Hell Teacher Nube 121

Many people wish to have the power of the divine befall upon them, but that may be a proposition for danger! When a perennial failure ends up getting the help of a god, is this the answer to all his prayers...or just a blood-stained fate!?

#121: The Fresh-Blood Stigmata

154.
Katsuya: Oooh…
Hiroshi: Oooooh
Katsuya: He he he: well everyone, Hell Teacher Nube this time
Hiroshi: Is by no means a zombie story…
Noriko: Today is the math Merit Test.
Katsuya: Hi~~
Hiroshi: Gyaaa
Noriko: The boys in our class have been lowering our average scores.
Shizuka: In particular there seems to be about three kids who are always under 30.
Katsuya: Oooh…
Hiroshi: Ooooh…
Noriko: Oh well, I wonder who they are?
Shizuka: There’s no merit in them living.
Katsuya: Shiku shiku… (weep weep…)
Hiroshi: Shiku… (weep…)

155.
Katsuya: Ah—no way, no way; why are there tests in this world? (Haa~~)
Hiroshi: Agreed.
Hiroshi: N?
Shrine Sign: Dedication
(TN: “Dedication” or “Hounou”, is an inscription found on certain small shrines scattered through Japan)
Hiroshi: Hey, Makoto, you’re crafty in making a request to a god.
SFX: Guri guri
Makoto: Right—right—you’re one of the “Under-30 Great Trio”.

156.
Makoto: Hmph! Don’t be malicious! I’m different from you two who gave up from the start and are doing nothing!
SFX: Ki!
SFX: Chari—n
Makoto: U~~n un, please give me a 100, U~~n un.
SFX: Chari—n
Makoto: U~~n un, even a 50 is fine.
Hiroshi: Don’t go swaggering. Isn’t this just praying to god--?
SFX: Guwashi | Gon!
Katsuya: This sort of thing is relying on others to attain your objective!
(TN: “Relying upon others to obtain your own objectives” is the Japanese expression “Tariki Hongan”, which has a similar meaning of “asking for salvation by faith in Amida Buddha”)
SFX: Paa…
Hiroshi: How about that? Don’t turn traitor on us! The three of us have a cooperative destiny!
Katsuya: Right--! If we’re men, then we’ll get 0s like men!!
(TN: Katsuya’s “like men” here is in Japanese “Isagiyoku” which is “manly” or “bravely”)
Makoto: Hey, hey……

157.
Nube: Alright: we’ll be holding the merit test from here. Do this diligently with all your power!
Nube: Start! (Guu guu)
Makoto: I have no ideas of this after all.
Caption: Seating order is different at times of tests.
Hiroshi: ?
SFX: Jiwa…jiwa…

158.
SFX: Jiwa--…
Hiroshi: Hey, that’s a bruise…is it? (whisper whisper)
Katsuya: Is it? (whisper whisper)
Hiroshi: But…they’re possibly.
Hiroshi: The answers!
SFX: Kari kari kari
Katsuya: Yes! It’s something I don’t get but we’re lucky!
Makoto: N~~u~~m, hmm hmm…
SFX: Zozo~~
Makoto: Wh…what are you doing?
Hiroshi: Shh! How about listening? You’re the most useful person in existence right now!

159.
Makoto: Eeh!? The answers are on my body!?
Hiroshi: Right! I’m certain it’s ESP. Hey, the characters were written when you scratched your back somehow with your fingernails. That sort of feeling is rising upwards.
SFX: Hiso hiso hiso (whisper whisper whisper)
Boy: I’ll look at it too later.
Hiroshi: OK
Students: Ooh~~
Hiroshi: Service, service!

160.
SFX: Paki
Nube: Which youkai did it this time? Was it the Zashiki Warashi of good fortune?
Hiroshi: Nube, don’t doubt your students.
Kyouko: Right—right--! Treat all of us to yamakake.
(TN: “Yamakake” is a general term for any food topped with yams, usually as seen with fish like tuna or red snapper)
Nube: Really…? Everyone else anyhow…even Hiroshi, Katsuya and Makoto…?
Hiroshi: Gyahahahaha!
Katsuya: Tests are going to be fun from here on.
Makoto: Those were handy bruises. When class ended, they disappeared.

161.
Katsuya: Well, aren’t there other things known by those bruises? For example
Sign; Tomorrow’s weather
Makoto: Tomorrow’s weather!
Katsuya: From here on, you’re going to be active with your ability.
Hiroshi: Right: you’ll have perception as you walk and live. In the future, we’ll be going to Toudai as a trio.
(TN: “Toudai” is in reference to University of Tokyo, one of the most prestigious universities in Asia and one of the top 20 in the world)
Makoto: Ai ai, sir! (Hiroshi…what would you do going to Toudai…)
Makoto: Uh…
SFX: Dara
Makoto’s forehead: Hare (Clear)

162.
Katsuya: B…blood!?
Makoto: Hi hi
Sign: Clear
Hiroshi: Hey—is this a blood-letting match---!?
Makoto: Noo~~~!!
“Voice”: Idiots!
Caption: The next day
Nube: Why did you three cause that disaster? This is best to discuss immediately…You’re getting a 0 on yesterday’s test.
Makoto, Hiroshi & Katsuya: We’re sorry.
Nube: Blood came out? Shouldn’t there be a wound or something?
Makoto: It disappeared along with the bruise.
Nube: It can’t be that stupid thing.

