Hell Teacher Nube 31

There are some youkai threats more well known than others...but is that a good thing? When one of the most infamous is spotted on the streets of Doumori, the students may know how to handle her...except they may not know everything!

#31: The Terrible Kuchisake-Onna

151.
“Masked Woman”: AM I PRETTY?
Boy: ……Eh?
Boy: (to himself) What? This woman is wearing some large mask…(out loud) Oh, well. Pretty…aren’t you? Perhaps?
“Masked Woman”: ……Even like this…?

152.
(Title page…yeah, to go from Yukime to…um…this…that’s the series for you)

153.
Voice: THE KUCHISAKE-ONNA HAS APPEARED!?
(TN: This youkai was previously mentioned in another chapter but now she is the youkai of focus, I can say that “Kuchisake-Onna” literally translates into “The Split-Mouth Woman” or “Slit-Mouth Woman)
Student 1: A student in the next town saw her!
Student 2: If you don’t say she’s pretty, she’ll slay you with a sickle!
Student 3: Her mouth is split open to her ears!
Nube: Huh…
Student 4: If you say she is pretty, she’ll cut your face saying “You’ll have the same mouth as me.”
SFX: ZAWA ZAWA
Student 1: Even if you run, she’ll run you down at a speed of 100 meters in 3 seconds.
Student 2: She hates when you say “pomade” and will run away!
Nube: Pomade…?
Nube: That’s stupid: those are merely rumors. There isn’t any reason that there is a Kuchisake-Onna.
Student: But there’s a person who saw her.
Nube: Since they were telling a lie, that’s settled. Go and look, your big siblings in the upper grades don’t believe in her…
SFX: GARA…

154.
SFX: DODO—N
Flag: KAMIKAZE (DIVINE WIND)
Song:
IF WE DECIDE THING
WITH A KABOOM
ENERGETICALLY TODAY
YOU’LL BE BURDENED IN THE CRADLE
WITH A DUCKTAIL
(TN: The song in the background of these suddenly delinquent students is “Tsuppari High School Rock & Roll”, a song by early 1980s Japanese rock band Yokohama Ginbae originally released in January, 1981. As for the flag in the background, it refers to the infamous “Kamikaze” suicide philosophy that drove many Japanese aviators (in particular but also used by many other members of the Japanese military) to their death in defense of their country by sacrificing their planes and their lives to take down the US and Allied military in the final phases of World War II)
Nube: OH~~~~!?

155.
Nube: What’s with you and that beaten-down kids-like appearance—
(TN: “beaten-down kids” is a Japanese expression of “ikarebonchi”, with “bonchi” translated as slang for “young male” or “young master” and “ikare” in reference to the word “ikareru”, the verb for “to be beaten or broken down”)
Shuichi: Fu
Kyouko: It’s a long-ago nostalgia for 80’s era Tsuppari Fashion.
(TN: “Tsuppari Fashion” is tied to a fad movement of the “Bousouzoku”, a youth subculture in Japan who originally emerged in the 1950s notable for their gang-like appearances (wearing ducktails, punch-perm hair and clothes similarly used by kamikaze pilots…thus those are the elements of the “Tsuppari Fashion” mentioned here and probably in the song above) and running amuck on motorcycles without helmets. Though originally of the 1950s, there was a major Bousouzoku revival which peaked in 1980-1981 in Japan, where hundreds of these gangs existed. While not quite as notable today, they continue to have impact on Japanese culture, in particular with their usage in manga/anime such as “Akira” and “Great Teacher Onizuka”)
Hiroshi: It’s because the Kuchisake-Onna hates pomade. When we put these on our hair, we unintentionally put these on. On the occasion, we came to decide in choosing these garments. (AM I GREAT? IT’S PROPER!!)
Jar: Pomade
Nube: Po…Pomade!?
Kyouko: We all still did it somehow. Look at Makoto…
Caption: It’s chocolate.
Caption: HEAVY METAL COMES TO THE WIDE EVIL
(TN: While I really can’t talk about his appearance, Makoto’s scream is an approximation of a title of Sekima-II debut album called “Akuma ga Kitarite Heavy Metal” or “Heavy Metal Comes to the Devil” from 1985. Makoto’s version is “Akukou Kitarite ga Heavy Metal”, with one slight adjustment of “ma”, the kanji for “demon”, to “kou” or “wide”…which I have no idea why that change was made)
Makoto: You too will become a wax model~~~
Nube: Wash your hair~~right now~~!!
Nube: Uwatto!
SFX: SUTTE—N!
Kyouko: Yes, we promise—
Student 1: Right—it’s better to put pomade in our hair—
Student 2: As expected of our senior students.
Student 3: I’ll borrow it from my father immediately.
SFX: ZORO ZORO ZORO
Nube: Hey, wait wait!!

