everyone except for tomoyo, who only has eyes for sakura (…and for touya, but only for his resemblance to sakura lmao)
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Here are my questions for this week:
OG Page 168
ケロちゃん says: 一、二を争うくらい素速いやつなんや!
It looks like the first part is a set phrase meaning “to compete for first place” or “one of the two best”. With くらい, would this be “approximately one of the best”? In this case, one of the quickest or most agile.
OG Page 173
ケロ again. 「剣」のカードが切るものは使てる者の心しだい!
Pretty lost here. I assume the pronounciation for 使 is Kansaiben, so I’m ignoring that. Before the は is “the thing the sword card cuts”. Based on help from Google Translate, the しだい is “depending on”, so after は maybe “Depends on the mind of the person using it”. Over all:
“The thing the sword card cuts depends on the mind of the person using it.”
So is the idea that Sakura makes the Sword card cut into the Shadow card and then not cut further, thus preventing Shadow from moving? That fits with the last bit in the other balloon, これで動きはとめたで, “because of the that the motion is stopped” (though I’m not sure why that ends with で).
「剣」やったら「影」にも触れる. やったら is Kansaiben for だったら, so something like “if it’s ‘Sword’, it can touch ‘Shadow’”?
OG Page 168 RE: 176)
Ooh, I didn’t really understand this statement, I appreciate your breakdown.
I think you can skip the “approximately” in the translation, because in English “one of the best” is already approximate. Like if someone was the first or second best at something, we’d just say “they’re the best” or “they’re the second best,” not “they’re one of the best.”
OG Page 173 (RE: 181)
This is a callback to our discussion from chapter 9.
Based on my understanding of how the sword card works, rather than “Sakura makes the sword do x,” I’d say “Sakura feels like she wants to/can do x, so it happens.”
Not a huge difference, but I think it’s like an instinct thing more than a conscious choice.
I think you have a good literal translation, but in more natural English, I might say something like “What the sword card can cut depends on the wielder’s heart!”
For これで動きはとめたで , r/LearnJapanese says “で” is kansaiben for “よ”.
For your last quote, you’ve got an extra やったら in there, but the translation looks pretty good.
I’d add that も suggests something like “also” or “too” – in this case, I might translate it as “even,” as in “Since it’s ‘Sword’, it can even touch ‘Shadow’!”
Like, “normally you can’t touch a shadow, but the sword card is special since it cuts whatever your heart says you can cut!”
For the entire speech bubble, I might translate this way (prioritizing the way it sounds in English over word-by-word accuracy):
“What ‘Sword’ can cut depends on the wielder’s heart! Since it’s ‘Sword’, you could even touch ‘Shadow’! That’s how she could stop ‘Shadow’ from moving!”
Thanks, @zucchi. That all makes sense. My translations tend to be more literal, but yours sounds good.
As for the extra やったら, there was actually a missing period (now corrected).
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Vol 3: Week 1 Is Here!
Hooray, the first week of vol 3 is here! If you’re done with vol 2, feel free to make your way to the new thread and start discussing.
If you still have things to say or ask about vol 2, feel free to keep chatting in this thread! Just remember to reference your page numbers, book version and week number so people know what you want to discuss!
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Whew yeah I had a lot of fun with this volume.
Overall, I am happy this volume really focused on love in all its forms. Some of it was quite ridiculous and silly school-age crushes, some of it was serious deep love that bonds people together tightly. It is fun to watch love develop, and in some relationships become more obvious to the participants. CLAMP has a great way of writing about relationships that I have often wished other manga authors were capable of. This volume in particular made me realize I have missed a lot of this story by never exploring past the English anime dub that aired in the 00s. I’m very excited to see how these relationships develop.
Also, very funny to me that the thunder card destroyed the electricity for the district. I like how the effects of cards’ attacks are taken very literally throughout the series, and have longer-lasting effects beyond the immediate story arc.
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Oops, I got so used to posting in the vol 2 thread that I posted my first vol 3 post here too 
Fixed now!