Thank you for the inspiration, friend. I proudly present to you,

Japanese Novels That Feature Protagonists with Vaginas

(link here)

because pages on wordpress are free, so why not?

Unfortunately it’s still a very short list, but hopefully I can add to it, because it’ll be fun to do so and such.

Plans for near future

Will now either go,
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Dark Knight
Other World
Other World
Kenja
Kenja
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi

or

Dark Knight
Other World
Other World
Kenja
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi

Also, Other World seems easy and quick enough to translate, so I’m considering picking it up.

Teaser – She Professed Herself the Pupil of the Wise Man
Prologue

<tl: Follows the LN (mostly) because the WN prologue is disorderly, and kind of an illogical information vomit. I did add in a few WN details where I felt appropriate though.>

---

Virtual Reality. It has been half a century since this system ha been implemented. It is a technology that today’s world economy can not do without.

Schooling is done through accessing special terminals at home, and connecting to a virtual reality through the internet to attend lessons. The risk possible during commuting has disappeared, and because of the lack of maintainance costs for a virtual school, in today’s world, schools have become extinct.

With work, greeting clients is also done through virtual reality, and because of electronic programs being used for everything, the cost of paperwork has also disappeared. Even when it comes to buildings for headquarters, the cost of renting and maintaining a private server for the company is overwhelmingly cheaper than the maintainance costs of a company building.

Because all things outside of physical needs could be satisfied with virtual reality, the VR technology continued developing rapidly.

Of course, there was no way this technology wouldn’t be targeted by the game industry. The technology was still a little expensive, but even so it boasted a rate of popularisation that made it common for normal households to buy them to celebrate a child’s coming of age for example.

It happened over different periods, but a number of VR games began being developed.

Sakimori Kagami was also one such normal youth who received a VR machine for his coming of age.

He did his job from home using the VR machine he received for his coming of age. At lunch break he would eat the food prepared by his mother, and then once again went to work using this VR machine.

There was no time spent commuting, and it was a normal small-to-medium firm, and he spent his days without feeling any particular dissatisfaction.

..*
..*
..*
..*

There was an online game called 『Ark Earth Online』.
It began very quietly, and the closed beta started and ended before anybody had noticed.

The reason that Sakimori Kagami knew about this minor game was because of a commercial that had aired late at night. The commercial had neither sound nor video, and was merely the game’s personal VR access code aired for 15 seconds.

When he started up his VR machine to take a look out of curiosity, a white virtual space with the title 『Ark Earth Online』 appeared around him. The only other things were two lines:

Begin Open β

Download

He didn’t hate the fact that they didn’t try to butter him up. Thinking this, he tried downloading it. And after choosing “yes”, he installed it.

The background was textureless, and it only used a normal font, so he had absolutely no idea what kind of graphics or world this game would present.

However, Kagami was somewhat charmed. Coerced by something impossible to really explain, but that was similar to some sort of compulsion, he began.

The installation took roughly fifteen minutes. When he immediately tried to activate it, what appeared was a title screen that was almost like reality.

Thus began Sakimori Kagami’s days of addiction to 『Ark Earth Online』.

..*
..*
..*
..*

※

..*
..*
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..*

Four years had passed since the Open β had finished. News of the game was almost non-existent in gaming magazines or even the internet, with it spreading through word of mouth, and with players pressured by the big hitting online games, it became quite a crowd. On the contrary, it was a strange situation where despite the number of players, information on it wasn’t circulated throughout the internet.

Kagami who had started since Open β was famous as a veteran.

The setting of the game was typical fantasy, but because of its overwhelming degree of freedom, it was hugely popular.

Only, as an online game, it had one extremely mysterious point about it.

That was the management.

In the four years that it had been out, there were only two updates, and because there was no official home page, even the name of the developer was unknown.

But even so, it was an overwhelmingly attractive game, and in the end a number of people even reasoned that their laissez faire attitude made other things possible. What was more important than anything was probably its lack of bugs.

..*

The character that Kagami played was a magician overflowing with dignity. With white hair and a white beard that brought to mind a veteran magician, what Kagami spent a day creating was a character with incredible presence. The name of the character came from a magician school principal that appeared in a certain world-wide hit adventure film about a ring. [tl: apparently harry potter and the lord of the rings were one film in his world]

That name was Dunbalf. His class was a Summoning Expert. In the Open β he had chosen the Sorcery Expert but he had no idea how he was supposed to learn sorcery. No matter how many enemies he defeated he couldn’t learn sorcery, and there was nothing like a tutorial or a manual.
It was a ridiculous game that left you completely on your own after suddenly dropping you into the world, but it was fun searching for your own playstyle, so the players were completely drawn in.
Even so, no matter how he searched, he couldn’t figure out how to learn sorcery.

Because of that, when the official service began, he chose a different magician class.

A Summoning Expert gained summons through defeating sprit-type enemies and forming a contract with them, or through clearing class-specific quests, and though the level of difficulty was high, there was a little bit already on bulletin boards about this so Kagami had an idea of what to do.

Of course, because of the lack of explanation for the game, there was a lot of grumbling amongst players, but it was discovered that the game had a system where if you passed strict conditions you could even create a country, so the players’ passion went in that direction.

