I apologize for the delay. I will now provide the translation and paragraph adjustments for the text you provided, strictly adhering to your glossary.
I forgot to set it to complete, so I’ll post one more chapter. This is really the end, I’m truly sorry.
Chapter 2 of the fierce battle arc has been posted on the Narou version.
I’ve unified the titles for Nocturne and Narou.
The day after entrusting the Pendant to Gintetsu, I woke up and left my private room in Shiranui, which was under maintenance, heading to the cafeteria annexed to the dock.
The maintenance crew, busy replacing damaged armor plates and welding repairs, waved their greetings. I walked while returning their salute.
We’re scheduled to sortie to the next battlefield tonight. If I’m going to go out to the city, it should be in the morning… but I’ll pass.
It will only lead to trouble again anyway. Even if I’m a man who doesn’t learn from his mistakes, I finally have to learn.
In the simple but spacious cafeteria, I started filling my plastic tray with breakfast.
Oh, there’s Neapolitan with tons of ketchup. The bright red sausages with obvious artificial coloring are also a big plus as ingredients. I have to keep this.
Even Lilith, who is a master of housework and a great cook, can’t replicate this nostalgic taste.
After all, the secret is to make it cheaply with inexpensive ingredients. It’s a sad dish that becomes less appealing the better one’s skills become.
… If I survive this war and retire safely, maybe I’ll open a cafe. With iron-plate Neapolitan as a specialty.
There was even a city called Napori in this world, so naming it Neapolitan wouldn’t be unnatural.
Well, apparently, if an Italian from Naples saw Japan’s iron-plate Neapolitan, they’d be like, “???”.
A cafe, huh. It might really be good. Lilith can handle the accounting and is a good cook. Shion also said she’s good at cooking. Natsume, with her cute smile, could be a waitress… Wow, I really want to see that. Natsume as a waitress.
No, no, I shouldn’t decide the retirement plans for the three girls on my own!
I know, but my overactive Natto Bacteria won’t stop.
How about a maid cafe instead… Am I a genius! If Shion, Natsume, and Lilith ran a maid cafe, it would definitely be a hit!
… Wait a minute. Then what would I do?
I can’t cook or do accounting, so a waiter? That’s stupid. They’d throw things at me, telling me to have Natsume carry them! I’d use Wolf Eye!
… But… a cafe with three beautiful sisters? I feel like I’ve seen something like that somewhere…
That’s Cat’s Eye!! Are you planning to make those three collect their dad’s collection?
Besides, everyone at Kenmei Police Station, it’s obvious that Cat’s Eye’s targets are focused on the Heinz collection! Why don’t you thoroughly investigate more Heinz-related things! You’re the type, Detective Uchiumi!!
… Pant, pant… But Toshio Utsumi is cool, isn’t he? Can someone normally say, “I can love again,” after reuniting with a lover who lost all their memories, including those of us? How chivalrous is that. If my lover lost their memory, including their memories of me… could I say the same thing? No way. … Actually, I don’t have a lover.
“Kanata-han, is your imagination time over?”
“I think it’s a talent, in a way, to be able to see the entire process of imagination from beginning to end, like a story. Don’t you think so, Shuri?”
“Yeah. From the outside, it just looks like a comical one-man show.”
It seems the weakness of imagination time is that you become oblivious to your surroundings.
“…Life is a play without a script. We are unnamed actors and protagonists playing the roles we’ve been given.”
“You might think you’re saying something cool, but all I can say is, ‘Oh my god you know’.”
“Oh my god you know? Kotone, I don’t understand what that means.”
“Shuri, Kotone wants to say, ‘You of all people shouldn’t say that’.”
Kotone smiles, as if she understood my intention. It seems the Asura Unit is full of wicked women.
I decided to have breakfast with the four of us, sitting on plastic chairs.
“Kotone, you’re not just good at voice imitation, you’re also a master of swordsmanship. I was surprised.”
“I saw you through the Insect User, but your movements were as elegant as dancing the Asura-style dance. It was a fighting style that circled like a dance, so maybe I should call it a waltz.”
It seems Shuri fought alongside Kotone in the Battle of King’s Plain. I thought she would be useful since the Commander brought her along, but she was a user to the extent of surprising Shuri.
Still, a fighting style that dances in circles, huh. Kotone probably…
“Kotone uses the Enryu style.”
“Enryu? Kanata, what kind of school is that?”
Shuri begins to explain that it’s a boyfriend’s job to provide them with such trivia.
“It’s an ancient sword style said to have been founded by Byakuen Kuchiki. It emphasizes embodying circular movements and is characterized by sweeping attacks that draw arcs.”
“On the other hand, it doesn’t use thrusting techniques very much. The founder, Byakuen, said, ‘The circle is man, man is the circle. By shaving off the sharp edges and training the technique and the heart, the path of reason will open’.”
“It’s good that both Shuri-han and Kanata-han are studious. As you can see, I’ve been recognized as a master of Enryu.”
