Mizuki DMMd re:connect Translation

Mizuki Dramatical Murder Re:connect:

Oval Tower collapsed, and it’s been about a month since Platinum Jail was shut down.
After Toue’s rule over Kyuujuuminku disappeared, people started to bustle around more, noisily.
But, the feeling of gloom and entrapment had disappeared.
It was like people came out of their caves and into the light when the jail like walls collapsed.
They started to be able to look forward to tomorrow, and most of their troubles became easier to bear.
Even though everyone would raise a tired face, they were working hard to rejuvenate Midorijima.
I realized that this is what everyone used to be like and it made me relieved.
Grandma and I also properly worked together in the town, and until the island calmed down, flurried days passed.
…Within that.
When I had free time I would go to look after Mizuki.
Mizuki is hospitalized in Kyuujuuminku’s hospital.
It’s because I failed at scrap and broke his heart.
People who have been victims of scrap failing turn into cripple, and there is very little hope of recovery.
When Mizuki was first admitted we were told not to expect too much.
But miraculously, his consciousness returned.
Even now he still can’t stand on his own but his recovery is favorable.
When I heard that Mizuki regained consciousness… I lost all strength, like I would crumble from my knees.
I really, really regretted what I did to him.
The fact that I failed at scrap… and that I couldn’t save Mizuki.
When I failed at scrap, Mizuki was frantically reaching his hand out towards me.
I thought he wanted me to save him.
I wanted to take that hand, but when I first used scrap I had no idea what to do…
In the end, I hurt him.
Mizuki is a treasured friend. We’ve been stupid together for a long time.
Of course when we were troubled we would consult each other, but when I think about it those things were trivial.
I didn’t know that Mizuki was so seriously worrying over something.
Maybe if he had told me all those things without me using scrap, this wouldn’t have happened.
If I had noticed the change in Mizuki, I could have prevented it.
When I think about it it’s painful and shameful…
Until Mizuki regained consciousness, I prayed frantically.
To a god who I had no idea where he was, thinking that maybe because it’s a time like this he will grant me something.
I continuously prayed for Mizuki’s recovery.
The biggest hospital in Kyuujuuminku, Midorijima general hospital.
With a gift wrapped in cloth I walked through the lobby swinging it in my hand and rode the elevator to get to Mizuku’s room.
I meet with the nurse at the reception desk and then go to the hospital room.
A: Hey~ This is a Heibon delivery~ I’ve brought what you delivered~
M: Aoba.
Mizuki’s smiling face greets me when I open the door.
Mizku’s sitting up in the bed, tampering with his wrist-watch style coil.
He must have been sending a mail or been on the phone.
I enter the room and pull out a chair near the bed to sit on.
A: Yo. How are you feeling?
M: Aah. I’m doing really good.
A: I see. I’m glad.
After checking, Mizuki’s complexion looks good, I’m relieved.
Mizuki is incredibly thin compared to before.
Not only because he’s been forced to sit in his hospital bed, but it also seems like it was pretty difficult after he regained consciousness, too.
He was tormented by terrible headaches and nausea, if he tried to eat something it would come up right away, and when he slept he was attacked by nightmares.
At first he would have hallucinations even during the day, and after that his symptoms changed to something close of a drug abuse patient.
Two weeks passed and Mizuki’s condition finally calmed down.
This was reparation in his head… from his heart breaking.
There is incredible pain awaiting him until he recovers into perfect condition.
When I heard that, I was flung so deep into self-hatred that I almost wanted to kill myself.
Mizuki did nothing wrong.
Even so, because of me he had to go through pain that he didn’t need to.
If my scrap had gone well at that time…
There’s no point in thinking that now, but I just couldn’t help it, and I thought about how I should face Mizuki.
Even when his consciousness returned, I was hesitant to see him.
I wanted to apologize, but I couldn’t face him. I didn’t know what to do.
After a week passing like that, one day.
I received a mail from Mizuki himself.
Just the one phrase, “I want to see you”.
When I received that mail, I had been in a shop on my way to pick up dinner.
I left the shop immediately and ran at full speed to the hospital.
The inside of my head was pure white and I wasn’t thinking anything.
Just…
I wanted to see Mizuki too.
I wanted to see him and apologize.
I never thought that he would forgive me, but even so.
I just wanted to apologize.
When I burst into the hospital room full force, Mizuki was sleeping.
He had been acting violent from a hallucination he saw, so they gave him painkillers which put him to sleep.