Becoming a king, developing a town, and building an army. Invading neighbouring countries, building defensive forts, hiring mercenaries etc.; towards the ability to do things that they had only ever seen in fiction before, the players went mad with enthusiasm.
Ambitious players who founded nations, players who looked up to those founders and followed them, adventurers who loved freedom, people who established secret societies, as well as merchants, and mercenaries, and on top of that, even assassins; because of these many playstyles to enjoy, the dissatisfaction eventually died down.

Moreover, the degree of freedom was not limited to that extent. Though there were weapons, armours, potions etc. that existed in great numbers, up to legendary class items, depending on the efforts players put in, even totally new items could be created. They could create legendary items, or even items that went beyond that.

It was enough that it was said that there was nothing you could do in reality that you couldn’t do in the game.

Some players who delved deeply into enjoying blacksmithing became known by all players, and one of their swords could go for millions.

There were also players who raised smithing to the maximum and then developed building construction techniques to build castles.

Players obsessed with digging holes found hot springs, and were now managers of massive onsen resorts.

One of Kagami’s friends had thought up his own sword techniques and opened a dojo.

What kind of skills were there? How far could they bring things?

People who used skills to develop new sports, people who realised their dreams of becoming pirates, people who collected information from around the continent and crossed a dangerous bridge in becoming information brokers.

Amongst these players were also people who formed skill lists by organising the massive number of known skills. They would go to each player and ask about the techniques they developed.
The skill list book was published and became a massive best seller, earning them a fortune.

And in fact, Dunbalf was also a famous person who developed a number of unique techniques. One of them was a technique he developed through trial and error, designed to make up for the magician classes’ weak points.

It was the second class. Kagami’s main class was a Summoning Expert, and his other class was the close-quarters specialist of the magician classes, the Xian Expert. By sitting under waterfalls, hanging upside down from trees, walking against the wind and other such things, a Xian Expert could learn their skills.

Incidentally, the way for a Sorcery Expert to obtain their skills was discovered little by little in the month since official service began; they were to place a catalyst on a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn on it, and then use the only skill that Sorcery Experts started with, the 【Sorcery: Flame】, to burn it up. The problem was that you needed multiple catalysts, and to begin with the paper with the magic circles hardly appeared on the market, and it was a method that could lead to you just burning everything up if you made a mistake, so it wasn’t something that you could try out immediately. It wasn’t a problem you could easily fix just because you knew how to do it.

..*
..*
..*
..*

One day, Kagami had gone off to suppress monsters that had appeared near the border of the nation that he belonged to. This type of subjugation mission was common, and other members of his nation took turns to do this.
This time was Kagami’s turn.
He left his tower, and languidly headed towards the national borders, when suddenly, he heard a call from the real world and his sister’s shrill voice, signifying dinner time.
He logged out for dinner, and once that was done, dived back into virtual reality.
Just as he was about log into the game from the home space, he noticed that a message had come.
When he read it, the contents stated that the cash he had bought for Ark Earth Online was about to expire.
He had bought ¥1000 when the game first started, and then ¥2000 more a month later.

Just like other online games, Ark Earth Online also had a cash shop. Having said that though, there was nothing like useable equipment in game, and were just minor support items.

Amongst these cash items was a 『Vanity Case』 that allowed one to change their appearances, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every player bought it. Of course, Kagami had bought it.

One 『Vanity Case』 cost ¥500 and had the function of resetting the appearance of one’s avatar, but the reason it sold so well was because of the abundance of changeable options.

The number of parts you could choose from when the official service began numbered in the thousands, but with the 『Vanity Case』 it numbered in the tens of thousands. It was basically already common sense that a player would log in with any random character appearance, and then immediately use a 『Vanity Case』. That it would take one or two days could also be said to be common sense.

Besides the Vanity Case, Kagami had also bought the cash item 『Floating Continent』. It was roughly the size of a 100 metre circumference courtyard, and was a convenient item because you could do most activities on it. On top of that, it could travel by flying through the air, so you could ignore terrain and use it as a vehicle. Kagami built a house from the cheapest wood, and used it for storage.

This 『Floating Continent』cost ¥2000. Kagami could only purchase cash in ¥1000s, so after buying this initial Vanity Case, this left him with ¥500 left. It was after all, just ¥500 from four years ago, so as you’d expect he didn’t have much lingering attachment to it. Perhaps out of stinginess, or perhaps bceause he felt it would be a waste, he opened up the cash shop menu.

A personal room with high class production equipment, ¥1000.
Including a Floating Continent, items for constructing buildings on it, or terraforming items for placing ponds on it or the like, ¥2000.
The only other thing was the 『Vanity Case』.

In the end, there was no option but the Vanity Case. If you didn’t buy the Vanity Case, then the minimum spending was ¥1000. This is the world of adults.

Since it would just be a waste at this rate, Kagami bought a 『Vanity Case』. His VR money balance was now 0.

Kagami then logged into the game to finish his subjugation mission. Using his bracelet-type terminal, he activated the item menu. There he found a lacquered box, the Vanity Case he had just purchased.
It had already been four years since he had last used it.
In those days he was completely obsessed about whether or not he could create his ideal male avatar, and so he remembered nothing about the other parts.
He was a little curious about them now. Kagami used the Vanity Case, and was brought to the avatar creation page that he hadn’t seen in four years.

