3-gatsu no Lion 97

Really touching chapter, I kinda felt. Umino-sensei is great at examining the human condition. This seems to be examining the difference in the life of somebody ambitious and disciplined VS most regular kids. To some degree, maybe not all kids in general. I love these sorts of deconstructions.

[3-Gatsu no Lion 97 Translation by Kewl0210]
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Title: Chapter.97
Other Family

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Someone: While I was drying the laundry, the phone rang.
When I picked up the receiver, I heard a feeble voice say 'hello'
'How are you doing right now?'
----When the voice said that
----I thought "Oh, this is one of those 'Hey, it's me' scams." but then
I heard the voice say 'It's been quite some time, hasn't it? It's Rei.'

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Woman: ----The owner of the voice was
Rei: Hello.
Woman: the boy that had been part of my household until a few years earlier.
Rei: Glad to see you again, Tarou.
Everything going okay with you?
SFX: WAN... HIN...
Woman: Tarou, you've become such an old man.
You're always sleeping right around here all the time as of late, aren't you?
Rei: ...
Is that right, Tarou?
SFX: HIN HIN HAF HAF
Rei: Is Ayumu-kun doing well?
And Kyouko-san...?
Woman: Ayumu is in prep school right now
and Kyouko
is doing temp work, I guess one might say. She's moving around all over the place.

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Woman: ---And while I gave him those answers,
I was relieved that the boy had come when I was alone.
If Kyouko or Ayumu had been here, then the living room would probably have froze.
----Just like
it did back then
Woman: Oh, these sweets are from those candy salespeople that have been helping you so much recently.
If you want....
----Yes.
Label: Mikazuki Temple
Woman: No one in this house
Rei: I'm sorry I never called you or anything
in such a long time.
Woman: speaks this boy's name anymore.

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Woman: 'I was worried. I hadn't seen you in so long, after all.'
----I thought of saying that, but I held my tongue.
This boy knew about all that,
that's why he didn't come here.
And
we faced each other as I awkwardly sat there
unable to look him in the eye
Gentle...
----Yes, gentle...
The atmosphere around this boy had become so very gentle.
He'd become an adult.

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Woman: He's the same age as Ayumu?
----I can hardly believe it.
My son is still
the same kid he always was.
It was at a relatively early stage that I realized my kids were not match for him.
----It's a simple explanation. It would be clear as day to any onlooker
that the amount of practice he did was on another level.
If they still didn't want to lose to him,
they would have to practice more than him or they would never get anywhere.
The answer was simple. ------But
If the question came to whether they could do it or not,
they couldn't.

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Woman: In front of him progressing as he silently embodied the idea of sound reasoning,
my kids
had their minds shaken by their own weakness
they were collapsing into little pieces.
My own children rebelled against me and I was lost
and my husband just said nothing and watched.
'People that need others to bring out motivation in them will eventually come to a standstill anyhow.' That's my husband's pet theory.

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Woman: Unable to look their own weakness in the eye, they were swallowed by enjoyment that was within arm's reach.
And one day, Ayumu came out with 'I mean, being able to work hard is a talent itself!'
and at that words
'Ha!'
my husband laughed.
----That was probably the moment that he gave up on Ayumu being a 'shogi player'.
The thing they realized when they saw that boy
was that people who had a 'place they wanted to reach'
had to pursue it this far.
For me, someone that had never thought things like 'Only a handful of people can become what they want to be.'
or 'What do I have to do to become what I want?'
seeing those kids like that weighed depressingly on my chest.

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Woman: And one day, I finally realized.
That my husband is a man that walked the same path as that boy when he himself was a boy.
I'd tried to understand, but I really didn't.
If you could see past the thing called shogi, you could see that the one in the house that my husband related to the most
was not in our family, it was that boy.
He devoted himself wholeheartedly into shogi.
He studied without uttering a word word and he helped out with the household, too.
-----He really was a good boy.
And that made it all the more painful for our two children...

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Woman: Why is it this boy is such a good boy?
Why didn't my kids grow up this way?
What was different about the way his mother raised him and how I raised mine?
----Did I make some mistake in the way I raised my kids?
Is he pushing himself really hard to act the role of a 'good boy' because he's paying nothing to stay here?
Maybe he's actually insulting us behind our backs.
----No......
That's not it...
He
Rei really just was a good boy...

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Woman: My kids----- and me
knew that, we took advantage of Rei.
We took advantage of him, pushed him away, and treated him carelessly.
I never gave him a place to belong.
----And he felt
'As long as I'm here, everyone's just going to feel more and more strained.'
----But he never even said that out loud
and quietly left the house.

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Woman: When the five o'clock bell chimed, Rei stood up from his seat.
----And said 'Well....' [quotes are all in a different font than the narration]
Without trying to find any closing remarks to say,
simply said 'I'll see you again some other time.'
'See you soon.' I answered in kind.
----What else could I say, after all?
Rei: See ya,
Tarou.

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Rei: Live a long time, okay?
And take care of yourself.
Woman: Rei left
and I started work on dinner in the kitchen
just like usual.
Even if no one contacts me,
every day,
I stand here,
make dinner, and wait for everyone.

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Woman: That night, I had a dream.
A dream where Rei was really my son.
He had become like most children
sprawled out in the living room eating sweets,
watching TV,
and when I said 'Get to bed soon!' he talked back saying 'quiet down'.
----I
felt drained thinking 'What? This is just
like Ayumu and Kyouko, isn't it?'
But deep in my heart
I was relieved.
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