Hell Teacher Nube 183

As he continues to live in human society to research love, Tamamo may start to understand certain aspects, but there are still flaws to his research...as seen by a lovable little girl who may drive him to the limits of his studies!

#183: The Melancholy of Dr. Tamamo

135.
SFX: Hyuuu~~ | Wa—wa—
Nube: Hold on, I’m going now.
Kyouko: Stop it, Nube, it’s dangerous.
Hiroshi: Why would you go this far?
Miki: Life is important.
Nube: Just a bit more, just a bit more……
Nube: !
SFX: Tsuru
Nube: Waaaaa…

136.
(Title page…well there go our lessons from last chapter…down with Nube to the concrete…somehow though I think Tamamo will have a few words on that)

137.
Tamamo: --Why exactly do you have these severe wounds, Nueno-sensei?
Nube: Hmm, I was beaten up at the end of a deadly struggle with an evil spirit that was possessing a student and saved the student. (Haa~~~haa~~~) Well, it was a stubborn one.
Tamamo: Fu, as usual.

138.
Tamamo: I was excessive again in wanting 100 yen for certain because I was holding the 100 yen tightly in my left hand and stupidly got wounded…
SFX: Gikkuu!
Nube: By…by the way, how—has it been recently…have you come to understand the human heart a bit?
Tamamo: The human instinct to protect the weak…that is, “love”. If I can understand even this emotion called love, I too should obtain infinite spiritual power like you!
Tamamo: Fu…my research about “love” is doing well. I’ve saved many people in this hospital and am loved by people.
Tamamo: That doesn’t amount to worry. Well, if my business is done, then go home, go home.
SFX: Gacha
Nube: Are you fine with a treatment cost of free?

139.
“Voice”: Tamamo-sensei---!
“Little Girl”: Look, look, I found these today--!
“Little Girl”: Ah.
SFX: Dobesha!

140.
Tamamo: …………
SFX: Batan!
Sign: Surgery
Nube: ? (Tamamo?)
Kyouko: Are you alright?
Kyouko: What are they, aren’t they snails?
“Little Girl”: Yep. Snails for granting wishes.
Kyouko: Ah, is this a jinx?
“Little Girl”: Yep. Tamamo-sensei taught me of it.
Kyouko: Eh, Tamamo did?
“Little Girl”: Yep…
Tamamo: Hinako-chan, you’re having surgery in another month.
Hinako: Alright, doctor.

141.
Tamamo: I’ll teach you a nice thing. They say that clockwise snails grant wishes…you should collect those.
Hinako: Really? Then I’ll gather many of them.
Hinako: Hey, doctor.
Tamamo: N?
Hinako: Why do you always have that scary face, doctor?
Tamamo: There is a problem that I can’t resolve all the way……I can’t clear my heart of it.
Hinako: Due to that, Doctor is in a bad mood today as well.
Kyouko: Tamamo’s problem…is that understanding human love?
Hiroshi: It is.
Hinako: I’ll go search for many more wish-granting snails.
SFX: Tobo…

142.
Nube: Hey, Tamamo!
SFX: Gacha
Nube: Why are you being cold to that girl?
Tamamo: Because that girl can’t be saved anymore. She has two months to live.
Tamamo: Please look at this. It’s a CT-Scan of that girl’s brain.
Nube: That shadow is…an evil spirit!?
Tamamo: Yes…the evil spirit is sticking to a portion deep in her brain.

143.
Tamamo: Sickness in a normal brain can be cured with radiation or chemotherapy, but the place where this evil spirit is sticking to is too deep and can’t be treated even medically. If I can’t remove this evil spirit, I can’t cure this girl’s illness.
Nube: So if you exorcise it……
Tamamo: I too had that intention from the start. That’s why I gave her words to give her hope. However amidst my research, I understood that if I don’t use a considerable amount of spiritual power, the evil spirit can’t be defeated.
Tamamo: However, if I send that power to her brain, that girl’s brain will be destroyed for certain.
Nube: You can’t do surgery and even exorcism is impossible…you can’t save that girl.
Tamamo: Even if you give love, it has no meaning for a person who is going to die. In other words, this girl is out of place from my purpose which is understanding human love. That’s why I can’t be in her company anymore.