The parts you could choose from were things like various impression categories like “lively”, “mild”, “strong-willed”, “cowardly” or various atmosphere categories like “mysterious”, “solemn”, “gloomy”, “bright” that you could use to navigate. Because there were tens of thousands of parts, if you went through them one by one, it would take you all day.

What Kagami felt from having a skim through the parts was that as expected, his current avatar Dunbalf was the greatest.

There was probably nothing greater than this avatar. It was because at the end of the day, it was an avatar drawn to his ideals of a man after all.
Whilst gazing on in satisfaction at the work of art that he had once created, a word in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Male

It was the word that stated the avatar’s sex.
And suddenly, a thought rushed through Kagami’s mind. It was that the ideal male image had already been perfectly created.

Then, what about the ideal female image?

He changed the sex from male to female, and Dunbalf became a girl.
A slight feeling of embarassment appeared. Even though it was a game, staring straight at a girl’s figure gave him this difficult to describe sense of shame.

Whilst suppressing his shame… or rather, with a slight feeling of arousal, he chose the parts.
He went into the “strong-willed” category and scrutinised the parts one by one.

Just how long had passed since he began creating his ideal female? By the time he had made it to his satisfaction, and gazed at it with  smirk, his younger sister was already calling him for breakfast.
Before he knew it, it was already 9 in the morning.
Immediately afterwards, he was assaulted by an intense feeling of sleepiness. The moment he tried to touch the log out button, the world went dark, and his consciousness promptly left him.

Thank you for the inspiration, friend. I proudly present to you,

Japanese Novels That Feature Protagonists with Vaginas

(link here)

because pages on wordpress are free, so why not?

Unfortunately it’s still a very short list, but hopefully I can add to it, because it’ll be fun to do so and such.

Author’s Note: It was quite short

---

Chapter 5 –  Along the Way to ××

Presently, I have slipped down the stairs, fallen into a pitch black hole-like something, and dropped straight down that pitch black hole-like something.
I feel like I’ve been falling for quite a long time.
It feels like I’ve been falling for a few minutes now, but was it actually only a few seconds? Dozens of seconds? I am not very sure.

I can see something like a light where I’m falling towards.
That light-like something is steadily getting close and closer.
…No, I suppose it’s me that’s getting closer.
I get the feeling that it is something like an exit.
I feel that at this rate, I will fall head first. It’s dangerous. My sensors are ringing with alarm bells.
I don’t know how strong the impact will be, but at present I’m falling at quite a considerable speed.
If that’s an exit, then I feel that falling headfirst will be dangerous.
So I somehow manage a spin, and bring my head up.
This is not the time to be shrieking. I’m in a pinch.
However, I continue to shriek. It is not something you can stop just because you think that you should.
Just before my body was enveloped by that thing that seems like a light, somehow or other I managed to get upright. However, I couldn’t get as far as fixing my posture, and just fell into the light like that, buttocks first.

 

dojikko(ドジっ娘） = clumsy girl (especially of fictional characters whose clumsiness is a key aspect of their characterisation)

moe(萌え）= cuteness (term used in otaku culture)

ukemi（受け身）= ‘receiving body’ in Japanese martial arts; primarily refers to rolling in a safe manner that redirects ‘fall damage’ (how it actually works is less game-like)

---

Chapter 4 –  It Might Have Been the Crossroads of Fate

ZURU-!

“I-, uwah-, KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

..*
..*
..*
..*
..*

“Standdd. Bow.”

“Sakuraa, Miharuu. Whatcha gunna do after you get home today~?”

When school finished, Tomoko called out to us.

“Today, after I drop by the dojo, I’m planning to go shopping.”

I gave my reply as I showed her the bag with my dougi, and the bag with my wooden sword.

“I seee. What about you, Miharu?”

“Mn, maybe I’ll go study in the library for a bit. The exams are close, after all.”

Miharu replied as she prepared to leave.

“Geh-… Is it already that time of year?”

“There’s not even two weeks left until the semester end exams, you know?”

I spoke to Tomoko, astounded.

“Tomoko, how about you also study for once and not panic when it gets close to the day?”

Right now it’s close to the end of June.
The exams should be in the second week of July.

“Nnn~… Miharuu~”

Tomoko let out a pathetic cry for help towards Miharu.

“The same thing happens every time. I’ll teach you, so study properly this time at least.”

Despite her dejection from being cut down ruthlessly, Tomoko took out her study materials from her desk.
It’s nice that she’s obedient, isnt it? Not that she’ll stay this way.
Having a look around the room, I find that almost everybody is gone. Everyone sure is fast, huh.

“So you two will be going to the library I see. Well then, I will be going to the dojo. See you tomorrow.”

Saying that, I headed towards the door.

“”Cyaa~””

I could hear the two of them from behind me.
To think that this would become a fateful crossroads…

While I was walking down the hallway, the wind blew in from an opened window.
Despite being the rainy season, the wind is pleasant and not humid.
I suppose a day like today is what people call “Satsukibare(fine weather in may)” isn’t it.

