Yao Tsukumo 3

Yao Tsukumo 3

p1:
(upper left): Yao Tsukumo
(sign): Yamato University Hospital
Tsukumo: 95 / 96 / 97 / 98

Tsukumo: Tsukumo! / <aside: Tee-hee. > / Mm-hm! / I’m back in action…
(TL/N: “Tsukumo” is literally written with characters meaning “99.”)

Nurse: Tachibana-san!!
Tsukumo: Did—did you just hear me pronounce “99” as “Tsukumo”?!
Nurse: No, that’s not it.

Box: My shoulder wound has healed since then, / and today’s the day I finally get discharged from the hospital.

Box: However…
Nurse: You haven’t fully recovered from your injuries yet. You may -- discharged, but that doesn’t mean you can overexert yourself recklessly. You should be especially – not to hurt--- back here.
(dashes==covered up by Tsukumo, the nurse, or the box)

p2:
Box: Neither my father nor my mother / has come to visit me since then.

Father: Lady Tsukumo

Tsukumo: Can I even… go home?

Yao: Tsukumo, / let’s go.
Tsukumo: Huh?

Butler: Lady Tsukumo, / I have come to gather you.

p3:
As their lives flicker, so too do the magic lanterns.
Yao Tsukumo
(bottom right): Chapter 3: “Protect me, k?”

p4:
Tsukumo: So then. / Where are you taking me?
Yao: We’re taking you home.

Yao: Your house is just up ahead.
Tsukumo: My house?

Yao: Do you remember? / You lived there until you were four.

Yao: This is the home where you were born.

p5:
Yao: The Tachibana Family Home.

p6:
Welcome home, Maiden of the Tokijiku.

(?): Princess, / Oh! / Ah… / Welcome home!!!

p7:
Mutsuki: I am Mutsuki. / Do you remember me?

Tsukumo: Err, uh, / sorry, but no…

Tsukumo: I did remember about Yao, though…

Women: No, they were both young then. / Even so, she did remember Yao.

Mutsuki: You did quite well yourself, Yao.

Mutsuki: However, / while you / were acting as the Tokijiku’s shield…

p8:
Mutsuki: YOU LET HER GET INJURED!!!

Mutsuki: You’re a worthless piece-of-shit shield!!!

SFX: Turn and smile

Mutsuki: So then, allow me to show you around the Tachibana estate.

Tsukumo: This mansion is amazing. / Did I really live in a place like this?

p9:
Mutsuki: The Tachibana family has been a prominent family for over 800 years.
Tsukumo: 800 years?!

Mutsuki: Since the Kamakura era, your family, through control of the central temple and landownership, / has governed the surrounding region.

Mutsuki: Even now, the banks, factories, real estate markets, the schools, / and even the hospital where you were hospitalized, Princess, are under the management of the Tachibana family.
Tsukumo: Wow…

Mutsuki: All of that is due to the divine aegis of the Maiden of the Tokijiku. / But before I explain further,

Mutsuki: We must purify you.

Tsukumo: Purify me?

p10:
Mutsuki: The Tachibana home is a shrine of the gods.
Tsukumo: Huh?

Mutsuki: We must cleanse you of all unclean things from the mortal realm.
Tsukumo: Wait— / Wah!

Tsukumo: Stop it!

Tsukumo: Eeek!

Tsukumo: You could at least react a little!!

p11:
Tsukumo: Cold!

Tsukumo: Your name’s Mutsuki-san, right? / I can wash myself, if that’s all there is…
Mutsuki: This is quite fine. This is my job, after all.

Tsukumo <aside>: So cold~

Tsukumo: Princess, was this from the other day?
Tsukumo: Ah, yeah.

p12:
Mutsuki: How heartrending!
Tsukumo: Wah!

Mutsuki: It must have been so hard all by yourself. / But we are your allies, Princess.

Tsukumo: Mutsuki -san, / thank you.

Mutsuki: Then let us dress you, Princess, in vestments befitting your station.
Tsukumo: “Vestments”?
SFX: Hug

Mutsuki: These are the vestments which have adorned generations of Maidens of the Tokijiku.

p13:
Mutsuki: You look quite beautiful.

p14-15:
Mutsuki: Come, Princess. This way.

Tsukumo: Mandarins? / Maybe they’re from the tachibana tree?

Tsukumo: But then why? / Why does my heart / feel so… noisy here?

Mutsuki: Then let us speak / of the Maiden of the Tokijiku and the history of the Tachibana family.

p16-17:
Mutsuki: Roughly eight hundred years ago, an era when the capital was in Kamakura, / this land was still but a small village.

Mutsuki: In it, / there was a girl / who was cheerful, kind, / and beautiful. / Her name was Murasaki.

Mutsuki: Lady Murasaki was beloved by all; / she even curried the love of a god. / The god was the Great Tree of the Tokijiku, the Tachibana-no-Amatsukami.

Mutsuki: Lady Murasaki was given in marriage to the Tachibana-no-Amatsukami. / The Tokijiku’s power of immortality was inserted into her body, and she became the Maiden of the Tokijiku.

Mutsuki: The god gave the house of Lady Mursaki the name Tachibana, / and made them a noble family entrusted with the protection of the Maiden of the Tokijiku.

Mutsuki: Under the god’s divine protection, the Tachibana family prospered. / Even now, they bear the burden of protecting some of Japan’s key locations.

p18:
Mutsuki: And Princess, / you are the 14th Maiden of the Tokijiku.