156.
Nube: Can’t you stop! The junior students will copy that—
Hiroshi: If we do, exterminate the Kuchisake-Onna.
Caption: Distant Kids
(TN: “Distant” is in connection to the word “Kekeshi”, which is an abridged version of the Japanese word “Yosoyososhii”, which is “distant” or “cold”)
Nube: Ah~~I get it already, I get it! (Really~~)
Nube: The Kuchisake-Onna—a mysterious person who made grade schoolers shudder throughout Japan at the beginning of the 80s.
Nube: Initially she appeared in the summer of 1979 when she was in Y-town of Gifu Prefecture.
(TN: The town in Gifu Prefecture where the “Kuchisake-Onna” situation began was Yaotsu of Kamo District, the incident occurring and reported on January 29, 1979 and leading to the following national uproar)
Nube: Afterwards it came to be a societal problem that was picked up greatly even by the TV and newspapers with successive witnesses all throughout Japan. There came to be uproar to the extent of schools having an obligation of going home in mass and a patrol car being sent out in K-city of Fukushima Prefecture.

157.
Nube: Why is the Kuchisake-Onna’s mouth split open!? Many different theories have flown out, but the most prominent theory says it was a failed orthopaedic surgery.
Nube: And why is she scared of pomade?
Kyouko: Here’s why: the dentist that gave her the orthopaedic surgery.
Kyouko: He thickly applied pomade to his hair.
Kyouko: And really, really stunk with the smell of pomade, even in the middle of surgery…she came to breathe it many times.
Kyouko: And thus the surgery was a complete failure! She had an ugly face which couldn’t be seen by two eyes!! The angry woman killed the dentist and suddenly disappeared…
Kyouko: Since then, she remembers the shock of that moment when she hears of pomade…
Hiroshi: Understood: That’s the reason she came to have a “trauma” in speaking of her phobia.

158.
SFX: KAA…KAA…KAA…
Nube: Hey~~let’s rightly quit this already—huh: we’ve done three laps within town.
Makoto: The Kuchisake-Onna didn’t come out.
Hiroshi: That’s strange~~
Nube: I still have work left at school…sorry but see you next time.
Hiroshi: Chie.
Kyouko: Goodbye—
Hiroshi: Aa—h, that was a fools errand--!
Makoto: Should we all go home too?
Hiroshi: There wasn’t a Kuchisake-Onna or anything after all…

159.
Kyouko: Wh…what do we do…do we call Nube?
Hiroshi: In the interval of us doing that, she’ll end up running…
Voice: Hold on.
Hiroshi: We’ve found you, Kuchisake-Onna!
Kyouko: You can’t run anymore; prepare yourself!
Hiroshi: Your crime of scaring children is serious!
Kyouko: In the name of Nube, we’ll punish you!
(TN: Note Kyouko’s hand motions…and what she says here…you’ll be seeing a lot of comparisons of her from here on with a certain other “long-pigtailed female popular in the 1990s in manga and anime”...I’d say what it is but you probably know. What she says in Japanese here literally is “Nube ni Kawatte, Oshioki yo!”, a variation of ‘you-know-who’s’ famous “Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!”)
Makoto: We’re different from those children of long ago who are just scared!
Miki: Ri—ght, ri—ght!
Makoto: You—monster!

