Hell Teacher Nube 35

Living creatures seem to be defined within scopes, but it is the stranger ones that make the most human interest...when one shows up with potential reward, Nube and his class may learn the truth of one...if not blinded by greed!

#35: Jinmenken

47.
SFX: BASA
Dog: KYAIN
Dog Catcher: Don’t think badly…if you have to feel bitter, feel bitter for the owners who abandoned all of you.
Dog: KYAN KYAN KYAN
Dogs: KYAN KYAN

48.
Dogs: WAN WAN WAN
Sign: —HEALTH CARE CENTER—
Catcher 1: Oh brother, the stray dogs have increased again recently.
Catcher 2: Because there are many who abandon them recklessly. They’re troubled at being not good at the excess work.
Catcher: It’s pitiful, but we’ll have to poison them without leaving one alive.
“Dog”: UUUUH—

49.
“Man-Face Dog”: GARURURURU UWAO~~~N
SFX: HA HA

50.
Catcher: Uwaa!
SFX: BA
SFX: TATATA…
Nube: U~~mu
Narrator: Nube, who unusually has a grave expression.
SFX: GU~~GUGOGO~~~
Narrator: He’s used up the money around the day before payday and has come to live on one meal a day: just the school lunch.
SFX: GU~~~GOGO—
SFX: GUI~~

51.
SFX: GARAN GARA GARAN
Hiroshi: Oh, we caught it.
Katsuya: It’s in the back garden.
Katsuya: We’ve caught it--!
Everyone : WA—
SFX: MOZO
Hiroshi: That’s our order: the Jinmenken--…
(TN: “Jinmenken” = “Man-Faced Dog”)
SFX: MUKU! | CHUDO—N!!
Nube: Garuru~~~
Kyouko: What are you doing, Nube, that’s indecent!
Nube: Kyain Kyai—n
Hiroshi: You can’t go around picking and eating recklessly things that fall down!

52.
Nube: What did you think you caught?
SFX: PERO PERO
Kyouko: He sucked it to the bone!
Nube: What? Jinmenken!? How worthless… (A~~HAHAHA, THEY’RE BRATS—WITH THIS INFO…)
Kyouko: If you’re going to laugh, then look at this.
Nube: N—what is it?
SFX: PIRA
SFX: BAN!!
Poster:
WANTED!
JINMENKEN
Sponsor: DOUMORI TOWN TOWN-HAPPENING COMMITTEE
Due to multiple eyewitnesses of Jinmenken
It has to be caught as a specialty of our town.
1,000,000 YEN
Caption: DRAWN GUESS
Nube: Worthless, completely worthless. Don’t believe in that and please do your homework.
SFX: POI
Nube: …
Caption: POURED INTO IT!

53.
Nube: A million yen, a million yen… (Ehe ehe ehe)
Hiroshi: Nube, well is he going to monopolize on the reward~~~
Kyouko: We mistakenly told him this story before payday.
Miki: What do we do? He’ll find it immediately if he searches with spiritual power.
Hiroshi: Well! We have the human-wave tactic!
Kyouko: We’ll discover the Jinmenken earlier than Nube!
SFX: DODODODODO
Voice: Welcome, welcome, to the remodeled grand opening of Super Doumori--!
(TN: “Super” or “Suupaa” is Japanese for “Supermarket”, I could have probably just called it “Supermarket Doumori” but “Super Doumori” probably works better as the name of the shop)

54.
Dog-Costume: Ah—it’s hot, it’s hot.
SFX: KAPO
Hiroshi: We found it, the Jinmenken!
Miki: Hit it, hit it.
Kyouko: Certain-kill iron pipe!
SFX: DODODODODO
Dog-Costume: GYAA~~
Dog Costume: I’m a part-timer college student--! (UGA~~)
Hiroshi: We made a mistake! Run!
Caption: Actually an entertainer
Nube: Fufufu, those fools! Are they going to go ahead of their teacher…
Nube: Youkai searching is my hobby. So then shall I slowly get started?