“It’s amazing that you’re a master of Enryu, which is said to be difficult even to become a disciple of. But I wonder about de-emphasizing thrusting techniques. In the Kakure Style Ninjutsu, thrusting techniques are emphasized. Seeing the chain extraction that Natsume often uses, I think you can understand its usefulness.”
Chain extraction, Natsume’s specialty. It’s a fatal technique that pierces the heart as if sewing through the collarbone.
It’s particularly effective with Natsume’s excellent jumping ability.
“It’s not that we de-emphasize them. We use them when they should be used. Since thrusting techniques can be effective even for those who are not physically strong, the Enryu teaching is to devise the path to reach that point.”
“I see, so don’t rely on thrusting techniques easily, huh. I’m learning a lot. Could you teach me and Hotaru sometime? Kotone’s Enryu.”
“My Enryu isn’t so great that I can teach it to others yet. But if you want to learn Enryu, now is the time? My Master is here…”
“Kotone, you know the meaning of ‘menkyo kaiden’, don’t you? It’s a problem if you can’t let go of the feeling of being a disciple.”
Chui Lieutenant Colonel Rindo said, smiling gently, and placed his tray on the table.
“Master! I was planning to greet you after breakfast!”
“Excuse me. I am Lieutenant Colonel Sainai Rindo of the Terukyo Army. Kotone is my disciple. You are Lieutenant Aka Tōbi, an ‘Insect Master’, and you are…”
“I don’t have a moniker, Lieutenant Colonel Rindo. My name is Shuri Utsumi.”
“…But you have a talent. Am I wrong?”
As expected of the master of Enryu, he isn’t swayed by the presence or absence of a moniker.
“Is that so? I’ll leave it to your imagination.”
Shuri, stop doing that “glasses sparkle” thing, the “glasses sparkle” thing. You’re teaching them that you have a talent.
“Master, you probably already know because you stand out too much…”
“I know about Kanata-kun. We met in the city district last night.”
“Then weren’t you also caught up in trouble, Master?”
“I got caught up in trouble *after* I parted ways with Lieutenant Colonel Rindo!”
I knew it would be sad, but my innate tendency to retort made me blurt it out.
“…So you did get caught up in trouble after all…”
…I’m really getting sad. …Let’s change the subject.
“Lieutenant Colonel Rindo, how did you decide to let Kotone go? A master of Enryu, a soldier with a moniker who has irreplaceable special skills.”
Lieutenant Colonel Rindo didn’t answer my question and silently stirred his fried egg with soy sauce until it lost its original form.
This is… like stepping on a landmine. Of course, logically, he wouldn’t just let Kotone go.
The two women sent me accusing glances with their four eyes for stepping on a landmine like a fool. Oops, my bad ♪
“Colonel, if you’re going to stir it that much, shouldn’t you have gotten scrambled eggs instead of fried eggs…”
Read the room, my friend. The Colonel is irritated. Can’t you see his temple twitching?
You do that same gesture to Lilith all the time, don’t you?
“… Do you think I let Kotone go… because I wanted to… because I liked it… My dear disciple, one of my few reliable combat forces, the sound of her koto that heals the grim atmosphere of the unit, her dance that she gracefully performs in front of everyone is the sustenance for tomorrow… I could never let go of such… such Kodama Kotone!!”
Ah, there he goes, exploding. The culprit is Shuri, not me.
“…Um, Lieutenant Colonel Rindo. Our Commander can be a bit forceful…”
Hotaru, with her bodhisattva-like character, tries to smooth things over, but no matter how skilled a defender is, they can’t catch an out-of-the-park home run.
“A bit!? Does ‘a bit’ mean different things for the Asura Unit and us!? She was taken from me under almost coercion, no, intimidation! What was Ama a god thinking! To give birth to a woman like her as the head of a Zaibatsu!”
In this world, she’s not Amaterasu Omikami, but Amaterasu, the god of light who shines upon all the land. She’s not the supreme deity, but one of the great gods. Of course, she’s the most revered god in Terukyo. It seems Lieutenant Colonel Rindo didn’t have the blessings of Amaterasu God…
“Master, Amaterasu-sama can also be whimsical. Since she is a female deity…”
I wonder if it’s okay to be whimsical just because she’s female… No, it’s okay. Whimsicality is Natsume’s charm point.
“…Kotone, what about my position, being toyed with by whims?”
“Reality doesn’t discriminate, Master. Please do your best and don’t say useless things.”
“Let me translate: ‘Reality doesn’t always go as planned. Master, stop saying pointless things and do your best’.”
“Kanata-kun! You don’t need to translate! Everyone here is Izuruha people, aren’t they!”
I know, I know. Even if I didn’t understand the dialect, I have translation apps.
Then why did I translate it? Well, I wanted to see a sharp person get angry. My bad, my bad ♪
* Important! The rest of this story can be enjoyed on the Narou version. <(_ _)>*
I’ve posted the continuation on Narou with the changed title.
I hate how stupid I am.
