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foxinthestarsAnother After 0 story! In this one, a budding archaeologist puts it all on the line to solve the puzzle of an ancient hidden treasure! (And yes, I did translate the infamous newspaper panel as best I could.)
As before, the link leads to a zip with mediocre scans and a translated (rtf) script:
http://www.uploadstation.com/file/Zm6aJrt/after0_1-03.zip
(If you find the link dead, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.)
ETA: When I first posted this one, I forgot to include the script like I usually do, so here that is:
After 0
by Okazaki Jirou
Shogakukan Bunko Edition
Volume 1
ISBN # 978-4-09-196181-5
Chapter 3
[63, story title]
Panel 1:
Narration: “Episode 3”
The Parched Earth’s Water City
Along the Silk Road, looking out over the eternal peaks of the Kunlun Mountains, stood the city of Shata Pitoul.
[64]
Panel 1:
Narration: In the mid-seventh century, Shata Pitoul, one of the oasis city-states...
had such an abundance of springs that it was called “The Water City,” and it flourished even as the South Road through western China was abandoned.
Panel 2:
Narration: In 1901, Sven Hedin’s exploration party uncovered a strange fountain in its ruins.
Panel 3:
Narration: In the center of the fountain, beside a map of the city, was an inscription.
Panel 4:
Narration: It read---
When the warm light of the sun
Stretches forth
After four years
Look at me
And the door to the hidden treasure
Will open
[65]
Panel 1:
Narration: Scholars at the time hypothesized that the treasure was real and that its present value could be incredible, even exceeding 30 billion dollars.
And so, people searched...
Panel 2:
Narration: In 1985, as a result of the Chinese government’s liberalizing policies opening its western region to foreign investigators for the first time in half a century...
the American Ingulf Corporation offered a 10 million dollar prize to anyone who could find where the treasure was hidden.
Panel 3:
Namiko (thinking): Still...
Panel 4:
Namiko (thinking): I still can’t figure anything but the light.
Panel 5:
Caption: February 10th, 1989, K University Department of Archaeology
SFX: muttering
Namiko (thinking): That’s what I keep coming back to... but... the four-year period...
[66]
Panel 1:
SFX: muttering
Namiko (thinking): Aagh, the more I think about it the less sense it makes...
‘When the warm light of the sun... stretches forth after four years... look at me... and the door to the hidden treasure... will open...’
Panel 2:
Babyfaced Colleague: By the way, Sempai, it looks like Tatsuishi-san is going to present something at next week’s conference, too.
SFX: !! (startled)
Panel 3:
Babyface: Is it true that you have a bet with him?
Panel 4:
No text
Panel 5:
Narration (Namiko): My name is Yuuki Namiko. I’m an Assistant in the Archaeology Department of K University. Right now I’m wracking my brain over the puzzle of the ruins.
...Well, the whole thing started in the Spring of last year...
Panel 6:
Man: Tatsuishi-kun, get some pictures from the side, too.
[67]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): When we set out to solve the mystery, of course it was because of the Ingulf Corporation prize money.
Panel 2:
Squinty Professor: We’re the first investigators here since Ootani’s party in 1914... Incredible.
Panel 3:
Babyface: Professor! It’s right about here, isn’t it, that the fountain was?
The wall is just about two meters tall.
Panel 4:
Narration (Namiko): This is a reproduction of how the fountain was situated at the time. It seems to have been used as an altar for various ceremonies.
Panel 5:
Namiko: Siiigh...
[68]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): We just see a shadow of it now, but according to the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions,” Shata Pitoul cultivated many kinds of crops, growing bamboo and even pine trees.
Panel 2:
Narration (Namiko): It also says that in its golden age, the city contained so much treasure that three hundred horses couldn’t carry it away.
But even a prosperous place like that lost out to a climate shift.
Panel 3:
Narration (Namiko): When the water dried up...
...So did the city...
Panel 4:
Namiko: Kunlun Mountains...
Only you saw it all. Only you know it all.
Panel 5:
Squinty: Anyway, let’s start by reconstructing the fountain.
If we can see it in actual operation, I’m sure it will give us some kind of hint.
[69]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): We had already visited the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and closely examined their replica of the fountain.
Portly Professor: We’ll go from there and hear from everyone.
Next year, we’ll plan on sending a representative to Ingulf with the best idea.
Panel 1:
Squinty: And then the door to a thirty billion dollar treasure will be opened.
Panel 3:
Babyface: Yeah... I’m getting all excited.
Panel 4:
No text
Panel 5:
Tatsuishi: What!?
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: The engagement’s off!?
What is this?
Panel 7:
Namiko: You’re just too selfish to understand.
Panel 8:
Namiko: Once this is over, I’m going to Bon University... The authority on the Silk Road, Professor Glen, is there, and I plan to knock on his door.
[70]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: Ha ha ha ha ha!! Are you kidding me!? Do you seriously think he’ll take you as his student!?
