Hell Teacher Nube 16

What does it take to be "alive": can an inanimate object actually be "alive"? When a "new student" emerges showing care for the students of Doumori Elementary, Nube is about to reveal to him the truth, as hard as it can be...

Vol. 3: The Midnight Honor Student
#16: The Midnight Honor Student

8.
“Narrator”: There is a “midnight honor student” in our school. This child replaces the classroom flowers every day.
(TN: The term that is used is “mayonaka no yuutousei”; “mayonaka” is either “midnight” or “dead of night”, “yuutousei” is “honor student”)
“Narrator”: And tidies up the inside of school during the night, cleaning up the blackboards that have forgotten to be erased and the chicken shed and such.
“Narrator”: It was strange, but everyone was been grateful to the child. Until they knew his true identity--…
Caption: After School—
Sign: SCIENCE LAB

9.
Nube: Oh—you came today as well. Well done, well done.
SFX: GARA
Nube: Um—so then, now we’ll be holding a special overtime supplementary lesson—
SFX: GATA GATA GATA
Hiroshi: Yo! I’ve heard you’re the rumored honor student.
Katsuya: Teacher’s classes are interesting; listen to it!
Nube: In other words, when you give a role to dice, the actuality that it will be 6 is—
Book: 5th grade Arithmetic
“Honor Student”: Hey, can you tell me what this is here?
SFX: BIKU
Miki: Eh? U…um, well…

10.
Nube: Hahaha, where don’t you understand it? Show it to me.
“Honor Student”: Nube-sensei…he’s an extremely kind teacher; I really like him.
Nube: Ah—this is no good. First you must learn how to write characters.
“Honor Student”: I’m sorry.
SFX: KACCHIN KOCCHIN
Nube: Well…
Nube: We’re coming towards the night…shall we gradually do that?
Students: AN EXORCISM! Do it, do it! (Oh--!)
“Honor Student”: Nube-sensei’s exorcisms…this will be enjoyable. It’s the first I’ve seen one. What exactly will he exorcise?

11.
Nube: Well then…what I’ve picked out is a cursed Ichimatsu Doll whose hair has been growing. For that reason, today I’ll teach you about the souls of dolls.
Nube: It’s easy for a soul to lodge in a thing with a human form; in other words, a doll. As such, even an unspeaking doll…
SFX: PAT PAT
“Voice”: That—hurts.
Nube: UWA, THE DOLL TALKED!
“Black Hair”: Teacher—the doll is over there.—
Nube: OH MY GOD!
Kyouko: Yeah, yeah, that’s enough with that promised gag, so let’s get to what’s next!
“Honor Student”: AHAHAHAHA
(TN: I’m not quite show if it is in reference to that, but this essentially is a rerun (though in continuity) of the “Ichimatsu Doll” bit from the 2nd pilot, which is at the end of Vol. 1. “Black Hair” [yeah she does get a name later] has a slightly-changed appearance, but for the most part it’s a similar gag)
“Honor Student”: A soul in a doll…Hiroshi-kun, do you believe in that?
Hiroshi: I believe that a doll can be alive!
Akira: That’s right: even dolls have hearts.
“Grubby”: Don’t you believe in even that?
Katsuya: You’re lagging behind, honor student!
“Honor Student”: Hmm…

12.
Nube: Yes…when it has importance and used for many years among many people, even an object can have a soul lodged in it; particularly dolls…(Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan Koudai)
Nube: Just like this.
SFX: SHU—SHU—
SFX: BUWA
Nube: This is a doll soul.
Kyouko: What an unusual success.
“Honor Student”: Amazing, it really has a soul!
Nube: Souls that dwell in objects are called “Tsukumogami” in Shinto. With the passage of months and years, an object come to think just like a human and possess emotions.
SFX: SU

13.
“Honor Student”: Amazing, it’s for real. This is the first I’ve known that souls can be in dolls!
“Honor Student”: What’s—wrong, everyone, shouldn’t you be astonished?
Hiroshi: Well…there’s one more doll soul in here…
“Honor Student”: Eh?
Kyouko: What do we do?
SFX: WHISPER WHISPER
Hiroshi: He hasn’t realized it yet…he’s slow~~~
“Honor Student”: where? Where is the doll soul?
Nube: This doll has ended up gaining a soul for spending time together with the students of this school over a long time. That’s just it: it has forgotten it is a doll and thinks it is a student of this school.
“Honor Student”: Eh?
“Honor Student”: Wh…what is it, everyone, it can’t be…

