#ishigami mikio

[endless-season]

KoR C5 4/6

Warning: 0% quality translation. Bold = -100% quality.

†

The red king.

Those words were stuck in Totsuka’s mind.

Kurayama Mitsuha was serious. He was serious about becoming the red king. And as a fact, Kurayama and his bunch really did have strange powers. In that case... in that case, wasn’t it possible that the Red King really did exist?

“King, do you know about the Red King?”

Totsuka asked yesterday after bumping into Suoh, after leaving Kurayama’s place, as they returned to the bar.

“The urban legend?”

Suoh showed a puzzled expression. On his cheek was a red cut and his whole body reeked of blood. It was reasonable for him to think it strange that Totsuka was bringing up urban legends at a time like this.

“Human, but not human. Something like the personification of flames.”

…… idk who said that but im guessing totsuka.

“A bit like King, don’t you think?”

Suoh snorted with an exasperated face.

“That kind of stuff is all fairy tales. What are you, a kid?”

A fairy tale. That’s what Totsuka also thought up until now.

But after meeting Kurayama and coming to the conclusion there are mysterious powers involved, he had no reason to deny the existence of the red king.

There were all kinds of theories about the red king, but there were no inconsistencies about when he existed and until when he existed. Eight years ago, the Southern Kantou Crater incident. It was at the time of the event that changed Japan’s topography. In other words, the red king died in crater incident. That was also the reason why there were rumors that the red king caused that crater.

A man, an outlaw with incomprehensible strength and attracted many. Someone that the delinquent youth would yearn for, but didn’t take the urban legend seriously.

But what about those aside from the youth?

At the sudden thought, Totsuka wanted to hear from people who were already adults at the time.

Pulling up the scarf Kusanagi lent him over his mouth, Totsuka quickly walked. His long hair fluttered in the wind. Totsuka placed a hand gently on his head so that the cheap wig would not fly away. Up ahead he saw three familiar deliquent looking guys walking in his direction. He guessed they were probably from the gangs opposing Homra, but Totsuka puffed up his chest and continued walking without paying them any mind. Whether it was because they weren’t paying attention, or it was due  to Totsuka’s wig, the guys didn’t even notice Totsuka and they simply passed each other.

Without any tension, Totsuka’s heart thumped excitedly thinking he was like a spy as he peacefully strutted through Shizume-cho.

Totsuka was heading to his own home.

Seeing the cheap apartment, which looked just like how one might draw one but you wouldn’t see nowadays, even though he only hadn’t come home one or two nights he felt a strangely nostalgic feeling.

Turning the doorknob, the door opened without him needing to use a key. ‘Thank goodness’, Totsuka sighed in relief.

“Ah, welcome ba- Woah!”

Totsuka’s adoptive father, Ishigami Mikio, turned around while welcoming him home but widened his eyes in shock when he saw him.

“… And, who might you be…?”

Even though they weren’t related by blood, Ishigami asked that to who you could call his son that he lived with for fourteen years.

Even though his face and clothes were still the same, with just a wig for his sloppy crossdressing, it was an unexpectedly suitable response since he didn’t want others to recognise him, thought Totsuka.

“It’s your son, Tatara.”

Ishigami scrutinized him and let out a “Oh…”

“So what’s going on? You’re into crossdressing now? Or a new job?”

“Both wrong. I’m in disguise. I’ve got people aiming for me right now.”

“Debt?”

Ishigami put on a serious expression. Totsuka shook his head exasperatedly.

“I’m not you, Occhan. But debt collectors won’t suddenly attack people, so the situation’s probably worse. They might come to attack here so you be careful too, Occhan.”

“Trouble with some deliquents?

“Once upon a time when I was raising you I thought you wouldn’t stray from the right path but somehow you’ve managed to turn delinquent even with that gentle personality of yours. “

“Ahaha, sorry,” laughed Totsuka as he sat down at the table, “by the way, I have something to ask you.”

“Really, how rare.”

“Just now we mentioned debt…”

“Sorry, but I don’t have any money I can lend.”

Ishigami interrupted with an apologetic expression.

“Not that. You have a debt collector you’ve been familiar with for a long time right? Arata-san, I think?”

.-. tldr Since he gambled he borrowed money so obvs hes got plenty of debt collectors hes familiar with.

