Hitomi no Catoblepas 1

-1-
[Top-left text: "Dripping... that red eye heralds the beginning of the story!"]
Tokio: U...gh... // Oww... // I see... / They're nearby, are they... // Finally found them, huh... // I get it.

-2-
Tokio: I get it, so stop with the acting up... // Catoblepas.
[Top-left author's name: Tanaka Yasuki]

-3-
Hitomi no Catoblepas (Catoblepas Eye)
#1 Shimura Tokio
[left-hand text: "The rampant 'darkness'... don't turn your eyes away!"]
[Lower text: The fighting spirit dwelling in that red eye! The long awaited "Yoma Battle" is finally beginning!]

-4-
Mari: Ooh... / What's with that face? // I'm getting scared over here!

-5-
Miiko: Mari! // It's 'cause you're saying these weird things! // *sigh* // What if you give me nightmares with those monster stories...? // You're the worst...
Mari: Hahah... Miiko, are stories like this your weak point? // You don't need to get so scared... At any rate, this is all probably just stuff somebody made up! / It's all just rumours, after all, even about the witness. // With something this weird happening, there are bound to be rumours flying around.

-6-
Miiko: It- it's not like I'm scared or anything, anyway! / It's just that I get nightmares easily if I start imagining these things!
Mari: My bad, my bad!
[box: "My name is Kishida Miiko. // The "stuff" my friend Mari was talking about is a series of mysterious incidents that have been happening around the town.]
Mari: Don't worry 'bout it, Miiko! See ya!
Miiko：Yeah, yeah.
[box: "People turning into mummies and dying"... // The cause is still unknown. / The third victim was found yesterday. // The police reports say that, ignoring the fact that they've been mummified, it's clear from the contents of their stomachs that they were found only a few hours after the time of death. // Furthermore, they were all found lying in the street, still wearing their clothes. // Terrorist poison gas... an unknown virus... 　even alien invasion... there are so many theories flying about.

-7-
[box: And then there's what Mari was saying...]
Flashback!Miiko: DEMONS?!
F!Mari: Yeah! It's gotta be! // There have been witness reports of monsters all around the places where it's been happening! / "Monsters"! // These monsters... at first, they look human, but there's a pattern of green spots all over their body... / and their eyes stick out like a chameleon's! // But then the real identifying feature is the head - the skin's all inside-out, so you can see this huge, fang-filled mouth... // Crazy image, isn't it? And just to make it worse, I hear it has a two-metre-long tongue!
Miiko: Aww... why did I have to hear all that nasty stuff... / Stupid Mari!
[box: But then, I remembered...]

-8-
[box: The town where we live, // K City,]
[Text: It's a beautiful and ancient city with a long and deep history. // This ground, carrying a wonderful cultural history... it was once a centre of political activity.]
[box: But on the other hand... / It's also a place where demons were said to parade through the night... // known as a "demon town".

-9-
Miiko: Ah! // There are still ten minutes until the next train~! // This just isn't my day... // Oh!
Tokio: !

-10-
Miiko: (Oh no...! // I dropped it...!)
Tokio: Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention...
Miiko: No, that's... It was my fault...
Tokio: It's fine. I'll just pick it back up...

-11-
Tokio: There we go. // H- here you go...
Miiko: ...?! // (None of it spilled out?!) // No way... // ...Thank you very much... // (That's weird... I was sure it had all spilled out...)
Tokio: Th- that's fine...

-12-
Announcement: The train now approaching Platform 2 // is the regular service bound for the International Assembly. // Please wait behind the white line.
Miiko: Wha-?!
Tokio: Wait a moment, please.

-13-
Tokio: Er... that is... how to say... // I think you would be better off not boarding this train... that is...
Miiko: What are you talking about? Get off... Let go! / Ow! // If it's about the juice earlier... it's fine!
Tokio: No- That's not-
Announcement: The doors are now closing. // Please stand back.
Miiko: (What a weird guy... it's not like he has anything to do with me! // Ooh..... that was scary...)

