Hell Teacher Nube 36

Where do we go when we die...and what if we're not ready to go yet? When Hiroshi ends up in an accident taking him to the verge, he may discover the truth of beyond...and test Nube's limits in getting him back!

#36: A Near-Death Experience

70.
Hiroshi: Hie~~~I’m late, I’m late~~
Narrator: Tateno Hiroshi, the always energetic leader of Nube’s class.
Narrator: Today he was hurrying to school while kicking his ball like always on his typical school-commute path but…
Hiroshi: This is terrible: a cat is flowing in there! Hold on, I’ll save you now.
SFX: GU
Hiroshi: OH OH OH
SFX: PIRI

71.
Hiroshi: WAAAA~~~!!
Nube: What’s that!?
Nube: Hiroshi hit his head and is in a critically unconscious state!?
Kyouko: Eeh!?
SFX: KATAN
Nube: Understood, I’m going immediately!!
Kyouko: Hi…Hiroshi…
SFX: ZAWA ZAWA
Katsuya: He shouldn’t have come in following that…

72.
Nube: You’re on self-study until I come back, fine!
Kyouko: Nube, I’m going too!!
SFX: KIKI--|BATAN
Nube & Kyouko: HIROSHI!!
Mr. Tateno: Teacher…that idiot Hiroshi, he fell from his head to the concrete by the riverbank…he badly hit a spot and is critical.
Nube: Th…that’s…
Kyouko: Hiroshi…

73.
Doctor: His heart rate is weakening. Tonight will be the difficult part.
Kyouko: Hiroshi~~~why is this…
Nurse: Doctor, the preparations for surgery for Takayama-san in Room #603 are
Doctor: Understood.
Doctor: I’ll be away from my desk since I’ve got major surgery for another patient now. If something happens, please tell the nurse.
(TN: Slight note: the “nurse” here is “Kangofu”, which is specifically a female nurse)
Kyouko: Nube, will Hiroshi be alright!? Save him.
Nube: He’ll be fine. He’ll hold out if he’s Hiroshi. I’m certain.
SFX: SHUUUUU…
SFX: GOGOGOGOGO

74.-75.
Hiroshi: Where am I…? What’s the matter with me?
SFX: OOOOOO…
Caption: THE SANZU RIVER: “Sanzu”, which is said to flow as the boundary of this world and that world, is understood to have three varieties of streams by behavior while alive: “Lenient”, “Quite Swift” and “Rapids”.
(TN: Considering that this is a rather different interpretation of the Sanzu River legend, the whole aspect of the “three stream types” is not one that is usually seen or known. They were in Japanaese:
-“Yuruyaka” – “Lenient”
-“Yayahayai” – “Quite Swift”
-“Kyuuryuu” – “Rapids”)
Hiroshi: A large river; it’s misty and I can’t see the opposite bank. Even so, there aren’t any other people.
Hiroshi: Ah, there’s someone over there.
Hiroshi: Pardon~~me. Where is this place---?
SFX: ZA ZA ZA
Hiroshi: GE!

76.
Hiroshi: Uwaaaa, what is this guy, a dead person!?
SFX: ZAZA
Hiroshi: Uh.
Old Ladies: GYAAAAA!! (GEHEHE…HIHIHI…)
Hiroshi: Wh…what are they?
Caption: DATSUE BABAA: They come to the vicinity of the Sanzu River, tear off the clothes of a dead person, dress them in burial clothes and forcibly guide them to that world.
(TN: “Datsue Babaa” = “The Undressing Old Ladies”)

77.
Voices: GYAAA | HIIII…
SFX: ZABU ZABU
Hiroshi: Those monsters are here? Where exactly is this…!?
SFX: GASHI!
Hiroshi: !!
Hiroshi: Uwaa~~let go~~I’m not a dead person~~
Voice: Shh! Please be quiet!
Hiroshi: Eh?
“Girl”: They’re beings who appear to be the guards here. If they discover you, they’ll lead you to that world.
SFX: POKU…
Hiroshi: A beautiful girl…
Hiroshi: Y…you are?
Kimie: Takayama Kimie. I’m now undergoing surgery in Doumori Hospital!

78.
Hiroshi: Doumori Hospital? Perhaps you’re in the same neighborhood!?
Kimie: You too!? Well, that’s unexpected.
Hiroshi: I hadn’t known that I lived near this beauty. (AHAHA) How about this? Now we go to a movie together…
Kimie: Dummy, this isn’t the circumstance to go there.
Hiroshi: N?
Kimie: This is the Sanzu River…We’re near our time of death by coming here…we’ll be dead soon!
Hiroshi: Eh…!?
Voice: Nube, PLEASE, SAVE HIROSHI!
Kyouko: As is, Hiroshi will die! Bring Hiroshi back with spiritual power!
Kyouko: Does a person about to die go to the Sanzu River!? If you go to there…
Nube:: That’s nonsense.