14.
“Honor Student”: ARE YOU SAYING I AM THE DOLL?
Everyone: OOOOOOOOO
Kyouko: Teacher…it seems to be experiencing a bit of shock.
Nube: Aah, I did plan to have it realize this softly but
Nube: Since this anatomy model has been walking at night and come to be a disturbance, I was going to exorcise it, but it is convinced that it really is a human. Since I was worried it would be awkwardly excited and run away, I undertook this play with all of you but…

15.
Nube: Do you understand already? You’re a soul who has to slip out from this anatomy model. If you walk around like this, you’ll astonish everyone.
“Honor Student”: It’s a lie…I am human. I’m not some bad-feeling anatomy model…
Nube: Now, quietly return to the inside of the doll…
“Honor Student”: NO WAY!
SFX: KA
Nube: !

16.
Nube: Ah!
SFX: DATSU
Nube: Damn, it ran off…
Hiroshi: We should chase after it!
“Honor Student”: IT’S A LIE! IT’S A LIE! THAT I’M A DOLL; I’M HUMAN! I HAVE TO FIND OUT, I HAVE TO FIND OUT…
Sign: MEN’S RESTROOM
“Honor Student”: Haa haa haa

17.
“Honor Student”: !
“Honor Student: Ah…Ah…ah.
“Honor Student”: I AM…NOT A HUMAN…I AM THE SOUL OF…AN ANATOMY MODEL…
Kyouko: ……
Kyouko: Though he’s poorly a kind spirit with a pure heart…
Nube: Yes: therefore, we have to do a good thing somehow without having a reason to erase him with the Oni no Te…

18.
Hiroshi: Hey, hey, anatomy model! Don’t be such a tightwad!
(TN: I know it probably isn’t appropriate to say that but Hiroshi uses a verb of “shimittareru”, which is “to be tightfisted”…but being that it is Hiroshi, it sounded right to use what’s above)
Hiroshi: Because you’re going to play together with us in the end! Huh!
“Honor Student”: But…I’m some…
Hiroshi: For just this one day today, you are our classmate, right!? Everyone!
Kyouko & Miki: Eh? Ye…yeah…
“Honor Student”: Thank you…
Hiroshi: Ri—ght, so, let’s play tag. And you’re it.
(TN: “Tag” in Japanese is “onigokko”, where “it” is actually an “oni”)
“Honor Student”: Right!
Hiroshi: Alright, run away!
Everyone: WA—KYAAA~~HIE~~~
Miki’s Caption: SERIOUSLY SCARED

19.
Hiroshi: AHAHA
Other Students: KYA—
“Honor Student”: Wait up—
“Honor Student”: Wait, wait—
Students: HII~~~
“Honor Student”: I’ve caught you—
SFX: GIGIGI…
Kyouko: HII~~
Nube: Right: have fun to your heart’s content. So you won’t have to slip out from that doll body ever again.
“Honor Student”: Thank you, everyone. Somehow I seem like I’ve truly become everyone’s classmate.
“Honor Student”: I’m happy…
SFX: SHI…WA—

20.
SFX: NYU--!
“Honor Student”: Teacher…I…want to become human…
Nube: I’m sorry but that’s impossible with my power. Please ask Kannon-sama.
SFX: OOOOOOO
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan Koudai Reikan: prevent this anatomy model soul from losing it’s way again.

