Kinnikuman 264

With time to spare before the end of their announced Mask-Hunt, the Hell Missionaries have unleashed a slower, more destructive technique to shave off Suguru's mask! Is this really the end of Kinnikuman...and the tournament?

Volume 23: The Glorious Trophy!!
Chapter 264: Dream Choujin Tag Arc (56): Mask-Hunt Announcement Achieved!?

7.
Suguru: Uwa~~
Announcer: With a minute remaining in the time limit of their Mask-Hunt Announcement for Kinnikuman, the Missionaries are using the Deadly Technique of the century: Mask the End---!!

8.
Suguru: Owa~~Terryma~n!!
Announcer: With the Missionaries body rotation, Kinnikuman’s mask is quickly being shaved off!!
Mayumi: Suguru~~
Announcer: His final lifeline Terryman who became twisted with Kinnikuman earlier has fallen beneath the ring, without an indigation that he’s getting up at all!

9.
Suguru: Am I going to die without being saved by anyone---!!
Mayumi: Don’t give up, Suguru. The Muscle Curtain, defend with the Muscle Curtain--!!
Suguru: Right, I have the Muscle Curtain, handed down by the ancestors of the Kinniku Clan!!
Suguru: Owa
Announcer: Even the araised Muscle Curtain is unable to compare to the incredibly massive rotation of Mask the End----!!
Neptune: Because Mask the End shaves a mask like an apple peel, its nickname is the Apple Shaver. Your mask will be shaved off bit by bit like an apple peel!!

10.
Mayumi: Gee, now they’re up to the nose of Suguru’s mask!!
Robin: Thus Kinnikuman’s mask has been torn to half it’s full form…
Announcer: 4:30 has passed since the start of the 2nd round!!
Brocken: That’s your plan…Perfect Choujin. You plan to tear off the remaining half of Kinnikuman’s mask bit-by-bit in the last 30 seconds!!
Mayumi: Please, Perfect Choujin. You can take Suguru’s life. But just stop taking the mask and revealing his real face to the audience----!!

11.
Neptune: So it comes to that when the mask is taken from the Kinniku clan. Kinnikuman will die from being given his ultimate embarrassment!!
“Suguru”: It’s…over…
Announcer: 4:40 has passed since the start of the 2nd round!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman seems to have abandoned the impossible effort of escaping from Mask the End in the ring---!!
Mayumi: So…Suguru~~
“Suguru”: Sorry, papa……
Brocken: Wh…what’s this earthquake…!?

12.
Ashura: The source is there! Tournament Mountain is shaking---!!
Meat: Aah, the championship trophy!
Robin: Only Tournament Mountain understands. It has grasped the winning team of the Missionaries and the Machineguns!! Thus the championship trophy is becoming easier to pull for that team!!

13.
Meat: So then the Hell Missionaries, who are currently dominating, are the champions!
Announcer: 4:50 has passed!
Brocken: 10 seconds left!!
Neptune: Ha—hahaha, Budo, the gold trophy is waiting for us to come!!
Audience: 5 4 3
Neptune: Ha—hahaha, it will be fun with whatever face emerges.
Audience: 2
Audience: 1
Announcer: It’s exactly 5 minutes since the start of the 2nd round! The declared Mask-Hunt has been achieved—is this straight victory for the Hell Missionaries---!?

14.
Everyone: OOH…

15.
Mayumi: Th…this is the end of my era of the Kinniku clan…
Meat: Prince…
Neptune: Your mask has been taken and you further hide your face. You’re the ugliest Maskman I’ve fought to now, Kinnikuman!
Budo: Won’t you raise your face—
“Suguru”: Kukukuku…Hahahahaha
Budo: Has he realized the shock of his mask being taken!!
“Suguru”: Do you see, Kinnikuman? This is my great once-in-a-lifetime play!
“Suguru”: We—ll?

16.
Terry: Don’t look at my face!
Neptune: Te…Terryman!!
Neptune: Kinnikuman!!
Announcer: Wh…what’s the meaning of this—the person who was in the ring we thought was Kinnikuman was Terryman, and the person we thought was Terryman defeated below the ring was Kinnikuman---!!
Audience: What exactly happened……!?
Neptune: How long have you substituted~~
Terry: Remem—ber this well: we did it the moment before Kinnikuman took your Mask the End!
Neptune: The moment before you took our Mask the End……!?

17.
Announcer: Well, the Hell Missionaries have prepared for their Mask-Hunt!!
Terry: Now!!
Neptune: Right, it was then!!
Budo: We only thought you were simply breaking apart then, but thinking now, it was a bizarre moment!
Terry: Right…at that moment, I committed a Body Attack on Kinnikuman…
Terry: I purposely fell beneath the ring with Kinnikuman……
Terry: Quickly crawled beneath the apron.
Terry: And put on a spare Kinnikuman mask and tights prepared in advanced under the apron!
Terry: Thus the reason you Perfect Choujin faced a Fake Kinnikuman changed from Terryman and I took the Mask the End!

18.
Suguru: As you threw that Mask the End on the Fake Kinnikuman as he said, I took a break under the ring!
Announcer: Facing a risky trick by the Machineguns, the Hell Missionaries’ Mask-Hunt announcement, which was prided as perfect, was defeated---!!
Neptune: Wh…what is this? How could my Mask-Hunt announcement, which hadn’t been off once, be off…
Brocken: What’s the matter? The appearance of that self-prided Neptuneman is weird!
Robin: Those eyes aren’t the eyes of Neptuneman. It’s still the eyes of Kenkaman, my rival prior to him becoming a Perfect Choujin--!!