55.
Nube: NAMU DAIJI DAIHI KYUUGU KYUUNAN! Spirit Crystal, search out the Jinmenken’s youki!
(TN: I sort of thought I had this before, but this is a strange term that I really never had prior to this point. “Youki” is a combination of “you”, which is the kanji for “bewitching” or “attractive” and “ki” for energy. I was thinking of using the term “spirit energy” but that is more “reiki” and “spirit” isn’t any part of its name. So for this series, I’m pretty much stuck using the term “youki” when it’s used)
SFX: GUGU…GUGUGU…
SFX: GUGUGUGUGUGUGU | GIRI GIRI GIRI

56.
SFX: PATA | HAA HAA | ZEE ZEE
Nube: That’s strange.
Nube: I can’t feel it’s youki at all. (A~ah, the million yen…) There isn’t a Jinmenken after all?
Nube: No, hold on. It’s because it’s form and shape is weird that it isn’t restricted as a youkai. Perhaps…
Hiroshi: Now we’ll search over here! Uoo, a million yen~~!
SFX: UO~~~ | DODODODODO
Phone: THIS IS 4TH CHOME, THERE IS NO JINMENKEN! WE DID MISTAKEN A BULLDOG THAT LOOKED LIKE IT’S OWNER IN THE 3RD CHOME.
Hiroshi: Understood: the 1st Chome is in the midst of a break.
Page: IN-TOWN MAP
Kyouko: It may not exist after all.
Hiroshi: N.
SFX: KYAIN KYAIN WAN WAN WAN

57.
Kyouko: That’s pitiful, that puppy is being tormented. Let’s save it.
SFX: WAN WAN WAN | KYAI~~N
Hiroshi: A-ah, nothing we can do. It’s a helpless puppy…
Hiroshi: Hey hey, out of the way, stray dogs!
Dog: Kuu—kuu—
Jinmenken: KUUUU~~N
SFX: MUKU…

58.-59.
Kyouko: KYAAAA!!
Hiroshi: Th…there it is!
SFX: DATSU
Woman: KYAAAA
Jinmenken: HA HA
Jinmenken: WAO—N
Hiroshi: How can we come after it a while…
Kyouko: Go after it, for the million!

60.
SFX: TATATA…
Hiroshi: It took refuge into that abandoned building.
Kyouko: Does it live in there?
Kyouko: Where?
SFX: PERON!
Kyouko: Kyaa—
Kyouko: That—you can’t escape anymore!
SFX: DADADA
Hiroshi: We’ve cornered it…

61.
Kyouko & Hiroshi: !!
SFX: BUWA
Jinmenken: KYAUN!!
Nube: Hehe—how regrettable.
SFX: BATA BATA BATA
Kyouko: Nube!
Hiroshi: How are you here!?
Hiroshi: Right: you used spiritual power; that’s sly!
Nube: N—o, I didn’t use that.
Kyouko: So, how!?

62.
Nube: Because this here is the place it lived as a human long ago.
Kyouko & Hiroshi: Eeh!?
Nube: It’s called Rinne Tensei. A being that possesses a soul is revived as a different creature after they die. There are times where they are born again as a human and times when as an animal. Thusly, their memories of their previous existence are entirely forgotten.
(TN: “Rinne Tensei” has a literal translation of “the circle of transmigration”, the flux in the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The term seemed to work well in Japanese so I kept it in as such)
Nube: However…when the crimes of the previous existence are too deep, the soul ends up dirtied and it can’t be reincarnated normally.
SFX: SURU… | BAU BAU
Nube: It was born with a section remaining of his form of his previous life.
Nube: This is what is called a being of KARMA. This is a sort of mutant animal that isn’t a youkai.
Jinmenken: KYAIN KYAIN

63.
Hiroshi: So—he was a bad man in his former life?
Nube: Yes: I hit upon him when I researched recently-died bad people in the newspaper.
Nube: Umu…it’s weak but there are remaining memories of his previous life.
SFX: BARI BARI BARI BARI
Nube: He had been an immoral moneylender here. Because of him, there were many people who had committed suicide or who lost their home and assets.
Nube: In the end he embittered and was stabbed to death by a customer, but he was a miserable man who took the fate of a bad man.
Kyouko: So…what will you do: take the million yen after all?
Hiroshi: This was because we cornered it~~wouldn’t it be good to halve it?
Nube: No.
SFX: BA

64.
Nube: Now go; don’t be found by humans again.
Hiroshi: You’re setting it free!?
Nube: He truly was a bad man. But it’s fine already, because he is taking a punishment.
Jinmenken: KUUU~~N KUUUU~~N
Hiroshi: Ke—you spoke strongly! This will be a problem for tomorrow’s meal as well!
Kyouko: Dummy, this was fi—ne. He can’t take a profit off a pitiful dog such as that.
Nube: That’s right.
Nube: It’s a high task for a warrior to not eat! No matter how poor I get, I can’t throw away the pride of a human. (HA HA HA)
Kyouko: That’s a good thing you’re saying! I have a better opinion of this!