The one named Arata who was over thirty, did not run a yakuza business, but was frequently used by yakuza underlings and thus had a position which could be counted as a small time yakuza. He easily got mad and yelled, but was also an unexpected softhearted person. When he came over to collect debt, if Ishigami wasn’t around and Totsuka was by himself he’d huff, “He really is a scumbag dad, huh,” treat him to 60yen icecream and chat with him about whatever before heading back.

He called himself a halfway small time yakuza. I gave up translating this sentence but it probably involved Arata comparing himself to a stray cat looking for food in other people’s trash. Totsuka replied with the comment “Stray cats are cute, don’t you think?” “I see. They’re cute, huh,” Arata rubbed under his nose feeling a bit better, “but really it’s because I’m small fry that I’m alive. All the real deal yakuza died that time.”

“Occhan, have you ever heard Arata-san talk about the red king?”

Ishigami blinked and tilted his head.

“The red king?”

“Oh, you don’t know? It’s an urban legend…”

“No, I know. Or rather, that’s still being passed on to your generation too, Tatara?” he said, surprised.

Totsuka leaned forward, also surprised.

“You knew?”

The legend of the red king ended eight years ago. He was interested to know what it was like for Ishigami’s generation who had experienced it before that in real time.

“How did you hear of the legend, Occhan?”

“He was the Don of a super yakuza right? He burned all the yakuza he didn’t like.”

“Well, there’s a difference in the wording, but the legend being passed down is similar.”

“Also there was an unfolding three way conflict between him, the masterminds behind the police’s, the super police’s chief, as well a a church of a new religion that had miracle powers.”

“That I didn’t know. It kinda has the mood of a monster battle.”

Totsuka laughed and tilted his neck at the story becoming even more unbelievable. Ishigami waved his hand in front of his face, “No, no.”

“It really is a ridiculous story, but at the time, half the people believed it. Well… half.”

Totsuka’s smile stiffened.

“… One time when I talked Arata-san, the topic of the red king came up. That time, Arata-san said it himself, ‘People these days think the red king was just an urban legend, huh’. He looked kinda surprised.”

At the time, Totsuka just assumed he was the type to believe in urban legends. “I believe kappas exist, I even went searching for them,” he spouted. Arata just replied with “I see, I see,” and then left.

“Now Totsuka wanted to hear the rest of it.

“You want to meet Arata-san to ask him about the red king?”

Ishigami had a surprised childish look. Totsuka worried over how to explain himself, but Ishigami simply searched through his PDA for Arata’s number.

-

As someone who wasn’t interested in meeting up with debt collectors, Ishigami gave Totsuka the contact details and then immediately fled. Arata immediately picked up the call and arranged to meet up.  At the juice stand in front of the station where they planned to meet, Arata clicked his tongue impatiently wondering why the other party hadn’t come yet.

Totsuka repeated poked his arm.

“Ah?”

“Hello. Thank you for coming.”

After staring at Totsuka with his wig suspiciously for a few seconds, he jumped in shock.

“You.. have you finally been sold by that scumbag dad?!? You’re doing that kind of work?!?”

“Occhan also asked me if I got a new job but it’s not. It’s just my disguise.”

“Why…”

Halfway through his question, he narrowed his eyes as if he’d guessed.

“… You’ve gotten into trouble with the brats going crazy around Shizume-cho right now?”

Totsuka silently nodded.

Arata who loitered around in the edges of Shizume-cho’s underworld would also know about it. Arata sighed and turned to face the juice stand.

“Which do you want? I’ll treat you.”

“Yay~ Thank you very much~” said Totsuka in a falsetto voice.

“Stop that!” shouted Arata.

He was wearing tldr hoodlum looking stuff so when he shouted the young lady at the juice stand jumped.

He bought a strawberry juice for him, and a perilla juice which was apparently good for health and the two leant on the wall and drank.

“I haven’t been to collect debt at your dad’s place recently, so it’s been a while since I last saw you, huh.”

“That’s true. But either way, I haven’t been at home much recently too. Back then there were a lot of troublesome times where you’d come over to collect debt and Occhan wasn’t around so only I was home.”

“Even if I pressed you for it, you wouldn’t know where he’d be anyway. I seriously wondered if he already sold this brat off.”

“Speaking of which, there was that one time when I helped Occhan escape by getting you guys angry and chasing after me. I escaped with a bike. … I think I was in middle school at the time?”

That was the first time he met Suoh.

It was quite a while back so Totsuka smiled at the nostalgic memory.

