Ao no Exorcist 23

My brother gave me a good scare just now when he got home and saw me translating this. By the way, he is a new AnE fan as of sometime last week :3

Brother: Huh, isn't that chapter already out!? I already read it!!
Me: No way! But JAC have been the only ones scanlating AnE for ages! And it can't have been JAC...!
Brother: Well I'm 100% sure I read it! Go check!
Me: WTF, if some random group just decided to conveniently pick this up AFTER I slogged to catch up, I will be seriously pissed! >:E

Well, obviously he was wrong. Anyway, enjoy :D

Oh and late because of exam results + celebrating + pondering future + being sick + chatting on irc, sorry ^^;

Also, also, also!!! MY 50TH TRANSLATION ON MH!!!! :D pathetic milestone, I know... I'll work harder :3



01
a1: ○JC Volume 6 & the "COLOR ARCHIVE" brimming with Anime Information goes on sale 4th April!!
a2: ○Detailed information on the anime on page 4!!
a3: That which is enveloped in seething flames
a4: Is the blade which seals away the power of satan---
a5: Chapter 23 Words of a Father

02
a1: The objective of the enemy is!?
b1: According to "The Truth of the Impure King"
b2: Which is told only to the Most High Priests of the Myou Dha Sect...
a2: When the Left and Right Eyes are together
a3: It is said that they will produce a new, even more noxious miasma
b2: If that's their objective, then...!
b3a: In any case
b3b: Our first priority is to locate Toudou and Houjou Mamushi

03
b1a: We're following all leads right now
b1b: But in any case, they've practically disappeared into the wind and we haven't been able to catch a whiff of them at all
b2a: To prepare for the worst
b2b: We have to request for backup from the medical division as well the other branches
a1: To release the new miasma...?
a2: If that was their objective, then why not do it right when they got hold of the right eye?
a3: They must have had other ways of doing this
a4: Are they choosing the location, or do they another reason for that?
b3: It was rather enjoyable
b4: ... I welcome you at any time, Okumura Yukio-kun
a5: Toudou Saburouta

04
a1: That man...
a2: I have a feeling he has another objective altogether...!!
b1a: Hey
b1b: You're working today, too!?
b2a: Ah, Kamiki-san
b2b: Yeah, preparing these antipyretics is the last of it, though
b3: Amazing
b4a: You really do have the spirit of a weed
b4b: You bounced back in no time
b5: ......
b6: It's not like I could stay depressed forever, right?
b7: You've finally gone back to being the usual you

05
b1a: The usual me...
b1b: Meaning?
b2: Huh?
b3: I mean
b4a: Being optimistic and smiling no matter what
b4b: Speaking to everyone without ever feeling a sense of shame
b5: That's the usual you, isn't it?
b6a: Is-
b6b: Is that how people see me...!?
b7: I see......
b8a: I'm-
b8b: I'm not like that
b9: ?
b10: Did you know?
b11: Just a little while back, I thought I'd become closer to everyone
b12: But then
b13a: When I learned of the great burdens Rin and Yuki-chan were carrying
b13b: I realized I knew nothing at all despite being near them
a1: And even after I found out

06
a1: I got angry because I was too conscious of Rin --- But that was only natural
a2: I'm undependable
b1: When I realized that I was someone who was useless whenever everyone else was in a pinch
b2a: I grew afraid
b2b: I lost the confidence I had in myself regardless of what I was going
b2c: And in so doing, ended up failing even more...
b3: And it became such that I wasn't even able to talk to Rin anymore
b4: Anyway, I've got to hang in there!
b5: Starting with my specialty - doing the laundry!

07
b1: ... You... Do you mean you... Okumura Rin...
b2: ?
b3: Kya
b4a: Okami-san
b4b: Bon's injured and.....
b5: Hm!?
b6: Izumo-chan! You look real pretty in a yukata!!
b7: Moriyama-san, Bon's injured so could you get us some ice?
text below b7: Hey...
b8a: Ah
b8b: Right away!
b9: ... What happened?