163.
Nube: …No, hold on…is it a stigmata?
Makoto: Sing my way?
Nube: A thing that’s like a bruise placed by God.
(TN: This gag is another one of those that only really works in Japanese that I was forced to change to make it work in English. The Japanese word of “Stigmata”, which is what Makoto had, is “Seikon”. However, when Makoto hears that, he thinks that it is “Matsuda Seiko” (he pronounced it though as “Matsuda Seiko n?”), a pop singer-songwriter known as the “Eternal Idol” who was popular throughout the 1980s and remains popular even today)
Nube: Generally, there are famous examples where a cross of blood rises up on the hands and feet of devout Christians, but there are also people who have rise up wounds similar to those taken on the Cross by Christ, but they heal immediately.
(TN: A little bit more on the general “stigmata”: for the most part they more correspond to the latter example, regarding the sprouting of wounds similar to those possessed by Jesus when nailed to the cross he was crucified on by the Romans. In some cases, all five of Jesus’ “Holy Wounds” are seen, which includes all four limbs and one to the chest, and even some who have a stigmata of his “crown of thorns”. [Though to some the wounds weren’t really authentic and only were mentioned in connection to Christianity’s concept of Jesus’ resurrection as a means to build his spiritual power in his faith] To those who possess the stigmata, they are considered as close as they are to their “Christ” as they possibly can possess. The most famous stigmata occurred to St. Francis of Assisi, who possessed the wounds of Jesus at one point two years before his death)
Nube: But then, things that are like oracles from a God aren’t reasonably limited to Christianity. November, 1913: there was an incident where answers to questions floated up as drawings and letters on a certain girl in France; and Marie-Julie Jahenney of Canada had appear characters that gave praise to the Cross and and the drawing of a flower on her body.
(TN: I think there was a bit of a confusion regarding the various girls mentioned here and “Marie-Julie Jahenny”, who actually did receive stigmata but is notable of receiving those of a Christian origin…and was actually tied to France [she was Briton of origin]. Born in 1850, Jahenney received several stigmata in 1873, including the Five Wounds, the Crown of Thorns and wounds around the head and shoulder akin to those of the death of Jesus, which she bore for the rest of her life up to death in 1941. She claimed to have various supernatural powers due to her connection to the Christian God, including her own prophecies about the Christian concepts of the “End of Days”. Unless there is another Marie-Julie Jahenny out there who is Canadian and also possessed a non-Christian stigmata, I merely will state that it was just a bit of confusion on the author’s part)

164.
Nube: Didn’t you do a thing where you could come to some divine possession?
Makoto: Now you mention it…yesterday, I made a prayer at a broken-down shrine…
Nube: I don’t know whether that’s the source or not but…I’ll go make an investigation after school…
Makoto: Alright…
SFX: Gaya gaya
Kaneda: Hey—did you see yesterday’s “Kiken Sentai Kakukakuranger”?
Henchman: I did, I did! There was a one-on-one showdown of Kakured and Chilhac Shogun, who was experimenting with a bomb!
(TN: Somehow I think that the “Chilhac Shogun” reference may be another weird reference back to “Ninja Sentai Kakuranger”, the Sentai series that “Kakukakuranger” is parodying as mentioned in vol. 9. From the structure of “Shiraaku”, it sounds like it could be in reference to “Gasha Dokuro”, the skeleton-like prince who at one point leads the Youkai army the Kakuranger are facing. Though one slight comment: while “shogun” is Japanese for “General” while used as a term in itself, several of the mecha used in Kakuranger do have a “shogun” theme when fused together so…that’s just a tad strange hearing that here)
Makoto: Wh…which of them won, Chilhac Shogun or Kakured!?
Kaneda: What, you didn’t see—it?
Makoto: I forgot about TV with my head filled with the stigmata yesterday.
Kaneda: Du—mmy, I won’t tell ya--! Think about that through your life!

