Shoufuku ✽ Setsubun Festival of Demons and Brothers | Deep Love - 5

[healingbonds]

Deep Love - 4 << | index | >> Epilogue - 1


Location: Rooftop


Yuuta: I understand why you’d be cautious, and think you might be hit by beans.... Hinata-kun

Everything I say is always disconnected; I get emotional quickly, and act without thinking about consequences

Like a child.... No, like a younger brother

Just as you forced yourself to act like an “older brother,” I also made an effort to act like a “younger brother”—pretty involuntarily

An “older brother” and a “younger brother”; if people could differentiate us like that....

If they could understand us in that way, then even that father-like person wouldn’t say that we’re “creepy,” ever again, right

That we’re creepy, because he couldn’t tell us apart.....

Just as hearing that saddened you, or maybe even worse—those words have become a wound in my heart as well, aniki

We’re twins, after all. We were two-in-one, so our feelings are the same. I never want something like that to happen again; the feeling is mutual, right?


Hinata: Yup, the feeling is mutual. But, you know~, back then, Father wasn’t really “decent,” so

Mother had just passed away, so he was devastated; I think he just said it in the spur of the moment

Male parents are like that. Because they aren’t the ones spilling blood and suffering labor pains when giving birth.....

I guess it doesn’t really hit him that “these are my children~,” you know?

Plus, we’re not like him at all; children who don’t resemble their parents are the children of demons¹~♪


Yuuta: Even so, there are things you can say, and things you shouldn’t say

I will never forgive that person, over my dead body

Our mother loved us, and wanted us to be born, and yet.... he looked at us as if we were creepy monsters. I refuse to recognize that person as my parent


Hinata: Then, I will recognize him, and forgive him. Because mother would get sad if our family didn’t get along


Yuuta: You were always like that, weren’t you. It’s as if you’ve decided on your own that if someone has to change, it’s going to be you

We’re made from essentially the same DNA, so we shared everything, including the things we liked, and yet

You changed your favorite color, your taste in food, your everything.... You forced yourself to try and change

So that even our loveless father—no, so that anyone could tell us apart

But. Let me say this, Hinata-kun

You’ve done something equally cruel—or maybe even more cruel than what our father did: you pretended not to see “me,” forcefully bent me, and tossed me away into a garbage bag


Hinata: ...............


Yuuta: I was so sad; I looked for you at the disposal center

Always, always; every time you threw yourself away, every time you buried yourself, I dug you up and brought you back

I understand how you feel, but I can’t be satisfied...

At least consult me; we used to be “two-in-one,” but you always throw “half of me” away without even asking

Every single time, you selfishly split me in half down the middle with a knife, and throw me aside

It hurts, and I’m cold, because I’m bleeding so much; there’s nothing more cruel than this

You’re terrible; I have a right to complain, don’t I? You murderer....!


Hinata: Yuuta-kun, that’s wrong.... I threw myself away, not Yuuta-kun

I only cast aside things that were in the way, so that no one would ever throw Yuuta-kun away


Yuuta: They’re not in the way! You can’t walk if your right leg is yanked away; you can’t perform daily tasks if your right arm is torn off!

If your right brain is gone, you can’t live!


Hinata: You’re just playing with words, Yuuta-kun

It’s not as if the two of us really share a single body. Not a single drop of blood will be shed; Yuuta-kun can continue living as Yuuta-kun, you know?





In order for us to be happy, one of us had to become a sacrifice

If there’s just one of us, then we could become the “same” as everyone else—hardly distinguishable from them

That’s what I thought, so I tried to disappear over and over again, but......

Yuuta-kun, you came chasing after me. You’re a troublesome one; please graduate from being a “spoilt child”


Yuuta: Don’t treat me like a child; we’re the same age


Hinata: We are the same age, but society sees people our age as children


Yuuta: That’s true, but. Jeez, you always have a comeback

....Hey, Hinata-kun. I have a bit of an idea


Hinata: Oh? Yuuta-kun is always thinking hard. I wonder if you’ll become a professor or a minister~; you might even win the Nobel prize ♪


Yuuta: Even that might not be just a dream. Because each of us is more skilled than everyone else, right?

Then, if the two of us join hands, aren’t we invincible?

We can make any dream come true, since “two will tackle the job”


Hinata: Um, what do you mean?


Yuuta: N~, I haven’t fully developed my thoughts yet. So, let’s ask around, and borrow knowledge from all sorts of people

We’re still children, so we can ask our seniors to spoil us, right?

Let’s ask Anzu-san, Sakuma-senpai, everyone else.... What we should do; I’m sure everyone would be happy to give us advice

This time, I really understood that we made all sorts of people worry about us.....

Before we knew it, it wasn’t “just the two of us,” huh

You probably noticed, but this conversation is also being recorded—actually, it’s being filmed

It’s going to be broadcast as the “In-School TV Program”; every student is going to know about our position and our concerns

If everyone thinks together, I’m sure a nice idea will come up

So. Rest assured, Hinata-kun. There’s no need for you to disappear; don’t ever throw “me” away again

.....Don’t jump from there, I’m begging you

Let’s hold hands, and return to the place where we belong

Deep Love - 4 << | index | >> Epilogue - 1



1. This idiom is translated literally here, but it is used to refer to "children not worthy of their parents"