Summary: Arakure (Wild Ones), Vol 5, Chp 23

This chapter starts with Igarashi having a dream about his childhood. He is a very cute little boy with a lonely but bright smile. He is assuring himself repeatedly that he is okay and that the situation is okay. As Igarashi awakens, Sachie narrates, "There is something I don't know about Igarashi-san." Igarashi thinks, "What is it I wished for?" It's New Years and everyone is going to Hatsumode. Igarashi and Azuma are at temple together. Azuma wishes that Sachie will acknowledge him in the coming year and then asks Igarashi what he wishes for. Igarashi, ever the smart-ass, says he wishes for Azuma's happiness because he (Igarashi) can't be happy without that happening. Azuma is touched until Igarashi actually says his prayer, "I wish for Azuma to be happy alone." This illicits shouts of "Bastard" and such from Azuma. Azuma then tells Igarashi that his first dream of the year was about Sachie and that he believes this is a good omen for "love-love" between him and Sachie. Igarashi is dilligently praying and doesn't seem to be paying too much attention to Azuma's babbling. Finally Igarashi finishes and says, "Whatever ..." to Azuma. "The only first dream of the year I care about is hers," Igarashi continues, referring to Sachie, who has just joined them. Azuma and Sachie are shocked. "So what nice dream did you have?" he sweetly asks Sachie who is trying to dodge the question by looking like she's busy praying. "Uh, well ..." she begins. "I dreamt of the boy who was my first love." "First love?" asks Azuma, who knows nothing of the story. The yakuza fill him in that Sachie's first love is a boy she met at a World Exposition 10-years ago. She and this boy promised to send each other New Years cards (so they all know, which must be entertaining to them all to watch Sachie twist in the breeze). Igarashi, clearly pleased, inches in closer to Sachie and asks what happened in the dream. Sachie is quite nervous and embarassed about the dream, so she says that she doesn't remember and then takes off running. She can't tell Igarashi that in the dream the little boy said, "since then I've always liked you," and then turned into Igarashi as he is now. Shocked at recalling the dream, she wonders why Igarashi was in it. She relieves her anxiety by blaming the dream on the necklace Igarashi gave her. She pauses on the note left with the necklace -- "Here is the necklace you wished for." But she didn't wish for anything.

It's getting cold and Igarashi comes to get Sachie to take her to an area where there's a fire so they can keep warm. Sachie is still lost in the thought about the necklace, and then decides that she'll just accept it because the more she thinks about it, the more confused she gets. So off she storms to get Igarashi some sweet sake, which causes her for feel greatly embarrassed. Next they are writing wishes for the New Year and Sachie asks Igarashi what he wrote. "Me? If I? ..." says Igarashi as he passes out in Sachie's arms. He's got a very high fever and apparently, he shouldn't have had any sake. Igarashi is feels really bad and in his mind calls out for help and then he sees Sachie's worried face. It's been a while since he had a cold. Igarashi thinks, "Don't worry, I'll be okay. I'll get well soon, so don't make that face. Smile."

Back to dreams of Igarashi's childhood. His eyes are blank even though he's smiling. He tells his mother that he will be okay alone and his mother praises him for being a good boy. "I'm okay," he says in his sleep. Sachie is by his side as he sleeps. She feels bad because she didn't realize should not have given Igarashi sake. She wonders why Igarashi is saying that he's okay in his sleep . She gets up and decides to got fix him some traditional sick-person dishes. Then Igarashi starts coughing and Sachie quickly returns to his side and holds his hand. Igarashi awakens briefly. He's in a daze and says, "Thank goodness, Mom." "Did he dream of his mother?" Sachie wonders. "Was the dream painful?" Then she thinks about an earlier conversation they had on the porch and wonders what he was deprived of as a child. "What happened? It must have been tough leaving home at 5-years old," she thinks. Then she looks at the necklace and wonders what she could do to bring Igarashi some comfort. Holding the necklace, she folds her hands and prays for power.

Back to Igarashi dream ... "What is it I wished for?" Igarashi's Mom is packing up to leave for the day. Igarashi cheerfully asks when she will be back, to which she replies that she doesn't know and that he should go to sleep instead of waiting for her. Igarashi's eyes go blank. Another day, little Igarashi is excited again because it will be parent's day at his daycare soon. His Mom says that she can't go and Igarashi replies that he will okay alone. Even though he is smiling, he looks likes he could be crying at the same time (T_T). Another day, little Igarashi is running home with a bag full of groceries in his arms. He's excited because it's his Mom's birthday and they are going make dinner and have cake. When he gets home, though, nobody is there (it looks like she gave him money for food and then disappeared while he was shopping. T_T). Then we move forward a little to Igarashi's awful relatives who don't want to take him in. "I promised ..." Moving forward a little, ... "Soon I we have say goodbye" ... a little girl is waving back at him. "C'ya" she says. "Don't forget our promise. From now on everyone will be together always" Igarashi recalls, "The promise was for me to be in that person's future. Through this I forgive my existence." Igarashi then awakens to find Sachie asleep as his bedside. She is holding the necklace he gave her.