144.
Nube: Ku…Tamamo…you ultimately…can’t comprehend the human heart……
Hinako: (singing) De—ndenmu—shimushi ka—tatsumuri—
(TN: The song that Hinako is singing is a song notable in many preschools merely called “Katatsumuri” or just “Snail”. I ended up keeping Hinako’s song as is here because she ends up saying “snail” twice in two different ways, yet both with the same meaning and even the same kanji making it up. Since it felt silly really writing “snail” down twice, I kept this part of her song in Japanese. There is a bit more on the language evolution for both words in the Supplemental)
Hinako: Whe—re are you hi—ding all your sli—my cute heads—
(TN: The next part of Hinako’s song is simply just “Omae no atama wa doko ni aru”, which is simply “Where are your heads”. But to keep the rhythm of her singing in Japanese, I ended up slightly adjusting it accordingly)

145.
Tamamo: Foolish…snails that grant wishes…it doesn’t surpass mere nonsense. Do you want to be saved that much…No matter how many you gather, you’re…
SFX: Gacha…
Tamamo: ?

146.
Hinako’s Note:
These will solve Tamamo-sensei’s problem. –Hinako
Tamamo: You idiot! Weren’t you gathering them for yourself?
Tamamo: ………

147.
Nube: Why are you calling me in the dead of night, Tamamo?
SFX: Katsu katsu
Tamamo: For surgery…no, an exorcism.
Nube: Huh…wasn’t it impossible!?
Tamamo: 99%. But, it is 1% possible.
Hinako: What’s going on? Wasn’t surgery still in the future?
SFX: Gara gara gara
Tamamo: I’ve gotten hasty.
(TN: I really don’t know which is the right word to really to use for Tamamo here: he uses “Hayamatta”, using the verb “hayamaru” which either translates into ‘I’ve sped it up’ (as in the timetable for Hinako’s surgery) or ‘I’ve gotten hasty’ (as in Tamamo wants to get it over with) Considering the way he’s approaching it now, I used the latter, but the former can work as well)
Tamamo: You may die but…do you have the courage to undertake the surgery?
Hinako: Yep. I believe in Tamamo-sensei.
Nube: Alright.
SFX: Giiii…
SFX: Gasha—n
Sign: In Surgery

148.
Tamamo: First, we’ll expose the surface of the brain with surgical operation.
Tamamo: Do you understand the affected part, Nueno-sensei?
SFX: Dokun dokun
Nube: Yes…
Tamamo: And then I’ll emit from my hand a powerful aura. But as is, getting close will destroy the brain…
SFX: Pou
Tamamo: Nueno-sensei will suppress the power from the side here. With doing as such, we’ll make an aura scalpel that will touch just the affected area.

149.
Tamamo: With this, we’ll only annihilate the evil spirit. If we touch a place outside the affected area of the brain, we will destroy her brain with just this much aura.
SFX: Jijiji…
“Youkai”: Gyaaaa~~
“Youkai”: Gyaaaa
Tamamo: Fu…this is an illness demon that isn’t altruistic if it is possessing this place, but it seems to be going well
(TN: The term that Tamamo uses for the creature in the brain is a “Byouma”, which usually can go with the general term of “disease” but has a full meaning of “illness demon”, which this feels more like)
SFX: Girori

150.
Tamamo: What!? It’s inflated. It’s putting pressure on the brain…
SFX: Puku~~
Tamamo: No, it’s suspending her brain waves.
Nube: Ku
SFX: Ba ba
“Youkai”: Gihihihi…
Tamamo: What a creature!
Tamamo: No good!
Nube: With this…we can’t exorcise it!

151.
Tamamo: --Having come to this, I’ll remove it surgically.
SFX: Kacha…
Nube: !?
Nube: Th…that’s impossible……
Tamamo: As a youko who has researched humans, I have done so in all fields over 400 years…so I could cause calamity to human society.
Tamamo: Among my extensive knowledge, I’ve included Western medicine, Eastern medicine and, on top of that, live human testing during wars. I’ve concentrated on all medical knowledge.
Tamamo: This girl…will be saved…!

152.
SFX: Koki…koki…koki…
SFX: Karan!
Tamamo: ……I’ve done it…!
“Youkai”: Hi—hi—
SFX: Gusha
“Youkai”: Gi
Hinako: Den—denmu—shimushi Ka—tatsumuri—

153.
Hinako: Ah, Tamamo-sensei—thank you. I’m in an extremely good mood.
Tamamo: That’s nice.
Hinako: …Tamamo-sensei, he hasn’t solved his problem yet?
Nube: No.
Nube: I’m certain with a bit more, he’ll resolve that problem.

