Episodes 15

Clantail-san’s Friends

This story takes place shortly after the events of Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart.

After bathing, she dried her hair with a towel while checking her Magical Phone, and found a message from the Land of Magic. The message asked her to measure her height and weight before and after transforming into a Magical Girl, and then reply to them. It would seem they wanted to collate the changes in body size before and after transforming.
洗完澡后，一边以毛巾擦干头发一边査看「魔法终端设备」，发现一则来自于「魔法王国」的简讯。上面写着，希望她测量魔法少女变身前后的身高体重,再传讯回复。看来是要统计变身前后的体型会产生多大变化吧。

Messages like these had been getting more frequent lately. She forgot who was the one who had said, “There have been more and more Magical Girls raising questions recently, so they’ve been sending these pointless messages out to look like they’re keeping an eye on things.” Was it Pfle or Shadowgale? She was very bad at remembering who had said what.
最近这类讯息增加了。不晓得曾听谁说「由于引发问题的魔法少女人数过多，才会传这种毫无意义的简讯，假装有在追踪而已吧」。好像是普芙蕾,又好像是暗影叶尔。她实在不擅长记住，谁说过什么话。

Let’s leave aside the matter of who said it for the moment, Ono Nene thought. More to the point, how do you measure the height and weight of a Magical Girl who can change both of those things?
先不管到底是谁说的,尾野宁宁心想。话说回来,能够在一定范围内任意改变身高体重的魔法少女,该如何测量才好？

As she dried her hair with the hair dryer, she reread the message.
她一边用吹风机吹干头发，一边重读简讯内容。

“Nene~ dry your hair while your body’s still warm!”
「宁宁——趁身体暖呼呼的时候快吹干头发喔！」

“Kay~”
「好——」

After responding to the nagging from outside, she read the text message one more time. If this was merely a formality, then they wouldn’t demand accuracy, right? All she would have to do was send the data of her standard pony form and that would be enough. However, when she considered that a careless answer might negatively influence the data collection, she could not do that.
回应完从房间外传来的叮咛声，再读了一遍简讯。如果只是假装有在追踪的简讯，应该不会讲求正确性吧。只要回传最标准款的小马数据，就可以交差了吧。但是，一想到自己敷衍了事的回答有可能对统计结果造成不良影响，她就没办法这么做。

In that case, it would probably be best to submit the minimum and maximum values and note that her own height could vary anywhere between one to ten meters. However, if they were going to collate this information, that might skew the data.
既然如此，还是提交最大值与最小值，并注明自己身高的变动范围介于一至四十公尺之间，再回
传比较好吧。但如果是要用来统计的话，数据会因此产生波动。

Or perhaps she should measure each animal she could transform into, average them and then submit it?
或许她应该测量每一种能够变身的动物，算出平均值后再提交？

Nene had no idea which method was correct.
宁宁实在不晓得，哪一种方式才正确。

“Nene~ don’t forget to put the hair dryer back beside the washing machine after you’re finished~”
「宁宁——用完吹风机后,记得放回洗衣机旁边喔——」

“Kay~”
「好——」

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to ask what to do. However, would that not make the other party uncomfortable? For all she knew, they might think, it’s just a formality anyway, there’s no need to spend so much time thinking about it.
也许最正确的做法是询问该如何做也不一定。不过，这么做会不会害对方心理不舒服呢？搞不好对方会想，这则简讯只是「假装有在追踪」,根本不用想这么多。

These things always discomfitted Nene. People asked her to read the mood, but how could she read something she could not see? While people often thought that she was mad about animals, the truth was that she was not exactly mad anout them. They were quite normal to Nene. Be it spiders or centipedes, which people hated, creatures like cockroaches and earthworms, or the animal people fancied, like cats and dogs, all of them were quite normal to her. And apparently, this “normal” treatment had become madness in others’ eyes.
宁宁总是会为这种事情感到困扰。就算叫她看气氛，但要如何才能看到根本看不到的东西呢？
虽然别人经常误以为她热爱动物，实际上她并没有喜欢到热爱的地步。在宁宁看来,其实很普通。无论是被人们嫌恶的蜘蛛或地蜈蚣、蟑螂、蚯蚓之类的生物，或是可爱讨喜的猫狗类的生物，全部都很「普通」。而她如此「普通」的对待态度，在旁人的眼里似乎成了热爱。

She sat on her chair and looked around the interior of the room. The clothing cabinet and bookshelves were stuffed full of spider and snake dolls. She had not bought them; her parents thought that Nene liked those things, and bought new dolls whenever they were released anywhere, and in the end, things had ended up like this, even though she was hardly mad about them.
坐在椅子上，环视房间内部，衣柜与书柜上排了满满的蜘蛛或蛇之类的布偶。并不是她买的，而是以为宁宁喜欢这类生物的双亲，每次只要在哪里发现新布偶就会买给她，最后就变成这样子了。虽然她并没有这么热爱。

