セーラー服と機関銃🏫🌺 (IBC) - Week 10

[Domjcw]

せーラー服と機関銃
Intermediate book club
Home thread

Week 10	20 April 2024
End page	164
End point (kindle)	2061
End phrase	end of ch2
Pages	19
Previous week	Week 9
Next week	Week 11
Home Thread	せーラー服と機関銃

Vocabulary

Google sheet:

セーラー服と機関銃 vocabulary sheet

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.

2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).

3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.

Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Proper Nouns

Name	Hiragana reading	Notes	Kindle location first mentioned
赤川次郎	あかがわじろう	the author	cover
尾田医師	おだいし	Doctor Oda	24
目高組	めだかぐみ	Medaka clan	86
Izumi’s family
星泉	ほしいずみ	main character, Izumi	170
酒井好子	さかいよしこ	aunt Yoshiko	172
星貴志	ほしたかし	main character’s father, Takashi	179
酒井呈一	さかいていいち	Uncle (Yoshiko’s husband)	201
知子	ともこ	Tomoko (?Izumi’s mother)	211
マユミ	-	mysterious woman in Izumi’s apartment	348
土田恒美	つちだつねみ	Real name of the mysterious Mayumi	1,827
Classmates
奥沢哲夫	おくざわてつお	Classmate of Izumi, Tetsuo (son of an executive, smart dresser, family expect him home for dinner on time)	251
渡辺周平	わたなべしゅうへい	Classmate of Izumi, Shuhei (stocky, bowlegged, loves Judo)	251
竹内智生	たけうちともお	Classmate of Izumi, Tomo. (Smart, heading for Tokyo university, wears glasses)	261
Schoolteachers
三浦久子	みうらひさこ	Miss Miura, teacher	357
保科校長	ほしなこうちょう	Headteacher Hoshina	368
和子	かずこ	classmate,	433
Yakuza
健次	けんじ	Kenji, Medaka gang member, short, unbalanced (brought the doctor in the car in the prologue), chews gum	555
英樹	ひでき	Hideki, Medaka gang member, skinny and unhealthy looking, wears thick glasses	556
武	たけし	Takeshi, Medaka gang member, stocky and overweight	558
佐久間	さくま	Sakuma, Medaka second in command, unusually tall (‘beanpole’), in 50s	558
浜口	はまぐち	Hamaguchi, local Yakuza chief	1,034
Other characters
黒木	くろき	detective, head of the S section	870
浜口物産	はまぐちぶっさん	Hamaguchi trading company	936
野田代議士	のだだいぎし	Representative Noda, politician, waiting for Hamaguchi	1,064
岩田	いわた	Night watchman at Izumi’s apartment block	1665
—	—	—	—

Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?

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• I have finished this part
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If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

[Boodil]

First half of this week

After 30 years of reading mystery novels, every time I encounter a body whose face has been made unrecognizable by acid or similar methods in fiction, I can’t help but look for clues that it’s not really who we think it is. Couldn’t find any, though. So, RIP Kenji (probably).

Edit: Oh, and I also like how this chapter is structured to give us the maximum amount of bad feeling about the fact that Izumi just went on a Mayumi-finding mission alone with Kuroki without telling any of her allies where she is.

[Sasabonsam]

Week 10 thoughts

So it seems at the end of the chapter like our gang is going to begin investigation into a neighboring yakuza group. I’ll say I’m pretty excited to see how direct conflict is handled with the kinda wholesome medakagumi. You can also see the ‘trio’ already being sorta brought into the gang, which isn’t too surprising. Shuuhei (the meathead) at the very least is probably going to end up a permanent member.

@Boodil

After 30 years of reading mystery novels, every time I encounter a body whose face has been made unrecognizable by acid or similar methods in fiction, I can’t help but look for clues that it’s not really who we think it is. Couldn’t find any, though. So, RIP Kenji (probably).

After 30+ years of reading almost everything except mystery novels, I never would’ve thought of that! You’re right, and I hope it’s not really Kenji, we hardly got to know him. Surely a character who accidentally kidnapped a veterinarian deserves to live?

[Boodil]

Second half of this week

@Sasabonsam

Surely a character who accidentally kidnapped a veterinarian deserves to live?

Yeah, I’d love to see him alive. Unfortunately, Tomoo’s theory that it might have been torture also makes a lot of sense.

@Sasabonsam

So it seems at the end of the chapter like our gang is going to begin investigation into a neighboring yakuza group. I’ll say I’m pretty excited to see how direct conflict is handled with the kinda wholesome medakagumi.

Yeah, that’s quite intriguing. Izumi’s plan to go over and just talk to them seems kinda risky, though. And I didn’t quite get why that Pine Tree Group became everyone’s prime suspect so fast. They were talking about how it could only have been someone who knew their new phone number, right? And the other suspects all made sense to me, but how did the Pine Tree Group get their phone number?
Funny the local police was also in the know. That puts Kuroki even deeper into sus territory.

@Sasabonsam

You can also see the ‘trio’ already being sorta brought into the gang, which isn’t too surprising.

Definitely. Those kids are on their way to a life of crime.

