Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 214

With Togashi surviving once again (through his typical weird luck), Otokojuku has gained another win against the Meiou Island forces. But with their next opponent, their troubles are just about to get a whole...lot...bigger!

Vol. 24: The Ultimate Punch!!
Chp. 214: India's Secret Battle Method!!

7.
Toramaru: To…Togashi………!!
Momotarou: Be quiet, Toramaru. No matter what words you have, they can’t be heard by Togashi now.
Toramaru: Heh, he had that delicate guy!! You had a shell of a barricade that’s greater than the delicate, well!!
(TN: Toramaru makes a weird pun here, switching letters to change “deriketto” (probably in conjunction to Michele) with “barikeddo”, thus leading to that weird rhyme joke)
Togashi: Wh…what’s that!?
Togashi: N!?

8.
Togashi: Wh…what is th…that earth-tremoring sound that we can hear from the direction of the battlefield………!?
Toramaru: It…it feels like some giant footsteps.
Toramaru: Th…they’re steadily becoming bigger.
Togashi: It…it can’t be: this can’t be for the emergence even of King Kong!!
Toramaru: Ooh!! L…look at that~~~~~a section of the tower wall is opening~~~!

9.
Toramaru: WH…WHAT IS TH….THAT----!!

10.
Toramaru: AN…ELEPHANT----!!
Togashi: A...a man is appearing ri…riding on top of an elephant---!!

11.
Raja Mahal: My name is Raja Mahal of the Meiou Island 16-Warriors. Go!! Otokojuku’s next combatant!
Rasetsu: I’ve heard of this: a dreadful battle art that uses elephants that’s been in India since the ancients………!!
Toramaru: Y…you can’t be joking: wh…who would do that…ta…take on an elephant, the strongest animal in history said to be unbearable even for a lion…………!!

12.
Voice: That is unforgivable.
Togashi & Toramaru: GE…GEKKOU---!!
Gekkou: If you show your back to an opponent, that is recognized as defeat when in any match…!! Here you’ll leave him to me!!
Momotarou: Gekkou……
Gekkou: Hien!

13.
Gekkou: I entrust this to you.
Hien: !!
Hien: Th…those are…………
Gekkou: One is mine. The other is the one entrusted to me before his match by Raiden, who died in the battle in the semi-finals vs. Ryoukou.
Gekkou: Understand; their meaning…………!!
Hien: …………!!

14.
Gekkou: So then, I’m going!!
Togashi: Wh…what is it, Hien: th…that pendant-like thing you were handed by Gekkou…………!?
Toramaru: Mo…moreover, you have a terribly bad face color!!
Hien: Th…these are proof of a promise that is a vow of life-and-death of us of the Sanmenken………!!
Pendants: (clockwise from left) SAN | MEN | KEN
Hien: A…and to say we’re entrusted with these is that we’re always going to be together even if we die……………!! Ge…Gekkou is challenging this battle resigned that he’s prepared to die.
Toramaru: Wh…what----!! So…so then, Ge…Gekkou will----!

15.
Gekkou: OTOKOJUKU SANMENKEN: GEKKOU!!

16.
Raja Mahal: You’re a possessor of reckless courage in carrying your one kon and turning it towards me……………!!
Raja Mahal: Before we fight, I will teach you one thing: You should look! At the marks carved into the forehead of this elephant Punjab!!
Raja Mahal: These here are things that should speak in order in telling the tremendous combat experience of Punjab. At present, the number of marks is 107………!! In brief, it shows he has consigned 107 enemies to oblivion up to here.
Raja Mahal: And with one more new one, I can carve his 108th mark. Thanks to you.
Gekkou: Your boasting goes to there, you should come!!

17.
Raja Mahal: Go, Punjab: show him your power that is called the devil of the jungle!!

18.
Gekkou: Ha!!
Gekkou: !!

19.
Raja Mahal: Surprised! Thinking that his movements are slow because of this large build is a mistake!!
Toramaru: Uoo~~~!!
Togashi: I…I don’t believe this: that elephant guy has such a nimble movement----!!

