Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red/Keine

Page 54-55

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Article

Illustration by Genji Asai.

第百十七季　長月の二	Season 117, Nagatsuki issue #2 (est. 2002/10/06 ~ 2002/11/05)
謎の秘密歴史結社の実態	The Truth about the Enigmatic History Society
幻想郷の源流を探す人間	Humans exploring the roots of Gensokyo
人間の里で存在が噂されている秘密結社がある。その結社は幻想郷に住んでいた人間と妖怪の跡を調べ、幻想郷の秘密を解き明かそうとする集団だ。妖怪の活動範囲をも調べる事から、その活動は熾烈を極め死者も出ることがあると言う。今回はついにその秘密結社のリーダーと名乗る人物と接触することが出来た。	In the Human Village, there are rumors of the existence of a secret society. The society's purported aims are to trace the beginnings of the humans and youkai that reside in Gensokyo and discover its secrets. Since they also investigate in areas where youkai are active, it was said that deaths have also occurred in extreme cases. This time we have contacted the person claiming to be the leader of said organization.
秘密結社のリーダー甲さん（偽名）　によると、結社を結成した理由はこうである。今の人聞達は、なぜ妖怪の住む此処で暮らしているのか、そもそも幻想郷とは何なのか、先祖は一体どういう人間だったのか、と言うことを殆ど知らない。恐らく全てを知っている妖怪達を幻想郷から追い出して幻想郷を人間の物にするには、まず幻想郷の真実を知る必要があるのだ、という。	Mr. A (pseudonym) gave a statement on their mission. People nowadays know nothing about things like why youkai live here, what Gensokyo was like when it was formed, what kind of people their ancestors were, and so on. If the omniscient youkai are expelled from Gensokyo and Gensokyo falls under human control, it is absolutely necessary that they know the truths about this land, said he.
随分と自分勝手で人間らしい意見だったが、私を含む多くの妖怪達はこれを相手にしていなく傍観している。これに対し苦言を呈する妖怪もいる。そのうちの一人、上白沢慧音さん（ワーハクタク）の意も聞いた。	Despite this extremely self-centered and human-like opinion, many youkai, including myself, are remaining as spectators rather than taking aggressive action on the group. Some youkai are also offering their frank advice on the matter. I listened to the thoughts of one such youkai, Keine Kamishirasawa (were-hakutaku).
「妖怪の恐怖を忘れ、幻想郷から妖怪を追い出そうと考える人間が居る事は非常に良くない事だ。幻想郷は、今の妖怪と人間のバランスで保っている。ちょうど（半人半獣である）私の様に。この持ちつ持たれつのバランスを崩してしまうとあっという間に幻想郷は崩壊してしまうだろう。ただ、妖怪は古い事も現在の事も同列に考える者が多いのに対し、人間は２０年もすると新しい代に移り、記憶は薄まるばかりだ。これでは妖怪の方も張り合いが無い。一方的に人間の方が妖怪から離れていってしまうからな。人間は、現在から歴史を探そうとするのでなく、歴史そのものを現在の事の様に伝え続けていく、その事の方が重要なんだ」	"It's deplorable that some humans have forgotten their fear of youkai and are trying to drive them out of Gensokyo. Currently, there is a state of balance between the humans and the youkai here. In fact, I (being half-human, half-beast) am a personification of that ideal. If that give-and-take balance is destroyed, Gensokyo would collapse overnight. Even if many people now think of youkai as they used to be, these memories can fade in 20 years when the next generation comes about. The youkai are no longer rivals. Despite this, the humans have arbitrarily decided to do away with them. Humans should not be searching for past history, but passing history down the generational line instead. That's much more important."
慧音さんは半分妖怪ながら人間に慕われ、時には人間の生活の手助けもしている。人間が子孫に歴史を伝えていこうとしていないから、危険な思想の結社が生まれるのだとするならば、歴史の学校を開く事も考えている、と語っていた。	Ms. Keine is half-youkai but is endeared by the humans. She sometimes helps in their daily lives. If dangerous ideas are formed from this society because the humans do not pass their history on to their descendants, she said she has considered opening a history school.
（射命丸　文）	(Aya Shameimaru)
※記事で取り上げた学校に関するお人間い	*People related to the school are covered in this article.

Interview

Illustration by Masato Takashina.

