Hell Teacher Nube 151

As friendly as they are, even females have things which they may end up going to war over. And in Miki and Kyouko's case, what could be a mere matter of competitive friendship may take a turn for the worse due to supernatural means...

#151: Grudge: Oboroguruma

30.
Miki: That’s why—I was laughing—really—
Narrator: Kyouko and Miki are really close friends. They’re a famous combo even among class 5-3. However…
Kyouko: !
Miki: !
SFX: Ba

31.
Kyouko: ………
SFX: Zuri zuri zuri…
Narrator: This time, these two will come to think about their friendship.
Kyouko: Just a moment: both of us saw that at the same time.
Miki: ? What?
Kyouko: What’s beneath your foot.
Miki: What’s that?
Kyouko: That—shouldn’t we notify the police about that sort of thing!?
Miki: What’s that? Aren’t you a good girl? I want to split this.
SFX: Gishi…gishi—gishi…
Kyouko: What’s that—Holstein?
Miki: What’s that—washboard!
Kyouko: Kya
SFX: Buwa
Miki: What?

32.
(Yeah…a cart with a woman head poking out…that’s not suspicious)

33.
SFX: Giro…
Kyouko: Wh…what was that…
SFX: Gishi…gishi…gishi…
Miki: Hey—give back that thousand yen—
Voice: That’s Oboroguruma.
(TN: “Oboroguruma” literally translates into “The Gloomy Car” or “The Hazy Cart”)
Sign: Staff Office
Kyouko & Miki: That worn-down cart?
(TN: This was a slight pun here that involves a mistranslation: Kyouko and Miki didn’t call the youkai as “Oboroguruma” as it was supposed to be but “onboroguruma”; “onboro” is Japanese for “worn-down” or “dilapidated”, thus I sort of literally translated it instead of just having them refer to it in the literal Japanese since it sort of was a joke only understood in Japanese)
Nube: What’s that, Miki? It’s not known by you, the walking encyclopedia of weirdness?
Nube: Oboroguruma is a youkai of the Heian era. In that era, aristocratic women went out in oxcarts for sightseeing festivals and such and competed for plases that would be easy to sightsee there; you had to hold a terrible pride for winning in these quarrels…Oboroguruma seems to be a being by which this grudge of determination of these women changed into a youkai.
(TN: “Oxcart” here is a general term that is used in connection to the Japanese term “gissha”, which also has meaning of “bullock cart”. This was seen as a major means of transportation during the period as stated here)

34.
Miki: Oboroguruma was drawn in Sekien’s “Konjaku Hyakki Yakou Juui”.
(TN: I may or may not have mentioned “Konjaku Hyakki Yakkou Juui” (“Gleanings of One-Hundred Demons of the Past and Present”) prior, but the name of Toriyama Sekien and his notable youkai drawings have been mentioned time and again…and we’ll be getting more this time in the Supplemental Explanation)
Kyouko: What’s that, Miki, you know of it?
Miki: But Nube wouldn’t have appeared if he didn’t do something like that.
Kyouko: Right, that seems so.
Kyouko: A youkai of women’s quarrels. I don’t—believe it—
Miki: Seems—so—
Miki: Women of the Heian era quarreled over trifling things—
SFX: Su
Kyouko: Seems so.
SFX: Suta suta suta…

35.
SFX: Ta tat a…
SFX: Ta ta tat a
Miki: What’s with her: is she still angry about that thousand yen earlier?
SFX: Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta
Kyouko: What is she planning? Isn’t she desperately picking a fight?
Narrator: The next day
Nube: Um—so then, I’ll return yesterday’s math test.
Top page: Tateno Hiroshi – 0
Miki: A 70?

36.
Kyouko: Ara, I’ve got a 72. I’ve won by a bit.
Miki: Nube!! This is just about that problem---!
Miki: I got the formula correct! The way I solved the problem was perfect! I was mistaken with the answer, but evaluate my effort a bit; hey, hey!
Nube: Uh…understood. I’ll give you 3 points…
Miki: Ha ha ha—a 73; I’ve won--!
Kyouko: ………

37.
Kyouko: Nube! The problem’s sentence is strange in Japanese. It’s natural I made a mistake. Please give me 2 points!!
Nube: Yes. Yes.
Miki: That answer seems like a 6, but it’s actually a 5. Here. (There’s a gap) Hey, hey!!
Kyouko: I absolutely don’t want to lose to just Miki…!
Nube: ???
Miki: That super-sickening Kyouko girl…!
Narrator: School lunch.
Miki: Ah, I have a bit much.
Kyouko: Then I’ll have a large serving.

