[Progressive manga] Scherzo of Deep Night - Chapters 006 + 007 + 008

While we did manage to finish translating and typesetting the entirety of Scherzo volume two in just a week or so, our hyperspeed engines proved to be too much for Mtt to review. To alleviate the hunger of our Progressive fans, we decided to split the Scherzo volume 2 release into more manageable parts. This week, we'll be releasing the first 3 out of 7 chapters from the volume, with plans to release the rest next week (hopefully... fingers crossed). Anyway, the first half of the second Scherzo manga volume covers the customary bath (and duel) scene of the 5th Floor, as well as Asuna and Kirito meeting with the organisers of the New Year's party event to find out why the ALS up and decided to go after the boss themselves.

I hope you enjoy the release. If you have any suggestions/requests for what to work on, feel free to leave a comment or contact us through Twitter/Discord/Email.

Finally, a standard thank you to all of those who contributed to the SAO Scans project for helping us get the raws.

-Gsimenas

Credits

Raws: SAO Scans
Translation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas
Redrawing: Nguyen Milk
Typesetting: Nguyen Milk
Quality Assurance: Mttblue2

Scherzo of Deep Night - Chapter 6

Links for the translation files:

• PDF
• Zip Download

Scherzo of Deep Night - Chapter 7

Links for the translation files:

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• Zip Download

Scherzo of Deep Night - Chapter 8

Links for the translation files:

• PDF
• Zip Download

Scherzo manga Volume 1

Index

Chapter 009

Translation (choice/nuance) comments:
-Chapter 6

• Page c6-01+: Argo has a speech quirk wherein she changes the last kana (usually a sentence ending particle) in her sentence to katakana, when it would normally be written in hiragana. This is accounted for by emphasising the final letter in her sentence in the translation (making it capitalised or look bigger). Argo also speaks in boyish tone, so I made her language more casual.
• Page c6-02: "Grub" accounts for the fact that Argo uses メシ (meshi), a colloquial boyish word for food.
• Page c6-02+: Argo uses two types of first person pronouns: orecchi (オレっち) and oira (オイラ). Both are colloquial/dialectal variants of the casual masculine 俺 (ore) pronoun, usually used by people from the countryside. Orecchi seems to be prevalent in Shizuoka dialect and surrounding regions.
• Page c6-02: The phrase "the Dark Elf side" had "this (side)" as furigana.
• Page c6-02, 24, 25, 31: Argo uses the word "bath" in katakana (フロ), rather than kanji (風呂).
• Page c6-03: "Thankies" - Argo used the word サンキュー (Sankyū), which is just the Japanese pronunciation of the English phrase "thank you".
• Page c6-04: There are a variety of ways to refer to people fighting on the front lines in Sword Art Online. The most common of them is 攻略組 (Kouryaku-gumi, lit. "capture/conquest group". In this case, Asuna uses a longer 攻略集団 (Kouryaku Shuudan), which basically means the same thing but with more kanji. I usually translate 攻略組 as "Clearers", based on the fact that the characters use the English verb "clear" when referring to beating the game (for reference, Yen Press seems to go with a variety of translations for this one term, including "advancement group", "frontier group", "frontline players", "advanced group", "best players" etc.), but since 攻略集団 is longer, I translated it as "Clearing Group".
• Page c6-07: I used "OFC" for "of course", because the entire word was in katakana in the original text (モチロン). I assumed that this was just he speech quirk affecting the entire word, but "of course" is two words, so I decided to use an abbreviation.
• Page c6-08: "Minimal assets" was ミニマルボディ (Ingurusshu for "minimal body") in the original text. On a side note, the novel dialogue line made a bigger point at highlighting that Asuna had bigger assests that Argo seemed envious of, but due to the dialogue trimmings, the manga version could be interpreted as Argo being proud of her own spin on beauty. Not sure if this was intentional, or just unintended ambiguity.
• Page c6-09: Due to dialogue changes (それで、アルゴさんにも着てほしいんだけど = Also, I want you to wear one too, Argo-san --> あの…わたしだけじゃなくて = Umm... not just me) and inherrent ambiguity of Asuna's lines on page c6-08, the manga makes it sound like Asuna had been implying that she wanted both of them to wear swimsuits from the very start. Hence, I phrased Asuna's lines ambiguously so that they could be interpreted either way as well just in case. For the record, the novel's version of Asuna's lines made it clear that Argo wearing a swimsuit was an addendum, not the original implication that Asuna was going for when she asked if it was okay to wear a swimsuit.
• Page c6-24: Argo uses the term システム外スキル (shisutemu-gai sukiru = skill outside the system). It refers to actions that look like they would need a skill to pull off, but are actually pulled off through the player's own effort. Since it's a madeup term by SAO's characters, I decided to make up my own term as well by analogy based on the word off-line (if off-line means "not connected to the Internet, then "off-system" would refer to being not connected to the system). For reference, Yen Press rephrased the term to simply "unofficial skill".
• Page c6-25: "Ample assets" was 立派なボディ (rippa na bodi = well-developed/fine body) in the original text.
• Page c6-27: Argo sometimes refers to herself as オネーサン (onee-san = big sis).
• Page c6-27: "thx" - Argo shortened the word ありがとう (arigatou = thanks) to あんがと (angato).