BASABASABASA-

The sound of something falling rang out from the stairs a little bit ahead of me.
When I went to the stairs to investigate, right before my eyes was a schoolgirl who was flustered about something.
When I had a closer look, it seems that she was carrying printouts and that wind earlier had strewn some about.
The moment that she reached out her hand to pick them up, the rest of the printouts had fallen down like an avalanche.
Is this a dojikko? Is this moe?
It would probably also be interesting to stand here and keep watching, but I have plans to head to the dojo as well.
It would be difficult to ignore her and walk past as well, and I need to use the stairs.
There’s no helping it.

“I’ll help.”

It was right when I spoke to her and was about to pick up the printouts.

“Eh-? Eh-? Kya-”

BASABASABASA-

Because of her surprise, another avalanche was born.
There’ll be no end at this rate.

“Please hold back the printouts so that we won’t waste anymore time.”

Saying that whilst astounded about her, I left my belongings and started picking up the printouts.

“Is this all of them?”

Whilst stacking the printouts together, I asked the schoolgirl for confirmation.

“Ah-, umm… probably, yes, it should be, fine I, think…”

“Please be sure. If it’s fine already, then please hurry up and take these in a way that you don’t drop them again.”

After I said so,

“Y-, Yes-, it’s fine! Um, thank you very much!”

the girl said that in a panic and made to bow, causing yet another avalanche.
I flusteredly pinned them down.

“No need for thanks, so please just hurry up and take these.”

When I said this, the schoolgirl ran down the stairs in a fluster.

“Honestly… She isn’t suited for this sort of task…”

I gave a single sigh while checking the time.

“Ah-… It’s already this late? I’m going to be scolded again, aren’t I?”

I let out yet another sigh, while heading up the stairs to collect my things.

“Now then, shall I hurry?”

Holding my things, I decided to hurry ahead.

At that time, had I avoided rushing and calmed down… For a while, each time I looked back on things, I couldn’t help but wonder this…

The moment I had gone down several stairs to hurry home, another breeze danced through the air.

HYUUUUU… PASA…

It seems that a single printout from the earlier avalanche had been left behind.
I was sure that I had picked them all up though…

And then, could even “coincidence” have had that printout fall right where I was about to take a step?

In my haste, I had stepped on the printout with great force, and my foot slipped.
Normally I would have regained my balance with something of that level, but unfortunately both my hands were full carrying my wooden sword, dougi bag, schoolbag, and lunch box.
Even so, I tried to somehow regain my balance.
I immediately grabbed onto the handrail.

Thinking about it now, that might have been a bad idea.
Had I just obediently fallen on my butt, things should have been safer.
Of all things, with the hand that was clinging onto the rail as the pivot, I made a full halfspin; in other words, the side of my body that was facing the bottom of the stairs, was now facing the top of the stairs.

“Eh-, wai-, uwah-”

And having lost my balance, I lost to gravity and centrifugal force, and fell towards the bottom of the stairs.

“Uwah-, crap-”

Despite falling, I had noticed the height of the stairs, and attempted to ukemi.
However, for some reason, the situation was not as I expected.
Indeed. For some reason…

..*
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..*
..*

What lay before my eyes at the landing of the stairs, was not a linoleum floor, but a pitch black hole-like something.

..*
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..*
..*

Indeed. It is as you all imagine.

ZURU-!

“I-, uwah-, KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

..*
..*
..*

My body had fallen straight into the middle of that pitch black hole-like something.

 

Teaser – The Black Knight Who Was Stronger than Even the Hero
Prologue

・In a certain forest, in a certain empire, in a certain world

――――――――GUOOOOOOOOOOH*

A roar loud enough to shake the earth resounded.

“Captainnn!”

A group of soldiers a little distance away from the roar.

There stood robed magi with long staves, archers holding up their bow, armed swordsmen who appeared to be experienced veterans, and knights riding their horses.

They were members of the Imperial Army, a unit under the direct control of the Imperial Family.

Amongst them, one knight urged his horse forward while raising his voice.

The knight had short, light brown hair, and on his well-featured face ran a scar down his left cheek; this just furthered his impression of strength.

His body was slender and tall, and he looked about midway through his twenties.

Dressed in shining silver platemail and a blue mantle, he raced forward on the light brown horse that was his beloved steed.

“So it’s you, Conrat. How’s the situation?”

From inside the headquarters appeared a knight covered from head to toe in jet black plate armour, along with an armet and a bright red mantle.

They were riding a creature that resembled a black horse with horns, different to other horses, a one-horned-beast《unicorn》.

This knight was the squad captain and knight captain of this unit… the unit of the Imperial Army that directly served the Imperial Family.

Their subordinates referred to them as Squad Captain.

The black knight spoke to the scarred man… spoke to Conrat, and asked him in a man’s voice about the situation.

“Sir! During the ogre subjugation, a red dragon suddenly appeared! The ogre subjugation mission was completed, but three magi are currently spreading a barrier to protect against the red dragon’s attacks. However, it’s just a matter of time…”

Conrat promptly reported the situation.

“…Casualties?”

“Three swordsmen had their bones broken during the ogre subjugation. Because of the red dragon, knights and archers; a total of five people were burnt.”