Arata glanced at him from the side, but it wasn’t a particularly memorable moment in his past so he sourly continued to sip his juice.

“… Anyway, from your current appearance, it seems like you can’t be seen walking around outside right? Especially since yesterday, I’ve heard a lot about how the kids have been strangely causing a lot of trouble. I don’t know if it’s related, but as for me, the higher ups seem to have some conflict going on so it’s no time to be doing my debt collector job.”

Rather than a tense information exchange, Arata said it in a tone like they were casually gossiping. Totsuka also tried to reply in a loose tone.

“By higher ups, you mean the yakuza?”

“Yeah, since my place is kinda like subcontractoring for the yakuza. They don’t pass down the important stuff to small fry like me, but it seems the important one got murdered. The yakuza and mafia fighting, the kids running wild at the same time, what on earth is going on?”

Totsuka looked at Arata’s profile as he sipped on his juice. The strawberry juice Arata bought him was a vivid red, and sweet and sour. The cold juice slid down his throat.

After sipping his juice silently for a bit, Totsuka let go of his straw.

“There’s someone who wants to become the red king.”

Arata widened his eyes and faced Totsuka.

Would he be surprised? Would he be puzzled? Totsuka watched him carefully wondering what his reaction would be but it was clearly surprise shown on his face. As expected, he truly believed in the legend of the red king.

“The red king …”

Tldr Arata showed an at loss expression.

“That’s not something you can become just because you want to, right?”

“As expected, Arata-san doesn’t think the red king is just an urban legend, right?”

At Totsuka’s prepared question, Arata put back his usual grim and serious expression.

“… I’ve been a thug around here for a long time.”

With a mixed expression Arata finished the rest of his perilla juice, put the empty cup at his feet and took out a cigarette and lit it.

“Right now, probably all the yakuza in the Kantou area only emerged from after that incident.”

“That incident?”

“The Southern Kantou crater incident. All the Kantou yakuza were annihilated in that incident. Even the Tokuseikai, the biggest power in Shizume-cho right now, came to Shizume-cho from the west only after the crater incident when they heard it wasn’t occupied. The yakuza here now are either outsiders, young ones, or small-fry like me.”

Totsuka thought back to the crater incident eight years ago. Even in Shizume-cho, he saw a scene like the apocaplse from far off in the south. So all the people who lived in the kantou underworld society died in that?

“That day, I didn’t know what happened in South Kantou but, everyone followed the red king to hell.”

Totsuka also knew bout the rumors that the red king caused the crater incident. Of course he didn’t believe it before, but now talking to someone who was there when it happened, it felt strangely real and he couldn’t just laugh it away like a joke anymore.

“So there really was a red king?”

Totsuka asked straight to the point, Arata laughed. A bit of cigarette smoke came out from his nose.

“hm not sure how to read this… that young kid doesn’t seriously want to become? Idk tbh”

“That’s not true,” Totsuka replied seriously.

Arata looked a bit daunted.

“What exactly is the red king?”

Arata scratched his head troubled.

“… well, I don’t exactly know either. I’ve never met him… I’ve heard many stories about acquaintences whose acquainetnces is subourdinate of the red king but… well that’s how urban legends usually are anyway.”

“That’s fine.”

Probably because Totsuka’s expression was so serious, Arata grumbled “Seriously, what?”He dropped his cigarette and put it out with his shoe and then stared at it as if the past was written there.

“If I remember correctly his name was ‘Kagutsu Genji’,” he simply muttered in a low tone that seemed to hide itself in the noisy bustling in front of the station.

The red king. Now that he had a real person’s name to it, it suddenly felt more real and relevant.

“That Kagutsu red king, it’s said he was like a human flamethrower and could manipulate flames.”

“You mean he had superpowers?”

At Totsuka’s direct question, Arata gave an embarrassed smile.

“Hard to believe right?”

“No, no, I believe you.”

Right now the ones targeting Totsuka and them had superpowers.

cbb

“Personally I’m only half convinced about the manipulating flames bit. But the people who talked about it had a serious look in their eyes. But regardless, a person called the red king definitely existed. He had unimaginable strength. A coward like me had no intention of getting any closer.”

Arata who usually had a threating face as a debt collector now showed a youthful expression. Perhaps when people talk about the past, their heart returns to the past.

“He was a scary person, huh.”

