Drifters 4

[1]
Upper note: [Drifters] Kohta Hirano

Side note: Going beyond the place and time they lived... what will be the consequences of their meeting?!

Oda Nobunaga: You said that Nobunaga died.
So, people do really assume that I died then.

Shimazu Toyohisa: ... right!
He is dead!
He was betrayed and killed by his servant Akechi and his hosts in the Honnouji temple in Kyoto!
That was... 18 years ago!!
[T.N.: Toyohisa is referring to Akechi Mitsuhide, in the famous betrayal that sealed the fate of Oda Nobunaga.]

[2]
Oda: Wha...
Do not say nonsense!
18 years ago!?
Less than six months have passed
since that kumquat head assaulted Honnouji
and I was sent to this world!!
[T.N. "kumquat head" ("kinkan atama", in Japanese), meaning a bald person, was a term coined by the real Oda Nobunaga to refer to Akechi Mitsuhide.]

Toyohisa: Feh.
That's why I'm saying
that you are a devil from the other world, or a wandering ghost.
Or perhaps
you are simply an ordinary folk gone mad.


[3]
Man who looks like a woman: Heh heh heh.
Hah hah hah hah
Hahahahahaha!
For me, it is just too funny
to see you making such a big deal
for an insignificant matter like ten or fifteen years.

Toyohisa: And...
who are you...?

Oda: Tell him, tell him.

Man: I am...
Yoichi.


[4]
Nasu no Suketaka Yoichi.
That is my name.
[T.N.: Nasu no Yoichi (1169?-?) was a famous archer and warrior in Japan.]

Toyohisa: Don't lie to me!!


[5]
Toyohisa: He's a man of the War between the Genji and Heike clans!!
That was some four hundred years ago!!
It's just too absurd a story to believe!!
[T.N.: The "Genpei Gassen" or "War between the Genji and Heike clans" was a real war between those clans that sealed the fate of the Heike, or Taira clan, ushering in the Kamakura shogunate in the 12th century.]

Nasu: Hmm... as absurd as it may seem,
I am I.

Toyohisa: This is a dream!
A bad dream for sure!!

Oda: And you?
Who are you?

Toyohisa: ....
Shimazu!!


[6]
Toyohisa: Shimazu Toyohisa!!
Son of Shimazu Iehisa!

Oda: Shimazu...?
Who...?
Oh, I see! That clan from Kyuushuu? That edge of Japan?
Those incredibly provincial guys?
(Have to admit that they never came into my attention)

Nasu: (Wow...)

[The islands of Japan, according to Oda]

[The mainland Honshu, from right to left:

The netherworld
Glaciers
Nearly uninhabited wildlands
Provincial countryside
Great civilization
Countryside
Final frontier
Land of no man and no law]

[The Shikoku island:

Land of the dead (it's a play on the word "shikoku")]

[The Kyuushuu island, top-down:

Nearly another country
Devilish lands of no man
Shimazu <- Here]


Toyohisa: I'll kill you!


[7]
Nasu: I have also heard about lord Shimazu.
They were already present in my era as well.

Toyohisa: Oh!!

Nasu: If I am not mistaken, he was a person from the outer rim of Kyuushuu.
Oh, so that means that the Shimazu are provincial generation after generation.

Toyohisa: I!
Will!
Kill you!!
All!
(He has just humiliated all the Shimazu people!!)

Nasu: You will die if you move so vigorously.
May I remind you that you have just been stitched.

Oda: A tough man.
Well, sit down.


[8]
Toyohisa: Nobunaga... right?

Oda: Indeed.

Toyohisa: Weren't you killed in the Honnouji temple?
You were supposed to be dead!

Oda: Hah.
Do you think that I would allow myself to be killed by that bald idiot?

Boxes: I was running from the temple with Ranmaru,
in order to flee from the temple.
[T.N.: Ranmaru is Mori Ranmaru, personal aide of Oda Nobunaga.]

Oda (flashback): I won't be killed, dammit!
You should know that I'm used to betrayals!!

Boxes: And then...
I came up to a weird "place".


[9]
Boxes: It was a weird corridor, paved with stones, and the walls were full of doors.
And in the midst of that corridor,
there was that strange man.

Nasu: The same happened to me.
I also met that man.

Toyohisa: I have also met that man too!
In the middle of retreating from the crucial battle in Sekigahara!!


[10]
Oda: Sekigahara?
You mean, that place in Mino?
[T.N.: Now Gifu Prefecture.]

Toyohisa: Yeah.
A huge battle between the Tokugawa forces and the Ishida forces.
[T.N.: He's referring to Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari.]

Oda: Huh?!
Wait!
Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!
Why would Tokugawa battle in such a place?
(Ishida?
That tea guy?)

Toyohisa: Why...?
Because after the death of the Kanpaku, the world has gone back to the Sengoku era!
[T.N.: Kanpaku refers, in this case, to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.]