165.
Makoto: Damn—I want to know, I want to know—
SFX: Jitanda jitanda jitanda
SFX: Biha
Makoto: Huh?
SFX: Bishi bishi bishi | Baku..
Makoto: Gyaaaaa
Makoto: Hiii~~my…my flesh is tearing~~it hurts, it hurts~~!!
Makoto’s back: Kakured

166.
Nube: Those are…terrible wounds.
Nube: But…it’s a stigmata after all. It’s going to heal…
SFX: Shuu…shuuu…
Hiroshi: What’s going on, Nube? It’s gradually getting worse.
Nube: Well, it’s already after school and I didn’t say it was going to be leisureful. From here, I’m going to that shrine immediately. Don’t have Makoto thinking too much.
Nube: But what exactly is this God? It’s giving those excessive oracles…doesn’t it know how to suppress its power…?
Nube: It truly should be in this area but

167.
Nube: !!
SFX: Gagaga | Baki baki…
Makoto: What will I do if another stigmata appears?
Kyouko: It’ll be fine: it’s best that you don’t give questions to the God by thinking nothing.
SFX: U~~kankankan
Katsuya: N?
Hiroshi: A fire?
Boy: Hey! Makoto, it’s terrible! Isn’t that the direction of your house!?
Makoto: Eh?
Makoto: Aah

168.
Makoto: Wh…what’s going on…my house…is mama safe? Mama!!
Hiroshi: Put it aside, Makoto, don’t think about it! You can’t ask a question!
Makoto: I’m worried, I want to know—
SFX: Doba
Makoto: Gyaaa
SFX: Goro goro
Makoto: Hiiii
SFX: Pishi pasha
Stigmata: Mama is

169.
Makoto: Gyaaa
SFX: Biki biki Baki
Hiroshi & Kyouko: Makoto—
Hiroshi: The stigmata is his whole body…will he be alright--!!
Kyouko: Kyaaaa!!
SFX: Bushu biki boshu

170.
Nube: Stop this! Don’t destroy it!
Construction worker: Hey, what are you doing?
Nube: This is the Shintai of the shrine? I’ll communicate with this and talk to the God of the shrine.
(TN: A “shintai”, also known by the honorific “Goshintai” is a physical object in or near a shrine where the Kami/God/Spirit resides. They aren’t the God themselves, but a temporary repository for which the God can reside for people to worship them. Thus the purpose of the shrine is to protect the sacred object of the God)
Nube: Understood: the reason is that the stigmata was presented by the grace of the God because of Makoto praying with enthusiasm to the God of this shirne, who was completely forgotten with no signs of life. However, the God of this shrine isn’t a high-ranking God even with its flattery…
SFX: Paa
Nube: God of the shrine, you’re using your power unreasonably and can’t control it…it is making Makoto suffer. Now please stop sending your power to Makoto!

171.
SFX: Dokun | Pushuuu | Dokun
SFX: Bishu bishu
Hiroshi: Ge…it’s returning…
Kyouko: Like a video playing in reverse.
Makoto: ?
Narrator: The power of divine possession given by God isn’t always limited to just things that are useful to humans.
Nube: I’m going to make you a new shrine. (to himself) Oh brother, there goes my salary again.
(TN: I really didn’t know what to make of Nube’s thought here, but he said that “his salary would be par again”, which makes it sounds like his salary was going to be used for making the shrine…and thus he would have little to nothing as usual. Thus the reason why I ended up with this line, but I do think there probably is a better line to use somehow)
Narrator: Among them are messages that are accompanied by agony like a stigmata…

TN: Well the perfect record for the volume seems to stay in tact after this chapter...but it did nearly end with this chapter and what it pulled. In a way, the idea of Makoto being assisted by a bloody stigmata that slowly got worse and worse by the usage was an original and freakish idea considering that it was his good intention that nearly...well, got him killed. He probably really should have figured a way to stop it when Japanese characters started to get engraved upon his forehead...but unfortunately, that's where the chapter sort of nearly became a problem for me. From the beginning to Nube's explanation to Makoto, the chapter was interesting, if a tad freaky (well...mostly for all of the weird Makoto moments like him being nude with all the test answers...or cross-dressing into a girl) But once Makoto learned of the stigmata and kept using it unintentionally...that nearly became the chapter's downfall. Maybe the "Kakukakuranger" incident was innocent enough, but considering he probably could have waited to find out the answer instead of getting so obsessed that his flesh started to rip apart to give the answer really should have been the final warning to stop asking questions until Nube found the source in the broken-down shrine. Likewise, while you can give Makoto some concern regarding the fire that nearly did him in, that was just way too coincidental to just allow for the kid to reach breaking point before Nube found the mirror Shintai. There is such a thing as being concerned...and there's such a thing as driving a chapter along to reach the critical point before everything is settled. I just sort of wished there was another way they could have had Makoto reach that point without the stupid fire bit...but I guess they just wanted Makoto to explode in blood before Nube calmed the God down and got the power taken away from him.

BTW: even if the chapter was all about Makoto, the thing was upstaged in the first page with the "zombie/merit test" bit. Though...you do have to wonder why Shizuka is so cruel about those three. (at least Noro-chan is more reserved and doesn't know or care on who the problem was)