Hell Teacher Nube 123

When something strange falls from the sky, what do you think caused it? While strange theories have emerged about their sources, Shuichi may have figured out one so bizarre...it may just be literally from a work of fiction!

Vol. 15: Zashiki Warashi’s Sorrowful Past
#123: The Island Flying in the Sky – Laputa

8.
Voice: One two!
Hiroshi: Three four, one two!
Hiroshi: Three four one two!
SFX: Pu—n pu—n
Miki: What’s with Nube, he’s looks foolish.
Kyouko: He seems like he hasn’t eaten anything with it the day before payday. And further it’s because he hasn’t even eaten school lunch with three consecutive holidays.
Noriko: He’s a pitiful teacher as ever…

9.
Nube: I want to eat okashira-tsuki.
(TN: “okashira-tsuki” is a cooked fish that looks fully intact, usually served on special occasions, in particular “sea bream”.)
Hiroshi: One two! Three four!
SFX: Kira
Nube: Sea bream okashira-tsuki. Sea bream.
Nube: I want to eat...it…
SFX: Hyu—
SFX: Bita—n!

10.
SFX: Dodododododododo | Boto boto boto
SFX: Gogogogogogogo
Akira: It’s…fish, why are they falling from the sky!?
Noriko: Noo~~this feels ba~~d.
Kyouko: It’s a weird phenomenon. Nube may know of this. Nube, what is this…!?

11.
Kyouko: Nu…
SFX: Dodododo…
Nube: Yahoo yahoo Hi—hihihi
Kyouko: Hey, Nube, isn’t fish from the sky strange…
Nube: Eh? What’s that?
Kyouko: So then the fish…
Nube: Why is that?
SFX: Ju—ju—
Miki: It’s no good.
Voice: It’s the island of Laputa.
Shuichi: The island flying in the sky that appeared in Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. It’s a giant sky-city 7 km in diameter and even people live on it…the phenomenon of various things falling from the sky is they’re falling from Laputa.
(TN: We’re going to learn a lot more about Laputa in this chapter and the Weird File [not to mention it’s connection to a certain film by Hayao Miyazaki], but I do want to mention a slight note about Jonathan Swift and his most famous work, “Gulliver’s Travels”. (Known in Japanese as “Gulliver Ryokoki”, which is a literal translation with “Ryokoki” being “a log of one’s travels”). Originally published in 1726, Swift wrote it as a parody of the “traveller’s tales” genre of novel that was popular in the 18th century. In many ways, the book is a parody of various aspects of his society, including aspects of European government and of “ancient vs. modern” as seen in his period of time and Gulliver’s own transformation from one cheerful about human nature to one who is a misanthrope who sees all of man’s faults akin to those of his journeys. Aside from Laputa, Gulliver also ended up visiting the tiny kingdom of Lilliput, the giant realm of Brobdingnag and the wild realms of the Houynhnhnms and Yahoos…and even once visited Japan!)

12.
Shuichi: According to Swift, an island that was called Balnibarbi that had come to go up into the sky, but records that said it was seen as a city that was floating in the sky had come to be found around the world.
(TN: There is a weird confusion here regarding Laputa and Balnibarbi: while both are in Gulliver’s Travels, they are two separate islands and not the same thing. Laputa is the only flying island of the duo, while Balnibarbi was an island Gulliver ended up landing on in the Pacific (he ended up going to Laputa actually near India but a bit will explain the connection in the Weird File) after escaping Laputa and where he was forced to wait for passage to Japan in order to sail back to England. But then again…since it is Shuichi talking, he may be making this up without knowing the full knowledge of the various islands in this segment of the novel)
Shuichi: It is said to be one of the seven mysteries of the world.
Hiroshi: Alright, with phys-ed as self-study, we’ll play dodgeball—
Students: Wa—
Kyouko: Let’s do it, let’s do it.
Shuichi: Hey, precisely listen t a person’s story! A treasure of gold and silver is hidden like a mountain on Laputa!
Hiroshi: Ignoring, ignoring
Katsuya: Really, Shuichi is an otaku of the extraordinary.
Shuichi: Chi…petty bourgeoisie!
(TN: Shuichi’s expression here of “petty bourgeoisie” is “Shoushimin”, which also translates to “lower-middle class”)
Nube: Everyone doesn’t dream…I believe you, Shuichi.
Shuichi: Eeh!? Really, Nube!?
Nube: Aah, really. (A mountain of gold and silver, uhehehehe…)
Shuichi: …

