Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 4 - Chapter SS5

Chapter 5

? ‘Monkey! Where have you put my fleshlight?’ ‘I took the liberty of warming it by my breast for you, Lord Nobunaga!’

This is an allusion to a very well-known story involving Toyotomi Hideyoshi (or Monkey, as he’s referred to here—see below) and Oda Nobunaga. Hideyoshi was born as a commoner, but somehow (there are a few theories, none of them verified) ended up serving Nobunaga as his sandal-bearer. The original quote, as such, is about Nobunaga’s sandals rather than...the other thing. The “warming it/them by my breast” part is where the story comes in—supposedly, Hideyoshi impressed Nobunaga by being considerate enough to warm his sandals inside his shirt on a particularly cold day. The particulars of the story may be apocryphal, but it’s definitely true that Hideyoshi somehow impressed Nobunaga enough to rise in the ranks of his retainers, and he eventually ended up ruling over most of Japan after Nobunaga was assassinated.

? As a side note, I’ve heard that the whole thing about Nobunaga calling Hideyoshi a monkey is actually a myth. Supposedly, he actually called him a balding rat.

Although Nobunaga having called Hideyoshi a monkey is a very widespread belief, this fun fact is actually true! Well, a number of seemingly respectable sources claim it’s true, anyway.

? Delete it all like Mikami Teru deleting people!

Mikami Teru is a character from Death Note! He comes in toward the later stages of the story and eventually obtains a death note of his own. Tomoyo is specifically referring to his habit of muttering “Delete! Delete!” as he writes names in the notebook.

? Something about it has, like...a sorta gap moé appeal, I guess?

We’ve gone over the concept of moé in a previous volume, but gap moé is somewhat distinct! To put it simply, the “gap” in gap moé refers to a gap between expectations and reality, and the “moé” part refers to how that gap makes the character much more appealing on the whole. Probably the most common example of this is a character whose appearance stands at odds with their behavior—the revelation that a big, burly, intimidating character arranges flowers as a hobby would probably have a gap moé effect on a lot of readers, for instance. In this case, of course, Andou’s referring to the gap between his impression of Sayumi and the way she actually looks when she’s at home.

? I picked up your Pocari! You wanted the powdered kind, right?

“Pocari” is a shortened form of Pocari Sweat, a very popular sports drink in Japan. It comes both in bottles and as a powder that you mix with water to reconstitute the drink. In terms of taste, I’d describe it as being subtly citrusy and less sweet than a lot of widely available sports drinks.