It must have happened right after he sent me the mail.
I saw his pale, thin face.
I leaned over Mizuki who looked like he was dead and cried while muttering the words over and over.
“I’m sorry.”
I apologized to him over and over.
Again, one week later, when I had calmed down, I went to see Mizuki.
Mizuki looked incredibly haggard and emaciated, but when he saw me he gave me a bright smile.
Then he said this.
M: Thank you for coming.
M: I’m really… sorry, for causing you trouble.
A: …
A: …Same here… I’m sorry.
A: Truly…. I’m sorry.
…After that we hardly talked about anything regarding scrap.
There was always the feeling of the issue being there, but us not knowing what to say.
So that Mizuki wouldn’t be gloomy, I tried to return to my usual habits.
Mizuki was like that too.
But, honestly…
when I was in front of Mizuki, the guilt was eating away at me.
It was almost as if I would impulsively say “I’m sorry for that time” if I wasn’t careful.
I also wanted to talk in order to properly repent.
Thinking that I just couldn’t catch the right timing.
And I ended up thinking, is it really okay like this…
A: This is a present. I brought fruit this time.
I hold up the vinyl wrapped package to show him and he smiles at what he can see through the cloth.
M: Apples, huh.
A: Yeah. You like them, right?
M: Yeah. Thanks.
A: I mean, is it all right for you to eat these now?
M: Completely fine.
A: If that’s the case I’ll cut them. Wait a bit.
I place the cloth on the side table and Mizuki looks at me in wonder as I stand.
M: You can cut apples?
A: What the hell is that. If it’s apples then it’s a breeze.
Putting on a show for him I pull one apple from the table and wash it in the sink.
I take a small platter and a knife from a shelf and sit on the chair next to the bed again.
I put the platter on the table and start to cut the apple and Mizuki suddenly shows an apologetic expression.
A: What’s wrong?
M: …Just
M: …Is Tae-san well?
A: Yeah, she’s great.
M: Her health hasn’t gotten bad or anything like that?
A: Not at all. She’s lively.
M: I see.
Mizuki gives a small, relieved smile.
Almost every time I come, Mizuki asks worriedly after Grandma.
It seems like he’s really worried about the time he was violent with Grandma after being manipulated by Morphine.
When I came to visit with Grandma before she even told him herself not to worry.
But it seems like Mizuki still can’t help but worry.
A: Don’t worry so much. My Grandma, she won’t die until she’s ready.
A: Even if I ask over her health just a little bit she’ll throw a huge fuss like, you don’t have to dote after me so much!
M: Haha
At my loud words Mizuki laughs a little.
A: I’ll bring Grandma next time. Really, don’t worry so much.
M: Sure…
His face fills with sorrow and he turns to look out the window.
M: …
M: Aoba, I
A: Hm?
M: Thinking about now really… what was I thinking.
A: …About what?
M: About that time.
A: …
That startles me.
About that time.
I know what he’s talking about even if he doesn’t say so.
It has to be… about when Mizuki and Dry Juice were manipulated by Morphine.
This talk… has been coming for a while.
Up until now we’ve somehow avoided the subject.
No, it was a talk that we couldn’t yet focus on.
Feeling like my body has stiffened a little bit, I wait for him to keep talking.
M: This is just how I feel about it but. Honestly, I don’t have the experience.
M: I recognize what I did, and I know what happened.
M: But… I don’t have the experience.
Mizuki drops his line of sight from the window.
His hands laced right above his stomach sometime move like he’s thinking hard about something.
M: I love Rib, I’m proud of my team, and I think so well of all of the members.
M: But everyone all around were getting pulled into Rhyme, and even some people from the team quit Rib to play Rhyme.
M: Then, I panicked a lot. I thought we would all split up like this, and the rigor of Rib would disappear.
M: I thought that I had to do something, and that’s all I thought every day… even though I ended up doing that.
M: Thinking of it now, I…
M: I wonder what I was trying to protect.
A: …
M: I started wondering if the people of my team were really all buddies.
M: It wasn’t Rib or my team that I wanted to protect…
M: I wonder if it was just my pride as a Rib leader, and the disposition of Rhyme that I didn’t like.
M: I wonder what I wanted to do, cause nothing happened.
A: Mizuki…
Mizuki heaves a small sigh, opens his mouth as if to say something then stops.
It seems like his facial expression seeps into darkness.
I can’t miss a word of this talk.
In order to accept Mizuki, I have to give him a proper answer.
