Akuma to Love Song 17

Devil and her love song --- Chapter 17
Reserved for imangascans.

*Handwritten text
< thought or narration

[Page 85]
< Without thinking, I embraced her.

< I just felt that she wouldn’t even be able to cry if I didn’t hide her face for her.

[Page 86]
< I wanted to comfort her,
< but I didn’t know what else to do.

[Page 87]
Maria: Me—

Maria: Ah.

< Argh damn it.
Shin: What the hell am I doing?

Shin: I’ve got to...
Say something...

Yuusuke: Megu.
< I’m angry with myself.

[Page 88]
< I want to put her at ease,
Shin: What is she looking for?
I...
J—

Shin: Just stay here!

< but aren’t I just acting out of my own desire?

Yuusuke: Every now and then, you’d be awfully egoistic like that, Megu...
Telling her to stay in your arms...
Shin: That’s not—
I didn’t mean it in that way...

[Page 89]
Shin: I mean,
Stay here with us!

Shin: It doesn’t matter even if you’re not liked by every single person.
If everyone just accepted a girl with a harsh personality like you,
It wouldn’t suit you, and it’s suspicious!

[Page 90]
Yuusuke: Try to put it in a better way, Megu...
Shin: Shut up!
Lying about it wouldn’t solve anything.

Shin: Since it’s true that people don’t like her.
Tomoyo: Y-you’re right. Aha.
Yuusuke: That’s true, but still...

Yuusuke: Maria is...

Maria: Seriously, you guys just say whatever you want without a single care.
When I deal with people like you,

[Page 91]
Maria: it’s so ridiculous that I can’t get mad at you.

[Page 92]
Maria: Is it OK?
For me
To be with you guys...

[Page 93]
Shin: Yeah, obviously.

Shin: Have faith in us.

[Page 94]
Shin: We think of you as our precious friend,
So have some faith in that.

Shin: And have faith in yourself, since you’re the one who made us think this way.

[Page 95]
Shin: Have faith in us.
< I didn’t know
< that hearing someone tell me to trust them
< makes me feel so much happier than me telling myself to trust them.

< Will there come a time

[Page 96]
< when I can pay back to them?

Hana: Morning.
Girl: Morning, Hana.

Teacher: Hana!

Hana: Ah, good morning, sensei.
Teacher: Come here. I want to talk with you.

[Page 97]
Teacher: Kawai!

Teacher: I heard you’re the leader for your class’s choral contest.
One of these days, people from a TV station wants to come here and do coverage on the event.

Maria: TV station...?
Teacher: It’s for a variety show called “journey of the bow and arrow.” Do you know about it?
*Today, let’s go and check out Yokohama
*in Kanagawa prefecture!

Teacher: A guy covers his eyes and shoots an arrow at our country’s map. Wherever it hits, they’ll go to cover an event at a school in that area.
Well, they haven’t shot the arrow this time yet, though.

Maria: So the place is decided even before they shoot the arrow?
Teacher: We adults have our own reasons.

Teacher: Say, Kawai.

[Page 98]
Teacher: I’m putting my hopes in you.
I’m sure you’ll be of use to us.

Maria: Eh?

Shin: What do you mean, she’s gonna be of use to you?

Shin: You, a teacher, are trying to take advantage of his student.

Teacher: Don’t say it that way.
Being of use to someone or something is a natural duty you’ll have when you go out into society—

[Page 99]
Maria: I do want to be useful for something,
And to be of help to people,
But I want to decide what that “something” is by myself.

Maria: At least,
I’m not trying hard for the choral contest because of you teachers.

Maria: Let’s go, Meguro.
Shin: O-OK.

[Page 100]
Shin: From the look of it, no matter how much you’re against it, those people are still going to come.
They might be planning to make this into a school advertisement campaign.

Shin: Try to avoid the camera as much as you can.
There’s no telling what they’re going to use it for.

Maria: Just let them do whatever they want.

Shin: They might turn you into a bad character.
The mass media really cares about images and stuff, so they can create all kinds of crazy scenarios.
Maria: You sound like you’ve been through this before.

[Page 101]
Shin: My old man
Is a musician who’s somewhat famous.

Shin: When his son, which is me, made a debut, they kicked up a real fuss about it.
Saying stuff like the son of a genius should be a genius.
So all the tickets to my concert was sold out,
But in the end, I got too nervous while performing in front of that many people, so the whole thing turned out horribly.

Shin: Ever since then, I’ve been a coward.
People might have said even more things about me
While I don’t know it, you see.

[Page 102]
Shin: I don’t want you to have to go through that...

Shin: Ah,
Nah...

Maria: You fought against it all by yourself, didn’t you?
You’re not a coward.

Maria: Moreover...

[Page 103]
Maria: Right now,
I’m not by myself.

Shin: You’re so not cute.
Try saying you’re counting on me, or something. Well, I guess that’s impossible for you.

[Page 104]
Maria: No, I’m counting on you.
Or your wonderful performance in front of the camera, to be exact.
Shin: You... Rubbing salt on my wound...
*Are you a witch or what?!

< She doesn’t get it

*We’re going to start practice now.

< that she herself is the one who’s been fighting everything all by herself.

Girl: Hey, we had a talk between ourselves on our way home yesterday.
About the choral contest,

[Page 105]
Ayu: Why don’t you drop out of it?

Ayu: To be honest, it’s troublesome that our class is divided into two like this.
Aren’t you the reason behind it?
80% of the guys also say all this trouble is a pain.

Girl: Eh? We never heard about—
Ayu: All the girls decided on this unanimously.

*Aha...?

Ayu: That’s right. Just don’t go to school on the day of the contest.
You don’t have to come to practice, either.

[Page 106]
Ayu: just disappear, for everyone!

< but I know about the loneliness of fighting by yourself

Maria: I cannot
Take on that suggestion.

< I want to help her.

[Page 107]
Maria: this is for myself
And for everyone else.

< I’ll fight with her, always.

Ayu: Yu—

Maria: Ah.
*Why are you guys behind me?
Tomoyo: What a coincidence.
Isn’t it?
*It’s kind of embarrassing.
< That’s

[Page 108]
< the number one desire
< I have right now.

Hana: Jeez, you’re so helpless, Ayu.
Those people are coming all this way to cover our event, too.

We’ve got
To make Kawai-san into an angel...