21.
Nube: HA!!
SFX: ZUMU
Nube: What’s left will be completed when you’re sealed by the Byakue Kannon Sutra for one night.
Kyouko: Somehow this is extremely pitiful…since it had wanted to be human that much…
Nube: There’s nothing I can do: a doll can’t become human.
Nube: Well, let’s go home.
Kyouko: Right…

22.
“Honor Student”: I want to…be human…
SFX: SHU—SHU—
SFX: SHUU~~SHUUU
Narrator: The next morning, the anatomy model had overtly disappeared.
Principal: Nueno-kun, this is out of your compensation!
Narrator: They searched within the school, but they finally couldn’t find it.
Voice 1: That anatomy model…where did it go?
Voice 2: Well…

23.
Kyouko: It can’t be that it really came alive and had gone somewhere…
Hiroshi: Dummy, it moved because it had a soul. The actual doll did move.
Voice: Teacher!
“Honor Student”: It’s me, it’s me!
Nube: !
“Honor Student”: Surprised? After Byakue-Kannon appeared, I became a human.
Nube: Byakue-Kannon?...I don’t believe this!
Kyouko: This is like Pinocchio…
Nube: Fully tell me how!
“Honor Student”: Ah, I can’t because I just came for a bit of a salutation.
“Honor Student”: Well.

24.
“Honor Student”: I HAVEN’T BEEN GIVEN SKIN YET.
SFX: DOKUN DOKUN

25.
“Honor Student”: See you, goodbye!
SFX: TATATA
“Honor Student”: Hahaha…
Narrator: And so, the anatomy model disappeared from right in front of us. Perhaps he may be attending your school now…

26
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

13. Spirits and Dolls

Among the tokusatsu TV hero programs, there is the famous Tsurubaya Productions. In a corner of the film studio, there is a pre-fab warehouse. Here, is the “Monster Graveyard” which sleeps the character costumes of many of the monsters and aliens that have been defeated by the heroes that have been filmed until now. It was said to have come to here.

According to the story of the aimed person, he had gone into the storehouse in the middle of the night and truly had the worries of a person. A number of people, not one or two but tens to hundreds, were wriggling within the cramped warehouse. Again, these people were said to not be human. The spirits of the monsters and aliens that were killed by the heroes were loitering within the storehouse without resting in peace.

The company, who saw the situation as serious, gathered children from throughout the country and held a “joint service for the war dead” for the monsters within the film studio, which calmed the anger of the spirits. The holding of the memorial series at the time was widely known due to appearing in the newspaper and magazines. This is an example of a typical Tsukumogami.

It wasn’t unusual that the decease would emerge during filming due to the large quantity of usage of explosives on these hero programs for children. During the filming of two Tokusatsu hero series of the same producers, there have been incidents of actors wearing the mask of an alien suffocated to death without being able to take off their mask. (The story this time came to ban it from broadcast for other reasons later and currently can’t even be seen by rebroadcast or on laser disc)

Spirits of the dead wish for a physical body. Therefore, they possess things of a humanoid form and easily become their soul. You may have these dolls even in your house.

(TN: A few notes:
1. Tsuburaya Productions is a notable “special effects studio” notable for their tokusatsu series, in particular the entire “Ultraman” line. They were sold to advertising agency TYO Inc. in 2007.
2. Tsuburaya did officially have a “monster warehouse” where the monster costumes from the various Ultraman series were stored. Unfortunately with the TYO merger, the warehouse has since closed down.
3. It’s sort of hard for me to find any info either about the “monster exorcism” or the “cancelled tokusatsu series” on the web, may need a bit more research to find out what exactly they were. If anyone knows directly, please tell me so I can add it to the notes.
4. I really could have used “kaijuu” instead of “monster” in the entry considering the nature of “kaijuu” in Japan, but since “kaijuu” is more along the lines of the monster movies such as Gojira/Godzilla and these are merely monsters fought by Ultraman or other tokusatsu heroes, I decided to just translate it as “monster”)

TN: Well while the anatomy model still looks like Two-Face even though he now is "alive", at least he now wears clothes. I get this is what is used by Japanese students to study anatomy with but...the scene of a naked boy with half his body exposed...was disturbing. Aside from the really disturbed parts, I really like the set-up for the tale, the slow-build-up until we get the big reveal about the obvious (well why else would Nube use the Ichimatsu Doll as his example...let alone "that black hair girl"). Even moreso was that it wasn't Nube who figured out how to settle the dummy...but Hiroshi, figuring that the only way to make him settle into peace was not to treat him as a monster but as a fellow student, even playing tag with him. I guess hanging out with Nube so much is starting to rub off a bit on him...compared to other things that could (and don't but that's another story for another chapter).