WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 46: Side Story - The Good Guy, the Weird Guy, and the Pupper
──────
A slum on the outskirts of Mumbai, India.
“Gasp, gasp!”
Carl Harkness, a C-grade Foundation agent, sprinted through an alley shrouded in darkness.
“Gasp, gasp!”
The confidence and smile he had worn when he arrived were long gone, and his neatly pressed suit was now hopelessly wrinkled.
‘Damn it! Maria! Samson! Hummel! Victor!’
His companions were gone.
‘What the hell went wrong!?’
The 「Shadow Hunter」 was one of the Anomalies that had escaped when the Foundation was driven to the brink of destruction by a Constellation.
Everything had been normal when he and his colleagues arrived to capture and recontain the Danger Grade Anomaly.
『Hey! You there! Why don’t you stop for some tea!』
Its anomalous properties were all recorded in the Foundation database. With the proper countermeasures and effective weapons, it should have been an easy mission.
『Good grief! How dare some Shudra talk back to me!』
Yet everything went wrong. The Shadow Hunter toyed with them and made prey of them.
『Son! You have to provide for all of us!』
Now, Carl was the only one left.
After vaulting over a wall, he reached a factory warehouse and forced his way through its doors. Then he saw a five-meter-tall shadow climbing over the wall after him.
“Damn it!”
He immediately drew his pistol and fired at the shadow. The palm-sized handgun could inflict severe damage on formless Anomalies, making it the ideal weapon for this mission.
『Oh, ohhh!』
The moment the bullet struck, another ordinary person’s shadow tore apart and fell from it like dry leaves.
『Carl, why did you shoot me?』
“Sorry, Maria.”
Carl entered the warehouse and hid. The creature was quick across open ground, but much slower in places filled with obstacles. A place like this was ideal for shaking it off.
‘My luck is terrible. I can’t believe I’m the first to witness an additional anomalous property.’
This happened on rare occasions, but there was one unchanging rule.
‘The first person to witness a new anomalous property usually dies.’
When dealing with Anomalies, information was ninety percent of the battle.
Without it, the odds of survival became extremely low.
[It had been unable to properly consume victims while under Foundation management. However, it is believed to have consumed more than five hundred victims in Mumbai. Did this give rise to a new anomalous property? Or did it possess this property already, only for it to be discovered now?]
Carl kept moving as he wrote down the Shadow Hunter’s new anomalous property in his notebook.
[The bodies of victims hunted by it assimilate with the victims’ own shadows. The Shadow Hunter then devours them. As an anomalous property not previously observed, the Shadow Hunter can avoid fatal wounds by discarding one shadow belonging to a victim it has consumed.]
Even if he died here.
[The discarded victim shadows separate from it, but are absorbed back into it after ten to twenty minutes. In other words, capturing the Shadow Hunter now requires enough firepower to kill it more than five hundred times within twenty minutes.]
He could only hope this information reached the Foundation.
『Hey, you guy who looks like a nerd.』
It was here. Carl gripped his pistol at the voice coming from the darkness.
‘I can’t give it another life and make things harder for my successor.’
He pressed the muzzle of the ordinary pistol, which inflicted physical damage, firmly against his temple.
『What are you doing in a creepy place like this?』
“This is it, then.”
Just as he was about to pull the trigger.
Bang!
『When someone asks you a question, you answer.』
His pistol shattered and scattered through the air.
“!?”
『Your accent sounds like those California yuppie bastards. Hey, I’ve got one question for you.』
Carl saw a redneck in a cowboy hat reflected in a painted rebar rod.
The words printed on his T-shirt read:
[Make America Great Again]
Beyond the reflective surface, a double-barreled shotgun was pointed at him.
『Who did you vote for in this election?』
He was a diehard Democrat, and he had voted for Harris this time as well.
“Trump.”
Still, he had enough sense to become the final survivor.
『Good answer.』
＊＊＊
『Looks like you’re being chased by some shitty monster. As a fellow Republican, I’ll help you.』
The other party was an Anomaly. It looked like a Republican redneck and seemed to inhabit reflective surfaces.
“No, that won’t work...”
It seemed friendly toward humans, so Carl tried to explain the Shadow Hunter’s anomalous property. But the Shadow Hunter got to them first.
『Look at that! That guy is eating with his left hand!』
『Damn, you’re loud. I don’t need illegal Indian immigrants. Build the wall! Trump!』
The double-barreled shotgun roared. The Shadow Hunter’s upper body came apart, but another shadow slipped free and nullified the damage.
“It uses the lives of its victims as its own! It won’t die unless you kill it more than five hundred times in a short period!”
『Then kill it five hundred times.』
He lowered the shotgun.
『...That’s what I’d say, but that’s a tacky method. A great American should handle things more wisely and cleanly.』
『Son! You have to get into IIT! We even sold the house for your tutoring!』
The Shadow Hunter ignored Carl and attacked the reflective surface. Its hand turned into a sharp scythe and cut through the rebar, but the Republican redneck moved to another reflective surface and avoided the attack.
