Hell Teacher Nube 172

There are some ways of telling whether something is good or bad that require massive amount of spiritual power and concentration. And then there are some that are so simple that all you need are the fingers on your body!

#172: Simple Anywhere: The O-Ring

90.
Narrator: The third-consecutive day off at the end of a certain month……
(TN: It’s tough to say which month it is, but this chapter was most likely published in mid-late March, where the Japanese celebrate “Vernal Equinox Day”. The holiday would have fallen on March 20th in that year, which would have been a Thursday…but whether or not another holiday/day off was around then is unknown but would probably lead to…well…)
Kyouko: Is Nube alright? Our vacation has continued into its 3rd day.
Miki: What’s that; is it because he can’t knaw on just the school lunches before his payday at the end of the month— (Kishishi…)
Miki: N?
SFX: Gatsu gatsu gatsu | Musha musha
Display Sign:
Today’s Lunch: Fried Prawns. Day’s Special: 800 Yen
(TN: “Fried Prawns”, commonly known in Japan as “Ebifurai”, is a popular cuisine that involves deep-frying prawns/shrimp with a coating of flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs. It is a popular dish of Nagoya)
Table Sign: Sample

91.
Manager: Hey—
Sign: Fuji Cafeteria
Hiroshi: This is bad; he’s fairly come to this.
Kyouko: Now he’ll do anything so he could get food.
SFX: Fura~~…Fura~~…
Miki: Don’t bring shame to us from your begging—
Nube: Namu Daiji Daihi…
SFX: Paaa…
SFX: Zu | Pero pero
Woman: Kya--!!

92.
SFX: Yoro…yoro…
Nube: !
SFX: Nuru
Kyouko: Uwa!
Kyouko: Ah, he found 100 yen.
Miki: Well, how good, how good.
SFX: Shippo
Hiroshi: --For pachinko?
Top Sign: Parlor Paradise
Right Banner: Pachisulo
(TN: “Pachisulo” refers to “pachinko slots”, a specific type of pachinko machine that fuses together both pachinko with aspects of slot machines)
Left Sign: Pachinko
Kyouko: Not~~hng we can do for our teacher~~
Hiroshi: But what will he do with 100 yen?
Kyouko: Shi…he’s doing something.
SFX: Chi~~n Jara jara…
SFX: Su

93.
Nube: Hmph!
SFX: Bishi
Nube: This is no good…
SFX: Chi—n jara jara…
SFX: Pirororo… | Supo
Nube: This machine is no good either…
Nube: This is…N…
Nube: The one!!
SFX: Gakiiin!

94.
Nube: Wahaha ahaha Ee~~heehee
SFX: Chi—n Jarara doja—
Kyouko: Nube, that’s right, use your spiritual abilities!
Miki: You’ve made that judgement.
Sign: Ramen Shiro (can’t read the rest of it)
Hiroshi: I’ll have Chaashuu, a large service of corn butter, egg and wakame.
Miki: I’ll take an extra-large with miso, leek and menma, put five eggs in it
Kyouko: I’ll have a soy-sauce butter, chaashuu and red-pickled ginger.
(TN: Obviously Nube is stuck giving ramen to his students (again), but there are some ingredients we have never really encountered or not in a while. Thus I will try to explain all the ones that seem to stand out:
-“Corn Butter” is basically what it sounds like: corn with a butter coating for flavor, which is rather notable in a lot of Japanese cuisine.
-“Wakame”, known as “Undaria pinnatifida”, is edible seaweed usually served in soup or salad.
-What is identified here as “leek” is actually a generalized version of a “welsh onion” (Allium fistulosum), known in Japanese as “negi” but is generally seen as a type of leek.
-“Menma” is a condiment made of lactate-fermented bamboo shoots, usually used on top of ramen and noodle soups.
-“Red-pickled ginger”, known in Japanese as “Beni shouga”, is a type of pickle made of ginger that has been cut up, colored red and pickled)
SFX: Da--…

95.
Miki: By the way~~did what you did earlier work?
SFX: Zuzu--…
Nube: Eh? Wh…what thing is that?
Server: Here, thanks for waiting.
Miki: Don’t play dumb~~we saw it~~
Nube: ………
Nube: --That was called the “O-Ring”. It’s super-simple fortune-telling. It’s a simple thing where you make your fingers in the shape of an “O” as the name says and just pull it with a finger on the other hand.
Nube: Humans potentially have the ability to distinguish things that possess a good “ki” and things that possess a bad “ki” for themselves. When you do the O-Ring in front of a thing possessing good ki, the fingers solidly keep together and won’t easily let go. However, when facing a thing that possesses bad ki, the fingers will end up being suddenly taken apart. In short: it loses power unconsciously facing a bad object.
SFX: Su