20.
Raja Mahal: This is only the beginning of the standard for Punjab!!
Gekkou: Nu!!
Gekkou: Wh…what---!!

21.
Gekkou: Gu!!
Toramaru: Di…did you see---!! He…he flew---!
Togashi: Th…the elephant so…soared into the air with that large build and waged an aerial attack----!!
Rasetsu: I…I’m certain of it: that’s Souzou Rikukan Touhou, said to be an illusionary secret battle method of ancient India…!!
(TN: “Souzou Rikukan Touhou” = “Elephant-Manipulating Obedience-Killing Battle Method”; this was a tough translation, in particular due to the “kan” kanji, which is an ancient Chinese kanji with no real logical meaning that could be found for it anywhere. The radical is the radical for “dog” while the other side is similar to the kanji for “request” with a similar reading of “kan”…my closest approximation for the kanji’s meaning, though I probably am wrong, is that it may have to do with “giving an order” to a dog, akin to obedience training in teaching a dog how to “sit” or “stay”, thus why I went with “obedience-killing” for the meaning)
Momotarou: Souzou Rikukan Touhou………!?

22.
Commentary:
Souzou Rikukan Touhou…the elephant, the largest animal on land, is famous for possessing the greatest destructive power. The weakness of an elephant is their slow-witted movements, but they can acquire a dreadful nimbleness through a special training method; the ancient Indians established with it a battle method which possessed a number of secret arts. It’s even been said that in Ancient India, victory or defeat is decided by the number of elephants during times of war.

In passing, it’s been said the etymology of elephants being called “Elephants” in English is that in those days, the training of elephants was conducted on Elephan Island on the Indian Ocean.
-From “Great Encyclopedia of Fighting Animals”, Minmei Publishing
(TN: Slight comment just to make better understanding of the Minmei entry: the Japanese word for “elephant” is “zou”, thus the whole bit about “elephants being called “Elephant” in English”, due to the Japanese word being used for the first “elephant” and “Elephant” for the one that is tied to “the word in English”)

Raja Mahal: Fu, you avoided well that blow now!!
Raja Mahal: BUT YOU WON’T DO AS SUCH WITH THE NEXT!!

23.
Raja Mahal: TAKE THIS---!!
Gekkou: !!
Gekkou: Uh!!

24.
Togashi & Toramaru: He…he’s been killed---!! Ge…Gekkou’s been trampled---!
Raja Mahal: Fu, that was easy. But with this, I can carve the 108th mark on your forehead……!!
Raja Mahal: N? What’s wrong, Punjab!?

25.
Gekkou: Y…you will truly increase by one the marks on the elephant’s forehead!! But it isn’t mine; it’s for you, Mahal!!

TN: Ever have a chapter where you're going with the flow...but not? Where you actually think something is cool...but somewhat off at the same time? That's exactly how I felt with this chapter, mostly due to...well mostly the set-up. I mean, the end of the last chapter introduced Raja Mahal and seemed to just emphasize that his big battle style is Rama Yoga as we saw with him reflecting all the needles. But when he comes out...he's riding on a battle-elephant!? Now look, I know that a fighter on an elephant is just more "bizarre but cool" Otokojuku doing it's typical insane thing. But it just feels off that we get hyped about one "secret Indian battle style" at the end of the last chapter...and then we get this elephant thing here. (not to mention this: considering how many weird kenpou we've seen that essentially "can kill an elephant in an instant" for so long in this series...isn't it just a disadvantage to an opponent to fight a kenpoist now there is an actual elephant in combat!?) The other bad sign I have is just the sudden introduction of the "pendants" that Gekkou gave Hien at the start. I know of the brotherhood of the Sanmenken and how those three have worked together (and alongside Date) since their first introduction. But to have Gekkou suddenly add in something we've never seen before to Hien to hold on to...somehow while you're supposed to respect that as a means behind the respect of the Sanmenken, it just seems so out of nowhere that I just consider it somewhat off-putting. Believe me: seeing Gekkou fighting an elephant is awesome...but just the way that it was done both suggests he probably is going to have something bad happening (especially since it will leave Hien as the keeper of all the pendants and the last Sanmenken) and because...well, they can't just introduce something like this to show their camaraderie out of nowhere after we've seen the camaraderie of the Sanmenken for so long. Look...I know I shouldn't be complaining about the little things considering the fight was awesome (and typical Otokojuku insanity) in this chapter, but those little things sometimes are the things that bug me the most about this series.