Origins

He calls himself a monster hunter, and when asked what brings him, he always opens with the same words: the Baxter Society sent me. It is a trade, and he plies it with a hustler’s swagger — and in dead earnest.

“The Baxter Society sent me.”

“拜克斯特协会派我来的。”TL

When Abrams asked how long he had been with the Society, he answered: not long, a few years. Getting in, as he tells it, wasn’t easy.

Before he joined the Society, he was another kind of man. When Mo & Krill asked how he was adjusting, he said he stabs fewer people; when they put in that he stabs more monsters, he owned it: that’s the general idea. Vyper calls herself a big fan of his “earlier work,” which suggests the name he made in those years was no small one. When Bebop invited him to try the fighting pits, he admitted frankly that there was a time he probably would have taken him up on it, but he likes the new path he’s on.

“That's the general idea.”

“大致就是这么个意思。”TL

He doesn’t pretend those days are behind him. Asked whether he worries that his past will catch up with him, he said he knows it will; worrying about when it’s gonna happen is just wasting the good times while he has them. His “old habits die hard” probably means much the same thing.

“I know it's going to catch up with me. Worrying about when it's gonna happen is just wasting the good times while I have them.”

“我知道它迟早会追上我。可整天担心它什么时候来，只会白白浪费眼下的好时光。”TL

The man who set him on this road is Grey Talon, whose real name is Wesley. He once corrected Celeste: she called Grey Talon “Gary,” and he said he thinks he’d know the name of the man who saved his life. When Holliday asked, he said he was “hand picked by the old man himself”; when Haze called him Wesley’s protégé outright, he said so without missing a beat, and added that he knows how much he has to live up to.

But not everyone in the Society is pleased about it. He told Abrams that in a few more years they might actually start to respect him. When Grey Talon asked whether the Society was still giving him problems, he said: of course. When Venator said he doesn’t know what Wesley saw in him, he shot back: you and half the Baxter Society. The other corrected him: from what he’d heard, it was more like three quarters.

“Wasn't easy… who knows, in a few more years they might actually start to respect me.”

“不容易… 谁知道呢，再过几年他们可能会真正开始尊重我”

He has his own account of why he fits, and he puts it bluntly: it takes a monster to stop a monster. How much of that he means about himself, he has never explained.

“It takes a monster to stop a monster…”

“只有怪物才能阻止怪物…”

Old Friends and Foes

Grey Talon: The Old Man Who Saved His Life

Grey Talon speaks to him as an elder speaks to a younger man: stay with it, they’ll come around; it was never going to be easy for you; I promise you it’ll be worth it. Shiv answers: I trust you. But when Grey Talon says there’s no one else he’d rather fight with, Shiv calls it on the spot: that’s a lie and we both know it. Grey Talon says he’s in the top five, gets “Bullshit” for his trouble, and has to revise: okay, top eight, but I really do mean it. All the warmth between master and pupil lives in this banter. Grey Talon has also called him, in front of everyone, a credit to the Baxter Society.

“They will. It was never going to easy for you Shiv. But I promise you it'll be worth it.”

“会的。对你来说从来就不容易，希弗。但我保证，一切都值得。”TL

“That's a lie and we both know it.”

“这是谎话，咱俩都心知肚明。”TL

Grey Talon, it seems, is no longer with the Society. When Shiv tells him the Society needs him back, he answers only that they don’t, and tells Shiv not to try to guilt him. Shiv apologizes and lets it drop.

When it comes to blades drawn between them, he calls Grey Talon “old man,” and says under his breath: forgive me, Wesley. Afterward he will owe the Society an explanation. Grey Talon, for his part, says “And here I thought you could replace me” and “It seems I chose my replacement poorly,” so he did once mean for Shiv to succeed him; and then again he says that in time Shiv will be great, but that day isn’t today.

“Forgive me, Wesley.”

“原谅我，韦斯利。”TL

“It seems I chose my replacement poorly.”

“看来我选错了接替人选”

Drifter: The Old Acquaintance He Won’t Hear Out

The moment Drifter sees him, he says it’s been a while; Shiv answers only “Don’t talk to me,” and says it twice. Drifter says he used to be a man, that the Society has made him soft, that he has put himself in a muzzle; Shiv answers: if I’m disappointing you, I must be doing something right. Drifter also predicts that in about ten seconds everyone is going to see who he really is.

“If I'm disappointing you I must be doing something right.”

“如果我让你失望了，那说明我做对了。”TL

When he brings Drifter down, Shiv makes himself perfectly clear: I’m never gonna be under your thumb again; I’ve changed, but you’re the same sick bastard you’ve always been.

“I've changed. But you're the same sick bastard you've always been, Drifter.”

“我已经变了。可你还是那个变态混蛋，孤猎。”TL

Silver: The One Who Comes to Collect

Silver grants his past no forgiveness: when the ritual is over, you’re mine; the Society can’t protect you from me, and one day you’re gonna answer for what you did. She says: you think you can just erase the past? People don’t change.

“I don't give a shit what the Baxter Society says, people don't change.”

“拜克斯特协会说什么我才不在乎，人是不会变的。”TL

He calls her Lilah. “Helluva reunion” — it sounds as though the two really do go back. He reminds her, too: you couldn’t kill me when I had nothing to live for, you sure as hell can’t stop me now.

“Silver: you couldn't kill me when I had nothing to live for, you sure as hell can't stop me now.”

