Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 285

In a final effort for his schoolmates, Akashi sacrificed his life to protect the Otokojuku fighters from the wrath of Siegfried But with the battles back under Toudou's control, he is about to send them to a place even Edajima may fear...

Chp. 285: Shinken Temple!!

127.
Toudou: WAHHAHAHA: SURELY THIS SURPRISE WAS FROM A SURPRISING CORNER!! THAT FOOLISH MOVE OF THE CHIEF GAVE US AN UNEXPECTED RESULT!!
(TN: The very first line said by Toudou here involves the expression “Hyoutan kara koma”, which literally stands for “pieces from a gourd”, but is an expression that figuratively stands for “a surprising move from a surprising place”)
Toudou: THE DEATH OF AKASHI GOUJI, WHO WAS YOUR SOLE THIRD-YEAR, SHOULD BE QUITE A HARD BLOW TO OTOKOJUKU!
Edajima: Nuuu, y…you---!!
Toudou: AND NOW THE FOURTH TUSK THEY’RE HEADED TOWARDS WILL COME TO HAVE THEM TASTE THEIR FINAL DEFEAT!!
Toudou: SEE WHAT THIS IS, EDAJIMA!!

128.
Edajima: Nu!!
Edajima: Wh…what……!? It…it can’t be, that crest mark is…………!!
Toudou: WAHHAHA: EVEN YOU THAT IS BEING PLAYED HAS HAD HIS COMPLEXION CHANGE!! RIGHT: THAT’S THE FOURTH TUSK!! THE PLACE THAT WILL BE THE GRAVE OF ALL OF OTOKOJUKU!!
Edajima: Th…they can’t!!
Edajima: TH…THEY CAN’T GO TO JUST THERE---!!

129.
(Title page…such a tragedy losing two long-standing characters in a short time…)

130.
Hakuhou: Those a**holes---!! Where are they planning to fly us in this helicopter--!!
Pharaoh: Yeah—it’s irritating.
Gobarski: Right: It’s already been a half day somehow or another since we flew from that prison.
Hakuhou: Don’t you think that it seems like that Toramaru has somehow changed?
Pharaoh: Yes, I seem to feel it too.
Pharaoh: His previous comedicness is hiding in the shadows and he is showing some sort of calm……
Hakuhou: Yeah, in one round, he’s seems to have become a greater man.
Momotarou: The death of Togashi and the death of Akashi-senpai………his fighting spirit that surmounted his sadness has changed Tormaru…!!
Announcer: An informing for the Gentlemen passengers!! From here this plain is entering landing conditions.

131.
Toramaru: Alright, let’s go!!
Toramaru: Guwa!!
Pharaoh: He…he hasn’t changed much.
Momotarou: Fufu: he’s fine like that.
Hakuhou: Ooh---!! Wh…what an amazing mist………

132.
Otokojuku Students: !!

133.
Pharaoh: A…a temple…e…even so, it’s absurdly huge……
Momotarou: Is…is it here: the battleground of the Battle of Seven Tusks’ Fourth Tusk………
Pharaoh: L…look at that crest mark drawn on the door!! This is quite a strange design.
Raiden: ……!!
Other Fighters: ……!
Pharaoh: Nn--!? Wh…what’s wrong: everyone’s complexion is bad. Ha…Hakuhou, e…even you…………!!

134.
Hien: It…it can’t be……!! It…it can’t be we’re here…!!
Momotarou: You know of this, Hien!? This isn’t a trivial matter in the surprise of all of you that have knowledge of Chinese Kenpou, including you.
Hien: Le…let’s go. Wh…when we open that door, all should be understood.
Hien: If…if my thoughts are correct…we…we’ve come to a place we can never come to!!
Momotarou: ………

135.
Gobarski: It…it’s huge!! Wh…what a large gate.
Momotarou: Even so, this tremendous bloodthirst that is being emitted from the other side of that gate is!?
Voice: OPEN THE GATE---!!

136.-137.
Pharaoh: Wh…what---!! Th…this is---!!

138.
Everyone: ………
Pharaoh: Wh…what exactly are they………!!
Momotarou: It seems they are this temple’s ascetic monks………!!

139.
Momotarou: !!
Voice: YOU’VE COME WELL, GENTLEMEN OF OTOKOJUKU!!
(TN: This is not the typical “shokun” used for “gentlemen”, this “Gentlemen” is “Shoshi”, which is also used for “Chinese sages or their works”, partially tied to those like Confucius and Mencius)
“Kennou”: I AM THE 75TH KENNOU OF THE HEAD TEMPLE OF SHINKEN TEMPLE!! I WELCOME YOU!!
(TN: A couple things:
-“Kennou” = “Fist Emperor”; while there are many ways this can be used, one funny bit of trivia is that the same kanji combination is used for the Chinese title of the “King of Fighter” video game series by SNK originally introduced in 1994. BTW: this is not to be confused with “ken-ou”, the title of the “Fist King” in Buronson/Tetsuo Hara’s “Hokuto no Ken”, notably used as the nickname of major villain Raoh.
-“Shinken Temple” or “Shinkenji” literally translates into “God-Fist Temple”; in particular, you should note that the “Shinken” here is similar to the “Shinken” used in “Hokuto no Ken”…which actually works as a reference to the classic WSJ series compared to the “Kennou/Ken-ou” bit I just mentioned above)