19.
Neptune: I…I was recognized and awarded this mask…
Neptune: Neptune King, please take my apology--!!
Budo: He—y, ugly!!
Budo: Can’t you quiet down, Neptuneman!!

20.
Announcer: Neptuneman, who was just distracted until prior, has suddenly regain calm by the roar of Big the Budo---!!
“Budo”: Damn, my mask…
Suguru & Terry: !
Suguru: Terry, are you thinking the same as me!
Terry: Kinnikuman, now’s the time to find out!!
Suguru: Let’s go!!

21.
Announcer: Is there something wrong? The Machineguns are in an attack pose aiming not for team leader Neptuneman, but for Big the Budo----!!
“Budo”: !?
Terry: Dorya~~
Terry: Geee
Announcer: The Machineguns working together have placed Budo’s huge body in the stance for the Kinniku Buster---!!
Mayumi: What will happen when they defeat that wooden stick? I have no idea what they’re thinking!
Ashura: No, I get it: why Kinnikuman is aiming for Budo…!!

22.
Terry: Sorya
Announcer: Well, will the Machineguns’ law-breaking Reverse Mask-Hunt be successful---!!
Terry: BUSTER VARIATION PART 5!!

23.
Ashura: Aah!!
Annoucer: Geee—is that Neptuneman under Budo’s mask!!
Neptune: Hey, Neptune King, please put your mask on quickly.
Suguru: What, Neptune King~~!?
Robin: Neptune King should have actually died when he threw himself into the Thames one-hundred thousand years ago!! And shouldn’t Neptune King’s mask have been inherited to Neptuneman!!
Terry: With Neptuneman as the perfect Choujin, this true power was pulling the strings behind his back for preservation. I thought he should have been the Choujin brains, but it ultimately was you, Neptune King!!

24.
N. King: Gurorororo…I still have plenty of work left to do on this world. I can’t die when I haven’t accomplished them---!!
N. King: Mask the End!!
Suguru: Hie—

25.
Announcer: Ooh!! What amazing power. They’ve severed off that steel pole---!!!
N. King: You won’t get away this time!!
Suguru: Owa—Burning Inner Strength~~!!
Announcer: Kinnikuman has avoided Mask the End with a handstand---!!

TN: Alright...I know I may sound ridiculously stupid or fanatical with how this played out but...can someone please explain how the heck Suguru and Terry could have had such an elaborate scheme to stop this Mask-Hunt? Alright, before I go too crazy, I do want to at least give Yudetamago some points for at least potentially using something they did once before in regards to this preparation...namely, the "spare Kinnikuman mask " that Suguru had for Terry to deceive the Hell Missionaries. (as a quick reminder, Suguru actually wore a ton of masks for his final battle with Warsman in the 2nd Choujin Olympics when it became a "mask-removal contest", so it's not like he wouldn't have one of those prepared for a situation like the Mask-Hunt...even if the series still had comedic moments as such then in the fights) If it was just simply "Terry dove under the ring with Suguru, put on the spare mask at a moment's improvisation and went back up to be the prey in the Mask-Hunt", it probably wouldn't have been a problem. But...they made it much worse. Not only was it Suguru's mask on Terry's body, but his shirt and underwear too...and as if that disturbing image wasn't bad enough, they had to make it sound like they had all this planned all along even before the match started! Considering that Suguru just finally came to from his bone implantation surgery just around the time the match was starting (and let's also throw in that bit of "Terry burying Kamehame and Dr. Bombe" around the same time when he obviously would probably had been by Suguru's bedside waiting for him to come to and probably wouldn't have made enough time for him to bury them, go back...and have Budo find them in said grave site just before the match), it just feels ridiculously impossible for pretty much everything that did happen to have been perfectly planned for the occasion of Suguru being the target! (and it's not like they could have prepared for it before hand since they expected the 20 Million Powers to be their final opponent and the moment the Hell Missionaries won, Suguru got his arm shattered) It isn't that it wasn't that bad a plan...it just feels rather ridiculous how it was portrayed. (oh, and that's not getting into the sudden "magic powers" that Terry's stars now have, which suddenly move on their own not even thrown over by Ashuraman!)

I guess I probably got long-winded by that stupid bit (though it won't be as furious as the next chapter, let me warn you now), but this was also the chapter that a certain revelation has occurred...and somehow, it actually was something that should have been more obvious than it was. Yeah, I'm talking about Big the Budo being Neptune King...to tell the truth, I can't complain about it. Budo was just so generic in his battle style and who he was that it just seemed like it would have been more shocking if he literally was a nobody and just working alongside Neptuneman as his second without any revelations. Strangely, though, it's one of those few times Yude did their homework with foreshadowing and keeping things hidden while slowly revealing them before the big reveal, from Budo having the Neptune Mask in the Thames River to his usage of Magnet Power even when not charged by Neptuneman (like the first time) to even his hints and mentions of stuff like the lore of Neptune King and using Kamehame as bait to get Terry revealed. But it's sort of weird: with how stupid and outlandish a lot of the Tag arc has been, Budo being Neptune King was Yudetamago actually doing their homework and being subliminal for once. (though it probably was strange to find a huge kendo-outfit warrior in the Thames...now if it was the Japan Centre in Piccadilly Circus, that would have been different)