Hell Teacher Nube 159

When one dies, the worst that can happen is to have something they did not complete in life, stranding them here with regrets for their past. But for some dead beings, regrets can be something that really shouldn't have happened...

Vol. 19: Many Youshin Transformations: Ayumi-chan’s Great Adventure
#159: The Marathon Ghost

5.
Nube: This manga is “Hell Teacher Nube”. Just making sure…
(TN: Yeah…I won’t explain any of this but that is Ayumi on the cover page…you’ll understand why she’s dressed up like that when that chapter comes along…)

7.
Principal: Um~~today we will be holding the Doumori Elementary Marathon Rally. Actually, our school is having this event for the first time in five years…

8.
Noriko: Aa—h, I hate the marathon. I’m tired and
Miki: I’m cold…
Katsuya: Then don’t show your navel…
Miki: By the way—Do you want to know why the Marathon Rally came to be suspended for five years--?
Miki: In truth, eight years ago, a child who accomplished nothing and had a sorry-minded personality unreasonably appeared in the rally while having pneumonia and suddenly died mid-way. And then…

9.
Miki: The next year, when the Marathon Rally started…it appeared…it was running during the rally. The eyewitnesses of the ghost appeared one after another and, in that place, the rally came to be suspended.
Miki: The next year and the year after that, over a three-year interval, that ghost continued to emerge whenever there was the rally and, finally five years ago, the rally itself came to be cancelled.—
Hiroshi: Frightening—huh. It may appear again…
Katsuya: We should stop—this marathon rally.
Nube: Ha~~ha ha: that foolish gossip. (One, two, three four, sokuraa) That story was made up because you hate running.
Miki: It’s for real!
Kyouko: A—ah, I can’t believe it. That physically strong person is in high spirits.

10.
Nube: Really, kids recently have slacked off…let’s forge them again with a marathon.
Principal: Y…yes…
Announcer: All students of the school: please gather in front of the school gate.
Nube: Well, line up, line up.
SFX: Kacha kacha | Butsu butsu butsu (grumble grumble)
Nube: We’ll go from one—
Kyouko: Hey, Nube.
Nube: Don’t grumble about this. O—K
(TN: Nube says here “gudaguda iwanai”, which I really couldn’t find a translation for the “gudaguda” part, but I tried to interpret it as best as possible based on the context of Nube thinking Kyouko was going to complain about the marathon)
SFX: Paan! (Bang)
Kyouko: You reversed the hands.

11.
Ishikawa: Fight! Fight!
Miki: 5th Graders have to do a 7 km course!? (Haa haa hii)
Kyouko: Why are we doing this?
SFX: Haa haa
Noriko: A~~h, everyone, wait—(haa haa)
SFX: Tatata…
Noriko: My legs are slow. I’m in last again. No way. (Haa haa haa)
SFX: Suuu…

12.
“Being”: Haa haa haa haa
Noriko: Ah, that’s good. There’s still someone behind me…
Noriko: !!
“Ghost”: Haa—haa—haa—haa--…
SFX: Oooooh

13.
Noriko: Kyaaaa!!
SFX: Petan
Makoto: Hii
Kyouko: Kyaa!
Hiroshi: Uwa
Nube: What’s wrong!? Why are you stopping!
Students: Wa—hii~~~kya—

14.
Nube: !
Students: Wa—kya—
SFX: Suu…
Ritsuko: Gyaa!!
Nube: Principal…was the rumor true!?
Principal: Y…yes…I too didn’t know knowingly about the student but…the ghost is real. I thought it was resting in peace already but it’s still appearing even with 8 years passing…
Principal: At any rate, we have no choice with this becoming a disturbance. We’re suspending the marathon.
Kyouko: I’m scared~~
Hiroshi: No more already~~
Katsuya: A~~h.
Nube: No…please hold on.
Nube: Was the rumor that the child wanted to reach the goal as a child who accomplished nothing and sorry minded?
Principal: Y…yes. It seems so but, you can’t be…?
Nube: Let’s continue the Marathon Rally. It isn’t a dangerous spirit and, if it reaches the goal, I’m certain it will rest in peace.
Kyouko: Eh---!?