-14-
Miiko: ........ // ?! // (Huh? Am I the only one on the train? // Didn't even the people from the platform get on?)
Tokio: Guess this is the only way...
Miiko: Eh...?
Tokio: Excuse me, but... // I'm boarding too...
Miiko: (Wh-wh....!! // Surely, it can't be...)

-15-
Miiko: (This guy followed me...?!)
Tokio: I'd just like to warn you in advance... / About the things that are going to happen from this point... // Please try not to be too shocked... okay...?
Miiko: EH?!
Tokio: ...

-16-
Tokio: I'm late, huh... How terrible... // How could you... so many people...
Miiko: (Wha- what?! // What is he?! // Muttering things like "Don't get on the train" and "don't be shocked"...　Eww! What's he trying to say?! // Is he one of those skirt chasers...? E~h, that could turn bad~! // I'm all alone with him on this train! Why?! This is terrible~~! This really isn't my day! // And also... that guy's eye... // It was almost as if there was a clock pattern in it...

-17-
Creatures: One at Kujoubou Station // Four at K City Station // Two at Shijoubou Station // One at Karasumioike Station // And at Marota Town Station just now?

-18-
Miiko: Wha-

-19-
Miiko: AAAAAAAAAAH!
Creatures: ONE!
Miiko: Wha- Wha- What- // WHAT ARE THESE?!
Creatures: There it is! // Just one again?! // We only caught the one at the last station~ // But this one looks tasty~!

-20-
Miiko: Nooo!
Creatures: Get it! Get it! // Get it!
Miiko: Eh?!

-21-
Miiko: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!! // (This is... no way?! What is this... this mummy!! Where did it come from?! // There was nobody here a moment ago! // No way, no way... this can't be... what Mari was talking about...)
Creatures: It's useless! This one's empty already! // You lot! There's a new one! // That one, right?! That girl, right?! // Let's drink from her next! // Meat!

-22-
Miiko: (Did these things... // Did these things do this to everybody?!) // A- ah...
Tokio: The bodies were here from the start. // They must be an illusionary species... Hiding the bodies, and letting people come rushing onto the train as if nothing's wrong. // All these bodies are certainly these monsters' victims...

-23-
Miiko: You...!
Tokio: But the only one who could see this train at the platform back there was you... / That means you've become a target.
Miiko: Thank God, you're alive! You're not a mummy, right?!
Tokio: Uwa-!
Miiko: Do you know something about this? // Te- tell me! What the hell's going on?! Tell me!!
Tokio: I hate this part...
Miiko: Eh...?

-24-
Miiko: Gaaaaaaaah! // I knew something was weird... you're another m-m-m-m-monster...!! / Stay back! You want to turn me into a mummy too?! // (This guy! His eye... inside his eye... // There's something there!)
Tokio: Ngh.. Ugh... This is... // Dammit... // I told you to behave yourself...
Miiko: SOMEBODY HEEEEELP!!!
Tokio: It doesn't matter how much you shout, / nobody's coming for you.
Miiko: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

-25-
[no text]

-26-
Miiko: Huh?!
Tokio: Didn't I tell you not to be so shocked...? No matter how scary it gets... // I just hate it when people scream and shout. // If you're too loud, it just gets the enemies worked up. // Even I won't feel like saving you.

-27-
Miiko: What's that...? // It's gross... (What was that just now?! This guy... / This guy defeated all the monsters?!
Tokio: Hm, these guys are just small fries. // To be swept away with one swing of my "Haja no Tessen" [Evil-Crushing Fan]. // Ah... my name is Shimura Tokio. // Please, don't pay these red tears any mind. My left eye always reacts when there are monsters around...
Miiko: My... My name is Kishida... / Kishida Miiko... // I... I mean... thank you... for saving me...

-28-
Miiko: Uwaa!
Tokio: It seems... we don't really have much time. // This train has gone out of control... I suppose it won't be stopping at any more stations. // At this speed... will it try to take a curve and crash into a wall first... / or will it crash into the train in front first...?
Miiko: You're KIDDING?! Why are you acting so calm?! // (Surely, I'm not going to... die? / I could die?! // Aah... if I'm going to die, I should at least have made my hamburger back there a large...! [translator note: lol]
Tokio: We have to do something about this train before then... // Miiko-san, that was your name, yes? At any rate, let's head to the control room.

