Chinchikurin (fantranslation)

Episode 1 - We Can't Graduate

TW: profanity, violence, and death

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Our characters are living out their high school days in Masuda village, a rural area in Japan. Hanabishi Kuruwaya scored an average of 80 points on his graduation test, yet he still wasn't granted the ability to graduate. He was forced to repeat the year alongside the older students who have repeated senior year multiple times. Haruma Neko has repeated his senior year 8 years in a row - Toru Garakuta has been a senior for 12 years now too.

Why can't we graduate from this school?

When asking his father and principal of the school, Nichiteru Kuruwaya, why he wasn't allowed to graduate, he merely brushed it aside and avoided the question narrowly.

"Help me with the field work," his father instructed with a simple gesture.

That's all they could do. There was nothing more to do in high school. Hanabishi and the other third-year students have been doing farm work for 10 months following graduation exams.

The village itself was an incredibly small-knit community, so it became an unspoken rule to halt graduations to avoid students leaving the village. Along with that, the village had no phone signal, and had been removed from Google Maps, though they were blissfully unaware of this.

They were supposed to be adults yet they lived amongst grown-ups who refused to see them as adults rather than the children they were forced to remain as. It only left them to question:

When does a child become an adult?

Will they always remain children in the minds of the villagers?

Their youth only wavers, as they are unable to grow up.

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"I want to try Galette!"

Seito Kure wouldn't stop insisting about it.

You see, he was a massive fan of the magazine model Funny, who had recently opened a line of Galette stores named after herself. The first opened in Tokyo, and soon became a full chain of restaurants, with one even opening in Fukuoka. Hanabishi and his friends didn't know exactly what Galette was but since the rice harvest was over, they had some free time to dedicate to going to Fukuoka for the weekend.

Changing into their school uniforms, Hanabishi, Keita, Seito, Toru, and Boron began on their journey to get Galette. They invited Haruma to join them, but he declined, saying he had to fish for shrimp in the river. He was a rather reserved man to begin with, preferring to work alone in silence.

"Haruma... that guy is so reluctant," Boron scoffed.

He didn't want to eat Galette, but went along with them anyway. They were a strange group, the five of them. Seito was an overly emotional boy - he would laugh and cry a lot, but regardless, he was always happy. Toru, despite being just short of 30 years old, was a timid man who could be described as shy and innocent. He was coming along purely out of interest for Galette. Similarly, Keita wanted to try new unusual foods, and tagged along samely. Hanabishi, on the other hand, had no interest at all for Galette. In the back of his mind, he was busy thinking of other things.

He wanted to see a whole new world beyond the confines of the village. He longed for the escape of the city, longing to change and get away from his father. To put it simply, he wanted to leave the village - badly.

They began walking on a Friday afternoon and, after spending the night in a field, they would be able to sneak onto freight train that would take them near downtown Fukuoka. It was a long journey, from walking along the national highway to deep within the Kyushu mountains. As they continued to walk, Toru decided to play 'Stand by me' on the harmonica, until they stumbled upon a dead body laid in the field they were passing through.