Hell Teacher Nube 41

A mirror is an amazing artifact...but can it possess powers beyond one's control? When Miki and Kyouko test out one of these abilities based on a rumor, they may discover some great...and horrifying truths about it!

#41: The Wonders of Opposing Mirrors
(TN: The “Wonders” part of the title is in Japanese “nanafushigi”, which literally translates into “the seven wonders”. Since I doubt there are literally 7 wonders to mirrors, I changed it to a broader translation)

171.
Narrator: When two mirrors are face to face, there appears a repetition of a virtual image that seems to go to infinity…Opposing mirrors…the ghost stories about this mysterious phenomenon are everywhere throughout the country; of course even at Doumori Elementary…

172.
Sign: DOUMORI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Voice: Just a moment, stop—this~~
Sign: HOME ECONOMICS LAB
Kyouko: I was staying over at your house so we could do homework together, and yet we’re creeping around the school at midnight.
Miki: I didn’t say a certain thing.
Miki: It was written in an anthology from 10 years ago that I discovered in the library: if you look at the opposing mirror at 0:00:00 through the three-sided mirror in our Home Economics Lab, it will reflect your future form…
Book:
[The Won]ders of Doumori Elementary
[The Opp]osing Mirror: 6-3’s Shiro Eli
The Opposing mirror is the three-side mirror
In the Home Economics Lab.
There is a story where your future self
Will be reflected when you look at it
At 0:00:00 at midnight.

173.
Kyouko: What will you do when you see your future self or something?
Miki: WELL WHEN MY FUTURE SELF IS STANDING THERE, SHE’LL BE BEAUTIFUL LIKE CLEOPATRA, HAVE HUGE BREASTS LIKE FUUMIN AND LONG LEGS LIKE MORITAKA…AH—I WANT TO SEE THAT.
(TN: Cleopatra is obvious considering her notability of being a beautiful Egyptian queen, but the other two are a tad more unknown outside Japan:
-“Fuumin” is in reference to Fumie Hosokawa, a notable celebrity who started as a graveure idol who was notable for her 90cm bust [this is probably why Miki referred to her due to her notability for this at this time…and I wouldn’t be surprised if Miki got her last name from her with her first name tied to the “Devilman” heroine] and eventually became a movie actress by the late 1990s. She has retired from celebrity life by 2006.
-“Moritaka” is in reference to “Chisato Moritaka”, born “Chisato Eguchi”, a pop singer notable both for her musical versatility as well as her long legs)
Kyouko: How—can you be like that—when you grow up? (with the huge breasts anyhow…) Ke.
Miki: Well, it will be midnight very soon.
Kyouko: Oh—well. Let’s do it with this three-sided mirror.
Miki: Here we go—4…3…2…
SFX: GIII
Miki: Tekumakumayakon Tekumakumayakon, reflect our future selves~~
(TN: While you could think the word used for Miki’s spell is gibberish, “Tekumakumayakon Tekumakumayakon” is actually tied to a spell recited by the lead heroine of “Himitsu no Akko-chan”, a key shoujo manga/anime created by Fujio Akatsuka in 1962 and stated as the very first magical girl story, with it’s manga predating “Mahoutsukai Sunny” [who had the first magical girl anime]. When Akko-chan [real name Atsuko Kagami] recites this spell in front of a particular magical mirror she received, she is able to transform into whatever she wishes)

174.
Kyouko & Miki: !!

175.
Miki: That’s right—it truly was reflected~~~
Kyouko: It did disappear instantly.
Miki: My age was around 20 and I had super huge breasts that were perhaps an F-cup!
SFX: URI URI (SQUISH SQUISH)
Katsuya: F-cup…
Miki: I could take tens of men with that nice body; it’s a profit in how I’m supporting all of you now.
Hiroshi: Di…did you see yours too, Kyouko?
Kyouko: Yep: I was a slim, sporty intellectual beauty, different from Miki.
Miki: Hmph, wh~~at was slim; are you mistaking with a cuttlefish! You were a thin and bony woman who was long in just her limbs! (GYA GYA)
(TN: A cuttlefish is a mollusk of the order sepiida, notable as a delicacy in Japanese and Asian culture, in particular dried up and eaten as a snack)
Kyouko: Your nice body was merely fat! That was a Doguu!
(TN: A “Doguu” is an earthen clay figure, usually humanoid in form and with the “idealized” form of a female of large breasts, small waists and wide hips, usually used as possibly shamanistic figures during the late Joumon period in Japan)
Miki: That’s all—
SFX: GARA

176.
Nube: N—
Nube: Oh—
Nube: Owa!
SFX: DO! | GON
Students: AHAHA
Kyouko: Aga~~in with the promised idiocy…
Kyouko: Nube, what is that?
Nube: It’s a nostalgic toy. (Ah~~ow) It’s a kaleidoscope. It’s a hot-spring souvenir from Ishikawa-sensei.
Nube: It can have various patterns with the opposing of mirrors. Mirrors are mysterious. They’re things that seem to have another world inside them.
Nube: Since long ago, mirrors had come to been believed to amplify spiritual power. It’s called “crystal gauging”; that’s the reason mirrors and crystals are well used for fortune-telling.

