Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 267

Having plucked the wings off their last opponent, Momo's troops continue forwards on the Road to the Royal Palace...but they may need a spring in their step for the next fight or else they'll just get a sinking feeling!

Chp. 267: The Third Barrier: Kyokuchinshou-tou

165.
Gascoyne: Right………!!
Gascoyne: You should be please, I have good news. Your allies have continued and broken through the First Barrier and Second Barrier on the “Road to the Royal Palace” and are headed towards the third battleground.
Toramaru: Yahoo—amazing, Momo---!!
Togashi: At…at this rhythm, they’ll continue to arrive after their struggles at the Royal Palace and obtain the 2nd Floppy Disk---!!
Gascoyne: Fu fu fu, you fools. The true terror of the “Road to the Royal Palace” is from here……!! Over there at the Third battleground……!

166.
(Title page…somehow Pharaoh is rather contemplative there in his home continent)

167.
Pharaoh: Really, this is a roadless-road. Aren’t we yet at the Third Battleground?
Pharaoh: My throat is already dry and I’m completely exhausted. Isn’t there water somewhere---!!
Pharaoh: Oh!!
Pharaoh: This is appreciated: gushing water is falling from somewhere!! Tasty—this is the first I’ve had such tasty water…..
Pharaoh: Aah!!

168.
Pharaoh: Th…that chimpanzee has----!! I…I drank pee~~~!!
Pharaoh: !!
Pharaoh: Wh…what---!!

169.
Pharaoh: A…swamp………!!
Tou Fuuketsu: This seems to be our Third Battleground.
Pharaoh: and yet, what are those balls floating in the swamp!?
Pharaoh: L…look, there’s someone here!! So…someone is mounted on the balls!!

170.
“Flathead”: You’ve come well to this Gyokuchinshou-tou!!
(TN: “Gyokuchinshou-tou” = “Sunken-Ball Swamp-Battle”)
Helper: My name is Helper, one of the Five on the “Road to the Royal Palace”!! From here, I won’t let you pass ahead!!
Helper: This swamp will be your end if you fall in; it’s a bottomless swamp where you won’t float up ever again. On top of agreeing to that, you should come after me!!

171.
Pharaoh: Fufu, a bottomless swamp? Interesting…………!! We’re fighting on top of those balls.
Pharaoh: Excellent!! I’ll take this match---
Hien: Ah, Pharaoh!!
Tou Fuuketsu: ……..!!
Tou Fuuketsu: He’s gone out to take him. Will he be alright…………!!
Momotarou: If you underrate him, you’re seeing with outrageous eyes. His terror I know the best from fighting him in the previous Daibukai!!

172.
Pharaoh: Well, you should come after me from anywhere, Helper!!
Helper: Fufu: that speech doesn’t become a person who drank the urine of a chimpanzee!!
Pharaoh: Wh…what~~~!! Di…did you see th…that---!!

173.
Helper: A person like you isn’t a match for me!!
Pharaoh: !!
Helper: OUGI: TEKKI CHUUDAN!!
(TN: “Tekki Chuudan” = “Iron-Horse Mid-air Snap”)
Pharaoh: Wh…what is that abnormal jumping power---!!
Momotarou: He…he’s using some strange-shaped utensil!!
Helper: Well—then, to where can you endure this!!

174.
Pharaoh: Uo!!
Helper: Fufufu, can these movements be completely seen by you!!

175.
Pharaoh: Wh…what---!! Th…this is---!
Pharaoh: Wh…what is this guy!! He’s hopping here and there like he’s a flea…………!!
Momotarou: This tremendously nimble movement!!
Tou Fuuketsu: Nuu!! That’s the Tekki Chuudan that I’ve heard of in this world!

176.
Commentary:
Tekki Chuudan…nimbleness that easily moves the body is most important in kenpou, but a tool for doubling this is this Tekki Chuudan. It’s principal is an item that utilizes elasticity by a spring and your body weight to come to this with simplicity.

Hou Pingu, a martial arts instructor in China’s Han Dynasty who invented this, used it and was said to leap up to 30 meters above ground and became admired by people in that time. Incidentally, there is no need to say that the name “Hopping”, which is a toy of a similar shape that became a fad among children in the decade of the Showa 30s even in Japan, has it’s origin with Hou Pingu, it’s inventor.
-From “The Intelligence of Ancient China that is Seen in Toys”, Minmei Publishing
(TN: A couple things:
-While it’s obvious to some of you that the device used for Tekki Chuudan is a pogo stick, its Japanese name is “Hopping”, thus the whole pun of the “name origin” used here.
-The decade that is mentioned as “Showa 30s” isn’t the 1930s as you think: it mentions all the years during the 3rd/4th decade of rule of Emperor Hirohito (Showa); thus it is 1955 (Showa 30) to 1964 (Showa 39), which is the period during which the pogo stick fad was in vogue in Japan and around the world)
Pharaoh: Ha!!
Helper: Where were your eyes looking!!
Pharaoh: Guha!!
Momotarou: Pha…Pharaoh---!!

