Desire 20

A life rushed too soon can lead to a faster feeling of heartbreak...and ultimately may change a person in ways unimaginable! These are the lessons Takashi must face as he heads to the mountains to meet an old crush of Shunji's...

File: 20: SICK OF MEN

31.
Takashi: Due to Shimazono's college-era friends having a pension, we used it for a two-day, one night weekend to go skiing.
(TN: A "pension" in this case isn't involving money: it's in reference to a guest or boarding house with a shared bathroom, usually found in European locations such as Spain, Italy or particularly Switzerland)

32.
Letter:
Shiga Kougen - RENEWAL OPEN
-Are you alright, big brother Shunji?
You should leave the noise of the city sometimes.
Why not spend your weekend around the powder at the penson?

Since I'm getting it renewed this time, please come and play if you want some info.
-Reina

(TN: Shiga Kougen, located within hte Joushin'etsu Kougen National Park near Nagano, is a notable ski resort area in the wintertime)

Shunji: SUGINA Reina.........she's a junior in the skiing circles.
Shunji: She was certified Miss Campus Queen at Rikkyo U. It was easy to fall in love with her. However, she was suddenly married in college to a guy in our circle and my once-in-a-lifetime love ended too soon.
(TN: Rikkyou U, also known as Saint Paul University, is a Christian-based university based in Ikebukuro founded by an Anglican missionary)

33.
Takashi: The owner of the pension is a love rival? So you have a reason already to spill out.
Shunji: Actually, they decided to divorce three years ago. The pension seems to be managed by her alone.
Takashi: Understood, so this has an alterior motive?
Shunji: Well...if I told you no, I'd be lying.
Shunji: We're here!!

34.
Reina: Jun-chan, Suzuki-san, a day and a night.
Reina: Kouji-kun, please see Yamamoto-san from 201 to the slope and meet him later.
(TN: The "see and meet him later" is actually the Japanese term "sougei", which is "to see off a person and meet them when they return")
Kouji: Right.
Takashi: Well isn't she pretty?
Shunji: She is!
Reina: Shimazono-sama from Tokyo has arri--ved.

35.
Reina: Shunji-san, it's been a while. I've been waiting.
Shunji: You seem well. He there is my friend Fujii.
Reina: Welcome.
Takashi: Ah, thanks. I'm indebted to you.
Shunji: It seems you're doing plenty, but I'm relieved you look so alive. If I can do anything, I won't be reserved to give a hand.
Reina: Thank you. I'm really in debt with this renewal--so I must keep going at it. I do want you to give us publicity with your journalistic experience.
Shunji: Obliged! I'll sell it with the "Beautiful Owner", the former Miss Campus of Rikkyo.
Reina: Not like that, it's embarrasing.

36.
Caption: --NEXT DAY--
Takashi: At the youthful 24, she was managing a pension and also had opened a ski school and with the time she was busy sewn up, she also was endeavoring to coach herself.
Takashi: She's so great. Not just beautiful, she's shrewd.
Shunji: She's changed...when she was in college, she was a girl who was quiet, like a doll.

37.
Takashi: She was freed from her day of work after 11 at night. With the three of us tipping our glasses, I gradually began to see her true face.
Reina: If I didn't make myself a woman for him and came out here, I......I had been soft to men all my life.....I thought reliance was the only think a woman needed to live. I'm living fine even without the help of a man...with that, I've decided my intention to not marry ever again.
Shunji: I didn't come out here to propose, but how you're saying that, you're not even tempted by a date.
Reina: I invited you out here as an owner; I forgive your weird anticipations.
Takashi: .........

38.
Takashi: Then, I'll go ahead to my room.
Shunji: Ah...OK.
Shunji: Are you intending on going on living by keeping men away from now on? I think that sort of life is too lonely, but
Reina: .........
Reina: Let me clear this up: In the three years since my divorce, not once have I...thought about wanting...sex at all!!
Shunji: .........

