Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 270

Rolling past all four of the guards, Momo's troops have finally made it to the end of the Road to the Royal Palace. But what they will find there is something so unexpected there...that it may be their greatest challenge yet!

Chp. 270: The Second Tusk’s Final Battle!!

27.
Caption: “Dark Tusks”, New York Branch—
Narrator: Here and now, the regular meeting by the Branch Leaders of each nation of the world has opened.

28.
(Title page…but of course, this pic isn’t the meeting, it’s a certain ruin in Africa…)

29.
Voice 1: How do you plan to explain this situation, New York Branch Leader Angelo? Voice 2: The “Battle of Seven Tusks” this time was suggested by you and you should be the greatest responsible party……..!!
Angelo: Explain!?
Caption: New York Branch Leader: Mario Angelo
“Glasses”: Don’t play dumb; they’re that Otokojuku. They’re winning too much.

30.
Voice: They have consecutive victories coming after their consecutive victories since the First Tusk……………!! With this, we’ve come to not arrange our bets……………!! I’m saying we have customers who are rapidly leaving us.
“Mustache”: Right: we are the bookmakers and must furnish exciting fights that pull in the interests of clients throughout the world. What do you plan to do!?
Angelo: Fufu, I too truly had underestimated their power. These youngsters of a small country of the Orient have fought bravely to this extent.
Angelo: But the “Battle of Seven Tusks” now is just taking off the muzzle cover. The game up to now hasn’t been anything other than the debut in show business that has confronted our customers of those of Otokojuku.

31.
Angelo: Because of this, naturally, we up to now have had competed choices of just low players in the ranks. Striking them with those of high rank who have an overwhelming difference in power from the start would, contrarily, would come to thin down the interest of our customers.
Angelo: However, it’s not that I didn’t know of all of your dissatisfactions. It is here that I have prepared a special game.
Angelo: They, Otokojuku, are now facing the Second Tusk’s Final Battleground…………!! In there, that Doctor Eberstein has been set up and is awaiting them.
Man 1: Wha!?
Man 2: Doctor Ebelstein…………!!
Man 3: Th…that Doctor Eberstein---!!

32.
Angelo: Right: Doctor Eberstein, who was the head of the Nazi’s Living Body’s Chemical Research during World War II!! He who had an alias as “The White-Robed Devil”, is awaiting them!!
(TN: While I doubt this “Dr. Eberstein” really exists, there was an actual “Eberstein” who was a member of the Nazi Party: Karl Vol Eberstein, an early member of the Nazi party who lead the Munich Police prior and during WWII, including presiding over them during the infamous Kristallnacht attack in 1938, introduced two of the notable players in the set-up of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, and even at one point controlled the concentration camp at Dachau. After the war, he was a witness during the Numemberg trials and ultimately “denazified” as he lived a peaceful life until dying in 1979. While not the Eberstein in this series, somehow I believe this name was probably inspired to be used for the one we’re about to meet)
Man 1: I…interesting………..!! Th…this will become a fight with an extraordinary interest.
Man 2: You are a shrewd man after all, Angelo!!
Angelo: Salud!! To the success of the Battle of Seven Tusks!!
(TN: The “Salud” here is “cheers” but not in English or Japanese…but Spanish)

33.
Voice: Wh…what, Momo and the others have broken through the 4th battlefield---!!
Toramaru: Wahhaha, we did it, we did it---!!
Gobarski: The 2nd Floppy Disk will be ours in a remaining breath---!!
Gascoyne: You don’t have free time to be merry. All of you should go onto that helicopter.
Toramaru: Hu—h, we…we’re on the helicopter!?
Togashi: Where are you saying we’re going!!

34.
Gascoyne: The final battleground!! There you will see the most exciting game in this world that is related to all of you as well.
Date: What…………!! Related to all of us…..!?
Toramaru: Wh…what is the meaning of that----!?
Pharaoh: A—ah, night is falling at last. Are we still walking to the final battleground!?
Momotarou: Fu, calm down, Pharaoh. It seems we’ve arrived.
Pharaoh: N!?

35.
Pharaoh: Wh…what~~~~!! This here is the final battleground of the “Road to the Royal Palace”~~~!?

36.
Hien: What an eerie castle ruin.
Pharaoh: I…I have some chill.
Momotarou: Fu, it’s as if a devil lives here.
Pharaoh: !?
Pharaoh: A…helicopter---!! A helicopter is descending here---!!

