That might be true of the crowd and anyone who willingly came to fight but I assumed there were others who lived there before the tournaments started taking place and didn’t agree with what was going on. It might not have been stated but it’s hard to believe that everyone would be on board with it even if no one spoke out against it. I know the guards said that people who entered the country weren’t allowed to leave and would be hunted down if they did but I’m not sure if that applied after people became citizens. Could they leave or were they stuck in the country for good? Also, the fighting seemed to break out immediately and I doubt those who didn’t want to participate would’ve had time to leave before getting involved as Kino said they could. Maybe she could’ve given them a day or a short amount of time to prepare but I guess it wouldn’t have been as exciting without her leaving everything in chaos.
I was surprised too, I had to make sure I didn’t misread it.
To be fair, homeboy was pretty awful and the citizens are all bloodthirsty too.
Guys I’ve been enjoying this book so much I couldn’t stop reading and I’m half a chapter ahead. OOps.
Hey guys, as a reward for coming this far in the book I will offer you the best thing in the world.
A POLL!!!
who is your favorite character in the book.
- キノ
- ヘルメス
- シズ
- another random character that no one cares but me
0 voters
My favorite character is usually the one who speaks in a way I can understand best…
Interesting.
In my case my favorite character is often the most sarcastic one. I find them funny.
One of the reasons I like ネズミ in NO.6
Well I do hope to have real favorite characters in Japanese books once my level gets higher though…
Can really say I care much for any of the characters so far, especially after what Kino did in this chapter.
I picked Hermes because of their lack of interest for pretty much everything.
Hey hey hey. Spoiler tags please.
That’s pretty sad. I kinda like What kino did to the king but I guess it’s not your favorite book. Well at least it’s a nice practice right?
I am curious now though, what don’t you like with the character?
Alright, I’m done here until I finish the chapter. See you guys later.
Ooops, sorry.
Oh no, I’m the only Shizu fan. D:
But I do iaido and have a tendency to like sword dudes.
Is none of the above an option? 
I mean why would there be one. If it’s not kino, hermese of shizu it’s the last one 
The section this week is way too long. Here I am 8 pages in, thinking I’m making good progress for once. And it turns out I still have a full 15 pages left to read. 
It shouldn’t be that long 
this week is supposed to have 20 pages (i.e. a rush to the end of the chapter)
Well it’s taking me forever. I’m not really following this fight well at all.
I’m going to skip most of the parts I don’t understand (otherwise it might take weeks to get through this chapter and cause me to go insane). For now, here’s two questions from page 149:
Page 149
パースエイダーのハンマーは上がりきり、後は軽い引き金を引くだけで自分の顎に大きな穴が開くことが、シズにはよく分かった。
I have basically no idea what this is saying. I don’t see any relevant special meaning for 上がる here, so I take the first part to mean that Kino uncocked the gun. But that could be completely backwards. Then, what? Shizu realized from a light pull of the trigger he’d get a big whole in his chin? That seems wrong…
After he says 早い, Kino says:
あなたがパースエイダーの狙う先が分かるよりは簡単に、落ち着いてみれば斬撃がどうくるか分かるんです。後は相手より早く抜ければいい。
And I’m pretty confused here too. I think it’s something about Shizu knowing where Kino is aiming leading to Kino knowing where Shizu is swinging his sword. But it’s really hard to break down. I think I’m largely getting lost at the よりは part. And then Kino’s grand epiphany is that she needs to draw faster? Again, I feel like there’s a lot more going on here than I’m seeing.
Edit: added a definition from the dictionary for completeness.
Summary
上がる as the standard meaning here (the hammer is up). The suffix きる adds the meaning “completely”. So the hammer is in the uppermost position. I know nothing about guns, so I can’t tell you if that’s cocked or uncocked, though.
Now, if we unpack the sentence, the main part is the last (on my phone, so I won’t keep switching to Japanese, sorry) “Sid was well aware of that”.
You mostly got the rest, but the “that” refers to the fact that by just pulling the light trigger, there would be a hole opening in his face (since the hammer is up).
Exactly. Since Sid has to deflect the bullets, based on the current position of the sword, Kino gets to know exactly how he will cut/swing. The epiphany is that whoever of the two of them is fastest wins, since they can both read each other’s moves. Basically, Kino needs not only to be fast, but also to aim accurately at different places that would force Sid to move his sword in an awkward position, leaving an opening for Kino to kill him.
よりは is like によって “based on” (there’s no に because it follows a verb here)
The relevant definition from weblio:
⑦ 原因・理由を表す。のゆえに。によって。
Reads page 152
Well okay then…
Cool! I did not know this meaning for よりは, and I think I have run into it a few times and just guessed randomly (and incorrectly) what it meant. Actual knowledge for the win! 
