Translation: Soukyuu no Fafner Drama CD "GONE / ARRIVE" - 1st Half
It's here at last!!! XD Or at least--the first half. ^^; I've got another translation deadline coming up soon so I've got to pause this for a moment and finish that. But for now, I wanted you guys who've been asking me for this to be able to enjoy the first half at least~
EDIT: I should note that this drama CD came out shortly after the end of the Fafner TV series run back in 2006 (I think?). The story in this drama takes place between episodes 23 and 24 of the TV series (i.e. right after the devastating attack on the island where Soushi was "killed" and before Akane/Mjolnir's visit to the island to explain that Soushi was still alive up in the North Pole).
"GONE / ARRIVE" is the second of 2 fantastic stand-alone drama CDs written by series writer Ubukata Tow (the first one being "Stand By Me," which I translated back in the day here). The two are closely linked, so I do suggest you read that one first so you can get the full significance of parts of this drama. Also, the acting in these is FABULOUS, so please listen along as you read.
So finally, here we go--Soukyuu no Fafner Drama CD "GONE / ARRIVE" Translation-1st Half!
SOUKYUU NO FAFNER DRAMA CD: “GONE / ARRIVE”
Translated by DarkCyradis
PART I [Opening]
Tsubaki: Friends. Family. Allies. The people who shared your hometown with you. Now, so many of them are gone. The island is no longer the same island it was before. And everyone remains ensnared in a battle that had no end.
[TV size “Shangri-La” by angela plays]
PART II
[sound of ocean waves]
Canon: Gone. There’s someone I can’t see here anymore. I can no longer hear their voice. I can never meet them again. That’s what it means to be “gone.”
Canon: Sakura is gone. Mamoru is gone. Soushi is gone. Michio is gone. So many people are gone. They’ve all disappeared. And despite that... I’m still here.
Canon: And now... Kazuki and Maya have both decided they want to fight. I do as well. The North Pole... Even if it will be an endless battle that we’ll never return from, there’s nothing else left for us to do.
[scene change - sound of a pottery wheel spinning]
Kazuki: [numbly] Mud. Made of the same thing the Festums are made of. The Festums... that took everyone... that took Soushi... [bitter] from me...
[sound of door sliding open]
Fumihiko: Kazuki.
Kazuki: Father?
[sound of door sliding closed, approaching footsteps]
Fumihiko: This is the first time, isn’t it? That you’ve touched my pottery tools.
Kazuki: Yeah. ...Father, aren’t you supposed to be at Alvis?
Fumihiko: I came to get a change of clothes. And... I came to check on you.
Kazuki: Right.
[sound of pottery wheel spinning]
Kazuki: See? My body can still move. There’s still time... before I end up like Sakura. Father…
Fumihiko: Kazuki... I don’t think you should pilot a Fafner any-
Kazuki: [a bit more energy] Soushi told me once that we might participate in the Human Army’s attack on the North Pole.
Fumihiko: Kazuki...
Kazuki: Father-these weapons that you and the others made to defeat the Festums might have become our all even more than we’d imagined!
Fumihiko: [soft groan] Don’t be ridiculous. I already told you we weren’t participating in the Human Army’s reckless attack.
Kazuki: [getting upset] But what else is left for me?
Fumihiko: Kazuki!
Kazuki: [louder] Didn’t you feel exactly like this too? When you lost Mother?
Fumihiko: !
Kazuki: But you didn’t have the power to defeat the enemy back then. I do! The Fafners do!
Fumihiko: No! Kazuki, I-
Kazuki: You raised us just to defeat them, didn’t you?! Father?!
Fumihiko: [angry] Stop it! Don’t you ever say that again!
Kazuki: !
Fumihiko: In any case, how could we defend the island if we sent you and Mark Sein to this battle?
Kazuki: You have Toomi and Canon-and Kenji too. They can protect the island!
Fumihiko: What kind of rubbish- Do you think someone who ran from the battlefront will ever be allowed to pilot a Fafner again?
Kazuki: What does Kenji have left anymore? Sakura and Mamoru are gone now. Even his mother is gone. What else is left for him now?! Let him pilot and he will go to battle!
Fumihiko: I can’t believe this... how ridiculous can-
Kazuki: Father-you understand this, don’t you?! I know you understand how I feel! [desperate] Let me go, Father! I’m begging you! While my body can still move...! Before I end up like Sakura!! I’ll go to the North Pole alone!
Fumihiko: Stop it, Kazuki...
