Entry 10: Hakuno meets Sakura

The day is over. The school building is dyed madder red as it meets the setting sun. The entrance way is full of students on their way out, trivial conversation and laughter. It’s a normal scene, from a normal day. I head to the shoe racks to start on my way home myself.

[Unfortunately, I can’t get a picture of this, but as people leave the school building, you can see a girl curled up on the floor by the shoe racks. The students all just walk past her as they leave.]

There’s a single girl, crouching there as if the shadows of the twilight ail her. Who…is that?

Her breathing is uneven, and her cheeks are flushed. It’s obvious that she’s sick. But it looks like no one has noticed her. It’s a bizarre sight. It’s enough to make me doubt my own senses…no, to doubt the senses of everyone around me. This isn’t something you can just pretend you didn’t see. No one even looks her way, they just step right over her.
I —-

[>] Help her up.

> Call out to her.

Anyway, I have to do something immediately. I take the suffering girl in my arms…

…I give up. I know it’s not the time for this, but I can’t help this tension. Seeing the drops of sweat on her pale skin, no member of the opposite sex would, and even as a member of the same sex I can’t tear my eyes away. It may be inappropriate, but her body reminds me of exquisite sugar candy.

[And here we see the classic eroge-protagonist “oh god can’t be near a member of the opposite sex without it becoming sexual” conundrum applied to two girls, in demonstration of my earlier point. Also…sugar candy, really? Maybe taking the lavender hair into account…]

Like candy, it’s sweet, soft, and fragile. Ah —- indeed, she has the heat of a living thing.

Unnamed girl :: Ah…you, can see me?

I can see her, and touch her. That’s why I can hold her up like this. …it must be a terrible fever. Her sense of her surrounding must be a blank, if she can’t even tell that.

Sakura :: My…my name is Sakura Matou, I’m a first year. I work in the infirmary, I’m in charge of looking after everyone’s health. Um, where are you stationed, senpai…?

…? I can’t really give her a “where” answer. I’m not on the student board, so I reply with my name and the name of my class.

Sakura :: Wha…you’re, one of the regular students…? And when even the student council members didn’t notice me, you…?

Sakura looks up at me, still breathing with difficulty. …this poor girl. It must have been hard on her, both physically and emotionally, to lie here with every ignoring her. I offer her my shoulder, trying to make her feel that it’s all right now.

[Awww, look at them, they’re adorable!]

Sakura :: ——.

That’s all it takes to make the girl called “Sakura” open her eyes wide. …something seems to have made her hold her breath. She goes blank for a moment, as if witnessing a miracle.

Sakura :: Kishinami-senpai…Um…Would it be all right, for me to talk to you a little bit more…?

I nod, as I hold up the first year girl…Sakura. Sadly, it’s not far to the infirmary.  I need to get her to a bed to rest first.

[There’s a scene change here, where the screen fades out, then everything comes up fuzzy again, then the time progress bar appears, but its usual morning-night progression, very familiar to me from Fate/Extra, has been blurred out in an eruption of red pixels. The progress percentage goes up, but my location on the timeline is no longer marked.]

Almost done with the introduction! This was unchanged from https://tsukinoura.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/entry-10-hakuno-meets-sakura/. Please support the original translator.