『Did you know there used to be a lot more Mutants of the Original besides us? The Original turned into a woman, the Original with six fingers, the cross-eyed Original, the bald Original. But they all disappeared when the Mirror Dimension vanished.』
Amid the Shadow Hunter’s rampage, no one but the redneck himself could hear his voice.
『Only three remain, including me. You know why we survived? Because we’re Mutants so far removed that even calling us the Original’s Clones feels like a stretch.』
『Kill the Pakistanis!』
『How should I put this? If the others are like parents and children, we’re more like bananas and humans. Banana and human genes are sixty percent alike, but no idiot calls that a close relation, right? That’s how severe our mutations are. One of us is even a goddamn dog!』
He moved endlessly from one reflective surface to another, but his gaze never left the Shadow Hunter.
『Put simply, we have no 「Origin」. We were born from the Original, but we’re completely different from the Original. From the moment we were born, we didn’t even have murderous intent toward the Original. We don’t have unusual Mental Strength like that guy, don’t want to settle things through conversation, and don’t crave knowledge either.』
Before long, he loaded fresh shells into the shotgun.
『Anyway, people want what they lack, right? Me too. Maybe because I lack an 「Origin」, I’m a little sensitive to 「Origins」. For example, if I stare hard enough at the 「Origin」 of a monster bastard like you, I can see it clearly.』
『Ohhh! That is life! That is enlightenment!』
『There’s only one reason I’m telling you all this.』
He aimed at the Shadow Hunter and pulled the trigger.
『America becoming great again needs romance, and talking to yourself and firing a gun when nobody is listening is an old-fashioned kind of romance.』
Bang!
The Shadow Hunter’s upper body vanished. Unable to regenerate, it was annihilated.
‘...Annihilated?’
The Republican redneck spoke to Carl, who stood there stunned after witnessing the annihilation of an entity that could never be killed, only knocked unconscious.
『So, Republican friend, meeting like this must be fate. Let’s talk shit about Harrison.』
＊＊＊
In a one-room apartment somewhere in Tokyo, Ishiori Gon was absorbed in an online community in his room as usual.
[This Comiket is gonna be amazing! I have to go!]
[A ton of famous cosplayers will be there too! I can’t wait!]
A freeter. Monthly income of 150,000 yen. Estranged from his parents. Forty years old.
The middle-aged man did nothing except indulge in anime, manga, and novels, without a single thought for his future. As usual, after browsing the online community, he smoked while looking up at the night sky before bed.
‘It’d be nice if I could really go to the Otherworld.’
Should he try getting hit by a truck? If he was going to live like this forever, then eventually get sick, waste away, and die, wouldn’t it be fine to try it just once?
As he entertained such silly thoughts, someone spoke to him.
『Oi, oi! You there! Do you want to go to the Otherworld, y’know!』
“Who!?”
『Over here, y’know!』
A man was waving from the surface of an empty water bottle left in one corner of the room.
『Hehe, I came because I sensed the scent of one of my kind, y’know!』
“A Korean!? A Korean ghost!?”
『Oops! I was speaking Korean, y’know!』
The Korean ghost cleared his throat and introduced himself in Japanese.
『My apologies. My name is Satoshi. I sensed an atmosphere similar to my own from you, so I came to visit you at this late hour despite my shame. I sincerely apologize for this grave discourtesy.』
He spoke with the refined tone of a kazoku noble, but his frivolous gestures did not suit him at all.
“Th-then why did you come looking for me?”
『Don’t you wish to go to the Otherworld?』
The Korean ghost, who introduced himself as Satoshi, told Gon an unbelievable story.
“A Fixer in Korea named Lee Seung-hoon can send me to the Otherworld...?”
『Please, go and see him. You may trust me. I would never betray another of my kind.』
“Er...”
It was an unbelievable story. No different from an elementary schooler’s fantasy.
‘But then again, the thing in front of me makes no sense either...’
He couldn’t believe it, but perhaps he could treat it as a trip to Korea and give it a try.
“So this is Korea.”
Satoshi had already told him the location, so finding Lee Seung-hoon was not difficult.
“You came on Satoshi’s introduction? Welcome.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Fortunately, Lee Seung-hoon could speak Japanese, so there were no problems communicating.
“I can only send you to a medieval fantasy world.”
What followed was strange. Watching as Mana was awakened and receiving instruction on what he needed to study before leaving left him unsure whether a scammer would really put in this much effort, or whether they truly intended to send him there.
“Then I will send you tomorrow. See you all tomorrow.”
It would be nice if he could really go.
That night, Gon fell asleep in an overpriced motel. In his dream, he stood above the clouds, then wandered into a massive temple as if drawn inside.
『Ishiori Gon.』
There, an invisible being, whose form he could not perceive and whose humanity he could not determine, held out a die.