79.
Nube: What’s called the Sanzu River is a spiritual world created by the peculiar opinions of life and death of the Japanese…There isn’t actually a river. Perhaps there is a place that resembles a river in one of the entrances to the spirit world but…even I don’t know where it is.
Kyouko: That’s strange, in spite of you always resting spirits in peace and leading them to the spirit world! You don’t know where the spirit world is.
Kyouko: So a spirit automatically goes to the spirit world if they rest in peace…
(TN: I never really went into this before but “joubutsu” has multiple meanings; while I usually use “rest in peace” when I translate “joubutsu”, it also has meanings like “entering Nirvana/Heaven” or “become a Buddha”. I kept it “rest in peace” to keep it consistent)
Nube: (HA…) If they rest in peace!?
Nube: Right, I understand: a method for bringing back Hiroshi! Come, Kyouko!
Caption: MORGUE
(TN: “Morgue” in Japanese is “Itai Anchijou”, which is literally “Corpse Enshrinement Room”)
Nube: Alright: No one will come if it’s here.
Kyouko: Wh…what are you doing? In this place…

80.
Nube: What…now I’m performing an erethral body separation together with the Oni no Te. It will be a problem if it’s seen by people.
SFX: NU
Kyouko: It can’t be: an erethral body separation!?
SFX: GOGOGOGO
Nube: NAMU DAIJI DAIHI KYUUGU KYUUNAN…BY THE POWER OF BYAKUE KANNON
SFX: DOSU
Kyouko: !!
Nube: LET THE SOUL OF NUENO MEISUKE REST IN PEACE AND TAKE HIM!!
SFX: BARI BARI BARI
Kyouko: You’re taking out your own erethral body yourself…to that world!?
SFX: DOSHU—TSU
Kyouko: NUBE!!

81.
Hiroshi: S**t—with them here, we can’t take even a ste—p.
Kimie: Appears so. If they could simply run away, the people who died would all return to life.
Kimie: If we’ve come here after all, then we can only cross the river and go to that world. It’s natural that we’re already dead.
Hiroshi: What are you saying, Kimie-chan!
Hiroshi: Return to life! And then meet with your family and friends once again!
Kimie: I don’t have family.
Hiroshi: Eh.
Kimie: My parents and siblings died long, long ago. I’ve been alone for many years already…

82.
Kimie: I don’t have friends and and there isn’t a person who will mourn me when I die. I’m some…I’m some…
Hiroshi: Dummy! Stop that sobbing!
Hiroshi: If it’s about friends, then don’t you have one! I’m your friend! We’ll be revived together! And when we’re alive, then our pleasures will be many!
Kimie: Hiroshi-kun…
Hiroshi: Alright…we won’t make progress being patient here. We’ll forcefully break through!
Kimie: Yes…
Hiroshi: The other side of that river is that world…seems like the spirit world. So with that, if we go in the opposite direction of the river, then there should be an exit to the present world.
(TN: A bit of a word problem here: what is “Gense” in Japanese can either be translated either as “the present world” or “current world” or merely “life”. Considering the “spirit world” nomenclature for “reikai” that I’m using here, I’m going to use “present world” as the opposite in this case)
Hiroshi: We’ll jump to an opening that their eyes are taken off of; fine then!
Kimie: Yes!
Hiroshi: There!

83.
Kimie: Th…they’re chasing, Hiroshi-kun!
Datsue Babaa: OOOH OOOH~~
Hiroshi: Don’t turn around! Run!
Kimie: Kyaa
SFX: ZATSU
Hiroshi: Kimie-chan!
Kimie: No, I can’t run, Hiroshi kun. Run alone
Hiroshi: Don’t talk stupid: Can I run leaving a girl alone?

84.
Hiroshi: Tightly hold on.
Datsue Babaa: UOOO
Kimie: Hiroshi-kun.
Hiroshi: S**t: no matter where we go and go, there isn’t an exit. How far exactly do we have to continue!?
Kimie: Hiroshi-kun, th…there…!
Hiroshi: Eh!?
Hiroshi: Th…that’s my ball…so then, here’s the starting place!
Kimie There isn’t an exit here! No matter where we run, we’ll return to the starting place.
Hiroshi: THAT’S!
SFX: GUWA
Kimie: Kyaa—
Hiroshi: NUBE

85.
Nube: I’ve kept you waiting!
SFX: ZUBA
Nube: The present world is here!!
SFX: SURU!
Nube: Really…if you’ve come to make a person worry, then why are you carefreely flirting with girls carefree!
Hiroshi: Nu…Nube, are you really Nube?
Hiroshi: What exactly are you doing at the Sanzu River…
Nube: Hahaha: you’ll hear it from Kyouko later.