154.
Nube-sensei’s
(Useless) SUPPLEMENTAL EXPLANATION

#24: Snails

This has no relation to youkai.

They’re a species of shellfish, but since they don’t have gills, they’ll drown if put in water.

The kanji is written as “katatsumuri”. There is a saying of “a conflict of horned snail”, but that has a meaning of “a turf conflict that is on top of the horn of a snail” and, in other words, is said to be a stupid quarrel of a small scale.

Their alias is “dendenmushi”, but that came from “raden”, the word that points at their spiraling shell.

Escargo, which appears in French cuisine, is edible snails, but snails in Japan aren’t eaten.

The shells on their back are attached from when they are born and ton’t come off until they die. Within their shells isn’t hollow; it is closely packed with their organs.

There are people who well confuse them with hermit crabs; these people think that “it is possible for them to dismantle their shells” and those without shells are slugs, but they’re making a mistake.

When they are born, there isn’t a distinction of males and females and they become male or become female from when they’ve matured. They primarily eat leaves and have green-colored poop, but if you present them just carrots, they will have red poop. There are many where they have a variety with clockwise shells, but there seem to be many of those that are counterclockwise as well. (Note: what is called “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” is decided by looking from the center. It’s the same as whirlwinds.)

Further, what was said as “clockwise snails grant wises” was made up arbitrarily by Tamamo-sensei; since it was random nonsense from his mouth without any foundation, please don’t believe in that.

(TN: A few notes:
1. The whole “species of shellfish” bit at the beginning more seems to refer to the general phylum of “mollusca”, which includes snails and slugs. Strangely while they are part of it, they’re more known as sea creatures due to this being the largest marine phylum, with 23% of all water species in this group. In fact, the land snail we see are the minority compared to the sea snails even in the class “Gastropoda” which they exist in.
2. The whole kanji part for the most part regarding the name of snails in Japanese once again is something that can only be understood in Japanese, but the first kanji is one with the radical of “mushi” or “insect” and has a reading of “katatsumuri”, while the second kanji in the name is the same kanji that is used for “cow”, strangely.
3. The expression “a conflict of horned snails” is actually written in Japanese as “Kagyuu Kakujou no Arasoi”, which is written as such and has the meaning, as stated, in “a conflict of a small scale such as one between two small countries.
4. The expression regarding the formation of “Dendenmushi” is tied to “Raden”, which is the Japanese word for “mother of pearl”, which is a common color of the shell of a snail. Incidentally, the “ra” in “raden” refers to a small, freshwater, edible mollusk but is generally the kanji used for various aspects regarding “spirals”, including “rasen” (screw/helix/spiral) or “neji” (screw, which can link to “nejimawashi” or “screwdriver”)
5. A slight addition regarding the difference between snails and slugs: usually the slugs are related to snails, but they either have no shell, a tiny shell or a small shell on the inside. Fort the most part, the internal shell is a storage area for calcium salt connected to the digestive glands)

TN: There are probably some people who expect a whole rant from me on this chapter considering the last one...but it's not coming. That's because...as strange and slightly convoluted as some of the ending was and as much as it probably meant to be an instant tearjerker, I liked this chapter. The chapter for the most part was a lesson in essentially Tamamo discovering the will that some have to live and that humans are more surprising than he may believe, particularly with Hinako and the collection of her snails. As cute as the snail-collecting became, she did it not for her own malady (whether or not she really knows about the brain tumor being a youkai), but because of her concern for Tamamo. Some could say "well maybe she didn't know she was dying", but somehow she probably had a sense she was but still didn't care about herself because she wanted to put the welfare of others (in this case, Tamamo), before her own. As for how she was saved...well, I really did like the idea that it wasn't merely spiritual means (a spirit knife, that was cool...sort of like the "gamma knife" used in real medicine) or medical means that allowed for Hinako to be saved but both. Tamamo and Nube had to really think outside the box to figure it out and it made the ending stronger and more successful than just having one on it's own be the thing that saved her. As for the convoluted part...well, OK, some could say it is silly for Tamamo to have that much knowledge on medicine, but of course it makes sense if you think about it considering that both he is a long-lived youko...as well as his choice to become a doctor as his human disguise. If he didn't know medicine, then why would he have been a doctor? He would have probably been a teacher again like when he first went after Hiroshi...so of course he would be skilled and have to put it to the test here. Though...I doubt this can cure Nube of his problems but that's all tied to not making much as a teacher. (among other things)