"Flesh&Blood" - Bonus Material for Vol. 10 🏴‍☠ ⛵

[NicoleIsEnough]

“Flesh&Blood” series home thread

Welcome to the “Flesh&Blood” Pirate Series Reading Club

This thread is about the bonus material that was released after Volume 10.

The following extra stories were published after volume 10 and before volume 11:

• 予感: A pamphlet published as part of the publisher’s Chara Birthday Fair series in 2007. Also included in the digital edition of the first Flesh&Blood volume.
• 幸福: Released in the 2007 edition of Chara Collection Extra, a mail-order book containing short stories from the publisher’s (Chara’s) lineup.
• 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド: Found in Flesh&Blood extra 3, the fourth F&B doujinshi published by the author 松岡なつき, published September 30, 2007.
• 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド2: Found in Flesh&Blood extra 4, the fifth F&B doujinshi published by the author 松岡なつき, published December 31, 2007.
• 女王陛下の海賊たち: Released in the 2007年 12月号 edition of the magazine 小説Chara, vol. 17. Collected in Flesh&Blood 外伝 女王陛下の海賊たち, a formally published book. Click here to download a folder with the original illustrations; the Gaiden reprint uses different ones.

Which of the bonus materials have you read?

• 予感
• 幸福
• 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド
• 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド2
• 女王陛下の海賊たち
• None so far

When discussing the short story(s) for each volume, let’s figure out:

• When in the books’ timeline this short story takes place, and
• When a new reader should read the short story for best “timeline flow” (i.e., after which volume and/or chapter.)

Historical Figures and Groups

Galahad (幸福, p. 3) Galahad - Wikipedia
Gawain (幸福, p. 3) Gawain - Wikipedia
Petronius (幸福, p. 1) Petronius - Wikipedia
Thomas Walsingham (女王陛下の海賊たち, p. ?) Thomas Walsingham (literary patron) - Wikipedia
Thomas Watson (女王陛下の海賊たち, p. ?) Thomas Watson (poet) - Wikipedia

Places and Rivers

Nautical

Historical Events, Things etc.

Other

Wall game (学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド2, p44) - Eton wall game - Wikipedia

Historical Inaccuracies

• Thomas Walsingham is identified as Francis Walsingham’s son, but in real life he was his cousin.

[eefara]

Linked most of this volume’s shorts; I have a pile of doujinshi I still need to work through. -.-;

Also, I’m pretty sure that 女王陛下の海賊たち might be Kit’s first meeting with G&N, @ekg and @NicoleIsEnough! That’s the impression I got from a quick glance at the title page/first page while snapping pictures. It might be from his perspective as well.

[eefara]

@NicoleIsEnough and @pyororon I reset this poll, so please re-vote!

[eefara]

Started and finished 幸福 since it was short. Wow, now that was a really good short story!

It’s from Nigel’s POV, set during Kaito’s time at the Queen’s palace. Man, I remember thinking how rushed his time at the palace felt; we’ve gotten a nice number of stories set then. I’d love to see some of these integrated in the main books! Anyway, same timeline guess as 決意: volume 4, somewhere in between chapters 5 and 12.

Pretty much right off the bat we get a little more insight into Geoffrey’s family, the Rockfords. I actually remember this was touched upon in 誓い, the first F&B doujin, the one with just the one story dedicated to Nigel: Nigel’s from a commoner family, but the Rockfords were actually a step above on the social ladder. At least, that is, until Mary’s reign, when Geoffrey’s father, I believe, was executed for heresy. Apparently Geoffrey’s wealthy enough to buy his way back into status, but hasn’t done so. He does have a family crest and motto, however (which I was thinking was the prerequisite for status in this case; maybe I misread?), the motto being taken from one of Petronius’ works:

Quid faciant leges ubi sola pecunia regnat
Roughly translated as: What good are the laws where money alone is king?

I think this story may actually be set after 決意, thinking about it; Kaito asks about the books that Nigel’s bought since coming to London, and he was buying books then, at least. They fall into a discussion about the Knights of the Round Table and who their favorites are. Kaito answers Gawain, as expected (since this actually comes up in a later main volume), while Nigel answers that his is Galahad. (Who is Geoffrey’s star sign favorite, I wonder?)

I wasn’t that familiar with Galahad before, but glancing through his Wikipedia page, he’s illegitimate? Very fitting choice in that case, then, “and is renowned for his gallantry and purity as the most perfect of all knights”.

Nigel promises to buy Kaito a new towel to use, but comes back the next day to find out Geoffrey’s already stolen Kaito to go shopping. :< But this is all setup for an incredibly sweet scene between the two where Kaito says he was waiting on Nigel’s gift of the towel.

