Desire 10

Even when Takashi heads off elsewhere, those he touches always seem to find themselves in peculiar situations...if only he knew a bit more about the "innocent girl" Reiko...

FILE:10: SAPPHISM

8.
Caption: Setagaya Ward, Seijou
Reiko: I'm going, mother.
Reiko: It has been a month since I first went out with Fujii-san after being introduced by my uncle...I honestly can say that I've gone out with a man for the first time at 25.
Caption: ITOU Reiko, 25 years old
Graduate of Music College, Hopes to be a Pianist
Apprentice of a Well-Known Musician

Reiko: I've gone to girls' schools from elementary to high school...And then at 16 I went to a girl's music college. Due to myself living in an environment being surrounded by women, I did want to be near men and thought that I understood the reason why I wasn't connected to them until now.

9.
Reiko: Fujii-san had been chosen to go on a business trip to Los Angeles for two weeks from today and I had gone to see him off.
Reiko: I thought you weren't bringing breakfast so I made this.
Voice: It's handmade!
Reiko: Shimozono-san, are you fine with this while driving?
Shunji: Oh, thanks very much!
Takashi: Thank you!
Reiko: I who had no experience in loving a man, did it for him, even though I was full of concern......

10.
Reiko: Take care of yourself.
Takashi: Thanks. I'll call you the day before I come home.
Takashi: Well, I'll be going.
Reiko: A man's hand is really rough...yours is surprisingly soft.
Shunji: My Jr. is always hard, it's rather BOING BOING but...
(TN: Shunji uses the alliteration "pinpin", which usually is "lively", but I made an alliteration to keep with the theme of the point)

11.
SFX: KYURURURURU...
SFX: KYURURURURU...
Shunji: Huh......? It won't start.
Shunji: This is my only property but
Reiko: ......
Shunji: It's always breaking down. Such a burden.
Reiko: Ah...since it's going to take time, I'll go ahead on a train...I've got piano practice today.
Shunji: It';lll be fixed soon! In trusth I've got tickets to Disneyland. I"ve finally come to Chiba so take a break from the piano today.

12.
Rikako: If you're urgent to get to the city, take my car...
Rikako: If you're fine with it, go ahead.
Reiko: ............
Shunji: A Porsche 911 Cabriolet?
(TN: While the Porsche 911 is considered one of the most famous of sports cars in the world since it's introduction in 1963, the "cabriolet" (or a soft-top convertable) was only around since the early 1980s and is used to this day)

13.
Rikako: Go ahead, don't be shy.
Shunji: That will be a problem, since we're going from here to Disneylan.
Reiko: Ah...sorry. Well, can I please go with her?
Shunji: .........
Shunji: What's with that woman...she's doing too much!!
Reiko: I'm going ahead, Shimozono-san!

14.
Shunji: What! The distributor cord came out! It doesn't come out like that us--ually.........
Shunji: Is someone pulling a prank on me!?
Reiko: A Mozart Piano Concerto. Do you love Mozart?
Rikako: Yes. I did just hear it a bit earlier, but do you play piano?

15.
Reiko: I'm apprentincing under a teacher in preparation for an interenational contest next year.
Rikako: Well then, do you know of the famous rare piano called "Bösendorfer"? My dead father used it long ago but now no one is playing it. If you're fine with it, do you want to borrow it?
(TN: Bösendorfer is an Austrian piano manufacturer known for making pianos with a rich, singing and sustaining tone as well as for making pianos with more than 88 keys (like with 92 or 97) and is also known as being made with spruce rims instead of veneer. The company eventually merged with Yamaha in 2007)
Reiko: Huh...giving an important thing to weird little me...!?
(TN: The "little" part wasn't in the original translation, but it didn't really feel right to make it "weird me" like it was supposed to be with the reading of "Mizushirazu")
Rikako: I think my father would be proud if it were used by someone hoping to be a pianist. If you're skilled, then this is nice for learning how you actually play it.
Reiko: I'll do it, really...!! Ah...I didn't tell you: I'm Itou Reiko.
Rikako: I'm Rikako, nice to meet you!
Reiko: .........

16.
Shunji: Hold on...the hood of a Mini can be open by anyone from the outside.
Shunji: Perhaps that woman did it...
Shunji: N...!?
Shunji: They're going in the other way. Where are they going......?
Shunji: .........

17.
Caption: Bousou
(TN: Bousou is a hilly peninsula extending out from Honshu near Tokyo bordering a section of Tokyo Bay)
Reiko: Um, doesn't...anyone else live here?
Rikako: This is my villa. Do you want me to make a cold drink?
Shunji: Just the two of them in a villa...
Reiko: (out loud) .........
Shunji: That woman stinks. That's a driver's intuition. She smells of the crime.

18.
Rikako: Ehe...what will she do when she sees this? Having her taste Takashi at the scene of the crime will surely be fun...
Reiko: It touches wonderfully!!

19.
Rikako: Schumann...
(TN: The reference is to Robert Schumann, a notable German composer and, surprisingly, music critic.)
Reiko: Yes.
Rikako: This piece can be done with four hands.
(TN: "With four hands" is in reference to a "four-handed performance", where two people play the piano at the same time)
Reiko: .........
Reiko: You play piano!!
Rikako: I don't really play but...
Reiko: Then we'll continue...I'll take the lower part.
Rikako: I can't play upper parts very well.

20.
Rikako: Ah...
Reiko: A bit more Legato.
(TN: "Legato" is translated her in Japanese as "softer")
Reiko: Be Leggiero from here...There! You're so skilled.
(TN: "Leggiero" is "light")
Reiko: ............
Rikako: This is the first I've played the upper part so well!!

21.
Reiko: ............
Rikako: .........
Rikako: What are you doing?
Reiko: I know the real reason I was invited here.
Rikako: Huh...!?

22.
Reiko: I don't know anything about you but...from the moment I met you in the parking lot, I wanted you, even if I had restrained my feelings.
Rikako: There's something I want to show you.

23.
Rikako: Stop...
Reiko: I've only loved women until now.
Rikako: Sto...
Reiko: Please, please......heal my throbbing body.
Rikako: .........

24.
Rikako: Take...it off...
Reiko: .........

25.
Reiko: AH
Reiko: Haa...

26.-27.
Rikako: Aah, good.
Reiko: Aah, Rikako-san.
Rikako: AAH
Reiko: AH

28.
Reiko: I've.........realized that my heart won't have that sort of relation ever again......
Reiko: I now...have a man I'm going out with. If such an extremely serious man knew this about me.........

29.
Rikako: This is the first I've done it but I didn't think it would feel like that. I requested you to satisfy myself...how is it bad to share in pleasant sexual feelings!?
Rikako: Don't have guilt......you'll have success when you consider facing him...
Rikako: You're seriously overthinking. Have no regrets about today.
Reiko: ............
Reiko: Thanks, Rikako-san.

30.
Shunji: Here! I finally found them.
Rikako: Huh, that guy seems to have come to pick you up.
Reiko: Um, well, can we meet again?
Rikako: Yes, if I have the chance.
Reiko: Thank you for picking me up.
Shunji.........What were you doing here?

TN: First of all, the title of this chapter sort of didn't make sense to me until I researched it a bit but "sapphism" is basically another term for "female homosexuality" or "lesbianism". So basically with that title and what happened here, we got our moral: if you spend all your time with girls, you end up lusting after them...or something like that. Though I did really love that for once Rikako is the one thrown off by what Reiko pulled...but at least somehow it makes sense in the end. (though who knows if she'll be back...or which side she'll be swinging when she is)