Kazuki: Little by little, my body is getting harder to move. And soon, my eyes will stop being able to see. I won’t be able to think anymore... It won’t be long before I... before I become something else entirely. My body might still be alive, but I’ll be gone, Father!!
Fumihiko: Toomi-sensei is searching for a way to save you before that happens! So until she finds it-
Kazuki: [screaming] You really think she’ll find it in time?! [starting to cry] Please, Father...! While I’m still here... let me fight...! Please! Let me go! Let just me go!!
Fumihiko: Kazuki... [Kazuki sobs quietly in the background] I...
Kazuki: So many people have vanished in this fight for the island… Right now, the only one left here who can give me the order to go and fight is you!* Isn’t that right, Father…? [sobs]
[*Note: i.e. there’s no more Soushi to give Kazuki the command to fight anymore, so Kazuki needs to hear his dad, at least, give him the order to fill that void. I believe that’s the nuance of this line and the thing that jolts Fumihiko into agreeing at last.]
Fumihiko: …You’re right, Kazuki… I’ll get you to the North Pole. You and everyone else who wants to fight.
Kazuki: [thankful] Father…!
Fumihiko: Just wait until we get the island back up and running. Then I’ll begin preparations to bring you to the North Pole.
Kazuki: [quieting his crying] Thank you… Father…
[Fumihiko’s footsteps as they walk away a few steps. He pauses.]
Fumihiko: Go wash the clay off your hands before it dries too much. Or else those hands will end up becoming unable to wash themselves clean.
Kazuki: Right.
[scene change - sound of a chilly wind howling in the distance]
Maya: A lonesome wind… Even though there were flowers blooming on this island just a little while ago… all the flowers and trees and even the insects have all died off now. A silent wind…
[sound of ocean waves breaking]
Maya: The waves are huge. It’s because a part of the island broke off. All around the island, the waves are raging. But the space around me seems strangely still.
Maya: I already knew… that if I were to pilot a Fafner, the emotions of sadness and loneliness would disappear from me. Maybe that’s how it was after Shouko died too. Wanting the sorrow to disappear so badly, I longed to pilot a Fafner. …Hey, Father… You’ve passed away now too, haven’t you? How were you different from the Festums? How am I different from the Festums?
[scene change - sound of bottles clinking together, rolling and crunching underfoot]
Kenji: [flat, dead tone] The whole house is a mess. My house. My room. The kitchen. The living room. The dining room. The bathroom. Everywhere I turn, this place looks unfamiliar to me.
Kenji: [a note of bemusement] …Mom’s room… All her work instruments are overturned. [a tiny, nostalgic note of warmth in his voice] …If Mom saw it all like this, I bet she’d be mad.
Kenji: It’s peaceful here. It’s safe and warm here. In the end, that’s what’s most important to me. But… I’ve lost everything now. ...Hey, Mamoru… what should I do? Sakura… stay with me. Someone… come be with me. There’s nowhere…for me to be anymore…!
[scene change - door slides open]
Fumihiko: That’s the first time he’s ever asked me for something like that. Since he was a child, he’s never once begged for something like that.
Fumihiko: Forgive me… I’m going to send him to a place that he’ll never be able to return from. There’s no other path that I, myself, can take… Akane…
PART III
Tsubaki: Searching and yearning for hope, everyone seeks it out in different places. But the true answer has only just been awoken anew.** Hurry… hurry and come here. Come back to the island, or else things will remain like this…
[**Note: Tsubaki is referring to Festum!Akane aka Mjolnir]
[scene change - inside Alvis]
Maya: Canon! I’m sorry I’m late!
Canon: No, I’m the one who should apologize for asking you to come along for this. I heard that we have to partner with someone to do the training to pilot a Nothung-model.
Maya: There’s nothing for you to apologize for. The way our Fafners work, it’s important for us pilots to know one another’s hearts.
Canon: Our hearts…?
Maya: Come on, let’s get inside. Hazama-sensei has finished the prep for us. Oh… have you heard that once we get inside, we’re supposed to try to find one another?
Canon: Yes. I’m not exactly sure how to do it, but I’ll give it a try.
Maya: Me, too. I’ll do my best to try to find you.
Canon: Please do.
[sound of the capsules closing on the girls’ pods]
[scene change - water droplet]
Maya: I thought so… Nothing’s changed…here in my heart… It’s still shrouded in fog; I can’t see anyone. The water is still. Beyond it, there’s my reflection.
