All rights reserved to Tokitou Kaname and comico.
To read the original novel:
This is NOT an official English translation.
Translated by Sayuri (Flower Moon Translations)
Third Night: Two Threads
* * *
※ This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person or organization that you may know is purely coincidental.
Also, there is no intention to promote human discrimination at all.
The setting sun casts its light against the train platform. With a whoosh, the train bounded for home arrived. At the train platform, many old people lined up into rows.
Kinjou Mitsuru was a high school student who was in the same class as Kurata Nobuhiko.
Mitsuru was a delinquent at school. Though he was a delinquent, he constantly had high rankings for his grades. The so-called intelligent delinquent.
Nobuhiko and Mitsuru had almost equal to zero friendship in school but they had one thing in common.
That is, they both lived with their grandmothers.
Though, in Mitsuru’s case, his parents were still alive. Even so, Mitsuru did not know the whereabouts of his father.
When Mitsuru was still a kid, his father got another woman and left him.
His mother took care of Mitsuru, but she brought him up alone. Due to the fatigue from child-rearing and working, she ended up having a nervous breakdown and the responsibility of bringing up Mitsuru was handed over to his maternal grandmother.
That was what Mitsuru had been told by his grandmother.
Even now, once a month, his mother would come to visit. Today was duly the day that Mitsuru’s mother would come to visit. The regular visit that happened once a month was painfully unbearable for Mitsuru.
The feeling of having been abandoned was strong.
Mitsuru got in the train that had slowly come to a stop in front of him.
Looking at his blond looks and tall stature, the passengers inside the train could be seen seemingly avoiding him a little.
Mitsuru slowly looked at his surroundings. When an old man met Mitsuru’s eyes, he immediately looked away. The priority seats were naturally filled by old people as well as most of the rest of the seats.
“There’s a lot of old people here.”
Mitsuru moved to the front of the train carriage where there were fewer people and leaned against the area near the doors.
Then, with a deep sigh, he stopped himself from getting off the station nearest his home and continued boarding the train.
He resented his closed-off family and Tokyo.
9:33 PM
The front door slowly opened. Inside, his mother’s shoes were already gone. It seems that his mother had probably gone home already.
Mitsuru slowly closed the door.
When he entered the dining room, only the television was turned on inside the dark room. Mitsuru’s grandmother, Kinjou Etsu, had her favorite TV programme showing, but Mitsuru turned it off with the lack of interest it was receiving.
Etsu was dozing off at the kotatsu, located in front of the television. The 1DK apartment that Mitsuru and his grandmother both lived in seemed exceedingly cramped but for Mitsuru, the space that he lived with his grandmother was his everyday life.
Mitsuru grabbed a blanket that was on the sofa and draped it over his grandmother’s shoulders. Then, he moved to his room located next to the dining room.
“Oh, you’ve returned already?”
When Mitsuru headed to enter his room, his hand hung over his doorknob when Etsu woke up.
“Yeah, I just came back.”
“What were you doing to come back this late? Today was the day that your mother was coming, wasn’t it?”
“Sorry, I forgot.”
Mitsuru told a lie. It wasn’t that he forgot, it was because he didn’t want to go home.
“Is that so. She wanted to see you, you know. Your mother.”
Etsu spoke while she poured some tea.
“She… doesn’t have to come anymore, you know.”
“What are you saying. She’s your one and only mother, you know.”
“Mother… mother… To me she…”
“Hm?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
With his back facing Etsu as he spoke, Mitsuru entered his room. Then, with only a bed and a desk placed inside a room that looked desolate no matter where you looked, he turned on the light.
He put his bag, that had a worn-out charm attached to it, on the table, then accessed the search engine on his mobile phone.
On the search window, ‘Ubasute Law’ was inputted.
Every day, there was a large quantity of news and comments flowing. The Unmanaged Elderly Migration Law on the internet was more frequently referred to as the Ubasute Law.
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:23 ID: JIJSdjrfr
I heard Sector 9 is brutal, is it true?
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:23 ID: hfurfwa
Yeah, looks like it. From what I know, it seems like criminals with death penalties will also be thrown with the old people.
Anonyous: 21/11/20XX 04:28 ID: JIJSdjrfr
That seems too much like an urban legend lololol
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:31 ID: mcbywe23
But, even if the old hags and geezers were to continue living, there’d be no meaning anyway. If this law can be carried out, it’d seriously help lol. Aren’t they just tax robbers, those people.
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:32 ID: 0omnwqa
Seriously lol
Lets wipe out gerontocracy
I want to live a NEET’s* life with the leftover cash,
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:37 ID: fgarebwLo
Eh, b, but I really love my grandma (´；ω；｀)
If my grandma gets taken away, I’ll take out the kitchen knife and definitely resist.
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:44 ID: JIJSdjrfr
Try and do something like that, you’ll…… get shot ya know? lol
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:44 ID: lpocjao78
Are you stupid? The police can’t shoot over something like that. You should resist.
Wherever you looked on the internet, the topic of the Unmanaged Elderly Migration Law being realized tomorrow was a hot topic.
Mitsuru’s cold eyes skimmed over the inhuman statements that were displayed on the screen of his phone.
“Useless. Those thrash.”
Mitsuru, getting sick of the worthless discussion, decided to stop using his mobile phone when in that moment, one comment caught his attention.
JOKER: 21/11/20XX 04:44 ID: jpgovt9
I’m a government staff. It would be best to not resist. After the Ubasute Law gets established, if you go in front of the National Diet building, you will understand everything.
Anonymous: 21/11/20XX 04:45 ID: njvfda7H
you must be joking~ lol what will we understand?
JOKER: 21/11/20XX 04:49 ID: jpgovt9
You will be able to see the Japanese government release a law where citizens who oppose the Ubasute Law will be shot. For sure.
You will be able to see the Japanese government release a law where citizens who oppose the Ubasute Law will be shot. For sure……
While thinking that the comment was in any case most probably an established information all made up in a lie, he put down his phone quietly on his table.
But, in Mitsuru’s mind, for some reason the sentences kept on going around his head and did not leave.
*NEET is a young person who is “Not in Education, Employment, or Training”
(T/N Finally I can continue translating this light novel T^T It’s really interesting concept and storyline and I really wanted to translate more but university is really holding me back right now. I’ll work harder to finish my assignments earlier to translate more T__T But this is my first update in a looong while. I can’t wait to update Case Files of the Genius Asshole)