96.
Nube: If you use this, you can forecast a variety of things.
SFX: Kui
Nube: It’s not just for things: people can understand anything, such as compatibility or their luck for today. Without a hitch, the power that locks the O-Ring is good with the extent of strength and the power is bad with the extent of weakness.
Nube: Well, earlier…mmm, I was detecting a pachinko machine that emitted good ki where the balls would come out with the locking condition of the O-Ring.
Hiroshi: Well, that’s mysterious…
Nube: A divination method that resembled this existed long ago.
Nube: It was called “Lifting the Jizou”. It was asked as fortune-telling…for example: they asked “will I get married this year”.
(TN: Just a slight reminder: a “Jizou” is a “Ksitigarbha”, a Bodhisattva that guides one to the path of becoming a Buddha, as well as a guardian of children)
Nube: Strangely, even if there were people with much power, those who weren’t getting married couldn’t lift it.

97.
Nube: However, if you were a person who was getting married, they would lift it up easily, even if they were a person who didn’t have any sort of power.
SFX: Hyoi
Nube: This wasn’t a reason where the weight of the stone itself changed. A person’s subconscious perceived their own luck. The O-Ring has the same principal.
Hiroshi: We can tell fortunes with this…amazing—it’s convenient.
Miki: The Nube-Authorized Spiritual-Ability Certain-Victory in Gambling Technique.
SFX: Zuzu—
Nube: Don’t show it off.
(TN: Nube’s “don’t show it off” is him actually saying “hayarasu na” or “don’t make it popular”. Obviously with Hiroshi and the others showing it off and showing its success, it would make it popular)
Narrator: The next day
SFX: Za—

98.
Nube: Um—this O/X Test is—
Hiroshi: O
Kyouko: X
Miki: O
(TN: The type of test that Nube is giving the students in Japanese is known as a “Marubatsushiki” or “Circle and Cross”, but we know it as an “X and O” or “Yes and No” test)
Nube: 92 points, 90 points, 100, 100.
Miki: As expected of a Nube-authorized fortune-telling.
Hiroshi: Amazing—I’ve done well.
Nube: Really…in spite of saying that it’s become popular, they shouldn’t be mocking me~~

99.
Miki: The O-Ring has various uses other than that. For example, it can be a “Lie Detector”.
Book: Wonderful O-Ring
Miki: Makoto is still a bed wetter.
SFX: Gyu | Giku
Caption: True
Miki: Makoto doesn’t wet the bed.
SFX: Supa
Caption: False
Miki: Love Divination is to write a name on a paper, touch it with a hand, and have it pulled by a person.
Page: Hiroshi | Kyouko
Miki: If good “ki” flows between two people (if they love each other), it will lock strongly…
SFX: Gyu~~

100.
Miki: On the other hand, if they aren’t in love, it will pull lightly.
SFX: Subo
Page: Hiroshi | Miki
SFX: Dota!
Miki: Wa--!!
Miki: When doing it alone, you draw out your power hold a match between the fingers and make the O-Ring. If the match falls, the fingers will open.
Miki: You can understand the lucky direction of today (The direction of good omens) and where in the body is bad.
Caption 1: The fingers open when touching a bad place.
Caption 2: Beginners have a high success rate when doing this as a duo. (On the second joint of the index finger, hang the first joint of the thumb and pull it left and right)
Student 1: Amazing--! The key is it can be done anywhere with its simplicity!
Student 2: What this 0-Ability teacher has done is amazing.
Student 3: This good thing was hidden by Nube—
Nube: All of them, really…today is payday, but I haven’t been given a treat yet.
(TN: Nube specifically uses the verb of “ogoru” here regarding the pay-day, which specifically is “to give someone a treat”. Therefore, it shows Nube has been given his pay but it sounds like he hasn’t treated himself yet with it.
SFX: Za—

101.
SFX: Za—za—
Sign: Irrigation Channel
Hiroshi: Interesting—I’ve predicted that I’m going to fart over 10 times until tomorrow.
Kyouko: Hey, that’s interesting? Is that really interesting?
Katsuya: A dog?
SFX: Wan wan wan (Woof woof woof)
Hiroshi: It…it’s there.
Kyouko: It’s left behind on that sandbank.

