TATEV – Part 2.1

Hi! Here we are – New Project~ Well, except the first chapter has been out forever by now…but we’re finally continuing it.

I have actually just finished translating the entirety of this story with the last extra part going up on Patreon this Thursday probably. There will be 8 chapters split into 2 or 3 smaller pieces, that is  17 parts, most of them around 2000 words each and about 4 NSFW scenes, I think?

I’ve already started working on the novel after this Hatsujou – Mating feelings – but the first chapter is immensely annoying to translate, each page is a small torture, but I’ve found that the beginning of a book is always the hardest, the exposition tends to be wordy and quite boring until the two main leads finally meet.

Anyways, I’m gonna stop rambling, enjoy~

***

“…I’m going back.”

The next day, waking up, that was the first thing Yukino said when he saw Izuna, who had been awake since who knows when and was gazing at Yukino’s face.

While he still lying down, wrapped up in a blanket on a futon.

His voice was raspy hoarse, as if he had seemingly caught a bad cold.

Izuna, who was making an ideal expression of bewitchment, with a snap blinked at Yukino’s words. And then…

“——Good morning. How’s your body?”

Izuna said that as if Yukino had said nothing. Not faltering, Yukino once again only said “I’m going back.”

Hereupon, as if he’d realized that ignoring him did no good, Izuna rose up while sighing.

Izuna was not wearing anything and Yukino averted his eyes without thinking. Then, as if concealing it he half-burrowed his face in the futon.

Properly speaking, since they were both men there seemingly was no need to find this embarrassing or awkward. However, right now whether he liked it or not, remembering this and that from yesterday, he could not endure it.

After he had concealed himself in the futon he noticed that it seemed like he was wearing some sort of light piece of clothing like a yukata. If that’s the case, Yukino thought it’d be good if Izuna too would put something on, but this was not the sort of situation in which he could say something like that.

“Hey…there’s no reason for you to return, right?”

“I’m going back.”

Izuna bitterly smiled at Yukino once again saying that.

“Come to think of it, Yukino has always been like this. Whenever I really made you angry, you would immediately insist that you were going to go back.

“That…”

He began to say that it was not true, but held his tongue.

Actually, now that Izuna mentioned it things had probably been like that. Yukino, who rarely got angry at anyone, did not know what to do upon such occasions.

“But, it did not mean you really wanted to go back. Isn’t that right?”

As Izuna said that in a gentle voice, he softly caressed Yukino’s hair that was jutting out from underneath the futon.

That too, it was quite so.

For Yukino home was the place he never wanted to return to. Rather, as far as possible he wanted to continue living without returning there…

“It’s the same even now, right? Or am I wrong?”

“…that is…”

Raising his head to retort, his eyes were directly peered into by Izuna, and Yukino once again averted them. Then he more and more deeply dived into the futon.

“I’m not wrong, right? Is that house ‘the place you want to return to no matter what’?”

He could not say that Izuna was wrong.

He didn’t feel that his room in that apartment was the place Izuna was speaking of.

Izuna thought Yukino’s life indicated such a thing. It was a mystery how Izuna had realized that, but certainly, it was not the case that he had something he wanted to return for.

As for work, he had already been thinking of leaving it. There was also no person he thought of wanting to meet. If he assumed there was one, it would be Izuna.

“Say, even though at long last we’re now able to spend time together, why are you saying you’re going to go back”

“You’re asking me why…”

The muffled voice was audible over the futon, and Yukino was bewildered.

“Stuff like becoming your spouse, as expected I can’t do that.”

“Did it not feel good?”

“Whaa…”

Being asked that as if it was a trifling thing, Yukino was speechless. He thought that was a thing you could ask.

“If that was the case, it certainly would be my incompetence. Although.”

As Yukino became so embarrassed as to fall silent, Izuna continued in a manner that at first seemed to be kind to him.

“But it didn’t look that way last night? That’s right, I’ve heard that you can become good at it if you do it a lot?”

With Izuna continuing up to that point, Yukino finally pushed out his head from the futon.

“Stop! Don’t say weird things, idiot!”

As he said that he glared at Izuna.

“It isn’t like that!”

“If so then what?”

“It’s…that is…since Izuna is my friend and I’m ‘normal’[1], the thing is that it’s impossible for me to become a man’s spouse!”

[1] The word used here is ‘nonke’. The dictionary helpfully informed me that ‘nonke’ is how homosexual men call straight men in Japanese. I don’t think I’d actually ever seen it before though or at least I don’t remember ever seeing it in Yaoi manga and stuff. Maybe it’s more common in Bara?

“But, you did promise me?”

“That is…”

Certainly he did, but…

“A promise is an absolute.”

At Izuna’s words, Yukino was suddenly at a loss for words. But it was impossible for him to be won over here. Immediately, he once again opened his mouth.

“Saying promise this and promise that, aren’t you an idiot? It was such a child-like…simple verbal promise.”

While saying that, Yukino became just a little teary. And then, even though he was bewildered by this situation, Yukino realized that he was happy that Izuna had kept that ‘children’s verbal promise’.

