Kinnikuman 304

In an explosive exchange of ninja techniques, Satan Cross has revealed sheets that simulate the dark night and the deep ocean to trap The Ninja! Is there any escape from this nightmarish fate...and will Team Soldier do anything to stop it?

Chapter 304: Scramble for the Kinniku Throne (31): Silent Friendship!!

67.
S. Cross: Ninpou: Choujin Life Buoy!!
Announcer: Satan Cross is standing on the ocean, with Ninja’s body in place of a life buoy—

68.
Caption: HIMEJI CASTLE—
Ninja: …………
S. Cross: Kekeke—by swallowing the ocean water, your body’s becoming less buoyant bit by bit; before long, your body will sink deep to the bottom of the ocean.
Terry: At this rate, Ninja will die by drowning!
Robin: Though their teammate is in danger, what are the other members of Team Soldier doing?

69.
Announcer: However, even with their ally’s ultimate crisis before their eyes, each member of Team Soldier is not moving with their patience!!
Suguru: Hey, aren’t you five comrades tied together for the formation of an ideal Choujin world---!!
Suguru: Soldier, Ninja joined your Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade resonating with your way of thinking. How can you silently watch your comrade get killed?
Suguru: Brocken, Buffaloman, you two are the same.
Suguru: Have you forgotten about Friendship Power when you moved from the Justice Choujin Corp. to the Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade? If it was who you were until now, you would have jumped in to rescue Ninja no matter what happened!!

70.
Caption: NAGOYA CASTLE—
Announcer: The Ninja, who is drinking as much as he wants of sea water, is sinking little by little into the ocean—
S. Cross: Ke~~kekeke!!
Suguru: I’m begging you—get out there--!!

71.
Robin: Hold on, Kinnikuman.
Robin: Those facial expressions of Soldier’s group would never be one that would be for watching Ninja get killed.
Robin: Instead, it’s a facial expression of wanting to help Ninja, but are unreasonably being crushed to death.
Suguru: Now…you mention it…

72.
Suguru: Ge—all of Team Soldier is stabbing knives in the back of their hands---!!
Terry: For a Japanese ninja, it’s an embarrassment to be killed by an enemy when they’ve been captured. Therefore, they take their own lives before the enemy can do so to them; this is for their pride…
Terry: Perhaps, like Ninja in the ring, they would take their own lives before giving up to Satan Cross’ technique.
Suguru: But then, all the more, wouldn’t that Ninja die if Soldier’s team doesn’t go in to rescue him!!
Robin: That is incorrect, Kinnikuman.

73.
Robin: To a ninja, it is embarrassing to be murdered by an enemy; yet simultaneously, it is much more embarrassing to be saved by an ally.
Robin: What do you think would happen if Soldier or Brocken jump into the ring to rescue The Ninja now?
Suguru: I’m sure that the high-prided Ninja would choose to commit suicide.
Suguru: Right: all of them want to save Ninja and can’t gather themselves to do it. However…since they can’t wound Ninja’s pride, they’re suppressing their feelings for jumping into the ring by stabbing that knife into the back of their own hands like such…
Suguru: I was thinking there was an equal behavior in friendship, but they have this sort of silent friendship…Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade…what an imposing team!!
Caption: NAGOYA CASTLE—

74.
Brocken: Ninja, we won’t rescue you as you’ve wished.
Buffalo: Use your desperate power to the end and fight!!
Ninja: I’m…thankful, everyone…I think it was really great that I joined the Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade…for these great allies, I can’t die alone.
Ninja: Because I’m fighting for all of you…
S. Cross: Wh…what: Ninja’s body is starting to swell…
Ninja: If I discover even just a clue to capture Team Phoenix…

75.
Ninja: I’ll be satisfied---!!
Announcer: The Ninja is taking just what he’s taken in from the sea water from within his own body and has escaped from the Choujin Life Buoy by spouting it out---!!

76.
Announcer: And with that, he’s crashing Satan Cross into the ceiling lights—
S. Cross: You s**t---!!
Phoenix: What is he doing by whistling?
Phoenix: Ooh…light creatures that are floating above the sea are rising into the air…
(TN: The kanji here is “mushi”, which usually stands for “bugs” or “insects”, but I’ll explain it much further in the next section)

77.
Announcer: These innumerable small creatures are attaching one after another to the body of the falling Ninja!!
Ninja: Ninpou: Yakouchuu!!
(TN: This is extremely hard to understand but stick with me: “yakouchuu” is the Japanese name for a creature known as a “phosphorescent animalcule”, also known by the name of “noctiluca scintillans” or “noctiluca millaris”. The creature is a species of dinoflagellate “protist” [more commonly known as a ‘protozoa’] usually living in shallow waters around the world that exhibit bioluminescence allowing for them to light up)
S. Cross: Uwa!!
S. Cross: How radiant………
S. Cross: Gulp, gulp
(TN: The “gulp, gulp” is connected to the Japanese onomatopoeia “appuappu”, which is a SFX for drowning or gasping in water)
Ninja: HAHAHA

78.
Ninja: These lighted creatures that are attached to my body are called “yakouchuu”, small organism that are between 1 to 2 millimeters in size. They’re always drifting on top of the ocean; at night, they emit a luminescent substance and light up when stimulated by waves. Satan Cross: this night ocean you’ve created is correctly the ideal world for the yakouchuu.
Ninja: Uh!!
Brocken: Ninja!!
Ninja: Fu…without the ninja outfit that has the blood and sweat of my ancestors soaked in, I’m more tired than usual!!
Ninja: This last attack that I’m putting my life into will oppose your midnight ocean with an ocean of severe winter---!!
Ninja: NINPOU: ABSOLUTE ZERO!!

