Gate 7 00 translation

[starlady]

Sorry about the delay on this one. Thanks to Rena-chan for the raws--if you're able, please consider chipping in to help her continue to be able to provide scans! 

!!! page 00
Gracefully, elegantly,

I unravel the darkness.
------------
!!! page 01
------------
!!! page 02
Takamoto: I finally made it!
Kyoto!!

Ever since I was small I've always wanted to go to Kyoto.
Though I couldn't even go once, why was I so helplessly attracted?

Takamoto: It really is better than seeing photos or movies--

The real Kyoto!

Well, pachinko parlors and the sex trade are fluttering too,

But that's one thing, and this is another.

I've always loved old things.
History, ancient art, temples, shrines.

So I grew to love Kyoto. Well, properly speaking, it's reasonable.
------------
!!! page 03
Takamoto: Somehow Kyoto is better than other regions with history.

Why is that?

FX: Camera flashing

Or maybe I should say that it's calmer than my house in Tokyo, or that it feels nicer--

Takamoto: Oohh--

FX: Sigh

Takamoto: I want to go to college here,
But Mom is really against it.

Here it is!

FX: Brightening up

Takamoto: I absolutely wanted to come here!

Kitano Tenmanguu!!
------------
!!! page 04
Takamoto: Anyhow, I persuasively repeated my persuasion,
And I finally came to Kyoto by myself.

I'm going to enjoy it to my heart's content.

FX: Flash flash

FX: Leaves fluttering
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!!! page 05
Takamoto: I really am glad I came during the autumn leaves!

That's right!

I should make an offering to the deity of scholarship.

FX: Smoothly

Takamoto: And I have to buy an amulet.

FX: Breeze
------------
!!! page 06
Takamoto: Huh?

Huh?

FX: Head turning

Takamoto: Huh?
------------
!!! page 07-08
Takamoto: A girl?
No, a boy?
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!!! page 09-10
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!!! page 11
Takamoto: No!
That's not it!

Why are they in the trees?

Tachibana: An ordinary person's gotten in.

Can you not protect the four corners at noon properly, either?

Sakura: It's not my mistake.
------------
!!! page 12
Takamoto: By why are you in the trees!?

Tachibana: Shut up.

Sakura: That's a huge voice.

Hana: …There.

FX: Slight breeze
------------
!!! page 13
FX: Like the wind

Takamoto: Wh--
What--

FX: Quickly and smoothly

Takamoto: Whaaaat!?
------------
!!! page 14
FX: Smoothly

Tachibana: Youzoku.

Do.

Kuchinawa.

[TN: Genus of the sun; Earth; The serpent.]
------------
!!! page 15
Sakura: It's not a mizuchi?

Tachibana: It's of a lower rank.

Sakura: You could watch safely, huh.

Tachibana: Get on with creating the weapon.

FX: Light (magic)

Sakura: You're so impatient.

Hana.
------------
!!! page 16
Takamoto: Ha…na?
------------
!!! page 17-18
Hana: Myouhou: Kamaitachi. [TN: Mysteries: kamaitachi.]

FX: Powerful wind
------------
!!! page 19
Takamoto: Wha--

FX: Slam

Takamoto: What the heck is thiiis!!

FX: Panicked breathing

Wai…

FX: Sudden

Not me too!?
------------
!!! page 20
Takamoto: Aaaauuugghh

FX: Wham
------------
!!! page 21
FX: Roaring
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!!! page 22
Takamoto: This isn't the Kyoto

FX: Swaying

Takamoto: That I wanted
To
See…
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!!! page 23
Takamoto: It's painful.

Like
Something's on my chest.

A cat? Meow
A dog? Woof

But--

FX: Gasp

FX: Sharp breath

Takamoto: I don't have either at my house!
------------
!!! page 24
Takamoto: Augh!
This kid!!

FX: Rubbing her eyes

Sakura: Ah ha ha ha.
Don't surprise him too much,
Hana.