102.
Hiroshi: In spite of it being a dog, there’s nothing we can do with it being a hammer in there.
Kyouko: Hiroshi, are you saving it?
Hiroshi: It’s fine. It’s shallow.
Kyouko: This current is strong. Be careful.
Miki: Ge~~I’m wet to my knees.
Makoto: Up to my waist.
Katsuya: Just a bit more.
Dog: Ku~~n ku~~n
Nube: N?
Nube: What are they?

103.
SFX: Mishi…mishi mishi…
SFX: Dobaa
Hiroshi: !?
Nube: You can’t…the bank broke down. A flash flood is coming!
Miki: Eeh!!

104.
Katsuya: No, the current has got our legs. We can’t move!
Hiroshi: Nube!
Nube: Everyone grab firmly onto the hands—I’ll never leg my hand go…everyone believe in me and don’t let your hands go---!!
SFX: Gu!
Hiroshi: Everyone, believe in Nube…in each other. No one will ever let their hands go!
Nube: Wh…what!?
Nube: The O-Ring!?
SFX: Dododododo
Katsuya: No one will let go!
Kyouko: No one will let go!
Makoto: No one…

105.
SFX: Zabaa

106.
Nube: Gu…this amazing water pressure. It’s…
SFX: Dooo
Nube: !?
Nube: …Even though they lost energy…they’re connected…!
(TN: Though it’s “ki” here and not “energy”, I didn’t know which to go with and ended up with the latter just to show their fainted states)
SFX: Zazazazaza
Nube: Did they…trust each other to the innermost depths…

107.
Nube: As expected…of the students of the Nube class…
Nube: Well, eat, eat, it’s a treat!
Hiroshi: I’ll have a chaashuu, a large-serving of corn butter and four eggs.
Miki: Wakame, salted butter and a large serving of menma.
Narrator: And then, at the end of another month…
Nube: Well, 100 yen…I’m fine with 100 yen. Loan it to me.
Hiroshi, Kyouko & Miki: No way.

108.
Nube-sensei’s
(Useless) SUPPLEMENTAL EXPLANATION

#16: O-Ring

Attach your thumb and your index finger and make a circle, and then pull on it on both sides. If you’re a person of normal health, the fingers won’t pull apart easily. However, when the hand of an opposing party is pulled apart with the same power with them associated with bad things in their body (for example, tobacco), somehow power will not be in the fingers and they will be separated easily. This is a thing that has gained attention in recent years as an epoch-making diagnosis method for pathology as the O-Ring Test.

Wanting to pay attention here, this is said to never be a supernatural power. Somehow it goes from touching good things on the body and if you pull with all one’s might, the fingers will end up separating. It’s important that you’re always pulling with the same power. Even if you pull at it with similar power, since the fingers won’t let go when touching a good thing on the body, when you touch a bad thing with the body, the power will be let out and the fingers will end up separating.

Perhaps to people reading this story, those who say “I’ve tested it but it’s completely no good!” pull with a strong power that’s greater than necessary and also are holding with all their strength in separating their fingers. Since the O-Ring is similar to a physical examination, doing it half-joking will go badly. If you don’t do it seriously like when you’re being medically examined by a doctor, you won’t get an honest result. Based on this point, you should do it well if you do it once more. (By the way: all of the assistants of author Okano-sensei were said to be perfectly successful when they experimented with this. Also, since this is unrelated with spirits, this won’t worry your father and mother and will be fine.)

TN: Is it just me or are there a certain style of Nube chapter that just feels like it's a tad predictable by now. The ones where some spiritual phenomenon is discovered, they test it out and then use it to save the day. Of course, this chapter wasn't completely like that luckily: the introduction where Nube goes through strange lengths to survive to payday was just hilarious and for the most part it was good up through him using the O-Ring to win at pachinko and then being forced to treat his students to ramen because they found out what he was pulling. That tricked me into thinking this was going to be a good Nube chapter since we had some great interactions and Nube using his powers in zany ways. Even the whole testing out of the O-Ring phenomenon wasn't too bad: the whole purpose of it is to show that it's so easy that anyone could do it, not because it's tied to spiritual power but because it's just something that is tied to a physical phenomenon connected to one's own mind that allowed for whether the fingers separated or not. But that ending...Nube was right: they should have just held hands instead of held each other with O-Rings. If they trusted each other enough, a strong grip of the hand would have been enough to survive the floodwaters and save them all. I get why they did it but it just felt sort of cheesy with how it ended up. I think it was sort of to prove the point of tension of fingers being strong enough with the O-Ring to survive this, but one slip up and someone would have been killed. Next time, kids, just listen to Nube and hold hands if it gets to that point!