MERCURO (Text Adaption) : ACT 1 : SCENE 1

The opening sequence of the Tokyo Grand Guignol's inaugural play, now carefully adapted to English using a combination of the original script with contemporary audience descriptions...

The Teacher : Kyusaku Shimada
Mikami : ‘Y’
The Hobo / Chinkajyon : Norimizu Ameya
Nursing Assistant : Suehiro Maruo
Student #1: Kennosuke Yaguruma
Student #2 : Ogawa Nobuo
Student #3 (Toba) : Sanemasa Mushanokoji in first run, Takei Tatsuhide in second
Student #4 : Mayako Tekumaku
Student #5 : Eisuke Wada in first run, Sakai Yasuki in second
Student #6 : Yukiya Ataru
Mikami’s Sister : Ohno Sayuri in first run, Momoyama Tefu in second

——————-

Since the space a play is performed in holds as much prominence as the production itself, let’s start with a quick establishment of the framing around Mercuro’s world.

The stage was in the Art Theatre Shinjuku, an underground venue that specialized in both film and theater. Depending on the day you arrived, you could either be treated to a private ritualized performance for a handful of people or a mass demonstration to an increasingly packed room as audience members seated across the floor were methodically crammed into one another by barking stagehands. While the capacity of the theater was said to have been fit for 50 people, over double that amount were fit in for later screenings as people seated with their legs crossed were shoulder to shoulder in front of a short platform that housed a panorama of Maruo Inferno.

The Tokyo Grand Guignol’s works were always recalled to have a distinctly medical aesthetic, with Mercuro being no exception as its dreamlike narrative lingered through a room haunted by the stench of disinfectant. For later performances (namely the 1986 rerun of Litchi Hikari Club) they were said to have used a plastic surgical tarp in place of a stage curtain. For Mercuro’s case however, a simple black drape that matched the equally dark walling was used instead.

As the audience enters, the set is completely obscured with the surrounding room brightly lit. There’s no background music or even an idea of when the play will start.

With a sudden percussive boom, the lights quickly go out.

The boom is followed by a subtle but nagging click. The click continues through the drawing of the curtain, eventually sustaining as the marching ticks of a clock obscured somewhere in the shadows. The soundscape continues past the point of diegetic purposes when it reveals itself to be the metronome for an instrumental version of the Public Image LTD track Four Enclosed Walls.

A set of stomping feet follow suit with the rhythm of the track while illumination rises on the stage to reveal the full scene. A line of feet emerge from the darkness, As the light gradually swells, six perfectly aligned young men seat themselves. They are dressed in the formal gakuran uniforms that were synonymous with Japanese school attire of the early 20th century, all with matching hats. Their heads are bowed so the visors of their hats obscure their faces in shadow.

The tension of the track steadily rises and the students abruptly raise their faces and look from side to side, unveiling their gauntly pale features as their glares dart from one side of the room to the other. They continue to stomp from one foot to the other, the frequency of the stomps also rising with the ritualistic percussion of the album opener.

As the stage is further revealed, distorted by an overarching darkness, it’s shown to be a claustrophobic classroom, with barren walls made of wooden planks. A doorway is on one far end of the room and a window on the other. It’s late at night, and the window looks out into nothingness. Behind the students there is a blackboard and lecturing table. The school’s teacher (Kyusaku Shimada) writes on the blackboard while standing authoritatively in the cramped space between the desk and the wall.

With the classroom fully established, the nightmarish march ends with the students trilling their feet to a descending drum section. Silence follows. In that silence, the abrasive post-punk framing opens way to the stage’s period-specific atmosphere while Akira Ifukube’s dramatic backing music to the 1974 film Sandakan No. 8 slowly fades over the scene.

The students bow their heads back down to obscure their faces with the visors of their hats. After a period of the teacher writing on the blackboard, one of the students stands abruptly from his seat. While standing, he is still facing away from the teacher.

STUDENT #1:
Teacher!

All the other students turn to face the one that’s standing.

TEACHER {disinterested}:
What?

STUDENT #1:
Uh… The writing feels inappropriate.

The teacher stops, tension building in the room with the abrupt stillness. It’s finally broken when he erases the blackboard’s contents and begins to rewrite over his past notes. As the first student returns to his seat, another shows an alarmed expression and erupts from his seat like the last student.

STUDENT #2:
Teacher!

The other students turn to face Student 2.

TEACHER:
What?

The teacher continues to write on the blackboard.

