Hell Teacher Nube 2

Have you ever worked hard to no avail, like you can never succeed no matter what? When one of Nube's students gets stuck in the blues, he may have the means to help him finally succeed for his hard work...even with potential spiritual problems!

#2: Jizougyaku of Sai no Kawara

53.
Kyouko: Ama—zing--!
“Hat”: That’s—nice--! It’s the latest model of mountain bike!
“Glasses”: Hehe…
Kyouko: Akira has saved up money from helping around the house for a half-year so he could buy that bicycle.
(TN: Our next sort-of crucial reference regarding character origins: while Hiroshi and Kyouko are named after the leads of “Dokonjou Gaeru”, one of the influences behind Nube, two other students are named after another major Nube influence: Go Nagai’s horror classic “Devilman” [which actually ran in Shonen Magazine, even if Nagai got his breakthrough in Jump with series like “Harenchi Gakuen” and “Mazinger Z”]. Akira is in reference to “Akira Fudo”, the tragic main character of the horror series…you could probably get a hint as to who the “other” Devilman reference is…but we’ll talk about that one next chapter)
Akira: Nah~~
Hiroshi; Akira is really a hard worker. Those guys are rare these days…
Akira: Since I have the money, I’ll treat you to ice cream.
SFX: ZUZUZU…
Hiroshi: Really!?
“Hat”: You are a nice guy…

54.
SFX: CRASH—BAKIBAKIMEKI!
SFX: BURORORO…
Akira: AA----
Hiroshi: Akira really isn’t lucky~~~
Hiroshi: He’s always using amazing effort all the time, but he isn’t rewarded for it.
“Hat”: That’s what he is—that—sort—of unlucky guy.
Kyouko: They’re right: this is a thing that hasn’t happened once or twice!

55.
Kyouko: That boat that took a month to make as your free research over summer vacation struck a person in school and broke; you had done preparation reviews every day, and yet you invariably catch a cold on the day of a test, having you end up not release your full effectiveness. Even the athletic meet relays which you had trained hard for had you break your leg the day before…
Hiroshi: Doesn’t he perhaps have an evil spirit in--him?
Sign: STAFF OFFICE
Kyouko: We should ask Nube-sensei!
Kyouko: Teacher~~~…ah!
Hiroshi: He’s doing work! How unusual!!
SFX: SHAKA SHAKA SHAKA
SFX: KUKA~~KUKA~~(SHAKA SHAKA SHAKA)
Hiroshi: Aah! He’s grading tests while sleeping! (Amazing!)
Kyouko: (Haha—h) Well then, he’s automatically writing with his spiritual power~~
(TN: Kyouko makes reference to a phenomenon known as “automatic writing”, where a person writes without any conscious thought, usually done by a person in a trance or one who writes without being aware of what they’re writing)
Kyouko: Hey! Wake up, Nube!!
SFX: BIKUU!

56.
Kyouko: UWA—HE’S RUNNING AMUCK--!!
SFX: SHAKA SHAKA SHAKA SHAKA
Nube: WAA~~!
Nube: What are you doing! A person was diligently doing his work and yet! (Ze~~ze~~ha~~ha~~)
Kyouko: Where was your diligence, where!
Hiroshi: Teacher, is this always the way you grade?
Akira: There’s something weird here…
Nube: HA HA HA! Yep! It’s a privilege of a spiritualist!
Nube: Incidentally, this blank question form was drawn up by Kokkuri-san. (Fu fu fu…)
(TN: “Kokkuri-san” is the Japanese style of Ouiji, known as a means of divination by summoning spirits and asking questions to it that it will answer…we’ll go further into them in a later chapter)
Hiroshi: WA—
Nube: Hm—m…An exorcism due to bad luck?
Kyouko: Is it strange that he isn’t rewarded no matter how much endeavor?
Nube: Well I don’t feel an aura at all but
Akira: Right…

57.
Akira: My luck has been bad by birth after all…
Nube: ………
Nube: --Alright, understood. Your teacher will give you better fortunes. Akira, is your forte in manual arts?
Akira: Huh? Ah, yes…
Nube: HERE! A children’s art exhibition! They’re in the midst of taking work exhibit applications! The most excellent work will be presented the newest mountain bike! How about it!? Shouldn’t you challenge this!?
Flyer: CHILDREN’S ART EXHIBITION: WORK EXHIBITION | DEADLINE, O/X
(TN: The O/X is in reference to the “O-month, X-day” that the chapter has for the flyer)
Akira: Ah…it’s the same as what was broken…
Akira: Right! I’ll do it!
Sign: ART ROOM
Hiroshi: Eh…? Kyouko is going to be your model? You’re desperate with this ugly.
(TN: Hiroshi uses the expression “yose yo, konna busu”; “yose” is an “endgame” or a “last move”, which probably shows Akira’s desperation that he’s “willing to use Kyouko…well in Hiroshi’s mind”; while “busu” is slang for an “ugly woman”)
Kyouko: What’s that?
Akira: It’s because Inaba-san has plenty of facial expressions…she’s perfect for a model for a clay-work!
Hiroshi: Bu…but if she’s your model, then will she be nude? With what you’re doing now…
Akira: Never! Ah, you’ll be fine as my model.

