Hell Teacher Nube 166

Why do you fear someone: because of their controlling nature or just your belief they are greater than you are? When a student becomes trapped in doing bad again, Nube is about to show that being bigger is all in the mind...

#166: The Giant Youkai: Norikoshi Nyuudou
(TN: It won’t be mentioned in the chapter but the “Nyuudou” here either stands for “priest” or “shaved head”; since it isn’t mentioned beyond the title page, I won’t be translating it and will be keeping it as pat of the youkai name here. Incidentally, another name for this youkai is “Mikoshi-nyuudou”…and there is a hill in this chapter with a similar name)

154.
Flag: Takoyaki
Nube: Ah, that! The large one! No, the 3rd from the right. Ah, that one doesn’t have octopus in it. Look, it’s because that one on the side has two in it.
Salesman: What a noisy—customer, really…
Nube: U…u~~h, tres bie~~n.
Nube: N

155.
Katsuya: Request for fund-rai—sing. Give a loving hand to unprivileged children—
Box: Black Feather Fund-Raising
Nube: Isn’t…that Katsuya?
Nube: Yo
SFX: Bikuu!
Nube: Isn’t that great? Are you volunteering? What are you raising funds for?
Katsuya: Eh, no, this is, well.
Katsuya: I…I’m sorry, I must visit some other places.
Nube: He…hey.

156.
Katsuya: Haa haa
Katsuya: Aah, I’m surprised. It can’t be that teacher is…
Katsuya: Chi, I only got just a little—
SFX: Jara
Katsuya: I’ll go yelling again……

157.
Long-Hair Punk: Ah--? This your fund-raisin’, hey. With this, we don’t even have the fee for lunch—
Katsuya: Sorry…my teacher came in the middle of it…
Long-Hair Punk: Shut it, you’re making an excuse!
Long-Hair Punk: You~~we had scouted you loitering around the game center. Do you want to be a fine teamer like us? In that case, steadily do your work.
(TN: A “Teamer” is a reference to a 90s-era delinquent group that is seen hanging around video arcades and amusement areas)
Long-Hair Punk: Don’t go tattling to your school or your parents on this. If you d~~o that, you’re suffering through pain afterwards—
Punks: Ahaha ahahaha…
Katsuya: Uh…uuh…
Katsuya: Really…I’m being influences by those colleagues…but…I don’t have the courage to defy them…

158.
Katsuya: If I tell this to Nube…those guys will decide to lynch me later…
SFX: Booo...
SFX: Shu
SFX: Suuu…
Caption: Saw with an erethral body separation.
Cats: Nya—nya—nya—nya—
Nube: Kuora—
Nube: Hm~~m, that Katsuya…he’s on a road he can’t go down again…if I don’t do something…this will get quite dangerous…

159.
Nube: ………
Nube: --It’s simple for me to go out there and send away those delinquents but…that won’t resolve it.
Nube: Because no matter how many times he is warned, Katsuya has a habit of repeating the same things again. I must have him quit by his own will.
Voice: Nube
Nube: But if I do this (Hm—m…)
Voice: Nube
Miki: Nube!! Did you hear it!?
Nube: Eh? Ah, yes, what was it?

160.
Miki: Did you know? There’s a rumor that a youkai has appeared on Mikoshi Hill on the outskirts of town.
(TN: “Mikoshi Hill” is in Japanese “Mikoshizaka”)
Kyouko: There have already been many eyewitnesses on the school-commuting route.
Kyouko: It comes while waving it’s hand from the top of the hill but
Kyouko: As it comes closer, somehow it becomes bigger than an ordinary man. When you concentrate your eyes and look closer, it becomes much bigger; and as you concentrate your eyes further, it becomes even bigger.
Kyouko: When it comes to be in front of you, it becomes a giant that’s like it can reach the clouds…
Hiroshi: Yesterday, a kid in class 2 saw it and ran away in desperation.
Makoto: Do something before someone gets wounded.
Nube: Hmm, that’s Norikoshi.
(TN: “Norikoshi” has a literal translation of “Riding Pass (Your Station)”, as in someone who goes past where they want to and going too far)

161.
Nube: It’s a youkai that appears on hills nationwide since long ago. But Norikoshi is truly…
Nube: Al—right, then I’ll defeat Norikoshi with everyone.
Hiroshi: Eh?
Miki: Nube’s inviting his students to a youkai extermination; how rare.
Nube: Are you coming too, Katsuya?
Katsuya: Eh!? Um…yes…
Caption: Mikoshi Hill