Panel 2:
Tatsuishi: Forget about crazy ideas like that and be my wife!!
That’s the best way!!
Panel 3:
Namiko: And be your slave!? No thanks!!
SFX: POW!
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: Y... you!
Panel 5:
Tatsuishi: Wait!!
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: All right, I get it. So let’s make a bet.
Namiko: A bet!?
Panel 7:
Tatsuishi: Yeah, a bet on which one of us can solve the mystery of the fountain.
If you win, the engagement’s off. If I win, you marry me like a good little girl.
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi (flashback): How about it!? Don’t run away if you really believe in that brain of yours.
Namiko (flashback): All right, fine by me!! I don’t intend to lose!
Namiko (present): ......
...It wasn’t that kind of a bet.
[71]
Panel 1:
Caption: February 18th, 6:00 PM
Panel 2:
Squinty: It’s a low-pressure system. Seems like a nasty one.
Portly: Even taxis have stopped running. We might not be able to get home tonight.
Panel 3:
White Hair: This weather is unfortunate, but...
The time has come for us to get closer to the mystery of the fountain.
Panel 4:
White: The presenters are: Professor Terasaki, Assistant Professor Tatsuishi, and from the research staff, Miss Yuuki.
[72]
Panel 1:
White: From among these three, we will choose the one with the most persuasive explanation to send as the university’s representative.
Furthermore, pending the Ingulf Corporation’s approval, they will be provided with five million dollars to fund the excavation.
Panel 2:
No text
Panel 3:
White: Well, then, let us hear Prof. Terasaki’s presentation.
Panel 4:
Squinty: Ahem.
Panel 5:
Map Top Center: Taklamakan Desert
Map Upper Right: Cherchen River
Map Dots Left to Right: Cherchen; Shata Pitoul; Charklik
Map Shaded Band: Kunlun Mountains
Squinty: East Longitude 86 degrees 30 minutes, North Lattitude 38 degrees 50 minutes, at the southern tip of the Taklamakan Desert lies Shata Pitoul, which was known as “The Water City.”
They had the unique ability to build a puzzle into a fountain like this.
[73]
Panel 1:
Squinty: The inscription reads, “When the warm light of the sun stretches forth after four years, look at me, and the door to the hidden treasure will open”...
So first of all, what kind of natural phenomenon would occur every four years?
Panel 2:
Squinty: I believe it was a heat wave.
Panel 3:
Portly: Oh ho.
Panel 4:
Babyface: Ehh...?
Panel 5:
Squinty: Start the water, please.
SFX: shaaaaa
Panel 6:
Squinty: The place where this fountain was installed was about seven meters higher than the surrounding area...
Panel 7:
Squinty: If Shata Pitoul was hit by a heat wave and the water table receded, wouldn’t it dry up a fountain on such high ground?
Panel 8:
Squinty: Then... when the water stopped, something would appear.
Panel 9:
No text
[74]
Panel 1:
Squinty: Now we immediately notice the map of Shata Pitoul and its environs, placed in the center.
This must be a major clue to finding the treasure’s hiding place, wouldn’t you say? And now the next things we notice...
Panel 2:
Squinty: Are these dragon-turtles appearing here and there on the water’s surface.
Panel 3:
Squinty: We can think of these dragon-turtles as guards protecting the water and the treasure.
Panel 4:
Diagram Inner Circle: Map
Squinty: There are four of these dragon-turtles in all, and each one has its face turned toward the map.
If we connect their gazes with straight lines, they intersect above a single point.
Panel 5:
Squinty: I am convinced that this is the location of the treasure.
Panel 6:
White Jacket: Ohh.
Mustache: I see.
Panel 7:
Portly: Hmm...
[75]
Panel 1:
Portly: Just keep it simple... yes...
Babyface: Say, Sempai, if the solution is just stopping the water, why hasn’t anyone noticed by now?
Panel 2:
Babyface: I mean it sat there for 1200 years... with no water.
Namiko: Shh!
Panel 3:
White: And now our next speaker, Miss Yuuki Namiko.
Panel 4:
Namiko: Well, I think Prof. Terasaki’s explanation is a wonderfully logical one.
But...
Panel 5:
Namiko: His interpretation of “The warm light of the sun” is a bit vague.
Panel 6:
Squinty: Ha ha ha. You can call it a figure of speech for a heat wave.
Panel 7:
Namiko: Ohh!? But I think the “light” is very important!
After all the inscription says to look at the fountain when the light shines on it!
[76]
Panel 1:
SFX: Grr...
Panel 2:
Babyface: Ack! Sempai, don’t say it---!
Panel 3:
Namiko: Well, then, what kind of light would be shining on the fountain?
Panel 4:
Namiko: Of course, the light was probably shining on the map.
Panel 5:
Narration (Namiko): But there’s a roof above the map, so light from a high angle couldn’t reach it.
