Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part2 (1/2)
t.i.tle: s.h.i.+ro no Kanata e [白の彼方へ]
Chapter: 1-2, To The Whiteness Far Beyond
Page: 016 – 033
Author: Masaki Hikaru
Ill.u.s.trator: Takamine Akira
Publisher: Charade Bunko
Year of Release: 2007
Disclaimer:
Masaki Hikaru is the original author of this work, and this is a fan translation. Feel free to re-post this elsewhere if you like but please credit this site. I did buy the original copy of this book, along with the rest of the series, so it'll be great if you can support her by buying her books.
By the way, this work contains BL, or h.o.m.o-eroticism. Fair warning, the pace of this book is…. slow. Well. Things move a lot slower when cold.
Note:
As I have no formal training in translation theory nor am I an expert in j.a.panese (nor English, for the matter), I cannot guarantee the quality of this translation work, but I promise I did my best.
Do give the BLCD a listen (Nakamura Yuuchi x Midorikawa Hikaru, Inoue Kazuhiko) if you can.
Chapter 1 Part 2: The Whiteness Far Beyond
The first time Asahi met s.h.i.+omi was half a year ago, in the later part of April.
Technically, it was already spring, but there was still a lot of snow left on a mountain at an elevation of more than 2000 metres. The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, which was closed for the winter, had just been re-opened for the year.
Asahi had been working as a caretaker of this mountain lodge in the Northern Alps for the past three years. He first started working here seven years ago with Sakata, the owner of the lodge, but since Sakata fell ill three years ago Asahi had been working alone.
His first task when he reached the lodge was to check that all the food and fuel he needed had arrived. The second thing he needed to do was to inspect the lodge for any changes over the winter. There were signs that someone had used the lodge; on the table was a memo that explained that some climbers had sought refuge in the lodge during a snowstorm, and they had found the amenities in the lodge very useful. Along with the memo were three 1000 yen notes.
Since its renovation five years ago, the lodge had running on electricity generated by solar panels and hydro-power generated from a nearby mountain stream. Solar panels on the roof of the lodge ensured a steady stream of power, but there was one problem; the panels wouldn't work if they were covered by a layer of snow, which prevented sunlight from s.h.i.+ning on them.
If the mountain lodge was a large facility with numerous employees, they could have taken turns to shovel the snow off the roof. Even though Asahi's mountain lodge was a small one that could only take in around twenty people at a time, it was still a rather daunting task to remove all the snow on the roof all by himself.
There was a larger, better equipped mountain lodge nearby with capacity for about a hundred people and most climbers will choose to spend the night there instead. The only time Asahi's lodge would be extremely busy would be sometime before and after Golden Week and during mountain climbing season in summer. Sakata once told him that the current size of the lodge was just right for him. After all, running the mountain lodge was a hobby of his, and he cared little for the profits it generated.
”Alright, let's go.”
Asahi rolled up his sleeves and climbed up to the roof. With each swipe of his shovel more snow fell off the roof, but it wasn't long before he started breathing rather heavily. Since the atmosphere was thinner at higher alt.i.tudes, just a bit of physical exertion would cause him to be out of breath.
Just when he could finally start to see the panels underneath the snow,
”Asahi!” rang a voice from below.
Tsurugi, who been playing by himself nearby, greeted Asahi’s visitors with a gruff bark, and Asahi stuck his shovel in the snow to look down from the roof at where the voice had come from. Two men in yellow mountain-climbing jackets and sungla.s.ses to protect their eyes from winter glare stood there, looking up at Asahi. Both of them has large blue rucksacks on their shoulders.
Asahi have seen those jackets before, and there was one person who would call him by his first name in that overly-friendly manner.
”…Asada-san. It's been a while since I saw you. Did you come to open the Tsurugisawa outpost station?”
Without answering his question, Asada said: ”Do come down from there. Let this guy over here do the shovelling of the snow. Okay, s.h.i.+omi?”
”Yes!” the man he called s.h.i.+omi readily answered. He shrugged off his rucksack, which he left on the ground below the eaves, but left his sungla.s.ses on.
He doesn't seem to be joking, thought Asahi.
”But…” Asahi started to protest, but relented after seeing the man climb up the ladder to the roof. He inclined his head slightly towards him and slipped past him down the ladder.
Asada was scratching Tsurugi's head as he waited for Asahi to descend, and Tsurugi's tail was wagging so hard that his whole body shook with delight.
”It's been five months since I saw you… I'm mighty glad to see that you're still as pretty as ever. Right, Tsurugi?” he said.