Soon Sachie awakens and excitedly asks Igarashi if he okay and begins to feed him some of the sick-people's food that Azuma brought earlier. She is very happy that Igarashi is okay. After feeding him, she remarks that the necklace is wonderful and it's just what she wanted. She continues by saying that she's also happy that Igarashi got well quickly just as she wished for. They do some back and forth about what her wish really is and it ends with her declaring that her wish was fullfilled by her own power because year after year everyone will be together for days like Christmas and New Years. Meanwhile, Azuma is putting away laundry. He puts some clothes in Igarashi's clothes and finds an old New Years card that Sachie sent to Igarashi (yes, Azuma, Igarashi is Sachie first love and she doesn't know it). Back to Igarashi and Sachie. "So, the the effects of this necklace can't be avoid, let me put it on you," Igarashi says as puts the necklace on Sachie. Sachie looks a little surprised. The narration closes, "Together with you in the future"

Summary: Arakure (Wild Ones), Vol 5, Chp 22

Everyone is in a panic about what to do about the phone call from the class president's father, who is a police officer. They run around comically, looking very guilty. Sachie tries Tora, who looks very calm, but he's so nervous that he ends up talking into a sandal. The Sachie's grandfather gets on the phone and gives some weird polite romanticized out of era greeting, greatly embarrassing Sachie. Finally, Igarashi steps in to stop the stupidity. He tell's the class president's father to excuse the fun and that everything is okay -- goodbye. He then powers off the cellphone and asks the class president to turn his phone off during his visit. Sachie then remembers Igarashi's earlier advice to be cautious around the class president.

Back to the party, Sachie calls everyone together for the present exchange. One of the male students is eating some cookies that one of the female students had hoped to exchange with Igarashi. He says the cookies aren't very good which pisses the girl and her friends off. Sachie has two gifts and offers them up so everyone can participate. In the back of her mind, though, she is worrying about what to give Igarashi, who always bring her happiness. She wants to bring him happiness too. Cookie thief tries to stealthily throw away the rest of the cookies and is caught by Sachie who goes "yakuza" on the boy for disregarding the feelings the girl put in the cookies. Igarashi reminds Sachie to contain her temper and that she's in front of her friends. Her friends are scared and speechless. Then the class president breaks the silence by saying that Sachie truly is a princess. Sachie freaks thinking that he means "yakuza princess," but then he continues to explain that she's truly a princess because she and her household care so much about the feelings of others. Sachie is saved and everyone is at ease and happy again.

The party continues and comes to an end. As the class president is leaving, Igarashi stops him to return his cell phone. The class president says that he had a good time and that it looks like Sachie is well cared for. He then reassures Igarashi that he won't say a thing about anything. He continues by explaining that he doesn't think the group is about money. Igarashi asks, then what the class president's interest was (Igarshi is worried that the class president could be interested in Sachie) and the class president says that we was interested only in getting to know Igarashi better. He then shakes Igarashi's hands in an overly familiar manner -- cupping both of Igarashi's hands in his own -- and with a sparkly aura tells Igarashi that he admires him. As he leaves, the class president says that he hopes to follow in sempai's foodsteps. Igarashi is left feeling violated, then tinged with a little of happiness after being greatly complemented, and, ultimately, confused by what just transpired.

