Side Change by Onaji Numa no Mujina: Ryo Tsuzura (art) and Soh Futaba (story) TL by boke ### TL notes indicated by hash tags like this: ### ### Page numbers indicated by —XX for example, page one is: —01 ### Panel numbers indicated by -X for example, panel one is: -1 ### sfx- means the following is a sound effect. ### hw- means the following is handwritten text. ### Unless otherwise noted, panel and text balloon flow is from upper right to lower left. ### This TL indexes on file number in case the page numbers don’t match. ### Sometimes my comments are snark or color, so feel free to ignore those. —05 -1 Me (Haruna) Maeda-san —06 -1 I’m in the classroom with you, and the sun is setting. Because you treat me just as I am, this is where I can truly be myself. You. Just as you always are. Me. Just as I always am. Enveloped in the warm, orange glow of the classroom, after school time starts today as always. —07 -1 After school. The school yard is brimming with sport club activities. -2 Inside, the school is deserted and seems like a whole other world. -3 Wheeeen Whenever I’m in a quiet place, I get a certain ringing in my ears. -4 sfx- Mmph… Nn… hm- My ears are… -5 For whatever reason, it’s catching my attention today. —08 -1 Don’t tell me it’s the start of hearing problems for a fresh faced high school girl like me! sfx- Gyaah -2 Snatch -3 Inflammation of the middle ear…? Of the outer ear…? sfx- Tappa tap ###repeat Stress?! hw- It’s gotta be! sfx- Sliiide -4 It must be that my fair, delicate, maiden’s heart has been injured! It leads me to hate everything! I walk… float… to the rooftop without even noticing and… -5 A cry! And the beautiful maiden’s existence is… sfx- Skrrk —09 -1 Get a grip. sfx- Whang Owie! -2 Hnnngh -3 They do have such a thing as shock treatment, you know. -4 Ma… Maeda-san… —10 -1 Huh? Why the Kendo uniform? -2 I snuck out of practice cause I forgot a piece of my armor. I see. -3 sfx- Scuff And, what’s got you all weirded out today? sfx- Shumph Can you please not talk like I’m unstable? -4 Hm? Here… —11 -1 Ears going buzz -2 What’s with this moronic search phrase? “ears going buzz”? Oh, stuff it! -3 Are your ears giving you problems? Mm, just a little ringing in the ears. -4 Hmm… -5 Stare —12 -1 Her deep black hair, just to her nape… -2 Her well defined features… -3 Everyone often calls Maeda-san the school’s “prince”. hw- Kyaaa! Maeda-saan! It does bother her a bit that she comes off as a boyish, though. -4 But I think that contrast really makes her femininity really pop whenever she laughs or get’s angry. sfx- Stare And she looks soo good in a hakama ### The divided skirt many martial artists wear in Japan —13 -1 Oh! Well… -2 If that’s all it is, you’ll be fine. Sounds like if you’re healthy, a little ringing in the ears is nothing to worry about. -3 hw- That’s a relief, huh? Huh? Yeah! Sure is! -4 If you put a little more energy into living your life, you won’t worry about it, right? Don’t just mope here all spaced out. sfx- Hmph! -5 sfx- Muttter… Who do think I’m even waiting for…? —14 -1 What? -2 It’s nothing! I’ve got my own reasons, ok?! Like studying! -3 Studying, huh? -4 Nothing there… -5 Your desk’s not a pillow, ok? Gimme a break! —15 -1 Fine. Whatever. Give me my phone back. -2 Oho? -3 Don’t you think you need your pencil more than this right now? Ah… Do you want to try holding my shinai? ###bamboo sword used in Kendo -4 I’ll pass. —16 -1 Hyaa! sfx- Whoosh -2 Gimme it! sfx- Nyaar -3 Hey! Hey, wait a… Y-your boobs are… sfx- Boing Boing —17 -1 Just give up! Wait! No, really! Wait a…! -2 Oh? Oh? Almost got it… -3 Shwip —18 -1 Waaagh sfx- Whud -2 Ow ow ow… -3 I’m sorry, Maeda-san… Are you ok…? —19 -1 Crackle -2 Nn… -3 Th-thump —20 -1 I can’t look away from her… Her eyes are so pretty… and her eyelashes are so long… and her nose is so cute… -2 Normally, I’d never be able to gaze at her this close up, it would be too… But maybe that’s because with our heights, we don’t see eye to eye… -3 Hey… —21 -1 sfx- Fwip …Wh-what? -3 Hey. sfx- Fwip Hey. sfx- Fwip -4 What the heck? This is kinda fun! -5 Hey, Maeda-san… Could it be that you… —22 -1 Are embarrassed? Wha?! -2 She is! -3 sfx- Blush Her! The prince! All embarrassed! -4 This has gotta be something no one else has ever seen! A reaction just for me… —23 -1 The reason I’m always here at this time is… because she comes here everyday. -2 But normally she’s already done with club and has changed back into her uniform. But for some reason, she ducked out early and came here in her Kendo gi. -3 Your Kendo gear… You forgot it on purpose, didn’t you? -4 …Hn… —24 -1 Um, hey look… Maybe this could be…? -2 A very romantic interpretation for the