Tsukumo: …. / Huh…

Tsukumo: Well, then, / what about Yao?
Mutsuki (background): That is why I have been so looking forward to meeting you. Working for you is like my dream. Even now, I cannot stop my heart from beating so loudly in my chest. In order to make things tonight more stimulating, I -------- morning------, if you so desire.
(dashes covered by Tsukumo)

Tsukumo: Yao’s immortal, so how long has he been the Shield of the Tokijiku?

p19:
Mutsuki: That person has been the Shield since Lady Murasaki herself was the Maiden. / <aside: Though I don’t see any reason why you should pay him much mind. >
Tsukumo: For that long?

Tsukumo: He’s been alive / for over eight hundred years…

Mutsuki: However, / there is no longer a need for a Shield of the Tokijiku.

Tsukumo: Huh?

Mutsuki: Princess, you must not be dirtied by the mortal realm. So please, discard what bonds you have formed till now. / Yes. You need not study as well. Let us go inform your school that you will no longer be attending!

p20:
Mutsuki: You will spend your entire life here, at the main home. / And we shall protect you, Princess.

Tsukumo: Mutsuki-san, what are you saying? / Is this a joke? / It is, right?

Yao: Hey!

Mutsuki: The Princess was injured under your care. / You can no longer be entrusted with her, Yao.

Mutsuki: We must concern ourselves chiefly with protecting the Princess’s body. / There is no need to treat her like a human,

p21:
Mutsuki: for she is the child of a God.

Mutsuki: So then. / Princess, let us make arrangements.

Tsukumo: Hell no.

p22:
Tsukumo: I’m / going home!!!

Mutsuki: Eek!

Mutsuki: Princess! / Why do you run, Princess!! / Please, wait!!!

p23:
Mutsuki: This is quite a cruel joke!

Tsukumo: At this rate, I’ll be pulled further and further away from my father and mother, / and I’ll never be able to meet them again.

Mutsuki: PRINCESS!!!

Mutsuki: I cannot allow you to be defiled!
Tsukumo: She’s fast!

Mutsuki: Please forgive my use of force!!

p24:
Mutsuki: What are you planning, / Yao?

Tsukumo: Yao?

Yao: Oh grim steel who sleeps within this mortal realm,

Yao: I beg thee listen to my call.

p25:
Yao: Thy name is God of Scything

Yao: I act only as per the Maiden’s will.

Mutsuki: Seriously? / So annoying. / Shit. / Fuck! / Fine then!

Mutsuki: I’ll fight you one-on-one. / Let’s go!

Mutsuki: You have employed one of the Tsukumogami as a weapon. / Then let us have a battle between Tsukumogami.

p26:
Mutsuki: I’ll murder your ass!

Tsukumo: Batteries?

Mutsuki: Oh wise lightning who sleeps within this mortal realm, / I beg thee listen to my call!

Mutsuki: Thy name / is God of Bursting!

p27:
Yao: Damn—lightning?!

Mutsuki: And your Tsukumogami weapon is steel. / You can’t win, you bastard!

(left text): Burst!

Yao: !!!!!!!!!!! / Gaaahhhhhh!

Tsukumo: Yao!!!

Mutsuki: You are the God of Bursting’s lightning rod. / And now you’re getting roasted!!!

p28:
Mutsuki: How despicable!

Mutsuki: If you weren’t fucking immortal,

p29:
Mutsuki: you’d be nothing more

Mutsuki: than a piece-of-shit little kid!!!!

Tsukumo: Enough! Please, stop!!

Mutsuki: How could such a crude shield / ever hope to protect the Princess?

p30:
Mutsuki: However, / here,

Mutsuki: she never will become involved with others,

Mutsuki: and never will an indelible scar mar her fair skin!

Mutsuki: For there is no need / to wound her heart!

p31:
Tsukumo: Tsukumogami who are after me might wind up attacking Chii-chan or one of my other friends once again. / And my father and mother might be wounded.

Tsukumo: If I remain here, they won’t become involved. / I won’t meet anyone ever again. / But…

Tsukumo: I… / If only I can put up with it…

Yao: Tsukumo!!!

p32:
Yao: You’re such a softhearted idiot. / So tell me!

Yao: What do you want to do?

p33:
I………….

Mutsuki: You shitty shield! / You are trying to deceive the Princess!

Mutsuki: I shall be the one / to protect her!!!!

p34:
Mutsuki: You son of a…!! / You weren’t even strong enough to dodge…

p35:
Mutsuki: P—Princess!!! / Why are you there? / Why would you be there, of all places?!!

Tsukumo: Why, you ask?!!! / Yao!

Yao: I get it.

Yao: Oh ferocious bamboo who sleeps within this mortal realm, / I beg thee listen to my call.

p36:
Yao: Thy name is God of Sweeping!!

Mutsuki: The Princess could have been injured!! / That was your fault, you bastard!!!

Mutsuki: Now burst!!!

Mutsuki: What? / Why did it disappear?

p37:
Tsukumo: Too bad!! / You see, bamboo

Tsukumo: is an electrical insulator!!!

Sweep!

p38:
Mutsuki: But I adored the Princess / far more than anyone else.

Tsukumo: I’m sorry, / Mutsuki-san.

Mutsuki: Princess…

p39:
Tsukumo: I hate being tied down, / but I hate just being protected, too.

Tsukumo: So I’m going to become strong, too, and fight myself.

Mutsuku: What are you saying? / A Princess shouldn’t…!!!

Tsukumo: It’s fine. / It’s not like I’ll be alone.

Tsukumo: Right?

p40:
Tsukumo: You better protect me, Yao.

p41:
Yao.

p42:
Yao: …..Lady / …ki.

Tsukumo: Hm? / What?

Yao: Nothing.

Yao: We’re heading home, right?
Tsukumo: Yeah.

p43:
Mutsuki: W-- / Please, wait, / Princess!!

(?): Mutsuki, / that’s enough.

Mutsuki: But I…

(?): Let us leave her alone, / for now.

p44:
After all, Lady Tsukumo does not have much time left.