White Album 2 manga
Volume 1, chapter 6
Page 173
173.1
Caption: March
Chapter title: SESSION06
Unreaching Love
Caption: Graduation
Instructor: Isamu Aoyama.
Aoyama: Yes.
173.2
Instructor: Setsuna Ogiso.
Setsuna: Yes.
Haruki: …
Page 174
174.1
Narration: That day—that snowy day—I don’t remember how I got home.
Narration: All I know is that, when I woke up, Setsuna was at my place… She came to take care of me, even though it meant slipping out of her own birthday party.
Page 175
175.1
Narration: In a mess of guilt, I took the ring that I had planned to give her and hid it away in my desk drawer.
Narration: I didn’t believe, at this point, that I had any right to give it to her.
175.2
Instructor: Sho Katou.
Katou: Yes.
Narration: Two weeks have passed since then, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to give her that ring.
175.3
Instructor: Haruki Kitahara.
Haruki: Yes.
FX: Stand
175.4
Instructor: Haruki Kitahara, class 3-E, your diploma. …Same as the above.
Page 176
176.1
Instructor: Shunichirou Kuno.
Kuno: Yes.
FX: Scoot
176.2
Instructor: Kazusa Touma.
FX: Blink
176.3
Instructor: …Kiyomi Narahashi.
Narahashi: Yes.
176.4
Narration: After that, Touma came to school only once, on Setsuna’s birthday…
Kazusa: After graduation…
Kazusa: I’m going to Vienna.
Narration: and announced that she was leaving us.
Page 177
177.1
Setsuna: But… Why…?
177.2
Kazusa: I’m going to live with my mother, and study the piano in the best place for it.
177.3
Setsuna: So, Kazusa… you still…
Kazusa: Yes, because I love the piano, and my mother.
177.4
Kazusa: It’s time I learned some filial piety.
Kazusa: From now on, I’m going to work on becoming a good person like you, Setsuna.
Page 178
178.1
Instructor: Next, the formal address.
Instructor: Graduate representative Haruki Kitahara, class 3-E.
Haruki: Yes.
178.2
Kazusa: Some day…
I’ll come back.
Kazusa: So, you and Kitahara… had better be here for me, like you are now.
178.3
Haruki: I recall three years ago…
That bright, clear day in spring, when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and a warm breeze blew…
Page 179
179.1
Takeya: Hey, Haruki, happy graduation.
179.2
Takeya: Listen, will you give me a button?
I ran out of all my spares.
Haruki: You really never change…
179.3
Takeya: Huh? You’re still wearing your second button.
You oughtta give that to Setsuna-chan.
Haruki: No, I…
179.5
Takeya: Haruki, who are you trying to be faithful to?
Takeya: …It’s somebody else, isn’t it?
179.6
Takeya: Get over there, okay?
179.7
Takeya: To your girlfriend.
Page 180
180.1
Haruki: Hey… Happy graduation.
Setsuna: You, too, Haruki-kun.
180.2
Setsuna: …Um…
180.3
Setsuna: I think…
Setsuna: Kazusa was here.
180.4
Haruki: Huh…?
180.5
Setsuna: There was a letter inside my desk… It wasn’t there when I came this morning.
Setsuna: Kazusa was here!
Page 181
181.2
Takeya: Haruki!
181.3
Narration: Touma was here… Here where I could have reached her, if I had just run a short distance…
181.4
Narration: Touma…!
Page 182
182.1
FX: Huff
182.5
FX: Fwump
FX: Pant pant
Page 183
183.1
Narration: Is this it…? Am I not going to get to see her…?
183.2
FX: Clench
183.4
FX !
183.5
Haruki: Touma!
183.6
Kazusa: …Hey, Kitahara.
Page 184
184.1
Haruki: Where are you?! Where are you right now?!
Kazusa: Eh, well… Somewhere far away… I guess?
184.2
Haruki: Ugh… Ggh…
184.3
Kazusa: Hey, don’t cry, Kitahara… You’re a guy. That’s just shameful.
184.4
Kazusa: At least send me off with a smile.
This is… our last conversation, after all.