79.
Announcer: The wind that was created by Ninja is becoming a midwinter wind, blowing violently on Satan Cross’ ocean and freezing everything---!!

80.
Ninja: Ha—
Ninja: NINPOU: ICE FLOWER BURIAL BINDING!!
Announcer: Ninja has created ropes with frozen sea-water candy, entwining them around Satan Cross’ entire body!!

81.
S. Cross: Uuh!!
Ninja: Hahahaha: you can never get out of that ice; that’s because this is a world of eternal night where the cold winds rage!! That’s right, Satan Cross: you’ve fallen into your own Midnight Sheet trap that you yourself created!!
S. Cross: Kekeke…coming to win with this sort of thing makes you a happy fellow!!
S. Cross: Earlier, you said that I’ve fallen into the Midnight Sheet trap that I’ve created myself. However, you’ve jumped to a hasty conclusion: the true demonstration of power of the Midnight Sheet starts now.
Ninja: What!?
S. Cross: Haven’t you realized it: the change in the world of night created in the Midnight Sheet?
Ninja: ………!

82.
Ninja: N…no: the position of the moon and the twinkling of the stars until earlier is dimming!!
S. Cross: Right: with how it is, the sky has come to be arranged to the actions similar to the natural sky; that is, the change of the moon and stars show the end of night.
Ninja: …………
Ninja: If…the night is ending…then next is…
Ninja: AAH…
Announcer: The sun is rising from beyond the horizon---!!

83.
Announcer: The light of the sun is making the Yakouchuu from Ninja’s body.
Announcer: The heat of the sun has started to melt the ice ropes binding Satan Cross---!!
S. Cross: Kekeke—this is the sun’s blessing---!!
Announcer: Ge—somehow another Satan Cross that administers the hind-leg part of Satan Cross’ body is separating and jumping out---!!

84.
Announcer: Satan Cross’ body, which we had thought was one body until now, was an aggregation of two Satan Cross--!!

85.
S. Cross: RAISING TECHNIQUE!! TRIANGLE DREAMER!!

86.
(SCRAMBLE FOR THE KINNIKU THRONE ARC)
SPECIAL VTR XXV
THE NINJA VS. SATAN CROSS

TN: Ever feel that a chapter starts off extremely well with an interesting approach and a strong build up...but then falls flat on it's face in silliness and trying to figure out "what the heck just happened"? Well...this chapter really felt like that. The first part of the chapter, regarding The Ninja's crisis and Team Soldier's sad dilemma about wanting to help him but can't due to trying to abide by the code that Ninja follows is a powerful example of a different type of trust that can exist with allies. As opposed to the passionate (somewhat obsessive) means by which Suguru and his side helps each other and keeps pushing out friendship crap over and over to the point of saccharine, the Choujin Blood-Brother Brigade respects each other and rather let one another handle their own problems, respecting who is in the ring and allowing for them to fight to the very end. In many ways, Team Soldier reminds me a lot of the way a lot of the fights are done in some of the more "Japanese style" shonen series, particularly what I've been translating in Otokojuku: sure they all are friends and allies and help each other when needed, but they do so in manners that support when they can't be there and they trust whoever is in there to either fight to victory or sacrifice their life to progress things. In fact, the realization by Ninja that he can't win whatsoever but still using his skills to escape from the Choujin Life Buoy was probably my favorite part of the chapter, with him acknowledging that he will die and that he'll use the rest of his abilities to at least find some clue to defeating either Satan Cross or some sort of weakness in Team Phoenix.

But then...it gets weird. The weirdness for the most part involves the...how you say "unique" and "unexpected" factors by which both the Midnight Ocean and Midnight Sheet had in their usage in allowing for things to be pulled out and used as if it was a real ocean and real sky. At first it was Ninja summoning protozoans to cover him out: I sort of thought it was cool and appropriate at first...but thinking it further, I just wonder: how in the world would these creatures actually exist in the sheet? I mean I get them living in the real ocean and that Satan Cross' sheets are simulations of them...but would a simulation really have the exact actual creatures that live in the ocean? If Ninja could summon protozoans, why not have him bring out, say, jellyfish? Sure they're bigger but they probably have luminescent properties and could sting up Satan Cross a bit. (heck, why not even bring out a shark or an octopus...but then that would be going too far) The only reason it really doesn't feel wrong is probably due to them being small enough to really not matter: sure it's a simulated ocean but somehow a few could sneak their way through regardless. I didn't complain about the ice bit that happened next because...that was more ninjutsu, no real troubles or problems.

But then...the sun appeared. Now let me ask this question: why the heck would a sheet specifically called the "Midnight Sheet" allow for the sun to rise and therefore no longer be a "Midnight Sheet"? Isn't it a bit of false advertising to have an object that is supposed to simulate the dead of night go through the shifting of the sky just like a real sky to the point that the sun can come up? I mean, if the sun actually appears, then why call it the "Midnight Sheet" in the first place? Why not just call it the "atmospheric sheet", then use some sort of aspect to have it start at midnight (like, say, the "Midnight Ocean") and then allow for the passage of time until the sun finally comes up? And lets make this stupider: is it just me or is the actual appearance of the sun quite similar to The Ninja himself summoning mini-suns when he tried to cook Brocken Jr. back when he was a Devil Knight? If Ninja knew that heat balls or "the sun" can be used to melt his frozen ring, why didn't he himself realize it considering he did something similar two arcs back? I mean OK, maybe I am thinking too hard again but somehow I think the "appearance of the sun" at the end was mostly just Yude trying to get out of a scenario to allow for Ninja to lose as he himself knew was going to happen when he got into this scenario...or something, I don't even know.

Oh, and don't get me started on Triangle Dreamer...I have a weird consistency matter for that...but that's next chapter.