Shokei Shoujo no Ikiru Michi - Vol. 2 Ch. 10 - Taking The First Step

[MoonlightwolfchanX]

Anime adaption hype!

 

[Scrabbleman]

It's really sad how those who got transported were given powers beyond their wildest dreams. Those who can control it will succumb to the human urges, while those who can't suffer from their own hubris. The Church protects the world by killing these walking disasters, even if they mean well and were generally good people. Because they can't risk it. Because they've seen what happened when they failed.

 

[dextersTomato]

I wonder how she will assasinate Akari. Its intriguing

 

[skilodracus]

@zanonyn Fair points all around and I have to agree, but to me what's interesting is that the characters remain so dedicated to this cause despite knowing its evil. I think the story will force the main characters to confront the possibility that what they're doing is not the best solution, but only assumed to be; and the characters realizing that there was a better path the whole time will be especially interesting to see. Maybe they discover a way to send them back home or something. This is pure speculation on my part, but I think it would be interesting to watch the characters struggle with the idea of two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[Kirin-kun]

I kinda hope she kills Akari regardless.

 

[Werebearguy]

The people of the world summon people from Japan, literally kidnapping them with no way of returning them home. They know this is a stupid idea, yet they keep doing it. They know the dangers of the otherworlders, yet they don't even try to help them use their powers correctly. Instead of simply doing the smart things like helping them or returning them home under the equal assumption that they won't retain their powers, they resort to murder. If this backstory was meant to give depth to her and make her less unlikable, it sure as hell failed. I can't root for her at all. Her motivations are reasonable, since one of those catastrophes turned her into an orphan, but it's not good at all that she willingly chose to be a villain. She butchers innocent people, and that's the main point. It doesn't matter that she's an orphan, it doesn't matter that her life was nearly permanently ruined; she became a murderer, and that's the only important fact here. This world needs a fifth catastrophe to make them realize that they need to stop summoning time bombs. I doubt Akari, whose power is to not die, will be that fifth catastrophe, but they sure as hell need a wake up call to stop kidnapping and murdering people.

Also, I want to know more about the kidnapping victim that turned Menou's home into a salt flat. That's probably the coolest bad end scenario I've seen in a while. It's so simple, yet interesting because of how simple it is. I'm sure that otherworlder is dead, but I'd still like to see them come back just long enough to know how they did it.

 

[zanonyn]

@skilodracus
Fair points all around and I have to agree, but to me what's interesting is that the characters remain so dedicated to this cause despite knowing its evil.

Well, saying something is evil says nothing about whether every other choice is more evil. Sometimes there just aren't any good choices. Most people like to believe there is some great choice in any given situation if only they knew it, and it's certainly worth trying to plan ahead such that there will be good options. But we don't always plan ahead, and even then there still may end up being times when every option is bad but some are less bad. And for those with power, not making a choice is itself a choice. There's no escaping responsibility.

I mean, to take current affairs, consider pandemics and individual freedom. Violating truly core individual freedom is an evil thing to do. And for a natural pandemic no human is at fault for the infectious agent itself, everyone was minding their own business and just wants to live their own lives. Yet allowing it to rage unchecked would itself cause huge harm. We're about pass half a million deaths in the US, but there are plenty of vastly more lethal diseases in history. Imagine that was 5 million, or 50 million or 200 million. At some point, I'd support forcefully strapping down and injecting anyone who refused to get a vaccine, and using lethal force against those who use force to resist. That's an evil set of actions, and the people we'd be doing would be mostly decent people. I don't doubt many of the antivaxxers are sincere in their beliefs. They had nothing to do with the disease origin. And there is some personal sacrifice and small risk involved in any medication. But sometimes the circumstances are such that we do all have to make sacrifices for our society/species is all.

I think the story will force the main characters to confront the possibility that what they're doing is not the best solution, but only assumed to be; and the characters realizing that there was a better path the whole time will be especially interesting to see.

I hope not, that'd be a pretty lazy and boring copout. There isn't always a magic better path and it's refreshing to see that dealt with. Like, granted we're only hearing about history from one perspective so it may well be wrong. But from the sound of it this was looked into when the original civilization was panicking over things going to hell, and they couldn't figure out any way to manage it. It's reasonable to at some point not be able to risk it any farther.

I mean, it'd be good if they could find some better way and clearly most if not all executioners would leap at it. They don't think they're doing the good thing, just the least bad thing. But if it's a new way they'd have nothing to feel guilty about in their actions up until that point because they didn't know. Just like how development of antibiotics didn't retroactively make amputating limbs that were developing serious infection/gangrene wrong. Primitive medical personnel did what they could to save the rest of the person.

 

[shemper]

thank you for your work!

