Jyunishi Comedy #118

We pick up in Chapter 118 where 117 left off. Akito grasps the knife that Ren carried when she barged into Akito's room, and raises it about to strike Ren. Ren looks more out of it from realising that the box she had so wanted was empty than shocked or alarmed at Akito while Kureno yells out Akito's name..

And then, yet another--...

Akito suddenly stops and slowly lowers then knife while the others watch, and Akito feels that another of the 12shi is gone.

Hiro sits watching over his baby sister Hinata when he suddenly feels something. Wide-eyed, he stares at his hands. Satsuki (Hiro's mother) calls he and his sister saying that breakfast is ready and when she walks into the room, she sees Hiro, awkwardly holding his sister.

Satsuki: Hiro-cha~n
Hinata-cha~n

*pata pata* (sound of footsteps approaching)

Satsuki: Breakfast is rea-...

Satsuki: .........
Hi-...

Hiro: Sorry
Somehow

I'm having very mixed feelings...

It would've been nice to just feel happy...

Hiro: But things like anger
or resentment

Regret or penitence

Or attachment

All sorts of things, all mixed together

Satsuki: Yes...

Afterall, you've lived all your life
with that sort of "thing" (bond).

...Always.

Worrying a lot, struggling a lot
And despite that, you've

Come this far living with it.

...It was

A part of you afterall...

Satsuki: ..."Good-byes"

Are very sad aren't they...

Satsuki hugs Hiro as he holds Hinata and cries.

Akito can only stare into the distance as she realises that it was no good anymore. The bond was in shambles and breaking apart.

"Good-bye"

Is coming

As the others stare, Ren asks Akito what happened, and why she stopped. Afterall, she'd been about to kill her (Ren). She then goes on to tell Akito that she didn't mind if she did, afterall, she (Akito) hates her enough to kill her didn't she?

The old maid yells at Ren to be quiet and demands to know what she was thinking in carrying a knife and if she'd been trying to create an incident for the police.

Old Lady: Just how far are you going to drag the Sohma name through the mud...

Maid: Mud!?

After (she) turned against her parent and was about to stab her...
Honouring that sort of good-for-nothing person as the Sohma clan leader is itself an embarrassment!!

Old Maid: Wha...
Such words...

Maid: Good job on having such a worthless box prepared as well!

How sad, that the naive clan leader believed it so...

Old Maid: As if (she) believed it!!

Old Maid: That box was given to her to console her exhausted spirit after Akira-san passed away...

It's like a charm. To believe...

Common sense clearly shows

That it's just empty inside!!

Akito, hearing that goes outside and Kureno follows her. Ren just stares into the empty box.

Akito stands on the porch staring out into the rain and tells Kureno that she'd been half and half about the box. Believing and yet not believing it. Whenever she opened it, it was empty, but she thought that maybe, just maybe it held some "unseen power" and that maybe, just maybe.... And because of that, she couldn't let go of it, but at the same time, she didn't want to make certain and so she hid it instead.

Akito: That's right. All this time
I clung to it.

["Could it be"]

Akito: Is it so wrong

That was my "common sense"...!

...No one
taught me otherwise...!

Gave me a way to live other than this way now!

How am I supposed to know what I "don't know"!
How am I to understand!!

Their...
If you call what's "obvious" to you as "common sense"
Then why didn't anyone teach me!!

Akito: Why...

Kureno holds Akito and tells her that what she can learn from here on the things she doesn't know, or doesn't understand.

Kureno: ...So

(Let's) change?

Akito

What I wanted you to listen to a moment ago

...Was this.

Kureno: If you continue to stay in this sort of environment,
You'll only be torn apart by the "Sohma" or the "bond"

And remain empty.

Never able to be fulfilled...

You've already
Realised it haven't you?

...So

Akito: At this point......

At this point, you

Say
That sort of thing...

"Change"...?

It's too late. So why
Didn't you say that

Right from the very start...

Akito: Why didn't you push me away
Right from the beginning.

Why didn't you abandon me...

(Akito:) (Don't go!
Don't go!

Don't abandon me!!)

Kureno: Yeah...

Akito: That...
At this point...

Kureno: Yeah......

Akito: At this time

Harping on like that...!!

Akito, using the knife she'd been carrying then stabs Kureno in the back.

Akito: ...

Half-heartedly saving me...

Half-heartedly trying to let go
That

"Gentleness" or whatever you call it

Akito: Has been killing me

All this time...

Always!!

What are you going to do (for me)...
"It was a mistake" isn't good enough!

Take responsibility!

Make amends!!

Akito: Die and make amends!!

Akito runs off barefoot into the rain and Kureno moves to follow but is stopped from the pain of his injury. One of the maids comes upon him and starts panicking over his bleeding but Kureno tells her to never mind about that but to go after Akito instead. The maid runs off for help while Kureno tries to continues after Akito but collapses.

It's too late

At this time

At this point

At this point

At Arisa's part-time job, she and fellow part-timer Ayase are busy cleaning in front of the shop when they find a small dead bird on the ground. As they wonder if the bird had been killed by a cat or possibly died after hitting a window, another worker in the shop, seeing the two around the dead bird, tells them to hurry up and clean it up. Arisa wonders if maybe it had become exhausted.

Akito continues along the street still barefoot, and carrying the knife she'd stabbed Kureno with. As she walks, she says that this was Kureno's fault, that he was wrong and that it was his responsibility. Because he'd been there...

As she says that, she remembers a time when she was a child and had woken crying.

Kureno: What's wrong?

AKito

Did you have a nightmare?

Hey

Come here

The moon

Is beautiful isn't it

Yuki: If you're always making things someone else's fault

It doesn't matter how much time passes

Akito: ...So what!!
So, it's my fault then...

Everything, all of it is all my fault then!?

Like this...
Incomplete
Even being an outsider!!

[And]

[The 12shi would go where]

When Akito wonders this, an image of Tohru comes to her mind...

At Shigure's, Tohru and Kyo finish eating. Kyo tells Tohru that he's going out for a bit but Tohru instead follows him out to the front telling and red-faced, tells hims that she wanted to tell him something. However, the look on Kyo's face...

Banner: The expectation of Tohru confessing her feelings and Kyo's opposite expression-- He should be feeling the same about Tohru and yet...?

To be cont'd in Issue 24; Nov 19 release.