65.
Nube: By the way, Kyouko, can’t I borrow just 500 yen?
Kyouko: Don’t sponge off a grade schooler---!
Hiroshi: Where is his pride?
Nube: Ah!
SFX: TSURU
Voice: Watch out—
SFX: SHAAAA
Hiroshi: KYOU…
SFX: GO
SFX: DON

66.
SFX: GAKU
SFX: GORON GORON GORON
SFX: DON! KIKI—
Car Passenger: Uwa
SFX: GUSHA

67.
Repairman: I…I’m sorry, my hand suddenly slipped.
Driver: Sorry…was that your dog!?
Kyouko: Teacher—i…it saved me…
Nube: Yes…is it atoning a bit for its crime in its previous life?
Nube: The purification of a dirtied soul can only be the stacking of benevolence in this world. Someday, there will be a day where it is born again as a human.
Narrator: KARMA…CRIMES IN A PREVIOUS LIFE WILL COME TO BE CERTAINLY REPAID IN THE FUTURE. EVEN SO, THERE ARE MANY BAD PEOPLE WITHIN THIS PRESENT WORLD…YOU TOO MAY MEET A JINMENKEN EVENTUALLY.

68.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

25. Jinmenken

“Jinmenken”, which was introduced on a last-night broadcast on the radio many years ago and came to have a short boom, had the anticipation in mass communication with “the second coming of the Kuchisake-Onna boom”, but it vanished without coming to have the uproar to that extent. Compared to the Kuchisake-Onna, which widened by word-of-mouth communication among grade schoolers, the Jinmenken, which was lead by a mass communication model, seemed to be lacking in not quite having the force. Even it’s form, though said to be scary, rather had a pathetic feeling that was rather ridiculous…Afterwards, there had been the taking of pictures and presentations of a “Jinmengyo” (Man-Faced Fish), but that was felt to be merely a strange creature.

Well then, it is quite confusing on an opinion for the secret birth story of Jinmenken, but the most prominent is the theory that it was modeled on a dog that had a human face that was introduced in the SF film “Body Snatchers”. However, in truth the tale of Jinmenken already existed in the Edo Period. There was a record remaining that it was written about in a newspaper of the time and came to cause uproar. There were places that it came to where there were stories of creatures with human faces attached to an animal body such as Jinmengyuu (Man-Faced Cow) and Jinmenchou (Man-Faced Chicken). They saw what looked like a person’s face looking closely at the back of a spider and the chell of the crab called the “Heike Crab”, as in its name, was exactly like a defeated Heike soldier.

Humans have a cognizance to faces in a combination with the figure of their species instinctively. The faces of cars and trains seem like faces. Therefore, there are born animals with faces that have changed a bit through mutation and even if their thought of having what’s like a human face, it isn’t that wonderful. Everyone, even if you have born a human-faced baby among animals raised in your house, don’t feel bad about it and kill it. That’s because it isn’t a youkai; it’s merely an animal born just strangely with its face.

(TN: A few things:
1. While there have been many versions of “Body Snatchers” (originally/actually “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), the “dog with a human face” incident was in the 1978 version starring Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy…though it would be weird that it would come out a year before Kuchisake-Onna…and yet ride on that’s popularity.
2. The “Heike crab” or “Heikegani”, is a crab with a human face, with the legend stating that it was a reborn Heike samurai warrior who died in the Battle of Dan-no-Ura of “The Tale of Heike”. (a tale that tells of the fall of the Taira/Heike from their ruling of Japan) The “Heike” mentioned connected to the Heike crab is in reference to the Taira Clan, a major samurai clan with lineage going back to ex-imperials of the Heian Dynasty. They appeared to have influence for a major period of Japanese history, with even Oda Nobunaga of the warring periods claiming Heike descent.)

TN: This is one of those chapters that seems to go in one direction, then just does a complete 180...but in a really good way. The first phase of the chapter did seem to focus a bit more on comedy aspects with the chase for the Jinmenken...and in a way sort of reflects the fad for that creature similar to how the fad for the Kuchisake-Onna was depicted in that chapter. Whereas the slit-mouth female was built up by the students own fears for it's encounters, the Jinmenken was brought to the attention of an outside source, drawing interest but long enough to lead to a denouement. And of course, the conclusion of the chapter shows that while a strange creature, the human-faced dog is actually much sadder than we realize, a creature trapped in a sad phase of reincarnation for it's previous crimes. Seeing a man mutated from cruel businessman to a dog with a human face is something you wouldn't wish on anyone. And just when you realize things go in one direction, we have the Jinmenken make that sacrifice to save Kyouko at the end! (rather graphically...but it's Nube so that we're used to) It's strange to say but for a thing I didn't expect much from, we got a lot out of it fro a nice chapter.