58.
Kyouko: Eh?
Hiroshi: BU!
Akira: NOT THAT SORT OF MODEL! IT’S JUST YOUR FACE, JUST THE FACE!
Kyouko: Ah, what, like—that? Ahaha…
Hiroshi: (DOKI DOKI DOKI) I SAW A BAD THING.
Kyouko: This feeling?
Akira: The deadline is the day after tomorrow, I must do my best!
Nube: Right, right: a victory for friendship and endeavor! (HAHAHA…)
Paper: IN PROGRESS, DON’T TOUCH! AKIRA
SFX: ZUZUZU…

59.
SFX: GUFU GUFU GUFU
SFX: CHUN CHUN
Akira: AH~~~

60.
SFX: ZAWA ZAWA ZAWA
Boy: How cruel--! Someone had done this!
Girl: Have the drawing boards that were piled up collapsed down…?
Hiroshi: Aah…this has exactly become her splitting image…it’s already hopeless…
Kyouko: I’LL THUMP YOU---!!
Nube: Akira…
Girls: How sad—huh.
Nube: It’s weak but I feel an aura…Is this thing the spirit that’s interfering with the endeavoring boy…?
Kyouko: I don’t mind this! It’ll be fine if we do it again! Because of our cooperation!
Akira: Thanks…but
Akira: It won’t be on time anymore. The deadline is tomorrow.

61.
Kyouko: Akira…
Akira: …I’m fine already with whatever happens. I’ll stop with all this endeavoring. It’ll just become futile anyhow.
SFX: Kii…kii…kii…
Akira: By all means, I’m fine doing what’s suitable. I can’t work with all my effort…because it’ll end up not being realized.
Voice: No, no—humans who don’t sweat when they’re young will be crying when they’re older!
Akira: Teacher! (Before I knew it!?)
Nube: Hahaha, what’s that?
Nube: It’s still early to be desperate!
SFX: WHIRL WHIRL WHIRL STOMP!
Akira: Eh?

62.
Nube: Let’s make it one more time! You’ll be successful this time! I’ll be with you so no one will get in your way!
Akira: But…there isn’t time…
Nube: The circumstances—will be fine—for this! (Kukuku……)
Akira: ?
Akira: Sleep at the school…we can’t do that, it’s bad…
Nube: I say this honorably: make a contact to your home…its best that you think of this as a boarding house!
Hiroshi: Right—right--! Let’s have a party, a party!
Kyouko: Teacher~~Hiroshi brought beer~~
Nube: That guy, he doesn’t think of me as a teacher~~(haa~~)

63.
SFX: PAN PAN
Nube: Akira…were you close to death when you were young?
Akira: Huh? Ah, you’re investigating? Yes, I have.
Kyouko: I know about this! He drowned in the ocean and in a condition of apparent death!!
Akira: I was revived immediately though.
Akira: Thinking about it, it was from that day. When I came to be not successful no matter what I did. (Haha…)
Nube: All of you, where do you think children who die go?
Hiroshi: Heaven?
Nube: No.
Nube: It’s Sai no Kawara!!
(TN: “Sai no Kawara” directly translates into “The Temple-Visit River Beach”, but more will be explained now)
Nube: Near the Sanzu River, the border of this world and that world, the children who have died ahead of their parents must continue to pile stones as punishment for the regrets of their parents…
(TN: The Sanzu River, or “Sanzu no Kawa”, is as Nube had said: the Buddhist border between life and death)
Children: UUUH~~~AAH—

64.
Nube: But they’re never able to finish piling stones; that’s because an Oni appears at the moment they’ve finished piling and destroys it. It’s piled and destroyed……piled and destroyed…in repetition…
Nube: There for eternity…
Nube: IN A HELL THAT IS COMPOSED OF UNREWARDED ENDEAVOR
SFX: GATA—N!
Akira: WAA
SFX: BATA BATA BATA BATA BATA BATA
Kyouko: Wh…what?
Hiroshi: Teacher!
Nube: He’s here to do it: the Oni that will bring Akira’s endeavors to nothing…

65.
Nube: THE LOW-CLASS ONI OF SAI NO KAWARA…
Nube: JIZOUGYAKU
(TN: “Jizougyaku” literally translates into “The Tyrannizing Jizou”, with a “Jizou” being in connection to Ksitigarbha, the bodhisattva who looks over children and the underworld)
Jizougyaku: OOOOO

66.
Akira: Th…th…that oni has…!
Nube: You should remember him!
Nube: When you had the near-death experience…you should have met him at Sai no Kawara!
Nube: And when you were resuscitated, he shamelessly adhered to your soul, reaching into this transient world…he’s the true form of the evil spirit interfering with Akira’s endeavor!
Jizougyaku: Gufu gufu
Jizougyaku: OOOOO

