Hell Teacher Nube 9

If every story that you hear exactly what you want it to be? When hints of an infamous phenomenon begin to emerge in Doumori, Nube may be called in whether he wants to or not...and reveal the source of the disturbance!

#9: The Strolling Ghost

47.
Comment: Hiroshi and Kyouko 3 years later (8th graders)…?
(TN: If Kyouko looks like that…)

48.
Sign: Girl’s Restroom
Voice: It won’t open~~~
Voice: It won’t open~~

49.
Miki: Whoo’se there? Are you inside?
Voice: It won’t open…
Miki: The door won’t open…?
SFX: GACHA
Miki: What, didn’t it open…
SFX: GII
Miki: KYAAAAAA

50.
Nube: HANAKO-SAN APPEARED AGAIN?
(TN: While there are many bathroom myths we’ll find out about, “Hanako-san” is the most well known one and is usually the name of the girl in the legend)
Hiroshi: See—ms like it: Hosokawa-san saw it emerge in the old-building’s bathroom.
Nube: Again…is this the 3rd time this month?
Kyouko: Exorcise it, Nube!
Nube: I’ve looked in that bathroom many times, but there isn’t a ghost anywhere in there!
Hiroshi: Bu…but, many people have been eyewitnesses!
Nube: Generally those sort of ghost stories that are everywhere throughout Japan are usually made up. Whether it’s “Kuchisake-onna”, “Jinmenken” or “Teketeke”.
(TN: While I really can’t get a real “translation” for “Teketeke”, the other two youkai are translated as such:
-“Kuchisake-onna” = “The Tearing-Mouth Woman”
-“Jinmenken” = “The Man-Faced Dog”
Best to remember these three…just in case)

51.
Nube: You see things that aren’t there because you think it’s scary…now! Go home, go home!
Hiroshi: Chie!
Nube: Really…they believe in that gossip and can’t go to the bathroom…children are simple, Ritsuko-sensei!
Ritsuko: Eh…yes.
Ritsuko: Please, let’s go to the bathroom together…I’ve been so scared that I’ve been enduring since morning…
Sign: SUPER-COWARD
SFX: YORO YORO…
Ritsuko: Nueno-sensei, please exorcise it quickly…
Nube: LEAVE THIS TO M~~~E! IF THIS IS FOR RITSUKO-SENSEI! EVEN IF I GO THROUGH FIRE OR WATER… (UOOOO)
Hiroshi: This guy got an impetus!

52.
SFX: RI—N RI—N KORORO KORO…
Nube: Place the core of a pencil in a clay ball.
Nube: Then fasten string to them…
Nube: These are called “Fuchi”, a trick to detect spirits.
(TN: “Fuchi” is actually an abridged version of “furiko” or “pendulum”)
SFX: JIJI…
Nube: When a spirit passes through, it will sway like a seismograph.
Hiroshi: ? Why are they in the corridor? Isn’t Hanako-san appearing from the toilet?
Sign: NIGHT DUTY ROOM
Nube: She is but.

53.
Nube: Typically, these Jibakurei are beings that don’t leave from the place they’ve died?
(TN: “Jibakurei” = “Earth-Bound Spirit”)
Hiroshi: But not one person since the school was founded has died in the bathroom of the school.
Kyouko: So then…there’s reason that Hanako-san isn’t a Jibakurei?
Nube: Well, from investigating a long-ago newspaper in the library, I have this…
Nube: It’s an article cut from 10 years ago.
News Article:
YAMADA HANAKO-SAN (12)
HAD A HEART SPASM IN THE SCHOOL TOILET—THE GIRL WAS SCARED WITH THE DOOR NOT OPENING—
(TN: There is a whole article, won’t TL it for the moment but may try if needed, there’s quite a bit that’s rather small and tough to make out)

Nube: This incident occurred at a school in Aomori Prefecture. If she’s a Jibakurei, then she should only appear at this school…
(TN: Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture in the northern tip of Honshu in the Tohoku region.)
Nube: But if Hanako-san was a moving spirit…what would happen!?

54.
Nube: She would come from the outside, enter into the school bathroom and appear again…by doing that, if there is a case she’s a “strolling ghost” wandering from school to school around Japan…
SFX: ZOKU…
Kyouko: Hiroshi, co…come with me to the bathroom!
Hiroshi: Eh? Why? I really don’t have to go.
Kyouko: It’ll be fine, come!
Kyouko: Fine then!? Wait here until I come out.
Hiroshi: Hey hey, understood!

