Takamagahara 9

p1:

Takamagahara

Takamagahara: / The Strange-looking Academy

Chapter 9: Yatagarasu

p2:
Yamato: That’s / Takamagahara?!

Kikuchi: Save your surprise for once we’re inside. / Let’s go. / <aside: It’s a bit of a walk. >

Sidebar: Yamato gazes upwards

p3:
SFX: Clop / Clop

Yamato: He’s wearing clogs…

Izumo: How much did Master Kikuchi tell you?

Izumo: This is our first time heading to Takamagahara, too, but… / They say it’s easy to get in, but inside, it’s like hell. It’s almost impossible to make it back home safe.
Yamato: Seriously? / <aside: No one told me anything! >

Izumo: There’s something you have to go back home to, right? / The two of us are definitely making it back together!

Yamato: Yeah. / So you are a nice guy, Izumo-kun. / <aside: Even though you wear glasses >

Yamato: Unlike him. / <aside: I’ll kick his ass someday. >

p4:
Kikuchi: This Torii connects to the Shikiishi Shrine. / That should do.
SFX: *knock*

Yamato: We’re not going all the way to Takamagahara?

Kikuchi: If we went now, they’d turn you back at the gates. / You need this special Takamagahara student ID to enter.

Yamato: Then give it here.
SFX: *swipe*
Kikuchi: Nope.

Kikuchi: If you want it, you must score a point in a fight with either Kumaso or Izumo. / That is Takamagahara’s entrance exam. These two already have their student IDs.

Yamato: Huh? What the hell?!!
Kikuchi: Don’t tell me you thought everything would be handed to you on a silver platter. / The world isn’t that easy.

Kikuchi: You must win everything in battle! / That is the rule of Takamagahara!

Kikuchi: Do you not have a reason to train your Divine Gift at Takamagahara? / Then fight, / Yamada Yamato!

p5:
Yamato: Shit…!

Kikuchi: So, whom will you fight? / To be fair, let me tell you this: / both of them are direct attack types, same as you… They are ideal hunters.

Yamato: Clogs, a topknot, and a Japanese blade. / He practically radiates danger…

Izumo (aside): Me! Me!
Yamato: Yeah!

Yamato: Then I’ll—

Kumaso: Izumo would not prove much of a challenge.
SFX: *step*

Kumaso: I will fight you.
Kokuhaku: Too bad, caw! Better say yer prayers!

Kikuchi: Then you must score one point on Kumaso. / You may fight him however you wish.
SFX: *Fvoom*

SFX: *stunned*

p6:
Yamato: How should I fight him? / A staring contest? / Or a manga design contest?

SFX: Bam

Kumaso: I shall defeat you while remaining on top of this rock. / If you can get me off of this rock, I will accept my defeat.

Kumaso: Of course, if I cut you, you lose.
Yamato: Hey, isn’t that a little deadly?

Yamato: He’s fighting with a katana. How does he think he can hit me from a distance? / All I have to do is dodge his first strike, get in close, and knock him down!

p7:
Kokuhaku: Caawww! CawCawCaawww! / It’s fine if we just straight-up cut him, but—

Kumaso: Relax, Kokuhaku.
SFX: *Click*

Kumaso: Relax, and soon / we will strike him down!
SFX: *vibrate*

SFX: Schwing

Yamato: The back of the blade / is turning from black to white…?

SFX: Plop

SFX: Rumble rumble rumble

Yamato: Shadows are crawling up the blade?!

p8:
SFX: Swoosh

SFX: thwack

SFX: Slide

SFX: Sliiiiide

p9:
SFX: Kaboom

Yamato: He cut… / He cut the tree in two like a piece of tofu?!

Izumo: Ya think Yamato-chan / can actually beat Kumaso?

Kikuchi: I wonder. / Before Kumaso began working for me, / he had already hunted twelve individuals who had been swallowed by their fates.

Kikuchi: With a billowing cloak on his back
SFX: Flap

Kikuchi: and a sword in his hand, he hunted the myriad gods.
SFX: Ching

Kikuchi: That inhuman visage caused him to be known as

p10-11:
Kikuchi: Yatagarasu, the Three-Legged Crow.
SFX: *Roar*

p12:
SFX: Whoosh

SFX: *zoom*

SFX: Thwack
Yamato: Shit!

Yamato: What the hell’s your Divine Gift?!!

Kokuhaku: What’s wrong with you, bacaw?

p13:
Kokuhaku: What sort of idiot reveals his abilities to his enemy, caw?! / He might as well get it over with and just ask his opponent to kill him!"
SFX: Kaboom / Kaboom

Yamato: Shit! / What a fucked-up katana!
SFX: Kaboom / *scuffle*

Kokuhaku: Slice! Slice! Sliiice! / I’ll have to slice you over and over and over again / for the glory of our family and master!

Kumaso: Silence. / You are telling him too much.

Yamato: That looks like a demonic blade! / Don’t tell me you’re another guy who’s been swallowed by his fate? / <aside: It looks like something out of a manga. >

Kumaso: Demon blade? / Fate? / What are you saying?

p14:
Kumaso: I am simply making it talk using ventriloquism.
Kokuhaku: Caw!

Yamato: Dammit! / I hate dealing with guys like him!

Yamato: Whoa!
SFX: Thwack

Yamato: I don’t understand a thing about the man or his Divine Gift. / What the hell is his Gift?

Shinano: Fight not with your fists, but with your head.
Yamato: Huh?

p15:
Shinano: First, gather all the information you can about your enemy. / From there, figure out a way to defeat your enemy and do so. / It’s an especially important technique when fighting against enemies you don’t understand well.

Yamato: Enough about fighting; tell me how to draw manga!

Shinano: *sigh* / Maybe it’ll be a useful too when working with manga, too.
Yamato: What’s that supposed to mean?
Bag: Shinano

Yamato: At any rate, I know that / he’s cutting with some flying shadow-like thing.

Yamato: It’s early morning… / And it doesn’t look like it’s about to become cloudy…

Kokuhaku: Caw! Caw-caw! / Don’t tell me you thought you might win once the sun goes down, caw! / That’s cawing priceless! / Even if the sun goes down, I’m still not powerless!

Kumaso: Shut up, Kokuhaku. You’re telling him too much.
Kokuhaku: It’s not like anything I’m saying will actually help him, caw!

Yamato: He’s at it again…

p16:
SFX: *rumble*

Yamato: He has to recharge his shadow after every strike… / Is he using the ventriloquism trick to try to draw my attention away from that?

Yamato: Alright!

SFX: *Charge*

SFX: Thwack

SFX: *Slice*

Kumaso: A tree?!

p17:
Yamato: I’ll knock the tree away with a left-handed punch! / I need to close the distance before he can recharge the shadow!

Kokuhaku: Give up, bacaw! / Even without a shadow, I’m still a katana! I’ll cut you up good!

Yamato: Then I’ll slam him with my right!
SFX: Slam

SFX: Roar

p18:
SFX: Bam / Bam

SFX: *Twang*

Kumaso: Writing?!
Kanji: Stop Hand

Kokuhaku: What the hell are you doing?! / I was just about to cut him, caw, and then I’d win!

Kikuchi: Look down.

p19:
Kokuhaku: He couldn’t move us, but he still made it so we’re not on top of the stone! / Caawww caw caw! / Guess he earned his point!

Kikuchi: Well fought.

Sidebar: Finally, to Takamagahara!!

SFX: Catch
Kikuchi: You’ve won, / Yamada Yamato.
Takamagahara / … Chapter 9 / End