Hell Teacher Nube 196

What does it mean to be "presentable"? Should all people be forced to play by the rules to live? When a boy from the outside is brought to be "normal" in Nube's class, it may be his abnormality that could be a true key to his existence...

#196: The Boy Who Has Wings

30.
Narrator: We humans have been bound by time and rules since long ago. But what were we long, long, lo---ng ago?
Sign: Doumori Elementary School
SFX: Niko niko niko niko (Smile smile smile smile)

31.
"Businessman": I am the Kouyuu man.
SFX: Niko niko niko
Business Card:
Kouyuu Products
Representative Director
Kidokoro Taiichi

Nube: You're this kind of man?
(TN: There are a few things I need to get into here in order to understand the joke I tried to convey in this bit, mostly because it ends up using some Japanese and really had to be adjusted by me in order to make it work:
-When Kidokoro introduces himself he calls himself "Kouyuu-mono", which in this case stands for "the Kouyuu man". Obviously "Kouyuu" is the name of the company in this chapter, but the translation of it seemed to be rather difficult since it really doesn't translate into anything. I couldn't figure out what to translate it with "kou" being "confronting" or "approaching", and "yuu" being "dissolution" or "melting", which makes me think that this company or the companies it deals with are "close to dissolution" or, probably closer to the truth, "close to bankrupcy".
-The joke actually comes from Nube's response, when the "kouyuu" for his company name is mistranslated by him as the typical translation of "kou yuu mono", which literally translates into "that sort of man". It's actually a neat pun/joke...even with the company name being as convoluted to our effort as it is.
-One last thing I need to explain: the title of Kidokoro, "Representative Director" (which in Japanese is "Daihyou Torishimariyaku"), is a title for an officer in a company who is chosen to represent said company to the outside world)
Kidokoro: No, I'm the Kouyuu man.
Nube: No no, that's why you're that sort of man.
Kidokoro: No no, that's why I'm the Kouyuu man.
Nube: No no no, that's why.
Kidokoro: I want you to take custody of this child today.
Principal: Moderate your idiocy.
Nube: Yes.
Kidokoro: I don't have children and this child of a distant relative will be taking over as heir to Kouyuu Products, but in truth, this child has a bit of a situation.

32.
Kidokoro: This child lost both of his parents when he was young and was given custody to the home of his grandfather. However, this grandfather was an eccentric: he lived his life living deep in the mountains alone and was separated from human society.
Kidokoro: This grandfather too took charge of this child and immediately came to be bedridden; essentially, this child was living in self-sufficiency, without meeting anyone within nature in the mountains alone.
Kidokoro: When I had gone to visit them, his grandfather was already dead and he had truly come to be alone. That's why this child has come to grow up without knowing a single thing about this thing called human society.
Nube: That's an amazing circumstance.
Kidokoro: Blessedly, this child is high in intelligence and has done ordinary reading and writing with the books that were in the home. If what remains is to return him to human society through a formal education...
SFX: Niko niko
Kidokoro: Please give best regards to him.

33.
Nube: This is Niijima Kenta.
Kenta: Nice to meet you--
Hiroshi: Do some talent--!
SFX: Hyu--hyu--
Kyouko: Freshman students have law of doing a performance!
Katsuya: A hidden talent; ah hi--dden talent.
Nube: My class is a year-end party of old men~~~
(TN: The term "year-end party" refers to the Japanese "Bounenkai", which is a drinking party of co-workers to "forget the worries of the previous year" [of particular note: "bounen" is a combination of the two kanji of "forget" and "year"]. It usually occurs in December at the end of the previous year)
Kenta: Well.
Kyouko: N
Hiroshi: Oh.
Kyouko: What?
Hiroshi: Well, that's what he does.

34.
SFX: Pon | Hyu--
Kenta: ......
SFX: Kusu kusu... (giggle giggle)
Katsuya: Don't mind, don't mind
Kyouko: Eh!?
SFX: Fuwa fuwa (float float)