“Well. The red king of course, …… tldr and related yakuza. Rumors has it, as a ritual for being affiliated with the red king, you had to get a part of your body burned off. That’s why all his followers would be missing a part of their body.”

Totsuka immediately thought of Kurayama’s right ear. The ear that was missing its upper half. But that wound did not show any traces of being burnt. For one, he was around the same age as Kusanagi. When the red king was active, he would’ve just been a kid.

“Also that Kagutsu wasn’t a king since he was born. The red king suddenly appeared on day, and then disappeared with the crater incident.”

Arata looked at Totsuka, and slowly said…

“Kagutsu… One day he was suddenly chosen to be king.”

Totsuka’s heart jumped.

“That’s what I heard. I don’t know who or what he was chosen by. Whether he was chosen by god, or chosen by something more tangible… either way, if that was the case for Kagutsu, there’s no reason why there can’t be a next. The guy you mentioned who wants to become the Red King probably wants to become the next.”

Usually Arata would think he’s just an airhead but in reality, the atmosphere in Shizume-cho right now was not unlike the mood during when Kagutsu was around, so mumbled the last bit half to himself.

Totsuka’s heart pounded faster than before. Something

It wasn’t because he was afraid that Kurayama was serious about becoming the Red King. Tldr, even tho he came to ask about the red king, right now he wasn’t thinking about Kurayama, but rather Suoh Mikoto.

“Oi. … Oi, is something wrong?”

Puzzled, Arata asked Totsuka who had gone silent, but Totsuka’s mind was far elsewhere.

Totsuka wasn’t sure himself whether the feelings whirling around him was dread or anticipation, but simply listened to his heart that thumped wildly as if he was running.

--“You’ll one day meet your king.”

The words of the strange kimono wearing man he once met, floated up in his mind.

“Arata-san.”

“Ah?”

Totsuka put the wig he was wearing onto Arata’s clean shaven head.

“Whatta ya doing!”

“You can have this. It’ll slide off if I run. It’d be less conspicuous if I ran like this rather than had a wig sliding off me.”

“I don’t want it! And what’s with you all of a sudden!”

Listening to his own racing heartbeat and breaking out in cold sweat, he looked directly at Arata. Arata slightly winced at Totsuka’s unsmiling face.

“I’m running back. Somehow, I have a strange hunch.”

†

Kurayama was in a battlefield.

It wasn’t a sneaky assassination, or a small scuffle it was a scene that could be appropriately be called a battlefield.

Leading his army of strains, armed mafia, and delinquent youth, he clashed with the superpowered people wearing blue clothes, Scepter 4.

Kurayama at the front, leapted. A nice rhythm echoed in his head.

Two of the blue clothes wearing people, twins just in their teenage years, made a pincer attack at him.

Two sabers clad in blue slashed at Kurayama. The twins worked as if they were one, coordinating their movements perfectly attacking from his left and right. There was nowhere to escape.

But Kurayama had no intention of avoiding it from the start.

He released the heat from within his body, flames gushed out around him like water.

Abandoning all control, he entrusted it to his flames making it pure chaos. The twins clentched their teeths as they blocked it with their swords. Normally faced with that kind of raging fire, sword wouln’t be much of a shield, however these swords literally created shields.

The blue light around their swords intensified at expanded into something like a glass wall. Kurayama’s flames couldn’t get through that wall and it was like there was a barrier between them.

‘I see, this must be what is called their ‘probability singularity field’.’

Remembering the technical term he learnt online, Kurayama gave bared his teeth and smiled.

Anyway kurayama backed them into a corner. + description effect of fire powers on his body

“Ahh, doesn’t this feel good? Breaking free.”

Anyway Kuryama concentrated his power into his fists and broke through the barrier. The twins were pissed off. But they were stubborn and glared at him. Can you tell im lazy.

“Don’t push your luck-”

“- Strain!”

The peaceful looking blue flame flared up like a fire when they spoke. Kurayama grinned.

“Good, good, just like that! This is the power of the blue clothed… the clansmen that received powers from a King.”

His flames also flared up and ~ two dancing flames wooo~ burned the building beside them ayeeeeeeee. Also there was the sound of all the window glass breaking at once. SO HOT. HOT DAMN!

“Hayato! Akito!”

A bitter man’s voice snapped through the air like a whip.

I think they dispelled their shield and jumped away. Kurayama looked in the direction of the voice.

The man looked like he was in his forties, but from his expression alone, you’d think it was an old man. “Withdraw!”

