Hell Teacher Nube 61

When something seems there that can't be understood, is it necessarily a bad thing? The students of Nube's class may have found one through some pictures taken of them...but why is Nube acting so peculiar about it's existence?

#61: Dreaded Spirit Photography

27.
Picture Captions (from center, clockwise by photo):
-Nueno Meisuke
-Inaba Kyouko
-Kurita Makoto
-Nakajima Noriko
-Shirato Shuichi
-Yamaguchi Akira
-Kaneda Masaru
-Kikuchi Shizuka
-Tateno Hiroshi
-Kimura Katsuya
-Hosokawa Miki
(TN: Well this essentially re-establishes the class as it stands with most of its major characters. However, there are a couple names that are probably new to you that are long overdue (and probably may be something to remember for the near future…though Kaneda’s henchmen remain nameless). A little information on whom they are:
-Noriko (AKA “Noro-chan”, as she’s been called and known as) is a girl who presumably was first referred to back with the incident with the shadow creature that pretended to be Miki in vol. 1; but while it’s unknown if that was the real reference to her, she actually first appeared as “the girl Kaneda bullied that Hiroshi was protecting” back in vol. 4. She recently also had a background shot back with Miki’s “Erethral Body Pulling” incident in vol. 7.
-Shizuka, on the other hand, we’ve sort of known since the second pilot as the infamous “Ichimatsu Doll” girl! (Due to owning and looking like the infamous “hair-growing doll”) Aside from the second pilot (and a similar joke when officially introduced in vol. 3), she also cameoed back in vol. 5 as one of the students annoyed by Makoto’s forgetfulness)

28.
Voice: Eh~~you’re kidding, what is that~~~!?
Kyouko’s Bag: Surume
(TN: Surume is dried shredded squid (or cuttlefish which is also used), notable as a snack food akin to the US’s “beef jerky”)
Narrator: The most best known spirit photograph is a thing that is said as photographing a “hand”. That’s because it is the part that is the most used when appealing for their own existence during their lifetime.
“Hiroshi”: Hold on a moment; hey, my golden left leg--!
Narrator: In this way, a photograph where a part is erased is said could be due to a spirit passing through there at that moment…

29.
Voice: Aah, a face---!!
Narrator: There are ones where it seems like the face of a person when looking at the shadows of trees and things. This at this moment where it comes to this suddenly is a situation that is a spirit’s appeal by using a shadow.
Narrator: A thing that is like a white haze has a conception of spirits and the spirit’s danger level is understood with its color and form.
“Voice”: Eww!!

30.
Hiroshi: I’m certain that several of these pictures of our class were taken as spirit photographs~~
Caption: Trip Photos: People who want one will write the number
SFX: Zawa zawa zawa
Kyouko: Our homeroom teacher is Nube~~spirits drop in on him.
Miki: Don’t say that so recklessly. That sort of thing is a reishou!
*Injury and calamity that is caused by a spirit.
(TN: “Reishou” literally translates into “Spirit Harm”; I’ll be keeping the concept at this time due to it being used as a concept but may be translated as needed)
Book: Dreaded Spirit Photography
Miki: A spirit photograph will certainly have a calamity befall the people who are taken together with it!
Students: Eh—
Miki: At any rate, we must get the expert opinion of Nube…
SFX: Gara

31.
Nube: It’s—a meeting.
SFX: Pori pori (scratch scratch)
Kyouko: Yeah yeah yeah, it’s fine.
(TN: I’m not quite sure the whole joke here; Nube responds to the comment of his expert opinion with “kai—no”, which could either be “kai no” or “kainou”. I ended up using “it’s a meeting” due to all the students meeting there though it isn’t really a “meeting”; meanwhile “kanpei” was similarly tough to figure out but I ended up seeing it as a variation of “kanpeki” or “fine/perfect”. I know I screwed this up badly but I tried to make it work)
Hiroshi: Look at this for a moment, Nube.
Nube: Hmm hmm: this is that the kid in the back seat seems to be eating surume.
Kyouko: Where is there a gibbon!!
Nube: Hoo—Hiroshi, you can really bend your leg—(It’s exactly attached to your back)
Hiroshi: Am I a yoga master?
Nube: Perhaps this is a watermark…? (It stinks--)
Miki: That’s what was taken!!
Nube: Worthless! Class is starting.
SFX: Basa basa
Hiroshi, Kyouko and Miki: Aah!!

32.
Voice: Chi, he’s negating it from the head~~Isn’t Nube escaping his responsibility after all because it’s a spirit approaching him?
Shuichi: Hoo, it’s as all of you saw before.
Shuichi: Magnifying the thing that’s like a face that we took in the pictures, all of them have taken the same face…no, the same spirit.
Shuichi: In other words: a sole spirit is dangling after our class. We’ve been taking pictures of him all along when we’re on trips or at athletic meets.
Shuichi: Furthermore, it isn’t attached to particular child in the class. It’ll attach to anyone in the class. As it was a spirit haunting our class 5-3.