177.
Helper: You should decide to resign!! Your destiny was decided since when you tread your foot into this Tekki Chuudan!
Pharaoh: KU!!
Pharaoh: Guku!!
Pharaoh: Th…this guy, he’s caught in the moment---!! If that’s how it is, then I can show him this after a long time!!
Pharaoh: P – S OUGI: MORNING STAR OF ISHTAR!!
(TN: Reminder: “Morning Star of Ishtar” = “Ishtar no Gyousei”, where “Gyousei” can also have the meaning tied to “Venus”)

178.
Helper: Hoo, you’re using an interesting technique!! Manipulating whips with your ears is a handy thing!!
Helper: But it seems this isn’t your original tone, since you have to worry about those unsteady footholds. I am able to see all together those movements of your whips!!
Helper: Like so!!
Pharaoh: Uh!!
Pharaoh: Here I’ll return it!!

179.
Pharaoh: Nu!!
Helper: Wahhahaha, you’re a foolish man to dig your grave with your own technique!!
Pharaoh: UO!!
Pharaoh: Uwaa---!!
Momotarou & Hien: Pharaoh!!

180.
Pharaoh: Uoo!! I…I’m sinking---!! Guwaa---!! My…body is sinking in---!
Helper: Fufu, from when you wriggle to wriggling, sinking is the terror of a bottomless swamp. That is a pathetic form.
Pharaoh: N…no---!! Uoo, sa…save me---!!
Momotarou: Pha…Pharaoh---!!

181.
Helper: Fufu, that was too quick a match. I can say you weren’t my match after all.
Helper: Well, who will be my next prey!?
Momotarou: He…he’s been killed……….!! Pha…Pharaoh has…………!!
Helper: N!?
Helper: Th…that’s a gem that was attached to his forehead!! Right: it fell off when he was struggling and wriggling?
Helper: He’s gave me a good souvenir. It’s quite a valuable object.

182.
Voice: Who is that guy stepping on my head!?
Hepler: Uo! Wh…what---!!
Pharaoh: You fool---!! Your eyes were dizzy with greed and were caught by it---!
Helper: Id…idiot…………!! Y…yyyou, h…how?!
Pharaoh: Hehe, I’ll tell you!!

183.
Pharaoh: When I fell in the swamp, I at once shot out my ear whips to the balls and hung from them, defending from sinking. And then I unfastened and set afloat the gem on my forehead, raising just my head to the top of the swamp to give off the appearance of a ball, and lied in wait for you to come.
Helper: Y…you---!!
Pharaoh: You should curse in this world your own avarice.
Pharaoh: THIS IS PHARAOH’S GREAT COME-FROM-BEHIND VICTORY---!!
Helper: GUWAA~~~!!

TN: I think this needs repeating: just when you think Otokojuku is another generic manga fighting series, you get a guy fighting with a pogo stick. And better yet, pogo sticks were created for combat in Chinese kenpou. In a manga universe where everyone seems to be obsessed in using super-powerful magic swords or firing laser after laser without any originality or variation except "they just keep getting bigger every arc because the lead is more uber-powerful going from "destroying the Earth" to "destroying the galaxy" in an arc", this series uses pogo sticks...and it's not ashamed to say it. Aside from getting that out of me, I honestly do like this chapter and the strategies used by Pharaoh to win it...but somehow I sort of have this empty feeling inside of me after it's all said and done. This is Pharaoh, the only fighter outside Gouki (and possibly Jaki) who has pushed Momotarou, the lead character of this manga, to the edge of his limits in one of the most memorable Daibukai fights. Sure I liked how he won (I mean that bald head and his ear attacks are just that useful), but the fact that he mostly just got a fight like this where he was down until he just got the chance he needed feels like it really should have been way more than this. Heck, while I do admit this is sadly Pharaoh's final fight in the manga, he deserved one last epic showing to show what a beast he really is, just like someone like Jaki getting monsters such as Zeus and Spartacus. But...at least "Dumbo" (yeah, I still remember that line) got a good fight that did push him somewhat.