a doujin book from japan from crackjaw~
"Boylife" #1. Basically just everything happening here right now is fine.
Meant to do a lo-effort trans like "then boners is really gets going on dis paeges......" but found myself increasingly enamored, like upon an already well-built foundation of enamoredness, with nobingo's writing and depth of insight. Like, even if her fanon pov isn't in tune with your fanon pov, and even if unlike me you live every day in glorious freedom from any inborn tendency to examine all things including doujin porno books so closely that soon your view on the combined whole of them loses all rational perspective and you begin to question whether the things that prompted the initial examination are even legitimately there or if you just need to go outsalkfhsadlfkjsa, ngl dawggs it's kind of an incredible fanwork. Shakespearian, humbling, fearless, inexpensive, culturally nominal. With it nobingo dares us to ask, Uhh is Lo-Fi-Fnk really that good? and, Where's the porn since iirc this was rated R-18 on the web site. I hope at some point K will do it justice because I am telling you right now, I am going to fuck this up.
~FIRST STORY~
So one day Raidou has to do a book report for school and he asks Narumi to lend him a book to do the report on.
NARUMI: Maps... encyclopedias... how about this?
RAIDOU: Thank you very much.
NARUMI: Waittt wait.
RAIDOU: Is something the matter?
NARUMI: That book's no good. If you used it for your report, we'd get a call from your school. / Hmm. / It doesn't have to be a novel, does it? So long as it's educational.
So Narumi decides to lend Raidou a book of poems that he himself has clearly been reading because Narumi has to go upstairs to get it from his bedroom. Which he tries to be cool about even though the mere thought of sharing his feelings for the book with Raidou makes him /////. Apparently Tae's publishing company is doing something new (? maybe that's what it says) with small-time authors (?whatever it doesn't matter), and this is one of the books, which Tae has left behind.
RAIDOU: Poems?
NARUMI: That's right. Sorry I wasn't able to give you something better to work with. At least it's one of [the author's] best--
RAIDOU: No, this is fine. Thank you very much.
NARUMI: (thinking) ....Sincere? ....Polite?
Then Narumi and Tae are hanging out and Tae says a pageful of stuff I can't figure out about (???) how the notion of turning one's deepest thoughts into writing is kind of nostalgic to her. And that in order to write well one must understand how people function and feel, which takes talent. But talent doesn't make up for the lack of literary experience, or for lack of discipline when editing, so the stuff that comes of it is often kind of unpolished (???)
NARUMI: It's a good book. Don't judge until you've read it. / Something written out of passion and yearning, even if it's a dime-novel, has potential to seize the heart. / Even if it's cheap, even if it's outdated, or hackneyed, or lacking in skill. Someone is going to see the value in it.
TAE: Wait a minute, you mean this book is dime novel poetry??
Then later Raidou finishes his book report and gives the poem book back to Narumi, all, "Arigatou gozaimashita."
N: Sure, anytime. Done with the report?
R: Hai.
Then they just stand there in silence, and then Narumi is like SIGH.
N: Now look here, you can't just end with the ending. Let's have a proper conversation.
Raidou is sincerely all, "Tabekunai desuka?" Which I think is like, because it is dinnertime and Raidou concludes that Narumi must have skipped lunch.
N: With clients it's fine to keep things brief, / but for people living under one roof, the same sort of thing is troubling. / At home, one should be able to breathe easily!
(At which point Raidou chokes on the smoke and Narumi is like SORRY SORRY)
R: //////// ...I will try my best.
N: Right, yes, go ahead. / So? / What are your thoughts?
R: ........................................
R: ........................................ My heart
N: gk
R: could not respond to this at all. / The color of the leaves, the sound of the rain, the pain of wounds, all of it was described too trivially. / The passages on nature were unrealistic, the metaphors did not reflect the things they referenced, and I could not relate to any of the events or characters.
N: ...so you couldn't get into it?
R: Hai.
N: And that's what you wrote?
R: That's what I wrote.
N: (narr) ...Oyoy.
R: ...I will go prepare dinner.
N: Say, .... / If... the next time you want something to read, / feel free to just look around the shelves here.