“…In other words, besides you and the magi, everybody is injured huh…? Hahhh~”

For this time’s ogre subjugation, three magicians, archers, swordsmen, and knights; a total of twelve people were sent.

The unit had decided that given their strength, this number would be sufficient, and sent Vice-Squad Captain Conrat just in case, but because of the entrance of an irregular, the situation underwent a full turn.

Because everyone but Conrat and the magi were unable to move for their injuries, Conrat had left the mages in charge of defence and quickly went to ask the black knight who served as squad captain to reinforce them.

And in the midst of all this, the black knight sighed, fed up.

“Squad Captain! Please don’t sigh in such a situation!”

Conrat spoke to that black knight in impatience.

And little wonder.

Normally, even with the mobilisation of the army, it was hard to tell whether or not you could take a dragon down.

Until Conrat had met this black knight, he was known as the Empire’s strongest, possessing enough skill to climb the ranks of the military despite being a haphazard man, but even he would only barely be able to keep a dragon company for a few minutes at best.

It would be stranger for him not to be impatient.

“Aahh~ sorry about that. I was just thinking ‘I wonder if things will hurry up and finish today without me having to do anything~?’, you see. I was just thinking, ‘It’d sure be nice to hurry home and take a bath, huh~’ you know?”

“…You were thinking about something like that?”

Unlike their strict tone from earlier, the black knight was now speaking in a fairly carefree and casual tone.

It seems that this was their real self.

And there Conrat was, astounded by his superior.

And just where had the tension of the surrounding subordinates gone?

Completely swept away by the black knight’s pace, Conrat’s calm returned as well.

“Right. The first time I met you, you were like this too, weren’t you?”

“It’s my strong point.”

“…Please don’t say that so proudly.”

――――――――Hahahahahaha

Watching the back and forth between their superiors, the subordinates regained their calm and laughed.

“Well then, I’ll be going. Conrat, I’ll leave the rest to you~”

“Like I said, please take things more seriously, Squad Captain!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ve trained them so their magic barriers won’t break that easily.”

“…”

The moment they heard these words, everybody could assent.

Ever since this black knight had come, the contents of their training had undergone a huge change, and they began gaining strength with shocking speed.

Strong enough that a troll that would be a match for five people could be taken down by one of them alone.

“Well then, let’s go, Hayate.” (hayate = gale)

“Bbbrr!” (←horse sounds)

The black knight mounted the jet black unicorn, Hayate, and just like it’s name, like a gale it ran forward with a speed impossible for a horse.

..*

・A certain distance away from the encampment

There a massive 10m dragon with bright red wings was spouting flames, and burning up trees left and right.

At this dangerous place stood three magi, desperately maintaining a barrier, and protecting the injured.

“Squad Captain~! Hurry up and come~!”

“Idiottt! This isn’t the time to be saying that!”

“Stop cryingg! I want to cry as welll!”

All of them were already crying.

The barrier was completely spread and they could hold on for plenty longer but because they were seeing the dragon up close, there was no way that they were not afraid.

As a bonus, they were all between the ages of 15 and 30; in other words, youths.

These youths were desperately holding on while awaiting the arrival of their squad captain, the black knight.

And then,

“Dark Shot!”

“GUGYAHHHHHH!”

The moment they heard a voice from behind them, a black mass hit the red dragon dead on.

The dragon raised a shriek, and was blown backwards.

“Sorrysorry, I was late.”

Hearing that voice with no tension, and at the same time spotting a certain person’s appearance,

“””””””” SCHKWARD KYAPTAAN~! (Squad Captain~!)””””””””

They turned their faces, stained with tears and mucous, towards the black knight who had appeared atop his steed, Hayate.

Seeing this, the black knight,

“…Was it that scary?”

accidentally asked this.

Seeing their faces, Hayate cringed.

“Of course~! We thought we would die~!!”

screamed a girl in tears, one of the magi.

The other members nodded in agreement.

“Haahh~ From what I can see, your barrier can still hold for ages, so isn’t there nothing to be that afraid of? And also, in magic both your mana and spirit have to be strong, so don’t get so frightened by just a dragon. If you just get used to it, something like this is no big deal.”

“””””””” Please don’t group our spirits together with that bold spirit of yours!”

Verily.

“My my… Well then, you guys can still hold up a barrier, right?”

“Eh-? Ah-, yes!”

Completely changed from their joking tone from earlier, the black knight addressed the magus in a strong tone.

The black knight gazed at the red dragon who had at some point gotten up and was glaring this way.

The atmosphere of the palce changed, and all of the subordinates withdrew their tears.

So that they wouldn’t overlook what was about to happen next.

The black knight descended from their partner, Hayate.

“Hayate, you stay here too.”

Hayate obediently obeyed the words of their master.

The black knight drew near the dragon.

It was an action that would usually be seen as nothing but suicidal.

However, nobody tried to stop it.

Rather, there was no need to stop it.

“GRRRRRRRRRRR”

The dragon let out a threatening cry at the approaching black knight, and looked like it was about to attack at any moment.

