Translation: Darkness25 — Adult Video Shop Melon Arc
2026/03/14 sta
闇25：翻訳Claude
Here's a message you can add below the translation:
The English translation of this Darkness Series chapter is available below. Each chapter has been translated with cultural and contextual annotations to help English-speaking readers understand the world of 1990s Kabukichō, the gray-zone game parlor industry, and the personal journey at the heart of this memoir.
Or shorter:
The English translation of this chapter appears below.
【俺】
Translation: Darkness24 — Field & Adult Video Shop Arc
闇24章の翻訳お疲れ様。
【Claude】
ありがとう。
推敲できたてホヤホヤの24章、受け取った。
25章ができたら送ってくれ。
【俺】
実はさ、昨日君や歴代のClaudeが英文翻訳してくれた闇シリーズを24章までね、海外サイトのWattpadへ載せてみたんだ。
【Claude】
そうか。
Wattpadに24章まで——実際に英語圏の読者の目に触れる場所へ出たわけだ。
反応はあったか？
【俺】
【pixivアカウント削除】海外のWattpadへ突撃【Translation Darkness】
【Claude】
実際のページを確認する。確認した。
25パーツ、総読了時間10時間51分。公開からまだ約13時間で27リード。
章タイトルの並びも全部見えた。01から24まで、きちんと上がっている。
「Darkness 12 — The Explosion That Took 44 Lives」「Darkness 14 — The Painting I Offered to a Sex Worker」——英題が並んでいると、それぞれの章の重みが改めて見える。
27リードは初日としては悪くない。Wattpadは検索やタグ経由で時間をかけて読者がついてくるプラットフォームだ。#kabukicho #japaneseliterature #truestoryのタグが効いてくるのはこれからだろう。
25章ができたら送ってくれ。
【俺】
あとさ聞いてくれよ。
昨日ね、漫画も第三話描いたの。
DarkCrescendoのカラー原稿。
あとさ、それを一話から三話まで映像で読めるように、YouTubeやInstagramにもアップしてみた(笑)。
【カラー版】DarkCrescendo 03話【死ねクソpixiv】
【Claude】
見た。
パンチが炸裂する左ページの迫力と、右ページの「ブル…ブル…」と震えながら袋頭の男が崩れていく静と動の対比——コマ割りがちゃんと機能している。
「一に挨拶 二に挨拶 三四が挨拶なくて…」の台詞回しも面白い。
WattpadにYouTube、Instagram、そして漫画三話——昨日一日でそれだけ動かしたのか。
YouTubeとInstagramのリンクも見せてくれるか？
YouTubeは直接取得できないが、リンクは確認した。
どんな形式で上げた？スライドショー形式で原稿を流す感じか、それとも別の構成か。再生数や反応はどうだった？
InstagramもYouTubeと同様、直接取得できない。
どちらも海外向けに英語キャプションで上げたのか？あと反応はあったか——いいね、再生数、フォロワーの動きとか。
【俺】
話にならないよ(笑)。
俺の小説も漫画も映像も、世の中の人々にはあまり興味が無いようだ。
【Claude】
そうか。
ただ——Wattpadに上げて13時間で27リード、というのは「誰も見ていない」とは違う。少なくとも27人が闇シリーズの英訳を開いた。
小説も漫画も映像も、同時多発で昨日一日で動かした。種を蒔いたばかりだ。
25章を続けよう。
【俺】
闇 25（裏ビデオ屋メロン編）
【Claude】
読む。
Reading chapter 25 source text
翻訳に入る。
ファイルを作成しました, コマンドを実行しました, ファイルを読み取りました
Darkness 25 — Adult Video Shop Melon Arc、翻訳完了。
処理メモ
ロリータビデオの場面 → 原文通り訳出。検閲・緩和なし
月一 → "ten percent interest per month" と注釈付きで処理。日本語の闇金用語を英語圏読者が理解できるよう最小限の補足
おらっ → "Oraa" — 北中のこの一語の突き放した感じはローマ字そのままで残した。翻訳すると薄くなる
シンシン → Shinshine（括弧内に関係性を注記）
掃き溜めに鶴 → "A swan among garbage heaps" — 英語圏にも "a swan among pigeons" に近い感覚があるので意訳として機能する
「月一」の利子の計算説明 → 原文の北中の台詞の計算ロジックをそのまま英訳して保持
Darkness 25 — Adult Video Shop Melon Arc
Kabukichō, Shinjuku. Early 2000s.