Nothing made Yukino happier than somebody keeping the promise they had made to him.

Even now he could recall the back figure of the mother who had abandoned him, saying that she will certainly come back. Up to this point in his life that event had always continued to leave a shadow on Yukino’s heart.

But even though it took Izuna more than 10 years, he had kept the promise.

No matter the content, he was bound to be happy about it.

But – this and that were different matters.

Yukino moved restlessly and rose while still covered by the futon. After that, he deeply lowered his head.

“Sorry.”

It was short, but it was an apology from the heart. Because it was not the case that Yukino wanted to break the promise.

“But, as expected, it’s impossible for me to be your spouse. After all, at that time I didn’t understand the meaning of the word spouse, only that if I was that I could be with Izuna forever…I had thought we would be able to be friends forever.”

At that time it had been Yukino’s most precious wish.

And yet, things had turned out this way… As he remember his foolishness last night, he once again wanted to crawl under the futon till the tip of his head.

However, he could not do that.

“Even if you say that, by this point you no longer can leave this mountain?”

It was because Izuna told him such an unexpected thing.

“…haa?”

Yukino’s eyed widened at those words.

“That’s why you have to give up.”

As he raised his head in surprise, a sweet, even somewhat satisfied smile floated on Izuna’s face.

“Mo…mountain? You said I can’t leave, Ee?”

“Oh, since it happened at night yesterday, did you not notice it? This residence is on a mountain. The mountain is my holy precinct. Thus, the person who becomes the Tengu’s bride can’t climb down the mountain. That is the law.”

Being told that as if it was a profound reasonable thing, Yukino blinked several times.

If he became the bride? Can’t leave the mountain? That sort of law?

“Wait, there is that sort of…regulation…even though I have not accepted being the bride?”

“Didn’t you accept it? Ten years ago.”

“That’s why even if such a thing was said when I was a child it’s troublesome.”

Yukino once again spoke as such. However, Izuna slowly shook his head.

“Anyway, this is already an undeniable fact. Because your body has changed.”

“What was that…what do you mean by my body has changed? It can’t be you’re saying that I’ve become a Tengu?”

He wanted Izuna to stop saying it in a way that made it sound almost like he’d become a different life form.

“You have not become a Tengu.”

At Izuna’s words, Yukino stroked down his chest in relief, but…

“But you having become the Tengu’s bride is certain.”

At the proceeding words, Yukino stiffed as if startled.

“…that somewhat, it sounds like rather than me having entered the ‘position’ of Tengu’s bride I have become a ‘life form’ known as Tengu’s bride.”

“What, did you understand it finally?”

Even though he was thinking that such a stupid thing was impossible, as the thing he had said was readily affirmed he was flustered.

His transformation after coming here that you could even deem as dramatic physical condition went round and round inside his head.

“But, there’s no problem, right? Didn’t you say that you wanted to always be together with me?”

“That…I did say that, but.”

“Moreover, you made a promise, right?”

When being told that by Izuna, as expected it was a weak argument. But, while that may be true, it was impossible for him to nod and say ‘yes, that’s true.’

“Certainly I had promised to become your spouse, but that’s because I did not understand the meaning of the word spouse!”

“Not that.”

“Hee?”

At the unexpected rebuttal, Yukino was speechless. Not that? Then which one is it?

Yukino wondered if he was conveying these thoughts to him. [1]

[1] そう思ったのが伝わったのだろうか – I don’t know if this is even remotely correct. I hate sentences with 伝わる and especially ones with だろうか.

“You made another promise, right?”

Izuna said that as if making an appeal to him.

“I asked you to become my bride because you made that promise to me.”

Experiencing a sense of déjà vu at those words, Yukino slightly knitted his brows.

—– Yukino made a promise previously, right? That’s why I’m going to make a promise too.

Lines he had heard many a time in the dream that he had been seeing repeatedly.

However, no matter what he could not recall that promise.

“Did you forget it?”

Being asked that, he was at a loss for words. As expected, that too seemed to be something that had happened in reality.

“I’m sorry…”

Learning anew that he had promised something, Yukino vocalized his apology for the inexcusable thing he’d done.

“I see… No, it’s not a big deal.”

Izuna said that and smiled wryly. That face did not make it seem like Izuna thought it was not a big deal, but so that such words would not exit his throat, he gulped down the things he should not say.

What the heck sort of promise had it been?

While wishing that people kept their promises to him, he had forgotten the promise he had made to someone, that was probably the worst.

Even though, even under normal circumstances he would be trying to break a promise to become someone’s spouse…

However, Yukino was tormented by a sense of guilt, and once again tried to apologize when this happened.

“Izuna-sama.”

***

The seme in this totally the pervy doggy type., despite being a crow.

And Yukino is a doll.

Anyways, see ya next time. I’m gonna go read Lord of end of world before I fall asleep; usually I hate harem BL, but this one’s kinda funny.

***

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TATEV - Chapter 1
TATEV - Chapter 2/Part 2

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