-29-
Miiko: Wait! Wait up! / What's going ON with this train?! // That rumour about demons causing all those deaths... was it really...
Creatures: Who's that guy? // There's not just one... // There's two! // We caught two!
Miiko: Shimura-san... You do know something, right?!
Tokio: Well... I guess I really do have to explain, huh?
Miiko: Wha-
Tokio: No... you see... // Ahh... This is a pain... / Getting an ordinary person involved... // That's why I told you not to get on in the first place... honestly... (what a pain...)
Miiko: What're you grumbling about?! Just tell me what you know! / WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?!
Tokio: All right! I'll tell you, I'll tell you...! "Yoma"... / Those things... they're a species of "Yoma"!
[translator note: the word uses the katakana "yo-ma" for furigana; but despite the use of katakana, it's a natural reading, not an imposed reading. I think spelling it "Yoma" rather than "youma" both looks nicer and reflects the katakana usage. The "you" kanji refers to calamities or disasters, whereas the "ma" means "demon", so literally it would be something like "demons of disaster/misfortune".]

-30-
Miiko: "Yoma"?! // What... is that...?
Tokio: Is this all right...? Well, as for "Yoma"...
[Text: Those known as "Yoma"... // Beings of the World of Darkness, wont to venture forth into the world of the living. // Feeding upon Man, they bring naught but hardship upon we of K City.]
Miiko: What... what kind of a story is that?!
Tokio: Ah- This is an ancient legend passed down in my family.
Miiko: E~h?! // So in other words, these Yoma are what you'd call demons or youkai... [translator's note: Youkai are traditional Japanese demons] // and they appear like this now and again and attack people?

-31-
Tokio: However... honestly... just having you here makes it so hard to get anything done... // I really want to get home early today...
Miiko: Wha~t?! // (This guy... what on Earth is he...? // Yoma? Why does he know about things like that? // And he's so calm even in a situation like this... Almost as though he's done this kind of thing a thousand times before...)
Tokio: !
Miiko: Ah! // (The conductor!)
Kuchinashi: ? // Excuse me... is something wrong back here?

-32-
Miiko: It's terrible, Mr. Conductor! / Mummies... and monsters...! [translator note: Ah, Miiko. Surely you should have watched enough horror flicks not to make a basic mistake like that.] // Quick! You have to stop the train!
Kuchinashi: Stop... the train? / And... why exactly, did you say?
Miiko: "Why"?! / Just take a look!! Aren't these exceptional circumstances?! // There are monsters mummifying all the passengers!! // You have to let us get off, quick!
Kuchinashi: Get off? // ........... // I'm afraid that's impossible, young miss. // Because you too must die here // and be mummified with the others...

-33-
Kuchinashi: Guah!

-34-
Tokio: Move away from him, if you would.
Miiko: A- ah- // You.. what did you...!!
Tokio: Quickly.
Kuchinashi: Kuoooogh... // Disturbing my meal... what manner of being are you? // I used my illusions to make this train visible only to young women, and yet... / Why is there a boy on my train?
Miiko: Uwa~~~~~ // (This is crazy! The conductor... became a monster?!)
Tokio: My apologies. Illusions don't work on me, you see.
Kuchinashi: And as for this... it seems that you too have some kind of ability. // The water in this bottle... // How did you penetrate my head with something like this?!

-35-
Kuchinashi: Aaaaaaahh... Theeeeeeere we go... / Come here... Nnnng... all of you back in here... Theeere... // As for you... Nnnng... It seems you have already become acquainted with my lovely children...? // All I wanted... // was to make the tasty-looking little lady over there into tonight's main dish...
Miiko: T- tasty...
Tokio: I think that's a compliment... (Probably)
Kuchinashi: MY NAME IS "KUCHINASHI"!! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THE TWO OF YOU! // I WILL GET YOU BOTH AND CHEW YOU DOWN TO THE BONES!!