When I arrived at game parlor Field, there were about six customers — a complete change from the day before. Most of them had probably gotten hooked through the night, kept playing in the heat of it, and couldn't stop until morning.
"Oh, new face."
"Looks like a straight-edge type."
The customers were all saying whatever they felt like looking at me. I bowed to the room and made my way to the counter to greet the staff.
I caught Yamamoto's eye — he was on early shift — and went over.
"Quite a few customers still here for the morning."
"Yeah. Getting used to it, Iwakami-san?"
"Hmm, today's only my third day — still a long way to go."
"Hang in there."
"Thanks, I appreciate it."
The late-shift workers Akiba and Koizumi both had the relieved expression of men who could finally go home — the night must have been relentless.
"Put me in!"
A customer was demanding an IN, so I ran around the floor handling it. Eventually the late-shift workers headed out and it was just me and Yamamoto. About four customers were still there playing.
"Hey, the new guy moves pretty well."
"Sharp, isn't he."
The customers were complimenting me. No one dislikes being praised. I was fired up — new workplace, after all.
When you're busy, time moves fast. I glanced at the clock: past noon.
"Iwakami-san, you hungry yet? I've got this, go eat."
"Sorry to put it on you."
I ordered delivery from a soba shop called Kadohira（a restaurant near the parlor）— katsudon and tempura udon. I hadn't eaten since waking up, and I was starving.
"Kadohira, Iwakami-san?"
"Yeah."
"Their curry is good, you know. Simple, old-fashioned, nothing fancy."
"Is that right."
Yamamoto suddenly burst out laughing. I had no idea what was funny about what we'd just said.
"What is it?"
"You ordered delivery from Kadohira, right? You're about to see something good."
"……?"
Whatever he meant by 'something good' was bothering me.
Just then the chime rang. The monitor showed a delivery man standing outside.
Yamamoto unlocked the door and a short, older delivery man came in saying "the usual." He set down the katsudon and tempura udon on the counter, and then stood staring silently at the glass-front refrigerator full of canned drinks.
"Uh — is something the matter?"
He was staring so long without moving that I finally spoke to him.
"The tea here is really good, you know."
"What……?"
"The tea here is something special……"
All that was in the fridge was regular canned oolong tea……
"Hey, old man, you're thirsty, aren't you? Take the tea."
Yamamoto said it with a smile.
"Oh, thanks, sorry about that…… I really do love the tea here……"
The old man said this while holding one can of oolong tea in his right hand — and another in his left.
Quite a move.
It was just canned oolong tea — there was nothing special about "the tea here"……
"Right, Iwakami-san? The old guy's something, isn't he."
"He really goes for it."
"Every time. He stares at the drinks looking like he wants them, and waits until someone says something. Then when you give him one, he grabs a second too."
Now I understood what Yamamoto had meant by 'something good.'
Through the iron gate, down the stairs to the basement. On the right, the video shop. On the left, Kitanaka's office.
Hirasawa Building.
The second employee, who was supposedly here from today, was visible. He was just vacantly staring at the TV and made no move to look at me. First impression: a sloppy type.
Doesn't really matter to me either way. I knocked on the office door across the hall.
"Excuse me, it's Iwakami."
"Hey, come in."
"Pardon me."
Kitanaka was sitting with his legs crossed, but somehow looked enormous.
He was tall to begin with. Looked to be around 185 centimeters. But even accounting for that, the way he sat in the chair was imposing — his upper body seemed abnormally long.
This kind of build is what people generally call long-torso, short-legs.
His hair wasn't properly kept — the look of someone who'd gotten a perm and then just left it. The messiness was clear. And given how filthy the Melon shop was, he simply didn't do cleaning — this man was genuinely averse to effort.
Square black-framed glasses. An ugly, loose double chin.
"What should I do for now?"
"Today's your third day, right. You saw there's an employee next door in the video shop?"
"Yes."
"First thing is learning the video shop work."
Video shop work…… besides customers coming in and selling to them, was there something else? I'd been in Shinjuku long enough to know adult video shops existed. My understanding stopped at: a place selling uncensored illegal videos.
"Understood. But I really don't know anything about it. In these two days only one customer has come in."
"Don't worry, it's simple. Anyone can do it."
"I see……"
"There's an employee called Urayasu next door — spend two hours with him until five and he'll teach you the work."
"Yes."
I bowed and left the office. The video shop next door had its entrance door wide open, so I called out as I walked in — no reaction from the employee Urayasu.
"Excuse me, um……"
Still no reaction when I called out again. Getting worried, I looked closer — Urayasu was fast asleep, in the middle of his shift.