STUDENT #2:
I saw the corpse of a cat earlier this morning. Someone had raped it…

TEACHER:
It must have been roadkill from the night before.

The student sits back down, his face still raised. Another student stands to take his place shortly after. The students all look to him as they had the prior two.

STUDENT #3:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What?

STUDENT #3:
I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. I hardly slept last night. Under the sheets, it feels stuffy… and my privates start to feel funny.

TEACHER:
It’s probably the climate.

The student sits back down. Another student stands to take his place shortly after. The cycle continues, the attention of the surrounding students always being drawn to the one that’s standing.

STUDENT #4:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What?

STUDENT #4:
My voice hasn’t changed yet…

TEACHER:
It will eventually.

The student sits back down. The second student stands again quickly after.

STUDENT #2:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What now?

STUDENT 2:
I was in the garden three days ago and I saw something terrible there. A man was raping a cat!

The teacher clears his throat, Student #2 seating himself at the same time. The fifth student in the line stands up after.

STUDENT #5:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What?

STUDENT #5:
There’s a fire! Burning! Burning! The hills are burning!

TEACHER:
You’re clearly imagining things.

Student #5 seats himself, with Student 3 standing again shortly thereafter.

STUDENT #3:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What?

STUDENT #3:
Well…  I had a dream last night, it was so embarrassing that I can’t even bring myself to talk about it…

TEACHER:
That’s what you get for staying up late.

Student #3 seats himself, and Student #1 rises from his seat again shortly thereafter.

STUDENT #1:
Teacher!

TEACHER {annoyed}:
What now?

STUDENT #1:
We’ll… Uh… I just transferred here…

TEACHER:
Yes, you did.

Student #1 seats himself again, Student #6 quickly rising in his place shortly thereafter.

STUDENT #6:
Teacher! {The teacher doesn’t respond, visibly fed up with the situation.}  Teacher!

TEACHER:
What is it?

STUDENT #6:
Would you please do something about that woman, teacher!…

Student #6 seats himself again, Student #4 returning right after him.

STUDENT #4:
Teacher!

TEACHER:
What?

STUDENT #4:
I’m afraid I might be going bald…

The cycle continues ad nauseam, each student standing and biding time through their anxious begging and questioning. Student #3 rises again, asking how he could stop having such horrible dreams, Student #6 begs for any guidance on what he should do, Student #1 is similarly clueless in not knowing what he should do. Eventually the students stop seating themselves, one rising after the other while the teacher irritably scrawls across his blackboard with increasing ferocity. Student #5 begs the teacher to put out the fire behind them as the teacher practically carves into the board in front of him.

STUDENT #3 {the last one to stand}:
Teacher!! Please do something!!!

STUDENT #6:
Teacher!!! {Student #3 is stuttering between his words at the same time.} What can I do??

The voices of the students become muddled with an assortment of “Uhs...” and “Erms...” until they all congeal into an indiscernible wall of noise. The auditory chaos becomes overwhelming. Grotesque descriptions and complaints about pubescent discomfort give way to the students pleading with the teacher. Pleas for help, pleas to put out the fire. Teacher!! Teacher!! Teacher!! Over and over again. The chaos continues in aimless confusion until they all finally stand firmly and scream in synchronicity.

STUDENTS {in unison}:
Teacher! I feel sick!

The teacher freezes. Lowering his chalk, he slowly turns to face the backs of his students with a stern expression.

TEACHER:
Go to the nurse’s office.

Having drawn a handkerchief from his coat pocket, the teacher places it over his mouth as the various symbols and scrawlings on the blackboard behind him spring to life, dancing in the air of the classroom as abstract wire sculptures that refract and glow in the stage’s lighting. The students scramble from their chairs to the door, flooding out into the school’s hallway in a disorganized mob. The lights at the front of the stage dim as soon as they leave, with the teacher standing in a lone spotlight.

With the blackboard blank again, the inscriptions having leaped off it, the teacher turns back around to return to writing.

The surrounding shadows are broken up again as a great moon fills the window in the form of an ethereal projection. About three meters in diameter, the moon is close enough that even the craters are visible.

Standing alone in the moonlight, the teacher writes in silence. The only sounds are the sporadic scratches on the blackboard while he cackles to himself. His writings turn out to be the writings for a biology lesson. The writing is dense and erratic, the manner in which he writes his katakana being visibly frantic.