-Chapter 7

• Page c7-06: "I wonder what's this all about, with that reaction of his." - the word "reaction" was in katakanised English and the sentence itself was awkward in the original text due to Asuna splitting her sentence into two.
• Page c7-11: "Area Boss" (エリアボス) was in katakanised English in the original text, so it seems to be different from other boss terms.
• Page c7-16: "Message" and "to Shivata" were written in English/Western Alphabet in the original panel.
• Page c7-18: Asuna abbreviated the word メッセジー (Messejī) to メッセ (Messe). The usual English abbreviation of the same word is "msg", so I just went with that.

-Chapter 8

• Page c8-04: Kirito's "Wat za hellz, man" is him imitating Kibaou by using the cactus-headed guy's iconic exclamation なんでや！ (nandeya), which is a Kansai dialect expression for "what the hell" or "you've gotta be kidding".
• Page c8-06: Kirito said the number 1440 in kanji. The standard way of denoting such a number in kanji would be 千四百四十, which literally requires him to enumerate each component of the number with what it stands for (i.e. "thousand, four hundred, forty"). Instead, Kirito's bubble just turned the arabic numeral 1440 into kanji as is: 一四四〇 (i.e. "one, four, four, zero), wherein he just the names of the digits individually without regard for the fact that each digit has thousands/hundreds/tens appended to it.To account for this, I used the same logic in the translation and had him pronounce the names of the digits individually.
• Page c8-06: When speaking to Liten, Kirito uses teineigo (丁寧語), a polite way of speaking in Japanese that entials using the copula "desu" in sentences without a verb, and the "-masu" conjugation for verbs (Shivata's "masu-desu treatment" refers to this specific practice of using polite copula/conjugations in this manner of speech). This makes the speaker's speech sound formal, but not overboard polite, so it's used in either averagely-formal contexts, when speaking to a superior, or when speaking to strangers to avoid intimacy. On the other hand, Kirito doesn't go through these extra steps when speaking to Shivata, as he doesn't shy away from speaking with Shivata as equals. To account for this nuance, I sprinkled Kirito's speech with some formal synonyms whenever he was speaking to Liten before being called out for being too formal.
• Page c8-06: Sempai/senpai is a Japanese word for "senior" in a line of work or in education. I decided to leave it as is, since most anime/LN fans are aware of it. Also, due to Japanese phonetics, an "n" before a "p" is actually pronouced as an "m", which is why I went with sempai, rather than senpai.
• Page c8-06: "I'll add my name to that petition as well" - the original text in the novel was それでいいだろ (sorede ii darou = fine/what's the big deal/works just fine with me), but the manga instead uses オレからも頼む (ore kara mo tanomu = I ask from my end as well)"