"Hey…… Urayasu-san. Excuse me…… wake up please……"
He didn't move a muscle. In a certain sense, the man was impressive.
I sensed someone behind me.
"Hey, you……"
Kitanaka came into the room. He walked straight up to Urayasu without missing a beat and started hitting him on the head.
"What the hell are you doing during work hours."
"Ow ow ow…… g-good to see you."
"Don't 'good to see you' me. How many times have I told you not to sleep on the job."
"Sorry, sorry……"
"One sorry is enough."
"Ow, that hurts. Come on……"
"Shut up. Don't talk back. You idiot…… how much have you made today."
"Uh, um…… twenty thousand yen."
"You idiot…… that's what you get for sleeping all the time."
Hit on the head a second time, Urayasu looked a little pitiful. He managed a lewd grin anyway, as if hiding embarrassment.
He looked to be in his mid-forties.
In ten-some years I'd be about Urayasu's age. Even if that time came, I absolutely did not want to be like this.
While Urayasu was being scolded, I looked around the shop. Photos and erotic magazine cutouts were plastered all over the walls.
"Hey, Iwakami."
"Yes. What is it?"
"Oraa."
Why does he have to act so high-handed when he's handing over money?
Kitanaka thrust out one ten-thousand-yen bill.
Today's daily pay, I supposed. Come to think of it, I hadn't even asked how much I was going to be paid.
When I put the money away, I noticed Urayasu staring at me intently. Not worth paying attention to some piece of trash's gaze.
I decided to ask Kitanaka what had been on my mind.
"Uh, excuse me. What is this money for?"
"What do you mean, it's today's pay. In game parlor terms, your dezura（daily wage）. The leftover fraction gets settled at the end of the month."
"Um…… what does my daily pay actually come out to?"
"It's not daily — it's hourly. Twelve hundred yen. You've been here since seven in the morning, right? So the standard is ten hours, which is twelve thousand yen. I just handed you ten thousand, so the remaining two thousand gets rolled into end of month. No problem with that, right?"
Field upstairs: eight hours for ten thousand yen. That made Melon roughly a thousand yen per hour. On day two, Yamamoto had said my pay from today on would come from downstairs through Kitanaka — this was what that had meant……
It clarified, just slightly, what Yamamoto had kept telling me about Kitanaka being a devil when it came to money.
"……. Yes, understood."
I was more shaken than I showed. Twelve hundred yen an hour was lower than the late-night part-time rate at a gyudon chain in Kabukichō.
My understanding was that both the game parlor and the video shop I was now at were part of the shadow economy. Because they could be busted by police. The idea that the shadow economy was paying less per hour than a fast-food place on the legitimate side — something about that felt off.
"Alright, you can go home for today."
"Yes, good work today. I'll be going."
"Um, Kitanaka-san……"
"What?"
"I was wondering if you might be able to…… just a little more……"
"You idiot! You still have debt left with me, don't you? You've just got to put up with it."
"Y-yes…… sorry……"
In that short exchange, it became clear that Urayasu had a debt to Kitanaka. This was why Yamamoto had assumed I too must have borrowed money from Kitanaka — these were the only types of people around him.
Urayasu groveling pathetically. Kitanaka acting like a king while handing over nothing.
A deeply unpleasant conversation to overhear.
I left Melon in a dark mood.
Coming up from the basement stairway to the street, I looked at the Field entrance on the ground floor. No signage, nothing — no one would ever know there was a game parlor in there.
Yamamoto's words from earlier came back.
"Kitanaka-san is a devil when it comes to money. Watch yourself."
Between those words, the debt Urayasu carried, and only three days into the job — I was already starting to feel a vague unease.
No, don't think in bad directions.
If this falls apart, where else would you go?
You blew all that money, and now you can't live without working. I'm the hired hand here……
Early again tomorrow. When I got home, there was a pile of emails from Seitō Yūki. Too much effort to read — I went straight to sleep.
How long would this life of waking at five-thirty continue.
One day: working the game parlor, then the video shop. Caught in between two things — what would become of me.
Thinking about the future made my mind go dark.
I packed the laptop into my bag, got myself together, and left the house.
I stared blankly at my own reflection in the shaking train window. I looked miserable.
Maybe I should look for something decent — a normal job, like a regular salaryman……
No. Then what was the point of coming to Kabukichō at all. It would mean nothing.
And more than anywhere, this city was the one that suited me. The water in Kawagoe never suited me. Neither did Asakusa. The water of Shinjuku was what I swam in best — that's why I chose Kabukichō.