-36-
Tokio: This guy sure is a talker... // Right, listen up, Miiko-san... The truth is, there is a rerun of my favourite anime showing at six o' clock today. // No matter what happens, there is no way I will miss it.
Miiko: WHA?!
Tokio: So I have to clear up this Yoma and head home quickly.
Miiko: ........ // EH?!
Tokio: I'm saying I'm going to save you.
[translator note: If I hadn't fallen in love with this manga by this point... this page would have done it. XD]

-37-
[no text]

-38-
Kuchinashi: Ngha?! // Ghueh?!
Tokio: Yoma "Kuchinashi"... / With your long tongue, tapered like the hands of a clock, you suck the life from humans and reduce them to dried-up mummies... an absorption-type Yoma. // Just as I heard from Hakutaku.
Kuchinashi: What have you done...? You- you- this- Agh... it's "hard"?!

-39-
Tokio: To answer your question from earlier... this is my ability. The "Todomeru Me".
[translator note: "Stopping Eye". Or "Freezing Eye", if we're going for aesthetics. Unsurprisingly for a technique name, there's some creative kanji usage going on here. Literally, it just means "the eye that stops", but the kanji for "to stop" read "time-stopping". Also, the kanji for "eye" is unusual; it's the same kanji used for "hitomi" in the manga title.]
Tokio: I stopped the time of my cloak.
Miiko: (Stopped... time?!)
Tokio: With its time stopped, this cloak is fixed in position. // Even if the cloth were to be cut, it would never tear. It is an iron wall. // The same goes for the water in the bottle - if I stop its movement, it gains the necessary "hardness" to penetrate your head. // This left eye of mine is specially made. // With this, anything I can see...

-40-
Tokio: With a single glance, I can cease // the flow of time through that substance.
Kuchinashi: Hegh... // (What the... to stop time?! // U- Ugh! This guy... this mere human... What is that eye... that eye is dangerous! // Within that eye... that's... // Could that possibly be... the "Youkai Art"?!
[translator note: No, this "youkai" isn't the same as the "youkai" back on page 30, referring to a traditional demon... though it's probably intended as a pun on that. The "you" kanji is the "you" from "Yoma", meaning "calamity", but likely used as shorthand for the Yoma themselves, whilst the "kai" means "to domesticate". So it would imply something like "Yoma taming".]
Kuchinashi: Could this boy... // possibly be...?!

-41-
Kuchinashi: Guahooh // ooooogh... // Ugeh... // Th- // This is...

-42-
Kuchinashi: The glass is... // No way... this glass... // Wh- what the...
Tokio: I stopped the time of the door over there just now. And when the glass was smashed...
Miiko: Ahh! // (The broken glass! The door! It's stopped in midair... It's like a paused video!
Tokio: I've been searching for you for a long time, Kuchinashi... and finally, I managed to find you. // Even going so far as to hide out on a train... you really made it difficult.
Kuchinashi: You- // You smell... Your smell, boy... // A human like you... and yet you smell just like one of us...

-43-
Kuchinashi: You're keeping a Yoma in that body of yours, aren't you! // In your... left... your left eye... / That eye's power... you're keeping a Yoma as a servant, and taking its power to use as your own... // That's... That's right, isn't it? I hit the mark, didn't I...?! // That is... the "Youkai Art"... // The secret art that you powerless humans invented in order to oppose us... / You are... there can be no mistake... a human who can use that Art... You are...

-44-
Kuchinashi: The "Guardian House of K City"... // On that day a thousand years ago... The family that bound the Yoma to the Underworld... You are the descendant of that abominable family!
Tokio: Before these eyes // I will permit no more victims to be made.

