So now we know whose story takes place on the 9th night: It’s the story of the person in charge when the kidnapping happened…
I really liked the story of how he lived as a young child, and how he came across his first Japanese people “They are so polite, they need to have something on their mind!” - and how the grandmother waited for them to finish their sentence
Let’s see how this continues.
I may have missed something. I thought this was the story of someone in the special forces communications group - responsible for monitoring the listening device in the old hunter’s shack where the kidnapped Japanese are being held. (It seemed to me as though he (maybe ‘she’? because s/he uses 私) was fairly junior in the special forces unit. Had only recently been assigned?)
Did you get this from
その丁寧さとは裏腹にどこかたどたどしいうえ、3人揃って外見がとても変わっていたからだった。
?
I interpreted that as meaning that despite their politeness, and awkwardness , all three of them had a very unusual appearance . But perhaps I misunderstood - or you were referring to a different bit I missed.
Oh I think the error is on my side! I thought this was the commander of the special forces, but you are right, it’s the story of a member. With that, it’s indeed likely it’s a woman - for a somewhat elderly politician it would be very fitting if he used 私 but for a member it’s much more likely it’s a woman, like you assessed.
Yeah I think I feel victim to 裏腹
Oh and by the way did you notice ずっと前に死んだ祖母に似た声…… ? Made me giggle quite a bit
I had two questions from this section of the chapter. Not sure if we have seen the answer, or if so I have missed it.
Early in the chapter, our narrator describes hearing, at the end of each night’s story
やがて、紙をめくる音、咳払い、そして拍手。
Do you think the individual stories are written down on paper? (If so, why? I had imagined all along that these were spontaneous anecdotes told by the prisoners. But that doesn’t fit with the sound of turning pages. The title of the book 朗読会 makes it sound as if the stories are reading aloud of written stories. Do you think that perhaps the person leading the prisoners (ゆったりとしたアルトの声の持ち主である女性) has convinced them to write stories down as a way of passing the time? If so, were the written versions lost in the raid?. Did I understand correctly that in the remnants of the hunters hut there were marks of writing by the prisoners - scratched using a sewing needle on floorboards etc? But how does that fit with the sound of turning paper??)
I was also unsure about timing. In the first chapter it says that the incident reached its dramatic conclusion after more than 100 days. But in this chapter we hear that the first story was heard around a month after the kidnapping (?) I had initially imagined that the 8 nights of stories [plus the 9th, though clearly that is different] were consecutive. But if that were the case, that would mean that there was a long gap between the 朗読会 and the abortive rescue attempt. I wonder speculatively if the stories are read out at intervals - maybe every week or 10 days??
I also loved the ずっと前に死んだ祖母に似た声 callout - so funny. I’m not sure about For sure whether or not the readings are on paper, but it makes a lot more sense to me that way. I was a bit confused by the fluid language used for all of these short stories as I called out in a previous thread. It being written (which kind of aligns with the title 朗読会 makes more sense to me. Perhaps they did write them in advance but I haven’t seen a reason yet I don’t think . For the timing question, I don’t think we ever learned the timing of the tellings - the night by night thing is the broadcast of the radio program if I remember correctly, which has been curated and broadcasts after the hostage situation is over.
Good story.
I don’t know why you all defaulted to female protagonist, though. I defaulted to male. I had another read over the text to see why I thought so, and the only thing I could pin it on was the military setting and maybe that the protagonist is not forced to help grandma clean the 鍋. Military personnel, especially special ops units are all male for me.
Like @jablekanji already wrote I think the retelling in the radio was consecutive. The stories weren’t necessarily. The text has this line that ‘each time the leader gave the signal’ the story preparation was heard with clearing thoughts and applause etc..
Yes, this story very much implies so.
I read some of the prelude again to refresh my memory. Yes there were markings in all kind of places but they were only text fragments. So i suspect the real writing for the stories was actually done on paper but that paper was destroyed in the explosion. The intro says the hut was basically completely destroyed and where the corpses were found everything was charred.
“They are so polite, they need to have something on their mind!” - and how the grandmother waited for them to finish their sentence 