“Acting commander!”

Their voice seemed to blame him.

“Let’s bring him down here and now!”

“No. There’s going to be too much damage to the surroundings,” rejected the acting commander.

Kurayama looked around. The battle intensified and the surrounds were a wreck, people were injured everywhere, it wouldn’t be surprising if a few were dead. Not just strains but even normal people were caught up in the mess.

“Withdraw!” the acting commander ordered once again.

The other blues withdrew while protecting their injured.

The two young twins glared at Kurayama but in the end followed.

Like a child who got interrupted while having fun, Kurayama debated whether to chase after them or let them go. Even though he was in the middle of playing with the twins, this so called acting commander was now standing before him and tho he gave off an empty mood he looked skilled.

He wanted to fight him all out. He wanted to break free to his heart’s content.

He suddenly thought that Tsurumi would get angry at him seeing like this, but then he remembered Tsurumi had lost.

Tsurumi Touya had lost. The smart guy he’d known for three years, who had initially given him all his knowledge about this world and he had told that he would become the red king to. He lost. On the day they were going to found their nation.

“Che.”

Kurayama had both anger and frustration as well as anticipation mixed in his heart.

Suoh Mikoto was still a normal human, yet he beat Tsurumi, a Strain with an almost invincible power.

Ever since he first met him, he thought he was something special and he wasn’t wrong.

“Mitsuha-san! A report on the injuries!”

A young man rushed up to Kurayama like a war messenger kneeled on one knee. He announced in a clear voice the number of people injured, and the number of people who couldn’t move. Im lazyyyyy. Tldr ppl are INSPIRED AND CHARMED by mitsuha

The army of Strains, and the force of the deliquents. The police couldn’t handle them, and if they did they would die with no powers. The Blues, and the Golds behind them probably thought it through. In the current situation, with all the Strains gathered, normal civilians would get caught up so they had to minimize damage but also avoid powers being known? Idkzzz

“How are we any different to a Clan?” Tsurumi once said, “We’re not. We’ve got people with superpowers gathered together, we’ve got a king like existence, and we’re governing our own country. Whoever tries to invade out territory we wage war on. And as long as we show off our powers enough, people will recognise it. We’re a Clan. You’re a King.”

That was Tsurumi’s plan.

Kurayama didn’t mind either way. He knew Tsurumi wanted Strains to be able to self govern, but for Kurayama that wasn’t a particularly important point.

Regardless of whether they gained recognition or not, he’d just fight wherever he goes.

He took out his PDA as he glanced at the injured ppl and reporting ppl, and opened the site he went on quite a lot lately. The <<jungle>> logo shone green. It was also due to this site that he managed to gather so many Strain subourdinates.

It was a high anonymity social networking site rumoured to be run by the mysterious green clan.

Just a while ago someone with the handle name H.N. posted.

“A Strain found unconscious in a train at Shizume-cho Station was just taken to Nanakamado Chemotherapy Research Centre.”

When he read that, Kurayama was a bit shaken.

This H.N. character knew an abnormal amount of information. But as long as he could use the information, Kurayama didn’t particularly care who the source was. But this time he gave details on Tsurumi’s current whereabouts, and normal Strains wouldn’t care at all about this information, so for the first time Kurayama wondered what their motive was.

It was as if it was written directly for him.

Kurayama thought for a moment, and then clicked to reply to H.N. Kurayama usually used the app for reading messages from his subordinates and rarely wrote much himself, so his typing was slow.

“What are you?”

He sent a short message.

“Someone interested in you.”

Kurayama stared at the reply.

Even though ‘jungle’ was a high anonymity social network, coming up with a handle name was annoying so he just used his real name. blah blah

“Why?”

“I want to see where your ambitions lead you. Taking control and pursuing your dreams, it is admirable.”

Again the reply came immediately after he sent the message. Something.

This person was probably… the Green King.

Kurayama was somewhat interested in this King who left the stage and moved secretly behind the scenes.

Perhaps they knew of Kurayama beforehand, and went out of their way to pass him information.

Feeling like he was being watched, Kurayama looked around his surroundings. Obviously he didn’t see anyone suspicious around him, but he could feel H.N. smiling from the other side of the PDA.

Whatever. Kurayama didn’t really care since they’d left the stage. They were still just someone he could make use of. If Tsurumi was at the centre, then he’d go over and find him after things calmed down.