• Page c8-08: Liten uses two different words for "clearing": when talking about "clearing efforts", she uses the word 攻略 (lit., conquest, beating something), which is a gaming term for going through (i.e. making progress in) a game to reach the ending. When talking about "clearing the game", Liten uses the word クリア (kuria), which is just the English word "clear" written in katakana. Both of these words refer to the same thing, which is why I translate them similarly. The only difference is that クリア is only used as a verb, while 攻略 can be used as either a noun or a (nominal) verb.
• Page c8-09: "getting by just fine" - the novel text specifically said that she was referring to getting to the frontline on her own (タンクソロで最前線まで行ってやる), but the manga skipped the "to the frontline" part (タンクソロで行ってやる), so I chose to make the translation more abstract just like the manga had.
• Page c8-10: "one-point-five" - like Kirito, Liten uses kanji numbers in a non-standard manner in this instance. She technically says one-five-zero-zero (一五〇〇), but "one-point-five" sounded more natural in English.
• Page c8-12: The word "ban" was written in all-caps English letters (ＢＡＮ) in the original text.
• Page c8-13: "[...] why bother with iron gear when I could just skip right to making a full set of steel gear" - The words "iron" and "steel" were written in katakana English (アイアン and スチール respectively), rather than in kanji in the original text.
• Page c8-15: "abusing a glitch" - in the original text, the word "glitch/glitching" (グリッチ) had furigana text that said "abuse of bugs" (バグの悪用). Since furigana was used to explain japanglish gaming terms that don't really follow how actual English speakers would use them, I decided to ignore this instance of furigana and just translate the intended meaning.
• Page c8-15, 16: The word "maintenance" in the original text was メンテ (mente), an abbreviation of the English word "maintenance" (メンテナンス).
• Page c8-16: Liten abbreviated the phrase "friend message" (フレンド・メッセジー, furendo messeji) to フレメッセ (fure messe), since Japanese abbreviate words by taking the first two kana of each abbreviated word, rather than the initials like in English. The usual English abbreviation of the word "message" is "msg", so I just went with that. For the record, the novel version of Liten's line used the full "friend message" phrase.
• Page c8-17: "banhammer" - the original phrase was ＢＡＮされる (BAN sareru = be BANned). Since Lisbeth uses more colloquial speech, I decided to localise this phrase.
• Page c8-17: "steel ingots" was written entirely in katakana English as スチール・インゴット (suchīru ingotto).
• Page c8-18: Japanese gamers frequently abbreviate the word "quest" (クエスト) to just "que" (クエ). I decided to translate the abbreviation as "q'st".
• Page c8-18, 24: Another instance of abbreviating メッセジー to メッセ.
• Page c8-24: There were two different phrases that used different words for "floor": 第五層 (Dai-Go-Sou = 5th Floor), where "floor" is the kanji 層 = layer/stratum, and フロアボス (furoa bosu), which uses the English word "floor" in katakana.

Adaptation notes:
-Chapter 6

• The manga didn't explicitly explain that the catacomb boss was different from the beta, which is what prompted Argo to camp out in the boss room to collect info on it.
• The manga skipped in the intricacies of Asuna's plan to lure Argo into a trap.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 7