-45-
Miiko: EH?!
Tokio: I summon thee... O Family of mine... // By the decree of Master Shimura Tokio // the invocation of "Shitomeru Me"...
[translator Note: Something along the lines of "Death-Freezing Eye". The kanji used are "death", "time" and "destruction" (not 100% on that last one, it's not too clear in the raw, but it seems to fit :p).]
Kuchinashi: U...uuugh... / He got me... // (What an outrageous outcome... this terrible energy feels as though it is freezing me from the bottom of my stomach... // For one such as myself, my level is simply no match...! / Unbelievable! That a Yoma of this calibre could be forced to serve a human... that eye... yes... that red, time-carving eye... it must be...!)

-46-
Kuchinashi: (That most mighty of Yoma feared above all others during his time in the Underworld... // CATOBLEPAS!!)
Tokio: ...is approved.

-47-
Kuchinashi: (This boy... // Has made such a fearsome Yoma // ...his servant!!) // This... Dammit... // My body... won't move... // (In the gaze of Catoblepas, there lies a poison! Any being who looks into that eye... // The time of its very life // will cease...

-48-
Kuchinashi: GUAaaaaAAAaaaaaAAAAaaAaaarRRgGHHHH!!!

-49-
[no text]

-50-
Miiko: In- / Incredible... // (That monster... it turned to ash in an instant...?!) // Incredible! Amazing! // What the hell ARE you?! // You finished it off?! That monster?!
Tokio: It certainly appears that way...
Miiko: "It certainly appears that way"...! // What's with that eye of yours...? / Just now... in a single instant... // It looked like a monster came out of your eye?!

-51-
Miiko: What is WITH that eye?! / "Keeping a Yoma", it said... you're keeping a monster inside that eye of yours?! // Let's see it!
Tokio: Ah- no, you can't!
Miiko: Why~?! Talking of which, you haven't been looking at me at all a since then, have you...
Tokio: No, it's not-
Miiko: You embarassed? You're one of those people who can't look a girl in the face and talk to her, right?
Tokio: Tha- that's not it. // At any rate, / just don't look at my eye, please. // At all!
Miiko: !! // (What's this... If he tells me not to look, isn't it just human nature to look anyway... // I wanna look!! What the heck IS that eye...?!

-52-
Tokio: I've made the necessary reports to the police. // I'll leave everything else to them.

-53-
Tokio: At any rate, the mummifications are over now. // There won't be any more victims.
Miiko: Ah, um... / Thank you very much! // Shimura-san! I owe you my life!
Tokio: Please... you don't need to do that. // At any rate, the important thing is that you're not injured.
Miiko: Still, it's such a coincidence... Is this your stop too? / You live near here?
Tokio: Well, in the vicinity.
Miiko: OI. // Don't just LEAVE like that!
Tokio: Eh... I really must hurry home...
Miiko: I have a TON of things I need to ask you! / Those monsters... the "Yoma" - what the heck are they?!

-54-
Miiko: Ya think I'm just going to let you head off without saying anything?! / What the heck are you?! // I'm not letting you go home until you give a proper explanation! / There something wrong with what I'm saying?!
Tokio: No... you are quite right... // But we shouldn't just stand around talking... // Guess it can't be helped. Please come with me to my place. // I can explain everything at my own pace there.
[box: And so that... // was how I met Shimura Tokio, the mysterious guy with the eye that stops time.]

-55-
[Text: Everything starts here...]
Miiko: E~~~h... I come through this area a lot! This is the same direction as my house...
Tokio: Oh?
Miiko: ... // Er, Shimura-san? / You are heading to your house, right?
Tokio: Hm? Yes, I am...
Miiko: Really... It's just that... // This is my house...
Tokio: We're almost there. This way...

-56-
Tokio: Here we are. Please hurry up, the show is going to start!
Miiko: No way... This place?! // (The huge temple... // right next to our house... // This guy's... // my next-door neighbour?!)
[side text: Miiko is dumfounded! The mysterious hero... so nearby?!]

EDITS: A few minor fixes/improvements on pages 6, 16, 23, 28, and 30. In addition, I finally found the damn "you" kanji from "Yoma", so the relevant translator notes on pages 29 and 40 have been updated to reflect that.

And another edit: I somehow managed to miss a panel on Page 42. It's now been added in >.<