Back in the house, Sachie thanks the yakuza for a great party. Azuma is excited because he got Sachie's present and brags about it to Igarashi, who doesn't care all that much. Azuma is greatly disappointed by Sachie's weird present (red wrapping paper ??? -- I have no idea what she got). Meanwhile, Igarashi is walking around thinking about the day when he sees Sachie outside climbing at tree. It's very cold outside and it has begun to snow. Igarashi, worried rushes out to find out what Sachie is up to. Of course, Sachie slips out the tree and into Igarashi's waiting arms and they both fall to the ground in a quasi-embrace. Igarashi scolds her for climbing trees while it's snowing (she's bare footed too). Sachie explains that she had put a Christmas cake in the tree to decorate with snow (??? perhaps she wanted to hide it too and that's why she put it in the tree ???). "Cake?" Igarashi inquires. With downturned face, Sachie explains that she wanted to give Igarashi a present to thank him for taking care of her, but she couldn't come up anything. So instead she decided to try making him a Christmas cake. By the way, the cake is beautifully decorated, despite her saying that it was easy to make. Igarashis is suprised and asks if the cake is really for him. Sachie panics thinking that he doesn't want the cake because they've already eaten cake at the party and maybe he doesn't like sweet things, but instead Igarashi is overcome with joy and kisses her hand and then gives her a big hug. He whispers in her ear that the day was wonderful because of the party and the cake. He lets go and then politely thanks her. It's an adorable scene. Sachie thinks "The two of us together, the cold snow, and the warm feeling of his gaze was so kind and gentle." The next morning, Sachie wakes up with a present on her bed from "Santa" with a note that says, "A necklace to fullfill your wish." Sachie is again reminded about how Igarashi always brings her happiness -- "Merry Christmas."

Vampire Knight Chapter 43 is Out

Chapter 43 of "Vampire Knight" is out there in the ether for you all to enjoy. I was starting to get bored with this series, but the exciting and long chapter got me interested again. It looks like the story is coming to an end and it doesn't look like it's a happy ending either. Ureshiiii ... which leaves the question of how the characters will meet their end? I look forward to some "lovely" tragedy. Will Yuuki finally put the now bad-ass Zero out of his misery?

Rambling Blog Available

Come visit my rambling blog to read about my love affair with consumer electronics, gaming, and advertising.

Here's a link: http://kuroneko003.wordpress.com/

New Website is Up

The new Omari Sister Manga and Anime site is up. It's a Flash site, the fruits of taking a 20-hour course at my local University extension. Here's a link. Please excuse the cuteness and the unoriginality. I'll will add to the site and improve things as a I go along.

Tip: for those of you with smaller screen resolution than the website, in the view menu, use the zoom function to rescale your window. Because the actual artwork I did spills off the "stage" in Flash, I didn't want to publish the file to autoscale. I didn't want to show the stuff off the stage. Although, when I think about it's actually not that bad ... I'll think on it. The stuff off the stage makes it look even more like construction paper.

Sigh, ..., I'm actually thinking about scanlating something ... though, I really believe I should get the artist's permission and you folks should pay the artist for their good works ... but there's a manga I really like and I would like to share it. Taihen ne ... dou ka na? Well, I doubt the one I have in mind will make it to the US, so maybe I will do it and see if I get a cease and desist e-mail. Maybe I could actually send the author a little e-mail to ease my guilt ... Sigh ... actually, it's not the author I'm worried about, so much as any US publisher that might pick this up. But isn't that the point? To get the manga published in the US? Sigh ...well ... I'll mull it over.

Oh, with respect to Kisu Yori mo Hayaku, I started translating it last night. The first few pages are giving me a hard time because the speech is very casual. Hopefully, I'll be done by the end of the week. Also, the scanlation group doing "Arakure" is close to catching up to me, so unless they are straight up posting the Viz translation, I think I will leave that to them and choose another manga summarize. I'll do a quick check -- it appears that's what they did, so after chapter 21 they are out of material ... haha ...okay ... I'll keep posting.

My Fuzzyshot Blog and Other Stuff

My life is truly boring. Now you can see the extent of this. Visit: http://fuzzyshot.com/kuroneko003 There's a link on the sidebar too.

Sigh ... I got side-tracked by "Special A". I read the chapter one or two chapters after Kei kisses Hikari in the jail. Poor Aoi gets gastritis from stress and ends up in the hospital. He gives up on trying to bring Kei to London and realizes that he, too, is in love with Hikari. It's a really good chapter.

Oh, some group has either scanned or scanlated Arakure upto chapter 19. Go find it and enjoy yourself. You also can go by the manga at your nearest bookstore :).

Kuroneko -- Self Teaching Adobe Illustrator

Check it out!


Here is my first Adobe Illustrator drawing! Yep! In the light of getting sacked, I'm learning new skills. I'm already pretty good with paper and pencil and brush and canvas, so now I'm learning the Adobe web design tools set so I can hopefully move more towards web-design and software -- actually I'm looking for a management position because I've been an engineer for 10-yrs. Still I have to know the tools :).

Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I will be able to point you all to a functioning website in addition to this blog. Yep, I'm learning fast -- I'm also taking Flash :). Buwahahaha!!!

Here's version 1.o