13.
Nube: There is a mountain of examples about mysterious falling things from the sky.
Sign: Library
Nube:
-The famous one is fish: they start with them falling for three consecutive days in the Casonithus region of Greece in ancient times and in recent years there was recorded 53 examples in Issue 10 of International Photo Journal.
-1896: hundreds of chickens fell around the area of Baton Rouge in the state of Louisiana in America.
-1973: tens of thousands of toads fell in the town of Brignoles in southern France.
-Also, there have been examples of things other than living creatures such as nails, coins, works of arts and giant construction material falling and destroying buildings.
(TN: A few things:
-First of all, I could not find a correct translation of the term “Casonithus” that was written in Japanese. I tried every possible source I could think of and no results could be found at this time. I translated it as best as I could, but no further action can be done about it at this time. The full Japanese pronounced it as “Kaasoniizasu”
-While it was hard to find some of the other incidents, the “rain of toads” is an actual one that happened: in a freak storm on September 23, 1973, young toads fell on the town of Brignoles while toads rained down for two days on the nearby town of Chalon-sur-Saone)
Nube: Hee, amazing: various things have been falling like this from the sky?
Shuichi: Right: they’re all falling objects from Laputa!
Shuichi: Well, time for my lessons. Pardon my discourtesy on this.
Nube: Hm—m…am I reading about this too?

14.
Narrator: The next day.
Hiroshi: The falling fish yesterday made the news.
Katsuya: It’s source is that they were dropped by people who were blown up in a tornado.
Hiroshi: Well, it really was that.
Shuichi: Hmph!
Shuichi: Laputa absolutely has to be…somewhere in the sky.
Shuichi: Gya
Katsuya: Clumsy.
SFX: Hyu---…

15.
SFX: Zushi—n!
SFX: Para para para…
Hiroshi: Look! At this large stone statue…
Katsuya: Couldn’t it have been blown up by the tornado?
Shuichi: Again…that cloud…

16.
Nube: What: Laputa is in a cloud?
Shuichi: Right: that cloud was there yesterday and this morning too!
Nube: So even so, how are you going to investigate it?
Shuichi: I’ll charter a Cessna! That would have to be rented with up to two-hundred thousand yen!
(TN: Cessna is a notable aircraft company based out of Witchita, Kansas most notably for small piston-powered aircraft and business jets)
Principal: Nueno-kun, when are you going to give back the 100 yen you borrowed the other day!?
Nube: Ah! No—well…I don’t have the money now. Can you wait up to ten days?
SFX: Ga—n
Shuichi: This is no good…
Caption: --Doumori 30 Building (Tallest Building in Doumori Town)
SFX: Soro—
Shuichi: If it’s come to this, then I can only do this myself.

17.
SFX: Ban!
Shuichi: I’ve attached a video camera to a kite. It will reach to the cloud, it will…
SFX: Byuuu—
Shuichi: Wa! Wa! Wa!
SFX: Gui gui
Shuichi: Wa—
Voice: Kya—who is that? That child is falling!

18.
Sign: Doumori Police Station
Officer: Gami gami gami
Sign: Juvenile’s Department
(TN: The sign there is actually “Shonenha” or “Boy’s Department”, but somehow it felt better speaking of it like it’s ‘juvinile’s”)
Nube: Really, why were you doing that absurd thing?
Shuichi: But…that cloud is…
SFX: Bota bota bota

19.
SFX: Bota bota bota
Nube: Frogs!
Shuichi: Frogs are raining from the sky!!
Everyone Else: Kyaaaa!!

20.
Shuichi: It’s that cloud again, I’m certain! Laputa is in that cloud!
Nube: Do you want to see in that cloud so much?
Shuichi: Of course…eh!?
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan…
Shuichi: Wh…what are you…!?

21.
Shuichi: Waaaa
SFX: Bari bari
SFX: Fuwa
Shuichi: !
Nube: Erethral body separation…I rarely do this with students but it’ll be safe if I accompany you… this has been experienced only by Kyouko, Hiroshi and Miki up to now.
(TN: Hiroshi’s was back in vol. 5, Kyouko and Miki in vol. 7)
Nube: Let’s go into the cloud.
Shuichi: Right!

22.-23.
Shuichi: !!