160.
Makoto: I’LL TAKE YOUR MASK—
SFX: BATSU
“Kuchisake-Onna”: Uh…AU…UUH…
Kyouko: Hii: a monster!!
Hiroshi: Don’t falter: strike her with pomade!

161.
Hiroshi: You monster!! Take this!
SFX: NUCHA BYU
SFX: BICHA
“Kuchisake-Onna”: GYA
Kyouko: MONSTER!
SFX: BECHA BICHU
Miki: Ugly creature!
Makoto: You should die!
“Kuchisake-Onna: GYAAAA
Hiroshi: Al—right, she’s fairly weak!! We’ll conclude this by ganging up and beating her with iron pipes.
SFX: GIN!
Hiroshi: !!

162.
“Kuchisake-Onna”: SHAAAA
Hiroshi: Eh? Eeh?
SFX: GOGOGOGO
Kyouko: Wh…what? That’s weak? She seems excessively angry.
Hiroshi: That face…those hands…she’s not human…

163.
SFX: BYUOOOO
Hiroshi: SHE’S A YOUKAI!
Hiroshi: Nube
Nube: BYAKUE REIBAKUJU
SFX: BAAAAA

164.
“Kuchisake-Onna”: GYAU! GYAAA
SFX: BARI BARI
Kyouko: You’ve done it! You contained the Kuchisake-Onna.
Hiroshi: Nube! Kill that monster…
SFX: SLAP!
Hiroshi: Eh?
Kyouko: Wh…what are you doing so sudden…
Hiroshi: ……
Nube: You dummies! Look closely at what you’ve done.

165.
“Kuchisake-Onna”: Uuh. Uuuh.
Hiroshi: She’s crying…
Nube: This person…had been treated as a monster by people in her surroundings for her mouth being split while alive. She committed suicide for that cause!
Nube: It’s called “kitsunetsuki”: having been changed to the face for being possessed by a low-grade animal spirit. The woman correctly has this. Due to her death by this possession, she ended up fusing with the animal spirit and changed into a half-youkai. Her form like this has come to be put to loitering around.
(TN: “Kitsunetsuki” = “spirit possession”, literally translating as “fox-attachment”, thus why I ended up keeping the term as is)
Hiroshi: Right…she’s really a pitiful youkai…no, spirit…
Kyouko: (I’m sorry for bullying her). Animal spirit…so, the orthopaedic surgery failure theory was incorrect?
Book: OEDO ACCOUNT OF THE EVIL AND STRANGE (Vol. 3)
(TN: The title in Japanese is “Oedo Akuiki”)
Nube: It’s a book that gathers and accounts youkai of the Edo period.
(TN: “Edo period”, also known as the “Tokugawa period”, is the period from the ascension of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the early 1600s to the Meiji Restoration of 1868)
Hiroshi: ?

166.
Kyouko: Is there a story about the “Kuchisake-Onna” in there?
Hiroshi: Eh!? Ah, there is! The Kuchisake-Onna has existed since that long ago!?
Nube: The orthopaedic surgery failure…was a myth thought up by someone and by process that rumor spread about. That face isn’t from some orothopaedic failure.
Nube: The source of that face is entirely a fused animal spirit.
SFX: ZA
Hiroshi: Wh…what are you doing?
Nube: A partial exorcism. I’m exorcising just the animal spirit fused with the woman. This will return her to the form of the original woman!
Nube: HA!!
SFX: GA

167.
SFX: SHUUUU
Kyouko: Eh—you’re kidding—that’s the Kuchisake-Onna’s real face---!? Isn’t that an incredible beauty---!?
Miki: GA—N, I’VE…I’VE LOST—
Nube: That is what ended up becoming her face. Do you understand the extent you’ve hurt her?
Kyouko: You don’t have to be pessimistic anymore! You’ve returned to a super-beauty!
Hiroshi: You’d take place in a Miss Youkai competition! Can’t we go on a date next time?