I place the knife and the apple on the platter and turn to face Mizuki once again.
A: ….You know, I. I really do think you were trying to protect Rib and your team.
A: I think it must have been because you had pride in what you do that you were thinking like that.
A: That’s why I don’t think it’s weird that you were trying to protect your pride.
M: …
A: And you know. If you were only thinking about yourself and really were the type of person unable to do anything
A: Your team members wouldn’t have returned to your side.
After the incident at Platinum Jail, the people of Morphine let the team members go.
Even though I say they were released, they were all in a daze wandering around the town and somehow had to be brought to the hospital.
There were people who took longer to heal, and people who got released right away, and people who were in the hospital for months.
The rate of their recovery surely had to have had something to do with their mental strength.
It wasn’t just Dry Juice, but there were other people who had been “spirited away” that were being found.
Compared to the others, Dry Juice hadn’t been manipulated as long and it was easier for them to recover.
The members visited Mizuki and would also meet up on their own.
…Almost all of Dry Juice returned to Mizuki.
And even know they’re always waiting for Mizuki’s return.
A: Everyone has faith in you and is waiting for you.
A: That has to be because what you’ve given them up until now as their leader.
A: The team, more than anyone else, knows just how hard you worked for and thought about Rib and your team.
A: You thought that it would be great if the team could become like family, right?
M: …Yeah
Mizuki’s lips waver a little in embarrassment.
This is a talk that I had with Mizuki during scrap.
This is the part where he told me straight up how he felt, so he must be feeling a little embarrassed.
A: I think it would be good if you believed in yourself a little more.
A: Everyone had been following you because they trust you, and it’s kind of sad… that that person doesn’t believe in himself.
A: It makes me sad, too.
M: …That’s right, huh.
Mizuki looks down and smiles a little.
M: There are people who are waiting for me and here I am complaining, and there you are, complimenting me.
A: I’m not just complimenting you. You’re way of thinking is backwards.
M: Is that right.
I respond like the “angry guy” and Mizuki smiles largely.
When I see that face, I calm down.
A: Also, I’m pretty sure that your team members have been thinking a lot about what’s happened, too.
A: Of course there are people who are a little hesitant after the manipulation. But there are also people who are ready for the next step.
A: But this time I think they know clearly where they belong.
M: …
Mizuki doesn’t say anything as his eyes thin into a smile.
I sit in the silence and drop my eyes to my hands.
That silence isn’t necessarily heavy, but I do have the feeling that Mizuki gave me consent.
But as I was talking I feel like I started to sink into the self-hatred and regret again.
I just kind of said things….
But the one who made Mizuki like this was me.
It’s painful to think that.
I try not to pay attention to it, but it’s hard.
A: …
A: …Somehow, I’m sorry. I’m not in the right place to be saying such self-important words.
I end up giving off a bitter grimace trying to hide my self-hatred, but Mizuki just shakes his head.
M: Your way of thinking is backwards.
M: I’ll just fling these words back at you.
A: But…
M: It’s fine.
M: It’s wrong if you’re thinking that you couldn’t save me.
A: …
M: It’s not that you couldn’t save me, I just wasn’t up to it. Not really in the way of thinking backwards.
M: Just like you said before, if I had believed more in myself, none of this stuff with Morphine would have happened.
M: From the beginning… it was up to me whether you could help me or not.
M: It’s because I exposed the weakness of my heart that this happened. But.
M: If this hadn’t happened, I think I would have realized it much too late.
M: So late that the team could have broken up.
M: That’s why because of this I was able to figure out my own weakness, and the team returned.
M: Truthfully, thinking about it makes me dissatisfied with myself but…
M: But if I think in a forward way I can’t help but think that this was something that is helpful for moving forward.
A: …
I can’t say anything and just let out a tiny breath of air.
My lips loosen in surprise, but also realizing how reliable he it.
A: …You’re strong, Mizuki.
M: If I was strong this wouldn’t have happened, I tell you.
A: Not that… it’s exactly that that is helpful.
M: ?
A: I really regret that I couldn’t help you…
A: There were times I didn’t know how I should face you. But…
A: It’s not just because you said that but. I’m incredibly happy that we’re able to talk like this right now.
A: I’m really sorry…. And thank you.
M: If you say that, it’s the same for me. You, at that time… was it scrap?
A: Yeah
M: I don’t really understand what it is, but it felt like something close to a dream…
M: At that time I said a lot to you right? I hit you with a mountain of my uncoolness.
M: I really think I was lame but, those were things I never told anyone.