15.
Katsuya: Hii~~~
Hiroshi: I...I thought we were going to suspend this and yet…
Nube: The Marathon Ghost wanted to run the Marathon Rally to the end and reach the goal. However, since it always astonished everyone and the rally was suspended, it could never reach that goal.
SFX: Booo…
Nube: Well come: this time you’ll…

16.
Nube: Get to the goal.
“Ghost”: Haa~~haa~~
Shizuka: Kya—
Akira: Wa—

17.
“Ghost”: Haa—haa—haa—

18.
Nube: Well? Are you satisfied?
“Ghost”: Oooh.
SFX: Shuuu…
Kyouko: Wh…what’s wrong with it…?
Nube: ……
Miki: Is it somehow seemingly not satisfied at all…?
Nube: I failed. Somehow that child’s regrets haven’t been cleared at all. ………What was wrong with it…?

19.
Nube: We have no choice: the course will be run by just the Nube class one more time.
Principal: This is asked by me as well. As is, we can’t ignore it.
Kyouko & Hiroshi: Eh~~
Nube: Now, if it’s decided, then go quickly!
SFX: Pishi—ri (whi~~p)
Hiroshi: Demon~~!!
(TN: Just a silly thought: they call Nube “Oni” here, which I had as “demon”, but could also be “oni” as in his “Oni no Te”)
Students: Haa haa haa

20.
“Ghost”: Haa--…haa--…haa--…
Nube: What is the dissatisfaction? You with this unusual tenacity have…isn’t it that you regretfully can’t rest in peace by not reaching the goal? If you were dissatisfied at the goal earlier…will you rest in peace…if you reach the goal once more…
SFX: Fu
Kyouko: It disappeared.
Nube: No, it’s just gone into that thicket…

21.
SFX: Kasa
Nube: !
“Ghost”: Haa—haa—

22.
Kyouko: Hey, Nube, that’s…
Hiroshi: However we see it, it only seems like it’s truant.
Nube: What’s going on here…
SFX: Zu
Nube: “A~~ah, I’m tired—everyone’s running well. I have to take a break”. (Nube’s translation)
(TN: A silly comment here: the ghost when he says “I’m tired” actually says it in Japanese as “kattari—na”, which is “I’m tired” but in “Koushuu-ben”, a style of Japanese used in Yamanashi Prefecture)
Nube: “Even on the day I died, I was taking a break doing as such during the marathon and when I took a shortcut, a car ran me over just as I jumped out from the thicket.”
Nube: “I don’t have guts no matter what I do and do things halfway…even in the marathon, I can’t stay the course even once. I’m certain I’m stabbed with disgust that’s somewhere in the heart of my halfway self and can’t rest in peace.

23.
Nube: “Well then, shall I gradually reach the shortcut again and get to the goal? (Yawn~~) A—ah, I can’t rest in peace again like this—
Hiroshi: What are you? Aren’t you extremely different from the rumor--?
Kyouko: The rumor over these eight years has been handed down bended.
Nube: In a word: this lazy fellow has always been cheating, has self-hatred of himself without staying the course and can’t rest in peace.
Nube: This guy--! This person is going to severely run and exactly run the original course, you—
“Ghost”: Hi—I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

24.
Nube: Uo~~~
“Ghost”: Hii hii, it’s difficult.
“Ghost”: (Hi~~~) It seems like I’m dying~~~
“Ghost”: !

25.
“Ghost”: Aah…I’ve accomplished it for the first time…this is the first time I feel like I want to give praise to myself…
“Ghost”: With this…I can rest in peace…
SFX: Suu---…
“Ghost”: Thank you, everyone…
Hiroshi: Aah, damn it!
Nube: He ran off!
Hiroshi: Only you have that good feeling and are resting in peace! Apologize, you guy. We’ve been severely running and feel sick because of that guy!
Nube: Come back he—re!
“Ghost”: Thank you
Kyouko: E…enough, that’s because he’s resting in peace…