55.
Hiroshi: Chie, that idiot, this is completely slight. A ghost that roams…
Hiroshi: ……
Hiroshi: How about I frighten her a bit…! (Ku ku ku)
Kyouko: It’s disturbing…that weird chill earlier…it’s an omen that a not-good thing like that will happen…
Hiroshi: It won’t open~~
SFX: BIKU!
Hiroshi: They’re not red~~
SFX: KARA KARA KARA
Hiroshi: They’re white~~
(TN: This is three-tiered pun, follow along:
1. “Akanai yo” = Just like the ghost before, Hiroshi begins with Hanako-san’s “Akanai yo” which is “It won’t open”
2. “Aka nai yo” = Hiroshi says this exactly like the first “Akanai yo”, but the emphasis isn’t that it’s the same “akanai” but “aka nai”, which is “not red”, leading into…
3. “Shiro aru yo” = “They’re white”, referring to Kyouko’s panties…yeah Hiroshi’s dead meat after this)
Kyouko: NOO~~~~!
SFX: BA
SFX: SUTE—N!

56.
Hiroshi: KYAHAHAHAHA, she jumped out in her panties and is utterly indecent---!
SFX: KAA!
Kyouko: Hi…Hiroshi…
Kyouko: Wh…what are you doing, dummy!
Hiroshi: Ya—y, ya—y, pee-girl---!
Hiroshi: I…I won’t reveal it or anything. Excuse me.
SFX: JIJI…
Kyouko: IDIOT! PERVERT! NASTY! MONKEY!
SFX: JI…JIJI JIJIJI
Hiroshi: That’s—strange, peeing like that at that age…..N?
Hiroshi: He…hey, Kyouko…be…behind…
Kyouko: Eh?
SFX: KARI KARI KARI KARI KARI KARI KARI KARI

57.
SFX: ZA ZA ZA ZA ZA ZA
Kyouko: O…ow…w…it’s…hot…hot…pain.
Hiroshi: Kyouko!
Nube: What’s—wrong, did it appear!?
Hiroshi: It passed through now!

58.
Nube: It’s climbing…to the 2nd floor…
SFX: JI JI JIJIJI
SFX: JIJIJI JI
Hiroshi: It’s going into the bathroom…
Kyouko: Teacher! Th…that child is…
Kyouko: That child isn’t the girl who died of the heart spasm as in the newspaper. It died in a much crueler way, this other…girl…

59.
SFX: GIIIII
Voice: It won’t open…It won’t open~~
SFX: GACHA…(GARI GARI GARI GARI GARI)
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan. Spirit who is in here: show yourself.

60.
Girl: It won’t open…
Nube: You…
Girl: Aah, the door won’t open…get me out of here…nooo, it’s hot! The fire is in here too…save me!

61.
Hiroshi: Hot? Fire? Wh…what is she talking about?
Nube: In many cases, a Fujourei (A spirit that can’t rest in peace) have their thoughts halted at the moment they died.
(TN: “Fujourei” = “Impure Spirit”)
SFX: SU
Hiroshi: So…she can’t hear us no matter what we say here…!?
Hiroshi: Wh…what are you doing, teacher!? Why did you take out the Oni no Te!?
SFX: DOKUN DOKUN DOKUN
Kyouko: You’re taking on a child spirit!?
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan!
Hiroshi & Kyouko: TEACHER--!?

62.
SFX: SO…
Hiroshi: Eh?
Nube: You’ve lost your eyes, ears and even your body…but with this hand passing through, you should hear my voice…please speak…say why you are this scared…
Kyouko: Right…The Oni no Te can touch spirits…therefore it can even have a conversation with a Fujourei…
Hiroshi: Ah…
Hiroshi: I thought the Oni no Te was just for killing Youkai and evil spirits but…it has this sort of usage as well…
Nube: Right…that’s the reason.
Kyouko: Wh…what did she say? Nube?