Panel 6:
Narration (Namiko): Plus, there was a wall mostly surrounding the fountain, so...
Namiko: It was light from this direction.
Narration (Namiko): ...for the low-angled light to reach the map, it had to be a certain time in a certain season.
Panel 7:
SFX: click
Panel 8:
Namiko: If my calculations are correct, it would have been autumn, just before sunset during the first ten days of October.
But it wouldn’t have depended only on the light.
[77]
Panel 1:
Namiko: On the right day, the sun would have hit the fountain’s intricate carvings, and cast their shadows onto the map.
Panel 2:
Namiko: And with the movement of the sun, those shadows would slowly change...
Panel 3:
Namiko: Now, look here please. Two of the shadows come together, and the pocket between them gives us a single point of light on the map.
That is where the treasure is!
Panel 4:
Some guy: Ohh.
Some other guy: Mmm.
Namiko: After this, the shadows separate again, and the light passes away.
Panel 5:
Portly: Yes... This is quite good reasoning.
Panel 6:
SFX: muttering (from the crowd)
Panel 7:
Tatsuishi: I see...
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: It’s perfect.
I think your explanation is entirely correct... up to this point.
[78]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: So, what is it that happens once in four years?
Panel 2:
Namiko: ...Well... that’s... actually... I haven’t just yet...
Panel 3:
Tatsuishi: Not just yet...? Then isn’t your explanation incomplete!?
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: Is that so? I see!
Well, then, everyone, allow me to present the rest of Miss Yuuki’s reasoning, since her explanation and mine happen to be exactly the same.
Panel 5:
Namiko: Wha!?
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: Well then, the key to the puzzle of the four-year cycle is a sort of clock that existed in Shata Pitoul.
Panel 7:
Crowd: A clock!?
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: That’s right.
Panel 9:
Tatsuishi: And that clock was... bamboo!!
Panel 10:
Tatsuishi: Bamboo flowers in anywhere from a few years to a few decades,
and after that, it withers and falls all at once.
[79]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: The blooming cycle is determined by the rate of carbon buildup in the stalk, and is said to be faster in arid regions.
So, what if the cycle of this bamboo was four years!?
Panel 2:
Narration (Tatsuishi): In spring of a certain year, the bamboo would be planted outside the entrance. Considering its rapid rate of growth, by autumn, it would already be thick enough to block the sunlight.
Panel 3:
Narration (Tatsuishi): Then in the summer of every fourth year, it would wither and fall, opening the entrance.
By October, nothing would have blocked “the warm light of the sun.”
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: The fact that Shata Pitoul had bamboo is written in the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions”...
This is the secret of the four-year cycle!!
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Portly: I see...
Panel 7:
Namiko: He’s always so sharp...
I was too full of myself after all...
[80]
Panel 1:
Squinty: But did this four-year bamboo really exist?
Tatsuishi: It would take more research to confirm that, but...
Panel 2:
Namiko: Ah!
Panel 3:
No text
Panel 4:
Narration (Namiko): The Kunlun Mountains know it all!!
Panel 5:
White: Well then, Terasaki’s idea or Tatsuishi’s? Which one...
Namiko: Wait!!
Panel 6:
Namiko: Please! Give me until tomorrow morning!!
I’ve just had an idea...!!
Panel 7:
White: And what is it!?
Namiko: I can’t tell you now!! I want to try it! Please!!
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: “Wait”? You’re telling everyone to stay here...?
Panel 9:
Portly: We couldn’t go anywhere in this snow anyway.
[81]
Panel 1:
Vest: It’s all right with me, but what about everyone?
Tall: Same here.
Mustache: Fine by me.
Panel 2:
Portly: Well, there you have it. Call us back when you’re ready. We’ll be in the office.
White: Shall we have a drink...?
Namiko: Th... Thank you very much!!
Panel 3:
SFX: Shaaaaa
Babyface: Um...
Panel 4:
Babyface: Ah!... Sempai!!
Panel 5:
Babyface: S-Sempai!! What are you doing!?
SFX: HYOOOOOO (howling wind)
Panel 6-7:
No text
[82]
Panel 1:
No text
Panel 2:
Dark Gray Jacket: Uaaah!!
Portly: This... this is...
Mustache: I can’t believe it.
Panel 3:
Someone: Everthing’s frozen solid --- even the fountain!!
Panel 4:
Squinty: Yuuki-kun!! What have you done!?
Panel 5:
Namiko: Wait! Please look at the fountain!
Panel 6:
No text
[83]
Panel 1:
No text
Panel 2:
Portly: Wha...!? This shape... it’s like something I’ve seen before?
Panel 3:
Squinty: Yes... it is!!
It... It’s the Kunlun Mountains!?
Panel 4:
Someone: Yes, exactly!! The Kunlun Mountains!!
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Portly: Incredible! When the fountain freezes, it creates a perfect model of the Kunlun Mountains!!
