Fourteen 100

FOURTEEN #100

tl by molokidan

3)
Chapter Four
The Earth in Peril[7]

4)
1: What did you say?!
2: Tibet's air?
3: Y-yes, sir!!

5)
1: The sky suddenly fell...
2: And the people who lived in the mountains
3: all died...
4: Wh-what?!
5: The sky fell?!
6: Y-yes, sir!!

6)
1: What do you mean THE SKY FELL?! Are you saying that the air in between got thinner?
2: Yes, sir!!
3: That's exactly it. The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) is estimating that the earth's sky has dropped approximately 1000 meters...
4: Wh-what?!
5: Could this phenomenon have come about from the absence of plants and photosynthesis?!
6: That may be the case.
7: And simultaneously, the holes in the ozone layer have gotten closer to the earth's surface.

7)
1: But that is not all.
2: Something has also happened to the water!!
3: The water?!
4: Yes, sir.
5: Disturbances have not just happened in high places. In the sewer...
6: Poisonous compounds have been discovered...and they weren't just mixed in, but actually overflowing from beneath!!
7: We received the same report from Mt. Fuji!!
8: What?!

8)
1: Even at Mt. Fuji?!
2: Yes, sir!!
3: N-no matter how we try and think about it, it all seems so impossible.
4: And apparently it snowed in Hawaii.
5: It could be that everything the human race has done up until this point has been a mistake, and this is the result.
6: And...
7: And?!
8: And what next?!
sfx: bam

9)
1: And the children have started talking about very strange things.
2: Strange things?
3: What do you mean by strange things?! Don't beat around the bush, just tell me straight out.
4: Yes, sir. They're talking about "children without veins."
5: Children without veins?!
6: Yes, sir.
7: That's what they said.

10)
1: CHILDREN WITHOUT VEINS
2: The main character in their story...
3: is walking through a dark, dirty place...

11)
1-3: uuuuuuun, uuuuuuun

12)
1-2: uuuuuun, uuuuun
3-4: Please look at my veins.
5: Please, I beg you.
6: He was so persistent,
7: that the person takes the boy's hand and looks...
8: Only to see that the hand is vein-less and cold.
9: All of a sudden,
10: the person shouts out "Who are you," only to hear...

13)
1: I am the Earth.
2: A bleary, festering face turns around and answers,
3: void of even eyes or a mouth.
4: The person screams in shock,
5: and then the veinless child lets out a laugh,
6: and runs away.
7: wahahaha
8: That's the story.

14)
1: Just like how the stories of "The Slit-Mouth Woman" and the "Joking Man" became popular long ago, this story is now explosively popular among the children.
2: Except now, it's popular not only in Japan, but China, India, Europe, America, Australia, the Arctic and the Antarctic, and even desert countries. It's popular all around the world.
3: Of course there are minor differences in the story. For example, the child asks to be carried to a hospital, or to be carried in a designated direction, which in some cases ends up being a graveyard. Other variants have the child grabbing the person's arm. The person shakes him off and runs away, but is chased...
4: But in all of them, there is a round-faced child,
5: who always raises out his hand and asks someone to look at his veins.
6: Then the child says he is Earth.
7: T-this is ridiculous!!

15)
1: The only children who tell stories like that are the uneducated ones.
2: Good Japanese children who are educated don't tell stories like that anymore. It must be some joke an adult made up.
3: I'm in the middle of seriously worrying about the Earth right now.
4: You're a scientist, I can't believe you would bring to me such a stupid fantasy like that!!
5: Yes!! I said that too when I first heard about it, but the story's just so popular, that I have sociologists studying it right now.
6: Alright, fine. Incidentally, about how old are the kids laughing and spraying around these idiotic tales?
7: Yes, sir!! As unbelievable as it may seem...
8: The responses from children ages two and lower, even children who cannot even speak coherently, have been remarkable.
9: Ehhh?!
10: Two?!
11: T-that's far too young...
12: That's the same age as my Tarou.
13-14: beep

16)
1: beep
2: ka-chak
3-4: Father.
5: Tarou, what's wrong?
6: Umm...
7: In the garden just now,
8: I was looking for my ball,
9: and I met a veinless child.
10: What?!

17)
1: Don't lie!!
2: Our garden is strictly monitored by security guards, that can't be possible!!
3: But it's true. I touched him and he had no veins.
4: And he was cold, like he was about to die.
5: Uwaaaaan!!
6: I'm scaaaared. Father, please come home sooooon!!
7: Alright, I'll come home soon.
8: But right now, father's in the middle of a very important job.
9: Once I finish, I'll come right home, so stay inside and wait.
10: pch

18)
1: I wonder what President Young in America is doing now.
2: He has a son the same age as mine.
3: I'm going to contact him.
4: squee
5: bch
6: Ohhh!! Prime Minister Misaki!!
7: I was just about to call you. The truth is...