“Nene~ do you want yam miso soup for dinner or snow cabbage miso soup?”
「宁宁——晚餐你想喝芋茎酒粕味噌汤，还是雪菜酒粕味噌汤？」

“Snow cabbage~”
「雪菜——」

Still, it might well be that she preferred animals to humans. She was clearly not adept at relating to human beings.
只不过，与人类相比，她确实比较喜欢动物也不一定。她很明显不擅长与人来往。

To begin with, she could not remember people’s faces. Everyone in the same age group looked just like everyone else from the same age group. Once they learned she could not remember their faces, the other party would feel disgusted.
首先，她记不住对方的长相。每个年龄层的人看起来都跟该年龄层的人一模一样。只要一知道自己记不得，对方就会感到反感。

In addition, she often said unnecessary things, which angered others. However, she could not simply shut up and not speak because of that. That would simply make others think she was being cold, and annoy others. The things Nene said and did out of goodwill were not received as such by others.
再加上，她会多嘴说出不必要的话，惹怒对方。但又不能因为这样，就干脆闭上嘴巴别说话。反而会被误会她很冷淡，而惹恼对方。宁宁出自于好意而说的话、做的事，对别人来说并不是这么一回事。

Interpersonal relationships were very difficult. She could not communicate perfectly even with her parents, with whom she had lived for 14 years. Even her her father and mother did not perfectly understand each other before Nene had been born. There were often big shows about how this comedian was boring or funny, how thar actress was beautiful, as if and other such differences of opinions in her household… fortunately, her parents still got along.
人与人之间的交际非常困难。即使是生活在一起十四年的双亲，她也无法完美沟通，就连宁宁出
生前就在一起的爸爸跟妈妈,似乎也不是百分之百互相了解。在家里经常上演，这个搞笑艺人很无聊、很有趣，还有这个女演员很漂亮、才没这回事之类,意见纷歧的戏码……幸好父母亲的感情还算和睦。

It was much easier with animals. When it came to the nearby stray cats, they would be happy if you just stroked them, and she perfectly understood each of their likes and dislikes. It was the same way the spiders in the yard; she could differentiate them by the distinguishing characteristics of color, lustre, size, web shape and so on. That was not so for human beings.
跟动物来往轻松多了。如果是附近的流浪猫，要摸哪里会让它开心，每一只的喜好她都一清二楚。还有庭院的蜘蛛也是，颜色、光泽、大小、巢穴的形状各个看起来个性独具。人类的话，就不是这么一回事了。

It was only recently that she had made human friends for the first time. In that game, she had acted as she always had, which made others think she was a quiet with a stable personality, and so they had forced her into the role of leader. Leading others was a miserable, agonizing and frightening task which had left no positive memories with her, but yet it had made her happy. And every time she recalled that happiness, sadness welled up within her.
她一直到不久前，才第一次交到人类朋友。在那个游戏里面，她一如往常的行为模式，导致别人误以为她沉默寡言、个性沉稳，所以硬将她拱为领袖。以领袖的身分率领众人，明明相当辛苦、痛苦、恐怖、完全没有任何美好的回忆，但她却觉得很愉快。而每每忆起那份愉快，她就会不禁悲从中来。

At that time, she had turned her sadness to anger. If she had not done that, she would have lost long ago. However, she could not do that now.
当时，她将悲伤转化为愤怒，如果不这么做的话，恐怕她早就输了。不过，她现在做不到了。

“Nene~ dinner’ll be ready in five minutes~”
「宁宁——再过五分钟就要开饭喽——」

“Mm.”
「喔。」

Perhaps she might not be able to make any more human friends. Currently, Nene’s friends were Pfle and Shadowgale, but when they had met earlier, it would seem she had angered Shadowgale, whoch had bothered her.
也许自己再也交不到其他人类朋友了吧。现在，宁宁的朋友候补有普芙蕾与暗影叶尔，但之前见面时，她似乎惹怒暗影叶尔，害她在意得不得了。

The first time she had met Shadowgale, someone had drawn circles around her eyes with a marker pen, which looked like glasses. Nene had wondered, “what was that all about” and asked Shadowgale. That had probably been what had angered her. Shadowgale had looked very unhappy all day that day.
初次见面的暗影叶尔，眼睛四周被麦克笔涂黑，描绘出眼镜般的图案。宁宁心想「到底是怎么了」忍不住盯着暗影叶尔瞧，恐怕就是因为这样才惹恼对方吧。那一天的暗影叶尔看起来始终相当不悦。