Aya	で、里で歴史の学校を開いたんですよね？	So you opened a history school in the village?
Keine	開きました。でも、余り人間は集まりませんでした。みんな学校の様な物は嫌いなようです	Yes, I did. But it hasn't managed to attract many people. Everyone dislikes schools, it seems.
Aya	それは意外ですね。私達ならそんな面白そうなことが始まれば、我先にと見に行く物ですが	That's surprising. If we knew about something that sounded that interesting, we'll be the first to go see it.
Keine	それだけ人間は毎日の生活だけで必死なのですよ。貴方達お気楽妖怪と同じに考えてはいけません。彼らは働くだけ働いてご飯を食べないと死んでしまうのですから	Humans barely get by in their everyday lives. They can't think like easy-going youkai. If they don't work for their food, they starve to death.
Aya	今度は人間向けじゃなくて、妖怪も混ぜて学校を開きませんか？きっとみんな集まりますよ	Why don't you try opening a school that allows youkai to join as well? That way it's bound to attract everyone.
Keine	集まるんでしょうねぇ。もっとも、集まるだけでまともに授業が出来るとは思えないですが・・・・・・。ただ、集めたいんじゃなくて人間に教えたいのですから。妖怪集めて授業をするのも意味が無い訳じゃないけど	Yes, I believe so, but I doubt I'd be able to hold normal lessons like that... I don't want to just draw humans together; I want to teach them. Adding youkai would just defeat that purpose, wouldn't it?
Aya	それはそうですね。じゃあ他の案としては、お酒でつってみるとかはどうでしょう。人間もお酒は好きな筈	Mmmm, very true. Here's another suggestion, then: why don't you serve sake? Humans love sake.
Keine	それも授業になりそうに無いね。結局のところ、人間は歴史を知りたい人は人間の世界を作りたがる人だけで、普通の人間は歴史には興味が無いというのだろう。残念ですが	That wouldn't work for a class. In the end, the humans who want to know history only want to make a world for humans. Maybe normal human beings don't have any interest in history, unfortunately.
Aya	神社の近くにいるごく一部の人間は変わった事が始まると、我先に、って感じです	There's one group near the shrine that is beginning to change. There's a feeling of "Me First".
Keine	その辺の人間相手にしても仕様が無いんだけどね。すでに妖怪との区別も大して無いし	I can't do anything about those humans. At this point, there isn't much of a difference between them and youkai.
Aya	能力だけなら、並の妖怪じゃ太刀打ちできなかったりしますし	But when it comes to ability, a normal youkai is no match for them.
Keine	そういえば、最近は神社の事すら知らない人間だっている。神社の辺りは妖怪だらけでとても近づけない上に、里からの距離もかなりある。人間達は行く必要が全く無いから・・・・・・	That reminds me, there are people that don't even know about the shrine at all. I suppose no one feels the need to go since it's such a long distance away and the route is swarming with youkai...
Aya	そうなんですか・・・・・・。それでは神社に人間が殆ど居ないことも肯けますね	Is that so...? Then that would mean you admit the shrine gets almost no visitors.
Keine	お賽銭が全然無い、って巫女が嘆くのも無理の無い事。だって巫女が自分で自分の首を締めているんだから。本当なら、巫女の方からもっと人里で自分の仕事ぶりをアピールすれば良いのに。あの巫女は仕事をしても余り人間達に伝えようとしない。あろう事か自分も妖怪と仲良くしてしまっている。人間の中には、神社はすでに妖怪に乗っ取られた、と言う者も居る位だよ	It's no wonder that the shrine maiden is always complaining about not receiving any offerings at all, but she brought it upon herself. If she was serious about her job, she would be going to the village to advertise herself. Even when she does get to work, the humans usually don't hear about it. I heard that she also befriends youkai up to the point where there are even people who said they had taken over the shrine.
Aya	巫女の今の姿勢が人間達の誤解を生むのですね。確かにあの巫女は人間には非協力的に見えます。貴方の方がよっぽど人間寄りに見えます	It seems that the shrine maiden's stance is leading to some misunderstanding among the humans. She does seem uncooperative towards humans. If fact, I'd say you're closer to them than she is.
Keine	私が巫女の代わりになっているから、今の幻想郷はバランスを保っているの。貴方は妖怪なのにこんな人間の事を記事にするのかしら	Since I've taken the place of the shrine maiden, the balance in Gensokyo has been preserved. Do you actually record human matters such as this, being a youkai yourself?
Aya	私の新聞は、内容も読む人も幻想郷の妖怪達のみです。まあ、中には妖怪よりもよほど化け物じみた人間が居ないわけじゃありませんが、今回は基本的に貴方の事を記事にしただけに過ぎないのです。貴方が居なければこんな話記事にしません。私達にとって、人間は襲う対象でしかありませんからね	All of my newspaper's content and readership come from youkai. Well, it's not like there isn't anything about monster-like humans, but basically this article was meant to be about you. If you weren't there, I couldn't have made the article. For us, humans are just targets for attacking, you know?

Profile

上白沢 慧音 （かみしらさわ　けいね）	Keine Kamishirasawa
満月の夜に人間からハクタクに変身する「ワーハクタク」。人間時は歴史を喰う能力を、ハクタク時は幻想郷全ての知識を持ち、歴史を創る能力を持つ。	Transforms from a human into a hakutaku on the night of the full moon (were-hakutaku). When in human form, has the ability to consume history; when in hakutaku form, holds all of Gensokyo's knowledge and has the ability to create history.
出演作：『東方永夜抄』	Appearances: Imperishable Night

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Article and Interview: Flandre  Music Column: Merry the Magician

Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red

Article and Interview: Mokou

>