Assassination Classroom 20

[p001]

(top left)
Assassination Classroom
Chapter 20: Transfer Student Time
(left) Rotating a deathly-hot sweet potato to save his tastebuds!!
猫舌殺しの殺き芋コロコロ!!
(bottom right) Matsui Yuusei

(left side) Thanks to the support wriggling in from all over the place, he's won the Best Tentacle-ist of 2012 Award!! Volume 1 from Jump Comics is on sale now!!
各方面からのヌル推しでベスト触手ニスト2012受賞!!

[p002]

(right, star) He writes while eating Oyatsu-kombu!! You can only read Matsui Yuusei-sensei's manga in Weekly Shounen Jump!!
おやつこんぶが執筆のお供!!

(right, star) All the same, he bears the brunt of their anger...!!
Man: Even on the school trip, there was no progress in his assassination, hm.
Man: Is this matter truly going to be alright, Mr. Karasuma?

Karasuma: This is all due to my own incompetence.
Karasuma: I will put forth even greater effort.

Man: It is already the end of May.
Man: The time limit is growing closer by the moment.

Man: Really,
Man: when push comes to shove, we can just use a nuclear missile on the entire school...
Man: You should give up on that idea.
Man: The risk is much too high.

[p003]

(sfx) BOOM!
Man: He might move faster than the explosion and escape it.
Man: There was that time we ambushed him with a missile attack in the Pacific Ocean...
(sfx) Ding dong

Man: He put the pieces back together and came to return it the next day.

Man: ...How the...
Man: Isn't there any way to deal with him?
Man: Rest assured,

Man: Several of our allied countries have pooled their technologies and are conducting research.
同志数か国で科学技術を結集して研究してます

Man: As for the application of their findings,
Man: they reached an agreement with Japan's Ministry of Defense some time ago.

[p004]

Man: Two special assassins
Man: will be sent to that classroom.

Man: They...
Man: possess abilities which surpass the limits of human intellect through the power of science.

Man: When you return to the classroom, you'll certainly be surprised, Mr. Karasuma.
Man: One of them still needs time to adjust, but

Man: --the other already
Man: completed their preparations during your trip.

[p005]

???: Siiigh.
???: Today, we're back to normal classes.

Sugino: Come to think of it,
Sugino: didn't Karasuma-sensei send all of us a bulk mail yesterday?

Nagisa: Oh, yeah.

Box: Starting tomorrow, a transfer student will be joining us.
Box: They look a bit unusual, but...

Box: I'd like you to accept them without much fuss.

[p006]

Sugino: ...Hmm.
Sugino: From that e-mail, it's gotta be a professional killer.
Okajima: So we're finally getting a transfer student assassin, huh.

???: Since they're using that pretext...
???: are they gonna be our age, unlike Bitch-sensei?
(behind Irina) Mature woman
Okajima: That's right!

Okajima: I was curious about that
Okajima: and sent an e-mail asking if there's a photo of them.

Okajima: And this is what came back.

Sugino: Ooh, so it's a girl!!
Sugino: The heck, she's just plain cute.
Sugino: I can't see her as a hitman at all.

[p007]

Sugino: Man, now I'm kinda nervous!!
Okajima: I wonder if we'll be able to get along...

Box: Whether she's a professional killer or not,
Box: the "transfer student" has us feeling a mixture of anticipation and anxiety.

Box: What sort of person is she?
Box: What sort of assassinations will she try?
Box: Those sorts of questions had us really interested.

Sugino: Now then,
Sugino: is the transfer student here yet?

[p008]

???: Good morning.

???: As of today, I will be attending this school.
???: I am the "Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery".
(sfx) Open close
ATFA: It is a pleasure to meet you.

(sfx) Click...

[p009]

(above ATFA, arrow) Power save mode
Box: So that's how it is!!

Karasuma: I believe all of you already know, but
Karasuma: allow me to introduce the transfer student.

Karasuma: This is Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery-san, who came here from Norway.
ATFA: Please treat me well.
(Hara): Karasuma-sensei has it rough, too...
(Student): If I were him, I'd go crazy if I couldn't tsukkomi this.

