Hell Teacher Nube 34

Art may be in the perspective of the viewer, but rumors may end up giving new perspectives that may harm it! When strange crimes begin to occur, the culprit may be the most unlikely of sources...but what exactly is Nube hiding about it!?

#34: The Mystery of the Cannibalistic Mona Lisa

27.
SFX: JARI JARI JARI
SFX: JARI
SFX: NITA

28.
Nube: The rabbits…were killed again!
Nube: This is the 4th time.
Nube: This will become a bad rumor…again.
SFX: KATSU—N KATSU—N
Sign: ART LAB

29.
(Title Page…I doubt Da Vinci meant that for his masterpiece…I blame Scaroth)

30.
Student 1: It’s the cannibalistic Mona Lisa.
Student 2: The cannibalistic Mona Lisa ate the rabbits.
Student 3: It would be better to burn that painting quickly.
SFX: ZAWA ZAWA ZAWA
Sign: PRINCIPAL OFFICE
Principal: Nueno-kun, did you let that rabbit-killing criminal escape again?
Nube: No—well, why is—that?
Principal: You’re useless! A zero spiritualist! Salary thief--!
(TN: “Salary thief” or “Gekkyuu Dorobou” involves the Japanese term “Gekkyuu”, which is not merely just a salary but specifically a “monthly salary”)
Nube: There’s nothing I can do! They’re already killed when I get there.
Principal: That reproduction is different from those cheap ones that grow on trees! By whatever means, get rid of those rumors of the students!

31.
Sign: ART LAB
Nube: Um—there is a rumor that this Mona Lisa painting is moving about night by night and eating rabbits, but that’s complete nonsense.
Students: Liar--! You’re deceiving us--!
Miki: The rabbit-killings are the act of some degenerate!
Kyouko: That’s a difficult excuse.
Kaneda: Severely nonsense--! Properly exorcise it--!
Nube: It’s necessary for 24 cells a second for a picture to gradually move…
Nube: …Ah—understood: if that’s what you’re saying, then I’ll exorcise it…
Voices: Liar—fake—
Nube: Well now the preparations are complete! Everyone get away from the painting!
Caption: IKKYUU-SAN
(TN: “Ikkyuu-san” is an anime series based on the childhood life of Zen Buddhist monk Ikkyuu Sojun, who himself was an eccentric Zen Buddhist who was notable both for his wise and strange nature)
SFX: DON-- | SHIRA~~~

32.
Akira: I know of this: the one who painted this was the famous artist Okamoto Jirou! Thus why it’s important to the principal…
Katsuya: That’s why he can’t lay a hand on it!?
Kyouko: Is that true!? Nube!
Miki: You have no backbone!
Students: BOO—BOO—
Nube: No, that—isn’t the reason…at all…
Nube: Here! With this, we can have a mass meeting of sketches of the poster-girl duo of our class becoming nude models! So then, it’s a--thing to forgive the debt of this exorcism.
(TN: The term “poster-girl” used here is the Japanese term “Kanbanmusume”, which stands for “a pretty girl/daughter who attracts boys to a parent’s shop”)
SFX: UHU~~H
Voice: OOH~~~GRE—AT! GRE—AT!
Kyouko: What are you doing with us!!
Miki: We can’t do that!
Hiroshi: N?
Hiroshi: He…hey, look everyone!
Nube: ?

33.
Mona Lisa: GUGUGU…
SFX: NITA—
Students: HER EYES MOVED—(WAAA) SHE’S GOING TO EAT US, RUN---!
Hiroshi: Nu…Nube! That painting after all is…
Nube: …
Nube: What is this!? None of this was seen by me?
Voice: Nube!!

34.
Hiroshi: What are you saying? There truly was now…
Nube: It’s merely your imagination.
Hiroshi: Chie, he said that…he is scared of the principal after all! Even Nube is a salaryman teacher after all!
Narrator: But the next day
Voice: WAAA~~~
Voice 1: Now it’s the chicken shed.
Voice 2: CRUEL!
Hiroshi: S**t, I can’t be patient anymore! This certainly is the act of the painting!
Kyouko: We’ll tear it and throw it away!
Hiroshi: !!

35.
Hiroshi: UWAAA!! IT…BECAME REVERSED!!
Hiroshi: This painting after all
Kyouko: IS A YOUKAI!

36.
Nube: Oh brother, did you see that?
Hiroshi: Nube!!
Hiroshi: This is conclusive proof. The Principal will understand seeing this…
Nube: Sorry but that’s not what it is.
Nube: We can’t dispose of the painting. It’s because it’s the reproduction and a famous work.
Hiroshi: Really?
Narrator: That night—
Kyouko: Hey, Hiroshi, are we really doing this?
Hiroshi: Obviously!
Hiroshi: If Nube isn’t going to do it, then only we can. We have to tear down that painting!
Hiroshi: By the way, why is that painting such an expensive thing?
Kyouko: N—I don’t really know it well but

37.
Kyouko: The artist Okamoto Jirou who painted this work, on top of originally being an art teacher of this school, was a teacher that was extremely popular with students; due to his devotion to painting, he painted this picture so he could have known the magnificence of art to students when he retired from the school.
Hiroshi: That’s a lie! I’m certain that teacher was really hated by children…he painted this cursed painting due to his hatred!
Hiroshi: Let’s go in from here! I secretly unlocked it during the day.

