[Re:Aincrad] Chapter 5

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it! (and happy holidays/regular weekend to those who don't, or celebrate Easter on a different day!). Since I didn't manage to finish our third surprise release in time because of the holidays (and because I needed some time to catch up on my reading list and just unwind), this week's release is going to be Re:Aincrad.

Chapter 5 covers Asuna getting her Wind Fleuret, explanations for SAO terminology, the bath scene, and the trip to the boss room.

This release marks the end of Re:Aincrad volume 1. And it's also the last chapter where the manga still tries to juggle both novel, and anime content. Starting next chapter, the manga will be leaning far more into anime canon than novel canon.

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: Celest
Translation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas, Kaantantr
Redrawing: Celest
Typesetting: Celest

Chapter 4

Index

Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Links for the translation files:

• PDF
• Zip Download

Translation (choice/nuance) comments:

• Page 01, 02, 12: "Switch" is a formal term for the player tactic of one player dealing an attack and then giving way to a second player to deal a followup attack while the first one is immobilised after using their Sword Skill.
• Page 02: "Post-Motion Delay" refers to a period of rigidity that follows the use of a Sword Skill. Basically, players are unable to move after finishing a Sword Skill, leaving them open to a counter-attack. The more grandiose the skill, the longer it takes for players to recover from the state of rigidity.
• Page 02: "item drops" - technically, the original text word order was "drop items" (ドロップアイテム = "doroppu aitemu"), but that word order doesn't sound natural in English.
• Page 03: "fencers" - the word in the original text was "細剣使い" (saiken-tsukai = "rapier/fine sword user") with "フェンサー" (fensah = "fencer") in furigana.
• Page 04: The Japanese text uses two different words for the concept of "room": 1) "個室" (koshitsu) can either be "private/personal room" or "room for one" (used in contrast to rooms meant for more than one person); 2) "部屋" (heya) is just a general word for "room" with no added qualifiers, but it can also be used in the sense of an apartment/lodgings/quarters. Asuna's dialogue becomes especially hard to translate because of this, since she uses both words a lot. Her line on the top-left panel in the original text was "…だいたい　この世界の宿屋の個室なんて部屋とも呼べないようなのばかりじゃない　部屋も一部屋だけで　お風呂もないし…" (...Daitai, kono sekai no yadoya no koshitsu nante heya tomo yobenai youna no bakari janai. Heya mo hito-heya dakede, ofuro mo nai shi...), which would literally be translated as "…And besides, inn rooms (koshitsu) in this world don't even deserve to be called actual rooms (heya). The rooms (heya) only ever come with one single room (hito-heya), and they don't even have any baths either…" - the fact that both koshitsu and heya would be translated into the same word in English makes Asuna's sentence nigh illegible, so I went a bit loose with the translation by using different words to carry the same intended point.
• Page 10: "electrical signals/a creamy bun" - the original text was "電気信号" (denki shingou = "electrical signals") with "クリームパン" (kurihmu pan = "creamy bun") in furigana.
• Page 10: "《real》" - the word here was marked with boutens (dots next to kanji used to emphasise a word or phrase) in the original text, so we bolded it to account for this nuance.
• Page 13: "Raid" - technically, in this case, the original text used レイド戦 (reido-sen), which would be literally translated as "raid battle", but we simplified it to just "Raid", since "battle" was a bit redundant in English. In SAO, a "Raid" can be used to refer to either several parties (up to 8) being linked together by the system for a joint battle against a powerful monster (when parties agree to join a raid, players from one party can see the HP bars of players from other parties taking part in the Raid, allowing them to organise when to switch their parties on the vanguard more easily), or the battle against said monster itself. In this case, it's the latter, hence the "battle" appended to it.
• Page 13: "[...]the decision to press on has already been made, which means[...]" - this phrase was vague in the original text (not explicitly stated whether Kirito is talking about himself, Asuna, or both of them, so I left it vague in the translation too.
• Page 14: "I know we can see it through." (俺たちならやれる, oretachi nara yareru) - the original phrase in Japanese would be literally translated as "If it's us, we can do it". But since that sounds awkward in English, I chose to place an emphasis on "we" with font stylistics to maintain the intended nuance without making the sentence sound awkward.

Adaptation notes:

• Pages 1-3 are manga-original content. The novel didn't provide any details as to how Asuna got her Wind Fleuret drop, only that it was a monster drop and was later upgraded to +4 before the boss battle. In the novel, Asuna prompted Kirito to explain Switching and Pot Rotations to her after the strategy meeting and they immediately discussed how they should find a place to discuss it in peace, which ended in Asuna coming to Kirito's place.
• The manga didn't elaborate that Asuna only ever checked out lodgings that were specifically marked with "INN" signs, while Kirito also knew of private residences that offered lodgings for a higher price, but better accomodations.
• In the novel, Asuna grabbed Kirito by his shirt collar when she heard him mentioning a bath at his place. Then she demanded him to repeat what he had said, until he mentioned the bath again. In the manga, Asuna's reaction is far more tame and simplified.
• The manga skipped Asuna's monologues about her nightmares and poor sleep at inn rooms.
• Instead of straight up asking Kirito to lend her his bath, Asuna had just asked for Kirito to share the location of his "inn" so she could get her own room there. Only when she found out that Kirito had rented the entire floor for 10 days in advance and there was no way to cancel that reservation did she ask to use his bath instead.
• The manga skipped chapter 8: Argo's visit to Kirito's farmhouse room with a new offer for his Annealed Blade, Kirito choosing to pay Argo to reveal that the potential buyer was Kibaou, and Argo accidentally barging in on Asuna's bathing and Kirito getting knocked out by Asuna as a result. Due to Argo's scenes being skipped, the manga also didn't draw any attention to the fact that the bathroom didn't have any lock. Instead of Argo's scene, we got Kirito sitting on a windosill and remembering Coper out of the blue.
• Chapter 9 (Kibaou approaching Kirito in town to intimidate him, and Kirito noticing that Kibaou hadn't spent his 39,800 cor on anything before the boss battle) from the novel was skipped. Diavel's speech in town was instead moved to the boss room doors scene.
• The conversation on the road to the Labyrinth was entirelly different from the one in the novel. In the novel, Asuna and Kirito spent the time talking about what trips were like in other games, and what they would be like in an actual fantasy world.
• Various dialogue trimming, monologue skipping.