33.
Nube: …Again, that’s crazy…
Hiroshi: What are you saying; isn’t--this dangerous--!!
Kyouko: Right—relieve us and stop taking pictures!
Nube: So~~there~~fore~~
Nube: If it were an evil spirit, then it would have been exorcised long ago.
Hiroshi: There is. Didn’t we take it--?
Student: That spirit we’ve taken in spirit photography will cause spiritual harm!
Miki: Don’t you get it, oldie!
Noriko: Aah, that picture…my leg will get hurt
Shizuka: You’re too worried, Noro-chan.
Noriko: But……

34.
Noriko: Kya
SFX: Suru
Shizuka: !!
Voice 1: Noro-chan hurt her leg!?
Voice 2: Her leg was erased in a spirit photograph.
Voice 3: What was written in that book was true after all.
Hiroshi: Look, we’ve been cursed by the spirit photograph after all.
Nube: This was chance: don’t worry about it.

35.
Hiroshi: What’s the matter: why won’t Nube exorcise it?
Miki: Why is he protecting it though it’s an evil spirit…
Kyouko: We can’t depend on him.
Hiroshi: We have 13 Polaroids; enough to have for all with all of our houses. If we take pictures of our class with these, then I’m certain we’ll photograph it somewhere.
Hiroshi: Therefore, take pictures in the classroom doing as such.
SFX: Pasha | Ji—

36.
Hiroshi: We’ll clear up wherever he is.
SFX: Pasha pasha pasha
Miki: Kya
Miki: It’s behind Akira!!
Akira: Eh, wh…where!?
Kyouko: When we know its whereabouts, then we’ll purify there with Purifying Salt that’s used for funerals. We can’t exorcise it, but the spirit will come to not be in that place it came to.
SFX: Sa
Package: Purifying Salt
(TN: The “purifying salt” used in funerals, or “Okyome Shio”, is used by those who attend the funeral to purify themselves before returning to their home and lives)
SFX: Pa pa
Hiroshi: It’s fine like this: it will come to not be here.

37.
Hiroshi: Doing like this, we’ll slowly narrow its range.
SFX: Pasha pasha
Hiroshi: It won’t be able to leave from the classroom because we sprinkled it around the circumference of the classroom in advance.
Voice: Ah! Aah, it’s there!!
SFX: Pa pa
Hiroshi: Alright, gradually it will come to not be its whereabouts.
Voice: Kyaaaa!
SFX: Kasha
SFX: Kasha
Voice: Uwaa—we caught it—

38.
SFX: Gogogogogo
Sign: Cleaning Tools
SFX: Kata kata
Hiroshi: It seems we’ve cornered it.
Kyouko: What do we do: call Nube?
Hiroshi: Hmph: we won’t need to—this spirit who can only appear in these pictures is weak, I’m sure. I’ll open it. 3, 2, 1

39.
SFX: Ba ba
SFX: Pasha pasha | Gata—n!
Hiroshi: Get out!!
SFX: Jii~~
Hiroshi: We’ve done it: it’s in there!

40.
SFX: Pasha pasha pasha
SFX: Pasha

41.
Kyouko: Look! It seems to be in quite pain!
Katsuya: The salt is effective.
Hiroshi: Al—right.
Hiroshi: I’ll end this—
Nube: Can’t you stop!!
Hiroshi: Gueee
Nube: Some sort of accident happens and it’s immediately the fault of a spirit! I said the accident was by chance--!!
Kyouko: Nube, why are you protecting that spirit!?
Nube: Well then…

42.
Nube: It’s because that child is my student like all of you. It should have been a member of this class just like all of you in April.
Kyouko: Eh?
Nube: However, it was in a traffic accident en route to moving here…
Miki: So it was always photographed in class pictures…
Nube: Because it wants to participate in class.
Kyouko: And yet we were mean to it.
Hiroshi: It was having fun coming to our class.