もしヘロインだとしたら
It took me an embarassingly long time of staring at this sentence to realize that the ヘ is part of the katakana word and they are not talking about someone’s loins .

[araigoshi]

@Sasabonsam

Shuuhei (the meathead) at the very least is probably going to end up a permanent member.

Week 10

I have to say I’ve been terrible with the names this entire novel apart from 泉、黒木 and 佐久間。But this week some of the names were finally starting to stick so luckily I also noticed and didn’t have to go guessing “classmate or yakuza” every line of dialogue lol.

I see a lot of people are getting suspicious of 黒木 as being maybe the culprit but I have to say I’m also still a little sus of 浜口。Maybe they’re working together since 浜口 is likely in with 黒木’s bosses.

[Boodil]

Possible villains

@araigoshi

I see a lot of people are getting suspicious of 黒木 as being maybe the culprit but I have to say I’m also still a little sus of 浜口。Maybe they’re working together since 浜口 is likely in with 黒木’s bosses.

I’m also suspicious of him. Since he was the one who coordinated the renovation of the Medaka Group’s office, he’s a suspect for leaking the phone number that Kenji’s murderers used. I’m wondering if he’s working with Kuroki or if they’re competing against each other. Kuroki mentioned that he’s looking for the mastermind who sent fake-Mayumi to spy on Izumi, so that might have been Hamaguchi, too.

[Domjcw]

Villains

So, I’m totally on board with 浜口 being very dodgy.
I don’t think 黒木 will turn out bad. (I think the (possibly reciprocated) hitting on a much younger woman isn’t supposed to be sleazy - it is just that we read it that way with our modern eyes - remember this was written ~ 40 years ago. I rather suspect it might have been wishful thinking on the part of the author…)

[Boodil]

Kuroki

I don’t think Kuroki has been behaving in an overtly sleazy way toward Izumi at all. But there are a bunch of other things that make me dubious about him. Most of all, I’m with…I think it was @Sasabonsam (?) that he sometimes seems to know too much and says things that might be innocent but might also be him accidentially revealing information he shouldn’t have. For example, after the attack on Izumi, when he comes up with the “theory” that the attacker thought he was strangling someone else and stopped midway because he realized it was Izumi.

Also, if he’s actually a straight cop, he’s still not necessarily on Izumi’s side and he might be lying about other things than the ones we’ve recently been speculating about. After all, she’s a yakuza boss, so he would have reason to investigate her.

[Sasabonsam]

villains

@Boodil

I didn’t quite get why that Pine Tree Group became everyone’s prime suspect so fast. They were talking about how it could only have been someone who knew their new phone number, right? And the other suspects all made sense to me, but how did the Pine Tree Group get their phone number?
Funny the local police was also in the know. That puts Kuroki even deeper into sus territory.

It’s definitely a bit odd. I’m not sure why they’re giving their number out to the cops in the first place? None of the characters pegged it as weird though, so I assumed that there was some implied logic going on that I missed. The whole situation with rival gangs shooting each other up for entirely hypothetical heroin also seems like some dubious reasoning, but I’m willing to roll with it for now.

@Domjcw

I don’t think 黒木 will turn out bad. (I think the (possibly reciprocated) hitting on a much younger woman isn’t supposed to be sleazy - it is just that we read it that way with our modern eyes - remember this was written ~ 40 years ago. I rather suspect it might have been wishful thinking on the part of the author…)

Fwiw, I don’t think Kuroki is dodgy just because he’s hitting on a teenage girl. I also think it’s definitely wishful thinking on the part of the author, but moving on…

For me in particular, it’s Kuroki’s explanation for the killer’s motive from the other week. Of all the male characters we’ve heard of close to Izumi, who among them has been showing interest in the 包み but also seems fond enough of her to avoid killing her when she’s recognized? For lack of other clues, he’s the most obvious answer. The way he gave the theory also seemed strangely empathetic to me, too, almost like he was giving an excuse.

Although I could also see it being somebody like Hamaguchi or even one of the Medakagumi henchmen who wouldn’t kill her out of respect for the old oyabun

Edit:

@Boodil

Most of all, I’m with…I think it was @Sasabonsam

Ha, we posted at almost the same time. Yes that was me! I agree with all the Kuroki stuff, he’s too in the know and the way he’s getting close to Izumi (buying her food, multiple 1-on-1 meetings) is suspicious.

[Boodil]

Phone number

@Sasabonsam

I’m not sure why they’re giving their number out to the cops in the first place? None of the characters pegged it as weird though, so I assumed that there was some implied logic going on that I missed. The whole situation with rival gangs shooting each other up for entirely hypothetical heroin also seems like some dubious reasoning, but I’m willing to roll with it for now.

Now that you mention it, yeah, that’s odd. The police got involved when the Medaka office was shot up, but I’m also not sure why the group had to give them their new phone number if the new number was one they got later, during the renovation.

As for the second point, for now I’m hoping that the heroin is a red hering and the 包み actually contained something more important. Apropos shooting, I’m also wondering if Hamaguchi might have ordered the shooting (intentionally without killing anyone) to use the renovation as an excuse to send people to thouroughly search the Medaka office without arousing suspicion.