08
b1: The right eye was taken from the branch office
b2a: No way
b2b: You're joking, aren't you?
b3: And
b4: Okumura has been detained
b5: Eh!?
b6: Detained!?
b7: He let out his flames and all the people at the branch office saw it
b8: !!
b9: Th... Then what's going to happen to Okumura-kun?

09
b1: I don't know
b2a: He's out cold now thanks to some move Kirigakure-sensei pulled on him
b2b: And he's locked up in a cell in the branch office
b3: Ummmm
b4a: That means...
b4b: Okumura-kun's in a quite a spot, no?
b5: ... Rin

11
sign: First Solitary Cell

12
b1: Ya cooled down yet?
b2: Shura...
b3: Your body okay?
b4a: I don't feel no strength in me but I still...
b4b: Can move, somehow...
b5: Then you can read this, hmm?
b6: ?
b7: What, a letter...?

13
b1: Suguro's father asked me to pass this to you just now
TN: I can't really read what Tatsuma wrote on the envelope. Seriously he has bad handwriting. I can make out "True Cross Academy" and "Okumura Rin-sama". Yup that's it. It's not important anyway, methinks ^0^
b2: Why'd he write to me...?
b3: Well, I dunno, so just read it
b4: ......
b5: ...?
b6: I can't read it
b7: HUH!?
b8a: ... Geez, I figured ya were illiterate but...
b8b: You mean ya can't even read a single word!?
b9: Geez, the people of the... Whatchamacallit? Yutori generation...? (TN: The Yutori Generation [ゆとり世代] refers to those schooled under the Yutori education, a Japanese education policy which reduces the hours and the content of the curriculum in primary education)
b10: No frickin' way! Even I can't read it!!
white text: EHHHHH!!!
black text: IS THIS IN CODE!?
b11: POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!

14
b1: ... It's in cursive. I can kinda read it
text below b1: Code...?
b2: In that case, translate fer us, will ya, Yukio-sensei~?
b3: Even so, Nii-san...
b4: Didn't you say something about surpassing me...?
b5: You can't possibly do that while in jail
next to b5: hah...
b6: You said you'd give me such a big surprise my jaw would drop open. Is this what you meant?
b7: !
b8: Whatever, just read it
b9a: This letter most likely has something to do with the situation we're in
b9b: Let's hear what he has to say to Rin

15
b1: ..... Well, here goes
b2: "Greetings---"
x1: Pleased to make your acquaintance, Okumura Rin-kun
x2: My name is Suguro Tatsuma and I am a monk living in Kyoto
x3: As for why I am writing this letter to you
x4: That is because I have a very important request to make of you

16
x1: However, I understand
slightly hidden by x1: hah
b1: Hah
x2: That you must be confused at receiving a letter like this from a stranger
x3: So let me begin with a story from the past
x4: I don't have a way with words, so forgive me if my story jumps from place to place
x5: That's right

17
x1: This is about the time a little before your birth
b1: So?
b2: How is she?
b3: How is Torako?
x2: I was still young then
x3: I could do nothing but watch as my pregnant wife fell ill and grew weaker by the day
x4: I was at my wits' end
b4: Torako...!!
b5: Tatsuma-san...

18
b1a: This child and I are fine
b1b: Go back to work, won't you...?
b2: ...!!
b3: Tatsuma-sama
b4: The Most High Priest is calling for you
b5: Tatsuma
b6: What are you doing!
b7: Don't you be skivin' on your daily duties!!
b8: Ain't it your job to protect everyone from the impurity of the "right eye"!?
b9: .........