[water droplet]
Maya: Wait… there are lots of other things reflected in there too. Kazuki-kun… Canon… Kondo-kun… Everyone’s form is reflected in there. Shouko’s there too. And Kasugai-kun. Sakura. Kodate-kun too. Everyone... is looking at me. Everyone on the island… Mother… Onee-chan… Michio-san… Off to the side, there’s Father too. It feels like they’re all looking at me from the other side of a mirror. It feels like I, all alone here on this side, am the one trapped on the inside.
[the sound of a sudden, brisk wind]
Maya: What was that…? From above, I see light… A ball of light…about as big as the palm of my hand and burning hot…is coming toward me. It’s bright red, almost too bright to look at… A beautiful light…
[sound of the light moving swiftly]
Maya: What…? The light is moving away, beyond the fog… It seems to be telling me to follow it…
[scene change - a stormy sea, the sound of old wooden beams creaking]
Canon: A dark sea… I’m standing on a half-sunken ship. It’s made of deep red wood. An old ship. There’s a light glowing on the ship’s prow. I see… this is the Babylon. This ship is my broken mech.
[NOTE: The Babylon is Canon’s old mech from the Human Army.]
Canon: I’m adrift on a dark sea on a broken ship. This is my heart. What an awful scene this is. Can I really show this to Maya?
[the distant sound of the blazing sun]
Canon: What’s that? A light has appeared above the ocean. There’s another one over there too. Clusters of red flame keep appearing one after the other… That one over there is coming closer to me. It’s warm… It’s almost as if… this is… No… That’s it…! I know this. This… this flame is-Michio…!
Maya: The fog is clearing. A ship… Wow. There are all these lights around it. [the light leading her moves away] Wait…!
Canon: I-is that you? Michio?
Maya: [sound of her struggling to climb the side of the ship] Phew! I made it up here!
Canon: Maya…!
Maya: Ah, I thought you’d be here, Canon.
Canon: You… you climbed up here?
Maya: I saw some gaps in the ship here and there and thought I’d be able to climb up. Canon? What’s the matter?
Canon: N-nothing.
Maya: It’s amazing how many lights are up here. It’s so beautiful…
Canon: They’re the Lights of Jacob.
Maya: Huh?
Canon: It’s in the Bible. The souls of the dead are said to turn into lights that guide those lost on the night sea.
[NOTE: No idea what this reference is. If anyone knows what part of the Bible Canon’s talking about, please let me know.]
Maya: The lights of the dead… It’s like the lanterns during the Obon Festival. [sound of a light blazing by] Oh! A light fell into the ocean. That light led me here to you. I wonder whose soul that is…
Canon: Shouko…
Maya: Huh?
Canon: It’s strange. Somehow, I just know that that is Shouko. Even though I’ve never even met her. Shouko was the one who led you here.
Maya: It was… Shouko…
[the sound of another light moving away]
Canon: Are you going too, Michio?
Maya: Michio-san…? He’s going toward the ocean too, along with everyone else. Each of those lights-can you tell who they are?
Canon: Yes. All of them. Mamoru’s over there. Those are the people who died in battle. Over there are the people from my destroyed village.
Maya: Um… Whose is the one floating at the front of the ship?
Canon: [in a heartbreaking tone] …My mother’s… I didn’t want anyone to see this desolate landscape…
Maya: No… I think you’re very kind, Canon.
Canon: Huh?
Maya: You’ve always continued to remember all those who’ve died. That’s why you can move forward without being lost.
Canon: Those days when people died every day… it became a fact of life. That’s why I tried to make myself believe it was okay if someone else died. Or even if I died. But-everyone was alive. Inside my heart, they’ve been alive.
Maya: Your heart… You know, my ocean is always shrouded in fog. And in the water’s reflection, everyone else is there.
Canon: In the water’s reflection?
Maya: You see that patch of ocean over there where there aren’t any waves, right? That’s how my ocean always looks. Always still.
Canon: [warmly] That sounds wonderful.
Maya: Huh?
Canon: Everyone’s smiling at you. So that’s your heart, huh?
Maya: …Yeah.
Canon: Maybe it’s always shrouded in fog because you’re trying to protect all those people, don’t you think?
Maya: Protect? The fog’s protecting them…?
Canon: In my country, we believe that if the fog gets people lost, its for their own protection. Is… that wrong?
Maya: No… I… I see now…! It was so obvious… I knew it in my heart and yet…
Canon: Maya…?
Maya: Canon, thank you. The thing that the Festums don’t have, that we do, is this. That’s why I wanted to come here, to reaffirm this… inside my heart…
[END OF 1ST HALF -- check back for more later! ♥]
Cross-posted on soukyuu