Sakigake!! Otoko Juku 297

Even with his greatest of techniques seemingly defeated, Wan Taaren has finally come out on top against his former friend, the current Kennou of Shinken Temple. But will he finally discover the truth regarding the assisting of the Dark Tusks!?

Vol. 33: The Collapse of Bugen Castle!!
Chp. 297: The Pledge of Friends!!

7.
Pharaoh: Y…you did it, Wan Taaren---!!
Hakuhou: Wa…Wan Taaren’s hand-blade has gone through Kennou’s chest----!!

8.
Kennou: I…made a mistake………!! He had a replacement body using Chishou’s corpse……!!
Kennou: But you’re the same, Wan!! You don’t have much power remaining!!
Kennou: It seems the time has come…to strike an end to this destined match.

9.
Pharaoh: Wh…what’s wrong!?
Hakuhou: With the…stances taken by both Kennou and Wan Taaren, they’ve started to glare without moving at all!!
Date: They mutually don’t have left anymore the power to use Ougi. N…no, even if they’re standing like that, it’s a strange position…………!!
Momotarou: They plan to bet everything on the next blow!! By straining the last of their power………!!

10.
Kennou: Do you remember, Wan!! That time too was a night of a hazy moon…
Kennou: It was a time when we hadn’t been enrolled at Shinken Temple for a short time………!! In those days, Shinken Temple was in the height of a quarrel with the savage tribes.
Kennou: We, who had gone out as spies so we could search for the enemy’s situation at that chance, carelessly fell into a trap set by the enemy and had become captured.

11.
Wan Taaren: Uuh!!
Kennou: Muoo!!

12.
Savage 1: Wahaha, that’s completely a good plight!!
Savage 2: They’re the training monks at the proud Shinken Temple----!!
Savage: That torture is called Chousatsu Scale, a thing thought up by Seitaigou in the Qing Dynasty. Now there hasn’t ever been a person who has caught in this and endured it to the end!
(TN: A couple things:
- “Chousatsu Scale” or “Chousatsu Tenbin” = “Killed-by-Suspension Scale”
-Seitaigou, also known as Empress Dowager Cixi, is the infamous 47-year leading queen of the Manchurian/Qing Dynasty, as stated in a previous chapter)
Savage: Those ropes that are being held in your mouths have respectively become your lifelines. In other words: if you let go of the rope you’re holding, you will simultaneously strangle your partner’s neck and both of you will go to that world cordially!

13.
Savage: So then talk---!! What’s happening with the military force and battle arrays of your Shinken Temple---!!
Wan Taaren: Ugo!!
Kennou: Gufu!!
Kennou: The torture beyond imagination continued throughout the night. And then they said this.
Savage: Fufu, which one of you will be saved by telling us first!! Well, which of you wants your life---!!

14.
Kennou: But we didn’t talk……!!
Kennou: We mutually believed……!!
Kennou: And then, when dawn approached……
Savage 1: Chi…wh…what completely has this come to with them?
Savage 2: Nothing we can do: we can only drop them and give the finisher to both of them together!!
Savage 3: Heh, aren’t they already dead?

15.
Kennou: We waited for that moment!! They suddenly took our blows. They weren’t our match..
Kennou: As such, we were rescued……

16.
Kennou: Do you remember, Wan………
Wan Taaren: Why did you tell that story now!?
Kennou: Fu, I don’t understand either. I casually was just remembering the past.
Kennou: That’s just merely all………
Momotarou & Date: !!

17.
Kennou: HARYA---!!
Wan Taaren: Nuuu!!

18.-19.
(You can’t speak words for the insane power displayed by this image)

20.
Wan Taaren: Guha!!
Momotarou: Wan Taaren---!!
Pharaoh & Hakuhou: Wa…Wan Taaren was killed----!!

21.
Kennou: It’s completely over with that………
Kennou: It’s fine already even if I talk. About why Shinken Temple must fight all of you of Otokojuku. And about Shunran……!!
Kennou: My wife Shunran was kidnapped as a hostage. By the “Dark Tusks”, the dark organization who organized this Battle of Seven Tusks!!
Wan Taaren: !!

22.
Kennou: And then they thrusted a condition. If we wished to have Shunran returned, we had to fight Otokojuku and kill everyone……!!
Kennou: That’s the reason Shinken Temple supported them!!
Wan Taaren: ………!!
Kennou: For…forgive me, Wan……!! There…was nothing I could do………!!
Kennou: GAHA!!

23.
Momotarou: Huh!!
Pharaoh & Hakuhou: Ke…Kennou is----!!
Kennou: Spl…splendid…….I…I’ve lost…!! My…my fist avoided your vitals, but your fist accurately wne through my vitals…!!

24.
Kennou: I…I ask of you, Wan……!! Ge…get Shunran from their hands…………
Wan Taaren: ………I promise…………!! Even in exchange of my life, I certainly will rescue her…!!
Kennou: Ri…right……wi…with that, I can die in peace……
Kennou: !?
Wan Taaren: Look into the sky, Kennou. It’s a farewell gift to the underworld!!
Kennou: Ooh, th…that’s……!!

25.
Kennou: Shu…Shunran!!
Kennou: Wan………you…you were a true friend after all.
Wan Taaren: You should sleep, friend……

TN: Alright, weird thought with the whole scenario over: was it just me or did this ending just remind me a lot of Jaki/Zeus? Yeah, there were a lot of differences: this was a long standing relationship with a personal connection while Jaki/Zeus was about two equal rivals who didn't realize their friendship until one was dead. But the feel of the final chapter with the enemy defeated and the Otokojuku character showing respect in their end and respecting what they once had...that is what made it so similar to that former fight. Then again there were other aspects: Jaki/Zeus had a lot of build-up in story and battle leading to a sad but satisfying conclusion, this was a sad conclusion with a more personal step yet with a battle that felt...sort of lacking since it was just ultimate techiques and the final blow with Taaren already using a lot of his effort on the genjutsu fights with the other monks and Chishou. But then again, the fact that Toudou would go to these lengths just to bring one of the most powerful schools of kenpou in the world under his wing...yeah, we get how evil and sick he is but this sort of further defines his obsessive means.