Maaan, this was such a good story. So much goodness is so few pages. One thing Nigel mentions in passing here that he’s brought up a couple of times in other stories from his POV that I haven’t discussed but thought was interesting: in addition to all of his other hangups related to his feelings for Kaito, one that I’m wondering if it’ll be brought up later in the main series is how he apparently feels that his love for Kaito is “dirty”. He hasn’t really elucidated up to this point afaik, but I’m wondering if it’s the gay aspect of it all. Nigel doesn’t seem to have had any prior gay relationships, so I could see this being a blocker for him as compared to Geoffrey.

[eefara]

Reread 予感 because I could. It’s pretty funny rereading this after all the previous Nigel angst, with him being so suspicious of Kaito and wanting to kick him off the ship. The story’s at the perfect place to read for a reader, after volume 1. When specifically this takes place I can’t quite pinpoint chapter-wise, since our replies in the volume 1 thread are pretty chaotic, but it should be in between Geoffrey bringing Kaito onboard and just after them setting off for Drake’s manor.

[eefara]

Read through chapters 1 & 2 of 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド; it looks like a really cute setup so far! No period-appropriate school or anything; it’s an AU version of Kaito and Kazuya transferring into Saint Christopher’s.

The school (in this version of the story, at least) has four different dorms (Cornwall, Devon, Exeter, and Virginia), and our two are placed in the last one. Virginia’s student representative (not sure what the correct English term would be; the Japanese is 自治会長) is Vicente!

Seems there’s a tradition at this version of St. Christopher’s to allow students to switch dorms once for any reason, and a tradition has grown up around that rule where 自治会長 try to steal other dorms’ students. Vicente warns Kaito and Kazuya about Devon dorm specifically, since it’s apparently populated by troublemakers, haha. Whoooo could be in that dorm, I wonder? Apparently the school tolerates them because of their excellence in sports and the arts.

Anyhow, Vicente leads them to their new rooms, and it looks like Leo’s also, unsurprisingly, in Virginia, and is Kazuya’s new roommate. Kaito’s rooming by himself, so there’s plenty of room for friends. >:3

I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes!

[eefara]

Finished chapters 3 & 4 of 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド, and thus (part one of) the story itself! Oh my word, what a fun story! I’m so mad the follow-up is like half the page count; I want more!

So in chapter 3, Kaito wakes up his first night at St. Christopher’s just as an intruder breaks into his room! No names are given, but it’s pretty obvious it’s Geoffrey. XD (I was hoping the white blur Kaito briefly saw was Blackie, but no luck.) He seems quite taken with Kaito already and manages to get a few kisses in, leading to a terrible first impression for Kaito. Kaito eventually shoos Geoffrey off when he sounds the alarm and the boys in the next room over come to investigate.

Moving on to chapter 4, Kaito and Kazuya are finishing up their visits to the other dorms, each of which have been putting on welcome parties for them. Last one up is Devon, Kaito having not found his mysterious assailant from the night before. The first person they meet in Devon is Kit, I was thrilled to see, and the guy’s an enormous otaku. XD I could totally see that, honestly. He tells the two straight-up that he’s gay, but that they don’t have to worry because he’s only into 2D boys. He then immediately fulfills his life’s destiny by hitting on and getting shot down repeatedly by Nigel, who’s, as expected, the second-in-command in Devon.

Nigel was blinded in one eye in this version of the story as well, though he’s able to wear a colored contact to make it not too obvious. Apparently he’s got multiple colors he’ll pick from (black, blue, purple), which I thought was a nice touch. He’s also into collecting…medical supplies? I wasn’t expecting that, but perhaps 松岡先生 just really wanted the opportunity to have him threaten Kit with a surgical stapler. Rufus is also mentioned briefly, but unfortunately we don’t get to meet him. D:

Anyway, Kaito turns on the unwitting charm and pretty easily gets Nigel to open up to him, when they’re suddenly interrupted during their meal by Geoffrey, who takes the opportunity to mimic Kit in volume 4 (I think) by walking up behind Kaito, grabbing his face, and kissing him. Kaito remains unimpressed and vows to Geoffrey he’ll never ask to be moved to Devon, which Geoffrey takes as a challenge in front of the rest of the dorm.

Oh my gosh, the silliness here was perfect. I loved every second of reading this doujin, and can’t wait to see what happens in the follow-up!

[eefara]

And finished 学園フレッシュ・アンド・ブラッド2! This was just one chapter (chapter 5), and 松岡先生 did something super fun with it: there was a choose-your-own-route integrated in it! Kaito gets to pick which sports club he joins and which boy he’ll be hanging out with. It was giving me serious visual novel vibes, let me tell you. I was so excited to pick, I sat there for like a minute, trying to decide.