168.
Hiroshi: Ah, she’s disappearing.
SFX: SUU…
Kyouko: Will she rest in peace?
Nube: No. She’s a spirit that has once changed into a youkai…she can’t rest in peace so easily.
Narrator: We don’t know if someday the animal spirit will fuse with her again, with the limit that the wound in her heart not completely healed. If someone widens the wound in her heart again…
Bald Boy: Ah, hey, that woman standing over there…
Bald Boy: Isn’t that the Kuchisake-Onna wearing that large mask?
Hat Boy: Right, it’s the Kuchisake-Onna!
Voices: It’s the Kuchisake-Onna, a monster! Run, she’ll slay us!!

169.
Voices: KUCHISAKE-ONNA, KUCHISAKE-ONNA, KUCHISAKE ONA
SFX: ZUKI ZUKI ZUKI
Narrator: The Kuchisake-Onna’s favorite food is bekkou-ame.
(TN: “Bekkou-ame” is a type of hard candy that is amber or yellow in color, usually made and found for festivals)
Narrator: The Kuchisake-Onna…the true face beneath her mask may actually be beautiful. I want you to never be scared even if you meet her, because that is the best method for you and for her.

170.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

23. Kuchisake-Onna

The great fad of Kuchisake-Onna rumors have been since I was in grade school. Just at that time, there came to be many children who took a stroll outside up to late at night, done initially with “cram schools”. Now they go to the convenience store and here and there, with many places that are comparatively bright even at night, but in those days there weren’t any convenience stores and it was pitch-black outside at the moment the schools ended and you went home. They couldn’t see even the appearance of adults. What appeared seemingly suddenly there were the rumors of “the Kuchisake-Onna”. It was natural that children throughout Japan became panicked.

The “Kuchisake-Onna” that was rumored at the time generally was a thing indicated by the following:

Her mouth was split to her ears.—that’s the origin of the name “Kuchisake-Onna”.
She always hid the mouth with a large mask and would ask “Am I pretty?” If you answered “you’re pretty”, she would say “even like this” while taking off her mask, showing her split-mouth. If you say “you’re ugly”, she’ll slay you with a sickle.
She can run 100 meters in 3 seconds.—just members of track-and-field clubs would come home alive meeting the Kuchisake-Onna.
She loves Bekkou-ame; she’ll be pleased giving her some and will go away. Conversely she hates pomade and will be scared and run away by chanting “pomade” three times.
The source of the split in her mouth is failed orthopaedic surgery or a traffic accident.
The Kuchisake-Onna is the youngest of three sisters. Somewhere are two older sisters with the same face.

The other rumors such as “she wears a read coat and white pantaloons”, “she appears driving a red sports car” or “she well appears in places that speak of “Three” are representatives.

However it’s come to be there hasn’t been a year where children’s topics hasn’t brought up the “Kuchisake-Onna”, which runs through Japan and enlivened TV and magazines with the force of breaking bamboo. That’s because there has come to be an invasion through Japan of “in-school violence” that gives a much more real terror. Someday, the true terror may be the humans over the youkai.

(TN: “Cram schools”, also known as “Gakushuujuku”, are special private schools after school hours and weekends, usually tied to the obsessive training of children for the entry of the elite schools in higher levels. Of particular note, these schools became prominent in the late 1970s…which was around the time of the first “Kuchisake-Onna” sighting)

TN: Somehow it's weird that Kuchisake-Onna, of all youkai, would be used at this point, but I think her whole purpose was mostly due to how notable she was and how a lot of the reading audience knew about her...and misused her so much at least according to the whole concept of the chapter itself. She really is pitiful and it is sad that she won't ever get rid of that animal spirit that fused with her, but sometimes that's the tale we are given: the ghost/spirit is stuck in the situation even if Nube tried his best to remedy it. One weird thing I found was that this chapter used so many of the "legends" known of the Kuchisake-Onna...yet didn't use them all. You'll probably know why in another few volumes but there is a slight reason why not all of them have been used as of yet. Oh...and meanwhile, the whole introduction with the 80s in Japan reference was just wild...and a lot of work to TL! I guess though pop culture references unknown to us get that way...well that or Makoto as a freaky album cover reject.