67.
Nube: Otto!
Hiroshi: Teacher!
Nube: Are you alright? Hold on tightly to this work from here!
Nube: The pleasure for when your hard work is rewarded: now you will savor it!
Akira: Teacher! Behind you!
Jizougyaku: Gufu
Jizougyaku: GAAAA

68.
SFX: GAKYFUN!
Jizougyaku: GUUU
Nube: Jizougyaku…you’re a monster who doesn’t have any intelligence. It’s not in your head to recognize the persuasion to return to the realm of the dead.
Nube: I’ll strike you down at once! Namu Daiji Daihi!! Oni sealed by Byakue-Kannon, now show
(TN: I really should have explained it last time but it was merely part of Nube’s sutra prior so now seems a more appropriate time: the “god” that Nube invokes when unsealing the Oni no Te is “Byakue-Kannon”, which is also known as “Pai-I Kuan-Yin”, the “White-Robed Kuan-yin” and the “White-Robed Kannon”. This god is one of the 33 forms of the Bodhisattva in Chinese-style Buddhism, notable for the attribute of “hearing the sounds of the world”. He is one of the most popular facets of the Bodhisattva’s personifications in Chinese & Japanese Buddhism)
Nube: YOUR POWER!!

69.
Jizougyaku: OOOOH
Akira: Th…that left hand is!?
Kyouko: It’s what we’ve waited for! That’s Nube-sensei’s secret weapon: the Oni no Te!
Kyouko: It is typically sealed under his glove, but teacher’s left hand has an Oni dwelling in it that possesses a powerful destructive power! And once the seal is released

70.
Kyouko: It can chop up spirits, killing them. It became his only, and
Nube: GO, JIZOUGYAKU!
Kyouko: HIS STRONGEST WEAPON!
SFX: ZAN

71.
SFX: OSHUU!
Jizougyaku: GYAAAAA—
Akira: Teacher—
Nube: With that, there isn’t anyone hindering you. What’s left is a matter of your effort, Akira!

72.
Akira: Al—right, it’s four hours until morning! I’ll do my best and complete this!!
Nube: That’s the spirit, Akira!
Narrator: And so……
Narrator: Akira finally completed it!
Sign: ART EXHIBITION
Judges: Ooh…it’s like it’s alive.
Caption: GOLD MEDAL: YAMAGUCHI AKIRA (Doumori Elementary)
Narrator: However…
Kyouko: It’s here—your new mountain bike!—model…
Akira: It’s fine already.
Nube: Well~~hahaha, I’m sorry, sorry! I was certain you’d receive the real thing…

73.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

2. Sai no Kawara
“The Sanzu River flows as the border of this world and that world.” There are many sorts of people, people who have a near-death experience. There isn’t a reason that there would exist that actually has flowing water as a kind of scenery impression for that. It’s just that things that humans haven’t experienced themselves hallucinate it as if there is a river, such as the case of creatures that they can’t recognize.

(Thus there are also situations where it isn’t a river but it seems like a flower bed to people)

And thus, at the bank of the river, is a place that is called “Sai no Kawara”.

It is said that children who die ahead of their parents must pile stones there for eternity as punishment of the regrets of the parents.

But this thing is based on a Confucian teaching which thinks that lack of filial piety is the ultimate crime; in actuality, this isn’t the case. Instead, the true is that it is said that, rather, they are tied by their feelings and can’t rest in peace due to the parents’ sadness being too deep. The parents who have lost young children thoroughly have their child’s room the same as when they were alive and prepare meals for them, but this contrarily isn’t good. If they do that, then that child will come to be in a chasm, continuing to drift while in distress at the border of this and that world without ever resting in peace.

If you too lose some important person, I wish that you pray for their happiness in the next world without ever feeling sad for them.

So then, until next time!

TN: It's weird: the first chapter really didn't feel like the Nube that would emerge in the future...but this chapter feels like the characters are already starting to come into their own at this early stage. The unique relationship of Hiroshi and Kyouko are starting to emerge with their constant bickering (yet somewhat respect) and...I almost forgot that Kyouko nearly went nude due to the whole situation. (I just hope this doesn't bring the pedophilia police down on me) Heck, even the whole scene with Hiroshi bringing beer to school...well, OK, I have no idea how he could get beer but...well, that would sort of get into a couple other things which I rather not give away. (can't have the whole series spoiled at this juncture) This chapter though also feels like another semi-introductory one...but one that sort of feels strange due to it being the bespectacled Akira. To tell the truth, he seemed like a character they were trying to push (due to his naming after the Devilman lead), but never really found his niche at this point leading to him sort of being made more minor later on. He gets more interesting when he is just another classmate instead of one of the mains...but we won't really get into that. I probably could point out as well that a few may start complaining that the first couple chapters are rather much "monster of the day" stories...but it's all establishing stuff so just bare with it for the moment. Next time, we get two new characters...one we've seen (and I've sort of hinted at in this script) and another...well, someone just as important in this world throughout the series' run (even with...later events)