[84]
Panel 1:
Namiko: That’s right! What happened every four years was a cold snap!
We were forgetting that winter in the Taklamakan Desert is bitterly cold. To freeze a fountain with this much water so quickly, a terrible cold snap had to come.
Panel 2:
Squinty: It’s true... We forgot about that.
Panel 3:
Namiko: This is half the puzzle.
When “the warm light of the sun” shines on this fountain, what happens?
Panel 4:
SFX: Huhhm (roar of furnace kicking on)
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Namiko: When the temperature rises... the door to the treasure opens!
Panel 7:
No text
Panel 8:
SFX: Ksssh!!
Everyone: Ohh!!
Sidebar: Desert climates are marked by extremes of heat and cold, with temperatures sometimes varying by tens of degrees C in a single day.
[85]
Panel 1:
Map Top Left: Taklamakan Desert
Map Dashed Line: South Road
Map Dots Left to Right: Cherchen; Shata Pitoul
Map Topographic Lines: Kunlun Mountains.
SFX: Sssshh!
Namiko: Here!!
On the mountainside southeast from Shata Pitoul! This is where the treasure is hidden!!
Panel 2-4:
No text
Panel 5:
Namiko: Tatsuishi-san, what is it?
Panel 6:
No text
[86]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: It’s a letter of recommendation for you, to Prof. Glen.
I requested that the professor write it. Just keep it secret until after the excavation.
Panel 2:
Namiko: Tatsuishi-san...
Panel 3:
Tatsuishi: Anyway, I’m praying the treasure turns up...
Panel 4:
Namiko: ...What’s with this nice guy act?
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Above Headline: (Asa)hi Shimbun
Headline: K UNIVERSITY TEAM FINDS SILK ROAD TREASURE
Beside Photograph: WOMAN OF THE TEAM YUUKI NAMIKO SOLVES THE MYSTERY
Below Photograph: K University team members hold pieces of the treasure, Miss Yuuki at center. 19th (of this month), Cherchen; Ouba, correspondent.
Above Lower Left Photograph: ...exploration
Article Text Row 1: (Translator’s note: Cover me, I’m going in...) Japanese archaeologists have been supporting their Chinese counterparts in recent explorations, bringing insights from such fields as geology and botany. Taking up the unfinished work of the Sino-Swedish Expedition, which Hedin organized with the Chinese in the 20’s and 30’s, these new initiatives aim to shed light on one of the last unexplored regions left on earth, and have opened a new era in Silk Road research with the hope . . .
Article Text Row 2: This fall, Ro-Ran, the mysterious kingdom that flourished on the Silk Road, is being opened to the world for the first time in half a century --- the Sino-Japanese Ro-Ran exploration agreement will be signed on the 2nd. Investigation by foreign teams was cut short by World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and other developments, but now, thanks to China’s liberalizing policies, many countries are reviving their efforts to clear away . . .
Article Text Row 3: . . . for the first time in history, crossing the desert by camel and on foot toward settlements now buried in the sands. Ancient Ro-Ran was the first to send caravans loaded with silks to remote towns, but despite being the oasis of the western regions, the kingdom went into decline and vanished into the darkness of history about 1500 years ago.
Article Text Row 4: (fragments in lower right) . . . working on . . . concluding a treaty of friendship . . . by Asahi Shimbun and . . . together with the Japanese . . . CHINESE GOVERNMENT . . . People’s Republic of China . . . Silk Road . . . liberalizing little by little . . . only the castles . . . coming together . . . was strictly . . . nuclear test . . . extremely . . . was the case . . . (England . . . Ootani . . . was, but . . . (political) party, with . . . western regions . . . . . .
Sidebar: Originally published April 1988.
Notes on fact and fiction: This one was challenging to translate due to lots of references to real proper names---let me just say thank god for the internet. Shata Pitoul appears to have been made up, but Cherchen, Charklik, and the Taklamakan Desert are real places, and finding them on maps led me to believe it was the Kunlun Mountains (I couldn’t quite track down the Japanese “アルティン山脈”). Sven Hedin was a real person, as was Ootani Kouzui, the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” is a real historical document, et cetera.
When I was just looking at the pictures and didn’t understand any of the text, I somehow thought the fountain was an ancient device for controlling weather; I still think that would have been pretty neat...
*Translation by Laura Fox (foxinthestars@yahoo.co.uk; http://foxinthestars.dreamwidth.org), September 2011*
Any rights I hold in my translation, I release under a Creative Commons Attribution license (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ---i.e. as far as I’m concerned, you can do anything you want with it as long as you preserve that line between the asterisks); the rest is between you and the original owners.
This translation was produced as a means of study and should be viewed as student work; I’m sure it’s clumsy and at times inaccurate, but if it will even let you follow the gist of the story, I thought it was better to share it than to hoard it in secret. I hope you get some enjoyment or use out of it.
Hope you enjoy it!