43.
Hiroshi: Nube
Nube: Yes.
Nube: It’s been extremely troubled by all of you.
Nube: One more…if it takes a picture together with all of you, that should have it rest in peace.
Signs: FRIENDSHIP | EFFORT | VICTORY
(TN: A peculiar note: the three signs at the top of the classroom are the three abiding principals of WSJ magazine as a whole which are pushed and practiced in every one of their manga: Friendship (Yuujou), Effort (Douryoku) and Victory (Shouri). They were sort of seen in another panel as well but this is the first time I think we’ve clearly seen it the entire manga)

44.
Nube: Kaneda, drop to the center a bit more. Makoto, I won’t get you if you’re not out in front.
(TN: If you look at the previous page, Makoto is right in the row behind Hiroshi and Shizuka…yeah, he needs to move)
Katsuya: Well….we’re going to catch him with a spirit photograph after all. It will just be a hand, or a head, or a shoulder…
Miki: No way—what will I do if it is taken beside me—
Nube: U—m, it’s quite unsatisfactory. I won’t take it well like this.
Nube: ………
SFX: Ka ka ka

45.
Hiroshi: ?
Nube: Well…it’s because it hides behind people’s backs and we can only photograph it a bit.
SFX: Su
Nube: It can’t rest in peace without it ever settling in.
Hiroshi: Eh!?
Nube: Well, come out much more with resolve.
SFX: Ga

46.
SFX: Zuruzuruzuru

47.
SFX: Pasha
SFX: Suu~~~
Narrator: Since then, that child hasn’t been photographed ever again in our class pictures.

48.
RETURN OF THE GREAT YOUKAI ENCYCLOPEDIA

#2: Spirit Photography

Spirit Photography is popular to the point that this occurs without being called a spiritual phenomenon, but its origin is relatively new. It’s natural if it’s called natural, but it’s because the spiritual phenomenon called “spirit photography” hadn’t existed until the invention of the camera. Even ghosts have changed their method in appealing their existence with the progress of civilization. Recently ghosts who utilize the telephone are famous, but sooner or later there will appear ghosts who utilize personal computer communication or satellite broadcasting. The ghost who says “Urameshiya” under the willow tree may be old already.

Well, regarding the fundamentals of spirit photography: because it is already explained in a great number of books, there’s no need for an explanation now. If you do take a spirit photograph, then it’s best that you purify yourself immediately. (However due to the exorbitant costs when you ask a strange spiritualist, you should search for a shrine that will do it for free). Also, it’s best to avoid the act of expressedly taking a spirit photograph. According to K-san (alias), who was originally a miko (shrine maiden) and now has become a manga assistant, three youths who were said to steal stones from a small shrine somewhere on Mt. Osore as such possessed a picture when they wanted to be purified back when she was working at a shrine. In that picture appeared to be a terrible thing that couldn’t be explained a bit. She doesn’t know what became of those three afterwards, but they never had expressedly called a curse on them.

(TN: A few things:
1. While one could probably make comments about “ghosts in the machine” or make a whole listing about “internet history”, remember that this period in 1994/1995 was a major period of the evolution and popularization of computer communication, with the emergence of networks beyond mere text communication and the evolution of the modern “World Wide Web”…but we’re getting a tad ahead of ourselves for some later stories
2. “Urameshiya” is a word usually used in many ghost stories as the word that a ghost says. It has a meaning akin to “hateful” or “bitter” and is also used as a word for “haunted house” in Japanese due to the “ya” being a kanji that can be used for “house”.
3. Mt. Osore is a region in the center of Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture. Nicknamed “Mt. Fear” (due to “osore” being “fear” in Japanese), it is believed by many to be the actual location of the Sanzu River and the entrance to hell. It should be known better by those who have read Hiroyuki Takei’s “Shaman King” due to it’s shrines being a notable training location for itako due to their abilities to appease the spirits who wander around there)

TN: This chapter felt strange: sentimental, sad, but...also a tad strange. In particular, I was left with one lingering question: if Nube knew that there was supposed to be an extra student in the class, why didn't he just rest it and maybe even go to its funeral before it snuck into the class like that? The only real reason why I can see it not happening is that Nube probably didn't know until it was too late that the extra student wasn't going to show up, but at the same time sort of felt the guilt of not being able to have him/her and thus allowed for it to "join the class" as a ghost. Of course, it did end up leading to all the paranoia regarding the so-called spirit photographs but...we have a class where the supernatural is common so of course paranoia is always going to show up. One thing I really actually liked about this chapter, though, is that for once we actually seem to have an active, fulfilling usage of nearly every notable student in 5-3 that we've met by this point. We have seen a few chapters with a good chunk of the class active, but for the most part it's nearly cameos or them just being there at the time where it's usually "the main five" (or just Hiroshi or Kyouko) working with Nube. (see the bath-house chapter last time) But here we mostly do get Hiroshi, Kyouko, Miki and Katsuya doing stuff, but we also have notable appearances by Shuichi and Akira and mentions of Makoto and Kaneda. Heck, perhaps the most notable factor is that we finally get official introductions (as in actual names) to Noro-chan and Shizuka just so they could get that scene in the library! (at least they're now official members of the class...though as we've seen mostly with Shizuka and a bit with Noro-chan, they're probably mostly going to be "part of the class" from here on even though their existence has emerged officially) The chapter was good if allowing for a full-class participation...but it's that ghost matter that sort of bugged me.