Hell Teacher Nube 67

There is a saying of "do unto others as others do unto you". While Nube tries to do the right thing all the time, sometimes the things he does have unexpected circumstances...like reviving a "peculiar" youkai with a strange favor to ask...

#67: A Mermaid’s Returning-Favor

152.
Oshou: I have a thing I certainly want to show you today. It emerged when I was cleaning the cellar but
Sign: Doumori Temple (behind the school)
Oshou: It’s this!
Nube: That!?
Oshou: Decisively! It’s a mermaid mummy!
Kyouko & Miki: Mermaid!
Nube: He’s lying~~more like he’s attached the corpses of a monkey and a fish.

153.
Nube: Generally, isn’t this mermaid in the Sheesh Pose?
©Fujio Productions
(TN: The “character” that Nube imagines the mermaid mocking is Iyami, a notable character from Fujio Akatsuka’s long-running manga “Osomatsu-kun”, which placed this gag mangaka on the map. One of Iyami’s most notable features is his usage of the “Sheesh Pose”, where he raises his arms and legs as seen in that “caption” and yelling “sheesh” (shee).)
Oshou: That’s chance!
Oshou: According to this ancient document, a mermaid has an extremely strong life force and the person who eats her flesh is said to become eternally young and immortal.
Caption:
*Priestess Happyaku: Said to have eaten the flesh of a mermaid and was young even after 800 years.
Oshou: If this is genuine, then we’ll sell it high to a TV channel and make a large profit!
SFX: Supo
Nube: Huh, he arbitrarily took the Oni no Te’s seal!
Oshou: Pour spiritual power into it. If it’s real, then it should return to life!
Nube: This is stupid…I’ll just show I am.
SFX: Bari bari bari
Oshou: By the way: when this mermaid was alive, she was a super-beauty with a 90 bust, 57 waist and 85 hips.
(TN: Converting it to English measurements, she was 35/22/33 by rounding…if you round up so it would all fit: 36/23/34)
Nube: Eh? (heart)
SFX: Bari bari bari bari

154.
Narrator: 30 minutes later
Nube: He~~he~~he~~
Oshou: Strange~~it hasn’t revived at all.
Hiroshi: It was a fake after all.
Narrator: That night.
“Mermaid”: Aah, I’m revived. I’ve been revived. Thanks to that man giving his spiritual power.
SFX: Shuu shuu…
SFX: Bata bata
“Mermaid”: This favor will certainly be returned
SFX: Suu…

155.
“Mermaid”: There is a returning favor that can be done by I as a mermaid: eating my flesh and blood and becoming eternally young and immortal…!
(TN: The main concept in this chapter regarding the mermaid is one that is exemplified by the Japanese word “ongaeshi”, where a favor by one to another is returned by another favor by the one who took the first favor to the one who performed it to them.
SFX: Kuo~~~~n
Narrator: The next day
Students: Goodbye~~bye-by—e.
SFX: Don | to!
“Student”: Be careful
Book: 9th Grade English
(TN: The “textbook” mentions “Chuu 3” as in “3rd Grade of Middle School”, AKA: 9th Grade)
Hiroshi: You’re the one who should be careful! Reading a book while walking!
Nube: It’s because it’s exam season. Exam-prep students in this season are getting nervous.
(TN: Japan’s whole culture of “exams” and “exam preparation” should be rather notable as of now: due to the immense difficulty to enter many of the best schools in the country, particularly with high schools and universities, many students spend tons of time preparing for the exams, leading to massive amounts of stress and nerves)
SFX: Zoro zoro zoro

156.
Nube: Taking an exam is terrible. Amidst it are people who become strange with neurosis…
SFX: Ba!
“Mermaid”: Um…
“Mermaid”: Please…please eat me. I give my body to you!
SFX: Ado ado | Moji moji
(TN: The “ado ado” seems more like SFX than hesitance by the mermaid, but use as your discretion)