As before, the link leads to a zip with mediocre scans and a translated (rtf) script:
http://www.uploadstation.com/file/Zm6aJrt/after0_1-03.zip
(If you find the link dead, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.)
ETA: When I first posted this one, I forgot to include the script like I usually do, so here that is:
After 0
by Okazaki Jirou
Shogakukan Bunko Edition
Volume 1
ISBN # 978-4-09-196181-5
Chapter 3
[63, story title]
Panel 1:
Narration: “Episode 3”
The Parched Earth’s Water City
Along the Silk Road, looking out over the eternal peaks of the Kunlun Mountains, stood the city of Shata Pitoul.
[64]
Panel 1:
Narration: In the mid-seventh century, Shata Pitoul, one of the oasis city-states...
had such an abundance of springs that it was called “The Water City,” and it flourished even as the South Road through western China was abandoned.
Panel 2:
Narration: In 1901, Sven Hedin’s exploration party uncovered a strange fountain in its ruins.
Panel 3:
Narration: In the center of the fountain, beside a map of the city, was an inscription.
Panel 4:
Narration: It read---
When the warm light of the sun
Stretches forth
After four years
Look at me
And the door to the hidden treasure
Will open
[65]
Panel 1:
Narration: Scholars at the time hypothesized that the treasure was real and that its present value could be incredible, even exceeding 30 billion dollars.
And so, people searched...
Panel 2:
Narration: In 1985, as a result of the Chinese government’s liberalizing policies opening its western region to foreign investigators for the first time in half a century...
the American Ingulf Corporation offered a 10 million dollar prize to anyone who could find where the treasure was hidden.
Panel 3:
Namiko (thinking): Still...
Panel 4:
Namiko (thinking): I still can’t figure anything but the light.
Panel 5:
Caption: February 10th, 1989, K University Department of Archaeology
SFX: muttering
Namiko (thinking): That’s what I keep coming back to... but... the four-year period...
[66]
Panel 1:
SFX: muttering
Namiko (thinking): Aagh, the more I think about it the less sense it makes...
‘When the warm light of the sun... stretches forth after four years... look at me... and the door to the hidden treasure... will open...’
Panel 2:
Babyfaced Colleague: By the way, Sempai, it looks like Tatsuishi-san is going to present something at next week’s conference, too.
SFX: !! (startled)
Panel 3:
Babyface: Is it true that you have a bet with him?
Panel 4:
No text
Panel 5:
Narration (Namiko): My name is Yuuki Namiko. I’m an Assistant in the Archaeology Department of K University. Right now I’m wracking my brain over the puzzle of the ruins.
...Well, the whole thing started in the Spring of last year...
Panel 6:
Man: Tatsuishi-kun, get some pictures from the side, too.
[67]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): When we set out to solve the mystery, of course it was because of the Ingulf Corporation prize money.
Panel 2:
Squinty Professor: We’re the first investigators here since Ootani’s party in 1914... Incredible.
Panel 3:
Babyface: Professor! It’s right about here, isn’t it, that the fountain was?
The wall is just about two meters tall.
Panel 4:
Narration (Namiko): This is a reproduction of how the fountain was situated at the time. It seems to have been used as an altar for various ceremonies.
Panel 5:
Namiko: Siiigh...
[68]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): We just see a shadow of it now, but according to the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions,” Shata Pitoul cultivated many kinds of crops, growing bamboo and even pine trees.
Panel 2:
Narration (Namiko): It also says that in its golden age, the city contained so much treasure that three hundred horses couldn’t carry it away.
But even a prosperous place like that lost out to a climate shift.
Panel 3:
Narration (Namiko): When the water dried up...
...So did the city...
Panel 4:
Namiko: Kunlun Mountains...
Only you saw it all. Only you know it all.
Panel 5:
Squinty: Anyway, let’s start by reconstructing the fountain.
If we can see it in actual operation, I’m sure it will give us some kind of hint.
[69]
Panel 1:
Narration (Namiko): We had already visited the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and closely examined their replica of the fountain.
Portly Professor: We’ll go from there and hear from everyone.
Next year, we’ll plan on sending a representative to Ingulf with the best idea.
Panel 1:
Squinty: And then the door to a thirty billion dollar treasure will be opened.
Panel 3:
Babyface: Yeah... I’m getting all excited.
Panel 4:
No text
Panel 5:
Tatsuishi: What!?
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: The engagement’s off!?
What is this?
Panel 7:
Namiko: You’re just too selfish to understand.
Panel 8:
Namiko: Once this is over, I’m going to Bon University... The authority on the Silk Road, Professor Glen, is there, and I plan to knock on his door.
[70]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: Ha ha ha ha ha!! Are you kidding me!? Do you seriously think he’ll take you as his student!?
Panel 2:
Tatsuishi: Forget about crazy ideas like that and be my wife!!
That’s the best way!!