It's ready--your tabeyaki udon.

FX: Hopping

Takamoto: Fast!

Sakura: You're always like this at noodle times.

FX: Ruffling

FX: Blushing

Takamoto: The kid really is like a cat somehow. But that can be postponed.

No, that's not it…
It's more…
------------
!!! page 25
Tachibana: Noodles again?

Sakura: Because Hana did well today.

FX: Footsteps

FX: Sitting down

Tachibana: Chew your noodles properly,
Hana.

Hana: Yeah.

All: Thanks for the food.

Sakura: If you've opened your eyes, come over here and eat with us,
Takamoto Chikahito-kun.
------------
!!! page 26
Takamoto: Oh,
Right.

FX: Wriggle

Takamoto: Thanks.

*gasp* How--my name!!

FX: Shrieking

Sakura: It was obvious when we looked at the inside of your bag.

Not just your cell phone;

It's even on your student I.D.

Takamoto: Wai--!
You looked?

Sakura: Yeah.
And all the contents of your cell phone.

FX: Blowing on the noodles

Takamoto: That's a violation of privacy!

Sakura: Sorry.
It's because you entered our kekkai so easily.
Are you from another hanamachi?
Or are you an assassin?
------------
!!! page 27
FX: Augh!

Takamoto: An assassin…!

Right! What on earth was that!?

All of a sudden it got completely dark!

FX: Waaa!

Takamoto: And that thing that came out of the earth, with that feeling like its tongue hanging out!
And besides that, the sword, from where!!?

FX: Tugging

Hana: The udon is stretching.

Takamoto: Huh?

Hana: If you don't eat it quickly, it'll stretch.

FX: Intense
------------
!!! page 28
Takamoto: Oh--

Um--

FX: Blushing

FX: Staring

Hana: Huh?

Sakura: Well,
We can talk while you eat, Chikahito-kun.

Takamoto: …Thanks for the food.

FX: Slurping

FX: Devouring

Sakura: There are seconds, if you like.
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!!! page 29
Takamoto: Kyoto dialect…

FX: Starstruck

Sakura: Well, this is Kyoto.

FX: Slurping

FX: Slu-urping

Takamoto: It's delicious…

FX: Nodding

FX: Footsteps

Takamoto: That really was delicious…
FX: Sigh…

Takamoto: Um!

FX: Smoothly
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!!! page 30
Tachibana: Answer my questions first.

Your name is Takamoto Chikahito.
You're a second year at the private Cross Academy in Tokyo,
Group C.
You live with your mother,
In the deepest room on the highest floor of a three-story apartment building.

Your seat is third from the window.
Your best subject is history, and you're bad at English.
You don't belong to any clubs, you work part-time in the kitchen of a coffee shop, and currently you don't have a girlfriend.

Any mistakes?

FX: Shaking

Takamoto: How do you know all that!?
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!!! page 31
Tachibana: If you use the internet and the hanamachi information netowrk-- [TN: 華街, 'flower district']

Takamoto: Hanamachi? [TN: 花街, 'red-light district']

Sakura: You might have the characters wrong.

Takamoto: Huh?
But--

Speaking of which, where are we?

FX: Water pouring

Sakura: Kamishichiken.

Takamoto: Huh
Right next to Kitano Tenmanguu.
It is the hanamachi. [TN = Red-light district. There is a very old, small geisha quarter directly east of the shrine.]

Tachibana: The place is, yeah.
------------
!!! page 32
Sakura: We're affiliated with the hidden Shichiken.

Tachibana: Though there are only three of us now.
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!!! page 33
Takamoto: Hidden?

Tachibana: Hey,
Sakura.

Sakura: It's fine, isn't it? Since he'll forget.

Takamoto: Huh?
Huh?

Sakura: Now then.
Grilled, or smoked?

Takamoto: Um,
What?