ringing in my ears would be that it’s due to my loneliness. -3 Perhaps then it’s possible to think… that Maeda-san, Ms. serious, choosing to leave club early is romantic too. -4 Were you missing me? —25 -1 Rub… -3 Th… There there… sfx- Pat -4 It was just a passing fancy at first… —26 -1 I just didn’t feel like going home that day. I just looked out over the empty grounds. -2 Ah. -3 Sorry, am I interrupting you? Wha? Uh, no! Not at all! I was just spacing out. It’s the prince! I see. -4 Is something the matter? Nn… I thought I forgot something, but… That’s weird, it’s not here. Um, it’s kinda awkward to say but… —27 -1 This is class two… sfx- Jolt Hwhaaat?! -2 sfx- Twitch -3 Ah… Um… Oh, you’re right. I’m made a mistake… —28 -1 Ba-dump -2 S-so cute! -3 Wha…? Ah! No! Sorry! Um, I didn’t mean it! No, I did, but… Um… What I’m trying to say is… sfx- Um Um -4 Wh-wh-wh-what do I do? sfx- Oh gaaawd Crap! I gotta say something! -5 I wanna… —29 -1 I wanna make you my daughter! -2 Daughter? -3 Pshhhhhh -4 Snort -5 Bwa hahaha -6 Uh, wut…? —30 -1 Sorry, it’s nothing. -2 I’m sorry for coming out with something weird. No worries. Actually, that made me happy. -3 Oh…? Hey… Are you normally here at this time? -4 Grr -5 Are you being all sarcastic? Maybe. Since that day, we’ve often spent the time after school together. —31 -1 I thought she’d never want anything to do with me. But I guess I was wrong. -2 And when I think of that… It makes me wanna tease her a bit. -3 Hey. Want to try kissing? sfx- Th-thump ###repeat down page —32 -1 Th-thump ###repeat down page Stare —33 -1 Shudder sfx- Caress —35 -1 Kiss… -2 Fwooosh —36 -1 Swish Swish Pat Pat -3 Spin -4 I’m… going back to my club. -5 Ah… Yeah. —37 -1 Clack -2 Your phone. I’m putting it here. Next time, use an English search word or something. I’ll… take note of it. She’s back to prince mode. -2 You’re so stupid. -3 Clack -5 Ah… Right. My phone. —38 -1 I hope it’s not broken… sfx- Tap -3 Hmph. It might be broken after all. -4 I should get moving too. —39 -2 Stupid -3 Clud —40 -1 It’s not the first time I skipped out of club. Since I’ve never been that serious, whenever I felt like it, I’d just make up some excuse and turn my back on the practice hall. I didn’t particularly have anywhere to go. I’d just lean on the wall on the landing of the stairwell. Or just wander the halls drinking vegetable juice. I’ve even stolen away and taken naps up on the roof. Since I’m not great with dealing with other people, I’ve always been attracted to anywhere people don’t go. Right now, I was cruising around looking for some quiet place. Normally, if I got found by my friends or a teacher, I’d get off with a light scolding. But there wasn’t anyone around who’d would give me grief. After becoming a high school student, even I started become aware of how other students viewed me. Seems like they think I look nicer than the other students, and so they’d come talk to me and treat me pretty well compared to the other kids. “Just what’s so good about my face?” I glared at the bathroom mirror I just happened to be passing by. I do glare, and I have a sour expression all the time. I hated that, so I really made an effort to change my expression. But my smile was so awkward that it made things even worse, and I gave up. But around the world, when you have an icy cold glare, people call you “cool”. 冷たい = cold = cool. And so I went back to how I was. Words can be interesting, can’t they? I had just wandered back to my classroom and heaved a sigh. Upon my beloved desk, the desk I was so used to, was the bag for all the Kendo equipment I was also so used to. I didn’t have warm feelings about the bag at all. At my school, after closing homeroom, you have a period of time for cleaning the school. For those students going out to clean the halls or grounds, coming back is a pain, so most would head out straight to their clubs. Essentially, they are flipping the order of things and then clean when they come back. To not cause problems with the students cleaning in the classrooms, they’d stack whatever stuff they didn’t take with them on their desks. “Kinda looks cleaner now than when they left”. My kendo armor and gi have a funky smell, since they accumulate sweat day after day. But even though I don’t practice as much as most people, as I girl, I still can’t give it a pass. However, since I drag my heavy ass Kendo stuff home to clean it once a week, there was no way I’m going the extra mile to make the bag all clean and pretty since I’m just going to leave it on my desk. —41 -1 Recently the school has been really clean - it must be tough on the students in charge of getting it done. “They really do a good job”. I don’t know who leaves messes around school, but it’s not like I get pissed at them or anything, I just do my part. