気力の続く限り戻る

[MeitanteiJesus]

In the line:
案としてはやや苦しいが、大輔は気力の続く限り戻ってから、往復してごまかすことにした。

I have no idea how to interpret 気力の続く限り戻って

気力 = Willpower

続く限り - Continue until the end

戻って - To return / go back

大輔は気力の続く限り戻ってから
Until Daisuke returns from the limits of his willpower?

[NileCat]

"as far as my spirit can maintain"

Well, the thing is that I have no idea if this sounds fine/natural to you English speakers. I'm sure it is at least logically correct, though.

EDIT:
Oops! “To maintain” doesn’t seem to work as an intransitive. How about “as far as my spirit can last” ?

[MeitanteiJesus]

That definitely makes sense, so

戻って = last
から = can

in this case?

[NileCat]

Nope.
力の続く限り is an idiomatic phrase which means “as far as (one’s) spirit can last” and 戻ってから means “after/when (one/one's) return(s)/(-ed)/(-ing)”.

[MeitanteiJesus]

That's what I thought at first, but contextually 戻ってから is a bit confusing. In the story he is planning on pretending to make a round trip to the bathroom, using it as an excuse to be by the door since originally he wanted to leave the house.

But then I'm not sure how "returning" fits.

案としてはやや苦しいが、
The plan was a bit forced, but

大輔は気力の続く限り戻ってから、
to the limits of his spirit/willpower,

往復してごまかすことにした。
he will pretend to be making a round trip (to the bathroom).

I'm not sure how 戻ってから alters the translation, since he's currently going to the bathroom, and isn't returning from a round trip.

[NileCat]

I don’t get your point.
Whatever the context is, you'll need to “return” to the starting point first in order to make a “round trip”, right?
Show me the full context if you have a further question.

[MeitanteiJesus]

Hmm, thinking on it a bit more, I guess fundamentally my question is, if 戻ってから was removed from the sentence:

案としてはやや苦しいが、大輔は気力の続く限り、往復してごまかすことにした。

What difference does it make?

[NileCat]

The difference is that the sentence doesn’t have “after I return” part.
As the guy says so, this whole thing is written as just a “lame excuse”. Lame excuses (have to) sound redundant, don’t they?

More precisely, the phrase 気力の続く限り only modifies the word "return", not the "round trip". That's the difference. I have no idea what it means because I don't know what happend before that, though.


EDIT:
Let me show you a seemingly similar (possible) situation.

You are cheating on your girlfriend. And you are on a trip to see your new lover.
When your girlfriend calls you and tells you about her suspicion, you decide to “return” to your girlfriend through thick and thin. And, in order to pretend it was originally only a business trip, you are to make a (new) “round trip” or possibly “several round trips” just to persuade her. Makes sense?

[MeitanteiJesus]

Ah that clears it up for me then. I kept thinking 気力の続く限り was modifying 往復してごまかす, and kind of wondered why 戻ってから was dangled in the middle. But talking to you really helped me understand it.

I think what confused me the most is that the context for 戻る seems to be referring to something said in the next few lines, and not in the past text. So I couldn't link it to anything.

The lines immediately after 案としてはやや苦しいが、大輔は気力の続く限り戻ってから、往復してごまかすことにした are:

【大輔】（そおっと……そおっと……落ち着いて、ゆっくり……）
息を止めて階段まで戻り、五段ほど上った時点で集中力が切れ、大輔は足を滑らせた。
【大輔】うあっ……お、落ちるところだった……はあっ……はあっ……。
大輔は開き直って足音を立てながらもう一度浴室へと向かう。

So I guess 戻ってから is talking about after returning to the staircase.

[NileCat]

Glad to hear you got it.
But you need to return to the train station when you need to return to your office, don’t you? Although it’s kind of hard to tell by only reading this limited paragraph, to me, the staircase doesn’t seem to be his final destination he decided to “return”.

c.f.) “Because I forgot to bring the papers with me from my office, I decided to return. … And then I returned to the station.”
The first sentence does not necessarily mean he decided to go to the station, right?