38.
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan Koudai
SFX: SHUUU~~~… SHUUUU~~~…
Hiroshi: What, isn’t he exorcising it after all?
Kyouko: Hold on a moment: there’s something strange about this.
Nube: Now come out and eat. Fill yourself today.
Hiroshi: Eh!?

39.
Nube: You should eat until you’re satisfied.
Hiroshi: Wh…what is this…?
Kyouko: This can’t be: Nube is taking the painting every night with the rabbits as bait…
SFX: NUUU
Hiroshi & Kyouko: WAAA—
SFX: GYORORI
SFX: BYU
Hiroshi & Kyouko: Hi!!

40.
Mona Lisa: BYUOO
SFX: DODODODODODO
Hiroshi & Kyouko: WAAAAA!!

41.
Mona Lisa: ZAA SHAAA~~
Hiroshi & Kyouko: Hiii!!
Kyouko: Nube~~!
SFX: GATSU GATSU
Hiroshi: Don’t watch, save us!!
Nube: ……
SFX: NYARI
Kyouko: Hi~~he’s an accomplice! Nube is her ally~!!
Hiroshi: Hiee~~~It’s going to eat us~~!!

42.
Nube: If you eat those things, you’ll ruin your stomach. Here!
SFX: BYU
SFX: BOTO BOTO
Nube: Be calm: it doesn’t eat things that are alive yet.
SFX: GA GA GA
Hiroshi: Bu…but then, the rabbits and chickens…
Nube: That’s why~~! They’re saying it’s the act of some degenerate!!
Nube: Thanks to this, the strange rumors have presented an effect on the Picture Spirit.
(TN: “Picture Spirit” is simply “Garei” in Japanese; it really didn’t feel right to keep it in Japanese so it was translated)
Hiroshi: Picture Spirit?

43.
Nube: Previously there was an anatomical model that had possessed a soul. Similar to that, objects that possess human forms are easy to possess souls; it can be done to dolls and to paintings.
SFX: GATSU GATSU
Nube: However this nature changes based on the hearts of the people seeing it. That’s because the soul of a painting is formed by the thoughts of people.
Caption: THOUGHT THOUGH……THOUGHT……
Nube: If it is seen with everyone thinking “it’s a famous painting, it’s a famous painting”, then its soul will possess a self-consciousness of a famous painting and it will increase in radiance, but…
Kyouko: So, if it is seen by many people thinking “it’s a cannibal, it’s a cannibal”, then it becomes a cannibal!?
Nube: Well, it won’t eat actual people, but the soul of a painting will worry and come to look like a monster.
SFX: GATSU GATSU
Nube: Your teacher has been trying to reduce its stress as much of possible and presenting it with dead fish every night.

44.
Hiroshi: Ah, it became quiet.
Nube: She calmed down by eating fish.
SFX: GEPPU
Nube: Return to the painting.
SFX: ZUZU
Nube: Aah, the way it returned was terrible again…
Kyouko: She’s a bat-woman like that!
Nube: Oh brother: it’s pathetic but it shouldn’t be seen by people for a while.
Kyouko: As long as there are rumors it’s a cannibal, its soul will only turn into a youkai.
Hiroshi: Has irresponsible rumors spoiled a famous painting?

45.
Narrator: And so, Doumori Elementary’s Mona Lisa came to be sealed away until the rumors disappeared.
Narrator: Several days later…
Voice: Ke
Criminal: I’m tired of tormenting and killing small animals. It has become a good way to reduce stress but
Criminal: How about I occasionally do a bit of stealing? (Out loud): Oh.
Criminal: What’s this!? Does it have monetary value?
SFX: PASA

46.
Narrator: Don’t you have a painting with a strange rumor at your school?
Criminal: GYAAAAA---
SFX: BARI! BORIBORI MUSHA MUSHA…
Narrator: This isn’t a cursed painting; it has changed into a Picture Spirit for you. Perhaps the painting at your school has already…

TN: It's sort of weird that considering the real Mona Lisa is that famous that someone would end up making a copy so authentic that it became like an actual painting...and that said painting would end up gaining a life of it's own. But when you have a painting with blood on it or sprouting vicious fangs (or becoming Batwoman), especially something as famous as the Mona Lisa...it does give new perspective. The chapter was alright but I had one really big question in my head: if it was that criminal from the end who was the real murderer of the rabbits and chickens, why would the Mona Lisa take it in as part of it's personality? I get the rumors changing it into a monster, but considering that the criminal was nowhere near the art lab when killing them, it would be hard for him to pin it on the painting, especially since the Mona Lisa wasn't anywhere near him or his interests until the end. Oh...and trying to pay off people's anger with nude drawings of his own students...well, luckily it is Kyouko and Miki but they do seem rather wishy-washy on whether or not they want that sort of thing...but that's for the future to decide.