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve done this. When people in your life look after you, and your life is easy, then it’s not surprising that there’s an uptick in people who get the selfish urge to skip club. If you’re asking about me, it’s not like people were spoiling me or anything, and that’s always gotten under my skin. If you are going to love someone, you should take responsibility and make sure to go all the way with it. “But, I do get that I’m dodging responsibility too…” I have to admit, I can be cowardly sometimes. I take advantage of other people’s affection and act pretty selfish myself. Well… besides cutting club, I don’t really do bad things though. But maybe because I understand that about myself, I end up keeping a fair bit of distance between me and others. Since I’m hardly consistent, there’s no need for others to spend their time on me. There’s better uses for people’s time. Like going to club. “And making friends…” Being self critical was a bad habit of mine. The more I try to reach out and reel people in, the more it felt like I was getting ahead of myself and then I would withdraw. The more people thought of me, the more my self worth would plummet, to the point of needing a parachute. Thinking about all this, I grabbed my equipment bag and left the classroom. Since it was after school, cleaning was supposed to being going on, and sure enough, I could hear activity from the neighboring classroom. Taking a peek, there was a single, small framed girl, acting out something like it was a scene from a musical. Acting like a lunatic. “And if I notice, there is the ceiling! And the islands that appear to dance across the sky. I would throw myself into it if only you would let me into your company!” Welp, there’s at least one more person that needs a parachute. Or maybe some meds. Comparing my cowardice to her insanity was enough to make me laugh before I could catch myself. Her presence. Her actions. Her way of speaking. It was just too precious. They say the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but in my case, grass didn’t grow at all. Maybe it was more appropriate to say I had plenty of nothing. But it’s not like that’s what I wanted, so it didn’t feel like a good fit. I just felt like I was being strangled by impossibility. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I wanted to get closer… It felt like that was the natural thing to do. Maybe it’ll be necessary for me to come here everyday. I pressed my feet firmly on the floor before they could run away. Taking care not to give myself away, I stepped one foot into the class room, as if I was sneaking up on someone about to commit suicide. It felt like back when I was young and used to tease the other kids. Not saying anything, just feeling the excitement run rampant through me. —42 -1 As someone used to just skipping out on club, I bet feeling this kind of excitement is going to cut my life short. Ah, it’s just like a beautiful maiden to die young. I suddenly realized that having flights of fancy like that was making me exactly the same as a certain somebody. “Maybe it’s infectious…” Geez. Time for me to take meds. I’m not sure if I am plastering on the correct smile, but there’s no one here that’s going to care if they happen to see. ###italicize “me” I’m in the classroom with you, and the sun is setting. Because you treat me just as I am, this is where I can truly be myself. You. Just as you always are. Me. Just as I always am. Enveloped in the warm, orange glow of the classroom, after school time starts today as always. —43 -1 Afterword Thank you so much for purchasing this manga! I wrote the plot for this story came a year ago, but to due to how events went down, I procrastinated and was only able to finish recently. I’m sorry, Next time I won’t procrastinate. Maybe. Our circle is only two people, and this is our first work. What did you think? If you enjoyed it we would be happy. Actually, there is a short extra we have published on pixiv. If you were to go read it there, you’d be able to discovered a bit more about these two girls. That would rock. We plan to publish more stories regularly, we beg you to support us again. Dojin Circle - Onaji Numa no Mujina ###signatures from right Tsuzura Ryo Futaba Soh I don’t have a cool signature —44 -1 Side Change Published June 13, 2021 Story: Futaba Soh Art: Tsuzura Ryo Printing: Neko no Shippo-sama —46 -1 Onaji Numa no Mujina ### Their circle name translates to “The same badgers in a swamp” and has the meaning of “birds of a feather”.