38.
Miki: Then—I’ll have a super-large serving!!
Kyouko: Well then I’ll have a super-mach large serving!
Miki: Well well, I’ll have a super-mach-very large serving.
Kyouko: Then~~I’ll have a super-mach-very-very-value large serving.
SFX: Gau gau gau gau gau gau gau
Nube: Those two have something. They’re desperately competing with each other.
Hiroshi: Well?
Nube: ……It can’t be…

39.
Katsuya: Miki, Noro-chan, Kyouko, Ayumi, Kyouko, Miki…
Board: (right to left)
Miki | Kyouko | Noro-chan | Ayumi | Shizuka
(TN: A slight note regarding the voting process: one way that counting votes occurs in Japanese is by base-five using the kanji for “sei”, as it’s being done here)
Kaneda: Count those ballots quickly—before the girls come.
SFX: Gara
Miki: I’m first into the classroom.
Kyouko: N—o, it’s me!
Kyouko: ? What are they doing?
Miki: Haha—h, it’s a popularity poll of the girls.
Miki: Well—(heart) I’m in first!? There’s honestly in the eyes of the boys after all—there’s no comparison with that washboard anywhere.
Kyouko: (speaks strange symbols akin to cursing Miki out)~~~!!
Kyouko: Hold on all of you!

40.
Kyouko: Ufu (heart) I’ll-make-you understand the glamour of slenderness. Well, redo that poll.
Boys: Ooh~~~
Boys: We…we’re sorry~~we made a mistake. Those folded—legs are the greatest!! You’re great, main character~~!
Forehead Kanji: Otoko (Men/Boys)
Miki: Kyouko…you’d go that far…fine then.

41.
Boys: Purely one vote for her (heart) (Uhyahya~~~)
Kyouko: Ah~~Miki, that’s foul play. Then I’ll do it too!
Miki: U…uwa, you, why are you doing that? Al—right to infinity.
(TN: The “alright to infinity” is Miki’s comment “Mannen Yo-shi”, which is “eternally al-right”, but I decided to make it a bit proper in English)
Kyouko: Kyaaa!! You’re showing even up to that~~!?
Caption: Good children shouldn’t imitate this. (Corrupt Ethics)
Boys: Wa—uhyo—
SFX: Gara
Students: Wa—hyu—hy—
Nube: Hey—

42.
Nube: This is generally Miki, yet even Kyouko…both of you are strange!!
Nube: Well then, you’ve been exposed to the youki of Oboroguruma.
Nube: You’ve been possessed by the grudge of determined women.
Kyouko: Eh, then?
Miki: This is a curse?
Nube: Obviously. As is, you two will continue to quarrel for eternity.
Nube: There is one method for lifting the curse: get along as a duo and run past Oboroguruma. If you can pass ahead of Oboroguruma, then it will admit defeat and lift the curse.

43.
Nube: Oboroguruma will appear around the entrance of this old highway…
Sign: Doumori Highway
Nube: It’s here. Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan: Spirit that is here, show yourself.
SFX: Gishi…gishi…
Nube: …Now go.

44.
SFX: Da
Kyouko: I’ll get past it first!
SFX: Shaaa
Miki: It’ll be me!
Nube: Those two…In spite of saying they have to get along as a duo…(really…) Can’t they do this properly!
Kyouko: Hmph! If this is speed, then you can’t win against a serow like me, Holstein-chan!
(TN: Kyouko refers to herself as a “kamoshika”, which is Japanese for a “serow”, a goat-like species of the genus Capricornis who lives in central and eastern Asia)
SFX: Shaaa~~

45.
Miki: No you won’t—
SFX: Don!
Kyouko: Wa
Kyouko: Kyaaaa!
SFX: Gagaga…
Miki: I’ve got it—
Miki: I’ve passed it—ahahaha…
SFX: Wa

46.
SFX: Gasha—n
Miki: Gya
Miki: Uh…uh…
SFX: Dodododododo
SFX: Dododododo | Gara gara gara gara
Miki: !
Nube: Miki--!
SFX: Shaaa…

47.
SFX: Dododododo
Nube: Are you alright—you two!!

48.
Kyouko: We shouldn’t do that dangerous thing. We’d get run over. Where were you?
Nube: Sorry, sorry, but.
Nube: Here.
SFX: Hyu | Su—
Kyouko: Ah, a stone slipped through it.
Nube: As it’s name suggests, Oboroguruma has a dim and hazy existence. Even if it has youki, its substance is as a porous youkai.
Kyouko: What’s that?
Miki: You could have said it earlier.
SFX: Kusu…
Kyouko & Miki: Aha…Ahahaha…

49.
Miki: Thank you, you saved my life…you are a good person after all, Kyouko.
Kyouko: Yes: though I am your friend, you do have a strange sense of rivalry with me…
Nube: Haha…well, all of that was caused by the curse of Oboroguruma.
Nube: …I think. Perhaps…
Miki: I saw that 500 yen first!
Kyouko: N—o, it was me! You’re a tad stingy, Miki!