157.
Nube: You: you can’t awaken despair from the pain of studying for several exams! Come with me for a bit!
Sign: I am a teacher
SFX: Zun zun zun
“Mermaid”: Eh? Um
Nube: Fine! In your life this time now…boys get old easily but study isn’t accomplished easily.
(TN: Nube’s expression here [obviously misrepresented since…well, yeah, a mermaid] is the English translation of the expression “Shounen Oiyasuku Gaku Narigatashi”. The expression shows the importance of studying in your youth since it becomes way harder to learn and study when you get older.)
SFX: Don!
“Mermaid”: My returning favor--…
Kyouko: This is terrible—
Nube: S**t~~it was an unnecessary expense…
Hiroshi: Thanks for the food.
“Mermaid”: Why……? Right: I wasn’t easy to eat.
Sign: Fish
(TN: The “Fish” wasn’t just a generic term but actually “Gyoniku” or “fish meat”)
“Mermaid”: Um…do you like sashimi?
(TN: Sashimi is a delicacy where raw seafood is sliced into pieces and served as is with only an accompanying sauce)
Nube: Eh? Yes, I do like it but

158.
“Mermaid”: Well, help yourself (heart)
SFX: Pan
Nube: You dummy
“Mermaid”: Ow

159.
Nube: Why do you humble your life like that? What would you do dying because you don’t have the confidence in passing into the school of your choice!
“Mermaid”: Um…
Hiroshi: Its fine, miss: if you do your best, you’ll pass.
“Mermaid”: Right.
Kyouko: Because even Nube got into college.
“Mermaid”: Um—(to herself) My returning favor………
Sign: Prayers for Success
“Tags” on Mermaid: Pass | Pass into Toudai
Stone: Doumori Shrine
“Mermaid”: Do…do you like yakizakana?
(TN: “Yakizakana” is a grilled fish dish, usually involving skewering a fish with a stick and then grilling it over an open flame)
Hiroshi: She’s still at it.
Nube: Ignoring, ignoring.
SFX: Jobo jobo jobo
Sign: Ootaki Oil
SFX: Kachi (Click)

160.
Nube: Nuoo~~
“Mermaid”: Um, you like it rare?
SFX: Zabu—n
Nube: Buha
SFX: Zaba
Nube: You can’t die, you can’t! You’re stupid if you die from an exam neurosis.
Kyouko: Nube!

161.
SFX: Bita bita
“Mermaid”: A—w, if I get wet in water, my tail…
Hayame: My name is Hayame. The mermaid who was given spiritual power by you and returned to life.
Nube: You were going to have me eat your flesh and gain eternal youth and immortality for that.
Hayame: Because a mermaid doesn’t die as long as they don’t lose their head.
Hiroshi: But if you told us so from the start…

162.
Hayame: Ah, your button is coming off.
SFX: Chiku chiku chiku
Nube: She’s a docile, nice girl.
Nube: But I say she’s dumb to the head. (my hand can’t come out)
Caption: Sewed to the cuff.
Hayame: Yes, he spoke well of me.
Hiroshi: She’s worse than me…
Kyouko: Though her face is cute…
Hayame: Two-hundred years ago, I was called out by the brightness of a town festival and came up to the land, but
Hayame: I dried up in the mountains without knowing the way back to the sea…
SFX: Hi—n shiku shiku shiku
Nube: So—go home.

163.
Hayame: Ah, please wait, I still have to return the favor.
Nube: Sorry, but I’m not interested in any eternal youth or immortality.
Nube: Becoming eternally young and immortal is a thing that shouldn’t happen to people. I rather live my life by my limits as a human over obtaining eternal life.
Hiroshi: Eeh!? Nube, are those human intentions thought by a half-youkai…
Kyouko: If you become immortal, then may be able to get married about once in several centuries.
Nube: Hey, you’re fussy! I’m fine like this!