As if you could see the face of someone with sungla.s.ses on and a woollen cap pulled over his ears… was what Asahi almost said in a sarcastic tone but didn't say. Instead, he sighed and looked up at the taller man.
”…Asada-san, aren't you starting to sound more and more like an old man over the years?”
Asada took off his sungla.s.ses to reveal a rather complicated look on his face. There was a furrow in his brow, yet his eyes twinkled with mirth.
”You're hitting me where it hurts… well, I'll be forty if you round up my age, after all. My smile became really strained when a kid called me 'uncle' at a convenience store just the other day.”
The truth was that despite his laments, Asada did not at all look like a middle-aged man. Perhaps it was because he spent most of the past year in the mountains; Asada was a perfect picture of masculinity. He was powerfully built, his limbs were corded with muscle, and he still had to enough stamina to keep up with twenty year olds.
Asahi laughed. ”I beg your pardon, then. I'm still in the middle of unpacking, but do you want to come in? I could, at least, make you a cup of coffee.”
They had been talking while standing outside in the snow, and he could feel cold air emanating from the ground. Asahi lifted his face and opened his mouth to invite the man on the roof into the lodge as well, but Asada held out an arm to stop him.
”Oi, s.h.i.+omi!” he called.
”Yes!” came the immediate reply, and the man peered down at them from the edge of the roof, the shovel still in his hands.
”We'll be inside. Come down once you finish getting the snow off the roof, okay?”
Asada seemed to be ordering him about, and Asahi was worried that it would rub s.h.i.+omi the wrong way, but s.h.i.+omi remained as polite as ever.
”Got it! I'll be done soon!” was all s.h.i.+omi said, before disappearing back onto the roof, and the rhythmic sound of the shovel sc.r.a.ping against snow resumed.
”Well then, please let me in.” Asada slung an arm around Asahi's shoulders, but Asahi only stared coolly up at him with his sungla.s.ses in his hands. ”…You don't need to glower at me like that. It is all part of his training,” Asada added dryly, and Asahi nodded stiffly at him.
Asahi opened the door to the lodge, but not before wiping the snow off Tsurugi’s paws. There were cardboard boxes lining the walls, and Asahi had to rummage through the boxes for the one with the bottles of instant coffee in it. He also had to look around for the mugs, and a while had pa.s.sed before he finished making the coffee with hot water from the kettle already on the stove.
”Here you go.” Asahi set the mugs on the table, a table which could seat six people with some difficulty, and took a seat facing Asada. His eyes flitted to the window as he thought of the man on his roof clearing snow in his stead.
”…Is he this year's new recruit?” he asked.
Asada took a sip from the mug before answering: ”Yea.” Then a grin twisted his lips, like he was planning something rather mischievous. It was what Asahi would call the leer of a pervert.
”…Don't smile like that, please. You… you seem to enjoying yourself, somehow.”
”I am. Didn't I tell you I found an interesting fellow at the climbing course last year? I wonder if you remember.”
”Ah. Now that you mention it… I do remember you saying something like that.”
Every year in June, the Toyama Prefecture Police would hold a short climbing course for young, promising police recruits. It was a course that involved mainly rock-climbing, and those who had the correct disposition or showed a talent for climbing would be nominated to join the mountain rescue squad.
Asahi didn't know much about the police force, but as he has had dealings with mountain rescue troops for the past seven years while working in the Northern Alps, even someone like him will know about that annual climbing course. Asada Takafumi, a veteran trooper with ten years of experience under his belt, was the instructor for the climbing course last year. At that time, he had mentioned to Asahi that someone interesting turned up in the course that year… the man called s.h.i.+omi which he had ordered to shovel snow on Asahi's roof.
”He really piqued my interest since he had a rather uncommon background… but oh, am I looking forward to making him cry during the mountain training during the summer!” Asada laughed heartily as he tipped back his mug once more, but Asahi grimaced.
”So you're looking forward to being a jerk.”
”Humph. I broke down in tears myself almost right after the start of the training, when I did it. Bring pushed beyond your physical limits isn't an experience you can get every day. It is a very important experience, you know.”
”Well… I guess I can understand that, but—” began Asahi, but his sentence was interrupted by a sound outside the door. Tsurugi, who was lying sprawled out below the table, immediately got up and trotted towards the door.
The front door of the lodge was one that did not slide open or close smoothly due to high humidity levels in the lodge. It rattled loudly as it slid open, and s.h.i.+omi peered cautiously inside. Tsurugi sidled up next to him, and s.h.i.+omi ran his hand along Tsurugi's back in return.