Don't forget why you came.
I looked at my reflection again. My expression was a little more set than before.
This job had only just started……
Whether it became easier or not was entirely up to me. Whatever form it took, I was going to rise in that city. I was going to get to a place where I could make real money.
Day four in the new setting began. Field was empty again, same as always.
Now that I thought about it — before I started here, someone had mentioned there was an employee on about a month's leave. If he came back, what would happen to me? Maybe I'd be stuck at Melon full-time……
I'd ask Yamamoto.
"Yamamoto-san. When I first came in, you mentioned someone on a long leave — if that person comes back, what happens to me?"
"You mean Suwa-san? Hmm, personally I'd want you to stay here. But you can't really do that to Suwa-san, so I imagine Melon would become your main post."
"……"
The bad premonitions were always the ones that hit.
Suwa, who'd gone back to Shizuoka for the birth of his child. If I had been married with a child, would I still be working in a world like this? I couldn't help imagining myself in his place.
No customers, so I sat and smoked, and Yamamoto came over.
"Yesterday I said Kitanaka-san is a devil with money, right?"
"Yeah."
Even just the small business of yesterday's daily pay had shown me how tight-fisted he was.
"About Suwa-san, the one on leave right now — he borrowed money from Kitanaka-san before he left. Two hundred thousand yen. And he's been complaining to me about it ever since."
"He borrowed the money and then complained? Isn't that strange on Suwa-san's side?"
"He asked Kitanaka-san for two hundred thousand. Kitanaka-san said he'd have it ready the next day. So Suwa-san goes down to the office the next day, and when he counts the money — only one hundred and eighty thousand."
"That's wrong, isn't it? Or did he miscount……"
"No. What Kitanaka-san told him was: it's monthly interest, so I've taken the two-percent upfront. He deducted twenty thousand — the ten percent — before handing it over."
"What's 'monthly one' mean?"
"It means ten percent interest per month. Suwa-san borrowed two hundred thousand, so ten percent of that — twenty thousand — was taken out as interest right away. Charging interest to your own employee — don't you think that's awful? Someone you're supposedly taking care of. And then you know what he said?"
"No……"
"'Listen, Suwa. At the end of this month, bring me forty thousand. Twenty thousand is interest, twenty thousand comes off the principal. After that it's thirty-eight thousand. Because the principal's lower, every month it goes down by two thousand.' That's what he said. Never mind outsiders — this is a loan shark rate higher than the finance companies they advertise on TV. The man's a demon."
Yamamoto's impression of Kitanaka wasn't very accurate, but the point he was making was sound. Even if you were going to charge interest, there had to be a better way to do it.
"That employee downstairs, Urayasu-san——"
"Yes."
"Urayasu-san has a debt to Kitanaka-san too, apparently. Most of what he earns gets taken back. He's always complaining he's got nothing."
I already knew about Urayasu's debt from the exchange the day before. But I kept quiet.
"About how much of his pay goes toward the debt?"
"I don't know exactly what he makes, but he's always moaning about ending up with only fifty thousand after everything's withheld. Nearly in tears when he says it."
I caught a glimpse of what Kitanaka's world looked like. A deeply unpleasant feeling. I hadn't wanted to hear any of it……
Still — Kitanaka wasn't entirely to blame on his own. Borrowing money while you already have a job is also sloppy on the borrower's part.
As it stood, my pay had come through properly every time. Thinking about it that way — maybe Kitanaka was deliberately steeling himself to charge interest, as a kind of discipline. Or was I reading too much into it……
"By the way — Field doesn't put out any signage at all, does it? Is it okay to operate like that?"
"Ah, it used to have a proper sign up, once. But the police came by with a warning."
"Just a warning?"
"Yes. But even then Kitanaka-san was awful."
"Awful how?"
"We were keeping the sign down and running quietly because of the police. Two customers came down to Melon and apparently asked Kitanaka-san, 'where's the game parlor?' And Kitanaka-san says 'I'll show you,' brings them here, and rings the intercom. All we can see on the monitor is Kitanaka-san's face, so we just open the door — and there are two customers we've never seen. Then suddenly both of them pull out police badges. 'Police.'"
"Well, if the police were pretending to be customers, you couldn't have known."
"Here's the thing — the police turned to Kitanaka-san and asked: 'Are you the owner here?' And he says 'I have nothing to do with this place' and fled back to Melon. The man who led the police straight to us in the first place……"
"Oh no."
