Nurarihyon no Mago 173

[p001]

(right, star) Rikuo awakens!! The turning point of the Shibuya Arc!! Center color as thanks for our popularity!!
(right, title) Act 173: Two Blades
(top left) I'll place my fear on these blades.

[p002]

(oh hey, looks like Seimei's going to appear in episode 20, and he's being voiced by Koyama Rikiya. Yeaaah, not going to translate this whole thing. It's stuff about the anime and an announcement about some sort of fan event.)

[p003]

Kyosai (thoughts): Nura Rikuo... the blood you have shed
Kyosai (thoughts): now... I'll mix it together with my "ink"... and have you in my grasp!!
(left) Kyosai's trap...!!

Rikuo (thoughts): I... I can't move.
Rikuo (thoughts): My body's... heavy?!

Kyosai: One painting... this "Shinshisou" is the beginning of your destruction.
--(Shinshisou = The first painting of the Kusozu, roughly means "newly deceased")
Kyosai: Rikuo... your "fear" will be consumed...

[p004]

Kyosai (thoughts): Nura Rikuo
Kyosai (thoughts): For me... you are

Kyosai (thoughts): The ultimate model... as opposed to that young half-yokai master of all spirits...
至高のモデル。。。魑魅魍魎の主を争う若き半妖。。。
Rikuo: Wh...
Kyosai (thoughts): Oh, avarice, so violently exciting the desires within me...
Rikuo: at the... it's hot...

Tsurara: Rikuo-sama
Torii: Mnn... what?!
Maki: He seriously stinks...?!

Itaku (thoughts): This... smell like roasting meat...
Itaku (thoughts): Shit.
Itaku: Biguoo!!
(He's trying to talk with the scythe handle in his mouth. Itaku is clearly no Zoro. >_>)

Rikuo: Gu... Ahh...
Rikuo: Ah...

Tsurara: Uaa!!

[p005]

Tsurara: Rikuo-sama is
Tsurara: Rotting...?!

Tsurara (thoughts): What...
Tsurara: Noo...
Tsurara (thoughts): is going on...?!

Kyosai (narration): When this collection of nine works is complete... your fear will fall into decay, and there will be no going back.
Kyosai (narration): With this cursed ink... my fear will catch you in its grasp... here, will be my own culmination of beauty...
この呪縛の墨と。。。オレの畏がお前を捉えてよく。。。これぞ我が美の極致。。。
Kyosai (thoughts): Bouchousou is the decay of fear.
--(Bouchousou = Second painting, "distension")

[p006/007]

Black bubble: Kusozu.
Black bubble: It is a repulsive series of nine realistic paintings which depict a person "becoming a corpse", "rotting" and ultimately "being reduced to bones"!!
Kyosai: At the same time as I finish painting, your body will completely disappear.
Kyosai: Guide my portrait of hell to its completion as an eternal corpse!!

[p008]

Black bubble: Uransou.
--(Third painting, "rupture")
Black bubble: The fear festers...

Black bubble: Aransou.
--(Fourth painting, "putrefaction")
Black bubble: The body corrodes...

[p009]

Black bubble: Tanshokusou is insects bursting forth
蟲が湧き
Black bubble: and the body being devoured by wild animals.
--(Fifth painting, "consumption by beasts")

Kyosai: Fufu... the sixth...
Kyosai: The seventh...!!

Kyosai: This is it... if I make it like this... fuha...
Kyosai: There we go... fuhaha... ahahaha!

???: Rikuoooo!!
Itaku (thoughts): That guy... this just might be some sort of curse...

Itaku: He's using his fear to attack from somewhere at a distance...
Itaku: If we don't find him quickly... it'll be too late!!

[p010]

Itaku: Yuki-onna!! Where're you going?!
Tsurara: Please look after Rikuo-sama, Kamaitachi!!

Itaku: Oi, wait!
Itaku: Why do I have to...

Tsurara: I'll save
Tsurara: Rikuo-sama!!

[p011]

Maki: GYAAAA, get away get away get awayyyy!! I'll protect you, Torii!!

Itaku (thoughts): Tch.
Itaku (thoughts): Just what would all've you have done if I hadn't come along!

Itaku: Step back, you lot.

Tsurara (thoughts): Where is he...?
Tsurara (thoughts): Not here... Concentrate... find his fear!!

[p012]

Tsurara: Over there!!

Tsurara: ......please move.
Tsurara: Like this... if you stand in my way...

[p013]

(right) I'll give you an eternity enclosed in ice!!
(left)
Noroi no Fubuki
Fuusei Kakurei!!

Tsurara: ...I wonder how long ago you fled here.

[p014]

Kyosai: Back when I encountered him.

[p015]

Tsurara: ......what... those disgusting pictures are......
Tsurara: That's... how you did that to Rikuo-sama......?

Kyosai: What do you think... nice pictures, aren't they?
Kyosai: Nura Rikuo is... no longer a human or an ayakashi, but my possession for all eternity......

Tsurara: ......that's...sickening......
Tsurara: I'll eliminate... those things right now...!!

Tsurara: Disappear!!

[p016]

Tsurara: There is no way Rikuo-sama...
Tsurara: would ever die from something like that...!!

[p017]

Kyosai: Ha...
Kyosai: Even though Nura Rikuo is already becoming one of the deceased.

Kyosai: Within my Kusozu... hey......

Kyosai: That sort of

Kyosai: That... putting up that sort of futile resistance...

Kyosai: So you're Yuki-onna, huh.

[p018]

Tsurara: AHH...
Tsurara: GUH...

Kyosai: You, who can't comprehend the beauty of these...
Kyosai: Are utterly sickening...

[p019]

(left) Rikuo's fear is...?!
(bottom, hand) Can Rikuo's blade strike the Kusozu!?

------

Okay, I think I'll put some notes down here. This chapter was a bit of a pain, since a) the names used for the Kusozu paintings don't seem to correspond to the ones in real life and b) they seem to be slightly out of order. For reference's sake, the paintings named in this chapter are as follows:

Shinshisou (newly deceased) -> Bouchousou (distention) -> Uransou (rupture??) -> Aransou (putrefaction??) -> Tanshokusou (consumption by beasts).

The only other thing I wanted to mention in this note was the chapter title, which seems completely irrelevant to the chapter's contents. For a chapter titled "Two Blades", you'd kinda expect more than just one image at the end of a shadowy Rikuo wielding dual swords.