After a long period of silence, an unexpected lone knock is heard at the door. With the sound of a bellowing gust of wind, the door violently swings open and crashes against the wall as a storm roars throughout the classroom. It's pitch black on the other side of the door but a flash of lightning briefly reveals the figure of a boy. The teacher keeps his footing amidst the storm as a Lumiere-styled visual of a woman holding an umbrella flies across the full moon.

Through the turbulence, a new student emerges from the darkness and calmly enters the classroom. The storm ceases as he slams the door behind him. Dressed in a similar gakuran uniform, he is differentiated from the other students with his distinct presence, marked by a handsome smile that comes across as charming and simultaneously sinister. Once the storm fully dies down, the student introduces himself to the teacher with a friendly grin.

MIKAMI:
Good evening. I’m Mikami. Please excuse my lateness, I took the train here. The weather the whole way over was horrible and it never calmed down. By the time I reached the platform I could hardly keep my footing from the wind. At some points I felt like I really was in danger. It was frightening until I saw that great moon watching me. As soon as I saw it I fell in love again.

TEACHER:
Really?

MIKAMI:
… Yes?

TEACHER:
You said the moon is greater here?

MIKAMI:
Yes!

TEACHER:
So you’re saying that the moon here is larger than the one from where you used to live?

MIKAMI:
Yes! Absolutely.

The teacher is surprised by Mikami’s optimism.

TEACHER:
Where are you from, Mikami?

MIKAMI:
I’m from a far away village, where the moon is small and just beyond our grasp.

TEACHER:
And that’d be?…

MIKAMI:
My hometown, of course!

TEACHER:
Where is that then?

MIKAMI:
It’s where I lost something.

TEACHER:
The town where you lost something?

MIKAMI:
Yes, and I came here to find it.

TEACHER:
What would it be then?

MIKAMI:
My older sister, she’s been missing for a long time. I’ve transferred from one school to another following the path of the moon. I was told that the town where the moon is the largest is the place where lost things gather to be found again. Looking for that town, I was finally directed here in the search for where she could be.

TEACHER:
If she’s missing, tell me, what could’ve happened to your sister then?

MIKAMI:
Are you sure about that? I mean, I just arrived here after all.

TEACHER:
Go ahead, be my guest.

MIKAMI:
Thank you, teacher.

Mikami bows to the teacher and takes off his hat. He turns to the audience to directly address them as he goes into a trance-like monologue. Japan’s Sons Of Pioneers fades into the soundscape as Mikami speaks to the viewer.

MIKAMI:
It all started three years ago. It was on a very strange night, a night where the moon, which was always quite small, grew and grew. It made everything underneath it glisten. My sister and I used to have this nightly ritual of reading together by the window. She’d always read about 100 pages over the span of, say, two hours before bookmarking her progress. After that she’d look out the window to rest her eyes before we had tea together for the remainder of the evening. That night however, she wasn’t acting like herself… She could barely make it three minutes into her reading when something in the widow drew her away from her book. I was confused, but at the time I figured it was just the moon…

Stopping himself, Mikami puts his hat back on, the music quickly ceasing thereafter.

TEACHER:
Well? Keep going.

MIKAMI:
You’d be fine with me doing that?

TEACHER:
Yes, there’s no sense in an incomplete story.

MIKAMI:
Thank you teacher.

Lowering his hat again, the mysterious music slowly fades back in.

MIKAMI:
The moon was like nothing else I’d seen that night. It was a full moon, one that was so large, practically made of gold with the glisten of a button that kept the black sky bound together. It was like nothing else I’d seen until I found the one in this strange town… I was naturally preoccupied with my book then. I just figured that with how spectacular the moon was out there that she could hardly focus on anything else… It was a while until my attention was drawn away too by an unusual sound. She told me she was going to have a brief walk, and soon after she went out into the garden…

Putting back on his hat again, the music stops.

TEACHER:
And…?

MIKAMI:
That’s it.

TEACHER:
Really?

MIKAMI:
Yes. After that I never saw her again.

TEACHER:
Mhm… You see, I believe this is what they call a disappearance…

MIKAMI:
No…

TEACHER:
Excuse me?

MIKAMI {in a sudden burst of rage}:
That isn’t right! {Mikami throws away his hat, the music swelling with his anger.} Someone lured my sister, I know it!

TEACHER:
What’s your evidence of that?

MIKAMI:
I don’t have any. But I know it’s true, someone took her away that night!

TEACHER:
Why would someone do that then?

