Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 282

On Earth, Akashi has just pulled off a victory over two of the three remaining Alcatraz prisoners! But up in space, the truth regarding the Dark Tusks organization is about to be revealed...to the one who'll be affected the most!!!

Chp. 282: The Wirepuller’s True Identity!!

67.
Edajima: N~~!!

68.-69.
Edajima: Yawn---I’ve slept well!! I am the Principal of Otokojuku, Edajima Heihachi!!

70.
Edajima: Ah~~!? Where is here!?
Edajima: Right, I remember. I took the surprise attack by those guys called the “Dark Tusks” and lost consciousness.
“Voice”: Fuffufu: have you awakened, Edajima!!
Edajima: !!
“Voice”: This is immediate, but you should see this!!

71.
Edajima: HUH!! TH…THAT’S TOGASHI!!
“Voice”: Right: Togashi Genji, one of your dear students, has reached his end of being useful!! He has died in the previous fight!!
Edajima: Wh…what’s that---!!
Edajima: Wh…where are you---!! Wh…who exactly are you---!! Can’t you come out---!!
“Voice”: Fuffufu: that’s impossible talk. Because I am now on Earth and you are within a man-made satellite floating in space!!

72.
Edajima: Sp…space---!? A man-made satellite---!!
“Voice”: Right; the place to confine a monster like you is to send you above the Earth!!
“Voice”: This is an image of the present now…
Edajima: A…Akashi…
“Voice”: Fu, this person Akashi has done quite much.
“Voice”: All of them are bravely fighting to save you. They’re betting their lives so they can gather the necessary seven floppy disks so they can call you back to Earth!!

73.
“Voice”: But they don’t know anything!! About the true meaning of this battle called the Battle of Seven Tusks!!
“Voice”: They believe that this is a thing where the “Dark Tusks”, one of the organizations I own, have devised this battle for merely money making and that they abducted you!! But my true purpose is different!!
Edajima: True purpose!? Wh…what is that…!?
“Voice”: Fuffufu: I’ll tell you!!
Edajima: !!

74.
“Voice”: My purpose is to kill all of the students of Otokojuku!! This isn’t by merely killing them, its having these students that are similar to your own sons die one after another; for their appearance to be displayed to you, who can’t do anything up there!! That is more painful than killing yourself for you!!
“Voice”: Killing you will be a later enjoyment!!
Edajima: Wh…what exactly are you…!?

75.
Hakuhou: Uoo, a…amazing, Akashi-senpai---!!
Pharaoh: On…top of a sword winning against a gun, he defeated even another one---!!
Momotarou: His status is different from us after all. As expected of the weight of an Otokojuku Third-Year.
Hakuhou: Kakkakka: numb them---!! Akashi-senpai!!
Akashi: It seems the floppy disk is possessed by you.
Akashi: What will you do!?

76.
Akashi: If you quietly hand over the floppy disk, then we’ll end up not showing any further blood in this.
“Soldier”: Fufu, I’m a shrewd man. I’ve seen your battle now and understand plenty that no matter what I do with you, I can’t win.
“Soldier”: I’m fine with you taking this!!
Akashi: !!

77.
Akashi: Guku!! Y…you, th…that’s…!?
Hornet: I’ve caught you: that needle is varnished with a quick-acting venom called Balmreiser!! Did you think Colonel Hornet, former commanding officer of the Green Berets, would resign so easily!!
(TN: Just a slight note: “Colonel” is the Japanese term “Taisa”, which can stand either for Colonel for a member of the Army and “Captain” for a Navy officer. Since the Green Berets are Special Forces of the US Army, I made his title “Colonel”)
Akashi: Nuu!!
Hakuhou: A poisoned needle---!! That’s…dirty; wh…what a guy----!!
Siegfried: Fufu, as expected of the man who was called the strategy leader in the Vietnam war. With that, it’s natural the match is decided!!

78.
Akashi: Ku!!
Akashi: Nuuu!!
Akashi: ………
Hornet: Fufu, it’s effective quickly: that venom Balmreiser isn’t an unusual thing in life, but it’s effect is to paralyze the reflexes of the entire body. Now you don’t have even the power to seize your prided great sword!!

79.
Hornet: I’m going to chop you up!!
Akashi: Gu!!
Hornet: Fufu: are you merely a wooden doll if you can’t hold your sword!?
(TN: A “wooden doll” is “deku”, which includes any wooden doll including wooden puppets)

80.
Akashi: Nun!!
Hakuhou: Sk…skilled, A…Akashi-senpai---!! He’s…he’s caught the arm of that beret-hat guy----!!
Akashi: Wi…with this, I’ll break your arm. Yo…you fraud.
Hornet: Fufu: don’t forget that Green Berets are expert murderers!! You haven’t caught my arm, you’ve been caught!!
Akashi: Wha!!

81.
Akashi: Uh!!
Hornet: DIE!!

82.
Akashi: Uoo!!
Momotarou: A…Akashi-senpai----!!
Edajima: AKASHI---!!
“Voice”: Right: give your voice of pathos much more!! Their death will just give you sadness, but it cools the flames of revenge that boil in me!!

83.
Edajima: REVENGE---!! WH…WHO EXACTLY ARE YOU----!!
“Voice”: You don’t know yet, Edajima?
Edajima: Nu!!
“Voice”: Remember!! At the Tenchou Gorin Daibukai!!
Edajima: Te…Tenchou Gorin Daibukai…!?
Edajima: It…can’t be, y…you’re!!

84.-85.
Toudou: RIGHT: I’M TOUDOU HYOUE!! I’VE COME BACK FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL!!

TN: Um...well...O...K...so...um...

Yeah, it's really hard to describe if there is anything to say regarding the revelation of Toudou being behind the Dark Tusks. I mean it: this revelation either seems to make a lot of sense...or just seems to have been thrown in as a means to give more merit to it than previously before. I mean, to some people this revelation makes the whole Seven Tusks battle gain more meaning: Edajima is up in space as hired assassins, killers and whatnot are sent after the Otokojuku students in a means to watch all of them die one after another. But...personally I think this just feels like a desperate revelation. Nothing against Toudou but his survival at the end of the Daibukai arc just to control an organization that, up to now, had nothing to do with him just feels like it was thrown in to make it become relevant. And from how I see it, it just feels like out of nowhere: prior to this moment we had what looked like a complex organization that slowly would have peeled away from the gangsters who control a circuit to someone higher...maybe it would have been Toudou, maybe it wouldn't have been. But by just throwing away all those characters just to say "yeah, Toudou was behind it all along because he wants to get revenge on Edajima"...it just feels so cheap. It just tells me either Miyashita was forced to make the revelation now because he wanted to get readers back to Otokojuku...or he made the revelation now because he had little time left and he wanted to get it out of the way at this point. Either way, what could have been a shocking revelation just feels cheapened...maybe it still would have been cheap if it was done much later on, but here it just feels like the whole structure of the arc has been thrown away even if it hasn't quite yet.

As for anything other than that, it wasn't really that bad a chapter. For one thing, I liked how Hornet trusted Akashi into giving him the disk only to poison him with the venom as a means of saying "it's not that easy to get this away from us". And for another...as much as Edajima is the crux of this arc, it's great to have him back up and speaking and yelling out he's the Principal of Otokojuku, regardless of the Toudou revelation. The more things get stupid...the more the good stuff shines through.