26.
Nube-sensei’s
(Useless) SUPPLEMENTAL EXPLANATION

#8: Ghosts

The spirit of the dead who remains in this world without resting in peace for some reason. They are also called “Fujourei”, as well as “Bourei”. Their reasons that they can’t rest in peace have many which have a source in having too strong of a regret or grudge which they’ve faced in this world. Due to this, many of them have a situation where they become evil spirits who cause harm to people. Also, when they loiter on this world long, they can also fuse with other low-grade animal spirits. Generally, there is a tradition that people with deep tenacity and people with a cohesive property are said to easily become ghosts.

Incidentally, I have this story:

Long ago, a certain man came to be executed. This man possessed resentment to a feudal lord and must have his head cut off; when he was taken out to in front of the feudal lord, he boasted “If I die, I will certainly become a ghost and will curse you to be killed.” The retainers trembled violently but the feudal lord said “If those words are true, then after your head is cut off, just your head will fly out and bite at the stone in front of you”. As expected, the retainer cut off his head and the head flew to in front of him, bit into the stone and smiled with a smirk. The retainers fell into a panic and had a nightmare of “his words were true. He certainly will become a ghost and curse the feudal lord to be killed”. However, the feudal lord, without moving, said “He won’t become a ghost. That’s because just before his head was cut off, he concentrated on just biting the stone and forgot about the resentment. And then, as he wished, since he could bite on the stone, he couldn’t disgorge out his feelings and ended up resting in peace. That’s the reason he won’t become a ghost”. The retainers who heard this admired the bright head of the feudal lord.

(TN: There is one small bit I have to go into here regarding the supplemental: the word "ghost" and it's various Japanese interpretations. The main word for "ghost" as used in the introduction to this entry and for the chapter is "yuurei", which literally translates literally into "confined spirit" as in their confinement in our realm. However, two other terms are brought up and sometimes were used alongside or in parallel to "yuurei" as was presented. The first is our old term "fujourei", which I mentioned before as having a meaning of "impure spirit". The other, "bourei", is a term that likewise has a typical meaning of "ghost" and has a literal meaning of "spirit of the dead". Though "yuurei" is the main term used in the supplemental, there were some moments where "bourei" was used instead, thus sort of interchanging them though the kanji suggest different context for both)

TN: This chapter feels simple enough in it's structure and telling...but something just felt really off about it. It's really hard for me to pin down why, but I think it may have something to do with just how the whole ordeal went: the appearance of the lazy marathoning ghost who "finishes the race", then has to run it again so Nube can find out the results even if he has to make his students suffer even further to do so. I don't mind Nube using strange methods to do exorcisms, but somehow the idea of the multiple consecutive marathons being run over and over or starting and stopping just took away flow from the chapter and made some of it feel repetitive even if it didn't mean to be. The key was pretty much figuring out why the ghost wouldn't go away...and while there were other means to probably figure it out, the only way to fully do so was to run the marathon with the full class. While it felt repetitive to me, it was the only way for Nube to confirm the information needed to complete the exorcism sadly. The chapter sort of also felt deceptive in a few other ways: for one, we get a lot of the whole class getting lines or appearances, but most of them seem to be tied to being scared of the running ghost. I don't mind a full class tale (and there will be one or two other tales where we get a good usage of the whole class outside "the big five") but most of them felt wasted. In particular was a wasted appearance of Noriko: we see her at the start all cute and innocent about the marathon...and she just ended up being the first one scared away because the ghost appeared from the rear. I somehow would have expected more from her but it was just deceptive...heck a lot of the cameos here (even of teachers we haven't seen in a while like Ishikawa and Ootsuki) was just to have them and fill the ranks. It wasn't a bad strategy but...combined with the repeating of the marathon, it felt frustrating even if necessary for storytelling means.