164.
Nube: That’s how it is. Well, please return to the sea before you dry up again.
Hayame: He’s a nice guy…! No matter how many returning favors, it can’t be done for this nice guy.
SFX: Zaza—
Hayame: I really am quite useless…I’m always stupid and clumsy…
Nube: Just your feelings are enough. Be well.

165.
Voice: Kyaaa~~~
Mother: My boy! My boy is
SFX: Zazaza
Boy: Mama--!
Hiroshi: Nube!
SFX: Ba
Kyouko: You can do this, Nube, just a bit more
SFX: Zapaa

166.
Hiroshi: Nube!!
Hiroshi: Nube
Kyouko: He crashed into a tetrapod…he broke his ribs and his lungs are
(TN: A “tetrapod” is a four-legged concrete structure used as an armor unit in breakwater, dissipating the force of waves to allow water to flow around it, not against it)
Mother: I’ll call an ambulance.
Kyouko: Nube, hold on!
Hayame: Uh…um…I will save him. Please let me do it.
Kyouko: ! You can’t make give him eternal youth and immortality.

167.
Hayame: No, I’ll just treat the wound with my blood. You won’t be eternally young and immortal.
SFX: Butsu
Kyouko: Hi!?
Hayame: Mother Sea, lend me your power. Life, take a piece of power from the sea of origin.

168.
Nube: It’s a miracle…not even the wound remains…
Hayame: Was that useful?
SFX: Peshi peshi
Nube: Yes, it’s a magnificent power.
Hayame: I’m glad. Even if it’s a bit, I just delighted you.
SFX: Dobon! (Splash)

169.
Hayame: Again, if you ever want to be eternally young or immortal, please call me. Because I haven’t said that I’ve returned yet that favor received from teacher…
SFX: Zapaaa...n

170.
SFX: Zaaaa
Nube: That…Hayame…!
Hiroshi: She’s a good youkai. A tad out there ubt
Nube: Yeah.
Nube: But the power of her blood truly is magnificent.
Hiroshi: It is.
Narrator: However, there was an unthinkable secondary effect…
Nube: Um—5 X 7 is 45…huh?
SFX: Zo—
Hiroshi: It seems that mermaid’s blood makes your head dumb.
Kyouko: It’s really good that he didn’t eat her flesh.

TN: Alright, poll time...and be honest: if a really cute girl suddenly runs up to you, announces sweetly "please eat me" and does so while fidgeting and lifting her skirt showing her panties, what do you do? Yeah...I think most of us would mis-interpreted it whether or not you know that it is a mermaid or not. I think essentially the whole first few pages of this whole chapter was mostly a set-up for that moment, so that the readers themselves wouldn't get the wrong impression about Hayame's little "request". We would know she's a mermaid, she was revived by Nube, and she would want to be "eaten" just so she could give him eternal life...because without that part, everyone would get the wrong idea and Nube would suddenly find itself utterly banned or thrown into a seinen magazine.

With that said, this was another really fun, sweet chapter akin to the one regarding Yukibe a couple chapters ago. As I may have mentioned a few times, Hayame did have huge support even from her first appearance...and you can probably understand why. With a face that sweet and a mind that slow, it's hard not to love her! She's probably the only character who could literally just get away with pointing a knife at herself like that...let alone a lot of the nudity bits that she pulls. (and that's not saying anything considering...well, I won't tell you but we get something just as [or more] perverted from her next time, but of course Hayame doesn't know any better so it never feels that way) Though strangely I have to agree with Nube: who wants to live forever anyway? I get that immortality is a constantly debated concept in shonen regarding it's existence and whether or not it's a good thing, but for the most part Nube is just so much caring about being human that he rather just stay one even with his "youkai parts". All in all, I'm extremely happy for this chapter but at the same time happy that I finally was able to get to Hayame instead of just hiding her.

Besides, we all would probably misinterpret her request sooner or later. With a face and body like hers...