50.
Nube-sensei’s
(Useless) SUPPLEMENTAL EXPLANATION

#2: Toriyama Sekien

Toriyama Sekien, whose name has appeared occasionally even in this story, is an artist who was active in the Edo Period. Who was called “Toriyama Sekien” was a penname: since his real name was Sano Toyofusa, he’s not connected to Toriyama Akira-sensei. (I think. Perhaps…)

“Gazu Hyakki Yakkou”, which was drawn with a theme of youkai, is famous and popular and sequels came out of it as well. He was resolved as a seasonal artist and was used as an artist of the bakufu who drew from the current of the Kano School, and seemed to be a quite-amazing persho due to being said to be the teacher of the famous Utamaro in Ukiyo-e. However, there are few materials on his proportion of fame and he was a man with many unknown points.

Aside from these, there are many numbers of artists who made a theme of youkai. The most famous of them was the “Hyakki Yakou E-Maki” of Tosa Mitsunobu of the Muromachi Period. Also, there are those that are interconnected from China, but “Shan Hai Jing” and have presented a major influence among the drawings of Japanese youkai.

Currently what are called “youkai” has many adults who ridicule it as “worthless”, but long ago, youkai drawings like these presented quite a major weight among the art of Japan. (But then, looking at them now are more conversely ridiculous than scary but…)
(TN: A few things regarding the information presented here:
1. Obviously there really isn’t any known connection between the two Toriyamas, Sekien and Akira…but then again…well, won’t say anything for the moment.
2. “Gazu Hyakki Yakkou” (The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons) was Toriyama’s first book of the series, published originally in 1776. Many of the youkai we’ve already met in Nube have originally emerged from this book, among them Inugami, Nekomata, Kappa, Kamaitachi, Rokurokubi, Yukionna, Nurarihyon and the Oni)
3. The “Kano School” is one of the most famous schools of Japanese art; founded by Kanou Masanobu, it is renounced for being flat in appearance but with very realistic in depiction of the world and the usage of negative space to imply distance and with great influence from Chinese art.
4. Utamaro (born “Kitagawa Ichitarou”, also known as “Kitagawa Utamaro”) is considered one of the greatest ukiyo-e (woodblock) artists, living in a period between 1753 and 1806. He is notable mostly for his art of women and insects. Some have said that there is possibility that Toriyama Sekien is his father.
5. Tosa Mitsunobu is a Japanese painter of the Tosa school notable as the founder of the Tosa school (a school based on ancient Japanese art as opposed to any Chinese influence) and was at one point the chief artist of the Ashikaga Shogunate. He lived between 1434 and 1525. “Hyakki Yakkou Zu/Hyakki Yakkou E-Maki” is notable as one of the great works of the youkai.
6. “Shan Hai Jing”, also known in Japanese as “Sengaikyou”, is a classic Chinese text that is 2200 years old depicting a fable version of pre-Qin China and mythology. Most of the famous Chinese myths are depicted and written about within this book, including the legend of the 9-tailed youko)

TN: So...does anyone think they would have gotten away with the "strip-down" joke in this chapter in this day of such paranoia in manga? Yeah, they did censor it being that it's 5th grade girls (though...Miki never acts as such), but it just makes me feel like somehow that bit would never fly in modern Jump or be published anywhere near Tokyo these days.

With that said, while we do usually get a lot of chapters that show that Kyouko and Miki both love and hate one another dependent on the circumstances, this one was good and showed how desperate their rivalry can be when influenced by youkai circumstances. Though one wonders how crazy it really did get (and how much Noro-chan keeps getting in the middle of the war of those two), there were quite a few funny moments with stuff like the "running war", the test bit and...yeah, the strip down (though one wonders why the heck Ayumi didn't get more votes...come on, she's a pure Meganekko wonder!) The ending was a tad strange in that Nube didn't tell them until it was all over that "they weren't going to be killed by Oboroguruma" as a means to build tension I guess. Though...you do wonder that with Miki's greed, Kyouko should have just let her have the money. It's not like, say, it's going to break them apart that badly. (even if it's the right thing to return it)