Tachibana: You're not affiliated with another hanamachi.
You don't have a family lineage of unusual powers, and I can't see any abilities.

Even if we extract the memories of someone like that, it won't help.
It'll be easier to grill.

FX: Slowly

Sakura: Then that's Tachibana's cue.
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!!! page 34
Takamoto: I…don't understand.

FX: Trembling

Takamoto: Though there's a scary feeling.
Is it my imagination?

Sakura: It's nothing to be afraid of. We're just going to erase a few of your memories.

FX: Grabbing tightly

Takamoto: That is scary!

Tachibana: It's just your memories from when you entered

The kekkai at Tenmanguu until now.

Takamoto: Wai!
Stop!

FX: Light

Takamoto: Hot!
------------
!!! page 35
FX: Crack

FX: Flash

Sakura: Now,
Shall we drink our tea?

FX: Looking around

Tachibana: You explain.

Sakura: Um--right.

You collapsed at Kitano-san. [TN: This is a familiar way of referring to shrines.]

FX: Augh!

Takamoto: Please stop joking about erasing my memories!

S&T: !

Takamoto: It felt hot inside my head! What did you do?

FX: Augh!
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!!! page 36
Takamoto: That thing with its tongue hanging out and the sword!

Please explain them properly!!

Sakura: You didn't grill his memories?

Tachibana: Dumbass.

FX: Grab

Takamoto: What!?
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!!! page 37
FX: Door rattling

Hana: This is the place where Hana lives.

Takamoto: Hana…

Hana: The name.

Hana's.
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!!! page 38
FX: Light
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!!! page 39
Takamoto: !!!

Tachibana: Hana!!

FX: Shoe sound

Sakura: Hana--

Hana: Hana is here, waiting.

Takamoto: It was three months later that I understood

The meaning of the actions, and of what the kid called Hana said.

FX: Fainting
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!!! page 40
Takamoto: The twists and turns I experienced, and why I suddenly came to be admitted to a high school in Kyoto--

And the days in which I came to be entangled with these people, were still in the future.

But it's certain

That the Kyoto I wanted to know
Wasn't this one.

---

Oh, you guys. I used to live in Kyoto, and this manga is tugging at my heartstrings like you would not believe. I'm going to rec Postcards from Kyoto to you, a Yuletide story that perfectly conveys the feel of the seasons in the city. Though, I have to say, the old Kyoto and the modern one are one and the same. 

Ahem. I really don't think there's any way to render the fact that Sakura is speaking a fairly light Kyoto-ben in English; I'm just going to tell you that he is. If anyone has any opinions on ways of rendering the incantations, please let me know! Now is the time to lay down a protocol.

Also, though the initial Gate 7 description called Hana a girl, zie's gender is actually ambiguous so far.

Comments

[ariadnechan.livejournal.com]

wow

i really don't know either if Hana is a she or a he?

but maybe the boy is an heir of a magician or ancient spiritual and strong person?

[scottishrefugee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tanslation!

One thing I didn't quite catch, though. On page 11, Tachibana says: "An ordinary person's gotten in. Can you not protect the four corners at noon properly, either?"

Are these "four corners" the edges of the kekkai Tachibana created, or something else completely...?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a good question. I assume he's talking about the kekkai, but I wasn't sure, so I just went with a very literal translation. The only other possible variation I can think of would be "the four corners of noon," since they're connected with の, which could be either possessive or ablative, temporal in this case. I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with onmyou.

[scottishrefugee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your explanation ^^

Now that I've reflected a bit about it, the sentence reminded me of one episode of Mouryou no Hako. Don't remember which one, but the characters were talking about kekkais, and something similar to these "four corners" was mentioned. I could be mistaken, though.

[scottishrefugee.livejournal.com]

Oh, and before I totally forget about it: would you mind if one of these weeks I were to translate your Clover fic, "Sanctuary", and post it on our everything-CLAMP site and on my LJ page?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Sure, that'd be awesome! XD