37.
Toramaru: Mo…Momo---!!
Pharaoh: Th…that’s…………!!
Momotarou: A…all of you………!!
Toramaru: We…we’ve wanted to meet you----!! You aren’t injured anywhere, are you---!
Momotarou: Wh…why are you here…………!?

38.
Date: Even we don’t know well this. By the story of this advancement-role oldie, this final battle is related to all of us of Otokojuku……………!!
Gascoyne: Fuffuffu: well, you should go. The battleground is the courtyard of the royal palace immediately after climbing the stairs.
Gascoyne: I’m picturing all of your surprise faces. From here, all of you will have your bodies frozen and will have a personal experience that is beyond imagination.
Toramaru: He, what’s with that poor bluuf?
Togashi: Your mug is the scariest!!
Momotarou: ………!!

39.
Toramaru: So then, let’s go---!!
Gascoyne: Fufu, pathetic men.
Toramaru: Uh!!
Toramaru: Wh…what, this is a battleground……!!

40.
Pharaoh: It’s dark and I can’t see well down there, but there isn’t any set-up. What exactly is here……
Momotarou: It seems we’re finally coming around to my turn.
Togashi: MO…MOMO~~~!!
Gouki: Be careful. Somehow there is a strange mood that hasn’t been up to now.
Momotarou: Yes, I understand!!

41.
Toramaru: We ask of you, Momo~~~!!
Togashi: Ke, there isn’t any person who can win against Momo!!
Momotarou: Fufu, how about if you moderately show your form? I know that you’re lurking in the darkness!!

42.
Momotarou: HE’S HERE!! HE’S QUITE SKILLED! BUT I’VE SENE THAT KON STANCE SOMEWHERE…………!!
Toramaru: Ooh!! L…look----! Someone is here---!!
Pharaoh: Some other person is appearing from the door on the other side~~~!!

43.
Eberstein: You’ve done well in coming to here, Gentlemen of Otokojuku!!
Eberstein: My name is Doctor Eberstein!! The Guardian of Crimson Royal Palace, the final battle of the “Road to the Royal Palace”!!
Momotarou: …………!!
Eberstein: But the fight isn’t with me. As you can see now, the man is already there.
Eberstein: So I’ll turn on this light and show you his true form!!

44.
Togashi & Toramaru: Wha!!
Momotarou: Wh…what---!! It can’t be, you’re----!

45.
Momotarou: Ge…Gekkou---!! The…Sanmenken who should be dead: Gekkou----!

TN: Alright, this chapter got to me in two ways, both of which unexpected. The first...is the big reveal of Gekkou. Now is it just me or...does he just look way too bishonen for his own good? I mean, this is a character who looked terrifying way back in the Kyousatsu arc when he fought Gekkou in an ice cave...and now he looks like a big-eyed bald character! Now I'm not complaining cause I like Gekkou and this reveal is just shocking considering how long Gekkou's been away from the story, but he just looks freaky now compared to before! And the other...why is it that whenever I see Nazis in fiction these days, they turn out to be funnier than they should be? And I'm not talking about situations where they're supposed to be made a mockery of like "The Producers" (the original...but if you like the musical, yeah that too), more just things that are so outlandish that all you can say is "Nazis did it...so it's supposed to be nuts". (like...say...

[random outburst]

"ADOLPH HITLER! TWO OF YOU!!!"

[sorry, I just love that review of "Superman at Earth's End" Linkara did so the Twin Clones of Hitler must be mentioned when appropriate])

Honestly I have my own issues due to my background and lineage being directly affected by the horrors of the Nazi party (not directly directly but I had family there who was part of the horrors they pulled), but sometimes whenever someone says "Nazi" in fiction, especially weird fiction like this where it's some absurd scientist, it somehow just turns out silly and weird...mostly weird. (not if it's a soldier or like the creepy ones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark") But of course, what this rant has to do with Gekkou returning...not sure but with that sort of the epic reveal, I needed something else to talk about...so maybe next time I'll have something that makes more sense. Then again...

"OF COURSE! DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SCIENCE!?!?!" (yeah, that probably sums up this and the next two chapters)