162.
Nube: This road is new. Was it finish quite recently?
Hiroshi: Yep, about a month ago.
Nube: I understand with that; perhaps this Norikoshi was the master of this old mountain road. It’s rioting due to the new road being finished and there coming to be much pedestrian traffic.
Miki: Is it there?
Nube: I can feel youki. Well…shall I summon it…
Sign: Direction of Odawara
(TN: “Odawara”, if it’s what I think it is, is a city in western Kanagawa Prefecture, notable for Odawara Castle and being a transit point to the hot springs resort in Hakone)
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi Kyuugu Kyuunan
Nube: Being that lives here: show yourself.

163.
Miki: Wh…what is that: I have a bad feeling.
Katsuya: I can’t see it well but…it’s like a person.
Kyouko: It’s not particularly a normal large.
Kyouko: …If I thought that then w…what?
Kyouko: Ho…hold on, is it actually quite large?
Hiroshi: N…no, it’s somehow amazingly hu—ge.
Noriko: He’s…a giant!
Katsuya: Hiii, he’s…huge!
SFX: Zun zun zun zun
Miki: Kyaaa

164.
Norikoshi: Ho ho ho
Students: Kyaaa~~

165.
Norikoshi: I will trample on you--!
Miki: Hi—
Katsuya: Wa—
Hiroshi: Wi…with that, it’s beyond even Nube’s power.
SFX: Zu—n!
Student: Wa--!
Kyouko: Nube, run!
Hiroshi: This time, you’ll win by running away.
Nube: Fufufu, look closely at this being. That’s a black art that can be done by anyone.
(TN: “Black art” here is actually the Japanese term of “youjutsu”, using the same “you” as in “youkai” or “youki”)
SFX: Kiiin…

166.-167.
Nube: I will trample on you.

168.
Norikoshi: Hiiii!!
SFX: Shuru shuru shuru
Nube: It just uses a person’s fear and seems to make its body gigantic.
Nube: Those who don’t know of this nature agitate excessive fear when it draws closer. And thus, the youkai takes advantage of this heart and has itself appear as an outrageous monster.
(TN: The “heart” here refers back to the Japanese word for “fear” used here: “Kyoufushin” or “a fearful heart”)
Nube: It’s a kind of hypnotism where it can enlarge at will due to the appearance that is projected in the heart. If I project in the heart with my crystal ball, I can do this technique too.
Miki: You you.
Norikoshi: Hi~~~

169.
Nube: This isn’t just for youkai but for humans too. With the above-mention necessity in appearance and form, there are those guys who are afraid of a person and see them as larger as themselves. Right, Katsuya?
Punk: Whaat!? You’re not associating with us—anymore!?
Long-Hair Punk: You—in spite of seeing our terrible trouble up to now?
Blond-Punk: Are you backtalking to us!?
Long-Hair Punk: If you don’t understand what I’m sayin—with my mou—th, you’ll be punished, wo—n’t you?
SFX: Poki poki

170.
Katsuya: Damn it…I’m sca—red…will I be deceived again…
Katsuya: No…They’re just their outside. That’s…like Norikoshi…
Katsuya: Daaaa~~
SFX: Dogaa!

171.
Long-Hair Punk: What were you doing, that’s dangero—us. Blood, blood is coming out.
Katsuya: I cut him.
Punks: Run--! (Hi--)
Katsuya: Ph…phew…they were merely show…
SFX: Karan

TN: Is it just me or was this chapter trying to make it so that Katsuya was the main character to justify his problem...when in reality he was mostly just bookending the chapter? It really has been a while since Katsuya really has been in focus, but here it just feels less like he was and more just outlining the problem so that Nube could demonstrate with the Norikoshi problem how to regain control over the jerks. Now don't say there was a problem with the chapter: I really did like the Norikoshi scenario and just the whole aspect that fearing something may be mind over matter and facing up to it. (plus seeing a giant Nube preparing to trample a fake giant just felt real cool to see) But somehow it felt like Katsuya was underutilized, mostly there just to have the encounter with Norikoshi in the first place. (and to show him "regressing" when in reality it just more outlines his consistent cowardice that makes him so easily manipulated by these types...and Miki) I sort of hope we get another chapter with him considering that if Katsuya is part of the "big five", he really should have a bit of focus instead of merely being "one of the gang"...