Hell Teacher Nube 44

Well, Nube fans: I've got some really bad news. It's...well, see below. (then again, I really should start a new section for this but I thought it would just be easier to use the Nube section for our new title since it's still the same volume...)

Fireball Teacher Tsukki (Hinotama Sensei Tsukki)
By Makura Shou (writer) & Takeshi Okano (illustrator)

#1: Youkai Extermination with the Power of Science!

47.
Ootsuki: “Hell Teacher Nube” ended last time! Starting this time I, Ootsuki-sensei, am the main character!
Catch Caption: AN EXPECTANTLY-WAITED FOR NEW SERIALIZATION!?
Hiroshi: Yep, this may be better.
Nube: You’re kidding~~
SFX: GA—N!
(TN: Yeah, I guess that's the big revelation this time around. About why…as you probably know, Nube has always been sort of close to the edge with some of its jokes and content and such…but unfortunately the last chapter, with everything that happened with Nube and the tanuki and Ritsuko-sensei…that was the last straw. In an effort by Jump editors to finally clean up the acts of this magazine and make themselves look way more respectable and wholesome [saying this in an era that still had Goku, Yusuke [well OK: this abrupt change was in issue 32, the issue of the final YYH chapter] and just admitted one Hiruma Kenshin], they pretty much forced Makura and Okano into a stalemate: fix the manga in a way that creates way less controversy...or they’re out, instant cancellation. And…well, they chose to fix it. The main way: seeing how most of the trouble involved Nube and his class [I’m looking at Hiroshi, Katsuya and especially Miki for that], they decided to focus their efforts to that other youkai fighter a few chapters ago, Ootsuki-sensei. It was a genius move thinking about it: considering they had another youkai-fighter, they could just focus on him and forget about that loser teacher and his weird class. So, forget about the loser teacher, the Oni no Te and all of his chaos and confusion with the tanuki and that evil kitsune guy and over-lusty, slightly busty yukionna…and oh yeah, all those troublemaking students…thing and let’s sit back, relax and enjoy the Ghostbusting antics of that other teacher…welcome to Fireball Teacher Tsukki!)

48.
Caption: What, we were lying! It’s actually…

Hell Teacher Nube (Jigoku Sensei Nube)

Nube: Phew.
(TN: So...how many people were just fooled by all this!? Of course Nube wouldn’t get canceled for something as crazy as that and I just wanted to play along leading to my own note…but it’s still an Ootsuki-sensei chapter so it’s not like we’re going to abandon him for the moment)

#44: The Night-Echoing Piano
(TN: The real chapter title BTW)

SFX: FUO---N
Ootsuki: IT’S PLASMA!! SPIRITS ARE ALL PLASMA!
SFX: BARI BARI BARI BARI
Caption: CLASS 5-1’S HOMEROOM TEACHER: OOTSUKI-SENSEI! A HOT-BLOODED TEACHER WHO CHALLENGES TO EXPLICATE SPIRITUAL PHENOMENON WITH THE POWER OF SCIENCE!
Ootsuki: Today I was asked by the children; to exterminate a spirit…no, a plasma that was said to play the piano in the music room night after night!
Ootsuki: Spirits and such don’t exist in this world! They’re all plasma phenomenon that can be explicated scientifically. I’ll show actual proof with this “Plasma Removal Apparatus” that I invented!

49.
Sign: MUSIC ROOM
SFX: GIIII
SFX: PERON PERORON

50.
Ootsuki: OOOH, GET OUT, PLASMA…
Ootsuki: …
SFX: SUUUU
SFX: KI—N KO—N KA—N
Ootsuki: (narrating) That plasma was crying…as if it was making some appeal to me.
Ootsuki: Was it pitifully in some deep consideration? Wh…what idiocy! There isn’t a reason for consideration to plasma!
Sign: Back of Head
Ootsuki: There isn’t anything that can’t be explained by science in this world! (Uh~uh~) I must redo these calculations!
Caption: Can’t even sleep

51.
Ootsuki: Uoo~~I don’t understand: someone tell me the answer~~~
Hiroshi: He—so the spirit in the music room is a child who died in an accident in the midst of going to a recital—
Nube: Right: even with its hardships and practice, it thinks of it’s regrets of dying without reward and is playing while crying. (Simple!)
SFX: ZUGAGAGAN
Ootsuki: …You’re carving a big lie on the side of a person who is earnestly bothered~~!
Nube: Wh…what is he doing so sudden, that f**king oldie!!
Hiroshi: Nube’s been really hit lately.
Ootsuki: Please be quiet! You bogus spiritualist who teaches lies to children.
Nube: Nunu—I can’t endure anymore this repeated confusion. How’s—this! Are you still going to insist that even if you see this Oni no Te!
Ootsuki: That hand!!