35
Nube, Hiroshi, Kyouko, Miki, Katsuya: He's...he's flyiiing~~!?
SFX: Fuwa fuwa
Hiroshi: Amazin---!! Was that a supernatural power!!
Kenta: ? ? ?
Katsuya: Is Tienshinhan your relative? Or isn't--he!?
(TN: While obviously a mention regarding Toriyama's "Dragon Ball", this one requires a bit of deeper research: basically Tienshinhan, one of Son Goku's early major rivals and a key ally throughout the series, was one of the first characters in the series to know how to fly, alongside his partner Chaotzu.)
Noriko: Cool--do it one more time--!
Shizuka: Couldn't you have said you did that?
Kyouko: Nube, that's...
Nube: Yes: "Levitation".
(TN: Just a quick note: "levitation" in Japanese is "Kuchuu fuyou", which literally translates into "Air Floating" or "Floating in Mid-Air")
Nube: Long ago, in a film called "Journey into the Beyond", there was the on-the-spot filming of an African sorceror floating in mid-air. Other than that, it seems to be a technique that is true in Mikkyou but...
(TN: "Journey into the Beyond" (original German name: "Reise Ins Jenseits"; Japanese title: "Choujou Gensou no Sekai", translated: The World of Extraordinary Phenomenon") was a "documentary" film originally released in 1975 by Western German director Rolf Olsen, with releases also in Japan as well as, in 1977, in the United States where it was narrated by John Carradine. One of the most famous and notable documented claims in the film was a claim of an Ashanti witch doctor who can float in mid-air, as is mentioned here. From the limited data I gathered regarding it, the film also has a couple other phenomenon we've spoken of prior in previous Nube chapters: Kirian Photography as seen in chp. 108, as well as psychic surgery from chp. 120)

36.
Nube: Where did you learn that art? What sort of power is that?
Kenta: Art? Power? What are those? Flying...it's a thing of nature. Birds and insects can fly. Can everyone do it?
SFX: Niko niko niko
Nube: Right...there haven't been people in his surroundings up to now and hasn't realized at all the strangeness of his own ability.
Student 1: We...well~~
Student 2: Well, that's fine: haha...
Kenta: Ahahaha
SFX: Fuwa fuwa fuwa
Kyouko: Amazing, amazing.
Katsuya: Well--! This guy isn't in other classes!

37.
Nube: Well--take your seats and let's start class.
SFX: Ki--n ko--n ka--n ko--n | Zara
Nube: He's not getting special treatment because he can fly. That's because the purpose is to make this child familiar with human society.
Nube: N? Wh...where did he go?

38.
Nube: You can't go outside during class! Well: how about a school being a place to study!!
Student: Teacher---it's terrible---!
Caption: School Lunch Room
Nube: Wasn't that bad! Please wait until lunch time for your meal!!

39.
SFX: Ki--n ko--n ka--n
Nube: ...! Not here again.
Nube: Hey~~~!!
Sign: Don't enter the flower bed!!
Nube: How about this!! You must obey the rules of human society.
Nube: Time, morale, manners...there are many unseen rules in communal living. (Kudo kudo) You must always obey them if you're going to live as a person from here on. (Nechi nechi)

40.
Hiroshi: Hey, he seemed severely angry.
Katsuya: Don't mind him, ha ha ha.
Shizuka: Ah, there it is: well--the shuttlecock for badminton got on the roof. Get it--
SFX: Fuwa fuwa.
SFX: Guraa...
Students: !!

41.
Kyouko: Nube! What sort of scolding method was that!?
Nube: No, I typically...well...
Miki: It's strange that he's come to not be energetic like this!
Kenta: Haa...haa...
Nube: ...Amazing, this way that his energy is decreasing. Right...this child is...
Voice: What, go home to the mountains!?
Kidokoro: Are you saying that this child can't conform to this school...no, to society? Are you saying that he's a no-good person that can't do anything?
Nube: No, that isn't so.
Nube: This child possesses a power that's more magnificent then ours. However this is lost within the framework that is called our society.