R: ....... ? / Hai.
Anyway so then Narumi is depressed by the day's events, and while going to bed he has this long inner monologue about poetry and feelings. I only wish I could reproduce more faithfully because it's so good like a victorian diary:
"For those... who live their lives in flawless service of an ideal... isn't there a point where one no longer needs to be human?
An existence totally dedicated to perfecting the means by which they carry out their duty... One doesn't even need to have a name. Having skill becomes enough.
There's a bitter sort of word for it:
Yuurei.
Only sixteen or so, but already with such solemn eyes. There's no room there for the feelings stirred by a poem, and so in time even the capacity to feel them will be gone...
No. That's not it. I'm certain he's...
I don't know. But slowly, slowly in the dark, by the faint light of a lantern...
Oh Raidou.
There is so much simple beauty in this world.
I hope that one day you too will find the kind of poetry that brings you to tears in the middle of the night."
***
Raidou's mature reliably narrated story ~STORY 2~
Some time later Raidou gets stuck in the parallel universe overnight. Due to a rainstorm or some other plot device idk
NARUMI2: Well I'll be. / Remarkable, you two look exactly alike... Just as I'd heard.
RAIDO: He's not my twin.
Narumi2 is all, "Heh, the good twin." And there's all this supertextual stuff to the way he puts it about "pinouts" that I don't understand because i don't understand electronics, but apparently Narumi2's joke here is that in the audiovisual instruction manual of the multiverse there's a table for which socket takes which jack I am probably not even making this up
RAIDO: Guess I'd better lend you a hand with drying your things. / This place doesn't need two houseboys.
RAIDOU: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
RAIDO: It's no big deal, don't mention it. / He'll be out out on a case all day, so I'm basically off the clock.
NARUMI2: "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," huh. / There's something I don't hear every day. / Did you catch that, furyoshounen?
RAIDO: .......
NARUMI2: ...See, it's not so hard to say. You ought to oblige me once in a while. / Clients barely ever say it, either...
Then later Raidou is helping Raido set up some crash space, and the two make small talks.
RAIDO: Sorry about all the dust.
RAIDOU: Being out of the rain is help enough. Gouto hates getting wet.
RAIDO: Haha, that's something we have in common. Naturally. / You wouldn't be getting back tonight, anyway. / I've done my own share of sleeping outdoors, / so go ahead and make yourself at home.
RAIDOU: ...You seem surprisingly at ease around Narumi-san.
RAIDO: At ease? / Well... / I was taught from birth that if I didn't mind my manners I would be no more than a bum, never mind the guardian of the Capital, and that then I would be finished. / And still I couldn't even do it for a month. / ........................ / So the Narumi from your world is different? / What's he like?
Raidou is like (゜ヘ゜）.......................... for idk hours until he is by himself at night and starts coming up with things he could have responded with. This is the order of the things he comes up with:
"Never on time with rent payments. When going out to drink - the same problem. Lots of energy and very determined, even when things are hopeless.
Always smiling.
Incredibly kind. To everyone.
NARUMI: What do you think, Raidou?
Even though my personal feelings on the subject shouldn't matter.
But also...
There are times when I look at him and see a person I don't recognize.
'What's he like?'"
Then Raidou goes to wash off his horniness idk and in rapid succession hears and sees necking being gotten up to by Raido and Narumi2.
GOUTO: What's wrong... Can't sleep? / Raidou?
RAIDOU: It's all right.
Then he continues thinking thoughts about about some stuff Raido said to him earlier.
RAIDO: When it comes to our parallel worlds, / the pinouts don't exactly fit right, do they. / You and I are different in too many ways. / And yet, at the same time, we are not complete strangers, either. It's uncanny. / I am, so to speak, a comrade you might never have met. / Had you made a different choice, stepped out with your left foot rather than your right... All this began from something insignificant.
RAIDOU: (narr) Up to this point, have I ever chosen anything for myself?
RAIDOU: (thought bubble) I didn't think for myself, either.
RAIDOU: (narr) He makes his own choices. He grasps them tightly. / And then, from here on out, from this option picked out of all possible options, stem new possibilities.
NARUMI: What do you think, Raidou?