• Kirito's reminiscing about his previous New Year at home was skipped. The only part of it that made its way into the manga is a brief panel about Kirito wondering if Suguha was having a hard time cleaning the dojo on her own.
• The manga didn't cover Kirito's recollections of the events in the catacombs in detail, nor does it mention that Kirito actually presumed that Morte and Joe PKed Asuna when confronting them as he didn't trust Asuna's HP bar was up-to-date, rather than bluffing about it like Asuna had assumed.
• In the novel, Asuna arrived after Kirito's internal monologue had come to the end. The manga split it up into two separate monologues by having Asuna come early. Because of this, Kirito didn't become flustered when Asuna called out to him in the novel... instead, he was trying to keep himself from touching Asuna's wet hair. The monologue about Asuna was also trimmed in the manga.
• In the novel, Asuna warned Kirito not to pry into girls' conversations before Kirito made his remarks about girl talks. He also mentioned Argo there.
• Asuna hadn't mentioned her duel against Argo to Kirito in the novel, where Kirito only heard of it much later on.
• The manga skipped Kirito's monologue about considering how to tackle the ALS issue.
• Asuna's jab at Kirito being the antithesis to the ALS is an original scene. Instead, in the novel, there was a long scene where Asuna and Kirito discussed about the ALS, how Asuna believed that she and Kirito were more DKB-leaning and why Kibaou and his guild disliked the DKB. Asuna was instead concerned about how she herself had pretty good gear, while Kibaou was staunchly opposed to monopolisation.
• The scene where Kirito ends up holding Asuna's knee after trying to reassure her that she should continue keeping herself safe with good equipment, and then getting flustered about it when he realised what he was doing, was skipped.
• Kirito's concerns that the ALS party planner could possibly be cooperating with the hard-liners of their guild to distract the DKB for them, rather than actually trying to foster friendship between the two guilds, were omitted.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 8

• In the novel, Kirito's calculations on the amount of ore required for a set of steel armour were done in an internal monologue, but when asking Liten about it, he didn't use the specific number he arrived at with his calculations. Instead he just said 千何百個 (a thousand and several hundreds pieces of ore).
• "So you mined up over a thousand pieces all on your own." (一人で千個以上掘ったんだ) - Kirito's full remark in the novel was 確かにタンクはＳＴＲ高いからストレージ容量にも余裕あるんだろうけど、それでも千個以上もよく掘ったなあ (Tanks do indeed have high storage capacity because of their high STR, though mining over a thousand pieces of ore is still an impressive feat.). The remark in the novel didn't explicitly say that Liten did it on her own. The manga decided to put an emphasis on the whole "on your own" thing in several separate bubbles.
• Kirito's monologue on page 14 was actually an open and longer conversation with Shivata in the novel.
• Asuna's dialogue on page 14 was actually Kirito's in the novel.
• The manga omitted concerns with storage capacity and degradation of items left on the ground over time that would make it harder to transport over a thousand pieces of ore, as well as the fact that a large, stationary furnace was needed to melt ore into ingots. It also skipped concerns that taking large quantities of ore to a blacksmith would alert other players that there was a large stock of ore near town. References to Nezha's scam, which prompted Kirito to internally joke about the south pole melting with how lovey-dovey Shivata and Liten were being with each other, were also omitted. The reference to the scam also brought up the issue of the PK gang, which is why Kirito was wary of disclosing their goal to stop the ALS's efforts to defeat the boss on thei own in case she was an inside agent of the PK gang.
• For the record, Lisbeth's lines in the novel were actually direct quotes, rather than reported speech, just like in the manga. Yen Press decided to change this for their translation of the novel.
• Kirito's remark about Liten's friend being a girl came right after Liten mentioned this fact in the novel. The manga moved it to where Liten finishes her story.
• Asuna's dialogue line prompting Kirito to stop suspecting Liten being involved with the PK gang was just Kirito's internal monologue in the novel.
• The manga added some more details to how Liten met Shivata by giving them some space for lovey-dovey dialogue. On the other hand, it skipped Kirito's complaints that he'd need some alcohol to make the whole scene bearable to recount.
• The manga doesn't mention that Liten turned to Lisbeth for advice on the invitation to join the ALS as well.
• Kirito's narration in the novel only mentioned Liten and Shivata hitting it off, not explicitly mentioning that they had falled in love.
• In the novel, Kirito took out his bottles of lime water after Liten's story about her armour, rather than after revealing the ALS's plans.
• "but the centerpiece drop item was a two-handed sword" (目玉アイテムはたしか両手剣だったような) - for the record, Yen Press mistranslated this as "it was a two-handed swordsman who got the centerpiece drop".
• Various dialogue trimming and restructuring the order of dialogue lines.