52.
Ootsuki: No confusion; it’s plasma!
SFX: ZUBABABABABA
Nube: UGGYAA~~~~
Nube: Ow~~ow~~the Oni no Te~~~ (Fu~~fu~~)
Ootsuki: Please hold on, Nueno-kun! That plasma attached to your hand…it’s dangerous!
Nube: Enough already! I can’t progress in a conversation together with him; let’s go to the classroom.
Kyouko: Seems he wants to talk to you.
Ootsuki: Please hold on, are you running off?
Ootsuki: Mu~~
Nube: That child truly loved the piano; to the extent that she always carried in their pocket a Chopin score.

53.
Nube: She was recognized with a rare talent. It seemed that a enthusiastic music teacher gave her private instruction to late at night every day. It was a Spartan training like such that blood was already oozing out of her…
Nube: But on the very day of a contest which would test her results, the child and her teacher were in an accident on route to the assembly hall and died. It appeared to be instantaneous death.
Nube: Perhaps she can’t rest in peace with her attachment at not appearing in the contest. That’s troubling
Voice: How sad…
Ootsuki: Hmph, worthless!
Ootsuki: There isn’t a circumstance for the existence of spirits! But…those tears…
Student 1: Ah, Ootsuki-sensei.
Student 2: Teacher—
Narrator: Ootsuki-sensei is a scientist by heart who believes in the all-mightiness of science.
Narrator: However, again he has allies in children.
Student: Teacher, you can exterminate that plasma.
Ootsuki: Ha ha ha, leave it to me.
Narrator: He can’t betray the expectations of his students.
Narrator: Besides, he’s an amazingly hard worker.
Ootsuki: I don’t get it: plasma has a heart…
Narrator: Keep persisting, Ootsuki-sensei; explicate that spiritual phenomenon with the power of science!

54.
Ootsuki: Right…I’ve been thinking afterwards about how it could have feelings. First I need to thoroughly investigate what feeling the plasma possesses…
Ootsuki: Mumu…she’s playing tonight too. An honest plasma every night.
Ootsuki: !!
SFX: SU
Ootsuki: What? I saw another plasma now. Was it my imagination…

55.
Ootsuki: This is experiment equipment for investigating the heart of plants. It can conjecture emotion to the degree of a change in a weak electric current.
Ootsuki: Mumu…According to this…this plasma is terribly sad.
Ootsuki: I think this is stupid, but let me ask you: are you playing the piano every night with the regrets of not appearing at the contest? Do you want to play the piano that much?
Ootsuki: !
Ootsuki: That’s wrong!?
SFX: PI—PI—
Ootsuki: You don’t want to play the piano; so then, why!?

56.
SFX: PU
Caption: A: Y> BY FORCE
SFX: TAN…TATAN…
Captions: TEACHER…BY FORCE…
Ootsuki: Ridiculous…is this the same as hitting the keys on the computer, no, the keys on the piano?
Ootsuki: By force…what do you mean “by force”!? Is someone forcing you to play it…!?
SFX: GUWA

57.
SFX: GUASHAAA
Nube: That was close.
Ootsuki: Nueno-kun!
Nube: Th…the piano moved now…
Nube: It’s a poltergeist phenomenon; it’s because the spirit was excited aimlessly…it should be a quiet spirit that just plays the piano and yet…
Hiroshi Well—shall we exorcise it quickly—we’ve brought everyone.

58.
Ootsuki: Wh…what have you started? Even with the students in my class…
Nube: It’s a piano recital. Solving the regret of his spirit of a person who died leaving this regret is a shortcut for her resting.
Girl: This is plasma. Not a spirit!
Hiroshi: Heh, well, we’ll come to see!
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan…spirit that is here, show yourself!

59.
Ootsuki: Please stop! This plasma doesn’t want to play the piano.
Nube: Well well, leave the mochi-making to the mochi shop.
(TN: Nube states here “Mochi wa mochiya ni makasete”, which literally translates as seen above to “leave the mochi to the mochi-shop”, essentially meaning “leave a certain job to the experts”)
Hiroshi: Upupupu; a plasma hates this!?
Kyouko: Isn’t that unscientific—
Miki’s Bag: Senbei (rice crackers)
Ootsuki: Are you finding fault~~
Nube: Now please play. Here is the contest assembly hall which you will see until you’re at your dream. Please play until you’re satisfied.

