I have finally wound around to reading this and belatedly want to thank you properly for translating it. This is an amazing chapter! I expected from glancing at the structure that it would go downhill in terms of interest with the first section being most interesting and the last section least, and this was true, but I was surprised at how interesting and readable the whole thing was, even Tetsuya's complicated family adventures.

The fight between Takaya and Chiaki, of course, was riveting at every moment. It was interesting to see a match-up between their raw powers for one thing. We keep getting told Kagetora is the strongest of them, but with all Takaya's angst and memory loss and dying, we don't see it so clearly all that often. Their characterizations were spot on, and it broke my heart to see Takaya thinking that Naoe had ordered Kaizaki to seduce him, turning all the personal knowledge Naoe has about him against him. That really would be the ultimate betrayal. It's also interesting to see just how Takaya's block against remembering Naoe's death begins to crack. Years ago, Petronia described the plotline as "inherently lame," for good reason, but in the context of the story, it actually makes so much sense and is written with such depth.

I'm sorry that you have't gotten more feedback on this translation. I expect that can be demoralizing after spending so much time and work on a project like this. But I think that a lot more people appreciate your work than say so. Especially in our current internet culture, it seems like if a post is more than maybe a few days-weeks old, the conversation is considered "over," and people won't comment because it just doesn't seem proper. But I expect you are getting a steady trickle of hits over the years. Maybe not a lot, but your translations are the only place to go for these chapters in English, and that is really an incalculable service to anyone who has discovered Mirage and can't read it in Japanese. Thank you!