 

[zanonyn]

@Werebearguy
The people of the world summon people from Japan, literally kidnapping them with no way of returning them home. They know this is a stupid idea, yet they keep doing it. They know the dangers of the otherworlders, yet they don't even try to help them use their powers correctly.

Have you actually been reading this story? Who is this "they" you're talking about? Because it's not church or its executioners from what we can see, it's other powers doing it in secret, and the church kills them for it too when it finds out and is a lot more angry at them then the innocent Japanese. This was explicitly covered as the entire opening sequence of chapter 2.

Instead of simply doing the smart things like helping them or returning them home under the equal assumption that they won't retain their powers, they resort to murder.

Except they have no way to do that. Maybe read the chapter before commenting on it? Like holy crap, literally the main character literally asks this exact obvious question in a literal class on it.

This world needs a fifth catastrophe to make them realize that they need to stop summoning time bombs.

Why do you think this would make the slightest difference? In our world, we still have brand new countries pursuing nuclear weapons too.

 

[Stormtomte]

@Werebearguy
Reading comprehension can be a good thing, just saying...

All things you mention are covered in the story.

The otherworlders will lose control of their power at some point, resulting in disasters. It's a bit more explicit in the light novel but it is implied here as well. So using the otherworlders for good is a nice idea until they or their powers go whack and level cities etc.

 

[SkyVentus]

@Werebearguy read the chapter again bud, it will make things easier to understand to you

 

[leksi]

Nice, looking forward to the EN release of the novel!
Thanks for the chapter!

 

[yuzhyuzh]

Im pretty excited to buy the LN..but aff, it was delayed..
thank you so much for the chap..so thats Menou-chan's master huh.. this chap somehow explains whats up with Menou's twisted personality and why they kill strays..im likin her more..

@Werebearguy there's no such thing as "kidnapping".. thats why these Japan people are called STRAY and not kidnapped victim..xDD and as to why they kill them whether they are good or bad,reread this chap again..

 

[icekatze]

Many things seem impossible until someone figures out how to make them happen.

No way to send them back? They don't even know how it works, how can they confidently say it is impossible? And they throw away every opportunity to learn how it works. Ignorance is a pathetically weak defense, overall.

There are some inconsistencies with the legend of the ancient civilization too. An entire civilization thrives with no problems, and then suddenly four catastrophes all at once? Did the civilization build itself up, educate its citizens, develop the summoning technology, and systematically implement its use in less than a generation? The myth itself seems highly suspect.

"Every day I have heard it at least once - the timeless phrase that "life is not fair," as if it were an excuse for all problems, or an eternal apology for what should have come to pass and, through the incompetence or unwillingness of others, never will." - Elizabeth Broomfield

 

[Stormtomte]

@icekatze

No way to send them back? They don't even know how it works, how can they confidently say it is impossible? And they throw away every opportunity to learn how it works. Ignorance is a pathetically weak defense, overall.

What cost are you willing to pay to learn how it actually works?

There are some inconsistencies with the legend of the ancient civilization too. An entire civilization thrives with no problems, and then suddenly four catastrophes all at once? Did the civilization build itself up, educate its citizens, develop the summoning technology, and systematically implement its use in less than a generation? The myth itself seems highly suspect.

Mining/Oil towns?
Goldrush?
Bioshock's Rupture and Columbia?

Actually, Silicon Valley works here too.

 

[icekatze]

@Stormtomte
I'm not a character in the story, so I can't really say how much I would pay. Considering that it is an existential threat, it ought to be worth a lot of investment. (And I don't even follow most derivations of Pascal's Wager, with regards to infinite cost/benefit analysis.)

Mining towns, oil towns, gold rush towns are not civilizations. These are outposts for a larger civilization that is funding and supporting them. And they're certainly not world spanning civilizations that built great towering monuments like those shown in the flashbacks. Silicon Valley isn't a civilization, but a core piece of a large, already existing civilization. I've never played Bioshock, so I don't really have much to say about those works of fiction.

As for real world examples: the industrial revolution took 80 some years. The concrete revolution of Ancient Rome took 400 years, give or take.

 

[210astat]

So when anime? Thank you. Found it , in 2022

 

[AxiomDoggo]

@icekatze
Does it actually say anywhere that the catastrophes were simultaneous or is it possible that they happened with time in between. If there were a total of four world wars, they're going to call the world wars by a collective name since they're of similar nature and scale. Maybe they happened one after the other separated by a few decades or centuries, each refreshing and proving the anti-Stray side until the tipping point.

 

[Sleepingair]

Yesssss!!! First the picnic yuri anime now thiss!!! Still waiting for roll over and die to get it's own anime adaptation!!!
Sooooo happy this got an anime adaptation!!!>\\\<

Thank you sooo much for translations!!

 

[allisontheidoit]

thanks for the chapter!