M: It was all my true thoughts that had been swirling around in my head. I’m sure I wanted to tell someone.
M: That’s why I’m relieved that I was able to talk to you.
M: Though I’m kind of embarrassed.
He gives a shy smile and then shrugs kind of jokingly.
M: Now I can say things clearly. From now on I’ll tell you everything.
A: Everything?
M: Like I’m constipated, so what should I do?
A: I don’t need that!
M: Hahaha
After talking like he was happy, Mizuki sighs a little.
M: …Well, I’m still a little weak so you could probably poke at me all you want.
M: I’m not strong at all. I’ve changed where I concentrate my thoughts to.
A: You’ll do so after healing properly.
M: I know.
Mizuki turns towards me and reaches out a fist.
While smiling, I reach out my own fist to bump his.
This feeling. It’s just like the feeling we always have when we talk.
I’m pretty pleased with this flow. That’s why I’m really happy to know that we can talk like this again.
 Nothing’s changed from when I first met Mizuki.
I was pretty rough when we first met, and when Mizuki asked for me to join his Rib team I turned him down a lot with an attitude.
But Mizuki was always smiling.
He told me to stop picking fights with just anyone and would pull me away from those kinds of things.
Because of that I started to think he was somewhat of a good guy…
And before I realized it we had started to talk.
Mizuki hasn’t changed at all.
Even know he will face me with a smile.
I think this, more than anything, is his strength.
M: Aoba, what about the apples?
A: Ah!
As he says that I look at the side table.
A: Man, I have to cut them
I take them from the platter, flustered, and start to cut the skin.
A: …There, done.
I place the cut apple on the platter and present it to Mizuki.
M: …
Mizuki takes the platter and then stares at it like he’s received something rare.
A: What?
M: …Aoba, you can cook right?
A: Yeah, basically.
M: Maybe I shouldn’t say this but…
M: This cutting of the skin really sucks.
A: …Eh!?
I become wide-eyes at the unexpected words.
A: But, look. I cut the bunny ears properly!
M: This isn’t a bunny. It’s more like a cat.
A: Isn’t that cruel?
M: The skin is thick and the ears are cut so short.
A: …Well, whether it’s a cat or a bunny the taste doesn’t change. If you don’t like it don’t eat it.
M: Nono, I’ll eat it. Thank you.
Laughing, Mizuki takes an apple with a fork, and stops his hand right before putting it in his mouth.
A: …What now?
M: No…
M: What is it, I think it fits you more like that.
A: …What does?
Mizuki smiles in response and takes one bite of the apple.
A: What does that mean?
M: It’s nothing.
A: I’m curious, what is it.
M: I was just thinking you’ve matured from the first time I met you.
A: You’re getting harder to understand. And for some reason you’re talking like an older brother.
M: But that’s how it is right? When we first met you were 18 and I was 20 or 21 or something like that right?
A: It doesn’t really matter.
M: No it matters.
A: What’s with this direction, anyway.
Mizuki breathes out deeply and then raises his brows in a smile.
M: I said it before right? There’s nothing to hide anymore. There’s no need to smooth things over I mean.
M: That’s why if something happens it’s okay to tell me all about it, anything.
A: Saying anything like that makes it sound suspicious…
M: …ah
Mizuki smiles suspiciously and suddenly looks relieved.
A: Hm?
M: Never mind. You don’t have to tell me anything.
A: Eh… what is that.
M: You, in the past when you were incredibly drunk you would preach to me. And you were so persistent.
A: Heh…
M: You would bother me about everything, and you told me a lot of things.
M: It’s dangerous if you tell me things like that, so never mind.
A: Don’t lie! I never got that drunk!
M: You just forgot, right?
A: Why do you remember that?
M: There are others. Also…
A: It’s fine already!
M: Uwa, careful! The apples will fall!
Flustered, I reach over Mizuki to cover his mouth and Mizuki lifts the platter of apples.
…then.
M: Ahaha!
He grabs my hand and laughs happily.
It looks so happy…
A: …ahahah!
I end up laughing, too.
I think as I laugh.
That it would be nice to be like this always.
To overcome all the painful and hard situations, and meet again to laugh like this.
We’re a little bit different now after what happened at Platinum Jail.
There are things that changed, and things we realized.
Bu that’s why not everything turned out bad or happened for the worst.
There are still things to trust and believe in, and if we grip them tightly, we can continue forward.
We can be thankful from the bottom of our hearts while also playing around.