60.
SFX: PERON…PERON…
Ootsuki: It is unscientific…there shouldn’t be a heart in plasma…
Ootsuki: So then…if I unreasonably stop this…I’ll come to acknowledge the unscientific existence known as “spirits”…
Ootsuki: But…only I understand this girl’s feelings…
Nube: Strange…she isn’t resting in peace at all.
Kyouko: That’s a sad piece…
Ootsuki: Won’t you stop~~!!
SFX: GOKI—N
Ootsuki: You don’t understand even a spirit’s feelings, in spite of being a spiritualist. This girl…doesn’t wish to do this! She’s being forced to play this by someone---!
Nube: Wh…what!?

61.
Nube: IT CAN’T BE…
SFX: POU
Girl: I’M SAD…FORCEFULLY PLAYING THIS...ALL ALONG SINCE I DIED BY HIM WHO DIED TOGETHER WITH ME…
Girl: HE CHASTISED ME EVERY DAY LIKE I WAS A TOOL SO I COULD WIN THE CONTEST AND GAIN FAME…I DON’T WANT TO PLAY THE PIANO ANYMORE FOR WINNING…
Nube: What is this…this spirit isn’t playing the piano by her own will…the spirit of the teacher she died together with is making her play by force!!
Hiroshi: Eeh?
Nube: The poltergeist earlier did that action! The spirit is hiding somewhere in this room!
SFX: ZAWA ZAWA ZAWA
SFX: KATAN

62.-63.
“Teacher”: PLAY, PLAY THE PIANOOOO~~O
Voice: NUBE

64.
Ootsuki: PLASMA DIFFUSION~~
“Teacher”: GYAPIIII
SFX: BABABA
Nube: REST IN PEACE BY FORCE: NAMU!!
SFX: BASHU
Nube: That girl was possessed by the spirit of that piano teacher and couldn’t rest in peace. It was a Jubakurei of a spirit binding a spirit. I should have done a much better investigation.
(TN: Not sure if I made mention of this but “Jubakurei” here translates into “curse spirit”)
Hiroshi: Well, Nube made a mistake!?
Kyouko: Steady down~~

65.
Nube: Sorry, sorry. It seems this time was…
Nube: A victory for science.
SFX: SHUUU—
Nube: Well—Ootsuki-sensei, this time was my complete defeat. You saved that girl spirit to the point of denying your opinion that spirits are plasma. Magnificent.
Ootsuki: Who made a denial?
SFX: POKA POKA POKA
Ootsuki: It was plasma! No matter how it’s said, it’s plasma! It was plasma that unexpectedly possessed a heart!
Ootsuki: Science is almighty. Even if there are still things that can’t be explicated, it’s a matter of time. From here on, you can’t believe after all in what’s said by that no-ability teacher.
Nube: Fine, fine
Kyouko: The battle of those two continues.

66.
<DOTSUBO>

Creation: A jar that is possessed in it the good luck of living beings sucks them in and eats them. The breath that emerges after eating causes hysteria to the living beings around it.

Commentary: Its name is perfect, but its design is cool. Its aiming being not just humans but all living things is new.

TN: I sort of wonder if anyone is left after the whole Ootsuki-sensei prank at the start reading this. First, an apology: I'm sorry for playing along and should have been frank sooner about it. It was just too golden an opportunity to comment about the stuff that people may or may not be reading Nube for and it was still a funny stunt. As for the chapter itself...the chapter in a weird way continued the development of the plasma-obsessed teacher from last time, allowing for him to understand the variations in spiritual matter and show something that Nube himself was lacking in with the piano-incident: the power of the scientific method. Nube gets so obsessed in jumping into things that he just doesn't use it at times, nearly getting him burned with his attempt at appeasing the girl trapped by her teacher. Meanwhile Ootsuki, while still as stubborn as ever about the plasma thing, used the means to slowly discover the truth and was able to warn Nube before it was just too late for her. As I said before, while he can be annoying, Ootsuki was a fun character and gave more diversity in the concept of exorcists in this world...sadly, this really is his last notable chapter. It's probably another "what could have been" idea regarding how he could have developed, but let's face it: kids probably don't want a scientifically obsessed grump when...well, they have Nube.