184.5
Haruki: Don’t say it’s the last!
Haruki: I… Touma, I…
Page 185
185.1
Kazusa: Stop.
185.2
Haruki: Touma!
Haruki: I lo—
FX: Wee-oo wee-oo
185.3
FX: Wee-oo wee-oo
185.4
Narration: I just heard that siren through my window at the same time…!
FX: Dash
185.5
Kazusa: It’s snowing…
Page 186
186.1
Kazusa: Hey, Kitahara…
186.2
Kazusa: …I can call you this, now that everything is ending, right?
Haruki: Touma…
186.3
Kazusa: Haruki…
Every time I see the snow, I’ll remember.
Kazusa: Even if it’s from a faraway sky, I swear I’ll remember…
186.4
Kazusa: So…
Haruki: Found you.
Page 187
187.1
Haruki: Touma…
187.2
Haruki: I love you.
187.3
Kazusa: I loved you, too…
187.4
Kazusa: So, when Setsuna took you away from me, it hurt… It hurt so much…!
187.5
Kazusa: Haruki…!
Page 188
188.1
Kazusa: I want you…
to call me “Kazusa,” too.
188.2
Haruki: Kazusa…
188.3
Kazusa: Haruki…
Kazusa: Haruki…!
188.4
Kazusa: I’m sorry… Setsuna…
Narration: Whispering this from within my arms, Kazusa quietly entrusted herself to me.
Page 189
189.1
FX: Click
189.4
FX: Creak
189.5
Letter: Setsuna,
I hope you will forgive me for ending things this way. Tomorrow, I will be going to Vienna.
I’m leaving Japan on a two o’clock flight.
I don’t need anyone to see me off. If you will simply think of me at that time tomorrow, and wish me well in your mind, that is enough.
I’m sorry that this is so sudden.
I’m sorry for staying quiet about this until right before.
I’m truly sorry I couldn’t go to the graduation ceremony with you.
Page 190
190.1
Letter: I’m sorry for breaking the promise that the three of us would always be together.
Setsuna: Kazusaaa…!
Letter: Everything is my fault—Kazusa Touma’s fault.
190.2
Letter: Some day… No, it’s not likely. I doubt we will ever see each other again.
Be well. Stay close with Kitahara.
Page 191
191.1
FX: Squeeze
191.2
FX: Bip bip bip
191.3
FX: Kiss
191.4
Setsuna: Please… Pick up, Haruki-kun…!
191.5
FX: Rrrring
191.6
FX; Rrrring
191.7
FX: Rrrring
Page 192
192.2
Haruki: Kazusa…?
192.4
Haruki: Ah…
192.5
Narration: While I was asleep, Kazusa disappeared.
192.6
Narration: But, we proved our feelings for each other.
Isn’t that enough?
Page 193
193.4
FX: Bang
Setsuna: Haruki-kun?!
193.5
Haruki: Setsuna…
Page 194
194.1
Setsuna: I’m sorry… I couldn’t get through to you on the phone…
Setsuna: And… the door was unlocked.
194.2
Setsuna: Um, Haruki-kun…
Kazusa is leaving on a flight at two o’clock…
194.4
Haruki: Oh…
Narration: So, that’s why it happened last night?
Page 195
195.1
Setsuna: Let’s go, Haruki-kun.
Haruki: No, thanks…
195.2
Setsuna: Why? You don’t know when we’ll be able to see her again.
She’s our best friend, you know?
FX: Jerk
Haruki: No, I don’t need to!
195.3
Haruki: Actually, I have something to tell you.
195.5
Haruki: Look, Setsuna, I…
FX: Shake
Setsuna: I can’t listen to this…
195.6
Haruki: It’s important.
Page 196
196.1
Setsuna: I have something important to do, too.
Setsuna: I have to see Kazusa!
196.2
Setsuna: So, you can tell me in the car on the way to the airport.
196.3
Setsuna: Otherwise, I refuse to hear it.
196.4
Setsuna: Let’s go, Haruki-kun.
Setsuna: It’s not over for us yet.
Page 197
197.2
Setsuna: It looks like it’s going to snow.
