Speaking of translations, over on AnimeSuki, the guy from
Moedosed who posted that first summary translation way back when
posted one of this, too.
In the underground world, an enourmous reward was placed on the head of a girl named Ellis who's a suspect of murdering a physicist Heinz Schneider.
Coincidentally, Ellis gets saved from other bounty hunters by a bounty hunter named Nadi who finds her in a country town in Mexico. She escapes southwards after learning the truth of the matter. She expects to find a place there called Hometown where she was supposedly born. Ellis is convinced that if she goes there she can figure out her unknown past. Her only leads through her fate are the Inca rose gemstone and a mysterious word Uinyaimarka (ウイニャイマルカ - not sure how to transliterate). Nadi volunteers to become her guide even though she was originally chasing her.
Thus the journey of a girl with a prize on her head and a strange bounty hunter will begin.
Which, even more interestingly, was
followed up by Kensuke:
If the "Uinyai" is transliterated as "Winay", after a little googling and seaching wikipedia I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winay_Wayna
...snip...
No luck for the "マルカ" part. Marka? Maruka? Maluca?
Aaaaannnnddd.... Wiki sez:
Wiñay Wayna (Quechua for "forever young") is an Inca ruin along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. It is built into a hillside overlooking the Urubamba River. The site consists of upper and lower house complexes connected by a staircase and fountain structures. Beside the houses lies an area of agricultural terraces.
(Has a pic too!)
And as I've speculated on my blog, I think "marka" is just a "mark". A sign, an inscription, a tattoo...? Or not.
What about in Spanish?
UPDATE: Duh, answered my own question. "Wiñay Marka" is a part of Lake Titicaca. No decent singular sources via Google yet because the sections of the lake are named in Spanish, not Quechua, but best I can piece together is that it's the smaller part of the lake on the Bolivian side.
MORE UPDATE: Neat link on Lake Titicaca:
http://www.crystalinks.com/laketiticaca.html -- tons of interesting legend stuff in there that I'm sure will make for great speculation...
FINAL UPDATE!!!: (seriously, I've got housework to do!) On
this travel guide page, there's this useful tidbit:
The lake’s original name was Khota Mamma (“Mother Lake”), and was only renamed Titicaca after the Spanish conquest. The lake has two sections. The smaller southern section, known as Wiñay Marka (“Eternal City”), is comparatively shallow, which led to the legend of a city lying beneath the lake. The discovery of remains of a settlement and an ancient temple on the lake bed in 2000 bolstered this theory.