“…”

In response, the black knight stopped at a place a little distance from the dragon, and holding with their left hand the scabbard of a black uchigatana that couldn’t even be found in this world whilst resting their right hand along the grip, they lowered their body in a stance that seemed like the would move at any second.

It was the stance for battoujutsu.

The knight and dragon glared at each other.

Hayate and the subordinates just watched.

It felt like a long time had passed, but in fact it hadn’t been long.

It only felt that long because of the deathly silence.

And suddenly things spelled the end for that silence.

Both parties stomped off the ground at the same time.

The next instant.

“…”

――――――――DOSA-!

The black knight had drawn his katana in an instant.

From the pitch black blade trickled red blood.

The dragon just stayed in the posture it used to attack, and with it’s head gone, it slowly collapsed,

――――――――DOSSHINN!

and fell to the ground with a huge noise.

The first sound was the noise of the knight cutting off the dragon’s head and sending it flying, and the massive head falling to the ground.

After confirming that the dragon had fallen, the black knight removed the blood with a swing of their blade, and returned it to their scabbard with a click.

The moment the sword was sheathed, the sense of tension that had enveloped the surroundings disappeared, and the breaths that had stopped without anyone knowing were exhaled as the subordinates began to breath again.

They calmed down after taking deep breaths for a while, but then belatedly began to become excited about what they had just seen.

“Amazingg!”

“Squad Captain killed a dragon that even the military might not be able to beat!”

“And by themself!”

“When did they draw their sword!? I didn’t see a thing!”

“As expected of the Squad Captain! 『The Empire’s Strongest Black Knight』 isn’t just for show, huh!”

Forgetting their wounds, they were all excited.

While this happened, the black knight hadn’t taken a single step.

Hayate who had approached the dark knight drew its horn towards them, and did something.

The subordinates made a fuss for a while longer before,

“Squad Captainnn! Are you all right!?”

“Ah-! The Vice-Squad Captain!”

Conrat’s voice sounded out behind them.

When they turned around, they found Conrat racing their way with a number of knights in tow.

“Aahh~, thanks, but you’re late…”

The black knight had returned to normal.

“…”

However, Conrat did not miss the change in his superior.

More important than anything was that Hayate’s horn showed signs of magic, and it was clear that he had done something.

Conrat had dismounted his horse, and leaving the dragon and the wounded to his subordinates, he approached the black knight.

“…Where were you injured?”

“…My right ribs… 2, or 3 of them are broken.”

Right; this was why the black knight had not moved.

The moment the dragon’s head was sent flying, its forelimb struck the knight’s right side.

Had it been a normal person, they probably would have died that instant.

And Hayate had realised this.

Hayate’s horn had healing properies, and had treated the black knight with the magic in it horn.

“…Sorry.”

“? Why are you apologising?”

Suddenly being apologised to, the black knight was lost.

“I know that you can defeat a dragon, but in Eldoa, you are the only one who can do that. As a result, we always end up depending on you. Even today, you should have originally been resting in base from your previous mission. Even though you should have been recuperating, you said “Yes yes, that’s-” …Squad Chief?”

The black knight stopped Conrat from speaking.

“I came out on the mission this time because I have my responsbilities as a squad captain. And lately, the monsters and demons have been becoming active. After I fought the demon king to a draw in single combat 2 years ago, they did pull back and our two sides have been glaring at each other since then, but it wouldn’t be strange even if they did take action.”

Indeed, this black knight had the ability to fight on par with the king of demons, the demon king.

Because of that, they would subjugate a dragon on their own.

“The demons won’t wait forever either. That’s why until then, I want to gain as much actual combat experience as possible. And on top of that, there are still many in the army that need the help of people like you and I. Them getting stronger is very important to the military after all, and most important of all is that I want them all to stay alive, so for that sake, even if it’s reckless I’ll do it again and again.”

“…”

Conrat had stayed quiet and listened to the black knight talk.

To the words of this small black knight who was younger than he was.

“Conrat, the military can become endlessly strong. One day when the war with the demons start, these guys will probably be fighting alongside forces from other nations. So that they have as few sacrifices as possible, right now we need to give them lots of experience.”

“(Aah, so this person has thought that far.)”

Hearing things that he hadn’t considered in the slightest, Conrat once again realised that he was not a match for this black knight.

“So to that end, won’t you lend me a hand, Conrat? I have limits too.”

The black knight looked straight at Conrat through the armet.

Conrat stiffened his face and replied.

“It’s not something that you need to ask. I shall follow you! I pledged this four years ago, after all.”

“…Thanks.”

Conrat smiled at the black knight’s words.

And suddenly, Conrat recalled a certain matter.

“Speaking of which, did you know?”

“Mn? Know what?”

“About a week ago, the at the Temple in the Holy Kingdom, the hero summoning was performed and a silver-haired, blue-eyed, beautiful youth was summoned.”

“……… (Eh-… It wouldn’t be)”

“If I remember correctly, this name was Yuusuke-dono… Squad Captain?”

He couldn’t see their expression because of the armet, but the black knight’s mood had clearly dropped below freezing point.

“…Nah, nothing.”

“? And so, I’ll be heading to our subordinates, so please rest up.”

Having said that, Conrat walked over to their subordinates.