As he was about to press his home button to close the app, H.N. sent another message.

“If you achieve your ambitions, perhaps we will meet again some day.”

Kurayama paused. But before he could react, he received another message from one of his subourdinates.

He switches chats and widened his eyes. After looking his phone for a few seconds… he smiled.

‘We’ve found Suoh Mikoto. He’s hiding in an abandoned building.’

Blahblah. There was also photo of Mikoto not in disguise or anything just calming walking up the emergency stairs of a building with a cigarette in his mouth.

So you’re finally here. The fight with the blues left him unsatisfied but he felt new anticipation rising.

All thoughts of H.N. disappeared from his mind. He put his PDA in his pocket and started to leave.

“Mitsuha-san, where are you going?” asked a subordinate.

“To kill Suoh Mikoto,” he replied in good humor.

The subordinate made a puzzled expression with ‘At a time like this…?’ written all over his face.

‘It’s exactly because it’s a time like this’ Kurayama’s heart hummed in response.

Killing Suoh Mikoto would be the finishing touches to him becoming the Red King is what he felt.

†

“What… is this…”

Kusanagi was frozen at the sight before him.

Did they believe in supernatural powers or not? Even though they only just talked about it, now it seemed like a distant memory. Right now before his eyes, it was no longer about whether or not to believe in supernatural powers, but simply an overwhelming reality.

Tldr he went to spy on the situation around town and wandered into a police barriered off for civilians bc yolo sounds like a good place to find stuff.

Slipping through a dirt narrow alley way that only seemed to fit one person at a time, Kusanagi stumbled upon a battle. Not a fight, but most definitely a ‘battle’.

The man wearing blue uniform, in otherwords a Blue was battling with a young man in a black parka.

It was like a well scripted performance.

The sabre shone blue and …. Tldr visibly left a trail of blueness as it cut through the air. The other party jumped up high, maybe even 5 metres, to avoid it. The blue light lashed at the building behind them and scarred the concrete wall.

The man in the parka swung his fist while still in midair and aimed at the Blue from above. The Blue was already prepared and blocked the attack with his sabre. The fist and sabre struck each other.

“Absurd…” said Kusanagi in disbelief.

He thought the man in the parka would’ve been killed, but what he heard wasn’t the sound of flesh being torn, but the clang of two hard objects colliding as if his fist was made from metal. It seemed their strength could rival one another.

But, in the next moment the Blue swung his sabre, and the man in the parka was sent flying towards the alley where Kusanagi was hiding. He panicked and shrunk back into the alley, hiding his face. The man in the parka struck the building next to him creating a dent as if a solid iron ball had hit the building.

The man in the parka merely clicked his tongue and then jumped back up charging back towards the Blue.

Tldr He punched at the Blue and then escaped in the moment he faltered.

The Blue was going to chase after him but the brooch looking intercom on his collar lit up and a voice came through.

“There’s been an order to withdraw. Cease fighting.”

The Blue who was about to chase after the man in the parka, immedidately stopped.

“What!? … Damnit!”

The Blue cursed in frustration. He glared at the retreating back of the man in the parka but put away his sabre as ordered and ran off in the opposite direction. Hiding in the alleyway, Kusanagi put his hand to his chest as if calming his wildly thumping heart. ‘What on earth was that just now” he whispered.

Even encountering such a fight, he was not shaken?? Was this what Mikoto meant when he mentioned the guy having strange powers? Imlazyandthisisntimportant. Theres a lot of ppl like that and Kurayama is leading them and obsessed with Mikoto etc etc.

A renewed chill swept over Kusanagi. How could they prepare for this? He couldn’t even begin to imagine. As he started weakly took a step forward, he noticed a PDA that had dropped in front of him.  

Mostly it belonged to the Blue or the guy he was fighting. It probably fell out when he blown against the wall.

Kusanagi picked up the PDA and examined it. There wasn’t a lock, and it showed the screen the owner last had open. He could tell at a glance that it was a page from the ‘jungle’ app. Kusanagi didn’t use the app, but he’d seen other people use it before. It was popular amongst middle schoolers. The screen seemed to be ‘jungle’s noticeboard.

Kusanagi looked at the notices, his expression gradually stiffening.

“What… is this…”

At first, he couldn’t understand the information that people were posting. But as he kept reading, he got the impression that this is where the “people with strange powers” exchanged information.

