Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru Vol. 2 Prologue

TL note: We don’t just translate manga, we do light novels too! This batch, we’re bringing Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru translations. ^^ Vol. 1 has already been translated and is available on the Sakurako-san reddit page, so we’re starting from Vol. 2!

Characters

Kujou Sakurako

A young lady who loves beautiful bones. Her occupation is assembling skeletons, and she has a thorough understanding of autopsies despite being a layman.

Tatewaki Shoutarou

A normal high school student, who somehow ended up being pulled into doing investigations with the bone-loving Sakurako.

Prologue

The footsteps of summer neared.

Although the day was warm, the morning temperature was still below ten degrees, and one still had to wear a jacket. However, it was only when I reached the school gates that I found that I had only worn my uniform without a jacket.

Alighting the school bus, I looked up at the aeroplanes leaving the airport and the white cloud trails they left in the sky, and said to myself.

“The sun sure is large…”



The temperature was still rising, after a few steps I found my back warming greatly.

I hid in the shadows of the trees, and continued walking along the familiar path. The mirage light waves swayed on the road, within the mirage, a white bungalow could be seen. The sun deepened its shadow, making it more eye-catching, and creating an unspeakable sense of mystery.

Walking through the front gate, an even more wonderful world awaited me.

“Oh my, did school end early today?”

As soon as I rang the doorbell, Gran immediately came to the door in an apron.

“It’s examination period, so there’re only lessons for half the day.”

“I see, I see.”

“I’m coming in!” I took off my shoes in the doorway, and entered the living room without so much as a “can I come in?”. After all, Gran had long become used to my visits, and it felt as though if I said “I’m back” she would simply reply “Welcome home”.

“The young mistress should be back soon.”

Even though she had texted me to come immediately after school, in the end she was not even home, it was always like this.

“No problem, I’ll study while waiting for her.”

“Would you like some lunch first?”

“That would be great, I’m starving. I was hoping to hurry and get things done before going home, so I still haven’t had lunch. And tomorrow I have an exam for math, the hardest subject.”

This did not mean the other subjects were easy, just that I had had difficulties with math since young. If I did not prepare well, I would definitely fail, so I had made up my mind not to stay for long today! However… oh well, studying can be done anyway, and here I could also enjoy Gran’s good food and tea.

“Oh dear, developing boys should never go hungry, I’ll go prepare it now.”

As Gran said this, her short little body rushed into the kitchen. I pulled out pen and paper from my bag, and glanced around the living room unconsciously. This space was as wonderful as ever.

This was an old house. Sakurako-san had also said that the ceiling was too low, and made it a little claustrophobic, only the living room extending to the yard felt more spacious. However, various animals’ bones were placed all around the living room, some were in glass cabinets, some were simply there, hung on the wall or placed on the table, creating a claustrophobic feeling independent of the ceiling. It made people rather uncomfortable.

Yet I’d become used to this. At first, this place had also given me goosebumps, but now it was nothing unusual to me, and even felt warm and welcoming, how strange.

I opened my pencil case, and suddenly glimpsed a small new white companion on the unused fireplace in the corner of my eye. Recently, every time I found a new companion in the living room, I would first guess what animal it was while alive, before reading the label. Sakurako-san was definitely rubbing off on me!

I inspected it more closely. This fellow had prominent incisors, it was a biting animal, and it also had a long tail. Evidently, it was a mouse.

I remembered that Sakurako-san had once said, cleaning out the flesh from the crevices of the skeletons of animals like this and then reassembling the skeletons was a huge project. Seeing how this skeleton was so white and flawless, she must have put in much effort, and must have been very proud of this piece. When she came up, she would definitely talk at length about this. I smiled wryly, could this be the reason she had called me?

On the fireplace, there were also the skeletons of hamsters and squirrels that I had seen before, this was probably the zone for rodents, the only exception was a picture frame with its face to the wall.

I had once asked Sakurako-san, why not turn the frame around? She had glared at me, and I had never asked again. Yet I really wanted to know what the photo was, and why it faced the wall.

“Ah…” I looked at the frame, lost in thoughts, and Gran soundlessly appeared behind me with a tray of tea.

“That’s a family photo. The young mistress doesn’t like it, please don’t touch it.”

Worried that I would touch it, Gran was telling me otherwise, and had told me what I wanted to know so as to cease my curiosity. Yet her words instead made me more curious, and as I took the tea I also took the opportunity to ask her.

“Gran, did you come here when Sakurako-san was young?”

“Let me think… I came to work here when the mistress was 10 years old.”

“The mistress? Is that Sakurako-san’s mother?”“Yes, so I have been serving the young mistress even before she was born.”

Gran hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether to elaborate, and finally avoided my gaze and replied cautiously. This was the first time I had ever heard the story of Sakurako-san’s mother in this house.

“Sakurako-san’s mother, what kind of person is she?”

“…”

Gran’s face sank, I may have pried too deeply. She hurriedly came up with an excuse, said to herself “Oh dear, where has the young mistress gone” and vanished back into the kitchen.

For some reason, “mother” always seemed to be a taboo topic for Sakurako-san. Whenever this topic came up, the atmosphere would become awkward, as though to chase me out of the house.

It was no use to keep prying, I had to go back to studying and preparing for exams. In truth, I like both science and reading, and I even like chemistry more than literature, it was only mathematics that never peaked my interest. Mother said, studying was studying, be it fun or not, but I am not particularly fond of studying, and asking me to study something I had absolutely no interest in was such a pain.

“Do you hate math?”

My thoughts must have been written on my face. When Gran came to pour me more tea, seeing me struggling with my most hated trigonometry questions, brow furrowed, holding a pen and groaning, she could not resist a chuckle.

“I know my marks won’t be that good no matter how much I study, but if I fail, I’ll have to take remedial classes during summer and I really don’t want that…”

My concentration always scattered when I was hungry, and smelling the aromas of cooking wafting from the kitchen, my stomach growled and I sprawled over my books.

“You work very hard, you surely won’t have a problem.”

“I hope so too.”

I let out a sigh, why was it always math that I could never do well on? Every time, I felt like there was hope, but the results always left me disappointed, and this time I was particularly unconfident.

“I’ll teach you a way to bring good luck.” Seeing me so unconfident, Gran patted my head, and placed the tea in front of me.

“A way to bring good luck?”

“Yes, a way of tea divination that will allow you do succeed.”

“Oh…” I looked at her in partial disbelief.

I was a relatively superstitious person, but I had never tried any methods to change my luck, would it really work? Gran playfully raised a finger.

“This method was passed to me by the mistress.”

“Eh.?”

A method for good luck taught by Sakurako-san’s mother? What a special occurrence this was. I quickly sat up straight. Gran laughed, and handed me a small silver spoon.

“Listen, when you drink tea, first use the spoon to…”

Whether it was the fragrant steam of the tea that cleared my mind, or Sakurako-san’s mother’s method for good luck, I did unexpectedly well in the math exam the next time, and this won me a happy summer vacation.