The black knight trudged away from where their subordinates could see then, and into the shade of a tree.

And then they removed the armet that they would absolutely never remove in public.

What appeared was something that would never be seen in this world; with a long, black ponytail, and a common, black-eyed oriental face that was likewise nowhere to be found in this world, was the figure of a woman between the late half of her teens, and the early half of her twenties.

She held her head in her hands as she crouched down.

Hayate watched on, worriedly.

“Aaahh~ I forgot~”

That voice was not the male voice from before, but was just like her appearance, the voice of a woman.

“Why did I forget…? No, I guess I wanted to forget. He’s finally here; that harem eroge protagonist…”

Thinking about what to do from now on, her head began to hurt.

…*

To be continued.

 

I became a NEET

Hi guys. There’s something I’d like to clarify, and since I’m at it, I thought I may as well give a status update as well.

Status update (plans)

I’m definitely going to translate I’m Back in the Other World up until at least the 5th or 10th chapter. Enough so that we get past the introductions, and see what kind of story it really starts to become. It might not be immediately though, so if you see me releasing Otoburi chapters or other teasers in the meanwhile, please don’t start asking if I’m done with I’m Back in the Other World, because I’ll be sure to let you know when I think I’m done with it.

Since we’re getting pretty close to some things that seem exciting in Otoburi, I was thinking of translating like this:

Otoburi
Dark Knight
Other World
Kenja
Otoburi
Otoburi
Otoburi
Other World
Kenja
Kenja
Dark Knight
…

but depending on the content and length of the chapters (I haven’t read them yet), this might change. Anyway, just don’t panic if I suddenly start translating things other than I’m Back in the Other World because I’ll definitely at least get far enough into the novel so that you’ll have a good idea of it.

It won’t be like P*O***ss’s “teasers” where he translates three chapters of This Other World’s ***** is too ****** that really tells you nothing about the writing style, or anything else really.

Message

First of all, I’d just like to clarify that I’m not trying to alienate people who aren’t using the wordpress follow function, or their own feed/post aggregators. I’m trying to be inclusive of people who don’t use these, which is why I repeat any important notifications on
https://oniichanyamete.wordpress.com/status-random/
as well. I’m really sorry if it seems that I’m ignoring people who don’t use either of the two, and I’m really not. I’m trying to accomodate everybody.

I try to make an effort to update the TOC’s as soon as possible, and I’ve been doing that over the last few months, but recently things have just been getting bogged up, and I’m struggling just to find the motivation to translate and study (and to even get out of bed each morning). I’m prioritising these two over most everything else, including reading web novels (which has basically been my life this past year), so please forgive me if I update the TOC’s in bulk. I understand that it’s important to keep these things updated as soon as possible, but sometimes they just feel less important, you know?

Recently I failed to update my TOC page for Otoburi, and a few people brought this to my attention. I’m sure that most were just trying to be helpful, but because tone doesn’t come through well on the internet, I interpreted these messages as being more whiney than they might have actually been. I’ve already got this image of a certain percentage of readers being egocentric leechers, and the fact that your tone doesn’t come through well just makes things harder for me. I get rather depressed and negative when I repeatedly lose sleep, so that definitely contributes.

So this message is an apology as well. I’m really sorry, and I hope that despite my occasionally caustic and nasty replies, you’ll still give my translations a fair go. I do take them pretty seriously, and I think they’re all great series. I’d be even happier if you didn’t hate me as well, but I’ll take what I can get.

Tsurupettan/tsurupetta = completely flat girl

The protagonist speaks politely even to her friends, and rather than narrating in a reporting type of way with casual speech, so speaks to the audience the same way she speaks to the other characters.

---

Chapter 3 –  The person known as ‘me’.

My name is “Fujino Sakura”.
Attending an integrated girls school that has spans from kindergarten all the way through university; a so-called ‘Ojousama School’, I’m a fifteen year old girl in class 1C of the high school section.
My father works as the section manager of a major company, and my mother manages a boutique.
There’s also my older brother, who’s a twenty year old in his second year of university, and together we’re a four person family.
Going from only this, I seem like an ordinary girl who was born into a slightly better off family, but between you and me, I remember my past life… it seems.
The “it seems” here is because I don’t have “memories” in the same sense that you often see in novels and such.
On the night of my fifth birthday, I had a dream.
A dream where a man in a robe was stabbed to death from behind by a knight-looking man.
It seems that in my past life, I was that robed man, that magician… Going by the knowledge of my past life, he would be called a ‘magus’ I think, and it seems that he could use magecraft. He still died though.
After having that dream, from the next day onwards, I was writhing around having feverish nightmares for the next week… it seems.
Worrying about me, it seems that my family called the doctor to have a look at me but, “cause unknown” it was said.
After a week the fever went down, and my condition got better as well, but because of the “cause unknown” diagnosis, my family unilaterally decided that I had a weak constitution and wouldn’t let me out of the house for a while. By now it’s become a good memory to me.
After my condition improved, I remembered the knowledge of “a world different from this one”.
Thinking about it now, was that a growth fever that came about due to the “memories turning into knowledge and flowing into the brain”?
After that they were incredibly overprotective, and made sure to look for a school with good facilities, which is why I’m attending the one I am now. Well, that’s fine though.