『Everything depends on luck. Roll it.』
He rolled the die marked with numbers from one to one hundred.
『25.』
The unknowable being spoke in a regretful voice.
『You will be sent to a harsh world, and your life will easily be threatened in a difficult environment. Life will never be easy for you, and you must overcome it through bone-grinding effort.』
Just before the dream ended.
“I object!”
Someone entered the temple. Satoshi, dressed like a lawyer, bowed politely.
“So this is the 「Origin」 of the Otherworld Transfer Book. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Satoshi.”
Satoshi spoke in Japanese, but the unknowable being understood every word.
『You are... Hmm. State your business.』
“This person originally had no possibility of coming here. I brought him here through my own efforts, so I have a share in this as well.”
『What do you desire?』
Satoshi pointed at the die.
“With my share, please allow this person to roll the die once more. In addition, please apply my share in the same way to every person I send from now on, allowing them two rolls of the die.”
『Two rolls?』
“Yes. Then please choose the higher of the two numbers.”
『Is that all you desire?』
“That is all.”
He adjusted his lensless glasses with a finger.
“I want everyone heading to the Otherworld to live a life like a protagonist’s. So, to raise their odds even a little, I have to do this much.”
The unknowable being fell silent, then agreed.
『Because I owe Lee Seung-hoon a great debt, I shall grant your request.』
“Thank you.”
The die that had fallen to the floor rose again.
『Roll once more.』
Ishiori Gon threw the die again.
『3.』
“D’eh.”
Satoshi exclaimed in Korean before vanishing from the temple.
“I helped as much as I could, y’know!”
＊＊＊
A hospital somewhere in Austin, Texas.
“Elsa, are you feeling a little better?”
Elsa, a girl who would turn four in the new year, spent another day in the hospital connected to an oxygen mask and IV drip.
“You’ll get better soon. Our Elsa is a good girl.”
“Yeah! Elsa is good!”
Born premature, the girl had spent her whole life in hospitals. Occasionally looking down at the city outside the window with her mother and father was the entirety of the world she had experienced.
“Santa Claus will definitely bring you a present too.”
“Santa!”
“Elsa, why don’t you secretly tell only Mommy what present you want?”
“A puppy!”
Sadly, it was a wish that couldn’t come true for Elsa, whose immune system was weak, but her mother nodded.
“Okay, he’ll bring you a puppy. Mommy will come again tomorrow.”
Her mother worked alongside her husband to pay for the girl’s hospital bills. As she left while searching for stuffed dog toys, Elsa clasped both hands and prayed.
“Santa, I was good. I didn’t cough too much, I took lots of medicine, and I only cried a little when I got shots.”
She prayed earnestly, but sleep gradually overcame her. Just as she closed her eyes, Elsa noticed something in the IV bag connected to her.
『Woof woof!』
It was a puppy. A Welsh Corgi puppy with its tail intact.
‘A puppy.’
The moment she spotted it, Elsa fell into an irresistible sleep. When she woke again, she was standing in a beautiful flower field.
“Puppy!”
“Woof!”
The girl chased after the puppy as it ran through the flower field on its stubby legs.
“Got you!”
“Woof woof!”
“Hehe! That tickles!”
Strangely, the girl could understand what the puppy said.
No, the puppy’s words were reaching her.
“You want me to follow you?”
The girl crossed the grassy field as fast as she could. Before long, a dry wasteland suddenly appeared.
“This place is scary.”
Dry leaves rolled along the ground, which was lifeless and brittle. Every flower had withered and fallen.
“Woof!”
“Waaah, Puppy! Let’s go together!”
The puppy entered without hesitation, and the girl gathered her courage and followed.
“Pretty.”
There, the girl saw a sparkling jewel. It shone like a tiny sun, but its light was so faint that it looked ready to go out at any moment.
“Woof woof!”
“Huh? What’s an 「Origin」?”
“Woof woof!”
“This is my 「Origin」?”
“Woof!”
The puppy licked the jewel. Each time it did, the jewel’s light grew stronger, and the surroundings changed with it.
“Wow!”
Life returned to the ground, flowers bloomed again, and trees began to grow once more.
“That’s amazing!”
“Woof woof!”
The girl nodded at the puppy’s words.
“Yeah! I’ll be a good girl!”
At that moment, Elsa woke from the dream.
“Puppy!”
“Elsa? You’re awake!?”
“Oh, our daughter!”
The girl’s mother and father, who had been keeping watch at her bedside, burst into tears. Her heart had stopped the previous night, and she had fallen into a coma, but she woke up after only one day.
“Huh?”
“It’s a miracle! Elsa’s illness is completely cured!”
The two of them cried again.
“Mom! Dad! You can’t cry! Santa won’t give you presents if you cry!”
“Oh, God!”
“Thank you!”
Held in her parents’ arms, Elsa gave a snort.
“It wasn’t God, it was Puppy!”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