42.
Kidokoro: What nonsense is that? Enough then! This child will be going back and educated by me.
Sign: Kouyuu Products: A Public Company
Kidokoro: Well, this 20th floor will be your living place from today. The things that you need will all be arranged for you. Furniture, toys, teachers and friends will be constructed by me and shall make you into a splended person.
Kidokoro: So, you shall live according to a schedule.
SFX: Bisshiri
Schedule:
5-7: Jogging/Calisthetics
7-7:30: Morning Assembly
7:30-9: Piano
9-10: Studying
10-11:30: English conversation
11:30-12:30: Calculation (Abacus)
12:30-13: Lunch
13-14: Japanese
14-15: Violin
15-16: (Couldn't read this)
16-17: Personal Computer
17-18: Society
18-19: History
19-19:30: Dinner
19:30-21: Drawing
21-21:30: (Couldn't read this)
21:30-22:30: Home Economics
22:30-23: Night Supper
23-24: Art
24-1: (Couldn't read this)
1-2: Reading and Writing
2-5: Sleep
(TN: Unfortunately I had a hard time reading a few of these due to the squint-worthy words some of the schedule used. However, there are a couple of things on the schedule that probably could use a bit more explanation:
-"Studying" was the combination of two kanji that really don't usually seem to translate together: "Shuu", the kanji for "learn" and "gaku" or "study". I really didn't know how to really make this work appropriately, so since it essentially translated into "learn through studies", I just made it "studying".
-"English conversation", or "Eikaiwa", is a class basically involving the immersion of English (for a Japanese person) through conversation between people.
-"Calculation" is actually the Japanese word "Soroban", which literally stands for "abacus"; while the abacus is no longer in use for calculating even by the publish of this chapter in 1997, I chose to merely change it into a math/calculation class
-"Japanese" is merely "Kokugo" or "National language" in Japanese; since it really didn't feel right saying "national language" in English, I just went with the obvious)

SFX: Haa--haa---

43.
Kyouko: Hey, Nube, is Kenta-kun alright?
Caption: Doumori 30 Viewing Platform
Nube: No; like this, that child will...
Miki: This is awkward, what's been done~~~
Caption: Diligent~~~friends...
Student 1: About the physics of space...
Student 2: Ohohohoho...

44.
Kenta: !!

45.
Sign: Doumori Hospital
Nube: Kenta-kun jumped from the building!?
Kidokoro: I had intended that this child be devoted to the very best if he were to be properly returned to society, and yet was there something wrong with this suicide...
Nube: Suicide!? This wasn't some suicide. This child was going to fly.
Nube: But he doesn't have that power remaining anymore. That's because the origin of this child's power was stolen by you. It's origin was...

46.
Nube: Freedom.
Nube: I think that his power can't be spoken of as a psychic ability or a spiritual ability. It is the freedom of the heart that can't be shackled by anything...yes, it's the power of freedom.
Nube: Humans all live by binding their own hearts with the chains called common sense. If they were released from those chains and obtained true freedom...
Kenta: Haa haa
Nube: Then whatever the circumstance that is imagined in the heart...they can fly in the sky. This could be done with anything.

47.
Kenta: Ah...aah.
Nube: Kenta-kun, this is the mountain that was your old home. There will be nothing anymore that will tie you down.
Kyouko: His wounds are healing.

48.-49.
Caption: This is a thing lost due to people living in human society. This...

TN: First of all, a bit of an admission: I sort of really didn't expect to be back translating on the weekend again so soon. With the way my life has changed so much in the last few months, it just felt like I was a bit out of it for a while in not doing manga translations on the weekend and more doing it during the week. But basically this situation is one that has to be managed as it comes along: there will be some weekends I may have a ton of content and others with literally nothing...so just bare with me as I go through this, at least as I work my way through the remaining stretch for "Hell Teacher Nube".

As for the chapter...so, what just happened? Basically the chapter is saying that humans knew how to fly once but couldn't because society wouldn't let us? And this...has nothing to do with evolution or just some supernatural power? Well...admittedly, this explanation works for a certain Bo-bobo chapter (which actually made fun of a concept like this in it's own bizarrely brillaint way...it was during the Gunkan arc if you want to look into it) but in Nube terms...it just feels like a variation of the werewolf chapter from some time ago. Yeah it was somewhat different: the werewolf was never supposed to be in society and someone was trying to make him presentable and "normal" and this boy was just a normal boy whose circumstances made him "free". (though I'm not sure how he eats and sleeps and such in such freedom) But the fact that some kid could just live on his own with animals in nature due to his sick/dying grandpa and thus be able to fly because of it...it just feels like a bit of a let-down with an obvious solution. What made the werewolf chapter awesome is because of it's structure and how it was done (that and the fact that the kid had Tamamo looking over him...and you're not letting a wolf kid being bossed around with a youko around) In this case...I get they wanted to keep Kenta free so he would be happy, but somehow I just wonder if it was a cop-out or the right thing to do. Let alone there is this: was Kidoroko just that selfish for an heir to pull this kid living in the mountains out of nowhere and try to groom him so badly to be as such? That's the biggest mess for the chapter: the grooming of Kenta and restricting him had nothing to do with "re-accumulating him for society", it was to make an heir through a son that really had no connection with him! He really needed to have better priorities before pulling this sort of stunt again.