63.
Nube: This girl was running confused from an air-raid during the war and took refuge in a bathroom somewhere. The school caught fire and she burned to death in there while locked in there. And thus…she became a spirit and now has to repeat over and over her actions up to her death.
Nube: Without knowing the war has ended…she runs confused from an air-raid, wanders around town, takes refuse in a bathroom she discovers at school and continues to raise her pained voice in there.
Kyouko: She was repeating it eternally...how pitiful. Nube, let her rest in peace quickly.
Nube: Leave that to me.
Nube: Well come, you’re leaving from here. You don’t need to be in pain anymore; you will sleep peacefully.
SFX: SO…

64.
Girl: TH…
Girl: THANK YOU…
Nube: With that, Hanako-san won’t be appearing anymore. She’s completely resting in peace…
Kyouko: Right…so, what happened to the girl spirit that was in that newspaper?
Nube: Well then, wasn’t she resting in peace already long ago?
Hiroshi: Heh! You really are an idiot due to leaking of pee, fearful of an unrelated tale~~~
Kyouko: Hey!!

65.
Kyouko: Hold on…Would I leak or anything…
Hiroshi: I saw that bad thing.
SFX: GII
Hiroshi: I’m spreading that to everyone. If you don’t want that, then treat me to juice!
Hiroshi: Really, you shouldn’t be leaking when you’ve reached 5th grade…that Kyouko is a coward!
Voice: It won’t open…
Voice: It won’t open…
Voice: Get me out from here…it won’t open…
Hiroshi: Bu…well then, this is Kyouko’s revenge…it’s so obvious, really…
Hiroshi: Du—mmy, I won’t fall for that…
SFX: GACHA

66.
Hanako: IT WON’T OPEEEN

67.
Hiroshi: WAAAAA
SFX: SU—(HENA HENA HENA…)
SFX: JOJOJO~~
Nube: Huh? Where’s Hiroshi?
Kyouko: Don’t know. I’ve left him there alone!
Narrator: Hanako-san is wandering around even today. Perhaps tomorrow she may be at your school.

68.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

9. Spirits Who Appear in the Bathroom

Let’s introduce several famous ghost stories about bathrooms.

1. The White Hand (Shiroi Te)
There is some thing that brushes the butt as you do your business in the bathroom. Surprised, you look and a blue-white hand sludges out from the urinal. You get surprised and run away, but with the door not opening you’re dragged into the urinal.

2. The Red Vest (Akai Chanchanko)
In a bathroom in a certain school, you hear a voice who says “Can you wear this red vest” from out of nowhere. Due to it being too insistent, it comes to say “If you’re one who will wear it, then wear it!”, cuts your neck and kills you. Your clothes become deep-red with blood, seeming as if you’re wearing a red vest.

3. Give Me ‘Kami’ (Kami wo Kure)
At a school late at night, a guard making their rounds hears an urgent voice “give me paper” from the bathroom. Possessing paper, he opened it up to hand it over and a blood-soaked woman appears shouting “Not this paper! Your hair!”, grabs onto their hair and drags them into the urinal…

How’s that. Haven’t all of you heard these somewhere? Aside from them, there are still many famous tales. The place called the bathroom is a place where it’s easy for spirits to gather with it’s usage of water; due to the method of scooping it up long ago, there were many children who fell in the urinals and died.

In the end, I have just one warning.

Even if you at least go to the bathroom once in the dead of night, never project your face in the water within the urinal. That’s because what will be projected in there is your face when you die. If it projects an elderly face, it’s still fine, but if it is the face as you are now, then your lifespan is…

(TN: The “kami wo kure” one is about two words with the same reading in Japanese but different meanings: “kami” either can be in this case “paper”, which is what the guard has” or “hair”, which is what the ghost wanted)

TN: It's a story like this that can make one feel all teary-eyed...well, mostly the actual situation regarding the ghost, not...the other stuff I'll get to. In a way, this chapter does feel slightly anti-war without maybe intending itself to be, showing the costs leading to ghosts who can't escape from their turmoil even with the years passing them by and their nightmares never-ending. The best thing about it that I think makes it much stronger: it really doesn't try to take sides about what was right and what was wrong in that era, merely telling the tragedies of the war in a unique perspective. Though...still with Hanako-san running around, it's not like we can't do without the scares.

A couple other weird things: first, why did Miki seem so meek in this chapter? Somehow she felt a bit OOC...though maybe she's still a bit held back after what happened back in chp. 3. Second...chuckle..."they're white"...yeah, for that, Hiroshi deserved that ending.