Toradora Spin-off! - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

Author's Notes
While typing this postscript I’m thinking, “Isn’t this PC incredibly dirty?”

I’ve got a cold, and can’t stop coughing and sneezing. My monitor and keyboard, right in front of me, are getting the cold virus every time I blow on them. And look at me! Grabbing and eating bread with my hands contaminated from the keyboard… I’m amazed.

Now, for all the wonderful fans of "Toradora Spinoff 2!" Thank you very much for having taken it (and read it)! I expect we be meeting again shortly, on schedule, with "Toradora 10!" Thank you for your continued interest!

With this schedule to meet, it is not a good time to catch a cold ... I am in a sad state. Until I reached twenty-five years of age, if I felt I was "coming down with a cold", I could get better by the next morning if I got enough sleep that night. But recently, I can’t stop it at "coming down with a cold". Whatever medicine I drink, however much I sleep, whatever I eat, whatever vitamin supplements I take, ... I get sick 100% of the time. And in spite of serious relaxation, I don’t get better. I go to the hospital, but don’t get better. For at least three whole days, I feel unable to manage life in this world.

In the past this would not be ... and until the third year in high school, I, too, had the energy to run around in bloomers. (In that long lost time, bloomers were still OK in public.) Now, I think that if I were to wear bloomers while rolling on the floor-mat, I would catch my death of cold. Mainly for social reasons ... or perhaps because of those bloomers.

Why would I only wear that sort of pants while quietly exercising? When I was an ordinary, medium sized school-girl, the gymnastics festival became a meeting of about 500 bloomer-clad bottoms, something which I now think was a madhouse. Even though all that was only twelve years ago, somehow it feels strangely distant from the present. Twelve years...? The time it takes for a newborn to become a sixth-grader...?

Setting old memories aside, I must have a weakened immune system. Ha! I want to spend my time happy, since I have heard that laughing strengthens your immune system. But when I look up, those cursed words (the AK-47 pun from before) come into view.

Oh, I'm frozen. Looking back seriously and reflecting on the joke I wrote, I am thrilled.

Now then, everybody! I truly thank you very much for sticking with us to the end! Next, on to editing "Toradora 10!" I am determined to grind this cold virus to dust, while praying for my fans to receive and enjoy this book.

And, at the present time (January 2009), Zekkyou-sensei’s manga is being serialized, and the anime is being televised. Both works, from the author’s point of view, are top-notch. By all means please check them out!

Takemiya Yuyuko

Translator's Notes
Horses
↑Takemiya is referencing a fairly well known proverb in Japanese, "天高く馬肥ゆる秋", which translates to roughly "Autumn with the sky clear and blue, and horses growing stout." The title of this story, "虎、肥ゆる秋" alludes to this quotation as well. The only difference is that the proverb refers to horses, and the title to tigers.

Aunt Squad
↑The author is having a little bit of fun here. Referring to the group of older ladies crowding about and constantly chattering, she uses the words おばさん軍団 (obasan gundan). Obasan is the usual term for your aunt, or for any older female person you may encounter. This usage is identical to how the word "tía" is used in Spanish. Gundan is the word for a small military unit, like a patrol or squad, though it could be used for an army too.

This bit is also found on page 38 of the first volume of "Golden Time". The only difference there is that instead of obasan, we find obachan, apparently treating the women a little nicer: grown (but not old) women, rather than the (apparently) older ones we see in this story. Whether the author made this distinction consciously is a nice question.

Moth
↑The author is using a word which normally means "poisonous moth" here, but is clearly referring to the hyperactive teacher of the Aerobics class. Perhaps a better translation might be "gadfly". Nobody I've talked to has seen this usage before, but they agree that it seems to be what Takemiya-san intended.

Flasher
↑The author has had Ami say something that can be taken two very different ways. The book has the phrase '一肌、脱いであげる', which can be taken to mean 'pitch in and help out', or 'help to get undressed'. Taiga, of course, plays with the unintended meaning.

Hamada
↑Haruta is particularly messed up right now, and can't think straight. "Hamada" can be understood as either the surname Hamada, or as the expression "hama da" (it's a hama).

Kokomade
↑The four letter word in question is ここまで, which means "to this point", or "no further".

Umani Soba
↑A very rich dish made from boiled soba noodles and all sorts of meats and vegetables. Everything but the kitchen sink. Search Google Images under うま煮そば to see what I mean. Unfortunately, there is no wiki page about it yet.

Colors
↑In this paragraph, the author seems to have Sena playing with words in a clever way. Having declared her topic already (memories), she proceeds to many references to kinds and sorts, but using the word 色 (iro: colors, kinds, sorts) and 色々 (iroiro: various). The result is interesting, and hard to translate. The fact that part of it referred to changing colors was an interesting coincidence with English usage.

Amazed
↑The author is punning here, combining two phrases: “amazing” & “cold-hearted Kalashnikova (AK-47)”