Panel 3:
Namiko: And be your slave!? No thanks!!
SFX: POW!
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: Y... you!
Panel 5:
Tatsuishi: Wait!!
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: All right, I get it. So let’s make a bet.
Namiko: A bet!?
Panel 7:
Tatsuishi: Yeah, a bet on which one of us can solve the mystery of the fountain.
If you win, the engagement’s off. If I win, you marry me like a good little girl.
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi (flashback): How about it!? Don’t run away if you really believe in that brain of yours.
Namiko (flashback): All right, fine by me!! I don’t intend to lose!
Namiko (present): ......
...It wasn’t that kind of a bet.
[71]
Panel 1:
Caption: February 18th, 6:00 PM
Panel 2:
Squinty: It’s a low-pressure system. Seems like a nasty one.
Portly: Even taxis have stopped running. We might not be able to get home tonight.
Panel 3:
White Hair: This weather is unfortunate, but...
The time has come for us to get closer to the mystery of the fountain.
Panel 4:
White: The presenters are: Professor Terasaki, Assistant Professor Tatsuishi, and from the research staff, Miss Yuuki.
[72]
Panel 1:
White: From among these three, we will choose the one with the most persuasive explanation to send as the university’s representative.
Furthermore, pending the Ingulf Corporation’s approval, they will be provided with five million dollars to fund the excavation.
Panel 2:
No text
Panel 3:
White: Well, then, let us hear Prof. Terasaki’s presentation.
Panel 4:
Squinty: Ahem.
Panel 5:
Map Top Center: Taklamakan Desert
Map Upper Right: Cherchen River
Map Dots Left to Right: Cherchen; Shata Pitoul; Charklik
Map Shaded Band: Kunlun Mountains
Squinty: East Longitude 86 degrees 30 minutes, North Lattitude 38 degrees 50 minutes, at the southern tip of the Taklamakan Desert lies Shata Pitoul, which was known as “The Water City.”
They had the unique ability to build a puzzle into a fountain like this.
[73]
Panel 1:
Squinty: The inscription reads, “When the warm light of the sun stretches forth after four years, look at me, and the door to the hidden treasure will open”...
So first of all, what kind of natural phenomenon would occur every four years?
Panel 2:
Squinty: I believe it was a heat wave.
Panel 3:
Portly: Oh ho.
Panel 4:
Babyface: Ehh...?
Panel 5:
Squinty: Start the water, please.
SFX: shaaaaa
Panel 6:
Squinty: The place where this fountain was installed was about seven meters higher than the surrounding area...
Panel 7:
Squinty: If Shata Pitoul was hit by a heat wave and the water table receded, wouldn’t it dry up a fountain on such high ground?
Panel 8:
Squinty: Then... when the water stopped, something would appear.
Panel 9:
No text
[74]
Panel 1:
Squinty: Now we immediately notice the map of Shata Pitoul and its environs, placed in the center.
This must be a major clue to finding the treasure’s hiding place, wouldn’t you say? And now the next things we notice...
Panel 2:
Squinty: Are these dragon-turtles appearing here and there on the water’s surface.
Panel 3:
Squinty: We can think of these dragon-turtles as guards protecting the water and the treasure.
Panel 4:
Diagram Inner Circle: Map
Squinty: There are four of these dragon-turtles in all, and each one has its face turned toward the map.
If we connect their gazes with straight lines, they intersect above a single point.
Panel 5:
Squinty: I am convinced that this is the location of the treasure.
Panel 6:
White Jacket: Ohh.
Mustache: I see.
Panel 7:
Portly: Hmm...
[75]
Panel 1:
Portly: Just keep it simple... yes...
Babyface: Say, Sempai, if the solution is just stopping the water, why hasn’t anyone noticed by now?
Panel 2:
Babyface: I mean it sat there for 1200 years... with no water.
Namiko: Shh!
Panel 3:
White: And now our next speaker, Miss Yuuki Namiko.
Panel 4:
Namiko: Well, I think Prof. Terasaki’s explanation is a wonderfully logical one.
But...
Panel 5:
Namiko: His interpretation of “The warm light of the sun” is a bit vague.
Panel 6:
Squinty: Ha ha ha. You can call it a figure of speech for a heat wave.
Panel 7:
Namiko: Ohh!? But I think the “light” is very important!
After all the inscription says to look at the fountain when the light shines on it!
[76]
Panel 1:
SFX: Grr...
Panel 2:
Babyface: Ack! Sempai, don’t say it---!
Panel 3:
Namiko: Well, then, what kind of light would be shining on the fountain?
Panel 4:
Namiko: Of course, the light was probably shining on the map.
Panel 5:
Narration (Namiko): But there’s a roof above the map, so light from a high angle couldn’t reach it.
Panel 6:
Narration (Namiko): Plus, there was a wall mostly surrounding the fountain, so...
Namiko: It was light from this direction.