MIKAMI:
Yes! Exactly! Why?? How?? How could you stare at that great moon for so long?!… I was so careless then… The moon hypnotized everyone it caught, but she wasn’t looking at that. She had her attention on the bushes just beneath where someone else was calling for her. The bushes in the garden! I knew it! You weren’t looking at that moon!! Sister!!! Sister!!!

Just as the music hits a peak of intensity with Mikami’s mania, the teacher grabs his hat and forces it back on his head, breaking the noise up as he prompts the obsessive student back to reality.

TEACHER:
Mikami, get yourself together! Now, please, take your seat… {The teacher directs Mikami to the desk at the farthest opposite end of the room, positioned right alongside the window looking out over the moon.} I understand that this search is very important for you, and I hope as well that you find her soon.

MIKAMI {seating himself}:
Yes teacher, and I thank you for that. You see, I’ve gone through many different schools, and in none of them have I met someone as understanding of my situation as you are. I’m already starting to become fond of you.

TEACHER:
Really?

MIKAMI:
Yes! I quite like this town also… I can feel her presence here, I feel I might find her soon.

TEACHER:
I’m hoping that’s the case… I have to ask though, what has you so certain that she’s here of all places?

MIKAMI:
Come on, weren’t you listening? The moon! The moon!

TEACHER:
And that’s it?

MIKAMI:
Yes.

TEACHER:
You see, Mikami… If you think your sister will be here because of how our moon appears to you, I’m afraid you are going to be disappointed.

MIKAMI:
Why? What do you mean?

TEACHER:
Well, if it’s just, as you said, the moon! The moon!… {Mikami doesn’t respond.} Because no matter where you see it, the moon is always the same size.

Mikami rises from his seat as if in shock, but before he can respond, the other students come stumbling back in from their trip to the nurse’s office. They now have various bandages and casts across their arms and heads, with one sporting an eyepatch.

TEACHER:
Alright class! Since it’s after 6, let’s begin our 6PM health studies. To start off, open your textbooks to page 365… Ready?… Today’s lesson will be about sexually transmitted diseases, namely syphilis, which is considered by many the most frightening of them all.

STUDENT #2:
But, teacher, we already learned about syphilis last week.

TEACHER {ill-tempered}:
Do you think you can learn everything in one lesson? Hm? Tell me then, do you have everything about it memorized from just one lesson?

STUDENT #2:
Well… erm… no…

TEACHER:
Step to the front of the class… {Student #2 doesn’t respond.} I said step to the front of the class! {Student #2 timidly rises from his seat to approach the teacher at the blackboard.} Now then, with the use of this diagram, mark each part of the human body that’s affected by syphilis!

STUDENT #2:
Yes teacher…

With careful thinking, Student #2 leaves an assortment of markings across the crude humanoid figure the teacher drew on the blackboard.

TEACHER:
All right. {The teacher draws a stick to point to the blackboard.} Look at each marking: The eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brain, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, kidneys, spinal cord and genitals. It can also target the joints, muscles, skin, lymph nodes and even your blood vessels! Syphilis is an illness that progresses, it doesn’t just claim one part of the body as it incubates, but the whole host… {Looks to Student #2.} Now tell me, can you tackle everything about such a fearsome disease in just one lesson?

STUDENT #2:
Yes… erm… I’m sorry teacher…

TEACHER:
Tell me then, what is the pathogen?

STUDENT #2:
Yes… uh… Treponema pallium-

TEACHER:
Wrong! The correct answer is Treponema pallidum!

STUDENT #2:
Yes sir! Treponema pallidum: A spiral-shaped species of microorganism that can be found across a patient’s skin and mucous membrane lesions, frequently in large colonies!

TEACHER:
Good work. Take your seat. Now class, in your textbooks flip to page 366, Modes of Transmission… Alright?

STUDENTS {In unison}:
Modes of syphilitic transmission: First there is transmission through direct contact. This occurs when there is direct physical contact with an infected patient, most commonly through the practice of sexual intercourse. It can also be transmitted through means such as kissing, non-vaginal sex, blood transfusions, or breastfeeding. If a mother is infected, the virus could be transmitted to the baby through her feeding it, while an infected baby could infect the mother through suckling her nipple. It can also be spread by hand if a doctor, nurse or midwife has been looking after a person infected with syphilis.

TEACHER:
Good!… So, as you read, syphilis is an incredibly contagious disease. With its prevalence, it could be safe to assume that every nook and cranny of the city is infested with Treponema pathogens. You must be vigilant! Never engage in any sexual acts. Sex is the first step to an inherent downfall.

