Tougen Anki, chapter 250 translation
250 Codependency
Box: Me and Ema always hung out in the Chiyoko area in Shinjuku.
[t/n: a reference to what is known as "Toyoko kids" - troubled, marginalized youth who more or less live on the streets and tend to gather at certain spots in the city, one of which - and the most famous - is the so-called Toyoko area in Shinjuku centered around the Touhou Building, which gave this gathering its name - "To" from "Touho" and "yoko" means "by the side of"]
Rei: What are we gonna do after this?
Ema: Wanna go grab a bite?
Box: She is Ema... Both my parents and hers were killed by Momo, and we found themselves adrift until we washed up in Shinjuku...
Rei: Let's go to Matsuya.
[t/n: one of the biggest chains of fastfood restaurants in Japan]
Ema: I'd rather go to Mac.
Rei: I'm short on money, so guess it's time I found some temp host job.
Ema: In that case, maybe I should give trial-working at some cabaret club a try too.
Rei: Of course you can't!
Box: We just lived aimlessly day by day. The anxiety lingering deep within our hearts grew weaker as long as we were in that town...
Ema: This town is as dirty as ever.
Rei: No.. You mean beautiful.
Box: I didn't care either way as long I could be with Ema... Things like a future were too vague for me to grasp them...
Ema: Rei, your birthday's coming up soon, yeah? Is there anything you want?
Rei: ...A wedding.
Ema: Haha! A wedding ring, then?
Rei: Well, I'll be the one to buy 'em, so never mind.
Ema: Do you want kids, Rei?
Rei: Nope. Just living together is fine.
Ema: Getting jelly of potential kids? Hilarious.
Rei: Am not.
Ema: Oh well, not like we got the slightest about things like a future anyway.
Rei: Stop biting me every day. Now it's bleeding. Ouch.
Ema: You're still alive today.
Rei: No shit.
Ema: When we die, let's do it on the count of three.
Rei: ...Why?
Ema: Because sharing everything is nice.
Rei: ...Guess so.
Box: We were scared of the invisible future... so we lived huddling together more than was necessary... Because we felt that if we didn't codepend on one another, we wouldn't even have a reason to stay alive... But the violent unfairness hit unexpectedly. In order to buy me a birthday present Ema signed up for a clinical trials job in secret and never came back.... She had no idea that once oni sprout horns, their blood type changes. Ema got found out as an oni and was abducted by someone... I searched for her high and low. "She's okay..." "I know I'll save her..." "And we'll absolutely see each other again..." That's what I desperately kept repeating to myself over and over... But no matter how I searched, I never found Ema...
Ema in flashback: You're still alive today...
Box: There's no meaning in being alive without you... I saw the same dream every day... The dream of us huddling together in that town...
Sign: Kabuki-chou, first street
Box: I didn't care about things like a future. I didn't need a wedding or a birthday present. I just wanted to see Ema again... for me, that'd be enough. Those moments were what I came to yearn for dearly... But the reality was a cruel bitch. As I searched for Ema, I made contact with someone involved in the underworld trade...
RandoGangsta: That woman has already been cut up to pieces and sold overseas! It was that well-known Soukoku Pharma that did the cutting! We only sold the corpse to overseas buyers!
Box: It appears that after Ema got abducted, they transported her to Soukoku Pharmaceuticals... In the course of human experiments she died... They then dismembered her dead body and sold it off overseas... "She's okay..." "I'll see her again..." These hopes vanished like smoke. Ema... When it was our time to die... weren't we supposed to die together on the count of three...? Don't leave me behind... Didn't you say you wanted us to share everything...
RandoGangsta: So, man! I told you all I know, okay? So now, how about you just let me...
Box: That was when my raison d'etre ceased to exist... All that was left was to decide how to die...