Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 89

The time has finally come: the final battle between Momotarou and Jaki for the glory of their Otokojuku class has finally arrived...but of course, that doesn't mean that "someone" can't make things even more interesting!!

Chp. 89: The Large Scale of Life


71.
Wan Taaren: The Final Fight of the Daiishin Paaren Seiha!! Begin the match--!!
Edajima: HOLD—THAT MATCH!!
Jaki: !!
Edajima: I’ve decided that this final fight should be a Chuubin Rensatsu Fight!!
(TN: “Chuubin Rensatsu Fight” or “Chuubin Rensatsutou” = “Mid-Air Scale Crooked Killing Fight”)
Wan Taaren: Wha……!! Why the Chuubin Rensatsu Fight…………!!

72.-73.
First-Year 1: Wh…what are they………!!
First-Year 2: Someone is amassing around the far tower wall----!!
Jaki: A Chuubin Rensatsu Fight……!? Even old-man Edajima is resigned to our fate.
Momotarou: ………………!!

74.
Tazawa: Wh…what’s with those eerie guys a gathering? Wh…what exactly are they………!?
Edajima: Don’t you know? They’re the Otokojuku Third-Years! I hurriedly emergency summoned them for the Chuubin Rensatsu Fight.
First-Years: O….Otokojuku Third-Years----!!
Wan Taaren: Are you serious, Edajima-dono? A Chuubin Rensatsu Fight: do you understand the meaning of those words?
Edajima: You’ve gotten old, Wan Taaren. I don’t repeat my words.
Wan Taaren……………………I don’t have your methods.

75.
Wan Taaren: Will all the First-Years follow me?
First-Years: ……………!?
First-Year 1: Wh…what? We’re walking towards the bottom of the Fighting God Statue.
Matsuo: Wh…what? I have this violently bad premonition.
Akashi: Principal, why………!?
Edajima: ……………………
Wan Taaren: Look.
Tazawa: Hu~~h!?

76.
Tazawa: Wh…what’s with that huge iron cage---!!
Wan Taaren: Go inside from the entrance.
Matsuo: I…in there…………!?
Hidemaro: Wh…what exactly are we doing……!?
First-Year: L…look, those Third-Years on the opposite cliff are entering the cage under their statue.
Tazawa: Heh! I don’t know anything, but isn’t this great! OK, everyone, get in!

77.
Tazawa: Alright, we’re all in.
Matsuo: I’ve got an increasingly bad premonition.
Tazawa: !?
Wan Taaren: PUSH---!!
First-Years: HUH!!

78.
First-Years: Wh…what are you doing----!! We’re being thrown off towards the ground on this side---!!
First-Years: HI…HIE---!!
Tazawa & Matsuo: UWAA----!!

79.
First-Years: !!
Momotarou: WH…WHAT----!!

80.
(And so it moves…)

81.
First-Year: Wh…what exactly is this………!?
Tazawa: It’s a scale……!! It’s a huge monster scale that with a fulcrum on the finger of the Fighting God Statue……!!
Tazawa: B…beneath us, we’re jutting to outside the tower………we’re…about 500 meters above ground……!! We’ll all going to that world if we fall from here.
Wan Taaren: The Third-Year-side is hanging in a similar scale. So then the preparation is complete.

82.
Wan Taaren: As you can see now, these large scales are being held at exactly level due to the heaviness of the weight on the other side being calculated as the total body weight of all of them.
Wan Taaren: However………!! Look closely at the bottom of the weight!!
First-Years: HUH……!!

83.
First-Year 1: What the: there is sand that’s steadily spilling out from within the weight---!!
First-Year 2: St…stop: at this rate, the balance will immediately collapse and we’ll all die--!!
First-Year 1: Ca…calm down—do…get violent!!
First-Year 2: Yet we’ll fall headlong down when the balance collapses---!!
Wan Taaren: We’ve fully packed iron sand within those weights. You should think of it as an hourglass. It will all run out in around thirty minutes!!

84.
Wan Taaren: There’s only one way to save each of your fifty classmates on either side…!!
Wan Taaren: Take this!!
Wan Taaren: Those keys that you were given now…………They’re keys to the two doors for the wall beneath the Fighting God Statue where each of your allies are suspended.

85.
Wan Taaren: You will open your door with a key and reach the head of the statue when you climb the stairs.
Wan Taaren: We’ve prepared this as a means to save your classmates when you get there.
Wan Taaren: However, the key you have been handed is the key that will open the door to your enemy’s side: it won’t open your own door!
Wan Taaren: So then……!! You will swallow that key into your stomach!!
Akashi: Wh…what………!! Swallow the key………!!

86.
Jaki: I get it: if we don’t snatch the key within the stomach when we defeat our opponent, then we can’t save our classmates.
Jaki: The Chuubin Rensatsu Fight……………this surely is an appropriate match for our final fight!!
Momotarou: What a really cruel speech.

87.
Akashi: I don’t understand what you’re thinking.
Edajima: Whether Jaki wins or Momo wins, it will inevitably be a great disaster……!!
Akashi: Even so, does this have some deeper intention?
Edajima: Fuffufu, I am the principal of Otokojuku, Edajima Heihachi!!
Commentary:
The Chuubin Rensatsu Fight…the most brutal fight in history, said to occur only once within the history of Chinese Kenpou, which possesses a long tradition and history: on February 29th, 1615, in the final years of the Ming Dynasty. The location of it was the crater at the summit of Mt. Seiga in Yunnan province, called the holy ground of grapplers…

In those days, the power of the Yunnan region was split in two and they did nothing but dispute. It is said that by order of the emperor of the time of what should be done to hit at an end to the fight of Nanyouken and Hokuinken, approximately 300 from all their students on both sides were placed in a scale and the greatest instructor on both sides fought for their destinies. The match ended with victory for Hokuinken and the defeated Nanyouken were annihilated, disappearing from the history of kenpou.
-From “A Chronicle of Rise-and-Fall in Kenpou”, Minmei Publishing
(TN: “Nanyouken” = “Southern Yang Fist”; “Hokuinken” = “Northern Yin Fist”; BTW: note the date of said final battle...)

88.
First-Year 1: Do…don’t be joking. What’s with that stupid story---!!
First-Year 2: Wh…why must we suffer for this---!!
Tazawa: This isn’t the situation to say that!! Mo…Momo, we ask you to do this----!!
Jaki: You should remember the power of Shinkuu Senpuushou!! With this blow, I’ll open an air hole in your stomach.

89.
(And…there he goes)

TN: You have to leave it to someone like Edajima to take what could be the climactic battle of the Paaren Seiha...and make it more personal. Throwing the entire First-Year and Third-Year class into a giant hanging scale and forcing their leaders to save them in thirty-minutes time is probably standard for this series and it's craziness, but the funny part is just how Edajima even overruled Wan Taaren in the creation of this piece of the final battle...because he's Edajima. I had a bit of difficulty with the trickiness of the whole key scenario...I know it meant that they've been given their opponent's key and the winner takes it out of their body and saves their group, but I guess some of the Japanese seemed a bit confusing at first until I thought it over. But hey, at least the final battle is finally beginning...