(right of Korosen) Pffft hehehe
Karasuma: You better not laugh.
Karasuma: You're the same sort of sideshow act.

[p010]

Karasuma: I'll say this to start.
Karasuma: "She" is an AI with a face
Karasuma: who has been registered as a full-fledged student.

Karasuma: Though she will be pointing her guns at you from back there,
Karasuma: you cannot counterattack against her

Karasuma: because you made a contract as a teacher that
Karasuma: "inflicting injury on the students is not allowed."

Korosen: ......I see.
Korosen: Using my own contract against me...
Korosen: So I'm to treat that machine as a student, despite its appearance.

[p011]

Korosen: Very well.
Korosen: Autonomously Thinking Fixed Artillery-san,
Korosen: welcome to Class E!

???: ...Still, how do you think it'll attack?
???: What do you mean?

Kaya: It's called a fixed artillery, but
Kaya: it doesn't have guns attached anywhere.
Nagisa: Yeah...
Nagisa: It looks that way, but...

Korosen: If we were to summarize the characters' relationship diagram...
(sfx) Turn

[p012]

Nagisa: So it really does!
Sugino: Freaking cool!!

[p013]

(Korosen sfx) Shift

(chalk sfx) Dink

Korosen: 4 shotguns and 2 machine guns.
Korosen: This is quite a heavy barrage, but
Korosen: the students here do this sort of thing on a regular basis.

[p014]

Korosen: Also,
Korosen: firing guns during lesson time is prohibited.

ATFA: I will keep that in mind.
ATFA: Continue, and I will adjust my attack.

Box: From here on out is where she'll show her true ability.

[p015]

ATFA: Recalculating trajectory.
ATFA: Modifying angle of fire.
ATFA: Switching to self-evolving phase 5-28-02.

Box: By her own hand,
Box: "she" evolves both her AI and body.

Korosen: ......you really don't learn at all from experience.

[p016]

Box: Her shooting is exactly the same as before.
Box: Well, she is a machine, after all.

Box: This part is also the same.

Box: I'll flip the chalk and secure my retreat...

[p017]

Box: ......A blind spot!!
Box: Following the same attack used earlier...
Box: she added one more bullet in a way that prevented me from seeing it!!

[p018]

ATFA: Right fingertip destroyed.
ATFA: Effectiveness of expanded secondary gun confirmed.

(ATFA): I'll study the target's defense pattern,
(ATFA): repeatedly alter my weaponry and program,
(ATFA): and little by little eliminate his means of escape!!

ATFA: The killing probability of the next shot
ATFA: is less than 0.001%.

ATFA: The killing probability of the shot after that
ATFA: is less than 0.003%.

ATFA: The probability that I'll be able to kill you by graduation
ATFA: is more than 90%.

[p019]

Box: For the first time since her arrival, we realized
ここにきて初めて僕らは気付いた
Box: that "she" might be able to pull it off.

ATFA: I look forward to learning from you, Korosensei.
ATFA: Continue, and I will adjust my attack.

Box: With a pre-programmed smile,
Box: the transfer student began preparations for her next evolution.
(left, star) An evolving killing intent...!! Next time, we have center color!!

--------

Notes:

[page 1]
Rotating a deathly-hot sweet potato to save his tastebuds - Guess what time it is! Wordplay time, of course! Here, the first kanji in the word for sweet potato (焼き芋,yakiimo) has been replaced with everyone's favorite 殺. Additionally, the "save his tastebuds" part ended up as wordplay, too. The Japanese reads 猫舌殺し (nekojita-goroshi), which would roughly translate to "murder for someone who can't tolerate hot food". Since the whole "killing" theme was already present in the other half of the sentence, I opted to translate this part as "to save his tastebuds". The implication is supposed to be that he's saving them from death.

[page 2]
Oyatsu-kombu - Apparently this is how many children refer to Oshaburi-kombu ("oyatsu" is a generic word for snacks). "Kombu" is a type of kelp that is used in a lot of Japanese dishes, and the only seaweed that produces cooking stock when boiled in hot water. Oshaburi-kombu is a snack which is cut into small pieces that are generally eaten as a crunchy finger food.