My “route order” for future discussion: tennis → fencing → track and field → boating → wall game. Are my biases showing? I was hoping that last one would be some sort of Kit-centric route where he shows Kaito all his favorite 2D boys, but no luck, sadly.

What’s even more amazing is that because these sub-chapters take place from that boy’s perspective, we got a Kazuya POV chapter! It’s my first time reading one in the series, so that was unexpected and very welcome~

Man, each sub-chapter ends with a “continued in chapter 5-X2”, and I haven’t seen any evidence of those chapters existing anywhere in my searches. I suppose they’re just a little one-off story idea she didn’t want to commit to making too large, but I’d still love to see more…

Overall, this 学園 story gets a firm 10/10 from me.

[eefara]

Finished the last short story for this batch, 女王陛下の海賊たち this weekend. It’s the origin story of how Kit met Geoffrey and Nigel (pinging @ekg and @NicoleIsEnough so you know it does indeed exist). Timeline is pre-F&B volume 1, of course, and I’d advise reading through volume 4, chapter 4 at least in the main series, just so you’re familiar with the POV character.

(I didn’t post any timeline thoughts for the 学園 story before, mostly since it’s not really applicable, but I was thinking about it and you’d probably want to technically wait to start that one until finishing v.4 ch.4 as well, for the same reason of knowing who all the important characters are at that point.)

We start out with Kit discussing a new job he’s set to get from Walsingham with his roommate, Thomas Watson, who, as far as I can tell, should be this guy. (Another source, another one.) It looks like historically we don’t know very much about him, other than that he served some jail time with Kit and was a poet himself. Anyhow, the two’s relationship in F&B is slightly vague; Kit insinuates they’re more than simple roommates, though I didn’t get the impression that they were in any kind of deep relationship.

Anyhow, Kit goes to get his new job and meets Thomas Walsingham, who in F&B is one of Francis Walsingham’s sons, but in real life was a cousin of Francis’. I believe NicoleIsEnough noted that in whichever book he first pops up in, volume 4 or 5. He’s also apparently rather gay in F&B, probably to the shame of his dad. He tells Kit that his new job is going to be going to France to check out a new Catholic school for secret English Catholics (which is the school Vicente mentioned in volume 8 or so, right?).

I’ll admit now, I wasn’t as diligent at looking up words as I normally am, so Kit’s next conversation with Walsingham senior I more-or-less skimmed through. They discuss the political situation in England, Walsingham insults Kit, etc. Geoffrey and co. will be dropping Kit off at France, and Geoffrey and Nigel have happened to arrive early, so they’re invited in and introductions are made. Kit’s pretty much immediately interested in Nigel due to the fact that Nigel has absolutely no interest in him (of course), and the teasing begins.

After the debriefing is over, Kit takes Geoffrey and Nigel over to a gay brothel/bar (the man is bold, if nothing else) and they chit-chat a bit. Geoffrey confirms that he’s basically bisexual and Kit says that anyone who isn’t jumping at jumping into bed with a nice young man is an idiot ; Kit tries to needle Nigel in stating his own preferences but isn’t successful.

Watson shows up, and before the group can chat much more some dude who’s name is totally escaping me at the moment shows up to pick a fight with Watson. He apparently lost his job with a local theater troupe and he blames Watson for it, and they take their argument outside. Geoffrey’s got a bad feeling about things, though, and the three go out to follow them, only to see that Watson’s surrounded by that guy’s armed friends. Our heroes jump in to help and are ultimately successful in saving Watson, and Kit’s friendship with them is basically cemented.

Overall a very nice story; I was a bit more tired that I would’ve liked during the first part, so like I said I kind of glossed over some things. I would love to see that voyage where G&N drop Kit off at France; I’m sure Nigel suffered greatly during it. We got some more insight into Kit’s motivations and what he wants to get out of life; he’s very much oriented towards the “I want to be famous and have everyone know my name!” kind of thing. It was a lot of fun being in his head for sure; he’s a surprisingly devious guy, and he does a great job hiding it behind all his teasing and bravado. I was a bit surprised he didn’t seem to like being called ‘Kit’; maybe I misread? Could just be that nickname that everyone uses and but he’s not fond of, haha. Geoffrey latched onto the nickname right off the bat, but I didn’t think ‘Kit’ was a common nickname for “Christopher”. Maybe it is in England?

[eefara]

OG illustrations for 女王陛下の海賊たち uploaded. They also contain any other F&B illustrative work/author comments included in the magazine, plus the magazine cover for reference for those wanting to find a copy for themselves.