“So ’Strain’ refers to the people with strange powers? Scepter 4… would be the Blues? So they really are an organisation that manages Strains…”

The people on the board used their own technical jargon and Kusanagi tried to guess the meanings based on context.

Information like the Blues’ combat styles and tricks on how to escape from them were being exchanged. It seemed to be a knowledge base on how to live without being caught by the Blues. Based on the dates of the posts, it seemed that recently there was a shift from how to “escape” from the Blues to how to “fight” the Blues.

‘Right now, there is no Blue King. They are no different from us. They can’t control us.’

Kusanagi paused at that line.

Blue King.

King.

“Hey, Kusanagi-san, do you know the legend of the red king?”

Totsuka’s words echoed in his mind. He gulped, and decided to try his best to figure out the information written on the notice board. He slid his finger across the screen.

At that moment, *ting* a message popped up on the screen.

‘Gathering information from someone else’s PDA?’ was the message.

Kusanagi shivered. That message was not addressed to the PDA’s owner, but to Kusanagi. He looked around him, confused.

But no one was there. Insert atmosphere description. Perhaps due to the previous conflict, there wasn’t even a cat in sight.

“How…” muttered Kusanagi, surprised.

A second message appeared.

“The young man who wants to become the red king is currently heading towards your friend. It will be a sight to behold.”

Kusanagi widened his eyes and felt uneasy.

The young man that wants to become the red king? Kurayama Mitsuha? Kurayama knows where Suoh is hiding? Now, when he hadn’t even come up with a plan yet, when things were looking more and more hopeless. Even in this situation Suoh would probably simply take on the fight. And what lied ahead was…

Kusanagi broke into a run. He didn’t care anymore about the sender of the message who seemed as if they were watching him.

Running. Rushing. What on earth do they do?

He could only continue running without a plan.

†

[endless-season]

+ Kushina Tetsuya & Ayuri pls and thx

..

.....

By these days... we mean pre totsuka dying right?

gotta to flesh out the pre-totsuka dying afterlife parties before the somewhat awkward mikototsu joining them afterlife party.... meeting

a concept: grandfather, ojiki and occhan sitting together in the afterlife, drinking and watching what the kids, aka homra executives, are up to these days

[endless-season]

Happy K 10 Year Anniversary!!!

Shoutout to anyone who knows every chara in this pic off the top of their head

[constastan]

sumimasen. Who are "occhan" and "ojiki"? oo

Occhan, known to the world as Ishigami Mikio, is Totsuka’s adoptive father, a generally harmless but also kinda useless guy who failraised him through most of the childhood and adolescence and might have given him Some Issues (non-daddy ones though).

Ojiki, known to the world as Kusanagi Mizuomi, is the uncle Izumo was living with during his high school/early university years (his parents were and probably still are abroad). The original owner of the bar and a pretty cunning businessman despite his cbb image.

Both of them only got brief mentions/camoes before Kingdom Of Red, but are featured pretty prominently in the novel

[endless-season]

Ishigami: “So what happened?”

Totsuka: “I met someone amazing! World shakingly amazing!”

Ishigami: “Is it a girl.”

Totsuka: “It’s a guy”

Ishigami: “Oh.”

[endless-season]

Kingdom of Red - Prestory - Totsuka

Disclaimer: Rough summarytranslationthingymajiggy with absolutely crap quality, especially places with a lot of question marks. I have 100% no idea wtf is going in those areas. If you wanna suggest any changes or make your own translation post then please please please do so (Y).

Notes: Occhan = Totsuka’s version of saying dad (otou-san) 

NOTE 2: x0401x’s Translated this with less dodginess, go read theirs instead! http://x0401x.tumblr.com/post/150837593524/k-kingdom-of-red-prestories

“Sorry”

In front of him, the man that was more or less Totsuka Tatara’s foster parent hung his head down. (?and something about hands?)

Totsuka paused tuggin at the udon with his chopsticks and incessantly blinked at him.

“What’s wrong occhan, prostrating yourself as soon as you come back.”

Totsuka tilted his head while looking at his foster parent (who had a different surname than Totsuka; his name was Ishigami) laying on the tatami.

“I’ve left you alone and been away from home for a long time again.”

“Haa.., well, even if you apologize now…”

“During that time, I lost a lot of money to gambling… and incurred a debt…”

“Again~? Can you repay it?”

“It doesn’t seem possible yet… and so, until I can get some money, I think I’ll disappear again for now. … During that time, I hope you manage to somehow survive by yourself… sorry….”