86.
Nube: It’s been terrible because even your teacher, as expected, didn’t know where the spirit world is. Well, but if I go to the spirit world, it’s simple to return due to still having plenty of my own life force.
Hiroshi: Amazing, Nube! You can freely go in and out of the spirit world…
Kimie: I’m happy: I’m retunring to life. I’ll be your friend all the way, Hiroshi-kun.
Hiroshi: Ah, of course.
Nube: Uuh.
SFX: SHUUUU
Kyouko: Nube, you’ve returned.

87.
Narrator: Several days later
Voice At any rate we were just a bit worried…
Kyouko: You were unconscious for close to a full day. At any—rate, since it was you, you were sightseeing in that world.
Nube: HAHAHA
Nube: No, he was flirting with a girl in that world.
Hiroshi: Uh.
Kyouko: Well you~~~giving severe worry to a person…
Hiroshi: No…it was.
Kimie: Hiroshi-ku~~n, it’s been the best with how good the progress has been after surgery; it’s great to be alive. That too is thanks to the endeavor of Hiroshi-kun. I love you, u-fun.
Caption: TAKAYAMA KIMIE (63 YEARS OLD)
Hiroshi: She’s just like a Datsue Babaa…
Kyouko: That’s the girl he flirted with.
Nube: It’s because you come to not understand age when you become an erethral body.
Sign: SHOP

88.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

26. Near-Death Experience

From an investigation by George Gallup Jr, the number of near-death experiences are said to add up to eight million in America. That many have a personal experience of a sensation that they’re undertake a feeling like their body is floating in the air immediately after death and continue by passing through a long tunnel and into light. The scenery they see there conflict; if there are people that say they were near the “Sanzu River”, then there are people who say they meet Jesus Christ. Perhaps the seen scenery is the same thing, but since the scenery hasn’t even been seen until now, it is applied and interpreted through their own experiences and information.

So then, what exactly is this spirit world place? According to Swedenborg (1688-1772), a famous scholar as a global authority in spirit world research, people go to the “Spiritual World” first after death. Here at the midway point of human world and spirit world, there isn’t any change from the human world outside being surrounded by ice and stones as surroundings. Afterwards, humans fling off their attachments of their lifetime and change into spirits. After that, they cross a thing that’s like a huge river and go into the spirit world. He recollected that the scenery of the spirit world has forests, mountains and towns and here too doesn’t have any change at all from the human world.

But different from this wonderful spirit world, there also exists a “hell world”. People who have dirtied their souls are said to be dragged into this hell world. If I say so, hell world can be said to be a hangout for drifting dirtied souls.

Since Swedenborg’s writings have been quite published, it’s best for people who have an interest in this to read them.

(TN: A few things:
1. Weird that he is mentioned of all people but George Gallup Jr. is the son of George Gallup, the founder of the “Gallup Poll” that performs research of information regarding the feelings and opinions of Americans.
2. A tad more information on the researcher: Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish researcher originally known as an inventor and scientist. After entering a spiritual phase, he began to have visions where he began to believe he could speak to angels and demons and freely go between heaven and hell, upon which leading to him spending the remainder of his life into being a mystic, writing 18 theological works, the most famous being 1758’s “Heaven and Hell”. Some of his most notable beliefs include the thought that Christianity has no Trinity and that there is only one being of belief: Jesus Christ; he also believed that charity is just as important as faith in leading the ideal Christian life.
3. “Spiritual World” here is written in Japanese as “Seishinkai”, since it isn’t the same as “Reikai”, which I translated into “spirit world”, I decided to slightly alter the word to allow for the meaning as emphasized here. “Seirei” can also be used to mean “souls” or “ghosts”)

TN: First of all: a bit of an apology for being away for so long. With vacation and sort of trying to make sure other manga were touched upon, I had not had the chance to get back to Nube for a bit. Hopefully, this won't happen again for a while.

Second...ewwww. That's all I really can say with the disturbing nature...of that punchline. I know there are some versions of "heaven" or "beyond death" where people can actually choose how they'll be depicted (compared to versions where they essentially go to heaven "as they die"), but to have a scenario where Hiroshi actually believed Kimie was young and then having her be a nutty old woman when both come to...that was just so wrong. Heck, everything she said when they were on the Sanzu River actually makes sense once you know the punchline...but it just makes it all the more wrong. Meanwhile, I did find it sort of neat in two factors regarding Nube in this chapter: both in that he can essentially move between heaven and hell...and that considering the unpredictable means of how people believe in the afterlife, he didn't even know until probably Hiroshi's signal where he was. Personally maybe he should have left Kimie behind...yeah, I don't have ageism but after that ending...ick. I think it may have been one reason why I didn't get to this chapter for a while. (even though I doubt it but I did know it was coming and just...didn't want to face "true Kimie" considering how cute she was in the afterlife world)