197.3
Haruki: Why… aren’t you blaming me?
197.4
Narration: I promised to date Setsuna…
and I acted as though I were.
197.5
Narration: And yet, I couldn’t suppress my feelings for somebody else.
197.6
Narration: The day of the birthday party.
The day of my first betrayal.
Page 198
198.1
Narration: The day I called her “Kazusa.”
198.2
Setsuna: I could get mad, but… it all sort of went along with my predictions.
198.3
Setsuna: I knew how you felt, and I knew how Kazusa felt.
Setsuna: I knew everything, and I still forced myself in.
198.4
Setsuna: But… If there was one thing I wasn’t able to predict…
Setsuna: it was that you two would be so tragically serious.
Setsuna: That was completely different from what I forecasted.
Setsuna: And that’s why we fell apart.
Page 199
199.1
Narration: Stop, Setsuna…
199.2
Setsuna: I’m sorry, Haruki-kun. I betrayed you, too.
199.3
Setsuna: When I asked you out…
it wasn’t because I wanted…
Setsuna: to date you.
199.4
Setsuna: I just wanted the three of us to stay together.
I didn’t want you to leave me out.
Narration: Don’t force yourself to defend the likes of me…
Setsuna: That was the only reason I made my bid to be your girlfriend.
199.5
Setsuna: Because, if I didn’t wedge myself in…
the two of you would have gotten closer and closer.
Setsuna: I didn’t want to be left all alone…
So I tried to balance things, so we could stay as the three of us.
Page 200
200.1
Setsuna: I knew…
FX: Clench
Setsuna: that if I got to you before Kazusa told you how she felt…
I could win.
200.2
Setsuna: I knew that you wouldn’t push away…
Setsuna: someone who said she loved you, and needed you.
200.3
Setsuna: I knew that it would hurt both you and Kazusa.
And yet, I did it, just for my sake.
200.4
Setsuna: So, really, you haven’t betrayed me, Haruki-kun.
Page 201
201.1
Narration: Setsuna just keeps piling words upon clumsy words, all for the sake of lessening my own culpability…
201.2
Setsuna: But…
if losing Kazusa makes you lonely…
Haruki: Stop, Setsuna… Stop…
Setsuna: If you could just…
like me a little more…
201.3
Setsuna: You could…
make me a substitute for Kazusa, you know?
Haruki: Stop!
201.4
Setsuna: …
Setsuna: I think… it’s going to start snowing.
Page 202
202.3
Setsuna: Vienna… Will it be a direct flight, I wonder?
Setsuna: Anyway, let’s go check the gates of all the flights to Europe!
202.4
Setsuna: Come on, Haruki-kun, don’t look so down!
Setsuna: Let’s go! I just know we’ll find her.
202.6
FX: Turn
Page 203
203.1
FX: Dash
203.2
Haruki: Why are you looking away from me…
Touma?!
FX: Tackle
203.3
Kazusa: Stop, Haruki…
Kazusa: Setsuna is…!
203.4
Kazusa: …!
Kazusa: Mm…!
Page 204
204.2
Setsuna: Let’s go… Haruki-kun.
204.4
Setsuna: You’re going to freeze.
Why don’t we at least go back inside the airport?
204.5
Setsuna: Haruki-kun…
204.6
Setsuna: If you don’t move, I’m… going to misunderstand, you know?
Setsuna: I’m going to think that you’re only accepting me because you’re so sad.
Page 205
205.1
Setsuna: I’m going to jump to the worst conclusion…
Narration: With all her strength, she endured, forced herself to forgive me, held every bit of pain she had within herself, all for my sake.
And still, even in the face of Setsuna’s kindness, my head was full of nothing but Kazusa…
and all I did, all I could do, was stand perfectly still, watching the snow, just as I had that day.
Page 206
206.1
Header: Beyond the Introductory Chapter—
Text: Setsuna, Kazusa, and Haruki’s story continues—
COMING SOON
Page 207
207.1 Special Thanks
Fumiaki Maruto-san (editorial supervision)
Mizuno-san (tone assistant)
Yoten Sugiura-san (manager)