Narration (Namiko): ...for the low-angled light to reach the map, it had to be a certain time in a certain season.
Panel 7:
SFX: click
Panel 8:
Namiko: If my calculations are correct, it would have been autumn, just before sunset during the first ten days of October.
But it wouldn’t have depended only on the light.
[77]
Panel 1:
Namiko: On the right day, the sun would have hit the fountain’s intricate carvings, and cast their shadows onto the map.
Panel 2:
Namiko: And with the movement of the sun, those shadows would slowly change...
Panel 3:
Namiko: Now, look here please. Two of the shadows come together, and the pocket between them gives us a single point of light on the map.
That is where the treasure is!
Panel 4:
Some guy: Ohh.
Some other guy: Mmm.
Namiko: After this, the shadows separate again, and the light passes away.
Panel 5:
Portly: Yes... This is quite good reasoning.
Panel 6:
SFX: muttering (from the crowd)
Panel 7:
Tatsuishi: I see...
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: It’s perfect.
I think your explanation is entirely correct... up to this point.
[78]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: So, what is it that happens once in four years?
Panel 2:
Namiko: ...Well... that’s... actually... I haven’t just yet...
Panel 3:
Tatsuishi: Not just yet...? Then isn’t your explanation incomplete!?
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: Is that so? I see!
Well, then, everyone, allow me to present the rest of Miss Yuuki’s reasoning, since her explanation and mine happen to be exactly the same.
Panel 5:
Namiko: Wha!?
Panel 6:
Tatsuishi: Well then, the key to the puzzle of the four-year cycle is a sort of clock that existed in Shata Pitoul.
Panel 7:
Crowd: A clock!?
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: That’s right.
Panel 9:
Tatsuishi: And that clock was... bamboo!!
Panel 10:
Tatsuishi: Bamboo flowers in anywhere from a few years to a few decades,
and after that, it withers and falls all at once.
[79]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: The blooming cycle is determined by the rate of carbon buildup in the stalk, and is said to be faster in arid regions.
So, what if the cycle of this bamboo was four years!?
Panel 2:
Narration (Tatsuishi): In spring of a certain year, the bamboo would be planted outside the entrance. Considering its rapid rate of growth, by autumn, it would already be thick enough to block the sunlight.
Panel 3:
Narration (Tatsuishi): Then in the summer of every fourth year, it would wither and fall, opening the entrance.
By October, nothing would have blocked “the warm light of the sun.”
Panel 4:
Tatsuishi: The fact that Shata Pitoul had bamboo is written in the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions”...
This is the secret of the four-year cycle!!
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Portly: I see...
Panel 7:
Namiko: He’s always so sharp...
I was too full of myself after all...
[80]
Panel 1:
Squinty: But did this four-year bamboo really exist?
Tatsuishi: It would take more research to confirm that, but...
Panel 2:
Namiko: Ah!
Panel 3:
No text
Panel 4:
Narration (Namiko): The Kunlun Mountains know it all!!
Panel 5:
White: Well then, Terasaki’s idea or Tatsuishi’s? Which one...
Namiko: Wait!!
Panel 6:
Namiko: Please! Give me until tomorrow morning!!
I’ve just had an idea...!!
Panel 7:
White: And what is it!?
Namiko: I can’t tell you now!! I want to try it! Please!!
Panel 8:
Tatsuishi: “Wait”? You’re telling everyone to stay here...?
Panel 9:
Portly: We couldn’t go anywhere in this snow anyway.
[81]
Panel 1:
Vest: It’s all right with me, but what about everyone?
Tall: Same here.
Mustache: Fine by me.
Panel 2:
Portly: Well, there you have it. Call us back when you’re ready. We’ll be in the office.
White: Shall we have a drink...?
Namiko: Th... Thank you very much!!
Panel 3:
SFX: Shaaaaa
Babyface: Um...
Panel 4:
Babyface: Ah!... Sempai!!
Panel 5:
Babyface: S-Sempai!! What are you doing!?
SFX: HYOOOOOO (howling wind)
Panel 6-7:
No text
[82]
Panel 1:
No text
Panel 2:
Dark Gray Jacket: Uaaah!!
Portly: This... this is...
Mustache: I can’t believe it.
Panel 3:
Someone: Everthing’s frozen solid --- even the fountain!!
Panel 4:
Squinty: Yuuki-kun!! What have you done!?
Panel 5:
Namiko: Wait! Please look at the fountain!
Panel 6:
No text
[83]
Panel 1:
No text
Panel 2:
Portly: Wha...!? This shape... it’s like something I’ve seen before?
Panel 3:
Squinty: Yes... it is!!
It... It’s the Kunlun Mountains!?
Panel 4:
Someone: Yes, exactly!! The Kunlun Mountains!!
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Portly: Incredible! When the fountain freezes, it creates a perfect model of the Kunlun Mountains!!
[84]
Panel 1:
Namiko: That’s right! What happened every four years was a cold snap!