24.
Nube: This is…some strange world without a top or bottom.
Shuichi: Th…this is Laputa?
Nube: No…this is a gravity crucible. We could come in here because we’re erethral bodies. It’s similar to what’s called the Super-Sargasso Sea by Charles Fort of England.
(TN: Charles Fort is not an English but an American author who lived between 1874 to 1932. Though notable as an author, he had an obsession with anomalous and unexplained phenomenon outside those of accepted theories. Strangely enough, while he investigated and reported a lot of weird phenomenon, Fort may never have believed in any of them, yet created many concepts that are now accepted in mainstream science, including the boundary between science and pseudo-science, interpretations of fact based on concept and bias and the ideas of “magic thinking”. Incidentally, he was also the man who came up with the idea of the “Super-Sargasso Sea” mentioned here (which again: he never believed in, just suggested), which in Japanese is “Taiki Kenmokai”)
Nube: Due to the Earth and the Moon having the gravity of the other mutually, the Moon is pulling upon the Earth just like how the Moon is being pulled upon by the pulling Earth. This gives forth a gigantic power called the tidal force and causes the ebb and flow of ocean water.
Objects:
Small Object: Moon
Large Object: Earth
Nube: There are moments when the current of gravity waves that are pulled in opposite directions mutually by the Moon and the Earth create swirls of gravity with the same principal as whirling tides. There becomes a zero-gravity space. These spaces that are produced as such are here and there on Earth.

25.
Nube: These spaces occasionally seem to tear pieces of the surface on the circumstance of passing through the sky.
Nube: And they remain as such in this space. What changes happen to living things in zero-gravity conditions is now in the midst of being experimented on the space shuttle, but there have been a large quantity of occurrences of mutations…yesterday’s fish and the frogs are due to this.
Shuichi: This is…the true identity of Laputa...this savage world of torn-off ground and water masses…
Nube: Shuichi.
SFX: Gogogogo

26.
Nube: An uninhabited castle…even this giant thing is floating in the sky…and it’s zero-gravity, without relation to its largeness and weight.
Shuichi: But…with this, it can be slightly possible. If…in a gravity crucible somewhere in the world…an island is entirely sucked within…

27.
Shuichi: Then the island of Laputa…would exist…
Nube: Yeah.
Nube: So then…the next question.


28.
NUBE’S WEIRD FILES

#13: The Island of Laputa

The island that flies in the sky, which is known through “Laputa – Castle in the Sky”, an anime film directed by Miyazaki Hayao, was originally introduced in “Gulliver’s Travels”. But then there have been many eyewitness accounts of towns and islands that fly in the sky since then. (Perhaps a few of them within those are those that were misjudged as mirages.)

According to Swift, the whereabouts of Laputa is 46 degrees North Latitude, 183 degrees East Longitude. It remains in the air 2,500 meters above Balnibarbi, a giant object that was 7,166 meters in diameter with a shape of a perfect circle and a surface volume of 4,046 hectares. Life on there was perfectly self-sufficient, with four reservoirs providing the entire provisional quantity of necessary water. The island is endowed with a dome-shaped hill, there is a pit 45m in diameter in the central area and it is there that it is connected to the island’s power sector.

Laputa after that didn’t know to where it was going. The power sector broke down and crashed and it flew out into space. Possibly it may be flying about in the sky somewhere even now. According to people, this Laputa also has people who seriously think that it’s true identity is a flying saucer. (this too would make it a giant object of the mother-ship class)
(TN: “Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa” or “Laputa – Castle in the Sky” [or just “Castle in the Sky” as the title is in the US], is Hayao Miyazaki’s classic 1986 anime film. Though Miyazaki may have been influenced by “Gulliver’s Travels” for the story and concepts of “Laputa”, that may have merely been for its title and also got influences from to aspects found in Hindu legend and other European influences)

TN: So the gravity crucible...had a literal "castle in the sky" within it...how ironic. It was a weird punchline but one that was sort of nice in allowing for Shuichi to keep his dreams alive without there really being a confirmed "Laputa" which Nube tried to prove all chapter. In fact, the whole aspect of "Laputa" being used as the source of a chapter doesn't just make me think of Miyazaki (the obvious choice) but likewise...the weird thing that "Laputa" seems to be the hyped section of Gulliver's Travels in Japan just like Lilliput seems to be the only part of the book remembered in the West. (yeah, they get the flying island and we get little people tying the main character down) Somehow it was a weird chapter, a bit typical for one involving Shuichi's search for the paranormal over the supernatural, but there were some funny moments, including Nube stealing all the fish that fell at the start. Then again, anything that allows for pseudo-science to actually get a place of respect (and even someone like Charles Fort, who is a man you can respect both for creating pseudo-science...and respecting that it is probably wrong and that it is merely theories and fiction) is what Nube is about at many points.