“西尔芙：我一无所有的时候你都杀不了我，现在你更别想拦我。”TL

Venator: The Pursuer Who Finally Caught Up

Venator asked him how much longer he thought he could keep the charade up — a month? A year? He answered: a lifetime. Later, with blades crossed, he said: finally caught up with me — and called him “the Vatican assassin.” The hunt from the Vatican has not let up; Venator says it plainly: he has many crimes to answer for, and the Baxter Society was never going to be able to protect him.

“Finally caught up with me, eh Venator?”

“你终于追上我了，是吧，诛邪者？”TL

Calico: Another Who Bears the “Name”

Calico was once one of the Society’s own. Shiv’s first word to her is “Traitor,” and he says she sullied “our name”; she answers that he wasn’t even in the Baxter Society before her departure — pretend all you like, but you’ll never be one of them.

“"our name"? Shiv, pretend all you like but you'll never be one of them.”

““我们的”名声？希弗，你想装就装吧，但你永远成不了他们的一员。”TL

She asked him who had him pay “The Price” — Wesley? He answered: Mira. In his words, Mira Al-din is merely “rather unpleasant,” but when Calico said the lady might have to have an accident soon, his answer was: anything happens to her, I’m coming for you.

Even Baba, when she brings him down, asks: does Mira know you’re doing this? And she urges him not to follow in Calico’s footsteps.

“Does Mira know you're doing this?”

“米拉知道你在干这些事吗？”TL

Infernus: The Man Who Lets the Past Lie

Infernus is one of the few who don’t hold his past against him: if I judged people based on the bad shit they’ve done in the past, I’d be the biggest hypocrite in the world; if you say you’re a better man, I’ll treat you like a better man. Shiv answered with just two words: thank you.

“Brother, if I judged people based on the bad shit that they have done in the past, then I'd be the biggest hypocrite in the world. If you say that you're a better man, then I'll treat you like a better man.”

“兄弟，要是我光凭一个人过去干的那些烂事就给人下定论，那我就是天底下最大的伪君子。你说你想做个更好的人，那我就把你当个更好的人看。”TL

Holliday: The Sheriff He Would Recruit

When Holliday demanded to know why the Society wasn’t trying to stop the Troubadour, he answered that they’ve got their own problems right now: if they don’t clean up their own house, she’ll be wishing for Troubadour-sized problems. He also invited her, if she made it out alive, to look up the Society — they could use someone like her — and she said only that she’d think about it. He has promised, too, to kill the Troubadour on her behalf.

“Trust me sheriff, if we don't clean up our own house you'll be wishing for Troubadour sized problems.”

“相信我，警长，如果我们不整顿自己，你就会希望遇到像游吟诗人那样规模的问题”

A Few Less-Than-Friendly Faces

Lady Geist sniffed that she had been paired with a rank amateur; he told her he’d be accepting her apology later, and before long she was praising him for making even a pompadour look attractive. Vindicta remarks coldly that Wesley should have picked a better student. Calico, for her part, turns around and concedes: I see why Wesley chose him. Vyper is blunter still: she says she liked him better before he joined the Baxter Society, and that in Tuscola they called her “Lady Shiv,” because her knife work’s just as good.

“You know what they called me in Tuscola? Lady Shiv. Cause my knife work's just as good.”

“你知道在图斯科拉，别人怎么称呼我吗？希弗夫人。因为我的刀法也一样精湛”

Anecdotes

The Hair. The pompadour is his signature. When Abrams asked how long it takes him to do his hair, he said: please, I wake up looking this pretty. Between one kill and the next he never forgets to fix his hair, and once the deed is done, what he mutters is “Didn’t even mess up my hair…”

“Please, I wake up looking this pretty.”

“拜托，我醒来的时候看起来很漂亮”

Flirtation. Lady Geist asked him for a drink after the ritual; he asked what bar, and on hearing Jezebel's, said only: it’s a date. She shot back: let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He hasn’t forgotten her reputation, though; when he brought her down, he told her she was done preying on the weak. To Haze he said that if she’s open for a cocktail later, he can fill her in on all the gory details.

“It’s a date.”

“这是约会”

“You're done preying on the weak, Geist.”

“你休想再欺凌弱小了，盖斯特”

Knives. When Apollo showed off the sword that is his family heirloom, Shiv said every blade has a story, but in the end the only thing that matters is whether it’s sharp enough; then he pressed him — not about practice — on whether he had ever really stabbed a man because he wanted to end his life.

“I'm not talking about practice, I'm talking you stabbing a man because you want to end his life.”

“我说的不是练习，我说的是你一刀捅进一个人，因为你想要他的命。”TL

A Soft Heart. He talks tough, but there are soft places in him. Bringing down Ivy, he said he feels bad about it; of Paige, that she deserved better than what she got; of Pocket: I feel for the kid.

“I feel bad about putting her down.”

“击倒她，我感到难过”

The Dead. He is flat about it: I’m not scared of dead things. Yet he also says he’s getting real tired of dealing with dead people. Face to face with the Doorman, he admits that guy gives him the creeps. The Doorman, for his part, holds out an olive branch: he says Shiv doesn’t belong in the Baxter Society, that there will always be a place for him at the Baroness Hotel, and that the Society will turn on him — it’s only a matter of time.

New York. He has even declared that New York is under his protection now.

“New York is under my protection now…”

“纽约现在在我的保护之下…”

A Favor. Kelvin once told him that if he ever does lose himself, he wants the Baxter Society to put him down.

“If I ever do lose myself - I want the Baxter Society to put me down.”

“如果有一天我真的失去了自我……我希望拜克斯特协会能将我处决。”TL

An Accusation. Graves once pointed at him and said: you took something that doesn’t belong to you. What it was, he never answered.

“You took something that doesn't belong to you, Shiv.”

“希弗，你拿走了不属于你的东西”

Open Questions