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121 " Well, how are you?” my mother went on. “You spend all day on your feet, Keiko. It must be tiring. Um, how have things been lately? What’s new?” Hearing her pry like this, I got the feeling that somehow she was still hoping for some kind of new development in my life. She was probably a bit tired of how I hadn’t progressed at all in eighteen years. When I told her everything was fine as usual, she sounded both relieved and disappointed at once. "
― Sayaka Murata , Convenience Store Woman
122 " Seeing how excited she was, it occurred to me that it wasn’t such a stretch to say that contemporary society was still stuck in the Stone Age after all. So the manual for life already existed. It was just that it was already ingrained in everyone’s heads, and there wasn’t any need to put it in writing. "
123 " Una vez los oí discutiendo sobre cómo podían "curarme", y recuerdo que pensé que era yo quien tenía que arreglar algo "
124 " So the manual for life already existed. It was just that it was already ingrained in everyone’s heads, and there wasn’t any need to put it in writing. "
125 " My present self is formed almost completely of the people around me. [...] My speech is especially infected by everyone around me and is currently a mix of that of Mrs. Izumi and Sugawara. [...] And I probably infect others with the way I speak too. Infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human is what I think. "
126 " I’d noticed soon after starting the job that whenever I got angry at the same things as everyone else, they all seemed happy. If I went along with the manager when he was annoyed or joined in the general irritation at someone skiving off the night shift, there was a strange sense of solidarity as everyone seemed pleased that I was angry too. Now, too, I felt reassured by the expression on Mrs. Izumi and Sugawara’s faces: Good, I pulled off being a “person.” I’d felt similarly reassured any number of times here in the convenience store. "
127 " These past two weeks I’d been asked fourteen times why I wasn’t married. And twelve times why I was still working part-time. So for now I’d decide what to eliminate from my life according to what I was asked about most often I thought. "
128 " « Your uterus belongs to the village too, you know. The only reason the villagers aren’t paying it any attention is because it’s useless. » "
129 " Era la hora en que el mundo se despertaba y los engranajes de la sociedad empezaban a girar. Yo era uno de aquellos engranajes que giraban sin parar, una pieza del mundo encajada en esa franja del día que llamamos «mañana». "
130 " The previous me—who’d never fallen in love or had sex, who’d never had a proper job—had sometimes been hard to read. But everything about the new me—the one who hd Shiraha living with her—was clear, even my future. "
131 " (…) el mundo que yo había asimilado como propio sí había cambiado. Los componentes que formaban mi ser eran distintos, como si el agua que contenía mi cuerpo antes de tener amigas se hubiera evaporado casi del todo y hubiera sido reemplazada por agua nueva. "
132 " I looked into Shiraha’s eyes. There I saw only prejudice in its simplest form. "
133 " So, will I be cured if I leave the convenience store? Or am I better staying working there? And should I kick Shiraha out? Or am I better with him here? Look, I’ll do whatever you say. I don’t mind either way, so please just instruct me in specific terms.” “I don’t know anymore … "
134 " So apprently it would be better for the human race if Shiraha and I didn’t mate. Since I’d never had sex and the very thought of it was ghastly, I was quite relieved about this. I would carry my genes carefully to my grave, being sure not to rashly leave any behind, and I would dispose of them properly when I died. I was resolved on this, but at the same time it left me in a bit of a limbo. I understand the end point perfectly, but how was I to spend my time until then? "