Having spent most of the lesson staring blankly in a bored daze, Mikami suddenly bursts into laughter. The teacher clears his throat as he touches it. Hardly able to bear anymore of the teacher’s lesson, Mikami reaches into his book bag to pull out a telescope that he uses to gaze out the window in front of him.

TEACHER:
But don’t think that just means sexual intercourse! You see, once boys hit an age, not too different from all of you, a certain temptation forms for a process called masturbation, and it’s very easy to lose yourself in it once it takes hold. Masturbation is a sin, and it should be avoided at all costs!

Discomfort brews amidst the students.

STUDENT #4:
{Rising from his seat, clearly fearful.} Teacher?…

TEACHER:
Yes?…

STUDENT #4:
I’m sorry but… uhm… here on page 320 in a prior section about masturbation it says the following: “While there have been theories in history about masturbation’s negative effects on the body, in modern science these theories aren’t recognized. If anything, fixation on the supposed negative effects can result in its own unique psychological harm”.

TEACHER:
The Ministry of Education is wrong.

Student #4 seats himself.

TEACHER:
If you look at the Old testament, the term for onanism originated from Onan, the son of Judah. It was written that Onan brought forth the wrath of Jehovah and faced death for something as simple as letting his seed make contact with the world outside his body. Then there is the book of Leviticus, which has the following: Leviticus 15:16, “When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening”. Leviticus 15:17, “Any clothing or leather on which there is an emission of semen must be washed with water, and it will remain unclean until evening”…

The classroom is completely silent, nobody responds.

TEACHER:
It’s impossible to ignore such strong wording, so any sort of sexual activity is banned from our academy. No exceptions. It’s for the greater good.

A feeling of uneasiness clings to the students who have begun to sweat. A few pull out handkerchiefs to wipe away the sweat from their foreheads.

TEACHER:
Alright! Next, we will see what happens once the pathogen is transmitted to a new host, including the initial symptoms and its progression. Ready?… and… go!

STUDENTS {In unison}:
When direct or indirect contact is made with an infected patient, the pathogen enters the body through an opening or abrasion to the skin, such as wounds or pours, or a mucous membrane. After that, a 3-week incubation period ensues until a latent reaction finally occurs in the form of a lump that commonly appears at the initial infection site. This lump then breaks out into an ulcer. The tissue around the ulcer is usually hard in texture, which has given it the clinical name of hard chancre. The ulcer doesn’t itch or have any pain, and it naturally heals over the span of a month.

TEACHER:
Yes! And believe it or not, this stage of the infection is the most dangerous one. In this period the patient is still ignorant to the extents of their disease, so they’ll continue to flaunt and throw themselves around without a care in the world. There may be no apparent signs, but this stage is the illness’ most contagious stage. It’s for this reason it’s always advisable to avoid red light districts or other environments of sin to prevent any of that evil… Now, with that, continue reading with the symptoms and progression subchapter into the stage of secondary syphilis.

STUDENTS {In unison}:
If the infection is left untreated in the early stages, the Treponema bacteria spreads out to the bloodstream, which begins its ultimate spread throughout the host’s body. Symptoms of this stage include fevers, headaches, a loss of general appetite and fatigue. Coinciding with this, rashes will form across the chest, abdomen, back and elsewhere. The rashes are red, with each rash being about the size of a soybean. Small copper-red bumps protrude from the skin and collect in areas that are frequently moist or points of physical friction, the most common spots being around the genitals and anus. {From this point onward, Student #3 falls out of sync with the rest of the class as they read aloud.} These lumps will start small but grow in size until they develop into condylomata lata which is a large pinkish white sore that oozes. If the sores reach the inner larynx, the host loses the ability to speak. In the later stages of the condition, white circular spots will also appear across the skin and the host’s hair will fall out in patches. In addition to this…

TEACHER:
Hold it!

The students all stop mid-sentence, with Student #3 being the only one who continues as he missed the teacher’s order.

STUDENT #3:
… Then my hair started to fall out, all in patches… and then the crawling… crawling… all over my body, all across my skin… the crawling… crawling… crawling…

TEACHER:
What is it?

STUDENT #3:
… Teacher…

TEACHER:
Yes?

STUDENT #3:
There’s no way it could be real, not an illness like that…

TEACHER:
Excuse me?

STUDENT #3:
A disease like that can’t be real, I’ve never seen a person with those symptoms before…

TEACHER {laughing}:
You’re probably just inexperienced. With the advancements of modern medicine, very few subjects reach the extent that they’re beyond treatment. Venereal disease facilities are always fully occupied with patients however, and you’ll never know if you could become one of them!