140.
“Kennou”: SO, YOU SHOULD COME CLOSE AND APPROACH. YOU’LL HAVE A HARD TIME HEARING MY SPEECH FROM THERE!!
Momotarou: The…the Kennou of Shinken Temple---!!
Other Fighters: So…so then!!
Raiden & Hien: This is the legendary Shinken Temple!!
Momotarou: Let’s go!!
Momotarou: Tell me, Raiden: all of you were frightened that much about it. What exactly is this Shinken Temple!?

141.
Raiden: Shi…Shinken Temple………Th…this is a place that should be called the sacred region, so you say, to those of who have mastered the martial arts of Chinese Kenpou………
Raiden: There are various factions of Chinese Kenpou, which possesses three-thousand years of history and now has been diverged into tens of thousands, and Shinken Temple is the headwaters of all of them; in short: it’s Chinese Kenpou’s origin land. Even in the present, they have an existence where their absolute power controls all of the various factions and should be called the symbol of the Kenpou world…and Kennou, the head of this Shinken Temple, is the man who reigns at the top and possesses the strongest fight, as the name says.
Raiden: In this sacred region, just those who have qualities that have mastered and excelled in the essence of the fist assemble from the whole nation of China and continue their intense training that should be called super-human.
Raiden: If all of us were to be compared to them, we’re still all the equivalent of babies. This here really isn’t a place where we should be treading.
Momotarou: Raiden, a man of your extent saying up to that is…

142.-143.
“Kennou”: FU, YOU DO KNOW ABOUT ME. IN FRONT OF ME, I CAN HEARE UP TO HERE THE INCREASES OF YOUR PULSES.
“Kennou”: THE FLOPPY DISK THAT YOU ALL WANT IS HERE. IF YOU WANT TO OBTAIN IT, YOU WILL DEFEAT ME.
“Kennou”: BUT BEFORE THEN, I WILL TEST TO SEE IF YOU HAVE VALUE OR NOT IN CROSSING FISTS WITH ME.
Momotarou: !!
“Kennou”: YOU WILL BE FIGHTING THESE THREE KENSHI!!
(TN: Since I’ve been going along the formal Japanese with Shinken Temple, I decided to keep “Kenshi” in Japanese; it literally translates into “Fist Warriors”)
“Kennou”: JINSHOU!! CHISHOU!! GISHOU!!
(TN: A slight note: the first kanji of the three guardians of Shinken Temple are of various attributes and have to be noted, though they all share the “Shou” that has a reading of “reed”:
-“Jin” = “Benevolence”
-“Chi” = “Wisdom”
-“Gi” = “Justice”/”Honor”)

144.
“Kennou”: ALL OF THESE THREE ARE ASSISSTANT INSTRUCTORS WHO HAVE MASTERED THE SECRETS OF THIS SHINKEN TEMPLE. I WILL HAVE NO OBJECTION AT ALL EVEN IF ALL OF YOU COME AFTER THEM UNANIMOUSLY.
Voice: Shut up! You’re giving all of these bombastic air of importance.
“Kennou”: !!
Date: I don’t know about this Kennou of Shinken Temple, but at any rate you’ve made a transaction with the “Dark Tusks” with money.

145.
Voice: DA…DATE---!!
Date: Come!! The one who is testing all of you is me!!
Raiden: He…he doesn’t know…………Da…Date-dono will receive the true terror of here……

TN: It's really hard for me to say anything about how the chapter ends. I don't really know if it's a good or a bad thing that Date doesn't know about Shinken Temple...I mean, he has been with the Sanmenken (all Chinese Kenpou masters) all this time and has been trained in some of it's ways, but I guess with his raising it probably wasn't a formal education...that's what I've inferred with what we've learned about him. Regardless, it's nice to see Date headed into battle for what could be the last time in a place that essentially is "legendary" by Otokojuku standards...though somehow or another one nagging feeling comes into my head: why in the world is someplace so sacred and legendary only the Fourth Tusk? If they're as powerful as claimed, you'd probably expect them to be at least the Fifth Tusk, maybe even the Sixth! But...with how the series was falling apart by this point, I guess Miyashita probably wanted to sneak this in before whatever was possibly going to happen with what was going on by this point. BTW: is it just me or is the series strangely coming full circle with it's relevency with "Hokuto no Ken"? I mean, last chapter we had the death of a character originally introduced as "just stepping out of that series", and now we have a "Shinken" temple and a "Kennou"...not sure if it was intentional or not but it is neat to know.