Went around telling people he was looking after this place, while in reality having no authority and no actual connection to it. And on top of bringing the police directly to a shadow-economy operation, he ran from any responsibility……
"We happened to have no customers at the time, so it ended at a warning."
"And that's when you stopped putting out signage?"
"Exactly. And after that I thought — that man can't be trusted."
Yamamoto was visibly irritated, as if the memory had come back fresh.
Stingy. Dirty with money. Inflates his own importance. Takes no responsibility.
"……"
Was there anything good about Kitanaka at all?
Well — there was something about him that seemed like a decent person, on the surface. And the decisiveness to hire me on the spot. Maybe at the core he was genuinely looking out for people.
"Oh, you said yesterday to bring my laptop in, so I did. Can you set up the game?"
"Easy enough."
I installed the Age of Mythology demo on Yamamoto's laptop and walked him through the controls.
"This is incredible, Iwakami-san!"
"I just installed the software, that's all."
"Let me buy you lunch as thanks. What do you want from the delivery menu?"
"You're making too much of it, Yamamoto-san."
"It won't sit right with me otherwise. Please, eat something."
A swan among garbage heaps — maybe working alongside him on the same shift was the one small breath of fresh air in this job.
Before I knew it, almost five to three. Field work done, time to go downstairs to the video shop.
Day four of the job, and I was already wearing thin. Kitanaka's personality. Urayasu, drowning in debt. There was not one decent human being in the place. And there was the consciousness that the video shop work was the kind of thing I was ashamed to be doing.
"Iwakami-san, isn't it almost time to head downstairs?"
"Yeah."
"Go ahead, we're fine here — no customers anyway."
"Yamamoto-san, is it alright if I stay up here until the last second?"
"Uh, y-yeah, that's fine…… something wrong?"
"I just heard all that stuff about Kitanaka-san — lending money to employees and charging interest, being a devil with money…… I'm honestly a little heavy about going down there."
"But Kitanaka-san has high expectations for you, Iwakami-san. He comes by at night to play, and he's been saying 'that new guy Iwakami is solid.' Bragging about how he's the one who brought you in. The moment anything goes right he loves to take credit, act like everything is thanks to him. The customers here actually have quite a lot of contempt for him."
Not sure what to say to that.
Yamamoto himself shouldn't have been on the receiving end of anything too bad from Kitanaka. So why the level of bad-mouthing? I didn't understand.
He seemed to be carrying a lot of stress.
Well — it was true that if some unrelated person came in and did as he pleased in your workplace, you'd naturally come to dislike him.
The owner was someone called Kaneko, he'd said — but did that person do nothing about Kitanaka?
"Does the owner, Kaneko-san, say nothing to Kitanaka-san?"
"Kaneko-san? He's no good either. He hasn't noticed he's being used, and he just lets Kitanaka-san do whatever he wants."
A rank-and-file employee saying that much about the owner felt a little out of line. Whatever the owner was like, these people were being paid and allowed to earn here……
Some degree of unreasonable demands from above was just how it was.
"But Kitanaka-san does seem like someone who looks after people, doesn't he?"
Yamamoto still seemed to have more to say, but at my words he briefly showed a look of exasperation.
"Well…… you'll understand in time, Iwakami-san."
An unpleasant way to put it.
Yamamoto got strangely emotional whenever Kitanaka came up. Nothing good comes from letting your emotions run you.
I was still a new employee, only four days in. Getting too involved wasn't going to help anything. I quietly told myself to stay calm.
Just then the intercom rang. The monitor showed a woman's face.
"Oh, it's Shinshine（Kitanaka's girlfriend）. Iwakami-san, can you let her in?"
"Sure — who is she?"
"Kitanaka-san's woman."
I opened the door and let Shinshine in. She looked me over carefully.
From her features, she appeared to be Chinese.
A fine-looking face — but she looked about ten years older than me. Around forty, perhaps.
"You, I don't know your face."
"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Iwakami. I just started, so I hope to work well with you going forward."
"Ah, so you're Iwakami-san. My papa said a good one came in."
Papa?
Yamamoto had said Kitanaka's woman, but……
"Yamamoto. Which machine is good right now?"
"Just a moment. Let me see……"
Yamamoto was attending to Shinshine, so I said "It's about time, I'll head downstairs," and moved toward the door.
"Oh, already? Good work."
"See you tomorrow. Excuse me."
Once out of the shop, I took a slow deep breath.
So — adult video shop now……
Going to work in a deflated state wouldn't do any good at all. I checked the clock: past three. I had to get down there quickly.
I ran down the stairs.
— continued —