STUDENT #3:
Not me! I’ll never come down like that… I have, uh… what do you call it… I have a strong resistance!… Like, when we took that field trip to the forest, I was the only one who didn’t make contact with stagnant water… And I’ve never even had rubella… I always look after my hygiene, just like the rest of my family… We’re always healthy… And none of the animals we’ve brought in have been sick either…

TEACHER:
Hah, right… How true is that though? It's quite possible something has escaped your notice? Like how about your pet dog? Perhaps it had filariasis.

STUDENT #3:
No! No… That can’t be right… Not a single one of us would be sick like that… Not like… like… {stammers}

TEACHER:
Yes? What is it?

STUDENT #3:
No… I’m sorry… Now that I think of it, there was this one time…

TEACHER:
Yes?… So, what was it?

STUDENT #3:
I remember now… It was this praying mantis that I kept when I was in elementary school… It was my pet…

TEACHER:
Your praying mantis?

STUDENT #3:
Yeah… I caught it in the fields around the school grounds… It was so important to me, I looked after it every day… But then… One morning there was only one left. I had two at first… And then the remaining one started to get sick…

TEACHER:
Ah, that isn’t strange at all though. Your mantis didn’t run away, one of them just ate the other.

STUDENT #3:
What?…

TEACHER:
You see, one of the mantises was a female and it ate the male.

STUDENT #3:
A-a-a-a…. Ate it?…

TEACHER:
Yes, she ate it.

STUDENT #3:
Why?!?

TEACHER:
The reason is simple… It was for the nutrition.

STUDENT #3:
But they were close to each other! Very close!

TEACHER:
Sure, they could’ve been, but it was mating season, and as a part of the natural process the female mantis needed the nutrition, so while breeding she ate the male.

STUDENT #3:
No! It had nothing to do with reproduction! They were best friends, one of them just went off somewhere. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well… After that the illness set in… Her stomach started to swell up, and these little bubbles started coming out of her butt. Looking in them I saw these particles floating around inside, they looked like parasites…

TEACHER:
Ah… Those weren’t parasites, those were eggs.

STUDENT #3:
Sure, but they weren’t her eggs, they were the parasite’s eggs.

TEACHER:
Oh no, those were the eggs that she laid after consuming the male for his nourishment.

STUDENT #3:
{Not listening to the teacher.} I thought to myself “Oh no, this isn’t good, you’ve come down with something really bad”. So I took this pair of tweezers and a needle, and I popped each one of the little eggs like this… {Gestures the motion of himself popping the eggs.} Yes… Pop! Just like this… That’ll teach a nasty parasite like you for taking advantage of my weaknesses… pop… pop…

The teacher clears his throat.

STUDENT #3:
My mantis… My cute little mantis. Pop… If it were… If it were sick… Pop… That would be horrible… Pop… If it spread… If it spread…

TEACHER:
Nurse!

STUDENT #6:
On it!

TEACHER:
Another trip to the nurse’s office with you!

Student #6 escorts Student #3 away to the nurse’s office.

TEACHER:
I got a bit sidetracked there. As I was saying though, syphilis isn’t a disease to which you develop an immunity. Unlike measles or typhoid, you can catch it over and over again. Let it sink in and never forget the terror that syphilis could hold over your life. We’ll continue this subject next week. That will be all for today’s lesson!

STUDENT #2:
Stand! {The students all rise from their seats.} Thank you teacher!

With the chiming of the school bell, the teacher quickly leaves the classroom.

★ ★ ★ ★  Fade to black ★ ★ ★ ★

To be continued…

: CREDITS :
Text adaption and image digitizations (unless stated otherwise) are by Aaron Dylan Kearns.

Thanks to Yu Hirayama of the Suikazura label (known for their music compilations, the subculture magazine FEECO and the Steven Stapleton biography Nurse With Wound評伝) for personally providing a copy of the Mercuro volume of June magazine and the Roadsiders article The Time That The Flyers Came To Town.

Text and media sources:
★ June Vol. 17 : February 1986
★ Keikotoendlessart’s “東京グランギニョル Endless Art” blog on blogspot
★ The Time That The Flyers Came To Town
★ 2-MINUS : Ameya! Style
★ “東京グランギニョール「マーキュロイド」徳光番組 1985.06.09” : Uploaded by YouTube user 1941-1966 inu
★ Yaso Magazine Vol. 28