. 

Finish coding the gallery page for the GGX2k2k7 scanlations on my Neocities? - No idea how hard this will be. The basic framework is laid out but I need to figure out how many images I can slap on a single page (maybe 50 images per page? about 150 total counting 2-page spreads as one “page”) before it gets really unwieldy and how to make the page aesthetically pleasing. Without an on-site search engine, I’ll need to think about how to put together a directory for the illustrations. There is actually some sort of order for them in that art book, but it’s esoteric and I haven’t sat down and really figured it out yet. 

If I get all this done -- BIG if -- I might start OCR’ing Lightning the Argent too. I found an OCR a while ago that handles the vertical R>L format Japanese text beautifully. It’s going to go much more smoothly than Begin did. So annoying Bookwalker’s DRM on these ebooks is a friggin iron jaw but whatever. I’ll find a way. 

(OCR = Optical Character Recognition; scans the text from images into characters I can edit/type around in a text document. It makes working with Japanese way easier and saves time when I don’t know a specific kanji) 

- update 8/3

[solradguy]

Finished Izuna’s story. I’m gonna read it over again tomorrow, polish it up, and then post it. 

[solradguy]

Got another page of Izuna's story done tonight so it's officially about halfway finished. If I get a day where I'm not working on a million things at once I could probably complete it lol

[solradguy]

Ok so I’m finally sitting down and trying to work on Izuna’s story and I think I legit may have to come back to this one once my Japanese skills level up significantly lol. There’s a lot of classical Japanese kanji and stuff in it, on top of Nekomata’s catgirl speech, and it’s going like way over my head. It’s frustrating because it’s so close to making sense!!!! but I just haven’t gotten to a point where it does yet haha 

I could probably do it if I pick apart every line kanji by kanji but it’s going to be slow going and instead of torturing myself with it, I think I’m going to skip it for now and maybe come back to it last. If I did it now, I’m going to want to redo it after finishing the others anyway because I learn so much from every one of these that I do, you know? 

[solradguy]

Alrighty. Got all my work done, wrapped up, and sent out for June so I’m free for a few days before July stuff gets here. I found a rogue Sol scan that was in my posted scans folder that was never actually posted so I wanna get the caption done for that and finish translating the rest of the GG captions in the backlog too. Currently there are 11 (counting the rogue Sol scan), two of which are from the GG2Overture Material Collection. 

Since I decided to eventually post the GGX 2000-2007 art book scans on to Archive once the whole thing’s scanned in, I thought it’d be neat to compile a document of all the translated captions to include with it. There are already scans of this book online (& on Archive) but they either don’t have all the illustrations/pages or don’t even have the Japanese text below the illustrations in the scan. So, this way there’d kind of be both. I’ll only include my English translations in the document though. It’d be a lot of work going back and getting the Japanese text for the ones I’ve already translated again... 

I don’t think I have anything happening this weekend, but the beginning of July is going to be really busy. June was a lot busier than I thought it’d be too and I ended up not being able to work on translations as much as I would have liked and it kinda set my tentative timeline for everything back a tiny bit. But I’m still not burned out on doing these, and I still have a lot of fun studying Japanese and don’t plan on quitting doing these translations. Just wanted to put that out there since I haven’t been able to do them as fast as I was in April and May haha

Anyway, it’ll probably be a bit before I can get around to translating Sin’s story, the next one in the GG2OMC book. 

[solradguy]

I finished Sin's GG2OMC short story tonight so once I read over it tomorrow and do some final editing I'll post it. Lots of tricky dialog in this one, but I think I got it right...

The other translations of this story out there made Sol's dialog significantly cruder than it actually is and I don't know why that seems to be a recurring thing for people who do GG scanlations. Part of me wonders if maybe I'm translating it wrong or not.

Anyway, this story is hilarious and I'm excited for you all to get to read it tomorrow. The title for it is, "To A Higher Level!"