Incidentally, I remember my “memories” from my “past life: man in another world” as “knowledge”, but I don’t have any of his feelings or emotions. I basically don’t feel anything more than “that’s just how it was”.
What about the magic, you ask? Of course I tested it. Nothing happened though…
Well, it’s something that happened in another world, after all. As long as I’m alive, there’s no problem. There’s no problem, I said, no problem.
At the same time that I entered the primary school section of the school, in order to strengthen my body I joined a kobujutsu dojo near my house.
It was something I wanted myself, and was the result of a compulsive but spontaneous thought that it wouldn’t do if I had no means to protect myself.
It seems that in my past life, despite being an expert in “magic” or whatever, my physical ability was basically non-existent and moreover, I wonder if the reason was perhaps because I was stabbed to death from behind with a sword.
At first my family was against it, but by saying things such as “for self-defence” and “for strengthening my health and body” I got them to acknowledge it. I really tried hard.
From between ages six and ten, at the dojo I learned things from basic (?) techniques such as iaijutsu, bare handed fighting, naginata, and bojutsu, to dubious things like “qigong”.
Well, it was a hobby dojo with only one master and one disciple, so I’m not sure about the strength, but I think it might be plenty as far as self-defence goes.
After I entered the middle school section, in accordance to my shishou’s teaching “mastery is tied to being able to read their breathing”, I began learning aikido as well (at a different dojo).
Incidentally, at the new dojo I was peerless amongst my age group (there were only two people though).

One disadvantage of my knowledge of my past life was cooking.
In my old world the culinary culture hadn’t developed, and the taste was weak… or perhaps I should say that they essentially did nothing but add salt and a few herbs or spices, and even the cooking methods were limited to “roasting” and “boiling”, so after my memories of my past life returned(?), I was immediately moved by the difference in taste.
With this as the impetus, I started thinking things like “This world is overflowing with delicious things!” and went from “I want to eat delicious foods” to “I want to eat delicious foods so I’ll just make them myself”, and ended up with cooking as a hobby. Delicious things are justice.
I became fussy enough that I started handmaking my own seasonings, bread and noodles as well, which shocked my family though…
Right now, eighty percent of my household’s meals are cooked by me. By the way, it’s very popular.

It’s rather ambiguous as to whether I have other hobbies as well, but I do like the so-called “fantasy” genre. Perhaps it’s because magic and monsters somehow or other bring back memories and nostalgia of my old world.
It’s only at a level where I occasionally have a look at novels, or films, or games when I have the time though.

…*

Incidentally, far from being weak, my body in this life is quite high spec.
I think that my reflexes are quite good, and my ability to remember things is good too. Even in the tests at school, just by going to class every day and doing simple revision I’m at the top of my grade (single digit rank).
Before tests, Tomoko whose grades are on the better end of the lower marks will tell me that it’s unfair. That has nothing to do with me, you know…
There are regrettable things about this high spec body as well. To me, they’re even more important than having a high spec body. My friends tell me that I’m being too greedy, but to me it’s a very important point.
That is…

No matter how much I eat, I won’t gain “meat”!

Eh? You’re jealous, you say? Isn’t that a good thing, you say?
The females of the world may say that they’re jealous of a body that doesn’t gain “meat”.
But please think about it carefully.
Meat doesn’t refer only to flab, you know?
I don’t grow horizontally for sure, but neither do I grow upwards.
And moreover, a part that’s of critical importance to women… my chest and butt won’t grow beyond the minimum, you know?
Is there anything more lonely than this?
If you’ve already got meat there, you can reduce it by being careful about your food and diet, but if it doesn’t gain in the first place there’s nothing you can do about it, you know?
My height stopped growing just before I entered middle school, by squishing all of my breastless chest together I just barely manage a B cup, and my butt won’t grow beyond the bare minimum; I have the so called ‘tsurupeta’ body type.
Each time we take measurements, my meagre hopes are crushed, and if you only pay attention to the weight then people around me look envious, but when they look at the other measurements they look at me with pitying eyes, and in the end I get consoled.
I pass everyday telling myself that my growth period just hasn’t come yet.

“Don’t call me tiny don’t call me a child don’t call me a flat chest I’ll rip your tits off. “Big” women are the enemy.”

Oops, please excuse me. I was pulled over to the Dark Side for a little bit.
Eh? What do I look like, you ask?
A black haired, black eyed Japanese with hair that goes past my hips and reaches my thighs I guess. My father and brother wouldn’t let me cut it, you know… It’s too long and gets in the way, though.
Usually I have it tied up with ribbons at around the waist, or when I feel like it, I occasionally braid it I guess.
I’m not very fussed about my hairstyle.
As for my face… Well, according to my friends or family, it’s “cute” apparently. I can’t really tell myself, though.
Perhaps it’s an adverse effect of my past life, but it seems that to me, the criteria for female beauty has become “the size of her chest” and how nice her face looks. It seems that I was a person from the Boob Planet; the ‘me’ of my old life, that is.
And so this growthless body of mine has zero charm as a woman. Truly a pervert, right? The past me, that is.

It seems that this is a story where a person like me is the lead actress.