We were forgetting that winter in the Taklamakan Desert is bitterly cold. To freeze a fountain with this much water so quickly, a terrible cold snap had to come.
Panel 2:
Squinty: It’s true... We forgot about that.
Panel 3:
Namiko: This is half the puzzle.
When “the warm light of the sun” shines on this fountain, what happens?
Panel 4:
SFX: Huhhm (roar of furnace kicking on)
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Namiko: When the temperature rises... the door to the treasure opens!
Panel 7:
No text
Panel 8:
SFX: Ksssh!!
Everyone: Ohh!!
Sidebar: Desert climates are marked by extremes of heat and cold, with temperatures sometimes varying by tens of degrees C in a single day.
[85]
Panel 1:
Map Top Left: Taklamakan Desert
Map Dashed Line: South Road
Map Dots Left to Right: Cherchen; Shata Pitoul
Map Topographic Lines: Kunlun Mountains.
SFX: Sssshh!
Namiko: Here!!
On the mountainside southeast from Shata Pitoul! This is where the treasure is hidden!!
Panel 2-4:
No text
Panel 5:
Namiko: Tatsuishi-san, what is it?
Panel 6:
No text
[86]
Panel 1:
Tatsuishi: It’s a letter of recommendation for you, to Prof. Glen.
I requested that the professor write it. Just keep it secret until after the excavation.
Panel 2:
Namiko: Tatsuishi-san...
Panel 3:
Tatsuishi: Anyway, I’m praying the treasure turns up...
Panel 4:
Namiko: ...What’s with this nice guy act?
Panel 5:
No text
Panel 6:
Above Headline: (Asa)hi Shimbun
Headline: K UNIVERSITY TEAM FINDS SILK ROAD TREASURE
Beside Photograph: WOMAN OF THE TEAM YUUKI NAMIKO SOLVES THE MYSTERY
Below Photograph: K University team members hold pieces of the treasure, Miss Yuuki at center. 19th (of this month), Cherchen; Ouba, correspondent.
Above Lower Left Photograph: ...exploration
Article Text Row 1: (Translator’s note: Cover me, I’m going in...) Japanese archaeologists have been supporting their Chinese counterparts in recent explorations, bringing insights from such fields as geology and botany. Taking up the unfinished work of the Sino-Swedish Expedition, which Hedin organized with the Chinese in the 20’s and 30’s, these new initiatives aim to shed light on one of the last unexplored regions left on earth, and have opened a new era in Silk Road research with the hope . . .
Article Text Row 2: This fall, Ro-Ran, the mysterious kingdom that flourished on the Silk Road, is being opened to the world for the first time in half a century --- the Sino-Japanese Ro-Ran exploration agreement will be signed on the 2nd. Investigation by foreign teams was cut short by World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and other developments, but now, thanks to China’s liberalizing policies, many countries are reviving their efforts to clear away . . .
Article Text Row 3: . . . for the first time in history, crossing the desert by camel and on foot toward settlements now buried in the sands. Ancient Ro-Ran was the first to send caravans loaded with silks to remote towns, but despite being the oasis of the western regions, the kingdom went into decline and vanished into the darkness of history about 1500 years ago.
Article Text Row 4: (fragments in lower right) . . . working on . . . concluding a treaty of friendship . . . by Asahi Shimbun and . . . together with the Japanese . . . CHINESE GOVERNMENT . . . People’s Republic of China . . . Silk Road . . . liberalizing little by little . . . only the castles . . . coming together . . . was strictly . . . nuclear test . . . extremely . . . was the case . . . (England . . . Ootani . . . was, but . . . (political) party, with . . . western regions . . . . . .
Sidebar: Originally published April 1988.
Notes on fact and fiction: This one was challenging to translate due to lots of references to real proper names---let me just say thank god for the internet. Shata Pitoul appears to have been made up, but Cherchen, Charklik, and the Taklamakan Desert are real places, and finding them on maps led me to believe it was the Kunlun Mountains (I couldn’t quite track down the Japanese “アルティン山脈”). Sven Hedin was a real person, as was Ootani Kouzui, the “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” is a real historical document, et cetera.
When I was just looking at the pictures and didn’t understand any of the text, I somehow thought the fountain was an ancient device for controlling weather; I still think that would have been pretty neat...
*Translation by Laura Fox (foxinthestars@yahoo.co.uk; http://foxinthestars.dreamwidth.org), September 2011*
Any rights I hold in my translation, I release under a Creative Commons Attribution license (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ---i.e. as far as I’m concerned, you can do anything you want with it as long as you preserve that line between the asterisks); the rest is between you and the original owners.
This translation was produced as a means of study and should be viewed as student work; I’m sure it’s clumsy and at times inaccurate, but if it will even let you follow the gist of the story, I thought it was better to share it than to hoard it in secret. I hope you get some enjoyment or use out of it.
Hope you enjoy it!