19
b1a: If you miss out on even a day of conversing with Buddha
b1b: Buddha'll turn his back on ya!
b2: "Power" will leave you!
b3a: I... I haven't been skiving!!
b3b: I've been doing this daily for seven years
b4: !
b5: And yet nothing good has come of it! Instead, 15 people have died!!
b6a: Torako's practically at death's door!
b6b: ... At this rate, even our child will...
b7: Can everyone really be saved by us performing the Homa ritual!? (TN: Homa, or goma [護摩] in Japanese, is a Buddhist ritual in which making offerings are made into a consecrated fire. The central deity invoked in this ritual is usually Acalanatha or Fudou Myouou [不動明王].)
b8: Apart from performing the Homa ritual, what else can we do?
b9a: Th-
b9b: That is...!

20
b1a: Following the priceless teachings of our ancestors is the most ideal...
b1b: Gehoh gehoh
b2a: GOHOH
b2b: Gufuh
b3: Most High Priest!!
x1: My father...
x2a: Persisted in seeing all his religious duties in the Myou Dha Sect to the end
x2b: Even after my mother died and he himself fell ill
b4: That's all I have to say
b5: I will return to my duties
b6: The duties that you, too, will some day take over
b7: When I die, you will discover the true "secrets" of this temple
b8: And you, too, will keep these secrets with you until the day you die

21
b1a: If Torako dies
b1b: Get yourself a healthier wife
b2: !!
b3: Producing a heir is also an important duty you must fulfill, is it not?
b4: Enter a state of "mushin" (TN: Mushin [無心] refers to a state where one is free from all other thoughts)
b5: Cast aside all that is of this world
x1: Powerless, all I could think was,
x2: "That's right"

22
x1: "I was born the seventeenth successor of the Myou Dha Sect's lineage of Most High Priests"
x2a: "All our followers"
x2b: "Work hard to fulfill their duties every day"
x3: "All for the sake of protecting those of us of the lineage of Most High Priests"

23
x1: "So I too ought to fulfill my duties"
x2: "All in a state of mushin"
x3a: "That's what it means"
x3b: "To protect Myou Dha"
x4a: "No, to protect even Torako and my child"
x4b: That's what I thought to myself...
x5: Just then

24-25
x1: Just then, from the sky----...
b1: !!!!

26
b1: Uwaaaah!!
b2: What's that!?
b3: Protect Tatsuma-sama!
b4a: Wha... What the hell just happened...
b4b: The homa-mandala was......
b5: Tch... Owwww~
b6: !?
b7: WHA

28
b1: Tatsuma-sama!
b2: Kuh
b3: ... Geez, what the hell is up with this mountain!
b4: It's frickin' overflowin' with monsters!!
b5a: That damn Mephisto! He just left out whatever the hell he wanted...
b5b: I frickin' came in my super lightweight garb!
next to b5: I'm out of ammo
b6: Who are you...!!
b7: Hmm?
b8a: Yo- You bastard! You've some nerve to come crashing in on a ritual!!
b8b: Get off that thing!
b9a: Oh
b9b: That's right, that's right
b10: This, this
b11a: !!!!
b11b: That's!

28
b1: A koumaken, was it?
s1: dosu
b2: Well, I'll be takin' it

29
x1: That was
b1: Huh!?
b2: Wha
b3a: Wha...
b3b: What are you talking about! That's...
x2: The worst possible first meeting I could have had
b3c: Myou Dha's honzon!!
x3: With Fujimoto Shirou-kun, the man who raised you as your father
b4: ..........!!

30
b1: To think that Dad and Suguro-kun's father actually had contact with each other... (TN: Yukio uses the kanji for "priest" when referring to Shirou but the reading is for "dad/father")
b2a: Furthermore...
b2b: The Koumaken...!
a1: You mean it actually belonged to Suguro-kun's family!?
b3: Never mind that, carry on!
b4: Shura
b5: Hurry!

31
b1a: Zeh
b1b: Zeh
b2: Hah... I'm beat!
b3: I managed this without a sweat 15 years ago...
b4: However
b5: This is the moment where my determination is finally put to the test
b6: Watch over me, won't you, Fujimoto-kun?
left: Whither does he head, with such determination in his heart...!?