In the end, even if she did not vocalize them, her thoughts were reflected on her face. HEr own tastes were not advanced enough to comment on others’ fashion sense.
到头来，即使没有说出口，她还是会将心思表现在脸上。自己的品味明明没有好到，能对别人的时尚打扮品头论足。

If only I were the sort of person who knew how to read others. She thought that, but at the same time she could not help but think that doing so would mean that she was no longer herself. She might not like how she hesitated and thought up trouble for herself, but she would not be herself if she did not think up trouble for herself.
如果她是那种会察颜观色的人就好了。虽然这么想，但又会忍不住认为，这样的自己就不是自己了。尽管她并不喜欢犹豫不决、自寻烦恼的自己，但不会自寻烦恼的自己，绝对不是自己。

If Pechika were still around, what would she tell her? Surely she would cook for her without saying another word. That was because Pechika knew that thatw as the best way to put others at ease. If it were Nako, she would surely [laugh in English], while Rionetta would make a dig at her and say, “How annoying.”
如果蓓蒂卡还在的话，会对她说什么呢？一定会二话不说做料理给她吃吧。因为蓓蒂卡非常明白，这是最能够安慰人心的方法。如果是那子的话，一定会「HAHAHA！」一笑置之，而莉欧妮塔想必会挖苦地说「哎呀，真讨厌」吧。

Just then, the Magical Phone in her palm rang. It was from Shadowgale. Nene picked up the phone, still a little shaken because she had just been regretting how she had made Shadowgale angry. SHe had probably called to discuss when they would visit the graves.
就在这个时候，掌心的魔法终端设备传出来电铃声。是暗影叶尔打来的。正好在后悔惹到暗影叶尔的宁宁，带着受到动摇的心情，接起电话。应该是要讨论何时去扫墓吧。

“Can I come over to your place right now?”
「我现在可以马上过去你那边吗？」

She had even dispensed with the usual greetings. She sounded very worked up.
连问候都省了。语气相当激动。

Shadowgale was very angry.
暗影叶尔非常生气。

“I can’t bear to live beside her any more. I haven’t wanted to even see her face these past few says. Can you believe it? She pranked me for a full week straight because she thought the reaction from everyone else would be interesting! She drew all over my face too, is she a kid or something? And she thought of ways and means to keep me from noticing, like not giving me a chance to look in a mirror, or cleaning it off before I looked in a mirror… I just found out, so I blew up at her,  and she even had the cheek to reply, “My, aren’t we childish, Mamori,” dammit! Just thinking about it makes me mad! I don’t want to live with that demon any more, I want to live my life by myself, goddamn sonofabitch! I”m sorry for any inconvenience this causes you, but can I go over to your house, just for a few days? I’m going to use this time to decide my own direction in the future. I’m really sorry about this. That’s because the only other people I know are those who’ll tattle on me to that demon. You’re my only hope.”
「我再也不愿意活在那种家伙的身边了。这一阵子，我连她的脸都不想看到！你相信吗？那家伙竟然以大家看到时的反应很有趣为由……持续恶作剧超过一个星期耶！在我的脸上乱画，又不是小孩子！还想方设法的不让我发现，不给我照镜子的机会，或趁我照镜子前擦掉涂鸦之类的……我刚刚才发现这件事情，对她大发雷霆，她竟然还好意思回我『护真是孩子气耶』，可恶！一想到这件事我就火大！我再也不想跟恶魔生活了，我决定要好好活出自己的人生，混帐王八蛋！很抱歉，虽然会造成你的困扰，就算只有几天也好，我能去你家打扰吗？我会利用这段日子好好思考自己未来的人生方向。真的很抱歉。因为除了尾野同学你以外，我认识的人净是些会向那个恶魔打小报告的家伙。我能拜托的只有你了。」

“I’ll be waiting.”
「我等你来。」

“Thank you so much! I owe you one! I’ll be coming over right now!”
「谢谢你！我欠你一份人情！我现在马上过去！」

SHe hung up.
电话被挂断了。

Pfle and Shadowgale were really close.
普芙蕾与暗影叶尔的感情真的很好耶。

“Nene~ dinner’s ready~”
「宁宁——吃饭了——」

“Coming~”
「我马上过去——」

She needed to tell her parents that she had a friend coming over. Nene rose from her chair. Surely Mom would not expect that she would have a friend? She imagined the look of surprise on her mother’s face when a friend in high school came to visit. It seemed pretty good.
必须通知双亲有朋友要来的事情，宁宁从椅子上站了起来。妈妈也没想到自己会有朋友吧？她想象着就读高中的朋友来访时，妈妈一脸吃惊的表情。似乎挺不赖的。