“Okay then”

Hearing Totsuka taking up the role with a light hearted tone, Ishigami slowly and quietly lifted up his head.

A despondant and miserable face appeared.

“You don’t need to be that worried about me. Though I don’t think you’re that worried about me anyway.”

“Tatara, sometimes you say some pretty cruel words…”

“Really? By the way, do you want to eat some udon too occhan?”

“Yes…”

Totsuka’s lunch today was zaru udon (zaru soba = soba served on a bamboo draining basket, eaten with dipping sauce sooooo the udon equivalent). Totsuka took out a new bowl, filled it with the soup and placed it on the table. Ishigami picked up some udon from this bamboo basket with his chopsticks and looked at the clunky, uneven noodles.

“Did you make these udon yourself?”

“Yup. Udon is great, all you need is wheat flour, salt and water to make.”

“You’ve always been so skilled at creating meals from just a little bit of money and goods.”

“Thanks to you”

Totsuka said that with no ill intention, but Ishigami made a face that showed his feelings were hurt.

“Tatara’s words hurt today…”

“Ehhhh? Occhan is a bit annoying today…”

Totsuka smiled with a confused face (?) and slurped his udon.

“I’m only 14 but I’ve completely honed my skills for creating food. I can distinguish edible wild grass and I know how to cook crayfish to make it delicious.”

“Normal 14 year olds don’t really have those survival skills though…”

“And also, the old lady next door also (all kinds of something??????????) … Ah speakiing of which, last time I picked up a bicycle from the garbage dump. It’s worn out but still ridable.”

As he listened to Totsuka talk, Ishigami slurpped the delicious looking udon from the soup. (??) Eating by himself was fine, but eating together after such a long time was fun too, thought Totsuka.

One person’s share of zaru udon was shared by two people, and about the time it was finished, Ishigami suddenly spoke up.

“This is a stupid thing to say but, (???????????????? something important)

“Hah…” was Totsuka’s only response.

Ishigami was feeling down but put on a meek (???) expression.

“We’re not related by blood, but even though we’re not related by blood, I am your guardian and yet I can’t even act as your guardian. It’s inevitable that you’d resent me.”

“Ehh, but I don’t resent you.”

“That true, I’ve never seen you resentful, and can’t imagine it either.”

“That’s cause there isn’t really anything to resent. There’s lots of fun things.”

As he talked to Ishigami in a light tone, Totsuka had finished eating, cleared the table and brought out teacups with cold tea.

(??? That’s good but it’ll be nice if you had something you could have more hopes for, to be sad at, to be angry at, to have special fun with, to be happy with…??)

Totsuka listened, then tilted his head.

Ishigami struggled with his words, then mumbled to himself “It’s cause you’re never sad and never get mad. But then again it’ll be pretty hard to find that special something.”

He didn’t understand what Ishigami was saying but otsuka sat there watching him with a listening face.

At that moment, from the apartment door came a “Bang! Bang! Bang!”. It was too violent to be called a knock. “ Ishigami-saaan, you’re in there right?” came a threaning voice.

Ishigami who was sitting crosslegged gave a small jump.

“Ah, this voice, is it Arata-san?”

??? Since Ishigami had debts and this was not the first time he had trouble repaying, there was a freqent debt collector at the Ishigami household.

The one outside the door at the moment was also a frquent visitor.

“Oh, oh no, Tatara, This wasn’t the time to be leisurely eating udon.”

Actually, he was supposed to escape before they came, and disppear for a while. To calm down the panicing Ishigami, Totsuka put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll distract Arata-san and them, in the meantime, occhan you go escape from the window.”

“Sorry. I am indebted to you.”

Ishigami pressed his hands together thanking Totsuka, then looked at the situation outside the room’s window. The situation was like a spy from a drama, escpaing into the corridor.

“Occhan. I don’t mind this thrilling kind of life.”

Totsuka said in a small voice “Good luck!” (in english) and gave a thumbs up.

Ishigami showed a pathetic smile and without a sound, left through the open window. From now on, he won’t know where to go or when he’ll be back but they’ll probably meet again.

Totsuka didn’t mind this kind of life. There was plenty of fun things.

But, if he met that special thing that Ishigami spoke about, then would his perspective on the world change? While a corner of his brain thought that, he faced the debt collectors behind the door and called out in a cheery voice “I’m opening the door now~”.