177.
Kyouko: Nube, can you reflect the future with a mirror?
Nube: They can. For a person with spiritual power, they can communicate with the world of the gods by a mirror.
Nube: Why did you ask that?
Kyouko: Eh, no, it’s nothing.
Miki: No, you’ve leaked about last night.
Miki: It was true after all—we did it--!
Sign: GIRL’S RESTROOM
Kyouko: But it’s strange: we don’t have spiritual power and yet we could do it.
Miki: Aah, we’ll become like that in a few more years~~
SFX: WAKU WAKU

178.
Kyouko: Ge
SFX: SUU
Kyouko: He…hey, I saw my future self again now.
Miki: Eh—what are you saying—that can only be seen in the three-sided mirror in the Home Economics Lab—di—dn’t you misjudge it due to the aging of your face recently?
Nube: Um—since we have that—
Kyouko: ……It’s strange. I truly saw it…
SFX: PAKA
SFX: BOU
Kyouko: KYAA~~
Voice: What is it!? Strange—you’re surprised seeing your own face.

179.
Kyouko: It wasn’t my imagination or anything, I really saw it.
Miki: You’re overworrying—aren’t you tired?
Kyouko: Besides, I feel something where I’m gradually getting older…somehow earlier was around 30.
Miki: Hahaha, then next is 40?
Miki: Generally you’re a coward—at most it was just predicted by opposing mirrors…
SFX: OOOOOO…
Miki: NOOO---!!
Kyouko: Hey, it’s for real. Tomorrow we’ll talk to Nube!
Sign: HOSOKAWA
Miki: Strange…strange…it can’t be like this. I hadn’t read to the end of the composition.
Book: 1984 GRADUATION ANTHOLOGY

180.
Miki: !!
SFX: RRR…
Kyouko: It’s terrible, Kyouko, listen!
Kyouko: Miki?
Miki: The girl who tested the opposing mirrors ten years ago was the friend of the girl who wrote the composition; this girl had reflected her future self each time she looked in a mirror from that day…and her form steadily grew older…
Miki: In the end, there was reflected an old woman weakened with age; that was the form for when she died…She saw it and that girl was said to have died…and…the cause of death was…
Miki: SENILE DECAY…
(TN: “Senile Decay” is a term for “Rousui”, I probably should have just used the regular term for “senility” but that really isn’t a cause for death with age, thus I ended up using the “senile decay” definition)

181.
SFX: CHUN CHUN…
Kyouko: Uuuh, somehow my body is sluggish this morning. My joints hurt…what’s wrong with me…
Kyouko: GYA
Kyouko: Th…there it i—s!
SFX: DOTA DOTA DOTA
Voice: Just a moment, Kyouko, your bag!?
Kyouko: Hurry, hurry, if I don’t get saved by Nube~~~!! (ZEE ZEE HAA HAA) I’m…randomly losing breath. Somehow I’m like an old woman…
Kyouko: !

182.
Kyouko: Miki!
SFX: YOBO YOBO
Miki: No good anymore. My legs and loins are trembling~~
Kyouko: I become wrinkly whenever I look in the mirror~~
Miki: My chest gets saggy every time my form is reflected even when not in a mirror~~~(HI~~~) Whatever we can do will be fine----!!
Miki: What exactly is this opposing-mirror prediction; how could it have come to this--!?
SFX: SUU
Kyouko: It’s like we seemed to be under some curse…
SFX: OOOOO… | NITA
Kyouko: Uuh, we’re far from school~~~

183.
Kyouko & Miki: Kyaa
SFX: KIKII
Driver: You dummies, why are you crossing slowly?
Kyouko: We’re sorry.
Kyouko & Miki: KYAAAA
SFX: GOGOGOGOGO

184.
Nube: What!?
Nube: You two snuck into the Home Ec lab in the middle of a night and did this trick? You delinquent girls.
Kyouko: Don’t speak with a loud voice; it feels like it’s stopping my heart.
SFX: GEHO GEHO
Miki: Since we’re asking, can you do something youngster?
Nube: Strange, the energy in their bodies is abnormally decreasing.
Miki: Hmm…there is found a story about opposing mirrors in this anthology…
Nube: There are two other legends about opposing mirrors. You’ll see your future marriage partner at 3:33:33—is that so? You’ll see a devil within the mirror at 4:44:44…hoo…

185.
Nube: A devil?
Sign: HOME ECONOMICS LAB
Kyouko: Nube, I don’t want to see a devil or something—hurry and do something—
Nube: As I said, mirror fortune-telling can only be done by humans who have spiritual ability. Your fortune telling I say is some prank.
Kyouko: Eeh, so it’s a prank of a mirror devil?
Miki: That’s a lie—my future beautiful form should be the truth.
Nube: Shall we find out? Presently it’s 4:44:43…
Nube: Now~~~
SFX: GACHA

186.
SFX: NITA~~~
Caption: In the Wonders of the Opposing Mirrors, what emerges to the extent that it is said with certainly is the story that “a devil will appears”. It appears in one among the reflected images and moves while jumping from mirror to mirror—
Kyouko: HIEE! A…A DEVIL ACTUALLY APPEARED!
Miki: NOO~~L…LOOK AT OUR FORMS~~~

187.
Nube: Don’t be bewildered: the forms that are reflected in the mirror are a trick that just transforms them.
Kyouko: Eh…! But it’s really painful. (HAA HAA)
Nube: So it seems: any person will seem to become as such if they see a form of themselves rotting away within the mirror. Its hypnotism…it is a kind of powerful hypnotism. The prior girl who looked in the mirror and died had aged emotionally and had a debilitating death…
Nube: Well, little devil, your trick is transparent. Come out if you don’t want to be knocked down by the Oni no Te!!

