第４話：地獄に落とされた天子…

Chapter 4: Tenko in hell

Tenko asks Gokuoh why he has taken her with him to hell. He says that it’s because she has found out his true identity, which apparently is that he is the Lord of Hell.

• 正体　identity
• むりやり　by force
• 「丁寧（ていねい）に扱え（あつかえ）よ」　handle with care/treat her carefully/say hello politely (?)

While Gokuoh was on earth, his job in hell has piled up. His job is to judge souls.

• 魂（たましい）soul
• 裁く（さばく）to judge
• 裁き　judgement

He has written down a list of all their wrongdoings during lifetime.

• 悪行（あくぎょう）wrongdoing (also: 悪事 = wrong, wrong thing)
• 記す（しるす）to note, write down
• （お）見通し（みとおし）(your) outlook/prospect/forecast
• 生前（せいぜん）in life/during lifetime

The first soul belongs to a thief. Gokuoh sentences him to five thousand years of torture in hell. Next!

• 盗る（とる）to take/steal
• 火責め（ひぜめ）＝　火を使ってする拷問（ごうもん）fire torture
• ビシバシ　without mercy?
• 見事・な（みごと・な）beautiful

One soul is temporarily changed into human form. It’s a thief who claims to only have committed shoplifting in a candy shop.

• 一時的　temporary
• 肉体　body
• 禊（みそぎ）purification ceremony (?)
• 宝石（ほうせき）jewel
• 宝石店（ほうせきてん）jewelry store
• 駄菓子屋（だかしや）candy store
• 万引き（まんびき）shoplifting

But Gokuoh produces a magic mirror which lets us see exactly what was going on in that candy store five years ago when the thief claimed to have shoplifted a candy bar. It turns out the thief had an ulterior motive.

• 魂胆（こんたん）ulterior motive

The mirror shows that what the thief really stole were two lottery tickets worth 400 million yen!

• 宝籤（たからくじ）lottery
• 億（おく）hundred million

Gokuoh looks up the crime in the table for sentences. It says that the sentence for thefts above a hundred million yen is eternal hell. (What a nice children’s book this is.)

• 金額（きんがく）amount
• 無限（むげん）infinite, eternal, without limits
• 苦しみ　suffering
• 千倍（せんばい）a thousand times

盗んだ金額：１億以上
地獄：無限地獄

But the thief protests and says that he’s a “clock maniac” and that what he actually stole was the table clock that the lottery tickets were hidden under. He argues for a less serious punishment than eternal torture in hell.

• 値打ち（ねうち）value

Gokuoh uses the magic mirror again and zooms in on the tickets. They turn out to be discount coupons for ramen noodles.

• 拡大（かくだい）enlargement, magnification
• 割引券（わりびきけん）discount coupon

You’re lying! Gokuoh exclaims while summoning his Lord of Hell persona. The thief makes an attempt to take Tenko hostage, but is crushed under the foot of Catcrow/Nekokarasu, who in hell is a three-headed wolf.

• 人質　hostage

The lord of hell grabs the thief’s tongue with his iron claw (as we’ve seen in previous chapters) and swings him around. He adds an attack called 1000 needles, in which he sends a thousand needles into the thief’s mouth. The impact is so strong that the thief falls backward into the entrance of – eternal hell!

• 堕ちる、落ちる　to fall (how to they differ?)
• 結局（けっきょく）after all
• 信用（しんよう）credit, belief, faith

Then Gokuoh turns to Tenko and says that since she now knows his secret (that he is the Lord of Hell), he will have to silence her forever by erasing her memories.

• 秘密（ひみつ）secret
• 記憶（きおく）memories, storage

He asks her repeatedly if she didn’t think it was scary and if she regrets joining him to hell, and when she refuses to say that it was scary, he calls her a liar and extends his iron claw towards her. Tenko starts crying.

• 後悔（こうかい）する　to regret
• 二度と…ない　never again
• 一方的（いっぽうてき）unilateral (?)
• 正気（しょうき）sanity

Then they leave hell. “What about the silencing me forever thing?” Tenko asks. “Oh, that was just a lie!” Gokuoh replies. Which sends Tenko crying again.

Comment

I like this manga, but what surprised me in this chapter was that Gokuoh didn’t produce any proofs that the thief was lying. I think that was unnecessarily cruel, but at the same time it shapes his character I guess.

This chapter took about 2 hours to read.