39.
Sign:
24-HOUR TENNETSU ONSEN
With a genuine Finland Sauna
(TN: "Tennetsu" = "Heavenly Heat"; meanwhile, a Finland Sauna, or "finnish sauna" is essentially a warming room where one spends time to relax through the heat, usually a tradition in Finland)
Takashi: Aren't you going to the onsen before sleeping? Seems they have a sauna too.
Shunji: I'm fine. I'm already sleeping.
Shunji: I did anticipate this a bit but...I am dissapointed.

40.
Takashi: You do have a bit of feelings once again for Shimazono.
Reina: !!
Reina: ......
Reina: I...the one who left me was my first man. I quit the univeristy and the two of us started this pension with our parent's help...while he said he was terribly in love with me, he quickly vanished with an 18 year old female customer and we divorced...
Reina: He used the bait of marriage and caught me. His intentions were just for my youth...therefore, I had enough already of men and marriage...not to mention sex...
Takashi: Your first man was that man...Therefore are you really going to live from now on abandoning your womanhood?

41.
Reina: Abandoning my womanhood!?
Takashi: Yes! You were married before you knew "the woman inside yourself".
Takashi: You said that since your marriage failed, you intended to live abandoning all natural desires of a woman.
Reina: Natural desires...
Takashi: Yes...! Sex is never a byproduct of marriage.
Reina: .........
Reina: What is this woman inside me...
Shunji: Are you intending on going on living by keeping men away from now on? I think that sort of life is too lonely, but

42.
Reina: .........
Boy: Uh...um--I'm thirsty.
Reina: EH, UH...there's a juice vending machine downstairs.
Reina: ...

43.
SFX: CLICK
Reina: !!
Reina: I'm...sorry, I thought no one was in here anymore...
Takashi: I don't mind, go ahead.

44.
Takashi: In Finland, the home of saunas, it's typical for men and women to be in together.
Reina: ......
Reina: Of...course. Somehow since I entered this sauna while it was misty, that wasn't cleared up...
Reina: I heard from Shunji-san that you were a serious man from Tokyo U. Fujii-san......can you positively have sex without love?
Takashi: Its not that it's not positive in how it feels...I think. You came by coming back to me, without my invitation...the reason you entered this sauna is due to some feeling for me.

45.
Takashi: You've noticed it: the desire aching in your body!!
Reina: Pl...please stop!!
Reina: !!
Takashi: Now feel the fascination in you that you want to embrace!!
Reina: WHA...

46.
Takashi: Your feelings are honest now. Throw them forwards into your body.
Takashi: How are you now? Your eyes are hit with a desire for men. Please tell me what reaction is occuring to your body.
Takashi: If you show proof of desire too, then you can only follow it.
Reina: .........

47.
Reina: HA
Reina: N...no...

48.
Reina: ......
Reina: HAA AAH
Reina: This...hot pain. I can't breathe!!
Reina: HAA HAA

49.
Reina: AH
Reina: AH

50.
Takashi: The desire that she had dammed up broke down at once.

51.
Takashi: HER WHOLE BODY BECAME WILD AND FREE WITHOUT HESITATION. THE WOMAN HAD BECOME AN ANIMAL......

52.
Reina: Shunji-san, last night I was.........forgive me if I did harm to you.
Shunji: Don't worry about it. I'll be steadily publicizing you.
Reina: I had fun getting information this time...I'll be waiting for it.
Shunji: ........
Takashi: Aaah, certainly!!
Takashi: Her facial expression felt like the breath of spring.

TN: You know with a title like the one of this chapter, I sort of expected the worse...so ultimately, I was surprised that most of this chapter was pretty good. (well aside from Takashi exposing himself in the sauna to Reina...the less spears the better, even if blurred out) Reina demonstrates somehow or another a particular phenomenon that probably isn't taken to "this" extreme and somehow may be overdramatizing the obsession that women "should" have towards sex...but in a way, it's understandable once you know her side of the story. Then again, there is that "other" lesson of the chapter: sex without marriage is fine...it's weird to hear that in Japan, particularly here when people have sex who knows when with who knows who...but I think the purpose is more driven towards those who are of mature age and can make responsible decisions. (besides, not like kids would read these sorts of seinen aside from "lookit the boobies!") Though I do feel sorry for Shunji for one reason: if it weren't for a kid wanting juice, maybe Reina would have done it with him instead of his friend!