188.
SFX: SUPA
Kyouko: The kaleidoscope…
SFX: KYU~~KYU~~SU
SFX: KURI
Nube: There are mirrors in every direction inside. He can’t ever get out from here…

189.
Nube: Because a mirror is always reflecting things, it can make a pseudo-space in them. In other words: there can be an splitting-image world to ours within a mirror. There’s reason that the mirror’s soul is said to manipulate the things within with a universal life on the inside.
Miki: What’s—that, it’s dejecting—that was my long-awaited nice body and yet—(Chie)
Nube: Miki, Kyouko, one month of bathroom cleaning as punishment of sneaking into school in the middle of the night.
Kyouko & Miki: Gee!!
Nub: Mhmm.
Narrator: There’s no end to the wonders of opposing mirrors. Nube’s encounter this time was the prank of a devil, but perhaps you truly may have a mirror that can reflect the future. Well then, is it really the mirror at your school…?
(End of Vol. 5)

190.
NUBE-SENSEI’S GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

30. The Wonders of Mirrors

Mirrors weren’t for reflecting your figure to begin with; they were created for use in magic. Mirrors long ago weren’t things that were silver-leaf that were stuck to glass like now, they were items of flat bronze planks that were just shining to sparkle. Therefore, they reflected light and weren’t for looking at to reflect a figure. Instead, it was typical to have the reflection of water for reflecting a figure.

By the way: among these mirrors that were used for magic like these were things called “Makagami”. (Demon Mirrors) They were mirrors without anything unusual about them apparently, but they were items that were said to raise forth the forms of sutras or a Buddha when their reflected light hits a wall. Speaking clearly, they’re extremely surprising things when seen for the first time, but it’s simple in its principle. The reverse face of the mirror has as an embossed carving a form of the sutra or Buddha and on the occasion the mirror image shines, it produces the unevenness shaved into the pattern of the back side by the bend of the mirror that is merely produced. It’s a delicate thing to the point that it isn’t completely understood to the eyes of humans, but the reflection of the light is prominent and it seems as if the sutra or Buddha is raised forth. Perhaps it’s a chance result, but people long ago were surprised…

Well then, this corner, which has continued all along from Vol. 1 has reached the 30th this time and will be ending for the moment. Since I’ve thought up another separate project, you should look forward to it. See ya!

(TN: A slight bit of info on the history of mirrors in addition:
-The earliest mirrors were made of obsidian, used in Anatolia [modern Turkey] as early as 6000 BC
-Mirrors of copper were used in Mesopotamia and Egypt in 3000 BC; while the “bronze mirrors” mentioned here were developed in China in 2000 BC
-“Metal-coated glass mirrors” were only developed by the first century AD in Sidoh (modern Lebanon) and became prominent within the Roman empire.
-What is known as the modern mirror has only existed since the Renaissance, when the process of coating glass with an amalgam of metals was developed and used in Venice. Eventually silver was used by the 19th century and today it usually involves the usage of aluminum)

191.
Katsuya: Volume 6—it seems to be quite amazing. Ihihihihi, you lecher!
Magazine: MONTHLY EROERO
Caption: “Nube” is a wholesome manga for good kids.
(TN: Katsuya this time…yeah, it’s strange to say but we never really even saw Katsuya’s “pervy” side until the last chapter with his wondering of Miki’s F-cups…I say the two of them would fit well together from here on…)

TN: Yeah, I think we've all learned a lesson today: Miki is just too obsessed with her looks for our own good. It was her desire to see the mirror (and drag Kyouko along for the ride) that lead to them unexpectedly summoning that devil that gave them...well, the decrepit old lady treatment. I'm still a tad confused, though, about how the devil took advantage of the 0:00:00 spell to play that evil trick leading to what happened. I guess in a way that little guy hid in the mirror, only to be seen at 4:44:44, but still powerful enough to influence the mirror when someone performs the 0:00:00 spell on it. Of course, considering how we did see Kyouko's own decay...I just wonder how fast Miki went considering she went from first seeing it to the "40-year old version" when she spoke out about it...and ultimately probably regretted having those huge boobs when she had the chest strength to possess them. (yeah, an F-cup may be attractive at 20...but will be a burden when they're all droopy and old) At least though I can say this: after all I've been through with this volume, I'm sort of happy I'm out of it (it did pick up near the end with the last couple of chapters)...besides, with all that will be happening in vol. 6, I say the sooner I start that the better!