Oda: "Kanpaku"?
Why on Earth would a Kanpaku rule the world?!
[T.N.: Kanpaku was a decorative role in Oda's time.]

(Note on Oda's clothes: Hello)

Toyohisa: Because the Kanpaku has taken over the world.
The Kanpaku named Hideyoshi.


[11]
Oda: Wait a damn freaking second!!
Why would that bald mouse
be able to take over the world!?

Toyohisa: To hell with you! I'm fed up with explaining!!
He killed Akechi, exterminated Shibata
and took over the world! Yes, he, Hideyoshi!!
[T.N.: Toyohisa is referring to Akechi Mitsuhide and Shibata Katsuie, two famous generals.]

Oda: Ka... Katsuie was killed?! And what about Oichi?
And what about Niwa?! And Kazumasu?! And Toshiie?!
[T.N.: Oda is referring to Shibata Katsuie, Oichi no kata (Katsuie's wife), Niwa Nagahide, Takigawa Kazumasu and Maeda Toshiie. All of them (except Oichi, of course) were famous generals under Oda's rule.]

Toyohisa: How the hell should I know!?
Who are you talking about!?
The Oda clan is a lowly servant of the Tokugawa now!
Nobody remembers that "tenka fubu" stuff anymore!!
[T.N.: "tenka fubu", "unifying the world with a military government", was Oda Nobunaga's motto.]

Oda: WHAAAAT?!


[12]
Oda: .....
And Nobutada...?
What happened to
my son?

Toyohisa: ....
He is dead!
His Nijo castle was sieged by Mitsuhide!
He thought you were dead, so he fought till the bitter end!!


[13]
Oda: Hah hah hah!
Hahaha! What a foolish son!
That fool...
That fool...
He should have ran away sooner!!
Hahaha, they said that a man lives for 50 years.
But my 50 years
were all in vain, it seems.


[14]
Nasu: Nothing lasts forever.
I was also surprised to hear from lord Nobunaga
that the Genji clan has been exterminated and the Kamakura shogunate was over.

Toyohisa: ....
since you said that you were Nobunaga,
when I saw this other man...
I thought he was that famous Mori Ranmaru.
(More than that, I thought he was a woman)

Oda: It would be great if he was Ranmaru, but...

Nasu: ?
[T.N.: Mori Ranmaru is famous for being Oda's lover.]


[15]
Man: What are they talking? From this distance, it's really hard to tell...

Voice: Shem. Answer me, Shem.
How are they?
Did you get them?

Shem: Yessir, three drifters indeed.
They are gathered in one single place.
It's unbelievable.


[16]
Voice: What about Ham?
Ham.

Ham: Yes, Ham speaking.
As you said, I tracked two drifters.
These drifters
look like two old men.
And they are in the middle of a fight.
What should we do, great master?

Old man 1: A plagiarist! A plagiarist!
Why is a plagiarist here!?


[17]
Old man 2: I am not a plagiarist!!
You are the plagiarist here!!
I am a winner! And the winner takes it all!!

Old man 1: Shut uuuup! You imitated me!!!
You imitated my Cannae campaign!!
You imitated me in Zama, you brat!!

Old man 2: What are you talking, old geez! Then try being a winner for once!

Old man 1: Yaarg! What's with that chosen people like talk?!

Old man 2: I won! So it's not an imitation!

Old man 1: That's why I hate Romans!

Old man 2: I will spread salt in Carthago when I get back!

Old man 1: When I get back, I will cross the Alps once again!

Voice: Stop them.

Ham: Understood.

Voice: One of them decided to come here.
The question is: which one?


[18]
Man: We have to do something.
Or else...
this world will
face an end.


[19]
Father elf: I told you so many times!!
Yet you went to the castle in ruins once again!?
I told you countless times not to involve with drifters!!
It's not allowed to go into the forest! To get near that castle!! To involve with drifters!!
If the guys at the lord's service find out, you will be killed!!

Young elf: But he was totally inconscient...

Father elf: No buts!!


[20]
Father elf: Listen to me! Do not involve with them!
Did you understand!?
Did you!?


[21]
Guy: Shit. It's before harvest.
Oh well.
Let's go!!


[22]
(the two wake up)


[23]
Nasu: You noticed?

Toyohisa: What's this "smell"?

Oda: It's the smell of battle.


[24]
Oda: Smoke is rising.
It's from the village of them "elves",
beyond the forest.

Side note: The drifters who are experienced in battles... what will they do and what will be done to them...?!

Drifters
Chapter 4 - The moon over the castle in ruins
[T.N.: This is the name of a famous Japanese song ("Koujou no tsuki"), covered by bands like Scorpions and Gamma Ray.]

TO BE CONTINUED

Foot note: Drifters 4 / END
Continues in the next volume (for sale on August 29th)